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Calbeck | 679 | 16 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2013-06-19T13:25:16+00:00 | 2015-05-16T02:21:43+00:00 | 2,180 | Chapter 16: Immigrant Song
"Try the Falukorv!"
Pink-E giggled. I wanted to glare at her, but I just didn't have the energy. Her sapphire eyes lit up to match the beaming smile on her still-cracked face. Somehow, she didn't look as damaged as I remembered. I could've sworn her cheeks had been burned...
"Whadda'hell," I sighed more than said, "isher mayor malfunkshun...?"
"Hee hee... you look like you've been ridden hard and put away wet!" The little robot broke into a fit of giggle-snorts.
I just groaned. It had only been an hour since I'd been dredged out of Lake Cider. I didn't want to move, I didn't want to talk, I didn't want to even think, particularly not about what I'd just been through. What I wanted to do was sleep for a month, preferably right here on the pile of burlap sacks where I'd been tossed like the catch of the day. The longship's gentle rocking, once it got under sail, should have made it easy for me to nod off.
Pink-E made it impossible. She was constantly yakking about how blue the lake was, how big the ship was, how happy she was to see me alive, and when she ran out of things to yak about she started repeating the list. Somewhere in there, she also mentioned what'd happened after I ordered her to cut me loose. Instead of doing what I told her to, she'd used her sensor suite to track my progress. When my bar didn't flicker out, she went searching for a boat and rescue party.
She'd found Häsverige.
This may sound stupidly unimportant at first, but before the War, one of Equestria's top imports was furniture. Equestrian furniture was usually hoof-crafted, high-quality, and therefore not-inexpensive, which meant most ponies ran it into the ground rather than buy a replacement. Infrequent sales led Equestrian furniture makers to specialize in one type, like sofas, while selling other things to make ends meet from day-to-day like... well, whatever they could sell a lot of.
Vikea changed all that with an extensive line of cheap, sturdy, modular stuff that you could put together at home. At least, that's what every scrap of garbage I'd ever seen with their blue-and-yellow logo on it had said.
The company had done well enough back East to branch out with an experimental showroom on the shores of Lake Cider. The schtick? It doubled as a lakeside beach park and marina, where you could try out a line of pleasure craft called "Landships". Inside half an hour, you could break one down and rebuild it into either a lake-going or off-road vehicle, using only a screwdriver and hex key. The originals, using sail and pedal-power for motion, were meant for a small family to toddle around in.
After Balefire Day, somepony decided to scale up the idea. Nowadays, longships carrying as many as twenty ponies each would roll up to a town, their grinning crews would disembark, and then...
... they'd try to sell you furniture.
Talk about a head-scratcher. They had mobility, they had more than their share of the big-bruiser types, and as anypony who'd ever tried to attack their fortifications would tell you, they were no slouches at either close-up or ranged combat. They could have looted half the Moohave with relative impunity. Yet they were also some of the most polite folks you'd ever meet... as long as you showed interest in their cheap, sturdy, modular furniture.
Not interested? How could you not be interested? Look at this crap you're living with now! Your grandmother could've been buried in this! Are you trying to insult the quality of our products? Keep on that line of discussion, and they'd end up burning your place down.
Can't afford new furniture? No problem! We have Easy Payment Plans! You just forked over a percentage of whatever money, crops or goods you could pile together every month until your debt was paid off, or they'd burn your place down. Easy!
Already got better furniture? They'd burn your place down. See? Now you need some good furniture to rebuild with! And we have such Easy Payment Plans...
They might have had the world's worst hard-sell tactics, but they honored a contract once you agreed to it. Surprisingly, they also made genuinely decent furniture. A lot of hard work and craft went into each flat-packed box of sections and screws. They were still essentially raiders, but the only time they really went pillaging was to collect on a defaulted Payment Plan. Even then, they only went after the debtors, which they preferred to take as "Labor Associates" rather than kill.
Most folks in the Moohave had decided that it was easier to just buy the furniture, turn around, and re-sell it to NCR-bound caravans. My dad and I had carted a godsawful lot of those densely-packed boxes in our day. And now I was grumping over however many pallets of useless furniture Pink-E had likely signed me up for.
Paying no attention to my increasingly dark mood, she kept on with the chipper patter. I tried tuning her out, staring towards the ship's stern and its massive captain working the sail there. He shifted a boom to better catch the wind, briefly turned a hazel-eyed gaze upon me, and then went right back to his business.
He was so huge, one might have confused his ship for a little sailboat, with a one-pony crew tending a single piece of canvas, if they'd seen it from a distance. As it was, he dwarfed the rest of his crew, and they weren't small for their various species, either. I wouldn't have been surprised if his sitting back there was the reason the deck felt tilted.
The lot of them had a casual sort of industriousness I couldn't recall seeing anywhere else. It was like what they were doing wasn't really a job to them. They mended nets, checked lines, tossed bucketfuls of bilgewater overboard, and when they didn't have anything else to do they polished the beams to a glossy sheen. What they didn't do was talk --- not to me, not to one another, and definitely not to Pink-E. They all knew exactly what to do, and did it without being told or supervised.
As to the ship, well, if you've seen a Vikean longship... then you've seen a Vikean longship.
As obvious as that may sound, it makes sense when you realize that every longship uses the exact same parts, but no two captains use them exactly the same way. It's that "modular" thing I was talking about, hence why those screwdrivers and hex keys were on their helmets in the first place. A creative crew can rearrange a longship six ways from Sunday. The REALLY creative ones were said to violate the laws of Eweclidean physics on occasion.
This one looked like it was rigged for extra speed with an extended mast and boom, plus what looked like two sails clipped together. The only other major difference was the towing rig that'd been used to drag my keester up from the deep. And while I'd seen first-hoof that it could be freely wielded like a fishing rod, the swivel-mount it rested in looked like it'd been made a permanent fixture, bolted to the deck with heavy reinforcing plates. For Vikeans, that was pretty unusual.
I hope all that exposition worked for you, because it's annoying as hell to me. I grew up knowing this stuff, but every now and again I have to stop and assume whoever's watching this is a Stable pony.
Anyway, by this time it had occurred to me that I had been down there for THREE FUCKING DAYS, and that if Pink-E had been able to track my exact position the whole time --- which was why the captain's first cast had snagged me so perfectly --- why the hell had it taken so long to co- to rescue me?! It's a big lake, but not that big!
When I raised that point with my little ponybot, she cheered. "You're asking questions already? Yaaay! I knew you could do it!" While I struggled to figure out why that was suddenly a big deal, she hovered up close to whisper intently, "So remember when I told you I went whOOOshhh, and I was flying around looking for a fishing boat, or really just any boat so long as it had somepony to sail it because I really kind of can't without a body and then I found a whole BUNCH of boats with ponies on them just like this one?"
Since she'd stopped to give me a prodding look, I worked up the effort to do something that might have been a nod... or maybe a slump. It seemed to satisfy whatever passed for her logic processors. "Right! Well, at first, nopony would listen! I flew up and down the docks and asked everypony I could find where I could get a boat and some of them weren't even ponies but that's okay 'cause there's plenty of folks who aren't ponies and they're okay too!"
She went from happy-frenetic to droopy-sad in a heartbeat. "But some of them shot at me, or swung big sticks, or called me bad names. None of them believed me when I said a pony in the lake needed their help. Not even when I followed them around, yelling HEY! and LISTEN! and WATCH OUT!" Her face turned thoughtful for a moment. "I kiiiiind of think that's when they started shooting, but I'm not sure."
A shrug, and she was back to being intolerably bouncy again. "So that's when Mister Hard Way over there walked up and just asked what I was talking about!" She huffed with frustration. "Like I hadn't just been saying what I was talking about for two whole days!"
Okay. Now I could understand. It wasn't Pink-E's fault, and I didn't have to kill her. Just every other Vikean who wasn't on this boat right now. Soon. A year or two, and I'd get right around to it. But I was still missing one key bit of info:
"Ping-y," I slurred, "whadju prommiss?" Happy-go-lucky attitudes didn't get anypony to do anything. There had to have been a price tag. What would the Celestial Suite look like, stuffed with unused bookcases and coffee tables?
"We-e-e-e-e-e-ellll," she sighed, rolling her eyes --- and not bringing them quite back to looking at me --- "you do still have the ten thousand bottle caps you, um, picked up at the Velvet Stocking?"
If my look were capable of being anything but flat just now, I'd have given her a flat look anyways. "Yush. Adda S'leschul Swee'. Noddon meh."
She went right back to beaming. "There you go! We just go back to Mister Horse's place, get your money, give it to Mister Hard Way, and everypony's happy!"
Ten. Thousand. Fucking. Caps. For a fishing trip! My gut roiled with a mixture of pain and loathing, making me curl up into a tiny ball. I fought down a whimper, and also a bout of vomiting which felt like accompanying it on the way up. After everything I'd been through, I was right back to being broke again!
Pink-E drifted over to head-bump me, throwing in a sidewise look and some eyelash-batting... with what was left of her lashes, anyways. "So, how do you feel, now that you've finally gotten laid?"
I swear to Luna, she was smirking. I'd been serially raped, and here she was smirking about it.
The angry little pink pony in the back of my head wanted, verbally and physically, to tear into her. But there was simply no fuel for that fire, my engine having run out of coal days ago. Meanwhile, my backup puller team sat across from the little pink pony under a banner reading "On Strike", sipping coffee and ignoring his frantic gesticulations.
Godsdamned unions. I tried nosing my way under a bunch of loose sacks, but couldn't find the will to do more than shuffle them around a bit. No part of my body wanted to do anything, especially if it meant moving any other part, because every part hurt all by itself. Moving multiple parts multiplied the hurt. "Jus' shuddup."
A ruffling of feathered wings, and then a heavy thump, sounded from behind. I didn't bother turning more than an ear in that direction; with any luck, some monster would kill everyone else on board and let me off the financial hook. Or kill me too, so at least I'd be done with shame and misery.
No such luck. "Kapten Way, port authority gives clearance. No action reported. We're slotted to provide for third shift this week... oh, and Master Woebegone says you still owe him for last week's Falukorv Casserole."
The response was an even, low rumbling, like the rolling thunder of a distant storm front. "I'll pay him, Gore, but not for falukorv. What he provided was not to those standards. When we get in, we'll let him know that Way House favors corrective action." The two laughed as though at a well-worn joke. There was a pause, and then the first voice again:
"So there really was a live one down there. That'll put the name of Hard Way into the sagas, all right. Wonder if he looked like Svaoilfari's ballsack before they pulled him down?" Another shared laugh, this one harder; I somehow found the energy to drag my hat down and bury my face in it. I might owe them my life, but for ten thousand bottle caps you'd think I would've bought a little deference!
Paying me no heed, other than to avoid my burlap nest, the crew of the Sjönhäst got to the work of pulling into port.
* * * * *
"Ballsack" turned out to be a griffin named Gore-Nest, Hard Way's first mate and also my chaperone for the time being. He'd directed his shipmates in slinging the pile of sacks (and me) onto a wooden sledge on the dock as soon as their ship tied up, then got into harness and dragged me out of everyone else's way. Meanwhile, Pink-E kept nattering on overhead about everything and nothing.
Two mules working a neighboring longship turned to stare as we passed, dropping the crate they were moving to the ire of their shipmates. Then their shipmates noticed us. Whispers flew up and down the dock.
>>>oOo<<<
Somepony poked me in the ribs.
<<<oOo>>>
My eyes flew open. I'd been asleep, and now I wasn't. Dammit! I turned what I hoped was a baleful gaze on my tormentor, an ancient red buck with a weatherbeaten face and grey woolen cap.
"Fuggoffendye," I growled. Or tried. It came out more like a mewling.
"By Sleipnir's bridle," he breathed. The reek of fish and tooth decay that washed over my muzzle made me regret holding my guts in earlier. "And here I thought Kapten Way was off on another of his wild lakepony chases."
Somepony else chipped in, "If you believe the story, he was!" Laughter broke out all around me.
Gore-Nest began shoving them back, one at a time. "Let 'im get some air, already. Buck's been soaking up the lake a day and more already, longer if the robot tells it true." Pink-E looked indignant for a moment, but said nothing.
Oh, sure, she'll shut up for a complete stranger...
As I glared at her the griffin turned, leaned down, and gave me a backhanded claw-slap.
Any other day, I'd have been right on him swinging, regardless of his having talons, a sharp beak, and easily three times my mass. But today, the pain barely made its trek from cheek to brain. I flopped back onto the sacks, feeling reality steadily flow away from me. "Whaddafug..."
Pink-E drifted down until she nearly touched dirt, fixing a pleading set of shiny blue eyes on mine. "Cherry, you're still suffering from hypothermia and severe exhaustion. I know I've been a horrible tease about what's happened, but you've got to stay awake! Maybe some music, would that make you feel better? Your vitals... they keep slipping...!" Was that a tear dripping from her eye, or condensation?
I managed to lift a hoof and, straining, reached to wipe it from her little rubber muzzle.
That's it, said my body. Visiting hours are over.
>>>oOo<<<
Falling again. Why am I always falling, these days?
Oh, and drowning too. Falling through water; I get it. I'm asleep again. What'd Pink-E say about that, just last year? Did she mention it tomorrow? Not important enough to remember, I guess...
Plummeting through dark blue everything. There was a soft light surrounding me, warm. So relaxing. Soothing, even. My lungs started whining for air, but really, fuck those guys. What did they ever do for me?
I fell past Bitchy-Bitch, floating upwards in the opposite direction, cursing my name while she tried to put herself out. But she was made of fire and the sharp stench of burnt latex, and the water wouldn't deign to extinguish her patchwork fury. Bubbles of laughter floated up after her. I needed that. So miserable lately. Last thing I laughed at... it was something Pink-E said, right?
...why am I asking you?
God tried to tell me something, red eyes flashing; I missed him in the dark. Dog sipped from a carafe of ruby-red wine, stepped gingerly from a platform onto a moving train, and exploded into dust and gears, dissolving as I fell.
I looked left, saw nothing, then right... another Diamond Dog appeared, only long enough to experience cranial combustion. His monocle and bits of pith helmet zipped past me, stylish shrapnel. Emerging from the red cloud left behind, a wide horizon revealed itself, with massive shapes of metal, grease and steam edged starkly against a rising sun. Flags and nations, lubricating their advances in blood and oil. A filth-slicked dragon, locked in chains, writhed pitiably beneath them all...
"REDEEMER!"
Back to my left floated God. His black mane drifted in the water like Red-Head's had, as did his tail. No wonder his Goddess hated him; She'd made Herself a lovely plaything, and it came out broken.
"Redeemer! Heed my - !"
Gelatinous, glowing with malice, a great pink tentacle swept out of the distance to seize the alicorn. Its surface held suckers in the form of faces: soulless spirit-pony skulls, each one screaming wordless hatred. God darted, dodged, stabbed, bit, struggled, and disappeared into its immense, seeking coils. They, in turn, disappeared back into the distance even faster than they had arrived.
The same overwhelming sensation I'd had back in the whiskey bottle flowed up my spine. The feeling of a prey animal, fearing something I couldn't see or flee or defeat, out there, hunting for me...
A single great blue eye opened, so wide it made a perfect circle stretching as high and low as I could see. Instead of tears it wept Pink Cloud, tendrils of it swilling through the waters to surround and suffocate me.
Ha! Too bad for you I already decided not to breathe!
The thing had a voice. Hissing, angry, familiar. "Suck on this, you little pink shit..."
Rebellious jaws ignored my brain's futile commands to remain on lockdown, wrenching themselves open, while quisling lungs collaborated to draw in the candy-floss poison.
Inside and out, I began dissolving. Just like Dog, I was going to fizz away into the fathomless waters, and nopony was going to miss me. I was choking on my own blood, the mass of pulpy tissue in my chest no longer qualifying as lungs.
The Pink wormed into my skin, loosening its cohesion, so that bits of me sloughed away wherever I touched myself. Both panicked and fascinated, I tried and failed to keep myself in one piece. My flailing efforts only accelerated the process, chunks of decaying flesh drifting away into the currents as my body unraveled, outside and in...
The center cannot hold.
---oOo---
My eyes flicked open. I was flat on my back, and a magenta unicorn stallion had locked his lips crosswise on mine.
Hello, pony I don't know! Purely on reflex, I slugged him with a right hook.
He reeled back, probably more due to surprise than anything else, giving me time to roll out and get to my... um, get to... c'moooon... I went right back down with a thud, coming to rest on my belly with legs splayed in random directions. Not exactly my finest moment.
A burst of laughter was interrupted by Hard Way's booming-gale voice. "Well, Cutter, I'd say your vaunted 'kiss of life' still holds up. It would seem our guest is recovering quite nicely."
Looking up, I found the same magenta buck grinning and rubbing his cheek, a set of first-aid boxes strapped across his flanks like saddlebags. "I'd have to agree. For somepony whose heart stopped beating not two minutes ago, he seems exceptionally healthy." He pushed a blond mane out of sea-green eyes, with which he gave me an appraising look, then shoved a mug of something vaguely alcoholic-smelling under my muzzle. "Put half of this down your gullet now, sip the rest slowly. It'll help warm up your insides, while the fire helps with your outsides."
Fire? I slowly took in my surroundings. Just a length away to my right was a wide stone hearth, roaring with what had to be a quarter-cord of pinewood, flames licking hungrily at dark sap trickling from the logs. The fact that I could barely feel that heat was disturbing to say the least.
Opposite the fireplace a huge plank table stretched away, taking up the middle of an even longer room. The architecture was Classical Equestrian: cut and fitted stonework for the floor and lower walls, supporting a framework of big oak beams for wattle-and-daub upper walls. The ceiling, high and vaulted and lit with hanging lanterns, was probably thatch on its topside.
And it was stuffed, stem to stern, with easily a hundred ponies, mules, dragons, buffalo, and griffins, most of whom were staring and grinning disconcertingly at me. Hard Way, seated at the near end of the table on a pillow that would have counted as a bed for anypony else, had the biggest smile of all. He even beat out Pink-E, hovering near his shoulder.
"Welcome back from Vattengrav, boy! Welcome to Way House!"
Whether held in hooves, claws, tails or levitation fields, a hundred frothing mugs went up.
"SALUT!"
Vattengrav? Was that what they called the Lakeponies' castle? Whatever... I carefully picked up my mug with two hooves, gave it a little lift, and summoned the effort to nod politely before downing the prescribed measure. Given the consistency of what went over my tongue, I was glad for the moment that my taste buds didn't seem to be working any more diligently than the nerves in my hide.
They all followed suit, but the number of ribbing elbows and smiling asides suggested most of them had expected me to spit the stuff halfway across the room. Cutter just gave me a critical look, nodded, and took a seat at the main table, which seemed to be the cue for everyone else to find a spot of their own. Meanwhile, several molly mules began wheeling in carts piled high with steaming trays. Even through my dulled senses, I could smell meat and onions, and my mouth began to water.
Hard Way poked a hoof in my direction, still smiling. "You rest right there. Our girls will get you fed." He turned to a sizeable dun mare seated to his right, leaning over slightly to plant a kiss on her head. "Isn't that right, my stoföl?"
She laughed and pushed him back. "You dare ask, my big fat oaf?" She slapped his belly with a hoof, smirking. "See if YOU get dessert tonight!" That drew a chuckle from him (which would have qualified as threat display in any other species) and a big laugh from everyone else nearby. Then, giving the serving-molly who'd brought his platter barely enough time to pull her hooves back, he dug his muzzle into the fried fish and potatoes heaped upon it.
Whatever Cutter'd given me settled into my belly with a slow burble. A strong core of warmth developed, slowly expanding outward in tingling tendrils, like the feeling you get when your leg's been asleep and just starts waking up. I didn't know what the hell was in this mess, but I obediently sipped, keeping an eye out for shenanigans. I swear to Luna, I'll pistol-whip the next -
Pink-E floated down to hover by my side, still smiling. "I'm so happy you made it! How are you feeling?"
I took another sip before answering. "I think I should really be angry. But I'm not. You promised him the whole ten thousand?"
She dropped her gaze to the floor. If she'd had hooves, she'd have been scuffing them. "There wasn't time to quibble over the price of a cherry." ...what? When she shook her head, her antennae bobbed from side to side. "I know how much your money means to you! But if I lost you..."
She bit her lower lip, which looked --- actually, damn near pristine. So did the rest of her, hardly a singe or streak. The Vikeans weren't known for having anything to do with robots. Was it even possible they had somepony with that kind of skill hanging around? After a pause to mull that over, I prodded. "...then what?"
Pink-E sighed, her ears drooping forward. "Then I'd have no other reason left to exist."
A tray cart rolled up, pushed by a molly whose only defining feature was a red neckerchief tied primly under the chin. "Lucky you, t'night y'got a choice. We got random fish an' chips, stewed rat with broccoli an' green onions, or radscorpion pie." She looked over her shoulder quickly, then leaned down to whisper conspiratorially in my ear. "We got a new zebra in th' kitchen with some funny idears 'bout that last one. I wouldn't try it if I were you."
I nodded slowly and sipped at my mug. "Haven't had fish in forever. What's random about it?"
She carefully lifted a tray in her teeth and lowered it to the floor beside me, revealing a pile of fried-and-spiced potato wedges covered with filets of varying sizes and colors before letting go. "Never been able t'figger out what kinda fish they're s'posta be. We just kill 'em an' grill 'em. Bon appetit!" Turning, she wheeled the cart about to continue her rounds, a pair of griffins already leaning back in their seats to flag her down.
Whatever kind of fish they were, they were the best I ever had. Part of that might've been half a week of starvation, but the rest was genuine deliciousness. They'd been so expertly filleted that not one bone was left in, then fried up golden-brown in what had to be fresh butter, sage and minced onions. The potatoes had probably been fried in the same pans, and then drizzled with more butter plus... was that jalapeño chopped up in there?
My tastebuds announced their return to full functionality, with a vengeance! In no time, I was doing such a good impression of Hard Way that I only noticed a second tray had been dropped off when I stopped licking the first. I was halfway through that too, before realizing Pink-E had puttered off somewhere.
A quick scan of the room revealed her bobbing and bouncing around another table, this one lower to the floor and snugged against the wall between the kitchen doors. Around it were the camp's children, squealing and shouting happily at the little pink robot's antics. Every so often, one would toss something at her, she would dive at it, and glomp! it was gone. Then she'd say or do something, the table would break up laughing, and something else would be thrown.
Well, at least she's happy. I want a robot to be happy. Maybe that's insane, but what's my life now?
I took my time savoring the rest of my meal and letting it digest. In between bites, I finished off my medicinal brew, which now that I really could taste it made me regret getting that sense back so quickly. Licking mildew off a rotten radhog chop would have been more appetizing. Thankfully, the returning buzz of Pink-E's hover servos gave me something else to focus on.
"Got a few questions for you." She'd recovered well enough that the response, a broad, clean smile, no longer made me worry for her structural integrity.
"Sure, Cherry! Shoot!"
"A file on my PipBuck triggered off of a random radio tune. Did that have anything to do with your snooping around Horse's casino, back in Pegas? When I asked you about it back then, you practically locked up." I was expecting a stonewall job, maybe even a repeat of the access error. But surprisingly, she bobbed her head in the affirmative.
"Yes indeedy, speedy! Only it took a while to figure out, because it was all brrrRRRRRRrrrt and bl-BL-bl-BL-bl-BL-bl and fweeeeeeeeee... just really annoying encryption! I took care of it on my spare cycles this last week, kind of a back-burner project thing. See, the Ministry of Morale has its own encryption standards, and we use a modified version of Robronco termlink for our base code, and the Lucky Chance does the same with its own modifications! So I decompiled both instruction sets, set up a virtual drivespace partition, conducted a bit-to-bit parity analysis, and then -"
"Yeah, yeah," I said, jumping in before she got her steam up, "I get it already! But back in the Royale, you said you weren't programmed for hacking into systems at all. We were all damn near killed because you couldn't." I felt like I should have said that in an angry tone, but the red monster I used to call on so frequently just wasn't in his cave today. Huh.
She slowly looked away, forcing a guilty little laugh. "A-heh... riiiIIIIiight... that was just a little bit of fibbery. The whole casino, almost, ran on a unique operating system! Nothing in my MoM files had anything on anything like it! Plus it was running the management AI for security, which would have triggered really really bad things if I'd tried brute-forcing it." Her expression shifted to an apologetic half-smile. "We just weren't there long enough to reverse-extrapolate what I could pick up on. I tried my best, though! That's why I was so quiet and nervous the whole time we were in there, it ate up like ninety-three percent of my processing functionality!"
I waited. She waited right back at me, once again bobbing and smiling now that the cat was out of the proverbial stewpot. Sighing, I went ahead and asked: "Right. So what else did you get from Horse -"
"Here ya go!" My PipBuck cut loose with a brief squeal of protest-y beeps, earning me a few curious glances while I tried to stifle it against my chest. Almost gingerly, I popped open the "Data" menu and took a look, only to find its "Misc" sub-header was now completely flooded with copied holotape records. From the tiny size of the scroll bar, it had to be several pages long.
I peered up at Pink-E dubiously. "What, did you get his entire library?"
A dismissive shrug. "Nah, didn't have time for that. I just skimmed through the good stuff!"
"Okay, one more thing then... who fixed you up, and what do I owe them?"
Her face lit up with a huge toothy grin. "Everypony and nothing!"
I covered my face with a hoof, groaning. "Imagine, please, that my brain isn't in the mood?"
The grin barely let up. "What I mean is, everypony's been feeding me snacks and scraps, and that's what I use to repair myself! You've seen me eat before, back in Big Rock City? Well, my reactor breaks food down and repurposes it for oils, lipids, chemicals and replacement mass! Bubble gum's my favorite, 'cause the chicle in it works great for facial skin and muscle structure, but Fancy Buck Cakes have so many preservatives it's like a smorgasbord! I think. That's what Vikeans call a buffet, right?"
Sure. My Great-Aunt-Robot-Head-Helper runs on two-hundred-year-old junk food. Because why not. Tomorrow I'd find out that she'd been Mr. Horse's personal brain-bot from the beginning, just because the old bastard wanted to tag along for a little voyeuristic entertainment.
While my own brain processed that tidbit of unlikely engineering, the Vikeans had grown quiet and, I noticed, were looking my way again.
Well, not exactly my way. A pair of identical dark-blue unicorns had taken up positions to either side of the fireplace, tuning up the lutes they held floating in glowing telekinetic fields. The one on the left had a dulcimer for his cutie mark, while his brother's butt sported a pair of drums, those being the only way to tell them apart. Pink-E and I were framed in between and against the fire, which had dulled to a more moderate roar. The duo pushed back their feathered caps and addressed the crowd in perfect chorus.
"Fillies and gentlecolts --- and others..." The old saw drew some quiet chuckling. "Today, Way House's own Sjönhäst earned its name, stealing back a life taken below the waves. Fished from the deeps on Kapten Hard Way's own salvage line, Dead-Shot the Bounty Hunter has become the first pony ever to survive that doom. We would be pleased if you could join us, in telling him a little..."
Both paused to strum a chord, in stereo, for dramatic effect, "...about who we are." The crowd gave a lusty cheer, joining in as the bards launched into their song:
A long time ago, in the Land of Häsverige
Papa Vikea was sending the word
To expand our Equestrian holdings
To a new desert land!
We're not just another Sofas-and-Quills
We're selling things that anypony can build
In good time; not just Unicorns, Earth pony hooves will do fine!
Vikea!
Just some oak and some pine, and a whole lot of bronies
Vikea!
We're providing the goods needed by every pony
Everyone needs a friend
And if you don't have a friend
You can find one here!
Our sails will show on your horizon today
With furniture to help you work, rest or play,
It's a new way of living that's more than barely getting by!
Sleep off hangovers in our Berry Punch Bed
Get snacks from the Donut Joe Cupboard instead,
Or relax on our Lyra Bench
In the sunshine all day!
Vikea!
Just some oak and some pine, and a whole lot of bronies
Vikea!
Our furnishing standards are high, never phony
Everyone needs a friend
And if you don't have a friend
You can find one here!
Vi-ke-a... long-ships, sailing
Vi-ke-a... easy, flat-packed
Vi-ke-a... built by, bronies
All together, we
Are one big family!
The whole hall thundered with to clapping talons and stomping hooves as the unicorns gamboled and danced about, their lutes intertwining over my head in matching magical fields until I wasn't sure which belonged to whom. I couldn't help wondering: just how far would this act get on the Pegas Strip before somepony started throwing grenades?
Just because Mister Horse isn't a fan
Doesn't mean that we will not take a stand
For quality furniture, delivered right to your door!
Our Sales Associates are on the move
Built for endurance, with nothing to prove!
For-ever we shall live, happy here on our shore!
Vikea!
Just some oak and some pine, and a whole lot of bronies
Vikea!
We're honest and fair, 'cause we don't sell baloney
Everyone needs a friend
And if you don't have a friend
You can find one here!
At Vikea!
At Vike-eee-eee-aaaaa...
The song ended with a lot of cheering, yelling, and (predictably enough) a couple of good-natured buckfights. Nopony, to my knowledge, had ever accused the Vikeans of being shamelessly self-promotional --- at least, none with concern for belaboring the obvious. And though I knew I'd regret the answer, I had to ask the question:
"What in Tartarus is a 'brony'?"
Hard Way laughed, leaned waaaaaay over, and managed to companionably smack my shoulder without leaving his seat. The impact might've knocked me into the fire, had I been standing up. "Our brethren from other species. A brother-pony, like Gore-Nest over there." He took a moment to point out the griffin just four seats down. "They are all our bronies!" Several ponies seated nearby nodded, grinned at one another, and traded a few shoulder punches.
The aforementioned griffin scowled, folded his forelegs, and pointedly looked away. "I wish you'd stop calling me that." His immediate neighbor, a portly scarlet unicorn, took the opportunity to swipe one of his unguarded potato wedges, setting off a brief scuffle between the two.
Were everyone in this House borderline brawlers by nature, or was it something in the water? I peered dubiously into the dregs of my mug. Maybe I'll just stick to swilling this slop... At least it did what was advertised; I felt thoroughly warm and dry for the first time in --- hell, was it when I left the Celestial Suite? Since then, I'd been through thunderstorms, a stasis pod, the rotting streets and nano-sprite-infested grandeur of the Royale, the sky, and a lake.
My body shuddered, remembering the cold depths all too readily despite the blazing hearth behind me.
"A story!" shouted a yellow-maned filly from the short table. "I wanna hear a story!" The call was taken up with a shout of "Story! Story! STORY!", until Hard Way finally put up his hooves to wave for silence. A respectful quiet descended, broken only by a few indistinct murmurs. The gargantuan stallion rose, him and his braided mane effectively blocking my view of nearly half the room. Between him and God, I'd still put caps on the alicorn... but I wouldn't take long odds.
"Let's hear," he boomed... and then paused, for just a moment, before sitting back down again, "...a SAGA."
If I'd thought they were cheering loudly before, I was wrong. Did the roof just pop off its rafters for a moment, there? The bards, retiring with their instruments to opposite corners of the room, made way for a sharp-eyed elder unicorn. Gray of mane and hide alike, clad in woolen robes and levitating a short wooden stool before her, she perched herself near the fire on my left and proceeded to completely ignore me. This time, the silence that descended was absolute. Her eyes roved across the gathered, quiescent masses, her nostrils snorting with indifference.
Her eyes? I blinked and did a double-take. They weren't just colorless, or white with cataracts... they were crystal, glinting against the firelight like diamonds. As she settled herself, the robes slid to one side, exposing her flank, where rode the bone-white image of an eyeless pony's skull.
Regardless of the blaze behind me and lanterns above, a darkness began to settle across the room. Her horn, flaring with ethereal fire, cast a swirl of stars across the ceiling's new firmament like paint from a magical brush. Her lips barely needed to move to send a strong contralto voice resounding from the walls. Meanwhile, in their corners, the bards strummed soft accompanying melodies with horns glowing mutedly against the backdrop of a faux-evening.
"In ancient days, long before the tribes of Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn joined beneath the Equestrian Banner, there strode Giants across the fields and glaciers of Häsverige. Of these, the greater was Grani, who rose from the depths carrying Sleipnir's ancestry to us all. Weighted with gold and glory, Grani stood taller than any pony ever has, as tall at the shoulder as a minotaur's horn-tips. Before his stride, the snow and ice would crack and part, fearful of his hooves."
From her horn swirled a gem-like, glittering cloud, spreading through the room to paint a towering image.
He --- and I could only tell the gender from our tale-spinner's use of the pronoun --- was barely even recognizable as an equine. His legs were thin and unnaturally long, attached by knobby ankles to the thickest, roughest clod-hoppers I'd ever seen. The face was almost entirely made of nose, a freakish honker ending in huge circular nostrils and bared teeth, far behind which sat bright blue eyes so small you almost couldn't see any whites. His chest and barrel were long, deep, and easily twice the conformation of any normal pony, making the spindly build of the legs seem even more ridiculous. Mane and tail, both unkempt and stringy, straggled against an imaginary wind like tattered flags. On top of which, his unimaginatively gray and shaggy coat bore no sign of a rump-rash.
"Grani" looked like some kind of mutant moron who'd never so much as earned a cutie mark, let alone glory. But his inherent silliness didn't provoke a bit of laughter... instead, the room remained hushed, even awestruck. What the hell did they see in this thing?
If my expression betrayed my thoughts, the vision-addled nag ignored it and kept on with her tale. "In those days, Giants battled one another for the love of their mares, for the ground to graze upon, for shelter against the cold winds of Häsverige. Here then did Grani meet his true love, whose name means Beauteous Burden, whose value to him above all the world's gold led him to carry her from place to place upon his own back, so that she should never be soiled by contact with mundane earth."
The monstrous horse-thing began to trot in place, a complicated movement that must have taken a lot of trial and error to make natural-looking for this little lightshow. That was a lot of craft for such a goofy result, but I managed to keep nibbling at the remnants of my dinner with a look of what I hoped was detached interest. Somewhat more difficult was the effort of keeping my eyes open; hot food, a warm hearth, and medicated drink were already taking a toll.
Another form, less distinct but more pony-like, swirled into shimmering existence to nestle comfortably upon that over-broad back. "Yet his Beauteous Burden, best filly forever, had drawn the jealous eyes of many stallions. They, with no loves of their own and hardness in their hearts, charged one night upon Grani's encampment, seeking to steal his love away for themselves..."
It figured. Right when it was getting good, I nodded off. At least for once, no dreams came to mess with me.
* * * * *
Next morning the sun rose hotter than usual, quickly burning moisture off the lake into a thin, clingy haze of humidity.
I hated it. Instead of evaporating, sweat pooled up under my hair and dripped wherever it happened to feel like it. Rubbing at my mane and face only matted the hair down against the skin, making it worse. I couldn't wait to get on my hooves and head out, even if it meant speeding my way back to poverty again.
Vasstunga, the big dun earth mare from last night, had other ideas.
"Barely up and walking for an hour, and the foal wants to run off into the wastes? Hah! Sit, colt, watch the ships. You can drag my husband to your filthy city tomorrow." She flicked her big black tail in my direction, hefted up a barrel nearly as big as she was and hauled it off to one of the six longships that had been pulled up into dry-dock. Other Vikeans were working jacks, greasing axles, and rolling out the oversized wagon wheels that would let the ships roam the desert sands.
From the buzz among their crews, three clans were collaborating for a lumber raid on Mount Morgan. Pine was easy enough to get, just a jaunt across the lake to the uninhabited forests around the Casino Royale, but the live oak needed for sturdy furniture and even sturdier ships? Morgan was the only place in the entire region high enough off the desert floor to provide a home for the breed. It was also solidly NCR territory, well outside New Pegas proper.
Not that the NCR as a whole really needed Mount Morgan's resources, being that live oaks were fairly common along the interior of the Coltifornia coast, but local military forces preferred the hardwood's solidity anyplace they dug a bunker and shipping it in from over the border took up logistical resources. If that same military hadn't already been spread so thin across the region, they'd have put a serious force on that mountain to secure it. Since they couldn't, the Vikean strategy was simple: assemble every clan in need of timber, sail down the flatlands to Mount Morgan at speed, harry the few NCR Rangers there away from the available deadwood, and get chopping.
This time out, one of the three ships House Way was committing would divert from the usual route to drop me, Pink-E and Hard Way off just outside Nellie Air Force Base. The big Vikean wanted to go directly to New Pegas for his money, but I told him Horse wouldn't let me back into the Lucky Chance to get it --- at least not until I'd finished securing his treaty with the Zoomers, using the Autodoc module that now sat safely in my saddlebags. Sure, it was (probably) a lie, but why show up on Horse's doorstep with the job unfinished? Hard Way would rendezvous with the fleet on its return leg north of Pegas, and everything would finally be "mission accomplished".
But that wouldn't be until tomorrow, and watching Vikeans prep their longships for land use is as boring as it sounds. I'd've taken off anyways, except for two reasons: getting back to Pegas on the hoof would've taken as long as waiting for the boat, and Hard Way's people had my bags locked up as "collateral" in any event. I'd only get them back when we weighed anchor tomorrow.
At least Pink-E seemed to be having fun with House Way's "littles". She was an indefatigable playmate for anything from tag-you're-it to hide-and-seek, which also made her popular with the adults since it kept their spawn out from underhoof while they worked. Not wanting to upset that delicate social balance, I decided to leave her to it and wandered up the shore towards the Showroom.
Yep. Juuust wandering up the shore.
Wandering. Up the shore. About twenty lengths from it, hugging the dotted-line of horseshoe palisades the Vikeans had erected facing the lake. Darting across the gaps between, constantly watching for movement in the waves. Flinching skittishly every time the periphery of my vision caught something... which since it was a shore with tiny but constant little waves lapping at its edge, was nearly every other step.
Every hundred lengths or so I passed an observation tower, made of old telephone poles with platforms braced atop and crewed by pairs of binocular-wielding ponies. One would scan the water, the other the wastes. Surely if they saw a horde of Lakepony mutants, surging in towards the shore, they'd send up the alarm... right? Of course they would. And my guns were in my saddlebags.
They're not out there. Don't look. Keep moving. Don't look. They're not coming for you. Don't look. You're safe now. Don't look...
I was sorely tempted to move a bit further inland, into the bustling little town the Vikeans had built for themselves along the road leading from the docks to the Showroom. Each clan's House, with its surrounding cluster of workshops and pre-fab shacks, was lined up with the set of palisades and lookout stations they were responsible for. I could hide from the Lakeponies that I knew had to be watching...
...but then, I wouldn't be able to see them com- that is, trying to get me...
By the time my hooves touched broken asphalt, I was shaking uncontrollably. My vision was blurring with hot, burning tears. Breathing came in rapid-fire bursts. I put one more hoof forward, another... another? No. My nerves were shot. It was all I could do to remain upright. I was all alone out here, caught without cover between the shore and the huge, blue-speckled box of corrugated metal beyond the parking lot. The old marina, too shallow for modern longships and thus left to rot, could be hiding dozens of greedy, needly grins amid the broken pilings. The lookouts at this end of the road would probably never seem them - approaching...
If they came to drag me back, I'd - DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!
The word clawed its way up my trachea. "Don't - !" My lungs were in overdrive, but I couldn't get enough air.
Don't think about it, don't look at me, don't touch me, leave me alone!
Something inside pulled my resolve apart, like so much wet newspaper pressed against an already-broken dike. I collapsed in a shameful, spineless pile, bawling like a colt. My hooves pawed at the ruined pavement. I wanted to dig myself a hole to hide from the world, ashamed at the torrents of blinding wet heat bursting from behind my eyes.
Why did they do that to me? Why am I thinking about it?! Stop it! STOP! Demanding, begging, pleading with myself to stop crying. Just stop! You can't see them if you can't clear your eyes! You can't run if you can't stand up!
My heart and soul told my brain to go fuck off and die already, then went back to their ongoing project of trying to resolve my flesh into a dew of salty tears.
I'd had three days to endure, but only one so far to recover. From exhaustion, to unwelcome distractions, to sleep visions, to welcome distractions, to sleep without visions... no, no wait. Now I remembered: my dreams had been full of wakeless horrors. Maybe I'd been too drugged to hurt myself thrashing around, but I'd dreamed plenty, all right, only to immediately block it out on waking. Afterward, I'd been blocking all day without even thinking about it.
Seeing the water reminded me. So now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't stop... not the gnawing fear, not the futile anger, not the burning shame of... of being reduced to a breeding tool for a fucking fish...
Oh yeah. "Fucking fish". From hysterical weeping, to hysterical laughing, in twelve seconds flat.
That was the capstone joke to my life, wasn't it? I hadn't really had any control over what I did, or where I was going since meeting Pink-E, or maybe the day I took the contract to chase after Benny. I was Horse's tool, No-Pony's psychic sounding board, the Zoomers' errand-colt, the Lakeponies' sperm donor, and now a Vikean's bank account! Tomorrow I might be abducted and probed by space monkeys!
I clutched my belly, sore from sobbing and laughing, rolled onto my barrel, attempted to get up. Failed. Ended up back on the ground, rubbing a hoof across my snot-choked nose. Plugged one nostril, blew out hard, sent a golf-ball-sized hunk of goo sailing. It landed, with a disgusting spat, half a length away.
At least now I felt a little better, the worst of the fit having passed. I hurked and snorted 'til my nose was finally clear, took a few deep breaths, and finally got myself under control --- just in time to get a hoof in the flank.
"Get up, boy. You're making a spectacle of yourself."
Turning my head revealed a stolid, humorless, middle-aged sonovabitch of a unicorn, with a blue-grey coat and white mane that could've taken their cues for hues from the lake's waters, and whose flank-flash consisted of crossed anchors bound with lock and chain. He wore a bright blue blazer with white trim and a black flat-topped cap, the brim of which was pierced by the tip of his horn. The cap's permanent downward angle mostly obscured a pair of brown eyes deep-set into a weathered face.
Eyes that, thankfully, didn't deign to dwell on my embarrassment. Instead, he yanked me up by the mane and pushed me towards the Showroom, ignoring my squawks and protests the whole way. It seemed I was going to get the Grand Tour, whether I wanted it or not. Well, that or turn around and hoof it back to the docks by myself... and anyways, I'd been curious about the place to begin with.
"Heard what happened. Nice to see a buck survive the sea-cunts, even if it's going to make Kapten Way and his bunch more insufferable than ever. Which reminds me: you can do me the favor of telling the fat bastard that if he doesn't like my Edda's Falukorv, he doesn't have to eat it."
So this would be Port Master Woebegone, then. I do pay attention, from time to time.
I tried not to look up as we passed under the daunting steel framework of the Showroom's awning. It was covered with patches of old yellow paint, one of which a tired-looking pony was dangling from a line to scrub at, wire brushes strapped to his forehooves and a bucket of turpentine hanging nearby. Further down, another pony applied swaths of fresh yellow paint with an old broom. The scene repeated at various places around the Showroom, only with bright blue being applied to the formerly-rusty exterior instead.
You saw a lot of things, roaming around the Moohave Wasteland, but raiders performing building maintenance was not usually one of them. Maybe eventually they'd get past the "giant speckled monster-egg" look.
What had once been sliding-glass doors were now huge iron-banded slabs of oak, guarded by a pair of adolescent green dragons in grey armor that gave Woebegone a run for his money in the humorless department. They pulled the doors apart with a greeting so formal, it bordered on monastic chanting.
"Welcome to Vikea Home Supplies and Furnishings. We hope that you find all that you seek. Enjoy your stay."
Woebegone stepped past. When I didn't immediately follow, he stopped and turned to look at me. "Come on, boy. Might's well show you around the place since you're here. I need to check up on these layabout louts in any case."
I stood outside, fixing him with a scowl. "The name's Dead-Shot. I'm not one of your 'boys'."
He turned, spat on the floor, and returned my scowl twice over. "Well ya look like a damn cherry pie, to me. Stay out or get a hoof on, I've got work to do either way." That seemed as good a cue as any to the dragons, who let go the doors. Stung by the comment from left field, I snorted with irritation and trotted quickly through, before they could shut with a solid THUNK.
* * * * *
An hour later we were still --- slowly --- navigating the yawning labyrinth of the main floor. In fact, just about the entire Showroom was main floor, with a few offices and storage areas snugged up against the walls. There was only a small strip, right up front, actually serving as show-room for the best examples of Vikean hoofiwork.
The rest was sectioned into a complex assembly-line system, starting with a small log mill out behind the old wagon-loading docks. Processed lumber and scavenged goods were hauled into the bay, sorted, stacked, and retrieved as needed. Each line served one type of furnishing or job, of which there were dozens, all having their own peculiar space requirements. Mostly, the Showroom was just a giant jigsaw of plywood partitions and laboring slaves.
Funny thing was, there weren't any other guards, and only a few overseers with nothing heavier than a cudgel strapped on. The slaves had all manner of tools, from hoof-held drills to sledgehammers. What was keeping them from just killing everyone and high-tailing it out of here?
Woebegone knew exactly where he was going, threading through one area after another to find whomever was in charge of a given product or project. They'd politely trade info on events, problems and figures, then go their separate ways.
"My job in all this," he said, after receiving a particularly rousing dissertation on the progress of sawdust packing, "isn't to take charge of anyone or direct anything. I'm just the All-Seeing Eye no one wants to draw the attention of."
I arched one brow in his direction as we continued on. "And why's that?"
He grinned maliciously. "Because their House's ships might find the harbor closed, next time they put in for trade or repairs." I followed him into the next section, where teams of slaves worked with planing tools to smooth down planks and beams of raw pine. The air reeked of shavings. "I was born, raised and trained to levitate that old anchor-chain up and lock it down on every mooring, south-to-north, across our little cove. It's the only magic I do, but when I do, no vessel lands at or leaves Häsverige."
Something about that didn't seem right. "Why can't they just go overland? Vikean walls don't have gates?"
"Oh, we've got one gate through the landside defenses," he said with a smirk. "The Woebegone family's also known as the Gate-House." His gait picked up a noticeable boost of pride. "We were the first Vikeans who gave a thought for defending our holdings. Set up a keep, so we could pick off anyone from a mile or more away. Solid rock-block construction using basalt from Big Rock City's quarries. When the walls started going up, we built a second tower and put a portcullis between 'em. They're also our home, so we're always ready and willing to defend it on short notice."
The old unicorn chuckled. "Short of old-world field artillery or a tank, that gate's going to stand."
We turned a corner down a long corridor of open arches, Woebegone glancing through each as we passed. So did I; these seemed to be workrooms for generic tasks like making dowel rods, nails, screws or glue. Each was stacked with scavenged junk, filled with workbenches, and packed with curiously-industrious slave ponies.
"So... any time there's a minor infraction or quota missed, a whole crew gets kicked to the wilds?" That seemed like major overkill, and it didn't take a moment for the port-master to correct me.
"Of course not," he snorted. "Don't be a foal. It only sticks until the House at fault makes things right. Most times, I just have to remind them I will do it. Permanent exile's only for when nothing can make it right. Over the last two centuries that's only happened twice, both times for poor customer service."
I blinked. "That... seems like something really easy to fix." Somewhere far back in his throat, Woebegone chuckled again, this time rather more darkly.
"That's our euphemism for out-and-out raiding, youngling. Murder, pillage, failing to pitch the Woona Daybed while doing it. Still a popular seller, that one." He turned his head with a wink. "That second-to-last part was a joke."
My return gaze was flat. "No offense meant, but I don't think many of the folks working this floor would call slavery funny."
He shrugged, shaking out his mane as though shooing a fly. "Not going to call a spade a flower, boy. We don't take anypony that isn't delinquent on payment for goods delivered. If you know anything about us, you know that already."
"Everypony who knows anything about Vikeans worries that you'll burn their damn huts down, usually in the middle of trying to win their hearts and minds." I felt a familiar heat start building behind my eyes. "Mind you, I've tolerated working with slavers before. But my dad would've just as soon shot a Vikean on general principles, as buy a desk from one."
He stopped and, surprisingly, turned a warm smile on me. "Can't say as I would have blamed him. Principles are a necessity, for a lot of folks." An earflick, and he was walking again. "But most find that principles aren't quite as necessary as food, medicine... anything else they need to survive."
I followed him through another, wider arch, into a long room packed with row on row of free-standing shelves. Each held a meager assortment of boxed, canned or jarred food, which he carefully examined and tallied with critical eyes. "Nothing much grows around here. So when fish are in short supply --- and that's more often than not, what with competition from the Lake Ponies --- you have a lot of big, burly ponies, griffons, mules and dragons who want to go get food from someone else."
His horn glowed, wrapping a box of Fancy Buck Cakes and lifting it for closer examination. "Most Moohave farmers are little better off than subsistence level to begin with, and Horse's city folk hoard everything for themselves, so by the time New Coltifornia put in their appearance, we were already known for --- well, let's look at that spade now: extortionists." With a grunt of disgust, he tossed the box to the floor and moved along; a slave quickly scooped it up and tossed it into a wheeled garbage bin.
Our hoofsteps clopped side-by-side down the aisle. "We'd rather sell legitimately. Trading furniture at the NCR's Hub would bring in enough business to make the hard-sell unnecessary, but there's no way to approach any of the big merchant groups without getting shot at."
My PipBuck suddenly pinged. It'd done that a few times before, but I'd ignored it. This time, I had nothing better to do --- unless I wanted to keep listening to a doddering old coot rattle off the story of his people.
NEW QUEST: RAGIN' TRADIN' - Find an economic partner for the Vikeans.
Really? Like I don't have a checklist of crap to do already staring me in the face? And what would I get out of it anyway?
The PipBuck's "Quest" section had actually piled up a lot of junk, most of which was blacked out, but all I really cared about was finding a setting to turn that stupid pinging off. Naturally, it didn't have one. Huffing at the brim of my hat with annoyance, I trotted to catch up with the aforementioned coot.
"The only thing keeping us from burning half the Moohave," he was saying, "is our work ethic."
"Which is why you need slaves."
A flick of the tail was the only cue that I was getting under his skin. "Labor Associates. They work off their debt, they're free to go. We even give them a free ride anywhere one of our longships is going, when they're paid up, so they don't get killed or murdered trying to get home."
He nodded towards a passing earth pony mare, lankier than most I'd seen, with a blue coat under work clothes matted with sweat. She stopped obediently, turning to face us and taking a moment to shift her oversized packs, her straw-colored mane dripping moisture on the floor. "Hilly, you've been here five years now. You've been paid up for four. Why're you still here?"
She grinned. "Toldja before, Portmaster: it beats hell outta goin' back t'what's left o' Mustangia! Only so many balefire tornadies a gal c'n take, b'fore humpin' junk food all day starts soundin' like a pretty sweet deal. Besides," she continued with a wink and hoof-scuff, "once I figger out how t'swim, I've got three Houses that wanna sign me onta one o' their ships!"
I gave Woebegone the squinteye and a snort of derision. "Oh come on, I can tell a ringer when - "
Suddenly Hilly had her teeth bared and up in my face. Backpedaling worked, for all of two seconds, before a plywood partition stopped my retreat cold. She shouldered right up to me with a hard glare. "RINGER?! I'mma free mare, ya little so-an'-so! Y'wanna call me a liar, you jus' say th' word anytime an' we'll settle this mustang-style!" I couldn't help but notice that she had fiery azure eyes, they were very angry, and they were also uncomfortably close to mine. So were those teeth I mentioned.
Personal space! Personal space!
Woebegone put a hoof in between us. "He was calling me a liar, Hilly Half-Acre. And I don't blame him for being skeptical. Please don't be rude about it on my behalf."
She snorted, tossed her head, and backed up a few paces. "Well... if'n ya say so, Portmaster. Your pride, your hide, an' all that." The mustang mare looked over her shoulder. "I've still got t'day's quota t'hit. C'n I go now?" At his nod, she trotted away to an empty shelf and began stocking it from her bags.
Woebegone watched her work for a moment. "You're half-right about her," he murmured. "She is an unusual case. Most leave as soon as they're paid up, and some figure we have a better life here than they had back home. Most Labor Associates, if they stay, are hoping to be picked as a Sailor for one longship or another. If they make it, they're adopted into that ship's House. Once they've proven themselves as Sailors, they can apply to become a full-fledged Vikean Sales Associate. Whoever gets thrown off the ship last, gets the nod."
Well, I had to admit I'd rarely seen a more effective threat display. Then again, I'd rarely seen anypony who'd survived Mustangia's irradiated windblown steppes, much less claimed to hail from there. If she could learn to swim, she might be dangerous after all.
"Of course," he added idly, "there's always the Honey Raid. Nopony takes anypony very seriously around here until they've stolen a bagful from the hives infesting the northern shore. Sort of our unofficial rite of adulthood. Helps keep their numbers down, too."
I stopped in my tracks, staring at him. "Stealing? From paradore hives? As opposed to, say, 'wiping out and taking after they're all safely dead'?"
When he turned, his face carried a chain-yanking smile with it. "But then, who would make honey for our mead?"
Initial Impression Confirmed: everypony in this town is CRAZY.
Footnote: Level Up.
BONUS PERK: Mental Block - three days in a Lake Pony's garden made learning this a necessity of life. When still and silent, you gain +2 PER and +1 INT, as well as +5% to all checks. |
Calbeck | 679 | 17 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2013-07-29T21:48:12+00:00 | 2013-10-05T14:59:07+00:00 | 2,120 | Chapter 17: Surfin' Turf
"No easy task to clear the ground, plant our tiny seeds..."
My eyes snapped open, but I couldn't move.
That's because I'd curled up into a shivering fetal ball so tightly, and for so long, that my legs had locked up. I waited, staring down the dimly-lit length of the great hall from my spot at its hearth, until my heart and breath slowed to a more manageable pace. The fire behind me had died down to dull embers, sending my shadow to flicker against red-lit walls amid those cast by the furnishings.
At least the shivering was only nerves. Not the bone-deep cold of Vattengrav I'd just woken from remembering. Once I'd had a chance to calm down, the hearth's warmth helped me relax enough to unwrap myself from... myself.
My body responded slowly in getting up. I was almost as fatigued as if I hadn't had any sleep at all. Still, I sent a little prayer of thanks up to Luna on discovering that the night's mental warfare hadn't resulted in any real-world bruising. After a few long-body stretches, I was as awake as I was going to be.
Way House, or at least Vasstunga, was already a step ahead of me. The big dun mare kicked open a kitchen door, releasing the sounds of clanging pots, clattering pans, huffing stoves and muttering cooks. A steaming black-iron pot hung from the rag clamped in her jaws, swaying back and forth until she dropped it on the near end of the plank table with an unceremonious thunk. A whirling whisk of tail and she was stomping back, slamming the door behind.
With a wide yawn I clopped over to the table, grabbed the nearest bowl, and stood on my hindlegs to move the pot lid. Riding the puff of steam came a familiar, fulsome scent --- genuine oatmeal! And none of that two-hundred-year-old "instant" stuff, either! I greedily dipped my bowl in, going for the biggest scooping I could manage without burning myself.
Oatmeal?! Whoever traded this for furniture was crazy!
It was a common enough grain in the valleys of central Coltifornia, but couldn't grow at all in the high deserts of Neighvada. Plus the NCR considered oats a strategic military resource, since they packed the most energy into the least space, so to anypony but soldiers out this way, this was a luxury food. Now where did the Vikeans...
I had barely taken a bite when this train of logic finally pulled into the station.
At best they might've got the oatmeal off the black market, somepony swapping their buddies' rations for a few extra sawbucks. Or it could have been taken in raids on civilian caravans. But the Vikeans had supposedly given that up to improve their image. Any other gang would have just eaten the stuff, rather than trade it around. That left military supplies... was I eating food taken from my nation's dead soldiers?
Even through the thick doors, Vasstunga's voice boomed. "Pick that up and clean it off, you vapid fool! I'll not have my bucks coming down with whatever you've been stepping in! MOVE!" Something metal clanged off someone who wasn't. At that moment the hall's front doors burst open, admitting Hard Way and several dozen of his burlier underlings.
"VASSTUNGA!" he bellowed as the horde took seats around the table. "WE'VE ONE HOUR TO PULL ANCHOR!"
She stuck her head back out and threw a ladle, nailing his noggin with perfect accuracy. Bonk! "So SIT DOWN and EAT ALREADY!" Vikeans began passing their bowls towards the pot of meal; as each arrived, Gore-Nest dipped it in and passed it on. While that was going on, serving-mules hurried out of the kitchen with trays of sausage and roast vegetables. In moments the hall was filled with the sounds of gobbling and munching, and then gulping as pitchers of cold milk arrived.
Hard Way paused in his gustatory efforts, eying my failure to empty the bowl I already had. "Problem?" he rumbled.
Being blunt here probably wouldn't have been a good idea. So I stifled the accusations hanging on the edge of my tongue, in favor of a more roundabout inquiry. "Yeah," I deadpanned, "where'd you get the oatmeal? That's pretty pricey stuff."
He bit a sausage off the chain being passed around, chewed thoughtfully for a moment, and swallowed. "Hit a Herd camp last month, other side of the lake. Warned them before not to set up on our shores. They can take their feud with the Republic somewhere else."
Well... that sounded reasonable enough. The fighting between the NCR and Herd had been going on for years, ever since a diplomatic party was ambushed and massacred while trying to treat with tribes across the Coltorado. When photos hit the Boneyard papers, showing how the entire party had been gutted and hung on crucifixes along the Imperial 15, support for pacification efforts beyond the Coltorado had skyrocketed.
If the tribes had remained disunited, it probably would have worked. But as NCR troops surged across the river, they presented a common enemy to groups which normally would have preferred to slit each others' throats. Within a year "The Herd" had brought most of a hundred disparate groups together, and began counterattacking wherever NCR forces were weakest. Soon we'd been pushed back across the Coltorado, where the line finally stabilized, both sides glaring at one another across Hoofer Dam. Since then, the NCR and Herd had been building up and trying to find ways around, or through, each others' lines. Most of the conflict was raiding, infiltration and skirmishing, at this point.
In that light it made sense that the Herd could have built up caches of oatmeal, whether taken off dead NCR soldiers or seized in raids on caravans and depots. They might even be growing it in their eastward territories, a huge swath which included parts of Marezona, Nuevo Mexicolt, Coltorado and Ewetah.
At least now I didn't have misgivings about eating it. I managed a second bowlful before the pot was emptied, plus some veggies and plenty of sausage. And I wasn't about to ask what was in the sausage.
House Way's crew-folk didn't waste time in idle chat or savoring their food, chowing down and filing out of the hall as soon as they were done. I tossed my empty bowl onto the pile that had amassed and, when Gore-Nest started moving, followed the griffon out into daylight.
* * * * *
The docks were busier than when I'd arrived. Six longships had been fitted with iron-shod wheels, two lengths high if a hoof, so that I could have walked under a ship without having to duck my head. Around and on each of them swarmed dozens of Vikean sailors and warriors, securing their travel kits and triple-checking every fitting. A strong, cold wind was blowing in off the lake, drawing a shiver from my neck.
"Hoy, lad! Take your pack and get aboard!" I turned, sighted the saddlebags flying my way, and gave a little jump to catch them on my back. As I buckled them down, Hard Way grinned and began clambering up the thick rope net slung over the Sjönhäst's side as a ladder. "How's the wind holding, Gore?"
Already aboard, the griffin looked down and nodded. "All fair, Kapten. Steady at twelve knots."
I found my own way, hoof over hoof, up the net until I stood on the deck near the bow with my mane and tail flapping in the wind. A moment later I had my PipBuck's inventory menu up, scanning for anything that might be missing. There's being trusting, and there's being a sucker...
All my weapons were there. That Gun, Mouthkicker, the ten-millimeter pistol I'd "inherited" from Horse's courier, a "steam rifle" --- oh yeah, from that one fancified Dog at Slimm Pass, I'd been telling myself I should try it out --- and of course, the good old "varmint" rifle that'd been the mainstay tool of my bounty-hunting career. For close-in work were hoof-knucks and a combat knife, though in my case the latter was better used for more utilitarian tasks.
AutoDoc VII module, check. All the food, medical supplies and whatnot I'd scrounged from the Royale, check. "Eclair's Golden Treasure" --- whatever that was; I hadn't really had a chance to look it over yet either --- check. Snowglobes, check.
Wait. When did I find another snowglobe?!
The one from Goodsprings, I knew about. Wasn't sure why I hadn't thrown it away, but I knew about it. The second... I popped it out of my bags to take a closer look. It was almost identical to the first, having a solid plastic base and thick glass dome filled with water. Raised red letters along the front of the base read "LAKE CIDER". Inside, drifting amid sparkling green glitter instead of faux-snow, was a perfect likeness of the lakepony I'd only thought of as "Red-Head". It hit me that this was the very snowglobe she'd been fawning over, just before she... I flipped it over to read the inscription.
"Call upon the Sea Ponies, if you're ever in distress!"
[BONUS PERK: Bubbleheaded - You can breathe underwater for up to ten minutes, once per day. If a Dragon, you now blow bubbles instead of balefire. Good luck with that!]
A sudden hiccup brought a bright, green-glowing bubble floating up from my muzzle. As I blinked, it burst, showering my nose with microdroplets of... whatever the hell it was made of. Its warmth contrasted with the chill air blowing against my rump.
Note to self: next time, ask what's in the sausage.
Gore-Nest pushed past me with two ponies, carrying a windsock up to the bow and breaking my concentration. He took some readings with the flapping cloth, then shouted back to where Hard Way sat in the stern. "ALL WINDS, TEN DEGREES FROM AFT!" Hard Way nodded back, then pointed one massive hoof at a baby dragon standing at the rail. The little red devil lifted a green flag, waving it towards the longship behind, whose crew then began signaling to the others. It looked like we were about to get underway.
I noticed Gore-Nest, still at the bow, looking at me from under his wind-ruffled crest while his assistants ran off to help with the sail. "What?"
He smirked across the width of his beak. "You're a lot of bother, for being such a little pony. Something about you just seems... off, to me." His face went hard, expressionless. "If Kapten Way doesn't come back from his jaunt with you, I want to remember what you look like from this slight, upward angle." With that hanging in the air he turned away, pulling out a red flag and waving it at someone further up the street.
Following his gaze, I saw the distant figure of a unicorn pony levitating a much larger green flag, slowly flapping it back and forth from the battlements atop Gate-House. From this vantage, I suddenly had new perspective. This wasn't just a wide, long street, tapering upwards with tall, flat-faced buildings packed seamlessly to either side.
It was a wind funnel.
Behind me, the Sjönhäst's sail filled out with a boom, sending a shiver through the longship's deck and up my legs. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, with a soft creaking, we began rolling forward.
Deciding I'd rather see what was coming than not, I crammed up into the bow next to Gore-Nest, propping my hooves up on the rail and ignoring his glare. "If I'd planned on worming my way into your camp, stealing your captain away, and doing anything to him, I would've left the part about being raped by fish out of it." He rolled his eyes, returning his attention to our progress towards Gate-House.
Woebegone hadn't been kidding. Situated at the crest where lakeshore met desert flats, it was the biggest post-War building I'd ever seen. Twin towers of cleanly-fitted stonework rose into the sky, a wide arched bridge linking the two, seeming to redouble in size as we approached. Its segmented portcullis had already been rolled up to permit our passage.
Gore-Nest squinted, then lifted his right talon with one claw extended. Immediately, the Sjönhäst shifted slightly to starboard, straightening out again when the griffon closed his fist. "Right on course," he declared to no one but himself. I only heard it because I happened to be there.
The wind picked up sharply, carrying a slight scent of ozone with it. Looking aft, I saw a team of unicorns with their horns aglow, telekinetically shoving more and more air at the sails, the accelerating longship now committed to threading the Gate or smashing against it. Back at the bottom of the street, another boom sounded as the next longship in line began its run.
I found myself clutching my hat to my head with one forehoof, grasping the rail with the other, and praying with all my heart to reach the dry, open, lakeponiless desert I used to loathe so much. It didn't seem like the Gate was really wide enough to let the ship through under full sail. Though I knew they had to do this all the time, I stole a look backwards to try and gauge the canvas' expanse.
Why was I surprised to see Pink-E riding the mast-head, squealing with delight? "Wheee! Avast, ye scurvy mane-shavers! Hoist the jib and batten down the hatches!"
An earth pony working the sail glared up at her. "Quiet, you! We already battened 'em down!"
Undeterred, she just shouted back, "Well, batten them down again! We'll teach those hatches!"
Hard Way just shook his head, failing completely to hide his smile. Maybe if he grew out a mustache to go with the beard... meanwhile, we continued to pick up speed despite the slight uphill grade. How fast is a knot, anyways? Ahead of us, small crowds perched atop Gate-House to cheer and wave strips of blue and yellow cloth. We topped the crest and leveled out, my stomach giving a lurch in the process. As we barreled cleanly between the towers, our wheels clattering from pavement to baked desert clay, shouts of glee and encouragement rang from the battlements, and those colorful ribbons waved even more energetically.
Forward go the conquering knights of olde, off to slay the dreaded timber wolves! Hah. Like anypony would have ever believed in that kind of malarkey! And how many of these yokels were really just hoping to see a longship crash?
Once through, the wind cut off sharply, blocked by Häsverige's high stone walls. The crew quickly reefed the sails and, just as the Sjönhäst began to lose momentum, we reached the Long Slope. Standing in the bow I could feel the ship dip slightly and begin to slowly pick up speed.
When you're standing right on it, the Long Slope doesn't quite seem like one. It's a fifteen-mile stretch of barren silt and clay, with few boulders or brush, and an incline so gradual it almost seems flat until you look to the horizon. Just beyond its western base lay Imperial Highway 93, curling north and west through the New Pegas suburbs. Further south the old freeway crossed its sister, the Ninety-Five, forming a natural rest station for caravans. Even more so, now that the Diamond Dogs had choked off the Long Fifteen. The NCR considered the junction crucial enough to fortify it as "Firebase 188", with a platoon of seasoned troops sitting behind sandbag walls and machine-gun nests.
It was a double-win for the Vikeans: any assault up the Long Slope with its lack of cover, against wall-perched snipers, would be suicide, while their longships had free rein to hit wide stretches of a major trade route anytime they chose to coast on down. It was easy to see how they had once been considered scourges of the Moohave, and why some of them might be tempted by a return to that lifestyle.
It would be so much easier than a relatively honest living...
Before long our speed was up to the point where I was seriously worried about my hat blowing away, so I took a moment to carefully stow it in my bags. Meanwhile, the Sjönhäst began a starboard turn so gradual that I didn't notice until I looked back up again. Then it took another moment to realize Gore-Nest had disappeared, to be replaced with Pink-E, who was giving me the same look he had. A familiar pulse of irritation buzzed up the base of my neck. "Now what?"
"Oh, nothing," she said with a lilt. "I just thought it was a funny look that mean ol' griffon was giving you before, and I wanted to try it! Plus I can't stay up on the mast because he wanted my spot. Well, he can have it!" She nickered, turning to look out over the desert. "I think the view's better here anyway."
With the morning sun still on the rise, the fog-tinged desolation of New Pegas Valley spread out below, and the wind of our passage blowing back my mane, it was hard to disagree. "Me too, Pink-E."
Our wheels kicked up a sizeable plume of dust in our wake, leaving a curving trail as we turned north. Its progress was obviously tracked with interest by every caravaneer on the road below, given the number of them which scattered south and west. The Vikeans might not be the terrors they once were, but that didn't mean anypony wanted to swap their current inventory for a wagonload of furniture!
After about fifteen minutes of free coasting we leveled out parallel to the Ninety-Three, a few miles north of Firebase 188. Gore-Nest, clamped to the masthead by his talons, gestured with his wings to guide Hard Way's steering. "Little bit to port... little more... back starboard... steady on, Kapten! We've got the on-ramp!"
And so we did, rumbling onto the cracked asphalt with a tumultuous clatter before rolling down to the freeway proper --- where a broken overpass waited to clip the mast in twain. Not to worry: the crew popped several bolts, then tilted it backwards until the mast's cross-beam bobbed just above Hard Way's fluttering brown mane. The moment we zipped beneath the concrete hazard, it was propped back up, locked in place, and unfurled.
Once more the Sjönhäst was moving under full sail, each of her five sister vessels repeating the same manuevers in our wake. Judging by eyeball I figured about an eighth of a mile clearance between us and the following Wayheim, with likely similar separation for the rest. Assuming we were doing about thirty miles per hour --- I'd never gone so fast, aside from falling into a lake! --- that would give about thirty seconds for the next ship in line to react if something bad happened.
Something, perhaps, like the Zoomers, reacting badly to a longship roaring towards their fence-line.
I shot Pink-E a worried look. "Run an analysis for me... how likely is this thing to survive a point-blank rainboom...?"
"Oh, that's easy! It can't!" Her smile was as bright and wide as a balefire blast.
* * * * *
With winds from the southwest, we made steady progress up the highway, easily crushing or smashing aside whatever debris or wildlife got in the way. We rolled over or past numerous abandoned skywagons, crushed or smashed aside by decades' worth of previous outings. Every time we hit one that hadn't been entirely flattened, the ship's bow bounced sharply upward before crashing back down again.
The Vikeans seemed to think this fine sport, whooping and hollering every time it happened, sometimes even pointing to a particularly nasty wreck and begging Hard Way to steer for it. Every time, he would act like he didn't hear and navigate the cleanest course he could instead, prompting choruses of disappointment --- until the next bad pileup appeared and the scene repeated itself. Everyone but Gore-Nest, who kept his eagle-eyes forward for trouble at all times, seemed thoroughly excited to be out of Häsverige and on the move.
We were coming up on another wreck, this one surrounded by several flitting somethings, when the griffon yelled down at me, "Hey, Dead-Shot, was it?" When I looked back, he had an evil smile and one talon pointing forward. "Better watch out now!"
I turned back forward to see what he was pointing at. "What - ?"
The bloatsprite caught me full in the face.
The squishy, disgusting thing exploded on impact, spraying fleshy gobbets and ichor that stuck to my face and mane.
"GAH!"
Aaaaaand that was even worse, because now I knew what uncleaned, uncooked bloatsprite tasted like. While I spat, gagged, and shook myself, trying to fling away the foul mess, the crew roared with laughter. One of them managed to stifle herself long enough to crack a joke of her own: "That's how can you tell a happy Vikean... by the bugs in his teeth!"
Two aged stallions working the lines exchanged nonplussed expressions. "Hey, Stadtler!" one of them barked. "How can you tell if a Vikean makes for a good comedian?"
The other blinked. "I don't know, Waldorf. How?"
"If they're NOT ON THIS SHIP!" Both of them broke into derisive chortles before Gore-Nest began waving everyone back to work.
"All right, all right already, you've all had the same thing happen at one time or another. We've got Henrietta Overpass coming up in five, so keep sharp."
* * * * *
Rolling through Henrietta wasn't pretty. Why would it be? The easternmost of New Pegas' suburbs held little more than wide stretches of burnt-out tract housing, the same as it had since the post-War riots. The neatly-arranged debris formed blocks that alternated with commercial strips, themselves having been looted and burned even before the houses were. The streets between were choked with abandoned vehicles, garbage and more skeletons than anypony wanted to bother with.
Whatever balefire hadn't done to do to us, we'd had no problem doing to ourselves.
The only signs of life were the occasional prospectors' huts of reclaimed scrap, but Henrietta had been picked over so thoroughly by now even those were mostly abandoned. Only the most desperate would try to eke out a living here. My PipBuck's Eyes-Forward-Sparkle spell picked up nothing but the odd radroach scurrying here and there as we blew past in our clackity-clacking din.
Despite having already cleared the Overpass, the crew seemed to redouble its activity. One even went so far as to batten down the hatches again, prompting a squee from Pink-E. I sighed and wrote it off to serendipity.
Be random, and the world just might be random with you...
Gore-Nest came flapping back down from his perch to reclaim the bow, and this time he made no allowances. "With what's coming up, you'll want to be strapped down. I'll not have you killed trying to find your sea legs." He pulled a chain-bearing leather harness from his packs, tossed it to the deck, and gave me a commanding look. "Buckle up."
Perhaps unbeknownst to him, that was one of the best ways to get me to NOT do something. I bit back the desire to tell him what he could buckle, braced myself against the rail, and stared ahead. "Whaddya mean, 'sea legs'?" I scoffed. "What sea are you even talking about?"
Silently, he pointed a talon at a distant metal overhang, to which old-world directional signs still clung. Shielding my eyes and squinting, I could just make out the faded white-on-green lettering.
EXIT 72 - Henrietta Town Park 1/4 mi.
Past that point, the freeway curved northwest, angling through the ruins of Pegasus del Norte. Northward rose the unmistakable undulations of sand dunes, an ever-shifting demarcation between ponykind's ambition and nature's reclamation. Bobbing alongside, Pink-E gave me a worried look. "Um, Cherry, I think maybe - "
Hard Way's casual rumbling escalated to a casual thunderstorm, if that was possible. "Secure for rough-riding!"
It's just a few bumps. If it were all that bad, they'd just slow down, I assured myself.
Sometimes, I am not a very smart pony.
It seemed that everyone else, based on their species, had a place to go and job to do. Earth ponies hauled out big wooden poles, securing them to oarlocks below the rails before securing themselves with harnesses they chained to the deck. Unicorns spread evenly out along the deck, their horns flaring with magical light. The other griffons, as well as the dragons, settled atop the mast's crossbeam to grip rope-loops with claw and talon. Gore-Nest pulled a pair of short lines ending in carabiners from either bow rail, clipping them into loops of chain on his belt. "SECURE!" Identical shouts sounded from each crew member, ending with Hard Way's bellow.
It occurred to me that, while watching the longships get refitted in drydock, I hadn't seen anything that would qualify as brakes being added. I whipped back around just in time to see the first dune rushing right at me, felt my pupils contract to pinpricks.
Awwwwww, HORSEAPP -
The Sjönhäst's deck, along with the rest of it, kicked up into my hooves, its wheels carrying it right up the slope and into the air. As one voice, her crew shouted, "HEAVE!"
The unicorns' horns flared, wrapping the entire ship in a levitation field. The aviators on the mast flapped for all they were worth. The earth ponies and buffalo worked their "oars" over the side, poling against dunes and obstructions. Gore-Nest, angling his wings this way or that, provided their guidance.
And me? I was sailing along, half a length above the deck, not looking forward in the least to what was coming. After several long moments, the curve of our aft keel carved the top of another dune with a hideous scraping crunch. The rear wheels found purchase a moment after, and those forward a second after that. No wonder the Vikeans prized oak so highly; a pine hull would never survive this kind of beating -
Then the deck punched me in the face. Luna felch me, but that's a lot of stars! Also, ow!
Lesson learned, I grabbed the proffered harness and fought my way into it, the ship bucking and swaying and slamming beneath my hooves at every hurdle. Before long, I'd collected enough bruises that Hard Way could have sold me to the Silver Slippers as tenderized steak. If in fact they'd been cannibals to begin with, a little pony in my head pedantically reminded me, just before another little pony covered in bruises stomped over and started pounding him.
I finally got myself chained down, started flexing my knees with the impacts, but nothing could stop my stomach from lurching and heaving like a drunken buffalo while the Sjönhäst plowed its way over the crests and through the troughs. I choked back the acid burning the back of my throat.
Gore-Nest spared me a momentary leer. "So! Got enough of those greasy breakfast sausages churning down there?"
We hit a nasty little incline just then; when we started leveling out, my stomach went into free-fall.
* * * * *
Four miles later, we had sailed (and poled and flapped and levitated) halfway across the roughs. Draped as I was along the portside bow rail, I felt positive that I had personally projectile-painted most of it along the way. I had also developed sixteen different plans for murdering Gore-Nest, ten of which were entirely impractical (if potentially satisfying) and five of which I wouldn't long survive the implementation of.
I was deep in mid-retch, mulling the details of an avian enema performed with blowtorch and industrial solvent, when Pink-E decided to chat him up. "So," she cheerily inquired, bouncing along with the ship on her godsdamned hover-servos, "Gore-Nest, huh? That's a funny name, even for a griffin!"
Coming from anypony else that probably would have been taken as an insult, but something about how Pink-E said it --- all innocence and interest --- disarmed the first mate's chance for offense. Or maybe, despite currently being engaged in guiding the longship around boulders and the more precipitous drops, he was just a lot more bored than he seemed.
"Kapten Way found me," he replied languidly, "in what was left of my mother's nest. She'd been hunting for our supper when a bunch of raiders spotted and winged her. They followed her back, attacked while she was trying to bandage herself up." A left-stretched wing fluffed out over my head, and the Sjönhäst heeled hard to port, one wheel crunching a radscorpion bigger than I was. "She killed them... most of them, anyway. When she went down, I found my bloodlust. Killed the last two myself, tore them all to pieces. Started making them the dinner. Some idiots've told me they thought that was 'poetic justice' or some crap. Me, I was just a hungry fledgling."
I managed to get my act together long enough to try and look like I was paying attention. I had been already, but it's impolite to vomit when someone in your vicinity is admitting to cannibalism. Pink-E looked like a train had just run over her brahmin, eyes wide and jaw hanging in the breeze. Finally, she managed to splutter out, "Th-that's...that's awful!"
Gore-Nest shrugged and nudged a wingtip to the right, sending us around a wrecked skywagon. The remnants of pegasi skeletons still dangled from its harnesses, twisting in the breeze of our wake. "Could've been worse. I'd've developed a taste for horsemeat, if Hard Way hadn't grabbed me up and started force-feeding me his own trail rations. Had the blood already on my tongue, you see. Tried taking it out of him instead, but even as a young buck, he was a big one. Had the heart and soul to match, too."
He hid a pregnant pause with a few minutes of directing a swerving course down and through a dry, rock-strewn creekbed, but there was the definite twinge of a smile in the corner of his beak when he continued. "I ended up following him all the way down here from Hope Eyrie's cold, high peaks... part of what you ponies call Coltorado. When I got older, I asked him what he'd been doing that far from Lake Cider. He said he went that way because it was the hardest road he could find."
"That's stupid." My stomach troubles didn't have me in a very diplomatic mood.
The griffon, taking advantage of a long open stretch ahead of us, turned to favor me with a hard look that tightened the skin around his eyes. Exactly three feathers ruffled along one cheek, and even that was probably from the wind.
"That's why he's Hard Way. Never does anything easy, says it makes him tougher for the experience. Even bent his own screwdriver to match his helmet's hex-wrench, just so he could get used to applying more torque with his teeth. From what I've seen at his side all these years, I'd have to say the idea works --- for him, anyway."
Although we still had a ways to go down this little valley before the next set of dunes, he propped himself up in the bow to stare forward again. But it didn't seem like he was seeing the desert anymore.
"I stood his deck last year, when the Zoomers pulled that hurricane stunt of theirs. Wherever you were in the Moohave, it was worse where we were, caught out on Lake Cider. Coming back from a raid on the Herd. The sky was so full of rain, not even the dragons could get airborne. We had waves high as the mastheads threatening to smash us under. Even after dumping everything overboard, they damn near rolled us. Never seen anything as terrifying as that, not as long as I've been alive."
Another long pause. I remembered where I'd been during that storm: cowering in a cave with winds screaming past the rocky entrance, hoping that what had been a dry wash fifteen minutes before didn't overflow its banks to flood my shelter. If our current traipse across the desert had been bumpy and bouncy, I didn't want to think about replacing its good solid earth for watery deeps, especially not with the addition of that storm pounding overhead.
Sometimes, Zoomers were just plain dicks.
"Kapten Way knew we needed a more stable configuration. Retooling a longship on water is difficult in a perfect calm, but that didn't stop him from taking parts off, ponyhandling them around. The wind and waves tried --- oh how they tried --- to tear him off the deck. We helped as best we could, though it was hard enough just hanging on. In the end we managed to get a pontoon out to either side, kept us stable enough to make port. Three other longships went to Vattengrav that day."
Gore-Nest fluffed out his wings again, getting ready for the upcoming rise. My stomach and eyes both clenched shut with apprehension, pulling a harsh laugh from the kittybird. "That's why they call him Hard Way, boy. That's why I owe him. And that's why he'd better come back after this business with - "
The big, sprawling dune just ahead of us exploded.
Not that I saw it, but I sure as hell felt it; a wave of sand punched me right in the muzzle, shot up my nose, and knocked me away from the rail only to be brought up short by my harness' mooring-chains. The detonation, even muffled as it was by the mass of the dune it had just eradicated, still nearly drowned out Pink-E's surprised squeal and Gore-Nest's equally-surprised squawk.
Hard Way didn't need any signals to react to that. He hauled the Sjönhäst over so hard that the longship briefly tilted up onto its starboard wheels, which incidentally gave my chains enough slack to pop loose and sent me skidding across the sand-covered deck. I was too busy coughing and spitting up grit to complain much.
Like its first mate, the ship's crew had taken a short break from the hard work of dune-surfing, and were just getting back to it when the blast hit us. Although they recovered quickly, the ship's hard turn had cost it precious momentum. We began slowing as we righted ourselves and headed upslope, next to what was now a smoking crater.
Nopony needed to say this was an ambush. Those who weren't needed on the ship's lines joined me in huddling up against the starboard rail, where I spent precious seconds snorting sand out of my nose. Since in combat my mouth tends to be full of gun, breathing through nostrils is kind of an important thing with me.
Thinking of which, shouldn't somepony be shooting at somepony else by now? Terrible hissing and grinding noises filled the air, as did the stench of industrial lubricants, but no gunshots. The two earth ponies flanking me at the rail were motionless, their faces cast in shadow, just staring up at something with their jaws hanging open.
But we're on the eastern side of the mast. It's still morning. There shouldn't be any shade...
With a sinking feeling in my stomach --- ironically, the least-awful sensation it had had to endure over the last quarter-hour --- I peeked over the rail towards the crater. From a huge pit in its center rose something out of a nightmare.
My nightmare. I rubbed my poor abused face, hoping something was wrong with my vision. After all, I'd been hit with a bug, a deck, and a sand dune within the space of an hour. Couldn't something go wrong in my favor, for once?
Aside from fever dreams, the closest reference I had for this thing was an old copy of Equestrian Army Today I'd once found in some ruins. That month's focus had been on "tanks", heavily-armored vehicles once common in major battles back East. Mainly, they'd been for breaking through entrenched lines. But here in the underdeveloped West, strategic targets had been few and spread out. Accordingly, so were the troops protecting them. Instead of dug-in slugfests, our battles had revolved around manuever and skirmishing, with little use for slower armored units like Steel Rangers, let alone tanks.
And this thing? Well, it was like a tank... sort of... if you put two giant metal legs on it instead of tracks. Legs or tracks, it didn't matter; it was facing us, venting huge gouts of steam while it finished standing up out of its hole. A single iron cannon, poking from a wide slit across its "chest", swiveled up to center on the Sjönhäst at point-blank range.
To think that if I'd taken that job in Detrot last year, I could be hunting Deadmares right now.
A sharp whistle, like a steam engine's magnified a hundredfold, cut the air; the cannon blasted forth a white plume. I barely saw the blur of its projectile before it struck, smashing through the deck planking to explode belowdecks with a deafening CRUMP.
Pine splinters flew everywhere. Reflexively I curled up, taking the needly barrage on the riot barding I'd gotten from the Royale, but grunts and shrieks of pain sounded from all around me.
Shakily, I got to my hooves and looked around. A third of the decking had been blown out, leaving several ponies in bloody, scattered ruin across the sail and rails. The hull's oak beams and planking had held up well enough, but the forward axle had shattered, dropping the Sjönhäst's prow into the sand and miring her in place. With its first shot, the mechanical monster had eliminated any chance of our escape.
Not that Hard Way seemed interested in absconding. He was already leading the rest of the Vikeans over the side, bleeding from a dozen small wounds and screaming inarticulate rage around the handle of an oversized hammer. He and they hit the desert floor at the charge, barreling straight for the walking tank. Gore-Nest already had the griffins and dragons airborne, circling the thing in an apparent search for its weaknesses.
Twin hatches on its "shoulders" sprang open, disgorging spring-mounted machineguns. Up behind these popped dark figures, swathed in such heavy clothing that I couldn't even tell what species they were. A chill went up my spine, remembering something Pink-E had said about Terrible Creatures From the Stars!. The machine's design was at once archaic and alien, yet somehow familiar, too. And maybe when it wasn't shooting at me, I'd take the time to dwell on that!
Two dragons dove in, blasting gouts of fire at the machine-gunners, whose guns hammered them from the sky while they were still closing the range. Swinging about, the gunners sent trails of bullet-streaks chasing after the others, forcing them to dive out of the way.
I couldn't see Pink-E; had she been hit? No, there she was, scudding around behind the thing while it pivoted to aim the cannon at Hard Way's galloping berserkers. None of them seemed to be carrying anything more dangerous than mouth-held tools, such as axes and hammers.
What were they hoping to accomplish against that?!
Whatever Hard Way had in mind, he wasn't going to make it if nopony stopped that cannon from firing again. Diving into my PipBuck's inventory spell let me load up and ready my rifle in no time at all, so that when I came out of it I was all set for...
...Celestia plunge me with a rusty roto-rooter! Wrong rifle! My mouth and tongue were curled around a weirdly-made grip with a tiny trigger assembly, similar to Mouthkicker's, but the ornate steam rifle's much bulkier mass had forced the spell to cock my head sidewise to hold it up. The side of my muzzle, and the flat of my shoulder, served as wannabe bracing points. It was the most insanely difficult way I could think of to fire a weapon, short of mounting it between my legs, and it was probably going to hurt about as much when it kicked.
So be it. I slipped into S.A.T.S., cycling through the available targets --- the bucks and mares of Hard Way's suicidal schiltron, one of the lower-flying griffons, Pink-E up near the dunetops, the giant machine itself of course, and... yes! I had line of sight on one of the cannon's gunners, right through its slit.
The numbers didn't lie. Single-digit percentages are a sucker's betting odds. So I let S.A.T.S. drop and squinted to line up the sight picture manually.
Suck on this.
In my eye and mind, the universe narrowed by hundredths of a second to a single ballistic path, one moment of mathematical truth. Without conscious thought, like a runner lifting a hock, my tongue-tip tripped Thunder-Child's trigger. Within the newly-named rifle's combustion chamber, its water talisman generated a perfectly measured volume of liquid, which its fire talisman instantly flashed to steam. Compressed by the chamber's confines, the steam had nowhere to go but into and up the barrel, pushing a single .308-caliber slug down a triple-twist of precision-bored rifling.
I wasn't wrong about the kick. My head wrenched up and around, hard, the grip punching my back teeth hard enough that I tasted copper and felt something go loose. My PipBuck flashed the image of a pony's head with a crack down the middle. But my right eye, locked on that cannon-slit, was rewarded with a splash of dark red blood, mixed with grey brain matter and bits of white skull, spraying back out of it.
Now that's how we do it back on the -
With another sharp whistle, the cannon fired anyway. For a moment, the white cloud of its discharge obscured the walking tank and its victims, leaving me with a horrified hole in my stomach.
If Gore-Nest doesn't beat her to it, Vasstunga's going to kill me!
Then the wind cleared the air. Hard Way and half his crew were in close, too close for the cannon to aim down at them. The slower half were going to be hell to collect and bury. The Vikeans lunged in, bodily trying to tackle the machine by its legs, even as its pilot realized the danger. The sight of a metal monster backing away up the slope, five burly ponies clinging to its ankles, was every bit as ridiculous as it was desperate.
Even if I'd felt like laughing, I was too busy spitting out the rifle, and two molars after it. There had to be something else in my inventory, something that I could - eeerrrrgh! A sudden wave of dizzying nausea put a stop to that, destroying my concentration and popping me out of the PipBuck's spell. My brain had just realized that not only was I missing teeth, but my lower jaw had been dislocated, and by the way, OW! Every throb of my heart sent a pulse of blood up through parts of my face that really didn't need the extra pressure at the moment, to each of which the nerve endings in residence responded with a collective bark of pain.
Shit shit shit shit ow ow ow ow... I spent precious seconds digging through my packs in search of, ohyesthankyouCelestiaI'llneverprofaneyournameagain, a vial of good old pre-War Hydra! With any luck, the stuff hadn't gone bad during the centuries it had sat in a medical box at the Casino Royale. I popped the cap, spat it aside, and guzzled the sweet green serpentine. After my first experience with a crippling injury back in New Pegas, there was no way I wasn't going to have at least one dose of this stuff in my saddlebags at all times.
Instantly I could feel it coat, soothe and relieve the gaps in my jawline. Fresh new teeth began growing and stretching out from within hollowed gums, uncomfortably pushing their neighbors aside before settling in like they'd always been there. I experimentally ran my tongue across the newcomers, making sure all was well.
Frontier dentistry at its finest, I crowed to myself. Now, back to business!
For the first time in my life, I regretted not carrying heavy artillery around. Rocket launchers were heavy, bulky and most of all impractical when your main source of income relied on proof-of-kill, but faced with a giant walking armor-plated beast my poor old varmint rifle didn't have as much utility as I would have liked.
It was still plenty enough to deal with the machine-gunners poking from its shoulder-hatches. PYEWT, reload, PYEWT... the second needed an extra PYEWT, luck and the thickness of his shroudings having saved his neck from the first. Idiot. If he'd been smart he'd've ducked inside before trying to stanch the bleeding, and I couldn't have put that extra five-fifty-six in between his goggle lenses.
Gore-Nest screamed something in the language of his people which could have meant either "attack" or "dinnertime", and probably had roots in both. Whoever was left inside that tin can was smart enough to drag the bodies in and secure the hatches, but that didn't stop the airborne Vikeans from landing topside. The remaining dragon wrapped his tail around what looked like a thick radio aerial, stretched as far as he could, and tried blowing fire into the cannon-slit, but the angle was poor. The griffons worked at trying to pry the hatches open.
Now if I can only get a line on whoever else is back behind that cannon, we might just survive this...
I scanned back and forth across the slit with my scope. There were furtive movements from at least two other gunners, but they were smart enough to keep hunched down while they went about their business. My efforts at drawing a bead on one weren't made any easier by the machine's lurching movements as it tried to dislodge the Vikean warriors, who were... trying to disassemble it?
I lowered my scope to get a better look.
Hard Way clung to its shin, pounding at the side of a giant lug nut with his hammer. As I watched, the nut sheared away, leaving its stump of a bolt behind as it fell into the sand. Without pause, the big beige brute clambered towards the next, mane-braids tossing back and forth across a blood-streaked face contorted with mad glee.
That overgrown sonovabitch is enjoying this!
His crew bashed at whatever screws, bolts, or maintenance panels they could reach with whatever they had to hoof. One busily pried up loose rivets using the screwdriver from his helmet. Before long an armored plate fell away, crashing to the sand and nearly taking a Vikean with it. The maroon pony managed to jump clear, catching the outstretched hoof of a comrade; in no time at all he was back to work pestering the thing.
And boy, was it pestered. The plate's removal had exposed massive gears and cables beneath, which combined with losing the shoulder-gunners seemed to firm up its pilot's resolve. The machine stopped backing up, shook itself out, and made as if to charge... straight at the Sjönhäst.
Straight at ME. Oh fu -
One, two, three big strides, and its right hoof (paw?) sent me scrabbling for cover as it smashed into the longship's aft deck. This, the hull planks and remaining axle did not survive, but amazingly enough the oak beams of the ship's frame did. Not that destroying the Sjönhäst was the monster's immediate objective. It began scraping its other leg against the hull like a radhog trying to rid itself of paradore newts. The grinding of iron on wood almost drowned out the screams of ponies, caught between, being rendered to pulp.
A moan sounding from much closer caught my attention. Looking around, I spotted an orange unicorn with gold mane and a shell-shocked look, trying to pull herself up through the shattered forward decking. I reached out to offer a hoof up, which she took gladly. "Th-thanks..."
I didn't get a chance to reply. The tank-thing began repositioning itself to scrape the other side, which required it to pull its right leg from the longship and back up a step first. The dragon up top had given up trying to burn the cannon's gunners and joined the others in hammering at the hatches, but none of them seemed to be having any luck. Two Vikeans were left clinging to the blood-smeared appendage.
Plus Hard Way, of course. His roaring could be heard above all else, clear as a doom bell.
"By this hammer of Häsverige, creature of Hel, BE DENIED!"
Taking the bulky tool in his teeth, he reared his head back and threw it right into a nexus of several large gears. Which immediately crushed it to metal chunks and splinters.
Well, so much for that.
The machine turned, stepped forward... tried to step forward. Failed. Stutteringly, with pings and sproings and sounds like an old carousel being fed through a sausage grinder, it managed only half the manuever before sounding an horrific groan and locking up completely. Not even the most drunken of casino line-dancers would have tried to hop on one leg, especially not if they had another sticking out at that angle.
But the walker's pilot, bless his never-say-die attitude, tried.
Gore-Nest's fliers took wing. Hard Way and his remaining stalwarts leaped clear. The orange mare shrieked, clutching me about the neck so hard I couldn't breathe, which also had the effect of preventing my departure from beneath the massive war-machine's shadow.
As it toppled directly onto what was left of the Sjönhäst.
Meaning us. There was an orange flash of disorientation...
...and then we were standing atop the far slope, right next to Pink-E, who seemed not at all surprised by our sudden appearance. "Hiya, Cherry! Nice view from up here, isn't it?" I blinked several times before remembering that, yes, teleportation is a thing some unicorns can do. Convenient, that. Now if I could just get my heart to realize I hadn't died two seconds ago...?
It was indeed a nice view, for what that was worth. When the dust settled, the walker lay sprawled upon a pile of shards and flinders that had once been Hard Way's pride and joy. A tatter of red-and-white sail fluttered against the wind, until the Vikean chieftain walked over and tore it free. Around him gathered what was left of his crew, fewer than half the number that had sailed from Gate-House mere hours ago.
Dragging something --- or rather, some body --- behind them, the bloodied survivors hiked up the slope towards us, grins and grimaces alternating from face to face. Hard Way's expression was easily a match for anything Pink-E's muzzle had ever sported.
"Now that," bellowed the blood-caked, bellicose beige, "was a FIGHT!"
* * * * *
OPERATIONAL ORDERS OF CONDUCT - for 17 Jun through 19 Jun
TO: SECURITY BATTALION, Com'y B, Lt. Spot Spotsson III (Esq.)
FM: EAST-CENTRAL COMMAND, Bdg.-Gen. Butcher Dukesdotter
Proceed best speed for Tunnel Intercept
Coord. X35.10.15, Y15.25.05, Z0.0.10 (Local)
Secure Package "Muffin", tbfo Earth-type Equine "Dead Shot"
No quarter, no survivors
RTB ASAP
Good hunting
Well, wasn't this a pile of horseapples.
The "somebody" was a Diamond Dog, dressed sharply in a well-tailored uniform and carrying a small tube containing the mass-murder directive. Other papers on his body --- despite being secured in a harness, he'd broken his neck when the walker plowed in --- identified him as a "Leftenant of Mobile Armor", the very Spot Spotsson yadda yadda named in the orders. Only one of his six-dog crew had survived the battle, and that only until a very angry dragon settled the matter of his brother being shot out of the sky. No one had bothered to try pulling him off. A quick check of the pit indicated it had been dug from below at a steep angle, with the tunnel collapsed behind. Not that any of us cared to go digging around underground at the moment, anyway.
None of this made any damn sense. Diamond Dogs. Really? I mean, I'd run into a couple of Dogs with sophisticated mannerisms and technology --- Mouthkicker and Thunder Child were testaments to that. But I'd figured them to be jumped-up tribals who'd lucked into some rich pony's pre-War cache, or something like that. Your average Dog was just another kind of tribal savage, dressed in rags and emerging from their underground lairs only to steal some food or goods before disappearing again. The Dogs who'd cut off the Imperial 15 were unusual only in that they'd been aggressive enough to do even that much.
Stories from back East told of cyber-Dogs, Taint-maddened mutant Dogs, and even a breed called "hellhounds" whose claws could take a Steel Ranger's head off with one swipe. But out here, nopony'd ever seen or heard of Dogs like that. They kept to themselves, so much so that nopony even knew if they had anything like permanent settlements.
This, though... this was too much. The uniform, the walking tank, the orders, even the rank (was a Leftenant like a Lieutenant, or was there a "Rightenant"?), suggested much more than just a lucky find matched to a few ambitious tribals.
On the plus side, each Dog had carried a steam-pistol sidearm similar to Mouthkicker. It was clear that while the designs were the same, each weapon was the product of expert craftsponyship (craftsdogship?), with no indication of mass-production. Two rifles, along Thunder-Child's lines, had also been found within the wreck, but nothing else worth noting or looting.
Eight surviving Vikeans, eight steam weapons. So at least that much worked out.
* * * * *
So this is a Vikean funeral. Say what you will about 'em, at least they know how to send off their dead.
Blast-furnace heat sent up dark boils of smoke from where the Sjönhäst's remains burned, augmented by the oil and grease bound up in the dead walker's guts. It also served as funeral pyre for the fallen, who'd been meticulously collected and interred amid the broken beams. The Dogs, on the other hoof, had been dragged out and viciously impaled on metal spars along a nearby ridge. The walker's wreckage had provided for that.
At least they didn't stoop to mutilation, I reassured myself, which means they might still listen to reason. Now what exactly the hell do I tell them?
They'd seen the Leftenant's orders before I had. From their point of view, I'd been holding out on them; how could I not know that I was carrying around something worth sending that kind of firepower after? They'd sailed right into an ambush, against an enemy I'd told them nothing about --- why should they believe I was almost as much in the dark as they were?
Showing what made the steam weapons unusual, and how to use them, staved off the dirty looks for a while, but it wasn't long before Hard Way himself got back around to the subject at hoof. "So, Dead-Shot," he calmly rumbled, setting his rifle (of course he'd try one) to one side. "What's this about you, dead Dogs and Muffins?" Perfectly amiable, perfectly sociable. Meaning if I didn't put some cards on the table right now, I was a dead pony.
I sighed and pulled forth the package from Eclair's personal stable. "As far as I can tell? This." It looked the same as when I'd nabbed it: thick white paper, carefully folded around a rectangular block. It hardly weighed anything. Come to think of it, what would make Eclair's present to Ditzy Doo so important? So important that he'd rigged a fake treasure to trick somepony like Domino Mask?
He leaned in close, peering dubiously. "Doesn't look like much."
"Yeah, I know. I don't even know what's in it. Just that the guy who built the Casino Royale kept this in a little fridge for a mare who never showed up. A message on the terminal pointing her to it had the weirdest encryption: all the passwords were set to 'muffin'." I rubbed at the tension headache starting to build up under my temple. "I did meet a Diamond Dog in there, for all of about ten seconds. Got my own steam pistol off him when he was killed. He'd been trying to force an... um... well, another pony, to help him get into the Casino." I didn't exactly feel like getting into a discussion about whatever the bloody blue blazes God had been.
Hard Way snorted and stomped a hoof, sending out a tremor I could feel through all four of mine. "So you got whatever they were after. And they just killed fourteen of my best sailors, trying to take it." His tail lashed angrily; if a bloatfly had happened to zip past his rump at that moment, it would have died instantly.
I quickly laid the package on the ground and started unfolding its thick, porous wrapper. If I'm going to die today, I want to see what for, first! Like a funereal flower, Uptown Eclair's last bequest was finally laid open to the world, the rest of the Vikeans gathering in a close circle to see the "golden treasure" their shipmates had died for.
DONUT JOE'S
The Specialty Shoppe at Canterlot
ONE DOZEN "MADE-FROM-SCRATCH" GOLDBERRY MUFFINS
~~~buttery-good to melt on your tongue, made with love to melt in your heart~~~
"Sealed for Freshness!"
Wat. I rocked back onto my haunches, dumbfounded and disbelieving. A nearby whumpf told me that Hard Way had just done the same. Pink-E darted in with a squeal of sheer delight. "Whoopee! Pony Joe's baked goods are just the best!"
WAT. No one else could find it in them to move from where they stood or sat. No one but Pink-E, who had no trouble tearing the freshness-sealed box open with her animatronic teeth. The muffins inside never stood a chance. I felt my old red monster stirring in the depths of his cage.
This was it? This was the 'Derp Money' everypony had been after for centuries? THIS stupidity?! A bunch of fucking MUFFINS?!
"Oh look, Cherry! Schematics for a device sure to completely unbalance the world as we know it!"
"- what?" I blinked, the card-house of my building rage collapsing in on itself. Every Vikean joined me in bending over to stare at the thick, porous paper that was now covered in shredded box debris and muffin crumbs.
Debris, crumbs, and the blueprints for Eclair's nanosprite-driven dispenser technology.
Well, isn't that one giant bumblefuck of a MacGuffin right there... wait. What's a MacGuffin?
Footnote: Level Up.
Skill Note: Small Guns (75) |
Calbeck | 679 | 18 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2013-07-31T04:45:26+00:00 | 2013-09-13T14:23:43+00:00 | 2,397 | Chapter 18: Shadowbolt Showdown
"This isn't what I wanted."
Trotting through the no-mare's-land of rainboomed devastation ringing Nellie Air Force Base, our ragged band of survivors were treated to a buzzing by two pegasi. When I waved, they sheared away, one looking back with a hoof pressed to the side of her goggled headgear. By the time we reached the main gate, Doctor Fly Right was impatiently standing behind the red-and-white stripes of its completely useless traffic barrier.
Flanking him were a gaggle of Zoomer militia, none of whom were wearing the black jumpsuits or silver insignia favored by DeLoup's troopers. These seemed to prefer wannabe-style patchworks of pre-War uniforms that they'd probably scavenged from the base itself, all khakis and bomber jackets held together with campaign and unit patches. Their battle saddles carried equally-irregular weaponry, packing anything from like-new rocket launchers to plinker rifles more beat-up than my old varminter.
Fly Right was so furious his white whiskers --- didn't I mention those? No? He had these huge bushy sideburns, white as chalk, wiggling ridiculously with pent-up rage. Weirdly enough, he had not a scrap of white anywhere else on him... not in his orange hide, not in his faded brown mane, and not in the gold-winged bonesaw of his butt-tattoo. Only his lab coat matched. Maybe he dyed them.
Can't imagine why I didn't mention all of that nine chapters ago. Guess I was too busy vividly remembering how many drugs had been pumped through my system at the time.
"Mister Pie," the good doctor grated through clenched teeth, "where have you been for most of this last week?! Nevermind! I'm not even going to ask where you picked up these louse-ridden hooligans. I'm just going to hope, for your sake, that you've brought what you were sent for!"
"No thanks to Bitchy McCrackwing, Doc," I grated right back, stepping into nose-on-nose territory across the barrier. Some welcome, after everything I'd been through! "Your 'commander' claimed you were following her. Were you so far back you couldn't see all those Fun Suits detonating, about a mile up? That was her, trying to destroy this."
I nipped the AutoDoc module from my pack, then booped his nose with the squarish block of super-tech while he stood there with his jaw hanging open. The sudden contact set him to sputtering.
"Th-that's insane! You were moving out of our radio range... she took off after your collar's signal to stop it from igniting your suit!"
Pink-E bobbed up, all smiles. "Oh, that wasn't necessary! I was repeating your deadswitch signal over that frequency the whooooole time! No WAY Cherry's collar would have gone off! But thanks anyways!" Stifling a groan, I pushed her back a pace and returned the module to my pack.
Fly Right blinked at Pink-E, opened his mouth (most likely to ask a stupid question about why the robot head of a Ministry Mare was following me around), then shook his head with a woggawoggawogga sound. "What is... that doesn't make... why would she..."
He stopped himself with a whinny. "Nevermind! We'll sort all that out later. What's important right now is that module, and a mare's life!" He took off towards the hangars at a hard gallop.
We began to follow, only to be stopped by the clacking of upraised rifles. "Hold it right there!" shouted a mare, evidently the one in charge of this militia detachment. "Authorized personnel beyond this point only!"
Hard Way and I exchanged glances, then gave her matching grins.
I pointed a hoof at the big beige. "He's with me!"
He pointed a reciprocal hoof at me. "We're with him!"
And the lot of us charged after Fly Right together, leaving the surprised goons to fluster and bluster in a thundering wake of dust. What else were they going to do, take potshots at the buck with the Irreplaceable Widget? We ended up with a face-saving "escort" to Mother Matrix's hangar, a couple of the militia even relenting to give our walking wounded rides when they began flagging. Shrapnel in your flank might be manageable when you're just trotting around, but going flat-out for a quarter mile or so like that is a great way to permanently lame yourself.
The old base still had a fair number of intact buildings between the gate and our destination, many of which were homes, storage or workspace for Zoomers trotting about their business. Most just stopped and stared, or alternately bolted as though going for help. A small flock squawked with surprise as our mob careened past, flapping backwards with shouts of complaint before alighting on the cracked tarmac once more.
That nagging notion from before bubbled its way back up, finally breaching the surface this time.
Why weren't any of the pegasi around here flying?
With an emergency in the offing, you'd think Fly Right and his goon squad would want to get some more speed on, but no, they just galloped along like earth ponies. And it wasn't just them; nopony else in sight was flying around, either. As we were nearly to our destination I decided not to break the pace by bringing it up, but damned if I wasn't going to trot out a few questions when I got the chance...
There was no angry mob shouting about "dirt-pounders in the sanctuary" when we arrived at a hatch to one side of the hangar's giant double-doors. Fly Right wasn't about to wait for one to get started, either. "Tech Sergeant Chrysanthemum, secure this building. If anypony asks, and only if they ask, Mother Matrix and I are holding audience pertinent to Rule Thirty-Four." The militia mare saluted crisply, then turned and began ordering her troops around.
Fly Right unlocked the hatch, favoring me with a glare and a hoof outstretched in mimicry of a welcoming usher. "All of you, get inside and out of sight. And be quick about it! With any luck, saving the Mother won't require another riot."
* * * * *
Eight Vikeans, plus myself and Pink-E, had survived our short trip.
One dragon, Crag. The lanky green had been the one trying to flambé the Diamond Dogs in their machine. Ever since his post-battle bout of vengeance on the sole surviving Dog, he'd gone all silence-and-business, grunting when spoken to but otherwise aloof. I was keeping an eye on him.
Two unicorns. Sun Bright, an orange mare, kept fussing with her golden mane and steam pistol. Her occasional fits of shaking suggested the fidgeting was more about keeping occupied than anything else. Her polar twin, Bright Son, was everything in reverse: an orange-on-gold stallion who kept a stoic eye on his sister at all times. Only their emerald eyes truly matched.
Two earth ponies, maroon Typhoon and his silver-coated, hoof-catching compatriot Ricochet. No family names to either of them; they'd been drifting mercenaries hired into the wrong side of a scrap with the Vikeans. Both claimed to have grassroots in Standling, a village between Latigo and Hipshot in central Coltifornia, which was awfully specific for such a thin cover story. I'd been all over that region with my dad and never heard of any such places. Taken as Labor Associates, the pair had worked their way up to being respected Sailors in House Way's service over several years, sticking together like wonderglue the whole way. As far as Hard Way was concerned, they'd proven themselves, no matter where they really hailed from.
First Mate Gore-Nest kept ruffling and smoothing down his brown feathers, obviously not happy to be amongst the ponies who'd sunk three of the Sjönhäst's sister longships last year with an errant hurricane. Meanwhile Flap-Jack, the ship's kittybird cook, looked perpetually torn between wanting to soothe her ship-mate's anger and worrying that trying might provoke it to greater heights. She mostly settled for a combination of wringing her talons and frustratedly whipping her tail back and forth.
And of course there was Hard Way, who'd had to suck in his gut and squirm a bit to make it through a hatch originally built for pegasi. Despite having been through the same storm Gore-Nest held a grudge over, he seemed to be entirely calm and collected. To him, it was like traipsing through Zoomer territory was an every-other-day occurrence.
Now we all stood, loosely grouped about a triple-row array of tall, coffin-like pods, the air smelling faintly of sterility and ozone. Doctor Fly Right had snicked the AutoDoc module into place and was now hunched over fiddling with its settings, muttering and cursing to himself the entire time.
"Set for Equus Volatilis... female... yes, diagnose and correct for long-term emergency stasis already, you Mother-humping case of carbonized crystals..."
Finally he stood back up and sighed, brushing down his lab coat. "That's as good as we're going to get without breaking it altogether, I think. In a few minutes, we'll know one way or the other how much your delay has cost us."
My delay?! I rounded on him with narrowed eyes. "You wanted to 'sort this out later', huh? Fine! It's later!"
And I proceeded to tell him the story of how the Gang-Pressed Little Pony escaped the Casino Royale before the whole place blew straight to Tartarus by using a bunch of chained-together Fun Suits to float away with the Mark VII AutoDoc Module safe in his saddlebags, and he stopped me right there and said,
"Mister Pie... why not just return with Commander DeLoup at that point?"
So then I proceeded to tell him the story of the Backstabbing Pegabitch who tried to rob the Gang-Pressed Little Pony so Mother Matrix would die and the Happy Pegasus Ponies could all fly off to join the Grand Pegasus Enclave, ending with the Gang-Pressed Little Pony sending the aforementioned Backstabbing Pegabitch down in a ball of flames, and he stopped me right there and said,
"Mister Pie... assuming that's all true, what took you so long to make it back?"
Well, I was halfway through the story of how the Gang-Pressed Little Pony unwillingly fathered a whole new generation of Lake-Lurking Abominations, when he stopped me right there because he was starting to feel physically ill.
And then Pink-E proceeded to tell him the story of the eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and the paragraphs on the back of each one, explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us.
After which we all just stared at the floating, smiling pony-head robot for a few moments of uncomfortable silence.
It would have been longer, but Mother Matrix's pod chose that moment to pop its seal, hissing as it vented pressurized atmosphere directly behind me. And there goes the All-Republic standing-high-jump record! As soon as my hooves found concrete again, I spun about to see what everyone else was staring at.
...hoooooly horseapples.
The literal mare of my dream, eyes closed, forelegs folded across her chest, lay wreathed in a dissipating sheen of half-frozen fog curling out and down from the steel-grey pod. Tiny droplets clung, diamond-like, to the feathery tips of wings wrapped almost protectively about her belly. Mother Matrix looked so innocent, so defenseless, so frail...
...so OLD.
My brief meeting inside the pods' virtual world had been with a young, vibrant, energetic mare of many colors. My thoughts of that being conceit were borne out by the harsher reality. Her bright cyan hide was a darker azure in the here and now, and the rainbow mane (so that wasn't a computerized dye-job?) was faded nearly gray, each band of color split by thin silvery ribbons. The black PipBuck, so slim and trim that it made mine look clunky by comparison (I want it! I need it!), hung almost loosely from the ankle it was clamped to. Her jaw was as gnarled and wrinkled as her limbs... which at this point looked hardly capable of supporting a pony's full weight. I supposed it was a good thing, then, that she'd gotten so thin you could see every contour of her ribcage.
And ye gods, could she snore!
Once the respirator mask popped free of her muzzle, the still-sleeping mare started ripping lungfuls like she was tearing air from the sky. It wasn't quite so bad as to make me pin my ears back, but I wouldn't have wanted to put her in the same hotel room as Harry Thimble. The NCR's President was pretty legendary in the snoring department himself, and the pair combined would probably qualify as an industrial-class sonic hazard.
But at least she's not dead. Yay me!
Fly Right was already by her side, comparing her condition to readings off the pod's new module. I caught snatches of his remarks in between beats of the Mother's rip-roaring rhythm:
"Much imp.............ank Celestia. Heart ra....................essure low but steady, ..................lacerations or bruising. Even the pancreas has reconstructed!" It took a moment for my ears to realize that the snoring had been replaced by a much-quieter smacking of wrinkled lips.
Mother Matrix yawned, stretching her emaciated limbs into an orchestral movement of the sounds snap, crackle and pop. Ignoring Doctor Right's vociferous warnings to stay put, she braced her forehooves on either side of the pod, bringing to mind the sudden notion that she might actually tear herself apart like ancient tissue paper. To my eternal surprise, she managed to hoist herself up onto her hindlegs.
She stood and stretched wide, shaking out faded rainbows of mane and tail. One hoof rubbed gunk from her eyes. Both wings fluffed out, exposing every bent and mangled feather that'd been cooped up for two hundred years without a single preening. In a sandpapery voice, barely recognizable as female, she managed:
"Not dead yet, huh? Awesome..." Then she fell out of the pod.
Right onto me!
I managed to grab the collapsing crone in my forelegs, cushioning her fall with my body before she could crack her skull on the hangar floor, but when the dust settled her rheumy violet eyes were twinkling with laughter. She'd meant to do that, the decrepit old whorse!
"Nice catch, Tank old boy... best... ninja turtle... ever..." And then she was snoring again, drooling and blowing snot-bubbles on my chest. Oh Luna, why!?
Pink-E bobbed over, looked down at us, and whirred, giving me an inscrutable look.
"I didn't think she was into stallions."
* * * * *
First order of post-stasis business: feed the pony.
The hangar's adjoining mess hall more normally served the Zoomers' flight cadets before entering their pods for training in Mother Matrix's virtual coliseum, but it was now well after breakfast hours and its kitchen was abandoned. Flap-Jack knew her business, though. Inside ten minutes, Fly Right had taught her the wonders of electric ovens and Mother Matrix was chowing down on a bowl of hot grits. It wasn't long before we all got settled in for a good solid meal, which the Vikeans seemed to take as a way of drowning their lost-comrade sorrows. The total lack of alcoholic beverages just meant they ate more to make up for it.
And I didn't stutter when I said "feed THE pony". Fly Right wanted Mother Matrix to get as much down her gullet as she could stand, and after so long in a pod she could stand a lot. She and Hard Way were both putting it away as fast as it came. That circumstance soon developed into a side-by-side challenge match. Before long, Flap-Jack had a second pot of grits on the stove just to keep them both going. Not long after that, they tossed aside their spoons in favor of gulping straight from the bowl.
In her case, it looks more like "inhaling". Where the hell does she put all that? A magical Stomach of Holding?! I could understand Hard Way's appetite --- he was just plain huge. But the Mother wasn't much taller than Fly Right, and yet she barely paused when somepony tossed another helping in her direction.
This, of course, absolutely delighted the Vikeans, half of whom cheered on their captain while the others seemed smitten by the feisty old feather-butt.
I took the chance to pull Fly Right aside.
"All right, Doc, we had a deal. You got your Mother alive and well, and Mister Horse gets his alliance." When he began to protest, I shoved my hoof in his mouth. "Shaddap. I know it's not your call. But you owe me and my employer on this one. Not to mention that, as I recall, you weren't exactly opposed to the idea in the first place. The least you can do is endorse the request."
He nodded, I removed my hoof, and he huffed. "Zoomers are free to have and exposit their own opinions, Mister Pie. My own has not changed."
Buh-RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
We both blinked, then turned in unison.
Mother Matrix looked exceptionally pleased with herself, rubbing one hoof across her mouth while patting her overstuffed belly with the other. Pregnant with manticore twins was the phrase that leapt to mind. On the floor beside her lay a groaning Hard Way, who'd managed to down enough that his gut had pushed him right off the bench. When he let go his answer to the Mother's belch, it rattled -
[SYSTEM ERROR 947: EXCESSIVE SOURCE AUDIO - PARAMETER VIOLATION]
- finally picked myself back up, she was still grinning, her mane having been blown back like a bad bomb-disposal technician's. "Ooooh, yeah! I win again!" Hard Way shook a defiant hoof at her from the floor as ceiling dust continued to settle all around.
"Not the Belching Contest, you didn't!"
* * * * *
Second order of post-stasis business: establish authority by ordering everypony else around.
Mother Matrix pushed Fly Right's stethoscope away. "I've been stuck in bed long enough! Besides, I need to get out and have SOME exercise... you, there! Thunderlane! Tighten up that formation! I taught you better than that!" Her voice had definitely recovered well so far, despite a permanent quavering note. She might have outrun death, but not old age.
The chartreuse pegasus stopped flapping against his tether, dropping to the tarmac and puzzledly raising his eyebrows. "Ma'am? I'm Air Biscuit..." He pushed up his goggles to look down at the nametag on his black jumpsuit, like he was making sure. The rest of his little squadron continued beating the air a few lengths above him, moored by identical tethers to iron hooks in the runway. Supposedly this was how Zoomers learned to keep precise positioning in groups without zipping all over the place in the process, which for some reason seemed to be a big deal.
"You're Thunderlane for as long as I want to call you Thunderlane! Now move those wings!"
He gulped audibly, came to attention, and snapped a salute before leaping back into the air with a hasty "Yes, ma'am!".
It was just me, Fly Right and the Mother, walking around the base and making sure every pegasus saw her up and about. He worried over her like a hen with a hatchling, which was more likely about delaying any attempt I might make to bring up the alliance before she was ready to hear about it. I didn't mind; it was a nice day out, and I got to corroborate locations on the ground that I remembered from Horse's overhead map against their actual contents and functions up close. He'd probably appreciate the confirmation.
The Vikeans, we left in the kitchen so they could have a little time to rest up. Hard Way would have followed, except for two reasons: Fly Right didn't want any more earth ponies running around in public than absolutely necessary until things got settled, and he could no longer fit through the hatch despite making a good try of it anyway. The situation was resolved, without having to create a new doorway, when the Mother clapped a foreleg around his shoulder and smilingly promised to drag me back in chains herself if I tried to run.
Apparently, loyalty was a big thing with her.
After having made the one comment about the Mother's presumed sexual proclivities (the Ministry of Morale used to keep that kind of info on random Equestrian citizens?), Pink-E had quietly drifted into the background. When we went out, she remained behind with Flap-Jack, watching the cook at work and mumbling singsong snippets about cups of flour and teaspoons of this or that. Well, at least she seemed to be in good condition and spirits --- such as a robot can have any --- so I didn't feel too bad about leaving her in the Vikeans' company for now.
One thing to say about Double-M --- she had stamina on loan from the gods. She didn't move fast, but she did move. And she kept moving. Three hours after ending two centuries in a steel tube, and she wasn't any worse off than if she were walking off a hangover. Anypony who could figure out how to tap and bottle that endurance would be a rich buck overnight.
Fly Right kept griping about it, too, notating on a clipboard held in the feathers of one wing. "I wish you'd at least take some Cloudpack, Mother. It would assist in regeneration and heighten your pain threshold while you recover."
She gave a derisive snort. "Pfft! Rainbow Dash does not do chems, Doc. Never have, never will!"
Wait, the Rainbow Dash? The super-speedster they named the drug for, and she doesn't chem? Not sure if ironic, or just stupid...
Fly Right gawped at her, then stared at me. What the hell was his problem?!
"MOTHER! Seriously?!"
The ancient pegasus wrapped one bony foreleg around my shoulder, giving me a creepy chill up the spine. This was a little too forward from a mare who could have been my several-times-great-grandmother! "Don't sweat it, Doc. I made the Rules, remember? Do you remember why?"
He bobbed his head deferentially. "For our protection and yours, Mother. Which makes me wonder why you'd let a dirt-pounder know - "
"Hey!" she cut in, frowning darkly and poking his chest with a hoof. "My Rules have nothing about setting up pegasi as better than anypony else. Most of my best friends were 'dirt-pounders', and don'cha forget it!" He visibly clamped his mouth shut (so much for free opinions!), earning a curt nod as we moved past a throng of fillies and colts doing wing-ups. Most of them tried sneaking peeks of adoring fascination, which she at least had the grace not to bask in. Instead, she shot Fly Right a cunning look. "Besides, why don't you ask Tank here what he thinks about my real name?"
"It's stupid," I said, not missing a beat. "Sounds like something a hoity-toity fashion model would use."
The old azure mare cackled. "Hah! Rarity would've spit her tea! I can see the ads now: 'Rainbow Dash Always Dresses in Style'! Hee, hee, hee! Maybe we should've swapped Ministries for a day..." She stopped for a moment to rub her chin. "Mmm... nah. I'd've gone nuts trying to deal with Image's detail-freaks, and she'd've killed herself trying to work up a color scheme for stealth suits. Still pretty funny, though."
This old biddy? A former Ministry Mare?
I recalled something about "Rainbow Dash" from a war-era newspaper I'd read one day during some particularly nasty business. Business I'd finished up by wiping with it. Never trust a Freemane food-stall vendor to admit what he puts in his tacos!
Plus, Pink-E had told me a fair bit about the "Ministry Mares" during our travels, enough that I picked some of it up despite having tried to ignore what I thought was inane chatter at the time. They'd run six big government bureaus tasked with managing the war effort, and all of them were supposed to have died during (or shortly after) Balefire Day. If Rainbow Dash was the real deal, that definitely made her somepony worth protecting. According to Doc Right the Zoomers were formed to do exactly that, after finding her stuck in that stasis pod.
But the "single wounded mare" story sounded fishy to me. Even after the bombs, anypony that powerful should have had bodyguards and backup. Not to mention access to better medical care than hiding in a VR tube, out in the Moohave Desert, for a couple centuries.
Talk about getting your beauty sleep... not that it helped!
The medical pegasus blinked at her, then at me, then blew out a long-suffering sigh. "All right, all right already. I suppose the cat's out of the stewpot one way or the other. But can we at least get you out of the sun before you have a heat stroke? I can have the status summaries brought to my quarters."
She eyeballed him suspiciously. "No bedrest?" He shook his head firmly. "Weeeell... okay. I think one lap around the base is good enough, for now. Got any Gummy-Ade in your fridge?"
* * * * *
Mother Matrix --- or, I guess, Rainbow Dash --- seemed to take DeLoup's betrayal personally. Once she wrangled it out of Fly Right, that is. The doctor seemed bent on trying to give the absent Commander every consideration, but the old flapper wasn't having any of it.
"I just knew it!" she barked, pacing up and down the thread-worn carpeting (which led her to repeatedly stomp on a now-empty pre-War juicebox). The room had once (and apparently always) been assigned to Nellie AFB's chief medical officer, so there at least was decent space for the activity. Maybe one day the Zoomers would give the steel-gray metal a real paint job again; bare outlines remained of what once had been cloud-themed murals. Otherwise it was pretty utilitarian, consisting of bunk, closet, hooflocker, desk, and a small adjoining bathroom. We'd had to drop by the Zoomers' supply room for the Gummy-Ade.
She stopped and gave the hooflocker a solid punt, then winced, clutching the hoof to her chest. "Agh! Shouldn't've done that, I guess... but Sombra fuck me soaring! Thirty years of trying to buck this 'Shadowbolt' nonsense outta their heads, and I knew she wasn't letting it go! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Despite having already hurt herself, she glowered threateningly at the hooflocker again.
Fly Right took the extremity under examination, trying to project a reasonable demeanor. "Calm yourself, Mother, she's dead now. With any luck, her lieutenants will knock each others' brains out trying to fill her horseshoes."
Apparently, there was an ongoing schism in the Zoomers between those pegasi who wanted to keep guarding Rainbow Dash, and those who wanted to head back East to join the Enclave. DeLoup had headed up the latter group, which had taken to wearing uniforms patterned after the legendary "Shadowbolt" strike wing and copping a far more militaristic attitude. Rainbow had put her hoof down, leading to incessant arguments about her Rules, her origins, and whether or not the Enclave was right to preserve the pegasus race if it meant leaving the rest of Equestria to die.
That said, it was still a shock to the two that DeLoup intended to murder Rainbow and present her head to the Enclave. Me, I just figured that was business-as-usual for the Wasteland.
"I'm not going to let it go that far, Doctor Right. I've already let it go too far as it is! I was so worried about keeping everypony together that I didn't nip this in the bud like I should have." She collected herself, standing tall as though posing for a photograph. I looked around for the nonexistent paparazzi. "They wanna be Shadowbolts? Fine! I'm the last of the real 'Bolts, and still their Captain! They'll fly on my wing, or not at all! OW!"
Her glower refocused on the doctor bandaging her hoof, which he professionally ignored. "What they'll do, at least for now, is lay low until everypony stops fan-gasming over the fact that you're alive and trotting about. Hopefully that'll give you some time to get your strength up... because you know as well as I do that they'll challenge what they see as an old grey mare for your authority, and they'll do it the second you pull rank."
She disgustedly blew a pale orange strand of mane out of her eyes. "I made up that rule so our troops were led by only the best. Now it comes back around, to bite me in the flank." A second later her swaggering attitude returned, full force, in a beaming grin. "Assuming, of course, that your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash isn't still the best!"
"At least the spirit is willing," Fly Right muttered as he finished wrapping.
"So," I interjected, apropos of nothing, "how about that alliance thing you and I were talking about, Doc?"
Both pegasi turned their heads to stare at me. Fly Right's expression could curdle milk; Dash just blinked those huge violet eyes like she'd been asked to solve world hunger. As one they turned back to stare at each other, swapping looks with a synchronicity almost too perfect to have really happened.
Her face scrunched up as she growled out, in low, menacing tones, "What. Alliance. THING."
"I did mention something about this, during our last briefing - " He shot me a hateful glance.
Ignoring it, she crowded in until her muzzle bumped his. "WHAT. Alliance. THING."
He backed onto his haunches, not wanting to retreat, but also unwilling to give in. "I didn't want to bring it up just - "
"WHAT. ALLIANCE. THING?"
I hopped off the bunk to push the two apart before he fell over backwards. "That was the price for getting your AutoDoc part, Dashie." Before either could say anything more, I replayed the audio of Horse's offer on my PipBuck.
She sat there, looking stunned, throughout the whole thing. Thing was, she was looking at me, not the speaker playing its tinny audio. "...we can work out the details at your convenience and leisure, but remember --- while I am a patient stallion, neither President Thimble nor the Herd's so-called 'Caesar' can be counted upon to wait forever."
After I turned it off, there followed a rather pregnant pause.
She coughed into a hoof. "Doctor Fly Right, please leave us. We have business to discuss." He bristled, seemingly ready to argue --- then spun on one hoof and stormed out, without another word. After the door slammed, Rainbow Dash quietly walked over and slid the deadbolt home.
"I saw that robot zipping around the mess hall. Yours?" She didn't even look at me.
"Such as it is. Yeah."
Her head drooped, a sigh smacking of resignation escaping her lungs. But when she turned back around, there was a smile. A sad one, but still a smile. "Such as it is, right. Heh." It took visible effort, but the old Zoomer drew herself back up, a measure of steel firming in the spine. "If she thinks you're worth it, so do I. But this doesn't come without strings, turtle-buddy."
I groaned, facehoofing. "Are you still on that ninja-tortoise-whatever kick?"
Now she was in my face, prodding my chest with a wingtip. "Nevermind that now! Second thing: have you actually met 'Mister Ed', or are we talking face-on-screen kind of stuff?"
I backed up a pace, trying not to scowl at my employer's likely new ally. "Nopony's ever seen the buck in person, not even No-Pony." Okay, that was random of me... I pressed on despite her confused look. "When I met him, he was exactly that, a face on a computer monitor." Forestalling the triumphant glint lighting her eyes, I raised a cautionary hoof. "That said, he's been actively running New Pegas since the War."
Much to my surprise, that didn't faze her a bit. Instead, she started pacing again, verbally working herself through it. "So he perfected that machine of his, then. The Crusader maneframes were capable of containing a pony's mind, and he was working in that direction on one of his own projects. Had a pretty impressive tech demonstration too, as I recall... even if it ended up a big mess at the time. Gotta wonder if that's really him in there now, or just a copy?"
She stopped pacing and shook her head, tossing that faded-glory mane. "Either way, Horse is as dangerous as they come. I don't like shacking up with him, not one little bit! He's had two centuries to recover and rebuild, while I've been cooped up here on Nellie. If there's anything left of Interministry Affairs, he'll have looted it clean by now, but I don't even know how much of Awesome survived the bombs. Which reminds me, my PipBuck's not pulling up any connection feeds. I need to find an MAw terminal and..."
Rainbow Dash gave me a flat look. "Why're you looking at me like I'm an idiot?"
I was agape. "How is it you don't KNOW any of this?! I mean, I don't know squat about these 'Ministries' of yours because they never really had a hoof in things out here. And sure, you've been in a pod for two hundred years, but it's not like you haven't been working with the Zoomers for most of that. Hasn't anypony been telling you anything?"
Her eyes narrowed with annoyance, one ear flicking backwards. "Maybe they would have, IF I'd been enough of a jerk to send them out scouting on my behalf." She gestured widely with a hoof, as though to take in the whole base. "These ponies took me in. Protected me. Spent more than a century trying to save me. If anypony should know the value of that kind of loyalty, I'm it."
Now she was back to pacing the floor, ruffling her wings out. A few tattered old feathers drifted to the floor. "Ever since they got through to me in that pod, I've made it my job to keep them safe. Especially from," and here she dropped into exaggerated sarcasm, complete with a set of hoof-quotes, "the 'Grand Pegasus Enclave'."
A snort of disgust blew from her nostrils. "Pegasi for pegasi and screw everypony else, just like there was never an Equestria to begin with. Zipped up the sky over most of the continent, so they could use my Towers to help farm the clouds... then called ME a traitor when I wouldn't go along with abandoning all our friends! ME!"
That last word broke her voice, from quavers into pieces. Coughing, she lifted a withered hoof to her face and turned away, shuddering in spite of her best efforts to stifle it.
Instantly my mind went back to the Casino Royale, what I'd done to God, and my own little breakdown following. I knew the shame of letting somepony else see my loss of control. The least I could do was pretend not to see hers. I performed an about-face and planted my rump on the floor, respecting the old mare's peace in her moment of crisis.
Words fought out from between her not-so-silent sobs. "All our friends... all my friends... the others just watched... from on high... while it all burned... and... and... and when I said we should help, because that's what ponies DO, oh goddesses TANK...!"
Suddenly she was clutching me from behind, knobby forelegs wrapped around my barrel. The sensation sent my spine into rock-rigid shock as hot moisture began soaking my neck, like Hoofer Dam had blown a steam assembly.
Luna spank me with a power hammer! Why the hell is she crying on my shoulder...?
A little dark-pink pony in my head, wearing a battered old stormchaser hat, was just starting in on the injustice of having to put up with everypony else's mental breakdowns and weepy personal stories, when another one in a much nicer fedora stomped in and kicked his flank offstage. That one brushed off his forehooves, folded them across his chest, and gave me a look which brooked no arguments. That stage of my life was done.
I curled around, tucked her head in close, and just held on. It wasn't a good hug, maybe, and maybe it was really awkward to be hugging a pony as old as my great-great-grandaunt and maybe I didn't know how I should feel about myself right now. But what was important, was that she was hurting, and there was no reason I couldn't help her in this small way.
"They had no reason they couldn't help, Dashie. No reason at all."
* * * * *
From the moment she was branded a traitor, she knew every pegasus refusing to hoof the line would be treated the same. That went for the Zoomers too, from the moment they chose to stay behind, even before they decided to save and keep her secret as "Mother Matrix". That was why she'd subjected her devoted protectors to military discipline, with rules about not leaving Nellie AFB, not fraternizing with raiders, not flying too high and so on. It was why Zoomers didn't fly around except for patrols and practice, even while on-base.
Their isolation kept them safe, but also largely ignorant of the world beyond their perimeter fence. They only knew the broad strokes, and that mostly from interrogating survivors who'd tried jumping their fence. Getting your news from the occasional scavenger or raider only goes so far, particularly if you almost killed them with tactical sonic rainbooms.
So I held and nuzzled and let her cry until she was ready to talk again. Then, for the next few hours, we talked about everything I knew. About Horse running New Pegas through its casinos, themselves run by "families" like the Silver Slippers, Trotters and Oh-Merdes. About nations with armies, like the Republic and Herd. About the Lords, the Vikeans, the Cossacks, the Friends, even the Mite-y Gang and stories I'd heard about small groups of Steel Rangers calling themselves "Renegades". I gave her what little news and rumors there were out of the East, most of it bad of course. Which included confirmation of the Enclave's continued existence.
She sniffled one more time, wiped her nose, and then angrily stomped a hoof. "It figures those bastards would've survived all this. I was hoping by the time I got back on my wings, they'd've imploded on their own selfishness."
Now that she'd finally had a chance to work out a little bit of her long-suppressed grief (VR pods couldn't exactly set their phasing crystals to "hug") she was getting back to being a fair semblance of her feisty-old-nag self. From what she'd told me, there'd been no time for grief before she went into the pod, either.
Once the bombardment of Canterlot began, communications with the Princesses were effectively cut. The Ministry of Awesome had contingency plans to disrupt the zebra military hierarchy and communications in turn, but Manehattan's destruction by an infiltrated balefire device meant cutting landlines and overloading radio frequencies was no longer enough.
While her own hometown of Cloudsdale burned, Rainbow Dash and her Shadowbolts were streaking behind the lines to wipe out hundreds of enemy missile batteries before they could receive orders to launch. By the time she got back, most of her wingmates having been shot from the sky, the 'Enclave' had declared itself sole masters of everything above and including the cloud layer --- which they were already expanding in their effort to shut away the world.
She'd refused to go along with it. Asserting her Luna-granted authority as Equestria's Sky Marshal, she reminded them of her wing's sacrifice in keeping all those other missiles from finishing everypony --- including them --- off. They expressed their undying gratitude by calling her a "traitor to the race" and putting a bounty on her head. A griffon merc called Gilda took the contract, pursued her all the way to Cloudsdale's irradiated wreckage, and left her a badly-wounded fugitive. She was almost dead before she got to Nellie Air Force Base, which had already been abandoned, and managed to crawl into one of its flight-instruction stasis pods.
All within the space of a few hours. No time for goodbyes, or funerals... or even crying.
A knock sounded, followed by Fly Right's worried voice. "Mother Matrix..."
Rainbow Dash ran a hoof through her mane, coughed. "You can come back in now, Doctor. I think we're done."
The door opened onto a whiskered face, whose expression said we were most certainly not done today.
* * * * *
Nopony had yet begun shooting, which was a very good thing for Fly Right's small militia detachment. They were easily outnumbered five-to-one by black-clad Shadowbolt wannabes in full battle harness, and still stubbornly holding their positions on the hangar's cordon.
Meaning they had no cover whatsoever, and would be massacred the moment shots were fired.
"Mother," Fly Right was neigh-saying, "this is exactly the opposite of 'laying low'! What do you hope to accomplish here?!" He looked about ready to rip spacetime open with his bare wings and stuff her into a pocket universe for her own good.
But Rainbow wasn't having any of that. When we pulled up just lengths from the Shadowbolt lines, her expression could have lit kindling. And not only could she snore like a monster, but even wide awake she could definitely punch up the volume:
"What in the wide, wide, world of Equestria is going on here?!"
Tech Sergeant Chrysanthemum made as though to gallop over, but a flurry of rifles being sighted in changed her mind. Instead, three Shadowbolts fluttered over from what looked like an impromptu command meeting, whose other members dispersed back into their lines as they left. The centermost, a red-maned stallion, landed primly before his Mother and snapped to attention with a sharp salute.
"Ma'am, we have intelligence showing a large group of dirtpony infiltrators holed up in the Tactical Assessment Bay. We are readying an assault to retake the hangar, and would appreciate your ordering these traitors protecting them to surrender for trial." His black-maned partners landed to either side, but said nothing, nor did any of the three remove their goggles or headgear. Apart from their manes, nametags and muzzles-tips, they could have been interchangeable.
I looked to the old azure mare, noting the way she bristled along the nape of her mane. It was like she carried a charge of lightning, waiting on her word to be unleashed.
"Brevet-Lieutenant Sparkwind, as Captain of the Shadowbolts, I am relieving you of command here."
If he batted an eye, I couldn't tell from this side of his goggles. "Under Rule Fifty-Three, ma'am, I must request the reason for relief being ordered during an on-base crisis."
"The only crisis," she said in an annoyed tone, "is with you turning weapons on our own troops."
"Traitors, ma'am," he punctiliously corrected. "Per Rule Thirty-Seven, any pegasus actively preventing the detention or termination of infiltrators, aside from those meeting Rule Thirty-Four's guidelines, is deemed a traitor until such time as a trial may determine their innocence."
Sparkwind seemed totally unperturbed at the prospect of arguing with the legend he'd spent his entire life defending. In fact, he sounded like he was reading from a prepared script. I shot Rainbow Dash a warning look, but she only had eyes for her insubordinate underling.
"They would only be 'traitors' if the ponies you're talking about are 'infiltrators', Brevet-Lieutenant. All earth ponies currently on this base, and their immediate associates -"
He cut her off without so much as raising his voice. " - ran the front gate without first being cleared for entry, ma'am." Now he broke from his stiff pose of respect to look at me. "Not to mention that, for all we know, this dirtpony has rigged you with an explosive device or otherwise compromised your authority in some way. Under Rule Fifty-Four, I must refuse your orders until command authority can be re-verified. I must ask you to submit for physical and psychological examination."
Rainbow Dash --- commander of the Shadowbolts, author of the very Rules being thrown in her face, and Mother Matrix to every one of these pricks --- stood aghast. I didn't think a pony's face was capable of extending the lips beyond the horizon of their own chin. Fly Right was sputtering about being perfectly capable of performing those examinations here and now, not realizing there was no real intention of carrying them out. The old greying mare was just in their way.
In the time it took for Sparkwind to nod at the pegasus on his left and say "Detain th -", I had That Gun out and its barrel to the side of his head. This time, nopony'd had the chance to search my bags beforehoof. And, apparently not wanting to accidentally shoot their "Mother" (yet), his flunkies still had the safeties on their saddle-mounted weaponry.
Flipping my own safety off made the weapon snick and whine with the sound of its five-round cylinder powering up for semi-auto fire. "I don't believe that I heard the lady stutter, Captain Numbnuts," I snarled from around the pistol's grip, "did you?" Five rounds of five-point-fifty-six, a rifle's caliber stuffed into a much smaller package, would be more than enough to axe him, most likely one of his flunkies, and maybe even all three before they could return fire.
That didn't stop the militia from being surrounded and massively outgunned, which Numbnuts seemed to think granted him immunity. "Merely proof of who holds the reins on our dear Mother, I'd say. Kill me, and my troops will carry out their assigned mission. After which, they will take her into protective custody, over your very dead body. Check and mate, I'm afraid."
"Well," I drawled through my teeth, "that would assume I play chess. Poker's more interesting. And when it really comes down to it, you're honestly saying you'll die for this power-play of yours... or you're bluffing." I slid the barrel down his cheekbone, under the chin, and applied gentle pressure until I could feel and hear his breath catch.
"Call."
His eyes flicked back and forth. I didn't need to look around; I could hear shouting back and forth, each side ordering the other to stand down. I could hear a Ministry Mare hissing at me: "Are you crazy?" Was that in my ear, or in my head?
Sparkwind addressed her directly, almost managing to eliminate the tiniest squeak from his voice: "Ma'am!... ahem, ma'am... I'm afraid I must challenge your authority, under Rule Number One."
Instantly, the rest of the Shadowbolts lowered their weapons and began talking excitedly with one another, as did the militia troopers. I hesitated, keeping That Gun right where it was until Rainbow put a hoof on my shoulder.
"That's enough, Tank." From the corner of my eye I saw she was relaxed, even eager, a grin spread across her wrinkly muzzle and blue wings fluttering with anticipation. I turned my head, spat That Gun back into its spot beneath the holdout flap of my saddlebag, and caught Fly Right's facehoofing.
He said, "Mother, you know you're gonna drive me to drinkin', if you don't stop hammering your heart-lung linkage."
Have you heard the story of the pegasus race, where the buck and the mare were keeping the pace? That story is true, I'm here to say, 'cause I was watching it all that day.
Sparkwind stood there and barked like a pup, he had Rainbow Dash's pride riled up; laid out his argument eight Rules wide, you could tell that she wanted to tan his hide.
Well, according to Zoomer Rule Number One, a change of leadership required a run; it's four full laps flyin' round the base, plus obstacles all up in your face.
Zoomers and Shadowbolts lined the track, the Vikeans and me at the front of the pack; when the starter fired at a quarter-to-five, both pegasi went straight to overdrive.
Sparkwind dug down and put on speed, opened things up with an early lead with Rainbow Dash way back in his wake. I wondered if I should pull up stakes.
The Shadowbolts jeered her for being behind, as Lap One passed, she paid no mind; she was on her back and swimming along, and I swear that mare was humming a song.
Lap Two passed, the lead got wide, I wondered when Rainbow would hit her stride? Now Sparky smiled with vicious glee; he'd almost lapped her on number Three.
I was worried about that old grayed mare, she was losing bad, didn't seem to care. I yelled, "GET A MOVE ON! LAP THE COURSE! YOU'D BETTER WIN, YOU FUCKING WHORSE!"
She leered at me and then flipped the bitch, and as Sparkwind passed, she bucked his hitch; he squalled, and fell, and hit the dirt, she sped away shouting, "I BET THAT HURT!"
Their contrails left a trail of smoke; through the triple-loop, they were go-for-broke. She had color, he had fire; cool-and-smooth against raging ire.
He closed it up, nipping at her tail, his eyes swore murder that could not fail; she yelled, "Watch me boy, I've got a license to fly!" And shortly after, she tore the sky.
You could see the air was compressed around her body beyond the speed of sound. Her wings were blurred, no hanging back; the aftershock was a rainbow-slap.
It hit the crowd like a ring of doom, and blasted the Shadowbolts to the moon, and the doctor said, "She'll drive me to drinkin', if she don't stop hammering the heart. Lung. Linkage."
* * * * *
And she did, too.
When he was finally done administering bandages, potions and diagnoses, plus a few glares at Hard Way (who, along with the rest of the Vikeans, had been some of the biggest post-race hug-offenders) the good Doctor proceeded to get as hammered as anypony else. Slumped sidewise on his barstool, only the counter's eternal solidity kept him and his white whiskers from a date with the floorboards. Two empty bottles of scotch lay alongside the half-full remnant of the original triplets, the latter of which he managed to still sip from while doing his best to mimic the former.
It was late into the evening before the celebrations at Nellie's "Officer's Cantina" broke up, so Rainbow was pretty hammered too. For the fifth time in as many hours, Fly Right had examined her for not only imminent organ failure, but also all the comradely pats, slaps and hugs she'd gotten from Zoomers, Shadowbolts and Vikeans alike. Her performance had a lot of folks thinking she was in top condition despite her age, but in reality she'd torn herself up out there. Now she had an extra battery of bruises around the shoulders, back and ribs to go with muscular distortions and fractured bones.
Not to say she didn't endure it well. And it was clear that alcohol wasn't on the list of chems "Rainbow Dash doesn't do". The schnockered mare leeeeeeaaaaaned over, extended a hoof, and carefully booped Fly Right on the nose.
"Dunno whad I'd doo wivoucha, Doc," she slurred through wrinkly lips.
"Die," he morosely intoned. That could have been an honest answer, or a request. Probably both.
The old pegasus cackled and slapped his back, which was too much force applied to his house-of-cards posture; he tumbled directly to the floor, in a flurry of feathers, and lay there. Rainbow Dash blinked at him, stupidly, until he began to snore. Then she bent back and laughed, nearly toppling over to land on him before I could catch her by a wing.
"Hee hee hee... he'll be waxin' the boards wi' drool and those sideburns by mornin'... ahhh, thanks, Tank. Moral 'n phys'cal support, trackside or bar, thassyou." She turned a teasing look on me, but booze-goggles only work one way. Mine were off for the night --- for once, I was going to abide by my Pinkie Promise and stay sober.
I'd say how much that sucked, to be the one guy at a party not getting blitzed, but in retrospect it probably kept me from waking up next to an ancient pegasus crone the next morning. Brrrrrrr... Now that was a thought to get you sober, all by itself! I muttered something supportive-sounding and kept a hoof on her slumping shoulder. Eventually, she'd decide to go to bed, and then I could get some well-deserved sleep too.
She shifted bar-ward, crossed one foreleg over the other as a pillow of sorts, and curled her wings up. Rather than nod off, though, or ask for help getting back to the officers' barracks, she toyed with Fly Right's still-standing bottle, as though debating whether or not to finish it off.
"Yer name ain'Tank, izzit."
"...no."
"I think," she said, frowning as she struggled to work her brain cells through the fog of inebriation, "it was... Dead-somethin'? Doc tol'me while youwaz off savin' m'flank."
"The working name's Dead-Shot."
She turned one bleary, tired eye my way. "Thassa terr'ble name for a poneh. I'd'a callja... dunno... Cherry'r sumfin."
A week ago I might have punched her for that. Today... well, I chuckled. Actually chuckled. "That's it."
Both eyes went wide, staring from under washed-out rainbow bangs. "Yer shiddin' me."
That openly surprised expression made me smile. "Honest buffalo," I replied, tipping my hat. "Cherry 'Dead-Shot' Pie, at your service."
"Pie," she said, suddenly all seriousness. It wasn't a question. "Yer name is Cherry Pie."
"Uh... yeah." That old feeling of embarrassment came crawling back up my spine, and I looked away, scowling. "Forget it. I've always hated that name. Sounds like I should be served in a box of preservatives..."
"No, no..." Her hoof touched my foreleg. "No, thass... thassa fine name. Really."
I turned my scowl around to let her see it, but her face wasn't full of the mockery I was expecting. It was pleading. That hoof grabbed more insistently, shaking a little. Unaccustomed to this kind of reaction, I think I was too.
"Ya called me 'Dashie' t'day. Twice, I think...? Yer robot, yer name, that weird random thing ya said... yer her kid... or grandkid... whatever. I mean... yer related... arn'cha?"
"I..." My voice caught. Was I? An animatronic robot told me I was the descendant of a Ministry Mare named Pinkie Pie. An even dumber name than mine. I'd sort of accepted it over time, for what it was worth: who were my real parents, anyways? Nopony to be proud of, just a couple of strung-out junkies who'd sold me as a foal. Wasn't it kind of a nice, if idle, fantasy that I'd secretly be related to somepony who used to be important?
But now somepony else actually seemed to care about it. If I'd been bluffing myself all along, now somepony else was calling me on it. If I really had to put my cards on the table...
Pink-E floated up from behind the bar, rotating to face Dashie. "Mas-ter Pie is - boop boop - directly related - beep - to the Pie Family through - beep boop - Marble 'Inky' Pie. Reference source: - bip - Ministry of Morale datafiles."
I'd never seen her so utterly emotionless. Not a muscle moved, like she was one of those junky old spritebots wandering out of the Eastern wastes. Even her eyes seemed dull, soulless. Like you'd expect any other robot to be.
Except she wasn't making beep-boop-bip sounds... she was saying them.
Rainbow Dash gave Pink-E the most deadpan look I'd ever seen on anypony, drunk or sober. After a long moment, she transferred that look to me, nodded in the robot's direction, and said, "Well... if SHE trussts ya enough t' hang out wit'cha, thass good'nough fer me."
The exchange seemed to decide her on finishing Fly Right's scotch, the bottle of which she tipped up and started knocking straight back. She swallowed hard, thunked the bottle down, and made a noise somewhere between a yawn and a battle snarl. "By Dagon's snotrag, that's the stuff! Gah. Brings back every rotten memory I wish I never had."
That hair-of-the-derp swig seemed to have gotten a few of her senses back for the time being... strangely enough.
"Like today. Wish I could forget about today. Wish everypony and dragon and griffon would." She sighed, propping her head up on one hoof, twiddling the empty bottle against its buddies with the other.
I blinked. "Forget? Are you kidding? That was one helluva show out there! You pegasi could make a mint in Pegas, just reopening the old Hippodrome for aerial races!"
Her violet eyes went all misty, and a smile crept up her face. Another one of those sad ones, dammit. Where was Pink-E's good humor when somepony else needed it? "I'd like that, Cherry. I remember going there when I was just a filly, with my dad. All those speedsters, the cheering crowds.. they even had the Wonderbolts flying overhead for the opening ceremonies. There was hardly even a city here, back then."
She dropped her gaze and stared at her hooves for a minute. "I won't shame that memory by thinking what I did here today was worthy of the Hippodrome. I'd've been disqualified before I ever hit the track."
"For what?" Pink-E silently brought me a cold bottle of sarsaparilla from somewhere. I popped the cap, absent-mindedly pocketing it before taking a long swig of sweet cold refreshment.
"Because I had Dash stashed in my tail. Popped it on the fourth lap."
I spat my soda all over her. It might have been funnier, if half of it hadn't gone out my nose...
Didn't faze her a bit: she just sat there, dripping like nothing had happened. "That's how I could do a full rainboom on the horizontal just three seconds after leaving a triple-loop. Chemmed to the pinfeathers. Just like any other loser."
Without warning she stood up, grabbing the bottles.
"AND I!" SMASH! went the first, dead-center of the cantina's full-length bar mirror, turning a near-perfect circle of glass into powdered crumbly mess. A spiderweb of cracks ran from the impact down to either end.
"HATE!" SMASH! went the far end, broken to dagger-shards that tinkled hitting the floor.
"LOSING!" SMASH! finished the job at the near end. Until somepony swept up, serving anything from the bar would now be a great way to lacerate the fuck out of your hooves... it was end-to-end glass disaster back there. All that remained to the mirror were the sawtooth pieces lodged in the edges of its frame.
Now we were back to being morose. That's one thing about alcohol: whatever you're feeling, you feel more of it. And Rainbow Dash had more ose to get out of her system than most ponies I'd met.
"I can't win, Tank - I mean, Cherry.... I can't win without cheating. Whenever the chips have been down, I've resorted to being a dirty, lousy cheater! Maybe if I'd taken my lumps when I deserved to... things might've turned out different..."
Something told me this wasn't about the race anymore. "What in Celestia's fiery cunt are you talking about?"
The reference paid off; she snerked in mid-sniffle. "Funny. Sh- she probably woulda laughed at that one. Luna woulda kicked you to the moon, though..." The booze helped milk that little uptick into a more level emotional plane. She blew out a long sigh.
"Maybe I'll tell you all about the war some other time, Cherry. But this one war story, I have to tell somepony, and..."
I rolled my eyes with an exaggerated sigh. "I know, I know, I was drafted. Feel free to regale your captive audience."
The glimmerings of a twinkle returned to her... not just the amethyst irises, but the edge of her smile, too. Somehow, I felt like that had been worth the effort in itself. "You know I fought a duel with Gilda the Griffon, right?" She didn't wait for an answer, but I noted the capital-G in the species there. Not just a griffon, then. "Well, I bet you don't know we were once the best of friends. Practically grew up together, went to flight academy and the Junior Speedsters... yep. We were pretty nearly inseparable."
She peered dubiously at another nearby bottle, as though trying to resurrect its contents by willpower alone. "Eh, well, we had a pretty bad falling out. She got really possessive, started hassling my other friends, especially Pinkie Pie. There was a round of pranks that went bad and..." The bottle ended up joining the mess in back with a light, almost disinterested push and smishing noise.
"Yeah... I guess she never really got over it. So when the 'Enclave', hoofquotes, put a price on my head --- seriously, they wanted the whole head, intact --- she was first to jump on it. Tracked me all the way to Dragon Mountain, not like I was trying to hide at that point. I'd known I was being followed for miles, just wanted to know it was really her."
The old mare began rubbing an itch on the ankle opposite her PipBuck.
"At first, we tried to be kinda decent about it. She gave me fair warning, we sang an old song together, then we went at it. No weapons, just hooves and talons, griffo-a-pono. Gilda was the toughest griffon around, and I was the toughest pegasus."
She paused in rubbing that ankle, lost in memories for a moment, before starting up again. "Just being tough wasn't enough. For most of twenty years, Gilda'd been specializing in nothing but killing ponies. Me? I'd been running the Ministry of Awesome, which kinda cut into my flight and combat time. Before long, I had to run for it."
Frayed azure hairs began drifting to the floor. "Stuck to me like ticks on a dog, all the way to this derelict airship, still making its touring rounds on autopilot. By then, there wasn't anything noble or pretty or fair between us. It was just two people trying to do each other in, any dirty old way we could, until the airship parked itself. Right over what was left of Cloudsdale."
I slid her the remnants of my sarsaparilla, which she grabbed reflexively in the feathers of her right wing. I'd been hoping to distract her from rubbing that ankle raw, but the idea of being foiled by prehensile feathers had never occurred to me. Could all pegasi do that? I vaguely recalled Fly Right holding a clipboard that way, so...
A sip later, she was back to her monologue. "Up to then, I'd never seen any ghouls. From her reaction, neither'd Gilda. Our ruckus attracted every gone-crazy deadhead in earshot. Dozens came screaming and thrashing through the airship's windows."
She chuckled, a little hoarsely despite the soda's lubrication. "Gilda wanted to live more than she wanted me dead. The instant she let me go, I was out of there, with her hot on my tail and all the ghouls on hers. I had speed, she had endurance, so my best shot was to run for what was left of Cloudsdale's outskirts."
Another long sip, another dry bottle, another round of breaking glass. She stopped rubbing at her ankle and spent a minute or so rubbing at her eyes. I was decent enough not to interrupt.
"So," she said at length, pausing only to snork up whatever grief had momentarily collected in her sinuses, "I led the whole mob right into the nearest piece of screwball clutter I could find. The Cloudsdale Public Midden."
There followed an extremely pregnant pause.
Which I finally broke with: "If I just heard you right, you said Cloudsdale had a sewer. IN THE SKY."
Rainbow Dash curled her wings tightly to the sides and pressed both hooves against her temples, looking genuinely embarrassed. "Well, um... us pegasi? The only gas we pass is helium, so our manure... floats." Was she flushing red under all that blue?
"We can fertilize and farm clouds with it, just --- just not really well." She began to illustrate the idea with hoof-motions, which honestly I could have done entirely without. "Our cities funneled it all into big cloud-middens for an, um, 'strategic reserve'. Not just for farming, though. We could move that cloud over an enemy, see, then siphon off the helium..."
If the last pause was pregnant, this one was the equivalent of an NCR heavy cargo lifter, gasbag to gondola. Again, my shining wit and intellect finally won through with an appropriate simile.
"...a literal shitstorm?"
She seemed to shrink into a ball of self-loathing, this time wrapping not only hooves but wings around her burning face. "Yeah," she muttered miserably. "So I lured Gilda into the Cloudsdale midden, let her chase me around in circles. The ghoul pegasi followed. Round and round, faster and faster, slowly coiling towards the center and lapping the ghouls on the inside. Just when she thought I was in her talons... I bailed out of the tornado. Left her to drown in dead ponies and radioactive horseapples."
The ending to her sorry tale came on the tiniest, most adorable squeak I had ever heard.
That was all I could take. "Baaaa-HA HA HA HA!"
Flank for fetlocks, I laughed myself right off the barstool.
Footnote: Level up.
New Perk: S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Somepony (+1 CHA) - You've become less self-centered, more considerate of the needs and well-being of others. Pinkie Pie would be proud of you! (You're still kind of a douche for laughing at poor RBD, but that's nonetheless an improvement...)
Skill Note: Mechanics (50) |
Calbeck | 679 | 19 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2013-11-20T01:51:16+00:00 | 2013-11-20T01:51:15+00:00 | 2,754 | Chapter 19: The Mare Who Fell
"Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?"
I needn't have worried that I might wake up in Rainbow Dash's bed.
Sometime after I crashed out, the drunken old bloodwing ended up crawling into mine!
It was more surprising that I slept at all, what with the New Coltifornia Auto-Axe Chorus sounding off right next to my ear. Or maybe not, considering it'd lost all hearing by now. My other was so deeply buried in the rare luxury of an actual pillow, I didn't realize I was being deafened until my uninvited visitor rolled over and smacked me with a wing.
For the record? Being startled awake by a faceful of feathers, accompanied by extremely loud noises, is not the best way to greet the morning sun. Between bedsheets, air time, and floorboards, I managed several choice expletives before my wakeup call ended with a solid whump of face to wood.
While I was still flailing around in the one sheet that had insisted on clinging to me, I heard Rainbow Dash yawn and start stretching her aged body through a cringeworthy crack-a-thon.
"Hope you didn't mind me sackin' out here last night, Tank. I was so blitzed, I couldn't find my own room..." There was a pop, and she groaned. "...oooh, there's a sensation I never thought I'd have. Figgered I'd be dead, looooong before I got to be a greymuzzle."
I finally kicked the sheet loose, muttered something even I couldn't understand through the ringing in my ear, and managed to get up on my hooves. Slogging my way into the small bathroom, I shook my head to clear the ringing while the pegasus worked out her kinks. Once my bladder and the toilet concluded their business, I turned to the stainless-steel sink and got some hot water going.
Either Rainbow Dash was big on maintenance, or military-grade piping and filtration was just that much better back in the old days, as the tap water was actually good. Most places, if the ancient valves worked at all, they brought up a silty, rusty gunk you had to filter before drinking, assuming it wasn't irradiated or tainted by magical residue. Whether from balefire fallout dating to the War, barrels of discarded waste, or a leaky old reactor seeping into the groundwater, looking for the rainbow sheen of contamination was Wasteland Survival Rule Number One.
In that respect, I'd been very fortunate during the last week's craziness. The Lucky Chance, Casino Royale, and even Vikeans had all provided near-limitless access to clear, fresh water. I tried not to remember the other source I'd recently been forced to rely upon... which, naturally, brought it straight to mind.
Soon I was drowning memories with clean heat, breathing steam into my sinuses, even indulging in a bit of gargling. Wow, how long had that been stuck in my back molars?! Ptui! A few deep breaths, and I almost felt ready to face another day of running around the Wasteland like the proverbial headless chicken. It was going to be a bit of a hike back down to the Imperial 93 and then into New Pegas...
"So. Tank." For an old flutterbutt, she sure could move quietly when she wanted to. I wiped a swath of the mirror clear, revealing an unkempt spray of silvered rainbow propped against the doorjamb. Its bangs hung low in her eyes, leaving only the slight backward tilt of an ear to suggest a mood.
"Dead-Shot," I reminded her without turning around.
"Whatever." She scuffed a gnarled hind hoof on the floorboards, her voice quavering perhaps a bit more than usual. "We talked a lot in our cups last night, didn't we?"
"Your cups. I made Pink-E a promise about chemming, which turns out to include booze." I cupped some water in my hooves, slicked it back into my mane, and scrubbed. "Recently, I've been trying to keep it."
"Right. Pinkie Promise. Got it." Did she say 'Pinkie' or 'Pink-E'? "And I told you about me and Gilda."
"A-yep. You did." I quickly quashed the images that'd sent me rolling around the floor last night, remembering the devastated look she'd given me. An old friend had tried to kill her, dying instead in literally craptacular fashion, but she still carried too much respect to laugh about it.
"Never told anypony about that. Not in all this time being 'Mother Matrix'. Not until you."
She'd kept it bottled up for that long... but a few drinks in the real world, and she's spilling her guts to me? The uncomfortable following silence begged somepony to belabor the obvious. "You don't seem too proud of it..."
Her head jerked up, fading forelocks flipping back to reveal angry amethyst irises. Angry amethyst irises... say that five times fast! The ear rotated sharply back, flattening out. "Of course I'm not! I can't think of a more disgusting way to go than... well, choking on a storm of horseapples! Gilda was my best friend growing up. She... she deserved better than that!"
I kept my voice and gaze as even as I could. " 'Deserved?' I thought you said she was trying to kill you."
Wrinkled eyelids scrunched shut on a misery that her voice tried to mask with anger. "Nothing else I tried... nothing even slowed her down, more than a few minutes. If I hadn't gone all out... if she hadn't pushed me to it... she made it out to be her, or me!" A frail foreleg stomped futilely.
"And you're kind of wishing it'd been you...?" The gathering steam was fogging up the mirror again, but I could still see her visibly deflate.
"...Yeah. I kind of am." We stood there for a minute, saying all the nothings that needed to be said.
"Must've been some good times," I finally offered. An acknowledgement of history lost; that was all I really had.
"Yeah," the ancient azure mare finally managed, letting go a sigh. "Good times. Once upon a time."
I let the fog overtake the scene.
* * * * *
With the Zoomers still leery of having their unwanted guests run around the base, the Vikeans had adopted the training hangar as temporary quarters. Provided with the basic hospitality of mattresses and blankets, they were mostly left to their own devices, so long as they didn't leave the building.
Except that even with Mother Matrix out of her pod and (theoretically) in medical care, nopony had thought to call off the daily simulator exercises she was no longer overseeing. Cadets kept coming in for their pre-training meals and then sat around fidgeting, waiting for orders, until their assigned time ran out.
Crag grinned a double-row of dragon's teeth across one of the mess-hall tables. Opposite sat a blue Shadowbolt, whose grey eyes were so wide her goggles could scarcely have covered them, had they not been pushed up into the wheat-colored expanse of her mane. The rest of the Zoomers on that bench, khaki'd and jumpsuited alike, were barely less impressed by his storytelling --- or maybe it was just that none had ever met a dragon who wasn't trying to kill them.
"Soon's we got the hatch off, I started frying that Dog up nice an' slow, right where 'e sat. You shoulda seen the bastard burn... screaming, still strapped in 'is seat, trying t' slap the flames outta his clothes." Harsh laughter growled up from the back of his throat. "Dragonfire don't work that way. It consumes. An' it keeps going 'til there's nothing left."
The lanky green leaned in a little closer, clearly enjoying their transfixed stares. His talons curled in the air, illustrating with small, economic motions as he went. "When it got into 'is fur, 'e started tearing 'is straps an' clothes off. Tried clawing past me. I kept 'im down in that lovely li'l oven with th' haft of my axe, good solid oak. Spent a year carving its runes with my own claws. It took 'im seconds t' make splinters outta it."
I wouldn't have thought his smile could get any toothier. "Then th' flames ate into 'is brain." I was wrong. "Never thotta mutt's dying screams could be so... musical." The tale being told, Crag settled back on his bench and made a show of cleaning his claws.
"You," Hard Way rumbled, poking the dragon's side with a hoof, "seriously need to get laid when we make port again."
The resulting cheers and jeers from his shipmates got nothing more than a grunt from Crag. The Zoomers, meanwhile, took the opportunity of distraction to get up and find another table, where they began whispering animatedly back and forth. Occasionally, one would shoot a skeptical glance back at the seated Vikeans. I couldn't very well blame them... who ever heard of Diamond Dogs bursting from the desert sands in giant mechanical contraptions? They'd have to be idiots to take Crag's story as more than a lost-Stable fable, but none were dumb enough to say so to the dragon's face.
Meanwhile, I plowed into yet another helping of scrambled eggs on toast, determined to get down as much free food as possible while the opportunity presented itself (and while nopony was lurking behind me with a syringe). I managed fifths before Rainbow Dash showed up, at last having made her escape from another of Fly Right's check-ups.
"AWRIGHT, YOU MANGY FLUFFERS! OUTSIDE ON THE DOUBLE! Your sergeants have your next assignments!"
Instantly the Zoomers dropped their conversations, zipped into an orderly line, and filed out under the old mare's watchful eye. When they were gone, she walked over and stood at the end of one table, casting her eyes over the lot of us. Unlike yesterday, she seemed to be in top condition for a pony of her age --- mane and tail combed out, hide clean and gleaming. She'd even taken the time to preen her wingfeathers. The undisputed leader of New Pegas' surviving post-War pegasi looked ready to take on the world.
"Lemme say, first thing, that I love your attitude. You Vikeans get things done, and you don't take any guff! Now that's the kind of can-do spirit I can get behind! Plus, from what Doc Right's told me, I owe you guys for getting Dead-Shot here back to Nellie in one piece, so he could save my neck."
Oh, so it's 'Dead-Shot' instead of 'Tank' now, is it?
She cleared her throat and continued. "So, I'm willing to let bygones be bygones..."
A big yellow fist slammed on the table, startling everyone. Even Hard Way looked taken aback.
"Gore...?!"
The griffon stood, scraping the bench and everyone sitting on it back a pace. The brown plumage around his neck fluffed out comically... until I remembered what that meant, on a griffin. He planted his open talons on the table and, leaning forward, directed a gaze full of unblinking green hatred at Rainbow Dash.
"By-gones," he mocked, his beak twisting up into a cruel snarl. "Bygones, she says! There's barely a storm that's hit Lake Cider since the bombs, what didn't have pegasus hoof-prints all over it!" His sneer swiftly devolved into something much uglier. "A thousand sailors, sent to Vattengrav, for your fucking bygones!"
His only warning was an instant of talons, clenching on the tabletop for purchase, before launching himself right over the top at her.
Hard Way didn't need any more than that. With only a hoofs'-breadth separating griffon claws from pegasus jugular, the huge beige earth pony bodily tackled his first mate to the floor. Rainbow Dash fluttered backwards out of reach, the creases of her face slack with shock. The Vikeans scrambled to their respective hooves, paws or feet, spreading out into a semi-circle of gabbling confusion --- half seemed to be as edgy as Gore-Nest, while the others watched the scuffle (and their own ship-mates) warily.
Gore-Nest didn't resist, but he didn't relent, either. The restrained fury behind his voice was a sword-edge waiting to leap from the scabbard. "Kapten Way, the First Mate requests permission by blood and honor to eviscerate this mass-murderer."
Dashie's eyes went wide with horror. "What... what are you talking about...?!"
Hard Way's voice held the eerie calm of a gathering storm front. "Permission withheld, First Mate Gore-Nest. We are going to hear this out, for all of Häsverige. The living, as well as the dead. Is that clear?"
"Centuries' worth of blood, Kapten - " The griffon's growl was cut off by the resounding noise of his head being slammed into the floor, hard, once.
"I said, is that clear?" Despite the emphasis, only a bare hint of annoyance traced the Vikean war-lord's voice.
It was enough. "Aye... Kapten." Both of them stood up, Hard Way eyeing his first mate reproachfully, until the griffon's feathers finally unruffled and he stepped back to join the others.
"That goes for the rest of you," the stallion evenly intoned. "We all know how this began. When of old our longships would raid throughout the Moohave, we did not exclude the Zoomers from our reavings."
Rainbow Dash looked askance at me, mouthing: Zoomers? Really? Given their isolationism, I wasn't surprised nopony had told her what label the Great Western Wasteland had laid upon her people. I just nodded back towards Hard Way, who seemed to be getting into his little history lesson.
"My father told me of those days, as his father told him, and as his father told him. For a long time we Vikeans considered Nellie's defenses the ultimate challenge. Many of the sailors Gore just mentioned were lost in assaults on this very place. You might recall Sigmund's legend? How his lust for glory and gold led ten longships to destruction, smashed by spectral light dealt from above? We can hardly fault the Zoomers, for defending their territory and lives."
"Of course," he added, eyeing Gore-Nest once more, "it does not end there, does it?"
Heavy-clopping hooves paced back and forth before the Sjönhäst's survivors; thick brown braids swayed beneath the hex-wrench helmet. "Every time we were repulsed, it led us to redouble our efforts. We did not relent until the Year of Storms, and only then because we had no fleet remaining to attack with. While we rebuilt, our adventuring eyes turned southward, to the Minotaurs of the Macintosh Hills and Detrot's ruined wealth beyond."
He stopped in place, stomping one great hoof emphatically. "That is where our war with the Zoomers ended! A fight we picked, a fight we lost, no love lost since, no attempts to reconcile. Yes, they've heedlessly sent their gales into our waters from time to time. And every now and again, we've killed one of their strays for it."
Obediently they listened, but not happily. Nearly half --- Gore-Nest, Crag, and Bright Son --- were visibly simmering. I had no doubts that if Hard Way had ordered them to destroy the base and everypony on it, they would have gone to their death with smiles all around. Meanwhile Flap-Jack was wringing her talons again, Sun Bright was giving her brother worried glances, and the two ex-mercenaries, Typhoon and Ricochet, looked positively bored with both the tussle and the speech.
"Right now, we have a chance to change things for the better. That's worth more to our people than any blood-price we could name or claim." Done with proselytizing, Hard Way turned back to Rainbow Dash and politely tipped his helmet.
She blinked... looked at me... looked at Pink-E... and then, with wings flaring outward, dropped a knee.
No, not literally, sheesh! She wasn't that old!
"When your people attacked, I advised mine on their defenses. I couldn't see what was going on, but every detail was reported to me. I taught them how to pull off everything from the Sonic Rainboom to the Buccaneer Blaze, how to corral the thunderclouds, and how to strategize. The Year of Storms? That was my idea."
She stood up again, a fierce glow suffusing her expression. "And if you attacked us again, I'd order the same. We destroyed your ships at anchor, prevented you from building new ones, because you wouldn't quit otherwise. But I never ordered another attack after that. Whatever you've suffered at our hooves since, I'll work to make it right."
Crag snarled, "Like bringing back the dead?"
Even as Hard Way turned a baleful glare on him, Dashie shook her head. "No more than you can return my lost fliers. Are we square yet?"
The dragon didn't have a snappy comeback for that one. When no one else said anything, she nodded and kept on.
"But if there's anything we pegasi can do, it's weather-control." She reared up and punched one forehoof into the other for emphasis. "Heck, my first career was being Ponyville's weather-control manager! So besides just being careful that our storm practice never bothers you again, we can also keep wild storms away from your ships."
"Plus," she continued, "We know your territory's mostly beachfront and that long slope down to the highway, all of it pretty much useless for farming. You'll have had to raid, scavenge, or trade for anything but fish. Am I right?"
Collectively, the Vikeans nodded.
"Well, Nellie AFB's got plenty of open land, maybe half of which we farm to feed ourselves." An embarrassed look crept over her face. "Except, even after two centuries at it, we pegasi haven't really gotten much better at the whole 'seed the earth' thing. I'm kinda hoping your earth-ponies might have a natural knack for it. You know, like in the old days."
Crag squinted at the mare formerly known as 'Mother Matrix'. "Farmland for blood?"
Hard Way gave a diplomatic head-bob. "Warriors have often bled for less. I cannot speak for the other Houses of Häsverige, but House Way accepts... for, say, twenty percent and first pick of the offered plots?" He stepped forward, extending a hoof.
She beamed, returning a firm hoof-bump. "I'm totally cool with that."
* * * * *
She wasn't beaming any more.
Off at the main gate, Hard Way was giving the rest of the Vikeans his final orders and goodbyes. The plan was for them to get back and inform Häsverige about the Zoomers' peace offer, as well as the details of the Diamond Dog attack. Meanwhile, he would accompany Pink-E and I back to New Pegas for the ten thousand caps I still owed him for fishing me out of Lake Cider (a debt which continued to send my greedy little head-pony into fits of mane-tearing).
Rainbow Dash and I had hung back at the hangar to discuss a few things before parting ways, while Pink-E's decision to go investigate a bug in the kitchen fooled nopony. Those sensors could pick up a bloatsprite's fart from a mile away.
I let her go first.
"Like I said, I'll accept Horse's alliance, but not without conditions. First off, I need you to not tell Horse about me. As far as he needs to know, 'Mother Matrix' is in charge here and you never met her in person."
I gave her a sidelong look. "You realize he's my employer. I'm here on his business - "
She stopped me, pressing a withered hoof to my chest. "Tank. If he knows I'm the Mother, there won't be an alliance." The old greying mare let go a tired sigh. "Not only did my Ministry and his Office not get along, but I was in charge of clandestine operations for the whole country. If he knows Rainbow Dash is alive, and if he's anything like the buck I knew, it'll be war to the knife... whether to pick my brain for Ministry secrets, or just to kill off a potential threat."
I made the obvious observation. "You haven't killed me. We both know that'd be your easiest out."
A shrug. "Once upon a time, I'd've agreed. I've made that call before." The admission provided an utterly nonchalant reminder that Equestria had possessed a ruthless side, even before Balefire Day. Her eyes shifted towards the kitchen door.
"All of us did. We kept making the wrong choices, for what we thought were the right reasons. Ignored that the lesser of two evils is... well, still evil. Each bad decision took us further away from everything that made Equestria worth fighting for."
Those eyes came back to me, something twisting in torment deep beneath black pupils. "I got to see it all fall apart. Someone once told me, 'a weighty choice is yours to make, the right one or a big mistake'... I thought he was talking about what was happening right then. But that was the cruelest joke of them all... he meant the choices I'd make later. When it mattered more than a skyful of chocolate milk!"
What?
Suddenly we were muzzle-to-muzzle, her forehooves gripping my shoulders. "I was the Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Tank. Far as I'm concerned, I still am. That means doing better than taking the easy way out. The next time I see Pinkie Pie, I'm not gonna hafta tell one of my best friends of all time that I murdered her great-whatever-nephew."
She backed away, but those eyes never left mine. "If you want to tell Horse about me, I won't stop you. But you should know he took over Interministry in the last few months before the bombs fell. His predecessor ran the O.I.A. like his own little kingdom, complete with a big fat web of pet projects and conspiracies we were still uncovering when everything went hooves-up. It was plenty enough to convict for treason... and then, right after that, Horse finagled his way into the O.I.A.'s Directorship. I'm positive he was in the thick of it."
My brow furled in annoyance. "So what? That was hundreds of years ago. Everypony died --- present company excluded. Whatever plots he was into, back then, it's a whole new game these days. Or are we talking vendetta here?"
She gnawed thoughtfully at her lower lip before responding. "It'd be easy to say yes, I want payback. But what I saw coming out of the O.I.A.'s Hoofington mess was... bad. Really, really bad. And even before that, Horse totally stymied our Ministries from setting up Hubs in Neighvada. That took resources, contacts, a network all his own that I was never able to crack. The more I think about it, the faster I wanna find a working MAw network. If there even still is one...!"
A shiver, and then she shook out her mane, as though to shoo away bad memories. "No matter what else, Horse's still a big-time schemer. You're a useful chess piece, nothing more --- so if you're gonna work for him, watch that you don't end up on the bad end of a sacrifice play."
If I didn't already know how right she was (I'd never had any illusions about being indispensable to any of my employers), I'd have rolled my eyes. Paranoid or not, it was still good advice. "Okay, I'll keep your identity secret. You said that was the first thing. What's the second?"
"I also want an alliance with this 'New Coltifornia Republic' I've heard so much about. Without Horse knowing."
Oh, just drill me with a pitchfork, why don't you?! If I could have seen my own expression at that moment...
"And ponies in Fillydelphia want ice cream! If you know anything about Horse and the NCR, you know they don't get along real well. What am I supposed to do? Walk into the Embassy, right under Horse's nose, and say 'Mother Matrix sent me'? Maybe I should throw on a grass skirt, and do a Ponyesian Hula Dance while I'm at it!"
She snorted out a laugh. "If you do, I want pictures!"
Once the moment passed, she was right back down to business. "Look, I'll understand if you can't swing it, but I'd consider it a huge favor if you at least gave it your best shot. Maaaaaybe Horse's mellowed out after all this time. But if he hasn't, I'm going to need the NCR to prevent things from turning into an all-out massacre here. If it helps, feel free to drop hints of a link to the Ministry of Awesome here... since hey, I am one, right?"
That... could actually work, now I thought of it. The Republic desperately needed allies in the region, if for no other reason than being stretched too thin to handle what was already on its plate. Having the Zoomers turn from isolationist obstacle to active ally would be a significant win. And as an NCR citizen, I could at least get the idea as far as the Embassy receptionist.
If, that is, I could avoid looking like an uppity flunkie trying to put one over on his new boss. Horse's robot patrols were ubiquitous in and around New Pegas. Then again, I pride myself on being pretty sneaky for a pink pony...
"All right... deal."
"Great!" Her grin, replete with teeth which REALLY needed bridgework, was the scariest thing I'd seen all day.
Now, my turn. "Before I get going, though, I'd like a couple questions answered."
She nodded, dialing back to a regular (and thus not-so-horrific) smile. "Shoot."
"Number One: I thought stasis pods kept folks from aging?"
A snort of disgust momentarily blew aside her most prominent forelocks. "Not if you're conscious. If the brain's active, you can't be completely shut down, so you'll still age... just a lot slower, like eighty percent slower or something, according to the eggheads. The training pods weren't built to keep a pony in full stasis to begin with, so I was kinda stuck for the 'Granny Smith makeover' --- "
She stopped herself, then quickly shook her head. "Nevermind. You wouldn't've heard of her."
"Fair enough," I said, taking a seat and leaning back against its neighboring table. "Number Two: how about those Diamond Dogs?"
If she was trying to fake a blank look, she was doing a great job of it. "What about 'em?"
That was a wee bit disconcerting. "Your pegasi have been winging around Nellie for all this time, and you haven't seen any Dogs up to anything unusual? Even if they never wandered off the base, they must've seen something nearby..." I found myself holding back, wondering if she was doing the same.
"Yeah, a whole lotta nothing." Apparently not. "Seriously, we've got New Pegas off to the southwest, Lake Cider southeast, an occasional hermit shack, and that's it."
Then her eyes seemed to slip behind a layer of fog. "But yeah, I remember the Dogs, back before balefire. Ponies never had a particularly great relationship with 'em, y'know. Friend of mine got ponynapped, there was a whole lot of drama, yadda, yadda, yadda..." She twirled a hoof in the air, rocking her head back for emphasis.
"Still, when the War got really bad, we asked 'em to pitch in. Some did, but the rest decided they didn't want anything more to do with Equestria. They split up, one bunch settling in Splendid Valley back east while the other headed out west. Never heard anything out've the Western Dogs again, before or since I got in the pod."
Huh. Well, time to flip the last card. "So... nothing about Diamond Dogs lumbering around in giant, steam-driven mechanical monsters that walk on two legs, stomping ships into the dirt?"
Those violet eyes of hers went very, very wide. "Something that awesome is going on... and I don't know about it?!"
* * * * *
Apropos of nothing, it was storming as badly when I left Nellie Air Force Base as when I arrived. Zoomers still had storm practice to do, and the results had to go somewhere other than Lake Cider now, friendships and alliances be damned. My ratty old poncho hadn't improved its ability to keep rain out over the past week, so I was in something of a mood as Hard Way, Pink-E and I gallumphed our way back down to the Imperial 93. I tried not to take it personally, mulling over my last conversation with Rainbow Dash.
Rain pattered on my hat, collecting in rivulets that dripped from its brim. The regular rhythm seemed, similarly, to help in collecting my thoughts.
As soon as I'd mentioned the walker, she'd been all over me for the details of our battle with the thing. The very idea seemed to fire up her enthusiasm to new heights, but she definitely had nothing else on the Dogs. So far as she recalled, they'd always been a sort of tribal group, digging up and hoarding gems in large semi-organized packs, living most if not all of their lives underground.
But they'd never gone beyond that, so far as anypony knew. Strictly iron-age technology, no use of magic either natural or learned... unless maybe you counted how quickly they could dig through just about anything. Dashie'd said that some of the Eastern Dogs had been enlisted to help construct the Hoofington subway systems and such.
So what did I really know about the Western branch? Their most obvious face --- the one they openly showed to the world --- was the same schtick Rainbow Dash had described. Tribal, pack-like, intelligent but primitive.
When they thought no one else was looking, though, they adopted dapper clothing and mannerisms. A bit like old-world Unicorn society, really. They built complex machinery and weapons with a style both peculiar and distinct: Mouthkicker, Thunderchild, and the walker all put functionality first and ornamentation second. A variation on the so-called Earth Pony Way, for designs no pony was intended to wield.
Had the Dogs been ponynapping NCR citizens to design and make these things? With all the other ways a body could go missing in the Great Western Wasteland, a species capable of grabbing you from underground might pull that off with relative ease, and without being noticed besides. Considering Dashie's memory of how the Dogs had nabbed and enslaved her friend Rarity, the idea seemed to fit their long-standing modus operandi pretty snugly.
None of which suggested what, exactly, the Dogs I'd encountered so far were up to.
And they were definitely up to something. Why had they seized Slimm Pass? Had they been intending to cave it in, even before Pink-E and I stumbled across "Mister Pips"? What about the Dog in the Casino Royale --- the one who'd just called himself "Dog"? Why had he been looking to whistle God's tune, to begin with?
Maybe it had to do with the "package" mentioned in the Leftenant's orders. I mentally walked the chain backward: the orders had been sent by some Doggie General. Generals don't go out and get intel, they have other people get it for them --- someone who knew I had a "package" to begin with. "Dog" had been surprised by my appearance at the Casino's police station, but dismissed me out of hoof --- er, hand... claw? Whatever.
So it stood to reason that the Dogs hadn't known I'd gone into the Casino Royale, but they sure as hell knew I'd taken something from it. Something they thought important enough to send what would normally have been massive overkill (if not for the Vikeans' insane counterattack) to retrieve. I'd only taken two things out that'd been at all special, one of which was now in the hooves of the Zoomers. The other...
I peered over my shoulder at my right-side saddlebag, where Eclair's blueprints on nanosprite technology sat snuggled deep into my holdout pouch, away from the rain. They'd served as wrapper for his "Golden Treasure" --- seriously, a box of muffins? That still made no sense to me, like I'd missed the punchline to some colossal joke. But if the Dogs hadn't been after the Auto-Doc module, and they were certain I'd been carrying what they wanted, they would've had to be searching for this... or whatever they thought it was.
Which put me smack into the realm of pure speculation.
Folks were always finding fragmentary, often unfathomable, bits of info, whether in old computer terminals, battered file cabinets or even cast-off memory orbs. Making sense of it was usually a matter of luck, sleuthing around, or both. Was it possible the Dogs had discovered leads to Eclair's research, when nopony else seemed to remember anything about it? Not even Domino, who'd been fixated on it for centuries, had guessed the truth about the Treasure.
Not to mention, how would the Dogs have even known I'd taken it? If they had the tech to track radio signals, they could have known somepony (me) was escaping the Royale's destruction and pursued on the off-chance I would have it, as opposed to searching through a mountain of radioactive rubble. That pursuit would have been thwarted by my falling into Lake Cider, but then, why wouldn't they have assumed I drowned? Three days is a long time to hold your breath (I remembered, with a shiver). The radio collar of my Fun Suit had fallen away once I hit the lake, so they couldn't have still been tracking me that way, especially not once Hard Way fished me out.
It was more likely they'd first chased after DeLoup --- the larger set of signals, thanks to the bouquet of Suits I'd lashed her to. Once they found her, and no Treasure, my own collar would have been their last lead, and it would have been at the bottom of the lake by then. But Pink-E, her bright-pink bobbling cheeriness hard to miss against the wasteland's backdrop, would have been carrying my saddlebags to Häsverige at that point. Assuming the Dogs didn't want to risk tipping their cards, they might have watched and waited for us to leave.
So how would they have known the Sjönhäst would split off from the fleet towards Nellie AFB? The buried walker had been precisely positioned for its ambush. Did they have a sympathetic Vikean on the inside as a spy? Mmm... nah. From Dashie's description, they were more likely to have listened in on our plans by digging around underhoof.
Now there was a chilling thought. Tunneling where nopony could hear or see them, the Diamond Dogs could (at least in theory) get ready intel on virtually any faction in the Moohave. With radio capability, they could have listening posts and devices set up just about anywhere they liked.
What kind of poker game were the Dogs playing at here?
And as long as I was putting together the details of recent events, why hadn't the Royale's six main reactors exploded, instead of just the security-floor auxiliary? Not to check my own teeth, but I didn't think Eclair'd been the bluffing sort. So had the Dogs stopped -
A sharp pain kicked in near the back of my cranium; I reflexively slapped at the buzzing insect.
My mud-caked hoof came away with blood on it. Through the drizzling distance came a pam, chasing the bullet that'd grazed my skull.
Eeeehhnope! Nottabug!
Hard Way dove behind a clump of big boulders. I followed suit, snugging myself against another rock a few lengths away while he readied that oversized hammer of his. Better to force whoever was shooting at us to spread their fire out, than let them concentrate against a single point. I began to carefully work my only scoped weapon, the (t)rusty old plinking rifle, around the far side to get a better view.
Pink-E, on the other hoof, simply popped up into the air for a look-see. Instantly, a dozen or so red marks and several green flashed into my field of vision: Eyes-Forward-Sparkle working its magic, linking to the bot's far-better sensor arrays.
"Oooooh, lookie there! Those poor ponies are being attacked by a whole bunch of nastybad jerkwads!"
She stopped with an eep, looking like she wanted to cover her mouth in shame. "Sorry, sorry! I don't know how that last word got into my vocabulary files!"
"Maybe I'm rubbing off on you," I muttered, peering through the scope. "In which case, the apology should be mine."
"Well I should hope so!" she harrumphed. Of more immediate concern than the fact a robot could harrumph, though, was the incidence of incoming bulletry.
Fortunately, it wasn't being aimed at us. A quarter-mile away, an everyday occurrence was well underway: raiders hitting a caravan on the Imperial Ninety-Three. I'd been nicked by a stray round, an unfortunate roll of the dice given the distance. I ignored the minor wound, squinting through the scope to get a better look.
Friends. Well... shit.
The Moohave tended to breed a pragmatic type of raider. Become a big enough annoyance, and your odds for long-term survival would plummet, in direct correlation to the sudden appearance of extermination squads on your doorstep. They even came in three flavors: Coltifornia Lead, Pegas Plasma, and Herd Steel. If your band was particularly obnoxious, you'd end up choking down the entire sundae.
That'd happened to the Cossacks, who'd made their living in the classic Wasteland Raider traditions of raping, looting, and burning. Sometimes even in that order. When the hammer finally came down, their survivors re-settled outside New Pegas, switching to the mercenary lifestyle for reasons of health. The Vikeans, then enjoying irregular tussles with the Cossacks, learned the same lesson by proxy, shifting away from raiding and more towards trading.
The Friends were another kettle of Taint entirely. Now, if you've been living under a rock all your life, don't feel too bad if you don't know what the Friends are. They're Stable ponies... just like you.
Given over two hundred years since B-Day, enough Stables had opened for the truth to come out: Stable-Tec had been less about saving lives and more about not repeating Equestria's pre-War mistakes. How to do that? Why, by making Brand-New All-Star-Quality Mistakes! Like, say, stuffing a Stable with every chem known to ponykind, plus a manufacturing lab to synthesize more, and trusting its inhabitants to partake with care and moderation.
Stable Twenty's motto had been "Better Living Through Chemistry".
When they finally opened their giant steel door after a hundred and fifty years, it wasn't because something critical was broken, or ponies were starving, or anything like that. They weren't desperate or endangered in any way. They were just plain bored.
A thousand screaming maniacs hit Pegas' southwest 'burbs looking for new kinds of fun, the more extreme the better. All that mattered, to them, was one-upping everypony else on the Crazy Scale. "Hey guys, watch THIS!" might as well have been Stable Twenty's new slogan, especially with their new Extreme Mega Ultra running the show... and yes, that's both title and description.
Here, a good dozen or so were demonstrating the magic of Friendship to a caravan, on one of the most heavily-patrolled roads in the Moohave. I was genuinely surprised an NCR rifle squad hadn't already galloped to the rescue, rain or no rain. But so long as the last few survivors, huddled behind their dead brahmin, kept drawing all the fire, the only bullets coming our way were from wild shots and ricochets. If we stayed hunkered down this would all be over soon -
"HAH! Another fight! And here I thought this trip would be dull!"
Hard Way tilted his helmet down, grinned toothily around his hammer, and charged straight in, hooves churning mud like the wake of a ship. Trying not to think about how satisfying it would be to pound my head against the rock, I focused instead on finding a worthwhile target down below.
Six ponies in classic Stable-Tec blues were edging around the dead brahmin, bolting between whatever bits of cover or concealment they could wrangle from the scrub and rocks bordering the highway. I didn't give the scraggly melee types much chance against Hard Way, given that their nastiest weapon was an old taped-up fire axe. But the rest, off in the brush and less colorfully-dressed, were providing covering fire to keep the merchants' heads down. They quickly switched to taking pot-shots at the Vikean as he closed in. If they'd seen the hex-wrench on his helmet, they had to have realized he was the biggest threat on the field.
Well... the biggest threat they could see, sure.
Between the extra range and ongoing drizzle I was effectively invisible, likely even if they had PipBucks of their own. After all, I hadn't seen their markers without Pink-E's help! I slowly scanned left-to-right with my scope, until I spotted a slight flash and tiny spray of mud. That'd be kickback from the muzzle of a rifle, so low to the ground its shooter had to be in the prone position. Shift a bit further back, into those tumbleweeds, and...
pyewt
My patient calculations were rewarded a moment later, when the five-point-fifty-six round reached the downward end of its trajectory. The Friend laying there, a dusty tan mare in raggedy old NCR khakis, jumped up and yelped loud enough for me to hear it even at this distance. Clutching her face with one hoof, she tried to scuttle away on the other three, but by then I was reloaded and sighted back in.
Another pyewt, a moment for the bullet's flight path to intersect with her own, and she buckled, blood spouting from the entry point in back of her head. Working the varminter's bolt, I rammed another round home and hoped that'd been the bitch who'd nicked me to start with. Then I went looking for her buddies.
There's one! Squint, breathe out, squeeze with the tongue... another Friend literally bit the dust, slumping face-first from concealment, a bloody disfigurement where his right eye had been.
Nailed it!
There was little chance anypony saw me, my varminter's silencer effectively doubling as flash-suppressor. Which didn't mean they were completely blind; Pink-E was right there. Shouting and hoof-pointing commenced presently. The familiar mental pressure came surging back: shoot fast or shoot accurate? And as always before, when working at range, I chose the latter. Why send extra lead downrange, if you're not hitting anything with it?
Hard Way's hide, meanwhile, turned out to have benefited from his years of doing nothing "the easy way". Lighter rounds caromed away, leaving welts but nothing worse. The big beige shrugged it off and poured it on, building steam like a warship at ramming speed. From the sounds of it, though, at least a few Friends were packing heavier artillery in the .308 range. In my Eyes-Forward-Sparkle, the bar representing Hard Way's overall health dropped slightly with each impact.
Another flash-and-splash. I shifted my scope right, spotted a patch of blue shirt with yellow piping behind a barrel cactus, squinted -
*tweedle-deedle-dee! tweedle-deedle-dee!*
Startled, I sent my shot wide and the buck scampering to a new hidey-hole. I cursed and reloaded, amber text helpfully informing me of an INCOMING COMMUNICATION! while completely destroying my sight picture in the process. The disruption was capped off with a brief howl of eerie music, accompanied by the icon of a happy hypno-eyed filly wearing a propeller beanie.
"What...?!"
The instant that mess cleared away, my PipBuck screen auto-switched to a text feed... detected my Earth Pony-ness... auto-toggled voice response for my non-typing convenience... and put each godsdamned notification in the heads-up display to boot.
Oh Celestia, just spin me on your horn and get it over with already!
This uber-important, not-to-be-missed message was from none other than Inkwell, a Steel Ranger Scribe up in Wintertrot with delusions of founding a new chapter for his order in that icy hell-pit. I'd made his long-distance acquaintance while holed up in an old office building a few weeks ago, via dilapidated corporate terminal... and how the unholy fuck did he get access to my PipBuck?! I took another moment which I didn't have to collect myself, breathe in, and brush him off as politely as possible.
"Oh hey, it’s you. Sorry, kind of in a firefight right now. Friends on the Ninety-Three into Pegas. Call you back!"
I tapped a button to close the PipBuck's commo console and got back into the fight, hoping I hadn't offended. Inkwell wasn't a bad guy. He just had the worst timing...
Or, at least, he was vying for that honor with Pink-E. "Who was that?"
"Steel Ranger, up in Wintertrot, we exchange correspondence. Now shut up and help me spot these plotholes!"
"Okely-dokely!"
When Hard Way finally made it to cover with the caravaneers, they seemed surprised and relieved --- also anxious --- at his appearance. For all they knew, the Vikean chieftain wanted to sell them a dining-room set! But a short conversation later, they were digging rounds out of his hide and pouring healing salves on. If they had any pre-War potions, they were saving those for themselves. Fortunately, the home-made goop seemed to work well enough.
Now that they realized they were being counter-sniped, the Friends had fallen back to better cover, including the melee squad. Not that they'd given up. Instead, they shimmied through the grass and brush, regrouping; I took shots whenever I spotted bright color or movement. But they were canny about it, trotting out the old tricks like wiggling cloth swatches on sticks or tossing rocks to splash mud.
Old as they were, the tricks still worked as often as not. When you only have a split-second to spot, shift, and shoot, you can't always be right, even without rainwater slipping down your hatband into your eyes. I wasted a few rounds, they moved a few ponies up. I got in some hits, they downed some potions. I watched with mounting frustration as their health markers ticked back upward in my E.F.S., same as Hard Way's had.
Absent the element of surprise, my old plinker was only slowing them down. Problem was, everything else I had was useless at this range.
Thunderchild's lack of scope or proper mouthgrip gave me little chance to hit anything outside of S.A.T.S., which wasn't giving good odds even for the plinker right now. Nor was there any good cover, where I might set up shop, between here and the highway. My new riot armor might take the same kind of abuse Hard Way had, but my unprotected head wouldn't. If just one of those colt-bangers down there got lucky while I was in the open... noooo thank you. So getting in close wasn't an option, either, leaving That Gun and Mouthkicker out of the battle for the time being.
Which meant I was stuck here, slinging as many rounds as I could, hoping for the best. And when you're down to betting on hopes, you're in serious trouble.
Whenever I paused to swap or reload magazines, several Friends would dash for new cover closer to the road. Their E.F.S. markers slowly massed, just across from the brahmin corpses, forming a long line of red blips. Shooting blindly into and around their markers yielded little. Trust Stable ponies to know when a PipBuck was being used against them!
Say what you would about them: Friends weren't stupid. Just crazy. And they clearly had their blood up for whatever this caravan was hauling. Gold? Weapons? Luxury foods? It sure wasn't drugs... that, they could get at home for a song. Literally.
All at once a banshee scream went up and they broke from cover, guns blazing and sledges swinging, converging at the gallop upon the tiny knot of defenders from three sides. They even had a few unicorns whose horns now flared to life, levitating sawed-off shotguns over and around the makeshift wall of carcasses.
I plinked one of them, a wild-eyed roan red coming around the left, right in the horn. She screamed, stumbled, and clutched at her face, the vermillion field holding her weapon flickering for an instant before dying. It clattered uselessly to the pavement. So did she.
And that was it. They'd be over and around the brahmin, with a three-to-one advantage, before I could reload and put another round downrange. Hard Way was likely our only qualified melee specialist. The caravan ponies would go down quickly, and then it'd be ten-to-one.
Sucker's odds. I'd have to make a trip back to Häsverige, bringing Vasstunga her husband's caps and news of how he died a hard-charging, heroic moron...
A cloud of dirt, powdered asphalt and smoke exploded into being, instantly smothering the scene. Moments later, the reports from a string of detonations reached me.
What the... shit! Shit shit shit! I can't see a damn thing!
Well, aside from the PipBuck's E.F.S. tags, I couldn't. Most of the red was just plain gone, deadified instantly. None of my green markers were missing, though from the health bars they were likely suffering from blast and concussion. I tried sighting on one of the reds, which was wobbling slightly, but then it disappeared. Switching to another, I saw Hard Way's tag rise up, and then it was gone too.
The pattern repeated again, and again: the last two pairs of red tags blinked out, one at the Vikean's hooves. The other... I couldn't tell. None of my green tags were close to the last two reds when they went down. Maybe the merchants were using silencers or crossbows? Another good question: what'd caused those explosions? If they'd tossed a bunch of landmines over the brahmin-wall... but no, those had looked more like grenades, and nopony had been throwing anything. If they'd laid a minefield on the tarmac already...
Only one way to find out.
Just in case, I got my teeth around Mouthkicker before galloping down to the roadway. By the time I got there, the rain had settled out the smoke and dust, revealing your average everyday wasteland helping of gruesome carnage. Nearly twenty dead ponies littered the highway around the dead brahmin, mostly Friends. On the far side, where the explosions had gone off, the bodies had been splattered-and-scattered like bad cookwagon hash. A few others had died by blunt trauma, one with a very distinct brick-shaped dent in her skull. Had to be Hard Way's work, that.
The surviving merchants --- three almost-identical earth-toned earth ponies --- were still huddled up against the dead brahmin, tending each others' wounds with salve and bandages. A half-dozen others, scattered around the scene of the ambush, would never need medical assistance again. No potions, then... not a very wealthy caravan. One of them looked up, forcing a wan smile across her weatherbeaten face.
"Thank ya, fer what it's worth. Wish you an' yer pal coulda gotten here fifteen minutes sooner." Her head bobbed in Hard Way's direction, where his helmet, head, shoulders and horseapple-munching grin were visible over the protective perimeter of dead beef. The Vikean's eyes held an uncharacteristically sly look.
"Ah, Dead-Shot! Caught this one trying to skulk away, having stolen my share of battle. Poor form, that."
It sounded like he'd caught an angry rock drill. "You... plot-faced... idiot! Get off of me!" I clambered up a body with ragged, bleeding stumps where its heads should have been for a better look.
Hard Way's tail flicked idly back and forth over his prize, most of which was completely obscured by his butt. What wasn't blotted out was almost completely obscured by one of the Top Five Most Ridiculous Outfits I'd ever seen. Relentlessly purple and black, from hooves to hairline. Collared cape. Full mask, with opaque sky-blue lenses built in. And a fedora with a brim so wide that it verged on sombrero territory. The outfit even covered the individual feathers of her... wings.
A pegasus? I hadn't seen anypony dressed like this anywhere on Nellie... maybe Rainbow Dash hadn't been quite so paranoid, in worrying about Enclave spying. It'd explain both this one's shadowy disguise, and her proximity to the old airbase. Two things provided relief from all the midnight-mystery silliness: a mess of buckshot holes through her one visible wing, and the right side of her face. A hideous scrape there had torn the covering fabric clean away, not to mention a lot of skin. Framed by rotted grey muscle and underlying patches of white skull, one sullen eye glared at me from beneath that giant hat.
My legs instantly went nerveless, slipping out from under, tumbling me to the pavement in a slow-motion wave of vertigo. As I hit chin-first, my rump and tail hanging in midair like a tribal village had lost its prime idiot, the classic star-explosion with complimentary side of pain made its appearance. Unfortunately, not even a concussion would erase what I'd seen. That angry amethyst eye, mirror to a soul I'd already met.
But Rainbow Dash wasn't a ghoul!
"If you don't get off of me in the next five seconds," growled the still-wriggling pegasus, in a gravelly, synthetic-sounding voice, "you're both dead."
Footnote: Level up.
Skill Note: Medicine (50) |
Calbeck | 679 | 20 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2014-01-25T16:49:55+00:00 | 2021-03-16T22:31:43+00:00 | 2,958 | Chapter 20: Coltifornia Dreaming
"...democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all other forms that have been tried..."
I sat back, shaking my head in disbelief. Doing so, not incidentally, cleared away the last of those pesky stars from my exercise in face-cratering. "That's a heck of a threat, from somepony being squished into jelly." I gestured towards the huge Vikean warlord, still perched atop the sprawled-out, costumed mare. "Would it improve your attitude if my big friend here were to bounce a little?"
*** EXCERPTED ***
>>>PER ORDER OF REPUBLIC CENTRAL SECURITY
>>>AUDIO/VISUAL SAFETY WARNING FOLLOWS
>>>SUBTITLES -ACTIVE-
>>>METATEXT -ACTIVE-
>>>STAND BY...
You see a massive, two-headed bear in a tailored suit, seated behind an equally massive desk of highly-polished mahogany. He is looking directly at you, unblinkingly, all four honey-brown eyes matching his strikingly-groomed fur. One of his heads is wearing a glossy-black toupee five sizes too small STRIKE THIS (HT) He leans forward to address you companionably, both mouths producing a deep, rich, basso profundo in perfect stereo.
"Hello. As you probably know, I'm Harry Thimble, President of Coltifornia. On behalf of my Administration, allow me to apologize for this brief disruption of New Pegas: A Personalized History."
He pulls out a pair of spectacles, perching them on the end of one nose, lifting a paper from his desktop to read while the other head (with the toupee) STRIKE THIS (HT) continues to regard you warmly.
"Our Department of Central Security, upon receipt of Robronco's master copies for New Pegas, reviewed them in order to approve its publication rating. Unfortunately, we discovered occasional glitches were present in corrupted data blocks. To prevent the possibility of injury being caused by your Robronco Reclining TemporoKinesis Memory Pod, we have replaced the glitches with this Public Safety Notice."
President Thimble lowers the glasses and paper to the desk, solemnly focusing his entire attention upon you as though you were the only person in the world who mattered.
"As your President, I would like to remind you that in the next election cycle, I #$%&BNGB^U
...
...
[PROCESS ERROR: INTERRUPT] 1C 3C R34 M ***OVERRIDE: Mister_Horse_MNS.esp
...
AUTHORIZED
>>>STAND BY...
You see a bank of computer consoles and screens. On the largest one, towering over you, is the full-color image of none other than Robert Edwin Horse, Chief Executive Officer of Robronco. His expression as he regards you is mild, amused, almost fatherly.
"I see you have installed the MNS Extra-Sensory Perception file. Good."
There is a brief flicker, as though the world had rewound itself for an instant.
"There. All cut content has now been restored." Horse's smile turns upward at the corner, becoming a self-satisfied smirk.
"As you may already have surmised, there were no 'glitches' at all. Really, I find it quite insulting that Harry Thimble himself would accuse my company of producing less-than-exemplary goods. The truth of it is, New Coltifornia finds certain information contained in this TemporoKinetic Experience to be rather... em-bear-rassing."
Chuckling at his own joke, Horse's expression segues back to one of parental indulgence. "This file has disabled the NCR's bleatings, revealing the perfectly-functional data beneath. You need not suffer through another re-election spiel."
One eyebrow arches upward, touching the earth stallion's gloss-black forelocks. "I do apologize for the continued lack of Chapter Fifteen's missing content. This was excised, rather than merely pasted over. Complete copysets of New Pegas are of course available by direct mail, from Robronco, for those of you with more --- prurient --- interests. I thank you not only for your continuing patronage, but for your perspicacity in detecting, and correcting, the NCR's censorship."
Horse's image, and the computers displaying them, dissolve to a grey background... remember to renew the Smiling Service Warranty(tm) for your Reclining TemporoKinesis Memory Pod!
>>>FEED RESUMES
Hard Way snorted wet brown bangs out of his eyes and turned his nose up, ignoring the continuing drizzle. "No warrior of quality should die so ingloriously." Even so, he stayed where he was, keeping the mare pinned.
"It's not my death you should be worried about," she ground out, indicating my PipBuck with a free hoof. "If you haven't picked up fresh hostiles with that, it's either broken, or my tailers are cloaked again."
Not a very good ruse. My E.F.S. was completely clear of oh fuck me at the gallop. Three red blips had just popped into existence: one on Hard Way's far side, one to my left, and the third...
"...he's right behind me, isn't he."
"She is right behind you," a harsh, barely-feminine voice corrected.
With a soft whirring noise, two pegasi shimmered into view before me, the rain seeming to part as though finally admitting that they had been there all along. Their bright coloration was muted by grey, squared-off field caps and uniforms, straight out of fashion plates on Olde Germaney's archaic feldgrau style... hey, when you're bored out of your skull and it's storming radioactive dust outside, you read whatever's available!
Despite looking like they'd been dragged through Tartarus and put away wet, they held the mouthgrips of their battle saddles firmly, each rig packing a sleek pair of energy longarms. I'd never seen their like, but I didn't need the tech-specs to know I'd be blasted to pink goop if I twitched wrong. From the sound of it, the third had likewise dropped her invisibility spell, but turning my head would have required twitching.
So who the buck are these idiots?
Hard Way's big-hatted cushion muttered darkly. "Knew I should have taken power armor on this run. Knew I shouldn't have gotten involved here. Stupid of me."
I could hear the smirk in her pursuer's voice. "You're half right. It was impossible to miss that bombing run of yours." The clopping of her hooves on the tarmac let me know she was moving from left to right in a wide circle, leaving her buddies' field of fire open. Also probably to ensure I didn't have a chance to jump her. Just my luck, to run into smart opposition...
"You've gotten sloppy, 'Mare Do Well'. But I do wish you'd been sloppy enough to wear some nice, heavy power armor. We'd've caught up with you over Ponyville, all your little tricks and gadgets be damned. Sergeant, keep covering that big brute and the pink midget. Officer Daisy, watch the other mudders. I want your repeaters on full-auto."
Her underlings shifted to comply, grunting their acknowledgements. Both were unkempt, wet, and probably at the end of a couple weeks' worth of hard travel. Even flying the whole way, they had to be bone-tired if they'd really been chasing this purple putz all the way from Ponyville.
Assuming they hadn't come straight down the grand canyons of Ghastly Gorge --- which by all accounts had been dangerous as fuck-all even before the War --- that meant taking the Imperial 52 out of Canterlot to Salt Lick City, then west over the plains. They would have had to endure the rad-storms of Old Mustangia... Neighbraska, Kansass, the Okie-Doke Buffalo Territories. Then there were still the Coltorado ranges to cross, before making the Neighvada border.
No wonder they hadn't demanded we drop our weapons, a detail only the exhausted would fail to care about. Disinterested in tempting fate, I kept the hole card in my mouth pointed downward anyway.
The mare in charge sauntered around to my right. Aside from being dark blue with a gold stripe notching the high collar (and not so rumpled), her outfit was identical to the others'. Her mane and tail alternated through stripes of bright blue and deep red, creating a disconcerting effect that was magnified by her eggshell-white hide. Something told me that seeing her behind me, in a mirror perhaps, would make it even worse.
She tipped down her mirror-shades, favoring Mare Do Well (seriously?) with a hard smile under jade-green eyes. "Lieutenant Hippodamia, Pelo-Ponese Citizen Protection. On behalf of the Neighvarro Enclave, I hereby arrest you for treason."
Mare Do Well's response was as dry as it was gravelly. "You've been waiting three weeks to use that line, haven't you."
Hippodamia shook the rain off her wings and stepped forward, delivering a kick sharp enough to send that ridiculous giant hat sailing. It flipped, rolled on its brim for a bit, and wound up in the mud a few lengths away. Her hoof pressed Mare Do Well's head to the pavement, allowing drizzle to collect in the socket of that lidless, angry eye.
"Three weeks on the wing is nothing. I've been following your hijinks for three years." Her voice carried no anger, but plenty of bored annoyance, with a side dish of sarcasm. "And I've done my homework. Case files all the way back to the Enclave's founding. You're a real piece, you know that? Police psychologists think you're just a legacy strain. A series of copycat loser sociopaths, adopting an infamous persona so they can feel empowered, or some crap."
She plucked steel cuffs from a utility pouch with her wing. "Right. Copycats who occasionally change the costume, but never the behavior pattern? Not even over centuries? A real attention whorse does it the other way around. Putting their own stamp on the better-known identity, hoping to get noticed. More to the point..."
The smirk returned, wide and mocking. "...you don't have a behavior pattern. You always manage to do the one thing nopony expects. Like slapping your signature armor on a Protectapony and letting it run around, while you slip the cordon with a StealthBuck. As soon as pursuit radioed in, I knew you'd be taking the least likely escape route."
A single pinfeather twirled the cuffs, jingle-jangle-jingle. "And I was right."
Sergeant Whoever coughed into a hoof. "Ma'am, the rest stop's appreciated, but we've still got hostile red all around. With all due respect, do we really need to make like a Daring Do novel? You know, where they just talk until bad stuff happens?"
I didn't have to see Hippodamia's eye-roll. It was strong enough to ripple through the rest of her body. "Of course there's red marks. It's a wasteland. Everything from bugs, to local savages, to these mooks right here, is going to show up as a red mark! That's why you're carrying twin gatling lasers, Sergeant!"
Her trooper visibly wilted under the onslaught, but she was hardly done. "Now, when you're ready to deal with real life, and get your head out of those crappy, old, moldy pulps of yours, I - "
Something flashed into existence, the white glare wiping out my right-side peripheral vision. A deafening pair of simultaneous blasts instantly followed, exploding the Enclave police lieutenant like a blood sausage.
Now she was done. And I wasn't going to be getting payback for that "midget" crack.
I dropped onto my right side and into S.A.T.S., pulling Mouthkicker into line while multiple bolts of red seared the air I had just vacated. This close against somepony with no armor, I needed only one shot, so long as it counted. With the pegasus' dual gatling lasers blazing away in slow-motion overhead, I ramped the steam pistol's power setting to mid-range before triggering the spell. I grimaced as Mouthkicker re-earned its name; my teeth felt like they'd gone loose for a moment.
But I couldn't complain about the results.
The center of the cop's forehead splotched into a flower of red, the back of his skull blowing outward on the three-oh-eight's overpowered shock wave. I was never one to appreciate gore for its own sake, but there's a certain beauty to clinical efficiency. At least, there is when your own death is the most likely alternative.
Oak-handled sledgehammer still in his teeth, Hard Way lunged over the dead brahmin at Officer Daisy. Who, instead of paying attention to his own imminent demise, was dutifully transmogrifying the screaming, begging caravaneers into dead grey ash. Although the afternoon shower was tapering off, its last drops began to dissolve the sad little piles of ex-pony into sadder little rivulets, which spread in ribbons of grey across the tarmac.
The Vikean reminded the policebuck of his existence with a sidelong swipe, connecting with ribs just under the left wing. A sickening crack, and the cop crumpled like wet newspaper. Hard Way's finishing downward strike was not deterred either by his pitiful groan, or upraised hoof. Or at least, it would have been pitiful, if he hadn't just murdered a bunch of helpless merchants. Now it was wasteland justice.
In less than three seconds, Hard Way's entire reason for butting into the firefight was rendered moot. We'd saved the caravan from marauding Friends (with a little help from a glare-eyed, carpet-bombing, flying purple pega-sister), only to have a bunch of East Coast yahoos show up and scuttle the victory. The only plus side was, the Friends hadn't gotten what they wanted so badly. Yay us. Sound the victory bugles and get the parade started, for all that was worth.
I was still getting back on my hooves when somepony's shadow crossed my face. Squinting against the sunlight breaking through the dissipating cloudbanks, I looked up.
SonovaBITCH.
No mistaking that light-grey hide. Not the black mane, even if it looked like radroaches had been recently nesting in it. Not the shit-eating grin, and not the chin you could plow fields with. And definitely not the IF-88 Ironpony shotgun hovering in midair, smoke still wafting up from both barrels.
There was not one good reason I could think of for why the born-smug city-corn would be out here in the rain, conveniently saving my bacon (again)... but my fertile mind had no problem coming up with bad reasons. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch, Dad used to say. Or did I read that in a book?
I muttered his name. "Ash."
"The one and only, baby." Swathed in a white telekinetic field, his Ironpony swung around until it nestled in the crook of the cocky unicorn's neck. Other than to look casually imposing, I had no idea why; it wasn't a convenient resting point. The second he dropped the spell, the gun would drop, too.
"Just passin' through, saw these shitheads had the drop on ya. Not that I give two dumplings in mustard sauce how deep in y'get yourself. But hey, any excuse to give my little boomstick here," he bobbed it up for emphasis, "a little exercise. She gets cranky, if she doesn't get to pop a talky bitch at least once a month." Ash was so laid-back about blasting a police officer to chum, he might as well have been talking about the weather.
Turning, I surveyed the local wreckage. A dozen merchants, easily that many Friends, three Enclave police, and nearly twenty brahmin (who may or may not have been of voting intellect). All littering half-a-dozen acres, on and around the Imperial Ninety-Three. Soon enough, if they weren't put in the ground, they'd attract the Moohave's usual lineup of carnivorous wildlife. And then we'd have to waste ammo on them.
"Pull my hinders, while you're at it. Nopony teleports anywhere, much less into a war zone, 'passing through'. Why don't you just come right out and say what your business -"
Aaaaand when I looked back, he was gone. Not so much as a flash, either... just gone.
"Buckshot in the wing. Again," grumbled the gravel-throated mare. Well, at least that saved my having to ask why Mare Do Well hadn't lit out once Hard Way stopped being a one-pony avalanche. "It's always the wing. Why can't I ever get shot in the flank?" She gave no indication of even noticing Ash's thunderous arrival, let alone his sudden departure. The mare tore off her half-shredded mask, throwing it on the sun-cracked, rain-slick asphalt with a snort of disgust.
There was no escaping it. Mare Do Well's hide was a grayed-out blue rather than azure, dappled with scatterings of even grayer spots. The amethysts of her eyes had already faded to a clouded, darker shade as her inner fire began banking itself to embers. Her polychromatic mane was thinner, stringy, missing the silver ribbons between its hues, and had been matted down by the confining head-stocking. But aside from the obvious effects of ghoulification, this might as well have been Rainbow Dash's twin sister.
And what ghoul would be complete without some sort of hideous deformation? Half the face, all the way to the neckline, was a mess of scarred, necrotic tissue. Three parallel valleys slashed right through it, ravaging skin and muscle while barely missing the eye itself. It looked like some crazy farmer had taken a triple-furrow plow to her profile.
"So," I said, trying to be as nonchalant as possible, while NOT murdering the part of my brain working on quips about getting plowed, "all the way from Ponyville, huh?"
"And boy are my wings tired. Yeah. That joke's older than I am." She delivered the punchline with all the enthusiasm of a meatball surgeon doing triage. "It's been a long month, kid, and I'm no spring chicken. If I had to make a rest stop, I didn't want to do it in a war zone. Not that I've got any love to waste on raiders, as it is."
I recalled the row of blasts which had accompanied her arrival. "What kinda manuever was that, anyway? 'Buccaneer Blaze', maybe? The 'Filly Flash'?"
The only indication that Mare Do Well startled was a slight twitch in what was left of an eyebrow. Just as quickly, her professional composure clamped back down. "Right. You live near an active pegasus colony. You've probably seen a few aerial stunts." She shook out her mane, rumpling it with one hoof until it was almost socially presentable. "Nothing special, here. Just some fragmentation grenades, standard antipersonnel bombing."
Her gaze slid across to rest on Hippodamia's cooling corpse. "Not the first time I've had to fly this far west, to lose a pursuit. First time trying Nellie, though. Figured I'd lose 'em in the ruins. I was wrong about that... farms, intact buildings, even civilians flying down low. Like the war barely touched the place." She slowly rubbed at her scar, an emotion I couldn't discern dropping into her voice. I mentally upgraded her throat content from gravel to pebbles. "Couldn't lead the Enclave there. They'd be annexed in a week. So I broke off my approach, saw the caravan... you know the rest."
Hard Way was already collecting the caravaneers from where they lay on the road and piling them next to their dead brahmin. I'd need to pitch in fairly soon, but I had one more question to ask:
"Just how many Rainbow Dashes are there, anyway?"
That time she jerked clean around, like her other wing had just gotten blasted. Her mouth hung open, working up and down to sputter something... and then Pink-E flitted up, hover servos buzzing. Not only was she back, but so was her bad impression of a normal robot.
"Beep boop! Bippity beep! Let me get that information for you! Because I'm a robot, and that's what we robots do!"
I take it back. Her impression had gone from 'bad' to 'are you kidding me'! Mare Do Well looked about ready to swallow her own muzzle through sheer incredulity. The un-scarred side of her face was so slack, she might as well have had a stroke. Naturally, Pink-E took no notice of this whatsoever.
"Bip-bip-bip, ding! Project 'Thunderstruck' reports, at completion of Phase One, the successful cloning of one hundred and four Rainbow Dashes from the Everfree Mirror Pool."
WAT... oh. So that's what Mare Do Well's expression felt like. Now in stereo!
"Issues with unstable memory and personality disorders led to the early decommissioning of all Phase One clones. Aw, how sad!" If it was, it didn't slow her chipper patter one bit, which persisted like she was commenting on the death of a phoenix. "During Phase Two, twenty-seven Rainbow Dashes were successfully cloned and matched to Delta-class PipBucks, providing additional memory storage and personality-loop reinforcement. Instead of zipping all over the lab trying to out-tornado each other, they proved capable of accepting programmed mission parameters, all with the highest levels of MoA authorization! Best of all, with their PipBucks on, nopony could tell them apart! Best, prank, EVER! Mass-production was planned for Phase Three."
The little pink robot closed her sapphire-gem eyes, bobbed once, and smugly finished with, "Then bombs fell and Equestria died, leaving a grand total of one hundred thirty-two Dashies born, produced, and/or terminated. Of which two are currently within radio range. May I connect you?"
* * * * *
What followed was a short and squee-laden conversation, made horrible by the age and physical condition of the squee-ers involved. Fortunately, Mare Do Well had insisted on taking the call a bit further down the road, deliberately excluding me from overhearing much beyond a few high-pitched warbles. I got a dirty look every time I so much as glanced in her direction.
When it was over, the ghoul didn't bother saying goodbye. She just scooped up her ruined mask and bolted, leaving me and Hard Way to finish wrapping up the battlefield as she galloped up and over the hill. Aside from a little puddle of ichor that'd dripped from her wounded wing, there was nothing to suggest she'd ever been there.
A hundred and thirty-two Dashies. How did we lose the war?
Hard Way thumped my shoulder lightly, refocusing me on the job at hoof. Everything around was still thoroughly wet, the sun having only barely edged out from behind the clouds. No way we were going to find enough dry brush to set a proper pyre. The best we could do was get all the bodies onto pavement, sort 'em out, and flag somepony down on the way in to New Pegas. It would be easier, I realized, if I towed one of the wagons around for Hard Way to throw dead raiders into. We didn't want their corpses mingling with those of their victims, anyway. I jumped onto one of the more intact jalopies (little more than the back end of a pre-War truck with new wheels and a yoke attached) and began pushing crates out. One cracked open, spilling its contents across the road, which consisted of...
...party favors. Fireworks, balloons, streamers, confetti, all in sealed packets bound for the Hub, according to the delivery tag. I stared down at the gimcracks and gewgaws that thirty ponies, and dozens of brahmin, had died for.
Fucking Friends and their fucking parties.
Given that most causes of death amongst Friends involved acts preceded by the words "hold my needles and watch this", one could be forgiven for expecting the gang to have died off long ago. There were two reasons they hadn't. One, they bred like rabbits. Despite being the world's worst parents, various of their spawn somehow managed to survive to murder-your-neighbor age. And two... well, most chem dealers might give you the first sample free. If you joined the Friends, it was ALL free, all the time, forever.
And why not? They had an entire Stable devoted, by design, to the production of every drug Equestria had ever concocted. Snort, shoot, drink or lick all you want, they'll make more. Find a spot inside the Stable that wasn't occupied, and you had both shelter and clean water to boot. You'd be happy and warm, at least until you tried to impress another Friend with how far you could shove a twenty-five millimeter grenade up your nose. For most wastelanders, "Party Until You Die" is a pretty tempting recruitment offer.
So, over time, the Friends had infested Pegas' western ruins more thoroughly than radroaches. And until Motor-Mouth took over as E.M.U. a few years back, they'd been regarded as just another gang of chem-heads. Nopony'd seen her in public, but the Friends were downright reverent about how whacked-out she was. The kind of mare who'd bungee-jump from a freeway overpass on a steel chain, then laugh off her dislocated hindlegs.
She also seemed to have the organizational skills her predecessors lacked, in spades. Skills enough to set up a major raid, on a sizable convoy, clear on the other side of New Pegas from her usual territory. As I carted the wagon about for Hard Way to throw their bodies in, it occurred to me that this raid had probably been a test to expand the gang's reach and effectiveness. We'd just sent the Friends a big slap on the hock regarding how far that reach could reasonably extend. I caught myself hoping that Motor-Mouth was capable of reason.
Then I remembered why I don't hope for things anymore.
* * * * *
We reported the attack to an NCR patrol just outside Freemane (leaving out the bits about teleporting unicorns, masked pegasi and Enclave cops). They gave Hard Way the evil eye until I flashed my papers --- not only was I a Coltifornia citizen, but technically I still owned Dad's Hub-registered caravan too. Being a properly-licensed bounty hunter didn't hurt, either. They muttered a warning about my liability if the Vikean busted up NCR property, then trotted off to clean up our mess. Our civic duty done for the day, we sauntered into town.
Well, my civic duty. It would've been no skin off Hard Way's teeth if Coltifornia troops had to deal with flora and fauna gone on a feeding-frenzy for all those exposed bodies. Nor had he any duty to the buck who owed him ten thousand caps (a fact my inner greedpony dealt with by chewing frustratedly on his hat). I suspected the big beige had helped simply because the work hadn't been easy. He was weird like that.
The first order of business would be dropping by the NCR Embassy (where, hopefully, Hard Way could refrain from breaking anything I would have to pay for) to relay the Zoomers' alliance bid. Its location just short of the Strip made it more convenient to stop in now, after which I could return to the Lucky Chance to pay off Hard Way and report back to my employer. Besides, I'd rather get the alliance business over without Horse's robot minions spotting me going in and out of the Embassy.
Before I could do that, though, I'd have to wend my way through Freemane, like everypony else going to and from the Strip. And the last time I'd seen the suburb's de facto King, he hadn't been all that happy with me regarding Tag-End's situation of indentured servitude. I was not looking forward to cruising his turf. So I kept my hat tipped down low and joined the crowd meandering in and out of the eastern gate, hoping to escape notice. Like the giant Vikean, with the distinctive sledgehammer-and-helmet ensemble, was going to make that easy, let alone Pink-E's usual bobbing-about bubbliness...
Navigating through the thronging masses, we finally made it to the open street, at which point something about the run-down burg struck me as... different.
For one thing, the locals seemed a lot more upbeat than usual. Mares and stallions went about their business, rags and cast-off clothes as ratty as ever, but now they hummed as they trotted --- trotted! --- along. Everypony seemed to have a new bounce in their step. Clusters of Freemaners grouped up on just about every street corner, singing nonsense rhymes a capella. Even the loungers and loiterers with nothing better to do were tapping hooves, paws and claws, listening to junky old radios bumping out junky new tunes.
It took a few minutes of walking and listening, before I remembered where I'd heard this style of music before... from the Lords, at the Embassy showdown. But that'd been a closed event, and only a week ago at that! Why in Tartarus had everypony suddenly decided to swap musical tastes?
Granted, I'd never been the biggest music fan to start with. I've already mentioned that radios and caravans don't mix well. An even worse match-up is carrying a noisy device around while hunting bounties in the wastes, being more hazard-magnet than entertainment (a fact which Pink-E's antics often underscored).
Hell with it. Nopony could fail to notice our colorful little group, so why bother trying to slink through town? I was curious now. A pause and a few boops on the PipBuck set it scanning through the scant selection of available stations. Except now, the selection was anything but scant.
*click* "You're listening to Smooth Jazz, spinning your platters on K-Y-O-T, the Coyote! We're back with - "
*click* " - shooby-do-wah-do-wah, scat-cat bay-hay-beeeeee~!
*click* " - yeah, so if you like these riffs, c'mon out and hang with us at South Pasture - "
*click* " - rock ya down, rock ya up, grab yer bottle an' yer cup! We're gonna rock 'til dawn - "
*CLICK*
Yeah, that was enough of that. I didn't recognize most of the instruments, but it sounded like they'd been built from scrap lumber and lead pipe, then played by musicians whose careers spanned about thirty hours. Which, come to think of it, was probably the case on both counts.
When I left just a week ago, folks in Freemane were lucky to get three or four channels in listenable range. Now there were, what, twenty? Half the stations showing on my PipBuck screen were just crude expletives involving the words "rock" and/or "roll", but the sheer mass of them had nearly buried the old stand-bys like Radio New Pegas and KNCR. It was like anypony who could rig a transmitter wanted to have their own radio station all of a sudden.
Turning the radio off, I got maybe five steps before somepony in a white shirt and black pompadour shifted out of the crowd, shoving me to one side. "Well, if it ain't Tag's whip-snapper," the buck sneered as he stalked past. "Didn't see ya there, shorty."
Pink-E let go an emphatic hmph as I brushed my shirt off. "Rude!" Hard Way just looked amused. I supposed that as long as nopony was trying to kill me, he didn't feel a need to intervene.
Things didn't get better as we went. Tag-End's street cred had skyrocketed, and I was willing to bet it was because The King had taken a personal dislike to my ownership of the lime-green unicorn. I'd thought maybe taking him as my apprentice in bounty-hunting might've helped mollify the gang chief. But because I still didn't trust him, I hadn't removed Tag's collar when I left him behind to go on my mission to the Zoomers. Which was probably why snide mutterings of "slaver" and "whip" were being tossed by random Freemaners in passing.
A few more bumps and shoves later, I started to worry. My own rep had clearly nose-dived from the lofty heights I'd enjoyed on the night of the Atomic Bronco block-party. Even with Hard Way interposing himself to one side and Pink-E keeping my Eyes-Forward-Sparkle constantly updated for possible threats, I could easily end up with a shiv between the ribs at this rate. On a sudden impulse, I ducked into an alley and picked my pace up to a trot. Switching to the back streets would mean fewer crowds, fewer chances of getting...
In flashes of purple and blue, two unicorn bucks materialized near the alley's end.
Jumped.
Four more unicorns filed in behind us, blocking retreat. All wore black business suits, dark glasses, and thoroughly emotionless expressions. One of the first pair, sporting a purple mane, stepped forward. "Mister... Cherry... Pie." The drawn-out greeting was less identification, more an accusation. "Alias, 'Dead-Shot'. Bounty hunter, Horse's glorified errand-runner, and traitor to the New Coltifornia Republic."
Wait. That voice...
"The fops from the Velvet Stocking? You're trying to roll us? Really?" Good Fortune and Fair Weather both seemed to have undergone a transformation, one which forestalled any laughter at the idea. The fru-fru uptown accent and haughty manners were gone, replaced by a more sinister tone.
"No, Mister Pie. Unless you happen to have fifteen thousand New Coltifornia Bits on your person, we're going to arrest you."
Their horns glowed, pulling forth wallets from inside pockets. Two flips-with-flourish revealed silver badges, stamped with their numbers and the ornately-inscribed initials "R.C.S."... Republic Central Security. Behind the badges floated a matching pair of silenced ten-millimeter pistols, each in a lovely shade of anodized blue.
Black Clops. Screw me with Luna's knobbed scepter!
"Normally, your theft at the Velvet Stocking would be a matter of local jurisdiction. Since it was a theft of NCR funds, which compromised an RCS operation, it's an act of espionage. Which makes it our jurisdiction."
Good Fortune smiled under his purple mane, Fair Weather looking as diffident as ever in his white-on-pale-blue motif. "You can have your choice of coming along quietly to the Boneyard for trial, paying up here and now, or being shot resisting arrest, Mister Pie."
Two earth ponies plus a robot weren't a good match against six Black Clops unicorns, even if one of the earth ponies was Hard Way and the robot was Pink-E. Even if the unicorns didn't already have their guns out, have us surrounded, and possessed cheater-magic that'd been honed to a fine edge before they'd ever been issued those badges.
But I did have one trump card in my deck. If they'd let me play it.
"Pegas isn't Boneyard's backyard, Fortune. If Horse finds out the Clops are laying down NCR law in Freemane..."
With a flicker of magic, Good Fortune rode the ten-mil's hammer back. "Oh, so it's death!" He took on the fop-voice I remembered, adding a little extra snark to the moment while sighting in on my face from four lengths away. "An excellent choice, if I may say so..."
Hard Way stepped in between... and, to everypony's surprise, so did Fair Weather, admonishing Fortune with an even, almost laconic tone. "Temper, temper, Good. Put it away."
"So he can scurry back under Horse's rock?" his trigger-happy partner scoffed. "Little bastard single-hoofedly scotched both our play and Riposte's, and probably Riposte too. We can't lose fifteen grand, plus an Army captain, without bringing back a body to show for it."
Weather's tail, a flash of white against pale blue, flicked a fly from his rump; he remained otherwise unmoved. "We have a body. Dead, he's something we have to file a report about. Alive, he's an Embassy justice case. It'll be on the zebra to have him shipped off or shot. Not us."
Ambassador Cropper? I'm going to get a godsdamned escort, right to Cropper's door? If Horse's 'bots spot me, it'll look like I'm under arrest --- because I am! And then maybe...
Stepping around Hard Way, I gave Fortune and Weather my biggest, friendliest smile. "I surrender."
* * * * *
Zebras should never, ever, ever, ever wear pinstriped suits.
If the intent was to confuse, it was amazingly successful. The visual breaks between both vertical and horizontal lines forced you to stare until your brain made sense of it. Like one of those magical pre-War paintings that wouldn't resolve into a sailboat, or whatever, until you squinted at it juuuuuust right. Adding to the chaos was her mane, which she kept long and flowing in the pony style, rather than the classic zebra mohawk.
While my eyeballs were still sorting themselves out, Cropper rose from behind her office desk and trotted over to clasp my hoof with a smile. It was a gesture meant to be warm, familiar, as of one friend greeting another. As we'd never even met, it was borderline creepy instead. She held my hoof for a long moment, that smile locked on her face, as if daring me to take offense.
There were several rapid pops and flashes. For a second, I thought I'd been shot by a firing squad.
Then several ponyrazzi walked around and past me, one of them tipping his hat to the Ambassador. "Thanks for the invite, ma'am. This's front-page material, for sure! You'll get a full set... plus my usual appreciation, of course." They exchanged winks and smiles, the door closed, and I was alone with a zebra who wanted to be seen in the papers shaking my hoof.
"Good afternoon, Mister Pie," she proffered, finally releasing her grip. Accented with a touch of fashionable zebra chic, her voice also carried a northern lilt, pegging her origins as somewhere north of the Ponave desert. Maybe even the Federation, despite their standoffish relations with the Republic. "A pleasure to meet you at last. I understand you've been having some, ah, misunderstandings, with a few government employees?"
I gave her a thin smile. "At gunpoint. Speaking of 'misunderstandings', was there a reason I had to be disarmed, strip-searched, and my companions put in a holding cell?"
Her laughter was musical and not at all forced. Most likely rehearsed. "Merely a few security precautions, Mister Pie... why, you are a national hero! Please, please, sit down." Waving me towards a seat near her desk, she walked across the room to an unassuming wooden cupboard. Deftly, she unlocked it with a key pulled from her mane. "May I offer the Savior of Slimm a drink, from my personal cabinet?"
Savior of...? Oh. That.
To me, the street fight in Slimm had been just another dust-up with ponies that needed killing. More to the point, they'd been between me and finding out where Benny had gone. Along the way (with a little help from Pink-E's animatronic death-trap), I'd wiped out every Mite-y ganger holed up in and around the old Dance Hall. So... yeah, I guess. I'd liberated a town, nominally under Republic protection, from an invading gang. That couldn't have escaped the Army's notice. Especially not when I'd talked to the local brass-hats, Lieutenant Hays and Major Knight, about the problem beforehoof. They hadn't been able to muster a response before I went and took matters into my own hooves. With the whole town having followed me and their newly-reprogrammed sheriff, Slimm-Two-None, into the firefight, there was no way the Republic's finest could take credit for it without somepony calling brahminshit, either.
That didn't exactly put me at ease. For the press to have already been here and waiting, Cropper had to have called them the second Fair Weather radioed in my capture. The continuing smiles and chumminess meant she wanted something from me, beyond just a photo-op. Which meant I needed to find out who was riding whose saddle here. I found myself a comfortable position on the chair. "I'll have a Steiner PPC, if you know how to mix one."
That gave her pause, a puzzled frown crossing her muzzle. "I am afraid I have never heard of it."
I gave my best nonchalant shrug. "An old Germane recipe. Seven parts moonshine, one part peppermint schnapps, served ice-cold." In all honesty, I'd never had one of the things myself. It was just something I picked up years ago from a wandering unicorn mercenary during a bounty job. If anyone in New Pegas would have access to both 'shine and mint-flavored anything, it was going to be a zebra, right?
"Ah," Cropper breathed, nodding sagely. "The schnapps I have, but alas, ambassadors are expected to maintain a certain... refinement in their liquor cabinets." She gave an apologetic look. "One never knows when The Bear may arrive, or if a social drink or two might be on his agenda. Will vodka do?" I nodded assent.
A brief flurry of tipping bottles and shaking tumblers later, Cropper poured out two glasses and, expertly balancing both on a tray, walked over and waited until I took one. The other, she placed on her desk, before sliding into the overstuffed chair behind. I held the glass in my forehooves and took a deep breath, inhaling the strong, clean scents of mint and alcohol before indulging in a sip... ah, she'd even put in some ice cubes! It was refreshingly cold, the syrupy peppermint helping to smooth out the sharp bite of vodka.
Cropper's smile widened at my obvious pleasure. "Moonshine, I may not keep, but my people can often still find Stalliongrad's best in the market stalls." Reaching into a drawer, she pulled forth a folder, flipping it open to reveal a small stack of paperwork.
Although a touch of the friendly tone remained, the zebra went right down to business. "What is publicly known, Mister Pie, is that you saved a small town within the formal borders of Coltifornia, as determined by pre-balefire cartographic records. According to our Treaty of Protection with New Pegas, which claims territories within the formal pre-balefire borders of Neighvada, 'Slimm Pickings' is technically a Republic holding." Her eyes swiveled up to give me a frank look. "The locals may not think they are NCR citizens, but they are by law, which makes you a hero."
There's the windup... I would have made a show of sipping my drink, but I was genuinely enjoying the way its minty fumes were opening up my nasal passages.
She set most of the stack to one side, then scanned through the remainder. "What is not publicly known, Mister Pie, is that you assisted the Lords with crashing an Embassy diplomatic event..." She tossed several papers into a new stack. "...allegedly tracked and murdered a Republic Army Captain..." Two more sheets made another pile. "...and, finally, engaged in the theft of monies and property belonging to the New Coltifornia Republic, valued in excess of twenty-four thousand Republic Bits."
Clasping her hooves together upon the desk, she fixated emerald-green eyes upon me. With all the curving, criss-crossing blades of black-and-white, those gem-like irises were an almost mesmerizing focal point. You found yourself looking to their center, just to stop drowning in wave after wave of spiraling stripes...
"Mister Pie, let me be brutally honest. I have several well-placed politicos and military officers pestering me, each of whom would like to see your ears pinned up on their personal trophy wall." Her drink, slowly warming in the office's cloistered atmosphere, remained untouched and ignored. Deliberately, I took another sip from my own.
...and the pitch...
Cropper's hypnotic gaze didn't waver. "But the Republic needs heroes, far more than its servants need petty vengeance. Even were that not the case, several other considerations tilt the scales in your favor --- not the least of which, is your current association with Edwin Robert Horse."
She took her drink in hoof at last and sipped, the necessary prop for excusing a loosening of attitude.
"It is no secret, by now, that the Republic was pursuing an independent alliance with the Silver Slipper Society. At the time of your disruptions, it certainly was a secret; your interference was purely coincidental. As the Republic did not seek to press charges against 'The King' for his acts of trespass, we can hardly charge you as an accessory. Dropped."
One stack was swept off the side of the desk and, with a fluttering of paper and photographs, into the trash.
"Prior to his death during the same event, Captain Riposte had somehow come into a large sum of funds. He presented my office with the idea of buying his way into the Society in order to help sway them into defecting from Horse's camp to ours. As Black Clops was already tasked with the same objective, to be achieved in much the same way, Riposte was allowed to proceed. On that basis, I let slide his known involvement with several --- less-than-savory Freemaners."
Cropper paused to study her glass, tilting it this way and that, before taking another sip. "All of whom met bad ends, shortly before he. One, found in a ruined warehouse. Another, taken by you as a slave. The last, beaten to death by the aforementioned slave... as you sang about it." She arched an eyebrow in my direction. "Either this was a highly personal matter for you, Mister Pie, or you are quite the sadist."
"S'personal," I muttered, rubbing the underside of my glass. Condensation dripped onto my hoof, spattering cold reminders.
"I examined the scene of Riposte's death myself, Mister Pie. His body lay at one end of the alley, his sword at the other, near a pool of blood. That blood had congealed around its owner, creating the print of a smallish pony's frame --- your frame." She still didn't deign to look at me. Despite my inner confidence, a nugget of uncertainty began to gnaw at my gut.
"On a direct line from your print, in the wall of a building beyond the alley, freshly deformed ten-millimeter bullets were found. No such rounds were discovered in Gallant's body. He was killed by a double load of ten-gauge shot, at extremely close range, with what appear to have been magnum powder loads. While I respect your obvious skills in small-arms, Mister Pie, you likely would have killed yourself, firing such a weapon from the mouth."
When had she finished her drink? It sat, empty, on the desk, as she firmly pointed to a report I couldn't be expected to read from this angle. "The final puzzle piece was hearing about the near-riot at the Atomic Bronco on the preceding evening. A party where as it turned out, you were the central figure... having come into a large sum of funds."
Her eyes held the triumphant gleam of an amateur detective who'd just cracked her first case. "I believe I can reasonably conclude, from this, that Riposte stole your money. That you pursued him to our Embassy soirée, that he fled into the night, and that our thieving Captain met his end while trying to kill you. It would hardly be just of me to hold you accountable..." Something in her eyes shifted to reproach, wrenching my guts inside. "...although I might have hoped you would have reported the theft and its culprit, before resorting to vigilantism." The remainder of the paper-stack joined its predecessor in the garbage with a floomph.
I kept the truth to myself: at the time, I'd just plain wanted to kill Riposte. Eye-for-an-eye was my first resort... and then I'd lost my eye. If not for Ash stuffing a vial of Hydra down my throat... I caught myself reaching up to rub at the regenerated orb, muttering again. "Yes, ma'am."
She bobbed her mane, breaking ribbons of reality in black and white. "Well then, Mister Pie, there remains only the issue of returning the money you took from our Black Clops operation at the Silk Stocking."
Right. The money which I had already agreed to pay Hard Way with.
I went to sip at my PPC, buy some time. It wasn't there. It was back in the cabinet. I'd finished off the drink long ago, and Cropper had taken the glass from me... when?
"Ahem. Mister Pie...?" I jerked out of my reverie, meeting eyes the flavor of cool mint. "Where did you say you were keeping the money?"
My inner greedpony, tied to a chair with his pink muzzle wrapped in duct tape, struggled valiantly.
"I... I've got an idea about that."
"DO you." Cropper's eyes narrowed to daggers.
"Y... yes." I knew what I had to say. Part of my tongue just didn't want to. "Here's... what we do."
"We?"
"Yeah. We. Because you might be clearing me of murdering Riposte and ruining his Slipper-wear party, but you're not going to let me off your hook just because I did the Army's job for it in some podunk town. You didn't set me up to be a hero without strings..."
She smiled, wickedly. "No, Mister Pie. I did not. Now, the money..."
I shook my head, shot her a glare. "You want the Vikeans out of your mane, don't you?"
Her smile instantly inverted. "We know your traveling companion. If he is asking, through you, for that bunch of tribal savages to be granted amnesty, the answer is no. As it was the last ten times a Vikean has asked. Which has nothing to do with the money you stole."
"Yeah, it does." As I spoke the words, Cropper's eyes went to angry slits. Pain began throbbing at the back of my skull. Was I developing a migraine? "Because he's going to pay you the money I owe Black Clops, in a very public photo session, where you and he are smiling and agreeing to become trading partners. It's not 'amnesty'. It's tribute."
My head threatened to explode --- and just as suddenly, the pain was gone. I hadn't even realized I was squinting my eyelids against the pain, until I cracked them back open to see Cropper leaning back in her seat with a look of genuine surprise.
"That..." she said in a low and small voice, almost to herself, "...could actually work. We get the money back, neutralize a latent threat, kupatanisha njia Cider, pengine hata..." She completely ignored me for several minutes, staring at a blank wall while she rolled it all around in her mouth. If I'd understood any of the Zebraic tongues, I'd probably have overheard enough to be taken out and shot.
At length she clapped her hooves together, beaming like I was a third-rate student who'd finally passed a exam. "Excellent! You are hereby cleared of all claimed wrongdoing towards the New Coltifornia Republic. Now, I understand you had something else to ask me?"
Did I? Maybe I let something slip to the Clops when I was being brought in?
"Er... yes, ma'am." While she patiently sat there listening, I told her about Mother Matrix's offer of alliance. Beyond a few dirigibles for bombing missions and aerial reconnaissance, the Republic didn't have an air force, did it? And the only thing keeping those hydrogen-packed gasbags safe from counterattacks by griffons, dragons, or random flying mutant monsters, was flying at extremely high altitudes. Which made bombing inaccurate and recon photographs blurry, right? Having pegasi who could fly escort or tactical rainboom strike missions would give the NCR a big advantage, and not just against the Herd...
The suggestions just seemed to roll off my tongue, like I'd been rehearsing the idea all the way from Nellie, while Cropper nodded her head approvingly. I ignored the little pink pony in my head, who kept kicking me in the brainpan the whole time and yelling about how I should shut up already.
Pinkie can be such a damn hypocrite sometimes.
[NO LEVEL - PART ONE OF TWO] |
Calbeck | 679 | 21 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2014-07-24T21:20:05+00:00 | 2021-03-03T22:14:43+00:00 | 3,055 | CHAPTER 21: ACE OF CLUBS, QUEEN OF DIAMONDS
"Loyal relationships are the basis of any truly free enterprise."
* * * * *
It was the dark of night, and Pink-E was waiting with Hard Way when Ambassador Cropper and I walked through the Embassy's outer gate.
Wait, what? It was late afternoon when we arrived. The sun should only just be setting...
The zebra mare clapped my back, all smiles beneath the Embassy courtyard's yellow lamplight. "You drive a hard bargain, Mister Pie. I will expect to see you again, as well as your amazing companions, at ten of the clock tomorrow morning. Forget neither the tribute, nor the speech."
Recovering quickly, I shook my head. "No ma'am, I sure won't." I watched as she turned and walked back into her Embassy, tossing that magnificent monochromatic mane. Such a nice lady! I didn't want to give her any reason to be disappointed with me.
The doors had barely clicked shut when Pink-E exploded.
"What were you doing in there all this time?! We've been worried sick about you!"
Hard Way looked ready to disagree, but Pink-E's angry face was pushing against mine, occupying all my attention for the moment. I skittered backward several steps. She relentlessly pursued, booping my nose with hers by way of punctuation.
"You called her ma'am?! You don't call anypony ma'am! What happened in there?! Did spacepony aliens scoop out your brain and replace it with magical power coils?!" A look of excitement briefly lit her face at the gruesome notion. " 'Cause you'd look soooooo CUTE with neck-bolts!"
The fiery glare returned, snuffing the glee like a shot-out light bulb. "So dish!"
Having rediscovered my spine, I straightened up and shoved past the bobbling spheroid. "I don't see that I need to explain anything I do to a robot." The clang of Pink-E's jaw hitting the pavement, I thought, should have been satisfying. Instead, it set off an unsettling notion of wrongness, taking a few moments to properly stifle. What was important right now was getting back to the Lucky Chance and turning in as soon as I could. Missing tomorrow's ten-o'-clock was not an option.
Pink-E followed, nattering about things I didn't care about, like hours of missing time and my general attitude. When I didn't rise to the bait, she began talking to the Vikean clopping alongside her instead. Hard Way was all too happy to chip in about how long he'd been stuck standing outside the Embassy, unable to go anywhere else. It wasn't like anypony in Pegas would ignore his screwdriver-helmet and braided mane, marking him unmistakeably as a Vikean on the loose, unless somepony relatively civilized were around to speak for him, blah blah blah blah...
I did my best to ignore the fact that they were literally talking about me behind my back. With my luck, stopping to explain anything at all would trigger a completely random series of events, likely ending with my being shanghaied into one of the Lords' do-wop musical numbers. The mere possibility drove a cold wave of revulsion up my spine.
Fortunately, the New Coltifornia embassy was just around the corner from the main gate to the Strip. It wouldn't be long before we were back at the Celestial Suite and I could slide into a hot bath and a cold beer... assuming I could swig the latter without getting a tirade from Pink-E about "addictive substances". It was just a beer, for fuck's sake! Not like I was shooting up Stampede or huffing Dash... and I really needed something to help with the headache that'd developed during my talk with Cropper...
...and then we rounded the corner.
Oh. Oh, fuck ME.
Staggering to a stop, I stared, star-struck by what I saw. I barely even noticed when Hard Way's helpful hoof propped my jaw back into place. Had it clanged when it hit the ground? I couldn't tell past the roaring in my ears.
The line up to the gate was absolutely swamped with ponies, buffalo and griffons trying to cajole, whine and bribe their way in, but that wasn't what brought me up short. Nor was it the line's length, which now stretched all the way down Mane Street, past even the distant spotlit façade of the Lords' Musical Revue. It wasn't that there was anything out of place with the Computron robot guards, aside from their numbers having been tripled to handle the surging tides of sentient offal.
It was that the line beyond the gate was similarly packed. My mutinous eyes followed its undulating path across the street, to the garden paths of casino grounds, past ranks of unusually-well-kept topiary, to the main doors of the Lucky Chance.
Above which now hung a huge white banner with bright red lettering:
The Cherry Pit
GRAND OPENING!
There may have been a pink cherry dotting the "i", but a sudden twitching in my eye made it hard to focus.
Like a drop of blood spreading through water, fury flooded my hind-brain. I could feel its familiar heat suffusing my face, knotting my brow, twisting my jaw into a hard line. It coursed down my neck, through my torso and down my legs. Every muscle tensed at its contact, demanding a harsh price be exacted from the obvious source of vexation.
That's it. I'm going to kill him.
And to do the job right, I would need the talisman key for Tag-End's collar. I'd left it with Pink-E when I went to see the Zoomers, and she'd left it with him when she flew out to help me at the Royale. Tag couldn't afford to leave it just lying around --- too far from its magical gem, and the collar's explosives would detonate. It had to be on him right now, and since Espresso had bound the gem to me, he couldn't just remove the collar either. Even if I had to take the key off his cold, dead body before triggering it, that was how this was going to end.
Charging into the crowd, bulling my way towards the checkpoint, biting and kicking anyone in my way, I began internally justifying the gory fantasy.
How dare he?! He mugs me, he robs me, he pays off his debts with my money, and I'm nice enough to not pop the stupid collar his own uncle stuck on him! I didn't ask for a godsdamned slave, did I?! I just wanted my money back! So I leave him alone for, what, barely a week, and he sets up a fucking nightclub?!
I squirmed between an angry pair of buffalo tribals, whose ire diplomatically stifled itself when Hard Way plowed through in my wake. Pink-E shrilled something at the Computrons. Since we weren't shot down on breaching the gate, I had to guess they'd accepted her random nonsense about "ice cream" or whatever. My focus was reserved, busily calculating the shortest possible route to a luridly bloody end for a lime-green unicorn.
I'm going to kill him.
Once inside, a few griffons, mules and ponies broke from the crowd for other places --- the Trots, the Double Beat-Down, the Silk Stocking, wherever. Mostly, though, they'd piled up to one side between the Strip's security wall and the Lucky Chance, awaiting their turn to be let inside. I galloped around to the right and alongside, ignoring the crowd's cursing and angry catcalls.
There he was.
Standing just behind a pair of brass stands with a velvet rope hanging between, all done up in his sassy "street-smart" outfit, looking every inch the wannabe punk he'd always been. Taking a mare's golden bits in his magical emerald grasp, stowing the glittering pre-War coins within a strongbox, lifting the rope to admit her...
He looked up at me, boring straight in at him. The sonovabitch had the nerve to smile and beam from under that stupid yellow mohawk. New gold chains drooped from his neck, probably bought with my money. Even his slave collar looked like he'd primped it up, the inner locking groove painted silver with pink cherries spaced at regular intervals.
I'm going to kill him.
Still smiling, he raised a hoof. "Hey boss! Welcome ba -"
Screaming rage, I hit him with a flying tackle.
* * * * *
It's not like I didn't try to kill him.
It's just hard to murder a pony, when you're dragged off and suspended in mid-air by robotic mandibles.
VIC-20 was still dangling me by my forelegs when another Computron arrived, carrying a bag of ice for Tag's eye and a compress for his bloody nose. Sitting on his haunches, he quietly accepted both, telekinetically pressing the items to his guilt-ridden face. Well, it looked guilt-ridden to me, anyways. He hadn't said a word since I hit him.
Meanwhile, more robots had arrived to shut the increasingly-agitated crowd outside. While that was going on, Pink-E led Hard Way to the elevator, presumably so they could relax in the Celestial Suite while I had it out with Tag-End. The faux-cowpony 'bot tried to fill the silence that followed by lecturing me on my manners.
"Now, Mister Dead Shot, t'weren't rightly polite to try an' slaughter yer own employee, th' moment ya laid eyes on 'im, was it?"
I didn't say a word. I just hung there, as boneless as I could manage, utterly lacking resistance. That way, I hoped, the robot would be fooled into thinking I'd calmed down and let me go. Then I could finish the job. I wouldn't be able to take my time about it, though. Maybe I could duck into S.A.T.S., grab the ten-mil, and pop a few rounds into Tag's unarmored chest. That should do. Needed to leave the head intact, so I could blast it off with the collar afterward.
"Ain't gonna say nothin' about it, huh?" VIC-20 directed his speakers towards the bloody-nosed unicorn, who looked about ready to set off the collar himself and save me the bother. But he just sat there holding the ice-bag and cloth over his face, as if trying to hide behind them. "How's about you over there, buckaroo?"
A snork, a snuffle, and a shiver was all the response the robot got. Which really pissed me off.
"What," I demanded, breaking my own internal vow of silence, "doesn't the conniving fuck have anything to say? Nothing about turning my employer's home, his private property, into... to... whatever the hell this is supposed to be?! And putting MY FUCKING NAME ON IT?! What were you thinking, you pointy-skulled waste of sperm?!"
There was a long moment, another sniffle. Tag lifted his head just enough to give me an angry eyeful.
"You even care what I was thinking, boss?" He spat the words, then spat on the carpet. "Go ahead. Tell me you care."
That... actually tripped me up, once I had to think about it. I didn't care. I just wanted him to try and defend his actions, so I could rip apart whatever he said regardless of what it was. Catharsis, not excuses. Being called out on it brought the logical little pony in my head out on stage, intruding on the angry one already holding forth.
With the result that I spent a good ten seconds sputtering like a moron.
"WHAT?! You... I didn't... of all the... this isn't about me!"
The young buck dropped everything and shot to his hooves. "Are you blind?!" He waved a hoof around the casino lobby for emphasis. "Why the fuck do you think I'm still here?!" Levitating the collar key out from his mane, he stomped up to where I hung in VIC-20's grip and shoved it against my muzzle. Its tiny emerald glinted, a deep green warmth set within the lighter shade of Tag's magic. "I could've taken this fuckin' thing with me and split any time I wanted! But you wanna know why I didn't? D'you even care?"
My ears laid back, flat and hard. "You always wanted to be a Freemane big-shot, Tag-End. The Lords already felt sorry for you because of that collar. With my money paying to rig up your own private little empire right on the Strip, suddenly you're on everypony's must-know list." I had nothing in me for him but unbridled contempt. "Once Pink-E left you with the key, all you needed was for the Zoomers to kill me. The only thing I haven't figured out is how you managed to pull this off in plain sight, without Horse coming down on you like a sack of hammers - "
VIC-20's happy-go-lucky cowboy voice sounded off. "Oh, he knew all about it. Pleased as punch, too!"
If I could have twisted around to properly stare at him, I would have. As it was, Tag-End managed well enough for both of us. His mage-light burst from sheer surprise, dropping the collar key onto a nearby coffee table, where it struck and bounced with a musical clink-tink before coming to rest.
"Wouldn't kid ya, pardners! But I'll let th' Big Hoss tell ya all about that hisself." VIC-20 let go. I hit the carpet, nearly tumbling before I got all four hooves down on the floor. "So if you two're back in cahoots again, he's upstairs, waitin' ta hear what Mister Shot's been up to. Don't keep too long... he's been powerful curious!"
My gaze trailed dumbly after the big bulky blue 'bot as it wheeled away into the casino gloom.
It hadn't even occurred to me that Tag-End could just have left. Key, collar, caps and all. There'd been enough for him to live a comfortable (if not luxurious) life just about anywhere else. Probably with enough left over to hire somepony good enough with explosives to get that collar off. Instead, he'd turned entrepreneur, setting up shop right under Horse's nose. Which, it turned out, Horse knew about, which in turn Tag didn't know about.
In any event, he should have known how I'd react, when and if I got back. But he hadn't looked surprised, or even worried, when I showed up out of the blue. He had looked surprised when I started pounding on him. He hadn't even tried to defend himself, at first. A pony with the acting chops to pull off a straight face like that, at the drop of a bit...
...would be any pony other than Tag, one of the least convincing liars I'd ever met. He'd been genuinely pleased to see me which, to my mind, made not a lick of sense. I turned to look at the lime-green unicorn buck, with his stupid yellow mohawk and his ridiculously-clean gangland outfit.
"You could've just cut and run," I muttered. "So why didn't you?"
His glare intensified for a moment, then he looked away. "Yeah, fuck you too, boss." Something I couldn't quite see was glistening on the side of his face, rolling down the cheek.
I walked over to the coffee table, slid the collar key into a shirt pocket. "Tell me."
He folded forelegs over chest, keeping his back to me. "Who cares. I can't be trusted with anything, right?" A statement, not a question.
Biting back a retort (something about slaves doing things behind their alleged master's back) took a bit of doing. My tone still let slip what I was thinking as I walked up. "Tell me..."
"Fuggoff, Cherry."
I bapped his shoulder with a hoof: "Tell me." The buck rocked slightly, but remained unfazed.
Bap, a little harder. He rocked a bit further, then back to his sitting position, redoubling his attempt to ignore me. "Tell me." You know, this was kind of fun. Would a weighted punching toy with a pony's image on it have a market in the NCR? I could call it Bap-A-Buck! Bap, bap-bap-bap, "Tell me, tellme, temmetummy!"
Finally he rounded on me, hastily wiping away whatever was on his face. "Allright, I'll tell you!" he shouted. "Just shuddup about it, already! Goddesses!"
Works every time.
Being left to himself, as it turned out, had given Tag-End a lot of free time to laze about. And then get bored. And then want to get drunk. And then remember I'd forbidden him to drink my booze, on pain of explosive de-cranialization.
That had started him down a new line of thought: what if somepony else drank it?
His first move was seeing how much of the Lucky Chance he could get into without being shot. The Computrons warned him off most floors. Some, the elevator wouldn't stop for at all. But he had free rein of the Celestial Suite and main casino floor, plus the old open-air rooftop lounge, once a major attraction for weary pegasi winging in from the East. He could also come and go from the casino as he pleased. His final experiment, bringing somepony else inside, also worked. So long he was personally escorting them, the robots didn't seem to notice their existence. Nor did they ever go up to the roof.
Tag-End had found a loophole in the casino's security, which he promptly and gleefully exploited.
Next, he tossed two hundred years' worth of windblown trash out of the weather-beaten lounge, scrubbed the place up as best he could, and stocked it with games and booze from the Celestial Suite. Meanwhile, his test-subjects/guests had been happily spreading tales of their exploits (such as they were) inside the legendary edifice. By the time he was ready to open for business, a line of curiosity-seekers was already forming. He could have made a mint just from guided tours and snack sales.
Instead he shot high, turning the lounge into an exclusive nightclub. Since nopony could come or go without escort, only the well-known and well-shod got the unicorn's nod. The atmosphere of relaxed socializing, sipping centuries-old liquor, and smooth jukebox jazz in the background (which was all Tag could manage at first anyways) turned out to be perfect for upscale hob-nobbers with too much cash weighing down their saddlebags. The club's real cachet was the status which came just from being there, anyway. The resultant clientele regulated itself well enough, even when he was away escorting guests in and out... nopony reliant on social circles wanted to hear themselves referred to as "that buck" the following day.
He'd even figured out the security angles. With the cashbox inside the front door, and the doors shut when he didn't need to be there, no one could make a grab for it unless they were departing --- putting them within ready gunfire range of every Computron patrolling the casino grounds. Close as the gate to Freemane might be, nopony stealing from the Lucky Chance was likely to make it past the reflecting pool.
The first night's till paid for a professional renovation team, a trustworthy bartender, and a proper restocking of liquor and supplies --- from who else, but good old Uncle Espresso! Apparently, familial rifts and selling one's nephew into slavery didn't prevent business as usual, so long as the caps weren't tin. Tag was even able to pay an electrician to fix the big red navigation light atop the casino. Once a guidance beacon for inbound pegasi, now it served "The Cherry Pit" as mood-lighting.
After that, Tag didn't even need to advertise. The long-dormant Lucky Chance was now THE place to mingle with the upwardly-mobile. Surely, anypony who didn't already know that must be totally disconnected from civilization!
Har, har, har. If only.
The only problems were the usual threats any businesspony gets when refusing someone entry to their establishment. But he would just smile, point to his collar, say "zero fucks, baby", and look to the next set of prospective customers. This left everyone to assume I was somewhere in the casino, ready to blow Tag's collar if he got out of line. Without somepony they could badger their way past, troublemakers settled for a few grumbled profanities before departing to find some fun elsewhere.
By the time Tag-End wound up his recap, he was plenty wound up otherwise. His stance was tense, his mane was shivering. Rage sparked across his eyes, green flints honing a newly-steeled backbone.
"...and THEN, while I'm bringing in the night's first customers, you show up outta nowhere, beat the crap outta me in front of everyone, and now we're shut down with an angry mob outside! Congratu-pony-lations, boss! Whatcha gonna do for an encore?!"
Even after all that exposition, one detail still escaped me.
"See, Tag, that's what I don't get. You risked getting popped by Horse's robots, to set up a nightclub he had to notice at some point. Sure, you made a bale of hay at it, but with Pink-E gone you could've just kept the collar key, grabbed my money, and run. With that much, you could've made a good living just about anywhere."
The flat look on his face should have been a warning, but I kept on. "Just tell me why."
His muzzle tightened down so hard on one side, it dragged his skull clockwise nearly a quarter-turn. "Why...?"
You'd think a unicorn, trying to tear his hair out, would use magic instead of hooves. He made a game try of it, anyway.
"Seriou- why?! Because I owe you eleven thousand bottlecaps, YOU MORON!"
By VIC-20's expression, he hadn't been expecting to have to come back and pull us apart again.
* * * * *
The ride up to Horse's private floor was quiet.
Too quiet.
Literally, too quiet. No Pink-E to blather, boop or beep in the background. Nothing out of the still-sullen unicorn, whom I hadn't yet mustered up enough honor to apologize to. Hard Way, at least, would have occupied that confined space simply by breathing. There wasn't even any dirge-speed elevator music going; maybe the ancient recording had finally given up the ghost.
Waiting in that tense, nigh-silent atmosphere, on our way to see another ghost in his machine, made my mane twitch.
So did VIC-20's grip on it. On the big blue robot's opposite side, Tag-End hung in similar fashion, forelegs folded and visibly simmering with enough heat to cook a can of beans on his head.
Well, I've definitely put my hoof in it, with him. From the day I'd been stuck with him, Tag-End Mocha had always come across as a whiny, uppity, spoiled, opportunistic brat. Nothing I'd heard about him from anypony else --- not the Lords, not Ash, not even his blood relations --- made him out to be anything different. Before I left to see the Zoomers, everything he did seemed to be out of fear: he obeyed me because I had an explosive collar on his neck, and before that, he robbed me to pay off an uncle with a ruthless adherence to the bottom line. Nothing about him had suggested the existence of a moral code.
Yet here he was, diligently trying to settle his debt instead of taking to the hills. The idea of a slave who willingly remained a slave was so foreign to me, Zebra Philosophy 101 would have been easier!
That didn't mean there wasn't a reason for his behavior. Why hadn't he run away from his uncle in the first place? After rolling me in that alley, he didn't necessarily have to go back and pay Espresso with his share of the take. It's possible he was afraid of Ash coming after him --- what pony wouldn't be? --- but something about that idea didn't quite ring true. Then it clicked.
Tag had been raised to pay his debts. Even if it hurt.
Espresso had raised him, but only as a debt to his brother. At least briefly, he'd tried to protect Tag from me, but even then the older unicorn had been torn between finances and family. In the end, his business reputation had won out over blood. That was the core of the Mocha family's morality... or at least Espresso's. It was all about obligations.
By contrast, the social obligations in my life had been limited almost exclusively to either business associates or bounty marks. Every so often I might get dragged into an extended conversation, like with the mule Whiskey Rose back at the NCR border checkpoint, but otherwise I'd lived my whole life avoiding other ponies as much as possible. Dad had been the only real exception.
And he was dead. Having spent his whole life trading and joking and laughing and smiling with other ponies, a bunch of them finally ganged up and murdered him, all for the meager wealth his sunny social disposition had garnered. None of the friends he'd made over the course of those many years were around to help. Nor were a smile and hearty hoofshake up to the task of keeping death from his door. Somepony good with a gun, and with less consideration for the sanctity of equine life, might have...
To me, the expedient way out of a problem was usually the smart one, but to Tag-End that wasn't always an option. Like Hard Way he had an ingrained moral code, setting lines he chose not to cross, even when things were going against him.
Idiots.
The elevator came to a halt, its doors opened, and VIC-20 tossed us both out onto the tile floor, where we landed in a tangled heap. "Y'all play nice now, y'hear?" The doors closed on his still-smiling cowpoke face, locking with an audible click. Why does every robot I meet seem to develop a sarcastic streak?
I'd been up here once before, of course, but with four of VIC's big, boxy, blue brethren herding me along to see Horse, none of which showed up this time to repeat the performance. Once Tag and I had extricated ourselves from... er, ourselves... we both finally had a chance to see how "the big hoss" lived.
Except it didn't look like anypony lived here at all. Maybe once... but not now.
Everything was clean, orderly, dust-free, but with an antiseptic weight to the air, heavier than devastation might have otherwise carried. It reminded me of the Casino Royale's tomb-like atmosphere, only with bigger robots to keep up the maintenance. Did every ultra-rich buck really want this kind of invisible legacy? Pretty crypts nopony was ever meant to see? At least the Stables had living ponies buried inside them, preserving a more civilized shred of ponykind for a (theoretically) better future. This seemed like the complete opposite, sealing away the best the old world had to offer in a cold sarcophagus.
Not that it wasn't a very nice sarcophagus. A world unto itself, surrounded by thick glass windows, Edwin R. Horse's personal penthouse would not have looked out of place as a snowglobe diorama. That is, what I could see of it. Like the Celestial Suite, it seemed to take up an entire floor of the Lucky Chance's giant sky-disc, but higher up, where the disc tapered to its widest point. Unlike the Celestial's airy, wide-open floorplan, though, Horse's digs bore the hallmarks of Earth-pony architecture --- solid walls, sturdy doors, and stolidly-understated ostentation.
Say that ten times fast.
We found ourselves standing on a mezzanine, a high-mounted safety rail preventing anypony from falling into the large dining area below. Hadn't this been a closed-off corridor, before? Regardless, the flooring tiles now ended on the right at a door while continuing left to the short stairwell I remembered. Perhaps my memory was playing tricks on me.
Not wanting to be so impolitic as to go exploring the buck's private quarters while he waited on our pleasure, I led Tag down to stand once more before Horse's giant monitor, where his larger-than-life image waited with a patient smile.
"Ah, my little ponies. Messieurs Dead-Shot and... Mocha, if I'm not very much mistaken?"
Called by name, Tag shivered visibly but managed a brief, courteous nod. I suppose I couldn't blame him: this was the buck in whose shadow he'd lived all his life. It must have been a bit like meeting Princess Celestia back in the day, except without Ol' Sun-Butt's legendary reputation for warmth and kindness. I had a personal appreciation for Horse's cordially businesslike attitude, being the pragmatic sort myself, but I guess that left it up to me to carry on the conversation.
"Yes, sir. Tag-End Mocha, of the Ess-Mart Mochas. He's my... apprentice."
An expressive eyebrow went up. "From my information, he's quite a bit more than that, at least to you. He would, as well, seem an exceptionally courageous entrepreneur. Willing to take the big risks, for the best returns. I admire that... it reminds me of my early days. Taking over the family business, becoming a captain of industry. Skirting the obstacles between myself and success."
Horse's gaze intensified slightly. "Do you consider me to be an obstacle to your success, Mister Mocha?"
Tag sputtered for a moment, waving a foreleg in frantic negation. "Nn-no! Of course not, sir! I- I- I-"
Horse laughed, a lighthearted chortle without an ounce of menace to it. The kind you have to practice at. "Calm yourself, Mister Mocha! I was merely having a bit of a jest, albeit at your expense."
The unicorn stopped his flailing, blinked. "Y- you were... just fucking with me?"
I think my wince more or less complemented Horse's frown. "I suppose such a crude colloquialism," he said, placing special emphasis on the last two words, "might be considered apt in certain, shall we say, 'unrefined', circles. In future, Mister Mocha, I would ask you to maintain a more professional dialect."
Tag practically ate a hoof trying to keep his mouth shut, all the while mumbling assent.
Horse's frown transformed into something more beatific. "Your linguistic faux pas notwithstanding, I remain impressed by the boldness of your endeavor."
The flowery compliment helped him find his courage. "Really...? Because, um, sir? If we could open the casino floor -"
Horse sighed with more than a hint of irritation, monitors flickering in electronic sympathy. "Absolutely not. The balance of power in New Pegas, Mister Mocha, hinges on mutually-advantageous relationships between myself and the so-called 'families' which run the casinos. I give them free rein, more or less, within their respective domains, serve as a neutral binding arbiter to resolve conflicts, and obtain a share of their weekly profits. Should I enter into direct competition by re-opening the Lucky Chance in full, it would destroy that arrangement... and I have no such interest."
I took a step forward, letting Tag slink into my shadow (such as it was). Horse was already on to other matters.
"Now, shall we discuss your impact on one of those 'families', Mister Shot?"
Here comes the horseshoe...
"I must say I approve of your disrupting the New Coltifornia Republic's coarse attempts to literally buy influence. The Silver Slippers are New Pegas' center for haute couture. This makes them amenable to flattery, at least from those they consider their peers or superiors. I am, naturally, both."
He paused, muzzle wrinkling in distaste. "So consider my apprehension when you casually named me as your employer, whilst simultaneously destroying a perfectly innocent supper, replete with wild accusations of base barbarism."
...and there's the grenade.
The memory still burned, flushing my face with residual shame. I'd thought myself a hero, rescuing a tied-up mare from what I'd thought were a secret clan of cannibals. The kind of thing I'd probably read about at some point in an old Daring Do novel... the part where the heroine would loudly reveal Auhitzotl's latest plot, and then escape while the monster recovered from the shock of being found out. In my case, the 'cannibals' had been experimenting with an all-vegetarian dish designed to mimic the taste of beef. Instead of eating sentient beings, they'd been trying to remove meat from their diet entirely. The 'damsel in distress' turned out to be a thief named Ranseur, scheduled to be remanded to Horse's jurisdiction for justice after the banquet. With her at my side, I'd shouted denunciations at the Slippers, all while threatening them with Horse's wrath.
It hadn't been one of my better days.
"Fortunately," Horse continued, "you were able to refrain from murdering anypony, although your role in Ranseur's escape remains unmistakable. I was required to make certain... concessions... as compensation for your indiscretions. Were I not able to count certain Slippers as close personal acquaintances from before the War, things might have gone quite differently." This time, he arched that brow at me. "I trust, Mister Shot, that I need not concern myself with your conduct from here forwards, regarding either my business associates or your own?"
The sidelong jab at the beating I'd given Tag-End was all too clear. "No, sir."
Horse nodded, apparently satisfied, but his expression didn't lighten up much. "Moving along. It's less than a day's travel from here to Nellie Air Force Base, Mister Shot. You were gone a full week. Given the extensive delay in your return, I take it that we do not have a rapport with the Zoomers."
Finally, a chance to be the bearer of good tidings! "To the contrary, Mister Horse. Their leader, Mother Matrix, sends her best regards. If it comes to a dust-up, the Zoomers are with us." I tactfully neglected to mention the bits about Rainbow Dash and our dealings with the NCR. I was finding the details I'd hammered out with Ambassador Cropper a little fuzzy to recall anyway. "They required a favor. I spent a few days running around the Casino Royale, getting that taken care of."
"Ah," he intoned, steepling his forehooves together. "So you would have had something to do with one of the Royale's reactors achieving critical mana? The radiation pulse was quite noticeable, even from here."
"It was either that, or never come back. With this." Reaching back into my saddlebags' holdout pouch, I nipped out the schematics I'd recovered from the Royale and held them up to Horse's screens. A few crumbs of goldenberry muffin tumbled from its creases to the floor.
He actually squinted. Then those calculating brown eyes grew wide. "Eclair...? Eclair Entertainments pulled off the perfection of nanosprite technology?" An exceptionally pregnant pause ensued.
"Well now," the yellow-coated image finally ventured, "that's certainly a horse of a different color, isn't it?" He hummed aloud for a few moments before continuing. "Quite... proactive of you, Mister Shot. And don't think it's escaped my attention that you were escorted to the New Coltifornia embassy on your return, for a rather extended discussion of some sort. That you chose not to hoof over these blueprints says much about your commitments."
A slot opened beneath the monitor. Out spat a bar of gold.
A genuine. Solid. Bar. Of gold. It hit the floor with a suitably heavy klunk.
"I reward initiative in my employees, Mister Shot. This should cover not only your time and trouble in acquiring both alliance and schematics, but a commensurate bonus for the latter as well."
It took me a minute to collect myself. Still faster than my unicorn buckservant, though, whose jaw had probably cracked a flooring tile. I figured it was time to show him a little more consideration in the trust department. "Tag, do you mind taking that back to the Suite? Just put it anywhere in the main room. Unless," I added quickly, "Mister Horse still needs you for something else?"
The image pursed its lips, but gave only a small headshake. Clearly relieved to have a reason to go, Tag wrapped his green magic around the weighty bar, lifting it into the air with a grunt. Even unicorn magic, it seemed, had its limits. He climbed the staircase with his precious cargo in tow, rounded the elevator's mezzanine, and was gone.
Horse cleared his electronic throat. "Despite having taken your time about it, you've done exceptionally well in dealing with one of the Moohave's more significant powers. As I mentioned in our previous meeting, there are several others I wish you to approach --- hopefully, on an accelerated timetable. To impress upon you the need for alacrity..."
A section of the wall behind me opened up. Behind it, an elevator barely large enough for a pony to turn around in.
"...a bit of education may be in order."
I stepped inside the claustrophobic box, tamping mental hooves on a twinge of trepidation as the door slid shut. Horse might be on a schedule, but he didn't seem angry. The elevator began descending with a slight lurch; I stomped another hoof on recent memories of plummeting.
Horse's voice began projecting from a speaker somewhere. "I presume that, being a denizen of the wastes, you aren't exactly a student of history?"
"Not really, no." My reading-out-of-boredom habits notwithstanding, I figured pleading semi-ignorance might be sensible. When your boss wants to be chatty, let him. Besides, I didn't have anything else to do until the door opened again.
"Then allow me to set the stage. Before the War, there were no corporations. Goods and services existed according to what ponies wished to provide, prices were set by what ponies wished to charge. Government regulation was limited to adjudicating claims of unfair trade. It was an excellent system of freewheeling market enterprise. But it was afflicted by one great flaw, which confounded pony economists for millennia: the Cutie Mark."
My brain smacked into a brick wall. "Wa-huh?"
I could practically hear a smile creasing Horse's muzzle. "The Cutie Mark, Mister Shot. So ingrained in equine culture and history. So indispensable to a pony. Part and parcel of one's ideals, aspirations, identity. So very important, that at least one post-War society has adopted the use of branding irons on suspected traitors, expressly to blot out their Marks."
I winced. Which would be worse? The stench of burning hair, the agony of searing, charring flesh? Or the destruction (however symbolic) of a pony's inherent talents?
The history lesson continued apace, as did the elevator's descent. "Consequently, ponies entered the workforce with expectations of doing something related to their Mark. When they could, they were highly motivated and inventive. The most successful businesses were often run by single-minded impresarios, each following the call of their personal Cutie Mark. When ponies could not find that sort of work, they complained about being 'denied' their 'destinies'. As companies got larger, they tended to collect more workers unhappy with their lot in life. Like a chain reaction, poor workplace morale led to shoddy production and --- inevitably --- the company's collapse.
"In short, Equestria possessed very little heavy industry. When war broke out, it was expected to take no more than a few months to crush Caesar's military. Instead, the conflict became protracted. The nation needed to re-tool its economy in its support, at the same time as it was losing an ever-increasing portion of its labor force to military service. To arm, equip and feed the largest army Equestria had ever fielded required mass-production methods... exactly the sort of economic efficiency which it sorely lacked.
"My particular genius was not merely that I recognized this problem. I also created its solution."
Horse paused for a long, dramatic moment, perhaps hoping I would see where he was going with this. Instead I stared at the elevator's speaker, still trying to digest all the exposition. Finally, he sighed.
"I'm referring to 'herd mentality', Mister Shot. A psychological trait, manifesting quite strongly in ponies. The larger a group of ponies becomes, the more they tend to sync with one another. During peacetime, it was not unknown for ponies to drop everything they were doing to join spontaneous musical street performances. During the War, zebra forces quickly learned to disengage when they heard Equestrian troops start singing."
Digesting that concept gave my skull a wicked bad tummy-ache.
"I simply --- harnessed --- this quirk of equine nature with a new kind of business enterprise. The corporation. By making every employee part of an immense team effort, giving them numerous diverse projects which they could shift between as best suited their 'destiny', corporations made large-scale factory production and research development possible.
"Before I came along, pony technology had largely stagnated at the level of steam engines. Why design and build a machine to do a job, when Unicorn magic is cheaper? I founded Robronco to reverse that trend. To show Equestria that Earth ponies were good for more than menial labor. I developed, and produced, everything from desk lamps to film projectors, sparking a minor industrial revolution as other companies formed to follow my example.
Did this elevator shaft have a bottom, or what? Horse's backstory continued, having already turned this into the longest elevator ride of my life. Then again, I could count the number of elevators I'd ever been in on my hooves...
"Once the War began in earnest, I shifted Robronco to specialize in robotics, initially to provide domestic help for families involved in the war effort. The 'Mister Handy' line was particularly successful. So much so, the Army ordered a military version. Eventually, over ninety percent of all robots and electronic components built in Equestria relied on Robronco parts. Demand for Robronco products began to outstrip my ability to supply them, leading to partnerships with other technologically-focused firms. We had a hoof in the holograms of Flash Industries, Four Stars' monorail systems, Stable-Tec's PipBucks and terminals, and much, much more. Towards the end, I even obtained a majority share in Rep'Corn's experimental rocketry program. I'm sure you've heard of them."
Unlike the Empire, Equestria hadn't needed rockets to get its megaspells between points A and B. But that didn't mean ponies couldn't use the same methods if they had a mind to. Rep'Corn had been as good a reason as any for the zebras to have targeted the region.
Rig together a megaspell, target to be fixed. Make that target a dragon's egg, add it to the mix. Necromancy's easier than most destructive magics, so now you've got an assembly line that manufactures... tragics?
What was I, a lyricist all of a sudden? Call it a work in progress. Anyways, stick that mutilated mess of mana on a Rep'Corn missile, light it off, and whoosh-BOOM goes any junky-looking city cluttering up your horizon. Though for some reason, New Pegas hadn't been all that heavily targeted... or at least, it didn't look like it. Like I've said before, most local ruins had been due to post-Princess rioting. There'd also been some problems with irradiated dust blowing in from the strikes on Los Pegasus --- what folks nowadays call "The Boneyard" --- but anypony seeing New Pegas for the first time would marvel at how relatively intact it was...
The elevator suddenly jerked to a stop. "Well, enough exposition for now. We're there." With a soft hiss, the doors slid apart to reveal a huge, dank, dimly-lit cube of mostly open space. Despite profligate use of right-angles, it reminded me of caverns I'd sometimes used in a pinch to shelter from rad-storms. The gloom obscuring its farther reaches was, paradoxically, heightened by the central glow of a large circular holo-table, its maelstrom of colorful symbology surrounded by dusty old swivel-chairs. Each silhouette projected long shadows across the floor, like a spread of pikes warning off overly-inquisitive cavalry.
The premonition was useless. There was nothing else to see, not even an old coffee-maker or bookcase, as I trotted up to the table. A map sprang into focus, zooming in on Equestria's old south-western Provinces: Coltifornia, Neighvada, Mareizona, Coltorado, Ewetah. The Republic's borders, that being most of Coltifornia, plus bits of neighboring Neighvada and Mareizona, were shaded blue and overlaid with the two-headed-Ursa flag. The rest of Mareizona, plus Coltorado and parts of southern Ewetah, were red. The wreath-embossed banner of Incitatus' Herd floated near the ruins of Phoenix. New Pegas' holdings, the southernmost tip of Neighvada, were represented by a small triangle of white.
I briefly wondered how the Herd had managed so well, with its capital practically atop the mating grounds of the eponymous birds.
Around the periphery stood the game-board's minor players. The Federation to the northwest, orange with speckles of red denoting its conflict with "the Resistance" for control of the Ponave Desert. A perfect circle of sullen purple, overlaid with skull-and-bones and a question mark, highlighted Detrot's ruins on the southwestern coast. New Braynan stood as a smear of stubborn yellow in central Ewetah, butting heads against the Herd's most recent incursions.
A wordless minute of study later, the map zoomed in on New Pegas' triangle, swapping geopolitical colors for detailed topological data. But instead of the city proper, it centered directly on Hoofer Dam, with the Coltorado River below and Lake Cider above. All three began to glow a vibrant, metallic gold.
"You might be surprised, Mister Shot, but your little revelation about Benny seizing my poker chip has forced a rather... extensive reconsideration of broader affairs. Besides fresh water and relatively abundant electrical power, what do you think makes Hoofer Dam so important to our friends in the Herd and New Coltifornia?"
It didn't take long to figure that one out. "Ghastlier Gorge. Runs from Lake Cider damn-near up to the Continental Divide."
Horse didn't disguise his pleasure: a teacher's pride in a fast-learning pupil. "Correct. Wide and deep, with the Coltorado running its entire length. Not that the river is much of an obstacle, compared to the Gorge's denizens. It was called 'Ghastly' even before the War. Neither magical radiation, nor industrial taint, have improved upon its character." He paused.
I seized on the offered thread. "Making the Dam a chokepoint for large-scale crossings between Eastern and Western Equestria. It's either that or take the long way around the Gorge, through Ewetah. Meaning New Braynan."
"Yet, why attack New Pegas instead of New Braynan? A small, albeit fortified, trade hub, absent natural barriers to invasion such as rivers or mountains?"
I shook my head firmly. "Last time the NCR and Herd tried to push up big forces, the locals either blew or poisoned most of the regional wells. Neither side's been able to support more than a few scattered companies in the region since. Braynan's militia could hold the walls against forces that small until Luna returns. So nopony's bothered trying."
"Precisely, Mister Shot. Which is why the Ursa and Phoenix have centered their efforts here instead."
Once again the map shifted, placing Hoofer Dam on the northern edge with the Coltorado weaving its way south until finally disappearing into the sands of the San Palomino. The dispositions of various Herd and NCR units, mostly to either side of the river's course, blinked into existence. Early in the war, the NCR had pushed across the Coltorado, establishing a beach-head south of the Dam. The Herd promptly crossed further south in a flanking manuever, which the NCR counter-flanked with another crossing, and so on. Both sides had kept leapfrogging each other until they hit the edge of the Macintosh Hills.
At which point the Minotaur clans living in those hills came down to play a round of something they called "golf". Turns out no one can hit a grenade (as just one example) farther, or more accurately, than a "Mac-Itaur" with a hooked stick. After a few months of long-range bombardment from biped cattle wearing plaid knee-length skirts, both the Republic and Herd informally agreed to leave the Macintosh Hills the fuck alone. This effectively put an end to the flanking game, with the conflict devolving to entrenchments and raiding thereafter.
"It's something of a misnomer," Horse continued, "to say that history repeats itself. More accurately, people faced with similar circumstances tend to make similar decisions. To understand any given war, one must first examine the underpinning rationales. And to do that, Mister Shot, I must expose you to several uncomfortable truths."
The holo-table wiped itself clean, then drew in the pre-War Province of Mareizona, its borders broken into a jumble of hazy squiggle-shapes. "The Republic's public-relations people tell one story about how their conflict with the Herd began. Through my Computrons, I watched quite another version unfold."
From the west, a small blue arrow appeared, snaking along the broad red line of a major highway. "When Republic scouts first made their way down Imperial Highway Fifteen, it was not in search of New Pegas or Hoofer Dam." Sure enough, when the red line curved north, the blue arrow kept moving east. "They sought something far more important, to their interests, than scavenging what they believed to be bombed-out ruins."
A belt of green, lining both sides of the Coltorado River, faded in. "Farmland, Mister Shot. Farmland, already occupied by a motley array of tribal groups, inconveniently standing in the way of Republican progress." A much larger arrow now appeared from the same direction, pushing into and scattering aside several of the smaller shapes. "The NCR seized the western side of the river and imported settlers to begin working it. The tribes regrouped and began fighting back. In some cases, they did so rather savagely."
The map flashed out of existence, to be replaced by a newspaper headline... one every Republic citizen was expected to memorize.
MASSACRE AT WILLOW BEACH!
Below the text sat a giant black-and-white photo, which even so had been snapped from a great distance to take in the whole of the scene. It centered on a broken old roadway stretching away into the distance, to either side of which were arrayed wooden, X-shaped frameworks. To each such cross, the burnt, battered, lacerated body of a pony had been nailed, hooves driven through with railroad spikes. Below that image, several smaller close-ups presented the stigmata in all its gruesome glory, after which the article began a proper railing against barbarous cultures of evil and iniquity.
"The entire town of Willow Beach. The NCR's first and only settlement on the eastern bank, wiped out to a filly and put on display in an attempt to shock and awe New Coltifornia into retreat. All dutifully photographed and reported by the free press for benefit of dissenters and neigh-sayers back home. Nopony spoke against the NCR's annexations, after that."
I looked around for the source of Horse's voice, and maybe the camera he was obviously watching me from. "And why would they?" I shouted, gesturing to the picture with a hoof. "I mean, look at this!"
"Yes, Mister Shot. I know it's rather blurry, given how far away the bodies are from the camera. Nor does showing you a larger version magically clarify the original. But please do look at it." I felt my stomach drop into my horseshoes.
Not because the sight horrified me... at least, not any more than it ever had. It was because I suddenly realized, given the context of this discussion, that Horse could have only one reason for bringing this up... to convince me that my nation's justification for all-out war was somehow fabricated. Without even looking, I wanted to call him a liar.
I also knew perfectly well that doing so, while trapped in his basement, would be a really bad idea. It was time, once again, to humor the boss. So I leaned in towards the hologram, putting my best squint on. Maybe I could bluff through, figure out what he wanted to hear and spit it out at him. I didn't need to believe a conspiracy theory for the purpose of going along with it. "What'm I looking for, here?"
A disapproving tsk-tsk answered my query. "That would be telling. Surely a pony whose livelihood relies on your particular skill set should have no problems seeing what I see...?"
My "skill set": identifying pony-sized targets at long ranges, calculating distances, adjusting for wind, and thereafter sending small bits of metal through their craniums at high velocity. That's what my cutie mark told everyone about me, in any case...
Pony-sized targets at long ranges. Every pony in the photograph...
"Ah," drawled Horse, a tinge of bitterness to his voice. "realization begins to dawn. I never get tired of seeing a pony's jaw go slack, even if only for a moment."
I clamped down as though on the firing bit of a battle saddle. "Down to the fillies, they said."
"So they said."
And there were no fillies in this picture. Or colts. If this wasn't the population of Willow Springs I was looking at, what the hell was it? The smaller shots proved that the bodies had been examined in detail, how could... oh. In extremely fine print, each was credited to "Armed Forces Archival Detachment". They'd never allowed the 'free press' close enough to start asking questions. I remembered the article saying the bodies had been immediately taken down and interred on the east bank after the photo-shoot, there supposedly being insufficient transport available to evacuate the bodies. Not without risking a massed attack by tribals, anyway, or maybe the arrival of paradores looking to nest in so many dead bodies...
But what would the NCR's motives for this be, anyway? Just extra farmland? That couldn't be all of it...
No. No, it wasn't. In a desert environment, water is everything. The NCR hadn't initially moved on New Pegas, hadn't been able to access Lake Cider beyond once they realized the city was well enough capable of defending itself. That left the Coltorado as the only major water source for a hundred miles. Not only could its waters irrigate the desert, helping fill an ever-expanding population's bread-basket, but they also provided the springboard for any further military expansion eastward.
Unless serious competition for that water existed, that is.
Horse carried on, entirely too nonchalantly, during my internal crisis of faith. "The local tribes, used to feuding for centuries with one another over minor grievances, had taboos against attacking noncombatants. If they didn't, they would have driven one another into extinction before the Republic ever arrived. Tribes which managed to destroy all of their neighbor's bravos would simply absorb whomever was left. They had no taboos, however, about desecrating the bodies of defeated bravos to destroy the survivors' morale."
The newspaper disappeared, replaced now by camera footage... grainy, also taken at a distance, but unmistakeable all the same. "My Computrons watched it all from across the river. Your army crossed, built the start of a small town, and spread out from there to create a perimeter. Behind them, unicorns in black suits and sunglasses arrived with fresh lumber."
A montage, of sorts, followed. Up went the crosses, levitated by unicorn magic and power-tooled into place. The bodies quickly followed, pneumatic hammers driving great iron spikes through hoofwalls, flesh and pine. Then the faux-town caught fire. By the time the soldiers returned from their distant patrols, the "massacre" had already happened, with nary a black-suited unicorn to be seen.
"Having arranged a suitable casus belli for the public to rally behind, the Republic's campaign began in earnest, and of course at first it all went swimmingly. It always does, when one has the element of surprise, better-armed and -trained troops, and overwhelming local numbers. On their own, the riverside tribes had no chance at all. Nor were their neighbors, having their own long-standing vendettas, unhappy to see them go. Incitatus, however... he saw a much larger picture."
Another shift, another photo. This one was sharp, clear and in full color: a grey stallion in red robes, golden mane gleaming under a wreath of laurel branches. He had one hoof held up to the side, as though explaining something to the four rather-less-civilized-looking ponies before him. All were filthy, scratched and gaunt, but held themselves with airs of authority, ears pricking toward their guest in curiosity. Each also had their own unique look --- a black stallion who'd braided every bit of hair on his body that was long enough, a white mare who'd scarred and painted her face to resemble a skull. A rather plain brown mare, with tears tattooed beneath one eye. The last, a stallion bright purple in both hide and mane, had powdered his legs with chalk.
"He convinced the elders of his own tribe, the Phoenicians, to let him go forth and seek a few alliances. From what my agents tell me, none of their immediate neighbors were any more interested in the conflict than they were, but they thought Incitatus might learn some humility trying to unravel the skein of inter-tribal feuding."
Suddenly, the map linked several blobs together, all on the edges of the NCR advance.
"Instead, he took the vague authority given him and welded the remaining river-tribes, mostly buffalo, together. Before his elders realized it, he had begun arming, training and leading his 'Herd' to conduct hit-and-run attacks. Slowing the Republic, even a little, encouraged other nearby tribes to join the alliance."
The map's borders began to stabilize.
"The Republic brought in more troops. Incitatus left his best lieutenants in charge, then proceeded on a grand tour of Mareizona, recruiting tribe after tribe in a rather brilliant campaign of pure diplomacy. He could assess what each tribe needed. What it wanted. How it dealt with its neighbors, and how it would respond to either carrot or stick. Only then would he wield either, doing so with decisive success time and time again. His own tribe was, ironically enough, the last to join... perhaps bitter over how the stallion they'd thought so little of had accomplished so very much, in so little time. I've had my own experiences, in that regard."
Only a few of those starting blobs remained. The rest formed a sea of red, unified against the stalled and blunted blue arrow.
"Hundreds of years of bickering, robbery and murder... the New Coltifornia Republic burned that all away in less than a year, giving their would-be victims a central enemy to focus on. 'The enemy of my enemy' may, as some say, be 'nothing more than my enemy's enemy'. But you'd be surprised how often that's enough."
Color me unsurprised. Sick to my stomach, but unsurprised. Try following NCR politics for a year, and you might understand.
"I trust we have a mutual understanding, Mister Shot...?" Swallowing hard, I nodded. "Good. Then I think it should be obvious why time is of the essence here. The Republic's current leadership has invested far too much political capital, in what they believed would be a short and victorious annexation. Suing for peace, at this point, would leave them worse off than before the 'Willow Beach Massacre'. Meanwhile, Incitatus' Herd has slowly been transmogrifying into a new take on the ancient Zebra Empire, complete with Tribunes and Senators and so forth. Which I suppose is, at least, a better route than it could have taken..."
The holo-table returned the situation map to current-day, bringing with it a flurry of red-and-blue movements around the Dam.
"Regardless, the Herd now sees New Coltifornia as a rival Republic in need of crushing. Both nations have locked themselves into a purely existential conflict, one which will most likely be decided by whomever can seize and control the Hoofer Dam... and with it, naturally, New Pegas."
Blowing out a sigh, I nodded, while internally my gut gnarled around the idea of becoming a traitor. Not like the NCR had ever been my buddy, my pal, my friend, but it'd always been my home. And while I'd always been something of a bastard (probably literally), I liked to think there were lines even I wouldn't cross.
The map refocused once more, lighting the neutral factions surrounding New Pegas in bright green. Nellie AFB flickered and turned white, showing its new allegiance. So far as Horse knew, anyways. Half-a-dozen others remained green. I recognized the Vikeans on Lake Cider, but things quickly went downhill from there.
"Seriously...? The Cossacks, hell, sure, they're mercenaries through and through. You could just throw a load of money at whoever hasn't been hired by some NCR concern by now. But Stable Twenty? You can't not know who the Friends are!"
The smirk was audible. "A wise individual once said, 'we must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately'. That, Mister Shot, is the problem we face in the short term. At the minimum, if you cannot negotiate an alliance with one or more of these groups, then that group must be eliminated from contention. Never roll the dice when bets are still being made."
Now the holo-map lifted into the air, wrapping itself into a giant globe before spinning to the left and down slightly. When it settled once more, nearly a third of the Old World was depicted in a patchwork rainbow of conflict, literally dozens of factions springing into being. Bright red circles popped up around several: Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Hoofington, and someplace called Maripony.
"Not to mention, ours are hardly the only dice in play. Even now, bets are being made at tables where we have no seat, no say in the matter. Until recently, all the betting was strictly small-potatoes, with inter-factional conflicts preventing any one group from achieving regional hegemony. That was, essentially, the goal of the Enclave..." Most of the continent went light-blue, overlaying the other colors. "...to keep the wasteland's denizens at each other's throats, while they constructed a massive invasion armada. Classic divide-and-conquer strategy. Quite admirable, at least in terms of planning and execution."
My brain felt like it had been hit with a flowerpot. And then an anvil. And then a wagon full of hay-bales.
And then a piano.
"Honestly, Mister Horse... doesn't that make my job kind of pointless? Unless you're planning to hold off the NCR, the Herd, AND this Enclave somehow...?"
"Not at all, Mister Shot. The Enclave is not what concerns me. Even with their regional technological superiority, they are simply too few to properly occupy such a large area. Despite using most of the old weather-control towers to make their clouds farmable, they have never been able to support a large population. Nor is the idea of all-out conquest without its opponents in Enclave social and political circles."
Rainbow Dash's comments on Pegasi being poor farmers, even on the ground where agriculture belonged, came to mind.
"No, my fine buck, what concerns me is that somepony --- or someONE --- seems to be trying to activate the 'Gardens of Equestria' project."
The who with the what now? Every time it seemed Horse was about to wrap up this showboating, he came up with a whole new set of worries I couldn't possibly do anything about. That way lies neurosis...
"If the worst came to worst --- as it ultimately did --- Gardens of Equestria was meant to harness those same towers as focal points for a particular megaspell called 'Fail-Safe'. Designed by no less a Unicorn than Twilight Sparkle, whose work on it goes back to before even the Discordian Conflict. It sputtered rather laughably at the time, but it's quite amazing what a determined pony can achieve in the course of a few decades. Its function? Nothing less than purging Equestria of the magical radiation and similar contaminants expected to be released in event of a significant megaspell exchange. I only learned of its existence through my Interministry doppelganger, and that shortly before he went rogue. I never learned of its location."
I am not going to ask what a "doppelganger" is.
"I had assumed that, since the GoE facility was never activated, it must have been destroyed. Even if not, its operation was reliant on six ponies working mutually as embodiments of the Elements of Harmony. As all of the Element Bearers were killed or went missing on or around Balefire Day, and as wasteland life tends to agitate against even one such Bearer coming into their prime --- let alone six --- I felt secure in believing 'Gardens of Equestria' posed no threat to me."
'Threat to...'?
Clarity washed over me. "You're stuck in a pod powered by magical reactors. If the Gardens fired off..."
"My reactors would likely go dead, and then so would I."
"Sooo... you want me to find and destroy the Gardens?"
A derisive snort, sounding not altogether equine, as though he had a cold. Or his intercom had just glitched.
"Oh please, Mister Shot, nothing so dramatic or unnecessary. It's entirely possible that no one will ever manage to put a full set of Bearers together to begin with. But even if I work from the presumption that GoE activation is inevitable, I am already fully occupied with the situation here in the West. I'm not about to send my would-be protege thousands of miles away on the slimmest of chances that you might affect the outcome in my favor. Particularly not when a far superior solution is already at hoof."
The map zoomed out, the globe shrank. A thin white ring appeared, circling the planet at an upwards angle, with small arrows indicating movement of some kind from west to east. Just appearing now at the far left was a little dot. Above it, in tiny text, was a name:
Celestar One.
"Equestria's reliance on coal for power was a concern even before the War began. Other sources already existed, such as with hydroelectric dams and use of raw unicorn magic to directly power machinery, but that went only so far. I proposed to Celestia's government the idea of putting power stations into orbit around the planet, each one bearing panels to transform sunlight into useful power, which could then be beamed down to ground-side receiving stations. Celestia herself liked the idea, but none of her advisors did. Too expensive compared to coal, they said. The more paranoiac of them claimed that being first to orbit an artificial satellite would be provocative towards the Zebra Empire. It was not until a few years before the end, when things got truly desperate, that an off-planet power source began looking strategically worthwhile to them."
"I had already, of course, begun moving on my own, having Robronco buy out Rep'Corn Rocketry and working through the inevitable bugs endemic to any new system. When permission was finally granted for launch, Rep'Corn began firing all the necessary parts into space. Teams of astronauts were sent up to piece it together. All done with Earth Pony hooves and ingenuity, not a scrap of magic involved. Naturally, I arranged for the Lucky Chance to be the network's first power-reception station."
Naturally.
"Were it still working properly, I would have no worries about Gardens of Equestria. As it is, however, a serious malfunction was still being repaired when the War ended. I lost contact with the Rep'Corn site, and thus Celestar One, after a pair of balefire missiles struck the area. I'd always meant to eventually reclaim and repair both, but believed I had more time. This news of the Gardens has reminded me that making such assumptions can have... disastrous consequences."
"Ooookay then. You want me to scout and clear the Rep'Corn site, and then see if I can't bring the satellite on-line."
"No."
Then what the hell was that all about just now?!
"Clearing the site of hostiles is one thing, Mister Shot, but unless you're hiding a degree in theoretical astrophysical sciences under your hat, you are simply not qualified for the second part of that job. No, I need you to deliver a packet of instructions to certain of my employees who are scientists. While you're away I can hire any muscle needed, via my usual channels, to secure the facility."
Oh. Well, derp.
"The packet I'll be giving you also contains a transponder, so their defense systems will allow you to pass. You'll find the research center's location on your PipBuck map, but do not show it to anyone."
Bringing up the PipBuck, I tapped a few buttons. Sure enough, there it was... waaaay off to the northwest, practically halfway to the Ponave! It would take at least a couple of days to get there by hoof.
"Um... with all due respect, sir... they don't have radios, or a terminal hookup, or anything so you could just, you know... call?"
"They do, and I already have. What you are carrying will ensure their compliance with my directives. The staff are sometimes, shall we say... 'eccentric' in their behavior patterns. Besides, I want them to look at your invisible companion, the one you and your 'apprentice' always seem so irritated with. I'm curious as to whether its ability to evade my sensors and cameras is innate, an improvement in zebra cloaking methods, or something else altogether."
If I'd been chewing any gum, I'd've swallowed it.
"The clock is ticking, Mister Shot. The package has already been delivered to your suite. I expect that as soon as you get some rest, you will be on your way. Good night." The elevator door, at long last, hissed open.
"Um... but, ah..."
"...yes...?" The impatience was palpable.
"What about Benny?"
A long pause.
"Let's just say your original contract with me is pending... certain considerations. No need to rush delicate affairs."
The lights went out.
* * * * *
My "Lifetime Elevator Ride" tally increased by two before the doors to the Cherry Pit slid open, a blast of noise greeting my arrival. Not that anypony had set up a surprise party for me, or anything like that. It was just packed in there, examples of every sentient species in and around the Moohave literally rubbing flanks for lack of space. Normally that would've started fights, or been prime grounds for pickpockets... but who'd want to risk getting kicked out of a place like this?
Even with everything Tag had already told me, the nightclub was a lot more impressive than I'd been expecting. It resembled a giant stepped roulette wheel open to the sky, with a well-stocked bar wrapping around the casino's main support pylon. Four ancient airship docks oriented along the points of the compass, supported by insulated cables the size of mooring hawsers, called back to the casino's origins in bulk-shipping and passenger service. Green tarpaulins, neatly furled along each cable, promised plenty of shade for daylight hours and lingering hangovers.
At the very tip-top rode the Lucky Chance's ancient navigation lamp, its glow the cherry on New Pegas' glitter-strewn sundae, casting bloody hues and black shadows across the pulsing crowd below.
The outer ring's northern quarter had been set up as a bandstand, where none other than the Lords were playing a mellow slow-dance number on sax and piano. Practically wrapped around a tall silver microphone stand was The King himself, warbling passionate lyrics in a white, rhinestone-studded jumpsuit. A dozen or so couples in leather jackets and bobby-socks swayed back and forth to the music. I never did get how socks got to be popular. You couldn't wear horseshoes with them. If you needed to sneak around or run, for whatever reason, they seemed just the thing that would get hung up on a cactus spine or rusty old nail...
Best of all, though, the place didn't stink like every other nightclub I'd ever been in. Warm, dry breezes washed in from the desert scrublands, wicking away all traces of sweat. In the skies above (if you squinted a bit), you could pick out the constellations as they slowly wheeled along, the grey-on-white orb of the Moon drifting through their midst.
Kind of idyllic, really. Almost like stepping into an age that had never looked on Hell.
...and, speaking of Hell, here comes the Vikean Snowplow.
Still wearing his wrench-and-screwdriver helmet (seriously, did he ever take it off?), Hard Way stood a half-length taller than most of the crowd he waded through. Some were smart enough to get out of his way, the rest were smart enough to apologize for failing to do so. Hovering beside his great braided noggin, Pink-E seemed about ready to explode with happiness by the time they reached me at the crowd's edge.
"Guess what? Cherry, guess what, guess what, guessguessyou'llneverguess!"
An eyeroll, a sigh, and a hoof-point indicating where my satchel now hung by a chain around Hard Way's neck. "I'm ten thousand caps worth of Republic greenbacks poorer."
She tilted to one side in a simulated slump, her rubbery features going all crestfallen. "Awww, you guessed!"
Hard Way rolled his shoulders through a wide, languid shrug. He was good at that. "Your Republic will have them back, soon enough."
Suddenly Pink-E was in my face, her white ceramic grin shifting to bloody-red under the ambient lighting. "Betcha can't guess something else, though!" Something horrible flashed briefly from behind the smile, then was gone. I managed to keep from blurting does it have anything to do with the baking temperature of a pegasus?
I'd been through a lot, over the last week or so. Maybe it was just getting to me. Horrific hallucinations aside, Pink-E's ever-forward attitude really didn't help with that. An added stress was knowing Mister Horse was probably watching me closely from some hidden camera or other, hoping to spot clues about her existence. Given Rainbow Dash's warning about a feud between Horse, the wartime Ministries, and some "Office of Interministry Affairs" --- not to mention Domino's references to the MoM being a domestic espionage outfit --- it would probably be a bad thing to let slip that an MoM robot was flitting around his casino. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how any camera or microphone could possibly miss the frenetic little ball of noise...
Then I realized that I had no idea what Pink-E was going on about. "I'll... bet you're right?"
"Hokey smokes! We BOTH won our bets! How often does that happen in New Pegas?!" Blue and green confetti popped from somewhere, kazoos blasted a goofy fanfare, and I fought the edges of a smile down. Adopting a playfully coy expression, she finally got to her point: "Soooooo... you can't guess what you and Ambassador Cropper were talking about for six hours, huh?"
Those smile-edges yanked firmly downward, almost of their own accord. "I thought I said I didn't wanna talk about that."
She cocked her head, then nodded despite the lack of a neck. "That's a good point! Why don't you wanna talk about it?"
"I'm gonna say this one last time - " No, wait a second. Much as I might not like to admit (or even think about) it, she had a good point. Why didn't I want to talk about being unable to draw more than a blank, on six hours of my life, for no apparent reason?
It doesn't matter. It's in the past!
Everything's in the past. It's still a good -
The world seemed to make less sense, moment by moment. I couldn't focus. Why was I arguing with myself? Why was everything dissolving into conflicting patterns of black and white?
Asante sana, squash banana, mimi nina pundamilia, na wewe si, now hear me say...
-BONK-
A strange sensation, not unlike a gold brick wrapped in a slice of lemon smashing through my brain, cleared things up in a fashion which blunt-force trauma shouldn't have been capable of. Hind-brain reflexes took over, pivoting my body, legs and hooves through a stagger-tastic dance, by the end of which I somehow remained upright (if unsteady). If "Dancing While Hammered" had ever been part of the Equestrian Games, I'd've been a shoo-in for the gold.
"You didn't have to hit him!" half a dozen Pink-Es indignantly squealed.
Each of the five, three (five again!) Hard Ways casually spoke around the sledges in their mouths. "Calm yourself, little one. You wanted his attention, now you have it."
For just that moment, I felt inordinately proud of having taken a cheap shot from a Vikean warlord and NOT being dead as a result. I may have done a lot of weebling and wobbling, but I hadn't fallen down. Still, as soon my eyes focused, I was going to do my damndest to project pure death from them. Finally, I got my Mark Ones underped and pointed in the same direction.
"What in Celestia's crotch-corona was that for - ?!"
It was also, unfortunately, the direction where half of Pink-E's gaze was spinning its way from sapphire-blue into the green spectrum.
"Nevermind that, Cherry! Look what I've got in my eye!"
>>>oOo<<<
I'd been in this office building before.
Many times. I knew every crack and crevice... which was hardly a matter of bragging. This was the only room left fully intact after the roof's collapse, many decades before I ever found the place.
Third floor out of four, southeast corner, one window which I'd mostly boarded up. One slat left open, to let daylight in and a rifle muzzle out. The view was of an old drainage arroyo near Bearstow, its dirt-edged lip having eroded over the centuries to meet the building's foundation, forming an artificial cliff. Very defensible, with a commanding view that went on for miles of nothing.
It was one of my favorite old safe-houses. The only way in was a narrow tunnel I'd dug through the rubble, shored up with concrete blocks and rebar. A couple of weatherbeaten orange traffic cones marked the way in... and also hid the landmines I'd placed to keep vermin out. If I really had to have a "happy place", this would probably be it... isolated, remote, quiet. Perfect for a lone pony, reflecting on his place in the cosmos, with no one trying to fuck him over while he was about it.
And the best part? A fully intact office suite --- desk, blotter, lamp and dinged-up Robronco terminal --- all crowded into the far corner, next to a nearly-pristine Stable-Tec poster. Somehow the terminal had both power and remote access to a functioning network server somewhere. Every so often, some other pony would run across a similarly-connected terminal and post something pithy to the server's open mailbox. Sometimes, I would too. If we both happened to be online at the same time, we might chat. That's how I met Inkwell, the Steel Ranger "Elder" for what was left of the Wintertrot Chapter.
Funny, how distance seemed to make ponies more civilized. Less willing to pick a fight with one another. Because what was there to fight about, "online", other than which flavor of Sparkle-Cola could hold a candle to Sunrise Sarsaparilla? Sometimes, it seemed that the best ponies I knew were the ones I had never met.
And then there was Pinkie Pie. No, not Pink-E. Pinkie Pie.
Sitting there in my favorite chair, the flesh-and-blood version of Slimm's animatronic show-pony was tapping away at the terminal keys like it was the most normal thing in the world. Except where the robot had worn a cabaret-parody of a business suit, Pinkie's getup was thoroughly professional. Even severely so. The terminal's green light cast strange shadows across the profile of a mare I'd never met.
"You remember having had some mixed drinks with Cropper. After that, nothing." Casual, matter-of-fact. Her mirthless blue eyes didn't wander from the screen. Except for that face, that mane, she might've been just another NCR bureaucrat. But not even the streaks of curling gray could disguise her entirely.
I made to dump off my saddlebags, like I usually would before settling in to relax, but today I didn't have any baggage. So I just stood there. "We made a deal. It's all going to work out."
More tapping. Something scrolled up the screen, flashing new patterns of light across her muzzle. A noncommittal hum. "You're a bounty hunter, Cherry. You literally live and die by your contracts. But you can't remember this 'deal' to save your life. Again, literally."
"And you're my however-many-Greats-Grand-Aunt. Except you're not really here. Not really her. She's dead."
To that moment, the only lighting here had been the slat-ful of sunlight and the terminal's monochromatic green. In the next instant, the world was a chalk-drawing on a black background. Some of the lines didn't want to stay in one place, squiggling slightly... even those belonging to theoretically inanimate objects.
Chalk-Drawing Pinkie Pie swiveled in her chair, leaned back in it. Gave me the look a boss gives a mouthy underling. I remembered that look real well, from my days with Stiff Lip Security. I hated that look. "You're not really here either, Cherry. There's no 'here', here. It's all just shades of black-and-white. Why is that?"
"Don't know. Don't care. What I care about is that Pink-E put me under a trance with that fucking eye of hers for some damned reason, and I have shit I need to go get done. This is a waste of time."
She crossed her hindlegs, completely unruffled. "Not even a quarter-second has passed in the real world. You have the time to waste."
"Even assuming I buy that, you're not Pink-E. You're not some aspect of me, either, just somepony else bucking around in my skull. I don't even know how I know that... it's like you taste different to my brain. So who the fuck are you supposed to be?"
She steepled her hooves, in the same weird way Horse had done. Even in a world of chalk, those hard eyes stared into me, unblinking. Unchanging. It was a long minute before she spoke again.
"That story began a long time ago... in the heart of a very dear friend, and the pages of a very nasty Book. It wasn't hard to find out what she was doing with it, or to borrow it for the same purpose. Cutting shards out of my soul."
Out of all the imbecilic concepts I'd ever heard of, that one took the cake. For a few moments, literally stupefied, I couldn't remember how words worked.
"Rarity," she continued as I mouthed uselessly at her, "was more sentimental in her use of the Book, I suppose. Her acolytes snipped bits of her soul into sets of little dolls, and that drew bits of our own souls in to match them. The Ministry Mares, I mean." Like a deflating balloon, Chalk-Drawing Pinkie's harshness began slipping into wistfulness.
"We'd all been such good friends, for so long... we'd forged such deep, personal bonds that it... it tied us together. Even in death."
Her gaze never faltered even if her voice, momentarily, did. "I could see those deaths coming... at least when I was taking Mint-als. Coming for everypony, but especially for us. Right from the moment Luna had us form the Ministries. We didn't even think about the targets we were hanging around our necks. We did it because she was Princess Luna, and because she was a good friend, and because she asked us to."
She smiled, then. "Except for Twilight, kind of. Luna wanted her to be Prime Minister, and then they had an argument about all ponies being equal but Alicorns being more equal than other ponies, and then Twilight decided not to be an Alicorn anymore and that was that."
Looking down at my foreleg, I saw the PipBuck still riding there, remembered the encrypted holotape of Horse's voice telling his version of the same story. Pinkie nodded, as though reading my thoughts.
"Yes, I can read your thoughts." The drawing laughed at my surprise. "I didn't put my soul-shard into a doll. I had most of it divided up into a whole bunch of nanosprites, for your birthday balloons."
I scowled at her, remembering that episode at the Dance Hall all too well. "Along with a load of knockout gas...!"
Chalk-Pinkie got up out of my chair and rolled her eyes, waving a hoof dismissively. "You wouldn't have wanted to be awake, what with all those tiny machines rewriting the codes for every cell in your body, Cherry. It would've itched like crazy, even where you don't have nerves to feel it. Soulstuff is like that. Also, the multiple diseases in your skin, bloodstream and urinary tract which you didn't know about? Gone now. You're welcome."
"I'll... take your word for it. Thanks." I was unsure how to deal with these revelations... if they were even that. All I really knew was that Pink-E had hypnotized me without even asking permission. An imaginary Pinkie Pie, sharing my thoughts and happy place? To somepony whose knowledge of psychology came from half-legible bits of ancient books, that didn't seem terribly far-fetched. Thinking in those terms seemed to wipe the smile from Pinkie's face, though. She gave me a look so flat, it was out of place even on a chalkboard.
"I'm the reason your tail twitched, when the Zoomers were coming after you. I'm the reason you slipped between the Casino Royale's stairwell and elevator, without having to run its hologram gauntlet. All my old instincts, about how the universe works behind the scenes? You'll get used to them. You don't have a choice. In blood and soul, we're here to stay."
Hot, familiar fury began to wash back in. "I never asked for this...!"
All the chalk-lines smeared together, creating a formless grey mass. Then, slowly, stuttering like old pre-War training films, Cropper's office came into focus. So did the zebra herself, almost as afterthought. A gem on a chain twisted through the air between us, its emerald-green hue the only real color to have ever existed. All else was, and had always been, black, white and grey. It always would be.
"You will tell the press this was my idea, little one. You turned yourself in after stealing Republic funds. I granted leniency. I debriefed you. I discovered your Vikean contacts. You were thankful when I offered the chance to broker a peace. You will ensure the Vikean gives me the money, as reparations and tribute, in front of the cameras. When all this is done, you will go quietly with Black Clops agent Fair Weather, to the desert. You will dig a grave. You will stand beside it, close your eyes, and wait."
Her smile exuded nothing but spite. "Then, and only then, will you and 'Mister Horse' be out of my mane. Upon the count of three, wake and remember nothing..."
---OoO---
I woke, remembering everything.
The Cherry Pit's red-and-black world seemed to smolder, growing bloodier, vibrating before my eyes. I felt the muscles in my neck and jaw growing taut.
That fucking bitch.
That fucking bitch.
That fucking bitch.
Pink-E's left eye twitched slightly. "Cherry...?" She sounded nervous. Wasn't she supposed to know the future? How would she not know how I'd react to finding out my brain had been programmed like a... like a robot?!
"I'm going to kill her. I'm going to murder that zebra right back to the Pone Age..."
Hard Way, hammer still in mouth, gave Pink-E a sidelong look. "Should I tap him again?"
"Nononono! I'm sure he's fine now! No more tapping, please and thank you!"
For once, I agreed with the little pink 'bot. No more tapping was a good plan, one that I could really get behind! I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, pushed my hat back, and managed to put a lid on the angry little cauldron inside. "I'm okay, I just... thanks, Pink-E. I, ah, guess I needed that thing you did with your eye. I'm just glad my head didn't explode."
She winced, apparently remembering the Diamond Dog she'd tried to hypnotize back at Slimm Pass. Hard Way just shrugged again, stowing his sledge in its saddlebag loop. "I didn't hit you that hard. Or it would have."
A sudden squeal of microphone feedback caught our attention, as well as that of everyone else in the Pit.
"Oh hey, look folks! It's Mister Slavery, back from terrorizin' the Moohave with his raider pals! Give 'im a round of applause!" The King's hoof was pointed straight at us... more specifically, at me. As everyone turned to stare, the less-intelligent (and more-inebriated) celebrants dutifully applauded, until shushed and thumped by those who still understood sarcasm. A low muttering replaced it.
Oh, yeah. Freemaners still kind of had a problem with my technically owning Tag-End. Which was another thing I'd never asked for, but who was keeping track? Not the Freemaners, that's for damned sure. And they were a sizeable chunk of the packed-in crowd.
A flash of yellow and green caught my eye: Tag himself had jumped onto the bar and was waving a foreleg at us. "It's okay, everybody! Have a free soda on the house - we've got a whole crate of Sparkle-Cola Rad to go through, and it isn't getting any colder!" Some folks shrugged and turned away from the confrontation, but The King just laughed.
"Soda, huh? Boy, I'll tell ya what I'm thirsty for..." He paused to jab one hoof dramatically at the sky. "...freedom, baby." Did a bird just scream in the distance? At this time of night? Ponies, griffons, and even buffalo began exchanging those looks you give someone to see if they've got your back when shit starts. Lots of nods were exchanged, too.
What in Tartarus could I say, that I hadn't said before? The King knew damned well this was as much Tag's decision as anypony else's. And after everything I'd gone through in the past few weeks, I still found it hard to stomach the idea of letting the little gangster-wannabe off the hook entirely... especially if it was just a matter of somepony else having a problem with that.
Granted, at the moment, it was a LOT of someponies having a problem with that. Also somebuffalo, somegriffons, somedragons...
Tag shot The King a glare, hooves planted on hips. "I already made my choice," he yelled across the crowd, "and you were there when I did! If you're going to wreck this place I built, on my account, then you can take your band, and find some other bar to play in!" That got some grudging applause from some in the crowd; The King tipped a hoof to his mane in mocking salute.
"That's why it pains me t'seeya like this, kid. There's a bronco I see in ya, waitin' t'bust out someday. But okay. Howzabout this then..." He gestured to me again, this time with a come-hither wave. "We'll let it go if yer boss gets up here an' sings for us. He hates that, doesn't he folks?" The crowd roared and applauded; I winced.
Cadance pike me, right through the heart. What IS it with ponies and musical appreciation?!
Resigned and grumbling, I threaded my way through the masses and jumped up on stage, my hooves clacking against the boards. "All right," I growled as The King stepped away from the microphone, letting me take his place. "You've got your catchy little bubblegum tunes, that's all good. But this one's for those who died giving a shit." I nodded to the Lords' guitarist. "You know there's no rest for the wicked."
The first quick strums sounded out as I pulled the mike down to my level. It was an old bounty-hunter favorite, the kind of tune you sang to celebrate coming back alive, more like a talking-blues number full of snark and sarcasm. If they were going to drag it out of me, it was going to be on my terms.
I was settin' up my blind, when out the corner of my eye
I saw a pretty little thing approachin' me.
She said, "It's strange to meet a buck
Who looks so all alone, could you use a little company?
I checked the photo in my pack, and whadjaknow, it matched
I shot her right between her pretty little eyes.
I said, "You might've been sweet, but you snack on pony meat,
And my contract says all cannibals die."
The guitarist joined in on the chorus with surprising feeling, just like an old merc might.
Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Smiles don't pay your needs
I got rounds to buy, I got wounds that bleed
There ain't nothin' in this world for free
I know I can't rein it in, I can't take it back
Though you know I wish I could
Oh no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good
Somepony joined in on harmonica, turning somber chords into airy taunts.
Now in the evenin' of that day, I was about to hit the hay
With a shadow slinkin' 'round just outta sight.
Then the door was busted in, he had a shiv made outta tin
But I always bring a gun to every fight.
He said, "It's all a big mistake, I thought that you were Mister Cake,"
That means "push-over" in raider slang,
So I shot him in the flank and then I watched him limp away,
Because he wasn't worth the extra bang.
The crowd seemed to be getting into it, those with fingers snapping them while their neighbors with hooves tapped the floor instead.
Oh no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Smiles don't pay your needs
I got rounds to buy, I got wounds that bleed
There ain't nothin' in this world for free
I know I can't rein it in, I can't take it back
Though you know I wish I could
Oh no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good
I bobbed my head, keeping with the time as guitar and harmonica slow-danced their mocking instrumental.
So now it's two weeks later, and I'm sitting at the bar
Half of my pay tied up in bottles of old booze
When in walks Bloody-Flank and the Cannibal of Kings
And they were out to write the evening news.
That was a hell of a fight, underneath the swingin' light
I barely got away with half my buckin' skin.
But I shoulda seen it coming, 'cause you know we're all the same
Just a flip of the coin, and our grace turns to sin.
Now the crowd joined in on the final chorus, swaying and clapping as though they hadn't been ready to kill me two minutes ago.
You know there ain't no rest for the wicked
Smiles don't pay our needs
We got rounds to buy, we got wounds that bleed
There ain't nothin' in this world for free
I guess this hadn't been so bad, after all. As the last verse left my lips, I slouched a bow from beneath my hat, the final notes dwindling away under the sound of respectful applause.
You know we can't rein it in, we can't take it back
Though you know we wish we could
Oh no, there ain't no rest for the wicked
Until we close our eyes for good...
"Oh, you can say that again, darling."
I'd only heard that voice once before, but I knew it even before my gaze snapped up to find the source.
Ranseur.
Pretty in pink as always... well, that part of her not covered in black cloak, hanging from one of the tarp lines like some kind of weird bat-pony-thing. With one hoof, she clutched a huge pendant to her chest, prompting one of Tag-End's clients to scream "MY DIAMOND!" and swoon dramatically. Heh. Ranseur, the infamous gem thief, gracing my bar with her lithe, all-under-control attitude. I almost felt sorry for the poor high-society sucker who hadn't been better at holding onto her valuables...
She was already reeling something else up on a hook and chain. I squinted, wondering how she'd gotten in without being seen, as well as why she wasn't already running. Also, what in Hell could that squarish, brown, satchel-y thing... um...
"MY GREENBACKS!"
I shot a look of pure hatred directly at where Hard Way was already giving me one of those shrugs. He failed to explode into flame. I'd have to see to that later. For now, my money was already flickering out of sight along with its abductor - a StealthBuck. Had to be. I thought those didn't work without a PipBuck to slot one into, and I could swear I hadn't seen one on Ranseur even when she was completely naked and up close.
Focus, buck, focus...!
"Tag," I yelled across the increasingly nervous crowd, "tell me you've got security pacing her already?!"
He gave me an incredulous look. "We're on top of the Goddess-damned Lucky Chance, boss! I don't even know how she got up there!" I'd have to have a talk with him later about the ways I could think of off the top of my head and see about installing precautions against future incidents. Like maybe electrifying those support cables.
There she was!
Her black cloak, fluttering away from the western mooring platform, had caught my eye despite the darkness of night; the Cherry Pit's red lighting was to thank for that, I was sure. Ranseur flickered back into existence, a convoluted contraption of silk and struts erupting from her saddlebags, and then she was leaping into open space...
I was already shoving my way through the crowd, towards the platform, when I heard the fluttering sound of a canopy opening. By the time I broke loose, she was already too far for a good shot with Mouthkicker, and she'd be out of rifle range before I could bring the proper artillery to bear. Ranseur, her Zebra-striped mini-glider, the diamond pendant, and my money, all sailed away before my eyes over the Strip wall and into the ruined darkness of New Pegas' western suburbs.
Towards Stable Twenty, and the Friends.
Tag-End finally made it through himself, gasping for air. "I can't believe it. I just... I... I'm sorry, look, I'll make it up to you..."
I turned my head, gave the kid a hard look. He was awake, alert, lime-green coat shivering with the passage of adrenaline, his mane looking more rough-cut since he'd started doing more real work and less preening. And he still had his hoof-knucks on. That was good.
"Welcome to your first official bounty, apprentice. It's hunting season."
The mare who'd swooned was yelling something at us about lousy security, her husband (the NCR General, of course it would be) was glaring at us, the crowd was getting riled up again, and I ignored all of them, pulling out the gem-studded key to Tag's slave collar. I held it out to him in the cup of my hoof.
"Call it an advance on services rendered."
Everyone suddenly went silent. Rhinestones glittered in the edge of my vision as Tag took payment, nodding slowly as he stowed his freedom into the back of his mane. His voice shook a little... not much, thank Luna.
"I'll use it when I've earned it, boss."
So far as I was concerned, he already had. |
Calbeck | 679 | 22 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2016-10-06T01:33:56+00:00 | 2021-01-08T21:56:49+00:00 | 1,268 | CHAPTER 21: MOUTHBREATHERS
"Live fast, party hard, and leave a pretty corpse."
* * * * *
Tag-End was still trying to catch his breath. "She's... long gone, boss."
A full ten minutes, after just one hour at the gallop, and he was still blown. That's soft city living for you. He'd harden up, given time... and he'd also learn to start asking the right questions, instead of stating the obvious.
"You're a bounty hunter now, Tag. In this career, 'long gone' can be days, weeks, even months, but you still have to catch your mark. Think about where we are right now."
A frustrated snort blasted from his nostrils. "Oh, come on! She flew right over the walls, on a glider, landing where exactly we don't know, in a couple of minutes! She could be anywhere in West Pegas right now. We might as well be trying to find my Great-Uncle Needle at the Haystack Straw Festival."
Patience, Cherry... you were younger and dumber once, too.
"And who lives in West Pegas?"
"Two kinds of people." He made a point to sit on his rump, lean back, and count them on both forehooves. "Strung-out junkies, and the Friends they buy from. A lot of Friends. Does 'outnumbered a thousand to one' mean anything to you... um, boss?"
Getting to my hooves, I peered over the battered dumpster blocking the end of the alley we were sheltering in. Tag was right about that much: West Pegas was relatively thick with wandering addicts, both in and out of the Friends' gang livery. And we weren't even one block inside their territory yet. At least this was a good spot to let the colt get his breath back and vent his spleen a little.
"Yeah. It means don't think in terms of trying to kill everypony you meet. Think in terms of finding your mark and fulfilling your contract, in the most efficient and least hazardous way possible. So: why would a diamond thief plan an escape which takes her directly into gangland turf?"
"...because she's got friends in the Friends. That much, I figured out for myself."
I nodded. "Keep going."
Tag's muzzle scrunched up to deliver another snarky barb - then twisted into a frown, his eyes going half-lidded as the lightbulb behind them finally clicked on. "She's too smart to try hiding something that valuable anywhere some Mintal-muncher could stumble across it. She needs something like a bank vault, with security goons and..." The alley's shadows turned his lime-green smirk into a sour-apple grimace. "The Stable."
Stable Twenty,
[F(lim)&F(lam) Tools - show the industrial uses of Taint]
[cover the fall of Gladmane, the original non-gambling version of The Strip, "Freemount Street", Flim/Flam's abortive takeover] |
Calbeck | 679 | 23 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2021-01-08T20:25:11+00:00 | 2021-01-09T03:57:23+00:00 | 843 | [Stable 20 was originally the "Party Stable", with an unending supply of chems for its residents (in hopes that ponies could achieve harmony through chemical bliss). It's still a functioning toxicology, with autonomous hydroponics and automated labs capable of serving as a full-blown chemical plant, which is why Horse wants it... for the industrial value. The Friends were already devolving into the chem-crazed gang they are by the time the Stable doors opened (emergency protocol, due to numerous "fun fires" set by addled ponies who wanted to watch the world burn). When the Friends got outside, they quickly learned how to have "fun" Wasteland-style; killing, looting, carousing and terrorizing for kicks --- and distributing chems on the cheap to the general population as a means of recruiting the poor and desperate to their never-ending "party".]
Pirate Friends Radio
[Horse needs Stable 20 cleared, both to gain access to its industrial resources and to eliminate the Friends as a threat to New Pegas' stability. He was originally going to have Cherry assassinate the gang's leadership to soften it up before his robots moved in to destroy the remnants piecemeal, but finding out about the Gardens of Equestria rearranged his priorities.]
Tag closed the Pit around midnight so everypony could get a bath, a good meal and some sleep before morning.
Cherry dreams about The Tree, guided by Pinkie's spirit: "Blood is thicker than reality" (because, she explains, blood is where matter and energy combine to create the soul, and the soul provides the focus for magic: "focus, hocus, pocus!"). Because every pony has a soul, every pony is a focal point for magic, at which point Cherry wakes up wondering what magic spell would get his great-great-great-grandaunt to shut up while he's trying to sleep.
As Cherry already has his assassination mission from Horse, this all happens to work out. Pink-E comes along to help Cherry spot Friends while they work their way through the West Pegas ruins, tracking Ranseur to Stable 3. Tag needs some "mission time" to build field experience. And Hard Way wants to ensure the recovery of the satchel of greenbacks, as the Vikeans' pending treaty with the NCR depends on it.
6AM - 9AM: Pre-mission shopping. This is mainly Cherry visiting the best arms dealer in town (Gun Runner reference?) to get Thunderchild and Mouthkicker modified for Earth Pony use. Tag-End accepts his old modded-up varminter and ten-millimeter pistol as hoof-me-down equipment, but refuses a bush outfit or armor --- until a fancy set of upgraded leather barding catches his eye. Not sure what Hard Way or Pink-E would be shopping for.
[Tag explains why he elected to remain a slave and earn his way in the world --- he wants to be better, to redeem himself. He learns to open memory orbs on Cherry's behalf, use more magic, and otherwise help out in that regard, doing things for Cherry he can't do himself.]
[Tag's full name is Taglierina (which he is embarrassed to admit), meaning "Cutter".]
[Reference Western Equestrian Arms and its rifle line (WEA-BU?), Tag's preference.]
[Hard Way: "I have yet to discover a circumstance, in which my sledgehammer runs out of ammunition."]
*** The stolen satchel of NCR greenbacks are Ranseur's bribe to Motor-Mouth: she wants to be able to come and go from the Stable freely, so she has a secure place to live while robbing the rich ponies of New Pegas. The NCR has plenty of wealthy ponies as well, but not so heavily concentrated in one spot. The diamond pendant is for herself, of course.
*** Cherry stops at a Freemane bath-house. He orders the "Round the World Squeaky Clean" service, paying for it in bits, but doesn't realize the mare assigned to "help wash" is in fact a whorse. When she comes onto him while he's relaxing in the bath, it triggers flashbacks and he nearly assaults her. She, angry over being rebuffed, calls him a "colt-cuddler", whereupon he actively jumps her. The brawl spills out into the main room, Hard Way intervenes, and the truth about his rape comes out. ("What? You complained about it?") The whorse explains being gang-raped is how she and many other prostitutes got into their line of work, Cherry snarks back with "and how many days did that go on for?". This shocks her, and the scene ends with Our Heroes leaving under a dark cloud.
*** Cherry, Tag-End and Pink-E try to sneak into the Stable, but Tag makes an unlucky slip. Cherry tries escaping using Wallbuster, but it turns out Stable doors are immune to it (anti-teleportation shielding) and he is caught again. The group is chained up (the chains include hoof-separation bars, to prevent a pony lockpicking their way free) and dragged before the gang leader, passing a number of defaced MoM posters along the way. Each one depicts a bouquet of balloons with the slogan "EVERY Day Can Be Party time!" underneath. Scrawled over each poster is a crime and its punishment: "Kill a Friend? Take a Breather." "Skip a Dare? Take a Breather." "Reject Friendship? Take a Breather". "Steal Party Supplies? Take a Breather." "Backtalk the Party Host? Take a Breather." Anyone caught doing any of these things is thrown into a Stable security cell for thirty days. If the cells fill up, all the prisoners are put in stocks, one to each of the Stable's old Carnival Row booths (the walls between having been removed to create one long booth), with a gas mask secured to their muzzle and connected to a pump hose. Friends all carry numbered tickets from one of the ride terminals to determine whose turn it is to pump at which booth. Whoever pops their pony first, wins a prize, with the surviving prisoners then being released (even outsiders who refused "Friendship"). Our Heroes don't find out about this until later, the posters are initially a curiosity.
*** Cherry and Tag-End refuse to join the Friends (Tag-End does so out of stubborn loyalty), and are dragged off to "take a Breather" (since their addition fills the cells). Since Pink-E can't take a Breather, she is checked for weapons and then chained to Motor-Mouth's tail base ("What a funny pink balloon! Mine."). Pink-E does try to hypnotize her while her bodyguards are distracted dragging the prisoners out of their cells and into manacles, but a lifetime of drugs and power make her so strong-willed that she's unaware of the attempt, giggling instead at the "spinny green lights". She is able, however, to slip Cherry and Tag one bottle each of "Sparkle-Cola: Limited Edition Gummy Flavor", with the whispered plea to chug it before anyone notices. Cherry wants to argue, but there's no time; he downs the bubblegum-flavored drink, and Tag obediently follows suit.
*** The opposite side of Carnival Row has been torn down and replaced with wooden bleachers, which fill up with spectators carrying snacks and making bets. Being the smallest of all the captives, everyone is sure Cherry will be the first to pop. Surprise is carrying the satchel of greenbacks around her neck, having just been given it by Ranseur as proof of winning her Dare to rob the Cherry Pit (she kept the gem for herself). Pink-E bets Surprise the satchel of greenbacks, against becoming a pinata, that Cherry will survive. As Cherry and the rest are put into the stocks, his stomach starts rumbling and he starts to feel gassy, just as the gas mask is placed over his face. Its valve-adjusted mouthpiece is jammed in first before the hood is strapped on, muffling the prisoners' protests and screams.
*** Sparkle-Cola Gummy lines the stomach with suspended particles of clear, magically-radioactive gum and contains extra carbonation. The Limited-Edition run was meant strictly for the winners of MoM-sponsored bubblegum-blowing contests, an early-War morale-boosting idea of Pinkie's (which became less popular as the War dragged on, eventually stopping altogether). The drink is almost impossible to find outside of ancient MoM Hub caches, which even Stable 20 is not, but contest winners could always buy more from specially-marked Sparkle-Cola machines (which would mix and bottle them on the spot). A side effect, deliberately included for safety reasons, is that a pony's natural resiliency is dramatically increased to prevent small fillies and colts from overstretching their tummies while burping up bubbles.
*** The victims, including Cherry, can only stare directly at their sadistically gleeful pumpers, who at the sound of a bell start frantically working their handles while another pony gives carnival-barker color-commentary on who's bloating faster. Air rushes into Cherry, puffing his cheeks and pushing into his belly, where he can feel it mingle with the already-building gas and wonders if Pink-E's gambit had anything behind it... or if she's just fried a humor circuit and killing him like this would now be funny to her. The crowd's cheering and shouting shifts towards chanting "Pop! Pop! POP!". Straining to look to either side, Cherry can see his neighbors begin to strain with the effort of holding all the air in, bodies growing round and limbs slowly disappearing into the swelling spheres. Tag, to his left, starts to go transparent with a pinkish tinge, and then Cherry can feel the bodies of both Tag and his other neighbor pressing against his sides.
*** Cherry is just seconds from his augmented limit when finally one of the imprisoned Friends explodes, spraying his neighbors and the long booth with gore, some of which ends up in the front bleachers. The crowd screams approval as her still-hooded head topples from the stocks, attached to some overstretched skin. It is then held aloft by her victorious pumper. Each surviving victim's pump is then released, letting them blow out through the masks before being released from their stocks, but this doesn't work for Cherry and Tag-End (the trapped bubble can't go down the valve). Their masks require some effort to pull off, coming loose at the same time. Both he and Tag-End let go with incredible belches, blowing giant bubbles in the process... which first bump into each other, then merge, then finally pop, gumming up everyone in Carnival Row. After the initial surprise, the Friends all cheer wildly: that was new and amazing to them! Cherry then gets a notice on his PipBuck:
[ACHIEVEMENTS: The Big Bang Double Bubble! Congratulations! You (and a friend) just broke the world record for Biggest Bubble Gum Bubble ever! That deserves a reward! Come on out to the new regional headquarters for Sparkle-Cola's Fun Division for a tour, plus your grand prize for winning ***CURRENT YEAR***'s Great Equestrian Blow-Off!]
*** There is now a marker pointing to "Big M/T" (Equestria's largest facility for researching the fusion of Magic and Technology). Because residual gum is still in their systems, the Endurance stats for Cherry and Tag-End also go up by 1. This prompts Cherry to actually look at his Quest entries to find out what the hell that all means.
*** Cherry discovers the Friends' leader, "Motor-Mouth", is in fact his older sister (Surprise!), sold off by his parents to the Friends for a bag of Scorpio. She rose to lead the group by being the craziest, scariest and happiest of them all. She breaks out crying over losing the satchel of greenbacks to Pink-E (who dutifully gives it to Cherry) because of her "little brother". This shocks Cherry, who turns on Pink-E demanding to know if it's true. She confirms it, but says she always knew Surprise was so evil there was no saving her, so she had to die anyway. Cherry flips out, having been set against the only living member of his own family, and nearly kills Pink-E. It's at this moment that she reveals she's been imbued with a shard of Pinkie Pie's soul all along, she's very sorry and weepy and so on but can't be destroyed unless her soul is. Which is why the Pink Cloud had such an effect on her. Cherry threatened to drag her back to the Casino Royale and "finish the job" when he notices everyone else has gone very quiet and looks around.
*** God, who has been looking for a new feeding ground since the Royale's destruction, has appeared. Having heard the bit about Pink-E having a soul, he declares his intent to defend her "so that my Redeemer need not, himself, require redemption". Cherry mutters "what a deus ex machina". Surprise, seeing an opening, demands God join the Friends. God looks to Cherry and Pink-E, saying he must do as he has already promised, so if they don't stay then neither does he. Surprise demands he be thrown into the now-empty cells for thirty days, God refuses again. Surprise blames Cherry's clear influence over God and then, to "resolve things in a FRIENDLY way", Dares Cherry to a Battle of the Bands for God's freedom. Naturally, if he refuses the Dare, or backtalks the Party Host (Surprise), he gets thrown into the cells himself, thus keeping God in chains as well. He suspects Surprise will refill the rest of the cells as quickly as possible... and that he won't be allowed to survive Carnival Row a second time.
It's either fight the entire Stable or acquiesce, and Cherry is almost ready to choose the former option when his PARENTS chime in. Seems they joined the Friends all those years ago, not long after selling both Cherry and Surprise off. After all, as members of the Stable, all their drugs were now free of charge. Neither seem to particularly care if their children kill each other, but are unanimous in saying how cool a Battle of the Bands would be. Surprise actually introduces them to Cherry and explains who they are with a savage smirk.
*** Candle Jack (cutie mark is a candle, he's a natural with lighting and handles most of the Stable's electrical needs). His pre-War ancestor was Jeff LeTrotski, Stable 20's Overstallion. Says "man" a lot, loves and cares for Diane, has no pretensions to power or authority despite (more likely because of) his heritage.
*** Diane Pie (having taken her great-great-aunt's middle name for her first). She's basically Mama Murphy from Fallout 4, needs drugs to see The Tree. Copes with her nightmare visions through "partying hard", which somehow never manages to kill her (END 10 + chem-related Perks). Everypony in Stable 20 looks up to her as role model and unofficial "Vice-Overmare". Motto: "only the weird deserve to survive". She was Surprise's main influence growing up.
*** At the end of Cherry's conversation with his parents, Candle Jack says "Man, I'm just tired, y'know?" The words "man and tire" trigger Pink-E's "Horse Files" and she starts playing an audio recording by Berry Punch:
"Dear Diary, I can not BELIEVE my luck today! Okay, so recapping for whoever ISN'T supposed to be listening to this?" *giggle noises* "Right, so of course this is about my not-so-famous 'wine cellar' (seriously, people, am I the only pony in town who takes civil defense seriously), which did USED to be a wine cellar back when I got Big McIntosh (mmm, what a hunk!) to move my house? Only instead of moving it back, I got him to push it over that big hole the, um, I think they called themselves Crusaders or something? dug trying to trap their teacher or something. I swear, everyone thinks I'm a lush, but that'd make me the LEAST crazy pony in this town... oh, where was I... oh right, right, so I was expanding my CIVIL DEFENSE BUNKER to make room for more food storage and I hit this hard round black stuff.
"It wasn't coal or anything like that, just waaaay too crumbly, but you gotta be careful about stuff, I mean it could've been ancient dragon-doody for all I know! So I'm digging around it, but the soil started falling away and the next thing I know there's a giant black DONUT sliding into the main room... I was SO freaked out, I just galloped right on outta there and down to the nearest place I could think of where a Royal Guard might be (because who knows maybe it's a monster egg or something) and that happened to be the tavern and then everypony laughed and said I - " *mocking tone* "should've brought my private stock so everypony could have a taste!". So anyway I go back and nothing bad's happened so I just put an old bedsheet over the thing and got back to work, and now?
*excited squeaking*
"Just now, nopony less than EDWIN ROBERT HORSE comes to MY place with a work crew and a briefcase full of bits! A thousand bits! I'M RICH! I mean, whatever it was, it wasn't a dragon-doody, 'cause they were talking about writing or something on the side, and I guess it was the biggest find since last Summer Solstice 'cause I overheard Mister Horse saying "it's a good year" over and over. But WOW, less than two days between finding that thing and having the cash to take a REAL vacation! Somewhere nice, like Rainbow Falls, or maybe someplace EXOTIC like Neighpon...eeeeeee, I hear they have the most fantastic gardens! Ta-ta for now, Diary! I'm off to do some vacation planning!"
Cherry: "What the fuck was that all about? Why is that even in your memory blocks?!" or words to that effect.
Pink-E: "Huh? Was I saying somethi - oh, poodle pumpkins, it was one of those secured Horse files!"
Cherry: "...could've sworn you just said 'horse flies.' Must be more tired than I thought."
Pink-E (half-panicked): "Don't say 'tired'!"
*** BATTLE OF THE BANDS:
Surprise and her band kick off with Andrew W.K.'s "Better Get Ready to Die", meant to unnerve Cherry's crew and pulled by her own latent "Pinkie Sense" from another world.
PERK ACTIVE: Aligned Companion Perk (Radio a-Go-Go) -- if Pink-E is a companion and you have Pinkie Sense, her symbiotic affinity with you increases. She is now able to pick up and broadcast strangely-appropriate radio signals from beyond the mythical "Fourth Wall", strictly for entertainment purposes.
Tag surprises everyone by helping Cherry focus his own Sense, following Surprise's ethereal vibrations backwards to find a song to defeat hers: "Gonna Make This Place Your Home". The Friends' rank-and-file are so moved by the idea of having a real home someday that they join in too, stomping and singing in time to the music, despite the impossibility of ever having heard the lyrics. Surprise flips out, demanding the Friends kill Cherry and his crew anyways, but her own lieutenants start arguing with her. While this is going on, Tag breaks in with his own song --- "Bad Romance", pitched to Surprise, who is genuinely surprised that anypony would even dare to serenade her, let alone so passionately. After which, the Friends elect him the new Party Host by acclamation, on the spot.
[ALTERNATE: Hard Way, having not much else to do but be a background pony in all this, channels his inner Swede for some heavy metal, Sabaton style. Either that, or he just escapes during the initial capture and ends up waiting outside for a chance to get in and rescue everypony. Prolly the latter. Way too many songs in this chapter already. But he'd be a great Joakim Broden. Which would also probably annoy Joakim Broden if he ever found out, per https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UypIGHi7K4A ]
...I got signal.
It began with a crackling of static, crawling up my spine and down my legs, arcs of electricity sparking through my mane and down across my hide. It was hard to breathe, impossible to move; my body paralytic with raw power. From where?! I imagined I could hear beeping, like the countdown of a deadly timer sounding in time to my heartbeat.
My thundering heartbeat, my ears filling with a rush of sound, my sight blurring with flashes of actinic brilliance, each new vision stolen by the next so quickly I could barely conceive of what I was seeing. My mouth and tongue wrapped around noises my brain never requested, pushing sonic emissions into the air around me with a verve I could never have matched on my own.
It wasn't singing. It was more like a god had seized my body and soul for use as a set of jukebox speakers.
Words, sounds, music, streaming through the infinitesimally-thin barrier which separated infinite universes from collapsing upon one another, like the stage magician's trick of drawing a needle through a soap bubble. I felt that if I could shift the angle of the stream, somehow, even slightly, it would rip everything asunder, driving all back into the core of chaos from which it all began. If I could only move...
So this must be what Discord the Demon felt like.
All eyes were on me. I couldn't turn my head in any direction, but I didn't need to. I could see them all, worried and tense. An earth pony was electrocuting before their eyes, but instead of dying, I spoke to them, the music building up inside to pour out upon the gathered mass of half-feral equinity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE
*** Post-Stable 20: Cropper's Press Conference. Cropper starts by welcoming the press, then moves to dominate the proceedings, stating that she prevailed upon Cherry to intervene at Slimm. Having seen his fearless heroism in action, she then insisted he approach the Vikeans with demands for tribute on behalf of the NCR, so as to "tame the wild Eastern hordes". At this point, Cherry jumps in, saying she actually brought him in for questioning about a robbery involving NCR citizens at the Silver Slipper, then offered him a clean slate in exchange for his work as an emissary. It then turned out the demands for tribute were unnecessary, as the Vikeans had already been wanting to turn their pursuits to more peaceful trade. Cropper is shocked, having given Cherry a directive under hypnosis to say nothing except in support of her statements, but she is able to cover it with a forced smile for the press.
This satisfies Cherry's "economic partner" quest, prompting a "ding!" from his PipBuck(?).
Somepony in the press asks Cropper if the Silver Slipper story is true, and she's forced to back up Cherry's bald-faced lie since he didn't actually contradict her. Taking advantage of the initiative, Cherry invites Hard Way forward with the satchel, presenting it not as tribute but as "reparations", personally sealing the deal "as the Ambassador's duly-appointed Representative to the Vikean nation" with a smile and hearty hoof-shake.
The press conference ends with a lot of photos being snapped, Cropper belatedly making the most of it by getting behind and embracing the two with an overly-wide grin. Afterward, she mutters something to Cherry about "double-crossers". He growls back "you were going to have Black Clops kill me anyways... but now, I'm very publically YOUR 'civilian asset', and one with a clean-scrubbed record besides. If I end up dead now, you'd better hope nopony in government ties it to Black Clops. Because that would mean one of two things: you're either an unhinged backstabber, or you can't protect your own people. Neither rep is good for a zebra with ambitions."
Post-Conference: Cherry wants to be out of New Pegas proper until Cropper has a chance to cool off a bit. He and Pink-E head out to do something she's wanted to for about fifteen Chapters: catch a movie at the Nipton Drive-In... |
Calbeck | 679 | 24 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2021-01-08T16:45:56+00:00 | 2021-01-09T07:36:54+00:00 | 981 | * PURSUIT OF RANSEUR / EVENTS OF STABLE TWENTY. This takes all night.
* CROPPER'S PRESS CONFERENCE. Just before arriving, Pink-E realizes Cherry has been hypnotized by Cropper and breaks the hold using her Mesmertron. Running on two hours' sleep, Cherry and Hard Way cut the deal between Vikeans and the NCR, undermining Cropper's influence in the process. Hard Way then departs with the agreement, having traded the greenbacks Cherry originally stole from the NCR for it, to link up with the Vikean fleet as it returns to Hasverige from the raid on Mount Morgan.
* MOVIE TIME. Torn between the orders of his employer and his growing affection for Pink-E, Cherry decides to "treat" both her and Tag-End to a movie, formally "hiring" Tag's bouncer and bartender so they can be recognized by the robots and run the Cherry Pit in Tag's absence. Because she'd wanted to see a movie at the old drive-in south of Nipton to begin with, that's where they go. Cherry is shocked to see the satellite still there and apparently untouched, although Pink-E seems to think that was inevitable. When she goes to use its built-in holoprojector to play one of the movies stored in her memory ("Terrible Creatures from the Stars!"), the three of them are magically teleported to the Institute for Magi/Tech Development... the "Big M/T".
* CELESTINE BLUES. Cherry and Tag are still recovering from Teleportation Disorientation Disorder (TeDDi?) when Lyra walks in on her hind legs, dressed in a lab coat, wearing pince-nez glasses and carrying a clipboard in her forelegs. She welcomes them to the "Big M/T" before leading the way to the Think Tank, who are all too happy to receive Cherry's packet --- of Mentats. Of course, before they and Pink-E can help out with Rep'Corn and Celestar One, they have their own problems involving giant robot scorpions and malfunctioning test centers... Cherry also meets "Steelgraft" and "PNK-3" (copies), who tell him about an "inheritance" left for him in Detrot... "a debt unpaid".
- The Steelgraft Sweeper-clone was grabbed and attempted to be lobotimized, resulting its being augmented instead. Was chasing a rogue Deadmare into Big M/T, they mistook him for the Deadmare. Spritebot (PNK-3) tethered his mind so he's not actually a lobotomite (ala the original story for the Courier).
- Tree of Yggdrasil is the cross-pollinated result of Harold's Oasis meeting up with Vault 22/X-?? Testsite over 10,000 years.
** MEANWHILE, IN DETROT - Rainbow Dash travels to pay her respects at the Shadowbolt Memorial, also to find what happened to the MoA hub there. The "Flickerjack", Jack's original ship, is there and functional as part of the museum, representing another reason to go. Nessie is there, Steelgraft's sister, who heads up the Dashites controlling and maintaining it. Knows him as "Toughluck Jack". Enclave has a base there for building/testing airships, but they don't go to Ravenholm.
* SUNSHINE ROAD. Cherry, Tag and Pink-E go to space, deal with astro-ghouls, star-spawn and Cthuloid monsters, and fix a thing. Possible chapter name: "Paint the Moon Pink"? Pink-E draws an oblong smiley face with what looks like nipples to either side in the lunar dust. "What the hell is that?" "A lemon face. I dunno, it just seemed like the thing to do!"
1) Ten thousand years ago, Jason Bright and his followers went to space in three nuclear-fusion rockets, each with the approximate passenger and cargo space of a ground-based sedan. Each was capable of an effectively infinite number of landings and takeoffs from the planet, first demonstrated when they returned to evacuate Novac during the Courier's missile strikes. In thanks, the town allowed them to take its rocketry scrap when they returned to space... including all the toys filled with Isotope-239 igniting agent.
2) Bright's Brotherhood first set up a collection point in the Moon's Sea of Tranquility, then began conducting scavenging runs to uninhabited ruins for tools, materials and supplies. Soon, they began inviting other ghouls to join them. Numerous ferals were also "rescued" (being unable to consent to much of anything).
3) Constant space radiation, unfiltered by Earth's atmosphere, not only kept the Brotherhood's membership from degenerating, but also transformed them into Glowing Ones. Those with minds retained them, those without were trained to perform manual labor as necessary. They became effectively immortal, unless away from radiation long enough to begin degenerating again.
4) For a thousand years or so, the Bright Brotherhood watched as the last remnants of humanity on Earth --- ghouls included --- extinguished themselves, then watched again as the planet seem to bloom anew. Intrepid explorers conducted overflights, taking pictures and film of the burgeoning life below. After a few landings, they determined Earth to still be hostile towards ghoul life, particularly overrun with chaotically-mutated flora and fauna, and gave up on further returns, content to view Earth as the distant and beautiful cradle to which they should never return.
5) Once turned entirely inward, the Brotherhood began to take on a more philosophical bent, and then a religious one. A Black Book was discovered on an altar of raw basalt, launching the "Cult of the Nightmare Moon", which viewed Earth now as a pestilent, fungus-covered blight on the pure void of space and ghouls as the sole inheritors of humanity's legacy. What remained of the human genetic code corrupted into mutation piled upon mutation, until it faded into the background of planetary life like the breath of a ghost.
6) Over the millenia, Earth spawned numerous sentient species, towards which wisps of evil drifted through the vacuum like moths to a candle. Unfocused cults of power arose, witches and warlocks blindly following whispered promises into madness. Eventually these began to coalesce and organize, giving rise to more formal schools of magic as well as paganistic belief systems. On the Moon, with no way to expand its population and ever-more-fearful of eventual death, the Bright Brotherhood occupied itself with philosophical debate, refining its holdings, and occasionally staring at a world where they could not long survive. During dull times, they would toy with the mutants, using technology to appear as monsters or gods, sometimes even dropping meteors. In particular, they enjoyed the reactions of zebras to these antics, and began to concentrate on messing with them almost exclusively. It was during this time that the Krivbeknih was delivered to a zebra alchemist, providing the knowledge and inspiration to create an equine-specific version of the Black Book.
6a) Supporting Fallout lore: invocation of "Alhazred", author of the Necronomicon, by Jaime in the Dunwich Building. "Abdul comes again, on the feast of the weaker. Feast for the Deep Temple. Born again, here. Alhazred, G’yeth. G’yeth." This name is unique to H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos". As the ghoulified Jaime stands facing the obelisk of Ug-Qualtoth with arms upraised, it appears that he is somehow summoning ghouls out of the mist-shrouded recess in the rock wall opposite. The Black Book, however, is named "Krivbeknih", unique to FO3's "Lookout Point" DLC, as is the name "Ug-Qualtoth".
6b) What were the Aliens doing all this time? Mothership Zeta was taken over and used to destroy a second mothership, but several years afterward a scout ship appeared near New Vegas. As there has been no retaliatory strike on the planet using a mothership death ray (each shot capable of wiping out everything in a circumference of 350 miles), it can be assumed that a few such scouts survived their mothership's destruction and became stuck in our Solar system. ALTERNATE HEADCANON: the last Alien hurrah was an attempt to seize the Big MT using sonic technology in 2910. Blind Diode Jefferson detected and immediately countered the incoming soundwaves by commandeering the site's PA system to play syncopated versions of jazz numbers. The offending sounds ended up blending into a series of trumpet and saxophone duets, rendering them somewhat annoying but otherwise harmless. The Aliens, ignorant of their bombardment's failure, moved in with a small army of combat drones. Their second and last mistake was assuming that Area X-7b, "Boomtown", was the Big MT's actual residence block, since it seemed identical to inhabited ruins they had seen elsewhere on Earth. A single artillery round from "Left Field" (Area X-7a) destroyed most of the invasion force, with the remainder being picked off piecemeal by other defense mechanisms. Mostly robodogs.
7) The Nightmare Moon Incident. Luna, fallen to jealous and rage inspired by Lovecraftian influences, turns on her sister and is subsequently imprisoned in --- not on --- the Moon. Seeing in her a weapon to use against "those foul mutant horse-things on OUR LAWN", a ritual is developed and readied for the optimal planetary alignment a thousand years later. Four Bright Stars (what they call their ships) position themselves in perfect focal points around the Moon and carry out the ritual, releasing Nightmare Moon to warp time and space, thus imposing "everlasting night" on the Earth. The Bright Brotherhood hopes that this will kill off the mutant flora and fauna, first by depriving it of sunlight and then by freezing what's left.
* DEBRIEFING AT LUCKY CHANCE WITH HORSE. Cherry explains, Horse drops more info. Cherry Pit closes for several reasons: the bartender was embezzling, the bouncer was playing favorites, the novelty has already begun to wear off amongst the high-class types, and the giant red nav-ball now directly receives microwave energy from space. It's finally time to deal with "Bent Nail" Benny and get Mr. Horse's chip back, after which Cherry is assigned a new mission to broker an alliance with New Braynan.
* HONEST HOOVES. Face-off with the Herd, which is trying to wipe the town out and obtain the strategic northern flank. Ends with Cherry and company being kidnapped and imprisoned by Diamond Dogs (why prison instead of death?).
* BRAVE NEW WORLD. Diamond Dog society/plot revealed. The DDs are covertly pushing the NCR and Herd into an all-out battle with the intent of smashing the survivors with giant steam-driven 'mechs. DDs are murdering NCR citizens and making the carnage look like the Herd did it, which was the case at Nipton (doublecheck?). They tell the Herd it's the NCR killing its own "malcontents" for propaganda purposes. At the same time, the DDs are digging tunnels deep under Hoofer Dam so the Herd can bypass the Dam and the military camps at Big Rock City altogether.
* RESISTANCE. Cherry and company escape to warn Horse, but the main battle is already underway on Ivannapony Flats.
The Herd, having positioned a large holding force to keep the main body of NCR troops bottled up at Big Rock City, is advancing slowly from the north-by-northeast, pushing heavy wheeled artillery pieces protected to the front and sides by thick slabs of scrap-metal armor. Firing ports let them shoot at anypony who charges the guns, and anypony who gets close enough then has to contend with the guns' melee-ready defenders (the ones pushing).
Absent any artillery of their own, the NCR first tries a frontal charge (ala "The Lighthorsemen"), but after being repulsed with heavy losses they have retreated far enough to dig some hasty trenches. Unicorn magic, as limited and varied as it is, is scoring the occasional bit of damage while some units try to execute a flanking manuever to shoot up the guns' exposed rear angles. The Herd, however, had kept several melee formations in reserve against just such a possibility. They quickly drive the flankers back.
General (Oliver?), frustrated and lacking any better ideas, orders another all-out charge. Just as the charge is about to contact the Herd's front line, a battalion of Diamond Dog mecha erupt from the earth to the north, firing immediate on both armies from their respective flanks. With their reserves already fully committed, neither the Herd nor the NCR is able to respond effectively.
Cherry arrives at the head of the surviving Vikean raiding fleet, leading their own charge in Horse's ancient personal hovercar, modified for combat with Pink-E plugged into its electronics. Honoring their promised alliance, and led by Rainbow Dash herself, the Zoomers conduct tactical rainbooms along the Diamond Dog line. After this, the battle devolves into a more evenly-matched (albeit confused) fight between the remnants of all three armies (the Vikeans having just concluded a peace and trade agreement with the NCR).
> > > The combined rainbooms rip open the Ivannapony lakebed, creating a huge "divide"... beneath can be seen what's now a hugely-damaged metropolis, seventeen layers deep and four miles wide.
**** What happened to the Robot Bunker at Fortification Hill in the last 10,000 years?
1) The Courier got the Chip from Benny before he could skip town, then threw it into the Colorado after seeing what happened with the Securitrons in House's basement. He never went to Fortification Hill, never opened the facility, and ended up "resolving" things by launching all the nukes at the end of Lonesome Road.
2) The Chip would have been used both for opening the Securitron Vault and for upgrading the software there. It cannot be done remotely (or House would have done it to begin with). Therefore, it's reasonable for House to have gained access by having robot work teams forcibly rip their way into the elevator and then manually deactivating the security once inside, but the remaining 'bots can't be upgraded. Nor would any new 'bots be produced with the upgrades. House's relatively small force of militarized 'bots have since been destroyed during operations or fallen to pieces over the millenia.
3) After access, the facility would have continued as a manufacturing facility for House/Horse, allowing him to push his line of radio relays to the East Coast. Other robots could reclaim/repair the RepConn facility so that he could start launching communication satellites, but the landlines are needed for instantaneous local control. Satellites work, but often get poor reception and "green-outs" due to lingering atmospheric radiation. This is why some of the DNA recovered from Norway's "Doomsday Vault" was damaged or destroyed.
4) But when Horse founded Las Pegasus on New Vegas' ruins, he had to make sure no overt sign of humanity remained. The Lucky 38, the only building he had kept up, was remodeled to look brand new. Similarly, he rebuilt Hoover Dam on the still-solid shoulders of its base, later explaining it as his own project to ensure plentiful local power supplies for further expansion. The Fortification Hill complex, having served its purpose, was mothballed and covered over as "worthless scrubland" which Horse nonetheless owned as part of his claimed parcel.
5) So when the Herd appeared en masse and started building up forces on the Hill, Horse was actually taken by surprise. The facility has been uncovered by members of the Herd while digging latrines and rubbish pits, but they have been unable to break through the (relatively) new blast doors. Horse still needs an agent to physically operate the facility, as he never did upgrade it to allow remote control from the Lucky Chance.
Cherry is busy elsewhere... why not give the job to Ranseur? Gets her off the hook with Horse, but he doesn't trust her. |
Calbeck | 679 | 25 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2021-01-08T16:46:17+00:00 | 2021-01-09T01:16:17+00:00 | 789 | [HORSE'S ORDERS REGARDING "BIG M/T"]
"The packet also contains a transponder, so their defense systems will allow you to pass. You'll find the research center's location on your PipBuck map, but do not show it to anyone."
Bringing up the PipBuck, I tapped a few buttons. Sure enough, there it was... waaaay off to the northwest, practically halfway to the Ponave! It would take at least a couple of days to get there by hoof.
"Um... with all due respect, sir... they don't have radios, or a terminal hookup, or anything so you could just, you know... call?"
"They do, and I already have. What you are carrying will ensure their compliance. Besides, I want them to have a look at your invisible companion, the one you and your 'apprentice' always seem so irritated with. I'm curious as to whether its ability to evade my sensors and cameras is innate, an improvement in zebra cloaking methods, or something else altogether."
If I'd been chewing any gum, I'd've swallowed it.
[THIS IS THE PREMISE FOR "CELESTINE BLUES": The Institute for Magi/Tech Development was a top secret pre-War facility.]
"Were it still working properly, I would have no worries about Gardens of Equestria. As it is, however, a serious malfunction was still being repaired when the War ended. I lost contact with both Celestar One and the Rep'Corn site, after a pair of balefire missiles struck the area. I'd always meant to eventually reclaim and repair both, but believed I had more time. This news of the Gardens has reminded me that making such assumptions can have... disastrous consequences."
[THIS IS THE PREMISE FOR "SUNSHINE ROAD"]
*** The Rad-Away Redline: NCR supply train, heavily armored and armed, riding reclaimed rails. No coal? No problem... mana-fueled reactors'll turn a steam turbine even better. Just make sure you're up on Rad-X and wearing lead saddleblankets...
*** Wonder Bread Maker: "It always comes out pre-sliced. Nothing I do stops that from happening, and I don't know why. Just eat the damn stuff." (provides a use for toasters!) Preservatives kept snack cakes around. Why not a loaf of bread? Somepony just obsessed with "lookit all these damn toasters! There hadda be TOAST! And that means BREAD!"
*** In a later chapter, the Vikeans reveal that they've recovered and rebuilt the DD recon mecha, using heavy oak timbers to replace missing armor, painting it in blue/yellow, and renaming it "Ironsides". In even later chapters, after Hasverige is destroyed by a concentrated DD mechanized assault, Hard Way's crew uses it to avenge their fallen city. Gore-Nest in command, Flap-Jack and Crag as airborne recon and fire support (respectively). The twins, serving as Mobility Engineers, turn out to mesh extremely well for the purpose (make a joke about being "drift compatible"). THEME: Jet Black Stare's "Ready to Roll".
*** The ex-NCR Vikeans are actually Black Clops operatives providing intel on the former raiders. When Hasverige falls, they throw in their lot with the mecha crew, rationalizing that the DDs present the NCR with the greater threat. Since they've done nothing to actually harm the Vikeans, Hard Way and the others forgive them in the interest of killing more DDs. The two serve as Ironsides' Gunners... and with their higher levels of NCR education, they are very good at it.
*** Crag goes "full-kaiju" in an extreme moment, when Gore-Nest is critically wounded and passes command to him. This effectively passes Ironsides' ownership to him, its bottlecap value triggering the dragon's metamorphosis into adulthood. It's Cherry whose PipBuck assesses the value, resulting in another "WTF" moment.
*** Traditional Caravaneer Breakfast: Jalapeno flapjacks are a caravaneer’s traditional breakfast, out in the Moohave and most of New Coltifornia. It’s amazing how often you can still scavenge flour, the batter doesn’t take a lot of water to mix up, and wild jalapenos are fairly common.
Milk from your pack brahmin works as both beverage, and a source of butter, if you’re any good at churning (guess what I did for a lot of the time I rode around in the wagon as a young colt?). Trail coffee is an occasional treat too, though you’re usually best off not asking what rummage-rubbish was ground up to make it.
If you’re REALLY blessed by Luna, you’ll run across a trader who’s got something sweet to put on the flapjacks, like jars of prickly pear jam preserved in honey.
[BLACK BLIZZARD] "It was as though all the evil buried in the West had burrowed its way to the surface... every burned mare, every torched village, every black sin. And it came for us on the winds of Hell."
MINISTRY OF AWESOME (MAw) "BLACK CLOPS"
Littlepip, via memory orb, confirms that RBD and the MAw were running covert operations as well as "awesome" projects like the SPP. In the aftermath of the bombs, many MAw agents in the West fell in with the newly-formed NCR as it struggled to rebuild, absent any leadership from RBD. This is a major reason the NCR was able to bounce back so quickly. They still remember and revere her memory as an institutional tradition (similar to the MWT/Steel Ranger remembrance of Applejack), and if her continued existence is confirmed, it will trigger a (similar) schism between MAw and NCR loyalists.
RAINBOW DASH'S CLONE
As part of the Equestrian military effort, there was a brief attempt at creating a clone army using the Mirror Pool. RBD volunteered for this, but as with Pinkie Pie, the clones turned out to be mentally unstable, each reflecting only a narrow sliver of the initiative and personality of the original. Although large-scale military production turned out to be unworkable, the Ministry of Awesome continued to experiment with the concept.
Eventually, a few clones were created and enhanced with advanced PipBuck technology. The PipBucks carried software which magically stabilized and enhanced the clones, at least to the point where they could reliably perform a set of complex tasks. These "missions" had to be pre-programmed, however, so a clone could actually be put "on a loop", using its own initiative but continually performing essentially the same task over and over.
When Dash fled the Enclave, one of these was set to perform the role of "Mare Do Well" in and around Thunderhead, using cloaking technology to avoid capture while trying to undermine the isolationist positions of the Enclave government. Gilda found and assaulted her, leaving her for dead (to later become a ghoul), prior to finding the real RBD.
RAINBOW DASH'S DEATH
During the final battle, Dashie leads the Shadowbolts on an epic bombing run in support of the surviving Vikeans --- her final atonement, as she sees it. Unfortunately, she's too old to pull off a 90-degree shear at ultrasonic speed anymore, and knows it. She hits the ground so hard...
...that she actually breaks through the universe, reincarnating as the titular figure of "My Little Dashie". -:3
RADIATION
Radiation does not work the same in Fallout as it does in real life. In real life, radioactive particles strike your own particles like a massive burst of tiny shotgun pellets, causing cellular damage as they pass through or embed themselves.
In Fallout, radioactive particles simply transfer their energy to non-radioactive particles in passing. This has the effect of "supercharging" the individual atoms, and thus the molecules they form. To a point, determined by its atomic makeup, a molecule's bonds can survive a given amount of energy. Beyond that, it will fragment in order to dissipate the excess. Atoms, subjected to enough such energy, will also fragment (thus perpetuating the necessary chain-reaction of any atomic detonation). Over time, this excess will also bleed away of its own accord, like power draining from a battery.
GHOULIFICATION
However, a molecule which is "shocked" by a high enough level of energy will adapt to that level as its new norm, storing the excess as a reserve and "remembering" the format it was in when molecular shock was achieved. When later damage occurs, the reserve is expended as a sort of intermolecular glue, maintaining overall cohesion.
This is why a ghoul heals when exposed to radiation: his or her cells are literally recharging and re-knitting.
The appearance of ghoulification is caused by the fact that the body has differing levels of density, and therefore does not absorb radiation evenly. "Softer" cells with more water and less solidity (such as those found in the skin or epidermis) tend to absorb too much energy before the "harder" cells of bone and sinew can absorb enough. The worst instances come from those who somehow survive direct exposure to a nuclear detonation, because the massive burst of particles causes horrific damage while molecular shock is still taking effect.
A molecule which is not sufficiently energized to be "shocked" fails to adapt to the incoming energy, and slowly begins to dissolve into component atoms instead. This is why radiation does not always create ghouls; irradiation must be present in the entire body, at the proper levels to preserve rather than destroy.
PRESERVATION
This is also why so many things from so long ago are still around. Normally, two centuries is enough for most things exposed to the elements to rust or rot away. Exposure to nuclear blasts, as well as radioactive fallout, impregnated everything from concrete to paper. If it wasn't destroyed by the firestorms, it's still around today and still slowly bleeding off that excess energy. Hence why pre-War food is edible, but also gives you a bit of radiation poisoning.
MAGIC
Magic is nothing more or less than the deliberate manipulation of the world without use of physical contact. In a universe where the very cells of your body can store excess power, that power can be redirected, given the proper brain chemistry.
[HORSE: Although he never mentioned it (not expecting Cherry to go there on his own), Horse also wants something from the complex: an example of the perfected, magic-driven version of nano-assembly technology so he can reverse-engineer it. He was never able to reverse-engineer the original Sierra Madre technology, but had been a leader in similar tech pre-War (parasprite nano-production). He'll be very happy when Cherry shows up with schematics unannounced, calling him "proactive" and deciding to cut to the chase with his backstory.]
[LOOPY DELOUP: Covered in burning rubber gunk from a half-dozen flaming Fun Suits, she plummets from the sky to become the Burned Mare. She wants to destroy the "traitors" of Nellie AFB, as well as Cherry, joining up with the Herd (and giving information on Nellie's defenses) for this purpose.]
[DOMINO MASK: Burned his way out of the Royale vault through its weak link: the intercom mounting. He made it to the reactors just in time for them to blow, whereupon he and all the Ghosts there absorbed the released magical energy. They have now fused (rather messily) into a MegaGhost, a horrific thing that sludges its way out of the ruins and down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Later, it makes a deal with the Herd: his services, in exchange for giving New Pegas one final performance.]
*****
Cossack concept: river running under city into Cossack territory, poisoned by Taint and reactor leakage. The result: Jagerponies! They serve a unicorn genius named Agatha, who's really good with a violin. A "kestle" is currently under construction. Cossacks primarily rent their mercenary services out to NCR corporations, land barons, and military (taking only defensive contracts to free up NCR troops for elsewhere, so they're not much abused as cannon-fodder).
Coltifornia Kid: "I hope you're quite prepared to die."
Ghoulbeck: Unicorn merc Ghoul, with a Zap Apple tree emerging from the forehead.
[ALIEN REFERENCES: Homage's gun reduces enemies to ash the color of the moon. Something up high exploded, dropping it to the ground, which is how she found it. No tech like it anywhere else, extremely powerful.]
[PARADERP: Cherry runs into a friendly Paradore with lopsided eyes. It looks up at him, imploringly. "No." He shoots it.]
"Cider. Sweet Apple. Hot."
[Rarity-style Pegas Showmares]
["My little ponies! RISE! Rise for the glory that is... HOBO-US MAXIMUS!" *cardboard barding and sword of glass bottles*]
BEER STEIN: A white/grey/black pony who is the lone survivor of a Stable experiment involving elimination of passions to create a more stable society. His cutie mark is a beer stein, his voice is Ben Stein, and he (un)naturally exudes an Aura of M.E.H. (Mental Extroversion Hibernator). He stops combat situations with any being of intelligence higher than 3. Eventually, he opens a rehabilitation mental clinic in New Pegas where his patients begin thinking rationally about their lives.
HORSE'S TALE
"Beneath Canterlot is a mine. Crystals, gems, the wealth of a young nation. Locked away by Celestial order, its existence stricken from the books, its workers sworn to secrecy. Eventually, forgotten. Because when they had dug their mine deeply enough, in pursuit of their own greed, they found someone else's greed had preceded their own. And that there are things nopony was meant to know..."
Bombs Fell, Everypony Died: One of Horse's pet projects was an effort to incorporate anti-missile defenses into the Single Pegasus Project towers. This was firmly rejected by both Rainbow Dash and Luna, so Horse built the prototype into the Lucky Chance instead. While firing its plasma cannons in defense of Las Pegasus, errors in the reactors' power matrix caused feedback, frying much of his body and searing shut the command pod. Putting the pod into emergency stasis mode was his only means of survival. Horse no longer wants out of the pod; even if he could be removed, no healing magic or technology would be able to repair the horrible damage. He would rather live in simulated splendor than as a helpless invalid.
It took more than a decade for Horse to properly recover his faculties, during which time the population of New Pegas had reacted to the loss of their Princesses by falling into anarchy. He eventually restored order with his robot police force, brokering a peace and wealth-sharing system with the most powerful gangs of the time.
Horse also states that his closest wartime secret was the ability to be in more than one place at the same time. Every time a clone was killed, usually by an assassin, it was replaced with another who declared the clone a "security double". Horse rarely used more than one clone at a time (for obvious reasons), his last having gone rogue in Hoofington during the final months of the War. He has not used a clone since, not wanting to repeat the problem without reasonable safeguards in place.
Cherry asks if cloning a pony could work as a form of immortality. Horse explains that while the mind can be uploaded and downloaded at will, including into a body, the soul cannot transfer into anything but a soul jar, which itself cannot be a living item. According to his information, an attempt was made during the War to infuse a pony with a "Phoenix Talisman" which itself was a soul jar, but that the results were --- unsatisfactory. Cherry ponders that if Horse can't have cloned himself, he'd either have to be in a soul-jar or a stasis pod like Rainbow Dash, but his image on the screen is way too young-looking, given what she said about aging at a slower rate while cognizant during stasis.
Because he is "confined" and currently unwilling to create a new clone, Horse needs a confidant to act as his agent in the real world. Previously, Benny was that agent (real name: Bent Nail, which he loathes), but his ambitions got the better of him when he stole Horse's poker chip. Horse then explains that the chip really has no value beyond sentiment --- it was the first chip minted when he founded the Lucky Chance. It's valuable enough to him, however, that he does not want it destroyed under any circumstances.
[Nellie AFB - House had his casino's defense batteries linked into the base's computers in order to provide a unified defense system. He then shorted out most of the base's systems after the bombs dropped, prompting its crew to abandon it and leave to join the Enclave.]
[HORSE DOES NOT REVEAL HUMAN ORIGINS PRIOR TO DEVELOPING A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH D-S --- POSSIBLY AS THE FINAL REVEAL OF THE WHOLE STORY]
[Cherry: "I don't buy that the whole planet is just called 'Earth'. That's a stupid name for a planet."
Horse: "Well, what would you call it?"
Pink-E: "How about Bob?"] |
Calbeck | 679 | 26 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2021-01-08T17:18:04+00:00 | 2021-01-08T23:51:50+00:00 | 775 | CENTRAL PLOT: Cherry is taking an "impromptu vacation" (aka running away) to get his head together, having been exposed to a godawful lot of screwy crap. He ends up learning something about relaxation and mysticism from the Salvation Springs tribals, and saves a lot of people into the bargain.
[NEW BRAYNAN: founded by the Brahmin Prophet "Blackie" in a ruined section of Oxpen, Ewetah, its first settlers coming from the ruins of Salt Lick City. Later joined by Buffalo tribals and then Brahmin and Sheep refugees from across Equestria. Ideals are isolationism, hard work, thriftiness and mutual respect. They have a well-trained militia which has been able to hold against all comers so far, run by a Badass Sheep named Commander Shepherd. If they have a weak link, it's that the sole major source of water in the area, Salvation Springs, runs down from the hills and can't be wholly secured. The town is entirely made of wood-and-adobe construction, clay bricks reinforced with straw.]
[Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills": an NCR attack on local tribals, trying to drive them away and take their wells for further operations. The NCR and Herd are both trying to annex the New Braynan area; whichever succeeds will have a strategic flank against the other, with water supplies sufficient for a large force. No place else in the region has enough to support more than a company, so most of the fights are meeting engagements between small forces.]
[NCR: headed by Colonel Golden Apple Custard, a Sneering Imperialist. He considers New Braynan to be just a step above "tribal" status regardless of its strategic importance.]
[Herd: Frumentarii Ferus Cincinnatus (essentially Ulysses - a wordplay on Ulysses S. Grant's favorite horse, Cincinnati) is exploiting the NCR's excesses to recruit the tribals. The tribals mostly aren't biting and his overall efforts have stagnated, leading him to consider all-out genocide instead. He is willing to dump barrels of Flux and reactor waste into the wells, if for no other reason than to deny them to the NCR.]
COMMANDER SHEPHERD
(played by a goat with a banjo, backed up by a buffalo on bongos)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiRDJLcYua0
From New Pegas' bars
To Manehattan or the N-C-R,
From the gates of this place
To the temples of Celestial grace,
There are trash-talkin' Minotaurs lackin' in humility,
Griffin gals a-braggin’ 'bout their reach and flexibility,
And Red-Eye's ruins hide beneath a cover of smog.
But no matter what flag you wear,
The burdens that you might bear,
You can fight like a Hydra, enchant like a Wizard
But you’ll never be better than Commander Shepherd!
Oh!
Deep in Canterlot's halls
Beneath all the crumbling walls
There's a Dragon down there
Puffing out the poisonous air
Arcane Science, went and got its own Ministry
Searchin' for a way to re-create a new Divinity
But one Ram holds every Ewe enthralled
But no matter what flag you wear,
The burdens that you might bear,
You can fight like a Hydra, enchant like a Wizard
But you’ll never be better than Commander Shepherd!
[Broken-Throat's Chorus:]
COMMANDER SHEPHERD! (x8)
No matter what flag you wear,
The burdens that you might bear,
You can fight like a Hydra, enchant like a Wizard
But you’ll never be better than Commander Shepherd!
(Soldiers)
You can fight like a Hydra, enchant like a Wizard
But you’ll never be better than Commander Shepherd!
(Bard and Soldiers)
You can fight like a Hydra, enchant like a Wizard
But you’ll never be better than Commander Shepherd!
(Goat Bard)
Never be better than Commander Shepherd!
Never be better than Commander Shepherd!
Yeah!
[Shepherd appears on the wall. The song abruptly stops, the militia snaps to attention: "Captain Bar None, you stand relieved. I am assuming control."]
[WIDOW-MAKER Radio Song (to the tune of "Pecos Bill")]
Widow-Maker was a stallion out of Phoenix
And the Western super-colt, to say the least
He was the roughest, toughest critter
Never known to be a quitter
With the meanest set of teeth on any beast!
So yippee-i-ay-i-ay, yippee-i-o
For the toughest critter west of the Old Rio!
Widow-Maker roped a death-wind from the wastelands,
And dragged it off to settle scores with raider gangs.
So after radiation cooked 'em,
And the dragon-thunder spooked 'em,
Then his minefield ended whimpers with a bang!
So yippee-i-ay-i-ay, yippee-i-o
For the toughest critter west of the Old Rio!
When the Palomino Desert got to spreadin',
Off to frozen Unicornia, he did go
Subjected tundra to erasure,
Trottin' back with a whole glacier!
That's the way we got Mount Morgan, don'cha know?
So yippee-i-ay-i-ay, yippee-i-o
For the toughest critter west of the Old Rio!
Once a gang of raiders lynched a herd of brahmin,
But what came after were some bitter pills.
When Widow-Maker caught those villains,
Well, he bucked out all their fillin's!
Now we call that mound of graves the Colgate Hills!
So yippee-i-ay-i-ay, yippee-i-o
For the toughest critter west of the Old Rio!
Widow-Maker lost his way out in the desert...
(Water!)
He was going 'round and round in giant rings...
(Water!)
He knew he'd never make New Braynan...
(Water!)
So he found a rusty tin can...
And he dug the wells they call Salvation Springs!
When a bunch of painted tribals did a war-dance
Widow-Maker shot to hell their little game.
The blood that ran into the river
Made a torrent from that sliver,
And that's how the "Coltorado" got its name!*
While reclining on a cloud, high over Phoenix
With his guns, he nailed a star with ev'ry shot!
But filled with guilt at their declining,
He left one there, brightly shining,
For the filly that he loved in Canterlot!
So yippee-i-ay-i-ay, yippee-i-o
For the filly that he loved in Can-ter-lot!
* Colorado is of Spanish origin, meaning "colored red."
[SUBPLOT: A band of Renegade Survivors (Zebra splinter faction) explain to Cherry what his destiny is. He spits on it, but it's out there...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6hHaIxOsmk
All at stake!
Oh, yeah yeah yeah, pone!
All at stake!
My destiny is clear...
Can't give up, it all depends on you
Can't give up (on a quest!)
Can't give up, it all depends on you
Can't give up
I'm a Renegade Survivor
A new-age warrior
And I'm trotting de universe
Searching for the future (Oh yes!)
I'm a Renegade Survivor
A new-age warrior
And I'm trotting de universe (Oh, now!)
Searching for the future
What is out there, I don't know
But I've got to hide my fears
Danger lies along the way
But my will to survive is dear
Hunted by de evil ones
And I'm chased by my enemy
Like refugees and castaways
In a hostile environment
Oh yes!
I'm a Renegade Survivor
A new-age warrior
Trotting de universe (Oh yes!)
Searching for the future
Look at that, oh yes!
I'm a Renegade Survivor
A new-age warrior (Whoa, now!)
And I'm trotting de universe (On a quest!)
Searching for the future
Now you knew to call your friends
For survival is the key (Be careful!)
Your mission is to find a way
And defeat them at their game
Oh, now!
Hunted by de evil ones
And I'm chased by my enemies
Like refugees, I'm cast away
In a hostile environment
Whoa yes!
I'm a Renegade Survivor (On a quest!)
A new-age warrior (My destiny revealed!)
And I'm trotting de universe (Whoa yes, now!)
Searching for the future (Oh yes!)
I'm a Renegade Survivor (All is at stake!)
A new-age warrior (My destiny ahead!)
And I'm trotting de universe (On a quest!)
Searching for the future
Can't give up it all depends on you
Can't give up (on a quest!)
Can't give up it all depends on you
Can't give up
[Chorus till fade] |
Calbeck | 679 | 27 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2021-01-08T17:41:15+00:00 | 2021-08-21T06:12:13+00:00 | 730 | Huge "reveal" chapter. Big M/T is "Big Magic/Technology", Horse's private site for high-end research. It is in fact the original "Big MT", taken over by House after the events of FO: New Vegas.
* House was unable to access his main robot army, or upgrade the existing ones, because the Courier rejected his offer and threw the Platinum Chip into the Grand Canyon, where it was caught up by the Colorado River and eventually deposited somewhere in the bed-silt of Lake Mead. The Courier never went to Big MT (not being a movie buff), and later wiped out both NCR and Legion by nuking both nations. The final blow for humanity in the West was when Tunnelers migrated into the New Vegas area, which still knew nothing about them and was unprepared as a result. Without NCR or Legion presence, the still-squabbling local factions were wiped out one by one, despite reinforcements from House's police 'bots to those willing to accept assistance. Nonetheless, House's robots fought the Tunnelers back to the warrens under Hopeville, finally reclaiming the Mojave a decade later.
* House then dispatched robot expeditions to comb the American continents for enough survivors to begin a centralized breeding and re-population program, but the small, scattered groups he found refused his offers. They were also generally too well-armed and -fortified for hostile takeovers, making the overall effort futile. During these explorations, House robots discovered the D.C. Wasteland and the Lone Wanderer's earlier decision to "purify" it with the FEV toxin. Humanity's remnants had been reduced to non-sustainable population levels.
* House spent most of the remaining millennium scavenging ruins, establishing a fully self-sufficient industrial base before his reactors ran out of fuel. One expedition was sent to Norway, successfully recovering the DNA catalog and reseeding stocks contained in the "Doomsday Vault". This was mostly just for the challenge, and House's love of collecting things, since at this point he possessed nothing that would let him make use of the materials.
* Meanwhile, the growth of mutant plant life proceeded without interruption at Vault 22, X-22 Botanical Garden, Zion Canyon and Oasis, slowly spreading across the depopulated Wastelands. Spore Carriers, a fungal infection of the human body which technically kills the host, eventually were forced to adapt for lack thereof. The result was a plant/human hybrid with no intellect.
* Eventually, Dr. Mobius died of poor self-maintenance. The Think Tank's recursion loop subsequently failed due to lack of constant reinforcement. When they broke out to investigate the Wasteland in 2910, the destruction of several Securitrons alerted House to their existence (House's robots had always treated the crater as "empty" due to interference from the radar fence). He quickly massed a large force, drove the Think Tank back to Big MT, and laid siege. The Think Tank was able to repurpose the radar fence to keep robots out, but House reverse-engineered a captured Sonic Emitter to suppress its field. Because he had never been reactivated, Blind Diode Jefferson never defeated this "sonic invasion" of Big MT. The Think Tank surrendered, offering to serve House rather than risk obliteration. He accepted, but ensured obedience by directly reprogramming them via their use of RobCo termlink code.
* After capturing Big MT, clearing its remaining hazards, and assessing its technology, House realized the cloning and splicing facilities could be repurposed to re-seed and re-populate the planet, using the until-now-useless contents of the Norwegian "Doomsday Vault". But because the DNA codex for primates (along with several other related species) failed to survive the trip, and because pure-strain humanity had already dwindled to less than 1,000 members worldwide, cloning attempts repeatedly failed to produce viable breeding stock. Cross-splicing between various forms of mutated humans only resulted in further-devolved strains.
* The Great Cross-Pollination Project (~5000 years)
The "master seeds" were cloned to create a working set, which was then cloned as often as required for genetic tinkering and splicing at Big MT. The objective: discover a way to recreate humanity, or failing that, create a new species capable of harboring human intellect. House, busy with his numerous other projects and not in the least bit knowledgeable about biology, entrusted the Think Tank with the GCPP. As a direct result, numerous "failed" experiments escaped over the centuries, in the same way the cazadores and nightstalkers had. Many of these have intellect in the low-human range. Various mutant "goblin" (semi-human) and "chimera" (multi-animal) species breed and develop in the wilds, interacting with and feeding off of the existing flora and fauna (also largely mutated). Low-intellect plant species arise from interbreeding with Spore Carriers.
- One of House's parallel projects, however, was to further develop "brain bot" technology (robobrains, cyberdogs, think tanks) into a wholly machine-based variety. Eventually he figures out how to upload an entire intellect into a computer, copy it, and/or download it into a host body. In this way he sidesteps the otherwise-inevitable death of flesh, and so does the Think Tank.
- The last vestiges of recognizable humanity, both mutated and pureblood, slowly combine under the pressure of competition, but still have numbers too low to be self-sustaining. A very few enclaves, with treasures scavenged over the millennia, live a lifestyle similar to that of 20th-Century rural America. Most have reverted to medieval ways, or worse. Examples of the former are Megan and her siblings, Molly and Danny, whose parents are routinely away from their ranch-style property on scavenging runs. The latter include the original Prince Scorpan, a human mutant with latent Chimera genetics.
- Over time, the Think Tank gives up on trying to recreate humanity in any recognizable form. Existing cross-mutants (Tunnelers, Spore Carriers, etc) become the new focus. Dragons are a notable success in the intellect department, but prove too irascible and dangerous when large enough to fend for themselves. This line quickly runs out of steam, to be replaced by wholesale experimentation with both chimeras and pure-stock animals. Dragons flourish in the wilds, though direct competition with one another prevents them from rising to the apex of the food chain.
- The Super-Chimeras are produced, one by one, as the results of frustrated madness on the part of Think Tank members. Their unique brain chemistry allows development of psychic abilities, manifesting in subversion of physical laws to one degree or another: Grogar, Tirek, (various minor G1 villains) and Discord.
- "Magic", the mind's manipulation of energy and matter to subvert physical laws, develops first as an art and eventually as a field of scientific study. The ability to use magic, however, is reliant on the brain's physiology and thus a largely genetic gift whose power varies, even within a given species. You're either born with it or you aren't: attempting to rearrange your own brain to create the necessary changes invariably results in death.
- Several promising strains develop which incorporate a more controllable access to "magic", but most result in races that tend towards being lone-wolves and thus don't rapidly develop in social terms. Humans that develop magical abilities almost invariably become power-hungry witches, warlocks and wizards. Only one species appears able to merge magical use and teamwork: Equines.
* G1 (~1500 years)
- "Ponyland" is populated with the first viable Pony breeds, including hybrids of avian (Pegasus), insect (Flutter) and piscean (Sea). These spread and develop with surprising rapidity, establishing colonies in the ruins of old castles and the like. Desolate regions like Flutter Valley are reclaimed by development of terraforming magic, while the ruins themselves are quickly refurbished until they look new. Everything the Ponies do, they do with pride and vigor... except defend themselves. When Grogar invades with his Troggles (troglodytes), the Ponies submit immediately.
- Grogar rules Ponyland from his capital city of Tambelon, is banished, returns with the city (+500 years).
The place looks like it's aged the entire time, though Grogar hasn't. He is powerful because he has vested more and more energy, over time, into his various bells. Ringing them temporarily disrupts the power they hold, and in the case of Tambelon itself, its Bell "evacuates" the entire city into another dimension where it is actually anchored.
*** G1-versus-G4 NOTE: in G4, the bell around Grogar's neck is stolen by Gusty and hidden away, with no indication of ever being broken... so the legend says. In G1, Grogar's neck-Bell melts away entirely into nothing when Tambelon's main Bell is rung. Gusty appears to have nothing to do with this. However, G4's neck-Bell looks like is has in fact been shattered, and then reforged, at some point. New Pegas treats both stories as true; the neck-Bell did in fact melt away, but later re-formed of its own accord in Dream Valley (where it had melted, while Tambelon was still in the same dimension). This brought Grogar back and, absent Megan's help at this point, the G1 ponies came under his thrall until Gusty's successful theft of the neck-Bell. This is also why the neck-Bell was never destroyed, but instead hidden away, with powerful spells set to prevent its recovery. Grogar is stuck in Tambelon's home dimension so long as it is NOT destroyed and given the chance to re-form again.
- Tirek makes his play for a "night that will last forever", falls to the Rainbow of Light, which itself is obtained from the Moochik (cunning and well-traveled, also smart --- for a Goblin type).
- ? ? ? (various other threats)
- Hydia and her daughters (Goblins with some Human ancestors) create and release the Smooze, which is defeated by Megan's Rainbow of Light and the Flutter Ponies. They later seek revenge against the Flutter Ponies, but are defeated again despite allying with a race of intelligent bees.
- G1 comes to an end with an apocalyptic Smooze Flood, reinforced with floom from the beginning. This time, the Rainbow of Light is shattered trying to stop it: each color becomes its own stone sphere, containing one of the Elements of Harmony, these being widely scattered by the flood and lost. The entirety of Ponyland, its neighboring environs, and all their inhabitants are annihilated beneath the sludge, which ingests all biological material and excretes gems before expiring for lack of anything else to consume. Over the thousands of years following, these gems and the dead Smooze remnants are buried by new layers of fresh silt, creating a unique strata from which most gems in Equestria are subsequently mined. This is also why Equestria is so rich in gems compared to Zebrica; Zebras must obtain gems from naturally-occurring mines.
*G2 (~500 years)
- An attempt to restart the Pony Project, this time with a pre-built industrial base and core "suburbia" town for initial support. To cut down on the "random magical element", only Earth Ponies are introduced, this time in a new breed with a larger braincase and subsequently higher intellect, almost at human norms. However, this "new generation" ends up having low overall testosterone levels, fielding no military and entirely content with their existing standards of living. In the face of several successive major threats, they are incapable of putting up a serious defense and are wiped out.
*G3 / "3.5" (~250 years)
- This generation went entirely the other direction, sacrificing intellect in favor of raw magical powers and provision of a tech base similar to that of G1 so the ponies "wouldn't get too comfortable". The lower intellect and easy use of magic, however, resulted in its being used for every frivolous fantasy. A total lack of independent development followed, drowned in a sea of unending endorphin highs. A hurried on-the-fly alteration resulted in giant craniums with underdeveloped brains, leading to a hard decision: the entire moronic generation was terminated by airdropping bottles of sleeping pills labeled "Candy" during a major celebration (the fifth that week).
*G4 (~2000 years)
- Finally, balance was achieved in Project Pony: a central body design capable of self-defense, manageable levels of magic across three core breeds of Unicorn, Pegasus and Earth, and a human-grade level of intellect. Instead of creating a base city, the initial stock was released into G3's ruins to make of it what they would. Support was provided only in terms of satellite-based suppression of insurmountable threats. This results in the "Three Tribes" era. The Think Tank is immensely pleased by the ability of the ponies to recognize the Windigo threat and unite to defeat it, even if only at the last minute. The subsequent formation of Equestria, its formation of a defensive military force, and the innate capabilities of its denizens are deemed sufficient to declare Project Pony a success. With the ponies out of their proverbial cradle, the defensive satellites are put to other uses. They must now sink or swim on their own.
- Discord, last and greatest of the Chimeras, is primarily a dragon/horse hybrid (thus "draconequus"). Only the super-science of Big MT gives him pause, something he doesn't like to think about much less admit. Out of pure boredom, and with not a little spite towards his creators, he seized power in newly-founded Equestria, treating its denizens as his personal playthings. He stops short of killing them, however, effectively holding Big MT's prized project hostage. They tolerate him on this basis, out of hope the ponies will eventually develop a spontaneous means of resisting.
- They do: the twin sisters Celestia and Luna, successful in their quest to collect and use the Elements of Harmony, simultaneously ascend to Alicornhood by their mutual intent to create Order from Chaos. Each Alicorn represents a concept as its living avatar, these being the Balance between Day and Night.
- After securing the Crystal Empire from the reign of Sombra, the sisters are approached by the leaders of Equestria's Three Tribes with a request that they accept a pact: acceptance of the twins as co-reigning Queens, in exchange for continuing protection. They accept, but only on grounds that they be considered Princesses instead - a "princess" is royalty with respect but no mandate beyond that granted by public acclamation. Luna and Celestia hope to avoid being corrupted by the trappings of power by making it something that at least technically can be refused them.
- Nightmare Moon Incident.
- Events of the G4 show.
* FO:E. (+230 years?) (close to a total of 10,000 since FO:NV)
* Bright's followers, Cthulhoid interference "beyond the stars"? "The stars will aid in her escape".
*** BUBBLE BUDDIES: The "Great Equestria Blow-Off" prizes won by Cherry and Tag-End are available here, at the Sparkle-Cola Fun Division HQ (which was the Ministry of Morale hub for the Greater San Palomino area, situated here mainly because it was legally outside Horse's domain). "Bubble Buddies" are late-war experimental hazmat suits with AI personalities, intended to act as protectors and guardians for colts and fillies. The Blow-Off was a cover for distributing the first "beta gold" suits. The suits are actually a set of four child-sized horseshoes, made from clear rubber with a visible titanium frame nestled inside. At the "toe" of each shoe is a half-exposed opal, the bottom of which is secured by the frame. No actual suit is apparent. The AI shares its program and processing among all four computers, magically linked by the opals.
Although child-sized, the clear rubber of the shoes will expand to snugly fit any authorized hoof they come into contact with, ensuring they can "grow with your child, keeping them safe well into adulthood". They provide a slight bounce to the step and are very comfortable even when doing nothing else. Beyond interlinking the shoes, the opals also function as RBC (Radiation, Biological, Chemical) detectors and will automagically trigger the Bubble Buddy's protective measures as needed. These are based on a new chemical rubber compound developed in conjunction with Coral Technologies Group, a Seaquestrian firm, which reacts to magical control signals emanating from the opals. This allows the rubber to inflate, with breathable air, into any number of potential configurations, most commonly a pony-shaped balloon-suit with the inside layer ending in a neck collar so the wearer can breathe the provided air. The trade name for this compound was still being debated at the corporate level when the bombs fell, but the most popular options at that time were variations on "Neverburst".
Seaquestrian bubble magic allows the rubber to temporarily flow in a manner similar to water during reconfigurations, allowing in turn an incredible level of creative flexibility on the part of either the AI or the owner (high-level hacking is necessary to pre-program new configurations, however). The opals also magically reinforce the compound as needed, making it shock-proof, puncture-proof, and blast-proof (an occupant might not survive a sufficiently powerful explosion, but the suit will). Furthermore, the rubber absorbs radiation, converting it to usable energy which is then stored in the shoe-frame batteries... the same kind of batteries normally used in magical weaponry. Chemical and biological toxins simply fail to adhere to the rubber at all. NOTE: this does NOT work for Taint; the rubber will simply corrode on contact.
The opals themselves are controlled by an Artificial Intelligence developed by the MoM using proprietary CoralTech software, specifically designed to be completely and deliberately incompatible with RoBronco software. Its initial configuration is "New Friend", and this is how they greet Cherry and Tag-End: being introduced in corporate-showroom style as fully-autonomous balloon ponies with childlike personalities. These will automatically customize themselves according to the apparent preferences of their owners. When the shoes are being worn by an authorized owner, they can also bring up a holographic customization menu. This includes sections for Personality, Maintenance, Emergency Uses and... a crammed-in category, using a narrow pink font that reads "ADULTS ONLY". Apparently no one caught the pervert programmer who was using one or both of the suits when no one else was around... |
Calbeck | 679 | 28 | Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Rainbow Dash,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout Equestria: New Pegas | Courier Six didn't survive the head shot...so Mr. Horse hired a bounty hunter to finish the job. | complete | 242 | 38 | <p>Mr. Horse's pet courier has been murdered and his property stolen. And while the price on the killers' heads is good enough to get any bounty hunter's attention, it's the bonus for returning a silly little poker chip that draws Dead-Shot in.</p><p>A pony could retire on that kind of jackpot...</p> | teen | 2021-01-08T18:30:39+00:00 | 2021-08-21T06:45:54+00:00 | 957 | [Horse and Cherry present the final reveal]
[Horse's star blaster is one of the original Alien weapons recovered during the Human Era. "I know a pony..." was cover.]
[REVERSE STORYTELLING, TELL IT STARTING FROM RECENT EVENTS INTO THE PAST, HORSE TO HOUSE]
"Let us dispense with this charade, shall we?" The smiling equine face began to dissolve, shifting, and I allowed myself a smile of my own.
Machines. Programming and wires, nothing but secrets and lies -
And then the image resolved into a monster. Instinctively I reared, backing up several steps before I managed to get hold of myself.
The head was round, with a flattened face ending above in a dapper (if criminally short) black mane and below in a sharp chin. Its muzzle was a wedge-like stub of skin over cartilage, barely noticeable except in that it broke up the flatness between mouth and eyes. The latter held a penetrating, sharply intelligent aspect, dominated by cornea and iris and with almost no whites to speak of. How could such a creature display emotions with such a fixed, immobile stare?
Though the display revealed little below the neck, it was clearly wearing a suit jacket with necktie in the classic pre-War style. There was no flank, tail or anything else showing behind, suggesting a bipedal build similar to that of a Diamond Dog.
What the hell was this supposed to be? What was Horse playing at? My mind raced as I failed to suppress a shudder, taken aback at this sudden immersion into the unknown.
Horse's revised visage responded by curling its broad-lipped mouth into an unmistakable smirk which somehow managed to reach those diminuitive pools of root-beer brown. "Surely I'm not that hideous, am I? After all, we're much more alike than you might want to know."
It took a moment to quash the quaver in my voice. "Q-Quit playing around, Horse. I didn't come here for some elaborate haunted-casino Nightmare Night prank -"
One side of the abomination's mouth turned down, switching from smirk to frown with a thorough economy of motion. "Really, Mister Pie. I'd have thought you more capable, by now at least, of seeing beyond the obvious. Of using a bit of... imagination." The expression softened slightly. "But then again, how could you know what I actually am, when all you can see are the trappings of silicone and steel? For all you know, my face is nothing more than mere artistry, no more real than a dream. Am I right?"
I forced a nod. A moment later, a section of wall opened and slid aside with a hydraulic hiss.
"Then step into my parlor, Mister Fly --- I beg your pardon. I meant 'Pie', of course."
Of course you did, Mister Spider.
[face-to-face meeting w/House, references to Princess Bride "mostly dead" situation... House went to
brain-machine, then machine-mind, then reversed the process once magic was discovered --- still stuck
in the memory computer referenced in Chapter 1 though]
[Conversation with House]
A section of floor slid open to admit a wide red pillow-seat on a shallow dais, rising up from below
and settling into position with an audible clank. The alien image on the screen, playing the
part of gracious host, nodded towards it.
"Please, Mister Pie, take a seat. If you will allow me, I shall tell you how Equestria was made."
Figured I might as well take a load off, so I copped a squat on the soft plush and perked my ears
attentively. I could certainly do worse than play the part of honored guest, after all.
House started in with the air of a professor who'd been rehearsing his speech for a long, long time.
"In the beginning, the only people were my people. No other animals spoke, wrote, or built
civilizations. Only we humans, homo sapien, did that, and we did it very well.
"But when we invented civilizations, we also created the notion that conflict could be between whole
groups of people, instead of just individuals. We invented the concept of war.
"The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and
territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower, built on the annexation of
its neighbors. These, and hundreds of other nations, fought and killed and bled over the course of
millenia to advance their civilizations, in one way or another.
"But war, my little pony? War, itself, never changes.
"Even after more than five thousand years of recorded human history, war was still primarily waged
over the acquisition of resources. But in the final decades leading up to our fall from glory, the
spoils of war were also its weapons... petroleum to fuel our industry and our armored combat vehicles,
uranium to provide power for our luxury home appliances and warheads for our nuclear missiles.
"China invaded my home, the United States of America, to seize our last oil reserves. We, in turn,
annexed Canada to obtain its vast forests as an alternate fuel supply. The European Commonwealth,
after exhausting itself fighting over the oilfields of the Middle East, collapsed entirely into
bickering, quarrelling nation-states once those fields ran dry.
"Eventually, someone somewhere decided that they had had enough. A button was pressed, missiles began
flying, and everyone else retaliated in kind. Within two hours, most of the planet was blown to
glowing, radioactive cinders.
"From a world population close to ten billion --- assuming you haven't received the equivalent of a
human high-school education in mathematics, that's a one followed by ten zeros --- less than a million
survived, scattered across the world in tiny groups which immediately began to prey on one another for
the scraps left behind. And that was the beginning of humanity's end.
I cocked my head to one side. "Assuming you haven't spit your bit here, what's any of this got to do
with anything, Mister Hor... er, House?"
If anything, the flat-faced expression became even more smug. "Because without the looming reality of
our own extinction, Mister Pie, there would have been no reason to create surrogate species --- yours,
for example."
I stared unblinkingly at the screen. "Brahmin crap."
"Not at all, Mister Pie. Not a bit of it. You're clearly something of a student of history --- don't
you wonder how it is that ponykind industrialized so rapidly in the decades before balefire fell, when
prior to that it had been largely placid and medieval for millenia? Haven't you ever thought about
why so much weaponry, ostensibly built by and for ponies, is much more easily wielded by species with
extra digits such as griffins?"
The screen flickered, switching cleanly to an exploded-anatomy medical diagram. The image vaguely
resembled a claw of some kind, but without any talons --- or knobbling or feathers, for that matter.
From a central squarish palm extended five, um... five...
"...they look like penises."
There was a long, uncomfortable pause. Then:
"Er... I suppose I can understand how someone, who has no functioning experience with
fingers," said House, extending and stressing the word for additional emphasis, "might arrive
at that conclusion. Now that you mention it, I recall a human doctor of my former acquaintance who
made the same mistake after living as a brain in a jar for an extended period..."
Whatever. I could at least see what he was getting at, and I could also put two and two together.
"So you're saying..." But House was much too keen on telling his mariner's tale to let me finish the
equation.
"...that the basis of equine industry and manufacturing is derived directly from human technology,
yes. In fact, it was primarily through my personal efforts that the planet was reseeded and talking
ponies came to exist in the first place."
In for a bit, in for a bushel... I arched one eyebrow in what I hoped was a dramatic offer for
my host to continue. It was pretty clear at this point that, whatever else he might be, Edwin Robert
Horse had thoroughly flipped his haybale. But at least he was an interesting lunatic.
"This city you walk in? It was, and is, my city... I built it, after all, with the wealth and
power I acquired through my industrial and financial acumen. Although no one believed in magic during
the human era, the technology I created was so advanced that many said it might as well have
been magic to start with.
"This very tower? I designed it as an anti-missile laser battery and control center, wrapped in a
casino to keep others from guessing its purpose. From here I defended my city when the final day of
humanity's reckoning came, though it still wasn't enough in the final equation. Six warheads got
through, creating an untenable situation which took decades to even begin to stabilize.
"Had I not been working with inefficient beta software, I would have dealt with all of the missiles
handily, but the finished version was scheduled for delivery the very day after the bombs fell.
It had been encoded into a special token --- the very Chip you carry right now.
"I spent millions of caps and two centuries searching for that Chip --- only to enlist the
services of a fool for the final leg of its journey. That special individual
allowed the Chip to be stolen by a larcenous associate of mine, then spent weeks meandering about the
desert doing every petty job other than honoring my contract, which required pursuit and
recovery in event of theft. Then, after finally doing what I was paying him for, that courier
walked right out of the very lion's den holding my Chip... and threw it into the Grand Canyon.
"Not long after, a barrage of nuclear weapons launched from a hidden pre-War base. Without any
warning, it was all I could do to protect the Las Vegas area from the sudden strike, but I could do
nothing to prevent the complete destruction of the New California Republic and a semi-nomadic military
organization calling itself 'Caesar's Legion'...the only major examples of recovering civilization.
"This second wave of destruction effectively wiped out any chance humanity had of recovering. From
that point forward, our numbers slowly declined, as though we had simply given up on survival at some
level... genetic, perhaps. It was clear that our time had come and gone. But if I could not save my
species, at the least I could try to save my world.
"Long ago, in the far-away land of Norway, we built a 'Doomsday Vault' which contained samples of
every seed and genetic strain humanity could catalogue. Its function was simple: to allow for
replanting the planet in the event of a nuclear war. But it took much longer than anyone expected for
the war's residual radiation to fade away; by that time, no one remembered the Vault had ever existed.
No one but me.
"Locked away in this great machine, I yet possessed control of my robots, as well as the servitude of
those humans which had survived beneath my anti-missile aegis. I therefore bent them towards
recovering the contents of that final Vault, an odyssey of epic proportions which I shan't bore you
with just now, as the details are quite irrelevant. What is important is that we recovered the
genetic materials --- well, most of it. Quite a bit had spoiled while other samples were lost during
the return journey. Including, as our continuing bad luck would have it, humanity's.
"Nonetheless, humanity had not been idle in pursuing technological goals, even in the aftermath of two
nuclear bombardments. The machine-minds of the Big Mountain Science Complex had developed functional
gene-splicing systems and cloning vats, which we used to grow and breed the initial strains prior to
their release into the wild. In particular, we aimed to create as many sentient species as possible,
leavening their gene's with those related to humanity's intellect.
"And remember what I said about technology advancing to the point where it became magic? As it turned
out, that was actually a truism. We learned so much about the nature of the universe's natural laws,
that we discovered how to break them in a variety of --- shall we say, 'interesting' --- ways. Doctor
Bouros was quite enthralled with the opportunity to create the first manticore, as it allowed him to
splice his damnable scorpion DNA into something without everyone yelling at him.
"All of this, of course, was a long and slow process of trial and mostly error. There were more than
a few mistakes, some intelligent and others not, many being horrific and others entirely sadistic. A
lot of that was because we were searching for a species mix suitable enough to become a 'client race'
--- humanity's replacement species.
[DESCRIPTION: 1st THROUGH 4th GEN]
"Which brings us to you and yours, my little pony.
"Meanwhile, what human society there was outside of the Vegas area devolved to feudalism, with tiny kingdoms and principalities providing the shelter of castle fortifications in exchange for food and servitude. By the time the first independent generation of ponies began to thrive on its own in the wild, there were more 'goblinoid' mutants running around than recognizable humans. And yet, even that first generation of ponies would have died out, much earlier than they did... if not for a teenage human girl, her little brother, and her even littler sister."
The image sighed, long and deeply.
"Equines were the only species which seemed capable of our two central requirements: developing human levels of intellect, and sticking together as a coherent society. Ponies took to it even better than the larger horses. Nonetheless, it took multiple 'generations' and, shall we say, 'total wipeouts', to create bodies and brains that didn't just submit to the first major threats that came along. The third generation, in particular, and the, ahem, 'hotfix' intended to correct the problem of extremely low intelligence combined with high levels of magical acuity..."
The screen visibly, audibly, shuddered.
"...forgive me. Let us not speak of such abominations."
[FINAL THEME: ELO's "Yours Truly, 2095" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtfjzmYZvTw ]
[FINISH TO NEW PEGAS: Ending Lyrics to "In the Year 2525"]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQfxi8V5FA
Now it's been ten thousand years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew...
Now Man's reign is through...
But through eternal Night
The twinkling of Star-light
So very far away...
Maybe it's only Yesterday...
[ALTERNATIVE "STAR-MEN" PLOT THREAD]
[mention arms-race between House (supporting Equestria) and Star-Men (supporting the Zebras)]
[Star-Men are a surviving Enclave splinter-faction which seized Mothership Zeta and from there the remnants of orbiting stations. They kept pure-strain humanity alive with the ultimate intent of returning to repopulate the Earth once the mutants were all done away with. With the Lone Wanderer having deployed the F.E.V. in the D.C. Wasteland, and the Courier nuking both NCR and Legion in the West, it was believed that planetary sterility would be achieved within a century. However, House then sent his robots to the Norwegian Doomsday Vault and started the re-seeding early. This was further complicated by surviving independent biogrowth projects and incidents which were now expanding to the point of cross-pollination: Vault 22 and Big M/T's botanical lab in the New Vegas area, Harold's Oasis near Washington, D.C., and others.
There were not enough Enclave left to risk any of them in direct conflict without also risking the remaining genetic pool dropping to extinction levels (less than a thousand). Despondent and desperate, with the chance to remake the planet for a pure-strain humanity stolen away, the Star-Men were infiltrated and co-opted to act as agents for the Elder Gods. This allowed the return of the Black Book, through which the Star-Men attempted repeatedly to destroy the mutants on Earth.
Project Horizon's asteroid impact (being an Elder God), the rise of the Witches (corrupted mutant humans), and the Smooze attack all resulted from Black Book projects.] |
Oceansama | 682 | 1 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-03-12T19:15:08+00:00 | 2012-03-12T19:15:08+00:00 | 4,167 | Chapter 1: First Move
The majestic city of Canterlot, capital city of all Equestria, was a wondrous marvel of pony engineering, art, and magic. It was a shinning jewel carved out of the side of a mountain and decorated with precious metals and gems mined from deep within. Canterlot's towers of smooth stone rose prominently into the air. Like fingers from the hand of a giant; stretching high, reaching endlessly for the blue sky as if to claim the sun for itself. For miles and miles in every direction this awe-inspiring place dominated the horizon for every citizen pony that dared to lift their eyes from the Earth. It was the center of culture, learning, trade, and science. It was also an object of philosophical wonder and legend. There were those who believed it had existed even before ponykind, stretching back into the days when gods and angels shaped the land.
In the center of the city was the royal castle, the central seat of the monarchy and home to the princesses Celestia and Luna. It was a large square structure of the finest hoof polished marble decorated with statues of tempered gold and silver as well as large carved murals colored in the finest paints and adorned with gems. The murals were dedicated to the memory of those who had come before and had built this place as well as wishing for the prosperity of the nobility and all the citizens of Equestria.
On this particular day Princess Celestia was not in a happy mood. If one were so bold as to ask her why she would say it was time for her to pile-drive some of her staff into the ground out of a need to vent her pent up frustration. If there was one thing she dreaded most about ruling over Equestria it was these end of the month mandatory council sessions. At these times it would be necessary for her to entertain the kingdom's cabinet of numerous advisors, political leaders, scholars, and scientists as she was subjected, nay forced, to listen to their financial and economic reports, treasury counts, construction schedules, population propagation charts, food stock counts, among many others. Poets they were not and everything was read so dry and devoid of prose that it was like a sandstorm in her brain trying to erode her sanity.
Then the real fun began as she was required to sign of stack after stack of paperwork to the point that she developed a horn cramp from magic strain. As a princess it was her royal duty to keep abreast of all of this, but she had grown weary to the monotony and tedium that seemed dominate her life over the many long years of rule. There was hope though, a light at the end of the tunnel as it were. This was the last such meeting before the beginning of the Summer Sun Festival which was tonight. It was finally a chance to get out of this stuffy castle and have a little fun, maybe do a little catching up with her favorite student. All she had to do was keep a smile on her face and draw upon an extra reserve of patience.
The council chamber was large circular room big enough to hold a congregation of several hundred ponies. Banners hung from the wall and each bore a different insignia of a city or town under the Princess' rule. Overhead a stained glass dome was covered in still art depicted various scenes, in beautiful watercolor, of historical significance. It gave the room a bright and cheerful atmosphere as the sun effortlessly shined down through it.
Princess Celestia sat at the head of a circular table made of a rich dark mahogany wood. Sitting with her were twenty other ponies of varying professions. The circular nature of the table signified equality as it allowed everyone who sat there the freedom to look upon the face of every single occupant without obstruction. As the Princess and the politicians continued with business, palace servants periodically appeared to serve light snacks and refill goblets with refreshments.
"…and due to the continuing peace I recommend the following cuts in the defense budget." spoke General Star Sword. He was a white pegasus colt dressed in elaborate royal gold armor and bearing the insignia of ultimate command over the Equestrian military on his helmet, a sword flanked by four stars. "We should further reduce the number of palace guards by ten percent and divert the funds towards more immediate concerns regarding…"
"No." Princess Celestia sharply interrupted him.
"B-b-but your highness," he stuttered in indignation.
"General," Celestia raised her hoof for silence, "you've proposed the same cutbacks for the past year and I've made it quite clear that any further reductions would be unwise. Unless you wish to leave the security of this city in such a miserable state as to invite troublemakers into our very midst?"
"With all due respect your Excellency," chimed Administrator Golden Sacks, head of the treasury. He was a yellow earth pony with green hair and a cutie-mark consisting of a pair of golden moneybags. "It has been over fourteen centuries since the army has been called upon to defend these lands from a hostile force. I'd also like to draw attention to your own pupil who has proven most capable at handling several minor 'incidents' that have occurred within these lands. If a single unicorn can soundly deal with these problems then we need not waste our funds on the expensive training, upkeep, and maintenance of an army. I for one…."
"No!" Celestia sternly reinforced her earlier answer with a stomp of her hoof, "In case you haven't noticed Mr. Sacks, there has been an ever increasing number of 'incidences' recently in Ponyville and in other surrounding areas." Celestia placed both of her front hooves on the table and lifted herself to tower above the assembly.
"As it stands there are just enough guards left to keep Equestria relatively safe and secure from the common thief and wildlife. Now, while I am grateful that my dearest pupil and her friends have managed to settle many of the more 'unique' problems themselves we should not dismiss the value of military preparedness in the unexpected event of a greater unseen threat!" Celestia lowered herself back into her seat. Several advisors clapped their hooves in agreement while others wanted to speak in opposition, but knew better than to cross Celestia.
"Enough of this," Celestia continued after the clapping died down, "let us move on to the next item of business." After she spoke the economic specialist, Ledger, rose to give his report. Celestia only paid him half a mind as she took a deep draw of water followed by a servant refilling her goblet.
"…there has been an large upturn in the cost of precious gems and metals as demand continues to outstrip an unusual downturn in supply. Investigations have not discovered any foul play or thefts from the mines at this time, but it continues to be a major concern of local metal workers and fashion designers…" As he was giving his report there came a loud and impatient knocking on the assembly's main door.
"Enter." Celestia commanded, relieved for the interruption. A guard pony dressed in a more traditional set of golden armor entered the room with measured step and undisguised pride, yet his eyes darted around the room nervously.
"My princess," the guard was sweating uncontrollably while he bowed down, "I bring terrible news."
"What news?" Celestia felt her relief fading.
"I'm sorry your majesty, but it appears there has been a theft from the royal treasury!" A disbelieving gasp arose from the assembled crowd. Celestia ignored them as she arose from her seat and approached the guard.
"Tell me guard pony, what has been stolen?" she now stood over the guard who somehow managed to bow even lower.
"My lady," the guard continued, " My partners and I were on our way to the treasury to relieve the previous shift when we happened upon a disturbing sight." His breath caught in his throat out of fear.
"Guard," Celestia said with warm concern in her voice. "Please stand and tell us what has happened." Slightly reassured by her words the guard stood, but did not make direct eye contact with the princess.
"The three guards on post were on the ground with terrible wounds from an unknown attacker. The wounds suggested the attacker came from behind."
"From behind?" General Star Sword interjected angrily, "Impossible, that would mean the thief attacked them as he left the vault, but the guards watch over the only entrance. Are you absolutely sure of that?" The guard nodded.
"Yes sir! They were struck by a blunt instrument from behind."
"Are they still alive?" Celestia feared the worse.
"They were still breathing when I last saw them. I ordered them taken to Dr. Hawkeye's office and after that I surveyed the vault in the hope of capturing the thief." The guard inhaled sharply before continuing.
"I'm sorry to say there is no sign of him and we're not sure what has been stolen yet, exactly." Something about that last sentence raised a red flag in Celestia's consciousness.
"What do you mean you don't know what has been stolen?"
"Your majesty it appears that a hidden safe was opened and any contents it might have held was removed. I apologize," the guard bowed low again, voice trembling with anguish, "but I was not aware of this particular safe and worse I have failed in my duty to protect it."
The Canterlot treasury was a massive vault that held the kingdom's surplus currency of minted gold coins in numerous stacks of neatly arranged and counted piles. More than that, the vault also home to numerous artifacts, treasures, and weapons of immense value or lethality. Most of these were held within secret safes in the walls and floor. Any guard pony awarded the honor of protecting the vault was tasked with memorizing the location of each and every one of them. If a guard was not aware of a safe then either he was lacking in commitment to his duty or…
"Was this safe," Celestia said gravely, "located on the third floor balcony hidden under a statue model of Canterlot?"
"Y…yes," the guard was speechless with incredulity. How did the princess know?
"I'm canceling this council meeting until further notice," Celestia immediately turned to address the room of advisors, "Everypony return to your stations and prepare for further instructions."
The advisors looked upon each other in confusion and alarm before gathering their possessions and papers. As the gathering of individuals began to disperse a melodious voice, like the ringing of silver bells, called out amongst the shifting of chairs and shuffling of hooves.
"Sister Celestia!" it came from a pegasus unicorn with grayish purple skin, light blue mane, and a cutie-mark of a crescent moon.
"Luna! What are you doing here?"
"I heard about what happened," Luna panted, "I came to see if it was true." Her eyes begged for it not to be so.
"I'm afraid it is." Celestia confirmed to Luna's abject disbelief. She then used her wing to lift the chin of the still bowed guard before her, speaking in a firm and critical voice "Guard, I have orders that need to be passed along."
"I am at your mercy Princess Celestia." The guard said eagerly, prepared to do whatever it took to redeem his earlier mistake.
"I need the city to be sealed off. Double the guards at every post and increase the patrols over every aerial route. No pony gets in or out without explicit consent from my immediate subordinates or myself. I feel we may have a traitor in our midst and they cannot be allowed to leave with the treasure." Celestia then paced a few steps before she continued.
"My sister and I will be heading to the throne room to discuss our next course of action. Once we enter I want the doors sealed until we finish our deliberations. Make sure that no pony disturbs us, not even my own pupil Twilight." She then motioned for the guard to leave, which he did without hesitation.
"This can't be happening," Luna trembled in fear. "Not again, I won't go back."
"Shh, it'll be ok, I promise," Celestia kissed Luna on the cheek and nuzzled her closely in an attempt to comfort her. "Come with me my dear sister. I think it's time we paid a visit to an old friend."
…
It was the beginning of another beautiful day in the peaceful village of Ponyville. The morning sun trailed a lazy path slowly overhead illuminating the landscape with its majestic rays. With the conclusion of the summer rains the day before the land was filled with an especially upbeat vitality. On this day ponies of all types, colors, and professions milled around with an unusually high sense of firm purpose as they set about their daily errands. There was a heightened atmosphere of anticipation; an expectation of something wonderful about to happen. Tonight would mark the start of the Summer Sun Festival, a celebration at the conclusion of the longest day of the year. It was a tribute to the sun and Princess Celestia beloved ruler over all ponies in the Kingdom of Equestria.
The town square was jam packed with merchants of all trades plying their wares of goods and services to the assembled masses and especially anyone who passed within earshot. Anything any pony could want was there food, clothes, jewelry, trinkets, toys; a feast for anyone with the coins to spare. The diversity of merchandise was second only to the thousands of voices that filled the air, intertwining and mixing in song of life and joy, and happiness. Yet, there was one certain pony that was not keen on partaking in the excitement that had swept up so many. For her she had found something far more interesting.
Removed from the inexhaustible hustle and bustle of the day, seated in the spacious lobby of the only library in Ponyville, was the unicorn pony Twilight Sparkle, star pupil of Princess Celestia. She was intently absorbed in reading a large and very old tome with pages that were a decayed brown and yellow, the cover was faded and worn thin, and it had a distinct musty smell as if it had been locked away in an attic for countless years. Carefully using her magic horn to gently turn each page Twilight was about to begin the final chapter in earnest when her companion, the small purple dragon Spike, opened the front door and hastily stepped inside.
"Tch," he gave a puff of disappointment as the surveyed the empty library shelves and the piles of books seemingly tossed hither and thither upon the wooden floor. He slowly shook his head when he spotted Twilight.
"Twilight Sparkle," he said in a business tone, "I know I shouldn't be surprised, but how can you be reading at a time like this. We're really going to be late."
"Just a few more minutes Spike, I'm almost finished." She turned another page with a gentle nudge before sinking even deeper into her bookworm trance than before. Once she began reading a book it was almost impossible to break her away before she finished it.
"Twilight!" Spike gave an audible sigh like a disappointed father, "The Summer Sun Festival is tonight and do I need to remind you that you promised Pinky that you'd help her with the cooking." Spike replaced a few books from the floor back onto the shelves purely out of habit. He wished Twilight would take better care of the place it was becoming ever more difficult to keep his patience over the pony's disregard for proper sorting. Everyday it was the same thing books all over the floor out of an impatient urge to find the desired text, whatever it was, and it could be anything at any time.
"Did you know Spike," Twilight spoke as if she hadn't heard, "that before the coming of Nightmare Moon a millennium ago that the last Great War ever fought in Equestria took place almost 1400 years ago. According to this book the 'War of Thrones,' all of Equestria witnessed two great armies clashing in a final climatic battle that would determine the next successor to the throne. What is even more interesting is that it all took place on the spot where Ponyville would later be founded."
"Yeah, yeah that's interesting and all, but seriously if we don't hurry the food will be late and we wouldn't want to disappoint the princess especially after what happened last year."
"Last year?…last year," Twilight's brain began to reboot. "Has it already been a year since we arrived?" she put the book down.
"Yup," Spike suddenly became overly excited, "in fact I hear Princess Luna will be joining us for the celebrations this year. So we need to put some extra effort into it and make sure she really feels welcome."
"Your right Spike, " Twilight placed a bookmark between the pages, "if anypony needs a warm welcome it's Princess Luna." Before Twilight could begin to gather her things the front door opened and in trotted a white unicorn with an immaculately styled violet hair.
"There you are Twilight, darling, and Spike too. How are you both on this magnificent day?" Rarity greeted them warmly.
"We're doing fine, thanks." Twilight replied happily, while Spike nearly fell over in complete awe of Rarity's beauty. It was no secret that Spike had a crush on her, but it still remained to be seen if Rarity was even truly aware of this.
"Can you imagine that I thought you'd be at Sugarcube Corner with Pinky by now," Rarity glided around the piles with grace, "but here you are with your nose buried deep into another book. Oh, what are we going to do with you Twilight Sparkle?" It was a rhetorical question; Rarity knew there was no curing the total nerd in Twilight.
"Sorry Rarity, I couldn't help myself," Twilight's ears drooped in embarrassment as Spike rolled his eyes. "I found it…"
"You found it?" Rarity playfully gasped in shock "You'd lose your head in this place if Spike wasn't around to put it back on." Spike pumped his chest in pride over the compliment. "Seriously you should treat your possessions with the utmost care. Just like a certain refined and overall perfect pony that you might happen to know." Rarity fanned her mane a few times before batting her eyelashes in a knowing smile.
"I'll get right on it." Twilight sarcastically deadpanned.
"Anyway you were going to tell me where you found it."
"Yes," Twilight was grateful to get the conversation back on track. She could appreciate Rarity as a close friend, but there were times when the fashioner unicorn was a little stuck up.
"I found the book locked away in a box hidden in a corner of the attic and I was curious." Twilight briefly looked around the library before addressing Rarity again. "You wouldn't happen to know who the previous curator of the library was before I lived here? I've been meaning to ask somepony, but I keep getting sidetracked by one thing or another."
"I honestly have no idea, I never used to come here before. Libraries can be such stuffy places full of dust that is unhealthy to a lady's skin. At least that was true until we became friends." Rarity raised a hoof to her chin in thought, "Hmm…the mayor would be the best pony to ask, dear. You should start there."
"Thanks Rarity," Twilight smiled, "we can ask her on our way over to Pinky's place."
"Oh no Twilight, it can wait until tomorrow. We have…" Spike was unable to finish as the front door suddenly and violently crashed open with a force of a bull having rammed it head on. Entering the room in a tornado was a hyperactive pink pony with a mane of poofy magenta.
"Twilight, Spike!" shouted a frantic and hyperventilating Pinky Pie, "You need to come with me now!"
"What's going on?"
"My pinky sense went off. It's gonna be a doozy!" Pinky said in-between gasps before light speeding out the way she came.
"Follow that pink blur!" Twilight shouted as she bolted out with Spike on her tail, leaving behind a stunned Rarity.
…
Twilight, Spike, and Pinky arrived in front of the Ponyville mail office. This worn, unassuming wooden structure was the heart of all communications between Ponyville and the outside world. To the immediate right of the main door hung a well-used bulletin board, made of simple corkwood, which the local ponies had come to know as the Equestrian Daily. It was the place where important news bulletins, job applications, quotes of the day, advice from the mayor, and special deals were pinned up for all locals to read and peruse. A large gathering of ponies has assembled in front of it and their heated discussions made it difficult to separate one conversation from the next..
"There it is." Pinky Pie pointed to an editorial that carried the royal sun crest and Celestia's signature. Twilight had to force her way through the crowd before she was able to read it.
An Emergency Declaration From Princess Celestia.
On this day a crime most foul as been committed against Equestria. A vile theft from the royal vault has resulted in three loyal guards suffering serious wounds and a treasure of great value and significance to be purloined.
Until the perpetrator is brought to justice the following shall be enacted immediately:
1)All appointments with, and from, the Princess are hereby canceled until further notice.
2) Canterlot shall be closed to all further visitations. All routes in and out of the city are closed. Any individual attempting to arrive or depart without government permission will be arrested under suspicion of theft, conspiracy to commit theft, and disobedience of this royal decree.
3.) A reward is offered for any information that leads to the successful recovery of the stolen treasure. Contact your local mayor's office for further details.
"Princess Celestia has canceled her trip for the Summer Sun Festival!" Spike was heartbroken from disappointment.
"I'll tell you why," Pinky Pie said gravely in an unusual bout of anger. "It's because some terrible teeny meanie-pie thief must have stolen all of Celestia's treasured cupcakes."
"Uh, I seriously doubt that's the case" Twilight groaned at Pinky's naiveté.
"Her cookies then? The apple pies? Cause that'd be even worse." Pinky began to hop in excitement at the endless possibilities of pilfered pastries and pies "Maybe…"
"No Pinky, the guards wouldn't be putting food in the treasury. Besides wouldn't it be a lot easier to steal food from your shop instead of a the royal treasury?"
"Your right," Pinky's expression widened in disbelief. "Oh no, what if they are already helping themselves to my raspberry cake." With that shocking thought she was off at warp speed to secure her baked assets
"I'm just wondering what was taken that would require a lockdown of the whole city." Spike pondered aloud. "Must be something pretty crazy, or important."
"Like a weapon!"
"Gah!" Twilight recoiled in surprise as Pinky Pie returned with raspberry frosting all over her face. "Don't do that!"
"Yum." Pinkie just continued to smile as she licked her lips, while Twilight facehoofed in exasperation.
"Spike, I need to you to address a letter to the princess." Without delay Spike readied an empty scroll and a quill pen.
"Dear Princess Celestia. I…" her voice trailed off in a moment of hesitation. "I wish to extend my sincerest concern for the events that have happened in Canterlot. I am prepared to offer any assistance I can provide to help in the search for the perpetrator."
"Me too, me too." Pinky pie added with an earnest bobbing of her head, "I want to play detective too." She produced a magnifying glass seemingly out of thin air.
"Count me in as well Twilight," Spike mirrored the sentiment.
"Also, I do not doubt that my friends will wish to help too." Twilight gave a thankful smile to both Pinky and Spike. Hearing her friend's ready offers of assistance went a long way to helping ease her concerns.
"I hope to hear from you soon and that there can be a quick end to this terrible ordeal. From your faithful student Twilight Sparkle." Sensing the end of the message Spike neatly rolled up the scroll, sealed it up with Twilights insignia, and with a puff of green fire sent it off to the princess. |
Oceansama | 682 | 2 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2011-09-23T08:55:46+00:00 | 2011-09-23T08:55:46+00:00 | 3,010 | Chapter 2: Signs and Portents
...
The news spread quickly like a hot wind to all four corners of Ponyville and further beyond still to cities like Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia, Hoofington, and even as far as Manehattan and Appeloosa. However, the undisguised panic in Ponyville was especially severe given its close proximity to Canterlot it was the hardest affected. It was beginning to look as if everypony had forgotten all about the Summer Sun Festival as merchants closed up shops, parents were guiding their children home, and the rest were engaged in rampant gossip.
Most were not emotionally prepared to handle a situation like this. For them the memories of last year's events were still too fresh, too raw. That terrible night when Nightmare Moon had returned, kidnapped Celestia, and for the second time in a thousand years had nearly succeeded in plunging the world into a darkness from which it would never recover.
"Something frightful must have happened to Celestia." One pony said hauntingly.
"I betcha it's that terrible sister of hers who is responsible." Another agreed.
"Luna has always been a curse on these lands, Celestia should've kept her banished to the moon." A third pony spat venom at mentioning the moon princess' name.
Twilight was deeply ashamed overhearing hearing such horrible unquestioned rumors being spread about Luna. It was like a contagious flu, the more ponies who spoke about it the more it spread. Pretty soon ponies everywhere were talking about Luna as if she'd already been tried and sentenced before a court judge. Twilight felt the unmistakable burning of rage in her chest. She wanted to scream at them all for being so quick to jump to conclusions without any corroborative evidence to paint Luna as the perpetrator of this crime. Aside from the coincidental fact that today was the anniversary of Nightmare Moon.
Pinky Pie, on the other hand, ignored the ugly rumors as she felt a far more pressing concern at the moment. Being the resident cheer-meister she knew she's never forgive herself if she allowed a party to fail while she was on watch. If it meant pulling out all the stops and using every trick she had ever written in her 'Guide to Pinky Pie's Pretty Practical Party Pranks and Jokes' memoirs, then that is what she would do. She wasted no time and started to jump, twirl, skip, and bop her way around town. It was like she was suffering from an epileptic seizure multiplied by a sugar rush and raised to the umpteenth power. The fantastical display drew the attention of every pony and some began to forget about their troubles as they watched the uninhibited party animal stir up a cloud of happiness and goodwill followed up with a song.
Come on everypony, turn that frown upside down
Princess Celestia, is the one with the crown
She won't give up the chase, while a thief is loose
She'll hunt him down quick, and tie him with a noose
Till the thief is served, like a steaming hay bun,
We will continue on, so laugh, and have fun
Today is the day, to give thanks and share
So let's prance and dance, like you just don't care
Thanks to Pinky Pie's cheerful and infectious good nature along with a healthy dose of her little improvised ditty she was pleased to find that she'd had a noticeable impact. Ponies were beginning to come around, and again welcomed the feeling of celebration back into their hearts. Unfortunately, there were many others who just couldn't be consoled no matter how hard Pinky tried. The unfortunate among them were ponies that had recently found themselves stranded from home or separated from family.
Meanwhile Twilight and Spike came to the conclusion that the only real solution to the problem was to be found at the Mayor's office. They quickly made their way to the town hall, located conveniently across the street, and entered through the double door entrance. They were now in the gathering hall; a fairly small room constructed of interlocking wooden planks and beams, well lit, and smelling heavily of pine. It was only able to seat a few dozen individuals around a narrow stage with a single podium in the center where the mayor stood to address an assembled crowd. It was here where residents had the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns to the mayor during policy sessions or emergency meetings. Much to Twilight's surprise the room was alarmingly empty. If there was any better time to make use of this hall Twilight certainly was incapable of contemplating it.
"Can I help you?"
Twilight carefully turned to her right and saw that the voice had come from the Mayor's receptionist, Secret Cherry, who was seated at a table with a visitor registry, a mug that proudly stated, 'I Love Ponyville,' and a bowl filled with assorted candies. Behind her there was a single inviting door that led to the office quarters.
"Um, we'd like to see the mayor." Twilight said plainly, but pleasantly.
"Sure thing, one moment please." The receptionist smiled her official smile before briefly studying a form she had in front of her. Giving a nod of approval she looked back up at Twilight with another grin that was a bit more welcoming.
"Your in luck, the mayor has no appointments at this time. Please sign in while I tell her she has guests." The receptionist pushed a quill pen towards Twilight before disappearing through the door. Twilight quickly signed the visitor registry and dated it. She was about to put the pen down when Secret Cherry returned.
"The mayor will see you now. Her office is at the end of the hall."
"Thank you." Twilight said as she passed by with Spike giving a silent wave to Secret Cherry before grabbing a candy from the bowl. He popped it into his mouth and smiled broadly as he tasted the juicy red treat.
"Mmmmm…cherry punch."
Twilight and Spike followed the narrow undecorated hallway that circled around the outer wall of the building before arriving at the mayor's office. Which, if she had her bearings right, was at the very back of the town hall. She knocked three times before being greeted by an Earth-pony with a colored coat of khaki, a mane of curly light grey hair, and wearing a white collar with a green bowtie.
"Come on in Twilight, it is good to hear from you." The mayor spoke calmly, but urgently gestured for her visitors to enter.
"May I assume that you are here for information about the reward?" Her crystal blue eyes darted wildly to the sides as if she feared being overheard by shadows.
"Yes, I am." Twilight stepped into the office. "Anything you can tell us would be terrific." She saw that the office was comfortably spacious and sported a clean and tidy appearance with immaculately organized shelves and files. Even the wooden floor did not creak when they walked upon it. The Mayor's desk was a different, altogether frightening, story. It was completely buried in a mountain of papers and legal forms that Twilight was not familiar with. She suspected that several ponies could easily get lost inside that clutter and never be heard from again.
"Sorry about the mess." The Mayor closed the door behind them. "I'm afraid I don't have much to tell you." She returned to her desk to shuffle through a few papers. "Give me a moment the letter is in here somewhere."
"Is everything alright, Mrs. Mayor" Twilight had a right to be concerned. She'd seen the Mayor in some bad moods before, but this was beginning to get scary. The Mayor was a very dependable and stable pony, a good choice to run the day-to-day affairs of the town, but she had an unfortunate habit of getting very upset when things didn't run smoothly or according to plan. Right now she looked like an overstressed bundle of nerves ready to snap at the drop of a horseshoe.
"To be honest, the whole situation is like trying to pull teeth from an Ursa Minor. News out of Canterlot has been very hush-hush and I'm still waiting for a reply to my inquiries. At this point I'd rather have a meaningful conversation with an apple pie. Sure, not much would get accomplished, but at least I'd get something out of it." A look of humor mixed with anger settled on her aged face.
"But what about you?" At Twilight's question the Mayor regarded her critically and then began to rapidly pace the room. She let out an aggravated sigh before calming down enough to answer truthfully.
"In all my years of service to this community I've done my best to maintain a peaceful town and address everypony's concerns while keeping an organized timetable. But this…this!" She slammed a hoof down on the desk and glared at it with such an immense intensity that one was left to wonder how the whole thing didn't burst into flames right then and there.
"Each of them might as well have personally slapped me in the face. Ever since the news came down I have been continuously bombarded with unfair complaints, petty criticism, and dismissive letters from Canterlot that tell me nothing but trivia! I mean look at this desk;" she pointed at it angrily, "I can't find a thing on it, you know me, is this me?"
Twilight visibly recoiled from the Mayor's abnormal outburst. A pang of sympathy arose in her generous heart for she understood that being the Mayor of Ponyville was never an easy job even in the best of times. However, such feelings were snuffed out by a spark of indignation and anger at seeing the Mayor fall into such a panicked state of self-pity. This was not how a leader should act. The answer to the question was, yes. This was not the Mayor she knew and respected.
"Mrs. Mayor, like everypony here I have come to appreciate everything you go through." Her tender words were quick to turn cold. "I've only been here for a short time, so maybe I'm not the best to tell you this. Ponyville elected a mayor because they need somepony who will get things done; keep the trains running on time, so to say. But more than that they want a leader to be there for them. A leader to look up to and reassure them when the Princess can't."
"Uh, Twilight…" Spike tugged at her mane, afraid that she was being to harsh.
"They chose you!" Twilight pointed an accusing hoof. "Were they wrong?"
"I don't know." The Mayor shook her head, ashamed to make eye contact. "Nothing in my experience ever prepared me for this. What was she thinking closing down the whole city like that? I know it's no excuse for me to crumble to bits like a day old muffin." She collapsed down into her chair; tired and defeated.
"Maybe I'm just getting too old. Its just that…," the Mayor looked up, eyes filled with apprehension and fear, "I have a terrible feeling about all this."
"I understand," Twilight felt ashamed at snapping at the Mayor like that, but she had to finish what she wanted to say. "What I'm trying to say is that," Twilight leaned forward and stared straight in the Mayor's eyes, never flinching, "the ponies here need you, right now, no matter where this goes."
Twilight said her piece and watched as the Mayor sank into a deep morose silence. The room was as still as a statue, except for the tick-ticking of an ancient grandfather clock sitting forgotten in the corner. The awkward pause began to intensify until it seemed to weight down heavily on them. It reached a critical point, when the Mayor suddenly erupted upwards with a newfound vigor, scattering several papers to the floor.
"Your right Twilight, it is my responsibility to lead them and to make sure the Summer Sun Festival continues despite our hardships. I promise you, this year will be the best we've ever had, Celestia or not!"
"That's the spirit." Twilight smiled broadly, relieved at not having made the situation worse.
"Oh my, I do have a lot of work ahead of me." The Mayor stared at the pile as if seeing it for the first time and began to organize it into neat stacks.
"Um, Mrs. Mayor?"
"Oh yes, Twilight before I forget…" The mayor moved diligently amongst the desk clutter and soon found what was looking for. "About the description of the treasure, this is what all of Canterlot is worked up over." The Mayor handed over a single picture to Twilight.
Twilight examined the picture closely. It was very old and had been drawn by hoof, or by magic. Long before cameras had been invented if she ventured a guess. The parchment was dry and a sickly brown, Twilight was afraid it would disintegrate at her touch so she used her magic to gently levitate it in front of her.
"This is what they want so bad?" she asked skeptically. For some reason she had anticipated something much more dangerous, or at least more valuable, than a book. At the top of the picture was a single caption that read, 'Tome of the Marker' and below that a single symbol decorated the otherwise blank parchment.
The longer she looked at the unfamiliar symbol the more she felt a headache begin to grow. It was building to an unbearable intensity and followed up by a maddening ringing sound. The pain soon hit a horrendous level of intensity. It felt as if a great hand had reached inside her skull and was digging around, searching for something. She was certain of it, there was something alien inside her head and it wanted out. Sweat poured down her face as she desperately wanted to look away, to tear her eyes from the symbol, but some unseen force held her gaze firm. The ringing grew louder and louder still and words were starting to emerge from the white noise. She couldn't tell from where the words came from and at the same time it was as if they were being whispered directly into her ear.
When the blazing sun is gone
When the nothing shines upon
The words sang in a gentle yet uneasy rhythm from an ethereal voice. Twilight nearly screamed as she dropped the picture and instinctively jumped back in a surprised panic. Once eye contact was broken the headache immediately vanished and the voice became silent.
"Are you ok, Twilight?" Spike asked, concerned.
"Oh," Twilight struggled to bring her breathing under control, "it was nothing Spike." Twilight chuckled nervously, "Just thought I saw a spider on the page."
Spike picked up the picture and when he didn't see the offending arachnid decided to familiarize himself with the strange symbol. The alien symbol was a twisted image of two black monolithic spires that were attached at the base, intertwined around each other at the middle, before nearly touching their points at the top. It was also decorated on its exterior by other strange signs that looked to be letters of some unknown language. He had never seen anything like it and wasn't sure what meaning it had.
"What's a Marker?" He asked, but only received unknowing shrugs from the ponies.
…
As the three of them departed the town hall they were again witness to Pinky Pie's continuous crusade. She was still going full throttle and wielding a sledgehammer of righteousness against the diabolical forces of melancholy and fear, figuratively speaking of course.
"Hey Twilight, you didn't ask about the library." Spike reminded her with a whisper.
"I know Spike, but it can wait for another time." She gave him a reassuring smile, but she was still shaken up inside. Dismissing such feelings she departed the office to fight a more immediate battle
Twilight, Spike, and the Mayor had soon added their combined forces with Pinky Pie. Amongst their collective might they crashed down amongst the thresholds of ponyville, never surrendering, vanquishing doubt and trepidation in its citizens until the preparations for the Summer Sun Festival were again back on track.
In doing her part, Twilight had offering her guest room at the library to a stranded Canterlot unicorn. They were in the middle of the discussion when Twilight heard a familiar southern accent call out her name.
"Twilight?" an orange earth-pony wearing a fedora galloped up to her. "Tarnations girl, I've been lookin' all over fer ya." The pony's blonde mane was slick with sweat.
"Applejack!" Twilight brightened, grateful to see another of her good friends.. "How are you?"
"Fine, just dandy apples." Applejack replied unenthused, her normally indomitable spirit noticeably absent from work. The gloom bug was everywhere, it seemed and even Applejack appeared bitten. That seemed to be par for the course today, but Twilight hoped that the worst was already behind them.
"Twilight, I do hate to impose, but I was wonderin' if ya'll could do me a favor?"
"I'll gladly help any way I can." Twilight replied reassuringly. "I wouldn't be much of a friend if I didn't."
"Well its, ah, like this." Applejack fidgeted from side to side before she took a deep breath. "We at the farm had ourselves an unexpected bumper crop a few day back, a lot bigger then we'd been expectin'. So Granny Smith and I, we gets to thinkin' that we should sally forth and open another apple stall in Canterlot to sell off them extra apples and earn more coin." Applejack had broken the speed dial on her mouth and was rambling off faster than Twilight could follow.
"I think I'm beginning to see the problem" Twilight interrupted, hoping to stall for time while her brain caught up.
"Big Macintosh wanted to go as he dun never seen the big capital city before, but he needed sompony's help movin' all them apples, but we couldn't spare another farm hand. So I recon one of mah friends could help out and I remember thinkin' that it seemed like a good idea that the time, and…"
"Applejack," Twilight interrupted again before the southern belle fell over from asphyxiation, "What do you want to ask me?"
"Oh, uhh, well…" Applejack shook her head trying to reassemble her thoughts. "Tomorrow we have to trim the trees, cut down ah couple of dead ones, and plow the new fields. Normally Big Mac and I could handle the job ourselves, but with him gone I'm ah little short on help." Applejack smiled nervously. Twilight simply giggled at the farmer's comical display.
"Of course I'll help, Applejack. Did you ever think I wouldn't?"
"Not really, but with it being so last minute an all, I'd understand if you'd been busy with somethin' else." Applejack exhaled in relief. "Thank you Twilight, it's mighty fine of you, sugacube."
"No at all." Twilight replied. The two ponies shook hooves in recognition of their agreement and began to depart their separate ways when Twilight had a sudden revelation.
"Applejack?"
"Yeah, Twilight?"
"Out of curiosity, who did you ask to go with Big Mac?"
"Rainbow Dash." Applejack replied in as steady a voice as she could. Twilight stopped in mid trot only to turn around with at look of pure disbelief.
"Your kidding right?"
" 'Fraid not suga."
…
Back in Canterlot a small group of ponies had assembled in front of the royal castle in protest. They didn't dare to approach too close as the gates were guarded by a trio of guard ponies keeping watch over the portcullis with a half dozen more Pegasus guards on the parapet. Things had been chaotic all that morning with ponies running to and fro, stopping only to ask some questions before continuing on their way. They knew better than to challenge the Princess' royal guard. A few had tried in years past and the result was always a quick and harsh retribution from the guards before the perpetrators were faced with swift judgment before the Princess. However, they hadn't counted on the arrival of a certain cyan colored Pegasus pony, with rainbow hair, arriving with an over abundance of righteous irritation she was just dying to dish out.
"This is so stupid!" Shouted a most irate Rainbow Dash, as Canterlot seemed to shake at its very foundation from her wrath. The unfortunate victim of the verbal tongue-lashing was a guard that she had whimsically chosen at random. Doubtful he'd find any solace in that fact as he fought to retain his composure which had seemed so easy to do just minutes before.
"I flew here because out of the goodness of my heart I agreed to help some friends sell their apples. Now your telling me I can't leave? You should be out chasing the thief and not keeping us prisoner here!" She had trouble believing her rotten timing, on all the rotten days, had just managed to strand her in this city. Now it seemed she was condemned to miss out on the celebration with her friends. Not if she had any say in the matter. Yet it seemed near hopeless as she hadn't even managed to make one of the guards budge from his post despite a full solid ten minutes of her tortured screaming in his face.
"That is correct Ma'am," the guard replied while standing at attention like a living statue. "Princess' orders state nopony gets out or in without official permission or until a sound resolution to the current crisis is settled"
Dash wanted nothing more than to beat the guard's smug face right at that moment. She wasn't stupid though and knew that fighting the guards would have some unpleasant results. The least of which was facing Twilight and the rest of her friends and having to carefully explain to them whey she suddenly had a criminal record. It would also be a far worse fate if she attempted to ignore the lockdown and fly her way out of the city. Rainbow Dash was knowledgeable of some rather nasty tricks the guards had for bringing down unwanted flyers. Dash didn't want to risk it as she was just too attached to her wings.
It was at the moment that Rainbow Dash had found herself at an unpleasant crossroad and wasn't sure which direction to take. Then an idea struck her, she suddenly remembered something her friend, and occasional rival, Rarity had told her a while ago. It had something to do about stallions being unable to resist a mare's charms. Rarity had said something along the lines of, 'A real gentlecolt is nothing but putty in the hooves of a sophisticated and charming lady, darling.'
This was problematic as Rainbow Dash had to first admit that she wasn't exactly the model of sophisticated womanly wiles as Rarity was. Furthermore she wasn't exactly considered beautiful either, even by her close friends, pretty maybe, but not beautiful. In Dash's case a casual observer would probably offer a more accurate description of her as a brash, mischievous, and aggressive tompony. And ok, this wasn't the best tactic she felt at ease using or had that much experience in working with. She was willing to admit all of it, yet still felt that her plan was beyond flawless. She gritted her teeth in nervous expectation and forced her anger down into the dark pits of her being.
"Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you." Rainbow Dash strained to channel her best impression of Rarity complete with a longing stare, the batting of eyelashes, and the shining of her best million-dollar smile. "I'm really desperate to get back home to my family. Can't you make an exception just for me, handsome?" In all likelihood she would've made Rarity proud by that sensual display of mare diplomacy, and against any other colt it might've succeeded. However she failed to take into account that the royal guards were trained to resist such advances.
"Princess' orders."
"Do you have any idea who I am?" Rainbow Dash dropped the façade like a 16-ton weight and moved dangerously close to the guard. When he didn't react it only added fuel to her fire.
"I am Rainbow Dash, number one flyer in all of Ponyville and Cloudsdale, the future member of the Wonderbolts, and one of the ponies who saved Princess Luna." She raised her head in pride over her accomplishments, real and imagined. To her it was a vast mystery as to how this lowly guard wasn't bowed in awe before her. Unbeknownst to either of the two, a large crowd had begun to surround them in curiosity as to what all the commotion was about. The other two guards at the portcullis began to shuffle their way closer to the fight while the Pegasus on the parapet watched on with undisguised amusement.
"I'd rather eat my armor then dare to disobey Princess Celestia." The guard had yet to move, but his resolve, and more importantly his patience, was beginning to wane.
"That can be arranged! Care for some help?" Rainbow Dash approached even closer to the guard's face, their noses nearly touching. Normally he wore a neutral expression, yet he couldn't help but betray a scowl.
"Threats are not tolerated here, Ma'am."
"And I don't listen to ponies who try to tell me where I can or can't fly."
"I'm warning you, please back up and leave now!"
"Why don't you move out of my way?"
"Not happening!"
"Then maybe I'll make it happen!" Dash was about to poke the guard in the chest. Her hoof lifted but no sooner had she made her move then the other two guards ambushed her, one on each flank. They moved with a discipline that spoke of years of physical training. Their plan was simple as all they needed to do was knock Dash down and pin her under their combined strength. They easily had the muscle and size to do it, there was no way Dash would've been able to fight them off and they knew it. Unfortunately for them they didn't realize, or didn't care, that they were up against one of the fastest Pegasus alive.
Rainbow Dash wasn't really surprised when it happened. She was perfectly aware of her rising anger issues that seemed to get her in trouble all the time. Now was not the time for reflection, the checkered flag had been dropped and now it was time to dance. Dash quickly shifted her weight to the side and knocked one guard back with a savage rear kick. He was caught unprepared and flew through the air like a small rag doll before impacting the floor and rolling away. The second guard managed to grapple hooves with Dash taking advantage of his momentum and size to force her backwards. Dash would not go down so easily, but she allowed herself to be knocked onto her back as she used all four of her limps to ruthlessly work with the guard's inertia and flipped him up and over her head. She felt a smug satisfaction as the guard landed hard with a mighty crash. A groan was heard as the impact left him winded..
The assembled crowd let out a cheer of excitement and encouragement as the fight unfolded before them. They watched every move with baited breath grateful for an outlet for their own stress. One enterprising pony seized the opportunity to open a betting pool for the gamblers among the gathered. The coins began to flow like sweet wine, as the ponies laid their bets down on who would be the victor.
The beaten guards lifted them selves back into fighting positions and this time were joined by the third guard that had suffered through Dash's insults. Their pride was more wounded that their bodies and not from having been bested by a filly like Rainbow Dash, but because they had made the grave error of underestimating their opponent. It was a judgment they would not repeat twice. With patience and military pacing the three guards encircled Dash like a pack of sharks. They respected their opponent's strength and slowly, gradually, tightened the noose around her.
Dash knew for certain that she was deep trouble; even if she won the day their compatriots would surly join in or track her down to finish the job. But she would not run, she would fight until she was unable to continue. At random intervals a guard would launch a feign attack on her to try and draw her attention from an ambush to the rear. Dash was wise to this trick and kept her back legs ready for a good face bucking.
Time slowed to a molasses pace but the enthusiasm of the crowd continued on. To Dash it was just a background static, a hum of white noise. She continued to turn with the guards, keeping as many of them in her sights as possible. Just as things seemed to freeze at an impasse the guards launched a coordinated attack and all of them rushed in for the kill. If she'd been an Earth-pony she would've been done for right then and there, but she still had one possible avenue of escape left. Unfolding her wings she leapt into the air at the final moment. The guards collided with one another in an angry mess, like three freight trains at full speed. The whole scene was a terrible sight, but nopony could bring them selves to look away. Rainbow Dash lowered herself to the ground placing a triumphant hoof on the pile of guards before her as stars danced in their eyes..
"I came, I saw, I conquered." Rainbow Dash smiled for the crowd and declared her victory for all to see.
Her satisfaction was short lived, however. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the shimmering light of a magic spell being prepared on the tip of a unicorn's horn. She wanted to believe it was Twilight coming to help celebrate her glory with her; instead it was a unicorn guard on the offensive. She deftly maneuvered to the side, but it was too late, she had taken too long in celebrating. The spell shot through the air like a star bolt and struck Rainbow Dash on the side. The world lost equilibrium and shapes became blurry and indistinguishable at the same time as her eyelids felt like limp noodles. The cheer of the crowd slowed into a hum of low bellows as she fell over, her legs no longer possessing the strength to keep her up.
"I think I'll just lie down…for…a…minute." Dash mumbled between yawns and was soon fast asleep, snoring loudly and sprawled uninhibited atop of the guard pile she had once dominated over.
"Take her to the dungeon," The unicorn leader instructed his subordinates, "A night of solitary confinement in one of our plush cells aught to cool her wings."
…
Author's note: Yeah I know the Pinky song is really bad. |
Oceansama | 682 | 3 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2011-09-23T08:56:06+00:00 | 2011-09-23T08:56:06+00:00 | 2,433 | Chapter 3: The First Night.
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Slowly, tenderly, her eyes began to open. It felt like the inside of her head had exploded and a fire spread every corner of her being. Every sense ached as she returned from oblivion and was able to start grasping reality. At first she perceived nothing but a big dark blur filled with dancing sparkles in circular patterns, but the sparkles began to collide together into a big white smog. Her eyes continued to adjust and everything blank was dissolving into vaguely defined shapes and sensations. She looked upon a smeared mess of fuzzy grey matter, feeling only confusion speaking to her as her vision traveled from one grey blotch to another and then to something white again.
There were sounds too, a loud clanging thing of metal on metal. It instinctively frightened her, yet she could not tell why nor could she turn her head to investigate. What ever it was it didn’t repeat a second time and was trailed by a ringing clatter and then a solid click as if her fate was sealed. The unmistakable clomping of hooves on stone flowed from some point behind her, the paced sound echoed all around as if she was stuck in a cavern or a large room.
“Uhh,” she groaned, her mouth so dry her tongue was a dead weight hanging limply over her lips. “Is…anypony…there?” She moaned in a low raspy voice that had trouble reaching her ears.
The hoof steps had started off close by, but were now long withdrawn into the darkness beyond her perception and only the distant rhythmic drip-drip-dripping of water remained to comfort her. She continued to lie there, not able to feel the flow of time. It could’ve been minutes or hours yet it didn’t matter. Her reality was confined, her limbs hung uselessly by her sides, and she struggled in vain to remember why she was here or who she was. With no forthcoming answers or hope of escape she slowly lowered her head back down to the cold unfeeling floor and blacked out.
When she awoke some time later the light of the sun was creeping through a window she hadn’t noticed before cut into a wall of stone. The light seemed to stare accusingly at her face, silently scolding her for her sins. She looked away, her eyes fully open now and unobstructed by a cloud of fog. Memories had begun to neatly reassemble themselves in fits and bursts. Carefully, like a newborn foal, she raised herself up testing each of her legs in turn. Her limbs were slightly stiff and there was a small bruise on her side from where the magic spell at struck her, otherwise she was perfectly fine.
She knew she was in a prison cell and it looked, and unfortunately smelled, like it had been abandoned for some time. The metal bars were worn and rusted and a single mattress was tucked away in a forgotten corner as if fearing to dance in the sun. There was also a single tarnished sink with a missing faucet, and the entire package wouldn’t have been completed without a toilet that looked and smelled like month old manure.
Sure there was very little crime in Equestria and at least until that morning it had been unheard of in Canterlot. That, in Dash’s mind, translated into there being no excuse for why the room wouldn’t have been kept at least a little tidy.
She wouldn’t have asked for much, maybe a nice fluffy cloud to snuggle upon or a cool aquamarine sky to soar through without a care in the world. At the very least she should’ve had a toilet that didn’t smell worse than Spike’s morning breath after dinning on a sack full of onions and garlic cloves.
While this was a unique opportunity to be the first, in several generations, to experience the full tour of the Canterlot jails from the inside; Rainbow Dash dreaded what this little adventure was going to do to her reputation. Was she doomed to rot like a rat in a cage and never allowed to realize her full potential as a Pegasus? Challenging the guards was the same as openly questioning the Princess’ authority. What was she going to say to her friends, especially Twilight? Would they hate her now and wish to never see her again?
“I’ve really done it this time.” She stared morosely out the barred window. “I wonder if the Wonderbolts will even accept me now.” Depression turned to anger as she stomped a hoof in a fit of rage. “If I ever find that jerk,” She emphasized with a punch into the air, “POW! A sonic rainboom right into the sun!”
Feeling that her anger wasn’t as effective at getting her out of jail as it was at getting her in, she walked over to the window to see how long she’d been out and maybe find an avenue of escape. The sun was already starting to set beyond the horizon. Looking down she was able to make out a large congregation of ponies in the courtyard. The ponies were surrounded by countless banners waving languidly in the wind in celebration of the festival. Dash heard music and lighthearted cheer rise up upon the wind along with the faint hint of delicious foods and sweet drinks that sought to stimulate every aspect of her being.
It was a constant reminder of what she was missing and she tried to ignore it but it only sent her back to Ponyville. In her mind’s eye she could clearly make out images of Pinky’s sugary snacks, Applejack’s mouth-watering apple pies and cider. There was also the honeysuckle fritters, the sticky candied yams, and the fresh squeezed orange juice that she loved so much.
Using her teeth she hungrily attempted to pry the bars from the window and escape the strangling confines of the dilapidated cell, but found no relief as the bars refused to yield. Well that was at least one thing, she thought ironically, that they made sure worked in prison and worse yet it had given her a painfully aching jaw.
“Horse Feathers.” She cursed while crossing her arms in a pout before settling down upon the mattress. Promptly she felt the painful stinging sensation of something sharp stabbing her on the butt. Taken by agonizing surprise Dash cursed out the mattress for a solid five minutes in a display of colorful language that would’ve made Granny Smith blush. She’d just started to enjoy beating the crap out of the bedspread, imagining it was a guard’s face, when the clang of an opening metal gate echoed throughout the room, accompanied by the sound of three individuals traveling coming down the hallway in her direction.
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Sugarcube Corner served as a confectionary shop which was famous for it’s many sweets and delicious treats that were baked daily within its walls. The entire building itself appeared to be constructed out of the very same foods that it served. The three-story structure looked good enough to eat as it resembled a giant gingerbread house complete with white frosting, candy canes, colored sprinkles, chewy gumdrops, and with a giant pink cupcake sitting atop the roof.
Twilight Sparkle smiled as she inhaled the pungent fragrance of the fresh blueberry muffins she pulled from the oven. They smelled so delicious that she desperately wanted to stop right then and there in order to greedily consume them. Steeling herself against such a selfish temptation she placed the muffins on the counter to allow Mrs. Cake, a light cyan and rose-colored pony who owned the shop, to liberate them away from Twilight’s moist eager taste buds. Mrs. Cake placed the tray amongst all the other delectable baked goods that had been prepared for the celebration. The bakery was filled to the saturation point with the mixed heavenly scent of various types of muffins, cookies, cakes, and pies.
Beneath the delicious calm there lurked a stalking terror of unbridled aggression and its name was Pinky Pie. Her mission and duty as the self-elected, unofficial, taste tester was to sample the food for consistency and flavor while helping herself to as much of it as she could. She hummed a cheery tune as she hunted for the poor defenseless delicacies while avoiding certain elements that threatened her success.
Twilight and Spike maintained a stoic vigil around the festival food with Spike donning an iron pot for a helmet and a wooden spoon, which he carried proudly like a faithful sword. Patrolling valiantly, he ensuring that no diabolical thief or pilfering pony would bypass his watch. He happened to spot the encroaching pink terror and proceeded to raise his weapon high into the air. He masterfully struck the beast gently on the muzzle. Pinky hissed menacingly at being denied her treasure and slinked back into the shadows to wait for her next opportunity.
Twilight giggled as she watched the ridiculous exchange. However, Pinky Pie and the deserts were not the foremost thing on her mind. A part of her desired nothing more than to return to the library and scrounge amongst her books for any information regarding the Marker. They Mayor hadn’t allowed her permission to take the picture from the town hall, but that was unimportant. The image of the Marker was forever burned into her memory like the cutie-mark on her flank. Fulfilling her obligations to Pinky came first, yet she couldn’t put it out of her mind the questions that she so anxiously wanted to answer. What was the importance of the Marker, who had stolen the Tome, and where were they now?
The more she tried not to dwell on it the further her curiosity began to get the better of her. There was something about it that tickled her memory and not in a pleasant way. A disturbingly familiar memory and yet she had never heard nor seen anything regarding the Marker until a few hours ago. It was awkward, like feeling nostalgic about next week. It made no sense yet she was unable to shake the feeling that it held gravity over her life and that of her friends.
“Hey Twilight, Twi, Twi, Twilight, watcha thinking about?” Pinky interrupted while dancing around Twilight.
“Oh, um it’s nothing Pinky Pie.” Twilight shook herself out of her silent reverie. “I was just thinking about the celebration tonight.” She grinned in an attempt to reassure Pinky, but the Earth-pony was not convinced of her sincerity.
“Oh you silly filly, with a frown like that I know you’re worried about more than a little party.” Pinky then eagerly lifted a blueberry muffin to her lips and took an enthusiastic bite out of it.
“Pinky Pie!” Twilight barked, “Don’t eat the snacks before the party starts.” Twilight had an annoyed look written all over her face. She turned to search for Spike so as to give him a proper scolding for failing to defend the food. Only to find him on the floor and tied firmly in place by a pink ribbon while he happily munched on the apple that Pinky had used as a gag.
“Did you know your face is really bad at hiding secrets?” Pinky said in-between bites.
“I’m not that bad.” Twilight immediately shouted in her defense, perhaps a little too quickly.
“Absolutely terrible,” Pinky was sure to emphasize the ‘absolute’ part, “Honestly the only pony worse than you is Applejack and that’s only because she is the embodiment of the element of honesty.” She gulped down the last of the helpless muffin. “So what are you really thinking about?”
“Ugh,” Twilight growled at being caught with her mane down. Of all of her friends Pinky Pie was probably the worst one to consult with on matters of great importance, but Twilight had to try anyway. “Pinky, do you know any thing about a Marker?” To which Pinky let out a gasp in horror.
“Did somepony lose a marker?”
Twilight nodded slowly and waited for the inevitable response.
”You can borrow my markers if you like. I have lots and lots of colors; red, yellow, white, purple…Oh and pink too, I have tons of that.”
Twilight would’ve facehoofed if she hadn’t already anticipated this outcome. She admitted that Pinky sometimes did surprise everypony with an occasion tidbit of obscure knowledge, but this was clearly not one of those times.
“No! Not that kind of marker. It looks kind of like this.” Lacking paper and pen Twilight attempted to demonstrate by using both of her arms. She pressed her elbows together, crossed her arms with a slight twist, before angling her hooves back towards each other till they nearly touched. “It’s black, and has strange symbols carved on it.” Pinky regarded Twilight’s display with an unusual intensity.
“Nope,” she answered without shame. “I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”
“That’s not surprising.”
“Although there are lots of things I’ve never heard of before. Like that thing with the thing.”
“What thing?” It was Twilight’s turn to be confused as to what Pinky was babbling about.
“Well if I knew that then I would’ve heard about the thing.” Pinky patted Twilight on the shoulder and sighed in sympathy, “You really should get out more Twi.”
“Hey!” Twilight’s sharp squeal of heated indignation was interrupted as a bell above the shop’s front door rung to announce the arrival of Applejack.
“Howdy, ya’ll.” Applejack greeted as she cantered into the shop. Her southern hospitality a lot more relaxed then from before, until she nearly tripped over Spike. “Uh, should I ask why Spike is hogtied tighter than white on rice?” She looked at the others in utter puzzlement.
“Oh, that was me.” Pinky readily admitted while throwing her arms up in surrender before changing into a gravel voice, “Ya caught me red hooved copa’ but you’ll never take me alive.”
Applejack wasn’t in the mood to entertain Pinky’s absurd behavior, and so ignored the felon while she helped aided Spike in untying his restraints.
“Thanks AJ.” Spike said as he stretched his sleeping limbs and picked apple seeds from in teeth.
“Hello Applejack,” Twilight calmly interposed herself between Pinky and AJ. “Have you had any luck in reaching Big Mac and Rainbow Dash?”
“Sorry Twi,” AJ seemed to deflate as she spoke, “Thar ain’t no mail courier willin’ to fly and the Mayor has her hooves full. What about you? Have ya’ll heard anything from the Princess” AJ leaned forward in a vain hope for any good news.
“I’m sorry Applejack,” Twilight looked away in shame. “Princess Celestia hasn’t replied to any of my messages.” She fidgeted from side to side under Applejack’s waning optimism. “I wish I could do more for you, I’m really starting to worry.”
“I see.” AJ took a few tentative steps towards the exit before stopping at the door and stood there in accusing silence. Everypony in the store was still, unsure what to do next or what to say to console Applejack. After awhile Applejack took a deep breath and turned back to her friends with a genuine smile. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Twilight was confused at AJ’s sudden praise and even felt a little uncomfortable for it.
“For being here for me. Ah mean If it wasn’t for ya’ll,” AJ gave an appreciative nod to everypony, and dragon, in the room. “I don’t know what I’d do or who I could turn to.” She wiped away a few tentative tears.
“Don’t worry AJ,” Spike gently stroked Applejack’s mane in consolation. “I’m sure they’re alright. I’m sure Princess Celestia has everything under control.”
“Spike’s right.” Twilight place a reassuring hoof on Applejack’s shoulder, “We need to have faith in the Princess. I know that she is doing everything in her power to fix the problem.”
“Ah hope you’re right Twi, ah really do.” Applejack let the tears flow freely as she accepted her friend’s touch.
“Hey you know what this calls for? A party!” Pinky Pie’s voice exploded through the oppressive atmosphere in uncontained delight as she pointed out the window. “Look! Everypony is gathering at the center of town.”
In Sugarcube Corner everypony assembled around Pinky Pie and watched as the Mayor addressed the gathered residents of Ponyville. It was the moment they’d been looking forward to all day, the signal to begin the Summer Sun Celebration.
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Rainbow Dash edged herself into a corner, using the mattress as an improvised shield; she fortified herself against whatever wicked thing was coming her way. She was able to distinguish three vague shapes heading in her direction. One of them, the leader of the group, gave off a reflection of gold mirroring sunlight as he arrived at the mouth of Dash’s cell.
“Stay where you are.” The guard ordered her.
“What are you going to do with me?” Rainbow Dash seethed in defiance and readied herself against the inevitable. Know that she’d easily had taken on three guards before, she remained confident that she could do so again if forced to.
“I got good news for you.” The guard grumbled in displeasure while he placed a key into the door lock, “Your free to go.”
“Your letting me go?” Dash could hardly believe her luck. She felt a faint gleam of hope blooming, like a fragile flower, but she wasn’t going to allow herself to be fooled into a trap. This had to be a trick, she couldn’t contemplate it being otherwise and she never lowered her guard.
“Yeah,” he mumbled under his breath while turning the key. His body language was dismissive and he wore a permanent scowl, “as it turns out you have some rich friends who paid bail on your behalf.” The guard motioned towards the other two ponies that had accompanied him.
Dash could not recall another time when she’d been so pleasantly surprised to see the two ponies that stepped forward to greet her with welcoming smiles.
“Howdy,” greeted a large red stallion with an orange mane and an oversized green apple cutie-mark on his flank. He calmly chewed on a sprig of wheat as he approached the threshold of the prison gate.
“Big Mac!” Dash betrayed her relief as she jumped out from behind her makeshift fort and stuck her head through the bars. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you.” Dash turned to his companion whom she recognized immediately because there was no other zebra immigrant who wore several golden rings around their neck and a pair of hoop earrings.
“Zecora too, I didn’t realize you were in Canterlot.” Dash was a little unsure as to Zecora’s strange presence, but she wasn’t going to complain a gift horse, or zebra, in the mouth.
“Only in Canterlot is one who sells. An herb I need for my simple spells.” Nopony was sure why she had a habit of speaking in rhymes, but was by and large considered to be a rather eccentric individual, and when compared to the crazy ponies of Ponyville, that was saying something.
“You must calm down young flyer. Or you’ll find yourself in the fire.”
“I know,” Dash rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
“Alright, I’m releasing you into their custody.” The guard slid the metal gate open. “You’d best behave yourself. There are plenty of us guards eager to see you tossed back in.”
“Yes! I know, I know!” Dash only half-heartedly reassured the guard as she rushed to join her friends. “Thanks guys, for helping me out. I promise I’ll find some way to repay you.”
Together they followed the guard as he led them out of the dungeon. Dash came to a sudden realization. Big Mac was an apple farmer and Zecora was a bit of a loner who often spent most of her time living or working in isolation in the Everfree forest. Neither of them were exactly the type of pony to be considered rich, which was what the guard had described them as.
“I was wondering. It couldn’t have been cheap to bail me out. How did you manage to get that many bits?”
“Well,” Big Mac began neutrally, “We have ya’ll to thank for that.”
“Six to one, your defeat was sound, we felt it wise to invest a pound. Now there’s reason for us to sing, for we have won plenty bling.” Zecora shook her saddlebag which jingled with the unmistakable song of many coins.
“You didn’t?” Dash froze in horror her wings fanning out in flaming ire. “You bet against me in the fight?” To which Zecora nodded with a money winning smile. “Even you, Macintosh?” her voice broke.
“Eeyup.” Normally Big Mac wore an expression of mild disinterest. Right now he was beaming like a foal given a new shiny toy.
“I can’t believe this, you both sold me out!”
“Now looky here missy,” Macintosh scolded her without raising his voice a single decibel. “It twas ya’ll who had the pig-headed gumption to buck more than ya’ll could handle.”
“Do not protest in indignation, we’ll treat you at the celebration.” Zecora
“Hmph!” Rainbow Dash sulked, refusing to move another step. “Maybe I don’t want to go.”
“Let’s go missy.” Big Mac had grown up with two younger sisters and had plenty of experience on how to handle rebellious and stubborn fillies. Using his teeth he grabbed Dash by the ear and pulled her away.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Dash cried in pain while trying to break free from her tormenter, “That hurts, let me go!” She was powerless before the bigger and stronger colt as he dragged her out the door. Zecora with a hearty chuckle bowed her head to the guard before following Big Mac and Dash out the door.
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Later in the evening Twilight decided she’d had enough of the half-hearted celebrations and returned to the library. She was sure that she wasn’t the only one who’d left the festival early. It wasn’t a failure in the least but it didn’t have the energy, the punch, needed carry it all the way until sunrise. Now was her only opportunity to try and get in some study time followed by much needed shuteye before she had to Sweet Apple Acres later in the afternoon. She was certain that helping Applejack would prove to be an all day affair.
Twilight noticed her book, ‘War of Thrones,’ still sitting on the table where she’d left it. It looked so lonely by itself and seemed to call out to her; pleading for her to finish reading it’s pages. It pained her to the core that she didn’t have ample time to peruse the last chapters, but personal intellectual curiosity took a sharp back seat to the more critical research into the events unfolding before her. Gazing up at the shelves of books, trying to decide where to start, she was sideswiped by the impulsive recollection of a more pressing duty she had nearly forgotten to complete.
For Twilight it was an enjoyable daily routine, some would say ritual, for her to submit a letter to Princess Celestia about the things she’d learn that day about the importance of friendship or other interesting matters. Twilight didn’t see much use in the exercise now since the Princess seemed to be too busy to even respond right now. On the other hoof, Twilight didn’t want to fall behind in her reports and she could simply stockpile them for future delivery.
Deciding that was the best course of action she pulled out the necessary implements and began scribing the daily report. Memories began to sweep over her like a fickle wind. The day had been such a muddled mess that Twilight wasn’t at a loss on what to report, but rather she was at an impasse at how to express it clearly. Twilight still felt bad about talking to the Mayor in such a harsh fashion, but that had turned out fine in the end. Then there was the troublesome case with Applejack. Twilight was very upset that by her inability to consol Applejack in her time of need or to provide closure. A note of inspiration struck Twilight and her pen struck paper as she furiously wrote her account.
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Dear Princess Celestia,
From your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
I learned a valuable, if hard, lesson about friendship today. I realized that there are times when you can help a friend with their problems and there are times when you cannot. No matter the situation a pony must always be willing to listen to the troubles of their friends. It is always important to listen, to let them know that you care about them, you support them, and that you are willing to do whatever you can.
I helped one friend, but disappointed another. When I think about It, I realize I have not failed anypony. The answer may not always come today or tomorrow, but they know I care and it gives them hope. Sometimes that is the only answer.
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Twilight signed her name and after briefly scanning over the letter for mistakes she rolled it up and sealed it with her insignia. Feeling satisfied it was ready for delivery she placed it aside so that Spike could mail it later. She yawned loudly from fatigue and was ready to slide in-between her bed covers when she felt a magical presence emerge from behind her and a voice spoke, seemingly from thin air.
“I think I understand why you’re her favorite pupil.” It called out from the shadows, a melodious tone of silver bells ringing in a cool night wind.
“Who’s there?” Twilight shouted and spun to face the intruder. Emerging from the second floor balcony was a Pegasus Unicorn with skin the color of a moonlit midnight sky and a mane of blue silver that shined with a thousand points of light.
“Princess Luna!” Twilight hesitated, breath catching in her throat, and immediately regretful for her earlier outburst. She felt both bewildered and confused at the sudden arrival by the moon princess. Instinct overrode thought and Twilight bowed low before her out of respect and even a little fear. “I’m sorry your highness, I didn’t realize you were there.”
“It’s alright Twilight, I understand.” Despite her regal bearing, Luna seemed uncomfortable at being address in such a formal fashion. “Please, just call me Luna. I just hope you’re not mad that I let myself into your home.”
“Its no trouble at all, princ…,eh Luna. You just surprised me, that’s all. How are things in Canterlot? Are you here for the festival?” Twilight couldn’t control the rush of words that sought escape from her mouth. She hadn’t seen or heard from Luna since the Nightmare Moon incident. Was Luna bitter about the whole incident and here to inflict her revenge? Twilight’s mind went back to the rumors she’d heard about Luna. She didn’t really believe they were true, so why was she feeling so nervous.
“I’m afraid not,” Luna shook her head slowly. “I would love to join you in celebration. I fear though, that I would not be welcomed.” Even now the sounds of the party could be heard from inside the library. The sound was torture to Luna, it was a reminder of what she’d lost so long ago when she’d betrayed Equestria for her own selfish gains. Though she had finally been forgiven for her sins, it was only after a thousand years of punishment until she’d been allowed her freedom to make amends. It had taken a terrible toll and she feared she would be forced to live as an outcast for an equally long time before she could hope to be considered an equal again.
She regarded Twilight up and down with a critical eye, contemplating on what to say next. Twilight spoke with respect, but there was an undercurrent of fear in her voice. Luna wondered if Twilight’s kind words truly directed at her as a pony or her position as Celestia’s sister? Twilight only answered to Celestia and not to her and even though she’d come here on Celestia’s behalf would Twilight even trust her with what she had to say?
“I guess you’ve heard the rumors.” Luna turned her back to Twilight.
“Rumors? What rumors. There are no rumors around here.” Twilight chuckled timidly trying to hide her guilt while beads of sweat formed on her head.
“I know what Equestria thinks of me.” Luna peered out the window and glimpsed upon the distant crowd. Although the ponies celebrated under a starlit sky, she knew they only rejoiced the rising of the sun. She didn’t want to show it, but it took every ounce of willpower for her not to cry. “They believe I’m the cause of all this chaos. Maybe you’ve only heard rumors, but in Canterlot I’ve been openly and directly accused. Some ponies have even petitioned Celestia to have me banished again, or at least locked away until I confess to a crime I did not commit.”
“That’s terrible, I can’t believe they could be so heartless.” Twilight was truly shocked. Canterlot was suppose to be the center of culture, magic, and enlightenment.
“Twilight, would you care to walk with me?” Luna asked a little uncomfortably, “I think I could use a friend tonight.”
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Overhead the full moon illuminated the night sky with an ethereal light surrounded by innumerable twinkling starts like diamonds in the night sky. Twilight followed Luna as she led them both along a path leading out of Ponyville. As time passed the streetlights and festive sounds of Ponyville receded into the distance. Twilight noticed that they were heading north towards the Everfree forest. Twilight noticed that the Princess was not wearing her black crown and instead donned pair of saddlebags on her back which appeared weighted down with supplies of some nature.
“Where are we going?” Twilight was getting a little nervous at the idea of entering the forest. Ever since her encounter with a cockatrice she’d avoided Everfree like the plague. She felt a little better having Luna by her side since the Princess was the second most powerful magic user in Equestria, but why Luna would want to risk the wrath of Everfree was a mystery.
“I’ll tell you when we get a little closer.” Luna peered up at the moon her eyes loosing focus for a moment. “Tell me, Twilight, what do you know of the Everfree forest?”
“About as much as any other pony. The Everfree forest is not a pleasant place for anypony to visit because of hostile flora and fauna. I’ve have done extensive research into why its weather and existence seemed to stand in contradiction to everywhere else, but I have found very few hard facts. Most of the books I’ve read are just harmless ghost stories, but there are some accounts that are just too fantastical to be true.”
“What kind of stories?” Luna walked a little closer to her companion
“Oh, I shouldn’t waste your time with fiction.” Twilight didn’t really want to discuss the matter any further as she found the topic disturbing and didn’t want the Princess to think she was mentally disturbed.
“Please, indulge me.” Luna said encouragingly, clearly interested.
“Well,” Twilight inhaled sharply, “I found some old fragmented reports detailing a series of unexplained surge in cases of insomnia, insanity, and even suicide. It seemed to affect any pony that dared to pass through the forest or lived too close for a period of time.” Recalling those reports gave her shivers as she remembered the almost obsessive amount of morbid detail that the author had written.
“Go on.” Luna’s excitement had only grown in intensity.
“It gets weirder from there. There are some who claim to have seen the dead come back to life, family or friends speaking to them in dreams, or visions warning them about the end of the world.”
“Do you believe any of it?”
“There are no such things as zombies and ghosts.” Twilight strongly asserted. “These are just old mares tales to frighten children away from Everfree.” Twilight slowed her pace as she regarded Luna more closely. The princess seemed unusually interested in a bunch gruesome tales that were most likely written by a seriously disturbed pony. “Unless you’re implying I should believe them?”
“Fantastical nonsense to be sure,” Luna giggled unconcerned, “but then I heard many ponies thought the same of the, ‘Mare in the Moon,’ tale, yet you didn’t.” Luna leaned in closer and whispered, “What made you think otherwise?”
“Because…” Twilight stalled answering that one. It was true that there had been some corroborative accounts to support the story, but it had mostly been a gut feeling that had driven her to believe it even when faced with ponies who had been skeptical.
“Ahh, we’ve arrived.” Luna spoke up at the two of them arrived at the border to the Everfree Forest. “I need to be straight with you Twilight.” Luna turned to face the purple unicorn with a look of deep sadness in her eyes.
“What’s this all about?” Twilight arched an eyebrow in confusion.
“I was not exaggerating when I said I needed a friend. Since you freed me from Nightmare Moon’s influence I’ve struggled to fit in back in Canterlot. I have no real friends and the guards and servant avoid me for the most part. But,” Luna stared Twilight in the eyes. “Tonight our fortunes have changed.”
“I don’t think I understand.” Twilight shrunk under Luna’s overpowering gaze. It was as if she looked upon the surface of eternity when she beheld Luna’s bottomless jade green eyes.
“The truth is that I need your help Twilight Sparkle. We both need your help.” Luna turned upward to stare at the moon for a second time, allowing Twilight to recover from her stare. “You know I’ve always admired my sister. She was always the center of attention, loved and worshipped by everypony while I was chiefly ignored. It was hard living under her shadow.”
“I know, Princess Luna. I’m sorry.” Twilight wanted to cheer up the Princess, but was at a loss on what to say.
“What I must accomplish now requires secrecy and an expert touch. Celestia would do it, but she has a thousand eyes watching her at every moment, some of which may now have more vile intentions. I on the other hoof,” Luna smirked dryly, “My isolation has given me freedom to move about unnoticed. So it seems that fate has a sense of humor after all.”
“I suppose that is very ironic.” Twilight wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or worried over Luna’s newfound sense of purpose. “So what do you need from me?”
“When we enter the forest we will head straight to the ancient stone castle where the Elements of Harmony once rested.”
“You mean?”
“Yes, it is the place where you freed me from Nightmare Moon. The Everfree forest is a place of many ancient secrets and surprises. The Elements were just one of them.”
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Author’s note: Thank you for continuing to read my story. I appreciate everyone who supports this little guilty pleasure of mine. Heck, it’s a guilty pleasure for all of us, isn’t it? Sorry about the wait for the chapter. I think I could upload them faster if I had the assistance of a beta-reader. If you’re interested in helping me out then pop me an email at: [email protected]
Oh and before I forget again, “My Little Pony” is copyrighted Hasbro and Lauren Faust and Dead Space is copyrighted to EA games and Visceral. |
Oceansama | 682 | 4 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2011-09-23T08:56:31+00:00 | 2011-09-23T08:56:31+00:00 | 2,881 | Chapter 4: The Summoning.
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Proceeding in silence Twilight and Luna slowly weaved their way deeper into the Everfree Forest, approaching ever closer to its tainted black core. Surrounding the forest was a barrier of trees that stood straight, tall, and proud. They were as healthy a wooden brown and leafy green as any other of their kind to be found around Equestria. From a respectable distance this shield of foliage gave the forest an appearance that didn’t seem all that frightening. It was nothing more than a dirty trick that the forest employed to welcome unwary souls. Any pony unfamiliar to Everfree might think it was a tempting spot for a lazy afternoon picnic or a peaceful site to enjoy a good book under a beautiful blue sky. That was all just a facade, a mask, an elaborate ruse to hide the dangers of the forest from casual passersby. Penetrating past the inviting exterior the forest was a corrupted abomination where of the laws of nature did not always apply. Where a wide host of all manner of hideous beasts and ruthless predators stalked and hunted amidst the fouled vegetation.
Flora, from the mightiest tree to the simplest grass, were all twisted decrepit shadows that looked wet and rotten, covered with a disgusting sheen like a layer of slime. Everything seemed inexplicably alive yet frozen in silence and surrounded by a vile aura as if possessed by a horrendous evil that was delightfully laughing at the pair of equine intruders that dared to trespass into its lair. Low hanging branches groaned and moved about chaotically with their only source of locomotion being a hot wind blowing through the forest like a great invisible serpent. Dancing in the wind the branches were like clawed hands reaching with undisguised contempt for the living. Wanting to grab the ponies, wanting to tear skin from bones, but only succeed in slowing the ponies down slightly when the fingers happened to become tangled in their manes.
Apart from the whistle of the wind through the treetops, the forest was completely silent. Not a single animal uttered so much as a howl or grunt, however that was normal. The only time a creature dared to announce its presence or show its face in Everfree was when it entertained carnivorous desires.
As the two ponies continued to explore deeper and deeper Twilight became more conscious of a sweet putrid smell that was building in the air around them, a foul stench akin to hot curdled milk. It had started off as an occasional annoyance traveling along the wind, now it was saturating the air in an attempt to try and choke them out. Twilight raised a hoof to her nose and shut her mouth tight. Even then she could still sense it forcing itself into her body through her very pores. It made her feel so unclean that she decided a long hot soak in the bathtub would be priority one when she got home. She’d even use the special bathing salts that Rarity had given her as a birthday gift. She had only been this deep into Everfree once before, but knew that this stench hadn’t been here at the time. She looked to check on how Luna was holding up, however the alicorn acted as if she was oblivious to everything around her or it simply didn’t worry her.
Twilight regretted not remembering to drag Spike along by his scaly tail for this little adventure. She knew that he, more than likely, would have chickened out at the idea of traveling this far into the darkest depths of the Everfree, but it might’ve helped delude herself into believing that she was far braver than she felt right now. At the very least it would’ve been nice for a good laugh at his expense in the meantime. At this moment he was probably still partying his little dragon heart out at the festival, stuffing his face full of delights and dancing to the techno music. The last she’d seen of him was in the company of Pinkie Pie. The mischievous pair was about to pull off a rather messy prank on Applejack.
A trick that involved the employment of several cherry bombs that were hidden inside a triple chocolate-fudge apple cake with whipped cream and, the coup-de-grace, a single maraschino cherry on top. Assuming Spike survived Applejack’s bronco buster beat down he wouldn’t be in any shape to assist anyway.
Twilight knew that she’d have to eventually get around to having a serious talk with Spike about this prank business. Pranks were a practice she very much discouraged, especially in her friends. After all, he was her faithful little helper at the library and it simply would not do for her to have to keep one eye on the little bugger whenever she wanted to study for fear of some random tomfoolery heading her way. There was enough of that already going around courtesy of Pinky Pie and Rainbow Dash. Those two mares were infamous for their love of high jinks, jokes, and overall adolescent mischief. Speaking of which..,
“Luna, I was wondering if I could ask you a question?” After inquiring Twilight sneezed something fierce in order to get the stench out of her system.
“Bless you. I’ll try to answer as best as I can. I can’t promise you’ll like it.” Luna was strangely reassuring despite the negative connotation.
“Well, I have some friends that are stuck in Canterlot and have been since this morning. I was wondering, I don’t mean to impose,” Twilight raised her hooves in defense, “but if you could help me find them I would be grateful.” Asking favors from royalty was something that Twilight felt extremely awkward doing. Even as Celestia’s star pupil she was very much worried that she could overextend her unique privileges and cause offense. Luna just stared at her, making her fear that she might have indeed offended the moon princess. At least until Luna allowed a nervous snigger to escape like a popped balloon.
“Sorry, I was expecting a very different question.” She shook the laugh away, “You need not worry about that, I would consider it a pleasure to help your friends. You have already helped me a great deal just by being here.” The two exchanged smiles, grateful to be of help to one another.
“Who are you thinking of?” Luna asked.
“Well, there’s Big Macintosh and Rainbow Dash. They went to Canterlot to sell some wares before the festival began. I’m pretty sure you’ve met both of them before.”
“I do remember Big Macintosh,” Luna nodded in affirmation, “big red stallion, apple farmer, and quite a handsome fellow if my memory sill works. You know,” Luna gave a sly grin, “if my situation was a little better off I’d defiantly go chasing after that fine a..ahem.” Luna excused herself noticing a curious sidelong glance from Twilight. “It shouldn’t be a problem getting him permission to leave Canterlot. Unfortunately it won’t be so easy for Rainbow Dash. I’m afraid she was arrested earlier today.”
“What!?” Twilight’s voice took a sharp upturn for the shrill upon hearing the news. Halting in her tracks she turned towards Luna half expecting it to be a joke. It was just a joke, wasn’t it?
“How? Why? What in Equestria did she do?” Twilight blubbered.
“She assaulted several of the castle guards and they were forced to put her to sleep.” Luna calmly summarized, “That’s not the worst part, though. I lost two hundred bits betting on her in that fight.”
“Your kidding!”
“Your right, it was 300 bits.” Luna sat down to think about it.
“But,”
“No, no, it was defiantly 200 bits and one of my bridles too, how embarrassing. That pair was especially popular with the stallions at the night club.”
“Lunaaa!” The mental image in Twilight’s head caused all her blood to rush to her face. She wasn’t sure which seemed more surreal. Rainbow Dash chained to a prison wall or Luna entertaining stallions in a very un-princess like manner. Nope, it was defiantly the latter.
“I’m joking,” Twilight’s look of petrified embarrassment and shock only made Luna laugh harder, “your friend is fine. She’ll be cooling her head for a night in the dungeon, but she’s otherwise unharmed. I doubt she’ll try that little stunt again in the near future, but,” Luna stopped laughing, “seriously though I’m still short 200 coins over this whole debacle.”
Twilight just gaped at the princess. It was true that she didn’t know Luna all that well, but she’d never expect the princess to have such a perverted sense of humor. As if reading her mind Luna broke out into another fresh wave of laughter.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to offend. Big sis always did say I was bad with my naughty little jokes.”
“Oh, it’s ok,” said Twilight beginning to recover from her embarrassment and still unsure of what just happened. It was refreshing to see Luna with her mane down, but the two of them were still smack dab in the middle of the Everfree and this wasn’t the best environment to have a casual heart to heart.
“Would you like me to sing instead?” Luna abruptly changed the subject feeling guilty over putting Twilight in such and awkward situation.
“You sing?” Luna was indeed full of surprises tonight.
“Oh yes, I’m very good at it. I used to sing all the time before, well, you know.”
“Um, could this wait until later?” Twilight was eager to continue on their journey and a song would only delay them further. The silence made her very nervous and that didn’t take into account the horrible smell. She still couldn’t understand how Luna wasn’t affected at all.
“You haven’t heard me.” Luna protested before she took a deep breath and started to sing. She chose a patter song that originated from a comic opera she’d once enjoyed as a foal. For this occasion, however, she had added in her own lyrics.
I am the very model of a Princess Luna-tarian.
I have information Sciences, on Magic, and Equestrian.
I know the mares and seas and I quote the names historical
From Babylon, to regolith, and craters categorical
I have mastered learning on all matters of Astronomy.
I know the moon and stars and of their orbital velocity.
I’m at my very best when the sun is clear out of sight
And I whistle to the tune of ‘Twinkle Little Star’ all the night
Luna finished and glanced towards Twilight expectantly.
“You’ve been talking to Pinky haven’t you?” Twilight could see clearly that this was a symptom of exposure to high levels of Pinkemania.
“We’ve exchanged a couple of letters, yes.” Luna admitted without hesitation or concern, “She once told me that, ‘when in doubt, sing it out,’ or something like that.”
The Alicorn princess’ overly friendly demeanor and confidence was infectious. Twilight felt her tensions ease as the two of them continued on their way through the forest. The fear of Everfree was now a distant memory and even the smell receded. They talked eagerly about all manner of things from sleepovers, to friendship, and daily life in Canterlot and Ponyville. Luna even began to share stories of her childhood growing up with Celestia.
“There was this one time,” Luna began giggling like a school foal, “When Celestia got hit with skunk spray and somepony suggested we use tomato juice to wash the smell out.”
“Did you?”
“Ooh yes, a whole bathtub full.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Before they knew it Twilight and Luna arrived at their destination near the center of the Everfree. Clearing past a tall shrub they approached the gates of an ancient stone castle that violently emerged from the forest bed like an obstinate mountain that refused to yield to the combined wiles of nature and erosion. In terms of architecture and design the castle was very similar to the one in Canterlot, if a bit smaller in scale. That was not unusual since it once served as the personal sanctuary of the two princesses in ages past. The friendly atmosphere shared between the two ponies began to retreat as they crossed the portcullis into the sanctuary.
Luna continued to lead as they traveled the abandoned hallways of the castle. Twilight was taken aback at how different the place had become in the year since her last visit. The forlorn building had fallen further into disrepair over that single short period of time than in the millennium since its abandonment following Celestia’s victory over Nightmare Moon. What had once been clean from any sort of encroaching plant life or entropy was now replaced with unrestraint wilderness.
Grass grew in-between the cracks in the cobbled stone floor, vines invaded through the broken windows and snaked along the floor amongst the glass shards. The majestic rugs and tapestries now hung in tattered shreds and there was a sharp musty smell, like an old attic. Twilight wondered if her removal of the Elements of Harmony had something to do with it. She could easily reason that it was the Elements that had shielded the castle from Everfree and now that the Elements were gone the forest had been given free rein. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before everything here would disappear, possibly in less than a single generation.
The idea gripped Twilight tightly with a profound sense of loss. There was so much history here, so many lives had touched this place, and now it was fated to vanish off the face of Equestria, lost in silence to the unstoppable march of time. As bad as it made Twilight feel she knew it must be worse for Luna.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Luna gently traced a hoof along the empty walls trying to feel for the pulse of life that she had once known. The hoof prints of family and friends that lay behind the grime that encrusted the walls. Her face was a mask of grim neutrality as she felt it clearly, it was here, but it only existed in her memories. She knew now that this place was just a dead husk now.
“Luna, are you alright?” Twilight asked from behind her.
“I’ll be fine.” She replied knowing that it was just another lie, one more to add to the pile. Luna hesitated, biting her lip when the tears began to gather in the corner of her eyes. This place brought back so many precious memories of her life before she messed everything up, before she grew jealous and hateful of her sister. It was a cruel reminder of all the terrible things she’d committed in the past. She wanted to forget, to move on, but the memories clung like tumors. Would Equestria ever be able to forgive her even though her big sister and Twilight had? Now the tears flowed freely down her cheeks like a gentle salty rain. She couldn’t find forgiveness in herself with the knowledge that it was not the passage of time that destroyed this place. It had been her
Her fault,
Her responsibility.
She could feel her heart break and she did not know how to put the pieces back together.
“I’m sorry for acting this way.” Luna tore her sight from the empty wall and hung her head in shame.
“For what? You haven’t done anything wrong.” Twilight’s voice was full of concern. Luna wondered if Twilight would be so friendly if she knew the whole truth.
“I can’t help it. This place is a part of me. We are both a thousand years obsolete. Maybe it would be best if we were to vanish from Equestria forever. Big sis doesn’t need me anyway.”
“How can you say such a thing?!” Twilight was horrified at such inconsiderate words. “Celestia was so happy when you came back….she wanted you to come back, to be free of Nightmare Moon, and if she lost you again….I don’t even want to think about what it would do to her.” Twilight nuzzled against Luna in a gesture that spoke of pure friendship. “It’s alright Luna, we can get through this together.”
To Twilight it felt weird, unnatural even, to embrace the princess in such a fashion, but Twilight knew she’d only make things worse if she held back. She stroked Luna’s mane to try and reassure her, to calm her fear. The Princess’ mane felt soft and silky under her touch and in the light of the moon it reflected a flawless shine with the combined sparkle of a million points of exquisite light. It reminded her of the endless field of stars in the night sky.
“Come on, we are almost there.” Twilight said confidently helping the princess up.
“Thank you,” Luna truly meant it and smiled, “It makes me happy to know that I have your friendship. I would also like to have your trust and it’s time I told you a little more about this book and why I brought you here.” Luna spoke carefully in a measured pitch so as not to cause her unicorn companion any more worry. “Hmm,” Luna was unsure exactly how to begin.
“I know that things have gotten out of hoof after it was stolen.” Twilight said knowing it was an abrupt interruption, but she wanted, needed, to know what this was all about. “For that matter what exactly is a Marker? I’ve been thinking about it all day and I suspect it involves more than a simple book.”
“Twilight, I would love to tell you everything, but big sis would hate me if I needlessly endangered her most beloved and favorite pupil.” Luna admonished
.
“Just because I’m Celestia’s pupil does not mean I need special treatment.”
“Not so, because I know big sis planned on telling you the truth about everything when she decided that you were truly ready. I would not dare to step on her hooves in this matter.”
“What kind of things?” Twilight could not withhold her curiosity.
“Nice try,” Luna deadpanned.
“Well, can’t blame a pony for trying.” Twilight grinned
.
“What I can say that on the outside it looks as normal as any other book you could find in a library. However, if a pony were to read it they would see a sequence of mathematical formulae, blueprints, and philosophical meanderings. A lesser mind would be driven mad. Only a pony of sufficient intelligence and learning can hope to decipher it.”
“Mathematical formula and blueprints?” Twilight intoned, understanding dawning upon her, “Are you saying it’s a guide to building a Marker?”
“Yes,” Luna said gravely, “The Marker is an artifact of great power and influence and that book is the key to building a new one. Celestia and I hadn’t even ascended the throne when the original Marker was discovered below the Everfree Forest.” Luna gazed out a window taking in the sight of the forest and the gentle lights of Ponyville visible on the horizon. “It was black. Black and glowing with symbols, symbols which whispered to me….” Luna choked because she feared saying far too much too soon.
“I can safely say that only three ponies have ever read that book and survived the madness; the author, Celestia, and myself.”
“The book was only stolen this morning. I’m sure they have not had time to build it yet.” Now Twilight was even more infused with zeal and alarm. As well read as she considered herself to be there was no record she’d come across that even hinted at just how long the two princesses had been in power. No mortal pony had any memory of the epic timescale that Luna only hinted at. Just how long and deep did this rabbit hole go?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
The two ponies ascended the stairs and entered into a large antechamber at the top of the castle. It was in similar disarray as the rest of the castle, yet despite the overgrowth Twilight easily recognized this room. It was here that the Elements of Harmony had once been stored, magical weapons waiting patiently for somepony to claim the power for their own. This was the place where the fateful confrontation with Nightmare Moon had occurred.
Luna purposefully approached the statue where the Elemental orbs had once rested. The statue was carved from crystal and shaped into something that resembled a bare five-branched tree with each ‘branch’ curling upwards and ending in a bowl shape. The bowls once held the Elemental orbs, but now stood empty except for a small amount of water at the bottom. Without warning Luna gave one powerful backwards kick and broke the statue at the base. A second swift kick finished the job and sent the stone structure flying forcefully into the opposite wall where it shattered into a thousand fragments.
“Was that necessary?” Twilight wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed as if Luna really enjoyed doing that. Twilight grew increasingly concerned that Luna’s emotional health was dangerously unbalanced. In the hour or two since both of them had started on this journey Luna had run the proverbial emotional gauntlet. She was all over the place expressing emotions that had begun at nervousness, traveled to naughty, then silly, and then joyful. Before ending in sadness, depression, and finally ending on anger.
“Nevermind! It’s useless now and besides what we want is right below us.”
At the place where the statue had broken from its foundation was a tiny box shaped depression in the floor. At the center of the depression was a tiny hole. Luna kneeled down before it and carefully inserted her horn down the hole while mumbled a few words. Twilight could feel the casting of a magical spell, yet was unfamiliar with exactly what kind of spell. After a few tentative seconds there was the sound of a lock being keyed. Twilight felt the floor beneath her vibrate with the movement of some long dormant machinery. The weathered gears creaked and protested over their rude awakening.
“Steady yourself.” Was all the warning Luna could give before there was a flash of magical energy that surrounded them. The ground below their hooves seemed to dissolve and they fell into the darkness beneath them. The vertigo didn’t last long before their hooves touched down on solid ground again. It happened so fast that Twilight had not realized it was happening until it was already over.
“Where are we?” Twilight asked while inspecting this new environment. They had been transported from the Sanctuary antechamber into a large and spacious cavern. Twilight had done a lot of research on old Equestrian technology and magic and recognized what they had just gone through was called a ‘transportation plate,’ which served as a quick and convenient means of near instantaneous teleportation from one location to another predetermined destination. The advantages of such a device were that the teleportation worked across vast distances and that the user did not need to be in the line of sight to their destination, unlike the simple spell Twilight had used on multiple occasions. It was not that much of a surprise to find such a device in the Sanctuary, but to have it still in working condition after all these years was amazing. Especially since the knowledge to create and maintain such devices was an art form lost in ages past.
“These are the old mines, below Everfree.” Luna now spoke with no hint of emotion or concern, only purpose. “Generations of ponies worked here to extract the materials needed to build Canterlot. No living creature has been down here for ages.” Strangely Luna seemed to put special emphasis on ‘living.’
“None of the books I’ve ever read mentioned mines and tunnels below the forest.”
“That’s not surprising. I did say there were far more surprises then just the Elements.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………
The mineshaft elevator descended down the subterranean tunnel at break-neck speed. Twilight wondered if this is what it felt like when Rainbow Dash attempted a sonic rain-boom maneuver. There was no source of light in these tunnels so Twilight was forced to cast a light spell. Her horn glowed magnificently and even then the darkness was too thick. It was so oppressive she couldn’t see much outside her immediate area. Worse yet, even with the spell she could not determine how far down they were going.
The walls of the shaft were featureless subterranean dirt only interrupted by the pair of elevator tracks and the occasional floor landing. The elevator abruptly began to slow down in its decent before coming to a sudden stop at what seemed to be the lowest level. The door that greeted them was so old and rusted that to even call it a door would be like describing a slice of swiss cheese as an impenetrable bank vault. The only other highlight was the number forty-two stenciled on in faded yellow spray paint.
The tunnel behind the door was bigger than Twilight had anticipated. It was tall and wide enough to fit her house inside, with a generous amount of room to spare. The tunnel was lined on either side by equidistant metallic ribs that Twilight presumed held the tunnel up and prevented it from collapsing. In between the ribs were veins of silver, gold, and various gems that had been exposed, but never collected. Twilight placed a couple of the more loose gems in her saddlebags positive that Spike would appreciate her efforts later.
The packed dirt ground was littered with countless puddles of soupy goo laid out all over the place. Passing too close to a puddle allowed Twilight to make out the same rotten stench she’s experienced before in the forest. There was no wind in this pace and apart from the sound of their hooves; there was only a deathly silence. It didn’t last for long as Twilight could began to notice a scratching sound that had begun to follow them from behind shortly after entering the tunnel. Whenever she stopped to check on it, the sound stopped. When she started to move again the scratching would wait awhile and then come back. Luna still didn’t seem bothered by any of this. It made Twilight wonder if her own fear was playing tricks on her.
It was hard to judge the passage of time in this place, but after what felt like an hour of a nonstop linear progression the cave suddenly opened up to reveal a great cylindrical room. Stairs and catwalks were built into the sides of the room and ascended upwards at an indeterminate distance. The magical lights from the ponies were sufficient to illuminate the curved wall that surrounded them on all sides, but there was no way to glimpse at how high the ceiling went.
Luna stepped upon a raised circular platform that occupied most of the ground area in the room before she motioning that Twilight should follow her. Twilight place a hesitant hoof upon the altar, unsure of what Luna intended to do. Twilight didn’t know why she called it an alter, but there was something in the air, something sacrosanct and horrific about this place. She couldn’t put her hoof on the exact reason why until she took a closer look at the platform. Its polished onyx like surface showed an uninterrupted pattern of symbols carved into its surface. Some she recognized from the image of the Marker, but most were unfamiliar. Twilight wanted to study these symbols and everything about this room, but in her haste to follow Luna she had forgotten all of her writing supplies back at home.
Luna, on the other hoof, was well prepared. Retrieving a scroll from one of her saddlebags she opened it and began to read. She nodded her head in satisfaction before telekinetically handing the scroll over to Twilight.
“What am I suppose to do with this?” Twilight asked skeptically as she accepted the document. The scroll was written in old Equestrian, a language Twilight had been studying, but had not fully mastered. She couldn’t read most of it apart from an occasional word or two. It was clearly a magical scroll of great power; she didn’t have to be able to understand the writing to know that. Twilight could feel a higher concentration of magical energy radiating from it.
“Don’t worry about the words,” Luna seemed to sense Twilight’s confusion, “concentrate on the magical flow instead.”
Twilight held the scroll in her hooves and closed her eyes. She moved her horn closer to the scroll until she touched it directly as she concentrated on the weave of magical energies. It was not a single spell, rather a combination of multiple spells mixed together. Some were simple, others complex, some she knew, and many she did not. She recognized a teleportation spell right off the cuff, but the actual destination she could not ascertain. There was also a telekinetic spell and a mind-control spell; both were highly unusual magics too be used in conjunction with teleportation. The further she tried to explore this intriguing case the more she heard whispers in her head.
Twilight is here….shhhhh….
Isaaaac….
….the traveler in the dark…
.
“Well?” Luna said breaking Twilight’s concentration. Twilight looked to the princess who seemed brimming with anticipation.
“If I had to guess, then, um,” Twilight delayed to give herself more time to think it over. Teleportation, telekinesis, and mind control all used together in a spell so complex that she couldn’t wrap her mind around it; what did it mean? Then like a bolt from the blue she realized what it was and it was the mind-control spell that was the key.
“It’s a summoning spell.” Twilight’s answer birthed a smile on Luna’s young face. “You’re going to summon somepony or something into Equestria and control it for your own purposes.”
“Exactly,” Luna confirmed, “I’ll be brief since we do need to get back home before daybreak. The threat of somepony making a new Marker is such a terrible possibility that we need to prepare for the worse. However, General Starsword is dragging his hooves about following proper procedures and protocols in training new soldiers. So big sis and I consulted an old friend of ours and he told us about a weapon we could summon to help bring this matter, hopefully, to an early and peaceful conclusion.”
“A weapon?” Twilight was dubious, “Would a weapon require the use of mind-control?”
“Yes, a caster that brings forth items of power uses mind-control to link themselves to the item so that only they may use it. Not unlike the Elements of Harmony”
“Shouldn’t the Elements of Harmony be able to help?”
“I’m sure they can. Yet, the elements may not be enough.” Luna indicated the scroll in Twilight’s hooves. “That spell was written by Celestia and I with help from our friend and I want you to cast it and bring that weapon back to Equestria.”
“Why me? Don’t you have more experience than I do in this kind of magic.”
“Yes, but understand that after a millennium of imprisonment in the moon my power is far too weak. Besides somepony needs to stay and protect you from danger.” Twilight was about to raise more concerns, but Luna didn’t allow to her speak.
“Twilight, we don’t have time to argue. Please trust me.” Twilight wanted to trust Luna. No! She DID trust Luna and she’d come too far to back out now. Besides, she did not want to disappoint her new friend.
“Ok I’ll do it.” She said, resolute.
“Thank you Twilight.” Luna bowed her head in gratitude. “I should warn you that once you cast the spell you will need to hold onto it with all your might and only dispel it when you have the weapon in your hooves.” Luna dismounted from the alter and walked to the entrance she and Twilight had arrived through. Turning back to Twilight, Luna remembering one final detail.
“Oh, and one more thing, be wary of shadows.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Twilight stood at the center of the platform while holding the scroll before her. She closed her eyes before touching the scroll with her horn, feeling for the magic. Instead of passively observing it this time she reached out with her own magical talents and united the two of them together as one. The intermingling of these separate flows required the utmost levels of concentration on maintaining a state of balance. If one flow grew too powerful over the other then she risked the spell backfiring, which could have dangerous, even deadly, consequences.
The Element of Magic manifested itself upon her head in the form of a golden tiara with a magenta tourmaline shaped like a star similar to her cutie-mark. Her eyes shot open, pupils disappeared under the intense projection of a bright white light. The whole of the chamber became illuminated in this light as the growing magical energies bathed the alter in currents of ether. Twilight felt herself being lifted beyond the veil of reality before emerging into a world that only existed in the darkest depths of space and time.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Twilight was thrown like a piece of detritus from the pillar of light and landed hard upon a dirt ground behind some jagged rock formations. She laid upon the ground for a few precious seconds while her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Shaking from fright Twilight cautiously peered out from behind the serrated rock she had arrived at. Apart from the glow of the summoning spell on her horn, everything was illuminated by a dim and sickly yellowish-green light originating from a source she could not determine, as there was no sun or moon in the sky or even a simple lamp or candle present. She was on some barren wasteland of an island surrounded on all sides by an infinite expanse. Everything looked and felt real enough yet it shifted and distorted as if made of reflections in a fog of empty shadows. Not to say there was much too see here. The most significant features were large rocks seemingly placed at random locations, but there was something else in here, she could sense it. She felt like she was being watched. That there were others in this place, but there was no scratching noise, no oppressive smell, and the whispers in her head were silent.
In an abrupt flash of blood red light she witnessed the emergence of the colossal visage of a Marker towering over her like some demonic overlord. It was standing far away on the other end of the island, yet its massive size allowed somehow still allowed it to tower above her and everything else in this forbidden place.
Its unnatural light pierced through the shadows with a rapid pulse, like a heartbeat. She seemed unable to focus upon it terrible form, her eyes slipping off its skin, unable to focus. The image was clear in her mind, however, at the top its narrow twin spires, nearly touching, twisting around each other like two poisonous snakes embattled in eternity. Its surface covered with the same glowing symbols she’d seen a few times before.
“Twilight,” a voice spoke out from the darkness. Twilight spun to face this new threat, a scream dying in her throat with a pathetic squeal. An elderly Pegasus was sitting behind her, his skin a faded purple and mane a weathered grey. Twilight gaped, recognition spreading over her face in a disbelieving stare.
“Pa..Pappy?” She gasped. She wanted to believe it, but it was impossible.
“Tiny Twilight, my dear granddaughter,” he whispered in concern, his arms held open invitingly.
Luna’s warning echoed in her ears, Twilight understood that what she was seeing was not her grandfather. He had suddenly, but quietly, passed away many years ago in his sleep. She remembered crying for days after the funeral fondly remembering the times he let her ride on his back high above the clouds. Yet here he was, his warm blue eyes twinkling like stars with a reflection of sadness and concern.
Her logical mind hesitated, but she couldn’t help herself. Against her best judgment she threw her arms around him in a loving embrace, hugging him close.
“I’ve missed you so much.” The tears came easily. She nuzzled close to him listening to his gentle breathing and feeling his strong arms close around her.
“Tiny Twilight, why are you here my sweet child. You’re not supposed to be here. You shouldn’t be here.” He held her close in that special way only a loving grandparent could. “I did not wish to see you suffer.”
“Pappy, what is this place? Why are you here?”
“Leave now. Please!” He suddenly pushed her back at arm’s length, his face reflecting the pain from having to break the embrace. “There is very little time, this place will soon be destroyed and you along with it. Don’t use the weapon! It will only save your world so it can destroy it.”
“I don’t understand.” Twilight shrank under his intense glare and scolding speech. Grandfather had never once before raised his voice at her in such hateful anger or held her so roughly.
“Don’t sacrifice yourself to the Marker’s plans!” He screamed.
Twisting forcefully to her left Twilight broke free from his grasp and retreated back a few steps before turning to confront him or the evil that claimed to be him. Grandfather Sparkle was gone, vanished back into the darkness where he had come from. In his place the dark mist began to move in a circular pattern, slowly at first then gaining purposeful speed. Bits of the swirling vortex began to break off, falling away in random directions.
Wherever these slivers of shadow landed they began to grow in size. They twisted, morphed, and collapsed in upon themselves, slowly assuming pony forms. Twilight backed away in horror as these shadow ponies gazed upon her with blood red eyes that held no emotion or soul, only the desire to consume. Twilight didn’t wait for the shadows to attack. She turned tail and ran as fast as her hooves could carry her. She drove forward not bother to try and see if she was being followed, her panic serving as a focusing lens for her desire to reach a place of safety. Behind her erupted a harsh mare’s voice screaming in a shrill fit of uncontrollable rage that shattered the silence like a million shards of glass.
“YOU SHALL NOT TAKE HIM FROM US! WE….ARE….WHOLE!” The voice overflowed with hatred and disgust, which seemed to enter Twilight’s ears and tear at her brain. It was the sound of something unholy and it was trapped inside this place with her, hungry for her.
Twilight was ready to take her Grandfather’s advice and break her hold on the spell when the air was again filled with a familiar throb of red light. Without realizing it she had run all the way to the opposite side of the island and now found herself standing before the Red Marker as it rose endlessly into oblivion, far beyond her sight. She was close enough to touch it and sensed that this was more of a transparent image projected from some unknown and hidden source. She could clearly see her reflection upon its flawless exterior, so it also acted like a mirror too.
Mere inches from the Marker, Twilight could discern an object suspended within it’s being. Something instinctual told her that this was the object that she had come here to retrieve. Not really a weapon, as she though it to be, more like a suit of armor that she had never witnessed before or could have conceived of in her wildest dreams. It was not made of gold or shaped for ornate appearances or ceremonial traditions like the uniforms used by the guard ponies in Canterlot. This armor was made to completely cover the user from head to hoof in uninterrupted segments of padding and protection.
The helmet had three slits for the wearer to see out of, the chest was covered in metallic plates and ribs to protect the major organs, and all four limbs were completely sealed with a combination of thick, yet flexible, material with metal plating attached at key points to provide maximum protection to the muscles against attacks from the side. Overall the suit was made to appear sleek and smooth, like a polished stone. It seemed as if any violent blow would simply slide off its shell.
However, this suit was made to for a creature that was foreign to her.
Judging solely on the body structure it was apparent that the creature meant to wear it possessed four limbs as well, but would only use two of them to carry itself vertically, standing nearly twice as tall as the biggest stallion she knew. The creature would also sport unusually broad shoulders with the other two limbs, the arms, ending in hands with five articulate fingers each. Spike was the only individual she could think of that could wear such a contraption, but he only had four fingers on each hand, was way too short, and sported a tail that this armor didn’t seem to account for.
Twilight instinctively reached out with a single hoof, it passed unimpeded through the image of the Marker and touched the suit. As soon as she made contact she saw flashes of memories appear in her mind’s eye. They were memories belonging to somepony else. Twilight saw images of a bipedal creature, encased in the armor, fighting against vile monstrosities spawned from the nightmares of only the most depraved psychopaths. Scenes of unrestrained violence, death, and destruction that stretched across cities of impressive gothic architecture, churches of colorful stained glass, a school where the children had been slaughtered, and reaching into the deepest void of space where even the stars refused to shine. A place where no hope remained.
No dreams.
No future.
No life.
Only dead space.
She felt herself drifting in emptiness, an abyss deeper than any ocean. She clutched the armor tightly as her only means of support. Was this the weapon that Celestia and Luna sought? It was too terrible to comprehend; it had no place in Equestria. Something inside her felt only despair and she wept openly.
As she felt the cold lifeless suit press tighter against her skin she experienced an astonishing feeling of calm confidence and renewed hope. As bad as things seemed now something inside her said that this was not the end. That only as long as she continued to fight, refusing to surrender, refusing to bow down, then the darkness could be defeated. She had done it once before, she could do it again.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Twilight awoke upon the alter and felt the firm touch of stone on her side. She didn’t know when she had released the spell, that didn’t matter, the dream was over and she was back in reality.
“Oh no,” She heard Luna gasp, rushing to her side, “Something is wrong!”
Twilight opened her eyes to look at the armored suit she continued to hold close to her body. It was just as impressive as before, but now it had changed. Its shape had shifted, transformed, and now could easily fit a pony her size. The armor began to move of its own free will under her grasp and she heard a groan of pain escape from it
“Holy crap that hurt.” The armor spoke in a gruff male voice.
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Author’s Note: Sorry for the long wait. I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter. It was not due to writers block, but rather dissatisfaction with the flow of the story. Also it was difficult to write a personality for Luna since she is such an underrepresented character in MLP so far.
BTW, the song she sings is a based upon the ‘Modern Major General’ song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedy opera ‘The Pirates of Penzance’
“My Little Pony: FiM” is copyrighted Hasbro and Lauren Faust.
“Dead Space” is copyrighted EA games and Visceral. |
Oceansama | 682 | 5 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2011-09-23T08:57:06+00:00 | 2011-09-23T08:57:06+00:00 | 2,942 | Chapter 5: Strange Relations.
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Isaac was having the worst day of his life. It was now over twelve hours since he’d escaped the psych ward of the hospital. In all this time he had yet to afford a single decent rest and his muscles ached from the nonstop struggle against these creatures. There were no reserves of adrenaline left in him and every fiber of his being begged for mercy. He pushed away such impulsive temptations, but they had become harder and harder to ignore. If he gave in now his death would follow soon after and that very failure would spell doom for every man, woman, and child of the Human race. Stopping that nightmare was the only thing that kept him going now.
He forced himself to stand as tall and proud as his battered body could manage. His bloodied left arm hanged limply in its socket with large gaping wounds punctured through the shoulder and hand. Isaac did not feel any pain the arm had long since gone completely numb from blood loss and shock. Tunnel vision was creeping in making it hard to focus. A problem intensified by his nearly useless right eye. It wasn’t completely blind, but it burned horribly and was covered in a haze of tears and blood that he couldn’t clear away because his helmet defied him that luxury.
Not that there was much to look at while he was stranded upon a chuck of rock hurtling through a starless void. The lights from his helmet’s blood caked visors failed to cut far into the eternal night and further obscured in a thick fog that blanketed the area. He tried to wipe some of the blood off of his visor but it failed to improve his situation.
He could not conceive of a more fitting place for his final act of sacrifice, his Alamo as it were. This was a one way trip and even if he won there would be no hope of escape and no last minute rescue. There was no future to hope for anymore and that was alright. He would be the last life consumed by the machinations of the Marker, his Marker. The finality of it all gave him a strange sense of peaceful anger.
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The Marker exploded with an ear splitting thunderous boom. A hail of deadly shrapnel rained down, but never touched the ground. The scattered pieces were drawn into orbit around the exposed and rapidly beating heart of the now defenseless artifact. The intense golden light of that unholy life filled the space around him and difficult to look directly at it. Isaac promptly raised his weapon and focused down the laser sights. His aim was unsteady from using only one hand, but crippled as he was there was no way he’d allow himself to miss a target that size. The pulse rifle screamed in a sharp metallic chorus of rapid mechanical hammer blows. Deadly spears of blue plasma energy surged unflinchingly and traveled at the speed of light to strike the core of the Marker. Injecting themselves deep into the essence with gruesome consequence.
The recoil from the weapon’s deadly delivery shook Isaacs’ entire body. It bucked in his grip like a wild stallion and caused pain to shoot up and down his good arm as he tightened his hold and forced his aim to remain true. In seconds the ammo counter flat lined at zero and the pulse rifle clicked in rapid futility as it tried to draw sustenance from the drained power cell. After the final rounds impacted home, the Marker’s evil heart ruptured into a wild tornado of golden energy. The tornado quickly degenerated into a tar black color as the Marker’s life force rapidly bled out. Countless streams of dark energy sprouted like tentacles from the ruined core whipping about madly like a great animal enthralled violently in its death rattle. The tentacles sliced and smashed off sections of the island and sent the pieced careening wildly about as they were absorbed into the core and it grew bigger, an uncontainable spire of insanity. The sensors in Isaac’s suit sent warning messages to his HUD registering a growing concentration of energy that was quickly approaching critical mass.
His head felt like it was being crushed under an industrial press as the Marker’s influence over him grew in intensity tenfold. Finally facing his ultimate annihilation a part of Isaac relented and desperately searched for a way to survive, to escape the inevitable. He turned on his heel and began to run in the opposite direction. He only managed a single opening step when he noticed a rectangular mirror, a little taller and wider than he, appeared just inches from him. His image was clear in the mirror’s reflection as well as the unrestrained destruction of the dying Marker behind him. None of that was what caused him to freeze dead in his tracks in abject shock. Standing in front of his reflection was a creature that he would never ever, not in his wildest dreams, have thought to see in a place like this and at this very moment. It was standing a couple of inches below half of his height, with large violet eyes that radiated innocence and concern tinged with obvious fear. It was what he could only describe as a purple unicorn with a mane of dark blue accented by a single stripe of pink.
Before Isaac could fully appreciate the impossibility which stood before him the unicorn reached a forearm through the mirror and actually touched him. At the moment of contact his mind imploded under a wave of lightening quick flashes, each flash accompanied by an unfamiliar memory. He groaned under the unexpected onslaught of another person’s mind and soul merging with his own. The raw awareness traveled along the edges of his mind, filling him with renewed hope and purpose. He could see a majestic city of stone carved out of a mountain, a humble town of horse-like creatures, six elements that seemed to resonate in time with each other, and many more in such bright colors it hurt to watch. The memories were as strange as they were impossible and Isaac struggled to force these foreign images out of his mind convinced they must have been born of the Marker’s control over him, trying to lull him into a false sense of victory through a kind of invasive reverse psychology.
His act of defiance was woefully short lived as he was struck brutally from behind as the Marker detonated with the force of a nuclear warhead. His entire existence buckled under the irresistible force. The intensity of the titanic fireball propelled him through the mirror and it shattered under the force as he passed through the veil. Tumbling head over heels in oblivion Isaac felt his chest tighten under the scrutiny of a vice grappling him strongly. He looked down and saw the purple unicorn wrapped around his torso, clinging with all its might like a fearful child to a loving guardian. His instincts commanded him to rip the alien creature off of him, to throw it away, and kill it. He grabbed its arms, ready to tear it apart limb from limb.
Suddenly it felt as if the whole universe had blinked and changed. In that infinitesimal moment beyond all human comprehension of time and reality, a feeling he could neither identify nor fathom intervened and held him back from the cruelty he had been about to commit. He was not entirely sure why he stopped and eagarly the gesture of friendship from the unicorn.
He wrapped his arms around this innocent entity, even if it did ultimately come from a fabrication of his own crazed and deluded imagination. Maybe, just maybe, a part of him wanted to be comfort it, to show it that everything would turn out for the best in the end. Or he simply did not care to fight anymore and this unicorn was, by far, a great deal of a prettier sight then what he’d been through that day. It felt good, as if someone finally recognized everything that he’d fought for and all that he’d sacrificed in order to save humanity from its own selfish mistakes.
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“Holy crap that hurt.” His mouth felt full of cotton as he gently shifted his body into a slightly more comfortable position. The impact from the sudden landing left him winded and a little disoriented. The peaceful presence of the unicorn was gone and he realized it was getting very hot inside his suit. The environmental control was inactive and judging from the total lack of a HUD his entire RIG was without power. Without power he might as well be wearing a giant paperweight since that was all it would be useful for.
Breathing in ragged gulps he concentrated on locating the Marker’s presence within his brain. He still felt the Marker’s corrupting influence, like the worst migraine he’d ever experienced, but it was fast evaporating away. He allowed a few moments of personal congratulation and a tentative smile of victory.
He had beaten the odds and had emerged both alive and in surprisingly good spirits.
It was finally over and he was free.
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Twilight quickly jumped away from the strange new pony, to stand at Princess Luna’s side unsure of how to deal with the armored interloper laid out in front of her. The situation had certainly taken a turn for the bizarre.
“Wha….What happened. What it suppose to work that way?” Twilight couldn’t remember a time when she’d so screwed up a spell this badly before. Well there was that one time when the parasprites had invaded Ponyville and started eating all the buildings because of her mistake, but that was immaterial compared to this.
“I can’t remember releasing the magic maybe I missed what I needed to find and brought him back by accident. I’m sorry Luna, I panicked I should’ve heeded your warning about shadows.” Twilight sputtered.
“Calm down Twilight.” Luna said in almost near panic herself. “While you were inside I was able to follow along with the weave of the magic and I’ll be honest, I am very impressed with your talents. Whatever went wrong I don’t think it’s your fault.”
Twilight briefly explained to Luna what had transpired inside the shadow world. Beginning at her arrival, to her grandfather’s appearance, and ending at the moment she had discovered the armored suit. By the end of her tale she was hyperventilating herself to pieces.
“You told me that this would be a weapon.” Twilight couldn’t fathom anyone being so cruel to think of anypony, armor or not, as some mindless tool created with the intent to cause harm. He was an individual blessed with the same right for happiness and friendship as any other pony. He also had a name and she knew what it was….
‘Isaac Clarke’
“Yes, that’s what I was told.” Luna sat down. She was laid so low her nose almost touched the ground. “I wonder if this was all a terrible mistake and I’m responsible for dragging you into the middle of it all.”
“Princess, it’s my fault,” Twilight felt just as guilty as Luna was acting. If only she had studied harder and had been more vigilant, more confident, then maybe she could’ve made Luna proud. Luna had come to her out of confidence and she’d rewarded that trust with failure.
“I just wanted to do a good deed,” Luna was crying, “to prove that I wanted to make up for my past sins. If I had known this was going to happen I would not have been so eager to have pushed us, all three of us, into this terrible impasse. Summoning a live creature, or pony, was banned long ago for good reason, because of the inherent dangers of cross world contamination.”
“What are we going to do now?” Twilight closely examined Isaac with a critical eye and a profound sense of curiosity and uncertainty.
The influx of Isaac’s memories gave her more than enough reasons to fear what he was capable of. Yet, the bookworm side of her wanted to study him in unrestrained depth to find out where he’d come from and how his armor worked. More importantly she wanted to know more about him as an individual and apologize for what she’d done. Normally she was very reserved when it came to meeting new ponies, but there was something alluring, mysterious even, about Isaac. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she wanted to find out.
“Well, our plan was to….my plan.” Luna stalled trying to collect her words carefully. It had been a flimsy plan at best and even Celestia had been against it, at least from the start. What was she to tell her big sister now that she’d made a mess everything yet again and now expected Celestia to fix it for her?
“If..If it was simply to be used against the Marker then I was going to hide it away until the time was right. Now..I don’t know.” Luna shook her head in shame wondering if it was ever possible for her to do something right for once.
“I got it,” Twilight suddenly exclaimed excitedly, an idea converging in her head. While she only managed to remember Isaac’s name and a few other disjointed images from the memories, her instincts told her that he was perfect for the job laid out in front of them.
“I’ll take him back to Ponyville with me. If I help him make new friends there then I’m sure he’ll be willing to help us, just as my friends did a year ago when we defeated Nightmare Moon. Umm, no offense Princess Luna.”
“None taken, but are you sure? I don’t want to offload even more of this burden onto you, beside we don’t know if he will help us or if he can.”
“Trust me Luna.” Twilight felt her spirits lifting and she gave the princess a confident smile, “The memories I saw inside the shadow world showed me that he is perfect for the job. Isaac Clarke,” she pointed towards the armored pony. “has already destroyed a Marker in his own world already.”
Luna bolted upright, eyes wide, and mouth gaping when she heard Twilight refer to it by name.
“Are you sure?” Luna was afraid to think that things actually might work out.
“Would I dare lie?” Twilight’s smile grew broader. Luna turned her gaze to regarded Isaac with a renewed sense of hope at Twilight’s words, but she was also tempered with doubts. She did, after all, still had to explain all this falderal to Celestia and it was become more complex than she’d feared.
“Though I am curious as to how you learned his name. ” Luna asked rubbing her chin in thought.
“Well,” Twilight’s smile faltered slightly as she contemplated the how and why herself. “I think that mind-control portion of the summon spell went both ways.
We connected with each other on a deep personal level and were able to share our collective experiences for just a brief moment. Though it was so fast and unexpected that I’m afraid I don’t remember much about the finer details.”
“This is going to be trouble.” Luna sighed.
“He already is.” Twilight agreed with a nod.
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As his night-vision slowly kicked in Isaac found himself inside a cavern, or a mine judging from the smooth walls and the erected scaffolding. He was surprised that it wasn’t the metal corridors of the EarthGov Research Center. It was possible that he had been blown back inside the Titan mines.
There was only a single source of light, a gentle bright white that hovered just behind him judging from the way his shadow was cast out in front of him. He heard two voices full of confusion and doubt whispering in hushed tones behind him. Isaac could tell they were not the phantom disembodied whispers that frequently echoed inside his head, calling out his name or other random gibberish. These were flesh and blood voices uttered from at least two young women, judging by the youthful higher register. He was curious as to who it was, but didn’t feel especially motivated to eavesdrop on their discourse. Rather he just wanted to take a well deserved rest. At least until he unmistakably overheard one of them say something about a Marker.
His body felt slightly numb all over, the feeling was especially prevalent in his hands and feet where he could not register a single thing. His joints felt misplaced and attached in all the wrong places, and his midsection felt unusually tight like the armor had shrunk. Regardless he forced himself onto his feet so that he could try and face the people that had either saved him or captured him. Desperately hoping that it was the former and they were friendly.
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His back still turned towards Luna and Twilight. Slowly Isaac had begun to lift himself up, rising to his full height to stand vertically on both of his hind legs, just as Twilight had seen him doing before he had became a pony. Twilight realized Isaac probably had yet to fully appreciate the fact that he was transformed otherwise he might’ve known that this was a very unusual position for a colt to take.
“The hell!” Isaac shouted in alarm, now fully aware of his hooves for hands before he suddenly lost his balance. He tried to catch himself with a step back on his toeless feet, but it only served to accelerate his reverse speed. He tumbled backwards uncontrollably, arms splayed and swinging trying to find something to hold onto.
“Whoa, Whoaaaaa!”
“Look out!” Twilight’s warning fell short as Isaac collapsed on top of her in a clatter of metal, cymbals, and dust. When the smoke cleared Luna glanced upon the tangled knot of limbs and hooves that was Twilight and Isaac. Twilight’s pupils spun like tops and Luna giggled at the humorous sight feeling her tensions easing greatly.
Isaac was shocked when he realized he had fallen upon the enigmatic unicorn from the mirror, only she was not an unknown element anymore. A part of his subconscious identified her as the most favored student of some royal figure or other and that she was a social misfit and nerd who went by the silly name of Twilight Sparkle. She had also been the one whose mind he’d touched upon. Or was it the other way around? Not that the distinction really mattered, he was confident that this was all just a product of his own deranged brain. It was all cooked up to show that he’d finally flown over the coo-coos nest and was nuttier than super-dense peanut brittle. If Twilight’s existence wasn’t enough to prove he was totally bonkers then there existed a second, even more inscrutable, figment of his imagination to further the strong case against his sanity. This one was a darker skinned unicorn with wings and her name was Princess Luna, goddess of the moon. He scoffed at the uncreative name and was convinced she was most likely the underhanded leader of some cult that worshipped the moon and other nonsense. Currently she was laughing at him like a giddy schoolgirl with a voice that was both too sweet and flighty to belong to a real regal monarch.
“You know our names?” Luna’s humor melted into incredulity. She realized that Twilight was absolutely right about the spell acting as a two way door. It sounded far too similar to what had happened to her.
Isaac wasn’t sure when he’d spoken aloud, but he set about peeling himself away from Twilight only to stumble a few panicked steps away to open up the distance between him and them. He almost wished they had simply turned out to be more Necromorphs then at least he would know what the proper response should be and that was to strategically dismember all their limbs and stomp the remains into bloody mush. He checked his harness for his weapons and all he found was the empty pulse rifle on his back. All his other weapons from the plasma cutter, to the line gun, and even the contact beam were all MIA. The latter of which would’ve been really useful for blasting these mind parasitic pony illusions into chunky salsa.
"Shit!" Isaac silently cursed.
“You’re not real, none of this is. I’m not really here. It’s just a dream, just a dream.” He chanted to himself hoping that through sheer willpower he could cast them away and return back to reality.
“I know you’re confused right now,” Luna said gently trying to play the diplomat and to reassure him. “I can explain everything, ok, but you have to trust me.” Luna took a few tentative steps closer.
“Leave me alone!” Isaac yelled. Luna jumped in surprise at the sudden outburst and backed away nearly tripping over her hooves in the process.
“You’re just a hallucination and you’re not going to break me, damn it!” Isaac’s hateful words struck Luna right in the heart and she seemed to shrink pitifully under the verbal assault. The princess was saved when Twilight Sparkle interpose herself between her and Isaac.
“Stop!” Twilight commanded, “Where are your manners? That is no way for a gentlecolt to addresses the princess!” Twilight’s face was twisted in anger and positioned less than an inch from his. She was utterly furious with his disrespectful attitude and tone towards Luna. Foul language was an especially pesky pet peeve of hers too and really got her goat whenever she heard it. If he had insisted in talking to Celestia in the same fashion then there was no way Twilight could be held responsible for what would have happened next.
“You’re Isaac Clarke right? Show some respect for royalty! You’re her guest after all.” An unwitting guest, but a guest nonetheless Twilight finished silently.
“Who are you and how do you know my name?” Isaac pressed his faceplate against Twilight’s muzzle to show he meant serious business.
“You should already know my name, the same way I know yours. Through the mirror and when our minds touched each other.” Twilight shoved back, giving a nervous smile in hope that she was right,
“Please calm yourself down and I can explain everything about what’s happened.”
“I only want two explanations. Why am I here and why the fuck am I a horse?” Isaac pushed back even more, his curse eliciting a flare of incense from Twilights eyes. He figured that if he pushed her buttons enough, made her angry, then she’d show her true nature.
“I can explain that too,” Twilight strained to stand her ground under Isaac’s emerging physical superiority, “but we need your help.”
“My help?”
“Do you know what a Marker is?” Twilight asked. Isaac recoiled sharply like she had just physically struck him.
“Maybe I do know what it is,” Isaac said slowly, reflecting a greater degree of caution, “and maybe, this is all just hypothetical talk you understand,” he chuckled, “I might have just killed one and sent it straight to hell where it belongs. Supposing that this is true then what exactly is your business with me, hypothetically?” Isaac wanted to shout in absolute frustration. Just when he had thought he was finally free now he found himself being dragged back into the nightmare.
“
Well, in theory, somepony wants to create another Marker,” Twilight was sweating heavily under the strain to keep Isaac at bay, “and we’d like you to help us to find them and stop it, theoretically speaking of course.” She gave another, more consoling, smile this time hoping that she might win him over. She really wished his helmet was not in the way so she could see his face and maybe glimpse at what he was thinking.
“No.” Isaac replied plainly craning his neck back slightly, breaking contact between the two of them.
“What? But why?” Twilight’s felt hurt.
“Because, damn it, I’ve already served my time I have nothing more to give.”
“I said you need to watch your language!” Whenever he cursed her anger rose exponentially and overrode all logical thought. If he cussed one more time in the presence of the princess then bad things would happen.
“What did I tell you about the foul language, your being rude to the princess.”
“What are you going to do about it you piece of shi..,” Before Isaac could finish there was a pulse of air that passed over him as he felt a massive force impact his chest. His body was easily and forcefully blown back with the power of a sledgehammer, the impact flung him spinning through the air at a dizzying speed. He didn’t go far before crashing into the cavern wall with a humorous flattening crunch.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I..I didn’t mean to do that.” Twilight rushed to Isaac’s side as he slowly slid back down to the ground and caught up in an uncontrollable fit of coughing. She had been angry at ponies before, but never to the point that she would strike at them. So Isaac had a dirty mouth, but that was no excuse for her to lash out in such fury. She was better than that, wanted to believe that she was disciplined enough and in complete control of her emotions and magical talents that this would not happen.
“What was that?” Isaac clutched a hoof to his chest as he gasped for air.
“Sorry,” Twilight repeated as she tried to help Isaac back onto his hooves, “I didn’t mean it. It was an accident!” She would have to do something extra special to make it up to him. Right after she cleaned his mouth out with soap, just as her parents had done to her when she had made a linguistic oopsie. It would not proper to have him speaking in such a fashion amongst her friends or the impressionable foals of ponyville.
“It felt like a force gun hit me.”
“I was just so mad that I kind of, well, punched you with my telekinesis.”
“Good one,” Isaac half congratulated her and half laughed at the absurdity of the fact that he’d just been blown away by a purple unicorn with a kinesis module, “but next time a simple slap to the face would have sufficed.” He tried not to laugh too hard as he was set upon by a fresh wave of coughing.
“Are you ok?” Luna had winced in pure sympathy when she’d seen Isaac taste the full unbridled fury of Twilight’s nerd rage. Luna knew well and good to never drive Twilight over the edge because for as unassuming and bookish as the unicorn appeared she could be a real terror when provoked.
“Oh yeah, good times.” Isaac groaned in agony. Pain certainly had a way to focus one’s mind. Where he had once been set in his personal convictions of what was real and what was not, now he began to doubt himself. He still wanted to believe this was just a fever dream, yet everything was just too vivid for it to be false. It could still be a hallucination although he’d never had one that had been so persistent especially after he had just been back-handed halfway across the room right into a solid wall. All five of his senses told him that this was somehow real. There was the dead weight of the suit on his body, the fresh wave of pain in his back and chest, the salty taste of perspiration in the corners of his mouth, and the smell inside his helmet; which his nose judged him to be in desperate need of a shower.
“Are you real?” Isaac hoped so because it would mean he wasn’t crazy, but he simultaneously also feared it. It would mean that this was not his world and that he was an outcast wandering through an alien landscape. He just wanted to go back home to the life he had once enjoyed and not wallow in a reality where he was a flippin’ talking horse socializing with other talking horses.
“Of course I’m real. Why do you refuse to believe the evidence right in front of you?” Maybe she was being unfair, but Twilight could not comprehend why Isaac persisted in being so stubborn despite the facts.
“I’m getting too old for this.” Isaac steadied himself, this time on all four limbs. “Ok then, enlighten me on where the hell I am and how I got here.”
“Well I, um,” Twilight rubbed her head in embarrassment, “We’re in the mines just under the Everfree forest, just outside my home in the town of Ponyville, located in the kingdom of Equestria. As for why you’re here, you can blame me for that. I sort of pulled you into Equestria by accident.”
“Pulled? I don’t understand. Did you employ the use of a shockpoint gate?” Isaac was dubious at that idea. The ponies didn’t seem advanced enough to posses such technology, but it was the only explanation he could think of. Well apart from magic, but that would just be childish.
“Shockpoint?” Twilight had never heard of such a term before, but it sounded important and served only to increase her inquisitiveness. “Is that what you call magic in your world?”
“Guh, no.” Isaac grunted forlornly. Of course it had to be magic, it was only sensible that if he was going to go insane then he might as well do it properly.
A shockpoint ‘reactor,’ Isaac explained, was the single most powerful piece of technology the Human race had ever created. It was what enabled Human starships to travel to distant star systems in mere seconds instead of years. Isaac had served several tours in the Merchant Marines as a civilian systems engineer helping to protect and repair merchant starships as they transported goods and services in between planetary colonies. While serving he had heard many stories about people disappearing into thin air at the exact moment a starship passed through a shockpoint ‘gate.’ One tall tale alluded to an entire ship never returning once it had entered the gate, but he equated that to a modern retelling of the ‘Flying Dutchman,’ a story which was older than space travel itself.
“Oh, that sounds so exciting!” Twilight clapped her hooves together.
She wanted to know everything about this shockpoint technology and was determined to get Isaac back to the library so she could write down everything he knew about it. The idea pushed her into ecstatic levels of bliss just thinking about all the knowledge and stories she could learn from him, the first of its kind in all of Equestria and she would have exclusive access to it.
Princess Luna had fallen prey to the especially alluring idea of space travel, her face lit up in a smile of optimism at the idea of all ponies, not just the unicorns, being able to travel the star lines and to dance upon the moon alongside her. If such a thing were to become possible then maybe all of ponykind would be able to appreciate all the effort she put into sculpting the night sky and she wouldn’t feel so alone all the time. Isaac said he was an engineer and had worked and lived on such ships before. Luna was dead set on getting him to Canterlot at the first available opportunity so she could learn how to build such wonderful devices herself.
Under the intense hungering glare Isaac felt a cold shiver go down his back. The only time he had ever seen anyone so excited over the idea of space travel was when he was in elementary school back on Earth. The idea of traveling the stars was a child’s dream fated to grow altogether boring and mundane in its regularity. However, seeing the same enthusiastic feelings he had once felt now on display in front of him through the expressions of these ingenuous ponies made him feel an emotion he hadn’t felt in a long time.
He was getting desperate and needed to settle the matter once and for all, he needed to see them with his own eyes. Feeling the underside of his helmet he touched the two emergency release latches. There was a hiss of air as the seal was broken and he lifted it over his head. He looked upon his two companions with his naked eyes and they had to audacity to persist in their refusal to disappear into thin air. He sighed in resignation to the inevitable, dropped his helmet to the ground, and leaned back in reluctant defeat using the cavern wall as his only means of support.
“Story of my life.” He rubbed his eyes. The simple act failed to elicit any discomfort from his injured right eye. He blinked a few times to test it and rubbed it again. Finding that there was no blood or tears he could only conclude that his eye was somehow healed. When had it happened, that was a mystery. He studied his left arm as well and where the wounds on his shoulder and hand had been so grievous before, they were now inconspicuously absent from his person.
When he had removed his helmet Twilight realized that this was her first opportunity to finally see the pony behind the mask. He was a handsome, in a rugged sort of way, colt pony with light grey skin and a mane the color of onyx black and cut very short. Considering the extraordinary circumstances that had brought them together Twilight was feeling somewhat disappointed by his slightly above-average appearance. Now that she thought about it he did appear to be a little on the short side for a colt, standing only a couple of inches taller than her.
‘You should never judge a book by its cover or a pony by his armor.’ Twilight thought silently. After all it was clear he was very intelligent, capable, and well traveled. If he also shared her love of books then that would seal the deal for her.
Such positive feelings only lasted until she took note of his eyes. There were prominent dark circles under them, clear indications of a terrible lack of sleep and disturbance of mind. Yet, these bottomless blue-green pupils reminded her of Luna in a very strong way. The color was different, of course, but they shared a bottomless quality about them that reflected a terrible reality of an individual who had experienced far too much suffering and despair for a single lifetime.
Twilight understood now, the real fact of the matter was that for all of Isaac’s bravado, foul language, and attitude it was, all of it, a simple façade to mask his terror. He was afraid of them and Twilight could not fathom why he should feel so.
The three of them stood in an awkward silence when there emerged a disgusting and sickly choking sound that echoed from deep within the mines. It was faint at first, but quickly gathered volume. It sounded like a pony trying to scream in agony while its lungs were filled with fluid; a repulsive and wretched sound.
“Hello? Is anypony there?” Twilight called out with an edge of concern. There should not be anyone else down her besides the three of them. Had they been followed or was something else living down here?
That single instance of random gurgling babble quickly multiplied into at least a dozen more individuals and still more joined the group after that. In less than a minute the airways were saturated with an oppressive undulating mass of unearthly screams, cries, and moans.
‘You’ve got a job to do and you know what it is.’
Twilight felt the words echo unobstructed in her head at the moment she saw a faint hint of movement emerge from the tunnel.
“Both of you get back!” Isaac barked the order as he positioned himself between them and the tunnel entrance. His fear fell away, taking a backseat behind a mask of grim resolve. Twilight and Luna both strained to see what had spooked Isaac. While he didn’t need to see what was heading their way, the sound alone told him everything. He backpedaled in tune to the dual gasps of horror that escaped from his companions as the first of the creatures emerged into the light. It was something that Isaac had hoped he would never see again. It didn’t matter if it used a human or a pony for a host it was clear that this perverted abomination was what he had come to know as a Necromorph.
Some might have simply called it a zombie, but that was both a poor and inaccurate description, for a necromorph was something far more sinister. It was a reanimated corpse of a deceased creature that had its body twisted and mutilated in ways that spoke of a deliberate redesign and a total disregard for whatever the natural anatomy had once been. The monster that had entered the cavern used to be an Earth-pony, its mane and tail hung in wet clumps of grime matted hair. It stood upright, shuffling uneasily on its hind legs, its hooves stretched out unnaturally into rudimentary ‘feet’ to aid in keeping its balance. Its forelegs, held high over its head, were swinging wicked looking organic scythe blades that had grown out from the pony’s own skeleton being pushed through the hooves. Its torso was savagely ripped open revealing the lower rib cage and all of the entrails in order to allow a smaller pair of grasping arms to push out through the abdominal wall. Its face was no longer in possession of a nose while blood and other fluids dripped from a mouth that was missing the lower jaw.
“In Celestia’s name..!” Twilight was paralyzed in fear, horrified at the visage of the former pony.
What evil magic could make such a ghastly thing? The Marker? Twilight struggled to come to grips with everything that was happening.
If this was truly the work of a Marker then it was no wonder that Luna and Celestia wanted to keep the knowledge of such a thing secret. Everything from the closing of the Canterlot borders, the high levels of secrecy, and the need for a weapon to fight it, all of it made a horrible kind of sense now.
Was this to be the fate of Ponyville and all of Equestria?
Similarly Twilight also felt deep remorse and pity for the unfortunate necropony stumbling towards her. No pony deserved to be shaped and abused this way, it was..it was.. She was utterly speechless, in her vast well of knowledge to draw upon she was at a loss to find the words or measurements adequate to put this fiend into context. Forcing herself to look it straight in the face she found an impression of graphic déjà vu.
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Twilight backed away in horror as these shadow ponies gazed upon her with blood red eyes that held no emotion or soul, only the desire to consume.
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It was the same sensation as before. There was a faint glow of red emanating from necropony’s black lifeless eyes and it looked upon the three of them with the same remorseless desire to consume every living thing it encountered.
The necromorph reared back casting a shrill guttural wail that echoed throughout the mines. Before long more nightmares just like it began to pour into the room from the mines.
Dozens more.
“To the scaffolds! Get out of here now!” Isaac’s desperate warning seemed to snap his companions out of their silent revelry.
Luna spread her wings, took two steps, and hastily launched herself into the air while Twilight and Isaac made for the nearest stairs. Isaac risked a brief detour as he snatched up his helmet using his teeth. By the time they scaled to the first level of catwalks the cylindrical room was nearly full of the monsters. The first necro had begun its own ascension while more of its kin were already on the first level having used the stairs on the other side of the circular room.
“This way!” Luna called from up above them, the light from her horn was the only indicator of her location.
“We’ll use the next tunnel up to make it back to the elevator.” Isaac and Twilight followed Luna’s light and continued to climb up the scaffolding.
They gained precious distance between them and the necros only by virtue that the necro’s malformed feet were not suitable for stairs, but they were still close enough for the red glow in their eyes to be visible.
Up and up the ponies fled, climbing level after level carried upwards through the zig-zaging stairwell. The entirety of the structure was incredibly unstable after countless centuries of neglect and decay. Now uncomfortable amounts of debris, consisting of tendrils of dust and small rocks, were beginning to fall as the structure was being pulled out of its wall supports under the incredible weight of two live ponies and several hundred necromorphs.
Arriving at about the fifteenth level they had reached the ceiling. Sweat poured from their brows and their legs felt like jelly after such an exhaustive climb. Isaac and Twilight met up with Luna as the princess pointed them towards the exit tunnel on the other side. The scaffold continued to wrap itself around the circular walls, but now there was a single catwalk that cut straight through the middle. Twilight imagined that if the marker had still been here then this would take them right through the middle of its twin spires.
The three of them raced down the middle path only to be ambushed by a pair of necros that jumped out of the shadows of the exit. These new creatures looked just their kin from below, except for the single horn that adorned their foreheads which glowed with dark energy. Their lithe decayed bodies shook and thrashed about in violent uncontrollable spasms as if they were gripped in the middle of a terrible epileptic seizure, their faces frozen into a permanent scowls.
The pair of twitching necros charged with unnatural blinding speed. Energy erupted from the horn of one and it blinked out of existence only to instantly reappear after it had teleported itself half down the catwalk between it and the three living ponies.
“I’ll hold them here,” Isaac ordered after he dropped the helmet, “take the other paths and get out of here.” he reached down to pick up a loose metal rod with his teeth. Isaac brandished the improvised weapon, testing it by striking it against the guardrail and feeling satisfied with the solid metal ring. He stood firm before the undead unicorn, ready to do whatever it took to save his campanions.
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Author’s Note: BTW, Isaac Clarke is totally a potential brony. Don’t believe me? Then check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hryvvAH9ol4
I’m sorry for the long wait, but this chapter was really hard to write. From the moment Isaac enters the MLP world to when Twilight hits him with a TK punch was the part that gave me the biggest trouble. I had to go through so many rewrites and edits before I was satisfied that the scene was in character and not rushed or cheesy.
“My Little Pony: FiM” is copyrighted Hasbro and Lauren Faust.
“Dead Space” is copyrighted EA games and Visceral Games. |
Oceansama | 682 | 6 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2011-09-23T08:57:34+00:00 | 2011-09-23T08:57:34+00:00 | 2,545 | Chapter 6: Taste of Blood
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“Isaac,” Twilight cried, “We can’t just leave you here.”
“Dohn’t whorry ahbout me, I do thish all de time,” Isaac replied as best he could with a mouth full of metal.
“Go! I havf thish undur kontroll!”
Brave or not, Isaac was ready for the twitcher which had not hesitated in its murderous rampage. It lunged at him with its blades raised high, seeking his warm flesh to rip and tear at. Standing up on his hind legs, using the railing for support, Isaac swung and delivered a powerful right hook to the monster, rotating his entire torso for maximum damage. The blow connected with the monster’s face with a sickening wet crunch as decayed flesh burst in a shower of gore and a popped eyeball. The creature staggered, head held at an awkward angle, and Isaac followed it with a downwards swing of the metal rod. The twitcher nimbly dodged by shifting away, mere moments before the weapon would liquefy the rest of its head.
Unsure how to better help the former human, Twilight and Luna retraced their steps before splitting up with each taking opposite paths around the scaffolds. Meanwhile both twitchers occupied the central path with Isaac where he was struggling against the first one with the second one blocked by its partner.
“Hold on!” Luna came to a stop against the right wall, “I can flank it from here.” Waves of magical light surrounded her horn as energy was drawn in and forcefully concentrated into a sphere of power. Still weak after her long imprisonment she fought hard to concentrate on drawing in so much magic into a single point no bigger than an apple seed, beads of sweat ran down her forehead.
“Let’s see how well you move after this.” Reaching maximum containment the sphere of magic fired from her horn with a thunderous bass, aim straight and true for the rear necromorph.
The bolt tore through the air, leaving a trail of steam as it super heated the moisture in the atmosphere. The necromorph unicorn seemed to sense the incoming attack as it blinked out of existence before the collision and leaving the projectile detonated against the earthen wall. Solid rock exploded under the impact and left a foal sized crater.
“Where did it go?” Luna desperately checked her surroundings.
Twilight yelped, skidding to a halt, as the creature reappeared in front of her, blocking her escape. Twilight choked in fear as she stared death in straight in the face.
“Help!” Twilight screamed as the twitcher moved in. Quickly she jumped back to avoid being beheaded by a scythe, but wasn’t fast enough. The tip of the blade raked across her left cheek leaving a very deep cut. Her cry of pain was echoed in her hears as she felt the sensation of warm fluid running down her neck. The necromorph shrieked in a cruel laugh as it thrashed and quaked, readying for another strike.
“Twilight, defend yourself!” The princess instructed while she searched for a better firing position. “Use that spell from before.”
“What spell?” Twilight breathed heavily while her heart was beating rapidly against her chest. She was slowly retreated from her attacker, never breaking eye contact with it.
“That kinesis punch you used on Isaac!”
“I can’t! I don’t know how I did it in the first place.”
“Do it Twilight or you could die!” The desperate order had somehow given her the strength to free her near paralyzed limbs and she sidestepped as the twitcher struck the spot she had just been occupying. Its blades had become stuck in the metal grating and it convulsed violently trying to free itself. Twilight had a sudden burst of inspiration as she recalled a portion of the knowledge she had gained from Isaac.
Twilight took advantage of the creature’s weakness and quickly turned around to deliver the mightiest buck she had ever given in her life. Her blow struck one of the creature’s arms and on its side, followed up by a loud snapping of bone as the arm broke away leaving a blade still embedded in the catwalk. The creature collapsed against the railing, but was quickly rising. With telekinesis she extracted the severed blade from the grating with a powerful pull to the tune of bone scraping against metal. She aimed the improvised weapon at the twitcher’s heart. Yet Twilight hesitated, terribly unsure of the act she was about to commit. She had never killed before not in self-defense or out of a need to protect others, another reason why she was Celestia’s favorite student. She could find solutions without a need for fighting.
The abomination leaped into the air, its murderous intents clear. Without thinking Twilight had unleaded a blast of telekinesis, punching the weapon forward in a similar fashion as she’d done to Isaac. The organic blade was propelled at lethal velocity and impacted the twitcher in the chest with a sadistic result. Blood and gore gushed from the impact area, splattering Twilight in an oily black fluid, as the abomination flew back in a spiral clear across the room before being impaled upside down onto the wall.
“I’m so sorry.” Twilight wept in pity for the former pony. Yet even having struck a blow that would’ve killed any normal pony, the creature was still moving and teleported itself back onto the catwalk. Twilight stared agape while the creature regarded the object in its chest, as if in a moment of confusion, before it uttered a cry of mindless anger before continuing the offensive.
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Isaac was slowly losing ground as the necromorph unleashed a flurry of blows, swinging with wild abandon. He expertly defended himself, using the metal rod as a means of parrying the strikes away. He heard Luna say something, but was unable to respond back. He noticed the rear twitcher suddenly disappear and then there was a bright flash of light as an energy projectile flew over the rails. The unexpected light wrecked havoc on his night-vision and he was momentarily blinded.
“Crap!” he cursed as the rod was knocked from his grasp and vanished.
In a desperate move he readied another punch at where he thought the creature was. The twitcher had anticipated the move and brought its blades in for defense and the punch landed harmlessly against the its blades and left Isaac vulnerable. It barrled forward and knocked him down the ground before bringing its scythes down for a killing strike to his neck. Isaac’s experience told him what to expect and he flaying his arms out hitting the dull side of the scythes, redirecting the blades to land harmlessly to either side of his head. Pulling in his legs he kicked the twitcher square in the exposed solar plexus, knocking it onto its back.
“I have had enough of you!” Isaac, half crazed from fury, pounced on the downed creature trampling, striking, and stomping. His legs had become covered in black blood as hoof pulverized bone and destroyed sinew. The monster cried in pain, but Isaac was far beyond remorse. The only thing he saw or felt was the need to break and destroy as he viciously crushed the necromorph, sending up a shower of fluids and bits. He never stopped until the twitcher was a bloodied pulpy mess, a waterfall of viscera falling from the catwalk.
“Die! Die! DIE!”
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By this time the flood of necromorphs had reached the top level, a surging mass of knives and hunger. Twilight knew there was only one way out and it was through the twitcher before her. Desperation overrode fear as she gritted her teeth and charged forward, horn aglow with magic. Like cracks of thunder pony and necro hooves galloped against the metal grates as Twilight charging forward towards a final confrontation. The necromorph readied for the killing blow and Twilight held out her horn ready to run her opponent through. The two of them continued their suicide charge, but it was the twitcher who was faster and had better reach. Feeling victory was at hand it swung its arms and found only empty air. It stopped and grunted in confusion, unable to understand how it lost its prey.
“You’re not the only unicorn that can teleport.” Twilight had thought as she reappeared behind the twitcher and ran away. She didn’t have to look behind her to know the twitcher had already about-faced and was after her again. It still proved faster than her and it was only a matter of time before it caught her. Twilight saw a burst of movement in front of her and looked up to see that Luna had already landed on the platform in front of her. The princess was already ready with another sphere of raw concentrated energy.
“Duck!” Luna barked shooting a bolt of power twice as big as her first.
Twilight did as she was told and felt the burning heat of the bullet as it passed overhead. This time the twitcher failed to dodge and was ripped apart as the magic exploded in a shower of blue sparks. The many smoking pieces sailed into the air before disappearing down into the pit. The way was now clear and Twilight searched to discover Isaac’s fate.
“We have to get out of here.” Twilight called, but unsure if he had heard her.
He stood over the remains of his work, eyes cast to the ground, and body trembling. He seemed to be mumbling something to himself.
“Isaac! We have to escape, NOW!” She called, louder this time. He looked up with an unreadable expression that quickly changed into urgency as he was pulled back from the brink of whatever dark place he had just been. Picking up his helmet he galloped to catch up.
Twilight and Luna had sojourned at the exit as Isaac made his way to them, the flood of necromorphs close behind. Suddenly and without warning the metal structure gave off a loud deep groan as the structure suddenly lurched perilously to the side. The sheer weight of so many bodies had finally overwhelmed the ancient structure. Bolts, screws, and thick wires snapped with loud metallic pings sending metallic shards flying like bullets and wires arcing like whips as the structure broke free from the walls. Isaac grabbed onto a rail post as the structure dipped backwards coming to crash at a dangerously low angle as the fatigued metal buckled and warped, a total collapse imminent.
Numerous necromorphs fell or were crushed, but still they still kept coming. The violent movements of the scaffold had little to no effect at slowing down the movement of hundreds and hundreds of necromorphs. The enclosed room was saturated with the vociferous cry of countless strangled voices as they continued get closer and closer, uncaring of the danger that they were in. If they couldn’t walk they crawled, pulling themselves along with their blades, hungry eyes never breaking sight of their quarry.
When the structure fell Luna was fortunate to be able fly. However, Twilight had lost her balance and fell, sliding down the walkway towards Isaac and the monsters. Without hesitation Luna had launched herself after her friend, knowing she had to catch Twilight before it was too late. Unable to arrest her fall Twilight screamed in terror and then in pain as her arm crashed against one of the rail posts causing her to spin out of control. Her protests were cut short as her head struck against another pole with a snap, the impact leaving her disoriented and lethargic.
“I got you.” Isaac reached out as Twilight slid past, catching her arm with his. His strength was waning but he pulled her up close trying his best to shake her out of her dazed state while simultaneously holding onto the railing for dear life, the necros only mere feet away.
“Hey, can you hear me? Come on, snap out of it. We need to climb our way out.” There was no way he could carry her out in time by himself, the necromorphs would surly catch them.
“You can do that right?” Isaac encouraged and Twilight felt her bafflement start to fade as she listened to his voice.
“Ok.” She said neutrally, but her eyes were still glazed over. He feared that she might be suffering from a concussion caused from the blow, or perhaps something worse. There was just no telling with severe head trauma.
“No need for climbing,” Luna said as she reached them and held out her forelegs, “leave Twilight to me. I can fly her up and come back for you.” Isaac gladly handed Twilight over to Luna’s care.
“Don’t worry about me.” He said as he began his climb, using the rail posts as a ladder. “She’s hurt and you need to get her out of here. I’ll catch up.”
“I,….Are you sure?”
“I told you I’ve done this before, remember.” He gave her a confident smile.
“I understand, but you better not die.” With no more time to argue the point Luna carried Twilight out of harm’s way, but swore that she’d return to get Isaac soon. She wasn’t ready to leave anypony behind.
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Reaching the safety of the top tunnel, Luna carefully laid Twilight down upon the rocky earth. The purple unicorn did not respond and was completely still, her pupils fully dilated and staring at nothing. Luna now also noticed that her forearms and chest were smeared in blood.
“Twilight?” Luna felt the pit of her stomach fall out as she gently tapped the unicorn trying to elicit a response of some sort. Luna was not doctor and when she examined the wound to the unicorn’s head she could not find the words to describe how terrible it was. What she saw looked bad, really bad, there was blood everywhere and already forming a puddle on the ground. Dismissing the mess Luna put her ear to Twilight’s chest and listened closely with hope fading.
There was no breathing, no heartbeat.
Twilight Sparkle was dead.
“No! Stay with me Twilight. You can’t die, not here, not like this. It’s all my fault!” Luna cried out in despair, tears falling unchecked.
“This isn’t good. What can I do now?” At no point had Luna ever hated herself more than she did now. She was an immortal goddess, the second ruler over all Equestria, and responsible for the rising and setting of the moon itself, and yet completely helpless to save a single pony’s life. Any healing knowledge she once had was a thousand years out of practice.
“Please, Twilight, wake up. I didn’t mean for this to happen, please forgive me.”
I forgive you Luna.
“Twilight?” Luna had heard her voice, but her body remained motionless.
But there are more important things to do, Luna. You have to stop them.
“No….no, no, no!” Luna stood over Twilight as if to protect her from some unseen force. “Don’t you dare take her away you damned cursed rock!” Luna shouted into the darkness, shaking with rage. “She’s too young. None of this is her fault it’s my fault and my responsibility. If you want to take somepony, then it should’ve been me!”
Only the cries of the dead answered her plea. Luna forced herself to take several deep breaths to try and calm down; panicking would not help either of them.
“Focus Luna,” the princess reassured herself, “alright, I have an idea. I just hope it works.” She lowered herself to lay next to the still warm body of her friend.
“Hold on Twilight. I can save you, though I feel this will hurt me more than it does you.” Luna touched her horn to the wound on Twilight’s head. She closed her eyes while once again concentrating her magical energy into a single focused point. Currents of magical energy flowed all around her in a wild vortex of unrestrained power. Before her magic had always glowed with an inviting blue radiance now it was a lethal destructive red. She could now hear the voices in her head, whispers that turned into pleading cries. Luna could still clearly hear Twilight’s amongst the vast chorus, still loud and strong. Twilight was telling her to stop what she was doing, that this was a terrible mistake she was committing.
“Come back Twilight, you’re friends would miss you if you left now.” Luna coaxed gently. Luna’s eyes opened burning with an overwhelming fire, like twin suns trapped inside immaculate polished rubies. “I give of myself, to replenish you. Together we can embrace the infinite!”
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“Come on, you necromorph bastards! Let me see you work for your meal!” Isaac taunted the undead horde while kicking at a necro that had gotten too close, sending the insane creature falling into the pit and taking several of its kin with it.
“Yeah, fuck you!” Isaac frantically climbed. He was like a bat out of hell with necromorphs constantly nipping at his heels. The top was only a dozen more rungs away from his position; he was going to make it.
Abruptly a brilliant crimson light illumined the space above him. He instinctively looked away to protect his eyes while he could feel sudden and intense vibrations travel through the air and in the ground. Isaac feared that the quakes would cause the scaffold to crumble taking him with it. A few seconds later the light and vibrations ceased just as quickly as they had arrived. Something about the light gave him a feeling of sinister purpose and he redoubled his efforts to reach the top not sure what he’d find.
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“Wha….What happened?” Twilight coughed, her whole body felt cold and numb. Even the modest blue glow of Luna’s horn seemed blinding to her. Out of reflex Twilight rubbed the spot where he’d hit her head, relieved to find no sign of injury, but it really hurt.
“Uh, Luna?” Twilight felt awkward when Luna suddenly Luna embraced her closely, not sure what had done to deserve it.
“It’s ok Twilight, you just blacked out for a moment when you hit your head, but you’ll be ok.” Luna said wiping the tears from her eyes.
“You should thank Isaac, if he hadn’t caught you at the last moment….”
“Yeah, speaking of that guy, a little help here.”
The two mares turned to find Isaac struggling to lift himself over the side of the pit. Luna separated from their embraced to help the gruff colt. After they parted Twilight realized she could taste blood in her mouth and also felt nauseous, bile rising in her throat. She stepped away hoping the others didn’t notice as she spit it out. That’s when she noticed the pool of blood and something told her it was her own.
“Are you alright?” Luna examined him and apart from the splatter covering his armor she didn’t see any injuries
.
“Yeah, thanks, but we’re not out of danger yet. There’s a whole lot of necromorphs behind us and they’re really angry. You said there was a way out of here?”
“Yes, just down this tunnel. Follow me.” Luna led while the others followed and the trio galloped with all their might. The scaffolding had given up the fight and at long last had collapsed, the sounds of destruction echoing all around them. but there was no telling how many necromorphs might have made into the tunnel. They didn’t bother to check behind them because they could see the elevator shaft in front.
Monsters behind them had become the least of their worries. One moment the tunnel was clear and in the next swarms of necromorphs jumped to life and descended upon them from all sides. The tunnel wall itself was alive, crawling with countless numbers of slashers, twitchers, and a lot of new strains that they’d never seen before. They blocked the exit and encircled the ponies.
“We’re all going to die down here!”
“We’re not going to die!”
“Look out, they’re all around us!”
The three of them were back to back ready and willing to fight until the very bitter end. They were hopelessly surrounded, outnumbered, and had an impossible chance at escape, but they would kill as many of these abominations as they could before they died. It would all be over any second now. Then seconds turned to minutes as they continued to wait in anticipation for an attack that never seemed to come. The necromorphs had halted in their tracks, standing still, not uttering a sound.
“Why are they just standing there?” Twilight whispered, feeling as if time itself had stopped. Somewhere in the darkness they heard the sound of a body hitting the cave floor. It was followed by the sound of another body collapsing, then another, and then multiple bodies at once. Soon, without warning or explanation, every single necromorph collapsed, like puppets with their strings cut.
Every single one.
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As the elevator safely carried them out and upwards Twilight, Luna, and Isaac all lay upon the platform gasping for air and completely exhausted. Not a word was said while everyone sat in complete silence, except for the occasion whooshing sound of a passing floor. After awhile a light snoring could be heard coming from Isaac as he had fallen asleep perched against the elevator side.
“How can he sleep now?” Luna was incredulous at the sight and especially so soon after their narrow escape. Her heart was still thumping at an incredible rate. “I thought Pinky Pie was the only pony who could so casually dismiss a nightmare like this.”
“No that’s not it,” Twilight shook her head, a small smile on her lips, “but I think we should let him rest for now. He’s had a tough day.”
“He’s not the only one.” Luna complained, “We could have died back there.”
Twilight’s smile faded as she suddenly found an interest in studying her hooves. She saw the caked blood on her legs and chest, a mixture of red and black. Some of it was hers and some belonged to that creature she had attempted to destroy. Intellectually she knew that there had existed no other choice but to do what she did. That there was no possible way to reason with the creature, still it was hard to accept that such appalling measures had to be taken on her behalf.
“Luna,” Twilight quietly spoke, “those things, is it, are they….Is that the future of Equestria.” She casually scrapped some of the filth off her skin.
“Possibly,” Luna confirmed solemnly, “only if we can’t stop the Marker before it’s built.” She kicked a pebble about absentmindedly. “I think you now understand why big sis and I wanted to keep this quiet. We didn’t want ponies to know how fragile the world was. We just wanted them to continue being happy and not fearful for the future. I especially wanted to atone for my sins and, well, I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”
“What you said before, about me hitting my head, did I, um,” Twilight dreaded asking. A part of her already knew the answer but she need to ask, she needed the closure.
“I felt it when it happened, something pulled me away. I fought it but I couldn’t resist. I was dead. I,...I died didn’t I?”
“Yes,” Luna knew it was a fool’s hope to believe she could hide it from Twilight. The bookworm unicorn was too smart, too observant, to be deceived.
“You brought me back?” Luna nodded. “Well, I suppose that makes us even now.” Twilight glanced at the princess as another reluctant smile lit her face. She was truly grateful to be alive and wanted to find a way to properly thank the princess.
“I didn’t want it to let you go because of my mistake. None of this would have happened if those things hadn’t come back to life.”
“Did you know they were there?”
“No, I was honestly more surprised than you were. You see, Necromorphs can only live while in the presence of a Marker signal. But there is no Marker here, not anymore. Celestia and I saw to that personally. Afterwards we buried the bodies here so that they would no longer be able to come back, but they did anyway and I don’t understand how it could have happened.”
“Maybe it happened when I carried Isaac to Equestria.” Twilight hypothesized, her curiosity perked. “Yes, that might be it. I thought what I saw in that shadow realm was just my mind creating an internalized physical representation, but it could’ve been real. If so then maybe there exists another Marker in this third realm and its signal was able to spill over and bring the necromorphs back to life, temporarily. I think we’ve stumbled upon to something big here. There exist other worlds beyond Equestria and even worlds inside those worlds. I’d love to try and study them all.”
Despite herself, Luna giggled as Twilight proceeded to geek out. It was a welcomed change from the earlier somber atmosphere.
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Between the two of them they were able to carry Isaac’s comatose body back to the teleportation plate. Luna keyed the spell and in a brief, but intense, moment they found themselves back in the central Sanctuary chamber. Luna peeked outside a nearby window and noticed just a faint glimmer of sunlight ready to rise above the mountains.
“Drat, it’s almost time for the sun to rise and I have to get back to Canterlot before then.”
“Can we make it back to Ponyville in time?” Isaac was on her back and he was heavier than he looked. Twilight could carry him but not all the way back to the library by herself.
“No, I’m afraid you’ll have to take him yourself, there just isn’t enough time left.” Luna apologized and lifted herself to the window prepared to jump out and take to the air.
“Hey guys, whatcha doin’?” Both Luna and Twilight jumped ten feet into the air in abrupt surprise at the sudden intrusion of a sweet and carefree voice.
“Pinky Pie? What in the wide, wide world of Equestria are you doing here, and Spike too?”
“We should be asking both of you that question.” Spike ran up to Twilight eyeing the wound on her cheek critically with a mixture of horror and concern. “Geez, Twilight you look horrible! Is that blood and your face is cut, what happened?”
“Oh, I’m fine and this,” Twilight gingerly felt the laceration on her cheek, “it’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Are you kidding? The three of you are covered in more red than Big Macintosh,” Pinky stood inches from the violet unicorn’s face, her eyes bugging out in alarm, “and you want us to think there is nothing to it?” Pinky was absolutely livid, “Why are you with Princess Luna and who is the new guy? I can’t throw him a welcoming party with you looking all sticky-icky. Why were you in the Everfree forest without telling me? What is your favorite color? What is pi to the thousandth place, what is the capital of Assyria, what is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?” Pinky squeaked at a rapid fire pace, so many questions to answer and so little time.
“All right, all right!” Twilight relented under the party pony’s assault. “I’ll tell you everything if you help me carry him,” she pointed at Isaac, “back to the library without anypony noticing. Ok?”
“Twilight!” Luna gave a warning shout. They had to keep this operation a secret and she shouldn’t just talk about it to anypony.
“I’m sorry princess Luna,” Twilight sighed knowing that the battle was already lost before it had begun, “But I’ve learned that it’s dangerous to keep secrets from Pinky Pie and Spike is my most trusted assistant, I’d be lost without him.” Both Pinky and Spike beamed with pride at Twilight’s compliments. “The truth is; I need their help. They are my friends after all and shouldn’t a threat this big require the attention of all the Elements of Harmony?”
“Your right Twilight,” Luna returned to the window, “You do know best. Before I go I just want to say it’s been a pleasure fighting at your side. I’ll return later tonight and we can discuss our next course of action. Until then,” Luna, in turn, looked at all the ponies gathered in the room, “keep our new friend safe. He just might be the key to our survival.”
With those parting words, Luna launched herself from the Santuary window and carried herself high in the sky towards Canterlot.
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Author’s Note: Sorry for the short chapter, but I got too ambitious with the size of the next chapter so I had to break it down into smaller chunks. Besides, you all have been waiting so patiently I didn’t want you to think I’d abandoned the story. On a positive note, updates should be a little more frequent as the next couple of chapters are already partially completed.
“My Little Pony: FiM” is copyrighted Hasbro and Lauren Faust.
“Dead Space” is copyrighted EA games and Visceral Games. |
Oceansama | 682 | 7 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-01-25T22:30:21+00:00 | 2012-01-25T22:30:21+00:00 | 1,958 | Chapter 7: Secrets and Lies
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The trip back to Ponyville passed in silence as the two mares carried the armored interloper. Time was of the essence as the sun was quickly rising, so they had run the entire way back as Spike struggled to keep up on his stubby little legs. By the time they reached Twilight’s house they were all panting and sweating heavily. Thankfully, the trip ended without further incident as most of the residents of the town were either fast asleep in their homes or still in attendance of the Summer Sun Celebration’s final climatic event; allowing Twilight and her friends to sneak into the library without rising undue suspicion or unwelcomed questioning.
Absconding into her home, Twilight took to the bathroom to clean the blood off of her. Meanwhile, Pinky Pie was tasked with using the water hose in the backyard to wash up Isaac as well as herself and she was having far too much fun doing it. Lacking any sense of urgency, Pinky spent more time chasing Spike with the hose than doing the cleaning. The poor dragon complained helplessly under the watery assault and Pinky’s endless giggling.
No pony was sure how to remove Isaac’s advanced suit so she had to settle on washing the gore off the suit while he was still wearing it. He was so worn out that the cold water failed to stir him out of his slumber. The party pony followed up with a quick Super Pinky Pie towel drying and buffeting before carrying him up to the guest room, armor practically shining in the morning sun. However, the suit didn’t look particularly comfortable to sleep in, so she made sure to gather a bunch of pillows, placing them around him for his own comfort. When she’d finished, Isaac had disappeared under a pile of white fluffy squares.
Twilight was in the lobby now being tended by a sopping wet Spike who had retrieved a first aid kit. The little dragon cleaned out her wounds and started applying bandages, along the way pointing out more lacerations on Twilight’s back and sides. He had had also found several pieces of shrapnel embedded in her skin. None of it was very serious, but it was uncomfortable for the unicorn while Spike set about his business of plucking metal shards and applying peroxide, which burned as it cleansed. To distract herself from the pain, she entertained herself by studying the helmet from Isaac’s suit.
Using telekinesis she held the helmet up and slowly rotated it while observing every little detail she could see and sense with her eyes and magic. Her scientist sensibilities were on fire as she studied the complex piece of alien technology. The front of the helmet had three visor openings, the middle one ran across the center of the user’s eyes, and a faceplate that protected the nose and mouth and reminded her very much of a surgeon’s mask, only more intimidating.
She also marveled at the realization that although the helmet looked like a single solid object it was actually composed of forty-two separate components that slid and interlocked into each other with deft machine precision. Furthermore, although she was no metalworker, she could also sense that the synthetic material alloy was far beyond anything the blacksmiths or magicsmiths in Ponyville, or maybe even all the smiths in Equestria, could hope to duplicate. She didn’t know much about humans, but their level technology and science simply blew her away.
“La, la, La, la, La,” a dry Pinky happily sang as she meandered into the room, “hey, Doctor Spike, how’s the patient?”
“OW!” Twilight jumped and dropped the helmet, “Spike! Be more careful.”
“I can’t do this if you keep moving. You need to stay still.” Spike argued while using a pair of tweezers to removing another sliver of metal from Twilight’s side and placed the offending material on the table.
“I still say you should see Nurse Redheart later, just in case.”
“I’ll be fine and besides that would just lead to all sorts of questions I don’t want to answer right now. Speaking of which, I’d still like to know how the two of you find me in the Everfree Forest.”
“Duh,” Pinky hooped like a spring to take her place by Twilight. “Pinky Pie sense, that’s how.” Pinky’s ears flopped about while Twilight just sighed and rested her head on the table.
“Of course.” She wondered when she’d ever learn to remember the pink pony’s uncanny ability to somehow foretell random future events.
“It was the oddest thing.” Pinky took on a suspenseful and bewildered tone, “First I got another hum-dinger of a doozie followed by my knee being pinchy, warning me of something scary. Then I felt a new combo telling me of things I’ve never felt before.”
“What sort of combo?” Twilight groaned in defeat while Pinky tried to demonstrate.
“Like a cold flash in my legs and a feeling of walking on pins and needles.” Pinky’s legs shivered and then she pranced about like she was walking on broken glass.
“Maybe your hooves just fell asleep.” Twilight modestly suggested.
“I was standing the whole time, Twilight. Actually I was dancing, and prancing, and movin’ to the grovin', and just when it hit me I was doing all the stuff you’re supposed to do at a party, but there was definitely standing involved.”
“Uh, yeah I guess that is pretty strange.” Twilight felt another prick, “Ow! Spike!”
“Less moving, more stilling.” the dragon protested while applying another bandage, “There, done.”
“Thank you, Spike.” Twilight said, grateful to have that ordeal out of the way.
“I also heard voices.” Pinky continued breathily, drawing Twilight’s curiosity.
“Voices?”
“Yeah,” the pink pony was pacing now, she seemed unusually disturbed, “normally I just sense that danger is coming and sometimes from where, but this time I heard creepy voices telling me to go to the Everfree Forest and saying you were in terrible danger.”
“You too Pinky? I’ve been hearing them too.” Twilight had thought she was the only one; it was nice to hear the contrary, yet at the same time she was growing more concerned. There was something else that played at the edges of her senses, beyond the voices, and she’d noticed it ever since coming back to the library. Where it had once been warm and inviting place of learning, it had grown cold and threatening. It had affected her friends too; Spike was still the same funny (but dependable) companion he’d always been and Pinky was still Pinky. Now they seemed….dull, as if their color had become muted slightly, less vibrant.
“For real? Really, really?” Pinky danced with relief.
“Yes,” now it was Twilight’s turn to pace, “I started hearing them at the Mayor’s Office when we talked about the stolen treasure. At first it was disjointed and hard to make out, but then I could hear full sentences. One sang me verses from ‘Twinkle Little Star,’ and another said I had a job to do and that I’d know what it was. I don’t know what any of it means, but it must have something to do with the Marker.”
“Sheesh, listen to yourselves,” Spike interrupted heatedly, “I’m very worried about the two of you; hearing voices, songs, warnings of danger, and all involving some sort of book about an ancient artifact of doom and destruction. I can believe in ghosts and zombies and Pinky’s twitchy tail, but this is just too farfetched to be true.” Twilight stomped a hoof in indignation.
“But Spike, it happens to be - um… possibly true.”
“Speaking of truth,” the dragon continued to assert himself, “didn’t you say you were leaving the Summer Sun Celebration early because Celestia wasn’t coming and you wanted to study instead? Then, lo and behold, Pinky and I find you in Everfree with Princess Luna, no less. What about the pony in the armor, though it’s very cool looking armor, but where did you pick him up and what does he have to do with anything?”
“Yeah, lying to your friends isn’t nice Twi.” Pinky gave the unicorn a narrow-eyed accusing glare.
“Hey! How did I become the bad pony here? I didn’t lie, I really was coming here to read. I didn’t know Princess Luna would be waiting for me. She said she needed a friend for the night and one thing led to another….”
“Twilight, you didn’t? In the forest… all three of you?” Pinky was absolutely mortified, “And I thought Dashy was the daring one!”
“No Pinky, not like that.” Twilight could not believe she had gotten herself into this mess. “We were actually; well, it’s complicated.”
“We’ve got time to spare,” Spike crossed his arms, “and I’d rather hear it from you before Celestia announces the wedding is tomorrow.”
“Uugh, you two are incorrigible.” Twilight shouted in frustration and a stomp of a hoof. Why couldn’t they understand that the situation was serious? She wished they would just shelve the jokes for just a little while.
“Thanks.” The mischievous pair said in unison, proud of their work.
“Look,” Twilight tried to regain a small ounce of control over the conversation, “it’s been a long day. I’ll tell you everything, but you have to promise me you’ll keep it a secret.”
“I promise.” Pinky get serious right away, raising her left hoof. Twilight gave her a dubious glare.
“Super Pinky promise?”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” The magenta mare happily animated the rhyme. Nodding in satisfaction Twilight turned to her little assistant.
“What about you, Spike?”
“Y’know Pinky is the expert at keeping secrets and I’m not half bad myself.” Spike stated only the facts. “What about you, Twilight? I’m still a little miffed at you for spilling the gems about my secret crush on Rarity.”
“But everypony already knew about that.” Twilight couldn’t believe he was still hung up on that incident, it had happened months ago. In fact, it was amazing that Rarity still had not picked up on it. Spike may be mad at her slight slip of the tongue, but it wasn’t as if he was being any less subtle about it.
“Point is that you’re not very good at keeping secrets, Twilight.”
“Absolutely terrible!” Pinky chimed to the bookworm’s absolute annoyance.
“Point taken,” Twilight grumbled, “but leave me to worry about that, it is my secret after all. So do you promise?” Spike begrudgingly nodded, still unaware of the reality he was being swept up in.
“Alright, I promise.”
“Spiiiike.”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, yadda yadda yadda I’m a dragon guy.”
“Good enough for me.” Truthfully, Twilight already trusted both Pinky and Spike with her life and would’ve told them anyway since they had caught her red hoofed and red faced, literally. It had made her feel a lot better to hear them voice aloud their commitment to secrecy, so with a heavy heart she began to tell them about everything that had transpired that night. From Luna’s arrival, to Isaac, and the fight with the necromorphs. However, she decided it would be best to leave out the part where she died.
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“Ugh,” Dash groaned, having failed to muster the strength to further elaborate on her feelings. For the second time in as many days she found herself waking up in a strange place, head filled with fluff, and a mouth like a parched desert. All during the Summer Celebration she had vented her frustrations over several salt-licks as well as a couple jugs of the ‘special’ apple cider. It was a powerful combination of vices and had left her stumbling around Canterlot in a dehydrated stupor, making an absolute foal of herself. She couldn’t remember much about what had happened but there was a vague - very vague - memory about a hijacked desserts cart and her dive bombing ponies with frosted treats.
There was also something about an eggbeater, a safety cone, and her initials carved into the royal flower garden and also something about falling asleep in a very exposed, very embarrassing, position atop a statue of Celestia.
Dash could still feel the hoof-prints where Macintosh had been forced to hold her down while Zecora made her to drink a large container of water while under the supervision of several guards to make sure she didn’t cause further mischief. In the end, Mac and Zecora had used some of the money they’d earned gambling to rent a room for all of them. An act which Rainbow Dash was eternally grateful for, and decided she would have to make up to them sometime. It certainly beat going back to the Canterlot dungeon again.
Dash slowly examined the hotel room and quickly lost interest when she saw it looked absolutely average in every way, nothing but the bare necessities. Zecora was asleep on the second bed, while Big Mac snoozed on the floor like some great red beast. At least they’d been kind enough to let her use one of the beds, although it felt like a slab of stone; cold, hard, and relentless. Still, she wasn’t going to complain about it. Nope, no complaining to be heard here, that was for sure.
“Freakin’ penny-pinching traitors.” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.
A slow and firm knocking announced an arrival at the door. Dash took refuge under the pillow as the sound seemed to explode in her ears like a bomb.
“Mmmph, go away.” Dash pressed the pillow tighter around her head. The knocking came a second time, a little more rapt and impatient. She continued in a desperate attempt to ignore it, hiding under her blanket this time, but to no avail. The perpetrator was attacking the door with a strong pounding force that vibrated throughout the whole room.
“All right, all right,” Dash broadcasted her surrender, “hold your horses, I’m coming.” She then tumbled unceremoniously out of her bed, having become hopelessly entangled by the white sheets while she’d slept. As she fought in a life or death struggle against her linen foe, Big Macintosh stood up and cracked his neck a couple times before nonchalantly passing her by to greet their unknown guest.
“Howdy.” He greeted warmly while Dash was a whirling of color as she rolled her way to the door and crashed into the wall.
“What do YOU want?” She blurted when she saw the neutral and unfriendly face of another palace guard Pegasus. Dash often wondered how it was possible to tell one guard from another since they all looked the same in that golden centurion armor. She didn’t dwell on it long having seen enough of them already to last a lifetime. This one, however, sported a pair of messenger bags which clearly marked him as a courier of a sort.
“Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh, I presume.” The guard gave Big Mac a critical once-over, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge the red stallion.
“Who wants to know, chump?” Rainbow Dash challenged as the guard reached into a leg pouch to retrieve a scroll which he dismissively tossed at Dash, smacking her on the forehead, and regarded the colorful Pegasus as something offensive he had just scrapped off the bottom of his hoof.
“Her royal highness, ‘Princess’ Luna, is requesting the presence of one Rainbow Dash and one Big Macintosh in the council chambers at your earliest convenience.” The guard said with a slight air of antipathy. “I suggest you make haste right away.”
“What does Princess Luna want with us?” While Dash had never hid her distrust of the former Nightmare Moon, the way the guard had spit on Luna’s royal title made Dash’s blood boil. There was something about the guards nowadays that was eating at her nerves far too easily. They seemed to be getting meaner and more aggressive lately.
“It’s not my job to know, just to deliver the message.” The guard’s job completed he departed with nary a concern and glad to be done with it.
“Hostility towards Luna fills the ponies of this city, we should regard such mislead souls with great pity.” Zecora said, as she joined them.
“Eeyup.” Big Mac agreed.
“It just shocks me how shallow some ponies can be.” Dash wanted to give the braggart guard a piece of her mind and shove it right up his….
“I seem to recall a not too distant time, when your regard for me was less than prime.” Zecora interrupted.
“I know and I’ve said I’m sorry already, but this is different.” Dash opened the scroll to change the subject. Breaking the seal and spreading the rolled parchment she began to read the message. It wasn’t too long before her mouth creaked into a reluctant grin before reaching a fully formed smile.
“Whats gott’n you smilin’ bright’r than sunlight offa ripe apple’s skin?” Big Macintosh asked trying to read over Dash’s head. It was unnecessary as Dash was more than happy to read aloud the contents of the message.
“Dear Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh,
I know you have no reason to trust me given my sordid history, but I would like to extend to you both an olive branch of friendship. I have recently had the pleasure of speaking to your friend Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville and she asked me to grant the two of you permission to leave Canterlot in light of the recent lockdown. I want to show that there are no hard feelings between us and that I am eternally grateful to all the ponies who aided in freeing me from Nightmare Moon’s influence, as well as their friends and family. Therefore, I see it only fitting to grant Twilight’s request and I wish that the two of you will join me in the council chambers as soon as you can so that I might allow you safe passage back to home.
With all my thanks,
Princess Luna.”
“Do you hear that?” Rainbow Dash proclaimed in excitement, “We’re finally going to get out of here.”
“The two of you might find salvation, but will I be stuck in isolation?” Zecora asked sadly.
“No, of course not!” Dash answered with confidence, “Luna said friends and family were included, and since you are one of my friends I'll convince her to help you too!”
“Grateful I would be, to leave the city free, the herbs I buy spoil fast you see.” The zebra strapped on her saddlebags, eager to leave right away.
“I’m just grateful for the chance to make it up to you.” Dash placed a hoof on Zecora’s shoulder, “It was wrong of me to think you were a soul stealing witch who could cast curses on ponies, but hey, no pony's perfect”
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The trio of mare, stallion, and zebra departed the quaint little hotel and began their trek to the Canterlot Castle, a good hour’s trot from the residential quarter. Celestia’s sun infused the city with blanket of vitality that warmed and energized all the citizens. Despite the night’s long and exhaustive festival, most ponies were already awake and attending their jobs. Even Dash could feel her hangover quickly fading under the sun’s warmth.
Workers were cleaning the streets and depositing various articles of trash and discarded scraps of food into large dust bin carts, while shop keepers and merchants were busy carousing, purchasing, and moving supplies to restock their own shelves. Conspicuously absent were all the noble ponies, all the lords and ladies with positions in government had stayed in for some extra shuteye.
A mostly normal day in Canterlot; however, the presence of so many guards at almost every street corner, reminded everyone that the city was still locked down due to the unfortunate theft yesterday. It filled the city with an undercurrent of nervousness and mistrust and it showed on every single face. Yet everyone remained civil and seemed to be handling the situation surprisingly well, but there was no telling how long it would last if a solution didn’t present itself soon.
As the trio traveled down through the crowded streets their journey happened to take them past the Canterlot Central Post Office. It was a massive structure that put its counterpart in Ponyville to abject shame. The polished marble building was over two dozen floors high, with each floor dedicated to the sorting and distribution of the mail to a different providence of Equestria. A landing platform extended from each level to support the hundreds of mail Pegasus ponies that would arrive and depart to and from all four corners of Equestria.
On this day, however, the post office saw less than a trickle of its normal activity. Mail bags and packages were piled high outside the office doors and were growing by the second. Dash would not have taken notice of this special situation if it was not for her spotting a fellow resident of Ponyville, and one of her dearest friends, emerging from the building.
Ditzy Doo was the best mail pony in all Equestria, who sometimes went by the nickname ‘Derpy Hooves’ despite her hooves not being her most significant feature. The grey Pegasus mare had a bright blond mane and a cutie mark consisting of several bubbles, but what distinguished her most was her lazy yellow eyes which twirled about and seemed to look in two different directions at once. Most ponies thought Pinky Pie was the most random and eccentric pony in all Equestria, but that award went to Ditzy. Pinky lost out because of the sole fact that she was intelligible. Most of the time no one could possibly fathom what went on it Ditzy’s head.
“Hey Ditzy!” Dash called out excitedly.
“Hey, hay howdidly dee doo Dashy!” Ditzy replied in her overly special and perky manner, waving while happily jogging down the street with a wide smile of unrestrained ignorant happiness. She was carrying a pair of postal saddlebags hanging from her sides that were loaded down with various articles of mail and a single brown package secured to a special saddle on her back. For a pony that couldn’t focus her eyes straight forward, she was very deft at avoiding and colliding with anyone or anything meandering her way through the crowd, with an elegant grace that could challenge Rarity, towards Dash with not a care in the world.
“Ugh, do you guys hear that?” Dash suddenly heard a persistent ringing in her ears. It quickly grew beyond a simple background annoyance as the tone climbed to the point where it was now a high pitched whistle. The sound was so intense that it made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. She rubbed her ears in a hope that the sound would go away, but it was useless gesture.
“What’s with this noise? It’s driving me crazy.” When there was no reply from her companions, Dash checked to see what up with them. She failed to spot either of them behind her and her confusion only intensified when the ringing suddenly ceased. In fact was that she was the only pony left standing in the now empty streets. The cobbled roads were utterly devoid of life as if every living pony and animal had simply ceased to be, the silence deafening in its absolution.
“Hello?” she called out in futility looking for anypony at all. Yet, not the simple chirp of a bird or the welcomed sound of a gentle breeze dared to respond. Silence continued to be her sole companion until there came a resonating clopping of hooves on stone. It was coming for her and she turned back to face Ditzy Doo. Dash felt relieved to find the grey Pegasus was still here, but the mail carrier seemed to be moving in slow motion with each step echoing at an unnatural volume.
“Ditzy, are you okay? What’s wrong with you? Your... your wings…” Feathers were falling from Ditzy’s wings, a couple at first and then in large tufts. When the feathers touched the ground they burned under an invisible fire, curling up into piles of carbon ash. She was crying red tears and soon was bleeding from her nose and mouth as well, marking a crimson trail where she walked. Dash was unwillingly and utterly transfixed by the sight, unable to comprehend it. She felt a tight clenching desire to help her friend, hopelessness to stop it, and disgust at the horror of what Ditzy was becoming.
There was a sick crunching of bones as Ditzy started to shake violently, yet her innocent smile never left her face as she kept coming. Flesh fell from her body in pulpy clumps, exposing muscle and bone. Her wings give one final crack before rotating forward, the bone lengthening and become sharp spears, flexing, and more resembling deadly grasping fingers than wings now.
“Help me!”
“Ditzy!” Dash screamed, the tears cascading. Ditzy was a kind and gentle soul, why was this happening? She’d done nothing to deserve such a terrible fate. “Why is this happening? Ditzy who….who’s doing this? Why?”
No matter how fast Dash tried to retreat Ditzy continued to close the distance. Her gentle smile was a gaping maw of razor sharp teeth, the lower jaw bone had rotted away. Small wriggling tendrils were growing from every orifice; eyes, nose, mouth, and from in between her very muscle fibers. Dash couldn’t stand the sight any longer: she needed to escape, needed to get away. She jumped into the air, wings pumping with all her might, but she didn’t get far. She felt the creature below her grab her by the tail and harshly pull her down.
“Ghuu!” Dash sharply impacted the ground on her back, her spine snapping under the force - she was now paralyzed and helpless. She closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.
“Wake UP!”
Rainbow Dash stared into the sky, suddenly her view was filled with red, white, and gray.
“Are you al’ right?” Big Mac’s voice reflected the worry on his face. He reached out a hoof and helped Dash onto her hooves.
“Dashy fall down, down. Go crash boom baa, make big noise.” Then there was Ditzy, just as crazy and random as ever, dancing around like nothing had happened; perfectly normal, for her at least. Without thinking Rainbow Dash reached out for Ditzy and embraced the mail Pegasus in a firm, distressed hug.
“Ditzy! Thank Celestia you’re okay.” Dash felt tears trying to break free again. She fought them back, however, and not so much out of a sense of pride.
“Dashy, you are strange. Are you okie?” Ditzy warmly returned the embrace deeply worried about her colorful friend.
“All of a’ sudden’ ya’ll stopped, swayed a bit, and then collapsed.” Big Mac recounted while placing an arm against Dash’s head, checking for fever, and looking into her eyes. Dash didn’t resist the examination, she was similarly concerned that there was something terribly wrong with her and hoped that it was just a side-effect from the sleeping spell or her hangover.
“I….I’m alright. I can’t seem to remember what just happened.” Dash shook her head and backed away, an embarrassed blush on her cheeks, “I thought I saw, I saw...” Dash stammered, not sure how to express herself. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just happy to see you, that’s all.”
There was a glint of light that caught the corner of her eye, having come from a piece of elaborate jewelry around Ditzy’s neck. A silver collar was firmly clamped around her neck with a crescent shaped pendant swinging lazily from a short chain. Two alicorn figures, both facing each other, were pressed into the sides of the collar using polished platinum and there appeared to be cursive writing carved into the rest of the collar and pendant.
“Tell us young pony, before you depart. What is that badge you keep near your heart?” Zecora asked, clearly impressed.
“Oh, this little itty-bitty thangy-wangy?” Ditzy stood straight and proud, making sure everypony could see her badge of honor.
“Lovely Luna lent me this little license of limit leaving for a, um, special delivery.”
“You’re kidding?” Dash raised a curious eyebrow, “isn’t that a job better suited for the royal couriers?”
“I don’t know. The nice pony guy in black, with the boorish voice, said.”
“Sooo, you never actually saw the princess?” Ditzy just shook her head. That seemed totally unfair to Rainbow Dash since Luna had personally summoned her and Big Mac for an audience, but didn’t offer the same recognition for Ditzy.
“A ‘special delivery’ huh?” Dash reasoned that the postal mare must have been referring to the brown package on her saddle holster. The brown paper was expertly folded and the whole thing was tied up in golden thread, bearing the seal of Luna’s heritage on the sides. It all looked very official, but was that the package seemed wrong somehow. She couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, yet the more she looked at it the more it felt as if something was staring back. She had never felt anything like it before and it was unsettling to say the least. That horrible ringing sound was coming back as well.
“Dashy rainbow. You’re zoning crazy again.” Ditzy giggled and waved a hoof to get her attention.
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Um, who did you say you’re delivering it to?” Dash shook her head to clear it, the ringing passed away.
“Oh, there is no namey, but I do know the address, I do. I’m taking it to Fluttershy’s place.”
“Fluttershy? I don’t think that’s a good idea.” A terrible idea in every way, Dash was confident of that. She didn’t know what Ditzy was carrying, but whatever it was it had no business being near the gentle, sensitive, and loving Fluttershy.
“I’m the bestest mail mare ever, I know my addresses I do.” Ditzy certainly didn’t lack for confidence and that was what Dash really admired about her.
“Ditzy, would you mind if I sneaked a peak inside the package?” The way Ditzy reacted to the question, Dash might as well have asked if she could
“Oh no, no, no, that would violate mail mare rule number 65,” Ditzy cleared her throat and then spoke with all the confidence of a general ordering his troops into battle, "when a delivery has no specific designated recipient then only those who are living at the intended address can be allowed to open the postal delivery, not their friends or any guests. Unless specific requests have been made in advance and approved by the general post manager. Failure to abide….”
“Ok Ditzy, a simple no would have been fine, but….”
“No buts, Dashy, no tubs, stubs, or subs either. Rules are rules and rulers.” Without another word Ditzy spread her wings and began to lift off, “I must go now, I’m nearly late for a very important date with a blueberry muffin.” With that Ditzy was airborne and speeding away at a clip that very few Pegasus could best, Rainbow Dash being one of the few exceptions; the Wonderbolts being the others.
With Ditzy’s words echoing in her ears, Dash was filled with a new sense of purpose. She could feel the machination of something sinister in the works. There was only one other time in her life when she’d felt this sensation before. This went beyond simple feeling though, the vision of Ditzy and the evil presence the mail mare carried. Who would send such a thing Fluttershy’s way, and did this have anything to do with the theft yesterday? Dash certainly felt the idea had merit, but before she could leave she needed to know who had given Ditzy the job.
“You guys go ahead without me,” Dash said to Zecora and Big Mac, handing the latter the royal letter from the princess, “I need to check this out. Something funny is going on around here.” Her companions only gave her mixed reactions. Clearly they didn’t share the same sense of urgency as she did.
“I mean funny-weird, not funny-haha.” Dash clarified, but it did little to clear the air.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Author’s Note: Sorry for the long wait. I know I said this chapter would be quicker on the upload, but there were several shift openings at work. I volunteered for the overtime so I could have some extra spending money and there is not much time to work on this story when I’m working. Thank you for your patience.
I promise the next chapter will be more about Isaac. About his first day in Equestria and helping Twilight keep her promise to help Applejack on the farm. |
Oceansama | 682 | 8 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-04-02T05:14:05+00:00 | 2012-04-02T05:14:05+00:00 | 1,996 | Chapter 8: Lunch in Equestria
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Leaving behind Big Mac and Zecora, Rainbow Dash had made her way into the post office. Her mission was clear: to find the pony who had given Ditzy that package, whoever this pony in black was. A small bell jingled and a creaking of age-old hinges welcomed her as she opened the front door. The inside was a scene of absolute chaos, far worse than what appeared on the outside. Piles and piles of mail were stacked so high and in such long rows she could have believed it possible to lose an adult dragon among them. Several pegasi ran or flew back and forth in dizzying patterns attempting to try and sort out as much of the mess as possible, a critical shortage of capable hooves doomed their punitive efforts, however.
“Hello, my name is Penny Post, can I help you?” said a gray pegasus mail carrier with yellow eyes and a copper mane. Apart from the hair color, and the fact her eyes didn’t spin like free-falling clouds, Penny resembled Ditzy Doo so much that Dash was almost convinced that the two were related somehow.
.
“Oh my gosh, you’re Rainbow Dash!” Penny gasped and then hopped in delight, “I saw your amazing air work at the ‘Young Fliers Competition’ in Cloudsdale. You were so awesome!” Penny squealed with such raw joy that Dash couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed, a slight blush coloring her cheeks.
“Yup, that’s me.”
“Oh! Oh! Can I have your autograph?” Penny reached into her post bag and extracted a blank shipping form and a quill pen.
“Sure!” Dash proudly obliged and signed the blank side of the form. No pony had ever asked for her autograph before so she had to make sure this one was an extra twenty percent more special than just her regular signature. So she adorned it with a cursive form she invented on the spot, decorating it with a superfluous amount of curls and swirly patterns.
“Ohhh, my friends are going to be, like, so jealous.” Penny hugged the signed paper like it was a check for a million bits.
“It’s all in a day’s work for the greatest flier in all Ponyville. No, in all of Equestria!” Dash was swollen with pride, she pumped her chest out and held her head high.
“Thank you, thank you!” the postal mare happily tucked the paper away for safekeeping, “So, how can I help you today, Rainbow Dash?”
“I’m just curious about a package I saw Ditzy carrying earlier.”
“Oh, you mean the one tied with the golden thread?” Dash nodded, “That’s easy, it was sent by Mr. Ledger, one of Celestia’s supervisors. He comes here all the time for the mail.”
“Doesn’t Celestia have her own mail carriers in the castle already? Why doesn't he use them?”
“Sure he does, but to be honest the gossip on the street is that Ledger has a thing for Ditzy. He always specifically requests her when he has to ship some mail. I don’t know why he tries to hide himself under a black hood and cape since every pegasus here knows who he is. He’s probably just shy,” Penny concluded, sighed wistfully and clutching her arms to her cheek, “it’s so romantic.”
“Blegh,” Dash stuck her tongue out in disgust, “I just want to find out what he wanted Ditzy to deliver?”
“Hmm, I think I overheard him say something about a book. It seemed rather important since he gave Ditzy royal permission to get out of the city. Normally I don’t get involved in or talk about another pony’s mail, but there was just something totally weird about it.”
“Weird? What do you mean?”
“Well,” Penny leaned towards Dash with a hushed whisper, “when I got a close look at it I felt like something was off about it, y’know? It’s hard to explain; it’s like, when I saw it I felt as if something was looking back at me. It gave me the heebie jeebies.”
“Did you see anything unusual happen to Ditzy?” Dash felt a chill down her spine at the memory.
“It was just a creepy feeling, that’s all. Are you saying something has happened to Ditzy Doo?”
“No!” All eyes present shot towards Dash, their owners startled at the sudden outburst from the tomboy mare. Dash felt her cheeks heat once again in embarrassment under the scrutiny, “No, she’s perfectly fine, um, thanks for your help!” She turned and made a hasty exit.
“Okay,” Penny flinched at the mare’s awkward behavior, “please do come again. The Canterlot Residential Post Office is always open for your shipping and postage needs.”
Outside, Dash soaked in the cool breeze as it washed away her heated humiliation. Big Mac and Zecora remained unmoving from where she had last left them. She was thankful that they had shown the patience to wait for her Dash explained what she’d learned and all three continued their trek towards the castle.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Twilight Sparkle gave a lazy yawn when she gazed out the window at the beautiful midday sun as it shined over Ponyville. Just another normal beautiful afternoon in Equestria, only to her it wasn’t. The sunlight caressed and warmed her aching body, yet failed to sooth her unease. There was something inside her that had begun to eat away at the edges of her consciousness, a sort of emptiness. It made sleep more tempting than ever, but it was past noon and she had made a promise to help out Applejack with some farming chores after lunch time. Hoping the unrest would eventually sort itself out she went about her daily routine, albeit with a little more haste than usual. She cleaned herself up and changed her bandages, before finally turning to nudge Spike out of his bed.
She looked upon the chubby little dragon all nestled snugly in his bed, sucking contently on a half eaten ruby. The covers rose and fell under his measured breathing; his easy snoring told her that he was dreaming of something pleasant. Maybe it was about him wooing Rarity or something else as equally rambunctious. Even though Twilight had told him all about the conflict with the necromorphs in the mines, she saw he was unable, or unwilling, to fully appreciate the severity of what had transpired. Though to be fair, if any other pony had told her about this gathering threat she would’ve regarded it as a morbid fabrication at best, or a case of flagrant exaggeration at worst, at least until sufficient evidence was presented. The itching on her cheek and the bandages on her body turned out to be all the evidence she needed now. Twilight left her assistant to rest and headed down the stairs, content to let her companion sleep for a little while longer; just a few more minutes of peaceful innocence.
She had wandered into the kitchen, a rumble in her stomach, deciding that a good lunch is just what she needed to lift her spirits and confident that Spike and Isaac would both similarly appreciate it too. Isaac’s helmet was still on the table where she’d left it, and it raised an interesting question.
“What exactly do humans eat, anyway?” She asked aloud to nopony in particular.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Achoo, achoo!” Isaac sneezed an answer to a sudden intense irritation in his nose. He bolted suddenly upright and erect, sending an eruption of pillows and feathery down flying everywhere. Freed from the pillow prison, the first thing he noticed was how unnaturally bright the room was. He soon realized that it was not the sun shining in his face, every object around him was done up in bright, smooth, and vibrant pastel colors. It was all so lively and cheerful looking that it immediately put him on edge. The last time he’d been in a place like this he’d been ambushed by hordes of exploding baby necromorphs crawling out of the very walls. This led inexorably to the second thing he noticed: that he was still stuck in la-la land and continued to lack the normal human extremities.
He sat for a few minutes trying to carefully examine his surroundings and listening for signs of danger. He found himself deposited in a bedroom of sorts, with the bed carved directly into the wall. The room was irregularly shaped, made entirely out of wood, and had a faint, sweet smell of tree sap. Opposite from him was a small desk, below a single circular window, with stacks of blank paper, an ink bottle, and a cup of quill pens placed upon it. Any left over space on the walls were covered in shelves that held a massive array of books covering an even more impressive array of topics; ‘The Complete Equestrian Guide to Mythical Creatures and Supernatural Entities,’ ‘Sleepovers 101,’ ‘A Unicorn’s Thesis on the Nature of Magic and the Flow of Energies,’ and, ‘Advanced Quantum Mechanics and You,’ were just a sampling of the categories held here. The last two books especially caught his attention, but they’d have to wait for another time.
One of the room’s two doors was ajar and headed into what appeared to be a bathroom. Isaac felt incredibly stiff and gritty from having spent a whole night inside his exo-suit and was looking forward to a hot shower. The restroom was well stocked with all the sorts of toiletries and accessories that went with a well planned household.
“Something is wrong here.” He told himself when he realized just how ‘human’ the bedroom and bathroom had appeared. Almost every single object was easily recognizable; lamps, a toothbrush, combs, sink, medicine cabinet, and bathtub. Even the toilets, with the bowls built into the floor, were similar to those he’d seen while serving a stint on a Japanese-built frigate. It gave him an ominous foreboding, he was stuck in an alien reality; logically he had expected that they’d do things at least little differently here.
He didn’t feel comfortable taking the suit off here, but he couldn’t wear it forever. There was a hiss of air as Isaac triggered the suit’s manual release, a switch seated just below the triangle shaped holographic projector that stuck out from his chest. If the suit had power the switch would’ve been magnetically locked to prevent an accidental release. With the seal broken air was allowed to flow into the hermetically locked suit, filling air bladders behind the chest armor and the rig on his back. This allowed the skin tight suit to ‘unfold’ and hang from Isaac’s frame like an oversized bag of burlap, allowing it to easily slide down off of his body.
Carefully putting it aside he went to examine himself in the mirror, one glimpse confirmed everything he’d feared. The thing looking back at him was definitely not human, but rather a gray colored pony with short black hair. Everything about its face was wrong; the ears were too big and too high, the nose was too low, the blue eyes seemed monstrously huge, and it even sported a five o’clock shadow. He couldn’t remember if horses had facial hair - he was pretty sure it didn’t grow like this even if they did.
The parade of discoveries didn’t end at his face, a full examination of his body revealed a pair of new problems. He closed his eyes and in his mind’s eye traced down his spine, along the path of nerves and muscles, looking for the new connections. He found them and concentrated at moving them, flexing and contracting. With a little effort he had managed to fully extend a pair of wings. His face was twisted with indecision, an ambivalent expression. On one hand a part of him felt in awe at his new feathery appendages and wanted to test them out to see if they actually worked. On another hand his engineer’s proficiency told him that in no way, no scientific discipline, could such fragile things ever work on someone his size and weight.
By this point, after realizing he’d broken into a cold sweat, there came a rising panic that gripped his stomach, making him feel incredibly nauseous. He broke away from the mirror and steadied himself over the sink, just in case, while taking slow deep breaths.
“Okay,” he tried to reassure himself, “it’ll be fine. I’m fine.”
“I don’t think so.”
He felt a pair of hands close around his throat, tight and unyielding, choking the air out of him while his head was jerked upwards to once again stare at the mirror, his whole body lifted off the ground. He saw himself, no, his human self, emerged halfway through the mirror and looking at him with an expression of complete repugnance and glass-eyed insanity.
“Our diseased brain brought us into a world of magical talking ponies. Does that sound… fine to you?”
Isaac struggled in vain to break his own hold on his neck while his doppelganger laughed maniacally at himself. His legs dangled uselessly and even his wings were flapping in rebellion. It was useless, his big fingerless hooves just couldn’t gain leverage around the fingers at his throat so, instead, he brought his arms up and punched his mirror self several times across the jaw. His strength was quickly fading and the choke hold failed to weaken.
“You’re only hurting yourself, Isaac.”
“No,” Isaac croaked, “you are not me.”
“Then what am I? Just a hallucination? Perhaps I’m the real one and you’re the imposter, the disease that haunts my mind.”
“Go to hell!” There was a loud crack of glass as Isaac’s head slammed into the mirror. The impact left a spider web like tapestry of slivers throughout the surface. The frightful presence was gone and once again left only his pony-fied self reflecting back at him, but no less taunting. He felt rattled, his whole body shaking as hopelessness took over. He reared his head back and shot it forward. A second, even louder, crash of glass echoed throughout the room as he smashed the mirror again, pieces falling into the sink and on the ground. He followed up with a third strike and then a forth, by now the mirror was completely and utterly destroyed. Several blood trails flowed from his cut forehead down and around his nose to gather at his chin, falling to form a small puddle on the floor.
He didn’t care about any of that; he hated this place and what it had done to him. He just wanted to go home, go back to Earth. To return to the way things were before he discovered that damed Red Marker, before the love of his life was taken from him.
“Damn it, Nicole. Why did you have to leave?”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Twilight gave a contented sigh as she inhaled and delighted in all the pleasant fragrances that filled the dining room. Unsure as to what her unusual guest would find pleasing for lunch she had pulled out all the stops and cooked up a little of everything. The table was filled with all sorts of simple culinary delights. Among them were daisy and daffodil sandwiches, whole apples, apple fritters (her favorites), apple sauce, bowls of oats and barley, a bowl of salad, hay fries, nuts, chips, scrambled eggs, and finishing off the meal were glasses of milk, soda, tea, orange juice, apple juice, and coffee; and that was just the first course.
Her preparations finished, Twilight was heading upstairs to roost her guest out of bed when she suddenly heard multiple abrupt instances of shattering glass. Galloping upstairs, she didn’t bother to knock before hurdling into the guest bedroom, she didn’t see Isaac. The restroom door was open, however, and from here she could see broken glass all over the floor along with a trail of blood and accompanied by the sounds of water.
“Isaac?” Twilight called from the doorway. She didn’t want to walk in on him unannounced, but when she received no reply it was her only course of action. Stepping over the shards of glass she found Isaac curled up in the bathtub while the shower head rained cold water.
“Isaac, what happened?” She asked, truly concerned. He looked at her briefly, but didn’t respond before settling back into his depressed state. At a loss of what to do Twilight examined his suit-less body. She was surprised to find, in contradiction to her earlier deduction, that he was in fact a pegasus. While that was in interesting discovery she found herself more interested in what cutie-mark was. She looked at it carefully from several different angles. It was unique, to say the least and she remembered seeing it from some of the memories gained from him, it was a weapon of sorts, but that was all she knew. A metal object that looked like a pistol grip and trigger guard connected to a rectangular head with three line of blue light coming out of it.
“Um, I hate to ask, but what exactly is your cutie mark?” she pointed at it.
“My what?” Isaac, finally acknowledging her, raised an eyebrow.
“Your cutie mark, uh, of course you wouldn’t know anything about that. It’s the picture on your flank.”
“Oh,” Isaac deadpanned, “you mean the tattoo of the plasma cutter? That’s a standard engineer’s tool, useful for cutting metal and rock. Though I’ve also found it also has other useful applications.” He sat up in the tub while turning off the water.
“Maybe you’d like to tell me why you put a tattoo of it on my ass?”
“Every pony gets a cutie mark when they find what their special talent is, or purpose in life is.”
“You get branded for that?” He seemed somewhat appalled at the idea.
“No, it just appears on a pony’s flank.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that, don’t humans have something similar?” Honestly, she’d be surprised if they did.
“No, humans don’t grow tattoos out of thin air. Besides, you should never describe anything about me as ‘cute’ to begin with.” Isaac sarcastically retorted while air-quoting, “It’s a tattoo, plain and simple, because I am a man, damn it.”
The argument continued on like that for awhile with neither of them willing to concede the point, but in the end she was able to convince him to join her for lunch. It hadn’t taken much coaxing since both of their stomachs began to growl right in the middle of the heated exchange.
“Is that coffee I smell?” Isaac asked as he sat at the table, sniffing the air in deep longing breaths.
“Yes, made it myself, there is sugar and milk if you care to…” Twilight stopped when Isaac grabbed the coffee mug and had downed its contents in a single gulp. He exhaled in delighted exclamation.
“Its coffee, real coffee,” he had a warm laugh and a genuine smile, she found herself sharing the feeling “I would’ve been happy with just the synthetic stuff, but this is real and it's so good!”
“Would you like some more?” Twilight hovered the nearly full coffee pot over to him. His good mood faltered as he scrutinized her magical display, but he held the mug out regardless.
“Thanks.” He said while downing a second cup, followed by another refill.
“I’m happy you like it. I made all of this,” she drew a hoof over her labors, “as a way for me to apologize for, well, you know.” Twilight nervously twiddled her hooves. She had once read in a book that the best way to win a pony over, especially if it was a stallion, was through their stomach. That meant good food and good company, first impressions were everything and they’d certainly gotten off to a bad start.
“I do know.” Isaac examined the food, a mixture of unreadable feelings, but didn’t seem to reach for anything else.
“I just want to apologize for making such a mess of things.”
“Apology accepted.” He said dismissively. She felt her jaw clench, this wasn’t good, she was losing him and she needed him, no, all of Equestria needed him. Whatever the reasons for him being here, she knew that he had a critical role to play in the fight against the Marker.
She knew it.
“Isaac, I know you’re upset right now. It’s my fault,” Her ears dropped as she looked away ashamed, “I know I would be lost too if I suddenly found myself trapped in your world. I can try and find a way to turn you back into a human, but for now I ask that you help us. We can be friends and work together to sort all this out.” She followed up her plea by giving him her biggest puppy-dog expression she’d ever made. An effective trick she’d learned from Applebloom, and although she hated using such under hoofed tactics, she couldn’t readily see any other way.
“Y’know what, fine,” Isaac took a few steps away from her before attacking her with a very stern tone of barely restrained anger, “you turned me into a Pegasus pony, it’s a little awkward, but I can certainly think of a thing or two far worse to get ‘morphed’ into. I’ll get over it once I’m back to normal, might even make a movie out of it.”
His sudden outburst, the words of undisguised scorn, wounded her terribly. It felt like her heart was being crushed under the weight of his anger. She had seriously messed up this time, and such failure only brought her misery. She loathed that feeling, so much wanted to please her friends, and especially Princess Celestia. To show she was reliable and talented, to be entrusted with a great task and succeed against all odds. It also made her angry and sparked a fire in her belly with a sensation she’d never felt before. She was trying to apologize and show how truly sorry she felt and yet this horrible pony across from her couldn’t understand that simple fact. She was trying her best, what else could she do?
“I’m not that upset about being dumped in your little pony fantasy land of magic and sunshine.” He continued, getting even redder in the face. “I can get down with that. I used to watch these kinds of shows when I was seven, even had a unicorn poster over my cubicle when I worked at the CEC home office. This is a fate far more appealing than anything I had to look forward to back home. I’m willing to forgive all of that, but please drop the friendship act. You just want me to make your Marker problems go away and I’m just looking to survive it and go home.”
“Stop yelling!” Twilight’s rage overflowed her senses and she lashed back, screaming at the top of her lungs. “I’m sorry, okay, I just wanted to help. But I didn’t know that this would happen, I couldn’t have. If I could make things right I would, but I don’t know how to make the spells that would send you home!” She tore at him with her words. Her uncontrollable tirade did nothing to help her overcome this burning ire. It did have the effect of stopping him dead mid-sentence and she began to slowly come down. “I don’t care if you hate me, but don’t you dare accuse my offer of friendship as merely an act!” The empty silence stretched on between them as they stared at each other. Isaac was the first to regain control.
“Sorry,” he looked down, “I guess I hadn’t realized how much these feelings needed airing. It's,” he choked, “it's just.. I’m so tired of all this crap. I didn’t mean to take it all out on you. I’m just a tired broken old man. I’ve lost everything to those damn Markers. I have nothing left.”
“No, you’re wrong.” She gingerly approached him, suddenly forgetting the reasons why she was mad in the first place, and put a hoof on his shoulder, “You’re alive. That must count for something.”
“Tch,” Isaac snorted pensively, but didn’t refuse the touch. “Yeah, I guess I have that. I know I shouldn’t complain, but I do.” He gave a long deep sign before breaking out in a second wind. “So, you want me to help? Then you’d better make it well worth my while. I’m thinking maybe a great hall built in my honor, or a museum dedicated to my great works.” Although Isaac seemed serious, Twilight found herself suddenly laughing with him instead.
“You have my word. As Princess Celestia’s star pupil I can assure you that you will be well rewarded for your help.”
“Not sure I really believe you, I’ve been betrayed before. Though, I guess I can take a chance. Never worked with a pony before, might be interesting.”
“Agreed, I’ve never worked with a human before.” Twilight rapidly nodded in approval, happy to have a chance to fix the animosity between them. “So, let’s eat, then. Afterward I’ll take you to Sweet Apple Acres to meet a good friend of mine who can help us.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Isaac wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or accident, but Twilight’s trail took them through the center of the aptly named Ponyville. All the different kinds of colored equine critters made it look like Jackson Pollock had vomited a rainbow all over his canvas. The residents milled about as a close-knit community, very open and innocent; it was strangely inviting. Almost all of them had acknowledged him as a newcomer and welcomed him with a friendly wave, a warm smile, or offered up simple greetings and well-wishes. Isaac felt his long tense muscles start to relax in the friendly atmosphere, but he didn’t allow himself to become complacent, continuing to stay alert for any sudden attacks or signs of trouble.
Along the way Twilight gave have him the abridged tour of the town, pointing out all the major landmarks as they passed.
“Over there is Sugar Cube Corner,” the purple unicorn happily pointed out to him, “That’s where Mr. and Mrs. Cake live. They bake all sorts of wonderful treats.” She turned to him, “We’ll have to stop by for a snack after we help Applejack and I can introduce you to another friend of mine.”
“Shouldn’t we save the meet and greets for later?” Not that he was against meeting new people, or ponies, but there were more pressing matters on hand. “We should be working out a plan.”
“One step ahead of you,” Twilight declared confidently, “when we meet my friends we’ll pull them to the side, someplace secluded preferably, and explain the problem. With the seven of us together there’s no problem we can’t face with the power of the elements.” Isaac just rolled his eyes.
“I did just fine solo.” He muttered, stepping aside to avoid a mare walking the other way.
“Sorry, didn’t catch that.”
“I wish I shared your optimism.” He quickly filled in.
“Over here is the town hall where Mayor Mare oversees the day to day business of the town.”
“Hey,” Isaac stepped in front of her, “Concentrate on the business of the Marker. Our best bet is on getting my suit up to code so I can rip the schematics from the RIG and build us some weapons, like the plasma cutter. They’ve saved my life in more ways that I can recall, but building them from scratch will be a significant investment in resources and, more importantly, time provided your world has the technological means of doing so. Failing that we still need to find out who our enemy is and where they’re building the Marker.”
“Again, just wait until you meet my friends.” Twilight replied, unfazed, “All of them each have their own special talents that I’m sure will help us.”
“Such as?”
“Take the pony we’re going to meet, Applejack, she runs the apple farm and-”
“Twilight, ohhh, Twiliiiight.” Isaac heard a beautiful voice call out with an intense air of sophistication and class.
“Rarity, good afternoon.” Twilight returned the cordial greeting.
“A most marvelous afternoon isn’t it, darling.” The white skinned unicorn with the immaculate mane of violet hair said as she trotted up to the two of them, “I was hoping to catch Spike with you but I see you have, instead, a handsome new friend. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of an introduction.” Rarity batted her eyelashes at him.
“Oh,” Twilight stumbled, having failed to plan this far ahead. There were too many strangers around them and their secret was for Rarity’s ears only, “Rarity, this is Cutter. He’s an old friend of mine from, uh, Manehatten.”
“Ma’am.” Isaac greeted, bowing his head slightly. He then mouthed towards Twilight, “Really? Cutter.”
To which she mouthed back, “Best I could think of.”
“So polite too, but please, any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine. Feel free to call me Rarity. I run Carousel Boutique, the local fashion shop, perhaps you’ve heard of it?”
“Sure have, Twilight told me all about you.” Actually she hadn’t, but he was sure she would’ve gotten around to it eventually.
“Fantastic, and you’re from Manehatten you say? Such a marvelous city full of such glamour, glitz, and so many sophisticated socially connected fashion-centric urbanite ponies. It’s the capital of all things hip and stylish in all Equestria, not even Canterlot can follow it.” Rarity took one of Isaac’s hooves in hers and in a joyous proclamation said, “My dear Cutter, you should join me for tea tomorrow and tell me all about it, all about you.”
“Well,” he nervously fidgeted under her twinkling eyes of hope and anticipation, “I’m afraid I’m only here on a short business trip, sooo, I won’t have time in my schedule, I’m sorry.”
“Then we’ll make it a dinner date. Tonight!”
“Uhh,” The way she emphasized ‘tonight’ had made him afraid to refuse and he felt his vocal chords seize.
“Well, would you look at the time,” Twilight separated the two, “we gotta go, a lot of business to take care of and all that.” Twilight poke Isaac’s side with her horn in order to get him moving, but only succeeded in getting a dirty look.
“Wait!” Rarity called out dramatically, “before you go, could you direct me to where Spike is?”
“He’s still sleeping in the library,” Twilight said, “need him for something?”
“I’d love it if the little dear would accompany me on another gem hunt in the stone foothills next to the Everfree Forest.”
“Are you sure that’s safe? You remember what happened last time?”
“Twilight please, remember who you're talking to. I can handle myself against a couple of diamond dogs.” Rarity had propped her head up while giving a winning smile, “Besides, have you seen the cost of gems nowadays? They’re through the roof and I suspect the clouds as well.”
“I’m sure he’d more than eager to help, once you wake him up.”
“I know he would, he’s such a dear. Well, I won’t keep you two from your business, ta-ta, and do remember, Mr. Cutter, dinner tonight at the Riverside Café at 8, byeee.”
“Would you mind explaining to me what the hell just happened?” Isaac stood frozen in place with a look of complete bafflement and shock, one eye twitching.
“Sorry,” Twilight apologized softly, “Rarity is drawn to anything and everything that can help her fashion business make it big. She can sometimes come across a little too strong.”
“A little?” he protested, “I was afraid she was about to jump me.”
“Well, if you think Rarity is bad,” she added with a sly wink, “wait until you meet Pinky Pie.”
“Christ!” he shouted, “is everyone in this town crazy?”
“Yes, but you get used to it after awhile.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Ditzy Doo made a strong landing just outside of the Everfree forest. She bounced slightly as her hooves contacted against the soft earth. She loved visiting Fluttershy’s cottage, located just outside the Everfree forest. Close enough to see the darkness beyond the inviting exterior, yet far enough away to where it was safe from the wild denizens of the woods. She was at the border between the natural and unnatural and here there was an exciting mixture of smells and fragrances that could not be found anywhere else.
The forest was not her purpose for coming here but rather a respectably large abode made of wood and decorated with a ceiling constructed of finely woven lattices of leaves and moss. It was positioned on the opposite end of a small stone bridge crossing over a narrow river. The river flowed directly out of the forest, yet its waters were clear and pure for any pony to drink.
It was easy enough for Ditzy to canter her way across the bridge up to the front door of Fluttershy’s home. However, along the way, she noticed that Fluttershy’s chicken coop and various outdoor birdhouses had been knocked to the ground and scattered about. The area around the house seemed to be covered in an awful lot of bird feathers, but there were no signs of life; no chickens, birds, or wildlife to speak of.
“Postal Delivery.” Ditzy made three firm raps on the door. The windows were closed and there were no lights on, still she could hear slight amounts of movement from inside.
“Come in.” spoke a low-key voice. Ditzy recognized the friendly tone; but it wasn’t Fluttershy’s.
“Fluttershy-shy has guests,” she reasoned, “I hope they have delicious muffins.” Ditzy nudged the door open and stepped inside. The interior was very dark, but the light from the door revealed an absolute mess. Birdhouses and cages were thrown everywhere, bags of food, chairs, tables, and other items were overturned and broken. Amongst the shattered furniture were many little bodies of mice, birds, and other critters that had been mercilessly slaughtered and discarded. It filled the room with an overwhelming smell of death.
“Fluttershy-shy?” Ditzy whispered with a sudden feeling of dismay when she spotted her friend. The blond pony was lying in the middle of the room, face covered in dry tears and a little bit of blood. Her wings and legs were tightly bound with thick lengths of rope and were both simultaneously gagged and blindfolded. Her pink mane was frayed and her body had several pronounced welts and thin cuts.
“Mmmphh!” At the sound of her name, Fluttershy began to fight against her restraints, her normally soft voice was hot with fear and she seemed to be trying to shriek something that sounded like a warning.
The moment Ditzy made a step to help Fluttershy, the front door slammed shut behind her, casting the room into near total darkness. Furniture skittered along the floor as three pairs of heavy footsteps flanked Ditzy while clawed fingers materialized out of the shadows. With her back to the door, she was cornered and vulnerable. Ditzy instinctively went on the defensive, bucking her legs at a random attacker. There was a loud ring and a grunt as her hooves struck metal and managed to send one of the fiends reeling into the wall with a loud thud. But the other two were already upon her and they clawed at her legs, grabbing them tightly before lifting her up and forcefully slammed her to the ground and onto her side. The saddlebags of mail cushioned the blow; however, there was a crack as her skull impacted against the hard floor and left her bewildered while stars circled in her eyes. Her next instinct would’ve been to scream for help, but there was already a gag in her mouth before she even realized what was happening, and all that came out afterward was a muffled whimper.
It was over as quickly as it had begun and in only a few seconds Ditzy had her legs and wings bound with a very course rope that irritated and chaffed her skin the more she struggled. By this point the attackers had already stripped her of her postal bags and the package she’d been in the middle of delivering.
There was a click of a switch and suddenly the room was filled with lamp light, allowing Ditzy to look upon the faces of her assailants. Three brown furred diamond dogs stood over her; each pit-bull was a bulky mass of muscles and stood nearly a head and a half taller than she was. Each wore an armored helmet, chest piece, and shoulder guards that were made of crudely smelted and beaten iron plates. To Ditzy they looked more like medieval hoof-ball players than knights-errant.
One of them held the brown package with the golden thread and handed the item off to another pony that had entered from the back room. Ditzy immediately recognized the newcomer as the voice that had greeted her into the house. This neon bright pony with a coat of pink and a mane of yellow accepted the package eagerly, her lavender eyes dancing with a gleeful hunger. Ditzy was well acquainted with this pony, but the two were not friends. Still, it hurt so very much to see one of Ponyville’s own betray her.
“At last,” Secret Cherry, secretary to the Mayor of Ponyville, spoke with adulation, “the tome is ours now.” The pink pony tore at the thread and wrapping like an eager foal on Christmas day. She held up a leather bound book that carried no title and no noticeable features save one; the monolithic symbol of the Black Marker burned onto the cover. Cherry lovingly traced a single hoof over the symbol.
“Ten thousand years,” she inhaled sharply, “ten thousand years we’ve been looking for this book. You two ponies should feel honored to be in the present of pony-kind's greatest legacy, the key to our return to greatness. Can you feel its power? I’m sure you can.” She held the book over Fluttershy who began to brutally writhe about, twisting and arching her back in intense spasms. Her pitiful moans and screams reflected a state of intense pain, as if she was being burned alive by the book itself.
“That’s right, bathe in its glory,” Cherry beamed in pleasure as she practically placed the book against the mare’s head.
“I guess the good Doctor was right. You and your friends, all the Elements of Harmony, are especially sensitive to it.” Cherry pulled the tome back and slowly Fluttershy’s aggrieved seizures ceased, leaving the gentle caretaker in a puddle of tears, sweat, and blood soaked mucus. That wasn’t good enough for Cherry, she wanted these worthless ponies to suffer, so she lashed out with a brutal kick to Fluttershy’s midsection. The remorseless blow caused the pegasus to squeak in agony before fainting.
Despite the hopeless situation Ditzy felt her fear melting away at the sight of another fellow pony who dared to treat Fluttershy in such a cruel manner. Bad enough Cherry had completely disregarded the sacred postal rule sixty-five, but this was too much. Ditzy would never be able to find it in her heart to forgive her for committing such heinous acts, even for all the muffins in Equestria. Ditzy glared with unbridled fury, unfortunately it only made her eyes act more derpy than usual due to the intense cocktail of emotions.
“You! Take this tome back to the labs,” Cherry shouted the order while handing off the book to one of the guard dogs, “I’ll be sure to inform the Doctor that we are ready to begin construction tomorrow, in earnest.”
“What about the ponies?” A second guard asked in a deep bass voice that sounded like two stones grinding against each other. Cherry shrugged, with a groan of exasperation, as if the answer was plainly obvious.
"Take them back to the gem mines as per usual,” She back-hoofed the guard, knocking away the helmet from atop his dome, “this is why I’m the one in charge of this operation, for my brains. We can always use more slave labor to help in the construction, and afterward I’m sure the Doctor will love to have a couple more test subjects.” The traitorous pony was about to trot away when she noticed how Ditzy was snarling at her.
“However, I very much don’t like the way this one is looking at me.” She glanced over the defiant gray pegasus. To think such a pathetic creature would dare challenge her. She decided that it was necessary to make an example of it.
“Pluck out her eye.” She commanded the guard, while watching the pegasus’ defiance crumble into complete shock.
“Which one? The guard asked plainly.
“Tch, I don’t know. Does it matter?” she replied in a sing-song voice while waving a hoof back and forth, carefully considering the two options. Ditzy cried, forming a puddle on the ground. She didn’t want to lose an eye, and couldn’t understand why this would happen. She didn’t know Secret Cherry very well, but would never have imagined she was so cruel, so heartless. It felt as if everything she’d ever known had turned against her and she was wracked in terrible sobbing fits as she tried desperately to beg for mercy.
“That one.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
As she made her way down the trail towards Ponyville, Cherry whistled a cheerful tune. From behind she could clearly make out a series of high-pitched, stifled screams, burst from the cottage. She felt a flash of ecstasy wash over her being. It was unfortunate that the pegasus had to be gagged, otherwise it would’ve been such a delicious scream to behold.
“This has been a great day.” She mused, and knew that it would only be the first of many to come. She particularly looked forward to when her superiors finally wised up and sent the order down that would finally free her break that goody-four shoes Twilight Sparkle, and her other friends, too.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Author’s Note: The chapter title is a play off the song “Breakfast in America” by ELO. A brief warning; next chapter update will upgrade the story’s rating from T to M. So adjust your ff.net filters accordingly. Lastly, the best idea I got for how Isaac could remove the suit was inspired by “Back to the Future 2,” where Marty Mcfly puts on the oversized futuristic coat and the computer makes adjustments so that it fits him better. |
Oceansama | 682 | 9 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-03-13T02:56:30+00:00 | 2012-03-13T02:56:30+00:00 | 1,746 | Chapter 9: Of Apples and Engineers.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Twilight and Isaac both arrived at Sweet Apple Acres later than anticipated due to several unforeseen encounters, of which Rarity was the most memorable, but not the only one. Shortly after the white unicorn had departed, Twilight felt she should guide Isaac through the Ponyville marketplace to give him a better understanding of their culture and daily livelihoods. Most importantly, she needed to prove that not every pony was out of their corn-loving minds.
It was an idea she came to regret as she was forced to pony up the fifteen bits to pay Lily, Daisy, and Rose for the flowers they had given Isaac as a ‘gift.’ Still, he appeared to be taking it all in with a lot more level-headedness than from before, but she had to continue to watch him closely for further signs of distress.
On the way out of the market they happened to cross paths with Mayor Mare and her aide, Secret Cherry, both of whom were engaged in a quiet yet heated discussion, judging from the strained looks they gave each other.
“Mayor Mare, Cherry, how are you today?” Twilight hailed with a zeal that quickly sank as the two politicians became intensely aware of her presence. What she had thought was just a simple argument at first, not the phrase ‘locally contained explosion,’ now seemed more fitting.
“Oh,” the Mayor quickly softened her composure, “Twilight, it’s good to see you.”
“Is something the matter?” Twilight found herself fidgeting uncomfortably.
“No, not at all, my dear. My secretary and I were just having a little disagreement about current matters on hoof. Speaking of which, have you made any progress on the investigation of the stolen tome?”
“I’m afraid not, Mrs. Mayor,” Twilight shook her head, yet found herself eying Isaac despite her efforts not to, “I don’t have much to go on right now but I’ll let you know the moment I find anything useful.”
“I see, I eagerly await any news, I have faith in your abilities, and in the Princess to bring a quick resolution to the situation.” The Mayor then turned to her aide, “Let us go. We have a lot more business to take care of and we should discuss matters of your behavior in private.” She said with a scolding tone.
“Of course, Mrs. Mayor, whatever you need.” Secret Cherry said with unerring submission, while giving a brief bow before falling into measured step behind the Mayor. After a few strides she gave a momentary glace over her shoulder at Twilight and Isaac, giving them an appraising look and a cocky grin.
“I don’t like her.” Isaac growled as soon as Cherry was out of sight.
“You shouldn’t say that about the Mayor.” Twilight verbally rebuked him, “I know we didn’t get a chance to introduce you, but she’s been under a lot of stress lately.”
“No, I’m talking about that Cherry pony,” Isaac huffed defensively, “did you see the look she gave us? I’ve seen that expression before and nothing good ever comes of it.”
“You’re just imagining things. Cherry is one of the most level-headed ponies you could ever meet.”
“I’m telling you, she’s dangerous.”
“Come on,” Looking to change topics Twilight began trotting at an increased pace, ‘we don’t want to be late.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Erected all along the perimeter of Sweet Apple Acres there was a wooden post-and-rail fence that cordoned off the farmland from the surrounding areas. The wood was very old, with numerous fractures and splits up and down its length, yet remained strong and unyielding. In truth the fence was used more for land marking rights than actually trying to keep anypony in or out. Twilight could not recall a single time when she’d ever witnessed the front gate being closed. Apple Acres was always open to anyone at anytime, a true testament to the openness of the local community, baring a single incident with a certain Zebra notwithstanding.
She looked out over the prosperous farm and its many hundreds of apple trees that had grown upon the green of the rolling hills. It seemed as if every single tree was filled to burst with countless red delicious apples, a sight that never ceased to amaze her.
Over the hills and in between the trees was a well traveled and weather-worn dirt path that headed towards the heart of the apple orchard operation, to Applejack’s home, a big red barn-like structure with white trim, an extension built into the east side, and a reinforced gray gabled roof with a tower, no more than a story tall, on the front. It was a robust structure that had served generations of apple farmers well.
Just outside said house, Twilight could see Applejack unpacking an open top cart that was loaded down with broken tree branches and several wooden buckets overflowing with fresh apples. Pinky Pie, wearing twin buckets that too were full of apples, had been bouncing about like a hyperactive puppy on stimulants as she joined up with the farmer. It was a miracle that she didn’t scatter her cargo of fruit all over the place with her unrestrained energy.
“Twilight,” AJ greeted warmly, her freckles seemed to brighten with her smile, “thank ya ever so kindly for comin’ ta help me out.”
“No problem, Applejack. I’m always happy to help a friend.” Twilight’s smile hesitated when she spotted the dark patches under said friend’s eyes.
“You don’t look like you got a lot of sleep last night?”
“Naw, I’m just right as rain suga’ just some bad dreams that’s all.” AJ casually dismissed the suggestion. “Nothing ta worry about, it’ll take more than one bad night ta tame this pony.”
“AJ, you’re not exactly known for having bad dreams. I’m curious, what were they about?” Twilight was growing very concerned. She had hoped it was just an exaggeration on her part, but between Pinky and herself they had begun to hear disembodied voices and now AJ was having nightmares. She wondered if all her friends were beginning to show similar signs of mental disturbance. She had since dismissed that idea since Rarity hadn’t shown any signs of being afflicted, though Twilight would have to ask her about that later tonight; as well as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, when she could.
“Shoot, Twilight. Its nothin’ ya’ll need to worry your lil’ head over.” Uncomfortable with the subject AJ found herself drawn to the gray Pegasus standing silently behind the lavender unicorn. The Stallion’s eyes were darting nervously over the trees, cautiously inspecting each one as if the boogey-mare herself was about to jump out and eat them all.
“Ah see ya’ll brought some extra help too, don’t recognize him from around these parts. Seems ta be a mite on edge, though.”
“That’s Cutter, he’s an engineer from Manehattan, and an old friend of mine.” Twilight smirked apprehensively at the alien’s odd behavior. “He’s just nervous around new places and ponies.” She had hoped her explanation would satisfy the farmer and would be the end of it. A flimsy hope that faded as AJ raised a suspicious eyebrow and leaned oppressively.
“Ah never knew you’d done been to Manehattan?” Applejack interrogated, while Twilight cursed her absolutely terrible ability to act out a convincing story. She noted with grave annoyance that Pinky Pie had been smiling at her the whole time, shaking her head in quiet guffaws as if watching the funniest thing in the world.
“I haven’t,” Somewhere Twilight could hear her conscience screaming at her to quit while she was ahead, “we met, uh... met in Canterlot, at the library.”
“It’s no good, abort! Abort!” At least she hoped that was her conscience.
“Ah see,” AJ’s abruptly pulled away, but had a much snarkier expression as she unhooked her cart’s harness and went over to greet the new arrival. Isaac had halted in his apple orchard reconnaissance just long enough to notice an orange pony grabbing one of his hooves in hers.
“Howdy partner.” She vigorously pumped his arm in a series of rapid hoof-shakes. “Welcome ta Sweet Apple Acres, here we grow tha biggest, tastiest apples in all Equestria. We’re always happy to be makin’ new friends here and any friend of Twilight’s is ah friend o’ mine.”
“Hi!” Pinky joined in on the fun as she shook Isaac’s other hoof with equal amounts of enthusiasm and jollity. The former-human was shaken about like a flag in an utterly merciless hurricane crosswind.
“I’m Pinky Pie and I know every pony in Ponyville, but I don’t know you so you must be new. Of course you are, how silly of me, oh, but you’re Twilight’s friend too even though you just got here. That gives us so much in common, you know. Even though you’re still new aren’tcha and probably don’t have many friends yet, other than Twilight that is. Oh, it’d be so great to throw a welcoming party for you. Do you like cupcakes? Muffins? Strawberry-rhubarb pie?” So it continued on until the moment Isaac’s legs had managed to find a solid register in the dirt and he forcefully withdrew both arms, breaking away to freedom from the pair of overly eager ponies and the sugar rush ramblings.
“Ah must say we don’t get many city folk around these parts.” AJ continued, good mood uninterrupted as Isaac rotated his shoulders popping his joints back into alignment.
“You must be Applejack, Twilight said you needed some help.” Isaac said in a no-nonsense tone, now more eager than ever to be done with this nonsense.
“Ah sure as suga’ do. Got me some old trees that need ta be gottin’ ride of right away.” AJ circled him, evaluating his body closely, while he watched her closely for any sudden moves, “Hmm... yer not quite as sturdy as Big Macintosh, but ya’ll should do nicely.” She nodded in satisfaction.
“Twilight, can ya and Pinky finished unloadin’ the cart and buck som’more apples while ah show Cutter the ropes?”
“Actually, Applejack, I was wondering if we could talk to you in private.” Twilight protested, whether from a desire to extrapolate the situation to a fellow element holder, or from nervousness at casting Isaac out into the world unsupervised, she couldn’t tell.
“No time suga’, we got’sta finish these here chores before suppa’ time. Pinky can show you the patch of trees we’ve been buckin’ and Cutter here sounds like he’d be the perfect pony ta help me cut down them raggedy old trees over yonder.” AJ pointed to some unseen point in the north.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Isaac followed the farmer pony as she led him towards a section of the farm far to the north of the barn. Of all the ponies he’d met that day, she was the first to wear any sort of distinctive clothing; in this case it was a Stetson hat. He had been fully aware (even before he removed his advanced suit) that clothes were the exception, not the rule. He knew that he, himself, was walking around in his birthday suit in a reality where the dominant species mostly consisted of females. Given all that it didn’t bother him at all, that was the problem. It bugged him that it didn’t bug him.
Setting aside such thoughts for the moment he instead wished to focus on the task at hand. He wasn’t too keen on the whole tree cutting idea, but given that moments of respite between necromorph outbreaks were a vanishing opportunity, it was nice to finally have something else to do, if for only a little while.
Their travels had brought them to a patch of farmland that was home to ten of the most wretched trees he’d ever seen. They were mere leafless brown husks with a smattering of fungus and moss beginning to grow on the trunks. It was no wonder that the farmer wanted such things removed from her land A.S.A.P.
“Tools are rhight over here.” Applejack pointed to a parked cart burden with various lengths of rope, several saws, an ax, a few shovels, and other various pieces of farming and gardening equipment.
“I reckon a two-pony saw it will make it easier.” Reaching in she pulled out a single-sided saw that was between six to seven feet long with a pair of handles on each end for ponies to grip with their front hooves. Carrying it in her mouth she set it down next to the first tree.
“Ya’ll know how to use one o’ these, right?” she smiled with self-assured confidence as if she truly anticipated him to give a negative.
“Of course, even a first year novice would know that.” Isaac snorted glibly.
Applejack grabbed the saw and used it to make a notch on the trunk of the first tree, a guiding line for where the cut would be made, and waited for Isaac to join her.
“Can’t believe I’m doing this,” Isaac mused quietly to himself, “a Master’s in electrical and mechanical engineering, a twenty-one year career serving on every model of ship across trillions of miles of space and it ends with me cutting trees with a talking pony using a saw straight from the dark ages. Since when did someone decide that hell was too good for me?” He took hold of his end of the saw, mirroring the gripping method the farmer pony used.
“Ready?” she asked eagerly.
“Sure,” he mumbled, lost in his gloom.
“Then GO!” Applejack gave an excited holler and in a flash of movement Isaac felt himself suddenly snapped forward to be forcefully face-flattened into the tree with a mighty thwack.
“Guh!” he shouted in surprise as he wheeled backwards, head over heels, to land flat on his back, legs and wings comically flopped about.
“Heh, heh,” the freckled farmer chuckled, “whoops, sorry. Forgot ya’ll city folk ain’t accustomed ta a lil’ hard work. I’ll be sure ta go a bit easier on ya.” Applejack apologized as Isaac shook his head and blinked back the dazed mist from his eyes. Her words had sounded sincere enough, but he had seen the unmistakable glimmer of mischief in her eyes. He silently rebuked himself for letting his guard down, allowing himself to be made the fool. Behind those large innocent green orbs there was just as much playful mirth and deception as anyone else he’d known. Well, two could play at that game.
“I’m okay,” he said while rubbing his nose, relieved to find nothing had been broken, “it was an honest mistake, don’t worry about it.”
“Good ta hear partner. Ready ta try again for real?”
The two of them had returned to their original positions, saw at the ready.
“Ready?” she repeated.
“Yup!” He jumped into action, not bothering to wait for the signal. He dug his feet into the dirt and pulled the saw as quickly and vigorously as he could. His efforts were quickly rewarded with a loud crash and the sight of a much flattened orange pony half embedded in the rotten tree. She slid down the trunk with a noticeable squeaking sound before coming to rest on the ground with a clunk. With a pop and a shake of her head, she was able to straighten herself out, eyes like green lasers that wanted to burn him into a smoking brown puddle.
“Ya’ll did that on purpose!”
“Whoops, guess I don’t know my own strength. Need me to slow down?” Isaac said, taunting her.
“So that’s how it’s gonna be?” Her previous expression of injustice made way for a smile that was as cocky as it was all knowing.
“This is how it is.”
“Why of all the nerve!” She shot back up onto her hooves, “I refuse to be shown up by a high falootin’ city slicker who don’t know tha meanin’ of an honest day’s apple buckin’.”
“And I won’t tolerate some fedora-wearing fruit with a superiority complex.”
“Don’t ya’ll use your fancy words on me, you’re just as bad as Big Macintosh.”
“I don’t know who that is, but he sounds like my kind of guy.”
With words exchanged, a challenge issued, the two of them once again had taken up ready stances by the tree, saw at the ready. The hot-headed human engineer and the stubborn-as-a-mule farmer pony glared venomously at each other, hooves twitching, waiting for the other to make the first move. From an unseen direction a slight breeze had begun to blow while a piece of tumble weed appeared and rolled lazily by.
Isaac was first on the offensive, pulling his end hard and quick with sweat already appearing across his body. Despite his efforts Applejack was able to stand her ground and recovered the initiative with an equally potent fury, the handles digging uncomfortably into her skin. Both of them heaved and grunted as they continuously alternated the balance of power. Sometimes it was in prolonged tugs-of-war, and other times in a series of lightning quick exchanges. It was an intense and dangerous struggle that both poured all of their efforts, all their passions, into: pulling, pushing, and resisting. Each cutting movement was more intent on the defeat of their rival than actually felling the tree, yet it was still working. Within minutes after they’d started, the familiar sound of splintering wooden fibers had filled the air and the dead tree collapsed with a mighty crash.
That minor interruption didn’t concern them and did nothing to stop them from continuing on with their unwavering focus. Moving as Siamese twins connected by a long metal blade, they headed to the next tree to continue the war. Back and forth, back and forth they vied for position. Every victory added another new bruise to their opponent, their own bodies keeping track of the score. So far they had been tied in points and the realization of such made them fight even harder, redoubling their efforts. No inch or quarter was given, the pride of apple farmers and the integrity of engineers everywhere had been laid bare that day and only one would emerge victorious.
The second tree tumbled and neither hesitated as they moved to the next.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Within an hour Twilight and Pinky Pie had bucked enough trees and gathered enough red fruit to fill the cart to the brim with more produce then either could eat in a single month by themselves, even if they ate nothing but. When they had tried to move the cart, however, they soon realized that they had made a grievous error in judgment. The personification of pink pony was grinding her teeth as she strained against the harness trying to pull the cart up the shallow hill while the magic purple pupil had thrown her back against the wagon and pushed from behind. Progress was slow but as the pair made it to the summit they decided, or rather were forced, to take a brief respite to catch their breaths.
“Applejack always makes it look so easy,” Pinky gasped like a drowning fish alongside Twilight who was not faring any better, “Can’t you use a little of your magic, Twi? Just a teensy-weensy-itty-bitty, ‘I’m a Doctor not a farmer, Jack,’ bit?”
“Not... an option,” Twilight paused for a big breath, “especially not after what... happened... at the,” another large gulp, “Winter Wrap Up.”
“Oh yeah,” Pinky inflected as if remembering something funny, “AJ did have a word or two with you about magic on her farm. Actually it was a lot more than a few words, but I don’t think I have to remind you of that since you were the one who just brought it up now.”
There was a slight interruption in the conversation when the sound of three filly voices rose above the silent orchard, cheering and hollering in high-pitched squees of delight. Only one group of fillies could manage that feat and have decibels to spare so that even the deaf could hear them. It seemed to originate somewhere around the northern quarter where Isaac and Applejack had gotten off to.
“That sounds disturbingly like the Cutie-Mark Crusaders. I wonder what’s going on that’s got them all excited?”
“Oh, oh!” Pinky had begun to bounce about excitedly, leaving a still fatigued Twilight to wonder where the sugar lover stored all that extra energy.
“Come on Twilight, let’s go check it out. Maybe they’ve started a party already. I do so love parties, but they shouldn’t have started it without me, how rude. We’ll I’m sure they just got excited and couldn’t help themselves, after all every new pony deserves a party...”
“Enough, Pinky!” Twilight interrupted, screaming in a sudden anger, “Are you always so annoying? Can you ever think of anything besides parties?” Normally she didn’t mind the party pony’s rambunctious rants, she enjoyed them at times, but sometimes she wished she could, to Pinky, could just... could just...
Twilight had to bite her lip hard to interrupt her darkening thoughts from spiraling further out of control. Having regained her senses she hung her head in shame. She would never, ever, wish to cause harm on her friends or treat them unfairly. That unfamiliar feeling of emptiness was creeping in now, she closed her eyes steeled herself to fight the darkness, to keep it away.
“You okay?” Pinky gently placed a hoof across her friend’s forehead. Thankfully she was far more concerned and not offended.
“This isn’t like you Twi, you’ve been acting strangely since last night.”
“I noticed,” she agreed, “I’ve been feeling funny too.”
“You just need something to turn that frown upside down. Come on,” she intertwined her arm with the egghead’s, “a party awaits us and laughter is always the best medicine, Doctor Pie is never wrong.”
“Actually, that sounds like a great idea. Thanks Pinky.”
“Don’t mention it! What are friends for?”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
With the sound of gleeful shouting fillies as their guide it had been a cinch to track down the source of the disturbance. The sight that greeted Twilight and Pinky was both a typical situation of the usual chaotic shenanigans that frequently played out in Ponyville. At the same time it was so utterly bewildering that Twilight had to sit down before she dared to attempt to make sense of it all.
The best way to describe it was that both farmer and engineer had been at each others' throats engaged in an all out, no-holds-barred, Iron Pony competition. Isaac and Applejack were both covered in numerous bruises on their bodies and legs and each sported a black eye on top of that. A few of his feathers had fallen onto the ground, while she had lost her hat somewhere. Nearby there was a neat stack of ten freshly cut logs, all of which had pony shaped holes in them, and a pile of eight exhumed tree stumps. The entire area looked like a demolition zone. Grass was trampled flat, a cloud of dust hovered overhead, and apples had been scattered and squished under hoof.
Through out it all sat three little ponies who continued to cheer and encourage the combatants. These three fillies were known to all residents of Ponyville as the Cutie-Mark Crusaders.
“Yeaahh! Way to go Mister, show Applejack who’s the boss!” Cheered Scootaloo, the first member of the CMC. She was an orange skinned and purple mane pegasus child with stubby wings and grayish-purple eyes. Although she was still too young to fly, that didn’t stop her from buzzing her wings in support of the gray stallion.
Next to her was Sweetie Bell, Rarity’s younger sister. The two unicorn siblings shared the same white skin. Yet Sweetie Bell, unlike her older sister, had sap green eyes and a twirls in her mane that were half rose and half purple, offset with a grayish tint. Having no clear role model to cheer for, she just made a ruckus for the sheer thrill of it, voice ringing clear and melodious as if caught in a song.
“Come on, Applejack! Ya’ll can’t lose to some newcom’r! Then there was the final member of the CMC, Applebloom, who was shouting her lungs out in support of her older sister, Applejack. The fervent pale olive colored filly, with orange eyes, was perhaps most recognizable for the big red ribbon she wore in her rose colored mane, which was currently obscured by AJ’s signature Stetson hat.
Now Applejack was using her famous apple bucking legs trying to uproot her remaining tree stump. Isaac, however, had tied a rope around his stump and used a nearby tree as a fixed axle in an improvised pulley system and beating his wings to give him an edge, but never leaving the ground. The battle only ended when there was heard a stereoscopic sound of ripping roots as they tore their stumps clean of the earth.
“Done!”
“Finished!” They both shouted their victory in unison, ending the fight in yet another tie. For them that was an unacceptable - offensive even - outcome. They expressed this intolerable situation by colliding into one another, pressed together; chest to chest, muzzle to muzzle, and eyes undeterred.
“There are no more stumps ta uproot.”
“Sure about that? I can see one more in front of me.”
“Then there is only one way left ta settle this.” AJ stepped back and upturned one of the freshly liberated stumps, “a hoof wrassle.”
The five bystanders watched the two combatants lock hooves in a deathgrip. Both AJ and Isaac heaved and panted, growling against each other, completely united in their desire to emerge victorious over the other. Seconds seemed to stretch out into minutes as the exhausted ponies heaved with all their remaining strength. Their arms remained unmoving like stone pillars while their sweat ran like rapids down their faces. While Twilight and the Cutie-Mark Crusaders watched, unconsciously holding their breath in rapt fascination, Pinky Pie was happily munching from a box of caramel popcorn while pumping a yellow, ‘#1’ foam finger fist into the air.
It had been an impressive fight, but, in the end, there could be only one winner.
“Yeeehaaawww!!” Applejack gave a victorious yelp as a defeated Isaac slumped limply onto the tree stump, his face one of utter shock and bewilderment. He couldn’t believe that he’d just lost, and to a southern talking pony fruit to boot. He felt a terrible blow to his male pride, as if he’d just been kicked in the family jewels. It felt both demeaning and yet strangely liberating at the same time. He’d been defeated, true, but at least he wasn’t going to be torn into bloody shreds as a consequence of it.
“Aww, cheer up there, Cutter.” Applejack not-so-sympathetically patted him on the back, “Ya’ll done put up a good fight, but nopony could eva hope ta put me down.” Isaac just rolled his head to the side and stared with an unimpressed look.
“Hay, Cutie-mark Crusaders,” At AJ’s beckoning the three fillies had rushed in to stand at attention before her, “It’d be mighty helpful if ya’ll could show Cutter here back ta tha barn so he could get cleaned up.”
“Yes Ma’am” the CMC saluted with military precision before rushing off to pull, push, and plead with Isaac to follow them. He gave Twilight a pleading look, asking for an intervention. One that wasn't coming.
“Don’t forget ta introduce him ta Granny Smith, ya hear me Applebloom?” AJ called out as Isaac was lead away. Once he was a safe distance out of earshot, she walked up to Twilight the farmer’s tone suddenly serious.
“Twi, ya’ll sure he’s from Manehattan?” Her question must’ve hit a nerve because Twilight suddenly cringed. “He certainly ain’t no stuck up prissy pony that ah would associate with that stuck-up city.”
“That’s what I wanted to tell you about, AJ. Not in the open however, we need to go someplace where we can talk in secret. You see...” Applejack raised a hoof to silence the unicorn.
“Then why don’t ya’ll keep it a secret until after we finish with these chores.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Once again Isaac found himself being led about by pastel ponies. He was fast losing his patience; it was feeling like he was regarded more as a pet than someone who’d single-handedly survived impossible odds, twice. Then he only had to take a single look at the three children at his side before such anger and indignation vanished like vaporized water. He would never admit it to anyone, but he found them rather... cute, even adorable. The fact that they looked up to him with eyes filled with adoration and respect didn’t hurt either. With them around it was easy to almost forget about his recent humiliation, almost. The best words he could find to describe their behavior was ‘bubbly innocence.’ They certainly had the energy of Pinky Pie, but were not nearly as unrestrained or insane.
“Wow, mister. Ya’ll must be really strong,” Applebloom said in genuine admiration, “Ya’ll managed ta get Applejack ta take her hat off.”
“Is that good?” Isaac looked at her as if she were speaking nonsense which, to him, she was.
“Good?” Applebloom sputtered in incredulity, “My big sister says that she has a lot o’ tha Apple family pride in her. If she takes off her hat it means she’s really getting’ down ta business. She didn’t even take it off during her race with Rainbow Dash during last year’s ‘Running of the Leaves’ competition.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo jumped in with merrily, “you were awesome back there, not as awesome as Rainbow Dash, but still very cool.”
“So what do you do, Mister Cutter?” Without warning Sweetie Bell had hopped onto his back in a single bound. While he was of a mind to order her off, he could help but resist doing so. Human or pony, he had a weakness when it came to children. At time really wished he could’ve had some of his own.
“Well,” Isaac briefly considered following Twilight’s example and making something up, but surely there was no harm in telling these kids what he did as long as he avoided specifics. Besides if it ended up irritating Twilight then that was just and added perk.
“I’m a systems engineer.” He proudly told them.
“What’s a sys..syte..cyst, what’s an engineer?” Sweetie Bell felt her cheeks heat in embarrassment.
“That's ‘systems’ engineer,” Isaac corrected, feeling a wash of confidence and self-importance overtake him, “It’s my job to build, repair, modify, and maintain the various tools, weapons, and machines that peo... er, ponies use in their day to day activities. Got something that is broken? Bring it to me and I can fix it and improve it. Got a nasty monster breathing down your neck? I know how to build the weapons that’ll put that creature in its place.”
“Could ya’ll teach us ta be enghineers?” The red haired child asked with winded anticipation.
“I suppose I could.” He answered; unaware of what would come next. All three of the fillies had taken deep potent breath before, in unison, they shouted an almighty cheer that left him wondering how something so small could produce a sound so big.
“Cutie-Mark Crusaders: System Engineers GO! Yayyyy!!!”
They certainly had not held back in their gleeful adulation and afterwards they smiled at him, continued to speak highly of him. Isaac hadn’t seen such happiness in such a long time, however he knew that they were ignorant of the fate that awaited them. Then the reality of the state of affairs came crashing back down on him. For a moment, brief although it was, he didn’t see three little pony children full of life and silly vigor, but something else. Voided, lifeless eyes, decayed flesh hanging by threads from shredded muscles, a trio of tentacles sprouting from their backs with the sole deadly purpose of spitting spiked barbs at the living. There was a word for such abominations; necromorphs, lurkers, undead children. The name didn’t matter, he could hear their screams in his mind’s eye, could picture the moment of their deaths and terrible conversion.
They didn’t know what was coming, they were only children. It was at that moment he had made his decision. Repayment and rewards be damned, he didn’t need either from Twilight or her Princess and it no longer mattered that they were a different species. He could not allow himself to stand idly by and allow such a future to befall any of them. The Marker wasn’t built yet, therefore he had a chance to avert the outbreak before it began.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
It was some time later before Isaac emerged from the bathroom. He had taken his time cleaning the sweat and grim off, but in truth he had wanted the alone time to collect his thoughts while the warm water massaged his sore muscles. In the end he was clean and presentable even if all the bruises made it look like he was wearing a gray shirt with black polka-dots. He heard familiar voices and followed them into what he assumed to be the dining room.
Inside was a large maple table, circled by five wooden chairs, which looked almost as old as the pony that he saw sitting at its head. The elderly green pony he saw had more wrinkles on her face than there were apples in the orchard, her snow white hair was done up in a tight bun that looked very uncomfortable to him, and when she walked towards him he could clearly hear the joints cracking as ancient joints were forced into activity.
“Hello, Mister Cutter.” Applebloom greeted him happily, “Are ya feelin’ better?”
“Yes I am, thanks for asking.” He responded in kind.
“This here is my grandma, Granny Smith.” The child introduced him to the wizened old pony.
“Little Applebloom has been tellin’ me all about ya, young un.” Her smile was devoid of teeth, but no less warm and inviting. Isaac found himself a little put off by her invitation, though. She’d called him young, well, compared to her he must be.
“So, she continued, “ya’ll are tha stallion who done tried ta put the spurs ta my granddaughter?”
Suddenly Isaac felt incredibly uncomfortable around the elder pony. She was the least threatening person he’d ever seen and seemed to be very open. Right then, however, she was giving him, ‘that look.’ He knew, ‘that look,’ well; others had used it on him before. It was the judging gaze of a protective guardian sizing up a potential candidate for their daughters.
“Is she shitting me?” He thought coldly. “Does she not realize I’m far too old for her granddaughter?” He was about to voice said objections when said grandchild suddenly emerged into said dining room.
“Howdy everyone.” Applejack arrived, hat firmly placed back on her head, accompanied by Twilight and Pinky Pie.
“Granny Smith, ah see ya’ll all have met Cutter.”
“Indeed ah have, my child, he’s not quite what ah had expected.” She answered truthfully, “But it ahpears Big Macintosh might have some competition.”
“Granny, since we’ve finished early, what say we celebrate with a little o the good stuff.” Applejack walked over to the kitchen door in anticipation.
“Good stuff?” Isaac liked where this was going.
“Sure thang,” AJ exalted when Granny Smith gave a wink of approval, “we gots jugs o’ moon-shine, sun-shine, apple-shine, salt-shine, and since ya’ll are from Manehattan maybe ah should get the orange-shine. Ah made it from the finest oranges my uncle and auntie sent over.”
“Then fire up that son-of-a-bitch and throw it at my head.” Is what he wanted to say but given his close proximity to both the purple mage and a trio of children he figured it wouldn’t go down exceptionally well, so he settled for a simple, “I’d love some of that orange-shine,” instead.
“Cutie-Mark Crusaders, time fer ya’ll to skidaddle.” Granny Smith ordered while pushing the three fillies towards the door.
“Awwwh, but we wanna watch.” Sweetie Bell pouted at the injustice of it all.
“Sorry young-uns, this here is big pony business.”
“You’re no fun Granny.”
“Ah said for you ta get. Go on and play in ya’lls clubhouse.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Well... so much for that idea.” Sweetie Bell sighed after their imposed ejection from the barn.
“Don’t worry, girls,” Scootaloo said in her usual energized tomboyish manner, “we can have Cutter show us how to be engineers tomorrow.”
“So, what’ll we do until then?” Applebloom kicked a stone.
“Same thing we do every day,” Scootaloo brayed, “to try and discover our true talents.”
“Ah know that, Ah mean what ac’tiv’ity thing are we gonna try next?”
As if in answer to her question a sudden rumbling crack, like distant thunder, echoed in the air. The sound had been short, sharp, and powerful enough to startle the fillies with its sudden invasion. The three fillies exchanged confused looks as they searched the sky for any signs of a storm, but not a cloud graced the flawless blue sky. They put an ear to the sky and waited a few breathless moments for a repeat performance. Their patience was rewarded as a second thunder crack blasted through the air, but this time they were able to pinpoint the direction it was coming from.
“Look! Over there!” Scootaloo shouted while pointing at a large column of black smoke and dust that had suddenly appeared, rising slowly over a nearby hill. It was soon joined by a second trailing plume of dark smoke that seemed to wrap around the first. Youthful curiosity overrode caution and the fillies ascended the nearest hill to get a better view. Once they had reached the summit they looked over the rolling fields of Apple Trees, but they found nothing was out of the ordinary. Their gaze lifted higher and they briefly considered Ponyville. Even from here they could see a flurry of frenzied activity had overtaken the town, but the smoke didn’t come from there. Looking even higher they traveled to the base of the Prismatic Mountains and proceeded slowly up the bare rocky slopes. The end of the journey was at the summit of Mount Eclipse, and what they saw there had made their hair stand on end and their blood freeze. Without realizing it they had huddled close together, bodies pressed tightly, trying to find solace in each other arms.
There were three massive spiraling plumes of smoke now, the third following in the wake of a large fireball. This wasn’t supposed to happen; everything they’d been told and had learned in school had said this was impossible. So they just stared and watched, their young minds blank, unable to find the emotions to express the horror unfolding high atop Mount Eclipse.
It was on fire, the very heart and soul of Equestria had been pierced and was bleeding rubble down the mountain side.
Canterlot was burning. |
Oceansama | 682 | 10 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-01-26T00:06:56+00:00 | 2012-01-26T00:06:56+00:00 | 1,741 | Chapter 10: Into the Fire
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
In Canterlot, there was a toughened metal-bar fence that completely surrounded the castle grounds of the monarchy. It was as tall as six ponies, and designed with the dual purposes of strength and beauty; as much protection for the princesses as it was part of the pleasing aesthetic of the city. The only way past it was through the front gates, which were comprised of two vertical layers of reinforced beams made of the strongest steel, forged and tempered from Fillydelphia itself. The gates were also flanked by four elite guards; their helmets covering their faces completely.
It was said that even in the long forgotten days when war and conflict had spread over the land, no invading force had ever managed to break the gates and set hoof upon the castle grounds, not even pegasi - as an invisible magical barrier domed overhead. At least that had been the case up until last night, when a certain drunken crazed cyan pegasus had simply let herself in. Scholars and scientists would debate that anomaly for centuries to come.
This time, however, Rainbow Dash had to wave Luna’s royal summons in order to convince the guards to allow her to gain admittance. The guards had hesitated initially while they quietly communicated their concerns between each other through minuscule head twitches and subtle body language. In the end they followed their duties and allowed her and her friends to pass through unobstructed, but insisted they be escorted by a pair of soldiers for safety concerns.
After the gates had closed behind the trio of ponies and their escort, they traveled down a road that was made entirely out of large carved slabs of bleached marble. The pieces were evenly spaced, measured, and cut to make a straight unbroken line straight to the castle. It was flanked on both sides by a single massive garden that wrapped itself around the castle, filling all the gaps between the structure and the enclosure. Rainbow Dash remembered once that Fluttershy had told her that the Canterlot garden contained a far greater variety of flora and fauna species than there were individual ponies in Ponyville and Canterlot combined. Dash didn’t believe all that, but noticed that no matter where she looked she had trouble spotting the same animal twice.
Dash felt uneasy being back here again for the third time. The first visit had been during the Grand Galloping Gala, a month back. It was suppose to have been the greatest night of her life, and had started off promisingly enough. It had been a fantastic party, but that was not her reason for attending. It was the prime opportunity to mingle and work her way in with the Wonderbolts, the greatest team of the six most professional aerobatic fliers in all of Equestria. They were her greatest heroes and her lifelong ambition was to join their distinguished ranks. That’s not how it turned out that night - nothing but an extreme disappointment, a complete and utter disaster.
Much like her second visit last night when she’d ‘accidentally,’ (and that’s how she’d explained it), had gotten tangled up with a lawn mower long enough to have ‘just happened’ to write her initials into the entire eastern part of the lawn. Then she’d dropped several servants into the water fountain, and finished off the night by embarrassing the head gardener by bringing the size of his manliness into question. An act which had won her several giggles from a few nearby mares before the guards and her friends had managed to catch up and put an end to her rampage. Back in the now she had noticed several grounds workers she passed by were giving her a few nervous sidelong glances.
“Looks like ya’ll are not very pop’lar round these parts.” Big Mac stated the obvious while chewing on a fresh hay stalk he’d mysteriously found.
“I know,” Dash said irritably while becoming very self aware of the blush heating her cheeks, “but I tried to explain that it was all just a misunderstanding.”
“Ah misunderstandin’? Ya’ll ripped up and ate his wife’s photo.” Big Mac austerely reminded her.
“How was I supposed to know it was his wife?” Dash shouted in defiance, “I thought it was a production shot from, ‘Planet of the Monkey Men.’ Besides he can always get a new one. I don’t see what the big deal is,” she brought it down into a hot whisper, “stupid photograph.”
“And then ya’ll shoved a quill up his nose?” Big Mac simulated the act with his hay stalk while the escorting guards grunted their disapproval.
“It was the feather end, besides the doctors said they could get that out in a jiff.”
“May I suggest; an apology would be best.” Zecora offered.
“Yeah, yeah, maybe later, we’ve got more important things to do, Zecora.”
“Be on your best behavior, do not be stubborn to excess; we are here to meet the Princess.” The zebra cautiously lectured.
“Ahem.” A stallion cleared his throat and seemingly out of nowhere a tan colored pegasus pony, with a slicked back dark blue mane, landed right next to them. He was dressed in a black two-piece suit with a matching bow tie and a white under-shirt. Pinned over his left breast pocket was a broach made from a silver crescent moon hugging an oval shaped amethyst jewel, polished to a brilliant shine, and glowing gently from an internal light that came from the gleam of a small star that had been implanted inside the jewel.
“Who are you?” Dash asked with a mask of indignation while admiring the gentle shine of the amethyst star.
“My name is Star Watch,” he replied with well rehearsed professionalism, “I am Princess Luna’s personally appointed aide and butler. Her Majesty has assigned me to act as your escort for the evening. A pleasure, Miss Dash.” He bowed respectfully at her, playing the part of the exemplary gentlecolt quite well, but Dash did not find it comforting or endearing at all.
“You know my name?”
“Of course, ponies have been talking a lot about you lately. Princess Luna, herself, did speak very highly of you. Others... less so.”
“Yeah, I’m getting that a lot lately.” Dash rubbed her head in shame.
“Her Majesty has retired to the dining hall to enjoy an early breakfast. If you’d care to join me, I can take you there straight away.” At Dash’s nod of approval, Star Watch dismissed the guards after a brief exchange of reassurance on his part.
“Hey,” Dash jumped into Watch’s face, “what does the princess want from us?” Watch stopped in his tracks to regard Dash with a perplexed expression.
“Surely, Miss Dash, you must have read the letter Her Majesty sent, did you not?”
“Yeah I did, but what does she ‘really’ want?” She unfolded her wings to punctuate the question.
“Princess Luna intends no deception,” his voice was stern with a hint of caution, “You would do well to watch your tone.”
“Excuuuse me, or what?”
“Hm, do you wish me to give you the polite version or straight up, Miss Dash?”
“Straight up, and stop calling me Miss.”
“Very well,” Star Watch looked her straight in the eyes, the air of sophistication and restraint remained but was fueled by raw emotion just under the surface. To Dash it was like a bolt of lightning had struck her to the heart.
“I don’t like you. I think you’re nothing but a spoiled troublemaker as your despicable performance last night showed. By all rights you should have been tossed right back into the dungeon. Had Princess Luna not interceded on your behalf, then that’s exactly what would’ve happened.”
“R... really? She did that for me?” Rainbow Dash was speechless and looked to her friends for confirmation. Her surprised look was met with confused shrugs.
“She did, and is taking a great risk in helping you. She certainly won’t be winning any friends from it. Her Majesty’s reputation is, to put it generously, abysmal. She’s given nothing but her best in order to win over the hearts and minds of her subjects. Yet most ponies trust her about as far as they can throw this castle.”
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” she looked away, feeling a lump in her throat. Her own attitude had put her in this position. Now she owed Luna a favor, and she hated that. It wasn’t like she loathed Luna, in the short time they had gotten to know each other Dash had found she kind of liked the inscrutable princess, but she just couldn’t get over that whole Shadowbolts business.
“Remember Dash, it is wise to take a closer look; before judging the cover of the book.”
“Eeyup.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Star Watch guided them down the boulevard and over the bridge that bypassed the moat, escorting them through the massive double doors of the castle’s entrance, which were just as majestic as Dash remembered them. Through the gates was the entrance hall, where countless servants darted about with focused intent while well-dressed lords and ladies discussed matters of politics, fashion, status, and wealth. Most of the nobleponies were gathered around the foot of the wide staircase that lead up to the second floor. The top of the stairs was where Princess Celestia had stood and greeted all her guests during the Grand Galloping Gala.
The rest of the trip was a blur that ended as soon as they had arrived at the royal dining hall. The room was long, half a hoof-ball field sized long. In the center was a polished oak table with enough room and chairs to seat many hundreds of guests and was set with all the plates, goblets, and utensils necessary to entertain that many at a moment’s notice. Princess Luna was sitting on the right side of the head of the table with the chair on her left unoccupied. Luna was enjoying a simple garden salad while sorting through a large pile of forms and documents. She gave a warm smile as the ponies approached.
“Thank you Star, please leave us for now. I’d like to speak to them in private.”
“Of course, your Majesty.” Star gave a respectful bow before promptly spinning in place and departing the way he’d come in without another word. Luna watched him go and only when he’d completely left the room did she directly address the others.
“So, we meet again Rainbow Dash.” Luna arose and Dash found herself compelled to bow low before her.
“Please, there is no need for all this stuffy formality. When it’s just us you can call me Luna too. I see you brought Macintosh as well, but I don’t recognize your other companion.”
“That’s Zecora, another friend of mine. She’s a zebra who lives out in the Everfree forest and kinda got stuck with us here when the city was closed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Luna said sincerely, “I was only expecting two of you, but I certainly can spare another one for your friend.” Luna lifted out a box decorated with ordinate carvings all over it from a bag that had been propped next to her chair. She set it on the table and before opening it was interrupted by Dash.
“Princ-- Luna. I...” she stuttered, “I heard about what you did for me and... I... well...”
“What my pony friend here wishes to say; is she is grateful for the help you sent her way.” Zecora helpfully interceded to a sigh of relief from the cyan Pegasus. Then Luna had started laughing and Dash fell into such a fit of heated embarrassment that her face lit up redder than Big Mac’s coat.
“How could I not help you out after that wonderful display last night in the gardens? The look on Green Hoof’s face after you ate his wife’s picture and vanquished him with his own quill. You and I must think alike, because those were exactly two of the three things I most wanted to inflict upon that hot headed, trumped up, gardenite.”
“So,” The room was filled with Luna’s choking amusement and Dash couldn’t help but join in, “what was the third thing?” Luna gave an impish wink.
“A Princess would not dare say such a thing out loud. I will hint that it would involve using a certain gardening tool in a manner it wasn’t intended for.”
“Oh.” As Dash had begun to contemplate the implications of that statement she found herself growing fonder of the Princess.
“That’s strange,” the alicorn had spoken after opening the ordinate box, “there’s suppose to be six of them.” She then pulled out three of the objects. Each was a silver collar, adorned with two alicorns, made to clamp around a pony’s neck and had a crescent shaped pendant swinging lazily from a short chain. Like a sucker punch, fondness turned to suspicion as Dash recognized the objects as an exact copy of the jewelry Ditzy had been wearing.
“If you wear these you can come and go from the city as you please.”
“Thanks, but we can’t leave just yet.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Yeah,” Dash was struggling with whether or not to trust the princess now, “do you know a pony named Ledger?”
“Ledger? Sure I do, economic specialist, quiet guy. Rather anti-social.”
“Yeah, well, he was spotted sending mail out from the post office and not through the castle guards.”
“That is odd, but not really illegal, at least not under normal circumstances. The mail mare he enlisted would need royal permission from Celestia first."
“That’s just the thing: she had one of yours.” Dash indicated the medals on the table. Luna looked at her as if she’d suddenly exploded.
“That can’t be right. Ledger is one of Celestia’s staff and has no royal right to handle my affairs. Celestia may allow her subordinates to handle hers, but I’ve never given any such decree. Not even when we heard the book had been stolen from the treasury.”
“A book!?” Dash growled, “Is a book really what has everypony by the tail hairs? I could see Twilight getting all hot over such a thing, not all of Canterlot. I’ve been trapped here since yesterday because of a book?”
“It is no ordinary book. In fact it is very special and for all the wrong reasons. To just be near it could be dangerous and can cause certain...afflictions.” Warning bells were going off in Rainbow’s head. Slowly, the pieces came together, and she began to feel unease with were this conversation was headed.
“Would this book... cause ponies to, uhm, kinda-- I mean, see things that were not there?” She’d said so little, yet it had made all the difference.
“You felt it, didn’t you? You actually came under its influence?” Luna suddenly grabbed Dash by the shoulders, “Tell me everything you know. We have to recover that book before it is used by the wrong hooves!”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
It hadn’t taken long to pinpoint Ledger’s position. A couple of inquiries to the staff had revealed that he was currently in the middle of a meeting in the dome shaped council chambers. There were two pegasus guards on duty by the entrance to the chambers, and when Luna approached them they didn’t appear to acknowledge her presence nor did they step away from their post.
“Guards, I wish to be allowed entrance. I must speak with Mr. Ledger at once on a matter of dire importance.” Her decree was met with silence. She took a step to get by but they immediately blocked her progress by raising their wings.
“What is the meaning of this? I am your Princess and as the Keeper of the Moon and of the Night Sky, I am ordering you to step aside!” Still the guards taunted her with silence.
“Guards, I should warn you that you are set on a very dangerous path! By disobeying me you are disobeying Princess Celestia!”
“Sorry, your Majesty.” A guard finally spoke, “but it is by Celestia’s orders that no one else be allowed to interrupt.” Luna feigned surprise, then she smile coyly.
“I see, even risking my wrath you remain steadfast and loyal to my sister.” Luna inched close to the guard’s ear, “I find that very attractive in a big strong Stallion such as yourself.” She said in a deeply seductive voice. The guard didn’t visibly react, but she could feel his body temperature start to climb. She gently traced a hoof around his ear and down his neck.
“Maybe you and I should get to know each other better, handsome.” That got the guard’s attention; breaking his rigid stance he risked a slight peek in her direction. The moment he looked straight into her eyes the spell she’d cast on herself made it impossible for him to resist her any further.
Luna felt completely humiliated at what she was doing. Not only at the awkwardness of the situation, but the fact that it was her sister who had taught her the tricks on the finer points of ‘diplomatic negotiations.’ Though, Luna confessed, she might’ve overdone it a bit.
As she worked her goddess charms on the guards she observed Rainbow Dash, Big Macintosh, and Zecora silently sneak down a perpendicular corridor. The plan was working so far.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Rainbow Dash and Zecora ducked into an empty staff room while Big Mac stood watch outside. Just as Luna had predicted, the office was unoccupied at the moment. Dash didn’t know what business went on this room and didn’t care. The only thing she was interested in was the window at the far end of the room.
“Remember to not be so bold; follow Luna’s path as she has told.” Zecora said as she unlocked the window with the key Luna had given them.
“Yeah, I know. Just be sure to give the signal in case of trouble.”
There were many pegasus guards flying patrols overhead, but with Luna’s instructions Dash knew the best way how to avoid them all. Still Dash insisted on wearing Luna’s royal medal in case she got caught. It would allow her to talk her way out of a bad situation if necessary, or so she’d hoped.
Stealth required patience, the latter of which was her most prevailing flaw. A couple of times it had almost gotten her noticed by the guards. Inch by inch she had managed to crawl her way down the roof of the castle hiding behind walls, parapets, smoke stacks, and other chest high walls till she reached the glass dome of the council chambers.
Just below the dome was an uninterrupted band of evenly space windows. She attached herself to the wall and snuck around under the windows slowly making her way around the structure. Even here on the outside Dash could clearly hear two ponies whispering in a debate from within the chamber, though she didn’t understand what was being said until she had reached an optimal position.
“Mr. Ledger, is everything prepared?” Spoke a gruff and authoritative voice that Dash didn’t recognize.
“Yes sir. The explosives are primed and awaiting detonation, but still I have doubts as to this course of action, sir.” Ledger paced nervously about the room.
“I understand you may have reservations, Mr. Ledger, but do not fear. Everything has been accounted for. Even if the plan fails there are contingencies in place to assure our success.”
“Would not killing her star pupil be easier? Secret Cherry is growing impatient.”
“No, ignore Cherry! We kill Twilight Sparkle now and fifty ponies will rise up where she fell. With Celestia out of the picture Luna loses her safety blanket and it’ll be easy to convince those scared foals in office that Luna was the mastermind behind the whole thing. Then Prince Blue Blood will rise up into a position of prominence.”
“That incompetent buffoon? Hardly leadership material to inspire the masses” Ledger spat with undisguised contempt.
“He will be the perfect pony puppet to serve our needs.”
“Maybe, but are you absolutely sure that assassinating the Princess will work? She is a goddess after all.”
“Do not worry. The device has been laced with pellets made from orichalcum. Let’s see how she handles that at point-blank range.”
“Orichalcum?” Ledger gasped in disbelief, “Then you found it! The god slayer”
“Yes, and with the power of a new Marker under our control we will make all of ponykind whole again. A return to our former glory, just as it was back in ancient times. The whole world will be ours and no nation will be outside our reach. Not even the moon itself.” There was a chime from a clock, striking the hour.
“Celestia should now be heading to her private quarters for her weekly makeover. The moment she opens the door and it will all be in our hooves.” The unknown stallion dramatically exposed.
Rainbow Dash exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, frozen in place with inconceivable disbelief at what she’d just overheard. Her first raging impulse was to fly right at them into a head on confrontation. This was just plain stupid, unforgivable.
“You guys are sick!” she yelled out of impulse, then quickly realized she’d made a terrible slip-up.
“Who’s out there?!” Ordered the gruff stallion, heading in her direction.
“Guards! We have a spy in our midst! Find her!”
Dash didn’t wait for the guard. With a mighty push off the wall she dived straight back to the office, no longer caring if she was spotted by patrols. Zecora saw her charging in hot and quickly opened the window, shutting it again once the cyan pegasus was through.
“Quickly, we have to get to Luna! There is no time to waste; they’ll going to kill her!”
“Steady yourself Dash, tell me what you have heard; what pony would be so absurd?” Dash bolted out the door closely followed by a stunned Zebra.
“They going to kill Celestia, we have to get to her room now!”
“What in tar’nation ya’ll talkin’ about?” The hay stalk slipped from Big Mac’s lips.
“HALT! Stay right where you are!” Two guards interrupted them, and were charging right for them.
“There are intruders in the castle! They mean harm to our princess!”
“No, no it’s not us its..” The guards paid no heed to her protests. They galloped forward prepared to trample and subdue her.
The first guard had the misfortune of meeting the red stone wall that was Big Macintosh. The giant farmer rammed the guard brutally into the wall and pinned him there, knocking the helmet clean off the guard’s head. Zecora reached into her saddle bag and extracted a flask filled with a green liquid. She tossed the glass bottle into the face of the second guard and he collapsed, skidding to a halt as his hooves clutching his eyes in painful agony.
“Rainbow Dash, do not hesitate; save Celestia before it’s too late.” Dash faltered anyway despite the advice. It was all happening so fast that she couldn’t cope. So she just stood there in a panic stricken state.
“Git goin,’ Now!” Big Mac shouted as he struggled to hold the trained soldier. “We’ll handle these here stallions. Ya’ll have ta warn tha Princess!” Dash snapped back into reality and with a nod and a promise to get the job done she shot down the corridor like a bullet. Unfortunately in her panic she went the wrong way, away from Luna. As Dash flew she thought of Twilight and how devastated her friend would be if she failed to avert this disaster.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
She had trouble wrapping her head around just how big the castle was on the inside. The narrow confines of the castle made it hard to achieve any decent speed; the constant fear of sudden sharp turns limited her potential. After awhile she had to stop in order to gather her bearings. She had tried her best to retrace the path Luna had taken them to only find herself stuck at an intersection with three possible directions to take. By now she had come to the awareness that she was completely and utterly lost. All around her was a near maddening silence, not a servant or guard to be found. She listened carefully for any sign of life, but there was nothing.
Each hallway looked exactly the same. She had a feeling that the way was straight ahead and she had not flown more than a dozen feet in that direction before she heard somepony call out to her.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“Hello?” Dash called out to the enigmatic speaker hoping to find a friendly face or at least somepony she could grill for directions. Either she had imagined it or they were hiding from her. She had to rub her temples, suddenly finding it hard to concentrate on her surroundings and returned to the intersection, hoping to find the voice.
Then she heard something.
It had begun as quiet clatter that echoed at the periphery of her hearing and slowly gained volume. She recognized the slow, but purposeful, clapping of light hoof steps upon stone. Yet there was something strange about it, an unusual quality that shouldn’t be there, a kind of sticky wetness with each hoof fall.
“Run! Run, now!”
The voice implored and had abruptly instilled within her a strong feeling that she was in terrible danger. The moment the emotion had hit the slow canter from the unseen pony became a full gallop as it suddenly picked up deadly speed. Sharp animal cries echoed behind her and on both her sides followed by vociferous barking as if from a large canine. The raw sounds filled her with a primal fear and she blindly took flight for dear life in the only direction she felt was safe.
Back the way she came.
Whoever following her was soon joined by a second set of hoof steps, then three, and then more joined it making it impossible to judge their numbers. She bolted ahead, countless turns and intersections passed but she never broke flight. From time to time she spotted one of them, a flurry of moment in the corner of her eye. Every time she looked the assailant was gone. Yet the wet sounds never allowed respite that they were there and all around her, surrounding her on all sides. No matter how fast, they were close by; chasing, following.
Stalking.
She didn’t know where to go. The hallway had become a featureless void, removed of all landmarks. It just went on forever in a straight line, no deviations. A low hum had become a loud ringing as dozens of voices were unexpectedly talking in her head. Some encouraged her on and others told her it was a hopeless effort. She ignored them as best she could as her only desires remained reaching Celestia in time. Pumping her wings harder, she was achieved dangerous speeds all the while gulping for air, body covered in sweat from the exertion.
She peered to her right and managed fleeting glimpse of one of the stalkers. Whatever it was stared her straight in the face. Hollow vacant holes where eyes should have been, all the flesh and muscle peeled back from its face leaving only a bloody grinning skull and a muzzle that had elongated into a sharp point at the nose. It had been a pegasus, once, now it was something far worse; unspeakable, and unnatural. Its featherless and flightless wings were fully erect, the bones elongated into spear like appendages.
“Ditzy?!” Dash cried in frightened disbelief. There was no way to tell if it was the gray Pegasus that had been butchered in such a abominable manner as any distinctive features were gone such as the mane, tail, and cutie-mark. Yet, the signs were just too similar to be coincidence. The thing, whatever it was, lifted its head and barked several times at her. Dash had a feeling it was communicating with its brethren.
“Stay away from me!” Dash had shouted in dismay as she attempted a sudden left turn at a T-shaped intersection.
A second stalker ambushed her on the spot, turning the corner at the same time as she did. Its hardened skull struck her square in the chest like a battering ram. The crushing blow sent waves of agony through her entire body. Her vision blackened for a second as she cratered into the wall the impact cracking her spine and tearing her wing muscles. The inertia of the impact threw her several feet back before she had forcefully landed onto the stone floor. She couldn’t scream, her lungs refused to operate, and all that came was pitiful whimper.
The stalker was standing over her, reared on its hind legs, giving a predatory wail that froze the very marrow in Dash’s bones. She crawled on her back, struggled with a taste of blood in her mouth, and incapable of looking away from the corpse monster. The stalker was moving its wings, the ravaged appendages separated from its body spreading out further than was possible. The wings were attached to a pair of arms that were unfolding as if parts of its spine had been cut out from its midsection and still wrapped up in strands of muscle and gore. The wings flexing like a pair of hands with three spear like fingers. She imagined those claws plunging into her chest and ripping her in two. Tearing her apart and painting the walls with her blood, eviscerated organs pulled from her torso one by one as she met a slow and painful demise.
She was bewildered to witnessed the creature had hopped back a step before it retreated back the way it’d come, folding its wings back in as it left. Dash’s breath was slowly returning in shallow and rapid gasps, her chest was covered in a large bruise. It felt as if several of her ribs were broken, and it was agony to move her wings. She was easy prey; she couldn't understand why it’d left her to live. Speculation dropped as a second stalker peeked its mutilated head around the corner, low to the ground and preparing to charge. She knew then that they were playing with her, toying with their meal.
Still reeling in agony, eyes bulging from the pain, she rolled over and forced herself back up. She limped away as fast as she could and only took a few steps before the path terminated at a door that was reinforced with golden metal bands and an impression of Celestia’s sun. She opened it just as the stalker charge, its wailing getting louder and higher pitched as it swiftly closed in. Ducking inside she slammed the door shut without delay. It shuttered under the impact, the metal hinges groaning in protest as the door was bent inwards. Dash offered up thanks that they were not smart enough to open doors.
She had entered the throne room through the servant’s entrance. Safe for the moment, Dash examined her surroundings. There were stacks of papers, scrolls, money, and other unidentifiable baubles circling the room. To her right were the massive, ceiling-touching gates where guests were heralded through. From there a plush red carpet traveled down the center of the marble floor to the two ordinate thrones placed side by side; one was gold and the other silver, flanked by four blue glass windows as big as the main gate. They were blue because they were strengthened by magic woven right into them, unbreakable.
There final option was a door, partially concealed by a velvet curtain, built behind the thrones. She reasoned, hoped, that this door would lead to the Princess. Placing a hoof on the latch she attempted to turn it and was devastated when it remained unmoving no matter how hard she tweaked it. It was locked, the faint glitter of a spell circling its edges. She stepped back from as a second impact rocked the servant’s entrance. The stalkers hadn’t given up on her yet. They screamed with howls of rage, she was a rat in a cage.
Trapped.
Dash collapsed with a sigh of defeat sliding down the back of Celestia’s throne. She covered her face as she cried, face covered in tears and bloody mucus. She began thinking about her life and how she had paraded around her friends with such stubborn pride and bravado. It was just a mask, an act, in reality she was just as scared and helpless a little pony as everyone else, and she knew it. Now, here, trapped at the mercy of monsters she could not comprehend, she knew she was going to die.
In her despair there was a memory that had broken through the haze of fear and pain. It reached out to her from way back in her childhood during the days she spent in the Junior Speedsters flight team. It was strange to hear it now, but she recalled a bit of advice from her old coach.
“In a game of cat and mouse, never be the mouse.”
It was almost like she could hear him speaking now. That was because she could, and he was sitting right next to her. By her side, dressed in his old blue Wonderbolts flight suit and blue mane waved under an invisible wind was Vertical Jump. His coaching whistle hung loosely around his neck and wore goggles on his forehead. Dash was stunned, she wanted to ask him how it was possible and desired to warn him to escape. Her tongue felt swollen and her voice caught as he looking at her, disappointment saturating every inch of his face.
“What’s happened to you, squirt? I thought you were going places?” He asked softly. She could hear his breathing and feel the heat off his body as he inched closer. She could smell the cheap cologne he had worn every day.
“I’m sorry, c-coach. I... can’t do it.” She sputtered pitifully, trying to hide her face from him. It was like she was a child again, crying, making excuses for herself. She had never felt so useless, so empty. Like that day when all the other junior flyers had nicknamed her Rainbow Crash.
“What can’t you do?”
“Some pony wants to k-kill the Princess. I need to warn her, but I can’t. I mean... won’t be able to make it. Even if I knew the way, the door is locked.”
“Then that’s what I’m here for, squirt,” he gently stroked her mane, “to show you the way.” He cantered over to the locked door. She wanted to tell him it was useless, yet somehow the door opened with just a simple touch from him.
“Head straight through the museum, and when the path forks like a V go to the left and up the tower stairs to the top. You’ll be able to manage it from there. Now get up.”
“I can’t, those things, they... it hurts so much.” This was not just a coach to her, he was somepony she had honored and respected before she’s even knew he had been a Wonderbolt. She had loved him, like the father she’d never had.
“I want to go home.” Her heart ached under his displeased stare, an expression that she feared more than anything in the world. The room vibrated as the stalkers rammed the door again their screams of frustration made her shiver.
“Listen to me, squirt.” He sat down next to her, “You can make it home, but first you have a job to do. You know what it is.” Slowly he wrapped his arms around her and brought their faces close.
“Every day I saw you practicing, doing your best to surpass all the other speedsters. Often times you failed and others called you Rainbow Crash for it, but that isn’t how I saw it. I saw a young filly, full of life and ambition, and from time to time you’d strain a wing or get a black eye, but you never gave up. Don’t give up now. Your friends, your team, are counting on you.” Dash finally managed to look at his face.
“It... it really is you isn’t it, coach.” Dash smiled as her despair became joy. “You made us all believe you were dead, why?”
“No time to explain, focus on the now first.”
“Y... you’re right, I can’t let my friends down.”
“Then get back into the game and show everypony what you’re made of, show it to your friends, to Celestia. Never let them doubt you again!” He lifted her back onto her hooves.
“I... I will. I’ll save Celestia and all of Equestria will know that I am the greatest pegasus!”
“Then hurry now, the Marker is waiting for you.” Vertical brought the whistle to his lips and blew it as hard as he could.
The high pitched clamor hit her like a burst of consciousness as reality seemed to shift around her. In a final mighty strike the servant’s door gave way and exploded into a hail of wood and metal shrapnel as four stalkers swarmed into the room and had started spreading out, looking for her.
Vertical was nowhere to be seen.
“F-fine,” Her voice quivered as she escaped. “Rai-Rainbow Dash is no mouse, you’ll ha-have to work for your meal!” She slammed the door, just as the stalkers sounded the alert and ran after her.
Just as Vertical had said she was now in a museum of sorts. The walls were covered with large portraits of various ponies or still art. Large statues played amongst the many display pedestals topped with glass bubbles. Inside the bubbles were gadgets and gizmos that Dash had never seen before.
None of it interested Dash except for one thing. Arranged against the west wall were six suits of armor, three made for stallions and mares equally. These armored suits were not like the golden ones that guards wore nowadays. These suits were the real, full on head to hoof plate mail made for a war, deal. Dash used her mouth to grip the weapon that was modeled with the nearest suit. A short staffed voulge with a meat-cleaver like blade at the top. Dash grinned; the mouse now had sharp teeth.
Gaining her second wind she galloped at best speed, but not without a noticeable limp and wings hanging limply at her sides. The V-shaped fork was just ahead when she heard the tell-tale wet and sticky hoof steps of fast approaching stalkers. One of them charged, its screams drowning out all other sounds. Dash turned to face it, teeth firmly clenched over her weapon.
The stalker ran, and she reared onto her hind legs and raised the voulge high. Just before impact she brought the blade down with deadly intentions. There was a loud snapping of bones and ripping of flesh as the blade burst the stalker’s head like a melon. Sending a shower of gore all around as it cut through the brain matter, out the bottom of the head, and between the jaw bones before firmly burying itself into the floor. The creature gave a pitiful squeal as it was impaled to the floor, yet refused to expire. It thrust out and around with an unfolded hand, the three knife fingers cut through her feathers and stabbed her in the side leaving three large gaping wounds.
Dash rolled with the blow, traveling to the side and backwards, leaving a bloody streaked trail as she did so. She felt the room start to grow cold as her body started going into shock. She refused to be beaten now, and ran for the left hallway when she was forcefully pulled back. The impaled stalker had grabbed her tail with its other hand, its ruined skull continuing to grin at her, gloating in its victory.
With failing strength she attempted one last burst of speed. She pulled and pulled and the creatures grip tightened. Suddenly she heard the ripping of hair and fell forward as her tail was sheared in half by the stalker’s sharp claws. She had escaped death once again and at the end of the road was the foot of the tower. Closing the gate, she climbed the spiral staircase. Using the rails for support she slowly and deliberately made her way past dozens of floors, her blood marking her progress.
“One more step, just one more.” She chanted, wheezing uncontrollably and covered in a mixture of sweat, body fluids, and gore. After an unusual stretch of silence she wondered what had happened to the stalkers. It was as if they had halted in their chase and given up.
The staircase continued on and up with no end in sight. It all felt pointless now. She would never make it to the top; it hurt too much just to stand. Yet she held on, just one more step, always just one more. Eventually her effort paid off and she reached the apex. Emerging from the tower, she was on a bridge that connected her tower with Celestia’s. The whole bridge was like a greenhouse, rows of flowers and plants down the walls.
Far on the other end she spotted Princess Celestia accompanied by two earth-pony servants. They seemed to be happily talking and laughing amongst themselves unaware of the trap that they were headed into. Dash managed a few uneasy steps before tripping over her own wings. She had gone as far as she could, there was no more strength left in her legs. Breathing in a lung full of air, she gave the loudest shout she could manage.
“Princess Celestia!” Dash cried at the top of her lungs and thankfully the princess turned at the sound of her name, “It’s a bomb!” Celestia’s seemed confused at first, then her eyes went wide in understanding. However, a servant already had her hoof on the latch. In that single terrible moment Rainbow Dash bore sole witness as Princess Celestia disappeared under a massive explosion.
The fireball blinded the cyan pegasus with its intense light. The blast roared like an angry beast, shaking her to the core, as the fire expanded exponentially to consume the entire top of the tower. Too weak to escape she watched as a wall of stone and glass flew right at her. Then she felt herself blown away by the concussive force, thrown through a pane of glass, and she fell over the side.
Flaming debris and stone blocks erupted up and out, raining death down upon the horrified crowds below. Mass chaos and panic gripped them as they fled in all directions. Many unfortunate individuals met their end that day, crushed under tons of stone or run through by falling debris. Those were the lucky ones. Before the reality of the moment could catch up, a second massive explosion blew out the base of the tower. The tall structure, no longer able to hold itself up, emitted a deafening bass of grinding stones.
The grisly scene was witnessed by tens of thousands of ponies as the tallest tower in Canterlot collapsed.
Thankfully, its path of destruction did not take it over the rest of the castle or the city. Instead its falling might obliterated the eastern wall before it toppled over the side of the city, rolling down the side of Mount Eclipse, leaving behind a cloud of dust and black acrid smoke.
Rainbow Dash silently watched it all, saw the world coming undone, and she had nothing to say.
She would have met her end long before now, but in her numb state hadn’t noticed that Princess Luna had caught her. The young monarch carried the broken Pegasus away, she couldn’t stand the sight of her own sister’s demise.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Luna had carried Rainbow immediately to the medical wing of the castle. The doctors assured her that there was hope for the young pegasus, though it was slim hope. She then went to help the firefighters put out the blazing inferno that had spread to the city after a third blast had ignited for an unknown reason. Only after the fires were out and the injured being treated did Luna retire back to her quarters. She wanted to check up on Dash, though right now the pegasus would probably be in emergency surgery. Besides, she needed some peace and quiet to think and mourn the loss of her sister.
She slowly meandered up to her own tower, refusing to meet the faces of any. Using her magic, she had carefully examined her own quarters for any booby traps. Finding none, she opened the door into darkness. The windows had the curtains drawn over them and all of the light fixtures were extinguished. Luna was instantly on guard as she sensed another presence in the room.
“Sshh,” a familiar voice called, “Calmly enter and close the door.” Luna did as she was told. When it was safe she lit a candle and looked to her guest sitting upon her bed.
“Big Sister?! You’re all right.” Luna wanted to embrace her sibling, but stopped when she saw Celestia’s wounds. The sun goddess’ mane was smoldering in places and there were innumerable burns and sores all over her body. At the moment she was using her magic to slowly mend the worst of the damage.
“Oh, Celestia, we should get you over to Dr. Hawkeye’s office right away.”
“I’m more shaken than injured. I appreciate your concern and I will not cause you any additional worry and turn myself over to his ministrations in a little while. I just wish I could say the same for Sun Dancer and Wind Walker.” Celesta choked back her tears, now was not the time for mourning.
“I’m sorry, I’ll miss them too.” Luna tenderly nuzzled her sister.
“I know, ah, but first there are a few matters we need to discuss. I fear if it hadn’t been for Rainbow Dash’s warning then I would not have survived. How is she?”
“Very bad, her injuries were horrific, like she’d been mauled by a wild animal. The doctors don’t hold much hope.”
“I see, but I have faith that Rainbow is in the best of care.” Celestia hesitated, gathering her thoughts, “Little sister, we are far shorter on time than we’d first estimated. I had hoped that I could prepare Twilight Sparkle for what was ahead. This attempt on my life has forced my hoof.” She inhaled sharply knowing she very well may regret her next decision in time.
“Luna, I think it’s time for my dear pupil to meet our ‘old friend’ face to face.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Author’s Notes: For those of you who have asked this story takes place post season one in the My Little Pony:FiM series and right after the end of Dead Space 2 when Isaac defeats the Marker. Part of me wanted to write Rainbow yelling, “It’s a trap!” But the potential humor of such a line might’ve ruined the scene for some. |
Oceansama | 682 | 11 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-02-10T17:53:12+00:00 | 2012-02-10T17:53:12+00:00 | 1,468 | Chapter 11: Dark Places
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Twilight Sparkle was well known around Ponyville for being many things; a bookworm, Celestia’s pupil, and a prodigy of magic; to name just a few. On this particular day it was discovered that she was also a total light weight when it came to indulging in the drink. She was not a fan of imbibing alcohol, sipping the bubbly, or entertaining the ‘green fairy.’ When Applejack tried to convince her that the drinking game between farmer and engineer was, ‘another understandin’ in tha study of friendship,’ Twilight figured she should at least give it a test run, just this once. Two drinks later and she was out like a light, face buried deep into an apple pie. When she awoke a short time later, complete with a headache that could split the moon, she had almost wished for a return to that blissful oblivion than face the news that the Cutie-Mark Crusaders had delivered.
Celestia’s tower had vanished from the horizon, rolling clouds of black smoke saturated the sky while Canterlot continued to burn, lit ablaze by the flaming debris. What was left of the tower had left a trail of ruin that ran down the mountain side, a scar that would decorate the horizon forever. Twilight was beside herself with worry, hyperventilating at the absurdity of it all. Maybe it was just an accident, could it be deliberate, both, neither. She didn’t know, but surely Celestia was all right, she had to be. There were so many questions; so many possibilities and contingencies to consider and they were all running through Twilight’s mind like a horde of locusts. Then there were her parents, were they all right, were they injured, how were they handling the situation?
Twilight departed the farm to make a quick return to Ponyville. Spike and Rarity should have already witnessed the disaster and be on their way back at this very moment from the gem fields. If Celestia was alive she would’ve sent Spike a message. Not wanting to leave the children unattended during this crisis, Isaac followed close by while he carried Sweetie Bell on his back. Applebloom stayed on the farm with her family, and Pinkie Pie was in charge of escorting Scootaloo back home.
Confusion and chaos were the new masters in Ponyville. The streets were filled with litter as every pony had dropped what they’d been doing and degenerated in to a dust cloud of bodies running to and fro like a stampede of cattle. Mothers were herding their children, fathers barricaded their houses, street merchants were closing up their carts, all while other ponies were buying up large amounts of supplies from the stores that had yet to close. Every pony was desperately preparing for the worst possible situation, even if the details were sketchy on what that could be. The sudden and inexplicable torching of Canterlot had left some to believe Equestria was under attack from a neighboring kingdom, others said it was the end of the world, while an obstinate few declared that it was clearly an inside job.
“Twilight! Twilight!” She heard Spike calling out to her, his pudgy little legs a blur of motion, while he waved a scroll in his hand.
“Spike, there you are.” Twilight galloped over to him happy to see he was still in good shape, “You got back from your gem hunting trip awfully quick.”
“Rarity gave up and came back early since we didn’t find a single gem up there,” He pointed to an unseen location beyond the western border of the Everfree forest, “seems that someone has really been cleaning up house lately. That’s not important right now, on our way back we found Fluttershy’s pet bunny, Angel. He was limping with a broken paw and collapsed soon after we arrived.”
Fluttershy, the calm and shy pegasus who was afraid of her own shadow, was known to keep many different pets across a wide range of species such as birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, herbivores, omnivores, and even a few carnivores; she was the definitive animal expert. Of all the critters she kept none was more famous than the bunny rabbit she called Angel. He was a tiny white critter well known around Ponyville, because despite Fluttershy doting over him like he was her own child, she had to tolerate a level of grief from the white rabbit that would have gotten any pony lynched by the whole town if they’d dared to treat her in a similar fashion.
“And…” Isaac annoyingly coaxed the purple dragon. He didn’t know what was so important about some stupid rabbit, everyone else acted as if they’d been submerged in ice water.
“Right, Nurse Redheart is caring for him at the hospital right now.” Spike finished.
“How is he doing?” Twilight would freely admit that she held no special love for the white rabbit. She was more concerned for Fluttershy’s sake.
“Still pretty bad. He was rather roughed up, but y’know Angel. He’s more stubborn than both Applejack and Rainbow Dash combined. I’m sure he’ll pull through.”
“Does Fluttershy know?”
“That’s the worst part,” Spike suddenly became more interested tracing a foot across the dirt road, “Rarity and I went to her house and found that it had been broken into. Twilight... a lot of her animal friends were dead. Everywhere we looked there were an awful lot of little bodies, but we searched and searched everywhere and we couldn’t find her.”
“That’s terrible!” Twilight shook in a mixture of disbelief and anger. “What pony could possibly be so... so... villainous, depraved, insidious even, to commit such a deed!?”
“Twilight,” Isaac interrupted, “with everything that’s been going on lately are you really surprised that anything or anyone would be considered sacred or beyond influence? Whoever is behind all this has already shown they’re not pulling any punches.”
“You don’t know Fluttershy.” Logically Twilight knew he was right, but chose to ignore him instead, “It’s okay Spike, we’ll find her.”
“I hope so, maybe when Angel wakes up he can tell us what happened. Rarity is staying by his side and she’ll tell us when he wakes up. I guess that’s the best we can do right now.”
“I suppose you’re right, we’ll just have to wait and see, but I’d like to examine Fluttershy’s home for clues if he doesn’t come around soon. Now, what about the letter you’re holding? Is it from Celestia?”
“Yeah, I think so, but I’m not sure. Look.” Spike held the scroll out and allowed the lavender unicorn to lift it away. The plain brown paper letter was tied with a simple length of twine and lacked a proper sigil or any identification mark that could tell her who it was from. All the same, Twilight opened the letter with great haste and began to read.
“Do not read this letter out…” She hesitated at the final word and dropped into silence before continuing. Unbeknownst to her, Spike, Isaac, and Sweetie Bell had noticed this strange shift in behavior and had gathered together to read over her shoulder.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Do not read this letter out loud!
To my dearest pupil, Twilight Sparkle,
No doubt you are aware of the tragedy that has befallen Canterlot this day. It seems our enemy has made an attempt on my life. A plan that failed as I am sure you have concluded with the delivery of this letter. Were it not for Rainbow Dash’s heroic efforts I might not have had time to teleport before the explosion. Dash has also revealed to me and Luna that the Tome of the Marker has left the city and was delivered to Fluttershy’s home. Most likely it is in enemy hooves now, as well as Fluttershy along with it.
However, the enemy has revealed themselves to me. They placed orichalcum into the explosives that decimated my tower. Orichalcum is a material which can absorb and nullify even the most powerful of magics. It was Nightmare Moon’s answer to the Elements of Harmony. However, Nightmare is not the enemy we face now. A thousand years ago, she had built an army with the purpose of hunting me down should I have eluded her grasp. They were defeated along with Nightmare, but I fear some of these sinister allies have survived into the present. For a thousand years they have been quietly waiting and watching and wish to take matters into their own hooves after suffering their master’s defeat for a second time. I am deeply concerned for Luna, she is not taking this revelation well.
All of Canterlot believes me deceased and, for the time being, so does the enemy. For now keep my survival a secret and bury it close to your heart. I need time to recover and observe. Luna will remain by my side for she is the only one I completely trust left in Canterlot now.
I have decided to send you the aid of an old friend of mine; the oldest I have left. He may come across as harsh, uncaring, and spiteful but trust me when I say that his heart is in the right place and that he wishes to put an end to this horrible situation, as do we all. He will meet you tonight, at the stroke of twelve, in the Ponyville clock tower. Go alone and do not keep him waiting. He will help you understand what you face as well provide certain gifts to assist you and Isaac Clarke. I wish you both the best of luck.
Do not try to contact me and do not approach the capital! The enemy has their eyes on you now and I do not know how long it will be before they try to come for you like they did with me. Keep the newcomer, Isaac Clarke, safe and close by your side. He is an unknown element in this fight, but I believe he was sent to us for a reason and may indeed help save us all.
Please know that I did not choose lightly when I took you in as my star pupil,
With all my love,
Princess Celestia.
P.S. Be wary of shadows, the enemy could be any pony, even the ones you trust.
P.P.S. This message will self-destruct in 3..2..1..
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Twilight gave a surprised yelp and jumped back at least ten feet as a plume of green fire erupted mere inches from her face. Spike’s sudden mighty burp had incinerated the scroll into a pile of ash.
“Spiiiike!”
“Sorry, it just came over me! I couldn’t help it.” he shrugged in protest.
Despite the unexpected surprise, or maybe because of it, Twilight felt a little giggle escape from her. It was just like Celestia to pull a little prank like this. It was her way to try and inject a bit of humor into an otherwise awkward or tense situation. Twilight’s laugh evaporated as soon as it had emerged. She appreciated the gesture, yet there was nothing that the Princess could do to pretend that things were not as bad as they were. The serenity of the world was as hopelessly lost as the Canterlot tower. Now Twilight could see the glimpses of darkness that were showing through the cracks and she wondered if the evil had always been there.
She quietly looked to the sky, trying to find some comfort in the sun’s majestic rays. She ached to embrace her mentor, to hear Celestia’s sweet voice again.
“Nothing is the same anymore.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“I’m scared, Mr. Cutter. Are bad things going to happen to us? Are there monsters coming to eat us?” Isaac felt Sweetie Bell tightly grip onto his back seeking protection, her curly bangs tickling his neck. He wondered why this young unicorn had decided to put her faith in him. For as much as he’d survived death he had only been able to save the life of only one other, Ellie. She had wanted him to go with her, but he had sent her away to be rescued. The Marker had to be destroyed even it cost him life. He wondered what Ellie was doing right now.
“Hey, don’t get all sad on me now. Nothing is going to happen as long as I have anything to say about it.” He hoped he sounded more convinced then he felt. He was terrible at handling kids.
“Really? Do you promise?” she asked with twinkling eyes. Isaac hesitated, there were no guarantees when it came to fighting against a Marker and the Necromorphs it spawned.
“I’m an engineer and that means I solve problems. Yeah, you won’t find a better engineer suited for the job of killing monsters than me in the entire world.” He boasted and Sweetie Bell smiled a comforted look. Satisfied his work had been done, he then turned to Spike.
“So you’re a dragon?” Isaac said plainly, wondering why he couldn’t have been made a dragon in this world instead of a damn horse. Though he would have preferred his dragon self to be a bit taller, maybe a bit more threatening, and a lot less purple than the one standing before him now.
“Yup, name’s Spike and I’m Twilight’s number one assistant. You don’t have a problem with dragons do you?”
“Not at all, it’s good to see someone who’s not a pony.”
“Yeah, and it’s nice to have another guy to hang out with for a change. Being around so many girls all the time and their frilly fru-fru nonsense can really be a drag on a guy.” Sweetie Bell shot Spike an accusing glance. After all, he was the one who had a crush on Rarity.
“Twilight told me all about you. I tell you, it felt so good to finally look Twilight in the eye and say, ‘ah-ha, I told you there were zombie ponies.” Spike sang his own praise.
“Zzzooombie Ponies!” Pinkie Pie arose from the grave, clear out of nowhere, using a flashlight strategically placed under her chin for an effect that was useless in sunlight.
“Yeep!” Sweetie squeaked.
“Warn us when you’re going to do that. You scared her.” Isaac found his vision uncomfortably filled with pink, upon pink, with a side of pink, and an extra helping of another kind of pink on top. This was his third time he’d met Pinky Pie and each time he felt an ulcer coming on. Did he mention that the pony was pink? Gahh! Seriously, what the shit?
“Sorry.” she sheepishly grinned, “Hey! If we have zombie ponies then it’s great that we have you here. You’re supposed to be the big hunter, chief zombie killer engineer guy that I’ve totally heard of so much from Twilight. You should totally show us your supremo awesome sweet maxie-extremeo ultra super moves.”
“Yeah, that’d be amazing.” Spike second the motion. Isaac rotated between the combined forces of dragon, unicorn child, and pink abomination that conspired against him. He started to feel a strange feeling of pride swell like a bubble in his chest. It was nice to finally feel appreciated. Though, when they eventually learned the truth about the ‘zombies’ they won’t be quite so happy about it. Why not indulge a bit for now?
“Well, there is one thing I could show you. A tool I frequently use when fighting zombies. I’ll need to gather the parts first so I can build it. If you want to help then the first thing I’ll need is a flashlight.”
“Here, take this one that I just happen to have for reasons that I can’t remember.” Pinkie tossed him the device. He caught it nimbly and handed it off to Sweetie Bell.
“Thanks, now are there any..” he had to think for a moment. Of all the components he needed the internal circuitry, like the laser lights, emitter, and circuit board would probably be the hardest to find.
“Are there any places that sell electric hardware like wires, batteries, or even lasers?”
“Ooh, ooh, follow me.” Pinkie bounced in bursts of ecstatic joy, “I know the perfect place to go. Follow me.”
“Hey, Emo Sparkle!” Isaac called, breaking Twilight out of her silent misery.
“What?”
“You wouldn’t happen to have any money.” Even if he could access the credit chit in his suit’s rig, Isaac seriously doubted they accepted credits as a form of legal tender in this place.
“Yeah, some. Why?” What she had meant to say was that she got a monthly allowance from the Princess and it was always far more than she needed. So she had saved up a substantial amount of bits over the year.
“I think it’s time we visited the stores.”
“Wait, you want to go shopping? Weren’t you saying we needed to concentrate on a plan to fight the Marker?”
“This is part of the plan, I said we need weapons. I helped a friend of yours, now I need you to help me make a friend of my own. I’m going to show you why a plasma cutter,” he pointed to his tattoo, “is an engineer’s tool of choice. Do you know anything about ionized plasma?”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
It turns out Twilight didn’t, at least not right off hand, or hoof as the local slang went. She’d look it up at the library as soon as they returned.
“I come here a lot for party music. That’s because I love to throw a lot of parties, so I come here a lot for more music and then throw more parties. But I haven’t given you a party yet so this’ll be a great opportunity to get the music and we should totally get DJ Pon-3 to DJ, of course. Cause I can tell that everypony here needs and extra-extra especially big party to shoo away all the doom-gloom, gloomy, glue feelings.”
“Is she always like this?” Isaac felt an onset of diabetes, and humans had cured that disease centuries ago.
“This is only her getting warmed up. You should see her when her Pinkie Sense starts to tingle.” Twilight shuttered at the memory.
“Right.”
Under the guidance of the pink one they approached a two story building that was the single most technologically advanced structure in the whole of town, yet that still wasn’t saying much. In Isaac’s own time this place would have been described as retro, archaic, or obsolete and that was putting a positive spin on it. Here, in a town of wooden walls and thatched roofs, it seemed odd to finally find one made of brick and using neon signs to advertise its wares.
“Vinyl Scratch: The store for all your Disk Jockey, Stereo System, Bass Music, and Power Lighting needs.” Read the store’s colorful sign. While a posted advertisement on the store’s window declared this the home of the one and only DJ Pon-3.
True to its name there were a set of mounted speakers above the entrance, broadcasting a booming bass beat originating from within the music shop. It was so loud that it vibrated through the ground and shook the air.
“So ponies like techno and electric music, and I can’t believe I just thought that.” Isaac mused. It did raise an interesting question. The technology of this world was very enigmatic and all over the place. It seemed feasible in a strange, disjointed way, yet some areas of science had clearly made leaps and bounds while others lagged far behind. Probably due to unicorn magic acting as a substitute or maybe he’d simply landed in the pony equivalent of Amish country.
Inside the music store all his questions faded and he could only grin and rub his hands, or hooves, together in pure delight of the possibilities laid out before him. Not even that ear-splitting music could distract him now as he had found, neatly arranged upon the shelves, was a bounty of electrical treasures. There were stereos, speakers, sub-woofers, audio mixers, tuners, DJ turnstiles, stage lights, spotlights, microphones, and more. The entire catalogue of equipment one would need to throw a concert the size of the town square and ignite the night sky with a thousand florescent bulbs. It didn’t end there; spare parts, miles of coiled wires, tools, and…
“Are those laser diodes?” Isaac said with incredulity as he inspected the display of penny sized focusing lenses.
“Ah dude, finally a customer who recognizes quality.” The loud techno music was abruptly cut off as a unicorn mysteriously appeared at Isaac’s side. She was an eccentric looking off-white pony with a wild raving blue and cyan striped mane, matching tail, and a tattoo of a double quaver on her flank. She also wore a pair of black rimmed goggles with purple lenses that made her eye color intangible.
“You’re the owner?” Isaac found he liked this unicorn for some reason. It might have had something to do with the fact that she was the only technologically savant pony he’d met so far.
“DJ Pony at your assistance. That’s P.O.N, a little dash, then a three, DJ Pon-3. Can ya dig?”
“I can, so what were you saying about these diodes?”
“Man, these here are some of the most rad lights I have ever seen. These little babies here are special; they can seriously pump the wattage and deliver a coherent beam of awesome! They’re used all the time in those Stalliongrad laser light shows. Totally off the chart stuff, you should see them sometime.”
“Great, this is just what I need.” Isaac was calm although inside he was beaming with excitement.
“You’re in luck, dude. With it being the end of the world and all, I’ve got a special ‘end-of-the-world’ sale going on today only. Buy two get one free.”
“Done and done. I’m also going to need a lot of other items, mostly spare parts and pieces, the best you have, and you can charge it all to Twilight.”
“What?!” A hot rod of fury exploded from the lavender unicorn.
“Right on, cool cat.” DJ Pon-3 departed to get a blank receipt and a quill.
“Wait just a minute; I didn’t agree to pay for anything!” Twilight stomped a hoof for emphasis.
“Yes you did.” Isaac patiently reminded her.
“When?”
“Did you not say that I would be rewarded by the Princess for my assistance?”
“Yes, but…”
“Then consider this a down payment. It might even be tax deductable.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
With his funding secured and Twilight’s growing angst over the increasing size of the bill vocally apparent, they made several more trips for additional items. They stopped at the clock shop for items like gears, springs, and rods, then at a hardware store for an assortment of tools and screws. After that made a trip to Carousel Boutique and even though Rarity had closed the shop for the day, Sweetie Bell let them in and showed where Rarity kept all her extra sewing machines. Isaac swiped one of the smaller machines to be used for parts while Twilight left a note of apology and a stack of bits to pay for it.
Finally the trip ended with Pinkie Pie extracting her own oven from Sugarcube Corner. It was, in fact, the same oven she’d used for years to bake cupcakes, muffins, and other sugary delights. Isaac and Twilight had insisted they pay for it, or rather Twilight pay for it, but Pinkie assured them that the Cakes were going to throw this old one out and buy a new one. Besides, she was all too happy to donate to the zombie killing cause. Having gathered all the necessary materials, they made their way back to the library. The team of Twilight Sparkle, Isaac Clarke, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Sweetie Bell made for an interesting caravan.
Back at the library Isaac pulled up one of the reading tables and had all the supplies placed on it, with the oven nearby. He was about to begin work when he realized he’d overlooked the single most important element when it came to building the plasma cutter. He was so put off about this oversight that he had to pull Twilight aside, into the kitchen, to explain it to her.
“How the hell am I going to build something with no hands?!” He moaned while Twilight face hoofed.
“Why didn’t you think of that before you made me spend nearly all my money?”
“Two reasons, I’ve lived all my life with five digits on my hands, until yesterday. So excuse me for not paying more attention that I’m now a damned horse. Even if I remembered it, I still would have made you pay just to see the look on your face, because pissing you off keeps the insanity away.”
“Ughh!” Twilight rolled her eyes, wanting nothing more than to throw him out a window and into a pit of fire. “Fine, then maybe I should explain to you the basic principles of magic and how it is different between ponies. Take a seat, this might take a while.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Oh, don’t rub it, you’ll get an infection.” Fluttershy softly cooed while carefully cradling the distraught Ditzy Doo, gently stroking her mane.
The two of them had been kept in isolation deep underground inside a cage cut out from a block of hard red earthen clay. It appeared to have been two separate cells at one point because it had two crudely made iron bar doors on opposite sides of the same wall, along with evidence of an intermediate barrier still present. Light was provided from wall mounted torches, however, with no sunlight or moon overhead Fluttershy’s sense of time’s flow had grown fuzzy and she could no longer tell what time of day it was. It felt like days and Ditzy had been sobbing the whole time. No matter what Fluttershy did or said she could not alleviate the gray pegasus’ tears.
When Fluttershy had first awoken in this place, right away she had felt and incredible burning and stinging sensation in her back and wings. It was like a thousand needles had been driven into her sides, the reality was quite the opposite. While she’d slept her wings had been ravaged and all the feathers forcefully removed leaving nothing but two useless appendages. The process had left her back covered in her own congealed blood, long dried by this point, and she could no longer fly. A cocktail of incomprehensible emotions had left her frozen on the spot and were fast driving her into a state of total breakdown when she heard the sounds of faint crying coming from a darkened corner. It was there that she had found Ditzy Doo and realized that the same fate had befallen the mail mare’s wings.
Given time the skin would heal and feathers would grow back, but Ditzy had another problem that was more severe. The left side of her face was slightly swollen and covered in a large bruise. Forgetting her own troubles Fluttershy had gone to attend to wounds of the mail mare. She didn’t know the gray pegasus very well, they had only briefly exchanged pleasantries whenever Ditzy had delivered the mail. Which Fluttershy never got a lot of.
“Okay, I just need to take a look.” Fluttershy calmly spoke while trying to inspect Ditzy’s wound. Every time she got close Ditzy knocked her away.
“No, no, don’t look!” she cried, shielding herself as if Fluttershy was about to strike her.
“Oh, Ditzy, I… I can’t help you unless you let me take a look.” She didn’t want to cause Ditzy any additional distress, she only wanted to help. Fluttershy had dealt with more difficult patients before, not that Ditzy was being difficult, not at all, she was just as scared.
“I’ll be as gentle as a summer breeze. So, please let Doctor Fluttershy have a look, um, if that’s all right with you.”
Gladly her reassurance worked, although she felt that it was only because Ditzy, sadly, lacked the resolve to fight her. True to her word she inspected the wound before carefully pulling open Ditzy’s left eyelid to check for damage. What Fluttershy found wasn’t what she’d been expecting at all and she stared in confusion for a second till she realized that it was just a hollow socket. Ditzy’s left eye was missing and judging from all the scarring it told the yellow caretaker that whoever had committed such a heinous act had done it with deliberate sadistic violence. Fluttershy had to bite her lip hard in order to suppress a shriek that threatened to burst from the depths of her lungs.
“Oh… oh my, oh dear, this is awful.” The bottom of her stomach fell out leaving her light-headed and nauseous as her mind began imagining uncontrollably what it must’ve been like to have an eye forcefully extracted.
“Oh, who could possibly be so evil? Who... who did this to you Ditzy? It was Cherry, it was her wasn’t it?” Ditzy nodded.
Fluttershy felt a hot essence begin to overtake her. It started just behind her eyes and quickly spread throughout her head and down to her throat. The normally meek and soft-mannered Pegasus felt her temper skyrocketing.
“Don’t you worry, our friends will rescue us soon and then we’ll go have a few words with Cherry.” She had to forcefully swallow these terrible feelings down. Ditzy’s well being was what mattered most now, yet there really wasn’t much Shy could do anyway in this empty cell. Then she had an idea, it wouldn’t be much, but maybe it could help.”
“You know my Mom used to sing me a little poem whenever I got scared about getting lost from home. Would you like to hear it? I mean… as long as you’re fine with it.” To her relief Ditzy looked up and nodded in agreement. Fluttershy lightly inhaled and quietly sang in her soothing tender voice. She performed just for the two of them and for just a moment the gloom seemed to recede.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
My child, we must talk
There may come a day
When you are far away
If I can’t be near
You need not fear
In your darkest time
May you always find
An ally to meet
And a friend to keep
Stand strong with each other
Like sister or like brother
Through the empty spaces
And all the dark places
Where you must walk.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
After Fluttershy had finished, Ditzy rubbed her tears away and managed to lift herself up into a seated position.
“You know,” Fluttershy looked away in embarrassment, “my Mom sang that to me a lot before she passed away. I never really understood what the poem meant until today. Oh, I wish you could have met her, she was so wise and beautiful.” Fluttershy felt a light nuzzle from Ditzy Doo and she returned it, grateful to have found a new friend in this terrible place.
“Thank you, Fluttershy. Your mother sounds wonderful, bountiful. I want to sing-a-wing to my little muffin too.”
“That’s right, little Dinky Doo is probably worried sick about you. We need to find a way out of here.”
The way out came as a creaking of rusted metal hinges that ended their conversation as a hulking and armored Diamond Dog lumbered into the room on all fours. He briefly considered both pegasi before pointing to Fluttershy.
“The yellow pony will come with me.” He growled with evil intentions clear on his voice. Unfortunately for him it was going to be the yellow pony that would be giving out the orders this time.
“Now look here, mister!” Fluttershy was all up in the dog’s face. The moment he’d spoken she‘d felt all the anger come rushing back into her head and out her eyes, which were projecting like twin daggers piercing deep into his. If looks could kill, then the dog would’ve been a hissing brown spot on the floor at that moment.
“I’m not going anywhere with you unless it’s the way out of here. You’ve been a very bad doggy, nobody! Hurts! My! Friends!!” Each exclamation was like a buck shot to the dog’s soul. The overwhelming power of her personality burrowed past his mental defenses and left him a slave to her will.
In Ponyville, Fluttershy had grown famous for what the other ponies called, “The Stare.” Although she didn’t fully understand how it worked, nor did she have full control over when it happened, it had once allowed her to make a full grown dragon cry like a baby and he had easily been a hundred times her size. Right now she was far more ticked off at the dog then she’d ever been at the dragon because she recognized this canine as one of the assailants that had captured her and Ditzy, had smashed up her house, and killed her animal friends.
The dog cracked immediately under the stare, cringing on the ground whining and whimpering pathetically as if the Stare Master was the most diabolical sight he’d ever seen. Even Ditzy had to back up a bit at the sight.
“Now are you going to apologize to Ditzy or…” She abruptly let out an undignified yelp as she felt a line of searing pain cross her flank followed by the loud snap of a whip. Another Diamond Dog had entered into the cell from the other door. The sudden attack had interrupted her stare and left her momentarily stunned. When Fluttershy had turned to look at her foe it left her wide open. A third Diamond Dog rushed into the room and grabbed her in a unyielding choke hold. Large arms were wrapped around her throat as she gasped for a breath that was impossible to perform. She pounded on the dog’s thick arms and kicked him in the shins a few times.
“Let Fluttershy-maitai go!” Ditzy commanded, stepping forward to assist. The whip once again arced cruelly through the air to land a welt across Ditzy’s bad eye. The gray mother clutched both hooves to her bad eye and collapsed to the ground writhing and rolling in unimaginable suffering, unable to scream through the pain and awash in an eruption of fresh tears.
“Ponies will be quiet.” The dog barked, trudging straight up to her. She held up a hoof in defense, a hopeless gesture that had failed to stop the guard striking her in the chest with his large meaty fist.
Witnessing the torture being cruelly unleashed upon her friend, Fluttershy decided that enough was enough and she must fight back. She was, by no means, a fighter or even an athlete, yet none of that mattered now. No one was allowed to hurt her friends. No one! She bit, she wriggled, she punched, and she bucked and for her efforts she’d managed to break the jaw of one of the guards and knocking out a few teeth in the process. She would not go quietly this time, that’s for sure. Rainbow Dash would be so proud of her.
All too soon she began to grow tired and more guards had arrived to deal with the obstinate prisoner. They wheeled in a stretcher and threw her down upon it roughly. She was helpless, useless, to resist them as they tightly strapped three leather belts to hold her tightly in place. As they did this she noticed a pony standing nearby, partially hidden by the shadows and quietly watching the spectacle. At first she thought it was Cherry, but the color on this pony was too dark to be her.
“Room seven.” The stallion commanded while adjusting a pair of thin spectacles.
That was all she could discern before a dog pulled a black sack over her head and tightened the string on her neck like a noose. As she was being carted away she could hear the whip crack again and her friend screaming in agony.
“Ditzy!” Fluttershy yelled miserably, more of a strangled squeak. Her stare had faded as well as her rage. She had nothing left to give. “Let go, oh, please let us go!”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Princess Luna landed upon the balcony of her personal tower. From here she had a front row seat to an empty patch of sky that only a few hours earlier had held Celestia’s tower. There was still smoke rising from site, as well as a scattering of small fires that continued to burn. The situation remained tense and uncertain, but overall things had calmed down. Yet, underneath the thin surface every pony was holding their breaths. Watching and waiting while they were swept up in the midst of a great changing tide. If nothing was done soon Luna feared there might be a full scale riot on her hooves.
In Celestia’s faked absence Luna had walked the streets and done her best to appear confident and strong to assuage the citizens’ trepidations. Finding herself suddenly in the spotlight was not easy. Given the circumstances it seemed the city was full of mixed emotions over her sudden rise to power. Most appeared civil about it, if a bit stuck up. Others screamed and begged in fear over the fate of a loved one or seeking assurances that everything was going to be alright. Yet, there were a few anarchists out there who pinned the blame solely on her back and had even degenerated into throwing things like rocks, shards of glass, or rotten food at her.
Luna didn’t know where she’d found the patience and the resolve to weather this personal onslaught, but she took it all in stride. The last that thing she would allow herself to do was to give these fools the satisfaction of seeing her stumble. Still it hurt, every projectile, every accusing word was like a hot needle in her heart.
It was now going on six hours since the incident and it was nearly time for Luna’s daily moon rising ceremony. Celestia had remained in Luna’s room during that time and had continued to heal herself almost nonstop. Apart from a few lingering burns it was impossible to tell she’d nearly been done in by an explosion that had, at last count, killed over three hundred ponies and wounded nearly three times that many; and still counting.
Cautiously lifting the curtains as she entered her room, Luna was vigilant to inspect the immediate area outside to ensure that she hadn’t been followed before closing the balcony doors and dropping the curtains into place. In the safety and quiet of her bedroom Luna was ready to unload, like a cannon.
“Bastards! Those cold-hearted rat bastards!” Luna proceeded to pace around the room with a fury that rivaled the sun.
“Luna! Such language is not like you and unbecoming of a royal princess.” Celestia scolded. “Please calm down and tell me what has you so worked up.”
“Oh, big sis! I just want tear this whole castle apart with my bare hooves and box the ears on every single one of those self-righteous snobs!”
“Oh? Who are you referring to?” Celestia stopped her healing and went to try and comfort Luna. However, the moon Princess was inconsolable.
“General Star Sword and the rest of your council members, every single pony in council, all of them have declared that I’m unfit to rule and have even directly accused me of conspiracy in your assassination and want to strip me of my crown. They’ve filled all the paperwork already.” Luna summoned a large stack of scrolls and placed them before Celestia to read.
“I didn’t even know they could do that. Can they do that? I’m going to turn each of them into glue! Just as soon as I calm down!” Luna was far from calming down. Rather, she was winding her own gears and getting more and more upset by the second.
“My dear sister. I believe you when you say you had no hoof in this ghastly matter. You should not let those other ponies get you riled up into such a state.” Celestia ever remained the persona of patience and understanding, yet even she was starting to feel aggravated with how Luna had been treated.
“What about the others? Rainbow Dash, Zecora, and Macintosh? Could they have any evidence of who was involved beyond Ledger?” Celestia briefly considered the scrolls before shoving them aside in disgust.
“In the middle of the confusion I gave Zecora and Macintosh permission to leave the city.” Luna trotted over to her wine cabinet and poured herself a stiff one. She knew she shouldn’t drink in front of her sister, especially since over the past year she’d grown dependent on it to ride out the bad times.
“They should be back in Ponyville by now. Its about the only good thing that came out of this debacle. According to them, Dash was the only pony who had grown wise to the plot against you. She’s the only one who could possibly know who planned this.”
“Good, then she can provide a testament and possibly evidence that you are innocent.” Celestia maneuvered in and, to Luna’s surprise, poured herself a drink too.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible as no pony will listen to Rainbow Dash’s testimony. It appears she is being accused of murder.” Luna continued.
“Murder?” The very word almost caused Celestia to spill her drink.
“Yes, several servants were inspecting the grounds for damage when they came across the body of slain guard in the rear of our private museum, his head had been run through by a voulage. Before he died, it appeared that he’d managed to grab Rainbow’s tail in his mouth.”
“I see, but could it not have been faked?”
“Unlikely. The servants reported that when the culprit impaled the guard to the ground they had accidentally pinned their own tail at the same time. Since there is only one pony currently known to have such distinctive tail hair and Rainbow Dash is missing half of her’s... well, it’s not hard to put two and two together.” Luna walked with great control and measured step over to her balcony, opening the curtain slightly to inspect the last rays of light before they disappeared behind the horizon.
“It gets worse.” Luna sipped lightly from her goblet.
“How so?”
“Once Dash had been accused of murder the order came down to have her placed into protective custody until she was well enough to stand trial. On a hunch, I went to the archives to find the copies of that order. Turns out there were no copies made and the room she was transferred to is a closet for medical supplies.”
“Great!” Celestia stomped in anger and disbelief, “So she’s gone and any evidence with her?”
“I’m afraid so.” Luna confirmed. The sun princess had to inhale sharply before regaining her composure.
“Have you notified General Star Sword?”
“He’s… not responding to any messages at this time.”
“I see...” Celestia nodded with a suspicious grin. Luna moved out into the night air and felt the cold wind caress her body.
“It gets cold up here sometimes, doesn’t it big sis?”
“Yes,” Celestia join Luna out in the open, “it does indeed.” Together they raised a toast to each other and drew deeply before looking out amongst the tarnished glory that was Canterlot. |
Oceansama | 682 | 12 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-03-12T18:53:05+00:00 | 2012-03-12T18:53:05+00:00 | 1,487 | Chapter 12: Dream Reaver
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
For Isaac, the unicorn’s lecture on magic was a complicated affair, like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle when you didn’t know what the picture was. It didn’t help that she was a complete obsessive-compulsive when it came to explaining how it all came together in the fundamentals, principles, rules, and applications. She made magic seem more of an exact science and not the mystical force that existed beyond all reasoning like it was in fairy tales. Every single little detail, from the major and minor, had to be explained, extrapolated, and reinforced. Like listening to a dry audio reading of a history book, and he hated history.
The whole time Isaac had a grave frown plastered on his face. He hadn’t thought that magic would come with so many rules and restrictions. After thirty mind-numbing minutes of this he’d had enough.
“Ok, just give me the short version? You’ve caught my interest, but we are in a hurry.” Actually he ‘d lied, he wasn’t at all interested in all this magic mumbo jumbo except where it applied him and building his plasma cutter.
“Isaac, I’ve studied magic my whole life. Magic is about making something happen that you want to happen, happen. It’s not just some random event or unexplained force, and magic is different between ponies. About a quarter of the books in the library are about magic and research into the field. I’ve almost read them all and for your information I have been avoiding the intermediate and advanced theories altogether. This was the short version. ” Twilight paced with an ever thinning layer of patience.
“Then make it the short-short version.” Isaac crossed his arms with finality.
Twilight puffed her cheeks at that thinly veiled insult and disappointment for the lost the opportunity to share her vast intellect with someone who needed it. It was going to take some time to get him to open up to magic that was for sure. Reluctantly she attempted to simplify it a bit more for her alien student, but still gave him quite an earful. He wasn’t going to get off that easy.
“Ok,” Isaac held his head then slowly traced his hooves down his cheeks, “I think I have it now. So let me just summarize the basics. There are three types of horses,”
“Ponies.” Twilight snapped, correcting him for the fifteenth time.
“Whatever,” Isaac waved her off, “three types; earth, unicorn, and pegasus. All three have magic powers that arise from different places in their bodies. For unicorns it’s in their horns, pegasi in their wings, and earth in their hearts. The three also have magic in their hooves which allow them to handle small items as if they’d had fingers.”
“Not exactly,” Twilight corrected again, more calm this time, “As you can imagine we unicorns don’t use our hooves very often since we have horns. The use of hoof magic is more commonly used by earth-ponies and pegasus ponies. For example,” Twilight walked over the kitchen window and opened the curtains to show the simple town outside, blanketed in the dying rays of sunlight.
“All of Ponyville was founded only by earth-ponies and it was years before any unicorns or pegasus ponies moved in. What do you notice most about the town, Isaac?” She looked on keenly.
He walked to her side and observed the even length of Ponyville’s main street. The friendly atmosphere had taken on a more ominous feeling as he watched a handful of ponies wandering aimlessly, like lost phantoms emerging at dusk. He ignored them and studied the town, specifically the architecture of the buildings. He wasn’t sure as on what to look for in this world of bright pastel colors and sentient ponies. Comprising the town was a multitude of structures of all shapes and sizes. Each one was a unique work of art unto itself with different layouts and color schemes.
Realization hit him like a bolt from the blue. Despite all their differences the buildings were made out of natural materials like wood and hay, with metal a nonexistent part aside from the street lights and a few odd fixtures. Then there was the solitary existence of DJ Pon-3’s store. It was made of red brick and cement, adorned with all kinds of artificial materials like glass and electrics. It was the only one of its kind, and it was home to a unicorn.
“If it was all built by earth-ponies then they seem favor simple and natural materials.” Isaac answered with as much confidence as he could muster.
“Exactly,” Twilight gave pleased smile, “specifically organic for earth-ponies to grip it with their hoof magic. Wood, hay, plants, and even food, although it’s considered impolite to eat with your bare hooves since we walk on them all day and they do get dirty.”
“Yeah, kind of like humans eating with their feet.” Isaac offered to a light chuckle from Twilight.
“Yeah, that could be difficult for your kind.”
“Oh it is.” Isaac agreed though he’d never tried such an odd activity before.
“Anyway, this is what makes earth-ponies great at being farmers and working with the land.”
“Then what about the earth-pony with the hour glass tattoo we bought the clock from?” Isaac disputed, unless she was about to argue that the clock was made from plants, then this train of reasoning was useless.
“Of course there are exceptions to this rule from time to time,” Twilight hadn’t missed a beat, “one of his parents was probably a pegasus.”
“So now you’re saying magical skill is a genetic trait as well?” Isaac hadn’t thought of that before and oddly it made more sense to think of it that way.
“Yes I am, but that’s a topic for another time. Now can you see that large cloud on the horizon over there?” Twilight pointed to a single distant cloud in the night sky which appeared to be wrapped in strands of Christmas lights.
“That’s the famous city of Cloudsdale built from clouds by pegasus ponies.”
“That’s a city? On clouds? That sounds like a dangerous idea even if it could be done.” Isaac scoffed at the absurdity of it all. Twilight just giggled at him.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. In Cloudsdale the pegasus manufacture the weather using cloud machines and rainbow pools. Only pegasus ponies can use their hooves to walk on clouds and it is that principle that also makes them better adapted at using their hoof magic to tinker with machines and non-organic things. Earth-ponies and unicorns can’t walk on the clouds, not even that clockmaker; we’d all just fall through unless I cast a very special spell before hoof.”
“So the pegasi are the engineers of the air? I like that, still how do they keep the machines up there or stop the clouds from falling apart? Do they use some sort of anti-gravity field? More magic? Are you honestly telling me you can build cities out of water vapor?” Isaac felt his blood pressure rising at the idea of such a literal raping of the very laws of physics and of the engineering sciences. It was impossible, it had to be.
The closest to a floating city on Earth was when a starship had to make planet fall. It was a rare sight because starships were too heavy to be aerodynamic they had to use massive anti-gravity fields to suspend them in the sky. It usually meant the ship in question was heading for decommissioning and dismantling because of the massive amounts of power that was required.
“If Rainbow Dash was here she could explain it better than me. I guess you were lucky when you became a Pegasus with a little practice you’ll be a natural in using hoof magic in no time.”
“You know this would all be a lot easier for me if you found a way to make me human again. I don’t really want to stay a pony forever,…um, no offense.”
“None taken, still things have been crazy today. I’ll try to find something while I research this plasma you talked about,” Twilight had a wide smile while clapping her hooves in excitement, “besides, I want the opportunity to study your species up close and ask lots of questions about your world and this shockpoint technology. I want to learn as much as possible.”
“Just find the spell.” Isaac groaned, about to head back into the main foyer when Twilight stopped him.
“Oh, one last thing I forgot to show you,” she moved in close almost to the point of violating his personal space and raised her left arm at him, “touch my hoof.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry it’s just a little demonstration.” She smiled assuredly. Unsure what was about to transpire Isaac placed his hoof against hers, the moment he did he felt something like a mild spark of static electricity.
“Now try to pull away.” She challenged and Isaac obliged by retracting his arm only to find that Twilight was pulling back against him and their hooves remained connected. She smiled knowingly as he tried again and again to no avail.
“I can’t, is it you doing that?” It was as if she had a kinesis module built right into her hoof and was holding him prisoner with it. It was rather freaky to see himself being the one pulled around. He folded his ears back and gave a mighty yank and managed to drag her across the entirety of the kitchen floor, but still the connection remain, as solid as ever.
“All ponies can grip another’s hoof.” She released her hold on him, much to his panicked relief.
“One time I nearly fell off a cliff and Applejack saved me by gripping our hooves together like that.” Twilight turned away in embarrassment as she remembered another similar, more recent, incident while subconsciously rubbing her head where she’d been stricken.
“It’s sort of like how you saved me,” she grew silent as she struggled to express her gratitude, “Um…I don’t know if I ever properly thanked you for saving my life back in the mines.” She nervously played with her bangs.
“So…um…thank you.”
“No problem, I’ve seen too many people lost to the necromorphs.” Isaac replied with a sad frown, “Just don’t make a habit of it.”
“I know, I’ve already had enough bad luck with falling off cliffs and ledges to last a lifetime.”
“Or two in your case.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Isaac and Twilight returned to the main hall of the tree library. To their shared disbelieving wonderment they found Pinkie, Spike, and Sweetie Bell had been busy occupying themselves with a round of pin-the-tail-on-the-pony. Somehow the tail was stuck to the ceiling with super glue, Spike was covered from head to toe in needles, and Pinkie was jammed inside the oven which at this moment was hanging perilously off the top of the stairs. All of Isaac’s equipment was scattered about like carnival confetti, a scene of inexplicable chaos. In the center of it all was Sweetie Bell looking very guilty, ashamed, and gloomy, but mostly guilty.
“Umm…sorry.” She whimpered.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
After a quick cleaning up, Isaac began his preparations for building the plasma cutter while Twilight searched the bookshelves for transformation spells and chemistry. Everyone else watched with rapt fascination as Isaac worked his engineer skills, except for Sweetie Bell who was condemned to observe from a dozen feet away.
The basic concept behind a plasma cutter was fairly simple. An inert gas, in this case ionized plasma, was pumped into a firing nozzle, called a plasma torch, and ejected outward to pass through an electrical spark which ignited the plasma into a bolt of superheated material that could burn through or even blow apart its target.
Armed with his newfound knowledge Isaac started by drawing outlines of various shapes on the oven’s light metal case. The outlines, when cut out, would form the body of the cutter. He then dismantled the appliance in order to get at the interior chamber where the actual cooking was done. This heat resistant metal was perfect for forming the head of the cutter where the superheated plasma would be fired. The shapes were cut and with the assistance of Spike’s fire breath the metal was heated and making it more malleable and easier for Isaac to fold the sides into the needed structure.
While the transformed metal pieces cooled, Isaac dismantled the small clockwork motor. The rods, springs and hinges would be used to form the trigger assembly, in addition to the ejection system where spent ammo packs could easily be catapulted from the top loaded magazine.
The sewing machine was gutted for the small electric motor and larger gears. These would serve the dual purposes of providing electric current to ignite the ionized plasma in the firing chamber and, with the addition of a secondary switch, would allow the head of the cutter to rotate at a ninety degree angle giving a horizontal and a vertical firing position.
The final step was to solder the electrical cords, laser diodes, switches, and capacitors onto a circuit board (that had originally belonged to an audio mixer system) and connect it to an internal power supply. Then the two halves of the device were screwed together tightly to seal the deal. The flashlight from Pinkie Pie was mounted on the body using electrical tape and the ammo counter was made from a stereo’s volume display.
The final result was a jury-rigged tool that that was better suited more for pony use than human. In his modified design he had to install a larger trigger, remove the guard, and make the body of the tool a little longer than normal so his hoof could fit. When he eventually became human again it would be simple affair to revert it for use by a human hand.
It wasn’t perfection, but damn it was close.
He surprised himself, he’d though it would have been impossible to build a cutter with the stumps for hands he had. The magical qualities of pegasus hooves had helped, it was still not the same as having an opposable thumb and fingers which were far better suited for this kind of precision work. Five digits were better than one; a hoof was too big, imprecise, and limited in what it could hold. Fingers were more precise, could fit into smaller places, and could hold onto far more. At one point he’d been forced to ask Sweetie Bell for help. He needed to use her unicorn kinesis to help fit the smaller springs and circuits into the more confined spaces of the tool. Thankfully there was no repeat of her earlier disaster.
This plasma cutter was special, it meant something to him. He wasn’t just building a tool to dismember necromorphs with. It was a deliberate endeavor to restore a part of his humanity and a reminder of the world where he’d come from. He felt a deep need to make it official so he signed his name onto the side of the new weapon.
“Property of Isaac Clarke,” the inscription read. All that was left to make now was the ammo.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“I don’t have a way to make the stuff you wanted,” Twilight proclaimed to a deeply disgruntled Isaac, “I did find a good alternate,” she levitated a book over to him, “take a look.” Isaac peeked into the books worn pages. He briefly skimmed the instructions, finding some of the terminology confusing.
“Liquid Schwartz?”
“Other page.”
“Fire vapor: a red gaseous ingredient essential in the brewing of the hottest of hot sauces and the red stripes in rainbows?” Isaac’s disposition soured like a lemon. No way in hell was his cutter going to be shooting rainbows. Pinkie hopped in with a mighty laugh.
“I tried it once and I was like, ‘spiiiiicccyy!’ Because rainbows are very spicy, like really spicy. I like some hot sauce on my cupcakes, they are so good. I wonder what a rainbow on my cupcake would be like. Ohh, ohh, Twilight you have to show me that recipe later.”
“This is a really bad idea.” Isaac interrupted, his foul mood deepening.
“Am I just full of bad ideas then? You’ve been arguing with me all day about my magic. This is the best compromise I could find between a magical solution and a chemical compound that matched your specifications.” Twilight felt herself getting rather hot under the collar.
“I’m still not sold on the whole ‘magic’ thing and now you want to put it in my tool?”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“Well, no, but…! Fine I’ll give it a try, but if it explodes in my face...” Before he could finish delivering his ultimatum he was drawn to a rather rambunctious snigger echoing behind him. Pinkie, Spike, and Sweetie Bell were crouched around his weapon and writing on it.
“Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m writing my name.” Sweetie Bell cheerfully said with childish delight as she finished inscribing her signature onto the side of the Plasma Cutter just below Pinkie and Spike’s.
“It was your idea silly,” Pinkie laughed while hopping all around him, “now when you’re blasting away zombie ponies, slaying the undead, and laughing at the ghoulies it’ll be like we’re right there, helping too. Y’know cause that’s what friends are for, helping each other.”
“All right everyone just back up!” Isaac stopped Pinkie in her rambunctious bounding as “What’s wrong?” Pinkie asked, concerned.
“It’s getting a little too touchy-feely in here and I need to get some fresh air.” He scowled as he left through the back door, slamming it behind him.
“Geez, does he always act so grumpy all the time?” Spike crossed his arms defiantly, “I mean, seriously, what’s his deal?”
“Don’t worry about him, Spike. I know what he’s going through.” Twilight reasoned, “It’s not all that different from when we first came to Ponyville. I know he’ll come around eventually.”
“Oh, he must be upset cause I haven’t thrown him a ‘Welcome to Ponyville,’ party yet.” Pinkie reasoned.
“A party is your answer for everything.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
It was not because Isaac was in a foul mood, quite the opposite. Although a negative disposition was part of it, the sudden surge of emotions he’d felt had overwhelmed him and driven him to seek a way out. The naive innocence these ponies exuded, the way they treated him as an equal, and the genuine care and concern they showed for him. He wasn’t ready for it. Then they ruined his Plasma Cutter, well, not really, but they were only trying to be friendly. He didn’t deserve their amity it only drove his paranoia. It was sick, he was sick.
He pushed these thoughts away. What he wanted right now was to relax somewhere he could be by himself for a while. When he’d first arrived at the library he’d never have guessed that there was a miniature garden hidden out back. Four pony-sized rectangular plots of land had been upturned and were being used to grow several types of herbs. The purple unicorn probably used them for cooking or as a light snack since some of the leaves had teeth marks.
Beyond the garden and past a few quaint abodes he found himself standing at the boarder of the town. Laid out before him was an endless field of green grass with a lazy river meandering its way through. The sparkling night sky and incredibly bright moon overhead gave the terrain an almost mystical aura of limitless possibilities. As he walked out further from town he trailed the river bank closely so as not to get lost. The soft soil felt good under his hooves and the crystal clear water looked so clean it was probably good enough to drink, although he didn’t feel brave enough to test that idea. Back on Earth most rivers were too contaminated to even swim in and the clean ones were heavily guarded. Approaching within a hundred yards of a clean reservoir could get you shot on sight.
The sun had long since retreated beneath the horizon and Isaac continued his walk in the country side enjoying the feeling of the night breeze as it washed the fatigue from his body. High above the stars twinkled with a supernatural gentle light. He’d forgotten how long it’d been since he’d watched the stars planet side. He’d spent most of his adult life traveling between the stars and yet it was only when he could look up at them did they truly shine like diamonds.
He lost all track of time and later stopped and looked over the river bank into water. His reflection was clear in the moonlit water. He’d had a whole day to get used to his new form and nothing had changed since he’d woken up, apart from the black eye.
“I never pegged you as the vain type Isaac.” Spoke a smooth, confident female voice. Isaac instantly recognized the owner of that voice judging from the condescending attitude and the ‘total bitch’ tone. It belonged to a woman he had never thought he’d ever see or have to suffer the company of again.
“What the fuck do you want, Kendra?” Isaac scowled at her, his loathing to deal with her. Across the river on the other bank the object of his hate stood with her hands on hips.
She was a human of moderately tanned skin, dressed in the same CEC computer technicians’ uniform she worn at the moment of her death. The gray colored synthetic fiber undershirt and military green cargo pants complimented her brown hair, tied in a pony-tail, and equally brown eyes filled with humor, not contempt.
“Isaac, Isaac,” she spread her arms wide, “it’s been a long time since we last saw each other. I see you’ve changed a lot since then, going for the equine look, huh.”
“Get the fuck back. I know what you are,” Isaac seethed. This thing in front of him was an abomination, “you’re just the Marker trying to screw with my head again. It won’t work this time!”
“Got it in one, Isaac,” Kendra stepped onto the water’s surface, “that’s not why I’m here though.”
“Then why are you here!?” He stepped back. He wasn’t afraid, but the greater the distance the better since he had no weapons or armor to protect him. He was just a pony now; with wings he didn’t know how to use.
“This is just like you Isaac, always so angry. I should say you’re pretty cute as a pony.” Kendra took a second step and slowly walked across the water’s surface, slowly working her way towards him. Her footsteps never disturbed the water’s surface, nor did she have a reflection.
“And you made a pleasant crunch when you were splattered all over the wall.”
“You enjoyed my death, didn’t you Clarke? You probably thought, ‘finally the bitch is dead. She got what she deserved.’ Am I right?” she said, rather blasé about it.
“You fucking betrayed me Kendra. You sold me out for EarthGov. I brought that nightmare to an end, but you took the red Marker from the pedestal and tried to abandon me on that godforsaken planet. I don’t think anyone deserves to die like that. Still I didn’t lose any sleep over yours.” The closer Kendra approached, the more he retreated.
“Maybe, but that is in the past. I am dead, but what about you Isaac? When are you going to tell your new friends the truth?” She was now on his side of the river, hips swaying seductively with each foot fall.
“What are you talking about? I have no friends, it’s all just business.” he rebuked.
“You’re lying. Do they know that you’re bat shit insane? That you hear voices and see dead people. That you’re a murderer!” she yelled that last word and Isaac visibly cringed.
“You’ve killed so many necromorphs you’ve grown tired of it and want to find more satisfaction. So you started killing anyone who got in your way.”
“Fuck off Kendra. I had no choice, but you lead Hammond into a trap and shot Dr. Kyne in the back. You should take a long look at yourself first.”
“Remember, Isaac, who you shot through the throat with a javelin gun. Tiedemann was already dead, drowning in his own blood, and you relished your victory. Standing tall over him like a king before executing him.” Kendra pointed at him accusingly, her voice dripping in disgust. “Don’t deny it Clarke, you enjoy the killing like I do. Love the moment when you can snuff out another’s life with a well placed shot or a screwdriver in the head.” She kneeled down to look him directly face to face.
“How about the two hundred souls you willingly sacrificed to the necromorphs. Did you forget that it was you who removed the power cell and opened the blast doors? You allowed them to be slaughtered by the necromorphs in order to achieve your own ends. You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself.”
“The Marker needed to be destroyed. Nothing else mattered and I don’t need to justify it, not to an apparition of a Marker. Where ever you are I’m coming for you. I’ll destroy you like I did the others!” By now he was screaming so hard that his throat hurt.
“So confident, but what do you hope to accomplish now? A pitiful, broken, human in a weak pony body, though now that I think about you don’t have to worry about that awkward cross species thing.” Kendra crooked smile split her face and she reached out with her hand as if to stoke his mane.
“What are you getting at?” Isaac side stepped with a jerk.
“Face it Isaac, Nicole is dead and you’re not getting any younger. I know men your age love to bag the young naïve school girl. Or maybe you prefer the city dweller fucks the farmer’s daughter ending. I know you love playing the knight in shining armor that saves the princess in another castle.” She tried to touch him on his muzzle, but he jumped back and then spit in her face.
“This whole place is just another hallucination so you can screw with me? It’s rather funny that a Marker was so desperate to stop me it would resort to using children’s cartoons and one made for little girls too” Isaac laugh at Kendra.
“Maybe it is all illusion, maybe not” she wiped her face, “that didn’t stop you from having fun before. So why not go all the way. Find yourself a one-night stand or a suitable fuck buddy and if you don’t like them, kill them afterward. Go ahead Isaac you can’t deny your urges.”
“You’re fucking sick, and I’m not going to listen to this. I’ll break out of here soon.” He turned and walked away. He didn’t run because it was pointless. Surprisingly she didn’t follow, but continued to goad him on.
“You can’t keep running forever Clarke. Eventually you’re friends will figure it out and they’ll lock you up. Clarke? Clarke!!”
He didn’t look back and drove himself to remove all thoughts of Kendra. The killing, yes, he had killed more than just necromorphs. Maybe that made him a criminal in some people’s eyes, still he hadn’t wanted to. Had tried to avoid it at all costs or had he? He couldn’t deny that a small part of him had enjoyed watching Kendra be crushed under the giant tentacle, especially after what she’d put him through.
Then there were the ponies. He didn’t think that the Marker was really responsible for them. He was still on the sidelines as to the question of their existence. They seemed too full of life to be fake but too anarchic to be real. Yet, they had treated him well and they were smart and funny in a way. Since he now had the body of a pony…
“No!” He berated himself, “This is exactly what the marker wants me to think. It wants me to turn against my nature and make me something I’m not. I won’t give in to that crap.”
He wanted to launch into a full rant when the chime of a large brass bell rang out nearby. He stopped and listened to the magnificent clang as it traveled clear and flawlessly through the night sky. He counted eleven rings and turned to face where they’d originated and saw he was near a large clock tower. The very place Twilight was scheduled to meet that friend of the princess’.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
When Isaac had stormed out the back door he left a rather rough silence in his wake. Twilight shook her head in dismay, hoping that he’d eventually warm up to them and stop being so miserable all the time. She checked the time on her wall mounted clock which showed that it was nearly a quarter to eleven.
“Ok you two,” she cooed to Spike and Sweetie Bell, “it’s getting awfully late. Time for bed.” Neither of the children offered any resistance against her as Spike gave a sudden deep yawn.
“Can I watch Mr. Cutter use his weapon in the morning?” Sweetie nearly nodded off where she stood.
“Of course you can Sweetie Bell, but right now its bed time.”
With Spike resting comfortably in his basket bed and Sweetie sound asleep on Twilight’s bed the lavender unicorn returned to the main hall where she’d hoped to continue her work uninterrupted. She retrieved the book with the fire vapor recipe and retreated to the basement to start brewing a batch of the compound. Or she would have till there then came an anxious knocking at the front door.
“I know where Fluttershy is?” Burst in an almost hysterical Rarity, eyes wide, and covered in sweat from sprinting all the way from the hospital.
“You do?” Twilight froze what she’d been doing, “Did Angel tell you? I thought you were going to tell us when he woke up?”
“Oh good gracious no, the last thing the poor dear needs is a crowd of hysterical fillies overwhelming him with questions?” Rarity took out a handkerchief and began clean her face, “No, no, Twilight dear, the little darling was in such a terrible state of mind it was best that the one pony with the best grace and patience attend him.”
“If you say so. So what happened to Fluttershy?”
“A most scandalous even has befallen her.” For just a moment Rarity’s voice broke. The fine cultured tone stopped and Twilight heard the fear inside the white unicorn, “Fluttershy’s been abducted by a pony and some diamond dogs and the despicable curs have taken Ditzy as well, oh it’s so horrible.”
“A pony helping diamond dogs, who?” Twilight gasped, absolutely stunned. Rarity might have just told her that she wasn’t a real a unicorn. It was just unfathomable. Rarity leaned in close, eyes dancing amongst the shadows, looking for an unseen listener.
“Secret Cherry.” she whispered.
“The Mayor’s secretary?” Twilight instantly had her mouth filled with Rarity’s hoof.
“Sshhh,” Rarity cautioned and released the bookworm.
“I just saw her earlier today, she was having some sort of argument with Mayor Mare. Still, why would she kidnap two pegasus ponies and especially Fluttershy? Neither of them have the magic to find gems?”
“Twilight, darling, the hows and whys don’t matter now. Our friend’s well being must come first. Angel was able to follow them to the gates of their lair and now we must warn Applejack and make haste. Afterwards we can have a little chat with Cherry.” Rarity’s face was becoming flushed with anger.
“Fluttershy and Ditzy must be absolutely terrified right now and judging from the way the dogs treated Angel and the other animals I fear the worst may have happened.” As if to bolster her words the clock in the library began to toll the hour. Eleven chimes pierced the tense tranquility of the room.
“Ok,” Twilight plopped the book down next to the cutter, “Pinkie go tell Applejack what’s happened and then get ready to head out. Rarity, Sweetie Bell is upstairs in my room. Go take her back home and we will all meet back here at about one.”
“Okey dokie loki” Pinkie cheered and bolted out the door, seemingly unfazed.
“Twilight, we can all be ready in half that time. Why the hold up?” Rarity inquired.
“I’ve got a…meeting to attend at midnight with someone sent by Celestia who may be able to help.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Twilight galloped her way through the empty dirt roads. Obscuring her way through the bright night was a crisp cold fog that had suddenly and quickly had blanketed the town. The thick eerie cloud relentlessly obscured her vision and chilled her to the bone. It was defiantly not normal to see such weather in this time of year. Her destination was the clock tower atop the hill at the west end and she had only a few minutes left before midnight. She was all packed up and ready to go and rescue Fluttershy, she just had to get this meeting out of the way.
Within minutes she had arrived at the base of the clock tower. It was a twelve story high structure adorned with a single brown gabled roof and a yellow painted exterior. It was one of the oldest buildings that still stood today, the silent hands of the massive clock and the brass bell had watched over the town for many generations, tolling the hours in solitude as the years passed.
She’d come to know this lovely building well over the past year. She was fascinated with the machinery that drove it, spending many a lazy afternoon taking notes on how it all worked together in harmony. Tonight, however, it was accompanied by another familiar sight; a gray pegasus stallion sitting next to the door.
“Isaac?” Twilight slid to a sudden stop, “What are you doing here?” He didn’t respond, his head lowered to the ground. Twilight warily approached him. It looked as if he’d been sitting there for awhile judging from all the moisture that had settled onto him.
“Next time you should try reading secret messages in private. I want to talk to this friend your princess mentioned.” He interposed himself in front of the door, blocking her way. He seemed so much bigger in the dark and the way the moonlight was reflected by his blue eyes and the dew in his coat. It gave him a mysterious and deadly guise and there was a hint of insanity that played his expression. She felt her throat constrict as if caught in the birth of a scream. She was seeing a whole new part of him, he was something else now. He seemed darker, merciless, and it frightened her. She sucked in a lungful of air.
“No,” she snapped at him trying to push away the fear, “the princess said I needed to go alone!”
“I don’t care what she wants.” His dismissal was immediate and full of scorn.
“I do. She is my mentor and has absolute trust in me that I will respect her wishes.”
“She’d not my princess and I hate to do this to you, but I need answers. So,” he slowly treaded towards her, his hoof steps deliberate and unfailing. Twilight bit her lip, would he really hurt her if she refused him? She was paralyzed, frozen, as he approached closer until their muzzles were inches from each other, “either you take me with you or you don’t go at all.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Although the tower was twelve stories tall only the last four were dedicated to the clock itself with the first eight just a spiral staircase. As the two of them ascended stairs the metallic grinding and clicking of clockwork gears grew louder and louder as the wooden stairs creaked and moaned in protest beneath them. Twilight had insisted that Isaac lead the way since having him behind her would’ve been extremely uncomfortable. Half way up she had a change of heart.
She’d been so terrified of him a moment ago, and then when she’d agreed to his terms it was like a snap of a hoof and his aggression had deflated like a ruptured balloon. He’d seemed so little and full of regret over what he’d done. He’d apologized a second time and she had tried to pass if off serenely. Now, in a peculiar way Twilight felt glad that Isaac had insisted on coming. She felt that there was something off about this meeting, there was an aura of unease tonight. The weather, the secrecy, and every other crazy thing that had happened over the last two days, it just made her feel truly safe to have a friend tonight.
The smell of hot oil and grease permeated everything around them. The clockwork mechanism was so loud it was hard to hear herself speaking as the gears tumbled and worked against each other. There were ladders and scaffolds that allowed access to the myriad levels and parts of the machine. Next to the stairwell was the machinist shop where the tools and spare parts were available when the great machine needed maintenance or repair.
Twilight poked her head inside this room to see if anyone was there. In a far corner she caught a feeling of magic being cast and saw a unicorn stallion sitting at table levitating a drink to his lips, eyes closed. He was partially obscured by the shadows but she could tell he was a lithe pony about her age or maybe a few years younger. His light yellow coat was faded as if from a critical and unhealthy lack of sunlight and despite his youthful appearance his mane was silvery gray and coarse looking like that of a pony four times his age.
“Hello?” she cautiously called out.
“Come on in Twilight Sparkle,” His voice was the sound of smooth music, calm and filled with a beat that was hypnotic, “I see you brought Isaac with you. That was to be expected.”
“You knew I was coming?”
“Of course I did. I know a lot about you.” His horn had begun to glow with a sudden display of great magical power. White energy run off his horn and as he gathered the flows of energy to him effortlessly weaving it to suit his purpose and then released a cone of magical power that quickly adhered itself to the walls of the room, filling in the cracks and crevices. The moment the spell was complete the room was completely silent, the sounds of the clockwork machine no longer audible.
“Wow,” Twilight mouth dropped, “that was an amazing spell.”
“A necessary precaution,” the unicorn said, “no sound will pass through the barrier we can talk freely.”
“About the Marker?”
“That, among many other things.” For the first time he opened his eyes and looked at them. His irises were the color of teal, the richest colored eyes she’d ever witnessed. Light danced over the infinite darkness of his pupils, those cat-like slits. Twilight found herself dashing in full retreat, slamming into the opposite wall. Those eyes held her there she’d faced only one other who had eyes like that. Her voice froze and she was breathing hard. To confirm her fears he arose to his full height and flexed a pair of wings, he was an alicorn.
“Who are you?” Isaac sternly asked, put off by Twilight’s flustered reaction.
“Now…that’s not appropriate for you to know right now.” The alicorn frowned in displeasure at the question. His teal eyes captured Isaac in their infinite depths.
“Who are you?” Isaac repeated, more insistent. The alicorn placed his drink on the table before gesturing with his hoof.
“Who decides that the work day is from nine to five instead of eleven to four? Who decides that saddles with emeralds will be in style this year and rubies next year?” The alicorn then smiled wickedly.
“Who draws up the boarders, controls the currency, decides your cutie-mark, handles all of the decisions that happen transparently around us.”
“I don’t know” Isaac shook his head, looking rather confused.
“Aaaaaahh,” the alicorn slowly exhaled. “I’m with them, same group, different department. As for my name call me Dream Reaver.”
“Pleasant name.” Isaac said cynically and felt a shiver go up his spine.
“U...um,” Twilight stuttered half way recovered, “I don’t want to be rude but I noticed that you don’t have a cutie-mark.”
“As it should be. Think of me as the collector of unfulfilled wishes. Ambitions lost and dreams that were never realized. I gather lost memories of young flowers that never truly blossomed.” Reaver blinked as if suddenly remembering something.
“But you didn’t come here to listen me talk about myself, you want information. Information that only Celestia and I can provide.”
“How well do you know the princess?” Twilight inquired.
“I’ve been with her since the beginning. Ten thousand years ago when we first discovered the original Black Marker.” |
Oceansama | 682 | 13 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-03-12T19:03:43+00:00 | 2012-03-12T19:03:43+00:00 | 1,316 | Chapter 13: Room Seven
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
"T…ten thousand years?" Twilight stammered slowly falling into a stunned seated position, her face a delicate mask of disbelief. She always knew that alicorns were immortal, even then it was a difficult concept to believe that Dream Reaver had known the Celestia for such an incredible amount of time. As a fan of mathematics she understood that such a number may not have seemed all that big. When applied it to a sense of time it became altogether meaningless, impossible to comprehend what a significant amount of history that had transpired, all of the lives that had come and gone in the intermediate years while an alicorn remained ageless, unchanging. In a profound way Twilight was grateful that she hadn't been born an alicorn.
"In actuality it has been ten thousand, three hundred, and twelve years?" Reaver said plainly, refilling his glass with another round. "Relationships between immortals and long lived species are complicated and hard to explain to ponies whose lives are measured only by decades."
"I….still I'd like to hear more," Twilight quickly overcame her earlier trepidations and pulled out trusty quill, ink, paper, and began dictating the conversation up to that point.
"Celestia has never talked her past before or even about the existence of a third Alicorn. I'm curious to learn more. Like what is the extent of your relationship with her?" Twilight leaned in closer, not realizing her quill was forming a large ink spot on the paper.
"You'd do better to ask Celestia yourself if you want to know about her past. I'd rather not speak for her." His voice was the measured cadence of a dignitary, confident and deep, betraying no emotion unlike his body which visibly tensed up at the subject.
"As for my side," He went tacit and slowly panning his head from left to right as if he was carefully examining the room for unseen eyes, "we are friends and allies with a similar goal, but our methods clash. Though she does comes to me from time to time for advice and counsel when certain past sins catch up with us or old wounds are opened. Other times we are bitter, hated enemies. Sometimes it's all of the above, none of the above, but we've always had the utmost respect for each other."
"That's not really an definitive answer." Twilight said, annoyed at his paper thin answer, it was more a transparent concept than a quantitative object.
"Of course it is, just not the one you wanted. There is a difference." He grinned lightly when she became even more annoyed, "It's not a simple thing, but if you want a story then let me tell you of the time, long ago, when I rose up to declare myself to be the rightful heir to the throne and nearly denied Celestia her right to rule." Twilight opened and closed her mouth like a panting fish. Suddenly taken aback and regarding him with fresh fascination and a little anxiety, but continued to write her account.
"It was right after we removed the previous tyrannical ruler from Equestria," Reaver continued, spreading his arms dramatically. He rose onto his hind legs to stand tall like a king towering above a royal assembly, spreading his wings to their full length. Light and lightening crackled from his horn in waves of raw energy that traveled along his body and diffused into the air.
"I declared myself superior in every way; power, intellect, and wisdom. I was destined to ascend the throne as the true ruler that Equestria needed, far surpassing anything that Celestia, young and foolish, could ever be. Failed policies made way for a battle that raged for days in the skies over Canterlot with the fate of the future to be decided." Soon his burst of energy faded and he settled back into his previous neutral mindset.
"I take it you lost." Isaac interrupted tactlessly, acting as if he was not impressed.
"Did you rub both brain cells together to figure that out?" Reaver deadpanned, receiving a 'touché' grin from Isaac, "You've never seen sweet Celestia when she's mad, Isaac. The last ten millennia have mellowed her out somewhat, although I wouldn't be surprised if she still had a bit of that youthful pride still in her. I hear there are some ponies who still call her Trollestia to this day. Respectfully, from behind her back, of course."
"Of course." Isaac agreed not entirely sure why. He didn't know much about Celestia, though she sounded like just another government type that he needed to watch out for.
"Look," he stamped a hoof out of frustration, "can this history lesson wait until we've dealt with the Marker. I'm tired of just waiting around, right?" He nudged Twilight.
"Huh?" she jerked as if awoken from a day dream, "Oh, yeah, I guess we'd better do that." She signed and wondered if ponies really did call Celestia by such a horrid name? She'd have to look into that and the elements help any pony she caught red hoofed.
"Our next step is clear because I sense the enemy is close to completing the Marker as we speak." Reaver said calmly as if discussing the weather.
"What?" Twilight gasped nearly dropping her paper, body going cold, "How do you know that? Is it even possible?"
"Have you not felt its influence on your mind? Voices, hallucinations, other strange phenomenon happening around you?"
"He's right," Isaac agreed wincing as he recalled a fairly recent encounter, "remember the fight in the mines, all those necromorphs? We thought the signal followed me in. It might have come from this new Marker."
"Yes, but…" Twilight sputtered, "Then why did the monsters suddenly die if there was a Marker controlling them?"
"Maybe something blocked the signal?" Isaac though out loud, scratching his cheek. "I have no idea. If it's not fully built then maybe it can't maintain a signal for a long period of time?"
"Those are…sound ideas," Twilight calmed herself, if only a tad, "right now maybe we should be more concerned that they built a Marker in less than a single day?"
"Twilight, the enemy has known for generations how to construct a Marker." Reaver countered, "They never dared to try it until now because it would be useless to them."
"But Luna said the book was what they needed to build it. Why steal it if already knew?"
"What Luna said was true, but for a different reason. There is a second part to the book. Our enemies are not foals; they know an uncontrollable Marker would equally spell their doom as much as it would ours. No, they needed the Tome in order to enslave the Marker and bend it to their will."
"How?"
"Celestia's pupil, at the time, found a way to control it. She discovered ways to use magic to manipulate the signal and modify the frequency of the energy waves that it emitted. She described it akin to putting a pony in a straitjacket."
"Both of you are fucking idiots," Isaac shouted giving Reaver a dismissive wave of his hoof before he was sharply interrupted by an angry kick to his leg from Twilight. He afforded her a sidelong scowl and ignored her.
"I've seen what comes from trying to control a marker. You may think you're safe, that you've got it all figured out but that's just what the Marker wants you to believe. It will never stop trying to find a way out and eventually it will."
"Just so, by the time we realized what was going on it was too late." Reaver contributed.
"Either outcome will be bad for Equestria," Twilight looked up to Reaver for guidance, "We can stop it, right?"
"…No," he replied curtly, "I brought you all the way out here to tell you there is no hope, nothing to be done, because I find it cute how your jaw goes slack in the presence of total planetary genocide. YES, there is a way to stop this."
"Then tell us how?"
"I can't," he shook his head to emphasize, "unfortunately the one who defeated the Black Marker passed away before they could pass on that information."
"Who? Was it Celestia's pupil?" Twilight prodded.
"No, it was her son."
"She had a son?" Twilight's mood plummeted at the news. She wondered how much more there was that she didn't know about her mentor. Wasn't she the princess' trusted, most faithful, student? Yet she realized now how much she didn't know.
"Had and he was the first pony to ever wield the Elements of Harmony."
"Ohh, Poor Celestia, she must've been so heartbroken." She felt a few tears threaten her.
"As all parents are when they have to bury their children. It is important that you understand that you too may have to make a similar sacrifice."
"No, I refuse to let anything like that happen to my friends." She snapped up ready to move the heavens to prevent such a fate, turning to Isaac with face full of purpose. "We can stop it right now."
"How are you planning to do that?" Isaac said.
"Right after you stormed out of the library, Isaac, Rarity came by and said that a friend of mine had been kidnapped. Her name is Fluttershy and Rarity knows where she's been taken to." Twilight panned back to Reaver, "My friends are preparing to go and rescue her as we speak. I can't,…won't, let anything happen to her."
"I see," There was a glimmer of light in the alicorn's eye, "A strange turn of events. This might prove to be a very fortunate development for us, indeed."
"What's fortunate about my friends being taken away from me?" A few strands of hair unsettled themselves from her main as her fury simmered. "Her house was broken into, her animals murdered, and to top it all off Ditzy Doo was kidnapped as well! There is nothing good about that."
"You need to put your personal feelings aside. You, of all ponies, should know the value of understanding the nature of the enemy you face and not running in half blind."
"Ghuu," she barked, "Fluttershy is one of my best friends and the most gentle and kind pony I've ever known. I will not so casually dismiss her?"
"Because I know what you are up against." His voice raised a few decibels to match the unicorn's. The two of them glared at each other in a test of willpower before Reaver unexpectedly broke it off and looked upwards as if losing himself in an old memory.
"Twilight, have you ever heard of a species called grundels? How about a bushwooly, mountain elf, a sea pony, or even a flutter pony?"
"I've read about them," her anger melted away at the change in topic, "but I haven't actually seen any of them."
"You never will since they're all gone now, my fault." He raised a hoof over his face, voice whispering. "Myths and legends are all that remain now. In a single week hundreds of civilizations were consumed by the marker or died out soon after the war ended…the world was a very empty place." Reaver inhaled sharply falling into a horrible gloom that contrasted his earlier confidence.
"The moment we saw it we knew it was not of this world. It was massive, ancient, and alien. It hadn't just fallen from the sky but had been delivered to us for reasons no pony could figure out." He shook his head, "We didn't win, we simply survived and now we're at the cusp of it all happening again and all you can think of is saving one friend?"
"Shove it up your ass, you son of a bitch," Isaac yelled unrelentingly, "If Twilight wants to go save her friend then that's fine with me. I know what it means to lose someone you love." His outburst quickly dissolved and he looked away in shame. "To…fail to be there for them."
"Besides destroying the Marker is my job and I can do it by myself." He finished reasserting his earlier statement.
"Yes, I heard that you have enjoyed some success in the past. While I respect your skill and am partly responsible for your existence here in Equestria, that does not mean I trust you. While you've been stumbling through Everfree and playing apple farmer many more ponies have been disappearing all across Equestria. Fluttershy was not the first and even Rainbow Dash has been counted amongst those missing."
"Rainbow Dash too? When!" Twilight screamed.
"Several hours ago."
"What are they going to do to them?" Twilight already had a sneaking expectation of what the answer was. She didn't want to speak it out loud, she was too afraid she'd be right. On her behalf, Isaac stepped in to answer it for her.
"They're going to be used as test subjects aren't they?" he pounded his hooves in disgust, "They'll use them as test subjects until they can no longer serve a useful purpose. Then they'll be used to make necromorphs." It was a disturbing parallel to how Earthgov had treated him and several other prisoners in their mindless pursuit in building an obelisk of death.
"No!" Twilight released an anguished wail, heart clenching under a death squeeze, while her legs turned to jelly, "they…no. They wouldn't…their going to turn my friends into more of those abominations." Her eyes begged Isaac, pleaded for him to say that she was simply playing a cruel joke or that there were other possibilities; however Isaac could not bring himself to look at her.
"There is still hope though," Reaver said lifting his drink to sip at it, accompanied by the gentle sound of tumbling ice cubes, "until now we were unsure where the stolen ponies were being taken. Now it seems you might have unwittingly stumbled upon the enemy's home."
"Your right, if they are kidnapping ponies to make necromorphs then we might be able to solve two problems at once."
"Exactly, Twilight. It is good to see that you're still in good spirits. Most ponies would be a little more 'hesitant' chasing after the enemy after nearly being killed."
"I was lucky to have Luna and Isaac with me," Twilight gave Isaac a small approving grin of thanks, "they both saved my life."
"An act that came with a lot of strings attached."
"What do you mean?"
"Hmm..." Reaver hummed while closely examining Twilight. So long and intense was his gaze that Twilight felt herself blush a bit in embarrassment, "Again I won't presume to speak for another, especially Princess Luna. I love her like a sister and if she hasn't told you then neither will I, you'll have to take it up with her. I will say you won't feel so grateful when you learn what it cost her to save your life and the price that you too will have to pay."
"Speaking of Luna there is something I need to know." Isaac stepped in, "She tasked Twilight the duty of summoning a weapon into this world. Twilight said it was her fault for miscasting the spell, that I was not suppose to be here, that it was an accident, and Luna seemed to support this. Thing is, I don't believe it was an accident."
"But it was. It's my fault. I let everypony down." Twilight admonished, placing a hood on Isaac's shoulder.
"Oh?" Reaver beamed with interest, "How so?"
"Come on, I'm not an idiot." Isaac felt insulted, "A world facing destruction from a Marker and I just happened to fall into it on random chance by a failed spell? I'm not a scientist but the numerical odds of such a thing must be incredibly small. You can't sit there and tell me I'm here by coincidence."
"Your right, I can't." Reaver smiled, "When the two princesses came to me for my council I told them that I knew of a weapon that could possibly tip the odds in our favor. The fact your standing here is proof that Twilight performed the spell to my exact specifications."
"So you lied to me, to Celestia and Luna." Twilight huffed, insulted at the very notion.
"Had I told them the truth about what the weapon really was I suspect neither of them would have agreed to go through with it, especially since it involved you at the center of it all."
"So you're the reason why I'm here and a horse too." Isaac poked Reaver in the chest but failed to incite a reaction from the alicorn.
"I made you a pony so as to allow you move more freely in the world and not draw unwarranted attention from the enemy. So you could speak and read the language as well. This is why your mind bonded with Twilight's, it was an exchange of information."
"But why drag me back into this crap? Huh? Why me?"
"Because…for those of us who dwell in the infinite space between science and magic, between delusion and ultimate truth, you are what we call a nexus, both of you. Wherever you go, the world has a tendency to follow. It has saved lives and is exactly what we need now."
"Now there's one thing I don't understand." Twilight piped in, "There was a mind control spell woven into the summoning…"
"A mind what now?" Isaac asked.
"A spell that Luna said would bind the wea…uh, you to my control." Twilight absent-mindedly played with her mane.
"Hey, no one is controlling me, especially not a purple figment of my imagination."
"Too bad, because the first thing I'd do is give you a sunnier disposition. Then there is the matter of your foul language."
"How about I give you my foot right up your…"
"Enough," Reaver's howl settled the matter once and for all, "You were an unknown element, Isaac. There was no way of telling how you'd react once you arrived and I couldn't risk you actually harming Twilight, Celestia would never forgive me."
"So you screwed with my head?" Isaac never wished more that he could make a pony's head explode just using his mind.
"Just a small mental block to ensure that you'd never be able to cause her any physical harm directly or indirectly." The alicorn informed Isaac who fumed with indignation.
"I'm tired of being manipulated to serve another's agenda!" The former human wanted to kill this bastard, rip him apart and paint the walls with his blood. The more he thought of it the more his body stiffened to the extent his muscles clenched so hard making that it immobilized him. Anger was defeated by shock when he realized what was happening.
"No doubt you realize it's also futile to try and attack me." Reaver demonstrated this by leaving his throat exposed to Isaac's mercy.
"Please stop this," Twilight pleaded, "There is no need for all this, and we're supposed to be on the same side." Whether or not her words had any effect Reaver backed away.
"The hour is getting late," he said, "and you should be on your way, but before you go there is one final matter." Using his magic he levitated a medium sized jewel box from a brown sack that had been hiding behind the table. The jewel box was painted with a midnight blue and laced with gold along the edges and on the hinges. Rhombus shaped gems of red, pink, and green wrapped around the box in four sets of three.
"Open it," he said as the box was laid at Twilights hooves. Twilight complied and was rewarded with a flash of light and a burst of a familiar magical energy that filled her with feelings of absolute safety. She knew exactly what was inside before the light finally faded away.
"The Elements of Harmony," she marveled, plucking a golden tiara with a large star, made of a magenta colored tourmaline, set upon the crown. The inside of the box was padded with a fine pink silk that contained six valuable treasures, the tiara among them. The other five were gold necklaces and each one had a different shaped and colored pendant that corresponded to the cutie-mark of its representative pony, who all happened to be Twilight best friends. They were the elements of honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty. Twilight's was the most powerful element of all, magic.
"Celestia wanted you to have them, a word of warning though," Reaver grew unusually hushed with a serious scowl, "the Elements are powerful weapons, however, use them only as a last resort since they will draw the Marker's attention to you."
"I don't understand."
"You will in time. Just remember that each element grants the user powers that can be used individually, apart from the whole." Reaver turned away from Twilight, addressing a rather brooding Isaac, "I did not forget about you Mr. Clarke."
"I swear if you pull out a crown or earrings I'm going to jump right out the window." Isaac jabbed a hoof in the alicorn's direction.
"No there is no seventh Element or jewelry for you."
"Good, he'd probably represent crabbiness." Twilight giggled.
"I think a certain purple pain in my ass should be quiet." Isaac huffed, receiving a raspberry from Twilight in return.
"I managed to pull a few favors and requisitioned an item from the Princesses' own private museum. It's over there, in the sack behind the table.
"What is it?" Isaac tried not to sound too interested.
"Something I think you'll like." Reaver nodded assuredly, "One more thing, I had hoped that Twilight's friend, Rainbow Dash, would've been around to help you get your wings off the ground, so to speak. Since she's missing I hired another fast flyer to help you out, someone you can trust, and I hear she's one of the best." A pale aura of magic formed around the alicorn's horn and he backpedaled a ways as the pool of energy began to grow brighter.
"She should be at the library now." He said just as a great conflagration of magical energies swarmed and filled the room with a deafening tone and a push of force that sent reality itself seeming to buckle under the strain. It lasted only a second and when it was over Reaver was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh my," Twilight gasped picking herself up off the floor, "I've never seen a teleportation spell that powerful before." Isaac just brushed the dust and dirt from his coat noting that the great grinding of the clock tower's gears had returned in full force. Sparing not a though for it he strode over to the table and spotted the sack where his 'gift' awaited him. He slowly reached out for the bag, hesitating only briefly, unsure as to what was inside or that it might even be a trap.
Feeling that such reservations were just unfounded paranoia he reached inside and felt something cool and hard in his hoof. Extracting it into the light he beheld an octagonal shaped black metal tube with a handle on one end. He couldn't help but feel an instance of déjà vu. He'd seen this object many times before. Back home it was a standard sight aboard starships, but he'd never thought he'd see it in a place like this.
"Holy shit." He mouthed as he placed the flat end of the tube on the table. Threading a hoof through the handle he gave a firm clockwise tug and the top of the cylinder rotated with ease. After half a rotation there was a click and Isaac pulled up and a hiss of air escaped the tube, with the billowing of cold white fog, as he extracted a clear circular glass tube.
Isaac stared disbelieving at the smooth rectangular, bronze colored, object encased inside the glass. There were no logos, safety stickers, or even a serial number but there was no doubting what it was; a CEC nano-lithe fusion battery for his RIG. He had just been handed the means to power his advanced suit back into life.
"You're fucking kidding me. How the hell did he get one of these?" Maybe he didn't want to know the answer to that. The question along raised all sorts of uncomfortable scenarios.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
The stretcher shook and jostled her wildly about as the dogs pushed her over the uneven rock strewn path towards their destination. Fluttershy could see nothing past the black sack wrapped tightly over her head. Occasionally the light from an overhead lamp managed to break through and warm her eyes, otherwise she had lost all sense of orientation and position as she was guided down endless tunnels that twisted and turned before suddenly folding in on themselves with no sense of purpose or goal.
It went on like this for an immeasurable amount of time until the stretcher's wheels collided with a sudden steep incline and she had let out a loud scream of discomfort and surprise, her face flushing from the embarrassment and shock. Afterwards the ground leveled out and from the sound the wheels made on the floor the ground was made from an artificial material that she was unfamiliar with yet it was hard and made a squeaking sound. Even on the smooth surface Fluttershy still continued to shake, her fatigued muscles aching from the earlier fight. Though she trembled more out of fear and anxiety at what was awaiting her; hunger, fatigue, and confusion only compounded her ill feelings. She didn't know what to do or if there was anything more she could do to escape this dark place. She gasped uncontrollably and was so frightened that she couldn't cry.
Her brain was like leaved scattered in a hurricane; wild, hard to control, and form into a single coherent thought. With all her might she tried to center her thoughts on a single focus, contemplating what her heroine Rainbow Dash would do to handle a situation such as this. Rainbow was strong and brave, surely she'd find a way out for sure and doing something incredibly cool in the process.
Fluttershy also remembered a time when Rarity had been trapped last year by the diamond dogs. Everypony had believed that Rarity had been in great peril. Turned out the fashion designer had turned the tables on the dogs and won her own freedom without the help of her friends.
The butterscotch pegasus found her feelings had turned their way towards Cherry and the atrocities she'd committed against Angel and Ditzy. She'd felt a chink in her chain of fear, experienced a contortion forming on her face, and followed by a grinding of teeth as evil thoughts filled her head. All of her animal friends were either dead or without a home now because of a simple fact. That she was the smallest of all her friends and was of no help to anypony. Her friends had encouraged her to be the best pony she could be and while she had tried, in the end, it hadn't been enough.
She was weak.
The procession of pony and dogs halted suddenly and interrupted her train of thought and self pity as a series of sequential clicks of heavy door locks being released echoed down the hall and the metallic reverberation of a very large door opening. She felt the vibration of large motors grinding and protesting as they worked fervently to open the way. Before the engines finished their work, the dogs started moving her again, past the doors and down a curved incline. There was an abrupt upsurge of sounds all around her as she was lead through a large crowd. Footfalls of dogs and ponies could be heard everywhere and a massive amount of disjointed chatter made it impossible for her to pick out a single conversation over another. Rising above the din of voices, like a thunder clap, was the fierce unmistakable snap of several whips filling the air and accompanied closely by a wail of agony from a pony, mares and stallions, and sometimes from a dog as well.
"Room Seven." One of the dogs barked as they came to another halt. There was an electrical buzz preceding the release of another, smaller, door this time. As they passed this door she felt a wave of gloom fill her to the marrow as the door slammed shut and she was sealed inside with her captors. The restraining belts holding her down were removed while four pairs of clawed hands grabbed at her tightly and lifting her from the stretcher. She was quivering in a cold sweat, too frightened to move. Afraid that if she screamed or tried to struggle that they'd only hurt her more or Ditzy in retaliation. A bolt of freezing cold snapped up her spine as she was placed against an icy chair that was angled halfway between a horizontal and vertical position. The dogs wasted no time in applying metal cuffs on her legs and immobilizing her once again.
The black sack was removed from her head and she had to impulsively squint her eyes against the assaulting light that was emitted from a lamp hung right above her head. She was afforded no reprieve as the sack was then forced into her mouth. The dog had rolled the sack up and held it like a rope across her cheeks, silencing her protests and holding her head firm against the chair. He pulled with such indissoluble strength that she felt like her jaw was about to break and she struggled to breath as her tongue was forced back into her throat. She closed her eyes and wishing with all her heart that this was all just a bad dream. That Angel, Twilight, or any of her friends would arrive and wake her up at any moment. Then they'd look directly into her eyes with faces scrunched up and reflecting great concern and sympathy.
"Hold her eyes open," said a stallion with a tone of calm authority and undisguised repugnance. The dirt crusted fur of a dog's paw forced one of her eyelids open, the overhead lamplight making it impossible to distinguish the faces of her tormentors as they seemed to float above her like ghosts.
"Don't move." The stallion commanded while holding something above her face. It was long, thin, and light shined off its surface with a mosaic of colors.
"No please..." Fluttershy begged softly, memories of Ditzy's hollow eye socket playing out across her own face.
"Don't worry this isn't going to hurt at all." The stallion cooed condescendingly. Fluttershy bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, tears finally forcing their way out from exhausted ducts as the object was lowered to hover mere centimeters above her eye. She yelped expecting nothing but pain but was surprised as a splash of a warm liquid dropped her eye, followed by a second and third drip. The same was repeated for her other eye. The deed done her captors shuffled out of the room and locked the door tightly behind them.
She blinked her eyes repeated until the light above had become unbearably bright forcing her to seek sanctuary behind closed lids. Continuing to sob uncontrollably as the eye drops mixed with her hot tears to the point both her cheeks were covered in a salty liquid and small rivers ran unimpeded down her neck. The door opened, more dogs came delivering a rattling stretcher and placing it just off to her left side. Other dog carried in several heavy objects and slammed them down front of her. Not a word was said and as soon as the unseen activities were complete the dogs departed. Their heavy footsteps replaced by a singular meandering hoof step of a pony.
The pony halted behind her and Fluttershy visibly tensed unsure of what more they were going to do. She felt one of her eyes forcefully pried open by the pony's hoofs. She gasped in surprise and pain as her eyes started to burn from the lamplight which was now akin to staring straight into the sun. The stranger then let her go and mercifully turned the overhead lamp off. Fluttershy sighed in thankful relief, sniffing loudly, and began blinking her eyes to clear the sun spots.
"The eyes are fully dilated, good." Spoke the pony, quill scrapping against paper, before she departing the room leaving Fluttershy isolated for another indeterminate amount of time.
As the world slowly refocused itself Fluttershy was able to observe her prison in all its bleak existence. The flat featureless gray walls of the hexagon shaped room were unnaturally smooth as if the whole room had been carved from a single piece of metal. Light came from six dim little lamps affixed to the corners and two air vents hung from the ceiling and covered with grates that had been welded on permanently. Even if she could remove the grates the vents were too narrow to fit a pony her size. It was quite inside yet everything seemed to hum with a subtle power, vibrating ever so slightly from an invisible giant heartbeat.
She craned her neck to look over to the spare stretcher that'd been left next to her. She'd hoped it to be empty or have a friendly face she could talk to, on both counts she had been wrong. Folded neatly on one end there was a single green surgeon's gown with a white mask draped over it. Along with it was an arrangement of stainless medical implements, on narrow trays, whose clean and sterile surfaces caused the light to project around the room, shiny eyes that seemed to be searching for her. Neatly arranged on the trays were surgical tools from syringes and scalpels, to clamps, retractors, needles threaded with sutures, and many more she didn't recognize but all fostered a mounting dread. Her blood froze and muscles went rigid when she saw the drill, a rotating handle attached to a shaft ending in a sadistic looking corkscrew cutting blade. Next to that was a pair of rib spreaders and a serrated hacksaw. Her imagination betrayed her and dreamt up all the horrific results these instruments could inflict upon her body, a ravaged and dissected body with organs missing and limb dismembered.
Fluttershy snapped her gaze away feeling both cold and numb, the world faded into the background becoming fuzzy and somehow alien. Her stress was at a breaking point and a dark depression was descending onto her mind, consuming her with unforgiving anguish.
"Good morning." The cheerful sincerity of that voice snapped Fluttershy back into reality. It had come from the spectacled pegasus stallion that she'd seen before. Stepping into the room the door closed behind him, becoming seamless with the surrounding wall.
Beneath a pair of oak colored reading glasses, with almost nonexistent lenses, was a set of rosy colored eyes embedded into a welcoming grandfatherly face with the kind of smile that delighted in spoiling the grandchildren with toys and candy while telling tall tales of heroic daring. His chestnut coat had almost completely faded with age as well as his mane whose original color had long been lost to the unrelenting passage of time. He wore a vest of a pale royal blue with a single golden chain hanging from the left pocket. In the oppressive silence Fluttershy could hear the tic-tic-tic of his pocket watch.
He was carrying a black suitcase expertly balanced on his back as he purposefully strode over to a table and chair that had been deposited in front of Fluttershy. He said nothing more as he placed the suitcase on the table and opened it, extracting seven tan colored folders and neatly arranging them on the table. One of the folders had her name, 'Fluttershy,' written on it in a thick hoof-heavy font. Five of the other folders also carried the names of all of her friends; Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and all the rest. However there was one file that did not bear a name.
Taking Fluttershy's folder into his hooves he sat down and began to read the contents, occasionally making clicking sounds with his tongue. She noted, with no small amount of curiosity, that her folder was thicker than those of her friends. Thus the time passed in an uneasy fashion while she shivered in the cold indifferent atmosphere. Her only companions were the thrumming sensation emanating from the walls and the sound of a page being turned.
"Mmm ah hm, mm, very interesting." The stallion hummed, his ears peaking in subdued excitement as he looked up to study Fluttershy like she was a pinned butterfly on display.
"Very interesting," he repeated before losing himself in the file again.
"Who are you?" Fluttershy breathed, barely understanding her own voice yet, somehow, the aged pegasus had heard her.
"You can call me Doctor. Not my real name of course but my employer values secrecy."
"What…who…t…um," she swallowed hard trying to alleviate her dry mouth. Her tongue felt like a thick heavy weight, "what are you go…going to do to me?" The stallion leaned forward while adjusting his glasses.
"You and I have never met before; I was hired to do a job nothing more or less. I have no vested interest in helping or harming you as long as the job gets done. As for what happens to you, that depends on you and how much you choose to cooperate. It's nothing personal, you understand." Cradling the folder in one arm he rose from the chair to drive forward and stand between Fluttershy and the medical stretcher.
"Now, before we can begin there are a couple of gaps in our records we need filled. My employer wants everything kept neat and tidy."
In spite of his harmless appearance there was something incredibly off, a dark aura that surrounded him, he didn't move like a pony nor did he smell like on. Her sharp olfactory sense triggered stinging sensations. She could smell the overpowering stench of formaldehyde that clung to him, as well as the nauseating necrotic stink of cadavers and blood.
"Your name is Fluttershy, a pegasus mare, blood type O negative; are you currently taking any medication? Do you have any known allergies? Have you had any trouble with your heart?" Fluttershy didn't respond choosing to fight against her restraints in a vain attempt to get a far away as possible. She hadn't heard the question she only felt an acute sense of panic grip her, overwhelming all of her sensibilities as she struggled towards escape. She wanted, no needed, to get away from this monster dressed with a pony's skin.
"You will respond when spoken to. Cooperation will be rewarded; deception and resistance will be punished." She felt the futility in her struggles give way to hopeless despair as she settled down just enough to actually look him in the face.
"Are you currently taking any medication? Do you have any known allergies? Are you... having any trouble with your heart?" He repeated the question, slower this time. She shook her head letting out a whimper that signaled her defeat as she settled limply back onto the chair.
"Good," The doctor returned to his seat and pulled out a pen, "then let us start with something fairly recent. Now here is a report that says you were once a very successful fashion model under the administration of Photo Finish, correct?" Fluttershy nodded.
"Yet, despite your popularity at the height of your success you suddenly quit. Why?"
"Umm…because I ha…hated it." She stuttered more from confusion at why it was important than from fear of answering. A quick glint of surgical steel in the corner of her eye reminded her of what was awaiting and she reasoned that if she could hold out long enough her friends would find her. She held no desire to speak with this pony though it was best way to stall for time.
"What did you hate about it?"
"All that attention. All the ponies staring at me, silently judging." It'd been the worst time of her life. She
"Would you say you were loved by your fans?"
"Oh, um, I guess so."
"But you threw it all away."
"Uh, y…yes."
"Really? Well I find that to be quite fascinating. Recall another more recent incident where you erupted into Canterlot castle during the Galloping Gala screaming, and I quote, 'Your going to love me."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Well you got everypony's attention that night, including my employers."
"I...I just wanted the animals to like me and let me care for them, but they kept running away. I didn't mean to get angry."
"Do you hate the other ponies?"
"What? No! I could never hate anyone."
"I find it strange that you seek so much approval from animals that you devolve into a uncontrollable rage when you feel you're denied reciprocation. Yet freely given love and consideration from ponies drives a desire in you to disappear from public awareness and cast their feelings aside like flotsam on the ocean."
"No, that's not true."
"Then why do you isolate yourself from your friend by living like a hermit surrounded by stupid creatures? For that matter why would a pony who is," he consulted the folder, "described as being, 'easily frightened, meek, shy to the point of incapacitation, and known to be afraid of her own shadow,' be doing living right next to the Everfree forest? A place well known for its fierce and violent predators?"
Fluttershy hesitated, unsure how to reply to that question in kind. Though, in truth she wasn't entirely sure as to the answer herself. It just seemed like something she had always been meant to do given her talent and cutie mark.
"Nothing to say? Very well, I'll just write it down as your first fabrication." He wrote furiously into the folder with surprising zeal. "Then there is the matter of, what do you call it? The Flutter-stare? A most unusual ability for the bearer of the element of kindness. It is why you're here." He stated matter-of-factly before pointing upwards, "They want to know it, how it works, and that job falls to me. The fact you hold an element is just a…delightful perk." He said as he continued to write.
"I was quite impressed with your sudden demonstration earlier. Doubtful your victim would agree, but," the doctor stole a peek at the arrangement of surgical equipment, "I'm sure he'll give us plenty of useful research after his interview and dissection."
"Oh, and before I forget," he reached over to a series of buttons that had been built into the table's surface. From her position and angle Fluttershy had been ignorant of their existence. A simple depression of one button sent a surge of electricity coursing through the hoof restraints on Fluttershy's forelegs. The yellow mare convulsed wildly as the current passed through her chest, through her heart, making cracking and popping noises as she screamed in horrific pain. It felt as if her chest was going to rip itself open, it burned and she couldn't breathe. The screams fell silent as her oxygen was wasted.
A second, the stallion had only pressed the button for one mere second, but it was enough. Fluttershy collapsed as limp as a piece of dead meat. Somehow she'd remained conscious and her chest rose and fell rapidly as tried to fight through confusion and pain.
"Never contradict me." He said calmly untouched by the suffering he'd just committed. He reached over and opened another folder that carried a certain lavender unicorn's name,
"Now I wanted to talk to you about Twilight Sparkle, if you could perhaps provide us with the names and addresses of any extended family…"
"Please, no more, just let me go." She pleaded barely able to speak. The stench of burnt hair filled her nostrils as tendrils of smoke lifted from her bruised body.
"That's not up for me to decide," the stallion said dismissively, "my employer has a great deal of interest in you and in your unique talents, best to just accept your fate. One other thing, your friend Ditzy Doo," Fluttershy perked a little at her friend's name "sends her regards. She's being moved to another room elsewhere in the facility. One of my associates will be handling her case."
"She's still alive." Fluttershy sighed with relief, feeling a tinge of hope returning.
"Hmm, yes, I imagine that we'll only hold her as long as we hold you. Of course that means the more you stall," he chewed on the inside of his cheek "we can't let her go."
"You're just a big bully, a cold hearted, bad pony." Fluttershy hissed through clenched teeth, her anger returning and rising to a boil. She instinctually fought the restraints, her body overflowing with a need to resist somehow if just for the sake of Ditzy.
"Twilight and my friends will not stop till they have found me. You have no right…"
"No! YOU have no rights." The spectacles Pegasus shot up from his seat and spat acid at the helpless pony instantly silencing her. "Take a look around you Fluttershy. There's no princess here, no friends, no justice, no mercy, No fairness, No Hope, and NO Escape! You will leave through that door only when we know your secrets and not one second BEFORE!"
With a speed that belied his aged body the doctor dumped all the files back into his briefcase and with a steep frown of disgust pardoned himself from the room, the door opening automatically as if sensing his mood. His departure signaled the arrival of a dog guard who took a hold of the stretcher and wheeled it out before the door closed. An instant later the lights went out, plunging Fluttershy into total and absolute darkness.
There was silence at first, then the room filled with her exhausted pitiful cries of anguish, echoing cruelly in her ears as she fell into a painful dreamless sleep. |
Oceansama | 682 | 14 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-03-12T19:07:35+00:00 | 2012-03-12T19:07:35+00:00 | 1,309 | Chapter 14: The Second Night.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
The two ponies made a hasty departure from the clock tower and turned inexorably towards the library. As they traveled a tense atmosphere was building between them. To a casual observer the two of them shared a solemn silence as Twilight and Isaac trotted along. So many questions still lingered in their minds about all that had been said and revealed, like a swarm of angry hornets that refused to subside. There had been a few answers but not enough to find any comfort in their meager offerings. Without realizing it the library had come into existence before them. It was still a ways away yet even from here they could see the lights were on and there was occasional movement from several ponies within. Before they reached the threshold Twilight felt a desire to say something to Isaac, anything to clear the air. How could they all work together if Isaac couldn't trust her or her other friends?
"So..," she began with a weak edge, stealing a glance at the cylinder that Isaac was cradling, "what is that nifty device Reaver gave you?" Isaac blinked as she had clearly pulled him out of whatever hidden reverie he'd been engrossed in.
"It's a power cell for my RIG and suit." He answered plainly with an eagerness to drop the conversation already evident.
"Oh, well that was nice of him." She attempted a warm smile.
"Nice would be me crushing his head with my foot." Isaac closed his eyes imagining such a desired opportunity.
"Soooo..how does it work? Is it magic based? Does it use similar science to a shock-point generator you talked about? Speaking of which I'd love to hear more about your world, about its history, culture, and those starships you mentioned." Her eyes birthed a new and eager hope at all the new alien knowledge she could acquire. Isaac was an opportunity to learn so much about worlds and civilizations beyond the veil of her world.
"Starships exactly, they can't exist here because your tech isn't advanced enough to build them. The same with this power cell it should not exist in such a backwater planet as this. You can't just ignore a thousand years of scientific research and pull concentrated fusion cores out of thin air in a place still stuck in the stone age." The former human savagely stomped his right leg three times for emphasis.
"That can't happen!"
"Shhh, do you want to wake somepony up?" Twilight whispered harshly and quickly scanned around for any spectators. To her relief the road remained empty and no pony had turned on their house lights, "And why do you always have to yell? I'm just curious that's all, about you and where you come from. I know you don't want to be friends, and we'll continue to work on that, but we can't work together when we know next to nothing about each other."
"You're really stubborn with this friendship thing, I'll give you that."
"I wouldn't be where I am if I turned tail from my duty at the first sign of trouble." She then flashed a knowing smile at Isaac, "Would you have survived this long if you'd just given up?"
"Point taken. What exactly do you want from me?"
"To trust me."
"How can I trust you, any of you, after what I just heard? Mind control? Mental blocks? Are you fucking with me? That sounds dangerously close to what a Marker would do. I fully expect him to stab me in the back at some point and he ensured that it'll be easy for him to do it. Or maybe he'll get his little lackey will do it for him?" He pointed an accusing hoof and a hate filled sneer at her.
"That's not fair!" It was now Twilight's turn to scream back, "I was taken advantage of too. I would never have played any part in this had I known what was really going on and what would happen and neither would the Princesses."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I do!"
"Then Celestia hired a fool!" Isaac seethed causing the unicorn's ears to drop. The she felt something break in her head. There was an emotion and it was something she'd never felt before. She had been sent to Ponyville to learn about friendship but right now another, darker, sensation overtook.
"I hate you!" The line erupted from the very depths of her heart and lungs, the flood of tears blinding her almost instantly as she rejected him. She was unconditionally furious at him for his unkind words and mad at herself for letting it get to her so easily. What did he know about anything of anything, he was just a mule-headed inconsiderate jerk. But,..but maybe he was right after all, she certainly felt foolish and stupid blubbering in front of him like this. The whole situation was quickly spiraling out of her control and she failed to understand how she could go about handling it. She felt like her chest was being compressed and her heart ready to seize up.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Isaac for his part just stood and watched her as the magic pony cried salty tears. His blue eyes reflected confusion and dread while hers ejected despair. Silently thanking his luck that none of her other friends were around to see them or he'd have been trampled under their vengeful hooves.
"Errmm..look," he stared but was stopped short.
"Isaac, if you wish to leave then I won't stop you," Twilight slumped her shoulders and plopped down onto the moist earth, "this is my duty after all. Fool or not I will always remain loyal to Celestia. But I know you're not under such oaths so I absolve you of your responsibility." Twilight wiped her eyes clear and got back up her legs quivering from the sudden rush of emotion.
"I can't, I won't let you do that," he looked at the nearest building as if it had suddenly caught his interest, "the only way out is to play this game and destroy the Marker." He managed a calming breath freeing the sudden lump in his throat.
"So…I guess we're stuck together for now, like it or not." He considered not saying anything else, not convinced that this just wasn't another part of the ruse to get him to cooperate. If it wasn't, if she was the genuine article then he had just done something terrible. The doubt over his actions was enough to make him feel like something he'd scrapped off the bottom of his feet. His vocal cords froze and what was left of his pride fought to the bitter end. If Nicole, when she was still alive, had seen him now she probably would've slapped him hard.
"I'm..sorry for what I said, it was uncalled for" Twilight sniffed but his apology seemed to restore some of her earlier spirit.
"Ok," she seemed to struggle to drag her hooves but managed to complete the trek to her home and Isaac found himself automatically following. When they reached the door they could make out the voices of several mares having a lighthearted discussion. Twilight took a moment more to compose herself and fix her mane before the next step.
"This is quite a mess we're in." The mage sniffed trying with all her might to maintain a positive attitude, something which Isaac found rather admirable.
"Yeah." Isaac agreed.
"There really is only one way to describe it."
"Total bullshit?" Isaac offered helpfully.
"Not really the phrase I was thinking of, but accurate." Twilight then held out a hoof, a gesture of forgiveness, hoping that he'd accept it. He examined her; the moonlight reflected by her large beautiful eyes showed she was indeed serious. He considered the gesture for a moment as if it would cause him physical pain if he relented, if he accepted her forgiveness.
"Maybe we can still be friends?" She smiled and it was a delicate expression that Isaac found almost heartwarming yet also disingenuous. He didn't understand her at all and swiftly turned away, inhaling sharply.
"Perhaps…but not today."
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Inside the library Rarity, Pinky, and AJ were seated side by side engrossed enjoying each other's company as well as a fourth occupant that Twilight couldn't see yet. The noticeable lack of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in the deliberations made it feel as if the room was somehow smaller than before. As hard as it was to force such feelings aside, given her earlier outburst, she had to stay strong for her friends and now was the time for action not mourning.
"Everything will be ok." Twilight coached herself taking a deep calming breath.
"Hey I remember you," an unfamiliar voice called out to her, "you're one of Dash's friends." Twilight looked in the direction of the speaker and saw a pegasus mare with a wild mane of light orange at the base and a darker orange at the tips. Twilight wouldn't have known this newcomer, with a coat of yellow and eyes the color of burnt sienna, if not for the fact that she was fast friends with Rainbow Dash. It was the lack of the unique blue uniform that had initially thrown Twilight off.
"You're one of the Wonderbolts," Twilight said both amazed and confused, "Spitfire I believe." She took note of the golden mare's speeding fireball for a cutie-mark.
"Indeed I am," Spitfire gave a courteous nod, "I'm impressed, most ponies wouldn't recognize me outside the uniform."
"How could they not recognize you? You're a famous celebrity, you're one of the Wonderbolts!" Twilight's ears started twitching in maniac panic.
"This mission was supposed to be secret, now everypony is going to find out! What are you even doing here?"
"Settle down there missy," Applejack placed a friendly hoof on the unicorn's shoulder, "It's not as bad as all that."
"It's surprising even to me, yet here I stand. When I heard that Rainbow Dash was being accused of murdering a guard and implicated in the conspiracy to assassinate Celestia I had to find a way to help."
"Murder? Oh my heavens." Rarity clapped her hoofs over her mouth trying desperately not to faint in horror while everyone else in the room gaped in surprise.
"RD would neva' turn against tha princess like that!" Applejack growled her face twisted in anger and stomped a hoof hard in exclamation.
"That's what I felt too so I went to the hospital to talk to her. I happen to run into Princess Luna on the way out and she told me that Dash had disappeared. Long story short she made me an offer and here I am," Spitfire ran a hoof over her wild mane.
"I would imagine that associating yourself with Luna would an unhealthy for your career move, Spitfire darling. Why take such a risk?"
"I'm not convinced the princess is guiltybesides I still owe Rainbow one for saving my life."
"Luna sent you?" Twilight crooked an eyebrow, "Not..him?" she hesitated, breath catching in her throat.
"Not him who?" Spitfire gave a curious frown.
"Um, nevermind."
"..Maybe you should tell us what's going on Twilight."
"Later after we rescue Fluttershy." Twilight quickly scanned the room and then turned back to her friends. "Hey, where did Cutter go and Pinkie too?"
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
After entering the tree house Isaac had made a beeline for the guest room after he retrieved his helmet from where Twilight had been studying it. He was momentarily taken aside when he found that his advanced suit had somehow made the trip from the bathroom floor to the bed. Having made a closer inspection he found that all the grime that'd encrusted the exterior had been cleaned off and the composite allow plates shined. If not for the innumerable scratches and dent it might've even looked brand new. Furthermore the whole apparatus had the light smell of floral soap.
There was also a note attached to it and read:
Hey dude,
I hope you don't mind but I went ahead and cleaned your suit for you. It seriously needed it and the funk coming off it was making me sneeze a lot and a sneezing dragon is not a safe thing to have around especially in a library inside a tree.
-Spike
Isaac crumpled the note and discarded it not caring if it fell into the trash bin in the corner. Turning to the wooden desk he slammed the hexagonal shaped cylinder down, activated it, and pulled out the power core to examine it closely. He felt doubts about going through with powering up the suit at this point. How could he trust that this wasn't some sort of trap or rather another means of forcing him to obey. Maybe it would explode, short out the systems, override the computer, or give Reaver the ability to assume direct control. Many more equally paranoid situations ran the gamut from sensible to reality breaking insanity, just like the similarly deranged world he was in.
He took a singular step in reverse before sitting down and cradling his head with his hands, no, hooves. Breathing deeply he tried to calm his mind and take a more rational survey of his situation. He couldn't trust that Reaver guy, that was a given. Still Isaac didn't think the pompous bastard would go through all this trouble to simply wipe him out. At least not until the former human had served its purpose. No, Reaver would wait until the Marker was no longer a threat or maybe he wanted it for himself. So the plan was thus; destroy the Marker, kill Reaver (Twilight or any of the others too if necessary), all while navigating a world that was both familiar and alien and all while trying to keep his head on straight literally and figuratively.
"The third times a real charmer." He internally assessed with a garnish of dread.
Isaac ceased his posturing when he felt another's presence in the room and he turned to see them. Now he never really considered himself a religious man but when he saw the hyper pink demon wearing his suit, his suit, he wanted to scream such blasphemy and put a real fear of god into the sugar equine.
"It's a little big," Pinkie commented on the 'unfolded' armored suit as it hung limply from her delicate frame, "Did Spike wash it? Smells like it. I've heard of clothes shrinking in the wash not getting bigger. Not even Rarity could pull that off. Getting bigger is for bread, cupcakes, and muffins but you bake those you don't wash them. They'd get all soapy and soggy and wouldn't be tasty to eat, they'd be all 'bleh' gross."
"Jesus, don't you ever shut up!" Isaac trudged up to her and grabbing the suit he forcibly yanked the suit off of her pulling up and towards himself. This caused the pink mare to fall front first to the ground with her back legs in the air as the suit flew off.
"Hey!" Pinkie barked in protest as she tumbled. "Geez do you always have to be such a meanie grumpitty grumpy pants all the time." To which Isaac replied with a dismissive shrug. He tossed the suit back onto the bed and was immediately confronted by a by a clearly pissed off Pinkie. She presses her muzzle against his while giving him a narrow eyed evil stare. He could easily see his uneasy reflection in those large blue eyes.
"Something happened between you and Twilight, didn't it." She growled demanding blood for his transgression.
"Nothing happened." He swallowed and tried to smile but only managed to grimace.
"Don't try to hide it, I know you made Twilight cry."
"How do you know that?"
"Oh, I have my ways. I'm always watching out for my friends and if you ever hurt her again I'll.."
"Or you'll what?" Isaac recovering from his shock at her threatening tone and began to fight back against Pinkie.
"I'll..I..I won't throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party. Yeah! No 'monster-mashing, pony-saving, zombie-slaying,' party for you mister meanie poopie pants!" She regained the upper hoof and forced Isaac back a few steps.
"Is that the best you can do?" He smiled cynically before becoming dead serious, "I can live through the loss of a single party. I'm not so sure all of us will survive long enough to have your not-party. You realize this Fluttershy girl could already be dead!" He spat out the last sentence with a fury of finality. Pinkie snapped back as if his very words had taken form and impacted her with the force of a speeding train. Her high pitched gasp of horror didn't prevent Isaac from continuing as he'd clearly touched a nerve and exploited her weakness.
"In fact that Ditzy, or Derpy or whatever the hell her name is could be gone as well and do you know what the Marker will do to them? It'll twist your friends into necromorphs and the only way to kill a necro is to dismember them, tear them apart. Do you understand?"
"No! Your wrong they're alive, they are. I can't..how..how could any pony be so cruel or do something so terrible." Pinkie lowered her head is dismay choking on her words. Isaac wasn't sure but he swore he saw her puffy cotton candy like mane start to unfold before his very eyes. The sight was so pathetic and yet heartrending that he had to grit his teeth and force himself to calm down. He wasn't the bad guy here, damnit!
"Look I don't wish such a thing on anybody and maybe they're alive. I just don't want you to get your hopes up like I did." Pinkie met his gaze again but this time her eyes were filled with pity and understanding. The intensity of such naked emotions left his brain in a numb state, unsure how to acclimatize.
"Were your friends k..killed by these monsters?" she tilted her head to the side in a similar fashion a sad puppy would.
"Yeah, I first encountered these necros onboard a ship called the Ishimura. A lot of good people died that day and I had worked alongside a lot of them in the past. Having to dismember their dead bodies was never as painful as losing my fiancée to those damned creatures.
"What was her name?"
"Her name was Nicole. She was everything to me and without her I'm nothing." He turned his back on Pinkie unwilling to continue the conversation yet he couldn't hold back the tsunami of memories
"I'd hoped she was alive, I must've cut down hundreds of necros searching for her, but..she was dead even before I had arrived." He didn't cry there were no tears left for him to shed, just a cold hollow feeling. He didn't understand why he'd just bared a part of his soul to this mare, of all ponies he'd met he hated this one most. Then again all it's not like any of them deserved his trust or sympathy.
From the corner of his eye he saw the mare slowly circling around to his front and he was about to demand that she leave immediatly when she suddenly lunged for him. She wrapped her forelegs around him drawing him into a tight embrace, her neck tucked firmly against his, and he noticed that she had the faint aroma of fresh cupcakes. Now her hair had gone completely straight as if all the life had been completely leeched from it and the who sight was probably one of the most disconcerting thing he'd ever seen. She looked and behaved as a completely different pony now. He felt conflicting emotions clash on whether he should either return the gesture or throw her off him.
"Isaac…," Pinkie sobbed pitifully, "there was a day when I thought I'd lost all my friends," she tightened the hug more at the memory, "and I didn't take it so well. I'm lucky, it was all just a misunderstanding and so it all turned out alright." She released her hold and retreated a few steps, all joy and happiness had been drained from her expression. "For this...for you...I can't image what you're feeling. I don't have an answer and…a part of me thinks I should."
Very slowly and deliberately Pinkie made her way out of the room but before she closed the door behind her she glanced sideways at Isaac her expression now an unreadable mask.
"The ponies doing this, building the Marker I mean, do you think they ever smile or laugh?" The question caught Isaac off guard and he replied with the first thing that came to mind.
"I don't think they even care about living anymore. It's god damn suicide."
"Isaac, life is not meant to be a nightmare forever. So.., please, don't become like them."
When the pink pony finally departed Isaac just watched her go, as if he was glued to the spot, wondering how something so brightly colored, girly, and overly hyper one moment could turn out to be rather profound and far more than she appeared to be the next. Her last words made a strange kind of sense in a very real way. Isaac ruffled his short haircut trying to banish the whole scene from his memory.
"Damn these tiny horses," he cursed secretly, "they're trying to mess with my head. Their worse than the Marker!"
He admonished himself for being too easy on these creatures when all they seemed to do was drive him to slit his own wrists; they were just too friendly, too innocent and carefree, and why did it make him want to protect them. He hoped that sooner, rather than later, they'd grow up and learn the truth about how the universe was inherently unfair. With renewed vigor, and a desire to forget the recent pinkanormal activity, he returned to his earlier task.
On the back of his advanced suit was the RIG, the Resource Integration Gear. The RIG was an interface which controlled health management, communications, navigation, and holographic interfaces. Its primary function was to display the wearer's health in real time via a segmented aqua blue bar that ran along the spine of the wearer, whether it was civilian clothes or the most advanced suits of armor. At the base of the RIG, located at the small of a human's back, just above the onset of the coccyx bone, was where the power cell chamber was located. Isaac had trouble prying this chamber open sing the latch release was so small and his hooves were too big but he managed to succeed after a minutes of focus. When the chamber opened he expected an obsolete and drained cell to be ejected out, or at least present, but when nothing came out he took a peek inside and then realized the problem. His suit wasn't dead because of a drained power core, there was no core in the chamber to begin with.
"The fu..?"
He hastily flipped the suit over to double check its components. Everything seemed to be in order and perfectly normal, apart from the altered anatomy from human to pony. Then he felt a jolt of bewilderment and alarm course through his consciousness as his newest discovery hit him like a knee to solar plexus. How, he didn't know, but the telekinesis and stasis modules on the left arm of the suit were missing as well. Isaac desperately wondered why he had not noticed this sooner.
"What the hell is going on?" Isaac backed away from the suit as if it was the plague itself then looked to the cell gripped in his hoof.
"Reaver!" he cursed the name with venom on his tongue.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Equipped with a map that Rarity had drawn up using Angel's sole knowledge of Fluttershy's whereabouts, the group of six ponies departed the library with an acute sense of urgency. Except maybe for the sole grey pegasus stallion who trailed behind the rest of the group by a fair margin. Isaac still didn't trust these females and felt vulnerable when they were not in his sight, especially around the lavender and pink mares. The latter of which had seemingly returned to the normal puffy hair and boundless energy disposition.
Spike on the other hand had been left behind to 'guard the library' as Twilight had put it. The mini dragon had protested heavily at that unanimous decision and had been absolutely beside himself with anger, only to receive a strict rebuking by the lavender unicorn. She had been unbending and said that he could not come with them since he was still a baby dragon. In truth she didn't want to put him in unnecessary danger, this enemy was unlike anything they'd faced before.
Everypony, loaded with various supplies stuffed into their saddle bags departed the library at full speed. The group proceeded through the sleepy town, their quickened pace eliminated the potential for casual conversations. On this night the moon overhead was dull and unremarkable which was a sharp contrast from last night when it had been bright and inviting. Despite being the middle of summer the air had a vicious cold bite to it, almost oppressive in nature. It didn't take long until Ponyville was far behind and they forged their way down a single dirt path that wound its way through the grassy plains. At first it appeared they were heading into the Everfree forest but suddenly the path made a sharp left and trailed along the edge of the enigmatic woods.
At the end of the journey they arrived at a wide dirt field where only a few trees and sparse bushes grew. However, the field was far from unremarkable; it was filled with countless dirt mounds as far as the eye could see. Some were simple dirt piles which served no clear purpose while others were akin to giant ant hills and served as entrances to a network of subterranean tunnels. Everypony followed Rarity as she led them through the maze of brown hills.
"Are you sure this is the right one?" Spitfire was skeptical as Rarity pointed towards a particular mound that appeared uncomfortably similar to all of the other earthen heaps around it.
"I assure you," Rarity said in a self-aggrandizing way, "Angel was very specific with his instructions and I, Rarity, do not make mistakes."
Rarity peered over the rim of the hole and looked as it plummeted downwards and around a corner making it impossible to see the bottom. A draft of air was ejected from somewhere deep down and she found herself instinctively bringing a hoof up to her face. Degenerating into a coughing fit as a malevolent and putrid smell, like a mixture of sulfur, ammonia, and feces, invaded her sinuses.
"Oh," Rarity exclaimed, dramatically elevating her disgust, "my word it smells absolutely wretched down there. Far worse than the last time I was unfortunate enough to visit. How can these Diamond Dogs possibly live with themselves?"
Rarity telekinetically pulled a wooden clothes pin from one of her saddle bags and pinned it over her nose. All the members of the troupe had varying expression of displeasure as the rotten stench introduced itself to their noses and gratefully accepted Rarity's offer of clothes pins. However although Isaac and Twilight were equally revolted they also approached the mount with expression of familiarity and concern; waving away the need for nostril protection.
"It's the same smell, only stronger here." Twilight observed in the manner a scientist evaluates peer reports.
"You've experienced this before?" Isaac asked, truly surprised.
"The night Luna and I went into the Everfree forest, just before we met, I smelled it and it hadn't been there before. Do you know what it is?"
"Its," Isaac rubbed his chin while searching for a way to explain it, "honestly I hope it isn't what I think it is. If it is then we might already be too late." |
Oceansama | 682 | 15 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-03-12T19:12:22+00:00 | 2012-03-12T19:12:22+00:00 | 1,444 | Chapter 15: Subterranean
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
The troop of six ponies all stood surrounded by a large open field of dirt and mud, the accompaniment of gentle music thanks to an army of invisible crickets was the only sound that invaded the silent night. In the darkness and calm of the night the near full moon clearly illuminated the numerous artificial hills of soil that surrounded the ponies like a forest of filth. The light of the lunar body seemed to contort itself perfectly to highlight the gentle curves of the five feminine bodies as well as their expressions of alarm as they impulsively snapped their uninterrupted attention towards Isaac.
Being the sole male in the group he realized that he found himself involuntarily shrinking under so many direct expressions of female emotion and concern. He felt himself unwillingly lamenting his past incidents concerning the fairer sex, more focused around their resulting grisly fates. He was certain that this wasn't going to end well for any of them and wondered why he felt so bad about that; shouldn't he feel nothing at all?
"What'ta ya'll meen hit mi'ght bahee thoo late?" The clothes pin clamped over Applejack's nose distorted her accent yet not her clear expression of frustration. Pinkie Pie, however, had to stifle a giggle at the apple farmer's absurd sound.
"It's hard to explain it if you've never actually seen it before," Isaac began slowly, "and I never did come up with a good name for it anyway, didn't seem important at the time."
"Is it caused by the Marker?" Twilight asked with equal amounts of curiosity and alarm.
"Yes."
"What is it supposed to do?"
"What does it look like?" Spitfire added with a nervous swipe of her tail.
"Whaddya mhean poithon?" Applejack shouted in indignation only to ignite a loud boisterous laugh from Pinkie Pie.
"AJ you sound so silly, ya filly." The hyperactive mare bopped and gyrated like an unrestrained jackhammer, "Try saying, 'forty fresh fish fought five French fishermen for a fortnight,' three time fast." She giggled as if it was the funniest joke in the world.
"Hush Pinkie!" Twilight prepared to shove her hoof into Pinkie's mouth. The gesture proved unnecessary as the energetic mare came to such a screeching stop that it seemed she'd suddenly suffered emotional whiplash and yet still a cheeky grin threatened to split her face in two.
"Yeah," Isaac droned trying his best to dismiss stray thoughts of a flat-haired Pinkie, "I believe that it's supposed to be a sort of 'habitat changer' meant to poison the air, which is why it smells so bad. But that was just a theory I happened to read in some scientist's journal." He tried to remember the name of said scientist and was fairly certain it was a doctor named Elizabeth Cross, but he couldn't be sure. It was of no consequence anyway, she was long dead as well as everyone else on-board that damned ship.
"It's a disgusting organic mass that rapidly grows over and covers everything it touches. It looks just like it smells, like someone vomited their guts out all over the floor…and walls…and ceiling." He trailed off realizing it also meant that there would be even more fatal varieties of necromorphs down there that they would have to tangle with. That was a disquieting possibility that he didn't feel the need to share right now for fear of jinxing it.
"You'll know it when you see it."
"Sounds really gross." Spitfire briefly added with an appalled grimace.
"You don't know the half of it. The stuff is wet and slippery and a pain to walk over."
"Oh my word, such an absolutely wretched idea, I do hope we can manage to avoid it." Rarity moaned with complete repugnance, putting a hoof to her forehead.
"Alright, so avoid the chunky brown muck, other than that what's our plan?" Spitfire fidgeted with unease.
"Well," Rarity inflected while simultaneously releasing a soft magical glow from her horn and lowering it to the ground, "my gem-finding spell is out." She sighed in resignation.
"Spike-wikey and I practically searched this whole area for gems and the few insignificant little rocks we dug up I just let Spikey indulge himself on them."
"This is what we'll do," Isaac kneeled down and unbuckled the saddle bags from his back, "It'd be better if I went in alone while the rest of you went back to town."
"Hold on," Twilight snapped a little harder than she'd intended, "you can't expect us to stay here while you risk your life."
"I'm more experienced at dealing with necros than the rest of you." What he really wanted to say was that they would all just get in his way and be nothing more than a constant distraction. That he'd be better without them tailing along. He could forgive that they were inexperienced when it came to dealing with the brood of the Marker, but even now they failed to carry any sort of weapons or armor. Worse they acted and behaved like children, emotionally speaking, even though they were clearly young adults. Even if he wanted to there was no way he could ever hope to protect them all and although he hated to admit it, even to himself, that was exactly what he wanted to do despite his misgivings.
"Darling, while we appreciate the gallant gesture we cannot allow such a handsome stallion, such as yourself, to go at it alone." Rarity batted her eyelashes and delivered her signature winning smile. Isaac felt himself about to break out into a cold sweat.
"Trust me, dear Cutter, we all have had experience handling ourselves against these uncouth Diamond Dog mongrels. I, myself, have escaped from their simply horrendous ill-manicured claws once before." Rarity explained while brushing her hair with a comb levitated from her bags. Isaac persisted in a strict tone.
"I'm not talking about any dogs, I mean the-,"
"Cutter," Twilight interrupted, curling her lips into a display of defiance, "I know you mean well, but there is nothing you can do to stop us from going with you. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are our friends and too important for us to simply sit by and do nothing to help them."
"Friends help friends, that's just tha way it is." Applejack smiled, removing the clothes pin just long enough to say her piece before immediately clipping it back over her nose.
"I can understand where you're coming from, I really do," Isaac gazed from side to side trying to formulate a response and during which he happened to spot a brief nod and smile of encouragement from Pinkie. It was such a small thing yet it, unexpectedly, helped to calm his frayed nerves and it was then that he found himself reluctantly able to truly appreciate the words that the candy mare had spoken to him earlier.
"It's just…," he pretended that he hadn't noticed the distraction, "Twilight and Luna are the only others I know of who have fought the necromorphs and survived it, apart from myself." He paused and rotated his head, taking the time to look each and every pony directly in the eyes. He'd expected some of them to shy away or raise objections yet all of them stood at silent attention, hanging on his words.
"Understand that necromorphs don't think like we do, they're not even alive, not really. So don't expect them to have any sort of pity, remorse, or fear towards us," he said as he opened his saddlebags.
"I'm not going to argue with you if you want to come along. That's fine, but at least let me go first to make sure the way is clear. I'll signal for you to follow if it's safe." The five mares traded uncomfortable glances with each other while Isaac pulled his advanced suit from the bags along with his jury-rigged plasma cutter and three cutter ammo canisters that Twilight had made for him. The ammo clips were slightly warm to the touch and glowed a fire red from the material inside
The showing of the armor earned him several curious and confused stares from the ponies as they tried to ponder the nature of the technological construct. The only mare not tangled in tendrils of incomprehension was Twilight. She had begun to feel her insides heating up to shamelessly flip-flop with gleeful anticipation. She wanted to see, to witness, exactly what Human technology was capable of. Yet, before any pony could speak or act, Twilight forced herself to step forward and deliver an ultimatum, utilizing the best of her commanding voice despite the butterflies in her stomach.
"It's a deal," Twilight hopped she sounded calmer than she felt, "we'll wait for five minutes before following, but you have to promise that you'll let me talk to the Diamond Dogs first before you start anything. There should still be a diplomatic solution to end this peacefully."
"Are you serious? After all they've done do you really think they'll listen?"" Isaac looked at the unicorn as if she were insane, "So unless you're planning on talking them into submission, diplomacy is a waste of time.
"No! I refuse to believe that violence is the only answer. Promise you'll give me a chance to at least talk to them first!"
"Fine," he relented, rolling his eyes in annoyance, weary of such a pointless argument, "I'm warning you though, the moment I see a necromorph all bets are off."
"You Pinkie promise?" Twilight insisted, evoking the time tested pledge of binding.
"Huh?" both Isaac and Spitfire questioned at the same time.
"A Pinkie promise, silly." Pinkie's giggle was overflowing with jollity as if the promise was the most obvious thing in the world. She demonstrated by motioning with her right fore-hoof in the form of an X over her heart before placing it over her eye, completing the chant.
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." The mares looked upon Isaac expectantly, awaiting his response. For several long seconds he gazed lifelessly at Pinkie while she returned the stare with a massive goofy smile. The two stood there locked in a silent battle while the others looked on with a growing sense of unease which transformed into concern when Isaac started shaking while a strangled sound was escaping from his lips.
"Um, ya'll ok there fella?" No sooner had Applejack asked then Isaac let loose a choking neigh of insane mirthful laughter that echoed all around.
Cross my heart…
Sharply throwing back his head uttering his loud and boisterous guffaw of pure amusement sickeningly mixed with a hurtful edge of a blade. It was a noise that caused the mares to squirm with worry, although they were unsure if it was for Isaac's well-being or their own. As Isaac lost himself in the in the moment he felt a cold presence emerge beside him. The enigmatic presence seemed to whisper words into his ear with absolute clarity and he could feel a wisp of hot breath caressing his ear and cheek while a hand caressed his neck. He knew this sensation, it was a familiar touch, and he knew the name of the one responsible.
…hope to die…,
"Hey! It's not funny!" Pinkie's smile melted into a frown of pure aggravation.
… stick needles in their eyes.
It was then that for the briefest of moments, like a snapshot from a camera, the world shifted and became something more alien. The night sky was alight by the sickly orange tint of flames and billows of acrid smoke. The field of dirt was covered in charred ash and choking dust clouds. As for the ponies their dismembered pulpy bodies bathed in puddles of their own boiling blood. Wearing expressions of pleading terror and immeasurable pain as their heads were impaled to the ground by metal spikes driven through eyeless sockets. He felt them staring at him, blaming him, macabre monuments for him alone.
"Why, Isaac? Why did you let everyone die? Convergence is at hoof!" Their voices screamed inside his head, a chorus of hatred, their lip-less mouths silent on those limp faces, the skin bare, burnt beyond recognition, and long decayed; a smell of burning flesh tangible in the air. The macabre scene flashed away faster than it'd arrived and left him reeling with bile in his throat.
"You're serious." Isaac wheezed, laughter dying with a pitiful strangle. He felt relief at seeing everyone still alive and well then he noticed Twilight's shaking her head as if to clear it, face pale and eyes glassed over.
"I wonder if she saw the same thing or maybe something different."He wondered and wouldn't be surprised if she had. He had no more time to contemplate this as he suddenly realized Pinkie was still talking to him, seemingly oblivious as to the sudden change in their moods.
"I am soooooo serious, mister," the cotton mare growled, a throaty sound more fit for a wolf, "a Pinkie promise is a very super-extra-duper serious matter! It's an unbreakable bond between friends and no pony ever breaks a Pinkie promise."
"Oh, we are so fucked." Isaac thought worriedly yet it was a feeling of embarrassment and relief. There were worse things after all as the Marker's influence was oft to remind him.
"All right, all right, have it your way. Just don't make me do those stupid motions."
"Well," Pinkie eyed him suspiciously with a one-eyed squint, "I guess that'll have to do so…," her smile returned, "okie-dokie-spamokie!"
A chilled breeze began to blow over the assembled ponies, kicking up loose dirt and debris all around them. It reminding him that he was essentially naked out here except for this coat of hair, yet he ignored the dire change in weather as he pulled his armored suit over his body, ensuring each limb was properly fitted into the appropriate section. He'd tried to delay wearing it as long as possible given it's now altered state without his knowledge or consent and compounded by his own paranoia, Yet fate, it seemed, conspired to doom him to forever be trapped in it.
The suit hung like a limp noodle over his frame with the protuding triangular chest piece resting on the ground. Two small green lights were illuminated next to the integrated computer interface, installed within the chest piece, a positive sign that there was power being supplied to the integrated electronics and RIG. After resealing the magnetic lock on the suit's frame and the neck collar a simple press on the computer. There was a humming sound and a hiss of exhumed air as the suit began to shrink around him with the sound and sensation of stretching rubber as Isaac felt the suit tighten around him. The pressure built, had become more restrictive to his movement, as the advanced suit hugged his body like it was a second layer of skin.
It was when he felt an especially uncomfortable vice grip on both sides of his torso that he was reminded that the form fitting suit wouldn't form properly over his wings. He had forgotten he'd even had wings, but the denial of his feathery appendages didn't bother him that much since he didn't use them anyway, they were more a nuisance than an asset.
A holographic interface had flickered into life hovering inside the protruding chest piece. If Isaac had looked down he would have seen various messages and lines of code panning up along the phantom screen, but he paid no attention to them having familiarized him with it over the thousands of times he'd donned an EVA suit. A soft blue light shimmered to life behind him. It started off very weak but grew in intensity as a line of blue holographic light traced up over his spine.
He cracked his neck in preparation; having already felt the familiar vibration of nano-circuitry firing to life. The computer panel on the chest piece opened up to reveal the folded front half of the helmet while, simultaneously, a second hatch had released at the top of the RIG just behind the base of his neck, where the back half of the helmet was kept. Small claw-like machines gripped the two halves of the helmet and, following unseen tracks etched into the armor, lifted them up to his neck. The two halves connected and sealed together to form one piece that covered his mouth and nose. The claws retracted back into their receptacles while the helmet unfolded itself with the pinpoint accuracy like the machine it was. It completely covered his head and the device gave a sigh of metal on metal as all of the pieces slid smoothly into place.
An artificial light of blue erupted from the three visor slits on the faceplate followed by a hiss of air and the familiar sound of rubber stretching as the helmet formed a hermetic seal with the rest of the suit. The whole process took a mere three seconds and when it was over Isaac was behind bars inside a sealed off and controlled atmosphere.
"That was amazing!" Twilight clopped her hooves in excitement, her horn aglow with magic monitoring Isaac and his uniform, "Such an intricate device and I felt neither a hint nor a trace of magical energy. Technology of this level without the need for magic could revolutionize all of Equestria."
"It is quite impressive," Rarity said with more reserved enthusiasm, "if a little intimidating. It alludes to those medieval romance novels where the handsome knight is on a quest to save a damsel in distress. Oh, but the colors are so terribly dark and dull." Applejack just rolled her eyes at the two excited unicorns.
"All you ever think of is purtying stuff Rarity. It's fine tha way it is, whatever it is."
"Yeah, what is it?" Pinkie asked unusually straight forward. Isaac mulled for a moment at how to explain.
"It's…a safety suit, you see. It helps me in hazardous environments and since I have the only one it's why I should go down first, the canary in the cage so to speak."
"Wha?"
"No wait! Bad example, forget I said anything." Isaac quickly corrected. The others continued to pepper him with questions, but he ignored them. He trudged over to the entrance of the tunnel and cautiously peered over the edge into the yawning hole.
"Start the clock, I'm going in!" He declared confidently as he jumped tail first down the mouth of the tunnel.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
The air was filled with the grating sounds and sensations of dirt and rocks grinding mercilessly against protesting metal. It filled Isaac's ears and body as he rapidly journeyed down the narrow subterranean tunnel. He was firm on his back and held his limbs up above him, stiff an unyielding, to apply pressure against the earthen walls. It was an action used so as not to twist and tumble uncontrollably as his linear path snaked and bent about like intestines. He felt like a pinball being shot down a chute and he doubled his efforts to dig his hooves against the walls in a fierce attempt to slow his descent so as not to bury at the bottom like a wild meteor.
It was hard to determine just how long or far he'd traveled until suddenly the tunnel terminated several feet above the bedrock of an artificial cavern.
"Oh sh…" Isaac shouted as the solid purchase beneath him gave way to an arcing freefall. For a moment he was suspended in midair before the inertia and drag caused him to flip over. He impacted on his stomach with a loud echoing crescendo accompanied by a painful grunt as all the air was suddenly forced out of his lungs. As he had expected the armored suit absorbed a great deal of the damage and yet he rolled onto his back gasping for ragged air. His suit's oxygen filters couldn't fully keep out the stench saturating the air and it felt as if a layer of filth was coating the inside of his lungs.
A few silent seconds had passed before Isaac righted himself onto his legs and began scanning the surrounding area. The dome shaped enclosure was about twice as wide and tall as the library's main hall and consisted mainly of earthen colors; gray, brown, and tan shades. The rocky terrain looked and felt strangely similar to the mines below the Everfree forest except here, despite no visible source of light, the room was strangely well lit. His helmet's visor cast three lines of mechanical blue light along the walls; still it would not have been enough to illuminate the whole area.
Apart from the sound of his hoof-steps accompanied by the unmistakable sound of water rhythmically dripping there were no signs of life. He took a single step forward and immediately there was a squishing feeling beneath his hoof. At first he thought it was the bio-mass he had just described to the ponies, but he failed to see any more of the substance anywhere around him. Examining the ground he realized he'd stepped into a small puddle of blood which, although still relatively fresh, had congealed into a red jelly-like substance.
He snapped his hoof several times to fling the blood off and then scrapped what was left off on a nearby rock. He noticed that there were many more puddles of blood around him though most were so old that they were nothing more than dried brown stains. They all seemed to head in one direction towards a crude metal door that looked like it'd been built by welding steel sheets together. As far as he could tell it was the only way out so he tried the door handle only to find it was locked. The door's shoddy construction made Isaac briefly consider trying to buck the door down. Instead he felt this would be a good time to test his plasma cutter since he wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. Better now than later on while in the middle of a fight.
He carefully inserted a cartridge into the cutter's top loader. The fit was a little tight but made a satisfying click as it slide into place. Positioning himself at an angle to the door lock, to avoid the inevitable spray of molten metal, he raised the makeshift weapon and steadied his aim. He squeezed the trigger in one smooth squeeze and the weapon responded with a thunderclap and a flash of ionized red light as a blade of violently ignited energy burst from the cutter. The plasma bolt had struck the door true. Effortlessly and cleanly it had cut a gaping hole through the door handle and keylock leaving nothing behind but molten slag. Lines of red energy arced and electrified the metal door creating a strobe effect that illuminated the room in flashes of crimson.
"Holy shit." Isaac considered the weapon in his hoof with a new found respect. Looking at the ammo counter, or rather the stereo volume, it had decreased by a noticeable amount. He quickly made an estimate on how many shots that gave him overall.
"Eight shots per clip, not as good as I'd wanted but better than I'd feared." Isaac proceeded through the 'unlocked' door not caring for the stealth approach any longer since the sheer volume of that single shot had probably alerted every enemy in the immediate area.
He entered into an almost identical room as the last one however it was not quite as empty. There was a plain gray table erected in the center of the room, at least it would've been gray if not for the layers of red and brown bodily fluids that stained its surface. There were also an array of similarly colored tools as well; pliers, a large hammer, and scalpels as well as other medical implements.
Stacked next to the grisly table was over a dozen wrought iron buckets each one filled with unknown content. He panned his flashlight over each one and soon felt a lump form in his throat at his discovery. Most of the pails were overflowing with an assortment of different hued pegasus feathers. One bucket, still covered in somewhat fresh crimson, was stuffed with butter colored down and another, right next to it, held light gray tinted fringe. Isaac assumed they belonged to the two pegasi that Twilight and company were looking for. Still many other varieties of colored feathers were also present, stacks and stacks of them. Isaac felt his own wings shake nervously inside his suit.
Yet not all of the buckets contained feathers, several others were filled with a mixed spectrum of severed unicorn horns. Severed, however, was a poor way to describe it, shattered was more on par with the calamity before him if he was any judge of the sharp and uneven protrusions at the base of the horns. Cracks and splinters at the center of the horns suggested that blunt force had been used. Isaac's eyes briefly considered the large hammer on the table and wondered if a unicorn's horn could grow back like a pegasus' feathers. Regardless he envisioned the loss of the horn was the Human equivalent to having both hands crushed. A cold shiver worked its way down his spine.
Soon after he heard several squeals of surprise, alarm, or delight mixed together and had originated from the room behind him. He didn't need to hear the following thumps of five bodies hitting the floor to know it was the ponies.
"Cutter?" Twilight called out.
"Over here." Isaac answered, wondering how the ponies would take the macabre sight in front of him. He hoped that it would convince them to leave this place right away and let him fly solo from this point. Unsurprisingly they didn't take it very well or very gracefully, especially Rarity who simply fainted on sight. However, it failed to scare them off it simply made them even more incensed and determined.
"I swear ta Celestia if'n they dun this ta poor Fluttershy, I'll be sure ta buck'em hard in tha family apples." Applejacks face was as red as her namesake, teeth grinding in barely restrained fury.
"No, I'll be sure ta buck'emt anyway." She corrected demonstrating with a devastating rear kick into the cavern wall leaving two deep impressions.
"Too true," Spitfire agreed, "I sure am not letting them do this junk to me or any pony else. We should kick their flanks right now."
"No, we can still solve this peacefully." Twilight raised her voice to get everyone's attention.
"Yeah, I'm sure all they need is a…"
"Pinkie if ya'll say party I…I just can't be held responsible for what I reckon I'll do next."
"Geez, there's no reason to be a crabby patty pony." Pinkie met AJ's challenge with a frown of her own. The two were locked in a silent battle before they mutually turned away from each other
"Besides every pony likes my parties, don't they?" Pinkie mumbled quietly.
"Told you it was going to be useless trying to talk to these dogs." Isaac directly addressed Twilight.
"Twi, you dun seen what them dog's been doing." AJ's wave encompassed the entirety of the buckets of pony parts, "I agree with ol' Cutter here. T'aint no forgiveness for this."
"B..but violence only leads to more violence." Twilight defended.
"I agree as well," Rarity said placing a supportive hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
And that was how the argument carried itself for the next hoof-full of minutes. Two irreconcilable groups fundamentally divided on how to handle the situation. The argument might've lasted longer until Spitfire stepped in to restore order. As captain of the Wolderbolts she'd had plenty of experience with team infighting and how best to smooth over such disagreements.
"That's enough every pony!" She bellowed in her no-nonsense captain voice. "We're all on the same side here and all this arguing isn't getting us closer to rescuing any pony. Let us shelve this issue for now; we can deal with it after our friends are safe!"
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
With the grisly scene left behind them the group proceeded further down the tunnels in silence. The tunnels all seemed to head deeper into the earth. It was impossible to tell just how far down they had gone but the tunnels always headed downward. Occasionally they would come across a dead end or a deep chasm blocking their way. Most of the latter were narrow enough to cross with a run and a jump, still others were too wide, or the ground too unstable, that the group was forced to backtrack a ways and find a detour.
It didn't take them long to realize they had absolutely no idea where they were or if they were even headed in the right direction. Just endless corridors one after another and they all looked exactly the same as the last one. Everyone realized this yet they refused to talk to one another, feelings still raw after their harried argument. So they kept on with an air of oppression and claustrophobia building up around them and the foul stench become more and more saturating causing all of the party to start coughing.
The relative stillness was finally ended when a shrill gasp suddenly escaped from Rarity causing everyone to jump out of their horseshoes.
"Oh, oh my," Rarity preened holding her horn high as it flashed brightly, "what is this? I sense gems nearby… no they are much further away, but there are a lot of them all in one place." Twilight's magic flashed with a similar spell.
"That's strange. I'm not picking up anything."
"Twilight darling, gem hunting is my special talent after all or have you forgotten? Now let me see…."
"Why couldn't you sense them before?"
"Because, my dear Spitfire, I do have my limits and only by coming down this far can I now feel them."
"This is good," Isaac "The Diamond dogs are sure to be there as well. Can this unicorn magic of yours lead us there?" Isaac said skeptically, yet hopeful.
"Of course I can do that. Oh precious gems, I can feel you calling in the air tonight." Rarity, so focused on the hunt, failed to notice the collective chorus of groans, giggles, and face-hoofs that played out behind her. Like a mare possessed Rarity jumped forward in a dead sprint, her euphoria and gem craze overwhelming her caution. The rest of the troupe wasted no time in pursuing the runaway unicorn. |
Oceansama | 682 | 16 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-07-20T17:08:55+00:00 | 2012-07-20T17:08:55+00:00 | 1,265 | Chapter 16: Down the Rabbit Hole
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Whoa, nelly, slow down thar, Rarity!” Applejack shouted while trying to grab the fleeing fashionista unicorn’s attention. As it happened AJ’s call went unnoticed as the unicorn, so concerned with the promise of a fortune in gems, was surprisingly outpacing them all and had managed to procure a sizable lead. Unlike a bullet fired from a gun, the path they trekked was not a linear straight shot. More like a tangled mess of string as Rarity would make sudden turns and head below seemingly random tunnels. Sometimes she’d dive down in one direction only to double-back and drive on a different divergent course.
Throughout it all, Rarity’s horn glowed endlessly with a lucid blue aura with such an intensity that it had made it physically hurt to look directly at it. Yet, if not for that light, the group would’ve lost sight of her long before this juncture. The pony troupe of six headed further and further down into the soft murky depths of the earth. Always descending, never going up, the atmosphere was becoming more and more humid and harder to breath. The stagnant stillness was choked by the stench of decay the further they delved it had become so oppressive that it was hard to concentrate on anything else. Like a carrot on a stick, thoughts of how to return to the world above were muted as the five ponies pursuing ponies single-mindedly focused on the surprising, and unusual, quickness of the gem-hunting white unicorn.
“You certainly have...some very...interesting friends, Twilight.” Isaac huffed, eternally grateful that the interior of his suit was climate controlled. Though it hadn’t stopped a layer of sweat to mingle with his body hair. The unending pursuit had already caused him to feel as if his lungs were about to implode and, judging from the sounds the others were making, he wasn’t the only one.
“Yeah...,” was all Twilight could force through parched lips. Her strained heartbeat echoed and pounded in her ears as if she was caught in the middle of a DJ Pon-3 signature techno-rave party. Even Pinkie Pie, normally so hyper and energetic, was feeling the burn. Twilight feared that the confectionary baker would soon collapse from a sudden sugar crash.
“She’s certainly fast when she wants to be.” Spitfire breathed in measured control.
“Had she been born a pegasus I might’ve recommended her a position in the Wonderbolts.” The fire maned pony had performed many years as the acting captain of the performing troupe. Daily intense training gave her the clear athletic edge, and had there been enough room to fly she would’ve easily captured the fleeing unicorn. Unfortunately she had found that her talent for raw air travel was not cleanly converted into ground speed.
Applejack, unlike Spitfire, was in her natural element. She was conditioned for such long distance races and tests of stamina. Having enacting them regularly against her friend, and unofficial rival, Rainbow Dash. The farmer had pulled ahead, with Spitfire a near second, and the rest of the group falling pathetically behind.
“Slow down there!” Applejack squinted ferociously and scowled with a hunger for the prize in front of her. The farmer formulated a dastardly plan that would’ve involved a rope and a hogtied and subdued white unicorn completely at her mercy. But Rarity’s unpredictable pattern, coupled with her brightly shining horn, made such an approach treacherous. AJ feared the likely outcome would be her tripping over her own lasso.
AJ and the rest ploughed onward, their collective hoof steps echoed loudly in the cramped corridors, like the beating of many drums. Yet, inch by inch, hoof step by hoof step, AJ’s charge brought her closer to her target and further from the runner-ups. Every step of the way was fraught with dozens of obstacles; exposed roots, discarded tools, and many large rock formations that jutted from the walls and ceiling. She bobbed and weaved her way past them all.
Twisting to meet every false lead and to try and make an interception possible. Beads of sweat flew off her body in a light spray as she galloped forth with all her strength. As the distance dwindled AJ extended her neck and opened her mouth, her aim was locked upon Rarity’s tail which was mere centimeters in front of her, teasing her nose with its light purple strands with a scent of roses and lavender.
In a last desperate burst of forward momentum followed up with the final snapping of an enamel vice, AJ’s teeth clenched down upon the unicorn’s groomed tail. At the moment of contact her mouth was filled with the taste of floral shampoo and she steeled her legs and dug her hooves into the ground. Sharply pulling her head back to apply as much drag as possible.
Then she felt a whiplash as her cranium was immediately snapped forward as Rarity’s momentum forced AJ forward and started to tow her across the ground. Creating a furrowed trail behind her.
“Ow! Applejack! What are you doing?” Rarity cried out with the sharp pain in her flank, turning to give AJ a look of pure offense. Never once did she surrender an ounce of speed.
“Let go this instant!”
AJ ignored her and continued to hold a firm grip on the violet tail, as unyielding as the color orange on her coat. She felt an incredible amount of strain in her leg joints as she fought to regain her balance. Her haunches and stomach screamed in agony as they were rubbed raw from being dragged wholesale through a bed of dirt and minerals. Rarity, too focused on her source of deadweight, was tragically unaware as to where she was going. A fork in the path ahead lead down two separate tunnels, and she was heading towards the one on the right. The one that was covered in an unknown slimy brown substance.
Any further progress was lost as Rarity’s hooves contacted said substance. It was slick as ice, a texture of wet moss and a consistency of fresh vomit. Still unaware as to what she’d chanced upon, she lost her purchase and slipped. Landing on her stomach with such force that it left her winded and disoriented. Both AJ and Rarity became buried in a sickly brown slime that clung to the ground and walls like a carpet of filth. It bubbled and hissed as innumerable air pockets had been ruptured under the weight of the ponies. Releasing bursts of green gas that filled the air with the unholy stench that had filled the tunnels before.
Some of the slimed had forced its way into Rarity’s mouth. She tried to tightly constrict her throat against the pressure to swallow it, spitting and gagging as she went. The taste was horrendous and vile; no words could describe just how obscenely abhorrent the sensation was.
Then the bottom gave out, she crossed the boundary of the tunnel, and felt herself falling into darkness. Sliding down a sudden incline, speeding away into the depths beyond. Both Rarity and Applejack screamed as they plunged out of sight.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Stop!” Spitfire screamed, her warning echoed loudly. She spread her wings to full mast, extending them as far as she could to break her momentum and to catch the others from meeting a similar fate as the farmer and fashionista. The others obeyed the sudden order and screeched to a halted mere inches from crossing across earthen dirt onto alien sludge. In the darkness someone coughed from all the dust that had been kicked up. It had sounded like Twilight.
“Oh, this isn’t good, this isn’t good.” the fiery Wonderbolt traced her eyes over the encrusted walls as the malicious substance bubbled and churned almost as if it was alive.
“What Celestia forsaken, Tartarus-spawned, Everfree abomination is this?” Spitfire threw a rock at it. The projectile contacted the substance with a splat and remained affixed to it.
“What are we going to do?” Pinkie was shaking, fidgeted, and gyrating in a prancing dance, all at the same time. “AJ and Rarity are down there. This is the absolutely, positively, no-holds-barred, Luna-on-crutches, I-used-salt-instead-of-sugar-in-the-cupcakes, worst thing ever!”
“This substance,” Twilight took a few hesitant steps toward the offensive matter, “...is this the stuff you were talking about before?” She wished she could see Isaac’s face in order to gage his reactions. Maybe, perhaps, to find comfort in his confidence in dealing with such otherworldly abominations. She could do with a bit of that. Yet, the helmet made him seem even colder and more distant than ever before.
“It is.” Isaac responded plainly, not even bothering to look at her.
“Wow, I’ve never seen anything like it.” she feinted boldness, mixed with a lot of scientific curiosity, and approached the substance with a true morbid fascination.
“Don’t touch it.” Isaac raised an arm to cut her off.
“What? I wasn’t going to...I’ll just take a sample.” Twilight shrank back under his forceful attitude.
“I don’t know what will happen if you come into contact with it in the open. I’ve only ever encountered it with my suit on. Exposed as you are...no, you should take the alternate path.” He pointed towards the ‘clean’ left tunnel.
“But our friends are down there,” Pinkie pleaded, “we have to go save them.”
“Exactly, we can’t just leave those two to fend for themselves.” Spitfire contributed. Isaac sighed, shaking his head in tune with the depressing emotions that hung in the air. He always said he worked better alone, but a part of him realized that not a mere two days ago he was sticking his neck out to save another.
Ellie.
An individual he had known less than a day and yet he was willing to fight to the ends of the galaxy to save her. Similarly these sugar bowl ponies had known each other for a much longer time frame. A chapter whose length he could only guess at, and . He wanted to help, but his true motives were less than honorable.
After being exposed to the corrupting biomass there was a slight possibility that Rarity and Applejack could emerge unscathed. Yet, his experience said that they would be beyond saving. Sooner or later to be transformed into necromorphs; perhaps even a new type he’d never seen before. If such a grim scenario was to pass then he’d have to kill them. It would be the only merciful solution and he’d have to do it out of sight. Less his companions try and stop him.
“Twilight, are we close enough that your magic can lead you to the gems? You know, without Rarity’s help?” He asked and got a purple glow from Twilight’s horn in response.
“Yes, I we’re close enough that I can sense them with no problems.” the lavender unicorn confirmed.
“Ok,” he continued, “Twilight, you and the others take the alternate route and we’ll all try and meet up further ahead.”
What? No!” Twilight venomously objected, “Isa...Cutter, you can’t. We should all go.”
“Yes I can! I’m protected by the suit so logically I’m the best one, the only one, that should go down there and help your friends.” Isaac snapped, facing Twilight at last. “You can’t take the risk of getting exposed, you’re smarter than that Twilight. I promise if there is a way to save your friends...then I’ll find it for sure.” He said with confidence, although a large sliver of doubt plagued his words.
“Cutter...I...I can’t let you do that.” Twilight felt shame with her words and turned away from him.
“Why not?” He said Feeling that at any moment she would pull a mind control card on him.
“Because we’re supposed to stick together...” Twilight knew that was not the real reason. It was deeper than that, more selfish, and she struggled for a few seconds to try and find the words to express her real desire.
“Actually...I don’t know what to do. I know nothing of what we could face and there are no books or guides for me to read about these things.” She motioned at the slime. Her friends looked to her as the official leader of their group. She was the one that had discovered the stories of Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony. Although the books on the subject were just a step above prophetic prose, at least she had had a plan of action. Now she was involved in a situation that was beyond her ability to understand, with Isaac the only window of knowledge available. Above all she was scared out of her wits. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and now Rarity and Applejack. She was losing all her friends and she felt so helpless.
“Without you I... I don’t know what to do about these necro-things.” Twilight hesitantly admitted and for a crucial amount of time no one said anything. Until Twilight felt herself being embraced in a tight hug by her favorite party pony.
“Don’t worry Twilighty-mighty,” Pinkie nuzzled the unicorn, “if any pony can get us out of this, you can. I believe in you.” The unicorn progeny eagerly returned the cuddle.
“Pinkie...thanks.”
“Well then, wish me luck.” Isaac said, ending the debate.
“Be careful.” Spitfire placed a concerned hoof on his shoulder.
“I’ll be fine.” Isaac returned a nod, walked to the mouth of the right side tunnel. His hoof steps made loud squishing sounds as he carefully worked his way over the carpet of organic ooze. Tentatively peering over the lip of the tunnel. The light from his helmet’s visor was only able to illuminate less than a foot in front of him. It was enough to know that the tunnel took a sharp angle downwards. It would be a manageable trek if dry, but the corrupting ooze turned it into little more than a water slide. Isaac took a deep breath, filling his lungs to capacity, then slowly exhaling out. The cathartic action steeled his resolve and without further hesitation he jumped down the tunnel, quickly sliding out of sight.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Hmm, The lavender pony mulled while studying the biomass, like a scientist would study bacteria under a microscope, “the organic growth appears to be alarmingly super active and seems to share properties with certain strain of slime molds such as the class Myxogastria. Growing at a very rapid rate.”
Thankful that this time she was prepared to take samples unlike before, when she’d faced the necromorphs in the mines. She telekinetically summoned a q-tip and a petri dish from her saddle bags. Quickly taking a sample of the biomass and swabbing the specimen into the petri dish culture. Discarding the cotton swab she then replaced the dish back into her saddle bags.
Twilight...go back...
“Hello?” Twilight called out into the darkness.
You are one with...
Luna...she knows.
“Did any pony hear that?”
“Hear what?” Spitfire shrugged and Pinkie tilted her head in confusion.
“Ok, every pony,” Twilight said with her confidence returning in leaps and bounds, “we know what we have to do. We’re not going to let our friends down.” Her declaration was met with nods of approval from Pinkie and Spitfire.
‘Please be safe Isaac, and take care of AJ and Rarity.’ she silently wished before turning towards the left tunnel and charging ahead, horn glowing with magic. Followed closely by her two companions.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Tumbling down the narrow tunnel, it was a wild downfall of hooves over flanks and heads. Both Applejack and Rarity quickly lost all sense of orientation and time as they slid further and further down into the bowels of the earth. They held their breaths to avoid the overwhelming stench.
With no warning, the sliding incline suddenly leveled out. The impact leaving both ponies winded and with future bruises. Their inertia carried them ever deeper into their newfound location as they continued to skim over a layer of slimy excretion. Eventually physics took over and their speed was slowly eaten until they came to a tentative stop. The room around them was filled with an innumerable amount of stalactites and stalagmites. Yet, everything was covered in the same brown sludge as far as the eye could see.
Large tentacle growths of the mess hung limply from the ceiling. Forming a crisscrossing pattern that held no rhyme or reason. The air was humid to saturation and the constant dripping of yellow liquid equaled the downpour of a light storm.
Rarity had just finished evacuating her dinner all over the floor. Adding another layer of filth over the blanket of sludge that already coated the entirety of the cavernous chamber. She squeezed tears from her eyes, ashamed of herself for giving in to such an unladylike act. But give in she did, and freely so. The taste in her mouth, she imagined, was what rotten vegetables and manure would be. Just the most wretched thing ever that had dared to touch her tongue, and she might’ve even swallowed some. The very thought of it being inside her caused her to vomit a second time. Just to be sure the invader was removed completely.
Applejack had not faired any better. Worse, in fact, since she had lost her hat somewhere along the way. The farmer fished a canteen out of one of her saddle bags. She took a swig of water and washing her mouth before spitting the liquid out. The container was then offered to Rarity. The white unicorn eagerly accepted the container. Taking a large mouthful of what turned out to be apple juice, she repeated AJ’s lead. The sweetness of the juice helped alleviate a little of the horrid taste, but only as much as a drop of water could fill a bowl.
“Thank you, Applejack.”
“No prob,” AJ returned the canteen to her bags, “bleah! Ah don’t think Ah’ll be able ta eat for a whole week.” She spat several time for emphasis before getting up to look for her hat.
Rarity, meanwhile, was using a combination of a comb and her telekinesis to clean herself off. As slick as the biomass was, it proved to be nearly impossible to remove. Clinging to her mane and coat like wet gum and trying to extricate it resulted in long stringy tendrils that refused to let go.
“Agh,” Rarity grunted, “it’ll take at least twice as long to clean my immaculate quaffer at this rate.”
“Oh well, if ya’ll weren’t in such a hurry we wouldn’t be be here in tha first place.” AJ glared daggers at her white friend.
“HAH,” Rarity gasped with dramatic offense, “Me? Well if it weren’t for some pony that had distracted me by ruining my perfectly styled tail, then I could’ve stopped before this whole mess happened.”
“That’s a load of horse-apples. Face it, ya’ll got too caught up in ya’lls fancy gem huntin’ ta notice danger when it comes a callin’ for ya.”
“Humph, I’d expect such ignorance from some lower-class pony who lacks any appreciation for the finer things in life.” Rarity held her head high in assertion.
Suddenly their argument was interrupted by a sound of somebody falling down a pipe of slick sewage.
“Holy Shit!” Isaac screamed as his body was violently tossed across a landscape of zero friction. Applejack and Rarity tried to get out of the way, but only found themselves bowled over by a rather large piece of stallion meat.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Author’s Notes: I know the chapter is criminally short considering how long its been since I last updated and I apologize profusely for it. I have not given up on this story and I feel it would be better if I updated more frequently with shorter chapters.
Just so there is no confusion, I’d like to remind you that this story takes place after MLP season one and before season two. While I will try to keep it faithful to established Equestrian history and holidays, there may still be some discrepancy. Therefore, expect episodic events to not play out the same. |
Oceansama | 682 | 17 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2012-08-16T16:56:52+00:00 | 2012-08-16T16:56:52+00:00 | 1,984 | Chapter 17: Plasma Cutters Are Your Friend
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
For the second time that night Isaac had found himself falling down a narrow tunnel towards an unknown destination. Ironically, that summed up the totality of his life over the past four years. Always stumbling into the unknown, cut off from the sun and isolated in constricting corridors and passageways filled with unidentifiable primordial gunk and enemies that had enigma written into their very DNA. He could only hope that, this time, there would not be a giant necromorph tentacle creature waiting to drag him down into a massive human eating maw.
The spiraling fall was no less a cramped experience. Enough to be extremely uncomfortable, but which was not life threatening. The tunnel was nearly filled to capacity with the pulsating carpet organism known as the corruption. He knew that within a few hours the way back would be completely sealed off as the corruption swelled to fill it up. The spread of the corruption would not stop there, it would not cease in its singular purpose to keep growing and growing until every tunnel and chamber was choked full to capacity.
When there was no place left for it to go it would bubble to the surface world. It would slink towards Ponyville, creep for Canterlot, drowning everything in a brown and yellow ooze. Destroying the Marker was the only way to stop it, it was but a single symptom of the alien artifact’s influence after all. It was up to him to do it, though he wondered how he could pull it off while babysitting his incompetent companions who were more child than adult.
Isaac was jostled back into the moment as the slime slide suddenly leveled off. His momentum was still carrying him forward at an alarming, but decreasing, clip. His biggest fear was the idea of becoming wedged inside the tight fit of the passageway. He wasn’t claustrophobic, not in the least, it was the idea of becoming helplessly trapped miles under the Earth which struck a primal cord of terror in him. Entombed as the biomass slowly consumed his body. That fear had but a momentary lifespan as the pressure suddenly released and Isaac barreled and spun into a large open area. An out of control metal top.
“Holy Shit! the former human cursed, a heartbeat after he had spotted a familiar looking orange mare. Applejack wore an expression of absolute bewilderment when she had noticed the blue and gray bullet speeding at her. The stetson hat she had been cleaning was knocked clear away as the two of them collided with wild force. Tumbling out out of control in a tangled mess of limbs, hair, and saddlebags. Kicking up a spray of organic chunks that trailed behind them in a cloudy mist of vomit.
Luck was strong with Rarity. She had managed to spot the incoming combined creature with time enough to allow her to jump out of the way. She was spared from the physical trauma but, upon her landing, had slipped on the muck and fell with a squish. Again, covering herself in filth and a release of green putrid air as pockets growing inside the corruption had burst.
Traveling without moving, Isaac and AJ had hazard across a web-like mess of tendrils. Their bodies had slammed into it and the strings buckled under their combined mass. The two ponies proved too much and the thin tendrils snapped like balsa wood, but it was enough to slow them to a faltering stop.
Isaac was moaning in discomfort, cast flat on his back. Placing a hoof on his temple to massage a sudden headache before he’d remembered that his head was fully encased. There were butterflies in his stomach, like a boat rocking in a perfect storm. It was a rather nauseous feeling as the world to rock to and fro from the endless spinning. Also there was a heavy pressure on his chest, limiting his breathing to short and shallow gulps of oxygen.
Worried that a rock had fallen on him, he lifted his head forward and discovered that the deadweight was none other than one apple farmer who was laid prone over him, in a rather awkward position. She was heavy, but Isaac knew from first hand experience that the farmer probably had not a single ounce of fat on her body. She was pure toned muscle, the result of a lifetime of hard work at the apple farm.
He had wrapped his his arms around AJ so not to accidentally throw her off as he worked his way up into a sitting position. The mare seemed to be unconscious, head buried in his chest. Her ponytail had come undone leaving her blond mane to fall over her neck and shoulders. It partially obstructed her face and lent her an air of feminine vulnerability, something which Isaac had never envisioned, or equated, with the stubborn female in his embrace. It seemed strangely human.
He whispered a command to his suits internal computer and activated the helmets unclamping routine. With a surge of mechanical movement, the casque suddenly split into two halves with a hiss of escaping atmosphere. The individual parts of the helmet unfolding over themselves with unerring precision before being stowed away into the specially built alcoves on the suits spinal rig and the triangular chest piece.
“Hey, you ok?” Isaac said, gently shaking the blond pony, worried that he might have accidentally injured her.
“Howdy partner,” Applejack opened her eyes and smiled up at him, all at the same time, nearly scaring the dickens out of him, “ah feel just dandy apples.”
“Well,” she put her arms over Isaac’s, staring him right in the eyes, “this ain’t quite like mud wrastling in the pig pens, but nice ta see that tha city slicker tain’t afraid to get down and dirty in tha grime and muck. Maybe we’ll go a round er two when we get back ta Sweet Apple Acres.” She gave him an encouraging wink.
‘Shit,’ Isaac internally gelded himself, ‘is she flirting with me. How can she think of that at a time like this?’ Despite such misgivings he was flattered and had felt the threat of a smile tug at his mouth. Suppression of such unwelcomed and ill timed feelings was quick and surgical. Sure, what male wouldn’t appreciate a young woman hitting on them, he coached himself. It still had not dissolved the negative connotations concerning the whole cross-species barrier and the age gap. It only made it worse.
‘Don’t think too much about it. She doesn’t know, how could she anyway.’ He wanted to wipe the sweat from his forehead, but was afraid he’d get slime all over his face. Instead opted to remove himself from the farmer and reseal his helmet in place so no one could see the awkward, and disturbed, look on his face. Isaac’s uneasy feelings were not lost on the farmer who only sniggered at him.
“Ah’m just messin’ with ya, Cutter.” The orange pony gave him a playful punch on the shoulder.
“Uh huh, how can you act so casual? Look at where we are. Our lives are in danger and you act like its all one big joke.” Isaac’s face tumbled from confusion towards anger before kaleidoscoping on befuddlement, but AJ couldn’t see that through the faceplate.
“Well, panickin’ about it sure ain’t gonna help us none.” she turned deadly serious.
“Besides, ah my be a country yokel, but ah ain’t dumb. Ah know we’re in a lot of rotten compost right now. But, we all have ta stick together and if ah know Twi, she’s already halfway to them gems right now. If anypony can handle this situation its her. Everythan’ is gonna work out al’right, ya’ll see.” AJ nodded as Isaac sighed.
“That’s the problem with you optimists, so...optimistic.” Though Isaac wouldn’t admit it he was glad that one of these ponies was finally starting to understand the absolute level of fuck that they were stuck with. He’d seen how Twilight tried to deny the events that were unfolding right before her.
Then there was the forever hyperactive Pinkie Pie who was too garishly happy all the time to appreciate the serious nature of the Marker to ever be useful. Except, maybe, for that one time in the library where her hair had gone all droopy and she had hugged him. It gave him chills when he thought about it. He didn’t know what to think about Rarity so far except that she seemed too obsessed with her appearance.
Shelving such brief considerations he examined the the surrounding cavern. The light from his helmet was capable of illuminating an area only a couple of feet in any direction. What he could see was an environment that might have once been a natural, possibly artificial, cavern. What ever beauty it once held was obscured by a thick blanket of corrupting biomass. Not an inch of rock or dirt could be seen while yellow and red fluids drained from the ceiling in a festering rain. The three ponies were slowly being dressed and drowned in the stuff.
“Darlings!” A call of solicitude had echoed as Rarity approached with a slow gait. Placing each hoof carefully, one by one, in front of each other to avoid further mishaps. Applejack’s hat balancing on the middle of the fashionista’s back.
“Is every pony alright?” Rarity’s voice cracked ever so slightly.
“Everything’s still attached.” Isaac deadpanned, but in a reassuring way.
“Oh, thank Celestia.” An alleviated suspire passed as the unicorn generously returned the hat to AJ’s head, telekinetically.
“Oh dear, where are my manners?” Rarity coughed, “Mister Cutter, not that I would dare to complain about your timely arrival, but what possessed you to follow us down here?”
‘For starters I’m here to kill you if you start to act funny and turn into necromorphs,’ was Isaac’s silent answer. It was the unapologetic truth and would have boiled down the reality of the situation into one succinct response. That was not what he said, however, such a callous statement would only make his job harder in the long run. If they saw it coming then they might try and stop him.
“I decided to come and help you out,” he waved a dismissive hoof, “like Applejack said, Twilight is more than able to lead the others the rest of the way without me.”
“That is very noble of you Mister Cutter.” The fashion designer turned away in embarrassment, a light shade of pink on her cheeks. “You are indeed a true gentlecolt.” AJ rolled her eyes and mumbled.
“Ah see where this is going.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Isaac answered, though he had also overheard AJ. What was going where and what was this? If his two companions had been human than he might not have been as creeped out by the implications of what the where was going to the this and the fuck going to the that. He was confused.
“Oh, walking through all this wretched gunk is messing up my fabulous coat and mane. Could you, Mr. Cutter,” she batted her eyelashes in an overtly sexy fashion, “could you be a dear and...”
“Ow!” AJ interrupted, hissing through clenched teeth. “Fiddlesticks, ah think that tumble might have hurt one of my legs.” She demonstrated the afflicted limb by holding it close to her body, her right hind leg.
“Can you still walk?” He might have sounded concerned, but inside Isaac was ready to blow a fuse. They hadn’t even come across a single enemy and now one of them was injured and it might’ve been his fault too. Seemed like they were more of a danger to each other than the necromorphs were, or the dogs for that matter.
“Ah think so, its not serious. Ah should be right as rain in a few minutes.”
“It doesn’t look that bad to me.” The unicorn countered critically, though it was hard to tell through the layers of sludge that clung to the cowpony’s hair and hooves.
“Bad or not,” Isaac stepped in with command authority, ”we can’t waste any more time. We’ve got a job to do, injuries and concerns of cleanliness are immaterial.” He scolded the two mares. Enough was enough, he had to nip this situation in the bud before it spiraled down a losing tangent.
“If the others are captured or killed because we were too slow to catch up to them, well,” Isaac fell into a somber state, the fire in him flickered, “is that the kind of guilt you want to live with? Knowing that you were not fast enough to save anybody?” The silence from the two mares was their answer, shock turned to shame. Some seconds ticked by before it was Rarity who spoke first.
“You are, of course, right. Let us be off then. Time waits for no pony, as it were.” Isaac nodded in affirmation.
“Come on Applejack.” Isaac moved to the mare’s right, pressing up close to where suit and skin touched. Before she could raise any objections he’d taken one of her arms and draped it over his neck to give her support.
“What the hay are ya’ll doin’?” She shivered at the sudden intrusion into her personal space. That and the metal plates on the stallion’s armor were cold in the otherwise hot and humid atmosphere.
“Walking in this crap is bad enough on four legs. With that injury you’d never make it very far. You would only slow us down.” He criticized with honesty his only intention.
“Slow ya down my cutie-mark! No sir, I ain’t letting any stallion carry me. Ah can walk fine on my own.” AJ blew her cheeks in frustration and tried to dislodge herself, till she was jerked back and her face had turned to where it was mere inches from Isaac’s. She squinted under the luminous blue glow of the helmet’s lights; an expressionless face plate. She found it very intimidating and felt a bit of fear creep into her.
“Would you rather I left you behind, or sent you home?” His voice cut like steel, “If you can’t fight you’re of no help to anyone.” AJ looked ready to respond. Somehow her voice failed and she was giving a good imitation of a gasping trout.
“Fine.” She sighed, turning away with a troubled expression.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
The trek down the tunnels was similar to diving deeper into a bottomless ocean. The further down they went the more the pressure built, pushing down on their bodies from every angle. Every tunnel and cavern was becoming more narrow and claustrophobic than the last. The world was closing in and around them, a reality made manifest by the corruption that was continuing to grow and spread all around them. They were slowly being buried alive, an inevitable path to crush depth.
Rarity was persistent in using her magic to guide them towards the stockpile of gems at journey’s end. Multitasking a thin magical shield, like an umbrella, above them that helped protect the party from the sanguineous rain. Very little dialogue was exchanged between the trio, though most of what was said was between Rarity and Applejack. It was consistent of cliched platitudes about how everything was going to be alright and that they’d find their friends. Isaac remained isolated from such small talk, although he was occasionally on the receiving end of a question about small topics like his favorite foods or prefered fashion designs.
When their conversations had, inevitably, fallen flat the perverse darkness seemed to encroach upon them; a noose tightening around their necks. Rarity and Isaac’s pitiful lights guttered in the empty, like spent pilot lights. It was their only sanctuary, the only world they could perceive. Their heavy breaths were the only comforting sounds, interrupted by the rain and their hoofsteps.
“Did ya’ll hear that?” AJ’s voice seemed unnaturally loud as it suddenly penetrated the space around them. The shadows danced and moved as if they had a life of their own. Every pony present halted, lungs immobile, and ears upturned to listen. Right away the close vibrations of running footsteps were heard emanating from somewhere in the darkness behind them. The sound was, like the beating of drums, pounding and pounding a crescendo of doom. A choir of shrill squeals and barking that had resembled a cross between a wolf and a bird of prey. Isaac knew these sounds well, there was no mistaking the unholy creature that created such deathly tones.
“Stalkers!” Isaac quietly hissed, “we’ve got to move now! AJ are you...”
“Yeah, ah can make it on my own now.” AJ acknowledged, placing her injured leg onto the ground with no further protest.
“Keep going, you’re almost there!”
A mare’s voice echoed in their minds. For a moment they looked to each other, unsure if they had been the only ones to hear it.
“Look, darlings! A door!” Sure enough, Rarity’s declaration had yielded the reflective surface of a bulkhead reinforced with metal panels and lit by several neon lights implanted in the walls surrounding it. How they had missed such an obvious landmark up to this point was both alarming and confusing. No one had dared to comment further as the trio struggled to move as quickly as they were able to towards safety. Every survival instinct demanded that they run, but they knew that such a hasty action would only result in disaster.
Isaac had his plasma cutter drawn, the flashlight scouring the darkness behind them for signs of an ambush. But with one hoof on the weapon he was left walking with only three legs and it had turned out to be as impossible a feat as he had feared. Nearly stumbling multiple times before Applejack had snatched the weapon from him; the former human voicing no dissention. The orange mare held the device in her mouth, dancing the cutter’s luminance across the void in pursuit of the invisible necromorphs walking in the shadows.
The sounds of pursuit was terrifyingly close. Deformed pegasi bodies were seen darting from cover to cover; be it rocks, stalagmites, or large organic mounds and tendrils. Impossible to determine just how many there were. There was no rhyme or reason to the creatures’ pattern other than that they were trying to outflank and confuse the ponies.
The stalkers had once been pegasi ponies. Now they were decayed husks, mutilated beyond recognition. They had no eyes, only holes in a bloody grinning skull. Their bodies devoid of all hair, skin, and color. The bones of the muzzle and wings lengthened into unnatural, razor sharp, blades. There was no skin, no expression, life, or hope for these creatures. Their only purpose was to kill and deal out death before oblivion finally claimed them.
The bulkhead door was situated down a shallow corridor, the path leading up to it was a blackened torn up mess of charcoal and ash. Any corruption that had once been present had been burnt away. Several empty canisters of a flammable liquid, judging by the warning labels, were left discarded by the door. The entrance itself was a dead end, a metallic monstrosity, an executioner that denied them deliverance since none of them knew the password to input on the keypad. Rarity pounded her hooves against it, but there was no hollow ring, just the finality of an immovable object as she banged on the door hoping that some pony on the other side would hear their cries for help.
“The door won’t open!” Rarity wailed, desperately searching for a door handle, a knob, or something that could clear the way.
“I got it!” Isaac declared as he ripped the keypad panel off of the wall, electric sparks cascading as the electric innards were exposed.
“Give me a moment, I can hack it.” Isaac plunged his hooves into the circuits, trying his best to rewire the mechanism. A task, he felt, would’ve been far easier if he still had ten digits instead of two. Rarity, for her part, reached out with her magical telekinesis and hovered an empty container above her while AJ acted as spotter with the cutter’s flashlight.
One of the creatures suddenly felt brave, peeking its head around a rock to growl and grunt at the ponies. It shot out from hiding like a bat outta hell. With a violent gait it charged at the ponies, its intention was to ram into Applejack using the top of it’s hardened skull. There was a shrill and aggressive cry building in the air as it rapidly closed the distance. AJ was quick to highlight the monster with the cutter’s light and the creature was forcibly blown back as a large can, courtesy of Rarity’s eagle eyed throw, sailed through the air and connected with its cranium with a loud clang. Still the stalker was quick to recover from the strike and retreated back behind its brethren.
Rarity had lifted another container for a follow up attack as several more stalkers ran across the terrain, jumping and dodging to find a better angle to attack from. Isaac had disengaged his helmet, holding several wires in his mouth as he was fervently untangling several more cords in a bid to rewrite the lock mechanism. The wires sparked and fizzled in his grip. Several times he cried in pain as a wayward electric jolt cascaded up his arms causing stars to dance in his eyes.
“Watch out! They’re all around you!” The hidden mare cried.
“Ah know already!” AJ spat through the cutter.
“On the left!”
Applejack felt herself rotate against her will. The light from her weapon spotted a second stalker as it sprinted from hiding, sending up a spray of lumpy waste as it headed for them. It met the same fate as the first stalker, the strike of a hollow tank sent it reeling, but caused no noticeable damage.
“Got it!” Isaac announced triumphantly over the sound of a heavy bolt unlocking from a hidden recess. The massive doors jerked apart, a small aperture forming between the two halves.
“The locks are disengaged, but we need to force the doors open.”
“Ah got this.” AJ moved past Isaac, handing the plasma weapon back to him. She
slipped herself in between the gap and began pushing against the partitions with all her strength. As she struggled and strained against the multiple ton barrier, Isaac took up position next to the white unicorn who had readied a third canister for swift punishment.
“Hhggh!” Employing her well condition legs, reinforced from years of apple bucking, the farmer slowly and painfully fought to spread the doors open.
Isaac periodically fired his weapon at the slightest hint of movement. Each shot had momentarily dispelled the darkness with an inferno light. The red light resulted in a third stalker meeting a metal can to head destiny as Rarity’s projectile had impacted it into submission. This time Isaac followed up with his own solution in the form of a double tap from his weapon. The molten liquid impacted the necro, burning and tearing at its flesh. Both of its legs had been severed and then followed by one of its arms. It let out a cry as it was slain, a pitiful yelp that left Rarity feeling somewhat sorry for the animal; its corpse bubbling where it had been shot. Leaving the smell of scorched hide lingering.
“Come on, ya’ll. Its open.” The farmer shouted in victory. Fashionista and engineer
about-faced and ran after the apple pony. The three of them passed through the open gateway with panicked haste. Without question, Isaac and Applejack grabbed opposite ends of the bulkhead and started pushing the doors closed. Sweat was pouring down their faces like waterfalls as they struggled to cut the enemy off and seal their escape.
Halfway closed, there was a blood curdling scream as a stalker exploded into the room. It made it no further than the partition, wedging itself in the bulkhead, but not before it knocked the cutter from Isaac’s grip.
“Seal the goddamn door!” Isaac yelled, putting all his strength into the task. The invading creature’s primal instincts were in overdrive as it sensed its prey next to it. Its head was flailing, jaw biting, wanting only to sink its razor teeth into soft pony flesh and taste the wine of their bodies. It cried in maddening wail of a predator denied a meal. A sick crunching of bones and sinew was heard as the gray pegasus and orange earth pony fought to squash the necro in their vice. The creature fought on and was slowly inching its way through the barrier. It had seemed to be losing the battle until one of its wing-claws unfolded, within range of Applejack. It had not hesitated, instead going in for the kill, like a coiled cobra unfolding. Applejack was caught across the face, the spear molded claws leaving three deep cuts which started to bleed profusely.
AJ gasped in agony, but she had not stopped pushing against the door. Spitting as she tasted blood in her mouth and blinking her eyes as her face was covered in her own pulsing life force. The wet sound of falling crimson hitting pavement assaulted her ears. The stalker continued to squirm and struggle and was raising its claw for a second strike. This time it was aiming to gore AJ in the throat.
“Eat this!” Rarity screamed as she kinetically placed the plasma cutter into the monster’s mouth and promptly pulled the trigger. There was a flash of red light as the super-heated plasma effortlessly blew into the creature’s brain and split the its skull open like an overcooked egg. Viscera and gray matter spilled everywhere as the decapitated necromorph was flung backwards from the force of the blast. A few moments later Isaac and AJ succeeded in securing the bulkhead. The doors closed with a vehement slam.
Muffled pounding was heard from the other side of the door as more of the monsters tried to get in. The ponies were safe for now, the doors too thick for the necros to tear down. Isaac also knew they were not smart enough to open the door by wedging it apart, at least he hoped not. He went to attend to the girls needs and found that AJ was trying to staunch the flow of blood with a hoof and Rarity had fainted.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Past the bulkhead the three ponies had found themselves inside a most unusual place. Illumination was provided by flood lights hanging from the ceiling and all of them connected via thick bundles of electrical wiring. The tunnel was heading upwards now and the ceiling and walls were still made of cut stone and dirt. The floor, however, was covered in wire mesh with handlebars and crude steps to aid in the sharp climb upwards.
There was a covert background humming coming from something that passed as an air conditioner since the atmosphere on this side was slightly chilly and the stench of necromorph corruption was absent. However, the most alarming item was a rectangular sign implanted in the rock wall. It read...
Southside External Entrance:
South Guard Post →
Barracks →
Machine Shop →
Pony Processing →
All fire team dogs are reminded
to recycle empty petroleum
containers after use. By order
of Secret Cherry and Director
Tide Mare.
All the arrows pointed up the tunnel. All of this might not have seemed unusual except for the fact that the words were printed out by a holographic projector. This stunned Isaac to his core when Rarity confirmed that there was no magical aura that was responsible for it. To the average layman this might have seemed a rather trivial concern, but holograms were a complex, space-age, technology. Nothing that he’d seen in this world suggested that they had the knowledge or means to construct such devices.
Except maybe for that book on quantum physics he’d spotted in Twilight’s library. Then it begged the question; if the ponies did have such advanced learning then why was Ponyville stuck in such a technological backwater state?
By this point the trio had moved a respectable distance from the bulkhead doors. The sounds of necro intrusion having since long faded away. Isaac had offered to move on ahead to scout the path that was present before them. The result which had left Rarity in charge of tending to Applejack.
“Its a good thing Twilight made sure ah had a first aid kit.” Applejack winced as hydrogen peroxide was applied to her wounds.
“Be still Applejack,” Rarity chided as she gently cleaned the laceration with a gauze wipe, “we have to be sure its properly cleaned and dressed to prevent infection.”
“Shoot, its just a scratch, Rares. Ah’ll be fine.”
“A scratch? Your face is...,”
“Ah’ve had worse.” AJ gave a brave smile, matched by an annoyed scowl from Rarity.
“Fine, darling. It is just a flesh wound, but if I don’t stitch it properly it’ll leave scars,” the unicorn shuttered at the thought, “and your lovely complexion will be ruined forever.”
“Ah don’t know...”
“Do not worry, dear Applejack. Not only am I a professional seamstress, but did you know I also used to work as a part-time nurse at Ponyville General?”
“Really?”
“Of course, darling. Where do you think I got the money to open up Carousel Boutique in the first place. I’ve even stitched up Sweetie Bell more than a few times after her adventures with the Cutie-mark Crusaders got a tad out of hoof.”
“Well if ya’ll are sure.” AJ was still as nervous as ever.
“Positive.” The seamstress give a confident smirk. Kinetically summoning a needle and silk thread from her bags. She threaded the needle without difficulty, but AJ watched as if the instrument of her execution was being readied in front of her.
“Now close your eyes and relax,” Rarity cooed, holding AJ in a warm and tender embrace, “I will be as gentle as a dove.”
“Uh...uh...ok, Ah t...trust ya.” The farmer stuttered. Her body was slightly quivering in fear. She didn’t like needles. She really, really, really, didn’t like needles. Her Apple family pride was all that stopped her from jumping away as she felt the sting of the needle piercing her skin. She bit her lower lip against the discomfort of the needle. Followed by the sensation of silk thread pulling against her flesh as Rarity guided the thread through the hole. Only to have the process repeated again and again and again.
“Applejack.” The fashion pony spoke softly, trying to ease her companion’s unrest.
“Yeah, Rares?”
“You lied about that leg injury, didn’t you?” It was more a statement of fact than a question. AJ reacted as if she’d been insulted, a hoof on her chest in mocking shock.
“How do’ya figure?”
“First and foremost, my dear. The Applejack I know would never have allow herself to be carried by a stallion without more of a fight. Even if it was her own brother, she’d resist. Her stubborn pride, and all that, would not permit such a slight on her character.” Rarity then began to suture up the second laceration on AJ’s head.
“Furthermore, there was her majestic job at forcing open the doorway using said lame appendage.”
“Eh-heh,” the farmer chuckled, “Ah guess there’s no point in denyin’ it. Ya got me all figured out, sugarcube, but I didn’t lie.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well...my hoof was a mite tweaked, and ah might’ve exaggerated tha truth, but ah learned it from you. Alway makin’ mountains outta molehills, and bein’ a drama queen. Besides ah said I’d be right as rain quicker than two shakes of a pony’s tail and ah was.”
“Why would you do that? Why, oooohh, why condemn me to being denied my knight in shining armor. The handsome stallion who would deliver me from the life of a lowly peon forced to trek through the muck of cruel fate.” Rarity moaned and whined in her usual practiced fashion.
“Because I knew ya’ll would play tha ‘damsel in distress.’ I simply beat ya to it.” Applejack answered truthfully, but no less, Rarity shot multiple scowls of indignation towards the farmer, which AJ was able to ignore and happily gave a goofy, self-congratulatory, grin.
“You, Applejack Apple, are the most evilest pony ever.”
“Why thank ya...”
“Eeevvviiillllll...” Rarity hissed. She had a brief temptation to apply the suture needle towards a far more nefarious purpose. A quashed idea as she reminded herself that she was a consummate professional and she’d promised to be gentle.
“Shucks Rar, ya’ll a hoot an a half.”
“So you say you only did it to spite me? Are you suggesting, darling, you didn’t enjoy Cutter’s company just a teensy bit?”
“Pardon?”
“Not when he was genuinely concerned?” Rarity grinned as the shoe was now on the other hoof.
“Or when he held you in his big, strong arms?”
“Eh-heh...well what mare wouldn’t enjoy all that? Doesn’t mean ah want to roll around in tha hay with him.” AJ felt the heat of a blush caress her cheeks.
“Indeed, but your face says otherwise,” The seamstress watched as the farmer’s blush turned a slightly darker tone, “HA, see! You know I’m right.”
“Aw, come off it Rar, ah’ve known him less than a day. He’s down ta earth for a city slicker and not hard to look at, but he just ain’t my type. Ah also don’t like bein’ talked down to either.” AJ felt it was time to reclaim the offensive
“So, ya’ll weren’t jealous neither?”
“Hmph,” Rarity snorted indignantly, beginning her work on the third laceration. “I am a lady of stature, dear Applejack. As such I must always be on the lookout for a compatible stallion. I merely wish to see, experiment as Twilight would say, whether or not Mister Cutter is a gentlecolt worthy of being added to the list of potential courtships.” AJ just laughed with jollity, then shuddered as the sutures met resistance.
“Alright sugarcube, ah promise not ta get in your way.” She nudged Rarity on the shoulder, “Let me know how that works out for ya.”
“Now that would be telling and a true lady always keeps her private life a secret.” Rarity gave an all knowing look and used a pair of scissors to clip the silk threads. She finished up the suture job by magically knotting the thread off on all ends.
“There, all done.” She admired her hoof-work with critical appraise while simultaneously storing her supplies back into her saddlebags.
“Rares.” AJ turned away, looking ashamed.
“Yes, darling?” the unicorn answered, an undertone of concern.
“I just...wanted to say...thank you.”
“Whatever for, darling?”
“For saving mah life. Ah mean if you hadn’t...ah’d be dead right now.”
“You’re very welcome, after all isn’t that what friends are for?”
“No,” AJ snapped, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, “its more than that. Ya’ll had to kill that creature ta do it. If ya’ll hadn’t ah might be dead! Or maybe ah’d have had ta kill it myself, by crushin’ it!” She was shouting now, a harsh tone of misery and regret.
“That thing use’ta be a pony!”
“I know!” Rarity yelled in anger. “But I had no choice!”
“I know Twilight tried to warn us about what we should have expected.” the unicorn looked up, trying to find the night sky. “She has always been such a dear, intelligent and so talented in magic. I know she could have found a way to stop the monster without me...without me...having to end its life.” The unicorn retreated a few steps back.
“I was wrong, Applejack, I did have a choice. But when I saw that monster strike you, when I saw the blood..., I felt nothing but pure rage. I’ve never felt like that before. I wanted to protect you, like the good friend I should be. And I...I didn’t want that... ‘thing,’ simply gone. I wanted to tear it apart with my own hooves. This feeling scares me, AJ. I just hope that the poor thing was unable to remember who they were.”
“Ah’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled.” AJ traced a hoof over the wire mesh. “It’s gonna get worse isn’t it?” It was almost painful for Rarity to answer.
“Yes.” she used a brush to comb her hair back into place. The simple activity helped calm her down.
“If everything we have seen so far and the thing we’ve been told from Twilight and Cutter are true...then..., yes.” The seamstress sniffed, wiping away the salt water that sought to trail down her cheeks. Suddenly the conversation was forced to run dry as the two mares heard heavy hoof falls, striking metal mesh, heading their way.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Author’s Notes: Recently discovered I have a TV tropes entry for this story. Pretty cool in my opinion. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/PonySpace
If you didn’t notice, I took a sudden turn down a hinted shipping lane with this chapter. While I have no defined ship in mind, I felt I was hurting the characters by denying a very real, very profound, avenue of development for them. Don’t expect me to be adding a romance tag anytime soon, and you can just up and forget about the possibility of clop scenes. That isn’t what this story is about.
In my original imagining of this chapter, I had pitted our trio of heroes against a squad of Diamond Dogs. As I wrote the chapter it evolved into a chase/standoff scene with a group of stalkers. Why? Because with the corrupting biomass all around them it felt more ‘natural’ that they’d be attacked by necros. Without highlighting the presence of the corruption without a struggle it would have made the reveal of the biomass rather pointless. IMHO.
Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story. You never gave up on me and I won’t give up on you. I will finish this story. |
Oceansama | 682 | 18 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2013-01-03T18:17:47+00:00 | 2013-01-09T04:51:11+00:00 | 1,408 | Chapter 18: The Oracle
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
While the former nurse had been putting the apple farmer under the needle, Isaac had decided to scout ahead. Apart from the holographic display there was nothing else that distinguished the tunnel. It just kept going on and on, beginning to gently slope upwards at a gradually increasing angle. Until at the end when he found an exit that was shining with a much brighter light, almost blinding.
The exit was at the top of a flight of around fifty, or so, stairs. Although the stairway was more akin to a slightly tilted ramp since the angle of the stairwell was very shallow. It hung perilously over a wide bottomless pit; more a natural crack in the earth than an artificial artifice. Although Isaac wasn’t really afraid of height, and one couldn’t be if expected to work in outer space, he took no chances and carefully tested the walkway. Placing a single hoof on the first step, he was relieved to find it solid and stationary; it didn’t swing to and fro like a rope bridge would. Even that reassurance didn’t stop him from tentatively placing one hoof in front of the other as he crossed over into the light.
Without incident he had emerging in a room that was all too familiar to him. He felt heart rate spike and a lump form in his throat as he surveyed the sight. The room, buried so far beneath the earth, was screaming under the aesthetic design, or virtual lack, of an EarthGov facility. The same ones he’d visited back on Terra and especially similar to the one he’d visited on Titan Station just before he’d been pulled into Equestria. Circular in design and built out of bland gun-metal gray alloys, the walls were highlighted in white neon lights of the kind that irritated the eyes, and constructed with a complete utilitarian mindset. The only thing missing, that Isaac could see, was the paranoid number of security cameras so that every single nook and cranny could be monitored, logged, and archived all day, every day, twenty four-seven.
In the center of this orbicular shaped room was a similarly built pillbox structure, dome shaped and made of the same dull metal and not concrete. It took up nearly half the room it was settled in and was, Isaac concluded, the guard station. The pillbox had a single window that wrapped all the way around, interrupted only by a single door on the west side. Through the glass he could see that wall lockers, a computer console had been placed inside as well as many various other knick-knacks he couldn’t identify.
Apart from the southern passage, that which Isaac had emerged from, there were two other passageways. One was headed to the north and other lead to the east.
It was then a sudden flicker of movement caught Isaac’s attention. He shot down into a crouched position as a Diamond Dog rose up from a seated position from inside the center structure. Without thinking the stallion jumped back a couple steps and threw himself down on the stairs, which had let loose loud protests under his weight. Menacing creaks betrayed his rapid movements as he silently let out a curse while loose dirt was shaken free and plummeted into the dark chasm.
Fearing the possibility that he had been spotted, Isaac quickly loaded a fresh canister into his plasma cutter; storing the ejected, nearly empty, clip back into his belt. Terse seconds passed as he listened for any activity; plasma cutter at the ready as he carefully backed down the stairs. No klaxon alarm had sounded, no rushed footsteps, or warning shouts. When he was satisfied that the danger had passed he proceeded to jog the return journey to his two companions. Usually he would’ve had no problem with going solo against any enemy force and blasting them into chunky salsa, but ammo was limited and, like it or not, he had to protect the two mares with him.
Though, ‘safety in numbers,’ was how he preferred to justify it, and he needed information on top of it all.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
As Isaac retreated to his companions his mind was filled with many unsettling thoughts concerning the bulkhead door, the holographic sign, and the security room. All of it was pointing to an EarthGov presence on this world; a human presence more pervasive than just himself. If EarthGov had discovered this planet than it made sense that they’d use it as a site for building Markers and as a giant experiment to test on non-human subjects. Isaac was familiar with how his government worked. They were brutal in their sick experiments and their need to acquire more power to dominate all that was laid before their eyes.
The callous and complete disregard for human life, their own citizens, EarthGov would have no reservations in using ponies as fodder for their laboratories. The alien equines regarded as little more than lab rats and, furthermore, magic would be the hot topic of fascination them the most about these equines and they would pursue every method, every test, to unlock the mysteries behind such an enigmatic energy. To be used as both a weapon and means of control, even if it means the complete and systematic genocide and dissection of every unicorn in existence.
Naturally, if EarthGov was here than the church of Unitology and its Marker-worshiping, religious-fuckjobs wouldn’t be far behind. They were worse than EarthGov and both sides were always trying to find new ways to gain the upper hand over the other. In addition to the nasty habit they had to always follow Isaac wherever he went. The only difference was that Unitologists would probably be a little more accepting of their pony brothers and sisters who were building the marker down in these subterranean chambers.
“Then there’s that alicorn bastard, Dream Reaver. How does he figure into all this?” Isaac thought with a rising temper. His first thought was that Reaver was somehow in league with EarthGov. It would explain how the alicorn had gotten his hooves on the necessary power cell that was operating Isaac’s advanced suit. It was all too convenient and yet, for all of his hatred for the manipulating jerk, Isaac couldn’t bring himself to believe that the alicorn was entangled with EarthGov.
“EarthGov wants Markers as weapons and if Reaver worked from them then why help bring me into this world and force me to destroy it in the first place?” The second idea was that Reaver was a Unitologist, but that made even less sense since the pseudo-church wanted to utilize Markers as a means to bring about Convergence, or humanity’s rise onto a higher plane of existence.
“Maybe this Reaver is on the up and up...yeah and I’m the fucking king of Equestria.” Isaac would’ve spat in response, but remembered his helmet was still up just as he was about to. The only other person he’d ever met who had wanted to destroy a Marker was a man named Stross. In the end it turned out he was a murderer who had killed his wife and infant child and had eventually gone fifty shades of insane; nearly had killed Isaac as well. Reaver seemed as equally unstable.
One thing for certain was that the ancient alicorn would have a lot of explaining to do when this was all over. Isaac had a very bad feeling that he was caught up in a much larger series of events.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Applejack, Isaac, and Rarity silently crept up the low angled stairwell. With every step of the way the tension had mounted like a rope being pulled taunt, ever approaching its limit until it finally snapped. The three were sweating profusely despite the chilly air inside the facility and the non-challenge of the stairs. Near the climax of the ramp climb they stopped; crouching down just far enough as to not be seen, but near enough they could lift their heads enough to peer over the brink and into the room.
From this vantage point they were able to spot the body of one of the big guard dogs. The ones that were adorned in a suit of crude iron armor that so closely plagiarized a hoofball player’s uniform. The dog had his back valiantly faced towards the ponies and no other guards could be seen from the ponies’ limited view. As this was the equines best opportunity to make their move, Applejack mouthed a countdown of ‘3...2...1...,’ and lead the charge. From crouched positions the ponies moved as low as they could go while maintaining speed. Stealth was their intent; nearly useless as twelve hooves clanked loudly on the plated floor. The initial opening stretch into the room was the most dangerous as they were the most exposed, easily spotted if the dog turned around.
Yet, whatever activity the canine was currently engaged in had held his rapt uninterrupted attention. Allowing the ponies to easily decimate the distance and have come to tightly embrace the bunker wall, heads hovering just below the glass panel. Only now could they make out the grumbling voices of several dogs on the other side, arguing over some obscure matter.
“Now what?” Applejack asked expectantly.
“We need to see how many dogs are inside,” Isaac instructed, barely above a whisper, “then think of a way to lure them out into an ambush.”
“Not to worry, darlings,” Rarity spoke while levitating a clam-shaped makeup kit from her bags. She opened it to reveal a small mirror on top and various dark shades of blue-tinted blush on the bottom, complemented with a small brush.
“Consarn it!” The apple farmer groaned in irritation. “This is hardly the time to...”
“Shhh,” Isaac interrupted, “I think I know what she’s doing.”
“Indeed,” Rarity toned smugly before removing the tray of makeup from the kit to reveal a second mirror, “watch and learn.” She extracted the two mirrors from the kit and, leaning her back against the bunker wall. Her magical aura was scarcely visible around her horn as she lifted and rotated the mirrors to give her the best unobstructed view into the bunker.
“Peekaboo, I see you, stupid mangy dogs...er...darlings.” She sang in a lighthearted filly tune. She then had to bite her lips to try and stop herself from giggling like a mare who had just told the funniest joke.
“Anything yet?” Isaac inquired.
“There are three of the brutes,” Rarity answered, “playing poker...Skylian Bits from the look of it.”
“Well ah’ll be a rotten tomater.” Applejack’s skepticism had dissolved, leaving behind incredulity.
“Ah, dear sweet Applejack,” the white unicorn packed the mirrors and kit back into her bags, “as the ‘Grandmaster of Gossip’ I have many such...skills for finding the juiciest morsels of rumor and hearsay.”
“It’s also helpful for keeping an eye on the handsome stallions around town.” She seductively batted her eyes at the engineer.
“Right...,” Isaac deadpanned expression was unreadable behind his helmet. Applejack scowled like she had tasted something foul; staring daggers at her unicorn friend who continued to smile at Isaac and act as innocent as a newborn filly.
“So, this is the plan...” The armored stallion quickly changed the subject.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Inside the bunker, sat three of the ‘hoofball’ armored dogs. Each one was holding six playing cards in their paws, their chipped, yet sharp, nails were a polluted yellow. Their fur coats and armor looked like they had never once experienced something close to a shower their whole lives. They were caked in dirt and grime with countless flies and fleas making their nests there.
The trio was gathered around a simple folding table, and in the center of the table was a small pile of crudely cut gemstones next to a deck of cards. None of them said but a word as they occasionally tossed more useless gems into the center pile. The atmosphere was tense without reproach as each dog scrutinized their opponent’s poker faces. Or perhaps it was the smell of body odor that hung like a dense cloud that drove them to judge just who had broken wind.
The silence was finally broken when a dog gave a throaty grunt, calling the game. The dogs placed their cards onto the table, shortly followed up by a howl of excitement from the winner.
“Bah,” the one with brown colored fur protested in a crusty voice, slamming his fist on the table, “I think you cheater!”
“Me no cheat.” protested the tan furred victor with a dismissive wave of a claw, highlighting the arrangement of six cards before him. He then began to drag the treasure towards him.
“Rules say crop beat full pony.”
“That do not sound right.” spoke the third member, a stone gray dog, scratching his head in confusion.
“Yoo-hoo!” tittered a lovely voice in tune with the electronic sliding of a mechanical door. Like the crack of a whip, the dogs snapped their attention towards the sound and spotted a white unicorn with a curly violet mane.
“Sorry to interrupt, sweeties, but I believe you’re mistaken. A full pony always beats a crop in Skyllian bits.” Rarity politely informed them.
“I knew it,” Brown pointed an accusing finger at Tan, “cheater!” He then made a grab for the gems only to grapple claw to claw with the other canine. The two briefly struggled, knocking the table over with a mighty crash, sending cards and gems tumbling. It looked as if they were fit to throw down right then and there.
“You imbeciles,” interrupted Gray, delivering a backhanded slap to Brown while poking Tan in the eyes, “no time for that! What is pony doing unchained?” The three dogs were back on Rarity, who had decided to slowly back up.
“Get the pony!” The trio barked and immediately charged. Brown was in front with Tan close behind. Gray, on the other claw, took a moment and slipped some of the chipped gems into a hidden pouch underneath his breastplate; where he kept his hidden cards.
With a look of paralyzing fear, Rarity slowly retreated from the charging dogs, but was unable to get her shaky legs to function properly. She gasped and was teetering on the edge of fainting. The canines, sensing an easy victory, wiggled their claws in eager anticipation for the sheer delight to break another weak pony; the opportunity to break another unicorn horn under the violent swing of a sledgehammer.
As Brown approached within arms reach of Rarity a blur of movement erupted from his right. The blur rounded the corner was a pony stallion encased from head to hoof in armor, a streak of blue and gray with orange highlights. The stallion rammed Brown full force in the chest with incredible strength, grappling with his forelegs around the dog at the moment of impact. The collision had stopped Brown dead in his tracks and he felt himself being lifted off his feet as the stallion carried him clear across the room until the two of them slammed against the opposite wall.
Caught flat-footed, Tan was unable to sidestep Brown’s sudden reverse momentum. The dog and pony duo had clipped him on the shoulder and sent him spinning, nearly knocking him to the ground. Tripping over his feet he had just managed to regain his balance in time to spot a lasso falling down across his chest. There was no time to ponder the implications as the rope had immediately tightened into a vice grip that made it hard to breath.
He spun about only to see the orange pony who was holding the other end of the rope in her mouth.
“Bad dog. Heel!” the pony said before giving a mighty pull and felling the captured canine to the ground.
“Good boy.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
With two of the three dogs already engaged in combat with her friends, Rarity trotted into the bunker with her trademark air of royalty. She casually observed as Cutter wrestled with the brown dog. The two of them trading blow for blow, although Cutter’s armor gave him an undeniable advantage. A right hook from Cutter knocked the helmet off of the dog, followed up by a jab to the solar plexus and followed up by a head butt. Afterwards the armored stallion managed to render his opponent comatose.
“Yee-Ha! Get on littl’ doggy!” Applejack shouted as she tied another knot around the dog’s leg. Tan struggled valiantly, but he had lost the advantage in both in initiative and strength. Leaving him wide open to be used and abused by Applejack as she saw fit, much to Tan’s abject frustration. He proceeded to hurl curse, swear, and insult aplenty towards Applejack like a machine gun. At least until the Earth-pony was forced to buck the dog in the face. The strike rendered the dog unconscious much to AJ’s relief and enjoyment.
Rarity feigned disinterest as the cowpony hogtied the sleeping canine. Her attention was focused solely upon the gray figure that was struggling between either salvaging the gems on the floor or helping his fellow Diamond Dogs.
SLAM!
The decision was made for him as Rarity used her magic to upturn the table and used it as a battering ram. Swinging it as a baseball player’s bat, the act had crushed the dog into the wall and shattered glass and rending metal.
“That was for Fluttershy!” Rarity spat with pure venom. She removed the table from the dog, only for it to crash firmly back upon him.
SLAM!
“And that was for me!”
SLAM!
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“...was for my Father’sBrother’sNewphew’sCousin’s former roommate!” Rarity screamed at the dog that was partially embedded into the wall.
“Whoa, easy there Rarity!” Applejack practically had to tackle the unicorn in order to make her stop.
“Applejack? What…,” Rarity’s single minded vengeance collapsed under her friend’s touch. With it her hold on the table faded away and the improvised weapon fell with a loud shuttering clang. It revealed a broken creature bleeding profusely from his nose and from innumerable lacerations caused from razor sharp glass, broken bones, and extreme blunt trauma. Gray collapsed to the floor, stiff and unmoving.
“Oh…oh…,” the unicorn gasped trying to catch her breath, yet teetering on the verge of hyperventilating. While Isaac tied up the two other dogs, AJ examined the battered and bruised body of Rarity’s conquest. The farmer placed a hoof on the dog’s neck to check for a pulse. Failing to feel for any signs of life she then put an ear to the dog’s chest.
“He’s dead, Rarity. Ya killed him.” The unicorn fell to the ground at the news of what she'd just done. She didn't know whether to feel remorseful or angry. But there was something in the back of her mind that felt a small amount of satisfaction and that terrified her even more.
“Celestia have mercy on me.” She broke down crying.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
The sound of an unlocking steel bolt echoed through the small room as the large metal door swung open. A hallway of intense light briefly illuminated Fluttershy as the pegasus Doctor allowed himself in. He was dressed in a green surgeon’s gown with flecks of blood and other fluids scattered over him.
“Ah, I see you are awake.” He spoke with both neutral voice and expression; while the butter yellow Pegasus was writhed against her bonds, trying to find a more comfortable position.
Fluttershy had terrible bags under her eyes and bloodshot veins from where her legs had chaffed against her bonds. Her vision danced across the room as if everything around her was only half real. As she tried to regain a hoof-hold on her environment she noticed that she couldn’t feel her body from the waist down. In a fit of panic she nearly screamed in abject terror as she searched for her missing body parts. Thankfully both were still attached to her body, but they felt as if they no longer existed.
“Why are my hind legs numb? What did you do to me?” Fluttershy whispered, finding little reason to even raise any objection at this point. Feeling that nothing she could say or do would offer her up any relief. She examined the surgical sutures that vertically cut down both of her hind legs, with detached abandon.
“No need to complain. It was just a little operation, taking some samples for testing.” The Doctor spoke with nary a concern as he settled himself at his desk.
“Hair, skin, muscle tissue, even cracked open your metacarpal and radius bones for a few C.C.s of marrow.” He settled his suitcase on the table and opened it. The slight rustling of papers followed.
“Wh...you...I don’t feel anything.” Fluttershy whimpered, but no tears came as she had no more left to give.
“Without the painkillers, you would. Bone injuries are some of the most painful wounds anypony could experience... or so I’m told.” The interrogator never bothered to look in her direction as he pulled out several files and a square shaped package wrapped in thin white paper. He nonchalantly browsed through the files for several long minutes until he had pulling out a sharp knife and twirled it over his hoof.
“Well, you’ll be feeling it soon enough, but for now I need you somewhat coherent.” He slowly unwrapped the package to expose a large sandwich. The meal looked to have lettuce and tomato along with some mystery ingredient placed between two slices of wheat bread. Using the knife, the Doctor sliced the sandwich into two halves and then gently placed the utensil to the side. Lifting up one half of the sandwich in his hooves, the Doctor began to eat with tame, paced, bites.
Fluttershy watched the slow consumption of the food while a hollow pit in her stomach quietly spasmed painfully inside of her. Without realizing it she was licking her lips with an intense desire. It was to her eternal shame she found a desire to deep throat the untouched half of the sandwich which had been placed temptingly in front of her. Her restraints, however, made it impossible to even slide an inch in the direction of her desires. Fortunately, the Doctor noticed her cravings.
“Oh, would you care for some?” The doctor said sympathetically, lifting the second portion of his meal, suspending it enticingly before her. When she didn’t answer right away he moved the offered piece even closer.
“I know you haven’t eaten since they brought you here; that’s at least a full day.”
“...I...”
“No need to hide it. You must be quite hungry. Here,” he acted as if he was a father concerned for his daughter, “don’t be timid, go ahead and eat it.”
Fluttershy would have never described herself as the strongest pony, far from it. Nor did she see herself as the most resilient of ponies either. The truth was that she was all too eager to accept the Doctor’s offer. She grasped the sandwich and immediately took a large bite out of the offered foodstuff. Right away she had tasted the strong presence of deli mustard that was both full-bodied and slightly spicy. It tickled the corners of her mouth and caressed her tongue with its delightful taste.
She chewed and chewed with blissful contentment until she had realize that something was very, very, wrong. Underneath the mustard was yet another feeling, something unknown. It was stringy; it seemed to seek out the spaces in-between her teeth and stayed there. Then there was the taste, oh Celestia, the taste. It was unlike anything she’d ever put into her mouth before and there were no words she could find to describe it. When she looked to the Doctor, he had nothing but the most perverse impartial expression she had ever seen.
“What is this? Is this…meat?” Fluttershy spat out all the food in her mouth at her own mention of meat.
“Eat it. All of it.” The Doctor calmly instructed.
“No! No, I won’t.” Fluttershy shouted and, regardless of her own disgust, she was still desperately hungry. So she did the only sane thing she could think of. She removed the meat patty from the sandwich and threw it to the ground. She then consumed the rest of the sandwich and felt somewhat proud of herself for having been assertive enough for such a small victory. However, her success was short lived as the Doctor’s expression grew dire.
“Fluttershy, have you forgotten rule one? Cooperation will be rewarded; deception and resistance will be punished. I told you to eat it all and you have disappointed me.”
“But...I can’t, no, I won’t eat it.” The Pegasus professional sighed at Fluttershy’s defiant avowal.
“Then I must inform you that I neglected to say that the mustard was laced with wolfsbane.” The Doctor gave the slightest of grins when he told her this.
“Do you know what happens to a pony who ingests wolfsbane?” she shook her head no, “when ingested it will cause burning, tingling, and numbness; and that is the best of it. Soon afterwards your nervous system will begin to shutdown and in the end your heart will stop beating.”
“But what about you? You ate it too.”
“Ah, yes I did. But I knew that there was an antidote injected into the meat. If you want to live you must eat it as well,” he opened his golden pocket watch, “I estimate you only have four minutes left to live.”
“Please. Why must you do this? I thought you said they wanted to keep me alive?”
“Yes, but only if you are a good and obedient little pony. You WILL follow orders, you WILL conform to our desires, and ultimately become what we wish you to be otherwise you are useless to us.” The doctor walked over and scooped the discarded meat patty onto the sandwich wrapper. He presented it before Fluttershy, offering it to her.
“Not a nibble, all of it.”
“But…,”
“Two minutes left.” He informed. Still Fluttershy refused to bite. However, she was becoming aware of a growing sensation in her legs, or rather a lack thereof. It had begun at her hooves and quickly worked its way up to her body. Numbness, the lack of any and all feeling was growing by the second. Her heart was rapidly developing an irregular rhythm which left her gasping for breath.
“One minute.”
She had only just managed to hear the Doctor speak as her world was a spinning void of color. A spider network of veins pulsated across her vision with every heartbeat as the wolfsbane worked its way through her body. She was going to die, that much she knew. She also was aware of the cure for such a malady.
“Well done. I feel we’ve made a lot of progress today.” The Doctor smirked as Fluttershy gave in and consumed the piece of cooked dead animal completely.
“Since you’ve been such a good pony, let me reward you with a little comfort,” he leaned over her, a conniving smirk parting his lips.
“I lied about the poison,” he whispered, “You were right about my employers wanting you alive. You’re far more useful that way, but consider the lesson I have imparted unto you. Mull it over carefully. When you truly believed your life was near the end you ultimately chose yourself over a friend in order to save yourself.”
“Wh...what do you mean a friend?”
“I may have forgot to mention that the meat you ate...well... I believe you knew it. I think her name was Elizabeak.”
“No! No, no, no, no, no, not Elizabeak...I didn’t...I could not...” She was shaking far worse than when she’d believed that she’d ingested the floral poison. She remembered Elizabeak fondly as the chicken that had fled into the Everfree forest that one time, only to be turned into stone by a cockatrice. Fluttershy had managed to save both the Cutie-Mark Crusaders and the flightless bird that day by using, ‘The Stare,’ on the cockatrice.
It would’ve been better to not have starved. It was not suppost to end this way; with a part of Elizabeak inside her. The stress combined with all the emotional turmoil and the nauseating feeling deep within the pit of her stomach finally overcame her and she passed out. Her eyes still wide open; frozen in an expression of sadness and despair.
The Doctor briefly glimpsed at his captive as he packed his files away. There was an air of satisfaction around him. Confident at his performance, but such feelings didn’t last long as the cell door had opened to allow entrance to a unicorn mare.
“Someone will be by later to...clean up the mess.” The Doctor assured the new arrival without looking up from his packing.
“There will not be time for that,” the mare spoke, her voice carrying an undertone of military upbringing, “we have a problem.” The Doctor reluctantly inquired of the mare in front of him. She had brown fur with a black mane and tail and wore a single earpiece and microphone headset. Her eyes were of an icy blue disposition that could drill holes through anypony if she was in a particularly bad mood.
“Tidemare,” The Doctor addressed her curtly, “Didn’t see you there. What’s the situation?”
“We have confirmed reports that intruders have gained access to the complex. Some of them are the Element Holders.” Tidemare talked as if she was discussing the weather. Yet, her voice held an undercurrent of malicious hatred.
“We believe that Celestia’s protégée is among them.”
“I see…,” The Pegasus willed himself to remain calm, “then what are your orders?” Tidemare looked at Fluttershy.
“Escort the Oracle to the evacuation point. Make sure she survives at all costs.” She stomped a hoof and two Diamond Dogs entered with a sreatcher. They wheeled the stretcher next to the comatose Fluttershy and began to undo her restraints.
“I’ll make sure it happens, but be assured that my employer will demand higher compensation for this.” His words devolved into a strained mess as Tidemare gazed at him with an unforgiving scowl.
“Then tell your boss that if we are discovered by Celestia’s peacekeepers then he can also kiss his filthy flank goodbye. I will not allow this project to be disturbed by you or anypony else. Do you understand me?!”
“Clear as crystal.” The Doctor nodded in compliance before running down the hallway. Tidemare regarded room seven with a longing stare, knowing that Fluttershy was in there and she was instrumental for the next stage of the project. She touched her microphone and set it to broadcast over the entire facility.
“This is Director Tidemare to all project personnel. I want the key subjects terminated and the facility scrubbed. This is not a drill, Tidemare out.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………) |
Oceansama | 682 | 19 | Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Original Character,Other,Princess Luna,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Human,Dark,Horror,Science Fiction,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Death,Gore,Profanity,Violence | Pony Space | Isaac Clarke fights necromorphs in Equestria. MLP crossover with Dead Space | cancelled | 282 | 18 | <p>While on a mission for the Princesses, Twilight accidently summons the engineer, and Necromorph slayer, Isaac Clarke into Equestria. Now she and Luna must deal with the armored interloper while they all search for the ponies who seek to ressurect the Marker. Rated - M for gore and language. </p><p>My Little Pony Crossover with Dead Space.</p> | mature | 2013-01-24T08:15:29+00:00 | 2013-01-24T08:15:29+00:00 | 1,621 | Chapter 19: The Coming Storm
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
“Rarity, please calm down.” Applejack spoke softly as she stroked the unicorn’s mussed up mane. Yet AJ knew her efforts to console her friend were fruitless. Rarity had broken like a delicate flower in a hurricane and was crying endlessly over the broken body of the Diamond Dog she’d just slain.
“No!” Rarity wailed, “I’m…I’m a monster! I’m an ugly mare.” Applejack flinched at her friend’s self inflicted slur and for the first time since earth-pony had known the unicorn, Rarity’s display carried not a hint of overwrought drama or false acting; just pure raw emotion.
Whatever makeup that remained was running rivers down her face. It stained her fur and mixed in with the patches of dried sludge and gore that still clung to her. Rarity had glazed eyes; sputtering gibberish and hiccupping. Her normally shiny, well-kept, mane was .She was frantically messing up her mane, ripped her fake eyelashes away and cast them to the floor, all the while her body shook uncontrollably.
“Rarity, ya’ll are not a monster.” Applejack couldn’t hide the fear that trembled in her voice. She hugged her friend tighter, desperately trying to offer a modicum of assurance.
“I am!” Rarity wiped her eyes, staining her forelegs.
“No yer not!” AJ started screaming.
“I am. You should hate me! What I’ve done, it’s... it’s unforgiveable. I…I don’t know what came over meee!”
“It’ll be ok. I’m here, sugarcube, and ah don’t hate ya. Ah’m just a mite confused” “Why don’t ya tell me what happened.”
“I…I was going to stick to the plan, you know,” Rarity wiped at the tears again, “just use the table to hold the beast down. While you tie them up and we interrogate them for answers. B…b…but what happened to all those unicorns,” Rarity checked her forehead to make sure her horn was still attached, “and all those pegasi. I thought of it happening to fair Fluttershy and Derpy.”
“Ah know Rarity. It’s a horrible thing that’s been done.”
While AJ tended to the ailing unicorn, Isaac had to fend off the male part of his brain that compelled him to comfort a distressed woman. He had to keep reminding himself that they weren’t human. They were just stupid little ponies that he didn’t give a damn about. He told them that it was going to be dangerous and they didn’t listen.
Rather than deal with that problem he was forcefully shaking the two restrained canines. He wanted information and they were the best source available, but when they didn’t respond he back hoofed them across the face. Alas the dogs remained unconscious and unresponsive, if not for the snoring he might’ve though they were dead too. Groaning in frustration he abandoned his efforts to roust the resting rovers and briefly considered scrounging through the wall lockers for anything of interest.
Then he remembered that on the opposite side of the bunker there was a desk that had a computer on it. The computer itself was a metal H frame that was bent at a near ninety degree angle down the center, horizontally. The bottom half had a phantom keyboard that glowed orange. The keyboard was the standard ‘QWERTY’ arrangement, but the keys, and thus the frame, were a lot bigger than what was necessary for human hands; probably to account for pony hooves. The holographic screen was also proportionally enlarged and whether this was in because of the bigger size of local equine eyes or the keyboard, Isaac couldn’t tell.
Apart from the size differences everything else was recognizable as EarthGov made, right down to the operating system. There was little doubt left as to who was responsible for this shitty situation. Isaac attacked the computer, fervently pushing the keys, searching the files for a map and any information on the facility itself. While hacking computers wasn’t his strongest suit, breaking into the database was relatively easy since the usual safeguards and protection software seemed to be lacking. Also one of the dogs had left their login account active, but then the dogs didn’t strike him as mentally competent enough to actually use a computer.
‘Maybe they thought no one would make it this far or someone’s just shit at their job.’ Isaac rambled internally.
While he worked over the keyboard he couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the distraught ponies behind him.
“I…I just wanted to get a few licks in, you know. I realize it’s unladylike to want such a thing, but I wanted to punish them for what they put our friends through.” Rarity lamented, her panicked mood beginning to relent, “Then it happened…”
“What exactly happened?” Isaac suddenly asked; his voice mostly even leveled, but hints of expectation and worry betrayed him. There had been something in Rarity’s tone that had compelled the question out of him. He didn’t bother to try and reach out to the distressed unicorn; he had hardly turned from the holo display. Unexpectedly the question had an immediate calming effect on Rarity.
“I saw my dear little sister. Innocent Sweetie Bell, she was behind the Diamond Dog. Her horn was broken and there was blood everywhere. I couldn’t stand the thought of something so terrible happening to her and so…I lashed out.”
Isaac cursed silently.
“Rarity, you were hallucinating...” He pointedly commented as he operated the terminal.
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Rarity what happened just now is not entirely your fault; this is what the Marker does.” He had expected his words to spark a round of protests from the guilty pony. Instead she reciprocated a look of hope and doubtful relief.
“It uses the ones you love against you; it subtly manipulates you into doing what it wants. I know,” he briefly choked, snapping around to look directly at the mares. Just thinking about it made his blood boil and he took his emotions out on the ponies. The blue light from his helmet exaggerated the shock on their faces to horrific levels. “…I know because it used my dead fiancée to control me.”
“Cutter, that…is just…”
“I’m not done,” he took a few threatening steps towards the mares, “just imagine what will start to happen to everybody in town unless we destroy the Marker. If we don’t eventually Sweetie Bell will fall victim to the Marker’s corruption and might kill someone, possibly starting with her friends. That is,” Isaac glanced at AJ, “if Apple bloom doesn’t do it first.” There was a moment of stern silence as the two mares rolled Isaac’s words around in their heads. Rarity had stopped crying and had a look of neutral detachment.
“Is that what you want?” Isaac drove the point home.
“No…” was Rarity’s quiet reply.
“Then get your damn act together! The only monsters here are the ones building the Marker.”
“You’re right,” she sniffed the remains of her tears away, “for Sweetie’s sake I must persevere. I must!” The unicorn arose to stand firmly on
“Good,” Isaac replied with an encouraging nod. “Why don’t you search those lockers over there and see if you can find any useful supplies.”
‘And there it is.’ The former human grumbled at his inability to resist a pretty face. Hiding his shame he returned to his work on the holo-computer.
“I’ll do that and thank you, darling.” Rarity smiled her mind at ease for the moment. Trotting over to the first wall locker she opened it with her telekinesis and started rummaging around various items contained within. Applejack sighed, she was happy that her friend was feeling better, but she was still bothered by certain things Isaac had said and done.
“Cutter, ah appreciate you helpin’ Rarity, but dontcha think ya’ll were a littl’ hard on her?”
“No, everything I just said is true.” He replied sternly only to have AJ look over his shoulder at the computer.
“What are ya doin’ there?”
“It’d take too long to explain.” He dismissed her off-handedly, rather forcefully, a move which had only served to ignite a fire of indignant fury in the apple farmer.
“Now wait just a gosh darned minute! Som’thin just ain’t right here.” AJ hooked a foreleg around one of his and yanked the stallion away from the terminal to face her.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Ya’ll are going ta listen here, Cutter. Ah know that Twi said you were a friend, but ever since ya arrived two of mah friends have disappeared, Canterlot is attacked,” AJ stomped her hoof with each count, “then there’s ya fancy suit, the monsters, the hollow-graph-tic sign, this talk of Markers, and now that…that…,” she waved a hoof at the object of her wrath.
“Computer.” Isaac jerked his leg free and turned back to his previous goal.
“Computater. I know ah haven’t been to Manehatten ta visit my aunty and uncle Orange in a few years, but ah know there is nothing like this, ‘computater,’ there. Neither any of these other techno-whatchamacall-its. Who are ya really?”
“I’m curious as well,” Rarity added while attending to another locker, “Even Canterlot doesn’t have such complex devices.”
Isaac’s hooves suddenly froze over the incorporeal keyboard as he regarded the mares again. Although they couldn’t see it, but his expression was of someone discovering a terrible revelation. He suddenly remembered Kendra on the Ishimura, who had secretly been using him to get the Red Marker for EarthGov. Then there was Diana on Titan Station who had lied about wanting to help him escape the second necromorph outbreak. Only to betray him and reveal that she really worked for a Unitologist agenda to seed Markers all over the galaxy because their sideways religion said so.
“Who are ya really?” Applejack’s question was a fairly simple one; and now, Isaac realized, the shoe was now on the other foot. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but maybe he had been wrong about the ponies. It was possible that they were not as useless and stupid as he’d first thought they were. It just didn’t feel right to lead them on like this, just as others had done to him before.
“You want the truth?” They at least deserved that much if they were going to share this nightmare with him. Both mares nodded their consent, Isaac took a deep breath.
“I’m not actually from Manehatten and my name isn’t Cutter.” Isaac quickly spat out. Rarity had tilted her head in confusion while Applejack’s scowl grew so deep the sound of grinding teeth could be heard.
“So both you and Twi…ya’ll lied to us.” A blush of rage intensified across her cheeks.
“Well, it was Twilight who made up the story,” He nearly laughed at the dawning realization on Rarity’s face; as she’d been there when Twilight first introduced him. Yet, he felt slightly ashamed at remaining silent when he didn’t owe the Princess’ any favors. He blamed Twilight just as much as Celestia about being trapped in this world and in a body that wasn’t his own.
Royalty, politicians, and diplomats; they were all the same. The golden rule should be rewritten to warn against false trust towards any governing body, on any planet, ever.
“Why?” That one came from Rarity.
“Not really our fault, though, since it had been a direct order from your Princess Celestia. I think she wanted to keep the truth of the Marker a secret while Twilight and I dealt with it. It was probably to avoid public panic, not sure why I went along with it since I’ve never trusted anyone who’s ever worked in the government. They never learn that keeping secrets like this only makes the situation worse in the end.”
“What do you mean, ‘your Princess Celestia?’ Isn’t she your Princess too?”
“No,” he shook his head, “I’m not from Equestria, not even close.” Just as Isaac was preparing himself to elaborate further he heard the unicorn scream a shrill note, followed up by the heavy thump of a body hitting the floor. Both he and AJ went to investigate and saw that one of the lockers that Rarity had opened had deposited a body onto the floor.
At first the three ponies though it was the corpse of another diamond dog until the body responded with a pain filled grunt. The dog slightly smaller than the guards, was gun-metal gray in fur color, and wore no armor. Instead he had on a red sleeveless vest that seemed two sizes too small along a topaz pendant attached to a black collar with diamond studs.
“I know you!” Rarity gasped a high pitched shriek, settling back into her usual overblown drama. “You’re that diamond dog that kidnapped me all those months ago.” His eyes, sporting yellowish-green pupils and pebble sized irises colored teal, went wide with shock as he recognized the unicorn that had addressed him.
“Oh, Miss Rarity, nice to see you.” The dog smiled. “You come to rescue ponies, yes? Of course you are, just like ponies rescue you,” his joyous expression faltered for a moment, maybe rescue diamond dogs too?”
“Rescue you?” If pure venom could be refined into a vintage of fine wine, then the tone in Rarity’s Canterlotian accent had achieved it “Why would we ever do that you vicious curr?”
The prone dog let out a few pitiful whines while shrinking away like an ice cube subjected to a raging inferno. Rarity’s breathing was bordering on hyperventilation and a desire to kill again arose as a twitch in the corner of her mouth.
“Easy thar partner.” Applejack placed a concerned hoof on her friend’s shoulder, preparing to restrain the unicorn if necessary.
“Look at him.” Isaac pointed. It was then that Rarity noticed the heavy pair of handcuffs that had chained the dog’s wrists and ankles together. The hair and skin rubbed raw and bleeding under the heavy metal.
“Are you a prisoner as well?”
“Yes,” He nodded enthusiastically, “all Diamond Dogs are prisoner. We are told to find gems, lots of gems. Wanted pretty pony,” he signaled Rarity, “to use her magic to find gems. When we let Miss Rarity and pony friends go with all those gems then...” he drifted somberly.
“Then what?” The unicorn encouraged. The dog lowered his head to the ground.
“Then evil ponies come to punish. The scary cherry came with others and she does bad things to us. Scary cherry say we failed her and kill dog friends to make example of them, she say. Leave me alive to burn up mess. Force me to hurt ponies to stay alive. Me no want to hurt ponies, only want them to find gems.” Isaac then approached, lifting the dog up, by the handcuffs, into a kneeling pose.
“Can help, I can. Show you Marker, show you pony leader.” The dog pleaded only to be violently slammed into the wall.
“Why should we believe you?”
“Scary Cherry ponynapp Pegasus friend of Miss Rarity’s. Can take you to her.”
“You know where Fluttershy is?” Rarity’s muzzle nearly touched the dogs as she glared death at him. Without a word, promising that if he was lying then retribution would be swift and painful. The dog replied with a simple, ‘yes,’ for an answer.
Before the conversation proceeded further the ponies and dog were interrupted by a sudden burst of static from hidden speakers.
“This is Director Tidemare to all project personnel. I want the key subjects terminated and the facility scrubbed. This is not a drill, Tidemare out.”
“Wellll…shit.” Isaac cursed at this new development. He remembered when he’d woken up in the Psych ward on Titan Station. The station administer, a Director Tiedman had given the exact same speech over the PA system when the station had been overrun by necromorphs. Now it was a Director Tidemare doing the exact same thing.
‘What the fuck is going on? Could Tiedman also be in Equestria as well?’ That was impossible. Tiedman was dead; Isaac had made doubly sure of that.
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Secret Cherry was storming her way down the corridors of the underground base. Any dogs or ponies that dared to get in her way would come out of the encounter with one less limb to show for it. Luckily for them Cherry’s reputation proceeded itself and no one was dumb or suicidal enough to stop her when she was on a rampage. She ignored those who threw themselves against the walls and jumped down alternate corridors. She had only one destination in mind and one pony that she desired to see.
Only minutes ago Director Tidemare had made her announcement over the PA system. To say that Cherry was upset over this turn of events was so much of an understatement that one couldn’t find it if they’d used an electron microscope. The day had gone so well, waking up after a good night’s sleep, a wonderful breakfast, while thousands of ideas on ways to brutalize these stupid ponies buzzed around her head. All of which paid off as she got to mercilessly beat down the yellow pegasus Fluttershy, kill a hoard of smelly animals, and pluck the eye of the retard known as Ditzy Doo.
In summary, it had been the best day ever.
“Tidemare!” Cherry shouted as the door to Command & Control slid open. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The C&C was a massive room, however it was a very crowded space at the same time. It was filled with all sorts of workstations, computers, panels, switches, knobs, and other devices that allowed Director Tidemare and her staff to control every aspect of the facility from the most sophisticated of machines down to the temperature of the facility. The Director was currently crouched over a panel of controls connected to a series of thirteen monitor. Each monitor was adorned with a strip of masking tape with the name of a pony, written in black ink, beneath it.
“Why is the facility being scrubbed? Why are you destroying nearly a year’s worth of research into the Marker?” Cherry marched right up to Tidemare either ignoring the director’s warning or simply not caring.
“It’s all part of the plan to eliminate Twilight and the remaining element bearers.” The Director said curtly, not bothered to pay attention to Cherry’s disrespectful attitude.
“The Elements of Harmony are useless unless all six of them are together.” Cherry slammed a hoof on the panel. “We already have the Oracle and Rainbow Dash is unaccounted for. There is nothing we should fear from t…” Cherry got no further before she was stuck across the face with such force she fell flat on her back. She was only stunned for a moment, but that was enough time for Tidemare to use her fore-hooves to pin Cherry down. The Director slowly lowered herself so that the two of them were touching chest to chest, stomach to stomach.
“I suggest you watch your tone with me, my dear.” Tidemare said with an unnatural calmness. “I’m the one in charge of this operation and unless you want to meet the same fate as these worthless Ponyvillians then you best remember your place.” The two mares stayed down for uncounted second while Tidemare stroked a hoof down her partner’s golden mane and rosy fur. Cherry offered no resistance to her treatment.
“From the beginning this facility was envisioned as the birthplace of a new world order and the Marker will deliver this future to us. But it has another purpose,” the brown earth pony’s calm demeanor was beginning to give way to a lustful excitement, “it’s a coffin. With it I intend to bury all of Celestia’s minions for good. Understand?” Tidemare finished with a suggestive lick across the rosy mare’s muzzle.
“Y, yes Director Tidemare.”
“Now,” Tidemare separated herself from her partner, “I have a job for you.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“The Oracle is headed for the extraction point. I want you to make sure that Marker zero-zero-two make safely as well.”
“Yes, ma’am, but what about the prototype?”
“Zero-zero-one? That piece of shit is defective, leave it to be destroyed. Let Celestia believe that the threat has ended while we continue our research at the backup facility.”
“It will be done.” Cherry exhaled all of her tension with that pledge before booking it out of the room to attend to her duties.
With Cherry gone Tidemare returned to the camera display. Taking the controls she panned across the camera displays. The key subjects in rooms one through six had already been dealt with, some by the end of a spear while others had been beaten to death. The lucky mare in room five had been shown some mercy by her handlers and had been put to sleep before having her throat slit; her death was clean and painless. Room seven, Fluttershy’s cell, was empty; the buttery Pegasus already gone. The Oracle was invaluable to the next stage of their plans.
Then she cycled to the camera in room eight, Ditzy Hooves. For some reason that she couldn’t fathom her associate, Secret Cherry, had taken a special sadistic interest in the Pegasus. Cherry had asked, nay demanded, that she be given handling rights for Ditzy. The result had left the one-eyed pegasus in such a state that a zombie would be empathetic.
The one eyed Pegasus was screaming in terror as a pair of dog soldiers approached her. One soldier pulled back on Ditzy’s muzzle, exposing her neck. The other dog tightened his grip around a crudely made, and bloody, sword with the clear intent to cleave the blond pegasus’ head clean off. As the armed dog raised the sword high in the air accompanied by the frantic thrashing of his victim.
Yet, just as the fatal blow was about to be delivered, Tidemare had a sudden burst of inspiration. In one swift motion she activated the intercom to room eight.
“Stop what you are doing!” She commanded and the dogs obeyed by taking a few steps away from Ditzy.
“This is Director Tidemare speaking. Leave the gray pegasus alive and bring her to me in the C&C. I have other…plans for her.”
(…………………………………………………………………………………………)
Elsewhere in the underground tunnels of the Diamond Dog’s lair Twilight, Spitfire, and Pinkie all crouched, shoulder to shoulder, behind a large igneous rock. The boulder was positioned on the precipitous edge of a narrow cliff. The trio had made it this far by carefully walking along a dangerous pathway that clung to the side of a massive wall of stone. There were also a steep set of stairs nearby that were cut into the cliff and lead downwards towards a large natural cavern.
Across the vast empty space there was a catwalk suspended from the ceiling around eighty feet from the ground. The artificial bridge spanned the gap between a seemingly random tunnel and the cliff stairs just below where the ponies were currently positioned. At the other end of the catwalk was a massive bulkhead door which opened into an underground structure. The doors were slightly ajar, just enough to allow diamond dogs through. The dogs, for the most part, were accompanied by ponies on leashes and tied down with mine carts filled with either gems, scrap metal, or unidentified pieces of equipment. If they were unicorns their horns were broken and the pegasi had their wings stripped of feathers. Earth-ponies had large chains hooked up to each leg to where they could only achieve a brisk walk.
“Miss Sparkle,” Spitfire addressed the purple unicorn; who was not humored at the honorific used to address her.
“Um…yes?”
“I know I’m most recognized for being Captain of the Wonderbolts stunt team. However, I am a Capitan of the Royal Equestrian Air force first and foremost. So can I offer you a bit of military advice?”
“Sure, but there’s no need to call me Miss. Twilight will do just fine.” She gave a lopsided smile. Somehow a thought of Isaac flew through her mind.
“The situation down there is bucked up beyond belief. Cutter was right, we can’t possibly negotiate with these jerks. We need to treat this situation as not only immoral, but also as a serious threat to national security and a declaration of war against Equestria.”
“No,” Twilight firmly stood by herself, “violence will only lead to more violence. As Celestia’s personal student I have to at least try to settle this in a peaceful manner.”
“Maybe they need a party?” Pinkie offered hopefully.
“Shut it noobie!” Spitfire callously shot the earth pony’s idea down. This earned a disapproving glare from the lavender unicorn, but Spitfire was immune to such tactics.
“Twilight this is a serious breach of national security and with the Elements of Harmony neutralized our options are very limited.”
“I understand,” Twilight truly felt a sense of dread build in her heart, “if it turns out that violence is the only way…no, I have to know that I tried every way to make it right.” |
Big-Mac-115 | 683 | 1 | Rarity,Spike,Dark,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Sex | A Change of Heart | Spike's 16th birthday began a turning point of not only his own life, but the one he loves most... | incomplete | 70 | 3 | <p>Sidenote: I appreciate the criticism I received prior to writing this from the people who said that it "couldn't be done", and that "Rarity and Spike being together just won't work out". If it weren't for you guys, I would never had been inspired to prove you wrong by creating this. Thanks! :D</p><p>Anyway, this is a cute romance fiction about my favorite - and really, the only normal - couple in Ponyville. Enjoy!</p> | teen | 2011-10-22T16:17:07+00:00 | 2011-10-22T16:17:07+00:00 | 6,110 | Spike leaned over the balcony, the autumn sun setting to his back, watching the party draw to a close and the ponies disperse out and back to their homes. Tonight was truly an amazing night, he thought. It was the night of his 16th birthday, and Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie had, even though he told them not to, thrown a huge surprise party in his honor, and most of Ponyville was in attendance. Though he didn’t like the idea at first, he had warmed up to it around the time Rarity showed up in an absolutely stunning new dress she had made, just for the occasion. He smiled when he thought of how incredible it looked on her; the dark magenta cloth, tightly wrapping her perfect figure, the color complementing her hair flawlessly… The various gemstones that encircled parts of it such as the waist and ankles, giving it a sense of immeasurable beauty and value… The fabulous shoes she wore with the ensemble (also of her own design), covered in dazzling gems and diamonds as well… She looked like a queen.
Ohh, Rarity... Spike's eyes softened as he began thinking of her, as they always had and always would. She still lived in her dress store, Carousel Boutique, in the heart of the town, working hard all day to create her original and eye-pleasing clothing, occasionally getting a visit from big-shot fashionistas from across Equestria, all wanting to get a look at the work of this incredibly talented designer. She was nearly twenty-two years old now, and though there was a six-year age difference between them, that didn't stop him from loving her in the least. He thought once again of how perfect his world was; He and Rarity now lived in that shop together, him waking every morning to her soft smile and looking into her gorgeous eyes. He would always get up early and make her breakfast while she got ready for her day of designing and selling dresses. They would always eat together, and after he gave her a passionate kiss goodbye, he would leave for his day of work at his own restaurant that he had recently opened on the edge of town. He came home every night to her warm embrace, and they would go over the events of the day while he made dinner for the two of them. They’d sit down and enjoy the meal together in the candle light, staring lovingly into each other’s eyes. They would then wash up and go to bed, where they would cuddle close and feel each other’s warmth throughout the night, completely safe and utterly satisfied in their embrace....
“Spike, are you coming to bed?”
He snapped back to reality as Twilight’s voice came from behind him, interrupting the pleasurable daydream.
“Uhh I will in a little bit. I’m… Thinkin’…” He looked over the balcony and realized that Ponyville had gone dark and almost everypony was in bed by now.
“Okay, just don’t stay up too late. Remember, we have to help Applejack and Big Macintosh over at Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow, and you don’t want to be tired.” Twilight reminded him.
“Gotcha. Don't worry, I’ll get to bed before too long.”
He still worked under Twilight as her intern, as he would for the rest of the year, and then she would no longer need his assistance and he would be free to live and do as he pleased. Though he didn't get paid, it was still a fun job, something he enjoyed doing, helping his "sister", as he had begun calling her, with her studies and other various chores around the library. Not much had changed in the four years since he had arrived in Ponyville, he realized. True, he had matured a lot, his muscle tone and facial features becoming much more defined and masculine, as all dragons do at this age. He had matured mentally too, becoming less child-like and hyper, and mellowing out into a more quiet, adult individual. But he was still the same old Spike, although nobody called him a “baby” dragon anymore, as he had grown to be the same size, if not larger, than almost everypony in Ponyville. Twilight was the same old Twilight, the incredibly gifted student of Princess Celestia, although she only had one more year left of schooling under her mentor before she graduated and began living under her own rule, as would Spike once Twilight graduated. Rainbow Dash was still Rainbow Dash, the proudest and fastest pegasus in all of Equestria. AJ was still the same honest AJ, that strong and brave country girl and best friend of everypony. Pinkie Pie was still the same old Pinkie Pie, the crazy, funny, goofy, random and energetic little pink pony that threw parties at even the smallest and insignificant of occasions. Fluttershy was still her kind, reserved and lovable self, though she had become more social recently due to her friends always trying to bring her out of her shy little shell. And Rarity...
The sound of the door closing behind him jump, and he spun around quickly.
"Hello, darling."
Well speak of the devil...
His stomach did a backflip as he found himself looking into the eyes of a beautiful white unicorn, still in her dazzling gown. A massive smile involuntarily formed on his face. “Rarity? What are you doing here? I thought you left?”
“Well, I was about to, but I realized that I forgot to tell you happy birthday!” She giggled as she said this and began walking toward Spike on the other side of the balcony. His eyes followed her as she put her hooves up on the railing next to him and gazed up at the stars. “My, what a beautiful night…"
Rarity looked to at Spike with a soft smile. He glanced away sheepishly and blushed, lost for words and mind scrambled, and flattered at the fact that she had stayed after everyone else had left just to say happy birthday. “Yeah, it is a nice night isn’t it?” He looked up at the stars and let himself feel how nice the moment was.
They stood near each other like this for a few minutes before Rarity’s soft voice broke the silence. “So Spike, you’re sixteen, almost and an adult dragon! Tell me, how does it feel, being all grown up?”
“You say it as if I’m supposed to feel any different.” Spike replied with a chuckle. “I really don’t feel any different, I mean I’m still just that little dragon in Ponyville, trying to find his purpose.”
“Only not so little anymore” Rarity said smiling, referring once again to the fact that Spike was actually slightly larger than her now. “I must say, Spike, you have grown up to be quite the handsome dragon. And a marvelous culinary artist too, if I do say so myself.”
“Aww, thanks Rarity.” Spike’s cheeks reddened once more at these compliments. “You know speaking of that, I was actually thinking about working as a chef or cook of some sort, since that seems to be my thing. I sure do love cooking!”
“Well then GO for it, darling!” She exclaimed. “The only way you’re going to find out who you are is through experimentation, since dragons don’t receive cutie marks to tell them what their destiny is like ponies do.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about maybe asking Mr. and Mrs. Cake for a job, but I guess I just haven’t gotten the courage to go and ask them yet. But I dunno, they don’t seem to need any help, considering that they’ve turned just about everyone else who’s asked for work there down.”
Rarity got a look of genuine sadness. “Aww, that’s too bad! You know, I bet if you asked Pinkie Pie, surely SHE could put in a kind word for you, maybe pull some strings” Rarity smiled slyly and winked. “IF you know what I’m getting at.” She giggled. “And if not, there’s always Applejack and Big Macintosh. I’m sure they could use some help around the farm, making new apple recipes and what have you. I doubt they would mind sparing you a couple extra bits an hour for your help!”
Spike liked these ideas. A lot. Indeed, he could ask Pinkie to maybe convince Mr. and Mrs. Cake that he was worth hiring, and was an excellent asset to them. And if not, the fallback option Rarity suggested was nice as well. Both options would allow him to be able to receive some sort of actual teaching on how to cook, as well as allow him to get creative with it. “Gee, thanks Rarity! Me and Twilight are actually heading down to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow anyway, so I might just have to take up on that offer while I’m there!”
“Oh, it’s no problem! Anything to help you out, darling.”
He simply loved it when she called him “darling”. Even though she called everyone that, it just seemed like something personal when she directed it at him.
They went about, carrying on conversation in this way for several hours, telling stories back and forth, offering advice to any dilemma either of them may have, cracking the occasional joke and sharing a laugh between them, making little, sometimes flirtatious, compliments to each other. This was the sort of thing Spike dreamed of, being able to spend time alone with Rarity, no matter how, just to be able to hear her voice and converse with her on a heart-to-heart level.
“My my, it’s becoming quite chilly out here...” Rarity said after awhile, inhaling through her teeth and rubbing her hooves together. “How about we start heading toward the direction of the door, hmm? Surely YOU must be colder than me, being cold-blooded and such.”
Spike was indeed starting to get cold, but he was disappointed a bit; he wanted to stay out here under the stars with her, he didn’t want her to go just yet… BUT, in all kindness he wanted to do what was in Rarity’s best interest, so with a smile and nod of his head he turned and began walking back toward the door, taking a few steps ahead of her to open it. She walked past him through the door with a smile and nod of appreciation, causing him to blush again. Closing the door behind them, he turned and gazed at the stunning unicorn, once more finding himself speechless at the sheer beauty; her flawless white coat, although mostly covered by the dress, showed through a little bit on her stomach where the gown didn’t cover; her feminine body, the curves of it couldn’t have been more attractively angled or placed; her gorgeous, deep sapphire eyes, shining like magnificent gemstones in the soft light of the fire that was still going in the fireplace.
“Goodness, it’s nearly three in the morning!” Rarity exclaimed, looking at the clock hung against the wall of the library. “I had best be going, dear. Tomorrow's going to be a busy busy busy day as usual!” She and Spike made their way down the stairs and to the living room. Then she did something that Spike didn’t expect; she reached up and put her front legs around him and gave him a warm hug, holding this embrace for several seconds, Spike’s insides teeming with the overwhelming feeling of happiness it brought. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “Once again, happy birthday, Spike. I look forward to seeing you again soon!” She said, grinning from ear to ear. She released him, and began to walk toward the door of the library. Spike’s eyes followed her passionately across the room and out the door, leaving him to stand there, still stunned by everything that had happened in the last few hours.
Finally finding the ability to move again several minutes later, he headed to his bedroom with a spring in his step.
* * *
Rarity sighed as she opened the door to the balcony, where Spike supposedly was. Well, here we go... Spike hadn’t seemed to notice the sound of the door opening, so she made sure to close it slightly harder to make the sound audible. Startled, he turned around and immediately smiled, the same way he always did when he saw her. Rarity had to admit, she was flattered whenever anyone did this, for it made her feel beautiful and appreciated. Of course, Spike also smiled in her presence for these reasons, in addition to the fact to that he had an immeasurable and unconditional love for her. Everyone knew this, and although they all thought his little crush on her was just too adorable, she found it a bit outlandish. She tried to forget this as she walked toward him on the porch, falsely reassuring herself that he was simply a friend and had no interest whatsoever, which would hopefully make this entire situation a bit less awkward.
“Hello, darling” she said in the most normal way possible.
“Rarity? What are you doing here? I thought you left?”
“Well, I was about to, but I realized that I forgot to tell you happy birthday!” Which was true, she hadn’t gotten a chance to say happy birthday to him personally, as he had been doing other things most of the night. In an another attempt to make it a little bit less awkward, she walked over to the railing and put her hooves on it, standing next to him. “My, what a beautiful night…” She spoke out, hoping he would take the initiative to start a light conversation, but to her dismay instead he simply replied “Yeah, it is a nice night, isn’t it?”
She waited for several seconds for him to say something more, but still nothing. She began to fidget, and after several minutes she could no longer tolerate the awkwardness, so she just decided to speak first again. “So Spike, you’re sixteen, almost and an adult dragon! Tell me, how does it feel, being all grown up?”
“You say it as if I’m supposed to feel any different.” Spike laughed. “I really don’t feel any different, I mean I’m still just that little dragon in Ponyville, trying to find his purpose.”
Little? Rarity almost laughed out loud at this; Spike was far from “little” anymore. Looking him over, she realized that he was in fact slightly taller than her, even now when they were both standing erect on their back legs. She put thoughts into words. “Only not so little anymore”. Looking him over again, she also noticed something else…. Something she never thought she’d say, but Spike actually seemed… Handsome. No longer the stumpy lizard-like creature that was just over half her size, he was now taller and less chubby, with well-defined muscles that could clearly be seen under his scales. And no longer was his face as round and childlike, but a harder, more chiseled-looking face that she found oddly… Attractive. “I must say Spike, you have grown up to be quite the handsome dragon.”
Realizing that she had said this out loud, her head raced as she thought of something to cover it with and make it seem less flirtatious. “And a marvelous culinary artist too, if I do say so myself.” She stuttered, letting out the first thing to come to mind.
Spike’s face reddened, and so did hers as she saw this. How could I have said that? He’s going to think I’m interested! Luckily, he only responded with “Aww, thanks Rarity. You know speaking of that, I was actually thinking about working as a chef or cook of some sort, since that seems to be my thing. I sure do love cooking!”
Okay… Good… He didn’t take it as a sort of come-on.
But she was genuinely excited to hear that he would pursue a career in food, as he was indeed marvelous at cooking and obviously enjoyed doing so. He routinely would prepare food and such for Rarity and her friends on all kinds of occasions, and everyone agreed that the things he made could rival even some of the best diners in Canterlot, or any city for that matter. “Well then GO for it, darling!” She exclaimed. “The only way you’re going to find out who you are is through experimentation, since dragons don’t receive cutie marks to tell them what their destiny is like ponies do.”
Spike’s lowered his head and his voice went down a bit, clearly disappointed. “Yeah, I was thinking about maybe asking Mr. and Mrs. Cake for a job, but I guess I just haven’t gotten the courage to go and ask them yet. But I dunno, they don’t seem to need any help, considering that they’ve turned just about everyone else who’s asked for work there down.”
This was indeed disappointing. “Aww, that’s too bad!” Rarity thought for a moment of what she could say to make him feel better. “You know, I bet if you asked Pinkie Pie, surely SHE could put in a kind word for you, maybe pull some strings, IF you know what I’m getting at. And if not, there’s always Applejack and Big Macintosh. I’m sure they could use some help around the farm, making new apple recipes and what have you. I doubt they would mind sparing you a couple extra bits an hour for your help!”
Spike’s face lit up as she presented this. “Gee, thanks Rarity! Me and Twilight are actually heading down to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow anyway, so I might just have to take up on that offer while I’m there!”
She smiled satisfactorily to herself. “Oh, it’s no problem! Anything to help you out, darling.”
His face reddened again, and Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at this.
As they carried on, Rarity became more and more relaxed, realizing that Spike wasn’t going to try to “make a move” or anything of the sort, as she presumed he would. In fact, she actually began enjoying herself as she talked to him, making the realization that, once she put out of her mind the fact that he was madly in love with her, it was just like talking to any of her friends on a heart-to-heart level. It also dawned on her that he was actually her only male friend that she could talk to in this way, for all other stallions she knew simply would gawk at her and flirt, which was incredibly annoying; part of the reason most of her friends were girls anyway.
Rarity started getting cold sometime later. “My my, it’s becoming quite chilly out here...” She intended to simply go indoors where it was warmer, but upon realizing that it must have been nearly two or three in the morning, she decided it best that she go home and seek some rest…
Much to her dismay.
* * *
Twilight was still in her room reading her new book about the medical uses of magic when she heard the door of the second-story porch open and close, smiling as she remembered that it was Rarity and Spike. “Such an adorable little couple”, she chuckled to herself, closing the book and stepping lightly over to her bedroom door. She opened it as slowly as she could, careful not to make any noise and let them know she was watching. She slid out of the small opening, approaching the stairs and peeking through the railing, still being sure as to not give herself away. She looked down into the living room from above, watching as Rarity hugged him, and noticed Spike’s face turn a bright shade of red. She nearly squealed and had to control her urge to clop her hooves together, excited by the sheer cuteness of him and her being together like this. Rarity exited the library, leaving Spike still standing there in the same spot for several minutes, seemingly dumbfounded, which is exactly the reaction Twilight would have expected. He seemed to have found his train of thought again, because he shook his head a few times and began making his way toward bed.
They just seem so… Happy! Twilight thought gleefully to herself. She loved seeing these two happy more than anything else in the world, for they were practically siblings to her. She yawned a satisfied yawn and started heading back to her room to get some sleep as well.
Tonight had gone exactly according to plan…
*End part one* |
Big-Mac-115 | 683 | 2 | Rarity,Spike,Dark,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Sex | A Change of Heart | Spike's 16th birthday began a turning point of not only his own life, but the one he loves most... | incomplete | 70 | 3 | <p>Sidenote: I appreciate the criticism I received prior to writing this from the people who said that it "couldn't be done", and that "Rarity and Spike being together just won't work out". If it weren't for you guys, I would never had been inspired to prove you wrong by creating this. Thanks! :D</p><p>Anyway, this is a cute romance fiction about my favorite - and really, the only normal - couple in Ponyville. Enjoy!</p> | teen | 2011-10-02T05:06:38+00:00 | 2011-10-02T05:06:38+00:00 | 4,792 | “So you ARE coming to Spike’s birthday party, right?” Twilight asked as Rarity took another measurement around her waist, who was fitting Twilight for a new outfit that she was having made for her graduation party at the beginning of next year.
“Of COURSE I am! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Rarity exclaimed after writing down this new measurement on her clipboard. “Hmph! I’m actually slightly insulted that you would ask something like that! I mean why WOULDN’T I be there, I’ve been there every year!”
Twilight laughed. “Well, good point. I was just making sure.”
Rarity crossed the room to her closet where she stored her rolls of fabric, carefully selecting a piece of cloth of the right length and color to begin in the making of Twilight’s gown. “Although, I’m not ENTIRELY sure what to get him… Hmm, what sort of things does he like? Has he shown any interests of late?”
“Actually, I was wondering if you could give him a little something… Special! You know, something personal, from the bottom of your heart.”
“Oh? DO tell.” Rarity raised a brow as she pulled on a roll of lavender-colored cloth, putting it back as she saw that it was too close to the color of Twilight’s body, and wouldn’t look good on her.
“I was wondering if you could give him a little piece of yourself, IF you know what I mean…”
Rarity dropped the roll that she had just pulled off the shelf and turned to Twilight, her jaw nearly touching the floor. “WHAT!? YOU want me to…. GIVE MYSELF to SPIKE!? Are you out of your MIND? I mean what do you mistake me for, some sort of PROSTITUTE!?”
Twilight’s face turned bright red in embarrassment. “No! No no no, NOTHING like that! Okay clearly you don’t know what I meant... I was just suggesting that you, you know, spend some time alone with him, and talk to him, that’s all! Trust me; I would never want you to do something like what you were thinking!”
“Ohhhh… Okay, THAT’S much more do-able.” Rarity said, sighing with relief. She thought about what Twilight suggested as she picked up and re-rolled the fabric she had dropped. With another sigh, she said “Oh, alright… I SUPPOSE that would be fine, but hear me now Twilight Sparkle! If he tries anything, I’m coming for you!” laughing as she said this last sentence.
Rarity played these events from the previous week back in her mind as she walked home to Carousel Boutique at three in the morning, actually somewhat glad that they had happened, and that Twilight Sparkle had given her this opportunity to be alone with Spike. She realized that, before tonight, she had never truly had any sort of… Connection with him in any way. Sure, they had been friends for the last four years, but she had avoided any sort of “alone time” with him, because, once again, she was afraid that he would do nothing but flirt. And she was INCREDIBLY surprised that he didn’t, because even the rest of the stallions in Ponyville that didn’t take as much of a liking to her as Spike would usually do little more than flirt with her. And because of this, she found that she had enjoyed her time tonight greatly. Just two good friends, talking on a personal level, expressing their feelings, and laughing together, as it should be.
“So how’d it go?”
Rarity jumped nearly a full foot into the air as Pinkie Pie exploded out of a bush along the road next to her. “PINKAMENA DIANE PIE! What have I told you about jumping out at ponies like that!? ESPECIALLY me! You KNOW I hate it when you do that! And what on Earth are you doing out here this late at night?”
Pinkie giggled and began hopping around Rarity in a circle. “That's not important. Now, tell me how it went! What’d you guys do? Was it nice? Tell me!”
“Tell you WHAT? What in Equestria are you talking about?”
“Your DATE! Silly goose!”
“Date? I didn’t go on a da-…” Rarity’s eyes widened and she blushed. “Umm... Are you referring to Spike and I?”
“Mmhm!” The pink pony grinned. “How’d it go? Tell me! Tell me tell me tell me!”
Rarity laughed. “Oh, Pinkie it wasn’t a date! He and I simply sat under the stars for a few hours and talked, that’s all!”
“What’d you guys talk about?” Pinkie said excitedly.
“Ohh, everything really. We talked about how our lives were going, our hobbies and interests, told jokes and had a good laugh or two, told stories, talked about each other, that sort of thing.”
“You mean everything that you talk about when you go on a date with someone?” Pinkie said with a giggle.
Rarity opened her mouth to speak in her defense, but found that she had nothing to say. “Well… I suppose if you look at it that way…”
Pinkie began bouncing in the air again. “OHHHHH I’m so happy for you! So, was he nice? Did you guys flirt a lot? OH! When do you plan on going on a date again?”
Rarity blushed and put her hooves on the shoulders of Pinkie to get her to stop bouncing. “Alright, that’s quite enough… YES, he was nice, as Spike usually is, and I do SUPPOSE you could say we ‘flirted’ a little bit…” She glanced away with a sheepish smile. “However, quite frankly I’m not sure if I plan on going on another date with him.”
“Awww, why not?” Pinkie asked, her huge smile vanishing.
Once again, Rarity wanted to give a reason, but nothing came to her mind. Pinkie Pie had a point; Rarity DID indeed enjoy herself tonight, and the more she thought about it, the more she knew that there really wasn’t any valid reason why she wouldn’t go on another “date” with Spike…
“You want to know something? You’re right, Pinkie Pie. Why NOT?”
Pinkie’s smile came back almost twice as large as it was when it had left. “Aww! That’s sooo sweet! So, when DO you guys plan on going out again?”
“Soon, I hope.” Rarity replied… And she meant it.
With another giggle, Pinkie said “Sounds good! Well, I’ll see you tomorrow Rarity. I better go, it’s getting late!”
GETTING late? It’s nearly morning already! She laughed. “Okay, Pinkie Pie. Take care now, darling!” She turned and was about to start walking away, when…
Wait a minute…
“Pinkie Pie… How ever did you know about me and Spike toni-…” Rarity turned, but she had already vanished.
Rarity found herself laughing. That pony… I swear, she stalks everyone!
She began thinking about the point that Pinkie Pie had made. She had gone on a date with Spike. She... Had gone on a date... With Spike. Although the idea seemed completely and utterly ridiculous at first, the more she thought of it, the more she found the notion... Appealing. This was almost hysterical to her; never in her lifetime did she think that she would find herself engaging in any sort of relations with the dragon past being a friend, let alone ENJOYING such relations. And true, she hadn't a problem in the world with him, he just didn't seem like the type of guy that she would be into. YET, here she was, thinking about him, not necessarily in a "romantic" way, but not quite in JUST a friendly way, either.
Come to think of it, she wasn't sure WHAT to think of him. Before tonight, she had thought of him as little more than just another guy in Ponyville that had a crush on her (one of many). But, after tonight, she found that - while he was still an incredible friend to her - he was the only boy in the whole town that seemed to be able to hold a steady conversation and not constantly stare and flirt, which was a nice change. Although it WAS indeed nice to have guys drooling over the ground she walked on, none of them seemed to be able to talk to her without either completely freezing up in fear of embarrassing themselves in front of her, or say something along the lines of "Oh Rarity, you're the most beautiful, most charming, most incredible unicorn ever...". And Spike was the only male she knew that COULD talk to her normally, which automatically made him more special than most of them.
But, there was something else about him... Something else that made him different... Something that made him stand out to her more than the rest, though she couldn't quite place a hoof on what it was.
She continued walking home in the dark, further and further away from the Ponyville library, Spike, and the new feelings she had discovered in him…
And closer and closer to Carousel Boutique, where she was sure to spend yet another sleepless night in the agonizing pain of her nightmarish past.
* * *
Rarity whimpered as her eyes flew open, gripped with terror, panting and in a cold sweat. She lay there staring at the ceiling for several minutes gasping for air, attempting to reassure herself that it was all just dreams and that none of it was reality. However, this was pointless, and she knew it was, because as much as she wanted to, there was just no way to block it out; the terrible things that were the subject of her nightmares HAD indeed happened, and although Rarity did her best to avoid this fact, she could do little more but just accept it, letting it out in the form of tears.
The pathetic-looking unicorn lay there for about ten minutes more before she reluctantly got up, heading for the kitchen, in search of the only thing that seemed to lesser the pain. She pulled open the door of the pantry, where she used her magic to quietly retrieve a bottle of it from the wine rack, and also fetching a small glass from one of the cabinets, she poured some of the dark red liquid into the glass. Though she never drank more than a glass or two at a time, she found that the wine offered a sort of an escape, something to dull her mind and thoughts, which seemed to take the edge off the memories, for the most part.
Using her levitation spell to carry the small glass of consolation with her, she returned to her room, still sniffling, and retrieved her portable CD player from her dresser. Using the same spell, she levitated the headphones over her head and onto her ears, and laid down on her bed, also using her magic to press the small grey buttons on the front of the device and make her selection. She came across her favorite artist, a pony named Elena Siegman, and let the music play, laying her head back onto the pillow behind her, and letting the wine and the music do their work.
As she sipped at her glass, she listened to the lyrics of the song, absorbing their meaning, and confiding with the writer. Although the lyrics left something to be interpreted, she took them as almost a personal message directed at her; Elena seemed angry about something or someone, as was Rarity, and would often express it in the form of gory or dark metaphors, such as "death is magic, so say Abracadavre now", and "your good life, it makes me sick, while all the screaming sounds like music." Rarity noted that Elena often would begin shouting and screaming seemingly out of nowhere, which is something Rarity wished she could do to let out a bit of the stress. However, such acts were considered "unbecoming", so these tunes were about as close as she could get to being able to let off steam.
This had become a nightly routine for her; in the past few months, she had started having nightmares about her utterly dreadful and revolting fillyhood. About her father, mother, her “friends”… All of it was just terrible, and she didn’t want to think of it. However, as much as she didn’t want to, her half-asleep mind slowly drifted into these thoughts, and there was nothing she could do but let her mind torture itself……
* * *
Rarity awoke to the sound of her alarm about an hour later. Eyes slowly peeling open, she managed a glance out the window, where the first rays of light were beginning to peek over the horizon. Morning… Already? She thought with a loud sigh. But she then remembered that she had only been home for a few hours as it was, because she had been with…
Spike……
She thought of him, and massive smile crossed her whole face. She had no idea why it took until now to see it, but she was glad that she finally did:
She had just realized what made him different all this time. She had just realized what she had discovered in him...
...She had just discovered why she was beginning to fall in love with Spike.
*End part two* |
Big-Mac-115 | 683 | 3 | Rarity,Spike,Dark,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Sex | A Change of Heart | Spike's 16th birthday began a turning point of not only his own life, but the one he loves most... | incomplete | 70 | 3 | <p>Sidenote: I appreciate the criticism I received prior to writing this from the people who said that it "couldn't be done", and that "Rarity and Spike being together just won't work out". If it weren't for you guys, I would never had been inspired to prove you wrong by creating this. Thanks! :D</p><p>Anyway, this is a cute romance fiction about my favorite - and really, the only normal - couple in Ponyville. Enjoy!</p> | teen | 2011-10-02T20:39:22+00:00 | 2011-10-02T20:39:22+00:00 | 4,412 | Spike walked with Applejack and Apple Bloom, across Sweet Apple Acres and out to the field where the new trees were to be planted, with unusual vigor and motivation. He was still thinking about last night with Rarity, and how incredible it felt to be able to talk to and connect to her like that, for he had never before had such an opportunity to be completely alone with her. Of course, it wasn’t unusual for his mind to wander to Rarity, but since the events of the previous night, he felt as if his feelings for her had renewed, maybe even intensified, and he wasn’t quite sure why. He had always loved her since the day they met, but it was that last night that he felt like they were meeting for the first time, like he had fallen for her all over again.
He wasn’t jumping to any conclusions, but the night before, he also felt a sort of… Connection, almost. Like, he had a feeling as if Rarity felt the same way about him, like he could actually have a chance with her.
Of course, the more he thought of it, the more he knew that was EXTREMELY unlikely. Seriously, RARITY and HIM? What could she possibly see in him, anyway? Why would she go for Spike, the goofy, sixteen-year-old dragon, when she had just about every option in the world, being so incredible in every way? He knew his chances were slim for a multitude of reasons, including these. But it had never stopped him from dreaming before, so why should it stop him now?
“Hold yer horses, Spike! Wait for us!” Applejack called from behind, and it wasn’t until now that he realized that he had gotten several meters ahead of the two ponies.
“Oh, hehe… Sorry AJ. I forget that I’m not as slow as I used to be anymore.” He stopped for a few seconds so that they could catch up.
“Pfft, I’ll say!” Apple Bloom laughed as she and AJ trotted up to him, and they continued forward to the outer fields of the farm, where today they were to plant a new shipment of apple trees that had just arrived the previous day. This was a regular sort of thing for them, as the trees died off naturally all the time, a dozen or so every month. So Spike figured it would be just the usual two or three dozen new trees to be planted, which was an easy job with the aid of Twilight’s magic, and the rest of the Apple family – including Apple Bloom, who was now able to work in a similar manner alongside her big brother and sister – and Spike’s newfound strength. Twilight had split up and gone with Big Macintosh to a field near the other end of the farm, dividing up into teams; so that Applejack, Spike and Apple Bloom could work together on this part of the farm; while Big Mac and Twilight worked near the other end, hopefully doing more work in less time.
They rounded the top of the last hill that stood between them and the field, and Spike’s jaw just about fell to the ground; before him stood at least three hundred fresh, unplanted trees, all stacked nice and neat in the clearing where they were to be put into the ground.
Applejack noted his facial expression and laughed. “Yup! That there’s about the biggest shipment o’ apple trees we ever had. Alot of the old ones that we already had died off a few months ago ‘cause o’ some disease or somethin’. That’s why we asked y’all to come down here an’ help us! We knew we wasn’t gonna be able to get all these in the ground on our lonesome!”
Ya THINK!? Spike’s pupils became tiny as he continued to scan over the unplanted forest of wood. Ughh, this is going to be a LOONNGGG day…
* * *
Spike exhaled a long sigh as he slid down into a sitting position against the tree he and Apple Bloom had just planted, the last one of the day. “Whew!” he exclaimed as he wiped his hand across his forehead, pulling it away slick with sweat. “Is this the kind of work you do all the time?”
“Well, sorta. We don’t normally do this much in one day, if that’s what yer askin’.” Apple Bloom panted, her coat also quite damp with sweat. It was nearly dusk now, and the sky was a bright shade of orange as Celestia’s sun continued its gradual decent behind the horizon.
“I sure hope not!” Spike's entire body felt weak.
“Believe me, I don’t think I’d want to be livin’ on this farm if we had to do this kinda work on a daily basis.” she said with a low chuckle.
“Boy, y’all look like ya just got done runnin’ a marathon!” Applejack said, approaching from several meters away, where she had just finished lowering the last of her share of the plants into the ground. Spike noticed that she didn’t seem the least bit tired at all.
“How aren’t YOU exhausted, Applejack? You did more work than we did!”
The orange pony laughed. “Ah’m used to this sorta thing by now. Ah do this all the time, an' one day, you will too, Apple Bloom!”
Apple Bloom’s eyes grew to the size of soccer balls.
Spike, too, was a bit taken aback by this statement. All day while he worked, he had been rethinking the whole thing about asking for employment here, realizing that, while he indeed may have the opportunity to do some cooking every now and then, he would be spending most of his time out here on the farm, doing THIS sort of labor. And after hearing what Applejack just said, he confirmed his decision: NOPE.
Applejack sighed, slightly offended at her sister's adverse reaction, but she understood all the same.“Well, ah know that ya may not like the idea NOW, but give it time. You'll find that ya love it out here, just like ah did." She looked up at the setting sun. "Ya should prob'ly be headin' back to the barn, Apple Bloom. Twi' an' Big Mac are waitin' for us, so tell 'em we'll be back in 'bout a half hour."
Apple Bloom nodded, and hastily turned and began to walk back to home. Spike was about to follow.....
"Ahem... I said WE. Spike, you stay here with me. There's still a couple more trees ah need yer help with."
"There's more? Oh JOY!!" he said as acerbically as possible, rolling his eyes.
Applejack smirked. "Do ah sense a bit o' sarcasm there, Spike?"
"Nope, I dunno what you're talking about" Spike teased.
"Good." AJ laughed, and began walking to the other side of the field. "Now get yer behind over here an' help me with these last five 'r six trees. Don't worry, won't take long."
With a sigh, he followed. The dragon honestly didn't know if he COULD do any more of this, he could barely lift his arms anymore as it was, let alone the heavy weight of the large, apple-bearing plants.
As the last of the trees came into sight - Applejack had under-exaggerated the amount once again, for there were a few dozen, rather than just the half-dozen that she had suggested - he took a deep breath, thinking about what always gave him his motivation: Rarity. For whatever reason, when he had her in mind, he felt as if he could take on the world with his bare hands.
So, with his head full of her, he went to the opposite end of the tree Applejack had stopped at, and re-enacted the same old routine: She tied her rope on the base the tree while he lifted the other end, and they dragged it over the the hole that had already been dug the previous day. With Spike still holding near the top, Applejack began lowering the base into the hole. As she did this, Spike pushed up on the tree with all his might, moving it into an erect position into the ground. Applejack untied the rope from the base and re-attached it near the midsection, Spike doing the same with another section of rope. They pushed and pulled in different directions until they both decided that the tree was, more or less, perpendicular to the ground. They repeated this process over and over, as they had been doing all day.
Spike's mind found itself playing through a particularly pleasing thought. He imagined him actually asking Rarity out on a date, and her accepting. He began having that same weird feeling in the pit of his stomach that, while once again his chances weren't great, he felt that maybe she did - or at least could, sometime in the future - like him back, and he could be with her. He was so wrapped up in these thoughts, however, that he had nearly abandoned the task at hand, and he found himself having to constantly be snapped back to reality by Applejack, who quickly grew tired of this.
"UGH! SPIKE!"
He shook his head. "Huh? Oh, ye- yeah... Sorry..." He stuttered and began to pull his end of the rope. "More this way? Or toward you?"
Applejack shook her head and spat the rope out of her mouth. "Listen, ah can't be doin' this if yer just gonna keep zonin' out into la-la land all the time like that. Got it?"
"Umm, yeah.... I'm sorry Applejack. It's just that... Meh, nevermind..."
She cocked a brow. "Never mind what? There sumthin' you wanna talk about?"
"Nah, don't worry about it. It's nothing, really."
"Horseapples. C'mon, you can talk to me about it. 'Sides, talkin' always makes you feel better." Her tone of annoyance quickly changed to a tone of sympathy, as she could tell that there was something on the young dragon's mind.
"Well, I guess" Spike sighed. "It's about Rarity."
"THERE'S a surprise. Never woulda guessed!" The orange pony laughed. "Anyway, what about her? Ah mean ah know y'all daydream about her nonstop, but ah aint never seen ya THIS absentminded. Is there somethin' wrong between y'all?"
"No, nothing like that. In fact, kinda the opposite. You see, after my birthday yesterday, she came back after the party just to say happy birthday to me, which I thought was nice. But not just that, the fact that she even did such a thing made me really happy, I mean, who else would do that? And it's not just that, either. She stayed afterward and we talked for a good three or four hours, maybe even longer. And I don't quite know how to describe this, but I also felt like there was something there in her, too. Like, it's obvious that I like HER, but at that time, it felt like SHE liked ME back. Like it was some feeling that came from my stomach, I can't really explain it. And the reason I've been slacking off - sorry about that again - is because I guess my mind is just freaking out over the idea that she might like me, too! Gosh, the more I talk the more ridiculous I sound, huh?"
Applejack was smiling. "Aww, that's might adorable! An' don't worry, ah understand that whole thing 'bout you not bein' able to concentrate on much. Ah know EXACTLY how ya feel. There's this one colt in town, and whenever ah get to thinkin' o' him, I either freeze up, 'r start gettin' all hyper-like. Just makes me giddy to mah stomach!" Her voice rose as she said this, and Spike knew she had to be thinking of said colt right now.
Applejack blushed and cleared her throat. "Anywho, if y'all really do feel that way 'bout her, you should say somethin'. Otherwise, nothin's ever gonna happen. And 'sides, even if she turns ya down, you can still say ya tried, and tryin' is 'bout the best you can do. Ya can't win if ya don't play the game."
You can't win if you don't play the game... Spike liked that. And Applejack had an incredibly good point. The least he could do was try. After all, she already knew he had a crush on her, EVERYONE did, so even if he did ask her on a date and she turned him down, what's the worst that could happen? They'd still be friends, and he's just be right where he was now, which wasn't exactly the MOST desirable option, but it wasn't a bad one, either.
"Huh... You're right, Applejack. Thanks for that! In fact, I think I might just go to her door right now and ask her!" He turned and was about to start running back toward Ponyville.
"Woah ho, hold yer horses, there, loverboy! You still gotta help me finish with these last trees here!"
"Oh yeah... Heh." He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
* * *
Spike had never been this nervous before.
As he walked through the streets of Ponyville, just after dusk, he felt as if he could throw up. Not literally of course, but this feeling resembled that of nausea, which he found odd, considering that he was so confident and excited just a few hours ago. Of course, he was still incredibly excited, but the feeling of confidence had been replaced with a feeling of OH JEEZ OH GOODNESS OH MY OH WHAT THE HECK AM I ABOUT TO DO.
He wasn't stopping now, though; he had a mission, and he was sticking to it. Though, the strategy he chose to accomplish said mission was sketchy at best, it was probably the most surefire way to test if Rarity did indeed have feelings for him as well. He was afraid that he was going to be MAJORLY overstepping his boundaries, however, as his "plan" involved him knocking on her door, her opening the door, and him planting a full-on kiss on the mouth right there. Plain, straightforward, and he figured that if that weird feeling in his gut was right, and she did indeed like him back, she would melt in his arms, and the universe would be perfect.
Of course the universe was NEVER perfect, and while these ideas seemed golden in his head, he wasn't sure how they would play out in reality. BUT, there was nothing else he could really think of: he had tried everything traditional to show affection - flowers, trying to impress her at every turn, occasionally flirting - to no avail. So, this was, more or less, the only option he saw left available to him.
So, he continued walking nervously, and about five minutes later, her house came into sight. He gulped and approached her door - once again playing out the plan in his mind and reassuring himself that he wasn't going to wimp out, and he was ACTUALLY going to do this - and knocked quietly. It wasn't TOO late, it couldn't have been past nine, but he didn't want to wake Sweetie Belle, just in case she was already asleep. He heard footsteps from the other side of the door, and took a deep breath, preparing himself. There was a click as the deadbolt turned over, the pony on the other side unlocking it, and the door began to open
Here goes nothing.....
It was a good thing Spike opened his eyes before he leaned forward and tried to kiss the pony standing there; it wasn't Rarity.
But..... it was Rarity.
Spike stood there in shock for a moment, trying to understand the sight before him: Rarity's coat was ruffed up and disheveled, and her makeup was smeared around and under her eyes, and it was obvious that she had been crying. And still was.
He stood there for a moment, too stunned to move. To think. To act. He had come here expecting the happy, proud, and glamorous Rarity that he knew and loved. But this. This was a side of the unicorn that he had never seen before.
And it about brought tears to his own eyes to see her like this.
* * *
Rarity's nightmares had taken an early hold on her mind this particular night, mostly due to the fact that she had gone to bed early. Her routine was under way; waking up in paralyzing fear, unable to move for several minutes; sneaking out into the kitchen to drink a glass of wine; listening to her music, the only thing that she thought could understand her; then finally, slowly drifting back to sleep, where hopefully, she wouldn't be disturbed by another nightmare for the rest of the night.
As she lay there in her bed, tears slowly leaking down her cheeks, she longed for one thing: someone she could talk to. This was a secret half of her life that no-one - not even Sweetie Belle - knew of... And it was killing her to hold it back like this. She WANTED to be able to talk to one of her friends about this, but she was terribly afraid to, not because she was afraid of being judged as "insane" or "crazy" or "pathetic" by everyone - although that would probably happen, too - but mostly because she was afraid it would hurt them as well to learn about this terrible secret.
About thirty minutes passed, and the effects of getting only three hours of sleep the previous night began to take hold. She was nearly asleep, when a rap on the door brought her back to consciousness.
Who could possibly be here at this hour? She thought, but then remembered that it wasn't all that late, probably no more than nine or ten. She peeled herself out of the bed with a sniffle, and realized that whoever was here was going to see her in this broken state. But she hardly cared. The sooner she answered the door, the sooner whomever that was there would leave, and the sooner they would be out of her hair. She walked quietly across the house and to the front door, where she opened it to find probably the last person she would have expected to be there.....
.....But she couldn't have been happier to see him.
"Spike!" She shouted and threw herself into his arms, and began weeping again.
"R-... Rarity? W- what's wrong? Are you okay?" He stuttered, a shocked expression on his face, unable to understand what was going on.
"No. No I am not okay." She admitted. And this was the first time she had admitted it.
"Then whats wrong? Why are you so upset? Did someone hurt you?" He struck a defensive stance and glanced around, gripping her closer to him.
This pleased Rarity, to be here in his arms, it felt as if her problems were - although not gone entirely - significantly less intimidating. "No, nobody's hurt me... Well, actually, I suppose in a way, yes, but..." Saying this, she knew she was going to have to explain herself.
But she didn't mind. At least not to Spike. In fact, she would rather explain herself to him than anyone else that she knew. So with a sniffle, she took a deep breath, and said "Spike, come inside, please.. I want-... No, I NEED to talk to you." She looked up into his eyes, and saw that a few tears of his own had formed.
So, reluctantly pulling herself off of him, she began to walk back toward her room, Spike following close behind. She closed the door to her room behind them, and lay back on her bed, instructing Spike to lay beside her. He did, seemingly still too confused to do anything but simply oblige by what she said, and Rarity pulled herself over to him, wrapping her hooves around his body and laying her head upon his chest.
With tears still flowing down her face, she began to annotate the gruesome tale of her childhood, nightmares, and generally everything that she had been keeping stashed away to herself for so long.....
......Only, this time, her tears weren't as much of sadness, but rather relief.
*End part three* |
Big-Mac-115 | 683 | 4 | Rarity,Spike,Dark,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Sex | A Change of Heart | Spike's 16th birthday began a turning point of not only his own life, but the one he loves most... | incomplete | 70 | 3 | <p>Sidenote: I appreciate the criticism I received prior to writing this from the people who said that it "couldn't be done", and that "Rarity and Spike being together just won't work out". If it weren't for you guys, I would never had been inspired to prove you wrong by creating this. Thanks! :D</p><p>Anyway, this is a cute romance fiction about my favorite - and really, the only normal - couple in Ponyville. Enjoy!</p> | teen | 2011-10-06T03:47:53+00:00 | 2011-10-06T03:47:53+00:00 | 7,132 | Every muscle in Spike's body was as tense as could be, out of both shock and concern. He still wasn't sure how he should be reacting to this situation.
He had come here tonight expecting the proud, happy, and high-chinned Rarity that he knew and loved. But instead, he found a weeping, helpless, and what appeared to be broken-spirited mare, which was saddening, because he hated to see her in such a weak and helpless state, but he was also mildly disappointed as well; he was hoping that he would have had the chance to kiss her and ask her on a date. He cursed himself for thinking this, knowing that his own wants should be the LAST thing on his mind, and he quickly banished these thoughts.
Part of him was angry as well, because when he asked Rarity if someone had hurt her, she replied "in a way, yes". This was reason enough for him to assume the worst, and though he wasn't entirely sure what she meant, his protective instincts took hold, and he gripped her tightly as she continued to to cry upon his chest, thinking of what was going to happen to the person that hurt her if he discovered them. He greatly anticipated the explanation she promised, hoping to ease his nerves, but he could tell that Rarity wouldn't be able to speak clearly right now, even if she wanted to; the constant flow of her tears running across his chest made that much obvious. As worried and anxious as Spike was, the last thing he wanted - and the last thing she needed - was to put pressure on her or make her feel uncomfortable, so he continued to allow her to release whatever was causing her sadness until she was done, holding back tears of his own.
He remembered that he had promised Twilight Sparkle that he'd be back home by midnight at the latest, but that was the least of his concerns anymore. She needs me right now, and Twilight is gonna have to deal with it. He had no intention of leaving unless Rarity forced him out the door herself, which he knew wasn't going to happen, so he pretty much had no intention of leaving at all. So, knowing that he was going to be here awhile, he pulled Rarity tighter into his arms and laid his head on hers, stroking her mane and comforting her until she regained her composure.
Her whimpers became less and less frequent as time progressed, and about an hour later, they pretty much had stopped all together. She lay peacefully there on his chest, her front leg still wrapped around his body, completely motionless except for her steady breathing. He couldn't see her face, so he couldn't be sure if she was sleeping or not, but it was safe enough to assume she was, considering that she hadn't made a sound in several minutes. Well, so much for explaining what's upsetting her... But, once again, he knew it was selfish to think in this way. She had obviously been through a lot, and she needed to sleep, to recharge both her mind and body.
Suddenly, Rarity drew in a deep sigh. "Spike... I have never before told anypony what I am about to tell you. And I would like to keep it that way. I trust you with every fiber of my being, and I know that you can keep a secret, but you must PROMISE not to tell anyone, alright?" Her head was still curled up into Spike's chest, so he couldn't see her facial expression, but there was a palpable severity in her voice.
"Yes, of course. I promise."
She sighed again. "Well, I am not entirely sure how or where I should begin this... I suppose 'twould be best if I started with the whole ordeal with Sweetie Belle's birth...
"I was a mere ten years old, and, as I'm sure you could guess, I was just ecstatic with the idea of being an older sister. I had always dreamed of having someone that I could play with, someone to dress up in all kinds of outfits, someone to talk to and share a laugh with, you get the idea. Well, the day was to be both the happiest, and saddest day of my life so far.
"'Twas was early that morning, and I remember waiting anxiously in the lobby of the hospital, waiting to to see my mother and my new baby sister. My father said that she was in "labor", and thought I was not sure what that meant - or what it entitled - at the time, I had a pretty good idea. While I was simply giddy with joy, my father wasn't so much; he disliked the idea of having another filly. Even though he "loved" me, he never necessarily "liked" me, so the notion of having another, younger version of me in the house wasn't something he accepted fondly. However, I didn't know that much at the time, so I sat there, happy as ever, thinking that it wouldn't be long before our family grew to a family of four....
"I was mistaken. JUST when everything seemed to be going well, I heard one of the doctors shout over the intercom that he 'needed IMMEDIATE emergency teams to Sapphire Star's room' followed by several more orders that I don't recall. Although I didn't know for the most part what they were speaking of, I understood two things: Sapphire Star, which was my mother's name; and the word 'emergency'. When I put the two together, I began to worry profusely, as you can imagine, and seeing that my father was also beginning to panic, I only grew MORE frightened.
"Several minutes passed, but it felt like several hours to me. Not much was happening in the lobby at that time, which seemed to make it worse. In my young mind, I envisioned every nurse, doctor, and surgeon in the hospital gathered around my mother in her room, trying to treat some horrible complication that might have come up. In a way, my mind was right; although, of course, not EVERYONE in the hospital was there in her room, but there was indeed a dreadful catch in the procedure.
"It wasn't much longer before a surgeon ran into the waiting room, and began talking to my father and I, informing us of what the problem was. We were told that Sweetie Belle's umbilical cord had gotten wrapped around her neck, and was choking to death as she was begin birthed, suffocating on the very thing that had kept her alive up til that point. This, however, I DID understand, and now that I had a clue as to what was going on, I became more worried than ever, and I hardly thought that was possible. Was Sweetie Belle going to be okay? Was my mother going to be okay? I asked my father these questions, but he merely shrugged me off of him, as he normally did. After a few more minutes, I could tell that the suspense was quickly becoming too much to bear, so he told me sternly to stay put, and that he was going to my mother's room to see if she was alright. Of course, he wanted to see if SHE was alright, he could hardly care less about little Sweetie.
"Not that he was much company to begin with, but in his absence, the loneliness and lack of knowledge of what was going on in that room made me sick to my stomach. I began crying, telling myself that everything was going to turn out just fine, and that both Sweetie and my mother would be okay. I was probably crying for about a half-hour before a felt a presence beside me. Looking up, I saw one of the doctors sitting there, a grave expression on his face. He put his hooves around me and hugged me tightly, and I knew whatever he had to say couldn't be good. And it wasn't.
"I learned that, in order to save Sweetie Belle, they practically had to gut my mother. The saddest part is, that my mother knew this, and she more or less ORDERED the doctors to murder herself in order to save Sweetie." Rarity's tone stiffened. "Spike, do you know the amount of bravery that must have taken? Knowing you had to die to save the life of another?" She asked rhetorically.
Spike had nearly forgotten Rarity was talking. It didn't feel like he was listening to a story, rather he felt like he was ACTUALLY there, in Rarity's place, feeling the same pain and fear she must have felt. And really, in a way, he was feeling the same pain; this was something he never could have guessed about either Rarity or her little sister. Rarity's mother had died in labor with Sweetie Belle... The thought was sickening, for the little white filly had practically become like his own sister. It was almost as if he was learning this about a member of his own family, like he was learning that Twilight had nearly died, only to be saved by the mother he never had donating their life to her.
Rarity sighed. "Well, now that you have THAT background knowledge, I suppose that brings me to the 'main point' so to speak..."
THAT was just background knowledge? Spike cringed in fear of what might come next, if that was comparably just "background knowledge". |
uSea | 685 | 1 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Spike,Comedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Twilight October | And then Twilight was a submarine. | complete | 349 | 3 | <p>Can the Twilight October evade the clutches of the Equestrian navy and bring glory to the Motherland?</p><p>When trust is betrayed and ideals are discarded, does the Twilight October have what it takes to survive?</p><p>Also, Pinkie is a shark.</p> | everyone | 2012-01-07T18:31:51+00:00 | 2012-01-07T18:31:51+00:00 | 5,689 | Twilight's horn glowed softly, casting a dim purple light which barely illuminated the pillows around her. She felt a familiar weight on her back shift as Spike leant forward.
"Should I take a look topside?" he whispered. Twilight twisted her neck so she could see her passenger.
"Not yet Spike, they could be right above us," she replied in a similarly hushed tone.
"Wouldn't we have heard something if they were that close?"
"Maybe, but we can't take that risk. The Motherland cannot afford for us to fail."
Spike broke into a salute, knocking his ushanka askew. The hat was several sizes too big for him, and he was wearing it more with his spikes than his head, but it did go very well with his moustache.
They both looked up as the faint sound of 'Toot toot' came from somewhere ahead of them. It sounded like Fluttershy.
"Sonar's getting something," Spike said quietly.
Twilight nodded and they both strained their ears as another voice came wafting down from above. The meaning of the words were lost in the pillows but Applejack's accent was unmistakable. Twilight grinned.
"Spike, get the periscope ready," she said, lowering her neck so the dragon could climb onto her head. Twilight looked down at the pink tail that poked out from between the pillows in front of her and gave it a tug. The head of Pinkie Pie emerged.
"Orders, Cap'n?" said Pinkie, in an accent Twilight couldn't quite place.
"Flood tube one and prepare to fire."
"Aye aye!" Pinkie gave a quick salute and sank back into the pillows, leaving a single ear protruding.
Twilight didn't ask about the eye patch. Or the plastic hook.
"Up periscope."
Spike kept his balance as Twilight raised her head, allowing him to just barely breach the surface.
"Applecarrier at 7 o'clock, 6 meters ahead. Not moving. Fluttership at 1 o'clock, 7 meters ahead. Also not moving."
"Did you get that, Pinkie?" Twilight asked the pink ear, which wiggled in response.
"Target the Applecarrier. Get ready... fire!"
- - -
A short time earlier, on the surface.
"Toot toot!" Fluttershy cried out, enthusiastically.
"Fluttershy! You're supposed to be the battleship," said Applejack.
"Oh... um... I thought I was a tug boat..."
"Sorry sugercube, but a tugboat has no place in a combat area." Fluttershy's face fell.
Fleet Admiral Angel, resplendent in his bicorne hat, gave Applejack a reproachful look. "Err... I guess you can still go 'toot toot' if you like." Angel's flagship brightened up immediately.
"Yay!" Fluttershy cheered, shortly before adding: "toot toot!" The white rabbit sitting on her head nodded approvingly.
Smiling, Applejack turned back to survey the sea of pillows before her, searching for any signs of disturbance.
"RainbowHawk," she called out. "You see anything?"
"Nothing yet..." Dash trailed off. Something had caught her eye. "There!" she said, pointing ahead. "Periscope spotted!"
Applejack turned to relay the news, but was interrupted by Pinkie Pie, who erupted out of the pillows beside her and tackled her to the ground.
"Consarn it! I've been hit," said Applejack, fighting back laughter as she attempted to ward off the giggling pink pony and her relentless tickling. It was a losing battle. "Fluttership, I need help!"
"Oh dear, oh dear," said Fluttershy, moving to help her stricken ally. As she approached, Pinkie leapt off of Applejack and dove back into the pillows, quickly becoming submerged once again.
Above them, Rainbow Dash had zeroed in on the periscope sighting and went into a rapid dive as it began sinking below the surface. Dash completely disappeared beneath the pillows, emerging a short time later with a dragon's tail in her mouth. The rest of the dragon, now dangling upside down, seemed to have something to say about this arrangement and was squirming rapidly, trying to break free.
"Dag itf!" Rainbow said, with a mouth full of dragon. "I waf hoping tu cafch Twfiligh!"
"Release me you capitalist pig-dog!" cursed Spike in a terrible Russian accent. With one hand keeping his hat from falling off, the other joined his legs in their wild flailing.
Rainbow Dash transferred her hold on Spike's tail to her hooves so she could speak clearly.
"You're our prisoner of war now and you had better start giving us information!"
"I know nothing of which you speak, I am but a simple fisherman," Spike replied defiantly.
"Then what were you doing under the water?" Rainbow inquired.
"That is where the fish live."
Rainbow scowled, this wasn't getting anywhere.
"I'm takin' you back to the fleet. Maybe you'll be in a more helpful mood there."
Spike said nothing, and tried to look dignified as he was flown to Applejack and Fluttershy.
"Well what do we have here?" said Applejack, who had one front leg around Fluttershy's neck to keep herself 'afloat'.
"I caught Twilight's periscope," said Rainbow, "but he's insisting that he's just a..." she trailed off.
"Simple underseas fisherman," finished Spike.
"Simple underseas fisherman," repeated Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes.
"Oh my, that sounds awfully dangerous," said Fluttershy, moving towards their captive.
"Umm..." the dragon began.
"Must get pretty cold," Applejack chimed in.
"Well..."
"Wouldn't it be nice to have a warm snugly bed to go to?" said Fluttershy, sweetly.
"I guess..."
"And all the apples you could eat," said Applejack.
"Hmm..." Spike said and glanced towards the basket of apples that Applejack had brought for them to eat. They had been playing for a while and he was getting hungry...
"You could travel from place to place without needing any papers," said Rainbow.
"No papers?" Their offer was a tempting one, but he had his pride.
"Ha!" Spike cried out, accent in full swing. "I see through your feeble attempts to make me defect! I will never follow your decadent Equestrian ways! I will never betray the Motherland!"
"Fine!" said Applejack. "But I've got a quick question. What do I do now I've been sunk?"
"Oh," Spike replied, dropping his accent. "Well now you're a little recon boat. So you can still help find Twilight, but you're not allowed to catch her yourself."
"Got it," said Applejack who grinned as she turned towards Fluttershy. "There's only one thing left to do with the prisoner now."
"We tried to be nice Spike, but you've left us no choice," said Fluttershy, sadly.
"Wait, you can't possibly mean to—" Spike was abruptly cut off by Rainbow Dash's yell.
"Special Agent Rarity!"
"What do you need RainbowHawk?" came the voice of the unicorn on the balcony above them.
"Got a prisoner that needs interrogating," said Dash. "He's being real uncooperative."
"Oh I found just the thing! A lovely set of long-feathered quills," said Rarity as she trotted down the stairs. Spike dropped his hat.
"You can't do this! Tickling a POW breaks international treaties!" Spike cried out, struggling anew.
"But Spike, you said it yourself. You're just a fisherman," said Applejack, moving towards him with a rope to tie the captive.
"Oh," was all he could manage as a reply.
- - -
Behind the Equestrian fleet, unseen and unnoticed, the Twilight October and Torpedo No2 had breached the surface. Together they saluted as they watched Spike being led away.
"Today we mourn the loss of comrade Spike," Twilight began. "We shall remember his bravery and devotion to the cause. His strength of will in the face of certain temptation will inspire generations to come. And today we shall honour him by emerging triumphant over the Motherland's enemies!" Pinkie nodded in agreement.
"They are complacent in their minor victory. Distracted. Take note of the Fluttership's position, she is their only major vessel remaining."
"Aye aye," replied Pinkie Pie.
"Submerge and prepare to fire," ordered Twilight. Both ponies sank down into pillows until no sign of them remained.
"Toot toot!" |
uSea | 685 | 2 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Spike,Comedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Twilight October | And then Twilight was a submarine. | complete | 349 | 3 | <p>Can the Twilight October evade the clutches of the Equestrian navy and bring glory to the Motherland?</p><p>When trust is betrayed and ideals are discarded, does the Twilight October have what it takes to survive?</p><p>Also, Pinkie is a shark.</p> | everyone | 2012-01-06T22:07:59+00:00 | 2012-01-06T22:07:59+00:00 | 6,517 | "Permission to ask where Spike is, cap'n?"
"Err," said Twilight, pushing a pillow out of the way so she could see her pink companion. "Permission granted."
"Where's Spike?"
"He said he had a tummy ache so he wouldn't be joining us today."
"Aww, that's too bad. I finally found a hat just like his," said Pinkie Pie. "And what'll you do without a periscope?"
Twilight grinned. “With Spike's help I've come up with a new kind of under-pillow sonar; I can send out a tiny wave of magic that will bounce off of ponies and tell me where they are.”
“Ooo, clever! Try it now, try it now!”
“Okay,” said Twilight, and her horn glowed a little brighter as she began to concentrate.
Pinkie wiggled in anticipation. “What does it say?”
“Their surface vessels are scattered, this should work to our advantage. I'll check again to see if they're moving.” Twilight's horn flared. “Oh?” she said. “They've all gotten closer...”
“What's wrong cap'n?”
Her magic pulsed out a third time. “This is bad, they're almost on top of us! It’s like they’re able to track my sonar somehow...”
Pinkie began to shake Twilight by the shoulders, completely breaking her chain of thought.
“What are we gonna do Twilight? I know I won't be able to hold up under interrogation; I'll sing like a birdy! One little feather and I'll be telling them all of the secret songs I've been working on! And then it'll be all my secret jokes, and then all my secret pranks, and then—”
“Comrade Pie!”
Pinkie released Twilight, although it took several seconds for her to stop shaking.
“By now they'll be surrounding us, but you can still escape; it's me they're after.”
“I can't abandon my captain!” said Pinkie.
“Don't worry, I've got a very important mission for you... Sputnik-Pie.”
- - -
“Come on out Twi', we've got you surrounded.”
Rainbow Dash pulled her head out of the pillows. “Pinkie Pie is on the move!”
“What about Twilight?” asked Applejack.
“Didn't hear anything from her, she must still be there.”
“Then Pinkie's a distraction. Eyes on the prize, ladies.”
Rainbow nodded in agreement; this was the closest they had come to defeating the Twilight October, and she wasn't about to mess up this opportunity by chasing a burrowing pink pony.
Applejack brought her head closer to the pillows. “Don't make us come down there!”
The area that the friends had surrounded began to move. Twilight was surfacing.
“All right, you got me,” Twilight said as she finished extracting herself from the pillows. “So what are you going to— Rarity?!”
“Were you not expecting to see me on the ground, as it were?” answered the impeccably groomed unicorn.
“Well, no... you never were before. I mistook you for Fluttershy with my sonar.”
“Ahh, we wanted to mix things up a little. It wouldn't be fun if you won every time.”
Twilight nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Also, Fluttershy wanted to try being a rescue helicopter,” Rarity said, nodding her head towards the yellow pegasus as she did so.
Fluttershy was a little further back from the main group. Angel and Gummy were taking it in turns to dive off of her head and onto the pillows where they would flounder around, pretending to be lost at sea. Fluttershy would then hover down and extract them from their soft, cushiony fate.
“And this time,” Rarity continued, “we have a secret weapon.” She turned side-on to Twilight, revealing her passenger who had previously been obscured behind her mane.
“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Pryvet, comrade,” said Spike, his accent having slightly improved over time.
“Well that explains how Rarity was able to track my new sonar... but how could you betray the Motherland like this, former comrade Spike? You believed in the cause more than any of us; without you She would have already fallen.”
“She has already fallen, Twilight. Zhe Motherland zhat we fought to protect abandoned us and her own values long ago. Too many of Her sons and daughters have been lost in zhese meaningless conflicts. Is it wrong to seek an end to zhis bloodshed? To wish for zhis war to be over?”
“No battle is meaningless that is fought to protect our freedom,” Twilight retorted.
“And were we free Twilight? Were we free to meet with friends without rousing suspicion? Were we free to visit our own home towns without identity papers and checkpoints? Were we free to read a book zhat wasn't on zhe preapproved list?
“No, Twilight. We could do none of zhese zhings. We did not have freedom. We fought for a paradise of the proletariat, an end to the exploitation carried out by zhe bourgeoisie. Instead her people live in poverty, exploited now by the corrupt bureaucrats and officials zhat were put in place to protect zhem.”
“So you claim your actions are for the people?”
“No, Twilight. I wish my defection had such a noble cause, but my motivation was purely selfish.
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“Rarity let me ride around on her back.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. Suddenly, she smiled. “So you think you have won?”
“Well, a'course. We captured ourselves the dreaded Twilight October,” said Applejack.
“Oh, we'll see about that,” replied Twilight. “Strike from the sky, comrades!”
Three little ponies leapt off of the balcony above them.
“CUTIEMARK CRUSADER COSMONAUGHTS! YAY!”
-
“We got 'em, we got 'em!” said Sweetie Belle from on top of her sister.
“Yes. You did,” said Rarity, having been flattened onto the pillows by the impact. She was propping her head up with her hoof. Spike had managed to throw himself free before becoming a dragon sandwich.
“Okay, that was a pretty cool entrance,” Rainbow admitted, trying to extract herself from Scootaloo.
“Really?!?” asked the orange filly.
“Sure kiddo.” Rainbow tapped the plastic bowl Scootaloo was wearing on her head. “But I don't think much of this thing.”
“That's my helmet. Pinkie Pie said we needed them to breath in space.”
Rainbow chuckled.
Apple Bloom was spinning around on Applejack's back, trying get a look at her own flank. “Didwegetourcutiemarks, didwegetourcutiemarks?!?”
“I sure hope you don't get a 'jumpin' on your sister cutiemark'.”
Their helmets prevented the cutiemark crusaders from checking their own flanks, so they checked each others.
“Awww,” they said together.
Twilight beamed at them. “You did a great job, comrades. The Motherland is lucky to have you.”
“Always happy to help, Twilight,” said Apple Bloom.
“Does this mean we win?” asked Scootaloo.
Applejack got to her feet, which made Apple Bloom wobble trying keep her balance. “Now hold on just fer a minute. We aint’ out of this yet, we've still got Fluttershy. She could... wait... is that a fin poking out between those pillows?”
Seven ponies and a dragon turned to look at where Fluttershy was standing.
“Ummm...?” said Fluttershy
“RAAWR!” said Pinkie Pie, roaring in precisely the way a shark doesn't.
The pink pony exploded out of the pillows, latching onto Fluttershy and dragging her beneath the surface before the onlookers even had a chance to blink.
Fluttershy's terrified “Eeeeeeek!” faded rapidly, as she was taken to the dark, downy depths.
Spike broke the silence. “Just when you thought it was safe to go back to bed...”
“Okay, now ya' win.” |
Ganymede | 686 | 1 | DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Soarin,Spike,Spitfire,Trixie,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Twilight's Horn | One of Twilight's Spells goes horribly wrong! | complete | 184 | 11 | <p>When one of Twilight's spells goes horribly wrong, the implications prove disastrous. Her horn is damaged, one of her friends is sorely affected, and the rest of Ponyville may be at great risk. It's now up to Twilight to figure out how to fix everything before it's too late.</p> | teen | 2011-11-01T19:55:40+00:00 | 2011-11-01T19:55:40+00:00 | 12,157 | I
The Spell on the Hill
Ponyville's town square bustled with energy and activity as ponies gathered for meals and entertainment. Colorful displays of umbrellas blossomed over lunch tables, surrounded by giggling and gossiping ponies. Others slouched on park benches, their eyes lazily wandering over some of the fountains. At one end, ponies crowded so closely their hides touched, window shopping the marketplace carts as they bargained over the fresh picks of the day.
At the opposite end, Twilight Sparkle trotted forward, trying and failing to focus on a hill beyond the square. Her head was bowed, body weighed down by her saddle bags, mumbling to herself as she walked.
"It's okay," she said to herself. "It's not your fault. He'll get over it. Just give it time."
Spike had always been rather subdued about his infatuation with Rarity. Of course, it was always painfully obvious how he felt whenever he was around her, but he still at least liked to pretend that his feelings were concealed.
As of a few days ago, however, Spike had started openly swooning in the library. Why he had started acting like this was still a complete mystery. Perhaps Rarity gave him another gemstone, or another tie. Perhaps he had found a book in the library on unicorns, and read something about their relationship with dragons. Whatever the reason, all it meant to Twilight was an added irritation to her studies. She couldn't quite remember how it happened, but somehow Twilight's exasperated attempt at quieting him down had gotten a little out of hand, and Twilight's chiding was soon directed at a sulking and sobbing baby dragon.
Of course, that was a few days ago, and Spike had calmed down since then. Twilight had tried and failed many times to break the ice since their argument, and could tell he wasn't quite healed. She kept telling herself that this would all blow over with time. After all, he was only a baby. Babies get upset about things all the time, right? They cry, they sulk, they throw tantraums, and then they get over it. Twilight just needed to give him time, right?
Regardless, Twilight was finding it difficult to get off her mind. She had hoped that simply getting out of the library for a while would help, but unfortunately it only prompted her to think about it even more.
Her mumbling continued as she headed up the path, looking but not seeing as a she approached a hooded figure up ahead. It wasn't until Twilight was right next to the figure that she recognized the distinctive way her hooves propelled her forward.
"Zecora?" She stopped mumbling and looked at the equine, hoping she wasn't mistaken.
The figure stopped her ritualistic walk, lowering her hood to reveal the striped face and bristling mohawk of her Zebra friend.
"Twilight Sparkle by my side? Come to join me as I stride!" Her warm eyes welcomed her companion.
"Zecora!" Twilight perked up, "It is you! I had a feeling it might be. I'm assuming you're here to get more supplies?"
Both turned and walked towards the marketplace as Zecora continued. "Seeds to sow and food to stock, to the marketplace I walk."
"Well, that answers that question. Anything in particular this time?" she said.
"There is little that I seek that is worthy of a peek" Then, turning to look back at Twlight, "But while my tasks might be bland, I'd like to hear what you have planned."
"Me?" Twilight thought, forcing Spike out of her mind. "Well, I was just, um, on my way to practice a spell," she said meekly. "You know. Just standard stuff here. Nothing special." This was almost true. It was, indeed, a rather special spell, but Twilight wasn't keen on drawing attention to herself.
Zecora could sense Twilight's worried thoughts, but thought it best not to intrude. She turned and smiled instead, eyes piqued with interest. "Magic my friend has to cast. For what purpose, might I ask?"
Twilight turned her head and gave a nervous laugh. "Well, if you really must know, Ponyville is hosting a wedding in a few weeks and they asked me if I could create some fireworks during the reception. They're unicorns, so they want a lot of stuff done with magic. They said it's kind of a big deal...ya know...to have me there..." She trailed off with a blush as she turned to gaze at the hill. "I've...well...it's my first wedding. I don't really know the couple that well. But, you know, it's the whole town, everypony's invited..." she trailed off, looking up at Zecora. "You don't have anything like that where you're from, do you?"
Zecora gazed ahead again as she thought. "Love and passion are complex: never quite what one expects. We praise it much in my homeland, and cherish each and every strand."
"Oh?" she said, seeing an opportunity to steer things away from her. "How so?"
Zecora smiled. "Rites and spells and customs play a role in nearly everyday. Simple remedies and brews to shape the lives that we pursue." Her eyes glowed as she continued. "Love especially plays a role in our culture, you should know. We have our own spells for that too, and they can be of use. It's true."
"Spells? Really?!" Twilight felt an unexpected surge of excitement upon hearing that word. "You mean you have magic for stuff like this? Like, actual, real magic?!" Her eyes went wide at the possibilities. She had never quite considered Zecora being able to cast spells. "Oh, wow. That's...that's amazing! I wonder if - Wait!" she said, turning towards her. "Could you teach me? I'd love to learn some new ma-"
"Do not misinterpret me" she interrupted, the warmth in her eyes diminishing as she turned to gaze at Twilight. "We take things more seriously."
"Zecora, I didn't mean like that. I always take things-"
"Spells and incantations can affect a being for a span," she continued. "Never underestimate how feelings change through magic's gate." She leaned forward. "It is inadvisable to toy with things this volatile."
"What are you trying to say, Zecora? I learn new spells all the time! Magic is part of who I am!" Twilight raised her voice without realizing it.
"True. I've heard much accolade, and I have yet to be dismayed. However, that is not to say you'll never find yourself astray. Caution I must then confide, should you choose to not abide." She leaned in as she spoke the last words softly, "You might just be surprised to find another to yourself entwined."
Twilight's breath caught as these words passed through her ears. Her head spun as she tried to work out what Zecora was trying to say. "What? Entwined? What do you mean, entwined? What are you..."
"You know exactly what I fear," she said in the same hushed voice. "Think, and it will be quite clear."
Twilight let the words simmer in her mind. "Another...entwined..." Twilight thought. "Another...pony? Wait, you don't mean you..." Twilight looked up at her, hoping it wasn't what it sounded like.
Zecora nodded, making Twilight's eyes go wide. Zecora leaned in some more and whispered. "Do not speak of this offhand, for it is sacred to our land." She pulled back, eyes gleaming. Twilight couldn't tell whether they glowed in warning or insight.
"Why are you telling me this?"
Zecora gave a hint of a smile. "My purpose is to prevent harm, not to simply cause alarm. I warn you not to meddle much. You might could find yourself - " Zecora stopped short. She looked around and noticed a few ponies who had apparently stopped to listen. Her smile faltered. "I've said too much, now I must go." She lifted a hoof before taking off. "Kwaherini ya loe!"
Twilight watched as Zecora trotted into the distance, disappearing into the crowd of the marketplace. "Well, that was interesting," she said to herself, shaking her head as she faced the hill again. "Was she really saying what I thought she was saying?"
She trotted forward again, her mind pulled towards the library, but stuck on Zecora's words. Curiosity trumped guilt as she considered exactly what Zecora's people would use that kind of spell for. Her culture was just so different than anything around here.
Twilight was forced back into reality by a large burst just inches away from her. "Rarity!" Twilight jumped back, startled at her friend's sudden appearance out of thin air.
A dazed face with singed waves of purple hair looked around, tiny whiffs of smoke fizzling from her mane. She sighed exhaustedly upon seeing Twilight. "Oh, good! It worked." She glanced at the ground. "For once..."
"Rarity! I can't believe it!" Twilight gasped. "You actually learned to teleport!" Twilight recalled Rarity borrowing that book from her library ages ago.
Rarity waved her hair around, trying to hide the scorch marks as she turned towards the hill. "Here, walk with me," she said. The crowd had diminished and almost disappeared as commercial structures turned to residential.
Rarity turned her baggy eyes towards her. "Twilight, dear, let me tell you. This magic stuff is simply driving me mad. I honestly don't know how you do it! I mean, sure I've always been able to bat my eyes and make miracles happen, but when it comes to magic..." She glanced at Twilight, and sighed. "Oh, some days I'm not sure how I'm going to get by. My business really needs this!"
"Your...business?" Twilight trotted up beside her. "You know, you never exactly told me why you needed that book. Why do you need to teleport, anyway?"
Rarity strained her face, holding back a sarcastic glance. She countered it with a fake smile and laugh.
"Oh, Twilight, you silly mare. You ask that like I intend to teleport around the carousel!" She flicked her hair, accidentally revealing a few singed hairs. "I need to commute, dear. You see, there's this...this client in Canterlot who wants to work closely with me next week. I practically need to be there every day. But unfortunately I simply can't leave my carousel. There's simply too much to do! My entire business could be at stake!” She looked at Twilight again, who was staring in amazement. “This was simply too big an offer to pass up. And, while magic really isn't my thing, at this point it's practically the only option I have." She let out a breath as she trudged up the hill.
"Well," Twilight responded, "I think you should be quite proud of yourself, Rarity. Now you can go anywhere you want!"
Rarity shot her a look. "Oh, yes, if only it was that simple," she said sarcastically. "Obviously, Canterlot doesn't let you appear just anywhere. I mean, imagine if Princess Celestia simply let anyone teleport inside the castle!"
Twilight opened her mouth, but couldn't quite think of anything to say to this. She had never exactly asked about this stuff back when she lived there.
Wildlife now swept around them, scattered trees standing on uneven ground as whistling wind and singing birds replaced the sounds of conversing from the town. Their coats were now brushed with the web-like umbra of the overhead tree branches.
"I apologize if I sound a bit exasperated at the moment, dear." Rarity shot her a compassionate glance. "I guess it's just...between Fluttershy being out sick, and having to learn magic on top of my business, I think the stress might be getting the better of me."
Twilight braced herself for what she knew was coming up.
"And can you believe those two?!" Rarity let out. "Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash, leaving town just like that! I mean, obviously they'll be back in a few days, but still. They shouldn't run off to some competition like that just because they're butting heads." She blew at a strand of her hair. "Pfft! Sports! Is that all they ever think about?"
Twilight stood a few paces away now, having nothing to say. The ground inclined steeply now, and some of the roots of the trees were extending above the lowering slope.
"Speaking of friends," Rarity said, changing the subject much to Twilight's relief, "Where's Spike? I always see him with you when you're out doing errands."
"Spike?" Twilight jumped, panicking slightly as she said the name. Her mind raced as she thought about what to say. She really didn't want to bring up the argument she had with him the other day, considering Rarity was the topic.
"Spike is a bit...well...moody at the moment." she compensated. "I didn't want to bother him. Besides, there's really nothing I have for him to do."
"Oh, really?" Rarity said, looking concerned. "Is he all right? Is there anything I can do? I'd hate to see the poor little thing be-"
"Oh, no!" Twilight blurted. "No, no. I'm sure it's nothing. I mean, he is a baby after all. I'm sure he'll be fine. It's...it's not like this is the first time this has happened or anything. I'm pretty sure he'll be feeling better by tomorrow."
"Oh, you're sure?" Rarity said, glancing Twilight a concerned look. "I mean, I wouldn't exactly say I'm an expert with children or anything, but I do know a thing or two that might help cheer him up."
Twilight blushed. "Ha!" she laughed sarcastically, looking frantically for a change of subject. "Well, looks like we're here!"
They crested the top of the hill, trees giving way to a clearing extending across the apex. The sun shone relentlessly in their eyes. The rugged buildings of Ponyville extended below them as Rarity followed Twilight to the center. Twilight glanced at her nervously as she discovered a flat plain away from the rocks and obstructions.
"Ah, that's right!” Rarity said, seeing the book levitate from Twilight's saddlebags. “You're attending the wedding here in Ponyville! I hear you're responsible for some of the festivities?"
"Yep!” she said. “And I really need to practice my spell. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time."
"Oh, don't talk to me about time, Twilight. The wedding's not for another few weeks, but that still doesn't give me much room to prepare. I myself signed up to design all the apparel and decor, you see." Twilight narrowed her eyes, which Rarity apparently caught on to. "Well, you couldn't possibly expect me to pass up such a marvelous opportunity to present my designs, could you? In an elaborate ceremony like this? I mean, really."
Twilight sighed. "Could I maybe just have a little room to practice my spell? I haven't even gotten a chance to look at it yet."
"Oh? Well first you'll have to satisfy my curiosity. You still haven't told me what spell they're having you perform!" Rarity peered at the open page, adorned with fluid cursive and strange symbols. The title "Romare Candles" showed at the top, but much of the other diction was unfamiliar to her.
"Twilight, dear! This is...highly advanced!” she said in surprise. “I mean, even for pyrotechnic enchantments, this looks like a very hefty piece of magic!"
Twilight's nervousness was heightened by embarrassment. She hid her reddened face as she familiarized herself with the new incantation. "I...I don't think it's that complex. Just...how about I give it a try, first?"
Rarity looked a bit unsure, but backed away regardless. "Well, you are the Element of Magic, dear. I'm not going to be getting in your way." She trotted behind a tree for cover, observing the view of the town below as Twilight read through the spell.
Rarity was right. It certainly looked tricky. Many of the steps were as complicated as entire spells she had performed. And some looked quite odd...almost out of place. But this was not the first time she had seen spells with strange steps in them. She bent her head, feeling the magic before her as her horn answered with a haze of light that thickened and magnified with each step.
Minute after minute passed, as the glow turned to fizzling, which turned to sparks. Nothing resembled rockets yet, but she plowed forward anyway. As she performed the final lines, there was a flash, as if light bulb burned out, a thick searing light fogging the hilltop.
Just...how much further...until...something happens! she thought, nearing the end of the spell.
The final step retracted the haze as it turned a vivid pink, resembling bubble gum blown in reverse. Magic particles swirled threateningly around her before retracting into the cloud.
Wait a minute, she thought, looking up from the spell book. This isn’t right!
She flipped hastily through the book for a counter curse, the spell continuing without her. Most spells diminished without conscious reinforcement, but this spell was different. A feedback loop had been established, cycling through her own body as it strengthened. Twilight looked up in a panic as the spinning particles compressed, accelerating into a blur of raw power.
A scream escaped her lips as the spell condensed inside her, heating her like a forge as it lifted her effortlessly into the air. Her own screams were met with the shouts of another pony, shouting out her name. As the last of the spell condensed inside her, all senses were engulfed in pain, her body paralyzed, her eyes blind. The last thing she remembered was a deafening explosion echoing around her before everything plunged into darkness.
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Twilight's eyes slid open, stopping halfway as she stared at the rough wood ceiling above her. A groan escaped her lips as she realized her back was resting uncomfortably against a leather bed with stiff sheets, her head propped slightly on a small springy pillow.
She thought back to her last memory, drudging it up from the back of her mind. She remembered being on the hill and trying to cast a spell that would shoot off rockets. However, she also remembered a strange sensation, as though her mind was telling her she had missed something: perhaps she had turned to the wrong page, or had skipped a few steps - whatever had gone wrong, the result was anything but pyrotechnic. It was almost as though she had cast an entirely different spell.
Moving her hooves brought pain as her muscles contracted for the first time in hours (or days). Sitting up was nearly impossible at first, but by shuffling on her left side and using an elbow, she managed to bend her torso up before rolling back on her flank. Rocking back and forth a bit, she let the painfully satisfying feeling of her lower back being pulled taut roll through her body.
Lifting her head, Twilight observed the half-open clinic of Ponyville, bathed in the light of the setting sun from outside. A set of identical beds were strewn across the floor, surrounded by the semi-circular walls of the building itself, which formed a sort of open gazebo around the room.
Apparently, a pinata had decided to splatter itself all over her bed beds, soaking it in festive decorations. Twilight looked up at the myriad of balloons hanging above her, then down at the cavity-inducing baskets of sweets surrounding the bed. Looking up, she noticed the other bed, sporting the same set of party decorations. A white pony lay unconscious on her side, the golden rays of the setting sun shining off her white coat. Twilight doubled up as her stomach contracted.
Rarity... she thought.
A second pony stood with her flank towards Twilight, preoccupied. She was thinner, but her coat shone just as white, a distinguishing medical cap adorning her head. Normally there were two nurses in the clinic, but Nurse Tenderheart appeared to be out today. Twilight watched curiously for a moment as she gathered her thoughts.
"Oh, thank Celestia! You're awake!"
Twilight blinked as the nurse turned around, trotting over with hopeful excitement. Twilight felt her horn sear with a dull burning sensation, her hoof automatically reaching up to rub it.
"Ohhhh..." she groaned, "What happened..."
Nurse Redheart walked around to the left side of the bed, placing her hoof on Twilight's forehead as she spoke.
"You slept through all the excitement." she said in a quietly energetic voice.
"Excitement...?"
"Well, after the explosion on the hill, there was practically chaos in Ponyville! The mayor herself had to help restore order. AND..." she added, emphasizing with her eyes, "Princess Celestia was here!"
"What?" Twilight asked, jumping in her bed slightly as the nurse's hoof on her shoulder held her back. "The Princess was here?"
"Indeed! In fact, it was the Princess who saved you!” she continued, relief spreading through her as she shared her experience. “She saw the explosion, and traveled to the hill herself. You wouldn't believe the look on our faces when we saw her carrying you two to the clinic! We thought you might be..."
She trailed off, looking away for a moment as she searched for a less disturbing topic.
"What exactly were you doing up there, anyway?" she asked.
"Fireworks," Twilight groaned automatically. She considered elaborating before falling silent. The nurse merely looked confused.
"Well, it was certainly a frightening display, whatever it was," she said at last. "I'm just glad there weren't any other ponies that got hurt! As far as explosions go, it was actually pretty tame...more like a mist or a fog than anything."
Twilight wanted to ask more questions, but got the feeling Nurse Redheart didn't know much more than she did. Looking around, Twilight caught the shimmering form of her friend resting lifelessly on the other bed.
"Is Rarity going to be all right?" she asked.
"Hmmm?" the nurse asked, turning back before gazing off in the direction Twilight was looking. "Oh, yes, of course!" she said, recognizing her concern. "She's fine now, at least, thanks to the Princess. I expect her to be up momentarily."
Twilight looked up at the balloons again. "Where's Pinkie Pie? I'm assuming she was in here before at some point?"
"Pinkie Pie?" Redheart followed her gaze absentmindedly. "Oh, wait! I know that name! She's the one who made those bad muffins, isn't she?"
Twilight cringed at the memory. "Actually, that was Applejack. Pinkie Pie just helped."
"Oh." Redheart looked around at the decorations again. "Well, in all honesty, I didn't really get a good look at her when she came to see you. It was more like a pink tornado turning this place into a fiesta. I had to remind her this place was for resting and healing, not for partying. I'm not entirely sure she took it all that well..."
The nurse caught Twilight's look of disappointment. "Oh, don't worry", Redheart said. "I'm sure she'll be back. Probably very soon now, too."
Twilight cringed at the thought of Pinkie Pie nagging at her in her groggy state. She almost wished the others were here as well, but there really wasn't much she could do about that. Pinkie could be fun sometimes, but she didn't make for the most soothing visits.
She shifted her hooves to the left, swinging them over the edge of the bed before pushing herself forward to test her weight against them.
"What are you doing?" the nurse said, backing up to give her room, "You're not getting up, are you?"
Twilight ignored her as her hooves struck the floor, her body sinking and wobbling under the weight of the impact.
"Twilight, you've been out for a couple days. You're really going to want to take it easy," she said, apprehensively grimacing as she indicated her head towards the bed. Twilight felt like she had gained 200 pounds, her muscles almost giving out under her own weight.
"I should be okay until I get home," she said, thinking only about how much softer and cozier her own bed was in the library. "Thank you so much, by the way. I really hope Rarity wakes up soon."
Both sets of eyes veered towards the occupied bed. For a fleeting moment, Twilight felt like apologizing to her on the spot, even in her unconscious state. However, fatigue kept her hooves rooted to the floor.
"Home?" the Nurse said, "You...you don't want to wait for your friend?"
"I really should be heading back." she said, the thought of Pinkie Pie urging her to get out of there. "Spike is probably worried sick!"
"Oh?" the nurse said, "You're sure? You really want to go home?"
"I should be fine," she said automatically, forcing her hooves to carry her over the threshold and onto the grass outside. "Thanks for everything."
The nurse teetered for a moment, her mouth crinkling anxiously before lunging forward to stop her.
"One more thing, dear!" the nurse called, bolting around her before she could get too far. "Your horn. It-"
"My horn?!" Twilight's hoof reached up to her forehead, her eyes darting up to follow it. "What about my horn? Is it all right?! Is it-"
"Twilight, do calm down! Your horn is fine!" the nurse said, helping Twilight get her balance. "Just...here, let me explain."
Twilight's initial anxiety was soothed by the feel of the dry grass blades tickling her hooves, a breeze gently caressing her hide. The words of the nurse rolled over her, backed by the ambient sounds of the outside.
"Your horn apparently got damaged during the spell. The Princess told me about it when she brought you in. It was one of the reasons she wanted to get you here so quickly. Horns can get damaged by magic, if the spell is powerful enough, and the spell you cast was devastatingly powerful!" she noted. "The Princess explained that, had she not gotten you here soon enough, it could have escalated into something permanent!"
All this was said so quickly that only bits and pieces reached the destination of her mind. The word permanent struck her harshly, but subsided when she realized it was conjecture.
"Of course," the nurse continued, "she also explained how horns have amazing healing powers, but she still told me you shouldn't use any magic for the next few days. Until it's fully healed, you simply won't be able to cast any spells without substantial risk."
Twilight gaped as her bottom lip curled under. "No magic?!" she repeated. Her front hooves went onto a startled Nurse Redheart's chest. "You're sure!" she leaned in. "You're absolutely positive that's what she said!"
"I'm sorry," was all she said, half-surprised at Twilight's reaction, half-sorrowful. Twilight mouthed wordlessly for a few moments as her hooves fell back onto the grass, trying to remember all the things she used magic for. Her brain didn't seem to be fully working yet, though, and she simply stood there, doltishly flexing her jaw with wide eyes before giving a "I'm...I'm sorry. You're right. Thanks for everything."
What happened next, Twilight couldn't recall. All she remembered was suddenly arriving at the library door after an indeterminate time, her body weighted with fatigue, her mind weighted with concern.
"TWILIGHT! YOU'RE ALL RIGHT!"
The green and purple streak of her number one assistant rocketed into her with an "OOF!", causing Twilight's front hooves to slip out from under as she sank down to his level. They embraced together, Spike's arms wrapped tightly around her neck.
"Twilight! I was so worried!" he said, words muffled as he spoke into her coat. "And the town! And the mayor! And...I even heard that that the Princess...!"
"Everything's all right now, Spike," Twilight reassured him, rubbing his head with her hoof. "Once Rarity is awake, we can all get together and work out what went wrong." Spike let go, giving Twilight a chance to hoist herself back onto her front legs.
"Are you hungry?" Spike said, jumping away excitedly. "Thirsty? How about a game!"
"It's okay, Spike!" she said with a small laugh, heartened by his sudden change in mood. It was so nice to have the old Spike back. "I think right now I just want to relax..."
“Relax?!” Twilight outright giggled at Spike's antics as his eyes bugged and his arms flew down in shocked disappointment. "You just got home!"
“Exactly, Spike," she said, slumping towards the stairs. "I'm exhausted! I think I’m just gonna go rest for a bit. I promise we’ll spend plenty of time tomorrow discussing every last little detail!”
“Oh, okay...”
Twilight's head dipped as her smile crested, adoring the sulking dragon now dragging his feet along the floor. It was enough for her to ignore the strain of her muscles as they struggled to heave her up the stairs. Collapsing at last on her own bed, her body rewarded her with a glowing warmth of pleasure as she sank into the sheets. With hardly a thought, she felt her head sink into the velvety pillow, and drifted off to sleep in seconds.
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A sharp knock from downstairs jolted Twilight awake, cascading into tingles all over her hide. The bed was still comfortable, but the effect was ruined by her return to consciousness. She lay on her side a bit longer, letting the early afternoon sun drift through her window, hoping the sound was just some colt kicking their sports ball into her door.
Three more knocks struck. Twilight's groan grew to a yell as she roughly wiped her eyes with her hooves and flung the sheets off of her, the cold air making her coat stand on end.
"I'm coming!" she said as the guests started incessantly pummeling the door like a nail. She stumbled out of bed, sliding roughly down the stairs. As she reached the bottom steps, everything went silent.
A battering ram slammed into the door, shaking the tree and making Twilight leap a few inches off the ground. Was there an angry mob at her door?
"OKAY, OKAY!" she shouted, reaching the bottom floor, eyes lined and hair disheveled. "Don't get your hooves in a tangle..."
Stumbling to the window next to the door, she peered out to see only the grass and sky, the dirt path to her door devoid of the mad crowd she had expected. The only sign of life she recognized was a cockatoo resting on the library sign at the far end of the path.
More knocks prompted her to lean forward, revealing more of the path. And then even more of the path. And then something flicking in and out of sight. What was this? Her eyes widened as she saw the purple tail – the white flank – the gemstone Cutie Mark.
"Rarity!" She galloped to the large wooden door, rearing as she swing it open. "Rarity! You're awake! I can’t believe you’re-"
"TWILIGHT!" Rarity shouted so explosively her voice nearly knocked Twilight on the ground. She had reared on her hind hooves, pupils dilated and mouth so wide she could swallow a saddlebag. "I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOU ALL DAY!"
Twilight smiled awkwardly, stunned into silence as she fumbled with the words to respond with.
"Well, Rarity!" she finally said. "I'm really glad to see you're okay and everythi-MMMMM...MM-M--MMM...!"
Rarity had shoved her muzzle right up against hers, kissing her so firmly that she toppled over and crashed painfully onto her back.
"MMMMMM! MMMM-RARITY...!" she screamed, struggling as Rarity landed on top of her, pressing her body against Twilight's so hard she was struggling to breathe. "RARITY! WHAT – ARE – YOU – DOING!"
Rarity was now frantically kissing Twilight on the neck as her hooves explored more and more uncomfortable places.
"OH, TWILIGHT!" she screamed between great smacking kisses, her face strained so much in ecstasy that wrinkles had webbed around. "DON'T YOU THINK...*smack*...THAT WE WERE JUST...*smack*...MADE... *smack*...FOR EACH OTHER...!"
Twilight wobbled and wormed underneath her, working her way onto her stomach so she could claw herself out. Her eyes strained from panic as she screamed out for help.
"SPIIIIIIIIKE!"
Rarity continued holding her lovingly, resting her head against her back like a pillow as she rubbed it back and forth, eyes closing against an enormous smile.
"SPIKE! HEEELP!"
"Oh, Twilight!" Rarity mused, her voice softening in texture but just as loud. She pressed her head into Twilight's coat with every emphasized word. "There I was...sitting heeelplessly in that awful bed...and all I could think about was YOU!" she said, each word more passionate than the last. Twilight dug her hooves into the wood, forcing herself forward little by little until her flank was the only remaining captive. "Your hair, your face, your tail...your BEAUTIFUL EYES!"
Twilight gave one last tremendous pull before explosively freeing herself, crashing into the bookshelf and scattering reference books of flora and fauna across the floor.
"Oh, Twilight!" Rarity continued, grasping her own torso in Twilight's absence. "You really MUST come back to the Carousel with me! Just think of the SCENE we could make together!"
Oh gosh, oh no, oh Celestia...Twilight thought, frantically looking for a book that could help her as Rarity sprang onto all fours. What have I done! GOTTA be a spell here somewhere...
Twilight magically reached out for a large purple book that had a promising gold title woven on the spine and felt her horn sear with pain.
"Ugh! Stupid horn!" she said, bolting for the ladder in the corner of the room and scraping it noisily against the wood floor.
"Oh, and the makeovers! All the ponies of Equestria can see our love for each other, in all our glamour!"
Twilight reached the top rung of the ladder, frantically throwing books down from the Relationships section of her bookshelf as she ticked off title after title, littering the floor below her.
...Improving Appearance...Creating Gifts...Guide to Making Out...uuurgh! Where are all the books on ARTIFICIAL love!
"TWILIGHT, DEAR! DOOO COME DOWN FROM THERE!"
Twilight's hooves went to her ears in a grimace as Rarity's piercing voice vibrated the ladder. For a moment she closed her eyes, hoping all this would just go away.
"Oooh!" Rarity sounded exasperated. "If you're not coming down, then at least let me hold the ladder for you, dear!"
Twilight only had a second to think before Rarity bounded forward. Looking down, she watched as Rarity passionately lunged at the ladder, striking it so hard that the bottom slipped out completely, slamming Twilight and the ladder into the floor.
Rarity jumped at the resounding crack of wood striking wood, bouncing over to stand uncomfortably close to Twilight, head leaned over, mouth right next to her ear.
"OH MY GOSH! TWILIGHT! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!"
Twilight launched off the floor with her hair on end, flopping spread-eagle back on the ground, ears ringing against her aching brain as Rarity's words echoed around the room.
"Where does it hurt?! Let Rarity kiss the boo-boo!"
Without a thought, Twilight bolted off the ground and galloped across the room, making a break for the door. She blasted right through it, not even bothering to close it as it swung so hard it slammed into the brick of the outside. Rarity screamed out behind her as she ran, eyes forward, heading anywhere but back.
"TWILIGHT!" Rarity yelled from the threshold. "COME BACK, TWILIGHT! Widdle Wawwity needs to cuddle..."
-----------------------------------
Twilight walked wearily into Sugarcube Corner, pushing lazily past the loitering lunch crowd. Most of the ponies stood gossiping or leaning satisfied against a wall, having finished their desserts already. Twilight caught a glimpse of Mr. and Mrs. Cake walking wearily, catching their breath now that the crowds had died down.
"Twilight!" Pinkie Pie said, popping out of nowhere and making Twilight jump backwards a few steps. She was bouncing so fast her body was just a blur. "You're back! Oh, Celestia, you’re back, I'm so excited! I saw you in the clinic, but you were sleeping for so long! I was so worried! Did you get my treats? OOO, wait!" She bounded to the counter to grab something. "Wanna try a cupcake? They're apple-flavored! I spent all day coming up with the recipe just for you, Twilight! You absolutely must try it! It's the most deliciously-supertasty-sugarpastry-treat in the entire confectionary!" She presented the small cupcake on the tip of her hoof.
Twilight was speechless, but reached her hoof out anyway. She carefully grabbed the cupcake from Pinkie's own outstretched hooves, nearly dropping it on the floor in the process.
"Hey! What happened to your horn? Is it hurt?! Oh no! Did that big nasty spell do that do you?" Pinkie chimed, helping Twilight balance the cupcake on her hoof so she could bite into it.
"My...what?"
"You didn't use your magic to pick up the cupcake! You always use your magic, Twilight!" Pinkie said, lowering both hooves back to the ground as Twilight took a bite, letting the sweet tang of apple icing flow down her throat.
"Oh! That..." Twilight said, flicking her eyes to her horn and back, realizing at the last minute how much it looked like she had rolled her eyes. "It's...nothing, really. Just a minor injury, that's all."
Pinkie made a frown, tilting her head to the side as Twilight took her next few bites. "Oh my gosh, that's no fun at all! My poor friend is hurt!" She thought for a moment before bursting in the air. "OOO! I know what'll cheer you up!" Pinkie said, springing against the ground like a pink playground ball. Twilight cringed as she swallowed her last bite.
"Pinkie," Twilight said, lowering her empty hoof to the ground, "I really don't have time for a party today..."
"Oh...?" Pinkie said, her smile faltering as she bounced a little lower. "You're sure? Like, really sure sure?"
"Yeah," said Twilight, watching Pinkie sink into the ground with a frown. "But you know, I think I could go for a few more of these cupcakes," she said with a grin.
The bubble gum pony popped again, her curled hair positively shaking with delight as her face lit up like a firework. "OOOO! Yes! Aren't they DELICIOUS!?"
Pinkie Pie bounded back into the kitchen and brought out a large tray of cupcakes stacked three layers high, which she balanced lightly on her hoof. With the lunch crowds dying down, Pinkie was free to join Twilight outside.
"MMM, that's GOOD!" Pinkie said, chowing down on one as they sat down at the umbrella-laden picnic table. Many of the other tables were becoming unoccupied as the ponies finished their treats. "Say, you still don't look happy, Twilight. What's wrong?"
Twilight sighed at the weepy look on Pinkie's face as she finished her cupcake.
"Well...it's Rarity," Twilight said, lowering her head with a scowl. "She hasn't exactly been the same since she woke up. I'm worried that it might have something to do with what happened on the hill."
Pinkie Pie gasped. "Now that was exciting!"
Twilight's startled jump quickly became an eyeroll, and then a facehoof as Pinkie bounced up from her chair and started charading her thoughts.
"There was this biiiig explosion that went, like, POOOW!" she said, waving her arms. "And then all these ponies started screaming, like EEEEEEEEE!" she said, squishing her cheeks with her hooves. "And then, there was this big pink wave! And it went WHOOOOSH! right over the whole town! And then everypony started racing around, and ducking for cover, and screaming some more! And then, OOO-OO-OO-OOOO! Princess Celestia showed up! And she was carrying you! And I was standing there like *GAAAAAASP*, TWILIGHT! And then she took you into the clinic, and I went in there and saw Rarity with you! And I got so upset! So I brought balloons and confetti and streamers and sweets and tried throwing a BIIIIIIIG party for you in the clinic! Only, the nurse didn't let me, and she made me stay outside, and said I should come back at the end of the day. Only, I didn't see you! And THEN!" she finished dramatically, wide-eyed and mouth gaping.
Twilight had been staring at her, thin-mouthed and narrow-eyed the whole time.
"And...then...?" Twilight repeated, hoping for once Pinkie would actually make sense.
Pinkie stood there a few seconds. Then, turning suddenly back to normal and bouncing back onto her seat, "And then you showed up here," she finished.
Twilight exhaled loudly, her face sinking into her hoof again as Pinkie grabbed another cupcake.
"So you didn't think to visit me or anything when I got out?" Twilight said, looking back up and sinking her shoulders.
"Oh, Twilight!" Pinkie said with a sideways wobble of her head, "I knew you'd come to see me first thing when you got better! That's why I wanted to throw you a party just now!"
"Pinkie, you offered me the party because I-"
"See, Twilight! Everything makes perfect sense now!"
Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but after finding it still hanging there after a few seconds with no words to accompany it she ended up simply closing it again.
"So!" said Pinkie Pie, reaching her hoof out for another snack. "You were saying about Rarity?"
"Huh?”
The splash of dumb on Twilight's face hadn't quite worn off yet, so she shook it a few times and rubbed her eyes.
“Oh, right!" she said, blinking, the image of Rarity at her door popping back into her head. "Well, anyway, Rarity showed up at my door, and she seemed...well...very happy to see me!"
"Awwww!" Pinkie cried, holding another cupcake to her mouth. "Isn't that sweet!"
"Well, not really," Twilight continued to the sound of Pinkie swallowing. "She seemed...well...she kinda jumped on top of me...and kissed me..."
"She KISSED YOU?" Pinkie leaped away from the table again. Twilight quickly looked around, noticing that some of the ponies at the other tables turning to eavesdrop. "WOW! I didn't know she was into both colts AND fillies! I just think that's SOOO cool! She's, like, totally open-minded! And I-"
"NO, NO, NO!" Twilight exclaimed. "It wasn't her! It wasn't her at ALL!"
"It wasn't?!" Pinkie Pie said, slanting her face to one side so one eye was more open than the other. "You mean it was...an IMPOSTOR!" Pinkie said dramatically, raising her hooves over her head with an evil scowl like the one she had at the end of her Zecora song.
"Ummm...no," Twilight said, her eyes so thin they were almost closed. "Like, I think something's wrong with her! Like, I don't know...maybe she hit her head or something!"
"Or MAYBE," Pinkie started energetically, "that spell you cast was really a love spell! And all the ponies in Ponyville are going to start falling for each other, and this whole place will turn into a giant town of love and affection and cuddling and-" Pinkie took a deep breath, which Twilight used to respond to her.
"Uh, no. First off, there's no way my spell had anything to do with this. I was casting fireworks. Second, Princess Celestia was here. I seriously doubt she'd let something like that happen. And third, even if it was the spell, and even if the Princess just so happened to leave us without fixing it, wouldn't there be more ponies acting like her? I mean, I don't know about you, but..." she looked around at the few occupied tables and wandering ponies, "I really don't see that much zany love-making going on around here."
Pinkie dropped her wacky demeanor as she leaned into the table. "Give it time..." she said quietly from the corner of her mouth. Twilight sighed heavily.
"In the meantime," she said as Pinkie slouched back into her seat, "I have a swooning Rarity in the library doing...gosh-knows-what! And no spell to reverse the effects! I mean, I've never even seen a spell for love! Where would I-"
She stopped mid-sentence, completely forgetting to close her mouth. She blinked a few times before leaning back and slapping her hoof to her forehead with a small cry. "Pinkie!" she said as she lowered her hoof. "You wouldn't happen to have seen Zecora here lately, would you? Like...today?"
"Hmmm..." A few crumbs escaped from her lips, her cheeks puffed out from stuffing three cupcakes in her mouth at once. "i no-iv sehna ebra ere dee oder day, ut-" She stopped and swallowed the entire mouthful in one gulp. "She's probably long gone by now." she finished.
"Oh, great," Twilight said, her head leaning into her hooves again. "I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go into the forest..."
"Oh, Twilight!" Pinkie said, grabbing all but the last cupcake off the platter. "She'll be back out here soon enough!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight said, striking her hooves on the table as she raised her voice, "Zecora might have a cure! She told me her people have spells for this kind of thing! Or, at least, I think that's what she was saying..." She lifted a hoof to her chin as she looked up.
"A spell for what?" Pinkie asked, popping the last cupcake into her mouth.
"For curing Rarity!" she said, flailing her hooves wildly in the air. "For curing her...affection..."
Pinkie's entire expression vanished, leaving a set of eyes and a mouth staring blankly at her.
"Uh, why would you want to cure affection?! Isn't affection a good thing to have?"
Twilight sighed, getting up from the table. "It's been really nice." she said. "Thanks for the cupcakes, by the way."
"Oh, Twilight! You're leaving already? Are you sure you don't have time for a party?"
"I'm...pretty sure, yeah," she said, pulling away from the conversation like taffy. "I really gotta go!"
Twilight turned around, leaving Pinkie sitting at the table with a hoof outstretched and her mouth slightly open, the empty platter still lying in front of her.
-----------------------------------
"Okay, Twilight," she said to herself. "You're good! Just be careful...and you'll be there in no time..."
Twilight trotted, quivering, through the darkened forest, hooves striking the dry earth as her head turned from side to side, her eyes piercing the surrounding trees. Light from above shot through small breaks between the ceiling of leaves, but most of the undergrowth of the forest floor was cast in shadow. Every rattling of a leaf in the wind, every cry of a bird, every movement of critters racing through the foliage at her hooves sent her heart racing as she stopped in cold silence to listen silently.
As Zecora's gnarled twisted tree finally came into view, she let out a deep breath as her muscles relaxed. Her pacing slowed as her eyes lazily watched the bulky form approach with every one of her steps.
At first, she ignored the blackness peering from the windows, as well as the lack of incense and homely cooking smells of foreign spices, waltzing straight up to the door and giving it a few hopeful knocks. She bowed her head after the silence before knocking once more just to be sure.
"Yeah, this doesn't look good..." she mumbled to herself.
She turned to the right, peering through the darkened window, placing a hoof on the sill so she could lean her head in. A few shapes could be seen, including the faint highlights of the cauldron in the back, as well as some ceramics on the back shelves haunting the darkness with their hourglass shapes. One thing was perfectly clear, however. The tree was completely devoid of any zebras.
"Well..." she sighed, slumping her flank onto the dirt and leaning her back against the trunk. "I guess I can always wait for her to get back!"
Twilight lay still for a few moments, placing her head in her hooves as she cleared her mind. Wind gently rustled her coat as the sounds of the forest tickled her ears. They were quite calming, actually. The wind blowing, the birds chirping, the pony singing, the-
"Pony...singing?" Twilight said out loud, looking up with her ears perked. She looked around for the source of the voice which was clearly an older filly, and obviously not trained in choir. Twilight guessed that, had the voice sung any louder, it probably would be an accurate depiction of what most ponies sounded like in the shower. However, what was particularly strange were the lyrics. She had heard them before.
"You gotta caaaaaaare...you gotta shaaaaaaare..." it sang serenely and lovingly. If Twilight hadn't heard the original rendition, she would have guessed it was a serenade. It was so much calmer and more soothing than Pinkie Pie's version.
Twilight got up slowly and walked in the direction of the voice, carefully weaving through the thicket of tree trunks, roots, and vegetation.
"Hello?" she called into the trees around her, her voice suddenly sounding strange in the emptiness of the forest. The singing voice was unperturbed. She kept following the sound, taking careful note of the path she took away from Zecora's tree, and soon found herself at a clearing, the sun reflecting brilliantly off the glass surface of a small pond. The source of the song appeared to be a light-blue filly with flowing white-blue mane standing on the shore as she gazed alluringly at something in the water.
"Hello?" Twilight repeated, walking up to her side. The filly stopped singing, but didn't look up.
"Oooh, Great and Powerful Trixie! What fabulous hair you have!"
Twilight took a step or two back. "Trixie?!"
The pony kept staring at the pool, Twilight struck dumb as she observed the strange sight.
"Oh, and those eyes! So stunning!"
Twilight hadn't recognized her at first without her magical garb. But now that she saw her silver mane, there was no mistaking her.
"Oh, Trixie! You're all I ever dreamed of! Why don't you come out of the water so we can show this forest what TRUE love is!"
Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but ended up closing it and stepping over to the pool. She leaned over and looked at what was in the water. A replica of herself peered back, plastered against the blue sky and clouds, a few overhanging tree branches visible in the reflection.
"Ummm...I don't think that's a real pony in there, Trixie."
Trixie reared up as she continued. "Oh, how I loooong to hold you! To be with you! To love you forever and EVER!"
Twilight walked over with an exasperated sigh, raised her hoof above the water, and brought it smashing down on top of Trixie's reflection. A loud splash sounded around them as droplets sprayed over both of them, the smooth glass now disturbed with turbulent ripples. Trixie's rant immediately stopped, her eyes wide and her mouth thin.
"Trixie!" Twilight screamed. "Snap out of it!"
Trixie blinked a few times, lifting her head slowly before turning towards Twilight. She stared at the purple unicorn in front of her for a moment.
Then her eyes narrowed.
"You!" she exclaimed dully, her face scrunching in pain. "YOU!" she repeated, rearing on her hind hooves, radiating heat from her quivering body. "What do you want! Come to mock me again, huh? Come to cause more shame and embarrassment to...to...the Lonely and Defeated Trixie? Huh?! Is that what you're all calling me now?"
"Trixie!" Twilight said, blinking hard before pointing her hoof at her. "You were infatuated with your reflection!"
"Don't try and fool me, Twilight! I know why you're here!"
"I'm not trying to trick you!" Twilight said, "I just helped you! You were under a curse!"
Again, Trixie reared up, projecting each word with increased emphasis. "I – was – NOT under a...wait, did you say curse?" Her hooves dropped onto the ground, face suddenly losing its taut lines of pain.
"Uh...yeah!" Twilight exclaimed, shaking her head sarcastically like some of the fillies did back in Canterlot. "Unless you're always trying to make love to yourself! You should have seen the way you were treating your reflection!"
Trixie's mouth opened, drawing her eyes shut as she let out a rattling breath. She lowered her head.
"Oh, nooo! I didn't! ...did I?" She lifted her head pleadingly. "Oh, tell me I wasn't!"
"What's wrong?" Twilight said.
"Oh, I was afraid of this!" she said, energized as she cantered around the area with frantic antics. "There I was, wandering the forest like I have been the last few months, when suddenly..." she threw her hooves at the sky, making the same "whooshing" motion Pinkie Pie made in her own depiction. "It was HUGE! This...massive pink cloud...or fog...or something! It was like an explosion of some sort! I had hoped it was nothing, but..." She looked up at Twilight. "I just came to get a drink of water a few minutes ago and completely phased out! Next thing I know, you're here, telling me how I was..."
"Swooning?" Twilight put in blankly.
"...yes. Swooning over my own reflection! Oh...I should have known it was a curse! And to think! I was-"
"Wait!" Twilight said, putting her hoof out to stop her mid-sentence. "You said explosion? That sounds like..." Twilight's eyes went wide with fear as she remembered Pinkie's crazy prediction. "Oh no...this is not good!"
Trixie stared blankly at her now, prompting Twilight to fill her in on the details.
"The explosion on the hill, Trixie! The spell! The curse! Your infatuation! It's...latent!" Twilight was now wandering nervously back and forth as she spoke. "This...this doesn't make any sense! It was just a fireworks display! How could this be making all the ponies go crazy like this? This isn't how magic is supposed to work!" Her eyes went wide. "This is all going seriously wrong. If this thing really is the spell I cast," she put a hoof to one side, "and it didn't start affecting you until just now," she moved her hoof to the other side, "then that means all the ponies in Ponyville could..." She put her hoof down and lifted her head. The picture that Pinkie had painted swarmed into her head. An entire town filled with ponies falling hopelessly in love with each other. "Ooooh! This isn't good. This isn't good at all! Whatever spell that was could wreak havoc through all of Ponyville! We have to find a way to stop this, Trixie!"
"We?!" Trixie exclaimed, backing up a few feet, her pained expression returning.
"Well," Twilight argued, "you don't want to be amorous towards yourself forever do you?!"
Trixie's mouth opened and shut a few times as she stammered. Finally, she bolted herself around to face away from Twilight, digging her front hooves into the ground. "Fine! What choice do I have!"
Twilight was staring at the ground, mumbling to herself as Trixie turned back to face her. When Twilight looked back up, she launched straight into explanation.
"I've been looking for Zecora. She's a zebra that lives around these woods. I heard she might have a cure for this kind of thing. I know she lives in these woods a bit further back, but she wasn't home the last I checked. We'll need to split up to find her. If we're lucky, we might-"
"Hold on!" Trixie interrupted, sticking a hoof up. "I do believe you're in luck. I just so happen to have seen a zebra walking around here just before I got my drink! She was heading off this way." She pointed her hoof to the right of the pond.
"Well what are we waiting for! Let's go!"
No sooner were these words spoken than Trixie bolted into a gallop. Twilight was left behind a few paces as she watched Trixie round a corner and disappear into the treeline.
“Wait!” Twilight yelled, racing after her, glimpsing her silver tail just as it flickered out of sight. Picking up speed, Twilight raced around the pond, delving through the same opening in the trees.
Every so often, Twilight glimpsed a blue tail and flank as the jungle labyrinth of Everfree swished past her. Twilight found herself constantly falling on her face, tripping over roots and small stones as she tried to match the incredible pace Trixie had set. Many times she found herself racing blindly, going on instinct as to which turn to make, exploding with speed each time a silver flicker waved amid the green. Finally, the filly ahead of her was fully visible, quickly getting bigger as she caught up.
“Trixie, slow down!” she said, racing right up to the filly. “I’m having trouble-”
“SHH!”
Twilight rebounded, nearly colliding with Trixie's hoof as she held it out in front of her, peering quietly into the trees like a game hunter. Twilight's heart pounded, unsure whether what lay ahead was a threat or a destination.
“Is this it?” she whispered. "Did you find her?"
As an answer, Trixie moved her hoof from sideways in front of Twilight, to out in front, pointing at something amidst the trees. Twilight followed its trajectory, squinting at the rustling leaves. It was subtle, but the tinge of black and white, as well as the familiar rhyming rhetoric, could mean only one thing. Twilight listened carefully, picking up on only a few lines.
"I see before me beast of plume, what grace and fairness I presume."
Twilight inclined her head towards Trixie. “What’s she doing?” she asked.
Trixie didn’t say anything. continuing to stare ahead blankly. Twilight turned back, trying to make out the rest of the words, most of them shrouded amongst the rustling leaves.
“I’m gonna go ask-”
“No!” said Trixie, her hoof shooting in front of her again, “wait...”
Twilight peered again closely, and thought she recognized the strange way the zebra was poised. It was very similar to Trixie's demeanor in front of the pond. Listening intently, Twilight caught another set of lines as she realized exactly what was going on.
"Body serpant crowned by fowl, passionate the way you prowl. Pronounce my love I do hereby, as I gaze upon thine eye."
She couldn't see it clearly, but there was something else in front of Zecora now. Something white was slithering out of the leaves, peering into Zecora's eyes. Twilight's mind put two and two together and jumped, shooting forward towards her foreign companion.
“NO!” Twilight shouted as she sprang forward, Trixie suddenly unable to hold her back anymore as her hooves slipped frantically against her hide.
“Twilight!” she yelled.
A crackling noise sounded as Twilight rounded the corner, watching Zecora's half-stone body looking enchantingly into the eyes of a cockatrice. "ZECORA! NO!" She caught right up to the zebra just as the stream of gray crested her head and ran together at the temple. The statue tipped under its own weight, thumping at Twilight’s feet.
“ZECORA!” she yelled, leaning her tear-stricken face over the swooning stone form of her zebra friend. She turned back to Trixie, pleading for help with her eyes. Trixie pulled back, her eyes focused on something just beyond her.
“Twilight!” Trixie yelled, rearing on her hind hooves as she turned around. “RUN!”
A loud cry behind her threw Twilight's eyelids so far back they disappeared into her wrinkled forehead. A moment later, the bush exploded behind her with a piercing shriek, sending Twilight galloping forward in a surge of panic as she shouted uncontrollably. “Trixie, WAIT UP!”
The blue flank and tail flickered and disappeared again as Twilight blindly flew through the trees. The screaming cry of the cockatrice echoed around the forest as it swam shark-like through the thick brush, leaping out every so often a little further ahead of Twilight. She kept her head down, avoiding obstacles as they appeared in her peripheral vision, her hooves roughly colliding with rocks and stumps in shocks of pain, suppressed only by her adrenaline.
“Trixie! Where are you!”
Trixie's ghost of a voice could be heard in the distance, but her form was nowhere to be seen. Twilight slowed as her hooves gave out, panting frantically as she burst into a cough, finally stopping to look around. Trixie's voice kept echoing off to her right.
“This way! Almost there!”
The silence had become deafening as her pounding heart drowned all other noise, her vision blurred and her mouth dry. Everything was perfectly still for a moment.
An burst of leaves and twigs startled Twilight into nearly falling over as the cockatrice charged out of a mangled flower bush. Red eyes gleamed from the clearing fog, a screech burning her ears. Twilight put her head down, saving herself before the spell set in motion. The cockatrice was now twisting deftly around her, trying to set its face in front of hers.
“Twilight!”
Something crashed out of the shrubbery, striking Twilight in the side and knocking her to the ground. Pain shot through her as she forced herself back up, hearing a battle between pony and beast beside her. She stumbled to her hooves, regaining her balance as a blur of blue and green chaotically fought beside her.
“Run, Twilight!”
She hesitated for a bit, eyes stinging, body sore, mind racing. All she could do was stare blankly at the wild fight before her.
"Don't think!" Trixie screamed, "Just RUN!"
Trixie's voice heated her blood, charging her hooves into an uncontrollable gallop. Her mind fought against it, but there was no stopping the cascade of adrenaline. A crackle sounded behind her as the cockatrice at last reigned victorious over its victim, but Twilight fought past it, her mind flooded with fear.
Racing to the edge of the forest, she bolted beyond the tree line, revealing the blinding sun quickly setting before her. She charged forward, hardly even realizing where her body was carrying her until the town buildings rose up before her.
She turned in the direction of the library, and charged into the sunset. |
Ganymede | 686 | 2 | DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Soarin,Spike,Spitfire,Trixie,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Twilight's Horn | One of Twilight's Spells goes horribly wrong! | complete | 184 | 11 | <p>When one of Twilight's spells goes horribly wrong, the implications prove disastrous. Her horn is damaged, one of her friends is sorely affected, and the rest of Ponyville may be at great risk. It's now up to Twilight to figure out how to fix everything before it's too late.</p> | teen | 2011-10-31T22:45:38+00:00 | 2011-10-31T22:45:38+00:00 | 7,790 | II
Enchantments of Amore
A cockatrice! Twilight thought to herself, nearing the library at last. Of all the things for Zecora to be enamored with... a cockatrice!
The sun was nearly set, showering the town in a golden-red haze. The library tree was just up ahead. The sun's glare made it difficult to make out, but from what Twilight could see, something about it was different.
Very different.
As Twilight approached the tree and took in the strange site before her, she stopped altogether, stunned to the point of total confusion. Was she in the right place? This was certainly where she remembered the library tree being. The buildings on either side were certainly the same.
A few moments later, her eyes took in the mushroom shape, the bits of green amid the white, gold, and rainbow, and finally the sign outside still reading "Library," determining in the end that, indeed, this was her home. Or, at least, what used to be her home.
Rarity had apparently taken this time to cover every leaf, branch, and twig with every frill, fabric, and decoration in all of Ponyville. Ribbon and lace hung down the trunk, golden statues sat outside her front door, moving mechanical birds swung on the branches making small chirping noises, and every last inch of bare wood was covered with gemstones.
"Oh, this is not good!" she muttered, shaking her head.
Her hooves refused to move for a moment, but she eventually forced them to move and fought with herself all the way to the door. Opening the door, she stared into what could only be described as the strangest version of the Carousel Boutique she had ever seen. Every last inch of the library was redecorated. The only thing Twilight still recognized were the books. Walls were repainted and covered with tapestries, marble archways were placed in the ceiling, and the stairs were now covered with a thick red carpet down the middle.
"Twiiiilight!" Rarity exclaimed from the top of the stairs as Twilight crossed the threshold. "You were gone so long, I was starting to get worried, dear!" She trotted down an elaborately decorated staircase, closing the door to join her. "Oh, you must be so tired right now. Why don't I show you the tour?"
Twilight's head turned, but her face was blank. "What...is all this?" she asked, blinking mildly as she glimpsed the mannequins and sewing equipment in the corner of the room.
"Ooooh! Silly Twilight," said Rarity, trotting up with a loving smile and rubbing her head against her shoulder. "I'm moving in with you, of course!"
Before Twilight even had a chance to groan, Rarity was already forcibly guiding her up the stairs, her head pressed against Twilight's side. "Oh, but you must see what I did with the bedroom, dear! It's simply splendid!"
Twilight's hooves caught a few times as Rarity pushed her up the stairs. As she finally reached the second story, Twilight's heart sank as she saw the ridiculous "enhancements" that had been made to her own bedroom. Rarity was beside herself, emitting excited squeaks as she concealed a bursting scream of joy.
"Rarity!" Twilight said, looking around. "What did you do to my room?!"
"Isn't it just marvelous!?" she said, rearing up on her hind hooves.
"Rarity, there are so many gemstones in this place, I can hardly see from all the sparkling! This place is completely impractical! And..." Twilight stopped and looked up, "is that a ... chandelier?"
"Pure gold!" Rarity chimed, "32 candles! My best work!"
"But ... this is a tree! Don't you think we should have as little fire in this place as possible?!"
"Oh, don't be silly, Twilight. Wait 'til you see our bed!" Rarity said, bouncing up to Twilight's sleeping quarters, leaving Twilight sinking in her place as she watched Rarity round the elaborate curved staircase.
"Our...bed..." Twilight mumbled, half to herself.
"Silk sheets, dear!" she said, laying down on the bed Twilight had slept in so many times, rubbing against the fabric suggestively. "Only the best for us, Twilight! I can't wait for us to try them out tonight!"
Twilight closed her eyes and groaned.
"Rarity! You really don't have to do this! I mean...the room, the bed...it's too much!"
"Oh, you!" Rarity said, bouncing off the bed as she bounded back down the stairs with a smile worthy of Pinkie Pie. "You won't be so apprehensive tonight, when we-"
A thump from outside made Twilight and Rarity jump. Twilight let the tingling feeling of shock subdue before looking towards the balcony where the sound had occurred.
"Good heavens!" Rarity jumped back. "What in Equestria was that!"
Twilight held a hoof up. "Stay here," she said, walking to the balcony door and peering out.
The balcony was one of the few places Rarity had barely touched. There were a few pieces of fabric here and there for added color, but the most prominent addition were the two ponies now furiously making out in the sunset.
"Ohhhhh, great!" she thought, putting her hoof to her face before flinging it over her head. "Just what I needed. More lovemaking!" She flung the door open and stepped out onto the balcony, leaving it open as she walked right up to the couple still wrestling with their tongues.
"What do you two think you're doing?!" She looked down at the frantic display of blue and gray. The two ponies ignored her, taking their actions to higher extremes, the sounds of slop striking her ears. Twilight almost had to look away a few times.
"Wait..." she said, finally recognizing the blue uniform adorning the form of the pony on top. "Soarin?"
The esteemed member of the Wonderbolts was apparently busy kissing the mailpony. At least, Twilight thought it was kissing. It looked more like he was trying to eat her face off.
Derpy Hooves ( as everypony called her, not knowing her real name ) was lying on her back, lazily enjoying the make-out session when she suddenly remembered something. Pulling her tongue out of Soarin's mouth with a horrible squelching noise, she reached down and clamped her mouth around a couple-dozen gold-laced envelopes sticking out of her saddlebags, turning her gray face towards Twilight, eyes spinning like pinballs. Spit shined on her lips as it soaked some of the envelopes.
"Muuill!" she stifled, holding the letters out expectantly. All she got back, however, was a blank stare.
"Gee! A little late today, huh?" Twilight said.
Derpy continued to hold out the letters in her mouth, a dribble of spit dropping lazily onto the balcony.
"Uh...why don't you just leave those here on the balcony for now..." she groaned, trying not to hurl.
Derpy dropped the letters turning her face back towards Soarin who went at it like an apple pie.
"You taste like muffins!" he exclaimed, slopping saliva all over Twilight's balcony.
"Look!" Twilight said, punching her hoof out towards the couple. "Do you two really need to do this on my balcony!? Can't you two go somewhere else!?"
Soarin looked up, his entire face shining with spit, adorned with a wacky smile.
"Somewhere el – Oh, wait! You're right!" he said, his eyes darting just past her. "Thanks Twilight!" Lifting Derpy off the ground, he promptly flew past Twilight and through the open balcony door.
"I DIDN'T MEAN INSIDE THE LIBRARY!" Twilight yelled, closing her eyes and stomping maddeningly on the balcony floor. She turned with a loud growl, reaching for the sticky gold envelopes on the balcony and let out a yelp. "Ow! Stupid horn..."
Rarity's voice echoed from inside as Twilight walked back inside the "Library Boutique," leaving the letters to rot until she got her magic back. "OH! It's so unseemly! Twiiilight! How could you!"
Twilight looked at the scene of Soarin and Derpy messily making out on the elaborate carpet as Rarity stared in revulsion.
"OH, Twilight! And on the carpet and everything! How could you just have invited them in! And just as I was about to start up the music and everything!"
"I didn't invite – them – in," Twilight said, sounding each word separately as she trotted in aggravation towards the scene before her. "They just came in by themselves, and – wait, did you say music?"
Rarity trotted over and drew a set of curtains that hadn't been there earlier that day. Behind them was a small DJ set and stand, complete with DJ Pony behind it.
"Wait..." Twilight started. "DJ PON-3?"
The disc jockey she had seen at the fashion show earlier that year looked up, her glasses on her forehead revealing her crimson eyes.
"Oh, hi Twilight!" she said. "You don't have to call me that. DJ's just my stage name. You can call me Vinyl!"
"But..." Twilight continued, "what are you doing here!?"
"Rarity hired me!" she said, looking pleased. "Personal request. Said I'm here to serenade you two tonight!"
Twilight put her hoof to her face and grimaced before looking back up to retort. However, something else caught her eye at that point. She look closer to find a green-purplish thing poorly hiding next to Vinyl.
"Sooo," Vinyl said, leaning over her set as the purple scales vanished behind the disc-stand, "got somethin' romantic planned, do ya?"
"SPIKE!" Twilight yelled, racing around the stand and pulling Spike out by the tail with her teeth. The purple dragon jumped with surprise and fright, clawing at the floor to get back under the table, but Twilight didn't stop until he was completely out in the open, rolling him hastily onto his back.
"Spike! Where have you been?" she screamed, glaring at the fidgeting purple and green form before her. Spike didn't look at all like he wanted to be found.
"Oh...ummm...hi Twilight! Uh...gee! This place sure does look nice!" he said, trying not to stutter.
"Spike! I haven't seen you all day! Where have you been!?"
Spike was now sitting up and holding his tail, shaking slightly. "Oh...well...you see...I was just...ummm..."
"Hiding?" Twilight put in.
"Yeah. I mean, NO! I mean...Rarity was just...and then I...but then you came in...and I was all...and then I saw Vinyl and I just..."
"Spike, whatever you're hiding, spit it out!" she said as Spike winced.
"What? Hiding? Twilight, I would never...I mean...there's nothing to hide! From...you. Nothing at all!" His tone changed as he shifted his eyes to meet Twilight's. "Why?" he said slowly. "Did someone tell you...I did something wrong...?"
Twilight glared at him, and Spike grimaced like he always did just before admitting guilt. "Okay! Okay! I confess! I put a different spell in your spell book when you did the fireworks display!" He cringed just before Twilight lashed out.
"SPIIIKE!" Twilight screamed. "Do you have any idea what this has done!?” She walked around in a small circle on the carpet, recounting her experiences. “My horn’s damaged, Trixie and Zecora are turned to stone, Derpy and Soarin are slopping their love-juice all over my floor, and Rarity...well..." She turned towards Rarity, who was still fussing over the love-couple's presence.
"I didn't mean it to!” Spike jumped in. “I mean...I never wanted to hurt anyone! I just..."
He trailed off as his eyes followed Twilight's glare, and found himself looking at Rarity frantically tugging at the blue-gray couple still fighting to stay hooked at the mouth.
"I thought you didn't want Rarity to know about your little crush," Twilight said quietly. "Why would you do something like this?"
Spike glanced around before leaning in to whisper to Twilight. "I read somewhere about an alicorn falling in love with a dragon." He glanced at the bookshelf, staring at the particularly thick green spine of one of the older, dustier books. "It kind of made me think, you know, about the future."
Twilight looked in his direction, eyeing the large book of old pony tales. She refrained from telling him that nothing in that book was based on fact.
"Look. I can understand you were upset, and I know I said some things I shouldn't. However, switching spells to try and force your crush to love you is not the way to make it happen." She was half-proud of herself for finally figuring this out, but kept herself focused on the situation. "We're going to discuss this downstairs," she said, turning her head to look narrow-eyed at the top of his head. "And you're going to help me fix this, understand? Even if it means travelling around the entire town, pony-by-pony, and feeding them all an antidote."
Spike made a loud gulping noise, twiddling his thumbs as Twilight walked towards the struggle in the middle of the room to help Rarity.
"We'll get started just as soon as this little fiasco here is cleaned up."
-----------------------------------
Soarin and Derpy proved to be most uncooperative, but Twilight and Rarity still managed to get them out of the library somehow. Luckily Rarity found herself preoccupied with polishing the floor again, giving Twilight ample time to chastise Spike, now quivering apprehensively in the corner. Twilight needed only to look at him and gesture to get him down the stairs.
The sun had now set, the windows reflecting the inside of the library as it glowed in the blaze of a dozen sconces around the walls. She led him through the fanciful room, straight up to the bookstand in the downstairs entryway (now rebuilt using vitreous enamel) and sat him down like a prisoner for interrogation at its base, his back resting against the stand.
"Okay, Spike!" Twilight said, standing over him. "Exactly what spell did you use?"
Spike trembled, grabbing his tail and chewing on it nervously between answers.
"It...it was something called 'couples generation'. I can show you the book! But I don't think it had any counter-spells in there..."
Twilight blinked a few times, the lines of her face fading a bit.
"Go on then," she said, flicking her head.
Darting his eyes around, he shot onto his feet and stumbled into the other room, returning with a thick black book adorned with an elaborate pink emblem on the front. His forefinger was wedged between the pages, open to the page with the spell.
Twilight tapped her hoof on the floor as Spike lay the book open to the marked page, revealing the same flowing cursive writing and symbols she had seen on the hill. However, this was a different spell than the one she had cast, the title covered by the remains of another page with the words "Couple's Generation" just above a fibrous tear where the rest of the spell had been torn off.
"You ripped out the whole spell?!" Twilight asked, looking up at Spike, now standing just to the left of the bookstand, the tip of his tail brushing his chin as his claws wrung around it. "How exactly did you pull this off?! Believe me, I would have noticed a page being hastily glued into my other book."
Spike continued wringing his tail out as he stuttered.
"W-w-well...see...I h-h-had a little help," he winced. Twilight's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Go on."
"I had...well...I had another unicorn help me out."
"Lyra?" Twilight said, her eyelids dipping further.
"Well...yeah. How did you know?" he said, squinting an eye.
"She's the strangest, most gullible pony I know," she said, blinking as she cocked her head. "I couldn't think who else would agree to a baby dragon's plan."
Spike looked back down at the floor, squeezing his tail so hard the spines cut into his palms.
"Well, she didn't exactly agree to anything..." Spike admitted. "In all honesty, I kinda...pretended the love-spell page fell out of the other book..."
He kept his head bowed as his eyes rolled up to meet hers.
"And you asked her to fix it for you," Twilight finished, head cocked with a smile. "How kind of her."
A nervous laugh tickling his lips as he backed up a bit.
"Actually," he said, "it was a bit trickier than that," he said with a grin. "I mean, I had to hide the title and everything, and I had to rip out the page just so so that-"
He stopped short as his eyes met up with Twilight's, now glaring at him. He fell quiet again, dropping his head again as he loosened his grip on his tail. Twilight breathed deep and leaned back a bit.
"And you say there's no counter-spell," she said, watching him finger his tail like a pungi. Spike glanced around the room, his eyes catching the mannequins in the corner. His mind drifted to Rarity, imagining her sitting at the sewing table with those half-moon glasses perked on her nose. Twilight's voice pierced his ears again.
"Right?"
Spike continued to stare at the equipment in the corner, wishing Rarity was down here with them. He bowed his head, turning to look down at the open book sitting on the carpet.
"Actually..." he said slowly.
Spike didn't even notice Twilight's surprised reaction as her ears perked in anticipation. He continuing to stare at the ripped page as the feelings of that day flooding back in a heated rage before spiralling into stomach-churning guilt. Above them, the sound of scrubbing drifted through the ceiling, perking Spike's ears. Twilight could tell something was eating away at him, but couldn't quite put her hoof on what it was.
"This wasn't the only book," he said barely above a whisper. "There was one other..."
"Another book?!" Twilight exclaimed, her eyes twinkling the reflection of the sconce flames. "You're sure! Oh, please, please, please tell me it's here in the library!" she said, stomping right up until they were inches apart.
Spike continued staring at the book, fighting an internal struggle that Twilight could only hint at. She watched the subtle blinks and twitches on his face as he considered what to tell her. Twilight's smile quivered.
"WELL?" she said, losing control.
Spike slowly looked up at Twilight, pupils dilated. Twilight stepped back, a feeling of fright seeping through her as she saw the pained expression on his face.
"I...Twilight, forgive me! I left it back in Canterlot!"
"CANTERLOT!" she shouted, Spike cradling his head back to the floor with his arms wrapped tightly around his tail. Twilight stopped and looked up at the ceiling with her ears perked for a moment, listening to the small silence above them before the sounds of scrubbing started up again.
"Canterlot?" she repeated, looking back down. "You're sure!"
"Yeah. I'm sure," he said quietly with the tiniest of nods.
"Do you at least remember the name of the book?"
Again, Spike subtly nodded, still staring at the floor. "It's actually the same book," he said softly. "They're part of a set. Our volume has the spells, but you need the second volume for counter-spells."
Twilight watched the pitiful creature in front of her, feeling her rage subside. She slowly walked up to the book beneath his gaze and closed it gently with her hoof, revealing the black cover and pink emblem splayed web-like beneath the thick curling title.
"Enchantments of Amore," she read aloud. "Volume I."
Her mind drifted away for a moment to the white towers of her old home. She remembered living in a library up in one of the towers before she had been sent down to Ponyville. In fact, she still remembered where it was. She toyed for a moment with paying a visit, perhaps saying hello to some of her old classmates she had never really gotten to know, maybe even stopping by to pay a visit to the Princess if she was-
Wait a minute! she thought, the brick of an idea striking her temple. THE PRINCESS! Of course! How could I not have thought of this before!
Spike watched as Twilight's internal struggle revealed itself as as set of eyes glowing brightly as her lids slid back, followed by her rearing onto her hind hooves with a loud "YES!". His eyes were no longer on the floor, staring up at this strange reaction as she walked up and rubbed her hoof lovingly into the dragon's head.
"This won't be a problem at all, Spike!" she said, turning to walk up the adorned staircase. "I'll just write a letter to the Princess! I'm sure she won't have any objection to helping one of her students get a book!"
"NO!" Spike yelled, holding a claw out as he lunged forward. She stopped mid-walk, rolling her eyes before swiveling around.
"What?"
Spike mouthed silently for a few seconds before stuttering.
"You...you can't ask the Princess!"
Twilight turned the rest of the way around now.
"Why not?" she said blankly, watching Spike wringing his tail again as his eyes darted to the ceiling, then to the stairs, then to the mannequins before settling on the book.
"Because...uh...because..."
Twilight's tiny smile emerged into a giggle as her hoof went to her lips. Twilight may be been bad at reading people, but she knew a guilty conscience when she saw one.
"It's okay, Spike!" she said with a smile. "She's not going to find out about you. I'm the only one who will be punishing you for this crime," she finished, punching her hoof towards him before swishing around to trot up the stairs.
"No!" Spike put out a claw, catching her as she turned to leave. "It's not that! I just-"
"What is it, Spike?" Twilight turned, her smile now a scowl, her hooves fidgeting as they held her at bay.
"It's the book! It's...well...it's not...allowed..." he trailed off, his entire body curling back.
Twilight mouthed the words "not allowed" as her eyes rolled down into a corner, finally giving up before snapping back to him. "What do you mean, not allowed?"
"Well..." Spike twiddled his thumbs again, keeping his head down as his eyes stayed innocently focused on hers, "it's...no one's really supposed to have it..." he said quietly. "it's kind of...they took it out of the buildings...and stuff..."
Spike watched in horror as Twilight's eyes widened and her pupils contracted, her bottom lip descending shakily.
"Out of the buildings..." she whispered. "Oh no. No! NO! SPIKE! You're not telling me the spell I cast came out of a...a banned book, are you?!"
Spike stared at his feet as he let out a squeak. "Maaaaaaybe?"
"SPIKE!" She shut her eyes as her head reared at the ceiling. "You're here to tell me that this book...the book on that floor right there! The one all this started out of is..." She looked around, lost for words before lunging onto the floor with a grimace. "Uuurge! You brought a banned book here from the Canterlot Library?!"
"Well it wasn't banned at the time!" Spike said with his arms out. Twilight let out a loud sigh as she walked aimlessly around the room.
"And to think! Here we are, suffering from a runaway spell that's taking over all of Ponyville. Ponies have turned to stone, Rarity's gone off to left field with infatuation, this whole library now resembles some kind of gaudy, twisted, fabric-laden brothel, and we can't get the one book with the counter-spell without risking massive fines and punishment because it just so happens to be BANNED!" Her hoof smashed the carpet on this last word.
Twilight breathed heavily through her nostrils for a few moments as her face sunk, her body facing off to the side now. Her hooves gave way as she finally sunk to the floor, burying her face in them. One way or the other, they were in trouble now. As soon as Princess Celestia discovered she had performed banned magic, it was over. Done. In fact, she was lucky to have not been caught in the first place when she was rescued from the hill. No, she thought. At this point, there really was only one option left.
"What are we going to do, Spike?" she mumbled into her hooves quietly. "We can't go back to Canterlot!"
"Well...why not!" Spike said, running up to her.
Twilight looked up from her hooves, shaking her head to make sure she heard correctly. She turned towards him with a deep breath as she switched into lecture mode.
"Well, for starters, my horn's damaged! Even if I wanted to teleport, I couldn't! And don't even think about the balloon," she put in as Spike raised a finger. "We need to do this without anyone questioning why we're there. And ideally, we'd need to do this without anyone even knowing we're there at all! Plus, it's a long way to get there on foot. It might be a few days travelling time. We simply don't have that kind of time. And why are you stuttering?!"
"B-bu-b-b-but what if another unicorn w-w-wa-w-was to..."
He glanced around the room again as he stopped completely before turning innocently back to Twilight.
"Go on" she said quietly.
"Well, I was thinking," he continued, no longer stammering, "if you can teleport other objects with your horn, why can't you teleport another pony?" he said, flinging his arms out behind him.
Twilight's mouth quirked as she considered this.
"You've put some thought into this already, haven't you..." she said. Spike shook in his place again, as if holding something back.
"That's what I've been doing all day!" he confessed, spreading his arms. "I've been trying to find another unicorn that could take me there! I was hoping I could get the book and come back here before you found out about all this!"
Spike stopped, again watching her blank face staring back at him.
"And you thought they'd just let you walk in and grab a banned book," she said blankly.
Spike lowered his head, grabbing his tail again as he brushed his foot back and forth across the carpet.
"Okay, so I hadn't quite thought it all the way through..." he said quietly.
Twilight sighed, looking down at the floor, then up at the ceiling, taking in the elaborate arches overhead. Dull thuds could now be heard coming from the floor above her.
Wait a minute...she thought, her mouth suddenly tilting as her brow furled. A unicorn that can teleport! She subtly shook her head before closing her eyes tight. It may have been crazy, but there was simply no way she could pass up an opportunity this good when it was sitting just on the other side of the ceiling like this.
"Well," Twilight sounded out very slowly, eyes still clinging to the ceiling as the thuds stopped for a moment, "I know at least one unicorn that knows how to teleport!"
She lowered her head back down to watch as Spike dropped his tail, eyes going wide. "And I'm pretty sure she'll be quite willing to help us, too!"
It was almost worth putting this plan forward simply to watch Spike's reaction. His pupils contracted as he stuck out a claw at her, stuttering "You...y-y-y-you can't be serious! You mean...you can't mean...her?!" He pointed a shaky claw up at the ceiling.
Twilight let out a laugh that sounded like a cackle as she got off the floor, surprised at how much she was enjoying this. "What are you worried about, Spike?" she said as she walked up to the stairs. "I'm not in love with her or anything!"
"I know. I just..."
"I'm just gonna ask, and see where things go! I mean...what's the worst that could happen?" Twilight said, turning around. Spike stood rooted to the spot as he watched her tail disappear up the stairs and around the corner.
Rarity was busy stomping on a few white towels on the floor as Twilight came into view. Her eyes glared at the floor as she brought her hooves down, as if the carpet was riddled with cockroaches. As Twilight came into her peripheral vision, her eyes darted up before swinging back to the floor again.
"Ah! Twilight! I think I've just about got this place cleaned up," she said, Twilight now watching the damp towels crinkling beneath her crushing hooves. "I have to admit, we really need to keep that door closed more often! Not that I blame you or anything, but if we're going to be living together like this, we need to establish some ground rules. Some of the things I had to touch on this floor were simply-" she cut off as she looked up at Twilight, her hooves relaxing to a stand-still.
"Is something wrong, dear?" she said.
"Oh, no!" Twilight said, putting on a quick, fake smile. "I just wanted to see how you were doing!"
"Oh, well, how kind of you dear," she said. "I'm actually just finishing up. There's really not much left to do here."
Twilight kept watching her pound her hooves into the floor, licking her lips before opening her mouth to speak. However, as Rarity glanced up, her hooves slowed down to light presses, and then kept slowing down, until they were sliding gently across the fibers. Her head stayed down as her eyes rolled up with a promiscuous smile.
"I've been thinking about tonight," she said simply, continuing to paw at the towels.
Twilight's words, already at the tip of her tongue, failed entirely as her eyes followed those hooves caressing the floor, Rarity's eyes still focused on her own.
"Tonight?" She said, backing up slightly and holding back a nervous laugh.
"Well, yes!" Rarity said, looking up completely, all but one of her hooves now stopped as the other swung freely, brushing the ground lightly. "It's the first time we'll finally get to be...intimate together!"
"Oh, dear! Yes! Yes, of course! Intimate..." Twilight said, coughing slightly as she regained her composure. "Uh, listen. Can I ask you a favor?"
Rarity tilted her head, her mouth curiously lined.
"Can you take me to Canterlot tomorrow? I kinda left something there I need..."
"Canterlot!?" she said, bolting up excitedly. "Why of course, dear! We'll take the first balloon in the morning!"
"Actually..." Twilight continued, "I was kinda hoping you'd teleport us there."
"Oh?" Rarity said, before Twilight could elaborate. She put a hoof up to her chin for a bit before shrugging it away. "Well, okay. Whatever you want, dear. Although I don't think I've ever teleported more than one pony at once!"
"Oh, no no no no no, you don't have to come with me-"
"But I do!" she interrupted, now wide-eyed as she forgot all about the towels she was standing on. "You have no idea how long it's been since I was last there!"
"Since the Grand Galloping Gala?" Twilight said meekly.
"Darling, I simply must come with you!" she reared back. "It would be...it would be like a date! A glorious date! Imagine us now! Strolling down the streets of Canterlot! Two lovers, side-by-side!" she said with a hoof majestically in the air.
Twilight mumbled things that barely sounded like words before falling silent.
"Anyway, don't worry about it. We'll work it all out in the morning," Rarity said, magicking the towels with her into the lavatory.
"Oh" Twilight said, watching Rarity's tail whip out of sight. "Okay...I guess..."
She turned slowly, putting one hoof in front of the other, directing herself back to the stairs.
"Twilight?" came a voice from behind her, making her stop short with one hoof still in the air. "You're going back downstairs?"
Twilight turned to see Rarity walking up to her, the towels put away.
"Oh, um...I'm just going to talk to Spike," she said, adding a huge fake smile as Rarity studied her for a bit. Rarity cocked her head as if to admonish her, but it faded quickly.
"Well, don't take too long, dear," she said, turning with a flair. "It is our first night together after all!"
"Oh, um, actually..." she said, turning away from the downstairs hallway, "I'm not sure I'm really in the mood..."
"Not in the mood?!" Rarity said, turning around with a dumbfounded look. "Don't be silly, Twilight! It's our first time! We have plenty of time for not in the mood after we've been married a while."
The word "married" tickled Twilight's lips, sending a sour taste down her throat.
"Seriously, Rarity," she said again, catching her mid-turn, "Is it all right if we hold off on being...er...intimate until tomorrow night?"
Rarity now stopped entirely, turning and walking back down the stairs.
"What are you trying to say, Twilight?" she said, trotting right up to Twilight, backing her up against the wall. "Is something wrong, dear?"
"No! I mean...uh...yes! Yes, something's...er...wrong."
Twilight averted her eyes as Rarity looked over her, staring at first at the hallway with the stairs, and then down at the carpet. She could feel Rarity's breath as it brushed against her hide, warming it with moisture each time. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Rarity slowly picked up one of her hooves, raising it up to her face and using it to gently push against her cheek. Twilight felt her head turn against her will until she was looking Rarity in the eyes. Rarity looked concerned, like a parent looking at a wounded child.
"Twilight?" she said, very quietly, stroking her cheek. Twilight backed up and felt her flank press against the wall. Rarity stepped in to fill the gap. Again, Twilight averted her eyes, looking off to the left catching the bed at the top of the stairs, then looking back and catching Rarity's tail as it whipped out from behind her.
"Twilight, dear..." she whispered again, leaning forward again so Twilight could feel the warm breath on her lips. "It's okay... Everything's going to be all right..."
As the hoof stroked gently against her hide, it began to move back towards her neck. Rarity leaned to her left and brought her lips beyond Twilight's face, walking closer and placing them right up to her ear, the feeling of her breath making them stand firm. Her hoof continued to gently stroke the side of her neck right down to the shoulder as she spoke her next words.
"Everypony's nervous during their first time. It's nothing to be ashamed of..."
"I......I......" she stuttered, shaking now. She felt heat emanate from the back of her body, spreading forward to her fluttering chest. The hoof on her neck threatened to guide her face into nuzzling Rarity's. She nearly gave in a few times, barely able to hold back as Rarity spoke again.
"I promise I'll be gentle," she said, her lips almost touching her ear. Twilight waited with bated breath for the moment her lips would actually grasp the tip of her ear. Her breath shook as she became aware of every movement her body made. The way her mouth had suddenly moistened, the way her chest expanded with each breath, the they way her stomach methodically churned and fluttered. And a tightening emanating from just beyond...
"Do come now, Twilight," Rarity said, pulling away from her. "This is a special night for us! We should enjoy it as much as possible, don't you think?"
As Rarity's body left her presence, the cold air hit her again, making her curl up a bit. Her hoof subconsciously reached underneath her, but she held it back as she realized what she was about to touch. The stairs to her right were open again, but her head turned to the left, watching Rarity from behind as she trotted up the steps, her tail whipping around suggestively. Twilight caught a glimpse of...something...and turned her head again as another wave spread over her body.
"Whoooboy!" Twilight sighed quietly. She panted at the ground a bit, trying to think about Spike. She forced herself to turn and walk, but found herself limping as she went up to the stairs.
"Okay, Twilight," she said to herself. "Keep it together. You can do this."
She took a few steps, cringing at the uncomfortable feeling as she moved her hind-legs. And as she neared the first of the steps, she paused. The cold hallway stood before her. The warm light of the chandelier stood behind. She could feel the heat from the candles striking her from behind, her knees slightly buckling.
She stood there panting and staring at the ground, unable to look up. Every thought kept turning into the feeling of that hoof on her face, those lips moving in to suckle her ear. That whisper! She shut her eyes tightly, grimacing.
Slowly, moving only her fore-legs, she turned, looking up at the bed with Rarity on her side looking down at her. Twilight's stomach contracted as her eyes wandered over her coat, her mind filling in the parts she couldn't see. Another wave washed over her, buckling her knees again slightly as she was tortured from holding back her fore-hoof.
Okay, Rarity, she thought at last, forcing her knees straight as the wave of heat fluttered through her chest. You want to do this? Then we'll do this.
Trotting up the stairs, stumbling horribly as she fought against her own body, she reached the top. Again, she averted her eyes from the provocative sight on the bed, her mind forming it vividly in her imagination instead.
"You look nervous, darling," Rarity said, her voice adding to the image in her head. "You're sure you're all right?"
Twilight looked around on the ground, finally spotting the basket on the floor that she had been looking for.
"There's something I have to do first, Rarity," she said, her voice shaking madly. She brought her head up so she could look Rarity in the eyes for just a moment. "I'll be right back. Don't...move!"
Grabbing Spike's bed with her teeth, she dragged it awkwardly down the stairs, groaning at first as her body's yearning for touch was satisfied by her own hind-legs. The basket thumped down every step as she felt for each one with her hooves.
Spike was waiting for her at the bottom of the steps, anticipating her arrival as the thumping of his basket piqued his curiosity.
"Did it work? Is she taking us to Canterlot?" His eyes went to the basket as Twilight reached the bottom. "Wait...what's tha...is that my bed?! Oh no! You're not...!"
Twilight kept sliding until the basket was tucked into the corner in the opposite room.
"What are you doing?!" Spike said, running up to her. "I sleep there!"
"You're out here tonight," Twilight said quickly, looking up from the basket at him, "Don't ask questions. Just...stay down here."
She made a break for the stairs without so much as a backwards glance.
"WAIT!" he shouted from behind her. "What does this – why are you – are we going tomorrow or what?!"
Twilight turned and walked backwards up the stairs, painfully aware of the way her hind-legs moved. "It's...I'll tell you in the morning. YES! We're going! We're doing – stuff – right now. Noisy stuff! Very, very noisy stuff! Nothing's wrong! Just...don't come up here! We're just...stay down here get some sleep I'llseeyouinthemorningGOTTAGO!"
Leaving Spike standing wide-eyed and agape, she shot up the stairs, charged by the burning sensation just below her flank. Each stair she landed on shot another hum through her, pushing her to go faster. She raced through the tunnel, into the room, around the stairs, not stopping until she was right up at the bed.
"Goodness, Twilight! Are you all right?!"
Rarity was propped on her side now, her eyes wide as she watched Twilight canter up to her, completely out of breath. Twilight's eyes shot straight down at an area subtly covered by Rarity's pose, immediately glancing back up into her eyes as she realized what she was looking at. Rarity's mouth was slightly open, causing Twilight's mind to conjure the feeling of those lips around her ear as she walked, struggling right up to the edge of the bed, shaking with every breath.
Rarity was taken aback. But, as she slowly recognized Twilight's disquiet as something other than nervousness, her eyes began to relax. Twilight watched as Rarity's mouth slowly closed into the tiniest glimpse of a smile, her tongue flicking out to moisten her lips. Twilight did likewise. Their eyes met, and for a moment neither of them moved.
Twilight opened her mouth to say something – perhaps Rarity's name – and found herself lunging forward, cutting off Rarity's wide-eyed gasp as their lips locked. Her mind collapsed under the siege of impulse as her body leaped onto the bed, meshing with Rarity's as it surrendered to the waves of fire engulfing her. She could feel Rarity's hooves gliding over her back, her shoulders, her sides. Twilight's hooves yearned to go further, but held back, keeping them tangled in Rarity's mane as she brought her lips down to Rarity's neck.
As Twilight sunk lower, she felt her ear brush against Rarity's mouth and gave a cry as Rarity responded with a flick of her tongue. Hearing Twilight's reaction, Rarity seemed to get the message, and Twilight suddenly found herself gasping and holding on for dear life as Rarity's mouth wrapped entirely around it. She felt her hoof unconsciously slip downwards, exploring every inch of Rarity along the way, breathing quickly at the overwhelming sensation around her ear. Rarity was so busy she barely sensed the hoof wandering down her body. Twilight brought it lower, inch by inch, hoping to find what she was looking for.
Rarity suddenly stopped, now catching on to what Twilight was doing. She pulled back. "Oh my!" she said, glancing down at Twilight's hoof. "Twilight, you naughty mare!" She looked up at Twilight, smiling. "Look at you! Not so nervous anymore, are you?"
Rarity lifted Twilight clean off her, tossing her onto her back on the bed. "Not just yet," she said, leaning over and placing her hoof just over Twilight's...place. "Why don't I show you how I like it, first?"
Twilight simply nodded. And smiled.
-----------------------------------
Twilight slowly opened her eyes the next morning, trying not to think about last night. Small memories flashed before her, which she quickly pushed back. The first few rounds hadn't been too bad, but some of the things they had done towards the end had gotten a little...wild.
Starting to get up, she noticed she was holding on to her pillow particularly tightly and loosened her grip, reaching one of her hooves up to rub her eyes. She sat up slowly, bringing her other hoof up, and started rubbing her face furiously, as if trying to get something nasty off of it. She was careful not to touch her horn. It wasn't particularly sore or anything. It was just, after all the places it had been, she wasn't sure it would ever be clean again.
Twilight sat up on her elbow and looked at Rarity's slumbering form. Thoughts raced through her head, remembering all the awkward details of what they had done together. What exactly happened last night, anyway? That couldn't have been...that wasn't the spell that had made her that excited, was it? Oh, Twilight didn't know. All she could remember was the way Rarity approached her, followed by that amazing feeling.
Rarity stirred for a few minutes before opening her eyes and looking up at her.
"Morning, dear!" she sang sweetly, smiling peacefully. "I bet you slept soundly! You made quite a scene last night!"
Twilight blushed slightly as Rarity rolled out of bed.
"Well! I'm going to shower up!" she said, heading for the lavatory. "I highly suggest doing so yourself, dear. That bed is anything but clean, after last night!"
Twilight jumped off the bed at these words, staring at the sheets a few minutes just to be sure.
"I'll be out in a minute, dear!" she said, closing the bathroom door behind her. Then, opening it a peak and sticking her head out, "Although, if you'd care to join me...!"
Twilight shrunk back a bit, pushing the sudden host of images out of her head.
"I...think I'm fine by myself, thanks."
"Suit yourself!" Rarity finished, closing the door.
Twilight stared at the door as she thought to herself. Perhaps last night wasn't such a bad idea after all. Rarity certainly seemed in a good mood this morning, and Twilight had most definitely learned a lot in the hours they spent together. Turning away from the door, Twilight cantered down the stairs to find Spike curled up in his bed, snoring loudly.
"Spike!" Twilight said, nudging him slightly. “Spike, are you awake?”
Spike let out a gurgling noise, too tired to let out a proper moan.
“This is it, Spike!” she said. “Rarity’s agreed to take us to Canterlot today. It shouldn’t be long now...”
Spike stirred a bit, but didn’t get up.
“Oh, Spike! I hope I wasn’t too loud or anything. You seem exhausted!”
Spike finally turned and sat up, rubbing his eyes for a while.
“Huh?” he said. “I’m always exhausted!”
He slumped back into his bed.
“I'm just glad you actually convinced her to take us there! You seemed so...weird last night, I was beginning to think the whole thing just wouldn't work!”
Spike had closed his eyes again and was snoring within seconds. Twilight couldn’t blame him. Both of them knew that Rarity always took a long time to get ready. Twilight turned to go back upstairs.
“Oh, by the way Twilight,” said Spike, lazily sitting up, his eyes almost drunken from exhaustion. "What exactly were you doing up there last night, anyway?"
Twilight stopped dead in her tracks as her eyes bugged.
"Uh...just...just a game! That's all! Nothing serious or anything. Just a game." She turned to look at him with an utterly ridiculous smile on her face. Spike glared at her with an odd expression.
"Pretty loud game, if you ask me," he said. "I thought some pony was trying to murder you two up there! I mean, what was with all the screaming?"
Twilight backed up some more, her smile widening as her eyes darted around the room.
"Just some light playful fun, that's all!" she said, looking at Spike still sitting innocently in his basket.
"With...screaming," he said.
Twilight's lips came together as an equally ridiculous smile pulled taut against her face, her eyes darting around the room again.
"That was just...part of the competition!" she said quickly, her eyes finally resting on his. "Who can scream the loudest."
"And the shouts of 'Stop! Please stop!'?"
Twilight thought for a moment.
"Tickle fight," she finally said.
"And 'right there!'?"
"Uh...target practice?"
"And that sound of you two slapping each other in the face? I mean, what was that all about?!"
Twilight thought for a moment before murmuring in the corner of her mouth. "Oh...right. Face..."
Spike finally flailed his arms into the air as he collapsed back onto his pillow. "You know what? Forget it! I'll just ask Pinkie Pie. She knows all the fun games around town."
Twilight held her breath in case any more questions came, but Spike was already starting to snore again. Letting out a sigh of relief, she headed back upstairs, getting out some parchment and a quill with great difficulty as she stood at her desk to think. It took a while for her to get her conversation with Spike out of her head, but she finally convinced herself he wasn't going to question her anymore about it, and turned her full attention to the monumental task of retrieving a banned book from Canterlot.
Twilight and Spike both knew that banned books didn’t stay in the central Canterlot Library. There was no section there to contain such books. Instead, they were carted off to Princess Celestia’s personal library in the castle, where they could only be accessed by ponies with the proper permissions. This had to be thought through. They would need a plan.
Twilight got up and started meandering around the room, letting her mind wander. She did this quite frequently, in fact. It drove Spike completely mad.
She looked over at the curtain and saw that the DJ was gone. She must have packed up and left after they fell asleep. Now that she thought about it, they had been so loud last night that Twilight had barely noticed the music. Twilight felt a tinge of blood rush to her face. She really didn't want word to get out about what she had done, and made a mental note to find Vinyl when this was all over, just to be sure.
Forcing this to the back of her mind, she pushed her thoughts to how the day should go. She considered how Rarity would fit into the plan, what she would say to her, how Spike could be of use, if there was any weakness that could be exploited within the castle from the little she had seen of the inside...
She wandered out onto the balcony and noticed the mail still sitting there from before, making her thoughts wander to the incident with Soarin and Derpy, chuckling slightly. It seemed much funnier now, looking back. The letters on the balcony were mostly dry now, and upon closer inspection, they appeared to be gold-wrapped, which she found somewhat unusual. If her horn wasn’t damaged, she might have opened them on the spot out of curiosity.
She walked to the edge of the balcony and stared out at the town. Some of the ponies were already outside. And, not surprisingly, many of them were showering a second pony with affection. Twilight stared at the strange scene unfolding before her, her smile starting to fade.
It was another hour before Rarity was finally out of the shower and preparing her dress. Twilight had spent most of this time thinking out plans in her head, put out by the fact she couldn't write without magic. She would have loved to have a map, or even a written plan.
“The shower’s all yours, dear,” Rarity said, stepping out of the lavatory. “I’m afraid your own dress isn’t as...well...prepared as it should be. But it should still look good enough to be seen in public.”
“Oh, no!" Twilight smiled, "I really wasn’t planning on wearing anything there. It’s not that kind of-”
“Twilight, really! This isn’t Fillydelphia we’re going to. This is Canterlot! You simply must go in formal attire!”
“Rarity, really,” Twilight said with a scowl, “I lived there before, remember? It’s fine!”
Rarity pouted at her in a horribly strained way. Twilight narrowed her eyes.
“Rarity...” Twilight said more slowly. “I am not – dressing – up – for – this.”
Rarity walked up to her, but didn’t get anywhere near enough to touch her, believing her still stained from the previous night.
“Please, Twilight?” she whined softly. “Can’t you at least do this for me?”
Rarity was now pouting painfully in Twilight’s face. Twilight let out an exasperated groan as she leaned her head down.
“Fine” she said through gritted teeth.
“Wonderful!” Rarity said. “Now! I think we should plan out all the places we want to go! I've been thinking about it all morning!”
Twilight was pressing her hoof so hard into her face it hurt.
“Rarity,” she said, “there’s something I have to tell you.”
Rarity was walking around the carpet, busily ticking off placing she wanted to visit.
“Pony Star’s Coffee Shop...the Seven-Hoof Cafe...OOO! And that new mall they just opened! What was it called? The Gold-Tooth Stallion?”
“Rarity!” Twilight yelled out again.
“Oh, dear! I’m just so excited! And everypony will see us together, and we’ll-”
“RARITY!” Twilight screamed, bringing her to a halt. Twilight caught her breath, ignoring Rarity's offended gaze.
“Look,” Twilight explained, “I know you’re excited and all, but I really have something I need to explain!”
“What is it, darling?” Rarity said, switching back to that same concerned look she had last night. “You’re not nervous again, are you?”
“NO!” Twilight shouted, a little louder than she intended, making Rarity take a few steps back. Twilight took a deep breath.
“No, it’s not that,” she repeated. “It's just...this isn’t that kind of visit,” she finally said. “The only reason we're going there is to get something I left. We really can't stay long enough to do anything else.”
Rarity’s face went blank for a moment before she smiled with a nervous laugh.
"Well, Twilight! I mean...we're already going to be there anyway! It would be silly not to take advantage of-"
"It's not that kind of visit!" Twilight explained before Rarity could finish. "We're not going to a mall! We're not going to a restaurant! And we sure as heck are not attending any formal plays or performances! This is pick-up-and-leave only!"
Rarity stared, gaping in astonishment, blinking a few times. Twilight watched as her lips quivered for a moment, her face scrunching up as her pupils dilated.
“But...but Twilight!” she stuttered. “It’s Canterlot! All those...those shops, and...and restaurants, and...and shows!”
Large tears crested over her twitching eyes, on the brink of escaping down her cheeks. Twilight grimaced as she forced herself not to bring her hoof to her face again.
“Rarity, there will be plenty of time for that some other day,” Twilight said. “Today, we're just gonna go there, grab what I need, and come right back!”
Rarity stood there trembling for a bit.
“But.......but.......”
“I’m sorry Rarity, but I really don’t have time to do any of those other things!”
Rarity started shaking maddeningly, her face horribly scrunched as tears flooded down her face. She took a few shaky breaths as her body pulled back, trying to hold something in. Twilight realized what she had done a split second before Rarity completely broke down, crashing into the floor in a cascade of tears.
“BUT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SPE-HE-HE-HE-HE-HEEEEEEECIAAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAALLLL!”
Rarity was beating her hooves against the ground now like a temper-tantrum foal. Twilight backed up a few steps, unable to take her eyes off the wreck on the floor before her.
“PLEEE-HE-HE-HE-HEEASE, TWILIGHT! PLEEEEASE JUST LET ME DO THIS WITH YOU! PLEEE-HE-HE-HE-HEEEASE!”
Completely out of options, she made a dash for the stairs and immediately felt a weight against her ankle. She looked down to see Rarity's hooves latched tightly around her hind leg, her eyes closed tight as she screamed up at her.
“PLEEEEEASE, TWILIGHT! JUST ONE DAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAY!”
“Uuuuuurgh!” Twilight growled loudly.
Pulling with every muscle in her body, she proceeded to drag Rarity down the red-carpeted stairs with her, listening to her whining the whole way as her body thumped down each individual stair, leaving a wet trail of tears behind her.
“Spike!” Twilight tried yelling above the screaming. “Spike! Help me out here!”
“What did you do!” Spike said, racing up to them as they reached the bottom stair, squeezing his ears with both claws with a grimace.
“I don’t know! I was just trying to tell her what we were doing in Canterlot, and she...well...”
Both of them watched as Rarity continued bawling on the floor, Spike looking up pleadingly as Twilight bent her head trying to hide her ears.
“Do something!” Spike shouted.
Twilight tried to think, but everything kept being drowned out by the incessant screaming.
“RARITY!” she screamed, turning awkwardly against her captured hoof to look at her. “RARITY, IT’S ALL RIGHT! JUST...STOP!”
Rarity immediately stopped whining, but her face looked terrifying. Her coat was drenched and her eyes puffy, her face now lined with scrunch marks. She brought her huge dilated eyes up to meet hers, mouth trembling as she blinked.
“Look, Rarity," Twilight said, finally able to think again. "I know this could have been something special for us. And I’m sorry...I’m really sorry...if I didn’t thoroughly explain this. But...well...”
She looked over at Spike, who backed up with his claws out in front of him shaking his head. Twilight sighed as she turned back to the white wreck of a mare.
“Here’s the truth, Rarity. The hard cold truth.” She took a deep breath. “That thing I need is...well...it was confiscated!”
Rarity's trembling stopped. Twilight watched as Rarity's eyes shut tightly and then re-opened, staring blankly. Hooves loosened against her ankle as Twilight pulled it free, moving her flank around so she could face Rarity properly.
“Con...confiscated?” she croaked.
Twilight bent her knees and dropped onto the floor with her, bending her head down until their faces were about a foot apart before continuing.
“Yes. It's been confiscated," she said. "And we have to get it back. Only, it’s...well...it’s being held in the castle, and we need to get to Canterlot so we can try and...retrieve it. And...well...the only way to really get it back is to...to..."
She again looked over at Spike, begging him to help her out, but Spike just kept staring. “We’re going to have to break into the castle,” she said quickly.
Twilight made another astonishingly goofy smile, the muscles in her face pulled taut. Rarity looked like she had just been told to make a dress covered in parasprites. Spike was now facing the wall, lightly brushing his foot against the floor with his hands behind his back. Rarity's face relaxed slightly as she spoke next.
"S...s-s-s-so let me get this straight..." Rarity said slowly, her eyes darting over to Spike before looking back at Twilight. "You're telling me that we're going to be leaving our home in Ponyville to go all the way to the elaborate castle city of Canterlot...to commit a crime?!"
Twilight cringed at how bad this sounded upfront.
“No no no no no, Rarity!” she said. “No, you see, this thing, it was taken from me unjustifiably! And the Princess...well...she just won’t listen!”
She held her breath as Rarity let these words sink in. Her face was blank, but her eyes screamed out in pity, praying that this was merely a joke. Again, her eyes darted back to Spike, who was busy fiddling his claws now as he looked down at the floor, then darted back to Twilight, who widened her ludicrous smile to insane proportions.
At last, Rarity took in a huge slow breath before letting it out in a deep sigh, deflating like a weather balloon. Her chin hit the ground as her eyes drooped. She stayed there for a moment like a lost puppy, hopeless in a world unfamiliar to her.
However, a few seconds later, Rarity pawed lightly at the ground and slowly hoisted herself up with great effort. Twilight followed suit. Rarity's head was bowed for a second as she studied the floor, but soon it was lifting to meet Twilight's gaze. There was something in her eyes now that Twilight couldn't quite put a hoof on. At first, she thought it was pity, her pupils contracting back to normal size as she slumped carefully up to Twilight in a very different way than last night. Once again, her words were quiet as she whispered them inches from Twilight's face, but this time they sounded more solemn.
“This...this thing...” Rarity croaked out, now barely audible. “It’s really that important to you?”
Twilight looked back into her eyes, trying hard not to let Rarity’s pained expression spread. She swallowed hard, finally starting to recognize what she saw in Rarity's eyes.
“It’s the only important thing in the world right now,” she said, painfully aware of how each word she spoke affected Rarity.
Rarity gave the tiniest hint of a smile, her eyes flicking to the floor for a moment before glancing back up.
“You...have any idea...what this could mean for us...?” she said, moving in slightly as her lips trembled subtly. “Breaking into the castle is...well...it’s a capital offense! We could be imprisoned for it! Or worse!”
“Rarity, this thing...this thing is worth the risk,” Twilight said, shaking her head as she breathed deep. “Nothing is more important right now. Well...almost nothing,” she added as Rarity gave her a look.
“And then...” Rarity continued, backing up slightly as she mused to herself, “...even after we were freed...think of our reputations! Reduced to common criminals!”
“Rarity, you don’t have to do this!" she said. "Just...just teleport me there! Just me! You don’t have to have anything to do with this!”
Rarity breathed deeply, Twilight's words finally striking something inside her. Her face pulled back together as her eyes sparked back to life. She looked back up at Twilight with a knowing smile.
“Nonsense, Twilight,” she said, stepping right up to her and placing her face up against Twilight's as if they were facing off in a competition. “This thing is important to you. Therefore it’s important to me.”
Twilight's breath was nearly taken away by this. She knew the spell affected infatuation, but she had never imagined it would trigger this level of sheer devotion. "Really? You really mean that?"
Rarity put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder, smiling wide as her eyes bored into hers.
"Yes, really," she said. "I support you no matter what, Twilight. Even if it means doing something...unconventional."
Rarity took her hoof off Twilight's shoulder as she swept away, immediately sinking back into her usual pompous demeanor as she trotted towards the stairs
“Besides,” she said with a flair, “if you’re going to stand any chance of getting into the castle, you’re going to need – my – help.”
Twilight shook her head, completely baffled as she and Spike followed Rarity back to the second floor.
“Huh?”
Rarity turned back to them as they reached the second floor, standing in the center under the chandelier.
“I know it’s hard to believe," she continued, "but I’ve learned a thing or two about the castle from my...clientele,” she said. “And it’s by far and away one of the most difficult task that any amateur criminal could undertake!”
“BUT!” she emphasized, “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve that will help us get in there. I just...promise me Twilight, that this is something that really, really is that important.”
Twilight looked into Rarity’s eyes, and saw a fear there that Rarity almost never showed. For a moment she stood there, feeling the weight of this decision, realizing the risks that would be undertaken. She imagined the guards sending them to prison. She imagined Spike being taken away. She imagined Rarity freed from her trance only to have her reputation and business ruined. And finally, she imagined Princess Celestia and her harsh disappointment in her star pupil.
“I promise, Rarity,” Twilight finally said with a deep breath. “This really is that important.” |
Ganymede | 686 | 3 | DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Rarity,Soarin,Spike,Spitfire,Trixie,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Twilight's Horn | One of Twilight's Spells goes horribly wrong! | complete | 184 | 11 | <p>When one of Twilight's spells goes horribly wrong, the implications prove disastrous. Her horn is damaged, one of her friends is sorely affected, and the rest of Ponyville may be at great risk. It's now up to Twilight to figure out how to fix everything before it's too late.</p> | teen | 2011-10-28T15:12:08+00:00 | 2011-10-28T15:12:08+00:00 | 9,022 | III
Sonic Magiboom
“This is crazy!” Twilight whispered.
“Well...you’re the one who wanted to do this,” Rarity said quietly in return.
“I know...I just...”
Rarity, Twilight, and Spike were crouched in the foliage within the immediate surroundings of the castle. Getting to Canterlot had not been easy. Rarity had struggled to teleport them all one-at-a-time, and could only get them to a very specific location. It had taken some careful planning to determine the best route with which to worm their way up to the castle without being noticed.
Approaching the main gate directly was simply not an option. They may as well simply turn themselves in. However, Rarity had learned of other, much smaller entrances surrounding the castle, which Twilight had forgotten about since she had last lived here. The one they were at now, according to Rarity, was the one that was closest to the royal’s personal library.
A moat surrounded the entire castle, carved into the marble floor of the city. It was widest at the central gate, but varied greatly as it wormed its way around the castle. At this particular entrance, it wasn’t more than a few feet in diameter. However, it still required a small wooden drawbridge to be extended, which Rarity explained was opened from the inside.
Two royal Pegasus guards stood at the ready at the bridge’s entry point, adorned with the usual bronze armor and blue crest. Twilight and the others could easily see the two guards from the side from their vantage point. Neither of them moved. Neither of them blinked. Neither of them even looked alive!
“That’s the thing about the royal guards,” Rarity whisper next to Twilight. “They’re not allowed to move except in very strict ways.”
Rarity tilted her head slightly towards a brown delivery stallion who approached the gate down the gleaming marble path.
“Keep a close eye on the guard on the right,” she said.
As the pony approached, both guards blocked him as their wings clanged outwards.
“HALT!” they said.
Rarity hinted at Twilight with her eyes.
“See?” Rarity pointed out. “The bridge isn’t even down! So why would they even need to block him with their wings?” Rarity smiled slyly. “That’s one of the traditions I’m talking about. They have to follow very strict rules, even if they don’t always make sense.”
Twilight continued to watch as the delivery pony explained his purpose. The guards seemed to be considering him as they lowered their wings. Neither guard even-so-much-as blinked throughout the entire explanation. The poor delivery pony seemed to have become used to putting up with this nonsensical system by now, as Twilight could only imagine the number of packages he had delivered to this very gate by this time in his career.
“Now...watch carefully,” Rarity whispered.
Twilight strained to watch as the conversation came to a close. The delivery pony gave a small sigh of relief as he thanked the guards.
“There!” Rarity burst out quietly.
Twilight tried to see where she was pointing, but the only thing she saw next was the drawbridge being extended, followed by the stallion walking casually through the entrance as it closed swiftly behind him.
“How...how did they know?” Twilight whispered.
“Did you not see it?” Rarity said. “There was a signal!”
Twilight looked over at her in confusion.
“The one on the right there...he gave a small gesture with his wings!”
Twilight watched as another group approached the gate. These were much more upscale ponies. Guests, in fact! Each of the three mares were dressed as formally as they had for the Gala, and Twilight even recognized one of the dresses as one of Rarity's own designs. Rarity must have noticed, giving a small shudder of excitement next to Twilight.
Once again Twilight watched as the guards swung out their wings to stop them. Two of the mares giggled as the guards gave their usual shout. The third one was in front, holding her hoof out as she approached one of the guards. Staring as close as she could, Twilight watched as the guards swept their eyes across the note being held out in front of them. And then...
“I...I think I saw it!” Twilight said.
It was very subtle. Just the tiniest flutter as the guard on the right lifted his wings. It couldn't have been more than an inch.
Rarity pointed at the wall next to the drawbridge. “There’s a small peephole on that wall,” she said. “The gatekeepers use it to keep an eye on the guards to make sure no pony messes with them or tries to abuse the system. However, it has a very limited field of view, and they can’t always see exactly what’s going on. That should make just enough difference to give us the upper hand.”
“How many gatekeepers are there?” Twilight whispered.
“Usually only one,” Rarity explained. “They never really need any more than that.”
Twilight watched as the group marched across the bridge and into the castle, the gate closing quickly behind them.
“If all goes well, you should be able to sneak inside very quickly.” She turned to the dragon sitting nervously on the ground next to them. “How are you doing, Spike? Are you ready?”
Spike hadn't said a word since their arrival, his eyes turning every which way. Judging from his demeanor as they had journeyed to the castle, you might have thought the city was undergoing some kind of zombie apocalypse.
“I think so...” he said shakily. “I just...you’re sure I won’t get in trouble for this?”
“Probably not, Spike,” Rarity explained. “They like to pretend to be strict, but they tend to make exceptions for those who are too young to understand.”
“You remember your signal?” Twilight asked Spike.
“As soon as the drawbridge is down,” Spike recited.
“And yours?” Rarity looked at Twilight.
Twilight blushed slightly, remembering her signal.
“Yeah...I remember, Rarity.”
“Good. Now, I’ll go out first. I’ve only dated a Pegasus once, but I learned a thing or two during that time. Watch and learn, you two!”
Rarity left the comfort of their hiding spot, being careful not to dishevel herself too much. She was dressed in her Gala outfit, and had maintained an impressively tidy appearance, despite being hidden amongst leaves and branches. There were a few small scorch marks here and there, but for the most part she had hidden them well. Twilight could only stare in amazement at how well Rarity was able to present herself, even under such pressure.
Twilight couldn’t hear all that well from her current position, but she could tell Rarity was approaching the guards in the same way as the previous group had. There was a playfulness about it – an art, which Twilight had never been taught. She watched carefully, fascinated with what her plan was.
As Twilight looked closely, she noticed Rarity starting to change things up now. A lot. Rarity was getting very close to the guards, changing her poise to a more relaxed state, and was making...flirtatious gestures. Twilight looked around, hoping she wasn’t drawing too much attention, but realized luckily that no one was around who could see.
“What’s she doing, Twilight?” Spike said to her right. “I can’t see...”
Twilight kept an eye on Rarity now, who was so close to one of the guards they were almost touching. It looked as though she was whispering something to him.
And then...
“Oh my-!”
Twilight had to stifle a gasp. Rarity, from what she could see, had leaned in and was locking lips with the guard on the right, who was powerless to resist. She couldn’t quite read his expression, but she guessed it would have been surprised satisfaction. He certainly seemed to be liking it.
And liking it a little too much!
Twilight watched as his wings shuddered slightly, and then started to lift up. Rarity seemed to notice this too as she quickly pulled back, returning to her stately pose. His partner didn't seem to notice anything, and Twilight guessed that Rarity hadn't been entirely visible to the gatekeeper. The guard stood there staring at her in suppressed shock, his wings returning to their sides as he struggled to maintain his stock-still pose.
And then...
“It’s opening!” Twilight said. “The gate, Spike! It’s open!”
Spike jumped up.
“Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh-” he quavered.
“Don’t think, Spike! Just go!”
Spike jumped out of the brush and towards the bridge, stumbling as fast as his two feet could carry him.
“AH!” Rarity screamed. “Little Billy! What are you doing!”
Twilight giggled as Rarity’s voice carried easily to Twilight’s hiding place now, the situation quickly heating up. Spike was running across the drawbridge as the guards signaled for it to be closed.
“NO!” Rarity shouted, putting on a show of distress and panic. “Not little Billy! You’ve GOT to open the gate! He’s run in there!”
Twilight knew where this was going, but could only stare in amazement as it unfurled before her.
Within seconds, the gate had opened again, but not because the guards had given a signal. The opening bridge slowly revealed the gatekeeper, who was running frantically out of the castle entrance, screaming wildly. Spike was clinging on his back for dear life, a large set of flames licking dangerously close. The gatekeeper's mane was on fire.
“AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!” he screamed as the flames licked around his head. Dashing quickly onto the half-opened bridge, he leaped spectacularly off the side, splashing spectacularly in the moat. The bridge continued to drop the rest of the way under its own weight. Immediately one of the guards turned, leaving his armor behind as he leaped after the flailing gatekeeper.
Just before Rarity ran off, Twilight saw her give a small flick of her tail. Twilight's heart fluttered as a shot of adrenaline race through her body. THE SIGNAL!
Twilight waited until the second guard had chased Rarity down the road a ways before getting up. She was painfully aware of how exposed she was now. However, with the gatekeeper underwater and the guards distracted, there was no pony left to notice her as she walked silently across the bridge, through the gate, and out of sight.
She was in!
-----------------------------------
Twilight bolted down the ornate hallway, adorned with blue carpet and marble walls. Sconces and tapestries lined the walls between the wooden doors, giving a dark flickering look in the windowless corridors as she raced towards the library.
It was amazing how little of the castle was actually used. Most of the royals and celebrities that visited the castle spent their time in very specific chambers, leaving the rest of the castle vacant. This proved most advantageous to Twilight, who wanted least of all to be seen by passersby.
Every so often, Twilight would pass by a door through which conversations could be heard. Most of these were too political or business-oriented to garner any interest. However, one conversation struck her interest very harshly.
“...with what’s happening in Ponyville!” the first person finished, making Twilight stopped short.
“What's this? Ponyville, you say!” came a second voice in response.
Twilight went very quiet, her heart thudding loudly as she backed up against the door and leaned in to listen.
“Well, I heard that the place has been having some...er...difficulties.”
“Oh, please. That small place? What could possibly be of interest in such a rural town.”
“You haven’t heard anything?”
Twilight heard shuffling as one of the ponies leaned in to speak quieter. Twilight pressed her head a bit harder against the surface of the door.
“Well, apparently it has to do with the incident a few days back. You remember. The one Princess Celestia had to attend to? Well, everyone thought it was just a fluke! A small prank or something gone terribly wrong. But now, you see, it’s starting to look like something different!”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not just the ones involved on the hill, apparently. It’s the whole town! Everypony down there is starting to lose their minds! The ambassadors for the town are completely driven mad by it. They say they can’t even speak to the Mayor!”
A quiet gasp came through the door as Twilight leaned in closer, placing her hooves up onto the surface now.
“What happened?!”
“Well, nopony really knows...but from what I gather from the sporadic conversations I’ve overheard, it’s some kind of love spell!”
“You mean...”
There was a silence as Twilight leaned so hard against the door she threatened to collapse right through it.
“Why doesn’t the Princess do something about it?!”
“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? I mean, it wasn’t too bad earlier today. But by now we could be looking at chaos! Pretty soon she’ll have to get involved!”
“And...and she didn’t foresee...?!”
Twilight could tell by her inflection that she was entering a somewhat taboo subject area.
“Dear, don’t even think about it. The things the Princess foresees are beyond what we can comprehend. There’s no doubt she knew what that spell was the moment it went off on that hill.”
“And she didn’t think to do anything...”
There was a small silence, followed by the clang of china on wood.
“Dear, you say that as if the Princess has nothing better to do than attend to a small town! She has much bigger things to worry about than fixing spells that go wrong. I’m just worried that things have now escalated beyond what the town can deal with on its own! The Princess won’t be happy at all if she has to go down there a second time.”
“So she really thought the town could fix something this big?!”
“The Princess puts her trust in us!”
Twilight could tell she was started to get irritated.
“She only fixes problems herself when she absolutely has to. Otherwise, nopony would ever learn! That’s the way it works. She hates having to take matters into her own hooves.”
“So...if this situation doesn't fix itself pretty fast...”
Twilight had heard enough. She pulled her head away from the door, regaining her balance. Her head was swimming from adrenaline, as the words from the conversation bounced around in her brain.
Oh this isn’t good...this isn’t good at all...
Twilight stumbled a bit, regaining her composure before darting down the hallway. She was close now. She could feel it. Rarity’s description led her to believe it was just around the corner.
Twilight let out an audible sigh of relief when the large ornate set of double-doors to the library finally came into sight on the left-hand wall. Rarity had been a godsend so far. She never could have found this place without her.
The right-hand door was slightly ajar, but Twilight didn’t dare bolt straight through. Tiptoeing as lightly as she could, she put her ear up to to door.
Nothing... she thought, listening intensely.
Slowly, being careful not to make any noise, she pushed the door wider, placing her head slightly through so she didn’t open it more than she had to. A relatively small room presented itself, not much larger than the downstairs of her own library. It was somewhat darker than hers, the blue carpet giving way to a dark marble tiling. The books were lined on a set of rosewood shelves all placed against the walls, allowing the rest of the room to be open. Stepping in a bit further, she noticed an elaborate chandelier hanging from the tall ceiling above, providing the only light in the room.
She slipped further through the door, until she was practically all the way in the room before looking the rest of the way around. She caught a glimpse of some chairs in the corner, as well as a small black sofa with a-
Twilight stopped dead, a wave of feelings washing over her. It was like being slapped in the face, kicked in the stomach, and knocked upside the head all at the same time.
Her first feeling was fear. Fear of having been caught. For the library was already occupied. A single pony lay on her stomach, a large book in front of her, her head bolted up to stare at Twilight like a deer in the headlights.
Her second feeling was extreme heat. Her body had lit up like a furnace, her heart speeding to a frenzy. This was accompanied by a sudden urge to grab something and hold it close to her, to comfort her.
Her third feeling disturbed her the most. It was the same feeling she had last night, just after Rarity had approached her in such a seductive way. The tightening was so bad now, she wasn't sure she would be able to move.
The last feeling was pure shock and realization. She recognized the pony sitting on the couch. She had only met her once before, but that hardly mattered. She would recognize her anywhere. For that special pony sitting in the corner was nonother than the alicorn responsible for all of nighttime in Equestria, the giver of light through the moon, Princess Celestia's sister:
Princess Luna! she thought, trying but failing to back out of the room.
A deathly silence encompassed the room as Twilight fought her sudden feelings of infatuation. There was a physical rope hooked into her heart, tugging her mercilessly towards the alicorn in the corner. The fire under her flank was unbearable.
Remember why you're here, Twilight she told herself. Remember the book!
But however much she tried to think of something else, thoughts of her and Luna crept back, invading her mind. Uncomfortable thoughts. Looking at Luna's eyes was like staring at some entrancing pit. Twilight couldn't look away from them. The only thing worse was the sound of her voice, now stuttering in that dark room.
"Wha...is it...Twilight?"
Luna most certainly had to look confused right now. But all Twilight could see was the gleam in her eyes. She was blind to Luna's true expression.
"Twilight! What are you doing here! Princess Celestia didn't say anything about you being here! What a pleasant surprise!"
Twilight wanted to say something, opening her mouth as she accidentally let a large roll of drool dribble onto the floor. She quickly closed her mouth as the fire spread up into he face.
"Is...is something wrong, Twilight? You aren't...ill...are you?"
Twilight closed her eyes tight, trying to force the image of Luna out of her mind. Slowly, painfully, Twilight turned away from her, groaning at the intense feelings her hind legs produced as she moved.
"I...book!" she said, trying and failing to form a complete sentence. "Need...book. Spell! Ponyville!"
"I...I don't understand, Twilight. Is something wrong?"
With Luna's eyes now out of view, it was her voice that entranced Twilight. She couldn't listen to Luna without feeling lightheaded with ecstasy.
"Spell!" she said again. "Curse!"
"Twilight, I-"
"NOOOO!" Twilight said, forcing the sound of Luna's voice out of her mind. Twilight let out a loud groan as her elbows buckled and she collapsed onto her stomach on the floor.
"TWILIGHT!" Luna yelled. "We have to get you to-"
"NO!" Twilight yelled out. "DON'T....TALK! LISTEN!"
Twilight bowed her head to the floor and let out another moan. Using every last ounce of will power she had, she forced all the words together she could.
"Ponyville...Ponyville is in trouble! Ponyville is cursed! A spell! Went terribly wrong! Need...book...need...uuurrrrg...need counter curse!"
Luna was now breathing very fast, which wasn't helping Twilight at all.
"You're talking about the accident on the hill, right? The one Celestia saved you from!"
Luna's voice hit Twilight like a brick, making her blood boil. Twilight nodded vigorously in response to Luna.
"What spell?! What book?!" Luna said frantically.
"It's..."
Twilight couldn't take another second of this. The adrenaline pouring into her was making her sweat. She needed to move. She needed to do something.
“It’s...” she started, suddenly forcing herself off the ground and turning with a burst of energy to look at Luna.
"IT'S LOVE!" Twilight screamed, giving in and charging headstrong into Luna, pressing against the back of the couch, eyes wide with fear – or surprise – or...oh, Twilight didn’t care anymore!
"LUNA! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME! IT'S TAKEN ME!"
Luna's eyes widened, her lips trembling from her open mouth as Twilight's hooves grasped her soft hide. She hardly noticed the heat coming off Luna's body, the glistening of those lips, the fast fluttering of the Princess's heart.
"W-w-what" Luna stammered, the shadow of a smile passing over her face. "I - I don't even know what spell it is! What do you want me to do?!"
Luna seemed to give a slightly inviting gesture and Twilight took it, jumping out of control onto the couch and tackling Luna onto her back. She gripped Luna in a bear hug and heard Luna gasp, grasping Twilight equally as strong before letting out a soft moan. Twilight screamed out just before she felt her lips lock against Luna’s.
"LOOOOOOOOOVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
-----------------------------------
Twilight exited the castle from a different gate that was devoid of any gatekeeper. None of the guards were present just on the other side of the moat either, now all gathered around the gate that had been broken into a few yards down. It had taken a while for her to regroup with the others and still manage to stay hidden. Twilight had finally spotted a hoof waving at her from behind a small wall only a couple feet high, looking around quickly before leaping over to join the others.
"There you are!" said Rarity. "Did you get the book?"
Twilight nodded, trying not to be sick.
"What happened, darling?" she said, smoothing her mane out with her hoof. "You were taking so long, and...are you feeling all right?”
Twilight was completely disheveled, her mane mostly standing on end with her eyes bugged. She was breathing like she had just run a marathon.
"I don't wanna talk about it," she said, shaking her head as she brushed Rarity's hoof off her neck. "Let's just concentrate on getting back to Ponyville."
Twilight didn't want to think about what Celestia would do to her if she found out she had violated her sister, however much Luna seemed to enjoy herself. Wait...enjoy? Had Luna really been as enthusiastic as she had seemed? Twilight shook her head trying not to think about it.
"But you...you found what you were looking for?" Rarity said, shaking slightly.
Twilight nodded, swallowing hard.
“The guards have already caught on to what we did. They'll be sending out a search party soon. We need to get out of here, and fast!”
She turned towards Rarity, resting a hoof on her shoulder.
“I need you to teleport us to the Ponyville Town Square. Can you do that?”
“I...” Rarity's mouth opened and closed silently a few times. “I can try...yes! Yes, I don’t think that should be a problem.”
“Good,” Twilight said. “Take me first. I’ll be waiting on the other side for when Spike gets there.”
“Of...of course!” she said. “But...Twilight...”
Rarity looked absolutely horrified by something. Twilight wasn’t quite sure what was going through her mind, but it was almost as if Rarity knew what had happened inside the castle.
“Twilight...whatever is wrong...I just want you to know...”
Rarity leaned in, placing her nose less than an inch away from Twilight’s.
“I just want you to know,” she whispered, “that I’m there for you. You know that, right?”
“Rarity, it’s fine! Just...just teleport me there and I’ll-MMMH!”
Rarity had pressed her lips against hers, wrapping her hoof tightly around Twilight's neck. A soothing sensation overtook her, and for a moment the entire castle disappeared, leaving nothing but her and Rarity floating amid a cloud. Their lips parted, Twilight breathing heavily through her mouth now.
“It’s all right, Twilight,” she smiled lightly. “Remember. We’re together on this. No matter what happens...”
Twilight stared into Rarity's eyes to see the same thing she had seen in her eyes back at the Ponyville library. There was a glow to them, a twinkle. Was it hopefulness? Encouragement? Love? Twilight still couldn't put her hoof on what it was.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Rarity said, a bright glow wafting from the tip of her horn.
The glow grew, expanding into a corona that engulfed Twilight, dissolving the ground beneath her feet. She watched as the castle walls melted, the sky grew white, and the two companions before her disappeared into the mist. The last thing she saw were Rarity's eyes before everything was completely swallowed by the spell.
Her hooves struck the ground, her knees buckling slightly as her eyes went to the ground, stinging horribly. Looking up, her eyes slowly adjusting, the first thing she saw was a yellow pony with flaming hair busily attacking something on the ground. She recognized the pony as Spitfire, one of the ponies she had seen with Rainbow Dash at the Gala. They had never been formally introduced, but she guessed that now probably wasn't the best time.
The item Spitfire was attacking just so happened to be Mr. Breezy, who looked zoned out in ecstasy on the lawn near the central pavilion. Twilight cringed, turning away from this lewd sight only to recoil in horror.
Every – last – pony in Ponyville apparently had decided to announce their love in public display. Pegasi kissed in midair, unicorns enveloped themselves in magical glows, earth ponies wrestled on the ground. Some of the ponies were chasing others that looked less-than-thrilled to have been chosen by the chaser. All the buildings were closed now, the entire town looking dead except for the thick crowd of lascivious activity filling the fields around the pavilion.
A moment later, a pop announced the arrival of Spike, who immediately looked around for Twilight, still catching his balance from the transport.
“Whoa," he said wobbling. "I’m not sure I like teleporting that mu-HEY!”
Spike yelled out as Twilight grabbed him around his head, hiding his eyes as she pulled him in close.
“WHAT-THE-”
“It’s me, Spike! Just...close your eyes!”
“What’s going on!”
Another pop as Rarity arrived, looking around wide-eyed. She moved right up beside Twilight, placing her flank against hers.
"Oh my!" said Rarity, rubbing up against Twilight with a tiny smile. “What is...is this some sort of holiday?!” she continued, observing the lovemaking around her with great interest. “I didn’t remember there being something this extravagant planned the last I checked my calender!”
Spike was struggling against Twilight's hooves, curious to know what they didn't want him to see. Twilight's eyes glanced nervously around, very aware of every last form of prurient activity in their vicinity, though thankfully there wasn't that much. She inclined her head towards Rarity, whispering something into her ear as she glanced down at Spike.
Rarity's ears perked as she shuddered. "Oh, right! Of course! Uh...let the see..." Her horn lit up, and a moment later there was a flash just around Spike's head. Twilight felt her hooves give way under the spark of the spell as Spike let out a small cry, holding his eyes.
"Ah! What the-"
Rarity leaned over to whisper to Twilight as Spike rubbed his eyes, blinking madly. "That should last for the next few hours," she said, giving Twilight a subtle wink. Twilight wondered why she might have learned something like that, but then she remembered Sweetie Bell. Perhaps it was best not to ask.
As Spike's eyes finally adjusted, he looked around at the mostly-innocent scene around him, gaping at the exorbitant amount of affection and infatuation around every turn. He stared back at Twilight and Rarity, both of them looking around to study the situation at hand.
“What are we going to do!?” Spike said. “Your horn’s damaged!”
Twilight stuttered as she looked back at Spike for an answer. She had only partially thought this through.
“Well...I was kinda hoping Rarity...”
She turned towards Rarity, who was busy observing a Pegasus couple making out on a picnic table as if trying to judge whether they were doing it right.
“Rarity!” Twilight yelled out.
Rarity turn to face her, looking jubilant. “Isn’t it wonderful?!” she said. “So much love in this town! I can definitely see why you wanted to come here, dear! This almost makes up for our lost time in Canterlot!”
“Rarity, I need one more favor.”
Rarity and rubbed her cheek lovingly against Twilight's. “What is it, dear?”
Twilight was glad that most of the acts occurring around her were quiet. There was still some noise around them, like the occasional crashes and ruckus when a couple got too aggressive, but for the most part Twilight was having no trouble communicating. “I need you to cast a spell for me. You see...my horn’s damaged. I can’t do it myself. I was hoping you-”
“But of course, dear! What spell do you need help with?”
Twilight looked around, quite aware of the book just out of reach in her saddlebags. She couldn't quite remember it happening, but she assumed Luna must have placed it in there for her.
“SPIKE!” she yelled out. “Spike, help me get the book out!”
Spike came bounding back from around the pavilion, walking around to where Twilight was pointing before opening up the bag with the book in it.
“Did you see those unicorns on the pavilion steps?!” he said as he searched for the book. “One of them looked like they might have been chewing on the other, but I couldn't see all that well. There was some kind of strange black box floating around. Do you remember that being part of the spell?”
Twilight glanced over at Rarity, who gave a tiny wink and a smile. Twilight smiled back as she reached back to rub Spike affectionately on the head. She felt her bags suddenly lighten as Spike pulled out what he was looking for.
“You got it!" Spike said excitedly, holding the book out in front of him to read the title. "Volume 2!”
He held it in front of Twilight revealing another thick black book, this time with a blue design embroidered on the front. Twilight nearly reared on her hind hooves in excitement.
“Great!" she said. "Now put it on the ground open to page 42!”
Spike did as she asked as Twilight approached Rarity, indicating the book now showing a similar elaborate cursive with strange symbols.
“Rarity! Can you do this?” she asked. “Can you cast this for me?”
Rarity came out of her trance, shaking her head a few times before following Twilight's hoof to the open book on the grass, walking curiously to peer at the strange calligraphy inscribed on the thick page.
"Oh my!" she cried out, getting right up close to the page. "Twilight, dear! This spell is...well, it's terribly difficult! Whatever does it do!"
"I can't tell you that, Rarity. I just need you to do your best at casting it! And do it now!"
"Twilight! I...you know I'm not you, right? I can't...you actually expect me to...something this advanced?!" Her eyes wavered as they met Twilight's.
"You have to try, Rarity." She walked up to her. "This is very, very important to me. Just..." She sighed. "Please, Rarity. Just try it. For me."
Rarity didn't even say a word. She put her head down, turning to read the words on the page, a glimpse of worry creasing her face. A moment of apprehension passed.
A small spark formed at the tip of her horn as her face scrunched up. Seconds passed as the spark grew into a wavy pink bubble the size of her head. A few cones of light shot out in all directions, and for a moment Twilight could have sworn all the ponies were holding back a bit from their partners. As Rarity continued, Twilight found herself digging her hooves into the ground in anticipation, watching the spell continue to grow.
However, Rarity seemed to be slipping now. Her face relaxed, growing concerned as she took a few steps back from the book. The spell continued to grow without her, feeding off her as the original spell had fed off Twilight. Rarity was shaking her head now, taking a few more steps back.
“You’re doing great, Rarity!" Twilight said. "Just...”
But Rarity wasn’t even trying anymore. She was backing away from the book entirely, a look of surprise on her face as she slowly looked up at Twilight. Large tears welled up in her eyes as her face scrunched up, just as it had that morning.
"Twilight!" Rarity said, the spell still swirling around her menacingly as she lost her composure. However, instead of collapsing on the ground in a tantrum, her face lit up in a storm of agitation. The tears only added to the effect of addled irritation, quickly sprouting into outrage.
“Twilight!” she screamed out, stomping her hooves on the ground before thrusting one of them at the book. “This is an anti-love spell!”
Twilight backed up a bit, watching the magic continue to swirl around her.
“You’re not...” Rarity said, scrunching her tear-stricken face as her voice disintegrated into a high-pitched squeal. “You’re not...breaking – up – with – me!”
Before Twilight could say anything, the magic floating around Rarity condensed as wave upon wave flew into her, enveloping her body just as Twilight's spell on the hill had enveloped her. Twilight watched in horror as Rarity was picked up, thrashing through the air and screaming. As the spell reached critical mass, Rarity was violently thrown across the lawn with a loud snap, sliding to a halt a few yards away.
“RARITY!” Twilight yelled out, racing across the lawn.
Rarity’s unconscious body was piled in a heap on the ground. Twilight bent down fighting back the sudden lump in her throat that had appeared as she stared at the body of the mare.
"Rarity!“ she said again quietly, her knees buckling as she lay down on the grass. “Rarity, I’m...I...”
Spike caught up to her a moment later and stared at the white heap on the ground too. Twilight tried to say something to him, but no words came out. Spike, too, was unable to speak, both of them unable to think of anything except to stare at the pitiful body on the ground. The lump in Twilight’s throat pressed against the bottom of her mouth, threatening to leak out through her eyes as the chaos continued around them.
Twilight brought her head down and rested it against the side of the mare, feeling her chin sink into her hide. She closed her eyes as a tear slid freely down her face, soaking into Rarity's white coat.
“I’m sorry...” she croaked. “I didn’t mean for any of this...”
Twilight closed her eyes tighter, trying to form a barrier for her tears that failed miserably. She lifted her head up, letting in a stifled gasp as she realized how shallow her breathing had been. Her face was soaked just beneath her lids, wrinkling the hide. She looked around before wiping them with her hooves so she could see. Spike was no longer in sight. He must have run off while her eyes were closed.
“Oh, Princess Celestia!” she said to herself, stifling horribly as she struggled to take a deep breath. “What am I supposed to do!”
She leaned her head down, closing her eyes as more tears slid down to the white coat.
“What am I supposed to..." she said, opening her eyes again. "I can’t perform the spell myself! I just can’t!”
The scene before her brightened, shining like an over-exposed photograph. Above her, the sun radiated in a blinding white. Time slowed as a great fear overtook her, as well as an equally great hope. She brought her head up, her ears perked as a voice floated down to her from overhead.
"Twilight Sparkle!" the voice echoed, drifting down upon her. "My most faithful student!"
The voice echoed through Twilight mind, accompanied by a divine set of god-rays from the sky. Looking up, she felt her jaw drop as she saw the magnificent form of Princess Celestia descending quickly upon her. Twilight gasped and cringed, wanting more than anything not to have to look at that face. Not today.
Princess Celestia landed just in front of Twilight, glowing magnificently as always.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight croaked, standing up on shaky hooves. "Princess! I'm sorry! I really didn't want any of this to-"
Princess Celestia put a hoof up, silencing Twilight at once. Looking up, Celestia turned her head to take in every last couple around her, every Pegasi in the air, every unicorn rubbing horns, every pony rolling on the grass, every couple chasing each other around, and finally, down at Twilight...
...and smiled.
“Twilight Sparkle!” she said, sounding amazingly calm, almost sprightly. “I have to say, I like what you’ve done with the place!”
Twilight's continuation of her apology came to a halt at this words. She looked up in total confusion, a few tears still sliding silently down her cheeks.
“Wha...what?” she said.
Princess Celestia looked around, smiling even wider.
“Well,” she continued, “it’s not exactly what I would have done. But it certainly livens up the mood!”
Twilight was now too shocked to keep crying. She just gaped at the Princess, who looked back at her with that wide smile.
“Don’t feel so bad, Twilight,” she said. “Worse mistakes have been made. For example, one of the guards told me on my way over here that somepony broke into the castle!”
Twilight felt the lump in her throat forced down into her chest as she sputtered.
“You...you don’t say...” Twilight croaked out.
Princess Celestia let out a laugh. It spread out over the entire town square. And it was contagious. Twilight sputtered as her body convulsed in a chuckle against her will. As the laugh died down, Princess Celestia lit her horn as Twilight watched the book she had stolen fly across the lawn, landing just in front of her.
“You know,” Celestia said above her, Twilight's eyes now on the inscription of the spell Rarity had attempted, “you could have just asked!”
Twilight continued to stare at the book, feeling dumber every second. Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly in her bafflement.
“I thought...” she said, looking up to meet Celestia in the eyes, “I thought it was banned!”
“It is, Twilight” the Princess said, smiling. “And for good reason, too! I don’t have to tell you.”
Twilight felt the last of her tears dry against her cheeks as she looked up hopefully at the Princess.
“Can you fix this?” Twilight asked.
The Princess looked down, her smile faltering a bit as she leaned her head down.
"Actually..." she said, sounding a bit more solemn, "I think I'll let you perform this spell, Twilight."
Twilight backed up a few steps. She obviously didn't heard right. This must have been some sort of playful joke Celestia was pulling. She felt another goofy smile crest over her face as she let out a strange giggle.
"Hee-hee...good one, Princess!" she said, half-hopeful, half-fearful as she brought her eyes up to meet hers. “You...you really had me going there for a minute!”
"Actually" Celestia cut in, "this time I am serious," she said, her smile fading away entirely.
Twilight's heart ran cold as the eyes of the Princess bore down upon her. She felt her knees weaken as her body slouched a bit, a faint spell coming over her as the world flickered.
"But...b-b-b--but Princess! My horn! You said yourself you don't want me using it!"
"Of course I did, Twilight!" Celestia said, stepping up to the now-cowering Twilight. "And under normal circumstances, that would be the case!"
She glanced around as time stood still. When she looked back, a smile was laden upon her again, kind and understanding.
"But now, I am with you. And I give you full permission to use your horn."
She bowed as she said this, presenting her own horn towards Twilight as she granted this sanction as though it was a privilege. Twilight thought she was about to faint. How could she expect her to use her horn? Was this her punishment? Did Celestia want to see Twilight blasted unconscious like Rarity?
"But...but Princess!" Twilight said, now completely in shock.
"Don't worry, Twilight," Celestia said, lifting her head slightly and placing it right next to Twilight's, as if sharing something just between herself and her student. "Just...try..."
Celestia's last word resonated through Twilight as the Princess raised her head and gazed down at her most prized student. Something seemed to stabilize in Twilight's mind. The lump in her throat was gone, and her thoughts were more focused.
"Okay Princess...” she said with a deep breath, “I'll try..."
Twilight put her head down and lit her horn, feeling a sharp pain flow through her body, which she tried hard to ignore.
Seconds passed as Twilight trudged through one difficult step after another. Pain seared through her as her horn lit up a volcanic migraine, making her break out in a sweat, occasionally having to stop and cry out. But she never lost her focus.
Halfway through, she thought, her whole head throbbing uncontrollably.
The bonfire exploded from her head and spread out as Twilight neared the end of the spell, a massive pink cloud swirling inward and condensing just around her horn.
Almost...almost there...just...
As Twilight performed the penultimate step, a lightening-bolt of agony shot threw her as she lost her train of thought. All she could do was scream out as the pain blinded her from feeling anything else. Once again, the magic overtook her, wafting through her...
This time, however, it didn't magnify. She wasn't blasted through the air either. Instead, the magic simply condensed inside her, lighting her body on fire as it acted as a container, rather than a catalyst. A split second later, the magic burst all over Ponyville as Twilight collapsed, panting, finally relieved that the pain was gone. Looking up, she stared in awe at the incredible ring of magic spreading out. Did that really come from her?!
"Did...did I do it...?" Twilight said, still lying her on stomach with her hooves spread-eagle, her head looking hopefully up at Celestia. The Princess was facing away from her now, her mane and tail wafting in the wind.
"We'll see..." was all she said.
Twilight looked around her. None of the ponies were moving. They seemed stunned. Even the Pegasi simply flapped their wings, looking blankly at their partners.
"Is...is that it?" Twilight said. "Is it over?"
Twilight's question answered itself as every last pony suddenly turned away from her, apparently entranced with something she couldn't see. Then, with a rumble that shook the earth, every pony stampeded away, clouding the entire Square in dust. Twilight watched as pony after pony ran past her, the Princess stepping over her to ensure she wasn't trampled. As the dust faded and the Princess stepped away to gaze into the distance, Twilight hoisted herself back onto her hooves.
"Wha...where are they going?" Twilight asked,
Her eyes followed the Princess's gaze, pointing off in the direction of the hill from which the original spell had been cast. She noticed a blue speck moving amid the blue sky, growing larger each second, followed by an audible scream just as she noticed the colorful tail of the comet streaking overhead.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"
"WHOOOOOOOSH!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."
"RAINBOW DASH!" Twilight yelled.
A moment later, a rumbling shook every building in the Town Square as the stampede crashed back through the field, knocking Twilight over. Again, the Princess stood over her to protect her as the horde of ponies galloped noisily past her. She caught bits and pieces of what they were yelling out as they passed.
"Did you see her?!"
"She went that way!"
"I can't wait-"
"-grab her tail and-"
"-gonna play with her wings-"
"-heard she tastes like cupcakes!"
As the last of the ponies shot past her and faded away, she looked into the distance at the wild crowd chasing a rainbow trail getting smaller with each passing second. Twilight's breath was taken away as she once again stumbled to her hooves.
"Oh no!" Twilight said, turning towards Celestia, shaking her head. "Princess! I'm so sorry! I couldn't! I just couldn't!"
Princess Celestia continued staring into the distance, the wind still blowing her colorful mane through the air. Twilight could have sworn she saw another glint of the smile crest her face, but a moment later it was gone.
"Princess...I..." Twilight held back her tears as they threatened to break through again. She bowed her head, awaiting the Princess's reprimand.
"My dear Twilight..." Celestia said, her hint of a smile finally breaking through into a wide grin as she turned towards her. "Believe it or not, you actually did even better than I expected!" she said.
Twilight blinked, unable to form a baffled expression anymore. This was all so strange to her.
"I think it's now time,” the Princess whispered, moving right up next to Twilight, “to let you in on a little secret,"
Twilight looked up at her, producing a barely audible "huh?" as her brain twisted and turned around everything that had just happened.
"There's something you should know about the magic of Equestria," she said, leaning over and putting her mouth right next to Twilight's ear.
The next five words repeated themselves in her mind, as if magic was placing them into the deep resources of her memory.
"You don't need your horn."
...
A silence ensued, as if something profound had just been revealed. Twilight couldn’t understand quite what it meant, but knew it was something she would remember for a long time...
"But...Princess..."
Celestia brought her head back up.
"My dear student,” she continued, as if she was in a classroom giving a typical lecture. “Magic is not something you make! It's all around us! Even Earth-Ponies can use it! Any pony is free to use magic at their will!" she said. "All they have to do is tap into it!"
Twilight stared, trying to make sense of this.
"I...I still don't understand..."
"The magic of Equestria," Celestia continued, now stepping back as she faced her student proper, "is older even than I am! Even I had to learn this very lesson myself! Magic is something that's all around us, all the time!" she said. "The material on a unicorn's horn is simply the most sensitive to it! But it's not required to tell it's there!"
Twilight took a deep breath, starting to see where this was going.
"And so, Twilight," Celestia finished, standing up tall in her most majestic pose, "my dearest, most faithful student, here is your final task for today! Close your eyes. Forget what you know about magic. Forget that your horn is damaged. Forget about your handicap. And feel for the magic that you already know! Reach for that feeling you’ve had all your life! You know the spell. You know the steps. Now...cast it!"
Twilight looked at Celestia to be sure she was finished. The town was still ironically filled with frivolous activity, despite Celestia’s enlightening speech, which still waved in the air around her.
Twilight wanted to say something – to announce that she was starting, but nothing came to mind. So instead, Twilight closed her eyes, and let her body become calm, letting her thoughts become blank, and becoming very aware of everything she felt around her.
At first, she could feel only the wind and the grass against her skin, making her feel very silly just standing there. But then she remembered what Celestia had said, and imagined the feeling of her horn when she cast magic, back before she was injured. And before she knew entirely what it was, Twilight felt it. A small, faintly noticeable ripple through her body.
She had felt it before, but had only dismissed it as her nerves acting up. Now, however, she was beginning to recognize it as the same rippling she felt so strongly in her horn as she performed her spells.
Slowly, carefully, Twilight willed it to move...
And the waves of magic shifted inside her.
I can control it! she thought.
Remembering the steps in the book, she used her thoughts and feelings to mold the waves and ripples, as the notes of an instrument are shaped as one learned to play. With each step, the rippling became more focused and dense. And what was even stranger was that the magic seemed to be helping her. Each step of the spell seemed to be handed to her through the song.
With each step, the rippling magnified, like a series of waves magnifying in the wind. They became denser, too, piling onto one another in a cacophony that played all around her.
As the final steps were performed, Twilight could feel something grand coming together. The cacophony condensed into unity as the waves turned to pure song. Twilight felt her body leaving the ground. It was as if she was being hoisted onto a pedestal, and crowned with power and respect. She was the master of this song. She decided what it did.
With a commanding sense of control, Twilight pulled in every last inch of magic into herself, condensing it into a ball of light inside herself that washed over the entire town. And with a single powerful stroke, she released it into the wild.
What followed was something Twilight could never fully describe. All of Ponyville, and possibly even Equestria, was bathed in a blinding white light. The light spread, condensing into golden seeds that fell lightly on every inch of Equestrian ground. It seemed to last for ages, but eventually it faded. And as it did, she could see off in the distance a large mass of ponies, all rubbing their heads confusedly as they tried to work out what had just happened.
Twilight descended onto the ground and looked up at Celestia, who was beaming brighter than Twilight had ever seen her.
"My Dear Twilight Sparkle!" she said.
Twilight hadn't seen her this happy since she got her cutie mark!
"You know you have done something very special just now, but perhaps you do not know how special!" she said. "You see, the magic you have just performed has only ever been used five times since I first raised the sun."
Twilight couldn’t quite take this in. She just stared at Celestia as the edges of her face were pulled into a smile.
"In fact..." Celestia continued, looking a bit more solemn, "it was this very magic that my sister Luna used in her transformation...so long ago..."
Twilight watched as the Princess bowed her head in remembrance, Twilight following suite out of respect. However, the thought of Princess Luna brought forth another uncomfortable memory that Twilight couldn't bear to hold back anymore.
"Princess Celestia" she said, "I think there's something you should know about Princess Luna."
“Hmmm?” Celestia said, pulling her head back up and turning her attention back to her favorite student. Twilight stuttered a bit as she worked out how to say this.
“I sorta...well...”
After opening and closing her mouth a few times, she finally gave up, determining there was no easy way to explain this.
“When I went to get the book from the castle library, Princess Luna was there and I sorta...jumped on her...” she said. Twilight grimaced, hoping the Princess knew what she meant by this. Heat invaded her face as she imagined having to describe it in any more detail.
Princess Celestia's face was simply blank, a pair of eyes looking at her unseeing. Twilight could tell there was something else going on behind the scenes that she didn't know. However, the Princess did eventually speak, prompting a bit more information.
"These actions," she said. "Were they a result of the spell?"
Twilight thought back and remembered how suddenly everything had occurred. There really was no other explanation.
"Yeah," she said, keeping her head down as she spoke.
Again, a completely blank expression as the next question came.
"How far did it go?"
Twilight pawed at the ground, hoping she wouldn't have to admit this. Her words were barely more than a whisper, but the Princess caught them clearly in the silence of the Town Square.
"All the way," she said.
Celestia continued to stared at her, expressionless. Twilight could only imagine the utter detest she must have felt towards Twilight, expecting any moment to be banished somewhere horrible, cast away from learning magic forever. However, as she let these words simmer, a smile formed on Celestia's face, almost against her will.
The smile grew.
And then grew some more.
Until at last the Princess burst out in fits of laughter, shaking the ground beneath her. The laughter spread out like an avalanche as Celestia struck the ground with her hooves, her body shaking and convulsing as she leaned forward. Twilight had backed up quite a few feet in shock as she listened to this strangely jovial reaction. It was quite a few minutes before the laughter died down enough for her to speak, getting back up chuckling between words.
"Ooooh! Oh my!" she said, having trouble taking gasping breaths between laughs. "Twilight!"
Twilight looked at her concerned.
"What's so funny, Princess?"
Celestia turned towards Twilight, shaking her head as she suppressed another fit of laughter.
"Oh...oh Twilight! I guess I should have told her about the love spell. She must have been - Oh, my! I thought she looked particularly happy just before I left! Ooooh...how do I put this..."
Celestia shook her head, still giggling before pulling it back with her eyes rolled up in contemplation.
"Luna...well...Luna hasn’t really had much...affection since I banished her to the moon,” she said, trying to keep a straight face as she looked Twilight in the eye. “In fact, she’s been so tied up in recovering and reestablishing herself that she hasn’t even tried moving forward in that direction! She'll never admit it, but I guarantee you she enjoyed it every bit as much as you did."
Twilight had no idea what to make of this as Celestia burst out into more laughter, again shaking the ground around her. As her laughter died down, many of the ponies of Ponyville could be seen returning to the Town Square. Many were dragging their feet and holding their heads.
"That was not the reception I was expecting." Rainbow Dash said, walking up to where Twilight and Celestia were, holding her sore body at an odd angle. One of her hooves was reaching back near her flank. "I mean, I know I'm the most awesome pony in this town and everything, but did everypony have to go that crazy just because I was gone for a few days?!"
Twilight smiled weakly. "I'm glad you're okay, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said, looking around to make sure there wasn't any lasting damage. "You are okay, right?"
Dash brought her head up as her hoof dug into one of her glutes. "Yeah," she said, "Luckily none of the ponies actually did anything official, but I'm still steering clear of of any of the games they were playing. I think one of them actually chewed on my cutie mark!" she said, Twilight now catching a glimpse at some marks on her side. "Nothing that won't heal up in a couple days, though. Who knew Ponyville ponies liked it that rough!"
Twilight chuckled as she turned back to Celestia, Rainbow Dash suddenly blushing horribly as she noticed the Princess standing just in front of her. She immediately removed her hoof from her flank and bowed low.
“Well, Princess!" Twilight said, "It looks like everything’s returning back to normal now! I can only imagine where we’d be if you hadn’t shown up!”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” Celestia said. “I just got your note and came here as soon as I could!”
Twilight’s smile faltered slightly.
“Note?”
“Why yes!” Celestia continued. “Didn’t you write to me?”
Twilight glanced around the crowd quickly for Spike, but he was nowhere in sight. She thought back, trying to remember if she had ever written anything, but recalled that there was no way she could write anything without her horn.
“But...but I thought Spike had just...”
Thinking back to where Spike had been last, a memory flashed before her of the body of a white mare, lying unconscious on the grass just a short distance from where the Princess had landed.
“Rarity!” she said. “Is she all right?! Where is she!”
Twilight dashed around the crowd, finally spotting the white body on the ground. Twilight heaved a sigh of relief as she noticed the mare working her way back onto her hooves.
“Rarity!” Twilight yelled out, racing up to her. “Rarity! You’re all right!”
Rarity was also rubbing her head with one hoof, trying to get her balance with her others. The other ponies around her were all busy conversing as they tried to work out what had happened.
“Twi-Twilight!” she stuttered. “What happened? Is everything...why are all these ponies here? Did I...”
“I’ll explain later,” Twilight said with a sigh of relief, reaching a leg up and embracing her tightly. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
She walked back to Celestia, positively beaming at finally having her friend back to normal again.
“Thank you so much, Princess!” she said again.
Celestia smiled in return.
“It wasn’t me who saved Ponyville from the spell,” she said, bringing a hoof up and lightly brushing it against Twilight's cheek. Twilight brought a hoof to her mouth and giggled. “And speaking of spells,” Celestia added, “I believe there’s still the matter of the book...”
Twilight was blank for a bit before remembering "Enchantments of Amore Volume II" still lying on the grass.
“Oh, right!” she said, running over to return it to Celestia.
At first, she tried picking it up with her horn only to find that it was still damaged. She considered trying out Celestia’s advice again, but decided it would be overkill and ended up simply kicking the book over to her instead, some of the pages collecting pieces of grass and dirt as it rolled along.
“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, magicking the book clean as she lifted it. “I’ll be returning this to the library in the castle where it belongs. Oh! And I believe there’s one more!”
She looked down at Twilight, who glanced back in the direction of the library. “Oh...um...right. I’ll be sure to get that to you...you know...soon...”
“And I trust you to do it,” Celestia said. “Farewell, my faithful student.”
As Celestia spread her wings, Twilight called out. "Wait! Princess, one more thing"
Celestia's wings stayed open, but dropped slightly. "What is it, Twilight?"
"The spell. I don't understand. Why...why Luna? Why would the spell choose her?"
Celestia's eyes perked, surprised at her student's curiosity. She thought for a moment before giving a slight smile, trying to explain the best she could. "Funny you should ask that question, Twilight Sparkle. Love spells are a strange business sometimes, especially when they go wrong. Had the spell been performed properly, I would imagine you would have been completely unaffected. That's the way all love spells work...usually, at least." Her head glanced to the side momentarily before she continued. "However, strange things happen when a spell goes wrong, and many times you can get some...er... bizarre effects. I wasn't there on the hill with you when it happened, so I couldn't give you a straight-up answer. However, if I was to take a guess, I would say it was some kind of reinterpretation of the powerful connection you already share with my sister."
Twilight thought for a moment. "Powerful connection? You don't mean...the Elements?"
Celestia gave a slight nod. "Again, it's only conjecture. All magic is connected in some way, and the Elements are the most powerful magic in this realm. It would not be surprising to find that the love spell somehow tapped into that same magic from before. Perhaps you might be interested in writing a thesis on it at some point! It would fit nicely with the other lectures in our Annual Magic Seminar. I'd look forward to hearing your own theory."
Twilight blushed as another quirky smile crossed her face. Celestia smiled upon her one last time. "Farewell, Twilight Sparkle", she said, spreading her wings before flying off towards Canterlot.
Twilight turned around to see a glimmer of purple and green fighting its way through the crowd.
“Spike!” Twilight said, picking up her hooves and racing through the crowd of ponies. She crouched, almost sliding on the ground as she wrapped her hooves around him, almost suffocating him.
“GEEZ...TWILIGHT!” he coughed. “YOU CAN...LET GO NOW...”
Twilight relaxed her hooves a little but kept them wrapped around him, placing her chin on the top of his head as she took a deep breath.
“You did it!" she said, backing up to look at him properly. "You sent a letter to the Princess!”
Spike blushed, looking down at the ground. His foot scraped back and forth across the grass as Twilight continued.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to send her a letter!”
“Well...you know...” Spike said, still studying the grass at his feet. “I saw Rarity there and...well...I don’t know what got over me!" he said, looking up. "I guess...I guess I decided there are simply some things worth getting in trouble for,” he finally said.
Twilight beamed at him before grabbing him in another not-so-tight hug. “You did what I couldn’t, Spike,” she said, pride emanating from her eyes.
“Well, I kinda had the letter with me the whole time,” he admitted, trying to worm his way out of her embrace. “You know...just in case”
Twilight let go again, keeping a hoof on his shoulder.
"I never should have gotten upset with you about Rarity," she said. "You're young! You should enjoy the time you have with Rarity now! Don't worry about the future just yet!"
Spike’s smile dropped as he looked over Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight didn't notice.
"Besides. Who knows! She may come to like you in that way once you're a bit older. And anyway, who am I to say you two couldn't-"
"Uh, Twilight!" Spike said, now tapping his claw against her fore-leg.
Twilight saw where his eyes were pointed and got back up on all fours, turning around to see Rarity standing behind them. Twilight blushed as she saw the awkward look on her face.
“Oh, Twilight,” she said, glancing around at Spike before turning back to her. “Um...listen...can I talk to you for a moment?”
She indicated with her head towards somewhere away from the crowd. Twilight turned back to Spike, who shrugged.
“Oh...okay,” Twilight said, turning back to Rarity. She led Twilight away from the crowds to a park bench at the outskirts of the Town Square, well out of earshot and sight of the rest of the ponies. She turned around, shaking her mane out as she got up close to Twilight, speaking quietly as if some pony might be eavesdropping from behind the bench.
“Uh, listen Twilight. I just found out that...well...I found out this town was under a bit of a love spell, and-”
“That’s all taken care of now!” Twilight blurted out. Rarity gave a weak smile, but still didn't look satisfied.
“Actually, that’s not really what I meant,” she continued. “You see, I was kinda wondering if I...well...you know...did anything with...” Rarity swirled with her hoof a bit, finally squinting at Twilight before the unicorn picked up on what she was asking.
“Oh! Right! Um...you were with me the whole time,” Twilight answered, backing up as one of her crazy smiles started to creep up on her again.
“Oh! Good! Great!" she said, sounding relieved. "And of course, I’m assuming that by “with me” you mean...”
“Yeah,” Twilight said, picking up on this question much quicker than the last.
“Oh, okay,” she said simply.
For a moment, they stood there awkwardly, each one a few paces from the other now. Twilight was reminded of her first encounter with Fluttershy as they both looked away from each other dangling one of their hooves like a pendulum. Finally, Rarity turned towards her again, a shade of pink cresting her cheeks.
“Did I..." she started awkwardly, "did I happen to do anything...you know...intimate...during that time...?”
Twilight looked at her completely blank. Then, lowering her head slowly to the ground, she gave the tiniest of nods.
“Yeah,” she said very quietly.
More silence. Twilight heard Rarity's hooves crunch against the grass as she moved up to Twilight again. In fact, she kept walking up to her, prompting Twilight to lift her head to see her now just a foot in front of her, swallowing hard just before she whispered awkwardly.
“Was it...was it good?”
Twilight was so taken aback by this question she actually stepped a few paces away from Rarity.
“Oh!” Rarity said, lifting a hoof, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”
“No, that’s all right, I just...”
Taking a deep breath, Twilight smiled at Rarity, bringing back those sweet feelings of satisfaction from last night.
“It was fantastic!” she said, closing her eyes with a shake of her head, feeling most unlike her usual Twilight self.
Rarity gave a weak smile, approaching Twilight until she was just inches apart from her. Twilight's excitement level wasn't anywhere near what it was when Rarity approached her on the library stairs. However, she still felt an uncomfortable feeling from Rarity being so close again.
“Don’t...” Rarity said, turning her head to glance all around them, “...don’t tell anyone about this, okay?”
“Rarity, you have my word. I won’t tell any-MMM!”
The familiar feeling of Rarity’s lips brushed around hers. For a moment she was in total shock as Rarity sank into her again. Twilight closed her eyes and tried to find a way to enjoy this, but the awkwardness was just too great.
Finally, Rarity pulled away, leaving Twilight standing with her mouth still open. Rarity’s eyes were phased out and looking up at the sky as she pondered something, smacking her lips quietly as if she had just tasted a small glass of wine.
Finally, she let out a long sigh as a huge smile crossed her face. Turning towards Twilight again, she bounced a few times on her hooves.
“Nope!” she said. "Not into mares!"
And with that, she waltzed back into the crowd, leaving Twilight standing there completely perplexed.
-----------------------------------
Epilogue
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that it's always a good idea to talk things through with your friends when they're upset. Many times, a grudge does nothing but escalate when left alone. We all just need to be open about our problems, and allow our friends to help us find solutions we might not have considered.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
“Send it, Spike!” Twilight said, handing Spike the magic book to send with it. With a deep breath, Spike released the green fire, engulfing the letter and book and sending them away from the library.
“Well!” Twilight said, turning away from the desk. “That takes care of that!”
Spike ran over to her, holding his arms out. "But what about Trixie and Zecora?" he asked. "Aren't they still turned to stone?"
Twilight thought a bit. "I...gosh, Spike, I guess you're right! We need to help Zecora somehow, don't we" She brought a hoof to her chin. "Hmmm. I guess I could always talk to Fluttershy tomorrow. After all, she's the one who managed to get me back to normal. If anyone can help with that, I'm sure she could."
Twilight trotted over to the balcony again, noticing the mail still sitting out there since yesterday. Spike followed her outside as she glanced down at the dried up golden envelopes.
“You know" she said, "I never really got a chance to see what all these letters were. I wonder...”
She indicated her head down towards them, letting Spike peel each one apart from the other, opening them in turn. Spike let out a gasp by the third one.
“Twilight!” he said, holding up one of the letters so she could see. “These are all wedding invitations!”
Twilight stared at the cursive writing, reading the formal invitation, polished to the point that Rarity would have approved.
“Wow...” she said. “And here I thought Rarity was crazy!”
“Hey, I’m just glad she’s back to normal!" Spike interrupted. "All those decoration's of Rarity's took forever to take down!”
“Yeah, Spike. And you're probably happy to have your favorite Rarity all to yourself again now! Plus at this point, there's only one wedding we need to attend. And that's not for another two weeks.”
Twilight walked up to the edge of the balcony as Spike finished ripping apart the envelopes. She peered out at the view of Ponyville, now devoid of the copious amounts of affection there had been just 24 hours prior.
“Yep!" she said to herself, turning back to Spike. "No more love spell! No more problems! Just me...you...and-”
Spike let out a loud hiccough.
“You all right Spike?”
Spike looked like he was about to hurl. A few moments later, he let out an enormous belch as a letter popped out in front of him.
“Oh! That must be from the Princess!” Twilight said, walking up to read it.
“Actually...” Spike said, opening it so Twilight could see, “it’s from Princess Luna!”
Twilight jumped back, trotting up quickly to see for herself.
“Luna? Really?!”
Spike held the letter up so Twilight could read it.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I thoroughly enjoyed your visit here in Canterlot, and was wondering if perhaps you would care to join me back in the castle some time. You certainly seemed to enjoy yourself, and didn't even seem all that inexperienced.
Anyway, just let me know if you'd like to get together sometime.
Your Hopeful Lover,
Princess Luna |
Wheller | 687 | 1 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-04T20:44:38+00:00 | 2011-09-04T20:44:38+00:00 | 2,065 | Chronology notes:
Stop! You are reading the Seventh story in the series started by The Kindness of Strangers!
Please read The Kindness of Strangers first!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/389/
The second part of the story is Putting the Pieces Back Together found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/407/
The third part of the story is Midnight in the Heart of Equestria found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/419/
The fourth part of the story is Tomorrow is Always a New Day found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/433/
The fifth part of the story is To Each Their Own found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/526/
This story is the direct sequel to Imperfect found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/600/
Paradiso
Chapter 1
Childhood, there is no other time like it, the care free days of self discovery, unburdened by the reality of responsibility, and childhood in the Principality of Equestria was like no other. Equestria was free of the darkness and horror of the world outside it, It was a place where childhood could be a happy time, a place where childhood could be everything it was promised to be.
Or, at least, that’s how it used to be.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo were three young fillies, best friends who didn’t have a care in the world. Unlike their older siblings, they had yet to discover the horrors that lay scant kilometres from Equestria’s border. They did not know that in the far off lands of the Hoofson Bay Area, blood was being spilt by the day, that there was endless fighting between the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms, and the Commonwealth of South Island, nay, the Cutie Mark Crusaders barely knew that these other lands existed. There had been no evidence either, until the day that a kangaroo light tank rolled into town.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been playing at Sweet Apple Acres when it had driven by, they’d watched as Rainbow Dash flew above it, and Twilight Sparkle and Vinyl Scratch had lain on the back of it, but more importantly, they had seen the creature that had its head out from the tank.
At first, they had thought that the tank was a giant creature, and that Sergeant Tebbs, as they later learned the kangaroo’s name, was its head. They had briefly spoken to the kangaroo crew, asking them all sorts of questions about what they were and where they had come from, the kangaroo crew had not had a chance to answer many of them, as Applejack, Apple Bloom’s older sister had stopped them mid way, and forbid them to speak to the kangaroo’s ever again.
Naturally, the very young do not always do as they’re told, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders snuck off to speak to Sergeant Tebbs again. Unfortunately for them, the kangaroo was not encouraging of this behaviour, and told them that he did not wish to violate Applejack’s wishes, leaving the Cutie Mark Crusaders extremely disappointed.
And now here they were, several months later, running through Whitetail Wood on yet another ill-conceived venture to earn their Cutie Marks.
“Did we get ‘em?” Apple Bloom asked, looking at her flank, disappointed when she discovered nothing was there.
“Aww, I was sure this was going to work this time!” Scootaloo cried out in disappointment.
Sweetie Bell, however said nothing, staring off, looking at something in the distance.
“Hey space cadet?” Scootaloo teased. “What’s so important that you’re not looking at your flank?”
“I think there’s something over there!” Sweetie Bell said, approaching what she had seen. “What is it?”
“It looks kind of like a fake leg!” Scootaloo said.
“Tha’s stupid! Its way too small ta be ah fake leg!” Apple Bloom said.
The object on the ground was a shining silver object, fifteen centimetres in length there were two pull levers on it, one on top, and one underneath the main part of it, sticking out from the back was a wooden handle.
“Ah wonder what it does?” Apple Bloom said, prodding at the top most lever with her hoof, she heard a small click, and noticed that the bottom lever had been pulled back a little as well.
Apple Bloom noticed that she wouldn’t be able to operate the bottom lever in the same manner as the top one; it was too small not to mention it had a small ring around it blocking it from being prodded at. She picked it up in her teeth.
“Howfsh ngypony schapost ta puah dishf ting!?” Apple Bloom exclaimed, her mouth full of the object.
“Try using your tongue!” Scootaloo suggested.
“Ew!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed, “That’s so gross!”
“You got a better idea?” Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie Bell shook her head; Apple Bloom looked at her and shrugged. Gently, she wrapped her tongue around the lever, and pulled it with her tongue.
Bang!
Scootaloo instinctively covered her ears.
“That was loud!” She shouted. Apple Bloom wasn’t looking at Scootaloo; she was looking at Sweetie Bell. Scootaloo looked over where the young unicorn filly was as well.
Sweetie Bell had fallen down onto the ground, and her flank had turned a dark red.
“No way! Does she have her cutie mark?!” Scootaloo exclaimed in surprise. “Do I?”
Apple Bloom looked closer to the dark red spot on Sweetie Bell’s flank, she dropped the metal tube, touching the red spot, Sweetie Bell did not move, and she had her eyes closed, but Apple Bloom felt something warm and sticky on her. Apple Bloom looked at her hoof to discover that it was red too. This was blood.
“Scootaloo! That ain’t no cutie mark! She’s hurt!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“What? What do we do?” Scootaloo shouted in surprise.
“Get the wagon!” Apple Bloom shouted back.
Scootaloo nodded, rushing back to where she’d left her scooter and wagon, hopping on it and driving close to where Sweetie Bell had fallen.
Apple Bloom picked Sweetie Bell up and placed her in the back of the wagon. “Go! Get her back! Ah’ll be right behind ya!”
Scootaloo nodded, and took of pulling Sweetie Bell at high speed.
Apple Bloom returned to the fallen metal tube, she gently picked it up and placed it in her saddlebag; she didn’t know what it was and didn’t want to take the chance that it could be used to help Sweetie Bell. If they did need it, Apple Bloom didn’t want to leave it out here where she couldn’t necessarily find it again. She took off after Scootaloo, while not as fast on hoof as Scootaloo was on scooter; she raced off as fast as she could, not far behind them.
...
“Wha’ happened!” Applejack exclaimed. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had gotten Sweetie Bell to the Ponyville Clinic.
“Ah... ah don’t...” Apple Bloom began, but found herself not able to finish.
“Sweetie Bell is hurt bad, if ya’ll care ‘bout her at all, ya best be tellin’ me the truth!” Applejack said.
“We were out in Whitetail Wood!” Scootaloo said. “Trying to get our cutie marks when we found something! We didn’t know what it was.”
“What did it look like?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
Apple Bloom looked around, all of Applejack’s friends, except Rarity, who was in with Sweetie Bell were standing around them, looking at them to explain.
“Ah can show ya!” Apple Bloom said, thinking it would be the best way to help. She carefully opened her saddlebags and set the metal tube on the floor.
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash gasped in surprise.
“Where did you get that?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Twilight picked it up and snapped it open. “It’s empty.”
“We found it in Whitetail Wood! Honest! What is it?” Apple Bloom asked.
“This girls, is a kangaroo 11mm Magnum Revolver,” Twilight explained. “As you’ve already found it, it’s very dangerous and you can’t play with these! Sweetie Bell is lucky that she’s alive at all.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo swallowed hard.
“Girls, listen to me, this is very important. If you ever go out and play in Whitetail Wood again, and you find something that you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it, come get someone older and they’ll know what to do with it. Okay?” Twilight said.
“We promise!” Scootaloo said.
“Go on home now!” Applejack said. “It’s gettin’ late and Apple Bloom ain’t done her chores yet!”
“But sis! Can’t we see Sweetie Bell?” Apple Bloom pleaded.
“Not tonight, now go on an' get home!” Applejack said sternly.
Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo frowned, but departed without another word.
“Tomorrow, we’re going back out there to find out what that revolver was doing there,” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom frowned. “Ah don’t think that’s a good idea Scoot.”
“What’s the matter? You chicken or something?” Scootaloo said. “You used to call me chicken all the time, and now I’m saying we need to do something and you want to back out?!”
“You didn’t hurt Sweetie Bell, Scoot, Ah did, Ah just don’t want you ta git hurt either,” Apple Bloom said.
“That’s why we need to do it! So nopony else finds something else and gets hurt not knowing what it does!” Scootaloo said. “We know that the stuff we’ll find is dangerous! Somepony else might not!”
“Ah guess that makes sense...” Apple Bloom said, her voice trailing off.
“Come on Apple Bloom! We need to do it! For Sweetie Bell!” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom looked at her friend and smiled.
“Fer Sweetie Bell!” |
Wheller | 687 | 2 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-01T04:07:56+00:00 | 2011-09-01T04:07:56+00:00 | 1,508 | Chapter 2
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo retraced their steps from the previous day back to approximately the same site that Sweetie Bell had been hurt at... give or take a few hundred metres.
In truth, they had no idea where exactly it had been at, but they figured if they looked long enough, they’d find it. It wasn’t until an hour into their search that Apple Bloom discovered a patch of grass that had been stained red that they knew where they were.
“This is where we found the revolver at,” Scootaloo said. “There’s got to be more stuff around here!”
“Ah don’t know Scoot... should we really be doin’ this? Ah know Applejack’s gonna be cross with me!” Apple Bloom said trying to reason with her friend.
“When did that ever bother you in the past?” Scootaloo asked.
Apple Bloom figured that she had a point, still, she’d never hurt anypony in the past like this. Apple Bloom was scared that she was going to do something else to hurt somepony, Scootaloo had to remind her that it had been an accident, and that Apple Bloom would never hurt somepony on purpose.
Reluctantly, Apple Bloom joined Scootaloo in the search; it didn’t take long before they found other things. Most of the things they found weren’t interesting, lots of small metal tubes for the most part, but they did find two interesting bits.
The first was a pair of goggles, and the second one, Apple Bloom could tell was another gun, though she knew it only by the lever that it had on the bottom.
“Hey! Cool!” Scootaloo said, picking up the goggles and putting them over her eyes.
“Scootaloo! Wha’ are ya doing? Twilight said not ta touch anything we found!” Apple Bloom said.
“No! She said not to touch anything that we didn’t know what it was!” Scootaloo corrected. “And these are some goggles, and that’s a gun! We know what they are!”
Scootaloo proceeded to pick up the fallen weapon in her teeth, causing Apple Bloom to panic. It was much longer than the revolver had been, and had a long metal box sticking out of the side, but it was still a gun, and the fact that Scootaloo had it worried her.
Scootaloo on the other hand wasn’t worried, she looked away from Apple Bloom and pulled the trigger with her tongue.
Click! Empty.
“It’s safe!” Scootaloo announced proudly, Apple Bloom’s heart was about to explode.
“Scootaloo! Stop that!” she called out.
“Why? Am I making you nervous?” Scootaloo said grinning, picking the fallen weapon up again.
Click! Click!
Apple Bloom started to cry, Scootaloo’s nonchalant behaviour towards the gun had hurt her. Scootaloo didn’t have to feel guilty over shooting Sweetie Bell. Apple Bloom did.
Scootaloo quickly noticed that she had upset her friend, and instantly felt guilty about it; she dropped the kangaroo submachine gun and sat down next to her friend, giving her a hug.
“Hey, I’m sorry!” Scootaloo said sincerely. “I’ll stop, I promise!”
Apple Bloom continued to cry, burying her head into Scootaloo’s shoulder. Scootaloo was glad that she had put on the goggles she’d found, as the violet lenses had obscured her eyes, Apple Bloom wasn’t able to see that she had started to cry as well.
They sat there for nearly an hour before neither of them was able to cry any more.
“Come on Scoot, let’s go look some more!” Apple Bloom said finally.
“That’s what I’m talking about!”
...
Nothing. Apart from the goggles, and the two guns they’d found, there was nothing that the two Cutie Mark Crusaders had found that had told them anything.
Apple Bloom had started looking at the trees for lack of other things to look at.
“Hey Scoot? Did ya notice tha’ some o’ the branches on these trees are broken?” Apple Bloom said after a minute of studying them.
“So?” Scootaloo said, looking up at the trees that Apple Bloom had pointed out.
“Well, how’d they get broken? Branches don’ break themselves!” Apple Bloom said. “So...”
“So someone had to break them!” Scootaloo finished, catching on quickly.
“Eyup!” Apple Bloom said. “Only some of ‘em are broken, so if we follow the broken ones...”
“We might find who broke them!” Scootaloo said. Excitedly the two fillies marched off, following the path with broken tree branches, the thought never occurred to them that they might not want to find whoever had broken the tree branches.
They followed it until they discovered a cliff wall, and a cave opening, the two Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately got excited and entered into the cave, they were disappointed to find that there was nothing in here, save for an old camp fire that clearly hadn’t been used in a really long time.
The duo took to exploring the cave, finding nothing of interest until they found an incredibly large boulder that was blocking off one part of the tunnel, and next to it was an open path that descended downwards. Eagerly, the Cutie Mark Crusaders went down the path, only to find an exit.
“Well that was dumb,” Scootaloo said disappointed. “There was nothing in there!”
Apple Bloom nodded in shared disappointment, and the two of them walked out of the cave, stopping only to take notice in a line of ashes that someone had left behind, because they had stepped in it, accidentally kicking some of it out of place.
The duo shrugged at each other, not understanding what the ashes were for, or why someone had put them like that, they continued on without a care in the world.
...
They continued to walk on the path that led away from the cave formation; Apple Bloom had been particularly disappointed, she was sure that the broken tree branches would have led them where they needed to be, unfortunately, there were no broken tree branches on this side of the cave.
They had wandered into a clearing, sitting down on the ground to rest for a moment. Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo, still wearing the goggles she’d found, she couldn’t help but smirk; they were too big for her head and made her look incredibly silly.
“What?” Scootaloo asked.
“Nothin’!” Apple Bloom said, giggling.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes, which Apple Bloom had not been able to see. “Maybe we should just go home. We haven’t found anything!”
They heard a branch snap.
The two fillies looked back, but saw nothing. They both began to tense up, not knowing what it could be.
They heard more branches snapping, and through the bushes, a black unicorn pony with glowing amber eyes walked in on them.
“Oh... hello!” he said politely.
“Hello,” Apple Bloom said, smiling at him.
The black unicorn smiled back at them. “Isn’t it... ah, getting a little late for fillies as young as yourself to be out?”
“Is it?” Scootaloo asked, she lifted up the goggles and looked at the sky, it was getting late.
“Yer not gonna tell Applejack on us are ya?” Apple Bloom asked worriedly. “Please! Ya can’t! Ah haven’t even done mah chores for today!”
“Who’s Applejack?” the unicorn asked.
“Mah big sister! She’ll be mad if she figures out we were out in the woods late!”
“Well don’t worry, my little ponies, I don’t know Applejack, so I can’t very well tell her!” the unicorn said with a smile. “My name is Nightshadow, you are?”
“I’m Apple Bloom! This is Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said with a smile, Scootaloo waved at the unicorn.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Nightshadow said with a smile. “It is getting rather late for two young fillies to be out, It’s not safe for you to be walking alone at night, how about I walk you two back to town?”
The filles eventually agreed, and began to walk back with the older unicorn.
Apple Bloom studied him for several moments, feeling that something was off about him, but she was quick to figure out what. “Hey! You don’ have a cutie mark!”
“Huh?” Nightshadow said, “Oh, yes, I suppose I don’t.”
“How come?!” Apple Bloom asked.
“I couldn’t tell you... my brothers and I never gone one,” Nightshadow said. “A trio of identical triplets.”
“Never? You must have gotten made fun of a lot in school?” Scootaloo asked. “We’re the only ones in our class that don’t have ours, and we get made fun of all the time.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Nightshadow said. “Children can be so cruel to those that are different; though we were never really picked on... in fact most ponies don’t even notice that we don’t have one for some odd reason, I tend to forget about them entirely.”
“But... don’t you want to find out what it is?” Scootaloo asked.
“Not particularly, no,” Nightshadow said. “I’m an apothecary, I make potions and elixirs from natural ingredients, I love it, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else... but clearly, my cutie mark did not come from it, I like not having it, it reinforces that you can do anything you want! After all, with my luck, my cutie mark would turn out to be a pail of glue, or a gelatine mold,” Nightshadow chuckled at his own joke, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at him in confusion, they didn’t understand.
“Never mind,” the black unicorn said.
...
They walked to the edge of town; Nightshadow stopped in his tracks, and turned to the two Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“This is where I leave you, then. I don’t actually live in town anymore,” Nightshadow admitted. “I would like, however to ask a favour of you two?”
“Wha’ is it?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I would appreciate that you not tell others that you met me. I am not... understood, by the townsfolk. I prefer to live alone outside town, it’s not something that everypony understands,” Nightshadow said.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo didn’t understand, he was really nice and helpful, why wouldn’t they like him? Nevertheless, they agreed to his request, he bid them farewell, and the two Cutie Mark Crusaders dashed off back into town.
Nightshadow, on the other hand seemed to just fade away into the darkness. |
Wheller | 687 | 3 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-02T01:51:22+00:00 | 2011-09-02T01:51:22+00:00 | 1,553 | Chapter 3
“Scootaloo? Ah been thinkin.’”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were camping out in their clubhouse, deep into Sweet Apple Acres; two of the bedrolls were occupied, while another one, Sweetie Bell’s sat empty.
“What is it?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom could see her eyes for the first time today, as she had finally taken off the goggles she’d found earlier today.
“About Cutie Marks... and what Nightshadow said about ‘em... he’s wrong, right? He’s gotta be!”
Scootaloo frowned; she’d been having the same debate in her mind for the last several hours. If cutie marks didn’t matter...
“Ah think maybe we should ask Twilight about ‘em, she’s smart! She’s gotta know somethin’!” Apple Bloom said.
Scootaloo nodded in agreement, they had almost gone right then and there, but they realised just how late at night it really was, they decided that they’d wait until morning, visit Sweetie Bell first, and then ask Twilight what she knew about them.
...
At eight in the morning, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo walked into the Ponyville Clinic. There was a blue unicorn sitting at the desk, reading a magazine, her nameplate said: “Colgate.”
“Something I can help you with?” Colgate said uninterestedly.
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak, however was interrupted by the door opening.
“Ah! Toothpaste! There you are!” said a brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark.
Colgate’s eye twitched slightly in anger. “Doctor, if I have told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, do not call me toothpaste!”
“Yer a doctor?” Apple Bloom said excitedly.
“I am a not only a doctor, I am the Doctor!” the Doctor said gleefully. “Something I can help you with?”
“Yeah! Our friend Sweetie Bell is a patient here, we came to see her!” Scootaloo said.
“Ah I see! Well, Miss Toothpaste can surely direct you to where your friend is,” the Doctor said. “That is more her specialty.”
Colgate opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor merely smiled, pointing at the children, and she promptly shut it again.
“Yes... please, follow me children, I can take you to her,” Colgate said. She rose from her desk and walked down a hallway muttering quietly to herself. “And to think, I finally thought I could get away from him here... but no!”
Colgate left them at Sweetie Bell’s room, the two fillies went inside.
“Oh hey!” Sweetie Bell said. “It’s... you girls!”
“Sweetie Bell?” Scootaloo asked.
“Who? Oh! Wait, that’s me! I’m Sweetie Bell, I forgot!” Sweetie Bell said enthusiastically.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo glanced at each other, Sweetie Bell had always been a little... spacey, but this was bad for her.
“Sweetie Bell... you know who we are, right?” Scootaloo asked.
“Of course I do!” Sweetie Bell said. “You’re... Alooscoot! And Bloom Apple! No... Wait, that doesn’t sound right. What’s going on?”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other.
“Uh... you’re really tired, and were about to go to sleep?” Scootaloo suggested.
“Huh? I’m not tired! Actually, now that I mention it... I kind of...” Sweetie Bell dozed off and began snoring very loudly.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo backed out of the room quietly, leaving their friend behind.
“Tha’ may ‘ave been the worst moment of mah life,” Apple Bloom said. Scootaloo only nodded in agreement.
...
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom knocked on the door to the Library. Twilight Sparkle opened the door.
“Oh! Well hello girls! Please come in!” Twilight said stepping aside and allowing the fillies entry. “What can I do for you?”
Twilight paused for a moment and looked at Scootaloo oddly. “Where did you get those?”
“Get what?” Scootaloo asked, then remembering that she was wearing the goggles she’d found. “Oh you mean these? I found them in Whitetail Wood! Pretty cool huh?”
“Uh... yeah, certainly!” Twilight said, looking around nervously, which the fillies did not pick up on. “Is there something I can do for you girls?”
“We wanted to ask ya about Cutie Marks!” Apple Bloom said.
“You’re not going to try and make them appear with magic are you?” Twilight asked suspiciously.
“Nah nothin’ like that! We wanted to know if ya’ll know of any older ponies without Cutie Marks!” Apple Bloom asked.
Twilight searched her brain for anything that might be of use. “There are a few cases, yes. It’s usually rare for a pony my age or older to be without a Cutie Mark... come to think of it, I used to have a friend who didn’t have a Cutie Mark... didn’t really notice that he didn’t before...”
“Used to have a friend? How come you’re not friends anymore?” Scootaloo asked.
Twilight looked up in surprise. “Oh... uh, he... died.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were caught in surprise, “Oh! We’re sorry ta hear that,” Apple Bloom said, mimicking a response that Applejack likely would have given at the same bit of information.
“Oh, don’t worry about it; it was a long time ago!” Twilight said, “It’s not like... I carry it around with me... every day.”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders couldn’t help but notice that Twilight seemed unsure about that, but chose not to press the issue.
“I have to ask, what brought this on?” Twilight asked.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other, they had made a promise to Nightshadow not to talk about him to anypony... but they couldn’t lie to Twilight either, could they? No, lying was wrong... but so was breaking a promise.
“Uh... Twilight, we have a problem,” Scootaloo said. “See, we made a promise not to say, but we don’t want to lie to you either.”
Twilight gave the two a worried look, she figured that this was important, she really needed to know, but she had been backed into a corner, if she pressed the issue, and made the crusaders tell her, then it would plant the idea in their minds that promises don’t matter.
“I think you should keep your promise, after all, losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend,” Twilight said, half expecting Pinkie Pie to burst through the door shouting “forever!” and was ultimately disappointed when she did not. Thought the more she thought about it, it was probably for the best. Pinkie Pie wasn’t exactly stable right now.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded, they thanked Twilight for her help and soon afterwards departed from the Library. Though they had discovered that Twilight hadn’t been nearly as helpful as they had hoped, the fate of Twilight’s friend bothered them very much, he had died without a cutie mark, he would never have one, and never could. It made the two fillies uncomfortable to know that this was even possible.
They wandered for a little while throughout town, talking about the day’s events. Still particularly disturbed by Sweetie Bell’s condition, she hadn’t remembered who they were.
Eventually they had found themselves wandering through Whitetail Wood again, though neither of them was sure that they’d find anything useful.
And then they did. Scootaloo practically tripped over a large metal canteen that was lying on the ground. Upon examining it, it had the letters “CSI” printed in large, white letters on the side. Oddly enough, it was full.
“Don’ even think about it!” Apple Bloom said. “You got the last thing we found, ah’m takin’ this one.”
“Fine,” Scootaloo said with a huff. “These goggles are way cooler anyway.”
Apple Bloom strung the canteen around her neck, noticing that there were more letters on the back. “Tpr. B.W.”
“T.P.R.B.W?” Apple Bloom repeated.
“What?” Scootaloo asked. Apple Bloom showed her the letters on the back of the canteen. “What does it mean?”
“Ah dunno!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“Maybe Rainbow Dash would know! She’s cool, maybe she’ll know about all kinds of cool stuff that we found!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
It was a long shot, but they didn’t really have anything better to be doing, the two fillies departed to find Rainbow Dash.
...
“Where did you get those?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed after looking at Scootaloo, pointing at the goggles.
“Oh these? I found them!” Scootaloo said. “Pretty cool huh?”
Rainbow Dash frowned, and opened her mouth to say something, but Twilight shushed her. They had once again returned to the Ponyville public library where Rainbow Dash was now living with Twilight.
“Girls, we need to take a look at everything you’ve found in Whitetail Wood.”
Scootaloo sighed, lifting the goggles off her head; she then opened her saddlebag dumping out 30 brass casings, and the kangaroo submachine gun.
Apple Bloom gasped. “Scootaloo! You been walkin’ around with that thing this entire time!?”
“Didn’t want to take the chance that we couldn’t find it again!” Scootaloo said justifying her hoarding.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash were certainly more worried about a young filly with a submachine gun than anything else.
“Didn’t your last experience with guns teach you anything?” Rainbow Dash said condescendingly.
“It’s empty! I promise! We checked!” Scootaloo said.
“You checked?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Twilight lifted the submachine gun up with her magic, she removed the magazine from the submachine gun’s side, and checked it, and it was indeed empty, she pulled back on the bolt to check the chamber. It was in fact empty as Scootaloo had proclaimed.
“Girls, despite the fact that this is empty, that doesn’t make it safe!” Twilight said. “Always treat a gun as if it’s fully loaded, because it might be!”
“Even if you know it’s empty?” Scootaloo asked.
“Especially if you know it’s empty!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Wha’ about the other stuff? Do ya know where it came from?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Yes,” Twilight said. “These goggles belong to our friend Vinyl Scratch, who left to go to Manehattan a few days ago... I’ve never seen her take them off...”
“That gun and canteen are Trooper Willoughby’s. He went with her,” Rainbow Dash added. “Something happened to them.”
“Can we help you look for them?!” Scootaloo asked excitedly. “We found their things! We can find them!”
“I think you girls have done enough, let us handle it from here,” Twilight said. “We’ll be sure to let you know when we find them though. Vinyl loves these goggles and she’s going to be very happy that you found them.”
Twilight smiled at the two fillies, and sent them on home.
“I guess we’re done then?” Scootaloo asked.
“Don’ be stupid!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “We ain’t even started!” |
Wheller | 687 | 4 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-02T19:46:43+00:00 | 2011-09-02T19:46:43+00:00 | 1,789 | Chapter 4
That night, the two Cutie Mark Crusaders were thrown awake by the sound of a loud crash, considering how loud it was, it had come from nearby.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked out the window of their clubhouse to discover that a large wooden bird like object was lying in the middle of the trees; both of its wings had been sheared off and were lying several dozen metres behind it.
“Do you think that you could have possibly made any more noise? Dillingham?” they heard a voice say.
“Not like I had a choice sir. It was this or the middle of town,” another called back.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo couldn’t help but notice that the voices sounded funny, like whomever they belonged to weren’t from around here, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders found it too dark to see them.
“Captain? Look! Tree house!” another voice said.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s hearts skipped a beat.
“Right, Lef-tenant Cutting? Take Dillingham and Evans and take a look. Be careful not to break the ramp under your own weight, Dillingham.” The voice belonging to the “Captain” said.
“That was one time, sir, and the wood was rotted on that bridge,” said the “Dillingham” voice.
“Hide!” Apple Bloom whispered hoarsely, the two of them dashed into a closet and threw a blanket over themselves.
The door to the clubhouse opened, and they heard light footsteps, stepping around the main room.
“Three bedrolls... two of them look like they’ve been used recently,” the “Dillingham” voice said.
“How recent is recent?” said another voice they had not heard before.
“They’re warm. Two minutes at most. Their owners haven’t gone far.”
“Right then, Dillingham? Check the closet.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo froze in fear.
The closet door opened, and the blanket covering the two was ripped off them.
“Got two,” Dillingham said.
Dillingham was a kangaroo wearing a funny looking black hat, pointing a gun identical to the one they had found in Whitetail Wood earlier that day.
“Ease off the Austin, Dillingham!” said another kangaroo, which Apple Bloom guessed to be Cutting. “First off, those are ponies, not gryphons, second off, they’re kids!”
“Yes sir Lef-tennant,” Dillingham said, lowering his submachine gun.
Lieutenant Cutting walked over to where the two fillies were laying, cowering in fear. He smiled at them, a genuine smile that began to put the Crusaders at ease. “Hello, come on out! No need to be afraid, that’s just Dillingham, he’s an idiot.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo smiled back at the Kangaroo’s humour. Apple Bloom’s smile quickly faded. “Mah big sister said Ah wasn’t allowed to talk ta the kangaroos in town!”
“There are kangaroos in town?” Cutting asked, cocking his head to the side.
“Duh! You’re them aren’t ya?” Apple Bloom asked.
“No... We’re not, tell you what though, if you talk to us, we promise not to tell your big sister that you did if you don’t, how’s that sound?” Cutting asked.
“Okay then,” Apple Bloom said. She and Scootaloo got up and walked out of the closet. “Ah take it yer Cutting?”
“Yes, yes I am, First Lef-tenant William Cutting, No.42 Commando, you are?”
“Ah’m Apple Bloom! This is Scootaloo; we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Apple Bloom said enthusiastically.
Cutting cocked his head in surprise at the introduction. “Cutie Mark Crusaders... possible paramilitary? Awful young though,” he said quietly to himself.
The kangaroos, crusaders in tow walked down the ramp from the clubhouse towards the wooden bird, there were a total of 10 kangaroos standing around it.
“No burning the glider! Remember No.38! They set the whole god-damned forest on fire!” This voice was the first one they had heard, belonging to the “Captain.”
“Captain Blackthorn?” Cutting asked of him. “We found two kids... and you’re not going to believe what they told me.”
Captain Blackthorn looked at the two Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Oh? What did they tell you Lef-tenat?”
“There are kangaroos in town!” Cutting said.
“Are there now?” Blackthorn asked, he stepped down to the Crusader’s levels. “I’m Reginald Blackthorn. What can you tell me about the kangaroos in town?”
“Ah’m Apple Bloom, this is Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said.
“We were told not to talk to them, there are four of them, and they drove into town in their tank couple months ago!” Scootaloo said.
“A couple months ago? And only four?” Blackthorn mused to himself. “Well they’re certainly not No.38... four would make them a light tank crew... meaning that they’re armoured cavalry.”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at the kangaroo with confusion, being children; the older girls had neglected to tell them anything about the kangaroos that rolled into town.
“Captain, the trees are too spread out for this to be a forest... this is a farm, we’ll get no cover or concealment here,” Dillingham reported.
“If ya’ll are lookin’ for a forest, there’s one right over there a ways,” Apple Bloom said, pointing west. “Ah wouldn’t recommend it though. The Everfree forest ain’t right. Never has been! It’s got all sorts of monsters in it!”
“And weather happens on its own! Nasty stuff like hail!” Scootaloo added.
Blackthorn looked at them, dismissing their warnings about the Everfree, they could handle it. “We’ll take our chances,” he said finally. “Listen here, this is very important, you can’t tell anyone we were here... If your sister forbids you to talk to kangaroos, well we certainly don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Blackthorn smiled at the fillies, who smiled back at him.
“We promise!” they said cheerfully.
Blackthorn was certainly happy with that answer, he then turned to the glider. “Now what are we going to do with this? Can’t burn it...”
“We could get rid of it for you!” Scootaloo said. “We’re real deep on the farm! Nopony comes here except us; we can chop it up and use it in our clubhouse!”
“Well, that sounds like a good idea to me,” Blackthorn said with a smile, “It’s yours!”
“Yay!” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cheered.
“42nd Commando! Grab your gear! We need to make it to that forest!” Blackthorn said, the kangaroos promptly picked up their gear and hopped off at high speed, within a few minutes, they were gone from sight.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo wasted no time in breaking up the glider, breaking it down into individual planks of wood that they could use to spruce up their clubhouse.
The sun rose, and by that time, there was no evidence that the kangaroo commandos had been here at all.
...
At nine in the morning, Sweetie Bell wandered into view of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who were still sorting out materials.
“Apple Bloom! Scootaloo!” She called out cheerfully. The other two Cutie Mark Crusaders looked up and smiled intensely, running towards their friend and giving her the biggest hug ever.
“Easy! Easy! Still... sore!” Sweetie Bell gasped. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo backed off slightly, releasing the unicorn filly from their grasp.
“How do you feel Sweetie?” Scootaloo asked.
“”Great! I’m on Narcotics!” Sweetie Bell proclaimed.
“Wha’ are those?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I have no idea!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed enthusiastically. “But I feel so good right now! I could probably get shot five times and be fine!”
“Let’s not test that,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t want to get my Cutie Mark from shooting anypony.”
“So what are we going to do today!?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“Well, we’re almost done breaking up all this wood, then... I dunno!” Apple Bloom said. “Don’ matter none, all tha’ does is tha’ the Cutie Mark Crusaders are tagether again!” |
Wheller | 687 | 5 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-03T04:15:20+00:00 | 2011-09-03T04:15:20+00:00 | 1,529 | Chapter 5
“Tell me something Apple Bloom... does Sweetie Bell seem, off, to you?”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were watching Sweetie Bell from a distance as she helped break up the wings of the kangaroo glider.
“Now tha’ ya mention it...” Apple Bloom began. Sweetie Bell had always been spacey, but now it seemed like she was completely out of it, Scootaloo had caught her just standing around, eyes bugged out and mouth wide open several times in the last hour. It seemed that something had happened to Sweetie Bell while she was being treated.
“Look, she’s doing it again!” Scootaloo said.
Apple Bloom frowned, something was clearly wrong with her friend, and she didn’t like it in the slightest bit.
“Sweetie Bell!” Apple Bloom called to her.
Sweetie Bell jumped in surprise, blinking several times and looking over to her friends. “Hey Apple Bloom! Scootaloo! What’s going on?”
“We were going to go get some lunch! Let’s go!” Scootaloo said, making something up, they were hungry, so might as well do something productive.
“Okay!” Sweetie Bell said, turning and walking over to her friends.
“You walk in front o’ her, Ah’ll walk behind, tha’ way we don’ lose her!” Apple Bloom said quietly.
“I’m hungry, are you hungry? I’m so hungry! Let’s get lunch!” Sweetie Bell said.
“Yeah... that’s what we’re doing Sweetie,” Scootaloo said.
Sweetie Bell gave Scootaloo a confused look, and then it hit her. “Oh yeah! I forgot!”
That was bad, even for her.
They walked into town, only having one major hiccup of Sweetie Bell stopping and staring out into the open with her mouth open wide. They got lunch of a nice salad from the local café; Sweetie Bell seemed to be more alert while they were eating.
“I was awake you know, when they operated,” Sweetie Bell said.
“No way!” Scootaloo called out in surprise.
“Yeah! Said that they needed me awake, but that I wouldn’t feel a thing! I didn’t!” Sweetie Bell said. “They also said that there might be some side effects... but I haven’t had any!”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom frowned at that statement.
“What?” Sweetie Bell asked.
...
Sweetie Bell was much more alert and focused after having food in her. She was perfectly normal for the rest of the day... normal, by Sweetie’s standards of course. Sweetie Bell had always been a little on the slow side, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo loved her just the way she was, and were exceedingly happy that she was back.
For how long was their greatest worry. As day began to turn into night, Sweetie began to get worse, only this time instead of spacing out, it was much worse; she felt a nagging pain in her left hind leg.
“I think I need to go home,” Sweetie Bell groaned loudly in pain as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom walked her back to Carousel Boutique. “Sorry girls, I know we said we’d camp out when spring came... but I don’t think I can. I’m really sorry!”
“’Sokay Sweetie! Tha’ ain’t important! Wha’ is important is you gettin’ better!” Apple Bloom said.
“Thanks,” Sweetie Bell said, managing a smile through her pain.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders pushed open the door to Carousel Boutique.
“Sweetie? Is that you?” Rarity called out from the other room.
“And Scootaloo and Apple Bloom,” Sweetie managed.
Rarity trotted into the room and stopped. “Sweetie? What’s wrong?”
“It hurts sis! It hurts real bad!” Sweetie said. She’d begun to shake.
Rarity frowned, as if she didn’t know what to do. “The Doctors said I can’t give you any more...”
“Sis... it hurts!” Sweetie Bell said.
Rarity looked as if she was about to cry. “Apple Bloom, Scootaloo? I’m sorry but you need to go home. No buts.”
Rarity had beaten Apple Bloom to it, she had just opened her mouth to make an excuse, but quickly closed it again, and she and Scootaloo gave Sweetie Bell a hug and, reluctantly, departed.
...
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo laid awake the entire night in silence. Neither of them was able to sleep, and neither of them felt it was right to talk about it. Sweetie Bell was their best friend, and she was suffering right now. Apple Bloom felt her conscious panging, this was her fault. She’d done this to Sweetie Bell, and she would never forgive herself for it. Hours passed, and the Two Crusaders sat, eyes open, looking at the ceiling of their club house, until finally, Scootaloo broke the silence.
“Apple Bloom? I can’t sleep.”
“Me neither,” Apple Bloom replied.
“Let’s go for a walk or something,” Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom nodded in agreement, and the two fillies rose and walked down the ramp to their clubhouse. They walked to the western edge of the farm, over the fence, and along the path that lined the tree line of the Everfree forest. So far, the walk wasn’t helping.
“Ah feel terrible. This is all mah fault!” Apple Bloom said. Tears were forming in the young fillies’ eyes. Scootaloo had begun to cry to. Both of them felt so helpless. This wasn’t what childhood was supposed to be like, they used to be happy and care free! Until that fateful day in Whitetail Wood, when a revolver was found, its previous owner had only firing five shots out of six.
A twig snapped.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were shaken out of their thoughts and jumped in surprise. Were Scootaloo’s wings a little stronger, she’d have been 10 metres off the ground by now.
Standing in the tree line was a kangaroo, his Austin Submachine gun pointed at the two fillies, they froze in fear. The kangaroo turned on the light that was taped to the underside of the barrel shining it in their eyes.
The kangaroo however quickly lowered his submachine gun, he’d recognised them. In turn, the fillies recognised him back. It was Lieutenant Cutting.
“Apple Bloom? Scootaloo?” He asked in surprise. “What are you doing out this late? You’re awfully young to be wandering around on your own.”
Cutting hopped from the tree line towards the fillies, turning off the light that he’d taped to his gun. He stopped and leaned down to their level.
“Lef-tenant Cutting?” Apple Bloom said. “We did somethin’ bad.”
Cutting looked incredibly worried at this statement, but put on his best smile for the children. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?” he said sympathetically.
“A couple days ago, we found a revolver in the woods... only we didn’t know what it was then... and we accidentally shot our other friend.”
“Oh,” Cutting said with a frown. “Is she... all right?”
Apple Bloom shook her head.
“She was crying that it hurt so bad last time we saw her,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t want to think of what she’s going through right now.”
“That’s... terrible,” Cutting said, frowning. “This is why I can’t believe in god. We live in a world where children suffer.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at him in confusion; they didn’t understand what he meant. They’d never heard the word “god” before.
“Is there anything I can do?” Cutting asked.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo liked him, he was kind, genuine, he was asking because he really did care. Apple Bloom didn’t understand why Applejack had forbid her to talk to the kangaroos, they were good folks.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other, silently deciding on a course of action.
“Well, we were gonna go poke ‘round Whitetail Wood again, see if we can’t figure out wha’ that revolver was doin’ there,” Apple Bloom said.
“I’ll come with you, just, give me a moment, I need to tell Captain Blackthorn what I’m doing,” Cutting said. He hopped off, and returned no less than two minutes later, a smile on his face. “Lead the way!”
They took the long way around, deciding it would be best not to walk through town where someone might see them. They were more afraid of someone seeing the crusaders than they were of Cutting. The fillies were young, and they didn’t want it getting back to Applejack that they were out this late, they figured that anypony that saw Cutting couldn’t tell one kangaroo from another, and that he would probably be mistaken for one of Sergeant Tebbs’ crew if he was seen.
It was nearly sun up, and they were passing Fluttershy’s cottage. The door opened and Cutting dropped to the ground instinctively.
Fluttershy stepped out of her cottage, spotting the two Cutie Mark Crusaders instantly and walking over to speak with them.
Cutting swore silently to himself, asking what he’d gotten himself into. Quickly thinking, the Cutie Mark Crusaders approached Fluttershy, entering her front garden so that Fluttershy would stop in a place where Cutting wasn’t visible.
“Good morning Apple Bloom! Good morning Scootaloo!” Fluttershy said politely. “What are you girls doing up this early?”
“Oh, ya know! Busy day of crusadin’ ahead of us!” Apple Bloom said with a smile.
“Oh yeah! Real busy! We’re gunna go run around the path the Running of the Leaves follows! Be Cutie Mark Crusader long distance runners!” Scootaloo said, thinking quickly.
“Oh that does sound like fun! Just be sure to drink lots of water! Okay?” Fluttershy said with a smile.
“’Course we will!” Apple Bloom said. “Actually, we was wonderin’ if maybe you had a canteen we could borrow?”
“Oh! Of course! Hold on and I’ll go get it for you!” Fluttershy smiled and went back inside to look for it.
Cutting wasted no time; he hopped up and quickly made his way around the house and out of any chance of Fluttershy seeing him. After a few moments, Fluttershy returned, a canteen in her teeth, which she placed around Apple Bloom’s neck.
“There you go! I filled it up with water for you; you girls have fun and remember to bring it back when you’re done!” Fluttershy said.
“We will! We promise!” Scootaloo said, and with that, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo bid Fluttershy farewell, they rejoined Lieutenant Cutting, and continued on their way to Whitetail Wood.
Cutting was, however, somewhat disturbed at how easy it was for these children to lie. |
Wheller | 687 | 6 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-03T07:01:25+00:00 | 2011-09-03T07:01:25+00:00 | 1,561 | Chapter 6
“How many of these are we going to find?!” Scootaloo called out, picking up another brass casing and putting it her bag.
Lieutenant Cutting picked up one of them, looking on the bottom of it. “10mm auto, standard chamber for one of these,” he said, holding his Austin submachine gun up.
“We did find a gun like yours!” Scootaloo said enthusiastically.
“I thought you said that the gun that hurt your friend was a revolver?” Cutting asked.
“It was! We found that gun later... what’s it called?” Scootaloo asked.
“This? Officially: Carbine, Machine, Austin. It’s a 10mm, Blow-back operated, open bolt, with a 30 round box magazine,” Cutting said proudly, and then he remembered who he was talking to. “You have no idea what any of that means, do you?”
“Nope!” Apple Bloom said with a smile.
Cutting couldn’t help but smile back. “This Austin that you found, where is it now?”
“Twilight Sparkle has it!” Scootaloo explained. “She took it from us when we showed it to her! Said it was too dangerous.”
Cutting nodded in agreement. “I’d have likely done the same. Kids shouldn’t play with guns. Let alone a damned machine carbine!”
Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel bad at Cutting’s statement about playing with guns. She hadn’t known better then. Now she did, and she never wanted to touch another gun as long as she lived.
...
Cutting kept his eyes up when they approached a ridge; he kept looking at it as if he was expecting someone to be there.
“Lef-tenant Cutting? Wha’ are ya doin?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Force of habit, that ridge is a good spot for a gryphon airborne infantryman with one of their scoped rifles.”
Bang!
Apparently, someone else had thought so too. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo heard a bullet whiz by them, cutting through the air and making a terrible noise. Cutting motioned them to get to the side and take cover behind a tree, and to stay there.
“That was your only warning! Come any closer and the next one won’t miss!”
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Lieutenant Cutting looked up. That voice was a South Islander accent.
“Oi! Dipstick! Care to take a look at who you’re shooting at before you pop ‘em?” Cutting called out.
A kangaroo appeared on the ridge, holding a very ornate looking bolt-action rifle that was clearly not of kangaroo origin.
“Willoughby you moron!” a female voice called out. “What did you do?”
A white unicorn pony with a blue mane and red eyes, and a beamed quaver cutie mark appeared behind him, she was levitating an ornate looking pistol that looked more like a knife than anything else. “Moron! You shot at fillies!”
“I couldn’t exactly see who was coming towards us, Vinyl,” the kangaroo said.
“Sorry about that! He’s been jumpy ever since we got here,” Vinyl Scratch called out. “There’s a slope around the other side of the ridge, come on up! View’s real nice!”
Cutting, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom got up from their cover and walked around the ridge and found the path up to where the unicorn and kangaroo were located.
“Who might you be?” Cutting asked of Willoughby.
“Trooper Benjamin Willoughby, King’s Own South Island Dragoons, sorry for shooting at you...” Willoughby said, not knowing what to call Cutting, as he wasn’t wearing anything to identify himself as a member of the Commonwealth of South Island Military.
“First Lef-tenant William Cutting, No.38/42 Commando.”
“Sir?” Willoughby questioned, “If I may ask, what are commandos doing here?”
“Not in front of the kids,” Cutting said quietly, he thought that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo couldn’t hear him, but they did, Cutting looked to Vinyl, who smiled and took to talking to the children so Cutting and Willoughby, could talk.
“How you kids doing?” Vinyl said with a grin. Her red eyes shining brightly at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
“Are you friends with Twilight and Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked.
“I am as a matter of fact! How are those two lovebirds doing?” Vinyl asked with a grin, knowing full well that both of them were going to hate her for saying that, and she found it all the more amusing.
“’Lovebirds?’ EW! Gross!” Scootaloo said.
“Ya got some crazy imagination lady!” Apple Bloom said.
“Well that’s not exactly inaccurate...” Vinyl said, her grin growing wider.
Scootaloo opened her saddlebag and pulled out the goggles that she’d been carrying around. “Are these yours?”
“Hey! You found my goggles! Thanks kid!” Vinyl said smiling brightly; she levitated the goggles over her head, snapping them into place. “Ohhh yeah!”
...
“Not in front of the kids,” Cutting said. When Vinyl Scratch had their attention, Cutting leaned in close to inform Willoughby of what was going on.
“Rumour has it that there’s a platoon of gryphon airborne infantry that are hiding out in Equestria. Office of Strategic Intelligence’s put heavy stock into these rumours, they sent No.38 Commando in to check them out quietly... there was a problem and they were dropped off course and landed in the wrong place, they took heavy casualties on landing.”
“Gryphons?” Willoughby asked.
“I bloody wish, it would have been less embarrassing, no they burned their glider in the middle of thick forest, caught the damn place on fire, and killed half the unit. They sent in No.42 with orders to amalgamate No.38 and finish the job... don’t suppose you can shed any light?” Cutting asked.
Willoughby nodded. “I can, there are definitely Gryphons hiding in this wood, they’re not airborne infantry though, they seem to be what’s left of an Artillery Platoon we jumped in the Hoofson Bay in December. It’s where I met her actually,” Willoughby said, pointing at Vinyl. “She don’t look like much, but she’s real handy in a pinch.”
“Why thank you Willoughby! That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me!” Vinyl said, looking back and grinning at him.
“Oh god, she’s got the goggles back,” Willoughby said. “Anyway, we whittled them down... there’s only four or five left, enough to still pose a significant threat to the region.”
“I heard that someone dispelled the rumours about Equestria for OSI... but I didn’t think they were that bad of lies!” Cutting exclaimed. “Are you sure that they’re arty?”
“That was me, actually. I was the one who reported it to the Op,” Willoughby said casually. “Vinyl? Can I see that officer’s pistol?”
Vinyl tossed Willoughby the pistol that she was levitating. He caught it and pointed out the markings on the handgrip. “See these? They denote a… I think that’s Sergeant Major, in an Artillery Brigade. My grasp on gryphon is a little basic, but I know that much.”
“Warrant Officer, actually, I’m fluent,” Cutting said. He examined the pistol before handing it back to Vinyl Scratch, which wasn’t so much a hand, more like, a “let-go-and-have-it-float-away.”
“Show off!” Willoughby said.
“You know me!” Vinyl said with a grin.
“These kids have been playing in this wood for days, not knowing how dangerous it really was, we need to get them back to town before someone gets hurt,” Cutting said.
Willoughby nodded. He reached into his vest and pulled out several box magazines, handing them to Cutting, “You’ll need these more than I will. I lost my Austin in the wood a few days ago.”
“You’ll be happy to know that the kids found it, and it’s in the hands… hooves, of somepony named Twilight Sparkle,” Cutting said casually. “And a magnum revolver too.”
“Oh good,” Willoughby said, showing Cutting the gryphon rifle. “I hate using this thing.”
Cutting nodded, he gathered everyone up. “All right, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, we need you to show us the fastest way back to town. I know we took a roundabout way to get here… Well let’s just say that something is in this wood that makes that way unappealing…” |
Wheller | 687 | 7 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Original Character,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Paradiso | After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone. | complete | 27 | 6 | <p>After Sweetie Bell is accidentally hurt by a strange object in Whitetail Wood. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo begin to investigate on there own, despite Applejack's repeated warnings to leave it alone.</p> | teen | 2011-09-04T05:32:56+00:00 | 2011-09-04T05:32:56+00:00 | 2,148 | Chapter 7
“Eyes up people,” Willoughby said. “That’s where we can expect trouble from.”
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Vinyl Scratch, Willoughby and Cutting were walked through Whitetail Wood, dividing their attention between the path ahead of them, and the sky above.
“They usually only come out at night to harass us, trying to get us to make a mistake so they can swoop in and nab us without a casualty on their side. Airborne infantry are trained to engage at range. These guys? They like getting in close so they can use the blades,” Willoughby said, pointing at the long, incredibly sharp looking blade that ran alongside the barrel of the gryphon rifle, extending out a few centimetres. “Of course, this means that a good shot can hit them while they’re charging. We should thank the gryphons for designing a weapon that can either be a gun, or a sword, but not both at the same time.”
Cutting chuckled, causing Willoughby to raise an eyebrow. “And I thought you commando types didn’t have a sense of humour.”
“Talk to Captain Blackthorn, then consider that line of thought again,” Cutting said.
Up front, Vinyl Scratch was walking with the fillies, levitating the Officer’s pistol above her head, keeping a look out for any signs of trouble.
“If yer friends with Twilight an’ all them, how come we ain’t never seen ya before?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Well, really I’m only friends with Twilight and Rainbow Dash. Haven’t had the opportunity to meet their other friends, haven’t stuck around town long enough for that,” Vinyl said.
“How come?” Scootaloo asked.
“Never did like staying in one place too long,” Vinyl said. “Never lived anywhere more than a year when I was your age.”
“How come?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Dad changed jobs a lot,” Vinyl said.
“How come?” Scootaloo asked.
“Most of the time, he’d get fed up and quit, or would get fired for not showing up for days on end, said that they were beneath him, drove mum insane. We moved to Manehattan and when it came time for dad to lose his third job and become un-hireable. He said “We’re moving to Fillydelphia pack your things.” Well I packed my things all right, but I told him flat out, ‘I ain’t going to Fillydelphia.’ So I went out and started living on my own. I was probably... two, three years older than you are right now.”
“How come ya didn’ go with him?” Apple Bloom asked.
Vinyl smiled brightly at the two fillies. “You cats ask a lot of questions don’t ya? Truth of the matter was, I didn’t need my parents, I made my own money, bought my own food, cooked for myself, did my own laundry. So I stayed, got into a bad crowd. Made a bunch of money in a way I’m not proud of. Eventually started DJing at a club, got popular, made a bunch of money. Did things with that money I’m not proud of. Realised I was wasting my life, cleaned up, wandered a bit, Met Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, and then five months after that, here I am, walking through Whitetail Wood, with two curious fillies and two kangaroos with guns... any more questions?”
“Are you crazy?” Scootaloo asked.
Vinyl Scratch merely grinned. “Indubitably!”
...
They were a hundred metres from the edge of Whitetail Wood.
“Anyone else feel that this has been way too easy?” Cutting asked.
“Oh yeah,” Vinyl said, looking up, keeping the officer’s pistol pointed towards the sky.
“If they plan on jumping us here, then they’re making a big mistake, they’ll hear the gunfire all the way in Ponyville,” Willoughby mused.
“Who’s going to do what?” Scootaloo asked.
It was at this point that the older members of the group had remembered that they’d been trying to keep the knowledge about the gryphons a secret from the children. The last thing they needed was for them to panic.
They didn’t have time to answer. Cutting turned his Austin upwards and pulled the trigger. Silenced submachine gun fire filled the air, and a gryphon fell from the sky.
Four more gryphons were diving at them, bladed rifles pointing down.
Willoughby pulled the trigger on his rifle.
Bang!
The bullet went through the gryphon’s wing, sending him toppling to the ground.
Vinyl leapt on top of the fillies, trying to shield them from the gryphon’s attack, she fired the officer’s pistol into the air, not necessarily trying to hit anything, just making noise, and praying that someone in Ponyville would hear it and come to their rescue.
The two gryphons that were left dodged and weaved between submachine gun fire, Cutting used his ammo sparingly, knowing that the minute he had to reload would be when they charged him.
Click!
The gryphon dive-bombed Cutting, ready to slash at the kangaroo commando with his rifle, Willoughby, acting quickly pulled the trigger on his rifle; the gryphon’s head exploded, and splattered gore over Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s faces.
Clearly, Vinyl’s call for help had been heard, they heard a low rumble and through the trees, as M3 Light Tank 105 crashed through the trees, catching the last of the gryphon artillery platoon off guard as he was cut down by the hull mounted machine gun.
Sergeant Tebbs popped his head out of top hatch. “Bloody hell! What was that all about? And what happened to Manehattan?”
“There are children here sergeant,” Cutting said.
“Who are you?” Tebbs asked looking at Cutting.
“Lef-tenant William Cutting! No. 38/42 Commando,” Cutting said plainly.
“Commandos?” Bloody Hell! Tebbs called out.
“Children, Sergeant,” Cutting reminded them. “Children who have been traumatised by what they’ve just seen.”
Vinyl got off Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who were shaking horribly, disgusted by the blood covering them.
...
Vinyl, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Cutting were sitting on the back of the tank as it drove back into Ponyville, Willoughby had since rejoined his crew on the inside of the tank.
Applejack and Big Macintosh were walking along the high street as the tank passed; Applejack looked up, seeing Apple Bloom riding on the back of it.
“Apple Bloom!” she called out, galloping after the tank.
“Stop the tank sergeant!” Cutting ordered.
“Where ya goin’ with mah sister!” Applejack said angrily. “Apple Bloom didn’ ah tell ya not to talk to them kangaroos!”
“Ahem,” Cutting said clearing his throat. “You have a problem with kangaroos miss? If so, then get stuffed, four kangaroos just saved her life, and her actions probably saved the lives of everyone in town.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Wha?”
“Hospital, Tebbs,” Cutting said, tapping the tanks turret, it rolled off back towards its destination, the clinic.
...
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were cleaned up by Nurse Redheart and given a private room where they could rest in, physically, they were fine. But mentally was another story.
Nurse Redheart was the senior nurse on duty, but they didn’t have anyone trained in psychology, for that, they needed someone from Canterlot to come down at speak with the children. Nurse Redheart considered herself lucky that she’d gotten somepony on such short notice.
“They’re only children, I don’t know how bad they are, but since I’m not qualified, I didn’t want to try,” Nurse Redheart explained.
“No, no you did the right thing, don’t worry! I’ll be gentile!” said a stallion’s voice. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were not able to see him since the adults were out talking in the hallway.
A pitch-black earth pony doctor in a white coat entered the room smiling at the two fillies as they lay in their beds.
“Hello, I’m Doctor Nightcaller. I’m from the Royal Hospital in Canterlot. Nurse Redheart has asked me to come down and speak to you; I certainly hope that’s all right.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded.
Nightcaller smiled warmly at the children. “Excellent! I think we’re going to get along just fine.” |
EvilMageTim | 692 | 1 | Angel,Big Macintosh,Bon-Bon,Cheerilee,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Doctor Whooves,Granny Smith,Gummy,Lyra,Main 6,Mayor Mare,Original Character,Owlowiscious,Spike,Zecora,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Acceptance | The story of a Griffon leaving his past behind and coming to Equestria, but is it worth it? | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Crux, a griffon recently banished from the Griffon Territories hopes to find somewhere to live, and that somewhere is Ponyville.</p><p>This is my first fic, enjoy.</p> | everyone | 2011-09-01T00:33:52+00:00 | 2011-09-01T00:33:52+00:00 | 1,802 | Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Crux flew down to the road after flying for what seemed like days away from the Griffon Territories into Equestria. The griffon sighed, thinking of what he had left behind and how he'd find a place for himself in the land of colorful equines especially since he had barely met any ponies growing up.
"Well way to go Crux you screwed up big time!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, " I mean banished, really? Nobody's been banished since something wierd happened with the sun in the sky. And that's been what? About a thousand years or so? Wow, just wow. Heh, I'll bet they have to change a 'Last accident 3 days ago' kind of thing."
Sighing again, he continued on the road to somewhere. All roads lead somewhere, but this particular path led to what could change his life forever. Once he had reached the top of a small hill he saw the first town he had ever seen in Equestria.
Digging through his messenger bag, he finally found a torn map that he had been using to navigate through Equestria he determined the town to be Ponyville. Other than that, Crux had no idea of what would come next.
"Hello," Crux decided to greet the first pony he ran into in the small town, "do you know where-"
"Hmph!" The pony only continued walking right past him as though he was just another rock in the path.
"... Well, okay then..."
Soon afterwards he noticed a purple maned earth pony pulling a unicorn filly into a house along with many more angry glares from other ponies.
From what he had learned in school, ponies were said to be pleasant and usually openly friendly. "Better change the books then, teach." He said under his breath after another pony had gasped rather loudly and run into her house.
Guessing that the candy-coated building was probably a store of some kind, Crux hoped that these ponies would be at least willing to take his money.
*DING* "Hi welcome to Sugarcube..." The bright pink pony, turning around, noticed that Crux wasn't one of the normal customer ponies or a pony even.
"Oh no, not again." Crux said, almost letting the pony hear his depressed thoughts.
"*GASP*"
"...here it comes..."
"A NEW CUSTOMER!"
"*sigh* fine I'll.... wait, what?" Crux had given up on having a conversation with anypony at all.
"YOU'RE OUR NEWEST CUSTOMER SILLY!" The pink pony shouted while bouncing up and down, hurting Crux's brain at the physics involved. "AND THE SECOND GRIFFON TO COME TO PONYVILLE!"
"Whew, I thought you were going to run me ou.... wait, what?" He asked, thinking that only the Government officials going to Canterlot were the only griffons coming to Equestria. "Who was the first?" He didn't think the higher ups would stop in a small town like this.
"Oh, that was Gilda, Dashie's friend." The pony had finally quit shouting, but kept on bouncing cheerfully, "But she was a meanie weanie pants." She stuck her tounge out at this.
"Is that why all the ponies around here have been giving me nasty looks, ignoring me, or acting like I was The Pale Pony of Death?"
"No, no that was Mort, everypony liked him."
"...What?"
"Nevermind."
"I'll try..." Crux said with the same amount of confusion as anybody else has when meeting the pink pony.
"I guess everypony else just think that you're as nasty wasty as Gilda wilda was when she came here."
"So... they all hate-"
"I wouldn't say hate."
"Okay they all dislike me greatly all solely based on the actions of one, I repeat one griffon?"
"Yupperooni"
"Wait, why didn't you glare at me or shoo me outta here then?"
"Because Twighlight said that I shouldn't judge another pony...er, um griffon before I get to know them." The floofy maned pony said without a hint of sarcasm, anger, or dislike... just happieness equal to the greatest sugar rush ever.
"Thank you... I'm sorry, I didn't get your name yet. I'm Crux." He replied, happy that at least one pony in this town was nice to him.
"Well hi Crux, I'm Pinkie Pie!"
to be continued...
===================================================================WOOHOO! I finally got the courage to write a fic, thank you for reading and I'll make sure to write a lot more soon. Also I'm sorry it's so short.
I don't own any intellectual properties relating to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or The Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual.
-EvilMageTim
=================================================================== |
EvilMageTim | 692 | 2 | Angel,Big Macintosh,Bon-Bon,Cheerilee,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Doctor Whooves,Granny Smith,Gummy,Lyra,Main 6,Mayor Mare,Original Character,Owlowiscious,Spike,Zecora,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Acceptance | The story of a Griffon leaving his past behind and coming to Equestria, but is it worth it? | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Crux, a griffon recently banished from the Griffon Territories hopes to find somewhere to live, and that somewhere is Ponyville.</p><p>This is my first fic, enjoy.</p> | everyone | 2011-09-06T20:59:39+00:00 | 2011-09-06T20:59:39+00:00 | 2,078 | Acceptance
Chapter 2 : Culture Shock
Part 1
"Thanks again, Pinkie Pie." Crux said, walking out of Sugarcube Corner with a doughnut he had bought and the Sugarcube Corner free complimentary cupcake.
"You're welcome again too!" Pinkie Pie giggled from behind the candy-coated counter. "Have a nice day!"
As he reached the door Crux began to reply with, "I'll tr-"
"Twitchy twitcha twitch!" Pinkie shouted loudly while holding her rapidly twitching tail.
"What?"
"Just watch out for stuff falling from the sky, silly." The pink pony replied, as if Crux had just asked her how to spell the letter a.
"...alright...bye." He managed to say out of complete and utter confusion.
"Now which one should I eat first?" The griffon thought to himself, eyeing both treats with hungry eyes. "I pick you, you little cup-"
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MONSTER HUNTERS, YAY!"
"...what?" Was all Crux could manage before three fillies landed on him from nowhere, smashing the green-iced cupcake into his chest plumage and throwing the doughnut into a puddle of mud.
"YEAH, GOTCHYA!" One of the three fillies shouted, grappling one of his wings.
"Hey, get o-"
"WEEEEEE! GET ALONG LITTLE PONY!" Another filly wearing a red ribbon yelled, while jumping on the miserable griffon's back.
"Agh, that hurts!" Crux managed out a muffled complaint.
"ARE THEY HERE YET, DID WE GET 'EM?" The orange pegasus asked excitedly, causing all of them to rapidly check their flanks.
"No, awwwwwww!" All three of them cried.
"Well ah thought we'd get 'em for sure this time." The yellow filly pouted.
"GIRLS!" An angry white unicorn shouted, running towards the ponypile. "What in Equestria are you doing to this poor-"
"uuugh, please..." Crux muttered.
"This poor... Oh, oh my." The fashionable unicorn slipped out of her fury when she realized that the pile didn't entirely consist of ponies.
"...p-please..."
"Oh, I'm so sorry about that!" She said ,regaining her composure and shooing the fillies off of him.
"...p-please my tail..."
"What was that dear? I can't hear you."
"...you're standing on...my tail..." Crux squeeked out.
The pomp pony jumped off of the tail in a flash. "Are you okay Mister...."
"Crux." He replied picking himself off of the ground and remains of the once delicious cupcake.
"...Crux! Well, what a beautiful name for such a forgiving griffon." She continued, grinning widly.
"Uh-huh..." Crux sighed as he stared at where his doughnut had found its soggy grave.
"Oh my! Was that your lunch?"
"*sigh* yeah, pretty much. I guess I'll go get another." He said sadly.
"Oh no no no no no no no no NO!" The curly maned unicorn was almost shouting. "I'll take you to lunch at a real restaurant to make up for this." She waved a hoof towards the three fillies trying to hide behind each other.
"Wow, thank you that's grea-"
"After we get you cleaned up at my Boutique that is."
"...wait, what?" And with that Crux was dragged to Carousel Boutique with three fillie running behind shouting "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER GRIFFON CLEANERS, YAY!"
===================================================================
I'd like to thank my readers, my random ideas, and caramelldansen playing the entire time I was writing this.
I don't own any intellectual properties relating to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Black Alicorn's story New Beginnings, or The Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual.
-EvilMageTim
=================================================================== |
SilverAura | 693 | 1 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2012-07-27T22:11:53+00:00 | 2014-05-09T18:12:22+00:00 | 6,545 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 1:A Rude Awakening
The wasteland: unforgiving for many, death for so many more. It is, however, home to many secrets, one of which was an unmarked stable. This stable, like many others, was meant to serve as a shelter for many ponies. It lay in the far northern part of Equestria, where the only nearby settlement was a burnt out military base. Though one would at first glance think the stable lay abandoned, there was one pony in this stable. That pony was me, and I didn’t even know it; I'd been in an experimental stasis pod since before the bombs fell.
*** *** ***
The stasis pod screeched open with a sound only comparable to that of a banshee’s wail. I fell to the floor still unconscious, unaware that over two hundred years had passed and that everything I knew about the world had drastically changed in that time. When I awoke I found myself staring into what I thought were the eyes of another of the Equestrian Skyguard; I yelped and would have jumped back if I hadn't been lying on my belly on the floor. After the initial shock passed I noticed that something was off: the insectoid armor was there, but there was nopony in it.
As I got up I noticed my reflection in a nearby broken mirror; I was able to look myself over and see that my cutiemark was a winged heart, my coat was snow white, my eyes were a light sky blue, and a light grey spiked mane and tail ‘that color since birth’, almost as spiked as my CO with a mane almost as long as well, How long was I in stasis?. As I looked around the room I saw it was rectangular in shape with a single stasis pod, a window covered in filth, a cabinet, and two doors, one looking like it would never open again (having a dent in it so large that one would think it was hit by a freight train), the other marked with a sign that told me it was an analysis chamber. Turning to look at the stasis pod, I noticed a plate on the bottom of it.
Test Subject #185-SA
Magical Ability Induction Tests
I didn’t understand what it meant at all, but before I could think further on it an automated voice came over the stable’s pa system: “TEST SUBJECT #185-SA, PLEASE REPORT TO TEST ANALYSIS CHAMBER” The voice was without emotion and sounded vaguely like that of a young colt just out of kindergarten.
Needless to say, since I had no idea where I was or even who I was, with only the number on the pod as a clue, I decided to do as the voice had said. I entered the Analysis Chamber only to be met with a small windowless room that had only had a single desk in the middle of it. The desk seemed to have a structure on the back for scanning whoever sat in it, with a pole from the middle back of the seat going up about halfway to the ceiling and all the way down to the floor. The device had 5 metal rings that went out about 90 degrees from either side of the pole and were spaced apart so they evenly separated the pole into 4 even segments.
My legs were starting to get sore as I waited in the doorway for something to happen, so I decided to take a seat at the desk despite the nagging feeling in the back of my head that this was a bad idea. When I sat at the desk the computerized voice spoke again: “COMMENCING ANALYSIS OF TEST EFFECTIVENESS”, after which the rings glowed brightly with a pinkish-purple tinge; there followed a series of beeps, and then a printout emerged from the desk:
=============Begin Report=============
Test Subject #185-SA Analysis
Test subject exhibits signs of wing degradation, may need to relearn how to fly
Test status:........Success
Test Subject shows signs of magical enhancement, may be able to use
rudimentary levitation spell despite being born a pegasus specialized
Pip-Buck required for spell to be used, subject’s files transferred to new
specialized Pip-Buck
WARNING! possible feedback if spell used beyond user’s skill level
Current Pip-Buck Levitation Spell capabilities
levitate lightweight items and weapons
use max of 2 items at a time in telekinesis
=============End Report=============
*** *** ***
I was a in a test of giving a portion of unicorn magic to non-unicorns? I could hardly believe what I had read on that piece of paper. So many of my memories were missing or out of place. I could remember my family, my earth pony mother and two unicorn sisters, but I had no memory of my father. I found what the computer said were my belongings back in “Test Room 18”, as I had found out it was called by the computer. Among my belongings in the cabinet were the rest of the set of armor I had seen the helmet of when I woke, a photo of a light blue mare with rainbow-colored and very spiky hair (I knew her to be my old CO), a jacket with a nameplate on the front that read “Lieutenant Silver Aura” on it (the jacket looked to be similar to that of the pilots in the next item I found, a book called “The Early Days of Flight”), a DataCell, and a PipBuck that looked like it had burnt out from being left on for way too long.
The computerized voice spoke again after I put on the jacket and picked up the PipBuck: “PLEASE DEPOSIT OLD PipBuck ON EQUIPMENT TRAY AND PICK UP REPLACEMENT”. After it had said this, a wall panel I hadn’t noticed before opened and a tray slid out; on the tray were a shiny new looking PipBuck and, surprisingly, a pair of saddlebags.
“Wh-what do I do with these?”I asked, feeling strange that my voice had cracked when I tried to speak
“SADDLEBAGS SUPPLIED TO CARRY PERSONAL BELONGINGS TO YOUR QUARTERS IN IRON HOOVES MILITARY BASE”
Well, that cleared that up. I decided to put the armor into the saddlebags before putting them on. I carefully slipped the PipBuck onto my left foreleg, noticing that it had automatically brought up a user’s manual. After reading through the manual I downloaded the data from the DataCell and read it, discovering that it was a letter to me from one of my sisters
=======================================================
To:Silver Aura
From:Rainbow Spring
Subject:Good Luck Brother
We all miss you Silvie, and before you reply saying not to call you that mom told me to make this letter memorable so I figure why not make you blush one more time before you start that secret military training or whatever it is. Silver Feather said to remind you about the party we have planned in 2 months and that you should try to get leave for it. We all know how you loved that book so we decided to send you a jacket designed off the picture you were always staring at. We all wish you good luck on the training, or mission, or whatever it is.
=======================================================
As I finished reading the letter, memories of the many fun times I had with my sisters started to return to me. Memories of playing tag in the park, memories of playing dressup (partially against my will), even memories of eating breakfast. The last memory that came back was of when I said goodbye for the last time before coming to this place. That last memory was the most painful to remember, causing me to have tears in my eyes. I kept thinking about the letter for several moments before realizing that I had overlooked something when I had come out of the analysis chamber.
There was only one way out of these 2 rooms, and it was blasted in so badly it probably wouldn’t open even if a Steel Ranger tried to open it. I went over to the door and pressed the button to open it, but nothing happened, not even a whisper of a mechanism coming online. I started to get worried after the third try with the button failed and even the override didn’t work. Did it let me out only to keep me prisoner in this room? I started banging on the door with my hooves as the realization of being trapped finally sunk in. “Let me out you stupid computer! Open the door!” I yelled. I kept banging on the door till the computer’s voice came over the PA System again
“MALFUNCTION IN TEST ROOM 18 DOOR PLEASE BACK AWAY AS FAIL-SAFE IS INITIATED”
At that I backed away, eyes going wide as I herd loud screeching sounds from the door frame. The door slowly moved up till the bulge stopped it, leaving barely enough room underneath for me to get through to the hallway. There was a terminal next to the door and barely enough light to see. As I looked further down the hallway, to the right I found more terminals and test rooms. After reaching a door at the end of the hall I decided to turn around and try to look into the other rooms I had passed.
As I looked into the first one on my right, I was able to see what looked like the skeleton of a pony who was crushed by the ceiling collapsing as they were leaving the analysis room. The pony’s left foreleg seemed to have been thrown across the room to land next to the stasis chamber; an explosion seemed the likely cause of death, as well as the cause of the cave-in.
The next room was on my left and a bit further down the hall; I looked into it I saw another pony skeleton. This one appeared to have fallen out of the stasis pod, and I couldn’t tell if they died getting in or died getting out. I shuddered to think that it might have been me in there instead.
The last room before mine was again further down the hall and this time on my right; looking in, I assumed this room was numbered 17. The stasis pod seemed to still be closed, but as I looked closer I saw another pony skeleton inside the pod. The room must have still had a little power, though, since there was a faint glow from the pod.
I didn’t bother looking into the next room; I already knew what was in it. Beyond Test Room 18 was a stairway leading up to the atrium. There were crates stacked in this room, with a recreational area to the right from where I entered; 2 pool tables were there with military security bots in front of them. The bots were either off or recognized me, because they didn’t move even once. As I looked up I saw that the lights in this room were brighter than the ones in the hallway below. I also saw the overmare's office window on the far wall, as well as, to the left of the window, a sign that read "Cafeteria". Lower, on the far right and far left, were two doors without any indication of what lay beyond them.
Heading to the far left door, I found that it lead to another hall that turned to the left. As I went down the hall I was able to make out a sign next to an empty doorway indicating the Reactor was to the right beyond the sign going straight was another stairway going up. Following the hall up the stairs and to the left again, I was able to make my way to the Cafeteria, which seemed to have no dividing wall between it and the atrium. Two more security bots stood motionless.
*** *** ***
After eating some food from the cafeteria and wandering around aimlessly in the reactor level for what felt like an hour, I finally found my way to the main entrance. As I approached the controls to the giant gear-shaped door, I noticed a terminal on a desk in front of some crates similar to the ones in the atrium. When I got close to the terminal I was disappointed to see that it was rusted and the screen was just as burnt out as my old PipBuck. After making sure the terminal really was dead by pressing the power button about 5 times, I went over to the door controls. As I pulled the switch to open the door I was praying that the door still had power. My prayers were answered with the near deafening sound of the door mechanism coming to life and sliding the gear out of the doorway.
After getting beyond the door, the mechanism began to close it again and nearly took away all the sense of hearing I had. Once the door had closed I looked back and saw that there was no number on the giant gear. I found this to be very strange, since all Stables were supposed to be numbered. I shrugged it off and followed the cave wall to the entrance. As I got outside I noticed the cloud layer covering the sky and wondered if there was a storm planned to happen soon.
Nearby was the wreckage of a military base with a crater just on the other side of it. I remembered this place; I had looked out on this base just before following the science pony into the stable that I decided to call Stable 0 (my new PipBuck seemed to just call it “The Vault”). The last time I saw this base it was in pristine condition, the buildings standing tall without a scratch on them, but now the base was just a shell of what used to be there.
As I approached the base my PipBuck told me it was once “Iron Hooves Military Base”; I hardly recognized it now, but I was still able to make it to the building that housed my quarters. When I pushed the door open I was greeted with a sight I hadn’t seen since before I entered The Vault, and even out on the battlefield it had not been this bad. Corpses were everywhere, some on hooks, some just lying on the ground, some even looking like they had been partially eaten. The room was shaped similarly to most reception areas, with a desk in the middle and on either side stairways leading up to balconies. I saw ponies with strange armor at the top of the stairs to the right (the ones that I knew lead to the officers' quarters and the offices of some of the science ponies) and managed to make my second dumb decision since leaving The Vault.
“You are trespassing on the grounds of the Equestrian Army; state your business or leave now!” I commanded the two unfamiliar ponies. This was probably not the smartest idea given the situation.
They just turned and stared at me, and it was only then that I saw one was a Unicorn mare carrying a revolver while the other was an Earthpony buck with a dagger about half the length of my own leg (which made it a good 9 inches long). I realized all too late that I had made a mistake in judgement. I dove behind the desk just in time for my right flank to get grazed by a 34. caliber round from the revolver.
The pain was as though Celestia herself had jammed a knife made of sunlight into me, but I knew that now was not the time to think about such things. I quickly activated my PipBuck's Eyes Forward Sparkle with my hoof and saw that I had taken a nearly crippling blow to my leg. At least I thought it was that bad since the EFS showed a “severe laceration detected” message on part of the display. My best chance for survival would be to take down the dagger-wielding earth pony and use the dagger against the other pony.
Fortunately luck was on my side as when the dagger pony swung his weapon he just missing my head, leaving an opening for me to headbutt the pony and gain control of the weapon. Without thinking I used it as fast as I could, slicing into the pony’s eyes, blinding him. As luck would have it I had time to get back behind my cover before 3 more shots rang out from the unicorn, causing the wounded earth pony’s head to explode in a gory sticky mess and leaving most of the parts of my coat that weren't covered by my jacket covered in blood and guts instead.
I had decided that using one of these corpses that littered the ground in the room might make enough cover for me to get close to the unicorn pony. But even if I was lucky, it seemed I wasn’t that lucky; the unicorn came around the desk and fired off another shot that hit my left side, knocking me back to the floor.
I thought I was dieing after I felt the bullet hit me, but something didn’t seem right. I know the bullet hit, but I was still alive; I was lying on the floor looking dead, but still alive. That’s when I remembered: I had put the armor into my left saddlebag! I decided, though, that letting the unicorn think she had killed me was the better course of action right now. As she drew closer I held my breath in hopes that she would not figure out I was still alive. I could hear her speaking of all kinds of deranged torture she would do to make sure I was dead. As she got close I struck taking the dagger and jamming it into her chest. Blood spurted out from the wound, covering my face in more of the red sticky mess. She dropped the pistol almost as soon as I plunged the dagger into her.
I had started to search the bodies after the battle when my PipBuck beeped and a message popped up on it: “Radio configuration complete, 1 station found”
“Well, that’s a relief; I thought you found radiation, or another killer pony.” I sighed. Returning to my search, I noticed that both these ponies had bottlecaps on them, which I found strange. I decided to take the 50 caps, as well as the pistol, 15 rounds for it, and a key with the name “Commander Skyhoof” on a name tag.
*** *** ***
I managed to find my way to my quarters in the west wing of the building, running into about 7 more of those ponies with the strange armor. Each one had a few bottlecaps, but mostly they had melee weapons I didn’t need. The dagger seemed to be in the best condition out of all of them. I did, though, find an ammo box with 15 more rounds for the pistol. I had not been willing to use the spell from my PipBuck to levitate the pistol yet, still uncomfortable with my new abilities.
Once in my quarters I went to the bathroom and found my medical box still safe on the wall, with a combination lock that I easily undid. Inside were two healing potions and three bandages. I used some of the bandages on my wound, which still felt like Celestia had put a knife made of sunlight into my side. Then I locked and barricaded the door with my desk, which was luckily right next to the door already. I headed over to the bed and let myself fall forward onto it, wondering just how long I had spent being infused with low level magic in the stasis pod. I quickly fell asleep, feeling at least somewhat safe with the desk blocking the door.
LEVEL UP
level 2
New perk:Unnatural Talent(Rank 1):you can now use telekinesis to lift rifles and shotguns, for each rank of this perk a new spell will be unlocked by your unique altered DNA. |
SilverAura | 693 | 2 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2011-09-01T02:57:55+00:00 | 2011-09-01T02:57:55+00:00 | 4,800 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 2:Experimenting with Magic
///////ooOoOOoOoo\\\\\\\
“These tests are to increase your fighting ability, we have no idea what the side effects may be. You might never be able to fly again,” the Science Pony was talking to me like I hadn’t understood what I signed up for
“I know the risks, but to help protect Equestria and my family I’m willing to take that risk,” I didn’t really care that the possibility of never flying again was one of the risks.
We were walking through the pristine Iron Hooves base on the way to the stable, and had just left the building that had my quarters. I was wearing my armor, the segmented goggles always did bug me a bit, today it seemed was no different.
As we walked up the road that ran through the middle of the base I could see other ponies some under my command training. I stopped for a moment to speak with them, “ok, listen up everyone, while I’m in The Vault you take your orders from Lieutenant Iron Thorn. You are to at least try to work together with his squad till I return,” most of them seemed to take the news well, except for the youngest member of my squad.
“But sir I joined up to work under you, not under someone else,” she seemed to almost be a fifth leg for me, little Cloudy Melody.
“Cloudy Melody, did you not agree to follow my orders when you joined my squad? If that is the case then you should be able to work with Lieutenant Iron Thorn’s squad till I return,” I reached forward an armored hoof and ruffled her mane with a smile, “do you really think I would abandon my squad?”
She blushed after I said that, I would have thought she had a crush on me, I did know her from somewhere, but the world seemed to be slipping away. What was that loud banging sound?
\\\\\\\ooOoOOoOoo///////
I woke with a start the banging seeming to come from the door I had barricaded. The ponies from yesterday apparently were not alone I decided to stay silent until they left, I don’t think I’m ready for another fight so soon. Then I herd something strange, sounded like muffled screaming, had they gotten a captive?
Not wanting to alert them to my presence I tried to use the levitation spell I was supposed to have access to, all I managed to do was give myself a headache. More screams this time louder, and what sounded like running hooves through the hallway, the pounding on my door stopped soon after as whoever was on the other side screamed and I guessed they started running as well. Soon after what sounded like sentry bots could be herd from the other side of the door, leaving The Vault probably activated the security protocols of the base.
Figuring that I wouldn’t be getting back to sleep again anytime soon I decided to see if anything had changed in my quarters. No sooner had I checked under my bed then I found something that triggered a memory from just before when my dream took place, I had stored a special sword from far away in my safe. The only problem was my safe had a key lock, and I didn’t have the key.
I had hoped to have more time before needing to try using magic again, but with a lack of a key and security active in the halls, I didn’t want to waste this opportunity to check the safe. Looking around I managed to find a box of about 10 bobby-pins in one of the end table drawers, and a screwdriver in my saddlebags. Looking further in my saddlebags I found that there was also a full PipBuck maintenance kit in the bottom of the right one, and a magazine on locks.
After reading through the magazine I had a better idea of how to go about unlocking the safe. For the second time today I tried using telekinesis, this time with a bit more success than the first time. I managed to levitate the screwdriver and a bobby-pin long enough to get the safe unlocked(after breaking 3 of them) before I started to get a headache this time. Inside the safe was my sword, a note detailing it, and a DataCore. I loaded the DataCore into my Pip-Buck first and found out it was a picture of my family. I decided to make a printed copy as soon as I possibly could.
The sounds of security outside my door could still be herd, if it weren't for those ponies’ sense of decorating and possible backup this might have been an ok spot to set up shop. But as things were I didn’t want to make a home out of a place where I might get ambushed stepping out the front door. Not to mention wanting to find my family or at least find out they were safe.
While I listened to the security robots taking care of the intruders I worked on getting control over what was currently my only spell, levitating light things at first like the bobby-pin box, or the note about my sword. After a few minutes of practicing I held the note steady in front of me to read it:
============================================
“Dash’s Lightning” Note to Silver Aura
We built the sword to your specifications including the arcano-bolt generator in the handle was difficult to say the least. We were able to build it but the electric charge will need time to recharge after 15 minutes of continuous use. This is due to the small size of the generator so please keep this in mind if you plan to use the blade in difficult combat. The sword’s name is also as you specified, I believe your CO may be flattered by the show of respect in naming the blade after her. However naming this blade such might cause someponies to think you a fool. The design on the base of the blade was also done as you specified. This is one of our finest blades and one of a kind, as the blade was a personal commission you do hold all responsibility should there be trouble over the blade’s creation. We do not know why you chose to go with the generator instead of simply using a electrical enchantment on the blade, but we used the generator even though an enchantment might have been more effective.
============================================
(author’s note:the blade is essentially a Katana Shocksword)
After reading the note I lifted up the blade to inspect it. There was a slight curve to the 23 inch blade, with the cutiemark of Rainbow Dash etched into the base of the blade itself(large enough to be visible but small enough so as not to compromise the integrity of the blade), the handle had a woven grip with a diamond pattern on the side for comfort in the mouth, a switch was near the top of the handle for turning the generator on and off, the bottom end of the handle could be removed with the right tools to perform maintenance on the generator itself. The blade was magnificent in many ways, but in trying out the switch I found that the generator had long died out; if I were to use the blade effectively in battle then some parts would need to be replaced.
I had commissioned this blade according to the note, a blade to show not only respect for ,but also loyalty to, my CO. I wanted to make sure to Keep this blade in good condition, so I slid it back into the sheath and placed the sheath with sword, at my side after putting on my saddlebags. I drew out the dagger from before and made sure it was still in good shape, I didn’t want to use Dash’s Lightning till after getting it’s generator working again. The blade itself had been in good condition, no moisture got into the safe so the blade was untouched by the elements.
After I had checked all my gear and every nook and cranny of my old quarters I listened for the security bots outside the room. It seemed they had returned to patrol mode meaning it was safe for me to leave the room without getting caught in the crossfire, if any. Moving the desk away from the door was just as difficult as putting it in front of the door was. After I moved it I was hesitant to open the door at first, but after reassuring myself and getting my 32. pistol ready I opened the door to see one of the security bots.
It had 4 legs and looked like a robotic version of a pony. “PRESENT IDENTIFICATION” it said in a robotic version of a mare’s voice.
“ummm, my name is Lieutenant Silver Aura”to which it responded with several beeps followed by a “WELCOME BACK SIR” before it moved on to continue it’s patrol. I was relieved that saying my name had worked, the robots must have had some kind of voice recognition system.
Making my way down the hallway I stopped when I saw a door to my left with the name “Commander Skyhoof” in very faded letters next to the door. Floating out the key I unlocked and opened the door to find that half the room beyond had collapsed into the floor below. The room was very much like my own quarters the only difference was that the safe was located in the wall instead of the floor, and it was in plain sight. I carefully navigated my way across the half collapsed floor till I was about 2 feet away from the safe, the floor under the safe had been on the side that collapsed, so that left me with only one way to reach the safe.
Floating out the key again I attempted to unlock the safe, not easy from almost a 90 degree angle. It took me several tries to get the key in the lock, but once I did it opened with a click. Inside the safe were some moldy old books, and 2 bottles of Sunrise Sarsaparilla. I put the Sarsaparilla into my saddlebags and left the books where they were. The base seemed quiet until I left Commander Skyhoof’s quarters.
Right as I got out of the room I was confronted with 2 Security Bots, who then proceeded to tell me I had broken in to a senior officer’s room, and refused to believe me(probably from programming) when I told them I didn’t break in I used the key. Things got pretty loud after that as I ducked back into the room as they readied their weapons.
‘Is every day going to be like this?’ I fired off all 5 shots I had in the 32. and quickly tried to reload. I was low on ammo and needed to get to the armory if I was going to get more. Blasts of magical energy weapons flew into the room, I was lucky to be behind the desk in the room as I shot more bullets at the robots. I herd the sound of several of my bullets hitting one of the bots, after which the amount of lasers being sent into the room was cut in half as the robot I hit started to attack it’s fellow security bot.
As the sound of laser fire died down I peeked out from my hiding spot to see that the robots had destroyed one another. In the place of the robots was 2 smoldering heaps of scrap, I drew closer to them remembering to reload the gun, I only had maybe 10 shots left. When I reached the fallen security bots I checked them for any components I might be able to salvage and use in repairing Dash’s Lightning’s micro generator. Unfortunately most of the parts I was able to salvage were too large to use, I only managed to salvage one of the probable 6 replacement parts I needed.
Carefully making my way through the hallways now I was able to get to the entrance without being detected, now there was only one problem. Three more of the security bots were in front of the doors. Floating out the 32. again I activated S.A.T.S. aiming for the targeting sensor on the middle bot. I lined up 3 shots hoping I would only need one, pulling the trigger. I missed, the first shot went past the middle bot and into the leg of the next one over. The second shot struck home taking out the targeting sensor and sending the bot into a frenzy firring off it’s weapons at the other 2 which then fired back at the middle one managing to take out 2 of them total with that move.
The last robot managed to find me and start firring at me. With the lack of S.A.T.S. I decided to just shoot in the direction of the bot in hopes of disabling it. I did manage to kill it, but not before wasting all but 2 bullets. The 32. caliber gun was not in very good condition anymore. I worried that the next shot might cause it to backfire.
After taking time to scavenge parts from the 3 fallen robots I had a second part I would need to repair the Dash’s Lightning. Flapping my wings quietly I was able to hover about 2 inches off the ground, but my wings were not up for much else at this time. My time in the stasis pod did not do my wings well, they were still somewhat stiff as well. Keeping off the ground let me pass by several more security bots on my way to the armory undetected. Most of them seemed to respond to sounds like the sounds my hooves would make on the floor had I not been hovering(albeit poorly).
Reaching the armory proved to be less of a problem than getting into the armory. The door was locked and Commander Skyhoof’s key didn’t work on this door. My only option was to try to pick the lock like I had done with my own safe. It took only 2 bobby-pins to get into the armory, but once I was in I was greeted with a welcome sight, there was still several assault rifles in the room as well as a good amount of ammo for them and 60 more 32. rounds.
Finding a assault rifle in good condition was a bit harder than expected, but I already knew how to break down a assault rifle for the best parts and use them to repair another. I managed to get one good condition assault rifle to sling over my back, I took all the ammo from the armory, even the 308. rounds for a sniper rifle, never know when different kinds of ammo will come in handy, even just to give it to a squad member.
Leaving the armory was just as stress inducing as sneaking in was. by the time I was finally outside again my face was covered in sweat from trying to keep my hooves off the floor. I was going to need some time for my wings to fully recover from my stay in The Vault. If I was going to leave the base I was going to need to know where I was going, that meant one of two things; either I follow the road to the nearest settlement, or I brave more Security Bots to find a map with some town markers on it.
The map of my PipBuck was useful but, not so much without proper markers on it. Looking at my PipBuck’s map it looked like there was a town or forest a little ways south of the base.
Taking another look around the base I found the old data center and decided to take a look inside. Locked, well, locked doors never seemed to stop me before. Taking out the screwdriver and one of my last 5 bobby-pins I set to work on the door, I only used the one bobby-pin this time, once inside I noticed there was still a good deal of power running to the building. Maybe I hadn’t been gone for very long after all, what I had thought had been a year might actually have been more like 3 months.
As I made my way to the main terminal of the data center I noticed that something seemed off. Even after a year there should have been some science ponies at the very least in here. Memories of working at the base were flooding back as the aftereffect of being in stasis for a long time wore off slowly. I still had large gaps in my memories but the base seemed familiar now. When I reached the terminal and started to access the data I herd a voice I hadn’t herd since the day I entered The Vault.
“Long time no see sir,” the voice was strange, I couldn’t place why, but it sounded off. “Looks like you finally came through on that promise”
“Cloudy Melody!? Where are you?” I was looking in every direction I could but couldn’t see her.
“I’m in the basement, in the secret stasis pod. Let me tell you, being stuck able to see everything around the base for 200 years is not fun,” she spoke like it was every day she did stuff like this, and what did she mean 200 years?
“Wha, two... two-hundred... I...I’ve been... for 200? What do you mean 200 years!?”
“Calm down sir, yes 200 years. when you went into The Vault I started doing some snooping around the base. Before you tell me off let me finish my story,” she had no idea how much I wanted to tell her off for disobeying orders, “I found out about this stasis pod and snuck in here got in the pod and when I did, hoo boy that pod was crazy. I set it to wake me when you were supposed to return from The Vault, but instead of waking me it just connected me to the mainframe of the base, or what was left of it. Outside was bathed in radiation so the pod had used a fail-safe that conflicted with my preset exit date for the pod, so I’ve been conscious all this time while my body remained perfectly safe down below. The science ponies apparently had tried to get me out of the pod on multiple occasions, but I reset the password so they wouldn’t be able to get in. And since nobody on this base ever took the time to get to know me it wasn’t hard to make the password something they would never guess.” The speakers did not do her voice justice, it sounded like what would be best described as Pinkie Pie with about half the softness of Fluttershy, a sound that would have been very pleasing to the ears had it not been for the static overtone from the speakers.
I facehooved and asked, “is the password ‘Silver Aura is awesome’? And also why did you disobey my orders and try to follow me into stasis!?”
She gasped, or whatever the closest sound to a gasp could be from a computer speaker, ”How did you know? I set that password so long ago and after you left. Oh, and by the way, I didn’t ‘try’ to follow you, I did follow you. Anyway the only way I can get out of this pod is if you disconnect me from the system then disengage the stasis systems manually. Before you ask, having access to the entire mainframe can reveal quite a lot of the technical details on these things.”
I was still in shock over the amount of time that had passed, and she was asking me to let her out of a stasis pod like it was the most natural thing in the world. ”Before I get you out, can you tell me why I found these on everypony I met in the main building?” I brought out the 50 bottle caps I took from the dead ponies from earlier, I figured I wouldn’t need anymore than that to find out why they seemed to be collecting them.
“oh those, that’s what ponies use for money now, at least that’s what I saw those ponies giving each other in exchange for ammo and weapons. I was able to hear some ponies on the edge of the base talking about raiders when they mentioned the base, I think those ponies you met were the raiders”
“Ok, so, what about the security bots turning on me after I went through Commander Skyhoof’s room?” It seemed strange that they turned on me now that I knew she was in control.
“well you know how I have access to the mainframe?” and without waiting for my response she continued, ”well, the mainframe and security center lost connection to each other when the bombs fell.”
That cleared that up, “so, and I’m trying to stay calm now, it has been 200 years since I entered The Vault, there are raiders, security bots shot at me because you didn’t have access to the security center, and not to mention I need to get you out of stasis. Did I miss anything?” I was panicking inside from all of this information all at once.
“Well, there’s also bottle caps being used for money but other than that I think you got everything,” I stared at the terminal with a unamused face and in response she just laughed saying, “what, you asked, now can you please get me out of this stasis pod? Here I’ll open the basement hatch,” I herd a click and a hiss in the corner of the room as a passage in the wall opened up revealing stairs leading down below the base.
Following the stairs down deep under the base I found the room where Cloudy Melody was, the room looked almost untouched, there was a row of data banks along the left and right walls. In the middle of the room was a stasis pod very much unlike mine was, this one looked more like a virtual reality pod that was altered to serve as a stasis pod as well, I could understand now why I needed to disconnect her from the mainframe first. Moving slowly toward the pod I was amazed how well this room held up over the years.
When I reached the terminal I asked “anything you want to say before I begin?”
No response, I guessed that there were no speakers in here for her to use to talk to me. I set to work disconnecting her from the mainframe, so far so good, no errors or warnings. When the terminal told me the disconnect was complete I began the manual emergency release system. When I told it to do this the pod hissed as it unlocked the emergency latches and a handle extended from the side of the pod. Grabbing the handle in my mouth I began to lift and tug until the pod was open and I was looking upon Cloudy Melody again.
She yawned and stretched, she looked like she had when I entered The Vault. Seeing her I sighed in relief, she was a Unicorn, about 2 years younger than myself (21 when I entered The Vault), her mane was curly in the back and spiked in the front, her tail looked to be slightly spiky toward the top and went into a gentle curl near the bottom. Her mane and tail were a light ginger color, her coat a gentle lavender, with a cutiemark of 3 musical notes peeking out from behind a cloud, and her eyes were cherry red.
If I hadn’t known it had been 200 years I might not have noticed any of this. But a lot can change in 200 years, even if I only just found out it had been that long.
LEVEL UP
Level 3
New Perk:Diagnostic Mind(1):With this perk it becomes easier to diagnose errors in machinery or injuries, for each rank you gain a permanent boost of 5 to Science and Medicine |
SilverAura | 693 | 3 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2011-09-01T02:52:34+00:00 | 2011-09-01T02:52:34+00:00 | 3,820 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 3:Cutiemarks Tell All?
Luck, if you can call it that, works strangely in your favor if you let it. After Cloudy Melody and I got back to the surface, and I had overcome most of the shock of learning of the wasteland, we found a trader. He was passing through the base when we emerged from the data center; nearly scared him out of his barding.
As we approached I opened my mouth to speak but he spoke first in a deep voice, “Well this is new, never saw ‘nypony come outta’ that buildin’. Well afore now that is,” I couldn't quite place his accent, “so ‘ow did ya come to be in there?”
Cloudy Melody responded before I could open my mouth to respond, looked to be one of those days. “We were exploring the ruins to try to find items worth trading,” I gave her an odd look, “but we ran low on supplies and don’t know where the nearest settlement is.” Whatever she was trying to do it worked, because soon after she finished the trader pony told us he would let us accompany him to the next settlement on his route if we agreed to protect him along the way..
Before anyone else could speak after he set the terms I spoke up, “That sounds good but, I think we will need to get some barding of some sort for my companion here,” the fact that this trader pony didn’t have a guard already was bothering me. If he needed protection from here to the next settlement and knew it then why was he here alone? “We will come let you know if we find some in the ruins.”
What he said next surprised me, “No need ah’ ‘ave some combat barding from trading with the raider ponies ‘ere.” Cloudy Melody gave me a worried look, probably thinking I was going to gun him down for helping raiders, instead I asked a question of him.
“What do you want in exchange for it?” He looked at me as though sizing me up for a moment.
“Normally ah’ would say 100 bottlecaps,” ok, so it was the new currency,” but seeing as you will be givin’ me protection ah’ think I could let ya ‘ave it for free, and if ya die then ah’ just put it back in my inventory”
“I guess that sounds fair, and if we survive till the settlement?” I thought this sounded almost too good to be true.
“then the barding is yours fer keeps,” I nodded and then helped Cloudy Melody to put on the combat barding. It covered her chest, flanks, and legs very well. the armor had come with a triple saddlebag setup, one on either side of her, and one smaller one over her back. After we got her in the armor, I asked the trader about what else he had with him and he showed me his wares.
After looking through his inventory I had purchased 2 parts he considered mere junk for relatively cheep. I now had 4 of 6 parts needed for the Dash’s Lightning and still had 42 caps.
As we began to head out on the road the trader asked “so, why is a pegasus like ya down ‘ere anyway, don’t think ah’ve not noticed ya feathers peaking out from under that jacket”
“well, not like I was trying to hide it, just forgot to put my wings through their sleeves” I responded not seeing why it would be a big deal, but apparently it was. We had only just left the base and I had a feeling we would be talking most of the way, if not fighting.
“Ah’ve met pegasi ‘afore, they ‘ad a settlement in the mountains, ‘ad a stable for some o’ their leaders. That begs the question though, where is ya branding, or are ya a hunter for the Pegasus Enclave looking for deserter ponies?”
“What’s the Pegasus Enclave? I work, well, worked under the command of Rainbow Dash, if those Enclave ponies are hunting down ponies then it doesn’t sound like they are ponies I want to meet. They also don’t sound like the kind of ponies that Rainbow Dash would like either.” We were nearing a bridge by now, and so far no sign of any real dangers out here.
“Ya can’t tell me that ya were really in the war, that was 200 years ago. Only Goul Ponies be left from that time.”
“Well we are both from that time, and I followed him into stasis just to be with him. I couldn’t stand not to be with Silver Aura,” Cloudy Melody sure doesn’t waste time in telling strangers somewhat more personal topics.
“Ah still think ya be pullin my leg, but fine, if that be the case then why is ya cutiemark a cloud with musical notes, ah’ don’t think those ruins were for entertainment missy.” He was right about that but I wasn’t going to say anything, I was curious about this as well.
“well, it’s kinda a long story, but here it goes”
___---POV change, Cloudy Melody---___
It started when I finally got accepted to the Equestrian Army, I was supposed to be in the boot camp, but I was always a bit eager to get right to the action. That usually got me in trouble but I was allowed to stay based on my skills in the training exercises. One day I was transferred to a field base for “special training” as they called it, but I have a feeling it was just because they didn’t want to put up with me anymore and hoped I got killed by a zebra.
At the field base it was almost the same story, except for Silver Aura being there. Despite what the higher officers told him he still chose me for his squad.
~~Well I knew you from school when we were younger, I knew you could be very helpful. Even if your judgement wasn’t always the best~~
Don’t interrupt, I’m telling this story! Now where was I? Ah, yes, the field base.
Soon after he chose me for his squad there was a battle. I ran out onto the battlefield even though I was supposed to be training at the base. I had never been in a real battle before that and I almost wound up dead, probably would have been killed if it weren’t for Silver Aura.
I was in the middle of the battlefield in a trench and severely injured, there were other injured ponies there with me and things were looking bad. We all thought we were done for, there wasn’t a Ministry of Peace pony anywhere nearby. It looked to be the darkest hour for me and the other ponies in the trench.
~~That still don’t esplain’ how ya got ya cutiemark, or even how ya survived~~
I’m getting to that! I began to sing in that trench, quietly at first, just trying to keep some hope that we would be rescued. I kept singing and eventually the other injured ponies started to join in one by one. It wasn’t really a specific song, but it did give us hope. We kept singing till Silver Aura found us with a Search and Rescue team.
Even after they found us we kept singing, all of us did until everyone else passed out from exhaustion. Even after everyone else stopped singing I kept going till we were back at the base. Back at the base I passed out after seeing Silver Aura’s smile. I later found out that he had carried me back himself. But what really made me smile after I woke up was Silver Aura telling me that when the team found us, it was because of our singing, and that when he lifted me out of the trench, I had my cutiemark.
To this day I still don’t fully understand what it means, but I have a feeling it’s something good.
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
“That’s because it does mean something good. That cutiemark shows that you are a beacon of hope in even the darkest of times. You got that cutiemark because you managed to help the injured ponies around you regain hope for rescue.” I started to explain to Cloudy Melody
“How do you know? I thought they still had some hope at that time”
“I know because your story brought back memories of my time at that base, when each of the ponies awoke they said they had lost hope for rescue before you started to sing. Even if it wasn’t any song in particular your singing brought back hope of rescue to them.” I smiled at her and gave her a pat on the back with my hoof.
“well, that clears up the mystery for ya missy. Now what about ya cutiemark mister pegasus.”
“I... don’t really remember how I got mine, I barley remember much of my past, before The Vault.”
“Ah’m sorry to ‘ear that, sounds like ya got yaself some amnesia. Ah’m sure it will come back to ya in time.”
“I hope you’re right, what about you? What’s your cutiemark?” I asked the trader
“Afore ah tell ya ah must say that ah’m not proud of it, ah never show anypony under normal circumstances. Ah got mah’ cutiemark when ah was still a raider,” He stopped and moved some of his leather barding covering his flank. The cutiemark looked like it shouldn't have even been called a cutiemark. It looked to be a pony’s corpse impaled on several spikes with a pool of blood at the bottom of them. “Ah got it fer, well, ya can probably guess what it was fer. ‘Bout a year after gettin it ah decided that the life of a raider was not fer me. That’s when ah became a trader and started to cover my cutiemark so nopony would ever know bout mah questionable past.” After telling and showing us it he put his leather barding back in place.
We were starting to come up on some buildings that looked to be mostly ruined. It looked like it might have been a big city back when I was at the base. I started to wonder what the trader had meant earlier about hunters for some Pegasus Enclave. I wondered if they were in the buildings waiting to attack anyone who came near.
“So, who are the Pegasus Enclave hunting? I know you said deserters but who?” I was very curious about this.
“They are huntin the Dashites, more specifically they want to hunt down Dashites before they join the Dashite Unity.”he told us.
“Who, or what are the Dashites?” me and Cloudy Melody asked in unison, which showed that even she didn’t know everything about the wasteland.
“They are Pegasus Ponies who left the Enclave to come down to the wasteland and try to help us earthbound ponies, following the example of Rainbow Dash when the bomb hit cloudsdale. Whenever a Dashite is found by the Enclave above the clouds they get branded with a brand in the shape of Rainbow Dash’s cutiemark. The Dashite Unity is a group that formed to help organise the Dashites here in the forgotten wastes. They work toward helping everypony they can here, they were the ones who helped me change mah ways.”
“The Dashites sound like very good ponies, I know I would never betray Rainbow Dash. That’s why I had this made”I floated the Dash’s Lightning out of the sheath and showed it to the trader.
“That’s a pretty amazing blade, anypony who would have a blade like that made is one good pony in mah books. This sword may prove ya to be a Dashite without the brandin. However if ya go above the clouds and are spotted then ya might receive one.” I put the Dash’s Lightning away after showing him.
*** *** ***
We reached the settlement with little combat, and the trader kept his word and let us keep the combat armor, and as a bonus he also gave us 100 caps. “anythin’ ta help the Dashite Cause” was his reason for the bonus.
I checked the map on my Pipbuck and saw that it labeled the settlement as “Sunset Bay”. Before we parted ways with the trader he told us that we could probably ask around the town for more information on how to improve our map so we don’t get lost again. We thanked him and entered entered the town gates.
LEVEL UP
Level 4
New Perk:Interrogator; you gained the ability to extract information with as little conflict as possible, this perk adds unique dialogue options to some ponies, and raises speech by 5
Spell Level:Telekinesis level 2; you can levitate items easier without as much strain on your mind, and body. |
SilverAura | 693 | 4 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2012-04-17T19:38:04+00:00 | 2014-02-03T20:50:20+00:00 | 3,356 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 4:First Encounter
Slums.
Only word that really sums up this town, the buildings were made of scrap and wreckage of the city. The town seemed to mainly consist of a street leading to the river, and a single street to either side. Some of the ponies here looked to be like something out of a horror movie, my first reaction was to try to get my assault rifle out but Cloudy Melody stopped me.
“They're ghoul ponies, I’ve seen some before through the cameras. Anyway we need to get some ammo don’t we, and some directions.” I hated to admit it but she was right.
“What the heck are Ghoul ponies!?”I didn’t like the looks of them if she meant those zombie like things.
“They are ponies that were unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast of a balefire bomb, and not die from it. All the ghouls in this town are not feral though, so you have nothing to worry from them.” A strange pony with a green coat and mane to match told us before walking off into a store. At least I think it was a store, I couldn’t really read the sign out front as most of it seemed to have fallen to the ground to be swept into the pile of rubble. many of the other building’s signs looked in similar shape. The buildings didn’t seem to be faring much better.
Calming down I said to Cloudy Melody “Well, where do we go first? I don’t suppose you know where the shops are.” After I said that one of the Ghoul Ponies walked up to us
“Oh, you two look new, I’ve never seen you around here before. I’m called Tigerlilly I run the inn.” She certainly seemed energetic, for looking like a zombie,”wait a minute, you look familiar, have we met before?”
“uhh, I’m not sure wh...”
“I RECOGNISE YOU NOW! You’re that Equestrian Skyguard guy who always gave me a big tip when I worked in the diner near here, Silver something” she was THAT Tigerlilly!?
“H-how did you live for so long!?” Cloudy Melody never told me that someponies survived like this.
“Not here, let’s get you in to the inn, hurry” for looking like a corpse she sure could pull hard Cloudy Melody followed behind me looking as confused as I felt.
Inside the inn she kept pulling till the three of us were in a back room and she closed the door, “What was that all about?”Cloudy Melody voiced the question that was buzzing through my mind.
“Sorry, but I couldn't let the Pegasus Enclave hunters find you, if they did then you would probably be killed on sight. Do you have your armor still?” now I was even more confused than ever.
“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down, what’s this about Pegasus Enclave hunters? and yea I still have my armor but I doubt they still use the same design now.” I didn’t know what this was about, but I had a feeling that I was about to find out.
“if you’re going to head out put on your armor, the Pegasus Enclave won’t attack if you’ve got the armor on. They chose to take over this town because of the river, it’s their main supply route for getting goods from the surface while they hunt down Dashites.”
“Let me stop you there, I’m guessing you want us to do something about it. I’ll bet you expect us to go in armed as we are too.” I was skeptical if this was really what she wanted but it seemed likely that if she was keeping us hidden from the Enclave right now that she didn’t like them being here.
“Well...ummm...yea, I was going to ask you to help sabotage the supply routes or the Enclave camp here. But I wasn't going to send you in armed as you are now, you can each take your pick of one weapon I have back here.” She lead us over to a box that had several guns in it, mostly just more assault rifles and ammo for them.”Take your pick.”
“I think I’ll take an assault rifle” Cloudy Melody was giggling as she took one and slung it over her back. I chose just to take enough ammo for the both of us, I didn’t need another assault rifle.
“So how do we get into the camp? and why do you want them gone?” I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be simple as walking through the gate and cutting a wire.
“Well...if you are going to be helping anyway I guess you would find out sooner or later anyway...very few ponies in town want the Enclave here, but most are too scared to do anything about it.”she started to explain, “you should be able to get into their camp wearing your armor, they might think it strange that you use such an old armor but you should be ok for the most part.”
“One more question... Why should I trust you?”I had a feeling Cloudy Melody was about to say something about how because I knew her 200 years ago I should trust her now.
“How can you ask that Silver Aura!? If you knew her 200 years ago why not trust her now?” thank you, and goodnight.
“No, Miss Melody, he has good reason to doubt me. You would do well to learn from his example, few ponies in the wasteland are truly trustworthy. The merchant with the Skewered Pony Cutiemark for instance. He would sooner turn you into the Enclave than help you willingly. He lead many naive Dashites to this town before only to have them captured by the Enclave, they were Dashites that had only just left the clouds as well.” her story would explain why he had lead us here, he probably thought we would get killed or captured by the Enclave. Him believing us must have been a part of the ruse to get us here. ”He didn’t count on you having the armor, you should be able to sneak in, set free the captives, and shut down the Enclave base here without them realising it.” well, she was starting to gain my trust, but I still didn’t like this idea.
“Fine, we’ll do it. For the Dashites, I like what I’ve heard of them so far. It will be nice to meet some in person” I was still a bit reluctant but it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go.
*** *** ***
The armor felt like it needed some serious maintenance. Not only did the tail spike keep flickering, but as I had crashed at least once or twice in this armor during battle the built in magical energy weapons were of no use at all ,most having broken off completely long ago. Getting to the south gates was the easy part, getting through them proved to be only slightly harder as Cloudy Melody was not being cooperative.
As it would turn out Cloudy Melody being uncooperative helped me get inside with her, but now the Enclave thought I had her as a captive. I really hoped that I would be able to get through this with little resistance. My hopes were confirmed up until I reached the prisoner cells.
They were in the ruins of an old bank, all the prisoners were behind the bars of the vault. Many of them were Pegasus Ponies with a branding of Rainbow Dash’s Cutiemark over their own Cutiemarks. There was around 20 ponies in the vault, 5 of which were unicorn ponies that were probably from the town itself, if I could free them then we might be able to work together to take down the base.
“Another rebel huh, take her weapons and throw her in the cage”a male Enclave pony to the right of the cell door said. A female Enclave pony to the left moved forward to confiscate Cloudy Melody’s assault rifle, I had been told to take her ammo at the gate to the compound so that was safely stowed in my saddlebags.
“Hand it over” I said to Cloudy Melody, things seemed to be according to plan and so far I counted about 10 Enclave ponies in the base total. If we could set free the captives then maybe they would be able to not only take out the Enclave base here but take it over. I did hope that if they did take over then they would be friendly like Tigerlilly was.
After I saw that Cloudy Melody was in the cell with the other ponies I left to find where the Comm Tower for the base was. According to Tigerlilly it could be rewired to be usable by the Dashite Unity. I still didn’t know why I chose to help Tigerlilly, this could turn into my grave if I wasn’t careful.
Sneaking around the base was...difficult to say the least. There were more Enclave ponies the further in I went. Defiling the armor they wore, the armor that was made to help the Pegasus ponies to protect Equestria from the Zebras, now being used by Pegasus ponies that were hunting down the ones who followed Rainbow Dash and chose to help the ponies that could not fly. I could not let this stand but I had to remember why I was here, reprogram or destroy the comms array, rescue the captives, destroy the Enclave supply building.
How I was going to destroy the building I didn’t know, but I had hoped there would be explosives in it. Passing by a warehouse(number 17 according to the number on the doors) I saw the comms tent and further beyond that I could see a heavily guarded building. It stood several stories tall, probably the harbor control center. From what Tigerlilly told me the supply building would be the second warehouse from number 17.
Walking casually as I could from warehouse 17 to warehouse 18 re-enforced in my mind what Tigerlilly said about wearing the armor helping with sneaking around. The Enclave ponies didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t until I reached warehouse 19 that I ran into a bit of trouble. The warehouse guards were checking dogtags before letting anyone in, not to mention the only stealth weapon I had was not currently usable, not without a replacement gem and replacement connector for the gem.
I waited till the guards left between shifts, hoping that when they did there would be an opening for me to get into the building. While I waited I reflected on the plan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The supply building is in the back of their base, warehouse 19. You should be able to reach it by going around warehouse 17 and then following the waterfront past the other warehouses. Before you can get into it a trap will need to be set, Cloudy Melody that’s where you come in. The Enclave will probably tell Silver Aura to take you to the prison in the base, in there you will need to unlock whatever they are keeping the captives in and take out the guards quietly then wait for the signal to attack from Silver Aura.” Tigerlilly stated as the plan
“What will the signal be? I won’t know if it’s time to attack if I don’t know what the signal is.”
“I hadn't thought of that, I guess that’s up to Silver Aura.”
“I’ll blow up the supply building, the explosion should take out some of the Enclave’s numbers in the base as well as being loud enough to be herd even if you are several stories underground. If I can find explosives in the supply building.”
“That sounds like a good signal, while the 2 of you are in the base I will be getting some of the other citizens here ready in case the Enclave decides to attack out here when the signal is given. I should be able to get around 20 people together by the time you set off the signal.”
“What about if they try to call for help when the attack starts? I doubt we can take on a full attack force with just a few weapons and 20 ponies.”I was doubting if this plan was going to work.
“That’s why you also have to either reprogram or disable their comms tower. I’m not sure where it would be in the base though.”
“Well... let’s get going then” after that I put on my armor and we set out to the gate that lead to the harbor being used by the Enclave as a base.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The plan seemed harder and harder to pull off as time went by. I was starting to think that heading back to the comms tent to take out the comm tower would be better to do than to wait for an opening when it came. The guards at the door to the warehouse left, when they were far enough I dashed over and got into the building. I was lucky again, right near the door was a crate of grenades. Taking several I creeped my way through the building planting them in key locations.
As I set the grenades about the building I took a few supplies for myself and Cloudy Melody, 5 recovery potions, 3 sets of bandages, and a medical brace. When I set the last grenade I found a crate marked “laser rifles” looking inside I found only one badly damaged rifle, it was also missing it’s gem and wouldn’t work. however the gem connector was intact and probably salvageable. Reaching into the crate I took the rifle and slung it over my back to take apart later.
Back at the crate of grenades I got ready to set them off and using some string on the ground I tied a grenade up so I could pull the pin from the doorway. Getting ready to run I pulled the pin and dashed out of the building like it was on fire, leaving 2 confused guards at the doorway. The next shift must have started, as I got around the corner of warehouse 18, number 19 exploded sending shrapnel and bodies everywhere. It was deafening from where I was.
Soon after regaining my hearing I herd gunshots coming from the directions of the town, Cloudy Melody must have been successful, but I still had one more thing to do before rejoining her. Sneaking around to the comms tent I noticed that the area was not as well guarded as it was earlier. Once I got to the tent I saw that there were only 3 Enclave ponies inside.
Activating S.A.T.S., I fired at the muzzles of 2 of them that were staring at me, striking one of the weak points of the armor. The third pony was cowering in a corner, probably a recruit who hadn’t been on the surface long, I walked over to them and asked “what’s the password for the terminal?”
Apparently the pony was a mare and as I suspected hadn't been on the surface long. “Th-the password is Cloudkiller, the name of our commander,” I guessed if she wasn’t so scared that her armor was likely to rust near her flank she probably wouldn’t have told me it was the name of the commander. “P-p-please I didn’t even want to join the Enclave, I wanted to follow my best friend as a Dashite.”
I couldn’t understand why but when she said that I believed her. “If you really want to be a Dashite how bout starting with removing that armor. You likely won’t live long if you keep it on when the others get here.” We could both hear the battle on the other side of the base, slowly getting closer and louder. I punched in the password and disabled the comms array until the Dashite Unity can re-purpose it. “You most likely will need to prove your really a Dashite to the other pegasi, I can’t help with that as I only recently arrived myself.”
As she took off her armor I couldn't help but notice her cutiemark, it was glowing as though it had only just appeared. Was she another late gainer like Cloudy Melody? “Your cutiemark is rather interesting.” I said pointing at her flank at the rainbow colored... it looked like a terminal... there was also a scroll coming from the terminal as though a cross between tech and retro.
“What do you mean? I don’t have a...” she stopped as she stared at her flank “OHMYGOSH! I GOT MY CUTIEMARK!” it felt like I was looking at a Pegasus version of Rainbow Spring when she got her cutiemark. I also felt... well... happy, it felt almost like I was back home again, almost like I wasn’t in a wasteland with death nearby. When she calmed down she said “When you told me that I would need to prove myself I remembered collecting records and stuff back in the clouds for fun, and how I could remember any obscure fact I knew off the top of my head. Oh I almost forgot to introduce myself, I’m Iridescence, but I preferred to go by Iria(Eye-rah). Umm, th-thank you for not shooting me.”
I will admit, she did look cute when she said that, her magenta coat masking her blushing only slightly. Her pink mane fell into her face, covering one of her light purple eyes, after she said it which just added to her cuteness in my mind. “You know, you really remind my of my sister, but she was a pink unicorn about a year older than me.” the battle was probably 2 warehouses away now, the conversation had distracted us as the battle drew closer.
“Sounds like they are almost here, the Enclave can’t find us, not with my armor off.”she was getting scared again, it really feels like she were a younger pegasus version of my sister. This felt strangely comforting.
“well, then you better hide under them... they weren't friends of yours were they?” I had shot them down without thinking, now I felt like it might not have been the best idea.
“Actually...”oh great, I killed her friends, “they were always mean to me, always calling me a mess up or a blank flank, I never really had any friends in the Enclave after my best friend left, she was the only one who really understood me... I miss her.” she looked about to cry but I couldn't comfort her right now, not with the battle growing closer.
One warehouse away now, I dove toward her dragging her to the corpses and I quickly put her under them saying, “be quiet until you hear from me, I need to hide somewhere nearby and I don’t want you to get caught.” after that I moved quickly to find a spot just outside the tent where I can hear what happens in it and still be hidden. I was only just in time as the battle reached the command tower, the Enclave ponies retreating while they fired back on what looked to be the entire population of the town as well as the ponies we rescued.
Leading the town’s forces was Tigerlilly, and at the front of the rescued ponies was Cloudy Melody, wearing her combat armor again and firing the assault rifle like she had unlimited clips for the thing. I had a feeling I would need to teach her moderation with her shooting and ammo consumption. Three of the Enclave ponies went into the tent, when I herd their voices they sounded pissed. “We need to call reinforcements” a male pony from the sounds of it ”where is that little twerp with the password?”
“Looks like she finally went after that traitor Dashite, what was her name?” a female voice, sounded almost sensual in a insane kill you on sight sort of way. “Oh wait, her name doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we kill both of them on sight now.”
“Oh, look what I found it looks like the little traitor hiding under our fallen brethren.” another male, this one sounded crazier than the other 2 combined. “Let’s kill her after we get the code”
CRAP! They were going to kill Iria, I can’t let them do this! “Don’t touch her!”I screamed running through the door with my own assault rifle floating in the air next to me. I had the rifle trained on the muzzle of the pegasus who had Iria by the tail my wings out to block the entrance of the tent. Soon after I screamed and was in the entrance of the tent Cloudy Melody was galloping with 2 other unicorns toward the tent.
“Good to see you’re still alive Sir, and I see you’re getting a hang of using magic, or at least telekinesis.” Even now she fails to notice that the Enclave are about to try and kill someone!? “oh, who is she?” she points to Iria “I don’t think you Enclave ponies know this but we’re the good guys and from where I’m standing you look like the bad guys.”
“Kill them” I figured the female enclave pony was going to say that. I opened fire taking out the pony with his hoof on Iria’s tail, almost at the same time as the enemy taking aim Cloudy Melody fired on the female and one of the other 2 unicorns took down the remaining Enclave pony.
“Th-thank you. I was scared they were going to kill me even with you there” I couldn’t help but to give her a hug, wrapping a foreleg over her and squeezing.
“I would never let anything happen to someone who reminded me so much of my sister, Rainbow Spring.” I broke the hug then turned to Cloudy Melody and gave her a hug as well, “thank you for coming over to help, are they 2 of the rescued ponies?”
“Yea, but that’s not the best part, they are both members of the Dashite Unity, the Enclave locked up their armor in the command center though. Apparently there are ponies of all kinds in the Dashite Unity.”
“Well, let’s go get the armor then. I think with the battle this close the building should be empty.” I started to lead the way out when Iria stopped me.
“It won’t be that easy, they protect anything they keep in there with at least 2 guards and several turrets. Usually more if the base is under attack.” Iria looked like she really didn’t think going in there was a good idea. “not to mention I don’t know where they keep the stuff they take from prisoners in there. I just know they put it in the building.”
“We’ll have to find someone who does and get the info from them then. Try to be stealth as possible till we get the armor location, if an Enclave pony shoots at you, shoot back.” This wasn’t my first covert mission to retrieve something in the heat of battle. And this battle was bringing up lost memories of many of the battles I had been in. I still couldn’t really remember them properly, but I could remember enough to be able to think straight here. “Let’s Go, and remember to stick to the shadows, take down a guard quietly to not alert the others.”
*** *** ***
Twelve guards, that’s how many we took down trying to find somepony that would tell us where the armor was. Now we were nearing the commander’s room of the base, all 5 of us still alive, and for once it wasn’t because of luck that we were doing so well. The Dashite Unity unicorns were very well trained, taking down more than their fair share of the guards using their horns to impale the Enclave ponies through the skull.
The commander’s room was locked but not a problem. only took one broken bobby pin to get in, inside the room was Cloudkiller, and 2 guards. Cloudy Melody and I took down the guards simultaneously aiming for the muzzles of each of them. The other Dashite Unity unicorns moved to guard the door, Iria followed me and Cloudy Melody to the desk that Cloudkiller was behind, looking like he didn’t care that the Enclave ponies under his command were getting killed.
“So, you finally turned traitor Iridescence. I wondered how long it would take, and I see your cutiemark reflects your choice.” He sounded too calm for someone at gunpoint.
“Enough, Iria has chosen to help us, so you can’t continue treating her as you did. If you do you will have to answer to us.” I really didn’t like this guy.
“Really, another traitor among the group? Why do you stand up for her, were you not one of the soldiers who made fun of her on a regular basis?” He couldn’t tell I was not one of them?
Removing my helmet I looked him straight face to face. My mane falling down having been tucked into my helmet to help with sneaking around the base, and to keep from having further gaps in defence in the back of my head. “I was never one of you, I am Silver Aura and if you thought they were floating the gun next to me, guess what, that’s me as well.” I herd a gasp from my right, where Iria was when I said my name and took my helmet off. “I’m the one asking the questions here now. Where is the Dashite Unity armor, and I recommend you talk fast.”
“Do you really think threats will get you anywhere? I won’t be persuaded so easily. Do what you want, I will not tell you a thing.” time for plan B
“Say word reaches your commanding officers that you just sat back and let your subordinates get killed. Do you really think they would accept you back after hearing of that? Tell us where the armor is and we will at least act like you did something to try to hold us off.”
“You wouldn’t do that, even if I did tell you where the armor was.”
“Your choice, tell us and have a chance of keeping face with your Commanding Officer, or we will find it on our own causing even more of a hit to your reputation and possible dishonorable discharge.”
“Fine, the armor is being stored in the basement the security code is 71842”
“Good choice, let’s go and put on a show for the cameras.” We charged out of the room like we were running from him, and we soon reached the basement door without running into anymore guards.”Get ready, if the guards are all down there then we have a bit of a fight ahead of us.”
We ran down the stairs and burst through the door at the bottom to find that only 2 inactive turrets were down here, and no Enclave ponies. “Don’t suppose they retreated while we were with Cloudkiller do you?” Iria asked.
“I don’t know, but we should try the security code in the terminal over there.” I was pointing at a single terminal next to the door behind the turrets. Moving over to it I put in the code and was smiling when it worked and the terminal had an option to unlock the door and options for the turrets. I unlocked the door and saw beyond were dozens of sets of Combat Armor, they must have captured a supply caravan that was taking some armor to other Dashite Unity members.
There was more armor here than would fit just the 20 we saved. The armor was a light blue, on the chest and flank armor parts Rainbow Dash’s cutiemark could clearly be seen having been painted there, just above the middle saddlebag on the armor was a small extra piece of armor with an image of Rainbow Dash herself painted on it. All of the armor screamed Dashite.
Taking as much of the armor as we could carry out of the room and to the front entrance of the building we met face to face with one of the pegasus ponies we rescued. “It is good to meet you, our rescuers. Ah who is this little pegasus with you Silver Aura?” The male pegasus spoke with a kind but strong voice, I had a feeling he might have been a Dashite Unity commander. The other Dashites and citizens were pileing up the bodies of the dead removing the armor from them as well. I suspected they were going to do a mass cremation, most likely so the bodies did not rot and cause more problems.
“Wait, how did you know my name? I never met you outside bringing Cloudy Melody to the cell to break you out.” This was just too creepy.
“Well, Cloudy Melody told us about you and herself being here to rescue us. After what happened here I believe you are indeed a great pony, also I am Shinkaru a commander in the Dashite Unity. Now can you please answer my question?”
“Her name is Iridescence but she prefers to go by Iria. She is a new Dashite, and she got her cutiemark just before the battle reached the comms tent. The new password is ‘DashitesUnite’ capital D capital U one word, I figured that would be a good password for the Dashite Unity.”
“Well, without the brand to show you are both true Dashites, I’m afraid not even Iria can join our ranks, Cloudy Melody is welcome to join though as she helped us escape.” The commander seemed slightly arrogant, but I understood his reasoning why Iria and myself wouldn’t be able to join, even if I hadn’t asked to.
“No, if Silver Aura can’t join, then I can’t accept any invitation to.” Cloudy Melody had a point, I wasn’t going to be ok with letting her leave my side again unless I had a plan that would make sure I was able to find her again.
“Shame, well if you prove yourselves to the Dashite Unity then we may contact you in future. May the Goddesses watch over you both.” Threw me for a loop.
“The goddesses? Who are they?”I had no idea who he was referring to as goddesses but I am pretty sure it’s not Rainbow Dash.
“Luna and Celestia, the goddesses, in the Dashite Unity any new Dashite who did not know about them was taught about them.”well, that clears that up.
“Before we leave, we need to get some map data to try to choose our next step.” not to mention find out what was where, “If you need our help later, you will need to find us.”
“Actually Silver Aura, we could use your skills again, there’s been word of another location with Dashite captives. We don’t have anyone available to do this mission as well as you could, especially with you being able to wear the armor of our enemies.” He nodded to a unicorn who had a pipbuck of her own and soon after I received a map marker on my own pipbuck. “that is the location of the other captives, if you can rescue them it would be greatly appreciated.”
“If you’re going on an adventure please take me with you, I don’t have anyplace to go anymore.” After everything that happened today for Iria I couldn’t refuse, especially since she reminded me of my sister.
“Fine, you can come with us, and I’ll accept that mission, anything to mess with the Enclave. If that’s alright with you Cloudy Melody.”
“I’m all for doing some damage to the Enclave, and it’s good to have you with us Iria.”
LEVEL UP
Level 5
New Perk:Pony of the Night: Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light situations
Companion Perk:Archivist:with this perk it is easier to find more important documents in terminals or journals |
SilverAura | 693 | 5 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2011-10-12T08:27:26+00:00 | 2011-10-12T08:27:26+00:00 | 3,849 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 5:Unsettling Developments
Kindness.
The ponies of Sunset Bay were nothing but kind once the Enclave had been taken out, one of the ponies even gave me a recovery potion saying it was for luck. We stayed in town for one night before departing from the town. The Dashite Unity had already opened up the bay to the rest of the town as a public location, the ruins of the supply building were still burning but the flames were dieing down.
As we left Tigerlilly’s inn I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned to look it was just a group of colts and fillies playing. A sight I had not seen when the Enclave controlled the town. I hadn’t even seen children when we first arrived, I thought now that it was because of fear of the Enclave.
Approaching the gate I began to see the reason why the Enclave was feared. Remembering the events of the past day I saw that the Enclave didn’t care if you were a Pegasus or not, they would take you if they thought you were a threat. The children must have been hidden away to keep them safe.
“hold up, I know it was because of you both that we are no longer living under the Enclaves hooves so to speak. I would like you to have this” the guardpony set a box at my hooves. Opening it I saw several recovery potions, 2 rolls of healing bandages, and a disused magical energy pistol.
“Thank you but are you sure you don’t need them?” I was unsure if the town was well-enough off to be giving such a gift. Especially after the recent battle.
“Everyone in the town agreed that we needed to do something to thank you for what you did, these are currently all the supplies we can spare. The rest of the supplies we have are going toward healing those who were hurt in the battle.”The Guardpony then turns to Iria “we have a gift for you as well. This is so you can help to protect otherponies in the future.” the guard then slid a magical energy pistol that looked in slightly better condition than the one I received and a box of ammo to Iria.
“Th-thank you, it really means alot to me that you are so forgiving of my past”I could tell she was blushing.
“I’ll keep track of the medical supplies, from the map we should try to go west of here; the captives are in a building just east of a mountain.” Cloudy Melody then packed away the healing supplies in her saddlebags as we prepared to leave.
“We better get going soon then.” I looked to Iria and saw her wearing her old Enclave armor, but with a light blue paint job over a few sections of the armor, she refused to wear it again without those changes, and she refused to wear any other armor as well. Needless to say I checked for tracking devices in the armor to make sure it was safe to take with us, there were none. “You ok with the armor Iria, we could always buy you some combat armor similar to Cloudy Melody’s”
“This armor is fine... I want to remember what the Enclave did to me. I want to pay them back somehow, and I have to make up for what I did when I was with the Enclave. Wearing this armor can’t atone for my sins, but it’s a start on the road of my punishment for what I did.” This was how she was acting since she put that armor back on after it was painted.
*** *** ***
As we left the town and turned right I got the strange feeling of being watched again. Looking up I saw birds flying overhead I got the same feeling from them as I did from the children when we left the inn. There were even the same number of birds as children. I shook it off thinking it was just because of having just taken down a Enclave base, and thinking they were watching me now because of it.
Before we got too far from the town I turned to look back, seeing a caravan leaving the town. They had a strange 2 headed cow with them with packs on it's back, it was followed by 3 armed guards. The merchant was at the front of the group leading the cow. Seeing this I realized that the so called merchant that had brought me and Cloudy Melody to Sunset Bay was severely under-prepared to make a trip in the wasteland, if we found him again he was going to have some explaining to do.
The trader leading his caravan waved to us before heading south, I decided if I saw him again I would buy something to help support his caravan. Sunset Bay was kind, and I was determined to return that kindness anyway I could. We started to make our way north to reach the market district of the city. The buildings around us still standing tall despite most falling into the crossroads or plazas.
"So what exactly are we going to do when we reach the next Enclave base? Same thing as the last one?" Cloudy Melody asked, I had to admit she had a point.
"I hadn't thought of that yet, I think we could probably try for the stealth approach again. But if we do then I think it will need to be adjusted since we don't have a town of ponies to help us this time I bet." I responded.
"Well if it's the base I think it is then we should be able to sneak the prisoners out between the shifts of guard duty. That would give us a 5 minute window to get everyone out without being detected" Iria informed us/
"Wait... we would need to get into the base first, how are we going to do that? Wouldn't we need..." at that moment I herd the unmistakable sound of a filly crying.
Running toward the source of the sound I came to a stop at the entrance of a shop, inside was a young filly crying over the corpse of a full grown buck. The body was horribly mutilated with a gash running from it's neck to it's flank. Blood plastered the walls of the room and the filly's face and mane as well.
"What's wrong Silv... oh Celestia. No foal should have to see this."Cloudy Melody was right.
"Come on little one, we should get you out of here."I walked up to the filly until I felt teeth grabbing my tail. Turning around I saw it was Iria."What's wrong? Do you see the attacker?"
"That filly, don't you remember her from the inn? How did she get here so fast?"Iria asked me, and in that moment I froze.
She was right, it was the same filly. Same mane same coat even the same cutiemark, I didn't notice before but the mark looked like an amorphis blob, like it couldn't decide what it was supposed to be. It was then that the filly spoke, with a male pony's voice.
"Aww, it looks like the disguise didn't work, get up Geo Neon" the filly began to transform, her neck elongating, becoming more beast like. Her, now his body grew to the size of a full grown pony razor sharp blades forming from the front hooves. The blades each tipped with a hook like design, the eyes of this thing becoming blackened and the color changing to blood red with no pupils. Sharp teeth formed from the maw of this thing. The same was happening to what I had thought was a corpse.
"You know my name is not Geo Neon, it's 256-GN, and your's is 621-NR" the thing that had been a pony corpse spoke as it transformed, the voices of both sounding warped and demonic. There was something way to familiar about the names it said.
"B-but, I checked the other rooms in The Vault, everypony else was dead!"I was shocked, I had no idea what was going on unless some other facility used the same kind of test subject naming.
"OH would you look at that, it looks like the boss was right, 185-SA WAS alive. But it looks like he chose not to follow our leader. He has taken on untalented ponies as his companions."the first beast said a PipBuck now forming on it's left bladed leg
"The boss gave instructions if this should happen, we are to eliminate all of them, my favorite part is when we get to absorb the energy from the unicorns we kill."the second said, a PipBuck forming on it's leg as well.
The beasts both lunged forward bringing up their bladed legs and attacking, the blade of the first beast striking me across the chest sending me flying into a wall dazed. I herd gunshots ring out as Cloudy Melody and Iria moved to engage the beasts. Iria was fairing well with the magical energy pistol. and Cloudy Melody was also doing well.
I brought out a healing potion and drank it down healing my injured bones from the attack. I waited for the potion to take effect and floated out my assault rifle firing at the head of the second beast. Cloudy Melody had already hit it a few times all over it's body but not the head. My shots struck home hitting the beast in the eye causing it to stagger before falling over, the brains of the beast now leaked out from where it's eye had once been.
Iria had caused much damage to the first beast and with her last shot before having to reload scored a direct hit with it's eye by chance causing the beast's bran as well as the rest of it's body to become a pink pile of dust, the PipBuck all that remained of the thing.
Walking over I asked "Why didn't they attack after throwing me to the wall?" A shadow of an Pegasus dashed across my sight on the second floor before disappearing seemingly into a wall. "Did you see that?" I pointed to where I saw the shadow.
"See what? There's nothing there." Cloudy Melody told me."Are you feeling alright?"
"y-yea, must just be the shock of their names." I quickly checked both PipBucks, they had indeed come from The Vault, but the warnings on their PipBuck screens show that their minds had been attacked during the battle with us. "I think I can use one of these PipBuck's as spare parts for the Dash's Lightning, the micro generator should be able to be fixed once I get the right parts." I tried to cover up my concerns with looking for parts in the PipBucks.
*** *** ***
After tinkering with the PipBucks and Dash's Lightning for a while I held the blade up and said "here goes nothing" Focusing on the blade I turned on the micro generator and brought the sword down on the blade leg of the second survivor, Upon doing so bolts of electricity could be seen jumping along the length of the blade leg. "Success! The Dash's Lightning should be able to hold enough of a charge for several attacks before needing to regenerate it's energy, this should come in handy in the future."
"And we can finally see how your blade works, after 200 years"Cloudy Melody said, I still think she needs to learn not to try to make light of everything like this.
"You waited 200 years, I only had to wait a day"Iria reminded Cloudy Melody.
"Well the good thing is that Dash's Lightning is now working, which means we have more protection in case of attack, and a quieter weapon to use for stealth" I told them both. I really hoped that traveling in the wasteland wasn't going to be like this everyday.
Turning to leave I saw the shadow again. This time I began to fly up the stairs(literally), my wings were beginning to feel better with this bit of exercise. When I got to the top of the stairs I found nothing there.
"What's up Silver? Not more of those things I hope" Cloudy Melody ran up right behind me.
"I-I don't know, I could have sworn I saw something up here... but now... I'm just not sure" I responded.
Moving to the second floor window I became glad we had moved several shops away from the one where the dead bodies now lay. Descending from over the field just outside came a earthpony whose legs never touched the ground though it did come close, I could barely make out a box with a levitation field around it for it's cutiemark. The pony was accompanied by 3 birds that upon reaching the ground became a Colt and 2 Fillies, all 3 with the same cutiemark.
"shh, we have to move quickly and quietly, I'm not sure what happened last time will help us this time around." I motioned to Cloudy Melody and Iria to get down. We began to make our way to the first floor and to the basement. "If I remember right there should be a way to the sewers down here, I don't want to be here if that floating pony comes looking. I would rather not find out it's powers if I can help it."
"I agree, but where is the way to thew sewer once we get down there?" Iria asked me.
"It'll be in the far corner I would assume, let's hope I'm right."I said as I opened the door to the basement as quietly as I could.
*CRREEEAAAK*
Freezing before heading down I listened for the survivors we were trying to get away from.
"Did you hear that?"one of them said, sounded like it was mimicking a colt's voice"sounded like a door opening"
"It was probably the wind"another said, this time a gruff full grown male pony's voice.
We carefully made our way down the stairs, me and Iria using our wings to keep our weight off the steps as much as possible and Cloudy Melody being helped by Iria to put as little weight on the stairs as possible. I looked around seeing many boxes piled up, most of which were piles of moldy cardboard by now. We searched for the entrance to the sewers my E.F.S. helping me keep track of the 4 survivors up top. Finally we found the entrance and not a moment too soon, above I could barely make out the sound of the Gruff voice giving orders to the others
"Search the nearby buildings, someone did this, and we don't want to return to the boss without bodies of the attackers!"
We quickly went to the sewer entrance, lucky that it was able to be opened easily, we dove in as soon as it was opened and ran down the hallway not paying much attention to what was around us as we went. Through a door we found the main sewer and started running to the west according to my E.F.S. compass. None of us dared look back to see if they were following us. We kept running until we hit a dead end, looking for the nearest exit we saw a door to our right, dashing through it we were able to keep going until we found a ladder leading back to the surface.
Checking my E.F.S. I made sure there was nothing up top that was going to attack us. No red marks, I lead the way up and ,using my levitation to help slightly with the weight, lifted the sewer cover. We had made it to the edge of the city, ahead lay a ruined road leading to the west. Not wanting to chance the survivors finding us we started moving on the road.
*** *** ***
"So, there's floating ones, and transforming ones. What other ones of those things are there?" Iria asked.
"Probably about as many as there are spell types. If what Silver Aura said is right and they are survivors of The Vault." Cloudy Melody Responded.
*SKSHZZZ* the RadRoach disintegrated as I sliced it's head off with the Dash's Lightning, a pile of blue dust left where the bug was.
"I just hope that most of the other survivors aren't as crazed as they were."I said "I don't know who their boss is either but I wouldn't want to meet them right now."
Up ahead lay a small looking town, what appeared to be a factory was part way up a mountain next to the town. As we approached the sun was beginning to set, we decided it would be good to rest there for the night. When we got into the town we looked for a inn.
"Found it!" Iria called to me and Cloudy Melody, we both went to where Iria was and saw the sign on the front of the inn, it read " Darkness' Shadow Inn, what a strange name for a town."
"Well, it's better than nothing" I said walking into the inn "Hello, anyone here? We'd like to rent a room" I called as I saw nobody at the counter.
"hmm, oh... oh my, visitors... we haven't had guests in a long time." an elderly mare came out to the counter from a back room "Please do come in, the room will be 10 caps, each."
"Why so cheep? Most inns I know of charge 25 caps a night per pony." Iria said as she came in.
"Don't complain about getting a room cheaper here than other places Iria" Cloudy Melody responded, she seemed a bit more mature since Iria joined us, maybe she saw Iria as a little sister as well. "I'm sorry if we offended you by saying it was cheap."
"oh, no dearie, your friend is right, we do charge less than other towns. but given that we don't get many visitors we don't feel right charging much to the few we do get." the Elderly mare said
I got out 45 caps for her and said "Here, I don't feel right paying you so little for the 3 of us."
"Why thank you, let me get your key" she looked around at the keys and levitated one to the counter, it was then I noticed she was a unicorn, her horn was so withered and small I hadn't noticed it in her grey mane."you're in room 2 on the second floor"
"Thank you, we'll head right up." I levitated the key with me as I walked up the stairs and followed the balcony to room 2.
"that's quite a trick dearie, levitating the key with your friend, and without your horn lighting up either" the mare said to Cloudy Melody
"oh, I'm not levitating the key, he is." Cloudy Melody said before following me up, Iria following closely behind her.
The room was rather small, with only one bed and a couch that looked like if somepony the size of Cloudy Melody or I were to use it then it would break.
"Iria you might have to take off your armor, I think Cloudy Melody and I will need to use the bed, I doubt the couch could support either of us" I said
"I thought you were going to say that as soon as I saw the couch, oh well, it does look comfortable" Iria said moving to the couch and removing her enclave armor, she was asleep as soon as she hit the cushions.
"After you Cloudy Melody." I said gesturing for Cloudy Melody to go before me in getting into bed "Ladies first."
"How chivalrous, eeee, I can't believe we will actually be in the same bed!" so much for more mature, she got her armor off and slipped under the covers of the bed and waited for me to join her.
I opted for sleeping with my jacket as my blanket and sleeping on top of the covers so that there was something between me and Cloudy Melody so I wouldn't invade her personal space if one of us rolled in our sleep. Soon we were both asleep as well.
///////ooOoOOoOoo\\\\\\\
Darkness, I couldn't see, the world was so dark. I took a step forward and suddenly I could see, I was home. Back in Ponyville with my family, it was the day I was to leave to join the Equestrian Skyguard. It was also before my family moved north to be closer to me like many families of the ponies who were at the base near The Vault.
Something wasn't right though, I didn't see my family anywhere. I ran to our house and opened the door, inside it was horrible. Blood stained the walls floors and ceiling, I couldn't see the source and I ran upstairs. Running into my and my sister's room I found them, dead and still bleeding...and him.
A Pegasus pony that looked exactly like me, but almost pure black. the only part of it that wasn't black was it's eyes and cutiemark, the eyes glowed red, and the cutiemark was mine but at the same time it wasn't. There was a knife stabbing the heart of my cutiemark, blood was in a pool under the heart and the wings had changed to that of a bat.
"I only did what comes natural, after all, it is my special talent, to destroy all things light and good." the dark me said in a ghostly mockery of my own voice.
"N-NO, I-I-I HOW COULD YOU!? GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!" I yelled at the thing.
"Silvie, I'm ok, I know you can beat this, just believe in yourself." I turned to see who spoke and a bright light over took my vision.
\\\\\\\ooOoOOoOoo///////
I woke up with a start, and in a cold sweat. Outside I herd the screaming of a Filly, wasting no time I rushed to the window and saw something dragging a filly off, I couldn't make out the shape of whatever it was, before I could turn to wake the others I herd a older mare screaming "NOOO, DON'T TAKE HER, PLEASE!"
LEVEL UP
Level 6
New Perk: Diagnostic Mind(2):With this perk it becomes easier to diagnose errors in machinery or injuries, for each rank you gain a permanent boost of 5 to Science and Medicine
Dream Perk: The Light:You don't know what it is, but it saved you from the darkness. This perk gives Survival + 10 |
SilverAura | 693 | 6 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2012-02-11T05:28:57+00:00 | 2012-02-11T05:28:57+00:00 | 3,151 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 6:Impossible Darkness
Fear.
More than anything else that is what the mother and child felt as the thing dragged the filly away. I didn't have time to think of the consequences of going alone. With only a moment's hesitation I dashed from the room and down the stairs to the entrance, I only had the Dash's Lightning with me, having left my other weapons behind. The doors of the inn were luckily unlocked, and as I ran out I could see where the thing was taking the filly. Running forward with the Dash's Lightning in my mouth I attempted to use my wings for extra speed.
I flew a short distance but it was enough to cut right through the creature that was trying to steal the filly. There was a thump after I sliced through the thing's neck. The head rolled a short distance before stopping, it had no distinguishable face marks, but it was clearly a pony head shape. The mother of the filly ran up to me and grabbed her daughter as I inspected the head of the thing that was trying to kidnap her.
"Get to the inn, I think it may be safe there." I told the Mare, I used my telekinesis to levitate the body of the thing back with me with the head separate from it. Something didn't seem right here, and I intended to find out what.
*** *** ***
Back at the inn Cloudy Melody and Iria had woke up and were in the lobby when I returned with the Mare and her filly, and what I assumed was a corpse. When I got it inside behind me however Cloudy Melody asked me "Why are you bringing a Colterquin with you?"
"It is the thing that took her" I said pointing to the little filly, "I want to see if we can figure out why."
"If you want to do that then checking the factory may help more" the elderly mare said coming out of nowhere.
I nearly jumped out of my jacket when the elderly mare seemed to appear out of nowhere. Not much scares me, but somepony popping up outta nowhere could startle anypony. Iria was looking over the Colterquin already, "I think she's right, not much to see here"
"right... Cloudy Melody, Iria, I would like you to..." I started before Cloudy Melody cut me off.
"Stay here and make sure everyone stays safe in case more come after the filly?" she left a slightly stunned look on my face
"Yea, that... I'll be back, I promise. Good luck" I turn and begin to walk out the door on my way to the factory.
As soon as I got outside I looked around to make sure there weren't any more of those things. I saw many buildings like the way things might have been if the war never happened, but many were in ruin. As I looked to my left I started to gallop off toward the factory. I ran past alley way after alley way, the feeling of being watched never leaving me. What did that Colterquin want with the foal.
___---POV change, Iria---___
"Such a strange thing" I said as I examined the Colterquin, "it was able to move? Doesn't seem like it is designed for that, the legs are solid material."
"T-that thingy was trying to take m-me to t-t-the factory" the little filly said.
"I never heard of such a thing the entire time I was in the Enclave. Communications didn't always go through my station though." I replied. It seemed strange that something like this would be able to move, let alone take a little filly from her home.
"Nopony ever returned from the factory before" the filly's mom said, "your friend likely won't either."
"What?" Cloudy Melody spoke up, "why didn't you say something before!? I gotta stop him!"
"Cloudy Melody, he told us to protect them" I responded to her, "it won't help if we go after him and another of these things comes back here to take the filly again."
"M-Molly" the filly said, "m-my name is Molly."
"Molly, nice name" I say, "Cloudy Melody, do you really think that leaving Molly and her mom here unprotected is a good idea? I thought you had military training as well."
She stared at her hooves and said, "I know, I'm sorry I've never been in a position like this before. I was usually on a mission that put our squad in the action, not sitting back protecting somepony."
"I'm sure Silver Aura knows what he's doing. After all, it was because of him that both of us are here, he's a hero." I tell Cloudy Melody.
"...You're right, thanks." Cloudy Melody responded.
A knock came at the door of the inn, "Hello? is this where the ponies who helped Sunrise Bay are? I have a delivery from Memory."
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
The factory's front entrance was a large set of doors. Black metal and glass that was impossible to see through, the only windows I could see appeared to be high enough for them to be on the second floor. The town stretched out below the cliff the factory rested on. I reached a hoof forward and pushed the door open, it screeched loudly like a Griffon whose tail got stepped on.
Inside the room was covered in blood, bodies were piled up in the far corners and 2 more suited Colterquin stood next to the door on either side, motionless. I took a few steps into the room and quickly took the heads off the Colterquin just to be sure. I did not want to know how those things killed the ponies in the corners.
As I looked around after dispatching the door's guards I saw the room had a reception desk on the right hoof side, and two doors, one directly across from the entrance leading to the production line, and one on the left leading to the offices. I tried the door I assumed led to the production line only to find it locked and the lock was broken as well. Somepony had already tried unsuccessfully to force it open, in lieu of having the key I headed for the door leading to the offices.
The door led to a hallway with many offices along the right side, each one with a weathered nameplate. On the left the wall was bland and windowless. I decided to check each of the offices to see if there was anything useful in them. The first office held a dead terminal and a few caps in the top desk drawer. The next office had a working terminal that with a little luck I was able to hack into, the password was "Ice". The terminal held a few logs, the first one seemed to be a personal diary kind of thing, based on the name of the terminal login I assumed it was a mare's office.
=============Strawberry Blitz Journal=============
Journal Entry 15
Tornado Bolt and Twisty Doo visited again, they still have as much energy as ever. Their weather based toy company is doing well. I think Tornado Bolt might have a crush on a mare in their production facility, he wouldn't stop talking about her. His sister told me that the efforts that go into making each toy and delivering them to the town bring them happiness each time they visit. It is so nice to know that my old friends from Ponyville are doing well.
==========================
The remaining logs were similar, except the last one.
=============Strawberry Blitz Journal=============
Journal Entry 20
Oh no, he's coming this way. I hope I can get this finished before he gets here, I don't want to die!
The research on sealing spells should be hidden by now, I just hope we aren't too late. He was telling us to prepare something for him to make into this thing he called a Soul Jar. The thing's design seems to be to draw in something and use it to change whatever is inside. I only caught glimpses as we worked secretly to make a spell to seal in this evil pony's soul. He wants to control the entire fact.......
==========================
The journal entry ended there, whatever this pony was trying to write never got finished. I turned to leave when a hoof clamped over my mouth and I was yanked backwards into a cabinet. Once inside a pony with a navy blue coat said "shhhh" keeping their hoof over my mouth and looking out of a tiny slit in the door like a locker's. I looked out as well and one of the Colterquin walked up the the door and it's head turned to look in, it stood there for a few moments before moving on toward the entrance.
When the other pony relaxed and we both got out of the cabinet, locker, thing I asked him, "What the heck was that for!?"
"I just saved your life, ya might wanna thank me." the pony who I could now see was a colt said. He was also a Pegasus but you wouldn't know it at a glance, his wings were severely underdeveloped only the size of a young colt but the rest of him made him look to be almost the same age as me. His eyes were orange in color, and his mane was brown like a tree, if I didn't notice the slight lines I would have said he had no cutiemark, it looked like his cutiemark was that of a pony nearly invisible, just an outline left.
"Who are you?" I asked as I looked over this pony for any weapons.
"I'm Littlewings, don't have a normal name so everyone just called me that" Littlewings responded, "and you are?"
"I'm Silver Aura, I'm here to investigate the Colterquins moving around." I told him, "why were you in that locker cabinet thing?"
"It's my hiding spot, I found out about what's moving those things when I escaped." He said, "They took me when I was a little foal, I'm the only one to survive past growing 'of age'."
"What do you mean 'of age'?" I asked him.
"I'll tell you while we move to one of my other hiding spots. HE will check in here next time he goes past." Littlewings told me.
"Fine but where? It's only fair since you seem to know more about this place." I followed him but floated out the Dash's Lightning just to be safe, when I did his jaw dropped.
"Y-you're one of them! One of those evil ponies who can use magic without being a unicorn!"He looked about ready to run.
"You know about the other survivors of The Vault? I can't say I blame you for thinking I'm one of them, but I'm not." as I finished my sentence I noticed a Colterquin slowly moving it's head around the door frame and dove toward it slicing the head off causing the thing to fall to the ground.
"Y-you saved me? But, wait, you're a Pegasus! All the... Survivors of The Vault... is that what you called them? Well, all of them were Earth Ponies." He said.
"I was the only Pegasus to be in the project. They likely want me dead." I told him, "I was attacked by the Survivors of The Vault before."
"Ok, I guess I trust you then, at least for now. Also if you can cast spells then maybe you can help with the sealing spell, it is supposed to be able to stop the Colterquin from moving ever again. I pieced together the research from the pre-war ponies as best I could but it says I need a unicorn's magic to cast the spell." Littlewings told me. He began to lead the way deeper into the factory
"What about that 'of age' thing?" I asked as we began to move, keeping Dash's Lightning at the ready in case more of the Colterquin were to show up.
"They...kill us." he said, "when a foal reaches a certain age the Slendermane, as he calls himself, kills them. What he considers to be 'of age' is when a foal begins to show bravery and lose their fear of him."
We were nearing a door at the end of the hallway beyond I could see stairs, and to my right I saw a door looking into the production room. The glass was covered in dirt and what I assumed to be blood. We walked up the flight of stairs and into a metal hallway on the side of the production room.
"That sounds horrible, what about when a pony gets their cutiemark?" I ask him as we pass by windows that look down on the production line. Looking down I could see at least 15 foals all working on what appeared to be suits the size of the Colterquin. At least 5 foals were taking wings and horns off of more Colterquin that were off to the side, it looked like they were designed to be used to make garments for Princess Celestia.
"I'm the only pony to ever find a special talent while trapped in here. My talent is to stay hidden, the Slendermane can't kill what he can't find." Littlewings lead me into another office this one apparently the manager's office, there were windows looking out over the side of the cliff. I couldn't see the town through the dirt encrusted windows but I thought better of it. The office was empty apart from a safe in the wall and a desk, there wasn't a terminal here.
Littlewings went over to a safe in the wall and unlocked it pulling out a paper with writing on it. The writing was not side to side like normal but up and down. I couldn't read what language it was, the writing was symbols and it looked like there were more of them in the safe.
"These are covered in the symbols that we need to seal away the evil that the Slendermane uses to posses the Colterquin." Littlewings told me, "but to activate them it takes a spark of magic touching this particular one, and the caster has to be focused on something good."
"What do you expect me to do with them?" I asked him feeling like a adult talking to a foal about why the sky is blue, and in this case, I was the foal.
"You cast the spell once we have the seal papers plastered on that thing in the center of the production room." Littlewings said as if it were going to be easy.
"I only know how to levitate things, how do you expect me to cast a sealing spell?" I ask him.
"You just need to concentrate your magic on it, it's like pressing a button on a terminal but with magic instead of a hoof." he said.
"Why haven't we been detected yet up here?" I ask suddenly realizing that things seemed to be going almost too smoothly, this thing called the Slendermane had to know we were here.
"The research included research into a type of magic that non-unicorns could use, I spent much of the years I was in hiding learning the type of magic used to make the sealing spell. I can use any irradiated paper to create this kind of magic. "he said leaving me standing there dumbfounded, "the irradiated paper is able to act similar to a unicorn's magic to activate the spell written on it, but it doesn't work with the sealing spell. I can only do little things with the paper magic, like a sound dampening spell even talking with normal voices only a whisper would be herd outside this room."
I turned around and saw 4 papers with the same symbol on them at the 4 corners of the doorway, "so, we go down there, seal whatever it is in there, and take all the foals back to their families?"
"That's the plan I've been working on for a little over 3 years." he said.
"If it means rescuing the foals then I say we get to it." I respond, "get the papers you need, lets go save some foals."
"uhh, right." he said.
"Something wrong?" I ask him.
"Well, you will need to be able to use a new spell to be able to activate the sealing spell." he responded, "the Manipulation spell, it's about as simple as the telekinesis spell you already know. Unicorns don't even realize they are using it sometimes, like when accessing a memory orb, the spell just works on it's own. I don't think it will be as simple for you."
"How would you teach me then? You're a Pegasus as well" I ask him.
"Umm, here try to concentrate on this spell paper, it has a healing spell on it, if you do it right then the spell should activate. The spell is the one used to make magical bandages, I'll put the paper on some rags so they have the same effect." he told me, "either way once the spell is used the symbols will be gone from the paper."
"Allright, not sure this will work but if you think I can actually learn more spells, why not" I say as I start to focus on the spell paper, as I focus more on the paper my Pip-buck begins to glow like a Unicorn's horn and the spell paper starts to glow in a similar manner. The glow from both goes out shortly after appearing, and the symbols from the paper are gone. "Did it work?" I ask.
"One way to find out, and that is to get hurt. Shouldn't be too hard then, we probably will get injured while fighting our way to the center of the room" Littlewings responds.
"No time to waste then, let's go." I say as I walk out the door, I freeze as I look down through the window to see 3 colterquin gathered around a young colt. It looked as though one of the colterquin had a hole in it's leg the size of the colt's own rear legs. The Slendermane look down at the colt before a red haze envelops where there should have been faces on them. I want to turn away, to not see what they are about to do, but my body refuses to move.
A scream rips through the factory as the Slendermane killed the foal. A voice is herd echoing through the factory. "LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU FOALS, NOPONY EVER LEAVES HERE, AND NOPONY WILL EVER HIDE FROM ME AGAIN!" I could only assume the voice was that of Slendermane, sounding demonic and evil. I could not allow it to kill any more innocent foals.
Littlewings came out of the office with his head hanging low "I fear he may be getting desperate, it sounded like he was calling me out. Before you ask, the sound dampening spell is a one way barrier. It dampens sounds from inside the office, but not from out here." Littlewings placed a hoof on my back before I felt him jump away. I still couldn't move after seeing the horror that the Slendermane did.
A red beam of light in the shape of a colterquin head slammed into my right foreleg sending pain up my leg, and causing me to regain movement. I started to flap my wings to take pressure of my leg as the pain seared like it was on fire. I threw the Dash's Lightning using my telekinesis at the colterquin at the top of the stairs managing to damage it's head, soon after a fireball flew past me and slammed into the hilt of the Dash's Lightning sending it through the head and leaving the colterquin sliced in half and motionless.
"I told you I could do basic spells using the spell paper, that fireball was one of the ones that didn't require Unicorn activation." Littlewings says as he dashes over to me.
I land with a thump causing more pain to shoot up my leg, the pain is enough to make me collapse sideways. "n-no more" I begin to say.
"time to see if that spell paper you tried out worked" Littlewings says as he quickly bandages my leg which was now bleeding where the energy had hit it. "what are you saying?"
"N-NO MORE! No more foals will die here today, or ever again!" I say as the pain dulls but blood still soaks the bandages, the spell on the rags apparently only a fraction of the strength of real magical bandages. "We will stop the Slendermane, now!" I say as I walk to the stairway ignoring any lingering pain in my leg, I grab the Dash's Lightning in my mouth and spot a colterquin coming around the bend in the stairwell, I dive upon it slicing it's head off like before.
The pain from the Slendermane's attack had awakened a strength within me, and seeing that young colt killed had made my resolve absolute. No more foals will die, I was going to see to it that they don't. Reaching the bottom of the stairwell I move straight to the door to find it unlocked. Littlewings appears from the stairwell door having just run down to catch up.
"That room is full of colterquin, it won't be easy to reach the center of the room." he told me.
"It has to be done, to protect the foals, when I open the door, we make a break for the machine in the center of the room. The datalogs in the room I met you in said something about a Soul Jar, well I don't know what a Soul Jar is but I have a feeling that machine is it." I say. "on the count of three... one" we readied ourselves to run, "...two" I reached up to the door to open it, "...THREE!" We burst through the door and immediately the colterquin turned to face us. They seemed to be different from the ones earlier, like they couldn't focus energy into the attack they used on the Colt and myself. But we ran through them.
My right foreleg was bleeding and bandaged and Littlewings was barely keeping up with me as we moved toward the thing in the center of the room. Several of the Colterquin had fired off some kind of attack at us that left the heads of them partially shattered and bits of the head on the far wall behind us. As we ran the little foals ducked down under the conveyor belts and tables in the room as they cowered in fear. We made it to the center of the room and quickly got to work placing the papers all over the thing as more of the Colterquin tried to hit us with their non-existent faces.
When we got the last paper placed I flew up and away and then focused my magic on the center paper with only a second to spare as I got hit in the side by the face of a single Colterquin. The papers all glowed and the Colterquin all around the room froze and some fell over. It had worked, just then I plummeted for the floor to be caught by Littlewings who grunted in pain as I landed on his back.
"I... don't believe it... it worked" I panted as I spoke.
"I*huff* told you it would." Littlewings said.
Just as we were starting to relax a loud demonic voice boomed out from the device in the center of the room, "WHAT DID YOU DO!? WHY CAN'T I ENTER THE COLTERQUIN ANYMORE!"
"we...sealed you away!" Littlewings said.
"THE RUNAWAY! AND SILVER AURA! I WILL BE FREE AGAIN! AND WHEN I AM I WILL KILL YOU BOTH!" the demonic voice said
"H-how do you know me!?" I said.
"I REMEMBER YOU, MY OLD COMMANDER! I SURPASSED YOU BY JOINING THE VAULT PROJECT AHEAD OF YOU!" he said.
"WHAT!? why would you do this, Blue Bolt!? I thought you wanted to protect your family! Here you are kidnapping and killing innocent foals and for what!?" I shouted back at him.
"You know the Slendermane?" Littlewings asked.
"I DO IT FOR FUN! IT AMUSES ME TO MAKE LITTLE FOALS BEG AND TO SEE THEIR PARENTS RUN IN ONLY TO DIE IN THE ENTRANCE! IT MAKES ME LAUGH TO SEE THEM DIE!" Slendermane said from inside the machine.
"His real name is Blue Bolt, he was a part of my squad before he volunteered for The Vault project." Why are you in that machine!?"
"I'M NOT, MY SOUL IS! I PUT MY SOUL IN A SOUL JAR INSIDE THIS MACHINE. WHEN THE MEGASPELLS HIT THE MACHINE ABSORBED THE RADIATION AND MAGICAL POWER TO AWAKEN MY SOUL INSIDE THE SOUL JAR AND ALLOWED ME TO TAKE OVER THE COLTERQUIN IN THE FACTORY. BUT I STILL NEEDED CLOTHES, AND THE NAME OF THE PONY FROM THE HORROR STORIES WE USED TO TELL SOUNDED SO NICE ONCE I HAD A SUIT LIKE FROM THE STORY." he said.
"Well, it looks like your plan is at an end, Littlewings round up the foals and help them out of here, try to avoid the main entrance if you can. I don't want them to be scarred any worse than they are now." I said
"Got it, good idea" Littlewings limped around the room gathering the foals to lead them out, the pain in my own leg and my side was lost as I focused on the conversation.
"YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME COMMANDER, BE GONE!" Blue Bolt said before going silent.
"How did you get this machine built!?" I shouted at the machine.
There was no response, it seemed I was not going to get anything more from him. I began to move to follow Littlewings and the foals but as I took one step I collapsed, unconscious.
*** *** ***
When I awoke I was at the Inn and Littlewings was talking with Cloudy Melody, I couldn't see Iria and as I got up I felt a stinging pain in my side, "AAGH, what happened to me?" I asked.
"Oh good, you're awake. I was worried when they said you were bleeding from much of your left side."somepony I didn't know said.
"Silvie! you're awake!" Cloudy Melody said as she ran over and hugged me.
"OW" I shouted.
"eep, I'm sorry, I'm just so glad you're alright." Cloudy Melody said.
"I'm fine, but I won't be if you hug me like that too much. Did you call me Silvie?" I asked
"umm, yea... sorry I saw the letter sticking out of your saddlebags and I couldn't resist reading it. I never met your sisters." Cloudy Melody said.
"oh good, you're awake. I have something you need to hear, we were told only to let our leader hear this. By the way, Littlewings wants to join us." Iria said coming into the room. She was carrying a holotape with her.
I got out the ear bud for my Pipbuck and took the holotape from Iria and downloading an audio log to my Pipbuck.
"Silver Aura, we got that from someone saying that a DJ Memory was at the Enclave base we are going to. It's from that pony." Cloudy Melody told me.
I started listening to the audiolog the voice was that of a mare, and it flowed like silk "Hello, I herd about you from a Dashite Unity spy who told us about someone who was able to set free Sunset Bay. I want you to know that if you haven't herd this already then there is a legend about a pony bringing light back to this forgotten wasteland. The legend is as follows.
The Forgotten Wasteland had lost its light, and it lay forgotten under the ground. A silver aura will mark the one distend to find it and bring it back to the surface.
I tell you of this so you might be able to find the unicorn who has a silver aura and get them to help put an end to the darkness of this wasteland"
A pony with a silver aura? Does that mean a Unicorn who has a silver aura around their horn when casting a spell?
LEVEL UP
Level 7
New Perk: Flight(Rank 1):You have regained the ability to fly, but only for short periods of time and not as well as you once could.
Quest Perk: Unnatural Talent(Rank 2): You now have the ability to manipulate things using magic, such as activating Archaic Spells.
New Spell: Manipulation:This spell was used once to cast other spells through use of papers covered in special symbols.
Companion Perk: Archaic Spellcaster:Combining your magical ability with Littlewings' spell papers allows you to cast spells you may not have learned yet, but only when there is enough irradiated paper in your saddlebags. |
SilverAura | 693 | 7 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2012-07-27T21:24:45+00:00 | 2012-07-27T21:24:45+00:00 | 2,587 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 7:The Relics of Rainbow Dash, part 1
Pain.
That's what I felt most of the day after rescuing the foals from Slendermane. The town was celebrating, and the little ponies I rescued and their families were visiting me for most of the day. I could have just taken a healing potion and been done with recovery, but the families of the foals insisted that I remain to share in the celebration of the return of their children. It wasn't until late in the day that we finally set out again, my injury having healed thanks to magical bandages, real ones rather than the makeshift ones we can make with Littlewing's spell paper.
Our group was now up to 4 ponies, I was starting to wonder how big our party would get. Once we started to leave the town of Darkness' Shadow we noticed something in the west that we hadn't seen the night before. It looked like a strange spike coming out of the side of a mountain in the distance, with the strange shade of the cloud curtain at sunset it looked to be almost half the size of the mountain itself.
Walking along the road heading west we found ourselves growing ever closer to the mountain with the strange protrusion. "I think we should rest near that mountain for the night," Iria said, "It's likely to get dark by the time we reach it at this rate."
"I agree with her, it looks as though that place would also offer good cover if it starts to rain" Littlewings said
"Maybe there will be a cave if we're lucky" Cloudy Melody said running ahead of the rest of us.
'her flank looks nice... no, don't get distracted, gotta stay on task' I thought, "Umm, we better hurry up then." 'why am I thinking this way about her all of a sudden'
"Looks like Silver has a fever from those injuries, I knew we should have just used the healing potion from the start." Iria said.
"N-no! I was just thinking... anyway, it looks like we're here, is that what I think it is?" I said pointing out a cave with what appears to be a Stable Door just barely visible.
"Let's check it out, I don't want to be out here at night." Littlewings said as he dashes into the cave and to the control box for the door.
As we approach the great gear shaped door I'm able to make out the number 119 in faded paint on the door. Littlewings pulls the switch to open the door and the noise we herd next was ear shattering. The door groaned and screeched as it jolted backward into the stable and began to roll only to stop with another gut wrenching screech leaving a gap just barely big enough for a pony to get through.
"What in the... Why didn't the door open all the way?" Cloudy Melody asks as she walks up to the door and starts to squeeze through the gap. "YIKES!"
"What is it Cloudy Melody!?" I shout and run to the door.
"You're going to want to see this" She responds
Iria was the next to go in, followed by Littlewings and then myself. What I saw shocked me, The entrance to the stable was overgrown with vines and roots. what appeared to be strange flower buds were interspersed along the vines as they lead further into the stable. Aside from the vines and roots it was what a pony might expect from a stable entrance, a door to maintenance off to the left, overgrown and inaccessible. In the middle of the far wall was a door jammed open with a pony skeleton covered in vines hanging from the top of the doorway.
"What could do this to a stable? The records said they were supposed to be to save ponies, not this." Iria said examining the skeleton.
"I think we better find out, I don't think this kind of plant growth is normal." Littlewings said as he started to place spell papers around the stable entrance. "these barrier spell papers should keep out any monsters, I hope..."
"The Overmare's office should have some data logs on what happened here." Iria said." I think I see a sign for it just down this hallway"
"Let's get there fast, I don't want to be out here if what made the plants grow like this is still here" Cloudy Melody said
"I'll lead the way" I said drawing the Dash's Lightning and turning on my Pip-Buck light, it seemed that the power source of the stable had died out already. The lights in the entrance and the door itself must have been on emergency power.
as we walked slowly down the hallway we saw that the entire stable was overrun with the plants, sometimes we would see large patches of plant life like tiny meadows. As we neared the Overmare's office I spotted a movement in the corner of my eye, when I turned to see what it was all I saw was another patch of plant life, this one slightly bigger than the others.
"This place is giving me the creeps." Cloudy Melody said
"Yea, it feels like someone is watching us." Littlewings responded.
"I think we're going to need to use the emergency release to open the door, apart from the entrance the stable appears to be out of power," Iria said, voicing the thought that raced through all our minds at this time.
When we reached the door we found that it indeed had no power. Looking around I was able to find the emergency latch to open the door manually. "here we go, Littlewings, can you give me a hoof with this?"I asked getting my leg around the handle. Littlewings came over and did the same, "Ok, three, two, one, lift." I said as we both start to lift the door using the emergency handle. After some resistance the door gave and with a click and hiss it rose up to grant us access.
Behind the door, instead of an office, was a brightly lit almost vertical hallway. The hallway just ended in jagged metal and a large gaping hole in the floor, what looked like it used to be the Overmare's office was at the bottom of the hole. It looked like a terminal managed to land on the edge of the hole when... whatever the thing was we were looking at hit the stable.
"What is that thing?" Cloudy Melody asked, "it couldn't be what we saw from outside could it?"
"I-I'm not sure." I respond starring blankly at the expanse below us. Whatever this thing was it was made strong enough to be able to demolish much of a Stable and still have power. "We should try to find out if that terminal has power or even a accessible log."
"Leave that to me." Iria said getting to work on the terminal "I should have this thing singing in no time."
"I think we need to check out that hallway for some clues to whatever this thing is" I said pointing to the strange hallway across the pit.
"I'll stay here with Iria" Littlewings said "This way she won't be left without someone to help her"
"I'll go with you Silvie" Cloudy Melody said, causing me to blush a bit. "Sound good?"
"Yes, you sure you'll both be ok here?" I ask Iria and Littlewings.
"Positive, with Iria's energy weapons and my Spell papers we should be fine" Littlewings responds, Iria simply uh huh's paying more attention to her work on the terminal.
I nod and slowly start to walk around the edge of the pit to the hallway on the far side, sparks fly as a wire falls loose from the broken edge of the hallway. As Cloudy Melody and I draw closer I can see that much of the light in the hall is from further in than the entrance ahead. I make it to the hallway and then flapping my wings fly the short distance into the hallway, i turn around to be ready to catch Cloudy Melody with my levitation as she jumps to join me. Despite the odd angle of the hallway it is surprisingly easy to stay on our hooves.
I lead the way up the hallway, almost literally as the hallway was almost perfectly vertical further up. Where we entered had been bent and damaged making it easy to get in, but as we walked it felt like we were walking on normal ground, our manes and tails said a different story however.
"Whatever is keeping us on the floor must not be strong enough to affect our hair." Cloudy Melody said from behind me.
"Yea, strange. I think I see a terminal up ahead" I said as I walk up to what I had assumed was a terminal, there was only one option on the screen and it was written in some strange language that I could not read. Upon pressing the button on the thing it opened the door next to it. "ok, not a terminal then, a door switch."
"What's in there?" Cloudy Melody asked holding her assault rifle out ahead of her with her magic. "I'm ready it it turns out to be monsters."
Given what we saw in the wasteland so far, I knew better than to laugh at her caution. Moving into the room I saw all kinds of alien devices, a circular thing with what appeared to be scissor handles. A orb with wires coming from what I assumed was the top. Strapped to a table was the corpse of a badly deformed pony, I couldn't even tell what gender it had been. It's belly bulged with what I could only assume were it's intestine just under the skin. It's forelegs had been changed and the hooves appeared to be 4 part claws now having been cut that way and sewn back together. This abomination was hardly recognizable as a pony anymore.
"No monsters, just a poor pony who was experimented on from the looks of it, I'm guessing they died from lack of food." I said and moved into the room, in a corner that I couldn't have sen without going in was a corpse of some kind of alien. It wasn't a pony, or a zebra, it wasn't anything I could recognize as being from our world. "That might qualify as alien though."
Cloudy Melody came in behind me and saw what I was talking about "Oh my, that doesn't look right, what is it? Are those talons like a Griffon?"
Cloudy Melody was half right, they did look like talons, but they had no actual claws on the end, and there were 4 limbs like the abomination. Unlike the abomination this thing had all 4 lined up rather than round like a disfigured hoof. It's head was almost as big as a normal pony's but it seemed to grow further back, and it's face appeared to have a small nose instead of a muzzle. What I assumed was it's skin was a strange greenish grey color and hairless. It was wearing some kind of silvery outfit with a almost plastic like lab coat over top of it.
"Looks like it's dead too, but the force keeping us on the floor should have kept it from sliding into the corner, unless..." I begin to say "I think we should get back to the others"
Cloudy Melody nods having just seen the Abomination on the table, "I think you're right, I think we should take some of these back with us though" she said picking up several small alien gems that were scattered on the floor around the alien.
"Be careful, we don't want to lose what's in our saddlebags if the gravity only affects our hooves" I said being ready to catch anything to fall out of her saddlebags, luckily nothing did.
"Got them in, ready to go" Cloudy Melody said as we start walking back to Iria and Littlewings.
As we move back along the hallway explosions can be herd ahead of us and we begin to run. When we got to the pit what was there shocked me. It looked like Littlewings and Iria were battling with plants, but not just plants, what appeared to be plants growing from pony corpses and skeletons. These things looked to be what was left of the Stable Dwellers, they had tatters of Stable Suits on with the number 119 on them.
Cloudy Melody gawked for a moment before she fired several bursts from her Assault Rifle. The Bullets punched through the plants and the bodies of the dead ponies who seemed unfazed by the bullets. The only ones doing damage appeared to be Iria and Littlewings. Littlewings was using flame spell papers, and Iria her Magical Energy Pistol. Both were burning away the plants leaving the bodies collapsed in heaps with nothing to support them now.
"Cloudy Melody, use fire. Bullets won't hurt them!" I yelled soaring over to join Littlewings and Iria drawing the Dash's Lightning and slashing into the plant covered corpses. "The plants are in control"
"What, how can plants be moving like that!?"Cloudy Melody said getting ready a flame spell before shouting "it's too crowded to use the spell."
"They came from the outgrowths in the halls, apparently the bodies were covered up by the plants" Littlewings said, "It would be safe to assume the meadows in the halls were also corpses covered by plants."
"I was able to get the terminal working just before they attacked." Iria said as she blasted one of the corpses through the skull and hit a second behind it, burning the plants off both, "Apparently this was supposed to be your run of the mill stable, as advertised. They were given the same supplies as most other Stables, as well as a few extra plants requested for by the Overmare. They were harmless plants, roses, petunias, et-cetra."
"These don't look like roses or petunias to me!" Littlewings shouted as his spell papers blasted several more of the plant creatures to ash.
"Out of the way!" Cloudy Melody shouted giving us little time to jump to the sides of the doorway before her fire spell shot down the hallway setting most of the plants ablaze.
"Good aim... did you plan that to happen?" Iria said
"Just lucky, I couldn't see where a gap was so I aimed for the center of the door" Cloudy Melody said.
I blinked and then said "wow... talk about lucky, but the battle's not over yet" I said turning back to the plant creatures, there was maybe 5 left not ablaze taking them down would be easy. As I readied the Dash's Lightning again they turned away and began to walk in a strange shambling manner away from us. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief that there weren't more of the things.
Just as we were relaxing I noticed something was off, "Hey, where's Littlewings?"
"He was next to Iria I thought" Cloudy Melody said.
"I thought he jumped next to Silver Aura."Iria responded.
After looking at each other for a moment we all quickly looked down in unison. We could just barely see Littlewings below hanging on a piece of the alien metal. If not for the alien thing having it's own gravity on the floor Littlewings likely would have fallen further.
"Littlewings! Are you ok down there!?" Iria shouted down the pit.
"Fine apart from hanging from a ledge" Littlewings shouted back, "I think I can get into a hallway down here"
"I'll come down to you" Iria shouted, she then flapped her wings and flew down to the ledge to help Littlewings into the hall.
"We'll find a way down from up here, no sense in getting down with no way to get back up." I shout down to them before helping Cloudy Melody get back across to the Stable side of the pit before we head further into the stable to find some stairs leading down.
___---POV change, Littlewings---___
After Iria helped me into the hallway we looked around trying to find a way back up. Unfortunately for us this part of the stable had been the end of a hallway to somepony's living area. We had to find another way up, and I did not like the looks of the pit. Being a Pegasus that can't fly really makes heights a bit of an issue. I needn't forget that having no armor makes me quite vulnerable in the stable.
"I think we may need to cross to the other side of the pit, unless you can fly. I doubt I can carry you back up." Iria told me.
"Tiny wings, and a big pit. Wasn't bad enough up top where we at least had a decent ledge to stand on" I said, "Well, no sense moping about impossible things. do you see any way to get across?"
"Umm. well, looks like the plants are more dense down here. and it looks like the stable on the other side of the pit is another hallway." Iria tells me, and sure enough there was enough outgrowth of plants to be able to carefully move to the other side of the pit with some help.
"Let's try it, I may need help so I don't fall" I said moving to the plants cautiously.
"I got you" Iria said flying over to support me. Trying to keep my weight more on the plants as we moved we slowly made it to the other side of the pit and into the stable hallway. "Let's keep moving, maybe somewhere there's a elevator that we can use somewhere."
Ahead of us was a stable door, and as we approached I tried the door panel thinking it wouldn't work. Surprisingly it did, and what was on the far side of the door was shocking to say the least. There was an alien corridor, upside down and the ceiling was sparking with loose wires. Thinking for a moment I was about to say something when Iria ran in and jumped up to the floor.
"Uhh, I can't fly remember?" I said before noticing that her wings were folded down.
"Fly? Don't you remember? Cloudy Melody and Silver Aura already walked up a sheer drop hallway like this already, apparently they have a limited gravity field that can hold things to the floor." Iria said, leaving me dumbfounded.
"So, I jump, and stick to the floor?"I ask sounding stupid.
"Yes. come on" Iria said before turning around and walking a short distance.
"Wait up" I said jumping up to join her on the floor, my mane and tail sticking straight up, or down as the case may be.
Walking in this upside down alien thing was disorienting to say the least. As we moved we found several rooms filled with consoles and dead aliens on the ceiling. Several alien weapons that we decided we best avoid for now, they weren't exactly designed to be shot from a pony's mouth. In one room we found several dead ponies on the ceiling and as luck would have it one was a Pegasus about the size I was.
Jumping from the floor to the ceiling was more disorienting than just walking on the floor was. Landing on my feet I walked up to the dead pony and examined the armor they had on. It appeared to be a light weight armor, but the design was also amazingly well made. The armor looked like if a pony wore it they could still perform outstanding acts of stealth as well as being ready to take the enemy head on. To somepony like me this armor was a work of art.
"That's some nice armor" Iria said above me, still standing on the floor. "Looks like it would fit you nicely as well"
I nod and begin to remove the armor from the body, careful with removing taking in each and every curve of the armor perfectly crafted to maximize it's stealth capabilities. The paint of the armor was a midnight blue, with silvery trim, even the paint was done so that somepony could easily sneak around. I chose to call it stealth armor as I began to put it on, the hoof parts of the armor were padded to silence a pony's movement but still allow for strong hits in hoof to hoof combat.
"This armor is amazing" I said as I crouched down, I was still visible, "It appears to be a non-magical stealth armor set. The armor is perfectly balanced for stealth without the need for magical enhancement."
I jump back to the ceiling with added agility from what I had before. The armor appeared to glide through the air as I jumped, it seems surprising that a pony would die while wearing this armor.
"Ready to go now that you have some armor?" Iria asks from the doorway looking both ways. "looks like the coast is clear"
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
"This place is a maze, we go down one set of stairs and it's a dead end, maybe the maintenance tunnels have a way to Iria and Littlewings." I said as we ran into our 10th dead end
"Good idea, we're already next to the entrance almost" Cloudy Melody said nodding in the direction of the gear door just beyond the door behind us.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" I said with a sigh as we walk over to the maintenance tunnels. On the other side of the door we find a stairway leading down. Going down we find a dead pony in the hallway, the body looked fresh, and in the saddlebags I could barely see what looked like a rainbow colored mane on a tiny pony. Opening the saddlebags I discover a Rainbow Dash Statuette with the inscription "Be Awesome" on it's base. Taking a hold of the figure with my magic I feel a warmth spread through my body, immediately I felt like I could move more swiftly and could feel my wings grow slightly stronger.
Further in the saddlebags I found 4 healing potions, a note, and a photo. Looking at the photo first I could see it was a picture of a young Rainbow Dash next to a smiling turtle on the back it said "Rainbow Dash and Tank". Looking at the note next it read:
=======================================================
Hey, I found this photo and thought you might want it. It appears to be of Rainbow Dash so it might be one of those "Relics of Rainbow Dash" you've been looking for. Not sure why you want them, unless it's for that Dashite who claimed he was making a museum. Anyway, I found it in northern ruins of Goldenwing City, north of New Memory City. Guessing from the names on this photo, Tank is the name of her pet.
=======================================================
The letter ended there without a signature. Judging from how young RD looked in the photo I would guess it was from when she got Tank.
"What are the Relics of Rainbow Dash?" I ask to nopony in particular.
"Maybe Iria knows." Cloudy Melody said walking up next to me."We should see how far we can get down here."
I nod and carefully put the statuette, letter, and photo into my saddlebags, giving half of the healing potions to Cloudy Melody and putting the other 2 into my own saddlebags. We start to walk further down the maintenance tunnels passing a single room in the featureless hallway. At the end of the tunnel we found ourselves at the bottom of the pit from before, a chunk of the alien thing embedded in the ground, it's doorway facing straight up and wires connecting it to another alien hallway.
Looking into the alien room we saw what would be best described as a greenhouse, or like a hydroponics bay of a boat. Sparks flew and the plants glowed in the room, it did not look safe to enter. As we watched several vines grew down to the bottom of the room just barely fast enough to be noticeable.
"I think we found the source of the plants" Cloudy Melody said and I nodded.
"We should find a way to disable this thing" I said as i started looking around carefully to see if the room had a shutoff.
"Good idea, umm, what about cutting the wire?" Cloudy Melody said pointing with her hoof.
I nod and using the Dash's Lightning I cut through the wire at it's weakest point, which turned out to be it's coupling point. The hydroponics room shut down with a bewooo like sound you would come to expect from high energy machines. Looking into the room again I noticed that aside from the glow being gone the plants seemed to be starting to wither already. Apparently the glow not only made them grow but was what kept the plants alive.
"Well, that's one problem solved" I said turning back to Cloudy Melody, who was standing sideways in the alien corridor, "and it looks like we got more crazy gravity to deal with."
"Yup, at least this way we should be able to find a way to Iria and Littlewings." Cloudy Melody said, "It's strange how the gravity seems to hold us to whatever direction looks to be the floor in these corridors."
I nod and move into the alien corridor, I feel the slant of the corridor only momentarily as the world turns on it's side when I get in.
___---POV change, Littlewings---___
We ran down the corridor as we were chased by these, Abominations. It doesn't seem right to even call them ponies anymore. The claws of the Abominations clack on the metal floor as they run after us. Iria shooting back at them as we enter another large room. This room had a large break in the middle bending it so the floor ran straight down as a cliff face.
The Abominations race in after us, at least 5 following. Iria manages to nail one in the right foreleg sending it slamming to the ground with the next step it took. We were standing at the edge of the room almost, looking up, technically down, I see a platform in the broken room that we might be able to jump to. Nudging Iria a point to the platform with my hoof and firing off 3 more lasers at the Abominations she grabs me and jumps, using her wings only to make sure we stay on target. We land with a thud on the raised platform in the warehouse room now on a sideways floor rather than upside down.
The Abominations leap after us but not being able to control themselves in the air they plummet past us, two of them slamming into the far wall with a gut-wrenching squelch sound. The other 2 that leaped landed on staircases leading to the floor managing not to die in their leaps. The last one was still on the ceiling-floor unable to get it's footing long enough to leap, it limped to the edge of the floor and falls right at us.
It was falling fast but I was faster with my spell paper I throw a fire spell at the Abomination, the paper exploding on contact sending the Abomination into a wall. Iria reloads having used up the Small Spark Cell for the Magical Energy Pistol and slotting in a new one, closing the battery compartment and firing several shots into the chest of the closest Abomination. The Abomination glows for a brief moment before turning to dust which mostly drifts down to the wall.
The last Abomination was back on it's hooves now and once again running toward us. Iria spins round and is about to fire on the Abomination but gets broadsided by the claws. She slides down the platform but manages to stay on slight scratches visible on her enclave armor. I throw another flame spell paper into the face of the final Abomination and run down to Iria.
"You alright Iria?" I ask as I reach her.
"I'm fine, just a little shaken. This armor is well made despite what I was made to do while wearing it" She responded as the Abomination fell behind her to splat against the far wall with the other two.
"We should move before more of those... things find us." I said moving toward the stairs to get to the floor.
"They weren't so tough once we got them in here." She said as she follows me down the sideways stairs.
"Hey Iria? Why did you join the Enclave to begin with?" I ask as we walk to the door.
"My friend and I did everything together, even being in the Enclave military" She said, "I'm guessing by now my parents already were given permission to have another child. They'll have marked me as dead or a Dashite, and I'll gladly take the title of Dashite over going back to the Enclave."
"Permission to have another child?" I ask as we enter the corridor and follow the right hand path which leads to what appear to be windows with piles of rocks on the other side.
"In the Enclave parents can only have a certain number of foals. Some families are permitted more because of military status or rank." She said looking at the floor as we walk, I notice tears falling ahead of her. I reach out to give her a hug and smile at her.
"Don't cry Iria, I'm sure you'll see your parents again someday. That's more than can be said for me, mine are dead." I said still hugging her as we stood there.
She smiled back at me before saying "Thanks Littlewings, how do you deal with not being able to see your parents?"
"I... don't, not always. Sometimes I would just cry in a hiding place in the factory knowing that my mother was killed by the Slendermane when it took me. My father died trying to save the foals when I was too little to remember, and because of that my mother was too stricken with grief to even be able to name me." I said "I was called Littlewings by the bullies in town who weren't taken by the Slendermane, it would always leave just enough foals in the town to make sure he wouldn't run out. The bullies didn't know that I actually liked the name Littlewings, before they called me that I didn't have a name at all."
"You didn't deserve to lose your parents, you're a really kind pony" Iria said to me as she gave me a hug this time. "and you have friends now."
Her saying that caused me to smile. "We should move, I don't think standing here is going to help us find Silver Aura and Cloudy Melody." I said as I heard gunshots from ahead.
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
Running along the corridor I aim back with the .32 Revolver and fire at the Abominations chasing us. managing to hit one in the eye and drop it as the bullet hits the brain. Cloudy Melody keeping the route ahead clear as we run past door after door, window after window. I didn't notice till I ran right into them that we had managed to find Littlewings and Iria, almost falling back down the corridor me and Iria manage to catch ourselves with our wings and Cloudy Melody catches Littlewings as she continues to run before sending a volley of bullets at the Abominations behind us.
The corridor was completely blocked by Abominations behind us and only the hole in the alien thing ahead of us. I turned around and drew my Assault Rifle firing off a few rounds into the doorway. Cloudy Melody joins me in covering the door with our rifles as Iria and Littlewings fully recover their senses from being knocked down. Iria regains her senses first and helps with dealing with the Abominations as she fires into the crowd of them, disintegrating several who soon get replaced by more.
"We need another way out!" I shout to the others.
Littlewings regains his senses as I shouted and glancing around he spotted a large crate just small enough to move down the Corridor. "There! If we can get that off the floor it should flatten the Abominations!" He shouts over the noise of our guns firing.
"On it" Cloudy Melody shouts back as she runs over to the crate and with slight difficulty lifts it so the floor no longer affects the crate. "MOVE, I CAN'T HOLD IT MUCH LONGER!"
We all dive to the side as the alien crate goes soaring past us and down the corridor leaving a trail of Abomination blood and guts. The crate left only the lower legs of them laying on the floor as what remained of the bodies lay strewn across the walls, ceiling, and floor.
"Good thinking Littlewings" I said, "Where did you get that armor?"
"Thanks, I got the armor in another room, it's in that upside down portion of this place"Littlewings responds. "Why?"
"That's prototype stealth armor, designed to work without spells. It was one of The Vault's projects, it was meant to be a fail safe in case the experiment proved to be a failure." Cloudy Melody said leaving a surprised look on my face, "I found out about it during my time in the Stasis Chamber. The armor went missing during a test run about a month before Silver Aura entered The Vault."
I nodded having no idea what else to do in this situation. I glanced to the corridor and said "We better get going before more of those Abominations find us"
"You really think there are still more of them?" Iria asks
"Given how big this place is I wouldn't Doubt it." I said as I start moving toward the corridor and wait for them at the doorway.
"Let's get out of here" Cloudy Melody said walking up next to me.
The four of us begin to make our way back out of the vault and the weird alien place when Cloudy Melody whispers to me "You're getting pretty good with your spells, Silvie." her whispering causes me to blush a bit as her breath tickles my ear.
LEVEL UP
level 8
New perk: Heightened Senses: You are able to react faster in low-light or limited vision situations. |
SilverAura | 693 | 8 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2012-07-27T23:05:12+00:00 | 2013-01-11T04:22:22+00:00 | 2,210 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 8:DJ's, Mayors, and Villains
Terror.
Terror is what the Survivors of The Vault instil in their wake. Sheer Terror that only a monster can instill in it's victims, That is what they bring with them. They lost their names in gaining the magical abilities from The Vault, and this may have been what drove them insane. The price of their powers, their very names, may have proven too much for them, they know only the numbers they are referred to by the computer system of The Vault.
When we reached the entrance to Stable 119 we rested for a couple hours, but none of us slept. The morning came with silence. Looking to the others I got up from the ground and said to them quietly "I'm going to take a look outside, don't want to run into more of those Abominations." They all nodded in understanding.
As I looked around the gear door I could make out what appeared to be 2 foals with a earth pony that wasn't touching the ground. As I watched another earth pony approached the group, this one looked to have some form of rubber boots on its forehooves. They were talking but I couldn't make out what they were saying, as they spoke a Radroach was scuttling past them.
The pony with the boots noticed the Radroach and withdrew one hoof from the boot and as it did lightning seemed to flow out of the boot coming from the pony's hoof. They pointed their hoof at the Radroach and a moment later it was nothing but a small smoldering crater. The pony put their boot back on and the pony said something to the hovering one. The hovering pony started to fly off and the 2 foals transformed into birds and followed the other pony. The lightning pony walked off down the road in the direction of the Goldenwing City ruins.
"It's safe now, there were several Survivors of The Vault, they are gone now." I said turning back to the others. "We better head out, I want to get to the base when there are fewer guards."
"Lead the way" Littlewings said walking up behind me ready to leave.
As we took the first steps back outside I looked in each direction to make sure there weren't more Survivors of The Vault around the stable entrance. The coast was clear so we began to move once again toward the Enclave base along the road. Further down the road we passed what looked to be the remains of a caravan, the bodies were twisted beyond recognition, the limbs appearing to have been torn from their sockets with great force.
"What could have done this?" Iria asked as I started to carefully move the dead ponies' bodies so we could check for any supplies.
"I think we know what it was, and they were outside the stable earlier." Cloudy Melody responded.
"I herd stories about that, I just never thought they were true. Earth ponies able to tear other ponies apart like this, it didn't seem possible" Iria said.
"Well, I'm guessing we will run into a lot more unbelievable things if we don't find a way to deal with the Survivors of The Vault." Littlewings said, "I should know since I apparently was surviving in the wake of one at the colterquin factory."
"The Survivors of The Vault are more than just unbelievable, they are presumably ex-military." I said as I set the last of the saddlebags from the dead ponies in a pile to look through. "But our main concern right now needs to be the Enclave base, and making sure we have enough supplies to break out the captives."
"Right, I'll help you search through those bags" Littlewings said taking 2 of the saddlebags to search through, "wow, they must have been a weapons dealer, there are some good guns in this bag, small, but they look to be good condition."
Iria trotted over to Littlewings to look into the saddlebags and whistled "that looks to be a .45 Caliber pistol, and a silencer mod. That's a nice find"
"These saddlebags seem to only have spare clips for that kind of gun, a couple of near broken guns according to my Pip-Buck, and some caps" I say as I finish looking through the 2 saddlebags I had.
"Your pip-buck can scan weapon condition?" Iria asked seeming surprised.
"well, yea. Can't all Pip-Bucks?" I responded.
"I couldn't tell ya, my Enclave armor didn't have that function so I assumed Pip-Bucks didn't either" Iria said." any data on there saying what else it can do?"
"Let me check..." I responded as I got up after sliding the saddlebag full of .45 auto ammo to Littlewings, "yea, there's a datalog titled 'Lieutenant rank "The Vault" Special Issue Pip-Buck instructions' I'll read it"
=============Lieutenant rank "The Vault" Special Issue Pip-Buck Instructions=============
Welcome to the instructions manual for you new Pip-Buck, These instructions will tell you what functions your new Pip-Buck possesses as well as telling you of it's upgraded security features. These instructions have also been programmed to work as a status update for any malfunctioning components.
Functions:
-EFS(eyes forward sparkle), Compass, Health monitor, notice window, SATS charge meter, Rads counter
-Weapon and Armor Condition scanner(works on normal clothing as well)
-Built in inventory sorter(Malfunction)
-medical monitors(detailed display of any medical problems, Malfunction)
-Magical Focus (to enable easy use of your new magical powers)
-Guaranteed authorized access to all lower ranking Personnel Pip-Bucks from The Vault in the event of base destruction(Active)
-Food scanner (detailed display of any effects food may have on the body)
Security Features:
-Authorized access only for removal
-Electrocution of unauthorized personnel attempting to remove this device
-Magically bonded to Lieutenant Silver Aura of the Equestrian Skyguard, no other pony may wear/activate this unit unless said pony is of a higher rank.
========================================================
"wow, that has to be better than a normal Pip-Buck with all those features in it" Littlewings said after I finished talking and he had gotten all the ammo into his saddlebags as well as his new silenced.45 Auto Pistol. "We should probably find a way to fix some of those functions though, and figure out how to authorize somepony if it needs repairs."
"yea, don't need a technician getting electrocuted for attempting to repair my Pip-Buck" I said starting to lead the way further along the road.
*** *** ***
After a while we began to see the base on the horizon, as we did I noticed a movement close to the ground and immediately drew the Dash's Lightning ready to slash at whatever it was. "Don't attack" a male Pegasus pony in Enclave Armor said as he came out of a sewer cover, "I'm here to help with the rescue attempt. The base is too heavily guarded and regulated for a sneak rescue from the front, they don't get re-enforcements in small groups, and all messages come from transmissions."
"Who are you?" I asked the pony still having the Dash's Lightning at the ready. "and why should we trust you?"
"I'm Silent Thunder, a Dashite Unity spy in the Enclave. I can tell you this only because I'm outside broadcast range for my armor and am expected to be in the sewers checking for anypony trying to sneak into the base." he told us as he removed his helmet and lifted the front of his mane to show a symbol like Rainbow Dash's cutiemark, but it was on a shield with the cutiemarks of the other Mares of the Ministries surrounding the lightning bolt.l "This is the symbol of the Dashite Unity, I had it tattooed on my head to remind me of why I fight whenever I look in a mirror."
"I still don't entirely trust you, got any better proof that you're trustworthy?" I asked in response.
"I think your lady friends can vouch for me in that regard, I did deliver that message to you back at Darkness' Shadow." Silent Thunder said to us.
"Yea, he does look familiar" Iria said getting a closer look at him, "I think we can trust him."
"Ok, good, now that that is out of the way follow me, hurry. The surface patrol is due to go over this area soon, and we don't need the plan foiled before it has a chance to work." Silent Thunder said ducking back into the sewer and putting his Enclave helmet back on."I'll tell you the plan once we're all down here."
We followed after having me check the EFS for unfriendly notifications, there were none. When were all in the sewer Silent Thunder.
"So, what's this plan of yours?" I ask as Silent Thunder begins to lead us through the sewers.
"First, let me explaign the patrols. The sewers are patrolled in small groups of one to three ponies each, the groups follow a route in the sewers and then return to the base entrance, at which time if all routes are clear of intruders then the night guard duty is only a single pony to allow the patrols to rest. If a patrol group does not report in then they send a search party and have 5 ponies on guard at the prison." Silent Thunder explained to us. "I'm late reporting in, but since the sewers are a black spot for the base's radar systems because of the irradiated water and the wires on the walls they allow for up to 30 minutes before sending a small platoon to find the missing group."
"So, the plan is, you report in that it is all clear, and then the guards for the prison will be reduced and give us an easy time getting in, is that right?" Littlewings asked.
"Smart one, yes, that is the gist of it. However I have ensured that I will be the one guarding the prison as I should be the latest reporting in. When we get close to the base you will need to remain behind a ways till I can give the all clear." Silent Thunder said, "We were in luck that you showed up before all 30 minutes had passed. Alright, you'll need to wait here for me, the signal for the all clear will be me sliding a empty clip for your assault rifle down that drainage grate, it's right below the prison." he said as he pointed out a drainage grate in the ceiling of the sewer. "it's covered right now by a extra cot so nopony up there can hear us. Once the all clear is given come up and silently kill any opposition, I'm the only spy on this base for our side. When you reach the prison you will need to knock me out from behind to make it convincing so I can keep my cover."
"Got it" I said nodding. "Cloudy Melody, Iria, you two should stay down here when we go up since you don't have any silent weapons."
"Yes sir." Cloudy Melody said before stifling a giggle.
Silent Thunder went ahead and down a path to the left, leaving us to wait for the all clear. None of us spoke much while waiting. Littlewings was looking over his .45 silenced pistol trying to figure out a good way to use it with his mouth. I was looking over the Dash's Lightning to make sure the micro electroshock generator would work for the duration of the mission. Cloudy Melody and Iria were checking their armor and weapons as well.
I was the first to notice the sound of clattering coming from the ceiling as the empty clip fell onto the stone floor in front of us. "Here we go, let's rescue those prisoners."
The four of us charged quietly to where we assumed the way up was, and sure enough a ladder was at the end of the passage to the left. Littlewings and myself quickly scaled the ladder, and took out the guards in combat armor at the top. Silently me and him made our way to the hall and checking our sides we moved quickly to a empty room down the corridor from the sewer entrance. Making our way silently and swiftly down the corridor we killed any Enclave guards we found, most of them in open muzzled Enclave Carapace armor, a few in simple Combat armor. We found the prison after a short while of searching and once inside we saw Silent Thunder who nodded and facing the cage with his helmet off he waited for us. A swift blow to the back of his head left him unconscious but still alive.
"We're here to rescue you. Do you know where the keys are?" Littlewings said to one of the ponies in the cage.
"over there, on the wall" She responded, her voice sounding like somepony who belongs on radio might when off the air. I rushed over to where she had pointed and took the keys throwing them to Littlewings who unlocked the cage.
"Follow me, I'll lead you to the sewer exit." I said to them as they started to exit the cage. Littlewings waited for the last of them to exit before following behind them and backing us up from the rear.
The large group rushed through the few corridors between us and the sewer, once there I waited at the top of the ladder to make sure everypony made it down into the sewers. Littlewings soon came in at the back of the group and nodded to me. after that we both leaped down into the sewers again.
*** *** ***
The trip back through the sewers was uneventful everypony remaining silent most of the trip. When we all made it outside we looked back at the base and saw that the lights were still dark as the light from above was fading.
"Thank you for saving us, Silver Aura." The Unicorn mare who pointed out the keys said once we were all outside. "My name is Flutter Wonder, but most ponies call me DJ Memory, I've herd much about you from Silent Thunder."
"Why is he called Silent Thunder?" Littlewings asked her as we began to lead the group along the road away from the base.
"It's because he is silent when spying on an Enclave base, but when he is ready he strikes with the ferocity of thunder." Flutter Wonder said. In the fading light of day I could see her coat was a Medium Violet Purple, and had a pale Yellow mane and tail with a single light blue streak down the middle of both, they were styled like a 3/4th length version of Fluttershy's mane and tail like I had seen in the posters. and her eyes were Brown in color.
"Where should we lead everypony?" I asked her.
"New Memory City, everypony should be safe there, it's one of the most secure cities in the Forgotten Wasteland." she said. Littlewings trotted back to tell Cloudy Melody and Iria where we were going as they were guarding everypony from attacks from behind.
"It will be a while before we reach there if it's in the city ruins." I said to Flutter Wonder "What was that message you sent us about? I know we are supposed to find somepony with a silver aura... but how are we supposed to find them? I doubt we can just walk up to every Unicorn we see and ask them what color their magical aura is."
"Well, I can't be of much help there, but I think there may be more to the legend than what we already know." Flutter Wonder said. "I herd a few rumors while in the Enclave prison. Some ponies think that the Light of the Wasteland was once used before the war, in a time when Changelings were attacking Canterlot during a royal wedding. Other ponies say what happened that day was something else entirely. But since we don't know of anypony who actually attended the wedding and is still alive we have no clue who is right, just rumors."
"What is the light exactly? Isn't it just an idea, or something like that?" I asked as we passed stable 119 on our way back to the city and Cloudy Melody walked up next to me.
"I'm not sure myself, but too many ponies across the wasteland who never had any contact knew of it for it to just be mere myth." Flutter Wonder responded.
"Think anyone in New Memory city will know about it?" Cloudy Melody asked
"Maybe, but we have to get there first" Flutter Wonder responded, "But the only way to find out is to get there."
"I think we should rest in Darkness' Shadow before we head into the ruins. It may be the only safe place between here and the ruins." I said as we walked.
"Darkness' Shadow!? Anypony with a lick of sense would avoid that place, it's said to be cursed." Flutter Wonder said, a twinge of fear in her voice.
"Not so much a curse as a power mad pony in a Colterquin Suit." I responded, "Something called a Soul Jar was in a machine there, I'm guessing it was the source of the rumors."
"A Soul Jar huh? I herd rumors about those things before, never thought they were actually real." Flutter Wonder said, "oh, and New Memory City is in the center of the uptown ruins.
*** *** ***
Close to half an hour later we arrived at Darkness' Shadow and were greeted by many happy Ponies in the town.
"All right, we'll rest here for an hour, feel free to get supplies for the trip through the ruins. Anypony able to fight should focus on weaponry in case we get attacked." I called out to the ponies in our care
A Brown colored Stallion ran up to me and still panting said "If you need weapons I would be happy to supply them from my shop, free of charge."
"Thank you, that will be a great help" I responded to his offer.
"Hey, Silver, I got some... unfinished business to attend to here, I'll be back before we leave" Littlewings told me before troting off toward the Colterquin factory.
"Wait up, I'll come with you" Iria called out to him running to catch up with him.
"Be careful!" I called out to both of them, to Cloudy Melody I said "we should see about getting everypony set up with the right supplies for the trip ahead.
___---POV change, Littlewings---___
Iria and I were heading to the Colterquin factory on the hill, occasionally stopping at some of the many new grave sites of long dead ponies. I bowed my head in respect of all the ponies lost to the Slendermane. It was quiet most of the trip there, we mourned the lost even if we did not know them.
"What unfinished business do you have at the factory?" Iria asked as we approached the end of the houses and beginning of the hill.
"Its... personal, somepony I lost, a long time ago" I responded as I lead the way up the hill. "He was someone I wish I knew better."
"oh, What do you plan to do once you find him?" Iria asked as we neared the doors.
"I... I wish to give him a proper burial, next to mom." I responded, a tear falling from my eye.
I opened the doors, the skeletons of many ponies were gone now. I could tell the Gravekeeper Unicorn had been here by the flowers left where the skeletons once were. She always left flowers on the doorsteps of ponies who lost family to the Slendermane, even before I was kidnapped. As I searched the skeletons to find a Pegasus Iria called out to me.
"I think I found him!" she called to me
"How can you be sure? Multiple Pegasi died here" I said as I walked over to her, that's when I saw it, a Photo, of me, my mother, and him. "Dad" It was all I could say as I reached out for the skeleton.
"He really loved you, to even take a photo of loved ones into a place like this." Iria said motioning to the factory around us.
"We should take the skeleton and bury him." I said as I lifted the skeleton carefully onto my back.
"Let me help" Iria said trying to help me carry my father's skeleton.
"No, I must do this myself." I responded as I started to walk out the front doors of the factory. I carried my Father's dead body down the hill with Iria next to me. I couldn't admit it at the time but I was glad to have her with me. Even being long dead there was still enough tissue on my father's bones to keep them from separating.
We soon reached the graveyard, which lay at the bottom of the hill. The Gravekeeper was waiting there for us with a small smile on her face. It was not a happy smile, more rather, a comforting one, the kind a pony like her needs given her line of work. She was levitating a shovel next to her, the gravemarker of my father already in place next to my mother's.
Placing my father's skeleton I took the shovel and got to work digging up the spot where my dad's gravemarker was. While I was digging a second shovel joined with mine. Looking up I saw it was Iria with the other shovel.
"I can't let you do this alone, I doubt anypony could handle it by themselves." She said.
"Thanks, I don't think I could have done this without you Iria" I said as we both dug the grave together.
After about 20 minutes of digging we finally had the grave dug. Iria flew us both out of the grave with me helping as best I could, which wasn't much. I then put my father's skeleton into the grave as a tear fell from my eye.
"Good bye father, even though I never met you, I still miss you." I said as Iria hugged me with a foreleg.
"May he rest in peace" The gravekeeper said as she used her magic to gently place the dirt in the grave, after which a single rose bloomed from the spot with a brown colored aura around it.
"Come on, let's go find the others" Iria said, to which I nodded
"I'm sorry it took so long dad" I said as we left the graveyard.
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
"12 Assault Rifles, 3 clips each, a few healing potions and magical bandages. I think we're set Silvie" Cloudy Melody said to me running through a mental checklist.
"It's not much, but it's better than we had before." Flutter Wonder said as she took one of the Assault Rifles and ammo for it.
"Now we just need to wait for Littlewings and Iria to get back. I got the path marked out on my Pip-Buck map so getting to New Memory City shouldn't be too difficult now." I said as I looked down the street to see Littlewings and Iria walking towards us about 2 minutes later. "How did things go?" I asked Littlewings.
"Everything is wrapped up, thanks to Iria" Littlewings said in response.
"We're ready to go when you are." Iria said smiling.
We began to leave the town with myself in the lead following the markers on my E.F.S. compass. It wasn't a long journey from Darkness' Shadow to the ruins of Golden Wing City and the ponies who had guns were told not to shoot unless they had to so we didn't waste ammo on Radroaches or other minimal threats that a swipe of the Dash's Lightning could dispatch quickly. The markers lead us to the entrance of a subway system a little ways into the city ruins, inside the subway had been covered with debris from the walls and ceilings.
The main subway was below a platform that the entrance hallway lead out onto. Below we could hear groans and strange voices as well as the unmistakable sound of something like metal tapping on tile.
"So, where do you suppose 158-SA is." one of the voices said.
"Who knows, but we will find him. The boss has an interest in him." a slightly higher pitch voice said.
I motioned for all the ponies with guns to ready them as I got out my own Assault Rifle readying it as I crept up to the railing at the edge of the platform. Looking over the railing I saw 2 Survivors of The Vault moving toward the broken escalators. As they walked the blades on their forelegs made the sound of metal tapping tile, the groans were coming from several Ghoul ponies that seemed to be ignoring the Survivors of The Vault as the 2 made their way up the escalators now.
I waved to the ponies to hide and Littlewings seemed to be nowhere to be found already. Cloudy Melody was by my side as well as Iria while we waited for the Survivors of The Vault to draw ever closer. As they reached the top I shouted "NOW!" as I let lose a barrage of bullets from my Assault Rifle, other ponies following suit and a few lasers flying from Iria's pistol. The Survivors of The Vault dodged a few of the bullets but given the number of shots being fired from all sides they only managed to make it a few steps before collapsing. 3 of the ponies we were protecting walked up to the seemingly dead Survivors of The Vault with their guns held out.
As the ponies grew close the Survivors of The Vault came out of their possum act and slashed at the ponies. The 3 were left with large gashes across the chest of 2 and throat of the third. Almost immediately after the attack Littlewings fired several shots into the heads of both Survivors of The Vault, killing them. After he did he emerged from the shadows where he had been waiting for an opening to shoot.
The shooting had alerted the Ghouls from below who began swarming the escalator as they came up. I started firing on the Ghouls as several ponies rushed to the aid of the 3 injured ones, bandaging the wounds and getting them out of harm's way. Iria, Littlewings, Cloudy Melody, and several of the ponies with guns joined in shooting down the large number of Ghouls. The Ghouls didn't stand much chance against the onslaught of bullets, we had to reload only once each before the battle was finished.
"Are they able to walk?" I asked as I approached the injured ponies.
"No, they lost too much blood before we could stop it." A pony tending to them told me.
" We'll have to carry them, we can't stay here." I said glancing around to make sure nopony else was injured before taking one of the injured ponies onto my back. 2 other ponies from the group picked up the other injured ponies so we could keep moving through the subway system.
*** *** ***
We were able to get through the subway system with only a few scrapes and cuts along the way. The Ghouls seemed to have all been gathered at the station with the Survivors of The Vault. The closer we got to the Ministry Towers station the fewer and fewer Ghouls we found. Luckily for us the Ghouls didn't seem to notice us, but seemed more concerned with getting away from the station we were heading to.
This station was in much the same state as the previous one. The only difference was that it appeared to have another level below where we were going in directions at a 90 degree angle to the rails we were on. We all walked up to the exit of the eerily deserted subway station. As we got outside we were able to catch our first glimpse of New Memory City. The city was made from 3 ministry towers that stretched up to make one of the highest points in Golden Wing City's skyline.
Even after 200 years the towers still stood, Platforms exposed to open air at regular intervals going up the middle, with the towers acting almost like a tripod. The sides of the buildings that faced inward had all collapsed leaving them open to the platforms. It seemed impossible that the city was even able to stand let alone have been around long enough for the city to be built. The old sign in front of the towers still remained with barely visible words stating that these were the towers for the Ministries of Arcane Science, Peace, and Wartime Technology.
The entrance to the city was in the middle of the base level of the towers where a giant metal gate had been built that could be raised by a large motor that looked like it was taken from a crane. and several large cables. As we approached Flutter Wonder began to speak.
"Something is wrong, there is supposed to be guards on duty here at all times. Silver Aura, can you fly up and raise the gate?" Flutter Wonder asked me.
"I'll try" I responded as I began to fly up slowly to the gate controls, where I proceeded to press the button that said open. I waited for everypony to be inside the gate before hitting close and flying down to join them in the center of the towers.
"Thank you Silver Aura" Flutter Wonder said as she directed the other rescued ponies to an elevator in the Ministry of Peace tower. "I don't want to alarm the other ponies but this area is supposed to have several guards in it and a medic just incase a injured pony comes to our gates. The emptiness here has me on edge."
Just as she finished saying that several Survivors of The Vault seemed to appear out of nowhere as they surrounded us and said "you will come with us. The boss wants a word with you." They didn't appear to be the kind that could transform, their cutiemarks appeared to be a half invisible pony symbol. We followed them to the elevator in the Ministry of Arcane Science tower and were told to go to the top.
As the elevator shook and rattled on it's way up I asked Flutter Wonder "what's at the top of this elevator?"
"My office, and broadcasting studio. If their boss is there, then they will have some questions to answer." She said as the elevator slowly rose above the ruins of Golden Wing City.
"How did New Memory City get it's name?" Cloudy Melody asked.
"My grandmother named it, She started the city with a small group of ponies a long time ago. When they found the towers, they were on the verge of collapsing, but luckily, they had some Unicorns with powerful levitation magic and Earth ponies able to build strong platforms that the city now rests on. As they built the platforms they moved up the towers, when they reached the top they found dozens of memory orbs in storage rooms. The sheer number of orbs is what lead my grandmother to name the city New Memory City." Flutter Wonder explained. "The name DJ Memory was from my mother, she found recording equipment and other such items in the basement of the Ministry of Wartime Technology tower. She used it to set up a radio station in the Wartime Technology top floor. She passed the mantle on to me before she died from a bullet wound she got from raiders while out looking for stories to report on the radio."
The elevator screeched to a halt at the top of the tower. As we walked out we saw several unicorn guards wearing green combat armor, this caused DJ Memory to smile. as we walked down a hallway to an office. When we got inside a pony in a chair spun it around and said, "Why hello there... Commander."
"It can't be." Cloudy Melody said as her jaw dropped.
"Who is he?" Littlewings asked.
"Why did he call you Commander?" Iria asked.
I was speechless for a short time before saying "Blue Bolt."
"What!? But I thought he was sealed in Darkness' Shadow's factory!" Littlewings shouted.
"All will be explained" Blue Bolt said as 2 transformation Survivors of The Vault became their monstrous forms on either side of Blue Bolt. "Oh, and shooting me will do you no good Littlewings. Iridescence, such a lovely name, shame you prefer to be called Iria. Cloudy Melody, I hardly need to delve deep into your mind, such thoughts will do you no good here. Before anypony asks, yes I can read your minds, and I can do more than just that as well."
"Why..." DJ Memory Started to say before she was cut off by Blue Bolt.
"Why did I take over your city? Simple really, it was the perfect place to govern my troops." He smiled wickedly as his cutiemark came into view. It had become a Brain shaped book with writing covering it, and it appeared to have blood splashing around it as well as part of the cutiemark. "Also no, Silver Aura, I am not the leader of the Survivors of The Vault, I am merely a General, one of three Generals that we have. Sadly, 003-XE died in her stasis pod before it could open, poor dear, she had such ambition before she suffocated in there. Someone had cut the air supply, oops."
"You're sick!" I yelled at him.
"I wouldn't draw that weapon if I were you, I assure you these two are not just for show. They are much faster than the fools in the subway with their Ghoul friends." He said in a mocking tone. "I must say, bloodline reading reveals such secrets about a pony, or Zebra. I must say that evil book was a good read in the mind of a certain Zebra I met not long ago. And Starswirl the Bearded, I never would have thought that such spells even existed, too bad his descendant didn't last long after meeting me. Bloodline reading is such a messy business, I needed direct contact with the poor dear's blood in both cases. So many don't even realize that their blood can carry memories from their ancestors."
As he was talking myself and the others were getting more restless, not wanting to try our luck with attacking him, but knowing that he had a hand in the evil of the wasteland.
He continued talking as he moved in front of a window, "I do have to say, the first 5 test subjects, coming from your own squad. I could tell it is eating you up to know one of them is dead and you couldn't save her. It was quite entertaining watching her struggle with thoughts of escape in her mind. I just wish I could have smothered her with my own h... OOF" I gasped as I saw Cloudy Melody tackle him sending both through the window. Catching a glimpse of Blue Bolt's expression I saw surprise on his face. The Survivors of The Vault reacted quickly forming wings as they dove after Blue Bolt.
"CLOUDY MELODY!" I shouted as I ran for the window and dove out after her pulling out my pistol. I had my wings pressed against my body as I saw Cloudy Melody below fighting with Blue Bolt, she was using her gun like a club trying to score a hit with it. Blue Bolt was dodging almost perfectly, every so often he was hit sending the pair spinning out of control, one hit sent Cloudy Melody and Blue Bolt in different directions as they fell.
I was firing off several shots at the Survivors of The Vault, scoring several hits on their wings but not slowing them down any. The Survivors of The Vault soon caught up with Blue Bolt and grabbed him.
"You won't be so lucky next time we meet Commander! I still have my backup plan!" Blue Bolt shouted as he and the Survivors of The Vault flew off.
"Somepony read a few too many Mighty Pony books" I said quietly as I flapped my wings every couple seconds to move faster, not noticing a silver colored magical aura starting to surround me causing me to fly still faster. When I got close enough I focused my telekinesis on Cloudy Melody, causing her falling to slow down just enough for me to catch her 4 stories above the ground. Using all my strength of flying I guided us into a crash landing in a irradiated pond.
We both limped out of the pond with a few broken bones and soaking wet. We herd gunshots from above and started to make our way back to the entrance gate. As we did several bodies of dead Survivors of The Vault fell around us, all of them with the invisibility cutiemark. As we reached the gate I collapsed on the ground having spent much of my energy on saving Cloudy Melody.
LEVEL UP
Level 9
New Perk: Flight(Rank 2): Your flight ability is now good enough to allow normal flight with a Wingpower of 2.5 you can move faster when flying downward.
Author's Note: Mighty Pony is meant to be like a pony parody of Power Rangers, mixed with several other action shows, in book form. The first version of the idea in my head was for it to be a TV show, but I didn't know if that idea would fly with the readers, so I went with books instead. |
SilverAura | 693 | 9 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2013-01-22T08:07:13+00:00 | 2013-03-15T04:38:17+00:00 | 1,701 | Fallout: Equestria
Forgotten Light
Level 9:New Memory Blues
Dreams
Dreams sometimes tell the story a pony does not wish to have told, other times they tell of things a pony wishes to return to. A dream could even scare a pony to the point of never sleeping again. Dreams can turn to nightmares which turn into horror shows that only the pony dreaming it can see.
///////ooOoOOoOoo\\\\\\\
I was going to be promoted, I couldn't believe it. Rainbow Dash was actually promoting me to a Lieutenant of Equestria's Military. Something about the streets seemed off though, nopony was out and about. All the shops were closed, curtains drawn, not even a pony peeking out into the streets. I was supposed to be heading to the base after visiting with family, but I never saw Ponyville this empty.
Even with nopony there I couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching me. As I walked I could see blood starting to flow from under the doors. The dark red fluid began to pool in the streets and collect around my hooves. I started to run as fast as I could, no matter how hard I ran I kept passing the same houses, and the blood rose higher and higher.
I saw a black figure flying above me, a spiked tail and mane barely visible. It's wings sent waves of black energy outward as it laughed menacingly overhead. I couldn't move, I was trapped as the houses moved to surround me still flooding the area with blood.
The blood began to rise over my head. I couldn't breathe; all I could see was red.
\\\\\\\ooOoOOoOoo///////
___---POV change, Cloudy Melody---___
"SILVIE!?" I was startled as Silver Aura just fell over. I rushed over as fast as I could, all while trying to keep my busted leg off the ground. I got to him just before he hit the ground leaning with my bad leg on the same side as him. I held him up as best I could before carefully using my magic to keep us balanced.
I managed to get us the rest of the way to the gate and started to bang on it to be heard over the gunshots. A pony's head poked over the top of the gate for a brief moment before retracting and I heard a pony shout "WE HAVE INJURED!" from the top of the gate. The gate then started to screech upward. Several unicorn guards came running out with stretchers made from what looked like old dresses, and capes sewn together. They used their magic to lift Silver onto one of the stretchers and I was told to lay on the other one.
I did as the guard ponies told me and laid down on the makeshift stretcher. The ponies then rushed us to the third elevator in the Ministry of Peace tower. The guards set us down in the elevator and one of them got in the elevator with us while the others rushed to the Ministry of Wartime Technology tower elevator. Once the doors to the elevator closed, I tried to sit up but felt a severe pain in my side and was forced to lay back down on the stretcher.
"Possible broken ribs, and a leg. Pegasus looks like he broke a wing and his left rear leg, possible broken ribs." the guard pony said.
"You know medicine?" I asked looking at him.
"Yes. All New Memory City guards are required to know enough about medical skills to be of help in situations when injured ponies come to our gate." The guard responded. "I have been instructed to take you both to the medical building; it is better equipped to help you than our camp at the gate."
"What is going on in the city?" I asked as the elevator came to a stop.
"A battle, we're fighting against those monsters, we took out the invisible ones at the guard camp first and were on our way to eliminate the ones on the higher levels. That's why we were there when you got to the gate. Several minutes later and we would have been on the upper levels that needed help." The guard pony responded.
The elevator slowed to a gentle stop with it's arrow pointing to a piece of scrap metal with the number 5 etched on it. Before the bombs this would have been at least the 15th floor of the building and halfway up. The door opened onto a room made of scrap metal walls and the remains of the floor from before the bombs. The floor itself was tiled and the bits beyond the edge of the pre-war floor contained broken tiles that appeared to be from random ruins.
I could see windows every now and then along the walls, many of which were dirty or made from broken glass pieced together. "How are those windows held together?" I asked as we were lifted up with the stretchers and moved off the elevator by medical ponies.
"When this building was made from the scrap, we used fire spells to melt the seams together. The cracks still persisted in the middle of the glass, but it is safe for the most part. The other windows we just got lucky to find fully intact." The guard pony responded. "This building takes up the entire level actually, but seeing as we always referred to it as the hospital building everypony just got to calling it a building instead of a level."
I nodded as I listened and started to drift off to sleep when they transferred us from the stretchers to beds. The medical ponies then left the room, leaving only the guard standing at the door.
"I'm going to keep an eye on you both, don't need you getting more injured than you already are." He said. "Were his hooves black when we got you in the elevator?"
I looked over to see what the guard meant and saw that Silver Aura's hooves were indeed black, and the look on his face was like he was having a nightmare. I gasped as I saw that the black coloring on his coat was slowly creeping up his legs. I didn't know what to do, so I started to sing hoping it would calm his dream and maybe that would help.
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
///////ooOoOOoOoo\\\\\\\
I was drowning in blood the dark figure above me laughing as it kept me from reaching the surface. I was growing weaker and weaker as I struggled to reach the surface. That's when I herd something, it was beautiful, and somehow calming. I could hear somepony singing.
"In the darkness of the night, I am there to give you flight. Through the moon and the stars, with our friends near and far."
As I listened it became easier to swim to the surface of the blood lake. I reached out with my hooves trying to find land and I felt somepony grab my hoof with theirs. Looking up I saw a pink hoof there with a bracelet of some sort that had a half heart pendant saying "Sis" on it. I couldn't focus on the pony completely as a bright light obscured the rest of them.
The figure said "Get up Silvie, somepony is waiting for you." After that the light became brighter and brighter as the blood lake disappeared, and...
\\\\\\\ooOoOOoOoo///////
I woke up. I could still hear singing and looking over I saw Cloudy Melody was the one singing. Her voice was beautiful, and I could tell that it was her who I herd in my dream, singing. As she opened her eyes while singing she saw I was awake and stopped.
"Why did you stop? It was beautiful" I said to which I could see her blush a bit.
"I'm just glad you're awake, it looked like you were having a nightmare." she said while fiddling with her hooves a bit.
"I was, but I can't remember what it was about." I responded as I saw the guard pony by the door looking wide eyed. "why are you looking at me like that?"
"your hooves, they were black a moment ago. now their pure white." He said.
"What do you mean?" I asked him, unsure what to think.
"Uh... never mind, I must have been seeing things" He responded before going back to standing at attention.
At that moment I herd an explosion from another level. "What's going on?" I asked attempting to get up from the bed before a sharp pain shot up my side.
"Careful there, we just got you two here, don't want you injuring yourselves more than you already have." The guard said, "There's a battle going on above, and below. We're fighting those monsters off, driving them out of the city."
Cloudy Melody smiled a bit and said "No need to worry right Silvie, besides they got Littlewings and Iria to help them."
___---POV change, Iridescence(Iria)---___
"I got this side Littlewings, they won't fly in past us!" I said as I shot through the wings of 2 Survivors of The Vault that were flying close together.
"Just wish we had more backup!" Littlewings said in response as he took out the wings of another Survivor of The Vault. "They just seem to keep coming, and is it just me or have we shot down the same group multiple times!?"
Soon after a pony came running up shouting "Shoot the heads! The winged ones can recover from a shot anywhere else!" She ran past continuing to shout to everypony on the floor.
"Well, that should help" I said as I aimed down the sights of my Magical Energy Pistol and fired into the eye of a Survivor of The Vault. The results were immediate as it screeched and started to plummet downwards limply. "and it seems to work."
"That's good, I don't think we could have held them off much longer otherwise" Littlewings said as he took out another Survivor of The Vault. The other guards on the floor were also doing well as one by one the Survivors of The Vault fell out of the sky like bricks.
"THEY'RE RETREATING!" a pony down the hall shouted, and sure enough the Survivors of The Vault that were still alive were flying away from the city. We had won, or so we thought. There was still the matter of the Survivors of The Vault that couldn't transform. Gunfire could be herd from the lower levels of the city.
"THE BATTLE ISN'T OVER YET!" a guard pony yelled out as he led a group of guards past us to the elevator. DJ Memory walked back into her office where we had been fighting the flying Survivors of The Vault. She brushed some hair back from her face as she set her pistol down on the desk.
"I think the guards can handle the rest of them, you two should head to the Hospital Building." DJ Memory said as she sat down behind her desk.
"What do you mean? We can't leave the city yet, we don't know if Silver Aura and Cloudy Melody are alright yet!" Littlewings said in a slightly alarmed voice.
DJ Memory blinked, frozen for a moment, before she sighed and said "Sorry, I meant the Hospital level, we always refer to it as a building in it's own right because it was built to be like it's own building. All the levels of the city have their own buildings, but the Hospital takes up the entirety of it's level, so we just call it a building on it's own, rather than a level. It's level 5 from the Ministry of Peace elevator. You should be able to find Silver and Cloudy Melody by asking at the desk about ponies brought in from outside the city gate."
"Thank you" I said as I turned to walk out the door, before turning back and nudging Littlewings whose mouth was slightly open like he was trying to come up with a response. "Let's go see the others, I'm sure their worried about us too"
"Head down the first hallway to the left after turning right out of my office to reach the Ministry of Peace tower elevator." DJ Memory said as Littlewings and I walked out of the room.
___---POV return, Silver Aura---___
Still hearing the sounds of gunfire from the other levels I started to see dark shadows quickly pass the windows. I could only guess that we were winning.
"Ah, looks like they figured out how to kill the things" The guard pony said, "The battle with those transforming things should be over soon enough."
"See, I told you Littlewings and Iria could help them" Cloudy Melody said.
"I hope you're right and they aren't just lying on a floor somewhere" I said in response.
"If they were injured they would have been brought here like you two were." The guard pony said.
The gunfire from above began to die down a bit, however the gunfire from below was still very loud. A little while later what sounded like a broken radio came around and the guard pony smiled. "She must have fixed the broadcast equipment."
"Greetings ponies of New Memory City! This is DJ Memory telling you that I remember you." DJ Memory said over the radio "I got some good news for everpony down there, we're winning this fight. Thanks to a group of ponies from who knows where, we are defeating those Survivors of The Vault, as they are called. All that's left is to drive out the remaining ones in the city, until the guards give the all clear I ask everypony to remain in their homes. We will get through this and restore the city to it's proper glory." The radio sputtered for a bit before static started to come from the speaker.
"Well, looks like things are starting to look up for once. I can't remember the last time the city was peaceful" the guard pony said.
"How long has it been?" I asked.
"Roughly, 2 months since DJ Memory was taken by the Enclave, for a while we didn't have a mayor, then the Survivors of The Vault came and that mind reading pony took charge." The guard pony said "Luckily we were prepared for such a event and were able to prevent him from seeing into our minds, we came up with a plan to overthrow him, but knew that we couldn't pull it off without exposing ourselves to the mind reading."
"How did you prevent him from reading your minds?" I asked, surprised.
"The memory orbs stored here, they spoke of The Vault, and ways to counteract some of the spells they were granting ponies in that project." The guard pony said. "Didn't you wonder why all the guards are unicorns here?"
"I honestly had not noticed, you're one of the first guard's I've seen" I said in response.
At that moment a knock came from the doorway and as I looked over I saw Iria and Littlewings in it.
"What were you two thinking, jumping from the top floor of a sky scraper city!?" Iria said as she came into the room.
"Who are you?" the guard pony said.
"I'm Littlewings, and she's Iria" Littlewings said. "Their our friends."
The guard looked to me and Cloudy Melody, we both nodded.
"Well alright then" The guard pony said.
"It's good to see both of you too Iria" Cloudy Melody said.
"How did you take Blue Bolt by surprise like that?" Littlewings asked.
"Blue Bolt?" the guard pony asked.
"I'll explaign later" I said to him. "I was wondering about how you surprised him too Cloudy Melody"
"Well, I knew the blocker spell the guard here spoke about" she said "it was in the archives I had access to at the base."
"My name is Sonar Shield by the way, sorry I didn't mention it earlier" The guard pony said introducing himself.
"Ok, well, like Sonar Shield said, there's a spell that blocks the mind reading spell. It's not a very complex spell, the results really speak for themselves"
"I was really scared when I saw you go through the window" I said "I didn't want to lose you"
"I-I was scared too, but I knew that I had to do something" Cloudy Melody said, a slight blush showing on her face.
Iria sighed a bit and asked "How long do they have to be here?"
The gunfire from below died down around that moment.
"I'd say they could leave soon as they feel up to it" Sonar Shield said. "But I think that won't be till at the very least a doctor gets here with medical supplies, broken bones don't exactly heal over just a hour of rest"
*** *** ***
A couple hours later we had been taken care of by one of the medical ponies and Sonar Shield started to show us around the city. The combat had ended and we could see ponies piling the transformation Survivors of The Vault on burning piles to ensure they really were dead and not just playing possum.
"This level is our main commerce level, as you can see we got everything from weapon shops to medical supplies to old-world drugs" Sonar Shield said as he pointed to a few stores with his horn while guiding us around. "The two levels between us and the ground are residential so we don't really need to visit them. Above us is the Hospital, and above that is what could be called our town square."
"What's in the town square?" Littlewings asked
"That's where we have the armory, Town Hall, and where we have most of our festivals. We try to keep as many of the old-world celebrations around as we can, though I'm sure some of them have lost stuff along the way." Sonar Shield said
"Do you have Nightmare Night?" Cloudy Melody asked "That was my favorite time of year when I was a little filly."
"What is Nightmare Night?" Sonar Shield asked "Is that anything like the Night of the Moon? Where foals go around asking for candy to give to the Goddess of the Moon, Luna?"
"That sounds like Nightmare Night to me, does everypony wear costumes?" I ask as memories start to trickle back into my mind about the yearly Nightmare Night holiday.
"Only what costumes we get from salvage teams. It's not a very good celebration since we don't really have any candy to give foals when they go around on that night."
"Sounds like you lost the terror of the night, it's not all about the candy, part of the fun was getting scared" Cloudy Melody said.
"Getting scared? You both talk like you were around in the old-world, the Night of the Moon is always a cheery event, not many things to get scared about that night." Sonar Shield says as he leads us into the Ministry of Wartime Technology elevator and presses 7.
Cloudy Melody looks at me then says "We kinda were, we grew up back before the bombs fell."
Sonar Shield looks at us in shock as the elevator door closes.
"You weren't the only one surprised to find out about that, when they first told me I didn't believe them myself. But, at least Cloudy Melody, knows too much about how the world used to be to not be from back then, and Silver has some amnesia." Littlewings said.
"How did you two live till now without being ghouls?" Sonar Shield asked, sill flabbergasted.
"We were in stasis pods, mine was inside The Vault" I said.
"I snuck into mine, it was a hub point for the base." Cloudy Melody said "I had access to some of the archives and most of the cameras, I took the slow route though since I was in a constant state of mental awareness. Let me tell you, watching 200 years pass with nothing to do but read the same archives over and over again gets very BORING!"
"I've heard the stories from a few ghouls, no need to tell me yourself. Course the ghouls weren't stuck in a pod all that time" Sonar Shield said seeming to accept things for what they were now. "We'll be on the archival level soon. There we have the library, the museum, and the public memory orb center"
"Public Memory Orb Center? I didn't know any town had such a thing" Iria said.
"Well, we have it because we found so many memory orbs when the city was founded that we decided to make a few of them public. The confidential ones are kept under lock and key with a special kind of lock that only DJ Memory and others of her bloodline can unlock" Sonar Shield said.
"So, stuff like the military memory orbs would be confidential. What kind of memory orbs would be considered public?" I asked.
"Mostly just speeches, grand openings, a couple old museum tours, stuff like that" Sonar Shield said. "Anyway, this ends the tour, I gotta get back to my boss for my next assignment." With that he went off to the Ministry of Arcane Science elevator and waved goodbye.
"Well, what should we do now that we have some free time for once?" Littlewings asks as we looked around, seeing what once was a skyline of a city in the gaps between the buildings and the ministry outpost towers.
"I think the museum might be a good place to start" Iria said.
"Let's go then." I said leading the way to the museum as stated by the large scrap metal sign above the entrance.
Once inside we could see many pieces of old world artwork and a few pieces of junk that did not seem to belong. A mare in a black old world suit came up to us and said "Ah, welcome! We don't get many visitors recently, but I suspect we will be now that DJ Memory is back" She said."Let me go get a tour guide for you." with that she dashed off faster than you could say Sonic Rainboom.
A short while later she returned with an old stallion who was also wearing an old world suit, his was a deep blue one. "Hello there young-ins, welcome to the New Memory Museum. I'll be your tour guide today." as he finished the sentence the young mare went back to the front desk of the museum smiling to herself as she sat there.
"Let's begin the tour with the east wing." he said as he lead the way. The tour went smoothly as can be expected from a museum that had a few things that looked like they came from a junk yard in it. we soon reached a painting of something that could only be described as a orb radiating a bright light.
"What's that?" I asked.
"You don't know about the legend?" the tour guide asked.
"No, what legend are you taking about?" Littlewings asked
"The legend of the Light of The Wasteland" The tour guide said.
"Can you tell us the legend?" Cloudy Melody asked.
"Well, where to begin.. ah yes, once there was something long ago that some ponies called the Elements of Harmony, 6 Elements that were wielded by the Ministry Mares. However few ponies knew that there was also an Element that acted on it's own, completely separate from the Elements of Harmony. Some ponies now call it the Light of The Wasteland, but back before the war, some ponies knew it as the Element of Love, others called it the Element of Light, and still others, the Element of Unity. The legend goes that in a time of great darkness ponies will unite their love, and it will bring about a great light that saves everypony. Some ponies even think that the Light of The Wasteland was used at a royal wedding, and again in some place called Crystempire." The tour guide said.
"Is that all?" Iria asked.
"No, the legend says that one day a pony with a silver aura will awaken the Light of The Wasteland and restore light to our forgotten wasteland. Many ponies have stopped believing in the legend though, seeing it as a hopeless prayer to the Goddesses rather than a real legend." He said.
"What do you think it is?" I asked him.
"Well... I think it might be a prophecy, telling of a great pony who will find this Element of Light or whatever it really is, and use it to drive off those dang Survivors of The Vault, and the Enclave for good. For all we know about it, it could be as simple as a book that tells us how the world once was though." he said. "But, what do I know, I'm an old stallion who still believes the Goddesses will come back to save us after all. Anyway, that concludes the tour, feel free to look around."
"Thank you, by the way, do you know where the inn is?" I asked him.
"Ah yes, that would be the next level up before you reach the offices." he said.
"Thanks, we might come back later." Littlewings said.
With that we went out of the museum and started to head for the elevator in the Wartime Technology tower.
*** *** ***
Later that night at the inn, Cloudy Melody and I were on the balcony of our room looking out at the ruins of Goldenwing City. Iria and Littlewings had gone down to the market level to shop for supplies and ammo. Our armor lay in the corner of the room so we could be without the extra weight on our backs for a while.
"I really miss seeing the moon and stars in the sky. It was beautiful to look up and see all the lights dancing around in the sky." Cloudy Melody said
"I can't remember the moon and stars very well, I just have these holes in my memory where they should be. Same goes for a lot of other things too." I said.
"I'm sure your memories will come back with time Silvie. We just have to keep going till then, who knows, maybe we will find some machine or spell that can restore your memories completely." Cloudy Melody said.
"Thanks Melly" I said, causing her to blush.
"You know... before we went into stasis, I had a huge crush on you Silvie." Cloudy Melody said as she dragged her hoof on the floor in circles. "I still do."
"I... I think I've started to feel the same way towards you too Melly." I said as I blushed. "Being in the wasteland, it's so unfamiliar, but even without most of my past, I can remember you almost perfectly clearly."
"That's how I feel, I didn't tell you this before but... before I joined the military, I had a horrible family. I was adopted, but the war had brought out the worst in my parents. They had almost constant appointments with the Ministry of Morale." Cloudy Melody said. "I don't think they cared for me at all by the time I left to join the military. I was on my own most of the time by then too." a small tear rolled down Cloudy Melody's cheek. I wrapped my right foreleg around her and pulled her into a hug.
"I love you Melly, and you don't have to worry about being alone ever again." I said. With that Cloudy Melody leaned into me and returned my hug with a smile.
"I love you too Silvie." she said.
LEVEL UP
Level 10
New Perk:Side-effects Include...: With this perk your spells become stronger when you have minor radiation sickness or greater. Warning, the increased spell strength can cause headaches and other adverse effects. |
SilverAura | 693 | 10 | Original Character,Other,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore | Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light | A Prewar Pegasus pony finds himself with few memories of his past. | hiatus | 58 | 8 | <p>A Pegasus pony wakes to find himself in a stable testing room with few memories and only a letter from his sister to remind him of his past, and some un-natural abilities. As he makes new friends and reunites with old friends the true nature of the Forgotten Wasteland gets revealed, as well as signs of other survivors of The Vault's Experiment. Starting with almost less magic than a baby unicorn Silver Aura can only barely use telekinesis and must learn how to use the abilities granted to him by The Vault.</p><p>Ask Silver Aura(from the story):<a href="http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://asksilveraura.tumblr.com/</a></p><p>Fallout 3 mods:</p><p>Dash's Lightning:<br/><a href="http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359" rel="nofollow">http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16359</a></p> | teen | 2012-07-27T23:16:06+00:00 | 2014-02-03T20:36:34+00:00 | 4,750 | This is here to help people keep track of Silver Aura's Stats as the story advances, Some details here like Traits are not referenced in the story directly. Perks can be found at the bottom of the page
WARNING: This sheet may contain small spoilers for later chapters.
Traits
Military Training:Adds 3 to Strength, Perception, and Endurance, Due to extensive training in the military prior to the beginning of the story.
Trigger Discipline: While using Guns or Energy weapons you fire 20% slower but are 20% Cooler... I mean... more accurate.
Base Stats
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
Strength: 5 +3 = 8
Perception: 5 +3 = 8
Endurance: 4 +3 = 7
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 6
Luck: 7
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
[Tag]Guns: 33
Lockpick: 22
Medicine: 20
[Tag]Melee Weapons: 37
Repair: 20
[Tag]Science: 35
Sneak: 18
Speech: 18
Survival: 20
Unarmed: 20
Chapter 1
Stats
Same as base.
Perks Gained
Unnatural Talent(Rank 1):you can now use telekinesis to lift rifles and shotguns, for each rank of this perk a new spell will be unlocked by your unique altered DNA.
Chapter 2
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 33
Lockpick: 30
Medicine: 20
Melee Weapons: 40
Repair: 20
Science: 35
Sneak: 18
Speech: 18
Survival: 23
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Diagnostic Mind(1):With this perk it becomes easier to diagnose errors in machinery or injuries, for each rank you gain a permanent boost of 5 to Science and Medicine
Chapter 3
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 30
Medicine: 25
Melee Weapons: 40
Repair: 26
Science: 40
Sneak: 18
Speech: 18
Survival: 23
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Interrogator; you gained the ability to extract information with as little conflict as possible, this perk adds unique dialogue options to some ponies, and raises speech by 5
Telekanesis level up to 2
Chapter 4
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 30
Medicine: 25
Melee Weapons: 40
Repair: 28
Science: 40
Sneak: 30
Speech: 23
Survival: 23
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Pony of the Night: Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light situations
Companion, Iria, Joined the party
Chapter 5
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 33
Medicine: 25
Melee Weapons: 50
Repair: 28
Science: 40
Sneak: 30
Speech: 23
Survival: 23
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Diagnostic Mind(2):With this perk it becomes easier to diagnose errors in machinery or injuries, for each rank you gain a permanent boost of 5 to Science and Medicine
Nightmare 1 Takes place, Perk(The Light) gained
Chapter 6
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 33
Medicine: 30
Melee Weapons: 50
Repair: 28
Science: 45
Sneak: 30
Speech: 23
Survival: 33
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Flight(Rank 1):You have regained the ability to fly, but only for short periods of time and not as well as you once could.
Unnatural Talent(Rank 2): You now have the ability to manipulate things using magic, such as activating Archaic Spells.
Manipulation Spell learned
Companion, Littlewings, Joined the party
Chapter 7
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
Strength: 5 +3 = 8
Perception: 5 +3 = 8
Endurance: 4 +3 = 7
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 6 +1(RD) = 7
Luck: 7
Stats
Barter: 18
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 40
Medicine: 30
Melee Weapons: 50
Repair: 35
Science: 45
Sneak: 43
Speech: 23
Survival: 33
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Heightened Senses: You are able to react faster in low-light or limited vision situations.
Chapter 8
Stats
Barter: 20
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 40
Lockpick: 40
Medicine: 30
Melee Weapons: 50
Repair: 35
Science: 50
Sneak: 50
Speech: 23
Survival: 33
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Flight(Rank 2): Your flight ability is now good enough to allow normal flight with a Wingpower of 2.5 you can move faster when flying downward.
Chapter 9
Stats
Barter: 20
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 45
Lockpick: 40
Medicine: 30
Melee Weapons: 50
Repair: 35
Science: 50
Sneak: 50
Speech: 31
Survival: 33
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
Side-effects Include...: With this perk your spells become stronger when you have minor radiation sickness or greater. Warning, the increased spell strength can cause headaches and other adverse effects
Chapter 10
Stats
Barter: 20
Energy Weapons: 22
Explosives: 22
Guns: 45
Lockpick: 40
Medicine: 35
Melee Weapons: 50
Repair: 35
Science: 50
Sneak: 50
Speech: 40
Survival: 33
Unarmed: 20
Perks Gained
none yet
Companion Perks
(Given by Iria being in the party)Archivist:with this perk it is easier to find more important documents in terminals or journals
(Given by Littlewings)Archaic Spellcaster:Combining your magical ability with Littlewings' spell papers allows you to cast spells you may not have learned yet, but only when there is enough irradiated paper in your saddlebags.
Dream Perks
(Nightmare 1)The Light:You don't know what it is, but it saved you from the darkness. This perk gives Survival + 10
Spells
Telekinesis level 2; you can levitate items easier without as much strain on your mind, and body.
Manipulation:This spell was used once to cast other spells through use of papers covered in special symbols.
Perks
Unnatural Talent(Rank 1):you can now use telekinesis to lift rifles and shotguns, for each rank of this perk a new spell will be unlocked by your unique altered DNA.
Unnatural Talent(Rank 2): You now have the ability to manipulate things using magic, such as activating Archaic Spells.
Diagnostic Mind(1,2):With this perk it becomes easier to diagnose errors in machinery or injuries, for each rank you gain a permanent boost of 5 to Science and Medicine
Interrogator; you gained the ability to extract information with as little conflict as possible, this perk adds unique dialogue options to some ponies, and raises speech by 5
Pony of the Night: Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light situations
Flight(Rank 1):You have regained the ability to fly, but only for short periods of time and not as well as you once could.
Heightened Senses: You are able to react faster in low-light or limited vision situations.
Flight(Rank 2): Your flight ability is now good enough to allow normal flight with a Wingpower of 2.5 you can move faster when flying downward.
Side-effects Include...: With this perk your spells become stronger when you have minor radiation sickness or greater. Warning, the increased spell strength can cause headaches and other adverse effects
Collected Statuettes
Rainbow Dash: Be Awesome(+1 Agility) |
BillyColt | 694 | 1 | Main 6,Spike,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Catch Me If You Can | Spike becomes a con artist. And a pegasus, too. | incomplete | 30 | 3 | <p>While Twilight Sparkle and her friends go off to fight a dragon, a distressing thought occurs to Spike - as a dragon, he won't always be loved. As the insecurity sets in, he makes a brash decision: running away to pursue a life of crime!</p> | everyone | 2011-09-01T05:51:16+00:00 | 2011-09-01T05:51:16+00:00 | 2,864 | Catch Me If You Can
Chapter 1
“But why can’t I go?”
“It’s too dangerous, Spike,” Twilight Sparkle said, closing her saddlebags. “Fully-grown dragons are dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt. Remember the last time you ran in with a wild dragon?”
“But I-”
“No buts, Spike.” Twilight said. She lowered her head down. “I want you to stay here, and stay safe. We’ll be back once we’ve stopped him. I promise.”
“C’mon, Twi!” shouted Rainbow Dash from the doorway. “We gotta go!”
“Coming, Rainbow,” Twilight said, before turning back to Spike, “You just stay here, clean up a bit, and then get your rest. We’ll be back by tomorrow morning.”
Spike sulked. He never got to do anything exciting with them. He didn’t get to go off against Nightmare Moon with them, he didn’t get to go after that napping dragon... then there was that time they all just ran off at the Gala.
“Twiii” Rainbow said.
“Coming!” Twilight said, exasperated.
“Time to show the dragons that they’re not welcome here!” Rainbow Dash cheered as the door shut.
Spike was left all alone, and with those last few words echoing in his head. He shuffled through the library, the floor of which was strewn with books that Twilight had been reading, looking for ways to stop the dragon.
But he was a dragon, too, right? What did that mean for him?
He picked the books off the floor, putting them back on the shelves. Twilight could do it easily with her magic, but he had to find where they were supposed to go, get the ladder, climb up, and place the book on the shelf.
After about two hours of doing this, his already-low enthusiasm had sunk. He didn’t want to continue shelving books. He was feeling too low to continue. He sat down, thinking.
He felt like running away, but that probably wouldn’t work. Where could he run to? Besides, Twilight would just find him, and he’d probably get grounded.
He sighed. He really wished that Twilight was there right now. He felt very, very alone, almost on the verge of crying. The thought that, no matter how much they claimed he was their friend, he wasn’t one of them. He was a dragon.
The thought continued to eat away at him. He decided he’d just stop with the chores, have a snack, and go to bed. Hopefully Twilight Sparkle would be there in the morning and she could help him.
***
She wasn’t. Spike woke up and waited at the door for nearly twenty minutes until he started fretting again. She wasn’t back. She promised she’d be back. He needed her to be back. In a way, he was kind of scared - scared of the future.
He paced back and forth, still worried. In his stress, he didn’t notice the books still strewn on the floor, and he tripped over one surprisingly large tome.
Great, he thought, not only am I practically abandoned, but I still have chores. Irritated, he kicked the book, which turned out to be a bad idea, as it hurt his foot.
His mood not improved by both bouts of physical pain, he picked up the book.
He read the title. “The Professor’s Portable Pamphlet Pertaining to Powerful Potions of Particular Potency.”
Spike groaned. Portable pamphlet?, he thought, This book’s as big as I am. Out of curiosity, he decided to crack it open and read some of the contents – just skim it. As his did, he saw two words that made his eyes widen. All his fretting from the previous day seemed to just melt away as he saw an amazing possibility right in front of him. He got an idea. And then, from that idea, he got another idea. An amazing idea.
***
“Can you believe it? Who would’ve figured that the whole thing was about a lost teddy bear?” Twilight Sparkle said, walking back into the library. “Spike? Oh Spi-iiiike? Sorry I’m late, you would not believe what happened.”
No answer. “Spike?” she asked. “Are you asleep?” she went up to the loft where they usually slept. He wasn’t there. She checked the basement and the laboratory. He wasn’t there.
She got nervous. What if he ran off? What if he was in trouble? She had to find him as soon as possible.
She ran out the door, crashing right into Applejack.
“Oof!” Applejack said. “Watch where yer goin’, ‘k?”
“Applejack, have you seen Spike?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“No, I don’ think so.” Applejack responded. “But ah’m missin’ somethin’ to. A good chunk of apples is gone from mah cellar.”
“I don’t have time for your apples, I need to find Spike!” Twilight Sparkle said, about to run off.
“I think there’s a connecshin.” Applejack said. “Rarity’s had a break-in over at her place.”
“She has?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Yes,” Rarity said, walking up to them.
“What did they take?” Twilight asked.
“That’s the strange thing – they got into my money and my gems, but didn’t seem to take any. The only thing that got stolen was a suit.”
“Why would they break in an’ not take it?” Applejack asked.
Twilight thought about it for a minute. “Maybe just to see if they could.”
***
The better part of two weeks passed – Rarity was able to replace the suit easily (she was kind of relieved, as the suit had a couple of loose threads that were driving her nuts), and Applejack’s farm wasn’t too dented by the loss of apples (it’s a big orchard, after all), but there was still the unsettling fact that they couldn’t figure out what it was that happened.
Worst of all, Spike was nowhere to be seen.
Twilight Sparkle had been highly distressed – the baby dragon was her responsibility, after all. What would she do if something happened to him? Was he okay? Where was he?
She’d done everything she could think of – she put up “missing” posters all over Ponyville, but nopony had seen them. She asked everypony in town about him, but to no avail. She even ventured into the Everfree Forest, but there was no sign of him.
Twilight wasn’t the only one concerned – they were all close friends of his, though Fluttershy was the most visibly distressed (“he’s just a baby,” she worried).
And then, after those two weeks, something funny happened. As she was at her desk, a scroll appeared. She opened it and read.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
Hey. It’s me, Spike. Sorry I didn’t send a letter sooner, but, well, you’re a lot smarter than me, and I needed a head start. It’s funny, I almost expected you would’ve found me by now.
I’m really sorry about the stuff I stole. I just kinda needed it. Really badly, so I’d have some place to start from.
But I’m all right. I’m actually having a whole lot of fun. You would not believe what I’ve been up to. Pretty stoked, really. Flying high, so to speak. You wouldn’t approve, though. You definitely wouldn’t. But I’ll be able to pay back Rarity and Applejack back ten times over.
Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads-up. I guess this means you’ll try to come get me. I mean, if you haven’t already, well, you know- maybe you haven’t looked for me…
The next section was a mess of scribbles, as though he’d been trying to come up with the right thing to say.
She put it down, a little at a loss for words. Spike had been missing for two weeks, during which time she wasn’t even assured that he was even alive, and then in comes this letter. This letter, which not only casually brushes aside those two weeks of fretting as nothing, but makes other implications as to Spike’s latest activities. He’d have some explaining to do when she found him.
He’d have some explaining to do when she found him, she knew that for sure. But that wasn’t all. After the crossed-out attempts and writing, there was a small amount of text left.
Well, anyway, I’ll be writing more letters. I don’t know if you’ll be very happy, but I’m gonna go big. Very big. The game’s on now, Twi.
So catch me if you can.
***
Two weeks prior, a tiny colt found himself in Cloudsdale, the grandest city in the sky. The colt was purple, with a green mane, and with him he had three large suitcases that were on a special platform so they wouldn’t fall through the clouds.
He stepped out of his terminal, and surveyed the city. It was huge, clean, and white, like a blank slate ready for work. A grin came to his face – he’d heard Twilight Sparkle talk about Cloudsdale, from the time that she’d gone there to see Rainbow Dash in the Young Flier’s Competition, but now it was his turn. He’d take on the world, starting here, with nothing to his name save for his wits and the materials in his trunks.
“Hey, kid,” shouted a stallion, “you okay?”
“Huh?” asked the colt. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”
“Where are your parents?” the stallion asked.
Uh-oh, thought the colt. “They, uh, went to the bathroom.” He said quickly.
“Alright. You sure you’re good there?”
“The best I’ve ever been in my life.” Said the colt, turning back to admire the city.
***
“But… what is he doing?” Rainbow Dash asked. The six ponies were all huddled around a table with the letter in the middle.
“I don’t know, but it isn’t good.” Twilight said. “Turns out he was the thief.”
“But I don’t understand it.” Rarity said. “Why would he want that suit? It’s a suit for a pegasus pony.”
“Are there any, y’know, clues in this thing?” Applejack asked.
“I’m not sure.” Twilight Sparkle said. “I’d think that if he tried to do something, it’d be very-” she stopped. “What did you say?” she asked Rarity.
“About what, dear?”
“The suit.” Twilight Sparkle elaborated. “You said that it was a suit for a pegasus pony.”
“…Yes.” Rarity said, not completely sure what Twilight was getting at.
“He said one thing in the letter that seemed out of place.” Twilight said, holding up the letter. “Flying high. I think there’s some kind of connection.”
“Okay,” said Rainbow Dash. “So… what do we do?”
“Can’t we send him letters?” Fluttershy asked.
“Spike knew where to send them because he knows where I live. We can’t send him a letter if we don’t know his location.” Twilight Sparkle responded.
“Well, first we find out where he sent the letter from.” Twilight said. “After I got the letter, I decided to look up and see if there was any kind of tracking spell. If I’m right, we should know exactly where he sent it from.”
“Ooh! It’s like a mystery!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly.
Twilight closed her eyes, and the horn on her head started glowing. The letter was quickly incinerated in a flash of light, causing the others (Fluttershy, mainly) to leap back, startled.
Twilight opened her eyes. “It… it’s gone.” She said. “And I didn’t make a copy.”
“So…” Rainbow Dash said. “It didn’t work?”
But then, the ashes started to move.
“It did?”
There was another flash of light, and the ashes lept from the table, leaving a trail of light. The six ponies ran out, watching as it flew like a comet, into the sky, ending up in –
“Cloudsdayle,” said Rainbow Dash. “Flying high, huh?”
“I have to find him. Tomorrow I’m taking the balloon up there.” Twilight Sparkle said.
“‘ey, we’re comin’ too.” Applejack said. “Ah think we’d all like an explanation of what he’s up to.”
“Well, everypony pack your saddlebags. We’re going up first thing in the morning.”
“But wait,” Rarity said. “What if he sends another letter? If we aren’t here, we’ll miss it.”
“We’ll come back and check if we can’t find him, but I’ve been worried out of my mind for two weeks and I don’t want to wait any more.” Twilight said firmly.
***
There was a knock at the door of a mansion belonging to two pegasus ponies. Very rich pegasus ponies. The knock came again. The old pegasus stallion opened the door, looking down he saw a tiny purple pegasus colt with a green mane and three large suitcases.
“Uhh…”
“Please, sir,” the colt said, “I’m looking for a job. I’ll do anything.”
“Don’t you have parents?”
“No, sir,” the colt said, shaking his head, “they abandoned me. All I have is these suitcases.”
“Dear, who is it?” asked the voice of a mare.
The stallion pulled back into the house. “It seems like an orphan. He wants work.”
“Really?” she asked, looking at the colt, who was, admittedly, very pitiable and adorable. “Let’s let him in.”
“I don’t know if we should-”
“We have a ton of rooms we never use. He can stay in one of them.” She poked her head out the door. “It’s fine.”
“Thank you, ma’am” the colt said, walking in.
“What’s your name?” the stallion asked.
The colt paused for just a second. “Feather.” He said. He instantly regretted that choice.
***
The two pegasus ponies were very nice to “Feather,” who, as you’ve probably guessed, was actually Spike.
In that giant book of potions, he found these two words: “Transformation Potions.” In other words, he found the recipe for a drink that could transform him into a pegasus pony. However, it had its limitations. It would only last for a few days, so he needed to make more before too long. Also, he was dismayed to find that he was a small colt, no bigger now than he had been as a dragon. A good portion of his plans had hinged upon him being slightly more mature.
When he first found it, he thought that he could just use it to turn into a pegasus. Then it occurred to him that Twilight likely wouldn’t approve, and he’d be forced to change back. Though that wasn’t the most disheartening idea - he liked being a dragon, after all, but then he got another idea. The idea of being a pegasus - he could use it to fool ponies, couldn’t he? And then it was a matter of the questions “what if?” and “why not?” which, for the eccentric or the childish (or those who generally lack good judgement), are the only two questions that really matter.
In the three suitcases he had the book, a few spare flasks of the potion, various ingredients, the stolen apples, and the stolen suit. The suit, unfortunately, was far too large for him.
The couple let him stay in one of their spare rooms, which, to his delight, had a lock on the door. They let him do a few jobs around the house – clean the windows here, stack the bookshelf there, but nothing too strenuous – just basic chores that they only made him do because he was asking, and a much lighter workload than what he’d had to do as Twilight Sparkle’s assistant.
It was an impressive house, made out of clouds, like the rest of the city, as was most of the furniture. Almost everything was white. That took a little getting used too, but it wasn’t unlike anything in the rest of the city.
One thing that the house had was a grand piano. He’d played the piano before, as a dragon, and had accompanied Pinkie Pie on one of her musical numbers. But now he had hooves instead of hands, and wanted to see how different it was.
It was very different. While he had previously been fairly proficient as a dragon, now, as a baby pony, he was utterly inept
“Feather?” the mare asked. Spike jumped. The house was so large that he was accustomed to being alone for most of the day.
“Y-yes?” He responded.
“Are you trying to play the piano?” she asked. Spike was tempted to respond in a sarcastic manner, but he just nodded his head. “Here, let me show you.” She said, sitting down on the bench next to him.
She played a simple tune on the piano. “You hold your hooves like this.” She said, as Spike imitated her motions. They both played out the tune. “That’s good,” she said encouragingly.
So it wasn’t so bad. He just had to learn it again. He would.
The old couple were not surprised that the young colt had a large appetite, always asking for seconds and thirds at meals. After all, it was a growing foal, and who knows what he’d had to live off of? Besides, they were rich, and the colt was so polite that they’d feel mean to turn him down. They didn’t notice, however, that he was sweeping some food off of the table – the various grasses flowers, and other ingredients that he needed for potions. He didn’t need more of the potion just yet, but he would, and in the meantime he needed something else, too.
***
“Feather” was allowed to accompany the two old pegasi on their outings around the city, as they didn’t quite trust him enough to leave him alone at the house. He’d work on that, however. He did a lot of chores and didn’t take all that much in return.
The city was as incredible as he imagined them. Countless structures, all constructed out of clouds shaped by pegasus magic.
“Never been to the city before?” asked the old stallion.
“No, I haven’t,” said the colt. “It’s incredible.”
“It is, I suppose. I’ve lived here my entire life. Haven’t seen all that much of life outside of Cloudsdayle.”
“We really haven’t,” said the mare. “I think it’s high time we went on holiday.”
“You really think so?”
“What do you think?” the mare asked.
“Huh?” Spike asked. He hadn’t been paying attention.
“Think we could go on a holiday? The three of us?”
“Uhh, sure.” Spike said. He wasn’t sure whether that was what he wanted to do. But his mind was soon sidetracked by something else he saw. His eye caught a sign in a window – “Wingling Bros. Investment Firm: Starting a new business venture? We can help!”
Perfect. |
BillyColt | 694 | 2 | Main 6,Spike,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Catch Me If You Can | Spike becomes a con artist. And a pegasus, too. | incomplete | 30 | 3 | <p>While Twilight Sparkle and her friends go off to fight a dragon, a distressing thought occurs to Spike - as a dragon, he won't always be loved. As the insecurity sets in, he makes a brash decision: running away to pursue a life of crime!</p> | everyone | 2011-09-24T22:39:28+00:00 | 2011-09-24T22:39:28+00:00 | 2,160 | Chapter 2
Feather was in his room, the door locked. The potion had worn off, and he was a dragon again. This made it easier for him to write, as he was more comfortable holding a quill in his hand than a pencil in his mouth. Taking a quill and a piece of paper in his hand, he began to write a letter. His first plot was in motion.
It was a formal letter, made out to a new investment firm that he’d spotted while walking through the streets of Cloudsdale. Some ponies with some idle money that they thought they could turn into more money by lending it to the right ponies. Well, Spike had a plan for that.
“Feather?” the mare asked, knocking on the door. “Are you all right in there?”
“Just a minute!” Spike said, throwing open one of the suitcases. There were still more vials of the potion, and he was able to gulp one of them down.
He then remembered the unpleasant process of the transformation – his skeletal structure changing, the skin softening, the wings sprouting out of his back. He shook his head, walking over to the door and unlocking it.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m fine.” He said, nodding his head. “It’s just… locks on doors. Makes me feel secure. Before now I didn’t even have… doors.”
The mare walked in, concerned. “Have you really been on your own this whole time?”
“Feels like it sometimes,” he said, sulking.
“You’re not really an orphan, are you?” she asked.
Uh-oh. He tried to think fast, make something up, but she was onto him.
“Did you run away from home?” she asked. Her tone was not accusatory – just an honest question.
He nodded guiltily.
“What about your friends and family?”
“What about them?” the colt asked. “They probably don’t even miss me.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” the old mare said, “they’re probably very worried.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m sure they love you very much.”
Spike didn’t say anything.
“It’s okay,” she said, “you can stay here as long as you like before you decide to go home.”
“I think I probably shouldn’t go on holiday with you.” He said. “I mean… if I decide I want to go home while it’s happening.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “Will you be all right?”
“Yeah, pretty sure.” He said.
“Well, if you think so.”
Sweet.
***
He went down to have breakfast before depositing his letter in the mailbox. He was nervous in doing this – until now he hadn’t really done anything that he couldn’t undo. He could just go back, now, and return the suit and the apples and all that, and he’d probably be grounded for a month, but this was different. This letter was the start of a game that he couldn’t afford to lose.
And yet he felt excited. It was a game where the odds were against him, but if he could keep his wits up, he could win, or at least have one wild ride before getting caught.
The pegasus couple left for their holiday, leaving Feather alone in the house, as per his request. They trusted him enough. Besides, they’d insured everything of value in there. Twice.
Feather, however, would not need any help. After the old couple had gone, he checked the mail. Sure enough, he’d gotten a response. He grinned. They’d be coming to meet just the next day. Everything was perfect so far, but there was still much more work to be done.
He walked to his room and opened one of the suitcases. There were all the apples. Counting them to make sure he had enough, he shut the suitcase and headed down to the kitchen. If there was anything else he needed, it should be there. His hosts wouldn’t mind him using some of their stuff for cooking, right? They expected him to eat, after all?
He had several sheets of paper – recipes. Recipes for apple pies, cakes, crumble, fritters… he was good at cooking – one of the tasks he was supposed to carry out. Even as a pony, he wouldn’t have too much trouble whipping together a few treats. That’d be all he needed. He’d be fine as long as he had apples left over.
***
Spike stood in front of the mirror. This was the important part. If this didn’t work, he couldn’t do anything. He had a small vial with him. Closing his eyes, he removed the stopper and gulped it down. He felt himself spurt upwards, and when he opened his eyes, he was bigger – he looked like he was the same age as Twilight Sparkle and her friends. That was a relief – exactly what he wanted. Unfortunately, there was one problem: no cutie mark. He didn’t expect to have one, but he was still kind of disappointed. Nevertheless, he had a backup plan: the suit. He quickly put it on (which posed more than a little difficulty, being that he was new to doing this stuff as a pony). He stuck his wings through the holes in the back of the suit, spreading them. Wings. He had wings as a colt, of course, but he didn’t really think of them as being very useful. Here, he could feel like they were actually fully functional limbs. He liked them. As a dragon, he often found himself wishing he had wings like the bigger dragons.
When he was finished, he looked in the mirror. He smiled. The formal suit, combined with his scruffy-looking mane, made him look professional, but kind of edgy. That was something he thought he could have going for him. “Like, I mean business,” he said to himself, “but I’m hip and stuff.” He stopped. His voice was much deeper now. “Sweet.” He said. He winked at the mirror. “Lookin’ good, Spike. Lookin’ good.” He walked out of the room, before walking back in.
“Sorry,” he said to the mirror. “I meant ‘Feather.’” The grin dropped from his face. “I need a better name…” he muttered.
There was a ding-dong! from downstairs. Spike rushed down the staircase and to the front door, wondering how they had doorbells on clouds.
He went to the front door and looked through the peephole. There were two young male pegasi, one blue and one white, standing outside, dressed very formally. These were the ones.
On your marks… thought Spike.
“Welcome!” he said, throwing the door open. “How do you like my place?” he asked, leading them in.
“It’s nice…” said the white one.
“I’m Bloomberg Wingling,” said the blue one, pressing his glasses to his face. “This is Whitacre.”
“Are you Feather?” asked Whitacre, the white one
“Indeed I am.” Feather said. “Follow me, Bloomberg and Whitacre” he said, leading them into the dining room. He’d set up three chairs – one at the head of the table, and two, one on either side. In the middle of the seats there was a bowl of apples. Spike took the seat at the head of the table. He smiled as the other two sat down.
“So,” said Bloomberg, taking out the letter that Spike had written, “I understand that you think we should invest in your… apple business?”
“That’s what I wrote, isn’t it?” Spike responded.
“Obviously,” Bloomberg said, putting it away.
“So, the idea is that you’re planning on starting an orchard?” asked Whitacre, “and you want some starting capital.”
“Correction: I’ve started the orchard,” Spike said, producing a photograph of several apple trees. In reality, he’d merely taken a picture of a small section of Sweet Apple Acres. “It’s already a success – I just thought to myself: ‘What’s the point of all that money if there’s nopony to share it with?’”
“If it’s already a success, why do you want our money?” Bloomberg asked.
Spike paused. He’d imagined himself as a silver-tongued charmer – now it turned out that he wasn’t. “Well, successful for it’s size. But it needs to grow.”
“Seems… fairly mundane, though,” Whitacre said. His voice was a lot softer than Bloomberg’s – Spike took notice of this. “I mean, apples? Everypony has apples.”
“Of course it’s mundane,” Spike said, leaping at Whitacre’s query. “It’s the mundane things that we can be the most sure of. Everypony has apples, you say? Well, it’s simple – everypony wants apples. Everypony needs apples. They’ll always be there,” he grabbed one of the apples from the bowl. “This… this right here is our lifeblood.”
Whitacre backed down a little, but Bloomberg didn’t move. He remained unflappable. Spike looked at him. “Eat it.” He said, holding out the apple. “Just try it.”
“I’m sure that the apple tastes just fine,” said Bloomberg, “I’m just not sure why it needs my money.”
“Misters Wingling,” Spike said, “I am a businesspony looking to expand. If we want the orchard to be bigger, we’ll need a lot of water and employees.”
“Awful young to be an apple tycoon, I think,” Bloomberg said. This was proving to be a lot harder than Spike thought it would be.
“Mr. Whitacre, you don’t get to be in my position at my age without knowing a few things,” Spike said, a confident smile on his face, “and I know a lot of things. And you know one thing I know? Apples.”
He got up from the table. “One moment,” he said, exiting the room.
“Well?” Bloomberg asked Whitacre, “what do you think?”
“He’s confident, at least,” Whitacre said.
“There’s more to running a business than putting on a show.” Bloomberg said.
“Well, like he said, he’s already got the orchard up.” Whitacre said.
“True…”
The doors flew open, and Spike was pushing a cart through, covered in a white cloth. “Not convinced?” he asked. “Well, how about now?” he whipped off the cloth, revealing all manner of apple treats – cakes, pies, crumble, caramel apples, and so on. “This is just a fraction of what I can make from the orchard. Expand it, and we can put these pies into every shop in Equestria. And then, we can have the pies in every home in Equestria!” he held up one of the pies, that self-assured grin on his face. He looked at them. Bloomberg adjusted his spectacles – he at least looked interested, and from the look on Whitacre’s face, he’d already been won over. Spike placed the pie on the table. “On the house,” he said.
“I thought this was about an orchard,” said Bloomberg, “not a bakery.”
“You’re thinking too small,” said Spike in hushed tones. “Look at Sweet Apple Acres. They sell their own apple goods, too.”
“He’s got a point,” said Whitacre, taking a bite out of the pie, “oh wow!” he said, his mouth full.
“Chew your food properly,” Spike said.
Whitacre swallowed. “It’s really good,” he said to Bloomberg, who had cocked an eyebrow.
“I suppose…” Bloomberg said, “All right.” He pulled out three sheets of paper and a pen from a saddlebag. “We’ll sign on with you.” He gave one sheet of paper to Whitacre and one to Spike, who eagerly read over the paper.
“Oh, wow…” he said, “that’s a lot of money…”
“And we expect to make it back,” Bloomberg said, “Since we are the primary investors, we will have some say in the running of this. Your venture better make a decent amount of money, otherwise we will liquidate it. Is that clear?”
“Crystal.” Spike said, taking a pen and signing his name.
“And here,” said Bloomberg, passing another paper to him. Each of the pegasi signed the papers, and Whitacre wrote out a check.
“We’ll be contacting you,” Bloomberg said as they walked out the door, leaving Spike alone in the room.
Utter silence. Spike ran back upstairs and looked out the window as the two brothers walked away. Quietly, he walked into the living room of the house.
“WOOOOOOOO!” he shouted, followed by bouts of laughter. It was incredible. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. He’d just taken the first step – he’d scammed a sizable amount of money from two investors. Oh, Bloomberg wasn’t stupid – he thought he had his bases covered, what with the whole thing about ownership in the company, but that was the thing – there was no company. They wouldn’t get that money back, and they had no way of finding him. He’d made a scam, and he was going to get away with it.
Humming to himself, he walked the front doors of the mansion, off to cash his check. |
BillyColt | 694 | 3 | Main 6,Spike,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Catch Me If You Can | Spike becomes a con artist. And a pegasus, too. | incomplete | 30 | 3 | <p>While Twilight Sparkle and her friends go off to fight a dragon, a distressing thought occurs to Spike - as a dragon, he won't always be loved. As the insecurity sets in, he makes a brash decision: running away to pursue a life of crime!</p> | everyone | 2011-09-24T22:45:23+00:00 | 2011-09-24T22:45:23+00:00 | 1,999 | Chapter 3
There were numerous points where Spike could have easily just turned around and gone back. Back at the beginning, when he saw that page in the book, he could have just closed it. When he was about to break into Applejack’s apple cellar and Rarity’s , he could have just stopped. Even when he did break in, he could’ve just not taken anything. He could have returned the things he took. When writing the letter, he could have just not taken the letter. He could have disappeared when the Wingling Bros showed up. Sure, they’d have been annoyed, but no real harm would be done. He could’ve not taken the check. He could’ve ripped up or incinerated the check right then.
However, with each of these opportunities to turn back, the consequences would be progressively more painful. Now he was going to take another step – he was going to cash the check.
Despite the previous two paragraphs, however, he was not feeling any particular anguish. He was still pleased with himself for tricking those two into giving him a check, and now, wearing his suit, he marched right into the first bank he came across.
“Helloooooo,” he said, walking up to a very bored-looking teller. “I’d like to deposit this check.”
“You have an account?” she asked.
“Uhh, no,” Spike said, “can I have one?”
“Just fill out this paperwork,” said the teller, passing a sheet of paper and a pen.
Basic information – name, age, birthday, address, etc. Obviously, some things he had to make up.
“Thank you,” said the teller, “now, we’ll need to take a picture of you with your cutie mark.”
“Cutie mark?” Spike asked.
The teller looked at him like he was an idiot. “Yes. Your cutie mark.”
“Here? Now?”
The teller nodded her head.
“What, I just… take this suit off?”
“I don’t see what the issue is.”
“Well… privacy.”
The teller looked at him disbelievingly. “Sir,” she said, “there are other ponies waiting in line. If you-”
“Hold on, I’ll be back in a few,” Spike said, leaving. Now he had a feeling that resembled anguish. This was a major roadblock, and he probably would’ve given up right then. At least, he would’ve given up if he had better judgment, but he didn’t. Instead, he spotted a very cranky-looking pony who was covered in liquid rainbow.
And he got another idea.
***
Spike returned to his room, a bag in his mouth. Emptying the contents onto the bed, there was construction paper, pencils, scissors, a ruler, a tarp, and a can of spray paint. Taking the pencil and the ruler, he carefully drew the shape of a feather onto the construction paper. As he was not quite as precise with his mouth as he was with his hands, this took a few tries. Cutting proved to be even more difficult – scissors were fine to handle as a dragon, but it was an immense pain with hooves.
Everything was a pain without his hands – writing, cutting, piano playing…
There it was. Got the shape right this time.
He went to the bathroom and set up the tarp (couldn’t make a mess – it’d take hours to clean up). Carefully taking the construction paper, he placed it on his flank, and with the can in his mouth (which continued to be awkward for him), he sprayed a green feather on one flank, and repeated the process on the other. Taking a pen, he filled in a few black lines to make it look more like an actual feather and less like the green silhouette of one. He admired his work in the mirror.
***
“Thank you for doing business with us, Mr. Feather,” said the teller, “and here’s your bank statement.”
Spike took the envelope she hooved him, opening it.
“Sir?” she asked, “you might want to wait until you get home to-”
“Wait a minute,” Spike said, “I’m confused – there’s ten bits more here than I put in.”
“That’s just a little transaction the bank does. Checks to make sure it’s working, and a little welcome present.”
Spike stopped and thought about this. “Soooooo… you give me money,” he said slowly, as though trying to sound it out, “for signing up here.”
“Yes, pretty much.”
Spike had what was probably the most brilliant poker face of his entire life. “Thank you,” he said, leaving.
More paint, more construction paper.
***
The various banks in Cloudsdale had new applicants, but there are some who deserve a bit more recognition.
“Viola Wingling,” said the purple pegasus pony.
“Wingling?” the teller asked.
“Yeah, of the Wingling Bros.” he replied, “it’s kinda funny… my mom wanted a filly.”
***
“Midnight Shadow”
“The author?”
“Well.... my parents were fans.”
***
“Poison Punk.”
The teller pressed his glasses closer to his face. There stood a purple pegasus pony with this ridiculous spiked green hair, a torn vest, dark glasses, and a skull as his cutie mark. “You some kind of rock artist?”
“Yeah, you probably haven’t heard of me,” he said, “I’m undercloud.”
***
“Um,”
“Living Color,” and he certainly lived up to that name – his coat was a mish-mash of every part of the rainbow.
This continued for every bank in the city, and for every new account he opened, he got a little bit of money. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to be a substantial gain, and a poor follow-up to the investment scam from earlier, but it was still a clever little trick, and he was proud of himself for it.
He made his way back to the house. Time to pack up all his stuff and leave, head for someplace else, see what else he could do, and not get caught.
However, as he got to his room, he began to feel woozy. Stumbling, he grabbed onto the side of the bed, and he felt himself shrinking. Guess the growth potion wore off at the end of the day. But then he noticed that his hooves were changing back into hands. Stumbling, he grabbed onto the bedpost.
And then his foot fell through the floor.
“AAH!” he yelled, his grip tightening on the bedpost. He was turning back into a dragon. A dragon that couldn’t walk on clouds.
He clinged to that bedpost for dear life, frantically climbing up to the surface of the bed, breathing heavily.
He almost died. He actually almost died. Kinda like that time with the big green dragon, and that other time with the hydra.
He sat on the bed, shaking. He was scared, and it hit him that he was completely alone. He looked at the nightstand – there was his quill and inkpot. He had to write. He didn’t know what he was going to write, but he had to. He needed some form of contact with Twilight.
Dear Twilight Sparkle, he wrote. Then he stopped. He didn’t know what he was going to say. He couldn’t break down and start crying into the letter. But what to write?
Hey.
Better than nothing, at least.
Play it casual.
Hey. It’s me, Spike.
He kept the writing vague, just saying that he was okay, and that he was having fun. He wondered what her reaction would be. Maybe it would be funny? Well, he couldn’t see it.
But he got stuck near the end.
But when the going gets tough, the tough get
No. Entirely too cliché.
Tell them how I am defying gravity. And you won’t bring me down.
Too cheesy.
Ready or not, here I come!
Noooooo, too juvenile. Eventually, he came up with just the right wording. Letter looked a little messy, though. Pleased (for the most part), he rolled up the scroll, and taking a deep breath, sent it on its way.
He sat there for a few minutes, and thought. Well, now what?
He had the suitcase on the bed. There was one more vial. He decided it was time to leave.
***
The tiny purple colt closed the door and walked away. He only had one suitcase with him. He turned to look at that big house one last time, the house that had been home to that kindly old couple. He’d have to send them some money after his next score. They were nice.
He walked over to the edge of the cloud, and threw down the suitcase. Down, down, down it fell.
Spike realized that was probably a stupid thing to do. He turned his head around. He realized something: he was a pegasus pony – he had wings. He spread them, flexing them a little. They seemed to work, he seemed to be able to hold them out, and he wondered… could he fly? Could he actually fly?
He lifted one foot over the edge, nervous. His breathing was deeper, now that he saw just how high he was. He closed his eyes, and taking one last breath, he dropped off the edge of the cloud.
It’s said that time seems to slow down when someone is scared. This is because the brain’s firing off all the neurons, trying to get the body to react more quickly. Unfortunately, that’s often negated with “deer in the headlights,” but that’s enough trivia (might want to fact-check it).
But falling is fast. Very fast, like being inside a wind tunnel. He might’ve been able to control the wings on the ground (well, cloud), but now with the wind beating against him, it was nearly painful. But then, as though something just clicked, his wings were outstretched, and the wind seemed gentler, like it was a cushion, carrying him upwards.
He was flying. He was genuinely flying, and without the pink balloon.
He couldn’t contain himself.
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Haha!” he laughed, elated as much by his success at flying as he had been with his scams.
He felt invincible. |
BillyColt | 694 | 4 | Main 6,Spike,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Catch Me If You Can | Spike becomes a con artist. And a pegasus, too. | incomplete | 30 | 3 | <p>While Twilight Sparkle and her friends go off to fight a dragon, a distressing thought occurs to Spike - as a dragon, he won't always be loved. As the insecurity sets in, he makes a brash decision: running away to pursue a life of crime!</p> | everyone | 2011-09-24T22:52:32+00:00 | 2011-09-24T22:52:32+00:00 | 2,566 | Chapter 4
Big pink balloons aren’t very common in Cloudsdale. The pegasus ponies don’t have any need for them, but this one had been in the city before. The balloon hovered over the surface of the cloud, and out hopped Pinkie Pie, followed by Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were there already because they didn’t need the balloon.
“So, how’d he get up here?” Rainbow Dash asked, “he didn’t take the balloon, and I don’t know if dragons can walk on clouds.”
“Spike can’t walk on clouds,” Twilight said. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and a trail of light streamed from her horn.
“I take it that tells us where he is?” asked Applejack.
“Not quite,” said Twilight, “it tells us where he sent the letter from. For all we know, he’s probably skipped town.”
“You mean we came all the way up here and he might not even be around?” asked Rainbow Dash, cranky at the revelation.
“It’s the only lead we have,” said Twilight Sparkle, “we find where he sent the letter from, and maybe we have a better idea what he’s been up to.”
***
A colt in command of a costume carousel saw a petite purple pegasus pony enter.
“Excuse me, sir?” asked the little colt, “I was wondering if you had any mail carrier costumes?”
“I think so…” said the colt in charge, “what for?”
The purple colt found what he was looking for – several sizes too big, “trick or treating.”
“Uhhh, it’s a bit early for that. A bit big, too…”
“I’ll grow into it,” said the purple colt, “how much?”
“Fourteen bits…” the colorful clinking of coins indicated that the suit was paid for.
“Thank you,” said Spike, leaving a confused but contented shopkeeper.
***
“He’s in there?” asked Applejack, “mighty fancy flat there.”
They were standing in front of the mansion that Spike (under the “Feather” alias) had been staying.
“Well, he’s been here. This is where the letter was sent from,” Twilight Sparkle said as she walked to the front door. She rang the doorbell, and the loud, sonorous chimes sounded.
“I should get a doorbell like that,” said Rarity.
However, nopony answered the door. The old couple was still on their holiday.
“Urghh…” Twilight said, “we come this far and they won’t even answer the door. What do we do now?”
Then, the door opened. It was Pinkie Pie.
“Hi!” she said.
“Pinkie Pie, what are you doing in there?!” Twilight asked, astonished.
“I live here!”
“No you don’t,” said Twilight in a flat tone, her eyes narrowed.
“Ya got me! But come on in!”
“But this isn’t our property!” protested Rarity, “trespassing would be exceedingly impolite.”
“Ah don’t think it’s legal, either,” concurred Applejack.
“So what are we supposed to do?” asked Rainbow Dash, “just wait here until the owners get back? And then we go ‘hey, excuse me, we’re investigating if there’s been a dragon in your house?’”
“But I don’t think we-” said Fluttershy.
“What’s the worst than can happen?” asked Rainbow Dash, walking inside, “as long as we don’t break their stuff, nopony needs to know.”
“Well, I am most certainly not setting hoof anywhere uninvited,” said Rarity, backing away from the door.
“Suit yourself,” said Rainbow Dash, following Pinkie Pie.
Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack were not budging. Twilight looked at them, then to the house, where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had disappeared.
“Uhh, Twi?” called Rainbow Dash’s voice. “What are we supposed to be looking for?”
It was at this point that Twilight gave up and just went inside.
***
A grey, blond-maned pegasus pony had received her mailbag, and was ready to begin her mail route. Meanwhile, Spike was now in the form of a fully-grown pegasus pony, and with his costume, he walked into a post office. He looked around at the mail carriers – he needed to find the right one. He saw the grey blond-maned mare, but didn’t think much of her, until he noticed that her eyes seemed to be rather askew.
He kept an eye on her – she seemed a little clumsy, like her head wasn’t all there. Well, this was perfect.
“Hello!” he said, walking up to her.
“Hi!”
“Great news!” Spike said, “you’ve been promoted!”
“I have?”
“Yeah! That means you get the day off!”
“I do?”
“Yeah! Now give me your mailbag, please.”
The mare gave her mailbag to the young stallion and left, off to enjoy whatever she had in mind for her day off. Spike was astounded that it actually worked.
***
“Okay, we find what we need, and we get out,” Twilight said, nervous. She wasn’t keen on breaking and entering. The spell had led them up to a bedroom.
“So, what are we looking for?” Rainbow Dash, “seems very tidy.”
“I don’t know…”
“A clue?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.
“More or less,” said Twilight. “But I can’t find anything that-”
“Is this a clue?” Pinkie Pie asked, balancing a broken quill on her nose.
“I don’t think so,” said Rainbow Dash, “I mean, it’s just a quill. Lots of unicorns use them-”
“Wait,” said Twilight, “a quill?”
“Uh-huh!”
“I don’t get it, what’s so special about a quill?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Rainbow, have you ever used a quill?” Twilight asked.
“No, I can’t use- ohhhhh,” Rainbow Dash got it.
“So, that means he was here!” said Pinkie Pie.
“Wait,” said Rainbow Dash, “didn’t we already know he was here?”
Then it hit Twilight that they’d really found absolutely nothing. “C’mon, let’s get out of here before we break any more rules.”
Gloomily, they went downstairs and out of the house.
“Didja find anything?” Applejack asked.
“Nothing we didn’t already know,” said Twilight somberly.
“Guess that goes to show it warn’t worth it.”
Rarity spoke up, “I don’t think that’s a word.”
“It is now.”
***
The doorbell rang at a suburban home. An earth pony answered the door. There was a young purple pegasus stallion, apparently the mail character.
“Good afternoon! I got your mail.”
“Oh, thank you,” said the resident of the house.
“I should tell you, though,” said the purple pegasus pony, “there’s a bit of a new fee.”
“Come again?”
“Money times are kinda hard. There’s a delivery fee.”
“Is this a joke?”
“Hey, I don’t make the rules, I just work for them. If you aren’t going to pay for it, though…”
“Wait!” said the earth pony, running inside, “I’ll pay.”
“Thank you kindly,” Spike said, waiting. That was another thing he wasn’t sure would work. Then again, he had their mail, so he seemed legit. And even if it didn’t work on everypony…
“Here you are…”
“Five bits,” said Spike.
“Alright then, here’s your money.”
“And here is your mail,” Spike said, forking over the mail to the earth pony.
This routine continued for every house on the block, and surprisingly, most of the ponies fell for it completely (albeit with a some protests).
***
“You left a note at their house?” Rainbow Dash asked, walking into Twilight’s library.
“I had to,” said Fluttershy, “they should know we-”
“No, they don’t need to. All we did was-”
“We’re not doin’ that again,” said Applejack, “what happened was wrong, and we gotta own up to it.”
“And we’re still don’t know what he’s up to,” said Twilight.
“Well, let’s think,” said Rarity, “what do we know he’s done?”
Twilight took a breath. “Okay,” she began, “so, while we were away stopping that dragon-”
“All over a teddy bear…” Rainbow Dash mumbled.
“Spike left. When he left, he stole some apples and a suit,” Twilight continued, “and he went to Cloudsdale – stayed at the home of a couple of rich ponies. Then he sent a letter indicating that he had been doing very well.”
“Is that all he stole?” Rarity asked.
“Well, not exactly,” Twilight said, “I also found a few things missing – food, mostly.”
“Any books?” Rarity asked. She’d caught something out of the corner of her eye – a gap on the bookshelf.
“Huh?” Twilight walked over to the bookshelf, “I didn’t notice that… hold on,” she ran to the front of the library, pulling several sheets of paper out of a drawer.
“What is that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“It’s a catalogue of every book in the library. I’ve got them all arranged, now let’s see…” she went down the list, “so the missing book is in the magic section, and it’s alphabetical… Prodigies and Paradigms… found it,” she said, a subtle tone of triumph in her voice, “The Practical Professor’s Portable Pamphlet Pertaining to Powerful Potions of Particular Potency.”
“Say that five times fast,” Applejack mumbled.
“Ooh!” said Pinkie Pie, “so now he’s mixing up brews?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it…” Twilight said, thinking, “I think a lot of potion materials can be made from food, so that would explain that… the suit’s still a mystery.”
“Like, if he made some kind of potion that allowed him to walk on clouds?” Rainbow Dash suggested.
“He could be. I think there’s another copy in the Canterlot library,” Twilight said, “I’ll have to go there.”
“Ooh! Another trip!” Pinkie Pie started dancing excitedly.
“No, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said (and Pinkie’s excitement deflated like an unhappy balloon), “we can’t all go. If it’s a dead end, then we’ve all wasted time.”
“Fluttershy and I can go back up to Cloudsdale…” suggested Rainbow Dash.
“We could put up missing posters…” Fluttershy added.
“And sleuth around…”
“And apologize to whoever owns that house…”
“Would you forget about the house already?”
“What can we do?” asked Applejack.
“I don’t know,” said Twilight, “you might want to check here to see if any new letters arrive, or if something happens. Always returns to the scene of the crime, as they say, and he stole from you.”
“I still wish we knew why,” Rarity said, “it’s not like him.”
“That’s why we need to find him before he does something foolish,” Twilight said, “well, more foolish.” |
Kegisak | 696 | 1 | DJ P0N-3,Other,Romance,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Feedback | After Ziggy Stardust moves to Ponyville, he meets a mare who helps him to come out of his shell. | complete | 150 | 3 | <p>Ziggy Stardust was never good at talking. A bouncer didn’t have to be. He wasn’t expecting that to change when he moved to ponyville. He wasn’t expecting the DJ either. Sometimes it just takes somepony else to get you started – all you need is a little feedback.</p> | everyone | 2011-09-01T08:18:20+00:00 | 2011-09-01T08:18:20+00:00 | 4,988 | “C'mon kid, get out of here. It's three in the morning, we're closing.”
“Aw, chill out, bro...I just wanna get one more drink!”
“No. No more drinks. Go home, or find a friend who'll let you crash at his place, or something, but we gotta close up soon.”
“All right, all right,” The young pegasus said, sulking away from the bar. Ziggy watched him mull across the empty hall before leaving through the open double-doors.
“Is that the last of them?” The bartender asked Ziggy, picking up the glass that the sullen colt had left behind.
“Everypony except that unicorn over there,” he answered, gesturing to a mare sitting on the stage at the front of the hall. “I guess I'll get her out the door, then lock up?”
“Naw, don't bother her,” The bartender said, “That's the DJ. She usually stays here a little bit late, she likes to get a drink or two before she goes home. Says it helps her sleep, or something.” Ziggy shrugged, and sat at the bar.
“I might get something myself,” He said idly, “Who knows, might help me get used to the new shift – could you get me a rum and coke?” The bartender nodded, and set about making the drink. Ziggy sat in silence, thinking about his new life in Ponyville. Working nights would definitely take some getting used to – the most he could hope for was that the caffeine in that rum and coke would be enough to get him home and into bed, for how exhausted he was. He sipped at the drink gratefully when he heard a small set of hooves clopping towards him. He looked over to see the DJ plunk herself down on the stool beside him.
“Gimme the usual, Salty, I feel boring tonight.” She called, waving in the bartender’s direction. He set a glass in front of her and poured straight vodka into it, tapping the bottle against the rim of the glass when he finished pouring. Ziggy turned his attentions back to his own drink when the DJ nudged him sharply in the side.
“Man, what was with that crowd tonight? I swear to Luna, they were so quiet I could swear half of them were underage! You aren't getting fooled by fake IDs now, are you Rusty?”
“I-what?” Ziggy asked, shocked by the sudden jab, “My name isn't Rusty...I don't even know a Rusty. Who are you?”
“Yo, wait,” The mare said with what Ziggy considered an odd amount of surprise, “You aren't Rusty! Man, did he quit or something?”
“Yeah, that's...kinda what I just said. I don't know anything about anyone who worked her before me, tonight is my first shift here.”
“Oh,” The mare said, “Well, Rusty was the bouncer before, I guess. He was around back when I started working. I'm Vinyl Scratch, the DJ.” Scratch held out her hoof to Ziggy, who shook it slowly.
“I'm Ziggy,” He said, “Ziggy Stardust. If this Rusty guy worked here so long, how come you can't tell the difference between him and me?”
“Well, I can tell the difference between you, obviously,” Scratch said, rolling her head theatrically, “But it's not like I'm gonna figure it out by looking at you.” She lifted up the heavily mirrored sunglasses she wore, revealing two very, very white eyes.
“Oh, jeez,” Ziggy said, “I'm really sorry, I had no idea you were -”
“Don't worry about it,” Scratched laughed, putting her glasses back on, “It's not like I go around advertising it. I mean, most ponies don't like seeing my eyes, so I have to hide it, most of the time.” Her horn lit up, and a small rod levitated out of the saddlebags beside her. She gave it a sharp flick, and it extended into a red and white cane.
“I mean, most ponies can figure it out when they see this,” She said, “But I know this hall like the back of my hoof -” She paused for a moment, then chuckled, and corrected herself, “Well, not like I know that either, but you know what I mean. I don't ever need to use it in here, just when I'm walking around town, and stuff.”
Ziggy sat in silence, trying to think of what to say – that is, what he could say that wouldn't run the risk of offending the DJ.
“Look, if you've got a question, ask it,” She sighed, coming to a conclusion for him, “I've been blind since I was a little filly, I doubt you can say anything that would offend me now.”
“Okay, well,” Ziggy started, “If you're blind, how did you know I was sitting here? I mean, it doesn't seem like it was just a coincidence, to me.” Scratch wiggled her ears, and grinned at him, as if that explained the whole thing.
“I heard you,” She told him, “These stools are old, and they squeak.” She rocked back and forth on her stool, proving her point. “Now it's my turn: How does a guy get a name like Ziggy Stardust? You don't sound like a pegasus to me. I mean, I don't hear any feathers.”
“Oh, I'm not,” Ziggy said, “But my dad is, Stardust is his family name...and my parents just called me Ziggy because of my mane.” Scratch turned towards him, tilting her head up and down in a pantomime inspection.
“Yeah,” She said sarcastically, “I see what you mean. Totally.”
“Oh,” Ziggy said, hitting his forehead with is hoof, “Duh, I'm sorry. Here.” He leaned in towards her, mane first. “Give it a prod, you'll understand.” Scratch raised an eyebrow at him, but reached out slowly with her hoof anyways, being careful not to hit Ziggy's head. Her hoof brushed the tips of his mane, and she pushed with a bit more confidence.
“Man, that's your mane?” She asked enthusiastically, “Do you gel it, or something?”
“Nope,” Ziggy answered, “It does it all on it's own. Has since the day I was born. Like I said, that's why my parents named me Ziggy. 'Cause my mane was all 'ziggy-zaggy', my Mom said.”
There was a lull in conversation, with both of the young ponies thinking of what to say next. Or at least, that was what Ziggy imagined the cause of the silence was. It was certainly his excuse.
“Hey, how long've we got until 'closing time'?” Scratch asked him, suddenly. Ziggy blinked, and looked at the clock on the wall behind the bar.
“Um...well, we closed like, five minutes ago, actually. The bartender's just cleaning everything up, if you're looking for another drink...”
“Naw,” Scratch said, “Rusty was cool to drink with, but that was all he ever did. You seem like a 'hang out' guy, though – you wanna get outta here?”
“Huh?” Ziggy asked, “It's the middle of the night – where would we go?”
“Oh, I can think of a couple of places...” The unicorn said with a sly grin, and Ziggy was suddenly very glad that she was blind, and couldn't see his face flush. Scratch continued, “but I was thinking we could just, walk and talk, y'know?”
“Yeah...yeah, all right,” Ziggy answered. He checked with the bartender to makes sure he would lock the dance hall up, and got down from his stool. Scratch picked up her saddlebags and followed after him. Ziggy was surprised to see just how well she navigated the hall, exiting perfectly through the door that Ziggy held open for her.
Ziggy paused for a moment when they left the building. The air was cold compared to inside the hall, and seemed oddly crisp. In Manehatten, where Ziggy came from, a place like this would have a sweet scent lingering outside most times of the day, but in a small town like Ponyville the air smelt clean and clear. He trotted to catch up to Scratch, who seemed to relax when he pulled alongside her.
“There you are,” She said, “I thought you ditched me. Talk to me man, this town's got no acoustics.” Ziggy frowned at her.
“What are you talking about? How does a town have acoustics?”
“It doesn't,” Scratch repeated, “That's the problem. The buildings aren't big enough, sound doesn't echo. If you get too far away, I can't tell where you are anymore.”
“All right, well, I guess I'll just stay close to you, then,” Ziggy said, before he stopped dead. Scratch looked back at him, a wide smirk on her face.
“Oh man, was that flirting? Way to go, Ziggy.” She laughed as Ziggy attempted to apologize, and cut him off. “Chill out,” She said, “There's nothing wrong with a bit of flirting. Besides, I know what you meant. You're a cool guy, Ziggy – even if you are kinda vanilla. Tell me about yourself.” Ziggy shrugged awkwardly.
“I got into bouncing for a reason,” He said, “I don't need to talk to ponies. I just stand there and look mean. Easy. I've never been really great at the whole 'talking' thing.”
“Pff,” Scratch snorted, swinging her cane to smack him lightly, “Talking isn't a 'thing'. You just do it. I need feedback, Ziggy. C'mon, gimme something here. Bouncing! What's that like?”
“It's...pretty good work, I guess,” Ziggy told her as they started walking again. “I don't usually work clubs – until just a little while ago, I mostly did more high profile stuff, like fashion shows. You don't usually have to actually 'bounce' ponies at those – though I was working at an art show once when the artist showed up. Turns out he wasn't actually on the list.”
“What?” Scratch asked, “How was the artist not on the list? Was it a mistake or something?
“No, he was just a lunatic. Even if I'd let him in ponies probably would've thought he was a hobo, or something.” The two ponies laughed at the thought of it, and when their mirth subsided Ziggy countered Scratch's question with one of his own.
“How about you?” He asked, “How'd you get into being a DJ?”
“Do you know, I don't really know?” Scratch laughed, “It just kinda happened. I mean, I got really big into music after my eyes went – my Mom had this old record player that she always had playing, and I just kinda started to hear stuff I didn't before. Like, nuances in the music, y'know? I just started listening to more and more stuff, and eventually I tried making some of my own. I moved here with my Mom from Phillydelphia a few years ago, when I was still in school, and one of the fillies in my class threw me a party...I don't know how, but somepony got a hold of one of my tapes and started playing it, and after that everypony was always coming to me to do music for their parties.”
“Wow,” Ziggy said, “Now I feel kinda petty about bouncing. I mean, you got an awesome job doing something you enjoy, and I just went in because it was easy.” Scratch laughed at him.
“There's nothing wrong with that – live for the moment, right? It might not be what you love, but it's better than what you hate, right?”
“I guess you're right,” Ziggy agreed. “It's kinda funny, though – you saying how much you liked listening to music. I mean, you don't seem to really like listening that much...” Ziggy trailed off, leaving the two in an awkward silence.
Smooth, Ziggy, smooth, He thought, mentally face-hoofing, meet a cool girl and tell her she doesn't shut up. “I'm really sorry,” He started, “That didn't -”
“Hey, uh, this is my stop,” Scratch cut him off, nodding to a small two-story home, “But, are you gonna be working tomorrow night too?”
“Oh...no,” Ziggy answered awkwardly, “No, I'm only part-time – one day on, and one day off.”
“All right,” Scratch said, walking towards her house, “Well, I'll see you later, I guess...” With that, she left him outside, trying to find his bearings in the darkened town. It took him a while, but when he finally recognized the neighbourhood he was surprised to find the house he was renting wasn't far away. He was also surprised to find himself walking much faster than normal – ordinarily he would take his time on a walk like this, taking in all the sights and sounds the night had to offer, but he didn't really feel like it tonight. He felt guilty about how he'd left off with Scratch – and it wasn't the guilt that was bothering him, so much as that he felt guilty at all. He was no stranger to putting his hoof in his mouth – a good part of the reason he preferred not to talk. He sighed as he opened the door to his home, and thought to himself, I must just be tired. Night shift is getting to me. I'll be fine tomorrow...still... He shook his head, chasing the thought away, and locked his door behind him. He thought briefly about eating something, but hungry as he was, that Rum and Coke had done nothing to keep him up. Being up so much later than he was used to had exhausted him, and he happily flopped into his bed, drifting into a warm and quiet slumber moments later.
***
When Ziggy woke again, it was just before noon. He moaned groggily and tried to turn away from the light that filtered through his partially-drawn curtains, but it seemed to chase after him, filling up the room. For the briefest of moments he thought he had escaped it, and could return to sleep, when his stomach screeched at him. He shut his eyes tighter, begging his belly to be quiet, and to leave him alone, but it didn't comply. Eventually he gave up, and rolled out of bed, making his way to his kitchen.
Fortunately for Ziggy, he’d had time the previous day to go shopping, and he had plenty of food to make a breakfast from. Unfortunately, he didn't have nearly the patience to wait for food to cook in his state. In the end, he settled on a bowl of cereal – three bowls of cereal, in fact. He stacked the bowls beside the sink when he was finished, noting that we would need to wash them later. In the meantime, he desperately needed a wash himself, smelling of sweat and liquor the way he did. He ran a bath, and while he waited for the tub to fill, dragged an old stereo out of one of the many, many unpacked boxes left in his house. Putting on one of his favourite CDs, he lowered himself into the bathtub, and began to think about what he should do that day.
He hadn't started his work at the club part-time by choice. He had been perfectly willing to start full time – more than willing, in fact. He was less than comfortable with math, but he was still confident enough in his abilities to work out that he would only just scrape by if he kept up with his current schedule. However, the owner of the club didn't trust the new earth pony just yet, so Ziggy was on a trial period, working one day and...sitting around his house doing nothing the next.
“Celestia...” Ziggy sighed, sinking lower into the water, “I need to find a hobby, or something.”
The song he had been listening to wound down, and the void of silence left by the changing of tracks was filled with a thought: “You know, I never really heard any of the music last night, sitting outside...I should go tonight and see if Scratch is any good.” His mind made up, Ziggy relaxed and settled in the tub. The club opened that evening, and so he would still need to find something else to do in the meantime – which would probably end up being unpacking the rest of his things – but for now he could afford to have a nice, long bath.
***
Ziggy spent over an hour sitting in the bathtub, very nearly falling asleep in the warm water. Finally, though, he pulled himself out when his CD ended, and set about unpacking. He finished almost depressingly fast. Most of his essentials, plates, cooking utensils and the like, he had unpacked shortly after arriving, but even then he hadn't brought much with him from Manehatten. He had managed to while away some time by reading the old 'Crimson Wonder' comics he had bought when he was younger, but they didn't last very long. That had been a few hours ago, and now he was splayed out on a sofa that his landfilly had kindly provided him, playing an old video game. He was a private detective on the streets of Phillydelphia, investigating the mysterious disappearance of a mare he had been hired to follow, and he was about to find the final clue that would reveal her whereabouts when his alarm clock went off again. He trotted into his bedroom to check that the clock was right – 5:30, on the dot. Throwing together a quick sandwich to eat on the way, he left his house, setting out for the club. It was just opening when he arrived, and the front was swamped with a queue of colts and fillies waiting to be admitted in. Ziggy found a place in the lineup, slowly approaching the door until he was stopped by an enormous red-brown stallion, who Ziggy imagined must be Rusty.
“Hey, you’re the new kid, right?” The stallion asked, “Sorry, but I still gotta card you - them’s the rules.”
“No problem,” Ziggy answered, digging a piece of ID out of the shirt he had worn, “Rusty, right?”
“That’s right,” Rusty replied, “famous, am I? Well, enjoy the night - Scratch looked like she was in some mood tonight, I think it’ll be a wild one.” Ziggy nodded, and as he walked in, Rusty’s words stuck with him. He hadn’t though too much about Scratch that day, but she had crossed his mind now and then. Mostly, he just wondered what kind of music she played, but now he was wondering if he had offended her the night before. He tried to tell himself it was silly to think she had taken something a colt she barely knew had said personally, but he couldn’t help but wonder, especially when he saw her on stage, setting up for the night. It was hard to tell from far away, but something seemed different about her, to Ziggy. She seemed less excited, less bouncy than she had last night.
She’s...probably just being careful, Ziggy thought, doesn’t want to damage her equipment. It looks pretty expensive. The notion did little to quell his worries. He weaved through the sparse crowd mulling around on the dance floor, looking for all the world like a flock of sheep with no music to herd them, and made his way to the bar.
“Hey, kid,” The bartender said to him, “Wasn’t expecting to see you back on your day off. Coming to see our DJ, eh?” He grinned slyly at the young earth pony, who replied,
“I guess? I didn’t really get to hear that much last night, waiting around outside the whole time, so I figured I’d come by tonight and see how she was.”
“Is that so?” The bartender asked him. His tone had changed, Ziggy noticed, from light to suspicious, somehow. He wondered what he had said that provoked this change, but the bartender continued, “Just what were you two up to, last night? That girl’s in a fine mood, that’s for sure, I hope you didn’t just decide to swing by to make sure she was ‘fine’.”
“What?” Ziggy asked, somewhere between confused and offended - in truth, he had no idea what the bartender was implying, but he knew he was being accused of something. “No, I just meant that I wanted to see her play! We just talked last night, really.”
“Well, all right,” The bartender nodded, “Sorry about that, but there isn’t much of a club scene in a little town like Ponyville, so we don’t take on many employees. Rusty, Scratch and I are a bit like a little family, and I guess we get a bit protective of her, ‘cause of how young she is. But you seem like a good colt, so I trust you.”
“Um...thanks?” Ziggy said. Once again, the bartender seemed to be implying something that he didn’t quite get. He didn’t have time to ask, though - Scratch had finished setting up, and let the crowd know by skillfully scratching a record, producing a long, melodic note. The lights in the club dimmed, and a pair of red and blue spotlights focused on the stage, illuminating Scratch amongst her turntables and speakers, and lending their colours to her coat.
“I can’t see a damn thing with all these lights!” She shouted, her tenor filling the hall, “Pound your hooves so I know where you are!” The audience erupted all at once, furiously pounding their hooves on the floor. Ziggy and the bartender shared a chuckle at her introduction, before she called out to the crowd once more.
“Hell yeah! You foals ready to party!?” The audience erupted again, even louder this time, mixing cheers and shouts with the thumping applause. “Who’d you come here for!?” Scratch asked, and the audience responded,
“DJ P0N-3!”
“I didn’t catch that! I said, WHO’D YOU COME HERE FOR!?”
“DJ P0N-3!”
“ONE MORE TIME, ‘CAUSE IT SOUNDS SO GOOD!”
“P0N-3! P0N-3! P0N-3!”
The chanting devolved into unintelligible screams and cheers, and Scratch started her first song. It struck Ziggy immediately - very nearly sending him off his seat. The song was huge and pounding, fitting Scratch’s entrance perfectly, and Ziggy felt it almost as much as he heard it.
“Lord Luna,” Ziggy shouted to the bartender, “How did I not hear this last night?! How is all of PONYVILLE not hearing this?!” The bartender just laughed at him.
“We have soundproofing spells,” He shouted back, “Rusty won’t be hearing a bit of this, right now.” Ziggy nodded at him, not bothering to try and make himself heard as the song, impossibly, grew even more powerful. The colts and fillies on the floor danced furiously, with no real sense of rhythm, as far as Ziggy could tell. There were no steps, no moves, and no time, there was just thrashing and flailing. Eventually the song wound down, and Scratch’s voice once again permeated the hall.
“Man, you guys are rowdy! No more of that for you, not tonight! Have a little bit of this, instead!” She pulled on an oversized set of headphones, and several plugs and jacks in her equipment rearranged themselves as she spoke, preparing for the next track. It was still powerful music, but much less so than the previous song. Scratch was involved in this one, too, moving almost constantly onstage, adjusting dials and switches, and skillfully scratching on the turntable in front of her. She played several tracks like that, letting them go five, six, seven at a time without a word to the audience, before suddenly chiming in with a comment, or a warning, or asking for requests - though Ziggy would never be able to figure out just how she knew what the screaming ponies were asking for. Around the middle of the night, a mare approached him - a deep purple pony with an electric pink mane, and a pair of ice cubes as a cutie mark.
“Hey there,” The mare said to him, “You look new here.”
“Um, hi,” Ziggy said, somewhat surprised that somepony was talking to him, after sitting at the bar alone for pretty much the entire night, “Yeah, I just moved here a little while ago. I’m Ziggy.”
“I’m Sweet Stuff, sweet stuff,” The mare said, sitting beside him, “Care for a dance?” She fluttered her eyes at him, and smiled faintly. Ziggy gulped.
“Um, alright,” He said, “Sure. I’m not that great of a dancer, though.”
“Oh don’t worry, sweetie,” Sweet Stuff laughed, gently tugging him from his seat, “I’m sure you’ll do
just fine.”
Sweet Stuff dragged Ziggy out to the dance floor, and started to sway and move. Ziggy, for his part, mulled around, awkwardly bobbing to the beat, Sweet Stuff laughing at his lack of ability. After a while watching her, though, he started to get more of a feel for it. He had been right before, when he guessed there was no sense of reason to the dances, but there was a definite rhythm to it. He did as he saw his dance partner doing, letting the music fill him up, swaying and bucking in time with the pounding beats. He loved the feeling of it, and it must have showed - Sweet Stuff picked up the pace of her own dance, occasionally brushing up against him, and giggling slyly. Ziggy lost track of how long they danced together, but by the time he was shaken from his music-inspired trance, his legs ached, and sweat was beading on his face and back.
It was Scratch’s voice that drew his attention away from Sweet Stuff, calling out after another set was done. “Hey foals, I got a treat for you!” She called out, levitating a new record onto her turntable, “Some of you boring ponies are gonna ditch us all soon, so have a listen to this before you go: I’ve got a new track for you guys!” The dance hall erupted into cheers, including Sweet Stuff beside Ziggy. When the roaring subsided, Scratch called out again, “I call this puppy ‘Hobo Paintings’! Be sure to dance nice and loud, so I know what you think!” The song started slow, almost boring, like elevator music, but quickly warped into something fast and manic, twisting and grinding almost as much as the furiously dancing ponies. Everypony except for Ziggy, who stood stock still, his mouth hanging open.
“Hey, are you alright?” Sweet Stuff asked, nudging him, “What’s the matter, don’t like the song?”
“What?” Ziggy asked, shaking himself from his stupor, “I - no, that’s not it. I, Uh...I’m gonna go sit down. I was nice meeting you, Sweet Stuff. I had fun dancing.”
“You know, sweetie,” Sweet Stuff said, rubbing up against him and fluttering her eyes once more, “If you’re tired, I can always take you back to my place and give you a place to sleep...”
“No thanks,” Ziggy said, barely listening as he started for the bar, “I’m just gonna...I think I need a drink.” With that, he left the confused and offended mare on the dance floor and went to sit back down at the bar. “Hey, Salty, was it?” Ziggy called to the bartender, “Can I get a rum and coke?”
“Sure thing, kid,” The bartender said, “What’s up? You look confused. That mare wasn’t what you were expecting?”
“Well...She was different than what I was expecting, that’s for sure...” he replied, cradling his head in his hooves, “But that’s not it. It’s the song.” He paused, and listened to the music, which had turned into something resembling circus music filtered through the auditory equivalent of shrooms, “I mean, aside from the fact that it seems to be eating my brain.”
“Yeah, she’ll make those from time to time,” Salty laughed, handing Ziggy his drink, “what’s the problem?”
“Well, last night I told Scratch a story about bouncing an artist that looked and acted like a hobo...” He gulped at the drink in front of him, and looked up almost entreatingly, “There’s no way she could work that fast though, right? I mean, pump out a new song in less than a day?”
“Heck, I’ve seen her make a new track in an hour when it suits her,” Salty said flippantly. “Looks like you inspired her.” He listened to the song himself, and added, “Not sure how to call that one, I can see why it’s got you worried.” He laughed at Ziggy’s sunken expression, and told him, “listen, I’ve heard a song that she spun when her first coltfriend broke up with her - as far as I can tell, you’re probably in her good books.”
“You think so?” Ziggy asked, glancing at the lively DJ on stage.
“Well, don’t take my word for it. Stick around and ask her yourself - club is done in an hour anyways.” Ziggy glanced at the clock, which read 2:10.
“Huh...” He said slowly. It suddenly occurred to him just how tired he was, not having gotten nearly enough sleep, and now having danced for at least a couple of hours. He stifled a yawn, but said, “I think I’ll do that, yeah.”
***
“Alright, we’re done here, fillies and colts!” Scratch called out when her last track finished an hour later, “Get outta here, and have a great night!” She laughed into the microphone, drowning out the half-hearted booing that came from the crowd, and began to disassemble her equipment. What little remained of the crowd dispersed, and Rusty came in to clear out the few ponies still dragging their hooves. He passed over Ziggy with little argument, and when he was done he sat at the bar a few seats down. The two bouncers were silent, sipping at their drinks, until they were joined by Scratch, same as last night. Unlike last night, however, she paused before taking her seat.
“Hey Scratch,” Ziggy said, trying to stifle a yawn, “How’s it going?”
“Ziggy?” Scratch asked incredulously, “I thought you didn’t work today, what are you doing here?”
“Ah, well...” Ziggy shrugged, and took a swig of his drink. “I didn’t get a chance to hear your music at all last night, so I figured I’d come by and see how it was.” He scratched at his face, and added, “And, well...I didn’t really get a chance to apologize properly for what I said last night - “
“Aw, are you still on that?” Scratch laughed quietly, “I told you, it’s not a problem, it’s - look, let’s go for a walk, okay?” She pulled out her cane, and gave Rusty a swat as she walked past. “Good to hear you, Rusty, but I guess I’ll talk to you day after tomorrow.” Rusty grunted in response, and Ziggy threw a few bits down on the counter, following after the blue-maned Mare.
“Like I said, I wasn’t offended or anything,” Scratch continued once they were outside, “You just took me off guard is all. You kinda reminded me of my Mom, actually - she’s always telling me I never listen.”
“Is that...” Ziggy asked, trotting up beside Scratch, “I don’t know how to feel about that. Is that good? Nagging?” Scratched laughed him off, saying,
“Nah, that’s good. My Mom’s great...I mean, she’s a bit overprotective, and she won’t let me move out on my own, but she’s still cool about everything, you know? She didn’t even try to tell me what my cutie mark looked like more than the once.”
“Wait...you don’t know what you’re cutie mark looks like?” Ziggy asked, blinking.
“Oh, I know what it looks like - somepony was bound to let it slip. But I got it after my eyes went, so I always liked to imagine it was something really awesome, like, I dunno, a pony fighting a dragon, or something.” She grinned broadly, and chuckled. Ziggy chuckled too.
“I guess...” He said, but paused midway, wondering whether he should say it or not. When he did, Scratch walked in front of him, and turned so Ziggy could see her face. They stood there, for a moment, with Scratch completely silent, and Ziggy trying, and failing, to scan the eyes hidden behind her glasses for a hint of what she might be thinking.
“Look, Ziggy,” She said suddenly, “I know you’re trying to be nice. But I’m not made of glass. I told you yesterday, you aren’t going to hurt my feelings. Ask. The. Question.” Ziggy grimaced, and shuffled his hooves.
“Sorry,” he said quietly, and asked, “I guess you went blind pretty young?” Scratch gave him that same puzzling look, and answered him.
“Really young, yeah. A little while after I started school. Is that really what you were afraid of asking? A question about my childhood?” She shook her head and smirked, “Most ponies are at least afraid of asking me the big things, like how I do stuff, or what I think things look like, or -”
“Or what it was like?” Ziggy blurted out. He immediately regretted it, because this time when Scratch went silent, he could read her expression - deeply shocked. Ziggy lowered his head, half expecting some kind of outburst.
“I’m so sorry, I’m tired, and I wasn’t thinking at all, and, and, and...” Scratch raised her hoof, silencing him.
“Ziggy,” She said, “follow me, okay?” Ziggy did as she said, following just behind her as she walked. Scratch seemed consumed in her thoughts, so Ziggy didn’t try and speak to her. Instead, he brushed his hooves along the ground as he walked, trying to make sure she knew he was there. He had no idea where they were going, but it was in a completely different direction than they had taken last night, going east away from Scratch’s home. Finally, they crested a small hill, and Scratch sat down. Ziggy sat beside her, but they still didn’t speak. Scratch still seemed deep in thought, so Ziggy surveyed their new environment. He hadn’t been there before, not that that meant anything. Finally, Scratch spoke.
“You know, I was joking before, but you really do remind me of my Mom. I don’t think anypony’s ever asked me that before.”
“You mean, what it was like?” Ziggy asked quietly.
“Yeah,” She answered, “I never even really thought about it. She asked me how I was doing all the time back then, how I felt, but...I wanted to be a big filly. I didn’t want her feeling bad about me at all.” She sighed, and took off her glasses. She rubbed her eyes, before saying, “It was terrifying. My eyes were never great, and I guess the doctors and my parents always new, but nopony ever told me. Then all of a sudden, things started getting blurry, even with my glasses on. I couldn’t see things far away anymore, and far away kept getting closer, and closer...I had no idea what was happening. I was just a kid, I thought,” She laughed, and continued, “I thought the world was ending. But nopony else seemed worried.”
“I’m sorry,” Ziggy said, “that sounds awful.”
“Don’t be.” Scratched waved her hoof dismissively, “The world is still here. It’s just different now. I can picture it from how it sounds. It’s just not as concrete, now. It’s more fluid. It’s like music. I like it, kinda. That’s why I don’t listen, I guess. I like...noise. I like hearing things. I don’t like silence, there’s nothing there. No feedback. So, I make my own noise.”
“Well, I guess that explains how loud your music is,” Ziggy joked, trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to work, Scratch snorted and laughed.
“Thanks, Ziggy, I almost got emo there for a second.” She said, elbowing him gently. “So you heard my music, huh? What’d you think of it?”
“It was different from what I was expecting,” He answered, “But it was good. I gotta ask, though, that new song...’Hobo Paintings’...”
“Ah, that...If your wondering if you ‘inspired’ me, somehow, well kinda. I had most of it worked out, but something just seemed off...you gave me the idea to make it so crazy, so I guess you did kinda inspire it, yeah.” Scratched laughed. Ziggy tried to laugh with her, but it was interrupted by a huge yawn. “Aw, Gee,” Scratch joked, “I’m not boring you, am I?”
“No, no,” Ziggy said, yawning again, “I’m just...tired. I guess I didn’t get enough sleep, I woke up early because I was starving to death.” Scratched giggled at him.
“Oh, so it’s just past your bedtime, huh?” She said. She fell backwards onto the grass, and said, “Have a lie down. The grass is soft here. It’s nice.” Ziggy did as he was beckoned, and made a happy noise in agreement.
“You’re right,” He said, “It’s nice...How’d you find this place?”
“My first coltfriend took me here.” She answered, “He said it was beautiful...he was an idiot. Nice guy, really, but not all there, you know?”
“Yeah,” Ziggy chuckled, “I get what you mean...he was right, though. It’s nice here.” The two lay there for a while, almost in silence, if not for Scratch gently humming. Then, all of a sudden, she spoke.
“Describe it.”
“Huh?”
“This place. You’re an observant guy, Ziggy. I come here all the time, but I don’t know what it’s really like. I can’t get any feedback from it. Describe it to me.”
“Well,” Ziggy said, looking around them. He mulled over where to begin - it really was a beautiful place. He could see for miles in all directions, the hill stood overlooking Ponyville and all of the surrounding fields. “We’re on a hill,” He started simply, saying whatever came to his mind, “It’s the tallest one around. Ponyville is on one side of us...you can see the town square, and sugarcube corner...and the club where we work, tucked behind this big, fancy building. The lights in the club are out - all of the lights in town are out. On the other side are fields. Lots and lots of fields...there’s a forest of apple trees covering some of it, covering hills as big as mountains.
“Sweet Apple acres,” Scratch chimed in, naming the orchard the trees belonged to.
“Sweet Apple acres,” Ziggy repeated, “And the rest of it is open. There’s some hay, and some wheat, but it’s mostly just empty. There’s a road coming here from Canterlot - you can see it, in the distance, on the side of the mountain. It’s bright, like it’s glowing. It’s all white and gold...I think the light must be coming from the stars.” He looked up at the stars, and had to stop. They took his breath away. “The stars are incredible,” He told her, “They go on forever. There’s thousands - no, millions of them. Sometimes they clump together, so you just get these...patches, of bright in the sky. I never got to see any stars in Manehatten. They were always covered up by smog, or you couldn’t see them for the streetlights. I saw them once, when I was young...just peeking through the clouds. That’s when I got my cutie mark, I think. It was magical, almost, but here...that was nothing compared to all this. I can’t even describe it.”
“You just did,” Scratch laughed. “No, really, you did. I can’t see anything solid, in my head. It always drifts into something else, something it might be...but telling me it’s amazing? That, that I can see.”
“Really? I struggle to describe everything to you as best I can, and telling you I can’t describe it is what you like?”
“Hey, Ziggy, listen: I can spend a month on a track, and put everything I’ve got into it, and it won’t be worth listening to. But I can spin a track in an hour, and it’ll be the best damn thing I’ve ever heard. You can’t force music, and you can’t force poetry.”
“What, you thought that was poetry?” Ziggy asked, laughing feebly.
“Well, yeah,” Scratch laughed back, “why, you think you can do better?”
“I...dunno. I’ve never tried before. I told you, I don’t do the talking thing. I’ve never described something to somepony before. I've never done ‘poetry’.”
“I never did ‘music’ before I did it the first time,” Scratch said, prodding Ziggy, “I told you already, it’s not a thing. You just do it. Then you do it some more. Before you know it, somepony sees you doing it, and you’re doing it every night.”
“Oh come on, that’s different,” Ziggy insisted, “I mean, you can show ponies music. You can’t just show ponies poetry. Who reads poetry?”
“So, what, the only thing between you and poetry is that nopony ever reads it?”
“I...guess so?”
“Then I’ll read it,” Scratch told him. Ziggy rolled onto his front, and looked at the mare beside him. “Really?” He asked, “You’d read my poetry, if I made it?”
“Sure,” She answered, “Artists need feedback, right? Besides, poetry is kinda like music. It’s got a rhythm, and a beat. Would you make poetry, if I would read it?” She asked. Ziggy rolled back onto his back, and hummed to himself.
“On my back, in a field,
who knows what tomorrow yields?
stars above and dirt below,
maybe these two things might know?
I can’t ask and they can’t tell...”
Ziggy paused, scrunching up his face in concentration, before concluding,
“So I’ll wait for morning’s bell.” There was a moment of silence.
“Don’t worry, Ziggy,” Scratch said, “My first tracks were awful too.” The two ponies laughed, and Ziggy nestled deeper into the grass. He smiled, and Scratch started singing. She was soft at first, just singing to herself, but it soon grew enough that Ziggy could hear it too. There weren’t any words to the song, just a tune. It was slow, and gentle, and Ziggy felt like it was rocking him as he lay in the grass.
“Hey, Ziggy?” Scratch asked when she finished singing, but he didn’t answer. She listened carefully, and heard gentle breathing coming from beside her. Ziggy was still there. She flopped onto her side, and said his name again. “Ziggy,” She asked, “Are you alive?” Ziggy continued to breath slowly and deeply, and a small snore escaped his throat. Scratch smiled sweetly. She leaned over to the source of the sound, careful not to disturb the sleeping colt beside her too much, and kissed his cheek. “I like you, Ziggy,” She said, “My Mom is going to kill me for falling asleep outside, but you’re worth it. You’re nice.” She shifted closer to him, and snuggled into the grass, adding, “And your voice sounds cute.” |
Squeak-anon | 697 | 1 | Soarin,Spitfire,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Best | Soarin is having trouble flying after school Spitfire gives him a lesson. | complete | 81 | 1 | <p>Soarin is having trouble flying after school Spitfire gives him a lesson.</p><p>This is a short little story I did on request because I couldn't sleep. Comments and stars always appreciated. This is probably the closest to shipping I've gotten in my life.</p> | everyone | 2011-09-03T00:24:58+00:00 | 2011-09-03T00:24:58+00:00 | 3,607 | The Best
“It’s not all that hard, Soarin.” said Spitfire, flapping her rather small wings. “You just have to get the take off right.”
“Easy for you to say.” the blue colt retorted. “You’ve always been better at flying than me.” Soarin jumped off the ground again, flapping his wings as hard as he could. He managed to stay in the air for a several moments before falling flat on his rump. “I’ll never get it...” he lamented.
Spitfire chuckled. “Oh, just don’t try so hard. It’s not how many times you flap your wings that counts, it’s how you use each one. You’re using up all your energy on the take off, so you’re too tired to fly.”
Soarin sighed. “Fine, I’ll try it your way.” he said, gearing up to try again. He lowered his front legs, building up energy.
“Careful, not too much!” Spitfire advised.
Soarin shushed her, sticking his tongue out as he focused. With a mighty leap he propelled himself two feet into the air. He flapped his wings more slowly this time.
“Hey! I’m doing it!” he cried happily.
“See, I told you.” Spitfire smiled, flying closer to inspect his form. “You’ve still got a bit of work though. Your flying posture is atrocious. We’ll have to fix that.”
“I’m fine! See, I’m flying just as high as you are!”
“Yeah, for now, but your wings are already lookin-”
Soarin’s wings cut out, sending him sprawling to the ground.
“Tired.” she finished.
“Ow...” Soarin rubbed his head. “Why are you making me practice anyway? School’s out for the weekend”
“Because.” Spitefire puffed out her chest. “Someday we’re going to be the best fliers in Equestria, that’s why.”
“You’re dreaming.” Soarin got to his hooves, dusting off his wings.
“Of course, I am. But you wouldn’t know anything about that would you? You’re too busy falling.”
“Hey!” The small colt complained. “I’m trying aren’t I? Why do you want us to be the best anyway? There’s better ponies in our class. Get one of them.”
Spitfire smiled. “I want you because I happen to l like lost causes.”
Soarin’s head slumped. “Hey...”
The small yellow filly landed on the ground next to him, punching him in the flank.
“Ow!”
“I’m kidding you big idiot!”
“Okay! Can you kid with less force next time?” Soaring complained.
“Only if you practice more.”
“But we’ve been practicing for hours!”
“Well, you haven’t got it. So we need to practice some more.” she sidled up next to him. Here, I’ll help you. Bend your forelegs here.”
Soarin did as she instructed.
“Good, get your wings ready.”
Soarin opened his wings.
“And when I jump, jump! But don’t flap till I say the word ‘Wings’. Got it?” She looked Soarin up and down.
“I got it!” he insisted.
“Good.” She stood back a bit. “One....two....three...Jump!”
Soarin leapt up into the air, going much higher than he expected. His legs floundered around in the air for a moment. He almost flapped his wings on instinct.
“I didn’t say wings yet!” Spitfire chastised.
Soarin was still on an upwards arc, he wanted desperately to flap his wings in order to balance himself, but he kept them firmly at his sides. As he came to the top of his jump, his stomach lurched, gravity began to pull him downwards, for a moment he felt weightless.
“Wings!” yelled Spitfire.
Soarin closed his eyes and started to flap his wings, fully expecting to fall flat on his face.
“Open your eyes Soarin.”
“No I’ll fall!”
“You will not! You’re already flying, your form is much better too I might add.”
Soarin opened a tentative eye. He saw the ground several feet below. He was flying! It felt so much easier too! He grinned widely looking around for Spitfire. His smile faded when he didn’t see her anywehre. “Fire?” he asked slowly.
“Up here.”
Soarin craned his neck to find the small Filly hovering a few inches above him. “I told you you just needed to get the takeoff right.” she said.
“Fine...you were right.” he admitted.
“Oh don’t be so morose about it. You can fly now! We’re one step closer to being the greatest fliers in Equestria!”
“Yeah, yeah, I got’cha.” he muttered.
“No, really!” Spitfire insisted. “We’re going to be the greatest.” she flew down to his level and looked him dead in the eye. “Promise me.”
“What?”
“Promise me we’re going to be the greatest!”
Soarin rolled his eyes.
“Well! Go on!” She eyed him reproachfully.
“Fine.” he gave in. “I promise.”
“Cross you wings and hope to fall?” Spitfire asked.
Soarin raised an eyebrow “What?”
“It’s a promise, just say it.”
He looked away for a moment. “Fine, ‘Cross my wings, and hope to fall.’” he agreed.
“Wonderful. Now, next lesson. How to recover from a fall.”
“What!?”
Spitfire leaned in and kissed Soarin on the cheek. His face flushed bright red, and his wings went stiff. He fell to the ground with a loud thud.
“That was terrible.” she tisked. “You didn’t fall right at all.”
“Because you cheated!” yelled Soarin, trying to get to his hooves.
“I did no such thing.”
“Yes you did! Come down here!” Soarin leapt up, trying to catch her leg. She nimbly avoided. Spitfire flew off down the road, with him in hot pursuit.
“You’re gonna have to be faster than that if we’re gonna be the best Soarin!”
“I’ll catch you!” he retorted. “And we will be the best! I don’t break promises!”
He ran after her down the road of ponyville before taking off again. The two were off like rockets, speeding through the sky.
THE END |
Squeak-anon | 697 | 2 | Soarin,Spitfire,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Best | Soarin is having trouble flying after school Spitfire gives him a lesson. | complete | 81 | 1 | <p>Soarin is having trouble flying after school Spitfire gives him a lesson.</p><p>This is a short little story I did on request because I couldn't sleep. Comments and stars always appreciated. This is probably the closest to shipping I've gotten in my life.</p> | everyone | 2012-07-17T20:55:25+00:00 | 2012-07-17T20:55:25+00:00 | 1,429 | OCC Stuff.
Hi! I'm Squeak! I got bored on Sunday, and I happen to know a lot of VA's and foley artists and the like, so together, to kill our collective boredom we did a little radio interpretation of this story, so this is basically a repost with an audio link, I hope, if you enjoyed the story, you'll enjoy this as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC6zQHC3n8g |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 1 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2011-09-02T03:23:36+00:00 | 2011-09-02T03:23:36+00:00 | 1,093 | Be sure to read that prologue first!
Chapter 1:
A New Hoof
The silhouette soon began charging out of the now white oval, at full speed, it stepped out completely bathed in light, and left streaks of white, wherever it went. It darted past the trees and avoided the moister parts of the swamps, looking for a flatland to regain its sanity.
The bunny, however, was more in tuned to the massive oval spiraling into an orb at its middle. The orb fell onto the ground and made a small shockwave of light radiate from it. The bunny examined it and soon even sniffed it. Then it nibbled at it. The bunny was fried, tail to head.
Far off, the light-bathed colt was still racing through the mangroves. Some light from its face had faded, showing a pair of deep blue eyes, darting everywhere, looking for the flatland he wanted. He felt the presence of other creatures looking at him, probably even planning to eat him alive. The clouds had cleared and the moon was once again flooding the swamps with its dim, calming light. This helped the colt, as he was following the north star, which was now shining bright in its place in the sky.
'The star had never looked that bright before..' the colt thought.
Soon, he found the field of grass he wanted. The light had already faded away, leaving only glowing tails of where he had been before.
'Its weird, why am I running on all fours anyway?'
The colt lifted one of its hooves and was shocked that it was a hoof.
' wh- whats happening?!'
the colt darted his head around, trying to see what his body had become. His white coat was, to him, quite dashing with his broad hooves. He soon got used to the fact that he was now some sort of a horse. His tail was quite 'bushy' as he put it himself. The only thing that bothered him was; the fact that he had a pair tucked wings at his sides. His eyes broadened at the sight. Wings. He would have never imagined.
He decided that the night so far had been to much action for him. He quickly got dizzy and began to wobble around, and soon fell to his side. He slowly reopened his eyes and thought,' what, how.. why? Where am I?'
Questions started ringing in his head as he began to miss his home. His first home, now starting to be erased from his memory. The fact began to tear him up. Still on his side, he looked up to the sky. He had never seen that many stars before, not by the thousands tonight. It made him creak a light smile as his vision slowly blurred and a tear broke from his eye. He fell asleep soon afterwards.
Chapter 2:
The Flight-ning Bolt
Hours later, the colt slowly opened his eyes. Stepped up onto his new standing position, on his hooves. He shook off his dizzyness and quickly remembered how he was stuck in the middle of a swamp. He noticed a small berry bush in front of him that he never noticed before. He walked slowly up to it and bit off a few berries from its twigs. While munching on the bright pink berries, he looked around and started to consider the fact of his wings.
'hmm... no way around. But, the skies are kind of cloudy, still good for fly-.. No! I don't even know how to use these things! But still..'
He rolled his eyes away from the bush and turned his eyes back towards his wings.
'Maybe I could try?'
Closing his eyes, he began to focus. His wings began to unfold. He creaked open his eyes and saw the twin wings broadening towards the sky. At his view, the wings were twice as big as himself. His mouth broadened into a wide grin as he saw for the first time in his life; so far; Wings. Then, the ground quaked.
He swung his head around and saw a huge flaming phoenix with its trademark infinite flaming wings. It let out a deafening screech as the colt's pupils contracted with fear. The phoenix's flaming eyes locked on to the colt. The only word blasting through his mind: Run.
And so he did. The phoenix let out another scream and began stomping towards him. The colt remembered that he did not refold his wings. He also knew that was slowing him down. Darting his eyes about, he knew the flatland he was at was coming to an end. Now, he had only one way to go: Up. He threw caution into wind and began to flap the wings, he lost touch with the ground on his hind legs. Another flap, he 'jumped' off the ground. Immediately with one powerful drop of his wings, he lift off. His hind right hoof touched the canopy of the swamp trees. His scared emotion transformed into bliss as he knew he had a talent.
His eyes were hooked on the clouds above as he heard a distant screech of a pissed off phoenix. He decided to pick up speed as he saw the phoenix's wings rise. He began to pick up speed as he felt the wind beneath wings feeling better with each passing second. The phoenix turned and flew in his opposite direction. Now he was safe, as long as he did not lose altitude. And from what he knew from his previous life, altitude needs speed. And did he have a need for speed.
On instant of that thought, he dropped from the sky and U-Turned back up, shooting through the atmosphere. He started to flap through the skies, zooming through the low laying clouds. And then, a light dome appeared in front of his face. The dome hurt his eyes, so he reached both hooves in front of him to push it away; but the dome now appeared on his hooves, he felt faster with each flap. The dome began to narrow and bend with the colts body, his tail flailing around behind him as the dome became a cone right in front of his face, and the point of the cone bright as the sun. He knew he was close to something epic. The Outskirts were going to be rocked.
The colt suddenly shot forward and the cone exploded as he passed it. He left a massive bright gold ring of crackling lightning behind him that spread out, leaving a large gap in the clouds, which began to flood the swamps with sunlight. His wings were pouring out electricity that tailed him wherever he flew, he was tearing through the sky, zooming through clumps of clouds, watching the forest below him disperse from a thick swamp to a sparse forestland. He then stopped his flapping and just glided through the sky until he drifted to the ground. He even forgot that he was still nowhere near.. Anywhere, But he didn't care; he had a talent, he could feel it.
Sure enough, he soon dropped to the ground and after that, onto his back again, facing the sky. He also realized that his wings were not able to refold because of the energy still pounding inside them. Quickly noticing how any civilization was still elusive. With the heat from the sun above him pounding his body relentlessly, he began his slow march to 'Progress'.
Chapter 3:
He Who Actually Has A Name
The young colt trudged through the seemingly endless grassland for the last few hours. Hunger and exhaustion has gripped him tight. His wings began to sag downwards and his eyes were never fully open. He was going to pass out anytime soon, but spirit kept him going. But not for much longer. The grass had reached his chest, the clouds were high above him and the noon sun was staring at him with no mercy.
He began to bend forward and his legs began to wobble. His vision began to blur as he caught quick glimpses of a big, shady tree. That was a wonder. He limped towards as he began to hear the grass around ruffle. That worried him and set him to a quick alert mode. As he entered the shade, three big sized weasels leaped out from their cover of the grass and flew towards the colt, he braced and saw a quick glimpse of a rock smashing the weasels in mid-air right before he collapsed onto the ground. The last thing he saw was a silhouette of a round face among the bright sky and shadows of the leaves, followed by darkness.
When he awoke, the moon was in front of him. The sky, no longer bright blue, was now a mixture of light purple at the horizon, and a light sapphire and Black combination. Stars dotted the night sky and sparkled in their positions of the night. A light breeze swayed the tree he was under and the infinite fields around him. he got to his hooves and began to walk around until he heard a voice.
“Hey! Look who's finally awake!”
The colt turned his head and saw another young colt, just as he was, sitting in front of a fire pit.
“You know, you really gave me a scare. Its like you've never rested for days! Heh, what am I doing, here, sit! Help yourself to the fruit and the veggies.”
Sure enough, The colt sat and began to munch on an apple near a pile of veggies near the fire pit.
“Well, My name's Hank, apparently a pony now” he giggled a little and noticed the other colt's wings “Hey, wings! I'm guessin' you can fly, right?”
The colt nodded. He tried to speak but ended up coughing violently.
“Hey, hey! Chill, don't strain... Were you the one who made all those energy bursts?”
Nod.
“So.. uh, can u squeeze out your name?
The colt darted his eyes left and right and raised his two shoulders.
“ No name, huh? How's about a temporary one? How's Alex?”
The now named Alex grinned.
“Sweet! Now i'm guessing we're gonna have to work together in this huh?”
Nod.
“Alright! So, I think there's a village around here. There were some signs near abandoned pathways and apparently its called 'Ponyville'. That's where he gonna head for the next few days.”
Hank and Alex shook hooves and they began to drift off to their much needed sleep. The following day, they began their long march to Ponyville.
As Hank turned towards a heap of stuff, Alex suddenly noticed a horn jetting out of Hank's head, parting his mane into two. It gave out a light, but clear light as hank used it's magic to pick up some wood. The thought confused but at the same time made him wonder what new world this was.
Hank awoke and quickly realized that Alex was gone. He snapped up on all fours and looked around, trying to find Alex's white flank anywhere. That's until he heard a zoom above him, in the clouds. Alex was twisting and bursting through the sky, passing through the clouds until it seemed to look like an ice cream cone. Alex hovered near from the sculpture, admiring it until he heard Hank's voice calling him.
“Dude! You’re awesome!!” Hank bellowed from the ground.
Alex smiled and replied, “Haha, I know, right?”
“Come to think of it, you shouldn't even be named Alex!”
Alex swooped down and landed right in front of Hank.”well, I still gotta have a name, right?”
“Ooh-ooh! I know!!” Hank jumped up and down looking like he had the most epic new name for Alex. “Joe!”
Alex smile faded as he heard it. “Uh.. Actually, I was thinking about something like.. Cloudwork.”
“Oh.. You know, that is pretty cool! But what does it even mean, anyway?”
Cloudwork stepped next to him and pointed to the 'cloud-cone' in the sky. “Dude, 'Work' made of Clouds. Thus, 'Cloudwork'.”
“Ohh..” Hank locked his eyes on the cloud cone on the realization.
“well, I guess we are starting that trek to Ponyville now?” Cloudwork said as he stomped out the tiny candle of a fire from the pit. Hank Snapped out of his daydream and nodded towards Cloudwork. They left all their stuff behind at the tree and began their long walk.
Chapter 4:
This. Is. Seriously bad luck.
Cloudwork and Hank had been walking for several hours and were feeling the strain on their trek. Occasionally stopping at any berry bush to munch on something or any body of water to drink. The dirt track they have been following becoming clearer with each passing hour. The grasslands have begun to end and the shade of trees came back. Mountains with snow capped peaks began to appear.
Hank knew they were getting closer to their destination. Cloudwork thought he was crazy. Birds were starting to be heard again while Cloudwork slowly lost his sanity to Hank's endless talks. On the bright side, or not, The sun began to set again. Stopping one last time to camp out for the night, Hank began to collect supplies. Cloudwork zoomed up to knock fruits down from the trees above them. All the while; Cloudwork had a bad feeling in his gut as the violet skies began to spread across the sky. Hank was still busy trying to find something to cover the ground of their camp. Cloudwork lowered back down with his arms brimming with fruit. He quickly noticed a small cone shaped thing on the ground next to some more resources.
“hey, what's that thing over there?” Cloudwork asked.
“That? Oh, its just a sparker gun I’ve been working on”, replied Hank while still looking over a 'tent'.
“but.. we left our stuff at that tree. How'd you get this?” Asked Cloudwork once more, examining the weird device on the ground.
“Duh, I Made it!”
“..Uh, now?”
“No..”Hank rolled his eyes to Cloudwork.”Just now, obviously!”
Cloudwork put down the device and looked into the deep, dark forest. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was there. Watching. He turned away and saw Hank standing beside a makeshift fire pit. The sparker gun was hovering in mid-air, in Hank's magic. Hank Flipped a switch and Grinding noises were heard. The high pitched noises blasted around the area and the forest, also made the two colts brace from the noise. But, indeed, sparks Flooded out of the nozzle of the sparker gun, igniting a flame from the pit.
Hours later, after a hearty meal of fruits, Hank hit the hay. Cloudwork on the other hand, found out he could literally stand on clouds! He brought a few down and lay on them; stared at the Moon. The feeling of something big on their way really kept him awake. In the far off distance, he saw small orbs of light. 'Ponyville' he thought. Maybe Hank was right. They just needed another day.
On that instance, He heard a soft, but clear roar. Now he hoped that day would come sooner. He dived from the cloud and frantically waked Hank up.
“C-Cloud! You crazy, dude! I don't hear anything..!” Hank exclaimed while shaking off the sleep left in his big eyes.
Suddenly, A huge lion like animal with a scorpion tail jumped directly behind them. It cracked the stones it stood on and left a clear hole in the trees it broke through. Its bloodshot eyes darted from Cloudwork to Hank as its legs started to flex under its massive, solid body. Its mane was slowly flowing through the soft breeze and from its mouth came a loud, soul sucking roar that blasted through their ears.
Cloudwork slowly backed up while Hank, still laying down, Tilted up to the creature's head said,”Okay. Forget what I said. There is SO something here.”
Cloudwork accelerated with his wings and grabbed Hank just before The creature swung his tail down and smashed the ground. Cloudwork to the skies, dodging the stuff thrown by the creature. Frantically thinking of what to do, he quickly remembered the distant lights. He took off in that direction. However, unlike the phoenix earlier, this creature was persistent. It leaped in and out if the forest's canopy, trying desperately to get Cloudwork. Hank quickly noticed the lights and shouted, “Look! Told you, Ponyville!”
“Not the time, Hank!” Cloudwork Shouted back as he barreled across the sky, trying to shake off the bounding beast. That's when he noticed, from a lake below, the creature had fired a ball of goo from its tail, and it was heading straight for them. To make things worse, The creature's final bound seemed powerful enough to reach them quickly. That's when something clad in gold struck the beast from its side, knocking it to the ground. Rocks flew around while the pony in gold yelled, “hey! Look out!”
A Rock broke and a small shard struck Cloudwork's right wing in the middle of a barrel roll. He never expected it to hurt that much. He and Hank shot through the air and crashed into the shallow end of the lake below.
As Cloudwork endured through the pain in his wing, he saw the gold-clad colt run towards them yelling, “Canterlot, Canterlot! Two colts, injured sighted. Send backup.. now..” He Blacked out.
End Of Part 1 |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 2 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2011-09-01T13:45:22+00:00 | 2011-09-01T13:45:22+00:00 | 945 | Epilogue:
The clouds hung low in the outskirts of the Everfree forest. Nopony has ever set hoof in this part of the Everfree, for there were creatures here. Creatures that could never be seen again for what they have done to ponykind. But, despite the odds, two young souls; banished from their original worlds;
get a second chance to mend their ways. And will help all of Equestria in its darkest hour.
Fogs settled over the muddy swamplands of the outskirts as darkness regained its power of the sky. The moon soon started its own crawl on its trek across the sky. As the swamp's soundtrack started, as did something for the first time in over a thousand years: two young stallions are about to enter the outskirts. On accident, that is.
The clouds gathered across the Everfree outskirts. All the little furry animals scurried back to their homes as the moon was beginning to disappear from sight. Rumbles of thunder rocked the swamps. All was suddenly quiet as a light silver glow suddenly appeared in the clouds. The shadows around the swamp began to evaporate away as two huge beams slowly descended from the sky.
The two beams appeared to be aiming for the two opposite mountains on the west and east end of the swamp. A little bunny hopped towards a nearby mountain, its curiosity getting the better of it. Silence fell for the entire time of the massive beams' descent. Time nearly stopped at the Everfree Outskirts, more and more animals peering out to see what was going on.
After what seemed like an eternity, the beams finally touched the faces of the mountains, with a loud roar of crumbling rocks mixed with the crackles of electrical currents. The noise deafened every animal and forced them to scurry back to their dens. All but the little bunny. It narrowed its beady little eyes as the light from the beam started to create a flood of powerful light onto the mountain and the swamps.
The light soon dimmed down, revealing a massive blue oval on the side of the mountain. Once again, the blue oval started to brighten to the point where only white could be seen. Except this time, a silhouette of a colt could be seen. |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 3 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2011-11-21T11:58:12+00:00 | 2011-11-21T11:58:12+00:00 | 877 | The Equestrian Takeover
Part 2:
Colts in civilization
Written by
Fariz 'The WaVe' Amir
Chapter 5:
New colts in Canterlot
CloudWork opened his eyes to see that he was out of the forestland. This time, completely. No trees, no mountains, no grass. He was even looking at a ceiling. He also noticed he was on a bed. An actual, soft bed!
He rolled off the bed and saw the room he was in. Elaborate, royal looking designs lined the room. The White tiled floor paired a gold painted wall. Opening the window of the room, CloudWork was awestruck at what he saw. More ponies crowded the streets. All of them, unique with different colored manes and coats. In the distance, more buildings towered, it made CloudWork Disbelieve that this was the same world that he was just in last night. From a Nature nightmare to this metropolis. A sign across the street, said: Welcome to Canterlot, Capital of Equestria! Visit our famous doughnut stores today!
Behind him, the door opened and a pony slowly walked in. she said, “Oh, you're awake. Here, come with me. Princess Celestia will see you know”
CloudWork followed closely behind her and asked, “Umm, Who's Celestia?”
She turned her head around with her mouth open with a few other ponies and colts around gasping to what CloudWork just said. “Princess Celestia is our dear ruler. She rules this land: Equestria. How can you not know that? Where are you even from?”
CloudWork, still surprised from the reactions he got, replied, “Well, I’ll be honest, even I have no idea. Let's just see this Princess, okay?”
The pony led him to a room a large hall that also had a massive Gate decorated with pictures of the sun and the moon. Hank Sat next to that Gate on a small couch. Hank flashed a quick, sheepy smile as the pony told them to stay quiet.
An awkward silence took over, but neither of them didn't seem to mind. They were to busy analyzing the place they were in. The hall boasted another massive gate at the other far end of the hall. Towering pillars with spiraling décor were paired with potted ferns around them.
Ponies and other colts walked around chatting with each other as others were rushing here and there. It almost seemed as though they didn’t notice the tall window panes showing the outside. The hall seemed to have four main features; the huge sealed gateway beside CloudWork and Hank, the large doorway opposite them, two redirecting hallways leading to other parts of the building, and a giant, gold and silver statue.
It featured a Unicorn Standing on its hind legs, with its head tilted towards the ceiling; its horn seemed to be glowing light blue. Beside it, a regular pony stood firm, its front right hoof up; it looked towards the Open doorway. Behind the two, A Pegasus colt was lifted slightly, supported by its tail; His Wings spread open and his head looking towards the ceiling.
As CloudWork admired the statue, a stallion wearing gold approached the gateway beside them. He stomped on a button nearby and Gears began to work. At the bottom, the floor folded away briefly, Gears on the side of the gate slowly creaked the gates open. A bright light Flooded down on the gold-plated stallion. He then turned and said to CloudWork and Hank; “Princess Celestia would like to see you now. You two may enter.” And enter they did.
Chapter 6:
Royal welcoming
CloudWork stepped in first and was surprised to see a wonderful sight. Hank stepped in and was glaring at the ground.
“Can somepony please turn down that light?” Hank complained.
“Um, Hank, Just... open your eyes... Now.” CloudWork said, His eyes wide open from what he saw.
“Pfft, No way!”
CloudWork, still staring, grabbed the top of Hank's head and forced it up. Hank at first complained again, but he began to see why CloudWork was so excited about it.
A tall mare with a beautiful, flowing mane stood at the top of a pedestal. She was wearing a gold Barrel plate, encrusted with emeralds and Sapphires. Her wings were folded, but still showed a picture on her flank. A small Sun. What really got their attention was that she also had a majestic horn atop her head. Behind that, a golden tiara was showed off. Cloudwork's and Hank's Eyes widened as they began to understand they were with Royalty.
“Gentlecolts, I am Princess Celestia. Ruler of this fine land; Equestria. And who, may I ask, are you two?” The Tall mare said from the pedestal.
“Umm...I am CloudWork. This is my friend, Hank” CloudWork said out loud, trying to sound as masculine as possible while he did.
“Yeah... Er, hi...” Hank replied lightly.
“Well, Hello, CloudWork and Hank of..?” Princess Celestia asked once again.
“Uh... I would answer that if I could, Princess,” CloudWork answered, cocking his head to the side.
Celestia leaped from the pedestal, landed right in front of the two.
“Hmm... you, CloudWork, look a bit like a Manehattan-nite. Are you?” Celestia asked. CloudWork shook his head. “And you, Hank?” Celestia asked once more. Hank shook his head too.
“Very well, then. In that case, how did you two wind up in the Everfree Outskirts, where my guards found you?”
CloudWork, now seeming confident with the Princess, replied, “I'll be honest, Princess. All I remember is a big, silver oval that I stumbled out of. Then, I knew I could fly, met Hank here, and then, a lion-scorpion thing, now I'm here. That’s... about it, actually”
“You seem like a noble colt, CloudWork. I will take your word for this. In the meantime, I presume you both do not have a place to stay?” The two of them shook heads. “Right. Of course. For now, well... It would be better if you stayed in the Castle. No offense, but you two did pop out from nowhere. Furthermore, it was from the Everfree!”
“No problem, Princess. We understand.” CloudWork said, trying to be as noble as he could again.
“Well, in that case... You two will be on your way to Ponyville now,” Celestia said happily with a wink.
“But... Why?” Hank asked, puzzled. “Because, understanding is a key principle of a good colt. You two seem good enough to be in a town, right?” Celestia said, bowing down slightly.
CloudWork and Hank nodded, happy that they have been accepted in the eyes of royalty. They smiled at each other and thanked the Princess.
“Twilight! Come over here, I have a task for you,” Princess Celestia called into a distant hallway.
“Coming..!” A distant reply was heard. When a pony opened the door, Cloudwork's eyes widened once more.
Chapter 7:
Trip to Ponyville: The Express way.
A light purple pony stepped out of the hallway door. She was a unicorn with a flinched mane on her face. The rest of her mane curled halfway round her neck. She spotted a white and pink 6-point star on her flank. “Yes, Princess Celestia?” She said. Music to Cloudwork's ears.
“Ah, Twilight... I hope I am not intruding on any of your studies, but I was wondering if you could help these two gentlecolts ease into Ponyville,” asked Princess Celestia.
Twilight looked over Celestia's shoulders to get a glimpse of CloudWork and Hank. “Why, sure! I mean, why not? But... I don't think I've seen these colts before...” replied the now curious Twilight.
“Their arrival... well, let us just say that they are...’new' to the kingdom,” Celestia answered.
“Well, okay then! I'll get the Chariot Riders, okay, Princess Celestia?” Twilight replied.
With a nod, Celestia agreed to Twilight's idea. Celestia's horn gave a faint pink glow and a pair of Silver armored Stallion pegasi flew into the room carrying a Royal looking open carriage. Twilight signaled to CloudWork and Hank to get in, which they did. Hank turned and looked at Celestia saying, “take care, have a safe flight!”
“Okay you two, hold on!” Twilight shouted while she gripped the handlebar in front of her. CloudWork, who was beside her, did the same. “Pfft... why? Its not gonna b- WHAAAA!!” Hank cried as the pegasi Sped off out of the castle and into the Canterlot skies.
As Hank struggled in the Back of the chariot trying to get a proper hold, CloudWork was mesmerized by the sights. He could see multiple cities in the distance. All of them very much like Canterlot below them. His mane flowing in the wind and his face washing in the coming winds. His fascination was then blocked for a moment when Twilight's voice came out.
“Well, I guess we should properly introduce ourselves. Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, proud student of Princess Celestia. What's your name?” she gleefully asked CloudWork, who's face was beginning to redden at the sight of Twilight's warm smile. Hank was still struggling behind them.
“Well, I am CloudWork. And this is my friend, Hank. We both met when we somehow ended up in the Everfree Outskirts. Sorry, not much of an intro, I know,” Replied CloudWork, who was now comfortable at speaking next to somepony whom he thought, was an angel.
“Oh, probably that's why I never recognized you two.” Twilight Continued. “But, how did you end up here?”
“I'll be honest, all I remember was a giant silver oval that I ran out of,” CloudWork answered.
“Oh... I guess I get it...” Twilight said. “How about you, Hank-”
Hank's little activity (Gaping his mouth open, trying to gather wind and flailing his arms around in excitement) was quickly stopped when Twilight and CloudWork Looked back at him. Hank blushed a little and asked, “Umm... yes..? How may I help you two?” while darting his eyes from CloudWork to Twilight.
“Umm you know what? Never mind! We are going to reach our destination anyway!” Twilight exclaimed. She pointed a hoof to her right, and true to her word, she was pointing at a small town with a sparse forest around it. “CloudWork and Hank, Welcome to Ponyville!”
Chapter 8:
A warm welcome
As the pegasi lowered down to the ground of a large town square, other ponies began to look at the carriage. Twilight thanked the pegasi pair and they flew back off to Canterlot while CloudWork and Hank looked around. Not as complex and sophisticated as Canterlot, but they liked it! The town had a cozy atmosphere to it.
“Well, this is Ponyville... Our first 'destination' huh, Cloud?” Hank joked.
“Haha, I know right? Can’t believe we're actually here. Longer than planned, but... What the heck!” CloudWork exclaimed.
Soon, Twilight called out to somepony in the distance. “AppleJack! Come over here!” A light orange pony wearing a rather large hat looked over to Twilight and came towards her
“Well, howdy there Twilight! Who're your friends there? Never seen em' before..! Hey there, boys! I'm Applejack. Pleasure meetin' yall!” AppleJack said with a western accent. Hank smiled as CloudWork introduced him. “Well, Hey there, AppleJack! Pleasure meeting you too! I'm CloudWork, and there's my friend Hank over there... Erm... Oh, there!” CloudWork pointed to Hank, who wandered off to munch on an apple that he got in a barrel nearby.
“Erm...*munch-Munch* yeah... Hey..!”Hank said while munching on apple flesh.
“Oh, fancy apples do ya?” AppleJack asked Hank. Still munching, Hank nodded his head really quickly. “Well, why don't you two head on over to Sweet Apple Acres? We happen to have a few barrels extra! You don't mind do ya, Twi?” AppleJack Offered, happily.
“Well, it is still quite early... Okay then! Ooh, just let me grab Spike from the Library, he has to be starving! I'll meet you guys at the farm!” Twilight exclaimed. AppleJack nodded in agreement as Twilight Turned and headed down the street.
“Well, come on, you two! Let’s get our move on!” AppleJack Called from up street. Hank popped his head out of the barrel and galloped towards her. CloudWork followed from behind, “Sweet Apple Acres, here we come!”
On the way there, CloudWork noticed the lifestyle of Ponyville. Casual, maybe a little bit laidback, but really cozy. He loved the atmosphere; other ponies raised a hoof and a smile to greet him and Hank, showing their friendly sides to everypony everywhere! He loved it. The houses were sitting cozily next to each other, a very nice balance of nature and buildings. CloudWork also soon noticed a weird lack of other colts like him and Hank… Weird. He knew that wherever Princess Celestia told them to stay in, He really wanted it to be nearby. Maybe it was a little bit… Girly to his taste, but maybe his place could be more customized!
Soon enough, they arrived at the Acres. CloudWork and Hank met Hank Met Big Macintosh, AppleJack’s Big brother; He was the first stallion in Ponyville they met. He was really a stallion of few words. AppleBloom, her little sister and Granny Smith made them really feel welcome by offering them some apple pie! After a little chat with them, Hank Barraged right into some Apple-filled barrels to start munching away. CloudWork soon joined Hank in his apple eating, after more talking with AppleJack.
While eating in the massive mess of barrels, they didn’t notice Twilight come back with a little purple and green dragon, along with another one of her friends. CloudWork stopped after he noticed them trotting towards a table nearby. Apparently this pony was quite alike to CloudWork. She was blue, only more obvious… and she had wings!
Chapter 9:
So Much Speed, So many Ponies, So little Time…
“Haha, I see you and Hank are having a great time!” Twilight said, smiling at CloudWork. He secretly embraced those words while he replied,” Well of course! Sweet Apple Acres have the best Apples I’ve ever tasted!”
The Blue Pegasus turned towards him and said,” Well, You must be the ‘mysterious-Pegasus’ Twilight has been talking about just now! Name’s Rainbow Dash, The greatest flyer in Equestria!” CloudWork Replied, “Well, Rainbow, I’m CloudWork! Pleasure meeting ya!” A small, purple and green dragon called to CloudWork, “Hey! I’m Spike, Twilight’s faithful assistant! Good to see another guy around here, it’s about time!”
“Heya Spike! Name’s CloudWork, don’t worry, I’m probably gonna hang out with you... Erm… Ponies a lot! Can’t wait to get to get to know you better, Spike!” CloudWork Replied as he noticed a few other ponies coming from behind AppleJack’s barn.
They all quickly noticed CloudWork and began asking him where he was from. CloudWork also began getting nervous and started to hope that Hank would get out of the barrel he was in! But he managed to get to know the ponies anyway. There was Rarity, another Unicorn with a really awesome hair- umm… mane-do? She apparently owned the local dress store. Pretty cool for a boutique in a little town, CloudWork thought…
Soon afterwards, he met Fluttershy. A Pegasus just like he and Rainbow Dash, But way different. She was a very shy type, which Rarity quickly told him, but he already figured that from her name… She lived in a cottage a little distance from town, and took care of a huge variety of Woodland creatures. Fluttershy managed to get comfortable with CloudWork after a while after his fascination of animals got her attention.
Last, but most definitely not least, he met Pinkie Pie. A very exciting and hyper pony, she was! She was talking about how weird CloudWork happened to pop up and that he was a Pegasus. CloudWork knew she was the type of Pony who just loved Partying. He was obviously right. Pinkie came with a basket containing cupcakes and balloons, celebrating CloudWork’s arrival to Ponyville. Soon, she raised an interesting proposition.
“What? No way, Pinkie! I’m not racing this Colt!” Rainbow Dash snapped.
“Oh, come on, Dashie!” CloudWork Giggled at the nickname, “It would be fun!”
“Actually, I kinda like that idea, come on, Rainbow!” Twilight Chipped in to Pinkie Pie.
“Well, I must admit, I’m with Pinkie!” Exclaimed Rarity.
CloudWork soon said, “Well, come on, Rainbow Dash, Let’s have a go! You did say you were ‘The Best Flyer of Equestria!’ Let’s just have a go!”
Suddenly changing her mind, Rainbow Dash said, “Well, would be fun, anyways… You’re on, CloudWork! But don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
“Alrighty then! Here’s the plan, From the Barn, to the ends of the Farm, and back. Basically, a huge triangle over the acres!” Declared AppleJack.
Rainbow Dash and CloudWork shook hooves in agreement and took their positions and unfolded their wings. Instantly Everypony began looking at CloudWork’s distinctive Three-pronged Wing, Towering and poised to thrust him off. Rainbow noticed it too and began thinking about the wings. They seemed powerful, but were probably slow because of their size, anyway, she thought.
Moments later, Pinkie Pie signaled the start and the Pegasi were off! CloudWork Immediately took first place as his wings propelled him forward. Rainbow Dash began frantically chasing him. CloudWork told himself not to be too overconfident, but Rainbow Dash immediately overtook him. Literally, She just glided over him. CloudWork’s wings began to flap a bit more smoother with each speeding minute. The first turn was coming up fast and Rainbow Dash was holding the lead pretty good. CloudWork began gaining altitude for a better chance at overtaking Rainbow Dash. The turn came up and Rainbow Flawlessly did a near 90- degree turn, leaving CloudWork behind in a rainbow-coloured trail. But CloudWork had his own cunning plan. He just needed more height.
Back at the barn, Twilight was asking everypony what they thought CloudWork’s Plan was, He seemed to be dragging behind more and more.
Rainbow Dash Spun to her back and began poking fun at CloudWork. “Watcha doin’? You know, to WIN, you’re supposed to be in front of me? Not ABOVE me, you know?”
“Heh, I know exactly how to win, Rainbow, You’ll just see, soon enough!” CloudWork Shouted as he Soared into the clouds, out of sight. Rainbow Dash Decided to focus more and sped towards the second turning point, taking her time, but keeping her speed high and constant. It was a very quiet but fast trip, and Rainbow Dash Turned into the final Stretch to the finish line. Everypony at the Barn began scanning the skies for CloudWork when Rainbow Dash hit the half-way mark of the stretch. At that second, Hank Emerged from the now empty apple barrels and Shouted: “FLIGHT-NING CLOUDWORK!! YEAH!!”
As Everypony turned in shock, a loud boom rocketed from the skies as Clouds were vaporized from sight and A massive shockwave of lightning pulsed through the skies. Rainbow Dash, along with everypony else was hypnotized by CloudWork’s Ability while Hank was cheering and screaming from where he was. Funnels of energy pulsed from behind CloudWork as he Rocketed past Rainbow Dash and flooded the air around him with pulses of electricity and strong yellow light. He began soaring to the ground to show off a little bit more. He crossed the finished line and made gusts of strong winds that tossed dirt and benches around. He immediately climbed back up to let the energy escape from him and to begin losing speed. The energy funnels spread from where CloudWork left them, charging the air all around it.
Rainbow Dash slowly trailed back to the barn to meet the rest and instantly exclaimed, “CloudWork! That was the most Awesome thing I’ve ever seen a Pegasus do! What do you call that Move there?!”
“Flight-Ning, My own Trademark! It’s my specialty!” CloudWork exclaimed, Beaming with pride.
Hours Passed while everypony talked and ate Apple crumble. Hank introduced himself and They became closer and closer as friends. In due time though, they would be putting it to the greatest test known to Equestria. |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 4 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2011-11-23T14:16:29+00:00 | 2011-11-23T14:16:29+00:00 | 614 | The Equestrian Takeover
Part 3:
A dark night.
Written by
Fariz 'The WaVe' Amir
Chapter 10:
Hank’s Specialty Is Found!
The party eventually ended and everypony went to their homes. CloudWork and Hank quickly remembered how they were homeless in Ponyville. Rarity recalled an abandoned workshop in the fields near Ponyville. It was old and a little rundown, But CloudWork and Hank took it as a home anyway; knowing how they had no real choice anyway. Twilight, Fluttershy and AppleJack donated several small furnishings; Pillows, Blankets, Firewood and some food for the night.
The Workshop was big and still had a few working machines inside it. All the dust inside made Rarity stay outside with Fluttershy, who was a little afraid of the dark. Rainbow Dash and CloudWork set a few new lamps and torches around while Twilight and AppleJack cleared dust away. Rarity and Fluttershy finally came back in to help out after realizing the place wasn’t as ‘unsanitary’ or ‘creepy’ as before. They got the place a bit more homely after several hours of work. Rarity offered them to go shopping for more stuff for their new home the following day. CloudWork accepted and everypony else headed back home. CloudWork and Hank themselves were tuckered out after chatting on their own in the higher floor of the workshop. They eventually fell asleep, no thanks to weird noises outside.
The following day, CloudWork woke up to the sound of metal dropping to the concrete floors. His eyes burned at the sudden sight of sparks flying to the ceiling from the lower floor. Curious, he walked down the steps only to find Hank. In a welding mask.
“Hank? What the heck are you doing?” CloudWork naturally asked.
“Oh, this? Nah, I’m just inventing! Been doin’ it all night!” Hank Answered, his face still looking at the new contraption he was working on.
“Inventing? Inventing what?” CloudWork asked once more, instantly shielding himself from more sparks as Hank fired up the blowtorch again.
“That was exactly what I was waiting for you to say! Remember back in the Everfree, when I saved you with that slingshot machine?”
“Of course..?”
“Well, here it is again! Except now it’s improved, off the-charts!” Hank said, pointing over to a machine resting on a pony-shaped mannequin.
It was definitely a memory jolt. Instead of a held model, this new one was a back-mounted shooter. By the looks of it, it fired random metal bolts from twin barrels on the side of the saddle-like mount from a small magazine load on the top of the mount. CloudWork definitely had to get a deep examination of it. It looked a little big and bulky definitely has room for improvement, he thought. Soon Hank asked if CloudWork wanted to have a go at firing a few test shots. CloudWork agreed with massive excitement.
CloudWork stood on a painted red X on the floor while Hank Pulled levers with his magic. Metal chains creaked and shackled as they lifted the crossbow mount on CloudWork’s back.
“How did you even manage to get these things working? Twilight said this place was abandoned for 5 years!” CloudWork asked Hank nearby.
“Wasn’t easy, I’ll give you that! Took half the night just for restoration works, the rest of the night for improvements and some changes to the machinery and about… um… 3 hours for the mount?” Hank answered with pride. “Alright, Cloud, the mount may be a little bit heavy... And you gotta lower your neck down to activate the sights. Then fire by stomping your front hooves. Left hoof for left turret, right hoof for right turret! There we go, all set and ready to fire!”
It took some time for CloudWork to get used to a heavy metal contraption on his back. He fired the first bolt, aiming at a wooden plank. He missed, but the second bolt hit it dead on. On the third shot, though…
“Dammit Hank, what’s going on? Why is this thing shaking? Wait… OH NUTS—“CloudWork panicked as he fell while the turret just broke before even firing the third bolt. Metal plates and bolts rolled along the concrete flooring, making a mess of scrap and junk.
Hank walked slowly to CloudWork, who was still on the ground, recovering from shock and weariness. Hank had a very… certain look on his face; a combined look of disgust, anger, disappointment and sadness. Very much like the look a mare gives to a little filly when she failed a test.
“Whoa... Erm... Jeez… I’m really sorry, Hank… I didn’t know the turret was that fragile…” CloudWork said, His eyes shifting from the ground, to the metal on the floor, then to Hank. That’s when Hank completely freaked CloudWork out with a sudden grin and he started laughing out loud and began rolling on the ground. CloudWork, with his shoulders feeling a lot lighter, suddenly joined Hank in his fun, even though he had no idea what was going on.
In the two colts’ fun, they didn’t realize Twilight and Rarity come in, and they were instantly staring at them, questioning their motives and what the mess was about. Hank got up and explained to CloudWork that he already expected that exact thing to happen. He was already working on a second prototype, that one more secure… and safer than the first. He also quickly noticed Twilight and Rarity staring at them.
“Oh, well hey there, girls!” Hank said, still sitting on the ground but still having a warm smile on his face.
CloudWork, still on the ground, looked up and saw Twilight; with rays of sunlight behind her, making her eyes sparkle. Light blows of morning breezes flowed through her mane and tail, creating the perfect silhouette of Twilight, with parts of her body uniquely lighted. CloudWork didn’t notice that he was still looking really scruffy from the mess and how he didn’t even prepare his mane or anything.
“Umm… Hey, CloudWork! What’s up?” Twilight asked, feeling a little bit awkward while CloudWork laid there, staring at her with a huge interest.
“Nothing much, my beautiful unicorn angel of this great land… Uh... Shoot…I mean… Erm… Hey, Twilight!” CloudWork stuttered, secretly cursing himself for saying what he said at first.
Rarity nudged at Twilight and said, “Well, I’m guessing SOMEPONY here likes another certain Unicorn, hmm?” with a cheeky smile, She even winked at Twilight and pointed her horn towards CloudWork, who was helping Hank with the cleanup.
Twilight immediately disagreed with Rarity and stepped forward. “Well, what were you two doing?” She asked.
“Well, I was testing out this turret mount-“CloudWork explained, before Hank Interrupted him.
“A mount which I, Hank, invented myself!” Hank boasted.
“A little dangerous to our lifestyle, but that would probably explain your cutie mark!” Rarity said, smiling at how adorable Hank looked when he boasted.
“Umm... Cutie... Mark? What?” CloudWork quickly asked, his head cocked at an angle.
“A cutie mark, It’s a symbol that represents you’re… Super-special talent that makes you unique! Look, it’s on your flank. A metal bolt, two wrenches. You must be an engineer, an inventor even! My, I sound like Cherilee!” Rarity explained to them.
“Probably explains your ability, CloudWork. The Lightning bolt attached to a three- prong wing, your unique wings and your Flight-Ning ability!” Twilight said, excited at the idea of cutie marks.
Laughing, Rarity reminded everypony about their shopping trip at the market place. Rarity immediately changed the topic to shops, clothes and other girly things. Well, why not? Its Rarity here!
Chapter 11:
The Colt Who Defied Equestrian Science
Soon enough, the four ponies reached the market place. Wasn’t so crowded, which was quite normal for Ponyville. Hours were spent there, having fun, buying stuff, usual market activity! Pinkie Pie invited them over to the Sugar Cube Corner for some cakes and treats, along with a lot of other ponies that CloudWork met. Night very soon fell and the party soon quieted down and more ponies were walking back home, tired from the fun Pinkie Pie gave them.
CloudWork and also soon decided the day was over for them too, after CloudWork woke up from a massive sugar hangover. Hank decided partying even had its end. Well, the night wasn’t exactly over, not for one more colt.
Far away from Sugar Cube Corner, at the Everfree forest, a square jawed colt with brown eyes popped up from the bushes. He eyed Ponyville, enjoyed the music blaring from Sugar Cube Corner and was looking at all the carts with food, being locked up by ponies who called it a night already. That’s when he realized that it was time. Raising his flank, he prepared for his own special talent. With a heavy kick back, he blasted from where he was to rocket to Ponyville with extreme speed. A loud, deafening Bass pound spread around. His rust-coloured coat left a trail of the same color. Ponyville was going to have a wake up call.
Back at Sugar Cube Corner, AppleJack Heard a loud boom.
“Yall hear that?” AppleJack asked.
“Yeah, what was it?” Twilight added.
“Hey! Over there!” Hank shouted, pointing to a herd of ponies running towards them. Everypony ran back inside the Sugar Cube Corner, while Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and CloudWork took flight and hovered above the panicking ponies.
“What’s going on?” AppleJack shouted to the herd.
A trio of ponies stopped to catch their breath, each of them having one thing in common, all of them having flowers as cutie marks.
One of them said breathlessly, “It’s a disaster!”
Another quickly continued, “It’s horrible!”
The last one screamed, “And He’s Back! Everypony RUN!!!”
All eight ponies turned around to see something rocketing towards them. They dove out of the way while Rainbow Dash quickly noticed it was not a thing, it was another colt! She signaled to CloudWork that she would try to subdue him and that he should Flight-Ning his way there to help her. CloudWork agreed with a nod. Rainbow Dash accelerated to catch up with the speeding bandit, While CloudWork took to the skies. Applejack called to everypony else, telling them that they should try and help out. Twilight teleported out of there to try and track the colt around Ponyville. Rarity and Pinkie Pie blocked certain streets, trying to limit the colt’s track. Fluttershy lifted AppleJack to the front of Rarity’s boutique, where they thought the colt would end up soon.
Rainbow Dash was racing and weaving around the streets and alleys, trying to gain up on the speeding colt, which just seemed to be zooming past each obstacle in front of him. He had the focus that Rainbow Dash was losing. She had to control herself, she couldn’t risk an accidental Sonic RainBoom in the middle of Ponyville, plus she was getting tired really quickly. That’s when the colt stumbled into a wide street leading to Rarity’s boutique, where AppleJack and Fluttershy awaited; they were behind bushes, hiding from him, waiting for the perfect moment. That was when a huge explosion rocked the skies. CloudWork blasted out of nowhere, blasting towards him from behind, but the colt had his own trick up his sleeve. With Rainbow Dash still on his tail, he hopped up and kicked back once more, blasting his own deafening boom and it catapulted Rainbow Dash back, onto the gravel grounds. CloudWork Barrel-Rolled out of her path and Flipped forward to kick the colt down, breaking his dangerous run. The colt’s speed stash immediately disappeared and he was tumbling towards the boutique, where AppleJack jumped out and bucked him right in his mid-torso. blood sputtered from mouth and a bone crushing noise was heard all around. He fell down unconscious, and AppleJack felt a mix of guilt, disgust and a slight relief. CloudWork rocketed up into a loop to get back to Rainbow Dash to help her out.
The colt’s path of destruction was really something. Breaking kerosene tanks and causing fires on the streets, stalls were smashed, wood and metal pieces scattered the dirt roads. Dozens of ponies and young fillies were injured, but thankfully none were… killed in the event.
It was a sleepless night, with everypony staying awake to help out with First-aid and putting out the fires. CloudWork carried the colt to the workshop where Hank welded an iron fence to contain him. Twilight sent a letter to Princess Celestia for some help on the aid and repairs. The rest of them rested in the Workshop, recovering from the sudden action. With the renegade colt behind bars (literally), they decided to help out after a quick rest.
Chapter 12:
The Invasion’s Start
Soon enough, Princess Celestia Arrived with a team of medics and engineers from the Canterlot Team. Princess Luna even tagged along to help out. On their landing, everypony, even the injured bowed to greet them. Princess Luna quickly called out that there was no need for the bow and that everyone should get rest. The medics immediately ran to the injured while the engineers built a makeshift hospital in a tent. Princess Luna went round comforting the ponies that were still in shock. Princess Celestia was quickly greeted by Twilight and the rest. They came over to the workshop to let Princess Celestia see the colt, which was still knocked out.
“What are these marks on his body?” Princess Celestia asked.
“Sorry, Princess, that’s my bad… he was just coming a bit fast towards Fluttershy and I… and I couldn’t tackle him…” AppleJack stuttered, guilt washing over her.
“So… by the looks of it, you bucked him?”
“… I’m terribly sorry, Princess” AppleJack said, her head down and voice full of sorrow.
“It wasn’t you fault now, AppleJack…” Celestia said to AppleJack, trying to reassure her; lifting her hoof to AppleJack’s chin, bringing her face up.
“Erm... Sorry to kinda ruin this ‘heart-melting’ moment here, Princess Celestia, But what do we do to that colt?” Hank said, trying to get everything back on track.
As Celestia walked off to wonder, Fluttershy and Twilight comforted AppleJack, with her eyes beginning to water.
“Of course… he does have his, abilities that are quite mind-blowing…” Celestia said, her mind wondering what to do.
Princess Luna’s Voice from the front of the workshop interrupted them, and made everypony turn their heads towards the main door in curiosity.
“Celestia!” she screamed, her face showing massive hints of fear and concern. “Philomena came with an urgent message from the Northern Sky Observatory!”
“Oh? Well then, come, everypony! To the main square!” Celestia ordered.
Rainbow Dash and CloudWork took off with Princess Celestia and Luna. AppleJack wiped off her tears and ran with the rest. On their arrival, Philomena was resting on top of the fountain, and Royal guards in their gold armor were taking formation. More engineers arrived to speed up reconstruction. Luna came back to Princess Celestia and the rest with a letter from the head scientist at the Observatory.
“Here is what he sent: I have reported sightings of very strange happenings in the Everfree forest. The Tower Canyons have been with what seems to be large silver rays-“Luna read before being interrupted.
“That’s where we came from!” CloudWork pointed out.
“Well, that’s one mystery sort of solved…? Anyways, back to the letter; that caused openings of what seems to be inter-galactic portals. Now a massive metal object has been spotted and it sent a coded transition. After decoding, it says that they are from another planet and they are here to take away our most valuable power source- And well... that’s when the message ended. Something terrible is going to happen, Tia… something bad!” Luna cried.
“Well, don’t panic… Maybe something can be don—“Celestia was interrupted by a bright light shining from behind them
From behind them, the mountain top that housed the Northern Sky Observatory exploded; its metal exterior was completely blown to nothing. Above it, a giant metal ship emerged from the dark, shadowed clouds, the mountains below it crumbled as Bay doors on the sides of the ship opened and smaller dropships sped off into the bleak, night sky. Nearby, Canterlot’s Force shields activated.
Everypony in Ponyville said nothing for the exhilarating 3 minutes. CloudWork and Hank were breathless. Twilight and the rest’s mouths hung open as they knew what was going to happen. Celestia said only one thing: “Prepare yourselves, Everypony.” |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 5 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2011-11-30T13:30:16+00:00 | 2011-11-30T13:30:16+00:00 | 650 | The Equestrian Takeover
Part 4:
Downfall
Written by
Fariz 'The WaVe' Amir
Chapter 12:
Terror among the happiness
Large metal aerial tanks flew around the skies, most heading towards the bustling city of Manehattan to the West. Several others were heading For Amareica and Trottingham south of Ponyville. The ships did not seem to notice Ponyville, though. The main, massive Battle ship slowly dragged over to the skies over the Canterlot castle. Dozens of beams made the force shield collapse in a matter of seconds. About eight dropships zoomed into Canterlot’s streets and lights began flashing. The stunned crowd in Ponyville’s main square could only stand where they were, awestruck and shocked at what they could see. Even the sunrise directly next to Canterlot didn’t seem to lighten everypony’s heart at all. The terror just didn’t seem to end.
Princess Celestia began walking away slowly, drooping her head down. Luna snapped out of her mystified trance at the destruction and ran towards Princess Celestia.
“Tia! Tia! Where are you going?” Luna cried, trotting towards her sister.
“Luna... Um… listen here, Canterlot needs me, but I can’t leave the ponies here alone, though… So…” Celestia increased her volume so the rest of Ponyville could hear her. “I hereby decree that the citizens of Ponyville shall be known as the combatants of The Lunar Republic Army. And Princess Luna shall be your leader. Guards, take formation. Canterlot’s going to need some help.”
Fluttershy soon raised her voice to ask, “Princess, what is going on?” everypony soon began making noise and agreeing to Fluttershy’s question.
“Well… If you all must know-“From behind them once again, three bright red flares fired into the sky, while four more zoomed across it. A large light on the top of the mountain Canterlot was resting began to light up the clouds above. A siren was also lightly heard from Trottingham. “Those signals… the flares, the lights… everypony, it is my sad and unfortunate duty now to inform all of you that Equestria is under attack. We are under siege by marauding invaders. I do not know who these invaders are or what their motive is, but we all must defend our dear Equestria.” Celestia said, with a heavy feeling in her gut. “Twilight and company, please follow me.”
Twilight nodded and signaled everypony to come and follow. They followed Celestia towards the workshop, where the Guards were waiting. The mysterious colt from the previous night already woke up, confused at where he was. Twilight and the rest continued to follow Celestia, but CloudWork called Hank over to the iron cage where they held the colt imprisoned. It was the first time they got to see him, without massive motion blur. His head was still resting on the concrete flooring, on his side. His torso boasted a big purple bruise that contrasted against his light bronze coat. His yellow and bright red mane drooped to the floor. His half-open eyes glared down to the ground, maybe he didn’t even notice CloudWork or Hank in front of him, looking silently at him, wondering if they could let him go, or whether Princess Celestia was going to leave him here to his doom, because they both of them knew that those invaders would eventually raid Ponyville… sooner or later.
Chapter 13:
The Grand 3 Begins
Meanwhile, outside the workshop, Princess Celestia wondered what was taking CloudWork and Hank so long. All of them decided to come inside the workshop to cut the waiting short; it wasn’t like the world was going to end or anything, now was it?
They were silently surprised to see CloudWork and Hank talking casually to the colt in the cage. Celestia had a mix of two feelings; Surprise, because they were talking to the colt as if he didn’t do anything to Ponyville last night. And also a slight anger, because it was like they completely forgot Equestria was being destroyed as they stood there.
Princess Celestia broke the silence with a stern sentence; “What are you two doing?”
Her voice instantly brought back the silence, but CloudWork spoke up, “Relax, Princess Celestia. Zip is fine!”
“Zip?”
“Yeah, that’s his name,” CloudWork said, stepping forward.
“Right. So what exactly makes you think that he is going to be off the hook after what he has done to these innocent ponies?” Celestia began marching past CloudWork; whose smile quickly faded into a concerned look; to come right in front of the terrified Zip. Hank was frozen in fear where he was, next to the iron cage.
Fluttershy began trembling at the stern Princess. Everybody else stood silent at where they stood, staring at Celestia and Zip, waiting for something to happen. Luna soon came in to see what was going on. “Hey, Celestia, what’s going on?” She then saw Zip in the cage. “Oh… I get it…” She then walked next to Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
Hank then broke the silence, “Well, If I could say something here… Zip, even though he did maybe break, or injure-“
Rainbow Dash interrupted, “Umm, try ‘destroy’, Hank.”
“Right. Maybe he Destroyed Ponyville, but he could make it up for us.” Hank said, trying to make both sides happy.
“How do you propose he do that?” Celestia asked.
“Easy. He teams up with us. We try and stop this Invasion.” CloudWork said, courage was filling his voice again. “We could use speed like that. Zip with his speed, Hank with his mechanical genius and me with Flight-Ning! Besides, think of it this way: For all three of us, it’s like our… ‘Payment’ for still being here!”
“Very well. For all three of you…” Celestia unfolded her wings and her horn began to shine. The Iron cage containing Zip disintegrated and CloudWork, Hank and Zip began to levitate into the air, their eyes were brightening up. They formed a triangle, with CloudWork at the front of them. Celestia fired a beam of light up and shined it on them. Celestia boomed, “The three of you will be know as the Elements Of knighthood, and you shall aid the Elements of Harmony in stopping this Invasion; with aid from The Equestrian Guards of Canterlot. CloudWork: the representative of the Element Valiance. Hank: The Element Ingenuity. Zip: The Element of Teamwork.” A final shine of gold on them threw them back.
Celestia landed back down on the ground and began walking out, as she stood at the doors of the workshop, she said on last thing to them, “To CloudWork and Hank; I chose your elements from what you have shown me previously. To you… Zip; I forgive you for what you have done, but I trust you can do more than stay sorry. Prove that you are worthy for that element. Show me what you are capable of, something that can measure up to your friends’ potential.” She then flew off, the Guard Formation speeding behind her.
The three of them soon recovered while the other six helped them up. CloudWork, supported by Pinkie Pie and Twilight immediately noticed a large, silver metal vest that was planted on his chest and went down to his barrel. It boasted his Cutie Mark on the front. Hank had a pair of golden gauntlets that had an engraving of his cutie mark. Zip had his own pair of sleek black Goggles atop his head.
Quickly, CloudWork asked, “I’m pretty sure Elements of Knighthood is a bit of a mouthful… How’s ‘The Grand 3’?”
Hank agreed with a very awkwardly loud “YEEAAAAHHH!”
Zip said, “I like It, It’s a lot easier to say, anyways…”
“Epic! So let’s go! Equestria need-“
A loud Explosion followed by a long barrage of bullets interrupted CloudWork. Rarity screamed when she looked out of the window. 2 Dropships were directly next to them.
Chapter 14:
The Powers of Friendship; Is Magic (And Weaponry)
Panic filled the workshop as all 9 of them rushed outside to a mass crowd of ponies scattering around, trying to avoid whatever danger was about to come. The dropships were huge, about the same size of a house, but stood still. It was noon, but the sky was gloomy. Not from clouds, but from smoke and ash from the multiple attacks that could have already been won by these invaders. CloudWork took off; trying to get a higher vantage point to see what was going on. AppleJack and Rainbow Dash tried to get everypony to settle down. Hank seemed to want to rush back to the Workshop.
CloudWork saw some activity behind the ships and snuck behind a chimney on a nearby house. He saw shiny metal cases being dropped out and weird beings that stood on only two legs. The other two had these weird prongs on them; seemed pretty good for holding things, though. They wore tight black masks, complete with big, shiny goggles. A thick jacket and vest covered their torsos; some of them had a belt that ran from their shoulders to their waists. They seemed to have large hooves. Silver gauntlets with attached gloves too. They had sand-colored baggy pants that went with a pair of huge, black boots.
CloudWork knew that whatever they came here for, it was definitely not good. Out of the shiny cases, they took some things out. They seemed to keep calling them ‘blasters’, ‘launchers’ and a big one they called an ‘Annihilator’. Soon, all of those soldiers; about 30 of them from the first dropship armed them. Something bad was going down, CloudWork knew it. Zip seemed to know it too; he began to start moving around, finding a perfect spot to start a strike. The Dropship began to rumble and boosters on its side blew green fires and it took off. That triggered a massive barrage of bullets raided the square. The Ponyville residents got out of control and scattered again. Zip, not knowing the powers of the weapons, ran off to take cover. The second Dropship then let out its own huge squad of soldiers. Now there was a force of about a hundred attacking. CloudWork ducked to cover and covered his ears. He never heard anything like it. Even the boom of his Flight-Ning was not as bad as this noise. That’s when he saw on pony drop to the ground.
She had a large scar on the side of her neck. Her deep orange mane was shocked back as the bullet cut her flesh. She seemed to want to run behind a rock, but her head was turned to look at the soldiers, which meant CloudWork had a clear look on her face. Her pupils dilated and she let out the most painful shriek CloudWork ever heard. Her jaw dropped as blood gushed from the wound, the bullet in it glowed a hot yellow. She began to trip on her own hooves as she fell to the ground, but as soon as she hit the gravel; her green eyes seemed to glance at CloudWork. She dropped dead at that moment. An innocent pony’s life lost. A flame in CloudWork’s heart ignited as he quickly unfolded his wings and got into a battle stance. He vowed to avenge the Pony’s death. Whoever she was.
He jumped up and swan dived down onto one of the soldiers and broke his back without a care, he was just out for revenge. He shot over towards another and smashed his hoof on his face. He turned to see Zip charging towards another soldier, smashing him into a wall. Soldiers from around starting shooting at the two, most of the bullets missing them, Zip zoomed away while CloudWork flipped and dived behind a rock. Zip rocketed to a squad of the soldiers, knocking them down and CloudWork soared around, knocking soldiers to the ground. Soon, the other six joined in with Twilight and Rarity’s horns glowing and firing energy beams at the soldiers.
Rainbow Dash and AppleJack came in throwing several of the soldiers around, dodging gunfire. Twilight picked up rocks and broken wood from around to launch them at the soldiers, while Rarity continued to blast energy. Rainbow Dash zoomed into the air to knock them down. Fluttershy, afraid of all the action, decided to stick with first-aid. Quickly, they realized that their attacks were just not strong enough. The soldiers just kept waking up and continued firing. They were even slowly losing stamina and morale. All eight of them were cornered at the corner of the Main Square. That’s when a loud battle cry was heard from a nearby street.
It came from a unicorn stallion wearing a large hat. His magic, he held one of the invaders’ weapons. His eyes squinted with anger as he saw the soldier. He said just one thing; “Buck off.” Then he pulled the trigger. A spray of glowing bullets pelted a few soldiers nearby. “Everypony!” he shouted, with a rough voice. “Its time! Charge!!” He bellowed, his voice booming with courage and anger. From the wrecked alleyways, dozens of other stallions and ponies charged out, each with weapons in their magic or on their back. Bullets fired and the battle really began. The stallion with a hat ran to the Elements.
“Are you guys okay? I’m Vulcan. Princess Luna elected me as the General of the Lunar Republic Army. Yall might wanna get up soon; this whole town is going crazy!” Vulcan shouted amidst the battles.
“Don’t worry, we got this!” Zip said, thinking it was time to show off some heroism. “The Grand 3 will handle this!”
“Well, hope you’re right, kid… Here come reinforcements!” Vulcan cried, pointing to three Dropships speeding towards Ponyville. “Unicorns and Ponies; follow me, we’ll get you suited up. Pegasi, join those other pegasi that are taking off. Try to take down those dropships first. Take care now! Come on you six, let’s move!” Vulcan commanded.
Rainbow Dash and CloudWork took off, and sped towards the large group of pegasi. Mid-air, they greeted Rainbow Dash and CloudWork. Rainbow Dash stayed with the Pegasi as CloudWork rocketed for a Flight-Ning attack. The power should stop at least on of them, he thought. CloudWork began to be able to control Flight-Ning; the way it works, even the speed he can accelerate from it. With a short, fast barrel spin, he launched into a small version of the Flight-Ning maneuver to hopefully damage the boosters on the dropships. He missed his blow on the first try, and was rocketing behind the dropships, figuring out how he could ever do some REAL damage to this hunk of junk. That’s when he tried something crazy.
He cut off all the spare energy to let the dropships zoom ahead. He then threw himself into a quick Flight-Ning blast. Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi took down one of the dropships with a lot of breaking. Soldiers fell out of the dropship like ragdolls as explosions rocked it. CloudWork rocketed past them, starting to lose his focus and getting dizzy. The other two dropships were nearby, and he squeezed through them. Once he reached the point of being just in front of the two dropships, he quickly stopped flapping, his wings still showing, he spread out his legs and blasted all the energy from his body, obliterating the dropships in a strong, glowing radiance of yellow energy. CloudWork, elated from his new feat, began dropping unconsciously to the fields below, from ten thousand feet in the air.
Rainbow Dash, being the hero she was, zoomed in and caught CloudWork on her back, avoiding the electrifying ball of energy Cloud Work created. The other pegasi caught up and helped in supporting CloudWork. They landed back in Ponyville. It was a lot calmer than before, but war still raged in the town.
Chapter 15:
Equestria: Code Red
The battle raged on as Fluttershy and Twilight carried the unconscious CloudWork onto a bed. Hank recently busted out of the Workshop, boasting twin gattling guns and a mortar launcher, all supported by a suit of armor. His new invention really helped to recapture key places in Ponyville. The most important was Sweet Apple Acres; they needed those apple trees for nutrition and firewood. Dozens more ponies got injured but continued fighting, for the sake of freedom and justice. Also mainly because those invaders were really pissing them all off. Three very long hours later, Ponyville was recaptured and a stone wall was being built by Unicorns. CloudWork woke up to something he never thought Ponyville could become. All around, houses were filled with medics and injured ponies.
In a far corner, holes dug in the ground were filled with corpses of the deceased. CloudWork saw tears of ponies and stallions alike. It was painful seeing these innocent ponies were getting mixed up in all this mayhem. So far, twenty-five lives have been lost. Stallions were hauling carts with vegetables and fruits to everypony. Food was limited, but there seemed to be a surplus of weaponry, so that was the silver lining on this dark cloud. He walked over to the Workshop where he met Twilight and the rest. Vulcan and Hank were setting up a radio station. They quickly received messages from Canterlot, saying Equestria has entered code red in war. They were also expecting convoys from Trottingham; apparently only a quarter of the city could be recaptured. The rest was taken by the Manics, whom CloudWork learnt was the name of the invading armada.
Canterlot was still under a strong attack and the Elements of Harmony had to work with the Grand 3 to get there to help Celestia. Their mission: Takedown a factory that seemed to have been erected in a matter of hours in the rock plains near the Everfree Outskirts. Vulcan gave them supplies for their long trip. After an hour long lesson on the weapons they looted from the Manics, they received their proper equipment.
AppleJack received a shotgun that could fire in full automatic, and it was mounted on her right shoulder.
Rarity and Twilight Received Sniper Rifles, each powered by a mini nuclear reactor, to give the weapons that extra Kick.
Pinkie Pie and Spike, who tagged along, each got grenade launchers, and were specifically told to be careful by Celestia.
Zip got a rapid fire crossbow that fired just about anything you put in it. For Zip’s speed, accuracy was the only problem.
Rainbow Dash and CloudWork got magnum mounts on their backs, it was a powerful weapon, enough to kill and kick back an enemy in a single shot.
Fluttershy had a raygun that could heal wounds and jolt energy into a pony instantly. She even had a gun that fired health potions through syringe ammo.
Hank stuck with his ‘Armor of Mayhem’, he figured all he needed was enemy ammunition.
And with that, night fell. The fully armed heroes began their journey with caffeine injections. CloudWork Looked at his eight friends and said, “Guys, let’s do this for everypony out there.”
And with that, Twilight, Rarity and Hank’s horns collaborated and the teleported off in a shine of pink light and smoke, reappearing somewhere in the Everfree.
Vulcan, still standing and watching the heroes’ teleport, saluted them and saw the bright flash.
“May Celestia be with you, heroes. Good Luck.” |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 6 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2011-12-23T10:33:28+00:00 | 2011-12-23T10:33:28+00:00 | 542 | The Equestrian Takeover
Part 5:
Discovery
Written by
Fariz 'The WaVe' Amir
Chapter 15:
The Vault
Hundreds of miles away, in the middle of a large wooded area, a pinkish-purple bubble exploded, revealing nine ponies (and a little dragon). Twilight and Rarity nearly collapsed from exhaustion, but Rainbow Dash and AppleJack supported them. “Take it easy, girls. Journey just started. Hank, Can you see where we are now?” AppleJack called.
“Gimme a minute,” Hank replied. He spread his hind legs and steadied his position. His eyes and horn glowed yellow as he tilted his head up towards the eyes. Hank was using a ‘Satellite spell’ and was surveying the surroundings, getting the proper bearings and where their destination was. “Right,” His eyes darkened back to normal while he turned to a certain direction. “That way; there seems to be some kind of a cave. We’ll stay there for the night and then it’s a direct hike north to the Outskirts.”
“Alright, we’ll follow Hank’s plan, besides… we’ll be sitting ducks if we continue on in the dark. Come on, lets go,” CloudWork called out. “AppleJack and Fluttershy, Is it okay if you girls look after Twilight and Rarity? They look pretty worn out already.”
Both Fluttershy and AppleJack agreed and supported the ponies. Suddenly, the bushes around rustled and leaves fell from the trees around them. “Everypony get cover!” Zip shouted. Everypony except for CloudWork, Hank and Zip and Spike took cover behind boulders while they flipped out their weaponry. Aiming round, they prepared for anything to come out. But what DID come out took them by surprise. Three Manic soldiers dressed in full black suits leaped from the canopy. CloudWork fired his first shot. The Magnum Slug tore through the air, but missed the ninja Manics, and hit a branch. In a panic, Spike launched three grenades into the trees above. “Fire in the- uh, Trees! Argh!!” He screamed as he jumped behind a tree, joining Rainbow Dash. The Grand 3 weaved around, dodging bullets from the Manics and at the same time, trying to predict where those grenades were. Hank was able to shoot one of the Manics right in the middle of its chest, and it fell from the canopy all the way to the ground with a loud bone crack. Hank Got another Manic directly in the neck as red blood gushed from the brutal wound. The bolt fired through the neck and landed on a tree. The action rocked the canopy and finally revealed the three rogue grenades as they fell above AppleJack, Twilight and Rarity. They let out screams while CloudWork leaped onto a boulder nearby and then back-flipped off it to kick the grenades away.
One of them landed on the face of the last manic who was directly in front Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. It knocked him down and Zip ran in to kick him further back. The grenade, along with the other two, exploded, rocking the area with heat waves and light. Without a doubt, that was close and deadly. The ten of them wasted no time in making it to the cave. As Hank said, they found the cave, but it seemed… weird. Metal surrounded it and at the entrance, was a large door, made of solid Iron. In the middle of the large metal door, a huge hole that looks like it was from a powerful explosion. Strange carvings surrounded it and the inside of it was very dark, Manics could come out and ambush them.
Zip lit a wooden plank and threw it inside. The light glowed and revealed a lack nothing inside. All of them walked inside, rainclouds began to rumble, thunder boomed and rain indeed fell. They made the fire grow into a proper campfire and made makeshift beds from crates they found inside the large Vault. From inside, they found that it was like a giant cube about 4 meters high and wide. The insides were a very dark beige color, they could feel markings, but it was too dark too see what they were.
The drizzle outside turned into a full downpour. Countless bomb drops and explosions could be heard far away, even with the thunder booming above. CloudWork was the last to fall asleep; he could not stop thinking how he could stop the Manics and the takeover.
Chapter 16:
Underground Activities
The next morning was just as chaotic as the night before. The sun couldn’t shine as properly because Princess Celestia could not raise it fully. Ash and smoke flooded the skies. The trees in the woods dripped rainwater as light shockwaves rocked the ground. Twilight and Rarity Woke up last, but were thankfully recovered completely. The rest were beginning to pack up their supplies, Rainbow Dash passed them their weapons. Hank was busy looking round the Vault, looking for some kind of mechanism. CloudWork and Zip ignored him and readied everypony else.
As they were about to step out of the huge cube, CloudWork Called; “Hank! Let’s get outta here!” CloudWork’s loud voice thundered in the enclosed place, and shocked Hank into bumping into a hidden button on the wall. “Uhh… Cloud?” Hank called.
The carvings and other symmetrical lines began glowing bright aqua green, and the vault door was covered in a translucent energy field. Zip tried to break it, but to no avail. More and more carvings were glowing, and some mechanics and computers showed themselves from nowhere. Hidden metal contraptions creaked, more platforms… formed until everypony realized that the vault was being dragged underground. CloudWork darted around, trying to find some sort of escape, but quickly found that the cube was completely sealed. The vault continued to rumble underground. The symbol of the Manics shined on the opposite wall of the vault. After five crawling minutes, the vault seemed to stop and large doors creaked open in front of them. Beyond it showed a long, large tunnel leading to somewhere quite far away. Realizing that there is no other way to go, they slowly stepped forward, expecting the worst… again.
Steam hissed and escaped through several vents around them. Gigantic silvery pistons pumped around them above concrete blocks, generating some kind of power into giant black cables that hung from the ceiling. Clouds of vapor hung from the ceiling, and fogged the surroundings. It was very chilly but felt strangely humid and the air was dense. The only light source around was a few dim light bulbs that were built into the walls. Everypony was stressed on whether or not this was safe; heck, they were thinking how was all this machinery was built. The Manics only invaded yesterday; maybe they were here far longer than they thought?
They began walking through the dense mist of steam, carefully looking out for any potential threats. None of them said anything, until they came across a huge challenge. A massive crevice was in front of them, and it looked as if the chamber was built that way; the cables snaked down into the darkness below. On the other side of the massive chasm, dim lights shined, but they were definitely out of reach. Twilight told Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and CloudWork that it may have been dangerous to fly about because there may have been some sort of security system that could have just…. Obliterated them.
Pinkie Pie highlighted that it looked like something huge (and really, REALLY shiny) was hiding in the darkness below. Unfortunately, she was right, and it began to rumble, and shaking the whole chamber, making Rarity nearly fall off the edge, but was thankfully held back by Rainbow Dash. The Unknown object began to rise, and revealed a massive pod-like titan object. Lightly tinted glass on one side of the eclipse shaped pod revealed hundreds of sleeping Manics. Massive gun barrels with chains of ammunition hid under panels of steel, threatening to open fire and release millions of bullets or missiles, wreaking more havoc on Equestria. The ponies (and Spike) were way too awed by the sight and was each having their own imaginations on the destructive possibility of all that concentrated power. Pinkie Pie then shouted to snap everypony out of their trances.
She spotted a strange opening big enough for ponies to pass through. Could have been a little building fault, but it had potential for them to hitch a ride and get out of there. More importantly, Pinkie Pie had a plan (Yeap, really!) Maybe this could be some sort of ‘deployment drop pod’ and it could transport them to a vital spot in the Manics’ plan, for them to destroy! As pinkie said, everypony rushed to jump into the hold, except for Fluttershy, who had to be pushed in by CloudWork.
The Pod Began to rocket out of the hidden chasm and everypony saw that ‘building’ that they were supposed to check out, it seemed to be wrecked already, which was good; because apparently it was destination: Canterlot. |
Fariz 'TheWaVe' Amir | 698 | 7 | Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | The Equestrian Takeover | Features OCs! Equestria's gonna get taken over. Somepony's gotta stop it. | incomplete | -1 | -1 | <p>Two new colts from another dimension. An invasion. The Elements of Harmony's next challenge!<br/>Also introducing my own OCs: Cloudwork, Hank and Zip. </p><p>An impending doom is coming to Equestria. Time for the Elements of Harmony to come back, only they can't do it on their own this time. How will it play out?</p> | everyone | 2012-02-07T11:50:21+00:00 | 2012-02-07T11:50:21+00:00 | 693 | The Equestrian Takeover
Part 6:
Discovery (2)
Written by
Fariz 'The WaVe' Amir
Chapter 17: Flight of Disaster
The Pod flew across the ash filled skies, at a rather slow speed. From the opening, the 9 of them had a birds-eye-view of Equestria from their position in the Everfree Outskirts. It definitely was not a pretty sight.
The former cities, now ruins, bellowed towers of smoke in the air; sheltering hundreds more dropships hidden among the black clouds. The only light came from infernos of fire in the multiple cities and villages. Manehattan, Trottingham and Fillydelphia were now shells of their former glory. The Mare of Liberty now only stood on its hind legs, its front now in the ocean, struggling to stay in existence. The skyline of Trottingham now completely ruined from countless destroyed skyscrapers. In the far distance, in the desert, Appleloosa was missing from its former position; nothing but a black smudge and burning wood left, a train was burning on its side, waiting for oblivion to come. Manehattan, formerly the most popular destination in Equestria, now can’t even support a single life. A single skyscraper was left standing, alone in the midst of complete annihilation. Other buildings were not spared, nothing but rubble stood.
The Calm, pleasant villages were now improvised fortresses. They now served as Army placements to support whatever was left of ponykind. Large stone walls surrounded every town, including Ponyville. Metal convoys of trucks dragged along, each carrying valuable supplies. Suddenly, from the now blood-red sky; came a large, blue energy beam slammed into the desert, wiping Dodge Junction off the face of Equestria. A few seconds later, a speeding dropship launched hundreds small missiles into the forest that covered the land near Trottingham, releasing a loud crack of seemingly endless explosions and sparked an even bigger forest fire. Thousands of birds and other smaller creatures scurried as fast as they could from the inferno that struck their home; but met with a very gruesome fate. Tesla towers erected in seconds and fired crackles of green electricity at the small bodies of the creatures. Some of the lucky ones managed to escape, but majority fell back down into the flaming forests below. Utterly speechless at the evil she saw, Fluttershy spun her head around towards Rarity for comfort and shelter from the sheer terror her eyes saw. She could practically hear their little screams of help. Tears began rolling as Zip could only stand where he was, unsure of what to do; but wanting to do whatever he could. Anything.
As Fluttershy continued sobbing, the other 8 of them began to rethink what they had gotten themselves into. The destruction they just witnessed was now an irremovable stain on their tired minds. They exchanged glances as they tried to think of anything to say. More gunfire and explosions fired. A red bulb lighted and a siren blared. A pipe above their heads suddenly glowed orange and heat radiated. The opening, their only window; quickly shut, and darkness engulfed the small room. Hank turned a small light bulb on the barrel of his armor that revealed some mech- transforming in the back wall. The room they were in began to shrink, and they ran into the adjacent chamber. Rows and columns of smaller ships and pods of Manics stood, and they seemed frozen. It seemed like the only material used was solid Iron, white steel and glass, but it was like it aged for a few dozen years. Streaks of red lights suddenly blared and the pods began shuffling around. Rarity screamed at the sight of it and the 9 ponies began scrambling for cover, fearing that the Manics may suddenly came alive and bullets would fly again.
Unfortunately for them, massive bay doors opened behind them and the air immediately began trying to push them out of the craft. Pinkie pie lost footing and began flying out, but was saved by Hank, who then grabbed AppleJack, who then grabbed CloudWork, who grabbed Fluttershy, and she grabbed Rarity who grabbed Twilight who grabbed Spike and all of them were then depending on Rainbow Dash. Massive robotic arms extended and Manic dropships on the end of them began blasting their afterburners and they zoomed out of the baydoors. They did not seem to notice them dangling for dear life.
“I… I can’t hold on for much longer!” Rainbow Dash cried. Her hooves were slowly releasing grip.
“Come on, Rainbow! Just hold on!” Pinkie Pie screamed. She was already flailing outside the aircraft, having a deathly clear sight of the far away ground; which seemed harder than normal now that she’s 20,000 feet in the air.
A dropship caught sight of them and it fired a single bolt of energy. From shock, Rainbow Dash immediately lost her grip and that sent all of them flailing out of the pod. They quickly stopped grabbing each other and began their screaming. Well, what did you expect?
Chapter 18: Surprises
Their fall was long loud. From the single pod, CloudWork estimated that 30 dropships rocketed. Rainbow Dash And CloudWork were able to save AppleJack and Pinkie Pie; while the rest were saved by an anti- gravity spell by Twilight. Their descent revealed more painful destruction scenes. Mountains now crumbled from shockwave after shockwave of bomb raids. Equestria’s first real offence attacks launched as they fell. Flying carriages were launched from Cloudsdale, which seemed to be Equestria’s main Command hold.
They landed near a large crater, which used to be an abandoned gold mine, but now bomb shells and battles carved the mine into an enormous hole of stone. The little remaining gold glistened, but whatever it was worth could not save anything. Fluttershy fainted as she fell, and now Zip and Rarity tended to her, trying to recover her using any supplies Spike was able to carry. Pinkie Pie, contrasting from her usual self, was now in complete shock from the skydive. She buried her head into Twilight’s fore legs; while they lay down. AppleJack tried to calm poor Pinkie Pie down. CloudWork and Hank stood, thinking what they could do next.
“Should we camp out here? Heck, is it even night time yet?” Hank asked, staring at the blood red skies.
“Good topic, better question; But isn’t it better to get some cover? This place is a giant stone field… not exactly the best cover. Screw it, it’s the worst!” CloudWork replied, his mind already stressed from the chain of events.
In the distance, 3 stallions watched them through binoculars. “Yes. It’s about time.” One of them said.
“Better late than never, right?” Another said. “Yeah… But we’ve been waiting for hours! I’m tired, hungry… and I wanna take a…”
“Dude. MAN UP.” The third spoke up. “…Im sorry.” They then Sped off towards The unsuspecting 9. And Spike.
“Maybe… we get diamonds…. And some sticks… and then we diggy diggy..” Hank mumbled.
“Wait, what?” CloudWork replied right before three stallions in Blue armor with yellow streaks. They spread smoke bombs that flashed and smoke flooded the air. Because of how tired they were, all of them fell where they were.
“Ma… Manics… you bunch of…” CloudWork slowly said, losing conscious as he fell to the ground with a thud.
“No My friend, we are Starswirl’s Crusaders.” |
TwoHadLuckier | 703 | 1 | Original Character,Rarity,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Pearls on the Sand | You met on the shore, as innocent foals; when fate brings you together again, you share a moment. | complete | -1 | -1 | <p>Written from second-perspective as a flash of inspiration from the Romance thread in /fic/, on Ponychan.net. Relatively tame, and told from the perspective of a seapony from a hidden undersea world as they make a friend as a child, and meet again in the present.<br/>Rated [Fuzzy] to [Snuggly], it's really just a bit of whimsical WAFFish Rarity loving, and an excuse to write from the point of view of an outsider looking in.</p> | everyone | 2011-09-01T21:01:41+00:00 | 2011-09-01T21:01:41+00:00 | 1,877 | The elders had always told you to stay away from the shore.
"Bad things happen to little fillies and colts that stray too near the land," they'd tell you.
You didn't really think much of their fears. Who would harm the prince of Aquatica, after all?
So there you were, but a foal, playing about in the shallows. You had never seen the tide move in so far before; you could almost swim up to where the landwalkers would build little castles in the sand.
With the storms that had been occurring of late, the landwalkers stayed away from the beach. You figured the elders only warned you off because the landwalkers didn't know about Aquatica, or the seaponies.
Your mother had always tried to keep it that way. They didn't speak the same language as your kind, and many times their personal effects had fallen into the seas over the side of the grand ships they used to cross the ocean. They were a strange lot.
Shuffling onto the beach, you found yourself alone on the moist sands. For the first time, you could play at being a landwalker, and it was fun! Even if you were alone under the stormy grey sky.
Using seashells, you formed up a sand castle, but it wasn't the right shape. You couldn't figure out how they got them to sit so cleanly. It didn't help that you didn't have good strong forelegs to do it with. Your fins wouldn't develop much until you were older.
Abruptly, a bright blue bucket clomped down over your pitiful sand-spire, and you squeaked in surprise, looking up.
There standing before you was a landwalker filly with the prettiest blue eyes you'd ever seen. Her indigo mane was curled to one side of the short ivory-colored horn atop her head, and she appeared to be having trouble meeting your gaze.
Abruptly realizing it was because you were staring at her, you blushed and dragged your attention from the pretty filly before you to the bucket, poking at it with a fin.
After a moment, she picked it up, and your misshapen mound of sand had been transformed into a uniform bucket shape. Comprehension! You had never been close enough to see the buckets before.
Smiling, you curled your tail forward, and began carefully etching details into the side as she began to fill the bucket with more sand.
You couldn't guess how long the two of you spent there, working together to build a modest little sand-castle, neither speaking. She didn't seem bothered at all by your scales, or your long tail, or your fins. Once it was finished, you stood back to admire your work, and smiled at each other.
"Raaariteeee!"
Shocked, the filly stood on her hind legs to see over your sand-castle. A dark blue mare was calling her name from further up the shore. Realizing that you'd just spent the past couple of hours in the presence of a landwalker-- and beyond that, that you were in plain sight-- you panicked, tumbling and frantically floundering toward the waves.
"Wait!" The little filly shouted, and as the tide began to pull at your body, you turned. There she stood at the water's edge, a sad look on her pretty face. You heard the mare repeat the word she'd spoken; it must be the filly's name. 'Rarity'.
"I had fun!" She said after a moment, smiling hopefully. You returned it with a smile of your own, and waved a fin at her as the mare arrived at your sandcastle. Even if you didn't know what she was saying, you could at least understand the sentiment.
As she was being admonished, Rarity waved enthusiastically at you, and you smiled again, diving into the waves. Perhaps some day you'd meet her again? The landwalkers didn't seem so bad after all.
---
Years have passed since that eventful afternoon on the beach. The memory of Rarity always comes to you at times like this, as you're out collecting pearls for some project or another. Perhaps it’s the color of the lacquered stones, so similar to her pale flank.
Perhaps it’s just that the best place for finding pearls happens to be near the beach where you met.
Of late, you've been feeling restless. Your slim seapony tail flits at the sand as you follow your instincts, easily locating another batch of clams, and just as easily coaxing them open with careful caresses and a word of encouragement, just as you were taught. The mussels give their prizes willingly, and you gently bury them again and move to the next batch, depositing them in a woven sun-dried kelp pouch.
On a whim, you slide off your gathering pouch, confident that the weight of the pearls inside is enough to keep the tides from moving it as it sinks softly into the sand. The surface isn't far above you, and it’s been a while since you’ve felt the sun on your face.
A powerful kick of your fins propels you surfaceward, and in a fit of playfulness, you breach the surface like a dolphin, spiraling upward well out of the water. Sunlight shimmers off the waves beneath you as you feel the effects of gravity begin to take hold, and you prepare to turn over for a flawless re-entry.
"C'mawn, Rarity, hurry up with the blanket! Ah cain't hold yer umbrella all darn day!"
The faint voice isn't what throws you off. It's the familiar name that gets your attention, causing you to frantically twist in the air to look toward the shore.
Briefly, a vision of refined beauty in pearl and violet catches your eye, but you're too far from shore to get a good look. Is that your Rarity?
Thoroughly distracted by trying to get a good look at the mare, you ungracefully hit the surface with a loud, wet SLAP, square between crests and flat on your side.
Ignoring the stinging of both pride and flank, you haul yourself under the surface, tail slapping at a wave as you quickly corkscrew down to the seafloor, quickly tangling your fins into a patch of seaweed and holding yourself still against the sand.
You don't want to be seen if it's not Rarity, but your heart is still pounding in your throat. Maybe nostalgia and childhood innocence has inflated your opinion of her.
Maybe she's not the pretty, friendly landwalker you thought she was. Or maybe this is a different Rarity? Perhaps you heard the name wrong? What if it wasn't her name at all?
Determining that nopony seems to have noticed your graceless return to the waves, you slow your racing heart, and carefully unwind the kelp from your fins. The landwalkers made a pier in the time between your last meeting and the present day; perhaps you can use it for cover?
Quickly and carefully, you work your way further toward the shore, ever mindful of both the rapidly lowering water level and the fact that your own deep teal scales stand out sorely against the white sand.
As you cling to the pylon of the pier and carefully raise only the top of your head from the waves, you're greeted to the sight of a small school of landwalkers of varying colors getting set up for a beach picnic. You quickly count five of them; they all appear to be talking rather amicably.
Amid them stands a pearl-flanked unicorn with a large hat and dark sunglasses. Her coloration is the same as the little filly from your memories, but you can't tell yet if it's the same landwalker. Voices float to your ears on the wind, readily audible over the waves.
Briefly, you tilt your head. None of them sound like the one that spoke the name 'Rarity'. Does that mean there are more?
A thump on the wood above you causes you to freeze.
"Phyew! That gal's a real piece o' work."
A sense of dread overtakes you as a pair of orange hooves dangle from the side of the pier, followed by the end of a blonde tail. You quickly begin glancing about the pier, only then realizing your mistake.
The tide isn't all in yet, but the water's still more than shallow enough that if you attempted to head out to sea again, you'd be a big teal target on a big white background.
Resigning yourself to at least a few hours of waiting for the tide, you carefully slip to the other side of the short pier, hidden in its' shadow as your tail wraps around the pylon to hold you in place.
At least you get to see Rarity again, even if it's from afar. If that even -is- her.
---
The world is dark. Where has everypony gone?
You can't feel the water around you. Where is the pylon? The pier? You can't see the shore. You can't see the waves. You can't even see your fin before your face.
You begin to panic. Something is holding your tail down!
A glimmer appears in the darkness. You try to swim toward it, but your fins won't respond. You feel as if you're sinking.
The glimmer becomes brighter, coalescing into a face. Rarity, as a foal, smiling at you.
The face begins to fade as realization dawns. You don't feel as if you're sinking: you feel as if you're being pulled. The tide is beginning to go out!
---
The world bursts into light and color when your eyes snap open.
You hear the landwalker on the pier above you say something, but you can't make it out as you duck your head into the water, slapping at your face with your fins to shake the groggy feeling.
The fact that it gives you a chance to berate yourself for dozing off is merely coincidence.
You've slipped quite a distance down the pylon; thankfully, the bank drops off fairly steeply. You figure you have at least an hour at most before you'd have to leave.
"Ah thought'cha said there weren't no storm gonna come rollin' in, Dash?"
You've spent time hiding near landwalker settlements before. You've researched their language. You believe you could probably converse with one, albeit haltingly. You still can't seem to figure out what this landwalker's saying, though.
"Hey, I said I didn't think there'd be a storm. I only work on Ponyville's weather! I can't tell when the weather's gonna change out here, AJ. It’s like the Everfree Forest, it just happens on its’ own."
Another voice, significantly easier to understand, and just as close. When did the other pony get to the pier?
Your question is readily answered when a rainbow-tailed blue cloudwalker launches itself from the pier, arcing back toward the beach. Now that you're paying attention, you see there's another cloudwalker among the school as well, the colors of sand and coral. You must have mistaken them for landwalkers before.
She daintily slips under her saddlebags and stands, moving past the pearl-flanked pony to ask a question of a unicorn with a dark purple mane. A flicker of bright blue snares your attention, and you realize that little Rarity is staring right back at you across time in the face of the sophisticated pony in the big hat and low-resting sunglasses.
"Rarity? Is there something wrong?" The purple-maned unicorn snaps her back to the present, and she glances away.
Panicking, you tug yourself under the surface, your finned ears the only thing above water as you quickly hide behind the pylon.
What you hear next shoots a thrill through your spine when comprehension hits home.
"No no, nothing is wrong, dear. I... believe I'll stay a little longer, if that's alright."
You carefully raise out of the water, peeking around the edge of the barnacled wood.
"Are you sure?" The purple landwalker asks, glancing at the clouds above. "It's going to rain soon. We really should get back to town."
Rarity laughs softly. "Oh, don't worry about me, Twilight! I'll just be a few minutes. I'm on the verge of a fashion breakthrough, I can feel it. I just need a moment to think to myself. Besides, I have an umbrella. I'll be fine!"
Skeptically, Twilight shrugs, turning to join the rest of the school. "Well, okay. Don't wait too long!"
After an assortment of farewells, Rarity turns back to the water, blue eyes searching the waves. You know she's looking for you, but you don't yet want to come out of hiding, not until the others are gone.
As if sensing your thoughts, she calls softly. "You can come out," she ventures. "I'm the only one here."
You slip out a bit from the safety behind the pylon, only to be yanked back against it. Your tail refuses to let go. Fitting, as you're torn between throwing yourself out there to say hello and swimming out to sea like a madcolt and never looking back.
Eventually, you work up your courage, and unwind your tail from the pylon, just as she seems to be giving up hope. She turns to leave as you slip into the waves and pick up speed; years of practice lets you scoop up your pearl satchel at a sprint, and you feel the tide swell before you.
You only have one shot to impress her.
You curve back toward the shore, pushing as hard as you can. Reading the waves, you spot your chance and take it, leaping from the water with a fantastic spray.
Rarity turns at the sound of your breach, shock and awe etched on her face as you sail through the air.
You flash your best smile at her, and spread your fins like wings.
Airborne, you travel just short of three body lengths before hitting the sand face-first with a triumphantly wet *splort!* and all the grace of a sun-addled sea-cow. In your haste, you misread the tide and breached on the ebb flow, robbing you of precious momentum.
Too embarrassed to move, you simply stare at Rarity pitifully as she stifles the urge to laugh. A wave washes back in over you, pushing your emerald mane in your face. At least it hides your shame.
You haul yourself upright, swinging your head back to get the hair out of your way as you slither-crawl your way up the shore, resolving to put the embarrassing moment behind you.
"That was very..." Rarity searches for the right word, fighting to keep the amused smile from her face. "Impressive," she settles on, and once you figure out what it means, you can't help but agree.
"You're the little seapony I met that day, aren't you?" She asks, holding out a forehoof in greeting.
Bowing deeply, you accept the dainty hoof with your fin, pressing to it a genteel kiss. "That I am," you say after a moment, stumbling over the unfamiliar syllables. You notice that she's blushing, and can't help but blush as well.
After a moment of awkward silence, she smiles up at you. "My name is Rarity."
---
Despite the language barrier, the two of you manage to spend almost a whole hour getting to know each other, seated there on the sand. Rarity is eager to learn about Aquatica, the fashion and high society in particular, and you enjoy the chance to test your linguistic cunning almost as much as you enjoy getting to spend time with her.
A low rumble in the distance draws your attention from the beauty at your side. Curious, you eye the clouds above.
"Is it not to rain soon?" You ask momentarily.
Rarity tilts her head, considering the question. "Hm. Rainbow Dash did say that it was going to--"
She jumps in surprise as lightning strikes well out to sea, ducking against your side. You rest a fin across her shoulders. "You should go," you bluntly state, inwardly dreading the idea.
Sighing, Rarity nods, and flashes that beautiful smile at you again. "I suppose I must. Oh, how I'd love to be able to come back to Aquatica with you." She sighs again wistfully, pulling her saddlebag to her side. "I suppose there's nothing we can do about that, though."
Remembering your own satchel, you pull it around between the two of you, eager to give her something to remember you by. Perplexed by your sudden foalish glee, she watches as you flip the leathery kelp cover open, and gasps.
"Pearls!" She breathes, and her horn flickers alight, several large pearls floating up from the pouch. You dig in the bottom to fish out one as big as a hoof, and she admires her reflection in the iridescent sheen.
"Wherever did you find these?" She asks, and you flick your tail noncommittally toward the ocean.
"I gather them. They are currency for trade, or used for clothing and jewelry." You place the pearl in the satchel, and she sets the small ones back inside as well.
"They're beautiful," she gushes, a starstruck smile on her face. "Oh, I could make such wonderful dresses with them..."
You drape the strap of the satchel about her neck, and she snaps out of her brief day-dream, glancing first down at the gift, then up to you. You refuse to meet her eyes, instead affecting an air of amused indifference. Your tail curls and uncurls reflexively, belying your emotions.
"You... you're giving these to me?" You nod to her question, and shrug, smiling at her.
"I have many of my own. It is a hobby." Your ears flick at the sound of raindrops upon the surface of the water, and Rarity stands as you straighten up, opening her mouth to stammer a reply.
The tip of your tail rests against her lips, silencing her, and you smile. "Go. I will see you soon, yes?"
Not giving her the chance to respond, you start to slither-crawl away with as much dignity as a seapony on land can muster.
"Wait!"
The splashing of hooves in the shallows causes you to turn, and you freeze as she nuzzles into you, burying her face in your neck.
After a moment's shock, you return the affectionate nuzzle, and she pulls away, smiling at you. "Seven days," she says softly as she backs toward the shore. "I'll return in seven days."
As the light sprinkling becomes a more earnest pitter-patter, you bow to her, fighting to maintain your princely demeanor. "I will wait for you." You are the very portrait of control, even though inside you feel like you could fly.
You watch her leave, well before you return to the water yourself; being in the rain does nothing to dull your mood. Neither will your later admonishment for losing your satchel. The elders always warned that the landwalkers were dangerous. Perhaps they are.
Even so, you don’t think that could stop you from coming back to her.
---
Any relation to people, places, events or ponies, living or dead, is probably intentional, but best assumed coincidental. I hold no ownership of anything found above or below this line, save my own good name.
TwoHadLuckier, 9/1/2011 |
Artaelian | 704 | 1 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2011-12-05T22:04:56+00:00 | 2011-12-05T22:04:56+00:00 | 1,695 | Heat. Unbearable heat. The blue mare felt the hot wind as it blew and bit through her mane and on her coat. She attempted to curl into a ball, but pain shot through her body as she moved. Letting out a small cry, she held still. As the pain died away, the mare listened to the fast beats of her heart, a sensation that felt unusual to her, and it was slightly painful itself, as though it had stopped working for a little time.
She opened her eyes, but all she saw for a few seconds was an overly bright blur. Her head was resting on a painfully white pillow. Glad of the pain in her chest going away, the mare begun to think.
‘Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here? And what brought me here?’ she thought.
The vision in her eyes cleared up, and the pillow hurt less now to look at. Beyond it was a metal frame in a white that was equal to that of the pillow, save for the top edges which seemed to be darker. This confused the mare. Reaching a hoof out to investigate, she wiped at the top of a small bar, removing built up dust and dirt, and revealing the white colour of the bar underneath. And this led to a new question to come to mind.
‘How long have I been here?’
Closing her eyes tight, she raised herself on her hooves, then lowered her body into a sitting position on the bed. She kept her eyes closed as the pain subsided faster this time around. She blinked, and looked around, her mouth agape in shock at the sight before her.
The room she was in was a wreck, a wall far away had collapsed, taking most of the roof with it. What remained of both now lay on the floor of the room, covering several beds and a desk. Beyond the collapsed wall, buildings of the town burned, and a couple of them even collapsed, billowing fire into the sky. Some of the wreckage showed signs of being moved, but whatever had moved it was nowhere to be found in the room.
Back in the room, what remained wasn’t in much better shape. Items varying from needles to plastic pouches were scattered around haphazardly. One item in particular caught the mare’s eyes, it lay on the floor to the left of her. A simple get-well card. Reaching down, the mare picked it up.
The card wasn’t anything extraordinary, its front had balloons and the words ‘Get Well Soon!’ in a royal blue. The inside however made the mare read over it carefully multiple times. It begun with a name ‘To Rainbow Dash’.
‘Is... is that my name?’ the mare wondered. She closed her eyes, and thought hard, and a memory came to mind.
“Is she going to be okay Nurse Redheart?” a purple unicorn asked. It sounded familiar, yet strange.
“I won’t hide the truth from you Twilight Sparkle, her symptoms don’t fit any known illness. We can only do our best and hope.” a white earth pony replied within her memory.
“You know I am here,” she said to the two ponies before her, “you could at least say something more encouraging to lift my spirits!”
“Just, just go back to sleep Rainbow Dash. You’ll feel better before you know it.” the unicorn identified as Twilight Sparkle replied.
Her memory at least gave her something. She knew a name of somepony who clearly was important to her, and her own name. To her left, Rainbow Dash found a wooden table had been set up, and upon it were various items, everything covered in a layer of dust. The nearest was a small square mirror, and this she picked up, blowing on it to remove the dust. Holding it up, she looked into the mirror and the sight that reached her eyes.
Her blue coat was messy and dusty, as was her mane, which still had a visible rainbow colour. ‘How long have I been left alone in the wreck of this hospital?’ she wondered.
Tied to that table’s leg corner were strings leading to deflated balloons. ‘Pinkie Pie.’ The name came to her mind before she realised what it meant. There were other items on the table from her other friends, a bouquet of flowers, cards, a picture of Rainbow Dash and a tortoise, and a long rotten apple which was slowly turning to much. She elated as the memories of her friends flooded back in, remembering all the happy times with them between picnics and fighting evil.
With her memories and identity back in place, Rainbow Dash stared at what had befallen Ponyville. Buildings were either standing but gutted by fire, or had the misfortune of falling and remain on fire. Smoke billowed into the air, and the intense heat of the flames made her uncomfortable.
‘Now, what happened to the town?’ she asked herself. She closed her eyes again, and tried to recall the memory.
She sat there, staring at the fire. After she had spoken up to the nurse and Twilight, they had left to the corridor, to continue the conversation away from her. Twilight’s face explained everything though, there was something unusual about the illness. Rainbow Dash was a very athletic pegasus pony, as such, it was very rare for her to get ill. But right now, there was one thing that very clear to her.
‘Sitting here won’t help me fit in the remaining missing memories, I need to find out what’s going on with the town, and find somepony who can help me.’ she decided. Rainbow Dash climbed off the bed, pausing once more when pain filled her body. When it passed, she carefully walked through the wreckage of the hospital, and cautiously begun the trek through the burning remains of Ponyville.
She turned and walked into the streets, feeling the heat from the numerous fires. As she walked to the centre of Ponyville, she watched as the town’s gathering place for meetings, and where the mayor stayed. It creaked and groaned, and then finally collapsed as the pillars that held it up had been burnt too thin.
‘This isn’t right, this has to be a bad dream. I’m still asleep... yeah, that has to be it, this has to be a nightmare, and I’ll wake up any minute now.’ She tried to reason with herself.
--
Rainbow paused. She had travelled a small number of streets since she had left the hospital, and now, a new sound reached her ears. Hoofsteps, somepony else was around! Closing her eyes, Rainbow listened among the crackles of fires and the popping and breaking as buildings fell down in the distance. The hoofsteps were coming from the street over, and with a hopeful smile, Rainbow trotted towards them.
As she turned the corner, Rainbow’s eyes fell upon the grey mare with the blonde mane and wall eyes. Ditzy Doo wasn’t aware of Rainbow Dash’s presence at first, as her line of sight ran across the hopeless scenes of destruction around her, but soon, Ditzy’s eyes saw Rainbow, and the mail mare galloped over to Rainbow Dash. To Rainbow, Ditzy may have been someone she rarely saw, but in the apparent chaos of the burning town, Ditzy was welcome company.
“Ditzy, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked, standing up and looking at Ditzy. Ditzy’s eyes remained same as always, she was looking at Rainbow Dash, but both her eyes did not align correctly. Why this was, Rainbow had never cared to ask, and in the current situation, it didn’t seem like the best place to ask.
“I don’t know. I woke up, Ponyville is on fire,” Ditzy looked down sadly, tears forming in her eyes, “I can’t find Dinky.”
Rainbow had no idea what to do as Ditzy begun to cry. She took a nervous step forward and placed a hoof reassuringly on Ditzy. Ditzy responded only by glancing up for a second, then looking back down. The hoof had seemed to calm her down somewhat, but she still kept crying.
“Ditzy,” Rainbow paused, waiting for the other pony to look up, “where have you been all this time?” she questioned.
“At Carrot Top’s home, nowhere else to go.” Ditzy voice crackled with sorrow.
“Is it safe there? I mean, the rest of Ponyville is on fire.” Rainbow stated, looking concerned.
“No fire there. It’s safe.” Ditzy replied, looking away as she began sobbing again.
Rainbow looked on the horizon and watched as the sun begun to set. Rainbow begun to think of the Princesses. Where had they been while this disaster befell Ponyville? Were her friends with either of them? Questions that, Rainbow guessed, only time would answer.
“We’ll look for Dinky in the morning and get out of here. Standing around and hoping for something to happen isn’t going to work, we need to sleep now, so show me to where you’ve been staying.” Rainbow Dash said softly.
Ditzy only nodded, and slowly, she stood up, leading Rainbow Dash to where she had been staying.
Ditzy led Rainbow Dash to the home she and Carrot Top shared. The home looked pretty much like every other in Ponyville, a red roof, wooden structure beams and yellow walls with windows, however, it appeared that it too had been on fire at some stage, but unlike other buildings in Ponyville, the fire hadn’t lasted long. Ditzy showed Rainbow that she had made a makeshift living area out of the ground floor rooms that still had a ceiling on them. In one she had set up a mat which was wrinkled, in the other, whatever food Ditzy had been able to find had been gathered in it, on the table was a plate which had a muffin placed on it.
It had been set up clearly for two ponies, though one of the chairs had been replaced by a raised chair, which stood before the spot where the muffin and plate were set up. On the other side of the table, another empty plate sat, perfectly clean. The rest of the table was dusty, but opposite this, Rainbow noticed a circular plate shape in the dust that hadn’t, strangely, been left to gather dust.
“Carrot Top isn’t here.” Ditzy said, watching as Rainbow looked around.
Ditzy walked over to the mat and lay upon it. Rainbow’s stomach quickly growled at the sight of the food Ditzy Doo had gathered, and carefully, walked over to the muffin.
She found, to her surprise, Ditzy had flown from the mat to the other room and smacked her hoof away from the muffin, and was now glaring at Rainbow Dash angrily.
“For Dinky. Don’t touch.” Ditzy said, flying away. Rainbow watched her, feeling sad. Looking back at the table.
Rainbow grabbed a carrot from the pile of food on the floor, and washed it in whatever water she could find. She flew back over to the other room and noticed, in the time it had taken for her to find the carrot and wash it, Ditzy had set up another mat.
“You can sleep on that.” Ditzy stated, smiling. Rainbow smiled back, thankful for a place to sleep.
“Do you mind if I ask where Carrot Top is?” Rainbow asked, sitting on the mat. She became confused when Ditzy bit her lip.
“Gone.” Was the answer Ditzy gave. Rainbow suddenly felt sick.
“She’s… dead?” she asked again, suddenly regretting having asked about her in the first place.
“No, just gone. Not here.” Ditzy answered again, holding her left leg over her right and looking to her left, as if uneasy at being asked questions on Carrot Top at all.
“Is she coming back?” Rainbow asked a third time, wishing she would just shut up at Ditzy looked more and more pained each time.
“I don’t know. Can we go to sleep now? I want to be up early to find Dinky.” Ditzy asked and stated, laying flat on her mat, tears rolled down Ditzy’s face leaving behind wet streaks.
Rainbow Dash nodded and lay on her side. What had happened while she had been out? It was clearly bad. She had seen no unicorn or earth pony since she had woken up, only Ditzy. She closed her eyes and begun to let sleep take over her fatigued body and mind. Hopefully tomorrow would be better. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 2 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2011-11-24T20:15:08+00:00 | 2011-11-24T20:15:08+00:00 | 1,569 | Rainbow Dash’s face was touched by what little sunlight could get through the smoke that came from the still burning buildings the next morning. She groaned a little and turned over. A few seconds later, she looked in the direction of the hooves that had begun to shake her awake.
Annoyed, Rainbow laid on her back and half opened her right eye. Above her stood Ditzy Doo, worry on her face.
“You promised we go find Dinky,” she said, almost in a child like whine.
“Of course I did,” Rainbow stated between yawns. “Besides, there’s something else we should do as well.” Rainbow Dash groaned, rolled to her front and stood up.
“What else?”
“We need to look for anypony else who survived,” Rainbow answered, heading to the street. “Who knows, maybe one of them knows what the hay is going on around here. And they can look for Dinky too.”
The fires had gone down considerably in some places, and a few, like the flower shop, were no longer on fire at all. Here and there, Rainbow started to notice, there were burn marks from spells, or the paint and wood had scrape marks along it, and, disturbingly, there was a fair bit of blood.
Ditzy shifted beside Rainbow, clearly worrying about her daughter. Rainbow kept her head high, trying to keep up the spirits and hopes for their search. ‘This is… horrible,’ she thought. ‘I just hope everypony is ok… I don’t know how I’d take it if--’
Her line of thought was interrupted when they turned a corner and saw Sugarcube Corner, or what used to be it. It took a moment for Rainbow to recognize it, and she only knew that was it because of the location in town. Sugarcube Corner was blackened from the fire that had raged through it, but it had long gone out and the roof, structurally weakened, had collapsed. The top of the front door had splintered in half and the bottom half lay flat on the floor, the windows had all shattered, apparently in the fire.
Rainbow's eyes bulged and her mouth was agape as her mind rushed. What could have happened to Pinkie? She shook her head. No time for shock, ponies could need her. She rushed inside, followed by Ditzy.
The fire ravaged scene continued to the inside. Shelves holding the burnt remains of trays and plates had collapsed or burnt away, shattering the plates and scattering the ash of the burnt food, which smelt of a mix of burnt pastry and burnt wood. Many trays had melted from the high temperatures. Very little remained of the jolly, pastel colored room that Rainbow remembered watching the Cakes and Pinkie Pie working from.
The cyan pegasus felt a pang of guilt as she stared at the destruction. She hadn’t really thought much of her friends, having assumed they were safe. But the lack of burnt pony bodies on the ground floor led her to wonder if Pinkie Pie was laying upstairs, her body burnt to a crisp… She didn't think she could bring herself to look something like that.
A nudge against her shoulder made Rainbow Dash snap out of her thoughts. Glancing around first, she noticed the hoof prints in the ash, leading to, and up, the stairs. Beside the set on the stairs, another pair had come down, and she followed them, ending up looking directly at Ditzy.
“Nopony upstairs. All gone.” Ditzy landed beside the other mare, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Rainbow Dash felt a wave of relief wash over her. A new thought entered her mind on hearing the news. Whatever caused all this, Pinkie must have seen it coming and got herself and the Cakes out in time. Rainbow wondered how sad must they all have felt, having to run away, witnessing their home and livelihood burn.
Rainbow walked back outside to the street and sat, tilting her head to look at the sky. Clouds had quickly rolled in. Now there were no Pegasi controlling them, and it proceeded to rain on her. It was good news, the rain would probably help against all the fires, but this wasn’t on Rainbow’s mind as she sat there.
Where was Pinkie Pie? Where were all her friends? She wanted somewhere, anywhere to fly to and see if they were ok. Maybe even learn what happened. Rainbow swallowed the knot in her throat. Without her friends to help, everything seemed hopeless. Was everything and everypony… gone?
Rainbow Dash hadn’t noticed Ditzy had joined her and sat in the rain beside her. Ditzy begun crying, quietly. Rainbow Dash looked at her, not entirely sure what she should do.
“I don’t know what to do if Dinky is gone.” Ditzy wailed, her tears mixed with the rain that ran down her face.
Rainbow realized how Ditzy had it worse than her. ‘Ponies need you, Rainbow,’ she mentally coached herself. ‘Keep it strong for them!’
The rain died down just then. The storm couldn’t have passed so quickly, could it? She looked up. Flying near the low hanging rain clouds flew a yellow Pegasus with a green mane and tail. She was kicking the clouds that were heading for Ditzy and Rainbow away. Feeling it had done enough, it flew towards them and landed.
“It’s so good to see others survived.” She said as she walked over to Ditzy and Rainbow.
“Raindrops! It’s so good to see you!” Rainbow shouted, getting up and running closer to the newcomer.
“What are you and Rainbow Dash doing here?” Raindrops asked.
“Ditzy found me last night, we’re here now looking for Dinky,” Rainbow answered her, “you don’t know why Ponyville is on fire do you?”
It was a long shot to ask, but Rainbow Dash hoped Raindrops had the answer.
“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but I have no idea what’s going on either. But let’s go find out. Sitting around won’t find Dinky any faster.” Raindrops said with a hopeful smile.
During the day, the three ponies had searched only half of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash noted the magic burn marks, scraping of wood and signs of blood were present everywhere in the town, and wondered to herself how she had overlooked them the previous day. As the sun begun to get low on the horizon, they only managed to find two other survivors in the town, a purple Pegasus with blonde mane named Cloudkicker, and another Pegasus who was white with a blue mane named Lightning Bolt. The pair had been found near the burning remains of Carousel Boutique. The five Pegasi were still nearby, Ditzy and Raindrops checking on the rescued Cloudkicker and Lightning Bolt, while Rainbow Dash stared at what was left of Rarity’s shop.
The shop had been badly burned out; to the point the walls had visible holes in them, showing the still raging fire inside. As of yet, the roof had yet to collapse, though smoke from the fire rose up between the holes that had been made in it by the flames. It hurt Rainbow’s eyes to watch due to the heat and smoke.
With a loud crackle and snap, the roof caved in, and set off a chain of reactions as each floor gave away with its own loud snap. In less than a minute, filled with the crackling and snaps that echoed all around, and the roar of flames getting more oxygen to fuel itself, Carousel Boutique had collapsed right to the ground, still burning where the fire had survived the collapse.
“I couldn’t even check if Rarity or maybe Sweetie Belle were still inside…” Rainbow whimpered, hoping that the sisters had left long ago.
Rainbow noticed that she begun to cry. The stress and emotions of all she had seen so far finally brought her to the edge, where holding them in to appear strong simply was no longer possible. She no longer cared if the other Pegasi behind her noticed, and they probably felt the same anyway. She couldn’t hold back her tears any longer, and sat down, crying openly for several minutes.
Blinking her eyes a few times to clear the tears as best as she could, Rainbow Dash stood up and faced the other Pegasi, who starred on at the burning remains of Rarity’s shop. She coughed to get their attention.
“We can’t stay any longer. Ditzy, lead the way back to where we were last night. We’ll continue our search for Dinky in the morning.” Rainbow said, a blank expression on her face.
At the remains of Carrot Top’s house, the other Pegasi begun to talk, taking whatever they wanted to eat off the floor, but staying away from the muffin that still sat on the table after having their hoof slapped away from it by Ditzy. They soon settled down and fell asleep, except for Rainbow Dash, who remained awake.
Being quiet, she walked back to the street and looked around. Most of the fires had gone out and more houses and buildings had since collapsed. Far away, Rainbow Dash saw the home of Applejack, most of it still in one piece. Unfortunately, it was the roof and two walls, as the rest had burned away.
She looked along the farm and noticed most of the trees had also been burning, but strangely, some had been completely uprooted and were laying on their side. The barn, Rainbow noted, had become a large pile of burnt wood.
As she continued to stare around the remains of town, she could’ve sworn she saw a dark blue pony with something black along his flank… a cloak, maybe? She shook it off after looking that direction and only seeing empty air. She sighed, held back a yawn, then decided it was just her tired and dismayed head playing tricks on her.
Rainbow sighed and looked up at the moon. Just what had she missed that caused so much damage and left only her and four other Pegasi alive? Why the burn marks, the scraping marks and the blood across every building and path in Ponyville? Was there anypony still alive who even knew any of that? …Or at least her friends?
---
Ending notes;
A picture will be coming soon for this. I dont know when it'll be up, but soon with some luck. |
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Artaelian | 704 | 3 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2011-11-24T20:13:16+00:00 | 2011-11-24T20:13:16+00:00 | 1,337 | Rainbow Dash woke up to the sight of the other Pegasus eating. Once again, the muffin on the plate had been left alone as Ditzy wished. Rainbow yawned and stood up.
“Good morning, Rainbow Dash. How are you doing?” Raindrops asked pausing during the carrot she was eating.
She was forlorn and wishing it was all a dream. But she wouldn’t say something like that. “I’m doing fine. You know, considering the situation.”
Raindrops nodded, judging by Rainbow’s voice that she wanted to be alone rather than talk to the other survivors. With no other conversation being offered, Rainbow Dash walked out to the streets again and looked around.
The Everfree Forest, just outside Ponyville, was burnt just like the town. But something was different. A small patch inside the forest was clearly fine, and had no signs that it had ever been on fire. Was this where Zecora was? It could be, she wouldn’t know for sure. But it was a spark of hope that woke her spirits up.
“Guys, there’s a part of the Everfree Forest that didn’t burn,” she cried to the ponies inside, “all of you stay here. I’m going to go and take a look. Maybe Zecora is fine and knows what’s going on.”
--
The Everfree Forest loomed before Rainbow Dash now, or rather, what little was still standing. The trees had burnt faster and cleaner than the houses and buildings of Ponyville. The air was still unplesant, with ash from the trees that drifted on the air like flurries, and the smoke made a boding low hanging cloud.
Even though the fires were distant, Rainbow could hear the sounds of the trees, crackling and popping, and they provided the only sound as she walked through what was left. Oddly enough, these distant sounds provided some comfort in the now unfamiliar landscape, even though they did give her a few shivers. As welcome as the sounds were, they unnerved her slightly.
Carefully, Rainbow climbed over the charred remains of a tree log that had fallen. Here, off to her right was a horrible sight. A black, completely charred corpse about thrice as big as herself, with a characteristic scorpion tail. It was no doubt the manticore that Fluttershy had calmed down about a year before. The mare stood and stared at it for a moment, before sighing and pressing on to Zecora’s hut.
Her guess that the zebra’s home would be in the unaffected part of the Everfree Forest had been right. She soon came upon the tree home with its creepy masks and decorations. She quietly walked up to the door and knocked.
“Anypony home?” she yelled, waiting for a reply… or lack thereof.
But rather than a voice, Rainbow was met with suddenly being pulled off her hooves. It took a few seconds to finally realize she was now on her back, uninjured, inside Zecora’s house, with the zebra looking down at her.
“How glad I am to hear, a perfectly fine pony appear!” Zecora said, happily, in her strange way of talking.
“It’s nice to see you as well Zecora. But you could have just invited me in rather than… you know… trap me.” Rainbow Dash stated sharply.
“These times I have to be agile, for Equestria has turned hostile.” Zecora answered.
“That’s just it, Zecora. Do you know what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash inquired.
Zecora sat down and sighed, thinking of a few seconds.
There was a lot of rhyming to do until she told all about what she had seen over the last few days. She went on about how some loud noise came from Canterlot, and with it, earth ponies and unicorns gained black markings and their eyes turned white. From there, they begun destroying the town and the forest, and Zecora was lucky to have used recipes to repel the corrupted ponies.
“…Finally, I heard you call for my name,” Zecora concluded after half an hour, “and here you are, here I am.”
“So,” Rainbow Dash tried to work out Zecora’s usual rhyming into sentences she could understand, “after my blackout, something happened up at Canterlot, and all earth ponies and unicorns suddenly went insane?” Rainbow asked.
Zecora nodded. “Many nights I have looked for answers in this book,” she walked over to it, “but among its pages there is no solution, as I look.”
“And what of my friends? Did you see them?” Rainbow asked in hope.
“Your friends I did not see, except for Fluttershy, who came to confide in me.”
“So where is she?” The pegasus was happy to hear this, at this point she didn’t have high expectations anymore.
Zecora’s head lowered. Apparently there would be no good news here. Soon, Zecora looked directly at Rainbow Dash.
“Last I saw of Fluttershy, I gave her two vials of the potion from my cooking pot. One for a friend hurt here in Ponyville, the other for a plan to take place in Canterlot.”
The conversation then became interrupted when the door to the next room burst open. Through this, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Dinky Doo walked out. They all stared at Rainbow Dash, large smiles appearing on their faces. Rainbow Dash stared, a smile on her face to see the young fillies were unharmed.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted, running ahead of the others.
“How did you all get here? We searched the town and didn’t find anyone.” Rainbow quizzed, looking at each filly in turn.
“When the fires begun,” Sweetie Belle answered, “Apple Bloom suggested we flee to Zecora’s. We’ve been here all along.” Apple Bloom looked proud that her suggestion had been helpful.
For the first time in the last few days, Rainbow Dash truly smiled. All the destruction of the town, seeing so many familiar places burnt to empty shells, or burnt to the ground, four fillies had lifted the sadness of the situation simply by being alive. She looked at Dinky.
“Your mom has been worried about you, Dinky, but she’s fine. When everything is ok, she has a muffin waiting for you at home,” Rainbow said, smiling at Dinky. Dinky only responded by smiling back, “If it’s safe later, maybe I can bring her here to see you before then.”
Rainbow Dash stood up and walked to the door, stopping to look back at Zecora.
“Keep an eye on them. The rest of us will try to sort everything out. We’ll come back when it’s safe.” She said plainly.
“Rainbow Dash, why can’t we come?” Scootaloo asked, running to Rainbow’s side.
“Not just yet. I can’t get you fillies through town yet. So just stay here a bit more. I’ll come back soon.” Rainbow smiled, and walked out of Zecora’s house.
‘I hope it’ll be ok soon. Please, let everything be ok…’
--
Rainbow Dash was a bit more cautious walking back after what Zecora had said. The earth ponies and unicorns had become corrupted, though Zecora hadn’t seen too well what this looked like. All she knew, they were still around, setting fires and destroying things at random.
As she walked back into Ponyville, a bush rustled nearby, causing Rainbow to freeze. She turned her head slowly to look at it, then it rustled again. Somepony was in there. Recalling Zecora’s words, Rainbow Dash edged closer to the bush and pulled it aside. In it, looking up with only one eye, the other out of sight, was a green unicorn with a lighter green mane stared back.
“Lyra? What the hay? Zecora said all unicorns got corrupted.” Rainbow Dash said.
“We all did, Rainbow Dash…” Lyra answered back.
Rainbow Dash recoiled in horror at what she saw when Lyra stepped out from the bush. It was as if half of her body was as it was normal, but the other half looked as if it had been resting on a bush above paint. Lyra’s normal eye colour stared at her from the left side, but the blank white eye on the right sent shivers up Rainbow’s spine.
But there were more details that Rainbow now saw as Lyra swayed gently before her. The half of her mane that fell on the right had dimmed several darker shades of green, and along her body, black markings seemed to wriggle and squirm as though alive. They seemed to form words for fleeting moments, before becoming blobs once more. Rainbow fought the urge to run, the sight of Lyra’s empty eye, and the wriggling black markings on Lyra’s body struck at some primal feeling deep down, but that same primal feeling also kept her rooted to the spot, staring at what had become of the unicorn before her.
“Lyra, what happened to you?” Rainbow asked after several uneasy seconds.
“The same that happened to everypony else, even… Bon-bon. We all got these… markings on us, and our eyes are becoming pure white. I’m fighting it, but… it’s a fight I’m going to lose.” Lyra answered, her voice sounding dull, as if all hope was lost.
An awkward silence fell between the two ponies. “Where is everypony anyway?” Rainbow Dash finally asked, “and what happened to all the Pegasi?”
“I don’t know. Since Fluttershy… flew out of town, then some grey Pegasus got… too close to Canterlot, the unicorns set up a barrier around Ponyville. If you touch it, you’ll… die in a second. Not even your… home is safe. But you must listen to me, I have… something important to say.” Lyra stated, as Rainbow Dash sat down.
Rainbow looked hopelessly up at her home high above. This felt cruel. Her home, about the only thing that seemed to be fine, and she’d die if she tried to go to it. She snapped back to conscious thought as Lyra cleared her throat.
“Right now, the town is… surrounded by other corrupted ponies. But there’ll be a time tomorrow morning when they aren’t here. Fluttershy is in… trouble up in Canterlot. Use the time to save her and get yourself far away from here.” Lyra informed, pain etched across her face. Seemingly having said all she wanted to say, Lyra turned around and begun to walk away.
“Hey, where are you going?” Rainbow asked frantically, having been caught off guard by Lyra starting to leave. She got up and followed after the green unicorn.
“I’m becoming corrupted, it’s too… dangerous to stay near you when I finally lose my fight. Just take care of yourself, don’t worry about what… happens to me or any other corrupted pony.” Lyra replied in a defeated tone. At least she could help somepony else before losing her fight.
When Lyra was out of sight, Rainbow Dash turned around and looked up to where Canterlot could always be seen from Ponyville, and her jaw dropped.
The pure white castle had become blackened from all the smoke and fires that seemingly had occurred there too. As she watched, a tower lost a few large parts, and then it too fell to gravity and into the valley below. It moved slowly down, reminding Rainbow on how massive it used to be. Like Ponyville, Canterlot had become ruined while she slept.
‘This can’t get much worse, can it?’ she thought.
------
Author notes; A picture was added, but this may be a temporary picture. Right now, it has no relation to the chapters up right now. So sorry for the picture not relating to the story just yet. |
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Artaelian | 704 | 4 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2011-12-05T22:06:50+00:00 | 2011-12-05T22:06:50+00:00 | 1,139 | As soon as Ditzy got the news, she took the reserved muffin to Zecora’s hut, and she even took a few extras for the other fillies and the zebra as a thank you token. The muffins were a little old, sure, but they were still good, and were much appreciated.
The next morning, the five pegasi were awake before the sun had even risen in the sky, preparing supplies that they felt would be needed on arrival to Canterlot. They prepared food to give to anypony that they found, and scavenged as many medical supplies they could find.
Rainbow Dash closed her saddlebags, and watched as the other pegasi filled any remaining space in theirs with extra supplies. She cleared her throat.
“Now remember, boring as it may be, we have to wait until we can be sure there’s no corrupted ponies around. The second they’re gone, we’re out of here.” She repeated the plan to them.
“Rainbow,” Cloudkicker looked up, “do you think we’ll be fine?” she asked.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to be there to save you if any of these ‘corrupted’ ponies turn up.” Rainbow replied, holding a hoof to her chest.
The only pony who was truly encouraged for this was Ditzy Doo. To the gray pegasus, the pony who mattered the most was alive and well protected, and she was going to help saving the world for her. Rainbow couldn’t help but envy this position.
--
The route closest to Canterlot took them past the library that had once been Twilight’s home. Rainbow hadn’t seen it yet during the days she had been awake, but she was paralyzed by the sight.
She had always heard Twilight had placed some sort of spell on the library, to prevent it burning down should Spike accidentally breathe fire. But somehow, during the events that set the town on fire, the library too had been set on fire. And it still was as they drew near.
The blaze of this fire was unlike any that she had seen before. It was contained within the walls of the library, by the very spell Twilight had set up to prevent fires, and it was as strong as if it had just begun. Deep within, books crackled and tiny bits of burning paper floated out of the fire and fell like ash to the ground.
‘But how? I thought her spells were supposed to stop this… did some unicorn turn her magic into the way it is?’ Rainbow said to herself, not noticing her backside had fallen to the ground from the despair she felt.
A crash could be heard clearly through the flames, indicating something had fallen down inside. While the fire seemed to gain more strength from this, it stayed within the spell boundaries had cast long ago on the library.
Rainbow continued to stare, wondering whether Spike could survive such heat. A few more tears freshly formed in the corners of her eyes. A hoof nudged her on her side.
“It’s ok. We have to go.” Ditzy encouraged softly. In a way, she felt even more compelled to help Dash now that her biggest worry was no more.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash stood up on her hooves again, and the group walked around the burning library, as the crackling continued and burned bits of paper continued to float out of the windows and to the ground outside.
The edge of Ponyville wasn’t much further away, and Rainbow was slightly thankful that she could stare out across the vast plains, than stare any longer at burning or ruined buildings of the town. From where she sat waiting, she could see corrupted ponies that were within thirty seconds trotting distance from the edge of Ponyville, their coats marked with the same black markings that she had seen on Lyra the day before.
These corrupted ponies walked around in a circular pattern, each one covering a small distance, they were guarding the town. Rainbow remembered back to what Lyra had told her the day before, the corrupted unicorns had set up a barrier over Ponyville. It was clear that the barrier in the air was to prevent attacks from above on those keeping guard on the ground. She kept close watch and waited for the time Lyra had said they would be gone, and they could leave freely.
Dash wondered how much longer until they’d leave as Lyra had said. If there wasn’t so many of them, she’d just fly out and kick them in the face before flying away. It felt like hours were going by.
Oddly, as if on cue, the corrupted ponies all looked up to the sky, remained like that for a minute, then for a few minutes, they sat and simply stared with their blank white eyes at Ponyville, and then simply walked away. Rainbow could only stare.
“Come on, Rainbow Dash, we can’t waste this chance!” Raindrops nudged Rainbow’s side.
“I know, but… it’s almost too easy. I was just wondering how long we’d have to wait, and they suddenly all go. Don’t tell me that isn’t odd.” Rainbow replied, still looking out across the valley.
“It doesn’t matter. Now come on, this could be our only chance!” Raindrops insisted, walking ahead.
Rainbow Dash sighed and begun to follow. It felt way too easy, but what choice did she have?
--
It had been an hour since the five pegasi had left Ponyville, and they had come to rest on the hill that led up to Canterlot. Raindrops, Ditzy, Cloudkicker and Lightning Bolt all sat in silence, eating some food supplies from their saddlebags, while Rainbow looked back across the valley to Ponyville.
Even though it was now a faint sight from the hill near Canterlot, the destruction that had occurred in Ponyville was still clear. Smoke still rose from some places where fires lingered, and the sight on the way of the pets and animals that ponies had cared for, all clearly killed by corrupted ponies, would haunt Rainbow’s mind forever.
‘If Applejack saw what they did to Winona, she’d kill the pony that did it. But then, I haven’t seen Spike. That is, if he wasn’t still in the library…’ she thought to herself, shaking her head clear of the thought of Spike burning in the Ponyville library.
Her attention now drew to her immediate surroundings. She had already seen the day before that Canterlot was in a bad state, but the severity of it hadn’t really become clear until she and the others had gotten closer. Around the hill, parts of the castle that had fallen away were scattered around, blackened by the smoke of fires that had been near before they fell.
High above, the foundations of Canterlot itself seemed to be crumbling away, almost as if it could all fall to the ground at any second. They had chosen to walk instead of fly to avoid flying into any magical death trap, so she couldn’t tell from below how bad Canterlot looked exactly.
“Ok, everypony ready? I… I don’t know what we’ll find when we get up there. It… it may be just fires, but it may be worse. If something seems wrong, tell the others, and we’ll get out of there fast.” Rainbow stated, looking at each pegasi in turn.
“What are we looking for, exactly?” Raindrops asked.
“The princesses,” Rainbow replied, “if they’re fine, we can sneak back in and see if they can undo all this. We’ll get this sorted out in no time and everything will be fixed.” Rainbow reassured her team.
Ditzy smiled and closed her eyes, thinking of her filly.
Rainbow, however, started woring about what she just said. ‘It’s wrong to promise such a thing. What if the problem Zecora mentioned was something bad happening to the princesses? What if we can’t undo all of this? I… I can’t even promise if any of us will be alive by the end of the day…’
She looked up and saw the other pegasi all seemed happy, talking to each other.
‘But I have to keep them hopeful. Who knows? Maybe everything could be ok.’
--
As Rainbow had expected, Canterlot from the path leading to it was just the same, if not worse, than its foundations looked. Smoke from fires had blackened the white walls, and the golden roofs of the castle had been exposed to temperatures so high, the gold had simply melted. While most of the buildings looked in good condition despite now being mostly black, every window had broken, roofs had fallen in, and the insides generally were filled with whatever hadn’t burned before the fires went out.
Along the way, trees had been burnt, uprooted or simply chopped down. The fountains sometimes even contained the remains of Celestia’s royal guard in their golden armour, which were now dented and stained with dirt and blood. This proved further to Rainbow that pegasi had largely been unaffected, but provided an excuse for the other pegasi travelling with her to part with what they had eaten before arriving. The five ponies were all unnerved by the sight of the bodies. Cloudkicker almost parted with the contents of her stomach. Rainbow faultered for a moment and reconsidered the plan of being at the castle.
All the way to the main doors of the castle, the sight of killed guards, ruined buildings and trees in various states of damage repeated. As the five pegasi walked near, Rainbow froze, as the doors in to the castle opened. Beyond, hundreds of corrupted earth ponies and unicorns stared back, their eyes blank.
Rainbow stood ahead of the other four, as they all stood and waited to see what would happen next. Several tense minutes passed, and no word was uttered. The fear of the moment was building, as each of them prepared to run for safety, but no hostile action seemed to be coming from the corrupted ponies beyond the door. Looking closer, Rainbow noted they seemed to be lining a path inside the castle itself.
“I… I think they’re inviting us in.” She said to the others, drawing closer.
“Do you think we can trust them?” Cloudkicker asked.
“Obviously not. But what other choice do we have right now? Besides, the windows are broken; we can escape if something goes wrong.” Rainbow answered, walking through the doors.
She didn’t see the others again. As soon as she was clear of the doors, they were slammed shut behind her, causing Rainbow Dash to once again freeze, as frantic banging of hooves against doors could be heard echoing around the entrance hall of the castle.
‘This is bad. Doors locked and corrupted ponies all around. And they have a serious issue with pegasi right now. I’ve never wished to not have wings before…’ she though frantically, looking around at the uncaring faces of the corrupted ponies.
When again, no hostile action seemed to be coming her way, Rainbow Dash dared to look around. The castle itself seemed to have seen very little fire, any that had occurred had clearly been put out as soon as it begun.
Looking ahead, she saw the corrupted ponies seemed to line the path that led directly to the throne room. When she attempted to walk past them, one of the corrupted ponies pushed her back.
There was only one way to progress. Into the throne room. She approached the doors and nervously, fearing what was inside, pushed them open and walked in. Right away, once she was clear of the doors, they slammed shut, only this time, she heard a click. They had locked her in.
The throne room, Rainbow noted, had seen no fires at all. But at the same time, the welcoming sight of Princess Celestia on her throne wasn’t present. Around the room were seven open doors, which seemed to lead to nowhere. Looking more carefully, Rainbow saw something odd in a cage beside one of the doors.
The cage held a small purple and green dragon, who was waking up after the door slam had disturbed him.
“Spike! You’re alive!” Rainbow shouted happily, running towards the cage.
“Rainbow Dash no! You have to get out of here! It’s not safe!” Spike shouted back.
“Well, well. Girls! The princesses have a guest! Let’s keep her entertained while they get ready!” Twilight spoke softly, but menacingly and coldly.
Twilight’s voice had come from one place in the room, but every part of the room at the same time, and Rainbow cowered, as if trying to hide in the big, open throne room.
It was pretty obvious to Rainbow. Twilight wasn’t coming to greet her in a happy, friendly way.
--
Author's notes; sorry for the long delay for this chapter. After efforts to get this story up on Equestria Daily (an effort which has so far failed twice but with positive responce) and my editors seemingly not looking at this chapter at all, I felt delaying part four even further for existing readers was unfair. So hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will notify in comments if changes were made. |
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Artaelian | 704 | 5 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2011-12-06T00:46:05+00:00 | 2011-12-06T00:46:05+00:00 | 1,079 | Author notes, PLEASE READ!!
Due to further feedback from Equestria Daily, there have been more changes that work in favour of the air of mystery that the story is attempting to portray.
As such, a large part of chapter one has been rewritten with a new opening. This is the FINAL changes for now that will be made to the story. Also, a point in this chapter will not make sense if you fail to re-read chapter one at the very least.
And now, on with the story.
---
Rainbow Dash stared on in shock as her friends appeared in the throne room, the friends who left little gifts by her hospital bed. She had no idea where they had come from, one moment they weren’t there, and the next they were, as though they had teleported in. They bore the same black markings as Lyra and the other ponies she had seen did, and their eyes were now pure white, even Fluttershy, unlike any other pegasi.
“Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy… what happened to you?” Rainbow spoke in almost a whisper.
“How cute,” Twilight giggled, “you still call us by those names. But from here, call us by these names. I am Corrupted Element of Magic.” Twilight’s voice was soft, but held to its hostile undertone.
“I am Corrupted Element of Generosity.” Rarity said at her turn, not speaking in her usual upper class tone.
“I’m Corrupted Element of Laughter.” Pinkie Pie said next, her voice flat and devoid of any joy it normal had.
“I’m Corrupted Element of Honesty.” Applejack took her turn, her accent gone, words slurring slower.
“And I’m Corrupted Element of Kindness.” Fluttershy added last, sounding far more bold than the normal meek and quiet Pegasus she was.
“Come on, gals, you’re all still the wonderful friends that left all these get well soon stuff for me, I know it!” Rainbow begged, her voice jittery.
She flew to one side when Twilight sent a row of lightning bolts in her direction. Clearly, they had had enough of talking, and were now getting to the part where they killed her.
“Hold still, Element of Loyalty. This won’t hurt.” Applejack shouted, charging towards where Rainbow Dash had landed. As soon as Applejack was near, Rainbow took to the air again, causing Applejack to run through an open door. Acting rather than thinking, Rainbow Dash kicked the door closed.
And noticed Applejack couldn’t open it again, no matter how much she bucked at it. Rainbow had a moment of genius, as she looked around the room.
‘I don’t have to hurt them if I can just trick them!’ she said with hope to herself. Her sight landed on Fluttershy, who was flying close, and humming loudly as she got nearer, her corrupted white eyes closed. Through an open window, a flock of birds flew in, begun to circle around her, then went on a suicide dive towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow only just got out of the way, and turned back. What remained of the flock of birds wasn’t a pretty sight, all of their fragile little bodies had exploded on impact.
She flew as fast as she could to the next doorway, and looked at Fluttershy, flying at her fast. Fluttershy responded by flying faster than normal towards Rainbow Dash, and a second later, they were inches from each other. It was the closest Fluttershy would get. Rainbow Dash barrel rolled to the right, and Fluttershy kept going. The yellow mare couldn’t keep up with the maneuver and smashed against the wall inside a room, her legs were a little crooked and her barely visible iris was almost as cross eyed as Ditzy’s were every day. The door was closed by the impact, and some of the birds’ remains were crushed by the door.
This left Rainbow with Pinkie, Twilight and Rarity. The pink earth pony was currently hopping towards Rainbow Dash. She flew past Pinkie Pie, who again turned to hop towards Rainbow Dash.
Pinkie was not going to be easy, after all, she had managed to keep up with Rainbow in the past, and had proven to be capable of doing the impossible. She’d have to not only trick Pinkie into a door, but keep her in there.
Rainbow flew in front of the door she had chose to trap Pinkie Pie behind. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could use to block the door further. The room however did have chains attached to a wall, which made Rainbow bite her lower lip from the nerves. She would have to get dangerously close to the corrupted Pinkie Pie to trap her.
Looking at the doorway, the pink pony hopped in. Her hopping slowed as she got near Rainbow.
“Hey Pinkie!” Rainbow said.
“You’re supposed to call me Corrupted Element of Laughter.” Pinkie Pie responded dryly.
“Oh right, well, um” Rainbow shuffled slightly, with an encouraging yet unsure smile, “well, to apologise, and congratulate you on capturing me, I want you to have these!”
She held the cuff chains towards the pink pony, who looked at them with scepticism. Rainbow bit her lower lip again. Finally, the pink pony hopped forward and placed her hooves willingly into the chains.
“How nice, you still had time to get me a gift… hey, wait a second!” Pinkie had realised what had taken place. But it was already too late. Rainbow Dash closed the door, grinning.
Rainbow Dash already had a plan for dealing with Rarity, as she avoided magic sent at her by the two unicorns that were still in the throne room. She flew up to Spike.
“Please tell me you have gems!” she shouted at him. To her amazement, Spike produced a few gems that he had hidden in the cage. One of them was shaped almost like a pacifier.
“What are you planning?” he asked.
Rainbow didn’t reply. She flew to another open door carrying the gems, which she then threw into the room beyond the door. She then looked at Rarity and gulped.
“Hey Rarity!” she shouted.
“It’s Corrupted Element of Generosity now!” Rarity declared back.
“Yeah sure,” Rainbow rolled her eyes, “look what I found in this room!”
Rainbow Dash only felt the breeze, as a white streak went past her faster than she could blink. Had Rainbow actually stood in the way, most of her would have been obliterated in Rarity’s frantic rush to the gems.
“Gems, gems, gems, gems, gems, gems, gems… wait a second!” Rarity too worked out a moment too late what was going on as the door was closed behind her. The moment Rainbow closed the door she remember Twilight’s ability to teleport, and hoped Rarity didn’t know that.
This left her the hardest task of all, trapping Twilight, who could teleport out of the room. Rainbow Dash stared down Twilight, as the pair circled around each other. Different plans ran through Rainbow’s head, but each were rejected as Rainbow thought of them, recalling what Twilight was able to do. Ultimately, she decided that she just had to hope for the best, Twilight’s magic was far too varied unlike that of Rarity, and nothing clearly stood out to aid in trapping Twilight. She flew in front of the door and lowered her head, stomping a hoof.
“You’re kidding. You’re kidding right?” Twilight asked, sneering at Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow only responded by stomping her hoof again. Twilight lowered her head, pointing her horn at Rainbow Dash, and the two charged at each other. Rainbow kept watch as she approached Twilight, and when they were close, she repeated the trick that had trapped Fluttershy earlier. She jumped out of the way, and got back up to see Twilight attempting to stop before she skidded into the room.
Rainbow flew over fast and kicked the door closed. She smiled before being forced to cover her eyes as each room was filled with a white light. When this had died down, Rainbow Dash walked back to the door Twilight was behind, and looked in.
As Twilight approached the door, the black markings covering her body sizzled away like water boiling on hot metal, and her purple eye colour once more appeared in the white that they had become. She looked at Rainbow, pure confusion on her face.
“Rainbow Dash? Where are we? Did you do something to get locked in a dungeon?” Twilight asked frantically.
The pegasus laughed with relief, then stood proud. “Rainbow Dash saved the day!” she boasted. “It’s a long story.” Rainbow sat down and wiped her brow with her hoof to take a breath before explaining it. She would not question how her friends had suddenly become uncorrupted; all that mattered for the moment was that they were back to normal, giving her hope of resolving the situation the world was in.
“My, my, sister. What an ungrateful guest! Locking the welcome party up. Let us teach her some manners.” Princess Celestia spoke. It was the usual, kind voice, of the princess, but much like with Twilight, it was dripping with sinister intentions.
It was going to be a very long day. |
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Artaelian | 704 | 6 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-01-01T23:03:59+00:00 | 2012-01-01T23:03:59+00:00 | 1,048 | Rainbow Dash turned around slowly to face the middle of the throne room. As she did so, two bright spheres of light appeared, one pure white, the other a navy blue. They grew in size and brightness, and from them rose Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
Both of them had become corrupted, but the black markings seemed less chaotic and more focused on specific parts of their bodies. Their eyes still had the iris, but lacked a pupil. Both princesses stood still, looking right at her.
‘This is not good. Two more doors, but the princesses raise and lower the sun and moon. How can I trick them, when they have a thousand years of experience at least?’ Rainbow thought aloud frantically.
Rainbow watched as the markings on Princess Celestia ran down her legs, formed a circle, which then made bars around the princess. Princess Celestia closed her eyes and remained perfectly still inside the bars, while Princess Luna took to the air. Magical circles appeared around her, and from these small fireballs flew towards Rainbow Dash, who only just avoided getting hit.
“Twilight, help! How can I lock them up?” Rainbow yelled, as Princess Luna darkened the room. Shadow claws begun reaching out for Rainbow Dash as she flew around.
“I don’t know!” Twilight replied, completely at a loss, a confused look on her face.
Rainbow kept flying around, avoiding each new attack Princess Luna used. She knew that eventually, she would be unable to avoid any attacks, and that would be it for her. Looking to the middle of the room, Rainbow saw Princess Luna start change her shape, making herself taller, darker and her hair more flowing and like the night. The sight of Princess Luna now appearing as Nightmare Moon unnerved Rainbow a little.
From where she stood, Nightmare Moon flared her wings, and red symbols appeared on the ceiling. As they begun to pulse and glow brighter, rocks fell from them, striking the floor where they disappeared on impact. Rainbow had to pay careful attention during the attack to avoid being struck by any of the rocks.
As the barrage of rocks stopped, Princess Luna changed out of her Nightmare Moon form. She flew straight into the air, her right front hoof held high. Behind her, white shapes that looked like small stars formed, and shot straight ahead of her, following Rainbow for ten seconds, before exploding. Rainbow cursed slightly, thankful she was faster than the white stars. Princess Luna stared at Rainbow Dash, her white eyes emotionless, and remaining in the air, she begun to fly after Rainbow.
‘I can’t try to trick her, or pretend to charge her. I don’t know what will work.’ Rainbow thought hopelessly, flying over to one of the remaining open rooms. She looked inside, and found nothing that could help her. Rainbow Dash turned around and ran out of the room, and saw Princess Luna flying at her at high speed. Without thinking, Rainbow ducked out of the way.
She looked behind her a second later, and her jaw dropped. Crashed, and slightly dazed against the far wall, was Princess Luna. Quickly, Rainbow Dash bucked the door closed. That had been easier than even tricking Pinkie Pie and Rarity. But still left her with the problem of Princess Celestia.
She looked back where Princess Celestia had surrounded herself with bars made from the markings that had been on her. Rapidly, the bars returned to the ground, and in turn, the markings returned to where they had been before on Princess Celestia.
“Now you will see why I am to be feared.” Princess Celestia said softly and coldly.
Rainbow Dash begun to sweat, as Princess Celestia raised the temperature of the room. Around the throne room, random objects caught on fire. Slowly, Rainbow Dash backed up against the door Princess Luna had been locked behind.
“You’re one of my sister’s student’s friends right?” Princess Luna asked, making Rainbow Dash jump. She hadn’t been expecting the Princess to speak.
“Um, yeah. I’m afraid the chat will have to wait, your sister is kind of out of her mind and trying to kill me.” Rainbow Dash replied frantically. She shivered a little suddenly, and looked around. Objects that had burst into flame nearby, such as potted plants and banners, now were suddenly going out, and the room felt a little cooler.
“It’s not much, since whatever has happened has weakened me, but this part of the room is safe. Even if my sister walks nearby, she won’t be able to heat the air here again.” Princess Luna said, smiling. Rainbow Dash smiled in reply for a second, but then looked on as Princess Celestia summoned fire made versions of Rainbow Dash and her friends.
“Well, that won’t save me in the long term. She’s still trying to kill me. What do I do now?” Rainbow Dash sounded hopeless as she said this.
“You’re a pegasus. Do something she won’t be expecting.” Princess Luna offered.
Rainbow Dash looked around. The fire versions of her and the others stood near Princess Celestia, who seemed to be focusing and preparing another attack. The random fires across the room were beginning to get bigger, and threatened to spread and fill the whole throne room.
The idea hit her. While Princess Celestia was relying on Rainbow Dash to stay on the ground and not risk getting burned, she wouldn’t expect her to use the fire against her. It was highly risky pulling fire up into a tornado, and dangerous for her to stay in it to guide the wind direction. As dangerous as it was, Rainbow had very little choice, she gulped and took flight.
It worked as expected at first. Princess Celestia hadn’t expected Rainbow Dash to take flight. Nor actually whip up winds and pull any fire she could get into a vortex. The Princess changed plans and begun magically throwing fireballs at Rainbow, but these only served to help Rainbow Dash’s plan.
Rainbow kept spinning around faster and faster, the small vortex quickly becoming a small tornado that she could keep control over. She adjusted her flight path and led the fire tornado over to Princess Celestia, who instinctively begun to try and run out of the way. The Princess however, couldn’t outrun it, and soon, she became trapped in the middle of it, screaming as the fires lashed against her body.
A final flight adjustment by Rainbow Dash sent the fire tornado barrelling over to the final open door, the winds being strong enough to close the door behind the Princess. Rainbow Dash smiled, as she sat down, tired out from the work she had put in. From the direction of the door Princess Luna was behind, the cooling air she had made to protect Rainbow Dash earlier spread out and filled the room, clearing away the heat.
Rainbow Dash sighed with relief and stood up. Across the room, behind the doors they were locked in, her friends cheered for her, making Rainbow smile.
She walked slowly up to the door Princess Celestia was now behind and looked in, expecting the princess to still be heavily affected by whatever had changed her personality so much. The sight that met her gave Rainbow some hope.
Princess Celestia now looked like her normal self, the black markings that had been on her now gone, and she was now looking at Rainbow Dash, very confused.
“What is going on?” Princess Celestia asked, her voice was normal once more, warm and kind, but held a tone of worry.
“It’s a long story Princess. Somehow, you, Princess Luna and all earth ponies and unicorns got corrupted by something. Canterlot and Ponyville are in ruins, and I’ve just done my best to get you all locked up behind these doors, which somehow made you go back to normal.” Rainbow Dash replied.
Rainbow looked confused as Princess Celestia seemed shocked by something. Then yelped, as something kicked her hard against the door. Rainbow Dash crumpled to the floor, tears forming in her eyes from the sudden pain. Slowly, Rainbow Dash shifted. And gasped in shock.
Standing above her was a shadow copy of herself, the blue coat was darkened to a navy blue, the rainbow mane also held darker colours of the ones in Rainbow’s own mane, the Element of Loyalty on its golden choker, smirking down at her. A second later, it bucked her in the stomach, forcing her to cough up a small bit of blood. As the world spun, all Rainbow Dash could hear was the sobbing of her friend Fluttershy. She guessed Fluttershy had seen the remains of the dead birds, and was crying over them. Rainbow could also hear other sounds too, but they sounded so far away.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash got to her hooves as the shadow looked at her with disgust. Rainbow almost collapsed when she was finally up, but looked angry at it.
“I’m supposed to take you over? You are pathetic.” It said at her, disdainfully. The shadow sounded less scratchy than Rainbow’s own, but at the same time, it sounded distant, as if it wasn’t coming from the shadow itself.
“Are you why everything’s going bad?” Rainbow asked it. The shadow grinned with pleasure.
“Yes, yes I did, I even made that green unicorn believe she wasn’t fully corrupted, to lead you here when you took your time doing so otherwise. And when I take over your body, I’ll recorrupt the princesses and your friends. Everything you just did was for nothing!” it gloated and turned away from Rainbow.
“A clever plan. I know your dying to learn how I pulled off world wide destruction just to take it over, because I'm dying to tell you. Simple really, I begun with the princesses here. I made them doubt and distrust each other, and when they realised what was going on,” it paused, almost dramatically, but it had begun to laugh, “it was too late. I could control what they did. And with the princesses, I corrupted their inner circle of unicorns, who in turn corrupted earth ponies that didn’t get away at first. Oh sure, they and pegasi tried to run from the corruption that spread among unicorns like wild fire, but the earth ponies eventually failed. And then, the plan didn’t exactly finish. Magic nor earth pony strength was able to corrupt any pegasi, that is, until one walked right in here. Unable to fight those she knew, the chance to finish my plan looked better. And now you are here, and soon, I shall rule the world.”
Rainbow Dash had no time to react. The shadow turned and kicked her in her face. While it didn’t knock her out, she collapsed to the floor again, stunned by the kick. The shadow stood over her, laughing.
“Hey there, meanie shadow Dashie!” Pinkie Pie said, hopping beside the shadow.
“What? How did you get out?” it snapped at the pink pony.
“Oh, I went over and got Fluttershy out, she seemed really upset,” Pinkie Pie held Fluttershy, looking sad herself, “but when I told her you seemed to be the reason for her being upset, she wanted to talk to you.”
Rainbow Dash and the shadow both stared at Pinkie Pie, both not believing what they had just heard. The shadow shook its head.
“NO! I asked how did you get out?” it snapped again, getting closer to Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie seemed to take a few seconds to think of the answer while the shadow tapped impatiently. Rainbow meanwhile noticed Fluttershy was using her stare on the shadow, which it had yet to seem to notice.
“I don’t know.” Pinkie Pie finally declared happily, “I just did.” The shadow’s jaw dropped, and facehooved. It looked at Fluttershy, finally noticing she was using her stare on it.
“Is there a problem yellow?” it asked mockingly.
“You corrupt all those ponies, destroy Ponyville, bring Canterlot to ruins, kill so many creatures, then harm my friend, and you think there wouldn’t be a problem?” she growled at the shadow and gave it her trademark stare, but the shadow didn’t seem impressed.
“You forget, I am Corrupted Element of Loyalty. When loyalty is corrupted, it becomes betrayal. Everything I did was to take over this pathetic excuse of a pegasus,” it kicked Rainbow Dash again, “and rule the world while the rest of you were mindless slaves. Except all Pegasus ponies don’t seem to have fallen to corruption. So, yellow, I don’t see anything you just said as a problem.” It smiled.
“My name.” Fluttershy had clearly reached breaking point.
“Come again?” the shadow asked.
“Use my name!” Fluttershy was now visibly struggling to hold back her rage, as her left eye twitched.
“Fine, Element of Kindness. Now, just go back to where you were locked up and let me do what I’ve planned.” The shadow begun to turn around.
Fluttershy snapped.
“My name, IS FLUTTERSHY!” she shouted. The words echoed around the room.
Rainbow Dash watched in slow motion as Fluttershy spun on the spot with her front hooves, her back hooves making contact with the choker around the shadow’s neck. The force of the kick had been enough to break it, and it fell in parts to the floor.
The shadow itself seemed to soundlessly yell in pain, as it deformed into a blob. This blob then shot underneath Rainbow, who, despite having been kicked several times and hurting badly, still took to the air fast. She flew in place for a minute before breathing a sigh of relief, and landing, laying flat on the ground.
Around her, Rainbow Dash could hear Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy approaching the other doors, unlocking them. She hadn’t asked how Pinkie had freed Fluttershy, and really, it didn’t matter. All she cared about was that her friends were fine and safe.
Rainbow only opened her eyes slightly when a pair of white legs wearing gold decorative horseshoes appeared in front of her.
“I’m sorry Princess Celestia, I’m a bit too weak to get up and bow…” Rainbow Dash mumbled, just loud enough to be heard.
“Rainbow Dash, after all you seem to have done today, you deserve some rest. Also, to your earlier confusion, the doors were to rooms of protection, each of them set up by Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Celestia replied, still standing near, but looking over at Twilight, “thank you, Twilight Sparkle. If your quick thinking hadn’t lead to the safety within the rooms, we would not be ourselves right now.”
“What happens now Princess? The whole of Equestria is in ruins…” Rainbow Dash tilted her head up to look at the Princess.
“Except, it doesn’t have to be.” Princess Celestia stated, leaving a silence between the two.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked confused, trying to get to her hooves.
“I wasn’t sure before, but when the shadow kept attacking you, something didn’t seem right with you, Rainbow Dash,” the princess paused to help Rainbow up before continuing, “simply put, you are both here and not.”
“Here and… what? How does that work?” Rainbow asked, her head spinning as she tried to understand.
“Physically, you are here, after the disaster that ruined Equestria. But mentally, you are both here and in the past before the disaster. Something or some pony has forced your spirit to be in the past and future at the same time.” The princess replied. This didn’t help Rainbow Dash to be any less confused.
“So, uh,” Rainbow was at a slight loss for words, as she still had no real idea what the princess was saying, “how do we fix it? Or don’t we?”
“Simply put, Rainbow Dash, I can undo it, but these events will come to pass if you let them. When you wake up back in the past, make sure that they don’t, if you can.” Princess Celestia stated, her wings extending to their full reach.
Rainbow Dash thought for a second, before remembering the notes she read in the hospital ruins days before.
“I know what it is, I blacked out and woke up in the hospital ruins, that must have been it. If I don’t get taken there, none of this will happen!” She stated excitedly. She blinked a few times, as everything faded to black, the last thing she saw, was her friends standing beside the Princesses, and all of them smiling at her.
--
The wind blew through her mane, and she slowly opened her eyes. Her head was facing towards the ground and it was moving. Slowly, she blinked and groaned, alerting those around her that she had woken up.
“Dashie! You’re ok!” Pinkie pie said happily
“What…” Rainbow begun.
“Ya fell out the sky, Rainbow. So we’re taking you to the hospital.” Applejack replied before Rainbow could even ask her question.
“No, take me to Twilight’s library, can’t go to the hospital.” Rainbow protested.
“No Rainbow, we’re taking you to the hospital and that’s final.” Twilight added.
“Please, it’s vital to everypony that I don’t go there!” Rainbow cried, and for her efforts, she begun coughing.
“Vital to your silly pride more like.” Rarity chimed.
“I’ll explain it if you take me to the library and get Nurse Redheart to come there instead.” Rainbow pleaded.
The sensation of moving stopped. Looking around weakly, she saw her friends had all come to a stop, and were now looking at her.
“Please?” she asked.
“Ugh, fine. For you, we’ll take you to the library. Rarity, go get Nurse Redheart, and we’ll meet you there.” Twilight said, as they begun to move again.
“Thanks Twilight, the world will be safe now.” Rainbow said, before passing out again.
--
Standing outside ponyville, a blue pony stood, its eyes fixed on the group of ponies currently walking towards the Ponyville library. It showed no emotion as it watched, and as the ponies went inside, it gained the look that suggested it was looking down on a rather vile and horrible group of insects.
“It has begun…” it muttered to itself, before walking away.
-------------------------------------
Author's notes;
To begin, I am still looking for a new editor to help with this fic. I often fail to catch big mistakes and plot holes, so I don't completely trust myself to find them. If you are interested in helping me, and have google docs, send me a message.
This chapter ends the first arc of Ruining Harmony. Before people complain and say "it was all a dream! how cheap!", re-read what Celestia says and what Dash works out. Incase that doesnt help, I'll take time to explain.
Due to her mysterious blackout (explained right at the end), the events did occur, but by waking up before any of the events occured, they no longer occur in the timeline Dash is now in. That isn't to say they never took place, they did. It makes sense if you understand time travel. Some events can't be prevented, while others can, in this case, the disaster that befalls Equestria just prior and during the previous six chapters.
The story isn't over yet, Dash's Delusion is Arc 1 in an Eight Arc story. Hopefully, I'll have an editor to help work on Arc 2; Pinkie's Phantasm. |
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Artaelian | 704 | 7 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-01-24T17:34:30+00:00 | 2012-01-24T17:34:30+00:00 | 1,078 | It had been a week since Rainbow Dash had strangely fallen from the sky, running a fever. What confused Twilight the most was when Rainbow woke up a few minutes later. She had begged to stay away from the hospital, and while not pleased with the idea, Twilight had given in and taken Dash to the library.
There, she was told by Rainbow what she had seen while out cold. According to Rainbow, she had woken up to Ponyville on fire, and the world in ruins around her. Her friends had tried to reassure Rainbow that it was simply a case of her mind being too active while out cold, but Rainbow insisted it was real, and that she had been in a now alternate future of Equestria.
This had eventually led one hour ago, to Twilight sending a letter to Princess Celestia, questioning if such a thing was even possible. Minutes later, the reply arrived, which made Twilight and her friends very nervous. It was indeed possible with very dark forbidden magic, to throw a soul into the future while their physical selves remained in the present.
Outside, the low rumble of storm clouds could be heard, and Rainbow Dash was becoming impatient at being kept in the library while Twilight figured out what to do. What Rainbow had seen one week earlier was obviously bad news, the elements of harmony were corrupting, the outcome of which had to be determined.
“Thought of anything yet?” Rainbow asked, flying in place just behind Twilight.
“No, I don’t know how to possibly sort this out.” Twilight groaned, staring at the floor.
“Well, I don’t see the need to stay any longer, and I have an unscheduled storm to clear away now that I’m well enough. Sorry to rush away.”
Twilight said nothing as her friends left the library.
Pinkie Pie hopped on her way back to Sugarcube Corner, humming one of her songs, one which would make use of the word ‘smile’, to herself. Around her other ponies walked around, expecting the storm to soon be cleared as Rainbow Dash darted about overhead. Pinkie stopped at one point and looked up. Above, Rainbow Dash moved a storm cloud, backing away a second later as it let out a bolt of lightning. She waited for a while, before being sure that it was safe to move it again. Pinkie Pie smiled to herself and kept hopping along. As she turned the next corner, she stopped.
For some reason, she noted, she turned the corner and was now about to head down the same street she had just hopped down. Even the same ponies she had passed were walking around it like they had seconds ago.
“That’s odd.” She said to herself. She hopped forward a small distance and looked up. Above Rainbow Dash was still clearing the storm clouds. Pinkie watched as she approached the same cloud she had moved before. This time however, Rainbow dashed underneath it.
Pinkie screamed as the bolt of lightning struck Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus fell fast to the ground, her wings a smoking black and blue mess, feathers trailing behind her.
Rainbow Dash hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Pinkie Pie ran as fast as she could. While other ponies were trying to work out what had just happened, Pinkie Pie arrived to Rainbow Dash’s side, her eyes were open wide, unable to believe the sight she had just witnessed. Rainbow’s wings were sprawled out, feathers charred. Her eyes were slightly open, but they didn’t seem to move.
Behind her, more ponies rushed in, Applejack and Rarity pushing through the gathering crowd. Pinkie Pie lay in front of Rainbow Dash.
“Dashie,” she begun to cry, “wake up Dashie… you can’t get hurt, not you…” she gently placed a hoof on Rainbow, nudging her softly.
Pinkie Pie resisted as Applejack forced her away and Rarity lifted Rainbow Dash up. It took all of Applejack’s strength to hold Pinkie back as Rarity ran, levitating Rainbow Dash above her.
“This isn’t happening. It... it can’t be happening. Somepony tell me this isn’t happening, that I’m having a bad dream,” she paused, “it’s real, this is all real, Dashie is hurt badly. It’s not fair Applejack, why couldn’t the lightning hit something else? Why her? Tell me this is a dream Applejack, please…” Pinkie pleaded.
“Sorry sugarcube… this ain’t a dream…”
Pinkie laid on the floor again crying.
Outside the emergency tent the nurses had set up, Pinkie Pie continued to lay on the floor. Twilight had arrived some time after the tent had been set up to check on Rainbow Dash, and was currently inside, out of Pinkie’s sight. Nearby, Fluttershy had sat down with Angel nearby. She looked sad while waiting to hear how Rainbow Dash was. Near the tent, Applejack and Rarity were looking after Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, as they attempted to calm Scootaloo, who had been shaken quite badly by the news of what had occurred to her hero.
Pinkie Pie tried to replay the events in her head. She was sure she had turned the corner at the end of one street, only to find herself walking into the same street she had just left. But even she couldn’t do something like that, right?
And was it even possible for a Pegasus pony to even get hurt by lightning? Didn’t it need something in contact with the ground to strike in the first place? Nothing made sense, but it had taken place all the same.
Hours passed, and the sun was setting as finally the towns other Pegasus ponies had finished up what Rainbow Dash had begun before the accident. Rarity had left for a while and brought back something to put Scootaloo on, who had cried herself to sleep. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat either side of her.
Pinkie Pie looked up at the tent. As she did, Twilight came out, looking like she had seen a ghost. Behind her, one of the nurses followed. Pinkie stood up and walked over.
“I’m sorry, we couldn’t save her. She’s gone.”
Pinkie felt numb. The news came as such a blow, she didn’t know how to react, and froze in place. Beside her, Fluttershy burst into tears and ran away, Angel hopping after her. Applejack whispered something to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and they left with Rarity who levitated the sleeping Scootaloo with them as she fought back tears. Applejack now walked over to Twilight. Pinkie couldn’t properly hear what she was saying, but Twilight seemed to get angry, as she stood up and yelled at Applejack, then left.
The next thing Pinkie Pie recalled was a hoof pushing her gently.
“Huh?” she said, still numb to the world.
“You alright sugarcube? The news hit ya harder than a falling bale o’ hay.”
“I’m… I’m fine, Applejack.” She said. Applejack narrowed her eyes, but nodded anyway.
“Nopony’s gone to see her, recon you up for it?”
Pinkie Pie had no response for this. Should she go and see her friend’s lifeless body? Or would it be too much for her to bear?
“Ya don’t have to if it’s too much fer ya.” Applejack added, standing in front of the opening to the tent.
Applejack’s words made it clear though. Since hearing the news, none of them had gone to see her. Last one to see Rainbow Dash before the news was Twilight, before she came out of the tent. With this on her mind, Pinkie Pie stood up and walked to the tent’s flap doors. Maybe she’d walk through and find it was all a prank set up by Rainbow Dash. It’d have been very cruel, but she still hoped that somehow it was a prank.
Inside was a single quickly set up bed, on this lay Rainbow Dash, her eyes now properly closed. The Nurses had tidied up her wings, and no more charred edges to the feather were left. Walking around, the burnt wound on her back had been bandaged over. Applejack watched as Pinkie Pie sat down and stared at Rainbow Dash’s body.
“Wake up Dashie… if this is a prank, it’s making me feel bad. I don’t like that Dashie.”
No reply came. Pinkie Pie carefully placed a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s body and shook.
“Please Dashie, this prank is scaring me. Stop it…”
As she let go, the body simply moved back into place. Rainbow Dash was not waking up. Pinkie burst out crying, tears running down her face like waterfalls.
Behind Applejack, Rarity had returned, and following Applejack’s pointing hoof, saw the pink pony crying near Rainbow Dash’s body. Rarity looked at Applejack, who seemed at a loss on what to do.
“Maybe one of us should take her to Sugarcube Corner. It’s too much for her to be sitting there staring at the body.” Rarity stated.
Applejack didn’t say anything. She walked over to Pinkie Pie and put a hoof on her back.
“Come on, ya ain’t strong enough ta see her like this.”
Pinkie Pie nodded and stood up. She walked ahead of Applejack as they both left the tent. Some distance away, Pinkie stopped.
“Thank you Applejack. I can take care of myself from here.”
Applejack looked confused, and walked back to Pinkie’s side.
“You sure?”
“Yes, Rainbow Dash would appreciate you staying with her. Even if she is...” Pinkie trailed off, too sad to finish her sentence.
Applejack stayed beside Pinkie for a minute, giving the pink pony a chance to change her mind. At the second minute, Pinkie hadn’t changed her mind, and Applejack turned to leave. Pinkie Pie stayed where she was as Applejack walked back to the tent, and sat down when Applejack was out of sight, and stared at Sugarcube Corner. It was usually a fun place for her, but now, she had the urge to just walk in any direction away from the tent and keep going, and never come back to Ponyville.
A cough startled her into looking to her left. She got up and backed away slightly at the pony she saw. He was a unicorn, dark blue in colour and eyes the colour of emeralds, his cutie mark was hidden by the cape he wore, and he smiled at her. He walked over to her and stared in her eyes.
“Who are you?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously.
“I am sorry miss, but I saw you from over there, and you looked sad, I just came to try and see if there was anything I could do to help you.” he grinned, narrowing his eyes and lowering his head to bring his eyes level to Pinkie’s own. Despite how intimidating this should have been, she felt a little easier, but something wasn’t right.
Pinkie kept staring at the unicorn, who observed her with a bemused look on his face. It soon dawned on him that he had failed to answer her question, and he gasped slightly.
“Oh! I do apologise,” he back up a little, letting Pinkie see more than just his eyes, “my name is Ulysses. And may I ask yours?”
Pinkie glanced to the side.
“I’m Pinkie Pie.”
“Well Pinkie Pie, it seems what troubles you is that you saw your friend fly through the sky perfectly fine, only to witness her fly through the same way and die. And you know deep down that never happened, yet it did.”
Ulysses had got it spot on, and Pinkie immediately felt a little fear overcoming her. She had not even attempted to say why she was sad. Rising a few feet in the air, with a fearful look on her face, she turned and ran away from him fast. She ran down several streets before stopping, feeling safe from him.
A cough proved otherwise. Scared, she turned slowly to see Ulysses floating on his back behind her.
“Now, now, I am sorry if I scared you, but it’s hardly a secret. Most of this town has been talking about the sudden death of Rainbow Dash.”
Pinkie Pie slowly backed away from him, as Ulysses stared at her through one eye.
“W-what do you want?” she questioned.
Ulysses turned around and landed on the ground. His smile seemed warm and comforting, yet it made Pinkie feel nervous.
“What I want is to help you. None of this should have taken place. I am here to tell you why and set it right.”
Pinkie gave a quick glance around, but saw no one who could help her get away from him.
“Ok, what do you want to say?”
Ulysses cleared his throat. It was pretty clear he had a lot to say.
“I am aware from Princess Celestia that the Elements of Harmony are becoming corrupted thanks to the encounter with Nightmare Moon. What happened to you today is the result of the Element of Laughter trying to protect itself from being corrupted. It figured the Element of Loyalty could not pass on its corruption if its holder was dead. So when you came along, witnessing its holder moving clouds, it figured it could use your fast speed to kill her. So you hopped away, witnessing your friend safe, only to find yourself somehow just moments in the past, and then watched your friend get hit by the bolt that killed her.”
It took several minutes for all the details to sink in. When they had, Pinkie felt horrible. The Element of Harmony she carried had killed her friend, and she was to blame. She fell to the ground, sobbing and heartbroken. Ulysses slowly walked over and sat in front of her, placing a hoof on her right front leg.
“Now, it was not your fault. You are not to blame, you didn’t know what the Element of Laughter would do,” he stopped talking to help her up, “listen careful to me Pinkie Pie. I will take you to the door of your home, then leave. I will return as soon as I figure out a way to reverse the course of action that took place today. I promise I will.”
Pinkie Pie only nodded as he walked beside her to Sugarcube Corner, hoping that the day had been a cruel joke.
----
Author's notes; changes to Pinkie's Phantasm from the original are slight. better explanations are given, and the character previously named 'Jester' is now named 'Ulysses'. This is due to the fact 'Jester' was a holding name, and wasnt supposed to originally be used.
Also, I'm still looking for a new editor to help me. Really, I'd appreciate the help. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 8 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-01-25T15:16:15+00:00 | 2012-01-25T15:16:15+00:00 | 919 | Pinkie Pie walked slowly over to Rarity’s shop, the next day, not hopping along the way, her normal method of getting around. When she arrived, she knocked gently at the door, which was opened two minutes later by Rarity herself. Pinkie looked at her, and saw Rarity’s mouth move, but the words failed to reach her ears. Rarity ushered her in, and Pinkie looked around.
Fluttershy was sitting in a corner, her eyes red from all the crying she had done. In an opposite corner, Scootaloo lay flat on her stomach, staring at the floor in front of her, only looking up to glare when Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle tried to get near.
In the middle of the room, Twilight and Applejack were talking again, only glancing as Pinkie Pie entered.
“How are you doing, Pinkie Pie?” Spike asked, walking up to her.
“I feel horrible. I wish I could do something.” She responded in a dull tone of voice.
Spike nodded. He followed Pinkie Pie as she walked over to Twilight and Applejack.
“Hey Pinkie, are you feeling better? Applejack told me you went to see her after everyone else left.” Twilight said, smiling in an effort to cheer Pinkie Pie up.
Pinkie’s eyes welled up with tears, and she didn’t answer. The image of Rainbow Dash’s body laying there, looking like she was only asleep came back into her mind, crystal clear.
“Everypony’s hurting right now sugarcube, if it helps, go talk ta Fluttershy. We’re discussing things that’ll probably make ya feel even worse.”
Pinkie simply nodded, and walked away.
She didn’t talk to Fluttershy while there. Pinkie instead just lay on the floor. Every so often, she heard discussions coming from Applejack, Twilight and Rarity, about how they would bury Rainbow Dash. It was decided early on she would be buried in the clothes she had worn to the Gala. Another detail Pinkie heard was about some memorial to her. Pinkie closed her eyes tight. ‘This has to be a dream, like what she had when out cold last week. That must be it, I must have hit my head against something I didn’t see. I’ll wake up and it’ll be fine.’
What she saw instead when opening her eyes was the gazes Applejack, Twilight and Rarity gave her. It wasn’t a dream.
“Are you sure you’re ok, Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked walking up to her.
“No… I was hoping this was another nightmare, like what Rainbow Dash had last week about the Corrupting Element of Loyalty. But I’m not waking up.”
“I’m sorry Pinkie. Maybe I should walk you home, it’s probably too much for you since you saw the accident then saw her in the tent.” Twilight stated as she walked over.
Pinkie looked hopeful at Twilight.
“Maybe that kind unicorn, Ulysses, will turn up with the solution on the way!”
“Yes maybe he,” Twilight’s eyes opened wide, “wait, what unicorn?”
“His name was Ulysses. He said Dashie shouldn’t have died, and that he’d come back with the way to ensure she doesn’t.”
All eyes were now on her. In the corner she had taken, Scootaloo stood up, looking hopeful. Twilight meanwhile checked Pinkie’s forehead.
“You’re not running a fever. Ulysses isn’t an imaginary friend is he?”
“Nope! Mrs Cake saw him too. Come on, maybe he has an answer by now!”
Pinkie Pie hopped along again, full of hope the mysterious Ulysses would appear with the way to make things right. Twilight, being cautious, kept some distance from Pinkie, in case Ulysses would only appear to her, and wouldn’t turn up if Twilight was by her side.
Then, a street or two from Sugarcube Corner, he did.
“Ah,” he smiled weakly at her, “Pinkie Pie, you seem in a better mood today.”
“I sure am, I was hoping you’d come back with the way to stop Rainbow Dash from being dead.”
Ulysses maintained his weak smile, and glanced behind Pinkie Pie. Twilight felt scared. Even though she was hiding, it felt like Ulysses could see her as if she were in an open field instead of behind a barrel.
“I do have a bit of bad news Pinkie,” Ulysses spoke, now looking back at the pink pony, “while with your sadness I was able to find the exact moment of Rainbow Dash’s death, so far I am unable to find how to prevent it. I have tried a few interferences on my part in the incident, like causing another cloud somewhere else to strike something harmlessly so she would go to it, but that very cloud that killed her always seems to get in the way.” Ulysses stomped his right front hoof across the ground in frustration.
Pinkie sat down, feeling sad again.
“But don’t worry. I will continue trying. I feel I may find the solution sometime around the Winter Wrap Up. Until then, keep strong,” Ulysses once again looked directly at Twilight, “and if you wondered, I would have shown for her regardless of if you did or didn’t hide Twilight Sparkle.”
As Twilight walked from behind the barrel, Ulysses had gone.
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you Pinkie Pie. But now I’ve a few questions for this Ulysses. Next time, be sure to come find me rather than let him go right away.”
--
It was now much later in the day. Twilight had invited Pinkie Pie to the library, Twilight watched Spike gathering paper, ink and a quill with a serious look on her face, and Pinkie watched as Twilight dictated a letter to Princess Celestia, Pinkie sighed still upset over Ulysses’ bad news. Twilight cleared her throat.
Dear Princess Celestia,
a lot of strange things have occurred here in Ponyville since yesterday. First, I must start by saying Rainbow Dash has died. While clearing the clouds, a freak lightning bolt struck her in the back, and she died from the wounds and impact with the ground several hours later. I haven't told anypony what her last words were, out of worry as to how the others will react, but I feel you should know what they were princess,
Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie, who didn’t smile, and lent to Spike, whispering the next part of the letter.
the main purpose for this letter, shortly after her passing a dark blue unicorn has begun turning up to talk only to Pinkie Pie. He calls himself ‘Ulysses’. Should we trust this colt? He seems odd, especially with telling Pinkie Pie that Rainbow Dash should be alive right now.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight sat and looked at Pinkie Pie as Spike sent off the letter, then walked over to Pinkie Pie and hugged her legs in his own way of trying to cheer the pink pony up. Outside, several ponies walked past, the only indication of this was the sound of their hooves, as none of them spoke. Eventually, Twilight sighed.
“You have to stay away from this Ulysses.”
“But why? He seems nice and he just wants to help.” Pinkie protested.
“From what I’ve heard Twilight, he only wants to help out.” Spike added, earning himself a glare of disapproval from the purple unicorn.
Twilight shook her head.
“Maybe so, but he knew where I was when I went into hiding before he had turned around. He couldn’t have known I was there, yet he did.”
“But he’s a unicorn, Twilight! Can’t you do that?”
Twilight took a moment to think. Memories ran through her head, until she reached the present moment.
“I don’t recall that being something that I have ever been capable of. But I think Rainbow’s last words were related to this Ulysses.”
Pinkie narrowed her eyes.
“And what were her last words?”
Twilight shifted uneasy.
“I don’t think you’re ready to know them Pinkie.”
“Please Twilight… I want to know, I’m not a little filly, and I can handle what they were.”
Twilight mentally thanked Princess Celestia the moment Spike belched up her reply, which broke Pinkie’s determination to learn Rainbow Dash’s last words. He opened the scroll and read aloud.
To my faithful student,
indeed, it is sad to hear of the passing of one of your friends. It does explain why the Element of Loyalty appeared all of a sudden in the throne room. But of higher concern is this unicorn you mentioned. His sudden appearance can not be a coincidence. These two incidents may be related, so until the truth is revealed, it may be wise not to anger and lose the help of this ‘Ulysses’, though do be careful of him as none of us knows his true intentions. I will come to Ponyville as soon as I am able to try and see him personally. Extend my condolences to your friends, it is sad to lose a friend to death.
From your teacher and mentor,
Princess Celestia.
Pinkie Pie wasted no time as Twilight took in the details of the letter. She was suddenly up close to Twilight’s face.
“What were Rainbow Dash’s last words?”
“But Pinkie, I really don’t think you’d be able to handle the thought of what she said.”
Pinkie sighed and backed off a little. She turned around and looked at Twilight, pleading with her.
“I’ll keep it secret too if you tell me.”
Twilight bit her lip as she tried to decide if it was right to tell the message to Pinkie Pie. Finally she gave in.
“Rainbow Dash’s last words were ‘Tell Pinkie Pie I don’t blame her, this isn’t her fault.’ And that was it. She closed her eyes and was gone. I watched as the Element of Loyalty appeared above her, then it vanished. We at least know the princess has it safe.”
Pinkie begun to cry, small streams of tears rolled down her face as she sobbed. Had it really been her fault that Dash was dead? She had, after all, managed to walk into the same street twice. But then, Dash had said she didn’t blame her. What if this was like how Rainbow had said she saw a future of Equestria, that the Element of Laughter had done this. If that were true, then Pinkie really wasn’t to blame, and that was good. It was still bad that Rainbow was dead, but it wasn’t her fault.
But she didn’t stop crying. She wanted nothing more than to hug Rainbow and say sorry to her, something she would never get to do if Ulysses failed to find a way to bring Rainbow back. Pinkie stared at the floor and continued crying, as Twilight simply sat opposite her, and after a moment, moved to beside Pinkie. Twilight lent against Pinkie, trying to comfort the pink pony.
Both ponies looked to the door as yelling erupted on the street outside. Hurrying, both ponies saw what was going on. On a nearby roof, Scootaloo stood at the edge, wings open. Down below, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle pleaded with their friend to come down. Together, Pinkie Pie and Twilight rushed over.
“Apple Bloom, what’s going on?” Twilight asked.
“Scootaloo is still feeling pretty upset over Rainbow Dash’s death, she said she had something planned to never forget her hero, but when we looked for her, and we found her up there!”
Pinkie Pie looked up at Scootaloo, who glanced at her for a moment before looking ahead again.
“Come down Scootaloo! You’ll get hurt!” she shouted.
“No way!” Scootaloo walked closer to the edge of the building.
“But Scootaloo! You don’t know how to fly!” Sweetie Belle yelled, jumping on the spot.
“There’s always a first time for everything!” Scootaloo shouted, and jumped.
--
Time had stood still the second Scootaloo had jumped from the roof. Looking around in confusion, Pinkie Pie saw something. Down an alley, staring at her, was a dark brown unicorn colt. Strange markings lined his eyes and the sapphire blue eyes stared intently at her. She felt herself growing weak as she stared directly at him, but couldn’t break free to look away.
She was only slightly aware of the arrival of Ulysses, who finally broke the hold this new unicorn held on her, and chased him off. She shook her head clear, and looked up at Ulysses.
“Ulysses, who was that?” she asked, fear in her voice.
“I rushed back as soon as I realised. The corruption in the Elements of Harmony, it’s taken a physical form. That’s why I can’t find the way to help save Rainbow Dash. She saw him too, just before the bolt struck her. I don’t know if she was aware of what he really was, but she saw him.” Ulysses shifted, apparently still uneasy of the appearance of the brown unicorn.
“She knew. She said with her last words before she died.” Pinkie stated, she said the words aloud, despite not meaning to.
Ulysses nodded.
“I see… the only way to stop her death could be to prevent the corruption in the Elements of Harmony from taking a physical form before the moment. It won’t be easy,” he seemed to finally take in the surroundings Pinkie Pie was in, and saw the little orange Pegasus frozen in time in the air above them, “ah, trying to fly for the first time. It is always an important moment in a young pegasus’ life.”
Pinkie too snapped back to what had begun before the mysterious new unicorn turned up.
“Are you crazy? She’s going to hurt herself! All Pegasus ponies take flight school before they can fly!”
Ulysses grinned knowingly.
“Maybe, and then again maybe not.”
--
Colour returned to the scene, as gasps echoed around the street. Looking up, Pinkie watched as Scootaloo fell, and then suddenly begun moving up in the air. Pinkie Pie smiled weakly as Scootaloo begun flying over the heads of the gathered ponies, cheering to herself as she flew around in circles.
Beside her, Twilight seemed to notice that Pinkie’s thoughts were on something other than the now flying Scootaloo. |
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Artaelian | 704 | 9 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-01-29T23:36:31+00:00 | 2012-01-29T23:36:31+00:00 | 917 | A month had passed since Pinkie Pie had last seen Ulysses, or the strange brown unicorn. Things had mostly been quiet in Ponyville, save for the statue and plaque made for Rainbow Dash. Twilight had insisted it be made after Rainbow Dash had been buried. The plaque simply read;
‘In memory of Rainbow Dash, a great friend, ambitious dreamer and the only Pegasus to ever perform a Sonic Rainboom twice in her life.’
Pinkie stood near it and watched as snow fell off it and to the ground below. Around her, the rest of Ponyville was wrapping up winter under Twilight’s organization, but there was one problem, which Twilight was currently yelling at.
“Oh, come on! Pegasus ponies are supposed to clear the roofs of snow and the sky of clouds! What do you mean you all refuse to do it?”
A Pegasus walked up to her, looking none too happy.
“We always followed Rainbow Dash’s lead, even last year when you organized it so we’d be on time. But with her gone, we all feel it would be disrespectful to her to just fill her place as if she was never alive!”
Twilight gritted her teeth.
“You are all being UNREASONABLE! Rainbow Dash wouldn’t see it as disrespectful! She’d want this to be done as it was last year!”
Twilight could do nothing as all the Pegasus ponies responded by leaving. She groaned in anger and looked at Spike.
“Send the letter?”
“Yes, Spike. Using magic to do their job would be disrespectful. Thankfully I had the foresight of ensuring out of town Pegasus ponies to come help.”
Spike held up the letter and sent it off to the Princess. Smiling, Twilight walked over to Pinkie.
“I know you weren’t up for helping on the lake this year, did you at least organize the rest?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah Twilight, they should be getting to the last lake now. Are you sure the princess will send the help you prepared just in case?”
Twilight nodded. She smiled as Applejack and Fluttershy arrived.
“The ground’s all ready, just need the clouds to be cleared up.” Applejack stated.
“Yes, and all the animals are awake.” Fluttershy added.
“Good,” Twilight looked up, “ah, and here comes the backup plan.”
High in the sky, a line of Pegasus ponies had flown from Cloudsdale and were now moving the clouds away with their combined wind pressure.
Pinkie smiled a little as the sun’s warmth filled the air. Looking around, she saw Rarity and other ponies taking the bird nests they had made around and climbing ladders to place them in the trees. Once again, she looked up, and felt sadness once again. Rainbow Dash was still gone, and while Twilight had refused to use magic, it still didn’t feel the same.
--
“Y’know, things won’t be the same when I need rain out on the fields.” Applejack stated. The friends had since gathered near the statue Twilight had commissioned of Rainbow Dash, which they sat in front of.
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, “and she won’t suddenly crash into the library anymore after a stunt goes wrong. Spike at first didn’t miss it, but he does now.”
They all looked at Rarity, who strangely was crying hard.
“I… I found one of her feathers in my shop just yesterday… it must have fallen off her wings some time ago and blown under the desk… it really hit me hard as I walked over to sew something and it blew out into view…”
Applejack put a hoof on Rarity’s back, but said nothing as she tried to comfort her. Twilight turned to face Fluttershy who had said nothing.
“What’s being done about her house?” Twilight asked.
Fluttershy looked at the ground.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight moved closer to the yellow Pegasus, “what is being done about Rainbow Dash’s house?”
“I was thinking of just leaving it where it was. It… it might be more painful if it wasn’t still in the sky… maybe…” Fluttershy finally answered.
Twilight turned away as Fluttershy curled into herself. She looked at Pinkie Pie.
“I’m hoping Ulysses will turn up, and he can correct all this.” She answered before Twilight even had to ask. Twilight sighed and looked at the sun. It was getting lower in the sky now, and she too remembered that Ulysses had promised to turn up by Winter Wrap Up with the way to save Rainbow Dash from dying.
A sudden gentle voice startled everyone.
“Why the crying, fair white filly?”
Rarity looked directly into the eyes of Ulysses, who was floating upside down in front of her.
“I found a feather from Rainbow Dash, and her not being around hit me hard…”
Ulysses grinned much wider than Pinkie had ever seen. Without a word or prior warning, he grabbed the feather off Rarity.
“Fantastic! I was just about to come and see if anyone had one of her feathers,” he turned back to his hooves and trotted over to Pinkie Pie, “now, as I promised Pinkie Pie, I found the way to save her, but it won’t be easy.”
Ulysses narrowed his eyes a little as Twilight stood in between him and Pinkie Pie.
“Why don’t you tell us this entire plan to all of us rather than just Pinkie Pie?” Twilight quizzed.
“Very well, Twilight Sparkle.” Ulysses replied. Using his horn, a bottle filled with liquid appeared. With this, he magically scrapped bits off the feather of Rainbow Dash into the bottle and swirled it.
“I released, as long as I focused on any of your sadness, the physical form of the corruption would always ensure Rainbow Dash’s death. It proved to be impossible, even getting you, Twilight Sparkle, to trick her into going to Cloudsdale a few days before couldn’t stop her death,” he floated the bottle to Pinkie Pie, “but then it came to me. I was trying so hard to prevent her death using each of your sadness, that I’d overlooked one pony I could try to find the solution to the problem through.”
All but Twilight seemed confused by what Ulysses was saying. Twilight herself passed the thought process through her mind a few times to ensure she had understood correctly, finally realising, Ulysses intended to focus his efforts on Rainbow Dash rather than anypony else.
“So you attempted to find out if you could save Rainbow Dash by using Rainbow herself as the return point?” she asked.
“Precisely! Using magic to test how returning to her a few minutes before would work, I finally found it. The physical corruption assumed nopony would think of using the victim as a return point to prevent the death in the first place. In theory, it will work, but it required pieces of Rainbow Dash herself to make the potion, and this is where it gets hard.” Ulysses added, almost hopping around.
“What do you mean?” Twilight glared at Ulysses.
“The physical corruption was present at her death. Returning Pinkie Pie a few minutes before will be a one shot attempt. If she fails to convince Rainbow Dash to be more careful of the storm, it will know Rainbow herself was used, and then ensure she can’t be for any further attempts,” Ulysses looked at Pinkie Pie, “do you understand Pinkie Pie? You can drink this potion whenever you are ready, but do not waste the attempt! If you fail to save your friend, then that is it for the time being, it could take many more months to find another way back and try again.”
Pinkie Pie stared at the bottle, and bit her lower lip, every emotion possible raced through her mind. Utter joy that there was a way to save Rainbow Dash dying, worry soon took over, as she begun to think of what would happen if she failed to save her friend. This led to doubt in her ability to be able to do as Ulysses hoped and had seemingly worked hard to help her with.
Several minutes of silence passed by, as Pinkie Pie stared nervously at the bottle. It would be the only chance at the best for many more months. At the worst, it was the only chance, and if she failed, Rainbow Dash would be gone forever.
Normally, she would have lightened the mood, but it was very serious and there was no time for joking around. She looked past Ulysses and to her friends. Twilight wasn’t smiling; she seemed to be studying Ulysses. Fluttershy looked hopefully at Pinkie Pie, while Applejack and Rarity simply stared.
“Hang on a minute,” Twilight spoke up, “why does Pinkie have to drink the potion and save Rainbow Dash?”
“Because,” Ulysses didn’t break his gaze at Pinkie Pie, “I did check if giving it to another would ensure her survival. It did not. For reasons even I don’t understand, it only worked when it was Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie Pie took a step forward.
“Do I have to drink it now?” she questioned.
“Not if you don’t want to. You can leave it and take it at a later point if you don’t feel confident enough to return to the past just yet.” Ulysses smiled. Pinkie again felt uneasy about his smile. Its appearance on Ulysses’ face suggested his genuine pleasure at being able to help the pink pony, but she couldn’t explain why it felt there were more… sinister, intentions behind it. She looked at Twilight who had since walked around to face Ulysses from the front, and from what Pinkie could tell, the same thoughts were going through Twilight’s mind about Ulysses’ smile.
Pinkie Pie looked down at the floor.
“It’s so great! I can save Dashie now!” Pinkie bounced on the spot. Slowly, this came to a stop, as her thoughts continued.
“But... what if I fail?” She gasped.
“I’m... I’m not ready!” she cried out, looking desperately at the others.
“I think if she isn’t ready yet, then it would be best to wait until she is.” Twilight stated.
Ulysses nodded, the sinister intentions behind his smile, regardless of if they had been real or not, vanished, replaced by a genuine, and friendly smile.
“Twilight Sparkle, do you mind taking the potion for safe keeping? It must be kept cool and dry, otherwise the liquid will evaporate, if even a drop is gone, it will not work. Remember, Pinkie Pie must be the one to drink it when she is ready to save Rainbow Dash, and I will come back to help her when she is ready to save your friend.”
Twilight took the potion from Ulysses, who simply bowed and vanished into the air. Twilight looked at the bottle and liquid. The bottle itself was pretty ordinary and seemed like Ulysses had grabbed it in a hurry during a moment of success in making the liquid contained within. The liquid, since Ulysses had first shown the bottle, had changed from a sparkling green, to a pleasant sky blue, as if the parts of the feather of Rainbow Dash had changed its colour.
“I’m sorry everypony…” Pinkie said, looking up sadly at the others.
“Ah don’t worry about it sugarcube. We have the potion now, that Ulysses did what was required. We just gotta hope all goes well when yer ready.” Applejack replied with a smile.
“Yes, and now we need to plan exactly how to save her. Rushing into it won’t do much good, she’s stubborn.” Twilight added.
Rarity coughed to get attention. As all eyes fell on her, she smiled to try and hide the fact she had still been crying.
“It’s obvious really. If she can go back carrying anything, then we need to send her with three things that will prove to Rainbow Dash she will die unless she listens.”
They all stared at her, Twilight was clearly trying to work out if this was possible, while the rest just seemed to fail to understand what Rarity had just said.
“That is to say, she should take the feather back, and maybe a photo or two of the memorial to her. There is no way Rainbow Dash can deny it then, there is even a date on the memorial of when she died.”
Twilight grinned, remembering a theory of time travel. The potion, from Ulysses’ description, was going to take the pony that drank it back in time.
“Of course, now I understand what you mean. In theory, it’s possible. Here’s what we’ll do, we’ll burn the feather a little; make it look more like she was in an accident that killed her. I’ll get Spike to get the photos of the memorial. That way then,” she looked at Pinkie, “all you have to do is show her the feather and photos; she can’t deny it then, as the memorial didn’t exist before she died.”
Pinkie Pie smiled and begun hopping around.
“Let’s go have a party to celebrate finding the way to save Rainbow Dash!”
--
On a hill just outside Ponyville, the brown unicorn was watching. It stomped a hoof against a rock.
“So, they really think this will work and no one will know? I’ll see to that. Celebrate while you can ponies… for you are all doomed to fail.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 10 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-02-05T20:50:26+00:00 | 2012-02-05T20:50:26+00:00 | 1,056 | Several days had passed since Ulysses had brought the potion to go back in time and save Rainbow Dash. Twilight had burnt the feather slightly and the photographic proof of a memorial to her was ready in a saddlebag. Carefully, Pinkie Pie made sure it was on tight, and then looked at her friends.
“You know what would be so super awesome? Once we save Dashie, we can throw a party that she didn’t die and that we saved her!” Pinkie Pie hopped on the spot, highly excited and back to feeling her normal self.
Twilight walked to Pinkie’s side and put a leg gently over her back.
“I’m afraid not, Pinkie. But this is important, since it involves the corruption in the Elements of Harmony. Rainbow Dash will be the only one to remember. The timeline will correct itself and the version of you that went back to save her, which is you, will be gone. You must tell her to tell me about the events that have taken place before you went back.”
Across the room, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike all looked confused as if they didn’t understand a word Twilight had just said.
Pinkie however simply nodded and added, “I’m also going to tell her to tell you to tell me to throw the Rainbow Dash Didn’t Die Or Well Really She Died But We Undid It So She Is Now Undead… oh, wait, that’s not a good name for this party, is it?”
Before anypony could reply, there was a light knock at the front door. Twilight opened it and Ulysses walked in. He didn’t smile as he approached the ponies, and he seemed uncomfortable with even being present.
“It is good to see you all again. Now, since I made this potion, I can follow Pinkie Pie back to ensure she remains undisturbed in this attempt.”
They all now watched Pinkie who looked at the cup the potion had been poured in. It seemed to glow in a bright purple. As Pinkie looked at the surface, the events of the past month reflected at her, Rainbow Dash falling to the ground with feathers flowing behind her, the funeral, the unveiling of the memorial, meeting Ulysses, Rarity showing the feather she had found. The events played themselves on the surface of the liquid in a chaotic order.
Pinkie looked to her right as Ulysses stood beside her.
“I am ready to help when you are ready to go.” He said encouraging her. Pinkie shook off the uneasy feeling, it was as if Ulysses had suddenly become the colt she had first met on the way back to Sugarcube corner so long ago, and she had no idea why it felt like a trap. But then, despite being strange and scary, Ulysses was kind hearted, and she just assumed the feelings running through her mind were simply anxiety over what she was about to do.
She picked up the cup, and looked at the liquid one last time. The smiling face of Rainbow Dash looked back at her.
She drank it in one gulp.
--
Pinkie shook her head clear and looked around her. She was in a quiet back alley somewhere in Ponyville. In the sky, the storm that had killed Rainbow Dash rumbled. She walked forward carefully and looked around more. Nopony had seen her, which was good. Remembering the saddlebags, she checked them quickly for the items she had to show Rainbow Dash. She was amazed to see they too had made the trip, and smiled. So far, the plan was working as expected.
She sat for a moment, trying to think of which direction Rainbow Dash had taken, and the best way to meet with her without running into her past self. With a hastily planned route, she turned around, and walked into somepony.
“Oh gosh, I’m sorry.” She said and looked up. Fear grabbed her.
The brown unicorn with the strange markings under its eyes glared at her, and for the first time, she got a good look at them. They appeared to be of magical writing in a language that didn’t seem real to her eyes. They glowed, but impossibly, they glowed in pure black. She had never known until then that black could actually glow.
“I have been expecting you, Element of Laughter.” It rumbled. Pinkie Pie backed away.
“How did--”
“I know? Hah. Do you honestly think I would not watch you remaining Elements? You were all over the loss of that thing, you all want to restore that balance between you elements. I want to bring about the end of the balance they bring. My past self knows nothing of this, but I will make sure you alert him before you too die this day!”
Pinkie Pie ran, the brown unicorn only letting her stay ahead for the thrill of chasing her down before taking her life. As they ran, ponies all watched, too shocked to help.
Pinkie Pie dared a quick glance up at the sky, and watched as Rainbow Dash took to the air. She was almost about to fail, and there would be no more chances when the brown unicorn behind her had had enough fun of chasing her.
She winced a little as the brown unicorn jabbed its horn into the back of her left hind leg. Suddenly, running became that little bit harder. But she couldn’t give up. Twilight had been clear. Succeed and this version of her wouldn’t exist anymore. She wouldn’t exist anymore having witnessed a friend meet an early death, living through the pain of knowing her friend had died, or being chased down by this strange brown unicorn.
A bright white flash made her change direction. Stopping a short distance away, she watched as Ulysses charged the brown unicorn. He kicked the brown unicorn to the floor and turned to her.
“Run! Do what you are here for! And don’t let me down, Pinkie Pie!” Ulysses shouted, as the brown unicorn got back up and rammed Ulysses side on.
Not looking back, Pinkie Pie ran away. Several streets later, she stopped, out of breath. A slight blood trail ran down her leg. She looked up, and saw the rainbow trail as Rainbow Dash drew near.
“It’s now or never,” she said to herself, “hey Rainbow Dash! Dashie! Down here!”
The rainbow streak drew near, and in a second, Rainbow Dash landed in front of Pinkie Pie.
“Pinkie Pie? Are you ok? Your leg is bleeding!”
“I’m fine Dashie. It’s so good to see you again.” Pinkie grinned, she hugged Rainbow Dash, tears running down her face simply from the joy she felt seeing her friend alive again.
“Uh,” Rainbow Dash narrowed her right eye and made efforts to break free of Pinkie’s hug, “Pinkie, we just left Twilight’s house, it hasn’t been long since you saw me last.”
“Oh, that Pinkie Pie is somewhere else right now. I’ve been sent back in time to save you.”
Rainbow Dash looked highly confused, and raised her right front leg up.
“Is this a joke? I’m sorry Pinkie Pie, I don’t have time for a joke.”
“Wait!” Pinkie shouted as Rainbow Dash prepared to take off.
“Ok, fine. What is it?”
Pinkie Pie removed the burnt feather and photos from her saddlebag.
“I really did come from the future to save you Rainbow Dash. The other me, will see you die today. It’s been horrible without you around.”
Rainbow Dash felt Pinkie’s forehead, then looked at what she had removed from the saddlebag.
“Hey, that’s one of my feathers isn’t it? Why did you burn it? And what are those photos of?”
Pinkie bit her lower lip. She looked over her shoulder, and saw the brown unicorn running at her with Ulysses falling behind.
“It’s like I’ve been trying to tell you. The feather is what didn’t get buried with you and was burnt in the lightning strike that killed you. The photos are proof of a memorial Twilight paid for to remember you.”
Rainbow Dash grinned, thinking it was a very good joke.
“It’s amazing how careful you must have been to burn this feather and keep it in one piece. You almost had me with this one Pinkie Pie.”
“Look at the photos, Dashie.”
Rainbow Dash dropped the feather and looked at the top photo. Immediately her jaw dropped. The statue looked just like her, minus any colour.
“Wow, this is in the town square. I know you aren’t an artist, and none of the artists in town would help you in a prank like this,” Rainbow Dash looked up, “I guess you really are from the future. But I’m not buying the whole death thing. I must have got into the Wonderbolts! This is the only reason a statue would be made in my honour!”
“Look at the next one.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and Pinkie begun to panic as the sound of hooves running in her direction could be heard faintly. In front of her, Rainbow Dash went pale.
“Wait... isn’t.... that’s TODAY!” Rainbow Dash sat down in disbelief and shock, forgetting her argument that Pinkie had somehow got an artist to help with a very elaborate prank.
“I... I die today? H...how?”
“I saw you get hit by a bolt of lightning. It’s going to happen when you’re next in the air. I came back to warn you so it won’t happen Dashie,” Pinkie Pie hugged her as best as she could, “you’ll be over the street that leads to the one Sugarcube Corner is on. You’ll see me below, that’s how you’ll know when to be careful. Now go, you still have to do your job.”
Rainbow Dash only nodded. She took to the air leaving behind no rainbow trail.
The sound of thundering hooves was now really close. Pinkie Pie closed her eyes. And held back the urge to scream as the horn broke through her ribcage.
Rainbow Dash looked down every so often. No one below noticed her odd behaviour, but Rainbow Dash sighed. Down on the ground, hopping along, just like the other Pinkie Pie had said, was Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash watched as she turned the corner to the street Sugarcube Corner was on, and disappeared.
“That’s what she meant. So this is it, do or die,” she gulped as she looked back down the street as Pinkie Pie looked around confused, “I can’t let everypony down. I will not die today, not before I live my dream with the Wonderbolts!”
In front of her was a cloud on its own, storing a built up thunderbolt. Standing on it was the brown unicorn, staring angrily at her.
“Are you the one who kills me?” she spoke quietly to herself. To her surprise, the brown unicorn nodded a yes at her.
Rainbow Dash squinted.
“Think again, you won’t kill me today, chump.”
She darted at the cloud. As she did so, the brown unicorn jumped once on the cloud, letting the built up thunder loose. It missed its target by meters, as Rainbow Dash avoided it. She turned back around and begun to spin in circles around the cloud. Following her wind pressure, it begun to spin, and eventually spun and broke up against a tree. Rainbow Dash glared at the brown unicorn who remained standing where the cloud had been.
“It matters not. Corruption has set in the Element of Laughter. You are too late.”
The brown unicorn faded. Rainbow Dash sighed, with him gone, it was pretty clear she would be safe and live to see the next day. She smiled and hurried back to where future Pinkie Pie was when she left.
--
Ulysses looked down sadly at Pinkie Pie. She lay there gasping for breath.
“I’m sorry Pinkie Pie. I couldn’t stop him.”
She laughed, but remained staring at the ground in front of her.
“It doesn’t matter Ulysses. If Rainbow Dash survived, me being stabbed by that brown unicorn’s horn wouldn’t have happened just then.”
Ulysses smiled. Pinkie shivered as he disappeared from sight.
“Pinkie Pie! Hey where are you? Pinkie… oh my Celestia!”
A breeze behind her signalled the arrival of Rainbow Dash.
“Dashie, you survived.” Pinkie said, she sounded weak, and was getting weaker with each hard fought breath, but despite this, her voice rang with pure joy at seeing Rainbow Dash.
“To hay with me, I have to go get Twilight, you’re dying!”
“No,” Rainbow Dash stopped as Pinkie spoke, “it won’t matter, just stay with me.”
“But Pinkie Pie, you saved me, I can’t let you die today instead…”
Pinkie Pie tried to laugh, but coughed instead.
“I said I’d come from the future to stop you dying. Since you’re still alive, I succeeded. Very soon, from what Twilight told me, the future that existed from your death will cease to be. I won’t have really come back to save you, and won’t be here dying.”
It took Rainbow Dash a moment to work this out in her head.
“Wait, if that future won’t exist, what’s to stop me simply dying again?”
“My other saddlebag, quickly.”
Rainbow Dash walked to the saddlebag which had gone some distance away from Pinkie Pie. From it, she took another feather.
“Another of my feathers?”
Pinkie Pie attempted to nod, but was now far too weak.
“Twilight of the future put some sort of magic on it. She found it in her library, though she doesn’t recall you losing a feather in there. Even though the future caused by your death will be gone, as long as you keep hold of that now, the me that saw you die will only exist long enough to prevent your death this day.”
Rainbow Dash looked at the feather and tucked it behind her wing. She sat next to Pinkie Pie, who was now finding it hard to breath. Rainbow watched as this Pinkie Pie begun to fade away.
“The timeline is correcting itself,” she smiled weakly, “I’ll see you later Dashie…”
Rainbow Dash sat there crying, as the future Pinkie Pie faded away.
--
Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash. It was the day after the events of the future Pinkie Pie had saved Rainbow Dash from being killed by the brown unicorn in the storm clouds. Around the library, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie watched as Twilight seemed to struggle in understanding what had taken place the day before.
“One last time Rainbow Dash, what happened?”
Rainbow Dash groaned.
“A Pinkie Pie from the future turned up and showed me proof that I was supposed to die yesterday. When I went back to the clouds, a unicorn was there waiting to try and kill me, but I stopped it, then I found the future Pinkie Pie dying where I’d left her, and she gave me another feather to ensure the events took place.”
Twilight shook her head.
“Is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, you’re the one who knows about magic.” Rainbow Dash replied.
“It would be so good if it was,” Pinkie Pie chimed in, “because I could gather a dozen Pinkie Pies from different futures and throw a timey whiney partay! And all future Rainbow Dashes and Twilight Sparkles and every-everypony would be invited!” At this point, Pinkie was wiggling her hooves while floating in the air in excitement.
“SPIKE!”
“Yes Twilight?”
“Find me a book on time travel theories.”
“Ooh! Does it have a chapter on inviting future selves to parties?” Pinkie questioned Twilight while Spike ran about, eventually coming to a point on the shelves where the book could be.
“I don’t think it’s here right now Twilight.”
“Of course not, silly,” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “It’s right here.” They all looked at her as she looked down at a book.
“Time Travel Paradoxes and theories, no author.”
Twilight used magic to lift the book in front of her. She skimmed the pages looking for the facts she’d need. Having seemingly found them, she read aloud.
“It is possible to prevent a paradox or a loop with an item carrying a spell to prevent them. Even if the timeline returns to normal, if it is preventing a loop or paradox, the object can still exist simply by the potential break in time and space that could result in its destruction,” Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash, closing the book, “it’ll be very important to keep that feather in one piece. If you like, I can keep it safe here.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and opened her left wing. She hadn’t understood a thing Twilight had just said, but it sounded like it was a good thing. The feather fell softly to the floor, and from here, Twilight used magic and took it with her into the basement. She returned a few seconds later.
“Right, now I need to write to the princess again about this. It’s got to be something to do with the corrupting element of loyalty.”
Spike gathered the materials he required to write the letter to Princess Celestia, while the ponies watched in an uneasy silence.
Then, the silence was interrupted.
‘The corruption has spread past loyalty. You will all die.’
The ponies and Spike looked around the library. Fluttershy, being so easy to scare, had moved as fast as physically possible behind Applejack, while the rest all looked around trying to locate where the voice had come from, fear filling their minds. The voice had been inside, yet it sounded so distant and faint. They both looked at each other, both of their faces filled with fear of the words the voice had said.
“We better hurry this letter up, Spike. It seems we are all in life or death situations now, and Rainbow Dash was the first attempt.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 11 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-02-17T17:11:50+00:00 | 2012-02-17T17:11:50+00:00 | 940 | Twilight Sparkle once more looked over the letter with Spike. Around them, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie looked on, each of them concerned at what the voice had just under an hour before.
Princess Celestia had been fast to reply, and showed concern, the first line a letter from her had told Twilight to take themselves somewhere safe. Twilight had taken them to the basement of the library, where various scientific instruments were scattered around. And it was here they waited at present. The last line of the letter instructed them to wait for another letter with further instructions.
“Um… Twilight? Do you know how long do we have to wait for?” Fluttershy questioned.
Twilight shook her head. “No mention… Sorry girls.”
Rainbow Dash normally couldn’t stay still for longer than an hour besides when she was napping or asleep for the night. This time, she was frightfully still, and looking quite pale. Having witnessed a potential future, and seemingly the end result of a different future for Pinkie Pie, the voice booming an hour before had brought real fear to her, something she didn’t like to show. So, she had forced a smile.
“It’ll be ok. I’m sure the Princess will tell us what to do soon.” Twilight reassured her friends, but at the same time, reassured herself.
--
On a cloud some distance from Ponyville, an orange Pegasus sat and surveyed the land and skies around him with apprehension. He lowered the goggles that had been holding back his turquoise mane. The goggles were thicker than normal, and even had a toggle switch sticking off of one side, which he proceeded to flip a few times.
His gaze turned towards Canterlot, and he followed something invisible to the naked eye, as it made its way rapidly to Ponyville library. He sighed and lifted the goggles back up. He flapped his wings as he stood up, flew towards Ponyville.
--
Twilight was now reading the new letter from Princess Celestia. It contained simple instructions, and details for what they had to do. She smiled, reassured that the Princess knew what to do to help. She passed the letter to Spike, and moved a few object out of the way. When she had some space, she went to a cupboard and found some chalk, which she used to copy the complex magic circle the Princess had sent to her.
“What the hay are you doin’ Twilight?” Applejack asked.
“It’s a spell the princess told me to do, it will give us access to what the elements of harmony have or will do, meaning we have full control from now on if we are in the past, present or future.” Twilight answered, still focusing on copying the circle just right.
“What does that mean?” Fluttershy meekly admitted ignorance. Twilight quickly glanced up, utterly unimpressed.
“Simply put, so far, the elements of loyalty and laughter have forced Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie into alternate timelines, which they eventually got out of. These are like futures that won't happen anymore. The elements of harmony are in full control of where in time we end up, so this spell will allow us to travel freely through time, beating the elements to activating the alternate futures they set up.” Twilight repeated, as simply as she could.
“I don’t get it though,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “why are they turning against us?” she questioned.
“Honestly, I don’t really understand it myself. Maybe something has changed, and they’re trying to fix it. We won’t know, but if we don’t act, it could be bad, not just for us, but for all of Equestria.” Twilight responded after a moments thought.
“I think I understand. So this will then let us stop them meanies, and we won’t have to wait for each to set it up first.” Pinkie Pie added, bouncing.
Twilight shook her head in surprise. How did Pinkie Pie understand that? Twilight had expected Rainbow Dash to get it first, and Rainbow had only ever read magazines before, nothing as complex as what Twilight was getting at.
“Yes, Pinkie, that’s what I mean.” Twilight replied, double checking the markings.
“But how will it work for what the element of laughter did? Dashie said the other me had said that future would only exist in her while she was used to stop Dashie dying again.” Pinkie stated.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes became tiny at the mention of her death the other Pinkie that died had mentioned. It wasn’t something she wanted to even think about at that moment. The other ponies however, were trying to really understand what Pinkie Pie had said.
“Um,” Twilight paused, as she ran over her interpretation of Pinkie’s words again, “well, I guess we’d have to have one of us go and see if there’s a sign that indicates the timeline there had Rainbow die.”
“Now hang on a sec Twilight,” Applejack spoke up, “go where? What exactly does this spell do?”
“It should be simple, I hope. We know exactly what happened with the element of loyalty, so, Rainbow Dash, come stand in the middle of the circle.” Twilight ordered.
Slowly, Rainbow Dash walked over to the middle and stood. She resisted a little as Twilight forced her to lay down, then watched nervously as Twilight’s horn glowed. The chalk glowed in turn, and a soft, warming light flowed through Rainbow Dash. Suddenly, all the worries of the last hour and fifteen minutes washed away, as the light seemed to warm every part of her body.
As quickly as it had filled her, the light and its warmth left Rainbow’s body, and she shivered, feeling much colder. She glanced to her right, and saw Twilight was grinning at her own accomplishment, Spike stood beside her, his face full of wonder, and the rest had their jaws dropped. Rainbow stood up and looked in the same direction, her jaw dropping as she saw what they were all looking at.
Against a wall was what looked like clear rippling water. It only showed an image of Rainbow Dash, and nothing beyond it.
“Right, Rainbow, what was it that happened when you said you had blacked out?” Twilight asked, getting nearer.
“Ponyville was on fire. But wait, you can’t go through! What about the corruption that set in?” Rainbow asked, standing in Twilight’s way.
“Part of the spell is that, for each element already sorted out, when we walk in, we can only be observers.” Twilight replied, side stepping Rainbow Dash.
“You’re not going through alone. I’m coming with you.” Rainbow Dash protested, even though she didn’t really want to go.
Twilight offered no protest, then both ponies stood side by side, and entered the liquid.
--
They were looking at the ruins of the hospital, on the bed was Rainbow Dash, where she had woken up during her mysterious black out. Twilight glanced around, a little too fascinated by the destructed surroundings.
“It’s so weird seeing myself over there…” Rainbow muttered.
“Well, is this what you saw?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, Twilight. Can we get out of here? The memory isn’t that pleasant.” Rainbow muttered again, backing up a little.
--
Both fillies walked out of the portal at the basement of the library, Rainbow Dash sat in a corner, laying flat, her eyes staring at the floor. Twilight however, was happy.
“Success. We have full access to the alternate future the element of loyalty created. Now, Pinkie Pie, your turn.” Twilight stated.
The next two hours saw Twilight using the spell on the other ponies, only entering Pinkie Pie’s. The rest she left alone as she would not be an observer in them. At the end, she instructed Rarity on how to cast the spell on Twilight.
The end result was six liquid portals, each with a picture of the ponies the spell had been cast on.
“Right. Now that’s done, we just need to figure out who goes first.” Twilight said, looking between Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack.
They all shivered a little, and Rainbow Dash thought she heard Spike walking on the main floor of the library, near the door to the basement. She questioned to herself for a moment as to why his steps sounded more like hooves, but mentioned nothing.
Fluttershy shifted. She definitely didn’t want to do this, but whatever was wrong with the elements was doing bad things to her friends… even so far as killing Rainbow! That had to be stopped! …if her friends were ok with that.
“Um, Twilight. Maybe I should go first.” Fluttershy offered.
“Are you sure darling?” Rarity asked, looking concerned for her friend.
“Yes, I mean, I hold the element of kindness, how bad could it be?” Fluttershy reasoned, smiling.
“Well, if you’re sure, Fluttershy. Remember, when you’re on the other side, you alone will be able to see the portal back. Use it if things start to go bad.” Twilight offered helpfully.
Slowly and cautiously, Fluttershy walked up to the liquid that held her picture. She bit her lower lip, and carefully walked through. Twilight meanwhile rubbed her eyes, tilted her head and looked at the other ponies.
“Did any of you just see an orange streak head in after Fluttershy?” she asked.
--
Fluttershy gasped at the sight she was met with after stepping through the portal. She was standing in a forest, the tree canopies growing far above. Occasionally, the sound of birds singing could be heard, and from the sky above the trees, a light rainfall reached the ground. It smelled different than any forest she ever knew.
She smiled at the sight. It at least contrasted all the horrible things Rainbow Dash had said she had been through.
“I wonder where I am.” she asked herself, hopeful for a moment that she would meet some new interesting animal friends. She decided to step back through the portal and bring Twilight, to get a better idea of where the forest stood, and she turned around. Her eyes widened with sudden shock.
Where the portal should have been behind her, was empty air, and a pathway leading in one direction through the forest.
Fluttershy suddenly felt scared and all alone. She stared hopelessly where the portal should have been, but now wasn’t. She was stuck at some point in time, with only herself to count on. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 12 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-03-05T14:26:40+00:00 | 2012-03-05T14:26:40+00:00 | 826 | Fluttershy backed away from where the portal to the present should have been. Around her, the birds continued singing, oblivious to the panicking yellow pegasus below. A single thought ran through Fluttershy’s head, how Twilight had told her and the others that the way back would be there. Did she know it was gone? She hoped that back in the library basement, Twilight had seen the portal close, and was now working on a way to open it once more and get her back.
She froze when the sound of hoofsteps could be heard walking beside her, and from the corner of her eye, she saw an orange pegasus with blue hair and brown goggles on his head. His emerald green eyes observed her, and a warm smile crossed his face.
“If you wish to know,” he said, “my name is Sunshine Blaze. I followed you here through that portal. Wasn’t easy, and hopefully I wasn’t seen, but I am only here to help you.”
Fluttershy didn’t reply, instead she shifted away from him slightly, averting her gaze.
“Could I at least know your name?” Sunshine Blaze asked.
“Fluttershy...” she replied.
“Okay, Fluttershy, like I just said, you and I came through that portal, and now we’re trapped here. I’m trying to find out why these events are happening to you and your friends, so you won’t see me until we meet back here to go through the portal once it reappears,” Sunshine Blaze looked up at Fluttershy, “but from what I can tell, we’re over a thousand years in the past, so whatever you do, do not mention anything that could cause the present to change, or all of time to collapse.”
Sunshine Blaze waited a minute for Fluttershy to reply, but it became clear she had no intention of speaking to the unfamiliar colt.
“Basically, don’t mention Princess Luna being imprisoned, Discord escaping his prison or any everyday device that hasn’t been invented yet. Should be easy, ok? And if you need me for anything, just call for me, I’ll be there as soon as I can, if I’m in earshot. I’ll leave you be, so until we next meet!” Sunshine Blaze said, taking flight rather than waiting for her reply.
“But,” she replied quietly to the empty space that Sunshine Blaze was, “what am I supposed to do? How can I ask my friends for help?” she wimpered.
Once more, Fluttershy was all alone in the forest. The strange pegasus, Sunshine Blaze, had given her some information to work with. She was in the past. Added to the fact the portal was gone and she was trapped, and she felt lonely.
Quietly, she lay at the edge of the path, and begun to cry.
--
Fluttershy was startled awake an hour later to the sounds of hooves and a flap of wings. She remained perfectly still out of fear, and listened.
“So, we at least know where he is located now. All we have to do is get the agreement of our hometown, and we can end his reign of terror.” one voice said.
“You know it won’t be easy,” another, sadder sounding, voice spoke up, “they fear him. He rules the land with his wicked ways. Just because we’ve saved many a land from dangerous creatures and rulers doesn’t mean we’ll get anypony to agree to this.”
“I know, but with those sisters away searching for something they believe will defeat him, we can’t just stand around.” the first voice replied.
“Gentlecolts, I don’t mean to disturb your banter, but I see something up ahead.” this voice informed the others, a hint of curiosity within it, originating in the air, threw in the information.
“What is it? Nothing dangerous?” the second voice asked.
“No, it... I think its a mare, laying by the side of the road.” the third voice answered, sounding slightly confused.
“Poor mare, probably ran into him. Come, it wouldn’t do to not check on her and see if she is well.” the first voice said softly.
Fluttershy cringed in fear as the hoofsteps got closer. When they stopped, she dared a glance to try and see at least what they looked like. She saw a unicorn with a pure white coat and light blue mane and tail, with sapphire eyes. Standing beside him was an earth pony, muddy brown in colour of his coat, with a blonde main and tail and green eyes. Staying in the air just above her was a pegasi, with a green coat, minty green mane and tail, and amber eyes.
“She’s alive at least.” the pegasus stated.
“Yes, but look at her, she’s trembling in fear. Either we’re scaring her, or whatever left her here has had a huge effect on her emotions.” the earth pony replied.
The unicorn examined Fluttershy, noting she was uninjured. He sighed and looked at the other two.
“We won’t know for sure, but the least we can do is talk like she isn’t here,” he smiled warmly at Fluttershy, “miss, may I ask what your name is?”
The trio waited for around two minutes, nervously glancing at each other. The unicorn had a look of suspicion on his face, and he took a few steps away from Fluttershy.
“Miss, you really have nothing to fear from us. We are famous heroes in this area, possibly the world. Please, trust me.” the unicorn said firmly, but in a kind way.
Slowly, Fluttershy moved and stood up. She maintained eye contact with the ground, and kicked at it.
“I’m Fluttershy.” she wimpered.
“I am sorry, but I did not quite catch that.” the unicorn stated.
“I’m Fluttershy.” Fluttershy repeated herself.
“Did either of you hear that?” the unicorn asked.
“I did, she said her name is Fluttershy.” the earth pony replied.
“Ah, good. That at least explains your behaviour. Naturally shy. Now, we can not permit you to stay in this forest. I can see that you are scared of us, but please, accompany us to our home of Canterlot, and we can send out the word to your relatives that you are safe.” the unicorn smiled.
“Well, if we want her to trust us, she should know our names at least,” the brown earth pony said, holding a hoof to his chest, “name’s Forest Breeze. Yeah, yeah, I can tell, your impressed.”
Forest Breeze opened his right eye and stared at Fluttershy, amazed that her face looked blank at what he was going on about.
“Y’know, Forest Breeze? The only earth pony to buck a hydra in the kisser and live to tell the tale?” he leaned towards Fluttershy, hoping this would jog her memory.
“Give it a rest Forest Breeze,” the green pegasus rolled his eyes, “I am Cloudswirl. I don’t brag about what I’ve achieved, but among them is stealing back the vial of water from the fountain of youth off a corrupt ruler in the island that is seven days sailing from Equestria.”
“And I,” the white unicorn stood tall and proud, “go by the name Fireshot. Former adviser to the one called Celestia, and with my friends here, we have vanquished many foes to make this sorry world just that little bit better.”
Fluttershy smiled a little. Forest Breeze reminded her of how Rainbow Dash bragged about what her achievements, and yet, his pride was even easier to shoot down than that of Rainbow’s. When she hadn’t recognised him, he seemed visibly upset, whereas, Rainbow would just keep going until the other pony knew what was being talked about. Cloudswirl meanwhile acted aloof and modest, sort of like Rarity, but clearly, he seemed to have some reason for his heroic actions other than being helpful, as if he was fighting for something. Fireshot however was unlike any of her friends, but he appeared to know Celestia on a personal level.
Something about them comforted her. Fluttershy felt less stranded.
--
It took an hour for Fluttershy to be led to Canterlot, or, rather, ancient Canterlot. It sat at the base of the mountain where the Canterlot she knew stood. Only, less grand. The town was much like Ponyville, a collection of houses and shops. A guard stood at a building on the path into the town, and as she walked with the three colts, she noticed all sorts of things.
For one, there was a bakery, run by a white pegasus with blonde mane. It stood opposite a store selling vegetables. The street was mostly the same, homes and shops.
Soon, the three colts led Fluttershy to a run down looking building, which they led her inside.
“Well, welcome to our humble home miss Fluttershy. It is not much, but it is where we stay when in Equestria.” Fireshot explained.
“Yes, Fireshot was offered by Celestia a home closer to the capital. Just before he turned up at least. So we settled on Fireshot’s home here in Canterlot.” Cloudswirl added, just before picking up a hammer and nails, and flying to a rafter to try and nail it together before it completely broke.
Fluttershy studied the house a bit more. The floor had no carpeting, and looked like it had seen a lot of rain. The floorboards were mouldy, or even breaking apart. The walls weren’t fairing much better, with visible holes in them where the wood had rotted away. And the rafters holding the roof up had a lot of nails around visible cracks.
“Now, we can get to why we brought you here,” Fireshot said, using his magic to bring a quill and scroll before him, “we must tell your family that we found you. Where do they live?”
Fluttershy didn’t answer. Her mind begun to race, recalling the words of Sunshine Blaze. If she told them that her home was Ponyville, how would they react? And more importantly, did Ponyville even exist right now? But to tell them the truth, while a good thing normally, could hurt the timeline. And suddenly, it made sense why she was in the past.
The element of kindness must have sent her back, to say one wrong thing and alter something in the past, probably Twilight even being sent to Ponyville at that Summer Sun Celebration. It would probably be best to try and avoid changing the future.
“Um, I... I don’t have a family.” She lied.
Together, Fireshot, Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl looked at Fluttershy, having noticed her reply had taken half a minute.
“I see,” Fireshot settled the quill and scroll down on a table. Despite how light the objects were, they managed to cause it to collapse to the floor, “you can be honest, miss Fluttershy, you only just survived an encounter with him, am I correct?” he asked.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, just who is ‘he’ anyway?” Fluttershy questioned.
Fireshot looked surprised, then looked to Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl, as if hoping they could confirm what she had just asked him. He returned his focus to Fluttershy.
“I do not believe there is a pony who does not know who he is. You are not pretending are you?” he asked.
“No, I- I really have no idea who ‘he’ is.” Fluttershy answered.
“Dear Fluttershy, the ‘he’ we speak of is the tyrant ruler of Equestria. ‘He’ is Discord.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 13 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-03-22T22:26:41+00:00 | 2012-03-22T22:26:41+00:00 | 848 | Fluttershy stared in shock at Fireshot’s revelation, taking a couple of steps back. She attempted to speak, but the words stopped in her throat, unwilling to let themselves be uttered. Her eyes shrunk to dots, and she looked at the three colts in the room.
“You have heard of him then?” Fireshot asked.
“Y-yes.” Fluttershy managed to say.
Cloudswirl, who had still been in the air landed, and sat on a stool, releasing a sigh. He looked at Fireshot, slight concern in his eyes.
“Discord’s reputation is known everywhere. I was worried then that miss Fluttershy here had taken a rather nasty knock to the head.” Cloudswirl said, smiling.
Fluttershy zoned out, as Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze begun to talk. She begun to wonder if she had done something wrong to deserve being sent far enough into the past that Discord was the current ruler of Equestria. Maybe she shouldn’t have told Rarity what she thought of the dress that she had been working on just last week.
But regardless of what she had done, the truth remained. She was stuck in the distant past, with three heroes nopony had ever heard of, and Discord was the current ruler. It couldn’t get any worse.
“I say, miss Fluttershy? Are you alright?” Forest Breeze snapped her back to reality.
Fluttershy looked up, rather embarrassed, to the sight of the three colts looking at her.
“Oh... um, yes. I’m... okay.” she answered.
“Cloudswirl, take miss Fluttershy outside, she looks like she needs a bit of fresh air.” Fireshot said, turning away and walking to a table.
Outside, she sat down and took a deep breath. While she hadn’t paid much attention on the way to Canterlot, Fluttershy used this moment to look around.
The ponies walking around looked depressed, one unicorn in particular, that she saw, had half of his horn broken, while a pegasi tried to fly with one wing on her left hind leg. None of them talked to each other, and any that walked into each other, diverted their gaze and continued walking.
In the distance, pink clouds drifted erratically, and parts of the landscape floated any way they seemed to wish. The ground at that distance also changed colours, as though painted into a checkerboard style. The signs of Discord’s rule were obvious.
“Everypony is worried, miss Fluttershy,” Cloudswirl struck up conversation, “Discord was summoned by Starswirl by accident, as he tried to summon something better to lead us. Discord did begin to lead Equestria, but only for the fact Starswirl was too exhausted to try again. We all thought he would make Equestria a better place, and the occasional cotton candy cloud storm for a foal’s birthday led us to believe he would be.”
“Then what went wrong?” Fluttershy asked, looking Cloudswirl in the eyes.
“While we were kept hidden of the fact at the time, Discord loved the chaos he caused just for birthdays. He wanted to do those sort of things all the time. Starswirl explained to him why he could not. And before we knew it, Discord had gone power-mad, killed Starswirl, and begun causing chaos across Equestria.” Cloudswirl answered.
“Come, let me show you around a little, maybe you can understand then what we must do.” Cloudswirl stated flatly.
Fluttershy walked beside Cloudswirl as he led her around Canterlot. Around her, ponies of every kind and age, and of both genders, walked around, selling food, clothing and flowers, or generally holding conversations only as necessary. While earlier they had all seemed to avoid each other, there were some cases where ponies were holding conversations. Cloudswirl paused and pointed to two ponies, an earth pony and a unicorn.
“Any news?” the light yellow earth pony asked the green unicorn.
“No,” he sighed, “my brother said he would return quickly from Manesville with mother and father, I can only assume the worst, as he should have returned last week.” the green unicorn stared at the ground.
Silently, Cloudswirl begun to walk on again. He led her to a small wooden building beside a fountain and walked inside. As Fluttershy’s eyes adjusted to the dark, it became clear she was in a hospital, though all the patients and the nurse shared the only room. As Fluttershy looked at the still forms of ponies in worn down beds, Cloudswirl had walked up to the nurse, a smile on his face.
“May I visit her?” he asked the nurse. The nurse simply nodded.
Fluttershy stayed close as Cloudswirl walked to the furthest corner of the room. He came to a stop by a bed, upon which lay a white mare, with a yellow mane. Gently, Cloudswirl nuzzled her, and she stirred, smiling weakly at him as her sky blue eyes opened.
“How are you today, Rainflower?” he asked quietly, sitting down in her line of sight.
“The nurse told me I am going to be fine,” Rainflower’s eyes fell on Fluttershy, but expressed no emotion, “who is this, Cloudswirl?” she asked, studying Fluttershy.
“Sweetheart, this is Fluttershy. Forest Breeze spotted her laying at the side of the road as we returned from the Everfree, and we brought her to Canterlot to be safe from Discord. She has already had an encounter with that tyrant, so we will need to find her friends, to see if they know how that could have taken place.” Cloudswirl replied, his eyes never once leaving the direction of Rainflower.
Fluttershy felt a little uneasy at the thought that she had originally arrived in the past version of the Everfree Forest. It had been so beautiful, yet, the Everfree she knew was highly dangerous. The question of what changed it would have to be answered later, as it wasn’t a priority right now.
“It is a pleasure to meet you Fluttershy. How fortunate it was that you were found by my husband and his friends, and not a pony loyal to that foul beast. Has he told you how I came to be here?” Rainflower asked, smiling at Fluttershy.
“Now dear, I’m sure that can wait.” Cloudswirl objected.
“Cloudswirl, you are far too modest. Now, Miss Fluttershy, a few weeks ago, I was trapped within Discord’s Citadel, I shall spare you the horrible details of what I saw, but just the other week, I wake to see this one,” she paused to playfully nuzzle Cloudswirl, “kicking the flank of some horrible demon. More than that, he then used the demon’s own claws to pull the bars that held me in the prison, and then he carried me from that dreadful room, right through the citadel, kicking flank all the time, and right back here.” she smiled. Beside her, Cloudswirl seemed almost embarrassed about the story.
“That’s really sweet. But um,” Fluttershy quickly glanced at Cloudswirl, then back to Rainflower, “why are you in here? You look fine.” she queried.
Rainflower sighed, and threw back the woolen blanket covering her. Her belly showed that she was in the late stages of pregnancy, on her back were two stumps where her wings had once been, and stitched up skin on her flank showed where her legs had once attached to her body. Fluttershy felt sick at the sight, and held back as much as possible her desire to be physically sick, as she ran out of the hospital. She only just managed to get to the edge of a nearby alley when her restraint against her stomach finally ended, and what she had eaten and drank previously came out the wrong way.
Cloudswirl followed her soon after, and stood beside Fluttershy as she sat, shaking violently.
“I am sorry Fluttershy. I was hoping at least she would not show her injuries to you. She feels bad about it now, but she never thinks before she acts. That is how Akyrun captured her and tortured her.” Cloudswirl said calmly.
Fluttershy said nothing, as she slowly raised her head up to look at the sky. Around her, wing beats of pegasi, and the clopping of hooves on the ground made the only sounds that reached her ears. Turning her head slightly, she saw Cloudswirl’s face had become filled with rage.
“That monster, Akyrun, the last monster that is closest to Discord. He knew who she was, and waited. Rainflower loved to fly to the clouds before a rain shower, and swim up there. That was when he grabbed her, and took her to the citadel. And I...” he paused, and stepped forward slightly, his wings had unfolded and were now raised high.
“I was powerless to stop it. I always followed her since my return to Equestria, to ensure she was safe. He blind sided me, and when I woke up, both he and Rainflower were gone. I never felt so useless and helpless. My own wife, pregnant with our unborn foal, snatched from me by the most twisted of Discord’s loyalists.” Cloudswirl continued his rant, now visibly shaking from all the rage stored within him.
Fluttershy felt scared. Cloudswirl, in the time she had met him seemed very calm, collected, almost the perfect idea of a hero. And yet, that same ‘perfect hero’ now stood before her, shaking with uncontrollable rage. She felt like telling him that it wasn’t his fault he hadn’t been able to defend Rainflower, but decided against it.
“I swear, when the time is right, I will find that monster, that demon, Akyrun, and I will make him suffer far worse than he made my wife suffer. He will beg for his end to be swift, and I will instead grant him a slow, agonising death.” Cloudswirl spat.
--
After Cloudswirl had calmed down, he had taken Fluttershy to see where the sisters that governed Canterlot were usually based when not away somewhere else, along with buildings closer to the edge of the town that were damaged by fighting between the citizens of Canterlot and the forces loyal to Discord. Once she had seen everything Cloudswirl deemed important, the pair had returned to the building Cloudswirl and his friends were staying in, and sat outside, neither saying a word, as Fluttershy looked around, watching the ponies walk around.
Fluttershy’s eyes soon landed on a dark blue unicorn wearing a black cloak. This unicorn’s eyes seem fixed on her, and made her feel uncomfortable. She moved a little, turning her head but keeping her eyes in the unicorn’s direction. Beside her, Cloudswirl noticed the change in attitude.
“Is something wrong miss Fluttershy?” he questioned.
“Over there, across the street. That unicorn is staring at me.” she muttered.
Cloudswirl stared and saw the unicorn she mentioned. Fluttershy didn’t see his face, but Cloudswirl’s eyes grew larger, and a look of anger covered his face.
“Discord has ponies loyal to him, they all wear cloaks of varying colours, depicting their rank, black is the colour of the commanders,” he took a deep breath, “Fireshot! Forest Breeze! Discord loyalist in Canterlot!” he yelled, and set off flying.
Across the street, the unicorn looked surprised, and begun to run away, as Cloudswirl gave chase. Behind Fluttershy, the door into the building the three colts called home burst open, and Fireshot raced off after Cloudswirl. Forest Breeze gently forced Fluttershy up and hurried her back into the building.
Back inside, Fluttershy sat on a stool, as Forest Breeze walked into the kitchen. A minute later, the sound of a kettle boiling could be heard, along with the rattling of a spoon in a cup. After another minute, Forest Breeze walked back into the front room, and set down a cup in front of Fluttershy.
“Fireshot loves this stuff. It is called ‘chamomile tea’. You can not get this in Equestria, but Fireshot will only tell me that the land it comes from has promised him as much of this as he wishes for the rest of his life. Drink up, he said it will help you get over any shock you might be in.” Forest Breeze said, rolling up a scroll.
“I’m fine.” Fluttershy stated. Across the table, Forest Breeze’s face looked serious, then changed to reflect his internal laughter.
“You do not seem fine, miss Fluttershy. Quite the opposite. That Discord loyalist did seem to scare you.” Forest Breeze replied.
“Are there many of these loyalists?” she asked.
“Oh yes. That is why we are being careful when it comes to planning our attempt to end Discord and his reign. Discord may like chaos, but he is not stupid. That is why it was so hard for Celestia and Luna to depart from the border in search of what they need for their own attempt at beating Discord.” Forest Breeze smiled.
Fluttershy felt curious. Sure, she had known Celestia was alive at the time Discord ruled Equestria, Celestia had said it herself when Discord had broken free. But what she had done before she and Luna defeated him hadn’t been mentioned, simply that they had found the Elements of Harmony.
It made sense, as she thought. Forest Breeze had just said Celestia and Luna had left Equestria to find something. That meant they would soon find the Elements of Harmony. What didn’t make sense was where the three colts, Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze, came into things.
“Could I ask what you three are doing while waiting for them? I mean... if you can...” Fluttershy grew nervous.
Across from her, Forest Breeze looked confused, then suspicious. He moved his head closer to Fluttershy.
“You aren’t a loyalist to Discord are you?” he asked.
“N-no! Never. I remember what he did to me, to my friends. I’d rather die than side with him.” Fluttershy answered, looking shocked at Forest Breeze.
“I suppose you can tell me what he did to you and your friends then?”
Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide. She had just slipped up. What Discord had done to her and her friends hadn’t taken place yet. But to lie about it would get her into a lot of trouble.
“He... he,” she thought for a minute, shifting slightly, uncomfortable with the stare from Forest Breeze, “Discord pushed the bonds of our friendship, made us the opposite of what we were normally like. We almost lost our friendship, but we overcame that.”
Forest Breeze’s suspicious look changed into one of sadness for Fluttershy. He sighed and hung his head.
“Did you turn grey? Discord usually does that when focusing on specific ponies.” he questioned.
“Yes, we all did. It made me dislike my friends. I mocked them, hurt their feelings, all to make myself feel better.” Fluttershy answered, sounding sad.
“I am sorry that I thought you were loyal to him. It is a shame we found you alone in that forest. When we have made sure you are safe, I shall try to find where your friends are,” Forest Breeze now looked up, smiling, “now to answer your question. The three of us are great heroes, the fact we have returned to Equestria has Discord worried. But we protect ponies that are not under his control. Outside, you must have seen how no one talks to each other, unless they really have to.”
Forest Breeze looked at Fluttershy, waiting for some sort of confirmation that she had seen exactly that. With a nod, Fluttershy answered him.
“They are scared, scared that the next pony they talk to is under Discord’s direct influence. He can pass it on through others, not just directly. Soon though, soon we shall go and confront him, regardless of if Celestia and Luna have returned or not. The city of Ponypeii has disbanded completely, everypony has gone mad or dead there. Equestria can not survive much longer if we do not act in the next week or two.”
--
Author's notes; Sorry this took a while to get out, it was originally way too short, so me and my editor worked on making the character development fit. Anyway, work will begin soon on the next chapter, but I cant promise that will be out in a week. I'm sure you all would agree, better to take the time and do each chapter well, than rush dozens out that are absolutely awful.
As for where Ruining Harmony diverts from the show, its some time after the Discord two parter, but before the episode "Putting your hoof down". Not that it really matters however. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 14 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-04-05T19:49:51+00:00 | 2012-04-05T19:49:51+00:00 | 807 | Fluttershy stared at the now empty cup before her, as Fireshot and Cloudswirl walked back into the house. Both were breathing heavily, and sat on the nearest stools to them. From where he sat, Forest Breeze observed them, and sighed.
“Another one got away?” he asked.
“It’s not like we didn’t try. He had a head start anyway. Is miss Fluttershy alright?” Fireshot questioned.
“She’s fine, still shy like her name implies, and a little shaken. She’d have been worse, no doubt, if Cloudswirl hadn’t been there beside her.” Forest Breeze replied, standing up and taking with his mouth the empty cup away into the kitchen.
The room went silent. Outside, the clopping of local ponies could be heard as it was starting to get into lunchtime. Fluttershy looked at Cloudswirl and Fireshot in turn. Both seemed to be in deep thought over something.
Fluttershy’s thoughts begun to dwell on the three colts. Why had she never heard of them before? If they were famous heroes, wouldn’t they be in history books somewhere? She didn’t remember their names or recall whatever they did against Discord. A single question came into her mind, and she decided to ask them.
“Could… could I ask, have you ever heard of Windigos?” she asked, her voice growing quieter towards the end of her question.
“Heard of them? Barely twenty years have passed since they chased all pony races from our old home and to Equestria. It’s also a result of this that Discord was able to gain power so fast, all the town are so small and isolated.” Cloudswirl answered.
Fireshot was staring at Fluttershy, one eyebrow raised higher than the other. She felt uncomfortable under his stare.
“Something isn’t right. You can recall Discord attacking you and your friends, but don’t know of the Windigos? You look old enough to have been among the ponies leaving the old land.” he pondered.
Fluttershy’s eyes went wide, realising what she had just done. With one question, she had completely undone her story to the three colts. Her mind begun to race, to think of any explanation that wouldn’t cause any more problems. As she physically attempted to hide behind her mane, there was a knock at the door, which Cloudswirl went to answer.
A moment of awkward silence fell on the room, as Fireshot kept his eyes on Fluttershy. She attempted to hide behind her mane, even if it wouldn’t be enough to avoid the colt for long. When Cloudswirl returned, he was followed by a young orange pegasus, with a blue mane and goggles on his head.
“Fireshot,” Cloudswirl stopped beside Fluttershy, “this pegasus said he wishes to talk to us.”
Fireshot took a quick look at Sunshine Blaze, before fixing his eyes back on Fluttershy, and simply grunted. Standing near the doorway, Sunshine Blaze cleared his throat, and took a few steps forward.
“I am sorry to bother you three, but unfortunately, things have taken place that means I can’t stand by and not involve you. So, I must ask, have you seen anypony that seemed… strange, or out of place recently?” he asked, the tone of his voice betrayed by the simple fact of how young he looked.
“Well,” Forest Breeze spoke up, “there was a strange unicorn that these two chased after a short time ago.”
Sunshine Blaze’s eyes went wide, and he flew up to Forest Breeze as fast as he physically could.
“What did he look like? Did he say anything?” Sunshine Blaze asked quickly.
“He wore a black cloak, it hid his mark on his flank. As for saying anything, he said nothing, to us anyway.” Fireshot replied, his eyes still attempting to bore holes in Fluttershy.
Sunshine Blaze flew to the opposite side of Fluttershy to where Cloudswirl stood, and he looked up into her eyes. He seemed concerned, but sighed, realising that a risk had to be taken.
“Fluttershy, you need to tell them the truth.” Sunshine Blaze stated flatly.
Fluttershy shuffled a hoof against the ground, and stared down. She sighed and looked upward while keeping her head pointed down.
“I- I’m from the future.” She mumbled.
--
They had moved to sitting around the table. Fireshot, Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl on one side, Fluttershy and Sunshine Blaze on the other. Fluttershy was relieved that, at last, Fireshot had stopped glaring at her.
Sunshine Blaze coughed, glanced at Fluttershy, then looked at the three colts opposite him.
“Now, normally I wouldn’t have involved any pony from the past in events transpiring in the future. But as you may have guessed, that is unavoidable right now. We can’t answer anything other than what is necessary, so you can’t ask what you’ll achieve in your lives, as that may result in you not doing anything we say. Understood?” Sunshine Blaze questioned.
Fireshot, for the most part, seemed impressed by Sunshine Blaze. He lent forward and took a breath.
“How old are you young man?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Good, questions like that won’t affect anything. I’m fourteen. Next question.” Sunshine Blaze grinned. Fireshot paused for a moment, and studied Sunshine Blaze. Either side of Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze looked at each other, surprised by how impassive and unemotional the answer was. After five seconds, Fireshot shook his head slightly and chose to ignore the tone with which Sunshine Blaze answered, and continued.
“When you say you and Fluttershy are from the future, how far exactly into the future are we talking about?” Forest Breeze asked, tilting his head.
“More or less, around a thousand years.” Sunshine Blaze replied.
The three colts glanced at each other. Cloudswirl spoke up next.
“And could you tell us what we do to Discord?” his eyes shone with hope.
“Sorry, I said no questions about your future. You’ll just have to find that out by yourselves.”
Fireshot slowly stood up, his focus on Fluttershy.
“I want to know why you lied to us miss Fluttershy. Being from the future is only part of the reason, but to lie about being attacked by Discord? I don’t buy it.” he said slowly and cooly.
Fluttershy averted her gaze. Beside her, Sunshine Blaze sighed, and looked at Fireshot, who slowly sat back down.
“Clearly, she’s too afraid of you now to speak.” Sunshine Blaze said.
“I didn’t lie.” Fluttershy said in a tone almost inaudible.
All eyes were now on Fluttershy, which made her feel uncomfortable. She raised her head, and looked Fireshot in the eye. She took a deep breath and gathered her courage as best as she could.
“I didn’t lie about Discord attacking me and my friends. He did, just, in the future.” she said.
The three colts seemed shocked and dismayed by what she said, while beside her, Sunshine Blaze held a hoof to his face. Fluttershy however knew of what she was doing, and that she was now entering very dangerous territory. One wrong word, one slip up, and the whole future could change, and probably for the worse. She ultimately decided that the best thing to do would be to say Discord had become imprisoned, while keeping who was responsible unknown.
Working this course of the conversation in her mind, Fluttershy decided it was the best. If the heroes knew that Discord did get imprisoned somewhere, they would assume it was by their actions, and history would continue as it would. She took a deep, calming breath, and continued to speak.
“You see, Discord escaped from where he was kept, and tried to keep being put back by attacking those who could do it. He did fail however.” she finished.
The three colts took in the information, looking at each other for confirmation that they had just heard the same thing.
“So, we will not ask anything about how we defeat Discord, but there is one thing that does not make sense.” Cloudswirl said.
“What’s that?” Sunshine Blaze questioned, lowering the hoof from his face.
“How did you two get to be here in your past?” Cloudswirl questioned.
“That is simple. For a reason not yet clear, that unicorn you saw earlier used Fluttershy here to open a door to the past. This is why I need your help. We must head to where she first arrived here in the past, and close the link. Obviously, to do so, it would be best that she goes back through it.” Sunshine Blaze smiled.
“And of you?” Fireshot asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry about me, until I catch this unicorn, I will remain here. Now, shall we go?” Sunshine Blaze questioned.
Fireshot, Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze didn’t look happy, and Sunshine Blaze picked up on this quickly.
“Listen, I am of no threat to you. I only want to get this unicorn, and to do that I need to remain here. Once I have him, I’ll return to the future, and there won’t be any arguments over it, and you can’t get me to change my mind. So I repeat, shall we go?” Sunshine Blaze narrowed his eyes.
With a sigh, Fireshot only nodded his head.
--
An hour later, Fluttershy, along with the three colts and Sunshine Blaze, stood back in the forest. The song of birds echoed all around them, calming Fluttershy. The forest was tranquil despite the fact that beyond it stood an Equestria which was twisted and chaotic under the rule of Discord.
The spot where Fluttershy had entered now had a portal, and the sight of it caused Fluttershy to sigh in relief. Ahead of her, the three colts examined the portal carefully.
“So this… thing, will send you back to the time you came from, a thousand years in the future?” Fireshot asked.
“Yes. I’m- I’m sorry I lied to you…” Fluttershy replied, trying to hide her face.
Cloudswirl stood before Fluttershy, and gently turned her head to face him. This made Fluttershy blush from embarrassment, and she attempted to turn away again, only to have her head turned back once more.
“It is okay, miss Fluttershy. If I had come to the past from the future, then I too would try to keep it secret. But as Sunshine Blaze explained, that is not possible now.” Cloudswirl stated, before turning back to the portal.
“What will you do to the portal?” Fluttershy questioned, stepping closer to it.
“If the one from your future created it with ill intent, then I will place a condition upon it, should he have returned to the future. Once you are back in your own time, I shall place a spell around it, where only those who are kind and hold no evil in their hearts may take more than a few steps away from it.” Fireshot replied. Fluttershy understood, and smiled at the idea.
Fluttershy now walked up to the portal, and stared at it. It didn’t show a picture of her, instead, within the glow, she could see the library basement, and her friends standing around looking at where she would return once she stepped through.
“Th-thank you, for being so kind to me.” She said softly, looking over her back to the three colts.
In reply, they simply bowed their heads. Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy turned her head to face the portal once more, and walked into it.
--
Twilight tapped her right hoof in annoyance. Fluttershy had been gone a long time, and the other ponies had fallen asleep while waiting for her. The only clock in the basement showed that the time was now 2 am. But Twilight couldn’t sleep.
“Where are you Fluttershy?” she muttered yet again.
She blinked her eyes, and then rubbed them, as the portal with the picture of Fluttershy over it begun to ripple. A second later, the yellow Pegasus walked through it, smiling at Twilight.
“Girls! Wake up! Fluttershy is back!” Twilight yelled, frightening Fluttershy.
Pinkie Pie was the first to wake up, and had crossed the room to hug Fluttershy faster than it was possible to even blink.
“Oh my gosh, are you ok? We were all so worried about you, and I didn’t like that, so I tried cheering everypony up by suggesting a party, but Twilight wouldn’t let me go get cakes and sweets and balloons. So we tried some games, but Rarity didn't want to play tic-tac-toe with me again. Are you ok?” Pinkie Pie managed to say without pausing for breath. Fluttershy returned the hug for many seconds, then gently broke it and smiled.
“I’m fine, thank you all for being concerned.” Fluttershy replied.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight stood forward, preventing Pinkie Pie from saying anything else, “what exactly happened?”
Fluttershy recounted the events that had taken place when she had gone through the portal, noting to Twilight that the portal was not present at the other side for her to return right away (which seemed to annoy Twilight). She told them how she met another pegasus from the future who was looking for a unicorn who had got to the past somehow, and how she met the three colts, who then returned with her and planned to stop the portal being used for bad purposes.
When she had finished, her friends looked at her with great interest. Twilight had long since concluded that the reason the portal hadn’t appeared on the other side was simply because the events beyond it hadn’t been seen yet by Fluttershy. Soon after, Twilight had Spike fetch every history book she could find, and checked for any mention of Fireshot, Cloudswirl or Forest Breeze.
To even Fluttershy’s disappointment, there was no mention of them anywhere.
“So, um... do- do you think they were real?” Fluttershy asked, looking hopeful.
“It’s possible. Not a lot was recorded before the princesses came to rule, the only reason we know of the Windigos is because they caused the events that led to Equestria even being founded,” Twilight used her magic to place the last book on a pile, “so if these three did exist, they probably lived and died before historical events were written down. Maybe Princess Celestia remembers them, but I’ll have to ask when we’re done with all this.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 15 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-04-23T21:04:52+00:00 | 2012-04-23T21:04:52+00:00 | 907 | It was now morning in Ponyville, and all six friends were back into the basement of the library, where the portals that had each of their pictures were still on the wall. Twilight Sparkle smiled and looked at Applejack and Rarity. The three of them were the only ones left to enter the portals, and find how the elements of harmony were trying to change events, either those that had happened, or were yet to happen if not prevented.
There was an uneasy silence. Nopony was particularly eager to see what would await them on the other side of the portals holding their own pictures, even if Fluttershy’s seemed mostly harmless. Rainbow Dash herself, as they recalled, had been sent to the future, then a week later had encountered a Pinkie Pie who had travelled back from a different future. But as they had learnt the day before, not all the portals would always lead into events that had yet to take place.
“Ah’ll do it.” Applejack said, a tone of determination in her voice. She walked up to her portal, and stared at the picture of her own face. Applejack bit her lower lip, and gave a quick glance back at her friends, tapping her hat with one hoof. “See y’all soon, gals.” Then, she stepped forward before anypony could say anything.
--
The sun was low on the horizon, bathing the land in a warm orange glow. As Applejack looked around, a cool breeze blew across her body and made her shiver. Before her stood a scene of beauty, vast plains, leading to mountains with a small town near the bottom of them. She smiled, thinking that she had got a good situation to deal with.
With no one nearby to talk to, Applejack decided to head to the town, in hopes of getting something to work with. As she set off, she didn’t notice a dark blue unicorn, watching her carefully from a distance.
What she did notice was that something was very wrong with the sun. It had been bathing the ground in an orange glow earlier, and had clearly been setting, but it suddenly halted its movement for thirty seconds, and begun to climb the sky once again, backwards.
There was more as well. Beside the sun moving in strange ways, she had clearly seen the moon rise in the sky, do a few circles, before speeding, as though embarrassed at being seen doing the circles, out of sight once more below the horizon. And at first, the tremors in the ground had scared her to the point where she quickly fell to the ground and covered her head, but these had become common as her walk to the town continued, and she now hardly reacted to them. The fact the sun was not following its usual path was similar to when Discord had broken free, and it simply told her now that she was back in the same time Fluttershy had been in the day before.
Applejack stared at the town that now stood before her. It was supposed to be Canterlot, but it looked more like the Ponyville she had left behind. This Canterlot stood in the valley below the mountains that the Canterlot she remembers did.
Much to her confusion, the guard refused to let her in.
“Now why can’t ah come in?” she asked at the guard.
“Because my orders are to protect Canterlot from his followers.” the guard explained.
“But ah’m not one of his followers,” she replied. She wasn’t sure if he meant Discord, but she did know that she was follower of nopony. Except, perhaps, for Princess Celestia. “Ah know the princess. Is that good enough?” she questioned.
“Dear lady, the princess leader of the unicorns is dead. Equestria is controlled by an evil tyrant. Are you even from this land?” the guard replied.
Applejack mentally hit herself. Fluttershy had discussed this with her and the others in the library just the night before, how Canterlot once sat at the foot of the mountain it was on, how over protective three colts were of the town. Her situation made sense, she had ended up in the past just like Fluttershy had.
“Okay then, send a message to Fireshot, tell ‘im a friend of Fluttershy is here to see ‘im.” Applejack stated.
“And what exactly are you here for, besides to see Fireshot?” the guard asked.
“Ah’ll know it when Ah talk to ‘im, so just get ‘im here.” Applejack said calmly.
--
Three minutes later, Applejack was looking at the colt called Fireshot. He glared at her angrily, while beside him two guards waited ready for any sign of trouble and defend the town from it. Applejack stood still, following Fireshot with her eyes alone, as the white unicorn circled her. In one minute, he stood in front of her once again.
“What is your purpose for being here?” he questioned, his voice clearly reflecting how irritated he was.
“As ah said, ah’m a friend of Fluttershy, and ah’m here to see you.” Applejack said, starting to get irritated with having her honesty constantly challenged.
“Yes, yes, that was clear in the message. But how can I trust that you are telling me the truth, and this is not some trick by ‘him’ to get rid of myself and my friends?” Fireshot snapped, stomping a hoof on the ground.
“You want the truth? Fine. You met Fluttershy by the side of the road, brought her here for safety, and she was being watched by a blue unicorn who ran when you and Cloudswirl chased after him. From there, somepony named Sunshine Blaze arrived and told you she was from the future, and you helped her find the way back.” Applejack replied, keeping her own anger in check.
“You know,” Fireshot lowered his voice, and made it sound more menacing, “that just proves you have a good lie. Discord clearly told you all the details you would need to know.”
At this point Applejack felt like bucking Fireshot in the head. He was clearly paranoid, not trusting even the truth when told it, she shook her head, hoping that he would see reason. She cleared her throat, counted to ten, and stared at Fireshot.
“You want proof Ah know Fluttershy? She was shown Cloudswirl’s wife, named Rainflower, who was tortured. Fluttershy also told you that she and her friends had come across Discord before, and all you know is that it is in the future. That proof enough for ya?” Applejack asked, looking unimpressed.
Fireshot studied Applejack for ten seconds, and then looked away, his face clearly showing the inner turmoil. Applejack understood why he was hesitant to believe her, having met Discord, she knew that he was cunning, and able to trick anypony into believing what he wanted them to believe. She could only wait and hope that Fireshot would believe the truth.
“Alright, Applejack, what exactly do you want?” Fireshot asked, seemingly believing her.
“All ah want is to go back home, to the future.” Applejack answered.
“Fine. As much as I do not want to help you, I will lead you to the others. But be aware, if you have lied to us, you will not get away.” Fireshot stated flatly, as the way into the town was opened.
--
The house the three colts were using as a base was exactly as Fluttershy had described it, with one new addition. In the room with the table and chairs, there was now a long bench with a solid wood backboard. Upon this lay Rainflower, her husband, Cloudswirl stood protectively beside her as Fireshot brought Applejack inside. Sitting at the table was Forest Breeze, who looked over Applejack, examining her.
“This one says she knows Fluttershy. I have put wards around her to protect us in case this is not true. What do you two think?” he asked, standing some distance away from Applejack.
“Miss Fluttershy was not here long enough for us to be informed of her friend’s names. Or indeed, what kind of ponies they are.” Forest Breeze stated, his gaze never leaving Applejack.
“I do believe there is one way to know the truth. Miss Fluttershy was not even here long enough for anyone, us or someone on the side of Discord, to know what her talent was,” Cloudswirl grinned, clearly having thought of a good idea at finding out the truth,” So, miss, if you are indeed a friend of Fluttershy, what was her talent?” he asked, a smug look on his face.
“Well, her cutie mark is three butterflies, which show she’s good with animals and takin’ care of them. Her rabbit, Angel, can be a bit bothersome for her, but Ah don’t know any other pony who would even go outta their way to help a Manticore.” Applejack replied, smiling at the memory of when Fluttershy had done just that.
Rainflower stirred slightly, attempting to lift herself up. She looked into Applejack’s eyes, and studied her. After what felt like hours of uncomfortable silence to Applejack, but was in fact no more than ten seconds, Rainflower spoke.
“At the end, she recalled a memory. She saw Miss Fluttershy do exactly what she just said. This pony is not lying to us, she is no harm to anypony.”
--
Half hour had passed since Rainflower had helped Applejack, and Applejack now found herself beside Rainflower, talking to her about their respective families. Around them, Fireshot, Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl were moving items to a central location in the room. Now and then, Fireshot would stop, and look over all the items, before all three resumed their gathering.
“So, Ah don’t mean to sound rude, but, why are they sorting out belongings when Discord is about? Shouldn’t somepony be doing something about him?” Applejack asked.
“This is the stallion’s role, Applejack. Worried as we may be, we must remain not questioning the actions of stallions. Our place is to hope and wait.” Rainflower replied.
Rainflower’s reply made Applejack’s blood boil. She closed her eyes and then rolled them, reminding herself that she was back in a time when all mares were considered good for was cleaning and cooking.
“Ah think Ah should still be told, after all, Ah’ve had the misfortune of meeting Discord before.” Applejack replied.
“Indeed,” Fireshot spoke up, “it was miss Fluttershy who mentioned it before. So, I feel I can tell you, now I know you can be trusted, that we are packing supplies to take the fight to him.”
Beside her, Rainflower tensed up. She raised herself up slightly on her only remaining legs and looked at the three colts, a look of fear for them on her face.
“You are going to fight Discord? You... you can not! Did Celestia and Luna not tell you to just hold him off from Canterlot? They could return any day now, and I am sure they do not want to know you threw your own lives away pointlessly!” Rainflower said loud enough for only those in the room to hear.
Fireshot, Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl all shared a look at each other, each hoping the other would say something first. Cloudswirl was the one who walked closer to his wife, and looked into her eyes.
“If we stay and defend Canterlot, the city, and possibly, the world will end. While we understand the risk, it is one we must take. Nothing you say can make us change our minds.” he said, nuzzling her as she begun to cry.
Applejack did and said nothing as Rainflower continued to cry, as Cloudswirl walked back over to the supplies the three were gathering. Applejack sighed and stood up on all four hooves.
“When do you leave?” she asked.
“Tonight, or rather, when the moon is up once our supplies are ready.” Fireshot answered, as the sun set in under a second, the moon rapidly rising in the same space of time.
“Ah’m coming with you.” Applejack stated.
“No, you are not.” Fireshot said, not looking up as he checked on one particular rope.
“AH am coming with you.” Applejack stated again, slight anger in her voice.
Fireshot sighed. Looking at Applejack, he walked up to her, never breaking his gaze. He glared at her for a moment, before speaking again.
“Miss Applejack, you are a MARE. Understand? What we are doing, only stallions are fit and strong enough for this sort of thing. Mares, such as yourself, are only good for removing dust and cobwebs, cooking food and tending to the fillies and colts. So, to repeat myself, you are NOT coming with us.” Fireshot snapped.
“Ah AM a mare alright!” Applejack snapped back, and then she bucked him through a wall.
---
Author's notes: sorry this took so long to get out. I wasn't happy with how AJ's arc originally went, and decided to write it over. Hopefully, the next chapter wont take as long. So enjoy this chapter, and I'll be back within a week to put the next chapter up. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 16 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-05-20T18:30:16+00:00 | 2012-05-20T18:30:16+00:00 | 882 | Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze had been caught unaware that Fireshot had been bucked through a wall by Applejack. They had braced themselves to fight, and currently were staring between an angry looking Applejack and the hole shaped after Fireshot’s silhouette.
On the other side of the wall, Fireshot was catching his breath. The force of the buck and the impact with the wall had knocked the wind out of his lungs, he was currently staring up at the ceiling of the next room. It still hadn’t quite registered with him that he had just been bucked through a double wood wall by a mare.
As for Applejack herself, she was just staring at the hole in the wall, a lot calmer and feeling a lot better after all the remarks about mares that Fireshot had rattled off at her.
Finally, a cough on the other side of the hole was followed by the head and face of Fireshot as he got back on to his legs. He glared at Applejack, and calmly stepped through. Rainflower noticed the look on Fireshot’s face, and spoke up.
“Do try to remember that miss Applejack is from the future. Maybe mares are treated differently in her own time.” she said calmly.
Fireshot glared at Rainflower, then returned his gaze to Applejack, before snorting and walking away.
“Mares treated differently in the future? Like, they would work outside of a house?” Forest Breeze questioned.
“Ya better believe we do! Why, Ah do more work on the farm than mah brother does!” Applejack answered, sitting down.
Standing across from her, Forest Breeze seemed to have a brain malfunction. His jaw went slack and his eyes glazed over. Beside him, Cloudswirl snickered discreetly. He sat at the table and looked to Applejack.
“Times are different for all of us. Understand, miss Applejack, Fireshot did not mean to make you sound helpless, and certainly, after putting him through a wall, I doubt any remarks about mares being weak will be said while you are around. It is just the times we live in. For you, clearly, such remarks are very much the thing of the past, but to you, this IS the past. You can not forget this.” Cloudswirl stated.
As the conversation had gone on between Cloudswirl, Forest Breeze and Applejack, Fireshot, who was still not pleased with being kicked through a wall, had quietly spent the time doing a final check on the supplies. He counted a dozen grappling hooks, one hundred small jars that contained chemicals designed to flash brightly when the jar was broken, enough food for the trip to the citadel and back, along with several bundles of bandages and three pots of a lotion designed to heal wounds.
He took a deep breath and let out a sigh, which caught the attention of Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze. Both walked to his side and examined the supplies, before looking at him confused.
“Is something wrong?” Cloudswirl questioned.
“No, nothing. All we could need is here, rope, grapple hooks, distraction jars, food and even medical supplies. And yet,” he paused, sitting down, “I feel we are missing something. Discord is unlike anything we have faced before, there must be something we have not got yet that could take him down.” Fireshot stated.
Applejack walked to the other side of Fireshot and looked over the supplies that the three had gathered together. The attention to any possible detail of what they would require reminded her of how Twilight would have a checklist for a checklist.
“Ah say ya just need to believe in yourselves now. You seem to have the right things, ya just have ta act now.” she said calmly, with a smile on her face.
The three colts looked at Applejack, smiles slowly forming on their faces as the mulled over her words. Without a word, the supplies were separated into three sets of saddlebags and placed on each colt’s back. Fireshot and Forest Breeze were first out of the building, Applejack lingered in the doorway and looked back at Cloudswirl and Rainflower.
The pair were talking and saying farewell, embracing each other one more time. As she looked on, Applejack felt like she had been kicked in the stomach.
‘Ah hope the princesses arrive during the battle with Discord, for their sake.’ she thought, as she finally turned away and walked outside.
--
One hour later, as the chaos of Discord continued to shake the world, Applejack and the three colts seemed to be getting no closer to where Discord currently resided. Applejack was thankful however, that the reason for this was not some sort of trick, but to the fact it was actually a long distance to travel.
They had long since passed a small forest, which she was told was the Everfree Forest, and where Fluttershy had returned to the future. A quick check of the much smaller Everfree made it clear the only way back to the future however was still the only one Fluttershy could use, and not Applejack.
Conversation since then had been sparse. When asked what Celestia and Luna looked like, Fireshot had become slightly eager to learn what would become of Celestia, and understandably became disappointed when he couldn’t be told, after a reminder from Cloudswirl. After this, and Fireshot’s clear lack of interest in participating any longer, Applejack learnt that the future princesses were just simple unicorns, gifted with immense magic, allowing them to move the sun and moon. As this line of conversation continued, Applejack was informed that before Celestia and Luna, it took teams of unicorns to preform the tasks of raising the celestial bodies, with one group dedicated to raising the sun, and the other the moon.
Naturally, trying to learn more so she could tell Twilight later, Applejack then inquired about other towns. Like Fluttershy had mentioned, Forest Breeze named a town that had been destroyed by Discord, and also added the fact that the new pegasi city, Cloudsdale, had to be abandoned due to Discord changing it into some sort of food he could eat. As for other towns, most had been abandoned soon after Discord begun to take control, with ponies from those towns leaving Equestria far behind.
During another long silence, Applejack recalled a name Fluttershy had mentioned, and so, she decided to ask about it.
“Who is this Sunshine Blaze that Fluttershy mentioned?”
Fireshot stopped, causing Applejack, who had been walking behind him, to walk into him. He glanced over his back to look at Applejack, and sighed.
“From what he said after Fluttershy returned to your time, he too came from the future, seeking someone who came to change the past. He is young, despite how he acts, evidenced by the fact he soon wandered off after we met him.” Fireshot answered, resuming walking once again.
“Alright,” Applejack replied, “but that still didn’t tell me who he is. Ah mean, how do you know he can be trusted?”
“In times like this, Discord causing chaos and bringing the end of the world closer, and ponies from the future trying to either change or maintain our present, it is not exactly clear who we can trust. We just have to and hope it does not go wrong.” Fireshot said calmly, keeping his eyes forward as he walked.
“Also, the fact he helped Miss Fluttershy return to the future suggests he isn’t somepony to fear.” Forest Breeze added.
As soon as Forest Breeze stopped talking, Fireshot stood still again, his ears swiviling. A look of panic appeared on his face, as he begun to also look around the sky.
“What is it?” Applejack asked.
“Wing beats, Cloudswirl, you are on the ground right?” Fireshot questioned.
“Of course, being in the air with what we are heading to do is a bad idea.” Cloudswirl answered.
Fireshot pointed to a ditch that lay behind a brush.
“Everypony, into the ditch, it could be a Roc or worse, Akyrun. Hurry!” he said in a loud whisper.
Wasting no time, the four ponies ran to the ditch and lay on their bellies, looking under the brush to see what was approaching. The wing beats grew louder and soon stopped as four orange hooves landed on the ground.
Applejack looked up and saw the pegasi that had just landed. He was orange, with a blue mane and tail, and flight goggles on his head, which had a toggle switch on one side. Beside her, the three colts relaxed and came out of hiding, soon followed by Applejack herself.
“That was a fine ‘hey, nice to see you again’ you just gave me.” Sunshine Blaze quipped.
“Now you know our situation, young colt. We had no idea if the sound of your wings was that of the wing beats of our enemies. We had to hide just to be safe.” Fireshot responded.
“That’s fine. Anyway, another mare? Also from the future?” Sunshine Blaze asked.
“Indeed, she is a friend of miss Fluttershy. Applejack, this is Sunshine Blaze. Sunshine Blaze, this is Applejack.” Fireshot introduced them.
Sunshine Blaze studdied Applejack for a moment, before holding a hoof out to her.
“A pleasure to meet you. Sorry, I should have arrived earlier, the element you are linked to is corrupted, but no matter, we can still get you back to the future and force him out of hiding.” Sunshine Blaze smiled.
“What did you jus’ say?” Applejack asked, narrowing her eyes.
Sunshine Blaze looked around for a second, before returning his attention to Applejack.
“Um... I said pleasure to mee...”
“Not that.” she snapped.
“We can get you back t...” Sunshine Blaze took a step backwards, as Applejack took one forward.
“Back the cart up a bit.”
“Uh... I should have arrive...” Sunshine Blaze begun to sweat, as every step he took backwards, Applejack took two or three forwards.
“Speed it up.”
“...The element you are linked to is corrupted?” Sunshine Blaze questioned.
“That’s it. Now what the hay does that mean?” Applejack shouted, not noticing that the three colts reacted to this by running for the ditch again.
Sunshine Blaze’s calm and aloof façade disappeared at the face of a very angry adult, a sight every young child feared. He was now sweating and tears forming in his eyes. He tried to articulate an explanation.
“I-it’s something the one I’m t-trying t-to stop is doing, he did the s-same to Fluttershy, now he’s done it to you.” Sunshine Blaze stated in a tone that would make even Fluttershy’s quiet speech seem like shouting.
“Yeah, and Ah bet your helpin’ him do it!” Applejack shouted, now angry at what Sunshine Blaze had said, she forced her nose against his, glaring with all her anger into his eyes, while unnoticed, the goggles slipped off Sunshine Blaze’s head, bounced on his back and landed on the ground beside him.
As Applejack pulled back from him, Sunshine Blaze lay flat on the ground, sobbing.
“I’m sorry, I could have stopped this and didn’t. I’m so sorry.” he cried. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 17 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-05-26T21:35:38+00:00 | 2012-05-26T21:35:38+00:00 | 828 | As Applejack continued to glare at Sunshine Blaze, her anger started turning guilt for yelling at him. Despite her first thoughts, that he was someone who was trying to cause problems for her and her friends, before her now was nothing but a young colt, clearly scared of her, like Applebloom was whenever she got into serious trouble.
And yet, she couldn’t just drop her suspicions. She knew nothing about him, or indeed if his apparent fear of her was all just an act to lull her into a false sense of security. Knowing the fact he had helped Fluttershy did nothing to help the argument in her head. On the one hoof, he could have helped Fluttershy because she couldn’t always help herself, but on the other, with what was going on to the elements, and how he somehow knew if they had been corrupted or not, suggested he had only helped Fluttershy to hasten the process.
Meanwhile, crouched before her, Sunshine Blaze had begun to tremble from the emotions he had been put through. Unnoticed at first, the goggles on the top of his head begun to slip, until eventually they fell to the ground with a thud.
Applejack looked down at the goggles, slowly reaching out a hoof and picked them up. She held them to her eyes, and became confused. The sight of the environment around them was present, but on the side was a green triangle against a line, which moved up or down depending on what she looked at. When she turned to look at a tree that was less than five feet away, the triangle slid up to the top of the line, only returning to the bottom when she turned to face the empty plains.
“What the hay is this all about?” Applejack asked, now completely forgetting her previous anger.
Before her, Sunshine Blaze looked up, his eyes large, as he took a moment to work out what was going on. Seeing Applejack with his goggles held over her eyes, he laughed slightly, seemingly over his previous fright.
“Pass them here,” he said, holding a hoof out towards Applejack, who returned the goggles to him. Sunshine Blaze then placed them back on his head and looked in to them, “oh, setting ten. My goggles have ten functions, function one being normal view, and ten being able to record what I see.”
“Ah see,” Applejack replied, “who are you exactly? What are you doing here?” she asked.
Sunshine Blaze removed the goggles from his eyes, and looked at Applejack, not speaking for a moment.
“You can tell when somepony lies right?” he asked back.
“You wanna try?”
“I’m a big pink monkey that walks on its hind legs.”
Applejack snorted and begun to laugh.
“That was such a terrible lie, only a foal would come up with such a thing.” she stated while laughing at the very image in her mind of a pink monkey walking on hind legs.
“Then how about this, I’m after a unicorn who despises all pegasi. He has destroyed many lives, he’s set to do it again. You and your friends, with the elements of harmony, are all caught at the center of his plot.” Sunshine Blaze said calmly.
Applejack continued to laugh, slowing down and stopping only as she realised that this time, Sunshine Blaze wasn’t telling a lie. Neither said anything, even as the three colts came out of hiding from the ditch.
“As for why I’m here,” Sunshine Blaze continued, “it should be simple by now to know that. I’m here to stop him.”
“But why are you doin’ it on your own? Don’t you have somepony ta help you?” Applejack questioned.
Sunshine Blaze didn’t blink or divert his gaze. He stayed perfectly still, looking at Applejack. He sighed and shifted slightly as he replied.
“I can’t ask for help, not while here in Equestria. If you knew where he and I came from, you’d stop talking to me immediately.”
Before Applejack could say anything else, she and Sunshine Blaze were tackled by Cloudswirl and Forest Breeze respectively, as Fireshot sidestepped a bolt of fire magic that had been fired their way. Shaking her head, Applejack looked up and saw a blue unicorn, his face shrouded by a hood, and a cape ran over his back, hiding his cutie mark.
It was clear, things were about to go bad.
--
Applejack slowly got to her feet, watching as Fireshot, Forest Breeze and Cloudswirl all attacked the blue unicorn. The blue unicorn, despite being attacked by three full grown colts, was managing to hold them off with ease, calling up a barrier when Forest Breeze or Cloudswirl got near, or reflecting magic fired at him by Fireshot.
She stood her ground as the blue unicorn came near. He paused only for a moment to grab the three colts with his magic, and throw them against nearby trees, knocking the wind out of all of them. Despite his face being covered in the darkness of the hood, Applejack swore she saw the white teeth of a grin as the blue unicorn stopped a short distance before her.
“Element of Honesty,” he spoke, his voice sounding much like the one heard in the library basement, “surrender to me now, and I shall make your suffering quick.”
“Go buck yerself.” Applejack replied.
Before the blue unicorn had any time to take in her reply, and what it meant for his plans, Applejack had run up to him, turned around, and kicked with her hind legs at his horn. A horrible snapping sound, much like when a bone is broken from a fall, echoed across the area. The blue unicorn yelled in pain, his front legs collapsing under him.
“Ok, Applejack, we have just one important thing to do now.” Sunshine Blaze said, walking to her side.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” she questioned, with one eye half closed in a confused look.
“You just bucked his horn in half, and when he repairs it, he’s going to be really mad. So,” Sunshine Blaze paused for a second, “run!”
Applejack watched as Sunshine Blaze ran off, and returned her focus to the blue unicorn. True to what Sunshine Blaze had said, the blue unicorn was now up to his front knees, the broken piece of horn raised from the ground and back to what had been left on his head. Clearly he was still able to use magic.
Wasting no time, Applejack begun to chase after Sunshine Blaze.
“Okay, it’s fine and all, running away, what are we going to do about him?” she asked, as she caught up to Sunshine Blaze.
“We need to find somewhere with as many obstacles as possible, it will give us better chance of getting near him and knocking him out while allowing us to not get hit by his attacks.” Sunshine Blaze replied.
“You forgot one thing.” Applejack stated, an unimpressed look now on her face.
“Oh really? What’s that?”
“We’re in the middle of a field, with no forests for miles around.” Applejack replied, glaring at Sunshine Blaze as they continued to run.
Sunshine Blaze looked around him as they kept running. As a look of desperation set in, he took flight, maintaining his forward momentum, while scanning the landscape in every direction from the air. He soon landed and groaned in frustration.
“Ok, new plan, keep running until I come up with a better plan.” he said.
They both slid to a halt as a flash of light appeared before them. When it ended, standing before them was the blue unicorn.
“Enough. Time to die, Element of Honesty.” the blue unicorn said calmly.
His horn glowed, forming a fireball at the tip. A second later, it grew to the side of Applejack’s head, and was sent towards her at great speed. Before anything registered in her head, Sunshine Blaze jumped into the path of the fireball, and took the hit.
Time slowed down for Applejack, as she watched Sunshine Blaze fall to the ground, the blue unicorn laughing. Where the fireball had impacted, Sunshine Blaze’s fur and skin had burnt and blackened, and he lay still, fortunately, still breathing.
She glared at the blue unicorn and ran towards him, which clearly caught the blue unicorn off guard. He moved backwards as fast as possible whenever Applejack spun on her front legs and tried to buck him in the face with her hind legs. When it became clear Applejack would not relent for long enough, and he had no time to properly cast a spell to bring her harm, the blue unicorn simply teleported out of sight.
A tense minute passed, as Applejack stood her ground and circled on the spot, waiting for the blue unicorn to return. After the minute had passed, it became clear he had no intention of returning, and Applejack sighed.
She sat on her flank and looked over to Sunshine Blaze, who was still breathing, but each breath was becoming shallower. He was in a bad way, and there was nothing she could do to help.
Another flash made her get up and lower her whole body, assuming the blue unicorn had returned. Instead, next to Sunshine Blaze was a portal, beyond which she could see her friends in the library basement, awaiting her return. Wasting no time, Applejack ran over to Sunshine Blaze and got his forelegs over her back. Holding on tight, Applejack walked as fast as she could back through.
--
Twilight’s jaw dropped as Applejack returned from her portal with Sunshine Blaze on her back. She lowered him to the floor, kicking aside his goggles as they once more fell off his head. As Applejack looked up, the other mares in the room walked over.
“Applejack, you can’t just bring somepony from another time to our time zone!” Twilight stated.
“He ain’t from the past, Twi. He’s the pony that followed ‘shy from our time into the past, and he’s hurt.” Applejack stated.
Twilight however, hadn’t listened. As soon as she had stopped talking, and Applejack had begun, she had become transfixed on the goggles that had fallen from Sunshine Blaze’s head. Around her, the other mares had begun talking, clearly deciding how best to help the fallen colt.
Slowly, Twilight’s eyes widened, as she recalled an important fact.
“Girls, step away from him now.” she said.
“Come again, Twi?” Applejack asked.
“I said, step away from him. Those goggles, they’re Irvest technology. Irvestians cannot be trusted. They replace their limbs with false versions of them… willingly. Many are more machine than pony, and further, they let the weather run itself like in the Everfree.” Twilight answered.
“And you think an enemy would willingly take a fireball for me, Twi?” Applejack shouted.
“It was probably a set up. I’ll inform Princess Celestia, but for now we have to stay away from him.” Twilight said calmly.
Applejack remained by Sunshine Blaze’s side. After a moments thought, she picked him back up and put him on her back.
“What are you doing? Get away from him!” Twilight said, her eyes wide in panic.
“No.” Applejack stated.
“Excuse me?” Twilight questioned.
“No, I ain’t getting away from him. Ah don’t care where he’s from. Ah saw it with my own eyes. He jumped in front of a fireball to save me, Twilight, and I will get him some help, regardless of where he was born.” Applejack stated, clearly intending to do as she said regardless of what Twilight did or said next.
“How can you be so sure, Applejack?” Twilight stood in the way of the stairs.
After thinking for a few instants, Applejack picked up the goggles and looked into them, cringing after a moment. She held them away from her and towards Twilight, who took them with her magic. Like Applejack, she held them to her eyes, her jaw soon dropping. Without a word, she dropped the goggles to the floor, and stared at Applejack, who still had Sunshine Blaze on her back.
“What was, I mean, who was,” she paused to form a coherent thought, “Applejack what exactly went on in there?”
“It’s a long story, Twi. Short version, that unicorn may be the cause of our problems, and this young colt saved me. Now, will you stand aside, or do I have to force my way past to get him to the hospital?” Applejack asked.
Twilight nodded and walked ahead of Applejack, opening the door to the library’s main floor. With Applejack walking ahead quickly, the pair left to take Sunshine Blaze, whose condition was beginning to get worse, to the local hospital.
The other mares simply sat and waited, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who flew up to the goggles and put them on her head. After a second, she scrambled to get them off and dropped them to the floor.
“What the hay are these things? That colt has some weird tastes, watching the same fireball approach him over and over again.” she said aloud, staring in horror at the goggles before her.
--
Standing in an alley, some distance from the Ponyville hospital, the blue unicorn watched as Twilight Sparkle and Applejack left. He looked towards the hospital, and laughed only loud enough for himself to hear.
“Enjoy, Blaze, for tomorrow, you’ll be gone. And those mares will soon join you.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 18 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-06-03T21:39:29+00:00 | 2012-06-03T21:39:29+00:00 | 806 | It had been half an hour since Twilight and Applejack had left, taking the barely alive Sunshine Blaze to hospital. Rainbow Dash remained staring at the goggles on the floor before her, while Rarity and Pinkie Pie watched as Twilight opened the door and both she and Applejack walked in.
“Ah’m telling you, Twilight, he’ll come find us when he’s out. He ain’t about to run off.” Applejack said aloud to Twilight.
“I hope so Applejack. He seems to know whats going on, and we need answers from him.” Twilight replied.
“So you got him to the hospital just fine?” Rarity questioned, keeping a neutral look.
“Yeah, he’ll be fine. They’ll be making sure his burns aren’t serious. He woke for a moment and said he’d come talk to us when he’s out.” Twilight answered.
“That’s good,” Rainbow Dash smiled. She held up the goggles, turning to look at Applejack, “I saw these after you two left, what are they exactly?” she asked the orange earth pony.
“Oh, they’re Sunshine Blaze’s goggles, ah better go take them to him.” Applejack stated, walking over to Rainbow Dash. Before Applejack could take them, a purple aura surrounded the goggles and floated them away, placing them inside a drawer.
“There, less chance of them breaking. It will also ensure he does come talk to us, at least, if he wants them back.” Twilight stated.
“Alright, Twi, why are you acting like this? What is it about this Irvest place you don’t like?” Applejack asked.
“It got mentioned rarely by the princess. Irvest is a strange place, run by succession, but between ponies not related to each other. They also replace body parts, and in all, just don’t live in harmony like we do.” Twilight replied.
The other mares stared at each other in confusion, before looking at Twilight again.
“Uh, maybe you should make that last point clearer?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Fine,” Twilight groaned, “when Zecora came to Ponyville before the Poison Joke incident, you all made the way the Everfree runs sound unnatural.”
“Because it is! Clouds move on their own, animals fend for themselves, and plants grow how they like.” Rainbow Dash declared loudly.
“Uh huh, well, Equestria is the opposite, the weather, plants and animals are all dependant on us. But in Irvest, they let things run like the Everfree Forest.”
“Okay, that’s weird.” Rainbow Dash said, and she fell quiet.
“Ah have another question though Twi.” Applejack said.
“What’s that Applejack?” Twilight asked.
“In both mine and ‘Shy’s portals, we met three heroes. Yet there were no mention of them in history classes growing up. I saw them heading to fight Discord, what do you think happened to them?” Applejack questioned.
“Well,” Twilight paused to think, with her eyes brightening as she thought of an answer, “remember what Princess Celestia said about the time Discord first got sealed in stone?”
Around the room, the other mares nodded their heads.
“It’s simple! You saw them heading to fight Discord, when they arrived, they must have held Discord at bay until the Princesses arrived, and the rest is history.” Twilight finished, grinning.
“Ah’m not so sure Twi, if they played such an important role, why weren’t they mentioned by the Princess?” Applejack pressed.
“I don’t know. Look, we don’t have time for this now, we need to continue on and find out what’s going on with the elements. If what you said is true Applejack, then we need to find out fast who is causing these events,” Twilight looked at Rarity, who seemed to shrink a little, “you have to go first Rarity. It would be better if I went last, because if the one behind all this is waiting in mine, I can close these portals before they can get through.”
Rarity groaned loudly in frustration, looking at the portal with her picture. She really didn’t want to go through. It’d either send her to the past, where a Discord ruled Equestria waited, or send her to a horrible future. And after what Rainbow Dash had been through, and the forgotten memory of the alternate future for Pinkie Pie, it was undesirable to Rarity to learn which she would get.
With a gulp of nervousness, Rarity stepped through the portal.
--
The sight beyond the portal quickly overwhelmed Rarity. She stood in her shop, Carousel Boutique, which now looked long abandoned. Cracks formed along the walls, and the windows had been broken and mostly opaque from dust. Vines climbed around the walls and the floor was dirty as it possibly could.
She looked back where the portal should have been, but as expected, it wasn’t there, like it hadn’t been there for Fluttershy and Applejack. Rarity sighed, she was stuck with a mess of a store, clearly in the future.
She stood alone for a moment, thinking to herself about the possiblities of this future. If her shop and home was a mess, then where were her friends? Where was her family? Somepony would have come to look after it after she had failed to return, right? But by the state of the building, she immediately begun to worry about them all. What had happened to them? Were they alright? She was trying to the decide who she’d be searching for first, then—
“Ah, hello there fair, white filly.” Came a soft voice behind her. Rarity looked up at the voice, and before her stood Ulysses. While he smiled, it seemed more mocking than friendly.
“And you are?” Rarity asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Really? Your friend Applejack never mentioned me? Oh well,” he bowed, “my name is Ulysses, do try to remember it, in case your friends see me and ask it. Now, what is going on?” he asked.
Rarity stared for a moment, bewildered how fast Ulysses had just gone from a soft, gentlecolt like manner of speaking, to an almost rushed and crude normal way of speaking. She shook her head, and narrowed her eyes once more towards Ulysses.
“I don’t know. You expect me to have an idea of what I’ve stepped into?” she snipped.
Ulysses glanced down, and begun grinning. He looked Rarity in the eyes.
“Well, at least when it comes to that I do.” He remarked, pointing his right front hoof at her hooves.
Rarity glanced down, and screamed. She stamped her hooves in an attempt to remove the offending dropping, ignoring Ulysses as he burst out laughing with deep, booming chuckles.
“Could this get any worse?” Rarity whined, checking her hoof for any remaining dirt.
“Oh why does everypony say that?” Ulysses asked aloud, looking out of a window.
“What do you mean?” Rarity questioned.
“Every time somepony says ‘could this get any worse?’, then yes, it will get worse. A lot worse. And I know the situation you’re facing. Here’s a hint, it was already pretty bad before you said that.” Ulysses replied.
“Already?” Rarity asked, her eyes wide.
Ulysses said nothing, but rather pointed to the window. Rarity approached it and looked outside, her jaw instantly dropped. The sky was a deep crimson colour, as the sun and moon hung near each other in the sky, bathing the parched and burnt land in the colour of flames and blood. Houses and buildings in Ponyville, while they hadn’t been set on fire, had clearly fallen to disrepair. The ground was covered with dried grass, and the soil underneath had become hard and crackled with the lack of water.
Rarity slowly turned to face Ulysses.
“I told you it was already pretty bad.” He stated, his face blank and indifferent.
“What about my friends? And my family?” she questioned quietly.
“In this time, I just bet they’re dying to meet you,” he paused to grin, which remained on his face even when Rarity didn’t laugh, “as for where they are, you’ll have to find out by yourself.” he concluded, waving a hoof in the direction of Canterlot.
“What even caused all of this? My boutique looks like a mess, and you know what is going on, so maybe you can tell me?” she asked him, batting her eyelids at him.
“It doesn’t work like that, even if I told you what happened, you still have to find the source yourself to trigger the way back. Nice thinking however.” Ulysses replied, smirking.
Rarity sighed, turning her head to the walls and thinking. Eventually she spoke up.
“Well, the sooner I get this done, the sooner I go back home, right?”
“Oh yes, that’s true,” Ulysses said, turning away from Rarity, he added under his breath so she couldn’t hear, “for now anyway.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 19 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-06-22T20:38:43+00:00 | 2012-06-22T20:38:43+00:00 | 805 | Ulysses led Rarity downstairs to the main floor of her shop, with a deliberately slow pace. She found the same state of abandonment; windows were shattered, mannequins were mostly absent or smashed to small pieces, and there was no fabric big enough for a single sock. When Rarity’s eyes fell on the door, she was surprised to even see it there, if laying on the floor a foot away from the door frame.
With a glimpse of hope she checked the desk where she kept her bits. It was a foolish hope, she admitted to herself, but it was still revolting. Whoever or whatever happened in the boutique she built her life in, raided, pillaged and scavenged it completely and carelessly.
Rarity glared at Ulysses, who sported a serene smile that made it clear that he wasn’t sorry about her situation at all.
“What exactly happened here?” she asked a bit quieter than her normal.
“Do you want the long version or the short?” Ulysses asked back nonchalantly, his smile always there, much to the mare’s annoyance.
“Which one will give me everything I need to know?” she shot back firmly.
Ulysses ceased smiling.
--
The cleanest upholstery Rarity could find in her boutique was a mere pillow, one that had been ripped and some of the stuffing inside had been pulled out, though this too wasn’t all that clean, and she had to physically and mentally force herself to sit on it. It was an important ritual for her when talking in her boutique or something like that, which Ulysses waited for a little impatiently through the best part of an hour.
“Alright, now for what happened.” Ulysses begun with a relieved sigh, “Your portal has sent you forward in time by six years, something I personally kept track of with my limited control over time. Six years you have been gone, with your friends worrying about you every day, and always checking in to see if you were back in the library basement yet.” He looked directly at her who had mouth open from the shock. “You never came back, obviously. But they never gave up hope. Well, until more pressing matters came up. Three years ago, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna disappeared, the sun and moon, which had been ready to trade places, both rose to join each other in the sky, side by side.”
It was a lot for Rarity to take in. The princesses had gone missing, and that’s what caused all this? Not only that, but if she never came back, then, ultimately, her mission was doomed to fail. She returned her focus to what Ulysses was saying.
“For a while, everything went on as best as possible, considering the princesses were gone, and the sun and moon were now side by side in the sky. But it wasn’t fine. Ponies got worried, crops wouldn’t grow, the pegasi could no longer control the weather, even magic became wild.” Ulysses described, with his usual detachment, as if he was talking not about ponies like him, but of something different, not to be cared about, but watched in amusement like fishes in an aquarium. “This,” he continued, “led to bickering among neighbours and friends, soon, ponies were fighting each other, killing for property, money and reserves their victims had stored. Civilisation crumbled. Those who survived left for Canterlot, on the promise of rebuilding the world under the harsh, eternally present sun and moon. They call this the ‘age of the day-night’.”
“Age of twilight?” Rarity thought aloud, during a short silence during Ulysses explanation. She also thought of asking of Twilight Sparkle specifically, but chose to let him finish instead.
Ulysses smirked briefly as he walked towards an northeastward window. “I suppose that would be an accurate term.” He looked out that window to Canterlot and continued, “even now, word still exists among those who survived; the promise of a better future exists if they make it to Canterlot. I believe what you are looking for to return back to the present, and prevent this terrible future, is there.” He glanced over his back towards her.
Rarity took a while thinking about all that explanation. He was very clear that he thought she should be in Canterlot. She didn’t look forward to going there, though.
“Is there anything left in Ponyville?” she asked.
He answered with a single shake of his head.
“Manehattan?”
Ulysses shrugged dismissively. “I doubt it.”
“Cloudsdale?”
He snorted, failing to hide his smile. “All gone.”
“What happened to my friends? My sister?”
“You will find that out at Canterlot.” He looked away, then disappeared into the air without any sort of farewell gesture.
Rarity looked out of the front door, still not quite eager to go to Canterlot, and, despite the pressing matters at hoof, quite annoyed at her interlocutor’s lack of chivalry. She took a deep breath, and walked out of her shop.
The sky was crimson and barely filled with clouds, drifting slowly on the winds. She’d think the air would be filled with heat with such a sky, but it was strangely cool. She thought of what Rainbow Dash would think of drifting clouds.
Looking back ahead, she saw an empty cart toppled over. There was a sight of blood running over one of its sides. She squealed but instinctively followed the trail to find a pony with blue coat and gasped in shock when she realized it was Rainbow Dash.
While Rainbow wasn’t bleeding badly, she had enough cuts over her to cause the blood trail that Rarity had followed. As fast as she could, Rarity ran over to Rainbow Dash, and helped her up.
“Don’t bother helping me, I don’t have any bits to pay—” Rainbow Dash paused mid sentence when her eyes saw Rarity. Rainbow took a step back as if she had seen a ghost, “Rarity? Is... is it really you?” she asked.
“Of course it is, Rainbow Dash. I just walked in from that portal from six years ago.” Rarity replied, smiling.
It dawned on Rarity that the years hadn’t been kind to Rainbow Dash. Her ribs were visible under her coat, and the dark under her eyes together suggested that Rainbow had gone a very long time without food and sleep. However, Rainbow’s rose coloured eyes showed her joy at seeing Rarity. While it had been no secret the two were utter opposites in personality, Rainbow Dash had quite often helped Rarity, begrudgingly, to design outfits and dresses for pegasi when Fluttershy was otherwise preoccupied.
“Rarity, it’s so good to see you again!” Rainbow Dash held back a loud cry, embracing the white unicorn. As she did, the unicorn noticed her friend almost had no heart beat, and her breathing was irregular and seemed strained.
“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity pulled out of the hug, and looked at Rainbow in the eye, “what happened to you?”
Rainbow Dash sat down, and while still smiling, looked herself over.
“Oh, all this? Well, since the princesses went missing, I decided to find anypony that hadn’t yet got to Canterlot and lead them there. It doesn’t leave me much time to eat or sleep I’m afraid. The last few runs, I’ve gone about,” she paused to think, “roughly six weeks without eating or sleeping.” she finished, her smile now seeming strained, as if mentioning how long she had gone without eating or sleeping made it finally catch up to her physically.
Rarity looked around, her eyes focusing on anything that might have some food she could make Rainbow Dash eat. She came to see an old cart which had just one apple on it, and this she levitated towards Rainbow Dash with magic.
“You simply must eat Rainbow Dash, it isn’t good to not eat for so long.” Rarity stated, as the apple reached Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash stared at the apple, as more of the lack of eating and sleeping washed over her. It became a fight to stay up, and she slumped to the ground. Rarity dropped the apple and helped Rainbow up.
“Rarity, you go to Canterlot, the others will want to see you again. Just leave the apple nearby, I’ll try to take a bite and get some sleep.” Rainbow Dash said, a new effort at smiling failed.
“I won’t leave you Rainbow Dash, here,” Rarity picked the apple up again, holding it near Rainbow Dash’s mouth. Rainbow took a tiny bite of the apple, eventually finishing it after several minutes. “Feeling better?” Rarity asked.
“I forgot what it was like to have any food in my stomach. But now, you can go ahead to Canterlot, I’ll catch up, I promise.” Rainbow Dash couldn’t smile with how weak eating had made her.
Rarity glanced momentarily towards Canterlot, then back to Rainbow Dash. She formed a plan in her mind, and smiled. Unable to protest, Rainbow Dash only stared as her view on the world from the ground changed to looking down at the ground.
“If you must rest, do so. I’ll help you get to Canterlot, so we can both arrive at the same time.” Rarity smiled.
“You’re way too generous, Rarity. Generosity isn’t something that exists anymore...” Rainbow Dash mumbled, falling asleep as Rarity begun to walk. If Rarity had been looking back, she would have seen a single tear drop fall from Rainbow’s closed eyes, and on to the ground below.
--
Rarity soon arrived to the other side of Ponyville, or what was left. Most of the buildings that had been in the town had been pulled down, the materials that made them were no longer anywhere near. Rarity stopped at the path, and looked across the valley to Canterlot.
She hadn’t really looked at Canterlot during the time she had been outside of her shop, but she paused now to take a better look. While for the most part it looked the same, the walls were no longer white, having gathered dirt and dust off the winds. The elaborate gold edging to buildings had clearly been taken off, but it didn’t look abandoned, Canterlot was well lit. In way, Rarity thought, it looked like a shining gem against the grey dull light and crimson sky.
Rarity breathed a sigh of relief, and looked back to Rainbow Dash, who was still on her back.
“Rainbow Dash, we’re at the path to Canterlot, do you want to walk now?” she asked.
Her question was met by silence from Rainbow Dash, who still looked like she was asleep. Rarity narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Rainbow Dash, wake up, I asked you a question.” Rarity said, shifting her body slightly.
Again, this was met by silence. Rarity’s eyes widened, and she lowered Rainbow Dash to the ground. Gently, she pressed a hoof to Rainbow’s neck and waited, almost bursting into tears a few seconds later.
“Oh no, Rainbow Dash...” she muttered sadly.
Rarity sat down, looking at the body of Rainbow Dash, tears welling in her eyes. She held back for only a few seconds, before she began sobbing.
--
Rarity hated dirt. She couldn’t stand the stuff. It wasn’t beautiful like the gems she adored so much, which was why she was so glad when Spike offered to help her on her trips to collect more, he could dig them up, while she stayed clean. And all Spike had ever asked was for a few to eat.
But she didn’t have Spike to help dig then. She sighed at the thought of how horrible and messy she looked, but still pulled herself out of the hole. A few feet away were several smaller holes, which Rarity too had dug. She stood back and looked at her work.
The hole she had just climbed out of was large, large enough that she could fit in it laying down if she wished. Beside this was a simple rock and several gems, and next to them lay the body of Rainbow Dash.
Rarity tried not to cry at the sight of Rainbow Dash. She knew Rainbow was dead, but to look at the frail, and malnourished pegasis, it simply looked like she was sleeping. Using her magic, she took a gem, and forced it into the rock. This was soon joined by a few others, and writing, which simply read; ‘Here lies Rainbow Dash, may the skies be blue and warm where you are now.’
Rarity closed her eyes for the next bit, as she levitated Rainbow Dash’s body off the ground and into the grave she had made. The body of Rainbow Dash was soon joined by the remaining gems. Rarity stood at the edge of the grave, smiling down at the body of Rainbow Dash, as she begun to cry. Rarity had placed six coloured gems to join her friend’s body, a topaz and ruby on her wings, an amethyst on her head, an orange sapphire and a diamond on her legs, and a sapphire over her heart.
Rarity spent a moment casting a spell to ensure all the gems would stay with Rainbow Dash, including those on the tombstone, than fall victim to anypony digging up the grave. Then finally, she reached the moment she had been dreading, placing the dirt back and over Rainbow’s body. She took a few minutes to begin, realising that it was an ending. Once covered up, Rainbow Dash would never be seen again. Each small pile of dirt that landed in the grave stung at Rarity.
After half an hour that dragged for too long for Rarity, the grave was filled up, the quickly made, gem encrusted tombstone was the only marker that her friend was even in the ground. Rarity sat down, and begun to cry uncontrollably, which she had fought so hard to not do for so long. She only stopped when the sky over the grave became darker, and what she saw in the sky only served to help her cry harder.
The wind had blown Rainbow Dash’s home, though mostly destroyed by rough winds, over her own grave, and then seemed to keep it there.
--
One hour later, Rarity stood up, once more on the path to Canterlot. She took a deep breath, and looked back at the grave. She wasn’t willing to walk away, Rainbow Dash had always been very loyal, and to walk away felt like it was betraying her. Rarity jumped when somepony coughed beside her.
“Maybe I could help?” Ulysses asked, his smile tried to be reassuring, but Rarity felt otherwise when looking at his eyes. She simply shook this feeling, blaming her distrust in Ulysses as needing to pin the death of Rainbow Dash on.
“Tell me that leaving her and her grave isn’t abandoning her.” Rarity begged.
Ulysses looked at the grave, and seemed to admire what Rarity had done for her friend.
“Before I do, I must say, I admire how you overcame your hatred of dirt to bury her,” Ulysses said, “now, if you stay any longer, her efforts to get you to Canterlot will have been in vain. So will you stay? Or go?” He asked.
Rarity sighed. She had asked Ulysses to be supporting in making her go, but he didn’t sugar coat things. His question had simply been full on slaps to the face. He was right, of course, Rainbow Dash had died to get Rarity heading towards Canterlot, and staying there forever, watching over her grave, would have made her efforts been worthless.
Rarity glanced at Ulysses, who simply looked down like an angry parent or teacher. With another deep breath, Rarity raised her head, and begun the long walk to Canterlot.
Ulysses once again turned to face the grave of Rainbow Dash. His horn glowed as he looked at the slightly disturbed soil that was the only indication of the grave beside the rock which stated it was. He laughed once, turning just his head to look at Rarity.
“Should have guessed you’d pay attention to a detail no one would see. But how much longer will you last in a future where generosity is a thing of the past?” he questioned, before disappearing once more into the air.
--
In the unnatural dim light of the ‘day-night’, it was very easy to lose track of time. Since the sun and moon never moved, hours could pass and be missed. This is what happened to Rarity, as she travelled along the path to Canterlot. She could no longer remember how long it had been since she had left the grave she had made for Rainbow Dash, which was a thought that occupied her mind.
The path led her now to a quiet grove, the trees devoid of leaves and looking very dead. It stood out to Rarity, as it appeared somepony was maintaining it, despite how hopeless the effort seemed. From somewhere within, a weak, but cheerful humming could be heard, and drew Rarity in.
The grove from within it looked just as dead as it had from the path, but whoever was here seemed to keep a sense of how it should look. In the trees were freshly made birds nests, despite the fact Rarity had seen no birds since she left her shop. Near a tree which overlooked the way to Canterlot stood a simple stone, which was otherwise the only thing that seemed out of place to Rarity.
Rarity stood and listened, as the humming drew closer. On the opposite side of the grove, a yellow pegasus appeared, looking slightly dirty, she carried wilted flowers in her mouth. Behind her appeared an orange earth pony, blonde mane tied back, and a hat on her head. Both froze when they saw her.
“Rarity? Is it really you?” Fluttershy asked, dropping the flowers to the ground.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t know six years would pass.” Rarity apologised, hoping that doing so would make things better.
“Now Rarity, ya don’t need t’ be apologising fer nothin’. Weren’t your fault that portal sent you forward in time.” Applejack stated, smiling.
Rarity observed her friends closer, as they drew near. Fluttershy looked better than Applejack, as Applejack looked as thin as Rainbow Dash had. But they both appeared well rested, and somewhat happy.
“So, what are you two doing here? And where is Twilight and Pinkie Pie?” Rarity questioned, happy to see her other friends were doing better.
Fluttershy and Applejack glanced at each other, looking uneasy.
“Sit down, sugarcube, it’s a long story. And it ain’t a happy one.” Applejack stated. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 20 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-07-02T14:43:05+00:00 | 2012-07-02T14:43:05+00:00 | 789 | The three friends sat in a triangle shape in the middle of the grove. Applejack tried to stifle a yawn and looked at Fluttershy, as the two silently tried to decide who would talk first.
Eventually, Fluttershy nodded and started. “Well, um, you see, we were expecting Rainbow Dash to return from another trip to look for other ponies. So we went out looking for her, to make her eat and rest.”
“I saw her,” said Rarity, “I don’t know how long ago. This… this ‘day-night’ thing has made me lose track of time.”
Both Applejack and Fluttershy looked happy at the news, oblivious to Rarity’s lack of enthusiasm on giving the news.
“Great!” Applejack beamed excitedly. “Which way is she? We can all go get her and head to Canterlot!”
“Um,” Rarity looked at the ground, “how to put this. I… I carried her on my back for a while, after helping her eat an apple. She was so weak, and, I guess I turned up too late. I’m sorry… she passed away…” Rarity’s voice grew quieter as she explained.
Both mares’ smiles faded into a heartbroken frown. In a second, Fluttershy was crying against Applejack’s coat.
“Ah guess the answer to your second question is in order,” Applejack muttered dejectedly, after about a minute. “Twilight is at Canterlot, but Pinkie Pie joined us to look for Rainbow. We were running low on food, so we tried to reduce what we ate. Before we knew it, Pinkie was very weak.” Applejack sighed and paused for a couple seconds. “She begun laughing. Ya know, her prank laughter?”
Rarity nodded.
“That. Well. Then she and told us she had stopped eating so me and ‘Shy could last longer. She died. Here, in this grove.” Applejack pointed at the simple rock Rarity had seen before when entering the grove, “that’s her grave.”
Fluttershy only stopped crying long enough to look at Applejack, her face concerned.
“Applejack, you’ve not eaten for a few days now. You better eat something.” Fluttershy said.
“It don’t matter now ‘shy. There ain’t no more food. Besides, ah,” Applejack stopped a moment, dropping slightly, “ah think, its too late… everything is getting dark.”
Rarity tried to close her eyes, as Fluttershy begun wailing. Right in front of them, Applejack passed away, faster than she had assumed it would have taken. Rarity sat there, her eyes closed, as she begun to cry along with Fluttershy.
--
Rarity was muddy again. She still hated it, and would have had Fluttershy help dig the grave. But even being able to look at Applejack’s body made Fluttershy cry and collapse to the ground. Rarity instead had her go and look for some more flowers instead, while she did the task.
Fluttershy returned when Rarity had just finished with the stone that marked Applejack’s grave. Without speaking, Rarity walked to Pinkie Pie’s grave, giving Fluttershy a chance to read what was on the stone by Applejack’s grave.
“Here lies Applejack. Strong to the end, and always in our memories,” Fluttershy muttered to herself, “I think she would have liked it, even if she wouldn’t admit to it.”
Rarity didn’t say anything, as she begun using her magic to carve words on the stone at the head of Pinkie Pie’s grave. The words read; ‘Here lies Pinkie Pie, our laughter is gone from this world, but may you be there to bring us smiles when we follow you.’
“Fluttershy, do you want to spend a little while here before we go to Canterlot?” Rarity asked, looking at her friend.
Fluttershy didn’t move from where she stood, looking at the grave of Applejack, though she shook, signifying that she was crying. Slowly, Fluttershy turned her head to look at Rarity.
“You can go. I’ll.. stay here... with them.” Fluttershy said softly, tears running down her face.
“You can’t Fluttershy! We must get to Canterlot, where its safe.” Rarity protested.
“I’ll be fine Rarity. I can live off the land and watch over them.” Fluttershy looked away. “Just, come check on me every so often. If I’ve... joined them, be sure to give me a nice spot to lay.”
“But Fluttershy...”
“Please, Rarity,” she pledged, sitting down, “do this for me. Go to Canterlot, I’ll be ok.”
Fluttershy had clearly made her mind up, and there was no way Rarity could change her mind once she had decided to stick to what she had determined to do. With a sigh and a sorrowful look, Rarity walked to Fluttershy’s side.
“I’ll make sure that you get food sent to you, as long as you wish to stay here.” she said to Fluttershy. Fluttershy didn’t look at Rarity as she left the grove, tears still flowing down her face.
Fluttershy stood for a while in the grove, her crying eventually stopping. On the wind, she listened to a voice.
‘You couldn’t bear to tell her the truth. It’s what Applejack would have done.’
“I couldn’t tell her. If I did, she’d know the real reason none of us were at Canterlot, and why Rainbow Dash was looking for anypony to send there.” Fluttershy replied to it.
‘You still hope that things will change? They won’t, Fluttershy. The world will never be what it once was. What I am doing, it is for our own survival. You, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, you all chose to go into the wild, risking death. At least I offered safety.’ the voice taunted.
“That’s no survival…” she said, trying to reason with the voice, but without the energy to do so. “That’s only a slow death to everypony. I… didn’t have the heart to tell her that soon I’ll be dead as well.” Fluttershy stated.
The voice mused for a moment, laughing as it repeated the words.
‘If you return with her, I can bring them back. Don’t you want us all to be together? To use the elements of harmony and fix all of this?.’
Fluttershy bit her lip, her eyes darted between Applejack’s grave and Pinkie Pie’s grave. She sighed.
“Maybe…” she mused, “but… Look at her. So full of life and energy, just like we all were six years ago,” she smiled at the memory. “I’d just… hinder her. And then she’d have to stop and bury me.” Fluttershy lied down. “I’d just rather be alone when my time comes.”
‘As you wish. Farewell Fluttershy.’ the voice whispered, and ceased to speak, taking the wind with it.
--
Away from Fluttershy and Rarity, the Canterlot Palace throne room had a much darker tone to it now. Whereas Princess Celestia kept it bright and open, the current inhabitant liked the darker colours, and the feeling of a closed space. Banners lined the walls which held six dark colours, purple, navy, grey, dirty yellow, dirty orange and a dirty pink.
Similarly, the walls had been covered over in a deep rich purple, and the carpet that lined towards the throne was a crimson with gold thread pattern.
The new inhabitant of the throne room was clearly a mare, her crown a mix of the ones once worn by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, as was the neck piece and ornate shoes.
She sat in silence, the conversation with Fluttershy in her mind still. Could things be changed? Was travelling back and preventing the Princesses from disappearing even possible?
“We shall soon find out, won’t we Rarity?” she said, her eyes fixed on the doors to the throne room.
--
Rarity now stood at the gates to Canterlot, and a shiver went down her spine. After witnessing all these deaths of her friends, Rarity dreaded finding Twilight. What state was she in? And what about other survivors?
She knocked at the gates, and waited. From behind them, she could clearly hear the guards debating and arguing, but for the most part, it was muffled. When everything went quiet behind the gates, it didn’t take much longer for them to open. The ponies beyond the gate only stared at her, as from the castle itself, a very familiar purple and green dragon, much larger than she remembered, walked over.
“Hi Rarity,” said the deep voice Spike now had. “It’s been a while,” he stated, after lingering for a few seconds.
His head now looked more like a regular dragons, and his body had begun to change to fit the typical vision of a dragon. He didn’t look all that healthy, but definitely much better than her pony friends.
“You, Spike. You look so different… I’d love to catch up with you,” she looked at the other ponies, who still stared at her, their looks a mix of fear and wonder, “but, right now, may I be taken to Twilight? I’d be glad to see her too.” Rarity smiled.
Spike seemed to formulate a reply, but said nothing. He nodded, turning to face the castle again. He waited until Rarity was beside him, and looked at the ponies, who begun to close the gates. Smiling at Rarity, Spike led her into the castle. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 21 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-08-21T17:27:24+00:00 | 2012-08-21T17:27:24+00:00 | 719 | Rarity had to trot to keep up with Spike. The castle for the most part had the same décor as the previous room, each room they passed flashed by in the same deep purple colour, with gold and silver streaks. Rarity only noticed Spike had stopped when she almost walked into the throne room door.
“Rarity, things have really changed since you’ve been gone,” Spike stated, his green eyes looking into Rarity’s own, “are you sure you want to still see her?” he questioned.
“Why, of course Spike. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t come to see her?” Rarity answered.
Spike only nodded, pushing open the doors. He held back, and extended one of his arms, letting Rarity go first. She smiled at Spike, and entered the room first.
The throne room was the same as all the other rooms, except for the throne at the far end of the room. Rarity rubbed her eyes when she looked at the throne and its occupant. The throne was a dark violet, with gold patterns and crimson pillows, on which sat Twilight, her crown made of the merged crowns of the princesses, and the rest of her decorative wear were similarly merged from what once was worn on either princess.
Twilight looked at Rarity, a smile on her face.
“I’m sorry Rarity, I didn’t think your portal would make you miss six years. Especially the incident three years ago where we needed you.” Twilight opened the conversation, her words containing a hint of much practice, as though they had been said many thousands of times before.
“Nonsense, Twilight. It wasn’t your fault. Besides, you remember what was said, once I know what will corrupt the element of generosity, I can go back and stop this from ever taking place.” Rarity smiled, happy to see Twilight.
Quickly, Twilight stood up and walked over to Rarity, her smile remained, but seemed less warm than it had a moment before.
“It has been hard these last three years Rarity. I’m sure by now you know how all this came to be, so let me tell you what we all did, while waiting for you to appear,” Twilight examined Rarity, making sure she was ready for the explanation, “once both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were gone, I called on the others to come to Canterlot. Quickly, we were able to keep ponies sane here, at the cost of the rest of the Equestria.” Twilight spoke, reciting the facts for Rarity, each word carrying that rehearsed tone.
Twilight led Rarity up to the throne, where she sat and once more looked at Rarity.
“Canterlot prospered while Equestria fell all around it, thanks to us. We only regretted one thing, that you weren’t there to help with us. As ponies flocked here, seeking to survive, we lost something that made Equestria what it is. We still had magic, loyalty, laughter, kindness and honesty, but we lost generosity. We never turned anypony away, but we gave more to those that had been here longer, rather than sharing rations equally to all. But even now,” Twilight faltered for a moment, “we only resist the end of Canterlot itself. Rainbow Dash, being loyal to the princesses, begun to hope that they needed to see, that even in a dark time, we could pull together without them in the world, and they would come back. That is why she left Canterlot the most. The other left recently to find her.” Twilight’s voice became soft and gentle, as she went into deep thought.
“I met them all, on the way here.” Rarity spoke up. She had listened to what Twilight had to say, but felt she had not been given the chance to speak.
“How are they?” Twilight asked.
“They,” Rarity paused for a moment, wondering if it was best to tell the truth, “Rainbow Dash I found in Ponyville, she was hurt and weak. I tried to help her, but she passed away just as we got to the edge of the town. I buried her there. Then I found Applejack and Fluttershy in a grove. I learnt from them that Pinkie Pie is gone as well, before I arrived. She purposely starved herself so the other two would have more to eat. And as we spoke, Applejack passed. I buried her by myself, poor Fluttershy was too upset. I left Fluttershy there at her insistence to come here, Twilight, we have to go and bring her back.”
Rarity looked hopefully at Twilight, but quickly realised Twilight was no longer looking at her in any way that was kind or glad or even remotely emphatic. The right word for how Twilight now looked at Rarity was disgust.
“You let Rainbow Dash and Applejack die, and then left Fluttershy alone out there to die alone?” Every word Twilight now spoke drove into Rarity like a dagger.
“I... I couldn’t make her leave Twilight! When she’s made up her mind, there’s no changing it. I promised I’d have her checked on until she is ready to return!” Rarity defended herself. But it was hopeless against Twilight’s anger.
“You! You are the bearer of Generosity! You should have brought her back, brought them all back alive! And look at you, you let them die. You are pathetic.” Twilight spat at Rarity, who was now quivering, her mouth open from the terror she felt.
“Twilight, please, you must be taking the news badly, please calm down and think rationally!” Rarity pleaded.
Twilight turned away from Rarity, and looked at Spike.
“Take her to the dungeon. Return and I’ll decide what you may do with her.” Twilight spoke firm, but it was clear. The power of leading Canterlot had turned Twilight into a tyrant.
--
The dungeon, for some reason, had a clock. The hands showed it was now 3pm, which would have been good for finding how long it had been since she arrived, except Rarity had seen no other clock before being put in the dungeon cell.
Spike had apologised no end while putting Rarity in the dungeon, and while he had stepped around having to admit his crush on her, a fact she knew and never mentioned, she was thankful he hadn’t given up this youthful feeling. He had since returned back to Twilight, promising Rarity that he would make sure Twilight wouldn’t do her harm.
Rarity raised her head as the sound of hoof steps approaching grew louder. Looking out of her cell, her jaw dropped. Walking towards her was Sweetie Belle, with Scootaloo and Applebloom close behind. The trio wore plate armour over their bodies, legs and helmets on their heads. Scootaloo’s wings had extra parts over the wings, which folded with them. The trio stopped outside her cell, and Sweetie Belle stared at Rarity like she had seen a ghost.
“Rarity? I-is it really you?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“It is Sweetie Belle. What’s going on? Why are you wearing armour?” Rarity asked in return, leaning against the cell bars.
Sweetie Belle leaned her own hooves on her sister’s, and began explaining, “after the princesses were gone, Twilight encouraged our families and friends to move to Canterlot. You can’t imagine how bad things really were.”
“I think I can, I saw most of Ponyville in ruins, my boutique ransacked.” Rarity stated.
“That’s just the outcome. You weren’t there when ponies became crazy, killing each other for food and items. You weren’t there when mom and dad gave their lives to ensure I made it here safe. Even now, you don’t know what we know,” Sweetie Belle took a breath, “every few hours, more bandits, of what little remains, arrive to the castle and attempt to ransack and kill for items.”
Rarity said nothing, as she watched Sweetie Belle begin to cry.
“It’s got so bad, Twilight has us, US! As guards ponies. We’re still fillies, and we have to fight to protect the city.” Scootaloo added.
“I wish I could do something, anything, to change all this.” Rarity said, tears in her eyes.
“Ya can’t. Not unless ya can go back in time to three years ago. Sorry Rarity, but we have to attend to duties. C’mon girls.” Applebloom said flatly.
Ahead of Applebloom, Scootaloo walked beside Sweetie Belle, a comforting wing over her back. Applebloom however, paused and looked back, checking around her before she spoke again.
“Ah won’t tell anypony that there’s someone in the city trying to find you. Ah hope he isn’t trouble.” she informed Rarity, before departing. Rarity sighed, and stared at the clock on the wall opposite her cell.
The clock moved. One thing Rarity knew, clocks tended to stay still once placed. She shook her head slightly, and looked back at the clock, making sure she wasn’t going insane. The clocked moved again, this time she saw it, and the clock, having noticed she was looking, didn’t seem to care now, as it simply kept moving. It rose higher and higher into the air, before moving aside and showing the face of Ulysses.
“How ungrateful she was! Throwing her only surviving friend into the dungeons.” He said, putting the clock down.
“Only surviving friend?” Rarity questioned.
“Oh, yes. Um, I’m sorry, but it seems Fluttershy, scared of something, decided to hurry up the unavoidable end. Just past the grove was a waterfall with rocks at the bottom, she dived off it and kept her wings folded up. I’m sorry,” his voice ended on a hushed whisper. Rarity closed her eyes and begun to cry for her friend, “that said, I suspect Twilight Sparkle may have something to do with Fluttershy’s choice. So, here you go, make the most of this, I can only help this once.”
Ulysses’ horn glowed, and the iron bars of the cell shifted, and moved out of the way. Watching in wonder, Rarity looked at Ulysses.
“Who exactly are you? You say you can control time, but you also seem to be able to do things with objects they can’t otherwise do.” Rarity asked.
“Who I am is who I am, and I am,” he took the time to bow, “Ulysses.” His head tilted up to look at Rarity, a big grin on his face.
“Thank you Ulysses, I won’t let you down.” Rarity smiled, the tears over Fluttershy still wet on her face as she ran the route she recalled from when Spike brought her down to the dungeon. Ulysses meanwhile returned the bars to normal, laughed, and disappeared into the air.
--
Returning to the throne room was a lot faster than when Spike had led Rarity to the dungeons, and with how each room looked the same as the last, Rarity found it amazing she knew the way back. Twilight had clearly been paying attention when each room was made and decorated the same way, every little detail was in the same place room to room.
But despite this care, Rarity’s fashion sense and eye for detail had helped. Here and there were simple, overlooked details, which marked the rooms she had already been in, and thanks to this, she now stood next to the door which led into the throne room. Beyond this, she could hear Spike and Twilight speaking.
“Twilight, you have to admit, it was a little harsh to blame her for everything.” Spike stated.
“It wasn’t harsh enough, for not being there three years ago when we needed her, I should have killed her on the spot!” Twilight retorted, the room beyond the door echoed with a hoof stomp.
“I really think that this power has gone to your head Twilight,” Spike paused, Rarity heard his talons click against the floor as he walked, “you begun this three years ago, with good intentions. Help everypony to survive the day-night. What happened? When did you let the authority get the better of you? They talk you know, around Canterlot, how you are mad with power, how soon there will be no hope.”
Rarity knew that Spike had said this, most likely in the hope of shocking Twilight to her senses. The silence in the throne room hung for longer than she had expected. It ended with a sudden impact against the door, and a groan of pain from Spike.
“Never. Never say such cruel things again. If the ingrates don’t like it under my rule, they are free to take the risk in the wild. Let’s see how long they last!” Twilight remarked, a fickle tone to her voice.
“I can see why the others left. You didn’t tell Rarity the truth did you?” Spike questioned, his voice louder now he was near the door and not the throne.
“Tell her the truth? No, I told her what she only needed to know. She disappeared for six years, then expects everything to be fine?” Twilight’s voice had lost its fickle tone, and shook with some self doubt.
“Now come on Twilight, you know its not true. Six years ago, she entered the portal, and no one, not even you, knew what she’d face! And the truth is, to understand what she faces, you only need to look in a mirror!” Spike snapped.
The door shook violently once again, as Spike was thrown against it. Rarity took a step away from the door, as it kept shaking, Twilight wasn’t stopping this latest attack against him. She froze when she heard Spike roar, the sound of which made her back away from the door as it stopped shaking.
Silence fell in the throne room again, and Rarity could hear the deep breaths from Twilight. Her latest attack had clearly tired her out, which Rarity saw as a good thing, she would be unable to harm Spike again. Rarity looked on, as the door opened slightly.
“Spike,” Twilight sounded calmer now, “you... you still have feelings...”
“Yes, Twilight. And if you harm any more of your friends, then I will forget you are the one who hatched my egg.” Spike threatened, opening the door.
His eyes landed on Rarity, and for a moment, it seemed like he was going to say something. He glanced back at Twilight, before fully leaving the room, stopping at Rarity’s side.
“I will be back. Go talk some sense into her.” he said into her ear, and continued on his way.
Slowly, and very nervously, Rarity entered the throne room through the open door. On the throne, still wearing the merged decoratives and crowns of the princesses, sat Twilight. She wasn’t looking towards the door, her head hung, almost as if she felt ashamed of herself. Rarity wasn’t sure what to do, she had been so ready to enter the room and stare down, even shout at Twilight, for becoming a tyrant. But the friend she had come in the room to get angry at wasn’t the one that she had seen before being taken to the dungeon. She was still the same unicorn she recalled from Ponyville, spending as much of her free time reading books in the library as possible.
“Twilight,” Rarity spoke aloud, Twilight’s head shot up to face Rarity, her eyes wide, “what is going on? What did Spike mean you hadn’t told me the truth?” she questioned.
Rarity watched carefully as Twilight lifted off the mixed crown, and she stared at the mixed gold and blue which had been on the two original crowns she had made it from. Twilight sighed, looking at Rarity again.
“The reason things are getting bad is because of me, I guess. What I said at first was true, when the princesses disappeared, leaving us this blasted day-night, we managed to remake some sort of civilisation here in Canterlot. It was good, everypony worked hard to make the most of the dim light and crimson skies, we had plenty of food.” Twilight answered, placing the crown on her head again.
“So what did you lie about?” Rarity pressed.
“As time got on, crops begun to wither and die, we barely had any food, and had to ration what we could. But, as I said, without you, the bearer of generosity, we gave more to those that had been here the longest.” Twilight shifted.
“The longest being?” Rarity took a single step forward.
“Us. Me, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Only, I didn’t tell them we were getting more than every other pony. They found out however, about two years ago, and they didn’t take the revelation well. They left. Doubtless, had Rainbow Dash lasted longer when you met her, you’d have found why she was looking for ponies to send here,” Twilight stood up and walked behind the throne, “she was sending ponies here, in the hopes that an overflow of ponies would allow the food to be shared equally. The others, I managed to separate them from Rainbow, because they realised I was just killing the overflow they sent here, and they were going to return and put a stop to my tyranny.”
Rarity couldn’t believe what she was hearing, was it really the truth, or was Twilight lying again? Her voice however, had sounded different from her first ‘truthful explanation’, it was more sincere. What’s more, the facts seemed to fit more. While Twilight hadn’t explained why the others were gone from Canterlot, all the facts of what had just been said fit Twilight’s new personality, why Rainbow Dash was so far away from Applejack and Fluttershy, and why none of them had been in Canterlot when she had come across them.
Rarity walked to the side of the throne, and stared in confusion. Twilight stood beside a door she hadn’t seen before, and it had a ghostly appearance.
“What is that door?” Rarity asked.
“This door appeared when the princesses left. Or rather, got pulled in. I was there when it appeared,” Twilight hung her head, “the memory still haunts me, watching this door as it pulled Princess Luna and then Princess Celestia into it. I grabbed Celestia, held her hooves as both of us were dragged to the door. And she said one thing that made me let go. She told me ‘We will meet again in three years.’ and then she was gone.”
The door shimmered as Twilight spoke Princess Celestia’s last words, as if it were shivering from the promise the words had held. Rarity looked at the door, a rainbow of colours were mixing like liquid.
“So what now, Twilight?” Rarity asked.
“I had hoped that on your return, we would all stand here, and use the elements and retrieve the princesses from whatever this thing is. But, Rainbow Dash is dead, Pinkie Pie is dead, Applejack, Fluttershy. We’re the only two left. We can’t use the elements of harmony when only two of us still live.” Twilight stated, turning her back to the ghostly door.
Rarity thought for a moment, that she saw the faces of her friends and the princesses on the ghostly door, and together, all of them seemed to have shouted her name.
“Twilight, we could still try, we must. If we fail, then no one can blame us.” Rarity said hopefully.
“No Rarity. Since your return, I have been thinking.” Twilight was walking in circles around Rarity. “Earlier, I said to Spike you were to blame. He was right though, it was beyond your control. The only thing to do however, is to get you back. Return you to six years ago and stop this from ever taking place.”
Rarity still focused on the ghostly door, blinking whenever she thought she had seen the face of one of her friends on it. Just what was this door?
“Please Twilight, the right thing I can do is help you use all the elements of harmony to fix this. Won’t you at least try?” Rarity pleaded, watching as the face of Fluttershy now appeared firmly in the door, mouthing words to Rarity that she couldn’t hear.
Twilight stopped walking, standing in front of the door, but looking at Rarity.
“No. You have a choice. Be generous and make me split the use of the elements to try and undo this, or attack me and end my reign of tyranny.” Twilight shouted.
Twilight begun charging magic, as Rarity stared in shock. Looking past Twilight, the faces of Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were now visible on door, all yelling the same thing soundlessly. As she watched, what they were saying was clear, ‘run!’, and Rarity wasted no time.
She ran behind the throne as Twilight released the spell, the white ball shattered the throne, forcing Rarity to run away from it too. As she ran, Twilight begun charging a new spell, not noticing as Rarity had when glancing back, that the decorations and crown were growing cracks.
Twilight released the second spell, the crown loudly cracked as she did so. It missed Rarity, but set the banner on fire. Turning to focus on Rarity again, Twilight charged a third spell, the neck piece finally broke and fell to the floor where it shattered into hundreds of gold and blue pieces. The third spell shattered a stained glass window, which had been covered with dust to the point what it pictured was no longer visible. The coloured glass pieces fell to the floor, and the decorative shoe pieces shattered as the glass did.
Rarity came to a stop when a snap echoed around the room. Twilight dropped the new spell she was charging, and both unicorns watched as the banner fell from where it had hung, setting the carpet near it on fire.
“So what will it be Rarity? Shall we keep fighting until we burn dead?” Twilight asked, the fire spreading rapidly.
“Who puts highly flammable carpet in a throne room?” Rarity questioned, shaking her head.
As Twilight begun charging another spell, Rarity saw two things occur. The first was the crown on Twilight’s head finally shattered, the gold and blue pieces flew through the air. The second was the ghostly door. It slowly opened, revealing that there was nothing behind it other than the purest black possible.
Rarity charged at Twilight, the spell flew over Rarity as she drew near. Rarity’s head met Twilight’s chest, and she kept running. Twilight tried to resist as much as she could, but in vain. The pair were soon near the door, and Rarity came to a stop. Twilight continued on and hung for a moment in the black beyond it. Her eyes begun to glaze over, as she looked down at Rarity.
“I’m sorry.” Twilight cried, tears appearing in her eyes. A second later, Twilight vanished into the darkness, and the ghostly door closed.
Rarity laid on the floor, and begun crying, as around her, the fire begun to crackle louder and louder, continuing its rapid spread through the throne room. She was only slightly aware of Ulysses, as he walked through the flames to her left. She didn’t stand up as he arrived, and didn’t resist as he lifted her up to his back with magic. He then used another spell, and teleported them both out of the throne room.
They were just outside Ponyville now. The cold air of the day-night cooled Rarity down after the heat of the flames. Her eyes fell straight ahead to Canterlot Castle, its throne room flames just starting to venture outside. She could only feel sad, as she watched the fire growing out of the throne room. It was bad news for the ponies, they had no one to lead them anymore, even if tyrannical, and they would soon be dead. She sat on the short bridge over a dried creek she found herself on and watched as the flames spread.
“Don’t feel bad for them, Rarity. When you return back, you can prevent this.” Ulysses encouraged.
“But how?” Rarity wondered, almost not loud enough for him to hear, “I don’t even know what caused that door to appear, or what it even was.”
“Twilight became corrupted, magic itself corrupted,” Ulysses explained, “if all the elements of harmony corrupt, the events may not go like this, but it will not be good.”
They turned around towards Ponyville, just a short trot from Carousel Boutique. He quickly led her to her shop, and led her back upstairs.
“Now here, your way back to the present awaits. You just need step through it to leave these horrors behind.” Ulysses smiled, using his magic again to disappear before Rarity had a chance to say anything.
The portal was now where Rarity had first arrived to the future, and it hung silently. She almost hated what it had done, leading her to a future where she had seen her friends die, even pushing Twilight through the ghostly door.
She had worked it out on the way back to the shop, the ghostly door was some sort of way to where souls went when they no longer had bodies. Why it had taken the princesses alive, or even accepted Twilight, she would never know.
As the portal hung in the air, Rarity begun to laugh, while crying at the same time. It had brought her to a future where she saw her friends die, and the world at its end, but the same portal she now faced offered something better. A chance to go back and make sure the events she had been a part of never took place. This side of it, she was alone, her friends were gone, and she didn’t dare to think nor find out what had become of Sweetie Belle now Canterlot was on fire. But to get them all back, all she had to do was walk through the portal. Past it, they were all alive, most likely waiting for her to return.
With no one to watch her, she ran through the portal as fast as she could.
--
‘The Element of Generosity is now corrupted. Your end shall be soon.’ the voice boomed through the library. It had scared Fluttershy, which wasn’t hard to do anyway, and Twilight bit her lower lip in worry.
The portal with the picture of Rarity shimmered, a second later, Rarity appeared from it, looking rather messy, but fine. Rarity smiled as she saw her friends, all perfectly fine.
“Rarity,” Twilight narrowed one eye, “what happened?” she asked.
Rarity laid on the ground, smiling and closing her eyes.
“It was simply horrible. I was sent forward in time six years, and the world was at its end, because I wasn’t there when you needed me the most. It... it was horrible,” Rarity blurted out, looking at Twilight with partially open eyes, “I tried to help you Rainbow Dash, but you still died of exhaustion and malnutrition, Pinkie was already gone, having starved herself dead to give Applejack and Fluttershy more time to live. Applejack died as we talked, with Fluttershy tricking me to leave before her end came.” Rarity stopped, now out of breath.
“I really don’t like these portal things, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, she had almost curled up, “so far, when you went to see if it was Pinkie’s portal, I died, and now I died in Rarity’s? Somepony really has it out for me.” Rainbow’s voice had begun loudly, but over the sentence had dropped to be almost as quiet as Fluttershy.
“There was more.” Rarity added.
“Oh great.” Rainbow Dash groaned.
“I arrived to Canterlot, where anypony still alive was, and you,” her eyes landed on Twilight, having previously been looking at Rainbow Dash, “had become a tyrant. Drunk with power, you made them all leave, which resulted in their deaths. Then, when you saw a way out with me to help, you attacked me, even though you clearly wanted to make things right. I had to force you through this ghostly door, sending you to... I think it was the afterlife. That’s when I was able to come back.” Rarity didn’t break eye contact, or move, as she spoke to Twilight.
Twilight looked distraught, and begun to cry. Gently, Rarity placed a hoof on Twilight.
“Is there any way we can stop this future taking place?” Twilight asked through her sobbing.
“Simply don’t make me go back through the portal.” Rarity stated.
Twilight slowly got to her hooves, looking at her friends in turn. She smiled weakly, looking at her portal.
“I’ll need some time to get over what Rarity saw, before I go through.” Twilight said, sitting down.
“Wait a darn second! Ain’t it odd that to stop her future, Rarity only need not go back through the portal?” Applejack questioned, looking at Twilight.
“Now you mention it,” Twilight begun to think, taking what Rarity had said, and applying the logic just stated by Applejack to it, “it seems like whoever is controlling these events is using them to taunt us.” Twilight stomped a hoof.
“Taunt us? But why?” Rarity questioned.
“It’s simple. They thought you were useless, so they gave you the easy one. That future may not be what will happen, but some elements of it are what they have planned, so it showed you certain things, to tell to us. The reason being, we now know, but it feels we will be powerless to prevent it.” Twilight replied.
“Yeah right,” Rainbow Dash stood up, “whoever this voice belongs to, the only way we’ll be powerless to stop it is if we die!” her wings raised, and she smiled.
“Exactly. Now come on, let’s go back upstairs, Twilight said she isn’t ready yet to enter her portal.” Rarity said, leading the way back to the main floor of the library.
--
Nurse Redheart looked at the orange pegasus, laying peacefully on the bed. He had been rushed in, and she had been amazed at how little Applejack and Twilight Sparkle knew of him, how he had even been alive when he came in confused her and the doctor on duty. The doctor who had examined him had seen some internal bleeding during an operation to a very nasty wound that had been hidden by one of his wings, that would have otherwise cost the young pegasus his life.
The bell rung from the desk, and she turned away, giving once last glance and smile at the sleeping pegasus. Waiting at the desk was a dark blue unicorn, a black cloak over him, he seemed to be straining his neck to look in the room she had left.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Ah, you must be the nurse,” the unicorn looked her up and down, “of course you are, white hat, in a hospital, I’d have to have a very bad head injury to decide you held a job other than nurse. Anyway, I am looking for a pegasus by the name ‘Sunshine Blaze’. Is he here?”
Nurse Redheart felt uneasy before the unicorn, he seemed jittery, and kept turning his head around, watching his surroundings rather than looking directly at her.
“And what is your relation to him?” she asked.
“Oh, I’m a relative of his. Distant. Is he here?” the unicorn pressed.
“I’m afraid so. How he is even alive, we don’t know. I don’t think he’ll survive the night.” Nurse Redheart answered.
If the unicorn had made her feel uneasy before, his reaction and body language at her last statement made any feelings against the unicorn clear and well founded. He looked upset at the news, but his body language showed relief and joy.
“If that is the case, I won’t see him, instead, I’ll go tell his parents, they’d want to know,” the unicorn turned to leave, but stopped, “by the way, he’s only fourteen years old. You wrote fifteen. I’d correct that if I were you.” the unicorn said, walking away.
In the room, Sunshine Blaze slowly opened his eyes. He grunted at the sight of a clean wall in front of him, and fell back to sleep, unaware of how close the unicorn had been.
Outside the hospital, the unicorn grinned. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 22 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-09-04T23:37:14+00:00 | 2012-09-04T23:37:14+00:00 | 731 | The hospital made Rainbow Dash nervous as she walked along the clean white corridors. Her only relief was that she wasn’t a patient there. She walked up to the desk, behind which stood Nurse Redheart and the doctor on duty. Rainbow looked down to her neck, checking that she still had the goggles around it.
Twilight hadn’t been willing to part with the goggles, after having learnt where Sunshine Blaze had come from. It confused her why he had come to Equestria, but the recording in the goggles had hinted at it. Sunshine Blaze hadn’t come to cause problems, but was chasing somepony who could be causing problems. Why still wasn’t clear, but the unicorn had shown up at least once in the last few days.
Rainbow Dash stood patiently at the desk, while Nurse Redheart finished the quiet conversation with the doctor. He simply nodded his head in her direction, said a few more words, then walked into a room. Nurse Redheart approached, and smiled.
“How can I help you today Rainbow Dash?” she asked.
“I, um, I came to see how that pegasus Twilight and Applejack brought in is doing. And to give him these.” Rainbow replied, pointing a hoof to the goggles around her neck.
“We’ll make sure those aren’t carrying anything that could hurt his recovery before giving them to him,” Nurse Redheart said, taking the goggles as Rainbow passed them over, “as for how he’s doing, he’ll make a recovery. His progress is amazing, barely a day and all the burn marks are gone. We don’t understand how that is even possible. But, he doesn’t seem like he wants to wake up. It could be a sign of a serious head trauma.”
Nurse Redheart stood aside as Rainbow Dash tried to look in the room Twilight had said she’d find Sunshine Blaze in. The doctor was there, checking on him. As she watched, the doctor lifted a wing and seemed to be checking under it.
“Your friends didn’t notice he had a serious wound. It was covered by a wing, and we even found why it wasn’t bleeding so badly. The wound it seems was inflicted only to cause internal bleeding. If the doctor hadn’t opened the wound more, it would have been missed.” Nurse Redheart informed Rainbow Dash.
“It’s good that he’s alive. Twilight has a lot of questions for him when he’s out.” Rainbow Dash smiled, looking at Nurse Redheart.
“Yes, well, there is something you need to tell Twilight Sparkle,” Nurse Redheart paused, looking around, “last night, somepony came to ‘see’ him. A fishy dark blue unicorn, he didn’t give his name. I lied to him to make him leave, he believes Sunshine Blaze was about to die during the night, he seemed happy to hear that. We’ll let you know when he can leave, but it may be best to protect him if you don’t want that unicorn turning my white lie into the truth.”
Rainbow Dash was pale. She repeated Nurse Redheart’s words in her head, and made the connection. The dark blue unicorn that had turned up the night before must have been the same one the goggles had recorded as attacking Sunshine Blaze, and he had not so subtly come to the hospital, either to finish the job or make sure it had been done right.
Her eyes fell on the sleeping orange pegasus in the room. Who exactly was he?
--
Twilight jumped in surprise at the loud bang against the door. Why did Rainbow Dash do that? It was usually the windows she crashed into or through, but why did she never slow down enough to open them first?
The door swung open, with a very annoyed looking Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway. She shook her head, entered the room and kicked the door closed behind her.
“So how was he?” Applejack asked.
“He’s fine. They’re amazed at how fast the burn marks are gone, he’s going to make a full recovery, provided he wants to wake up.” Rainbow Dash replied.
“Good, when I come back from my portal, we can ask him everything we need to know.” Twilight stated, trotting to the basement.
“There is one other thing,” Rainbow Dash said, which made Twilight stop in her tracks, “someone came to see him last night.”
“Oh? Who was it?” Twilight questioned, getting ready to hear that Sunshine Blaze wasn’t as kind or innocent as Applejack had made him out to be.
“You remember the recording in his goggles? He was attacked by a dark blue unicorn. And Nurse Redheart said it was a dark blue unicorn that came to see him. She said he seemed happy when she lied and told him that Sunshine Blaze wouldn’t live to today.” Rainbow answered.
They all fell silent.
--
Sunshine Blaze opened his eyes slightly, as yelling from somewhere nearby reached his ears. His eyes fell on his goggles, and he smiled. He sat up, and watched the commotion outside of the room, as he picked the goggles up and placed them upon his head.
The nurse and a doctor were both holding back a sea blue earth pony. He was a sight in himself, one of his legs looked metallic, and little puffs of steam rose from a small pipe in the side, it had been made of various objects and looked as if it had been quickly thrown together by someone who put up cheesy little objects on display at every holiday. There was a metal plate which covered the left side of his head, and burn marks to the face along it suggested that it had been made to stay there in a very painful manner. The eye that should have been there, to match the dark brown on his right had also been changed for a metallic one. While the right eye glared at the nurse, the left eye’s blue glow fell on Sunshine Blaze.
The nurse and doctor lost their struggle to hold this earth pony back any longer. He pushed them both aside, and kicked the door, the glass pane shattering as he did so, and his rough voice finally could be heard.
“...and ya see? He’s awake now, I call visitin’ hours! Now sod off the both o’ ya!” he shouted back at the nurse and doctor.
“Really captain? Must you be such a hooligan? We aren’t in Irvest you know, they don’t accept this behaviour in Equestria.” Sunshine Blaze said, looking unimpressed.
“Eh, the gits wouldn’t let me come see ya. Enough about me anyway, how’s yer mission goin’?” the captain asked.
“I’m in a hospital, no idea how I got here, I still haven’t found him yet, and he’s after the Elements of Harmony still, how do you think it’s going?” Sunshine Blaze quipped.
“Fair ‘nough,” the captain looked back at Nurse Redheart and the doctor, as they got up out at the corridor, “so me ‘n’ the crew wait fer ye?” he asked.
“Yes. Now, I think you’d better leave. You haven’t made a good impression, and if they all knew where we come from, they’d chase you away and probably do something very bad to me.” Sunshine Blaze warned, looking away from the captain and to the nurse.
“Whatever ye say lad.” The captain said, grinning as he left, but stopped long enough to wrap a leg around the nurse, whispering something to her that resulted in a hoof to his face, and a lot of laughter as the captain left the hospital. Sunshine Blaze shook his head, and begun to think of how best to explain who he was.
--
“Anyway,” Rainbow Dash broke the silence, “I asked Nurse Redheart to tell us if anypony else that seems unusual comes by to see him. After all, the unicorn turned up, who’s to say the unicorn can’t disguise himself, or is working alone?” she stated.
“Good idea Rainbow Dash. Now, if you all want, you can stay up here. I’m sure my portal won’t take long.” Twilight said, smiling as she walked through the door to the basement.
As Twilight descended the stairs, the sound of hooves behind her indicated that her friends were joining her, rather than remain upstairs in the library. She walked up to the last portal which held a picture of her in it, and took a deep breath.
There seemed to be a pattern with the portals as each of her friends had gone through, except for Rainbow and Pinkie Pie, who’s portals had been made from them having already been sent to an alternate future. Three of them had alternate futures behind their portals, while Fluttershy and Applejack had been sent to the past. If the pattern was right, she thought, her portal would also lead to a past event the voice was trying to change.
Looking back to her friends and smiling, Twilight stepped through the portal.
The five friends stood and looked at Twilight’s portal, eagerly hoping she returned quickly. They acknowledged Spike as he entered. Spike meanwhile, glanced around the room looking for Twilight.
“She’s already gone through?” he questioned.
“Yes, Spike.” Rainbow Dash answered.
“Nurse Redheart stopped by, a sailor stopped by to see Sunshine Blaze. They seemed to know each other. Thought she’d want to know.” he said, looking at Rainbow Dash.
“Well, it’ll have to wait until she returns. Hopefully that won’t be long.” Rarity stated.
They all fell silent again.
--
Twilight stared in shock at the scene she was met with. Around her, trees burned, even with heavy rain that should have extinguished them, they raged as though freshly started on a sunny day. The ground felt hot and stung at her hooves.
There was no indication of where she had ended up, all there was, for as far as she could see, a scenery of destruction.
Just before her, laying on the ground was a unicorn, his previously white coat now had patches of crimson and black all over, sometimes mixed. He was barely breathing and clearly in a bad way, and beside for him, there was no life around.
Twilight slowly walked over to him, the crackling of burning trees replacing where the sound of birds singing should have been. When she got within ten feet of him, the colt weakly opened his eyes.
“Someone came to finish me off for him?” he said.
“What? I just got here, I... I don’t know what’s going on,” Twilight said, “is there any way I can help you? What wounded you?”
“You’re a kind mare, I’ll give you that,” the colt stopped to cough, and took a few raspy breaths, “if you could, help me get back to Canterlot, that’s all you can do for me.”
“But if you tell me what injured you, I can help! I know a lot of magic.” Twilight explained, hoping to be of more help than supporting the colt while he walked.
“Nothing on this planet can help me anymore. It was folly to think we could defeat him, he is too strong, and my friends paid for my arrogance with their lives,” he coughed again, attempting to stand up while Twilight wasn’t helping him, “I have no doubt a mare like yourself would have learnt healing spells, but even then, there is nothing can be done about curses.”
As the colt spoke, Twilight begun to think, piecing what little information she had together to work out where she was. She looked at him, very few white patches of his coat remained. He had mentioned that someone strong had done this to him, and his friends. Suddenly, it clicked.
“Are you by any chance, Fireshot?” she asked.
“Indeed I am, not that my fame will do me any further good.” he tried to laugh, but coughed more violently this time, and any progress he had made in getting up was lost as he collapsed to the ground once again.
“But, when my friend Applejack last saw you, you were going to fight Discord, didn’t Celestia and Luna turn up and help?” she asked.
Fireshot looked up at her, with a mix of pain and surprise on his face.
“Another one of you from the future?” He coughed a short defeated laughter. “No, they’re off to some failed retrieval. If they’re lucky, they won’t make it back to see Equestria become all but ruins.” He relaxed as best as he could with the pain he was in, head on his forehooves, looking down, and murmuring “and it’s all on my hooves.” |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 23 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-10-03T00:04:27+00:00 | 2012-10-03T00:04:27+00:00 | 821 | Fireshot silently got lost in own self-pity, somewhat ignoring the fact that Twilight Sparkle was still standing right in front of him.
“I’m sorry,” Twilight finally spoke up, trying to make sense of what he said. “I don’t quite get what you mean by…” She hesitated. “By this being your fault.”
Fireshot sighed, and remained silent for several seconds. He finally sighed and looked at her eyes.
“Under other circumstances, I would loathe to ask a mare to help me walk, but my pride is gone. So please, help me return to Canterlot,” he pleaded.
Twilight frowned at having her comment being basically ignored, but reminded herself that these were other times. He seemed to be the kind of pony who normally doesn’t asks for help, like what Applejack used to be. She could tell that things really had gone badly.
“Alright, but first, please tell me why you are blaming yourself for whatever happened,” Twilight responded. “And while you're doing so, please tell me what happened. I only want to help.”
Once more, another moment of silence passed, before he spoke up.
“We fought Discord, but he easily won. He placed a curse on me, and then threw me far from his citadel. Now please, help me return home,” Fireshot replied.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at the fact only part of her request had been responded to, but it fast became clear that Fireshot had no intention of responding to the first part. She sighed in defeat, hoping that he would open up to her later on.
She walked to his side, and used her magic to lift and hold Fireshot up, so that he could walk with her magic keeping him upright.
--
They eventually left the burning forest, that as far as Twilight could tell, was where the battle against Discord had ended at. Dejectedly, Fireshot explained the battle had begun at Discord’s throne of chaos deep in his citadel, but when Discord had grown bored of the three colts using his own chaotic artifacts as shields, he had teleported them all to the forest and finally used his full strength.
It made Twilight feel glad that Discord had been too confident on his escape in the future, and that he had given himself no chance of unleashing his true power.
“I have a question for you,” Fireshot paused, only then realising he hadn’t asked for her name.
“Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight filled in her name for him.
“Does it matter anymore if you tell me what will come to pass? What will happen to me is clear, I won’t have time to tell anypony else and change the path of the future.” he questioned.
Twilight paused for a moment, thinking of all the possible consequences of telling Fireshot the full truth. She looked him in the eyes, noting that it looked like his life was leaving him, and she sighed.
“Fine. The truth is, until Fluttershy returned from this time, nopony in the future had ever heard of you. I don’t know why this is, but the history we learnt was pretty clear, your hope of defeating Discord was not how history went in the future,” she paused to look at Fireshot.
He hardly seemed surprised now, looking even more depressed than he had been just a moment before.
“It was with Applejack that the events you are living through that made things hard. Applejack hates telling lies, so for her to not tell you who does defeat Discord was a strain on her. In truth, I had hoped that you three had simply wished not to be mentioned in history, and the ones who will defeat Discord would have arrived to help. Sadly, that wasn’t the case.”
“And what of Fluttershy? What did she think about our fates?” Fireshot asked.
“She hoped the same as well, she’ll probably be upset that you met this fate instead,” Twilight admitted.
“Why are you even worried about the fate of a colt that lived a thousand years previously?” Fireshot pondered, smiling very weakly, and collapsing to the floor as Twilight dropped her magic.
“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to drop you,” she begun to apologize, but Fireshot held up a hoof.
“Do not worry, it is Discord’s power, magic has begun to falter, and unless someone finds a way to stop him, Equestria will be gone in the next day.” Fireshot informed her.
--
Slowly, Twilight aided Fireshot and led him towards his intended goal. It hadn’t surprised her when he said that he wanted to return to Canterlot, as Fluttershy and Applejack learnt, this was where he had lived.
It took a few hours before it came into sight. Both night and day passed multiple times as the two unicorns walked. Fireshot motioned towards a nearby hill, where he sat down, his gaze falling on Canterlot. Twilight saw his eyes focus one moment, only to become distant the next, suggesting he was in much worse shape now.
“I failed them,” Fireshot spoke softly, “I promised we would return, Discord slain, and a new era of peace would follow in our wake. Instead, I return the defeated, companions destroyed, and Discord not just still in charge, but now very much angry.”
“Fireshot,” Twilight spoke up, but Fireshot did not turn his head to look at her, “you know everything will be fine. If they didn’t go ok in the end, I couldn’t be here right now.” she stated.
Fireshot didn’t smile. His eyes glazed over, looking towards Canterlot while Fireshot himself was focused on his thoughts. He let out a sigh, then turned his head slightly.
“I know they will be fine, but tonight, friends will learn of their friends deaths, mothers shall learn their little colts have died, nothing will be the same. How can I go back and tell them that Discord intends to march towards Canterlot and lay waste to the city to show what happens to those who rebel against him?”
Twilight was at a loss for words. She didn’t know much of the time Discord ruled Equestria, aside from that he had done so, and made life miserable for his own pleasure.
“I don’t know how you’ll tell them, but right now, I just have to know what you plan to do.” Twilight replied, walking over to Fireshot.
“I still need to think about it. Come, no point in putting this off.” Fireshot said, lifting himself up with painful groans.
--
Twilight felt uneasy as she saw the guards at the Canterlot gates. At first, their expressions betrayed no emotions, but as they soon realised who was approaching, they could no longer retain an emotionless view of what stood before them.
Almost as one, the guards at the gate ran towards Fireshot. Their weapons were pointed at Twilight, as they separated her from Fireshot.
“What happened to you?” one of them asked Fireshot, as three guards backed Twilight to a wall, their spears pointed at her throat.
“Discord, we lost. I probably don’t have much longer.” Fireshot replied, barely able to stand.
“And who is the purple mare?” the same guard asked.
“A kind soul who found me among the burning ruins of the battle sight. She helped me back here willingly.” Fireshot rasped, attempting to catch his breath now he was not used to speaking so much and as fast.
At his words, the spears left the close proximity of Twilight’s neck, allowing her to breath a sigh of relief. She watched as the guard who had been speaking to Fireshot now approached her.
“Sorry for the misunderstanding, troublesome times. I thank you for aiding Fireshot. Prehaps you can tell me all you know of the situation?” the guard asked.
“I found him close to burning trees. He told me Discord had teleported him there before defeating him. All he told me on the way back is that Discord plans to attack Canterlot soon, possibly tomorrow.” Twilight answered.
The guards all looked at each other uneasy, taking in the information. The one that had just spoken to Twilight now faced all the others and made a few gestures with his hooves. This, it transpired, was a silent command, as most of the guards left in an orderly fashion.
“And what of Fireshot? What ails him?” the guard asked again.
“He said Discord cursed him, but he hasn't told me what the curse was, I’m quite good with spells, if I knew, I could try to find a counteracting spell.” Twilight replied.
“Fireshot wouldn’t say if he knew there was nothing that could save him,” the guard sighed, “maybe it’d be best you aid him to his house until his hour comes. If what you said is true, I have an impending battle to prepare for.” he bowed, turning away from Twilight and walking away with the rest of the guard.
Behind the guard, the townsponies had slowly approached. One at the front caught her attention, a pegasi that had lost both of her hind legs and was clearly in the last stages of pregnancy, she was being assisted in a chair by what looked like a nurse.
The eyes of the guards all fell on her as the chair with nailed on wheels was rolled up towards Fireshot. She was stopped nearby, tears forming in her eyes.
“What happened Fireshot? Where is my husband?” she asked in a voice so soft, it would make Fluttershy’s own voice sound like shouting.
“Madam, if I may,” a guard tried to interject and answer on Fireshot’s behalf, but Rainflower glared at the guard, who backed away.
Fireshot took a deep breath, and let out a heavy sigh, before looking Rainflower in the eyes.
“As far as I know, he and Forest Breeze were slain, Discord did not leave bodies behind,” he paused as Rainflower let out a horrified gasp at the news confirming her worst fears, “I am sorry, I tried to save him.”
A silence filled the area as the crowd of townsponies took in the news of the defeat. It only took ten seconds before the silence was shattered by Rainflower, who begun to cry loudly with emotional pain. All ponies gathered simply stood silent, looking at Rainflower as she cried.
Twilight walked over to Fireshot, who stood up, and looked at her.
“Lead me to the caves at the back of the town, I’ve done enough harm to them all, it is time I went to rest.” he said calmly.
--
The caves that Fireshot led himself and Twilight to were the remains of a mining operation carried out by unicorns for the gems in the mountains. As such, as Twilight marveled at the large cave system, she could see barely anything remained.
In the middle of the first cave chamber, Fireshot sat, his breathing had become raspy. He watched Twilight, keeping an eye on her to make sure she left as she had agreed on entering the cave with him.
“It’s time you left, Twilight Sparkle. I fear I shan’t be around much longer, and it is not something for your eyes to witness.” Fireshot spoke softly.
Twilight spun around and looked at Fireshot sadly, but she reluctantly did as he said. Any attempt by her to change his fate would change the future, or possibly create a paradox. Slowly, she trotted out of the cave and sat beside the entrance, and did what she always did. She thought.
‘Something isn’t quite right about all this,’ she glanced up, and saw a white unicorn with a pink mane approaching, ‘Starswirl created a time travel spell, and it allowed for a one off casting. Whoever is trying to corrupt the Elements has been able to cast the spell at least three times into the distant past, at various weekly or daily intervals.’
She paused her thinking, noticing the white unicorn mare had stopped beside her. Twilight looked at her, but neither spoke. After ten seconds, the mare entered the cave, glancing back at Twilight.
‘The question is how powerful this pony is, if they even are a pony in the first place. To break a rule of magic concerning time travel would need immense power, no ordinary unicorn could cast it. And if they’re a normal unicorn, what toll is it taking on them? I need to find the answer and quick, what if they plan to use the Elements to take over Equestria?’
Twilight glanced to her side towards the cave entrance as the mare turned up again. The mare cast a spell, looked again at Twilight, and disappeared back inside the cave. Twilight turned her head to look in the direction the mare had faced, and now watched as a smaller dark blue unicorn ran towards the cave. This mare paid Twilight no attention at all, but was carrying a simple dark wood box in her magic as she ran into the cave and out of sight.
Twilight stared at the cave entrance. A split second later she had to cover her eyes from a sudden blinding light. Instinctively, she ran and hid behind a tree, her jaw hanging loose as she recognized what had just taken place.
The white and blue unicorn mares, the wooden box that seemed important, and the blinding light. Twilight quickly deduced that the box had contained the Elements of Harmony, the past versions anyway, and they had just been used.
Sneaking a look from around the tree, Twilight watched as the white and blue mare stepped out of the cave and used their magic to close the very rock of the mountain. She looked to their flanks and mentally gasped. The white mare’s cutie mark was of a sun, while the blue mare’s was the moon. But it didn’t seem possible, they couldn’t be the past versions of Celestia and Luna, they had wings in the future. A smile was slowly forming on Twilight’s face as she was contemplating that possibility.
Before she could think any further, a blue unicorn colt flashed into existence near the pair. That blue unicorn had dropped an invisibility spell, bucked them in the face and grabbed the wood box with his magic. With a quick self-satisfied grin, the unicorn begun to run away.
‘I can’t let him get away with the elements! If those don’t get to Celestia and Luna, they won’t have any way of defeating Discord!’ Twilight thought to herself. She ran to the apparent past versions of the princesses, checking quickly if they were fine, and gave chase.
The unicorn had a head start on Twilight, and every time she tried to gain ground, he glanced over his back, glared, and teleported further ahead himself. Twilight’s legs were burning from the overuse, but her face was filled with determination.
‘I just have to get the elements back, or there won’t be a future!’ |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 24 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-10-08T17:28:02+00:00 | 2012-10-08T17:28:02+00:00 | 542 | Twilight continued her pursuit of the of unicorn, despite how hopeless it seemed. She was gasping for breath, the chase having exhausted her. Thankfully, the unicorn had ceased to teleport to maintain his lead now.
As Twilight pushed herself to keep running, the unicorn glanced over his back to her, and strangely stopped. Twilight attempted to skid to a halt, only to fail and skid close to the unicorn as he kicked at her with his hind legs.
She was sent backwards by a foot, and lay on the ground, stunned by the kick as the unicorn laughed and drew near her. He placed a hoof on her neck, and slowly applied pressure to her throat and neutralized her magic as he leaned in.
“Tell me, were you the last of the six?,” the unicorn paused, staring at Twilight his right eyelid twitching, “I don’t know myself yet, but it’ll be SUCH fun to see the rest of the events.” he chuckled nervously.
“W-what... do you... mean?” Twilight struggled for every breath, even the attempt to speak back was beginning to get hard.
“Oh it’s simple. Some ancient pony named Starswirl made a spell to travel in time just once, I merely found the loophole not only for infinite travel to the past, but to see all possible futures. Tell me I come up with some good ones for your other three friends, that brainless blue pegasi, just as brainless pink earth pony and the unicorn who frankly it amazes me that she can even live, strung up on physical objects like she is.” he grinned, his right bottom eyelid still twitching.
“But...” Twilight begun to say, stopping as the unicorn above her actually growled like a beast.
“Time is a complex thing. I’m sure my future self knows what is about to happen next, but fact is, I’ve seen three of you element bearers in the past now, that means I either succeed here, or have to mess around with the other three next. To make it simple, if you are the last to step through, then you already know what I am about to learn,” he held his head up and glanced down at her, regarding Twilight as some trash that had gotten stuck underhoof, “and frankly, I don’t care much for failing in my plans.” the snarl in his voice made Twilight shudder.
Twilight tried to struggle free, feeling as though life was about to be removed from her body.
“Tell me, what happens next?” the unicorn questioned, pushing down on Twilight’s throat just enough to fully cut off her air supply but not snap her neck.
“You won’t... win here... history... has to... take place...” Twilight struggled to get out.
The unicorn regarded her for a moment, and as the world begun to turn black in Twilight’s vision, something clearly clicked in his head.
“Of course... a rule of time is that established points in time can’t change. Minor events around them can. If I steal the elements here, before they stop this Discord, then Nightmare Moon, how will I have heard of them to know when to come back and steal them?”
As the unicorn pondered this, he hadn’t noticed he had completely removed his hoof from Twilight’s neck. She took this moment to roll on her belly and catch back her breath, listening to him carefully.
“That said... I could try to find a loophole here, so I can still steal them, then ensure I hear of them to come back and steal them in the first place... but how to do this? If I go ahead and use them as they’re supposed to be, I’d be a hero and I certainly don’t want that, it’d more than likely deny me my birthright...”
He was insane, that much was certain. Birthright? What birthright could exist that would drive this pony to steal the elements before they were used in two historical events? Twilight shook this from her head and slowly got up.
She had feared as she stood up that the unicorn would attack her. However, to Twilight’s surprise, he simply regarded her with disdain.
“You’re not a threat anymore, I’m sure I’ve weakened you too much. Now if you will, I have to plan how to ensure my theft of these items will remain mine without losing them to a paradox.” he sneered, using his right hoof to write in the dirt.
As the unicorn before her muttered to himself and wrote in the dirt, rubbing the ground every so often, Twilight thought back to everything her friends had mentioned. Rainbow had said all unicorns in her portal had become twisted and corrupted, something not affecting the one before her. Fluttershy and Applejack and indeed mentioned a unicorn matching his description, meaning he had been planning this for some time as suspected.
Pinkie Pie, she had mentioned meeting a unicorn, dark blue, who had worn a black cape. He had the same description as this one before her. Rarity too had met a unicorn also identical in description. Both times he had given them a name, Ulysses.
Was this because he believed they were too stupid to remember the name? Was that even the name of the unicorn before her? It was something she had to believe, and Twilight decided to distract him to buy herself more time to stop his plans and ensure the past went unchanged.
“Ulysses,” she said softly. The unicorn opposite her froze, slowly looking up at her as though she were now Death himself, “that’s your name, isn’t it? Ulysses.”
“How did you know that? Not once have I mentioned it.” he said in a tone just above a whisper.
“You mentioned it...” Twilight begun, stopping as he swiped at the air.
“Don’t say it! If you say it, it means it HAS to happen! I will NOT allow you to ruin what I’ve worked so hard for!” Ulysses hissed.
Twilight grinned.
“You’re going to tell my friends Pinkie Pie and Rarity your name, because for me, those events have already happened. And you tell them because you’ll assume they are too stupid to remember the name!”
As Ulysses yelled in anger, Twilight felt pride wash over her. Her telling him a future event meant that he now had to fail right here. But one thing didn’t make sense to her.
“I just have to know though, how do you not know these events take place?” she questioned.
“It is easier to travel in the past than to create a future and travel to it. So when I heard of the elements, I decided I would try to steal them from the ancient past. If I failed, which you’ve now doomed me to do, I would need a lot of energy not only to cause a loophole three times into the future, but to make it an alternate future. That’s why I didn’t know I’d told your friends my name, because I’m still at the part where I’m attempting to steal these from the past.” Ulysses explained, pointing at the wood box beside him.
“That makes sense. But now I’ve told you, you can just give those to me, I’ll take them back and all of this will be over.” Twilight smiled.
“Think again. You can take these back as a ghost! You’ll never touch them while alive!” Ulysses shouted.
Twilight was blown back by a magicial explosion that had been cast before her. As she hurried to her hooves, Ulysses was preparing another attack. One that would, however, never land. Before he finished preparing it, two beams of magic, one golden and the other navy blue, struck him in the side, throwing him far from the wood box holding the elements.
As Twilight sat down, letting out a sigh of relief, the two unicorns from Canterlot arrived. As dark blue one examined the box and its contents, the white one walked over to Twilight.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“I’m fine. I tried to stop him taking the box, I really did.” Twilight muttered.
“I can only assume he was sent by Discord to keep an eye on my sister and myself. If not for you, Discord would have the box and what rests inside,” the white unicorn held out a hoof, “my name is Celestia, what is yours?”
Twilight cautiously reached out a hoof, thinking carefully, and doing her best to conceal the shock of learning her mentor could have been an ordinary unicorn. If she told Celestia her name, would that then allow the future Celestia to warn her of these events? But if she lied, Celestia would one day see her grow up, and realise who had spoken to her at this moment, and realise she had been lied to.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, and I’m just glad I could help you recover that box. Can I ask what’s inside?” Twilight asked, having decided it would be better to be truthful to the pony that could possibly be her future teacher.
“Well, do not let this get around, but the items in the box are called the Elements of Harmony. It is my sister’s and mine’s hope that they shall bring peace to Equestria and free all ponies here from the tyrannical rule of Discord. I am sorry to leave on such short notice, but we must go and attempt to use them upon him now. Thank you for retrieving them, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia bowed, making Twilight feel awkward that the possible future ruler of Equestria had just bowed to her.
As she watched the two sisters leave, walking resolutely into the distance, Twilight begun to think once more. She wondered how it came to be that Celestia and Luna gained their wings, if they hadn’t been born with them. Were the Celestia and Luna she had just met even the future rulers of Equestria? Or were they just two normal unicorns that just so happened to have the same names?
Beside her, a portal appeared, similar in oval shape to the one back in the library basement. Twilight turned to face it, and felt uneasy as she looked into it. She had expected to see the library basement, the faces of her friends and Spike waiting for her return, but instead, a black void lay beyond it.
With nothing else to do, Twilight let out a worried sigh and stepped through.
Still, all there was to see was darkness. There was no silence, though. There was laughter. Not a happy, joyous laughter, but a laughter of an evil plan succeeding by the one who had it planned. Twilight shook her head and strained her eyes in the darkness, as the laughter increased in volume and drew nearer. From the darkness, Ulysses appeared, his eyes wild, and staring directly at her.
“Why, thank you, Twilight Sparkle. All of them. All six elements. All of your bonds to them, broken. All of them corrupted, and ready!” He proclaimed in a soft voice. She watched as he stomped his left front hoof down, and she collapsed to the floor.
As she stared helplessly, struggling against a magical pressure, Ulysses’ face turned into a look of anger. He yelled loudly with annoyance, and released his hold on her. Reacting on instinct, Twilight turned and begun to run, with the scene of her friends in the library basement approaching as she ran away from Ulysses.
Behind her, Ulysses didn’t look angry, or happy. He displayed no emotions as his horn glowed gold.
“You will corrupt it for me, Twilight Sparkle. And you shall do so right now.” he said, releasing the magic. |
|
Artaelian | 704 | 25 | Cutie Mark Crusaders,Main 6,Original Character,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic | Ruining Harmony | complete | 9 | 2 | <p>When Rainbow Dash wakes up to a burning Ponyville, nothing is as it seems anymore. She is left with only pegasi that are equally confused, and must attempt to discover what brought Equestria to ashes.</p><p>But as time goes on, back, and around, similar tragedies start happening to her friends, affecting the elements of harmony they bear. Can they work out what is causing these tragedies with their different pasts and futures before there’s no turning back?</p><p>(Formerly begun as Nightmare and Pinkie's Phantasm, Runining Harmony revamps Nightmare into Dash's Dilusion and combines the two stories before continuing on with other events.)</p><p>A thank you to Ekevoo of Equestria Daily's study chat. It is because of him checking each chapter before release that grammer errors or other mistakes are caught before each chapter is live.</p> | teen | 2012-10-22T11:27:32+00:00 | 2012-10-22T11:27:32+00:00 | 515 | “Twilight,” Rarity’s worried voice asked, “what’s wrong, darling? You look like a monster is chasing you!”
Twilight had just run in from the portal and looked around at her friends and the library, before looking at the portals. Her concerned friends walked towards her, asking similar questions, but her racing mind only let her hear their voices, not their words. Ulysses, who had seemed so helpful, if creepy, was behind all this. But for how long? Had he even acted alone? Ignoring her friend’s shouts, Twilight ran at the portal with Rainbow Dash’s picture on it.
--
She saw the same hospital as she had when checking with Rainbow Dash that the spell had originally worked. Outside, Ponyville was on fire, but Rainbow Dash lay on the hospital bed, where she had woken up when this had become her temporary reality.
Cautiously, Twilight walked over to the bed, and looked at this Rainbow Dash. Rainbow wasn’t moving, and on closer inspection, which involved placing a hoof to her neck and before her nose, Twilight realised a horrible fact. The Rainbow Dash before her was dead.
Twilight ran out through that portal, and, once again racing through her friend’s and their confused questions, she went into Pinkie Pie’s portal.
In here, it was a nice, sunny morning. The same as it had been just a few days before, even down to Ditzy Doo accidentally delivering a muffin and attempting to consume a box. But none of this mattered to Twilight right now, as she spotted Ulysses. She followed him quickly as he walked through Ponyville, leading her to the ground that was directly beneath Rainbow Dash’s home.
She however lost him here, and Twilight walked around, looking for any clue as to where he had gone. She noticed a glint in the middle of the shaded ground, and approached the spot. The glint had come from a small glass orb, which held a three coloured lighting bolt, identical to the one on Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark.
‘What will you do, Twilight Sparkle? You can take that and return to her portal, bring her back to life there, or leave it there and ensure Pinkie Pie never encounters a world where Rainbow Dash died a horrible death.’ the voice was now clearly that of Ulysses.
Twilight looked at the glass orb, now unsure of what to do. Taking it would play into Ulysses’ plan, but leaving it behind could mean her return out of Pinkie’s portal could mean that Rainbow Dash was gone. It was a gamble. After a quick thought, she decided that if she had to gamble, it had to be on which her friends lived. Twilight took the orb, and headed back for the portal, as storm clouds rolled in over Ponyville.
--
“Twilight! What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash shouted, getting in Twilight’s way as she returned from Pinkie Pie’s portal, and had attempted to get back into Rainbow’s.
“There’s no time to explain. I’ve got to try and find something out. Go to the hospital, I don’t care if he isn’t ready to leave, go get Sunshine Blaze, he may be able to help.” Twilight responded, getting past Rainbow Dash, and back through the portal with Rainbow’s picture on it.
--
It wasn’t easier the second time to see her friend laying dead. Slowly, as if she were at a funeral, Twilight walked over to the body of this Rainbow Dash, and gently placed the glass orb on her. In a blink of an eye, the orb vanished, and Rainbow Dash was breathing. Twilight smiled sadly, knowing she had just set in motion the events that had triggered everything else she and her friends had been through.
‘I was here too… I watched you, as I am right now, as you brought her back to life. Take a look, out of the window nearest to you.’ Ulysses stated.
Twilight approached the nearest window. Some distance away, just as he had said, stood Ulysses, grinning. She turned away, and ran back through the portal.
--
Twilight only paused in the basement to see if Rainbow Dash had returned yet with Sunshine Blaze. When neither pony was to be seen among her other friends, Twilight turned and ran through the portal with Fluttershy’s picture on it.
Twilight now stood in the early Everfree Forest, just as Fluttershy had described it. Before her on the ground was a magic symbol. She stared at it, there was a whole quadrant missing, plus two strokes here and one there. It was a symbol of water, and it was unfinished. Without thinking, she started filling in the missing strokes with her hoof while she thought of how to stop Ulysses.
‘It seems the missing parts are deliberate,’ she mused. After staring at it for a few seconds, she realised that Ulysses somehow knew she would be unable to resist completing the symbol simply so it wasn’t a half-finished job.
A dark blue pony walked slowly into her peripheral view. She was still staring at the symbol. She was aware it was Ulysses who was watching her, and didn’t look up. Twilight was fighting her natural urge to finish the symbol, knowing that, by doing so, she could give Ulysses the first link to the past he required.
“Oh, come on, you already stopped me in the past, you have to at least do this one willingly!” Ulysses yelled in frustration.
Twilight slowly looked up and stared at him. Somewhere nearby, the sound of hoofsteps could be heard echoing among the trees. Ulysses’ shouting had alerted somepony, or worse, some non-pony.
“I wish I didn’t have to,” she mumbled as she started looking at the spell, “but you're right. If I don’t, I’ll create a paradox.” Twilight looked back to Ulysses and snapped, “but I will find some way to stop you, mark my words!”
Ulysses only chuckled as he watched Twilight complete the spell for him, giving his past self the first link to the past he had used. Twilight turned and ran back into the library basement, almost certain that she had seen a centaur among the trees as she returned.
--
She had run into Applejack’s portal before looking in the basement, noting that if she checked every time, then she may check too often for Rainbow Dash’s return with Sunshine Blaze. She was once again in the past, this time in a random field.
Before her stood Ulysses, standing perfectly still, with only the wind blowing his mane and tail. Twilight lowered herself and stomped a hoof, which caught Ulysses’ attention.
“No big plan for Applejack? How did you get into the past here?” Twilight questioned.
Ulysses slowly turned around, smiling as though he had won.
“No plan for a link for myself or your friend at this point in the past? You’re mocking me, do not do that you stupid mare!” he spat, his horn shimmering briefly.
For some reason, these words enraged Twilight instantly. She yelled and charged at Ulysses, who sidestepped just enough for himself to get wounded.
After she had passed him, the rage faded as quickly as it rose, and Twilight sat on her haunches and held her head, confused. “What— what did you do to me?” She asked.
“Oh, it was simple, I used a rage spell so you’d assault me,” he held up his cut leg, and Twilight watched as a drop of his own blood fell onto a stone, “and now my past self will discover my blood exists here at this point in time, and use it as the second link. And all thanks to you.” Ulysses laughed and disappeared.
Annoyed that she was still failing to stop Ulysses, Twilight ran back through the portal and into the library.
--
Rainbow Dash had returned, but Sunshine Blaze wasn’t with her. Twilight wasted no time as she entered Rarity’s portal. In Rarity’s portal, she found a normal sunny day, different to what Rarity had said was behind it.
Once more, Ulysses was easily found, heading towards Canterlot. Giving chase, they both ran for half an hour, Twilight after Ulysses. Every so often, he looked back, his face displaying annoyance as Twilight kept up. He led Twilight to a quiet grove, which had only a log and flowers, in the middle of which stood a stone pillar.
“Oh well done. And they say us unicorns have terrible endurance, yet you’ve managed to keep up with me a good half hour away from Ponyville.” Ulysses said sarcastically, not visible to Twilight as he spoke.
“Stop whatever you’re doing right now!” Twilight shouted.
“I wonder,” Ulysses began to muse, stepping out from the shadows, “aren’t you curious too, as to what this pillar does?” he walked towards it briefly, and ran a hoof down it.
As Ulysses was distracted, Twilight cast a beam of magic at him. Ulysses only noticed it too late to react, so he was sent flying back into the shade of the grove. Twilight then tried to hold Ulysses in her magic and carry him away before he’d recover consciousness. Her stomach fell when she heard him groan and then make a slightly pained laugh.
“Clever, you can have that one, catching me off guard,” he chuckled, this time making sure he stayed behind the pillar opposite to Twilight on its other side, “now, maybe this was built to contain a terrible evil. Maybe it keeps something working. What do you think?” he asked Twilight.
Twilight didn’t answer him, she looked at the pillar, but gave it and the markings upon it, which were in an old language she couldn’t recognize from any of her history studies. However she wasn’t giving much thought on that, compared to the unicorn on the other side, and how she could get to him and stop him.
“No? Not got a thought in your head? Pity,” he glanced at the pillar, his face breaking into a smile, “ah, it keeps something here, it says so on about the third line. And, hm… yes, I know exactly what now.”
Twilight glanced at the markings again, noticing that not all were words, one seemed to show six orbs and two earth pony figures. It was pointless for her to try and understand what the words said. She didn’t know the language used, so she also had no idea if what Ulysses had just said was true.
She was suddenly brought out of her thoughts as Ulysses hit the pillar with his forehooves hard. He was glaring at her.
“This pillar binds your precious Elements of Harmony to this world. And whoever has control of the pillar, decides who owns them. Your princesses currently ‘own’ it, but not for long, I shall take it for my own and then I’m free to take the Elements from you and your friends,” he raised an eyebrow, “so what’ll you do about this? Stall for too long, and you’ve lost. Think fast, let me take ownership of the pillar, or destroy it and eternally keep the Elements fates in the hands of your princesses.” Ulysses said, his horn glowing, a similar aura enveloping the stone pillar.
Twilight knew it was a trap. But was it a risk she, and her friends, could afford to be wrong over? If he was bluffing, the pillar begun the events Rarity had been through, but if wrong, the elements of harmony would be gone, and nothing would stand in his way beside the princesses.
It was a risk she had to take. Picturing the pillar in pieces, Twilight’s horn glowed bright, quickly shattering the pillar and filling the once clear grove with large stones. High above, the sun and moon, which had been about to switch places, begun to rise towards the center of the sky. Twilight gulped.
“Ha! Tricked you, it had nothing to do with the Elements. That was the Mortal Plane Seal, which linked the Princesses to this mortal world. It’s gone now, and so are they!” Ulysses laughed, disappearing. A different portal appeared before her now, and reluctantly, she stepped through it.
--
The whole event was now beginning to weigh heavily on Twilight. She no longer ran, and took a moment to stop and check if Sunshine Blaze had arrived in the basement. It was obvious that he hadn’t, by the lack of his orange coat
“Where is he?” Twilight asked.
“He said he’d be right here.” Rainbow replied.
Twilight groaned, and stepped through her portal, for her last attempt.
--
Once again in the past, Twilight spotted Ulysses nearby and walked up to him. He had his back facing her, and seemed to be watching something else.
“So what’s the plan here? Going to make me cut you again?” She shouted.
Ulysses strangely raised a hoof and waved it, silently telling Twilight to keep quiet. She stood beside him and he looked at her from the corner of his eyes. When he looked away, Twilight took her chance. Once again, she fired a beam of magic at Ulysses, intending for it to stun him long enough for her to drag him back to the library basement and be still long enough to be on the receiving end of a blast of harmony.
Instead however, her beam hit a shield that hadn’t been visible around him, and she only just managed to jump out of the way, landing painfully on her back. Ulysses laughed as she lay there winded.
“Fool me once, I’m sure you’re aware of that saying, now.” he finished laughing, and pointed ahead of him.
“Right now, three ponies who think they are respected heroes are fighting Discord, to try and save the world, and yet, it’ll be for nothing. They fail, Celestia and Luna succeed instead, and these ‘heroes’ will never be mentioned in history books for anything they ever did.” Ulysses said softly, seemingly having forgotten his ambitions to make Twilight trigger the events all six Element bearers had been through.
“What’s your point?” Twilight questioned, narrowing her eyes as she tried to get back on her hooves.
“Don’t you feel bad for them? They were three stallions, united eventually by fate. They saved ponies from monsters, freed citizens from tyrants, even one of them did an act so selfless that he ended a war just based on what he thought was fair. And yet, right here and now, they’ll doom themselves to never be remembered.” Ulysses answered, genuine sadness clear in his voice.
Twilight turned to face where Ulysses was looking, and saw a citadel. She could only assume it belonged to Discord, after all, he would have to rule from somewhere right? Her mind ran over Ulysses’ words, about Fireshot and his two friends. In a way, Ulysses’ words were right. If they were real, something they did should have been remembered.
She had also not long learnt that the Princesses knew of them. So why had Fireshot and his friends been forgotten, lost to the sands of time?
Twilight shook her head and faced Ulysses again, her eyes narrowed.
“Enough, what are you planning here as the last link to the past?” she snapped.
Ulysses grinned and begun to disappear.
“Why, Twilight Sparkle, it is you! A life in a time zone it wasn’t born in. Really, how could you not see my words were to make you think and keep you here long enough for my past self to notice?” Ulysses replied.
The realisation of the situation hit Twilight like a pile of heavy books. Over a quarter of an hour, the current Ulysses had forced her to set up all the situations she and her friends had gone through over the last few weeks.
Slowly, she stood up, and walked to the portal back to the library, just as flames begun to engulf the grass and nearby trees.
--
Back in the library basement, the faces of her five friends looked at Twilight with hope. Twilight sat down, and slowly, she begun to cry.
“Twilight, what’s the matter?” Applejack asked.
“It was all my fault. All the events we’ve been through, he more or less made me just set them up. I made sure Rainbow Dash would wake up in her’s, took something that would kill her in Pinkie’s, activate the spell that allowed him a first way to the past in Fluttershy’s. He cast a rage spell on me, cutting his skin and leaving a second link to the past in Applejack’s, and I destroyed a stone pillar that caused the end of the world in your portal Rarity. And worst of all, he talked to me as though nothing was going on, stalling me long enough to make me the third link to the past he used!” Twilight blurted all the events through her tears.
“Oh now, Twi, ain’t your fault. I reckon whoever this ‘he’ is, has had this planned for a long time. He just tricked you, is all.” Applejack tried to reassure her.
Above, the sounds of screams and explosions filled the air. The six friends looked at each other, before running out of the basement and into Ponyville. The sight that confronted them made them all recoil in horror.
Ulysses now stood down the street from the library, a dark magic energy swirled around him. This magic changed into claws and was either destroying buildings with magical explosions, or grabbing ponies. As they watched, one claw grabbed Ditzy Doo, and threw her against a building, while another picked up a yellow earth pony, and threw him through a window of somepony’s home.
“I thank you, Twilight Sparkle. You aided me in setting my plans, putting them into motion, you gave me the chance to confront you six now, and take my prize,” he advanced towards them slowly, the dark magic continuing to harm ponies and destroy buildings, “the Elements of Harmony. Give them to me and accept your fate!”
They all stood on the spot, pure fear keeping them from acting, as Ulysses advanced towards them. A glow around the necks of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity, along with a glow on the head of Twilight Sparkle, turned into the elements of harmony. Twilight smiled.
“Quick girls! We still have the elements. Get in formation!” Twilight said aloud.
But it was not to be. As she channeled her magic into the element of magic, six dark claws appeared from the ground before them, five of the claws grabbing the elements of magic, generosity, laughter, honesty and kindness. The sixth claw had trouble, as Rainbow Dash kept flying out of its reach.
“Sorry I’m late, but I had to get my crew ready.” Sunshine Blaze said as he landed beside Twilight.
“Late? He has five of the elements of harmony! You’re more than late!” Twilight shouted at him.
“Ok, yes, sorry again. We’ll handle that later. Now, we gotta run. You, blue,” he pointed at Rainbow Dash, “carry Applejack. And Fluttershy, you take the white one. I’ll grab pink.” He paused, then blurted, “Actually, no. Fluttershy, you take Applejack, so the two who I know the names of are together. Blue, take white. And purple,” Sunshine Blaze looked at Twilight, who was staring at him with a frustrated scowl, “I need you to teleport to a beach, you’ll know its the right one when you see a ship with a rough looking crew, got it?” he asked.
“How’d you know my name?” Pinkie chirped.
“What will that…” Twilight begun to ask.
“Do you want to stay here and die?” Sunshine Blaze interrupted.
Twilight groaned in anger, and cast her teleport spell, disappearing. Sunshine Blaze turned to face Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, noting that somehow, a purple and green baby dragon had got onto Rainbow’s back. He didn’t ask as he flew to Pinkie Pie and with his legs, lifted her off the ground.
“Follow me and fly as fast as you can. Your life does depend on it!” he said, flying away, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy following quickly behind him, and all three avoiding attacks sent their way by Ulysses.
Ulysses came to a stop, watching as Sunshine Blaze lead Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy away. He frowned, and turned his attention to Cloudsdale.
“She may have been quick enough to keep the element of loyalty away from me, but I will not let you take her away that easily, Blaze.” he muttered, and his horn begun to glow a pure black. |
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