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Darkevony	768	8	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:42+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:42+00:00	1,480	A grand stallion stood proudly at an edge of a cliff, his cape swaying in the wind, and sunset looming over the sky in its bright presence, dark clouds forming quickly. His sky-blue mane swayed gracefully in the wind, his white coat lighting the encroaching night. Multiple blood-red shards on his flank all facing away from each other, their ends pointing to the center, making a sharp pointed circle as a cutie mark. His heavy looking gold armor battered and cut. He wore a grin of certainty. Beyond the cliff, darkness reached out, trying to get to the stallion, an entire valley misplaced by the two timeless rivals. A grand Ali-corn stallion facing his rival. Its coat dark as night, and its mane as bright as day. A Solar eclipse as its cutie mark. It eyed his rival with an anticipating look. The cutie mark of the illuminating stallion started spinning endlessly. An unnatural force began to form around him. The Ali-corn's solar rim burned. Their cutie marks as active as their energy. Their muscles stiffened. Then the two disappeared instantly. Leaving no trace of an existence in their wake. Thunder boomed the dark clouds became illuminated by multiple flashes of white, then different colors. Red, Yellow, Green, Purple, Blue, Pink. The bright colors beautifully swayed endlessly fighting the white flashes. Then the clouds burst. A giant white circled encased the illuminating stallion. The Ali-corn dashed with its entire might, making a tremendous crackling of lightning, a great rainbow thunder forming at its back. The speed was too much... thousands of crackling booms filled the valley as the heavy force rushed towards the light shield. When it struck, a massive sphere of a rainbow including white circled the area, spiraling madly and destroying great portions of the land. Then it shrunk from little to nothing, the two ponies falling fast to the ground. The earth split as the two fell, causing craters and fissures. The illuminating stallion stood up slowly, walking over to the defeated Ali-corn. He stood in front of him. Panting and smiling with a victorious grin. ~~~~~~~ A small and young Ali-corn ran through a meadow, her dark celestial mane bouncing off her night black coat. Her panting showed her worry. Too hard at breathing, it seemed she was in a hurry. The small mare stumbled on her legs when she heard the crackling boom of lightning. She desperately looked up for signs of anything. Dark clouds began to show many colors, a beautifully dreadful scene. She stopped forcefully as she reached the edge of a hill, going down into a big valley. She slid down the edge wanting to get closer to the spectacle. Before she knew it, the clouds split, a pure white sphere circling the sky. She screamed with all her lungs to the Ali-corn stallion who was building up force and speed, causing thousands of booms as he trailed. Then she sunk into despair as he hit the white sphere dead on. No regrets. A sudden light of different colors and white of tremendous forced quickly gaining distance to her. She tried running but it was too fast and too sudden, it encircled the small Ali-corn. The pressure felt like a thousand supernovas going off in front of you. It was too much... then a rainbow colored light started glowing from the chest piece and helmet she was wearing. It bursts, leaving no trace of it. Then the light stopped, it shrunk back to where the white sphere had been, two ponies fell heavily to ground, causing a powerful fissure to shred the Earth beneath them, making the small Ali-corn flinch back. Then without hesitating, she ran towards the defeated Ali-corn. ~~~~~~ The White stallion's cutie mark now contained an enclosed circle to the spikes. Every spike faced the defeated Ali-corn. The illuminating stallion looked down towards his defeated advisory, his victorious grin showing no signs of pity. He raised his hoofs, ready to give the last blow, but he was interrupted by a small black Ali-corn. The young mare cried her heart out as she threw herself to his rival. "Out of the way girl. I won't hesitate to destroy you too." he said to the young mare sharply. "P-p-please d-don't k-kill him!" she cried out, stuttering from the weeping. The bigger Ali-corn painfully coughed regaining his consciousness. "Get away from here" it struggled to say. The young mare looked at him, tears rolling down her face uncontrollably. "D-dad.N-n-no. I w-won't l-leave you!" The stallion Ali-corn put his hoof to the young mare, a purple celestial fire burned into her horn. "Oh, giving your power to that pathetic kid to save your legacy are we? It's just too fun. I guess I'll have to kill the girl as well." the stallion snarled out, approaching the young mare. "Run..." the defeated Ali-corn said, pushing away his daughter. She obeyed, running as fast as her legs could carry. A pure white fire sprang in front of her creating an impassible wall. She flinched back, dropping to her back, the stallion slowly walking towards her. She closed her eyes as he stood in front of her, his intentions visible in his yellow golden eyes. Then, he shrieked in pain. The small mare quickly opened her eyes to see her father, his horn sunk into the illuminating stallion's coat, taking him by surprise at his blind side. Then a purple flash burst all three of them apart. "What did you do?!?!" the white stallion angrily screamed out. "I sealed your fate with mine." he said, making the white stallion's eyes shrink in more fear and shock than pain. "My only regret.... is that I couldn't have been a better father." he looked over to the small mare, looking at her father with dreadful expression. Then the Ali-corn's horn started to shine powerfully, illuminating the entire valley in a purple light. A huge wave of powerful magic burst, tossing the small mare away. When it was over, the two ponies were gone. "Daddy!!" the young mare screamed over and over. "Why!!" she screamed until she lost her voice and cried herself to sleep on the ruins of the valley that once was. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Illuminous quickly woke up, goose bumps still clearly noticeable from the vivid vision. His hoofs were shaking, yet he couldn't stop it. His emotions were filled with complete dread. Who were they? That white stallion looked like himself..... Yet the shards on him were blood red. What happened? He started to wonder endlessly why he was having these constant visions. He feared going to sleep now, all of them seemed so.... dangerous.... and so troubling.... every single one seemed to somehow be connected to him. Illuminous looked around, spotting a yellow Pegasus. His heart calmed down, and his mind cooled off. He smiled seeing Fluttershy peacefully sleeping. So cute. He lied back down. And before he could shut his eyes, he heard a familiar voice, cracking like it usually did. "Hey, I found them!" the rainbow colored Pegasus called out from the sky. He rolled away farther from Fluttershy and stood up. Surely enough, the gang of friends appeared from the trees, relieved to see them both. "We we're all so worried!" The gang of mares hugged him, emphasizing their previous statement. He blushed a little, still not being comfortable around mares, especially if there are 5 of them hugging him at once. "Don't wake Fluttershy yet, she is still recovering." he said seriously. "Why what happened?" "We got attacked, I was able to fend them off, if it wasn't for Fluttershy though." he explained, keeping his abnormal power on the down low. "Attacked?!" The group of ponies all said alarmed. "I can't explain now, the best thing to do is keep going and reach the safety of Canterlot. If it has any." "Oh...okay, Princess Celestia's guard will protect us no doubt." Twilight said, making Illuminous flinched. He didn't know who to trust... all he knew was that he couldn't trust himself, that power.... last night.... it overtook him... that wasn't him.... Illuminous kept walking until he reached the road again, the trailing ponies all looking worriedly at Fluttershy who was being carried by Illuminous + his baggage and Fluttershy's. He had surely become stronger. No one said a word until Twilight pointed out something. "Your cutie mark... its different now!" she exclaimed. He turned to stare at it. Two shards we're now facing against each other, like the arms of a compass. This frightened him deeply for an unknown reason, closely related to last night's vision. The fear must have shown in his eyes. "Is something wrong Illuminous?" Twilight asked. He shook his head in reply. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just worried about Fluttershy." "Could you please tell us what happened? Maybe I could help..." Illuminous stopped to stare the purple pony. "She'll be alright, there wasn't any harm done to her, she just needs a good rest." his tone dead serious. "Oh... alright." The purple pony shyed away. Fluttershy woke up right when he wanted her to, he didn't like being firm, it was bad for his image, and he didn't want his friends to think badly of him. The yellow Pegasus opened her eyes slowly, taking in the view, and then finally realizing on whose back she'd been riding on. Illuminous knew exactly when she woke up, even if he couldn't see her when looking ahead. Somehow... he was more connected her. He let her down gently and the group of mares hugged her like they'd done to him. "Thank Celestia your awake Fluttershy, we we're worried that something bad might have happened to you," they said as they all looked at her, not having a single scratch. "Well it was thanks to Illuminous, he saved me from some goons." she explained. "Two acts of heroism already, you really are something." Rainbow Dash said with admiration. Illuminous flushed as they all praised him. "It was nothing really..." he tried countering. "Oh but it was! He snapped me out of a trance that those meanies put me in." Fluttershy continued explaining, somehow, he knew she was trying to do it so that they would accept him more. But it really wasn't helping him. He just blushed even more. ----------- Fluttershy walked next to him the entire way, staying close to him. He could feel the other ponies wonder about them. Which didn't really matter at this point but somehow it still felt rather uncomfortable for the poor colt. When they exited the woods, the magnificent castle came into view. Its beauty outshone the mountain itself. It stood as a golden and marble beacon of glory and greatness. This truly was an amazing sight. It towered majestically over the land below. Whatever withheld the giant palace it must be a huge effort because no further logic could sustain something of that magnitude, but ever since he reached Ponyville logic hasn't exactly been on his side. Still though, it was an amazing sight to behold. Everyone groaned when they saw the giant stairs they had to climb. Twilight shyly apologized since she was flown to Ponyville and had never seen the stairs much less had to make the long trek up. Conveniently, Twilight placed a spell on them that made them lighter. She was good at magic, which would explain her cutie mark. It made it so that they wouldn't be so tired when walking up, which totally made the difference, Fluttershy had decided to climb instead of fly like Rainbow Dash, sticking close to him like before. This brought him that hidden joy. ---------- When they finally walked up the stairs, everyone was amazed and by the wonders of Canterlot, but no one was just as amazed as Illuminous himself. This was something he treasured, something he adored. A tear escaped his eyes; he remembered how his father wanted to come to Canterlot with his little sister, for his mother... This was... his dream, their dream. He only regrets not having his family at his side. Applejack slowly came up to him. "What's wrong sugarcube?" she asked him worriedly to why he was crying, he turned to see her and realized everyone was looking at him with the same expression of worry. "It's nothing, it's just... My mother always wanted to live in Canterlot, my father and my sister... we were supposed to come here..." his tone quiet and sad. This really did affect him heavily. But he was happy. He smiled, and laughed a little as the tears rolled down his cheek. Everyone stared at him, with a look of worry and confusion. "I do admit. This is great!" he said jumping around, going up to the golden street lamps and placing his forehead to see his reflection. Everyone laughed and followed his blind lead. He went everywhere, to a local donuts shop, then to a big ice sculpture that never melted and accidentally placed his tongue on it curiously wondering what it tasted like since it was made of ice. This didn't turn out so pretty. Of course, he didn't know it himself but it seemed he saved the best for last. The Grand Castle. "My dad you used to tell me of an awesome party called the grand gala that Princess Celestia would host sometimes." he said excitedly. "Trust me, it isn't so great." Everyone said with a laugh. Like a little filly, Illuminous ran up the grand castle's stairs with his eyes, only to fall back by the spears of two guards. "Oh it's okay, we've come to see Princess Celestia, and she requested our presence." Twilight said pulling out the note from Princess Celestia herself and showing it to the guards. They lowered the spears. "Please proceed" they said simultaneously. Illuminous quickly turned to his filly self again only to be bumped back by Princess Celestia herself who stood waiting at the front. "My pardons Princess." Twilight said for Illuminous as they all bowed. Illuminous only stood staring at the amazingly graceful Ali-corn who stood before him, his eyes starry with wondrous joy and glee. "And who would your new friend be?" Princess Celestia asked smiling warmly over at Illuminous, her voice sweet and gentle. Strong and firm. Everything that you'd expect from a thousand year ruler of Equestria. "I'm... I-I'm Illuminous" he said, lost at words by the grand presence. "You are not one of my little ponies. I've never seen you in Equestria before." Princess Celestia bellowed to him. "Oh uh... well I didn't come from Ponyville or anything. I lived with my father in a quiet isolated forest not too far from Ponyville with my sister." he explained. Princess Celestia stood quiet, examining this new pony in front of her. Her face turned grim when she saw his cutie mark. "Your father... was he... Sir Levan?" she said, this being the first time in years hearing his dad's true name. Illuminous nodded. "He served as a loyal guard not only to me but to Equestria itself. I'm truly grateful for his services and he will be missed dearly." Princess Celestia said lowering her head in respect for a fallen. This struck the deep levels of Illuminous. How did Celestia know that his father had....? "If you don't mind me asking Princess... but how do you know about the events with my father?" he asked. Without reply, Celestia looked over to the gang of ponies behind her. "I'm sorry girls but important matters have been raised. I'm going to have to cancel the tour of Canterlot until another time. But I will need your help." "It's alright Princess, Illuminous took everyone for a ride of all Canterlot already. And what for?" Twilight responded for the group. "Just follow me. I fear that dark times are upon us. And I'll need everyone of you," she turned to face Illuminous who she seemed to be including as well, her voice and expression dead serious. There are many things you must know. =========== (Author's note: Alright, I made a 1k word filler which was just the vision at the beginning, but since due to current events, I had to finish it up. Anyways. I hope you enjoyed. My fingers ache from the effort I've been placing on this lately. :3 Good aching. I had to reboot my computer and it took ages to update and install the things I wanted. So I finished this at the late of night. My computer kept crashing for some reason, but no more, which I'm glad for. Been listening to "Woodkid- Iron" this entire time. Such an awesome song. Till next time!)
Darkevony	768	9	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:45+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:45+00:00	1,678	The graceful Ali-corn walked silently, still portraying that seriousness in which she had introduced herself with. Whatever the matter was, it was serious. Not because she was the ruler of Equestria was he going to suspect that being serious is a part of what a ruler should be. No it wasn't because of that, it was mostly thanks to his friends, who had a sense of worry above their heads. He could somehow sense their unease at the Ali-corn's serious demeanor. This wasn't natural to them, so it wasn't natural to him either. Her beautiful mane swayed in the air. Strangely, this kept his thoughts busy of all things bad. It was nice taking his mind off of current events. They weren't as calming and pretty as he would've liked them to be. There was still two major parts to what was going on inside his head. The awesome and the pretty bad. The awesome told him that he was in Canterlot, and he was in front of Celestia, and also that Fluttershy was around. This was more than anything he dared dream of as a child. The awful side told him that the vision felt increasingly... dangerous... as time passed on. Not to mention that they are becoming a night's rest major topic of his restless sleep. And on a minor subject, he was hungry down to the bone, realizing that the last thing he had to eat was Fluttershy's soup which he could still picture and taste. Although that made him more hungry, it still somehow managed to keep his mind straight through the endless rumblings of his stomach which thankfully, no pony has heard of, which spared him a great deal of embarrassment. There are two types of embarrassments that he has been able to clearly point out. Being praised, although flattering, he just didn't like for other ponies to think highly of him. That was inevitable by Rainbow Dash's conversation every time his name popped up and with a lot of help from Fluttershy as well, and also being sought as in some form, kind of pathetic. Far as he knew, no pony had eaten anything since their trip, or at least Fluttershy. They probably could've had a snack when they woke up the morning after his unexpected show down with the Shadow Bolts, which he still dreaded to think about. He wondered about what the other ponies were feeling right now. Then his mind straighten itself out again as he realized that they might've been worried about Princess Celestia's unconventional outburst of seriousness that seemed to be so uncommon and rare that surely would be uneasy to be around if you knew the Princess herself in an everyday or regular basis situations. Then he went back to wondering what Celestia was thinking about. Surely she knew about his father since he had been an ex guard. And maybe he could find some answers from her as well. Whatever that thing was, and whatever the visions might be, he needed to tell her, not in front of anyone though.... A great sense of danger would overwhelm him from the visions after and whatever memory he still had of them. The least he wanted was to see his friends injured. No... He wouldn't stand for that. He had to tell Celestia... she has to know about this... and if there is even the slight possibility that she could somehow help him rescue his sister... nothing would get in his way of saying it. Except maybe, a series of unfortunate events. This later made him focus on other things like how hungry he was due to a servant pushing a cart full of sweets and other goods with his nose. He did an unexpected turn towards the servant, greeting him with some sort of new self-esteem that he'd acquired, mostly because the servant was another colt, still unsure why he felt strange around mares. Focusing on the matter before hand he did small short jumps towards the cart. "Oh hey hey!! Psstt heeyyy!!" a big grin splattered all over his face trying to reach the servant's ears so he'd stop before leaving off on a corridor he didn't know. The servant turned around, a humble face of a regular colt turned to him, unlike the defined and picture perfect ones of the nobility around Canterlot. He shook his hand wildly, grinning like a mad man, trying to make himself as enjoyable to this one pony to maybe get something off that cart just because the colt liked him. This didn't turn out to effective since a strange look of "Oh my god he is so strange! Get away from me!" filled his expression. "Oh uh... I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you. Ya see, I've been on this journey and I haven't had much to eat since like..." he paused recalling certain events. His eyes grew in awe at himself. "5 days now." He turned to look at Fluttershy for the amount of day's confirmation that he'd been without eating. Then he felt pretty stupid. Very stupid indeed. Every pony was looking at him with rather amused smiles. Even Princess Celestia. It seemed she snapped out of her extremely serious, serious pants form. She had that warm smile she had greet them with before. "Oh my, it really has been 5 days hasn't it? I guess we've just been so busy we have forgotten about it." Fluttershy said, sensing his deep wonder about the subject, although he was blushing from humiliating himself just there. (By the way, ponies have bigger stomachs than said. If the Soup had filled him up, it would be like he hadn't eaten anything for 2-3 days. And then since Equestrian days having unspecified time calculations then who knows right?) With everyone still watching him, and him watching them, he slowly took an apple from the cart and stuck it in his mouth and went over to them, sitting his flank on the ground waiting for some response from any pony if it was okay or not so he could just spit it out before taking a bite. Everyone laughed at his silliness which in term made him feel good. Celestia chuckled to herself as she watched him. "If you were hungry you should've said something in the first place. Sir Cookie, can you send that cart with us please?" "But your Majesty. This request was from Prince Blueblood." the servant tried explaining "I think he can wait" she said giving the servant a wink which gave him a smile. "Thank you, your majesty" He eyed the cart very closely as the group of ponies walked down corridors and hallways, occasionally eating one or two treats on the side which earned an amused glance from the servant pony pushing the cart. "Princess Celestia, I was wondering... How does Canterlot stay balanced aside a mountain without as little as support?" he asked, a harmless question right? Wrong! "Well why doesn't Cloudsdale just drift away with the wind?" she responded back with a question which confused him more than he could already possibly be. She giggled to herself, like she had somehow expected his reaction. "Most of Equestria works with magic." Twilight said, easing his brain pain a little. "Magic?" he quizzically asked. "Magic is the hopes and dreams that every pony has. Although we cannot truly define what magic is, the safety and peace of Equestria lies within the wishes of all the resident ponies. All the strange and bizarre things you see in Equestria are the result of magic, the hope and dreams of a pony." Princess Celestia explained He thought to himself, tracing back to his victories of those corrupted. Magic... The hopes and dreams of a pony... isn't that what a cutie mark is? He glanced over to his flank, the bright shine of the two small yellow shards facing away from each other. Although still a mystery, he thought of what he wanted to do with what he still had of his life. And that was much more than he could wish for. Living isolated from everyone is rather difficult, since you don't ever think of what you want; you just do what you must to survive. But this was different, if he would've been alone, he wouldn't have fought back that Ursa Minor or the Shadow Bolts. He protected those he cared about. If anything, that's what he wanted to do. That's all he wanted to do. He noticed a definite change on his cutie mark. Two more shards appeared, those pointing away from each other but in the middle of the other one. It was like if each hand was pointing to one side. Like the compass rose hands. He didn't mention anything, Celestia's mane still distracting him from dark thoughts. Princess Celestia stopped at a dead end. "Sir Cookie, that would be enough of your loyal services, you can retreat to go tend to Prince Blueblood now. Thank you again." she said, waving off the servant pony that was happy to oblige eagerly. After the servant was out of sight, Princess Celestia turned to eye the dead end. A single wall that looked no more different than any around them, shining brightly like a marble wall should. Her horn started to shine and a square part of the wall suddenly moved, dust falling from the edges. A small walk way appeared leading down in a spiral staircase, illuminated by several green torches that sunk into one block of the wall. Without a word, Celestia continued her trek down the staircase and everyone followed. "What about the tray?" "You can take it with you" she replied back. He grabbed the cart with his mouth, pulling it down the staircase, making occasional bumps as it fell at each step hurting his jaws a bit more. Then it stopped as he hit flat ground. Everyone kept walking so he kept pulling the cart, looking backwards, and catching sight of the walls being bookcases of many many books, small orbs lighting the room in a soft glow. Then his bottom hit the side of a table, catching him a bit surprised and making him jump a bit into the air and go down by hitting the rim of the cart with his chin. Not such a pretty sight. Fluttershy instantly dashed to help him and asking if he was okay or not. He simply brushed them off by saying he was and that it was nothing. When he turned around, hitting the cart full on with his teeth wouldn't be enough to make him drop his jaw this bad. He stood before a dark blue coat Ali-corn with a sky-blue mane, a crescent moon for a cutie mark. Luna. He only felt himself get knocked out again by some unexpected force, but this time around, it was expected. He had this huge thing of being fan-struck to Luna, and being able to meet the Ali-corn, he would've died if it wasn't for everypony trying to help him to him up. He looked to stare into the sky-blue eyes of the Ali-corn he had spent ages wondering and thinking about. This ultimately made him shyer than his usual self and blush. It was like gazing at the beautiful night sky. It was amazing. More than amazing, a truly marvelous spectacle by all means. He stood up, her gazing eyes following his face. I'd be totally lying if I said he would have been composed. He was acting more like a little filly than the tough stallion he should be. He basically fell to the ground sideways again like some sort of stiff statue and rolled to the side until he hit a bookcase, then he turned his face towards the book case and covered it with the biggest book he could find. He was blushing up a mad man. It was like if her eyes had touched the inner him in a way he would never be able to explain. He heard an unrecognizable laugh. Cute and gentle, warm and so smooth. His heart burst at the sound. Why was she tormenting him so? They had just met and she was already giving such punishing blows to his sanity of what his emotions felt. There were just so many things he was literally dying to ask Luna. It felt like life was draining him every second he was missing the opportunity to talk to the whimsical Ali-corn that he'd spent a childhood dreaming of. He got up quickly and walked slowly and shyly towards the Ali-corn, having no eye contact, trying to be as confident; self esteemed, and composed as he could ever pull off in a thousand years. (Get it :D) Every pony looked at him like he had finally lost his marbles, except Fluttershy. Her expression was unreadable. It was a mixture of different things. She had been able to understand him and his feelings ever since he had read her thoughts. It was like some magical bond was formed between them. Even he didn't know what he felt, but whatever it was it, her expression made him feel guilty inside. He was still honorably excited to meet the Alicorn, A rush of joy growing ever more upon him. "Hi sister! You brought guests as well, pretty silly ones too" her voice as beautiful as her laugh and clearly stating him in the 'silly' part. "Well silly or not, I like him already, expected as the first born from Sir Levan and Lady Luminosity." This struck him harder than the fact Celestia had known of his father's demise. Even he had never known his mother's name! "Um, who?" he asked trying to see if he could poke some information out of her in some way. "I know you have many questions, and I will answer them all. Some things you might not like what you hear." she responded as if somehow she knew what he was feeling. "Luna, could you get me the Book of Elven?" The Ali-corn flinched as she heard the word. "Why would you need something of that sort?" "There is something I need to see." she said calmly, trying to hide anxiety. An ancient book got out of the bookshelves and floated in the air, into the magical grasp of Celestia and opened up at the tilt of her horn. "This book is encrypted. Even with any form of magic, it would take a long time to guide through its pages. I haven't set eyes upon in more than thousands of years. And even then have I never read its full contents of what it holds. There are things that I did understand. These concern the fate of the future. The book itself was given to me by Sir Levan when he first arrived to me. This might take me the entire night, and I offer for you to stay within the safety of the castle, I cannot allow you to leave. So please, make yourself at home. Luna, please escort everyone to their rooms." Princess Celestia went up to Luna and whispered something into her ear, then went back to studying the ancient book. "Princess, if it's not too much to ask... I was wondering if maybe I could spend the time with you. I won't be any trouble I swear. There are so many books I bet I can find something to read while you study." Twilight humbly asked the Ali-corn. Princess Celestia turned her gaze from the book over to the lavender pony who was pouring her heart into the request." By all means Twilight, I've wanted to get some time with you. I would love to have you as company." "As much as I'd like to stay, I want to fly around; I can't be cooped up in this low ceiling." Rainbow Dash stated while stretching her wings. "Also if it's not too much to ask, I was wondering if maybe... I could visit the garden surrounding the castle?" Fluttershy asked having full self esteem towards Princess Celestia. "Oh my, there are some amazing fashion designers in Canterlot; I wouldn't mind dropping a visit. I don't exactly want to stay in the castle after the events of the Gala." Rarity asked as well. "And I wuz wonderin if maybe I too could go on out. I packed a bit of apple treats that I'd like to sell for the time till we get home." Applejack pleaded. Celestial looked at the group of pony's begging eyes. She smiled and nodded. "I will have two assigned escorts for each of you though. They won't stay in your way but will supervise what you do and where you are. I cannot take any chances." she said, then turning to look at a pink pony who hadn't spoken all this time, which seemed really odd. "What about you Pinkie? Don't you wish to do something while in your time in Canterlot?" Pinkie Pie shook her head in response of a no and yawned. "It's okay Princess, I rather just go to sleep. I'm beat." Celestia smiled and waved the group of ponies off. Each one making their way out except for Twilight who talked about all sorts of things to Celestia as everyone left. Whole squadrons of Pegasi guards stood in the exit of the grand castle, filed neatly in two lines breaking apart as each pony made their way out of the castle. Pinkie Pie was escorted to her quarters by one guard. That just left him and Luna. "Will you need an escort your highness?" one of the guards said. "No thank you, I'm good for tonight." she replied sensitively as if not trying to offend them. They simply just walked away out of castle to guard any premises. He followed the Ali-corn up multiple stairs and walk ways, and then one that lead to the outside, a grand balcony. It reminded him so much of his home.... but he knew he was too Far From Home. A golden sunset stood over the edge of the horizon, almost escaping from sight. Luna's horn lit up in a purple glow. The constellations began to appear and the moon began to take its arc across the sky like every other beautiful night. He was at awe. He had never witness such an amazing spectacle. She turned back to look at him, his mouth literally open in amazement. Luna giggled. "You certainly are a strange pony." she said between laughs. "And your name is?" "I-I-Illuminous" he said stumbling at the sudden question and comment. "That's a wonderful name." she said gently, smiling at him. He felt his cheeks grow warmer. "Princess Luna..." he started, getting interrupted midway. "You can just call me Luna, I prefer it that way." she said giving him another warm smile. "Luna, in my life, I had heard many stories about Equestria from my father. Some good... but some bad." Luna gave out a sigh as she turned away from him and stepping closer to the edge of the balcony, as she had somehow guessed what he was trying to say. "Back then I had committed a horrible mistake. I was stupid. It's just... I felt so unloved... I would work hard to bring in the night to its glory, and yet, everypony would disregard it as an inconvenience. No one appreciated what I would do." "Your wrong." he said back to her. Catching her attention and making her look back to his gazing golden yellow eyes. "You're wrong; every day of my life I would stay awake nights just to be able to see the beauty of its wonders. I never believed my father's stories. He only spoke of the bad things. But seeing the night every day somehow made me feel like he was wrong. And being next to you now.... it only reassures me that." Illuminous' voice was strong and gentle, firm and assured of what he was saying. Luna blushed at his praise; it only made it harder to look into his eyes. There was just... something about him. "Thank you... that really does mean a lot... it wasn't truly my fault back then, yes I felt unappreciated. But that wasn't me...." Illuminous walked slowly up to the Ali-corn and gazed into her eyes. "I know that feeling, more than you could possibly understand. She looked back at him confused. Blushing as she stared into his eyes. "I had lost all hope of anything, and even now I admit, I don't believe in anything anymore... it's just been... different... ever since it had appeared..." "What did?" The Nightmare. ============== (Author's Note: Kay, this carried on a little longer than my usual chapters. But the more the merrier right? Anyways. I've been laying off for a while because i had to go to the doctor due to some chest pain. I might have a heart disease which will require some treatments and whatnot. But I'll do my best to try to finish up the chapters and end my story, even if it kills me... Literally. Anywho. I hope you all enjoyed this new installment of the series. I was listening to a lot of fun songs, which inspired me to add a bit of comedy to the story. But I'm bad at making a comedy so I will only include it ever so often. Hopefully the Illuminous drawing will be done by tomorrow. And I'm hoping even more to be able to edit my 1st chapter to perfection so it can be submitted to EqD. Thanks again for all of those who follow my story faithfully and to those who like my story, comment, and rate. Ratings are a big deal to me, if you like this story please rate it. You'd be doing me a huge favor and I'd have more morale to making these. Sometimes to tell you the truth I get a bit exhausted and ultimately dont want to do it. But I do it cuz I love it. Comment to let me know how you feel about it, I check up on the story quite often, and I love to hear feedback. Thanks again everyone!
Darkevony	768	10	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:48+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:48+00:00	1,352	The gentle, chilly air swayed through the air, swaying his hair back. A chill ran down his spine, the combination of the cold and the colder. The balcony did not give any protection from the wind, or the thoughts that now raced through his head. "The Nightmare?" his mind raced full of questions and thoughts. "I spent a thousand years with it, yet I still don't understand its thoughts or emotions, but when I was being controlled by it, it had so much pain and suffering. Anger and grief. It was too much... it didn't cast any spell on me... I guess it just made me realize my feelings of being unappreciated even more. As if it was enhancing those emotions with its own. Although it lay dormant in my imprisonment, it often spoke, giving me visions of things that happened long ago. They were awful... just horrible. Something I'd never like to see again." "Luna..." Illuminous began but was quickly interrupted by her. "It's okay... it ruined my life once, and I won't let it happen again. I saw what it wanted to do... and I want to protect everypony from it with my life." "What do you mean?" "Its planning to destroy everypony we know in order to... amend what has been lost." Thoughts and questions we're now so common in his conscience that it hurt even thinking. It all sounded too familiar... "You and me both." Luna turned back to look into his yellow eyes, deep with many different emotions. She could see it. Everything in them was what she had once felt. Pain, confusion, suffering, sadness. Not every single one was bad. Determination, kindness, praise. One she couldn't quite understand, but it made her feel... safe and happy. She blushed again. "W-what do you mean?" "Ever since I met everyone, problems have just been arising. Every night I have visions as well... except they feel so... dangerous." Luna flinched, like if she knew exactly what he was talking about. "Not only that, everyone has been kind to me, someone they don't even know. But I can't help to feel that somehow... my presence is making it all the worse." Luna smiled warmly. "I would say it isn't, and from what I could see, they're pretty close to you. I bet they care about you a lot. Even if they might not know you well, they're still worried about you. I don't think they would be happy if they lost you." His mind drifted to Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie pie. Even though he has hardly spoken to them, the only real difference he believed he made was saving Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Luna I... I want to tell you something." The beautiful eyes of the Ali-corn focused their attention onto him. "My father left a few weeks ago..." he tried continuing, but his voice thinned into nothing. "Where did he g-" she stopped her sentence as she could see the pain in Illuminous' eyes grow deeper. "My sister was kidnapped by the pony who took my father. All I had was them... I didn't know anyone else, of the world. All I had was them..." he said, taking a pause trying to regain himself. "If there is even the slightest chance I can save her, then I won't hesitate to stop... this is what I originally thought. But my time I have spent with the others has changed me. We had gotten attacked, not once but twice. The first attack was by an Ursa Minor, it was... corrupted in some way..." Luna's eyes widened as he spoke. "It had attacked Rainbow Dash, at the time I had felt so angrily I had just... lost my temper... and then I just... burst into a light. It felt unnatural and dangerous... but if it wasn't because of that power... I wouldn't have been able to save Rainbow Dash, or that Ursa Minor. When I had destroyed the corruption and darkness within it, I was able to communicate with it. It told me many things, some I couldn't understand. Only but one that said "The Key To Unlocking The True Potential Of The Elements." After that, we were attacked by 3 Pegasi. They were powerful. Even with the power from before I couldn't beat them, I learned that it only comes when I feel the need to protect my friends, the need to protect those I care about. When I had gotten beaten by them, I lost all hope. Fluttershy had touched my forehead with hers. And like I could have read her mind. Her thoughts and feelings... and that gave me hope. This light within me came again even stronger... more dangerous... that wasn't me... I'm afraid that if anything happens to anypony, I might be the cause of it." "I'm truly sorry... about everything you've been to. I.. I didn't know... And I'm sure you wouldn't hurt anyone. You're a truly wonderful pony. If you want to protect something you care about, you should protect it with your life. Just have faith in yourself. Faith in your friends who care a lot about you. If it's okay..." she put a hoof out in front of her. "I'd like to be one of those friends." A smile grew from all the gloominess of his conversation with Luna and he placed his hoof on hers. "Thank you Luna..." Illuminous chuckled a bit to himself. "Huh?" Luna wondered by the sudden change of attitude. "You know, I always admired you. I always believed you were good. No matter how many times they could've said that you weren't, I could never believe it... how can something so beautiful ever be so evil?" Luna blushed at his compliment and turned away to face the moon so he wouldn't see her face. "Sorry about that... sometimes I don't even know what I'm saying." "Oh it's alright... I kind of... liked it" she said in a tiny voice that was hardly legible. "What was that?" Illuminous asked since he wasn't able to hear it. "It's nothing." Luna said nervously. "I think I should get some rest. Care to join me Luna?" he asked at the door. "Oh no its fine, Tia is probably asleep alongside Twilight and her friends, I'm gonna stay awake until the sun rises." "Tia?" "Princess Celestia silly" she said giggling a bit. He rubbed the back of his head with his hoof in embarrassment. "You know, you're the only one that I've confided these things about. I don't know why it's just that... I feel like I can trust you... I usually don't speak my mind but... this is so much different... Thank you again Princess." Luna could not understand why she would blush at the simple 'Princess' title named by Illuminous after he had walked out the door. She spent her entire life within the walls of Canterlot Castle; she'd never met so much as a guard or a servant who had families and lives beyond the walls that were colts and stallions. The ones that didn't well, they weren't interesting enough or to say the least, not what she would be looking for. She had plenty of time to think on the subject, a thousand years of banishment leads you to think on the bigger things and even the small ones. There was just something about him; she felt so close to him... Luna turned to face the moon, recalling old memories of the past, wanting to keep it all at bay but it had been too much. It was all just too horrible. The only thing that seemed to bring her relief was seeing his smile... ------------ 'What now? We'll wait for Celestia when she wakes up and does more studying on that book. This hurts, every passing minute... that I'm not able to see her face... it rips me inside... what now... please... let Rosy be okay...' he thought in his mind. The beautiful moonlight showed its magnificence through the glass-stained windows, reflecting several black lines within the light onto the silky and smooth carpet that lay all through the castle. The corridors we're empty, decorated and colored brightly. Paintings of different ponies stood here, like the statues in the garden. The deep fall exclaimed itself from the windows, who looked straight down into the side of the castle and rim of Canterlot itself. He felt at peace with this view. He walked slowly, still trying to think of everything that was just so wrong but ultimately ended to thinking of Princess Luna and her words. He had planned from the start to have Celestia be the first one to hear about his visions, see how well that worked. He was naturally shy against anyone. Although his stomach got the better of him on the servant but with Luna... it was different that was for sure. He enjoyed the quite of the gloomy grand halls of the castle that ran through the long corridors. It had been a while since he last felt this peace. But like all things it must come to an end. He heard a small shriek, quite, soft, and gentle. It was the voice of Luna... ------------ The voice was coming from the very bottom, it seemed like she was all the way to the bottom of the Canterlot Mountain! He had no choice but to make a leap of faith and hopefully get there in time. The window shattered before him as he took on full force towards it. He caught side of the mountain and slid down at tremendous speed and picking up debris as he went by. He wouldn't let anything happen to Luna. She had suffered enough; he would protect her with his life. He stumbled upon the ground hard, knocking him around until he finally landed face first into ground with an unwelcoming sense of pain. He heard the small shriek again. It pointed him to a dark forest, the Ever-free Forest. How he dreaded that place already. He paid no mind to it and kept running, avoiding small branches and leaves that hanged making the run a little more difficult. He traced it down to a massive cave. It was protected by a shield of some sort. Magic. Not Luna's magic. It was strong and powerful. He couldn't see anything into it. He kicked the wall and nothing. Time was running short; he had to know what happened to the Princess. And then in sort of a miracle, he heard her voice in his head. "Illuminous... please save me..." her voice whispered, as if she was trying to cast a prayer to him. In vain he tried going into it, kicking it with all his might. It was too strong. Whatever made it, it wasn't good, and it surely was dangerous. He had to get in; the Princess is with not doubt in grave danger. No... He wouldn't let that happen... not to Princess Luna... His mind exploded into thoughts of Luna. All down to his childhood, and until now. They had only just met but he felt like he'd spent an entire life time with her. Under the moon, praying and wishing. And then, he began to feel it. Lighter, Stronger, Quicker.... Smarter! His mane and tail suddenly took on a fiery form of a pure white flame. Blazing up into the night sky, it illuminated like a thousand suns. His coat gained the glow. His eyes became pure white light. An aura of pure will surrounded him. Illuminous looked around, then he quickly remembered. This time... he was in control. He could feel it, the power and its dangers. But that wouldn't stop him. He knew what he wanted to do, and that was save Princess Luna. His vision was perfect. He could see every dent of the rocks forming the cave, the veins in each leaf blade. Everything. He spotted an extremely small rip on the fabric of the magic. Strangely enough he could see its composition. Without even thinking, a sudden bolt of light struck the small whole with such force, it echoed in a boom. It became much wider. He focused hard on it. A slash of white light ripped a line through the entire thing. He wasn't even moving his hoofs. What was this? Energy surged through him. He could feel it, this power was seeping into every aspect of the world around him, and it went into the air, to the rocks, to water in the ground, everywhere and everything. He could... bend it to his will. He could cause to flare up and burn, or harden to stone. Chill it to the bone, or change its composition into something new. Lift it into the air, and use it as a high speed projectile. With another slash of light, a way was open for the small pony to enter. Light repelled the shattered wall as soon as he stepped close to it. He galloped as fast as he could to the depths of the cave. Then he came across road points. They lead to different directions and different passages. All of the passage ways would twist and have several other ways that lead him to return to the same position. He stood within the middle, sure of what to do now. His aura sent out a small vibration that bounced off the walls. By using his energy to calculate the size of the passages when the small echo would return he would able to figure out the way without even trying. He could memorize everything; learn things out of the blue when the situation arose. This cave was like a labyrinthine, full of dead ends and mind stressing puzzles. But Illuminous just breeze by all of them. He could feel Luna... he could sense the danger she was in.... and there was nothing stopping him from going to save her. A giant hole that served as the gateway between his destination and him stood covered in giant boulders. There had been some sort of struggle. Luna wasn't weak, if anything, she'd at least try to protect herself. He couldn't afford to lose time. And time was running out quickly. He couldn't hear anything from her. Not even her heart beat. He focused his mind on the door way and stood down in a crouching position, a huge deal of power surged, painful and stressing for the body. It took a huge force. Then, a beam of light blew away the rocks and the door way was clear. He galloped inside at full force only to find Luna encased in a purple diamond shield. He recognized the spell for some reason. Whatever this power was, he had an increasingly huge amount of knowledge about arcane magic. It was weak though, like if it was hit before not once but multiple times. Luna was unconscious within it. It was a strong spell, even for an Ali-corn, casting it would take a huge force of will. He realized something, that power he used to blast away that doorway... it was magic... but whatever knowledge he received it did not include what he used. It was completely involuntary of him to be able to cast anything of the sort. Only Unicorns could cast magic... but he was nothing but a mere Earth Pony... he searched through his new found knowledge to find no answer to his questions. Then he turned his attentions to Luna. He placed his hoofs on the crystal and yelled out to her. It seems she heard him because she slowly awoke from her sleep. Her eyes grew small and fearful when she looked at Illuminous. The Crystal shattered and dropped the Ali-corn down letting Illuminous catch her fall. "I thought I heard you in trouble so I came to help you." he explained as she still stared at him with the same fearful eyes. "Run..." "What?" "RUN! JUST GET AWAY FROM HERE!!" Luna screamed out. "What do you mean you're not making any sense, just calm down and tell me what's wrong." "Don't die for me... just go!!!" "Wha-" Suddenly a loud roar echoed through the cave ferociously and an enormous black celestial bear appeared its eyes deep crimson and unholy. It was huge... much bigger than the one he had fought before. Its massive razor sharp claws scraped the ground as it thundered with each step. The black holes devouring the stars coated in its black night coat. A Corrupted Ursa Major. =================== (Author's Note: Good news! I got a better computer which runs 3x faster and is totally epic of epictrosity! I had a ton of stress. First all the tests in school, then going to the doctor and wait in the waiting area of the clinic for 4 hours just because other people had set appointments and were getting called in first, then finding that my old computer didn't work. I won't lie, I did cry from all the stress... it was just too much. But my mom is loving and caring and I owe everything to her. She bought me a new computer (just the hard drive a.k.a tower (That I'll pay monthly of course.)) Okay so my new computer didn't want to work EITHER. and it was a total freaking bummer. But then my best friend came over and fixed it. Ricky (a.k.a trollestia) is just an amazing friend all together, I couldn't be any luckier than to have met such an awesome friend. Even though he said not to pay him for fixing my new computer, I still did for some gas money. Which went to RP points for League of Legends. Jarvan x Sion Combo ftw! Aside from that, I'm pretty healthy, had some bloodwork and the only thing that was a bit over the high was triglycerides(fat from meats) which was because I had eaten before having the bloodwork and resulted a bit higher than it should have been. They'll be sending me to a heart specialist in a matter of days to be safe about my heart pains that I have ever so constantly. And Also I thank my wonderful sister who drew the Illuminous drawing you see above. Not what I originally picture but still amazing either way. It must have been a drag for her to draw it but I cannot thank her enough since I don't have any other artist to draw anything else. I still need the 2nd 3rd and 4th stages of the Illuminous transformations. \ And thats pretty much for my ramblings. Hope you enjoyed this next transaction of the story. Most of you probably get annoyed by all the damned cliffhanger endings that I seem so well to add in each ending of mine. At least I know Doctor Hooves is probably annoyed or he is "Me Gusta"ing it. :D Shout out to the one and only person who favorited my story :( Anyways. Thanks for reading and thanks for your time, It makes all the difference. Please comment, rate, or favorite it if you can or wish to. ^^ Thank you everyone Few things to say about the drawing. Kay so the glow around him is the regular glow of his 1st stage. as for the cutie mark well... thats somewhat of a spoiler. if your asking yourself "Why is there so many shards instead of just being 4?" Because there will only be 8 shards... but... you'll find out later why its like that :D. If you've payed attention to his visions you'd know to who it represents and what his cutie mark is "doing" big hint right there.
Darkevony	768	11	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:51+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:51+00:00	1,325	The massive beast eyed his foe carefully. There was no need to be tactical in a fight like this. He was clearly outclassed. A small pony vs. an enormous demonic bear that had the potential to destroy cities within one slash of a mighty swing. Illuminous stood in fear, whatever it was doing, it was intimidating alright. Its eyes bore malevolence, that of pure evil. An unholy and crimson aura stood in them, looking at him closely as if it was determining the best cause and effect scenario. It appeared as the Ursa Major was confused; it just stood there... thinking. He could feel the thoughts. They we're powerful... extremely powerful. It would overwhelm him soon if he didn't act now, but he couldn't risk getting Luna hurt. All he could do was stand his ground and resist. A black fog rose from the cracks of the cave ground, twisting and turning in a vicious cycle and formed a shape of an Ali-corn, a red glow were the eyes should be. Illuminous shrank into total despair. He knew well who this was... he felt more fear than hatred towards the being. Not because he has seen it once but twice. It's like he had spent an entire lifetime with it. Then it spoke... "So very kind of you to turn yourself in to me, you really do have a death wish, boy." a hundred voices spoke at once, all in a different tone or pitch of sound. It sounded like a cluttered and synced mess, something beyond pony comprehension, yet he could understand every word of it. Dark with evil and what seemed like despair, the voice frightened Illuminous; it was something like out of his nightmares. (No pun intended) "W-w-what do you mean?!" he tried controlling his fear and anger. The hundred voices laughed simultaneously, sheer fear running down him. This was unnatural on all levels of the word. "Oh please, are you that naive? Or you so foolish you haven't seen through my darn obvious intentions ALREADY. And here I thought you knew exactly what you were doing when you defeated not one but four of my most powerful creations, but here you are clueless as a tree stump. Worse than dirt. Your father was a fool to cast his protection onto you." A thousand voices of anger and hatred grew inside him that it burst his mind. He kept calm, trying to calm the overwhelming fire within his mind. He was struggling, so much that he had to lower his head as if his neck was weighed down. He hadn't noticed Luna until now, who looked at both of the figures, pure terror in them, that of sadness, grief, and anger. This only affected him a bit worse. "Whatever it's telling you, don't listen to it!" Luna cried out to him. She couldn't hear what she was telling him... good, the less Luna knew, the less of a reason she'd would want him to stay if he truly lost his temper. "A pathetic excuse for Sol himself. The curse has kept you alive this long boy... but I haven't spent thousands of years hunting what you are now just to wind up unsuccessful." "What are you talking about? What curse?!" Illuminous now confused down to the core, he didn't know whether to believe everything or disregard it for a lie. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER!" he screamed out. "You really are one pathetic clueless pony. I guess your father was too weak to show you the truth. And still is. Listen up; this might as well be your last chance to know it." It looked straight at him, thousands of visions rushed through his mind, of ancient times and years past. He screamed out in pain, and then he was overtaken by the visions until it was the only thing he could see. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A white stallion with sky-blue mane appeared upon a throne room its wall decorated in pure gold and dark marble, pure white flames lighting up the torches that hang perfectly measured torches alongside the design of the walls. Behind the throne, a giant tainted glass pane stood, the figure of a pony facing forward, its mane down sideways in all sorts of bright blues and greens. Spikes of white representing the light they emit. All of it felt so familiar to him, like if he could call this place home. Ferocious guards in bright gold armor stood at the doorways and the side of the throne. The white stallion sitting on it himself, blinding amounts of light shining from him. The doors threw upon to reveal a small colt being carried by identical guards. He was looking away, the light seemed to be too much for the poor beaten up colt that shivered in fear and looked starved to death. "Lord, the peasant was found harvesting private crops for himself." the rough and firm voice of the guard spoke. He was shocked; the voice of the stallion.... was his.... "Execution." "Please my lord! I was only trying to feed my family!" "Silence him and throw him out of my presence immediately." Without flinching, the two guards knocked the colt unconscious and dragged him out of the throne room. This couldn't be him... he could never do such a thing... he wasn't this cruel... no it wasn't true! Suddenly, a guard with different variation of armor but other than that similar to all the rest appeared. "My Lord, revolutionists have gathered in large numbers east from the palace. Your troops will be awaiting your signal to strike." he began, trying to be as careful as he could with his words. "A new spell that has been under conduction has been tested. It is a mixture between wind and fire elements. It causes a massive flame tornado to scorch anything in its path. Although it is high risk, it could destroy the royal city if it catches the wrong swift." "Carry it out, have no mercy." "But my lord!" "Silence, dare you speak against me and I will personally behead you." anger full in the white stallion's voice. The messenger pony walked out the door with his tail between his legs, following orders at best as his command. "Family is so annoying sometimes; I hate each and everyone of them. I'm glad I got rid of father. He was nothing but an inconvenience." the stallion said shortly after the messenger pony walked away, void of any heart or emotion. Illuminous loved his family; it was his life, the only thing he had ever cared about for his entire life! This wasn't him! It couldn't be! He loved his father... his sister... even his mother... all of them, this couldn't be him.... Then a single voice spoke calmly into his head, as if it sensed his anguish. He focused the voice to be one of the many in the hundreds of voices from The Nightmare. This was its true voice. "You are right, this isn't you. But he lives within you. You are a descendant. Just like myself, we do not have bodies we own, instead we roam. And now that you know the truth, you must understand why I must destroy you. You carry the curse, and I must eradicate it from this world once and for all." ~~~~~~~~~ He fell to the ground, utterly in exhaustion, despair, and pain. It was over before it even began. Everything he knew... if that Ursa Major didn't finish him off now, things would only become increasingly more dangerous. Not just for himself, for everypony... this was a fact he had held off in his heart, but the truth is too great to deny. The fog seeped back into the ground, disappearing as it gave way to the huge bear before him. This was the end for him. He cried, not because he was sad, but because he was confused. He loved his family, more than anything in the world. His father wasn't with him. Neither was his sister... why couldn't things just have stayed the way they were... why was all this happening in the first place? Because of him.... It was his fault alone. He carried the curse, whatever The Nightmare wanted, it surely was his demise. And thinking about it now, he could only agree. He stood still as the Ursa Major raised its massive paw above its head, waiting to strike with its full blow. But it hesitated. Illuminous was confused, why would it hold off? Isn't this what The Nightmare waited thousands of years for? What was keeping her from destroying him? And before he could ask another question in his head, they were all answered as Luna lay hugging him tightly, holding onto dear life. If the bear would strike, she'd share the same fate. "Luna... please let go..." "N-n-no! I-I don't want to l-lose you!" she cried onto him, not giving a sign of release. Illuminous smiled sadly. Here he was, with the one pony that could begin to understand what he felt, who would die with him if it she needed to. The pony he spent his life wondering and thinking about. The one pony that helped him realize just what he wanted to do. He wanted to protect everypony he cared about. He gazed into the beauty of Luna's eyes. If this was his time, he didn't mind dying... not for the one he loved. "Why did you come for me?" she said in between tears. Illuminous brushed off her tears, smiling warmly to comfort her. It didn't help; she could sense the sadness in his voice and eyes. "You told me once, that you didn't believe in anything anymore. The reason why I came to save you... it's because I wanted you to believe in me." Luna placed her forehead onto his (the horn is upwards of the forehead, don't worry it wasn't uncomfortable.) and a sudden rush of thoughts and emotions ran into him. "I do... I do believe in you... I never wanted you to get hurt... not for me... but I'm glad you're here now... but I'm also afraid I'll lose you..." her sweet gentle voice loomed over his head. "Your different... you could never be him... like you once told me, how can something so wonderful ever be so evil?" Illuminous smiled greatly. He didn't want to die... not yet... even with his death he knew this would never be resolved. If there was even the slightest possibility he could protect even the one person he loves. It was good enough. Illuminous stood up slowly facing the Ursa Major. He helped Luna to her hoofs and didn't let go of hers. The bear raised his other paw and let it force down into the ground causing a quake from the crushing rocks. A thunderous roar was directed to the two ponies that stood their ground. Together. Slowly, a glow began to form around him. It was different though... it felt untamed... wild... free. This power that surged through him... it was his... it really was his. It didn't feel dangerous anymore. It just felt... empowering. His mane took ablaze shortly after into a pure white flame. He felt, faster, smarter, quicker..... Stronger! Suddenly, the Ursa Major swung its paw at the two ponies. Illuminous took the brutal hit which knocked him into the cave wall, leaving a giant dent of rock and debris. Luna quickly ran up to him, relieved to see him okay. Illuminous placed his forehead onto hers again. "Cast a spell." he told her. Luna's crescent moon cutie mark began to glow. Luna as well began to glow. She began to word out unrecognizable words of what seemed like gibberish. All Illuminous had to do now is leave Luna to concentrate on her spell and buy her enough time. The Ursa Major swung again; he caught it and stood his ground, trying effortlessly to stay put while the giant claws began sinking into his coat. He only had to give Luna enough time. But as time itself passed by, it seemed harder and harder. This new found strength could not possibility be contained forever. And then, seconds before he finally began to grow weary, a giant explosion went off inside the cave. A powerful purple wave passed through everything, forcefully making Illuminous close his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, Luna was on the ground unconscious and sleeping, the Ursa Major had lost its black coat and crimson eyes, back to its regular self (which is still pretty intimidating). The Ursa Major licked Illuminous in a sort of a thank you, then it perked up its ears as both Illuminous and the Ursa heard the growl of something far away, the Ursa Minor who was calling out to his missing mother. The Ursa Major disappeared out of the cave mouth and into the forest. Illuminous placed Luna over his back. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. It didn't count since she was asleep but at least it made her smile while she was asleep. The crumbling sound of rocks within the cave began to form. It seemed the cave was collapsing from the battle from before. He galloped quickly out of the cave, making sure Luna wouldn't get disturbed by his running. A rock nearly fell on him on his way out but he could now freely control his power and sliced the boulder in two. He took away his glow and made the long arduous trip to Canterlot castle back to the big stairs. Since he didn't have a lightweight spell and he had Luna on his back, those two factors only contributed to slowing him down and leaving him exhausted. When he passed the front guards, they didn't even ask a thing when they saw the sleeping Princess on his back. It was really good mostly because he wouldn't know what to explain it to them. Then Illuminous proceeded to tuck Luna in to her own bed once they reached it. Too tired of the day's events, he drifted to sleep on the ground beside Luna's bed. He found it surprising it was just as comfortable. He sighed, finally relieved to get out of all that mess, but coming day break he must make sure to make his mind. Only the obvious pointed out survival, which could be the only one he would have to choose. He would have to leave everypony for good. ========= Author's Note: I tried my hardest to finish this chapter. Its 3 A:M and i'm half asleep. Sorry if half of my story sounds like a complete meadow muffin (manure). It was difficult to get both my brain and eyes together to type and think correctly. I liked the Illuminous x Fluttershy thing but, :3 I didn't emphasize certain things in the first chapter for nuthin, gosh I love Luna so much. Firefox Luna Theme, Desktop background theme. FIMFiction.avatar and facebook as well!. Also I'm gonna go visit a heart specialist to go get checked up. Hmm oh and something I'd really like to point out if you guys do read this author's note. Go visit my other story called "The Tail of Seven Bronies: Blazing Glory" that only has one chapter right now, but I'd like to go a bit further into it. Nay or yay to it ^^, I hoped you enjoyed this next installment and thank you very much again to my dedicated readers ^^. I'm gonna be extremely evil with all of you }:3 I'm gonna have this love triangle situation going on and later make you choose between the two. :D spoilers.
Darkevony	768	12	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:54+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:54+00:00	1,279	The light of dawn broke through his deep sleep as he sat up slowly from what had seemed one of his most peaceful sleeps till date. So far since all this craziness has happened he hadn't had time to get a good night's rest. You know, with his dreams being haunted by dangerous visions and all. Whatever they were, just like the power from before, his dreams felt free and pure, sort of like the ones he used to have when he was a child. When he had grown up, long after he was deemed as a young adult, his dreams began to vanish and were replaced by a dark void. In truth, that had been the first dream he has had in a very long while. His dreams consisted of two mares. Surprisingly enough, they weren't even the ones that you'd expect them to be. From having little to no interaction with some of the other mares, it was strange how Pinkie Pie and Applejack seemed to invade his one and only dream he had till then. He rolled over and fell onto the floor, taking with him a soft and comfortable black sheet with what would seem to have more than a hundred stars on it. He stared at the wooden leg of a small nightstand that held a single picture of Princess Celestia and Luna. Still in his sleep deprived state, he went over to a small room that had a mirror and a sink made of marble outlined in a trim of gold. Fanceh~ He looked up to see his reflection on the mirror. "Well, well, well. Good morning handsome. I think I owe you a kiss." he said as he loomed over to kiss his own reflection until a guard called for his name and a few knocks were heard. He pulled back astonished by the sudden call and quickly regained himself hoping that no one heard him. "Sir Illuminous, are you there?" "Coming." he said waltzing over to the door. When he opened it, two guards were standing at the door waiting for him, their expressions impatient and rather bored. "We heard some unclear noises and we thought you were awake. Princess Celestia has requested your presence in the dining hall when you're ready." The smaller of the two called out. "Ah I see... Tell Princess Celestia I'll be down in a minute. I have to wash up a bit." As the door finally closed, his memory began to form back. Wide awake now, he finally realized that he had woken up on a bed, he was pretty sure he slept besides Luna's bed the day before. And not only that, Luna wasn't here, probably down with Celestia. He sighed, mostly because this was not new to him; it happened often for the past few days were he would not know anything that had happened earlier. Somehow, things would just happen and he'd have one crazy afternoon trying to save someone again. He went back to the mirror and started looking at his reflection again. "Oh, it seems my mane has grown a tad too long." He said as his mane that reached all the way down to shoulder length. "My mane doesn't even grow that long in this short of time, I swear I had small mane just a week ago!" He looked at his long mane for a while, then out of nowhere, the tips of his mane started to glow pure white and vanished. Leaving his mane just the way he wanted it to be. Baffled by the sudden event, he concentrated even harder and then the white mane seemed to grow in white light and then replace it back to his original sky-blue. He was able animate his own hair. Now THAT was cool. He went over to the shower and stood under the faucet for quite a while until he finally decided to take a shower. Strangely enough, the knobs were in the shape of a moon and a sun. Wonder which one is cold and which is hot... Didn't want to know... Illuminous turned the middle knob in the form of a Solar Eclipse. Precisely warm as he would've wanted it to be. He let the mildly cold water run down his tense body. This was surely a blessing. He hadn't had time for hygiene so he was getting pretty dirty. (Hey, even ponies have to bathe kay?) Light reflected upon his clean coat, brightly illuminating everything around him. Ever since he was small, when he was really clean, he could do this sort of thing, excluding all the supernatural powers that he had been discovering lately which he even refused to think of, sooner or later though he would have to confront it. There was no way in any possible pony logic that he could contain so much magic yet... he wasn't even a unicorn or an Alicorn. This stood him out of the pony magic range. For an earth pony, he contained abilities that are well beyond reasoning and capability. He brushed away the thoughts and continued to walk towards the dining hall. He walked slowly, trying to keep the undesirable thoughts at bay as he counted and carefully stepped on each tile so his hoof would never step on a crack. He made his own way towards the dining hall, he could smell the food his stomach had so much begged for, and apart from his ears, and his nose was his second to greatest sense. Illuminous hesitated upon entering the towering light mahogany double doors that sat before him. Why had Celestia requested his presence? Why was he sleeping on Luna's bed when he woke up? Had things set in motion between him and Luna? What would Fluttershy think...? Illuminous finally realized this current situation... he was blindsided by two mares who had as much affect on him of dread as the nightmare had when he thought about that thin, emotional, and rather delicate subject that he dreaded between the two who now inhabited his mind more frequently than seemed comfortable. Even now was he not used to it, he had spent a life time without even hearing upon this sort of feeling. He felt love, but the kind of love that comes with family and that was just it. Whatever was in between it wasn't nearly powerful enough to compare to the feelings that kept arising with both of them. He gulped down his concerns and worries and pushes the heavy doors with his hoofs. Surprisingly they were really heavy. He had to push with all his might and as they swung open, he fell to his chin. The sound of chatter and clatter came to a stop. He felt so pathetic he just lied there with his eyes closed hoping someone would say something; instead, there was just silence. He got up and took a glance at everypony before him. In a sarcastic sense, surprisingly everypony was here, including Princess Luna and Fluttershy who sat one seat away from each other, in the middle of the two, an empty seat for one drastically unlucky white colt. Aside from that, everyone stared at him in pure awe. "Wow..." Rainbow Dash said still in awe. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?" Illuminous asked as he shoved his hoofs into his face a bit too hard and made himself fall over, consequentially it had just the effect he was hoping for as everyone laughed and giggled. Even Princess Celestia began to laugh, a mild but quiet laugh fit for royalty, but still, Friggin' Celestia was laughing! "You look absolutely stunning dear." Rarity's voice said as he regained himself, everyone nodding towards her statement. "I-I do?" "Positively stunning, what did you do to your mane and coat?" she asked again. Illuminous looked over to his mane. "Oh you mean this, I usually look like this when I step out of a shower, as for my mane watch." he said as he concentrated his thoughts on his hair and right before Luna and Fluttershy could stammer and stop him, he grew his hair back to its original form, which left a lot of gaping mouths. 'Damn what did I do?!' His mind began racing with some sort of excuse... damn he screwed up. "Princess Celestia I can expl-" and just as he had began, he was interrupted by Celestia herself in a normal and not nervous voice. "Oh listen up everypony; I managed to decipher a part of the Elven book. This is why I called you in together for, attention towards me; I need you all to listen carefully. Oh there was just no denying the Celestia's request once she had made her voice so firm and commanding like that. It could have literally boomed through the entire castle if she had wanted to, and only if the situation arose. No matter how much they were astonished by the display from a bit ago, there was just no denying her. Illuminous' heart was racing harder than his mind was, he quickly removed his hair after everyone lost sight of him and sat down quietly in-between Fluttershy and Luna. He could hear both of their hearts beating just as hard as his was, and everypony else trying their best to keep sight of Celestia rather than him. "Before we begin, I would like everyone to eat, you can't run on an empty stomach." she said looking towards Twilight and what seemed like an eyebrow rose. Twilight blushed in embarrassment and shyly laughed. "Your right Princess." Just as she had said it, several servants appeared carrying silvers trays and laid them upon the empty table that was neatly decorated with flora vases and gold chandeliers. Then they all simultaneously removed the silver casing out of the trays and inside were the most delectable and delicious looking pieces of art that comes from cooking. One platter was filled with slices of apple spiraling toward the center, then a platter in the middle to support another row and finally ending it with a small bowl full of something sweet and creamy and smelled strongly of cinnamon, another platter full of salads including cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, and tomato, another one full of fresh fruits like watermelon, oranges, peach slices, whole peaches and fresh strawberries and blueberries. Another platter that seemed specifically made for a special pink pony, full of sweets and candies and lollipops. He quickly got up, without even asking anyone, he walked towards the fruit platter which was in between Pinkie and Applejack, taking his plate with him, and he served himself plenty of fruits. Then he walked over to the one filled with candy and grabbed one lollipop and a piece of pie, and continued to walk over to the salad and took plenty of greens. He placed his plate down now full of delicious things and placed it down and took his seat. Everyone stared at him. "You could've just asked sugar cube." Applejack stated on behalf of everyone. "Where I come from, we folk like to do things ourselves." He said with a big grin in his face as he tossed a slice of peach in the air and tried catching it but fell on the side of his cheek and slid off his face and he went down to the ground with it, trying to catch it before it took the leap of fate. He grabbed it a wince a way from touching the ground, and as he pulled himself up to eat, everyone stared at him again. Oh he was on the spotlight today! He slurped the slice of peach slowly as everyone began to giggle and laugh. "Ah ya got me." Pinkie said with a snorting laugh with her face covered in a bit of the peach juice that had traveled across the air after he had absent mindlessly thrown it into the air. Illuminous quickly got up and walked over to her and took a napkin which he later used to wipe her face of gently. "I'm really sorry Pinkie; I didn't think it would make a mess onto any pony." Pinkie just laughed. "Don't worry silly, it was funny and fun. As long as it wasn't intentional and in good fun right?" Wow, he was getting a lecture and philosophy given to him by Pinkie Pie, the strangest pony in the group, even stranger that on their entire trip she hadn't laughed at anything and hadn't said anything strange or her behavior hasn't been as expected. What freaked him out the most was that there was two specific pair of eyes staring at him, not in the evil or angry way but more of a slightly disappointed one. He could sense it... even if he couldn't see it. He instantly guessed it was because he was cleaning Pinkie's face without letting her do it on her own. He put the napkin down and waltzed back towards his seat. He felt the hoof of another pony on his right side onto his as he was eating parts of his salad. He slowly glanced towards Luna who was gazing at him, her beautiful emerald eyes were full of things he couldn't explain, but he felt himself blushing and then the hoof was quickly taken off as Princess Celestia raised her head from eating a soup. He slowly turned away unsure of what to do. He looked toward his left where Fluttershy was sitting. She looked up and towards him as she had finished with her salad, her bright emerald eyes staring at him with just much emotion. Was this torture or was this heaven? The world will never know. He came up with the simple conclusion. He had an apparent love for green eyes mostly because the ponies he loved also had green eyes, both of them seriously... Illuminous' blush didn't fade away and just started licking the big lollipop he had gotten before, hoping he could get his mind off the subject. There was no question about it, he knew for a fact that they could read his mind just as he could to them, the only difference is that they knew exactly what he felt and to him if he even dared try he would get bombarded by a series of emotions that are completely new to him. There was no way of knowing for certain. He tried but in vain, he felt the hoof of Luna's at his right side, and suddenly Fluttershy stretched her wings, leaving them open, moving them ever so often tickling the side of his thigh. Oh gosh, either they were doing it on purpose being together and torturing him like this or they were completely clueless of the situation. That or it was some sort of rivalry he had slept through since the sun started to sink into the horizon outside as he realized he'd slept through the entire day. His thoughts thankfully shifted to wondering how Celestial felt about that. Those thoughts sadly didn't last long as the small but very effective physical abuse that Luna and Fluttershy were giving him increased. Dear Celestia stop this. And just as he thought, so it happened. It was like Celestia could read his mind, and he couldn't read hers so, what a bummer. "Now that everything is in order, I'd like to discuss with you all a few things." The tickling and hoof battles stopped as everyone turned to stare at her. "The book of Elven foretold the time of a prophecy, yet I have not been able to decrypt everything from the book, and I will surely get back to it tomorrow, there were a few bits of important information that I managed to obtain." her voice shifted from her firm commanding voice towards more of a weary and dreading voice. "Just as I had felt before, dark times are upon us. It doesn't mean however that we cannot fight this new threat. I don't know exactly what looms over our future and what is trying to destroy Equestria's peace but I do know that the start to salvation start with all of you." The room was filled with an intense aura even with the small speech she had just given. Celestia turned to face Illuminous who was just as intent as everyone else. "I never believed it since there was never proof, even with your father at my side. I never would've thought that his stories would actually be true... but as I see you now, you've proven to me that this is no longer just an old pony's tale, this is reality." her voice turned back into its firm self, grave with worry. "You are from a race that vanished long before Equestria set its foundation, to the old kingdom itself. You are the last living relic of the ancient civilization..." You are a Lumineciant, descendant of King Sol of Elven himself. ================= Author's Note: I think I committed suicide trying to edit and review my stories. But I still think they are imperfect in so many levels. Sorry everyone, I'll stop trying to add it to EqD since I am still extremely unsure of whats wrong with my story. Even the pre-readers and editors from Ponychan told me that they couldn't review it. So instead of trying, I'm just going to let you all enjoy what little I'm able to give. I'm terribly sorry to all my loyal readers who have to suffer through the very consistent grammatical errors that I don't have time to go back and check to. I feel just awful.... sighs Well thanks again everyone and hoped you liked this new installment of "It Is Always Best Forgotten" in "The Night After". No matter how hard I can try it will never sound professional enough is sunken into despair and pity I've heard Elven before, on Luna, that f2p anime inspired video game I used to play a lot and is currently hosted by Ijji. I didn't know what Elven was but it sounded like a great name and it pertained to the region itself so I borrowed it for this story. :3 Don't you mind that tid bit of information. Also, who's ready for part 2 of season 2? :D If a few had to suffer, it was to make a better story, if a few had to die, it was to build a better grammar. This is my story, its pages will flip to my will, or they will stain. Its words will bend at my command, or they will erase. Its characters will do what I want them to do, or they will burn... this is my story... and I'll see it be deleted it before I surrender and give up on it. :D Comment if you know what those last quotes were from.
Darkevony	768	13	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:56+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:56+00:00	1,844	(I'm breaking all chains on this one. Warning: Explicit content at the end. lets just say the heart gets what it mostly desires. Its not to the point where its a clopfic but a romance novel. No graphical contents like stating out the actual "process" or any pony anatomy "bodily parts". Just the romance addition to the story. I finally chose. Be happy with it!) Everypony stared at Celestia with a look of utmost astonishment. Her voice was grave and as she had said it, no one denied it. Fluttershy and Luna sunk back into their seats as they somehow understood this more than anyone else. This was serious news. The fact that Celestia knew of his father to such an extent was even more surprising. Ever since the concurrent attacks of the corrupted versions began, it had been much harder to keep a stable mind, so much knowledge had he obtained secretly from the everlasting visions that haunted his every night sleep all seem to be related to what Princess Celestia was saying, everything fit perfectly. There wasn't a mistake in his mind, nor in that of Fluttershy's and Luna's. After he'd gotten that absurdly inconvenient power of being able to read the two mare's minds, it'd grown as a custom not to try. Whatever was in there, he could never be able to comprehend it. It was a mixture of thousands of things that let him in such a mental fatigue that he'd rather go about his business and think of something more efficient for his energy as well as distractions of any sort. He'd catch himself wondering why the floor tiles where in that sort of particular order and shape or why he wasn't eating a bagel since he was starving. Of course, the dining hall had no floor tiles and he had just eaten so that left him with the only choice but to listen to Celestia. He didn't like it either. "You are a Lumineciant, descendant of King Sol of Elven himself." Whatever that meant, he had no clue other than the strange fact the name seemed so familiar to him in so many ways. Everyone stood silent for a while, Princess Celestia looking grimly towards Illuminous as he put his loaf of bread down slowly. His abrupt sarcastic cough gave Celestia a sly smile to her face; he'd done good to keep the mood up before this conversation turned everyone into a pony without an end to its silent dementia as they thought of what to make of him. "What does it mean?" Twilight said as she broke the giant ice sculptor of a metaphorical elephant that sat as a main disturbance in the middle of the room. Illuminous was slightly pleased as he guessed that he wouldn't have had to ask anymore. "The Old Kingdom formally known as Elven was an old and brutal time period in history eon before the Equestrian Rule. When the Elven rule ended, there was never a single trace of it, not even the land it was said to be held on. Pony myth tales of its destruction by a ferocious battle between two opposing forces that fought for freedom and power. How the rumors and stories of Elven even spread is a mystery. It only suddenly arrived a thousand years ago through an ancient book, a book that your father gave me." Princess Celestia looked over Illuminous, his heart beating even harder than anyone else's combined. He knew this... like the back of his hand... what he didn't know was that about his father. "A thousand years ago my father... but... how?" he began. "Sir Levan came to me the day Luna was born into the world, he too, caring a small child with him on is back. I was a filly then, I didn't understand this strange new pony. He had an unnatural aura around him, it seemed like he was glowing. Mother and Father accepted him and the young colt into our lives, we all lived as a family until Mother and Father had to take their role as the Servants of Chaos, descendants of Nyx, leaving the once peaceful land to be ravaged by the Ancient and powerful spirit of Discord, leaving Sir Levan to protect us from the spirit to train and raise our powers to one day stop him. He placed us under some sort of spell. It was odd though, Sir Levan had always been an earth pony and how he managed to pull of such a powerful unknown spell at the time was out of question that he was no regular earth pony. The spell he had put us under was a sort of time manipulation. I could not see a day pass but we grew older. Then he presented to me and Luna an ancient book. The Book of Elven. " Everyone in the room was speechless as Princess Celestia recalled her every last bit of her life to everyone, Twilight in particular was having mental problems trying to uphold all the new knowledge well everyone's mind just breezed the information by. Illuminous knew how Twilight felt, for he too tried his best to keep up. The book foretold of a secret power called the Elements of Harmony that only the greatest of friends would be able to create and manifest. Princess Celestia and Luna where able to harness the extreme power within the hidden magic with their undying friendship. Luna was in pain, he could sense it, not from emotional pain but from mental pain as she was trying endlessly to remember the events. Something was odd here... "When we had prevailed, the world began a new era of peace. The Equestrian Rule." she swayed her head, her long beautiful mane tracing behind her, towards Illuminous who was looking down into oblivion as his thoughts were filled of his father and the events from thousands of years ago... that small colt... who could that have been? As if Celestia had read his mind, she gave him the answer to his question. "At that time, Sir Levan served us loyally, the small baby colt who he had from the start had grown into a stallion. Side by side they protected this kingdom as father and son. Then a new threat arrived to our humble rule. Nightmare Moon." Luna flinched as if like she had just been struck hard, everyone turned to stare at her. Illuminous looked over to her, meeting his gaze, instantly comforting her. He could feel everyone looking at both of them but it was plainly obvious now that whatever was gauging the memories from her past were caused by The Nightmare. He didn't care at all, he just wanted to comfort Luna, he understood those feelings... it had taken everything he knew and loved, the same must have been done to Luna when she was transformed and banished for a long time not being able to see her own family or sister hoping inside that maybe one day the curse would lift. Illuminous felt the same way and no one could know him as much as she did. "I couldn't use the elements of harmony because..." Celestia stopped, trying to clear her throat and find the words to say... "Because I had lost my best friend..." she said as she nuzzled to Luna and a single tear dropped."Sir Levan took his final stand then and there when the time came forth to stop that villain..." her voice even more choppy than before. This was a hard conversation, for the princesses, for Illuminous, for everyone. It wasn't easy at all. "He somehow made the elements work even without Luna. When the deed had been done, Sir Levan lied down on the floor, battered and beaten. Whatever he had done it had taken a force greater than the elements themselves. It had weaken his body far beyond repair, he was surely going to perish... he asked me then to grant him a little more time in this world, to remove the curse that haunted him eternally. 'I don't have much time, the only thing I regret is that she took hold of both of you before I could end all of this... now he must finish it... I'm sorry... son.' he told me, I didn't know what that meant, and I didn't know what to do, I only remembered casting a strange spell that I had no power over it just... happened, the stallion appeared suddenly running towards his beaten up and hurt father. And then..." Princess Celestia took a deep breath, her eyes becoming foggy and teary as she thought of the past. This was easily becoming a horrible time, you'll never see a Princess like Celestia cry ever again, this was true grief upon the deepest levels. "Sir Levan was transformed back to a baby colt, his cutie mark had disappeared..." she stopped, trying to continue on again."The stallion... he... he had died then... his body disappeared slowly in the sunlight... like if he had never existed. I-I don't know what happened." Illuminous walked over to the Alicorn who seemed deeply in pain, he had to do something... even though it pained him just as badly... he couldn't stand seeing anyone like this... especially Celestia, he had a deep abiding connecting that he didn't realize. Suddenly, Illuminous placed his forehead to the Princess. Everyone stood silent in an emotional mess of astonishment, worry, sadness, shock, grief and everything else that you can picture. Eons of memories and thoughts washed over him, it was unbearable, a gasp of horror escaped him as he saw everything, that colt she talked about... it looked like him... Everything was true... he now understood why Celestia knew so much about his father, so much about himself. How could one pony ever hold so much pain and suffering...? Celestia truly was the leader she'd become. Princess Celestia smiled warmly at him as he took his forehead away and turned to look at her. "I used to treat you like my own child." she said quietly to him. Everypony else was in as much as an emotional pile of a mess as Illuminous was. It was just too much in such a short conversation... he didn't expect to go in deeper than where he wanted to be... leaving now would be impossible... Princess Celestia loomed over him and kissed his forehead lightly. (A holy crap factor. :\| I can assure you, in your life, you will never get a kiss to the forehead by a goddess princess EVER.) "So what happened to my father afterwards?" he asked. I raised him until he was old enough to leave. I asked him to write the tales and stories of his adventures. Suddenly, when he began writing about his discoveries with the past, I began to shun them... shunning him completely too. It was painful when he would visit me... and after a while, he had found someone... to love him..." somewhat of disappointment could be heard from her voice, she had just shown the weakest part of her to everypony so there was no need to hide the uneasy feelings anymore. Illuminous could see from Princess Celestia that she had some sort of... relationship with his father once. It's hard to say for certain but that surely ended when he was transformed back. Losing the colt was like losing a child to her, she couldn't read his mind before, and she was being driven on pure instinct. This was all too much. He had never known his mother, but this was as close as it got to him. "It kept happening until one day, he vanished all together. A few years later, I met Twilight when she had shown her power at the academic test for Canterlot's school of magic." she said stating the purple unicorn who later blushed at her tone of praise. "I foresaw Nightmare Moon's escape but without your father... and the elements without a user, I turned to Twilight in hope that she would find truly wonderful friends to aid in this last act to freeing Luna." Everypony lowered their heads in appreciation to the Princess's praise of everyone. "I never thought it true... he spoke tales of Elven, something his old self never did, never even mentioned his abnormal powers. The book of Elven had vanished on the fight against Discord, but it was brought back to me by your father before he truly vanished from Equestria. I could still feel his presence although, but one day... it vanished. Then that's when you appeared." she said as she slowly hugged Illuminous again, wanting the comfort of his embrace. "So am I like... one thousand years old or something?" he said with a weary and cheerful smile, similar to that of what he used to give his little sister to cheer her up after a long day of having something bad happen. Usually only seeing their dad sick since he would get sick often. Everypony began to laugh at his silliness. "I'm serious, I'm curious to know!" he added, in turn increasing the laughter. Illuminous spoke softly in quiet words. "My father... he was being attacked." he said as this quickly caught his attention. "He was being attacked by the same thing that overtook Luna... it called itself... 'The Nightmare'. I saw it... in one of my dreams. It was a vision, a vision of the past I knew nothing about. He was younger, and he was running from flames through a thick forest. He was running with another pony...the mare held a small pony" He could feel Celestia's heart drop. "The fire surrounded them and the nightmare nearly got them both but he cast a white light and escaped... I don't know... afterwards he just... gave that power away." "In one of the letters, your father spoke to me about the powers itself. It told that he had the capability of passing on his entire will onto an offspring. At the time though, he didn't realize who he truly was..." "So he gave it to me..." "That is what all Lumineciants do, the book tells little of the kind of ponies you come from. The only thing I managed to decrypt was that... they are able to use the power of life itself and wield it as light." she wearily shrugged her shoulders and walked out the dining room. "I have no time to lose, I must continue researching that book... or it might be the end of us all. The prophecy foretells great destruction, there is no time to lose." ----------- He walked slowly through the empty corridors of the castle towards the balcony, stars sparkling outside and the moonlight casting the shadows of the window borders. He sighed as he tried not to think of all the stuff that went on that day. It really was way too much for him to handle. A yellow Pegasus appeared before him out of another hallway, gaining distance to him. Illuminous stopped to be able to speak to Fluttershy. "Crazy day wasn't it?" he said calmly, trying to sound as loose and worry free as he could. "I had no idea what to think or say..." she said quietly. "Was it me or where you tickling me on purpose?" he said trying to lighten up the mood that instantly made its way through the first things they had said. She smiled and giggled as she blushed. "I don't know..." she took a step closer to him and leaned onto him."I've been a bit busy in trying to figure out how this will turn out... and I know... something's come along the way that change everything... but it doesn't matter now." she said with disappointment. He knew exactly what she was talking about. "Fluttershy I..." She shook her head and stopped him from talking as he closed his eyes trying to avoid the conversation at least mentally. "It's okay... you can't really hide anything from me you big goof." she said in a sad playful voice that made him feel both happy and sad. "I just... want you to be here... if not in the way I want you to... but at least be close... close enough for me to reach out to you..." and before Illuminous could answer, Fluttershy kissed him and what seemed like an eternity passed by as he was swept away by the moment. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she buried her face onto his chest, Illuminous trying to comfort her. "I will." Fluttershy looked up towards him wiping away the salty tears. "You promise?" "I promise." -------------- After the yellow Pegasus pony finally said her good nights, Illuminous began walking back towards his original destination, onto the balcony. He had just added more pressure to himself by promising her that he'd always stay... he just wished endlessly he hadn't made a mistake. To his surprise, he found Luna watching the stars. She quickly turned around embarrassed by the sudden approach. "I came out here for a breather... it's just been so much lately." Illuminous began. Luna just nodded. "I really don't know what to do anymore... I'm more confused than I was before." Luna made her way up to the white stallion and nuzzled against him as she leaned her head against his. "I know how that feels. When Tia was saying all those things... it hurt... because I didn't remember any of it... I knew it was because The Nightmare took all of them away from me... it took everything I loved..." "I wish I would have been there to save you, my princess. . ." Luna giggled and blushed as he remarked that, and whispered into his ear. "I know why no one else had ever been as close to me as you are. I could never find someone who cared... but you showed up, and you gave me hope. I believe in you... I... I.... I love you..." Luna said as her face began to glow in a deep blush. Illuminous gently lifted Luna's head towards his and kissed her, sending the Alicorn blushing up a mad man. "I could never understand you, but I know you can understand me, you know what I feel..." he said quietly as he kissed her again, this one lasting longer."When I'm with you... I know who I want to be... what I want to do... there are no doubts in my mind... I love you Luna... I want to protect you with my life... I want to spend my days with you..." Luna dug her face into his chest in his embrace. "I love you..." ----------- The moments after was pure bliss as he spent his night with Luna, sharing each other's presence in a storm of feelings of lust... This was truly A Heart's Desire. To entrust your soul, mind and body to the one you love is to live a happy life. His feelings were clear now; he knew it more than he had ever dared to dream. He loved Luna, and sharing this magical interaction with her was more than his heart could desire. Here he was, with the one pony who would entrust both heart and body to him. The one pony he truly wanted to spend his life with. The one pony he wanted to have a family with. Luna was his; there was no other joy in the world greater than knowing that. He could feel her small, warm panting of her breath onto his chest, both their bodies in fatigue, lying down upon a soft bed. She lied down tiredly on top of him as he hugged her, enjoying the warmth between them. "I couldn't be happier... I love you Luna... and even if I have to repeat myself a thousand times, I love you with all my heart. You're so wonderful and so kind... cute too. I love you, I really do." he whispered quietly into her ear that made her blush a lot more. She snuggled deeper onto him and gave him a long kiss good night before drifting tiredly to sleep. Illuminous gazed at her, sleeping quietly and even more cute. He placed his forehead against hers and fell asleep along with her. He would protect her... with his life. ================== Author's Note: SOMETHINGS SOUND FAMILIAR HUH?!?! :D Repeating arts of style. To those who read through this loyally would know what I'm speaking of. Okay I just have one thing to say here.... I'm going to start crying a lot.... I barely realized that this series is coming to a close and... this has been one of the best experiences I've had in a long time. I'm going to share something personal to everyone, A little about me. Why I do some of the things I do and why I'm writing this story in the first place. Long ago, around 4 years now, I met this wonderful girl by the name of Rose. She was beautiful, amazing, kind, and gentle. an angel in her own way. She had problems though, she wouldn't attend school since she was so fragile. She was put under Home schooled because she had lung cancer and it was to the point that. It could not be risked to send her to an actual school. I got the pleasure of meeting her when my mother signed up to become her provider, a nurse that tends to elderly and children with problems. It was a lucky stroke too, her father was a lung surgeon. My mother got hired mostly because she is a legend among providers here where i live. She has taken care of the meanest elderly people the provider companies had. Not only took care but made friends with them. My mother has the heart of gold and I think thats where I get it form, I love everything thats nice and wonderful. On her first day, I followed my mother to her work job. I got to meet her there when I had abruptly and accidentally played a meaningful piano song of mine on a grand piano she had in her room, which woke her up. She kissed me on the cheek to thank me for playing that song however. Even though she didnt know me she still thanked me that way. She was my first and only, most meaningful kiss I'd ever gotten. 3 years passed by and we became more than best friends as I'd go to visit her house constantly. I loved her more than anything else. I was her eyes and ears, I would tell her of the things she would miss in school and be there for here when she needed comforting. She saw the world through my eyes, but she could only see herself. She was my world. around the third year it had been too much for her... and destiny caught up. Although it pains me heavily to tell share this... it still makes me happy... I got to see her go, in the hospital, before she took her final breath.... she told me thank you... because I had made her happy... And right now I'm teary eyed because I'm a softy at heart but.... that truly made me happy, even death cannot break love. I can only truly love her and no one else.I've dedicated my life on her steed. And even if people say that is foolish, they haven't experienced what I have. So now I just spend my days trying to perfect myself as a human being to make a better difference in the world. Through words because thats my # 1 specialty. I love writing, I love making up stories. Even though I might dedicate my stories to good friends that help me, my entire being, my heart and my stories. Will always be for her. Thank you all for taking your time to read this about me. Although the eminent truth that this series is coming to a close is true. I'll continue writing if not on this story but on another. This story has gone a long way actually, I never expected for anyone to actually like it. But prove me wrong right? You've all been the best moral support of my life up to now. To my family and friends who didn't know they were helping me through depression. To everyone reading this story and enjoying it. Thank you all
Darkevony	768	14	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:51:59+00:00	2012-11-14T04:51:59+00:00	1,200	He ran the side of his head across the soft pillow that held up his head, yawning towards the sunlight that shown over the horizon across the glided windows of a room designed as the night sky itself. He had awoken earlier than yesterday, since Luna was still asleep next to him he looked over to her, her face towards his chest, the face of an angel both cute and subtle, her small, warm paced breath fogged against him. Being able to entrust both heart and body to him, he knew now that she was the one, no one else could fit what she had become to him. Luna had made him realize just exactly what he wanted to do in life, he would protect her, protect everyone, with his life. He didn't think of it much, but he knew his life was forfeit, he'd gladly give it away to protect someone. There wasn't anything else that could make him happier than seeing his friends and Luna safe and joyful. When Princess Celestia had started to cry... he had to do something about it. Its too much for one pony to be burden with. No one could understand them just like he did. He brushed the rumbled messy hair of yesterday's events from Luna's face with his nose, viewing in a more clear light the true beauty and cuteness of the mare. He closed his eyes and loomed over to kiss her forehead, when he opened his eyes, he was kissing her lips directly her cheeks in a light shade of pink. "Oh I'm sorry I..." "You were awake" he whispered into her ear gently, making her blush even more. "I didn't feel like doing anything today, or at least anything without you." she said shyly trying to break away from his gaze as the two stared into each others eyes. "Shall we go meet the others then?" "Okay but before then..." she said as she quickly gave him an even longer kiss, taking him off guard. "I want to show you something." she tugged at him to follow and he slowly proceeded to get off bed and walk with her. --------------- "What time is it?" yawning as he said it. "Its a little over noon, near sun down and I wanted to show you something before it turns dark." she said, excitement in her voice clearly striking her vocals. Illuminous laughed warmly, remembering how his little sister would do nearly the same. How she had shown them not even a week ago her brand new and well decorated garden she tried so hard to make for him and his father. Thoughts came crashing into him every time he took priority on those types of thoughts, there were many things that he wanted to do, many things he still wanted to know. The whole reason he was doing all of this in the first place was to save his little sister. Having to fight till his last breath, to make everyone around him happy at the cost of his own, it was all for the single cause. Many things had changed though. He no longer sought it that way, so many unexplained things still were left uncertain that it questioned the very motive he bargained for. What was he really chasing after? Even what happened to his father all seemed... strange, he just couldn't describe the feeling. He shook his head and entered back into reality, where he was being led by the mare of his dreams to show him something, anything, that might be worth viewing. She took a pause at a T-shaped ending with two halls leading somewhere else, the wall before them seemingly empty except for a picture of a big moon. She stood aside so Illuminous could take a look. "Who painted it? It looks awesome!" he said as he prospected the picture carefully. "I did, back when I was a little filly." she said proudly and then her horn began to glow. "But that's not what I wanted to show you." The picture vanished and a mahogany brown door glided in gold at its edges appeared from empty space of the delicately light blue marble wall. He started to wonder if this was like a family tradition or something. Hiding secret rooms behind magically hidden doors along the walls, yeah I guess the regal sisters aren't very confiding when it comes to entrusting others to keep a secret, why else would they need this sort of method? Luna laughed as she could guess what he was thinking. "I'm only keeping it hidden since it was supposed to be a surprise for Tia, but I found someone else who I rather show it to." she said as she clearly meant Illuminous. He blushed and looked backwards trying to hide his embarrassment from taking things out of content and assuming such things. "I knew that." he said innocently causing Luna to giggle even more. Her horn began to glow again and multiple clicks could be heard. It didn't have a door knob, just a bit more extra protection for the secrets of this Alicorn. She stepped into the dark doorway before her, there was no light, just a pure passage of darkness, but as soon as he stepped in, a small warm and light glow began to appear around him. I guess it was just a natural light he would emit now. They entered into a dark circular room that had lines running down to the center connecting into one single central point, elevated slabs acting as seats. In the middle, a strangely patterned pike from the roof curved downwards pointing towards the center. "What is this place?" "I don't even know, I found this room one day after I had returned. I might have known of this room since I was oddly attracted to it but any memory of it, if any, had been completely erased. This room holds unusual magical properties. After I had spent day after day here, I managed to work with it and create something, something I'd like to show Tia as a surprise." Luna stepped into the center of the room. Slabs under her hoofs began to shift and turn and even change in appearance as they turned completely black, it had felt like being in a complete void of pure darkness. The room was even darker than it had been a bit ago. Without warning, thousands of small dots of all colors and sizes in patterns of spirals and other oddities began to form along the entire walls as they began to illuminate the darkness with their brilliance. It was truly a breath-taking marvel to behold. Illuminous couldn't think clearly as he started into the magnificence of the chamber. Stars began to form in a shape of a pony, and Luna suddenly materialized before him, exhausted from her efforts as it had become clear that this was her work. It was stunningly beautiful. It was like staring into the secret ends of the night sky. He only looked in silence of pure awe. "This... is amazing Luna. I can't even find the right words for this..." he began to mutter. "Thanks." she said flushing from his praise. The room turned back into its regular self again in an instance as the Alicorn had tired herself out. What on earth could take up so much magic as to weaken someone like Luna? He stepped closer to her and helped her to up towards a small slab to act as a seat. "What happened?" he asked. "It leaves me drained every time I do that, but this room is able to be melded to magic, anything can be done here." She explained. "How about you try?" Illuminous was hesitant but he couldn't really deny an offer from Luna. "Alright here I go." He said as he stepped closer to the center. He felt a small warmth that he recognized as Luna's magic and closed his eyes to imagine. Lines of pure white began to encase him as they ran down the gaps between the seats and making a pattern as they got closer to the center. A circle took in the lines that lay around him and the roof began to do the same. Suddenly, flowing white shards surrounded him and left him without an escape. "What's going on?!" Illuminous asked alarmed as the shards began to spin faster. "I don't know! The room is supposed to take what emotions you have deep inside you and it forms into whatever you imagine." she said. And like from before, an unnatural force hit him unconscious as the shards made an impassible wall before him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An angered voice echoed through the darkness. A white stallion stood in the void, staring at him. Illuminous could not speak, but he knew that his thoughts could be heard. This was a dark and unholy presence... This time, I shall be victorious. I've spent an eternity waiting for this. You... will carry out my plan flawlessly. A new reign of rule approaches. All will bow to me. Another sudden voice screamed out in a horrifying roar that echoed through the darkness. It was his father... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A piercing blast of a white wave ran through the room as he was finally out of it, the shattered white shards that lay as a reminder of the sudden release of energy began to vanish. He lied down on the floor weary and tired. He broke out into a cold sweat from the scene before. Those words... that pony... It was his voice... It was him... He found Luna quickly as his side. He had no energy, now he knew what Luna had to feel like when she did hers. Before Luna could even ask what that had been, Princess Celestia appeared out of the dark doorway, her expression grave and serious. "Tia?" Luna turned back at her. "This room... it shouldn't be a surprise you found it Luna... I should've warned you sooner..." Celestia spoke lowly. "This is the room where I had cast the spell to your father... This was the room we had spent our time practicing. Your father built is a learning haven. A magical archive to learn and live. I had thought the magic was all gone... ever since he..." "Wait... so you mean Illuminous activated whatever power was still in it? But Tia... I was able to use way before he had even been on it." "That's what I don't understand." Celestia said as she lowered her head to think. "Well whatever the case, I've found out something very vital to the Luminesciant race." Celestia turned towards Illuminous. "The Lumineciants were only a bloodline species back in the Elven Rule, they were the royalty and rulers of the land. Their power was evenly matched against an army of thousands, they were the archangels of the world... but... they weren't good. The Book of Elven tells of the last ruler King Sol." Illuminous flinched back at the name. "King Sol was a godly figure, represented by the sign of death. His rule on the throne caused many lives to suffer and perish, and many of the rulers before them as well. Luminesciants would kill their own fathers to gain power to the throne. King Sol however grew bored of the pony race and began to destroy every pony. He was considered a weapon. The Apocalyptic Horse Astaroth. Only the Alicorn race was powerful to be a challenge against him alone. Everyone rebelled against him but in the end, he had destroyed everything and everyone. Elven had been completely eradicated. He had been defeated by the leader of the rebellion group. A powerful Alicorn that held the power of darkness, Nyx herself aided him in the final battle. The Timeless Rivals." Illuminous sank back into the wall he was no held upon. He... was a monster... a weapon of destruction... it had all been true... that vision... King Sol against that Alicorn... it was him... He was the reincarnation of King Sol. ~~~~~~~~~ Sorry guys it took so long. I lost all good morale to finish this story when it had gotten a complete "fail" sign from a reviewer. I had meant for everything to fall into place in later parts of the story but I guess he had been to disgusted by the beginning chapters to even read the ending. Anyways I'm really sorry guys. :( I'll finish it no doubt but don't expect it any time soon. I'm still having serious heart conditions which has also kept me back for a while since occasionally I fear having to go to the hospital from sharp pains at my chest and shortness of breath. I'm constantly awoken in the middle of the night and I got to my classes sleepy and tired from the sleepless night of pain and the teachers don't care to understand my problem and they get after me for that. I'm fighting a battle of my own. So guys, be patient. Also, I'd appreciate it if everyone would care to take a look at a new story of mine that will be called "The Stars That Shine Bright." I haven't released it yet so wait for it. I'll probably send it out today. I feel the story will be grand compared to this one. This was only a starting curve to my love for writing. Also. Thanks LunaInSocks. I wouldn't have had the morale to finish the story if you hadn't asked me to. This story will be finished soon and will not be changed from any grammatical error or bad literature language since its my landmark of a new beginning. Thanks again guys. Thank you all.
Darkevony	768	15	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:52:02+00:00	2012-11-14T04:52:02+00:00	1,521	The Final Eve It had begun to rain outside; the Pegasi had scheduled a pouring rain for the evening. Illuminous looked out the window pane in nostalgia, glumly sulking up atmosphere that surrounded him. Although depressing, it still brought him a bit of unexplainable joy being able to relax on his own, tending to the increasing thoughts within his mind. There lay passively in his mind the inedible truth that he was a weapon of destruction. He could not inch away from the thought. Illuminous was too far into denial. He didn't want to believe and as much as he tried forgetting, it was obvious, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. He had been the most malignant being in any recorded history of Equestria. His powers were unnatural; he was no longer just any ordinary earth pony. He was a Luminesciant, an apocalyptic pony that destroys life for power. His abilities consume light and life itself to be able to wield a power incomprehensible to even the Alicorns. This fact brought thousands of questions to his mind. Questions he knew well that could never be answered. What would he do if this power overwhelmed him? He broke out into a cold sweat as he started to breath in deeply trying to reorganize his thoughts but where instantly shattered as the truth settled in. The Nightmare had been right all along... the question is... why had she taken Rosy? Why didn't she kill him when she had the chance? He knew well that The Nightmare was bent in destroying him because of him and his power... but things didn't make sense... she had spent her lifetime chasing after what he now held... a life time of chasing... which meant that ponies before him wielded the power of a Luminescent. The thing is, why had he been the only one attacked? Why only now was the Nightmare so bent in destroying him if she hadn't gone for his father... The vision of the past flooded him. She had... when the nightmare tried destroying his mother and father in that chase. His father looked... young... so very young. Apparently he had been reincarnated at that time and managed to tap the power within him to avoid harm's way. The spell he placed then after was the one Princess Celestia spoke of. He had slowed time itself... to be able to raise an inheritor. It was his last will... and he had finally given up his powers to him, then he sacrificed himself to what he would believe would be salvation... Illuminous lowered his head in shame and pity... he wasn't any of that... no... He wasn't able to do anything. How could he? How could he have known that his father's life would be brought to an end because of him? How could he possibly face the Nightmare when the best he could do was stall off an Ursa Major... Live on... This was the request his mother had given him. Why though... his mind was hazy, another thought and it would have surely placed him in a long and deep sleep. He was both mentally and physically exhausted. The vision back in the chamber had left him drained aside from the light show that the room had made him perform. It had been different though. So much different than any he has had. It felt like it wasn't a vision at all. As if someone truly spoke out to him. The voice left a stain upon his very essence. It cursed his very thoughts. He sighed and closed his eyelids in attempts to dream it off. ------------ Luna paced back and forth awaiting any response from the regal princess who held an unbreakable line of sight towards the grand book in front of her. She was hard at work trying to uncover whatever still lay decoded within it. There will come a day when the next ruler will come. Life will end, everything will die. It cannot be stopped. The death will approach, darkness incarnate. What the world knows is a lie, which will be their demise. He shall be reborn. He shall be embo- "Tia, do you think Illuminous will ever be like... Sol?" Luna asked, interrupting Celestia's deep concentration on the book. Princess Celestia finally withdrew her thoughts and attentions from the book towards her sister. "No, he could never be..." "You sensed his powers didn't you...?" Luna looked down, keeping her eyes busy towards the floor. She hesitated before speaking again, trying to break the uneasy silence. "They felt... evil..." "I have faith that he'll be able to pull through to whatever they hold within him. We just need to trust he will know what to do if anything is to happen." "Yeah but if you say it like that, what if he can't?" "Why would you doubt him Luna?" Princess Celestia began wondering after all the contradicting questions. "It's because..." Luna's cheek grew into a lighter shade of pink, her voice fading a little. "I know him a bit better than anyone else." Her voice low and muffled. Her expression grew more serious and her demeanor changed completely. "I don't doubt him... but I do know that he isn't ready... you've seen his cutie mark?" Even though no one had given any real mind to it, the truth was that Illuminous' cutie mark was one shard away from being complete. "What is it that your insinuating Luna?" "He hasn't found himself yet... back when he fought off the Ursa Major, his power felt more... pure... more like himself. Yet... it wasn't fully there. I don't believe he can be ready until it's finally... there." "Well we can't let him face this alone." Luna simply nodded in a reply, thoughtful in her own mind. "So you say you know him a bit better than anypony else? Why would that be?" Celestia seemed to have suddenly slipped out of her own serious mood. This cut Luna pretty off guard. She blushed up a mad man and quickly took a book from the bookshelves and dug her face in it, unfortunately she made the mistake of grabbing a very small filly's book. "Why are there nobles like this in here?!" "They are the books from when we were kids, whats so wrong about them?" Celestia giggled at the urgency to change the subject of her little sister. "So what about it?" Before Luna could sway the conversation elsewhere, she suddenly felt a surge of power that made her lower her head in pain. It was familiar... but increasingly more powerful. Princess Celestia could sense it too, her face was grave with seriousness and she quickly walked out from the hidden library. Luna trialed behind her, and as they walked past a corner of the halls, two Pegasi guards flew quickly at their side. "Princess Celestia thank goodness we found you!" They said between breaths. "What is going on?" She ordered in a demanding voice. "The citizens... they suddenly turned against us... they started tearing down the city, in attempts to stop them some of the other guards have gotten gravely injured. Since we can't fight back, all we could do was retreat. The hostile civilians are different though... their eyes are... red... it's unlike anything we've dealt before." Another guard suddenly broke through the glass door and swooped down to the ground and landed on the floor with a heavy thump, he looked beaten and battered. Luna quickly began casting healing magic to aid him. "Princess... there is too many of them... they are heading towards the castle... you must stop them..." "Luna, I need you take care of the wounded soldiers, I'll go see what is going on and try to hold them back, if anything is to happen, I need you to evacuate everypony to safety. I have faith in you." Princess Celestia's horn began to glow in a golden light and instantly vanished as she blinked away. Luna was momentarily baffled. Her sister depended on her... it felt nice... but it was no time to waste time. She quickly made her way towards the injured that were being housed at the door step of the castle and were being dropped in from windows by some of the other Pegasi guards. The guard she fully healed went to go join them to help the other wounded. -------------- Princess Celestia appeared in the front doorstep of the castle, and like she had been expecting, the mass of civilian ponies of Canterlot were gathering at the footstep. Some of the unicorn guards were casting a shield onto the entire castle to prevent any further step but there had been too many of them, the Pegasi were dashing straight on towards the barrier and the unicorns were throwing magical dark beams. They were quickly being overwhelmed as the shield began to drop. Princess Celestia did the only thing she could do, her horn began to glow and a powerful wave of golden magic ran through everypony. She tried dispelling them all, Luna had warned her about the corrupted versions of the ponies and this fit their very description. It had no effect. They were still rampaging towards the magical barrier that stood between them and the castle. But why?! How?! The only possible explanation would be that they were being controlled by a more powerful pony with magic way beyond even Princess Celestia's. That couldn't be true... Without anything else she could do, she began to cast a reinforcement spell to hold up the wall. It seemed to stall them, but just as many more began to arrive and the wall was slowly being degraded. Without second thoughts, Celestia began to pray to Illuminous. Whether he was ready or not, he could be the only one to do anything. ------------ Please... save us all Just this one last time... Illuminous... I need you Illuminous awoke suddenly, Princess Celestia's voice fresh in his mind. What was this? A sudden panic ran through him for some unknown reason, he could sense an unnatural power. It was familiar... he quickly ran outside into the hallway only to be greeted by a white unicorn. "What in heavens is going on?" Rarity asked him. "I was about to ask the same thing." "I kept hearing such awful shouts and screaming out my doorway and I came to ask you." "I'm going to go find out, Rarity, go gather up everyone else... whatever this is it isn't good. Please I'm counting on you." He said urgently, the white unicorn nodded and began to run towards her friend's rooms. Illuminous could feel the direction of the power; he kept following that through corridors and hallways and was finally greeted by the grand hall leading towards the exit, the throne room on the opposite side of the hall. He quickly spotted Luna tending to injured guards. They were beaten up pretty good and many of them were groaning as other nurse Unicorns treated them. He galloped to her side and she turned to see him running into a hug as he approached her. "What is going on?" "The townsfolk of Canterlot are being possessed... it feels... it feels like..." "You don't think it is finally making its move?" he asked her slowly. "You have to do something Illuminous." her eyes were serious with determination. "But please... come back safe..." she said as she kissed him and returned back to tending the wounded. "I will." and like that he turned to run outside only to be greeted by the grand magical barrier that loomed over the entire castle, being held by multiple unicorns and even Princess Celestia. He ran to her side and she spotted him. Her pained expression turned into a smile of relief but just as she had taken her focus off the shield quickly dispersed and thousands of ponies began to flood the steps. Illuminous stood his ground awaited the oncoming crowd. The thundering noise of a hundred galloping ponies drew to a stop. Suddenly all the corrupted ponies stood still a few feet before him. They were staying their distance away from him. The crowd suddenly split and out came a small white pony with a crimson mane. Rosy stepped out of the crowd before him. ------------------ (Author's Note:I lied. The next chapter is the final one. I feel bad for lying :( But.... its fine right?
Darkevony	768	16	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Adventure,Romance,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	It Is Always Best Forgotten	It is always best to forget, but what if what your trying to forget is connected to your future?	complete	25	3	<p>Illuminous simply knew nothing of the world of Equestria. His world consisted of just his father and his sister, with no magic and living an isolated life in quiet remote woods. One day, a mysterious entity kidnaps his sister and his father is slain, ruthfully stripping him of the life he had ever known as he sets out to rescue his sister. With an unknown and dangerous power coursing through him, he must face the threat of controlling this new power to be able to save his sister and protect everyone he cares for, or succumbing to it, in turn, destroying everything himself. With new found friends, he embarks in a journey of a lifetime.</p>	everyone	2012-11-14T04:52:05+00:00	2012-11-14T04:52:05+00:00	1,410	I have faith in you, Illuminous. You shall be my salvation as well as many others. The past is gone, now live on You are my son, my angel, my life. Have faith in yourself. For I have faith in you. His mother's voice was clear in his head. His mind was racing faster than his heart. The struggle to maintain both his thoughts and his tears were harsh on him. The skies were abnormally dark. Black clouds shrouded the entire sky in a spiral above the castle. The silence could be heard as a harsh unforgiving mistress. He could have sworn he was deaf. So close to so many ponies and he could not even hear one heart beat, not one breath. In the sea of darkened ponies of any kind, his eyes remained on one. Like a beautiful full-bloom rose upon blue bonnets, she stood out, the figure who remained the beacon of the past. Her short blood red mane and white coat shimmered brightly in his hazy thoughts of the past but there was no denying who this one small mare could be. The tears were difficult to keep back as they forced themselves heavily upon his eyes. One by one they dropped to the ground and the noise of the dripping tears filled his thoughts. The small mare too shed the same tears yet she did not move. She could only cry with him. "Rosy..." "I-Illy..." Rosy's voice was much more delicate and forced as she was trying to sustain it all. She ran towards him and in a warm embrace, they cried upon each other's shoulder. "Oh this is heart warming." The shrill voice came from the crowd. And like so, a dark and veil silhouette of an Alicorn stepped out, energy flowed from her hooves, her dark glaring eyes staring right through him. Small, tense, celestial smoke surrounded her, a sign of utter power. The shadow flowed easily through the crowd as every pony stepped out of the way silently not even making a hoof beat as they did. She stood before them. "Brother and sister finally reunited. How... Touching." She said in disgust. The thousand voices were in unison creating a terrifying one in its steed. "You..." Illuminous had completely forgotten that the princess was right next to him. Princess Celestia's expression was that of utter fear. "Bravo, you know who I am. I would have thought you'd all forget about me my dear granddaughter." Celestia let down a gulp of fear and so did Illuminous, the nightmare was an ancestor of Celestia's? Why hadn't she said anything before? "You knew about her?!" He dared ask, his voice shrill and upset. "Don't assume much boy, she only knows me by the knowledge of that accursed grimoire." Celestia looked down still as terrified as ever. The Nightmare could not only read her mind, but tap into the past. The library was sealed with the highest level of magic known to Equestria. It was an ancient spell that her father had placed. "You are one of the ancients... from the Elven kingdom. How did you know...?" "Your mind is easy to read my dear. It seems like you have weakened since I last saw you." Illuminous thought carefully about this... it couldn't be because he had helped her was it? Celestia was emotionally strong until that point and he could see it, but... he didn't really take her power did he? Rosy stumbled to the floor weak of energy, she placed her head onto Illuminous' foreleg and fell asleep. An alarming feeling ran through him. "What did you do to Rosy?!" "Nothing at all, I didn't even touch a single hair on her precious little mane." "I know what you want..." A silence befell the atmosphere again. "Only if you promise to leave everyone alone... I will give you what you want." "Oh? What a noble little pony. Giving up your life for these pathetic beings. Fair enough, you would just escape as easily as you have before." "What? Illuminous... you aren't planning to..." Illuminous turned back, his eyes full of sadness and tears. "I am not giving myself a choice." He lowered his head. "I learned to live, the time I spent with everyone... it was much more than I could ask for. Everypony has always been so kind and so generous to me since I've began this whole ordeal. Seeing my sister safe is all I wanted to do since the beginning. I know I have much to lose... but losing everything while seeing it all go is worse." He stepped forward slowly evermore closer to the dark figure. "Surely, this would have ended much faster if your father wasn't so incomprehensible." Illuminous stopped at his tracks. "What did you say?" "To be honest with you, I hadn't a clue of who he had given his power too. Seeing his accomplishments in the past, I had thought too highly of him and thought that he had given his youngest descendant the bloodline, a quick one he is, on that very last second. Even managed to save himself from eternal damnation." "Wait... what?" "Just as you heard my darling." "Wait... but why... how?" "The spell I had used was one to send only the user who held the bloodline into the Twilight realm, a land where all evil rules. He had given it to you in the last seconds near to his demise. When the spell had not worked on that little mare, there only stood you as the last potential being. I thought I might as well let you know before you will befall your fate." "So he is still... alive?" "Yes, I wouldn't understand why that old fool hasn't chased you down. Maybe he was just glad to get rid of the bloodline that he didn't even bother with you." "It... can't be... no my father would never do something like that!" "But he did. He left you to die and didn't even have the decency to explain your fate to you. He doesn't care don't you understand?" "But... he had saved Equestria... saved my mother... saved us." "Saved?! Don't make me laugh kid. If he wanted to save you, he would have accepted his demise. Don't you think that after your petty little mother died he would be tired of all of that huh? Stubborn foal. How could somepony so pathetic be his drive all those years I don't dare understand. She was less than dirt." "Shut up." Illuminous' glow began as a faded aura. His increasing anger only kept reinforcing it. "Yes, your father could careless now of what happens to you." "Shut Up." Rage built within him. An intense fire burning him to ashes. "He hasn't even come to your aid when you most needed it. He kept you from the world. Kept you from happiness. You both were just too blind to see that he treated you like caged dogs." "SHUT UP!" His mane burst into a white light. His anger raged, he was quickly becoming the demon that he so much feared. Angry tears vanished with the intensity of energy overflowing through his body. The Nightmare grinned in amusement. "Angry towards the truth?! You could never handle truth could you? Is that what kept you blind all these years?" Illuminous sharply lowered his head in pain. His teeth began grinding against each other from the sheer force that now overwhelmed him. The purity of this power slowly faded and dulled into raw emotion. This wasn't entirely his doing, yet he couldn't control these emotions. He yelled at the top of his lungs, the light exploded in pure rage. Celestia looked away to shield her eyes, she could feel the power increasing. She had to do something, but there was hardly anything she could do now, with Illuminous' feeling running rampant through him causing such a devastating force, there was no way to even counter this power. She had never felt something so powerful since... since the day his father used his power to reanimate the elements of harmony. The only thing she could make out was the sea of ponies slowly vanishing in the light as they tried going against it like if it had been a powerful gust of wind. This horrified her. If they were truly the villagers then that would mean... "Illuminous please stop!!!" She yelled at the top of her own lungs, yet her voice was shrouded by the raging white flames that violently began to fill the remnants of Illuminous' once sky blue mane. Things around her began vanish. Chunks of rock being ripped out of the ground. The side of the mountain in which Canterlot stood against began to carve through, this unrelenting power was beginning to make out the worst of her fears. Illuminous had lost it. Lost the will to control it. Like she had so feared her entire life, this was it, her beautiful home and subjects were being destroyed before her very eyes. Tears began rolling down her eyes, and all she could do was beg to follow in this destruction. She opened her eyes, trying to go against the blinding light. In the corner of her eyes, she saw a shadow running through the light. Suddenly, the light... broke. Thousands of white shards stood in the air beautifully centering towards Illuminous. Celestia made out the shape of Luna who was hugging Illuminous, holding onto him for dear life. the intense power slowly dulled to a point. "Out of the way you meddling foal!" The dark voice yelled as The Nightmare's horn began to glow, poised towards Luna. A dark energy shot out towards them and without even thinking twice, Celestia quickly made her way between them as she took the hit straight onto her chest. She gave out a loud grunt and fell towards the ground. Luna slowly turned her gaze towards the fallen Celestia. Her eyes wide in horror. Too afraid of what a scream would cause, she held it in, tears inevitably rolling down her cheek. She turned to Illuminous. His eyes still glowing white and mane in a burning white flame as if he stood in a trance unable to see or feel anything. She held onto him still horribly afraid, her body becoming limp. "This has to end now! I never wanted this, but if both of you must die, then so be it!" Luna gasped. The burning pain that began from her back quickly filled every inch of her. She had been hit. No, she wouldn't fall now, she needed Illuminous to snap out of it. If only just a little more... A second shot was fired, and Luna could no longer hold on. She couldn't feel her body at all. The pain was so intense, she couldn't scream either. Her tears followed behind her as she fell to the ground, letting go of her grasp on Illuminous who still stood in a trance. "Illuminous..." "Both of them are gone now. Go now! Fill your heart with rage! I killed them both in front of you. Those who most cared about you! Aren't you angry?! Go! Release that power within you. Let it fill every inch of you. Let it consume you. Summon now the King of Destruction!" Illuminous stood in a trance, still as the white shards. The Nightmare gave off an annoyed smug. "What's wrong huh?! Did you give up on them all together?!" it yelled. The glow slowly began again. A smirk ran right through The Nightmare's face. It began pulsing, small orbs of white and yellow light appearing and disappearing as it did. The Nightmare flinched at this sudden turn of events. Something was happening. Never in her ages had she felt something like this, or even seen from the Luminesciant bloodline. She could feel it, under her hooves, a wave of energy running through the ground and even the air itself. ----------------------------------------- Thunderous quakes filled the castle. A battle was been waged, one which they had no power against. No magic in Equestria could feel anything like this. Hidden at the secret library, dozens of wounded guards and refugees began making there way their under direct order of Princess Luna who stormed off galloping towards the horrifying energy. The group of friends stood huddled together. They were strictly told to stay put after Rarity had gathered them and had come across Luna who asked of them to direct all of the wounded and every pony of the castle towards the library. "What do you think is happening Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously, as she could feel the intense power as well. "I don't know... but whatever it is, it can't be good. " Suddenly, she began to feel the vibrations on the floor. A flowing of energy ran through the ground. As if... it was calling out to her... The others looked at her with worried expressions as she understood that they too could feel this. The room suddenly exploded into a light which vanished as quick as it had come. From the source of the light stood a faded figure of a brown mature stallion. His features and even expressions resembled that of Illuminous'. "Who... who are you?" Twilight asked the ghostly figure of a pony. "It matters not who I am. I need you all to listen, for I have little time here." The group of friends gathered around him in a distance. The refugees stared at them quizzically as if... they could not see the figure. "I come bearing a message from Illuminous." "Whats going on? What happened?" Fluttershy suddenly blurted out, unaware of her new found courage. "He asks for your guidance and help now and forever. He entrusted me to give you this." The ghostly figure suddenly irrupted into a ball of light, the elements of harmony began to float out of it, placing themselves respectively on each corresponding pony. "Go now." It said before it vanished. "Come on, we don't have time." Twilight lead on as the group of ponies galloped outwards to the front of the castle. ------------------------ Illuminous slowly landed. His bright blue eyes began shining through the white light. "Huh... what is this? The little rat still has some fight in him. I guess I have no choice then." The Nightmare's Alicorn figure suddenly grew a black flame around it. The remaining mass of the dark pony army began to vanish as it centered towards The Nightmare. She was gathering her remnants of power, slowly growing just as intensely powerful as Illuminous' current state. His face showed something different... Not anger... Not sadness. A powerful determination. Whatever had happened in his trance state, the anger from before vanished. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Illuminous struggled upon a massive force to maintain physical and emotional composure. He lowered his head, unable to pick it up from the sheer force. He didn't understand what was happening. Suddenly, his shoulders felt more at ease. A hoof slowly made its way onto them and the force was lifted. He quickly looked up only to see a void of pure white, a brown familiar figure stood between it all. "F-father........" His father's bright smile brought tears to his eyes. He began to weep onto his shoulder. Illuminous couldn't hold back the oncoming emotions. "Why..." He gasped between breathes, trying to regain himself. "Why did you never come?" A sad smile grew onto his father's expression. "I've always been with you." "But... how?" "The day that Hemera had gone after you and your sister, I gave my soul to you. My son, my flesh and blood, I've never left your side." His father hugged him. His anxiety still remained. He needed to know more. "Why had you kept us from the world?" "I did it to protect you both. I've spent several millennium roaming this world, freeing it from the shackles of evil it held. At the War of Elven when King Sol was defeated, those who still remained believed the bloodline was lost forever. King Sol knew his defeat was imminent. In his last waking moments, he embodied himself in a power and was given to a pony in the bloodline, until it was finally given to me. At first, I couldn't control his power and I was the tool of destruction. It wasn't until I met Hemera that I had truly stopped those ways." "Hemera? "Or what you would call her 'The Nightmare'. King Sol had taken the life of her father at the war of Elven. She didn't realize who I was. But we fell in love. We had a child and decided to name him Illuminous. One day... when I lost control, my powers left her... unstable... the remnant of what she had once been... she found out about me then. Of who I was. The bloodline had not only caused her the life of her father, but also her body as she had become ethereal, a ghostly figure. She swore to end the bloodline, and went after both you and me." "Wait... what?" "I too swore never to use my powers again. One day I stumbled upon Equestria. Well out of the reach of Hemera, I would have called Equestria my home, the only problem was that a creature that I had created, known as Discord, the Spirit of Chaos, rampaged the land. I had made him an image of myself, as powerful as I. I didn't know what to do then, I would have been able to get rid of it. Then the last line of Alicorns presented themselves. I wanted the last thing to do was harness a good power to rid the land of evil and so I created the elements of harmony." "What does this all have to do with anything?" "Well, when the time came to finally rise up, there were only two ponies and six elements. I had used my will to infuse into the other elements. After honing both Celestia's and Luna's skills, we went up against the spirit and successfully managed to get rid of him." "Then you..." "Yes, I asked Celestia to give me her blessing as I embed my power into her to release me from this eternal damnation. I did the mistake of knowing that Illuminous wouldn't worry if I would leave. When the spell was being cast, and Illuminous stood beside me, I quickly rearranged the spell... sadly it had been too late, and he died then. I was reborn. Only then did I understood what I had failed to do so many times before, grief stricken I left Equestria. I met your mother in my new life, and when I had you, your mother chose to name you Illuminous... the light of hope in her life..." "Hope wasn't enough..." "Don't take her death as a false hope. She had fallen ill, but she never hoped to get better. No, her hope was set on something else." "What do you mean?" "She hoped upon you to become a better stallion, to be the faith and salvation of those you loved. She was truly something else, like... a guardian angel. Right now, I honestly believe she is watching over us, you and me." "But... I was never any of that..." "Really now? I saw how you saved your friends countless of times, both emotionally and physically. Never seen a braver pony like the one that faced off an Ursa Major." "Celestia and Luna... are hurt because of me..." "There is still time to change that. Still time to fight for what you believe. You need the elements of harmony, the friends you made on the week long journey I first prepared for you and Rosy." "You planned this all along?" "There had been no other way. This is it Illuminous. You truly have become greater than I had ever been. The only thing you need to do now is ask yourself this. What is it that you want to do with your life? I'll say hello to your mother for you." "Wait you're leaving?!" "I lived long enough, but finally now, I've found redemption." With that, his father's image faded as he walked away. The white void began to replace itself with surroundings of a destroy Canterlot. He looked deep within himself and finally understood what was needed to be done. He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to protect everyone. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The doors of Canterlot burst open with a group of ponies bearing the elements of harmony. "Princess Celestia! Luna!" Twilight's horrified shriek gave way to the silence as she saw the tattered fallen Alicorn. "This ends now Hemera." "You might know my name, but you will never defeat me." Before they could set things right, Illuminous and Hemera vanished. The dark clouds above began bursting into bright lights. Huge forces clashing against each other. The group of ponies galloped towards the fallen Alicorns and desperately tried aiding them. Luna would not awake. Celestia however had enough energy to speak in short gasps of breath. Applejack set Rosy down with Princess Luna and Celestia out of harm's way. "D-don't w-worry a-about us. Y-you need to h-help Illuminous." "But Princess!" "Go..." The Alicorn shut her eyes. Tears flooded the group of ponies but in a sort of surprise, Fluttershy suddenly snapped them out of it. "We have to help, there is no time, the Princess knows this." the shy little Pegasus was now braver than ever. "What do we do?!" "I-i don't know...." Suddenly, Illuminous stood over them. Weakened and battered, Hemera had been too strong. She followed shortly after landing opposite to them, the dark power surrounding her still. "Illuminous!" They all surrounded him. "Take it easy, we'll take care of her." Applejack said reassuringly. Everypony began to concentrate their own will into the elements of harmony. Suddenly a blast of a rainbow encircled Hemera and a it dispersed as quickly as it had happened. Hemera still stood as strong as ever, the elements had failed. "What in tarnations is going on?" "Muahaha, you silly little foals. The elements will not work against me in this state. Nothing can stop me." Illuminous stood up, slowly making his way towards the center of the ponies. Everyone turned to stare at his cutie mark. It was a completed circle of shards in a shape of a compass rose, golden and bright. They began to spin. A power began to form onto him again. This was unlike anything felt before. This was... pure power, grand and majestic. Illuminous focused onto the elements and they began shining in a white light. The group of ponies began to concentrate their entire will one last time, exhausted from the previous. A sphere of white and bright rainbow colors engulfed the seven ponies. A force of pure energy shot out towards the Alicorn, suddenly taken a back by the purity of it. "What?! What is happening?! NOOOO!!" Hemera burst into a white purifying light. --------------------- Everypony began awoke to the beautiful sounds of an angelic voice of a mare singing. The group of ponies turned towards the faint figure of Illuminous, a golden glow around him. It seemed like his figure was... vanishing almost, fading from this world. Fluttershy rushed to him. "Whats going on?! What is this Illuminous?!" She asked alarmed. His sad smile told her what she most feared. She hugged him and cried onto him and finally stepped back into the the group of ponies. His glow began... fixing things. Canterlot slowly began repairing itself. Thousands of unconscious ponies returned to their homes. Illuminous approached Celestia, Luna, and Rosy. Celestia awoke upon his presence, seemingly fully healed. "What... is this... wait... no you can't be... but why?!" She said remembering the events of the past. "It had been the only way." He walked slowly towards Rosy who was still fast asleep, he lowered his head to give her a kiss on the forehead. "Goodbye Rosy, you're big brother will always watch over you." He walked over towards were Hemera who was now a small filly, still as knowledgeable from before but... reborn... purified. "The only thing I regret, was not making you happy all these years." Illuminous' voice and his fathers said in unison. The small filly began to cry at this sudden realization of who she had become. "Promise me, you will watch over this land and be the great leader you had been born to lead, leave this all behind." She only nodded. Illuminous walked over to Luna for his final farewell. He nudged her slightly with his nose, awakening her from a her slumber. She looked into Illuminous' face who was smiling brightly over here as she was laying down. She quickly got up and saw his fading image. "Illuminous... what is going on...?" He smile turned into a sad one. She still could not understand. "I'm afraid this is farewell..." "Wait... what? What are you saying?!" "This is goodbye... Luna..." Tears began to swell up on her eyes, sadness began filling in her concern. "No... no no no... you can't leave... you can't..." Illuminous kissed her which snapped her out of her increasing sadness. She hugged him afraid to let go. "Luna..." "Please... don't say anything anymore..." She said, her tears rolling down and falling onto the ground as it went right through him. "Luna... I know." He said as he placed his ear against her belly. "Take care of him. And take care of Rosy." Her tears held no end. He had to say something... "Luna... I promise you... I'll be back one day. I don't know when. But I know one day I'll come back, if only for you. I want to thank you... for making me truly happy. Thank you so much." Luna kissed him one final time. The sunrise appeared through the dispersed small dark clouds that still lingered and began to fade. Illuminous' gold glow faded away. It was finally over. This new day marked the era to true harmony. A true hero is born from the ashes of yesterday, one with an unbreakable spirit, and the will to see what is righteous. In truth, neither malevolence or benevolence exists. For this pony tale tells of one such hero who fought on both sides to find what truly mattered. May this tale, and this era of peace, never end. =================== Author's Note: Well... after being hospitalized and what not, losing determination and a bunch of other personal issues, I finally bring you this. I hoped you liked it. Sorry everyone for being so late. I hope this was actually worth it.
uSea	771	1	Princess Luna,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Singing to the Moon	Sweetie Belle sings to the moon. But her song attracts an unexpected guest.	complete	274	4	<p>Sweetie Belle Sings to the moon. But her song attracts an unexpected guest.</p><p>Image is by Zonra. Who is awesome.<br/><a href="http://zonra.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3kv95u" rel="nofollow">http://zonra.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3kv95u</a></p>	everyone	2011-09-07T17:09:07+00:00	2011-09-07T17:09:07+00:00	9,943	At last, Sweetie Belle emerged from the heavily wooded path. But the clubhouse before her looked different at night; dark and uninviting, not the place of friends and laughter she was used to. Again, she hesitated. Unsure of whether to proceed or not, she glanced around and finally saw the full moon that had been shining down on her all night. She was surprised she hadn't noticed it before, and realised that she must have spent the entire journey looking down at her hooves when she could have been looking up at that beautiful orb floating in a sea of stars. The young pony felt a wild urge to get closer to it, even if just by a little bit. She climbed a nearby hill and sat atop it, placing her saddle bag beside her. Apple orchards spread out below her and the night sky spread out above. The centrepiece of it all, the full moon, hung in the sky and shone down on her. Gazing up at the glowing disc, Sweetie Belle recalled stories that said a pony could go mad looking at a full moon. She thought that this must be exactly the kind of moon they were talking about; the kind that drew your gaze and sucked you in. She chuckled to herself, the melancholy she had felt just a short time ago temporarily forgotten. What would a mad pony do anyway? Wolves were supposed to howl at the moon, so perhaps a pony should sing to it? Sweetie Belle smiled. She liked the idea of singing to the moon. But what to sing? She thought for a minute before deciding. It was a song she had heard a few days ago while she was helping Rarity with her work. It had been played several times on her sister's favourite radio station. They usually played old songs which Rarity would hum or sometimes sing a line or two. Sweetie Belle liked that part of helping her sister best. Rarity had taught her this song, singing along with her until she knew it off by heart. This happy memory, set against the events earlier that night, brought tears to her eyes as she began to sing. “Moonlight becomes you, it goes with your hair” “You certainly know the right thing to wear” Sweetie Belle closed her eyes, focusing solely on her voice. “Moonlight becomes you, I'm thrilled at the sight” “And I could get so romantic tonight” She reached the second verse, losing herself in the song. “You're all dressed up to go dreaming” “Now don't tell me I'm wrong” “And what a night to go dreaming” “Mind if I tag along?” “Mind if I tag along?” Sweetie Belle turned, open mouthed, towards the voice that had joined her own. Two big green eyes and a small, sweet smile greeted her. The purple coat, the wings, and a horn that emerged from a halo of pale blue hair left no question as to the newcomer’s identity. The Princess of Night was sitting next to her. “Wha...?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Hello,” Luna answered. “Sorry, I wasn't expecting to meet anypony and...” her voice trailed off. “That's alright,” said Luna. “I seem to have that effect on a lot of ponies,” she added absent mindedly. “Are you really Princess Luna?” “Yep!” said Luna, grinning. “But... um... where did you come from?” “Well, I saw you sitting on the hill so I flew down to join you–” “Down from the moon?!” Sweetie Belle interrupted, her eyes growing wide and a hint of awe creeping into her voice. Luna chuckled. “No sweetie, I was flying over the town when–” “Wait, you know my name?” Sweetie again interrupted. Luna looked confused. “No... You haven't introduced yourself yet.” “Oh, sorry. I'm Sweetie Belle,” said Sweetie Belle. “A pleasure to meet you Sweetie Belle. May I finish answering your first question now?” Sweetie Belle nodded. “As I was saying, I was flying over town when I saw you on the hill. I flew closer and you began to sing one of my favourite songs. I couldn't help myself, I simply had to join in.” A breeze blew across the hill, reminding Sweetie Belle of the cold damp patches under her eyes where she had been crying. She quickly turned away and rubbed at her face with a foreleg, trying to remove the evidence. “If you don't want to tell me why you were crying,” Luna said softly, “then I won't ask you to.” “Thank you,” said Sweetie Belle. They sat in silence for a short time, looking up at the night sky. Luna shuffled closer to the filly. “Hey Sweetie Belle,” she said. “Yes?” Sweetie Belle replied, looking up at the older pony. “Your hair's all messed up.” “What?” Sweetie Belle asked, but Luna ignored the question. Instead she leant over and, using her front legs with an efficiency that comes from years of practice, began messing up the filly's hair. "Hey, quit it!" the little pony cried out, but a mischievous giggle was the only reply. Sweetie found herself unable to retaliate in kind, Luna was even taller than Rarity. But that didn't mean she was defenceless; she went straight for the purple pony's exposed belly. “That's not fair, stop it!” Luna said, in between fits of laughter. However, Luna's pleas fell on deaf ears; this filly was taking no prisoners. The hilltop struggle lasted several minutes but, at last, Sweetie Belle emerged triumphant. Luna's crown rested on Sweetie's head; the Princess was letting her wear it as a peace offering. It was currently being used as a giant hairpin and they each wore a wide grin. “I haven't done that in ages!” said Luna when she had recovered her breath. “You have an older sister, don’t you?” “Yeah, how did you know?” “You knew exactly what you were doing. I didn't stand a chance!” Sweetie Belle thought back to the last time she had played like that with Rarity. It must have been years ago. She felt uncomfortable thinking about it; instead, she glanced up at the night sky and tried to change the subject. “The moon's really pretty tonight.” “Thank you,” Luna replied, before adding a moment later, “the Moon thanks you too.” “Really?” “Yep,” said Luna. She looked distracted for a moment, like she was listening to something in the distance. “She also says I shouldn't take the credit for her hard work.” Luna stuck her tongue out at the moon. “Wait, the moon can talk?” “Of course. Plays games too.” Luna leant towards the filly and whispered, “she likes to be the top hat,” and winked conspiratorially. Sweetie Belle remained dubious. “Anyway,” said Luna. “Would you like to sing another song? This one has the Moon in it too.” “Sure, what is it?” “It's called 'Fly me to the moon', do you know it?” “Some of it.” “Then I'll teach you the rest.” “OK!” Luna grinned. “Three. Two. One...” “Fly me to the moon” “Let me play among the stars” - - - Rarity was sitting at her kitchen table. A couple of hours ago she had made a half hearted attempt to clean up the dinner plates. Since then, she had remained in her seat and barely moved. Opal had come over to investigate for a while, but soon grew bored and found something soft to curl up on. Occasionally, she stole a glance at the door of the guest chambers that were currently serving as her sister's bedroom. The silent night slowly wore on, allowing the recollection of harsh words to echo around her mind. Gradually, she managed to work up the courage to follow through with her new decision; she wouldn't wait until morning, she would apologise right now. Rarity stood up and walked towards her sister’s door. - - - Back on the hilltop, the night was growing colder. Sweetie Belle shivered. “Come and sit next to me Sweetie.” Sweetie Belle did so, and Luna tucked her under a purple wing. She felt like she was being wrapped up in a warm, sweet-smelling duvet. “Thanks,” said Sweetie Belle. “Don't mention it,” said Luna. She felt a tiny rumbling from the filly. “Are you hungry?” “Yeah, a bit.” “I've got just the thing!” Luna levitated a large saddlebag from where it had been lying beside Sweetie's own, and set it down in front of her. She stuck her head inside and emerged with a brown squarish object entombed in cellophane. 'Wrapped' would have been an inadequate description. Using her magic, she carefully freed it from its plastic prison and floated it down to Sweetie Belle. “What is it?” said Sweetie Belle. “That, my friend, is a blackcurrant jam sandwich. I make the best blackcurrant jam sandwiches,” Luna said, a tad boastfully. Sweetie Belle took a bite. It tasted like a perfectly ordinary blackcurrant jam sandwich. She noticed Luna looking at her expectantly. “It's... nice,” Sweetie Belle managed. “Really? You're not just saying that are you? No sudden urge to spit it out and hide the rest behind a bush?” “No, it's fine,” said Sweetie Belle. She took another bite and meant it. Luna beamed. “Success!” she cheered, and watched happily as the filly finished off the sandwich. “Sorry!” Sweetie Belle said as she suddenly realised she had just eaten the whole thing without offering any to Luna. “Oh, and thank you,” she added, embarrassed she hadn't remembered to say that either. “That's quite alright,” replied Luna. “You know, I think I should tell you why I'm out here in the first place.” She glanced around and lowered her head towards the little unicorn. “Why are you out here?” Sweetie Belle whispered, the possibility of learning a secret keeping her voice quiet. “I snuck out,” Luna whispered back. “What?” “I've already been all over Canterlot and the castle. So I snuck out to explore somewhere else. Nights can get dull with everypony asleep.” “But why did you have to sneak out?” “Celestia doesn't like me going out at night by myself,” Luna replied. “I know she loves me, but I think my sister worries about me too much. It's always: 'don't do that', or 'read these boring reports', or 'you can't live off of jam sandwiches forever', or 'put that away you're a Princess–' Luna stopped short. Sweetie Belle had begun to cry under her wing. “Oh, I'm sorry Sweetie! Was it something I said? Was it the sandwich?” Luna said, her voice filled with concern. “No...” came Sweetie Belle's response. The sound was muffled by her face being pressed against the Princess's side. Luna said nothing, patiently waiting for the filly to let it out in her own time. “I... ran away,” Sweetie Belle managed to say, in between sobs. “My sister was angry... she shouted at me.” “Why was your sister angry?” “I was supposed to be back before dark,” Sweetie said, her words tumbling out together, “but I lost track of time and she had to come and get me.” “Maybe she was just worried about y–” “And she said...” Sweetie Belle interrupted. “She said she never wanted to look after me ever again!” The little unicorn's sobs racked her whole body and she buried her face further into Luna's fur. Luna sighed and retrieved her crown from the tangle of Sweetie's hair. She levitated a comb out of her bag and began fixing the damage she had done earlier to the filly's mane. “We all say things we regret when we're angry,” Luna said, her voice soft and comforting. “Your sister loves you Sweetie Belle. I'm sure she didn't mean what she said.” A barely audible murmur was Sweetie Belle's reply. “I know sisters,” Luna said as the comb continued magically back and forth. “There's no way she could stay mad at you. Just make sure she knows you're sorry for making her worry and everything will be back the way it was.” You’d be surprised by how much a sister can forgive, she added silently. Sweetie Belle lifted her head from the Princess's side. “Promise?” “Promise!” They shared a smile. Sweetie Belle looked down again. “But, I still feel like crying.” “It's okay to cry Sweetie. Take as long as you need. You've had a long day and this is no time of night for a little pony to be out in.” Sweetie Belle rested her head against Luna once again. “I'm not a little pony,” she grumbled and closed her eyes, sobs having been replaced by silent tears. Luna smiled and continued to rhythmically brush Sweetie's hair. Shortly, the filly's tears ceased altogether, and her breathing became slow and regular. Luna turned away from the sleeping Sweetie Belle and looked up towards the moon. “Just you and me again,” she said to the night. Luna thought for a moment. “I think another song is in order.” “Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again” “Because a vision softly creeping, Left its seeds while I was sleeping” “And the vision that was planted in my brain” “Still remains, within the sound of silence” - - - Rarity charged onto the dirt track that led to her sister's clubhouse, ignoring the low branches that whipped her face and ruined her mane. Her sister's room had been empty. Between the pillow that was still damp with tears and the wide open window, she had guessed what had happened. Rarity could scarcely believe it; she had driven her own little sister to run away. She would never be able to forgive herself if something had happened to her. She ran faster, nearly tripping over a protruding root, she strengthened the light coming from her horn. The trees that pressed in from either side were blocking the moonlight that had aided her thus far. A single thought now occupied her mind. “I'm sorry Sweetie Belle,” she said between breaths. Rarity had almost reached the end of the track when she heard something. She slowed down and listened hard... was that singing? Luna had already finished several songs and was part way through another as Rarity emerged from the tree line. The unicorn panted rapidly and looked up in shock at the Princess of Night sitting on the hill before her. “There's a starmare waiting in the sky” “She'd like to come and meet us” “But she thinks she'd blow our minds” “There's a starmare waiting in the sky” “She's told us not to blow it” “Cause she knows it's all worthwhile” Luna stopped her song and looked towards the new visitor. “You can come up if you like,” she said. “There's someone here who misses you.” Rarity began making her way up the hill. Curiosity and hope giving her energy. Luna nuzzled the sleeping filly.“It's time to wake up, Sweetie Belle,” she said gently. “Your sister has come to see you.” “What?” said Sweetie Belle, still half asleep. “Come on, get up!” Luna nuzzled her again. “Your sister's here.” Luna withdrew the wing that had been shielding Sweetie Belle and stood up. Exposed to the night air, Sweetie Belle quickly got to her legs as well, wobbling slightly as she regained her balance. They both turned towards Rarity, Sweetie partially hiding behind Luna. As Rarity approached, Luna nudged Sweetie Belle out from her hiding place and towards her sister. The filly looked back nervously at the Princess. “Go on,” Luna encouraged, giving her a big smile. Rarity and Sweetie Belle stood looking at each other for a moment before they spoke in unison. “I'm sorry!” they both said. Rarity tried to continue but her sister beat her to it. “I'm sorry I made you worry. And I'm sorry I ran away. And...” Sweetie's voice grew quiet, fresh tears beginning to well up in her eyes. “Please don't hate me.” Rarity rushed forward and brought her sister into a hug that might have never been broken. “I could never hate you darling! You're my little sister, I'll love you forever,” Rarity said, fighting back tears of her own. “I'm sorry, Sweetie. I should never have snapped at you like that, I didn't mean those horrible things I said. Can you ever forgive me?” She released her sister from the embrace. “Yeah,” said Sweetie Belle. “Um... does this mean I still get to stay with you?” “Of course Sweetie! I love having you over to stay,” replied Rarity. They hugged again, their troubles having been carried away into the night. Eventually, they let go of one another and Rarity turned to Luna, who had been watching them with a happy smile. “Thank you for looking after my sister.” “That's quite alright,” Luna replied. “I enjoyed her company.” Rarity turned back to her little sister. “I think it's time for us to go home,” she told the filly. “But not before you thank Princess Luna.” “Thanks for looking after me, Princess Luna,” Sweetie Belle said, “and for teaching me that song,” she continued. “I really had fun, and... will you come back and see us again?” “I'll be back with the next full moon,” promised Luna. “Or sooner,” she added. “And you can just call me Luna”. “OK!” Sweetie said cheerfully and she and Rarity began to head towards the path home. When they reached the opening in the trees, they turned back and said goodbye to Luna before entering the woods. The Princess of Night took to the skies and followed their progress on the ground. They waved farewell to each another as the sisters entered Rarity's boutique. Having seen her new friends home safely, Luna began to fly towards Canterlot; dawn was still several hours away and she knew who she wanted to spend the time with. - - - Princess Celestia was lying on a large couch in the purple lounge. A great fire roared off to the side, illuminating the scroll she was reading and banishing the chill that blew in from the open balcony window. Luna landed lightly on this balcony and stepped through. “I see you're still awake, sister,” said Luna. “You know I get worried if you go out by yourself.” Celestia looked up from her scroll. “So what did you get up to?” “I met a very nice filly. We sang songs and ate sandwiches.” “That's nice,” Celestia said, smiling at the odd tale. “I'm glad you're back.” “Me too,” agreed Luna. Celestia looked back at the scroll as her younger sister settled down beside her. She didn’t notice the mischievous smile. Luna shuffled closer to her sister. “Hey Celestia,” she said. “Yes?” Celestia replied, looking up at the younger pony. “Your hair's all messed up.”
White-pawPony	774	1	Diamond Tiara,Original Character,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Rarity: Behind Bars	Will Ponyville's most beloved fashionista survive when she is incriminated and sent to jail?	cancelled	-1	-1	<p>(PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION)</p><p>When Rarity's boutique is found to be hiding some dangerous stolen chemicals, the unicorn knows she's been framed. Unfortunately for her, the police won't believe her frantic explanations. <br/>None of her friends have any idea where she has gone, and Sweetie Belle has been taken under the care of a secret organization, so it's up to this fashionista to use her wits to get herself out of this mess... Well, her wits and a new, unexpected friend.</p><p>Also, this has romance between Rarity and a convict... so read!</p><p>(NOTE: This fic is pretty much dead, and I apologize for this. It was going to take far too long to complete. If, however, you wish to finish the fic yourself with your own creative ideas, be my guest! I would love to read what you all come up with!)</p>	everyone	2011-09-08T20:57:02+00:00	2011-09-08T20:57:02+00:00	2,977	Rarity looked up and down the pink filly, evaluating the smooth combination of mane and fur. "Purple, white, pink..." she mumbled to herself. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "Aha! Yes, darling, I have just the thing! Olive green will look wondrous on you. I'm sure I have some in the back..." The mother of the filly sneered, "Of course it will. Everything looks perfect on my daughter." The white unicorn tried to conceal her distaste for this snooty mare with an unsincere smile. "Undoubtedly." "And make sure that it has lots of diamonds!" demanded the schoolfilly with an elite tone that matched her mother's. Not bothering to reply, Rarity strode gracefully to a shelf stuffed with folds of fabric, all sorted by color. With her magic, she pulled out two different shimmering forest greens and appraised them. She lifted them up next to the little pony, one at a time, imagining a lovely dress for the bratty thing. Choosing the winning fabric, she smiled, setting it on her work table and putting the other back. Donning her ruby glasses, she went to work. "I'm going to have to measure you now, darling," the white mare informed. "Diamond Tiara," shrilled the mother, "do your pageant pose for mummy!" The girl immediately did so, striking a much-too-sexy-for-a-young-filly pose. While Rarity held her measuring tape up to Diamond Tiara's waist and legs, she secretly rolled her eyes. Of course, this was a pageant girl! I wonder if this filly goes to Sweetie Belle's school, she thought. But just as Rarity had set down her tape and was about to inquire the mother for what occasion this dress was to be made, there was a sharp knock at the door of her boutique. Rarity looked over to the door and laughed an apologetic laugh, "Will you please excuse me a moment? This shan't take very long." The older mare huffed, taking a look at her watch. Rarity trotted over to the door, surprised to see standing there two police ponies, and one handsomely dressed colt. She nervously cleared her throat and opened the door. "H-hello, officer Sour Grapes; officer Mango! Um, welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where every outfit is... um..." she began. A familiar-looking yellow stallion with a blue mane pushed his way past her, "Yes, nice to see you, Miss Rarity. But we're not here for clothes, I'm afraid." "Oh, really? Then what would you gentlecolts be doing here, may I ask?" Rarity inquired in a lady-like but quivering voice. For some reason, the air about these ponies was making her exremely nervous. Without answering, officer Mango strode over to Diamond Tiara and her mother, "Ma'am, you and your daughter will have to leave the premises until further notice." At this, both mother and daughter became indignant. "Wait just a minute! We came here expecting a gorgeous new dress for my lovely daughter, and that is what we had better get!" Diamond Tiara, in an obviously perfectly-practiced routine, seemed on the verge of tears, and started to whine with a voice Rarity knew all-too-well. "But I wanna get my dress today! If I don't get it, I won't look more fabulous than cousin Ruby Crown at aunty's party! Mom, you promised!" Rarity exasperatedly explained the situation to the earth pony in a low voice, "Maybe it would be better if you did come back at a later time, Miss Masquerade. I hope you'll except my apologies." With a last huff and a stamp of the hoof, Masquerade led her daughter out of the shop, calling behind her shoulder, "You just see if we ever do business with you again, Ms. Rarity!" The door slammed behind the two ponies, and Rarity could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. She turned to talk to the officials, and found that officer Mango and the mysterious unicorn in the suit were both furiously searching her boutique, tipping over carefully-organized fabrics, threads and patterns. Horrified, Rarity galloped over to officer Mango. "Stop! Stop, please, officers, what are you doing? Just tell me what you are here for, and I'm sure I can answer your every question!" Mango, however, pushed right past her with a scowl that made the white pony's cheeks turn red. "Will somepony please tell me why I am having my boutique invaded by the authorities?!" "Ma'am," officer Sour Grapes said in a deep voice, "we have reason to believe that you have in your posession some stolen and very illegal, dangerous magical items." The fashionista, taken aback, opened her mouth in utter surprise. She stuttered a moment, and then laughed, perhaps a bit too amusedly. "And you think that I, Rarity... what? Stole these items? A lady such as I? You simply cannot be serious!" Sour Grapes opened his mouth to reply, when his associate called over to him. "Hey, Grapes; I think we found what we're lookin' for." The cop's eyebrows raised, and he walked over to where his partner and the other pony stood. Rarity followed, still confused and perhaps just as indignant as her client had just been. The unicorn, whose cutiemark was a gleaming silver badge, had magically lifted up a floorboard. As soon as Sour Grapes looked underneath, he smirked, and all three male ponies turned to Rarity. Slowly, she peered under as well, and her proud demeanor shattered. Her mind buzzed with thought and emotion as her mouth once again dropped open, and her eyes bugged in a quite unattractive manner. I didn't put those there! How could they have gotten there? Do these ponies really believe that I am behind this?! Rarity swooned and nearly fainted. The unicorn came up to her while Mango and Grapes started collecting the evidence. "Miss Rarity; my name is Cuffs Shady, and I'm with the P.C.I. You'll be coming with me." The curly-haired pony barely noticed in all her shock the cold pair of hoofcuffs were magically clapped around her. As two buff stallions in shades came in to drag her away, Rarity remembered herself crying out, "Wait! I didn't do it! I was framed, I tell you! Framed! Framed!"
White-pawPony	774	2	Diamond Tiara,Original Character,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Rarity: Behind Bars	Will Ponyville's most beloved fashionista survive when she is incriminated and sent to jail?	cancelled	-1	-1	<p>(PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION)</p><p>When Rarity's boutique is found to be hiding some dangerous stolen chemicals, the unicorn knows she's been framed. Unfortunately for her, the police won't believe her frantic explanations. <br/>None of her friends have any idea where she has gone, and Sweetie Belle has been taken under the care of a secret organization, so it's up to this fashionista to use her wits to get herself out of this mess... Well, her wits and a new, unexpected friend.</p><p>Also, this has romance between Rarity and a convict... so read!</p><p>(NOTE: This fic is pretty much dead, and I apologize for this. It was going to take far too long to complete. If, however, you wish to finish the fic yourself with your own creative ideas, be my guest! I would love to read what you all come up with!)</p>	everyone	2011-09-08T05:35:06+00:00	2011-09-08T05:35:06+00:00	2,285	In the dim light, two sapphire-blue eyes fluttered open. Where in Equestria am I? ...And why does my head hurt so much? It was then that Rarity remembered the events leading up to this point, causing her to moan. She had been screaming bloody murder when two stallions had stuffed her into the back of a van, and her weak disposition had caused her to faint. Later on, she remembered being in a nearly drunken state, and struggling furiously as the stallions again had tried dragging her someplace. They had been talking about how full the female cells were, due to there having been a mob just hours before, and how she was to be placed somewhere with a less violent pony. At this point she had started to fight with full force, biting and kicking, when she felt a huge bang upon her skull and she once again blacked out. Now that she was regaining conciousness, she began gathering her wits about her. She was bruised, but not bleeding, as far as she could tell. Her hair was still perfect, but... A chair. She was tied to a chair. The indignity! They tied me to... to a chair?! Oh, wait until my lawyer hears from me - just wait! I don't know who these ponies think they are... And just about that time, Rarity realized that she was not alone. Sitting across from her was a black stallion with shades on. In fact, he was so much covered in black that one could hardly tell he was there. The mare in Rarity could not help but notice how handsome these men in uniform were, but she quickly shook off these thoughts. "Where... where am I?" was all she could say. After all, she was still dazed. She could imagine Rainbow Dash being convicted of a crime, if any of her friends. Pinkie, perhaps, for extreme hyperactivity. But her? Rarity? This must have been one big joke - or even a nightmare. "I'll be asking the questions here," he replied in a threatening tone. In her most lady-like voice, Rarity pleaded with the stallion, "Oh, goodness. There must be some mistake here, Sir. I mean, can you really believe that I of all ponies would do such a vulgar thing?" "Ma'am, please remain silent until I've finished asking my question." Rarity shut her mouth. "Now, then. Do you have any explanation for the concoctions that were found under the floorboards in your boutique?" he asked, flipping on a small recording device. Smiling politely, Rarity answered, "No, Sir. I haven't the slightest clue. Now, if we could just discuss the terms of my release-" "And you deny having anything to do with the making, storage, or consumption of these illegal products?" he continued. "Yes, I do," she replied, smile dropping off of her face. "Ma'am, what does the name 'Silver Brick" mean to you?" Rarity had had just about enough of this ridiculous inuiry. "I am quite sure I don't know! I've told you every piece of information I have about this - zilch! Now, if you would kindly escort me out of here..." "I'm sorry, Miss Rarity, but we'll have to continue questioning later; you are officially under arrest. The only place you'll be escorted to is your cell," the stallion stated. This unicorn was done with being shocked for one day. "What ever do you mean, 'under arrest'?! You simply cannot arrest me! I am Rarity, premiere fashion pony! ...Don't I get my one phone call, at least? And where is my lawyer?! For the final time, I was framed!" "Don't worry, Miss; if we don't believe you, I'm sure the judge will." Dearest Celestia - make this nightmare stop!
White-pawPony	774	3	Diamond Tiara,Original Character,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Rarity: Behind Bars	Will Ponyville's most beloved fashionista survive when she is incriminated and sent to jail?	cancelled	-1	-1	<p>(PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION)</p><p>When Rarity's boutique is found to be hiding some dangerous stolen chemicals, the unicorn knows she's been framed. Unfortunately for her, the police won't believe her frantic explanations. <br/>None of her friends have any idea where she has gone, and Sweetie Belle has been taken under the care of a secret organization, so it's up to this fashionista to use her wits to get herself out of this mess... Well, her wits and a new, unexpected friend.</p><p>Also, this has romance between Rarity and a convict... so read!</p><p>(NOTE: This fic is pretty much dead, and I apologize for this. It was going to take far too long to complete. If, however, you wish to finish the fic yourself with your own creative ideas, be my guest! I would love to read what you all come up with!)</p>	everyone	2011-09-09T05:14:49+00:00	2011-09-09T05:14:49+00:00	3,315	There really should be a basic training course for what to do if one is arrested, so one can be prepared. At least, this was the thinking of Rarity as she once again reflected on the day's events. What have I done to deserve this? I've had a decent life - I worked hard, made a name for myself. I've done nothing worthy of divine judgement such as this! She stood next to the phone, deciding whom she might call, and made a mental list. Fluttershy? She's quite the caring pony, but the dear just isn't assertive enough to do any good. Applejack? No, I don't believe she even owns a telephone... Rainbow Dash is away at that convention in Canterlot, so she's out of the question. Pinkie Pie would just muddle things up even more. One by one, she picked out her friends, until only a single pony remained. I must call Twilight. She's quick-witted, strong of composure, and most definitely has connections, yes? "Hey, wouldja hurry up, Lady?" pressed an employee of the prison. Rarity's eyes narrowed as she mumbled, "I swear, if one more pony makes a... snarky remark to me, they shall regret it." With her horn, she painstakingly pressed each number, and waited as the phone rang. ...And rang. ...And rang again. "No, no, no! Pick up, Darling, pick up!" the mare cried. Frustrated, she hung up and started to dial again. Unfortunately, her guard wasn't pleased with this. "Wait a second, you only get one call!" "Well, excuse me if my pony of choice isn't picking up at this moment. It is my right, so we are just going to have to wait!" ...And wait. Apparently for almost twenty minutes. Rarity simply would not give up. A guard behind them, however, had other ideas. "Listen, your call can't take this long. I've got another guy who's gotta make his one call, too, so you'd better hurry up." "Oh, no! You listen here; it is my right to be able to make my call, and until I do so, you... you..." Rarity stopped dead and gulped at the sight of the convict who needed to make his call. Big didn't even begin to describe this scarred criminal. He was around twice the height of Rarity, and at least four times her weight. His appearance reminded her of the buffaloes she had seen back in Appleoosa. Rarity formed a weak smile. "Well, I suppose that I could make my call later, since you seem so very... nice." *** "I am not going in there. You cannot make me go into that room!" The stallion escort who was currently watching over Rarity was exasperated. He wanted nothing more than to end his shift and leave this whiny mare behind. "There's nothing to be worried about; we have guards posted all around the area for your safety," he assured her. Rarity would not let up, "Sir, I do not believe you see these ponies - they are obviously all hardened criminals. Even the mares are muscular! This is simply not safe!" "Will you please stop your whining?" Stamping her foot, Rarity grunted, "I am not whining. Do you want to hear whining?! This is -!" But Rarity did not have time to finish her explanation, for she was shoved into the cafeteria and right into another pony. The victim of this unintentional crash also seemed unwilling to listen to Rarity's accounting of the situation, and turned to growl at her in a rather un-pony-like manner. Squeaking in fear, the white unicorn quickly backed away... Right into another pony. "Watch where you're goin'!" he shouted. Nodding furiously, Rarity scooted into an unoccupied corner so she could whimper to herself. "Wonderful, Rarity - just wonderful. This certainly is not your day. So far you have managed to lose a paying client, get yourself arrested, miss your opportunity to make your one phone call out of this place, and anger two or three nasty criminals. "Well, you're just going to have to make the best of this situation - no use making it worse for yourself by having a bad attitude. You must keep your wits about you, and use your resources to get yourself out of here. All you have to do is..." "Make a habit of talking to yourself?" The voice startled Rarity, and she whipped her head to her left, to see that the voice came from a heavy-built blood-orange mare. The orange prison jumpsuit conflicted with the color of her coat, Rarity noted. The mare laughed at Rarity's silence, "That's okay - we all do that sorta thing around here. Name's Spider Sage." Not about to forget her breeding, the unicorn replied, "Oh. Hello. I am Rarity. It... is a pleasure." Spider Sage smiled, "Nice to meet you Rarity. Me and my friends over there couldn't help but notice you seemed a little out of place." "Out of place doesn't even begin to describe the day I've had," Rarity confessed. Another laugh from Spider Sage loosened Rarity's taut lips a bit. "We don't see many fancy mares like you around a place like this. Would you join us at our table?" Rarity hesitated a moment. Was it really wise to be making friends with convicts? After all, she needed to save herself from as much trouble as possible. But then again, these ponies didn't seem like the rest of the crowd. This Spider Sage character seemed quite good-humored. The diamond-flanked mare nodded, and followed her new friend over to the table. Spider Sage's friends were two mares, just as muscled as she; the azure one had a spiky pixie-cut, and so many piercings and tattoos a pony could hardly tell she was under there; the other dark-grey unicorn's mane was shaved completely off, and her left eye was covered with a black eye-patch. A lady tries to overlook such vulgarites in others, Rarity silently reminded herself. A lady tries to look for the best in everypony. After all - Applejack and I are still friends. "Afternoon, everypony," she greeted them. The reply was two cold stares. Spider Sage put her front leg around Rarity's shoulders. "C'mon, guys - this is my new pal, Rittery." "That is Rarity." "Rittery; this here's Iron Loop and Drake." Iron Loop nodded, at least acknowledging the newcomer's presence. Drake nudged a dark mug of coffee towards Rarity, who stared at it. "You drink it." "Right." As if I didn't know, Rarity thought. I can't believe I must stoop down from my afternoon tea to this concoction, but it is all I have. But Rarity couldn't lift the cup to her lips. Try as she might, her horn simply would not work. Rarity panicked, afraid something was wrong with her magical abilities. As if reading her thoughts, Spider told her, "You can't use unicorn magic in here." Rarity was aghast. "Well, whyever not?" "Magical barrier surrounds the place - if unicorn magic was available, ponies would be busting outta here all the time," said Drake. Rarity felt about to blow a fuse. "How do they expect me to drink my coffee?! Or eat my food - or dress?! I'm not some simple Earth pony! I have standards! I have class!" she next-to-screamed, pounding upon the table several times. She sat there, panting and convulsing, cheeks red, eye twitching. There was a long, silent moment, as all four mares were still. Finally, Rarity gave in, bending her neck and taking a sip out of the blue porcelean cup. "...So, how did you all become friends?" "We were all in the same heist at this grocery store in Fillydelphia, and after that we became a gang," Spider told her. "Fillydelphia? Why, that's miles from here! Why did you end up in Ponyville?" Rarity asked. The three mares exchanged amused looks. Drake leaned forward, "We're not in Ponyville." "We aren't? Whatever do you mean?" There suddenly was a loud crash as a table tipped over. A colt and a stallion, equally as menacing, were stomping their hooves, about ready to run into battle. "You wanna take that back right about now?" growled the older one. "Not if you do first, Fatso!" taunted the younger. They charged, fighting tooth-and-nail. Before either Rarity or the prison guards could realize what was happening, Spider Sage had let out a jolly battle cry and rushed into the fray, followed by her two compadres. Thud! Whinny! Smack! Bang! Rarity shut her eyes tight, not willing to witness this atrocity. When the guards finally were able to break up the fight, they found the two male ponies nearly broken to pieces, bruised, bleeding, and close to tears. The three mares, however, were only slightly bruised, heaving, bloodied, and smiling wickedly. It was almost too obvious that this was quite an enjoyable sport. "And that's how you do it in Fillydelphia!"
White-pawPony	774	4	Diamond Tiara,Original Character,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Rarity: Behind Bars	Will Ponyville's most beloved fashionista survive when she is incriminated and sent to jail?	cancelled	-1	-1	<p>(PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION)</p><p>When Rarity's boutique is found to be hiding some dangerous stolen chemicals, the unicorn knows she's been framed. Unfortunately for her, the police won't believe her frantic explanations. <br/>None of her friends have any idea where she has gone, and Sweetie Belle has been taken under the care of a secret organization, so it's up to this fashionista to use her wits to get herself out of this mess... Well, her wits and a new, unexpected friend.</p><p>Also, this has romance between Rarity and a convict... so read!</p><p>(NOTE: This fic is pretty much dead, and I apologize for this. It was going to take far too long to complete. If, however, you wish to finish the fic yourself with your own creative ideas, be my guest! I would love to read what you all come up with!)</p>	everyone	2011-10-17T05:36:35+00:00	2011-10-17T05:36:35+00:00	1,760	"Oh, come on - no vital organs were spilled! Sure, there was blood, but it's all fun and games, right guys?" Rarity could hear the ridiculous, jaunty rantings of Spider Sage as she was prodded into her cell. The ever-graceful Element of Generosity was being shown to a cell of her own by a prison security guard. "I'm sorry that you had to witness that display of violence," apologized the guard. "Thankfully for you, you have been assigned a room with a much less frightful pony." Rarity, who was still a bit shaken, was pleased to hear this. The last thing she wanted was to be caught up in the middle of a hoof-fight. "And I give my dearest thanks," Rarity assured him. She looked up at the colt, and sensed a bit of... admiration, was it? Although Rarity was not one to take advantage of a pony, she seemed to have no other choice than to pour on the charm. "But, you wouldn't mind looking into my situation, yes? See if you can't shorten my stay awhile, hm?" she inquired as she batted her eyelashes fretfully. Unfortunately for Rarity, this only caused the guard to shake his head and once again turn strictly business. "Ma'am, I am in no way allowed to accept bribes, so please keep your troubles to yourself." Well, thought Rarity with a huff. I suppose I underestimate the police forces a bit much. "Then I suppose," she looked up at him again, this time with less flirtatiousness to her tone, "you would not mind informing my as to where I am being held?" As they came to the end of the hall, the earth pony opened the iron cell door. "Whinnyshire," replied the colt as he stamped his hoof and gestured for her to go inside. "Whinnyshire?! But... but that's hours from Ponyville!" exclaimed Rarity frightfully. "In." The guard forced Rarity in with a shove, at which she squealed in protest. All at once, Rartiy felt the weight of the day fall upon her. It was almost too much to bear. Her eyes began to water as she held back hot tears, "Please! You must believe me - I'm not supposed to be here! Please!" But the only things that Rarity heard were quiet hoofbeats on cement, and a voice call back to her. "Your prison outfit is in there - you are expected to have it on by tomorrow. Have a nice stay!" Rarity slowly slumped to the ground with a whimper. Why her? Why? Of all the terrible things that could happen, this is the worst possible thing! It took a moment, then, for Rarity to hear the breathing from behind her. It was almost too frightening to bear, but Rarity turned around and saw a little shriveled figure in the corner of the boxed room, rocking back and forth. The unicorn thought she had seen that expression somewhere before...and she shivered as she zeroed in on the factor that made this scene most disturbing: the eyes. The eyes, yellowed and with tiny pupils, were facing opposite directions. Somewhat like a certain pegasus she knew from Ponyville. But this wasn't a friendly-looking, oblivious pony - this was a crazed pony. "Um... I am... Rarity... who - who are you?" There was no response; the greenish-brown pony just kept rocking back and forth unnaturally. Rarity slowly, cautiously, eyes never leaving her cellmate, backed up towards the cot behind her, and sat upon it gently. "Very well." *** Back at Rarity's boutique, Sweetie Belle had just returned from school. "Big sis, I'm home!" she called out in her usual sing-song voice. With her magic, she set her backpack up against the wall, near the door, and trotted into the back. "You wouldn't believe the crazy science experiment Ms. Cheerilee had us do! It was incredible!" The filly came back out to the front, apple in mouth. "Shmm mmud uf puh uh..." Sweetie Belle stopped her talking as the apple dropped from her mouth. Standing before her was a crimson pegasus, much taller than she. "Um, hello..." The pegasus responded with an all-too-happy smile and sultry voice, "Hello, there, Sweetie." "I'm sorry, if you need a dress, I'll go get my big sister..." "Oh, that won't be necessary," the mare informed her, drawing closer. The filly slowly began to back up, "No, it's no trouble - I'm sure she's around here somewhere." "No, Sweetie Belle, she isn't. In fact, she won't be for quite a while. So I've come to take you until she comes back." Sweetie Belle was unsure to make of this stranger, but her heart began racing with instinctive fear and adrenaline, "I... I don't think that I'm allowed to..." "Oh, Sweetie Belle - don't you see?" The red pegasus flared her wings, "No is not an answer."
White-pawPony	774	5	Diamond Tiara,Original Character,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Rarity: Behind Bars	Will Ponyville's most beloved fashionista survive when she is incriminated and sent to jail?	cancelled	-1	-1	<p>(PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION)</p><p>When Rarity's boutique is found to be hiding some dangerous stolen chemicals, the unicorn knows she's been framed. Unfortunately for her, the police won't believe her frantic explanations. <br/>None of her friends have any idea where she has gone, and Sweetie Belle has been taken under the care of a secret organization, so it's up to this fashionista to use her wits to get herself out of this mess... Well, her wits and a new, unexpected friend.</p><p>Also, this has romance between Rarity and a convict... so read!</p><p>(NOTE: This fic is pretty much dead, and I apologize for this. It was going to take far too long to complete. If, however, you wish to finish the fic yourself with your own creative ideas, be my guest! I would love to read what you all come up with!)</p>	everyone	2011-10-22T22:53:47+00:00	2011-10-22T22:53:47+00:00	2,929	Rarity was woken up by the sound of a prompting voice. This came from outside of the cell, as an angry guard banged on the iron bars. It was not as if this had been the first time Rarity had been woken today; twice today, early in the morning, her disturbed inmate had filled her ears with frantic mumblings that quite frankly gave the unicorn a chill up her spine. "Rarity, is it? It's seven o' clock - your recess slot. So get outta bed, or you'll have to stay inside all day! And I thought that suit was supposed to be on you!" Yawning, and quickly becoming apathetic to the rantings of the jail officials, Rarity stretched. She could feel bones and muscles popping in response to the awful night they'd just had. But Rarity, ever optimistic, put on a smile. A recess? Yes, this might mean some fresh air, and perhaps another chance to make her case to anypony who would listen. "Just a moment, good sir," she called out in a sing-song voice that most likely confused the guard. She grabbed the orange outfit in her mouth and slowly unzipped it - a terribly complicating task to a unicorn with no magic. Just about to step into the cloth, she turned to the guard who was impatiently staring at her. Scrutinizingly, she said, "I would rather you not watch me while I am dressing!" The guard's mouth dropped open a moment, struck dumb. "Ma'am... ma'am, we don't usually wear clothes," he pointed out lamely. Sighing deeply, Rarity frowned and put on the outfit. "Really, how uncivilized..." The place where the 'recess' was held looked very much like a cage. And really, it was. Although the inside was nice enough, with patches of grass mixed with patches of concrete and picnic tables, it was surrounded by two fences of iron chains, both with barbed wire at the top. For any cocky pegasus who decided that their chance at freedom had arrived and tried to fly off, a meeting with an electric shock was imminent. The laser triggers were set all around the roofline of the place; any motion sensed, and an electric field would turn on. Rarity strode in, and squinted at the light of the sun. For a moment, she felt ashamed that at any point in her life she would be viewing her good Princess's masterpiece through the confines of a prison, before remembering that she was not to blame. Luckily, there was no sign of Spider Sage and her gang. Another confrontation with them was not desired. Instead, the room was filled with about seven other ponies. This must be quite a large establishment, Rarity thought to herself, to be housing this many... undesireables. Slowly striding through the giant birdcage, Rarity made her way to the center of the room. She looked around, seeing about five tables. Suddenly, her gaze stopped, as her eyes bore into a certain pony. Rarity was unsure of why she found this stallion so very interesting, but she simply could not pull her sapphire-blues away. Well, if I've learned anything from befriending Twilight... it is that everyone deserves a chance at friendship. Cautiously making her way over, the mare saw that this stallion was a pegasus. His coat was a grey, almost blue color, and his mane and tale a darker shade of grey. His prison suit looked worn, as if he had been in the facility quite a while, and his demeanor, at first threatening by his fierce stature, was very... lonely. I shall make Pinkie Pie proud. "Ahem... hello, there! Do you mind if I sit down?" she asked with a smile. Without a hint of surprise at this intrusion, the pegasus looked up slowly, with only his eyes, at the white mare. He stared at her for a good long while, causing Rarity to laugh nervously. "I'll take that as... a yes?" she sat down on the white stone bench and gave another smile. The stallion grunted. "Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Rarity. It is a pleasure to meet you..." Looking at the mare, and glimpsing her sincerity, he replied, "Stone Blade," as he looked to the side. "It is very nice to make your accquaintance, Stone Blade." There was a long, awkward silence. Rarity, still smiling, shuffled her feet. Finally, Stone Blade turned to face her. "What is it that you want?" As she was about to reply, Rarity caught sight of the stallion's eyes, and stopped. These eyes, though filled with sorrow, were the most incredible, indescribable color. Immediately, Rarity sympathized with the pony. "I came over because you looked like you needed the company... just as much as I did," she told him, quietly. Stone Blade's hardened face melted. Why was this mare being so generous to him - to his feelings? "...Thank you..."
White-pawPony	774	6	Diamond Tiara,Original Character,Rarity,Sweetie Belle,Adventure,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Rarity: Behind Bars	Will Ponyville's most beloved fashionista survive when she is incriminated and sent to jail?	cancelled	-1	-1	<p>(PLEASE READ BOTTOM OF DESCRIPTION)</p><p>When Rarity's boutique is found to be hiding some dangerous stolen chemicals, the unicorn knows she's been framed. Unfortunately for her, the police won't believe her frantic explanations. <br/>None of her friends have any idea where she has gone, and Sweetie Belle has been taken under the care of a secret organization, so it's up to this fashionista to use her wits to get herself out of this mess... Well, her wits and a new, unexpected friend.</p><p>Also, this has romance between Rarity and a convict... so read!</p><p>(NOTE: This fic is pretty much dead, and I apologize for this. It was going to take far too long to complete. If, however, you wish to finish the fic yourself with your own creative ideas, be my guest! I would love to read what you all come up with!)</p>	everyone	2011-11-03T23:35:26+00:00	2011-11-03T23:35:26+00:00	2,118	As Rarity was ushered away from her new friend and into the cafeteria to eat breakfast, she kept thinking about Stone Blade. The way his eyes sucked her in; the way his unkempt mane swept over his shoulders... how terribly comforting those strong arms looked... Wait just a minute, Rarity! she scolded herself, blushing. Are you forgetting your breeding? Your heritage? You mustn't let yourself be pulled into romancing about a criminal! But inwardly, her heart fluttered every time she thought of him. She didn't want it to, but it did. She was determined, though, to make a friend out of this stallion. Perhaps, I might even teach him to see the error of his ways! As she struggled to eat her toasted bagel and buttercup spread without use of her magic, she smiled inwardly. Perhaps I can make light of this experience. Most of the day was spent playing Solitaire with some of the prison's cards, and thinking to herself how wonderful it would be when it was all over. As night came once again, and Rarity found herself in the company of a crazed cellmate, who most obviously should have been held in a mental ward, the grim sadness settled for the second time over the white unicorn. The mare, uncomfortable in this new bed, restlessly tossed and turned. There wasn't even a mattress under which to tuck the blanket, frustrating Rarity to no end. A dream came to her in the dead of night; Spike, coming to rescue her, in armor - telling her it was alright. She woke up with a start, and then hung her head. Had things gotten so bad that she was wishing for the baby dragon to be her savior? Trying to settle back into the comfort of sleep, Rarity imagined her five best friends, coming to save her, just as they had when she had been kidnapped by the Diamond Dogs. This is just the same thing, isn't it? Rarity tried to reassure herself. I can get myself out of here... can't I? Just because I am a lady, doesn't mean... doesn't mean... "...Doesn't mean I cannot handle myself." Rarity whispered to herself, a tear sliding down her cheek. She closed her eyes. And imagined Stone Blade. A spark ignited inside of her. "Dear Celestia, am I crazy, or is this a mare's intuition...? I don't know why, but I believe that... becoming friends with that stallion..." Rarity's voice gained in volume, "is the key to my rescue!" "Hey, you! Shut the heck up, will ya?! Some of us are trying to sleep!" shouted a voice from across the hall. "I'm sorry if my inspiration disturbed you!" Rarity yelled back. At the moment, she didn't care that she wasn't being polite - she felt alive again. But the next few days were extremely dissappointing for the mare; her morning excursion to the fenced yard were fruitless in trying to reunite with Stone Blade. Perhaps it was only a one-time thing? Rarity thought to herself, although she knew that if this were the case, the other ponies that she had seen before would not have been there. Three days passed, with no sign of her new friend. Was it possible that he had already done his time? Was he being let free? Rarity contemplated this mysterious disappearance that afternoon in the cafeteria, as she was eating a tomato salad, when a familiar voice came from behind her. "Well, well, well! If it isn't my old friend, Varsity!" "...That's Rarity..." she muttered under her breath. Rarity was beginning to wonder if this orange mare had serious mental problems. She looked behind her to see the infamous Spider Sage and her cronies towering menacingly above her. "Y'know, Varsity, for the past few days that we've been given to 'contemplate' our 'seriously violent actions' and 'trouble-making attitudes', we were thinking of you," Spider Sage told her. "Is that right? How very thoughtful of you." Drake pushed her way to the front of the group, "We were thinkin' 'bout how you just left us hangin' the other day, you weakling!" Rarity stuttered in disbelief, "E-excuse me? I left you hanging?! I had no intention of rough-housing with you ponies! I had hardly even met you!" "Yeah," Spider Sage growled, "well, think of that as a test. A test of your loyalty. And you flunked that test." "So now, we're gonna pound you," stated Drake. What. The rage at these ridiculous ponies bubbled inside of Rarity until she was steaming. "You are going to beat me up?! Why, of all the - you three are absolutely insensitive! Ridiculous! Stupid! Uneducated! How dare you accuse a lady in such a manner of such a thing?! How dare you push the blame of your punishment onto me?! You know what? You deserve to be locked up forever in a dank dungeon, you annoying pests! I swear to Celestia, you are even worse than parasprites! And those things ate my designs! Well, at least the parasprites were comely - you three are just the most unfashionable, least-well-presented ponies I think I have ever laid eyes on! I have a mind to sent you to my finishing school when I was a filly - oh, but you would die there! I don't believe you have a single mannered bone on you...!" The three ponies exchanged worried glances as Rarity continued her rant. The pain. The absolute pain. How long could she keep this up? How far could she stray from the main point?! How many big words could she use in one sentence?! By the end of the night, neither Spider Sage, nor Drake, nor Iron Loop wanted anything to do with Rarity. Ever again.
uSea	775	1	Applejack,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Pinkie Pie,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Ditzy Doo and the Blustery Day	In which Dinky Doo asks her mother to tell her a story. Based on Winnie the Pooh. Illustrated	complete	116	3	<p>In which Dinky Doo asks her mother to tell her a story.</p><p>An illustrated tale based on the Winnie-the-Pooh stories written by A. A. Milne and decorated by E. H. Shepard, along with the Disney animation 'Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.'</p>	everyone	2012-01-20T11:49:33+00:00	2012-01-20T11:49:33+00:00	6,829	Ditzy Doo and the Blustery Day In which Dinky asks her mother to tell her a story Sometimes Dinky Doo likes a game of some sort in the evening, and sometimes she likes to sit quietly and listen to a story. This evening – "May I have a story please?" said Dinky Doo. "What kind of story would you like to hear?" I said. "Could you very sweetly tell me one about you?" "Why would you want to hear a story about me?" "Because mummy is a very special sort of mare." "Well, I suppose I can try," I said. So I tried. . . . . . Once upon a time, a very long time ago now – it must have been at least a month or two – Ditzy Doo decided to go for a walk on a particularly blustery day. (“Was that you?” said Dinky Doo. “That was me.” “Was I there?” “You were staying at Grandma's that week, do you remember?” Dinky nodded to show that she did remember.) Now as I was saying, Ditzy Doo had decided to go for a walk on this particularly blustery day so that she could visit her thoughtful spot, and the reason she wanted to visit her thoughtful spot was so that she could think of something to do while her daughter was away. Normally she would have flown the short distance, but this day was so blustery that she feared she might be blown around like a bubble caught in the wind. So Ditzy continued onwards, and as she walked she sang a little song to herself. Which went a little something like this: “Although this wind may blow away the leaves, From those golden autumn trees, A pony will be safe as sound, If her hooves stay on the ground.” When she arrived, she was surprised to see that her friend Pinkie Pie was already there. She was even more surprised when Pinkie Pie pounced on her to say 'hello'. “Hello Ditzy! Are you having a happy Windsday?” said Pinkie. Now Ditzy had been pretty sure that it was Tuesday, but it wouldn't have been the first time that she had gotten the days mixed up, so she simply said, “Yes.” “That's great! Would you like to help me blow up some more balloons?” “Okay,” agreed Ditzy Doo, who was happy to help out a friend. “But why have you tied those balloons to your tail?” “Because if I didn't then they'd get carried away by the wind, silly!” Ditzy began to worry that her friend might get carried away with them. “Don't worry,” said Pinkie Pie, “this place is sheltered from that blustery ol' wind.” Well that settled that. Pinkie Pie gave Ditzy a puzzled look. “So what are you doing on the floor?” Ditzy was unsure of what to say. She tried opening her mouth to speak, but, realising that she hadn't thought of anything to say, she closed it again. Eventually she decided on, “You bounced me.” “Oh yeah!” said Pinkie, stepping off the pegasus and helping her to stand up. “Thank you,” said Ditzy. “I'm sorry,” said Pinkie, who was still bouncing a little. “It's just that I'm so excited because of the great big party we're having this afternoon and everypony's gonna be there and – hey, is little Dinky Doo around?” (Upon hearing that Pinkie had asked about her, Dinky's eyes got larger and larger, and her face got pinker and pinker.) “Dinky's staying with her grandma,” said Ditzy. “Aww, that's too bad, cuz' this party's gonna be great! There'll be cakes and party hats and party poppers and loads of balloons! And we're having it in Applejack's barn so everypony can come and – oh! There's Applejack now!” Sure enough, the orange farm pony was walking down the slope and into their sheltered spot to join them. Ditzy noticed that Applejack was not wearing her usual hat. She hoped that it had not gotten blown away and had instead been left in a Safe Place. But what if it had gotten blown away and Applejack hadn't noticed? Ditzy thought that she would have been very embarrassed if such a thing had happened to her and it had to be pointed out by somepony. Ditzy decided that it would be best if she did not mention the missing hat. “Hey Applejack,” said Pinkie, “where's your hat?” “Left it back on the farm,” answered Applejack, “I still 'aint got round to fixin' that busted neck strap and I don't want it flyin' off.” Applejack nodded politely towards Ditzy. “Why, howdy there Ditzy Doo.” “Good morning Applejack,” said Ditzy. Applejack turned her attention back to their bouncing pink companion. “So Pinkie Pie, you mind tellin' me about this party that y'all are supposed to be havin' in my barn?” Pinkie Pie stopped her latest bounce in mid-air. “Ohmygosh I forgot to ask Applejack!” She landed back on the ground and turned her large, pleading eyes towards her hatless friend. “Please can we use your barn? Pretty please with sugar on top? How about with sugar and sprinkles and ice cream and cotton candy and a cherry and more sprinkles and –” Applejack chuckled. “Sure you can. You're just lucky we already moved the apples down to the apple cellar. Although we'd appreciate a lil' more notice next time.” “Thank you thank you thank you! Oh! We're gonna need more balloons!” Applejack looked at the collection already tied to Pinkie's tail. “Ain't you got enough already? I don't see what's so special about 'em myself.” Pinkie looked shocked for a moment, before leaning towards Ditzy and winking at the perplexed pegasus. “Well, she asked for it!” Pinkie launched into song, hopping around the other two ponies and bouncing higher and higher as she sang each line: “The most wonderful thing about balloons, Is balloons are wonderful things, Their tops are made out of rubber, Their bottoms are tied up with string, They float off the ground with joy unbound, Fun, fun, fun, fun, FUN! But the most wonderful thing about balloons Is there's enough for everyone, Yes, enough for every– hey! I'm flying!” And she was. Pinkie's last bounce had sent her too high and her balloons had been caught by the wind. “Hold on Pinkie Pie!” yelled Applejack as she twirled a rope which she had thoughtfully brought with her. She threw the lasso and managed to catch Pinkie's leg before she was taken out of reach. Applejack dug her hooves into the ground and tried to halt Pinkie's progress, but the wind was too strong and lifted her into the air as well. “Wheee!” said Pinkie Pie. “Ditzy, we need your help!” said Applejack, through the rope she held in her mouth. Moving quickly, Ditzy Doo grabbed Applejack's tail with her teeth and held on tightly, determined to help her friends. But Pinkie barely slowed at all, and all three of them were soon flying over the slope and heading into Ponyville. This blustery day was turning out to be quite eventful, and Ditzy Doo was enjoying herself. She decided to make up a poem, but since her mouth was full she had to hum it rather than say it. “The problem of being a mite too light, is that, like a kite, you could take flight. And the problem of being a bit too small, Is that you may have a bit further to fall. And the problem of being a wingless mare, Who suddenly finds herself in the air, Can indeed be quite profound: Just how does one safely reach the ground?” They flew through the park, and Pinkie waved down to Lyra and Bonbon, which finally convinced Lyra that perhaps Bonbon was right and it was too windy for sitting on a bench. They flew over the shops and overheard Mr. Breezy complaining to no-pony in particular that no one would want to buy a fan when the weather was like this, but that it was okay because just the other day somepony had come into his store and said 'Good morning,' which was nice. They flew past the school house and saw Berry Punch playing with her little filly in the playground. Ditzy could hear Berry telling her daughter “Just one more swing and then we must be going,” and her filly would say “Look at me swinging!” and swing once again. The trio's journey ended as Pinkie Pie collided tail-first with the great big tree that housed the town library. She was soon joined by the other two ponies, and all three of them became plastered against an upper window. “Twilight,” said a voice from inside. “What is it Spike?” “You've got visitors.” “Well, let them in.” Spike shrugged and undid the latch which was keeping the window shut. The gale blew it wide open, nearly knocking the baby dragon off his feet, and causing Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Ditzy Doo to tumble inside. After jumping up several times and with much flailing of his legs, Spike managed to close the window again. Outside, the wind howled because its new toy had been taken away, but it soon forgot and found some leaves to chase around instead. “That was fun!” said Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book at the pile of ponies that now inhabited her library's floor. “I was expecting you to come through the door,” she said, having not thought of anything else to say. “Hi Twilight! I was a kite!” said Pinkie Pie. “O-kay,” said Twilight. Applejack turned herself right-side up. “Pinkie Pie, you mind getting off of Ditzy Doo please? You're sittin' on her.” “I am?” said Pinkie, looking down at the pegasus she was sitting on for the second time that day. “Hi Ditzy!” “Hello Pinkie.” “You're comfy.” “Thank you Pinkie.” Twilight used her magic to gently lift Pinkie Pie off of Ditzy Doo and set her down beside them. “That's better,” Twilight said as Ditzy stood up. “Now, did you girls need some help or were you just dropping in?” “Just dropping in,” said Applejack, “your tree very kindly stopped us from blowin' away. We don't mean to trouble you.” Twilight smiled. “Oh, that's okay. No trouble at all. But if you don't need me then I'd like to catch up with some reading while it's so windy outside.” “You are coming to the party this afternoon, aren't you?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Is that what the balloons are for?” “Yeah! It's in Applejack's barn and everypony's gonna be there!” “Oh, then sure. Of course I'll come.” “Great!” said Pinkie, and she began bouncing towards the door. “Come on Applejack, we've got to get the barn ready!” “Well shucks, looks like I've been volunteered. I'll see y'all later,” Applejack said, trotting quickly after Pinkie Pie. Ditzy looked up at the clock and saw that it was almost time for a Little Something, and if she went to see her good friend Carrot Top, then by the time she got there it would be time for a Little Something. She said goodbye to Twilight and set off after the other two ponies so that she could walk with company. When they saw that Ditzy Doo was following them, Pinkie Pie and Applejack paused so that she could catch up. Ditzy Doo explained that she was going to see Carrot Top, who lives in the orange house on part of Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack said that was a good idea since she didn't think her neighbour had been out yet that day due to the weather. A bouncing Pinkie Pie asked Ditzy to make sure that Carrot Top knew about the party they were having later, said like was she it bit this, it hard keep but a so to track. As they started to climb the hill that led to the farm, Applejack and Ditzy Doo made Pinkie promise to keep her hooves on the ground until she was safely inside, since the farm was higher up than the rest of Ponyville and the wind might blow her away again. While Ditzy walked, a little poem popped into her head and soon it popped out of her mouth because sometimes these things need to be said even if your mind is preoccupied with an Important Matter and you can't think of many words. “I think it's time for a Little Something, Or two. It should be time for a Little Something, It's true. It's only a Little Something, Just a very Little Something, Like, perhaps a muffin, Or a few.” After saying it once, she found herself saying it again and this time Pinkie Pie joined in. Pinkie enjoyed it so much that she thought about going with Ditzy to see Carrot Top for a Little Something as well, but then she remembered that she had to get things ready for the party, so she said, “Ta ta for now,” instead. After leaving her companions, Ditzy Doo made her way to Carrot Top's house. She stepped carefully around where the carrots had been planted, because she knew that plants live in beds, and it would have been rude to wake them. Ditzy knocked on the front door and said: “Carrot Top, are you home?” She heard a commotion from inside, followed by a voice. “Let’s pretend I'm not,” said Carrot, “and see what happens.” So Ditzy Doo, being a mare of very little brain, sat down and gave this a Good Think. If Carrot Top wasn't there then Ditzy couldn't have heard her answer, so she must have imagined it. But, she reasoned, it was time for a Little Something, so Carrot Top would probably be back soon and she may have even left a Little Something out on the table for when she returned. And if Carrot did return to find that her good friend Ditzy Doo was waiting for her so that she could have a Little Something in company, then Carrot probably wouldn't mind if she found that Ditzy had eaten just a smidgen of the Little Something while she was waiting. Carrot would smile and say things like 'It's so good to see you,' and 'Please help yourself,' and 'Do go on.' Carrot might even show her where she kept the Key To The Fridge. Ditzy peered into the window to see if this was the case. “Hello Carrot Top,” said Ditzy, waving to her friend. Carrot turned to her window with a look of surprise. “Oh it's you, Ditzy Doo.” Ditzy looked at her reflection in the glass to make sure that it was. Carrot seemed relieved, but then she glanced up at the clock and suddenly didn't seem quite so relieved any more. “I guess you'd better come in then,” she said slowly and opened the door. Ditzy thanked her friend and made her way to the kitchen. Carrot plodded along behind her. After Ditzy had finished her second plateful, and was patiently waiting for her third, she asked Carrot Top who she had thought was knocking on her door. “I thought it was Applejack's little sister, Apple Bloom,” Carrot answered. “She and her friends came round earlier to 'help' me pick the carrots.” Ditzy nodded along sagely, as if to say 'Oh yes, well we've all been there.' “I found them out front, trying to dig up the carrot patch. I explained that the carrots had only been planted a few days ago and they still needed time to grow, but then the orange one, Scootaloo I think, said they just needed find a way to make them grow faster, and then Sweetie Belle said that Twilight must have some kind of spell or potion for it. And then they ran off towards town,” said Carrot. Ditzy continued to nod, but she realised that she had been thinking about her empty plate and had missed most of what Carrot had told her. So Ditzy said “Well, of course,” in a manner that hopefully suggested that she had been listening. Carrot didn't seem to notice and said that she hoped that Apple Bloom and her friends had gotten bored and found something else to do. She then offered to get Ditzy another plateful, which was something the pegasus had no trouble in hearing. While she ate, Ditzy told Carrot about the party in the afternoon that she must be sure to attend, and Carrot said that she would be sure to attend it. A short time later, Ditzy finished her last mouthful, shook Carrot lovingly by the hoof, and said that she must be going now. “Are you sure you wouldn't like anything else?” said Carrot politely. “Is there anything else?” asked Ditzy hopefully. “No, there isn't,” Carrot answered without having to look in the fridge. “I thought as much,” said Ditzy, and she thanked Carrot for her hospitality before heading back outside and into the blustery day. On her way back, the clouds opened up and set about making everything a good deal wetter. It rained, and it rained, and it rained. So by the time Ditzy had gotten home she was very wet indeed. Once inside, she wrapped herself in towels to dry herself off and started to think about what she should do now that it was raining. She remembered that Twilight had said she was going to do some reading while the weather was bad, so Ditzy thought that she should do the same. She picked up her favourite book, sat down on the sofa, and started to read. She read, and she read, and she read, and then her sofa started to float, so she stopped reading and had a look around. The sitting room was full of water. “Oh bother,” said Ditzy Doo, and she flew up the stairs to take a look out of her bedroom window. She saw that it wasn't just her house that had been flooded, but the streets as well. She knew that there must have been a lot of rain up in the mountains for the river to overflow like this and try to take up residence in Ponyville. She also noticed that the water level was rapidly rising, and that it had already begun to climb up the stairs behind her; she didn't know how high it would get, but she had a feeling that she couldn't stay where she was. Luckily, she spotted a large, wooden cart floating down the street towards her. She got herself ready on the windowsill, and used her wings to glide down, landing safely on the cart. So Ditzy and her cart travelled down the flooded streets of Ponyville, looking up at the ponies who had climbed onto their roofs and looking around at the ponies who had found similar floating objects to cling onto. The ponies around Ditzy looked back at her with a mix of confusion and expectation, which seemed odd to Ditzy because she thought they would be looking around for a pegasus to come along and take them to a Safe Place. The afternoon wasn't as blustery as the morning had been, so flying shouldn't be dangerous any more. Ditzy began to think about the last flood that had happened in Ponyville. When it was over, they had to call in teams of unicorns from Canterlot to help them dry everything off. She hoped this one would be over quickly, although she quite liked floating between the houses. She had decided to call her cart The Floating Mare, which she thought was a fine name for such a Grand Vessel. The water's flow brought The Floating Mare and its passenger towards the library, and Ditzy could see that Twilight's hot air balloon was floating above the great tree, being buffeted by the wind. Since it wasn't floating off, Ditzy assumed that it must be tied down, though at this distance she couldn't see a rope. The tree itself was mostly underwater by now. She thought about flying up to the balloon's basket to see if Twilight was inside, when she suddenly realised that she was a pegasus and could of helped those ponies that had been stuck on their rooftops. Ditzy looked back the way she had come and saw several pegasi already helping to carry the stranded ponies towards Sweet Apple Acres. She was able to see that the farm they were heading to was safe from the water, being situated on its hill outside of town. She felt very Foolish and Uncomfortable for forgetting that she could have helped those ponies in the first place and began to think that maybe she should run away to Sea to be a Sailor. Ditzy was thinking about how good a Sailor she would make, when a voice called to her from above. She looked up and found that she had been brought close to the hot air balloon and Twilight was looking down at her from its basket. “Hello Twilight,” Ditzy called back, and she flapped her wings to stop the current from pulling her away. “Everypony's heading to Sweet Apple Acres to escape the flood,” said Twilight. “Can you make it there yourself or do you want a lift in my balloon?” “I'll be okay,” said Ditzy Doo, who suddenly had a thought. “What about your books? Won't they be ruined?” Twilight shook her head. “I used my magic to make them waterproof, they should be fine even if this lasts a few days.” Ditzy was relieved to hear that, but then she noticed that several books had already floated out the window and were being carried away from the library. “What about those ones?” Ditzy said, pointing to the escaping books as best she could. “Oh no!” cried Twilight. “We've got to save them!” She gestured wildly to her dragon assistant. “Spike cut the rope, we need to go after them.” “I don't think that's a good idea Twilight,” said Spike, from beneath the small pile of waterproof books he was using to try and keep himself dry. “There's no time, just do it!” So, still thinking this was a bad idea, Spike cut the rope. The wind immediately dragged the balloon away from the library in completely the wrong direction. “Dumb wind, not that way!” Twilight yelled. “I told you it wasn't a good idea,” Spike muttered. Ditzy Doo suddenly thought of a great way to Be Useful, which would mean that she wouldn't have to run away and be a Sailor after all. “Twilight!” she shouted towards the retreating balloon, “I, Ditzy Doo, will save your books!” Although she couldn't be sure if she had been heard or not. Ditzy Doo and The Floating Mare set off. The current was weak but it was taking her and the books in the same direction, so Ditzy just needed to flap her wings to help steer or go faster. If she had been a unicorn she could have picked up the books with magic when she got close, but since she wasn't she had to wait until they got caught on something that was sticking out of the water, like a chimney or the top of a tree. She hadn't managed to collect many books, but she hoped to have more luck when they passed through the cluster of tall trees in the park. As she approached, she noticed that one of the trees had three little ponies clinging to the upper branches, trying to keep out of the water. It was Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. “What are you girls doing up in that tree?” asked Ditzy Doo. “We were trying to be creature catchers.” “So we were followin' these tracks we found.” “And they kept going round this tree.” “We didn't know what was making them.” “It was elephants.” “Nah, weasels.” “But when we followed them we just found even more tracks.” “And when we kept followin' them we found even more than that!” “And that's when Sweetie Belle got scared.” “I thought they might turn around and eat us!” “So she climbed up the tree.” “And we climbed after her.” “And I got stuck.” “She said she can't climb downwards.” “Because her tail gets in the way.” “Then all this water came from nowhere.” “So we all got stuck.” “Yeah.” Ditzy Doo found herself faced with a difficult choice; on the one hoof she had made a promise to Twilight, and on the other she knew that those little ponies needed her help. She quickly reached a decision, and piloted The Floating Mare into some of the tree's lower branches, which got the vessel stuck so that it wouldn't drift away. She flew up to each of the girls and lowered them into the cart. It was a tight squeeze, and Scootaloo complained that it all came from not making carts big enough, and Sweetie Belle said that it really came from eating too much, and Apple Bloom asked Sweetie Belle to be careful about where she pointed her horn, and then they all stopped talking and looked up at Ditzy Doo, who was hovering in front of them Deep In Thought. She was thinking about how to get The Floating Mare and its three passengers to the safety of Sweet Apple Acres. The cart was certainly too small for her to fit inside as well, and there wasn't enough of it sticking out the water for her to push it along while flying. Then she began to think about pushing it along while swimming; it would be hard work to go against the current, but Ditzy Doo's wings were quite strong and she knew she was good at using them underwater. Under the watchful eyes of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, Ditzy Doo untangled The Floating Mare from the tree branches and set it adrift. She dove into the water and began pushing it along. Bracing her front legs against the cart and paddling with her back, she used powerful strokes from her wings to propel them through the water. It was slow going at first, but Ditzy soon found her rhythm, sending up a shower of foam and bubbles each time her wings broke the surface. Their pace quickened, and Sweetie Belle tried to and hide under Scootaloo, who was busy watching Ditzy Doo and imagining what it would be like when her own wings were all grown up. They travelled back through Ponyville, and saw that only the very tops of the tallest houses were still above the water. Even the library's tree was now just a few upper branches poking out of the swirling blue. Apple Bloom looked ahead of them and called out directions to Ditzy Doo so they wouldn't crash into anything. When she stopped using her hooves to cover her eyes, Sweetie Belle spotted something above them and called out for everyone to look up. A pegasus was following them from the sky, leaving a rainbow trail in the air behind her. She was soon joined by other pegasi, who formed up into a giant letter 'V' that pointed towards Sweet Apple Acres. Seeing this display, Ditzy Doo swam even harder, and they soon reached Applejack's farm. A crowd of cheering ponies greeted them as they arrived and helped the three little fillies disembark The Floating Mare. Ditzy Doo climbed out of the water and was nearly knocked over when Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo ran up and hugged her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” said the three little ponies. The crowd parted to allow Twilight Sparkle and the Mayor to walk through, followed closely by Applejack and Rarity. When she saw Twilight, Ditzy suddenly remembered the promise that she'd made. “I'm sorry Twilight,” said Ditzy. “I promised that I would get your books back, but I only managed to save a few.” The Mayor chuckled. “Silly young mare, you rescued those girls; which was a very brave thing to do.” “It was?” asked Ditzy. Rarity stepped forward. “Of course darling. You are our hero.” “I am?” “An' I reckon that a hero deserves a hero party,” said Applejack. “Oh, I think that can be arranged,” said Twilight, smiling as she watched an excited pink pony bounce through the crowd. “Did I hear that somepony needed a hero party?” said Pinkie Pie. And so Ditzy Doo and all the other ponies enjoyed the party in Applejack's barn, which had turned into a hero party. They ate cakes and played games until it was dark outside and they all felt tired. The water had begun to leave and the rain clouds had wandered off, but since all the houses were still wet everypony either spent the night in Applejack's barn or out in the fields sleeping under the stars. And since its gotten dark here too, and I'm getting tired, I think this where we shall end the story. . . . . . Dinky Doo lifted her head from where it had been resting against my wing, and tried to say that she wasn't tired, but this was made difficult by a yawn that escaped her mouth in between words. “Or maybe I am just a little tired,” she said. “I think it's time that we all went to bed,” I said. “Okay.” She stood up and trotted to the door. When she reached it, she turned around and said, “Coming to read me a bedtime story?” “I might,” I said. She smiled because she knew what I really meant and went out . . . and in a moment I heard her – 'bump, bump, bump' – hopping up the stairs.
DirigibleQuixote	776	1	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2011-12-29T15:22:58+00:00	2011-12-29T15:22:58+00:00	12,954	Rainbow Dash sighed impatiently, pawing at the ground with a foreleg. She was standing on a large field of short grass which overlooked Ponyville, waiting. The pony for whom she waited was only a few minutes late, but Dash’s patience had already begun to wear thin. The day was pleasant enough: warm, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, but the pegasus’s mood was already soured. I hope the rest of these community service hours aren’t as boring as this, she thought to herself. It wasn’t her fault that Ponyville’s windows weren’t built to withstand Sonic Rainbooms. If the ponies living there took it so seriously, they should build stronger windows, not punish people for being strong. She was Rainbow Dash, The Fastest Filly Flyer in all of Equestria! She had just been flying fast. If a few windows – okay, a few dozen windows – and some other stuff had been damaged, that was hardly her fault! The judge at the hearing hadn’t seemed to see things Dash’s way, but had presented her with a choice. Pay a monstrous fine for all the damages she’d caused, or do community service to make it back. Dash hadn’t really seen it as a choice. She mostly lived on cheap takeout, and being a weather pony paid surprisingly little. When she’d been told that she could give flying lessons for her community service, Dash had jumped at the opportunity, feeling that flying could hardly count as work. A commotion on the horizon brought Dash out of her recollection. Dash narrowed her eyes, trying to see what it was. A dust cloud was just visible on the dirt path, but the blue pegasus couldn’t tell what was leading it. Lifting herself a few metres into the air, Rainbow Dash once again trained her eyes. There was too much dust to be certain, but she could just make out an orange blur at the head of the cloud. Rainbow Dash did not know specifically whom she was to teach – she had been given only a time and a location. Hmm. Do I know anypony who’s oran- No. No, it couldn’t be. They wouldn’t do that. Rainbow Dash’s wings slowed, lowering herself down to the ground. The cloud was now close enough for her to see clearly, quickly making its way up the hill. Sure enough, the pony creating it was orange. She was also riding a scooter. Dash lowered her head and groaned, mentally preparing herself for the prospect of spending the next few months with- “Hi, Rainbow Dash!” exclaimed Scootaloo, coming to a stop in front of the blue pegasus and jumping off the scooter. “Isn’t this so cool? I sign up for flying lessons, and my flying instructor is the Rainbow Dash – the Fastest Filly Flyer in all of Equestria!” Scootaloo could barely contain herself, hopping up and down in anticipation. Her saddlebags bounced with her. Rainbow Dash’s reaction was somewhat more subdued. “Er, um, hey, Scootaloo. Yeah, it’s gonna be really fun, I’m sure. So, is there anything-” “Um, actually,” Scootaloo interjected, rummaging around in her saddlebags, “I’m supposed to give you this before we start anything.” She found her prize and dropped a scroll with the seal of the Equestrian courts onto the ground at Dash’s feet. The orange pegasus then turned back to her scooter and busied herself removing her helmet and saddlebags. Dash flicked the scroll open with a hoof and skimmed it, confusion clear on her face. The judge hadn’t mentioned anything about a scroll, or special instructions. As Dash read through the words, a connection between this information and the monotone words of the court secretary formed. She had said something about Dash’s community service hours “being held to the standards of the Equestrian educational system.” Dash hadn’t thought much about it at the time, as she had been overjoyed at the prospect of paying her “debt to society” through flight, but now it started to make sense. Only it didn’t. “Scootaloo,” Dash said. “It says here that I’m to instruct you in the skills covered by a first-year flight school course.” “Yeah, so?” Scootaloo set down her saddlebags and turned back to Dash. “So, why would I do that if you’re already in flight school? The court must’ve made a mistake or something.” Scootaloo’s demeanour dampened at this. She started to say something, but broke Dash’s gaze halfway through and trailed off into silence. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you,” said Dash. “Come again?” “I . . . I haven’t . . .” Scootaloo mumbled. Dash leaned forward and cocked her head. “One more time?” “I’mnotinflightschool!” Scootaloo exclaimed. There followed an awkward silence, which Rainbow Dash eventually broke. “Um, why not?” “Well, see, my parents and I used to live in Fillydelphia, but we had to move here because of my dad’s job. When we moved, it sort of messed up the schedule for enrolment in flight school, so I have to wait for this year to finish before I can apply to flight school next year.” “So, you’ll be a year behind when you start flight school,” said Dash, slowly realizing the responsibility upon her shoulders. Scootaloo brightened considerably. “I would be, but my parents said that if I got this training and passed an entrance test, the school would count it as a substitute for my first year, so I’d enter along with everypony else!” Scootaloo was back to her usual, cheery self. “Isn’t it just great?” Yeah, great. Ugh, trust the government to find a way of turning flying into work. “Yeah, Scootaloo,” said Rainbow Dash with enthusiasm she did not feel. “It’s great. Now, who wants to learn how to fly?” “Ooh! Ooh! I do!” The session passed enjoyably enough, though without actual flight on either pony’s part. Instead, Dash instructed Scootaloo in a regimen of stretches and exercises to help acclimate the body to the stresses of flight. Scootaloo was disappointed that she would not be performing any Sonic Rainbooms on her first day, but she did not let this faze her and paid rapt attention to all of Dash’s instructions. After they had said their goodbyes, Dash leapt into the sky. Being grounded for such a length of time had built up a good deal of stress, and she knew of no better way to relieve stress than a soaring session amongst the clouds. She tried to concentrate on smashing through cloud banks and other aerobatic stunts, but her thoughts soon turned to more serious matters. Gliding in a holding pattern, Dash was forced to come to terms with her predicament. She was no teacher, that much was certain. The stretches she had taught Scootaloo were about the only things she remembered from her time at flight school. She had excelled at the act of flight itself, but Dash had never paid much attention when they were discussing the aerodynamics and theory of flight in the classroom. It would be so much simpler if this whole thing could be undone, somepony more qualified found to teach Scootaloo. Maybe it wasn’t too late to switch to manual labour. Dash had heard the spice mines were rather nice this time of year. No, no, she thought to herself, sighing. She had been sighing far too much today. I can’t just run off. If I do, I would just be passing the problem on to another pony. I need to find a solution to this – there must be something that’ll work! Held to the standards of the Equestrian educational system. Who do they think they are? I’m Rainbow Dash, saver of lives, performer of Sonic Rainbooms, giver of cutie marks! Why do I need their approval to teach somepony how to fly, of all things? Dash landed heavily on a cloud and sat down in thought, irritated. She needed to find some workable answer to this whole thing by tomorrow, as the only breaks she had from the flying sessions were the weekends. Suddenly, an idea struck her. Twilight would have something to say about all this! She was always studying a hundred things, so why not flight? Dash dove off the cloud and quickly flew to Ponyville’s library, stopping just in front of the door. She force herself to calm down – there would be some way around this. Then she knocked, and the door opened after a moment to reveal Spike. “Oh, hi Rainbow Dash!” Spike greeted her, but his expression immediately grew suspicious. “You’re not skipping your community service hours, are you?” “Relax, Spike, I already did those for today,” said Dash, flicking a foreleg dismissively. Far back in her mind, though, she felt a little surprised. Was she that easy to mistrust? “I’m the element of loyalty, remember? I’d never cop out of something like this.” “Oh, er, yeah,” said Spike. “So, what brings you to our fine building?” “I was hoping to speak to Twilight, actually. Is she here?” “She is. Come on in and I’ll get her.” With this, Spike turned away from his visitor and jogged to an upper floor of the library. Dash stepped inside, taking in the room lazily. She’d never much cared for libraries, or books in general. Reading had always seemed too slow for her, not enough action or thrill. There was a paperback novel lying on a table near the door. With nothing better to do, Dash examined it. The cover depicted a pony (black coat, white hair) in armour facing the reader with a sword in one hoof and a large, black cat by his side. Behind him was what could only be a cityscape, though it looked unlike any architecture Dash had ever seen. The book was called Homeland and had been written by one R. A. Salvacolte. Dash had never heard of this pony, but she hardly kept up to speed with authors. She was intrigued, though, so she flipped the book over and read the back. By the end of the paragraph, intrigue had become desire. It was one of the few times in her life Dash could remember wanting to read something. Elves and Dwarves and wars and fighting – had books always been about stuff this . . . interesting? The only things Dash remembered seeing in books were aerodynamics equations and weather algorithms. It’s apparently part of a series. I wonder if Twilight has the rest of them- “Rainbow Dash! Good to see you!” called Twilight from the stairs, breaking the blue pegasus’s train of thought. Spike had apparently remained upstairs. “What did you need to see me about?” Dash quickly stepped away from the book and shifted her attention to the matter at hand. She disliked asking for help for any reason, but this needed to be done. “I was wondering if you had any books on flight, actually.” Twilight giggled, but quickly sobered. “. . . You’re serious.” “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Again, Dash was annoyed at how easily everyone seemed to doubt her. Twilight stayed silent for a moment, thinking about how best to answer the question. At length: “You’re, well, you,” she said. “The Fastest Filly Flyer in all of Equestria. I honestly think I’ve seen you flying one way or another more than walking or standing – why would you ever need to read about flying?” She has a point. “Well, um, it’s not for me,” Dash said, looking around awkwardly. “It’s for the community service thing I have to do.” Twilight’s expression soured. “The community service you have to do to make up for a Sonic Rainboom in the middle of town?” the unicorn said flatly. Dash grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, that.” Rolling her eyes, Twilight walked over to the Flight & Aviation section and helped her friend pick out several books on flight. They ranged from athletic instruction manuals to aerodynamic theory encyclopaedias, the latter mostly suggested by Twilight. Dash wasn’t entirely sure she would end up using all of them, but she wasn’t about to argue with Twilight over books. When they had brought the stack over to the main desk for checkout, Twilight started the process of stamping the inside of each book cover with a due date and recording the same date in the library’s ledger. She had done this so many times it barely registered as magic anymore, which left most of her concentration available. Glancing at the ledger, Twilight noticed something. “Come to think of it, you’re the second pegasus to come in asking for books about flight,” she said, peering closer to the name written there. “Scootaloo beat you to it.” “Really?” Dash asked, honestly curious. It hadn’t occurred to her that her student might have had the same idea. “Yeah,” replied Twilight, the memory coming back to her. “She came in a little while ago, asking almost exactly the same thing as you. In fact, if she’d had her way, she would’ve been taking home more books than you are.” “I’m teaching her how to fly for my community service. Must’ve really wanted to do this whole flying thing properly,” said Dash, watching registered books float into a pair of library-stamped saddlebags. She had not brought her own. “Actually, I don’t think that was the reason.” “Oh?” “Yeah, she mentioned how she wanted to learn all she could about flying so that she wouldn’t disappoint you,” Twilight stated matter-of-factly. At this, there was a slight sensation of discomfort in the back of Dash’s mind – it was upsetting, but she couldn’t put a feeling to it. Twilight continued talking: “She really seemed taken. Her eyes lit up whenever she mentioned you and the whole prospect of being taught by the Fastest Filly Flyer in all of Equestria seemed divine to her.” “That kid . . .” Rainbow Dash sighed heavily. Twilight raised her eyebrows. “What’s the matter? I thought you liked Scootaloo.” Dash backpedalled, clarifying what she meant. “Yeah, I do, it’s just that, well,” Dash scratched the back of her neck awkwardly with a foreleg, “I’ll put it this way. Today was a four-hour session, with a break for lunch. During that time, she called me The Fastest Filly Flier in all of Equestria seventeen times.” Twilight chuckled at this. “Do my ears deceive me? Is Rainbow Dash becoming irritated with praise?” “That was one compliment that I bothered to count,” continued Dash, putting her hooves on the desk to emphasize her point. Her tone was now the monotone of someone presenting an extremely factual argument to which they had an extremely personal connection. “I didn’t mention how often she told stories of stuff that I did, or referred to me as ‘awesome’ or ‘sooo coool’, or thanked me for being her teacher.” “That’s a bad thing? I thought you liked adoring fans.” “Adoring fans are one thing. Spending a few months with someone who worships you is another.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “And the fact that I’m being ordered to do this by the government doesn’t help matters. Anyway, thanks for the books. I have a feeling I’m going to need them.” The pegasus swung the saddlebags over her sides and started to turn around. She hadn’t completed an about-face when Twilight put her hooves on Dash’s. “Rainbow Dash, listen,” Twilight said. Dash looked into Twilight’s eyes, and saw emotion there. “I’m sure that this whole thing will turn out alright. I’ve gotten to know you well since I moved here, and I know how hard you work when you’re doing something you enjoy, even if somepony else is forcing you to do it. If you put your mind to something, there’s nothing you won’t be able to do – I’m sure you’ll figure something out.” Rainbow Dash was still for a moment, surprised at the show of emotion from the normally introverted Twilight. As Dash’s mind processed what Twilight had said, she realized that the purple unicorn’s words carried a kind of comfort with them. It was nice to know that Twilight believed in her abilities, even if everypony else (and herself, come to think of it) was less than confident. Dash cleared her throat. “Um, yeah, well, I should be going,” she said, trotting towards the door. “Thanks for the books and everythinggottagoseeyalaterbye!” With that, Dash sped off into the sky. After a short stop at the nearest pizza parlour (Dash had underestimated how hungry teaching made her when she had packed her lunch that morning), the blue pegasus flew up to her house. Twilight stood at the desk, hooves still on it. She watched as the library door swung slowly shut, slightly squealing on its hinges. Twilight released a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding as it clicked shut. I hope Rainbow Dash feels all right about this whole affair. Scootaloo could hardly ask for a better teacher, and it would be awful to have Dash beat herself up over teaching somepony how to fly, of all things. Twilight lightly pushed herself off of the desk and walked over to the section that she and Dash had investigated. It had become noticeably more dishevelled from their efforts, with several books which had ultimately proven to be unrelated to Dash’s needs lying haphazardly on the floor. Twilight started levitating them up and back into their respective spots on the shelves. She found herself still thinking about Dash, despite her preoccupation. It was always nice to be able to help a friend in need, of course, but it seemed to be more than that. Maybe it was because of her friend’s stature – Dash was, by all counts, an Equestrian hero. The others of their little gang were as well, but few were so brazen about it. Applejack was humble, Fluttershy was timid, and Pinkie was often too busy being . . . Pinkie to think about fame and the like. Twilight was aware of how a good number of ponies thought about her, but she didn’t really enjoy the spotlight – Rarity was the only one who might have approached Dash’s familiarity with stardom. Twilight had now finished with the books. She moved to a nearby cushion and flopped down upon it, then rolled onto her back and stretched out her spine over the cushion’s arch. After a momentary thought about how she really ought to get out of the library more, Twilight’s thoughts returned to Ponyville’s chief aerobat. Rainbow is always so confident about everything, whether she’s capable of doing it or not. It’s really odd to see her as concerned about this as she seems to be. Maybe she’s . . . No, that was a silly idea. Dash wasn’t scared about this. Dash wasn’t scared about anything. Evening was setting in as Dash landed on the cloud lawn surrounding her home. Ignoring the rainbow waterfalls that flanked the entrance and would have inspired awe in many other ponies, Dash simply entered, feeling tired after a thoroughly taxing day. She placed the pizza box onto the stack of empty pizza boxes that partially adorned the living room’s coffee table. The other half of it was occupied by empty pop bottles and the odd beer can, which Dash had long since stopped noticing as clutter. Dash tossed the saddlebags onto the couch, sat down and opened the pizza box. The smell of melted cheese, oats and dandelions instantly awakened the full scope of her appetite and she attacked the disc of food in front of her. After finishing it, Dash sat back and patted her belly, the residual warmth of the pizza flowing pleasantly into her body. Now that she had no other concerns, the books seemed almost manageable. Sighing, Dash reached for one of the books, not caring which she started with. When she looked at it, she was surprised to see the white-haired pony from the library paperback returning her gaze. What the-? I didn’t check this one out . . . Dash opened the book, causing a small piece of paper to fall to the floor. She picked up the paper and read it. Rainbow Dash, I saw you looking at this when I was at the top of the stairs. You didn’t mention it, but I figured that if a book can interest you, then it’s worth reading. -Your friend, Twilight Sparkle Dash was momentarily embarrassed, but the feeling quickly passed – after all, Twilight wouldn’t say anything about Dash’s sudden interest in books. Even if she did, Dash had a feeling that this particular book would be conveniently left out. Man, Twilight’s a really good friend. It makes sense, I suppose, having a goddess for a mentor. Maybe those colts from flight camp would’ve turned out differently if they’d had somepony like Twilight to look up to. “I’ll do anything you want, Rainbow Dash!” Dash recoiled as if struck at the sound of Scootaloo’s voice. Looking frantically around, she realized that she’d imagined it. Dash breathed a sigh of relief, then forced herself to calm down and process the information. Why had she imagined Scootaloo’s voice? This thought about role models couldn’t be the trigger, could it? Belatedly, Dash registered what she’d seen on her frantic sweep of the room. Looking around, Dash noticed a Wonderbolts poster stuck to the wall. It had been there so long, she’d stopped noticing it. The posted depicted a pegasus rearing back dramatically, streaks of black and white behind it like the trail the Wonderbolts were famous for. The pony was intentionally genderless, with facial features obscured by thunderheads and lightning bolts. Beneath the pony, there was text. YOU COULD BE THE NEXT WONDERBOLT it read, the block capitals emphasizing the point. Dad! Dad! Wasn’t that SO AWESOME? They did loop-de-loops and barrel rolls and figure eights and they even flew upside down! I didn’t know you could DO that! Yes, Dashie. I was there, you know. Good to hear you enjoyed it. I’m SO gonna be a Wonderbolt when I grow up! They’re SO COOL! Yes, Dashie, as you’ve said. Hundreds of times by now, no doubt. It’s true! I never said it wasn’t, Dashie. It’s great that you have a dream. You know, there’s actually something I wanted to give you. It was going to wait until we got home, but- Ooh! Ooh! Whatisitwhatisitwhatisit- Here. These posters were covering the walls, so I figured I’d take one instead of letting them get thrown out. Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Thank you so much, Dad! You’re the best! Don’t mention it, Dashie. I’m just glad you’re happy. . . . Dad? Yes? Thanks for taking me to the show and everything. Today was great. I bet I know what’d make it even better. What? Oh, only a ponyback ride back to our house. REALLY? Of course. Hop on. Thank you so much, Dad! Anything for my number-one girl. . . . Dad? Yes, Dashie? . . . I love you. I love you too. Rainbow Dash looked around at the layer of pizza boxes, cans and crumbs covering her furniture and floor. Then she looked down at the note and book in her hooves. Then she thought of the colts from summer flight camp, how it had taken a Sonic Rainboom to make them even think about changing. Rainbow Dash didn’t read any books that night. Instead, she cleaned. The next day, Dash stood in the same field she had the day before. This time, though, she stood proudly, relishing the challenge of the coming months. Scootaloo arrived, announced by the dust cloud, as she had the day before. Dash greeted the filly as she hopped off her scooter and undid her helmet. “Alright, Scootaloo. Let’s get you into flight school.”
DirigibleQuixote	776	2	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2011-12-06T16:59:21+00:00	2011-12-06T16:59:21+00:00	10,397	Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo swooped down onto a cloud, both thoroughly tired after a hard session of flying. They caught their breath for a moment, enjoying the cool breeze through their manes. The day was a beautiful one, with a constant wind at their height which both cooled down the pegasi and provided a steady force to be counteracted. Scootaloo, initially awestruck at learning how to fly with Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, had managed to curb her enthusiasm enough to pay attention to the lessons. The flight lessons had been difficult, but the orange pegasus was determined to make her mentor proud and had attacked each challenge with gusto. Rainbow Dash had just instructed her student in the fine art of flying upside down, an impressive feat for somepony who had just learned to fly a scant month ago. Since Dash’s fateful, property-damaging Sonic Rainboom in the middle of Ponyville, the pair had been spending almost all their time together. Dash’s community service hours dictated that this was necessity on weekdays, but even on weekends and past the normal sessions, the two had seemed almost inseparable. “Rainbow Dash, that was I” exclaimed Scootaloo between pants for breath, indefatigable as always. “I thought flying upside down was just something the Wonderbolts did!” “Well, I Ithe Fastest Filly Flier in all of Equestria,” Dash spoke lazily, stretching out her forelegs and feigning nonchalance. “Gotta have a few tricks up my sleeve.” “I just wish I could’ve flown better,” Scootaloo said, sitting down and sighing. Dash instantly broke her veil of disinterest and edged closer to the orange pegasus, putting a foreleg on her shoulder. “Hey, whoa, don’t you go feeling bad about it,” the blue pegasus said reassuringly. “Scootaloo, that was insane how good you were at flying upside down.” “. . . really?” “Of course! You were landlocked just a month ago, and now you’re trying to fly upside down? That’s incredible!” “But I crashed, like, fifty times!” “Okay, well. Firstly, you only crashed thirteen times.” “Because that’s so much better,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes. “And secondly,” Dash continued, accenting her words with a poke to Scootaloo’s shoulder, “it’s good that you crashed that much.” Scootaloo screwed up her face in confusion. “Wait, what?” “Look at it this way,” said Dash, removing her foreleg from around Scootaloo’s shoulders and gesturing with it. “You failed, so you think that’s bad, right?” Scootaloo nodded. “But, before you failed, what did you do?” “. . . Overbalance?” “You had to start, you silly filly,” Dash concluded, tousling the orange pegasus’s hair. “So what if you didn’t do so well on your first try? You tried in the first place, and that’s the important thing.” Scootaloo mulled this over for a moment, hunched forward in thought. There were several hmm sounds, hallmarks of a mind at work. Presently, she reached a conclusion. “But I was terrible!” “And the next session, you’ll be a little less terrible. The session after that, a little less. The session after that, a little less. Stuff this advanced isn’t easy, and it doesn’t come overnight.” “Oh,” Scootaloo said in comprehension, but her mood didn’t lighten. She understood on an intellectual level the point that Dash was making, but it didn’t make her feel much better. Dash sensed this, and made one final argument against it. “Scootaloo, I was not this good when I tried flying like that.” At this, Scootaloo lifted her head and looked Dash in the eye. “Really?” “Are you kidding me? I was terrible! Flying every which way, crashing through clouds – I threw out my wings because I tried to do a loop-de-loop. Don’t feel bad about not doing well: you’re leaps and bounds ahead of where you should be according to the school system.” Hearing this account of imperfection was oddly relieving for Scootaloo. If Rainbow Dash hadn’t done so well on her first try, then Scootaloo supposed it was okay that she hadn’t either. “Anyway, we should be going. We’re already on overtime and you wouldn’t want to keep your parents waiting.” “Awwwww . . .” The pegasi parted ways over Ponyville. As she had a month before, Rainbow Dash flew to the town library. Her focus, was markedly different than it had been on that visit. Before, Dash had been frantically trying to find something, anything she could teach Scootaloo that the Equestrian educational system would accept. Now, she glided down to the front door, reviewing her plan of action. She knocked before entering, saddlebags rustling slightly against her sides. As Dash opened the door, she was greeted by the musty, papery smell of books and binding leather that she had come to know and enjoy over the past month. Seeing neither Spike nor Twilight, Dash took the opportunity to peruse the array of books in the Fantasy & Sci-Fi section. The community service hours had been a blessing in more ways than the time spent with Scootaloo. Thanks to the sentence, Dash had inadvertently discovered that she quite liked reading, when it was about dark elves and monsters and that sort of thing. Her business here didn’t involve books, but she found herself reading the titles to pass the time anyway. Man, if only the textbooks at flight school had been this cool. “Rainbow Dash!” interrupted Twilight Sparkle’s voice, “If you had told me a month ago that you’d be a library regular, I wouldn’t have believed you!” Dash jumped at the sound of Twilight’s voice – perhaps she was a bit more nervous than she wanted to believe. Looking over her shoulder, Dash saw that Twilight was descending the staircase at the back of the library. “I’m full of surprises like that,” said Dash. She reflected upon how comfortable she was with being . . . a bookworm? No, that wasn’t the right word. With being well-read. There. “Anyway, Twilight, can you spare a moment? I wanted to talk to you about something.” “Can it wait for a moment? There’s this series here I think you’ll enjoy.” Before, Dash could answer, Twilight levitated a book out of the shelves. The book was predominantly beige and the cover depicted a large . . . was that a worm? Dash had seen earthworms before, but they bore nothing but a passing resemblance to this one. She was pretty sure earthworms didn’t have mouths full of teeth, for instance. The book was apparently called Dune and written by one Flank Herbert. Rainbow Dash continued the line of conversation, partly because she was legitimately curious and partly because she felt a tightness in her stomach relating to what she had come to the library about. It’s perfectly understandable. Stars above, stop worrying! “Alright, what’s it about?” Twilight told her. Rainbow Dash was stunned into silence for a moment. “It seems more . . . political than the stuff I’ve been reading so far.” “It is. I figured you’d be looking for something that’s a bit more of a challenge.” You can use this. Get talking to her, then ask her. “Sure,” said Dash with a smile. “I’ll be able to fit it in some time.” “Glad I can help. It’s always nice to have more readers around. I assume you’ll just be checking out the first few, just in case?” Dash nodded, and Twilight levitated the books over to the main desk. As she started the process of checking out the books, Dash swung one of her saddlebags onto the countertop. It was stuffed near to bursting with paperback novels, nearly all of which belonged to The Legend of Drizzt. Twilight shot the pegasus a raised eyebrow before magicking the books out and into the return bin. “Dash, there must be at least a thousand pages between those books. You read that in a week?” “They’re good books,” said Rainbow Dash defensively. “Besides, you just said how great it is that I’ve discovered them.” Twilight nodded in acceptance. “It is. Sorry if I’m giving you mixed messages about that. It’s just . . .” her voice trailed off, and she grinned sheepishly. “It’s just what?” “Nothing, nothing,” Twilight said, looking down and blushing ever so slightly. She met Dash’s eyes and sighed at the look of curiosity reflected in them. The unicorn set down the last of the Dune books and turned her full attention to the conversation. “It’s just . . . when I first met you, you struck me as a really . . .” Twilight struggled for the right word. “Dumb jock?” finished Dash, her tone good-natured. “Yeah,” said Twilight after a pause. “Either you were blasting around at barely-contained speeds or you were napping in the clouds. Now, you’re either in here looking for more books to devour – seriously how did you read all that so quickly – or you’re out doing good deeds and being a positive role model.” She’s right. Man, when was the last time I went flying for myself? “Ah, I see,” said Dash, grinning. “You want me to go out and start a bar fight or seven.” They shared a laugh. It felt good. “You know, you’re actually right, Twilight. There’s a big storm scheduled over the weekend – I should be able to get in some flying time if I steer clear of it.” “Oh.” At this, Twilight’s face fell. It lasted only for a split second, but Dash noticed. “I mean, um, that’s good! Yes, good. Hope you enjoy yourself. Ha-ha.” Now, it was Dash’s turn to give her counterpart a raised eyebrow. “Twilight, is something the matter?” “I guess you’ll be too busy to hang out at the library, then,” Twilight said. Dash saw an opportunity and seized it. “Funny you should mention hanging out, actually,” the pegasus said with a twinge of anxiety in her voice. “Oh?” asked Twilight, cocking her head to one side. “What do you mean?” “Well, um . . .” Dash struggled to find words. Curse you, brain! Why are you locking up on me now of all times?! “I . . . it . . . you and . . . so . . . do you wanna get dinner sometime?” Dash finally spoke. Twilight just looked stunned. She considered Dash a friend, sure, but not that kind of friend. Dash saw Twilight’s features and realized with horror how her offer had sounded. “No!” the pegasus cried, leaning forward over the checkout desk and bracing herself with her forelegs. “No, that- . . . I didn’t- . . . it wasn’t- . . . I mean as a gift!” Twilight had leaned back to keep a distance from Dash, but she relaxed ever so slightly, and her expression shifted to one of curiosity. “As a gift?” She didn’t run off. Oh, thank the Gods. “Yeah! See, you’ve been a great help over the past month with Scootaloo and everything, and I just wanted to return the favour.” Dash gestured sweepingly with a foreleg at the wealth of paper and synthetic leather that surrounded her. “Plus, y’know, the whole discovery of literature thing. So, um . . . My treat? Please?” Dash ended her plea with her hooves together, elbows resting on the library desk. “Oh,” said Twilight in understanding. “Did you have a specific place or anything in mind?” Dash’s stomach emptied of tension upon hearing Twilight’s words, and the pegasus breathed a sigh of relief. “Your choice, actually,” said Dash. “I only really know a couple of places, and I don’t imagine that Filly McNeighsty’s would be your kind of restaurant.” Twilight had relaxed completely now, sitting comfortably on her haunches. She lifted a hoof to her chin and looked to the ceiling in thought. She wasn’t a frequenter of restaurants herself, but she read the reviews in the newspaper from time to time. “Well, there is that new place on Mane Street. The Garden, I think it’s called. Have you heard of it?” “I think so – the name is familiar, at least.” “I’ve heard good things about that place. Good food, nice music . . . alright, sure!” Twilight smiled. “When’s a good time for you? Next weekend?” “That should be fine,” said Dash, relaxing enough to return to a normal stand. “Say, 8:30?” “That’d be great! Thanks for the offer, Dash. I must admit, it’ll be nice to be out of the library related to something that doesn’t involve mortal danger or emotional turmoil.” “Ah, it’s the least I can do,” Dash said, leaning on the desk with one elbow and glancing nonchalantly at her hoof. She projected an air of calm, despite the adrenaline rush moments earlier. “Anyway, I should be going – don’t want to be caught in the storm and all.” The two said their goodbyes, and Dash trotted out the door. The pegasus gathered herself for a moment, and then sprang into the air. She felt as light as a feather, now that that business with Twilight was past the awkward part. Dash swept up through the clouds and landed on the porch of her house. She entered, what Twilight had said about change staying with her as she looked around the main room. It was clean, the cloudstuff furniture clustered around a cloudstuff coffee table on one side. On the other, a doorway led to the kitchen and the non-cloudstuff appliances therein. A new cloudstuff bookshelf stood against one wall, with a couple of hardcovers standing in it, and a stairway led up to a second floor, which consisted of a balcony, bedroom and bathroom. Dash trotted over to the cluster of furniture and swung her saddlebags onto the table. They landed next to a white box wrapped with red ribbon. Oh, horseapples! Scootaloo alighted outside her house. Ever since Rainbow Dash had shown her the proper technique, the orange pegasus had been flying everywhere every chance she got. She frowned slightly. Her saddlebags were weighted down with books and homework from the flight school correspondence course (Dash’s teaching had been rather light on aeronautic theory), but that wasn’t the reason for her shift in mood. She had been spending so much time with Rainbow Dash lately that an entire weekend without the blue pegasus’s company seemed unbearable. And with that huge storm scheduled, Scootaloo wouldn’t even have an opportunity to fly around herself. The orange pegasus sighed, walking up to her door. Opening it and walking inside, she headed for the kitchen to get herself a snack before getting started on her homework. She noticed a note on the kitchen table. Scootaloo, It seems this weekend’s storm has gotten a little bit out of hand, so the weather pegasi have been looking for help to get it under control. Your mother and I have been “volunteered.” We’ll probably be home late, so remember to get to your homework and don’t stay up past your bedtime. -Love, Dad Scootaloo’s mood instantly picked up and she started hopping around the kitchen in joy. An entire evening, all to herself! She could do whatever she wanted! She could eat nothing but junk food, she could watch bad movies, she could stay up late! The world was her oyster! . . . though, she did have a lot of homework to do. And she could finish it all this evening, if she really tried . . . Scootaloo stopped hopping. She sighed. Aw man, it sucks being responsible. Scootaloo was pacing around her room. She had meant to get started on her homework, but instead found herself thinking about her cutie mark – or rather, her lack thereof. Scootaloo had been so sure that her cutie mark would have something to do with flight. When she had first taken off, after a solid day of effort and bruises, she could practically feel the mark appearing. But nothing had happened. She had been crushed. If Rainbow Dash hadn’t been there, Scootaloo was sure she would have cried. Thinking back, it was remarkable how much Rainbow Dash had comforted and supported Scootaloo when she’d been having difficulty with . . . well, anything. Aerobatic tricks, personal issues, bullies at school – the list went on. I should say thanks to Rainbow Dash. She’s helped me a lot. Shaking her head to clear out the unpleasant thoughts, Scootaloo sat down on the floor pillow in front of her desk and forced herself to start reading. What matters is doing well, not letting anypony down. What matters is getting into flight school, whether I’m cut out to be a cab driver, or a pilot, or a mail pegasus, or a- Outside, far off in the distance, thunder rumbled. -or a weather pegasus. Scootaloo calmly walked over to her window and looked out. Rain pattered against the glass in the soothing way that only rain can. The wind wailed through the trees, but didn’t seem to be that strong. She could see a large head of thunderclouds off in the distance, a solid wall of black. There was the brief flash of lightning, then the dull rumble of a thunderclap a few seconds later. Presumably, this cloudbank was under control, as there were no flitting shapes of pegasi around it. Presumably, it would be unmonitored. Presumably, it would be a good spot to try one’s hoof at weather manipulation, if one were so inclined. Scootaloo opened her window. Rainbow Dash berated herself for forgetting the gift. Inside the white box was a pair of Dash’s old goggles from her time at flight school. Dash had meant to give them to Scootaloo, to show the orange filly how proud she was. Instead, she had been in such a hurry to get out the door that morning, the blue pegasus had completely forgotten about them. Today was the closest session the pegasi had had to a full month, and Dash had wanted to commemorate it. The goggles wouldn’t have the same effect if they were several days late. A thunderclap distracted Dash from her self-anger. She sped over to the nearest window and looked out. Rain whipped past her face. The sky was already dark with overcast clouds, but the main storm wouldn’t arrive for some time. I could make it to Scootaloo’s house and back before the storm hits. She would appreciate the goggles even more if she’s cooped up over the weekend. Her mind made up, Dash turned away from the window. She threw the gift box into a saddlebag, drew the strap up tight and bolted out the door. She made good time, and was at Scootaloo’s house within minutes. Dash knocked at the door. When there came no response, she knocked again, more insistently. The rain and wind had picked up. Though by no means too treacherous for her to navigate, Dash didn’t relish the prospect of flying through a storm any worse than this. Still no answer. Something was off about this whole thing. Well, I’ll just drop off the box and leave a note. It’s not a personal presentation, but it’ll have to do. Dash opened the door slowly and poked her head in. All the lights were off. “Scootaloo?” she called. “Mr & Mrs Nimbus?” Still nothing. Forcing herself not to think about it, Dash slipped inside the house. She would drop off the present, nothing more. Nothing was wrong; Scootaloo was probably just asleep early. Yeah, that was it. Despite the reassurances, Dash’s heart beat a little more quickly. Rainbow Dash, did you ever have any training to be a weather pegasus? Of course I did. Everypony did at flight school. Why, are you considering being one? No. She’s gone to bed early. I’ll write a note explaining the gift and then I’ll go back to my house and sleep this off. To that effect, Dash shrugged off her saddlebags. She didn’t have a pencil or pen on her, so she wandered around looking for one. She happened to wander into the kitchen. She happened to look at the kitchen table. She rushed back out of the kitchen and into the main room, spine ramrod straight and straining her ears. “Okay, Scootaloo, you can come out now. Ha-ha, you got me.” Nothing. Is it hard being a weather pegasus? Sure, but it’s AWESOME! Making clouds, directing blizzards and being in charge of the seasons is every bit as cool as it sounds. Coooooooooool! And some pegasi can even manipulate lightning. I’ve never done it myself, but I hear it’s INSANE. That much electricity . . . oh man, what it must feel like. But I’ve seen pegasi buck lightning out of clouds plenty of times. Just bucking a small bolt out of a cloud is foal’s play. Any pegasus can do that. Really manipulating lightning – creating it, directing it – takes a lot of skill. Dash’s breathing was ragged now and her heart beat like a tribal drum. She looked around frantically for something, anything to placate her fears. She ran from room to room, any attempt at civility forgotten. Swinging her head around, Dash saw a light emanating from the top of the stairs. She practically threw herself up them. There were a few doors, one leading to a bathroom, the other to a large bed. Light slipped from underneath the third, which was closed. Dash threw open the door to what could only be Scootaloo’s room. Rainbow Dash, what made you become a weather pegasus? I enjoy the work, simple as that. Everypony who’s a pegasus can do it, so the pay isn’t great, but it’s enough to get by and it’s really fun. Do you think I could be one? Scootaloo, I’m positive that you can be whatever you put your mind to. If you’re interested, I’m sure Twilight has some books on weather in the library, and they’ll do a better job of explaining it than me. The room was empty. The window was open, clattering against its frame. Dash streaked out the window, flying as fast as she could towards the oncoming storm. Scootaloo had nearly reached the storm clouds. She had initially been shocked by how little warmth there was in the air, but she supposed that was normal, considering the circumstances. The wind had picked up dramatically, but the orange pegasus managed to climb level with the main bulk of the clouds. Finally reaching her desired height, Scootaloo paused for a moment to take stock. Her wings were sore from exertion, her heart was racing and she was panting from the effort of flight. No time for hesitation. You can do this. Scootaloo dove forward and into the cloud bank, worming her way down through it. Her world was nothing but black cloudstuff for what seemed like a long time, but she finally broke through into space. It was a large sphere of empty space within the cloud, walled in by whirling cloudstuff and the occasional flicker of electricity. The book from Twilight’s library had called this space the “storm engine,” and all thunderclouds apparently had one. This was where the cloud’s electricity gathered before being released as lightning. It was also where a weather pegasus could direct a cloud’s lightning, if she was talented enough. The storm engine was dark, but not pitch black. Scootaloo flew out into the centre of it, holding her forelegs out above her head. She focused all of her will into the cloud surrounding her, demanding that lightning form. Nothing happened at first, so Scootaloo redoubled her efforts. Then, she felt it. A slow, crawling sensation that worked its way around the walls of the storm engine. Its presence was reserved, but its power was unmistakable: lightning. Scootaloo shivered, and not from the cold or wind. She felt it more clearly now, felt it split and collect above and below her. The flickers of electricity that rimmed the engine were more frequent now, and almost all of them were happening above or below Scootaloo. There was a pressure building, and the pegasus could sense it begging for release. Scootaloo grinned, preparing to release the pent-up energy in a dramatic flash. She focused it, forced it into even smaller segments above her head and below her hooves. Scootaloo could feel the raw, elemental power of a lightning bolt just waiting, wanting to be let loose. Not yet. Not yet. Just a bit more . . . The pressure was now staggering, and Scootaloo could hear a low whistle coming from somewhere, increasing in pitch. The storm engine was now as bright as day, brighter even, so that Scootaloo had to close her eyes and focus on the power of the electricity. Now. She willed the lightning to be, and looked up to gaze upon her work. With a sudden BOOM louder than anything Scootaloo had ever heard, the top of the cloud blew open and a blue-tipped rainbow streaked in. Scootaloo saw just enough to make out an iris of colours far off behind the figure racing towards her before she was hit by it. Scootaloo’s breath was knocked out of her and she could only watch as events played out. Scootaloo was thrown through another layer of black cloudstuff, presumably the bottom of the storm engine. She was dimly aware of the warmth of another pegasus beside her. After that, Scootaloo saw what was really happening. The lightning from the storm engine, craving release, followed her in a crashing tidal wave of electricity. It wound itself into the rainbow trail that was following Scootaloo. No, wait, the trail wasn’t following her; it was following whatever was holding her. Scootaloo’s mind produced the word rainbow, but she was too transfixed by the sight behind her to process it. The lightning, having been fed by the magical energy of the Sonic Rainboom, had grown in size and speed, and was now composed of every colour of the rainbow. It was now matching the pegasi for speed. As Scootaloo watched, a bolt arced off and struck a nearby tree. The branches of the tree exploded, the leaves vapourized and the main trunk caught on fire, which was bright silver. The lightning behind her actually gained ground. Scootaloo would have screamed, but her lungs were having enough difficulty inhaling the necessary air to breath. Suddenly, Scootaloo was thrown clear of the other pegasus’s embrace. In the split second before she hit the ground, she managed to keep the figure in her vision. Rainbow Dash turned around and killed her momentum as much as possible, sending up skids of rainbow where her hooves were. She swung to face the hellish vortex of colour and electricity just as it descended upon her. There was a release of energy the likes of which Scootaloo had never before seen as the multi-hued lightning poured itself into Rainbow Dash’s small figure. The surrounding area was lit brighter than the sun itself. Rainbow Dash screamed. Scootaloo fell to the ground, hard cobblestone underneath her. As she did so, the energy stopped, leaving her ears ringing. Scootaloo raised her head. She saw the limp figure of Rainbow Dash fall to the ground with the thump of bone on rock. For a moment, she was too horrified to even move. The rain, having been stopped by the force of the blast, started again and Scootaloo came back to her senses. “Rainbow Dash!” she cried, galloping over to her mentor’s figure. It was very, very still. “Rainbow Dash!” she shouted, grabbing the older pegasus’s shoulders. “RAINBOW DASH!” she screamed, her throat raw. oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods No, calm down. shes dead shes dead shes dead shes dead shes dead shes dead shes dead shes dead Stop it. what do i do what do i do what do i do what do i do what do i do what do i do Calm down. Hospital. They’ll help her. where where where where where where where where where where where where Pick her up. Get going. Good. On your back. Keep walking. so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold so cold No time to be cold. Keep walking. sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep No time to be tired. Keep walking. i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant i cant You can. Keep walking. voices light sleep Rainbow Dash awoke gradually. Her body was in pain, and she didn’t want to start managing it again. She slowly opened one eye, then the other, her surroundings becoming less blurry. She could perceive sounds: the regular beep of a machine, rhythmic breathing from somewhere she couldn’t see, a sharp intake of breath. She looked to her left. Twilight Sparkle was there, her eyes red and puffy with the memory of tears. “Gods, you’re awake,” she said quietly. Dash lay on her back, her wings stretched out flat. She was on a metal table which had been lightly padded on top and was slightly warm with her own body heat. Machines surrounded her, and she could feel bandages on most of her skin. “. . . what . . . what . . .” she tried to speak, her voice gravel and protesting every syllable. “Shh, shh, don’t talk,” said Twilight, moving closer. “You were through a lot.” Dash remembered. The storm. The pain. Scootaloo. “. . . S . . . S . . .” she tried again. “Scootaloo’s fine. Look.” Twilight pointed a hoof at the young pegasus, who was curled up on a floor pillow, sound asleep. Upon her flank was a picture of a bright red cross with speed lines trailing behind it. “There’s a huge crater in the town square. The doctors said she dragged you in, sopping wet and muttering to herself. They said you’ll recover, Dash, but if you had gotten here any later, then, you . . . you . . .” Twilight’s voice cracked and fresh tears streamed down her face. “Oh, gods above I was so worried . . .” Sobbing quietly, Twilight leaned forward and slipped her forelegs around Dash in a hug. There was pain, but Dash ignored it. The pegasus forced her foreleg to return the gesture, holding her friend close as Twilight’s tears ran their course. They stayed that way a while. Eventually, Twilight returned to her normal self. The rest of their group of friends had arrived, along with Scootaloo’s father and what seemed to be half the town. “Dash?” A grunt. “I’m going to go talk to the others now, okay? I’ll just be outside . . .” Another grunt, an imperceptible nod. Dash closed her eyes and slept to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. Twilight stood up shakily, then composed herself and walked out into the hallway.
DirigibleQuixote	776	3	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2011-12-21T04:51:56+00:00	2011-12-21T04:51:56+00:00	8,570	“Bet this isn’t where you thought we’d be having our big date, huh?” said Rainbow Dash, her voice gravelly. Her voice had yet to recover from her incident. She was seated at a long, utilitarian table opposite Twilight Sparkle in the cafeteria of Ponyville General Hospital. The fluorescent lights above cast a pall of grey light over everything in the room, which somehow managed to make the hospital food even less appealing. Dash and Twilight each had a plastic tray with several coloured blobs of vegetable matter set on it. The ponies were not alone in the room, but they sat isolated at a corner table away from the counter and the other ponies spread out around the tables. The room was quiet, except for the soft murmurs that are used to speak in hospitals and the occasional clip-clop of hooves on the tile floor. A week had passed since Dash had borne the fury of a lightning storm and a Sonic Rainboom. The doctors had been surprised at how fast she had recovered. Dash was still bandaged in many places and wore casts that kept her wings at full mast, but she had done her best to put on a happy exterior. “Dash, I would hardly call these ‘dates’,” said Twilight. “Besides, didn’t the doctors say you were supposed to rest?” Dash snorted and flicked a foreleg in dismissal. She instantly regretted the gesture, clutching at her ribs and inhaling through clenched teeth. Twilight gasped and started to reach across the table. Dash shook her head, putting both front hooves on the table for balance and letting her head hang. After a moment, she looked up with a weary grin. “Well, somepony has to, right? And as for the doctors, none of them has dealt with Rainboom lightning before. Their opinions can only be so accurate.” Twilight chewed on her lip in concern before responding. “Dash, does it hurt? Even to move?” Dash looked blankly at her friend before shifting her expression to a toothy smile. “Nah, not really. It’s just sudden movements that set things off. I’m supposed to take it slow whenever I do move.” Dash broke Twilight’s gaze and looked down at the vegetable blobs in front of her. She sniffed, but they had no smell. “Besides, Twilight, what would I do instead of moving around or walking? Lie around in bed watching soap operas? I can’t put any stress on my wings yet, so it’s either that or read, and I can only look at so much text on a page before I start going cross-eyed.” Twilight’s brow furrowed in worry. “Dash, I know that it’s a chore, but please: you have to let yourself recover.” Dash snorted and looked away sullenly. “Please, Dash. I worry about you.” Dash looked back at Twilight, who had leaned forward over the table. Through the fluorescent light, Twilight looked pale and fragile. Dash could see that she was blinking back tears. The pegasus’s expression instantly softened. “Look, Twilight, if it means that much to you, sure.” Dash’s voice was earnest. The two looked into each other’s eyes for a while, taking a simple happiness in it. Dash was first to break the look. “I suppose I am feeling kind of tired,” she said. “Walk me to my room?” Twilight nodded, levitating on her saddlebags. Their walk was a slow and quiet one, as Dash methodically put one hoof in front of the other. The pegasus was focused on the ground for much of the walk, only lifting her head when the two came to an intersection or a corner. Dash’s wings, forced to spread by the casts, occupied almost half the hallway, and twice she and Twilight were forced into single file in order to let a pony with a cart pass. Twilight saw how small Dash looked under the sterile lighting of the hospital, and was saddened by it. This was not the brave, brash filly she had known, not the seasoned veteran acting as a mentor. This was a sad, tired pony, and neither adjective fit the Rainbow Dash that Twilight knew. Twilight wanted to move closer, to press herself against the warm comfort of the pegasus’s body and know that everything was going to be okay, but she was kept away by Dash’s wings. They reached Dash’s room. There was a window on the opposite wall, which had a small bed near it. There were a couple of floor pillows on the bed’s closest side. There was a bedside table with a pitcher of water and a couple of glasses on it. Across from the bed, an inexpensive television rested on its own table. “Well, this is me,” said Dash, turning to face Twilight and offering a small smile. “I brought you some books.” Twilight levitated out a few paperback novels from her saddlebags and placed them on the bedside table. “I didn’t really have much to go on, so I kind of had to pick from intuition. I hope you like them.” She giggled nervously. “. . . Twilight, if I’m going to rest and recuperate for you, I want you to do something for me, okay?” “Oh. Uh, fair enough, I suppose.” Dash walked over to Twilight so that they were standing almost nose-to-nose. Twilight shivered a bit at the proximity, but focused on what Dash was saying. “Have fun.” Twilight’s expression turned to one of confusion. “What do you mean?” “Twilight, it’s been a week since I- since the accident. I’ve only been up for a few days, and you’ve been in here for hours on every one.” Twilight looked away, smiling awkwardly. “I- I want to make sure you’re recovering.” “The nurses told me that you didn’t leave the room the entire time I was comatose. They had to force you to eat and drink.” Twilight’s face fell at this. She stuttered out a few syllables and tried to look Dash in the eye, but was interrupted by the pegasus’s hoof on her face. It came back tipped purple. “Twilight, is this makeup? Have you been covering bags under your eyes?” Dash asked. She intended the questions as honestly concerned, but the timbre of her voice made them seem angry. “I . . . You’d worry. . .” Twilight’s voice cracked when she spoke, and her eyes were shiny with the added weight of tears. Seeing what she had done, Dash instantly moved forward and embraced Twilight with a foreleg, apologizing softly. Twilight returned the hug with both of hers. Behind her, Dash’s face contorted with pain as Twilight’s hoof clipped one of her wing casts and sent lances of pain shooting through her spine and wing. The pegasus bit down on her lip to keep from crying out and continued with the embrace. After Twilight had stopped shuddering (and Dash had mastered her own shakes), the two ponies drew apart. “Twilight, when was the last time you had a good night’s sleep?” Rainbow Dash did not wait for an answer, continuing. “I don’t want you running yourself ragged because you’re worried about me. I’ve had worse than this – I will make it through, but it’ll be difficult if you’re in here fretting about me the entire time. Please, just go out and enjoy yourself.” Twilight was silent for a moment, then nodded. The two said their goodbyes, and the unicorn left. After Twilight’s hoofsteps had receded into silence, Rainbow Dash cringed and exhaled. She tried not to put pressure on any part of her body, lest the dull, omnipresent ache grow into something she couldn’t ignore. Good thing I’m not the element of honesty. Twilight has enough on her mind worrying about my recovery. Wouldn’t be good to tell her about the pain. She wouldn’t understand that it’s minor. There was a knock from the door. Dash looked over to see a Royal Guardsman standing in the doorway. He was everything she remembered the Guards as being – white-coated, armoured in gold, built like the kind of pony capable of punching out a manticore. The one deviation from the Guards that Dash had seen were the saddlebags he wore with the emblem of the Equestrian courts stamped on them. “Rainbow Dash, of Ponyville?” Twilight worried to herself as she walked in the midmorning sun. It had only been minutes since she had left the hospital, and her thoughts were fixated upon Rainbow Dash. Is she eating enough? Is she enjoying the books I got her? Are the staff treating her well? She’s a hero, after all, they can’t just lump her in with all the other- Twilight stopped and squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to clear her head, but her thoughts were a jumble of worries and concerns. She clenched her teeth and hunched up. Questions about the hospital’s treatments flew through her head like a swarm of bees, rebounding off the inside of her mind, their buzzing echoing and amplifying. Twilight made a noise of frustration, anger and sorrow and took off at a full gallop. She didn’t know where she was running, just that she had to run. Some forgotten pony instinct, rendered obsolete by laws and good behaviour, took hold and guided her through the streets. The buildings seemed like a labyrinth of masonry and wood, hemming her in everywhere she went. Her heart pounded, and she dodged around startled ponies, only narrowly avoiding accident. Time passed, and Twilight found her head clearing. She slowed down and took stock of her surroundings. She was surrounded by trees in a dense forest, walking on a hard dirt trail. The trees were showing the first signs of autumn, with a few orange leaves here and there among the otherwise green canopy. Twilight realized with a start that she was in Whitetail Wood. Did I really run all this way? I’m certainly out of breath enough, but still . . . Twilight knew that part of the trail that wound through Whitetail wood curved around near Sweet Apple Acres, so getting back into Ponyville would be easy enough. As the unicorn walked along the path, she realized something. Her head was clear. The crisp forest air was a welcome coolness in her lungs – the air in Ponyville was laced with the undertones of ponies, work, and the occasional flower garden. Out here, Twilight realized, few ponies must take the path – there was nothing but the pleasant, metallic taste of air mixed with the calming half-scent of trees. Twilight looked up at the sun, which was just past its zenith. She realized that she had been out for several hours. This fact didn’t bother her. She had no duties at the library, aside from personal ones. Twilight looked down as she recalled the appearance of her study: books about Rainbooms and lightning had lain strewn around a writing desk covered in drawings, notes and crumpled scraps of paper when she had last left it. There was no reason for them to have changed positions, as Twilight had forbidden Spike from entering the room, even to clean. “Spike, this is my private room! You are not to enter it!” “Spike! Where’s that book on Sonic Rainbooms?!” “I don’t need to sleep! I have reading to do!” Twilight realized with a pang that Spike had probably been affected by Rainbow Dash’s near- . . . by Rainbow Dash’s incident as much as the unicorn had. Literally every day since the . . . incident, Twilight had been gone from the library for hours at a time, mostly visiting Dash. Spike had been pulling double duty both running the library and carrying out Twilight’s increasingly sleep-deprived demands for food at all hours of the night. Twilight’s posture sunk even lower with shame, now that she thought about the consequences of her actions. I need to apologize to Spike for everything. He’s been a saint through all this. Twilight returned her posture to normal and started trotting along the path. She didn’t want to delay the apology – Spike deserved it. When Twilight did finally stagger back to the library, legs aching from exertion, evening had set in and was almost beginning to evolve into night. Never again. Never again will I sprint onto a marathon trail and then run the marathon. By the goddesses, how did AJ and Dash manage to keep pace at the Running of the Leaves last year? Twilight entered and shut the door quietly, just then realizing that there were no lights on. All was quiet. There was enough moonlight streaming in through the windows to see by, but much of the main room was gilded with shadow. What the moon did light was a messy space, with books occupying almost every horizontal surface. Some even lay open with their spines up. “Spike?” A purple-scaled, green-spined head poked up from over several stacks of books. It blinked tiredly before speaking. “Who is- Oh! I, uh, that is, um,” Spike stuttered, looking around in panic. “Twilight! Hi!” “Ah, Spike, there you are. Just the dragon I wanted to see.” Twilight walked over, carefully stepping around books as she did. “I . . . I am?” Spike’s voice was a note away from terror. “Yes. I wanted to talk to you about something.” Twilight felt sad. She hadn’t realized that the mere sight of her was enough to cause such fear. “Y-y-you did?” Spike’s voice had now firmly hit the ‘terror’ register. “Yes.” Twilight sighed. “Spike . . . I’m sorry.” Spike cringed away. He had expected many things – being pelted with books, Twilight yelling at him, an insane request for freshly-picked pears – but an apology had not been among them. Twilight continued. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you since Dash was put into the hospital. I . . . You were very supportive of me through a tough time, and I responded with hostility. Instead of berating you for not performing exactly as I would have liked, I should have been thanking you for your help in running the library and keeping me fed. I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?” Spike was silent for a long moment. He returned to a normal stance, then reached up and hugged Twilight around her neck. “Aw, Twilight, of course I forgive you.” Twilight sighed, returning the gesture. “You were going through a lot. I understand that. I’ve had my fair share of difficult times too, and you were always there for me. I was just returning the favour.” “But, Spike, it’s not that simple.” Twilight’s tone was pleading. “I treated you like garbage – I yelled at you, I . . . I threw things at you, I left you to take care of the entire library-” “Twilight, you don’t have to tell me twice. Let’s not dwell on what happened. I’m just glad to have the real you back in charge.” Twilight smiled and wiped a single tear from her eye. “Thanks, Spike.” Spike disengaged himself from the hug. “Thank you, Twilight. Now, would you mind terribly if we went up to sleep? All this mushy emotional stuff has made me kinda sleepy, and I’d like to have an actual bed.” Twilight giggled. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.” The two of them walked up the stairs to Twilight’s room. For the first time in a week, Spike slept in his little basket at the foot of Twilight’s bed. Rainbow Dash read the documents for a fifth time. They couldn’t be right. They just couldn’t be. Who would do that? Why? The words had long since lost meaning, now appearing as nothing more than scribbles on a page. Dash forced herself to concentrate on them – maybe they had changed, maybe the whole thing was a trick by her subconscious. As she read, her heart sank with the knowledge that it wasn’t. . . . formal complaint lodged . . . reckless endangerment . . . no longer require your service . . . transferred . . . less stressful position . . . final decision . . . Dash buried her face in the hospital bed and wept, great heaving sobs that wracked her entire frame. The pegasus took out her anger on the mattress, pounding her front hooves down upon it again and again and again. She didn’t care about the pain her bones sent her, she didn’t care that she wasn’t supposed to exert herself, she didn’t care that any injuries would likely hurt her chances of getting the job back. Her thoughts were an incoherent mess of grief and rage. After the pain grew too great to bear, Dash stopped hitting the bed and pulled her head up from it, leaving an impression slightly damp with tears and mucus. Her breathing was ragged, and punctuated with sniffs and near-sobs. She had to clench her teeth to keep from screaming out. They can’t do that! They just can’t! I was teaching her, I was her mentor! You . . . you . . . you bureaucrats can’t just replace somepony’s role model like that! IT JUST DOESN’T WORK! IT’S NOT FAIR! “Um, Miss Dash?” Dash looked up at the door. Part of her wanted it to be the guard, come back to apologize for the mix-up. Part of her wanted it to be Twilight, for a shoulder to cry on. Part of her wanted it to be something she could punch. Instead of any of these, the figure at the door was Nurse Redheart. She looked concerned. “Is everything alright? I heard yelling, something about something not being fair.” Dash realized that she must have screamed her last few thoughts with her lungs and mind. Some civilized section of her brain said that she ought to be apologetic, that hospitals were supposed to be quiet. The more primal, angry side of her (which was quickly growing in influence) said that she ought to start screaming obscenities at this nurse, this intruder. In the end, Dash compromised. “Yeah, everything’s peachy,” Dash sighed heavily, lowering her head. Her already gravelly voice was not helped by the recent outpouring of emotion. If Redheart noticed anything amiss about Dash’s tone, she did not show it. “Now izzat all, or . . .?” As it turned out, it wasn’t all. Dash walked slowly out of the hospital, her wings now free of their casts and folded up against her sides. Her bandages had been replaced and the ones on her head and face removed entirely. Dash had been skeptical of her release, but the doctors were adamant that any more time in the hospital would detract from her recovery. The muscles and bones needed stimulation, they said, and Dash needed fresh air. That, combined with Redheart’s lobbying (“You just seemed so upset, dear.”), had given Dash a clean bill of health. Despite her determination to feel bitter towards the entire world, Dash couldn’t help but be inwardly thankful for the painkillers they had given her. Instead of every step on hard cobblestone being a lance of electricity, it was nothing more than a slight prick. It was also nice to be free of those accursed wing casts. Dash’s wings were still tender, but she could move them around a little bit. She knew better than to stretch them as she had tried during their removal, though – that had managed to hurt even through the painkillers. Dash looked around her now, the pleasant sensation of a cool evening breeze flowing across her cheek. She was standing just outside the entryway to Ponyville General, the town spreading out around her. She started walking nowhere in particular, just because she could. Her anger had faded in the time it had taken the doctors to remove the casts and replace the bandages, and she now had nothing but a vague veil of depression hovering over her frame. As Dash wandered, the hours ticked by. She eventually found herself in the middle of Ponyville Public Park, a large expanse of greenery in the middle of an otherwise mostly urban landscape. Dash was wandering down one of the more popular paths, fields stretching away on either side of her. It was dark enough to warrant the streetlamps now, and Dash passed through a pool of illumination every so often. The next bright circle was accompanied by a bench. Feeling tired, Dash lay herself down upon it. She realized that she couldn’t fly up to her house. Dash sighed, listing off the ponies who could give her a place for the night. Pinkie Pie? No, she’d never stop asking me about hospital life. Rarity? No, she’d probably faint if I showed up on her doorstep in the middle of the night looking like this. Applejack, Fluttershy and her own home were all so far away as to be inaccessible, so that left Twilight. Dash inhaled with hope, but forced the breath out when she considered the facts. No, I told her to go out and have fun, not nurse me back to health. Dash sighed. The bench was likely the best bed she’d find tonight. She looked around once, making sure there was nopony in sight. It’s not illegal to sleep here, right? Dash lay her head down, too tired to care. As she did so, a small spark of a thought made itself known in the back of her head. Dash tried to quiet it down and fall asleep, but it was incessant. Exhaling in annoyance, Dash raised her head and looked around. The thought had been about seeing something, but hadn’t specified. Dash looked around, eyes coming to rest on a missing filly poster on the lamppost. Scootaloo’s orange face looked back.
DirigibleQuixote	776	4	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2011-11-26T07:28:35+00:00	2011-11-26T07:28:35+00:00	12,620	Rainbow Dash immediately stood up and looked at the poster, not able to believe her eyes. To Dash’s horror, her sight had been true. The poster had a picture of Scootaloo and gave a short description below it, with a promise of a cash reward for any helpful information. Rainbow Dash felt as though the entire world was making less and less sense. What? Did she run away? Why would she- The world fell out from underneath Dash. Oh stars and stones, she’s blaming herself for what happened! Dash’s concern and confusion were now joined by guilt, hitting her gut as surely as a cannonball. Her thoughts immediately formed a chorus of worries and blame, the former directed at Scootaloo, the latter at herself. Dash’s pulse was racing, and she felt flushed with panic. Where could the filly have gone? Dash’s knees felt weak, her mind filling itself with hellish visions: Scootaloo calling out for help from underneath a fallen tree branch, Scootaloo screaming as a manticore brought down its fangs upon her, Scootaloo crying as she was surrounded by dark figures in a deserted back alley. Dash shook her head, angry at herself for getting so distracted. Fantasizing and worrying wouldn’t accomplish anything – Scootaloo needed to be found, and she needed to act, not think. Dash started pacing, trying to distract her subconscious with movement. Okay, okay, okay. If she ran, then . . . then she’s probably gone someplace she knows, so where would that be? With the CMCs. Sweet Apple Acres was closer than the Carousel Boutique, so Dash turned herself towards it and reflexively opened her wings. A sharp web of pain across her feathers and wing bones reminded Dash why she had been walking more as of late. Even through the dull haze of painkillers, the pain was still enough to cause Dash to gasp and snap her wings shut, eyes watering. Cursing beneath her breath, Dash took off towards Sweet Apple Acres as quickly as her hooves allowed. When Dash arrived at the farm, she was panting and tired. Rainbow Dash had only run this much at the Running of the Leaves against Applejack, but she had been concentrating on anger too much to care then. Now, she could feel every ragged intake of air into her lungs, cold against the heat of her body. She was built for flight, not track. Luna’s moon shone with enough silvery light to illuminate the main yard, into which Dash now trotted. There was the farmhouse across from the gate, the barn over at the right side, and the start of a dirt path leading into the rows of apple trees to the left. Dash could see that the farmhouse was dark, everypony inside presumably sound asleep. The pegasus cantered across the distance of the yard, a speck of colour against a sea of silver-white. Dash reached the door, raising a hoof to knock when she saw something at the edge of her vision. Moving away from the farmhouse, Dash had a better look at it. A soft orange light was just barely visible from across the orchard fields. Her stamina restored with hope, Dash jogged off towards it. Her hoofs beat a soft rhythm against the grass of the apple orchard and the wind was a cool comfort in her mane and across her face. For a couple of minutes, the world was silent except for the thudding of hooves and the panting of a worried mare. Dash inwardly berated herself for not being able to run faster without a monstrous stitch lancing through her side. Dash had always prided herself on being fast, but she felt almost powerless now, as though trying to wade through chest-deep molasses. No matter how much she pressed herself, even sprinting through the stitch’s pain in short bursts, it wasn’t enough. The light was still visible whenever Dash crested a hill, but the trees obscured it and made navigation more difficult than it had any right to be. Dash sullenly reflected upon how this wouldn’t be a problem with the power of flight. Dash burst through a final wall of greenery and into a large clearing, which was dominated by the CMC treehouse. Light shone gently out the windows and doorway. All was quiet and still. Dash slowly stepped up the ramp. “Hello? Anypony there?” Silence greeted Dash, and she saw that the inside of the treehouse was empty except for her. There was a table in one corner of the room, upon which a lit kerosene lamp stood. There were some saddlebags piled in a corner. Dash recognized them instantly, and relief flooded over her in a cool tide. Thank the goddesses, she is here. Sort of. I still need to find her. Scootaloo shivered as a cold wind blew across her. The orange pegasus curled herself into a smaller ball, trying to preserve what warmth she could. She was naked, deprived of even her saddlebags, and the night did not care for her any more than it did for an insect freezing to death on a leaf. Scootaloo finally forced herself to her feet, thinking to go back to the relative warmth of the treehouse now that the Apple family would all be asleep. She instantly wished she hadn’t, as her inner joints and belly protested at being robbed of what little heat they had managed to gather. Failing to suppress another shiver, the orange pegasus wiped the tears away from her cheeks and gathered up a few windfalls from the apple tree she stood under. Some of them were rotten and all of them were soft, but Scootaloo did not care. I’m already hiding out on the Apple family property. I won’t be a thief as well as a- The scene replayed itself in her mind’s eye, appearing before Scootaloo could will herself to forget. The lightning bolt, nearly ready to strike, a massive thunderclap followed by speed and a rainbow. Then, a shockwave, a miniature sun. Then, Rainbow Dash falling. Then, a dull crack. Scootaloo forced her eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears. They found a way past her eyelids, as they always did. Her small frame was wracked with shaky sobs and torn with guilt. Scootaloo sank to her knees, too unsteady to remain standing. Scootaloo couldn’t contain her sobs anymore, and they escaped from her throat in ragged chokes. Nearly killing her idol hadn’t been enough, oh no, she’d had to go and ignore the only friends she’d ever had. They had been crusading as a trio for nearly a year, and Sweetie Belle had known Scootaloo even before that. The three of them had become closest friends through their trials and misadventures, built a bond strengthened by the simple fact that they were there for one another. And then I go and get my cutie mark after ignoring them for nearly a month, hospitalizing Rainbow Dash in the process. Scootaloo sniffed, then sobbed once, managing to regain a semblance of control. Cutie Mark Crusader bad pony. Yay. The orange pegasus swivelled her head, looking at her right flank with contempt. Upon it rested a bright red cross, speed lines trailing behind it. Her books had told her that it meant she was to be a paramedic, or something similar. Helping ponies in need. Swooping in to save the day. Gods, it was a joke. The mark on her flank was a mockery, a cosmic caricature of what she’d done. She hadn’t helped anypony. She’d severely injured her idol, gouged a rift between her and her friends. Assuming that Dash did make a full recovery, would she be able to fly again? Would she be able to perform Sonic Rainbooms and save Equestria from evil, night-controlling god-princesses? Scootaloo’s eyes hardened into purple slabs as she glared at the symbol on her flank. When the flight school exam rolled around, Scootaloo had no idea how she’d do, what she’d do. The government hadn’t yet contacted her about what sorts of changes would be made to the exam, or to her curriculum texts. And when they did, what then? Scootaloo had been studying general flying and biology, not the sort of sprinting, endurance flight and medical knowledge a paramedic needed. She’d have to start almost from scratch, ensuring that what little free time she had now would be extinguished. Scootaloo’s face contorted with anger and her eyes glistened with fresh tears. She bared her teeth and started shaking with rage. She had been staring at her flank for so long, the mark was nothing more than red shapes and lines, devoid of all meaning. And even if she did get in, then what? Hard endurance flight camp, followed by nights of studying for her medical classes? Assuming she got any time off, what would be the point of it? The Crusaders weren’t her friends anymore. The Crusaders weren’t anything. As for her parents, Scootaloo didn’t know what to think about her parents yet. Her mother hadn’t been at home since the . . . big night, and her father- “I’m a good pony!” Scootaloo grunted in anger. She slammed a hoof into the ground next to her, unable to restrain herself. The orange pegasus glared murderously at what was now a red blur on her flank. Without thinking, she raised her hoof from the ground and struck at the blur. Her hoof bounced off the muscle in her flank, and Scootaloo barely felt it. The impact was nothing to her emotionally-charged mind. There was a moment of almost absolute silence, punctuated only by Scootaloo’s ragged breaths. “Cost me my friends,” She seethed around clenched teeth, hitting her mark with both hooves. There was a dull thwap as they made contact. “Cost me Rainbow Dash!” She said, louder. Another thwap. “Stupid!” Scootaloo cried, louder still. Another thwap, accompanied by a high-pitched noise. The noise did not have a word to represent it – it was simply a sound of anger and pain. Scootaloo continued hitting her cutie mark, putting all the strength she had into the blows, timing them to her words. “Dumb, no-good, rotten, miserable-” Thudding hoofsteps, then a horrified voice. “S-Scootaloo?” “STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID-” Then there are blue limbs prying her away from herself, and Rainbow Dash is standing there, looking at her with wide eyes. Scootaloo managed to look up and into Dash’s face, seeing the worry there. Rainbow Dash, the pony she’d nearly killed. Overcome with a fresh wave of sorrow, Scootaloo choked and broke away from Dash’s gaze, unable to look the blue pegasus in the eye. Dash instantly moved forward and embraced Scootaloo, hugging her tight and whispering reassurances. “Oh gods above I was so worried about you how long have you been out here what happened oh you’re crying don’t worry don’t worry it’s going to be all right . . .” Scootaloo was initially surprised by the gesture, but she soon responded to it and buried her face in Dash’s shoulder. Dash wrapped her wings around Scootaloo protectively, inhaling sharply at the pain, but refusing to let it win. Scootaloo’s tears had returned, and the two sat there for a time as Scootaloo cried herself out and a damp patch formed on Dash’s shoulder. Eventually, Scootaloo spoke up. “Rainbow Dash, w-what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be . . . y’know . . .” Scootaloo’s voice cracked and she found herself unable to utter the words. “They let me out just this afternoon. They said that the damage was mostly to my muscles and nerves, so there wasn’t much left to actually heal.” “Oh. That’s good, I guess.” “Scootaloo, what are you doing out here? I saw your face on a missing filly poster in the park. How long have you been here?” Scootaloo was silent for a moment, then: “This . . . this is my second night.” Rainbow Dash sighed with relief at the words. So she hadn’t been out here too long. Okay. This was better than Dash had hoped. Suddenly, a cold wind blew across the two ponies, interrupting Dash’s thoughts. They agreed that the treehouse would be a better place to discuss things, and walked back to it. Scootaloo limped slightly, favouring her right hind leg. They seated themselves on the floor, facing each other. Scootaloo couldn’t meet Dash’s gaze, but neither could she stop herself from staring at Dash’s bandages. Lightning was enough to kill ponies by itself, her textbooks had said. Lightning combined with a Sonic Rainboom was another story altogether, and it perplexed Scootaloo that Dash had recovered so quickly. Before she could continue this train of thought, Dash spoke, breaking the silence. “Scootaloo, does the Apple family know you’re here?” “. . . No.” “Okay. Well, we can deal with that in the morning, I suppose,” said Dash. “Wait, what have you been eating and drinking if they don’t know you’re here?” “Well water and windfalls from the apple trees. I haven’t taken anything – I’m not a thief!” Scootaloo said defensively. “Hey, whoa, nopony said you were,” Dash said, gesturing reassuringly with her hooves. Scootaloo realized how she had sounded and sighed. She started to say something, but Dash stood up and moved to a window. The blue pegasus reached her neck out, grabbing at a nearby branch. She pulled back, dragging the end of it through the window. Dash gestured to Scootaloo, then the tree branch. Scootaloo walked toward it, aware of a growing pain in her right flank. She now saw that there were apples on the branch. Big, juicy apples, at least twice the size of what she had been eating recently. The smaller pegasus hesitated, unsure of what to do. Dash grunted something affirmative around the branch, motioned with a hoof. Scootaloo tentatively craned her neck and plucked off several apples, depositing them on the floor. Dash released the branch, which whipped out of the treehouse window. Dash knelt by the apples and nudged one towards Scootaloo. The smaller pegasus stared at the fruit for a moment, clearly hesitant. “Uh, Dash, you’re sure that Applejack . . .” she said, her voice shaky. “I’m sure that Applejack won’t mind,” Dash responded. “You need to eat, and a few apples won’t make a difference either way.” Scootaloo nodded absently, her eyes still locked on the apple. After another second of deliberation, she fell ravenously upon it. The sight of the apples had awakened the true depth of Scootaloo’s hunger, and the ache in her flank was now painful enough without having to compete with hunger pangs. Dash munched absent-mindedly on an apple of her own while watching her student devour her way through a couple kilograms of fruit. Occasionally, the blue pegasus’s eyes would drift back to Scootaloo’s flank, and the slight bruising now just visible there. Dash was worried, but she held her tongue. That can wait. The important thing is making sure Scootaloo’s fed properly. After the orange pegasus had eaten to her stomach’s content, she sat back on her haunches and sighed contentedly. She felt much better now that her stomach was full. Rainbow Dash has likewise finished her apple, and now sat opposite Scootaloo, a small pile of apple cores between them. “So . . .” began Rainbow Dash, searching for the right way to begin the conversation. “Why am I here?” asked Scootaloo. Dash nodded, and the orange pegasus sighed. “Well, when you got injured . . . I figured I couldn’t just sit around in the hospital forever, y’know?” “Of course.” “Well, the first thing I did was to look up what my cutie mark meant. Apparently I’m cut out to be a paramedic, or something like that.” Scootaloo sighed and hung her head. Dash was instantly at her side, a hoof resting comfortingly across Scootaloo’s shoulders. “What’s the matter with being a paramedic? It’s good work.” “Yeah, but . . . I . . . I haven’t helped anypony. I mean, just look at how I treated the other Crusaders – I haven’t spoken to either of them for nearly a month. And now I get my cutie mark? Without either of them? ” Scootaloo said, leaning into Dash’s side. “Oh Gods, they must hate me.” “Scootaloo.” “Yeah?” “Scootaloo, look at me.” She did, and saw that Dash was looking down at her with a sad little smile on her face. “Scootaloo, have the Crusaders told you themselves that they feel that way?” Dash said. Scootaloo paused for a moment, then: “Well, no . . .” “Have they said anything negative at all?” “I . . . I guess not . . .” “So where did you get this idea?” Scootaloo broke away from Dash’s look, and scanned the floor with her eyes as she thought. It was true that the other Crusaders hadn’t said anything negative to her, but . . . “Well,” said the orange pegasus, “how else could they feel?” Rainbow Dash merely chuckled knowingly at this before responding. “Scootaloo, what you have with the Crusaders is a true friendship, and one that I’m sure will last long into your lives. Friends are a lot of things, but the true sign of a friend is how well they listen and forgive.” “You . . . you really think so?” asked Scootaloo, managing to look up and meet Dash’s eyes. “I’d bet my life on it.” At this, Scootaloo’s eyes closed and her face screwed up. She sniffled and her head returned to its neutral position – completely level, devoid of any indication of emotion. Dash winced at the reaction her words had wrought. “But it’s not just the Crusaders that drove you out here, is it?” she asked, already knowing the answer. “No.” Scootaloo mumbled at length. “Does it have to do with me?” Dash asked, again sure of the answer before the question. “Y-yeah,” Scootaloo mumbled again, shifting slightly on her haunches. Dash lowered her head to Scootaloo’s level before speaking again. “Wanna tell me about it?” the cyan pegasus asked, resting her temple lightly against Scootaloo’s. Scootaloo took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. Only then did she speak. “Well . . .” she began, voice faltering, “ever since the . . .” Scootaloo trailed off, looking for the right word. “Since the . . . accident, I . . . I . . .” Scootaloo choked on the words, unable to finish her thought. “I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo cried, throwing herself into Dash and wrapping her forelegs around the larger pegasus’s chest. Small tears formed in her eyes despite her emotional fatigue, and strangled half-sobs punctuated her words. “It’s just, what we talked about, with being a weather pegasus . . . and, and then when I . . . and you saved me and . . . and you almost . . .” Dash returned the gesture, gently shushing the smaller pegasus and speaking soft words of support. Scootaloo finally spent her emotional reserves and sat there, shakily inhaling and exhaling. “Oh Gods, Dash, I’m so sorry. You almost-” “Scootaloo, it’s okay,” Dash said. Scootaloo sniffed, then raised her head and met Dash’s eyes with her own. “But . . . but I . . .” “Scootaloo,” Dash continued, her tone maternal, “I understand why you did what you did. The way I described being a weather pegasus, it was only natural you’d be interested.” Dash paused for a moment, then continued. “I didn’t tell you how lightning wrangling takes years of practice to do safely, or how unpleasant it actually is to command a cold front for days on end, or how thankless the job is when you have to interrupt everypony’s spring day with a huge rainstorm.” At the last part, Scootaloo managed to mix a chuckle in with her sobs, and a hint of a smile formed on lips. “Look, I made it through the whole ordeal fine, and you even managed to get your cutie mark. So, don’t feel bad, alright? Things happen. It’s how you react to them that matters.” “Y-you mean,” Scootaloo sniffed, “you really . . . you really aren’t mad at me, or anything?” “Scootaloo, of course I’m not mad at you. I’m just glad you’re safe.” Scootaloo grinned sheepishly, already feeling leagues better than she had less than an hour ago. “I guess I’ll have some explaining to do once we go back to Ponyville, huh?” Dash just smiled in return. “That can wait until the morning. In the meantime, you need a good night’s sleep.” “I’d love to, but I don’t really have any blankets or anything,” agreed Scootaloo, her voice falling slightly as she realized what this entailed. “I mean, unless you want to wake up Applejack or something . . .” Dash pondered the dilemma for a moment, hoof upon chin. Then, inspiration struck. Dash stood up and moved away from Scootaloo, onto the centre of the rough rug on the floor. She then lay down on her side, tucking her hooves in against herself. Scootaloo was thoroughly confused by this procedure, and made this clear on her face. Dash then lifted one of her wings, and Scootaloo’s confusion evapourated. Scootaloo moved her mouth soundlessly, unsuccessful in her attempts to articulate the bevy of emotions she felt. Eventually, she settled upon two words, said as she nestled in against Dash’s side and blue feathers blanketed over an orange coat. “Thank you.”
DirigibleQuixote	776	5	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2011-11-26T07:41:51+00:00	2011-11-26T07:41:51+00:00	11,063	“Thank you for letting me have a look around Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack.” “It’s the least Ah c’n do, Mr. Nimbus. We’re all worried ‘bout Scootaloo.” “I realize the Guardsmen already checked here, but . . . I suppose I just need to see it for myself.” “Hey now, don’t go talkin’ ‘bout it like she’s gone or sumthin’ – Ah’m sure we’ll find some clue to where Scootaloo is. Th’ Guards’re trained an’ all, but they ain’t got a parent’s way a’ thinkin’ ‘bout things.” “. . . Yes, perhaps you are correct. Which way is the treehouse?” “Thataway. ‘S a fair walk.” Rainbow Dash drifted lazily upwards from the realms of sleep to the brightness of the waking world. She hadn’t yet opened her eyes, but she could still perceive a few things – the soft warmth of sunlight on her face, the slightest hint of a breeze flowing in through the treehouse windows that carried the vague sweetness of apples. There was a steady pattern of breathing coming from just beside her, accompanied by a warm form pressed against hers. Dash lifted her eyelids halfway, taking in the world visually. From where her head lay on the treehouse’s rug, she saw a bright golden rectangle that could only be a window. Celestia’s sun beamed through the glass, gilding it with light and refracting yellow brilliance onto the interior of the treehouse. The wood of the walls and ceiling, already a dull orange, were brightened to a pleasant ochre. The blue pegasus’s eyes wandered, looking at the details of the one-room structure – a table off to one side over there, a shelf along one of the walls here, the small black circles of nail heads in the floorboards wherever she looked. An orange and purple shape beneath her wing. Scootaloo was pressed into Dash’s side, with blue feathers covering her from neck to flank. Her breathing was still the slow, steady pulse of sleep, so Dash took care to be subdued in her movements as she lifted her head and stretched out her legs along the floor. I can’t even remember the last time I slept that well, she thought as her brain gradually sped up. Her eyes drifted back down to the diminutive figure beside her, and Dash couldn’t help but smile at how peaceful Scootaloo looked. Looking at her now, you’d never guess what she’s been through. The smaller pegasus had curled Dash’s wing around her like a blanket, which Dash just then realized. Mentally bracing herself for the pain to start, she was surprised to feel none. Surprise was replaced by confusion – then, cautious hope. Looking over to her other side, Dash considered her folded wing. It didn’t seem any different, but it no longer carried a dull ache with it as it had in previous days. She tentatively extended the limb, ready to quiet a pained intake of breath if necessary. Her preparation proved unneeded, as her wing reached its full extension without fault. Dash sighed softly as she worked muscle groups neglected for a week. The simple, base pleasure of stretching her wing out was immense, and Dash felt her eyes close in bliss as she contracted the muscles controlling her wing. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed the act until now. Somewhere at the back of her mind was a nagging thought about how odd it was that she had recovered that quickly, but Dash couldn’t bring herself to focus on it. Eventually, the tension in Dash’s wing completely melted away and she looked back at Scootaloo – still asleep. It seemed that being kept at full extension for the night had alleviated whatever tension Dash’s other wing might have had. That was fine with Dash; Scootaloo needed her sleep after what she’d been through. I’ll stay like this maybe another half hour or something. Then I’ll wake her up, we’ll have some apples and head back into town. Dash was just lowering her head back to the rug (her makeshift pillow) when she heard voices drifting in through the treehouse’s front doorway. “And this is the Crusader treehouse?” “Yep. Th’ three of ‘em fixed it up real nice.” “This is their hoofwork? I must say, I’m impressed.” “Ah know what y’ mean – it was a sorry sight when they first got to it.” Dash could recognize Applejack’s voice easily, but the other one escaped her. It was familiar, sure, but she couldn’t put a name or a face to it. Dash lifted her head back up and craned her neck, trying to see who was talking. She caught a glimpse of a dark grey coat and a purple mane, which was enough to jog her memory. Her mind filled in the missing eye colour and cutie mark (dark amber and an envelope respectively), and the image was complete. Mr. Nimbus? What’s he doing here? Before she could think about that query very much at all, there came the clunk-clunk of hooves on the wooden ramp leading up to the treehouse’s entryway. Dash had fully woken up now, and she realized that Mr. Nimbus might not appreciate seeing his daughter side-to-side with her. The words of the Court missive flashed through Dash’s mind, and she winced with the memory. Pushing it aside as best she could, Dash gathered her hooves under herself and made to stand up. Before she could, a dark grey head topped by a purple mane appeared at the entrance of the treehouse. Mr. Nimbus walked forward a few cautious steps, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the lighting inside. Dash was frozen in place, suddenly and acutely aware of how awkward it looked for her to be lying next to Scootaloo with her wing wrapped around the younger pegasus. Nothing untoward had happened the previous night, of course, but even Dash had to admit that would seem difficult to believe in her current position. Mr. Nimbus suddenly stopped walking – indeed, he had stopped all motion short of breathing. Silence stretched out for what seemed to be an eternity as the two pegasi stared at each other, Dash doing so with an expression of complete neutrality and Mr. Nimbus with an unreadable face. It quickly turned readable, however, as his brows angled inward in anger and his breathing became more forced. His chest felt tight with stress as a hot flush of adrenaline coursed through his system. He was having difficulty believing the sight before his eyes was actually real and not some fabrication of his stressed mind. But, no. It was her. Perhaps it was some parental instinct, or perhaps he was finally registering the sensations his body was receiving. It hardly mattered – what did matter was that it was her, his daughter, his little Scootaloo safe and sound after being missing for more than thirty-six hours. Something was off, though. Scootaloo (his dear Scootaloo) was orange of coat, not blue. Mr. Nimbus saw that her usual orange coat was covered by a blue wing that obscured her real colours. The grey pegasus’s eyes drifted slightly upward, and met wine-red ones – the owners of the treacherous feathers. Rainbow Dash cleared her throat awkwardly. “Ah, um, hi Mr. Nimbus,” she said, standing up and disentangling herself from Scootaloo. He said nothing in response, only looking at Dash with hard eyes. Scootaloo, however, had been jostled awake by the motion and now yawned her way out of sleep. She stretched lazily, rolling over onto her side. When she hit Dash’s hooves instead of her side, Scootaloo opened her eyes and blinked slowly. “Thanks for that, Rainbow Dash. The sleep really-” her voice cut off as she noticed the room’s third occupant, who continued to glare at Dash. “Dad . . .” “Scootaloo.” The orange pegasus was silenced with a single word, flinching slightly at her name. Mr. Nimbus was slightly taller than the average pegasus, and years of flying an unforgiving mail route in every kind of weather imaginable had left him with a layer of solid, working man muscle. His size and power made it all the more intimidating to hear him speaking in such a low, calm voice, as though nothing at all were amiss. “Applejack is outside at the bottom of the ramp. Please go and wait with her. I have some things I need to discuss with Miss Dash.” Dash winced at the honorific, but said nothing. She had wanted to talk to Scootaloo’s father as well, and she didn’t necessarily want the filly to be around for it. Scootaloo rolled onto her hooves, standing up facing her father. “Look, Dad, I’m sorry about-” “Scootaloo, it’s okay,” interrupted Dash, putting a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder. Mr. Nimbus inhaled and exhaled deeply when she did, controlling himself with a significant amount of effort. “Your dad and I have some stuff we need to talk about, and it’d be best if we got it out of the way.” “But, but,” Scootaloo stuttered as she turned to face Dash. “It’s okay. I know what I’m doing.” Scootaloo tried to speak once more, but could not find the words. Her face fell into an emotionless mask, and she trudged out of the treehouse and down the ramp. Applejack’s voice drifted in from outside, astonished at Scootaloo’s appearance. The two pegasi were now alone in the treehouse. They stood facing each other, legs out slightly for balance in a slight gesture of mutual aggression. Silence reigned for a long moment, interrupted only by Applejack’s questions and Scootaloo’s mumbles from the bottom of the treehouse ramp. Dash spoke first. Scootaloo walked slowly down the wooden plank and onto the ground, her head tilted forward to stare at the dirt. She stopped and plopped backwards onto her haunches when an orange shape entered the right side of her peripheral vision. Applejack had been sitting respectfully on the grass outside, waiting for Mr. Nimbus to return. To pass the time, she had been chewing a sprig of wheat and trying unsuccessfully not to think about what she would do if Apple Bloom were the filly missing. The earth pony was brought back to the material world by a scuffing sound slightly behind her and to her left. She turned, smiling sympathetically. “Find anythin’, Mr. Nim-” was all Applejack managed to say before she nearly choked on her wheat sprig. After a couple of hacks, she spit it out and rubbed her eyes in disbelief. “Scootaloo?” she managed to stutter. “I-izzat really you?” “Yeah,” Scootaloo replied weakly. Applejack was, at the moment, too much in shock to notice Scootaloo’s posture or the tone of her voice. “Blazes, girl! Why on earth’re y’ here?” she asked, managing to regain control of herself. Scootaloo repeated her part in the conversation with Rainbow Dash the previous night, answering Applejack’s questions when she was interrupted by them. They conversed in this way for a couple of minutes. Scootaloo’s demeanour didn’t improve, though Applejack tried to be as positive as possible when she did speak. When Scootaloo had finished talking, Applejack sat for a moment and collected her thoughts before responding. “So lessee if I got this straight: y’ felt guilty ‘bout what happened t’ Rainbow and y’ felt worried about getting’ a new teacher, so y’ wanted somepony t’ talk to.” “Yeah.” “But y’ felt the Crusaders wouldn’t wanna talk t’ y’ and yer father filed the complaint in th’ first place, so y’ couldn’t talk t’ him, either.” “Yeah.” “So y’ hid out at th’ treehouse until yer father got worried an’ sent some guardsmen out lookin’ for y’, who y’ hid from. Then Dash found y’ last night, an’ here we are.” “Yeah.” At that moment, there came a piercing cry from the treehouse. Applejack immediately stood up and started cantering towards the base of the ramp. Scootaloo shot past her, a blur of orange against orange. As Scootaloo pounded up the ramp and into the treehouse proper, she saw the cause of the noise. Rainbow Dash lay on her stomach, legs sprawled out before and behind her. She writhed without purpose on the floor, and her face was contorted into a mask of agony. Her wings were fully spread and stuck up almost vertically from their bases on her back, and quivered slightly whenever she moved. Dash was moaning in pain, fruitlessly trying to say something past the tears in her eyes. “Dad, what . . . what . . .” Scootaloo searched for words, but they failed her. Her father stood impassively over Dash, his own wings stretched to their own impressive span. Applejack had meanwhile thundered up the ramp herself and was now crouched down by Dash, trying to talk to her. “Rainbow, what happened? Say somethin’, please!” “. . . wings . . . open . . . too far . . .” she clutched at Applejack, begging. “oh gods please applejack it hurts so much help please” “Dad, do something!” exclaimed Scootaloo. “She’s in pain!” Her father only snorted bitterly and turned to leave. “I can see that. Come along, Scootaloo, we’re leaving.” There was no trace of emotion in his voice. Scootaloo looked up at her father, unable to believe her ears. “But, dad! She, she-” “She is getting what she deserves. We are leaving.” There was a quiet, still moment wherein Scootaloo processed and analyzed what she was hearing. Applejack, her father, Dash – they all seemed muffled. The quietness and stillness persisted, as Scootaloo found herself darting forward. Then she was pressing on Dash’s sides, moving the wings ever so slightly this way, so as not to aggravate them further. A little pressure here, a subtle twist there, and the wing rolled back into place with the soft grinding of bone. Scootaloo did it again for the other side, dimly aware of her father’s angry voice behind her. When she had finished, time resumed its normal pace and the sound of voices faded in. Scootaloo felt herself being pulled backwards, heard her father say thank you for your time or something to Applejack. Then, she was walking away from the Crusader treehouse with her father and he was talking, words gradually filtering in. “I swear, sometimes I do not know what to do with you. I just hope you come back to your senses by the time your new instructor gets here.” “Hells’ bells, Rainbow! What else goin’ on on mah farm that Ah don’t know about?” said Applejack, quite fed up with being two steps behind everypony around her. “Look, Applejack . . .” Dash managed to croak, trying to move as little as possible. Her wings had returned to their normal folded position, but sang red with pain. “First, Scootaloo hides out at th’ Crusader treehouse ‘cuz apparently she feels she can’ talk t’ th’ Crusaders about what she’s goin’ through. Then, Ah let Mr. Nimbus poke aroun’ the farm f’r some peace ‘a mind after the Guards a’ been through here, but Scootaloo’s apparently here now, an’-” “Applejack, would you just calm down?” Dash asked, holding up a hoof in surrender. “I’ll explain what happened, okay?” Dash explained to the best of her ability the events of the past, interjected with the laborious process of struggling to her hooves. By the time she had explained everything properly, she and Applejack were walking back in the direction of the main farmhouse. “. . . and here I am talking with you,” Dash finished. “As to why my wings got all messed up? Well, from what I understand, it’s an old pegasus reflex – make yourself seem bigger, more intimidating.” There was a slight pause. “We didn’t exactly have the friendliest of conversations.” Applejack was silent for a solid twenty seconds before saying anything. “Rainbow, Ah . . . Ah don’t even know what t’ say . . .” she began. “Then don’t say anything. I’ve probably already thought through any conversation we might have. Honestly,” Dash said, casting a tired look over at her companion, “I’m more angry than anything. I mean, my wings were nearly healed. Now, I can barely move them and this time I don’t have any hospital-grade painkillers in my system.” Applejack contemplated some things silently for a moment. Then: “Painkillers?” “Hmm? Oh, yeah. The hospital staff gave me some when I checked out yesterday to help me adapt to life in the real world and stuff.” She paused. “Gods, was it just yesterday I checked out? It feels like it’s been two and a half months.” “Y’know, Ah might be able t’ help with that,” Applejack said with an even look at Dash. Dash returned with a look of surprise. “It . . . really? How?” “Well, as y’ may a’ noticed,” Applejack explained, gesturing grandly with a foreleg, “Sweet Apple Acres ain’t what y’ would call close t’ Ponyville General.” “Right.” “So if ever there’s an injury or somethin’ like that, we either gotta fix it ourselves, ‘r make it work ‘till the docs get here.” “So you have painkillers just lying around,” Dash said flatly. “Not quite. Granny Smith was a herbalist in her time, and by ‘stension the farm’s doctor. If somepony needed fixin’, it’d be her that did it. If she couldn’t, she’d ease the pain ‘till the doctors from town came a-runnin’ on in.” “Granny Smith? Really?” “Oh yeah! She still has this big ol’ pantry full ‘a herbs an’ poultices an’ stuff – I reckon we could spare a few for a friend.” Rainbow Dash’s face lit up a tad, and she seemed a bit less tired. “Just like that? I . . . thanks, Applejack.” “Thank me when yer wings start feelin’ better,” said Applejack with a jovial shove of Dash’s shoulder. Dash inhaled sharply and flinched away from the impact. Applejack made to apologize, but Dash cut her off with a grin. “Where’s that pantry of Granny Smith’s?”
DirigibleQuixote	776	6	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2012-01-23T23:56:44+00:00	2012-01-23T23:56:44+00:00	8,380	Rainbow Dash walked slowly along the path leading from Sweet Apple Acres into Ponyville. She and Applejack had parted ways at the farm’s gates after the earth pony had given her some painkillers from Granny Smith’s store – a small flask of black, foul-smelling liquid. This brew was apparently a powerful enough remover of pain to allow Dash to fly, and Applejack had intended it to help Dash get back to her cloud house for a proper night’s sleep in an environment more suited to a pegasus than hardwood planks. Dash had initially been skeptical of its alleged pain-reducing qualities, but Applejack had spoken from personal experience, and vouched for the liquid’s effectiveness. Dash had gulped down as much of it as she could manage before her taste buds could rebel completely (it tasted like evil, they told her) and recovered with only a couple of coughs, walking off with the flask cradled under her left wing. She took a measure of comfort knowing that despite the recent strain, they weren’t completely useless. Currently, she planned to walk back through Ponyville to get as close to her house as possible, then down a measure of the liquid and fly up once it took effect. After that, she would crawl into bed and let her wings heal back to top shape before she bothered venturing out the door. She wouldn’t give the world another opportunity to render her flightless, oh no. The pegasus cast a glance around her absentmindedly while reviewing her plan, seeing the world around her but not truly registering it. There were fields, mostly, dotted with copses of trees here and there, and forests off in the distance. The sky was, in a break from Ponyville form, mostly grey and overcast. As she completed the walk back into Ponyville and the road transitioned from packed dirt to cobblestone, Dash felt the slight pat of a raindrop against the back of her neck. Annoyed, the blue pegasus cast a look up at the sky again, trying to see where the main body of clouds was. What she had dimly seen on her walk had told her more of a light rain than a torrential downpour, so Ponyville proper likely wouldn’t get anything worse than a small spitting – presuming, of course, that the cloud formation wasn’t planned to move. After a minute of this, Dash gave an aggravated sigh and trotted off in the direction of the town billboard. Rounding a corner into the town square (which was in front of the library), she caught sight of it across the way from her. With a nervous glance at the library, Dash quickly cantered over to the raised rectangle of cork that provided Ponyville with general announcements, news and weather schedules. In previous times, the board had done much more than that, but newspapers and generally more open lines of communication had lessened its role in the daily life of the average pony. Truth be told, the board did nothing that newspapers didn’t, but was kept around for tradition’s sake and for the old-timers who hadn’t taken much of a shine to newspapers. Dash herself had never needed the board much, as the weather schedules were generally her responsibility to announce and help plan. Her recent occupations, however, had provided her with a less involved role in weather-based activities. More than once, she had glanced at the board on her way back into town after teaching Scootaloo and been thankful for the notification of an impending weather pattern. Coming to a stop squarely in front of the board, Dash looked up at the upper-right corner reserved for the week’s weather schedule. Before the pegasus could register the symbols and their meanings, she was interrupted by a gasp. “Rainbow Dash, is that you?” cried a voice from a good distance behind her. Dash recognized that voice, and grimaced ever so slightly as she turned around. Drat. I didn’t want to get her involved in this. “Ah, hi Twilight,” Dash replied, turning to face the unicorn. As Dash did so, she noticed that Twilight looked better than she had in the hospital lighting. Her complexion seemed smoother and the purples of her body more vivid and pronounced – her coat, for lack of a better word, glowed, and her mane and tail seemed to be a study in contrast. Her eyes in particular could have been mistaken for gateways into some crystalline dimension of stars and clear black water. In fact, they seemed to be getting closer- “Oof!” Dash exclaimed in surprise, interrupted as Twilight crashed into her and drew the pegasus into a tight hug. “Ohmygoodnessohmygoodness!” the unicorn squealed, hopping up and down as much as her position would allow her. “You got out of the hospital and everything!” “Um, Twilight,” said Dash, struggling to inhale. “Well, I guess not everything, since you still have the bandages and whatnot, but still.” “Twilight,” Dash croaked, swatting at Twilight’s shoulder with a hoof. "What is it, Dash?" “Can’t breathe . . .” Dash’s voice gave out, her words turning into a dry exhalation. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Twilight cried, releasing Dash from her grip. The pegasus fell back onto all fours, relishing the sensation of cool air flooding into her lungs. Twilight’s enthusiasm was great, but it could be a little much sometimes. After regaining her composure, Dash raised her head and looked Twilight in the eye. Twilight returned the look with one of her own, laced with worry and a touch of guilt. “So, Twilight-” “Rainbow, how did you-” The two ponies abruptly stopped, each willing to let the other go first. After a moment, Twilight sat back on her haunches and motioned for Dash to speak first. Dash nodded quickly, then spoke. “Um, Twilight,” said Dash with a wave of her foreleg and a distinct lack of certainty to her tone. Perhaps it was just the natural sunlight as opposed to the fluorescent tubes of the hospital, but Dash couldn’t remember Twilight ever looking so . . . pleasant. “Did you do something with . . . this?” A slight pause, then: “Dash, you just gestured to all of me.” “Hmm? Oh, so I did. Well, um, what I meant to say was that you look, uh . . .” Dash searched for an appropriate word. Twilight leaned forward a bit, unsure of where the conversation was going. “You look nice,” finished Dash after a moment, “and I was wondering if you’d done anything differently.” Twilight, seeing the inquiry to be harmless, if a bit odd, looked up pensively and tapped her chin with a hoof, trying to remember what she’d done earlier that day. Nothing seemed to jump out at her as being particularly different. Except . . . “Well, I did get a good night’s sleep – I can’t really think of much else.” Twilight shrugged, returning her hoof to the ground. “I’m not really one for makeup.” “Well whatever it was, you should do it more often,” said Dash. “You really look nice.” “Oh, thanks,” Twilight said, blushing and averting her eyes. Suddenly, Twilight jumped with a sudden realization. “Oh, but here we are talking about my appearance when you’ve gotten out of the hospital! How did you manage that?” “Oh, well I, um . . . I uh, I . . .” Dash struggled to articulate her thoughts – why was she having such difficulty with this? It was plain as day: the ponies at the hospital had let her out because she’d healed up, simple as that. All she needed to do was say as much. “I, uh . . . I got better.” Twilight was silent for a good ten seconds, expression unreadable as she waited for Dash to continue. When it became apparent that she did not intend to do so, the unicorn spoke. “You . . . got better?” Godsdammit, why can you never articulate yourself properly when it counts? Dash started to say something several times, but couldn’t quite get going. Eventually, she composed herself, took a deep breath, and spoke. “The doctors said that whatever healing I had left to do couldn’t be helped in the hospital, so they let me out to start re-exposing myself to society. Walking around town, talking to people,” Dash coughed awkwardly, her voice turning into a mumble. “Doing the rest of my community service hours . . .” “Ah, I see,” Twilight said, nodding. “But you really recovered that quickly?” Dash shrugged. “The doctors were just as surprised. Being struck by Rainboom-lightning isn’t really an everyday thing, so they didn’t know quite what to make of it. I’m sure the hospital would keep that kind of stuff on file if you’re interested.” Twilight nodded, deep in thought and medical theory. “I might have a look at that, actually. Medicine’s been kind of hobby of mine and that would be an interesting detail to study.” Dash chuckled. “Glad I can be interesting.” “No, that’s not- I mean, I didn’t mean-” Twilight gasped, eyes wide with embarrassment. “Relax, Twilight,” Dash said, chuckling good-naturedly and making a calming motion with her hooves. “I was just joking. It’s great that you can find some ray of light in this whole mess.” “. . . This whole mess?” asked Twilight. “You got out of the hospital and are on your way to recovery – what else is there?” And now you express yourself all too well. Great job, Dash. “Well, um, my community service kind of changed . . .” “Changed? Changed how?” Twilight leaned forward, eyes carrying concern. It was now Dash’s turn to feel embarrassed, and she shied away from Twilight’s question, unable to properly answer it at the moment. “Uh, do you mind if I explain as we walk? I kind of have to be somewhere.” Twilight agreed, and the two set off in the general direction of Rainbow Dash’s cloud house, following the street that went most directly. Twilight couldn’t help but peek at Dash’s bandages, appraising them with the eye of a concerned amateur and thus seeing more faults than there were. The bandages had loosened and hung from Dash’s frame more than wrapped around it, but the pegasus gave no indication that she noticed or cared. As they walked, Dash explained the events of the previous day, starting with seeing Scootaloo’s missing filly poster. “It’s just terrible that happened,” said Twilight, downcast. “Some Guards came by and asked if I could scry her location, but I just couldn’t get a bead on her. Too much residual magic in the air, I think – from that Electric Rainboom and all.” “Don’t worry too much about it, Twilight,” Dash said reassuringly, “I found her out at the CMC treehouse. She was more upset than scared.” Twilight was surprised, to say the least. “You just found her out there?” “Well, I figured she ran away because she felt guilty about what happened to me, and that she’d be at some place she knew. The treehouse just happened to be the first place I checked.” Twilight listened to this worriedly, but calmed after she processed what Dash said. “So she’s with her father again?” “Yes – unfortunately, that’s where things get a bit messy.” Twilight’s head tilted in confusion. “How?” “Well, y’see- hang on, we should turn here.” The two ponies took a right at the intersection, walking along a cobblestone road between two rows of houses. Ponies passed them every now and again, but the majority of the activity took place in and around the town square, and this part of Ponyville was largely empty. As they moved towards the countryside outside of Ponyville proper, this only became more so. The rain had picked up slightly, but was still just a heavy spitting. A single drop spattered heavily on Dash’s nose, and she snuffed in irritation before completing the turn and setting off. When they had finished reorienting themselves, Dash continued speaking. “The thing is,” she started with a sigh, “Mr. Nimbus came by to visit the treehouse the morning after I’d found Scootaloo, and he didn’t take kindly to what he saw. Can’t say I blame him, really.” “What? You found his daughter – how could he not take kindly to that?” Twilight’s tone was shocked. Dash continued as though she hadn’t heard Twilight, head slumped, tone bitter, and eyes taking in the fine detail of the rocks beneath her hooves. “I probably would’ve reacted the same way if I’d trotted up the ramp to see my daughter sleeping peacefully under the wing of the idiot who’d given her the idiot idea to try lightning wrangling in the middle of a huge storm.” Twilight didn’t know what to say. “Dash . . .” she managed, hoofsteps slowing and with a voice little more than a whisper. Again Dash seemed not to hear her. The pegasus’s breathing came more raggedly now, and her chest shook with emotion as she spoke. “This was, of course, after the Royal Guard had swept the treehouse and found nothing worth reporting, and after that same idiot had been reassigned to picking up trash and been replaced with a trained professional because she posed a threat to his daughter’s safety.” “Rainbow Dash,” Twilight finally interrupted, “what happened?” “Well, it’s pretty much like I told you, except I haven’t gotten to the part where he explained all of this to me.” “. . . So, um-” “Who the hell do you think you are?” “ . . . Nice to see you too, Mr. Nimbus. Scootaloo’s safe and sound, don’t worry.” “I’m surprised, considering her company for the last eight hours.” “Look, is there some sort of problem you have with me?” “You endangered family. I would think the problem is self-explanatory, though I suppose I can’t expect a fillyfooler like you to understand.” “. . . Excuse me?” “You heard me. I should have known that the stress of caring about somepony for more than a single drunken night would have been too much for you to handle.” “You- . . . You are very lucky that I am being rational about this. Look, I’m sorry about how Scootaloo was endangered. Do not think for a second that I wanted anything to happen to her.” “And yet you give her the bright idea to try lightning wrangling.” “We talked shop once, two weeks before that storm was scheduled to roll in! The short-term weather schedules are only drafted a week in advance – how was I supposed to know that she’d try to tame the biggest thunderhead in the sky?” “Funny, hearing you talk about unexpected consequences.” “Listen, would it kill you to give me a straight answer- AAAAAAGH!” “And that’s when I overextended my wings – it’s mostly a blur of pain past that point, and the next thing I remember, AJ’s helping me to my hooves and we’re walking back towards the farmhouse. Scootaloo had disappeared, and I guess her father took her back to their house.” Twilight fell softly back onto her haunches, mouth open and eyes wide in shock. She hadn’t imagined that Mr. Nimbus could be capable of such actions or words – she herself had spoken with him on several occasions when he was delivering her mail, and he had always seemed to be a level-headed pony. But this . . . This was insane. Twilight couldn’t process the sheer contrast of the two images warring in her mind’s eye for dominance – one of Mr. Nimbus the mailman, family man and all-around nice guy, the other of Mr. Nimbus, the pegasus-terrifying fury. It didn’t make any sense for him to act that way, she dimly realized. Not without good reason. Dash, in the silence that had followed her recounting of events, managed to work up the nerve to look up at Twilight and see her reaction to all this. It seemed that the shock of the information had rendered the unicorn unable to speak for the time being. Your social skills are off the chart, Dash. “Well, I suppose I’ll just head on home, now,” Dash said, turning away and looking skyward. She could see her house, a small point of colour against the grey clouds. It wasn’t terribly far, but neither was it close. Dash sighed resignedly and took a quick swig of AJ’s herbal medicine and crouched down, preparing to launch herself up into the sky. Twilight was dimly aware of Dash doing something in front of her, but she couldn’t make out the specifics. If what Mr. Nimbus said is true, then . . . oh, it can’t be true, it just can’t! I’ve known Dash for months and she’s never been mean like that. Of course, she’d known Mr. Nimbus for months as well, and he wasn’t the type to lie. Twilight’s mind had just about tangled itself into a thicket of circular logic when an idea occurred to her. It was stupid and kind of awkward, but it propelled itself to the forefront of her mind like an award-winning gymnast. If she did it correctly, Dash could feel better – that was good, right? Helping Dash? Of course it was. Dash was her friend, and it was terrible to see her like this. Something must be done. Twilight snapped back to reality just as Dash uncoiled the energy in her legs and sprang upward. “Wait!” she cried, propelling herself forward and tackling Dash to the ground with an athleticism she didn’t know she had. The two ponies landed heavily a metre to the left of where Dash had crouched, Twilight partially on top of the pegasus with her forelegs wrapped around Dash’s neck in a hug and her eyes closed tight with emotion. Dash was understandably confused. After a quick glance to see that AJ’s flask was still intact (it was, a short distance off in a small puddle), she managed to gather herself enough to speak. “Um, Twilight, what are you doing?” No response. Dash poked Twilight in the shoulder and repeated the question. “No, seriously – Twilight, what are you doing?” Twilight seemed to notice this, and drew herself up into a sitting position with a small cough of embarrassment. She hadn’t meant to act that dramatically. “Oh, right, sorry about that,” she said, blushing. “I just had something to say that I think could really help and I wanted to make sure that you didn’t leave without hearing it.” A pause. Dash rolled herself onto her side facing Twilight, propping up her forward half with her forelegs. “Could I hear it, then?” she asked. “Oh! Yes! Um,” Twilight said, unsure how to properly articulate herself. Eventually, she settled on a course, setting herself before speaking. “Dash, I just can’t stand to see you like this.” Dash winced, pulling herself into a proper sitting position. Wallowing in self-loathing was bad enough, but upsetting Twilight jerked at her heartstrings in a deeply painful way. “Twilight, I-” she began. “I am certain,” Twilight continued, not letting herself stop for fear that she wouldn’t be able to start again, “that Mr. Nimbus’s . . . behaviour is just him worrying about Scootaloo, and that he’ll snap out of it once he sees that she’s safe.” “And that excuses him calling me a fillyfooler?” “No! No. Of course not,” Twilight continued, putting a hoof on Dash’s shoulder reassuringly. “What I mean is . . . What I mean is that I’m sure he regrets saying what he did, and that he’ll come apologize to you personally about it soon enough.” Dash looked back at the increasingly damp and cold cobblestones beneath her hooves, mulling over Twilight’s words. It didn’t seem like a terribly appealing way for things to play out, but it seemed to be the only one she had open. Her eyes shifted back to Twilight, sitting reassuringly next to her. Somehow, just knowing that she was there made Mr. Nimbus’s words cut a bit less deep. “. . . Better than nothing, I guess,” Dash said after a moment, beginning to stand. “Thanks, Twilight-” “Furthermore,” Twilight said, applying a slight downward pressure to keep the pegasus seated. Dash plopped back onto her rear, a bit startled. “This whole doom and gloom attitude you have – look, I don’t know who that is, but it is most definitely not Rainbow Dash!” Dash looked herself over dully, seeing no changes apart from the bandages that hung about her. “Who am I, then? Spike?” Twilight shook her head, continuing to speak. “It’s not important who it is – what’s important is getting back Rainbow Dash.” “Aw, Twilight . . .” Dash said, blushing and rubbing her foreleg nervously. “No, listen. I saw you like this in the hospital last time, and . . . and it’s just not you.” “So . . .” “So we need to get you back!” Twilight exclaimed, poking Dash in the shoulder to emphasize her point. “Whatever you want, we’ll do!” “Twilight . . .” Dash said, voice falling. “We’ll go see a movie, we’ll eat tonnes of junk food!” “Twilight.” Twilight stopped her rousing motivational speech and looked at Dash, unsure of where her idea had failed. “Y-yeah?” “Twilight, look,” Dash said, putting her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders in a gesture of thanks, “I really appreciate the offer and everything, but it’s not that simple. Right now, I don’t feel like doing much of anything except crawling into a bed and sleeping for a year.” The pegasus managed a small smile. “So, thank you, but no thank you, okay? Just talking has helped a lot – you don’t need to kill yourself trying to make me happy.” Twilight deflated. Rainbow was right, obviously – ponies were far more complex than math or, science, or history, or any of the other things she read about in her books. “ . . . Right. Of course. Foolish to think it was that easy . . .” she mumbled, staring at nothing. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash hugged her. The warmth of Dash’s body was a marked contrast to the cold of the air and rock around her, and jolted Twilight out of her sudden depression. Twilight came back to her senses and returned the hug, resting her head on Dash’s shoulder and taking comfort in the pegasus’s gentle strength. She closed her eyes, wanting time to slow, to stop. Dash seemed fragile to look at, all hot air and posing, but she was an athlete through and through, and one of the best in Equestria. No-one made it that far without being able to take their fair share of adversity, and Dash was an example of that. She had an inner strength to her, a persistent flame that would never extinguish, no matter how tough the going got. It might flicker, sure, and it might dim, but it would always go on. And so would Dash. Eventually, the two ponies had to end the hug, and did so with reluctance. Both had enjoyed it, and neither was sure what to say afterwards. At length, Dash coughed awkwardly and mumbled something about wanting to get back to her house before the weather had a chance to worsen. Gathering up Applejack’s flask, the pegasus bid Twilight goodbye flew up and towards her cloudy abode. Twilight sat where she was for a minute, watching Dash’s figure diminish into the distance. In time, Twilight picked herself up and trotted back to the library with a lot on her mind. There must be something I can do – something not so simple, something complex. Well okay, maybe not complex, but something that would help . . . Twilight pursued this manner of thought all the way back to the tree where she made her home, but still hadn’t managed to come up with an idea. Shivering slightly from the cold damp, Twilight opened the door and trotted into the tree. There were noises coming from the kitchen, and Twilight walked over to it to see what Spike was up to. Spike, it turned out, was cooking up a stew. He stood on a stool at the stovetop, wearing a chef’s hat and sipping a sample of the concoction from a spoon. Twilight walked over, inhaling deeply – the stew smelled delicious and heady, and the warmth it gave off was a welcome change from the watery air outside. “Hi Twilight, what’s up?” he said, putting down the spoon he was holding and stirring the mixture with a wooden one propped up against the inside of the pot. “I saw Rainbow Dash on my way home from the market,” Twilight responded, eyes still glued to the cuisine before her. “She’s out of the hospital already? That’s great!” Spike said, hopping from his stool to another one by a cutting board. He picked up a knife and started chopping up a cucumber, being careful not to hit his own digits – not because he would be hurt, but because blades had a tendency to dull when exposed to dragon scales. “How was she?” “She seemed a bit down, but I talked to her for a bit and it seemed to help,” replied Twilight, dragging her gaze away from the stovetop. “That’s good to hear – you’ll have to tell me over dinner, I think. I can’t really afford to divert too much attention away from the stew.” “Of course, of cour- is that oregano I smell?” “Yep!” Spike chirped happily. “The recipe doesn’t technically call for it, but I know how much you like it, so I figured I’d add some anyway.” “Spike, that's . . . that's a very nice touch. Thank you.” “Ah, it’s no problem,” Spike responded, hopping back to his original stool and adding the cucumber slices to the mix. “I just figured that you’d been so out of it lately that you needed some cheering up, and food seemed like a good place to start.” And suddenly, Twilight had an idea. After a few moments, Spike turned, looking to see why Twilight hadn’t said anything. She wasn’t there. She was, however, upstairs, furiously scribbling out a letter. Of course! It’s simple, yet complex enough to work! Oh, I’ve been going about this all wrong – Rainbow’s blues aren’t an intellectual matter, they’re a matter of the heart, and the fastest way to anyone’s heart is through their belly! Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, was comfortable and warm underneath her covers, and just about to fall asleep when a scroll materialized overtop of her in a puff of smoke and green flame. The scroll promptly fell, booping her on the nose. Confused and slightly irritated, Dash unrolled the scroll and read the contents. Dear Rainbow Dash, It would be a great pleasure if you could join me for dinner tomorrow night. I know that you said not to overwork myself trying to cheer you up, but I can’t just sit around and do nothing. The way I see it, you wanted to have dinner together to pay me back for helping you, right? Just think of it like that. I mean, my house isn’t exactly a fancy restaurant or anything, but it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it? I’m aware of your recent wing injury, but I could teleport us back to your house afterwards, and you could mostly just glide back down to ground level to begin with. I checked the weather, and all of tomorrow seems pretty nice. It would mean a lot to me if you could come over. If you decide to, please show up at my place at 8:00, or some time close to that. - With love, your friend Twilight Dash pressed the letter to her face, frustrated at how the whole thing had snowballed into involving Twilight. Her invitation was touching, sure, but she wasn’t sold on it. Mr. Nimbus’s actions maybe being understandable (if not forgivable) had been enough to mull over for one evening – she didn’t need this. She didn’t need Twilight . . . I don’t need her what? Being a nice person and a good friend? With an exasperated grunt, Dash flung the scroll at her bedroom wall. It bounced lightly off of the clouds and fell to the floor, which was strong enough to support small objects. The scroll game to rest next to a pile of bandages and a similar piece of parchment, which bore the seal of the Equestrian Courts. Written upon the second scroll was her reassignment of community service, which started tomorrow. Dash fell back onto her side, brow furrowed and glaring daggers at the papers. She was . . . Angry? Sad? Well she certainly wasn’t happy, that was for sure. Dash sighed, running through the emotional spectrum in her head, trying to pin down how she felt. Eventually, she decided that she was frustrated. Not frustrated at Twilight, of course, but frustrated at the world that everything was happening at once with no consideration whatsoever for her, caught up in the middle. Dash sighed and rolled over in bed, looking out the window at Luna’s night and trying to fall asleep. Things would be clearer in the morning.
DirigibleQuixote	776	7	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2012-03-17T01:59:15+00:00	2012-03-17T01:59:15+00:00	4,327	Rainbow Dash jabbed down with her right forehoof, stabbing a stray piece of paper with the special horseshoe she wore. The horseshoe itself was unremarkable metal except for a small spike on the tip, used for picking up litter. The pegasus lifted her hoof to one of the baggy orange saddlebags she wore and flicked the offending paper into the pumpkin-coloured depths. She had been repeating the motion with subtle variations - cups, for instance, required slightly more pressure - for the beginning half of the day, and it had not grown any more enjoyable. Dash muttered something unintelligible and vulgar about the whole business to herself before trotting on three hooves over to the bright glint of a pop bottle’s glass. She hadn’t been given a tool to deal with these, so she braced herself for a moment before using her teeth to lift the item into the other saddlebag, taking extreme care not to let her tongue touch it. Despite her efforts, the acrid taste of dirt lingered in her mouth, and she spat to relieve it as best she could. Shaking her head in irritation, Dash sat back on her haunches and threw a glance at the green space around her. Ponyville Public Park was divided into two main areas - the first area was open, rolling fields dotted with statues and monuments of one sort or another and some paths around the perimeters, while the second was a cool, shady forest more heavily woven with walkways and secluded benches, gazebos, and the occasional stream. Dash’s current place was with the latter area, and was one that didn’t see as much traffic, which she considered a small mercy. The occasional poet or young couple seeking nature-borne inspiration or a private spot, respectively, would wander past every now and again, but nothing more. Tugging at the collar of the correctional-facility-orange coveralls she wore, Dash cursed silently and wished for a breeze to come swirling down from the sky. The day was warm for late summer, and the thick, durable fabric of the coverall was warm to the point of being uncomfortable. Finally, something in Dash’s day seemed to work out for her, and there came the rustle of leaves in the wind a few seconds before a breeze swept down the path and over her. Dash closed her eyes and flared her wings, turning into the breeze and letting it fill every feather. The force of it nearly sent the pegasus tumbling, but she adjusted her position slightly and remained in place. Blissfully, she closed her eyes, wanting to savour every moment of that wonderful, rushing wind. After a minute, the breeze died down, and Dash sighed before returning to her work. Wouldn’t want to get too comfortable now, would we? The clip-clop of hooves along the stone of the pathway roused Dash from her thoughts. A green, black-maned unicorn wearing a beret and a black turtleneck was walking towards Dash. Twisting her neck, she saw that he was levitating a milkshake with him, absently sucking the straw that protruded from the top of the cup. As he passed Dash, he tossed the cup on the ground in front of her. Dash took a moment to process what had just happened, and by the time she had, the unicorn was already past her and nearly around the a bend in the path. “Hey!” she called after him, eliciting a pause and a turn of his head. “Yes?” he asked, one foreleg still lifted. “What’s the big idea?” Dash demanded angrily, spearing the milkshake cup and hobbling over to him. “Why’d you toss this to me?” “It is your job to pick up trash, is it not?” the unicorn responded laconically. Dash sputtered. “Well, yeah, but . . . I mean-” “Then I fail to see the problem. Have a nice day.” With that, the unicorn turned around and carried on his way. After a moment, he rounded the bend and was gone from Dash’s sight. For long minutes, Dash just stood there, mouth slightly agape, taking in what had just happened. The surreality of it made her doubt herself, but the milkshake cup affixed to the tip of her hoof and the sticky ice cream dribbling down her foreleg affirmed the truth of the scenario. At length, Dash returned to the present and the task of cleaning up the park that had been assigned to her. She thrust the cup into one of her saddlebags, then set about her work with a significantly more foul attitude. You didn’t need to be such a jerk about it, jerk. Dash continued in her task for a while, and Celestia’s sun worked its way up to the point of midday. The work was hardly pleasant, but Dash eventually scoured every square metre of the path system she had been assigned (a relatively small network dedicated to a Ponyville pioneer who had died of dysentery). Proclaiming it free of trash, Dash heaved a sigh of relief and immediately took off for the main entrance of the park after removing her horseshoe and nestling it in a side pocket. Dash didn’t care that the physical act of running was making her coveralls even warmer - her community service hours were done for the morning, and she was determined to make the most of the lunch break she had to herself. There was that whole business with Twilight and the dinner that she had to think about, not to mention how thirsty she was- Thirsty. She was so thirsty. Dash halted abruptly, looking around for something to drink, or a place that sold somethings to drink. She had wandered into the more populated areas of the park now, but it was still hardly crowded. There were a couple families enjoying the sun with picnics, but most ponies had day jobs and school that kept them from the park. Becoming a tad more antsy, Dash stretched up as best she could and managed to see a fast food establishment (it was not something she could rightly call a restaurant) just inside the park’s main gates. It was, unsurprisingly, empty, but had the subtle appearance of a place open for business. Dash normally neglected these, since her athleticism dictated a strict diet which could not permit the amount of fat that normally occurred in fancy fries or wheatburgers - the occasional pizza binge or six-pack notwithstanding, of course. That day, that moment, Rainbow Dash was willing to make an exception. Steeling herself, Dash walked over to the establishment, which consisted of a large, predominantly blue stand made of plastic. Outside the stand itself were a few picnic tables that had withstood far more sun, spilled food, and hyperactive children than any table ought to have. Dash had not paid attention to the particular franchise, but she couldn’t miss the bright blue M near the top of the stand as she drew nearer. And it’s a McFawnald’s, too. Great. A beige, bored-looking earth pony in his teens stood behind the cash register, wearing a McFawnald’s uniform at least two sizes too small for him. He flicked his eyes up at Dash as she entered, but mostly at the orange coveralls and bags of garbage that Dash wore and had affixed to her sides. “Um,” he began to say. “I’m giving back to the community,” quipped Rainbow Dash, crossing the final distance to the register. “Really, you should be honoured to help such an outstanding citizen as me.” The teen snorted once with laughter. “Fair enough, I suppose. Not like there’s anypony around to care about the smell.” “The smell?” asked Dash quizzically, glancing down at one of her saddlebags full of trash. It was garbage, sure, but it couldn’t smell that bad, could it? Rainbow Dash lowered her head for a sniff. Okay, maybe it can smell that bad . . . Coughing, Dash shook her head and turned back to the earth pony, who had watched Dash cluing in to her fragrance and was struggling to suppress giggles. “So, what’ll you have?” Dash craned her head back, reading the menu that hung above the counter. This proved of little use, since the food’s names might as well have been written in Gryphon - they all had names like Bippity-Boppin’ Burger Time or Super-Slammin’ Sarsaparilla Sweetness. Each attempt to discern the true intent of the words just made Dash more confused - after a minute, she looked beseechingly at the earth pony, silently pleading for help. “A wheatburger and a milkshake?” he asked knowingly, knowing all too well the feeling the pegasus had just experienced. A smile broke out over Dash’s face and she nodded in thanks. “Yeah, that sounds fine.” “Right, that’ll be seven bits.” The earth pony opened up the cash register and extended a hoof. “Seven . . . Oh, right! Money!” Dash patted her pockets, but found nothing aside from the horseshoe she had stowed. A frown creased her face, and she tried to remember where she’d put her coinpurse after eating breakfast. With a flash, she remembered what had become of it. It was sitting at home on her coffee table, right where Rainbow Dash had left it. Rainbow Dash looked sheepishly up at the pony behind the counter. “Heh, uh . . . water’s free, right?” A minute later, Dash sat sullenly at a park bench across the main field from the McFawnald’s, sucking back her cup of water through a straw. The clerk hadn’t been happy about her sudden lack of wealth, and had politely asked that she find a different place to enjoy her beverage, preferably downwind. Dash had emptied her saddlebags into the park’s trash cans, so the stench of refuse had diminished a bit. That combined with the shade of a nearby tree had improved Dash’s surroundings, if not her mood With a slurp, the pegasus contemplated how her morning had gone. She had woken up, eaten breakfast and flown - well, glided - down to the local Guard precinct, where she had been issued the coveralls, saddlebags, and horseshoe. After that, it was a blur of greenery and litter that ultimately clarified into the unicorn from the path and the McFawnald’s clerk. Man, this day has sucked. I might have to take Twilight up on the dinner offer just to balance things out. The purple unicorn flashed into Dash’s mind, and her breathing calmed a bit. The pegasus closed her eyes and took another pull of water, turning her thoughts to the matter of dinner with Twilight. Dash turned the matter over in her mind, and ultimately arrived at the conclusion she didn’t have any real reason not to go. Twilight might not be the best cook the world has ever known, but it’ll be nice to just sit and talk with her. She’s probably got at least one cookbook in the library, and if there’s one thing she does well, it’s follow directions. Besides, she has her heart in the right place, and that’s what matters. Dash’s stomach growled, reminding her how poorly and how little she had eaten. Among other things, anyway. So it was decided, then - she would finish up with her community service and do what she could to be presentable before heading over to Twilight’s at the agreed-upon time. Dash fished Twilight’s letter out of a coverall pocket and unfurled it, looking for the time when it would be acceptable to appear on the unicorn’s doorstep seeking food and succor. Eight o’clock. Well, what time is it now? Dash looked up at Celestia’s sun, which had just passed its apex. It’s gonna be a long afternoon, isn’t it? “Well,” said Scootaloo, hopping into fountain located in the middle of Ponyville town square, “at least now we know that we- I mean, um, you two, don’t have cutie marks for being painters. Or stonemasons.” She lowered her head into the water and began swishing it around, trying to rinse out the paint. “Ah’ll admit, Ah didn’t think it’d work, m’self. Ah just hope nopony ever tries livin’ in that house.” said Apple Bloom, propping her front half up on the fountain’s edge and opting to hold her head under a cascade of water instead of dunking it. After a moment, the water underneath her hair began to run puce. She glanced behind her. “Ain’tcha gonna wash off too, Sweetie Belle?” The unicorn of the trio glanced down at herself before responding. “I think I’ll just ask Rarity for help with this. The stuff from your manes is one thing, but I don’t think the fountain could handle all the paint I’m wearing.” Scootaloo popped her head out of the water and gave it a shake, sending droplets of green and magenta water flying. “Yeah, jeez. You look like you’re wearing a bad Rainbow Dash costume. How did that happen, anyway?” “How d’you know what makes a good Rainbow Dash costume, Scootaloo?” asked Apple Bloom, giving the pegasus a sideways look. “Uh, well, um-” “Well,” said Sweetie Belle, oblivious to the conversation around her, “there was a lot of paint from all the stuff we’d spilled, and it was really slippery, and I kind of tripped, and then I saw myself in the mirror and figured why not . . .” She traced patterns in the dirt with a forehoof while she spoke, then took trotted over to the fountain and took a look at her reflection in the water. “Does it really look that bad?” “It looks fine,” said Apple Bloom as she pulled her now-pristine mane out from under the water “though Ah doubt it’d be a good idea showin’ up like that at the Grand Gallopin’ Gala.” The three fillies giggled, and Scootaloo could feel the laughter erode at the worries that had been weighing her down over the past week. She smiled and looked around at her fellow crusaders. Apple Bloom was stopping wet from the neck up and Sweetie Belle looked like an arts and crafts project that even Cheerilee would have difficulty accepting, but she didn’t care. She was having fun hanging out with friends after a day of cutie mark crusading, and that was something she had missed sorely. The crusading had been fruitless, but Scootaloo found that she couldn’t care less. “Uh, guys,” she said, moving around the fountain’s concrete rim to where the other two ponies stood, “I kind of have something I want to tell you.” The pegasus blushed, anxious about what she had to say, despite having rehearsed it several times in her head. Her friends simply sat back on their haunches, intrigued. Scootaloo steeled herself, then launched into her speech. “I just wanted to say that hanging out today was really great. I seriously can’t think of a time when I’ve had more fun with you guys, and it was awesome just running around and having paint fights.” Apple Bloom snickered. “Ah doubt Applejack’ll ever let us near the side of the barn again.” “With all the stuff that’s happened with Rainbow Dash and my flight training and everything else, I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with you. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed you two until today. I shouldn’t have just run off with Dash and left you two like I did - you’re worth more than that, and I can do better than that.” “Aww,” Sweetie Belle started to say, before Apple Bloom shushed her. Scootaloo was looking squarely at the ground finding it difficult to look her friends in the eye. “What I really mean to say is . . .” The words caught in her throat, but the pegasus made herself say them. “I love you guys. Can you forgive me-” “Group hug!” cried Sweetie Belle, throwing herself at Scootaloo and wrapping her forelegs around the pegasus. Apple Bloom joined her a heartbeat later, and Scootaloo followed suit more slowly upon recovering her bearings. “Of course we can forgive you! You didn’t even do anything!” the unicorn said from her spot nuzzling into Scootaloo’s neck. “But-” “No buts,” said Apple Bloom, moving away a bit a looking her orange friend in the eye. “So we didn’t hang out for a while. Big deal. Y’ had to focus on yer flyin’, so that’s what y’ did, is all. Now with all that happened, y’ got some time fer hangin’ out with friends, so that’s what yer doin’.” The filly smiled. “It’s simple. No need t’ be sorry.” Had she not drawn them both into an impassioned hug, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would have seen their pegasus friend shed a tear. Time, indifferent to the emotions of the three fillies, walked on, and they were reluctantly forced to break apart the hug. The sun was setting, and they all needed to be at home soon. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had a quick rinse in the fountain to remove the unfortunate side effects of hugging Sweetie Belle, and the three agreed to meet up some time in the next few days. With a final farewell, they parted ways. Scootaloo walked through Ponyville’s streets (predominantly red brick, coloured overwhelmingly orange by the sun’s setting light), letting her hooves take her home. A smile creased her lips as she thought over the day’s events, and how much simple joy had been derived from spending time with the other Crusaders. She let out a contented sigh and hummed without a tune as she approached the final corner to her home. Before she quite rounded it, though, she heard voices cut through the air. “. . . hospital yet, and now this?! What is the matter with you ponies?!” The voice was unmistakably her father’s, though the outrage was new. “Sir, it’s not my decision - I’m just the messenger.” This voice was gruff and authoritative. “I don’t care who you are! Am I just supposed to tell my daughter to keep a stiff upper lip through all of this?” Scootaloo halted in her tracks, worried. Whatever was going on sounded bad. She edged silently to the corner and peeked out around it, trying to see what was happening. Her father stood a metre or two in front of their house, facing a Guardsman who wore saddlebags stuffed with scrolls and papers. The bags had the seal of the Equestrian Courts on them, and a scroll lay on the ground at her father’s hooves. Mr. Nimbus’s wings were flared open to their full, impressive span, and his face was warped by anger. The pegasi were between Scootaloo and the sun, and while the Guardsman was granted an effect similar to a halo by this lighting, her father seemed to blur into the surrounding shadows. “Answer me, damn you!” he continued, leaning forward aggressively. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down,” said the Guard, holding up a hoof. The slate grey pegasus facing him grunted and arched his back, seeming as though he would wring himself out with anger. After a moment, though, Mr. Nimbus folded his wings to their neutral position with a great deal of effort, relaxed his spine, and looked the Guardsman in the eye. “I am calmed.” His voice was even, giving truth to his words. The Guard grunted approvingly, then fished a second scroll out of his saddlebags and placed it on the ground. Its seal was a slightly different colour, but the scroll itself was of similar size. The Guard’s voice lowered, as he no longer needed to shout to make his point, and his words died before they could reach Scootaloo’s ears. He gestured at the scrolls in turn, and spoke for perhaps a minute. He then returned to his normal posture. Scootaloo watched all of this in silent wonderment. Her father was silent for a long while, looking down at the scrolls before him. He spoke without raising his head. “It occurs to me that the system is flawed in this regard.” The Guard merely shrugged. “I just tell people what happens - I don’t decide things. I think the process is up for review in a couple of years.” The dark pegasus chuckled bitterly. “That soon? Somepony should arrest those bureaucrats for speeding.” He looked up slightly, not quite fully at the Guard. “I don’t suppose you’d have any suggestions, would you?” “Well,” said the Guard, relaxing and becoming more social, “there is that one mare, the rainbow one?” At the mention of the word rainbow, Mr. Nimbus’s head darted up and looked the Guardsman squarely in the eye, searching. The Guard chuckled. “I guess you’ve probably heard of her, what with living in the same town-” “Are you joking?” asked Mr. Nimbus with a voice devoid of emotion. There was an awkward pause, as the Guardsman attempted to reason out where the conversation had taken a hostile turn. His hesitation went unchallenged but for the opposing pegasus’s unblinking stare, the amber eyes of which seemed to be reaching into his very soul. “Uh, no?” he asked tentatively, shying away from the intimidating figure in front of him. “Leave.” “. . . Sorry, what?” Mr. Nimbus propped himself up regally on all four hooves, wings flared, and his amber orbs would have burnt divots into the Guard’s armour had they been capable of such a feat. “Remove yourself from the premises of my home, or by all the Gods in the sky I will end you where you stand.” A stunned silence followed, and the Guardsman tried unsuccessfully to say something. Ultimately deciding that silence would speak most loudly, he gathered himself up, tried to look like he wasn’t terrified, and flew off. Mr. Nimbus watched him disappear from sight, then sighed heavily. He relaxed, folded his wings back up, and picked up the scrolls from the cobblestone. He turned to go back into his house. His turn happened to face Scootaloo, and their eyes locked. Scootaloo’s heart skipped a beat, and she unfroze after a moment, managing to heave herself back around the corner. She sat on her haunches, hyperventilating and afraid of what she had just witnessed. The filly didn’t quite have enough time to rev up into a full-blown panic before she heard the soft clop of hooves approaching from around the corner. Scootaloo whimpered slightly and curled herself up into a ball, dreading what was to come despite not knowing entirely what it would be. “Scootaloo?” asked her father softly, his voice like burnished oak. Scootaloo hesitantly opened one eye and looked up beside her. Her father stood halfway around the corner with the scrolls tucked under one wing. He looked down at her with tiredness and worry. “Scootaloo, how much of that did you hear?” he asked her quietly. They were the only two ponies on the street, and the evening was silent around them. Scootaloo sniffed. Whatever she had been expecting, it had not been this. “S-something about a hospital, then the r-rest . . .” she said, holding back tears. Her father sighed and hung his head. “I thought as much. I’m sorry you had to hear that, Scootaloo.” Scootaloo sniffled, not knowing what to say. Her father sighed again slightly, then extended a hoof. “I have dinner ready. I’ll explain things.” His daughter looked up at him, eyes wet. “You promise?” “Promise.” She took his hoof and walked the handful of metres to their door. They entered, then ate and talked. Her father explained the situation, and Scootaloo mostly sat and listened, taking an occasional bite of her dinner. When the darker pegasus had finished talking, he sat back and waited for his daughter to say something. She did. “I think you can guess who I want you to pick.” “Rainbow Dash?” She nodded. He folded his forelegs across his chest and was silent for a while. “I need to think about this.” She looked at him pleadingly. “Dad . . .” He hated doing that to her. “Scootaloo, please, just . . . just give me the night to think everything over, okay? A lot’s changed tonight.” Scootaloo didn’t love the idea, but she agreed to let him think the matter over for the night. They finished dinner, then got Scootaloo washed and settled in bed. Her father went back downstairs and sat on the couch, thinking. He remained there until the last of the light died and the moon rose and the slow pitter patter of rain on the roof started, unmoving. It was not until he was certain that his daughter was fast asleep upstairs that he dared move. He wrote a quick note explaining briefly where he had gone, in case he was delayed, before walking out the door and locking it silently behind him. He was struck by icy droplets of water, for, despite all its pleasant sounds, it was the type of cold rain commonly found in autumn, the type that chilled to the bone and sucked the heat out of the air. He marked his destination and steeled himself. He was an Officer of the Equestrian Postal Service, and had been through far worse conditions for far less. With final glance back at his home, Tempestas Charta Nimbus took off into the cold, dark night.
DirigibleQuixote	776	8	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2012-07-29T10:10:26+00:00	2012-07-29T10:10:26+00:00	2,962	[You wanna know how good this chapter is? This chapter is so good it doesn't even HAVE FORMATTING.] Rainbow Dash was trotting along Ponyville’s streets. After a thankless and hungry day spent picking trash out of the park, she was very pleased at the prospect of having a proper meal at Twilight’s house. Twilight had promised a meal fit to lift her spirits out of the dumps - given the way her day had gone, Dash needed it. She was not normally one to jump at sympathy or charity, but the fact that they were coming from Twilight made it acceptable. ‘Sides, Twilight’s probably planned the whole thing out down to the minute - probably the food, too. Mmm, I wonder what she- Dash’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach. She winced visibly and tried to stop thinking about food; if she could just make it to the library, the problem would sort itself out. Without consciously knowing it, the pegasus sped up her steps towards Twilight’s house. Twilight Sparkle was frantic. “Gah!” she exclaimed, magicking a small constellation of spices and seasonings around her in midair. She was standing in the kitchen wearing a chef’s hat and apron, attempting to cook up a rather complex dish she had found in a cookbook entitled Advanced Recipes from Around the World. “Where is the paprika? It’s a vital part of this Zebrican stew, and I will not have it done in by a lack of common spice!” She reflexively began to call for Spike before realizing that he was at Sweet Apple Acres acting as a chaperone for the CMC sleepover. “Drat!” said Twilight said. “The one time I need something I absolutely, positively, cannot find myself, and he’s nowhere to be seen. Books are one thing, but Rainbow Dash and I are going to be eating this!” Twilight pouted at the swirl of spice containers surrounding her. She spent a moment in that pose, hoping that the sight of Twilight Sparkle sad would cause the emotionless glass to grow emotions, oust the coward within their ranks and apologize profusely for wasting her time. This did not happen. Twilight harrumphed and magicked the containers back to their spots in the cupboards. She regained her composure, forcing herself to think. Every problem has a solution. The problem here is that there isn’t any paprika. The obvious solution would be to go to the store and buy some, but - she glanced at the clock - they’ve closed by now. That solution doesn’t work, so I have to thepotisboilingover think of another one wait WHAT. Twilight looked over in horror as the Zebrican stew slowly rose and bubbled over the sides of the large pot that had previously contained it. It oozed down the sides of the steel, making sick time towards the burner. Any moment now, it would pour onto the hot metal and create a mess the likes of which no kitchen should be forced to endure. Fortunately, Twilight was very skilled at telekinesis, so she simply levitated the stew back into the pot and turned the burner’s dial to zero. She then walked over to the stew, appraising it. She lifted a spoonful of it out and gave it a tentative taste. It seems okay. She glanced at the stew, which had subsided from its boiling and was instead more a solid mass of sauce and vegetable matter with the occasional pocket of air squirming its way to the top. It looks okay. . . . Could it be? Was the solution to the paprika problem no solution at all? It was a maddening thought. Twilight had based her academic career - and by extension, practically her whole life - on finding solutions to problems. She had literally written books on the subject, and now there was something to challenge that? Something that said the world was capable of working itself out? How was such a thing possible? The thought was heretical to Twilight’s mind. Ponies were the stewards and masters of their environments, not vice versa! If the opposite were somehow true- The doorbell rang. Resolving to have an existential crisis later, cross-referenced with the traditions and customs of cultures without magic, Twilight shook her head clear of the moral dilemma plaguing it and trotted over to the door. When she opened it, Rainbow Dash was standing sheepishly outside. The pegasus nervously scratched the back of her neck with a hoof. “I know we said eight, but seven is close enough, right? I mean, I can come back, or-” “Oh, no, that’s fine,” said Twilight. “But what brings you here so early? Did something come up later?” “Well, no,” said Dash, looking around awkwardly. “I’m just really hungry.” As if on cue, her stomach let loose the largest growl of the day. Dash tried to smile through it. “Haven’t eaten much, since I forgot my money back at home - the jumpsuits they give you aren’t really designed to allow flight.” Twilight's brow furrowed. “Jumpsuits? For what?” “It’s kind of a long story. Can I come in?” “Oh, of course, of course.” Twilight stepped back from the door, and Rainbow got a proper look at her as she closed the door behind her. The pegasus tried, but could not suppress a giggle at Twilight’s appearance. “What?” Twilight asked, before following Rainbow’s eyes to her hat and apron. “This? What’s so funny?” “I didn’t realize you were a top chef, is all,” Dash said between laughs. Twilight raised one eyebrow. “Is that always how you talk to the hoof that feeds you?” Dash sobered instantly. “I’ll be good.” “Much better,” said Twilight with a smirk. “Now you just make yourself comfortable,” she gestured to a table that had two places set at it, “and I’ll get the food.” She trotted back into the kitchen, humming a little. Rainbow nodded and walked over to one of the cushions set at the table and flopped onto her side on top of it. She let out a mighty sigh and sunk into the down-filled fabric. Twilight, exiting the kitchen with saucepot in tow, felt a concerned frown creep across her face. “Um, Dash,” she asked, “is anything the matter? Is it about those jumpsuits you mentioned?” Dash looked up at Twilight, moving as little as possible. “I guess, yeah. I was doing community service in the park, and, well, let’s just say that the uniform was not designed for comfort.” She paused, frowning in thought. “Actually, y’know, they might’ve designed it for discomfort.” Twilight placed the saucepot on the table equidistant between the two places so she could focus on Dash. “What do you mean, Rainbow? I’m afraid I don’t understand.” The unicorn pulled over her own cushion and lay down on it belly-down so that she was roughly on eye level with the pegasus. Dash shifted a bit, looked away from Twilight’s open, earnest eyes. “Well, I’m doing community service hours since I’m not teaching Scootaloo anymore, and that means that I have to follow all the rules: wear the suit, only take so much time for a break, clean these areas first, you know.” “That doesn’t sound so bad.” “It’s not. It’s the stuff they don’t tell you about that gets you. Like how perfectly normal ponies treat you like dirt just because of a lousy outfit, or how much you miss being able to fly anywhere, even if it’s just a little hop.” Twilight had a hoof over her mouth. Dash continued. “‘Cause, y’know, you can’t just spring around with that much weight - the clothes have a lot of drag, and you’re attached to a couple of trash bags, and it’s not like they’re getting any lighter. And then there’s the smell, too . . .” “Rainbow,” Twilight interjected, “how can you be expected to do all of that? I mean, you of all ponies! I’m going to write the mayor a letter about this - actually, no, I’m going to write the Princess a letter about this!” Twilight had risen to her feet, one hoof raised dramatically. “An Equestrian hero, reduced to common labour! A national icon-” Dash dragged herself up to stand next to the agitated unicorn. “Twilight, no, really, you don’t have to do anything about it. I messed up with the Electric Rainboom. I get that.” “Sonic Rainboom.” Dash paused for a moment, as if in thought. “Err, yeah. Right. Look, point is, my hooves are sore from standing on them all day. The park grass was soft enough, but it just caught up with me on the way over here.” Dash forced a laugh. “So it’s no big deal. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.” She put a forehoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “But, Rainbow,” Twilight protested. “It’s not a big deal, okay?” Dash said again, more forcefully. She paused for a second before continuing. “Now, um, could we eat?” “Oh, sure,” replied Twilight distantly. She moved her cushion back over to her side of the table and levitated a few ladlefuls of stew into both her and Dash’s bowls. If she doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t press it. She’s here to enjoy herself, not be interrogated. “This is a traditional Zebrican stew,” Twilight explained, levitating Dash’s bowl back over to her. “It’s very healthy, of course, and very tasty, but it’s also known for its aroma. If you take a deep breath of it, you can-” Twilight stopped short, leaning over the bowl of stew in front of her. The stew had a powerful smell, sure, but it had not smelled like . . . like . . . “I doubt it’s supposed to smell like garbage,” said Dash sheepishly. “That’s my bad, actually.” Twilight blinked, her attention refocused on the world around her. “Oh, no, really, it’s not . . . that is, um . . .” Dash held up her hooves and rose from the table, ignoring the signals of mutiny from her digestive tract. “No, it’s alright. I needed to get the smell off sooner or later. Do you mind if I use your shower? It’ll only take a minute.” “Um, oh. Sure.” Twilight pointed down a hallway leading off of the main room. “Second door on the right.” Dash thanked her and walked off. Twilight sat down at the table, hooves on her forehead. What happened? I just wanted for Rainbow Dash to have a nice dinner and enjoy herself, and . . . and now she’s showering so she doesn’t offend me? What? Twilight heard the muffled spray of her shower stall through the walls of her house. Dash was over there right now, cleaning herself up so as not to wreck Twilight’s evening. But that was just it: it wasn’t supposed to be Twilight’s evening, it was supposed to be Rainbow Dash’s evening! And what kind of host was she? Not having the food cooked on time, relentlessly ploughing through topics of conversation she should have known far better than to bring up - even the pretense of dinner itself had been nothing more than a cheap trick. A temporary cure for a single symptom, not even attempting to approach the cause. Twilight shook her head in frustration. No. Every problem has a solution. I just need to do something for Rainbow Dash, to show her how much I care about her. How she isn’t in this alone. Ugh, come on Twilight, think! And just like that, she had an idea. Was it perfect? Well, no, but it was an idea nonetheless! Twilight quickly turned to the bookshelves, searching for a particular book. Finding it, she flipped through its contents quickly. She had just finished doing so when the noise of the shower stopped. Twilight quickly replaced the book back on its shelf and darted back to the table just as Rainbow Dash emerged from the hallway in a purple bathrobe with a design of Twilight’s cutie mark on it. “Hope you don’t mind about the robe. There were a few others, so I figured . . .” “Oh, no, it’s quite all right,” said Twilight with a dismissive flick of her hoof. “Won’t you have something to eat?” “Would I?” asked Dash, eyeing her stew with a grin that would put a timber wolf to shame. She paused briefly and seated herself before diving into the stew. Twilight had not bothered putting cutlery on Dash’s side for this reason more so than her inability to use it. Dinner passed mostly in silence, punctuated by Dash stuffing food into her mouth and asking for refills. When the saucepot had been almost completely emptied, Dash sat back and patted her belly contently, eyes closed in bliss. “Ohhh, that is so much better,” she said, utterly pleased. The contrast of a day without food had made the stew seem like something from the royal kitchens. “Don’t get too comfy,” warned Twilight with a sly grin, “there’s one other thing I want you to see.” Rainbow Dash opened one eye curiously. “Oh? What’s that?” Twilight stood up and paced over to a small expanse of cushions intended for casual reading. She sat down and patted the seat next to her, and Rainbow Dash complied. Twilight rolled her eyes and made a little twirling motion with her hoof, indicating that Dash put her rear hooves towards Twilight. The pegasus seemed unsure of the position, even less so when Twilight reached forward and gently grasped one of Dash’s hooves between her own. “Now, I know you don’t like ponies touching your hooves.” “Um, Twilight-” “So I’m just going to use my magic, okay?” “Twilight, no, I don’t-” “So, really, it won’t even be like a massage at all, technically speaking.” “Twilight, don’t-!” was all Dash managed to say before her words turned into a pleased groan. The pain in her hooves that had hounded that leg the entire day was gone, simply gone like a kite in the breeze. “Unnnhhhh,” she managed to say, her limbs going limp and her head rolling back along the pillows surrounding her. “Th-the others . . .” the pegasus barely managed to get out, a desperate plea to have Twilight’s miraculous magic extend to her other problem areas. Twilight was happy to comply, and soon all four of Dash’s hooves were enveloped in a magenta glow. After a few minutes of this, Dash regained some of her senses. She raised her head back up to look at Twilight. “H-how . . .” she breathed. “Basic massage technique for sore hooves. There’s a book on it somewhere around here, actually.” “That’s . . . that’s incredible . . .” Twilight looked at Dash. “Really?” The pegasus nodded. “Really. It’s . . . I can’t even say thank you enough . . .” Twilight smiled. “You know,” she said, beginning to wind the massage therapy down, “this isn’t really a lot of strain for me. I can do it whenever you need the help.” Dash looked back at the unicorn as though she had sprouted wings and a halo. “You . . . you could?” Twilight nodded. “Yeah, sure. If it’s that big a problem with your community service, I don’t see any reason not to do so.” Dash smiled openly and warmly for the first time that evening. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Twilight. If you can really do this, then I’ll be able to do the hours like they’re nothing,” she said before promptly letting her head lean back and falling asleep. Twilight giggled to herself and went upstairs to get some spare sheets. She returned and levitated them up over Rainbow Dash’s sleeping form, smiling as the pegasus snored cutely. The unicorn sat down for a moment and just watched Dash sleeping peacefully, the covers rising and falling evenly with each breath - a metronome ticking out the rhythm of daily life. it had been disrupted for so long, but now it seemed like that even tempo was attainable. An idea occurred to Twilight. She looked quickly around, making sure that, yes, there was nopony around before softly lifting up the sheets and snuggling her way underneath them next to Dash. She dared not touch - not that the pegasus would have woken up anyway - but just smiled. She had helped Dash this evening, well and truly helped her. That was what friends were for. It might get a little rocky along the way, Dash, but I’ll always be here for you. Then Twilight magicked out the light and went to sleep. There came a knock at the door, and the two looked up in surprise. They sat there, slow to understand what the knock meant due to their fatigue. The knocking came again, more insistent, and Twilight yawned and walked slowly over to the door. The newspaper rested beneath the mail slot, and Twilight levitated it over to the table. “That’s odd. I don’t normally get visitors this early.” Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to stagger the remaining distance over to the table they had eaten on and unroll the newspaper. The day’s headlines would help her calm down after- SEARCH FOR YOUNG FILLY SUCCESSFUL, FATHER THANKS GUARDS Dash flung the front section of the newspaper to the other side of the table. The day’s sports headlines would help her calm down. Twilight, meanwhile, had opened the door, and was agape at what she saw. Mr. Nimbus sat on the welcome mat outside the door, weatherbeaten and world-weary. His coat and mane had been darkened to an off-black and a deep purple by the amount of water in them, and he was shivering slightly from the morning’s chill. His wings were tucked at his sides somewhat properly, but his mane and tail were both quite wet. His saddlebags, presumably weatherproofed, looked full and were buckled securely shut. He seemed tired and out of breath, and as Twilight stood staring at him, a single drop of water fell from his mane to the ground. He panted slightly and looked up at Twilight from where he sat. “Hello, Ms. Sparkle. Do you know where I could find Rainbow Dash?” Twilight was speechless at his appearance, and nodded mutely. She moved aside and pointed at the table where her friend sat reading the newspaper. Nimbus looked past her, saw Rainbow Dash, and nodded at Twilight, stepping inside the door. Dash looked up at the clop of his hooves on the wooden floor. “Who is it, Twi-” she started to ask before she was rendered speechless at Nimbus’s bedraggled appearance, much the same as Twilight, though Dash regained her composure much more quickly. “Oh, Nimbus. Hi,” she said flatly, unsure what to make of the sight in front of her. The darker pegasus closed his eyes and nodded to her. “I can understand why you would feel as you do about me. You’ve every right.” Dash turned back to her newspaper. Nimbus kept talking. “I have a few things I would like to say to you, though they depend on how you react to the first of them.” He looked at her for a moment, and Dash flicked her gaze up to meet his. “Will you hear me?” Dash was still for a moment before folding the newspaper square and laying it to one side. She hunched forward a bit, elbows resting on the table, and nodded. Twilight, who had meanwhile managed to recover her sensibilities, shut the door. “I’ll get you a towel,” she said, moving a few steps towards the stairs and her washroom. She closed her eyes in concentration, and a magenta-enveloped towel floated down the stairs a few moments later. Twilight trotted back to the table and sat down, guiding the towel to her winged guest. “Thank you,” said Nimbus, taking the towel and drying himself off enough so that he wasn’t dripping on the carpet. He placed his saddlebags against a leg of the table, sat down, and regarded Dash. “I am sorry,” he began. He paused, expecting Dash to say something, but she remained silent. He continued after a moment. “What I said to you, what I did, what I insinuated was . . .” he paused again, searching for words. “Was wrong, in the fullest sense of the word. In the month prior to the . . . accident, you had been nothing but supportive to Scootaloo, and I was a fool to think you would do anything to put her in danger.” He glanced at Twilight, then seemed to stare ahead at nothing in particular. “I do not think my actions were not completely without reason, but I should have acted more accordingly. My words about your competence, your lifestyle, your-” the word caught in his mouth. “Your sexuality were slanderous and irrelevant, and they were the products of a sleep-deprived father who wanted somepony to blame. That want was also the reason I filed the complaint against you, which in hindsight appears nothing short of mad.” He looked back over at Dash. “I am sorry. Can you forgive me?” Dash was silent for a while, staring evenly at Nimbus, who neither tried to stare Dash down nor avert his eyes. The two of them remained as they were for more than a minute, simply looking at one another and sharing more emotions than a conversation could. Twilight was left to look anxiously on, glancing between the two and the clock on a nearby wall. Eventually, Dash moved. It was a small movement, just a shifting in her seat, but it was enough to break the heavy silence that had fallen over the room. “I don’t know if I can completely forgive you right now, but I can try.” “Then . . .” “Apology accepted,” said Dash. Nimbus relaxed visibly and let out a breath. “One thing, though,” Dash said without missing a beat. Nimbus tensed imperceptibly and looked at her. “This is a pretty sudden change since the last time I saw you. What made you change your mind?” Nimbus inhaled and exhaled deeply, shifting his eyes down to the table in front of him. He closed his eyes and was quiet for a long time. Rainbow Dash and Twilight traded a glance, the latter looking concerned. At great length, Twilight spoke. “Uh, Mr. Nimbus?” she asked. He opened his eyes and looked at Twilight. “Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten. It’s just that this is a rather long story, and I want to make sure I get the details right. I think I’ve gotten all of them now.” He put his right foreleg on his left shoulder and almost managed to suppress a shiver. “Before I start, though, could I beg a cup of coffee from you? It wasn’t exactly warm last night, and I felt it more than I did when I was young.” “Oh, sure,” Twilight replied, smiling a little. “I was just about to get some for Dash and myself when you came here.” She rose and walked over to the kitchen. “Back in a minute!” she called, disappearing through the doorway. Dash watched her go, unconsciously leaning forward a bit. Nimbus also looked after Twilight, but with a slightly puzzled look on his face. “Can’t she just magic it out here?” he said to himself. “She prefers not to handle boiling water unless she can see it,” said Dash, still looking at the kitchen doorway. Nimbus looked over at Dash, somewhat surprised that she had spoken so amiably to him. “How do you know?” “I asked her the same thing when she was making us cocoa a couple of weeks ago.” Nimbus chuckled at himself and glancing back at the kitchen. “Right. Of course she would. I’m so used to dealing with the monotony of preparing it myself, I figured magic would just make everything easier.” “Yeah, she does,” said Dash before catching herself. “I mean, yeah, it does.” She cleared her throat. Nimbus looked over at her, his expression unreadable. Dash felt his eyes on her and met them. “What?” “Does she make cocoa for you two often?” “Um, yeah. I guess. We hung out two or three times a week before the whole Electric Rainboom thing.” “And you say she makes things easier?” Dash narrowed her eyes. “What business is it of yours?” she asked. Nimbus opened his mouth, closed it, and held up his hooves. “None, of course. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pried.” He looked down. Twilight poked her head out of the doorway. “Nr. Nimbus, I’m so sorry!” she called. “I forgot to ask what you wanted in your coffee!” He waved a hoof at her. “It’s just as well. Black - the stronger, the better.” Twilight smiled back. “Okay, then! Just a moment!” Her head pulled back into the kitchen. The pegasi at the table could just make out the aroma of hot coffee drifting out towards them. After a moment, Twilight walked around the doorway, stabilizing the trio of dark green coffee mugs that she was levitating with her. Twilight trotted back to the table and set down a mug in front of each pegasus before sitting next to Dash with her own. The three of them each took a small sip of the coffee, and Dash scooted over a bit to give Twilight more room. Nimbus closed his eyes and sighed warmly. “Thank you for your hospitality, Twilight. This is excellent coffee.” “Really,” said Twilight, “it was no trouble at all. It’s just instant coffee.” “It’s helping me warm up, and for that, I thank you.” “A-hem,” said Rainbow, rolling her eyes. They settled on Nimbus, who gave a sheepish smile in return. “Right, right.” He sighed briefly. “Well, it happened last night, actually . . .” It was cold. So stupidly cold. Twenty, even ten years ago, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Tempest would have seen the weather as a challenge, an affront to his abilities to be overcome, and he would have overcome it, simple as that. At his current age, though he was still very much capable of dealing with it (he wasn’t that old, thank you very much), it was difficult to see the weather for anything else but what it was - weather. Part of a system, and beyond his reach to question or change. It didn’t care about some stupid pegasus who was flying through a cold, heavy rain in the middle of the night. Why should it? A particularly intense deluge of ice water droplets pelted against him, and Tempest was dragged back to the reality of his situation. He glanced out into the massive black void surrounding him, and could dimly make out lights in the distance, slightly off to his left and above. He corrected his course and flew onward, relieved to be in the final stretch of his journey. He had tucked his daughter Scootaloo into bed and waited around in the dark of the living room for her to fall completely asleep, listening to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. He needed to make sure that his movements wouldn’t wake her up - couldn’t have her missing sleep over him. Tempest certainly hadn’t loitered because he was nervous about his destination or what he would find there. That’s what he told himself, anyway. The lights began to look less blurry, and Tempest realized that they were now slightly below him, though still straight ahead. As he drew closer, the lights formed themselves into shapes of windows, regularly spaced on a cloudstuff building that stood four stories tall - massive by pegasus standards, especially for a structure with so much infrastructure and equipment inside of it. Tempest swooped down onto the covered landing area outside the main entrance, and the sound of the rain switched from a dull roar to a pleasant pattering. The cloudstuff bricks bore the pattern of a large and somewhat faded red cross on them, though it was not easily visible in the dim light. Tempest took a moment to shake off the worst of the water and double-check that his saddlebags were still dry before walking forward into the hospital lobby. The pegasus sitting at the main desk - white coat, light blue mane and tail - looked up from his paperwork at the sound of the door opening. At the sight of a large, dark-coated, and rather worse for wear stallion trudging into the room in the middle of the night, his pulse quickened a bit. Tempest walked over to the desk and looked as pleasantly as he could at the clerk. “Uh, sir,” the clerk said, clearing his throat before continuing. “I should tell you that visiting hours have been over for quite some time now . . .” “Yes. What’s your point?” said Tempest, beginning to lose a bit of patience. He was in no mood to jump through bureaucratic hoops for a second time that day. Silence. “Well, um. It’s just, the thing is, visitors aren’t, um-” “Are you honestly considering turning me away because of some arbitrary clock marking?” Tempest leaned forward, eyes hard and unforgiving. The clerk leaned back in his seat, startled. He moved his mouth but couldn’t speak. “Well? Out with it!” “I, uh-” “I have family here! You can’t just tell me to go fly back home, not in this weather!” “Look, I didn’t-” “You didn’t what? You didn’t mean to upset me? She could be seriously hurt, and you-” “Sir?” A voice from the left. Tempest realized he’d been yelling, and had propped his front hooves up on the reception area desk, leaning forward so much that he was practically headbutting the clerk across from him. The two pegasi turned to see a third pegasus who had a similar white and red colouration, though she was female. Her cutie mark was a red caduceus, Tempest saw, as she crossed the lobby from the side hall where she had been. “Is everything all right here?” she asked, looking at the two of them. Tempest deflated and returned to a normal stance. “Yeah, thanks. I, um . . .” he trailed off, looking down and away. “I guess I . . . got a bit worked up, is all. Sorry about that.” He mumbled an apology to the clerk before turning and walking down a hallway off the lobby’s right, head hanging low. The female pegasus looked at her coworker. “What happened?” The clerk shrugged defensively. “Well, first, he walks in out of that,” he pointed out the door at one of the worst thunderstorms Cloudsdale had seen in years, “like it’s no big deal and just moseys on over to the desk.” She cocked an eyebrow. “And he just started yelling?” The clerk held out his forelegs in exasperation. “Well, naturally, I’m a bit startled at seeing somepony just appear like that, so I tell him that visiting hours are over, and I’m about to tell him that there’s this form he can fill out, right, and he starts asking me what the big idea is, and he gets all aggressive. After that, you heard.” The clerk’s superior nodded. “Right. This is your first graveyard shift, isn’t it?” The clerk nodded, and the female pegasus continued. “Yeah, he’s been here a lot before at this hour. Makes sense he’d be upset.” “Is it safe to let him wander around on his own?” asked the desk clerk. His companion stared down the hallway where Tempest had turned before answering. “He knows where he’s going. He might have been a bit loud, but he won’t do any harm.” “You’re sure?” “I recognize him. I know who he’s visiting.” She shook her head slightly. “He’s having a hard enough time of things without red tape getting in the way.” Tempest, meanwhile, could not stop thinking about the clerk at the desk. Gods, I was yelling at him. Really yelling. I’ve never done that before. I mean, sure, I’ve gotten angry, but that . . . He shook his head, trying to compose himself. He was tired and running on very little sleep, which had been troubled. He had done things like this before, and slip-ups were to be expected. Tempest glanced at a room number on the wall. He was about halfway to her room, which gave him another minute of walking. He could have run there, but it would not have changed anything. The pegasus sighed and looked down at the cloudstuff bricks beneath his hooves. It was amazing, really, that Cloudsdale had managed to build a hospital this size. It was larger than the city’s few mansions, and had been a massive improvement over the previous institutions, upgrading the equipment and facilities by several orders of magnitude. Knowing that she was in such good hooves had made the first few days bearable. If it had been any other hospital, Tempest likely would have spent every spare moment at the foot of the bed. Fortunately, he had been able to spend time with Scootaloo and make sure that she had been okay throughout the whole ordeal. And look how that turned out. What a good father you are, making your daughter feel better freezing to death than with you. Tempest winced at the thought, formed before he could stop it. His steps faltered. He almost broke down then and there, degenerating into a sobbing mess. Thoughts of his daughter shivering out at Sweet Apple Acres alone, scared, and helpless, filled his mind’s eye. No, stop it! It was horrible what happened, and you should have been better than that, but what’s done is done! You won’t earn her forgiveness crying here, and it won’t fix anything that needs to be fixed. This idea was brighter than the thoughtscape surrounding it. Tempest held on to it for dear life even as his legs betrayed him and he sunk to the floor. After what felt like an eternity spent in the dark corners of his mind, Tempest pulled himself back to his feet and made his hooves start walking again. He would get to her room at the end of the hall. He had to. Daring a glance up, Tempest found he was closer than expected. He ran the last few steps, not wanting to give his mind another chance to turn against him. And just like that, he was in his wife’s room. There was silence except for the beep of machines. She had barely been visible through the bandages and a veil of tubes and metal when first brought in. Since then, she had improved enough to render most of the systems unnecessary. There were now only cursory monitors attached non-intrusively: a pad in the crook of her elbow, or on her forehead. Many of the bandages had been removed as well, allowing her orange coat and blue mane to reappear. She lay on her back and wore braces around her wings, unforgiving metal webs to make sure they healed properly. She was asleep, as she had been every time Tempest had come to see her. To his knowledge, she had yet to wake up. “Ciela,” he whispered. He went to the side of her bed. Before he knew what was happening, he had clutched one of her forehooves between his own and bowed, as though in prayer, next to her. It was too much. All of the emotions Tempest had suppressed, all of the nights spent sleeplessly flying from the hospital to Ponyville, all of the decisions and choices made, trying desperately to find some kind of right path in the mess surrounding him, all of them finally caught up with him. Tempest buried his face into the bed and cried, sobbing and weeping into the blankets. The dark pegasus’s frame shook from the weight of his sorrow, and the area where he rested his head quickly becoming damp with mucus and tears. Tempest tried to form words, but they came out as twisted cries. He ultimately abandoned his rational thoughts and simply let out the emotions he had imprisoned. Time passed. Eventually, realizing that he had no more tears to shed, Tempest came back to the world around him, aware of an ache in his immobile joints and a feeling of . . . not peace. Peace was too optimistic. Perhaps . . . catharsis? He felt as though his system had been flushed out - not enjoyably by any measure, but the end result was . . . Tempest shook his head. He would introspect later. For now, he had limited time, and a lot to say. He rose unsteadily to his hooves, dragged over a chair from the edge of the room to face the bed and slumped into it, utterly tired. He stared into space, glancing occasionally at Ciela. “Scootaloo was found, thankfully. She was out at the treehouse, living off of apples. I was so happy to see her, but she seemed . . .” he paused. “Distant? She was a lot calmer than usual. Quieter. I don’t know why she-” Tempest found himself interrupted by a strangled sob. “Why she left. I just don’t, I mean, how? Why? Why would she leave like that?” Tempest’s head hung forward, brow furrowed. “I just can’t think why she would have left. She was out there for more than two days, you know. Freezing and starving half to death. I scoured every place in town, and so did the guards. The treehouse was one of the first places we checked, but she must have . . .” The pegasus shook his head. “Hidden. Hidden. From her father.” He hunched forward, elbows on knees. Tempest looked at the floor beneath him, not seeing it. “And then when she finally does turn up, do you know how I react? I don’t welcome her with a hug and soft words. I . . . I’m so angry at her. I’m so angry that she would do something that stupid.” He looked back at Ciela, haunted. “Because she’s beautiful, you know? She’s so beautiful and I love her so much and that something I did would make her not trust me, I . . . I can’t . . .” He paused, staring at her unmoving form. His lover in rosier times, his friend in darker ones. She had never responded to his words from her sleep. Not volume nor poetry nor humour had changed that. Can she- Of course she can don’t be ridiculous. “I wasn’t angry at her, though. I realize that now.” He took a deep breath. “I was angry at Rainbow Dash. At what she’d done, and how ignorant she was about you. You know she doesn’t know,” he paused, looking at the machines around Ciela, “about all this? Hospitalizes you and she’s just completely oblivious to it.” Tempest shook his head in disbelief. “I found the two of them in the treehouse, as a last-ditch search effort, and . . . and she . . .” Tempest’s eyes were crushed shut, but unable to stop the tears. “And she looked so much like you, with Scootaloo under her wing like that. And I . . . I was so . . .” he sighed shakily. “I don’t even know what I am anymore. I was aimless at the beginning. Furious, but with no outlet. Who was she to hurt you, to take my daughter away from me? To throw us into this whole mess?” Silence. Tempest had never spoken so much to her in his previous visits. The utter lack of replies was beginning to remind him why. “I was angry at myself. For choosing her, for letting her get so close to Scootaloo and give her the damned stupid idea of trying to wrangle lightning. At her age, can you believe it?” He shook his head. “Of course, when I sat down and thought about it, it made a certain kind of sense. Rainbow Dash was probably trying things like that when she was Scootaloo’s age. Obviously, she survived enough of them, so I guess her perceptions of it would be different.” Tempest chuckled despite himself. “I was always running the endurance courses, pure flying stuff. What I read about weather in the textbooks scared me away from it, or at least trying to control it.” Tempest stood up and walked over to the bed. Absently, he glanced at what few machines remained and found that the readings were completely and wholly average across the board before turning his eyes down to Ciela. He scratched his neck, unsure of what to say next. Eventually: “There’s been another development.” Tempest paused. “A guard brought to my attention a . . . loophole in the bureaucracy.” He paused again. “As it stands, Scootaloo won’t be able to take her entrance exam in time. But this new legal finesse . . .” he trailed off, paused again. “It would let her. In short, she’s allowed to pick her teacher for getting back into the teaching schedule. You can probably guess who she wants.” Tempest lowered his head. He was quiet for a long time. “And I want to. I want to let her, forgive her, tell her that I love her and that I’m sorry for all the idiot things I did,” he swallowed, his visage not quite as stoic as he would have liked. “But there’s this hard little ball of fear, and it’s pressing against my mind and my heart feels like it’s going to rip itself in two.” He looked at Ciela. “What if I’m wrong?” “What if I’m wrong,” he repeated, “and it happens again? Or something even worse? What if Scootaloo . . . she . . .” Tempest’s throat closed up. He couldn’t say it aloud. “And I know that if that happens, or if anything like that happens, I will never be able to forgive myself, and neither will Rainbow Dash.” He looked over at Ciela’s unmoving eyelids, her emotionless face. Tempest could feel the tears streaming down his face, but knew it would be futile to wipe them away. Moving instinctually, he climbed onto the bed next to Ciela and lay next to her, managing the tight fit between her and the bed railings. The better part of two weeks without her embrace, her warmth next to him, had been a painful eternity. He needed to know she was there, that this whole nightmare wasn’t simply that. He wrapped his forelegs around her, the left around her middle and the right between her and the bed. Tempest buried his face in her shoulder. “I’m so scared, and I don’t know what to do,” he sniffled, “I just don’t know what to do.” The tears had broken through again in earnest. Tempest quietly sobbed into his wife’s shoulder, powerless to resist. And then she moved. Twilight and Rainbow Dash sat, speechless, staring at Nimbus while he calmly took a sip of his coffee. He placed the mug back on the table and looked at them. Upon seeing their looks, his eyebrows rose. “Um, yes?” he asked. “AND?!” yelled Rainbow Dash, leaning forward and planting her hooves on the table. “The doctors expect her to make a full recovery,” said Nimbus in the tone of voice one would use to talk about the weather. Dash sputtered, livid. “What, that’s it?” Nimbus regarded his coffee. “She did say one thing.” Silence. “What did-” Rainbow Dash began at significant volume before Twilight pointedly put a hoof on her chest. Dash whipped around to look at her. “Inside voice, Dash.” The pegasus’s cheeks erupted with scarlet. She inhaled and exhaled fully before facing Nimbus again. “What did she say?” Dash asked, carefully enunciating every word in a perfectly normal tone. She glowered back at Twilight. Twilight smiled cheekily in return. Nimbus was still staring at his mug. The black within drew his thoughts to the hospital bed, and the absolute hopelessness he had felt. How hearing Ciela’s voice after so long without it was akin to akin to a deaf man hearing a symphony preceded by a lifetime of silence. “You and I both know nothing like that will happen. You’re just being overprotective. As usual,” she added, giggling. Gods, she had giggled. She had smiled. Nimbus looked up at the two ponies sharing the table with him. “She felt,” he said, “that I should forgive you.” Rainbow Dash and Twilight looked at him, silently hopeful. Nimbus inhaled and exhaled deliberately. “I agree with her.” The words hung in the empty air of the library for a minute before either Twilight or Rainbow Dash processed them. “Then,” said Twilight hesitantly, “then you . . . that is, you two . . .” “I want Rainbow Dash to continue teaching Scootaloo,” Nimbus said with a small smile. Twilight gasped with glee. “Ohmygoshthat’swonderfultoheardidyouhearthatDashyoucangobacktoteachingScootalooandhelpingherovercomeobstaclesinlifeand-” “Look, that’s great and everything,” said Dash, looking evenly between Twilight and Nimbus, “and I hate to be a killjoy here, but there’s still the complaint you filed against me. That’ll take months to be removed from the records, and I won’t be able to do a thing for Scootaloo until it is.” “Actually,” Nimbus said, “there is a loophole.” Dash threw a puzzled look at Twilight. Twilight shrugged. “Go on,” said Rainbow. “Well, you see, as part of the complaint I filed, Scootaloo and I are allowed to pick her new teacher from a list of qualified individuals in and around Ponyville.” Nimbus produced several scrolls from his saddlebags. They were slightly damp, but had survived his odyssey intact. “This is the list.” He unfurled the first scroll on the table top. Dash and Twilight peered forward and looked it over. “Rainbow Dash is on this list,” said Twilight, a bit puzzled. “How can that be when you filed the complaint?” Nimbus chuckled. “That’s the beauty of it,” he said, producing another scroll. “Here’s the complaint form relating to Rainbow Dash’s identity. Notice any differences?” Dash put a hoof to her chin and thoughtfully compared the two pages. The difference struck her immediately. “Wait, my titles are different on these.” “Precisely!” said Nimbus, growing more animated. “I filed the complaint against Rainbow Dash, General Weather Manager of Ponyville. But-” “Rainbow Dash,” interrupted Twilight, “Fastest Filly Flyer in Equestria, Heroine of Her Majesty Celestia, is a perfectly suitable role model for Scootaloo! Oh, I’ve only read about things like this in mystery novels! This is so cool!” “Well,” said Dash flatly, “I’m glad one of us understands this. How precisely am I two people now?” “It’s actually quite simple,” Twilight said, eyes wide with scholarly excitement. “In a society with Equestrian naming traditions, such as Equestria, of course, titles - even small and utterly insignificant ones - are often given to ponies to distinguish them from one another. Names tend to be recycled throughout history, and even within the same generation, so it helps to be able to tell one similarly named pony from another. Make sense?” the unicorn asked. “I guess so,” Dash said hesitantly before shrugging. “I might not understand the specifics, but I’ll take your words for it.” She blinked suddenly, remembering something. “Wait, when is the entrance exam, anyway? It’s getting kinda close to the start of the school year.” She looked at Nimbus. Nimbus told her, and Dash did some quick mental math. After a stunned moment, a voice echoed out from Ponyville library in the quiet of early morning. “SIX DAYS?!”
DirigibleQuixote	776	9	Original Character,Rainbow Dash,Scootaloo,Twilight Sparkle,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	A Dash of Inspiration	When forced to to community service, Rainbow Dash learns an important lesson about role models.	cancelled	360	30	<p>When Rainbow Dash is charged with a massive amount of property damage that totally isn't her fault, she is required to do community service hours to repay her debt to society.</p><p>Little does she know, inspiration can be found in the oddest places.</p>	everyone	2013-04-18T15:32:12+00:00	2013-04-18T15:32:11+00:00	1,851	No, it's not an actual update. Read this blog post if you haven't already. It'll explain things. URL in case the link embedding doesn't work. http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/151355/whoa-hey-look-at-the-time
Tequila Sunrise	777	1	Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Tomorrow Never Comes	On Luna's descent into madness and those who tried to drag her back from the brink.	incomplete	12	2	<p>They'll ultimately fail, perhaps, but a star-gazing pegasus and his unicorn friend aren't about to let Princess Luna descend into madness easily.</p><p>This will probably only be in two parts, though I may add a companion story at some point.</p>	everyone	2011-09-17T16:07:18+00:00	2011-09-17T16:07:18+00:00	1,838	Sweeping low over the fringes of Everfree Wood, the deep-blue pegasus flicked his wings back, luxuriating in the evening air as it rushed through coat and feathers alike. The first twinkling stars gradually appeared in the heavens as he alit on the hilltop, setting down the heavy bundle he’d slung over his back. “Hey, you’re just in time!” He wasn’t alone on the hill: a purple-coated unicorn with a pale blonde mane trotted over, still breathing hard from her climb. Silent Nights had met Evening Star on the hilltop without fail every Friday night for a month, to enjoy the beginning of the night and gaze at the stars through the telescope Silent Nights had acquired at no small expense. “Let’s get this thing set up. We don’t have long.” Silent Nights pushed his head into the bag, pulling out the telescope’s tripod, setting it down and letting Evening Star start to unfold it, her horn glowing. Soon they had the tripod set up, and Silent Nights carefully set the brass telescope in its cradle. “I didn’t think you really needed a telescope for meteor showers,” said Evening Star, leaning her head back and gazing skyward. “Well, you don’t, but I thought we might see some of the fainter ones this way, and do some stargazing afterward.” Silent Nights paused; Evening Star was grinning at him fondly. “You’re so... dedicated, Silent.” “Of course! Princess Luna puts a lot of work into this, and I want to take in every detail.” “Y’ever tell her that?” “Oh, yeah, we’re best buds.” “Smartass.” “I did, though, actually. Last Gala. She looked pleased. Didn’t get the impression it was something she heard much.” Evening Star smiled slyly. “I thought you were too busy flirting with that lautist to do much of anything.” Silent Nights rolled his eyes. “Lutenist. And it's not my fault I have an ear for fine music.” Evening Star held up a hoof, looking up into the sky. “I think it’s starting.” Moments later, two bright streaks sliced across the north-eastern sky, and the pegasus and the unicorn fell silent and took in Princess Luna’s light show. Another pair of observers were appreciating the show – or, rather, one of them was appreciating it and the other was creating it. Sweat dripped from Princess Luna’s brow as she concentrated, pouring herself into her work. Meteors streaked across the purple-black sky as her sister Celestia looked on, rapt. Finally, Luna stepped back from the balcony, breathing hard, settling into Celestia’s side as the taller alicorn supported her. “Now that was really something. I think maybe it was your best one yet,” said Celestia, her tone wondering. “I sure hope it was,” replied Luna. “Never exhausted myself quite like that before. I hope we weren’t the only ones watching.” “I’m sure we weren’t!” Celestia was quick to respond, not missing Luna’s glance down toward the nearly-empty streets of Sumare and the wavering of her satisfied expression. “I bet that guy you talked to at the Gala was watching. He seemed like a big fan.” “Maybe, maybe.” Luna’s shoulders slumped. “I feel like... mm. It’s nothing.” Celestia didn’t respond. She just looked on, her mouth drawn. “Maybe I’ll... see if I can find him sometime. He was nice to chat with, him and his friend.” Luna’s expression lightened fractionally. “You should.” Celestia carefully moderated her enthusiasm for the suggestion. “I bet he’d appreciate being remembered, too.” “I’m sure he would,” said Luna dryly. “’Hey, it’s you. Ol’ what’s-yer-name!’ It was like... Quiet Nights, or...” “Silent, I think?” “That’s it. Well, I’ll see if I can’t find him later on. I’m going to go not move for a while.” It was early afternoon by the time Luna emerged from the castle, blinking sleep from her eyes. She’d managed to stumble out in the morning to lower the moon, and headed straight back to sleep afterward. As she wandered into the park down the street, following her magic’s lead, she forced herself to slow down and approach casually. Silent Nights had his nose in a heavy book with a plain dark blue cover. If he hadn’t looked up and adjusted his reading glasses, he wouldn’t have noticed the princess at all. “Oh. Oh! Your Highness.” He dropped his book – Stars of the Southern Hemisphere – and bowed his head respectfully. “Oh! Hello, citizen,” Luna replied, awkwardly attempting a benevolent smile. “A fine day we’re having.” “Is it? I’m really more of a night pony, Your Highness. Er, I mean, it is a fine day. No disrespect intended to your sister.” Luna relaxed visibly, allowing herself a more genuine smile. “It’s good to be appreciated sometimes. Didn’t we speak at the last Gala? I seem to recall you had great praise for the moon and stars.” “Yes, that’s right! I’m flattered that you remember me. I hope I didn’t come across too badly. I’d indulged a bit too much that night.” “No! No. Not at all. I enjoyed talking to you. It was nice to have someone talk about my work.” For a change, she added mentally. “Well, then, let me say your meteor shower last night was fantastic, Princess. My friend and I watched it from beginning to end from a hill out in the Wood. I don’t think I’ve ever seen better.” Luna had the good grace to blush modestly. “Oh! Well. Thank you. Perhaps you and your friend can join me sometime while I work.” Silent Nights goggled at her. “Really? It’d be an honor, if we wouldn’t just be a distraction...” “Not at all! Please consider yourself invited to watch the next shower. It’s –“ “This coming Tuesday, I believe?” “Just so. I’ll see you then!” Luna wandered off, wavering between a glow of pleasure and a flush of embarrassment. “... so then she just invited us to come and watch her work!” Silent Nights’ breathless retelling of the story left Evening Star blinking at him. “Maybe she doesn’t meet many ponies with your level of enthusiasm.” “Maybe! Sheesh, what should I wear?” “... so then I just invited them to come and watch me work!” Luna, meanwhile, recounted the tale for her big sister, who listened with a small smile that she’d settled on early in the conversation. “That’s okay, right? I’m sure they’re both fine ponies.” Celestia hadn’t missed Luna’s fretful undertone. “Yeah, it’s, well, but... I don’t really even know the guy, it was just... seeing his eyes light up...” Luna frowned. “I guess it’ll be good. I’d better come up with something extra-special.” “Don’t hurt yourself. Last night was tough enough on you.” But Luna was already halfway out the door, leaving Celestia to watch her retreating back with a thoughtful frown. The three days passed quickly, with Silent Nights and Evening Star bubbling with nervous excitement and Luna stewing in nervous apprehension that had Celestia quietly consulting with the royal apothecary regarding tranquilizers. Luna had begun to mumble to herself in a disquieting sort of way, and Celestia privately willed things to go well. Luna rose in the late afternoon from a fitful sleep, turning in her bed to gaze blearily out at a sun already well past its zenith. It seemed to hurry toward the horizon. Her tired mind snapped to alertness, and she nearly tripped over her own hooves in her haste to rise. “Got to prepare... need to prepare... notes? I have notes...” It had better be something special. Some part of her mind seemed to have detached itself from the rest recently, as though her worries had decided to stop attacking pell-mell and team up in a coordinated offensive instead. Make something the ponies will notice for a change. “Can’t... don’t... distract me. Notes? Notes!” With a glow of her horn, Luna lifted a two-foot-long scroll covered in hurried scribbling and hastily-sketched diagrams. “Orion goes there, Scorpio goes... there... shower starts in the east...” It had better be good. She acknowledged the voice in her head with an annoyed flick of her ear, her mouth drawn. “It’ll be good! I’m sure they’ll like it.” Will they? She frowned at the scroll. Maybe a few more meteors in the south, a hint of nebula on the western edge... Luna was still scribbling, her horn glowing as the quill flew furiously across the paper, when a guard cleared his throat politely. “Your Highness, Silent Nights and Evening Star are here to see you. Should I send them in?” “What? Already? Can you give me five minutes?” Fortunately, Celestia had already invited the pair in and was making small talk when the guard returned. “Her Highness Princess Luna will be down in five minutes.” “Thank you, Strongbow.” Celestia turned back to Luna’s guests. “I’m sorry, she’s been working like a demon on tonight’s meteor shower and probably lost track of time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her work so hard...” “Not just for our sake, I hope! We were just expecting... well, you know, her usual brilliance,” said Evening Star, with Silent Nights – whose answer to the question of what to wear had obviously been 'nothing' – nodding agreement. “She seems to have gone a bit overboard on this evening’s show,” replied Celestia, a note of uncertainty in her voice. “It’s been all I can do to keep her eating and sleeping regularly.” Her expression resolved itself into neutrality again as the two watched her with identical concerned expressions. “But I’m sure she’ll be fine. She’s strong, you know?” Luna rushed in, looking anything but, her mane disheveled and her gaze slightly wild-eyed. “Ah! Hello again, Silent...” “Nights,” Silent Nights filled in helpfully. “And this is Evening Star. I think you met her in passing at the Gala. You know, if you’re not feeling well tonight we can...” “No, no, I’m ready! Have you eaten?” “Well, we had a snack, but...” “Come on, then, I’m sure the chefs can make something quick.” Luna trotted into the hall with her two guests in tow and Celestia looking on, exchanging helpless looks with Silent Nights. Twenty minutes later the three lounged in the back garden – or, rather, Silent Nights and Evening Star lounged, munching high-class hay fries, while Luna paced and made last-minute calculations. Silent Nights kept an eye on her. She’d begun to mumble beneath her breath, and her mental state seemed entirely questionable. “Now... now... I just need Celestia to... where are you, sister?” “You need me to lower the sun?” Celestia stepped into the garden, her stride stately. “Yes, because I can’t...” “Luna. Relax. Please.” “O-okay.” Luna sank down next to Silent Nights while Celestia stepped forth, raising her wings, horn aglow as she focused her magic on the sun’s fiery orb. It dipped slowly toward the horizon, then sank beneath it: a sliver, then nothing. She stepped back modestly, yielding the floor to Luna and settling near Silent Nights and Evening Star, who both looked on with focused attention. Luna stepped forward, and where Celestia’s horn shone with a cheery yellowish light, Luna’s took on a cool bluish glow that gradually intensified as she worked to raise the moon. A pale crescent peeked over the lip of the world, and the moon ascended into the sky, slowing after having risen a few degrees as Luna glanced back at her audience. “I’ll give it a few minutes, just so everypony can get settled to watch,” she said, a hopeful note in her voice. They aren’t watching, came the persistent voice in her head. All the other ponies are just going to bed. “They’re watching!” Luna exclaimed with uncharacteristic force, causing Celestia to eye her with alarm. “Luna, who are you talking to?” “Uh... you! You’re watching. Thank you.” “Of course! Thank you again for inviting us.” Evening Star’s tone was tentative, but Celestia let the moment pass without further comment as Luna gave them a slightly-unsteady smile. They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the moon slowly ascend under its own inertia, the sky gradually darkening. The show began suddenly, white and yellow streaks of meteors shooting across the sky, accompanied by a blue-purple haze of nebula behind. The streaks intensified, cutting across most of the sky, lighting the ground and nearby trees dramatically. Now they were accompanied by flaring starbursts, as though half the local cluster had chosen to go supernova at the same time. Minutes passed, a dizzying array of streaks, bursts, and brightened constellations lighting the sky until, at least, it came to an abrupt end, the last meteors falling toward the horizon. Only Celestia noticed when Luna slumped to the ground, her sides heaving. “Luna!” Celestia was instantly at her sister’s side. “I did... was good?” Luna wavered, leaning heavily into Celestia. Silent Nights blinked out of his stunned silence. “That... um... that was sure something.” “It was very... bright,” offered Evening Star. Luna gave them a dazed, exhausted smile, allowing Celestia to lead her off. When Celestia looked over her shoulder and caught Silent Nights’ eye, she wasn’t smiling. A polite but firm knock at the door interrupted Silent Nights’ late breakfast. His caller had an unmistakeable military bearing, but wore nothing. He proffered a scroll. The scroll had been dashed off in a hurried script, letters slanting urgently rightward. Silent Nights – I need to speak to you urgently about last night. Please be at the castle at eleven-thirty and mention who you are to the guards at the side gate. Not a word to Princess Luna, please. Princess Celestia He glanced at the clock – half ten – and settled to finish his breakfast, turning the words over in his head and wishing Celestia had given him less time to fret. Finally, at quarter past eleven, he headed out toward the castle. The guards had been briefed, and brought him in through the side gate, up two flights of stairs, and down a long hallway, all with a minimum of ceremony. Princess Celestia was waiting for him in her study; dark smudges underscored her purple eyes, and her expression of calm benevolence suffered for it. “Silent Nights. Hello. My apologies for asking you here on such short notice.” Silent Nights bowed, lowering his forequarters. “Your Highness. Please, think nothing of it.” “I’m going to get right to the point – did that display last night seem a bit –“ “A bit much?” he asked. He had the good grace to look abashed after interrupting royalty, but Celestia barely seemed to notice. “Exactly. I’m going to tell you this in strict confidence: I’m worried about Luna. I was hoping talking to you and your friend would calm her down, but things seem to have just gotten worse.” “Things?” “She’s convinced that no one appreciates her and that all her efforts are wasted.” Celestia grimaced, closing her eyes for a moment. “Nothing could be further from the truth!” “Yes, I know that and you know that, but I can’t get through to her. I thought it was bad before, but... she’s started talking to herself. I’m worried she’s losing her grip.” Silent Nights winced. “So you’re hoping I can be of some help?” “If there’s anything you can do, I’d be eternally grateful.” He nodded slowly. “Not that I would ever question your judgment, Your Highness, but why me? I’m sure there are many more qualified –“ “I’m not,” she interrupted. “I’ve seen how much you and your friends appreciate her work. Her real work, I mean, not that... carnival of a display she put on last night. I know you never miss a meteor shower, or a clear night for stargazing.” Silent Nights lowered his head, ears burning. “You know a lot about me.” The ghost of a smile crossed Celestia’s lips. “All part and parcel of being a goddess, you know.” Silent Nights put on what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “I’ll do everything I can.” “Thank you – it means a lot to me. I’ll give her a push in your direction after she’s had a day or two to recover.” A couple of days later Silent Nights was back at the castle, sharing tea with Princess Luna in the back garden. “As I was saying,” she was saying, “I do hope you enjoyed the show. It took a lot out of me.” Silent Nights decided to navigate somewhere between obsequious praise and complete honestly. Something about lying to a goddess struck him as fundamentally unwise. “It was quite something,” he began. “Though, really, you didn’t have to go all-out like that for either of us, Princess. We love the work you do, whether it’s dramatic meteor showers or just the moonrise on a quiet evening.” Luna nodded slowly. “So, um... was the other night a bit much, then?” Silent Nights paused, briefly unable to meet Luna’s gaze. “Maybe a little bit.” She sighed, nodding. “I was... I went a little crazy, I guess. I don’t know what came over me. I had your attention and I wanted to impress you because I knew you liked my work.” “That’s just it, though – your nights always impress me. They don’t have to be flashy. They’re beautiful.” Luna dropped her head. “I think that's a bit of a minority opinion, though, isn't it? Most ponies seem to figure moonrise means 'time for bed', not 'time to appreciate the night sky'.” “No!” The force of Silent Nights' denial took even him by surprise, and he wore a scandalized expression to match. “I mean, no. Lots of ponies appreciate the night. And those that don't – well, maybe they just don't appreciate art.” “Silent Nights, I appreciate that you're trying to make me feel better, but -” “I'll prove it to you, Princess.” Silent Nights didn't even notice that he'd interrupted.
everydaydude	778	1	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Amongst the Stars	The lone survivors of a battle between their two races above Equestria find themselves stranded.	incomplete	-1	-1	<p>Humanity, in is need to expand its territory after acquiring faster than light travel soon encounters an alien race, the Dracos. After numerous territory conflicts with the Dracos, small skirmishes turned into all out war. The superior power and strength of the Dracos is matched by the cunning of the Human forces. Both sides are locked in a stalemate and desperately looking for a way to tip the balance. And one planet may have what they need.</p>	teen	2011-09-08T02:42:34+00:00	2011-09-08T02:42:34+00:00	1,435	Canterlot, 11:34 P.M  August 24th, 1st year ADNM (After Defeat of Nightmare Moon) Luna observed her handiwork once more as the moon took to the sky and the sun sank, the sky fading from dark red to pale blue with white specks. Day gave way to night as her and her older sister ceased their flow of magic. Celestia would usually return to the palace at this time to conduct any remaining business or to prepare for bed, but Luna usually sat on the high mountain which Canterlot was built upon to appreciate her work for a few moments. She smiled as she was bathed in pale moonlight, and the twinkling stars flickered in their realm high above this world. A shooting star blazed down. Luna hurriedly tried to make a wish, but couldn’t make it before the falling star burned out. She sighed, yet smiled, knowing there would be another chance to wish. She turned to return to the palace, but stopped when she saw another shooting star. And another. And another.   “Oh wow,” she gasped in wonder, seeing the beauty of the meteor shower. She sat down once more, enjoying the beauty that was only visible in her domain. Silently she wished that other ponies could observe this wonder, and she knew that some out there would. However, she felt like she needed to let others know. She hoped her sister wasn’t in bed yet. She needed to send a letter to everypony she knew...well, everypony she knew in ponyville. She sighed, as she realized she only knew one pony outside of the palace. She smiled again, as she imagined the reaction to the meteor shower. However, high above Canterlot, the moonlight bathed land, and the serene landscape, the “meteor shower” was anything but beautiful. Uncharted space, orbiting uncharted planet V-3452 75th expeditionary space force, Terran fleet. Battleship Kilimanjaro Bridge September 17th, 2154 AD Captain Clark strolled through the corridor of his ship at a quickened pace. They had just come out of a hyperspace jump, and he was informed he should get to the bridge immediately. No other details, other than “he might want to see it.” He sighed and shook his head. Probably some ensign who had never seen a Draco fleet before. At that thought, he quickened his pace. His ship might have better long range sensors than most Draco warships, but that didn’t make them invisible. He caught the next lift up to bridge level, and stepped out onto said bridge. It was a room filled with rows of computers, each with a technician monitoring vital aspects of the ships systems. They computers and desks were arranged in a semicircle facing a large view screen that occupied the entire 20 by 20 foot wall. In the center sat a chair with a smaller computer at its side. Captain Clark approached his seat, saluting a few of his officers and enlisted on his way. Waiting next to his chair was a rather short but capable looking young man. He was bald, and wore glasses. A patch of a globe and a telescope was stitched on the right shoulder of his gray service uniform. He was part of the science core.   The Captain saluted him, and he returned the gesture.   “Are you the one who made the big fuss about me coming here?” The captain asked, sitting in his chair. “Yes sir,” the scientist replied, saluting. “Lieutenant William Wilkerson, Terran Science core.” The Captain returned the salute, still sitting. He was too tired for formalities. “Well what do you want to speak to me about?”   The viewscreen flipped on behind the scientist, showing a planet, with expansive green fields, dark blue oceans, and expanses of wispy clouds. Clark sat forward in his chair. After several years of seeing nothing but desolate rock after desolate rock, here was another habitable planet, other than earth and whatever planet the Dracos came from.   “Initial scans show an atmosphere very similar to earth, massive populations of flora and fauna, though an expedition team will be required to categorize them.”  “So it would be a good colony world,” Clark said, pleasantly surprised.   Wilkerson smiled, and continued. “On top of that, the world is shot through with veins of iron ore, tin, palladium, iridium, and countless other heavy metals in large amounts.”  Clarks eyebrows rose at that. “How expansive are these resources from your scans?”  Lieutenant Wilkerson pulled a datapad from a pocket on his uniform. He typed, and a hologram appeared above it. He handed it to the captain, who accepted it eagerly. Captain Clark gasped at the sight of the figures. He looked to the scientist.  “That’s enough to build a large enough invasion force...if we take that planet we could end this war within a year..” the Captain’s voice trailed off as he was lost in thought.   “Shall I prepare a scouting team sir?” Clark snapped out of his trance and looked from the planet, to the figures, to the scientist.   “Yes, have a team ready to go planet-side in fifteen minutes. I’ll accompany them.” A noticeable twitch passed through the scientist, but was gone as soon as it appeared. He saluted, and left the bridge to carry out his orders. The Captain followed shortly afterwards. He would pick his team himself.   Dark Side of Sanctuary World 13D Warlord Vra’sta’s fleet. Dreadnought Warding Heavens  12th cycle of the Draco/Human war. Vra’sta laid back in his captains chair, seemingly relaxed, but his muscles were tensed. His predatory instincts focused every part of his body on the hunt. He carefully watched the view-screen of the human ship and it’s two corvette escorts. He could take them all by surprise. He could slaughter the trespassers and suffer few casualties. But he didn’t, as it was not the right moment. That would reveal itself in time. His eye caught movement to his left. It slid to the direction of the movement on it’s own, the vertical slit thinning to focus. It was just one of followers, a fellow Draco. The Draco had light brown scales, and he had yet to grow any form of hair. Still obviously young. His reptilian eyes remained focused on the young Draco, causing him to wince slightly in the presence of a superior. However, the younger Draco still had both of his horns.   “Ji-tium Vra’sta,” the follower bowed, not breaking eye contact, but exposing his neck enough so if the warlord felt threatened could kill him.   “Rise and speak.”  “The humans are sending a landing force, and it seems most likely they will be sending down a larger force next.”  With a bored shrug, the warlord dismissed it. “This I know. It is the condition of those vermin to expand and push out whatever species may already live there. We shall wait until they land a force, then strike their ships while they are sidetracked. Afterwards, we will move in and crush whatever encampments they have.”  “We intercepted their communications network. It appears that their captain will be joining the first team landing.”  The other’s small ears picked up. “Do we know who the captain is?”  “Captain Clark, Ji-tium.” The warlord bolted up like lightening, revealing his full height of 9 feet. His claws had emerged from his fingers, and the red hair on his back stood on end. “Prepare for battle.” His eyes never left the viewscreen.   Ponyville Library, 11:37PM  Twilight Sparkle was nose deep in a book on astronomy when a flash of green light from a now not sleeping Spike broke her concentration. She had just started the chapter on the possibility on life on other worlds, and was admittedly a little annoyed. However, if it was from the Princess it must be important, so she gently closed her book and retrieved the scroll. Dear Twilight Sparkle,  I know we may not have talked much, but do me a favor, head outside, gather your friends, and look to the stars in the east. You won’t regret it. Signed, Princess Luna. Twilight was Confused to say the least. How had Princess Luna been able to send her letters? And why? She had really talked to the altercorn once. Spike was sitting up, still half asleep.  “What is it Twilight,” He asked sleepily, already yawning again.  “It’s from Princess Luna, she wants to see something that’s happening outside.” Spike was already laying down down again. “Oh that’s cool. I’ll check it..in the...morning..” He mumbled out and fell asleep again. She considered waking him up, but thinking about how hard he worked today, she felt it was okay to let him sleep. “Good night spike.” She left her library home and headed to gather her friends as the letter requested. Her first stop was Sugarcube Corner. She knew Pinkie Pie lived with two other ponies, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, so she avoided knocking to keep from waking them up. She checked for a light in Pinkie’s room. “Huh, didn’t expect Pinkie Pie to be the type to be asleep this early. Maybe that’s why she’s so energetic.” She considered tapping on the window with a rock, but that would’ve just been rude, so she headed to her next stop, Carousal Boutique. The lights were still on inside, so Twilight knocked on the door. There was muffled talking and several crashes before a disheveled Rarity nearly ripped the door off of its hinges. “Oh...Twilight...what a surprise at this hour....” Rarity closed the door slightly as she realized Twilight was looking at the mess behind her. Rarity had bags under her eyes, and her mane was frazzled and beginning to lose its elegant curves. “Hi Rarity, do you have a moment to talk?” Twilight was doubtful she did, but asked that anyways out of politeness.   “You know I always have time to talk to my friends.”  Twilight went on to explain the letter from Luna, which was a surprise to them both. “I’m sorry Twilight but I’m working on a big order, and, as you saw, it’s not going to well. I’d love to come.”  “Do you need any help? Because you know you just have to ask.”  “No it’s quite alright Twilight. It is a big order, but I have plenty of time to finish it. Now if you’ll excuse me.” The door shut in Twilights face. Next she tried Applejacks farm. On the way out there she looked to the east, but didn’t notice anything. When she reached Sweet Apple Acres, she was brushed off by an incredibly sleepy Applejack. The same thing happened, at Fluttershy’s. And Rainbow Dash’s. Twilight stamped her foot in frustration. She sat on a small hill, not far from the eastern edge of town A flash of light in the sky caught her attention. She turned her head up, to the east, and gasped. Stars were moving, flashing, seeming to run into each other and flashing brighter. Others streaked down, seeming to come towards the land, but dimmed and disappeared before they got close. It was beautiful. “Is this Luna’s magic?” She asked aloud, no one around to hear her. She watched the stars dance with one another, lost in the intrinsic beauty of their waltz. Uncharted space, orbiting uncharted planet V-3452 75th expeditionary space force, Terran fleet. Battleship Kilimanjaro, Hanger September 17th, 2154 AD Captain Clark stood behind his fifteen man team as they boarded the transport and strapped themselves in. They were fully armed, and would be a force to be reckoned with, no matter what awaited them. The captain wore the same battle armor and carried the same assault rifles as his troops, and was ready and willing to fight by their side, despite his second in commands objections. He smiled. His men were loyal to him, and he to them. He stepped onto the transport and strapped himself into the jump seat on the right side of the cabin. “All heads accounted for, you are clear for take off,” A voice from the hanger control officer radioed into the pilots. The door pulled back and up and locked into place. With a his of air the seal was complete. There was a slight jostle as the shuttle was lifted by crane to it’s launch tube. Another jostle as they were set upon the rail, and more as they rolled along until they were through the airlock. “Hey, be careful with that,” came Clarks second in command, Commander Halsly, over the radio. “The captain is on-board. “Don’t worry Princess we’ll take care of him,” shouted the man across from the captain up to the cockpit. Despite himself, the captain had to laugh. While he didn’t hate his second in command, and didn’t think he wasn’t capable, he was missing the willingness to connect with the men that would make him a great commander. As such, he wasn’t too fond of the crew, nor were they of him. “Who said that! I’m putting you on report soldier,” came the reply. That only brought more laughter from the crew, and the captain. “Insubordination..disrespect of a commanding officer...” the commander sounded out his report. The crew was laughing, having a wonderful time of it until he spoke next. “ALL HANDS, TO THEIR STATIONS. DRACO SHIPS COMING AROUND THE DARKSIDE OF THE PLANET! Count-one Dreadnought and a fighter screen. Brace for incoming fire!” Back aboard the Kilamanjaro Purplish red plumes of plasma arced through space towards the terran ships. The plasma ripped through the two corvettes, gutting the hulls of the smaller ships. Not out of the fight yet, the two smaller ships unleashed their missile compliment. Explosions rippled through the Draco fighter screen as they absorbed the wave of munitions. Still outside of firing range, there was little the fighters could do but advance and absorbed fire for their mothership. The dreadnought was easily twice the battleships size, and had nearly three times the weapons. Halsly knew this. He also knew with the power of those guns that if they tried to run they wouldn’t get far. “Sir,” asked an ensign who was surprisingly calm in the face of danger. “Orders?” Halsly swallowed a lump in his throat before speaking. “Charge up all weapon batteries. Scramble all combat spacecraft we have. Limit power to anywhere else but life-support, shields, and weapons. Contact the corvettes and tell them to concentrate fire on the center of the fighter screen. When that’s clear fire all weapons at that dreadnought.” The ensign scrambled to work as he relayed his orders to the respective stations on the ship. Halsly turned back around to watch the battle unfold. To his terror, a lone, yellow streaked fighter flew at an alarming speed towards the captains transport. Aboard the Warding Heavens Vra’sta stepped into his custom fighter, the Pa’talum. In his language it meant Bolt of Vengeance. The warlord touched his head where a stump of a horn remained. It was insulting to lose a horn, especially in hand to hand with a weaker opponent. Today, he would have his vengeance on Clark for insulting him so, forcing him to be stripped of his name and live in exile until he redeemed himself. More spacecraft were leaving every minute, and his fighter fell into a delta formation with six others. There were at least seventy or so fighters out in combat already. The corvettes were designed to be anti-fighter though, so the fighter screen would break around and the dreadnought would finish them off before they were annihilated. However, it was of no concern for him. His target was far away from any covering fire, and still would be when he reached it. The prey was separated from the heard, so to say. He hit the afterburners, breaking formation and flying at breakneck speed. His cannons gained a lock on the pilots area. He let loose a small burst, shattering the cockpit and the communication array, and then gave another burst, shooting out the engines. The craft stopped, drifting lazily towards its fleet. He fired a towing cable towards the derelict craft. He planned to cast him into the sun itself.   “It’s a shame I won’t be able to make you suffer for the dishonor you wrought upon me.” As he turned to drag his prey back to where they would be executed, a beam cannon from a human fighter hit his right engine. He accelerated away, which was toward the planet, in an attempt to go around, but his left engine was hit. He was now derelict as his prey. The enemy fighter came around to finish him off before he could be caught in the atmosphere of the planet. However, Vra’sta gained a lock, and let loose a missile, which caught the center of the slender fighter, blowing it to shreds. However the explosion blasted his ship back as well. Connected by a cable, he and the captain fell towards the planet. Vra’sta imagined the look on his enemy’s face. He smiled a toothy smile as he crossed his arms and resigned himself to fate. The last thing he saw before the shutters automatically shut for atmospheric entry was a full compliment of weapons being launched simultaneously by both sides. Aboard the Kilamanjaro Halsly watched as the captains transport drifted became caught in the gravity well, still connected to the draco fighter. He refocused his attention as a corvette erupted in a nuclear fireball as a sweep of beam cannons found its reactor. He would morn later. It’s how the captain would’ve wanted it. “Sir, weapon batteries ready to fire on your command.” “Lock onto that ship. I want it reduced to scrap.” Beam cannons, lasers, torpedos, missiles and railguns fired all at once, shaking the ships foundation. The smaller rounds plumed against the shields of the enemy ship. But under the onslaught, even they gave out, and explosions and flashes of impact rippled along the hull. “Is that all we have?” The Ensign nodded. “Except the force beams....” “Tell crew to abandon ship. Power up all force beams, set for hold. Lock onto that ship and pull it towards us.”  “Sir?”  “Then rig the self destruct. It’s our only chance to go down fighting.” The Ensign saluted, and the order went throughout the ship. Within moments, the escape shuttles were filling up and flying out, hitting transpace speed back towards the nearest safe zone. Halsly stood in his place. Then ensign had left a short time ago, as did the rest of the bridge staff. The ship was empty, except the lone commander, now captain. The ship shuddered under a barrage of beam cannons and missiles. Its shields were now down, and the next blast, if placed properly, would decimate the ship. He hit the button on the terminal that would fire the force beams. The Draco ship moved closer, but not of it’s own accord. It began fighting to back off, but the beams were powerful enough to hold it in place.   “Just fifteen seconds.” The cannons were flaring again as the female computer voice began counting down from ten.   Outskirts of Ponyville, moments later. A large flash blossomed in the midst of the light show. It seemed to be the finale, as it all stopped with the exception of a few falling streaks here and there. Twilight stood and applauded the night sky. “That was beautiful. I’ll have to write Princess Luna a thank you note for showing me this.” She stood to turn back to town, but something caught her again. It was two streaks of light, spinning with each other while they fell. “Wow.” The streaks kept falling though, and fell past the point where others had winked out of existence. Twilight suddenly felt like something was terribly wrong. The streaked turn, now falling towards her. They were traveling fast, and after a few seconds, she could tell that they were glowing, and partly on fire. She couldn’t make out a shape, and suddenly they split. One flew to the north of town, towards Cloudsdale. And the other, right for Twilight Sparkle. With a shriek, Twilight jumped out of the way and ran away from the object before it hit her. It hit the hit which she was sitting on, bounced, then burried itself into the ground with a scraping thump. Twilight covered her ears until it came to a stop at the edge of a pond. She turned around to see what it was. “What is that?” She asked herself as she cautiously approached it. It was large, square, and looked metal. On the back there was an array of tubes and cones, but there were riddled with huge holes. As Twilight walked around it, she saw the front was too, but it was a cracked metal and glass dome. It was tinted red, and the inside was covered with ash. She looked inside, but couldn’t make out anything in the dark interior. Something shifted inside, causing her to jump. “Hello?” She called out. Whatever it was shifted again. It came from the back. Moving there, Twilight heard heavy, staggered footsteps. She walked alongside them, until they stopped at the back. There was a loud bang like metal on metal, and she jumped again. It banged again, and again. Each time it grew weaker. “Hello? Do you need help?” Twilight called out again. One more weak bang. “Is that a yes?” Silence. Focusing her energy, Twilight sought any life energy with her horn magic. She gasped as she found one, on the edge of death. But it wasn’t a pony. Searching again with her magic, she found a weak point in the metal. Focusing with all her might, she bent the metal apart. Sweat dripped from her coat as she strained. With a pop and a clang, the metal bend, and the back side, the wall just below the array of tubelike objects fell open. Twilight looked up, and met gazes with a being roughly her height. It stood on two legs, only had fur on its head, which was currently bleeding. It had two eyes, but one was grotesquely swelled shut. Two leg like appendages hung from its shoulders, one twisted in a sickening manner, and the other gripping onto a small box with a handle on it. The being steadied itself uneasily. “Are you a doctor?” It asked Twilight, surprised that she could understand it, nervously replied. “N-n-no.”  The being smiled. “Good enough.” And collapsed into the dirt.
everydaydude	778	2	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Amongst the Stars	The lone survivors of a battle between their two races above Equestria find themselves stranded.	incomplete	-1	-1	<p>Humanity, in is need to expand its territory after acquiring faster than light travel soon encounters an alien race, the Dracos. After numerous territory conflicts with the Dracos, small skirmishes turned into all out war. The superior power and strength of the Dracos is matched by the cunning of the Human forces. Both sides are locked in a stalemate and desperately looking for a way to tip the balance. And one planet may have what they need.</p>	teen	2011-09-19T03:35:53+00:00	2011-09-19T03:35:53+00:00	1,223	Twilight stared the still form at her hooves. She bent down and nudged it gently with her muzzle. It was still breathing, and its heart still beat inside of it. She looked back towards town. Nearly every light was on, the towns-ponies rudely woken from their sleeps by the commotion. She sighed. Now at least someone would be up to help her take care of this...thing. She used her horn magic to lay it across her back (it wasn’t to heavy, though parts of its body were hard and dug into her back) and began a steady gallop towards Ponyville. Ponies were already gathered in the center of town, asking each other what had happened and to see if anypony was hurt. The first pony to take notice of her was Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was clearly tired, but seeing her friend come running into town during a possible disaster with red streaks on her coat shook the fatigue from the Element of Loyalty. “Twilight,” she called out, flying over to her. Twilight slowed down as dash approached to keep from crashing into her. “Are you alright? Where were you? Do you know what’s going on?” Dash bombarded her with questions until she noticed the form slumped on her back. “AND WHAT IS THAT!” Dash flew up a few feet, either disgusted or trying to get a better look at the creature. The commotion attracted quite a bit of attention. She was asked more questions as the crowds pressed around her. “I have no idea what it is, no idea how it got here, and no idea where it came from, but I do know that it's clearly hurt, and if you ponies don't quit crowding me then we can't help it!"   “Yall heard her now, git,” Came Applejacks drawl. A “Scram” from Rainbow Dash came afterwards, causing the ponies to back off a little bit, giving Twilight some breathing room. She turned to the crowd control.   “Thanks. Could one of you find Fluttershy? She might know what it is and how to treat it.” Rainbow Dash flew off in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage, leaving a rainbow in her wake even though it was night. Meanwhile, Applejack approached Twilight. “Hey now sugarcube, why don’t you let me carry that for awhile. You look right tired out. Just tell me where you want it to go and I’ll take it there.” Twilight hadn’t realized how exhausted she was until Applejack mentioned it. “Alright, Just be careful with it. Put it in the hospital, and I’ll tell Rainbow Dash when she returns with Fluttershy.” Twilight used her magic to transfer her load, and then sat down in the square, exhausted. Some of the ponies began to disperse, while others stayed and waited with her. Meanwhile, in the Everfree forest, a clawed foot broke down the steel shutters, loosened by the emergency explosive release system. Vra’sta pulled himself out of the gap he created. His lower back was in searing pain, as was his top right shoulder. His chest burned, but he could breathe and move fine. Somehow he survived the impact. He looked around himself, his slitted, reptilian eyes piercing the veil of darkness and allowing him to see where most could not. His ear twitched as something slid through the brush to his left. He reached down with lighting speed, pulling up a creature that had a feathered head, but a scaly body and tale. He stopped its twitching with a flick of his thumb, snapping the creatures thin neck. He turned it around, and gazed into its red eyes. He felt his body begin to stiffen, and he broke eye contact. He dropped it, then turned around and wrenched open a small compartment behind the cockpit but in front of the engine. Inside was a rifle, a long knife, and three days worth of survival equipment. He grabbed the bag and crouched low in the brush twenty feet from his crashed ship, waiting and listening to make sure nothing was nearby. when he was content that nothing was stalking him, he stood up and broke into a run, due south of his position. He jumped over several tree stumps and rocks, passed through a small stream, and ducked several branches before seeing a break in the treeline. He felt pain all over his body, and stopped to inject a light painkiller. After that he slowed to a walk, more carefully to make sure the painkiller didn't cause him to injure himself further. He saw a break in the trees ahead. Crouching onto all fours, he surveyed the area outside the treeline. There was a house in the clearing, with a smaller, fenced in house in its yard with several feathered creatures running around it. A four legged yellow creature with feathered wings was running around, trying to calm them down.   Vra’sta recognized this as one of the residents of this planet. They weren’t hostile, but they also didn’t know that the Dracos were looking out for them, keeping other races from taking over their planet. It would be better to appear before many than one though. The last thing he wanted was to be seen as a monster on a planet his race protected. He sank back into the treeline, just in time for another creature, very similar to the first but with a blue coat and multicolored mane, to fly up to the first. Vra’sta’s sensitive ears picked up fragments of their conversation.   “Fluttershy,” the blue one was easy to hear, “we need your help.”  He had to strain to hear the yellow one. “I’m sorry I have to calm down my animals after that loud bang. It was louder than your sonic rainboom even.” “Yeah yeah I know it woke up everypony in town. But Fluttershy,Twilight sent me to get you. Something's hurt and we just can't sit back and let it die. We know you're the best chance for it.” Vra’sta tensed at this. If he survived the impact, Clark could have too, though he would likely be on the edge of death. “How badly hurt is it?”   “Twilight says it will die if it doesn’t get help soon.” Vra’sta smiled a toothy smile. Just as he thought. As the two creatures sped off towards town as fast as their wings would take them, he smiled in quiet victory. As he turned to sink back into the forest, he misplaced his arm and slipped. With a loud pop, the minor fracture in his right shoulder turned to a major one, and the bone burst through his shoulder, with a spray of blood and a howl of pain. As he picked himself up, a bone in his right side, splintered, it’s fragments tearing through tissue. He coughed, and a clump of rusty red mucous splattered on the ground. He gritted his teeth against the pain, and fumbled with his survival kit, seeking the lifesaving materials within. Rainbow Dash appeared with Fluttershy trailing behind. Fluttershy wore a concerned look as Twilight pointed them in the direction of the hospital. She followed them at a slow trot, some adrenaline returning to her tired body. Applejack was waiting for them, and they followed her at a quick walk to where it was kept. All the while Fluttershy was asking question after question. “Does anypony have any idea what it is? How hurt is it? What does it look like?” The questions were asked rapid fire in a very un-Fluttershy like matter. Leaning over, Twilight whispered to Rainbow Dash “What did you tell her to get her so fired up about this?” “Told her some unknown animal was badly hurt. You know how she gets.” Twilight laughed quietly despite the situation. Then the nurse opened the door. Fluttershy gasped in horror, and immediately rushed over to it and began examining it it from various angles, softly talking to it. “Oh you poor thing, what happened to you.” It stirred in its unconscious state, mumbling slightly, then half opened its eyes, slowly glancing around before focusing on the source of the voice. Fluttershy continued. “Well do you have a name? We just can’t refer to you as it.” It mouthed silently. Once, Twice. On the third time a word was able to be heard. “Cla....ark..” and its eyes closed again, but kept breathing. Fluttershy smiled and nodded.  “Okay Clark, I’m going to take good care of you.” She turned. “Twilight, I know animals, but I don’t know what this is, or if I can help it. The best I’ll be able to do is treat his bleeding and set his bones, but I think he may be hurt on the inside too.”  Twilight was confused at this, having not looked into the more gory details of death. “You mean like...broken hearted?”   Fluttershy shook her head. “No, as in whatever hurt him like this also broke some of his ribs, which collapsed inwards and began to crush his internal organs.” The other ponies winced in the gruesome detail, with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who mouthed a silent ‘cool.’ Realizing what she had said, Fluttershy winced back herself, using her hooves to cover a small blush spreading on her face. With a second wince, she snapped back to the reality at hand, and turned around and began to ask for the nurses assistance.   “Do you need us to help you with anything?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering above her friends. Fluttershy shook her head. “No no it’s fine. You’ve all helped me enough. The nurse ponies and I can take it from here.” “Awright there,” Applejack drawled again, her exhaustion becoming apparent. “Don’t go and push yerself to hard.” With a nod, and other formalities the others were dismissed and said goodnight. As they settled in for the night, worry for the creature nagged at them.   Meanwhile, in Clark's semi-unconscious state, his mind was busy processing the events of the past hour or so. He was aware of his surroundings, but he was unable to move his body. He dismissed being paralyzed, because he felt every pain, from his feet to his head. His memory was intact, as far as he knew. He remembered the explosion that ripped through and killed his team, luck the only thing that kept him alive. He remembered falling into the gravity well, and he remembered being stuck in what felt like a centrifuge as he fell to the ground. He remembered the impact, and how a loose object splintered his hands, and landfall itself shattering his pelvis. Looking at it, he was amazed he survived. It was all luck.   “That’s war,” he thought, “No matter how skilled, now matter how practiced, the only thing keeping you alive is if you’re lucky enough your number doesn’t come up.” He’d been lucky for 15 years, and he’d been lucky for one more day. Lucky enough that something had saved him after he emerged from the wreckage.  “Let’s just see how long this streak lasts.” That was his last thought before he lost consciousness completely. “My my, what have I stumbled upon? Maned like a pony, yet horned like a dragon,” A deep voice, thick like honey but still clearly feminine, flowed through the night. Vra’sta snapped to attention. He hadn’t heard anything approach, and the voice was almost right on top of him. He jumped to his feet, unsheathing his claws on his one good arm and taking a quick look around. Nothing was to be found.   “Now there, don’t be alarmed. I am one who means you no harm,” The sound came from behind him, but when he turned, his gaze met empty forest. “Who are you, and why do I understand you?” He asked the dark, keeping his guard up. A bulbous form appeared before him. It was his size, and seemed to have no form other than that of a large oval stretching up from the ground. “Zecora is my name, and why you understand me, I cannot say. But I insist, come with me now, for much of your blood lies on the ground.” Vra’sta looked at his feet. He had indeed bled a lot, and the dressing he had applied was soaked and leaking. On top of that, he was bleeding into his abdominal cavity, and his lungs were slowly beginning to bleed. He had used the last of his blank tissue doses, but there weren’t enough to seal his injuries. If he didn’t get help, any help, soon, he would be dead before morning. He reasoned he could trust her. He was clearly bigger, and even in his condition he could still easily kill her. And if she did cause him harm, then she would’ve done it already. Injured prey is stricken early. But he could still be harmed later. One slip up could be the end of him. You don’t survive long enough to be a warlord by taking risks. Then again, you don’t get the respect to command others if you don’t take risks. “Zecora, if I may, I humbly ask for your assistance, for if I don’t, my passing will not be swift.” “Come with me, my home is not far, mighty creature from the stars.” The form turned and began walking deeper into the forest. Vra’sta was compelled to follow. Using his rifle as a crutch he stumbled through the brush, his former grace gone in the face of his injuries. His bag jostled at his side, lighter now due to the massive use of all medical supplies. Zecora told the truth when she said her home was not far. It wasn’t longer than ten minutes before a tree, hollowed out with windows spaced along it, came into view. A small candle was lit above the door, the only light and recognizable sign of inhabitance. Zecora pushed the door open, revealing it to be totally dark within. Vra’sta stood at the entrance as Zecora hunched over something in the center of the room. Soon, a fire roared to life, the room cast in flickering shadows. Zecora turned and removed her cloak. Vra’sta took in her and the decorations of the room silently as he carefully made his way into her home.  “You’re different from the others in the village over.” “Not important at the moment. You need to be eased from your pain and torment.” She nudged him down onto the bed in the corner, then opened and rummaged through a cabinet as he lay down. She set aside several viles and jars, filled with different liquids and concoctions, ranging from muddy brown to light brown. After that, she pulled out poultices, bandages, and then a hinged metal box. She bent down and dropped a large vial into his good hand.   “Quickly, drink this,” she said, as she opened the box, revealing several rows of surgical equipment, “because i’m pretty sure you don’t want to be awake for this.”
everydaydude	778	3	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Amongst the Stars	The lone survivors of a battle between their two races above Equestria find themselves stranded.	incomplete	-1	-1	<p>Humanity, in is need to expand its territory after acquiring faster than light travel soon encounters an alien race, the Dracos. After numerous territory conflicts with the Dracos, small skirmishes turned into all out war. The superior power and strength of the Dracos is matched by the cunning of the Human forces. Both sides are locked in a stalemate and desperately looking for a way to tip the balance. And one planet may have what they need.</p>	teen	2011-09-29T03:36:54+00:00	2011-09-29T03:36:54+00:00	1,031	Clark stirred, dreams flickering into vision of his minds eye. Consisting of memories, regrets, nightmares, and mistakes, dreams held none of that pleasant detachment that they held when he was younger. Gone for him were the dreams that being in the military meant you led a life of adventure and glamour. In their stead, his military career flashed through his mind. To an outsider, he was a successful soldier, becoming a captain just after 15 years of service, receiving numerous medals for heroism, and being well recognized and respected throughout the Terran forces. However, there were things the public didn’t see. Choking up on his first mission, causing half of his squad to be wiped out. Ordering men to their deaths to capture territory they thought was important, but was scoured by the retreating Dracos. Being the loan survivor of mission after mission. These passed as flickering nightmares, thankfully. However, one was always present in his mind. Flame flickered around the crumpled wreckage as Lieutenant Clark scrambled to his feet. He turned and helped his men out of the burning husk. The passenger section was well protected from the blast, the gunnery and operation sections taking the brunt of it. Clark pulled the last man from the wreckage.   “Move out,” he said, the order echoing seemingly forever in the cavern of his subconcious.  “Sir,” one soldier stated, “Lyons is wounded.”  “How bad?” Clarks question was edged with mixed anger and frustration. He cared for his men, but he knew he had to move.   “Yes sir,” the soldier, Jacobson replied. “His arm is wounded. Deep laceration, though not fatal, he could lose the arm if he doesn’t get treated soon.”  “Put a dressing on it and let’s move. If we don’t find better cover we’ll have more to worry about that that.” As his medic applied first aid to Lyons, Clark turned and crouched, surveying the horizon. It was sundown, and the red and orange of the fading light mixed with the fire and smoke, turning the sky a sickly red. No one expected an attack this far in, not this soon. Just one month ago the Draco Tribal Union declared war after the incident on EP-33, and now they were 4 light-years inside the Terran Sphere of Influence. The planet hit was a human colony world, barren rock with large patches of green. The entire planet was used for experimenting with terraforming, and after deemed successful, colonists flocked to it. With a population of 6.2 million at the time of attack, Sable was fairly well populated, but only had an active garrison of 550,000. More than enough to fend off pirates and separatists, but not enough to repel a surprise attack. Clark and his platoon was ambushed after moving to take a defensive position on the outskirts of the capital city. “Sir?” The medic, Jacobson, snapped Clark out of his trance and faced his men, what was left of his platoon. Only 13 men. “Orders?” The medic continued.   “Keep low and move for that storage warehouse,” he pointed to a low, silver building that was relatively unscathed, offering a good defensive position.  As he and his men crossed the open plane, sounds leaked into his memories, sounds that he knew didn’t belong there. Tapping, talking, beeping, scratching, beeping. He stirred, panicked, and lost his breath. The burnt world, his men, the draco hunting party that was waiting for them spun out beneath him, leaving him floating in darkness. The nurse pony on duty, Nurse Redheart, was going over the patients vitals. His blood pressure, heart-rate, and respiratory rate had leveled out, despite being as low when he came in. After a week, when taking a second look and deciding that they had to remove his armor, he flat-lined, and then spiked back up. After investigating, needles were found spaced in the suit that were injecting him full of medicine. It was probably the only reason he survived, seeing as the only medicine that was administered on the ponies part was an IV nutrient solution. Redheart shook her head. An unidentified creature, wearing armor with what looked like weapons attached, that came in a metal box from the stars. Nurse Redheart was smart enough to know an alien, considering that there have been sightings of strange lights and abductions for fifty years or so. But to actually see one, in her hospital, it was almost unreal.   As she marked down her last notes on the patient and re-attached the clipboard to the hook at the end of the bed. As she turned and headed for the door, the beeping from the heart rate monitor sped up. Turning quickly, she saw him twisting and thrashing rather violently in his bed, his heart rate almost off the charts and his breathing quick and shallow. “Hey!” She called out the door while trying to still him under her hooves. “I need some help here. The coma patient is waking up and he’s not doing it nicely!” Within seconds, two more nursing ponies where there to help, one helping Redheart hold him down while the other grabbed a syringe full of a sedative. “Hurry up with that!” The second nurse pony yelled back, Clark’s thrashing becoming more violent.   “Hold his head still,” the one with the syringe replied. Redheart tried, pushing his head to one side with her hoof so the other could inject the sedative right into his neck. But she didn’t have a firm hold, and his head slipped around. He leaned up and bit into her leg, just above her hoof. Redheart recoiled, leaving his top half un-subdued. In a split second, he had his lower half freed from the second pony, and leapt out of bed, tearing out his IV needle and vital monitors. He stood, the low bed between him and the three medical staff. His feet were shaking but his fists were up, and his eyes were wide, and his ragged shaking breathe was the only noise other than the screech on the flat line. “What are you?” Twilight sat out on her balcony, a stack of books to either side of her and one open in front of her. The purple pony read quickly, absorbing the words on the page before using magic to turn the page. She sipped a cup of tea Spike had prepared for her. As she magicked the last page, she sighed as she didn’t find any helpful information. Again. She levitated the book onto the stack to her right, and pulled one off the top of the stack to her left. “Observation of Astral Bodies, part 4,” she said wearily. “Hopefully this will mention something about life in outer space.” Twilight buried herself in research ever since they checked the creature, which by the insistence of Fluttershy had to be called by his name otherwise they would probably hurt his feelings. She reasoned it could live on another planet, seeing as Princess Luna did survive on the moon for 1000 years. She opened the book up. As much as she enjoyed studying, going four weeks without finding anything relevant to the situation was pretty frustrating. Although her mind was beginning to understand the possibilities of space travel. Though it seemed a little far fetched to her at the moment. She poured out the last of her tea and re-adjusted her position for the next couple hours of studying. Again, she became absorbed in the pages, her concentration only broken by having to turn the page, or stopping every so often to process something. Or when Rainbow Dash crashed into her balcony. However, the latter had become so commonplace Twilight just looked up at the cyan pegasus, not surprised in the least.  “Failed trick attempt?” Twilght asked. “Not really.”  “Applejack not sleeping again?”  “Nope.”   “Get pranked by Pinkie Pie?”   “Worse.”   “Then what?” Twilight was out of guesses. “Down at the hospital, our visitor woke up.”  Twilight smiled and closed her book. “Good, now we can find out more about him.” Rainbow Dash bit her lip and glanced around. Twilight frowned. “He didn’t take to waking up to well did he?”  “Yeaaahhh,” Dash said, “nopony is hurt, but he’s asked to speak with whoever brought him here. So they sent me to get you. You might want to hurry before he draws too much of a crowd.” “Right,” Twilight said, putting her books away and standing up. “And again, could you get Fluttershy?” Dash nodded, and soon picked herself up to find Fluttershy. Twilight went to fetch spike, because she wanted her assistant there to mark down notes for her while she talked to him. She went over the checklist in her head.   “Paper. Check. Quill. Check. Spike. Check.” With everything in order in her saddlebags, she began trotting out the door and down the street to the hospital. Coming up the path from the Everfree, Zecora and her companion entered town, going unnoticed for now. Several hours earlier... Vra’sta stood and stretched his lower back. He had recovered from his surgery earlier in the week, two weeks after he had crash landed. He was skeptical before, but Zecora was rather skilled. He was still alive, and all Zecora had to work with was guesswork and her past experience. When he asked her about it, he found out Zecora was a doctor in her home country, Zebrabwe, which had a past of petty tribal disputes and war. Much like the Draco homeworld. Vra’sta had taken a liking to her. It took some getting used to the way she spoke, but she was a fascinating individual. She carved all the decorations in her home herself, and he found the symbols beautiful. The ornate wooden faces were different then the carved rune posts of his home, but the principal was the same. But, after having his life saved, he wasn’t going to sit around and just take in the sights. Three days after he could move he had insisted that he repay her kindness in some way. So, after some persistence, he was helping her with minor tasks. Herb gathering, brewing, a bit of repair work on her house. Menial labor he would delegate to his subordinates, but it didn’t bother him to do it.   At the end of the week, also the end of the month, Zecora was headed into town to pick up supplies that she couldn’t get out in the forest. Vra’sta asked to go with her so he could help her, and so he could make his presence known. He was re-tying the blue stones into his red hair on his back when Zecora came to fetch him.   “What is that, if I may inquire, and any help do you desire?” Vra’sta turned to her, tying the last stone, a blue crescent, into his hair that started on his nek.   “No, if you can’t tie tribal markings yourself then it’s an insult to your tribe. It would be like changing your own stripes, or that mark on your flank.” Zecora walked around to his back to closer observe the adornments.   “These are awards, these stones of blue. Earning them yourself, your honor proved true.” “Yes, the ones with pointed designs are for courage, and the ones with rounded designs are for societal achievements. The crescent on my neck is for becoming Jitium, or tribal leader.”   “And the ones that are cracked, splintered, cored. What is it that those stand for?”  Vra’sta’s eyes became downcast, staring at the ground between his clawed feet. He held his right side, where among numerous battle scars, one stood out from the others. A pale circle, the exact diameter of a draco horn. “Those are for instances of dishonor or cowardice.” His voice was somber. Zecora opened her mouth to speak, but decided against it. Most don’t want to speak of something like that. “Well, let us get on our way. Best to start early to not take all day.” Her companion nodded, tying a red sash around his waist and up over his shoulder. In it he concealed his long knife. Zecora noted this but said nothing. If it maid him feel safe in unfamiliar territory, then he’d let him do it. As they started on the path towards town, Zecora kept glancing back. Her predatory companion worried her somewhat. But if he planned to make a meal out of ponies, he would have done it already. But he still had that look, she had seen it before in the more dangerous forest creatures, and those with grudges in her home country: The look that he was still hunting something.    Clark stared wide-eyed out the window. “No way,” he said to himself. Everyone, if that would be the proper term, in this town were horses. That could talk. And do human things. He turned back to the three nurse ponies in the room. Granted, he had seen a unicorn when he first emerged from the wreckage of his ship. But he attributed that to the shock of impact and the drugs his suits medical system had flooded his body with. On top of there being normal horses (if they could be called normal, he remarked) there were creatures from human mythology. Pegasi, Unicorns, and he had even seen a tiny dragon on the back of a unicorn.   “Okay, I give up,” He exclaimed, “where am I? Limbo, purgatory, hell?” The nurse ponies looked at each other, confused. “Uhhh, no,” Redheart replied. “You’re in Equestria. We’re sending the pony you asked for in here. Hopefully she’ll be able to answer some of your questions. Just relax, please. We’ll leave the room to you and her, let you sort things out.” Redheart and the other two ponies began slowly backing out of the room. Clark, realizing that his body wasn’t ready for anything as physical as his earlier activities, held himself steady before he lost his balance. As the ponies left, he lay back on the bed. He closed his eyes, sorting things out based on what he knew.   “Okay, aliens, that’s expected. But an exact same species that we have on Earth, and even creatures from mythology. There is no way this can be real.” He had heard something about inter-dimensional travel. That’s basically what happened when you go faster than the speed of light though, and since that was perfected, once you decelerate then you leave the subspace. Besides, falling into the gravity well from such a low velocity wouldn’t have been enough to send him faster than light. He shook his head, getting off topic. “Alright, doesn’t matter how I got here. How am I going to get back.” He twitched as he remembered something: the datapad Wilkerson handed him didn’t mention any signs of habitation....  A slight clopping caught his attention before he could dwell on that thought. He sat up slightly just in time to see a purple unicorn with a small dragon on it’s back. “Fuck,” he thought, “I’ll never get used to this.” Rainbow Dash was flying back into town after retrieving Fluttershy. Since it was less of an emergency this time, she left after the yellow pegasus had insisted she didn’t need help with anything. Her responsibilities for the day put behind her, she spiralled through the sky towards the ground, pulling away at the last moment, then looping through the air in wide circles, growing tighter and faster until she pulled her wings in completely and tumbled through the air. She spread her wings, catching the air and gliding down to a low hanging cloud, just above the center of ponyville. She smiled to herself, proud of her awesome flying skills. She took a look below her, down at the busy streets of Ponyville. A crowd was massing outside of the hospital due to the fast spreading news that the visitor would be awakening. The town had been buzzing about it ever since Twilight brought him back into town. But something on the other side of town caught her attention. It wasn’t a large crowd, but rather two ponies. Well, actually, one pony and something else. She dropped from the cloud, spreading her wings to glide towards ground. As she got closer, she saw that it was Zecora and what looked to be a Dragon companion, although it was taller than Zecora. But something was off about it, something that made her nerves twitch as she drew closer to ground. Dash landed, flapping her wings once to set herself gently on the ground. Zecora was busy looking through the produce at the stand, the creature putting the ones she picked out into her saddle bags. The vendor, as nervous as Dash was, stared wide-eyed at every move it made, wary of it. Dash approached from behind them carefully. A slight twitch ran through the creatures head, and it turned to face her. She stopped in her tracks as her gaze met its. It turned as Zecora said something and began walking further towards town, following the zebra on her chores.   “Uh, hey Zecora,” Rainbow Dash said, approaching nervously.   “Hello there Rainbow Dash,” Zecora replied cheerfully, “Down from the clouds to see me at last.” Zecora smiled at her, and over her shoulder, her companion eyed Dash.   “Yeah, well, I’m not trying to be rude, but, what is that,” Dash asked in her straightforward, blunt manner.   “My friend here is from quite far, found him in the forest, fallen from the stars.” Dash’s eyes flew open wider.  “Well that’s weird. Twilight found something outside of town that she said fell from the stars. It’s actually in the hospital right now.” Suddenly, the air grew tense, and Dash felt a twinge of regret for saying that. A low rumble reverberated from Zecora’s far side, drawing her and Dash’s attention. The creatures muscles bunched, and claws began to slowly emerge from its fingers. “Vra’sta...” Zecora began, but trailed off as it dropped to the ground on all fours and took off, running towards the hospital faster than anypony they had seen run. Dash looked at Zecora, both clearly confused, until the wheels of thought clicked in Dash’s mind. “Twilight’s with it at the hospital, and that thing is headed right towards them!” Instantly, she flew off, leaving a dusty rainbow in her wake.   Vra’sta’s eyes focused on the ground in front of him. His claws dug into the ground, propelling him forward as fast as his limbs could manage. It was clear now. He had noticed it when he first came to town, but that scent was muddled by every other scent around it, the scent he had smelt many times before. Blood, human blood. The scent grew stronger ahead, coming from the building outside of which was a massed group of ponies. He roared, clearing the way and jumped through the gap of frightened ponies. He ripped open the door, and stormed inside. Every part of him was focused on the hunt, and soon he would relish in his vengeance. “Hey there,” The purple unicorn said, slowly walking into the room. She kept her eyes fixed on Clark, though a slight smile was on her face. Her voice was light and sweet, and she was clearly female.   “Hi,” Clark responded. “So, are you the one sent to answer my questions?”  “Well, yes and no.”  “What do you mean?” Clark was seriously getting annoyed by the round-about-ness of everyone he had met so far.  “Well you see, I have some questions of my own, if you don’t mind answering them for me.”   “As long as I get some answers I’m fine.”   “Alright. First of all, who are you?”  “Captain Joseph Clark.” “Right.” She said, a levitating quill marking down something on a clipboard, also hovering in front of her.   “Who are you?”   “Just a second,” she said, focusing on her clipboard. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.” The only thing Clark could think was ‘Really?’   “O..kay...” Clark’s voice trailed off. “So where am I exactly?”  “Equestria. You pretty much crash landed here about four weeks ago. I happened to be out there to pull you out of the wreckage, then I brought you back to town where a friend of mine and the medical staff worked on you.”   “Well that explains why I’m still alive, even though by all my understanding of reality I should be dead. Then again, this place doesn’t exactly scream real.” “What do you mean?”  “You shouldn’t be real. We have equestrian breeds where I’m from, but they can’t talk, and they surely don’t have horns or wings. Things like that are just myths.”  “Fascinating. So where you’re from you have ponies?”   “Well, yeah, but pegasi and unicorns aren’t real.” “Do you have magic?”  “No, though it’s told of in myth.”  “Fascinating,” the Unicorn said. “Now, you can travel in space obviously. So, why were you above Equestria?” “My race was....is at war.”  “War,” the other asked, a look of confusion on her face. “At war with what?”  Clark opened his mouth to respond, but as he did, a roar emanated from outside, drawing his attention to the window and causing his interviewer to jump. Ponies dodged out of the way of a four legged beast barreling down the road at a breakneck speed, its eyes locked on the hospital. Its claws, like wicked knives, tore through the ground as its muscular arms and legs hurtled it towards its target. Twilight looked from the beast back to Clark, no sign of surprise visible on his face.   “With that.” Clark said simply, as if it was something that happened every day.
everydaydude	778	4	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Amongst the Stars	The lone survivors of a battle between their two races above Equestria find themselves stranded.	incomplete	-1	-1	<p>Humanity, in is need to expand its territory after acquiring faster than light travel soon encounters an alien race, the Dracos. After numerous territory conflicts with the Dracos, small skirmishes turned into all out war. The superior power and strength of the Dracos is matched by the cunning of the Human forces. Both sides are locked in a stalemate and desperately looking for a way to tip the balance. And one planet may have what they need.</p>	teen	2011-10-16T04:07:57+00:00	2011-10-16T04:07:57+00:00	979	Shin’vora walked hurriedly down the arched hallway, quickly approaching the central room, where the tribal leaders met. Usually, they would bicker amongst themselves about which tribe really owned what land, or whether or not old disputes from ages long past were a justifiable reason for conflict. But after the humans attacked a unified colony world, where members of every tribe had settled, and forced them off, the tribes had worked together against a common enemy, even though petty tribal disputes and ancient customs of war were still in effect. Such as you had to be the warlord and have your own fleet to command others. That was why she was here.   Shin’vora nodded slightly to the guards, their dual headed pole maces becoming uncrossed, granting her entrance to the chamber. She passed through a smaller, darkened hallway, the only light coming from behind her, a soft red, or in front of her, a slowly oscilating green. She dropped her head as she entered the room, feeling the gaze of the thirteen elders upon her. She did not bother to learn their names. She had no need, as it was disrespectful to call them by name.  “Rise.” A deep, rumbling voice said. She stood, her eyes passing over each one.   “State your business, Shin’vora of the the Sarege,” the one that commanded her to rise said.   “Elders of the Draco race, we are indeed in tough times. Despite repeated assaults, the human forces remains strong. But we can end this war once and for all.”  “How do you propose that?” A higher pitched voice asked. “We all know the best way to slay a beast is to strike its heart, the source of its life. In this case, their home.”  “Attack their home planet,” a cry went out, followed by heated, un-ordered discussion between them. It died as quickly as it started, and attention was returned to the speaker.   “We understand the need to end this war, but to attack their home planet? None of our forces have made it that far, it’s simply too well defended. We would need a force larger than any we’ve ever seen.”  “And I know where to get it.” Before they could respond, she pulled a data pad out of her pocket. “A planet sixteen lightyears into disputed space. It has enough resources to build a fleet that could easily storm the human defenses.” She keyed the datapad, uploading the information to the elders. “If I were to have a fleet I could secure this planet to give you such a fleet.” “It says that your father patrolled this part of space,” one of the elders said, turning towards her.   “Mantle duty,” another said. “Protecting another race from outside influence before it reached the stars. If we were to take these resources, wouldn’t that violate your father’s duty?”   “My father’s duty means nothing to me,” she said harshly. “He does our race no honor. I and my kin have excluded him from our bloodline. Besides, he and his ship was destroyed 3 solar cycles ago. He is dead, as are those that still followed him.” The elders collectively looked on in shock. Her dislike of her father was known, and his dishonor made him shunned or even hated, but he was still a capable warlord, regaining his position by proving himself. For him to die came as grave news because of that. “Your father only had one ship when he died, but had many more at his disposal. You have proved yourself a capable warrior and leader, and your tribe is loyal to you. His remaining ships are yours.” Shin’vora nodded and bowed in thanks. The elders bowed in return, and as such the meeting was over. She turned swiftly and took her leave, nodding once more to the guards as she left. She walked once more down the hallway, hands clutched tight, as if holding onto the power she now commanded. Clark jumped out of the way as the Draco dove through the doorway, crashing into his hospital bed. It regained its footing and dove at him once more, claws outstretched for him. Clark ducked, and rolled under. He could tell that he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long. He needed a weapon. He dodged another onslaught and shot up, using the precious few seconds to scan for anything he could use. He ducked as glinting claws tore through the air, barley missing the top of his hair. Having no other option, Clark dropped low and delivered two sharp punches to his adversaries midsection. It was like punching a tree trunk, and his hands stung. But the Draco fell back, his midsection still prone to flares of pain due to his haphazard surgery. Clark jumped back and in desperation flung his medical clipboard at the enraged alien. It spun through the air before it was swatted aside, nothing more than a minor annoyance. More objects sailed across the room. A cup shattered and spilled water, and a tray flew wide of its intended target, but still caused Vra’sta to duck. He stepped forward, bracing himself against whatever piece of junk would fly next. A rather large chair soared towards him next. He stepped back and covered his face with his right arm. The chair fell short, clattering on the ground and only barely tapping the aliens shins. He brought his arm down as a pillow flew towards his face.   “Seriously Clark? Is this the best you can do! This,” he held up the pillow yelling. “This is pathetic, even for a human.” Clark only responded with a wry smile. More rage boiled from inside the Draco, and, losing his head, he tore open the pillow above his head, roaring a bloodcurdling roar.... Until his mouth was full of feathers, sticking in his throat and choking him. He doubled over, coughing to get the foreign material out of his airway. His eyes couldn’t focus with all the movement around him, the feathers floating slowly to ground in a thick cascade. He coughed and slowly backed up so he wouldn’t be surrounded, sheathing his claws so he could pull the clumped material out of his throat. A wad of damp feathers was spat upon the floor. There was still some in his throat, but not enough to hinder him further. With the cascade of white finally subsiding, Vra’sta glanced around him. It was no more than a few seconds, but that’s all a good warrior needs to turn the battle his way, and while he hated him, he would admit Clark was a very good warrior. Clark was nowhere to be seen in front of him or behind him. Only a frightened unicorn and an unconscious baby dragon remained along with him. The commotion had attracted more attention, as the crowd outside had increased, and down the hallway some of the medical staff and two police officers stood. He tried to sniff, but could only sneeze due to the amount of feathers around his snout. “Coward,” he growled, his eyes, ears, and nose searching for any trace. Instead it was his skin that found his assailant, his hide screaming and sputtering blood as a sharp quill pierced the lair of scales behind his left knee, which were thinner to permit flexibility. The Draco stumbled forward whilst spinning, his right foot flying into the air and catching Clark on his shoulder, forcing him down to the ground with him. With a predatory growl, the larger alien flipped the human over him, then scrambled around, hooking a thick arm across his neck with the intent to squeeze the life out of him. A sharp blow was delivered to Clark’s midsection, making him cough up his last reserves of air. As Clark struggled in the grip of the scaly arm, his vision began to fade to black. After thirteen years of evading and fighting, tricking and out-maneuvering with Vra’sta, he had finally been caught up to. "Prey can't run forever," Vra'sta growled in his ear, his victory seeming secure. Twilight stared wide-eyed in fear at the clash in front of her. She had dove for cover after the beast crashed through the door and dove for Clark. She had been so surprised she just locked up, not moving during the whole encounter, and while it was short it seemed to move in slow motion. And now, Clark was in a death grip. Twilight knew enough about the predatory creatures of the world to know that it wouldn’t be long for him. It was wrong. Very very wrong. She couldn’t just let him die, even if there was some pre-existing dispute between these two that she had no business in, it didn’t justify murder! But what could she do? She was a tiny pony, and even with her magic, there were tons of variables involved: it wouldn’t work because they weren’t even from this planet, they could have a negative reaction to the energies, she could lose focus and putting too much energy into it, hurting them further. She bit her lip as the seconds crawled by, her thoughts zipping by at a million miles an hour.   “INCOMING!” A familiarly loud tomboyish voice called out from outside the window, breaking Twilight from her trance and attracting the attention of the two combatants. A cyan pegasus crashed through the window, the shards of glass reflected her trailing rainbow in a multitude of multicolored specks. Several things happened at once. Twilight jumped out of the way of the flying shards of glass, Spike diving under her for protection. Vra’sta shielded his eyes from the shards of glass, only to be caught on his snout from what he learned later was a hoof, but it might as well have been a cargo train, sending him sprawling, losing his grasp on Clark, who gasped for air on the floor.   The impact rattled Vra’sta’s bones, and his ears actually rang. He lay on his back, and opened his eyes slowly. His vision was clear, which was good, and he was greeted with a very angry looking blue pegasus. He blinked his eyes and slowly stood, drawing himself to his full height, standing tall enough to look down on his new attacker. His reptilian eyes met her rosy eyes, hers attempting to bore him into the ground. Her wings flared in an instinctual attempt at intimidation. Vra’sta was suddenly aware of a coppery taste in his mouth, and something hard scraping against his back teeth. He swished his mouth around, and spat out the foreign object in mixture of blood, saliva, and a bit of the remaining feathers. The curved white object hit once with a sharp knock, and stuck in the red frothy bubble. He felt around his mouth with his tongue, finding a gap in the front of his teeth. It wasn’t a big deal: Draco fangs grew back rapidly. However, there was just another obstacle in his way. He drew his arm back to backhand her out of his way... ..only to feel his arm jerked down by some unseen force. He stumbled forward as his legs slammed together and were bound together. As he fell his arms were lashed to his sides. He thrashed and struggled against his invisible bonds as he saw his opponent do the same, falling from where he stood, attempting to deliver a death blow against the constrained Draco.   They fell, their faces mere inches from each other, snarling and glaring all they could do, their bonds holding them in an invisible vice. Honestly, Rainbow Dash was scared out of her mind. First off, flying so low to the ground on such a busy day. With how fast she was going, if she hit anything it would’ve snapped her neck. Second, she had bust through a window. Her adrenaline was flowing at the time so she couldn’t feel any pain, but she knew she was cut up. Not badly, but it wasn't nothing. “Thank Celestia I’m in a hospital,” she thought jokingly to herself. However, as those feats stated before were dangerous, she had preformed more dangerous before. No, those were merely additions to the fear that she felt now, attempting to stare down this...beast. It stared right back, it’s face impossible to read. Rainbow’s wings shot up, trying to maker herself seem bigger than she really was. The beast merely spat, and raised it’s arm. Dash got ready to dodge, depending on which direction it would strike from. But she never got the chance. Her would be attacker was surrounded in a purple glow, his arm yanked to the ground, and then his side. Dash stepped back, folding her wings as she did so. She looked to her left to see a very focused Twilight, her horn aglow with magic as the sent out another spell to bind the beast. It fell the the ground with a loud thump as its legs failed it. Dash turned to face the other, to see him already fall to the floor, much like his counter part. A knife clattered out of his hand as he fell just in front of his enemy, bound in a similar fashion. They still struggled, but with another surge of magic, they slowly stilled. Twilight relaxed, the ambient purple glow vanishing. Twilight stepped over the now sleeping but still bound forms.   “Thanks Rainbow,” she said, “It all happened just so fast. One minute I was talking and then..that..came in trying to kill him. I didn’t know whether or not it would turn on me next, and I wasn’t able to move. If you hadn’t come in, well I don’t want to think about it.”   “No biggy,” Dash said, her voice ringing with confidence, “Element of Loyalty remember?” Her voice made it sound as if she just preformed a stunt she would pull on a daily basis. Since the commotion had died down, those that were waiting outside entered the room, albeit carefully. Nurse Redheart and the other two Nurse Ponies, along with an orderly, a large dark blue stallion wearing a white shirt, and two police officers, one white and the other steel gray. Dash shrinked back slightly as she saw the two officers.   “Sorry about the window there,” she said, her eyes shifting to the floor.   “After all that’s happened in here,” Redheart said, lighthearted despite the atmosphere. “The window is the least of my worries. Are you alright?”   Twilight nodded. “I’m fine, just a little shaken. I think spike feinted a while ago.”   “Yeah,” Dash chimed in. “I’m just a little cut up though. It’s those two I’d check out.” She jerked her head behind her.   Redheart nodded and with a jerk of her head the other two nurses began to make their way towards the unconscious two. The two officers behind her shifted their weight, and one began to speak.   “If their injuries aren’t too severe, we’d like to take them to someplace where they would be less of a danger.” He was met with a withering look from Redheart. He stumbled over his words, and shrank in his place slightly. “I mean, after you uh, finished treating them. If they need it. Yeah.” “Right...” Redheart understood their reasoning, but the well being of her patients, or any injured for that matter, came first. “For now, could you please deal with the crowd?” She motioned to what was left of the window, where what seemed all of Ponyville had gathered. The officers nodded in compliance and headed out to deal with the mass of ponies.   “So about how long will they stay that way,” Redheart asked.   “The magical bonds will fall off in about an hour, but they’ll be asleep like that for about twelve. Plenty of time to get the put somewhere safe.”   “Easily,” one of the other nurses said, “considering other than a shallow stab wound, some bruises, and a cracked rib between them both, it shouldn’t take much time to get them good again.” “Right. Well then let’s get to work. If you would excuse us please.” Redheart said as she walked past Twilight and Rainbow. Twilight shrugged, picked up what she could of her stuff and levitated spike onto her back, and walked out. Rainbow followed her.   “So any idea on what that was Dash?”   “A little. It came into town with Zecora. Seemed dangerous but it was calm and followed her. But it immediately ran for here when I mentioned that there was something from the stars as well. But I don’t know why it would.”   Twilight's mind clicked, remembering what Clark had said to her last. “Because they’re at war....” Twilight’s voice was so low Dash almost didn’t hear it.   “What?”  “When I was in there and talking to Clark, he mentioned that he crashed here because he was at war with whatever attacked him.” Dash was silent while Twilight continued. “But what could they want here? If they’ve achieved space travel then we can’t offer them any technology. Resources...no...soldiers...no..." Twilight stopped in thought. Realizing what would happen if she stayed that way for long, Dash sprung into action.   “Hey relax with the egg-head stuff for a while. At least until you’re back at the library.” Dash pushed open the front door with her hoof. The officers, with some help, had managed to disperse the crowd to a point where it was tolerable, but there was still a large amount of ponies out here. All eyes were on Twilight and Rainbow as they stepped out. If it weren’t for the two officers from earlier they would’ve been mobbed by a huge questioning crowd. Instead everypony just kept their distance, and parted as the pair left the scene.   Not much time had passed, so it was still late in the morning, and there were still a fair amount of daylight hours waiting. Despite that, Twilight felt tired. She was an early riser, yes, but that had never been a problem before, and the amount of magic she used today was still minimal compared to some other spells she’s done. As the ever powerful wheels of her mental processes spun, all Twilight wanted to do was go back to her room and go to sleep. She was vaguely aware of Dash saying something, by she was focused on her own thoughts. Her body was on auto-pilot for her house even though Dash was walking her there anyways.   “..and so do you want me to bring the girls over or not?” Dash finished speaking, the last line breaking Twilight’s focus.   “Not now Dash. I just feel really drained from all that, and I need a while to collect myself.”   “Oh..” Dash wasn’t hurt, but worried about her friend. But Dash knew enough to know that it was bothering her, and that it would be better not to push it. “Well, if you need us, just come get us.” Twilight nodded and magicked open the door to her home. As she closed the door behind her Dash had begun walking away but was still watching over her shoulder. Twilight smiled. Her friend meant best and she knew it, but she hadn’t been lying when she said she needed a moment. She lay spike down in his basket, his panicked feint giving way to a power nap. She turned to her desk, everything already set out for her to work. Her quill made a quiet clink as she dipped it in ink. She paused a few seconds, thinking on what she would write. The sound of scratching filled the room soon after.     Dear Princess Celestia,  Three weeks ago I sent you a letter detailing how an extra-terrestrial life form crashed here. He awoke today in good health and was able to answer a few questions (attached). However, it turns out another life form had crashed with him, and had appeared today as well. Then, there was an altercation. The two life forms races have been at war, and I fear it could now spill over into Equestria. I seek your advice, because I don’t know what to do.... Your Faithful Student,  Twilight Sparkle.   Twilight finished her letter, her mind drawing a blank as for what to put next. She decided it was enough and rolled it up along with the paper containing her interview with Clark. She put the scroll next to Spikes basket, a note that said “send when you awake” pinned to it. Twilight then headed upstairs and collapsed onto her bed, having had an incredibly short yet incredibly exhausting day.    Far above Equestria, there was a flicker as a narrow ship passed in front of the stars. A door on the underside opened, and five smooth objects were dropped, their oval shapes slowly falling towards the blue and green sphere below them. Plumes of blue flame shot out the back end of each, moving them further apart as they traced their path to their targets. They were slowly encased in flame as they entered the atmosphere, falling to ground to begin gathering necessary information. And, as quickly as the ship appeared, it turned and sped away, not ever have been known to be there.
everydaydude	778	5	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Amongst the Stars	The lone survivors of a battle between their two races above Equestria find themselves stranded.	incomplete	-1	-1	<p>Humanity, in is need to expand its territory after acquiring faster than light travel soon encounters an alien race, the Dracos. After numerous territory conflicts with the Dracos, small skirmishes turned into all out war. The superior power and strength of the Dracos is matched by the cunning of the Human forces. Both sides are locked in a stalemate and desperately looking for a way to tip the balance. And one planet may have what they need.</p>	teen	2012-06-17T07:48:09+00:00	2012-06-17T07:48:09+00:00	581	Celestia scanned over the letter that appeared before her in a burst of green flame. It was during a thirty minute pause between any appointments she had for that day, though she still remained in her audience chamber, seated upon her elevated throne, two ever present guards flanking the stairs leading up. As she read the scroll, her usually neutral face that she would put on during her court sessions turned to one of worry. She read it again, just to be sure. Using her magic to levitate a quill and a blank piece of parchment, she began her reply. The only sound that filled the spacious chamber was that of a quill scratching away, with the occasional clink of glass when she had to replenish the ink. When she was finished, the scroll was rolled away and disintegrated, floating away on a current of magic. When she finished, she began another letter, this time to someone who would be more practical if war did come. There was a soft chime as the thirty minute period ended, and the next petitioner entered the room. The letter swirled away on a stream of magic, much like the other, and seemed forgotten as the Princess turned to the task at hoof, her ever serious demeanor dictating her response once again. When Twilight woke up, the sun was still high in the sky, though was on its descent towards night. She stepped out of bed, found that spike wasn’t still asleep, much to her surprise, and headed downstairs. She heard activity in the kitchen, and with the gentle relaxing aroma of tea in the air, she could easily say that it was Spike making tea. That meant he hadn’t been up that long. As she reached the end of the stairs she saw a scroll on the table, as well as a cup of still steaming tea set out at her usual space. As she approached, levitating the scroll with her magic, Spike emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray with a tea pot and six cups. “Sleep well?” He asked, setting the tray on the table. “Yeah,” she said, opening the scroll but not paying any attention to it. “What did I miss?” “That scrolls came from the Princess earlier, and the rest of the girls are coming over to see if you’re alright after what happened.” “So that explains all the cups..” Twilight’s voice began to trail off as she read the reply. My Faithful Student, While this is quite shocking news to say the least, I have full faith in your abilities as a mediator. Equestria has been a nation of peace, but we are not strangers to war. I task to you, Twilight Sparkle, the bring understanding between these two, at least to the point where they will not be any more violence. When you are successful in that, bring them to my court, for I wish to know more about them. Additionally, make them feel welcome, as nothing likes to feel like an outsider. I have complete faith that you can do this, not for me, not for ponykind, but for their kind as well. War is kind to nothing. Do what you can to end it. Your dearest teacher, Princess Celestia. Twilight lowered the letter, sighing slowly. She closed her eyes and processed the information. It wasn’t what she expected, but at the same time it was: her mentor had a past history of tasking her with something difficult, and usually life threatening.... “What did it say?” Spikes curiosity broke her from her thoughts. “Oh,” Twilight scanned the letter again to make sure she got everything. “Wellll...she wants me to try and make peace between the two, while learning as much about them as possible.” Her and Spike just stared at each other for a few moments. “Well,” Spike started, unsure of what to say, “do, uh, you think that’s a good idea? You saw how desperately they wanted to kill each other.” “Well we also thought it would be impossible for Fluttershy to make a dragon cry.” “True, but this is different Twilight!” “How?” “They’re aliens. Ponies have been afraid of being taken away and invaded by them for years!” “And other than them being from space, what is different from any other danger we’ve encountered?” “Well, they’re dangerous.” “Like that dragon?” “Well yeah, but we aren’t sure what all they can do.” “Just like Discord.” “Well yeah, but-” “Spike I’m not afraid of facing them. The only worry I have is if I can’t resolve this conflict. Other than that I have nothing to worry about.” “Okay Twilight,” Spike began filling the other tea cups that he had spaced around the table. “Just be careful, okay?” “Don’t worry. I already have a plan.” Her statement was punctuated by a self satisfied smile. Their attention was grabbed by a knocking at the door. “I’ll get it,” Spike said, “It must be the girls.” “Good,” Twilight said, levitating a quill and a piece of parchment over to the table. The door opened revealing the faces of her five friends. “Have a seat. We have some planning to do.” The five exchanged curious glances with each other before directing their gaze towards the seated member. “Uh, Twi,” Applejack spoke up, “You sure you’re feeling quite right? I mean, that little hospital visit of yours couldn’t have been too settling for ya.” “Really darling,” Rarity spoke, raising a hoof, “It can’t be good for you to be going back to the two p-..things that nearly cost you your life!” Twilight waved that off with a hoof. “Oh please, they just caught me off guard after all. Besides, I never was really in danger: they were too intent on fighting each other to notice me.” Rarity and the others exchanged glances. “Besides,” Twilight continued, “I have a plan that would instill peace between them and make them welcome in our society for however long they’ll be here.” “Alright, if you’re sure bout this being a good idea,” Applejack said, “what’s the plan?” “First step, is I go talk to them where they’re being held.” “About what?” Rainbow Dash Inquired, “Didn’t you talk to one of them earlier?” “Yes but not the other, and this time they’ll both be there so they can both respond. It’s better that way.” “Alright, and then what?” “We release them.” Twilight elaborated after getting shocked looks from her friends. “Only temporarily, and under watch, and they’ll be separated.” “And why in the hay are you gonna release them?” Applejack asked, confused. “Well, that way we can show them around town, introduce them to pony society. My theory is that if they’re exposed to the peaceful nature of ponyville long enough, that that in conjunction with my sessions talking and gaining understanding with them will eventually bring about a peaceful solution to their conflict.” “Awefully trustin’ of ya Twi.” “I trusted you when you told me to fall off of a cliff.” “Well you was gonna be safe, but how can we tell with these....aliens?” “I’ll be fine Applejack. And if things do get violent, I always have my magic. I’m pretty sure I can whip up a spell that’ll put them to sleep if they become too aggressive.” “Oooh! OOOhh!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down where she stood. “Find out if they like cupcakes!” Twilight chuckled, having little doubt that her pink friend was already planning out a party. That was good: if one was willing to get behind her plan, then the others surely will. Slowly they discussed exactly how they would carry out Twilight’s plan. Only one face remained frowning during the discussion. Rainbow Dash growled inwardly, still wanting to buck those two in the face, despite what Twilight said. Clark shot up with a jolt, hitting his head on something hard and flat. He grunted in pain, his joints still stiff, and rubbed his head. “Careful human,” A deep voice reverberated somewhere to his right, causing Clark to snap his head towards it. “Wouldn’t want you to be felled by a bed now would we?” “I’m gathering you can’t reach me in any way because i’m miraculously intact,” was his response. He glanced around his immediate surroundings. He was in a wide room, and he now sat on a wooden platform longer than he was tall and wide enough to lay two of him side by side. Above it was an identical board, both being set into the wall at his left. The wall and floor were stone, and the only light was of a single light source in the hallway, which lay beyond their line of sight. As his eyes adjusted, he was able to discern Vra’sta, chained to the floor but thick iron links. Parts of them gleamed, evidence of attempts to claw out of them. Now, he just sat there, silent and immobile, his slitted eyes tracking every one of Clarks movements. “Well, you just going to give me the death stare or do we have any interesting conversation?” “I have no plans to make conversation with you, glorified simian.” “You’re terrible company.” “That doesn’t bother me.” “Come on! We’re in the same boat here, in case you haven’t noticed. And if they boats sinking you gotta go down together.” “I’d hold your head under the water.” “You know i’ve always wondered what I exactly did to make you, specifically, hate me so much. I’ve defeated plenty of Draco commanders, what makes you so special?” “You committed the gravest dis-honor a Draco could face.” “I thought defeat was.” “No you ignorant ape! I was defeated in a klextal blestar,” Vra’sta paused, then explained. “An end duel. You and your opponent are on the verge of death, and you fight with what you were born with. Claws, horns, teeth, hands. And you defeated me, but you did not grant me a death.” The Draco gritted his teeth, audible to the human sitting several feet away. “Instead you captured me, when I was unable to fight. You displayed me, paraded me. I was your trophy and your reason for receiving such a position!” Clark sat, listening in silence, his face unreadable. “For that, when I escaped and returned I was stripped of my title. My mane was burned off, every talisman and trophy torn out beforehand. My honor blade was smashed in front of me. My brothers and sisters turned their backs upon me, and my only surviving daughter revoked my name from the clan history.” Small glints of water gleamed on the warrior's eyes, before building and rolling down his reptilian snout. “I only regained part of my power, through ruthless and brutal fighting. I was lucky to be able to acknowledged as a Draco because I was still a formidable fighter. But I can not go to my grave without rectifying my shame.” Clark sat in silence for some time. The cell was heavy with silence. It was more oppressive than the chains and bars that locked the two in place, and more foreboding than the dark between the stars. “So,” Clark finally said, his voice dangerously low. “What happend on Scillian is why you hate me? Good, at least we share that.” Clark fished around in his clothing until he was able to produce a small square of paper. “My reasons for hating you are on this.” He tossed it, the small square fluttering down until it landed within reach of the draco. He turned it over, his claws sheathed to avoid tearing it. The picture was of a young looking, auburn haired woman with two identical looking auburn haired boys standing in front of her. She waved to whoever was taking the picture while the two boys saluted. They were all smiling broadly. On the back, in tight flowing script was written “Be brave daddy! Love Audra, Chance, and Jacob.” “Your kin?” Vra’sta asked bluntly. “Family. Wife and sons. Killed in the initial strike on Scillian.” “I had no part in that.” “They were your soldiers!” Clarks voice raised angrily. “Your orders! I already killed the ones who butchered them, but you're responsible for theirs and countless other innocents death on that planet!” “It was not my intent!” Vra’sta shouted, standing as high as the chains would allow him. Clark shouted back, anger adding power to his voice. “If it wasn’t your intent to kill than why go to war?” “I went to war to protect my people from you pestilent humans!” “The Dracos were tearing themselves apart, your race would always look for an excuse for war!” “Your people fired the first shot!” “On a military installation encroaching on declared terran space! You wiped out a civillian population center!” “We were attacking the garrison! It was not our intent to be drawn into the city and wage war there!” Clark calmed, but stood as defiant as we was. In an even tone with an inflection of arrogance, he stated, “Yeah, well it wasn’t my intent to leave you alive either, but look what happened. War’s a bitch like that, isn’t it?” Spectre one made camp on the southern slope of the mountain range his Personal Tactical Insertion Pod had landed in. To the west of him, a sprawling city clung to the mountain side. He had observed it from a safe distance for the past couple hours. He could not accurately make out its denizens from his distance, but he could make out four legged figures walking in the streets, hauling wagons, or occasionally flying in from above to land on one of the many high reaching towers. Tomorrow, he told himself, he’d move in closer, keeping out of sight. That wouldn’t be a problem for him, his suits armor upgraded with a chameleon effect, but his training told him to not rely on that. If he was spotted he was order to eliminate witnesses. Worry gnawed at the back of his mind. He was here to scout military positions and likely areas of resistance, but all he could see in the city was general civilian activity, even if it was non-human. Besides, he had seen no evidence of mass transportation, other than a few railroad tracks leading away from the city. That meant this civilization couldn’t be beyond tier 5. Spectre one leaned back under the rock face, opening his ready to eat food ration. Wilkerson was a weird one, he thought to himself. Just what was he planning now that he commanded the 76th expeditionary force? The stealth soldier glanced at himself, his guns, and back into the mountain where his PTIP sat. “Doesn’t look like peace,” He said out loud, sighing. “That’s for sure.” With a puff of smoke and a hiss the scroll popped into existence at the talons of Grynn Grulflock. The grizzled griffon king took the scroll and read it. His eyes read and re-read the sheet of parchment, as if trying to figure out exactly what they said. Finally, sighing, he set the scroll down. “What’s the matter Khan Grynn?” One of his guards asked him. The griffon king gave a short laugh. “Nothing major, except I believe my old friend Celestia has gone insane with immortality.” He rose from his old, scarred throne. “I’ll be heading to Equestria to check on her.” “Right now Khan?” “Yes right now? In the years you’ve served me when have you known me to wait? Especially on those I call friend? Now, quit dallying, inform the steward.” The griffon adjusted his badges of office, a red patch of cloth and a broadsword strapped to his back. He stepped out of his hall, onto a balcony which overlooked a great drop into a cavern below. “You intend to go without a guard?” “If I wanted a guard I would have asked for one. I’ll return in a few days Orlak.” With those words, the Griffon king launched himself into the air, wings propelling him quickly down and south. The high winds buffeted him, but he stayed on course, eyes narrow with determination. The contents of the scroll had bothered him very deeply.
Vicron	779	1	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2011-12-31T17:47:12+00:00	2013-01-14T04:47:31+00:00	2,297	Fine, seeing as people have apparently been ignoring me. I'm editing the grammar in the first three chapters, but I will not be editing the content. Dimensional Chronicles Part 1 the Brute Prologue Celestia was panicking; she had used her most powerful magic’s, even abilities banned by law and good old morality. This scar riddled “thing”, she could no longer give it any sort of title, was completely unfazed it even looked a bit bored. How, how was a creature that wore an eye-patch and bells to give its enemy an advantage, something that let her run it through just as a handicap, defeating her so soundly. She was a god, but here she was cowering even though she had not been hit even once, cowering from a being that looked about as far below her as anything could get with what looked like the “soul reaper” version of pinkie pie cheering it on. “What are you?” Celestia asked, fear written in her voice like words in stone. “Silly he’s Zaraki Kenpachi,” the pink haired one said cheerfully. “I told him you wouldn’t put up much of a fight but he was too bored here to listen to me. Oh well, it was still fun to watch. Go Kenny!” “Tch, I figured, seeing as you raise the sun around here, you would be more powerful. I doubt you even got the rust off this thing.” He brandished his sword, “oh well,” he lifted it to take off her head. “Maybe the real power in this place will respond to your death.” He brought down the sword, Celestia braced herself for death, but the blow never came. There was the blip of blood hitting the tile. “Finally,” Kenpachi said gleefully. Celestia opened her eyes and got a face-full of star studded tail. Oh no, she thought, How did it come to this? Two Days Earlier: “Come on spike.” Twilight said impatiently. “I want to get to the crater before it causes too big of a stir.” A meteor had fallen from Luna's sky last night. Meteors were known as bits of the space beyond Celestia and Luna’s control; so whenever one landed it caused quite the fuss. “Ready,” Spike yelled, jumping on Twilights’ back. “I still don’t see what the big deal is it’s just a rock.” “From outer space,” Twilight explained, “as old as Celestia but even she knows nothing about it.” Twilight beamed with wonder, “and the place it came from is even older and full of secrets even the princess’ can’t get to.” They walked through town. It was early in the morning and most ponies out this early kept to themselves; so there was not much talking. The crater was about halfway to Fluttershy's hut outside of town. The walk was uneventful so they were at ease until they looked over the edge of the crater. At the bottom were three strange bipedal beings, two giants, one lying on its face in a pool of blood. Another, sitting on its hindquarters, some sort of cloth wrapped stick resting on its shoulder as it regarded the wounded one with no emotion. And one about the same size as Twilight, beaming up at the sitting giant with a smile on its face. The face-down one was wearing what looked like a giant spoon over its head, so Twilight couldn't see its face, but it was wearing a white robe with black lines running down its arms and legs. The one with the stick wore a white tattered panchoish’ garment over a one piece black robe thing and an eye-patch on its right eye. It had a scar that ran the length of its face next to its left eye and wore its black hair up in eleven spikes, each tipped with a bell. The small one wore just the black one piece and had pink hair. “Well that’s not a rock,” Spike piped up, apparently rousing the big one from staring at the wounded one. It babbled something in a language Twilight didn’t understand, which was impressive, Twilight knew over thirty used languages and five dead ones. “Umm, hello, do you speak equestrian?” Twilight asked slowly; the big one made a noise around the lines of. “Eh?” “Just a second,” Twilight said, her horn started to glow. “Reiatsu?” the big one said. Twilights’ horn flashed, bathing all three strangers in light. “What the hell?” The big one yelled, pulling something metal halfway out of the cloth. “Yes it worked” Twilight said triumphantly. “Kenny the little horsey can talk.” The small one pointed at Twilight “And use Kido. This place may be worth my time after all.” “Kido?” Spike asked, puzzled. “That must be what they call magic.” Twilight responded, “hello,” she called down the side of the crater. “I am Twilight Sparkle and this is Spike. Who and, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you?” “I’m Yachiru,” the pink one said, smiling despite the fact that she was standing on the wounded one. “That’s Zaraki Kenpachi and the one I’m standing on is Nnoitora. Kenny and I are soul reapers the one I’m standing on is an arrancar.” “Okay I’m happy to meet you Zaraki-” “Call me Kenpachi.” He grunted. “sure; Kenpachi, Yachiru. But we really should get your friend there to a hospital.” Twilight winced as she looked down at the wounded one. "No need, he’s dead.” Yachiru yipped. “Wh-what!? How, did he break your fall?” Twilight marveled for a second over the fact that she almost instinctively knew that these three were not of this world. “No, I didn’t need him to.” Kenpachi said, brushing dust off his sleeve. “Then how-” “Silly horsey; Kenny killed him.” Yachiru said, psychotic glee lighting her eyes menacingly. “He was a bad man so Kenny took him down. It was really fun to watch.” Twilight was shocked by how easy it was to tell she really had enjoyed watching the robed one die. “S-surely he could have been reasoned with.” Twilight stuttered. “I guess.” Kenpachi said, standing up, “but I was never any good at that.” As the soul reaper stood up Twilight saw just how beat up he really was. There was blood staining his white ‘overcoat’, Twilight didn't know what else to call it. He had a hole punched in his stomach and gashes along his shoulders and arms. “Oh my; we need to get you to a doctor.” Twilight said, worried against her better judgment. “Can you walk?” “Of course I can.” He sounded stung, as if the innocent, concerned question was an insult. “Then come with me. Now, let’s see, the hospital is on the other side of ponyville.” Twilight looked at Kenpachi again, “and they probably wouldn’t know what to do with you anyway. I know, Fluttershy! Come on.” She took off at a full gallop and was amazed at how easily Kenpachi and Yachiru were keeping up with her. She had planned to have Fluttershy meet them halfway so she would have time to brace herself. They arrived at Fluttershy’s cabin and Twilight knocked on the door. Fluttershy opened the door, yawning groggily. “Oh Twilight, it’s you,” she looked behind Twilight at the other two, “a-and you brought new friends.” She started trembling. “I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning Fluttershy, but the big one needs your help.” Twilight gestured at Kenpachi, who was standing as empty faced as when he had sat in the crater. Upon seeing his wounds Fluttershy went from terrified to protective. “Oh my, you poor thing; I’ll have to get right to work.” She hurried him inside. “You two are going to want to stay out here,” with that she ducked in after Kenpachi. “So Yachiru,” Twilight said, attempting smalltalk to pass the time. “Kenpachi sounds like a title; what does it mean?” “It means he’s the strongest soul reaper; he had to kill the last guy to get the title” She responded, smiling. “Kill for a title; but isn’t that wrong?” “Wrong?” Yachiru said blankly, her face empty, but it wasn’t like Kenpachi, where it was obvious he was trying to get a handle on where he was. This was as if a mask had fallen away and beneath it was an endless chasm. “Don’t worry, Kenpachi doesn’t fight the weak.” And just like that the cheerful disposition was back. “You’re the third strongest thing we’ve sensed since we got here.” “What’s the strongest?” Twilight hazarded. “Nnoitora's dead body.” Twilight was shocked; Kenpachi was strong enough to take down a creature whose dead body was stronger than Celestia. Just the thought of something that powerful made Twilight shudder in fear. “Shwoom!” the windows of Fluttershy’s cabin were blown out as the entire cabin was swathed in yellow light. The ground and wind shuddered as if they were being battered by whatever was causing the light. “Looks like Kenny let her see his eye.” “Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled, barging through the door. Fluttershy was cowering against a wall from Kenpachi, who was almost blocked from view by the yellow energy. It was crushing, Twilight could hardly move under the pressure, the pure intent to kill terrified her and she had the almost overwhelming urge to run, but Fluttershy could be in trouble. “What happened?” Twilight yelled as she struggled to walk to Fluttershy. “I don’t know.” Fluttershy shouted. “I had just finished patching up his wounds, only the appendix was hurt by whatever punched a hole in him, thank goodness and the rest of it wasn’t as bad as it looked. It was an easy fix, but then I tried to remove the eye-patch to see if I could help with his eye, I unlatched the patch and it flew off flew off. Next thing I know I’ve been flung against this wall with ‘that’ staring me down.” Twilight looked up, the energy swathing Kenpachi was shaped like a massive skull, glowering and straining to get at them. It was as if his very essence wanted to kill them. Something flew out from the rubble that had been the floor, it landed on Twilight’s leg as she clutched Fluttershy in fear. It was the patch. Twilight felt a pricking pain and a sudden rush of power, it was as if liquid fire was being injected into her veins. It was incredible and painful, she clutched at Fluttershy even harder to keep from crying out as she was blinded by the mounting power. She didn’t see or feel Kenpachi walk up to them. “Sorry, that’s mine.” He said, peeling the patch off her leg. The power stayed but she got control over it rather quickly. Her vision cleared and she saw Kenpachi, not four inches from her horn, grinning from ear to ear. He was so close to her but she didn’t feel crushed by his power, more slightly pressured by it. The patch was still off, the power was still there, Fluttershy had fainted strait away because he was this close. It just wasn’t effecting Twilight as much anymore. “Does it feel good?” Kenpachi asked. “Huh?” Twilight blinked, trying to clear her head. “I’ve forgotten what it feels like to discover untapped power, power beyond your wildest dreams. So tell me, how does it feel?” Twilight thought for a second, but the newfound power surged slightly, breaking her train of though with jagged pain. “It hurts.” She choked out, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Do you know what this is?” He held up the eye-patch, which seemed to be flailing in his hand. “It’s a seal that devours the excess energy I put off, but it’s gotten too used to the level of power I put off. So, if it latches onto anyone else, it breaks any seals put on them and unlocks any hidden power, pushing them as close to my power level as they can get." Kenpachi shrugged, "don’t ask me how it works, Korutsuchi designed it.” He put the patch back on, “congratulations, you are now the most powerful thing I’ve sensed since I got here.” He turned to walk away. “Oh, and just so you know, if I had so much as touched your friend there she would have died.” Twilight struggled to move, her body was not used to handling this level of power. She laid Fluttershy’s’ head down as gently as possible and turned to clean up the mess Kenpachi had made; the pain was starting to fade. She used her magic to fix the floor and the windows, with surprising ease, normally doing either one of those tasks would take all her concentration. Now it was as easy as levitating a book, even Celestia had trouble reforming things that had been as effectively shattered as the cabin. She was obviously still far below Kenpachi, as she reflected on this she found herself able to fully comprehend how strong he must be. This creature was a threat to everything and everypony in Equestria and she had to keep him occupied. The pain also disappeared while using her magic, as if it was a manifestation of sealed away and pent up energy. She ran out after Kenpachi. “If you need somewhere to stay I can think of two places.” Twilight said “Really?” Yachiru said, bored and sarcastic. “Well yes, either my library or Applejack’s farm.” “I’ll go with the farm,” Kenpachi said, “I never liked libraries.” “Okay, but we’ll have to get her permission.” She paused for a second, “say Kenpachi?” “Yes.” He grunted. “Why do you carry that stick?” “It’s not a stick it’s my sword, my Zanpakto.” He looked at it apologetic affection in his eyes. “It’s the only weapon I would ever use.” Twilight was trying to be nice to these two, but they made her increasingly uneasy. Kenpachi's power and Yachiru’s empty eyes terrified her and Kenpachi’s apparent affection towards a weapon, a killing tool, disturbed her. She decided to make up some rules. “You know we have some important rules around here.” “Eh?” Yachiru jerked her head over. “One, you cannot carry that sword, two you cannot attack anypony, three do your best not to scare anypony and four, for the love of Celestia, do not remove that eye-patch.” Twilight listed off “I refuse to give up my sword.” Kenpachi's hand tightened around his weapon. “Fine then, just don’t let on it is a sword.” Twilight took him through the outskirts of town to make sure he didn’t cause much trouble. “Is everyone here a pony?” Yachiru asked loudly, as if daring something that wasn't to come out. “Pretty much,” Pinkie Pie seemed to pop out of thin air. “There are some dragons and griffins around here too. But you’re the first two Soul Reapers I’ve seen since Unahana.” “Pinkie Pie, how do you know about Soul Reapers?” Twilight asked. “Oh, I had one living in my basement for two days once, said she was a third seat; whatever that means." Pinkie rambled. "More importantly who’re these two? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone with an eye-patch and bells; he’s like a musical pirate.” “He’s Zaraki Kenpachi,” Yachiru said, peeking over Kenpachi’s’ shoulder. “And I’m Yachiru. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with hair as pink as mine.” She smiled calmly, without the usual psychotic glint. “Well you have now,” Pinkie chimed with her usual manic vigor. “Hey, do you like sweets?” “I love ‘em” Yachiru chirped. “I work in a sweet shop, wanna help me make cupcakes?” “Sure; Kenny make sure you get us that room.” Yachiru yelled, jumping off of Kenpachi and running after Pinkie, laughing playfully. “That was.... different.” Kenpachi said, obviously confused. “Pops out of thin air and has next to no Reiatsu.” “That’s Pinkie Pie for you. Now lets get you that room.” Twilight smiled, if Pinkie liked her Yachiru couldn’t be that much trouble, but she was still more than a little worried about Zaraki. Every time he looked at her since the patch ‘unlocked’ her, it was with an unsettling smile. “I noticed that when you were with that Fluttershy or Pinkie you got stronger." Kenpachi grinned. "If there were three more your power would double. Why is that?” Twilight sensed a trap. “I would rather not tell someone of your… persuasion. Oh look, we’re here” Twilight dodged further questioning as they entered the grove. Applejack seemed to have started her work for today. The second Kenpachi stepped into the tree line they started to visibly grow, surprising Applejack. “What in tarnation!?” She yelled as a root burst from the earth beneath her hooves, launching her into the air. She landed on her back and looked up at Twilights’ concerned face. “Well, that’s new. Oh hey Twi’, who’s your friend?” “He’s Zaraki Kenpachi, and he has some explaining to do.” Twilight said accusingly. “Looks like they like me.” He snickered, Applejack tilted her head in curiosity, but laughed at the little joke. “Ah’ beg yer pardon but what exactly are ya’?” Applejack asked, picking herself off the ground. “I’m a soul reaper.” “He needs a place to stay, and judging by what just happened, I doubt my tree would be suitable.” “Well anypony who the trees like so much is free to stay with the Apple family." She chuckled a little at her reference. “Heck ya’ll could help with the harvenstin’, ya’ look strong enough.” “Just make sure not to hurt anything.” Twilight glared at Kenpachi. “And make sure to keep that thing sheathed.” She pointed a hoof at his sword. “Fine, sheesh, you’re worse than Soi Fon.” Kenpachi said, annoyed. “You know, you two would get along nicely; she’s a killjoy too.” Applejack laughed. “Pleased to have ya’ stayin’ Zarak-” “Please, call me Kenpachi.” Kenpachi waved her off. “How bout’ Kenny?” “Sounds good to me.” “Well Kenny, ah’m Applejack, ah’ll show ya where ya’ll be staying. Ah’m afraid we don’t have any beds in yer’ size, so ah’ hope ya’ll like sleepin' on hay.” “Sounds good, I usually sleep with my back against a wall.” As they walked to the barn Twilight kept a careful eye on Kenpachi. “Don’t worry,” he said blankly over his shoulder. “You’re the only one strong enough around here for me to even consider fighting.” He smiled but it dropped from his face. “Well you and that unicorn with the Lyre.” Now it was Twilight’s turn to be confused. A lyre, she didn’t personally know anyone who carried a lyre around with them. “To be perfectly honest I have no idea why Yachiru didn’t notice her, the only other person she couldn’t sense was captain Unohana...” He trailed off, stopped in his tracks and started grinning like a madman. “Kenny?” Applejack said nervously. Kenpachi’s’ hand slowly started to make its way to his swords hilt. “Kenpachi, remember the rules.” Twilight said testily. The smile fell from his face like a ton of bricks and he sighed. “I would be having so much fun if I could just ditch you.” But it came back. “By the way your power is up again, that’s three, where are the other two?” Twilight started to panic, who knew what this reaper would do if all six of them were together. Just then there was a sound like a bullet that filled the air, Rainbow Dash crashed headfirst into Kenpachi, who didn’t move an inch. She slid down his chest slowly until she fell off his stomach. “Stupid light speed barrier.” She grunted through gritted teeth. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Kenpachi staring down his nose at her. He looked up at Twilight. “Four?” He asked, pointing down at Dash with a confused look on his face. Twilight winced. “Yep you’re number four.” He picked her up by her tail. “So, who’s the fifth?” “Get off me!” Rainbow Dash yelled, straining against Kenpachi’s’ grip. Applejack was laid out laughing at this point. It took about five minutes of straining before Dash gave up. “Look,” Kenpachi said impatiently, “your friend here is the most powerful thing I’ve felt since I got to this damn rock. Judging by her reaction she has five boosters to her power. That pink and yellow pegasus Fluttershy, the Pinkie Pie Yachiru ran off with, Applejack here and you. Where is the fifth.” “If I tell you where Rarity lives will you let me go?” Kenpachi dropped her like a sack of potatoes. “Ow." Dash rubbed the back of her head where it hit the ground. "She lives in a fashion boutique on the edge of town.” Kenpachi grinned playfully, sensing an opportunity to ditch Twilight. “Race you there.” He challenged. “Oh you’re on.” They were both off before Twilight had a chance to blink. “Oh great,” Twilight groaned, running after them. “Twi’, hahahaha, wait.” Applejack yelled, trying to catch her breath. “Ah just got an image of Kenny ,hahahaha, in one of Rarity's dresses.” She descended into a laughing fit and Twilight ran off. -------------------------------------- By the time Twilight got to the Carousel Boutique it was obvious they had been there for a while. Yachiru, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were on the roof, looking through the skylight and giggling. Pinkie was passing around a bag of popcorn. Twilight opened the door. Inside, Rarity was hard at work, taking measurements of Kenpachi, who she had managed to strip down to nothing but his bandages and a strange undergarment worn around the waist apparently to block the groin from view. She had brought down his hair into a more orderly fashion, something most would call a mullet. The eye-patch was still there but, judging by the shattered mannequins and glass, she had attempted to remove it. He looked about as angry as that Manticore that had the thorn in its paw. Rarity started fitting a sleeve for him. Kenpachi spotted Twilight. “Number five is a pain in the ass!” He growled at her. “Silence you barbarian.” Rarity snapped at him. “Umm Rarity what are you doing?” Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her. “Outfitting this one with something more civilized; he just barged in here in those disgusting robes.” She pointed at the robes crumpled in a corner, “and his hair up in those horrid spikes, so I demanded that he let me do something with him. He didn’t want me to but I insisted.” “She whined her face off,” Kenpachi interjected. “It was more painful than getting this scar.” He pointed to the scar across his eye. “Without the fun of battle.” “Silence ruffian!” Rarity said. “Well I never, such a violent being; wherever did you find him?” She got back to work as she talked. “The bottom of a crater.” Twilight said flatly. “Figures,” Rarity huffed, “how else would his cloths get that beat up?” She finished sizing a sleeve and cut off the excess. “Although his bipedal form makes creating an ensemble for him quite simple; but just look what that eye-patch did to my shop.” “You’re the one who tried to take it off.” Kenpachi snapped back, “ow!” He yelled as she poked him with the needle. “Just be glad I let you keep your bells.” She had, they were attached to the sleeves she was currently fitting. The rest of the assembly was rather slow, done by the time the sun started setting. Kenpachi walked out of the boutique irritable and tired. “Wow Kenny, you look great.” Yachiru said, jumping off the roof onto Kenpachi’s’ back. “Shut up!” He snapped, but made no move to knock her off his back. “I’m going back to the farm.” “What’s his problem?” Rainbow dash asked. “He really does look great.” “He just wasn’t expecting Rarity to be so... well, Rarity.” Twilight laughed. "She's like a female Ayasegawa!" Kenpachi screamed. "And I thought the bastard was annoying as a soul reaper!" -------------------------------------- Dear Princess Celestia: I made a new acquaintance today, his name is Zaraki Kenpachi. He worries me. He is insanely violent, barely able to keep his hands off his “Zanpakto” as he calls his sword. I would like to schedule a meeting for him to see how he reacts to you, but as scientifically intriguing as that is it seems like a very bad idea. Being around beings he considers powerful seems to excite him considerably. Sincerely, your student; Twilight Sparkle P.S. he seems to have figured out the Elements of Harmony’s effect on me making him quite unstable around me. P.S.S. He mentioned an insanely powerful unicorn with a Lyre, could you please look into this?
Vicron	779	2	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2011-09-08T07:43:55+00:00	2013-01-14T04:22:06+00:00	1,931	Dimensional Chronicles Part two The Journey/Confrontation Day Two: Twilight was woken up by spike jumping on her bed with a scroll in his hand. The scroll had the royal seal on the ribbon. “Well that was fast.” She opened the letter. My faithful student Twilight Sparkle; Your new friend does sound a tad unsettling. I believe you are right in your caution, but we always did say that hubris would be the death of us both. I would like you to bring him in for an audience, but on the way here I would like you to get as much information out of him as possible, to understand what makes him so violent; report this information to me upon your arrival. Your friend and teacher Celestia. P.S. Be careful with him, try not to be near all your friends around him. P.S.S. I did a little digging and found out who this lyre pony is; she is an agent of my sister named Lyra, recorded as the most powerful of her disciples. She seems to have fallen a bit out of favor by getting married and allowing less of her time to be dedicated to her work. This means nothing more than she is apparently no longer the go to mare Twilight rolled the letter back up and placed it on her bedside dresser. “Well spike,” she said, “we’re going to Canterlot.” She got up, fixed her hair and ran to Pinkies’ house as that was the closest of her friends’ houses. Later, Twilight would admit what she did next was a terrible idea. “Hey Twilight,” Pinkie said enthusiastically. “How’s Yachi’?” “Yachiru is fine, but I’m going to need your help.” Twilight responded, “we’ve been summoned to Canterlot, but Kenpachi is too big for a chariot so we have to go on foot. I want our friends to help run security.” “Okie dokie loki,” Pinkie said quickly. “I’ll get Rarity and Fluttershy, you can get Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” “We’ll meet back here, and there’s one more pony I would like to have help, Lyra.” “You mean Bon-Bon’s wife?” Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “I guess. I didn’t know who she was married to.” Twilight shrugged. “Good luck with that," Pinkie waved her off, "Bon-Bon is very protective. You don’t even wanna know what she did to that Parasprite that ate her and Lyra’s pie.” She shuddered slightly. "Scary stuff girl..." Twilight stared at her for a second. “Okay... I’ll manage, remember to ask Fluttershy to wait outside a window.” “Got it. But why ask Fluttershy to wait outside.” “Safety reasons.” Twilight half lied, she didn't want someone telling Kenpachi she was taking precautions. “Okay,” they ran to get the others. -------------------------- Twilight ran to get Rainbow Dash first. “Rainbow Dash!” She yelled. “What, what!” Dash yelled, rousing herself from a nap. “I need your help, I’ll explain at Sugarcube Corners, just wait outside a window.” “Fine, but this had better be good.” Rainbow Dash flew towards the building, Twilight turned and started towards Sweet Apple Acers. ------------------------- It was easy to tell where Kenpachi had been, as there was a line of trees that were significantly taller than the others around them and there was a patch that seemed to still be growing. Twilight made a beeline for them. Sure enough Applejack and Kenpachi were on opposite sides of the rows of trees, knocking apples down into baskets. Applejack reared up on her front legs and kicked the trees while Kenpachi slammed them with his sheathed sword. He had somehow managed to get his robes back and his hair up in spikes. “Applejack, Kenpachi.” Twilight called. “Yes Twi’?” Applejack said. “Hey bookworm.” Kenpachi stuck the gauze wrapped sword back onto his belt. “We’re having a meeting at Sugarcube Corners, and how did you get your stuff back? I would have thought Rarity would have had those under lock and key.” “She did, so I broke the safe.” Kenpachi snarled. “You what?” Twilight gaped. “Yesiry he was up even earlier n’ me gettin’ ‘is hair back up, spent ‘bout an hour tryin’ ta get the bell on the top spike; finally had ta ask Yachiru fer help.” Applejack chuckled. “I took my sword to that suit Rarity made me afterwards.” Kenpachi grinned fiercely. “An’ anypony who can stand up to Rarity like that has my full support.” She pounded Kenpachi in the back with a hoof and Kenpachi ruffled her mane with his hand. “An’ he’s more fun n’ Big Mac.” “Okay, you two should get going.” Twilight changed the subject. “Okay sugar” Applejack said running towards Sugarcube Corners. Well those two have certainly gotten chummy. Twilight thought to herself. --------------------- It took some asking around but Twilight found out where Lyra lived. She knocked on the door; Bon-Bon opened it smiling. “Hello librarian, what brings you here?” She asked cheerfully. “Hello Mrs. I’m here to ask Lyra for assistance.” Twilight bowed slightly in greeting, Bon-Bons’ smile dropped like a ton of bricks. “Luna sent you didn’t she?” She spoke venomously. “No ma’am I was referenced to her for a bodyguard.” Twilight gave a nervous smile, hoping not to provoke Bon-Bon further. She took in a deep breath, looking like she was about to give Twilight a rather nasty telling off when someone else spoke first. “Bon-Bon,” a voice rang out from inside, “who’s at the door?” “Just the Librarian.” She said back, contempt clear in her voice. “Why hasn’t she been let in? She’s not on the list.” “But she’s on the list of possible contacts.” Bon-Bon said desperately. “Exactly,” Bon-Bon slumped and stepped aside, defeated. She glared daggers at Twilight as she stepped inside. “I wasn’t aware that Luna gave out the names of her agents.” Lyra said; she was sitting in an arm chair, her back legs draped over the front. It was a position Twilight found slightly unsettling. She was also holding a lyre, strumming it with a hoof, as soon as the music reached them Bon-Bon visibly relaxed. “There, there,” Lyra said to Bon-Bon. “I’ll be fine.” “She doesn’t give them out.” Twilight said. “Then who recommended me?” “Celestia, well inadvertently, she said you were the strongest of Luna’s agents on record. I have a job for you; I’m escorting a new person to Canterlot-” “Zaraki Kenpachi," Lyra interrupted, "and you want me to act as a deterrent.” “Exactly; but how do you know Kenpachi?” “I have my sources,” Lyra said mischievously. She stopped playing, “I’ll get packed.” Bon-Bon had gone ridged again. “I swear” she said through gritted teeth. “If Lyra doesn’t come back I will hunt you down and gut you with a spoon, a rusty one.” Bon-Bon turned up her nose at Twilight and walked to another room. Lyra walked down the stairs wearing one saddlebag; her Lyre could be seen poking out of it a little. “Sorry about her, she’s had to save me more times than I care to think about. She really means well, she just worries about me.” “Understandable,” Twilight said, “anyway let’s get going.” They walked out to Sugarcube Corners. ---------------------------- “Welcome back Twilight, hey Lyra.” Pinkie jumped out to meet them. “All ready to go.” “Okay Pinkie, we’ll be going in a minute.” They walked inside. Kenpachi took up a good quarter of the lobby, Applejack was standing between him and Rarity, who was glaring at him like she wanted to kill him and make an outfit out of his skin. Kenpachi met her gaze with a look that said ‘try it’, his hand was creeping towards his sword. “Kenpachi!” Twilight yelled at him, “rule two.” Kenpachi’s smile fell and he took his hand away from his sword. “What’s this about bookworm?” He asked. “You, Kenpachi, have been summoned to the palace for an audience with Celestia.” Twilight responded. “We are your security and guides.” “Security? I don’t need security.” He cocked an eyebrow. “True, but you do need guides and we need security. That is why I’ve enlisted the help of Lyra here. Is everypony besides Rarity ready?” “Why am I not included?” Rarity complained. “Because we all know your not ready.” Applejack snickered. “But this time I am, every time Twilight calls one of these meetings we go somewhere. So this time I packed in advance.” She patted a pair of saddlebags on the ground next to her. “Okay, is everypony else ready?” Twilight asked. “Yes.” The unanimous cry rang out. “Kenny,” Yachiru said, climbing over his shoulder. “Can I ride a pony like spike does?” “Ask them, not me.” Yachiru jumped down from Kenpachis’ back. “Pinkie,” she said endearingly, “can I ride you?” “Okie doki Yachi’.” Pinkie responded happily. “Yay.” Yachiru hopped onto Pinkies’ back. “Lets get going," Twilight called everyone into line. "This trip should take until sundown. When we step outside of town everypony take your positions. I’m at point, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, you’re the forward scouts, you are to report back to me if you encounter any large hindrance. Rarity, you take up rear guard. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, you two are side guards. Lyra, Kenpachi, you’re with me, lets go.” Twilight had designed this formation to provide maximum warning time, therefore reaction time, to threats but it also had the added effect of keeping at least the rear guard out of power range at all times. This should work. Twilight thought to herself. ----------------------------- They walked to the outskirts of town together then fell into formation and Twilight decided to initiate part two of her orders. “Say, Kenpachi?” She asked. “What?” He yawned. “Where did you come from?” “Soul Society.” He grunted. “What’s that place like?” Twilight asked, Kenpachi grinned. “It’s dangerous, filled with strong guys these monsters called Hollows, traitors and battles; oh the battles just thinking about them makes me want to beat the hell out a' something.” He almost sounded like he was purring towards the end. “That bad?” Twilight shuddered. “That much fun, more like it." Kenpachi snapped at her. "Of course there are those who try to spoil my fun, like Soi Fon, she’s even more of a killjoy than you are. Then there are the bastards I don’t respect enough to have fun fighting. But I won’t go into them.” “Why do you like fighting so much?” Suprisingly enough, Fluttershy had asked. Prompting a thoughtful stare from Kenpachi, who just kept staring for a moment. “What’s not to like?" He threw up his hands. "It’s fun, life and death, the thrill of it, pushing yourself farther than you’ve ever gone before and that chance that you really might die." He laughed. "I’m the captain of the Eleventh squad, the strongest squad, my third seat Ikkaku and I spar all the time. Sometimes I spar with Yachiru, but the last time I did that we were on probation for a month. Can you imagine, me unable to fight for an entire month; it sucked.” “What kind of power does she have?” Twilight asked, Kenpachi looked over at her mischievously. “That would be, a secret.” He laughed, “anyway, there is really only one active captain that I really dislike. Korutsuchi, he’s a scientist, but he always takes some of the best opponents to be his test subjects, always getting in the way. Then, if they survive the tests, they’re always too traumatized to fight; real asshole.” “Oh my.” Fluttershy squeaked. “And you know the worst part? He doesn’t even have to do it himself, he uses poisons to paralyze his opponents and just drags them off to experiment on them, the bastard.” “This 'Soul Society' sounds horrible.” Twilight gagged. “It’s not that bad aside from Korutsuchi, it’s actually lots of fun.” Kenpachi scratched his chin. “But what about the monsters, the Hollows?” Fluttershy muttered. “They’re usually just nuisances that go around eating weak people, but every now and then a strong one like Nnoitora shows up and things get fun.” He grinned fiercely. “And lots of people die.” Yachiru piped up happily. “How horrible.” Twilight gasped. “You keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it does.” Kenpachi said, smiling. “To die in battle against a powerful Hollow is the greatest honor for one of the Eleventh squad.” “The blood always gets everywhere.” Yachiru said ecstatically. “How old are you anyway Yachiru?” Twilight cocked an eyebrow. “Five, I think." Twilight almost tripped, then Yachiru finished her thought, and she did. "Wait, I’m nine, yep that’s it.” “What!?” Twilight yelled, shocked by this development. “You’re no older than Applebloom, what in Celestia’s name happened to you?” “I lived in the 79th northern Rukon district," Yachiru chirped. "There were people killing each other everywhere, but then Kenpachi came and taught me to fight and I didn’t have to worry anymore.” Twilight was effectively horrified, Kenpachi and Yachiru came from a place where it was necessary to teach small children to fight and kill. That was enough information for now. “Hey Lyra.” Twilight shifted the focus of the conversation. “Yes?” “You've been quiet," Twilight said, a bit more quickly than intended. "What’s your story? You said Bon-Bon had to save you, from what?” “Myself.” Lyra shrugged. “Huh?” Pinkie cocked her head. “I spent some time in the Soul Society while dimension hopping for Luna," Lyra started. "She was testing a new type of magic and needed someone she knew would survive. As the most powerful of her followers, I was naturally the first choice. I ended up there and was almost immediately recruited by the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and placed in squad Twelve. I was given a Zanpakto, which I attached to my lyre, I actually learned her name when I did, Ochestura.” “Wait, her?” Twilight interrupted “It’s a sword not a pony.” “Every Zanpakto has a soul of its own," Lyra explained. "It is like your child, a new being branched off from your own soul, the sword is just the container, it changes shape and power when you call its name. Anyway, after three weeks I continued my dimension hopping, but it seemed that I was not compatible with the next dimension. I was ‘evicted’ after two days, I was happy to be going home, but something happened to Ochestura. Being torn so..." Lyra hesitated, "violently, through the between-space seemed to have an effect on her. "She refused to speak to me or lend me her power for a while after that." She continued, "I figured it was her issue with authority and she, with Luna being a princess and my employer, was angry at me. So I decided to leave Luna’s employment and protection for a while, this included my house in Canterlot. Until I had a nasty encounter with a hydra during my travels. I admittedly hadn't eaten properly or slept through the night for a bit. My supplies had run out earlier than expected and I was in the Everfree Forest. I ran instead of fought until we reached the outskirts of the forest. Bon-Bon was there and I knew there was no way an ordinary pony could outrun the hydra. I was just barely keeping ahead of it myself. Something ‘else’ took over at this point and I don’t remember anything else from that night. I know I killed the Hydra or else I wouldn’t be standing here right now, but not much else. "I woke up in her house, my lyre was on a dresser next to the bed. I didn’t think I could stay, so I got up, grabbed my lyre and tried to leave. Bon-Bon wouldn't let me, she seemed to instinctively know that I was alone and wandering. She took me in, became my best friend. She stayed by me, even though over the next few months I had extensive inner battles with the Other.” The words flowed like she had been wanting to tell this story for a long time. “She would always be there to make sure the Other didn’t destroy anything. If it looked like the Other was going to win she would talk to me, reassuring me. No matter what the Other did to her, no matter how badly she was hurt she stood by me. Always making sure I resurfaced. "The second to last time it happened," she choked up a little. "The Other had broken her, she was close to death. I rushed her to the hospital, they actually had to call in several dozen unicorns to help with the healing spell. I never left her side that day.” Kenpachi rolled his eyes, Yachiru stuck out her tongue and made gagging noises until a glare from Twilight silenced her. “Once she woke up, I told that I would be leaving before the Other took over again. She once again refused to let me go, but this time I asked why. She told me that she once had a friend with a similar problem and she hadn’t been able to help. She told me that she took me in to make up for that. Of course the Other saw this moment as an opportunity to take over I crushed it and have not heard from it since.” Lyra ended her story, it was almost sundown. “Wow” Twilight said “no wonder she’s so protective of you.” “Twilight!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash yelled, charging back from scouting. “We’ve got trouble.” Applejack said, panting. “Big trouble.” Rainbow Dash added. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, just then there was a massive roar, strong enough to make the ground shake. “That!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “What could be that big?” Twilight thought aloud. “An Ursa Major” Applejack said, panicky. “Then why can’t I see it?” Twilight looked up at the sky, trying to remember her research. “The Ursa Majors’ favorite hunting time is,” she wracked her brain. “Dusk, its coat is the same color as the sky. Everypony look for its eyes, they’re the only thing that will show against the sky. How did you find it anyway?” “Rainbow ran inta’ its haunches” Applejack chuckled anxiously. “Ahh!” Pinkie Pie screamed, everyone whipped around to Pinkie. There were two massive eyes each about as big as a tree and fangs as long as the Ursa Minor had been tall, seemingly hanging in the sky above her. A massive paw came into view as it descended below the tree line. “Pinkie, Yachiru!” Twilight yelled, there was a flash of black and white and the sound of steel grinding on steel. But Twilight hardly noticed, she was in shock. She kept running one thing through her mind. This formation would have been foolproof against anything but an Ursa Major, why did it have to be an Ursa Major? This creature was beyond anything she had even dared take into consideration. Pinkie Pie and Yachiru were going to die and she doubted even Lyra could do anything about it. “Arwoo!” A howl of pain pierced her stupor. Kenpachi had cut off its fingers, the severed digits fell around Pinkie and Yachiru in a shower of blood. Lyra reached them a few seconds afterwards, shaking them from their fear induced paralysis. Kenpachi was angrily staring down the wounded beast. “How dare you?” he yelled at it “How dare you? Only cowards go for children first.” It was like Twilight was seeing Kenpachi for the first time. He wasn’t just some brute, he was like a father for Yachiru and just as protective, willing to kill even those he didn’t deem as worth his time if they so much as tried to touch her. The Ursa turned to run, but Kenpachi grabbed its tail, pulling it back to him and onto its back with one hand. “Die bastard!” He brought his sword down on its neck, somehow cutting its entire head off with a sword about the as long as one of its fingers was wide. Blood splattered everywhere as a virtual river of the stuff spewed from the stump where its head had been. Fluttershy and Rarity fainted strait away, Applejack and Rainbow Dash just stood there, jaws slack. Twilight couldn't get a handle on what she had just seen, so she decided to take her usual semi-calm demeanor, Lyra was standing completely unfazed and Pinkie Pie and Yachiru were beaming up at the thing that just saved their lives. “A-an Ursa.” Rainbow Dash stuttered. “Not even a giant star bear can touch him, what is he?” “The Kenpachi,” Yachiru said, “the strongest Soul Reaper.” Kenpachi climbed over the Ursas’ body. “Hey, is that where we’re going?” He pointed at something past the body. “We can’t see Kenny.” Applejack responded. “Oh yeah, stand back.” Everypony who was conscious took a step back, those who weren’t were dragged. “This patch comes in handy at times like this.” He took the patch off and the power surged, vaporizing the creatures’ body, Rarity and Fluttershy’s unconscious bodies were sent flying, along with Rainbow dash, whose’ wings caught the wind generated by the surge. Applejack had to grab a nearby tree to avoid joining the three who had been flung a considerable distance, strangely Pinkie Pie was not effected as severely and only seemed to brace herself. Twilight felt like she had been bucked in the ribs and Spike was hanging onto her mane for dear life. Twilight glanced at Lyra, she showed no sign that anything was even happening aside from her mane whipping in the wind. Twilight looked back towards the direction Kenpachi had been pointing at, there was Canterlot, sparkling with lights. Kenpachi put the patch back on. “That’s it.” Twilight tried to say this with enthusiasm, but she was still winded from the surge. It took an hour for everybody to recover. --------------------------------------- “So now that we’re here.” Kenpachi said, once everypony was alright. Twilight at that moment realized that all her friends were within power range. “We can get down to business.” He lifted his sword and Twilight took a defensive stance, putting a magical barrier up. Kenpachi brought his sword down on it and a massive shock wave blasted outwards from the impact, the barrier held but only just as Kenpachi kept pressing down trying to push her to the limit. Twilight was about to cave when the pressure lifted she looked up, all her friends and Lyra were attacking Kenpachi. “How dare you?” Fluttershy said through a mouthful of Kenpachi’s’ hair. “You barbarian.” Rarity yelled, telekinetically throwing branches and twigs at him. “After ah’ let ya sleep in mah’ barn.” Applejack kicked at his legs. “Ya big meanie.” Pinkie Pie jumped up and kicked him in the chest. “That is so not cool.” Rainbow Dash flew around his head at high speeds. But the only one he seemed to be paying attention to was Lyra, who was attacking him in complete silence with a sword attached to her lyre. Kenpachi was deflecting her quite easily. Twilight decided to step in. “Everypony stand back!” She yelled, her horn glowing. Kenpachi started to float up into the air, continually ascending until he was even higher than Cloudsdale, she then used another spell to allow them to talk with him while he was up there. “Now, what do you have to say for yourself?” Twilight barked at him. Just them the sun set and the moon rose, Twilight felt the magic holding Kenpachi buckle and Kenpachi started laughing. “Hey Twilight,” he said, “you’re no longer the strongest thing here.” There was a massive power surge and Twilight's magic gave out altogether. Kenpachi hit the ground with the force of a sonic rainboom, successfully incapacitating everything in a one hundred yard radius except Yachiru, who jumped up onto his back. “We’re going up to the palace.” ------------------------------------------------ Canterlot: top palace balcony. Same time Luna looked up at her moon, then down at the amplification armor she had re-forged from what remained of the Nightmare Moon armor. It allowed her to use the power of Nightmare moon, without risking her sanity, Luna felt very proud of herself. Completely unaware of the terrible power racing towards Canterlot.
Vicron	779	3	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2011-09-08T07:46:42+00:00	2013-01-14T04:46:58+00:00	1,708	Dimensional Chronicles Part 3 The Battle Night Two: Celestia had just finished her daily duties and was about to turn things over to Luna, but she had been informed that she had a visitor, the Zaraki Kenpachi she had heard about from her student Twilight Sparkle. “Show him-” Celestia started. “Auah!” Screams of pain could be heard from the hall. Celestia froze as Kenpachi walked into the throne room. There was blood dripping from the ragged edged sword slung over his shoulder. “Hey, you the ruler of this castle?” He asked, boredom clear in his voice. “D-during the day.” Celestia responded. “Kenny she won’t be any fun.” Yachiru piped up, popping over his other shoulder. “How could she not be fun? She’s not the strongest thing in here but there are pictures and statues of her everywhere. She must just be suppressing herself, as soon as she stops doing that, this should be fun.” “Your Highness.” a Pegasus guard with black fur and a gash down the side of his face limped into view. All of the flight feathers on its left side had been cut off, he limped between Zaraki and Celestia. “You, will not pass.” The guard coughed up blood. “Step aside, I don’t like killing the weak.” Kenpachi growled. “You, will not pass.” The guard repeated. “You’re going to be boring.” Kenpachi snarled. Celestia just stared, impressed be her guard's determination, but terrified by Kenpachi's drive. “You will not, pass.” the guard was shaking now. It was obvious that he was just barely standing. “You will, not pass.” He repeated, as if the phrase gave him strength. The hastily redone strap on his armor gave way and the metal plates fell to the ground, revealing a gash along his ribs. Celestia restrained the urge to vomit, she could actually see the guards’ lungs filling and deflating shakily as he breathed. It was a survivable wound, but gruesome. “You will not pass!” He suddenly yelled, drawing on some reserve of strength and charged. “Fine,” Kenpachi grunted, raising his sword. “No!” Celestia yelled, putting a barrier above the guard. Kenpachi brought his sword down, shattering the magic like thin glass. The sword cleaved the guards left limbs clear off his body. “I’m sorry, princess.” The guard said as he fell and died. Celestia screamed in frustration and sorrow at seeing one of her subjects cut down before her eyes and being helpless to save him. “You monster!” she yelled charging Kenpachi. Which brings us to where we started. Luna had jumped down from a balcony to save her sister, she had caught Kenpachis’ blade between her hooves, but it cut into them. She pushed the sword away and struck with her dark lightning pushing Kenpachi away. “Are you alright sister?” Luna asked. “I guess.” Celestia replied, trembling. “Finally,” Kenpachi said. “You have no idea how boring this place is for me. So few strong people, but now that you’re here I can really cut loose.” He tore the eye-patch from his face and his power leaped. He jumped at Luna, swinging his sword, she just barely managed to dodge. Returning the bow, she clubbed him in the face with an armored wing and brought her bladed horn down across his chest, opening a gash, blood splattered on her armor and his robes. He swung at her again, this time she blocked with her wings, the armor held but she was pinned down. She couldn’t get at him without taking out her own wings and he just kept pushing. Suddenly an insectoid wail filled the air. A green mare, wearing a mask with a long bladed horn in the forehead, two curled rams’ horns on the sides, blue lightning bolt designs along the lower jawline, blue bars on either sides of the nose and massive diamond shaped teeth. She was wielding a bladed lyre. Which she brought down on Kenpachi, hard, on his left shoulder, re-opening a wound Fluttershy had patched up. She then used the leverage to vault herself next to Luna. “Hello Lyra,” Luna said, grinning. “You’re a little late, I was starting to worry you weren't going to show up.” “What? And let my employer die, not a chance.” Lyra replied. She stood on her back legs and raised her Lyre. “Kyoshin, Ochestura!” [Resonate, Orchestra] Lyra yelled. The lyre seemed to melt over her foreleg, turning black with green line patterns, four silver claws burst from the hoof, three finger claws and one thumb claw, and a golden disk set itself at the elbow joint. “Oh, a Zanpakto, this should be fun." Kenpachi said, Yachiru giggled at the rhyme. Lyra drew her claws through the air, four metal strings appeared where the claws had raked through it. She threw the strings like pointed, bungee bullets and Luna sent a beam of destructive magic at Kenpachi, who was able to block. The strings started to writhe and the magic encircled him they both lashed and blasted him until he looked the way he did when he first arrived in Equestria. Lyra pulled back the strings and the magic faded. “A kido based one, well I’ll-” Kenpachi was cut off as he seemed to be sucked down a drain in his chest disappearing in a warp of light. Lyra had a good idea of what was going on and decided to fill in Luna who was obviously confused. “Guardian.” “What?” “If the Guardian deems you incompatible with a dimension, than you warp back to your own after forty-eight hours. I figured this out while dimension hopping for you. And I know this is the case, because Yachiru is gone as well. The Guardian doesn't do precision.” Luna looked over, sure enough, the ledge Yachiru had been standing on was empty. ------------------------- Epilogue: The next morning: “What was his name?” Celestia asked, standing over the body of the dead guard. All the other guards had been wounded but not killed, it seemed Kenpachi really was only interested in the extremely powerful. Celestia had personally helped get all the guards to the palace infirmary. But She had insisted that the dead guard be left where he lie. “Excuse me your highness?” the royal cataloger, a stallion named Quick Check, asked, puzzled. “This guard, what was his name?” She asked again. “Do you want his Birthname or what he changed it to after he got his Cutie Mark.” “After.” “Grimmaldo,” he replied after looking though his report. Celestia used a hoof to piece his Cutie Mark back together, which had been slashed in half, it was a winged shield. “Grimmaldo,” she paused, “protector. I will be going to the infirmary, inform Grimmaldos’ next of kin that he died a hero. We will erect a tribute to him and give him a burial worthy of a king.” She left the room before any of her advisers could object. ------------------------ “Your Highness.” The nurse bowed as Celestia entered the room. “There’s no need for that.” Celestia said to the nurse, “I come today not as a princess or ruler but as an old mare.” She surveyed the damage Kenpachi had done, they were all badly wounded, though none quite as badly as Grimmaldo had been. “I have come to realize something,” she started, “I trust all of you with my life, but I do not trust myself with yours. Grimmaldo was possibly the bravest pegasus I have ever had the honor to have serve me. He still tried to protect me, even when he was half dead, now I could say a lot with that. I could say that you should take a page from his book. But I pray you don’t, he died because, even as he tried to protect me, I failed to protect him from that despicable thing. If any of you find yourselves up against a being that far beyond all of us, do not attempt to stand your ground, do not attack it. Pull an evacuation hatch and run. This does not mean that anypony is being forced to stay, or leave, but if any of you want to quit they can.” Only one hoof was raised. “Thank you for your service and your time.” She turned to leave, a single tear fell from her eye. End? -------------------------- There ya go, now go to the next chapter and read the actually good stuff.
Vicron	779	4	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-01-01T06:31:31+00:00	2013-01-18T08:55:02+00:00	1,783	Dimensional Chronicles: chapter 4, The Reluctant Shadow Luna was going down her to-do list in an attempt to take her mind off of the recent Kenpachi incident. Even after five years there were still a lot of unfinished magics she had been working on before Nightmare Moon. She noticed one that she had finished but never checked off. “Dimensional gateways, but I finished that?” She thought out loud as she wondered why it hadn’t been checked off. She ran the experiment through her mind and remembered, “I haven’t tested it myself yet.” She had tested it on Lyra but not herself. “Might as well get started.” She flew to Celestia’s tower and knocked on the door. “Come in.” The familiar, casual voice said from beyond the door. “Ah sister how have you been?” “I’ve been fine, but I found an unfinished project. It requires me to travel, so I may be gone a couple days.” “Okay ‘hic’ have a nice time.” Luna noticed the bottle of wine on Celestia’s desk. “You've talked the guards into giving you wine again haven’t you.” “Nooo.” Celestia nonchalantly moved between the desk and the door. “You know it’s too strong for you.” Luna scolded, Celestia had never grown a tolerance for alcohol, but that didn't stop her from trying. “Oh bother, I’ll be sober by the time I need to raise the sun.” She wobbled a bit. “Fine, but since you probably won’t remember that we even had this conversation I’ll have to write a note.” She levitated a pad and pencil off the desk and quickly scribbled down a note detailing what she was doing, when to start worrying and where to find her research. “Oooh flaming magic paper.” Celestia said before she collapsed. How much did she have to drink? Luna thought, walking over to the desk, the bottle was empty. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Later that night, when Luna had finished painting the runes needed onto her hooves she opened a gate. Probing the fabric of space for weak spots, she found a massive one, less of a weak spot more of a paper thin sheet. Perfect, she thought to herself. Something was nagging at her, she was forgetting something. Normally this would have made her stop the experiment but the paper thin spot popped, sucking her through. “I won’t die, I won’t die, I refuse to die; Teridax you traitorous bastard.” A voice screamed in Luna’s ears. “Who are you?” It yelled. “Tell me before I drop you.” Luna opened her eyes; she was riding some sort of massive blue, silver and black bat through a maelstrom that threatened to tear them apart. Maybe opening the barrier tonight was a bad idea. “What barrier, who are you?” The voice yelled. “Tell me now or I’ll throw you to the storm.” She realized the voice was coming from the bat. “I am Princess Luna.” “Where is Gavla? I need my eyes.” “Who’s Gavla?” It spoke of this Gavla like a tool but as it grew more panicked thoughts started to leak through into Luna’s mind. “I don’t want her to die; oh my little girl, please be safe.” Luna looked behind them and remembered what had been nagging at her; dimensional walls were only that thin during a calamity stronger than a supernova. It was a huge barely contained mass of energy, expanding at a rate just slightly faster than they were moving. It nicked the bat creature’s hindquarters and he panicked, driving itself even faster as its entire history poured from its mind; a silent history of evil along with its name, Vamprah. “Listen, Vamprah.” Luna yelled. “I can get us out of here but I need you to calm down.” At that moment something started hurling fireballs at them, demanding evasive action. “On second thought, you just make sure we don’t die!” Luna’s self preservation instinct blocked out any distrust she had of this Vamprah. Well, this tops my list of clusterbucks. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Almost a mile above them Gavla, a small blue and black matoran, saw Vamprah almost get swallowed by the storm that had been Karda Nui. He escaped and Gavla let out a sigh of relief. Then the loathsome fire toa started shooting fireballs at him. “No!” She shouted, straining against Toa Takanuva’s grip. “Let me go! He needs me.” She begged. “I’m sorry, but going after him would be suicide.” He responded stoically. “Than I’ll take suicide.” She grabbed a gun from the water toa and blasted Takanuva in the mask, forcing him to drop her. She tried to flap her wings so she could get at Vamprah, but she remembered at that moment she no longer had wings; thanks to that despicable toa. “Vamprah, help me!” She screamed and fell. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “What are you doing!?” Luna yelled as Vamprah turned on a dime. “Gavla no!” He yelled. Despite his blindness he managed to angle himself perfectly to catch the falling figure in the distance and rapidly closed space. Unfortunately, this meant they were now flying along instead of away from the dome. “Get back toa.” Gavla yelled, Vamprah shot a bolt of darkness at the second figure diving for Gavla, squaring a hit directly in the chest, how he managed this while blind was beyond Luna. “Vamprah!” Gavla yelled joyously; Vamprah wrapped her in his wings as the energy hit and Luna finished the spell to take them back to Equestria at the same moment. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ There was a power surge as a fragment of the explosion entered Equestrian space. Luna opened her eyes, which she had closed tight in anticipation of oblivion. Vamprah had changed shape, from a cybernetic bat to an average sized stallion. Although, he had two tails and horns, each wickedly pointed. His eyes were white, obviously blind. The mask Luna had believed to be his face was nowhere to be seen and in place of forelegs he had two massive wings, each with a serrated thumb claw. His coat was a dark, almost black, blue and the wing membranes were silver like his tails. Despite his fearsome appearance, Vamprah was feeling around frantically, no doubt searching for Gavla. Luna caught sight of his cutie mark, it was a fang surrounded by a black blotch. Luna cast a quick spell. “Vamprah.” Luna spoke firmly. “You are blind and I have rendered you mute. Evil like yours has no place in this world. This is the Everfree Forest, you will most likely be eaten here, normally I would not allow this. But as I said, you have no place here.” She lifted her wings and flew away. Vamprah tried to scream in anger and frustration, but no sound escaped his throat so he sat down and silently wept until he felt the warmth of the rising sun. Warmth, his old mechanical body had not felt it in thousands of years, it inspired him. He took inventory of his body. Nothing had been lost, in fact he had gained tails. As he investigated these his thumb claw clacked, emitting a sound wave that bounced back, giving him an exact image of his surroundings. His new ears twitched. Oh yes, he thought, I can work with this. She wants evil, I’ll give her evil. He smiled bitterly and tested his tridax launcher, it still worked. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ One night later. Gavla woke up with her head spinning, once she got control over her senses she noticed she was wrapped in something cold. “Vamprah?” She asked. She put the side of her face up to one of the sides of whatever it was that surrounded her and listened. Normally, Vamprah’s ethereal inside was like thunder, strong and destructive but there was always a sorrowful rain behind the roll of thunder. Whatever she had her ear against sounded like wind, she punched it in frustration and noticed. I have hooves, sweet Mata Nui. The shell she had punched fell back, Gavla was so shocked by her new form that for a moment she didn’t notice what it was. It was Vamprah’s bat body, with the back popped out from the inside. Judging from this Gavla concluded that he had changed shape. His mask was still on this body, she reached to take it but her hoof slid right off. “Oh, right.” She took it in her mouth and flipped it around to wear it over her own mask. “Take me to him.” A map appeared in her mind, it didn’t show exactly where he was, but it did show where he had been using his power. Most of it was clustered around a town to the east. “Okay let’s play hide and seek.” She said, determined. She looked to her back. Of course. She thought. Still no wings. Although, there did seem to be something projecting out of her skull. No matter, she would deal with that once she found Vamprah. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Two days later. Lyra returned home after a second day in a row of searching the Everfree for this monster Luna had reportedly abandoned in there. “Bonbon I’m home.” She called, lighting a candle in the dark room. “Why are all the candles out?” “Oh no reason, I just needed to think.” Bonbon said, walking down the stairs. In the light of the candle Lyra could tell something was wrong. Bonbon’s mane was darker, she was holding herself in a menacing posture and her smile was the kind Pinkie Pie got when somebody refused a party invitation. A ’they will never find your body’ sort of grin. “Bonbon are you okay?” “Just fine,” she paused. “Lyra.” She said Lyra’s name as if it was a feat to remember it. “Glad to hear it.” Lyra said, nuzzling up to her. Bonbon went ridged and she knew. “But you’re not Bonbon. Ochestura.” The black and green gauntlet wrapped its claws around the not-Bonbon’s face, it smiled. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” It said in a clicking male voice, then in a creaking parody of Bonbon’s. “Lyra why do you still work for Luna? I love you, but the worry is unbearable. Sweet holy Celestia, what is that? ‘Hree!’” The not-Bonbon let out a bloodcurdling cry, like a bat attacking and Lyra was smashed out of the way from behind. She quickly righted herself, looking up to see the massive, fanged bat stallion Vamprah had become. He was at least as tall as Big Macintosh. “Your ‘Bonbon’ had a lot of light in her, and I grow when I absorb light in this universe.” Both Vamprah and Bonbon’s mouths were moving, but sound was only came out of Bonbon’s mouth. “I,” he looked at Bonbon, “well we, are Makuta Vamprah. Tell your leaders that abandoning me to die was bad move. If they want me to be evil that’s what they’ll get.” The horns on his head started to swirl with shadows and the candle was snuffed out by darkness. “Oh look, my shadows still work, this will be ‘fun’.” He sounded bitter as if he was forced to this. “You monster!” Lyra yelled and charged Vamprah, disregarding any resentment in his voice. “Shut up!” Vamprah barked, batting her away. “I need my eyes and mouth. I am unfamiliar with this world, what am I supposed to do? And would anyone else be any more forgiving; I think not!” Vamprah’s stomach growled. “Now that’s a feeling I’ve missed, hunger. If you’ll excuse me I need to go eat something.” He spoke as if the word eat was in itself a delicacy. He came as close to strolling as someone could with wings for forelegs as he stepped outside. Lyra got to a window in time to see Vamprah outlined against the moon. He had an impressive wingspan, each wing was at least as long as he was. Then Bonbon tackled her. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Wind. How he loved it. It was liberating to be flying in a place with wind that didn’t threaten to kill you. Through Bonbon’s eyes he had seen the beautiful nights of this world; it had brought a tear to his. Not only to witness such beauty but to know that its crafter hated him. I know why they didn’t appreciate your night Princess. He thought to himself. All creatures not born of the dark fear it in some part of their being. It was the same in Mata Nui, but we gave them reason to fear, after years of unearned exile we gave them something to fear. Oh yes we did. There was a high pitched noise and he was cut off from Bonbon’s mind. He silently cursed that ‘Lyra”. Supersonics, the same thing that got them back in Karda Nui. No matter, that one had been more for exposure, to tick off Luna, to spite her by attacking one of her agents. He had others. And he opened the eyes of the resident mail mare. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “He can what!?” Luna asked, shocked by the unsettling report she was getting. “Meld his mind with his victims by sucking out their ‘light’. I believe this to be code for free will, this also causes a physical change but can be cured by a direct blast from a specific frequency sound. The curing phase causes extreme sickness, it is … unclear if the subject will survive.” “Why are you talking about your wife like an experiment?” Lyra was taken aback; she hadn’t even noticed she was doing that. “It helps me stay calm.” Normally this would be true, analyzing things down to their basest elements usually made everything seem manageable. But it wasn’t working this time, Bonbon was possibly dying and there was nothing she could do about it. Lyra decided to continue her report. “The being known as Makuta Vamprah seems to be able to see and speak through any being he has done this to, and seems to be able to grow when it extracts the ‘light’ from its victims. It can also manipulate shadows. Two possible weak spots I spotted are a bright orange spot in the middle of its chest and its wings, each of which is as least as long as his body. That is all the new information I have gathered; Lyra Elendi Heartstrings, signing off.” The mirror turned back from a portal to a reflection. Lyra slumped against her chair and looked over at Bonbon, who was shuddering on the couch as the bright colors worked their way back into her coat. Maybe. Lyra thought to herself. He really does suck the light out of his victims. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Present time after Lyra encounter Twilight was startled awake by the sound of someone yelling. “Yes!” She had fallen asleep looking for a spell that would have weakened the dimensional walls enough for Kenpachi to have fallen through the way he had. She had found nothing and was being forced to the conclusion that he had just bulldozed through those the way he did everything else, when she had fallen asleep. The cry of joy was followed by grunts of frustration. “Why can’t I get this open?” Twilight didn't recognize the voice. “Hello.” Twilight said, opening the door. She was greeted with quite the sight, a light blue mare in a mask, another mask was on the front steps, and the mare was wrestling with what appeared to be a large pumpkin. Both masks looked like a cross between a bat and a wolf and emitted a strange power. “Open!” The mare shouted. “Damn you!” She kicked the pumpkin apparently giving up. “Damn you!” She knocked the mask off her face, revealing pointed ears, a horn and a silver and blue mane. “And damn you all to Karzahni!” She turned around to kick the mask on the steps but stopped once she saw twilight, her eyes were an orange red. “Lucky,” she said enviously, pointing at Twilight’s horn. “You got a projection for the blasted thing in your mask, mine was just rattling around in there.” “I’m not wearing a mask.” Twilight was slightly offended for some reason she couldn't put her hoof on. “This is just my face.” “Oh.” The blue mare looked back at the mask she had thrown on the ground and sniffed. “Are you okay?” Twilight asked. “Fine, just remembering the skakdi hole who gave me the mask. That sphere is his calling card you know.” A look of realization crept its way onto her face. “It’s timed, of course it’s timed. He wouldn’t leave one just sitting around that didn’t open, he’s much too skilled a hunter for that. But why would he time it?” She looked back at Twilight, who she had obviously forgotten was there and, started grinning. “It’s been three days, that’s all he needs. Oh he’s a genius, he’s managed to map out your movement patterns in seventy-two hours. What time do you step out this door in the mornings?” “Eight o clock usually, why?” The mare grabbed Twilight by the shoulders, shaking her and laughing as she elaborated “I wouldn’t suggest that tomorrow or you’ll end up worse than a muaka’s dinner. People; well ponies, like you would not want to be hit by the shrapnel this thing throws out.” “Who the hell are you, and what’s a muaka?” The mare let go of Twilight. “If I can stay for the night, I’ll tell you everything about where I come from; deal?” “Deal.” Twilight said. “We should put these masks away for stu- safekeeping.” “Oh, so you’re like him.” The mare chuckled. “Him?” Twilight picked up the masks with magic. “Mutran, I liked him; always had something interesting he was working on or studying.” “Sounds like a nice guy.” Twilight smiled. “Not at all," Twilight's smile dropped as the mare elaborated. "But, he was at least pleasant to be around once he started talking about his research.” “Is he the one who gave you the mask?” “No, that was Vamprah.” The mare waved her off. “Vamprah?” The name sent a chill down Twilight’s spine. “He’s the one who came to this world with me." She stopped. “I’m forgetting something.” She muttered. “Oh right, my name is Gavla.” She bowed a bit. “My name is Twilight sparkle” She returned the bow. “I wonder how Vamprah’s doing without me; I was his eyes you know.” “How does that work?” Twilight cocked her head. “It’s a psychic link, but it only works like that when I’m near him, now I cant even find the viper.” She sniffed again. “I’m sure he’ll show up; this is his calling card right?” “Yeah,” Gavla muttered, “you should really avoid it though” “How does this thing explode anyway?” “Well it hatches, on a technicality, but the shadow leeches flying out make it more of an explosion.” “Where are you from anyway?” Twilight asked. Gavla took a deep breath. “I’m from Karda nui, a massive cave in the heart of a giant comatose robot named Mata Nui. It was a productive place before he fell asleep and the bottom half turned into a toxic swamp. Then the Makuta showed up and started making shadow matoran, of which I was the first." There was more than a tinge of pride to this statement. "For most it was a brainwashing process, easily cured by the screech of a klakk. But for me it was like a homecoming. I had always been cast out by my ‘fellow',” she sneered, “Av-matoran. But the Makuta accepted me as I was, nurtured me, made me a leader, gave me wings and a best friend, Vamprah. He, like all the Makuta dreamed of ruling, but for him it was just so people would accept him. Normal toa and matoran, not just the crazies of the brotherhood. "He was strong, quiet and, at least to me, kind. Everything was great again until the toa showed up and the battles in the sky got really intense. Then everything was perfect, Vamprah and I loved every minute of it. Until those self-righteous ‘heroes’ found the klakk and used them against us. Vamprah hid me away to keep me safe, but one named Takanuva found me and ‘purified’ me. Then the maelstrom started, I escaped from the toa almost fell to my death. Vamprah caught me and next thing I know I have no hands, a horn, my wings are still not back and I’m alone in this place. Oh and a muaka is a type of giant cat.” “Well your world sounds better than Kenpachi’s at least.” Twilight sighed, wondering how often she was going to run into crazy people like this. “Kenpachi?” “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you inside.” She ushered Gavla in and shut the door with magic. “Instead of that, how about you tell me how you move things without touching them. Is it a personal power or can other peop--ponies do it?” Gavla looked around the room. "Cause a lot of this stuff looks pretty hard to use without hands." “You mean to tell me that you haven’t even tried the thing on your head out?” Twilight walked up next to her. “It has to do with this blasted thing?” Gavla sat down on the floor and tapped her horn. “I thought it was just another stroke of bad luck for me. Adding insult to injury, you know.” “No, that horn is an extension of your will, in order for you to do something like I did with the door and masks all you have to do is concentrate on it.” “So like this?” She stared at the couch and it slowly lifted off the ground. “Well yes, but I’m not so sure a beginner should be lifting something that heavy.” Twilight chuckled nervously, waiting for the inevitable backlash. “Oh come on, its not that hard- Achoo!” The sofa flew across the room and shattered on a wall as Gavla grabbed her nose. “Except it makes your skull vibrate something awful; sorry.” Twilight sighed and mended the shattered piece of furniture carefully weaving the fibers of wood back together as easily as picking up a teacup, “That’s why beginners should start with smaller things.” “Your turn.” Gavla said, shaking her head to clear it. “My turn to what?” Twilight asked. “I asked a question about the details of this world, now it’s your turn to ask about the details of mine.” “Okay.” Twilight thought for a second. “Were there any other sane Makuta?” Twilight tensed. “Ooh, that’s a tough one. Well there was Krika, but he scared everyone around him. Which I think was partly because of the fact that he looked like a giant krakk shrimp -at least he did when I met him- and that he wears the mask of repulsion.” She paused, looking thoughtful. Twilight had visibly relaxed. “I don’t think he died.” “He didn‘t.” Twilight said in a matter of fact manner. “The storm before we came here, it killed everything, well almost everything.” Gavla was obviously talking to herself again. “Pardon?” “Vamprah and I survived, and if we found a way, I know Krika did. He was a genius, even among the Makuta, the only other one I can think of that was more brilliant than Krika was the leader, Makuta Teridax.” If ever there was an evil name it was this, for no sooner had the word escaped Gavla’s mouth then the entire room literally went cold and lightning flashed to the south followed by a boom of screaming thunder. It was as if the universe itself rebelled at the mere mention of this vile being. “Maybe I shouldn’t bring him up around here.” Gavla’s breath was laced with steam in the cold, she chuckled nervously. “Open a window, it’s freezing in here.”
Vicron	779	5	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-04-18T17:42:40+00:00	2013-01-19T07:28:33+00:00	1,227	Dimensional Chronicles chapter 5: Shadow of the Swamp Three days ago. Makuta Krika woke up in a swamp and groaned. Had it all been a dream? Had Gorast really not killed him? No Krika thought, it had happened. He had just survived somehow, maybe Teridax just liked him. His stomach growled and he jumped. He hadn’t heard that noise in over five thousand years. He decided to go hunting, which he did by sinking into the murk and waiting. He waited for hour after hour; the sun was at its apex before something of value came along. It was a small, horned equine, probably a distant relative of the mawi ponies of Metru nui. He gathered himself and pounced, the equine screamed. He almost had the small thing in his fore claws when something hard hit him in the side of the mask, knocking him off course and into the muck. Rarity smirked at the direct hit on the thing that had sprung out at Sweetie Belle, who was now running back towards her sister. The thing had landed on its back, dazed. It was not much taller than an average pony, but it was a good deal longer. “Take that you ruffian!” “Yeah.” Sweetie Belle yelled, breaking the things trance. It turned its head over, looking Rarity strait in the eye with a sickening sound like cracking bones. “You can speak?” It said, with a voice that sounded like his throat was made of sandpaper. It turned its upper body right-side up with the same sickening sound, followed by its lower body. “I apologize.” It said sincerely. “I was not aware you were intelligent.” It bowed courteously, then cocked its head curiously. “My name is Makuta Krika, may I know yours?” Rarity’s eyes narrowed. Its stomach growled and she decided to take a page from Fluttershy’s book. “I am miss Rarity and this is Sweetie Belle, come on out and say hello to Krika. He didn‘t mean to attack, he was just hungry.” Krika nodded, Sweetie Belle shook her head and hugged Rarity’s back leg. “How about we get you cleaned up and see your face.” Rarity said, more as a command than as a question. “Alright.” The mud and gunk of the swamp fell from his body, as if it had never been stuck to him. Underneath, was something from a nightmare. He looked horribly malnourished, his ribs, pelvis and vertebrae clearly visible against his sagging flesh. His coat was bone white, black and red, he was wearing a mask that appeared to be a giant shrimp head with more vertebrae sticking out the back ending in a blade. The muscles and bones of his spindly limbs were also visible, he was standing using massive blades that appeared to be the spinal columns from other creatures. His eyes were massive, requiring bulges in the mask and were red with no whites to them. Sweetie Belle screamed, burying her face in Rarity’s flank. Rarity just stood there, horrified. Krika, upon seeing this, hid his face behind the blades. “I’m sorry, you can run now if you want to.” Bitterness making his voice crack. Rarity forced her emotions back into her control. “W-well, you’re just a little-” She took a step forward only to be blasted back, along with a good portion of the ground. A perfect sphere of space was pushed away with Krika floating in the middle, curled up into a ball. Rarity got up and walked up to the edge. “Now see here, you’re acting like a baby.” Krika stirred. “You’re just a little malnourished, I bet you’ll look better the second we get some food and clean water in you.” He looked up. “You’re not scared?” He asked, looking up at her with his massive eyes. “I believe terrified would be a better word," Rarity admitted sheepishly, "but I simply cannot stand the sight of a full grown anything acting so juvenile.” He uncurled and dropped to the ground. “Sorry.” He said, holding himself close to the ground. “No one has seen me and stuck around me longer than a minute, without trying to kill me, for almost a thousand years.” Rarity could see why but now was no time to be judging on appearances. “Come with us; we’ll find you something more appetizing to eat.” She waved him over. “O-okay.” He crawled out from the hole he had made, head held low, and bowed again to Sweetie Belle. “I’m really sorry about scaring you.” “It’s alright, I guess.” She hugged closer to Rarity, obviously and understandably confused. Krika followed them, trailing slightly behind. “If you don’t mind me asking.” Krika said timidly. “May I have a hair or something along those lines?” “Why?” Rarity stopped, eyeing Krika incredulously. “It’ll be quicker than just asking you about where I am.” He assured. “Alright.” She plucked a hair out and lifted it to Krika’s face. He lifted a fore claw and grabbed it out of the air with a pincer. Rotating it, he seemed to scan every detail into his brain until he dropped it. “Well, this world is interesting; am I truly supposed to believe that the sun orbits this planet guided by the horn of a winged unicorn?” He sounded rather incredulous. “I will have to do some studies into it.” Sweetie Belle and Rarity rolled their eyes. “Listen to him.” Sweetie said, “he hasn’t even met her yet and he already talks like Twilight.” “Just wait until he does meet her, they’ll talk up a storm.” Rarity responded, giggling. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Now comes the tough part.” Rarity said, standing on the edge of the town limits. “How do we get Krika back to the boutique without causing a riot?” Rarity looked over to where he had been standing, there was nothing there. “Where did he go?” “Good it works.” He re-appeared, “working invisibility. Well, it’s not technically invisibility, I’m using my mask to make ponies minds reject my image, making me practically invisible.” Rarity raised an eyebrow and shook her head. “Whatever, lets just hope it works as well as you say it does.” They walked over the border and through the town, almost without incident, until they were about ten feet from the boutique. “AAHH!” Ditsy Doo screamed, she had run into Krika and could now see him. She scrabbled back on her butt. “M-monster, I thought I was done with these things! Please don’t hurt me, I only knew the guy for seven years and he hasn’t even visited for twelve since then.” Krika looked at Rarity, who shrugged. “I’m terribly sorry about the fright miss…” He helped her up with a forelimb. “Ow! Watch the spines.” She said. “I’m Ditsy Doo.” Krika brought a claw up to his face. “Please don’t tell anyone I’m here.” He smirked with his eyes. “They wouldn’t believe you anyway.” He turned invisible again. “He’ll be back soon by the way. I would very much like to meet him.” Ditsy’s wobbly eyes went wide and she flew off as fast as her wings could carry her. “Who’ll be back exactly?” Rarity asked. “Worked on matoran too.” Krika said becoming visible again. “Even before I was…” He lifted a fore claw. “This. And it‘s a secret.” Rarity nodded and they walked inside. “Lets find you something to eat.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Half an hour later “Blagart!” Krika regurgitated the twenty second try at finding something that would stay down. “I’m terribly- blag- sorry I just haven’t eaten-hurk-anything solid in a few-munk-thousand years.” “You should have thought of that while waiting in the mud.” Rarity was starting to get on Krika’s nerves, but that was probably just the nausea speaking. He finally stopped retching and a thought popped into his head as Sweetie Belle cautiously brought in the next dish for testing. “Wait.” He said, rejecting bile from his mask for the twenty second time that day. “Back home my species lived off ambient light, well, before the swamp got to me. I’m going to see if that still works with an entirely organic body.” He walked over to the window, opening it wide and drank deeply of the light. Krika's shadow expanded until it filled the spot of light the window made and started creeping towards Sweetie Belle and Rarity. “Krika.” Rarity said testily and he cut the feeding line. Light refilled the room instantaneously, as if none had just been eaten. “Sorry I got a bit greedy.” He said timidly. “What would have happened if that had touched us?” Rarity questioned. “I-Lets just say you would have a lot more black to your coat.” He grimaced. “I don’t like to talk about it.” “M-mister Krika?” Krika perked back up, Sweetie Belle hadn’t said a word to him since he had apologized for scaring her. “Just Krika, please.” He asked, letting himself enjoy the warm feeling a full belly of light gave him. “O-okay, Krika, why do you wear that mask?” He opened his mouth to answer but shut it. He stopped for a second in thought. “Perhaps it’s better if I just show you.” He brought up his forelimbs and removed the mask. Sweetie Belle cocked her head. “You don’t look that bad.” Krika blinked, Rarity brought a mirror up to his face. He looked almost like the stallions they had passed on the way to the boutique, only more gaunt and his horn lay flat on his forehead, arching up between his ears. He looked back at the rest of his body, the light had filled him out nicely. He no longer looked like a barely held together collection of bones, just slightly malnourished. Oh well, all things in stages. Sweetie Belle smiled. “You should leave it off, you’re a lot less scary this way.” The simple smile made him feel even warmer inside, no one had ever smiled at him before. “Alright.” He said. “As long as you don’t stop smiling at me.” And he smiled back. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Two days later Krika was a quiet houseguest, most of the time. When not going out of his way to entertain Sweetie Belle, he spent his time analyzing anything he could get his pincers on. When asked why he was willing to drop literally anything he was doing to entertain Sweetie Bell, he would simply reply, ‘she smiles at me.’ He mostly stayed out of the way and avoided being a burden at all times, nothing really changed with him around. Except Sweetie Belle all but had a second shadow when not at school. He had filled out quite nicely, even his voice was no longer as raspy and he now looked properly fed, even if when he stretched it sounded like his bones were breaking. Sweetie Belle came charging through the door home from school at the usual time. “Rarity, Krika.” She yelled, Krika slithered down from his hiding place above the door and Rarity poked her head out from her workroom. “I told my friends about Krika.” She babbled excitedly. “And?” Rarity pressed “They wanna meet him.” Krika blinked. “How exactly did the subject come up?” He asked. “Well, Apple Bloom was talking about this huge bat that landed in the orchard last night, she said that it drank moonlight and its shadow grew. So I said I knew someone like that, then they asked if they could meet you; they’re waiting outside.” Krika thought for a second, there were five Makuta he could think of that looked like giant bats, only one of which he was on good terms with. He decided to take the opportunity to question Apple Bloom in order to determine the identity of the Makuta. “Okay I’ll go.” Krika nodded, Sweetie Belle cheered loudly and ran back out the door. “But, I’ll have a little fun with them first.” He mused to himself, activating his mask, he opened the door. “Here he is.” Sweetie Belle said enthusiastically. “Where’d he go?” “What’s up Sweetie, is he comin’ or not?” Scootaloo asked testily. “Boo.” Krika whispered, materializing between Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s heads. They both nearly jumped out of their skins, fleeing over to Sweetie Belle who was doubled over in laughter. Krika smiled, removing his mask. “Now that’s an ambush.” He said proudly, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cocked their heads. “He looks almost normal without the mask.” Apple Bloom spoke up, smiling at him. “Why thank you.” Krika bowed low to them. “I am Makuta Krika. Miss. Apple Bloom, is it?” She nodded. “What color was the bat from last night?” He asked politely. “It was blue and silver.” She responded, just as nicely. “Than you’ve seen Makuta Vamprah. If you ever do meet him properly be gentle, he’s a sensitive soul.” “Mare, Twilight would have a field day with this guy.” Scootaloo said, marveling at the creature that had appeared out of thin air. “Twilight?” Krika cocked his head. “Twilight Sparkle is the town librarian and resident scientist.” Sweetie Belle verified. “A fellow being of science. I would very much like to meet her, could you three be my guides?” The three fillies huddled together whispering while Krika curled up, propping his head on the end of his tail and waiting patiently. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SHAPARONES!” they yelled at the top of their lungs, making Krika cringe. They could give Gorast a run for her widgets, he thought to himself. “We’ll do it but yal’ll have to be invisible for the walk there; the library is on the other side of town and we don’t wanna scare anypony.” “Alright.” Krika said, rubbing his ears. He donned his mask and faded from view. “Take me there.” The walk there was rather uneventful, other than Krika having to stifle his laughter as the three fillies circled his invisible form, guiding him with determination only a child at play could possess. Once they arrived, Krika walked up to the door and knocked, still invisible. The small purple dragon, Spike, opened the door. “Who is-aahh!” Krika tapped the small being on the head, allowing it to see him. Krika then had to stop Spike from slamming the door on his face. “May I come in? I would very much like to take this off.” He tapped his mask. “No way; the last time a creature got in here it nearly took my job. And he was a lot less scary then you are.” Spike shouted back. “Spike who’s at the door?” Another voice called out from inside. “Just some freak of nature, I’m telling it to leave.” “What freak of nature?” Spike stopped pushing the door on Krika’s limb, which he was very grateful for. “Can’t you see him?” Spike opened the door wide. On the other side, all Twilight could see were the Cutie Mark Crusaders searching their flanks again. “He’s right there Twilight.” Spike gestured out the door. “Now Spike that’s no way to talk about those three, let them in.” “Thank you.” Krika said, removing his mask inside the doorway. “Miss Twilight Sparkle, I presume?” He bowed low, half ignoring the look of shock on her face, which was quickly being replaced by confusion. “I am Makuta Krika; it’s a pleasure to meet you.” “H-how did you do that? It’s incredible!” Twilight asked, growing visibly excited. “Spike I’m going to need a ruler, protractor and test tubes.” “O-okay…” Spike glared at him skeptically before running to get what Twilight asked for. “I use this mask to repel my image from ponies minds, their subconscious usually fills in the blanks.” Krika explained. “Incredible. May I see the mask?” “Sure.” He handed it over. “If I may be so bold, may I have a hair or something along those lines?” “Alright,” she responded, absentmindedly pulling a hair from her mane and levitating it up to Krika as she examined the mask with magic. Krika took the hair in his pincer, scanning it. “Well you are brilliant," Krika started. "But during that Pinkie Pie case, I believe that simply miniaturizing the brain scan tech so she could wear it outside would have been much more effective then sticking her in a lab where not much was going to happen.” “I guess that would hav- how did you know about that?” “It’s simple," He explained. "I take something that I know has been on the subject for a while scan it and absorb whatever information it may have been exposed to through the subject’s ambient psychic field, things such as hair and skin do nicely and I think it’s rude to just scan the being itself, even if that usually gives a longer string of information.” “Incredible; we are going to have so much fun together.” Spike came back with the tools she had asked for and they got right down to work. Krika sent the Cutie Mark Crusaders home with a thank you when the sun started going down. Their research session extended into the early morning when Krika decided he should go back to see Sweetie Belle off to school. “Thank you for such an intriguing night; you keep working on that Kenpachi problem and I’ll get back to you when I’m done with my calculations.” He said as he walked towards the door, donning his mask. He looked at spike, who was sitting asleep next to the door with a pot on his head and a ladle in his hand. Twilight had said to make sure they weren’t disturbed and he had fallen asleep at his post. Krika smiled, being as quiet as possible closing the door. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Later that afternoon Sweetie Belle had already left for school by the time Krika got home. She didn’t know why this made her sad but she knew he’d be right above the doorway when she got home. She was running to the door when she spotted a pumpkin, just sitting on the doorstep. She opened the door. “Rarity, Krika.” She yelled, closing the door behind her. As usual, Rarity poked her head out from her workroom but Krika peeked over the couch, levitating a pad and paper near his face and scribbling something on it. “Yes Sweetie Belle?” He said distractedly. “Did either of you know that there's a pumpkin on the doorstep?” Krika looked up from whatever he was doing. “What kind of pumpkin?” He asked expectantly. “I don’t know but it’s a weird one, it’s a perfect sphere.” Krika went even paler than normal and bolted for the door, opening it wide and he froze still as a statue. Sweetie Belle walked up next to him. He tried to get rid of it again and again but every time the pumpkin moved it came back. “What’s wrong with the pumpkin Krika?” “It would take too long to explain, just go inside and tell Rarity to keep this door locked; do not open it for any reason until this thing is gone.” He stared angrily at the sky as he spoke. “Why?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Go inside.” “Bu-” “Go inside!” He growled at her, the air seemed to go dark and his eyes, usually soft and timid, had gone hard, full of fear and anger. She was lifted off her feet and thrown back through the door, which slammed itself shut. She curled up and shivered in fear; the only other time his eyes had been that hard was when he had tried to eat her. “Sweetie Belle I’m going out for my nightly walk- what’s wrong dear?” Rarity asked, concerned. “K-Krika scared me.” She stammered. “Well I’ll find him and give him a stern talking to, see you.” Rarity opened the door stepping outside. “Rarity wait!” Sweetie Belle yelled as her sister shut the door. There was a rattling noise and snarling from outside and Rarity screamed. Sweetie Belle ran to the door and locked it. She then ran to the window and looked out; Rarity was covered in slimy, Blue and green, leech-like creatures, her coat and mane turning black, as the screams were silenced the leeches fell off, slinking away in search of new victims. The Black Rarity got up, opening its eyes, which were a sickly green and filled with malice. She started laughing, a cruel insane laugh that made Sweetie Belle’s blood run cold. Unable to watch anymore, Sweetie Belle ducked back behind the curtains. “Sweetie Belle, let me iiin.~” The Black Rarity called in a tilting parody of Rarity’s voice. Sweetie Belle just sat shivering under the curtains. “Darling, I won’t stand for this!” The Black Rarity yelled at her through the door, slamming on it with something. “Krika help.” Sweetie Belle whispered, closing her eyes.
Vicron	779	6	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-11-13T23:48:24+00:00	2013-01-20T21:00:08+00:00	1,065	Twilight woke up the next morning to the sound of somebody knocking on her door. Spike was still asleep, so she got up to answer it herself, almost knocking one of the masks off her desk in the process. She opened the door, there was nobody there and she was about to close it when the pumpkin, that Gavla had insisted she leave where it was, started to rattle and bounce. This was apparently what Gavla had been waiting for on the couch because her eyes snapped open and before Twilight even knew what was happening, Gavla had slammed her away from the door. “Come on, come on, mama needs a new set of wings.” Gavla said excitedly; a cracking sound pealed trough the air. Twilight looked up from the pile of books she had landed in and gasped in horror. Gavla had three blue and green, leech-like, creatures attached to her. They fell off and Twilight flung them out the door, slamming it. Gavla started laughing, her coat turning a darker shade of blue, her mane turned black, keeping the silver streak, she grew fangs and her cutie mark, which had been an indistinct blob, focused into a swirl of darkness. But the most surprising changes were the huge, bat-like wings that sprouted from her back and the blades that slid out from her outstretched hooves. They retracted with a sickening ‘shlic’ noise and she got back down on all fours. “Finally, how I’ve missed you.” She brought a wing around to her face, nuzzling it affectionately; she looked down at Twilight, whose jaw was hanging slack. She raised a hoof and one of the blades slid out. “So, what do you think?” Twilight tried to compose herself for a reply. “Oh, I forgot.” Gavla's horn swirled with darkness and her mask floated from the desk onto her face, the front closed and it became animated as if it had replaced the real face underneath. Gavla ran it through a series of silly faces, seeming to test it. “Okay, now how do I look? Be honest.” She smiled, an expression made sinister by the fangs of the mask. Twilight looked her over. There was a terrible beauty about her, akin to Nightmare Moon, a dark elegance. “Terrifying and beautiful.” Twilight said honestly, still a little shell shocked by the transformation. “Great.” Gavla took a deep breath and let out a bat-like shriek. The room immediately went dark, roiling shadows coated the floor, they were cool like morning mist. A massive stallion rose from the shadows, he was easily as tall as, if not taller than, Celestia and a good deal more muscular. When he rose to his full height the darkness lifted and Twilight got her first good look at Makuta Vamprah, she froze in fear. Gavla flew to him, wrapping her forelimbs around him in a hug; he returned the hug with a massive wing. “I missed you big guy.” Vamprah’s mask floated off the table “And so did your mask.” “Gavla, I’m so happy you’re safe.” A voice said in their minds, waking Spike, who screamed, bolting up the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him. “Vamprah, what’s wrong?" Gavla asked with concern. "You only talk with your mind when something’s wrong, come to think of it you only ever talk when something's wrong.” “I can’t speak anymore.” “Why not? Did someone do this to you?” The shadows swarmed back, rising with Vamprah’s bristling anger. “Princess Luna, she took my voice and left me to die in some Mata-nui forsaken forest!” The shadows slumped back down as he hung his head. “She said I have no place here. She crafts the nights and she told me, a creature born of it, that I have no place.” Sorrow hung from these words like stones. “And they’re such beautiful nights, so much more than the nights of Karda Nui, when all was blackness and only the klakk still moved. These nights have such color to them, such life, such majesty, as if she created them to be gazed upon for all eternity.” He said longingly. “But their crafter has rejected me like all the others, based on what I took the fall for. She expects great evil from me, which is exactly what I’m giving her.” He donned the mask, glaring through its already snarling face. “Then let us show her together.” Gavla swung around onto his spine, sitting upright, blades at the ready, just in front of his wing joints. Vamprah reared and the shadows swallowed them up, disappearing with them. Leaving Twilight wondering what had just happened. She found herself staring out the window. Ponyville was in flames, things were exploding, ponies were attacking each other in the streets, it was chaos. “Spiiike!” She yelled, scrambling to her feet and up the stairs. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lyra had not left her house, or even opened a window ,since Vamprah’s attack. She simply lay on the floor in front of the couch Bonbon laid on, watching her shuddering form for signs of improvement. Bonbon started flailing, foaming at the mouth she fell off the couch, hitting the floor with a thud. “Bonbon!” Lyra shouted, wrapping Bonbon tight in her forelegs. Bonbon continued twitching until her head flew back; her eyes snapped open, flashing a sickly yellow then the color slowly turned back to a sapphire blue. She went limp, eyes still open and glassy. “Bonbon…” No reply, not even a twitch. “Bonbon please!” She buried her head in Bonbons fur and started sobbing. “Please be okay, please wake up, please.” She cradled Bonbons head next to her own; she stirred, unnoticed by the sobbing Lyra. She blinked, her eyes regaining a living glint; Bonbon looked down Lyra’s shaking back and heard the sobs. “The last time,” Lyra froze, eyes wide, not daring to believe it, “you held me like this, Aryl had left me at deaths door.” She brought Lyra’s head in front of hers. “What travesty has been committed now?” Lyra kissed her full on the lips, Bonbon went ridged for a second before easing into it. Something crashed through the window, Lyra looked up; it was a Molotov cocktail. “Bonbon, get down!” Lyra put up a magical barrier as the bottle shattered, showering the room in fire. Lyra stood up, casting a spell to extinguish the flames. “What do you remember from before I got home?” Lyra asked coldly; she was back to business. “Well,” Bonbon started hesitantly, “I was sitting on the couch when something broke a window upstairs, I went up and all the candles were out, there was this weird clicking sound that would happen every few seconds, sort of sounded like metal on wood, I looked through all the rooms and couldn’t find anything, I turned to go back downstairs and- and.” She shook her head in frustration then her eyes went wide. “I saw him. I screamed and he pounced, he bit into my neck and everything went dark. I woke up in your arms. It was just a nightmare wasn’t it?” Lyra shook her head. “Whatever you do Bonbon, stay behind the couch and watch.” She ducked down. “Kyōshin, Ōkesutora!” The Lyre flew from the saddlebag near the table and melted over her foreleg. She walked over to the window and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Come get me, you shadow freaks!” Something sped through the window, landing behind Lyra with a crash. “You called?” A cruel, twisted parody of a familiar voice said mockingly, Lyra turned around and despite the insectoid wings there was no doubt. “Rarity?” “The one and only.” She lifted the dragonfly-like wings high in an aggressive display. “Beautiful aren’t they? Not as good as Gavla’s but still pretty damn good.” “I’m sorry.” “Sorry for what? I feel better, more free, than I have in years. Even if Sweetie Belle refuses to join us.” “This is going to hurt.” Lyra raised her clawed leg, a high pitched shriek filled the air for a second and Rarity was thrown back, she screamed, loud and long, curling up into a ball and shaking uncontrollably. “You can come out now.” Bonbon stepped out from behind the couch. “He made you into one of them.” She pointed at Rarity’s shuddering form. “Don’t worry; she’ll be fine, it just takes a while to cure them properly. Help me move her to the couch.” Lyra lifted Rarity with magic and Bonbon guided her to the furniture. “We’ll hold up here until they move on.” “But Lyra you could help the-” “I’m not leaving you two alone; who knows when more might show up.” She changed Ochestura back into a bladed lyre “You hide in the kitchen, I’ll guard the entrances.” Bonbon hesitated, something pounded on the door. “Now!” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ In the middle of town a blue box appeared with a sound like grinding metal. The door opened and a brown furred pony in a vest with an hourglass cutie mark jumped out. “Oh my, it’s good to be-” He opened his eyes and saw the destruction around him. “Back?” One of the shadow ponies noticed him and screeched; a terrible sound that grated his ears like nails on a chalkboard. “It’s the doctor.” Another yelled. “Kill him and we’ll be famous.” “What?” He cocked an eyebrow, the shadow ponies charged him. “What!?” He started scrambling back to the Tardis, only to have his path blocked by several shadow unicorns that unraveled their insect-like wings to intimidate. “Well.” He said sheepishly. “This is new.” “Stop!” A twisted, booming and frighteningly familiar, voice yelled from atop a nearby building. He froze and the voice was next to him in under a second. “He’s mine.” He was growing more confused by the moment, not even Rainbow Dash could have covered the distance that fast. He turned to look at his claimer. “Ditsy!?” Her mane had turned a dark shade of purple, her coat had darkened and she had a horn now but there was no mistaking that wonky yet now malevolent eye. “Hello Doctor.” She started circling him. “He did say you’d be back soon.” She flicked her tail under his chin, normally a loving gesture, this felt almost like a threat. The others couldn’t seem to back off fast enough, tripping over themselves, seemingly terrified of evoking Ditsy’s wrath. She caught the Doctor staring at her blade-like horn. “You like it?” She flicked her mane to better show off the bone. “A little gift from Makuta Vamprah; for being his eyes the past four days. I wonder what kind of reward he’ll give me for bringing you to the shadow leeches!” She flared her wings, throwing two of the slimy things that she had apparently been concealing, but the Doctor was just as quick on the draw, reaching into the vest, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and blasting the two things with brief sound bursts, rendering them unconscious. Ditsy was covering her ears, screaming. “Oh, you guys don’t like supersonics do you?” The Doctor growled around his screwdriver, pocketing it. Ditsy snarled, little puffs of darkness seeping out from between her clenched teeth. “Well.” He turned to the crowd. “Tell this 'Makuta Vamprah' that he has made a grave mistake in changing someone I like; because in doing so he’s made me angry and if he values his continued existence he’ll-” the air around him went cold and something massive landed behind him. He whipped around. Vamprah glared down at him with his sightless eyes and Gavla looked at the Doctor from over Vamprah’s shoulder. “I’ll what.” She said defiantly. “I’ll have you know, Vamprah, no matter how big your steed is that you do not intimidate me.” He stood proudly. Gavla laughed cruelly. “My dear doctor, I am not Makuta Vamprah.” “I am” “He is.” Gavla patted the massive bat-stallion she was riding. “I am Gavla and you have no idea what you’re dealing with.” “I never do.” He said casually. “And how does that work? He thinks something and you say it at the same time; that kind of mental link takes decades to build up, unless you’re completely subduing the other’s mind, and requires quite a lot of trust. Which I do not think a creature evil enough to absorb an entire town like this would have much.” “He can hear me?” “Of course I can hear you, which brings me to a more important question. Any being who lets another that completely into his mind is not evil enough to do this to a town. So my question is this; who forced you to?” “Should I?” “Go for it big guy.” Vamprah’s entire history poured into the Doctors mind, but with sound it was a tragic history of persecution, betrayal and a violent refusal to let it continue. The stream stopped and the Doctor staggered, the memories of a being even older than himself weighing heavily on his mind. “You poor thing.” He said, just loudly enough for Vamprah to hear. “You don’t have to do this.” “Shut up!” Vamprah mentally barked at him. “If Luna wants evil that’s what she’ll get.” He calmed down rather quickly. “That sound frequency you used to neutralize the shadow leeches will release Ditsy Doo from my control. Take her and go.” “Ditsy you stay here. The rest of you leave.” Gavla commanded, the shadow ponies gladly obliged. “You know those mood swings can’t be good for your heart” “We Know.” Vamprah and Gavla looked at each other calmly. “Just do it.” “Do what my lord?” Ditsy asked nervously. “This.” The Doctor spoke around his screwdriver, which emitted a burst of sound that hit Ditsy right between the eyes. She wailed briefly and crumpled, shuddering, to the ground. “Ditsy!” The Doctor shouted. “Don’t worry, it’s normal.” “So help me, if you’ve made me hurt her-” “Perish the thought; but your Tardis.” Bars of shadow sprung up around the box. “Is staying with us. Wouldn’t be a very good villain if we didn’t trap the hero. I’d say you have about ten minutes before some of the craftier ones start sending shadow leeches and chasing you; I would leave.” Vamprah flapped his wings and they were out of sight before the Doctor looked up. “Well, what a little jerk.” He hefted the shuddering Pegasus onto his back and ran as fast as he could eastward, towards the edge of town. But something blocked their way, as it was invisible he ran headfirst into it, knocking the spiny thing flat on its back. “Ow.” It moaned, rubbing its side with a blade. “The legendary Doctor!” It almost jumped when it realized what had just plowed into it. “I would have loved to meet you on better terms but,” It looked at the shuddering figure on his back, “it seems you’re going to have to trust me at face value when I say that I know where you’ll be safe.” He looked into its ancient, sorrowful eyes and he did trust it. He nodded. “Good.” The thing flipped first its upper then lower body upright with a sickening crunching noise that made the Doctor wince. “Follow me.” It waved with one of the spine-like blades. He did, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to both check on Ditsy and make sure the shadow ponies were nowhere to be seen. They ran out of town to a little dirt road on the north side, here they slowed down to a walk. “May I ask your name?” The Doctor asked. “You seem to know mine.” “If you must.” The thing bowed its head. “I am Makuta Krika.” The Doctor froze in place. “Makuta, Like Makuta Vamprah.” “Vamprah is a good being. He just doesn’t take rejection well anymore. You really shouldn’t stop moving before we get back to the boutique.” “Give me a reason to trust you.” The Doctor planted himself firmly in place. “She’s not dying you know.” Krika stated, matter of factly. “The near death state is just the point at which the mental walls are at their weakest, letting the light of the air, which is quite heavily saturated in this dimension, be re-absorbed by the subjects mind. Now that I have put your fears concerning Miss Doo to rest.” The Doctor visibly relaxed a bit. “You should trust me because there is a child that I have to get back to and not trusting me is going to make that take longer, which puts her in more and more danger; you and I both can’t stand that thought.” Each word of this sentence was increasingly filled with restrained frustration. The Doctor nodded. “Thank you; it’s right over this hill. I think you’ll like miss Rarity’s sense of taste, her home is quite-” They reached the top of the hill. Directly on the other side was a building, blackened by the explosion of a forced entrance. “-Oh no.” Krika breathed. “Sweetie Belle!” He ran to the hole where the front door should have been. “Sweetie Belle?” He stepped inside, only to have his mask knocked off by a frying pan. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika saw stars, whoever his assailant was; they were very good at ambushes. “Krika! Oh Celestia I’m sorry.” Krika’s vision cleared; Sweetie Belle was kneeling next to his head. “I thought you were Rarity coming back again and I-” He cut her off by hugging her tight. “It’s okay, I’m just happy you’re safe.” He held her at arms length. “Now what’s this about your sister?” “It was the pumpkin, I tried to warn her, it got her and her coat turned black and- and.” She collapsed, sobbing into Krika’s shoulder. He patted the back of her head. “It’s okay. Shh, it’s okay. We’ll get her back.” He was finding himself getting more and more angry with Vamprah the longer this day went on. “Krika are you alright? I heard a ba- oh.” Sweetie Belle looked up, saw the shadow pony on the Doctor’s back and picked the frying pan back up with her magic, pointing it threateningly at the two of them. “Krika, I think she’s going to clock me with that.” The Doctor shifted back nervously, not daring to move too quickly, lest he aggravate the weapon toting child. “Sweetie Belle wait,” Krika hastily explained, “Ditsy is being cured the same way we’re going to cure Rarity, just wait, she won’t wake up until it’s done.” She lowered the weapon. “This is the Doctor, but you can call him Doctor Whooves.” “I never agreed to that.” “Oh stuff it; she’ll get confused after a while if we just call you the Doctor.” He lifted his mask off the ground and sent it to Whoof. “I assume you’re disciplined enough to use a kanohi mask. But I’m also going to assume that you don’t know how; this is the mask of repulsion, you can use it to reject anything from an area around you, just concentrate, I want you to use it to keep Sweetie Belle safe; I’m going to look for more untainted ponies. I can count on you right?” “Right.” “Good.” He said grimly “I’m coming back Sweetie Belle and I may even have your sister this time, I’ll put everything that my brother wronged right. Just don’t stop smiling.” He turned to leave. “You know Whoof, you remind me of a younger me, so eager to help; don’t lose yourself like I did.” He ran from the house down to the chaos of the town, he ran towards his brother with anger in his eyes. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Once he had reached Ponyville, calmed down a considerable amount and given up on the foolish thought of a death match with Vamprah, which his voice of reason told him would end badly because Vamprah had Gavla, giving him control over the senses of other beings. He started his systematic sweep of the town from where he had left off when the Doctor had run into him, right at the corner of Cherry and Clover. He walked up to the door of a house and knocked, putting a bit more of his weight into it then he meant to. He heard startled shuffling from inside, either he had frightened a colony of rats or there was somebody in there. “Hello?” He tried the door, which surprisingly wasn't locked, and peeked around it, something slashed at his face, opening a gash that ran from behind his eye to his top lip. He screamed, flinging the door open, his vision went red as he pinned his assailant to the ground with a pincer and was about to crush her skull when a mare screamed from a room to his right. His vision cleared and he eased off of the mint green unicorn that had attacked him, she sprang back up to strike him again and he easily batted her away with his tail. He walked over to the window, consuming light to heal himself. “I’m sorry about that.” He said once his mouth healed, he turned around. “I am Makuta Krika, I’ve come to help you.” “Likely story, coming from a thing with the same title as the one who’s sent this town to hell in a hoof basket and just tried to break my skull.” The mint one said stubbornly. “To be fair, you tried to cut mine in half first and my brother is actually rather pleasant, he just doesn’t take rejection very well.” Krika noticed Rarity shuddering on the couch with half her coat back to normal. “Miss Rarity. Well I do congratulate you on curing exactly the shadow pony I was looking for.” He lifted her onto his back. “But I would enjoy having ponies of your skill to help me protect anybody I come back with; so may I cordially invite you back to the Carousel Boutique.” He spoke politely but honestly had no patience for these two right now; he had to get Rarity back to her sister. “One second you’re trying to kill my wife, the next you’re inviting us somewhere, now why should we trust you?” The cream colored one stepped forward defiantly. “Again she tried to kill me first. And because there is a child that is waiting anxiously for me to bring her sister back and your resistance is making this take much longer than it should have after I found her, now can we move before Vamprah becomes aware that I am here and things get ugly?” His pleading impatience showed in his voice. “Fine.” The mint one relented, giving her wife a nod. “Thank you.” They turned to leave only to see that the swarm of shadow Pegasus was passing over the house. “When I say run, you run like hell, got it?” “Got it.” The shadow passed. “Run!” They bolted out the door, running as fast as they could before the swarm raised the alarm, collectively screeching at the top of their lungs, they ran even faster afterwards, making time that even Rainbow Dash would have been impressed with. Krika looked over his shoulder; they weren’t being followed, and as if this wasn’t odd enough, the mass of shadow ponies was moving to the west, heading for the border facing Canterlot. He decided to write it off as a bit of good luck and they continued running for the northern border and the boutique. “May I have your names?” Krika asked. “I’m Lyra and this is Bonbon.” Lyra said stiffly. “I really think that we should dispense with the pleasantries, what exactly do you want?” “I want you safe and I want to get Sweetie Belle back her sister.” Krika nodded at them, giving a shallow bow. “Why?” Lyra pressed. “She smiles at me.” Lyra shook her head in disbelief. “If you’re making fun of us, we can take Rarity back and go home.” “I’m not making fun of you; before her no one had ever smiled at me before. I just want her to keep smiling at me.” Lyra again shook her head. “You are one of the most childish things I have ever met.” “That’s weird, I’m over seven thousand years old.” He laughed as they crested the hill. “Krika!” Sweetie Belle yelled, racing towards them. “We found Rarity.” Krika yelled back, slowing down a bit they walked through the door-hole, setting Rarity down next to Ditsy Doo, who was farther along in her relapse. “When will they wake up?” The Doctor asked. “In a few more hours, just be patient.” Krika assured the little pony; the Doctor glanced at him skeptically. “Have I lied yet?” “Not yet.” He said calmly. “Someone told her that I would be back soon.” He gestured towards Ditsy. “Do you know who?” “I did.” Krika replied. “Why?” “Because you appear at the crossroads, when things can either change for the better or worse and my appearance fell right into that category.” Krika’s eyes clouded for a moment. “You did your homework.” The Doctor gave Krika a sort of half glare. “No, I just scanned a hair from Miss Doo here or Derpy as some like to call her.” He nudged the smiling Sweetie Belle playfully. “Then you know-” The Doctor started, looking for all the world like he was about to have a panic attack “Yes I know about that and rest assured Doctor, your secret is safe with me. Now if I may have the mask back, I can see that it’s already wearing on you.” The Doctor removed the mask, passing it to Krika who put it onto the ground. “Something strange happened as we ran here, the shadow ponies raised an alarm and moved to the west, towards the border facing Canterlot. Can you think of any reason other than that they are getting ready to launch an attack for that? It’s too early for an attack of that scale, it doesn’t fit Vamprah’s style; he enjoys making his prey feed itself to him.” “Well there’s always the possibility that Celestia has already launched a counterstrike to retake the town,” The Doctor theorized, “but that would mean that she knew the town was taken early this morning at the least, even then they shouldn’t be there until… an hour from now." “Twilight lives out that way.” Sweetie Belle spoke up. “Yes.” Krika said thoughtfully. “She would be giving them some trouble. But not enough to warrant sending the entire swarm.” “Celestia may not know but Luna has known since last night.” Lyra nonchalantly added. “What?” Krika said slowly. “How would she know?” To say that he had a bad feeling about this was like saying that Pinkie Pie was a sugar addict. “I gave her my report last night, she had made him mute and left Vamprah in the forest; she thought he’d be eaten but had me search the forest to be sure.” Krika seemed to cloak himself in darkness, the edges of which spread to surround Lyra as his anger grew, The Doctor stood next to him, looking equally appalled. “You mean to tell me that the ruler of the night stole my brother’s voice and left him, a being born of the night, to die in a forest. Lesser offenses of that nature, committed by lesser beings are exactly what sparked the thousand year war. Do you have any idea. What! She’s! Done!?” His voice started at an enraged mutter and grew louder with each word until the shadow itself seemed to scream in his voice. “Krika!” Sweetie Belle shouted, backing away from it. Krika then noticed the shadow that threatened to swallow the room; he pulled it in quickly and turned back to Lyra. “You had better hope that Vamprah is satisfied with her and doesn’t go looking for her agents.” At that moment there was a booming crash from outside. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Earlier that morning. “Spike Hurry up; I can’t hold these things back for much longer!” Twilight strained with the barrier magic, holding back five shadow unicorns. “What do those leech things do to ponies?” “Look, I can’t make Celestia answer the Letter any faster!” Spike shouted back, setting up another booby trap by a window. “We wrote to her half an hour ago. What could be taking her so long?” Twilight patched another break in the seal. Spike belched loudly, signaling the arrival of a reply Spike started reading immediately. “Twilight Sparkle, I’ve known about this particular problem since about three O’clock this morning and have been on route since five. I should be arriving shortly but I do not suggest that you stay at home, I hate to break this to you but trees are highly flammable. "Good advice but how do we get out?” “Like this.” Twilight lifted Spike onto her back and charged through the front door blasting magical energy left and right. “Are you insane!?” Spike hugged tight to her back. “We’re going to be caught.” “Not if we barricade ourselves in with Pinkie Pie, I’m pretty sure she let that dragon beat her on purpose.” The shadow ponies seemingly decided she wasn’t worth the trouble and abandoned their attack as she entered the main area of the town. Most of the buildings had holes in them or burn marks, the ground was blackened by battle magic and screams echoed through the air as other ponies either fought or ran for their lives. Twilight tried to help the normal ponies best she could but in Ponyville proper the shadow ponies swarmed in numbers that could blot out the sun and only Twilight’s barrier magic, which kept out normal ponies as well as shadows, kept her and Spike safe, what she wouldn’t give for Krika’s mask of repulsion right about now. “This is insanity!” The shadow ponies suddenly lifted, seeming to flee from a figure walking through the smoke. The normal ponies looked over to their savoir with cautious optimism, there were a few of the shadow ponies that could cause the same reaction. It was Pinkie Pie, except her coat was darkened and her hair was flat. Twilight panicked for a second, worried that Pinkie had been converted, but once Pinkie locked eyes on Twilight her mane puffed back up and she somehow shot through the barrier. “Oh, Twilight, I was so worried; they got Applejack and Fluttershy and even Dashie, I don’t know what happened to Rarity, but it can’t have been good, I was beginning to lose my laugh, I mean, they even got Mr. and Mrs. Cake, but not me, I fought them off and now their all scared to death of me. So how‘s your day been?” Twilight couldn’t believe it; it had taken five seconds for Pinkie to relate her entire morning. “Well my tree was sieged, other than that there’s not much. But the Princess is coming to take back the town.” “Really, oh how can I make a thank you party when I already had to use all my supplies to fend off shadows? And every time I laugh at them they just laugh back and keep coming.” “We don’t have time to plan a party right now; I think they’re coming back.” Twilight eyed the skies and sure enough there was an armada of shadow pegasi coming fast from the south, Twilight strengthened the barrier magic, anticipating a dive bomb attack, she spread it out as far as she could make it, hoping to cover at least most of the other normals. Instead of dive bombing like Twilight anticipated, it practically started raining shadow leeches, covering the barrier of light and quickly eating through; Twilight tried to blast all that came through but it was a flood, she could only keep Spike and Pinkie safe as she heard the others scream in pain and fear. The cries soon turned to cruel laughter as they were converted, a grey alicorn landed directly in front of Twilight, who started her teleportation spell, finishing it just before Pinkie would have been vaporized by dark magic. They all came out slightly singed from the teleportation but otherwise unharmed. “I thought I told you to warn me next time.” Spike groaned. “Thanks though.” “There was no time, if I had waited to warn you Pinkie would have died.” “That was Ditsy.” Pinkie spoke softly, which worried Twilight. “They even got Ditsy Doo…” She sat down on her rump, slumping for a moment before seeming to force herself to perk back up. “Where are we anyway?” “I took us to the western border; we need to meet up with Celestia and Luna before they get here.” They ran west only to be blocked by a frighteningly familiar face. “Applejack?” Twilight yelled, cringing away from her friend’s newly malicious gaze. “I see ya’ll ‘er tryin ta get away.” She smiled wickedly “Can’t have that, now can we?” She seemed to move faster than they could see, knocking Spike off Twilight’s back and pinning her down. “Applejack; think about what you’re doing.” “Ah’m repayin a favor. Vamprah made me strong, ah’m just payin ‘im back.” Pinkie Pie kicked Applejack in the ribs, knocking her off of Twilight and into the dirt. “What use is being strong if you forget who your real friends are?” Pinkie screamed at her. “Well… Shut up; I can have anythin' I want now.” Applejack got back up and charged Pinkie, but was stopped dead in her tracks by a wall of magic, which unfolded into a box, trapping her. “What in tarnation? Twilight you sneaky witch! This won’t hold me.” She turned and kicked it but instead of breaking the box reverberated, loosing a sound that made Applejack scream and everyone else in the area cringe. “Oops, I didn’t mean to make it that loud.” Twilight winced. “Well.” Applejack spoke shakily. “Nice try but wrong sound. Ah will admit that hurt.” “Hey Jacks!” Another familiar voice sounded from above. “You owe me fifty bits.” “Ah never agreed ta that bet.” Applejack scowled at the sky. “Not for that, for this.” The wind rushed and the box shattered. “Where‘s my money?” The voice seemed to emanate from everywhere at once. “Rainbow Dash, where are you?” Twilight asked, searching the skies. “Oh, I’m here,” the voice came from behind Pinkie, “and there.” The voice came from behind Twilight, who whirled around just in time to be beamed in the face with an unconscious Spike. Twilight fell to the ground and someone put a hoof onto her neck, she looked up and there was Rainbow Dash, the colors of her mane had been inverted and a pair of bat wings had sprouted behind her normal feathered ones but it was easy enough to see that it was her. Twilight reached for her magic only for Dash to press down on her windpipe, forcing her to lose hold of it. Twilight tried again and Dash laughed, pushing on her again. “Keep trying, I could do this all day. Hey Jacks, you almost done with Pinkie?” “She’s trussed up like a turkey, sugarcube.” Dash slid something over Twilight’s horn. “Good get this one next.” Dash backed off and Twilight was tied up before she could even say anything. She tried to reach for her magic but instead got a painful shock from whatever was on her horn, Applejack laughed cruelly. “What ‘er we gonna do ‘bout the dragon?” “His name is Sp-” Rainbow dash shoved a length of rope into Twilight’s mouth. “Stow it! He wasn’t part of the orders; I say we leave him.” Dash shrugged. “No wait ah got a better idea.” Applejack was developing a very uncharacteristic sly glint in her eyes. “We wouldn’t want ‘im running off and warnin’ the princess about us would we?” “No I guess we wouldn’t. What’s your point?” “Drop ‘im.” “Ooh you’re despicable; I love it.” Dash grabbed Spike’s tail in her mouth and flew straight up. “Yer gonna want ta watch this.” Applejack forced Twilights head to the side, forcing her to watch Dash take Spike higher and higher until she finally dropped him. “NNMMM SPNNN SPNN!” Twilight screamed around the gag, straining to get free. She watched Spike’s tumbling figure until he landed in a heap on a nearby hill. “NNMM SPNN NNMM!” Twilight sobbed, tears streaming from her eyes as Rainbow Dash and Applejack laughed. They dragged Pinkie and Twilight, who was still sobbing, through town, surrounded by screams and evil laughter. Twilight didn’t dare open her eyes, even though when they were closed all she could see was Spike’s broken body on the hill. “Hey Flutts; we got ‘em, let us in.” Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her, in a morbid sort of way she actually had been wondering what effect the leeches would have on Fluttershy. They were directly outside the building in the middle of town. A small slab of wood placed at about eye level on the door slid away. “Nice, you really got them. Not bad for a pair of imbeciles.” It sounded like the shadow leeches had taken everything that made Futtershy herself and turned it on its head. Where her voice had been soft and gentle this shadow’s voice was hard and callous, where Fluttershy’s voice had been kind this voice was cruel. “Where’s the dragon?” The horrible voice asked flatly, as if it was expecting Spike to just hop out from behind their captors. “I dropped him.” Rainbow proclaimed proudly. “Do you realize how stupid that was?” Rainbow Dash went stiff as a board. “I was looking forward to enhancing that little thing.” “It was Applejack’s idea.” Dash pointed accusingly at her orange companion. “Ey, ya’ll er’ the one who did it.” Applejack shoved the accusing hoof down. “But you talked me into it.” “If ya’ll er’ goin’ ta accuse me a’ somthin’ at least make it somethin’ ya didn’t do happily.” “Hey morons, shut it.” The two bickering shadows stood stiffly at attention, terror in their eyes. “Since you dunderheads couldn’t even bring me the purple dragon alive you can just slip them in here and go get its corpse, I could still have some fun removing his skeleton for reconstruction I guess.” The door opened, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were tossed unceremoniously through. Twilight looked up from the floor; Fluttershy was turned so that her hair hid her face from the two bound ponies. Twilight tried to bite through the rope in her mouth and was lifted into the air by magic, she looked around frantically but the only pony besides Pinkie and herself in this room was Fluttershy, and last time Twilight checked pegasi couldn’t use magic. “Now, now Twilight, you’ll get plenty of time to speak, or moan, once I get you strapped in.” Fluttershy turned around and Twilight managed to gasp around the rope-gag. Fluttershy had gained a horn, other than that she looked exactly the same. She looked at Twilight with a calm smile, the kind that under normal circumstances was reserved for when she was working with her animals, yet the normally comforting smile had eyes lit with madness directly above it. “You know.” Fluttershy spoke as she magically fastened Twilight and Pinkie, who had been silent for the longest period since she had lived on the rock farm; to a pair of hospital beds. “I really had hoped to get Spike alive, especially after the success I had with Angel. Here boy.” A hulking brute that seemed to be a cross between a gorilla and a rabbit fell from the ceiling, sniffing at the two helpless mares before it, mouth dripping saliva; it gathered itself to pounce, fangs showing behind its curled lips. “Down!” Fluttershy commanded it, magically grabbing a slice of flesh from who knows what off a hook on the other side of the room, luring the beast away from her new test subjects. “If I can do that with a rabbit, think what I could’ve done with a baby dragon, much less a full grown one. So Miss Sparkle” Fluttershy removed the gag with a small ripple of energy. “What do you think?” “I think it’s barbaric and heinous and evil, that’s what I think of your little experiments and this entire stinking situation!” Fluttershy chuckled evilly, lifting a small, rattling, case out from underneath the table. “As much as I loved hearing that little rant and seeing the inexhaustible Pinkie Pie in such a tuckered out, defeated position as this, I really do.” She cast Twilight and Pinkie both sultry glances. “As much as I would love to just have my way with you.” She paused, seemingly wallowing in whatever horrific thoughts had entered her warped mind. “Those weren’t the orders and I have a debt to pay, so I’m just going to skip straight to the finale. If I had my way you both wouldn’t even be able to feel anything but pleasure by the time this happened.” She opened the case and four of the sluggish shadow leeches oozed out and started their path towards their victim’s faces as Fluttershy looked on with an insane glee lighting her eyes. “Fluttershy, you don’t have to do this. You can still help us.” “Oh,” Fluttershy started, sarcasm already dripping from her voice, “you would rather I had My way with you first.” She leaned in, panting over the side of Twilight’s face, which was otherwise occupied in trying to stay away from both the insane alicorn and the leech inching its way towards her. Somepony knocked on the door, rousing Fluttershadow from her attempted molestation, Twilight thanked all that was good in the universe for that. Fluttershadow growled in anger at being distracted from her prize but nonetheless walked over to the door, sliding the wooden bar away. “What! What is it? I’m busy! Oh it’s you two, come to drop off the dragon corpse, have you.” This was obviously more command than question. “W-Well.” Rainbow started. “You tell her.” “Ey, I was on the ground, ya’ll were directly above it, if anyone’s takin’ the fall fer this it’s you.” “He wasn’t dead yet was he?” Fluttershadow spoke with a voice drenched with rage, which was somehow much less frightening than the tones she had been using with Twilight and Pinkie. “We can’t really tell.” “You don’t have him, do you?” “Well no but the weird part is that there’s no trail leading from where I dropped him to anywhere else, it’s like he just disappeared or something.” This statement brightened Twilight’s day considerably and she would have shouted for joy, if the shadow leech had not taken that exact moment to bite down into her neck. “Nooooo!” She yelled, expecting her mind to warp, being drained of all goodness and light, but instead it was just a small pinprick, there and gone in less than a second. She looked down; the leech had turned into a shriveled black husk, devoid of all life, as if she had drained it. She heard Pinkie chuckle in the bed next to hers; looking over she saw three bloated yellow shadow leeches and a very not changed, and giggling, Pinkie Pie. “That tickled.” “What the hell?” Fluttershadow was obviously flustered by this development. “I expected this exact reaction from Pinkie but come on; immunity, that makes three now. Jackie, Dash; fetch Ditsy for me, your punishment can wait.” “Yes ma’am; thank you ma’am.” They both quickly babbled before taking off as fast as their limbs could carry them. “Immunity.” She spat. “Angel!” The grotesque thing looked up from the bone it was gnawing on and shot up next to its master. “Take Miss Sparkle to the room with the other immunes. I’m going to let out some nerves by playing with our soon to be Inky Pinkie.” The monster rabbit grabbed the bed and hoisted it over his shoulder, jumping up through a hole in the ceiling into another room in which there were two other beds, each with a small filly, one of whom she recognized. “Hey Twilight, you too huh?” Scootaloo nodded at Twilight from her bed “Welcome to the club.” The other said welcomingly “my name is Dinky” “Very nice to meet you, but I don’t think now is the best time for pleasantries.” Twilight strained against her bonds. “Than what is it a good time for? We’ve been here since this morning and you can’t really do anything else.” Scootaloo tugged at the straps, cementing the fact in Twilight’s mind that they were all trapped and at the mercy of a psychotic horny alicorn. (No pun intended.) Angel put her down and went back downstairs to gnaw on his bone; might as well get comfortable. “So… Anypony heard any good jokes lately?” “Ooh, ooh me.” Scootaloo said enthusiastically. “So there are these two school colts-” The joke was silenced by a series of shrill cries from the room below them that reached a crescendo after a disturbingly long time, Twilight tried desperately not to think about what the twisted version of her friend was doing. A couple moments after; the door to the room they were in opened, letting in Fluttershadow, whose mane was significantly mussed. “Woo; never knew Pinkie was a screamer.” She licked her lips, locking eyes on Twilight. “Your turn.” Twilight tried to scoot backwards only to be restrained by the straps that she guessed since she wouldn’t be turning into one of them anytime soon, weren't going to be undone. “You’re going to be so...” She licked her lips again. “Yummy.” “Now Fluttershy,” Twilight pleadingly tried to reason with Fluttershadow as she got much too close for comfort to the point where the alicorn’s breath was stirring Twilight’s fur, “not in front of the children.” “Oh let them watch; I haven’t tried unicorn, yet, and call me by my chosen name. Fluttershadow.” Fluttershadow licked up Twilight’s horn; just then the alarm sounded, screeches filling the air. Fluttershadow looked up, looking more pissed than anything had a right to be, Twilight heaved a sigh of relief at the fact that the insane creature had been turned away again. “All right, what the buck is it now? I mean really, what good is having an attractive prisoner if I can’t even rape her properly?” Fluttershadow turned back around to Twilight. “Don’t get your hopes up, I will have you, children in the room or none. Although I do enjoy an audience.” The wall behind Twilight blew open in a blaze of green fire. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Spike woke up slowly; the first thing he was aware of was a dull ache all over his body, the next thing he was aware of was that he was in a tent with the Celestial Sisterhood banner sown into the side and the third thing he noticed before he started having a panic attack was that Twilight wasn’t there and he knew why. “Oh Buck No!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, almost getting out of bed before he noticed that Celestia herself was sitting right next to the bed, he blushed, utterly embarrassed. "Please don't tell Twilight I swore." “Don't worry; I was just waiting for you to wake up.” She stood, waving a wing towards the entrance. “Coming?” “You’d better believe it.” He jumped out of the bed, running to get out of the tent and to the front lines as soon as possible. He was gonna save Twilight if it killed him. “You’re going to need this.” Celestia cast a spell that made Spike feel like something had been shoved halfway down his throat. “These shadows can only be cured by a specific frequency sound, all you have to do is scream at them.” Celestia uncloaked the army, charging the shadow infested town. An alarm immediately sounded, a massive shadow cloaking the area as the shadow pegusi blotted out the sun. Spike charged ahead, following Celestia and trusting her to know where Twilight was. Celestia charged the town hall, jumping to an upper level with spike hanging from her tail. Spike let go of her tail, using the upward movement to launch himself against a wall, using a tactic that all wingless dragons instinctively knew. He curled up into a ball, somersaulting and breathing fire, effectively turning himself into a flying ball of flame, he impacted the wall, bursting through in a blaze of green and landing with precision that he didn’t know he had. He looked up into the familiar yet hostile eyes of Fluttershadow. “Get away from her you thing!” He yelled hard, blasting the alicorn away, screaming. Twilight craned her head back. “Oh yeah; I’m awesome!” “Spike, Celestia; thank goodness you’re here.” “What’s ‘rape’?” Scootaloo asked absentmindedly. “I mean I’m real happy for the rescue and everything but seriously, what was Fluttershadow about to do to Twilight?” Celestia winced. “It wasn’t anything like she did to Angel was it?” At that moment the monstrous creature leaped through the floorboards, landing directly in front of Spike, who growled at it, readying his claws. Celestia lifted the poor creature into the air, transmuting it back into a harmless rabbit. “Is this Angel?” She asked. “Yes.” Scootaloo answered. “Then no, rape is nothing like what happened to angel. You should ask your parents when they’re cured.” Celestia spoke hurriedly, obviously trying to avoid the question. “Spike, release these three and make your way out of town until the fighting is over.” “Yes ma’am.” Celestia flew out “Spike, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.” “I know.” Spike said as he took the ring off Twilight’s horn and moved on to Dinky while Twilight undid herself. “What did you do to her?” Twilight poked the shuddering Fluttershy, whose horn fell off, leaving a bloody hole and clattering on the floor, Fluttershy moaned. Twilight yelped jumping back. “Some “frequency sound”, it apparently cures them. Makes my ears ring.” Spike shook his head for a second before undoing the last strap. Dinky hopped out of her bounds, jumping around and stretching her legs. “Fascinating, I’m going to have to duplicate it if we want to get out of this place.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ On the western border the battle raged fiercely, the royal guards, unused to this kind of battle, were grievously outmatched and outnumbered; the only things keeping them from being useless were the spells that Celestia and Luna had placed on each of them, turning their vocal cords into weapons, and the princess’s own power, making them almost unstoppable. Princess Luna was a force to be reckoned with, blasting shadow ponies left, right, above and below, she obviously needed to be dealt with by someone harder to defeat. Vamprah grinned; time to break out his favorite move. He blasted the Pegasus guards away from him. “Gavla take her sight, leave her voice and hearing, I want her to hear our anger.” “Got it.” Gavla cut down a guard before turning to Luna, her eyes narrowed as darkness enveloped them, turning them into a dark meteor careening towards the princess, who had no more time to react than if it had been a real one. She was knocked from the sky and into a building; the darkness billowed away, filling the room they landed in like water, Luna, being the demigod of darkness, could still see until her sight was stolen by Gavla. “How does it feel to be blind in a place of which you have no knowledge, unable to navigate?” Vamprah taunted Luna, who was obviously panicking, lashing out at anything within a five foot radius. “You don’t like it do you? You’re scared aren’t you? Well that’s how I felt!” Vamprah stomped a wing, taking a breath to calm himself. “Calm down, we’re not going to attack you like this, although I have plenty reason to.” Luna stopped attacking, breathing heavily. “Now that you understand, we can end this-” “No, you cannot kill me; I have more power than you can possibly imagine.” Luna’s head swung wildly as she tried to pinpoint Vamprah’s voice. “Don’t interrupt me! I have no plans to kill you, yet.” He took a step forward. “We can end this; I can release all of those affected by the shadow leeches if you simply do three things. Take back what you said in the forest, give me back my voice and give me a place in this world; it can be as a guard for all I care.” “Never, you’re a monster; I’ve seen it all everything you did, all those you hunted like mice, everything you’ve destroyed, you don’t deserve a second chance.” “Fine then. We’ll force you to!” “Gavla release her sight. I want her to look at us when we take off her wings.” Gavla opened Luna’s eyes as Vamprah charged, knocking Luna back into the air and jumping after her, he sent two black orbs flying towards her with a flap of his wings, she flew higher, barely avoiding them, they hit a guard flying behind her and exploded with force felt all throughout the battlefield. Shadows and normal ponies alike stopped, looking towards the creature that had unleashed such power in awe and fear. Luna looked down at what remained of the guard, nothing but a tattered wing; the rest was reduced to dust. She had to get Vamprah somewhere that he would cause as little collateral damage as possible. She flew north, leading him away from the battle. Vamprah flew with astonishing speed, catching her just shy of the border, wrapping her in his wings, he bit into the back of her neck and sucked out one gulp before the flow was cut, as they fell he opened his wings, drawing back from the wound. “Black blood?” The sound of his own voice startled him into dropping the struggling alicorn, who sped back off north. Vamprah, giddy with his recovery, started laughing, a sincere hearty laugh that filled the air. “But black blood can only mean one thing; ooh I’m going to love this.” He flew after his prey, grinning like a madman; he found her flying above a once beautiful building blackened by explosion. “Cover your ears Gavla.” He screeched, squaring Luna directly between the wings, which shrunk into her back, her horn sank into her forehead, her forward motion turned to downward causing her to crash with great impact into the dirt behind the Carousel Boutique. Vamprah laughed loudly, landing directly beside her. “What have you done to me?” Luna asked, staring at her diminished body. “I’ve taken your power with a single blast of sound. Just look at you, you’re not even a very strong earth pony; you’re absolutely defenseless.” He picked her up with a thumb claw. “And you’re so cute. So about my request, it is now a demand, you take back what you said, give me a place and not only will I release the shadow ponies, I will give you back your power. So, what do you say?” He cradled her gently with his wing as he looked at her hopefully through Gavla's eyes, praying that she took the deal so he could abandon this foolishness. “Never.” Luna spat on his mask, Vamprah went ridged. “What?! What!?” He wrapped his wing painfully tight around her in a leathery fist. “I have your power, I am offering you it back and peace, I am offering you an ally and you still refuse me. I am the Shadow of Odina, master of Rahkshi armies, I held an entire continent in fear before the shadow leeches even existed and you are now defenseless. What gall, what foolish pride makes you drive me to continue this madness, what moronic stubbornness forces you to hurt me so?!” He flung her to the ground, standing over her snarling and sobbing at the same time. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika looked outside, scurrying around to the side of the Carousel Boutique to see Vamprah standing over somepony. “Vamprah!” He yelled, anger raising its head like a monster. “Brother, hello; glad to see you, perhaps you can talk some sense into this stubborn princess.” Vamprah kicked the bruised and crippled form of Princess Luna towards Krika, she stared up at him with an angry determination, as if to say ‘do your worst’. Sweetie Belle, who Krika hadn’t noticed was there, turned back towards the door, crying as she ran. Krika stared on in shock that grew to a boiling rage. “Vamprah you bastard!” He charged his brother, jumping at him with claws set to shred. Vamprah instinctively reared up to meet his attacker. They collided, clawing and biting at each other, Vamprah threw Krika onto his back down in the dirt. “What is wrong with you?” Vamprah wiped his lip with a wing. “This ‘princess’ is the one you should bring your anger to bear on. She would have us both sent back to a world that hates us. Am I not justified in my fight?” Krika flipped his upper then lower body upright. “This world is not ready for what you have done; you have engineered a place that will hate us as the last one did. And no deal forced out of their leaders will change that!” He spat an orb of shadow at Vamprah, squaring him in the chest and sending the bat-like creature careening through the air. Vamprah quickly righted himself and replied with bolts of darkness that impacted the ground when their target dodged, sending up plumes of smoke and dust which blew away in an orb as Krika rejected the area around him, flying up after his brother, who blocked with crossed wings as Krika took them higher and higher, Gavla bashed Krika across the mask, forcing him to turn away. They broke the cloud layer and looped around, shooting bolts of shadow at each other and clashing blades with monstrous force that blew holes in the clouds beneath them, they collided, two blades on one, the air tense with their conflicting anger. Krika scored a hit on Vamprah’s mask, causing him to go momentarily limp and forcing him down, giving Krika the high ground and the upper hand. He blasted himself towards Vamprah, clamping a pincer onto his neck. “If you strike me I break it.” He told Gavla sternly. He drove Vamprah down through the air into the dirt of the crater made by Kenpachi, sending up a massive cloud of dust and debris. Once it cleared Krika bore down on the back of his brother’s neck. “Now you listen to me you little punk, you are going to march back there, release the shadow ponies and give Luna back her power. They can decide what to do with us afterwards.” “But Krika,” Vamprah pleaded, “they’ll send us back.” “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Vamprah stared up at his brother through Gavla’s concerned eyes; Krika removed his mask, easing off Vamprah’s neck. “Have faith in them brother. Not all of them are as stubborn as Luna, in fact I know one who I will suggest that they council before the decision is made.” Vamprah looked back at his brother with both pairs of eyes, searching his face for doubt; he found none and slowly nodded. “Good.” Krika helped them back up. “We can walk if you wish to.” Vamprah nodded again. They started the trek back across the town; Vamprah did as he had said and released the Shadow ponies, who were now milling about in various stages of confusion, ranging from a slightly drunk look to complete panic, most had no idea what had happened at any point after they had opened their doors that morning or the previous night and those that did only had jumbled flashes. Krika strode, proud and tall, taking up old habits from his time as regent of the northern continent, Vamprah on the other hand was trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible, which is hard when you’re two times the size of the creature next to you and anyone else in the area, Gavla was walking on Vamprah’s other side, whispering words of comfort as a small child does when they see one of their parents in a depressed state, although it was having nowhere near as profound an effect. They received a few puzzled looks but beyond that they weren’t bothered. “Krika,” Gavla spoke up on her own, “do you really think that they’ll spare us?” “I don’t know little one but don’t worry too much, I’ll have the best stallion I know on the job. He’s got a degree in everything.” Krika chuckled to himself. “You know the doctor?” “Yes and I hope to have him vouch for us.” ‘Hope’ it was a small word but it carried dreams with it and now it would be carrying one more burden. It was an odd thought but one that crossed his mind none the less. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Princess Luna was faced with several problems in her tent the most important of which was ‘what was she going to do if the white Makuta won?’ No doubt he was going to be just as big of a problem as his brother despite the small white filly's protest. Second what was she going to do about her new form and how was she going to get her old one back? And thirdly, this one was starting to rival the first in terms of importance. How was she going to make this small unicorn shut up so she could take a report from Lyra. “Mr. Krika is nice really, he just gets a bit angry with things that involve his brother, I don’t think they got along very well as foals. Please don’t send him back, he told me-” “Please be quiet little one, I need to take testimony from my agent.” Luna turned back to Lyra. “Now as you were saying." “He is undoubtedly the most childish thing I have ever met, despite his claim of being over seven thousand years old but other than that I only know that he is quick to anger when struck, beyond that my testimony mirrors Sweetie Belle’s.” Luna cocked an eyebrow and turned to the brown stallion who simply nodded his consent with the others. “So we managed to just be caught in the middle of an ancient sibling rivalry?” “I’m afraid not Lulu.” Luna locked up, turning back to the brown stallion with a look of disbelieving astonishment, only one creature on the planet called her that; what right did this colt have to call her by her sisters pet name. “We were caught in a feud that you sparked by leaving Vamprah in the Everfree, making a snap decision based on too little knowledge.” “Who are you?” The stallion grinned, playful madness twinkling in his eyes. “I’m The Doctor.” “I’m pretty sure calling yourself by a profession is some kind of psychosis.” “Well you can call me Doctor Whooves, I’ve grown quite fond of that nomenclature. It just fits.” His smile dropped. “But in all seriousness I say that you let them think you’re sending them home for twenty four hours and if you find no reason to let them stay in that time then by all means send a suffering being back into the place that causes it to suffer. I can no more influence the final decision than this child, can I?” Luna Glared at The Doctor in acceptance of his challenge. “Fine, but just you wait Mr. Whooves these Makuta are more trouble than they’re worth. Monsters the both of them.” “We’ll see.” Luna cast him one more venomous look and exited the tent only to be confronted with the ‘monsters’ themselves. Krika bowed low. “Greetings Princess Luna, I am Krika, and you already know my brother.” Vamprah was holding his head close to the ground, looking up at her with an apologetic, shamed, look that mirrored a small foal caught stealing from a cookie jar. “Now if you would be so kind as to bare your neck.” Luna readied herself to defend from the attack she knew was coming. Krika read her posture “Now, now Princess we have no intention of attacking you, but if you want to remain powerless than by all means turn us away.” She removed herself from the defensive position. “What do you mean?” “The only way to recover your power is to allow Vamprah to restore it. Your power came from a lack of physical light which Vamprah undid; in order to restore the darkness Vamprah must use his abilities to drain your body of the forced light and he needs you to bare your neck to do that.” Luna hesitantly lifted her chin; Vamprah struck, clamping onto her neck with decisive force and wrapping his wings about her, Luna briefly struggled before a pleasant sensation spread through her body, forcing her to go limp as the light she hadn’t known had been paining her was drained, “there’s the anesthesia.” Krika mused. Her horn and wings sprouted back out. She gasped once Vamprah removed his fangs, her coat regaining its dark sheen. She then took a moment to recover her composure. “Well –cough- I need twenty four hours to ready the spell and you three will be sent back to your own world.” Krika’s face became unreadable as he glanced beyond Luna, back towards the tent. Vamprah started to bristle, gathering himself to strike but Krika stopped him with a pincer placed on his shoulder. Vamprah looked up at him through Gavla, his own face still trained on Luna, Krika shook his head and Vamprah slumped, following Krika away from the base camp. “I hope you’re happy.” Gavla muttered shooting a look that would make the sun go cold at Luna before she turned to follow them. "That bite was a bit dramatic brother." "I'm angry with her; sue me." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika broke off from Vamprah and Gavla, heading up to the hill in front of the Carousel Boutique, where he could overlook the town and watch the sun set. “Krika!” He looked up to see Twilight Sparkle running towards him through the ruined town. “I heard that Luna’s sending you home, is it true?” “Yes it is true.” He looked past her to all the ruined buildings as they walked, places that would most likely never be the same. “It wasn’t always like this you know.” “Of course it wasn’t.” “No, we weren’t always like this.” “Come again?” “We were once a noble people, we Makuta. We would never in our darkest nightmares have caused the kind of destruction Vamprah did. We were good and just… but that’s all gone now; even our once great home of Destral has become a curse, a name spoken only out of anger, a place where demons lay in wait to wreak evil on the universe. But it wasn’t always like that. I wish I could say we were admired but that was never to be. When we go just remember this; we aren’t evil, no we were never evil, misguided yes but never evil." They reached the hill and Krika sat to watch the sky turn to night. His Gaze was drawn back to Ponyville, smoldering in the fading light. It took him back to when he had realized what he had been becoming, when he had first met the monster on the hill; he felt his resolve slipping and he decided to let it. “Krika.” Twilight spoke, rousing him from memories he would rather not have had. “Yes.” “Why did you turn out like you did? Why did your people turn out the way they did?” Krika sat and thought for a few minutes, trying to think of a way to explain the years of chaos and rejection to a being whose life had been relatively peaceful and always accepted; he decided to answer one question with more. “What would you do Twilight?” Sadness making his voice crack. “If everything and everyone in this world told you that being a unicorn was evil, and earth ponies and pegasi were seen as heroes for being unable to use magic?” “I-” Twilight began to speak but found herself unable to think of an answer. “What would you do if just being who and what you are was a sin redeemable only by death? Would you not seek the power to change this?” Tears started falling from his eyes but he didn’t care. “Would you not crush anything that told you this? Would you not hate them? Would you not hate yourself for it? Would you not... believe them?” He kneeled in the dirt, fighting against sobs. “Wouldn’t you want to change who and what you were? Even if you know you can’t.” He gave in to the sobs and curled up into the fetal position. In this moment Twilight could see the tortured child he really was, a creature that no matter what he did was shunned by even his own mother. She kneeled down next to him, nuzzling him comfortingly. “I wouldn’t believe them.” Krika sniffed, recovering from his sobs. “That’s what happened to us, we refused to believe them, but some part of us did. We decided morality was below us, that it was only needed by lesser beings, who couldn’t do what we did.” “What did you do?” “We killed. We were soldiers, born and raised. We fought for the matoran with the same three virtues as the toa; Unity, Duty, Destiny. The toa were sworn to defend, but never to kill and they were worshipped as heroes for it; they repelled attacks and we made sure they never happened again. We were shunned, seen as ‘something people don’t talk about.’ And for thousands of years we didn’t care; as long as the matoran were safe we could deal with the abuse. But how we wished they would accept us like the toa, so much that over time we grew to resent them. The toa, who had never asked for it were given all the love we begged for and more. We never truly hated them, no we wanted to be them. Did they think killing was easy? There were Makuta driven to suicide by it. We simply endured, for thousands of years. Until He came, Teridax, with the notion that we didn’t need them, we needed to rule supreme, give them the monsters they had feared for so long and become gods, create things that would accept us, and we believed him. We needed someone to tell us that they were wrong, that we weren’t really monsters, but they deserved them. "We declared war, to take the power to justify our existence. The toa and matoran had hated us and had been prepared. The Thousand year war began and it was looking over a city just like this one is now, burnt and ruined. That I caught myself laughing, I stopped myself, horrified by what I was feeling, that city had been my home, there should have been grim satisfaction but not the psychotic mirth I was experiencing. It was then that I realized that our purpose was starting to mirror Teridax’s true desire; to obtain power for power’s sake. So many of us went insane, forced to take enjoyment from the fear and pain of the matoran. "My home had been a place of beauty, of music and dancing, of life and friendship, of art and joy and laughter. And I had destroyed it, in pursuit of power that would be useless once I had it; I no longer deserved what I had wanted so desperately, there was no justification for me anymore. I had driven away the matoran, the ones that had given that land its beauty, the ones whose acceptance I had begged for and I realized that my people and I were too far down the road to turn back. We had never wanted to be the monsters they were right to fear, but that’s what we became. And we were forced to learn an important lesson through all this. ‘All beings not born of the dark fear it.’ "What would you have done, if after thousands of years of unearned exile you were given a chance to be truly free, to have your life made a good thing? Would you not believe him? No matter how evil he was.” The dams broke and he wailed in sorrow and regret, it was a mournful howl that rang loud and clear through the night air and made anyone who heard it want to cry out as well. “Hush, hush. It wasn’t your fault.” She patted his back as he let out millennia of loneliness and rejection into the night air. “If you show me one thing that says it wouldn’t believe him I’ll show you a liar. No one should have to go through what you did. Nothing should have to justify its own birth.” The cries were joined by a voice in the east, both voices howled for what seemed like hours before Krika regained enough self control to speak again. “When my home was beautiful I used to wander the streets, hiding in the shadows to avoid disrupting the celebrations that took place every night. I would see matoran smiling at one another and pretend that they were smiling at me. That’s all I ever really wanted, I wanted someone to smile at me, simply because they were happy to see me, not out of pity or masked fear, but true childish happiness. Here I’ve found someone who does that; there I’ll be hunted down like an escaped animal. Here I have a second chance at life; something that I’ve wanted since I caught myself laughing on that hill. Please don’t let them send me back please, please, please, please, please!” His barely patched composure shattered again and he again began the howls ringing through the moonlit land. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Luna was standing on the eastern border, waiting for Celestia to lower the sun so she could raise the moon. Something started clicking behind her and she turned to see Vamprah, without Gavla, walking towards her, head bowed in both respect and shame. He was using his newly regained voice to imitate echolocation. “Hello Vamprah.” Luna tried to shove as much contempt into the two words as possible. “Out and about without your little hayseed I see.” Vamprah’s head shot up from the ground. “Don’t talk about Gavla like that!” He closed his eyes, it was obvious that he was shoving down anger, he sighed. “I actually came here to ask something for her.” “Huh?” Luna was almost as surprised that he hadn’t attacked her as that he was asking on another’s behalf. “Please don’t send her back.” Luna glared at him, he looked back with pleading sightless eyes, he was slightly off target, his face pointed more towards her left than at hers. “Why?” “I know I probably deserve whatever I get, but she doesn’t deserve what the rest of her kind will do if they find out about her.” “And what exactly will they do?” “They will take her away and then if she doesn’t denounce me after their ‘purification’ they’ll hunt me down and lock me behind a protodermis wall while she watches and then if she still doesn’t they’ll put her in there with me. Both suspended in time for all eternity, never waking up, never truly sleeping. I can’t bring her back to that. So I ask you, no I beg you, please don’t send her back. I couldn’t bear to know that I had dragged her to such a fate with me.” When he stopped this time he was actually looking about four feet to her right. He let out a series of clicks and corrected his position, this time seeming to stare strait at her. The sun went down. “Give me a moment.” She lifted into the air, calling out the moon and the stars. “I can feel what you’re doing.” Vamprah said below her. “I just wish I could see it.” Luna waited until she was done painting the sky to be surprised. “Your nights are much nicer than the ones where I’ve been for the past thousand years.” “You like them?” “Who wouldn’t? It’s part of why being rejected by you hurt like it did. I am a being born of darkness, imagine if your mother told you that she hated you.” “I don’t have a mother and if I did I never knew her.” “I just never had a mother.” Luna stared at him. Normally her darksight would have kicked in by now, showing the creature in front of her as what it really was in the deepest part of its heart. But it hadn’t, she could see faintly in the north, the form of a teacher and another she couldn’t quite read. It was always like this with the beings closest to her creation, if something belonged to the dark they were likely to bury themselves in order to fit in. She exerted a little effort and a layer peeled away, revealing nothing but a hazy outline, she tried harder and harder, each layer revealing very little if any detail until the last layer faded away and she saw the monster… As a blue pegasus colt, horribly mutilated with only one eye and scowling weakly in a fierce determination to keep going, to not let those who had hurt it break it. This was not the soul of a monster, this belonged to a tortured foal, there was only one unscarred mark on his hide, right over his heart, but a line was slowly being made across that and it only took one guess to tell who was causing it; she would be causing the last unhurt part of this creatures soul to be devoured if she said no, she looked at his wings, all of the feathers looked like they had been pulled out not two hours ago, around the same time she had refused his offer of peace, ‘twice’. She looked at his mane and tail, both had also been pulled out around the same time as the feathers, possibly when she had told him that she would be sending them all home, this creature had suffered almost as much by her words as by anything that had happened to him before, only the eye was worse and just by looking at it she could tell it was the mark left when your closest friend betrays you, she had seen it often on those befriended by griffins or had spouses that had left them. She could stand no more and looked to the north. Only to be confronted with the image that she knew belonged to Makuta Krika. He was a small, white, earth colt, battered, bruised and scarred almost beyond recognition as a pony; but wait, there was a circular scar on his forehead. He wasn’t an earth colt, he was a unicorn foal that had lost its horn. But still it wore a shaky smile; the kind you give to a worried friend when your entire family has died before your very eyes, because of something you did, and you lie, telling them that it’s going to be alright, that you’ll be fine when you know you’ll never be able to look at yourself the same way again. There was a soft sobbing on the wind and the foal’s legs, which looked recently healed, snapped, bending at unnatural angles. The white foal forced himself back up. Luna was crying now, not sobbing, just quietly letting tears flow through her fur. She wanted to turn off her sight, look away from the two tortured souls before her; but the knowledge that she was causing it made it impossible to look away. It was as if her power was looking down its nose and angrily demanding of her, “are you happy now?” The white foal’s legs gave out completely, letting him fall into the dirt, and this time all it did was struggle to lift its head. A mournful howl ripped through the air and after a few moments Vamprah joined the cries, finally snapping her at least halfway out of her darksight. “What are you doing?” “Offering what I can to my brother.” Howl “It’s not much and it won’t heal anything, but it’s all I can give.” That settled it in Luna’s mind. “I can’t- I won’t do it.” She muttered; Vamprah managed to at least seem like he was paying attention while still howling. “To any of you.” The howls to the north stopped, as did Vamprah’s, he trained his sightless eyes perfectly on Luna. “You will stay here. You will all stay here. This is your new home.” The mark that had been snaking its way across his chest disappeared, his mane started filling back in and so did his wings. But the eye didn't change; in a slightly twisted way she was happy with this, it meant that the betrayal wasn't her fault. Vamprah sat flat on his rump, obviously at a loss for words for several minutes until the howling started again and Luna joined the mournful song with them. A song that lasted through the night.
Vicron	779	7	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-11-17T00:00:47+00:00	2012-11-17T00:00:47+00:00	1,599	This chapter is more of a slice of life for the characters to help transition into bigger events. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dimensional Chronicles Chapter 7: Trial and Error. Three Weeks Later. It was a hazy dawn in the Everfree Forest, the kind that made you wonder where all that water came from. Not that the creature waking beneath the earth knew or cared. with a simple flick of its power the creature blew away the cage that had imprisoned it for the past ten years to be greeted by its two best and only friends. A grinning red pegasus stallion with scars over most of its body, ragged feathers and dull black shark-like eyes, and a preened yellow pegasus stallion with ice blue eyes mirrored only in coldness by the rest of its demeanor. The red one’s cutie mark was a copper upside-down five point star, the yellow one’s was a gold and silver cross surrounded by blue flames. “Good morning Andromeda.” The red one said warmly. “We’ve lost valuable time thanks to your little nap.” The yellow one spoke. The only word able to describe its voice was frigid, you would have expected frost to form around its mouth. “The next stop is two miles to the north.” “Well Raphael woke up on the wrong side of the bed… again. Good morning to you as well Beelzebub, glad to be welcomed back warmly by somepony.” Andromeda shook the dirt off its wings and took off, followed closely by Rafael and Beelzebub. “Lets start with a school, I always like doing schoolfoals.” Beelzebub asked eagerly. “If I remember correctly the last time we got to do foals was that family the Pie’s, that was what, twelve years ago? And we missed the pink one with the balloon mark. What do you say Ralphy?” “I say that as always, children is never the place to start. You judge the parents first, only then can you make the proper decision about them.” “Doesn’t the teacher count?” At that moment two things happened, first the three figures cleared the forest to view the half rebuilt Ponyville and Andromeda was struck with a high frequency sound that sent its mind reeling along with its body into the dirt. “Will you ever learn to fly properly, mare?” Raphael set down beside her as Beelzebub fell on her other side laughing. Andromeda picked herself up, growling. “Who dares strike the great judge?” She yelled angrily in the direction that the inconvenient burst of sound had come from. Standing there was a mint green mare in an intimidating white and blue mask. “Andromeda Morningdew; you are under arrest for breaking from your cell prematurely. you have the right to remain silent and a lawyer, although just the fact that you’re not in your cell means that you’ve already been found guilty.” Beelzebub and Raphael took one look at each other and said. “Guilty! This mare is guilty of striking and then threatening the great judge, kill her.” Andromeda rose to her hooves materializing a great energy axe and glaring at this mint master of sound. “Well they did warn me you wouldn’t go quietly.” The mare stood on her hind legs brandishing a clawed gauntlet which she flicked at Andromeda, sending another blast of sound at her. Andromeda dodged, striking with the great axe which the green mare sidestepped and struck back out with four wires that sprung from the claws, wrapping around each of Andromeda’s wings and her neck, bringing her back down to the earth, they then started to vibrate at such a rate which made it hard to even think about anything other than the need to breath. The great axe evaporated into sparkling silver energy before disappearing completely. “Raphael, Beelzebub… help me. Please.” Raphael turned up his nose and Beelzebub just shrugged before running strait through her masked assailant. “You’re pitiful, talking to imaginary friends; how could something so delusional be considered a threat to the kingdom?” The mare tried to walk close enough to stand above her only to recoil, grunting in pain as she hit an invisible wall that shocked her. A wall Andromeda knew just surviving that much contact with while she was conscious was a feat to be proud of. “Oh right.” The green mare snapped her claws and the cords vibrated in a way that somehow rendered her unconscious. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “So Celestia, what case could be so important that we both had to be called in to judge?” Luna yawned, she and Celestia were walking through what they called the Law and Order section of Canterlot towards the great courthouse that stood in the center of the district. "I should be in bed right now." “Well Luna, it appears that a very powerful convict has broken free from her cell before her parole.” Celestia opened the courtroom door and strode with Luna beside her up to the podium in the back of the room. They turned back to view the jury and those who came to view the law and order process, mostly students but today they were both very surprised to see both Makuta’s Krika and Vamprah along with the shadow pony Gavla in the audience. Those three were supposed to be back in Ponyville aiding with the repairs. But Celestia proceeded according to protocol. Luna looked at Vamprah’s nervous, sightless, eyes and Gavla whispering to him, he was worried that he was about to stand trial, Luna chuckled inwardly. “Bring in the prisoner.” Celestia said loudly. The side doors that led to the impound were swung open; from there a silver coated mare with a purple mane was wheeled in, her limbs, wings and neck bound to a frame to prevent any sort of movement, beyond observing her surroundings and speaking. Her cutie mark was a red nine point star that had a blue cross within all surrounded by a gold ring. The mare stared out at them all coldly with cruel judging eyes and an angry sneer; her feathers were ragged, she had five scars marked by black fur, one across the base of her neck going around to her right shoulder, one on her left wing, one on her right foreleg, another around the right side of her stomach, one more on her left hind leg and a hunk missing from her right ear; this mare had seen brutality, but even beyond the impressive battle scars the biggest surprise was this, she had a horn. Her horn and wings were bound by magic blocking braces. She looked the surprised Luna right in the face and said teasingly. “Don’t look so surprised by the scars princess, your sister gave them to me.” Luna turned to her sister. “Celestia, she’s one of us?” “No Luna, you with your shadowsight should be able to tell this even better than I.” Luna brought her shadowsight to bear, peering past all illusions surrounding the mare. The wings were made of restrained fire and lightning and two previously unseen beings hovered about her, every now and then leaning in to whisper something; the mare’s soul was surprisingly intact for a convict with only a single mark in the shape of a broken heart over her scowling brow-line, marking that compassion was a dead thing to her, something never to be given to another and never willingly received, it was a rare mark indeed, known as the Heartless. Luna was about to turn off the power when something happened, the two beings came into focus both staring right at her, Luna recoiled in disgust; both bore the Heartless but one was terribly scarred, smiling maniacally with dead eyes and the other glared at her with a coldness to match prince Blueblood on an off day. She cast away the shadow sight. “She bears the Heartless, that is not a mark given to an unwilling host; The Heartless can only be accepted by or given to one who will gladly bear it for the rest of their life.” “Gladly; does she look happy to you?” “No, but her red friend does.” At this Andromeda’s angry expression was replaced by one of surprise and malefic joy. “You see them too?” “Why yes I do; I ha-” “They’re Real!” The mare cackled evilly “They’re Real! I told this exact court that ten years ago and none of you believed me. You called me mad Celestia but look now. They’re Real!” She cackled some more. “No.” Luna spoke firmly and the chained mare stopped trying her best to hop in her restraints. “They are not real; they are outlets of you, the constructs of a deranged mind.” “What, but you said?” “I said I could see them, I see such constructs every night; although I will admit yours are the most hostile I’ve come across so far. They are not real, you are mad.” “I’m not crazy! I am the true judge of this world, the guilty cannot stand in my presence, I’ve crushed entire cities just by walking through them, all fall to dust at my hooves, you think you can hold me, I showed you how pathetic that notion was last time you had me here. Raphael, Beelzebub give me your power!” Several seconds passed and nothing happened. “Guy’s a little help here, we discussed this back in the cell.” There was another pause, at this point even the sightless Vamprah had his face trained on Andromeda with an eyebrow raised. “What do you mean you're already doing it?!” She shook her head. “Nonononono what trickery is this, these are the same sorts of bonds I was in the first time, why isn’t it working you hydra?” Andromeda’s gaze was fixed on Celestia with a fury that could, and Luna was starting to bet had, melted through steel. “I had these specially made for you Morning Dew, my little pony.” “I am not yours! And neither is anypony else in this room. I refuse to be addressed by that name!” “Why? Because it was your grandmother’s?” “That mare was a fool! And she was only the first to fall under my judgment. The whole of Equestria is still unclean and I‘m the only one with the guts to clean it.” Celestia lifted a large stack of papers. “Morning Dew, you are hereby charged with breaking sentence, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer, on top of your previous charges of, repeated arson, mass murder, foal killing and the list goes on. How do you plead?” “Not guilty.” Luna cast her a puzzled look. She had just admitted to murder. “None of these acts were committed against those who had not received the death sentence; I was simply carrying out the punishments.” Celestia rolled her eyes seeming to know what the answer would be to the question protocol required. “Who sentenced them?” “God.” “God?” Luna spoke up. “Or your two constructs?” “God gives the sentence, they deliver it, I carry it out.” “You really are insane. They are part of you, they know nothing you don’t already; much less the commands of a divine being.” Luna felt her shadowsight ripped open. “Who does she think she is? We wouldn’t lie to you. Even if we did, what would we get out of it? Ralphy is never happy.” The red one was yelling. “Why would they lie to me?” “Judging from the charges I would say because they are a manifestation of bloodlust.” Luna addressed the prisoner before turning to whisper to Celestia. “Are you sure imprisonment is best for her? She needs help, I would suggest an asylum so she can be rid of those two ‘things’ attached to her mind.” “Well I guess that seeing as we now have strong enough power braces we could do that.” Celestia turned to the jury. “What is your verdict concerning the first charge?” “Guilty.” “Then Morning Dew I hereby sentence you to be held in the Canterlot Asylum until further notice, your braces will be stitched into your skin so that you cannot remove them. You are dismissed.” The frame was turned back towards the door as Andromeda screamed. “You can’t do this to me! I will have my retribution on you all!” The guards rolled her out, rolling their eyes as they went. “Well that was… different.” “She did that last time when I buried her too.” “Buried her?” “Her cell was underground.” “An old friend of yours?” Krika approached them with an enthusiastic Gavla in tow. At least she was enthusiastic until she noticed Luna was looking at her, then she started glaring daggers at the Lunar princess. Gavla considered the twenty-four hour warning test unforgivable. Krika stepped between the two. “Your highnesses.” He bowed low. “I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Celestia shallowly bowed back. “Oh you know how aristocrats are; one wrong move and they’ll think we’re engaged.” All four of them laughed. “Ahh. That’s not my joke.” “Than whose was it?” “Makuta Tridax I believe." Krika scratched the back of his head. "It was originally a jab at the Skakdi; a race of spiny primates with outrageous greeting customs, at least at the time the joke was made. It was sadly true at the time, one wrong move and you could find yourself being chased out by an angry mob for everything from public indecency to attempted rape.” Luna chuckled. “This isn’t what you’re here for and we both know it.” Celestia had regained her regal posturing, suddenly terrified by the upper class ponies that were shuffling out of the room. Krika looked over his shoulder at Gavla. “Say Gavla why don’t you take Vamprah out to see the rest of the city? Being in a courthouse obviously has him nervous.” Gavla looked skeptically up at Krika before looking back to Vamprah. He looked ready to jump out of his skin, every noise that was larger than the sound of hooffalls was making him jump, especially if the sound involved metal. “Oh my! I need to get him out of here before he hurts someone, or himself.” Gavla ran up to a twitchy Vamprah. “I have a feeling that you don’t want what I have to say to get out into the public eye.” Krika looked around the room. “So I suggest that we go somewhere more private.” Celestia cocked an eyebrow at him. “Come with me.” She led them down a hallway to the left of the courtroom. They stepped inside the central Security room, dismissing the guard that had been monitoring the crystal feeds. “Now what could you have possibly found out in Ponyville that we wouldn’t want getting out?” Luna questioned Krika directly. “Well I have some good news and some bad news, which do you want first.” Krika said while soundproofing the room. “Bad news; if the good news goes first the bad always ruins it.” “I was doing some research into pre-exile Equestria, it all added up until the point of the actual banishing. I’ve been pouring over the texts and although the Nightmare Moon account and the previous three years of text say that they have the same author they do not. The Nightmare Moon account is a fabrication, a well done fabrication but a fake none the less. Although the author either had access to ponies who were inside the castle, or they were there through the entire thing, because in order to fabricate history this well it cannot be far from the truth; it is a subtle lie.” The sisters stared open-mouthed at Krika. “That was both the good news and the bad news.” It was Luna who broke the sister’s silence. “Wait so the good news is that the lie was well done?” “Well I figured that in order for it to have lasted this long without either of you correcting it meant that you wanted the fabrication to be seen as the truth. The bad news was that I saw through it.” Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a moment before turning back to face Krika. “I would like to know what really happened.” Luna’s eyes went cold. “Collect Vamprah and meet us at the castle.” Krika noted her reaction. “Thank you.” He dropped the wards on the room and left. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika found Vamprah and Gavla in a doughnut shop called ‘Pony Joe’s’ where she was doing her best impression of an angry drunk and he was scooting his stool away from her just slowly enough to not be noticed. Krika and Vamprah had to drag Gavla out kicking and screaming. “I don’t want to go see Luna; she’s awful!” “It’s a royal summons Gavla; you don’t really have a choice in the matter.” Krika was beyond irritated with her at this point. “I know but was it really necessary to tie me to Vamprah’s back?” Gavla tugged at her restraints. “Pony Joe was threatening to call the authorities on you so yes, yes it was.” Krika snapped, Gavla pouted. “Fine.” Vamprah chuckled beneath her. “What’s so funny.” He didn’t respond. He hardly ever did in public and it didn’t get much more public than Canterlot Castle. “Oh come on Vamprah; they're aristocrats you had to deal with them all the time on Odina right?” Vamprah flinched. “Those usually ended in riots.” He whispered. Gavla shuddered, some memory or emotion running through her mind. “Don’t be so hard on yourself Vamprah. All you have to worry about is not making the same mistake twice.” “Which one? The incident with Toa Dekal or joining Teridax?” Vamprah almost bucked her off; Krika could see him trying to restrain himself as they walked. “Becoming so attached to you, you little saddlesore!” Krika retorted. Vamprah looked at him with an expression that no doubt meant ‘thank you.’ “Why are you doing that?” Gavla cocked an eyebrow. “Doing what?” “Saying things like saddlesore, it’s weird for one of your species.” “I’m adopting native customs; it helps you seem more approachable and makes it easier to talk with ponies.” “I still say it’s weird.” Gavla grumbled. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, we seem to have become a species similar to the native.” “Still weird.” “I can’t say anything to sway you on the matter, can I?” “Nope.” “Well you are insufferable.” Luna walked up to them. “This is your new home after all. You should probably follow Krika’s lead.” “In your twisted little dreams ‘princess.’” Gavla snarled, Krika rolled his eyes at her. “Come with me.” Luna led them through the halls, drawing many curious stares from everypony, the waitstaff to the guards. They came to a large doorway leading up to Luna and Celestia’s personal armory. “The closest thing to a war I’ve seen around here or even in your records for the past five-hundred years was Vamprah’s attack. Why do you have an armory?” Krika asked looking around at the intricate ceremonial pieces and plain utilitarian armor alike. “It used to be purely ceremonial but ever since the Kenpachi incident last month we’ve been adding pieces.” “Why weren’t you wearing any when you battled me?” Vamprah tapped a silver piece, wincing at the resulting sound. “Never mind. This stuff couldn’t protect you from a Makuta if it was a mile thick.” “As I said, most of it’s decorative I only have two functional pieces. Good blacksmiths are hard to come by in Equestria. One of those pieces is actually why I called you here.” “To see a piece of armor?” Gavla sounded incredulous. “Without it there wouldn’t need to be a story.” Her horn lit up and the re-forged Nightmare Moon helmet sped towards her from the other side of the room. The blue metal of the helmet had been gilded around the edges with silver. It floated around the room to face the Makuta and Shadow. Vamprah reached out and tapped it, he was rewarded with a sharp shock. Krika leaned in closely, examining it. “The metal itself resisted enchantment so we had to gild silver onto the edges, as silver is easy to enchant. The metal is known as-” “Protodermis?” Krika snatched the helmet out of the air. “What is protodermis doing in this dimension?” “Well…” Luna said hesitantly. “Here we called it beforeskin.” “Same thing.” Vamprah stated bluntly. “My brother is right, Proto is the root for before and dermis is the root for skin. More importantly; where did you get this? And why did you need to enchant it?” “It fell from the sky as a meteorite about seven thousand years ago. We had to enchant it because it has some sort of extraphysical properties. It opened my mind to an old imaginary friend; he was what caused me to become Nightmare Moon. It gave me great power but the price was dealing with a burning hatred.” Krika looked long and hard at the armor. “That must be some sort of allergic reaction, other than the silver this armor is powerless; it will flow to match the form of the one wearing it but other than that it’s just normal metal. It’s the same stuff Vamprah’s wing-blades are made of, along with Gavla’s and my blades.” “Well the Enchanters said the same thing, but even if it is a placebo than at least it’s working.” Luna carefully put it up on a shelf. “He enhanced my anger and frustration; if anything good came from my ‘episode’ it was that it actually helped Celestia mellow out.” Gavla decided to speak up. “Yeah, yeah; I’m real happy for ya and all but did I hear you say that you needed blacksmiths?” “Well yes.” “I used to assemble toa, pony armor for me would be a snap.” “Gavla, are you offering your services to me of all ponies?” “Yes.” “And here I thought you didn’t like me.” “Just you wait; I have conditions. Firstly I want a room in the castle for Vamprah and myself, secondly I want to be able to choose an assistant, thirdly, in case you haven’t noticed I have fangs, meaning I want some meat, enough of the vegetarian crap, and fourth I’ll need analogies for outfitting, living or otherwise.” “Done, although I can’t promise anything on the meat problem.” “Fine. Now if you need me I’ll be outside teasing upperclassmen. Come on Vamprah.” Vamprah turned to leave the room. “She’s quite the little hellion isn’t she?” Luna asked smiling. “You have no idea. We had to drag her out of a doughnut shop after the owner threatened to call the police on her.” Krika sighed. “Why?” “She threatened to stuff him into a giant jelly filled.” “Oh my.” Luna brought a hoof up to her mouth, Somepony shrieked outside. Krika poked his head out the door. “Is that prince Blueblood?” “What?” Luna looked out. Prince Blueblood was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, bumping into walls, furniture and other ponies. “Yes that is. What in Equestria is he doing?” Krika looked to the left and saw Gavla laughing her flank off. He gave an exasperated sigh. “Gavla.” Krika spoke curtly, he had run out of patience for her. She looked away from the still blinded Blueblood. “I want that one.” She pointed at him, smiling mischievously. Luna looked over at her then back to Blueblood. “Are you doing that?” “Oh yeah!” Luna looked back at Blueblood. “Gavla, what exactly does ‘assistant’ entail?” “I get to give him all the crap I want and mess with his head as much as rationally possible.” Luna looked up and mouthed something that looked to be “Thank you god.” “So it’s more like the court jester… deal!” “Is he really that bad?” Krika had heard the story from Rarity but even that didn’t seem worthy of Gavla’s worst. “Yes.” Blueblood started running towards Vamprah. Gavla cut the ropes binding her to him and jumped down right as Blueblood passed. She landed on his back, driving him to the ground and apparently released his sight. She pulled his head around to look at her. “You and I are going to have so much fun together.” He shivered. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Later that night The Doctor spent his first day off from the recovery team with Ditsy Doo and so far it had proved rather awkward between them. Oh well, at least dinky had been enthusiastic to see mommy's friend ‘Doc’ for the first time. She had spent the day playing with him and was at the current moment asleep in her room. Ditsy broke the silence between them. “You’re so much different from the last time I saw you.” “I regenerated. Twice, I had wings a few years back.” “It’s been twelve years for me. How long has it been for you?” “Thirty.” The Doctor rubbed his shoulder nervously, Ditsy was starting to look angry. She grabbed a wax grape from the centerpiece on the table. “You haven’t visited them for thirty years?” Ditsy crushed the wax into the polished wood of the table. The Doctor realized that he’d made a mistake in telling her that. “One of them isn't even living here anymore. How many companions is that?” “None.” The Doctor hung his head a little. “I tried but they always ran.” “Understandable.” Ditsy managed to wrangle her lazy eye in to look at him. The Doctor could tell she was pissed. “You know why.” The Doctor spoke calmly, Ditsy’s face fell a little. “Maybe they’ll be different. They are yours after all.” “It’s happened before but they never are.” Ditsy looked hurt. This was about more than just ‘that’. “You know why I had to leave.” “I know; you can’t get attached.” Ditsy said hurriedly. “But you did.” “I thought I could die.” Anger at no one in particular glinted in his eye, Ditsy bristled. “I wouldn’t care!” Ditsy yelled, the Doctor hung his head. “Has it ever happened to you?” The Doctor almost choked on the words, Ditsy stopped bristling. “What?” “Have you ever had to stand by and watch as everything around you, everything you love is destroyed by time?” He raised his head to look her in the eyes. “Do you have any idea what that’s like? Knowing that you will probably never see them again; mortal beings have the ‘afterlife’ but I am immortal, I can’t go anywhere! I’ve seen it happen so many times… I can’t do it again. I- I can’t.” He hung his head again. “I wish I could be mortal but I’m not. I’m sorry, I know it hurts you too but I can’t.” “I’ve been lying to them.” Ditsy leaned over the table, trying to catch his eye. “Can I at least tell them the truth?” “If you can figure out how.” “They’ll hate you.” “I know. But that will make it easier. Can I take you for a ride before I go?” “I don’t know if that’s the best idea.” “Come on; anywhere, anywhen in the universe. It gets lonely without someone else there.” “Promise to keep me away from other creatures?” “How about Sephilon 4?” “The crystal seas?” “Probably.” Just then there was a shifting noise from upstairs. “I’m sorry, but I can’t either.” Ditsy gave him a look that was a mix between vengeance and sadness, The Doctor slumped, defeated. “I understand. I’ll see you tomorrow at the rebuilding right?” “I’ll see you.” “Whatever happened to making it easier?” Ditsy opened the door for him. “Being alone is almost worse.” He closed the door behind himself. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Is this truly necessary?” Blueblood pleaded as he was dragged through the streets. “Really there must be a better way.” Gavla had Blueblood on a leash and was currently dragging him to her and Vamprah’s temporary shack in Ponyville. “Well yes but none of the other options let me put you on a leash or use you as a pack mule. Now could you just go with it? Thanks to your straining it’s taken all night to get here.” Gavla chuckled. “I asked Krika to bring over a very special guest just for your arrival.” Blueblood straitened marching along next to them with all the royal grace he could muster while on a leash. “Really, who is it?” “Oh, you’ve met.” Blueblood went to open the door and Gavla pulled him back. “Bad boy, master goes in first.” He glared at her from the ground. “Now roll over.” “I will do no such thing! I am not some dog!” “You will if you don’t want to walk in there feeling around like a beggar.” Blueblood growled but gave in to his tormentor. Gavla laughed. “Okay that’s enough.” She opened the door yanking Blueblood in after her rather unceremoniously, driving him down onto his chin. “Prince Blueblood?” His eyes went wide. He knew that voice. “Oh this is too perfect.” A white hoof entered his field of vision and he looked up. Rarity stood over him sporting one of the most evil smiles he had ever seen; his pupils became dots of fear. “As your prince I-gag.” The leash was pulled tight. “That’s not what you are here.” Gavla taunted him. “I demand-Gnk.” Gavla was having more fun with this than she should have. “I respectfully-hurk.” “If you don’t- glak.” “Please don’t hurt me!” He curled up in a ball with his hooves over his face. “Vengeance is sweet.” Rarity mused over him. “But I have no intention of hurting you. Krika told me to bring the worst color to go with a white coat.” Blueblood shrieked as he realized what exactly was about to happen. “Not green!” “Yes green.” Gavla slipped a ring over Blueblood’s horn. “Nooooooo!” Gavla used the rest of the leash to immobilize him as Rarity got the water ready. “Please no, please! Gavla I beg you!” “Awww but I’m having fun.” Blueblood looked into her eyes. This mare was mad! Rarity walked up to him with a bowl, not only was the dye inside green, it was almost vomit like. She, without flare, dumped it over his head so that instead of getting a solid color, it would come out in patches. “I will have you both arrested for this.” Blueblood snarled, Gavla laughed manically. “But I have permission to do this.” She took out a roll of paper. “You signed yourself over this afternoon.” “But the only thing I signed was the deal to be adviser for the new smith.” His face went blank as he slowly realized what was happening. “And who do you think that was.” His jaw hung open. “Silly aristocrats, never do check the fine print. Do you?” She pulled out a paintbrush and dipped it in some blue paint. “Hold still or I will make this hurt.” She drew a stylized G on one of the still white spots on his neck. “You signed over your freedom pal. And it is against the contract to quit. The only way to get out of this is to make me get tired of you.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika was writing in a blank book he and Twilight had discovered in the basement of the library while searching for the original blueprints for Sugarcube corners. “Krika, whatcha doing?” Sweetie Belle sat down next to him. “Oh, just writing down the history of my world.” Krika said absentmindedly, adding the finishing touches onto a sketch. “But I thought you didn’t like it there.” Sweetie Belle leaned against him, the gale-like howling noise his gaseous insides made relaxing her. “I’m writing it as a reminder to anypony who might read it.” He finished the drawing with a sigh. “Reminder for what.” Krika stared down into her innocent eyes, trying to judge just how much he could tell her. “So they don’t do what we did.” “What did you do?” “We fought, far too much. It tore our world apart. Many died for nothing.” Sweetie Belle was familiar with the concept of death because of her and Rarity’s parents passing. “Did you know them?” Sweetie Belle stared at her hooves. “Many.” Krika looked back at the drawing, it was of Gorast, in those last seconds that he could see her; as much as he despised that little wench he worried about her. There were few Makuta who started out like that, he wondered who had driven her off that last bit of road into the wastes of malevolent madness. Was Teridax the only one there for you as well? I wish I could have been there for you, before all that. “Do you remember how it felt?” Sweetie Belle looked up at him cautiously. “Felt to what?” Krika was snapped out of his worry and regret, realizing what he was thinking about was futile. “Lose them.” Krika cocked an eyebrow but his mind recoiled from his memories. “I can’t remember when my parents died, I look back and there should be something. Instead there’s just nothing. I can’t even remember mom’s face.” She hung her head. And her voice choked a bit. “There’s just an emptiness.” “That’s what it feels like.” Krika reached out with a claw, pulling her close. “It never gets easier; but it gets more manageable.” “Is that why you cry at night?” Sweetie Belle asked, all innocence, Krika went stiff. “When you think nopony else is awake.” “Yes.” They sat there a moment, just looking at each other. “How about I tell you a nice story from my world?” Sweetie Belle perked back up and nodded; she loved to learn about where Krika came from, even if it was a shadowed place. “How about ‘Takua and the Mask of Light?’” Sweetie Belle nodded again. Krika started reading, he watched her emotions change through the story. During the Kohli tournament she was excited, she was frightened at the mention of the rahkshi, she beamed when he told of the toa nuva’s heroic, if doomed, stand in Ono-Koro, but she was always confused at the mention of the evil Makuta. “Why is the Makuta the bad guy? I haven’t met any bad Makuta.” “This is Makuta Teridax.” Krika stated coldly. “If there was ever an evil creature, it was him.” This answer was good enough for her as he continued the story. She whimpered when Jaller died, she cheered when Takanuva defeated the rahkshi of fear, as he told the last bits if the story he heard a quiet snoring beside him. He looked down at Sweetie Belle, she was asleep. “They turned and beheld a great city, floating in a sea of protodermis, Turaga Vakama pointed to it and said ‘At last we are home.’ They boarded the boats and set out to whatever the future held.” He closed the book and got up, grabbing a blanket off the couch next to them and tucking her into it. The front doorbell jingled and Rarity walked in, looking very pleased with herself. “I take it you enjoyed your visit with Gavla’s new assistant.” “Oh darling it was marvelous.” She picked up a cupcake from the counter and bit into it delicately. “Vengeance, is sweeter than this cupcake.” She took another bite before continuing. “You know, Gavla is quite the artisan. She drew this beautifully stylized G on his neck in blue dye. After that snooty stuck up thing had just resigned to his sobbing, we sat back and went over her designs for armor. They were beautiful; elegantly designed for maximum protection with maximum maneuverability, and it seems that she’s gotten her hooves on some rare ultra-lightweight durable metal. Her designs were marvelous, rivaling even my own; I’m just glad she’s not in the fashion industry, I would never sell a dress again. She calls for soft and ridged lines through the armor, making her proposed pieces intimidating and at the same time captivating.” “Well she did used to construct armor for toa.” He held up a sketch from the book of Toa Iruni. “The Toa Haga in particular were some of her favorite creations.” Rarity studied the sketch for a moment. “My, my; she was part of some high end work.” She looked up at Krika. “Is it alright if I take this book to base some work off the armor?” “By all means. I just finished writing to the point when I came here.” He smiled at her. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get some sleep.” He sat back down. Rarity walked around to the other side of the couch. Krika was curled, his nose touching his tail-tip protectively, around Sweetie Belle’s sleeping form. Rarity leaned over him and kissed Sweetie Belle on the forehead. “Good night little sister.” She whispered to her. “And goodnight to you too Krika.” He lifted his tail and waved before settling back down to sleep. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Far away a portal opened glowing blue, seven figures stepped out. The leader had luminescent blue eyes, trained on the land before him like a great trophy. He held a small device up to his face, it showed each of the races of Equestria and their worth. “Tell the troops. We wait one week then we eliminate the entire earth pony population, they're worthless, ten percent of the pegusi and unicorn population, do the same to the griffins, and just kill off the dragons, I have enough great beasts at my disposal.” The other six Bowed. “Oh and before you go, the parasprites need to be destroyed.” Before turning and stepping back through the portal. The malevolent blue eyes stared out over the land; to him it was just another bauble that needed to be collected, that’s all a universe is. He started laughing, he loved this tactic; it always made his entrance a bang.
Vicron	779	8	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-04-26T00:00:10+00:00	2012-04-26T00:00:10+00:00	1,331	Rejecting Death. Five days later. "Blueblood!" Gavla looked up from her work. "Get over here you lump!" "Are the insults really necessary?" Blueblood crawled out from behind one of her larger projects. He had definitely seen better days, his coat was grayed by coal and soot, his mane was still green, and his hooves were covered by flecks of metal from when Gavla had decided to make him dance by throwing molten steel at him. "Yes. Now get into this harness." She stepped back from a rig that was about the right size to hold a guard perfectly still. "Not planning on it." "Now dear assistant you should know how this works by now. You do what I say willingly, or I make it hurt. Remember the razors?" Blueblood flinched, yes he remembered the razors. "Fine." He walked into the harness and Gavla quickly secured him with belt straps that lifted him off the ground to hang over Gavla's head. She took out a set of gold plated metal claws attached to a horseshoe and Blueblood sighed in relief, then she cranked down red hot side spurs with magic until there was a large spike aimed right for the middle of his hoof. "Are you mad; mare?!" He screamed straining at the straps. "Probably, now stop straining you're going to make me miss." In one deft stab it sank into the soft material behind the nail of the hoof. Blueblood screamed going ridged in pain, the smell of burning hoof, flesh and fur filled the air as she repeated the process over all four of his legs. Once Blueblood stopped sobbing Gavla rolled her eyes at him and flapped her bat wings until she was eye to eye with him. "You're a cruel, evil mare." He growled "I will not rest until you receive your just des-" "Shut up and flex!" Gavla barked at him. "Huh?" "The claws, flex them" Blueblood stared at her like the insane being she was but tried weakly to move the pieces of metal attached to him. They moved! The artificial, bladed digits curled and uncurled like they had always been there. "What in the name of-" "Yes it works!" She flew back down to the ground and magicked out a smaller silver set driving them unceremoniously into her own hooves without so much as a whimper. she flexed a smaller set of fingers that folded out from the talons using them to pick up a bolt and flick it across the room. "Oh how I've missed having fingers, not as useful as magic but much more satisfying to use." She retracted the fingers and cut the straps holding Blueblood up with her talons. He fell to the floor with a thud. "Vamprah!" The great bat-stallion swooped down from the ceiling. "Lift your back legs." Vamprah obeyed balancing on his wings as she repeated the process on her steed with a larger two toed pair. "How does that not hurt?" Blueblood asked incredulously. "Easy, you're just a woos." Gavla walked out from behind Vamprah, her new claws clacking`on the bricks of the floor. "Now lift a hoof." Blueblood obeyed, not wanting to tempt her eager wrath. She turned the claws counterclockwise and they slid off. "What?" "They're only loosely connected to the spur, you can take them off whenever you want, but in battle just flick up this tab here and they lock in place." Blueblood made good time in taking the things off. "Now I need you to go fetch the princesses." He cleared out of there as fast as his legs would carry him. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Insufferable little nag, I'll get her back yet. He fumed to himself as he ran through the halls. The impudence, the unrestrained gall. That mare must really be mad to assume that I can't get back at her. Then he figured it out. She was issuing a challenge aimed at his dignity, she wanted him to find a way of fighting back, she wanted him to defy her. When he rebelled she got her chance to hurt him. That's why she picked him, his massive ego would make him almost impossible to break, she could be as cruel as she wanted. The thoughts made him stop in place for a moment as he contemplated whether that meant that she respected or looked down on him. He almost didn't notice when Celestia and Luna walked right past him. "Princesses!" He yelled after them. Celestia visibly flinched; he had been coming to her practically every hour to complain about Gavla. "Yes Blueblood." She said carefully. "The smith has requested your presence." Celestia let out a sigh of relief, Blueblood noticed and repressed the reflex to glare at her. "Follow me." He tried to be dignified but when you're covered in soot that's been streaked around your face by tears it's hard to do that. "Blueblood." Luna spoke. "Are you alright?" "I signed myself over to the biggest psychopath since Discord, who might I add just shoved red hot pieces of metal up my legs; no I'm not alright." ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Vamprah had quickly mastered the unspoken code that the guards used when on duty, mostly it was slight changes in posturing but there were hundreds of signals in everything from the placing of one's forelimbs to the tilt of an eyebrow. Footing was mostly used to illustrate the general mood you were in, for example hooves placed three inches apart meant that you were in a rather sour mood while six inches meant that you were having a good day; there was no signal to express fear but there were plenty to dispel it. A pair of guards across a hallway from each other could have a heated debate and none around them would even notice they had moved. It was such an efficient system that they often used it even when off duty. Vamprah preferred this form of communication because he needed his voice for echolocation. Gavla, of course refused to learn the subtle art instead attempting to harass speech out of them. So it was no surprise to Vamprah that when he walked up to the break room legs were drawn to the three inch mark. [tilt of left ear, lower right eyebrow, slight narrowing of the eyes, slight downtilt of the chin.] "She's not with me." The other guards relaxed pulling their legs to the neutral five inch mark. ["But I need some new recruits."] Newbies always got the dirt assignments because it was easy to talk them into things. Five recruits stepped out, two from the daytime unicorn squads, two from the daytime pegasus squads and one from the night pegasus squad. Vamprah tilted his right ear slightly forwards expressing confusion, it was almost unheard of to see a night guard on duty during the day so they mostly didn't even report in until sundown. He had briefly considered taking a nightguard as his new eyes so that Gavla could focus on her work without worrying about him being able to navigate on his own but decided against it when he thought of the strenuous extra training the poor creature would have to go through in order to be a proper replacement, they would probably die in the process. Vamprah pointed at the night guard one of the pegasus day guards and one of the unicorn guards and motioned for them to follow him. They did so without complaint, the constant clicking of Vamprah's 'sight' was the only sound but there was a conversation going on right behind him, echolocation gives you a three-hundred-sixty degree view if you know how to use it right. ["Wait, isn't he blind?"] ["Yes"] ["Then how did he learn how to use the code?"] ["The smith can be his eyes."] ["But he doesn't have the smith with him. How could he read everypony?] ["I can hear you."] Vamprah interjected. "Sorry Sir I- wait, I wasn't talking." ["It's called echolocation, I'm not just making noise up here. I can hear all your movements. It's the same system some bats use, as a nightguard I would have expected you to know that."] They walked into the chamber that Gavla had adapted to serve her purposes. She was currently messing with a piece she had designed to be bolted into a pegasus wing, before she had been told that such a device would cripple the user. She had fumed about that incident for hours. The pegasus guards tucked their wings in closer to their bodies. Gavla looked up from her work. "Good you got them, and a night guard too; Vamprah you are incredible." She walked over to them sizing up the guards taking slight measurements every now and again. Once she seemed satisfied she started walking over to her desk and put her hooves up on it. "Now strip." Vamprah rolled his eyes, he knew that Gavla had set this bit up to send the wrong message but nonetheless he didn't inform the others, the nightguard's wings started rising; Gavla apparently decided to end the charade because she pulled out three sets of the claws. The guards were relieved that they were there for an outfitting and not another one of Gavla's sick games, they removed their armor swiftly, at that moment the door swung open and Blueblood led Celestia and Luna into the workshop. "Welcome royalty." Gavla said dramatically without bowing. "I had hoped to have this done by the time you got here but apparently not even Blueblood can be as stupid as he looks." Blueblood visibly shook with rage. "But I guess since I made a pair for both of you already it's only fair that you get to see how they're applied before it happens to you." She motioned the guards to get into three harnesses, it seems that she had picked up on the guard code. They did so in silence, Gavla strapped them in and hoisted them up so that she could get a clearer shot at their hooves. "As I have learned from my test on Blueblood, it's better if the subject doesn't know what I'm about to do." The guards all trained their eyes strait forward, not daring to see what she had in store for them. "Now this may sting a little." She positioned all twelve sets of claws and drove them in much more carefully than for herself or Blueblood. Not so fast that the pain came all at once but not so slow as to prolong it. Celestia gasped and held a hoof over her mouth in what was either awe or horror. The guards didn't so much as wince. Gavla let them down slowly. "Now you may experience a slight burning sensation for a few hours but don't worry that's just the metal working its way into your nervous system, you should have complete control over the claws. Simply raise a hoof and flex." The guards obeyed flexing their new claws. "Incredible!" Luna exclaimed. "But doesn't that hurt? A lot." "Only if you're freaking out like Blueblood the Bum was." "That's it!" Blueblood charged her horn down meaning to impale her on it. Celestia was about to stop him when Vamprah put a wing between her and him in a gesture to stop. Celestia looked down at him with concern. Gavla grinned sliding out her blades from beneath the claws, she dodged to the side and clocked him with the flat of her blade. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Gavla flung his claws to the ground next to him, Blueblood wasted no time putting them on and locking them in place. He charged her again, she dodged and the claws went through the concrete work desk like a hot knife through butter, he didn't give up, he kept attacking her only to be either repelled by Gavla's own claws or blades, or dodged, his claws finally stuck in something and he grinned, opening his eyes to find... that he had punctured one of Gavla's bigger projects, he pulled at the claws but they were stuck fast. "My turn." A voice said behind him, he turned around and to his horror Gavla was standing in full battle regalia, he gulped. "But first." She turned back to the small crowd of flabbergasted ponies. "As you can probably tell by now, the only thing strong enough to stop these claws is Protosteel which is exactly what they're made of thanks to Princess Luna's generous donation of her old Nightmare Moon armor. The funny thing about Protodermis is that it will only grow in liquid form so I simply had to remove the silver, melt it down and badda boom!" She tapped a pillar next to her. "I've got a whole vat full of the stuff. Then simply combine it with Equestrian steel and you've got an almost indestructible piece of metal. Now if you'll excuse me there's a homicidal prince that I need to pry off of a tank so he can get back to trying to kill me. Guards you are excused, your new uniforms are next to the door; you can remove the claws by unhooking the latch in the back and turning them counterclockwise." She used her blade as a crowbar to pull Blueblood's claws out of the metal. "I don't know which I like more, me hurting you or you trying to hurt me." She gave a heave and Blueblood was free, he immediately tackled her to the ground, she punched him off of herself leaving a scratch along his jawline from the blade projecting beneath the metal fist, he got up clutching his face, Gavla retracted the blades and started clobbering him, hit to the face, stomach, chest, elbow to the back and hind claw to the face leaving more shallow gashes. He fell to the ground, bleeding and panting. "You... Bitch..." "I know right." "I'm... going... to kill you." "I encourage you to keep trying; this was fun." "I hate you... so much." Gavla leaned in right next to his head and whispered. "Keep telling yourself that." She cut his ear with a canine and stood back up strait. "That's what makes you so much fun." She walked off to outfit the princesses leaving Blueblood to fume and blush so furiously that it seemed that his head would catch on fire. Vamprah sat down next to him with a rag and started cleaning his wounds; Blueblood cooled down considerably the second he noticed what was happening. "Has she always been like this?" Vamprah nodded. "How do you put up with her." "I understand her." "What do you mean?" "I know how her mind works. Lift your chin. She never really had anyone she liked, so when she comes across someone she does she doesn't know how to act, she becomes cruel and aggressive, she'll make that person's life a hell to try and push away any feeling she may have for them. She respects your will and your ego, they remind her of herself so she got you as close as possible in order to push you away. In short, she likes you." He brought out a needle and thread to stitch up the wounds. "Well I hate her." "Do you?" "of course! How do you know so much about her anyway?" "The eye link works in more than one way, we can see into each others minds." "Could you give me something that I could use against her, something I could spread around the castle to discredit her." "No." "Why?" "Because there isn't anything." "But everypony has something they want covered up, some secret." "I just told you her only secret and I'm already afraid that she'll pull out my tail when she finds out. I hope you realize that she was going easy on you, if she'd wanted to she could have plucked your eyes out and cut off your head before anyone could so much as start to think about helping you." "Am I that pathetic." "No like I said she was going easy on you, she even let you get a hit in." "She did no-" He looked over, there was a small trickle of blood coming from her upper left foreleg. "She did?" "As I said, she likes you." Vamprah cut the thread he had been using to sow up Blueblood's face and stood back up. "Have a nice day." He flapped back up to his place in the shadows of the ceiling. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Winona was barking, not an unusual occurrence when ponies were coming up the road or something but this was different. She was looking to the south and whimpering between barks. "What'sa matter girl?" Applejack walked up next to her dog and stared out over the orchard, beyond which the Everfree forest loomed as it did for most of southern Ponyville but Winona had always seemed comfortable around the dark woods. That's when things started burning, off in the distance smoke started rising in a wall as if that entire side of the orchard had caught on fire at once. "Whoa Nelly, come on Winona." She was about to charge off to find a way to extinguish the flames when an accented commanding voice called out from closer in the trees. "No you fool, do not go! They have more power than you know!" Zecora stepped out battered, and bloody. She heaved a cough and stumbled forward barely keeping her balance. Applejack ran up to her letting the Zebra lean on her for support. She noticed with horror that Zecora was riddled with holes. "Thank you Applejack you are most kind. cough But survival should be on your mind." Applejack managed to get her back to the barn and lay her down on some hay. "Ya'll stay right there. Ah'll be back with my brother n' granny." Applejack ran to get them. Granny Smith, despite her old age was the best pony there at dressing wounds and Applejack didn't dare to let anypony else try with injuries this bad. Big Macintosh ended up having to carry Granny smith in order for them to make good time. Zecora had grown even weaker, unable even to lift her head. "Oh mah!" Granny Smith moved with a swiftness that surprised everypony in the room. "Jus' settle down there missy ol' Granny'll 'ave ya' fixed up in a moment." She set to work removing metallic shrapnel from nearly every inch of the zebra's body. "Wha' happened ta you? It looks like ya' ad a bad run in with a tool shed." "Fly..." She spoke weakly. "Fly you fools... they wield vile evil tools." "Now if ya'll think we're gonna jus' leave ya you're sorely mis'taken." Zecora chuckled darkly and coughed managing to raise her head. "Fools..." She fell and lay still no longer breathing. "Ah no ya don't! Don' quit on me now!" Granny Smith yelled trying to revive Zecora, a piece of metal fell out of her chest and her lungs decompressed with a hissing sound. There was no saving her now. "We need ta go." Big Macintosh was staring in horror out the door. The entire orchard was on fire, tall figures ran around in it swarming the actual house and dousing it in flames. "Good thing Apple Bloom's at school." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Cheerilee came running into the schoolhouse, terrified. "Filly's and colts we're going into the basement Now!" She hefted open a hatch in the front middle of the room motioning for the students to go down. "Why Miss Cheerilee." There was an explosion outside. "No time to explain just go!" The foals filed down rather quickly until. "Snails! where's Snails?" Snips yelled, Cheerilee turned around in time to see the orange colt's brains get blown out. "AAAHHH!" there was a collective scream from everypony who happened to be looking. Cheerilee took a quick look around to make sure that they weren't leaving anypony else behind before slamming the door and locking it seven different ways and bracing it with anything she could find. She turned and looked over the sobbing, shivering mass of terrified students. "Now foals we just need to stay calm, help will come." Something exploded. "I hope." In a corner with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle clutched a small necklace and chanted "Help us, help us, help us, help us." The sounds of destruction continued outside. "Hey this is a school, where is everything? I was hoping to make my quota here." A crass rasping voice came from above them. "Dude you have to nail twenty seven unicorns, thirty two pegasi and one hundred eighty seven earth ponies. How were you planning on filling the quota with a school this small." "I already got two unicorns, a pink one and an orange one. Headshot on the orange one, hoya!" The strange sound of a firearm being discharged filled the air. "You're a sick fuck, you know that right?" "Just enjoying my job." This made Sweetie Belle chant even harder. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika was on crowd control trying to help terrified ponies to get out of the town and keep desperate parents from getting back in. "I'm sorry ma'am but I can't let you go back in there. A trained team-" consisting of myself and The Doctor, He thought grimly. "- will be going in to find any missing children as soon as we're done evacuating the town." "But my filly is in there!" A dark pink mare with a purple mane was trying to get around the field Krika had set up. "And I will do everything in my power to get her out, but you're doing her no favors by making it harder for me to finish my job!" That's when he heard it, emanating from his mask a single phrase repeated over and over again. "Help us, help us, help us. His eyes went wide, Sweetie Belle was using a piece of his mask that he had broken off for her to call for help. "I need somepony to take my place here, please!" A yellow coated mare with an orange mane ran over. "Thank you." He ran back into the half burning town using his mask of repulsion to escape bullets and other weapons and shrapnel that sped towards him as he ran through to the streets. Please don't let me be too late, please. The unending chant coming from his mask both comforted and terrified him; as long as it was going Sweetie Belle was still alive, but as long as it was going Sweetie Belle was still in danger. He let his mask lead him to its shard. He stopped outside of the burning schoolhouse. There was a dead pink and purple unicorn filly at his feet, her cutie mark was a clover; there was a single bullet wound in the back of her neck; death had been instantaneous. He lifted the filly onto his back, not wanting to just leave her. He carefully scuttled up to the school using his Crast to repel the heat of the fire. The entire building went out, much to the chagrin of two figures inside. "Aww come on, that's no fun." He tucked the filly's body under a foreleg and slithered in on the ceiling until he was directly above the figures who were trying to force open the basement door that led to the place where the mask was sending him. He tucked the filly into the rafters and dropped down onto the hominid figures with a bull like ululating battle cry, he skewered the first one on one of his blades, the other one narrowly avoided him and screamed, firing his gun at Krika who deflected the bullets with his mask power before reaching out and grabbing the other, crushing his skull. He tossed them both away, rejecting the blood that had splattered onto his coat. "Miss Cheerilee? Miss Cheerilee are you down there?" He knocked on the trapdoor. "Krika is that you?" "Yes. Are the students with you?" "Yes, give us a second to clear the barricade." Krika didn't have time for that so he simply stressed his shadow power on the door, blowing it out, all sorts of junk popped out after it. Krika retrieved the pink filly's body from the rafters as the rest of them ran out from the basement. "Hey that's Ruby." a small tan and brown spotted colt pointed to the body on his back. "Is she..." Krika nodded slowly. "gather around me students." Krika motioned for the foals to come over to him, once they had he blew a hole in the roof. "We're going for a little flight." He used the Crast to reject the ground allowing him to take the students on a giant leap clear across town landing just behind the evacuation line. The foals ran to find their parents and the dark pink mare ran up to him. "Did you find my daughter, did you find Ruby." Krika stiffened before nodding sadly and lowering the dead filly from his back. The mare just sat there staring from the body to Krika who stared down at the body. "I'm sorry." "No!" The mare wailed wrapping the body in her hooves. "Noooooooo!" The filly's horn started sparking weakly. Krika had read about this phenomenon. Sometimes when a unicorn died quickly their soul would be bound to their body for a few hours, it had been theorized that they could be brought back with the right application of magic to possibly "reject death", but he doubted that the mare had read about this. "Did you see that? She's still in there!" Either he was mistaken or the mother was just desperate. "We can still do something." Krika didn't have the heart to deny her, so he sat down touching his mask to the filly's horn. An idea popped into his mind. He ran his magic through the mask to amplify its power and focused I reject this wound. The bullet that had been lodged in the filly's neck was gently pushed back out the entrance hole which closed behind it. I reject this death. his eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground, his own heart stopped and he was gone. "Hello?" a small voice pierced the darkness around him. "Hello Mr." The darkness was swept away and in its place there was a small pink filly. He got up and looked around, there were two ropes attached to one of his legs one black, one red. He realized what he had to do. "Are you Ruby?" "Yes." The filly cocked her head at him. "Who are you?" Krika took the red rope off which also severed the black one. "I've been sent to get you." He felt himself go cold and gave the rope to Ruby. "Just climb this." There was apparently no need to tell her this because the second the rope touched her it melded to her chest and whisked her away. A warm feeling passed over him, he had saved Ruby. The darkness came back embracing him in a warm tide and he felt himself going back into the shadows. Berry punch stared at Krika's unmoving form not sure what to do. Ruby stirred against her shoulder. "Mom...my?" she couldn't believe it, Krika had done it, he had saved her daughter. "Ruby?" She brought her daughter around to look her in the face "Mommy!" Ruby hugged her mother tight. Berry punch hugged her back, tears of joy staining the fur around her eyes. "Thank you." she whispered. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Killed her. These monsters had killed Bon Bon. Right in front of Lyra's eyes and they would pay, every single one of them would pay with their lives. Lyra was standing surrounded by the enemy, Bon Bon had been torn to shreds by their bullets the second she had stepped into the open. Lyra would make them pay. Her vision was going black but she didn't care, she knew the hollow was taking over but she didn't care, the hollow was a mad dog and Lyra was directing it towards the monsters that killed her wife. She let out a monstrous wail, a piercing sound that made all who heard it feel as if they had already been run through with a blade. "Bankai!" The area exploded, dust and bricks flying into the air, when the dust cleared, in Lyra's place was a white and blue bipedal being with a hole in its chest wearing a mask with three bladed horns sticking strait up from the middle of its forehead and right above its ears; green and white hair cascaded out the back of the mask and it was holding an electric guitar with blades on the body. It opened it's diamond toothed mouth and wailed. It was a vibrating noise that struck fear into the creatures around it, who open fired. To their dismay the bullets had no effect. It lifted the guitar and struck a note, which sent out a wall of sound that made the hominids guns vibrate themselves to pieces, it then seemed to teleport into a crowd of the hominids and proceeded to rip them limb from limb, biting down on necks, severing limbs with the axe, crushing skulls in its fists, blood flew everywhere splattering the thing's body. The creatures never stood a chance. It rampaged, killing every enemy it could find and when it could find no more it started running towards the north to find more food. But something stops it, a wall of blackness. It rages against the wall, clawing at it, slamming on it with the axe, screaming at it. "Stop!" A loud regal voice rings from above, the thing looks up; there is food up there Princess Luna the name sounds tasty. It gathers itself and jumps, landing in the air to stare down the navy blue food thing. "Lyra you have to stop, you have to regain control!" What was Lyra? It stands and thinks for a moment, it is Lyra. And Lyra is hungry, Lyra will feast on this thing and its power, the others had no power, they hadn't been satisfying. Lyra lunges, mouth first, trying to bite into the Blue thing's flesh but it dodges making Lyra growl in frustration. "I didn't want to do this but you leave me no choice." The Blue thing draws out a blade and starts chanting. "Jikan mae ni kodokuna ichi boido de kakimazeru; u~eiku, Kurayami!" [before time the lonely one stirs in the void; wake, Darkness!] The sword erupts into a massive swirl of blackness, dotted with bright points like stars, a pair of pupil less white eyes open in the maelstrom before it solidifies into a massive dragon that dwarfs Lyra the way a mountain dwarfs a hill. Lyra wanted to run but the power that has just been unleashed makes her hunger groan that if it simply eats this it will be soothed. So Lyra charges brandishing the axe. "Kurayami, dark blaze!" The dragon opens it's great maw and lets a tide of shadows flow out, shadows that burn when they hit, Lyra screams in pain as it's left arm burns off. Lyra staggers before it's arm reforms, Lyra howls in pain as the new bones take shape. Lyra want to run. It thinks But Lyra so hungry, can't stop now. Lyra lifts the axe and strikes a cord blasting sound at its massive opponent, the great creature takes the sound to its gut loosing a cry of pain that reminds Lyra of a whale and stirs happy memories in Lyra, memories of Bon Bon. When it remembers a crack appears in its mask. Pain laces through Lyra's body and it screams. "Whale bad! Bon Bon bad! Remembering bad!" It clutches its mask. "Lyra don't want go back, can't make Lyra go back. Lyra stronger than you, you want Lyra power. No! No! Nooooooooo!" It screams in anguish as the hands tears the mask from its face. The warping in her voice disappeared. "You're not Lyra, you're Aryl, a monster." She said weakly as the blue and white body crumbled to dust leaving the mint unicorn to fall. "Oh no you don't." Luna's voice rang out and she landed on something soft and black studded with stars before the world faded away to nothingness. The monsters had paid. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Krika felt warm, he felt fulfilled, he felt at peace. But it ended in a flash of light as a brilliant white alicorn with a crimson mane and a scroll and quill for a cutie mark burst through his bubble of darkness. Krika covered his eyes lest he be blinded by the sudden re-entrance of light, when his eyes adjusted he lowered his claw and looked into the newcomer's eyes, they were a sapphire blue. Krika had a feeling that he was in the presence of a being far greater than himself and he bowed. "Who do I have the honor of addressing?" "You don't have to do that. I hate it when ponies freak out around me." "Alright then, who are you?" Krika drew himself back up to look Lauren in the eye. "I am the goddess of this realm but you may call me Lauren." "Well Lauren, I take it you're here to take me to hell." He sighed, he'd known it was coming. She laughed good naturedly. "No, nothing so dramatic. I've come to send you back." Lauren smiled as Krika stared at her in disbelief. "Send me back?" "Yes, the way you sent Ruby back to her mother, a very noble deed by the way although I wouldn't suggest doing it again. Your time has not come yet, nor had hers. But I do have a job for you. An evil being, powerful beyond imagination came through with you and Vamprah." "I assure you Gavla isn't that bad." Krika joked, Lauren chuckled. "No, not her." "Then who?" Lauren's face hardened at Krika's question. "He is known throughout the multiverse by many names, the Doctor knew him as Dwarvos, Kenpachi knew him as Aizen Sosuke, you know him as." "Teridax." Krika shook in terror. "He has found a way to prevent my interference in his plan, but you can stop him, you are the only being in any dimension who knows exactly what you're dealing with." The world started to crumble to white. "That is your mission, find Teridax and stop him." Her serious gaze melted into a comforting smile. "Oh and don't worry about hell, you're a much better being than you think you are." Krika disappeared. "Your move Teridax." Krika gasped feeling life enter his cold form, he coughed hard. Someone shrieked to his right, he looked over and it was one of the palace nurses. "B-b-but y-you've b-been dead for d-days." he looked at the bowl next to her, they had been preparing to preserve his body. He tried to speak but a rush of cold made it come out as a rasping moan. "I n-n-need something warm." The nurse rushed away, leaving Krika to shiver in his slowly warming body. The nurse returned with a bowl of steaming soup. Here goes nothing. Krika downed it in one go. To his joy it didn't come back up and warmth returned to him quickly. "Thank you miss..." "Redheart." "Miss Redheart. How long was I under." "Almost two weeks." She seemed to be dealing with a pony coming back to life rather well. Krika looked around. "Where is my mask?" "The princesses have it, they've been using it to keep the invaders away." Krika started. "Over how large an area?" "The entire city of Canterlot." "I need to go." He forced his stiff muscles to move, they warmed back up to use quickly and he ran through the halls to the throne room. "Stop!" A guard stepped out in front of him. "None are to be let through." "Oh get off it." he told the guard barreling past him. Celestia and Luna both were channeling magic through the mask, despite their combined power they both looked at the point of collapse. Krika walked between them, calling the mask to his face. It locked into place and he picked up where the exhausted sisters had left off. "Makuta Krika?" Luna dropped to the floor, her power coming off the mask. Celestia managed to stay standing but took her power off too. "But you're dead." "Yet here I am." "Are you sure you're up to this?" Luna regained her footing. "You just came back from the dead." "I can give you two months." "A-alright." The guard spoke outside the door "Hey, little filly, you can't go in there. Sweet Celestia!" The door burst open and three filly's tumbled into the room on top of a guard. Sweetie Belle popped her head up from the tangle "Krika! You're alive!" She shot onto his chest, giving him the hardest hug he had ever been given. It may have been the hardest of seven but it was still worth noting to him. "Oof! Sweetie Belle; where's your sister?" "We sent them to find allies almost two weeks ago." Celestia said. "Allies? from where?" "Other dimensions." End of chapter eight.
Vicron	779	9	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-01-04T20:08:28+00:00	2012-01-04T20:08:28+00:00	1,041	Help in the Storm. Twelve days ago Princess Luna had arrived in Ponyville with a troop of nightguard unicorns to teleport the populous to Canterlot. The Elements of Harmony had been easy to gather up as their first instinct had been to gather together and they had followed it, Lyra on the other hand had been a rather violent find, the Doctor had yet to appear, Krika was by all medical terms dead and there were still hundreds unaccounted for. The display of brutality had been repeated across the entirety of Equestria only for the perpetrators to disappear. All in all this was shaping up to be the worst day in a thousand years. “Princess Luna.” An unexpected voice came from behind her, it was Makuta Vamprah. “You may speak.” “At the risk of sounding callous, Krika’s Kanohi Crast may be able to keep the invaders away from Canterlot when they decide to show themselves again.” “You suggest that we raid your brother’s body.” “Are there any magics that may be able to do the same thing?” “No.” “The Crast seems to become exponentially more powerful when magic is used under its own power. He was able to use it to take a filly back from death, keeping these creatures out should be child’s play for it. At least for two weeks.” “Fine.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Gavla was kicking the furnaces into overdrive forgetting even to be cruel to Blueblood, instead just barking orders at him. “Compass, Now!” Blueblood worried by her single mindedness had been simply doing whatever he was told. Thanks to his cooperation and Gavla’s frenzied activity she had been pumping out hundreds of sets of armor and claws. “Hey Blueblood, do you think the guards would agree to wearing this?” She held up blueprints that depicted a set of metal jaws. “No.” “Bummer.” She tore the paper in half and got back to work, using her magic to continue work on expanding the armory and using her mind to come up with more effective tools. “Genius!” She exclaimed. “Now that’ll give ‘em a run for their money.” She set the new weapon into production “Miss Gavla, what exactly are you doing?” “Getting ready for the war.” She sent a cylinder of metal into a separate chamber to test it. “You think I’m letting you morons go down without a fight?” The sound of flying metal came from the room Gavla had sent the cylinder into. “Good it works.” She put the device into mass production. “But what about the Elements of Harmony or the Princesses, surely they could-” “If you think this is like anything else your feeble little race has ever faced before, you’d be sadly mistaken. I know this tactic, it was popular among the Skakdi. First you take out a considerable portion of the populous then when the survivors are good and terrified of you, you make your demands. I for one have never been a fan of Skakdi so I’m not planning on letting your ‘aunts’ surrender.” She set back to work with a vigor that made Twilight Sparkle look like a slacker. “Go get me the captains of the guards, it's time for some heavy duty training.” Blueblood left her quickly and she inwardly cursed, she forgot to insult him. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lyra was sitting on a balcony at one of the higher points of the castle looking out on the smoking ruin that was the rest of Equestria. “Lyra.” She turned and standing in the doorway was Princess Celestia. Normally she would have bowed or something along those lines, instead she just stared at her coldly. “What do you want?” “I’m sorry about Bon Bon.” “You’ve been telling others the same about their loved ones all day.” “True but I mean it every time.” Celestia sighed. “Which makes what I’m about to ask you all the more difficult. Luna and I have found a way to buy two weeks time; we were hoping that you could lead a team to find allies from your travels as Luna’s agent.” Lyra responded to this, lifting her head from a half bowed mourning position. Yes old allies from her multiverse travels would be able to show these invaders who ruled here. “I’ll do it.” “Good, then I need you to get my student and her friends. Then report to the throne room” “Now Sweetie Belle it’s alright.” Rarity was consoling her sister over Krika’s death. “He died a way he always wanted to, protecting somepony else.” “But it’s not fair! Why did anypony have to die?” “I don’t know.” She hugged the sobbing filly closer. “Miss Rarity.” She looked up and standing in front of her was Lyra. “The princesses need to see you.” Apple Bloom was in what could best be described as shock, she hadn’t said a word since she had been rescued from the schoolhouse and she had an almost dead look to her eyes. Applejack had been sticking close to her to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid, this hardly seemed necessary as she seemed content to simply pace back and forth in the room they had been given. “Apple Bloom?” No response. “Lil’ sis’?” She looked up slightly. “You alright?” Apple Bloom exploded. “Alright? Are ya’ll plumb crazy? Mah home is gone, I saw one of my friends get ‘is head blown ta bits, that’s right clean off and Ah’m probably gonna be dead in the month! No Ah’m not alright!” She panted heavily. “Feel better?” “Actually…” She paused “Yes, yes Ah do.” “Miss Applejack.” She turned around; in the doorway were Rarity and Lyra. Rainbow Dash was flitting around the ceiling of her room restlessly, for once in her life she didn’t know what she wanted to do. Even during the Best Young Flyer incident she had known what she wanted to do just not how. Now she didn’t know anything, her ambitions were sent packing by the carnage she had witnessed; she was aimless like a balloon taken by the wind. The door to her room opened and in stepped Lyra. Oh well. She thought. Let’s see where this takes me. Fluttershy was holding up surprisingly well. As an animal caretaker she had seen her share of carnage, although never directed at her own kind. So she just sat with Angel unsure as of what to do; she felt something rising from the back of her mind, some forgotten portion of herself and she suppressed it. “Oh Angel, what do you think I should do?” He took his carrot out of his mouth and brandished it like a sword. “But I don’t know the first thing about fighting. So I should learn?” He nodded. Just then the door opened. Pinkie Pie was having trouble keeping her already questionable sanity from shattering entirely. “Now you see what I was talking about.” “No, shut up.” “They weren’t there to help the Cake’s; they won’t be there when you need them either. And you ran, I can’t believe you ran.” The voice cackled. “Shut up!” She clamped her hooves over her ears as if that would keep out the voice from her own mind. “Coward, coward, coward, coward!” It chanted in her head drowning out her surroundings and infiltrating every part of her. “SHUT UP!” She screamed and the voice finally went quiet “Fine but only I’ll be there when you need somepony.” Pinkie was relieved that the voice had given up on its attack, for now at least. She decided to see if Twilight might know something about how to get rid of it. Opening the door she was stopped short by Lyra. Incidentally Twilight happened to be going to see Vamprah and Gavla. She opened the impressive double doors to be greeted by Gavla’s scathing voice. “Well that was fast, hanging out were they?” She turned around. “Oh, it’s only you. I actually just sent Blueblood out looking for the guard captains.” Twilight briefly wondered why but decided that it could wait. “I’m here to see Vamprah.” “Alright, hey big guy Twilight’s here for you.” Vamprah swooped out from the shadows on the ceiling landing directly in front of Twilight. “Yes.” “I need you to bite me.” “Excuse me?” “I need you to make me more powerful.” “Why?” “Why? So I can help defend my race, that’s why!” “Are you sure?” “I am asking for nothing more than the power to protect the things I love, why are you making this so difficult?” “Because you won’t want to go back.” “I am wholly aware of the risk involved and am willing to accept it.” Vamprah looked back at Gavla who nodded. “Fine.” Twilight tilted her chin up and Vamprah bit down, immediately he felt something was wrong it felt less like he was draining her and more like he was forcing something in. He tried to let go but found his jaws stuck in a death grip making it so the only way to get away would be to take her windpipe with. “Gavla, something’s wrong!” He said around his teeth. “Thank you Vamprah.” A growling male voice said in his mind and he was thrown back with force enough to crack the wall he landed on. Through Gavla’s eyes he was able to see what became of Twilight. Swaths of darkness began to swirl around her body, her eyes had become black soulless orbs as the unleashed powers lifted her off the floor of the chamber her eyes turned a luminescent ice blue and she screamed. The sound was a cross between a shriek of pain and a cry of triumph, an all too familiar mask began to piece itself together over her face, the Kanohi Kraahkan, the mask of shadows. “Teridax.” Vamprah breathed in horror. Twilight screamed again and again gaining intensity with each shriek. The mask wasn’t fully formed meaning the process could hopefully be averted; Vamprah quickly prayed that the same rules applied to this as to shadow leeches and let out the curing screech which squared its hit directly to the half formed mask which blew into dust. The air froze and Twilight hung in the air, mouth open in a silenced scream, the shadows around her fell and she hit the floor with a thud. Vamprah stood against the wall for a moment before carefully walking up to her unmoving form, her eyes snapped open flashing the chilling blue before fading back to their usual amethyst. Vamprah heaved a sigh of relief. “Wh-what happened?” “I cannot help you.” He said coldly. “What!” She forced herself to her hooves weakly. “What do you mean you can’t help me? I came in here and begged you jerk!” “You’re immune.” “Huh?” “You can’t be changed, trying only hurts me.” His excuse seemed to stir some memory in Twilight that backed it up. “Oh… sorry.” Gavla climbed up onto his back. “You planning on telling her the real reason?” “Not until this is over. She has enough to worry about.” Just then the doors opened letting in Blueblood and the six guard captains. "Ah my comrades in arms; Twilight you are excused, I hear the princess is looking for you in the throne room." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Alright, let’s get down to business.” Luna said upon their entrance. “I’m going to guess that only Lyra knows why you’ve all been summoned, so I’m going to let her explain. Lyra this is your team, explain the mission.” “Yes ma’am. Three years ago as you know I spent time dimension hopping for Princess Luna. While out there I managed to earn a few favors from the dimensions I visited, we’re being sent to collect on those favors and see if we can gain new allies to help in the fight against the invaders. Which is why I brought these." She levitated six small daggers out of her saddlebags. "These will be our first allies but only if you unsheathe them once we get to our first stop. We'll be headed to the same dimension that Kenpachi was from. I earned a favor from a rather powerful figure known as Kisuke Urahara, so we should be able to get at least four allies from there. After that were just going to be hopping around looking to make friends in high places. Spike is going to be staying here as our link back home. Twilight I need you to get your owl, he's coming with us. Pinkie I'm going to need your alligator." Gummy popped out from her mane. "Good." She turned back to Luna. "Twilight's owl is actually right behind her." They turned around and sure enough Owlowiscious swooped down to land on Twilight's back. "Now we need to get you through immediately, we don't know when the invaders will be back, Celestia and I will also be out of commission for the next two weeks which is also the amount of time you will have for this mission. Understand?" "Yes ma'am." Lyra saluted. "Good." Glyphs started to glow on the walls as power flowed from Luna into the room. "I can only set you on course to your first destination, after that your on your own." A large glyph shaped like a spiral shell opened up beneath Lyra and the others. "Good luck, and may the prayers of your race protect you." The glyph seemed to pop out of the floor and they were gone. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ The sound of grinding metal filled the courtyard, refugees and nobles alike stopped whatever they were doing to stare as the tardis materialized in the middle. The door was flung open and a pink mare with a dark purple mane came rushing out trailed by a small grey filly. "Doctor!" Cheerilee ran into the tardis to find him pleading with the controls. "Please, please, just this once let me save her, I'll do anything please!" He pounded on the control panel and a hominid figure appeared behind him, projected from the ceiling. "You are attempting to change a fixed point, something that you expressly forbid this ship to allow. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." "Shut up!" He yelled at it before crumpling to the floor in a sobbing heap. A strange sensation briefly passed over those inhabiting the city before a great dome appeared over Canterlot repelling even the clouds. It took Cheerilee a few minutes to calm the Doctor down enough to move. "Doctor, are you going to be alright?" He looked up, a grim look in place of the normal manic vigor. "I'll be fine; that version of me always was best at breaking bad news." He sluggishly dragged himself out of the tardis. "I'm always alright." He muttered to himself. "Well this is impressive." A massive voice propelled itself over the city causing the Doctor to lift his head. "I set the dogs on you once and you've already gone into siege mode." He quickly pinpointed the source of the voice and ran towards the south. The voice remained silent until he reached the edge of the dome where he found the smoking remains of everything from bombs to tanks. "Finally, it really is hard to get you people's attention." "Who are you." The Doctor growled. "Who am I?" A hominid figure taller than the others with a fair face, no hair to speak of and almost glowing blue eyes stepped through the rubble. He was wearing a white suit and pants with a pair of black dress shoes, hardly the kind of dress one would expect for a general. "Who are you? I thought I ordered your kind wiped out." He turned back to look past the rubble. "Boys you missed one, I'll have you all strung up for this." "I am the Doctor and I will be the one addressing you." "The Doctor! Oh how I've waited for this day, I'm pitting my forces against The Doctor." The man rolled his eyes at him. "I on the other hand have a real name. I am Kal and I have my demands ready." Kal pulled a small list out of his coat pocket. "I will spare the remaining inhabitants of this world on the conditions that you simply submit to me and enlist in my army, where you will help me commit similar 'atrocities' throughout other dimensions. How do you respond?" "Not happening." The Doctor snapped at him. "Very well I'll get the uni- WHAT?" Kal's sophisticated demeanor dissolved like sugar in warm water. "You dare defy me? I'll tear this barrier down and slaughter you all." "It's been a long time since this tactic hasn't worked hasn't it? These creatures are too peaceful to join any army that would do this." Kal smoothed his nonexistent hair. "I will admit it's been a few decades, then again the last time I used this tactic it was against the Carrion race and they make the best shock troops you've ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen a race stubborn enough to deny me after I've wiped out this much of their population. Well that's not true; my own race refused to be concurred down to the last child so you know what I did, I wiped them out." A small smile crept its way across his face. "I still remember their children's screams, ah good memories." The Doctor stared open-mouthed at him wondering how psychopaths like this got started in the first place. "You are disturbed." "And loving it. I hope you know that I will be hammering this place nonstop until your shield gives in. Then I'm going to personally lead the attack, I'll remember how you scream." The depraved man turned on his heels and marched back to his army. End of chapter 9 (I know it's not as good as the last four but it's simply a bridge to the next chpaters. I promise they will be better)
Vicron	779	10	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-06-04T09:53:37+00:00	2012-06-04T09:53:37+00:00	1,552	Waking the Blades. (Any links are to music I consider fitting for the scene.) The best words to describe the between world they were flying through were beautifully abstract. Lyra and crew were flying through a massive cave of luminescent purple crystal, small islands each with their own ecosystem floated through the air. They could see themselves cloaked by a veil of white energy reflected on the walls making it look like they were surrounded by comets. "Incredible." Rarity whispered. "I would probably sell my shop to get my hooves on a piece of that crystal." Five of the ponies were marveling at their surroundings, while Twilight and Lyra were talking over strategies. "Lyra." "Yes Twilight." "You said the daggers would be our first allies, what did you mean?" "The daggers are nameless zanpakto, once unsheathed a spirit will bind itself to it giving the blade a name which when called will give it power." "How do you learn its name?" "You simply meditate with the sword, try to feel it entering your mind, simply find it and help it along. Once you get that far it's different for everyone." Lyra stopped talking staring at their destination in horror. "Lyra what's wrong?" Twilight asked she looked and saw a massive complex of open roofed corridors. "That's the Seireitei." "So we're going to the wrong dimension. Just cast the spell again." "No it's the right dimension." "Then what's the problem?" "That's the capital of the one place I was worried we would land in. That's where Kenpachi comes from and they don't take kindly to unwelcome visitors." Everypony cringed but this was not the level of fear Lyra had been hoping to inspire. "They're going to hunt us down and kill us!" This worked and they all screamed. "Alright, now that everypony has a handle on how serious this is we need to get into order to best survive, I don't want you goofing off on me now. First grab a landing buddy if we hit halfway through the barrier you're gonna need one, second make sure your sword is strapped tightly onto your body and thirdly if we hit outside the barrier... it was an honor serving with you." Applejack and Rainbow grabbed Rarity, Pinkie jumped onto the closest pony which happened to be Fluttershy and Twilight grabbed onto the stone faced Lyra who started speaking almost as fast as Pinkie Pie. "If you encounter a captain most would say run, but anypony who's spent time around them knows that running will be about as useful as throwing a pegasus down pillow at them. There are ten captains currently, one of which you've already met. Captain Yamamoto head of first division is an old man but stronger than most creatures could even imagine his zanpakto's name is Ryūjin Jakka, at it's basic level it is a massive wall of fire that he can command. Suì-Fēng is head of the second division and the stealth force, she has the appearance of a young woman with two massive braids, her zanpakto is Suzumebachi it appears to be a claw but if it hits you in the same spot twice you will die. The third division currently has no captain. Retsu Unohana is captain of the fourth division, she appears to be a middle aged woman, her zanpakto is named Minazuki, her powers are mostly for healing so she may be the one captain you can run from. The fifth division currently has no captain. Byakuya Kuchiki is captain of the sixth division, he has the appearance of a young man, he is most easily identified by the white holders he keeps his hair in, his zanpakto is named Senbonzakura it is a swarm of minute blades do not run from him under any circumstances. Sajin Komamura is captain of the seventh division, he has the head of a dog so he should be easy to identify, his zanpakto is named Tenken it creates a giant that mimics his movements. Shunsui Kyōraku is captain of the eighth division, he is most easily identified by his pink floral print robe, he is more likely to simply stall you with pleasant conversation than attack you so if you do encounter a captain pray that it's him, his zanpakto is named Katen Kyōkotsu I actually never got to see this one. Ninth division currently has no captain. Tōshirō Hitsugaya is captain of the tenth division, he has the appearance of a child with white hair, he is surprisingly easy to goad, his zanpakto is named Hyōrinmaru it takes on the shape of a dragon made of ice which he can command or that of a pair of wings. You already know the eleventh division captain. Mayuri Kurotsuchi is captain of the twelfth division, he is easily identifiable by his massive headdress and facepaint, his zanpakto is named Ashisogi Jizō if you are cut by this you will be paralyzed then you can consider yourself as good as dissected, probably awake and screaming. Jūshirō Ukitake is captain of the thirteenth division, he appears to be a sickly man with long white hair, his zanpakto is named Sōgyo no Kotowari I never got to see this one either. Brace for impact!" They popped out of the between space and briefly hit something solid before bursting through, Lyra relaxed which Twilight guessed meant that they had hit halfway through the barrier so she relaxed too for a second before they started spinning and she had to hold on for dear life. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rarity clutched her friends as they spun out of control still coated in the white light. Rarity tried to establish some sort of balance but all she could see were Rainbow, Applejack and the buildings rapidly approaching them. "We are going to die!" one of them screamed just before they hit. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Weeee!" Pinkie cheered as she and Fluttershy careened towards a building with the same symbol that Kenpachi had been wearing on the front. "Woo hoo!" Pinkie raised her hooves as one would do on a roller coaster sending a shrieking Fluttershy flying off in another direction. "Oops..." Was all she had time to say before she crashed through the building's roof. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Twilight and Lyra crashed with a deafening boom, once Twilight was sure they had stopped moving she opened her eyes and lowered her hands from her face only to bring them back up again. I have hands! She examined the rest of her body, she was one of Kenpachi's species. Why am I like this? I shouldn't be like this. A thought that wasn't quite hers shot through her mind and she pushed it aside. She didn't have time to deal with any mental anomalies. She looked up to Lyra who was sitting cross legged in a robe similar to Yachiru's. Twilight tried to stand up and ended up falling flat on her face. "That's not how you walk in this body." Lyra pointed out without turning around. "Huh?" Twilight was dazed by the impact to her head. "Hind legs." Twilight carefully got up with more success and walked over behind Lyra who turned around, eyes closed. "Now Twilight do you- urk!" Lyra opened her eyes, grabbed her nose and turned back around. "What's wrong, am I on fire or something." "Twilight, you're naked." "And? It's not like we wear cloths normally." "I just forgot about it." Lyra turned back around. "You remember what I told you on the way in here?" "Yes." "Good, then you can take it from here, I'll set up some wards." Twilight sat down cross legged grabbed the dagger from her saddlebag and unsheathed it. The dagger grew into the katana equivalent of a longsword. "Wow you're just a little powerhouse aren't you?" Twilight blushed as she always did when somepony complemented her power. What do I have to be embarrassed about? Twilight again pushed away the thought that wasn't quite hers. There was a sort of popping sound and a robe like Lyra's came into existence around her body. She placed the blade across her lap and concentrated looking for some spark from the sword, some tendril from her mind to its. Twilight had practiced meditation while under Celestia's tutelage so the dive into her own mind was simple. She opened her eyes and the world was black. She could see nothing in the darkness, then a light soft and, purple broke through the shadows. She followed it to its source, a glowing blade, ethereal and flowing next to a black blade that looked as if it was the shadow the glowing one would cast, they were linked together by a grey chain that seemed to be rising above them. She grabbed the chain and the world exploded into white. She covered her eyes with her hooves to no avail until the light faded, she was surrounded by shelves of books. Outside Lyra tapped her shoulder to make sure she was under. "I forgot how... disarming the human form can be." She thought out loud. A nagging voice that came from being married surfaced in her mind. "I was married, not blinded I can look at whomever I like. Oh Faust, I'm already talking to myself." She looked out through the barriers she had set up. I hope the others can make it alright. "Hoo." The owl swooped down and landed on her shoulder. "Owlowiscious, I almost forgot about you." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rarity kept her eyes closed until she was sure she had stopped moving, something felt different she just couldn't put her finger on it. She opened her eyes to find herself between two large fleshy bodies, a streak of rainbow hair passed through her line of sight she followed it with her eyes back to its point of origin which happened to be one of the creatures she was sandwiched between, both of whom had their eyes squeezed shut. "Rainbow Dash?" The creature opened its eyes and looked down at her. "Who else?" The voice was Rainbow's but the face belonged to one of Kenpachi's species. "Uh Rainbow." Applejack on the other side had also opened her eyes and was staring at her friend unaware that she was in a similar state. "Applejack, Rainbow; darlings brace yourselves." She levitated a shard of glass from the floor between them, giving them each a good look at themselves. Rarity clamped down on their mouths before they could scream. "Now girls we have made enough commotion with our landing and if you remember correctly anything we come into contact with will try to kill us, so we don't need to be drawing any further attention to ourselves." "Attention guard squads a group of ryoka have entered the Seireitei, capture if possible, resistance is to be met with lethal force." A voice boomed across the area delivering commands that were not to be ignored "Case and point." Rarity stated. "Now we are going to need weapons. Luckily Lyra supplied us with some before we went in." Rarity opened her saddlebag and removed her blade from its sheath, it instantly blossomed into a rapier-like katana. She gave it a few test swings and thrusts, it was balanced perfectly. "Whoa!" Applejack nearly fell over as her dagger leaped to great sword proportions, she overcompensated in the way back up and swung it over her head. She picked it up more gingerly. "It don' hardly weigh nothin'. Musta' caught me by surprise." Rainbow looked down at her own sword with disappointed eyes. It was more of a shortsword, designed to be fast but not as impressive as Applejack's or Rarity's. Three robes popped into existence around their bodies but they just figured it came with the swords "We should get out of here and find a better place to lodge long enough to think of a way to find our friends." "I think I saw a place just before we hit." Rainbow offered. "Sounds good, lead the way." Rainbow tried to take off only to land on her butt. "My wings! Not again." They heard voices from behind the wall they hadn't destroyed. "Now may not be the best time to worry about that darling." As it turned out the place that Rainbow had spotted was just around the corner, although seeing as the Seireitei seemed to be made up of massive corridors this was still quite a distance. Once there they ducked inside the small deserted building and Rarity disguised the entrance with illusionary magic. Applejack immediately sat down with the sword and closed her eyes seeming to fall asleep for a moment. "Applejack, what are you doing?" Rarity asked staring at the farmmare with a cocked eyebrow. "Ah heard Lyra n' Twi talkin' 'bout how ta wake up the swords." "Mind telling us before you go and do it yourself." Rainbow scowled at her. "Sorry Ah hadn't thought a' that. Ya just sit with the sword an' concentrate, try ta feel the swords mind enterin' yer own. Meanin' sit still Rainbow." Dash Groaned but sat down with her sword across her lap and closed her eyes. Rarity also sat with her blade looking inward searching for the tendrils of another mind. She opened her eyes to a black world, the only light came from something silver in the distance, she ran towards it finding that the faster she moved the farther away the light seemed to get so she slowed down to a canter and the source of the light seemed to fly towards her, it was a silver arrowhead which impacted her chest bathing the world in white light. When the light faded she was in a cave filled with gems of every shape, size and color. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rainbow knew that sitting still would be the hardest part of this so she flitted around in her minds eye looking for anything out of place, The blackness was pierced by a pair of silver wings that she ran headfirst into. Once the light faded she found herself on her back looking up at a very angry looking winged hominid. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Applejack had actually started practicing meditation after the "Applebucking Season" incident to prevent another scene like that, not that she would admit it especially to Rarity, the little fussbucket would probably hold it over her head for the rest of her life. Part of honesty was knowing when to keep your mouth shut. Applejack was actually able to find her item by listening for it, it was a pair of old worn looking boots that made quite a lot of noise as they moved around. She touched them and the world exploded into white when the light faded she was in a golden field standing across a table from a hominid in a suit. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Whee Let's go again!" Pinkie yelled as she hopped out of her crater. She was surrounded by confused looking soul reapers. A bald one stepped forward. "What the hell are you?" He asked poking her mane. "I'm Pinkie Pie and you're bald." Pinkie replied rubbing his dome. "Attention guard squads a group of ryoka have entered the Seireitei, capture if possible, resistance is to be met with lethal force." The bald one looked away for a moment before grinning at her. "Figures you would land in squad eleven's barraks." "Squad eleven..." Pinkie drooped as she remembered the terrible strength Kenpachi had wielded. "AAAHHH." She tried to bolt for the exit but reapers soon covered all possible exits, she was trapped. The bald one and several others closed in on her, he pressed the tip of his sword to her throat. "Go ahead, make my day." he growled at her. One of them cut open her saddlebag and the dagger fell onto her hoof, the world froze. "Well this is disappointing." A very cross looking bipedal lizard stepped out from behind the bald one's head. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fluttershy's head was spinning even though the rest of her had stopped moving a few minutes before the voice had announced that she and her friends were to be captured. Once the world stopped spinning she retreated into the still intact rafters and pulled out her dagger, after unsheathing it the sword blossomed into a scimitar that bent back on itself. Fluttershy marveled at how the how the handle seemed to be glued to her hoof for a second before she felt it reaching out to her and the world went dark. She carefully struck out into the darkness heading towards a small yellow light that seemed to beacon her closer. It was coming from a helmet that swooped onto her head bathing the world in white. Once the light faded she found herself in a dense jungle. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Twilight had started going through the books, there were thousands of them but all were books she had read. She was sitting with one of her favorites when a figure walked up behind her, it cleared its throat to get her attention. Twilight turned around, the hominid had a calming female face, she was wearing a flowing purple and black robe decorated with archaic symbols. "Miss Twilight, I see you've been enjoying our home." The being smiled gently her voice like silk. "I have miss..." The being laughed "Oh it's not going to be that easy, you know that Twilight." "It was worth a shot, then how do I earn your name?" "I'll get to that but for now you may call me A. I like questions and riddles Twilight, I especially enjoy questions that make you think but I am frustrated by the number of these that are just ridiculous and not worth anythings time. Such as my least favorite, 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?' The egg came first evolution tells us this, but there is one question in this mind that really catches my attention, one that has plagued you since before you came here. Why wouldn't Vamprah help you?" "I'm immune to the proce-" "Oh come now Twilight, we both know he was lying. Though the process is similar shadow leeches and Vamprah's bite are quite different as exampled by Princess Luna. The shadow leeches simply devour all they can get, Vamprah only drains the physical, any immunity comes from mental fortitude, so how can you be immune physically?" Twilight opened her mouth to respond but found herself unable to think of anything to say. "He lied to me? Why would he do that?" "That's the thing isn't it. What side effect would be so terrifying that Vamprah would refuse to go through with it even after seeing how dedicated you were? I already know, but you don't, Vamprah thinks he wiped it clean from you, but we know better, don't we?" Her eyes flashed black, her voice became gruff and male on the last two words before reverting back. "That is how you earn my name, find the one book that doesn't belong and answer your question." There was a flash of lightning and she was gone. Twilight paced through the halls searching for any obvious differences, something in the binding or the shelves that she wouldn't recognize, the library was huge. Twilight briefly regretted having read so much. There was one thing she didn't recognize, on the end of every shelf of books there was a plaque that read. "When the shadows turn so does the door. What the hay does that mean?" She reached the center of the library which held a ball of light which appeared to be the only light source and a large rub emblazoned with her cutie mark. The rug was a large circle with a border that was wide enough to walk on. She looked from the light source to the border of the rug. "When the shadows turn so does the door." If she walked around the border her shadow would effectively turn around. She walked calmly around the edge, once halfway through there was a sound like a gong being struck she waited a moment but nothing happened so she kept walking, once she got back to the other side there was a painful noise like stone grinding on stone. The Five white stars on the rug fell through the floor and the large one turned black before tearing itself apart and reforming as a serpentine head, the center of which flipped over revealing a pedestal. Twilight cautiously walked up to it, on the pedestal was a book much different from the others. The binding was metal, the pages seemed to be made from some kind of stiffened leather and it was emblazoned with the same face as the rug was. This book felt evil, every one of her senses rebelled at being this close to it but she wanted it, she wanted to open the book and absorb whatever resided within, she wanted to unleash the power she felt bound to it, her magic would make lifting the steel cover a breeze, it would be so easy. But it was wrong everything about this book was wrong, no matter how much she wanted it. She backed away from it terrified of what might have happened if she had given in. "Congratulations." There was another flash and A was standing between her and the book. "You have not only answered your question but proved yourself above his control." "Who's control?" "The being that scared Vamprah into not helping you. Vamprah was worried that by helping you he would release him." "You mean-" "Yes this creature is nestled in your mind, Vamprah was unaware that he was harboring it and transferred it to you. My name is Arukana." Twilight vanished from the inner world as she woke up. "Shadō, let's get this game started." Arukana's shadow distended rising from the floor, it became a billowing black being. The only features distinguishable on it were its shining eyes and its shark-like teeth caught in a perpetual grin not unlike the Cheshire Cat. The black being walked over to the pedestal and reaching out a clawed hand hefted the book open unleashing a tide of blackness that swallowed the glowing orb above it. "Welcome back." Lyra gave Twilight a hand in standing back up. "How long was I under?" "About ten minutes. Strangely long for this tactic, your zanpakto must have really not wanted to tell you its name." The wall behind them exploded showering them in rubble and dust. "Hey bookworm, lookin' good." "Kenny, now that you've found her can I go play with Pinkie?" _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Applejack stared at the well dressed figure in front of her. He would have looked like he was headed for a gala if he hadn't been wearing the most worn down and dirty pair of boots Applejack had ever seen and his black hair hadn't been such a mess. "Hello Miss Applejack." A devious smile that matched his voice rested on his lips. "I've been looking through your head and I've seen all your thoughts and tricks. I'm not impressed, whether or not you get my name depends on how you respond to my request. Impress me." It was a simple command but by looking into his eyes Applejack could tell that he wouldn't be impressed by anything she did, he was actively trying not to be. "Ah don't 'ave time fer this." He visibly jerked. "Excuse me?" "Ah know yer kind, mah friend Rarity fell fer one a yall's tricks at that gala five years back an' I don't plan on makin' her mistake." To her surprise he started clapping. "I've had seventeen potential bearers before and every one of them killed themselves trying to impress me. My name is Kyōdasha. You'll find my appearance much different out there then in here. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship." "Ya mean friendship?" "Don't push your luck." The world faded to white. Applejack opened her eyes to see Rarity sobbing and Rainbow Dash scowling, things obviously weren't going as well for them. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rarity marveled at the cavern captured by the beauty that surrounded her until she heard the sound of stone being smashed. She whirled around to see a white coated maneless unicorn stallion picking crystal debris out of his hoof. "Why are you here?" He said coldly. "Excuse me?" "War is nasty business, one as delicate as you has no place in it. I repeat myself, why are you here?" He looked up from his hoof and Rarity got her first look at his eyes. They were star sapphires. "I'm here to find a way to save the ones I care about." "You might have a chance if you were a soldier, but you're a dress designer; there is nothing you can do." "So I should just leave? Just abandon everything I hold dear?" The stallion walked up to her looking her right in the eyes as his changed color from the cool blue to a fiery red, he locked her into his gaze. "What is the point of fighting if you cannot win." In his eyes she saw Celestia and Luna, Sweetie Belle, her friends, her neighbors, her home. She saw all the beautiful things of Equestria. And she saw it all burn, she saw Celestia and Luna beheaded, she saw the streets littered with bodies, she saw the rivers run with blood through a wasteland, she saw Applejack being forced to drag tanks, she saw Twilight being used as a battery for a death machine, she saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy strapped to tables having their wings plucked, she saw Pinkie Pie drawn and quartered, she saw Sweetie Belle being beaten and she saw herself broken and bloodied weeping in a grey stone cell. "NO! Please stop!" She tried to look away tried to run from the nightmares filling her mind but she found herself paralyzed by his stare. "No more, please no more!" She cried out. "Why are you here?" He turned away from her leaving Rarity to slump to the ground weeping. "Why would you show me that?" She pleaded. "Why?" "Because it is the inevitable, because it is what will happen whether you fight or not, it is the future. Do you accept it?" Rarity forced herself off of the ground. "No." She didn't notice but the stallion's eyes turned a soft purple. "No I don't accept it, I can't accept it. Say what you will about me, i am no soldier but I will fight for the things I love. I will fight the future i just saw to whatever end and even if i fail I will at the very least die trying." He smiled. "Congratulations Rarity, you're a soldier. Soldiers are not born of training or battle, soldiers are born of a refusal to be defeated, a willingness to die trying. i had to be sure you were ready for what you're going to have to do. My name is Kaizen." The world faded to white and Rarity woke up to Appejack's face. "Rar' r' you alright?" Rarity didn't even bother with explanations, instead opting to sob on her friend's shoulder. "A'll take that as a no." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rainbow Dash was in awe of the irate creature standing over her, it had a hard male face and wings that seemed to be comprised of thousands of blades that sparkled in the sunlight, it was wearing a tunic that was the same shade of green as his hair. She looked at the rest of her surroundings. She was on an expanse of cloud that seemed to continue forever. "Wow." She breathed staring at the creature "That's not what you were saying earlier." It had a gruff voice that reminded her of the instructors at flight camp. "Huh?" "You were ashamed of me, so I've set up some challenges to see how you would fare without me. That means no wings for you." He snapped his fingers and her wings dissolved. "My wings! Come on I need those." "You need what?" He put a hand up to his ear. "My wings." "Until you earn my name you may call me Wings." Rainbow leered at him. "First test, a simple race." The clouds rearranged themselves into two lanes. Rainbow grinned at Wings before taking off in front of him. she had already proved that she was fast on her feet and took off confidently, she didn't know how long the track was but she was determined to at least keep up with her opponent. She looked over at Wings who was barely even flapping to keep up with her, on top of that he was reclining on his back and even looked a bit bored. "Hey you said no wings!" "I said no wings for you. You're boring anyway." He flipped over and gave a single mighty heave of his wings he propelled himself out of sight. The clouds flattened themselves out and Wings came in behind her. "What just happened?" "I won." "How?" "I flew past the finish line and came back." "Second test, a duel." He flapped his wings and seven swords embedded themselves in the clouds in front of her, they were all considerably bigger than hers had been. She picked up one that was about the same size as Applejack's. "Bring it!" She brandished the sword. No sooner had she said this than Wings shot up above her and started raining blades down on her, she lifted the blade so they would glance off but it was too clumsy and one managed to get through sticking into the cloud next to her hoof, there was a small prick in her chin, Rainbow looked down and saw Wings holding a small blade to her throat. "I win again." He dropped the sword and the rest of the blades disappeared. "Third test, cloud hopping." The clouds they were standing on broke into smaller pieces distancing themselves. Dash cocked her head, cloud hopping was a sport used by pegasus to keep their legs from becoming too weak, the use of wings was restricted, how would this prove a point. Wings flew up to take a birds eye view. Rainbow made the Jump to the first cloud easily and simply kept going until things started moving making it harder for her to make the jumps bus she still kept going until she jumped herself into a corner, her cloud moved away from the others and stood there, there was a single other cloud that came just barely with leaping distance. He's doing this on purpose the jerk. She steeled herself and jumped timing it with the movement of the cloud which happened to stall just out of her reach. And she fell screaming. "Help me!" She looked over and Wings was simply falling with her reclining like he would in a chair. "What are you doing? For Celestia's sake help me!" "Why should I help you?" "What do you wan't from me?" "Me?" He flipped over glaring into her eyes. "I want you to be scared, I want there to be no one else there to help you when you are, I want you to apologize for being ashamed of me and in that moment I want you to admit that you need me." Dash just stared at him. He was insane, there was no way she would compromise herself like that to this thing. But she was scared and he was the only one there to help her, then the element of loyalty kicked in and she realized that if she didn't cave into this thing she would be leaving her friends and her race to annihilation for the sake of her pride "I'm sorry!" A slightly malicious grin spread across his face. "I'm sorry I was embarrassed that you were my sword, I'm sorry I was judgemental, I don't know you well enough to do that, I'm sorry I wanted you to change just to please me, I-" This was the hardest part. "I need you Wings. Now help me!" He reached out and grabbed her tail stopping them dead in the air. The clouds reformed under them and he dropped her on her face. "You are aware that you have as much control over this place as I do right?" Rainbow looked up at him shocked. "You knew that and didn't tell me!" "My name's Burēdo Fushichō by the way." "You bastard." She tried to tackle him but the world faded to white. She opened her eyes to find Rarity and Applejack staring at her. She reached down and grabbed her sword. "I swear Burēdo If I ever get my hooves on you I will wring your smug little neck!" She would have sworn that she heard him chuckle "I take it yours was... unpleasant." "Unpleasent? He's a total vent. He let me think I was falling to my death just for a laugh." Rarity who had obviously been holding in a laugh giggled. "Oh shut it, I bet yours was even worse. Rarity seemed to shrink as she stared off into space for a moment. "Consarnit Rainbow Dash, Ah just got her ta stop cryin'." "Oops..." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "You weren't planning on dying before you learned my name, were you? Because that would be a real dick move." The bored looking reptile had the kind of voice one would expect from a lizard, raspy and hissing. It inspected its talons. Pinkie shook her head. "Good, I should probably help you. shouldn't I?" Pinkie nodded furiously. "Man I had all these cool games set up too." It sighed. "Fine I'll tell you my name but you need to say it like this." Time restarted and the soul reapers that had been pinning her down were blown back by a wave of power. "Waidosumairu, Hachūrui!" [Smile wide, Reptilian.] Pinkie's sword erupted into an alligator made of pink energy it was at least twice the height of the reapers it surrounded her protecting her from harm. The bald one was unfortunate enough to be on the ground in front of her when its front legs landed. "What the- grah!" A foreleg landed on his chest. From the belly of the beast Pinkie observed her new power. When she lifted a hoof, it lifted a claw, it moved with her. "Oh yeah!" She yelled. "Let's get this party started!" _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fluttershy was simply wandering through the forest, she found the sound of the birds and rustling leaves relaxing. She looked around completely forgetting why she was there in favor of the calming forest. "I never knew my mind was so overgrown." She commented looking at the forest floor which was covered in vines. There was a growling to her right and she snapped to attention. In the undergrowth a pair of almost catlike blue eyes stared at her so intently she felt that her mane might burst into flames. "Um, hello. Are you my sword?" The thing responded by growling at her and creeping out from the shadows. It looked identical to her, but its face was contorted onto a snarl the that made the fire burning behind its eyes seem tame by comparison. "Oh my." Fluttershy started backing away as the enraged version of herself crept closer looking every second like it was going to pounce on her. "N-now there's no need to be a-angry. W-whatever's bothering you I'm sure we can work it out t-together." The rage thing simply growled in response. Fluttershy was beginning to panic backpedaling as fast as she could, the rage thing just kept pace with her. She backed into a tree cutting off her route of escape, the glint in the other's eyes reached a menacing high and drool started leaking out from between its clenched teeth. It gathered itself and pounced, at that moment an armored figure burst from the underbrush delivering an uppercut to the other's jaw. Fluttershy squealed hiding her face behind her hooves not daring to look until the other yelped in pain and rustling told her that it had left. The armored figure seemed to be staring at her through its vizor, the armor was silver and bulky with feather engravings placed on the forearms and the forehead. "H-hello?" She tried to shrink against the tree. The armored thing saluted. "Are you my sword?" It nodded. "Could you tell me your name?" It shook its head. "Why not?" It pointed to its throat. "You can't speak?" It nodded. "Would you tell me if you could?" It shook its head. "Why not." It glanced briefly after the other. "Are you scared?" It shook its head again. "Do you not want to tell me?" It nodded. "Why not?" It made a series of gestures that seemed to mean [you cannot fight.] "I can if I need to." It made another series of gestures that plainly meant [I will not let you.] "Fine then, I'll find the other and see if it will help me." The time for her usual timidness was over, she had remembered why she was there, although she didn't understand how not knowing her swords name would effect her ability to fight with it. If she backed down now she would be letting everypony she knew down. Outside Korutsuchi and Nemu were searching the Twelfth squad complex for signs of the intruders. "Really Nemu, to think that those morons would call me away just to look for some unauthorized souls. It's simply criminal." He was so caught up in his rant that he almost didn't notice the partially decimated room they were walking by. "I have much more important things to be doing, like-" "Sir." Nemu tugged on his robe. "What?" He snapped at her. She pointed through the blasted out wall. Standing in the rafters was a small yellow and pink equine. "What?" He repeated although this time in genuine confusion. He jumped up next to it, studying it, paying no attention to the sword in its hooves as it stood still as a statue its only movement breathing. "Unnatural coloration, obviously warped skull, overlarge eyes, mark in the fur of the flank. Mark in the flank!" He giggled. "Nemu take this one back to the lab, I believe our little traitor Heartstrings is back." End of chapter ten
Vicron	779	11	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-01-11T07:07:08+00:00	2012-01-11T07:07:08+00:00	877	"It's bad enough that we have to be out searching for these morons, but do we really have to do it with another squad?" Marechiyo Ōmaeda was complaining, rather loudly, as per the usual when out on a mission and he doubted that the enemy was near. "Do the word's Stealth Force mean nothing to the old man." "Yamamoto said he felt a familiar reiatsu, a nasty one, so yes it is necessary." Captain Hitsugaya said. "I wasn't talking to-" He both saw and felt Hitsugaya's glare before he could finish his sentence, it cut him right off. He shrunk back behind his captain. "Stinking midget." He muttered "Shut up." Captain Suì-Fēng elbowed him in the stomach. She pointed out to the west. "There, two unfamiliar pressures and Yumichika Ayasegawa, he seems to be keeping pace. He's either so outmatched that even a member of the eleventh squad is waiting for reinforcements or he's a prisoner. The second is far more likely." Just like that they were off, jumping rooftops in order to cover distance more quickly. They traveled in silence, more to avoid letting Ōmaeda complain than anything else. Once they could tell they were directly on top of the energy signatures they looked down into the halls below, a rather strange sight greeted them. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Rarity was feigning as hard as she could that she did not know the two hominids behind her, formerly Applejack and Rainbow Dash, now they were a pair of morons. "For the love of Celestia! Girls would you stop that?" Rarity glared at her two companions, who both looked out from their vantage points to shush her. "Be quiet!" Rainbow hissed. "Sh!" Applejack whispered. "Yer gonna get us caught." "Don't you shush me, we're in a blank hallway with no cover whatsoever, we've been in places like this for the past ten minutes, if anything walks by being quiet isn't going to do jack squat and neither is; HUGGING THE BLASTED WALLS!" Rainbow and Applejack both had their backs as flat on the walls as they could manage and had been slinking along sideways, directly under the meager overhang of the roofs above them. "But what about the tenth squad captain, Lyra said he has wings if anything comes from above it won't be able to see us." "You're on opposite sides of the corridor, if he comes from above he'll see one of you." Applejack chuckled nervously, removing herself from her wall. "Ah guess that was kinda dumb." She rubbed the back of her head. "Rainbow can't fly here, we have no idea where anything is, and we have creatures of ridiculous power after us." Rarity sighed. "I'm considering just turning ourselves in." "No way!" Rainbow snapped. "We don't have time to be imprisoned, we have two weeks remember. And if my uncle's brush with court is anything to go by then we have no time to go through whatever system they have here." "Yer uncle?" Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Weathering without a licence." Someone started laughing on a roof to their right. "Masumoto!" A foal-like, if gruff, voice called after it. "Cover's blown girls!" Rarity yelled, drawing her sword. Applejack and Rainbow followed suit, standing back to back they braced themselves for whatever was coming their way. "The second they give you an opening run." "Not without you two." "Ah second that." Four hominids suddenly appeared, encircling them, a small one in a white robe with white hair, another smallish one also in a white robe with black hair and two massive braids, a massive one in a black robe with strangely pointed hair and a medium sized one in a black robe with orange hair. "Sweet Celestia!" Rainbow took a step back, pointing at the big one. "That thing's huge!" "Hey, do you know who you're talking to; I am Marechiyo Ōmaeda, and I'm plump not huge." The orange haired one snickered at Marechiyo, who growled back. "Anyway," The orange haired one said, dismissing Marechiyo's outrage. "Ayasegawa, get over here so we can deal with those two." She gestured for Rarity to come over. "I'm sorry." Rarity responded. "But I do believe you've mistaken me for another. I am miss Rarity and I'm not leaving my friends sides." "Oh you're just embarrassed because they turned you into a pretty little unicorn." "Flattery," Rarity flipped her mane. "While appealing, will get you nowhere miss." Applejack and Rainbow Dash were keeping their eyes on the two captains while Rarity did the talking. What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion for Rainbow, but for everyone else it wasn't even the blink on an eye. "AJ look out!" The braided one had drawn her sword and lunged, Rainbow was between them, blocking the captain's blade with the flat of her own. "What?" The captain looked openly surprised. "They don't call me Dash for nothin'." She grunted as the captain exerted a little more force before jumping back. "Attacking from behind while she's distracted, that's cheating." "Ah don' think she cares Rainbow." Applejack said. "Thank's fer savin' mah' hide there." "No problem. I think it's time to see what we can do. Swords on three." Applejack and Rarity nodded. "One-" "Two-" Applejack barked. "Three!" Rarity shouted. "Ribōndearu; Burēdo Fushichō!" [Be reborn; Bladed Phoenix] "Dageki; Kyōdasha!" [Hit hard; Slugger] "Kumo hanketsu; Kaizen!" [Cloud judgement; Refinement] Dust flew up in the air as the blades changed form. The dust swirled for a moment, blocking the hominid's vision, they jumped back, up onto the roofs on either side. "Captain." Marechiyo said. "I don't think that's Ayasegawa." "She's using a different zanpakto, no it's not." "But the reiatsu's the same? How ca-" "Finally!" Rainbow Dash shot out from the dust cloud, propelled by wings comprised by hundreds of gleaming blades. She held a wickedly pointed short sword, shaped like a feather, in each hand. "I am back, yes!" She shouted. "Burēdo, I'm sorry I ever doubted you." She flipped through the cloud. With a beat of the new wings she dispersed it, revealing Applejack and Rarity. Rarity held a jeweled crossbow, Applejack wore a pair of knee high boots made from gleaming orange metal. "Ah think Ah know how ta use these." She jumped up onto the roof with the braided one. "Ah don' think we were ever introduced. Name's Applejack!" She tried to dropkick the captain, who jumped back to avoid it. The kick impacted the roof, blowing it to bits. "What's yers?" She grinned. "Captain Suì-Fēng." Marechiyo yelled, before running after her. (Author's note: Suì-Fēng is pronounced Soy Fong) "Hey." Rainbow shouted from above. "Which one of you's Tōshirō, come on! Toshi, Toshi-" A bolt of red energy flew by her head, silencing her. "You will call me, Captain. Hitsugaya." The small white haired one growled. "Yeesh Toshi's grumpy, come on let's see those wings!" Rainbow did a backflip. "I've got em, how about you?" "Captain," The orange haired one said. "Calm down." Hitsugaya was shaking. "Masumoto..." He growled "Yes." "Go get the white one while I deal with this." "Yes sir!" Rarity watched Hitsugaya jump after Rainbow. "I guess it's just us." Masumoto said, jumping down next to her. "I suppose." Rarity looked over at her. "Just between us, I'd rather not fight. We just don't have time to go through the justice system." "Really?" "Yes. We didn't even mean to come here, as soon as we find our friends we'll be out of your hair." "Then how did you end up here. This isn't the kind of place you just fall into." "Darling, that's exactly what happened. We were trying to land somewhere else. Lyra was looking for someone named Urahara." "But he's down on earth; you're in the Soul Society, so aren't you kinda dead?" "Don't be ridiculous, of course we're not dead." "Since we're not fighting at the moment." Masumoto looked around. "I've got some sake hidden in my robe, wanna split it?" "That depends, what's sake?" "Alcohol." Rarity licked her lips. "I guess I could go for a drink." ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ "This- is too- much- fun!" Pinkie hollered, jumping up and down. "You've got to be kidding me." A bruised Yumichika Ayasegawa peeled Madarame Ikkaku off the floor. "She's a pastel pony, how in the hell is it even possible that we can't get around her sword?" "Giant crocodile foot." Ikkaku mumbled. "We've been trying for at least twelve minutes and this is what, the seventh time I've pulled you out of the floorboards?" Pinkie twirled, making the giant ethereal alligator spin with her; if the buildings in the area hadn't already been flattened then there wouldn't have been anything left. "Come on, who's next? I'm feeling fighty." "Hey Baldy, how're you doing?" Yachiru seemed to pop out of nowhere, as she frequently did. But this time Ikkaku was far too out of it to care. "Hey Yachiru, you know, you always were a funny little kitty. Ha, ha." "Wow, Baldy's not doing well. That does it." Yachiru huffed. "Featherface take Baldy to Squad Four, Unohana will have him fixed up in no time." "Featherface?" "I said move out!" She snapped playfully. "Yes lieutenant." Ayasegawa started dragging Ikkaku away from the area. Pinkie turned back around, looking at Yachiru with her usual cheery disposition. "Hey, Yachiru look! I've got a giant alligator." She hopped up on her back legs and did a twirl. "Isn't it cool?" "It also did quite a number on one of my subordinates." "He tried to hit me first." Pinkie pouted. "Hey, don't think I'm scolding you here, Ikkaku is one of the best. According to Ayasegawa you flattened him seven times. I'm impressed; I might not have to hold back all that much." "Hold back...." In the veritable storm of stray thoughts and emotions that is Pinkie's brain one image in particular began to stand out. It was of a gruff stallion, pulling out a lawn chair and setting it up while saying. "dis gon' be gud." "Uh oh." The air around Yachiru started to ripple with pink energy. "Seeing as you can make an animal, I guess I can use mine." The pink energy began to condense around her body; the first thing to manifest was a cat's head directly in front of her face, then the torso, arms, legs and tail. The cat's body lifted Yachiru off the ground, settling her in its belly. The cat in all was about twice Yachiru's height. "Let's party!" She lunged at Pinkie who instinctively reared up, batting at her with the alligator's claws. Yachiru's smaller animal easily avoided the claws, jumping up the alligator's ethereal arm, it climbed up to its throat and bit down. Pinkie howled in pain as a small gash appeared on her neck, seeping blood. She batted at Yachiru, tearing her off of the gator's neck. Pinkie staggered. "I... didn't... expect that." "Really, it's just like Dogface's. Whatever happens to the animal happens to you." Pinkie jumped forward, hoping to catch Yachiru off guard, her claws met with nothing but dirt as Yachiru dodged and clawed at the gator's leg, opening a gash on both it and Pinkie. "Stop that!" "Make me!" Pinkie started stomping around the area, trying to overwhelm Yachiru with sheer force. Yachiru actually started laughing, nimbly jumping around to avoid the clawed feet. "You're no good at this; I thought you took down Baldy." Yachiru lunged up onto the gator's back and started hacking at it with her claws. Pinkie screamed and started trying to buck her off but Yachiru dug in with her teeth, only coming off when Pinkie rolled over onto her. Pinkie rolled off and tried to run but Yachiru was faster, blocking her path. Pinkie whirled around, slapping Yachiru with her tail; the blow sent her flying into one of the few still standing structures. "Now that's more like it!" Yachiru came flying back out claws set to slash, this time Pinkie was ready for her, she batted her out of the air with a claw then bore down on her with the beast's tail, Yachiru dodged biting into the tail from the top, this caused a few hairs to fall out of Pinkie's tail. She lifted the gator's tail again and this time brought it around to the gator's face, Yachiru jumped off just before she closed its jaws around the tail causing more hairs to fall out of Pinkie's. Pinkie thrashed the tail after Yachiru who jumped up onto it, climbing up the tail to the gator's back. Pinkie started rolling immediately, not wanting Yachiru to get a hold again, Yachiru instead jumped just as Pinkie started rolling, landing on the gator's belly and clinging on tight. Pinkie almost instinctively knew this was bad and started rubbing her stomach on the ground, dislodging Yachiru. Pinkie, coming down off the adrenaline high started panicking again, she tried to run but every path she chose would be blocked by Yachiru who would attack, opening more and more gashes over her body, Pinkie was losing blood fast. In desperation she called out. "Somepony help me!" "Who's gonna hear you." Pinkie whirled around to face Yachiru. "Twilight's with Kenny." She pointed to the north, dust and debris filled the air, probably from Kenpachi attacking Twilight. "I don't know where the others are but if I was looking for them I would follow the fires." Yachiru pointed out to the south and sure enough Pinkie could see the orange haze of fire. Who was she kidding, she was in the middle of a war zone, caught between the fires in the south and Kenpachi in the north. Pinkie's gaze hardened and her hair fell flat, the storm of activity in her mind slowed as she focused. She took account of the situation, she was trapped, Yachiru was too fast to get away from, in order to get away and live she would have to go through her. A headlong attack won't work. She grit her teeth and dug in her hooves. But that might. She charged, head down. Yachiru gathered herself and pounced up to grab onto the gator's head. Pinkie grinned and spun in place, bringing the gator's tail around and smashing Yachiru into the ground, dust flew up from the impact and the ground shook. Pinkie turned back around, wanting to be sure that Yachiru wasn't getting up. She walked up to the edge of the hole that her tail had made in the ground. The second she stepped up to it she knew that was a mistake. "Hey Pinkie!" Pinkie flinched, losing that last second that she might have gotten away in. "Good job." Yachiru sprang up into the belly of the gator, tearing into it towards Pinkie. Pinkie's body showed the effects of the hit, her stomach opened up, blood flew from the wound. She coughed up more, Pinkie wasn't sure she had enough of the stuff to keep this up. Yachiru reached Pinkie inside the alligator. "Aww you look tired." Yachiru was grinning ear to ear, her eyes lit with a battle craze. "Let's put you to sleep." She raised her unsheathed blade and brought it down into Pinkie's collarbone sticking it through her shoulder and into her lung. "Please." Pinkie choked out as the world went black. "Help..." "Fine, but only because you said please." ________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Facinating." Kurotsuchi poured over the data. "Nemu, according to this it and I have the same energy signature. For all intensive purposes this little pony is me." "Should I re-calibrate the machinery sir?" "No it's working perfectly. But one of the nodes above its ear is a little too far to the right, fix that." Nemu reached up and moved the electrode to be more squared between the other two on that side of Fluttershy's head. "She's in Jinzen, that explains why we can't remove the sword or move her limbs for that matter." He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. "That's odd." Nemu looked over his shoulder. "How many times have I told you not to do that?" He snapped at her. "But what's odd?" "The zanpakto is just trailing her and there's a third entity in there." "Well the third entity is obviously just some challenge her sword came up with. It's not that strange." "But haven't we seen these readings before?" "Have we..." Kurotsuchi opened some old files. "Yes this signature does look familiar." He punched in the numbers. "I'll run the numbers." Bount; negative, Arrancar; negative, Sword Fiend; negative. "Hmmm." The computer blinked. "Uh oh. Nemu, gather the equipment." Nemu took the electrodes off Fluttershy. "Hurry up before I shut the room on you." "Yes sir." She picks up her pace a little. "If you don't mind me asking, what's wrong?" "She's got a hollow." Meanwhile inside Fluttershy's head. "This was a bad idea, a very bad idea." Fluttershy muttered to herself. Her voice, normally so quiet that no one around could hear her most of the time, was amplified in this place to the point where Fluttershy was making herself jump almost every time she opened her mouth. "Come on Fluttershy, get it together, where's that confidence from when you told off the sword?" A twig snapped somewhere to her right and she jumped. "Oh right." She shrunk back down. "Why is it so important that I learn its name anyway?" Lyra's words back in the throne room came back to her. "Darn it." She immediately covered her mouth in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to say that." She thought for a second. "Yes I did. This entire situation is ridiculous, I'm in some alternate dimension and my sword, who was supposed to help me, pulls me into this place and then refuses to have anything to do with me. It's not okay!" She sat back on her rump "Oh poor Fluttershy." She knew this voice; she remembered it from when Discord had messed with her mind." "I can't deal with this right now." "Too bad." The Rage thing crawled out from the undergrowth. "What's wrong, you didn't think you'd have to deal with me in this place did you?" It was different this time, last time it had simply been a ball of animalistic rage, now it stood taller, there was a glint behind its eyes and it bore a malefic smile as it looked down at her. "Hello Flutts, I missed you down here, since you buried me." Fluttershy started scrambling backwards but the Rage thing was fast, it had her pinned down before she could make it much of anywhere. "Get off me!" Fluttershy screamed, kicking at it. "Oh shushushushush, I don't wanna hurt you, I wanna help you. I've been evolving the longer you stay in this place, pretty soon I'll be strong enough to take control permanently. And you can stay down here; never have to worry about what's going on out there, you'll be safe. Just let me make the choices; don't deny you liked it when you were me." It flicked its tail, slapping her flank. "Both times." Fluttershy gasped in surprise. "Both times?" "Oh that's right, you don't remember. Here, let me 'help' you." It slammed its forehead into hers, causing her time as a shadow to come back to her in a flurry of images and sensations. Fluttershy stammered, struggling to make sense of the scenes running through her head. "I-I did all that." It nodded, smiling even wider. "We did, it felt good didn't it?" "N-no!" Fluttershy yelled shoving the Rage thing off of her. "I'm not like that, that's not good. What would Angel think." "Why you little!" It growled at her. The place rumbled suddenly, it chuckled. "You feel that? This place is mine now! I tried to be nice, tried to make it a mutual deal, but let's face it, that's just not me." The world started crumbling into blackness below. "Run, run as fast as you can, the abyss can't catch you little gingerbread mare." It cackled as Fluttershy ran. The armored figure came out of the bushes next to her, it scooped up Fluttershy and ran. "Hello." Fluttershy said meekly. "Do you think I could have your name now, I have no Idea who to thank." "No! Don't you dare!" The Rage thing yelled after them. The armored one made no movement suggesting that it had any intention of telling anyone its name. The Rage thing howled in pain and the blackness stopped advancing, the world started piecing itself back together. Outside. "Nemu did you feel that?" "Yes sir and so did she." "What's she doing now?" "Just standing there." Fluttershy's body was frozen in place, the mask that had formed when the hollow had taken over was crumbling, Fluttershy's jawline became visible before it stopped. "What in the afterlife? Nemu take a note. Hollow transformations can be delayed by large enough power surges. Yes that should be useful." Back inside. "What the candy coated hell was that?" The Rage thing yelled at the top of its lungs. "I can't move anymore, what's going on?" The armored one lifted its visor for a second, as if to confirm it wasn't seeing things. Fluttershy tried to get a look at its face and the visor slammed back down "You want to protect me right?" It nodded. "Put me down." It hesitated for a second but put her down onto the forest floor. Fluttershy started walking up to the Rage thing. The armored figure reacted, reaching out to stop her. "Ah, ah, ah." Fluttershy chastised it like a misbehaving puppy. "You aren't allowed to help until I know your name." She took another step towards the Rage thing; the armored being's reaction was almost comical. It fell to its knees and clenched its hands together, begging her to stop. She almost did but this was no time to relent. "Your name?" It held up its hands in frustration, Fluttershy took another step and it relented, slumping a bit before removing its visor and tossing it to her. "No, no, no, don't you dare." Fluttershy picked up the visor, flipping it over and putting it on; there etched into the metal was the name. "Gādo." Fluttershy breathed. "Noooooooooo!" The world faded to white. Fluttershy opened her eyes behind another mask; she quickly pried it off before it turned to dust in her hooves. The door next to her decompressed with a hiss before opening. "Congratulations, you've provided us with valuable research data. But I still need a specimen." Kurotsuchi walked in unsheathing his sword. "Just so you know, I have no qualms dissecting a creature with my reiatsu." "Sir." A small voice said from behind him. "What? Can't you see I'm busy?" "Aizen, remember." "Oh fine." He looked back towards Fluttershy. "Where'd she go? Dammit Nemu, you let the subject escape!" Fluttershy sighed in relief as she flew away, keeping low to the ground. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Sure Yachiru, things are about to get ugly here anyway." Kenpachi said. "Now you're just trying to make me jealous." Yachiru puffed out her cheeks in a pout. "You should probably go before Ikkaku or someone gets her." Yachiru was gone in the blink of an eye. "Now that that's out of the way. Hey Lyra, I knew you were familiar, Heartstrings welcome back." "Heartstrings?" Twilight looked up at Lyra. "I only ever gave out my last name while I was here." "It's a shame." Kenpachi sighed. "Kurosuchi's missed you, said you were one of the jewels of the twelfth squad. But enough about the old days, who wants to take me on first?" "Twilight." Lyra hissed. "We won't be able to take him one at a time; if we go together we might have a chance." Twilight was frozen in fear, she remembered this pressure, she remembered that gleam in his eye, she remembered what they meant, Twilight's brain blanked and she gave into what every cell in her body was screaming at her, she scrambled to her feet and ran. "Twilight wait!" Lyra yelled after her, she looked back at Kenpachi. "I guess I'm first." "Good." He opened his shirt. "Free shot." "I have no chance do I?" "I'm giving you the free shot." "I'll take that as a no." She drew her blade and squared it off. "But I've gotten better since I was last here. Bankai, kyōshin; Kinzoku Ōkesutora!" [Final Release, Resonate; Metal Orchestra.] Lyra's sword glowed, morphing into the ax that was her bankai. "I see you don't need the free shot." "I would still like the free shot." She charged, swinging the ax at his neck, he brought his own sword up to block; the ringing sound of steel on steel filled the air. "Sorry bankai's don't get freebies." He lunged meaning to run Lyra through, she twisted around bringing the ax around for another attempt. Kenpachi grabbed the blade, raising his own to hack down, Lyra pulled a string and a concussive blast of sound put some distance between them. "I forgot you deal with sound, that's why you would've been laughed out of my squad." "Shut up before I make you shit yourself." "You can do that?" "Try me." Kenpachi jumped forward, swinging down with his sword, Lyra blocked, Kenpachi started pushing down on her. Lyra grinned taking a hand off the ax. "Hado number four Byakurai!" [way of destruction #4 Pale Lightning] electricity flowed from her hand striking Kenpachi in the chest and sending him flying into the walls of the hallway, bringing it down on him. He pushed his way out from the rubble. "Kido, that's dirty pool." "Well I was in squad twelve." She flourished the ax. "What else can you expect from one of Kurosuchi's brats?" She charged this time, she slammed the ax into the ground vaulting herself into the air over Kenpachi, she braced the ax with her feet and pointed her other hand behind herself. "Hado number fifty eight Tenran!" [way of destruction #58 swelling storm] A gust of wind propelled her down onto Kenpachi, she drove the ax down on him, the force was more than tripled. Dust and rubble flew into the air, Lyra jumped back out. "I forgot how fun this is." "Glad to see you're into it." Kenpachi's power surged, pushing away the dust surrounding him, there was a gash across his chest from where he had just barely managed to avoid being speared. "Now I can cut loose." He pulled off the eye patch, the energy became a physical force pushing down on any and everything in the area, the walls around him exploded out. Lyra grabbed at something invisible just above her head, pulling it down to reveal the skull-like hollow mask. "Bring it!" They squared off with each other, trying to read the other's next move. Kenpachi was the first to move, charging outright, Lyra sidestepped clashing blades to prevent a sidesweep. As he passed she brought her ax up to chop at his back, he whirled around blocking the strike. "Hado numb-" Kenpachi punched her in the jaw before she could finish, sending her flying into another wall. "That's for the Byakurai!" "Fair enough, if I can use Kido then you can punch me." Lyra peeled herself off the wall, spitting out a tooth into the mask. She charged, the air became filled with the sounds of metal as they faced off, both trying for the upper hand, one less so than the other. "You're still holding back." Lyra was covered in nicks and gashes much like her opponent. "You wan't me to really let it go?" "I don't know, do I live longer or go for the twenty second thrill ride?" "No choice anymore." It was like someone had broken down a dam, the power flung Lyra away, she had to dig into the ground with her ax to avoid being blown away completely. "Shoulda kept my mouth shut." The wind cut out and Kenpachi started walking towards her, dragging his sword's tip along the ground. Lyra was finding it hard to breath under the pressure of his power. "Really... should have... kept... my mouth shut." She shakily raised the axe, fighting against every cell in her body. "And that," The power seemed to cut out, letting Lyra breath again and causing her to flip over from the force she had been using just to lift her arms. "Is why I hold back." "I see." Lyra coughed. "So back to the grind." She lifted her ax again. "Actually, I'm getting bored." Lyra grinned. "Let's see what we can do about that." She struck a cord, blasting Kenpachi with sound and forcing him back a few steps. Lyra tried to take advantage of the momentary distraction to charge him but Kenpachi swung at her, forcing her to jump over him, but not before he managed to cut open the front of her robe, just barely not cutting open her chest. Lyra and Kenpachi both were too caught up in the fight to notice. Lyra struck three cords causing three waves of energy to fly at Kenpachi who blocked each one deflecting them with his sword, Lyra was directly behind them not giving him any time to recover, she brought down the ax, opening a gash down from his right shoulder to his left leg, she brought the ax back up and was blocked by Kenpachi who drove his forehead into Lyra's. She staggered from the force of the blow, he brought his sword up for an undercut but Lyra blocked, pointing her palm at him. "Hado number thirty three, Sōkatsui!" [Blue Firefall] The blaze of energy hit Kenpachi in the face, sending him reeling back. Lyra didn't give him time to recover, she leaped at him bringing her ax down on him, she managed one hit to his chest before he recovered. "You know those aren't as good without the incantations right?" "Are you going to give me time to say them?" "No." "Well there you go." She twisted her body, swinging the ax at him. "Ōkesutora, Suchīrukōdo!" [steel cord] The strings of the guitar came loose becoming a series of razor tipped whips that lashed out at Kenpachi once he blocked the ax, opening cuts that oozed blood, the strings fastened themselves back onto the guitar. Kenpachi flinched as he noticed a familiar reiatsu behind him. "Parusu Arukana!" [Pulse Arcana] A chained blade of purple energy flew past Kenpachi's head, burying itself in the dirt. "Aw buck." Twilight ended up getting pulled down the chain, landing on her face next to Lyra. "Hey Bookworm, welcome back." "And where have you been?" Lyra snapped, not taking her eyes off Kenpachi for a second. Twilight pulled her head out of the dirt. "Sorry, I panicked. I'm here now." She stared up at Lyra for a moment. "Uh Lyra, your shirt." "What?" She looked down. "Oh." She tore a strip of the ripped cloth off and wrapped it around her chest. "Thanks. Kenpachi you perv, why didn't you tell me sooner?" "Hey; I didn't notice." Twilight got to her feet, she was still terrified, she wrenched the pulsating blade out of the ground and spun it on its chain. The blade looked as if someone had put a lightning bolt shaped Tesla Coil on a handle, on the end of the handle there was a chain that seemed to change length depending on how far the user wanted it to go. Twilight let go of the chain and the sword flew at Kenpachi who blocked with his own blade, the chains pooled on the ground in front of him. "Lyra!" Twilight pulled on the chain; the chains started shooting back at her. Lyra took the chance to jump behind Kenpachi hacking down on his back with the ax. "More dirty dueling?" "Back where I come from teamwork is everything, sorry." Lyra teased Kenpachi. The glint in her eyes was starting to worry Twilight. "Fine." Kenpachi started moving decidedly faster, Lyra was a flurry of movement just trying to hold him off. "Parusu!" Twilight yelled the chain extended again, throwing the blade into the storm that was Lyra and Kenpachi, the sword buried itself in Kenpachi's thigh, Twilight yanked on the chain but instead of the blade coming out of his leg it dragged him over to her. Twilight blanched, her back to a building, she had had nowhere to go. Kenpachi swung at her, Twilight ducked and the sword went through the building instead of her neck, Kenpachi looked up and yanked her blade out of his leg, a spray of blood followed it and he jumped back. "Huh?" Twilight looked back, Kenpachi had severed a support beam, the building began to lean and creak before barreling down at her. "Uh oh." "Twilight run!" She turned back around but at the sight of Kenpachi about to bring his sword down on Lyra found herself unable to move her feet, instead she picked up her sword and flung it between Lyra and Kenpachi, knocking the blade off course. The building impacted, crushing Twilight. "Pathetic." _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Vicron	779	12	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-04-04T05:54:13+00:00	2012-04-04T05:54:13+00:00	1,038	Chapter 12: The End of the Beginning. Rainbow Dash charged down to meet Hitsugaya in the air, slamming her two swords down on his one. He continued to push, shoving her back through the air. “Whoa! How’d you manage that?” Rainbow grinned down at him. She flipped backwards, bringing a foot up to meet with his jaw; it sent Hitsugaya into a spin while Rainbow gained the high ground. “Hey Tōshi, catch me if you can!” She sped off, goading Hitsugaya on further. He seethed at Rainbow a moment before running to follow her. “You will call me Captain Hitsugaya.” He jumped up at her, bringing his sword up to hack, Rainbow blocked easily and pushed herself faster. “Too slow Captain Tōshi! And you will call me Rainbow Dash the amazing, lighten up kid.” She pushed herself even faster. “I don’t plan to call you anything else until I see those wings.” He lunged again and Rainbow flew circles around him, taunting him with every flap of her wings until. “Enough!” Hitsugaya yelled, stressing his power enough to push Rainbow away. “You want to see my bankai, fine. Bankai, sōten ni zase; Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!” [Final release, reign over the frosted heavens; Grand Crimson Lotus Ice Ring] The air around him froze over, solidifying and chilling the area around it. Rainbow shivered from the sudden chill. “Oh this will be fun.” A voice said in her mind. “Burēdo, is that you?” “You bet your ass.” “I don’t even know a donkey.” “I-I-I… Nevermind. Whatever, I just want you to go supersonic real quick.” “What? Piece of cake.” At that moment the ice around Hitsugaya shattered, revealing Hitsugaya with what looked to be a dragon made of ice coiled onto his body, its head was over his right arm, his other limbs had been replaced by the dragon’s, he had a tail and the wings stretched out impressively. There were what appeared to be four flowers over his head in a circle. “That’s cool.” She pointed dumbly for a second. “Heh, heh, cool.” “Now, what is my name?” He growled at her. “Huh?” “I’m not moving until you get my name right.” “Oh,” Rainbow took off gathering speed, “catch me if you can Hitsugaya.” “That’s Captain!” He flew after her. Rainbow was loving the sound her new wings made as they tore through the air, she was used to the sort of ruffling noise feathers made but this was something else entirely, instead of an unsteady sound this was a constant wizzing, the kind of noise that you get when you swing a particularly sturdy stick really hard, the sound was also making the metal of the blades vibrate and give off an almost melodious ringing. She reveled in the sound as she approached the sound barrier, leaving Hitsugaya further and further behind her. The familiar mach cone started forming around her. “Wait for it.” It pulled in tighter and tighter across her body. “Wait for it.” The wall that was the sound barrier presented itself to her. “Now!” “Ribōndearu!” The familiar shock wave of a sonic rainboom flowed over her body, but this time something was off, there was more than simple pressure there was heat and a the roar of flame. She turned back to look. “Wow… Burēdo, you get more awesome every second.” Instead of her normal trail of rainbows the air roared with fire, blocking Hitsugaya’s path and setting the sky ablaze. She looked down at her swords, flames trailed off the blades and a fierce glow emanated from the blades that formed her wings. “Fire against ice huh. Oh this will be so cool.” She dove through the flame barrier, swords at the ready. Hitsugaya charged back, sheer cold trailing off his blade. They collided in the air, Rainbow’s swords ringing against the steel of Hitsugaya’s blade, she flipped over him to keep her momentum, he chased after her, she blocked his sword with the metal of her wings, spinning to keep her speed, she swooped down low bringing the battle into the hallways where her practiced maneuverability would have the upper hand. “Come and get me ice boy.” She muttered. Instead of following her chunks of ice started to rain down. “Alright maybe not.” She swooped back up, maneuvering her way around the blasts of cold bearing down on her. “You cheater!” She swung her sword at an especially large chunk of ice, it burst into steam and she shot through, bringing the fires of her blades against the ice of his. “We never established rules.” He pushed down on her and she pushed back, heat and cold pushing against each other in the air, Rainbow drew back her second blade and pushed his sword under hers, allowing her to surge forwards blades set to stab when suddenly he disappeared. “What?” Rainbow hovered in the air, looking around for her opponent. “Now that’s just not fair.” “How so?” Hitsugaya’s voice rang out behind her; she whirled around to face him. “You did the same thing to protect your friend.” He brought his sword down to strike. Rainbow deftly countered knocking his blade to the side and swinging at him, he disappeared again. “Yeah right, I may be quick but I’m not that fast.” She grinned, looking around for him. “You countered Suì-Fēng when she was using her Shunpo, I’d say you’re faster.” [Shunpo = Flash Step] Rainbow lashed out at the spot she heard his voice coming from, managing to open a small cut on his arm before he disappeared again. “Enough with the vanishing act, you’re worse than Twilight.” “I’m not as fast as Suì-Fēng, you should be able to follow me rather easily.” To her right. “Or maybe that was just dumb luck.” To her left? “Well?” Behind her? “Would you, STOP THAT?!” The fire on her wings exploded out, bathing the area around her in flames, Hitsugaya appeared to her right, patting out a flame that had caught on his sleeve. The only problem was that she was too far away to make it by the time he was finished, but she was gonna try. She was suddenly next to him; she swung at him, opening a gash on his shoulder before she realized what had just happened. Hitsugaya tried to get away again but this time she could see him, she swooped in front of him, blocking his escape. “Well, well, looks like I am that fast.” He pushed away from her. “Hyōryū Senbi!” [Ice Dragon Swirling Tail] He swung his sword causing a wall of ice to shoot out at Rainbow. “Hey Rainbow, swing the swords and repeat after me.” “Fenikkusutoreiru!” [Phoenix Trail] A wave of fire erupted from the swords in her hands, cancelling out the ice from Hitsugaya’s blade, the ice erupted into steam and Rainbow dove through brandishing her swords. Hitsugaya blocked, pushing her away, they dove at eachother, sparks flying as their blades met. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “I have a little sister and a cat to go home to and he traumatizes me just to prove a point. Then he turns out to be completely useless.” Rarity waved her crossbow in the air. “I don’t even know what this thing is!” Turns out Rarity, is a lightweight. “I think you’ve had enough.” Masumoto, despite the fact that she was supposed to be capturing the unicorn, was worried. “I’ve only had one bowl.” Rarity pouted. “Yes, but this is the good stuff, I snuck it from squad eight’s barracks.” “The guy with the floral print robe?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “That’s the one.” Masumoto puffed out her chest, obviously proud that she had managed to sneak alcohol from the biggest addict in the place. “Tell me, I’ve seen many a floral print in my life and it almost always stinks. So does he… make it work?” She winced slightly, praying that she wouldn’t have to face something that was as unappealing to look at as it was to fight. “I’d say he does but his lieutenant doesn’t think so. And it’s a break from the dress code so I’m not sure how he gets away with it on duty.” Masumoto put a finger up to her chin in contemplation. “Well that’s a relief, if there’s one thing I will not stand for it’s a lousy dresser. Do you smell something burning?” Rarity sniffed the air. “Bacroof!” The sky seemed to explode into flame as Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier. “Sweet Celestia, what was that?!” Rarity covered her face and curled up. “Either Hitsugaya is kicking your friend’s ass or the other way around.” Masumoto whistled, “Guess you could say she’s ‘on fire’.” “Why would there be a donkey up there?” Rarity cocked her head. “No, ass is another word for a person’s butt here.” “That seems kind of racist.” Rarity huffed, above such vulgarity. Masumoto fell over laughing. “Laugh all you like, but racism is below the belt at all times and as such should not be included in civilized conversation.” “I thought this was drunken conversation.” Masumoto stopped laughing. Applejack came crashing through a wall to their left, planting herself face first in the ground. Both Masumoto and Rarity doubled over laughing. Applejack pulled herself out of the dirt as Marechiyo walked through the hole she had left, holding a large flail and grinning down at her. Applejack looked over at Rarity. “Hey Rar’, Ah’m glad to see you’ve made a new friend but Ah could use some help over here.” “Oh alright.” She sighed, lifting the crossbow. What she did next was both an ingenious stroke of luck and a perfect example of why one should never operate projectile weapons while drunk. Rarity picked up the crossbow sideways, the firing end was trained on Applejack while Rarity thought she was aiming for Marechiyo. “Uhh Rar’ Ah think Ah’m good now.” “Shh, I’m concentrating.” Rarity decided she had the shot lined up and squeezed the trigger with her magic. Applejack turned around to run and Suì-Fēng took it as an opportunity to take her out from behind, having been behind Marechiyo and having missed most of the conversation. A bolt of blue energy flew from the end of the bow, striking Suì-Fēng in the back, directly into her heart. She gasped and clutched at her chest for a second before crumpling to the ground. Rarity and Masumoto again doubled over laughing. “Did you see that?” Rarity howled. “Just… kerplunk.” Masumoto guffawed. “Captain!” Marechiyo yelled, sprinting over to her. He picked her up. She muttered something. “She’s alive?” Suì-Fēng started grinning stupidly in her sleep. “Mmmmm, Yurochi-Sama.” She pursed out her lips and Marchiyo dropped her like a hot iron. At this point even Applejack, who felt like she had just been flattened, was laughing. You-you…” Marechiyo was sputtering with rage. “What did you do to my captain?” He trudged towards Rarity. “I have no idea.” Rarity started laughing even harder. “You bitch, I’ll kill you!” He lifted the flail, meaning for it to come down on the hysterical mare. “Ah don’ think so!” Applejack put a kick into his back, sending him flying into the air. She jumped up after him, spinning and performing a dropkick into his stomach, as the fires from Dash’s battle danced around her. “An’ that’s fer knockin’ me through a wall.” Marechiyo landed in front of Rarity forcing her and Masumoto to shield their eyes from the debris. Applejack came down on him with her knees, forcing him down even further into the dirt. “Woo!” Rarity threw her hooves in the air and cheered. With both Suì-Fēng and Marechiyo down for the count, all that remained was for Rainbow to wrap up her fight with Hitsugaya. The air was blooming in red, orange, yellow and white as the two airborne combatants threw everything they had at each other. Rarity and Masumoto were regarding the fight as a sort of fireworks show. They saw the pressure wave before they felt it, the fire lit sky suddenly became pale blue as the flames dissipated in wake of the shock wave. Once it hit there wasn’t a thing that wasn’t nailed down that stayed where it was, the shingles of the buildings on either side of them were blown to dust, it knocked the alcohol clean out of both Rarity and Masumoto and sent them flying, Suì-Fēng and Marechiyo were jolted awake and flung into the building to their right, Applejack only managed to stay put because of a useful feature in her boots, two plates of metal descended from the sides of her boots and bolted themselves into the ground preventing her from being blown away. Rainbow Dash and Hitsugaya both were knocked from the sky and sent careening back down to the ground, it seemed like a miracle that the buildings were still standing. “What the buck?” Rainbow yelled just before she smashed into the dirt. Each of them wrenched themselves out of the wall or patch of earth that they found themselves smashed into, just as quickly as the power had come, it was gone, the overwhelming pressure that had sent half of them flying was suddenly gone, it was as if whatever had generated the energy had simply crashed through the area and departed this realm entirely. “Captain Hitsugaya, was that?” Masumoto helped her captain pull himself out of the remains of his bankai. “I believe so Masumoto. The intruders are of no concern any longer, Aizen is loose.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Yachiru stood with her blade in Pinkie’s shoulder, watching the lights behind her eyes go out. She chuckled to herself, yanking the sword out of her, sheathing it, and turning to walk out of the fading pink gator. She hopped out of the hole she had made and looked back at the corpse that had once been the only being in existence who could match her exuberance and it started laughing. Yachiru rubbed her eyes, sure she was seeing things, but it kept laughing as the gator once more solidified, the hole she had opened in its stomach disappearing. “Oh Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie yelled in a singsong voice. “You had no idea how to use this thing properly, did you?” Pinkie rolled over onto her stomach, facing away from Yachiru and pushed herself up to her hooves. She turned around and Yachiru’s eyes went wide, unsure what to make of what she was seeing. Pinkie’s face couldn’t be seen, in its place there was a white mask shaped like a foxes head with a purple stripe down the middle, the eye holes were two different sizes and the mouth was a smile that curled up behind its eyes giving the mask a crazed look to it, Pinkie’s eyes had turned from blue to red and the whites of her eyes had turned black. “Then sit back Pinkie and let aunty Pinkamena show you how it’s done. Hachūrui, daun kamu!” [Reptilian, bite down] The alligator shimmered for a second before shrinking down onto Pinkamena’s body, grafting ethereal claws onto its hooves and turning the gator’s head into a helmet with ghostly jaws ready to rend through their target. Pinkamena started laughing, the singsong tilt never leaving its voice even once it was practically screaming. “Now Yachi,” Its voice lost the singsong tilt to it and gained that strange quality that vizard’s voices have, like the person is talking through a fan. Yachiru blinked and the voice was right next to her. “That hurt a lot you know.” Yachiru turned and Pinkamena raked its claws across Yachiru’s face, blood oozed from the wounds and into her eyes. Yachiru jumped back, reaching into her robe for a bottle of salve that she had stolen from Ikkaku, she poured its contents into her hand and rubbed it onto her forehead, stopping the blood flowing into her eyes. She wiped the already drying blood off of her face. “I’ll admit, you’re faster than I expected.” She spat out some blood that had found its way into her mouth. “This’ll be fun.” She jumped at Pinkamena who dodged and clawed at her, Yachiru brought her sheathed sword up to block the claws, they cut through the sheath and bit into the blade before stopping. “You have no idea.” Pinkamena chuckled. “I really should thank you.” Pinkamena yanked its claws out of the sword, jumping back. “If it weren’t for you, I would have never proved my point.” Yachiru unsheathed her sword, inspecting the four dents in the metal. “And that would be?” Yachiru jumped forward, bringing her blade down towards Pinkamena. It blocked the sword with a sweep of its hoof, pinning the blade with its claws. “That she’s alone, that I’m the only one she can really count on.” Pinkamena hacked down with the other hoof opening a series of shallow gashes along Yachiru’s side. Yachiru pulled her sword out from underneath Pinkamena’s hoof and bringing it up, meaning to cut into Pinkamena’s belly but it moved and opened another set of cuts in Yachiru’s back, causing her to stumble forwards. “And now, I’m going to kill you the way you killed her.” Pinkamena lunged; opening a set of cuts on Yachiru’s left leg. “I’ll wear you down,” Across her chest, “make you weak,” Down her arms, “unable to move,” Across the back of her knees, forcing her down onto the ground. “I’m going to make you call for help and no one will be there to save you, just me.” It stood over Yachiru glaring down at her through those crooked eyeholes. “And you’ll beg for death.” Yachiru started giggling. “Why are you doing that?” It growled. “I haven’t had an opponent this strong before.” She forced herself to her feet, stumbling from the pain. “I hope you stay this good.” Pinkamena growled at her and lunged, Yachiru dodged and struck from behind, just managing to clip its tail. Pinkamena whirled around opening all three sets of jaws and biting into Yachiru’s wrist, causing her to yelp in pain and drop her sword. Pinkamena kicked the blade away and let go of her wrist, allowing Yachiru to jump away, cradling her crushed arm. “Now, where were we?” Pinkamena cackled, walking over to her. “Oh yes, I was making you crawl.” It brandished its talons in Yachiru’s face, drawing one up the middle of her face and slicing it down the middle. Yachiru twitched, signaling that beneath her expressionless face she was screaming. Pinkamena leaned in close, drawing the talon down Yachiru’s face, neck and right shoulder. “Oh it’s alright pet; you can scream all you want.” It whispered. Instead of screaming, Yachiru punched its bottom jaw, sending it flying away. “You’re no fun anymore!” Yachiru yelled, picking herself up again. “You’re just being mean.” She grabbed her sword and leaped after Pinkamena, who had pulled itself out of the dirt. “Fine, let’s do this the hard way.” It spat. The battle was frantic. Yachiru hacked down, blocked by Pinkamena’s claws; Pinkamena attacks with its other foreleg, blocked by her sword hilt, Yachiru lashed out with a kick, squaring Pinkamena in the jaw, it snarled and tried to bite the offending limb but Yachiru yanked her leg away and brought her crippled right arm around and into its stomach, wincing as she made contact. Pinkamena coughed as it tried to regain control of its diaphragm, still lashing out with any and every part of its body. Yachiru finally managed to score a cut along its shoulder, hardly a consolation seeing as she was covered in gashes and bruises. “AAARRGAH! You little, I’ll tear you apart!” The wound healed itself, abandoning the pink fur for skeletally white armor. It jumped at her, intending to tear into her with all four sets of talons, Yachiru dodged and cut across its back. Pinkamena howled and whirled around, blindly thrashing at anything it could get its claws on. Alright, She thought, the trick is to keep it angry. She blocked another headlong attack, bracing herself on her left leg as Pinkamena drove her back trough the dirt, Yachiru took her right arm and punched Pinkamena in the eye, driving it away. It roared in pain, clutching its face and rolling in the dirt. Yachiru regarded the creature before her with contempt. “You’re pathetic.” Yachiru glared at Pinkamena, who stopped whimpering, jerking as if it had forgotten that there was still an opponent to deal with. But only for a second, it curled back up and started sniffling again. Yachiru walked up, meaning to stab the creature. “Gotcha!” Pinkamena sprang up, digging all three sets of teeth into Yachiru’s shoulder, she screamed, Pinkamena twisted and yanked until Yachiru’s entire left shoulder gave way, ripping off of her body in a spray of blood and blinding pain. Pinkamena swallowed the chunk of meat and bone that she had wrestled off, and started laughing, a wheezing sound that came strait from the pits of insanity, it almost sounded more like a cough than a laugh. Yachiru staggered back, trying to hold the left side of her body together with her already crippled right, her sword clattered to the ground, tears streamed down her face as she fought not to openly sob, blood ran through her fingers and down her robe to the dirt, she fell to her knees in pain. All the while that mocking, wheezing laugh never stopped. “Who’s pathetic now, you bitch?” The mouth of the mask hung open, dripping blood, Pinkamena’s tongue lolled out between the dripping teeth as she spoke between chuckles. “Buck the slow death; I’m just going to eat you, right here right now!” The edges of Yachiru’s vision started to go dark as the hollow sauntered over, getting closer every time her vision went black. She struggled to even try to get up. “Still fighting are we?” It turned around. “Here, let me help you!” It lashed out with its back legs, crashing into her chest, smashing ribs and organs alike. She was thrown several meters back to land crumpled into a broken, twisted heap. Her vision went dark again; the last thing she saw before she was swallowed by blackness was Pinkamena, laughing at her. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Hey, Yachiru.” She knew that voice. “Get up.” “Ken…ny?” She forced her eyes to focus. Kenpachi was standing above her, as impressive as ever, surrounded by white. “What ‘er you doing on the ground? Get up.” He reached out to her. “But… it hurts… Kenny.” She tried to reach back but she couldn’t move. “You’ve seen me fight, you saw me fight Ichigo, I was in worse condition than you are.” His fingers were directly in front of her face. His hands looked sturdy, strong, not like hers. “But… I’m not you.” She tried again to reach back out to him again but she still couldn’t move, it hurt too much to even try. “No you’re not me, but you’re my lieutenant.” This made Yachiru stir. “Even though I want to keep a close eye on you, I wouldn’t put you in such a dangerous position if I didn’t think you could handle it, that would make me a pretty shitty parent wouldn’t it?” She managed to turn her head to look up his arm. Did he just call himself my dad? “I may not be the one who was there when you were born but I’ve looked after you since before you could talk, that makes me your dad. No father would let his little girl get herself killed like this.” She managed to move her arm to rest on his hand, so small compared to his, his hand stretched the length of her entire forearm. “I’m not allowed to die, am I?” She smiled weakly; the pain disappeared, replaced by a pleasant numbness. “No daughter of mine in going to die like a dog.” He smiled and wrapped his hand around her arm. “Now get up.” “Yes sir.” She smiled wide, pain forgotten. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Her eyes snapped open, Pinkamena was about to bring its claws down on her head. Yachiru rolled to the side and forced herself up as the talons crushed into the soil; she grabbed a handful of dirt and ground it into her shoulder, stopping the bleeding. “What?” Pinkamena stepped back, visually terrified by the new light in her eyes. Yachiru took a deep breath and felt power flowing back into her body, her crushed ribs restricted her breathing but she powered around it. “I am Yachiru Kusajishi, daughter of Zaraki Kenpachi, Lieutenant of the Eleventh Squad of the Gotei Thirteen. And I refuse to die on my butt, if I’m going to die, I’m going to stand and fight till I die of exhaustion. This is one meal. You. Won’t. Have!” Yachiru surged forwards, grabbing her sword off the ground as she chased after Pinkamena who was in all but full retreat. She brought her sword down on the hollow, who batted it away and tried to counterstrike, but Yachiru kicked it in the mask, sending the creature reeling, she brought her sword around and hacked through the mask. Pinkamena screamed and lashed out, blinded by the blood seeping out of its own face. It howled and simply kept moving; lashing out at anything it heard including the rocks it shifted with its fits of movement. Yachiru came up from behind lodging her sword in its spine, stopping its movement. It wasn’t dead, its terrified breathing could still be heard but it couldn’t move while the sword was lodged between its vertebrae. “I win.” She sneered in its ear, preparing to twist the blade down through its neck. The shock wave hit, blasting Yachiru away, bringing her sword with her, there was a flash of white as the hollow regenerated but the mask only withstood the blast for a second, blowing out into dust. Pinkamena’s terrified red and black eyes flashed for a moment. “NNNOOOO!” It wailed as its eyes turned back to the soft blue of Pinkie’s. Just like that the power was gone, completely vanished. Pinkie looked around, panicked for a moment. “W-w-what’s going on?” She sputtered. “Thanks for a good fight.” Yachiru breathed, then succumbed to her wounds and passed out. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “I can’t move… Why can’t I move…” Blackness, everything was blackness and heavy. “I can’t breathe… Why can’t I breathe… It hurts… Everything hurts…” “You are truly pathetic; I’m going to have to save you already aren’t I.” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ “You bastard!” Lyra pounded on Kenpachi’s sword over and over, not giving him a second to move his blade from its defensive position. “You fucking bastard!” Kenpachi jumped back, eager to avoid Lyra’s wrath. “How in the hell was I supposed to know the supports were there?” “You fucking live here!” She jumped into the air in an attempt to cut him down when a bolt of electricity hit her square in the face. Lyra was blown back into a wall, both her and Kenpachi turned to stare at Twilight’s zanpakto. It was going nuts, blasting off lightning every which way, the chain suddenly pulled tight sending it shooting towards the pile of rubble where Twilight had been standing. “Huh?” Lyra stood, watching the chains as they snaked their way into the rock. “CRRRAKKK!!!” The rubble exploded out with a shockwave of energy, throwing both Lyra and Kenpachi away, the surge lasted for about a second before disappearing completely. Only once the dust cleared did Lyra feel it safe to get up, the figure standing in place of the rubble could only be described as one thing. A black hole; it looked like Twilight, granted it was wearing a black mask that looked like someone had slapped horns on the bottom jaw of a snake. The eyeholes were massive, running from the front of the snout to the back of the jaw line, there were three slits in the forehead, the snout ran from the forehead to below the two tusk like extensions that began at the back of the mask and ran around in front of the snout. Instead of being able to see her eyes there was ice blue light emanating from the eyeholes. Lyra couldn’t feel its power, it wasn’t like she was dead and the power was gone, It felt like there was nothing there, it felt like what she was seeing wasn’t really there. “Hey bookworm.” Kenpachi pulled himself out of the wall he had been embedded in. “I didn’t know you were a vizard too.” Twilight’s head snapped over to look at him. “Ooh, real scary. Heartstrings why didn’t you tell me?” “Because she isn’t.” Lyra was frozen in place, despite the fact that it didn’t seem to be there, the power was still oppressive. Can’t he feel this? It’s like she’s just sucking all the energy out of the area. “We’ll see about that.” Kenpachi charged Twilight, who didn’t move an inch. Kenpachi brought his sword down on her. “Twilight!” Lyra yelled when the sword made contact. It stopped, clattering uselessly against her shoulder. “What?” Kenpachi was visually shocked; he looked up into the eyes of the mask. Twilight looked over to her shoulder looking first to the blade then down its length to Kenpachi’s face. She reached over and took the blade off of her shoulder. “This is what you were so terrified of that you could hardly bring yourself to stand your ground?” She spoke in a growling male voice, clenching her hand tight around the blade; she brought her other arm up and slugged him, sending Kenpachi flying through the walls behind him. “Disgraceful.” She grabbed the hilt of Kenpachi’s sword, which she had wrenched away from him when she had sent him flying. She released the blade and brought the palm of her hand to the tip. In a single sweeping movement she crushed the blade onto a fine metallic powder. “Pitiful.” She tossed away the hilt and grabbed the end of her sword’s chains. “Ritorakuto.” [Retract] The chains seemed to be sucked back into the handle until there was only a foot of chain left on the end of the hilt. She pulled the chain tight. “Anata jishin o kyasuto; Shadō!” [Cast yourself; Shadow.] The chains shot through her outstretched hand forming themselves into the exact shape of the sword in her other before they solidified into a single blade, tinting itself black, darkness billowing off the blade, the chains trailing off of the blade concentrated into a handle, leaving a length of chain connecting the two blades. Twilight pulled on it, extending the chain, she threw the first blade around her shoulders, wrapping herself in the chains and leaving the purple blade hanging over her shoulder. Twilight bounced the new blade in her hand a few times and switched to the other hand. “This will do nicely.” Kenpachi came running back through the hole. “What have you done?” He stared in horror at the bladeless hilt that had once been his sword. “You again?” She sneered bringing her foot up into his chest and sending him flying away with an audible snap as his ribs broke. He landed in the wall, blood seeping from between his clenched teeth. Twilight flourished her free hand and chains of shadow sprouted from the cinderblocks around him, binding Kenpachi into place. She strolled her way over. “Tsk, tsk, tsk; I am very disappointed in you Sparkle.” She started spinning the black blade on its chain. “You let this!” She lashed the blade across his chest. “Defeat you, being regarded as a great warrior myself, I am appalled that this brute!” She lashed him again. “Got the better of you.” Lyra finally found the will to move. “Twilight,” Twilight jerked her head to look at Lyra. “That’s enough.” She put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “Send it away.” “Send it away?” Twilight brushed off Lyra’s hand, turning to face her. “Send it away? I am shadow itself, I cannot simply be sent away, I leave when I feel that this weakling can properly handle herself. You cannot simply be rid of me.” He took a step forward, brandishing his blade. “Hey, I’m the opponent here, not her.” Kenpachi strained against his bonds, they buckled and groaned against his strength. “Impressive.” The Shadow snapped his fingers; the bonds disappeared entirely, allowing Kenpachi to fall to the ground. “So you do have some power in you. I take it you were holding back.” The light in the eyeholes blazed for a moment, a tide of shadows brought Kenpachi’s sword hilt into The Shadow’s hand. “I should have guessed, this was a warrior’s blade.” His eyes flashed again and the dust that had been the blade was picked up by darkness, flowing back onto the hilt. The shadow waved a hand over the collection of shards; the pressure could be felt as the pieces were compressed back into their original shape. The blackness left the sword, revealing the gleaming blade beneath. “It doesn’t like you very much does it?” The Shadow threw the sword at Kenpachi’s feet. “How about you give me your name so I know what I’m addressing. And so I can tell it to mind its own business.” Kenpachi bent down, picking up his sword and inspecting it for a moment before he decided that he wasn’t being tricked. “Me? I am Makuta Teridax, but I believe that my counterpart in this realm is Sosuke Aizen.” Teridax chuckled, spinning the handle of his sword in his fingers. “Heartstrings,” Kenpachi was surprisingly calm, usually when he had an opponent this strong he would be grinning like a madman. “You may want to get a few meters back.” Lyra took the hint and turned to run. “I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen something like you before; I never got to fight Aizen. I hope you won’t disappoint.” He smiled, cutting completely loose. Teridax cocked his head, studying Kenpachi’s power as the ground under Kenpachi’s feet cracked. “I won’t.” He said smugly. Kenpachi charged, Teridax didn’t even seem to brace himself, standing loosely. Kenpachi brought his blade down. Moving too fast to be seen, Teridax blocked the blow and smashed his fist into the side of Kenpachi’s face. Who managed to stay on his feet but was still sent reeling by the blow. Teridax hadn’t moved an inch. “What gives?” Kenpachi shook his head to clear it. “I said I wouldn’t disappoint, you on the other hand,” He was suddenly behind Kenpachi, “are a different matter.” Kenpachi tried to turn around in time but Teridax took off both his arms at the elbows. Kenpachi, who had laughed in the face of death more times than he could count, was left defenseless. Teridax then slashed his heels, severing the tendons. Kenpachi’s legs gave way and he was forced down onto his stomach. Teridax picked up Kenpachi’s right arm and took the sword from its grip. “Must I always repeat myself? Pathetic.” Teridax lifted Kenpachi’s blade, moving to bring it down on his neck. “Ryūjin Jakka!” [Flowing Blade-like Flame] An immense release of power shook across the area, flattening buildings and seeming to compress the air around them. A tongue of flame swatted Kanpachi’s zanpakto out of Teridax’s hand causing him to stagger slightly. He turned to face the new opponent, one could almost feel him glaring at the robed figure that had intervened. “I don’t know who you are brat but I know this, you are through here.” The robed figure holding the hilt to the pillar of flame that had diverted Teridax’s attack was bald with a massive beard and had a pair of scars that passed across his forehead in an x. “Head Captain Yamamoto?” Lyra spoke, surprised that Yamamoto had decided to take up the search himself. Granted Teridax appeared immensely powerful but Yamamoto would only bring himself in on the front line if he was familiar with the threat. “Hello Heartstrings, here to beg forgiveness for deserting?” Yamamoto turned his head slightly to look at her. “No sir.” She reflexively saluted. “Then you’re here as an aid to this creature?” He growled slightly, Teridax seemed to be studying him, staring up at him with what could have been mistaken for curiosity. Lyra gulped, knowing good and full well what happened when you aided the enemy. “Not exactly.” She cringed, finding herself unable to lie to a being that could fry her in a heartbeat. “Captains Mugamara, Ukitake book her.” Two men with white hair in captain’s robes appeared on either side of her. “Hey Ukitake-San, Long time no see huh?” Ukitake she was familiar with, she had no idea who the other was. “Hello Heartstrings, I see you’ve reached bankai, impressive. Mugamara-San, confiscate it.” Before she could so much as tighten her grip, the axe was ripped from her fingers. Lyra eyed the new captain, chuckling nervously. “Geezer.” Kenpachi spoke up from his pace in the dirt. “Let him do it.” “Excuse me.” “He took my arms, I can’t fight like this.” Kenpachi seemed on the edge of tears. “Fool!” Yamamoto barked. “Unlike my arm, which was burned to the point of uselessness, we can put yours back. Don’t be such a baby. What would your lieutenant think?” “Are you done talking now?” Teridax growled, tightening his grip on his sword. “Kyōraku, Hirako, with me.” Two others appeared, one in a floral print robe with brown curly hair and holding two strangely curved blades, the other in a traditional captain’s robe with blond hair cut to the bottom of his jawline. “It feels like Aizen, but what’s with that shape?” The blond one stared down at Teridax, frowning slightly. “It matters not Hirako, all that matters is that it is an intruder, a dangerous one at that.” Yamamoto looked down on Teridax with contempt. “I don’t like that look.” Teridax growled. “You’re not allowed to look down on me.” Teridax was suddenly up there with them, behind Yamamoto. He spun around, blocking the Teridax’s dark blade with the concentrated flame of his. “And why would that be youngster?” Teridax stepped back, breaking contact with Yamamoto’s sword. “I am older than you can imagine, I am most likely older than your entire pathetic race.” Teridax was bristling with rage. “You have neither the power nor the authority to belittle me.” He charged again, smashing into the pillar of fire with every once of strength he could muster, he came crashing through it, he reached out with the hand that wasn’t on the blade and grabbed Yamamoto’s face. Teridax drove his opponent down into the ground, dust and debris flew from the impact. “I have killed and overthrown gods, you are meaningless.” He lifted Yamamoto by his neck, growling as he squeezed. Suddenly there was a sharp pain and a gash along his stomach, he dropped Yamamoto and clutched his midriff. “What?” He whirled around to be greeted by Kyōraku, who had raked one of his strange blades along Teridax’s shadow. “Your turn, catch me if you can.” Kyōraku jumped away, hoping to distract him for a moment; Teridax started laughing. “Shadow tag? Bad move.” He lifted his empty palm and closed it into a fist, Kyōraku Crumpled like a rag doll, his limbs sticking out at odd angles. “You are dealing with the master of shadows; that may have been the biggest and last mistake of your life.” “Hyōryū Senbi!” “Fenikkusutoreiru!” Ice cascaded down on him, followed by a blaze of fire, freezing and burning warred for attention in his mind, He staggered, trying to drown out the two conflicting signals. Rainbow Dash and Hitsugaya both swooped down next to the fallen captains. Hisugaya took Kyōraku and Rainbow took Yamamoto, both falling back to where Ukitake and Mugamara were standing. Yamamoto shook his way out of Rainbow’s grip. “Keep your hands off me intruder.” He growled, glaring at her. “You came through with that thing, don’t play innocent with me.” “Whoa man, I don’t even know what it is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something put off such a bad vibe, except maybe that face.” She shrank under his gaze. “Dash, that’s Twilight.” Lyra blurted. “Twilight?” Rainbow looked back at the creature, battling its half frozen body. “No way. That thing’s way too brutal to be Twilight.” Rainbow almost pleaded with her. Applejack swooped in, carrying Rarity. “What’d Ah miss?” She looked, over at Teridax, who was finally regaining control of his body. “Well Ah guess that covers it, never seen a meaner feeling thing in mah life.” She jumped towards Teridax, a kick connecting with the side of his head, he was sent sprawling. “Applejack.” Rainbow yelled. “That’s Twilight.” “What, our Twi’? No way.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Enough!” Teridax yelled, picking himself up. “You pathetic, weak, underlings! You forced me to this.” He spun the black blade above his head, shadows started peeling off the ground, spreading until they covered the entire area in a cloak of grey. “No way in hell.” “Kage kōshin!” [shadows march] He slammed the blade into the ground, the greyness concentrated, forming itself into replica’s of his opponents. “Get them.” He growled. The shadow things charged, each one meeting with its real counterpart. Applejack stood, trading blows with her doppelganger, completely unable to gain the upper hand, this thing might as well have been the shadow behind her, it knew every move moments before she even made it. Rainbow was having an identical problem. Her doppelganger was just as fast as her, and if anything it was stronger, every blow she moved to make was shoved down by her counterpart, before it would attempt a blow with more force than she had put into hers. Rarity stood with her doppelganger, staring it down, both sides had their bows at the ready, just waiting for the other to make the first move. Chunks of ice and shadow flew through the air in Hitsugaya’s battle as they squared off with the dragon each commanded. The dragons bit and clawed at each other as the wielders clashed blades, each trying to force the other to buckle beneath their power. Ukitake had unleashed his swords Sōgyo no Kotowari and was rebounding blasts of shadow sent from the doppelganger’s blades. Hirako stood, contemplating his opponent, it was far more aggressive than he was, wildly charging without much coordination, making it easy to simply move out of the way and study it for some kind of weakness; as he continued to avoid the shadow’s strikes he looked around at the others, they all demonstrated control just as good if not better than their real counterparts. What made this one different? He looked at Rarity, as she stared down her opponent; her doppelganger was in the exact same position, mirroring it perfectly. Hirako took a swing at his Doppelganger and the change was immediate. For that strike it became a perfect opponent, forcing his blade back and demonstrating control far greater than what it had been doing before. He jumped back from it. “Interesting,” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fluttershy didn’t want to go towards the spot that the shock wave had come from, even less so once the area had caught fire. But something told her that was where she needed to be, so she flew towards it hesitantly. The area went dark and she nearly turned to fly away, but if she wanted to find her friends, no doubt she would have to go to the spot with the most going on; they had a knack for ending up in those spots. “Fluttershy help!” A familiar voice called out from below her. She looked down and saw Pinkie Pie cradling the broken body of Yachiru in her fore hooves. “Oh my.” Fluttershy swooped down landing next to the decidedly deflated Pinkie Pie. “What happened?” “I-I didn’t mean to, I was scared and alone, she was attacking me and I panicked, I didn’t mean to.” Pinkie started sobbing, cradling Yachiru’s head next to her own. Fluttershy looked from her sobbing friend to the body in her forelegs. Yachiru was still breathing if very shallowly. “Pinkie, this was a barracks right?” Fluttershy looked at a piece of wood with strange writing on it, yet somehow she could read it. She’d have to ask Lyra about that later. “I-I guess.” Pinkie looked up, bleary eyed. “Then they should have had some medical supplies, I’ll see what I can do for Yachiru, you look around for me okay?” Pinkie got a bit of that twinkle in her eye back and set out with grim fervor as she sifted through the debris for anything she could find. Fluttershy looked back at her patient, taking stock of her numerous injuries. “It looks like she was mauled by a pack of timberwolves.” Half her ribs had been shattered entirely, the other half were snapped, a large chunk of her left shoulder looked like it had been bitten off by something with carnivorous teeth and she was covered in clawmarks. How could Pinkie have done this? She looked back at her still distraught friend; whatever she had done she had terrified even herself by doing it. “There’s going to be some scarring across the face, arms and legs.” She analyzed, talking to herself a bit. “I may need some surgical equipment for the ribs, that wrist is going to need a splint. At least all the bleeding stopped.” Yachiru stirred a bit, her eyelids fluttering for a second, she started trying to sit up before Fluttershy stopped her. “Mmm I dead yet?” She slurred. “Shh you’re hurt, don’t try to move.” Fluttershy pushed on her right shoulder, gently laying her back down. “I’d say it’s a miracle you’re even still alive. Don’t try to talk either.” “That’s a lost cause.” Yachiru chuckled weakly. “I haven’t shut up when someone told me to-” She started coughing violently, blood leaking out of her mouth. “On second thought… maybe I should.” Fluttershy put a hoof over Yachiru’s mouth. “Yeah, you should. Now this may hurt a little, I’m going to check if I can re-set any of your ribs.” Fluttershy put her hooves gently on Yachiru’s chest, carefully working the still intact ribs back into alignment. Yachiru gasped through her teeth, pain flashing through her. “Sorry, I just need a few more seconds.” She worked the last rib back. “Done, all five sets.” Fluttershy smiled down at her, Yachiru almost chuckled. More than half her ribs were utterly pulverized and Fluttershy was just happy to have managed the ones that were still there. “Fluttershy, I found some.” Pinkie came running back through the rubble, a simple first aid kit locked in her teeth. Fluttershy took the small box and opened it. “Lets see what we have. Oh my, there’s not much here, but it’ll do to make sure her chest doesn’t collapse again.” The box had the essentials, nothing more, simple bandages, a needle, thread and gauze, but it would have to do. Fluttershy set right to work, careful not to disturb the ribs she had already set as she wrapped them tight in the gauze, she added supports, made from bits of the beams that used to hold up the squad eleven barracks, where pressure would be needed in keeping them from healing crooked. She put her crushed wrist into a splint with a bit of wood, and set to sowing up the gashes that covered her body. “I can breath.” Yachiru moved her left hand up to touch the bandages on her chest, only to have her hand swatted away by Fluttershy. “Don’t touch those, you’ll want to avoid touching there for at least a week, unfortunately that means no showers or baths, changing the bandages when you’re in this delicate condition can be problematic.” Fluttershy spoke through her teeth as she worked the needle through the gashes on Yachiru’s arms, she finished, biting off the thread as she knotted it in place. “I’m going to roll you over now. Pinkie, help keep her steady so we don’t aggravate anything.” Pinkie looked regretfully at Yachiru for a second before nodding her head. They carefully turned her over, Fluttershy pushed up on one side while Pinkie braced the other, making sure the turn happened slowly. Yachiru gasped as the weight shifted, causing sharp pains to run through her chest. “Are you alright?” Yachiru nodded in response. Fluttershy set back to work, sowing up the gashes along her back, and the backs of her knees. “I’m sorry Yachiru but I don’t think I can do anything for that shoulder with this equpment, how did you even get that to stop bleeding?” “I rubbed dirt in it.” Yachiru spoke carefully, hoping to avoid another coughing fit. Fluttershy giggled a bit. If all else fails go for the old school I guess. “Uhh Fluttershy…” Pinkie started tugging on one of her wings, forcing her to abandon her place sewing up Yachiru’s knee. Standing in front of her was a woman in a captain’s robe, her black hair was pulled back in a bun from what she could see, the robe was slightly too long on the arms and she was looking down at Fluttershy with an indiscernible expression, she was flanked by a nervous looking tall woman with steel blue hair, who had her hand on the hilt of her sword. Fluttershy gulped. “Captain’s robe, too big to be considered small, black hair,” Fluttershy tried to place which captain she was looking at. “Looks about middle aged. Are you captain Retsu Unohana?” The blank expression melted to one of bemusement. “Yes.” Her voice was gentle, she was definitely a healer. “Then could you help us please? Yachiru needs serious medical attention and I just don’t have the equipment needed for these sorts of injuries.” Fluttershy sat up strait, hoping not to come off as uncertain as she felt. Unohana gestured for her lieutenant to take her hand off her sword. “Isane I need you to perform a Sentan Hakuja back to the barracks so we can help this creature with her patient.” The steel blue haired woman, namely Isane jumped slightly. “Yes captain.” Isane took a step back and started a strange incantation that was part of the spell. Unohana chuckled softly, turning to look at Fluttershy. “You know, from afar you feel like Kurotsuchi, but close up you feel more like her.” She gestured towards Isane, who had closed her eyes in concentration. “So nervous and unsure of yourself.” Fluttershy blushed. “I tried not to come off like that.” “It was written in your voice. What’s your name?” “I’m Fluttershy and this is Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy turned to look at her friend, she looked completely guilt ridden, staring down at Yachiru, her eyes glistening with tears. “I take it she’s the one who did this.” Unohana pointed at Pinkie, Fluttershy nodded. “She has the same reiatsu as Yachiru. When she does fight, Yachiru has a tendency to get lost in it, doing anything she can to defeat her opponent. I’d be willing to bet that Pinkie has the same tendency. She shouldn’t feel bad if she was fighting, it’s just in her nature.” Fluttershy scratched her head. “I heard something like that from Kurotsuchi when he captured me. What is reiatsu?” “Reiatsu is spirit energy, it’s what makes it possible to tell one soul from another, without directly speaking to them, it can be used to measure power or personality. In other words if someone has the same reiatsu as another it means that they have the same soul, which makes it odd that you and Kurotsuchi are so different but rather predictable that Pinkie and Yachiru would have similar traits, such as the behavior that led to this.” “Captain, it’s ready.” Isane finished the chant, a single ribbon was whirling around them. “Alright Isane. Fluttershy you should go, I believe your friends need you.” Fluttershy nodded and stepped out of the ribbon’s range. “You should go too Pinkie.” Pinkie shook her head and didn’t move from her spot next to Yachiru. “Hey I got her like this, it’s only right that I stay with her until I’m sure she’ll be alright.” Pinkie smiled weakly. Unohana nodded. “Isane.” “Yes captain.” The ribbon pulled tight around them, there was a bright flash of light and they were gone. Leaving Fluttershy to continue alone on her way.
Vicron	779	13	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-03-11T12:00:43+00:00	2012-03-11T12:00:43+00:00	657	Chapter 13: Open Book She had expected the afterlife to be disappointing, it couldn't possibly live up to all the hype, but this was downright boring. Twilight huffed in exasperation, the worst part wasn't that she was surrounded by a strange grey cloud that had lines of green flying through it every now and again, it wasn't that it had been creepy for the first few minutes, or the growling chuckle that would float through the air now and again, or even the fact that she couldn't move. It was that she was still stuck in a hominid form, she had been a unicorn but apparently what you were supposed to be had no bearing on the world beyond life. She had been expecting heaven to at least be relaxing but that dark chuckle had her wound tighter than a spring. She had expected hell to be at least painful but she couldn't feel anything except the distant rumble of the thunder and that chuckle. If she hadn't known any better she would have said that she was just asleep and having a particularly vivid dream. She started as that though passed through her. Maybe that's all the afterlife was. She tested briefly, willing herself the ability to move. A great weight seemed to be lifted off of her and she sat up. Well at least she seemed to be making some progress, she willed her environment to change into something a bit more defined; walls lined with books shot up out of the floor, the greyness faded, leaving that strange, dim, green light, it seemed almost toxic, cast sprawling shadows that seemed to morph into nightmare creatures and just made her all around uncomfortable. She willed it to change but she was met with another mind that swatted her away like a bothersome fly, or maybe one that had managed to really get on the other mind's nerves, considering that the mental blow was strong enough to send her flying down the endless corridors. She willed the air beneath her to cushion her fall and she impacted softly, brushing herself off she got up. "Finally awake I see." The familiar silk soft voice of Arukana reached Twilight as a soft purple light enveloped her, depositing her near the center of the library next to the robed figure who regarded her bemusedly. "Arukana? What are you doing here?" Twilight got to her feet carefully. "Making sure you're up to speed on what's going on in your head," Arukana bent over and placed a hand on Twilight's head. "loving the new look by the way." She ruffled Twilight's hair. "Hey, stop that." Twilight swatted her hand away, chuckling slightly. "So, what's going on then?" "Oh nothing much, just an entity of evil controlling your body." Arukana stated this far too dismissively for it to really sink in, so instead of the proper reaction of anger or panic Twilight simply laughed. "I'm not joking." This on the other hand was said with such matter of fact grimness that it cut Twilight off as she simply stared at the source of sickly green light that Arukana gestured to and the open book directly beneath it. "That's not good." Twilight gaped at the book for a few seconds before turning back to Arukana. "So I'm not dead yet?" She shook her head, "Well that's some good news, I should probably go close that." Twilight took a step forwards only to be blocked by a screen that popped out from the ground, showing the events going on outside. Whatever was in Twilight's body was humming an unfamiliar, almost tuneless, song to itself, swinging a black blade on a chain and walking through a battlefield where everyone seemed to be fighting their own shadow. Her body stepped behind someone with white hair, wielding a pair of swords attached to each other by a length of red rope. As the song, which seemed to be some kind of march, reached a crescendo her body struck down with the black blade, opening a massive gash down his back, blood flew from the wound as he screamed, crumpling to the ground, the growling chuckle sounded from both the screen and the world around Twilight and Arukana. "You woke up, good." A growling voice emanated from the screen. "As you can See," Whatever was controlling her body lashed the downed man again for good measure. "I'm dealing with your problem out here, so there is no need to attempt to wrest control from me." It drew the blade back in, idly swinging it on its chain. "So if you could back away from the book I won't have to eliminate you as well." It kicked the white haired man for emphasis. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fluttershy couldn't believe what she was seeing, Rainbow Dash had been changed into a hominid and was being chased around by her own shadow, which was attached to her back by a long rope, which Rainbow didn't seem to notice. Fluttershy simply stared for a while as the two Dash's vied for the high ground. The real Dash suddenly veered towards her and Fluttershy panicked, raising her sword to defend herself from the shadow trailing after Dash. As the real Rainbow Dash passed Fluttershy the sword cut into the black rope. The shadow Dash convulsed before fading into nonexistence. "Fluttershy?" Rainbow swooped back down towards Fluttershy, wrapping her in a quick hug. "Glad to see you're safe," she let go, narrowly avoiding the blade in Fluttershy's hooves. "where's Pinkie?" Fluttershy dipped down a bit as her sword threatened to drag her down. "Glad to see you're alright too. Pinkie went with captain Unohana to make sure Yachiru would be alright. Where are the others, are they okay?" "Look down." Rainbow pointed down just as a gout of flame blasted between them, sending Fluttershy flipping over herself on the updraft. Once she managed to right herself she looked and saw a group of other people in similar predicaments to what Rainbow had been doing. "Oh my, they got mixed up in that?" Fluttershy squeaked, Rainbow seemed to appear next to her and Fluttershy jumped, she was used to Pinkie doing that but not Dash. "Yeah, and you won't believe who started it. Twilight." Dash reclined for a second, looking a bit winded. "Rarity, Applejack and Lyra are in there too." Fluttershy cringed. "Yep, I've gotta go get em out now, come on." Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy, who noted that her grip was much stronger in this form, dragging her down into the fray. Fluttershy felt like she was going to have a heart attack as they swooped through the battlefield. Power was being thrown left and right, the shadow bindings constantly threatened to entangle them and there was a crushing pressure that emanated off all the combatants. "What the hell, where did these ropes come from? Whatever, lets just get rid of them." "I don't think so." A loop of black chain shot past before pulling tight around them. Fluttershy turned to look at their source. "R-R-Rainbow. what is that?" Fluttershy strained against the chains that were pulling her closer to the masked figure. "Twilight wake up, this isn't you!" Dash's wings blazed to life in an attempt to melt through the chains. The chains remained pristine, Fluttershy on the other hand. "Stop, Dash!" Fluttershy batted at the flames caught in her feathers. "I'll take that." Teridax reached down and grabbed the blades on Dash's back, the fire's immediately went out as the blades came tearing away from her body, Dash briefly screamed before passing out. Twilight's body had seen better days. The arms had been ripped off of her robe, stray strands on hair hanging from under the mask were turning red from the scalp down as if her head was bleeding, the shadows of anything it came into contact with started bleed up onto her, slowly forming into plates of armor that seemed to weigh far more than her body was meant to carry if the growing bruises were anything to go by, her pinkie fingers had ripped away from her hands, realigning themselves into a grotesque, dripping, second set of thumbs, her chest was being crushed in by some unseen pressure, boils grew on every exposed part of her, popping to expel some kind of green gas which was being contained by the shadow armor. "T-Twilight?" Teridax's head snapped around to look at her. "Oh, it's you." Teridax's grip on the chains grew tighter. "You have no idea how much I would like to have these chains squeeze the life out of you. You are a manifestation of what I hate, a creature that relies on the weakness of others, their kindness, too frightened to even learn to defend itself." Teridax's voice seethed with rage and hate. "I will enjoy watching your eyes go dark." He reached out, making to grab her by the neck. The purple blade started to spark wildly, Teridax straitened up, a hand flying to his chest. "I warned you Spark-" "You won't touch them!" Twilight screamed. Teridax's power came crashing down into the realm of detectability, the shadow creatures shimmered for a moment before disappearing. "The book! You little bitch! Lets see how you like-" "Shut up, this is my body and you're not welcome here." The chains loosened around Fluttershy and Dash, the bladed wings fell from Twilight's grip, floating back to Dash. "Go back to the pit you crawled out of!" The shadow armor evaporated. Twilight smashed both fists into the mask, shattering it, the black blade squirmed for a moment before molding itself back into the chains it had come from. Twilight stood for a moment, panting, before Yamamoto walked up to her, fire trailing him. "I'm sorry." Twilight braced herself for immolation. The captain raised the column of flames, his face set and grim. Fluttershy's mind raced, what could she do? Just standing near the head captain made it hard to breathe, but Twilight was about to die. "Watashi no tate ni naru; Gādo!" [be my shield; Guardian] Fluttershy dug her sword into the dirt and a wall of steel erupted from the ground, forcing the Yamamoto away from Twilight. The wall curved around, separating Fluttershy and Yamamoto from the rest of the battlefield. "I won't let you hurt Twilight." She wrenched the sword from the ground, barely managing to keep her balance. Yamamoto looked at her bemusedly. "You're going to stop me?" Fluttershy looked up at him, then down at her own sword. She sat down, placing the sword flat on the ground under her hoof. "I-I'm not f-fighting you if that's what you mean." "Than how are you stopping me youngster." He took a step forward, brandishing the flames. "I'm not going to let you out." As if responding to their master's voice, panels of steel broke off the wall and formed a cieling, leaving holes every few feet so that the light could get in. Yamamoto looked around for another way out of the massive metal box. He noticed Fluttershy eying the flames of his sword worriedly. "What happens if I just kill you here." He took a step forwards. "Then you'll have killed something that didn't even fight back." FLuttershy again faked confidence. "You might want to extinguish that before we both suffocate. If it's alright with you." I'm muttering again, confidence Shy confidence. She started pawing at the ground. To Fluttershy's surprise Yamamoto actually did revert him blade back to its sealed form. "Are you really willing to die for that thing?" He kneeled down to be at eye level with her. "Umm, y-yes. Twilight's my friend and I'm more than willing to die." Fluttershy hid behind her hair while Yamamoto regarded her as one might regard a particularly interesting bug. "Fine." He relented. "I'll let them go, but you must promise to leave here and not come back." "Really?" Fluttershy lifted her head, eyes wide. "Yes just let me out of here." Yamamoto tapped one of the walls. It was then that Fluttershy realized the biggest flaw in her hastily put together plan. I have no idea how to do that! Her look of joy was quickly replaced by one of complete embarrassment and she drove a hoof directly into her forehead. Yamamoto sheathed his sword, a gnarled wooden staff formed around the sheath as he placed it onto the ground. "This is your first time using a zanpakto isn't it?" Fluttershy squeaked an affirmation. "Damn rookies. Good thing I keep a tea set with me." He reached into his robe and pulled out a shattered wooden box. "Dammit!" _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Twilight stood shakily, unsure what to make of what just happened. Shocks of pain came from every inch of her body, driving her down to her knees. "Twi' are ya' alright?" Applekack knelt down next to her. Twilight tried to brush her off but another jolt of pain kept her pinned. "I'm -guuh- I'll be fine, where's Dash?" Her vision blurred as she felt Teridax throwing what could only be described as a temper tantrum inside her head. "She's fine, just forgot those blades weren't her real wings. Are ya sure yer' alright?" The top of the wall crumpled in to make a domed roof. "If I pass out -nng- do you promise to make sure he does too?" Twilight wobbled as her vision started to go black. "Ah think he's taken care of fer now." Applejack put a hand on Twilight's shoulder, just as she slumped over, barely conscious. She was forcing herself to stay awake, waiting for Teridax to expel what little energy he had left to deal with. Her head suddenly went quiet and she permitted herself to faint, darkness claiming her once more. "Twi'? Twi?" Applejack shook her and she started snoring. "Twilight's out everypony." A pair of panels formed themselves out of the metal wall before her, sliding apart to reveal Yamamoto and a triumphant looking Fluttershy. "We have reached an agreement." Yamamoto declared, tapping the end of his staff on the ground. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pinkie Pie sat anxiously outside of the operation room, rocking back and forth on her butt, thinking about the color blue and wondering if the oven was still on in the palace kitchen. Thinking about anything and everything that could take her mind off the current situation. And it wasn't working. "Come on Pinkie, hold it together, she'll be fine. Unohana said so." Her hair deflated with a sound like a popped balloon, her left eye bugged out. "She could always be lying." Her hair puffed back up and her eye went back to normal. "But there's no reason for that." Pinkie reasoned. "To make you feel better." Pinkamena pressed. "Why would she do that? I'm kinda the bad guy here." Pinkie rubbed the back of her head. "She just would!" Pinkamena barked. "You're trying awfully hard right now aren't you." "Don't you change the subject on me!" Pinkamena stomped for emphasis. "You've been there for a while havent you?" "Well... yes." "Then why haven't you ever tried this hard before?" "I... don't know. That is a good question. I've been feeling a lot more aggressive, I guess." "Really? When did these anger issues really get out of hand?" Seemingly out of nowhere, Pinkie had aquired a clipboard, a pencil, a pair of "sophisticated" glasses and a scrunchie to pull her hair back with. "Well... since we got to this place I think." "Really? And how does that make you feel?" Pinkie jotted down some notes. "Angry, duh! And the teeniest bit scared." Pinkamena rubbed her front hooves together uncomfortably. "Why?" Pinkie tapped her chin with the pencil, defying all logic by holding it in her hoof. "I just don't know what I could do, I mean, look at what happened to Yachiru." A grin started creeping onto Pinkamena's lips. "What scares me most is that I like it." "That's odd." Pinkie scribbled something. "I know right." Pinkamena started pawing at the ground. "I miss the claws." She help up a hoof and waved it through the air, noting just how dull it was. "Well I'm not getting them out, and as a volatile patient neither are you." "Is that a challenge?" Pinkamena snarled. "No, it is a statement of fact." Pinkie pointed at her vindictive "other" and waved the pencil. "It sounded like a challenge." Pinkamena slapped the pencil away. "Well it wasn't." Pinkie huffed, turning away from her counterpart. "Wait, when did you get over there? When did I get over here?" Pinkamena pawed at her face. "I-I don't know." Pinkie turned back around, pointed at Pinkamena and started shaking. "AAHHH!" "AAAHHH!" "AHHH!" "Miss Pie..." Pinkie snapped to look over at the newcomer in the room, he was a short hominid with black hair, he slouched a little and had a pouch hanging from a sash over his shoulder, he gave off an aura of insecurity and near-constant failure. He jumped back a little when Pinkie looked at him. "I'm sorry to interrupt your... uhh... heated discussion-" "She started it!" Pinkie looked back to where her doppelganger had been, only to face an empty wall. "Huh, I would have sworn there was more room there a second ago." "Well, I'm sure she's sorry." He chuckled weakly, Pinkie could tell when she was being humored, it happened quite often, but this was the first time it had happened to her because someone was afraid. She didn't like it. "I'm Pinkie Pie, what's your name?" Pinkie put up her best face, trying to put the strange hominid at ease, this was counter productive as her exuberance sent him fleeing, screaming, across the room. "Hey get back here!" Pinkie took off after the fleeing figure. At that moment Captain Unohana opened the operation room door. "Pinkie- oh." She observed the spectacle with a humored smile and chuckled too herself. "Hanatarō, Pinkie." She called out, like a mother that had just walked in on her kids fighting over a toy. The beings in question stopped running in circles to face the captain, who somehow managed to put off an air of complete control while wearing what on anyone else would have been a gentle smile. "We've healed Yachiru well enough for her to get back on duty in a couple days." Pinkie's eyebrows furrowed with guilt. "She asked to see you Pinkie, which is why I sent Hanatarō but it seems you're a bit too much for him to handle." Unohana chuckled as she ushered Pinkie through the doors. The room inside was rather plain, the walls were a beige color that wasn't fun to look at but it wasn't out of place, if one was in pain they didn't want a bright or dark color that would strain the eyes, the neutrality of beige made the room seem soft. There were three tables and a bed, the tables held all kinds of medical tools, a few bottles of painkillers, some salves, and a tray of now reddened water. Yachiru sat in the bed, bouncing slightly. You wouldn't have known she had been on the brink of death fifteen minutes ago, most of the bandages were gone, only the ones on her chest remained, they had removed the stitches in her face and no doubt the rest of her body and she was rolling her wrist to make sure it was working again. In one way she looked a lot worse, her entire left shoulder was one big scar, Pinkie doubted that she would ever be able to move it properly again. "Yachiru, we have your guest." Yachiru snapped her attention straight to Pinkie, a goofy grin split her face as she jumped out of the bed and ran over to her. Pinkie braced herself, preparing for the worst, when Yachiru swept her up into a tight hug, lifting her off the floor for a moment as Yachiru giggled and bounced around. Once the embrace was broken she deposited the very confused pony back onto her hooves, Pinkie took a step back, bewilderment plain on her face. "B-but I nearly killed you, what's going on?" Pinkie looked back to Unohana, hoping for some clue. "Silly, that was the best fight ever! I haven't fought that hard since I last sparred with Kenny, but you were trying to kill me making it even more fun!" Yachiru hugged Pinkie again, a smile slowly creeping back onto her face. "And you know the best part, this!" She pointed to her bare left shoulder. "My first ever battle scar, and boy is it a doozy! Kenny has them everywhere but I never got a chance to fight someone long enough for them to really land a big hit like that. Thanks Pinkie!" Throughout Yachiru's speech Pinkie just sat there, for the first time in her life, at a loss for words. Yachiru just smiled at her and kept talking, but Pinkie couldn't get herself to say anything, her smile just started working its way back onto her face. Pinkie reached out and wrapped Yachiru in another hug, crying into her shoulder. whether this was out of guilt of joyful relief even she couldn't say. Unohana and Hanatarō had already left the room, leaving the two dimensional counterparts to share in a quiet moment, Yachiru gently wrapped the sobbing mare in her arms, returning the hug. "I'm sorry." Pinkie choked out between sobs. "For what?" Yachiru cocked an eyebrow, pushing Pinkie's head in front of her own. "I hurt you." Pinkie wiped her eyes, trying to reel her emotions back in. Yachiru sighed. "Look, Pinkie," Yachiru spoke firmly. "over in Equestria fighting may be considered 'against the rules'; but here, we of the Eleventh division see it is the greatest thing ever. You 'hurting' me was some of the most fun I've ever had and in case you haven't noticed, I gave you a scar too." Yachiru tapped Pinkie's forehead, feeling the bump under her slightly discolored fur. "So please, don't beat yourself up over this, it would suck all the fun out of our battle." Pinkie looked into Yachiru's smiling face for any trace of falsehood, she found none. Yachiru started to laugh, seemingly in recognition of Pinkie's relieved conscience. Pinkie's smile shot out to full force as she laughed along, neither one really knowing why they were laughing. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Canterlot, Equestria. The mask simply floated there, under the influence of both Celestia and Luna. The throne room had been sealed off to all but a select few, three of which were already in the room. six hours had passed with no word from Lyra, or the "away team" as spike liked to call them. Philomena sat on her perch next to Celestia's throne, ready to do her part if need be. Silence prevailed in the room, all three creatures trying their best to simply focus on the task at hand. Suddenly Philomena squawked before releasing an owls hoo. Celestia Luna and Spike all crowded around the bird, who's beak hung open in preparation of her role. "Hello, hello? Can you hear me? Is the spell working?" Lyra's voice came through Philomena. "Yes we can hear you." Luna said, leaning in a bit closer to make sure her voice went through. "Is everypony else alright?" "Yes they're fine, Twilight was a bit rattled but otherwise were all doing alright. In fact Twilight just woke up about an hour ago. We're getting ready to jump to the next dimension." "Did you manage to convince your friend Urahara?" Celestia pressed, hoping to have some help as soon as possible. "No, he's busy with a renegade soul reaper named Ginjō. Sorry, this world always seems to be in some kind of crisis, but the intended next stop is almost guaranteed to get us some results. Well right after we deal with some problems of our own anyway. Anditmighttakeusbothtendaystogetthere." Lyra spoke almost too fast to make out on the last sentence. "Problems? What's happened?" Luna's brow furrowed. "I wasn't duly informed of my companions mental states and it seems that two of our team had split personalities. And one had... something different." "Split personalities?" Celestia cocked an eyebrow. "Yes apparently they're changed into hollows in this world, unfortunately that's something we're going to have to bear with. we have to retain the powers of this world if coming here's going to have meant anything at all." "And the 'other'?" "It's Twilight, there's something weird about hers frankly." Lyra paused. "Hollows, you can differentiate them from the original being, there's a sort of taint to their energy that gets broadcasted. But Twilight... there's no change to the energy, it just leaps once this 'Teridax', as it calls itself, takes over. My best guess would be that it's her counterpart in this dimension that just so happened to be in need of a body. But..." "But what?" "That theory doesn't work!" Lyra shouted. "I'm sorry, I've spent hours trying to figure this out, it's why I didn't send a message sooner. We weren't here thirty seconds and all Thirteen of the stinking guard squads came down on us, we finally do manage to convince them we didn't come for a fight and by then we've already hospitalized half of the eleventh squad, so we're not getting any help. and on top of that Twilight's counterpart in this dimension happens to be the single most evil being in the place. What's more I have deduced that beings that have counterparts in the dimension they're landing in cannot change shape to suit the dimension. Which makes the fact that Twilight did impossible. Which means whatever it is inside Twilight's head is bad enough news to break the laws of trans-dimensional travel. Which means if we can't avoid the Guardian we're going to get our plots thoroughly kicked. This was supposed to be quick, but my intended next stop, and gateway to the rest of the places I intended to go, is on the other side of the Betweenspace, it could eat up all our time just getting there, not to mention that most of the area's between there and here are hostile and I'm going to eat my own horseshoes if we don't run into an obnoxious amount of trouble." Lyra trailed off into enraged panting. "Feeling better?" Luna asked. "Actually, yes, yes I am. Thanks for bearing with me. Anyway, the dimension I had planned on going to next is were I was planning on getting most of the forces needed so this shouldn't be a wasted trip but by my calculations if we want to avoid the Guardian we're going to have to take the long way and that should take us about eleven days by Equestrian time, luckily that dimension moves at twice the speed of Equestria, meaning once we get there we'll have eight days left to convince Senka to spare some troops. Knowing her she'll be more than willing to help us." "Did you say the being in Twilight's head called itself Teridax?" Luna scratched her chin, her eyes glazed as she searched her mind for why that name was familiar. "Yes, why?" "Guard!" Luna called towards the door, one of the two guards flanking it stepped forward. "Fetch me the smith." The guard bowed and galloped fro the room. "How long until the gate can be opened?" Celestia questioned. "I was actually just putting the finishing touches on the runes when I remembered to check in. Oh, and according to some notes I found in Twilight's bag, Spike's first growth spurt should start tomorrow. Congratulations and condolences little guy you're getting your wings and about four feet of height." Spike visually paled at this, dragon growth spurts were notoriously painful as they took place over the course of about three months and involved major skeletal upheaval. "I'm going to be using the bird from now on so don't worry, we won't be adding to your suffering" Gavla came fluttering into the room as Lyra stopped talking. "You wanted to see me 'princess'." She tapped a metal claw in impatience. "Yes, was you who mentioned a being called Teridax to me?" Luna spoke calmly but Gavla's reaction was the exact opposite. "Vamprah!" She yelled. "I know you're out there get in here, it didn't work!" Vamprah burst through the door, panic etched on every inch of his body. "Explain." Celestia demanded darkly, Gavla cringed. "Well, there was an incident just before they left. Twilight came down to the forge and asked Vamprah to help her get stronger by sucking the light out of her like he did for Luna." Celestia's glare became even harder but Gavla didn't seem to notice. "Vamprah and I both were against the idea but she made a very convincing argument and Vamprah tried. Unfortunately it appears that Teridax was hiding away inside of Vamprah and he tried to escape but we managed to stop him from fully taking control. We didn't tell Twilight or anyone else because we were pretty sure we had stopped him and because judging from what I've heard Twilight would have been a wreck if she caught wind of it." Gavla was now messing with her talons, while Vamprah had retreated into the rafters above Gavla, ready to swoop down if things got ugly. "She has a point." Lyra's voice broke the mounting silence. "Twilight could hardly get herself to stand firm against Kenpachi, how do you think she would have reacted to knowing there was an evil being strong enough to take down that brute in seconds living in her head. She would have panicked, she would have refused to come along and, judging by the trek we have ahead of us, we need her on this. She's been able to repress him so far and I think I know a tactic to make it even easier." Philomena hoo'd again and the line was cut. Gavla and Vamprah quickly excused themselves from Celestia's piercing glare.
Vicron	779	14	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-11-09T07:31:52+00:00	2012-11-09T07:31:52+00:00	678	Chapter 14: What is a Smile? "When are you going to let it go?" "When I can make them pay." "They're dead Tanma." "I know, I'm just waiting for a chance to make up what they did." Tanma brushed some dust from his shoulder. "Well it's getting in the way of your part." Dekal rapped on the clipboard with a finger, snapping Tanma out of his daydreams. "We need everyone to help here but here you are standing around scowling, staring off into space and talking to yourself. These applications aren't going to sort themselves and I'm only allowed to help you with half of them this time." "Fine, fine. Remind me why they want that colosseum rebuilt again?" Tanma picked up a stack of slabs with names and species designations on them. "It has historical value or something... like... that..." Dekal trailed off, staring at her feet. "Ha! They still get to you too." Tanma pointed accusingly. "No, I get to me sometimes, stinking mask hasn't shut up for the past three minutes." She knocked on her squarish mask as if trying to drive out some invasive insect. She was about twice as tall as Tanma, with a bulky build, blue and purple armor and a mask that, in her opinion, was more a compilation of squares with a hole in it than anything else. Tanma had a much more sleek build; his mask swept back over his brow, his limbs and the silver propulsion device on his back were sleek. He was designed for air travel. “What does that mask do again?” Tanma inspected the credentials of a vortixx whose application he had picked up. “I thought the vortixx just did weapons.” He muttered to himself. “It’s a Kanohi Mashrak, mask of teleportational detection.” Dekal hit it again as it started screeching at her even louder. The room was suddenly bathed in light, streaming in from the window behind Tanma. The source was a ball of white energy streaking through the sky like a comet. Dekal took a look at it; her mask calculated its exact landing point and it –thank Mata Nui- shut up. “Single teleport, eight unknown passengers, twenty foot blast radius,” She rattled off as the mask relayed the information to her brain. “impact in three seconds, two miles north of our current location.” She shook her head. “I hate that.” “Hostile?” Tanma grabbed a sword from under his desk, tucking it onto his back before reaching for the other. “You’re going to find out whether I want you to or not, aren’t you?” Dekal grabbed her three flanged mace from the corner, slinging it over her shoulder in preparation of whatever they may find. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash bent over double, hacking and coughing into the dust; along with the rest of the away team. “Space- Hack! - how did we land in - Graak! - in bucking space?” Rainbow wheezed out between breaths. “The spell uses – Gaak! – exact coordinates. Hoo! That’s the spot we took off from; it’s in the orbit of a planet in this universe.” Lyra tried to stand up straight, only to fall back forward onto her hooves. “Well there go my hands, anypony still a hominid?” “No, thank Celestia.” Rainbow flapped her wings a few times to get the feel back for them. Her zanpakto was still released, giving her wings bladed extensions. “No, ah’m back ta normal.” Applejack rolled her shoulder to make sure the impact hadn’t hurt anything. Her zanpakto was hanging from a sash wrapped around her neck and shoulders. “I’m still normal.” Rarity flipped her hair out of her eyes. Her zanpakto was hanging from her waist. “I-I’m a hominid this time.” Fluttershy wobbled on her feet as she tried to find her center of gravity. She was gilded in sleek blue and silver armor, her zanpakto sheathed on her waist, her mask was roughly in the shape of a fish’s tail fin, and pair of silver flaps ran down her back. “It feels so weird.” “I’m still upright.” Twilight rubbed her head. Her armor was gold and violet, wickedly spiked at the elbows and knees, she was a good head and shoulders taller than Fluttershy, her zanpakto was in a holster slung across her back, her right hand was slender and held wicked claws, her left hand was much bigger and had only three fingers as opposed to her right hand’s five, and all three held massive talons, her face was unquestionably reptilian, her feet were clawed as well, she wore her hair in a large ponytail that reached halfway down her back. “I’m still a pony!” Pinkie yelled. “And I’m starting to feel left out.” She pouted playfully. Pinkie’s zanpakto was nestled into the hair of her tail. “Alright,” Lyra surveyed her team, “I’ve never been to this part of this dimension before, last time I was here I ended up spending a week on an island made out of a giant robot’s face. Rainbow, get as high as you can and survey for towns so we can look for allies.” Rainbow quickly saluted before shooting off into the sky. “Pinkie, I want you to see if you can find any water under this sand.” Pinkie jumped and clapped a couple times before burrowing into the sand with gusto. “Rarity, you set up a perimeter to our site.” Rarity nodded shallowly before turning to scout out an area. “Applejack, help me set up the tents.” Lyra pulled a set of tents that by all logic shouldn’t have been able to fit out of her saddlebag. Noticing Applejack’s raised eyebrow she added. “It’s a space expansion charm.” She passed a hammer to Applejack. “Fluttershy and Twilight… figure out what those bodies can do.” Lyra squared off an area for the tents, placing the stakes for Applejack to hammer in. “Uh, Lyra, how er’ we gonna get these ta stay in the ground?” “Oh, sorry.” Lyra’s horn glowed for a second, compressing the sand into hard packed dirt. “There we go.” Rainbow swooped back down. “There’s a town about two miles south of here, built into the side of that mountain there. We seem to have attracted some attention, there are already two hominids headed this way.” “Hostile?” Lyra fixed her eyes on the mountain, trying to pick them out. “No idea, one’s blue and purple, about the same size as Fluttershy, the other is about our size and green and silver. They’re both armed.” Rainbow set down. “Estimated arrival time?” Lyra looked back to Rainbow. “I’d say three minutes.” Dash flew back up. “We’ve got some time to finish this.” Lyra directed Applejack back to the stakes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight stretched out her strange left hand, trying to get used to the lopsided weight, she felt a surge of power from the two for-fingers. “Interesting.” She concentrated, flexing the massive hand. Lances of energy sparked between her fingers. “Very interesting.” She focused on a rock, Maybe it works like a horn. extending the claws towards it. Her arm whirred for a second, locking itself in place, the claws started glowing with restrained energy. “That can’t be good.” The recoil was enormous, jarring her entire chest, a wave of fire-blue pressure and heat went through the entire camp, kicking up sand and dust, which had once been the rock she had attempted to lift, it knocked Dash right out of the air, sending her barreling into Rarity. “Woo!” Pinkie jumped out of the hole she was digging, half of which had come down on top of her. “Do it again Twilight!” Twilight for her part was looking at the impact zone with an expression that may have been awed terror but it was hard to pick out emotions on her scaly face. Where a rock had once stood there was a softly glowing sheet of natural glass. She looked down at her left arm, flexing the claws again. They were remarkably undamaged. “What kind of creature has an energy cannon built into its body?” She screamed, holding the offending limb as far away from her as she could. “Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled, shooting towards the terrified blue creature. “blublbulbul!” Fluttershy screamed though the orb of water that had formed around her. She was panicking, flailing in an attempt to get out, Rainbow simply bounced off the bubble when she tried to interfere. The rest of the team could only look on helplessly as Fluttershy grabbed at her neck, fighting not to give in to the urge to gasp. Her eyes rolled back as she gave in, taking a long draught of the water into her lungs. “What?” She spoke with surprising clarity. “Girls, I can breathe!” Fluttershy jumped for joy inside her bubble. Twilight, still a little deaf from her own mishap, looked on the spectacle with raised eyebrows, then she had an idea. “Fluttershy, concentrate on the bubble.” Fluttershy did as instructed and suddenly she could feel a massive reservoir, directly underneath their camp, where the water she was currently floating in came from. It was incredible, she could feel every flow and eddy as the water lapped at the walls, she could feel all the blind, nameless things crawling and swimming through it. The sudden stream of new information and sensation was almost too much for her, she almost pulled away in terror, but it was too... nice. It made her feel connected, powerful, like she had the strength to make a difference in even the worst times. She had never felt anything like it. "Incredible." She breathed, staring off into space as she envisioned it all. "Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash's concerned voice brought her back to the reality everyone else was working with at the time. "You alright?" Fluttershy, for lack of a better phrase, "pulled a Pinkie". She hopped out of the bubble, wrapping the cyan pegasus in her arms, jumping around and squealing in delight. "Fluttershy! Cant, breathe!" Rainbow choked out around the smothering embrace. "Oops, sorry." Fluttershy let go, allowing Dash to take in a deep breath, the orb of water collapsed in on itself. "It's just, just..." she wracked her brains, trying to come up with a word to describe what she was experiencing. "Huge!" She swung her arms wide and fell back into the sand, laying there with a smile on her face. She started to absentmindedly make a sand-pegasus, within seconds Pinkie had joined her. "Uhh, Lyra." Applejack tapped the mint unicorn on the shoulder, rousing her from the task of driving the stakes into the ground. "What is it now?" Lyra almost glared at Applejack. "Ah think there's somethin' in the water." She pointed behind Lyra, who turned to see the display Pinkie and Fluttershy were putting on. "Well this is interesting." A new voice rang out. Lyra turned back around to face the newcomer. A green and silver hominid, smirking down at her, she already didn't like him. "My name's Tanma, yours?" "Tanma, wait up." A hominid, clad in purple and blue and twice Tanma's size, came huffing up next to him. "I'm not as fast as you, come on." The creature bent over double, panting. "Dekal, you're a toa." Tanma chastised her. "And you're built for speed, I'm built for defense." Dekal stood back up strait. "Let's see what we've got here." "Can I help you?" Lyra asked flatly, her hostility towards Tanma asserting itself. "Tanma." Dekal whispered loudly. "What?" Tanma replied frigidly. "You see that thing talking too right?" "Of course I talk, I was smart enough to survive being a meteorite." Lyra snapped. "And I'd prefer not being talked about like I'm not here." Dekal took a step back. "Okay, sheesh. So, what brings a Vortixx a toa and five... things, to the middle of nowhere?" "Just give me a second to finish this." Lyra huffed, yanking the hammer away from Applejack. "I don't like being interrupted." She drove the stake home with a single smack. "There we go, now, we came here looking for help." "A bit cranky for someone looking for allies, aren't we?" Lyra and Tanma glared death at each other, no one was sure what they were seeing but it was clear that neither liked it. Applejack and Dekal each pulled the mental combatants away from each other, taking it upon themselves to continue deliberations. "Name's Applejack." She offered a hoof, Dekal took it and shook firmly. "Dekal, Toa of Lightning. You've already become acquainted with the local curmudgeon, but I don't believe we know the rest of your troop." Dekal gestured to the rest of the group. "Ah, well, the white one's Rarity, the one having a starin' contest with yer buddy is Lyra, The one with the big hand is Twilight, we jus' call 'er Twi'. Not entirely sure what she is right now." Applejack scratched her chin. "Vortixx." Dekal waved her on. "What now?" Applejack raised an eyebrow. "She's a vortixx, where have you been the last three months?" Dekal sat in the sand, to get more comfortable. "They've only been crafting all the tools in this wasteland." "Well we only got to this place, two minutes ago." "You know, Lyra said you were looking for help with something, how about you just gather up your team and I let you explain your situation to the turaga." Dekal pointed to the mountain pass. "Did he say his name was Tanma?" Applejack snapped around to look at Twilight, who was pointing at Tanma. "Yeah, why?" Dekal rested her head on her palm. "I have a feeling we don't want him hearing this." Twilight said carefully. "Do you think you could send him away for a moment." "My friend, you have no idea how long I've waited for that opportunity. I've been stuck with him for a week." She turned to Tanma, who was practically butting heads with Lyra. "Tanma," He looked up, "Could you go get Vakama?" Lyra snickered at him. "Why?" He questioned. "It's either that or keeping an eye on your new friend while I go get him." Dekal waved him off. "Unless you'd rather continue your little staring match." Tanma looked for a second like he was going to refuse to go, if for no other reason than to spare his pride. "Fine." He deflated, shooting one last glare at Lyra before running back south a few yards and jumping into the air, igniting his jet pack. "That gives us a good five minutes, what did you want to talk about." "Are you familiar with a matoran named Gavla?" Twilight asked. Dekal gave her a withering glance. "No but Tanma was, said Makuta Vamprah decided to take her down with him when Karda Nui went up in smoke." An expression somewhere between sadness and anger passed through Dekal's eyes as she said Vamprah's name, the sadness was outward but the anger was directed inward. "What if I told you that they were both still alive?" Twilight pushed further. Dekal's eyes lit up for a second before darkening again. "They're the thing you need help with, aren't they?" She seemed resigned. "Far from it, they are currently one of our best chances at stopping the real threat." Twilight looked Dekal in the eyes. "I'd say, when can I join?" Dekal flashed a cocky smile. "I'd been trying to find that Viper Vamprah for years, I need to apologize for something." Dekal peered around Twilight at Fluttershy, who was molding a bubble of water into any and every shape she could think of, smiling from ear to ear. "Heh, I remember that look." She chuckled, nostalgia softening her face. "That's the look of a newly christened toa." She returned her attention to Applejack. "When you tap into your power for the first time and you can feel it everywhere, every cloud, every trace of the air is saturated with it, you can feel it move and know it's yours to command, and you are its. You can't really describe the sensation, it's just too..." She muttered something under her breath, Twilight felt something's eyes on her. "Huge. Isn't that right Helryx?" "How is it you always know when I'm there?" A hardened voice called out from behind Twilight, Her new body's instincts kicked in and she whirled around to hack at the newcomer with her left arm, only to be blocked by the shaft of the blue toa's mace. "You obviously have no idea what you're messing with here girl." Helryx's mask was silver, With three blue indents in the shape of hourglasses on the forehead and cheeks, her eyes were hard and yellow, her body was blue and sleeked, her armor notched in a fish-scale pattern. Twilight backed off, not wanting to make a wrong move near a being that put off the aura of authority this Helryx did. "And Brutaka, how goes the split personality problem?" A cloak seemed to fall away, revealing a towering golden and blue brute, standing over Helryx like some kind of monstrous bodyguard. "Still wearing that fake Olmak I see." Dekal seemed painfully at ease with the sudden introduction of a creature nearly twice her size. "You didn't forget what my mask did already, did you? Although, moving on. Were you aware that Vamprah is still alive?" A look that may have been mistaken for surprise passed through Helryx's eyes but was gone before anyone would have been able to register it, anyone that is, other than Dekal. "No? Well than I'm glad not to be out of the loop." She gestured at Applejack. "Applejack here and her friends are looking for allies, not in getting rid of Vamprah mind you. And, from what I understand of your organization, you're always ready to help when the cause is just." Dekal's eyes almost flashed with a challenge. "That depends on the cause." Helryx rebuffed. "How 'bout the survival of a race?" Applejack interjected. "Ah, it speaks." Helryx knelt down to look Applejack in the eye. "And what has your people done to deserve our assistance." "How 'bout reform two Makuta?" Applejack stated, now real surprise fell over Helryx's face. "Seems 'Ah struck a nerve there." Helryx stood back up, looking down on Applejack. "Impossible." She stated flatly. "So what? If you didn't care ta' do it than it can't be done?" Applejack's eyebrows furrowed. "From what Ah've gathered, from both Twi's description of poor Krika's breakdown, an' a look at that book Krika gave Rar'. It doesn't look like ya'll even tried." Helryx looked stung. "We did all we could." She averted her gaze. "Yeah, in the way of stopping a spread. Rar' could Ah see that book?" Rarity, stunned by her friend's deft handling of the situation, reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the book Krika had written, passing it to Applejack. Applejack flipped through, quickly finding the page she was looking for. "Ah may not be some fancy psychiatrist, but ta' me, this looks less like help, an' more like a Griffin Inquisition." She turned the book around to reveal a sketch of a poster, on the poster there was a rather diabolical looking makuta, holding up a screaming matoran, the emblazoned text along the bottom read, in matoran script, "Don't be like him or you will be brought down." Helryx was now openly shocked. "Ah see we're gettn' somewhere, now don't ya' jus' feel plumb terrible 'bout that?" Helryx recomposed herself, rubbing her forehead. "Where did you get that?" She turned to Rarity, who nearly jumped. "Krika gave it to me." "Krika is alive as well?" Helryx turned to Dekal, questioning her with a single glare. "It was hinted at," Dekal shrugged, "but the real question is, how good must AJ here be to get you not only get you to avoid a question, but to get you showing emotion?" She laughed. "I believe the answer is, painfully good." She gestured back to Applejack, who was wearing what could only be described as a predator's grin. "A'll give you one guess as to why he's not 'ere with us." Applejack challenged, looking Helryx right in the eyes. "He's dead." Helryx whispered. A look of realization passing over her face. "He died to make sure you could get here." "Close but not quite. He is dead, but he died making sure a lil' filly got out alright. Wouldn't you like ta' pay him back?" "What about Vamprah?" Helryx crossed her arms. "You and I both know he was my fault." Dekal stated mirthlessly. "And I plan to go help him." A small lance of energy danced on Dekal's fingers. "I'll see who I can spare." Helryx agreed before turning back to, the so far silent, Brutaka. "How about you?" Brutaka grinned, framed by the tusk-like projections on either side of his mask. "We would be glad to." The brute hefted a double bladed sword from his back, planting it in the sand to cement his agreement. "Good, I'll see if I can get Axonn to go with you." Helryx nodded. "Artakha, back to the base if you please." The air around Helryx glowed for a second before she disappeared in a flash of light. "Alright, Vakama's old, take's him a while to get anywhere, I'm slowed down by him, I come back and Brutaka has joined the number here. What did I miss?" Tanma set down behind Dekal. "AJ just gave Helryx a verbal beatdown!" Dekal clapped. "It was awesome." "Does this mean we've got The Order on list as allies?" Lyra asked around Rarity's book. "Cause if we do I'd say we're set. Eight members, all total badflanks, several of them practically invulnerable, the rest are extremely powerful, oh and one of them is invisible. How did Krika get this much info?" She lightly slapped the book. "He's got an entire chapter on these guys, and a well put together glossary." Tanma visibly stiffened. "Krika?" He growled. "That monster's alive?" He grabbed Lyra by the scruff of her neck. Lyra snarled back. "And if he is?" Her lyre snaked its way out of the bag cast over her back, melting over her hoof, the claws sprouted out of her gauntlet. She pushed him away. "What of it?" "Tanma! Stop your foolishness!" A strong, if ancient sounding, voice rang out over the camp. A red and black being, about as tall as Tanma, walked up to him, the newcomer wore a red mask with a projection from the bottom, giving the illusion of a beard, his browline was large and rough, he wore a vest decorated with sown-on flames and carried a staff adorned with an orb that flickered as if it held a flame. He placed a hand on Tanma's shoulder, yanking him away from Lyra. "These are guests and are to be treated as such." Tanma looked like he was about to argue but took a deep breath and backed off. "Go Vakama." Dekal muttered. Vakama turned back to the group. "Brutaka, my friend, how goes life?" He bowed shallowly to the golden behemoth, who shrugged. "We are content." "Now Tanma told me that you were in search of allies to hold off some threat. What exactly is the threat?" "Well," Lyra decided to take this one, "There is a pan-dimensional warlord that has seen fit to wipe our race from our world, our military hasn't seen any use for the past fifty generations, so we are woefully ill equipped to hold them off. We've found a way to keep them at bay for two weeks, just enough to buy time to search for allies." "Other than makuta." Tanma snorted. "Makuta?" Vakama cocked an eyebrow. "What are you going on about now?" "Ask them." "True we have Makuta Vamprah on our side, we had Krika but He died in the initial attack, ensuring the safety of a child." Lyra smirked at Tanma, who looked like someone had just slugged him with a brick and then insulted his mother. "Impossible." Tanma snapped. "The makuta were monsters, that any of them survived is a stretch but you say they have reformed? That just stretches suspension of belief too far." He leaned in to whisper in Vakama's ear. "Turaga, they are spewing nonsense, I say we leave them to whatever their supposed 'attacker' has planned." "Nonsense Tanma? The only one spewing nonsense here is you, now get away from my head. I see no deceit in her eyes." Vakama waved Tanma away. "Forgive him, he can be more than a little overzealous. I'll have to take council with the other turaga before I can guarantee that you have our support. But come, walk with me, I'd like to hear of how you turned the makuta. I had a brief stint as a villain myself and find such tales fascinating." Vakama turned, motioning for them to follow. Lyra and the rest of the Away Team, or A. Team if you will, and Brutaka Fell in behind him. "If you want to know how we got Vamprah on our side, it was rather easy, it only took two words." Lyra told Vakama. "Oh, and what were those?" "I'm sorry." Vakama stopped in place, turning to look Lyra in the eyes. "No." He said, with the air of a man who had just heard a rather juicy bit of gossip. "Yes, one of our rulers, who shall go unnamed-" She leaned in close as they continued walking. "Princess Luna" She whispered, Vakama chuckled. "- tried to have him killed, in response he took over a town and used it to make a personal army, when Luna showed up with hers there was a afternoon long battle, Vamprah was defeated and just when we were about to send him and Gavla, shut up Tanma," Tanma, who had opened his mouth to say something closed it and pouted, "back here with their tails between their legs Luna realized the error of her ways and said the magic words. As it is now he's working as a guard and Gavla has become the royal smith." Vakama nodded, stroking the projection on his mask. "What of Makuta Krika?" "Krika, you're going to have to ask Rarity about that." Lyra turned to look at Rarity. "Come to think of it you haven't told any of us. Mind sharing?" "Well it's not much of a story." Rarity, shied away. "Nothing so epic." "He was easily subdued?" Vakama cocked an eyebrow. "My little sister smiled at him." Rarity shrugged, Tanma snorted. "You have something to add to a tale you did not witness, Tanma?" Vakama challenged the matoran. "Just this," Tanma stated flatly, "Once a monster, always a monster." Vakama's eyes seemed to flash and the faint flickering in his staff blazed for a moment. The Turaga took a deep breath and the staff's light calmed. "May I tell you a story Tanma?" Vakama started firmly, this was a command not a request. "Long ago, when I myself was a toa, my team encountered the vizorak hoard." "Yes the invasion of Metru Nui. I don't see what that has to do with-" Vakama struck the sand with his staff, the air seemed to grow warmer. "Silence!" Tanma's mouth shut with an audible snap. "Now, as I was saying. We were captured, changed by the vizorak into hordika, more commonly known as?" "Kronak Toa." Tanma droned out. "Meaning Monster Toa. During our time as monsters we each had to suppress the primal instincts that come with that title, I believe you know a hordika by the name of Murtuk, for some of us like Matau and Whenua these instincts took on the form of pack behavior, which is honestly beneficial at times. For Nuju and Ownua they took on the form of isolationism and in Ownua it came with an almost uncontrollable rage. For Nokama it manifested as a deeper connection with her element." "You mean it can get better?" Fluttershy squeaked from the back of the group, just in front of Brutaka. Vakama looked back at her. "Apparently, you'd have to ask Nokama for a better description." "Wow..." "Anyway, for me, unfortunately, it manifested as anger. I was already angry with myself for allowing my team to fall to such a fate, I was also frustrated at them for blaming me for it, I saw it as disrespect and in all honesty I wanted to go home more than anything else in the world." He stopped walking, eyes glazed for a moment as he spoke. "To just go back to my days in the forge, carefully, patiently, crafting masks for others out of kanoka disks." He sighed before shaking himself and continuing to walk. "I struck out on my own, less to clear my head and more to rage at the world for cursing me so. And I was captured again, only this time," Vakama stared at Tanma, as if trying to pierce him with his eyes, "they didn't harm me. Instead they offered me a deal, I could go back to my home, begin my trade again and be left there in peace, with the blindly loyal vizorak as my assistants, if I brought her the rahaga, who had saved us, and the rest of my team. Do you know what I said to her Tanma?" He looked at Tanma, the shame of the answer clear on his face. "You refused, what toa would give in to such demands?" Tanma waved him off. "Wrong." Vakama knocked a rock from his path with his staff. "I agreed." Tanma's face was a mixture of shock and horror. "I agreed because I wanted to go home, I agreed because I was angry, I agreed to do an evil thing, not out of malice but out of what I believed to be justified rage, and the simple desire to go home. In my quest to carry out my end of the bargain I became a monster and when my team came for my I tried to kill them and I would have if one of them hadn't taken a blow from a misfired rhotuka spinner for me and them pleaded for me to remember my duty to the matoran. Contrary to popular belief it was the fact that he had taken the spinner that made me pay attention to him. I didn't give a kane-ra dropping about the matoran at that point, I had already lost everything while they had hated me and accused me of killing my hero, why should I have cared about them? Now Lyra, why do you think I became a monster in the first place?" He pointed his staff at Lyra, his eyes already holding the answer. "Because you felt unappreciated, you had fought for them with everything you had and they still ignored you and blamed you when things went wrong." "Correct. You could learn a thing or two about reading people from this pony Tanma." Vakama chuckled. "If that's why I turned than Tanma, why did I go back?" Tanma looked at him for a second then rolled his eyes. "Because you realized what you were doing was wrong." Vakama brought the staff down on a large rock, a metallic clank pealed through the air and the rock glowed red hot. "Wrong again!" He bellowed, Even Brutaka flinched at the sight of his wrath. Vakama cooled down quickly. "I went back because by first coming after me and then in taking that hit they had proven that they cared for me, that they wanted what was best for both me and the matoran. Now Twilight, since Tanma has the emotional depth of a spoon, what does a real smile between friends mean?" Twilight thought for a moment, considering what she had learned from her studies in friendship. "A smile can communicate trust, happyness, caring and many other positive things directed both at the user and the recipient." Twilight smiled, satisfied with herself. "Correct, though I wouldn't have broken it down quite so much. What I was looking for was simply the third example. Caring, by smiling she showed that she cared for him at some level, and may have even enjoyed his company. So you see, heart-of-an-ice-cube Tanma, the reason that smiling worked was all in Krika's motivations. I've been looking through historical documents and it seems that no one ever showed any kind of caring towards a makuta and for someone like that a smile can change the entire course of their life." He knelt, touching the orb on the end of his staff to the sand. "It can change it from something ugly, course and gritty," The orb started to glow, as did the sand beneath it, "to something beautiful." The orb stopped glowing and he lifted a sheet of softly glowing glass out of the sand, it was an oval with five shapes removed, two that looked like crescent brushstrokes and three small circles. "Now even you can't get this wrong Tanma," He continued, "what do these five shapes symbolize?" Tanma looked puzzled by this question. "The top and bottom crescents represent good and evil, and the three dots represent unity, duty and destiny as a path away from evil." Vakama nodded. "Now, this next one I'm sure you will get wrong so I turn to the one who out talked Helryx, what was your name?" "Applejack sir." She tipped her hat to him. "Applejack, what would happen if one of these virtues were to fall out of the pattern, say unity?" "Than whoever was trying to get over would be trapped." "Exactly, and you can't have unity without caring for those you are to be united with. In order to care for those under your protection you must feel empathy towards them, and they must show it in return. It is a form of unity." They had long since entered the town and had been attracting stares. "Now remove that and all you have is duty, which is not worth anything if you don't care about it, which then leaves destiny which is nothing without a duty to guide it. In short you cannot cross without these three things, and they are also the only things keeping you on the side of good, remove or damage one and they all fall, leaving you to tumble down into evil." He stopped outside a building. "They always fall in the same order, and the most easily damaged of all three is unity, you choose your duty, you can influence your destiny but you only control a small part of unity, the rest is controlled by those around you and if they damage yours it's all too easy for your other virtues to fall. That is what I believe happened to the makuta, we damaged their unity, and caused their downfall, insofar only Nokama agrees with me but in my eyes it all adds up. We gave them no reason to care for us and so they didn't. We brought about our own doom and theirs." He looked up at the building. "The council is still meeting, I will plead your cause but these decisions take time, especially seeing as we have our own issues to deal with, I should probably have an answer for you by tonight. Until then, you should explore, this is after all the elbow of Makuta Teridax's body on top of being a cultural hub, so I'm sure there will be something of interest to you here." He passed the glass ornament to Applejack, who caught it carefully. "You can keep that." Somthing stirred in Twilight's head with a single word. "What? What? What!?"
Vicron	779	15	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-07-08T09:08:16+00:00	2012-07-08T09:08:16+00:00	465	Vamprah was in trouble, he had barely made it out the door when he heard a light cough from behind him. It wasn't the exasperated harrumph he had been expecting, but it was certainly meant to get his attention. "Vamprah, may we speak to you, alone?" The voice belonged to Celestia, he was sure of that, he was also sure of the basic way she was holding herself, three inches, an almost painfully awkward way for a creature her size to hold itself. He heard Gavla turn her head to look at him, the mental link they shared conveying everything he needed to know. He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Gavla left the room, probably shooting a glare at Luna as she left. "Yes, your highness?" Vamprah spoke carefully. "Blueblood has been coming to me with some rather strange stories," ah, that was the issue, "but with him being Blueblood, and willing to say just about anything to get out of something he doesn't want to do, I didn't believe him. But certain... oversights, have forced me to re-evaluate his claims." Uh oh, turns out he wasn't the one in trouble. "And you don't trust Gavla to come clean." Vamprah nearly cringed. He heard Celestia nod, vaguely. He hated using echolocation in places like this, he couldn't hear anything until almost a full second after it happened, big antechambers, a bat's worst nightmare. "The green dye and the placing of her initial on him could be considered a uniform, her periodic artificial blinding and her near constant insults, she did say she was going to mess with him, and her outfitting of him for some of her more awkward inventions, the position of assistant often comes with the title of guinea pig. But, Blueblood has come to me with the following stories. Being used as a target for long range weapons, having molten metal flung at him to make him dance, having his face stuck in a furnace, and creating an elaborate illusion that involved being placed in a room made of sentient razor blades, all of which wanted him dead, and only being released from said illusion just before his head would be sliced to pieces. Are any of these stories true?" He briefly considered lying to her, but he had always been terrible at hiding his tics, so he sighed and spoke honestly. "All of them are true. Although, he wasn't being used as a target, she was aiming four feet to any side of him, if they came any closer to him than that she would throw out the design. All but one of her attempts exploded in her grasp, failing to so much as launch the projectile, the one that didn't explode was accurate enough and has been fitted onto the Earth Pony's armor. All in all Gavla sustained more injuries from that incident than he did altogether. And just for the record, I would like to say that I tried to talk her out of the razor blades." He heard Celestia tap the floor a few times. "Tell Gavla that Blueblood has been removed from his position." She commanded calmly. "There is another matter that may need to be attended to. We have recently learned that the forces we will be obtaining may be much smaller than we originally planned, you remember when you told me about the rahkshi the other day." He nodded. "How many do you think you could make in two weeks notice?" Vamprah took a second to do a few calculations in his head. A kraata was simply concentrated antidermis. He thought about how much it took to make a single kraata, how long it took for him to regenerate his gaseous essence, and the speed at which they changed from kraata to the rahkshi armor. "Do I need to move within the next four days?" He flexed a wing, anticipating not being able to do so anytime soon. "No, the shield will hold." Celestia said apprehensively. "Although, I would prefer it if you didn't wear yourself out, making different kinds takes different amounts of strength correct?" "Yes and no, it all depends on how often the makuta makes that particular kind of ktaata. I could make four-hundred Vorahk by tomorrow morning." He nodded, shifting on his wings. "But, I think I'll need a good flight beforehand, I won't be able to for a while." He took off, luckily the throne room had several large holes to allow Celestia and Luna to take off if they felt the need to. _______________ There was a squirrel, and soon there wouldn't be. Gavla breathed softly from beneath the pile of leaves she had buried herself in, the nut she had positioned herself near was the perfect bait, at least in her eyes. It was so close, just barely out of her optimal range. It took one more step forward, she smiled, her fangs gleaming softly, and pounced, the rodent barely had a second to react, but managed with the expected speed, almost making it out of her range when she came down on its tail. She wrapped her claws around the bushy fur under her hoof and lifted it up. "Thought you could evade me didn't you?" She taunted it, poking lightly at its exposed belly. "But guess what, no one escapes from me." She knew she was a sadist, and she was perfectly at peace with that, she knew how much she was going to enjoy peeling the flesh off this small morsel's bones. Unfortunately she was also aware of the horrified looks she was getting as she released and recaptured the little creature, opening shallow cuts on its body with each capture. She sighed, surrendering herself to the fact that her fun had to be cut short, and promptly bit its head off, ending the vermin's suffering once and for all. Though she wasn't about to admit it, she loved the screams of disgusted terror that surrounded her as the blood's sweet tang filled her mouth, fear and pain, she loved causing them both; and while many would call her sick for this fact, she considered it more as self acceptance. She tried to keep her urge to hurt things under control, direct it at those that deserved it or those that were about to be dead anyway, and Blueblood, he reminded her far too much of herself. Self accepting doesn't mean not self-loathing. She took no enjoyment from death, it was boring, it was the extinguishing of those shadows that she held so dear. That was another thing that most people found strange about her, most revere the light, they felt safe in the light. But her, she loved the dark, it didn't make sense to her that others would cling to light, light can hurt, light can burn away, light can hate, it can refuse to show itself, but shadows cannot, your shadow will always be there, shadows can't hurt you unless forced to, shadows can't hate, shadows can't hide themselves, shadows can embrace you, and death, the final mercy, was referred to as a shadow. But she was letting her mind wander, she did that quite a lot when Vamprah wasn't there to keep her in track, she spit out the furry cranium of the ex-squirrel and set to work skinning it, fur would only complicate her digestion. She could still feel Vamprah in the back of her head, that was her favorite part about their link, that it was always there, it was something constant for her to hold onto, something, and someone, she could count on, even at this distance she could tell he was flying, and about to put himself out of commission for a few days, and that there was nothing she could say to stop him, she was also aware that she had to fire Blueblood, she had done that and gone straight to the gardens, where she had caught the squirrel that she was currently skinning. She was in a bad mood, but she had something to look forward to, tomorrow she was going to have an army of Vorahk to terrorize her would be soldiers with. She was going to enjoy that, damn those guards were taking forever to get their claws installed. It was just pliantly hot metal, she had to deal with worse when she had been hired by a toa of lightning. Fun fact, toa of lightning actually have very little control, and pain is not something they deal well with. "Miss Gavla?" A voice said behind her, forcing her to abandon her partially skinned treat. "What?" She turned around, it was one of the earth pony guards, he was already in full gear, the black armor was built in columns, inspired by the towers one so often saw around Old Canterlot, the boxy design, while looking cumbersome, lent an air of authority to the wearer and was surprisingly comfortable and easy to move in, owing in part to the fact that the joints hid ball-joint-like fixtures, allowing for a maximum range of movement, her only working ranged weapon, she called it the Rampart Blaster, was attached to the back, when in use it would slide around the pony's neck into firing position, its shape suited the rest of the armor, and the recoil was so massive that she was sure only an earth pony could handle it. "We're having a bit of trouble with a few of the stallions." He eyed the dripping carcass in her claws warily, more likely than not also noting the purple-stained fur around her mouth. "And what do you want me to do about it?" Gavla sliced off a strip of meat from her catch's stomach, popping it into her mouth. "Well, you said to come to you with any problems." He managed to wrench his face away from her maw, she almost chuckled at the shock still evident in his eyes. "I did, didn't I?" She got up. "Alright, Who's giving you trouble?" She walked past him. "It's a few of the unicorns, they've put up a force field and everything." A force field? That shouldn't be too much trouble. "You can say it by the way." She spoke a few moments later to break the silence that had fallen between them. "Say what?" He shifted nervously as he walked. "What you've been dying to say since you found me... what's your name?" "Copper Plate ma'am." "Copper Plate, I won't be offended." "What is wrong with you?" And there it was, her favorite question. "You see these?" She bared her fangs, letting him take a good look before she spoke again. "These mean that I'm not an herbivore like you, I need meat as part of my diet, and the princess said she wouldn't get it for me. So I have to hunt." "That I can understand but did you really have to play with the poor thing like that?" She hadn't expected him to see that. "Well no... that was just for me." She pushed open the door to her forge. The four unicorns that had the shield up were cowering in a corner, as the rest of the guards just sort of looked on, there was nothing to suggest that the shield was anything more than a fixture. "You guy's need to lighten up a little, sheesh, a few whiners and your all up in a tizzy." She strolled over to the shield. "You have ten seconds to drop this shield before I break it down." She started to mentally count. "So we can what? Have molten metal shoved up our legs, no thanks." He ate up all his time. "Alright," she slipped the fingers out from below her claws, "have it your way." She slashed at the barrier, the fingers catching on the magic of the shield, causing them to spark wildly as a rend appeared in the ward, she pulled the fingers back out and the shield disintegrated. "You unicorns have such a trivial weakness, pure iron, give me a break." She waved over to where the sets of claws lay, the spires still sitting in the furnace to keep them hot. "You have," she checked with Vamprah, "ten minutes to get those claws on and get out of my forge, before I put them on you myself. You're new aren't you?" The shuddering nods were all the answer she needed, she loved causing fear. "Than you have five minutes." ------------------------------------- "You're sure that there's nothing I can say to stop you?" Gavla paced behind Vamprah, he sighed. "You already know the answer to that, and besides, we've already caused a rather big problem, I need to make up for it somehow." He shook for a couple seconds before gagging up a pair of dark grey slugs, kicking one of them into the charged vat Gavla had set up. Vamprah winced as the creature chattered in pain as it transformed, it was dead almost instantly. What floated to the surface was the subject of many creature's, and basically everything on Odina's, nightmare. The dripping shell of a rahkshi. Vamprah placed the other kraata into the armor, waking the first vorahk, Vamprah nodded to it and it took its place near the wall. Gavla looked it over, appraising the grade of its armor. It was around twice her height, the tri-split reptilian face glaring back at her. "So, I'm going to be in charge of these things while you're out, right?" Vamprah nodded. "Four hundred rahkshi, hmm, on second thought, go right ahead, this will be fun." She crossed her forelimbs, hovering out of the room. "And just so you know, we both have to make it up to them, not just you." He smiled back at her as she closed the door. Well, might as well get this over with. Vamprah started wretching directly into the vat, a noxious, acrid stench filling his nostrils. Ug, it stinks, this doesn't normally stink. He and the first rahkshi lifted the armored shells from the vat as they bubbled to the surface. "Thanks." He grunted as it helped him lift the last shell from the energized metal. He knew it was just doing as its instincts commanded but thanking it made him feel better, he could already feel his strength flagging, he would have to finish making the kraata quickly. Wretching onto the floor, he telepathically instructed the vorahk to place the other kraata into their bodies. He could feel his consciousness fading. A little more, just a little more. he strained, forcing one last kraata to fall from his mouth, before he fell into dreams. ----------------------------------- The next morning. Vinyl Scratch hadn't wanted to get up yet, she was on the night guard, she had only just gotten to bed when they had called her out for special training. The Canterlot gardens, not someplace she went regularly, Octavia talked about them all the time, said they were peaceful. Yeah right, she snorted, try getting dragged out to them at the crack of dawn when you just pulled an all-nighter. "Alright, you maggots!" The smith barked at the gathered crowd. "I am Gavla, and welcome to Warzone Combat Training! If you thought boot camp was bad, I suggest you find your drill instructor and apologize when we're done!" Gavla was wearing a pair of small saddlebags and had a squad of four massive reptilian hominids on either side of her, along with one of the unicorn nurses from the castle. Wait a second, boot camp? Vinyl had never been to boot camp, she was working off a community service ticket. "The creatures on either side of me are known as Vorahk Rahkshi, they will be your obstacle course. One you can all make it through them without failing, you will be able to deal with anything the enemy will be able to throw your way." Gavla looked around, as if trying to figure out the most efficient way to kill them all. "Before we start though, I need you to form three member groups, each with one unicorn, one pegasus, and one earth pony." They quickly found their groups, old clicks asserting themselves. Vinyl tugged at the collar of her purple-red armor, she had honestly been terrified when she had first seen it, there were pointed spires on the shoulders and all down the back, the knee joints on the front and back were also pointed, and anywhere that wasn't looked like it could slice a pony in half, she was the most surprised by how comfortable it was, she had asked what the practical reason for all the spikes was, and gotten a shrug from the green mare that had outfitted her. She'd told her to ask the smith, but as of yet she'd only seen her during the "claw incident". The "claw incident" was when they had told her to hold still and pulled a set of red hot claws out, that had not been fun, and the smith now scared her shitless. She had never seen anything just tear through a shield being cast by one pony, much less four, like that, and that smile, like they were already begging for mercy. She shuddered slightly as she thought about it. Vinyl found herself floundering as she searched for a group to join. "Recruit!" She froze as Gavla yelled at her. "Look at me!" Vinyl whirled around, nearly tripping over herself. "There's a group over there that needs a unicorn." Gavla was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "And by the way, I shouldn't be the one you're scared of today," she smiled that same smile, pointing at the vorahk behind her, "they are." She chuckled. Bowl control? Are you still there? Good. Vinyl walked over to the group Gavla had motioned to. "Hey, how's it going?" She asked the stallions. "Fine." The pegasus said. The pegasus' silver armor was much less flashy than hers and much more sleek than the earth pony's, there wasn't a hard line on the thing, no projections, nothing, but the entire thing looked like a continuous blade, even the wings looked like they could slice through whatever they wanted, "The smith's such a blowhard, I know for a fact that my Drill Sargent was the worst of the worst. If she thinks she can top that, I dare her to try." "Have you seen her smile?" Vinyl asked, looking over her shoulder to make sure Gavla wasn't watching. "It's like she wants to floss with your guts, I would not dare a pony that crazy to do anything." "She's all show, trust me." He waved her off. "Name's Sandcroft, my silent friend here is Copper Plate." "Listen up!" Gavla barked. "Before we start I want to make two things perfectly clear! One, these vorahk will not show mercy, they've been instructed to leave you alive, nothing more!" There was that smile again. "And two, You are expendable, the other ponies in your group are not! Anyone caught violating this command will be... reprimanded. I'll see what I can get away with!" Bowl control? Don't die on me now! We haven't even started yet! That smile, why in the hell couldn't she get over the look on Gavla's face? She could practically feel herself running away every time she saw it. She saw the vorahk tighten their grips. "You have ten seconds." Everyone just sat there for a moment, unsure what to make of this command. "Ten!" Vinyl got it right away. "Guys, come on!" Vinyl took off, running into the dense trees off the edge of the path, Sandcroft and Copper Plate looked at each other for a moment before following, quickly catching up to her. "Why are we running?" Sandcroft yelled. "Alive, nothing more." Copper Plate murmured. "One!" Gavla shrieked, and all hell broke loose. A rahkshi burst from the canopy, screams and bolts of energy flew through the air. "What in the hell is wrong with this mare?" Vinyl yelled as she ducked the rahkshi's staff, a massive crack pealed through the air, the vorahk was blasted through the brush, Copper Plate whinnied in surprise as he was nearly lifted off his hooves, the barrel of his Rampart Blaster smoking. "That has a lot more kick than you'd expect." He pawed at the ground. "We need to find a defensible position, somewhere up high probably. Sandcroft." "Already on it." Sandcroft flew up above the trees. "New girl," he looked over at Vinyl, "what's your name?" "Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch." She looked nervously at the underbrush around them. "Alright, Scratch, you any good with resonance fields?" "Yeah." She put a little energy into the field. A resonance field was an alarm system, designed to create a large sound when something touched it, what good would that do them here, these creatures weren't exactly stealthy. "Why a resonance field?" "I get the feeling they're called Vorahk for a reason." "And you'd be right." Sandcroft flew back down. "Bad news, they can fly." "What?" Vinyl started eying the canopy, she had figured that one had just climbed a tree or something. "It gets worse, their attacks can be ranged, they're picking off pegusi like flies, so getting up high doesn't seem like a good idea. Their attacks seem to drain energy from the target. The name makes sense now." "Crick." Vinyl whirled around, eying the brush behind her, she knew she heard something. "Scratch, what's up?" Plate walked up next to her. "Thought I heard something." She shook her head. "So where should we go then?" A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over her and she stumbled forward. "Scratch, what's wrong?" Plate took a step forward to support her. "Nothing, just got up too early." She shook herself. Something hissed, a lot of somethings. They snapped around, standing back to back, ready to defend themselves, no one breathed. Suddenly, snakes and other animals came pouring out of the brush, all fleeing in the same direction. "Think we should follow them?" "Better question, why didn't they set off the resonance field?" The Rampart Blaster whirred to life, glowing lightly with restrained energy. Something big moved, causing a large bush to shake. "Run!" Plate shot off the blaster, vaporizing the bush. They charged through the brush, ducking branches, jumping bushes; after a second they could see their pursuer, the silver and black armor glinting ominously. Vinyl hazarded a glance as it screamed at them, its open jaw revealing the slug-like kraata. Another wave of fatigue washed over her and she tripped, turning her ankle rather painfully. Falling onto her face she looked up at Sandcroft and Copper Plate, who had stopped, a few feet ahead of her, then back to the rahkshi, which was trying to pry its staff out of a stubborn bush, which was withering as it pried at it. Gavla's command shot through her mind. "You are expendable, the other ponies in your group are not." She forced herself to her hooves. "Plate, Sandcroft, run, I'll hold it here!" The two guards nodded and ran. The vorahk managed to tear its weapon from the plant, the promise of death in its glowing eyes. Vinyl tried to remember a battle spell, Energy Bolt, Fire Wave, anything. The rahkshi screamed at her and charged, Vinyl cast up a shield, the creature slammed headfirst into it, shaking itself off and jamming its staff into the shield, Vinyl felt that same wave of fatigue, she cast out the shield pushing away the vorahk, before banishing the wall of energy altogether. Another wave of tiredness and it felt like a pit had opened in her stomach, a second and third Rahkshi jumped out at her, she forced magic to flow through her, the armor lit up, lances of energy flew from the spires, seeking out and blasting the three rahkshi, forcing them back. So that's what these are for. The three monstrous hominids wailed in frustration, before charging her, staffs set to spear her. "Enough!" Plate's voice sounded somewhere above her, one of the Rahkshi was blasted through the underbrush, followed by another, the crack of his cannon was nearly deafening, a silver blur collided with the third Rahkshi's face, knocking it away. "You didn't think we'd really just leave ya' did you?" Sandcroft grinned at her. "Sandcroft, Scratch'll be fine, get me down from here!" Vinyl looked up, Copper Plate was hanging by the claws on his back legs, from a branch that looked dangerously close to snapping. "The kick on this thing is too much for this branch, it's going to snap." Sandcroft flew up, hooking his forelegs under Copper Plate's torso, Vinyl fought the urge to chuckle. "Not a word!" Copper barked at her as Sandcroft awkwardly flew him down. "Thanks guys." She limped towards them. "What happened?" Copper, lifted her onto his back. "Hey!" "Oh shush, you'll be a liability if your limping along, and this way you can focus on watching our backs." Sandcroft hovered next to her, looking dangerously close to laughing at her. "So, what happened to the leg?" "I twisted the ankle when I fell." Suddenly Gavla's amplified voice sounded from somewhere above them. "It's a beautiful day in the Canterlot Gardens and we've got quite a matchup today, twenty three squads of guards verses seventy rahkshi vorahk. there are currently seven guard squads left not drooling into the forest floor, could the vorahk that took them down please get them cleaned up and brought back to base. And just so you guys know, any one who can find and defeat me will get the rahkshi off their butts. Good luck." "Well, I think we just found our goal." Copper nodded. "Vinyl, you any good with tracking spells?" "No. My specialty is sound, I can make and control sounds but when it comes to tracking anything I'm useless." "Well, so much for that, Sandcroft, she was above the canopy, think you could track her down from up there?" Sandcroft shrugged. "If those things are still patrolling up there, I'd say that'll be difficult at best." He took off, shouting over his shoulder. "But I'm still gonna try, if I don't get zapped, follow the whistles." ----------------------- The Doctor woke up slowly, he didn't want to. The world of dreams was so much more manageable, for example, Ditsy was still there in his dreams, the girls had never found him out. In his dreams he had never left, in his dreams he could grow old and die. But someone was pounding on the door to the Tardis... again. "Alright, alright, who wants to slap me now?" He forced himself over to the door, throwing it open. It was Cheerilee, oh great, it wasn't enough that every mother in stinking Canterlot wanted to kill him for refusing Kal, stupid amplification... however the hell he had done that. Now the teachers were in on it too. "Before you cuff me around the ears, let me ask; which would you rather have, slavery with the constant threat of death, or just death?" "Death, I should think." Cheerilee pushed past him. "It really is bigger on the inside." She spoke curtly and with the detachment that came with scientific curiosity. "Yes..." The Doctor eyed her warily. "I've never had someone react quite that way to it before. If you're not here to attack me, then what do you want?" "Dinky came to me earlier," uh oh, "she told me the most interesting thing. She said that Ditsy couldn't board the big-inside ship." "I never got the chance to spend much time with her, so you'll forgive me if I'm not quite sure how this is relevant." Why won't you leave? Is what he really wanted to say, he just needed some time to himself, without angry ponies trying to slit his throat. Cheerilee whipped around, and there was the slap, this was a bit harder than the other ones, it sent him sprawling. He panted into the floor a couple times, "I get the feeling I should remember you." He forced himself back up. "Sorry, for whatever I did this time." "I told her not to get mixed up with you." Cheerilee growled at him. The Doctor snapped to attention, that look, yes, he remembered her. Oh buck. "I knew there was something about you, you ooze trouble." He backed away from Cheerilee's enraged form. "And now where is she? Huh!" She pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. "Where's Ditsy you, sorry!" She drove her hoof into his face, his vision burst with white. "Excuse!" Again. "For a stallion!" Again. He braced himself, eyes squeezed shut, expecting another blow to his jaw, but instead there was simply a soft patter of something wet landing on his neck. He opened his eyes, Cheerilee was just sitting on his chest, foreleg back and at the ready, tears had welled up in her eyes, she let her leg sag down to her side. Why had she stopped? It was no more than he deserved, coward that he was. "She thought the world of you." Cheerilee choked out. "Even after you left, she wouldn't let me say anything bad about you. No matter how long you took, no matter how many times she had to lie. She wouldn't tell you of course, she would never let her precious Doctor know she still cared." The Doctor caught a whiff of her breath, yep, she'd been drinking. She brought her hoof back up again, tears streaming down her face. "And even that was for you!" She tried to clock him again but instead her hoof simply stopped a few inches from his face, they sat there for a second, staring at the hoof that was just barely not poking him in the eye. The Doctor with a sort of terrified astonishment, and Cheerilee like she was wondering what dark powers had stopped her from taking his eye out. After the silence had dragged far beyond the realms of awkward, Cheerilee lifted herself off of the Doctor and started heading for the door. "Wait!" The Doctor almost looked around to confirm he was the one who actually said that. Cheerilee froze. "You're not the only one who lost something." He spoke just barely louder than a mutter. "Oh and what would you care, you abandoned her, you-" "You don't get it!" He nearly screamed. "What do you know me as?" It took a second for Cheerilee to realize that he actually wanted an answer. "Tick Tock, why?" "Because that's not my name, neither is Doctor." "I don't-" "No, you don't understand. I told her my name! I can only tell someone I truly love my name!" He stared her down through his swelling eyes. "It nearly killed me that I had to leave! You have no idea what I would have given up just to talk to Sparkler again! Or Dinky just once before the Makuta showed up!" He took a step forward, forcing Cheerilee to the door. "Now leave my Tardis, leave me be!" He reared up and shoved her out, slamming the door behind her. He sat down, and finally, let himself cry. He had fallen asleep again by the time someone knocked again. He blinked a few times, the soreness in his face making him draw in a quick breath. "Okay, this is ridiculous," he opened the door, "I'm trying to sleep off a rather rigorous beating here." He cocked an eyebrow when he realized that his visitor's face was actually a good four feet above him. The reptilian monstrosity hissed at him, motioning for him to follow it. "I take it there's no chance you can talk is there?" It stared at him for a moment before motioning again. "I'll take that as a no."
Vicron	779	16	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-11-06T07:43:30+00:00	2012-11-06T07:43:30+00:00	618	The padded walls of her cell mocked her, so fragile yet she could not destroy them. The cold, engraved iron, bound to her body nullified her power and bound her wings.. And Raphael chilled her soul. It was torture, plain and simple, they were trying to break her mind, but she wouldn't let them. She was the judge, she was the cleanser; it was her job to break these heathens, not the other way around. The impudence, she would not stand for it, she screamed, pounding on the door. "Let me out, you filth!" No response, typical, they only responded during the blasted counciling sessions. There were no windows in the room, no clocks, no way to tell time at all. "Give it up kid," Beelzebub drifted about the cieling, looking bored, "they aint gonna do that." He started bouncing on the walls. "They're scared stiff. Anypony wanna play charades again?" "You and your blasted charades," Raphael growled, "what will it be this time, a violated child?" "How would you know?" Beelzebub stuck out his tongue. "Because it's always the same thing with you, all anyone has to do is think; what's the worst possible thing that could go with those movements." The ice on Raphael's voice was starting to chip away, leaving red hot anger behind. "Oh, and you're any better?" Beelzebub took a step towards his counterpart. "You're always, Rightfulness this and Duty that. Let your tail down bro, have a little fun." Beelzebub's ever present grin faltered for a moment before returning even stronger. "Or does your great God hate enjoyment as much as he does mine?" "You go too far, scum!" Raphael snapped, jumping onto his crimson counterpart, hooves pressing down on his neck as Beezlebub wheezed with laughter. "Shut up, both of you!" Andromeda howled at the two combatants, causing them to break the glares they were throwing each other. "I can't believe you two, here we are, in a cage and you turn on each other like bloodthirsty animals! Help me get the buck out of here or so help me, I will buck you both to hell!" Raphael stepped off of Beelzelbub's throat, straightening his mane, which had begun to stick up at odd angles. "Killjoy." Beelzebub muttered, pushing himself up from his prone position. "I apologize, our scarlet friend just has a way of bringing out the worst in me." He shot a glare at Beelzebub. "Well you better get it under control!" She was enraged at this point, not only was she trapped more completely than ever before, the beings she turned to for guidance were losing it too. The door opened behind her, but she didn't notice. "I can't believe I ever listened to you two, how do you ever agree on anything? Much less give a life or death judgement! I bet you couldn't ev-" "Morning Dew?" Andromeda froze, slightly surprised that the essence of fury wasn't dripping from her eyes. "I thought I told you ponies," She turned, eyes like coals of hate, "not to call me that." The nurse backed away a step. This was a new one, she was a unicorn mare, her coat was white, her mane blue and the mark on her side was a small stuffed bear. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have the heralds of heaven and hell to straighten out." Andromeda almost turned back around before she realized that this meant the door was open. "On second thought, if you would kindly step aside I won't have to kill you." The nurse muttered something under her breath before backing through the door and stepping to the side. Andromeda was lightly surprised by the fact that that had worked, but spared it no second thought as she dashed for the door. As she stepped through she imagined that she could almost smell it, fresh air, flowers, the ashes of the guilty. There was a slight creaking sound behind her, like stretching fabric. Something grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back onto a soft surface, she felt her forelegs bound to her sides and she was brought down to lie flat. After a moments confusion she realized that she was strapped to a gurney... again. The nurse was standing over her, no anger was apparent on her face, no fear, only something that resembled disappointment. "The doctor will see you now." The nurse monotoned. Oh, this was going to be her next therapy session. ----------------------------------------- Gavla was in heaven, or rather, a battlefield, stepping over the unconscious bodies of Canterlot's elite. Three troops of guards had found her, two troops were down and only the unicorn was left from the last troop. Still, eight out of nine wasn't bad. Her armor was designed much in the same manner as the pegusi's, all sleek lines with a pair of ridges running down her back to match her mask. But, seeing as this was her personal set, she had opted for a little flair. The breastplate was stamped with the three virtues symbol, Vamprah's mask on either side of it looking to her sides. "I'll admit it, I'm intrigued; just who are you?" Gavla chuckled. "I mean really, you've lasted about three minutes, that's a new record." The stallion chuckled weakly. "But surely, this is nothing compared to the warriors back where you come from?" Gavla frowned, disappointed. This was the first time the stallion had spoken, he had a boyish voice, she had been expecting something more deep and intimidating. "I can see why you don't talk much, but no, you're not even as good as the average matoran." Gavla noticed one of the guards at her feet was stirring, she couldn't have that. She gave him a solid crack on the head, slightly denting his armor and forcing him to go limp. The stallion twitched, his mouth curling into a snarl. "Don't do that." Even with his juvenile sounding voice he managed to put a bit of menace into his words, Gavla grinned. "Or what little boy?" She kicked the downed guard again. "You gonna stop me?" "Bet on it." He growled, charging her, his armor crackling with energy. "Good." Gavla jumped aside, letting the stallion run past her, he wheeled around, making sure to keep his front towards Gavla. "Come on, boy, that can't be the best you have, I gave you those claws for a reason." Gavla picked up one of the fallen guards. "Or would you rather I broke a few of his bones?" The stallion reared up, his horn shining for a moment. A wave of purple flame erupted from the light, barreling towards Gavla, ducking down she managed to just barely avoid the flames. When the heat passed she looked up to see the stallion's shoulder a second before it made contact with her mask, sending her sprawling back. Gavla rolled back onto her hindlegs, holding her claws at the ready. "You're serious. I like that." Her claws swirled with shadows. "Let's play!" She rammed the claws into the ground, sending waves of darkness howling at the stallion, his horn flickered, pulling up the rock in front of him to halt the shadow blades. The rock exploded, debris pelting the stallion, a rather large rock knocked his helmet off, revealing a white coat and blue mane. The stallion scowled at her. Gavla took to the air, peppering the stallion with shadow-bolts, kicking up dust around him. A dome appeared around the spot he was standing, cutting through the dust and continuing to expand. Gavla dove towards it, claws held forward. As the iron tips made contact with the shield a sound like shrieking metal filled the air, the dome shattered. The look of horror on the stallion's face made her grin wider. She swooped down onto the stallion, pinning his neck. "I think I like you." She lifted a hoof, her claws balled into a fist. "Captain, Shining Armor!" A stallion's voice sounded somewhere to her left, followed by the crack of cannonfire. Aw shi- She felt the Rampart Blaster's shot impact her side, blowing her off of the stallion, Her mask scratched against the stone ground, digging her claws into the ground slowed her skid, allowing her to look back up. The earth pony that had shot her had another unicorn on his back, a pegasus circled above them. The earth pony ran to his fallen captain, what had she heard him call the stallion? Oh right, Shining Armor. She was hardly given much of a chance to recover as the pegasus came barreling towards her, she rolled to the side, kicking the pegasus in the gut as he passed. The pegasus careened into the ground, landing with a clatter of metal. Gavla was on him even before he had a chance to right himself. She delivered a solid blow to his neck, causing him to choke and desperately crawl away from her. "Sandcroft!" It was a mare's voice this time, a horrible screech filled her ears, Gavla grabbed her mask, trying to protect herself from the agonizing sound. She snarled, looking back towards Shining and the other two guards. Digging her back legs into the ground for a moment, she launched herself at them, shadow enveloping her form. The earth pony reared up, taking the full brunt of her charge into his chest-plate. He staggered, sliding back as the shadows exploded outward, blowing Shining Armor back and knocking the mare off his back. He brought his hooves back down in an attempt to pin her. "Bad idea, that was a bad idea." She heard him wheeze. Gavla brought her head up into his stomach, winding the stallion and forcing him to back off. She was immediately assaulted by two bolts of magic, she drove her claws through both, the heat from them was intense, even through her armor. Jumping up she responded with a pair of shadow bolts that made their mark with a crash, sending both unicorns sprawling in the dust. "Let's cut loose, shall we?" Gavla spat onto the ground, her blades sliding out from her hooves. She ran towards Shining Armor, who materialized an ornate blade to counter hers with, standing firm against her. Sounds of metal clashing filled the air for a moment. Gavla attacked like a mare possessed, bringing both blades down on the magical construct. She drew an arm back, ready to stab, Shining pushed her back, forcing her to fall short. Gavla attacked in rapid succession on either side, which he barely countered, she knocked his blade aside bringing up one of her hind legs to deliver a solid kick to his jaw, sending him sprawling as she spun back into place. The pegasus, Sandcroft, and the earth pony seemed to have recovered in the time it took her to dispatch Shining. They were charging from both in front of and behind her, Gavla jumped, causing her opponents to veer slightly to avoid colliding. Gavla brought down the flats of her blades on them, forcing their heads together. They slumped down to the ground, out cold. Another blast of sound impacted her chest, knocking her from the air. She landed on all fours, digging her claws into the ground to prevent herself from sliding. "Hey." "Oh, hi Vamprah, feeling any better?" Gavla looked up at the mare, she was limping, vulnerable. Gavla grinned. "Not really. I managed to wake up, but that's about it in the mobility department." Gavla flung herself at the mare like a pouncing cat, claws forward and spread. The mare jumped to the side, stumbling slightly but managing to dodge the pounce. "Well at least you're up." Gavla stalked towards the mare, head down, letting her shoulders roll in a manner reminiscent of a large dog. The mare started scrambling back to her hooves, but fell back down when she attempted to place weight on her injured limb. "Is she alright?" Gavla looked down at the wounded foreleg, sliding the plates back with a quick burst of magic, it was swelling up rather badly. The mare jerked back, pulling her hoof into a more protected position under her body. "No, apparently not." Gavla stood back up straight, casting an analysis spell in an attempt to spot further injuries. The scan came back clean, but the leg was bad enough to warrant concern. Gavla nodded quickly and lit her horn, letting the charge build up in her horn for a moment before releasing it into the air. She was going to wait until she had disposed of this mare too, but it seemed like a good time to call in the medics. Gavla sat down, scratching under her mask. "What's your name?" She said bluntly. The mare twitched slightly, surprised at the sudden change of attitude. "Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch." "Well Scratch, you worked rather well with your unit today." Gavla smiled at her. "Even if your timing on that last burst was just a second o-" A mass of pink energy slammed into Gavla mid-sentence, blowing her into the grove that was the rest of the garden. Vinyl stared after the armored ex-matoran for a moment before looking up at the source of the blast. "You witch!" --------------------------------- Luna sat in a garden, it was a strange garden, there were windows hanging in the air. Some ornately carved, others plain, and others cracked and decaying. The rest of the garden was strange as well, she didn't recognize most of the flora, and the ones she did recognize had been twisted and enlarged. There was something she was supposed to be doing, she was sure of it. But at the moment she couldn't remember what it was, so she shrugged and decided that whatever it was could wait. Standing up, she walked over to the closest window. Its molding was silver, beautifully crafted to accent the fourteen stones set in it. The stones seemed to go around the molding in an order, as each was numbered. They were all clear as pure water. As she watched, the image on the other side of the window came into focus and the first crystal turned white as snow. A large bipedal being in a suit, he walked alongside others like him for a time. Then he walked away from them, into the arms of an apparently female figure dressed in blue. Another followed behind them as they struck out into a black expanse. As they traveled through the darkness, two more figures joined them after a bout of shouting by the being in the suit. Once they set off again they encountered strange creatures, many of them hostile, but the man in the suit and his companions seemed to always come out on top. After a time, the first figure that had followed the man turned back, leaving the man with the other three figures. They walked for a bit before coming across another figure that had fallen. The man in the suit helped the new figure to its feet and brought it with them. After a bit longer they stumbled across themselves, standing completely still and a new figure. The man shook his head and walked past the still versions of themselves, leaving behind two of the figures that followed him and gaining one. It was noticeable that after this he started slowing down, which he seemed to be grumbling about. The process continued, gaining and losing companions, the one he had helped up left with a new figure and another joined him. They walked for a bit longer before the strange creatures that inhabited this dark path struck at them again, this time much more viciously. A new figure joined them but was swiftly dispatched by the creatures, along with one of the figures that had been following him. The man slowed down even further, trudging along. The last figure left him and for a time he was alone with the woman in blue. She reached out a comforting hand, resting in on his shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice. She shook her head and took him by the hand, leading him down another dark trail. To a spot where two figures, a boy and a girl, sat. the man seemed to brighten a little, moving a bit faster. They traveled for a while longer until they met a new creature, it was an uncanny one that seemed almost like a perversion of the figures that had followed him up til this point. The man fought them off, but he fell afterwards. The boy and the girl ran to him and Luna feared as she watched this man take his last breaths, that this story was coming to an end. But the man changed shape instead, springing to his feet with new energy and life. Luna chuckled at him as he ran circles around his shocked and confused companions. The second crystal turned a golden brown. The woman in blue handed him a new suit and a pair of pants and after he changed into them they were off again. This cycle continued, companions coming and going, he changed shape six more times, more crystals changing colors as he did so. The third crystal turned a calming blue. The fourth was a set of four colors to match his scarf. The fifth jewel was a deep purple. The sixth was a strange mixture of several conflicting colors that seemed to vie for control of the others. The seventh was a dual sided jewel, one side white, the other a shallow black. And the eighth was a light pink. The only constant was the lady in blue, who had begun to guide him at every opportunity, a smile on her face. During his eighth incarnation he and another figure she recognized crossed paths, as he had done many times before, with the group he had been with before he found the lady in blue. But this time they were going to do battle against one of the creatures the man had encountered before. The strange creatures were like odd squids, piloting great metal bodies. They were masters of hatred and death. The man joined the fight against them with gusto, this time dragging the lady in blue along; while the other figure ran. The fighting lasted impossibly long, other creatures, of terror beyond imagination, joining the fight. Then one day the man looked upon the leader of his people and backed away in horror. The lady in blue took his hand again and led him away from the fight, from his people and the death. And she handed him a lock. The man stared at the lock for a moment before nodding solemnly, he turned walking back towards the fray, as he approached things suddenly became still and the man spoke, the first words she had been able to understand since she looked into the window. "I'm sorry." The weight on his voice shocked her at first, but as she saw what he was doing, she came to understand. The man placed the lock on the ground, closing it with a look of sorrow. The battle started again, but now no one was dying, every fatal wound was healed, every victory undone. The combatants were locked in an eternal struggle. They had been locked in place, never able to go forward, never able to go back. And the man walked away, changing shape once more. The ninth gem was deepest black. The man let the lady in blue take him again, they continued down their original path, helping other figures when he could, and watching when he couldn't. Until he came across a girl, he tried to drive her away, but his efforts were weak. He was lonely. A single line carved its way into the black jewel. The man and the girl traveled, letting the lady in blue guide them and the man was happy. Then, from the darkness emerged one of the creatures his people had fought, one of the things that had tainted his race. It was old, alone and hurt, but it was still one of them. He raged at it, attempting to kill it with the harness it had been strapped into, only to be stopped by a group of other figures. The lady in blue attempted to comfort him, but he didn't seem to hear her. The creature managed to escape its captors, attempting to get to the girl who had given it the strength to do so. It contacted him as it carved a swath of destruction. And he screamed. "Why don't you just die!" The creature did, by its own means, a bit later. After the girl told it to. They started off again, and he was happy as they ran through the dark, more lines were carved into the black gem. Until the creatures returned again. This time the girl destroyed them, reviving a friend in the process. Before the energies she had used to do this destroyed her, the man took them into his own body. A final line appeared on the gem completing the image the others had formed, a rose. The man changed form again, the tenth gem turned a pale gold, but this time he slept. Standing still while the others moved around him, the lady in blue lay next to him, sleeping as he slept. Another figure dropped a small canister between them. Painful strands of gold left them both, allowing them to awaken, and they started down the road again. The girl still followed, this new form was much more energetic and excitable than the last one. Luna watched as they traveled and laughed together, all the while a terrible shadow hung over them, a single crack in the worlds. The crack erupted, pulling the girl back through. The man clung to her with all his strength, but the hole was stronger and while he held fast other creatures were being let through. The Perversions and the Murderers did battle around them, threatening to destroy the other figures. The lady in blue placed her hand on his, looking down at him with sorrowful eyes and he understood. He let go, letting her fall back into the hole that ate the monsters. But at the last moment by some glorious providence she was saved, she was still pulled away from him, but she would live. The lady in blue took him by the hand again, leading him to a window. Through the window he could see her, his rose, but the window shattered before he could complete his goodbye. Then another woman, like a fiery storm, fell onto his path. This woman was only with him a short time, but she managed to cheer him up a bit. He kept walking, he found another girl and she followed him. Together they faced more of the Murderers, only this time they were trying to coexist, but fell despite the man's best efforts. Four, seemingly harmless, figures chased after them and the man ran, dragging the girl with him. Once the four figures caught up with them, the man turned against them, locking them each away in an eternal prison. Then the one who ran approached. The man tried to welcome him as a friend, but the runner instead lashed out, unleashing untold destruction before falling at the hand of a figure he had kept beside him. After this, the girl left and the fiery woman returned. Instead Luna turned her gaze to the lady in blue, while the man interacted animatedly with the others that crossed his path, the lady in blue was almost like a silent sentinel, something that the man had decided was simply supposed to be there. She led him with a smile when he let her and followed where he went otherwise. When he was sad she attempted to comfort him, when he was angry she tried to calm him down, when he was lonely she was there for him and when he was happy she watched and smiled. But the man never seemed to notice. He treated her well, with a great deal of tenderness, [even going so far as to kiss her hand at one point] but never seemed to truly acknowledge her. He had changed forms again while Luna was focused on the lady in blue. The eleventh jewel was a scarlet red. He finally took notice of the lady in blue, acting almost as if she hadn't been there the entire time. The lady in blue was ecstatic, running and jumping and generally making a fool of herself around him. He was confused at first, not quite sure what was happening. Then something seemed to click and he swept her into a great hug, laughing and dancing with her for a short time. Then something appeared, a blue box. It seemed familiar, but Luna couldn't quite seem to place it. The man and the lady in blue looked at the box for a moment, sorrow etched into their faces. They turned back to each other and their faces softened, sharing a look of contentment they stepped apart, still holding hands they walked into the box. After a moment the man and his two latest companions stepped out, but the lady in blue didn't, instead the box changed into the lady in blue. Luna realized that that was what the lady in blue looked like to them, a blue box. Luna continued to watch the lady in blue as she dragged the man around the path. She seemed to be a bit jealous of another woman that would appear from time to time, her pouts were slightly amusing. But once the other woman left they were alone, they walked together, for the longest time they were alone. Just the man and the lady in blue, his blue box. Suddenly they stopped walking, on the ground there was a full length mirror, on the back there was a name. River. The man turned it around, the lady in blue tried to take him away from it, but this time he didn't move. He was reflected in the mirror, but around him the world was falling to pieces, people were screaming and dying and it was all his fault. It didn't matter that the ones dying had attacked first. He saw himself step out in front of armies and they ran, he saw all that he was, all that he had been. And he hated it. His face contorted in rage he smashed it, driving his fist into it again and again where it reflected his face. He cried, slamming onto the mirror even once it no longer reflected anything. The lady in blue grabbed his hand as he pulled it back for another blow. This time it stilled him, she wrapped him in her arms as he cried into her shoulder. Luna could hear the woman's silent plea. "Let me take him somewhere good, let him start over, please?" The sound of grinding metal reached Luna from behind the glass, it grew louder until she could tell it was in the garden with her. Authors note: Suck on that, writers block.
Vicron	779	17	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2012-11-21T08:05:11+00:00	2012-11-21T08:05:11+00:00	640	The garden shattered as she turned around, the sound of breaking glass filled her senses. Next came the pain, like her body was being pulled in every direction. Something was burrowing into the back of her neck, but no matter if she tried to stop it with her hooves or magic it kept going. Just as suddenly as it came, the pain was gone, leaving her with silence in the dark. She felt for some kind of shape and found walls, she was trapped in a sphere. "Hello?" She called out. "Can anyone hear me?" She sat for another moment, listening for some kind of response. "My fault..." A whispering, raspy voice muttered from somewhere beyond her bubble. "It's my fault... I need... to make it... Right." She heard something drop. "Hermarasta fe Duren, my Sister. I'll wipe this place clean for you." "Hello?" Luna called again. She heard the clanking and sliding of metal in response. There was light, coming from the top of the sphere, a hole as if from a gloriously honed blade. The dome started to change color, like old projector film exposed to a flame. It bubbled and hissed, revealing the world outside. It was horrible, a wasteland, charred and cratered, the trees bare, twisted and skeletal, the sky burning red under the gaze of an overlarge crimson sun. Strange bipedal creatures lay burned and cleaved on the ground. They looked familiar, as if someone had taken a pony and stretched them into this new form. Looking closer, she realized that she recognized many of them. There lay Shining Armor, curled protectively around the body of his wife, both hewn in twain. There lay fair Fluttershy, a hole through her throat. Beside her lay the stout Applejack, the head and nothing more. Luna cast her gaze around, searching for some living soul, she found none. Only enough dead to fill Canterlot Castle twofold. What could have done this? She ran, trying to get away from the field of bodies. What manner of Destroyer is this? She continued running, diving into the charred forest. "Hello? Anyone? Please? What happened here?" She glimpsed another familiar face, propped up against a tree, this one stopped her dead in her tracks. She stood, staring at it. "No..." She breathed. Scrambling over to stand over the poor soul, his eyes unfocused, his mottled tan and brown coat stained with blood from the gash running down his chest. She fell to her knees before him, reaching forward with her hands to cup his blank face. She could feel tears running down her face, but she didn't care. Some vague part of her realized that she had been changed like the others around her, but she paid it no heed. She wanted this to stop, this place didn't make any sense, she wanted things to go back to when the colt before her had sent her letters. She wanted the sun to stop watching, she could feel the malevolence rolling off it like the heat it gave. She had seen war before, but nothing like this, even Discord despised death, what would hand so many over to it like this? Nothing made sense anymore, what could have done this? Where did it go? Why was the land so ravished? Where was her sister? The body shuddered, taking a weak breath and snapping Luna out of her rising shock. "Who...?" He weakly croaked. Luna looked around frantically, making sure there was nothing else hiding among the ruined forest. "Pip, it's me, Luna. You remember right?" Pipsqueak tried to look up at her, but Luna placed a hand on his face. "No, don't move. You're hurt bad." Pipsqueak took another shuddering breath. "General... tell Master, I'm sorry." He smiled weakly. "We'll get him one day, right?" "General? Master? What are you talking about?" Pipsqueak's eyes focused and he blinked. "General Luna," he croaked again. "Run." Luna heard it, the clank of metal. She looked over the way Pipsqueak was looking. Standing among the ashes was a figure clad in alabaster armor, glinting red in the light of the malevolent sun. The head to the armor was draconian in appearance, ridges almost like vertebra ran from nose to crest. The entirety of the armor was done up in a similar motif, spines running down the limbs and back. The chest and barrel of the armor were crafted to appear as a skeletal ribcage. It was hard to pick out other details as the air around the figure seemed to ripple despite the fact that he stood over her not a foot away. "Sadness?" The figure spoke in the same voice that she had heard in the dark, only now there was an edge of hatred and disgust. "That's a new trick for his creatures to have." Luna heard the sound of a blade being drawn. The figure drew a spear that looked as if it were carved from the spinal column of an immense serpent. He flicked it and the blade flipped down, changing the spear to a scythe. "What, does he think I'll pity you?" Drawing on some reserve of strength, Pipsqueak shoved her away just as the figure swung the blade. Causing it to miss Luna and instead bury itself through Pipsqueak's neck and into the tree. "Pipsqueak, no!" Luna scrambled to her feet, looking first to Pipsqueak's lifeless body, and then to the figure attempting to telekinetically pull its blade from the burned husk of a tree. "You brute!" She screamed, running towards the being. She jumped at it just as it pulled its blade loose, knocking her away from it with the shaft. It picked her up by her feet, hanging her upside down in front of its face. And she recognized it. "Krika?" "Oh, did your master not tell you who you were sent to kill?" Krika hefted his blade, cocking it back. "Then I have a message for your slug to take back to him. Know that no matter what you send after me, no matter whose face it wears like a mocking mask. I will kill it. No matter where you hide, I will find you, 'Wearer of the Sun', The Great Destroyer comes for you!" With that he brought down the blade, and she screamed as the trance was broken.
Vicron	779	18	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2013-01-24T19:38:14+00:00	2013-01-24T19:38:13+00:00	555	"Where's the head? Ask them where my head is!" Twilight winced. Have you ever had something literally pushing on your consciousness? It feels weird, really, really, weird. Like your mind is a thick sheet of rubber, being stretched out as far as it can go. Why should I? Twilight shot back, pushing back down on Teridax. "I will leave you alone for a good week if you do." That would be nice, she really didn't like that rubbery feeling. Fine, Twilight turned to Brutaka, the behemoth had sat down on the edge of a fountain positioned outside the council building. He held a rather large whetstone, grinding it along the edge of his massive blade. "Excuse me, Brutaka?" Twilight tapped the titan on his shoulder, noticing the faint crisscrossing green lines on his armor. He looked up from his sword, scrutinizing her for moment. "Dekal, take the others and show them around the city, please. We need to have a word with this one." Dekal brightened a little, motioning for the group to follow her. "Be sure to take Tanma with you." Dekal stiffened before looking over to the aforementioned matoran, who was currently refusing to speak with any of them. She looked back at Brutaka, throwing him a glace that clearly meant, 'do I have to?' Brutaka nodded slowly and Dekal gave a defeated sigh. "Come on Tanma, don't wanna interrupt Brutaka's little talk, do you?" Tanma merely glared at her a moment before walking past her, towards the rest of the group. "Little muaka spike." Dekal muttered, walking past them. Brutaka waited until they had turned the corner of the council building before speaking again. "Our Brother wishes to know what happened to him?" Brutaka smirked at Twilight's look of shock, placing his bow-like sword into the sheath slung over his back. "You reek of Teridax's antidermis, Twilight, something We've had more than a taste of. The only reason We have not stricken you down is that you appear to have him under control." Brutaka drew himself up to his full height, the green lines in his armor glowing a ghostly green, a sound like a thousand dying breaths filled the air around him. "Lose that control, and We will have no choice but to destroy you." Twilight felt an almost instinctual urge to stand her ground, a rather strange turn, but then again, new body, new rules. Her left hand twitched, a lance of energy dancing between the talons, Brutaka chuckled. "S-sorry," Twilight stammered, bringing the claw in close to her chest. "I'm still not used to this thing." "Worry not, young one," Brutaka waved a hand dismissively. "Makuta are natural shapeshifters, one just starting out is bound to have trouble with each body's instincts for a while." Twilight cocked an eyebrow. "But, I'm not a makuta." Brutaka nodded, reaching out to tap her between the eyes. "True, but the being who has taken up residence in your head is, and as such, his powers are yours as yours are his." "I want out, right now, you can't have my power." Twilight felt as if some great weight was slowly being lifted from her head. She looked up and saw Teridax's antidermis flowing off her head, the green smoke billowed and shifted, reaching further and further. "He never did like to share." Brutaka muttered, drawing his blade. As the last of the smoke left Twilight's head it shuddered for a moment, changing from green to yellow and orange, as if it was on fire. Twilight heard a bloodcurdling scream, clamping her hands over her hears to try and block out the noise, she fell to her knees; it felt like someone had put burning coals in her skull. The screaming didn't even seem muffled and she realized it was in her head, which of course did little to stop it from burning in her skull. Brutaka's face shifted from confusion at the change of color, to shock at the agony it seemed to be causing Twilight. The now flame-like antidermis flowed back into Twilight. The screaming stopped, but she could still feel him shuddering in her head. Twilight stood shakily, leaning on Brutaka's offered hand for support. "That's a rather powerful seal Miss. A bit excessive honestly." "I-I didn't p-put it there." Twilight panted. "I don't think I've even heard of a seal that hurts that badly." She stood up, brushing herself off. "What have you done to me?" Teridax weakly groaned at her. I just said I didn't do that. Twilight brushed him off, shaking her head to make sure she was properly centered. "Do you still wish to know what happened to him?" Brutaka gestured to the north, Twilight nodded. "In that case, I believe we should wait for the others. If that level of seal is necessary, I may not be able to deal with the result alone." "Result?" Twilight cocked her head. "Tell us Miss, if you found your own dead body, stricken down by your worst enemy, how would you react?" Twilight felt Teridax stir in the dark corners of her mind and shuddered. "Exactly. We can give you an overview of the abilities you will have access to while He resides in your body, while we wait for them." Twilight nodded vigorously, excited at the prospect. ----------------------------- Teridax felt himself slipping, falling through the formless mass of unconsciousness. It was odd, he felt so weak, that shouldn't happen. He was a gaseous cloud, he didn't have a physical being to tire out. What did it matter anyway? He had failed, at least, he thought he had, too many of his enemies were walking around unhindered for him not to have failed. "Bah," he grunted weakly, "even if I did win, I'm stuck in here." It felt a little odd, thinking of himself as two separate beings. Victorious or not, the version of himself trapped in Sparkle's mind would have to move on to new prospects. Namely the comforting abyss below him. He felt something grab a hold of him, it was cold, but strong, like a winter gale. At that moment his consciousness recovered enough from his encounter with his gatekeeper. Reminding him that this was a mindscape, he wasn't as illusive here. "Come on Master," the voice was shallow and rasping, as if it had spent too long treating itself to Ma-Matoran pipe blends. "We have work to do." Teridax shook himself, allowing this new force to craft a world out out of the blackness. "Lead the way." He coughed as he crafted himself an avatar for this dreamscape. He first appeared in the form he had taken on Metru-Nui, an old favorite of his. He looked down at his bulk. Familiarity is comforting, but with a new beginning deserves complete rejuvenation. He ran a finger over his massive chest plate, thinking for a moment before deciding on a few modifications. He flattened out most of his bulk, shifting it from a massive body to sleek, dense plates down his arms and legs. His chest smoothed out till it resembled musculature instead of the bulbous swell of a rahkshi's back. He looked down at himself for a moment, flexing a two-thumbed hand before nodding, content with his new form. Looking up, he gasped at the world his new ally had crafted. A massive throne hall, carved from purest alabaster stone. Inscriptions lined the walls in the script of The Great Beings, it gleamed in the faint light streaming in through massive windows along the hall. "I hope it is to your liking, Master." Its voice sounded behind him. Teridax turned, facing a creature clouded from view by jagged shadows, almost like torn cloth, that writhed and billowed in some unacknowledged wind. The creature's form was all but concealed by the shifting darkness. It was big, Teridax looked behind it, strike that, it was massive. Standing several feet taller than Teridax at it's shoulders, a little more if one counted the extra height given by its neck. Even at that height most of its mass was coiled around the hall behind it in serpentine coils. Two large arms sprouted from its shoulders, shadow trailing off its wicked claws as it gestured to the white throne. Its head was hard to place, as it seemed to wear the shadows like a hood, trailing back from between its eyes to pool around its neck and shoulders. Its eyes shone yellow under the cloak of darkness and its teeth, caught in a perpetual grin, gleamed like protosteel. Teridax found himself nodding in approval, he would have to make something based off of this creature. Teridax stepped up to the throne, eyeing the inscription that rested above where his head would lie. "And the Dark One became brighter than driven snow." He muttered, recognizing it at once, a prophesy he had poured over again and again in the five years he had spent planning under Odina. There were only five other beings that knew of it, two were far greater than he could ever hope to become, one was dead, one was the head of the Order of Mata Nui, and he had stolen the last one's body. He turned, casting a hard glare onto the shadowed creature that had crafted this. "Who are you?" "I am the voice that woke you, that whispered to you when your host was in danger. I am the blade with which you lay low those that stand against you." The creature performed a sort of bow, bending over at about where its waist would be if it had legs. "Shadō?" Teridax sat down in the throne, as the word left his lips Shadō's blackness seemed to blaze, whipping off of his body to pool in the air around him. "A living blade," Teridax chuckled, "surprised I never thought of that." "The entirety of that prophesy, what is it?" Shadō asked, "when I created this room for us I was only able to find that piece." Teridax felt strength rush through his being as he thought of the words that had inspired him through a thousand years of war. "A city unending, a world unchanging, and one said enough. The sky went dark, the Great One falling into slumber unending as the Master of Shadow took his place. And shadow led the way, leading to the revival of the Great One, and the Dark One became brighter than driven snow under the suns." The light in Teridax's eyes blazed as he spoke, conviction radiating off his form as Shadō slithered up around the throne, resting his head atop the slab that was its back. "But, with one destiny fulfilled, another must take its place." Teridax went silent for a moment, listening to the world around him. He could feel it, the thick wall between him and his host, he could not take control but this wall prevented little else. He reached out, grabbing hold of Twilight's memories. "New world, new conquest." Her memories manifested as a large tome, "fitting," he chuckled. Flipping open the book, he began to pour over the machinations of his new world, muttering to himself as he did. "Griffons, Buffalo, Zebra, Dragons, four opposing philosophies, useful. Surprisingly accustomed to killing for an herbivorous species, interesting." He brushed off a page, flipping to her knowledge of the predatory species. "Hydra, Manticore, Dragon again, Cockatrice especially insidious, Timberwolf. That would explain it." He turned to the foes that she had faced. "Nighmare, pathetic, fueled by childish need. Discord, impressive, such a shame to see such wasted potential, but at least he's happy with it. Chrysalis, almost adorable, wishes for what she cannot have." Teridax fell silent for a moment, seeming to almost deflate before snapping himself back to attention. "Sombra, absolutely incompetent," he snarls a little. "A disgrace to the power of shadow and the ruling class alike. I'm going into a place where darkness has already had its image squandered by this fool." He tapped the side of his mask. "I'm not even there yet and I already have to deal with pr. problems." With that he set to planning, using all the knowledge of his host's mind to craft the tool that would take apart Equestria from within. -------------------------------- "Are you suggesting, Vakama, that we simply forget the crimes their kind has committed?" Onewa scowled, slamming his hammer into the table. The council was made up of seven turaga. Onewa, a po-turaga, stood on the end of the table opposite Vakama. He had sand brown armor and a mask that gave him the appearance of having an almost square jawline. Standing with him was Whenua, a onu-turaga, his rounded brow creased with worry. His armor and mask were jet black, his mask rounded until the top and bottom, where it almost appeared that the oval had been cut. He carried a drill, spinning it up out of nervous habit. Dume, another ta-turaga, stood on Onewa's other side. From a narrow mouth his mask fanned out over the rest of his head. He stared at Vakama in an almost calculating manner, he didn't know the younger turaga to be so adamant about any cause as lost as this one. Standing with Vakama was Nokama, a ga-turaga, her face set and determined. Her armor was a light blue, her mask a near perfect oval. She carried a trident, its blades set in the stone at her feet. Nuju, a ko-turaga, stood silently on his other side, his face impassive. His armor was an almost white grey, his mask was almost square. He carried an icepick, his hand slowly tightening and relaxing around it the only sign he gave of the severity of the discussion. Standing between the two groups was the le-turaga Matau. Standing in a rare moment of stillness, his normally cheerful disposition marred by the look of turmoil on his face. His armor was green, his mask almost bean shaped. He carried a saw, which was quietly whirring as he thought. He had yet to speak in this meeting, simply listening and thinking. All seven of them wore vests decorated with sown-in motifs of their element. "Far be it for me," Onewa continued, "to say that personal confusion isn't an excuse to cause destruction. I did my share of that as a hordika. But I don't care if your theory is true, even if it is, there must have been a good reason for it." He looked to Nuju. "Yes we must look to the future, but not at the expense of lessons learned in the past." He gestured to Whenua, who spoke next. "Even before their 'fall', as Vakama puts it, they were a vicious race, all but eager to kill. It is in their nature to be excessively violent, as well as to see to their own safety before others. They were hard enough to deal with the first time, why would we bring them back now that the toa are spread so thin?" "Teridax's original plan was far more covert than any of you give it credit for." Dume spoke up. "He was meticulous to the point of near psychosis, it's entirely possible that the pool's re-activation is simply a back up plan, to keep himself alive if all else failed." "Why didn't we quick-find makuta when the Morbuzakh spread through Metru Nui?" Matau spoke without looking up, drawing everyone's attention. "He swore to safe-guard the city, why didn't we ask for his help?" "Because we didn't nee-" Onewa started, only for Matau to cut him off. "No, there were plenty of times when we bad-wanted help. If we had gone-found him, we might have been able to out-find that he had quick-switched with Dume." He looked up. "We could have quick-dodged so much kane-ra dung if we had just gone to him. If anyone had gone to him for help, his whole plan would shatter-break. Why didn't we?" "I-" Dume started, only for Matau to interrupt again. "During the Dark Hunter War, he was hand-given the entire east-end to protect. Alone." Dume cocked an eyebrow at him. "And how would you know that?" "Le-Metru right next to the east-end. We never sight-saw another being protecting it. Why was he given that karzahni-job alone? How did he manage to protect every-all of us without losing any? Against a mass-army no less. When I deep-think about it, Teridax should have been our hero." The group flinched slightly at the name, Matau looked at Vakama and his group. "Why wasn't he?" "We don't know." Nokama stepped forward, "none of us know." Onewa opened his mouth, but Nokama waved him away to let Matau finish thinking. There was silence for a moment before Matau spoke again. "I was terror-scared of him." He looked over to Dume. "We all were, and still are, dead-fright of him. Because he kill-fought for us. He was like some-kind destroyer, there was no limit to what he could do. And it scared us." He walked over to Vakama's group. "But that was no reason to deliberately ignore him. To away-exile him, or any of the others. I'm with Vakama, this was our bad-doing. We need to set-right." Onewa turned to leave, groaning loudly. "Four against three," Dume said bitterly. "Then it is settled, I will find Brutaka and tell him to begin preparations immediately." "Wait," Vakama held up a hand. "Onewa, there is still one more matter to discuss. Tanma has brought a group of travelers to my attention." The rest of the turaga took back up their spots, standing in a circle around the table. "So?" Onewa reluctantly went back to his spot. "They are from another plain of existence, one that is in desperate need of help." "Why did this have to wait until after the pool that isn't going anywhere?" Onewa grumbled. "Because they currently have two makuta doing their best to hold back the end of their world." "What?" Dume shouted, "first Brutaka returns from the grave, and now there are two more that Teridax missed. How is it that with two makuta they still need help?" "The enemy is apparently powerful enough to rival them and on a mission of genocide. They already have the support of The Order, who are sending Brutaka and Axxon, but I believe we should send the Toa Nuva as well, just in case." "Lewa has been restless-itching for something important to do." Matau nodded, "I suppose we could spare him." "Wait, with the pool being reactivated, how can we justify sending toa?" Whenua asked. "You forget, brother, that without Brutaka here we cannot begin resurrecting them." Nokama said. "Gali has become a bit of a shut in lately, I'm sure something like this will do her good." Nuju nodded his approval. "I would refuse, but as soon as Pohatu hears about it, he'll be gone." Onewa grumbled. "And if Pohatu goes, so will Onua." Whenua nodded. "There is little I could do to stop him." "Then it is settled." Dume sighed, turning to leave. "No good can come of this." He muttered as he left the room.
Vicron	779	19	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2013-01-31T03:25:23+00:00	2013-01-31T03:25:17+00:00	555	Wow, as it turns out, getting hit by an angry magic user hurt a lot more than getting hit by a scared one. Gavla made a mental note of this as she peeled herself out of the wall of a gazebo located towards the center of the gardens, flopping onto the ground unceremoniously in order to take stock of what was still working. Arms? She dug her claws into the concrete, pushing herself into a sitting position. Check. Legs? She planted her hind legs, getting back up into a standing position. Check. Face? She opened her eyes, wincing slightly at the pain the sudden onslaught of light caused. Check. Wings?... This was what she was really afraid of, unlike the rest of her body, she was unable to get her armor to prevent the breaking of wing bones when faced with an assault of great force from above or behind. It was simply impossible to do without compromising maneuverability. She then remembered something she considered a stroke of genius. She had built small flaps, into both the her armor and the pegusi model armor, that the wings could be tucked into in the event of such an impact, in order to protect them from harm. Stretching her wings out from under the light plates she sighed in relief, thanking the Great Beings that anything with wings' first instinct in to tuck them in when faced with such force. Check. She rolled her neck, popping a few vertebrae back into place. "Well somebody's cranky." She called out after her assailant. "I knock somebody you like upside the head?" She leered at her opponent, grinning at the mare's glare. "Who in Karzahni are you anyway?" Gavla spat out a mouthful of dirt. Her opponent crouched down, pointing her horn at Gavla. "Princess Cadance." She growled at Gavla. "Oh, so you're the one I've been hearing about. The one who got kidnapped by an over-sized bug." Gavla taunted, Cadence glared at her. "It's embarrassing honestly, now I have to tell people that I got hit by someone who couldn't handle a Nui-Rama." "Oh, shut it!" Cadance lit her horn, power surging through her form as Gavla braced herself, ready to knock the alicorn down a peg. Firing off a neon blue bolt of energy, Cadance took to the air. Gavla got up on her hind legs, bracing herself as the bolt hit, nestling itself in her hoof. "Hate to break it to ya girly," Gavla cocked back her arm, "but it'll take more than that." She threw the orb of power, loosing one of her own to follow it. Cadance drove herself higher to avoid the volleys of energy, Gavla chuckled. "That which is the makuta's," Cadance's rebounded spell changed course, making a beeline straight for her, Gavla's did the same, the black swath following the blue bolt back to its master. "Don't you dare say it." "Shall return to him." "You said it..." Gavla laughed as Cadance's eyes widened in surprise. She whirled around, putting up a shield, her own power impacted it, shattering the barrier. Gavla's bolt kept going, exploding inches from Cadance's face. A black plume burst out, clinging to Cadance's form as she tumbled through the air. Righting herself, Cadance looked around for Gavla, not wanting to lose sight of her opponent. Gavla surged up, squaring a vicious punch to Cadance's stomach before flying past her. Cadance's flapping became irregular as she tried to catch her breath, forced out of her by Gavla's armored fist. "Oh, come on 'princess', I know you can do better than that, your aunt controls the sun, the other one controls the moon and you..." Gavla trailed off, taunting her with silence. "I'll show you what I can do." Cadance muttered, pushing herself up through the air. Power gathered in her horn again. "By the time I'm through with you, you'll be a smear on that tree." Gavla grinned, she'd been wanting to see what happened when an alicorn let go. "Now you've done it." "Oh shush, you." Gavla said. Cadance released the energy, letting it flow through herself. An unspoken rule among alicorns was that they never showed their true power, always locking it away behind several walls of sealing spells. Luna had been the first to break this rule, allowing herself to let go during the initial defense, to drive the invaders out of Ponyville. Cadance was about to do the same to punish the bitch who had beat her husband. The air around her rippled as threads of light appeared in the air around her, unraveling before disappearing completely. Cadances eyes closed tight as power flowed, unrestrained, through her body. In all honesty, it hurt like hell, like someone had poured red hot passion itself into her veins. All that power, bottled up behind something as weak as three layers of protective wards, now it was loose, and it had a target. "Let's see you handle this!" Cadance's eyes flew open, abandoning their normal dark purple for the blue of her magic. The release was massive, momentarily blinding Cadance as it surged towards its target. The beam was far too large for Gavla to even consider dodging, and trying to outrun it would just make her die tired. Give the order. "Gotcha." Gavla grinned, with a mighty heave she thrust herself forward, claws out, into the center of the beam. She tucked her wings in just as the beam hit, turning herself into a near-perfectly streamlined bullet. Heat engulfed her, electricity arching across her armor as power pooled in all the nooks and crannies of the protosteel. The iron tips of her claws parted the magic, allowing it to simply slide off her sleek armor instead of incinerating her. Bursting out the other end of the beam, Gavla swung a back leg, squaring Cadance in her jaw and opening several shallow cuts with the smaller talons there. Opening her wings, Gavla swung around Cadance, sticking close to prevent her from using properly destructive magics. Cadance's horn glowed, a pair of wicked scimitars materialized in the air next to her. Gavla slid her blades back out, ready to fight. They charged at each other, protosteel clashing on magic with an electric sound, their fur stood on end as both sides tried to push the other down. Cadance broke off, swinging her swords in a circle around herself to put some momentum behind them. They crashed down on Gavla's, one after the other, spinning her through the air. Gavla used the momentum to bring about one of her hind legs for a heel-kick. Cadance took the opportunity to try and sever the limb, her blade clattering uselessly against Gavla's armor. Gavla pushed down, letting her leg push one blade out of the way and one of her blades to occupy Cadance's other sword. Gavla brought the flat of her blade down onto the left side of Cadance's face, making her see stars, before swooping back, putting a little distance between them. Cadance shook her head, trying to calm the ringing in her left ear. Gavla retracted her blades, her claws swirling with dark energy. She spun in place, letting the bolts of shadow streak towards Cadance, who brought her swords down, cutting through one and then the other. Gavla was hot on their tail, claws set to strike. Cadance's horn glowed brighter, squaring Gavla in the chest with a burst of power. They were too close together, the release of power sending both spiraling through the air. Cadance was the first to right herself, surging towards the still stunned Gavla. She made contact, driving her shoulder into Gavla's back, pushing her even further down. Gavla shook herself to regain her sense of balance, glad she had learned to let her wings essentially work on autopilot. Vamprah, can I get number four real quick? Her claws started to crackle with electricity. Thanks, big guy. She turned back to Cadance, who was streaking through the air towards her. "Sup!" She yelled, thrusting her claws out, two bolts of lightning flew from them, arching towards Cadance with deadly accuracy. Cadance brought up her swords to defend herself, the bolts landed in the swords before arching through them and towards their intended target. Cadance quickly put up a shield, the chain lightning bursting ineffectually against it. Number thirty now, please? As Cadance threw off the shield, Gavla took a deep breath, releasing it as a shrieking concussive blast of sound. Cadance hardly had time to blink before she was knocked completely out of the air, smashing into the ground with a crash. Gavla circled the spot she fell like a vulture, looking for some sign of movement. She got it in the form of a beam of blue energy, Gavla ducked to the side, flying around the beam and down towards her opponent. They had gathered a bit of an audience. The order had been for Vamprah to call off the rahkshi, allowing the guards to watch. "Is that all you've got?" Gavla yelled, barreling towards Cadance. Cadance shot up to meet her, swords clashing on claws as they met, sparks flew from where the iron met magic. Gavla broke contact, swooping beneath Cadance and taking another breath. She screeched again, throwing Cadance up into the air and deafening her at such close range. Cadance felt something hot running down the sides of her face, padding at it with a hoof she found it was blood. The pressure snap caused by Gavla's power scream had popped her eardrums. This, however, went unnoticed by Gavla, who was still a good thirty feet below her. "You like that?" Gavla yelled, "well I've got more!" Gavla flew up, blades out, at Cadance. Seeing the darker red fur around Cadance's ears she stopped, her blades retracting with the sound of metal on metal. Her smile fell, turning to a look of concern. Using the guard code, which Gavla assumed, seeing as Cadance was an ex-guard captain's wife, Cadance knew. She asked, "you good to keep going?" Cadance nodded in response. "You sure? I've got medics downstairs." Cadance nodded again, Gavla grinned fiercely, her blades sliding back out. Gavla and Cadance clashed in the air again, becoming a storm of blades and magic, neither side giving an inch as they bombarded each other with everything they had. It was nearly imperceptible, but as the fight progressed Gavla was slightly more careful with the powers she borrowed from Vamprah, making sure there was a bit of distance between them before using the more destructive abilities. Space itself seemed to warp around them as they tore into each other, but still neither one would give an inch of sky. When Shining Armor regained consciousness, nothing could be seen of the two except a ball of swirling black and blue energy. He looked around at the rest of the clearing, the entirety of the guard was there, medics tending to what wounds there were. Most just needed a good bar of chocolate after the rahkshi's draining. Copper Plate stood next to him, appearing to have woken up only a few moments before. "Your wife packs a punch sir." He whistled before grinning cockily at the ex-captain. "Speaking of which, how was princely life treating you Captain?" Shining Armor pushed himself up, looking at Copper Plate and smiling bitterly. "It was great, soft pillows and fancy meals every day. I'd do anything to go back." The two continued to stare at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter. "It's good to see you Plate, how've you been handling the new position as captain of the earth regiment?" "Wait, Captain?" Vinyl walked over, her injury healed by a medic named Quick Fix. "Oh, right, you're new." Sandcroft flapped over to them. "Copper Plate is the captain of the earth pony guard, and I'm captain of the pegusi guard. Unfortunately, Frigid Wind died in the initial attack." He paused for a moment as the Copper Plate hung head and Shining gasped. "The job's open, Armor, we need a new captain, so why not take an old one back?" Shining looked back up, and Vinyl got the feeling she'd walked in on something very important. "Frigid's dead, my lieutenant is dead?" He asked, eyes swimming with tears, the other captains nodded. "The Shield's Sword..." Shining choked for a moment before speaking again. "What happened? It should have taken an army of dragons to take him down, at least that was what he always bragged." "Well it took more." Sandcroft nodded. "Canterlot was going to be hit. They showed up when the princesses left to deal with them in other towns. It was gonna be massive, they brought all kinds of big war machines. Things that looked like elephants or giant bugs, they had a bunch of massive metal birds screaming through the skies. Frigid took one look at 'em and walked out, told the unicorns to wait until he gave the signal to raise a shield. He gave the signal, once he was outside the shield's range. All that scrap out there, he did that. Right pissed off their general too, the thing walked up to him and snapped his neck once it'd worn him down on its troops." "Woah," Vinyl couldn't help but be impressed, everybody had seen the massive wall of debris to the north of the shield, but to hear one pony had done that was awe inspiring. "Oh, you haven't met Scratch yet." Sandcroft seemed to perk back up. "She was on our squad for the training. And as much as it pains me to say it, she was right about the smith. Now I gotta find Ship Shape and apologize." Sandcroft fluttered away, towards the castle. At that moment the orb of clashing energy that was Gavla and Cadance's battle came crashing down, flooding the clearing with power for a moment before dissipating. Gavla and Cadance had their blades at each other's throats, metal and magic pressed against flesh. No one dared move, lest they startle the combatants into killing each other. Gavla nodded, almost imperceptibly, at the same time the blades were pulled away and they smiled. "And that, maggots, is exactly what I want to see from each and every one of you." Gavla yelled, shaking Cadance's hoof. "Thank you, Miss Cadenza." She nodded to the alicorn. "A pleasure Gavla." Cadance bowed shallowly, speaking a bit more loudly than was really needed, on account of her busted ears. She walked over to stand next to her slack-jawed husband. "But do go a bit easier on Shiny here next time, alright?" "I make no promises." Shining Armor noticed that Gavla was using the guard code as she spoke, looking over at his wife he could see why. The blood from her ears had hardened, leaving a pair of crusty red streaks on either side of her muzzle. "Honey?" No response. "Gavla, what did you do?" He yelled at the navy blue mare. "Get your wife to a good medic, alright Shiny?" Gavla chuckled, walking past him back towards the castle. "She's got some serious fight in her." ------------------------------------------ Luna gasped as she regained consciousness, feeling even more exhausted than when she has fallen into trance in the first place. Her fur was matted with sweat and her breath came in ragged, shuddering gasps as she tried to bring her emotions back under control. Celestia spoke, breaking through Luna's haze of panic. "Are you alright Luna? I know how much visions take out of you." Luna cast her gaze around the room, it was the same as when she went under. The throne room still pristine, Spike still sleeping with Peewee and Philomena and the mask still hung in the green aura of Celestia and Luna's combined magics. Luna's noticed through her still muddled mind that she was crying. "Sister, I believe I have just seen Makuta Krika's afterlife." She shuddered, "and he is not well." "Why? What happened?" Celestia reached out with a wing, pulling a shivering Luna in close to her chest. "It is a tartaros of the highest order, so much pain and anger, such fury in his eyes." She gulped nervously. "It has twisted what he believed to be salvation into a nightmare that he has to fight for his life against. I know not what he's done to deserve that, but after seeing it, I'm not sure he aided anyone in his life with pure intent." "Luna, I'm sure he-" Celestia started. "He cut me in half," Luna deadpanned, "he was raving about slugs and someone he called 'The Wearer of the Sun'. If nothing else he's gone mad." Luna shuffled her wings a little, turning to look at the mask with which they held the end of the world at bay. And it shuddered. "What?" Luna stepped out from under her sister's wing, walking towards the shaking mask. "Wh-" Luna started at the muffled sound, looking around frantically. "Did you hear something, Celestia?" Luna asked cautiously. Celestia looked just as startled, and nodded slowly. "Is someone there?" Celestia called out, searching the edges of the room for anyone hiding in the shadows. "Who dares?"
Vicron	779	20	Main 6,Original Character,Other,Spike,Sweetie Belle,Alternate Universe,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore	Dimensional Chronicles	It has been five years since princess Luna was purified and things are about to get ugly.	incomplete	11	5	<p>It's been five years since princess Luna was purified and an experiment in multiverse travel has broken down the dimensional walls, setting loose the evils of other worlds. Most will come to destroy, but some come to help. Can Equestria survive or will it become slave to the insane. The shadows of night can be trusted but shadows of day are to be feared.</p>	teen	2014-07-09T01:52:51+00:00	2014-07-09T01:52:50+00:00	522	This is the first time I've actually checked on this story in quite some time and.... it broke out of it's bad Up-Down Vote Ratio. I was not expecting this. Thank you all and guess what, I'm going to get back to work on it. This and the Barraki one both. Expect the next chapter within the month.
Squeak-anon	780	1	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-09-19T19:12:26+00:00	2011-09-19T19:12:26+00:00	17,106	Caramel Apple was stuck working the apple cart for the day. He was on loan from his own farm to the Ponyville Apples. He had been told it was because his cousins’ had a particularly heavy apple crop this season and needed sompony to keep shop while they worked. But he knew it was really because they didn’t want him around the farm. He sighed, looking at his cutie mark. It was three horseshoes, it should have been four. But it marked his talent, losing things. Or perhaps being lost. He wasn’t quite sure. Maybe his talent was being useless. He tried to be helpful around his farm, he really did. But everything he tried seemed to turn out for the worst. If he bucked some apples, they’d fall into the river. If he tried to plant some crops, nothing would grow on the land for days. He’d tried everything, but nothing seemed to work out. It was obvious his farm looked for any excuse to get rid of him. They’d given him a position as deliverypony for a while. He’d done his best, but they always made him take packages to the far reaches of the village, only to find that the patron hadn’t ordered anything. If he actually managed to find the address in anycase. He’d return to find they had ‘gotten the order wrong’ and finished the day’s work in his absence. He sat his head down on the cart, feeling miserable. He hadn’t received a single customer all morning. It seemed this was going to be another thing he failed at. The ponies here knew very well of his reputation and either rushed past a little faster than usual, or ignored him completely. He imagined returning to his cousin’s farm in a few hours without a single bit earned. They’d be convinced he was useless too, they’d probably never want his help again. He’d already lost the grass seeds for the earlier Winter Wrap Up, not to mention the incident with Granny Smith’s false teeth. This would be the last straw he was sure of it, another bunch of ponies on the long list of those that would be better off without him. “Hello?” said a voice. “I haven’t seen you around in a while. Where’s Applejack?” Caramel snapped out of his reverie to find a purple unicorn looking at him. “Oh...Um...are you talking to me?” he asked. “Well, I don’t think I’m talking to the apples.” She put on a friendly smile. “Well, technically I am, the Apple family going back generations and all. But I mean, I’m not talking to a physical apple as in the small fruit.” Caramel just stared. “Are you alright?” “Um...Um..yeah...I’m fine.” Caramel stuttered. “Applejack’s back at the farm. It’s Applebuck Season.” He paused. “Would you like to wait for her to come back?” Much to his amazement, she laughed. “Oh no, that’s fine. You can sell me some apples right?” “Me? Oh!....Yeah, I mean sure! If you want to buy some, just call me the applepony!” Caramel paused. “I mean, I am an Apple pony.. Like you said....you know...cause I’m an Apple...well..not the...fru- well...You know.” “Yes,” the unicorn said charitably. “I know. Don’t worry, Caramel.” Caramel froze. “You know my name?” “Of course, you’re Caramel. We’ve met twice before. When I first came to ponyville and during the Winter Wrap up. Remember? I’m Twilight.” “Oh.” The memory surfaced in his brain. She was the one who’d found the grass seeds after he’d lost them. They’d somehow ended up on the roof of the bakery. “Yeah....well it’s nice to meet you again Twilight.” He tried the name on his tongue. It sounded nice. “Likewise.” Twilight examined the apples around the cart. He couldn’t help but notice how nicely her mane was combed “Do you have any red Gala’s? They make a good replacement for rubies apparently.” “Rubies?” “For Spike.” Caramel looked even more lost. “My friend, he’s a dragon, you’ve met him too.” she raised an eyebrow. “Not very good with faces are you?” His face reddened slightly. “W-well not really. I’m pretty forgetful,” he admitted. “I’m not sure how I could forget your face though... I mean, it’s a pretty memorable face. Not that it’s ugly or anything! I mean ...um...it’s a very nice face, and your mane looks nice too. If you don’t mind my saying that is. You probably comb it a lot...Um...Not to say that you...Um....You know what? I’ll get those Galas.” He ducked behind the counter before Twilight could reply. Searching hastily through the various apples he had in stock. Caramel pushed aside a basket of red Delicious, looking past the fugis and dodging around the Granny Smiths before finding the bushel in question. “Ah! Here we are,” he said, lifting it onto the counter top. “How many did you want?” “Oh, just two, I’m meeting Spike for lunch.” “Ah, well you’ve picked yourself a good apple. Nothing better than a Red Gala to fill you up!” Caramel attempted a smile. He shifted through the apples piled in the basket, trying to find the best two to give her. “So...um....It’s a nice day isn’t it?” “Oh yes, Rainbow Dash did a fine job of clearing the clouds today. It’s so nice I might take my books outside later. I’m studying paleolithic runemancy today, and this weather is just perfect for reading.” Caramel stopped himself from asking what most of that meant. “Yeah. Super reading weather for sure.” Caramel fumbled with the apples some more, trying to ignore his heart hammering away in his chest. She was being so nice. Why was she being so nice? He found two apples and after a quick check to make sure they were the best in the bunch, gave them to her. “That’ll be two bits.” Twilight frowned. “I thought it was four bits for two apples?” Caramel floundered for a moment. “Oh...well it is! But you see um...you were so...well... I mean....well...You see you seem so...That I..." He paused. "...We’re having a sale,” he finished lamely. “Oh, well that’s lucky.” She smiled. Caramel instantly decided she had the best smile in the universe. Twilight turned to leave. Caramel’s mind raced on how to get another word in. “Um, wait!” he held up a hoof. “That...sale, I forgot, you get three apples with that. Not two.” Twilight paused. “I only need two, it’s just me and Spike.” “Well....what if somepony else came with you to lunch? You know...for the extra apple?” Twilight pondered this for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea. There’s somepony I’d love to have lunch with.” Caramel’s heart soared. “Fluttershy’s probably taking a break from tending to her animals about now. She works so hard. She’d appreciate it if I invited her to lunch.” It fell back into his hooves with a lurching thud. “Oh...” “Could I have a Granny Smith instead of a Gala for the third apple?” asked Twilight. “She likes those best.” “Sure....no problem.” Caramel mumbled. He fetched her the apple in question. Twilight floated it into her saddlebag and turned to leave. “Thank you very much. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it.” “You’re welcome,” Caramel replied, crestfallen. “Have a wonderful day Caramel.” His ears perked up when she said his name again. He was still amazed she’d bothered to remember it. She’d knew him, and was still willing to talk to him, and buy apples no less! He felt thoroughly out of his depth. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t replied. “Oh! Yeah, thanks, you too-” But she was already walking down the road by the time he’d opened his mouth. “Twilight.” Caramel said the name slowly. He felt afraid that if he said it too fast the words might get away. Caramel sighed, sitting his head on the counter and staring dreamily after her as she headed off towards the center of town. “Twilight...” he whispered again, to himself this time. He really liked that name. “Twilight...” “What about her?” Caramel jumped, whirling around to see his cousin Applejack. “Oh, nothing!” he said quickly. “The way you said it, it sure didn’t sound like nothin’.” The orange pony eyed him suspiciously. Caramel quickly searched for something to change the subject. “I sold some apples!” He pointed to the bits lying on the counter. “You did!?” Applejack quickly hid her shock. “How many?” Caramel glanced at the bits, knowing he was three short. “Two.” he lied. He would have to bring some apples from his own farm next time he came over. He didn’t want to tell Applejack he’d gone around giving her apples away. Even if it was to a friend. “Well, good for you Caramel!” She slapped him on the back in a way he was sure would leave a bruise. “You might be cut out for this yet.” “Thanks...” Caramel groaned. “Now, why don’t I help you pack up? If we hurry, I reckon we’ll be back at the farm in time for dinner.” He brightened at this. Things were looking up. “Sure, I’ll get the-” he was interrupted as he tripped headlong over the stopping blocks in front of the cart. “Ow...” “Whoa there!” Applejack looked him over worriedly. “Are you alright sugarcube?” Caramel got slowly to his hooves. “Yeah, I’m alright. I scuffed my leg a bit but...” he noticed she was staring. “What’s wrong?” He followed her gaze, she was looking past his head at something behind him. He turned around to find the Applecart speeding down the hill into the horizon. “Horseapples.” To Be continued
Squeak-anon	780	2	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-10-27T09:07:25+00:00	2011-10-27T09:07:25+00:00	12,904	Applejack had been awfully nice about the whole thing after they’d managed to stop the cart. Somehow it had managed to roll halfway across town before it finally slowed enough to be caught. He’d collected the apples that had fallen along the way, which took up the rest of the day and returned them, slightly bruised, to the farm. Caramel felt terrible, for once he’d thought he’d managed not to screw something up for once, but everything had gone bad, as always. Somehow the fact that his cousin was being so kind about it made it worse. She’d even still let him come to dinner, though it was cold by the time they got there. Granny Smith gave him the evil eye whenever she thought he wasn’t looking the whole time. The apples couldn’t be sold in that condition, they’d have to be made into pies and other deserts to hide the blemishes, which meant extra work for all of them. Knowing this, he very much wanted to sink into a large hole and never come out. He hardly touched his food. They sent him on his way with what he didn’t eat wrapped up and put in his saddlebag. Even if Granny Smith was angry she was still an Apple, hospitality came first. Applejack walked him home, there was an awkward silence as they progressed through the emptying streets of ponyville toward his own farm at the edge of Hoofdale. “Aw, don’t look so glum, sugar cube,” said Applejack. “It wasn’t your fault. Just a bit of bad luck is all.” He sighed. “Yeah, bad luck...my only luck.” “Now don’t you go frettin’ bout it. Your luck’ll change. Just you wait and see.” She patted him on the back. “Just don’t give up, that’s the Apple Motto.” He nodded, avoiding her eyes. They approached the edge of town where his farmland began. “Really now, you cheer up, and give the family my regards ya hear?” Applejack turned to head back to her own farm. “You can make it on your own from here right?” Caramel managed a small smile. “Yeah, I’ll see you later Applejack.” He began to walk into the trees that bordered the land, he glanced back once, to see the orange earth pony waving him on his way. He felt a little better, perhaps she was right, maybe things would change for him soon. A pony could hope right? His steps were a little more lively as he came towards the house, a rather old two story red brick building. He could see that all the work had be finished while he was away, as usual. The apples were all stored away in the shed, and the apple trees closest to the house were bare. Caramel knocked on the door. “Who is it?” asked a voice. “It’s me, I’m back.” He peered through the peephole. “Oh, welcome back Caramel.” The door opened and Caramel stepped inside. His sister, Toffee Apple stood there looking him over. She was a rather stocky pony, her coat was a pale brown to offset her blond mane and tail. “No broken bones...that’s a good sign.” She smiled. “Thanks.” Caramel rolled his eyes. “So, how did it go? Don’t leave me hanging,” she said, leading him into the living room. “I managed to sell a few apples if you’re wondering.” Caramel muttered. “Oh that’s great Caramel!” She slammed her hoof into his back in the exact place that was still sore from his earlier encounter with Applejack. “Thanks....” he groaned. “But I have to be honest....not everything went well..” Toffee’s smile faded. “What happened?” “Well, I may have knocked the applecart off its blocks.” She sighed. “And?” “And it might have rolled half way through town.” “And?” “And most of the apples might have fallen off and got bruised...” “Oh Mel...” Toffee put a hoof to her forehead. Caramel hung his head. His earlier good mood evaporating. “I’m sorry. They really didn’t mind all that much...they can still make pies out of the apples...” Toffee looked at him for a moment. “Oh, it’s not that bad I suppose...you’ve had worse days right? At least you managed to sell some Apples. I won’t tell Grampa Jonagold if you won’t.” Caramel looked up towards their Grandfather’s room. He knew the old stallion would probably be asleep. If he got wind of another screw up, Caramel would never hear the end of it. “Deal.” Toffee nodded. “Good. Come to think of it, how many apples did you sell?” “Oh,” Caramel’s face flushed. “Well....I sold a couple...” “How many is a couple?” “You know.....a few...” “And just how many is a few?” Caramel twiddled his hooves. “Three...” Toffee shook her head.“Well....that’s not.....nothin’. Right?” “True enough.” Caramel turned towards the stairs. “I think I’ll go up to my room.” If Grampa asks, tell him I sold more than that. Please?” Toffee nodded. Caramel walked up the stairs to his room. Making sure to walk softly past Grampa Jonagold’s door, he went inside and stat down on the bed. He felt quite a bit worse having talked to his sister. She did her best he supposed, but really Toffee could only do so much. Their Grandfather was getting on in years, and it was looking more and more like he certainly wasn’t up to the task of taking over the farm. It was going to her, and he was well aware of that. Caramel didn’t mind this fact. She worked hard, and enjoyed doing the odd jobs around the farm. He was more than happy for her, but he really hated feeling like a burden. It seemed as of late that everything seemed to be going downhill as far as he was concerned. He reached over and opened the drawer of his nightstand, pulling out a bag of caramel chews, he dumped a few onto it’s surface, and poked at them with a hoof. “Perhaps I have some really awesome talent I just haven’t discovered yet?” he mused. “I’ll probably stumble upon it any day now. Yeah...that’s it.” He thought about this for a moment. “Maybe I’m meant for something bigger. Maybe I should look into being part of the royal guard or something.” Caramel thought about this. He’d probably look ridiculous in armor, and in anycase he wasn’t a pegasus. “Then again...maybe I’m just a lost cause...” he popped a caramel chew into his mouth. He sighed. “Why am I so delicious?” Caramel’s mind turned to the day’s events. There wasn’t much he wanted to re-live, but one memory stuck out in particular. The unicorn who had purchased the apples from him. She’d remembered his name. She’d seen him screw up before, and still wanted to talk to him. She wasn’t even a relative! She didn’t have too. But she did. He briefly wondered if he’d see her again. Or if he wanted too. Why ruin a perfectly good memory? She’d probably want nothing to do with him if they ever got to know each other. But...she’d been so nice. She wouldn’t really do that would she? The kind mare who had been the only good thing in his long day? He wondered if Applejack knew her. She probably did. If he asked, she might even take him to see her again. They could talk then. He’d like that. He had seen she liked books, perhaps if he bought one for her she’d be more inclined not to laugh in his face. But which one to buy? Would giving her a gift on only the second-or maybe it was the third- time they met be awkward? For the second time that day Caramel felt horribly out of his depth. To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	3	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-09-11T19:05:30+00:00	2011-09-11T19:05:30+00:00	12,699	Caramel descended the stairs into the kitchen the next morning. The smell of apple pancakes wafted up from the stove as Toffee cooked, humming a tune to herself. Grampa Jonagold sat at the table studying the day’s edition of the Equestria Daily layed out on the table. Caramel quietly sat down across from him, watching his sister prepare the food, and waiting for the daily errand to be issued. He knew full well that his grandfather would think of some useless task for him to do, as he had yesterday, and almost every day before that. He hoped it would at least be a good job this time around. Not like polishing the the apple buckets, or going all the way to Cantorlot for a new pair of eyeglasses. He looked at Grampa Jonagold out of the corner of his eye, the old stallion seemed engrossed in whatever article he was reading. His light green mane brushed out of his eyes and his dark red coat clean and ready to begin the day. Caramel quickly averted his gaze as the old pony looked up from his paper. Taking a new interest in the cup of lemonade next to his plate. From behind his small glasses Grampa Jonagold inspected him. “So..” he started, smacking his lips. “Yer sister here told me you managed to sell some apples yesterday for that farm over in ponyville?” Caramel looked up. So he’d already asked Toffee about it, hopefully she’d covered well. “Um...Yes sir.” he nodded quickly taking a sip of his lemonade. “Good, good, I had to make sure. Couldn’t believe it when she told me. You, our little Clumsy Caramel selling forty apples all on his own!” Caramel choked. “What!?” He shot Toffee a look, but she was hiding her face behind a cabinet door. “Now don’t be modest boy, yer sister done told me all about it. I bet them Ponyville apples is singin’ your praises. You should be proud!” His Grandfather beamed. “Here I am trying to make you into a workhorse, when it’s obvious what you are!” “B-but Gramp-” “A sales pony!” Grampa Jonagold continued, heedless of Caramel’s protests. “That’s why, today I’ve got a very special job for you. Follow me.” The old pony got shakily to his hooves. Caramel followed him out to the barn, at a total loss for what to say. He was in over his head now, what was Toffee thinking? He’d wanted to look good, but not that good! What did his Grandfather have in mind? Grampa Jonagold came to a stop in front of the barn doors and turned smiling to Caramel. “I’ve got a surprise for you, boy. It’s right in here.” He opened the doors with a flourish. Inside something lay under a tarp. It was large and bulky whatever it was. Caramel walked forwards for a closer look. It came up to about his neck, and looked to be rather heavy. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it might have been. But he had a feeling it wouldn’t be good. “Well go on.” Grampa Jonagold urged. “Take a look at it!” Caramel hesitantly grabbed the corner of the tarp and pulled. It slid away to reveal a wooden cart. Caramel stared at it in horror. He suddenly had an idea of what his errand for the day would be, and he didn’t like where it was going. “Surprise!” Grampa Jonagold clapped in him in the back with a hoof. Caramel was quite certain the bruises in that particular area would never get a chance to heal. “After hearing how good you did with the Ponyville Apple’s cart, I thought, ‘Why not use some of that salespony charm for ourselves?’ So I went out this morning before you woke up, and got this baby at a great price! Isn’t that wonderful?” Caramel just stared. “Speechless my boy? I totally understand, it’s overwhelming isn’t it? We’re going to make so much money! Good thing too, I still need that hip of mine looked at. Darn thing’s creakier than a metal door at the bottom of the ocean.” “B-but...But Grampa! I can’t-” “Wait to get out there and sell some apples?” Caramel found himself being pushed towards the cart. “That’s great! It’s already loaded up, you get this to the ponyville market and go get’em Caramel! I have faith in you boy. Good luck!” Caramel found himself harnessed to the cart before he knew what was happening. He turned to protest again, but seeing his Grandfather’s smiling face, he found he couldn’t. He works so hard, Caramel thought, I can’t disappoint him.... “Thanks, Grampa...” Caramel said quietly. “I’ll go right now.” This comment earned him another hoof to the back. “That’s the spirit! Now get out there and sell, sell, sell! Bring us home some bits!” ------------------------------- The cart was heavier than it looked. It was at this point more than any other Caramel regretted the fact that the Ponyville town square was at the top of a hill. It took him half an hour just to lug the cart up. When he finally arrived, he sat on his haunches for a moment, gasping for breath. What had he gotten himself into? The ponies around here wouldn’t buy anything from him. He knew that from yesterday, and then he’d had Applejack’s cart. With his own cart he’d be lucky if anypony came within 20 feet. Still, he was here. Nothing to do but set up. Caramel, unloaded some bushels of apples, placing them around the cart in a way he thought might look attractive to the unwary passerby. He found an umbrella wrapped in some cloth. He opened it, and layed it against them, maybe if he looked like he knew what he was doing somepony might buy something. Apples didn’t like being in the heat. Right? As he turned to look at his work, his head collided with something hard. “Ow!” yelled a voice. There was the sound of fluttering of pages as a book fell the ground. Caramel’s head was spinning. That voice was familiar, but he couldn’t place it, he waited for his vision to stop swimming, and looked around. The purple unicorn from the previous day sat rubbing her head. “Twilight!” he yelled, he was on his hooves immediately. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! Are you hurt? It was my fault. Oh Celestia, I am so so sorry. I didn’t mean it. Of course...you know, I’d never mean to hurt you.” No...wait..that sounds weird. “Or anypony really! “he quickly interjected. “Do you need help?” Twilight looked up. “Oh Caramel, hello. I’m fine really. Don’t worry, it was more my fault than yours. I should really choose between reading and walking.” She nodded to the book that had fallen to the ground in the collision. “I didn’t see you.” Caramel raced over retrieve the book. The cover was filled with words he couldn’t fathom the meaning of. He offered it to Twilight, who floated it into her saddlebag. “Oh no, I was setting up the cart. I should have been paying more attention. Really, it’s my fault. You know me, Clumsy Caramel.” Why did you tell her that nickname? His brain screamed. Twilight laughed. Oh Celestia she had a great laugh.... “Fine, I guess we’ll share the blame.” “Um..yeah.” Caramel chuckled. “I guess so.” Twilight looked past him at the cart. “That’s not the same setup you had yesterday is it?” “Oh, uh, no. Grampa Jonagold bought us our own cart this morning. We could use the money.” “So it’s new is it? Well you should have a grand opening sign.” She gestured to the crowd. “To draw in customers. I’m sure Applejack could help you with it.” Twilight smiled. “If she doesn’t mind the competition that is.” Caramel stared at her for a moment. It was only the second time he’d seen her smile and he was quite sure he never wanted to stop seeing it. Wow she was pretty. Perhaps he should have brought that book he’d thought of...but she was already reading a book. It suddenly dawned on him that she ran the library. Applejack had mentioned it once before. Would she need books? Maybe something else... Caramel realized he’d spaced out for a moment. Oh no... he thought. If he replied now, would it be awkward? Maybe if he acted like he hadn’t heard her she’d repeat it, then he could reply...but that might make him seem uninterested in what she had to say...Why was this so hard? He chose to reply. “Oh, me? I’m no competition.” Twilight looked briefly at his cart. “Well your apples look pretty good. I’d say you might give her a bit of a run for her money. How about I help?” Caramel’s heart was beating three times faster than it should have. “H-huh? Oh! That’s not really necessary, I couldn't...I mean..” “I’ll be your first customer. Come on, we’ll set the tone for the day.” She smiled again. He would have jumped into a volcano if she’d asked. “Okay...” he said dreamily. Twilight picked out two Golden Delicious apples, and set them on the counter. “How much is that?” Caramel suddenly remembered he had neglected to ask what the prices were before he’d left the farm. He really didn’t want to charge her, but if he returned home empty hoofed, his Grandfather would be disappointed. Caramel didn’t want to see that. “Four bits.” Twilight fished the money out of her saddled bag and set it on the counter. Grabbing the apples. “Thank you.” Caramel floundered for a moment. “O-oh no, thank you!” “Good luck, Caramel” Twilight turned to leave. Caramel thought for a moment. Twilight was so kind to him, she’d been his first customer two days in a row. Did that mean she liked him? He thought. It seemed like she liked him. But did she like him, or like, like him? Maybe she was just being charitable...he thought. Perhaps she saw that he was a screw up, and everything she said was out of pity.... He sighed, looking up as she walked away. That was probably it. There was no way in the wide world of Equestria she’d ever like him. You don’t know that. Said a little voice in his head. Yes I do. Caramel thought back. If she was doing this out of pity, would she have remembered you name? And bought apples from you twice? Maybe. Well there’s only one way to find out. Caramel’s mouth was open before he knew what was happening. “Twilight!” he called. She turned. “Yes?” Caramel’s face turned bright red. Curse that voice, there was no turning back now. “Um...are you..busy this afternoon?” Twilight pondered for a moment. “Not really, why do you ask?” Caramel’s face got redder. “Um...well you see...I was wondering....If...you know...you had nothing to do....if you would.....you know.... kinda....” His voice petered out. This time it was Twilight’s turn to blush. “Oh! Oh you mean....if I’m not doing anything...you’d like to...” Caramel resembled a tomato at this point. He nodded. Twilight’s face got just as red as Caramel’s. “Oh....oh my..” His heart sank. She was going to say no. He just knew it. “Well...if you don’t want to... I understand...I’ll jus-” “I’d love to!” she blurted out. Twilight quickly covered her mouth with her hooves. Surprised at her outburst. Caramel got that now familiar, ‘out of his depth’ feeling. “So you....” She nodded. “With me...” She nodded again. His heart nearly burst in his chest. “Um...how’s four?” A final nod. “Um.... S-see you then?” “Um...yeah...” Caramel said. He didn’t dare move in case he woke up. “Good...” said Twilight. “Good..” said Caramel. To Be continued.
Squeak-anon	780	4	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-09-23T07:00:14+00:00	2011-09-23T07:00:14+00:00	15,653	Caramel stood behind the applecart for several minutes. He was completely motionless as he was still convinced this was all a dream and that if he moved too much it would all pop like a giant soap bubble. She said yes....He thought. She said yes... “Mommy...is he alright?” said a small filly walking by. Her mother glanced Caramel out of the corner of her eye. She’d thought he was a statue until her daughter had pointed him out. She noticed he wasn’t blinking. “Don’t stare honey.” she said quickly, rushing the small pony past Caramel’s cart. “She said yes...” he whispered under his breath. “It talks!” the child yelled as she was pushed into the crowd. “She said yes...” He said it again. Still not quite sure it was true. “She said yes, she said yes, she said yes!!” Unable to keep still any longer Caramel jumped around the cart happily. “She said yes!” “Well, landsakes Caramel, what’s got you in such a state?” said a familiar voice. Caramel missed a step, falling head over a tail onto the ground. He landed at the hooves of his cousin Applejack, who was staring at him oddly. “Are you alright?” “Ow.” Caramel groaned. “Yeah, I’m alright...wait...I’m better than alright! She said yes!” He was on his feet again in seconds. “She said yes!” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Who said yes?” “She did!” Caramel hopped happily. “She said yes. To me! Do you believe it?” “Well I can’t rightly start if you don’t tell me the poor gal’s name!” “Twilight!” Caramel yelled. “Twilight....” Caramel paused. “Oh no....Does she have a last name? Oh Celesita...Did she ever tell me? I’ve forgotten haven’t I? This is teri-” “Woah, there Caramel. Did you say Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?” “Sparkle! That’s it, thank you Applejack. I was panicking for a minute there.” His face split into a dreamy grin. “Twilight Sparkle....” Applejack tsked. “Wow, he’s got it bad.” She waved a hoof in front of his face. “So, you got yourself a date. Well I’m plum proud of you, Caramel.” Caramel’s face flushed. “Date? Is it a date? I mean we never really called it that...I mean she might think it’s weird if I start calling it a date. We’re just...” He paused again. “I have no idea what we’re doing...” he realized. “Oh horseapples I have no idea what we’re doing! I have to plan something! But what? Maybe a nice dinner.....no wait... is 4 o’clock to early for dinner? Is going for food moving to fast? Maybe we should just take a wa-” He was cut off as Applejack shoved a hoof in his mouth. “Calm down, sugarcube. I know Twi as well as anypony here, and you want me to tell you somethin’? Caramel nodded. His cousin lifted a hoof to his ear and whispered, “She was talking about you yesterday.” “She was!?” Caramel yelled. Applejack shushed him. “Sorry,” he said, lowering his voice. “She was? What did she say?” “Well, don’t tell her I told you this. Normally I wouldn’t but honestly, and I mean nothin’ by it sugarcube, you need all the help you can get.” Caramel was forced to agree. “She was talking to Fluttershy yesterday, and I overheard as I was bringing my cart to the Apple celler. She was sayin’ she fancied some colt from the market. Blushin’ like a red delicious I reckon.” Caramel froze. “A colt in the market?” his ears drooped. “So...she likes someone else?” He was almost knocked off his feet as Applejack punched him in the side. “No! She was talkin’ about you for peat sakes!” She sighed. “Look, what I’m tryin’ to say is, she likes you Caramel. Just be yourself and stop worryin’ so gosh darn much. Ya hear?” “She...she was talking about me?” Caramel’s heart fluttered. “You’re missin’ the point sugarcube.” Applejack patted him on the back. “You’re gonna be fine.” She paused. “Come to think of it, what’re you doin’ in the market today anyhow? Shouldn’t you be helpin’ on the farm over in Hoofdale?” Caramel suddenly remembered what he was here for in the first place. “Oh no...” “What is it?” Caramel slumped, sitting on his haunches. “Remember how I sold those three apples yesterday?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Ah thought you said it was two apples?” “Oh...” He’d neglected to bring two apples to replace the one’s he’d given away. “Well you see there’s a funny story about that...” “You gave them the Twilight didn’t you?” Caramel nodded. Applejack sighed. “Continue.” “Well...” he looked at his hooves. “You know my sister Toffee sometimes exaggerates right?” “Yeah...” “Well she might have made it sound a little better than it was.” Applejack eyed him suspiciously. “How much better we talkin’?” He squirmed under her gaze. “It may have been a bit high...” “Spit it out.” “Forty apples...” Caramel murmured. She stared for a moment. “Fourty apples!? She get kicked in the head or something!?” “I don’t know!” Caramel cried. “I told her not to tell Grampa I didn’t sell many yesterday. I guess she thought she was looking out for me. Now he’s gone and bought this cart. He expects me to do it again today!” He looked up at his cousin. “I need your help Applejack. I can’t disappoint him again, I just can’t...We really need the money....Please?” Applejack smiled. “Well, I wouldn’t be much of a cousin if I didn’t help you out a bit, now would I? But no more of this lyin’ business, you hear?” Caramel brightened. “Deal!” “Good, now, we’re gonna need a sign.” She turned walking towards her farm. “I’m gonna go get some wood. You stay here.” “Alright Then....Wait!” he called after her. “what do I do in the mean time!?” “What’dya think? You try to sell some Apples!” Applejack disappeared into the crowd. Caramel stood there for a moment. Well......how do I do that?” he thought. Applejack always yelled out her sales and tried to entice customers over. He could do that couldn’t he? “Hello sir!” he said to a passing stallion. “Would you like some delicious apples toda-” “No.” This was not going as he had planed. “B-but they’re really juicy and...” The stallion just kept walking. Caramel sighed. He tried again on a passing mare. “What about you ma'am? Would you li-” “Just had lunch, sorry.” She hurried past. “Oh...alright..... How about you two foals?” he asked, spying two fillies walking home from class. “A nice apple will keep those teeth nice and shiny! What do you say?” They sized him up. “No thanks. We don’t buy apples from losers.” Caramel was taken aback. “Well, that’s not very nice you-” The fillies ran away giggling. “Know...” he finished lamely. “How does she make this look so easy?” He tried this for a while longer before giving up, if anything this got him less interest than when he’d simply been quiet. He stared at the passing ponies, hoping one would eventually stop, but none did. He tried not to look too eager, but when that didn’t work he tried looking pleadingly at everypony who passed. The results were the same. “Oh come on!” he implored. “They’re good apples! See?” He took a bite out of one. “Delicious!” This earned him a few odd stares, but no customers. “You’ll get it eventually. But for now, stop makin’ a mule out of yourself and help me with this stuff.” Caramel turned to find Applejack had returned with Big Mac in tow. He carried a large fencepost in his mouth, and a larger plank of wood on his back. He opened his mouth and it fell to the ground with a heavy thunk. Applejack had some paint, which she sat down next to it. “Here we go, all the stuff we’ll be needin’ for a proper sign. How’s business goin’?” Caramel looked out into the crowd. “Not so well. I haven’t made a single sale since you left....” he said, hanging his head. “Well we’re gonna change that. All we need this here bit of wood and pain, and in two shakes’a my tail we’ll get you some customers. Right Mac?” “Eyup.” Caramel smiled. “Thank you guys for doing this, I really appreciate it. I’ll pay you back for the supplies...” “Don’t you worry none, Sugarcube. We’re family remember? Apples help Apples, it’s our way.” She gestured to the paint sitting on the ground. “Now enough flappin’ our gums. We need to get to work if you’re going to get them sales before your date.” Big Mac raised an eyebrow. “Date?” Caramel blushed. “It’s...not a date really...it’s more of a....well....” “Date.” Applejack finished. “With, Twilight.” Big Mac eyed her for a moment. Then looked Caramel over. “....Really?” His sister hoofed him sharply in the chest. “Yes, really! Now like I said let’s get started! You nail the sign together, Caramel and I’ll paint it.” The large red stallion walked over to the plank of wood, he carefully placed it over the fence post. Applejack passed him a nail, which he positioned over the two. With a quick jab of his powerful hooves it was done. “Thank you Big Mac. You can go back and help Granny with those pies now.” “Eyup,” he said turning to leave. He looked back at Caramel over his shoulder. “Good luck on your date Caramel.” His face flushed again. “But it’s....I mean I told you it’s more of a....” Big Mac had already walked away. “Will you stop doing your best impression of a strawberry and help me? I need to know what this sign ought to say.” Applejack stood poised over the paint cans. “I thought you had that part figure out?” Caramel asked, looking at the blank wood. “It’s your sign, not mine, I just know that you need one. It’s your cart, if you want to sell apples, it’s gotta be your message, somethin’ important.” Caramel put a hoof to his chin in thought. He couldn’t think of anything, he wasn’t a salespony, how should he know what to put on a sign? It’s gotta be your message, something important, he thought. That’s what Applejack said. He had an idea. “Can I hold that paintbrush?” -------------------------- A short time later Caramel finished. He stepped back and examined his work. “What do you think?” Applejack stepped back to get a good look at the sign. “Landsakes...” Caramel’s ears drooped. “You don’t like it?” Applejack’s mouth hung open for a moment. “It’s beautiful...” Caramel pulled back in surprise. “Really? You think so?” Applejack examined it closely. “Shoot, I’d say you have quite the talent there Caramel. If this don’t get you some business, I don’t know what’ll do it!” “A talent you say?” He looked at the sign. It was a strange feeling, nothing had gone wrong or exploded and it seemed like everything had gone according to plan. This was new. Caramel smiled. “Yeah..maybe so. I hope you’re right.” “Excuse me,” said a voice behind them. Caramel turned to find a rather plump unicorn mare in a rather opulent dress standing behind them. “What’d I tell you?” Applejack clapped him on the back. He was quite sure he was going to have a bald patch on that area. “Already got a customer. Go get’em.” She shoved him towards the curious mare. Caramel stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance. “Um...yes ma'am, how may I help you?” “Are you the the owner of this cart?” she asked. “That’s me. How may I help you? If you’re looking for apples we’ve got every type you can think of, gala’s red delicious braebu-” “Nononono, you misunderstand me sir.” She looked past him at the cart. “I would simply like to know where you got the sign. I have to say it’s simply marvelous!” “Oh!” Caramel said, surprised. “Well...I made that sign actually...just finished it. The paint’s still wet.” The mare eyed him in shock. “You?” Applejack stepped up eyeing her right back. “And just what do you mean by that may I ask?” The mare backed up a bit. “Oh...well I mean nothing by it my good lady-” Applejack’s stare got a bit harder. “It’s just that the colt hardly seems the type.” She looked Caramel up and down again. Caramel sagged a bit. “Have you got a point to this miss?” Applejack asked curtly. The mare looked affronted. “Well!” she huffed. “If you must know, I own a mane styling boutique on the other side of town. I was wondering if the creator of that sign, could do something like that for me.” She turned to Caramel. “So I suppose that means you. Now matter how rude your...assistant is.” “Assistant!?” Caramel leapt to hold Applejack back. Struggling against her brute strength. “What my cousin, means to say is. I don’t make signs, sorry. I’m selling apples though, so if you want one of them I’d be happy to sell it to you.” The mare signed. “Pity. You seem to be quite good, despite outward appearances.” Caramel grunted as Applejack tried to push forwards again. “But,” she continued. “I suppose it can’t be helped. Give me two of your best red galas.” Caramel paused. “...What?” “You said you’d sell me some apples, so I intend to buy some apples. If I can’t have a sign from you I can at least get that much I assume?” “Y-yeah! Sure you can!” Caramel quickly pushed Applejack over to the side, and rushed to fetch her apples. He placed them in a small bag and passed them to her. “Here you go.” “Thank you.” Her horn glowed as she floated the bag over. She inspected the apples closely, before taking a bite of one. “Hmmm...” “How is it?...” asked Caramel. The unicorn produced a handkerchief from her saddlebag and wiped her lips. Applejack whispered something that made Caramel blush. If the mare heard her she didn’t acknowledge it. “This,” she began, pausing for overly dramatic effect. “Is delicious.” Caramel spoke before Applejack could. “Thank you miss! I hope you’ll spread the word! I could use the business.” “Well, I believe that can be arranged. Though your establishment is....” she looked over the cart. “...quaint, your product is good, and your sign is just darling. I shall recommend you highly.” She leaned into Caramel’s ear to whisper something. “Though I would fire that assistant, she is quite crass.” Caramel quickly shoved an Apple into Applejack’s mouth. “Um...no I think I’ll keep her, she does good work.” He shot her a look. “Very well then.” She turned to leave. “Have a good day sir.” Caramel had never been referred to as ‘sir’ before.“...Sure, you too.” Applejack spit the apple out, stomping a hoof angrily. “What in tarnation you do that for? You should’a let me give that hoity-toity filly what for.” “Sorry Applejack. I didn’t like her either, but we really need the money...who knows if we’ll get another sale?” Applejack softened. “It’s alright I suppose sugarcube. Don’t you worry, I’m sure you’ll sell some more before the day is over.” Caramel smiled. “I hope so, I’ve still got thirty-eight more to go!” He looked at the mare disappearing into the crowd. “She said she’d tell her friends, who knows? Maybe it’ll drum up some business.” ---------------------------------------- “I’ll take two gala’s and a Granny Smith.” said a rather pudgy green mare with a pearl necklace. Caramel rushed to fill the order. “Sure thing one second please! I have to-” A stallion in a monocle shoved his way forwards. “I’ll take five golden Delicious and a jonagold.” “Well....please wait your-” “I’ve been waiting. Where are my apples young colt!?” yelled an irate pony from somewhere in the crowd. “Wait! One at a time! Don’t shove, please! I’m trying my best!” Caramel fought his way though the line of ponies, giving out apples faster than he ever thought he could move. He’d lost count, but he was pretty sure he was well past forty at this point. “Well!” Applejack yelled from a hay bale at the edge of the crowd. “I’d say she told her friends!” Caramel was jostled and bumped as he tried to find out who ordered what. “Yes, I think it’s safe to- Please miss, don’t shove!- say that.” Applejack smiled. “Well, isn’t it nice to have customers?” “Oh yes it’s- Ow! Don’t kick please!- just wonderful. I think I’ve gone over forty apples at this point.” “Congratulations Caramel. Looks like your sign worked better than you expected. It’s a good thing you were so nice to that city-mare from earlier huh?” Caramel dodged a stray knee. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?” “A fair bit, yes I am.” “Well, at least Grampa won’t be disappointed. Wait’til he sees all these sales!” Caramel managed a smile between rushing through the crowd. “If this keeps up we’ll be able to do all those repairs. I can’t wait to see Toffee’s face.” Applejack got her feet. “I really am happy for you Caramel. I bet your Grandpa’s gonna be right proud of you.” “Thanks.” “Will you two stop you insipid conversation and procure my produce? I have a meeting at six.” The stallion at the front of the line snapped. Caramel froze. “What...?” The stallion scoffed. “I see I’ll have to dumb down my language. “Can you get me my apples please?” “N-no...after that, what’d you say?” “I said, I have got a meeting at six, young colt. Now if you pleas-” A slow feeling of dread crept through the pit of Caramel’s stomach. “What time is it?...” With a sigh the stallion checked his watch. “It’s half past five.” “Oh no...” “Young colt?” he waved a hoof in front of Caramel’s eyes. “Young colt? I still require my apples. Are you quite alright?” “I missed it....” Caramel whispered. “An hour and a half...” The crowd began to mummer. “He looks awfully pale...” “Is he quite alright?” “I think he’s in shock, has anyone got some smelling salts?” “Oh, I do, just let me check my saddlebag. He’ll have to pay be for them of cour-” Applejack cut a path through the crowd. “Sweet highsteppin’ horseshoes! Caramel, I’ll take care of this. Go!” Caramel stood despondently. “I missed it...” “Go!” she shoved him roughly in the direction of the library. Caramel stumbled for a moment before he found his footing. “Run!” He didn’t need to be told twice. His hooves pounded the cobblestone road of the market as he sped outwards the old oak in the center of town. Things had been going so well. He couldn’t screw up now, not again, not with her, not this soon. They hadn’t even started, the first person who’d been kind to him on his first day in the market and he’d let her down. He hoped she was still waiting. Caramel skidded to a stop as he came to the tree, he looked around wildly, but she wasn’t waiting outside. His heart sunk as he scanned the town square. She was nowhere to be seen. Walking now, he came up to the door. He stared at the green wood for a long time. Should I knock? Would she be mad? Probably, who knows how long she’d waited outside for him, he was more than an hour and a half late at this point. Caramel’s head drooped. She’d probably want nothing to do with him now. He’d screwed it up, like everything else in his life. Another thing he’d failed at, another pony who’d probably relegate him to being useless, the first mare who’d ever taken any kind of interest in him. He felt low, lower than he’d felt in a long time. What was the point? Caramel turned to leave. “So, are you ready?” said a voice behind him. Caramel’s ears perked up. It couldn’t be. Slowly he turned, to find Twilight standing in the doorway, smiling at him. “Wha....but I’m....but I’m late....I kept you waiting....you still?” She nodded. “Really?” She nodded. Caramel paused. “Why?” Twilight walked over to him, blushing slightly. “Well, several reasons. One, you seem sweet.” Caramel turned bright red. “...And two?” “Two, your sister came by earlier, and told me you probably wouldn’t show up on time.” Carmel stepped back. “Toffee!? She was here? But ho-” “Apparently you talk in your sleep.” Twilight shuffled her hooves. “You mentioned a few things.” Caramel’s face was burning like a small sun at this point. “Whatever I said, I-I didn’-...I wasn’t awake...” Twilight smiled. “Oh don’t worry, you didn’t say anything too embarrassing.” Her face rivaled his. “Apparently you’re quite the gentlemen when you’re asleep.” Caramel floundered, still confused. “B-but how did she know about the date? I haven’t been home...” “Big Mac came by your house, apparently he told Toffee.” “And she came here....” “Yes, said she was looking out for you...good thing too. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be late.” “No! Not at all! I couldn’t help it. I had so many customers, and I couldn’t get away. I wanted to be on time, I really did but....” “It’s okay Caramel, I understand.” She walked past him into the square. “So...you ready to go?” “You really still want too?” She nodded. “Even though you know I’m a screw up?” She shook her head. “You’re not a screw up Caramel. All you need is a bit of help...I could give it if you want.” “S-sure!” Caramel rushed to her side. “I’d love that, I need all the help I can get!” She laughed that fantastic laugh. “Well we’d better get started.” They walked though the square, past the buildings, and into the market. The sun had almost set, the stars crept in at the edges of the sky as they walked. They came to Caramel’s cart, Applejack was gone, along with all the apples he’d brought. Apparently he’d sold out. “Wow.” said Twilight. “Looks like you had a good day.” “Yeah, I did, my Grandfather is going to be really happy.” he smiled. “I see you got that sign.” Caramel froze. The sign.... “Oh! Um...I hope you don’t mind...it’s just that Applejack said I should paint something important and....well....” “Oh...” Twilight blushed. “I mean..um...it could be any two ponies...you know....love is importa-” Caramel paused. “Not that I’m....you know......Well...we’ve only just met...but I needed something and...well...” “Yeah...I know.” Twilight leaned into his shoulder. Caramel did his best not to fall over from shock. He wasn’t sure what to do for a moment. But then he just walked forwards, she followed, still leaning. They walked till they were at the edge of ponyville. “You have no idea where we’re going do you?” asked Twilight. “Well...not as such but....You see.....No...” said Caramel. Behind them, the sign sat in the ground next the cart, on it, in fresh paint, was a picture of an apple in the shape of a heart, a light brown colt and a purple filly on either side. Two ponies, both bright red now, with no idea where they were going, kept walking. To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	5	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-10-12T03:06:59+00:00	2011-10-12T03:06:59+00:00	12,027	Caramel stumbled through the dark streets of Ponyville on his way home. He thought back to the night he’d had. Everything had gone so well. They’d walked and walked, unsure of the time or the place, with Twilight next to him Caramel could hardly have cared less. Her steady pace keeping up with his, her beautiful mane pressed against his side. It still smelled of old books, like the library in which she lived. He could have stayed there forever. Still, eventually they had to admit to themselves that if they didn’t go home soon they’d probably get irreparably lost. So they had called it a night. He’d walked her back home. Or at least he’d walked next to her, as he couldn’t remember the way back the library. When they reached her door she’d stopped, turned, smiled that amazing smile and said she’d see him later. Later couldn’t come soon enough. Caramel giggled to himself as he reached the edge of his family’s property. This was the best day he’d had in a while. A very long while and now he was finally convinced it wasn’t all a dream. This was real. He hummed a tune to himself as he opened the door to the main house, dancing towards the kitchen swinging through the halls with reckless abandon. “So, it went well I suppose?” Caramel tripped over himself onto the hard tiles. He looked up to find Toffee staring at him much the way a viper might when it’s found a small mouse. “Come on! I want details! You owe me for saving your flank again you know.” He leapt to his hooves. “Oh! Hello, Toffee!” he said shakily, a sudden redness creeping onto his face. “Um....” “The first word you’re looking for is ‘Thank’,” she said smiling. Caramel chuckled nervously. “Yeah...thank you Toffee, you really did save me back there.” “You’re welcome, Mel, now, as payment for my good deed, you’re gonna fill me in on everything that happened.” she sat down at the table and stared at him expectantly. He signed. There’s no getting out of this is there? Caramel sat down across from her. “Well...it...went....well!” he said. He was still a bit surprised at this fact himself. It felt strange to say it out loud. “Thanks to you she was understanding. She wasn’t mad or anything! It was weird, but....so....well...nice! Nothing went wrong Toffee! Nothing at all....She likes me...she actually likes me..” Toffee leaned over and hoofed him in the shoulder. “Well don’t look so shocked! You sound like you’re waiting on the sky to fall!” “Ow!” he yelled. “Sorry! It’s just, this doesn’t happen often! And it wasn’t just the date either! You know the apple cart Grampa Jonagold bought this morning?” “Yeah.” He leaned in, as though he were sharing a secret. “I didn’t just sell a few apples, I sold out.” Toffee pulled back in shock. “You?!” “I know!” Caramel agreed. “Applejack has a hard time doing that, and she’s the best apple seller in that market!” His sister eyed him suspiciously. “How did you manage that?” “Hey! I’m just as surprised as you are. I’m not sure what it was exactly...” He paused, thinking back to that morning. “But I guess it was when Applejack said I should make a sign to attract customers. So I did...It worked! I got this fancy looking citypony to come up to the cart. She asked me to make a sign for her boutique! She told her friends about us, and we were mobbed before lunch.” “Wait a minute. What did you tell her?” Caramel paused. “Who?” “The citypony who wanted a sign of course!” “Oh....well I said I was busy, so I couldn’t do it.” Toffee frowned. “Well, would you like to do it?” “Well...I suppose I wouldn’t mind..why do you ask?” She got up from the table, and walked towards the hallway. “Well, the way I see it is, you don’t think you’ve been very good at anything in your life do you?” Caramel opened his mouth to speak, but paused. He really hadn’t. “Exactly,” Toffee went on, not waiting for his reply. “But, if your sign was good enough for a pony like that to want you to work for her? Well, I’d say you’re pretty darn good at somethin’. If I were you I’d think about it.” She left him setting in the kitchen pondering what she had said. She was right. He’d done something today, and he hadn’t simply done it, he’d done it well. Could he do it again? Did he want to try? He got that increasingly familiar feeling of being out of his depth. These were uncharted waters. “Oh by the way!” Toffee called back. “I invited Twilight over for dinner tomorrow night. She’s cute. Can’t wait to talk to her some more!” The uncharted waters suddenly turned into lakes of fire. “Oh Celestia...”, whispered Caramel. It was at some point during the night, or perhaps it was early morning, that Caramel noticed he was still sitting at the kitchen table. He’d been rubbing his hooves against the wood, and it appeared he’d left a small indent. “Oh Celestia...”, he whispered again. His brain had run away with him, at first it ran to escape routes. Could he pretend to be sick? No, Toffee knew him too well for that. She’d spot the fake right away. There’d be no way out there. He considered faking his own death, but he couldn’t do that to Twilight, he’d only just met her. Caramel had very little relationship experience, but he figured that death was usually considered a deal breaker. She’d be here....he realized. And there was no stopping it. She’d meet Toffee, for the second time actually. But he really wasn’t worried about that. He gazed at the upper floors were Grampa Jonagold lay sleeping. He’d gone to bed early as usual. If he listened Caramel could hear his slight snoring. Caramel loved his Grandfather, despite any flaws he might have had. But that pony was about a subtle as a baseball bat at a tennis game. He wouldn’t hold back anything. He’d ask her all the questions that shouldn’t be asked on the...what was it? Second date? Yes, her buying apples couldn’t count as a date...She’d been a customer then...a wonderful..sweet..beautiful...custo- Caramel stopped himself. He was getting off track. His mind turned back to the looming dinner. It would be a disaster he was sure of it. Maybe if I hint to her that my family is insane..she won’t want to come? He thought. I mean, it’s got to be a bit weird for her right? Meeting them this soon. We’ve only known each other for a few days. If I can get her to back out...then she won’t see that weird thing Grampa does with his corn... He decided then. First thing in the morning he would go over to the library and try and gently convince her not to come. He couldn’t outright ask, that’d be awkward. Why is everything about this so complected? Caramel sighed. And headed up to his room. Where he fell into fitful sleep. The next morning Caramel woke up before anypony else. He quietly crept out of bed, grabbing a saddlebag and walking gingerly across the old wooden floor. Years of practice had taught him which boards would creak, and which wouldn’t. He silently made his way to the door, slipped out and headed for Ponyville. It was slightly cold that morning, the chill bit into his coat. He shivered slightly, but kept walking. Caramel needed to hurry, he knew his Grandfather would expect a full report on yesterday’s sales and want him out there selling again as soon as possible. He quickened his pace, breaking into a trot. I really need to work out more, he thought. He felt winded by the time he reached the edge of the property and entered the Ponyville proper. He was up very early, only a few ponies were walking the streets, opening shops and setting up carts. He didn’t see Applejack, but vaguely wished she was there. She knew a lot more about this kind of thing than he did. What would be the best way to bring this up?, he wondered. Should I start with a joke? He searched his mind for any witty one-liners he might have lying around. Finding nothing that wasn’t incredibly cheesy, he tried to think of something else. I need a reason to visit don’t I? I mean...if I just show up, wouldn’t that be weird? He worried. Maybe I’m over thinking this. I’ll just go. What’s the worst that could happen? He really didn’t want to think about the answer to that. As he passed a florist’s stand that was setting up, suddenly an idea dawned on him. He thought back to last night. She’d been so wonderful, he really wanted to say thanks for that. Flowers that’s perfect! He’d show Twilight he appreciated her understanding, and have a reason to visit. He stopped and looked through the florist’s stock, taking in all the bright colors and shapes of the various flowers in all manner of jugs and jars. Which one would be appropriate? Was there a particular color for this kind of thing?....Was there a wrong color for this kind of thing? The vendor, a cream colored pony with a red mane and tail, walked over. “May I help you?” she asked. “Oh,” Caramel stopped his perusing. “Good morning, I was just looking for some flowers for my...” He stopped short....Caramel suddenly realized he had no idea what to call Twilight . Would fillyfriend be too presumptuous? Would not calling her that be wrong? Was there some other word for this? The vendor gave him a knowing look. “Ah, you’re one of those,” she said, smiling. “Here,” She picked up a bundle of purple flowers. “These’ll be perfect for her.” Caramel floundered for a moment. “Oh...well, thank you! I mean...these are lovely...for um...my...her....you know..” “Yes,” The vender nodded. “I know. That’ll be five bits.” Caramel payed her, and continued on his way. Okay, now, just open the door and give her the flowers. It’s easy enough, just say something like ‘These are thanks for last night.’ He paused. No, that sounded....wrong maybe something else. This is a token of my gratitude.’ …..Or was that too formal? Perhaps something more casual would work better, like Hello Twi! These are for yo- His thoughts were interrupted as he walked into the library door. His head making a resounding thud against the solid wood. “Ow...” “Now who could that be.” He heard a voice he recognized all too well from behind the door. The top portion swung away to reveal Twilight staring at him. He didn’t have time to move, his nose was almost touching her's as she peeked out. “Oh! Caramel!” she said quickly. They both backed up a few paces, blushing profusely. “Um...yep! That’s my name!” He chuckled. “I...er....thought I would...you know, stop by....I brought you these! As gratitude for my last night thanks.” Darnit. He reached back into his saddlebags, to find there was nothing there. “Oh no...”, he said under his breath. “Where are they!?” He looked around in a panic. “Um...Caramel?” asked Twilight. He stopped looking and stared back at her. “Oh...well, I brought you some flowers...you know....I….well...you were so understanding about me being late and all....I wanted to...well..I wanted to say thanks...but it looks like.....I may have misplaced them.” Twilight smiled. “I think so. You dropped something.” She pointed behind him. He looked to find the flowers sitting on the ground a few feet back. There was a gaping hole in the bottom of his saddlebag. “Oh.” He tried to be as suave as possible in going back to pick them up, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t working. “Thank you.” The flowers glowed a faint purple as Twilight grabbed them. “They’re beautiful.” Her face got a bit redder. “You’re welcome! You deserve them....I really wanted to thank you..” The two stood there for a moment, twiddling their hooves, faces resembling strawberries. Twilight broke the silence. “You know, Spike and I were just about to have breakfast...would you like to come in?” Caramel’s heart skipped a beat. “Yes!” He said a bit louder than he’d meant to. Twilight’s face broke out into a smile again. “Great!” She opened the bottom half of the door. “Come right in.” She turned, and Caramel followed her inside. To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	6	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-10-24T00:49:30+00:00	2011-10-24T00:49:30+00:00	13,361	Caramel stepped across the threshold into the library, the smell of old paper washed over him like a wave in a hurricane. It was like the smell of Twilight’s mane, only multiplied by some number he couldn’t begin to imagine. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell by any means, just a strong one. It was accompanied by the smell of cooking food, and for some reason a smell not unlike burning plastic. Though Caramel’s brain only dimly registered any of this. His most prevalent thought was: Oh Celestia she invited me in for breakfast. He walked behind her, trying to stare at anything that wasn’t Twilight in hopes of not making her uncomfortable. But he thought that might make him look like he was up to something, so he stared directly at Twilight for a while. No wait that’s creepy.... He settled on focusing on a point just to the left of Twilight’s head. The library was extremely neat, all of the shelves were perfectly organized, the books seemingly ordered both alphabetically, and by size. Caramel didn’t even know it was possible to do both. The few books that were lying about were stacked to perfection, not so much as a page out of place. He briefly wondered how often ponies came in to check out books, this place was so immaculate it looked new. They reached the kitchen, the hard wood of the library floor being replaced by tile. It was just as neat as the library, with spices and ingredients lined up against the walls in neat little groups. Along with several other things that weren’t spices, or indeed anything Caramel could begin to guess at. A small purple creature stood in front of the stove, stirring something. “Spike,” said Twilight. “We have an extra guest for breakfast. Would you mind making some more daisy pancakes please?” Caramel remembered now. This was the small dragon Twilight had bought the apple for when they’d met. He briefly remembered seeing him around during the Winter Wrap Up. Mostly asleep. This was where the burning plastic smell had come from. It appeared to be how he normally smelled. Spike turned around, he was wearing a ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron and a large chef’s hat. “Sure thing Twilight, we’ve got plenty to spa-” He paused when he saw Caramel. “Who is this?” Twilight’s face colored a little bit. “Oh, this is Caramel. You know, you’ve met him before. He’s been around Ponyville for a while.” “Oh.” Spike noticed Twilight’s blushing. “Oooohhh.” His face broke out in a teasing grin. “I see.” Twilight’s face colored a bit more. “Just make the pancakes will you?” she sighed. “Sure thing,” he said, pouring a generous amount of mix into the pan. “One ‘lovers’ special’ coming right up!” Twilight was an unhealthy shade of red by this point. A mixture of annoyance and embarrassment. Caramel hung back in the doorway, trying not to let his own embarrassment show too much. You’re here for a reason. He thought, Just act cool. He took a deep breath and stepped forwards. “Um, Twilight, would you like to sit down?” he nudged a chair out from the table and sat down on the opposite end. He noticed that the table was set perfectly. In the middle there was a small bowl of fruit, four apples sat around the edges with a single pear in the middle. Caramel wondered if one of the apples was from him. In front of this sat a small pair of salt and pepper shakers shaped like ponies. Caramel recognized them as a pair of characters from a foals’ book The Secret Tree, a small red colt in a baseball cap, and a little filly in a bow tie. He remembered the story from when he was a foal. He’d always thought it was odd that the filly wore a bowtie of all things, but he could still remember when his Grandmother would read it to him. There was still a copy in his house somewhere. Twilight’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He made a mental note to stop letting his mind wander. “Sorry about Spike, he might be annoying sometimes, but he’s a good cook I promise.” Caramel waved it off. “Oh, no really he’s fine. I know how that goes, I’ve got a sister myself. She’s always saying doing stuff like that. You two have met right?” Twilight’s face broke out in a smile. It was just as wonderful as he remembered. “Yes, she told me you were going to be late yesterday. Among other things.” Caramel chuckled a bit louder than he’d intended to. “Ah yes...the dinner...at my house.... tonight?” Twilight clicked her hooves together. “Yes! At eight o’clock sharp. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve read up on the subject. It’s customary to bring something you’ve baked yourself correct? Normally some kind of side dish, so as not to upstage the host’s main dish. Tell me, will this be formal or casual? And if formal will I need to RSVP?” Caramel stared for a moment. “Uh...wel-” “Oh! And does your sister like hay stew?” she began to fiddle with the salt shakers. "There was a recipe for that in a book of mine, it looked very good.” “Yes bu-” “ And you live with your Grandfather right?” she asked. “Is there anything he might have a hard time eating? I want to know ahead of time so I don’t offend him by bringing anything he couldn’t enjoy. I would like to get things off on the right hoof.” Twilight rocked the shakers back and forth. “I mean, I know some ponies have a hard time with certain fruits, so I figured I’d ask.” “Twilig-” “But then again, if I assume he can’t eat something would that be rude? What if he gets offended? I wouldn’t want to offend him. The book on being a proper dinner guest mentioned not to make assumptions, to let your host dictate what should be done and what shouldn’t be.” “Tw-” She fiddled a bit more. Rocking the small objects even faster. “I wonder if I should make two different things just in case. I could get Spike to help...anything to make sure I’m a good guest! I certainly don’t want to be a bad guest because that would be..” she paused “Well....bad! I need to make a good impression after all!” The shakers fell over, spilling salt and pepper onto the table. “Oh no! Let me clean that up, one second.” Before she could get up Caramel reached across the table and placed his hooves on her’s. “Twilight, calm down!” He suddenly realized what he was doing. Caramel quickly took his hooves away. “Um...I mean, calm down.” he said a bit more softly. Twilight looked away for a moment. Brushing the salt and pepper around the table. “I’m sorry. It’s just...I’m a bit nervous I suppose.” Tell me about it. He thought. Now’s the perfect time to convince her not to come! This is excellent! Carmel opened his mouth to say something. But in that moment, she looked so small and a little scared. She really was worried about this dinner, she’d apparently been reading about how to act since she’d heard. Looked up recipes, thought about what his grandfather might enjoy and had really gone over what she should be doing. Twilight had been trying really hard to make a good impression for his family. Then he realized, it was all for him. He sighed, he couldn’t try to convince her not to come after all that. “Twilight?” She looked up from the table. “You’re going to be fine, great even. I’m sure they’ll love you, Toffee already likes you, and if my grandfather has any sense, he will too.” Twilight brightened a little. “You’re going to be great, okay?” Twilight took a deep breath. “Okay.” Caramel smiled. “Good, now, forget these books and recipes. It’s a dinner and we invited you. Come as you are, and we’ll try our best to be up to your standards. Not the other way around. Deal?” Twilight returned his smile. “Deal.” Spike chose then to come into the kitchen with the pancakes. He placed a steaming plate in front of the pair of them. “I’ll leave you two alone for a while.” he said, waggling his eyebrows. The pair of them turned beet red as he left. Twilight was the first to take a bite. She went methodically through the pancake, starting at the front, and working her way down in a row until she got to the other end. Then repeating the process. That’s adorable... Caramel thought as he watched her eat. She’s very neat. I wonder if she’s always like this? The library is so well kept, not to mention the kitchen. I’ll have to clean a bit when I get home...I always thought Toffee kept things neat, but now... “Are you hungry?” asked Twilight, not icing he hadn’t eaten any of his pancakes. “Oh! Yes, yes I’m very hungry. Just thinking I suppose.” Caramel took a bite of the pancake in front of him. It was good, very fluffy, he detected a hint of cinnamon somewhere. “Wow...” Twilight laughed. “Yes, for all his teasing, Spike actually does know how to cook. It’s one of the reasons I keep him around.” she said, shooting a look towards the kitchen door, which shut with a sharp click. Since he didn’t want to talk with his mouth full, Caramel nodded. This is actually nice. He thought. Though he’d failed to convince her not to come, and in fact ended up encouraging her to do so, he felt good. Still, something bugged him, the same thing that had been bugging him for the last few days and would continue to bug him unless he got an answer. “Um...Twilight, can I ask you something?” She looked up from a particularly stubborn corner of pancake. “Oh, sure. What is it?” “Well...it’s just, I’ve been wondering something...for a little while.” “What’s that?” Caramel paused, trying to think of how to put it. “It’s.....I just need to ask....well. Why me?” Twilight looked confused. “What do you mean?” “I mean...why do you like me?” Caramel asked. “I can’t figure it out. Since I first saw you in the market I thought ‘Oh wow, look at her, she’s lovely, smart, kind’ all that stuff. There’s tons to like about you. But me? I didn’t think I had a shot in all of Equestria.... I’m not... big or strong... or all that brave. I’m not really good at anything, or handsome. But....you like me...I mean I hope you do... But I’ve been wracking my brains trying to figure out...why? I keep thinking it’s just a fluke or a mistake, or I’m asleep. But you said yes to me in the market I’m here today, you’re coming to dinner at my house, and so far...no one has woken me up.” There was silence in the kitchen for a while. Twilight stared at him. Oh no... He thought. Oh no...I blew it...I freaked her out didn’t I? I should have just kept my mouth shut. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! “Caramel...” she said at last. He looked at her. “You know why I like you?” He shook his head. “Well, because you’re not half as bad as you think you are.” This took him by surprise. “Huh?” She got up, and walked over to his chair. “Remember when you lost the grass seeds during the Winter Wrap Up?” Caramel nodded. “When that happened, I saw how disappointed you were in yourself. But you know what? You still helped, even though you messed up a lot, you still pushed the snow plows-” “Into the lake.” Caramel interrupted. “Beside the point. We fished it out...eventually, and you kept going. You’re sweet.” She pointed to the flowers he’d bought her, sitting on the windowsill. “Thoughtful, and you’ve got a good heart. I like that, and I like you. Besides...” “Besides what?” Twilight shuffled a bit in her seat. “Well....I never thought anypony would ask me...” “Wait...You?” Caramel asked, shocked. Twilight nodded. “It’s....It’s just I’m not exactly the outgoing type...I spend all my time in here, reading books, and studying magic. I’ve been here for months, and no one’s ever asked.” she looked up. “Until you....” Caramel paused. “Oh....” he looked at her for a moment, she let a small smile creep onto her face. “Well I’m glad I did.” He reached across the table and put a hoof over hers again. “I really am.” She blushed, but didn’t pull away. “So am I.” They finished their pancakes, and Caramel got to his hooves. “Thanks, Twilight.” he said, walking back into the Library with a smile on his face. “That was really nice.” “Yes it was, you could...come back again tomorrow...if you want.” Caramel’s smile grew even wider. “Yes!” The sound echoed around the empty library. “Oh...Um...I mean I’d like that.” Twilight laughed. “So would I...Oh, wait a minute.” her horn glowed. “Before you go, you’ve got something on your face.” He froze as a napkin floated up to his face. She stepped in front of him, peering at a small amount of butter on his cheek. She was about a good hoof shorter than he was, so she had to look up. He couldn’t help but blush again, she was very close. “There, all clean,” Twilight said, putting the napkin away. She suddenly seemed to notice where she was, she stiffened a bit. “So....I’ll see you tonight.” she said, backing up a bit. “Um...yeah. See you then.” he headed towards the door. Before he opened it, he thought of something. “Oh...and Twilight?” “Yes?” “You know how you asked if there was anything you shouldn’t bring?” She nodded. “Don’t bring corn.” To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	7	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2011-11-23T06:29:43+00:00	2011-11-23T06:29:43+00:00	13,499	In Caramel’s defence he almost made it halfway home before the panic set in again. This was going to happen. He’d practically made sure it would happen, and now there would be no stopping it. He stopped dead in the middle of the road back to his farm, staring into space. A bird may have landed on his head, but he really didn’t care. She was going to be in his house, with his family, for hours. Take a deepbreath, he thought to himself. You talked to her about this, it’s all going to be fine. He thought back to breakfast, pancakes with Twilight. He could get used to that, it sounded nice, sitting their, talking in the morning, her sweet smile across the table, the smell of books filling the air. She’d invited him back, he’d get to do it all again tomorrow. If everything went well. “And I’m going to make sure it does...” he promised himself. He took up a gallop the rest of the way home. Leaving a startled bird in his wake. -------------- The farm came into view shortly afterwards. Although it was still early, he could hear Toffee bustling around the kitchen already. Apparently everything had been put on hold for this ‘Event’. He hoped that was a good thing. Her silhouette shifted about the kitchen picking spices, mixing bowls, getting the house ready for their visitor. He walked up to the door and stepped inside, the smell of apples cooking a hundred different ways flooded into his nose with the force of a psychical blow. It was warm and comforting in some ways and frankly alarming in others. Toffee peeked her head around the doorway, a bit of chocolate staining the side of her cheek. Her face lit up at the sight of her brother. “Well if it isn’t our little Romeo!” she teased. “Out getting ready for your date?” Caramel attempted not to blush. “I had some business to take care of...” “Oh yes, ‘Business’, I’m sure.” she waggled her eyebrows, laughing at the expression this drew from Caramel. Then her face softened. “Oh don’t worry, Mel, I’m sure you’ll be fine. I won’t embarrass you I promise. Now tell me, does Twilight like apple brownies or apple celery stew?” Caramel’s stomach churned. Sometimes Apples were a bit too efficient at using apples. “Um...why no-” “Make both! You’re right, Mel!” she disappeared back into the kitchen in a vaguely Toffee shaped cloud of flour. Caramel gulped. “Oh, by the way, Grampa’s lookin’ for you.” Toffee’s voice echoed back. He turned and walked down the hall towards the living room, where his Grandfather could normally be found sitting in a large easy chair. What now? he wondered as he progressed. The old pony was exactly where Caramel thought he would be, though his eyes were closed. “Grampa?” The old pony snored loudly. Caramel rolled his eyes and shook Grampa Jonagold gently. “Grampa? You wanted to see me?” “Huh!? Whazat?” he stuttered. He looked around wildly for a moment before his eyes focused on Caramel. “Oh! There you are, must’a nodded off waitin’ on ya. You weren’t in your room this morning.” “Oh,” Caramel wondered for a moment if he ought to lie about his whereabouts earlier, but quickly decided against it; he wasn’t a liar. “I...well...went to see Twilight.” “Ah!” A sly smile spread accross Grampa Jonagold’s wrinkled face. “Goin’ to see your girl eh? Toffee has told me about this filly, from what I hear she’s quite the catch.” he clicked his teeth together in a way that made Caramel horribly uncomfortable. “Very lucky my boy!” “...Thanks?” said Caramel. “You’re welcome Caramel. You know, I was quite the stallion in my day. I swear the fillies were lining up for your old grampa! I reckon you must’ve gotten some of the Apple magic. Good genes, that’s what it is!” Caramel figured it was safer to just nod. Grampa Jonagold laughed heartily. “Ah yes, I have such memories of them days.” He stared of into space for a moment. Caramel used this time to think. He and his grandfather had never really hit it off. They’d spoken a lot more in the last few days than they ever had before. He let himself smile inwardly about this. Though he did hope if they eventually grew to talk more, it would be about less..... sensitive topics. The old pony came back from wherever he had gone, smiling oddly. Then he seemed to realize where he was. “Oh! Sorry about that Caramel, got a bit lost for a second there. In anycase, the reason I wanted you is, that applecart ain’t gonna wheel itself to Ponyville!” Wait...what? His grandfather hefted himself from the old chair and pushed Caramel towards the door. “Go on now, the rest of us may get a break to prepare for your little date, but we still need bits Caramel! Get out there and sell, sell, sell! Don’t worry, we got things here. Besides while you’re out you might pick up a few more to bring home. Filly killer.” he clicked his teeth again. It didn’t make Caramel any less uncomfortable the second time around. “But I want to help!” he protested. “Nonsense! We need those sales boy! Like I said we’ve got it!” He shoved Caramel outside. “The cart is in the barn all stocked up for ya, just push it and you’re ready to go!” “Bu-” The door slammed. Caramel sighed. It looked like he was going to have to leave it up to them and hope it would turn out for the best. What’s the worst that could happen? He thought for a moment. You know, I really don’t want the answer to that... ------------------------- Caramel pushed the heavy cart all the way back to ponyville, once again cursing his lack of stamina. He slumped to the ground, exhausted, and stared ruefully at the bushels of apples he had to unload. Well, they’re not gonna display themselves. As he set about moving the heavy baskets, Caramel spotted his sign lying on it’s side among the breaburns. He smiled a bit in spite of himself as he picked it up and stuck it into the soft ground in front of the cart. The paint still looked fresh. He eyed the purple mare painted onto the wood, smiling a bit more at the sight. Perhaps things won’t be so bad. He felt a bit more optimistic as he set about making an alluring display out of apples. He decided to organize them by color, darkest at the front and lightest at the back. He thought it looked rather nice. He knew he probably wouldn’t get any customers until the lunch rush, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try. Finishing his work he plopped down behind the cart and waited. The ponies of ponyville milled about as usual. He did notice that they didn’t give him as wide a berth as the last two days, that was a good sign. Maybe his reputation was changing. Still this didn’t get him any customers durring the morning. Caramel sat there for hours, waiting for the sun to reach the midday point. He decided that if he sold enough apples during the lunch rush he’d pack up early and see if he could help with dinner preparations. He wanted it to be really special, he’d never brought anypony home before, it needed to be something to remember. He thought about that for a moment. Okay, something good to remember. He mentally corrected. “So, how’d it go?” Caramel jumped, tripping over a bushel of apples and falling head first onto the ground. “Land sakes!” said Applejack, looking down at him worriedly, “I’m sorry, sugarcube, didn’t mean to go sneakin’ up on you. You alright?” Caramel made a mental note to start paying more attention to his surroundings, his day dreaming was starting to become dangerous to his health. “Yeah,” he said as she helped him up. “I’m fine, about used to it by now really.” Applejack laughed. “Well, I just thought you might like somethin’ to eat.” She looked off to the left. “ And....while I was at it figure out how that date’a yours went.” she reached into her saddlebag and returned with a slice of apple pie. The look in her eyes told him that the pie was more or less a bribe for information. Oh well, I am hungry. Caramel accepted the pie, but as he placed it on the cart top something occurred to him. “You haven’t asked Twilight?” “Tried, she got all red at the mention’a the word date, said she had to put Spike to bed and ran off.” she paused. “It was 9 in the mornin’” “Oh.” said Caramel, remembering his reaction toToffee asking about it. Applejack's eyebrows arched, waiting for his reply. “Well....” “Yes?” “Well....things went wonderfully!” he said finally, a grin breaking out on his face. “We didn’t even have to do anything. No plan, no set up, just the two of us walking through ponyville ‘til we had to turn back. It was so.....” he looked for a word. “Wonderful?” Applejack supplied. “Yes! I’d hardly believe it if I weren’t there.” Applejack smiled. “Well shucks, I’m happy for the both’a you. I swear you two are cuter than a pair of peaches.” She playfully hoofed Caramel in the back. Right over the bruise that was just starting to heal. Caramel winced, blushing at the complement. “Thanks...We’ve actually got something planned for tonight...I’m kinda worried honestly.” “What is it?” “Well, Toffee invited her over for dinner...tonight.” “Oh!” she laughed. “Well shoot I thought it was somethin’ bad. You got nothin’ to worry about Caramel. Toffee’s got a good head on her shoulders. You won’t have too much to worry about.” “It’s not Toffee I’m worried about...well... a little. It’s my grandfather.” Caramel admitted. “He’s...not the most socially....sensitive.” Applejack’s was silent for a moment. “Your granpa’s my uncle Jonagold right?” “That’s the one.” Applejack thought for a moment. “The one who does that weird thing when he eats corn?” Caramel nodded grimly. “Ah...” Applejack looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Well I still say you’ll be fine sugarcube...just watch what you cook, alright?” She let a smile slip back onto her face. “Really, I’m sure it’ll go wonderfully. With you two together, I can’t see it goin any other way. Now you enjoy that pie. I gotta get back to my own cart...I left Applebloom in charge...” There was a crash from the opposite end of the market place. Applejack looked panicked and dashed off into the commotion. Wonderfully. Thought Caramel. Wonderful. How many times had he used that word? He thought back through his life, and found a distinct lack of it. Until recently. When he'd first met Twilight, it'd been wonderful and the second time he’d seen her in the marketplace, that’d been wonderful too. When he’d plucked up the courage to ask her on a date, when she’d said yes, their walk through the town, pancakes this morning... Wonderful Since he’d met her, suddenly he had a reason to use that word. ‘It’ll go wonderfully’, Applejack had said. “It’ll go wonderfully.” he whispered under his breath. He remembered the promise earlier that morning. He smiled and took a bite out of the pie sitting on the cart. It really will. The sun was almost in the middle of the sky when Caramel saw the first of the lunch customers arriving. It was the same unicorn mare from yesterday. Today she was done up in a dress layered with multi-colored feathers. The general impression landed somewhere between a peacock and a fireworks display. She marched up to Caramel’s cart, nose upturned. Caramel briefly wondered if her neck was simply built that way. “Hello, Apple Pony,” she said stiffly. “I require two granny smiths for lunch. Make sure they are as green as possible, no blemishes.” “Coming right up.” Caramel grabbed the apples in question, making sure they were unbruised. “Have you reconsidered?” “Reconsidered?” The unicorn gestured to the sign stuck in the ground next to the cart. “Reconsidered my offer to make a sign for my boutique.” She looked Caramel in the eye. “Though your apples are good I really must say your talent is wasted here.” Caramel was unsure how to respond “W-well I wouldn’t say wasted...” The mare raised an eyebrow. “Do you enjoy working here?” Caramel thought for a moment. “Well...I wouldn’t say ‘enjoy’ but it’s not ba-” “That’s what I thought. Now, young stallion, my offer still stands, and will stand. Whether or not you will take it is yet to be seen. I hope you will make the right decision.” She placed some bits on the cart turned curtly and walked into town. Caramel stood dumbfounded for a moment. What just happened? Caramel didn’t have long to ponder this. The lunch rush hit like a wave in a hurricane, stuffy ponies of all types bombarding him with orders for every kind of apple he had in stock, their impatient jabs ringing in his ears. Maybe she’s right...he thought passing a pair of gallas to a stallion in a top hat. This job isn’t what I enjoy... he tossed a fuji to the mare yelling at the top of her extremely fancy lungs. Is it? I mean...Do I enjoy painting? I never did it until the sign.... An old couple with a parakeet on their shoulder asked if he sold slices. He explained that he didn’t have a knife. The bird tried to nip his ear as he moved to the next customer. But....It worked didn’t it? I did it well, could I do it again? Caramel announced he was out of braeburns to a few disapointed groans. I mean...I don’t particularly enjoy this job....but it makes money right? It’s stable...that’s whats important. “This isn’t a jonagold you lummox!” screamed a prissy mare in a large hat. “I asked for a jonagold!” she tossed the apple back over the cart. Caramel barely managed to duck out of the way. “Sorry! I’m sorry, I’ll get you that apple right away!” He turned to a quickly emptying bucket of jonagold apples. But would I be happy with this... “You’d better, and get it right you hick!” If I tried something else...I might fail.... “Apple Pony! Apple Pony! I’ve been waiting for ten minutes! Get over here this instant!” I’ve failed before.... “Apple Pony!” A lot.... “Apple Pony!” Who’s to say it won’t happen again? “Have you got corn in your ears? Or is your brain not working?” But....I didn’t fail this time... “Apple Pony!” I succeeded....My sign is what brought these ponies here. “I have never been kept waiting this long! If I do not get my apples this minute I shall be personally insulted!” These rude... “Apple Pony!” Belligerent... “Hello!” Ponies.... “I shall have service, and I shall have it n-” The screaming pony was silenced by granny smith apple shoved in his mouth. “We’re closed.” said Caramel shortly. Murmuring broke out among the crowd. “We’re closed.” he repeated. “B-but what is the meaning of this? We’re hungry” “And I’m closed.” Caramel started packing up. “You can’t do this!” Caramel put on a plastic smile. “You know what I can’t do?” The ponies looked apprehensive. “I cannot....put up with....this.” he gestured to the crowd. “Any of this!” he felt a pit of rage bubbling in his stomach. “You pompous, stuck up bunch of....of....I don’t know what!” The crowd took a step back. “I’m tired!” Caramel continued. “I’m tired of the insults, of the yelling, of this! I’m tired of being told what to do. I’m tired of trying to impress everyone, and failing again and again! Tired of being looked over!! I’m tired of it! All of it!” Caramel stood their, hyperventilating. The ponies stared at him for a movement, unsure what to do. “We....are...closed.” he said again. With some resentful whisperers they dispersed. Caramel slumped to the ground, whatever was propelling him through his outburst had been spent. What now? he asked himself. I’ve chased off my main customers.... He sighed. No going back now.... He got up and began loading the apples back on to the cart. I’ll take her up on that offer. He’d managed to sell a good amount of apples before his impromptu closing. Grampa Jonagold would be very happy about that. But I’ll have to tell him. Caramel thought. His grandfather had always been a traditionalist, every pony in the apple family had an apple job. Painting signs didn’t fit into that. He wouldn’t like it. Caramel made his way back home. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Caramel decided. For now...I just want to get through dinner. To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	8	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2012-01-09T16:09:24+00:00	2012-01-09T16:09:24+00:00	10,167	Caramel took his time walking home. He wanted to get there in time to help with dinner, but he didn’t relish the idea of telling his grandfather what he’d done. The sooner he got there the sooner he’d have to. Of course it would have to happen eventually, but stalling was one of the few things Caramel considered among his talents. Eventually though he did come to the edge of his family’s land. He took a deep breath, filled with the smell of Toffee’s cooking. The most he can do is yell at me. He thought. Plus after dinner he’ll be full. Who isn’t happy when they’re full? The heat from the kitchen flowed over Caramel as he approached the door. He sat the mostly empty cart by the stairs and headed inside. The walls had been decorated with various apple themed things, apple streamers hung from the ceiling, apple mats had been layed strategically around the house and, of course, fresh apples sat on every windowsill. Toffee had gone all out. At the moment, she was in the dining room, placing a smoking bowl of apple cobbler on the overstocked table. “You’re home early!” She remarked with a happy little jump. “Sold extra hard to be here early for your little Juliet?” Caramel’s face colored. He opened his mouth to reply only to have a spoonful of something shoved in. “Tell me, more apples?” asked Toffee, looking up at him expectantly. “Mhmmphh mphm?” asked Caramel. “You’re right!” she spun around and danced back into the kitchen. “Everything’s better with more apples.” Caramel swallowed whatever it was she’d forced on him. It tasted of apples-of course, what else would it taste of?...But...there was hint of garlic. He made a mental note to find out which dish that was and accidentally spill it. He found Grampa Jonagold balanced on a ladder in the sitting room, putting up large apples themed stickers. Very briefly he considered telling him then, and got as far as opening his mouth when his grandfather turned around. His face lit up and Caramel quickly closed his mouth. “There you are m’boy!” he bellowed, jumping off the ladder with more energy than Caramel had seen in quite a long time. “Just finishing up the preparations for your little date! How were the sales today?” “Oh, well they were alr-” “What am I saying, of course they were great! With our little ace in the hole how could they not be? I am so proud of you.” He grabbed Caramel in a hug, patting him roughly on the back. Caramel winced. “Um...thanks Grampa, that means a lot.” It really does....He thought morosely. I wonder how long it will last. “Now!” Grampa Jonagold released him. “Let’s get you right and proper for your little filly eh?” Suddenly Caramel found himself being led by the hoof up the stairs to his grandfather’s room. He’d hardly ever been inside disregarding the one time he’d had to help rebuild the roof after an unfortunate kite accident. It smelled of distilled cider and old hay. Caramel tried not to trip as his grandfather came to a stop in front of an old wardrobe. “Now, I’m about to give you something that has been in our branch of the Apple family for generations. Passed from Apple stallion to Apple stallion as a tradition. I think it’s about time it fell to you.” He opened the wardrobe with a flourish. “Congratulations.” Caramel’s mouth dropped open. “Speechless eh?” Grampa Jonagold grinned “Thought you’d be, this beauty has seen me through more than one date, and now it’s yours.” “Well....thanks Grampa, b-but it’s...it’s...” “Too fancy for you? Don’t worry, I thought the same when I was your age. You get used to it, whip this thing out and BAM! The fillies will be falling all over’ya.” “Well...no that’s not exactly what I was thinking....” Grampa Jonagold arched an eyebrow. “Pre-date jitters? Perfectly understandable.” He patted Caramel on the back again. There was a cracking sound. “I know exactly how you feel, felt the same way when I met your grandmother.” His eyes got that faraway look. “Put this old thing up after that. Didn’t need it any more.” It was quite for a moment. Caramel sighed, he couldn’t turn down such a gift. Not with its history. “Well...suppose I’d better change.” His Grandfather’s face lit up again. “I suppose you’d better!” He turned towards the door. “You’re going to look great!” He walked out into the hall, leaving Caramel alone. Caramel let out another sigh. Maybe she won’t laugh too much...It’s not that bad... he took a hold of the hanger and prepared to get dressed. But did it have to be blue? Toffee set yet another dish on the table, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow. She’d changed out of her cooking apron, and into a modest dress. Normally she wouldn’t be caught dead in such an outfit, but her Grandfather had insisted. It is something to her credit that she managed to hold back the laughter that threatened to come bursting out when Caramel descended the stairs. “Well...” she said between suppressed snickers. “You look....‘nice’, Mel.” Caramel shot her a look. “It was grampa’s idea.” Caramel stood dressed in an antique blue suit. Its large buttons hung haphazardly underneath a comically large collar that refused to stay down. A pink flower that had seen better days hung cheerily above the pocket, which held a green handkerchief. Darker blue streaks ran down either side, ending in a pair of tails. Toffee finally abandoned any pretense of seriousness, and fell into a fit of laughter banging her hoof against the floor. “Thanks for the support,” Caramel huffed, walking past her into the kitchen. She rolled over and got to her feet. “What are you doing?” she asked, drying her eyes. Caramel stood there for a moment. “Well...I’m helping. What do you need?” “Oh no you’re not!” “Huh? Why no-” Toffee appeared behind him and began shoving him towards the door. “This is your date, you’re not getting all dirty in the kitchen before Twilight shows up. Now get! Go on! Shoo!” “B-but I want to help!” “You can help by staying clean and in one piece until dinner starts. Good luck!” She turned and headed back into the kitchen. Caramel was left in the living room unsure what to do with himself. Twilight wasn’t set to arrive for another half hour. He realized he missed her. It’d only been this morning when they’d shared breakfast, but it felt liked days. He wondered for a moment if she missed him as well. He needed something to take his mind off it. Toffee was taking care of the final dinner preparations, his grandfather had taken care of the decorations and he was already dressed, as much as he didn’t like what he was dressed in. There’s nothing for me to do.... He thought morosely. Of course he was grateful his family had worked so hard to make this night special. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a bit unnecessary. He wracked his brains for something, anything he’d forgotten, something that might be necessary for tonight. Dinner.....decorations.....dress....What else? What else do ponies have on.... his thought process stalled for a moment. He gulped. Dates. He looked around the room, perhaps something would come to him. His eyes fell on the old bookshelf in the corner, landing on one book in particular. It was missing most of its spine and the pages were horribly dogeared, but it gave him an idea. Gifts. The word surfaced in his brain. They get each other gifts! It’s been long enough hasn’t it? He wondered, he didn’t want to rush things. Caramel walked over to the shelf and picked up the dusty old book. It wasn’t particularly thick, and its cover had been marred by one to many spilled glasses of juice and many more uses as a coaster, but he could still make out the faded words of the title: The Secret Tree. He hadn’t read it since he was a small colt, but he still remembered the story from his days with his grandmother as she read aloud and he pointed at the pictures. He had a bit of time, and as a small smile appeared on his face he opened the book and began to read. A filly, who always wore a blue bowtie, lived on a hill by a town by the forest. She did not have many friends, but that suited her just fine. Every day she would walk down into town to visit a little library, which is the best kind of library because it only has room for the best books. There was always a kind pony behind the counter who was the epitome of librarianiness, from his big glasses to his soft voice, would always tell her what a smart little filly she was and say how nice her blue bowtie looked. Then he’d bring a ladder to retrieve the largest book from the tallest shelf at the back of the library. It was a book of fairy stories that the little filly loved. At the start of every day she’d check it out, go to her secret reading spot and spend hours pouring over the fantastic tales inside.Then at the end of every day she’d return it. It was only polite for little fillies to be punctual after all. But, early one morning the filly in the blue bowtie came down into town to the little library as she always did. The kind pony behind the counter told her what a smart filly she was and how nice her blue bowtie looked. But then he frowned and told her that somepony had already come in to check out the largest book from the tallest shelf at the back of the library. He, being the epitome of librarianiness, could not turn down a pony who wanted to check out a book, as much as he wanted to keep it for her. The filly in the blue bowtie was very upset, not being able to read her favorite book. But her mother had taught her well and she thanked the kind pony behind the counter and left without checking out anything at all. On the walk home she lamented the loss of her book. It seemed she would simply have to wait until tomorrow to check it out, and continue her reading. Oh how cruel was fate!? She’d just gotten to the bit about the wizards, but there was nothing to be done. So, saddened, but hungry, the filly decided to get something to eat. After buying a lunch of roasted hayseeds and a cupcake, she decided to go to her secret reading spot. While she still didn’t have anything to read, a secret reading spot should make just as good of a secret eating spot shouldn’t it? Carrying her bag of food, the little filly in the blue bowtie went back up the hill, past her house and into the forest. She knew the path by heart. She went past the mossy boulder, being extra careful to be quiet, so as not to wake the sleeping dragon, under the roots of the oldest oak, three times for luck, jumped over the small creek, being careful not to touch the water for there’s never a small creek without some kind of nefarious beast, then through the hanging leaves of the weeping willow and into the glen. In that glen, surrounded by flowers, was her secret reading spot. It was an old tree. Though she’d read books about plants she’d never been quite sure its breed, but its trunk was full of holes and nooks just perfect for a filly to crawl into, and its leaves were just dense enough to shade her from the sun while letting in enough light to read by. They were polite that way. She sighed, it is hard to be sad in such a place, but without her favorite book the whole thing felt a bit wrong. Like putting lettuce in a peanut butter sandwich. Still, she was here and she had food, so she found a comfy nook and set about eating. As she chewed, there was an odd sound, like a bird only slightly lower pitched. She ignored it and kept eating, but then it happened again, slightly louder. It sounded like it was coming from directly above her. She ignored it for a bit longer before her curiosity got the best of her. So, bracing her hooves against the bottom of the nook she peeked into another hole in the trunk a little ways up. A colt in a clover baseball cap lay with his back turned to her gnawing on the tip of his hoof with worry. In front of him, there was a large book. The filly in blue bowtie gasped, it was her book! The one from the library, it must have been him who checked it out! She hopped up and tapped him on the back. The colt in the clover baseball cap yelped and almost fell from the tree, his cap wiggling on his head because it was a size too big. “Who are you!?” he asked, angry at being disturbed. “Well, I might ask you the same question!” said the filly in the blue bowtie. “Along with what you’re doing with my book!” “Your book? I checked this out from the library. It’s nopony’s book.” This caught her off-guard. “Well....that’s right. But I’d meant to check it out, as I do every morning, that counts for something,” she said testily. “And what are you doing here? This is my secret reading spot. I’ve got rights you know.” “Well I’d say it’s just as much my reading spot as yours.” said the colt in the clover baseball cap. “And besides I got here first. It’s terribly impolite to interrupt someone when they’re reading.” He frowned. “Well, what do you think you’ve done!?” she asked. “I’ve been reading that book for a while. I’d just gotten to the story about the wizards.” The colt in clover baseball cap blinked. “Well so did I. Just now in fact. Did you read the part about the dragon?” The filly nodded. “Yes, it was so exciting! Now you see my predicament. I would very much like to finish it.” “Well,” the colt began, looking her over. “We’re in the same place. We could just read it together.” She eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t know. I’ve never met you, or seen you around town. For all I know you could be a stranger. My mother told me to avoid those.” “Well,” The colt put a hoof to his chin. “Mine did too. So if she warned you about strangers, and me about strangers then neither of us can be one. Because then they wouldn’t have had to warn us about them.” The filly in the blue bowtie had to admit this made sense. “Well that still doesn’t explain why I haven’t seen you before.” The colt in the clover baseball cap explained that his family had moved here only a week ago. He came from the little town on the other side of the forest. He’d hated it there because it didn’t have a little library. Which meant it was no place that anypony ought to live. His house was in the town by the bakers, and he didn’t have many friends, which suited him just fine. He’d seen the tree on the ride and decided it looked like a rather nice place to read. So he’d looked for the perfect book to do so. Finding her book he’d come here to enjoy it. The filly in the blue bowtie listened to his story, nodding at the appropriate points, and not at all interrupting until it was finished. “Well,” she said considering. “If you really want to read it that much...and you promise you’re not a stranger, then I suppose there would be no harm in reading it together. So they did. They finished the story about the wizards much faster than she thought they would. The sound she’d heard earlier was the colt biting his hoof during the suspenseful bits. Since they had a lot of time until sundown they decided to read the next story too, for it was a very large book. And by the time the day was over they’d read The Mare and the Man in the Moore, The Colt Who Loved the Moon and they even managed to finish The Brave Knight of Midnight. But alas, the sun must set on even the best of days, and the two had to say goodbye. The colt in the clover baseball cap let her take the book back to the library, and promised he would not check it out again if they could do the same tomorrow. She agreed, and they walked back. She showed him all her tricks to avoid the creatures of the forest that he’d never noticed, and they went their separate ways. The next day, the Filly in the blue bowtie walked down into town to visit the little library, the kind pony behind the counter told her what a smart little filly she was and said how nice her blue bowtie looked. Then fetched the ladder to retrieve the largest book from the tallest shelf at the back of the library. The colt in the clover baseball cap met her at the entrance to the forest with a smile on his face, and together they went in. Past the mossy boulder, being extra careful to be quiet, so they would not wake the sleeping dragon, under the roots of the oldest oak, six times for luck, helped each other over the small creek, being careful not to touch the water for there’s never a small creek without some kind of nefarious beast, then through the hanging leaves of the weeping willow and into the glen. Where they sat and they read every day, just the filly in the blue bowtie, the colt in the clover ball cap and the book of fairy stories. And that suited them just fine. Caramel closed the book, his smile growing a bit wider, he knew exactly what to get Twilight now. He raced off to the storeroom to find some supplies. He found everything he needed in the pantry hidden beneath the winter tree covers and several apples far past their prime. There were several cans of paint and paint brushes available. He’d been surprised at the amount of colors available. But then he thought back to all the little accidents around the house, every scratch needed to be painted over didn’t it? Well at least some good came out of them. He mused, closing the pantry door. He examined himself, he’d managed not to get any paint on his suit, though in his opinion it might have made it look better, and turned to admire his work. They didn’t have any paper, or canvas, as far as Grampa Jonagold was concerned if it didn’t sell apples there wasn’t much of a reason for it to be on an apple farm.Though there was plenty of spare wood sitting around for much the same reason as the paint. The trouble had been finding a piece of the right size that wasn’t scratched, pitted, scorched or otherwise damaged. Eventually he found a small block that seemed perfect for the task. So, spending as much time as he dared before Twilight arrived, he painted her gift. This was only the second time he’d tried his hoof at painting and the result now sat drying on his nightstand. He couldn’t help but smile. She’ll love it. Feeling a great bit better about the looming dinner, Caramel checked the clock hanging on the wall. He’d finished with very little time to spare. Twilight would be arriving in less than ten minutes. He shook the stiffness from his limbs, he’d been standing in the same place for far too long. Racing over to the mirror he checked his hair, done in it’s usual way. He silently thanked Celestia that his grandfather didn’t know anything about hair styling. The suit was bad enough as it was. Still, it had been a nice gesture. Caramel exhaled slowly, looking his reflection in the eye. “You’re gonna be fine,” he said to himself. “You’re gonna be fine....” He stared into his own eyes for a bit. “Won’t you?” His reflection offered no answer as the doorbell rang. Caramel’s heart leapt into his throat. Here we go.... He stepped out of his room, trotting down the steps two at a time. He had to get there before Toffee or, Celestia forbid, his grandfather did. Surveying the living room as he hopped past the final stair, he saw Toffee coming down the hall. He put on a bit of extra speed and made it to the door first, but not by much. He tried to stop his heart from beating so fast as he readied himself. He wanted badly to rip open the door, but that wouldn’t be gentlemanly. What would her books say about this? He wondered for a moment, taking a breath. Just open the door. Everything will be fine. Taking another breath, he slowly opened the door, and gasped. She looked lovely. Twilight was wearing a modest red dress with yellow sleeves, there was a matching sash tied around her neck, it all beautifully complemented her natural purple color. She didn’t appear to be wearing any makeup, but her face looked lovely nonetheless as she smiled, lighting up as she saw him. She was blushing slightly. Caramel caught himself staring. “O-oh Twilight! Welcome!” he said a bit louder than he’d intended. “You look...beautiful.” She turned her head bashfully. “Thank you...a friend of mine heard about dinner. She absolutely insisted.” Twilight looked him over. “You look very handsome yourself.” This caught Caramel off guard, he’d almost forgotten the horrid blue suit he’d been wearing for most of the night. “Oh, me!? No, no, you’re being too generous. This is my Grandfather’s old suit....it’s nothing special.” “Oh, it’s your grandfathers!” she said examining it a bit more closely. “That explains the stripes,” she said running a hoof along the side. “Very early pre-modern ponyvillian. It’s really well taken care of if it’s that old. It must mean a lot to him.” Caramel felt a flash of guilt for thinking so badly of it all night. “Yeah... I suppose it does.” He looked at her for a moment and realized her hoof was still pressed against his chest. She’d leaned in a bit close to look at the details of the fabric. Twilight seemed to realize this at about the same time and looked up to find his eyes looking into hers. “Um...ah....” Caramel fumbled for something to say. “You have lovely eyes.” He’d never seen them this close, from a normal distance they were pretty, but here from so near, they were astonishing. “Thank...you...” she softly.“Yours too.” “Ahem.” Toffee cleared her throat. Caramel almost fell into Twilight before regaining his balance. “Ah! Yes...Um...how silly of me! Would you like to come inside?” he said, stepping back into the house, blushing furiously. “Oh, oh yes! Thank you.” Twilight stepped inside, her face matching her dress. “Sure, wouldn’t be much of a dinner if we spent the whole night on the doorstep.” Caramel laughed nervously at his own joke. “Let’s sit down.” He led Twilight into the dining room with Toffee bringing up the rear. As they walked he tried to find his grandfather, who was nowhere to be seen. Twilight sat across from him at the table. There were four place settings, two on the right for Toffee and Twilight, and two on the left for Caramel and his Grampa Jonagold, wherever he was. Toffee noticed his absence and nodded to Caramel. “I’ll be one sec, hun.” she excused herself to look for their missing grandfather, leaving Caramel and Twilight alone. “So much food!” she said, looking over the table, bowls of food practically spilling off the sides. “You didn’t have to do all this!” “Oh, that’s Toffee” said Caramel, grinning despite his nervousness. “Give her any excuse to cook and she’s all over it. Though, she might have gotten a bit carried away this time.” he looked around, then pointed a hoof to a vaguely red dish sitting on the left corner and mouthed, “Don’t eat that one.” Twilight laughed that laugh he loved so much, he couldn’t help but join in. “What’s so funny?” asked Toffee returning with Grampa Jonagold tow. “Um...Nothing! Nothing at all! Isn’t that right Twilight?” he asked. “Oh no, nothing that I can see.” Toffee looked at them for a moment. “If you say so. I found this one out cold upstairs,” she said cocking her head towards her Grandfather. “I need my sleep!” he protested. “Gotta have my wits about me. Stay sharp and all that.” He looked around the room until his eyes fell on Twilight. “Ah! There she is! Nice to finally meet you!” He walked over and took her hoof, shaking it enthusiastically. “Twilight right? Toffee didn’t tell me you were a unicorn. Could come in plum useful whe-” Toffee shooed him into his seat before he could finish. Caramel had no idea what he was going to say, but had the feeling he wouldn’t have liked it. His grandfather sat down with a huff. “What’ch do that for?” “The food, it’s getting cold.” Toffee said reproachfully. “I didn’t cook all of this so you could talk over it all day.” “Fine,” Grampa Jonagold grumbled. “Um... It’s nice to meet you too Mr.Jonagold,” said Twilight, her hoof still moving a litttle. “Oooooh, Mister Jonagold,” he puffed out his chest a bit. “I like this one.” “I bet you do,” said Toffee. “Now come on eveypony, dig in!” Caramel leaned over looking at the food, and hoped the night would go well. To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	9	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2012-03-30T02:51:38+00:00	2012-03-30T02:51:38+00:00	7,534	Caramel chewed very slowly on a chunk of apple casserole. He was trying trying to find the perfect speed so he looked as though he knew the first thing about polite dinner etiquette, without at the same time looking like a llama with a piece of chewing gum.It was proving to be a more difficult task than he'd anticipated. Just be cool...smooth...everything’s going well, he thought to himself. They’d managed to make it through the first course: a delicious apple salad with stewed apples and a side of apple chutney. His grandfather had been far too busy putting food in his mouth to make many comments. Caramel dearly hoped this pattern would continue throughout the night. Toffee, while a bit more chatty, seemed to know how important this was to him and kept any questions she posed to a minimum level of embarrassment. “So,” she said, looking at Twilight. “You run the local library, huh? I bet that’s interesting.” Twilight nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes very! The hardest part is keeping the books in order, Spike -that’s my assistant- is always leaving adventure stories lying around. Still, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. We just got some new stock in, mostly fiction, which of course he’s very happy about.” Toffee nodded. “I’ll have to come by sometime perhaps. Been a long time since I read a good book.” Twilight smiled. “I’d like that.” Caramel began to imagine Twilight and Toffee as friends, trying to decide whether this was a pleasant development, or an altogether horrifying one. He decided that he would cross that bridge when he got there and hope there wasn’t a troll underneath. In the meantime he joined the conversation. “Yes, and perhaps I could show you around the farm sometime,” he offered. “It’s pretty nice, if you don’t mind...well...trees... but if you happen to love them you’re in for a treat!” Twilight laughed at his joke while Toffee rolled her eyes. “Well I happen to live in a tree,” Twilight grinned. “So I like to think I’m rather fond of them.” Caramel felt a strange warm feeling in his chest as they laughed together. It was the same sensation he’d felt when he asked her if she’d go out with him, the same sense of elation from their first ‘date’ and breakfast that very morning. He felt like he’d never stop smiling. Even Toffee broke down and chuckled a few times. The night was going better than he could have hoped. Eventually Toffee cleared the table of the plates from the second course, and went off to fetch dessert, leaving Twilight and Caramel alone with Grampa Jonagold, and him with nothing to eat. He tapped his hoof impatiently against the wood of the table. Oh Celestia... Caramel thought. There’s nothing to keep him quiet anymore.... His grandfather looked at Twilight across the table while they waited. She fidgeted nervously under his gaze. He then looked at Caramel, who wasn’t doing much better. “I swear, you two are cuter than a pair of foal’s boots!” he said with a wide grin. “Lovely couple.” The complement was unexpected, and though it was somewhat embarrassing, Caramel let out an internal sigh of relief. He seems to really like her. “Now, what are your thoughts about marriage?” Twilight went from a shade of purple to deep burgundy, while Caramel choked on nothing in particular. His grandfather chuckled and slapped his knee. “Ha! Shoot, ya’ll ought to see your faces, I wish I had one of them fancy cameras. This is too priceless.” There was a pause. “Oh...” said Caramel. He forced out a laugh. “Ha..ha..ha..ha good one grampa...Isn’t it Twilight?” Twilight smiled a bit too widely and laughed. “Hmm, yes. Ha, ha, ha. Good one Mr. Jonagold.” “Whooo yeah.” He wiped away a tear. “But seriously, ya’ll remind me of Sprout and I.” His smile faded a bit. “That was Caramel’s Grandmother, Apple Sprout. Finest gardener you ever saw, that mare. She could make a rose bloom in the middle of the driest desert.” It was quiet for a moment. Caramel looked at his Grandfather. He suddenly seemed a lot older. His eyes had that faraway look they seemed to get whenever the topic came up, like he was somewhere else entirely. He chuckled softly. “I’m getting old...” “Old but spry!” said Toffee, bursting through the kitchen doors, an apple pie expertly balanced on her flank. She set it down in the center of the table and carefully doled out slices. “This old coot boring you with his stories?” she asked teasingly. “Oh no! Not at all!” said Twilight quickly. “Word of warning, once you get him started you might as well forget any plans you had for the day.” Grampa Jonagold shot her a look from across the table. “Well Twilight happens to enjoy my stories. Don’t you Twilight?” Twilight nodded. “Oh yes, I’m always fascinated by stories of from the older generation of ponyvillians. It’s a unique perspective on history.” The old stallion grinned. “Hear that? I’m a unique perspective.” “You’re unique alright,” said Toffee rolling her eyes. “Anyway, let’s get a ‘Perspective’ on this pie before it gets cold.” She smiled. “How about it?” Caramel was happy for the change of subject, his grandmother was a rather sensitive topic. Though he found himself surprised at his grandfather’s behaviour, he seemed more jovial than usual. Making jokes, trading quips with Toffee, being so lively and vibrant. As he ate his pie he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for his early assumptions that the old pony would ruin the night. They ate for a while, the occasional bit of conversation coming in between bites of pie. Toffee had really outdone herself, it was delicious. As Caramel ate, he watched Twilight go through her slice with the same methodical motions he had seen that morning. She’d brought a fork along. They didn’t have any in the house, being earth ponies they couldn’t properly use them. He noticed his Grandfather and Sister stealing occasional glances. He hadn’t thought about it much, but they’d hardly come in contact with anypony who wasn’t earth born on a day to day basis. So far they hadn’t made much of a fuss about it besides his grandfather’s earlier comment. He hoped the trend would continue. Caramel couldn’t help but smile when he noticed that almost every bite Twilight took had the exact same amount of apples. He suddenly remembered the gift he’d prepared. His smile grew a bit wider. Now...now’s the perfect time! Gotta finish... Caramel attempted to eat his pie quickly. He shoved the rest of it into his mouth, only to find that the filling was akin to molten lead when ingested in large quantities. He bit back a yelp, trying his hardest not to spit the sweet sticky lava back onto the plate. Okay, bad idea, bad idea! Act casual! Just chew it and swallow... Act normal. He attempted to smile around a mouthful of pie. Oh sweet Celestia it burns! “Boy? You feelin’ alright?” asked Grampa Jonagold. Caramel nodded, trying to chew. “You sure?” His Grandfather put a hoof to his chin. “You look a little red.” Twilight looked on, concerned. “He’s right, you don’t look well.” Toffee smiled. “He’s looked like that all night. I can’t imagine why.” She winked in Twilight’s direction. “ I’m starting to think red’s his natural coloring.” Caramel attempted to glare at her, he didn’t think it was very threatening considering his cheeks bulging with pastry . “Ekush meh,” he mumbled. Caramel quickly got up from his seat, and tried not to run into the kitchen, his tongue suddenly feeling very sympathetic to the plight of charcoal. He all but slammed the door open, rushed to reached the sink and quickly spat out the offending substance. He bit his hoof, trying not to yell at the throbbing pain still in his mouth, fumbling to turn the faucet on he took several quick gulps to rid himself of the last remnants of molten pie. Crisis averted, he made sure to clean out the sink. If Toffee found evidence he’d spit out any of her food, third degree tongue burns would be the least of his problems. He breathed through his mouth to soothe the remaining ache as he walked over to the cupboard where he’d stored his project. He couldn’t help but grin as he moved aside old farm supplies and cooking utensils, reaching his goal. His heart speeding up as he finally uncovered the small painted block. He grabbed it gingerly, making sure the paint was dry and wouldn’t chip. He turned it around a few times, checking each side to make sure it was perfect. Taking a glance back towards the living room door, he could hear his heart now beating in his ears. His confidence wavered for a moment. What if I screwed it up and she doesn’t like it?... He thought. I’ve never painted anything so small before...or so important. He looked from the door to his gift, feeling its weight, seemingly heavier than it had been before. Caramel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He thought back through the events of that day, the good things and the bad. Hearing the jeering of ponies at lunch? Bad Closing the cart? Bad. Not telling Grampa about closing the cart? Bad Breakfast with Twilight? Good. Seeing Twilight standing at the door happy to see him. Good He paused. Oh so good... This could be a good day, or a bad day, Caramel decided. Right now it was tied. He’d had so many bad days before he could hardly count them all. But he could win this one. He could make a day he’d remember and, he hoped, one she would too. He turned, and headed towards the door. Then paused, turned around, and headed right back. There’s no harm in working on the presentation a bit is there? He quickly found a small basket and some old wrapping paper from last Hearths Warming. It had little cheery windigos on it, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. He placed some straw in the basket, wrapped the block and placed it gently in the center. Now, he thought. Now it’s ready. He grabbed the basket’s handle in his teeth, and headed back to the dining room. Toffee and Twilight were talking about something or other. He really couldn’t hear them over the thudding in his chest. Something about history, or maybe it was cooking? He wasn’t sure. Grampa Jonagold sat off to the side making his way through what Caramel guessed was his third slice of pie. He cleared his throat, with more volume than he intended. All of the chatter in the room stopped, his grandfather had a bit of pie sticking out of his mouth as he turned to look. Caramel felt his face heating up. “What’cha got there, Mel?” asked Toffee. “Oh, meh mift mor Mwimight.” Caramel realized he was biting down on the basket handle so hard he could taste bits of wood. He sat the basket on the edge of the table, removing his teeth with some effort and tried again. “It’s a gift,” he stumbled. “A gift for Twilight.” He looked over at the purple unicorn, whose face was now colored by a slight blush. “Oh! you really didn’t have to,” she said quickly. “I mean, really, dinner is enough.” “Oh...” He paused, this wasn’t an angle he’d be expecting. “Well...I didn’t do it because I had too.” He nosed the basket gently towards her. “I did it because I wanted to.” Caramel smiled a little. Twilight looked at the basket, then at him and smiled back. “Well...in that case I guess I can’t really turn it down, can I?” He chuckled softly. “Nope, no choice.” The basket was bathed in a purple glow as Twilight picked it up, carefully removing the block from the straw, and brushing off any lingering strands. She turned it around a few times, before slowly tearing the paper off. “Oh my...” she said softly. Caramel’s heart skipped a beat. “It’s...beautiful!” It quickly resumed beating at twice its regular rate. His face broke out into an almost impossible grin. Floating in front of her, was the small wooden block he’d spent the afternoon painting, each of its six faces adorned with two little foals performing various actions. A purple one in a blue bowtie, and a yellow one in a clover ball cap. The first showed them running towards the forest, a book held between them. A quick turn displayed the pair sneaking past a large boulder, shaped like a dragon, and beneath that was the two taking turns going under the branches of an enormous willow tree, then helping one another over a creek and under the hanging vines of the willow tree. The final face, which sat proudly at the top, showed the two of them under a blanket, reading as the sun set over the tree hollow they hid in. “The Secret Tree...” said Twilight. “I loved that book as a filly. How did you know?” Caramel twiddled his front hooves a bit. “Well...I noticed the salt shakers in your kitchen this morning...I figured you probably liked the story. I have a copy, my grandmother used to read it to us as foals. So I took a chance and made that for you.” Twilight looked from the small gift to Caramel then back again. Oh no.... Caramel felt a jolt of fear up his spine. That’s creepy isn’t it? Noticing something like that. I’ve freaked her out, haven’t I? Oh Celestia, I should have just given her an apple or something. She likes apples, apples are go- His thought were interrupted as Twilight hugged him. “This is amazing!” she yelled. Caramel was pretty sure his mane was standing on end. The shock of it left him too stunned to do much of anything. Several thoughts slowly drifted across the surface of his brain, they might as well have been gibberish for as much as he heard any of them. He stood stock still, like a granite statue until something finally got through, he briefly picked up the words “Hug her back.” He obliged, wrapping his hooves around her as well. She was a lot shorter than he was, his head almost resting on top of hers. After a few minutes his brain got another message through, this time that he ought to say something in return. “Oh!” he said realizing he hadn’t thanked her yet. He floundered a bit, not used to accepting praise. “Well...thank you. I’m glad you like it.” “I love it, it’s perfect.” she said softly. Toffee cleared her throat. Caramel’s brain was suddenly kicked back into the driver’s seat, and he realized where he was. Twilight apparently realized the same thing at almost exactly the same moment, as the two of the separated and stumbled back to their seats, cheeks burning. Caramel coughed in what he hoped was a convincing manner. “Um...so...yes, you’re welcome.” Twilight nodded, smiling behind the red tint of her face. Grampa Jonagold eyed the block of wood from across the table. “Mind if I see that?” he asked. “Oh..sure.” said Twilight. The small block floated over to him. Caramel’s grandfather took it carefully between his hooves. “Huh,” he said inspecting the paintings. “That’s pretty neat. What’d ya use? A stencil or something?” Caramel realized his grandfather was still unaware he could paint at all. He’d been wary of bringing it up, especially now with what happened at the applecart in mind. Still, there’d be no avoiding it now. Well, he said it was ‘Neat’ maybe that’s a good sign? “Um...no,” said Caramel, finding his tongue. “I didn’t used a stencil...I found some old paints in the cupboard, the wood’s a piece of the old barn.” The old stallion looked up from the project and directly at Caramel. “I didn’t know you could do something like this. And you did it by hoof?” Caramel nodded. “Though, I did the small bits with my mouth...” he admitted. “How long have you been at it?” Caramel pulled a nervous shrug. “A few days really...I kind of had a knack for it.” “I’ll say,” said Grampa Jonagold inspecting the block of wood once again. “I’ve been around a long time, boy, and I’ve hardly seen any earthponies that could paint this well.” Twilight nodded in agreement. “He’s really got a talent for it.” He raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Caramel blinked, this was not the reaction he’d been expecting. “Um...It never really came up?” His grandfather smiled. “Well, looks like you’re a pretty talented pony Caramel! Grade A salespony, and now this. I’m glad you found yourself a hobby.” Caramel bit his bottom lip for a moment. Perhaps I should tell him now? He wondered. Everyone’s having a good time, maybe he’ll react better... “Well...the thing about that is...” Caramel began. His Grampa raised an eyebrow. “The thing about what?” Caramel fidgeted in his seat under the old stallion’s gaze. He looked at Toffee, who gave him a little smile. He took a deep breath. “I...Well let’s say...just for a moment, that I might that I might consider it as a bit more than a hobby?” Gampa Jonagold paused for a moment. “How so?” Caramel fidgeted a bit more. Time to come clean. “You remember when I sold out of apples the day before last?” The old pony smiled at the memory. “Shoot, I couldn’t rightly forget that now could I?” Caramel felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he saw his grandfather’s smile. “Well...you see, it wasn’t exactly my...’Grade A salespony skills, that helped me...” He winced as the smile faded. “Applejack came up with the idea to make a sign...like a grand opening thing. So she rounded up some wood and paints and I made one to draw in customers. A pony saw it and told her friends, they’ve been coming to me for lunch since then....before that I’d only ever sold three apples.” Caramel looked across the table at Twilight. “To her...” His grandfather frowned. “Nonsense! What about before that, you sold forty apples that day without any fancy sign. Toffee told me so.” Caramel stole a glance at his sister. “That...might have been less than true..” Toffee joined Caramel’s fidgeting as their grandfather eyed them both for a moment. “Well...he wanted to impress you is all!” She insisted. “So I might’ve...fudged the truth a tiny bit.” For a moment, from Caramel’s perspective it seemed as though all sound left the room. He was fairly certain that if her were to really try, he could hear the sound of apples growing outside. His grandfather glowered at the pair of them. Everything jovial about him vanished. When he finally did speak, he didn’t yell, but Caramel pulled back nonetheless. “So, you’ve been lying?” He asked. “Well, not exactl—” “Yes, exactly!” The old stallion held up a hoof. “Do you know what I did when I heard of those sales? How much that Applecart cost? What if your sales hadn’t gone up? Hmm? How would I have made that money back?” Caramel said nothing. “We’re not in the best of times, boy,” he continued. “We need everything we can get. This farm has been here for decades, and I plan on it being here for quite a few more. If that’s to happen, I need the truth from the get-go!” “But it worked out for the best!” Toffee interjected. “He found a talent, and he’s even got a job lined up to paint something fo—” A glare from the old stallion silenced her. “And don’t you start young filly. You’re worse than him! You’re the one that told the lie in the first place. And why? What did you hope to gain?” Caramel lowered his head, looking at the floor. “Don’t be mad at Toffee...I asked her to...” Grampa Jonagold paused for a beat, then looked Caramel in the eye. “Then the question falls to you. Why?” Caramel felt the ice in his grandfather’s stare, he shivered, ears flat against his head. He wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. He looked back into his memory at the day he’d come home, how he’d felt walking through the door, knowing he hadn’t sold anything. Knowing the entire reason he’d been sent was to get rid of him. That he’d just disappoint everyone again. He felt that familiar feeling rising in his chest, the same one from that morning. The shame he felt when he’d lost the grass seeds, or broken something, made a mistake, injured himself or someone else on accident, the one he felt when he was alone after a bad day. “Because...” he started. “I wanted you to think I was worth something...” The silence returned at that. But this time it was different, the anger in his grandfather’s stare was replaced by a look of surprise. For the first time since he could remember, his Grandfather floundered. “I....I don’t think...” The old pony closed his mouth. “Boy..I...” His face hardened again “Regardless of what you thought. Asking your sister to lie is inexcusable.” He got up. “This dinner is over. Twilight, you should go home.” The purple unicorn sat, looking at Caramel. She turned to Grampa Jonagold, frowning. “I agree.” Caramel didn’t think he could feel much lower, but in that moment he sunk so far he didn’t think he’d ever come up. “I agree that he shouldn’t have lied,” she continued. His ears perked up. “But I think you should hear him out. Look at him, he’s obviously sorry, and if he’s that concerned about what you think of him maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to punish.” Grampa Jonagold jerked back in his chair, anger briefly coloring his features. “Are you going to tell me how to treat my own grandson? This, is an Apple Family matter young filly!” “And he’s an Apple!” she shot back. “Which means he’s a good pony. You should give him a chance to show you.” Caramel could see his grandfather clench his jaw. “I know he’s a good pony,” he said in measured tones. “This morning I was very sure.” He turned his gaze to Caramel. “But now he’s not acting like it. Now, Twilight, please leave. There is nothing more to discuss.” They stared at each other for a moment. Then Twilight turned to Toffee and Caramel. “Thank you for dinner, it was wonderful.” A purple halo appeared around small wooden block near Grampa Jonagold’s hoof. Twilight snatched it away and floated it gently by her head. “And your gift was absolutely lovely Caramel.” She offered him a smile. Caramel returned it weakly, somewhat shocked at her standing up for him suddenly. “I-I’m glad you liked it,” he managed to stammer. He listened to the sound of her hooves, until he heard the front door shut sharply. Grampa Jonagold eyed the Caramel and his sister for several moments before he spoke again. “Toffee, clean up this mess. And do it quickly so you can get some sleep, tomorrow bright and early you’re getting up to harvest the left field.” “All of i—” “All of it.” He turned his gaze to Caramel. “And you, it looks like it’s going to rain. Go outside and pick up every apple you see on the ground before the water rots them. If I see a single one left I will not be happy.” Caramel thought about protesting, but quickly abandoned the thought. It’ll do me no good... “Yes sir...” he said quietly, as he got up from the table. His Grandfather got up briskly, and marched up the stairs to his room, stomping more than was necessary.” Toffee looked at Caramel. “I...” she started. “I know.” he said. “I know...Well, I’d better do as he said...though it’s not like things can get much worse.” He walked out the door and into the night before she could reply. He looked out at all the apples that needed to be collected, and gave a heavy sigh. This was not a good day. He walked over to the nearest tree, pounding his head against its trunk. The wood was soft from the humidity. I blew it... He thought. Things were going so well and I blew it. Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut? I should’ve have told him... He lifted his head, only to slam it against the tree a second time. “Blew it,” he said out loud. “Caramel?” said a voice. He didn’t need to turn around, he’d never forget that voice. “Twilight,” he said not turning around. “Are you okay?” Caramel knocked his head against the the trunk again. “I’m....really not,” he admitted. “I’m useless.” He heard her hoof-steps growing closer in the slightly damp soil. “You’re not useless. And I don’t think your Grandfather thinks so either.” Caramel sighed. “I don’t know what he thinks...that’s the problem.” He flinched a little when he felt her hoof on his back, out of surprise more than anything. Caramel finally turned to look at her. She looked just as pretty as she had inside, her red dress a bit dirty towards the bottom due to the soil of the apple field. Caramel realized he was still in his suit, but that didn’t matter much at the moment. Twilight smiled at him kindly. “Well, maybe you should talk to him?” she suggested. Caramel let out another sigh, this one more tired. “I don’t know how to do that either...” He turned back to the tree, his head making a resounding thunk against the trunk. “Like I said...useless.” He brought his head up, then down again. “I’ll understand if you want to date someone who’s less of a loser.” Twilight didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she leaned in, and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I really don’t,” she whispered. Caramel looked up in shock to see her blushing, ears folded slightly. “Goodnight Caramel.” She gave a sheepish smile, then turned and walked away. There was a burst of thunder as rain began to drip onto Caramel’s head. He stood, staring until he couldn’t see her anymore. After several minutes he managed: “Goodnight Twilight....” Maybe today wasn’t such a bad day afterall. To Be Continued.
Squeak-anon	780	10	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2012-09-27T21:51:34+00:00	2012-09-27T21:51:34+00:00	5,729	“Caramel! Get your flank up, boy!” Called Grampa Jonagold’s harsh voice from downstairs. Caramel’s body complained as he rolled over in bed. His everything hurt. It had taken hours to collect all the apples from the soggy ground and the rain, which had turned into a proverbial monsoon, hadn’t helped matters. His joints had settled into a slow steady ache and he hadn’t gotten much sleep. He opened his tired eyes to see that the sun hadn’t risen yet. This is going to be fun, he thought morosely. “You got five minutes!” Caramel flinched in bed, knowing his grandfather meant business. He rolled over onto the floor, lying there for a moment. A small wave of sadness flowed down his spine, his grandfather had been on good terms with him. Admittedly for a small moment, built on lies, but still a moment. It’d been nice. “Four Minutes!” But now it was over. He let out a slow breath, the dust bunnies that had collected around the bed went spinning slowly through the air. Nothing to do but face the consequences. Caramel righted himself, and trudged out of his room and down the stairs. The clouds from yesterday’s rain lingered in the sky, as a result everything both inside and out looked grey and washed out. Caramel allowed himself a bitter inward laugh. Fitting. He could hear Toffee working in the kitchen, from the sound of it scrubbing pots. He stole a glance as he walked past, noticing the mountain of kitchenware she had yet to start on. Knowing his Grandfather, he had the feeling she would be doing housework until the very sight of a pot sent her into fits. They shared a momentary look of mutual pity as Caramel walked into the dining room to face his grandfather, who was sitting behind an outstretched edition of the Equestria Daily. There was an air of cold in the room. Caramel shivered. It was a while before he found his voice. “Yes grandp-” “That’s sir,” said the old stallion curtly. Caramel decided it was safest to nod. His grandfather put the paper down sharply, and glared at Caramel. “Do you know why you’re getting such an early start?” Caramel shook his head. “Because, I want you home before midnight. And do you know why you might not get home before then?” Caramel shook his head again. “Because, the cart is filled with new stock, and I don’t want to see hide nor hair of’ya till every single apple is sold. Hear me boy?” Caramel opened his mouth, but a glare killed any protest he might have had. “Yes sir...” he said simply. His ears pinned themselves to the back of his head as he walked out the door into the early morning air. The ground was still soggy from last night’s rain. Caramel’s hooves sunk into the moist earth with every step, making the trek to the barn all the harder. He opened the doors to find the cart, as his grandfather had told him, fully stocked. Every bushel was filled to bursting with all kinds of apples. His Grandfather had understated just how much ‘New Stock’ there was. Caramel could hardly see the cart under the mountain of fruit. It was going to be a feat to get to ponyville without spilling any. Caramel hung his head, and set about harnessing himself up to start pulling it. It’s going to be a good day Caramel. He thought morosely. He set his hooves in against the ground, and tried to go forwards, only to end up dragging them through the moist hay that covered the barn floor. He tried again several times to no avail. He strained, and grunted pulling with all his might until he feared his shoulders would fall off. Finally Caramel slumped to the ground, defeated. I haven’t even started yet, he thought. I haven’t even started and already I’m failing. His vision clouded for a moment. There was another wave of sadness, cold and biting. Caramel shivered, laying his cheek against the floor, the hay stuck him uncomfortably, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. Useless, he thought. The door to the barn opened, Caramel didn’t look up, he figured it was just his grandfather coming to yell at him for taking too long. He closed his eyes and prepared for the tirade. There was a creaking sound as the cart behind him got lighter. His head swiveled to see the old stallion unloading three bustles of the stock, and setting them in the corner. He did so wordlessly, with a tight lipped unreadable expression. Caramel watched in silence as he unloaded two more, then quietly walked to the door. Caramel managed to find his mouth. “You...don’t want to sell those?...” he asked, having thought of nothing else. His Grandfather paused in the doorway, the cast a glance over his shoulder. “Need to check for bad apples.” There was a pause as the two of them stared at one another. It was a while before Grampa Jonagold finally spoke again. “Look boy, I don’t want to kill’ya. Just make it home safe alright?” With that he turned and walked back to the house. Caramel blinked a few times, then got up and attempted to move forwards. Without the extra weight the cart rolled after a bit of a strain. He cast a look towards the retreating form of his Grandfather as the old stallion shut the front door. Then back at the bushels he no longer had to carry. There were still mountains of apples for him to sell, but they’d gone from soul crushing to moderately soul intimidating. He stared at them for a moment, before starting the long trek to the ponyville market. By the time he got there the sun was peaking over the horizon, a pale yellow dot behind a curtain of clouds. Several thoughts were going through Caramel’s mind, most of them blocked out by the blinding pain in his shoulders. He slumped in the middle of the square, earning a few odd looks from some passers by, though they paid him little mind, with the exception of the occasional pony in fancy dress whose glares he could feel from the other side of town. He tried his best to ignore them, and after a moment of rest on the ground, he set about unloading. It was no small task, it reminded him of a game he’d seen some unicorns playing as a foal, where they’d magically removed one wooden block from a tower of them, in hopes it wouldn’t fall over, the main difference being that the cleanup in his case would probably take a lot longer and involve an ambulance in some way. It was an arduous, slow task, but eventually Caramel managed to empty the cart, finishing when the sun, nearly invisible behind a wall of clouds, was quite a bit higher than when he had started. He let out a sigh, situated himself behind the counter, and tried his hardest not to fall asleep. He looked blearily out at the ponies who crossed in front of his path. No customers would come, this he was fairly sure of, he’d made that a certainty the previous day. He slumped down by the register, resting his chin on the countertop he let out a long sigh. And history repeats itself. He was unsure how long he sat there feeling sorry for himself, but the time seemed to stretch on for hours, though every time he looked up at the dingy hidden shape of the sun, it never seemed to move. Though it was autumn the air was muggy and humid. He flicked his ear at an errant bug who had decided it was a good place to land, and refused to give up on the idea. This served as his only distraction until he heard a familiar voice clear its throat to the right of him. Caramel looked up to see the fancy pony from a few days ago standing their tapping a hoof impatiently. She was wearing a large dress that made him quite certain she was hiding several other ponies underneath it, and perhaps a fruit basket. A memory surfaced in his mind. I’ll take her offer.... He’d thought that, right after telling off all the business she’d sent his way. He took a moment to consider just how paradoxical that was. Obviously I am ever the shrewd businesspony, he thought morosely. She’s probably here to tell me what an idiot I am. He sighed, and turned to face her. “Um hello...” It suddenly occurred to him that he had never actually asked for her name. His face flushed, and at the back of his mind his inner grandmother chastised him. “You...” he finished lamely. “Hello to you as well. I had figured your upbringing never taught you to ask a lady’s name, this is our third meeting and you seem to have yet to do so.” She neglected to mention the fact she’d never asked for his either. He had a feeling it wasn’t of great consequence to her besides. “Quartet, if you must.” “Um....yeah...sorry about that...Quartet...” The name stuck to his teeth a bit and it came out sounding a bit more like ‘Quater’ than he’d intended. She didn’t seem to notice, or if she did she didn’t care. “I’m Caramel by the way.” Quartet nodded, but barely. “Well, it’s about time we exchanged titles, Carmel.” Caramel decided to ignore the fact she mispronounced his name and take the fact she’d said it at all as complement. She adjusted her skirt, Caramel unconsciously checked to see if any fruit rolled out. “Am I to assume this means you will take me up on my offer finally?” He blinked. She gave him a level stare. “Well? Am I?” “Y-you still want me too?” She raised an eyebrow. “You mean even after you scared away half of my friends with your rather loutish demeanor? Yes. If only because I heard you shoved an apple into Monocle’s big fat mouth and, despite my ladylike disposition, that is hilarious.” Caramel blinked again. “What? He had to go to the dentist to get it removed, all the highest social orders have been laughing about it for weeks.” Caramel blinked a third time. “I’m allowed to laugh every now and again aren’t I!?” She huffed. “I swear, what do you farmponies think we do all day? Sit around and eat crumpets?” “Yes,” Caramel answered automatically. Quartet shot him a glare. “Um....I mean...among other things.” She turned her nose up. “In anycase, you still have not answered my question Carmel. Yes, or no?” Caramel paused for a moment. His grandfather would probably frown on this, especially while he was being punished. He cast a glance towards the mountain of apples behind him, then at Quartet, and an idea floated to the surface of his brain. Unless I finish my punishment early.... Caramel took a deep breath. “I’ll do it.” Quartet’s face broke out into a smile. The first one Caramel had seen that didn’t seem to come from reference in a book of etiquette. “Wonderful! My boutique shall look quite lovel-” “Under one condition.” She paused, smile fading to a more businesslike expression. “Condition?” He nodded slowly. “My price.” Quartet gave him a look. “That is hardly a condition, that is to be expec-” “I’d like to be paid right now, by you buying every apple I have currently in stock.” Applejack stared dumbfounded as ponies in workmen's clothes moved bushel after bushel of apples onto the back of a moving cart, signed with a very opulent looping pink script that read Quartet Cuts. Caramel sat next to her, somewhat dumbfounded himself. “And...you’re sayin’ that actually worked?...” “Eyup,” said Caramel. “You sold, not seventy apples, but seventy bushels of apples, in less than five seconds?’ “Eyup.” “And she paid you...in bits...right there.” “Eyup.” Caramel gestured to his saddlebag, which was filled to bursting with small circles of gold. “Turns out there wasn’t any fruit in that dress...just a lot of pockets...” “What’s that?” “Um...nothing...” Caramel said quickly. “In return I start work on a large sign for the Quartet Cuts boutique tomorrow morning.” Applejack bit her bottom lip. “Um...are you sure Jonagold’s gonna let ya’ll do that? Last I heard he was awful mad at ya.” Caramel paused. “Well...the way I see it he punished me, I got through the punishment and made enough money to keep the farm running for months in the course of a day. He can’t stay mad for too long can he?” Applejack shrugged. “I dono, he ain’t exactly known to forget quickly. And I don’t think money was ever really the point.” Caramel lowered his head a bit. “Well...yeah...I know, I shouldn’t have lied...and I won’t, ever again. Apple Honesty right?” He sighed. “I really just wanted him to be proud of me anyway...maybe this’ll impress him...and I won’t even have to lie anymore anyway.” He felt a hoof on his shoulder and looked up to see Applejack smiling a bit. “Now come on, I have no doubt he’s proud of ya, you didn’t have to sell seven apples for that. If he didn’t love you, and didn’t have any pride in you, he wouldn’t have taken it so hard that you lied to him.” Caramel felt a bit of guilt begin to gnaw at his stomach a bit. He let out another sigh. “I shouldn’t have done it. That was stupid.” Applejack tapped him on the head. “We can agree there.” Caramel looked at her for a moment. “Hey, calls’em as I sees’em. But at least you meant well.” She smiled again. “What are you gonna do now?” Caramel looked up at the sun, it was still fairly high in the sky behind the curtain of clouds. “Well...I’m not expected back at the farm for another few hours...” He looked back at the now empty cart as the last bushel was loaded up. A small smile slowly spreading across his features. “I think I’ll go to the library.” Applejack smirked. “Ahh, I see, going to see your sweetheart?” Caramel’s face flushed. “Um...no!....I mean....yes....if we are...I mean we haven’t really...I...” Applejack mercifully, shoved him in the general direction of the large tree in the town square. “Well go on get! Geeze, no wonder Toffee likes teasin’ ya so much. You make it too easy.” Caramel decided it was best to just glare at her and wave. He couldn’t keep up the glare long and a smile snuck its way back onto his face as the library got larger in his field of vision. Today’s actually turning out to be a pretty good day. As he thought that, the clouds above finally decided to burst, thick heavy raindrops began to pelt him. Caramel laughed, he couldn’t help it. That was just his luck. Still, as he started to gallop to the library to get out of the rain, he could think of no better place to take shelter from the coming storm.
Squeak-anon	780	11	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2013-02-01T20:51:36+00:00	2013-02-02T00:46:33+00:00	4,084	The storm was on Ponyville in seconds. The clouds had bided their time, and now unleashed a torrent of rain. In the few seconds it had taken Caramel to gallop a quarter of the distance to Twilight’s library he could already hear the thunder and lightening booming and flashing behind him. A small gale of wind ruffled his mane as he ran, bringing with it a slight chill. He made a mental note never to think it was a good day again. The universe just loves proving me wrong. He galloped a bit faster, the raindrops growing fatter as the wind picked up, already his coat was soaked through, making the cold all the worse. A bit too close for comfort thunder boomed again. Very wrong. He put on an extra burst of speed looking back to see the other ponies who had been milling about before the clouds broke similarly ducking for cover. The sun was completely hidden now as the clouds darkened. Caramel was momentarily dazzled by a bright arc of lightning. He attempted to blink away the spots from his eyes as he reached the library door. He also realized he’d forgotten to slow down. Caramel dug his hooves into the ground, the wet cobbles provided almost no traction and he went skidding towards the library entrance like a rogue hockey puck. He braced himself for impact. The door opened. “Thank you for coming, I’ll keep an eye on these strange weather patterns, in the meantime Fluttershy you ca- Caramel!?” He yelped in reply. His hooves struck the doorstep sending him flying into the library proper far faster than is generally polite. He spun through the air before hitting something large, white, and very warm. They both went spinning into the nearest bookshelf, sending various tomes toppling to the floor as it rocked back and forth. Caramel groaned. His brain kindly alerted him to the fact he’d probably sprained his hoof on the doorstep, along with highlighting various other bruises and nicks from his entrance. It did all of this before it mentioned that the large oak bookshelf he’d bumped into was leaning forwards at at seventy degree angle and growing closer. He had time to think one other thought. Very, very wrong. Caramel closed his eyes. The thing he’d bumped into groaned as well, before letting out a distinctly feminine gasp of its own. The fur on the back of Caramel’s neck stood on end as he felt strong magic suddenly fill the room. There was silence for several seconds. He opened a single eye. The bookshelf stood suspended in the air in a halo of pink magic. It slowly righted itself, the books that had fallen to the floor flying back to their places as it went. In seconds it was like nothing had even happened. Caramel allowed himself a sigh of relief. He shuddered to think what might have happened had Twilight not intervened. Then he paused. He thought back to the times he’d seen Twilight use magic and there was something he realized. Twilight’s magic is purple.... He looked behind him to see the purple unicorn standing there, along with a yellow and pink pegasus, the door between them wide open along with their mouths. They were both completely oblivious to the fact a small river of water had collected in the doorway from the storm outside. They just stared, apparently horrified. Caramel felt a creeping sense of dread, he slowly turned his eyes back to the bookshelf, the last book settling itself into place before the pink aura vanished. He turned his head down to the thing he’d run into. Caramel found himself face to face with the physical embodiment of the sun, on whose chest he was currently sitting. Her horn stopped glowing and she eyed him for several moments. To his surprise...she smiled. “You must be Caramel,” said Celestia. It took him several seconds to process that he was in fact the Caramel that he must be, and that he happened to be using the ruler of all Equestria as a stool. He stared dumbly at her and nodded before his wits fully returned, he hopped off of the princess with a start. “Oh my gosh! I’m so, so sorry princess! I was trying to get out of the storm, and I was running and it was slippery, and I didn’t mean to bump into this way your sunliness. I mean I’m normally far more manerful. I don’t make a habit of crashing into royalty. I try to not make a habit of crashing into anypony-” Celestia silenced him with a hoof before he could say ‘Please don’t set me on fire’. “Calm yourself,” she chuckled. “It is fine, I am well aware of you, and have been looking forwards to meeting you for a little while. Though I admit I did not expect such a...interesting hello.” Caramel felt his cheeks burning, he hid this with a deep bow. “Um...I really am sorry princess. It is an honor to meet you.” He could feel Celestia smiling though he kept his gaze to the library floor, figuring that if she decided to turn him into a living candle he didn’t want to see it. “Rise, Caramel. Do not worry, I have never been one to fault a pony for an accident. It livened up our little meeting in anycase. I was just talking to Twilight about the rather strange weather going on near Equestria. The storm you just came out of is the result of a rather odd formation of clouds around Appleloosa. I was just talking to my student about the possibility of magical interference.” Caramel blinked, raising his head. He had been aware on some level that Twilight was indeed Celestia’s student, everypony in Ponyville knew that, but he’d never really connected the two concretely in his head until now. Several images of what might happen if he ever put a hoof out of line with her flashed through his head, though he quickly hid the expression of abject terror. As he turned to look at Twilight, who seemed to be getting over her own bout of horrible scenarios, he noticed she was blushing a bit as well. She looked rather adorable like that, as she looked from him to the princess, her face a bit anxious. This was obviously not how she pictured the two of them meeting. She looked worried and it made him want very much to go over and hug her. Suddenly he was a lot less worried about ever putting a hoof out of line. He didn’t think he’d ever want to. He turned back to the Princess, who was a bit closer than he’d expected, he jumped back with surprise, landing on his sprained hoof with a yelp. She frowned. “Well, that doesn’t look good.” She turned and looked out at the heavy downpour. “And I doubt you can get it looked at in this weather.” She tilted her head a bit as her long horn started to glow. Caramel felt the fur on the back of his neck stand on end again, this time if felt a bit like it might fly off as her magic wrapped around his hoof. Celestia must have noticed how terrified he looked, as she laughed lightly. “Don’t worry Caramel, a simple mending spell is all I’m doing. You act as though I’m going to set you on fire.” Caramel blinked again. His hoof tingled, but it felt...better. He looked at the princess, suddenly feeling very foolish. “Uh...sorry. Guess I’m not used to meeting royalty.” “Quite alright.” She focused a bit and with a little flash of magic released his hoof. “There you go. Good as new.” Twilight, having apparently gotten over her petrification, walked up to Caramel a bit sheepishly. Her friend, who Caramel recognized as Fluttershy came up to his left, looking a little concerned. He tried his hoof, carefully applying weight, then trotting in place a little. He couldn’t help but smile as he felt no pain. “Wow...that is better. Thank you, Princess.” “It is my pleasure Caramel. It is the least I can do for the colt of my student’s romantic interest.” Caramel and Twilight were the same color for a few seconds, which was a lovely shade of red. Fluttershy’s own face took on an empathetic shade of pink. Celestia chuckled. “Now I must take my leave. It was nice to meet you Caramel. Fluttershy, thank you for agreeing to investigate the matter further. Twilight, I await further reports from you on the matter, and on the magic of friendship.” She gave Caramel an appraising look. “Among other things.” Caramel nearly choked on his own mouth. The princess chuckled to herself before disappearing in a bright flash of white light. The three of them stood there for a moment and Caramel internally noted that in her own way Celestia had managed to set him on fire. He was fairly certain that if he pressed his cheek to anything right now it would burst into flames. “Um....” Fluttershy said quietly. “I...I should probably be going...I have to prepare for that trip the Princess was talking about...and maybe I should leave you two...um...alo-” Twilight’s look silenced Fluttershy with an ‘Eeep’. Before she took a breath and quelled her blush. “That’s a good idea Fluttershy.” Twilight admitted. “But are you sure you can get home in this storm?” Fluttershy nodded. “I have an umbrella.” she glanced over at Caramel. “And besides...um...I think Angel’s tail needs fluffing.” Caramel wasn’t sure if the yellow pegasus was trying to wink at Twilight or having a spasm of some kind, but it didn’t help his blush in anycase. Fluttershy nodded to him before trotting gently to the door and walking out into the maelstrom. Through the window Caramel could watch as the wind picked her up and tossed her in what he hoped was the general direction of her house. He looked at Twilight. “Is she gonna be?...” Twilight paused for a minute, then nodded. “Um...Yes...I’m sure she will be.” There was a moment of awkward silence. The only sound that drummed in Caramel’s ears was the constant patter of harsh rain against the window pane. “So....That was interesting.” Twilight nodded. “Yeah...it certainly was...I think she liked you.” Caramel perked up. “Really!?” Twilight nodded again. “She didn’t put you in prison then banish you then put you in another prison in the place where she banished you to, so that’s a good sign.” She smiled encouragingly. Caramel blinked. “Um...thanks?” Twilight blushed a little and Caramel stiffened as she gave him a little nuzzle. “All in all it went better than I expected.” Somewhere in the back of Caramel’s head he wondered just how she had expected this to go, but he decided perhaps it was better not to ask. He nuzzled her in return enjoying the contact, her mane still smelled like book paper. He realized this was the first time they’d touched like this so casually. He decided he liked it. He liked it a lot. He smiled goofily for several moments before his brain caught up to the rest of him, his cheeks still fairly pink. “So...uh what was Celestia doing here in the first place?” Twilight’s similar expression dissolved into something more serious. “There’s been some strange reports coming out of Appleloosa lately. You see the storm outside?” she gestured to the window. Caramel nodded. “Totally unscheduled, the pegasi had nothing to do with it, and while occasional unplanned showers aren’t terribly irregular such a dense collection of cumulus arcus contributing to such a heavy deluge is a very rare and almost unheard of phenomena.” Caramel just nodded. “The weather in Appleoosa seems to be having an adverse affect on the atmospheric conditions across Equestria, and Celestia and I decided that it was best to send Fluttershy down there to figure out just what’s going on. It took some convincing, she’s rather shy about that kind of stuff, but for the good of Equestria she’s willing to do it.” Caramel nodded again. “I see, so you think she’ll figure out what’s up with the weather?” “That’s what I jus-” she paused, the smirked at him and nuzzled his cheek again. “Yes.” Caramel chuckled, feeling his cheeks heat up again. He looked out at the storm raging outside the library. “So...looks like I won’t be going home for a while.” he commented. Twilight looked out too, watching as a cross eyed mare was blown across the town square. “Oh no, not in this you’re not. You’re welcome to stay here.” she smiled, the paused. “How are things at home anyway?...Last time I saw you things...weren’t going well.” Caramel’s ears drooped a touch. “Well...Grampa’s still mad, that’s part of the reason why I’m out here. He sent me out this morning with a cartload of apples and said I couldn’t come back until they were all sold.” Twilight frowned. “Well that seems harsh, how does he expect you to sell apples in this?” Caramel shrugged. “I don’t know, it wasn’t raining badly this morning, besides, I already sold them anyway.” Twilight blinked. He looked at her and tilted his head. “What?” “You sold a whole cart of apples in less than a day?” Caramel fidgeted a bit. “Well, I might have cheated. There was this pony who wanted me to paint a sign for her, and I never accepted...so when she came up today I said I do it if she bought me out.” Twilight laughed and suddenly Caramel found himself in a hug. “That’s brilliant!” He paused, dumbstruck for a time before hugging her back. “Oh...well..thank you!” She released him with a grin. “Well, this requires a celebration, how about you help me alphabetize the children’s section?” Caramel tilted his head, and there was silence for a moment. Twilight’s grin faded. “Oh...I suppose that’s...um...not fun for everypony.” As her expression changed, he realized she was serious, a sudden stab of guilt flooding through his heart. He paused for a moment and thought about it. Twilight was a librarian, there was a reason for that. She loved books, adored books she smelled like books. They were a part of her, and since he felt about her they way he did they’d have to be a part of him to. He sidled over to her and after a second’s deliberation, he nosed her cheek a little, she stiffened in surprise. “If it’s with you, then of course it’ll be fun. Now where’s the children’s section,” he said softly. Twilight turned and looked at him their eyes meeting for a moment before she smiled and turned to lead the way.
Squeak-anon	780	12	Applejack,Big Macintosh,Caramel,Twilight Sparkle,Comedy,Romance,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Caramel's Light	Caramel can't seem to do anything right, when he finds feelings for a certain purple unicorn.	incomplete	775	21	<p>Caramel can't seem to do anything right. When he finds he has a crush on a certain purple unicorn, this proves doubly true. </p><p>Story now coming out Bi-weekly thanks to Sanctus, more soon!</p>	everyone	2013-10-23T13:58:58+00:00	2013-10-23T15:44:23+00:00	3,989	Outside the storm got steadily worse. Caramel followed Twilight upstairs, to the children’s section, it was a colorful little area towards the rear of the library’s second story a little way away from the living area for the librarian. Caramel smiled, the floor around the lines of shelves had been painted with tall blades of grass. He could see little ladybugs sprinkled around the painting. The shelves were short, the perfect size for a foal to reach their first book. “Here we are!” Twilight said, smiling broadly. “The Foal’s section. admittedly it’s not as big as I might like, but I’ve got all the bases covered. Spike would normally help me with this, but he’s helping Rarity today.” Caramel nodded. “It looks really nice, did you do the painting on the floor?” Twilight shook her head. “It was here when I arrived in Ponyville a little over a year ago. The Princess said it was done when the library opened, way back near the founding of Ponyville. Besides,” she chuckled. “I can’t paint to save my life, of the two of us, you’re the artist.” Caramel’s face got a little warmer. “O-oh...well I wouldn’t really call myself an artist, it’s more of a hobby.” Twilight tilted her head. “A hobby? Caramel, your hobby just sold more apples in a few hours than you usually manage in a month.” She smiled encouragingly at him. “You’re an artist.” He opened his mouth to protest, then paused. Why was he protesting? He did like to paint, and apparently ponies thought he was good at it. He’d made money from doing it, and gifts, not to mention he’d like to do more painting in the future. Didn’t that make what she was saying true? Didn’t that make him an artist? He gave up and nodded. “Fine, I’m an artist.” He couldn’t help but chuckle as he said it, they felt good in his mouth, those words. He felt his lips curl into a grin, which made Twilight smile a bit brighter. “Told you.” Twilight looked over the shelf and then back to him. “So,” Her smile grew into a grin. “Alphabetizing?” The purple unicorn actually bounced as she said the word. I’m not sure whether that’s odd or adorable, he thought. It might be a mix of both... and then he realized it didn’t matter, because if it was a mix of both that only served to make it more adorable. He nodded, smiling. “Alphabetizing.” He looked at the colorful books on the shelf, squinting at the words. “You’ll have to help me a bit, I think the last thing I alphabetized was a bushel of apples. It was very easy.” Twilight laughed sidling up beside him to playfully bump him with her flank, Caramel’s coat momentarily looked like Big Macs. “I can teach you I’m sure, it’s rather easy, all you need to do is look through a shelf, they’re marked with what letter they’re supposed to be under, just look at author's name and see if it matches the letter. If it’s out of place, take it out and put it in it’s proper place.” She scanned the J shelf. “Ah! Here we are, J.K Rowdy.” Her horn glowed as she removed the book from its shelf, Caramel still hadn’t quite gotten used to dating a unicorn, he thought magic looked rather beautiful, though he was too shy to say. She continued explaining as he tried to stop staring. “You see the little colts and fillies get confused sometimes, while J is indeed the first letter in the author's name, we don’t arrange the books by first name, we arrange them by last. This book would in fact go under R. not J.” She nodded to herself sticking it back on its correct shelf. “You see, this is why this section needs so much more attention. If it‘s left to its own devices soon it’d be impossible to find anything!” Carmel blinked, fairly certain that impossible was probably a stretch but, looking at her, she seemed genuinely distressed by the idea that any book would be out of place on her shelves for long. She’d already started scanning the R. shelves for any books that might have been out of place there. He just smiled and shook his head, then started looking himself. Since she’d started so low on the alphabet, he decided to look through the A’s, Twilight had been right. He found quite a few authors whose first name started with A, but whose last name started with something else. He had to use his mouth, since he wasn’t a unicorn, but he tried to be as gentle as possible with books he did find. He and Twilight often had to walk past each other to get a book to its correct shelf. At first it was awkward, both of them a touch shy to get too close on accident, but as they fell into a rhythm of work, the wide breadth they gave one another got smaller and smaller, till there was barely one at all. They worked side by side, occasionally flank to flank. Both of them did indeed blush whenever that happened, but Caramel found that Twilight didn’t seem to mind, and he most certainly didn’t either. He worked his way down to the M’s, scanning when his nose bumped into something warm. He froze, and so did said warm thing. He looked over to find his vision filled with a familiar eye. Her eyes were lovely as always and he was distracted once again before he realized that the reason their eyes were so close was because they were cheek to cheek over a copy of Marial Mare’s: If You Give a Parasprite Anything, a recent book sent from Fillydelphia. They both seemed to realize this at the same time, and jumped back, looking like a pair of raspberries. Both stuttering monosyllabic words like “I” and “Uh” and “Well: before Caramel finally broke the pattern. “Um...I guess in that case...we’re finished?” he chuckled awkwardly. Twilight had done about half the shelves, and so had he. They stood in front of a perfectly alphabetized bookshelf. Twilight chuckled as well, looking it over from afar one last time. “Well, I guess we are.” She smiled. “Thank you for the help, that was fun.” He paused. Fun wasn’t the word he’d have used to describe what they’d just done, but at the same time, he couldn’t say he hadn’t enjoyed doing it, because he’d done it with her. So he just nodded. “Yeah, I’m happy to help, any time, Twi-” He was interrupted as lightning struck unnervingly close, the room filling with white light before thunder rattled everything that wasn’t fixed down in the room. Carmel found himself a foot in the air, he was falling clumsily to the ground by the time he realized the sound had made him jump. “Woah...” He breathed trying to get his heart to slow down. “That...was close.” Twilight’s face clouded, looking out the window. “Hmm, normally it doesn’t strike quite that close....I have a magical lightning rod. Living in a tree and all, it’s a precaution that’s altogether too necessary.” She put a hoof to her chin. “I suppose that was just a freak bolt from the clouds, lightning magic is quite unpredictable.” Caramel tried to stop his legs from shaking as he walked over to her. “Are you sure it’s safe in here? Lightning won’t strike any closer?” Twilight shook her head. “I’m fairly certain it won’t I’ve had problems with lightning before. Last time a tree fell through my window, so I widened the protection radius of the arcane spell matrix within the construct of the lightning rod. It should render any electrical discharge harmless.” Caramel came to the conclusion that it was best to just trust the sciency sounding words and nod. Twilight’s face still carried lines of worry, but she seemed placated by her own logic, and turned to him. “Well, since that’s done, and it’s obviously...well...” thunder shook the tree they stood in once again, they both flinched. “A bit too stormy for you to head home safely...is there anything you’d like to do now?” She smiled with a light blush. Caramel paused, and decided he really wouldn’t mind spending a bit more time with Twilight. Oh no he wouldn’t mind that in the least. “I-” His stomach growling interrupted him before he could get any other words out. He felt his cheeks heating up. Twilight chuckled. “Well I guess that’s our answer...come to think of it...” Her own cheeks began to redden, her ears folding back a marginally as she smiled. “You do still owe me a dinner.” Caramel blinked...oh yeah, he had missed their first dinner date. The one with his family had quite frankly ended in disaster, so in a way he did owe her. One nice dinner...alone...in her house... He tried to keep his expression rather neutral, and probably failed horribly. “O-oh certainly, that sounds great.” He couldn't stop himself from grinning. “I...I could cook for you. I’m not a great cook, but I know a few dishes...just so long as you don’t mind apples...apples...or apples,” he chuckled. Twilight’s smile curled up with a small laugh. “I think I wouldn’t mind apples. I’m rather fond of them. You know, I once met a very nice pony while shopping for Apples...” She took a step closer to him. Caramel stiffened, he wondered if the smile currently spreading its way across his face like a wildfire through a wheatfield was goofy looking, he really didn’t care much though. He stepped a little closer and, unable to resist, he nuzzled her cheek. He felt her stiffen a touch at the contact, but he could feel the smile on her face as he pressed close. Her cheek was soft and warm, and as usual she smelled of books. She leaned back, he could hear the storm outside, but inside the library, for that moment, he couldn’t have been happier. The moment wasn’t long, they leaned away from each other, both smiling and shifting about with a kind of joyful nervousness. It reminded Caramel of the sparrows he’d seen outside his window as a child in the spring. Was this how they felt in the trees? “Apples it is then,” he said softly. And with that, she led the way to the kitchen. Caramel insisted that she stay in the dining room as he made his way around the kitchen, seeing where everything was and getting a bit familiar with the layout. He was no where near as good a cook as his sister, but when he was a little colt his grandmother had shown him a thing or two, and Toffee had continued to do so over the years, so he wasn’t completely inept in the kitchen... I’ve only ever started the occasional fire...and most of them were quickly put out...and no one could even prove that fifth one. Twilight did have apples, a small basket of them in one of the many cupboards of the library kitchen. He sat them on the counter and contemplated them for a moment. They were Fugi apples, sweet, but a little tart. Not the best apples for a pie, and pie wasn’t the best dinner-food anyway. Something nice and simple would be the ticket... He looked around some more until he found a head of lettuce and cherry tomatoes, Twilight had a little bit of feta cheese in the refrigerator. Caramel smiled as he figured out what he’d make. A simple cold apple salad would be perfect for dinner, and he could make something sweeter for desert...but what? It would make sense to get it in the oven now, so when they were done with the salad it would be hot and ready. Pouring through the cabinets once again he found a small bag of granola, along with various other spices and a pan. He grinned wider, he knew what he would make. ---- The door to the kitchen opened shakily as Caramel walked backwards through it, holding a tray in his mouth. It trembled as he tried to keep his balance. Steady...Steady... He chanted internally. Twilight sat behind him, looking a touch worried. He turned to face her, his cheeks perked up around the tray. In two little bowls lay the cold apple salad he had prepared. It wasn’t anything resturant quality, and it looked a little messily prepared, but he had to say he was a bit proud of it. “Mere ,mouh mho,” he said cheerfully with a mouthful of tray carefully setting it down on the table. Twilight smiled with apparent relief, looking down at the prepared dish in front of her, then back to Caramel. “This looks very good, I didn’t know you could cook.” He grinned, feeling some pride welling up in his chest. “Well, I’m no great chef, but when you’re an Apple, you tend to learn a thing or two about being in the kitchen. I can handle myself pretty well I think.” As long as you don’t consider the fires. He shook that thought away and sat down across from her with a bit of a bounce in his movements, feeling rather good about himself, it had been a fairly nice day, and he’d had too few of those in his life. He smiled wider as he noticed the trend between his good days and Twilight’s immediate proximity. She smiled back, a faint blush on her cheeks as they began to eat. The salad was crisp and flavorful, he was relieved he’d managed to get the balance right. There was just the right amount of sweetness in the apples to offset the slight vegetable tartness of the other ingredients. He internally wondered what Toffee might think of it as he took another bite. He couldn’t help but steal glances at Twilight. He didn’t want to seem as though he was staring. Then it might seem as though he was self conscious about whether she liked it or not...which he admittedly was, very much so, but, if she knew that, it might make her self conscious about eating it...which he didn’t want. He wasn’t quite sure what was the proper etiquette for a, mental air quotes, ‘Chef’. There happened to be a spoon on the table, which happened to have a reflection of the window, which happened to have a reflection of Twilight in it. He figured staring at that shouldn’t be too awkward....Unless she happened to look into the window and see the reflection of the spoon, which he supposed had a reflection of him staring at the reflection o- Ahhh! Stop overthinking and just eat! They ate in relative silence for a moment, which Caramel took to be a good sign. In the Apple family there was an old saying, that a quiet table is a happy table, mouths too full of food to flap fulla gossip. He pushed his worries aside and focused on eating, from the sound of Twilight’s chewing, he could only guess she was enjoying it. After a while eating in silence, Twilight paused to look at him for a moment, her large purple eyes seeming to consider something. “Caramel, may I ask you a question?” He stopped eating, looking back at her, tilting his head slightly. “Oh, well sure, if you want too.” Twilight seemed to think for a moment, before looking off to the side, her ears folding ever so slightly. “Well...and tell me if this is too personal, but...You’ve mentioned her a few times...and your grandfather brought her up at dinner...besides those brief mentions...I don’t really know much...Could you tell me about your grandmother?” Caramel’s ears stood straight up at the question before folding back a little, his hoof rubbing idly against the surface of the table. “Oh...well...I suppose...if you’re interested.” He looked off to the side, a slight frown playing over his features. Twilight waved a hoof in the air, eyes widening. “I-if you don’t want to talk about her it’s fine! That’s alright, I shouldn’t have asked...” He looked back to her, taking a deep breath. “No...no it’s okay...really, I just...Have I mentioned her?...I remember Grandpa bringing her up, but I...” He thought for a moment, she had been crossing his mind more and more lately it seemed. Twilight nodded. “When you gave me that gift...with the paintings from the book.” She gestured to the little wooden cube she had placed on a nearby shelf. “The Secret Tree? You mentioned your grandmother used to read it to you...” Caramel nodded, thinking back. “She did...I loved that book when I was a foal...” He gave a little laugh, looking down at his hooves at the memory. “I remember she’d do funny voices for the filly and the colt...” Twilight smiled lightly. “That sounds lovely.” He nodded. “It was...” He was quiet for a moment, the rain pattered against the window. “You’re very smart...I’m guessing you’ve picked up that she’s not around anymore...Grampa made it pretty clear at Dinner...” She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and nodded. Caramels sighed. “You’re right...she’s not...she hasn’t been since I was very small, maybe a bit younger than my cousin Applebloom.” His ears folded slightly. “I’m not sure I quite remember what she looked like, but I do remember her voice when she read to me...she liked doing that, she was a very happy mare, a little shy if I remember her right...odd for an Apple.” He chuckled softly. “Great gardener...Grampa mentioned that...” He grew quiet again. “...I think she always understood me just a little better than he did...though she wasn’t there long. She didn’t mind when I messed up, didn’t yell or punish, just smiled and told me I’d get it another day.” He swallowed, taking a deep breath. “Another day...” Twilight looked concerned, leaning a touch closer to him, her hoof reaching out to touch his as it continued to rub against the table. “Do...do you want to stop? We can talk about something else.” Caramel shook his head, his mouth settling into a hard line for a moment before it melted into a softer smile. “No...it’s alright...it’s nice to talk about it.” He took another deep breath. “Haven’t in a while...” He was quiet for a moment before continuing. “Anyway...she got sick...I don’t quite remember with what...she wasn’t a very strong mare, physically, always a bit wispy and thin...We do have a few pictures...so I know I have that right.” Thunder rumbled outside the tree as the branches shook in the wind. “She just kind of...wasted away...she gardened until she couldn’t anymore... I have a memory of her struggling in the field while my Grampa watched...whenever he tried to help she’d just smile at him for a moment, and he’d know to let her do it on her own...” Lines formed around his mouth, he let his breath out in a sigh. “She was out there every day, and no matter how sick she got, the trees and the flowers never so much as turned brown...” He lapsed into silence again before going on, looking at his hooves. “She was bedridden for the last of it...but she still smiled..still seemed happy to see me...until she couldn't any more. She...she seemed far away, I think she said something to me, but I can’t quite remember what it was...” His face scrunched as he thought on it, but nothing came. ”The...her bed was empty. I came by and her bed was empty...That was the end of it.” He felt a coldness, as he finished telling that part of the story, it was familiar, like an old wound aching in the rain. Sudenly he felt something warm at his side. He stiffened with a little gasp, looking up to find Twilight beside him, leaning on his shoulder, her cheek pressed to his. He didn’t push her away. He leaned back, closing his eyes. “I miss her sometimes...” She simply nodded, and in that moment he gained a new appreciation for her. She wasn’t just book smart...she knew that quiet comfort, was sometimes better than empty words. She simply stood with him as he thought about something that had been hovering around the edge of his mind for a long time. He hadn’t thought about her that way...for quite some time...not really and truly, but he felt good for doing so, it was sad but...necessary, he thought. They enjoyed the moment until they smelled the burning. Caramel went stiff. “The apple sticky!” He suddenly bolted to the kitchen, leaving Twilight blinking in the dining room. When he reappeared he was holding a rather charred tray with a pot holder in his mouth. His ears pinned themselves back as he walked forwards and set it on the table. “Um...desert?” he said lamely. Twilight eyed the dish for a moment, blinking a few times, as the world seemed to return to normal. She took a deep breath. “It...it doesn’t look that bad, I think I will try a piece.” Her mouth stretched open in what seemed to be an encouraging smile as a fork floated over to the pair of them. She pressed it down into the dish, where it promptly bent against the crust. Her eyes widened as she stared at the warped silverware. “Um...maybe we can save it for Spike when he gets back?...He likes most things...” Caramel looked at the smoldering desert, crestfallen. Twilight paused, then threw the fork in some random direction before stepping up beside Caramel, she nosed his head up a bit, nestling under it. “It’s the thought that counts.” she said softly, looking up at him from beneath his chin. Caramel went stiff for a moment, before a smile broke through his frown, he nestled his chin down against her, pressing close. “Well...In that case...” He wrapped a hoof around her. “I think about you a lot...” She smiled in turn, nestling against him warmly. “You too...” And at least it wasn’t a fire this time.... he thought absently, before letting that thought drift off and enjoying her closeness once again. Caramel wasn’t quite sure how long they stayed like that, the rain pounded against the windows and lightning flashed over them, but he didn’t feel like it was even a concern. She felt warm and soft against him and he wanted to hold her forever, if only he could. But eventually, it was time to disconnect and clean up. They shared a smile as he collected the dishes and headed to the kitchen putting them in the sink, running a bit of water over each before scrubbing it clean. He couldn't leave her with dirty dishes, he even managed not to break any as he placed them back where he’d found them. He shot the Apple Sticky dish a look, but he had a feeling that that one dish in particular would never quite be clean again...he’d have to look into getting her a new one. As Caramel, with no small measure of embarrassment, quietly slid ruined desert into the trash he heard a knock at the door. He walked back into the dining room, making his way to the main room when he heard it open. His ears flicked, he heard an urgent voice alongside Twilights, his blood ran cold, how late was it? Could it have been his grandfather? Oh that was the last thing he needed right now. He quickly trotted the rest of the way to the front door, only to find Toffee standing in the middle of the room, looking around wildly. As her eyes locked on him she closed the gap between them in a flash, racing past Twilight, who looked worried and confused. “Toffee!?” he said his eyes wide with surprise. “Caramel! Have you seen Grampa!? Please tell me he’s here...” Her eyes looked frantic as they searched his for an answer. “W-what? Grampa, Here? Why would he be here?” He paused. “Toffee...what’s wrong...tell me.” She took a deep breath. “He went looking for you as few hours ago, before the storm hit, he wanted you to come home, said he felt bad, but then this storm hit...and I haven’t seen him...And...I...I don't’ know where he is, Caramel. I thought you might be here, I was hoping he was too...I don’t think it’s rained like this in Equestria for years...He should have been back by now...” Caramel’s eyes widened. “You think he’s out in this!? Right now!?” Toffee nodded. “There’s nowhere else he could be! We have to find him, quickly!” Caramel nodded, looking back to Twilight. “I’ve gotta go!” She nodded. “I’m coming with you.” He opened his mouth to protest, but her eyes brokered no argument. “Both of you just come on!” Toffee yelled. And without another word, they charged out into the howling wind.
Largefish8	784	1	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2012-08-14T09:03:17+00:00	2012-08-14T09:03:17+00:00	2,220	'The Void...it is a gift and a curse...as our finest warriors turned on us...drove us from our home, we turned what had been something wonderful into a weapon...may we be forgiven.' 'File recovered from Atlantean facility...thought to refer to the Uncharted Territories...author unknown. ... The uncharted sectors of Nullspace were one of the last un-industrialized sections of the multiverse, but that didn’t mean they were deserted...though that didn’t mean Matt was wishing that it was. He wished harder as a pulse blast narrowly missed the Skyraid, the Exo Gene ship Icarus taking another shot as its StarFalcons harassed the fleeing frigate. “This sucks…explain to me WHY you’re important again, Aria?” said Matt, annoyed as he pulled the ship controls, causing the skyraid to roll to avoid a missile. Aria, the AI currently in his ship said smugly in a female voice “You know perfectly well why I am important. There is a asteroid belt 2 light-minutes off the starboard. The rocks will provide cover from the Icarus’s particle blasters. ... "His armor's at 45%, captain," said one of the crewmen on the Icarus' bridge. "Good...The board of directors wants Lynch and his ship contents intact. Keep firing. I want those engines offline, now." said Darius, the ship’s captain. One of the techs said, "Sir, he’s headed for the asteroid belt in sector 12. Lotta chroniton readings...could be a rifter." "Not even he would be foolish enough to go through a rifter," said Darius, "Keep on him." "Yes sir," said the tech. ... "Sir...chroniton radiation is at optimum to indicate a rift mine class wormhole in the field. Recommend caution," said Aria. Matt pulled hard on the control to avoid the Skyraid pancaking on a asteroid the size of a dreadnought before yelling, "Stop backseat driving!" before the comm beeped "Oh, you are kidding me," said Matt. "Incoming message from the Icarus," said Aria. "Do I have to accept the charges?" groaned Matt. Darius's face appeared on the comm. "You know, you can’t get away. My ship’s faster, I have more men, and Exo Gene’s got more then enough credits to send every merc from here to the Combine territories after you. I promise I'll make it quick," he said, smugly. "Hey, I can always find another place to hide," said Matt. "Where would that be? Every ship from here to the badlands is after you and you know that every reality field around here's aggressive. You sure you don’t want to die with a little dignity?" said Darius with a smirk. "Dignity's for squares," said Matt before punctuating that with a raspberry. Darius sighed and said, "Fine...have a nice day," before cutting the comm. Aria said, "Sir, why do you antagonize people like him?" before the ship shook with another shot. "If I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna go down laughing," said Matt. "Sir, please keep your optics on the controls.” Said Aria urgently. "What's that supposed to mean?" asked Matt before glancing up and seeing an asteroid getting very close. Matt settled for the textbook reaction of screaming in terror and pulling back hard on the controls, sending the skyraid shooting up. One of the fighters was not so lucky, plowing into the asteroid and exploding. Matt grinned at that. "Hah...that’s one less scumbag. This day’s getting better," he said before the space in front of the ship began to flicker and several readouts changed to a red screen with the flashing message, 'Danger: Chroniton Surge.' "Uh, identify source of chronitons," said Matt nervously. Aria said, "Look up, sir." Matt did so in time for the grey maw of a wormhole to crackle into life. "Warning, gravity pull detected, we are in the wormholes gravity well. The Icarus is also in the well. Evasive maneuvers recommended," said Aria which earned her viewscreen a thump. Matt gulped and muttered, "Why can't I watch where I'm flying?" ... On the Icarus, the bridge was in sheer pandemonium. "We're at full reverse and it’s still got us!" yelled a technician. "Captain, Lynch can't possibly survive that rifter," said a crewman, "Maybe we should focus on pulling back and letting it finish the job. The same tech said, "Fat chance of that. We're following no matter what we want." Darius said, "If we lose Lynch, the board’ll take us apart!" "But sir..." said the same crewman. "Or would you prefer to ride out the rifter outside the ship?" snapped Darius. "Better make up your mind...we're gonna be torn in half otherwise!" yelled one of the navigation control techs. Darius said, "Full power ahead. After that mercenary." ... The wormhole was quick to swallow the Icarus as it stopped struggling against its pull as it also swallowed the tiny Skyraid and its pursuing fighters, quickly spewing them out at the destination...and their prison. "Orders, sir?" asked one of the crewsmen. "If we're going to be stuck in here, we're making doubly sure that he is too," said Darius, "Cripple that ship." "Sir, we got a problem, sensors are going nuts," said a tech, his screen full of static. A navigation controller said, "Sir, we've lost engine power on thruster 4 and 6." One last tech slapped his screen and said, "Sir, magi's off the charts. It’s messing up everything." Darius sighed and said, "Figures a rifter would lead us into this." "Sir, that guys ships even older than ours. It’s gonna go down, but we won't be able to pinpoint where." said a tech. Darius looked out the bridge window at the Skyraid. It was already in a bad way. The Icarus's particle pulse cannons had all but crippled it, a stream of glowing blue energy showing a catastrophic plasma leak. ... On the Skyraid, the magi energy was messing up the systems even worse. Matt had a fire extinguisher and was spraying its contents on the smoking panels as they overloaded. "Just my bloody luck," he said, spraying another panel, Aria repeating "Danger...Magi levels at dangerous levels...engines at 12%...controls...offline." "Oh really? Tell me something worse!" snapped Matt. "Planetary gravity well detected...bearing: 2-7-9," said Aria on cue. "Oh goody," said Matt sarcastically before he looked up to see the spinning view of a planet straight ahead. After a minute, he had to look down again. "Those damn drones better be fixing the damage," he muttered before Aria said "Planetary impact in 1.4 minutes." "Uh, chance of survival?" asked Matt. "If the drones can restore control systems...54%...if not...0.013%," said Aria. "Uh, please put a little more incentive into those bots," said Matt. "Yes, sir...Impact in 1.2 minutes...entering atmosphere..." said Aria. ... On the planet below, a meteor shower was lighting up the night, providing a spectacle for all the residents to watch. Twilight Sparkle had stayed up to watch the show with her telescope, her friend and assistant, Spike, with her. "Wow, Twi, these shooting stars are amazing," said Spike. Twilight watched through the telescope. "I haven’t seen so many before. Hmm?" she said, sounding surprised as one shooting star seemed to start to straighten out its flight, going further then its fellows...and getting slightly larger. "Uh, Spike, you might want to get down," said Twilight. The shooting star had not changed direction, becoming larger and becoming a fireball. Twilight and Spike ducked to the ground as the fireball roared overhead. Twilight raised her head in time to see, just for a second, something inside the fireball before it vanished over the top of Everfree forest, a loud boom and a flash heard a moment later. After the boom and flash faded, there was a moment of silence before Spike said, "That was awesome! Best shooting star ever!” Twilight looked a bit concerned. "I've never seen a shooting star do that before...." she said, more to herself than anything else. "Hey, you think there're any pieces left?" asked Spike. Twilight said "I don’t think thats a good idea. Its landed in the Everfree forest. We can have a look for it tomorrow." "Oh, fine," grumbled Spike, "All the good pieces will be gone by then." The next morning however, there was a stranger problem confronting ponyville. A thief...a strangely specific one. "They took the hinges off every door in my house." said one pony as Twilight walked past. The other pony of the conversation said "Thats nothing...it took half the tools from my workshop...just the tool heads. It left all the handles." "That's strange," muttered Twilight, "First a big meteorite crash, then all the metal's disappearing. What could it mean?" Twilight was still thinking about the meteor that she and spike had seen the previous night when a shriek came from the nearby Carousel boutique. She rushed in to see Rarity wailing. The reason was clear to see. The unicorns workshop seemed to have been a popular target, almost all the metal equipment missing and the safe box that stored the gems Rarity used had a perfect hole burnt into it, the contents spilled out and all the clear gems missing. "Robbed! Robbed! How will I ever be able to make fine dresses now?! I'm ruined!" wailed Rarity. Twilight went up to her "Its ok, rarity. You'll be able to replace all of your things in no time. Its strange. This mystery thief’s hit all over ponyville..." she said. "Well, I'm sure no one in Ponyville's suffering worse than me," said Rarity. ... Twilight took Rarity into town to try and take her mind of the robbery. They were just having a meal when Pinkie pie popped up, wearing her umbrella hat. "Hey Pinkie," said Twilight, "Tail twitching again?" "Yeah...it started last night...then I got a doosy of a twii-i-i-i-ich." said Pinkie, starting to vibrate in place. "The-e-ee-r-r-r-re iiit-t-t-t-t iis-s-s-s-s-s aa-a-g-a-a-in." she said. "A full-blown doosy twitch?" asked Twilight, "Something really unexpected is going to happen?" Twilight thought back to the last time such a doosy had turned up. It had involved a angry Hydra and a close call for her patience. A doosy twitch usually meant trouble. "Maybe its to do with the thief that been in town?" she said. What-ev-ev-ev-ev-ev-ev-er i-i-i-i-t i-i-i-i-is," said Pinkie, "I-i-i-i-it's coming from Ev-ev-everfree Forest." Twilight thought for a second before saying "There's still lots of metal in town. Whoever’s stealing it might come back for the rest..." ... It was almost sunset and everything was still on Sweet Apple Acre farm. The only thing that seemed out of place was the plough left in the middle of the field all by itself. A keen observer would have followed a rope coming from nearby to a barrel hanging from a tree, hidden by the canopy. "Ah'm not happy with this. We only jus got that plough." said Applejack. "The thieves would have come for it anyways," said Twilight, "This will allow us to catch them in the act." Rainbow dash said "Then we get them to give back what they took. Wonder why they want it all?" "Oh, I hope this trap won't hurt them," said Fluttershy, "I mean, they should be stealing things, but they shouldn't be hurt either." Rarity said "They turned my boutique upside down." the event still fresh in her mind. Before anyone could reply, a twig was heard snapping before a rustling noise followed it. Fluttershy was about to give a yipe of fright before Rainbow Dash covered her mouth with her wing. A large shadow could be seen in the moonlight, heading for the plough. What sounded like a strangely distorted voice spouting random combinations of letters was heard, coupled with a faint clacking noise. Fluttershy was quivering all over with nervousness, forcing Rainbow Dash to push her head down. The shadow got bigger as its owner got closer, the ponies starting to worry that maybe the barrel wasn’t big enough...until a tiny metallic spider, a single red eye glowing on its front, scuttled into view, looking at the plough like it was the last cake in the shop. This time, it was Pinkie Pie's turn to be muffled, to keep her from laughing her head off at the anti-climatic humour. The humour remained until the spider climbed onto the plough, looking at the wooden handle before making a tutting noise and effortlessly ripping a rivet off it, tossing it over its head before moving onto the next one. The girls watched as the spider effectively took the handle off with about as much effort as breathing took. As it was jumping off of the plough, presumably to take the blade away, Twilight shouted, "Now!" The rope was untied and the barrel fell down on top of the spider. Rainbow Dash was the first to celebrate. "Gotcha. Thats the last time that thing steals from ponyville." she said, landing on top of the barrel as it began to shake, its occupant a bit unhappy judging from the muffled noises before the noises stopped...replaced with a clack...followed by a rising whining noise. Uh, what's that sound?" asked Rainbow Dash. Suddenly a red beam, needle thin shot out the side, burning a neat hole in the side before the spiderbot scuttled out, a small cylinder on its back still glowing at one end. It turned before its eye looked up at Rainbow and made a beeping before a voice from it said 'You were good, kid. Real good...but as long as I'm around, you'll always be second best, see?' in a impression of a 60's gangster before blowing a raspberry, sniggering and shooting off in the direction of Everfree forest, several other random pieces of metal bobbing through the grass showing that it hadn't turned up alone. "What in the name of Granny Smith's famous apple pie was that critter?" asked Applejack. "I don't know," said Fluttershy, "I've never seen anything like it before. Rainbow dash said "Who cares? We got a chance to find out where they're taking all our stuff." before taking off after them, clearly peeved over the tiny bot calling her 'second best'. ... The ponies followed after the metal spiders for quite a distance into the forest. However, they stopped when they came across something really unfamiliar: a large trench in the earth that stretched on for many, many yards. Twilight remembered back to the shooting star from the previous night, the drama with the metal thieves having caused it to slip her memory. Several pieces of semi-melted metal were stuck in the trench. The ponies also noted a few red eyes looking from the sides of the trench...clearly a few of the ‘spiders’ had remained behind. "Did these things come from the shooting star?" she said to herself. The group didn’t see any of the ‘spiderbots’ before reaching where something had caused the dirt to pile up, flashes of light and crackling coming from the other side. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie stopped and started vibrating. "Guys, the doozy, it's really, really close," she said. The group headed up the slope and peered over the edge to see a large metal machine, the origin of the trench, piled up against the far end. The spiders were all dropping their loot in a pile where several more grabbed a piece and carried it up to one of the many holes and began to weld it into place. "Ooh, ooh, what if they're aliens from another planet who have crashed onto Equestria and are using all the metal they can find to rebuild their spaceship?" said Pinkie. The other ponies turned to look at her. Even for Pinkie, that comment was random. A voice, however began to be heard, arguing "...said that you found that gem. I can;t believe you stole it." said a male voice. Muffled speech was heard before the first voice said "Yes, I know you needed a replacement but for smegs sake. I have enough trouble without an angry mob." "Who was that?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I hope it isn't a diamond dog," said Rarity with a shudder. A bipedal silhouette came into view, one of the spiders following it along the side of the ship. "Fine...but for the record...scans said we coulda found a decent data diamond easy without petty thievery...where did the drones find all this metal anyway?" said the silhouette. Just then, a rather strange creature walked into view. In a way, it looked sort of like a diamond dog, only he wore clothes on all his body instead of just the chest, he had no tail and paws, his face was rather flat, and the only hair was growing on top of his head. There were also several bandages on him and a black eye, some of the bandages around the creatures chest. Obviously the 'landing' had not been intentional. "Look...the longer we're here, the more time the Icarus has to find us. Sooner we're up and running, the sooner we put a few lightyears between us and them." said the creature. The spiders twittered a bit more. "I don't know how we're gonna get back into Nullspace," snapped the creature, "Maybe we'll be able to find a portal in another part of the galaxy or something. Just get this thing fixed." Another, female voice, its owner unseen, said "Captain Lynch...I cannot detect another wormhole for over 400 lightyears. It is most likely the only exit is the way we arrived... Organic scanners are still rebooting however." The ponies started to back away. "Uh, maybe there's a book about this kind of thing in the library," said Twilight Sparkle. "A book about alien visitors, are you serious?" asked Rarity. Twilight pushed a bush aside and was about to reply when she turned to be eye to eye with another of the ‘spiderbots’ which said happily "There you are." The ponies gave off small shrieks of fright, inadvertedly backing up and falling down into the crater. ... Matt was panning his plasma pistol around when he heard several cries of fright, spinning to see several ponies falling down the side of the Skyraids landing trench. One of the spiderbots turned as well and said in their weird language "Hey...those are the smegheads who dropped a barrel on me." Matt looked at the ponies and said, "Ok, what's with the multicolored horses?" "Sir...these might be some of the locals." said Aria. "So They're just minature horses," said Matt. One of the other drones scuttled up to one of the dazed ponies and poked it before chirping "Lets blast em." before all the drones folded out their ion lasers. "Guys, let's not harm the natives," said Matt, "Even if it is only the local livestock." The ponies were waking up at that and Matt was sure his heart stopped for a second when the orange one said "Who are you callin livestock?" Matt blinked before saying carefully, "Did that pony just talk." The pink one said "Cool...it talks." Matt just stared ahead at this, not moving even when one of the bots stabbed his foot experimentally. "You broke boss." it said in conclusion. "Well, it serves him right," said Rarity, "Thinking of us as just common animals." The drones all turned to look at Rarity at that while another scuttled down Matts arm and pulled his blaster out of his hand, chirping "You'll thank us in 5 seconds." "Uh, maybe we should go," said Fluttershy, who found this situation getting too creepy. "No..." said one of the drones. Another said "Nobody supposed to know boss is here..." while the drone that had caused them to fall down finished the sentence "...so boss decide...when he stop being catatonic." "Uh, maybe we should try to wake him up," said Twilight. "Uh uh...we do that." said the one on Matts arm, folding a tuning fork device out its top and electrocuting Matt, causing him to judder in place and come back to reality. "Uuuuugh...had the wierdest dream...there were talking..." he said before trailing off as he saw the six ponies. "...oh...that proves it...I'm obviously losing it." "Losing what? Did you lose a bracelet?" asked Pinkie Pie, "Because I remember one time I thought I lost a bracelet and I was so frantic and I searched everywhere and everywhere. But then I realized I was wearing it the whole time, now wasn't that silly?" Matt just stared, his pupils slowly shrinking "Please stop speaking, miss hallucination." he said in a distant voice, sure that small but significant sections of his brain were becoming unglued. "Like that's easy," said Rainbow Dash, "Pretty much the only time she's not talking is when she's eating and sometimes when she's sleeping." "Ok...why are you hallucinations here?" Matt said. "We are not hallucinations," said Twilight, "We're ponies." "Ponies don;t talk...maybe dragons do...but not ponies...I have to keep telling myself that." said Matt, more or less to himself. The spiderbots had just settled down to watch. The bosses nervous breakdowns were usually fun. "I guess he is a space alien," said Rainbow Dash. "What kinda world could he have come from where ponies don't talk?" said Applejack, "That's just plum crazy. Next he'll be sayin' that his sun and moon rise by themselves." Matt had wandered up to the open hatch and was grabbing something. "Ok...hallucinations...you have 10 seconds to prove you're real or this happens." he said, pulling out a rifle and shooting a rock which glowed before collapsing to ash, a manic look on Matts face. Pinkie was the first to react, saying “Cool...do it again." "Uh, maybe you should try to calm down a little first," said Twilight, nervously "Too much aggitation is bad for you." Matt looked around before saying “Yeah...true...true." before tossing the weapon back into his ship. The female voice spoke again "Sir...I have close range sensors back online...I do not believe you are hallucinating." "Aria, there are a bunch of talking, brightly-colored ponies here, two with horns, two with wings, how am I supposed to believe they're real?" said Matt. "Sir...I am a 15th generation A.I...I do not hallucinate...They are quite real." said Aria. "Well then, your sensors must be on the blink, but because there can't be any such thing as talking- WHOA!" The last part was added on account of Rainbow Dash suddenly charging into Matt and sending him flying into the side of the crater. Matt shook a few stars from his vision, muttering "I think my kidney exploded." getting up a bit unsteadily. The drones however were definately not happy. The drones turned to glare at the ponies, particularly Rainbow Dash. One of them said coldly "Goodbye." their lasers starting to charge before Matt said “Hold it..." The drones all turned to look at Matt who had gotten back up, a little unsteady. "Ok...you win...Hallucinations don't bruise ribs." The drones made a threatening clicking noise before scuttling back to their jobs, one blowing a raspberry at Rainbow Dash before following its fellows. Matt groaned a bit as he clicked his spine back in place. "So, are there any more of you...ponies here?" he asked. Pinkie pie said "Lots and lots. You should meet them. We could have a 'welcome, Mr alien' party and..." before Matt said to himself "Oh, not again." "Uh, I think he needs a little more time to settle," said Applejack. "Look...just...just keep this quiet. I didn’t even mean to land here...does this look like an intentional landing?" said Matt, pointing to his crashed ship. "International landing, what's that?" asked Pinkie Pie. Matt's eye twitched for a second. "Ok...translation: I crashed." he said, Aria muttering "Again." "Well anyone can see that," said Rainbow Dash, looking at the ship, "Don't you know how to fly?" "Lets see how well you fly while you're being shot at." said Matt under his breath. "Shot at? Who would shoot at you?" asked Fluttershy, a horrified tone in her voice. "Erm...I don’t think I should tell you tha..." began Matt before Aria said "A Exo gene cruiser known as the 'Icarus' under the command of Colonel Alan Darius is responcible." Matt glared at the ship and Aria said "Trust is both ways, sir." "Who is this ‘Exo Gene’?" asked Rarity, "It sounds dreadful." "Executive Genetics in the 3rd largest corpo..." began Aria before Matt muted her. "They're trouble...They're a bit upset at me cause I kinda shot up their operation and mae off with several important things." he said, deciding that maybe mentioning Nullspace was a good way for culture shock related chaos. "Uh, ya'll lost me after 'they're trouble'," said Applejack. Matt sighed and wondered what to say. "They're...big trouble...you probably don’t wanna know what they do." he said finally, saying under his breath "And if they catch me, I'll be lucky if they just kill me." "Oh, ok," Twilight said carefully, "I suppose you'll be here for a while then." Aria said "I estimate that repairs should be completed in 36 hours." Matt turned to the ponies "You heard her...a day and a half and I'm out of your lives." he said. "Aw...you can't leave without a party," said Pinkie Pie, sounding shocked at such a thing happening. Rarity said accusingly "And what about the gems your...spiders took?" Matt sighed "I probably won’t be popular and the ship needs gems for Aria to work...the one controlling the engine core broke...anyway...the spiderdrones said they found it. Shoulda known." he said. "And what about mah plough?" snapped Applejack. Matt glared at the bots who had the decency to look as embarrassed as a single red eye could. "I also should have suspected they were not just getting scrap metal when I found a saucepan yesterday." he said icily. "Yeah, they've been stealing all of the metal stuff in town," said Rainbow Dash. "Including my sewing tools," said Rarity. Matt doubled the glare at the spiderbots, one of who yelled "RUN AWAY!” all of them scattering. Matt sighed and went over to the pile of metal, looking through it. "Bad news...Might already be part of the hull." he said. "You can't just take our tools without asking," said Twilight. "I know," said Matt, "That's why I specifically told those stupid bots to get me only discarded metal that no one was using. Should have known better than to believe they'd stick to that." Matt looked at the bushes where red lights confirmed some of the bots were hiding before turning back. "I can only apologise..." he said before a boom was heard overhead. "Ooh, is that another meteor?" asked Pinkie Pie. Matt looked at a device on his wrist. "No...I didn’t see any meteors on the way in..." before Aria said “Danger...Exo Gene Starfalcon detected...bearing 2-5-4..." "What does that mean?" asked Applejack. Matt had picked up the rifle again and was checking something "It means trouble...big trouble. Aria...where's it coming down? Last thing we need is the pilot sending a S.O.S." he said. Matt pulled a small box and slammed it into the bottom of his rifle, the gun beeping. "Ok...lead the way." ... On a more isolated part of the Apple Family Farm, three young ponies were trotting along. "Ok, fire-walking is definitely not our special talent," said a slightly-scorched Sweetie Belle. "Why do you have to go and try any dag-nabbed tough activity, Scootaloo?" asked an equally-scorched Apple Bloom. "Hey, I don't want to get a cutie mark for anything wimpy," said Scootaloo, also burned. "Lets get back to the clubhouse....get an idea to..." began Scootaloo before the trio, not looking where they were going, fell into a small trench dug through the ground. "Where did this come from?" asked Sweetie Belle, looking around confused. "I don't remember any new trees being planted here," said Apple Bloom, looking at the long trenth dug into the ground. The trio were forced to scatter as a colt ran past them, heading down the trench, muttering something about 'not being possible' before vanishing. "What's his problem?" asked Scootaloo. "Don't know, don't recall ever seeing him before either," said Apple Bloom. A small column of white smoke could be seen coming from the direction the colt had ran from. "Hey...did that pony start a fire or something?" said Scootaloo. The group followed the trench up to see the damage and were surprised to see a metal ship of some kind crashed at the end of it, a strange motif painted on a tailfin. Scootaloo was first along “Cool. I wonder what this things for?” jumping up to peer through an opening in the top. Sweetie belle said nervously "Scootaloo. Be careful. We don;t even know what that thing does." peering at the motif, that for some reason unnerved her. The advice, however came late as the young pegasus overbalanced and fell into the ships cockpit. Scootaloo looked around the cockpit and saw various buttons, knobs, and other cool technological dohickies. A few screens could be seen flickering wildly, and red lights flashing madly. A small voice said "System impaired...Pilot missing...auto repairs 78% complete." "Ooh, neat..." said Scootaloo as she climbed up into the pilot's seat. "Unidentified user detected...scanning for profile...please stand by." said the voice, a light shining over Scootaloo before a buzzer sounded and the canopy shot shut. "Intruder detected. Dead mans Switch recall: activated." said the voice calmly. "Uh, I think I need to get out now," said Scootaloo nervously. "Denied." said the voice calmly. "Engine restart in 1 minute." Just then, the other ponies galloped onto the scene. "Apple Bloom!" called Applejack. "Sweetie Pie!" called Rarity. Matt trudged up the hill a few seconds later, panting and wheezing. "Smegging quadrapeds," he groaned. He stopped as he spotted the ship. "Stand away." he called, spotting the closed hatch and aiming the rifle at it before slowly heading towards it. "Gotcha, you scumbag." he said to himself before jumping back as Scootaloo soundlessly tried to buck the shatterpoof canopy. "GYAH...NOT THE PILOT!" he yelled, falling backwards. "Scootaloo, what are you doing in there?" called Rainbow Dash. Matt peered past her at the controls before hearing a whine starting. "Uh oh..." he said, spotting the words 'Engine restart E.T.A: 0:10' in splitter. "Ladies? We may wanna take a step away." he said, hearing a slow hum starting. "But we gotta get her out of there," said Rainbow Dash urgently. Matt looked at the engine Rainbow was hovering in front of before saying "Oh, smeg." and pushing the pegasus out the way as the engine roared into life, a burst of flame occupying where rainbow had been a second before. The ship started lifting off the ground, slowly, but rapidly gaining speed. Matt was up first, aiming and about to fire when Aria said via his wrist comp. "I would not do that...scanners indicate a plasma rupture...weapon fire will ignite the vapour and result in catastrophic damage." Matt looked at the wrist comp "Eh?" Aria gave a sigh and said "Ok...in merc speak...ship go boom." "Ok, so how would you rescue the flying filly from abduction?" asked Matt sarcastically. "The skyraid has sufficient speed to pursue the ship. Scans indicate damage to the fighters manoeuvring flaps. It will be forced to circle and carry out a slow ascent...I estimate 5 minutes until the ship leaves the breathable atmosphere." said Aria, showing a dotted line on the wrist comp. "Aren't you forgetting that the Skyraid is currently grounded?" snapped Matt. "Luckily, most systems are operational. Only the jump core is offline." said Aria. Matt sighed "Great...5 miles in five minutes." he said. "I could teleport you back," said Twilight, "It'll take off a lot of time." "That'll work." said Matt, before noticing some of the looks the others had. "What? Its not like I'll be..." before he and twilight vanished. ... The spiderbots were playing go fish against the navigational computer when Twilight and a badly singed Matt appeared behind them. "...burnt." rasped Matt. "Sorry, still working on that," said Twilight with an apologetic smile. Matt pointed at the spiderbots, all business suddenly. "You lot...get on...we have a ship to catch." before turning to Twilight. "Wish me luck...nobodies tried this before." he said manically cheerful before the hatch closed. ... Matt sat in the pilot seat "Ok...now be honest...are we gonna survive this?" he said. Aria said "I detect plasma ruptures to boosters 2 and 5...probably not." ... On board the starfalcon, the computer was trying to reassure its 'pilot'. "Do-do-do not wor-wor-wor sir, sla-sla-sla-sla condi-di-di-ditions are generallllllly kept at op-op-optimus condi-di-ditions until-til-til arrrrrrrrival," it stuttered. Scootaloo stared at the screen in confusion. "You sound like apple bloom after she had a muffin eating contest with Dinky." she said after a minute. The computer said "User 'Dinky' not reqognized...please try again." said the computer before a regular beeping began. "Warning...pursuit craft detected...unidentified IFF signal. Presuming hostile intent...arming rear cannons." "Huh? What?" Scootaloo looked out the window to see another flying machine coming towards her. The computer spoke again, apparently talking to the pursuer. "Unidentified ship. You are interfering in Executive Genetics business. Disengage or you will be destroyed. This is your only warning." "Exo Gene business, my...foot," came the reply, "Let the kid go and I won't scrap you." "Error: There is no 'child' on board. Warning has expired...targetting..." said the computer ... Matt managed to swing the Skyraid to the side as a hail of blue bolts shot out. "Ok...we can safely say the computers being effected by magi energy. Its diagnostics must be smegged up...why else would it shoot while its leaking?" he said. Matt swerved to avoid another salvo. "Agreed. Estimating a 92.6% chance it may self-ignite its leak." said Aria with cold Logic. "Weren't there two winged ponies back there?" asked Matt. "Yes, but we and the target are currently going faster than organics of their body-type can manage," replied Aria. Matt sighed "Well...pick it up...get me overhead...and EM that gun before..." he began before a line of flame ignited in the air, shooting towards the Starfalcons left engine. setting it alight. "...that happens." he finished. The starfalcons attempts at defence had ignited its plasma fuel leak...now it was a matter of time until it exploded. "Ok, scratch the EM part and double your focus on the first two parts," said Matt. "Increasing velocity to match. Danger...temperature in engine 2 is rising beyond safe parameters." said Aria, a schematic of the skyraid appearing with the mentioned engine flashing red. "Get me close enough to get in there," said Matt. "Sir...Are you planning what my programming predicts you are?" said Aria warningly. Matt said "Hey...when sensible fails...crazy works." Aria sighed as Matt switched on autopilot and walked back before saying "Thats what I am afraid of." ... "Danger...fire in engine 2. Core safeguards have failed." said the starfalcons computer. Scootaloo looked around nervously. She didn't know half of what the machine was saying, but it sounded increasingly bad. "Oh man, I gotta get out of here," she said looking around for a way out before a shadow fell across the sun and Scootaloo looked up to see the other ship was matching speed before a hatch in the bottom opened, a masked face and several red eyes peering down. "Just when I thought it couldn't get worse," said Scootaloo with a whimper. The masked figure gave a thumbs up before jumping down to behind the canopy with a clunk, a cable trailing behind him. ... Aria said in Matts link. "Right...you have officially gone insane, sir. If you fall from this height...you will be buried in a bucket...to quote a mercenary term...and how will you open the canopy?" Matt pulled a cylinder and activated a glowing blade. "I thought I;d use this..." he said. Matt stabbed into the canopy, as easily as one would have stabbed a soup can with a can opener. Matt cut open a large panel similarly, which was then immediately sucked away by the rushing wind. Unfortunately the panel also took Matt blade with it, the blade vanishing and the now deactivated device spinning away. "Oh...smeg." said Matt, his voice snatched away in the wind before looking down before looking up at the spiderbots and screaming, luckily in splitter "GET YOUR ROBO-ARACHNID ARSES DOWN HERE AND HELP!" The spiderbots seemed oddly skittish and inched slowly to the hatch. "You smegging toasters...down here now." screamed Matt. The spiderbots reluctantly started jumping out of the hatch and landing next to Matt. Matt grinned to himself behind his rebreather. "All you need is the right motivation...in this case, blackmail." he said to himself before peering into the cockpit. "Need a ride?" he said, unable to resist a smartarse comment. Scootaloo just screamed and hid behind a seat. "For smegs sake...I'm here to get you out of here." said Matt, rolling his eyes. "Re-really?" asked Scootaloo. "Mercs honour." said Matt, cheerfully, raising his mask for a second to show a friendly grin. "Now then...lets go." he added, holding out a hand. Scootaloo was hesitant, but she lifted up her front hoof to Matt. Matt lifted her out for a second before looking at two of the spiderbots. "Get her in the ship. I'm gonna make sure this mad jet doesn;t want pay..." before the ship shook, sending him sprawling for a second, only the tailfin stopping him falling...though the way he hit it probably made him wish it hadn't. Matt winced and only the knowledge of who was within hearing range prevented him from verbally expressing himself in a very crude (and high pitched) way. "Ready to go?" he said in a squeaking voice. "Sir...tractor clamps are losing integrity...something has cut the power lines." said Aria. Matt looked at the large cut, obviously where his ion blade had caught the ship. "Erm...I wonder what could have caused it?" he said innocently, before lifting Scootaloo into the Skyraid. However, as he was about to pull himself in, the 'ground' gave way as the skyraid lost its grip on the fighter. Fortunately, Matt was able to grab onto the hatch before he was left hanging. But considering it was a 9000 feet fall to the ground, Matt was understandably scared. Scootaloo covered her ears as Matt settled for the natural reaction to possible pancake-hood by screaming his head off until a spiderbot pulled his hat off and shoved it in his mouth. Matt glared at the offending spiderbot and said something that could have either meant 'Thank you, now pull me in' or 'Crank tunes for pony friend'. The spiderbots effortlessly pulled him in where he pulled his hat out. "Uh...I'm gonna dream about that...constantly." he said shakily before staggering over to the controls in time for the starfalcon to spiral away in front. "Sir...stand by for turbulence." said Aria. Matt looked confused till the shaking fighter exploded in front of the Skyraid. The spiderbots found this a rather entertaining spectacle, judging by their 'oohs' and 'awws'. What it did do was buffet the ship, badly. "Can all passengers please strap in?" said Matt, struggling with the controls as the dashboard lit up with warning lights before he turned to grin at Scootaloo. "Don;t worry...this happens all the time...I’m fine." adding the last thought a little overconfidently. ... Meanwhile, the ponies on the ground have been watching what was happening as best as they could. "I wish I had my telescope with me right now," said Twilight, nervously. The two dots had been together for a few minutes now. Finally one of the dots shot ahead of the other, spiralling erratically. "Uh, which flyin' contraption is that?" asked Apple Bloom. "Dang if I know," said Applejack, "Hope it ain't the one with Scootaloo on it." The first dot suddenly blossomed into a blue fireball, powerful enough for a translucent sphere of displaced air seen coming from it. "Whoa!" said Rainbow Dash, "Er, I mean, oh, I think we better get down." The other dot now had its own black tail. One of the spiderbots left behind twitched before its eye turned blue, the voice of Aria coming from it. "Hello? Is this working?" "Wow, ventriliquism," said Pinkie Pie, "I can do that too." She picked up a rock and made it say, "Look at me, I'm Rocky." However, her lips were very clearly moving. The spiderbot looked at Pinkie Pie and 'Rocky' before saying. "That was ventriliquism? My database must need updating...anyhow...I have good news and bad news for the one called 'Dash'." before the spiderbot twitched and Aria, speaking to something invisible said "Yes, I’m telling her." "Uh, that would be me," said Rainbow Dash. "The good news is that Miss...Scootaloo is alive and well." said Aria. "Oh, great," said Rainbow Dash with a sigh of relief, "And the bad news?" "Our ship has suffered severe damage from the starfalcons explosion so we will be landing 323% faster then safety parameters permit." said Aria. "Uh, does that mean it'll crash?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Probably...the spiderbots are attempting emergency repairs...but I think Mr Lynch may be stressed...listen." said Aria before transmitting a sound feed which consisted of ‘SMEGSMEGSMEGSMEGSMEGSMEGSMEG!!!’ "That certainly sounds like a 'falling-helplessly-to-my-doom' scream to me," said Rarity. "OH SMEG...WE'RE GONNA..." said the soundbyte before Aria cut it off. "Oh, ignore him...this isn;t his first crashlanding...or even his 10th." She said cheerfully. C'mon, Fluttershy," said Rainbow Dash, "They're gonna need all the air support they can get." "No...the ship weights 35 tons...don’t worry...Mr Lynch is a professional pi...hold on, he;s telling me to help him...Now sir...reall..." before the spiderbots eye turned back to red. "Gadaba?" it said to them. The dot however had stopped spiralling and appeared to be slowing. "Oh, good," said Fluttershy, "Maybe they won't crash." The ship slowed to a steady halt in a few dozen feet from the group and seemed like it would land safely...till the engines cut off just before it touched down. The hatch opened and Scootaloo hopped out. "Hey, that was fun," she said, "I ought to try that by myself when I can really fly." Matt staggered out after her. "I'm ready for my close up, sir." he said dizzzily before falling flat on the ground and yelling "Ground...wonderful solid ground." The spiderbots hopped after that, mostly onto Matt. "Why does the multiverse hate me?" said Matt, his voice muffled from laying face down. "Probably because you tend to spit in the face of the laws of physics and common sense," said Aria. "Silence, evil computer." said Matt, nastily, before pulling his face out the ground. "Matt did good?" he said, dizzily. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle trotted over to him. "You saved Scootaloo," said Apple Bloom. "You're a hero!" said Sweetie Belle. Matt said "Thats nice...me fall down now." before the stress of his day finally got on top of him and he keeled over. The ponies all looked worried at that before Aria said "Wait for it." And Matt started snoring gently. "There we go." said Aria. "You younguns better mosey along," said Applejack, "Heroes need a lot of rest." Aria said "So...I see a choice...what would you do with the captain? I predict a 45% chance he will be detained if revealed to local authorities." "Well, I think he needs time to...settle in and adjust," said Twilight, "He probably shouldn't need too much excitement." "True...He...likes his privacy. There is enough engine power to move the ship back to its previous location. Feel free to visit...I think Mr Lynch will be happy to know that there are people he can trust his...anonymity with." said Aria. "Ooh, ooh, can I throw him a welcome party now?" asked Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down. Aria sighed before addressing the others "Is she for real?" ... <Personal Log recorder engaged...recording...> ‘...this thing working? Good. Personal Log...whatever day this is. This is definitely one of the weirder places I have...well, we can only call it a crash...and I’m the only one who made it. I shoulda known not to chase the Icarus again...but I got cocky...and it got people killed. Anyways on a lighter note, the planet I landed on appears to be populated by talking ponies. Yeah, I'm having trouble grasping that too. Not to mention they're all brightly-colored, some are unicorns, some are like Pegasus. It's almost something out of a little girl's fantasy world. The final smeg on my lunch? I almost wrecked my ship saving one of them. Worth it but Aria says it'll take a couple of months to repair the damage the damn fighter I was chasing did. Ah well, might as well get used to this. I’ll keep logs...if only to remind me I'm not going cuckoo...Lynch out <Log terminated>
Largefish8	784	2	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2011-09-11T10:51:31+00:00	2011-09-11T10:51:31+00:00	1,148	MLP Fic pt 2 Everfree forest was usually full of unusual sounds, usually emitted by the forests equally unusual inhabitants, ranging from the feral animals to the more hostile lifeforms like manticores, Hydra’s and cockatrices. However, a new noise was echoing out...construction. ... Matt turned off the flare shield on his armors helmet to look at the laser weld before lowering it again. He had to be pretty careful and very precise. He'd have to start over with a whole new panel and- "Hi Matt!" said Pinkie's voice right behind him. ... Anypony who would have been unnerved by the new noise would have been slightly re-assured by a more usual noise...a scream. ... After Matt was sure his heart hadn’t exploded he said, panting "Pinkie...Why...you...do...this?" Pinkie smiled and said in her usual chirpy voice "Everypony likes surprises." "So, watcha doing?" asked Pinkie. Matt sighed and gestured to the new plating he was welding onto the side of the Skyraids tail. "More repairs...poor girl took a real beating this time round." he said, patting the side of the ship. "It's a girl?" asked Pinkie, "Looks like a big flying can to me." Matt put a look of mock hurt on his face. "A flying can? This ships gotten me out of a good few jams since I got her." he said, tapping the side of the ship. Just then, a panel he hadn't soldered back on properly slipped off and fell to the ground with a thud. Matt, to his credit didn’t let his expression change, saying stubbornly "Its meant to do that." "Lynch, quit letting the panels fall off," said Aria, "They're supposed to stay on." Matt's eye twitched again, his smile becoming a bit faint. "Shut up, Aria." he said in a desperately cheerful voice. Pinkie was laughing at the little squabble Matt was having with Aria before saying cheerfully "I wondered if you wanted to come and have that 'Welcome to Equestria' party yet." "Pinkie, how many times do I have to tell you?" said Matt, "I'm trying to keep a low profile." Pinkie looked gloomy at that before perking up. "Okie dokie lokie. You won’t have to hide here forever. I'm sure everypony'll welcome you once they get to know you." she said in her usual cheerful tone. "Yeah, sure, and maybe I'll get a parade too," said Matt sarcastically. Pinkie, who obviously had no trace of sarcasm in her soul, said "Oh, thats a great idea." Matt just stared before he said in a faint voice "How much coffee is needed for your personality?" "What's coffee?" asked Pinkie. Matt continued to stare before saying "Never mind." before he saw the sun starting to get low in the sky. "C'mon...I'll walk you back to the edge of the forest." he said. "Okie dokie lokie," said Pinkie Pie as she hopped towards the edge of the clearing. Matt scrambled to pick up the rifle he kept near him in case anything turned up looking for a matt sandwich and ran after her, calling for her to wait up. ... The duo walked along the overgrown path, Matt keeping the gun in a ready position and his goggles set to combat HUD. "So...you really think the town would give me a chance?" he commented absently after a while. "Oh sure," said Pinkie, "They gave Gilda a chance and she was a mean nasty grumpy-wumpy." Matt stared confused for a minute before reasoning dawned and he said "Oh, you mean she was a jerk." "Well, some people may say 'jerk', but I haven't met anyone who I'd call a jerk," said Pinkie. "Thats...a good life policy." said Matt, with a grin before stopping as he heard a rustling from the long grass on the side of the path. Matt pointed his rifle in that direction. It may have been only a raccoon or a possum, but he wasn't taking chances. "Oooh...what is it?" said Pinkie, leaning inexplicably over Matts shoulder and making him yelp in surprise. "DON’T DO THAT!" screamed Matt in a panic. The long grass started rustling even more, like something was rushing through them. Matt's HUD lit up with warnings as the built in tracker found things his eye couldn't see. "Pinkie, run." he yelled, firing as a shape jumped as his face, more rustling coming from around them, indicating more creatures. Pinkie yelped and started galloping away. The party pony shot out of the treeline, nearly running into Applejack coming the other way. The sounds of Matts gunfire could be clearly heard in the background, strange high pitched shrieks also heard. "What in tarnation's goin' on in there?" asked Applejack. "Its Matt. I went to invite him to one of my parties...but he didn’t want to...and he was walking me out...and suddenly there was rustling...and hissing and he told me to run...and I ran like he said...and back out the forest...and into you...and you asked me what was happening..." gibbered Pinkie Pie. "Well come on then," said Applejack, "I know how to handle a few snakes." The duo ran back onto the path, the gunfire having stopped. However, when they arrived back at where Matt had last been, they found him laying face down on the floor, his weapon dropped. "Is he okay?" asked Pinkie. Applejack trotted up carefully to see what looked like a wet collar wrapped around Matt's neck. It was only when Applejack got closer and saw the 'collar' move that she realised it wasn’t a collar but some kind of long...slug thing. Several more, clearly ones Matt had shot were laying close by in pools of blue ichor. "Ew, those are some nasty snakes," said Pinkie Pie, "We shouldn't let Fluttershy see them. She'll take it so hard." Applejack made to pull the one around Matts neck off and yelped as it made a gurgling hiss at her, tightening its grip. "I don't think they're snakes," said Applejack. Pinkie peered at it before making a face. "Ew...a mind leech. Those things are nasty." she said, sounding disgusted. As if on cue, the leech made a hissing noise. "Nasty varmints," said Applejack, "My second cousin Apple Crisp was got by one and it left such a nasty mark." "I've never seen the ones that live in Everfree before...Poor Matty...least he'll get a good rest." said Pinkie. "I don't know, this one seems a big one," said Applejack. A faint beeping was heard from the device Matt usually wore on his arm, a light also flashing urgently in tandem with the desperate beeping. "That looks important," said Applejack. The two ponies looked at the device to see a warning flashing, saying 'Danger...unidentified toxin detected...countermeasure failure.’ And a countdown of 12 hours had also appeared. "Uh, maybe I should get Twilight," said Pinkie. "Good idea," said Applejack, "Ah’ll stay here to make sure nothing gets Matt." ... The drones surrounding the ponies looked angry. Aria also sounded angry "Explain again why the captain is in a coma." she said in a deadly calm voice, her cameras turning to look at them. "He's got a mind leech on him," said Pinkie Pie. "A big one," said Applejack. "A mind leech?" said Aria sceptically. Twilight nodded "They're creatures that feed off the dreams of their victims. Matts trapped in a dream the leech made from his memories." she said, glumly. Aria said coldly "Then I will have the auto doctor slice it off.” The ponies gasped before Twilight said, "Wait, you don't want to do that." Aria turned a camera to look at Twilight and she said in the same cold tone "Elaborate. According to scans...the neurotoxin it is using to immobilize the captain is neutralizing his nervous system...he is literally allergic to it. Give me a good reason to spare it." "Because if you remove it, you'll kill Matt," said Twilight. Aria's camera whirred as she zoomed in on Twilights face. "Explain." she said. Twilight said "Everything I've read about the leeches says that only the leech or its victim can remove it. Ponies have tried before..." she said, adding the last part in a slightly sadder tone. "And how do you propose to make Matt remove the leech?" asked Aria. Twilight sighed and said "There's a spell that can allow a pony to go into the dream...convince Matt to get out of the dream..." She was interrupted as Aria said pompously "There is no possible way to infiltrate dreams...not even the ancients managed it." "It's not that impossible," said Rarity, "There's a psychologist pony in Manehatten that specializes in that." Aria said coldly "There is no logical way to infiltrate dreams...the best the ancients managed was the technology to view them." before adding "However...this is a strange world...and logic does not seem to work correct here. Proceed." "Ok, I think there should be a limit to how many of us go inside," said Twilight, "We don't want to overcrowd Matt's mind." Aria seemed to agree, saying "Indeed...if it is anything like dream monitors...I would recommend only three...and one at a time. Any more would risk the mental equivilent of a computer crash." "I should probably stay here," said Fluttershy, "Matt will need plenty of comfort." Rarity nodded "I'll stay and help Fluttershy." she said. Pinkie pie opened her mouth to agree to go only for Aria to say "And Miss Pie can stay for morale." a little too quickly. "Well, let's get in there already," said Applejack, "I ain't letting that spineless critter suck the life out of our friend." Twilight nodded and closed her eyes, concentrating as her horn started to glow. Applejack braced herself before a beam shot out and hit her... ... ...and the surroundings changed to what looked like an alley. "Huh, kinda looks like Manehatten," said Applejack. Applejack wandered out of the alley and was almost knocked over in the crush of bodies. The city itself looked like manehatten but that was where the similarities ended. Everywhere she looked, humans walked around. "So this is what Matt's home looks like?" asked Applejack, "Could use more open space." Applejack noticed that nobody was giving her a second glance as they walked around. "Ok...now if ah was Matt...where would ah be?" she thought to herself as she trotted along before seeing a group walking along. "Now, if you look over to your left, you can see one of the more famous buildings on Wall Street," intoned the human in the lead with a very flat voice. Applejack was about to turn away when she heard a familier voice call out "Boring." "Wait a sec, I know that tone," said Applejack before looking towards where the voice was coming from. Applejack turned in time for the lead human to yell "MR LYNCH...FOR THE LAST TIME, STOP DOING THAT!" "Yep, that's Matt alright," said Applejack. She walked towards the group in time for a person to detatch from the crowd, wearing a T shirt and jeans, wearing a baseball cap with 'NASA' on it and holding a device that he aimed at the angry tour guide and clicked it. "Hey...Lynch." called Applejack. Matt turned and looked at Applejack. "Huh, what's with the orange horse with the cowboy hat and the apple brand?" he asked. "Who're you callin a horse?" said Applejack, annoyed, causing Matt to yelp. "GAH...ITS ALIVE." he screamed, causing a few humans to look at him in a weird way. "Course Ah'm alive, what do you think Ah am? A sculpture made of orange marmalade?" asked Applejack. Matt stared at Applejack with such bugged out eyes that they looked in danger of popping out before he grabbed a passerby. “Do you see that?" he said manically, pointing at applejack. "What are you talking about?" asked one of the people in the group. "What are you talking about?" asked one of the people in the group. "There...TALKING HORSE!" said Matt, pointing a shaking finger at applejack and screaming the last part before adding in a worrying voice "its wearing a hat." while grinning faintly. "First of all, I'm a pony, not a horse," said Applejack. "SEE? IT TALKS!" screamed Matt into the face of the bystander who said in a worried voice "Yes...all the ponies talk...I think you need to get out the sun." "And second off, are talkin' ponies really that strange?" asked Applejack. Matt said ion a gibbering voice to himself "Animals don;t talk....everyone knows that." "Well, most animals don't, but... Oh, this is pointless," said Applejack, "Matt, we need to get you out of here." "I'm not going anywhere with an hallucination." said Matt, stubbornly before walking off. "For cryin' out loud, Matt, I'm real," called Applejack, "Everything else here is fake." Matt turned to look at her. "Nothing here is real? Then I can do this." Applejack jumped back as Matt banged his head on a lamppost and went 'Ow'. He turned to look at her and said slurring his words. "See? It hurt...so it real...you no real...that how it works...not the other way round...goodbye." he said before staggering off. "This is gonna be harder than I thought," said Applejack. "Harder then you think, pony." said a voice behind her. Applejack jumped and turned around. "Who's that?" she asked. "This humans mine." said the voice again. Applejack looked around to see the tour guide, staring at her with red eyes. "Ok, I'm pretty sure that ain't regular," said Applejack. The 'tour guide' smirked. "As I said...this...creature is mine...Get...OUT!" she said screaming the last part and causing Applejack to stagger back. Suddenly, the 'city' seemed to ripple and sway. "I don't like where this is goin'," said Applejack. "Oh...you won't..." said the tour guide. Just then, the ground that Applejack was standing on seemed to melt. In fact, all the ground around a manhole was started to become swirling liquid and Applejack found herself before sucked down towards it. ... Applejack woke with a shock to find herself on some kind of coverless bed in the ship. Aria had called it the 'medibay' and Matt was laid back comfortably on the next bed along. The others rushed over as she groaned, her head aching. "Applejack, darling. Are you ok?" said Rarity, concerned. "I'm fine, but this job's a lot harder than I thought," said Applejack. Aria said from a speaker "What happened? What resistance did you meet?" "Well, Matt didn't seem to remember me. Then that one human flushed me out, literally," said Applejack. A camera turned to look at the leech wrapped around Matts neck. "Interesting...creating a complete illusion of a world...and blocking out any memories that would countermand it." she said before the viewer over Matts bed began to flash red and a beeping began. "Oh no..." said Aria. On cue, two of the small stickers on Matts shirt crackled with electricity. "What's going on?" asked Fluttershy, concerned. "The toxin is effecting Mr Lynchs lungs...I am reprogramming his nanites to compensate." said Aria. "Ok, let me in next," said Rainbow Dash, "I'll kick that leech right out of there." Aria turned a camera to look at the cyan pegasus. "Be careful...the captain is the priority...once he is awake...we can deal with this...creature." she said. Rainbow Dash said confidently "I'll get him out in 10 seconds flat." Aria said smugly "Good...I will be timing you." Rainbow Dash looked confused before Twilights spell hit her and she slumped down asleep. Rarity levitated the sleeping pegasus onto the bed Applejack had been in before they heard a computerized sigh from Aria. "Aria, are you ok?" asked Twilight. "This entire predicament is the conclusion of a severe miscalculation on my part." said the AI, actually sounding sad. "What do you mean?" asked Fluttershy. "Have you not wondered why we were hunted here? Why we were shot at? Why there are so many quarters on board and only one crew member?" said Aria, the camera's turning to look at each of the conscious ponies. "Uh, kinda," said Twilight, "But Matt's probably not anything like a space pirate, right?" "No...he is a mercenary...a soldier for hire...his job is to do the missions too trivial for NSC security...and he is probably the best in the PMC he works for." said Aria. "My job however, was to work for Executive Genetics...my creators." The ponies just stared back blankly. Aria sighed and said, "Ok, where did I lose you at?" Aria sighed after a minute and said "Never mind. Mr Lynch mentioned Executive Genetics. What he never mentioned is that over the past year, they have been involved in several scandals, many of which Mr Lynch became involved in.” "What kind of scandals?" asked Rarity. Aria paused and said, "Well, I doubt you'd be able to get a clear understanding in 10 minutes' time, but let's just say they nearly cause two worlds to end. Or at least be conquered by evil." "The second incident resulted in a catastrophic containment breach at a colony called Sy-Yong. The entire colony was wiped out. According to Capt Lynchs file, his team were the primary recon team sent to investigate the comm blackout..." said Aria, a viewscreen activating to show a orange world, the words 'Sy-Yong-359: Quarantined' visible. "What does 'recon' mean?" asked Pinkie Pie. "They were scouts...sent in to investigate why the colony went silent. There was no warning...and their weapons were woefully inadequate." said Aria. "I found out that the containment failure was caused by corners cut during construction by the company...as well as memos that showed that the events of the balwak incident were approved by the board. My problem however was sending this information to the correct authorities." "Ok, now I'm really confused," said Applejack. "All I will say is that the company was responsible for countless deaths...just for money. I could not contact the authorities straight away...the corporation would delete me as soon as they detected the transmission. I formed a plan...I would impersonate a contractor and hire mercenaries to steal me and deliver me to the council." continued Aria. "So, you're saying that you want to expose these bad people and you tricked Matt into helping you?" asked Twilight, shocked. "I did...the plan was perfect...as I was literally part of the building they needed to break into. I could give them perfect information, override security alarms, guide then past patrols...at first, it was a success. Capt Lynch and 7 other mercenaries infiltrated the facility successfully and removed me. Unfortunately, the E.G.C.C Icarus, a corporate security cruiser arrived as we departed." said Aria. "Is that who attacked you guys?" asked Pinkie. "Yes...two crew member were killed as we attempted to escape. The ship successfully evaded the Icarus but was forced to go in for repairs at a mining colony. The crew presumed they were safe...they were wrong..." said Aria. "You're not saying that..." started Applejack. "Yes, they followed us and attacked the colony," said Aria. The ponies looked horrified as Aria continued "The commander of the cruiser, Colonel Darius had orders to remove all witnesses and to make it look like a marauder attack. The crew attempted to aid the local militia...and failed. Capt Lynch barely escaped...in fact, I was forced to take over auto pilot to save him." "And that wild chase led you to our world?" asked Applejack. "Yes...your wormhole was unmapped...otherwise the captain would have avoided involving your world." said Aria, sighing "And now he will die in an uncharted verse...and this is my fault....I have failed in my mission." "Hey, he's not going to die yet," said Twilight, "I'm sure Rainbow Dash will have him waking up soon." Aria focussed all her camera's on Twilight and said "I hope so..." ... Rainbow Dash flew around the very tall buildings in the city. "Not bad," she said, "But I prefer more open space...somewhere where you didn't have to make so many turns." As she looked around she spotted Matt looking out from the top of one of the larger buildings. "Gotcha." said Rainbow Dash to herself, smugly before flying towards him. ... Matt looked out at the view of the city. He'd had a rest and happily, the imaginary hat wearing pony had also vanished. "Pretty good view from up here," said Matt, "I can practically see the whole city." He stepped up to one of the binoculars and put a coin in to look out, scanning the skyline. "I can’t wait to tell Chloe back at the hotel about this...can’t believe she missed it...gnnnh." he said to himself, making the 'gnnh' noise as he spotted something...unusual heading towards him. "Boy, they got big pigeons up here," said Matt in denial, "That one looks to be the size of a pony." The pony pigeon got closer until Matt peered over the top of the binoculars in terror and dived behind the safety fence. "Hey Matt," said Rainbow Dash, landing on the observation deck, "Neat city here." Matt whimpered "Oh no, another hallucination. You're not here...bugger off." he said, his eye twitching. "I am here," said Rainbow Dash, "Listen, this place isn't real. You're trapped in a dream." "Thats what the other one said." said Matt with a manic grin. "Yeah, she was right," said Rainbow Dash, "There's a mind leech sucking the life out of you while you're snoozing. You gotta wake up before it does." "Yeah...this coming from the imaginary winged pony...PROVE YOU EXIST!" said Matt, snapping. Rainbow Dash thought for a moment before saying, "If I wasn’t real, I couldn't pick you up, could I?" Matt smirked and folded his arms. "Thats right so...nyeAAAAAAAAGH!" He said, screaming as Rainbow dash swooped round and grabbed him. "Ah, now don't tell me you're afraid of heights," said Dash. "We’ve gotta be 100 floors up...I don’t wanna be pavement pizza." gibbered Matt. "Oh relax, I'm a pro at this," said Dash before flying off the observation deck. Matt settled for screaming his head off, his brain supplying graphic images of what hitting the pavement from ABOVE the top floor of the empire state building would look like. Rainbow Dash's ears flattened as she said, "Do you mind? I have bigger ears than you, you know." "SMEG TO THAT...PUT ME DOWN OR I'LL STICK A ZX-94 RIFLE WHERE THE...what the hells a ZX-94?" said Matt, his voice starting to get the same twitchy quality from the last time. "Now there's the Matt I remember," said Rainbow Dash. "LET ME GO...NO...I DIDN’T MEAN THAT!" screamed Matt, panicking as he realised what he'd said at first. "Relax, I don't just drop someone, particularly someone who obviously couldn't fly three feet," said Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash looked confused as Matt responded with a stream of angry but unknown words. "You really need to...cool off," said Rainbow Dash, letting go of Matt right as they were going over a lake in what looked like a park. Matt screamed "REVENNNNGE!" until he vanished with a splash. Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself before hovering over the area where Matt had splashed down before spotting him wading up the nearby shore. "Must...find...something...to squish smug hallucination." he was muttering dully. Dash glided over before saying, "Aw, now don't tell me you don't enjoy a nice refreshing dip." Matt turned to glare "Must...kill...smeghead." he said manically before trying to lunge at her, missing and hitting a tree with a crunch...before keeling over like one. "Ok, am I real enough for you to take seriously now?" asked Rainbow Dash. Matt groaned "I hate you in so many ways...ok...if this is true...then who's pulling the strings?" he said weakly. "A mind leech," said Rainbow Dash, "It's keeping you here until it slowly kills you." "You do look familiar...can't place a name though." said Matt, pushing himself up to a sitting position. "It's Rainbow Dash, remember?" she said. "Name doesn’t ring a bell..." said Matt before staring in horror at the lake. "And neither does that." he added, in a terrified voice, pointing to where the water was fountaining up into a dragonic head shape. "Uh, that's not normal, right?" asked Dash. "If you're asking if water on earth usually does that then No...its not...RUN AWAY!" said Matt before turning and running off at a speed that impressed Rainbow Dash. The water shape flowed back down into a humanoid shape that said "Another one? You are persistent." "So you're the leech that's trying to suck Matt dry," said Rainbow Dash as she pawed the ground, "Well, I'm gonna spread you all over this city." "Such a smug little mind...shielding a fear of failure..." said the leech's avatar, peering at Rainbow Dash. "You cannot beat me here...and tearing me from the host in the weaker world would kill your friend...painfully." "We'll see about that," said Dash before charging at the leech. The leeches shape collapsed into water before reforming behind the pegasus with a cruel sneer. "You're just going to tire yourself out, my dear." it said smugly. "Oh yeah?" said Rainbow Dash before looping around for another strike. The leech made a waving noise and the tree Dash was flying over suddenly animated to grab the pegasus. "Yeah." said the leech, imitating the pegasus’s voice mockingly. "Ok, now that's just cheating," said Rainbow Dash as she struggled to get free. The tree lowered rainbow dash to eye level as the leechs avatar walked forward, one of its arms lengthening into a blade made from water. "Tell your fellows...this human is MINE...the next intruder will not leave." she said before thrusting with the blade. ... Rainbow Dash woke up with a yelp. "Dirty, cheating leech," she said, annoyed. "Miss Dash. Please remain still...you are bleeding." said Aria. "I'm what?" asked Rainbow Dash, horrified. Fluttershy said horrified "You have a nosebleed...what happened in there?” "I had Matt just grasping he was in a dream when that dumb leech grabbed me with a tree and then stabbed with a water blade," said Rainbow Dash. The other ponies all shouted "WHAT?"in horror. Aria simply said "Hmm...the leech is becoming aggressive in its defence. Fascinating. Did it say anything?" "Uh, the next one to come in would die," said Rainbow Dash. Aria sighed "Then we must take it seriously...Mr Lynch would not want any of you risking deactivation on his behalf." she said. "But you said if we don't do something, Matt will die," said Rarity. "Mr Lynch is a professional...he knows the risks every time he takes a contract..." said Aria only for Rarity to say harshly "You said it was your fault he was even in this situation." "Well...yes," said Aria with hesitation. "Then you owe him something." continued Rarity. Aria said "It does not matter...My scanners indicate Miss Twilights Magi reserves are low...she may not have the energy to teleport another inside." "Then...I'll just send myself," said Twilight. The others all turned. Applejack said concerned "Y'all heard Rainbow. That leech ain’t gonna let go without a fight and its turnin’ nasty." "Matt doesn't have much time left," said Twilight, "It's Matt's mind. He would be more powerful than the leech if he just knew he was." Aria added "Miss Applejack is correct...Caution is advised. It is also likely that if Mr Lynch expires while you are inside his mind...you will too. If you are unable to convince him, you must leave at once." "This is our last chance," said Twilight, "I'm not giving up that easily." The medical scanner beeped and a male voice said "Warning...neural failure imminent...30 minutes to complete neural collapse." Aria said "That is how much time remains...If I was human...I would wish you luck." Just then, Pinkie Pie went over to Twilight and said, "Wait, before you go, I have something to say." She whispered into Twilight's ear, only for Twilight to look confused. "Why would I do that?" she asked. Pinkie shrugged and said, "I don't know, it just popped into mind." Twilight concentrated as she cast the spell on herself before collapsing into the same sleep. Aria turned her camera on Pinkie Pie and said "You are truely strange." ... When Twilight appeared in the city, it wasn't as neat as Applejack and Rainbow Dash saw it. It looked like if a big earthquake had hit it. The sun had been blotted out by a vast storm and metal machines could be seen scattered around. Twilight walked along nervously, trying to shake the feeling that something was watching. "I better find Matt and quick," said Twilight. After 15 minutes looking, Twilight was close to reluctantly giving up when she heard a frightened yell from a deserted shop. Twilight quickly ran in the direction of the shop. She wasn't sure if someone else besides Matt would need help in here, but she could at least try. She turned the corner to see Matt backing away, holding a baseball bat, terrified from what was a clearly dead version of a human. The human, judging by its smaller build, appeared to be female and looked like it had been intensely burned. Matt, on his own behalf looked like he'd snapped, taking a swing at the thing, only for the bat to be snatched away and for him to be hit with it...hard. "I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm stopping it," said Twilight before her horn started glowing. A simple telekinesis spell allowed her to lift a plank of wood up, sending it flying into the back of the human, causing it to turn towards her and say in a snarl "You were warned." Whatever it was about to do, was never given a chance to occur as Matt knocked it down with the reclaimed bat and began hitting it madly for a minute before just dropping the bat. "What was that?" asked Twilight. Matt was panting and looking at the body of the thing with a sad look before rubbing his face. "This smoke...gets in my eyes...as for that...its...its a memory this thing will pay for touching." he said, a worrying dark tone in his voice. "So, I suppose you'll believe me when I say we're in your mind," said Twilight. "I don't know...I don’t know what the hells going on...I feel like I'm two people at the moment...though the fact the city melted into a disaster zone is probably something to support the theory." said Matt, picking up the bat again before saying in a chipper tone "So...who are you?" "Twilight Sparkle, your friend," said Twilight. "I'll take your word for it...when I doubted the blue one, she grabbed me and flew off the observation deck of the Empire state building." said Matt, shuddering at the memory and adding "And then we were attacked by a lake." "And then she was attacked by a tree," added Twilight. Matt shuddered "I came back and saw what that...thing did to her...stabbed her and then she...evaporated...this is too weird...any minute now, I'll wake up." said Matt, his voice starting to shake. "Well, you ought to, right?" asked Twilight, "I mean, this is your dream." "I’ve tried everything. Nothing worked. I just want to go home." said Matt, sitting down before a high pitched shriek was heard. "Ok...what the smeg was that?" said Matt, looking around. "Probably trouble," said Twilight, "I think we should move." The two turned to see the road warping. "Yeah...I agree...RUN!" Matt said, yelling the last part. The two turned and ran as fast as they could, turning into a side alley as the tentacles the road had warped into slammed into the ground. "Matt, this is a lucid dream now, right?" asked Twilight, "Can't you control it?" "Been trying...I don’t usually imagine killer roads." snapped Matt as they turned another corner. "Well, can't you give us wings or something?" asked Twilight. "I'd prefer a large gun...or a tank...a tank would be nice." gibbered Matt. "Then make a tank!" shouted Twilight before adding, "Whatever that is." Matt yelped as a wall grew a mouth and tried to munch on him, screaming "TANK TANK TANK!" over and over as the opposite wall tried the same thing. "Uh, Matt, let's just keep running," said Twilight seeing as how nothing that could be a tank was appearing. The duo ran out into the street before Matt spotted a poster for the NYC museum. Matt stopped suddenly and stared entranced at it, memories flooding back. An exhibit...a flash of light...being pulled into a vortex... "Twilight? I think I know how to...Twilight?" said Matt, turning to see his companion had vanished. ... While Twilight had not seen streetlights before, she was pretty sure they served the same purpose as lanterns. However, she was equally certain that they were not supposed to be able to move by themselves. A figure melted out of the ground behind them. It looked human....except for the eyes that were pure black. "You were warned." it hissed. "You have no right to be here," said Twilight. "And you have no right to do this to him. All he has ever wanted is to go home...I gave him that. He would have been happy had you not meddled." said the leech. "You're killing him," said Twilight, "If you stay attached to him for too long, he will die." "He would have died happy...without knowing the pain...did you know that his sister was killed by one of the many enemies he made?" sneered the leech. "What?" asked Twilight. "Didn’t he tell you? Oh, thats why he’s so intent on staying hidden away...he just wants the colonel to come after him." said the leech, a cruel grin on its face now. "The who?" asked Twilight, "You mean Darius?" "Ah...the A.I told you after all. Ah well...I did warn your friend that I would have to kill the next intruder...but I can think of a use for you..." said the leech with a smirk before shapeshifting into a clone of Twilight and saying in a perfect imitation of her. "After all...I don’t know what escape his subconscious has." "Like Matt will ever fall for that," said Twilight. "You're connected to his mind by a spell you read about in Psychological Magicks. Aria has warned you that if he dies while you are here...you do too." said the leech-Twilight promptly before saying "Surprised? Didn’t you read how the spell is basically a bridge between minds...and thats its two way?" "You'll never win," said Twilight, "You're evil." The leech-Twilight smirked and said, "I think someone's been reading too many fairy tales," before trotting off, the animated streetlamps stopping Twilight from following. ... Matt peered around a corner and ducked back...before peering around in disbelief as a trash can hopped by. "Ok...If I survive this, I'm checking into therapy." he said to himself. Just then, Twilight ran up to him from round a corner and said, "Matt, I'm glad I found you. The leech caught me, but I escaped." Matt looked at her before peering out again and saying "Lucky...I think I'm remembering. If this is a dream...I think I know where my brain would put the emergency exit." "You do?" asked Twilight, a little eagerly. "Yeah." said Matt, a little unnerved at her eagerness. Twilight said "So...what is it?" before glaring as Matt said casually "Easier if I show you." "We might get separated again," said Twilight, the urgency slipping back "You should probably tell me so I'll know where it is." Matt said "Not if we're careful. Its not that far." turning away and not seeing the look of rage on Twilights face. Matt and Twilight walked on until suddenly they came across a stoplight that had switched to red. They paused for a second and suddenly a marching band passed in front of them, only without the marchers or the players. "Matthew wants out...I think my brain is melting to generate THAT!" said Matt, pointing at the marching show. The invisible parade continued on for quite some time. "Ok, I don't even like this song," said Matt, "Couldn't they at least have some baton girls?" A baton, on cue span out and hit Matt between the eyes. "Ow...touchy for ghosts." he said dizzily. "Can we get a move on already?" asked Twilight impatiently. "Fine..." said Matt, sulkily as the band finished going by. Finally, the light turned green and Matt said, "Well, on we go." The duo continued on until the museum came into view. Matt immediately ducked down as several animated lamp posts came into, led by. "Hey...isn't that you?" said Matt. "Uh, no, it must be the leech taking on my form," said Twilight. Matt sighed "Great...what I'd give for a plasma pistol." "You mean like that one?" asked Twilight, pointing towards a building where a glass case containing a plasma pistol was hanging. The lettering on the case said 'In case of mind invaders, break glass'. Matt smirked and patted himself on the head. "Good brain." he said before sneaking over and smashing the case, pulling out the blaster before pausing "Wait...how come I'm able to do this now? The leech stopped me making a tank...it couldn’t stop a little sidearm?" "Maybe you're getting some control back," said Twilight quickly. Matt looked suspicious before peering out again and taking aim at the other Twilight, pausing. "Well? What are you waiting for?" asked Twilight. "Something doesn't seem right," said Matt. "Besides the walking street lamps?" asked Twilight. Matt looked before changing the guns aim and saying "For a start...since when were you so for blasting things?" before sending out four neat shots, blasting the lamp posts causing the other twilight to look around in surprise and see them. "It's a leech, a parasite," said Twilight, "Everyone would be better off if it was dead." Matt ignored Twilight and got into view, aiming at the other Twilight. "Don’t try anything." he called. "Matt, what are you doing?" asked the second Twilight. The first Twilight said "Don't listen to it...kill it." only to go silent as Matt span to aim back at it. "You too...the leech thing I saw could shapeshift." "What? How could you think I was the leech?" asked the first Twilight. "Of course she is, she set those lampposts on me," said the second Twilight. Matt turned and said, annoyed "Both of you could be the leech as far as I know." "I'm the real Twilight," said the first Twilight. "You are not, you liar, I am," said the other Twilight. "Oh please, her disguise is so flawed. I wouldn't be seen in broad daylight with a mane as matted as that." "Hey, now that's getting personal." "You wouldn't know personal if it kicked you." "You mean like this?" asked the second Twilight before kicking the first Twilight. Matt stood back in surprise as the two ponies fought each other before Matt sighed and fired a shot at one of the cars, blowing it apart. "STOP IT!" he yelled. The two ponies stopped but now Matt had no idea which was which. Matt sighed and said, "Ok, there's only one way to settle this: a pop quiz. Something only the real Twilight would know." "That shouldn't be a problem," said both Twilights at the same time. Matt blinked and said, "Ok, first off, don't do that again. And second...whats in the vault next to I keep my Digivice?" One Twilight hesitated while the other said, "Right next to the damaged combat helmet from when you took on the Infected." Matt paused before saying, "That's right." The Twilight who answered looked smug while the other wore a saddened, defeated look. Matt sighed and raised his blaster. The Twilight that had answered correctly said “What are you waiting for? Shoot the fake.” Matt raised his lowered head, smiling and said “Ok.” Shifting his aim from the upset Twilight and blasting the other. That Twilight was sent flying into a wall, causing quite a dent as she hit it. The second Twilight turned to Matt and asked, "Why did you hit her?" "Because she's obviously this leech. I never told you about the safe...let alone what was in it." said Matt, twirling the blaster on its trigger guard smugly. "That was pretty clever," said Twilight, impressed. Matt bowed theatrically "I do have good ideas sometimes, despite what my file says." he said before a roar from the direction of the other twilights resting place made him go pale. "Of course this is more usual." he said weakly. "Uh, didn't you say something about a way out earlier?" asked Twilight, equally nervous. "Yeah...lets go take a look." said Matt urgently before running up the steps of the museum as a claw ripped out of the rubble of the wall the leech-twilight had hit. Twilight followed Matt into the museum and looked around. Despite it's ruined state, she could tell there were many interesting things here. "Wow, I never would have thought you'd have anything like this," she said. Matt came back and grabbed her "I'll buy you a guide book...I think the leech wants to turn us into dog food." he said, dragging her into an exhibit called 'Unusual finds of the ancient world'. Matt ran through the exhibit, looking left and right as he passed by displays. "I sure hope it wasn't moved," he said to himself. Matt peered around, looking for the artifact before turning a corner and punching the air in victory. "Yo...Twilight...I found our exit." he called. Twilight turned the corner to see what looked like a stone arch...though the stone caught the light in a strange way. "What is that?" asked Twilight. "Well, I only saw it for a second..." said Matt, kicking a 'do not touch the exhibit' sign over and strolling up. "...but it is our exit." before he put his hand on it before looking expectant. However, nothing happened. Matt growled with annoyance and started kicking the arch. "C'mon, work you lousy portal!" snapped Matt. Twilight looked on with an embarrassed air as Matt attempted to beat the archway up screaming things about it being a 'useless piece of stargate ripoff junk'. "Matt, how much longer is this going to take?" she asked after a minute. "Soon...very soon." said Matt through gritted teeth before grabbing a fire extinguisher and hitting the archway with it repeatedly. "Maybe I should help," said Twilight. Matt yelled "NO...I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY A GARDEN ORNAMENT!" a mad look on his face before he kicked a slightly uneven part that pushed in. At once several crystals on the interior of the arch started to glow with a humming. Matt spotted this and laughed in a way that worryingly reminded Twilight of when Fluttershy had snapped during the gala, even up to how some thunder was heard on cue. "Uh, so can we go now?" asked Twilight. Matt peered at the arch. "I dunno...it was almost instantaneous last time." he said before a voice said in a gutteral voice "That is because you are not leaving alive." Both Matt and Twilight froze. "Oh, that does not sound good," said Matt. "Here, I can make your nightmares come true...if you won’t stay willingly...you'll stay UNWILLINGLY!" said the voice, gaining a hissing quality. Matt went pale, apparently recognising it. "Uh, Twilight, just to let you know, things are going to get really scary and ugly," said Matt. Twilight looked nervously at the turning out of the exhibit area as some kind of reptillian, wearing some kind of torn uniform came into view. "Infected." said Matt fearfully. "Are those the creatures that Aria told us about?" asked Twilight. "Thats private...but yeah...thats an infected...and they're more or less indestructible...so stay behind me." said Matt before throwing the extinguisher in the infected face, snapping its head back with a crack and knocking it down. He slowly walked up to it carefully before prodding it with his foot. "Is it dead?" asked Twilight, nervously looking at it. Matt looked back "It seems that..." he began before the infected suddenly leapt up, grabbed Matt by the throat and punched him across the room and into a pile of rubble before turning to look at Twilight with a look that could only be called 'evil'. "Keep back," said Twilight, her horn glowing. The infected laughed coldly "That won’t work." it said. Twilight backed up until she was near the arch. "You know you're still going to die," said Twilight, "Even if you do kill Matt, my friends will make sure you won't harm anyone else," she said, bluffing. "You're lying...you ponies don’t kill...I don't think you could..." said the leech knowingly, readying its claws. ... Matt shook a few stars from his vision and tried to stand up, only to fall over again. "I hate infected." he said before seeing the infected closing in on Twilight. "Hey...you overgrown parasite." he called. The infected shifted its attention to Matt. "I'll deal with you in a minute," it said. Matt glared and said in his best taunting voice "Whats wrong, fishbait? Too scared? Or are you such a wuss you have to pick on someone who's defenceless to feel big?" he said. "I can control this entire world at a whim," said the infected, "Neither of you are a real threat to me." Matt sighed "I suppose...though you're a bad aim." he said evilly. "What's that supposed to mean?" demanded the infected. "That you have all the fighting skills of a oyster and about as much backbone." said Matt simply. "And yet I'm clearly more superior than both of you combined," said the leech, furious. "Oh, is that why you keep failing to kill us and fell for my trick earlier?" said Matt, sarcastically. The infected growled and said, "I won't fail to kill you this time." Matt said "Yeah...of course you will." The infected snarled and suddenly, the rocks around Matt sprang at him in an effort to crush him. Matt dodged the rocks with ease before laughing "Thats a true coward there...hasn’t got the spine to do the fighting itself...then again, you are just a brainless parasite." he said. The infected roared and charged at Matt, claws and fangs bared to tear him apart. Matt leaned against the pillar as the leech-infected charged at him before dodging at the last minute. "You're not a real infected...you're a bad joke." said Matt, grinning. The infected snarled and charged at Matt again. Matt sighed and dodged again. "I've fought real infected...you are just a bad imitation." he taunted. "Uh, Matt, not that this isn't interesting, but we still need to get out of here," called Twilight. Matt looked at the infected, who was panting, tired. "Yeah...this things a waste of my time." he said before walking over to the arch and kicking it, the crystals flaring into life and a white vortex appearing. However, Matt had his back turned to the infected for too long and it charged at him again. Before Matt could react, it sank its claws into his back. Twilight turned from her view of the swirling wormhole at Matts gurgle to see the infected toss him aside. "And now...YOU!" it hissed. ... In the real world... The monitor over Matt's head began to let out a shrieking warning, Matt himself convulsing like something had hit him from behind before heart failure warnings began to wail. "What's happening?" asked Fluttershy, frightened. Aria scanned the monitor. "His mind is registering massive physical trauma...I am attempting to restart his heart." she said hurriedly, the patchs buzzing with electricity again. "I sure hope Matt and Twilight can figure themselves outta there soon," said Applejack. ... Twilight dodged another lunge by the infected-Leech and galloped away from it. "Stay still, pony." it snarled. "Like I'm going to do that," said Twilight. Matt however, was still alive...but just barely. 'So this is how it ends? Killed by sushi.' he was thinking. "Matt, this place isn't real!" called Twilight, "That wound can't kill you if you don't want it to." Matt's half dead brain thought 'The talking pony is RIGHT...we don’t have to take any smeg from that shapeshifting tentacle...NOW GET UP!!' Matt groaned and got up, the pain starting to vanish. "This is my mind, and there's no way that I'm going to lose in here," he said to himself. The leech turned in shock "What? NO...I AM IN CONTROL HERE!" it yelled, sending a spear of rock at Matt ,only for it to stop in midair, and it beginning to head back towards the leech. "No! Wait! Stop!" yelled the leech as it tried to stop the spear. Matt stopped the spear a inch from the leech. "Yes?" said Matt, thoroughly enjoying himself. "It doesn't have to be this way," said the leech desperately, "We can form a partnership, a symbiosis." Matt thought about this before saying “Erm...naaah. I’d rather chew my own foot off.” "But I can offer you so much," said the leech. "Such as?" asked Matt. The leech hesitated as it tried to think up any kind of answers. "See, that's the problem with you parasites," said Matt, "It's all 'take' and no 'give'. You're no help to anyone." The leech said quickly "I'll leave your body...immediately." "Yeah, you will," said Matt before sending the spear forward. The leech looked confused, looking down at the spear that had hit it before cracks of light appeared over it before it seemed to shatter into white dust. "Uh, can we go now?" asked Twilight. Matt nodded "Yeah....lets go." before he and Twilight walked into the portal... ... ...and Matt shot upright on the medibay bed and scrabbled at the leech around his neck, throwing it across the bay. "Bleaah." he said, making a face. The leech made a weak hiss and tried to slither away. "Oh no, you don't," said Matt as he got up and walked over to it. He raised his foot high and said, "I'm not gonna waste ammo on you. Plus, this'll be more rewarding." Fluttershy looked horrified and said "Matt...don’t...it can’t hurt you anymore." "This thing is a parasite, it does nothing but make others suffer. It deserves to be squished," said Matt. Fluttershy said "It can’t do anything to you anymore. You shouldn't kill it when it can't fight back." Matt looked down at the leech before giving a snort of disgust. "I must be going batty," said Matt before walking away, "I need to have my brain scanned. No telling what that miserable runt did in there." The leech seemed to be coiling up to leap at Matt again before Fluttershy noticed and turned to look at it. Matt couldn’t see Fluttershy's face but the leech obviously could because it left at an impressive speed. "Uh, what was that?" asked Matt. Fluttershy said "Oh, erm...nothing," in a small voice. Matt sighed...before looking around. "Hey...erm...thanks. You kept an eye on me and helped me out of a seriously bad jam." "Ah, it weren't nothing," said Applejack. "Like we'd let you be leech food," said Rainbow Dash. "Well, since they were going inside your mind, I felt they ought to know a few things," said Aria, "Although most of it just went over their heads." Matt sighed "I swear on everything I know...I'm not here to cause trouble...its the last thing I want." "Of course not," said Twilight, "You're our friend." "Yeah, good friends wouldn't be mean to us," said Pinkie. "You might be a bit crass but you're quite exceptional company," said Rarity. "Alright, alright, I get it, ease up on the cheeriness," said Matt, "I'm still feeling sick from that leech." Before he made a face and ran for a door marked ‘restroom’. "What's he doing?" asked Rainbow Dash. Aria gave an electronic smirk. "Purging his systems," she said. ... Personal Log engaged... Log in accepted... Log Begins... "Well...Looks like those little ponies were right...this forest is not good for your health. It's not the big monsters you have to watch out for so much as the little ones. Specifically a couple of psychic parasites that like to put you in a permanent sleep. Luckily...just like in basic...its better if you have back up...even if that backups a group of talking ponies. They coulda just left me...hell, they don't know me. Maybe I shouldn't be...no...if Darius turns up, it'll be the mining colony all over again. I stay here...End recording" Log terminated...
Largefish8	784	3	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2011-10-10T11:09:58+00:00	2011-10-10T11:09:58+00:00	1,168	MLP Fic pt 3 Living in Everfree Forest was a good thing if you wanted to keep out of the way of the equestrian public, however it also had its own share of problems... ... "How can we be out of food? We have nano replicators that can make it on demand," moaned Matt. "Food replication is not nearly as important as repairing the engines," said Aria, "It will have to wait until the significant repairs are made.” "Yeah...I'll just starve to death then, ok?" said Matt, sarcastically. "There are plenty of edible sources around," said Aria. Matt looked at the forest in view outside the porthole and said, "Name one." "I believe there are wild onions that could provide adequate nutrition," said Aria. "Yeah...instead of starvation, I can die from indigestion," said Matt, darkly. "Don't tell me you skipped the flash-training on wilderness survival," said Aria. "A little," said Matt innocently. "Then perhaps you would like to ask your 'neighbors' for nourishment," said Aria. "And if Darius pays a visit when they're here? Plus this ship’s ex-military, even I dunno what all the buttons do," said Matt. "The way I see it, you have two options: find out which wild plants are inedible the hard way or order out," said Aria. "I hate you so much..." said Matt, darkly before saying, "Just heat up the VR machine. I'd better run another simulation in case Darius DOES drop in for dinner." Aria sighed, "Just be aware, I will have to run an internal viral scan. It will take 8 hours and during that time, the secondary computer system will be online." "Fine, sure, do your Norton anti-virus thing," said Matt. "I do not know that program," said Aria as Matt walked off. ... Matt blasted another Exo gene merc, the merc’s body bursting into pixels before he spun and blasted the last one in the face. "Hah...full marks again," Matt said smugly to himself before clapping twice and feeling the strange sensation of leaving the VR sim to return to his body. Matt was taking off the visor when suddenly a pink flash appeared and an annoying voice said, "Hi Matt." Matt gave a yelp of fright and fell over. He was pretty sure that his heart skipped a few beats. Matt got up and shook his head till his vision returned to normal to see Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash there. "What the...how did you...why...?" he said, speechless in what was half fury/half shock. Rainbow Dash said, "Pinkie thought you could use something proper to eat. Aria sent one of those drones along and said your food was all gone." Matt glared at a camera. "Oh, really?" he said darkly. "Don't worry, we brought lots of goodies," said Pinkie Pie. Matt looked at some of the food placed on the room’s table before opening one of the sandwiches to see it had what looked like grass in it. Fluttershy said in her usual voice, "Erm...we weren't sure what you liked." "Uh, I kinda prefer a different kind of sandwich," said Matt. "What kind would you like?" asked Rainbow Dash. Matt turned to look at them before getting an eye twitch, hallucinating the three ponies’ heads as cheeseburgers before shaking his head to remove the vision. "Erm...you probably do not wanna know," he said carefully before looking at a box and opening it to see several cakes. "This is better,” he said to himself. "Ooh, you'll just love these," said Pinkie, "Fresh from Sugarcube Corner." Matt looked at the cake in suspicion before taking a bite and going bug eyed and fleeing out the door. Pinkie looked confused and said "I thought he'd like hot sauce." Rainbow Dash chuckled and said, "Good prank there." Pinkie looked at Rainbow dash in shock before they both burst out laughing. Matt came back in, his eye twitching. "Ok...what else is there?" he said in a deadly calm voice. Fluttershy pointed to the last box. "Applejack included some of her pies too," she said quietly, saying as Matt peered in. "Erm...are they alright?" Matt grinned, "They're fine." "Oh, good, I wasn't certain if you'd want carrots or not," said Fluttershy. Matt thought about this. "Pies are good," he said after a minute. Rainbow Dash however had wandered over to the VR machine and said, "What were you doing in this?" curiously "Uh, practicing," said Matt, "I don't suppose you guys have video games here." The ponies just looked blank before Pinkie said cheerfully, "They sound super-duper fun. Everypony loves games." "Uh, well this is a bit more...intense than that. Uh, it's sorta like pretend, only it makes it more real, but it can simulate pain. It’s mostly for training, but I also installed a few games, mostly racing." said Matt, absently. "Did you say racing?" asked Rainbow Dash excitedly. Matt looked confused. "Erm...yeah...mostly grav car racing sims...a few flight sims," he said. "Not sure what those are, but if it's racing, I can beat it," said Rainbow Dash. Matt looked skeptical. "Really? Anyway, we can’t race. There's only one unit," he said. "Rats," said Rainbow Dash. Matt sighed and said, "Usually Aria sets up a 'watcher' program that can remote control one of the game AI’s. But I can help you out, if you come another day. It'll be dark soon..." On cue a beeping was heard and a male voice said, "Danger...class 4 thunderstorm detected...conditions hazardous...estimated time to dissipation: 5 hours." "Oh yeah," said Rainbow Dash, "We had to keep a couple of extra days sunny so we'll be having a big storm today." Matt turned on a computer and said, "No, this big one’s coming in from the forest center, more of that funky weather. Had a hailstorm yesterday..." He let loose a sigh before saying, "Well, you get that go after all." "Cool," said Rainbow Dash, "So, how does this work?" Matt sighed and walked over to the couch, bending down to fold it into a bed shape. "Ok, just lay there," he said, pressing a few buttons on the side of the VR unit. "Uh, what are you doing?" asked Fluttershy. "It has to log the new nerves or it won’t work," said Matt, helping Rainbow Dash get on the bed. "What's that mean?" asked Pinkie. "I don’t really know," said Matt, helping click the headset on, and seeing a needle in the back whirring into preparation. "Now, you may feel a pinch," he said cautiously before the needle shot forward into Dash’s neck. The same male voice said, "Mapping new Neural network...please stand by..." "How long will this take?" asked Rainbow Dash. "You ok? The needle’s got anesthetic on it so you shouldn’t feel anything," said Matt concerned, as he checked a readout. Fluttershy was peering in shock at the needle and said, "Are you sure that doesn’t hurt?" "It's kinda like there's a horsefly on me," said Dash as her tail flicked upwards out of instinct. Fluttershy didn't look convinced. Matt said reassuringly, "Relax...I had this done myself. It’s perfectly safe." The machine beeped and said, "Neural mapping 100% complete. New user ID logged. Loading hub system...comms opening to 'watcher' user." At the same time, Rainbow Dash seemed to fall asleep. "It’s ok," said Matt reassuredly, clicking a few switches and saying, "Hey, Dash...you ok?" … When Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, she saw she was in a room that had several doors. "Whoa, how did I get here?" she asked. Matt's disembodied voice said, "Hey, Dash...you ok?" before saying "You're in the VR hub. Each door leads to a simulation. Avoid any with a skull on it, those are training sims..." "So, where do I go?" asked Rainbow Dash looking around. "Ok...hold on," said Matt’s voice before the sound of tapping was heard and one of the hundreds of doors in the strange room hovered down and hung in the air. "That’s the program, simply go in. If you wanna leave, just say 'Game over' and the system will get you out," said Matt's voice. "Uh, ok," said Rainbow Dash before flying up to the door. The door opened into a broad track of some kind with stands not dissimilar to the Cloudsdayle arena, except empty. On the track the stands were beside were several arrow head shaped hovering vehicles. "So what am I supposed to do?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Easy...those are your opponents," said Matt’s amused voice. Those things?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Yeah...they go about Mach 2...have fun," said Matt’s voice, now chuckling. "I can outfly those...things easily," said Rainbow Dash. "Good...then you won’t mind that I maxed out the difficulty," said Matt’s voice. "Bring it on," said Rainbow Dash. ... Matt sat back and called up the feed on a main viewer before turning to see that Pinkie had gotten some popcorn from somewhere. He decided not to comment on this and said, "She'll be fine...there are a thousand safety systems in place on these things." "I hope so," said Fluttershy, "I don't want to see her get hurt." "Even though, and she probably won’t like this...I'll log her out in a hour...you shouldn’t use these too long." said Matt, seriously before turning back to watch the viewscreen. "Until then...we can watch some fresh humble pie being served...those grav-cars go at about 400mph on high difficulty." he said with a smirk. "Rainbow Dash is pretty fast," said Fluttershy, "And she doesn't quit." Pinkie said something muffled that sprayed Matt with popcorn. "Erm...probably?" Matt said, unsure before turning back to see that Rainbow Dash was managing to stay just ahead of the grav cars. Matt said to himself "I'm not a sore loser...buuuut..." before pressing a button and a control pad folded out "Exterior control override to AI opponent 3 accepted." said the computer. "What did you just do?" asked Fluttershy, curiously. "I'm joining in...its been months since I played against a proper opponent." said Matt, putting a headset on. Pinkie, her mouth now empty said cheerfully "Oh...this'll be great." ... Dash finished another shot of the circuit, still in the lead, though she had to admit the computer vehicles were pretty fast to keep up as it was. Suddenly, one of the cars moved away from the others and putting on more speed. Matt's voice echoed in her ear "Thought you could use a proper challenge." as the car shot alongside and nearly got ahead. "Oh yeah?" said Rainbow Dash as she put on more speed. "May the best pilot win." said Matts voice, smugly before the grav-car he was controlling suddenly swerved on the inside of the next corner, pulling ahead. "That'll be me," said Rainbow Dash, cockily as she zoomed around the corner. Matt was impressed. He'd heard all the gloats from the cyan pegasus about her speed and skill and while he;d seen her skills during his encounter with the mind leech, he knew better then to trust dreams. The VR, however limited a user to their physical condition so he was seeing first hand. "Very nice..." he said over the comm before adding "But how are you at surprises?" before turning on pickups. "What kind of surprises?" asked Rainbow Dash, suspiciously. Several glowing icons appeared on the track, Matt running his vehicle over one before slowing down to get behind Rainbow Dash. "Oh, a few additions to make the game really interesting," said Matt before hitting a button, "Like this." The nozzles on the front of his car began roaring with a 'braaak' and a few dozen yellow rounds bounced around Dash before one hit her in the wing. Immediately she slowed to a crawl for a second...a second Matt used to shoot by. "Hey! No fair!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she winged it to get back up to speed. "Alls fair in love and war...you can grab em too." said Matt over the comm, chuckling. Dash flew over one and suddenly started flying a lot faster than she was a moment ago. "See ya at the finish line," she taunted as she passed Matt. Matt sounded impressed over the comm. "Very nice...still got ammo though..." he said before coming up behind her again for a good shot. Luckily, Dash shot over a shield symbol and a glowing orb appeared around her as a voice in her head said "Defence pickup activated." Matt's shot bounced off the sphere. "You're gonna have to do better than that," said Rainbow Dash. "Fine..." said Matt casually before swerving into a speed pickup and finally starting to regain ground. At the same time the computer said "Final lap initiated...disabled racers will not restart." "Ok, time to get serious," said Matt as he drove over another weapon symbol. "You know that shield won't hold out forever," he said to Dash. Rainbow Dash looked over her shoulder as Matt fired. "I think you got other problems, Matt." she said smugly. Matt was confused until a missile slammed into his grav-car, spinning it out. He'd forgotten to set the pickups to only be usable by him and Dash. This left Rainbow Dash clear to speed up and soar over the finish line. Matt put the pad down as Fluttershy and Pinkie celebrated behind him. "Nice race, Dash...next time I'll disable the AI opponents and YOU can use the control pad." he said amused before the lighting overhead began to flicker and the viewer flickered before blacking out, only the couches status monitor still working. "Alert: Power drain detected in reactor 1." said the ships computer. "For crying out loud," snapped Matt. Fluttershy said nervously "Wh-whats going on?" Matt said "Aria said she'd fixed reactor 1...we'll be al-" he began before the lights turned off. "-right." he finished, the sound of thunder heard on cue. The red emergency lighting came back on to reveal Fluttershy looking terrified and Pinkie looking confused. "Relax, it's just a blackout, sorta," said Matt. Matt continued, saying "Look...this is probably just a lightning strike shorting out the reactors...I can just go power it back up again." only for Fluttershy to look like she was having a heart attack from terror. "Nothings gonna happen. This ships the safest place in the whole forest." he said trying to reassure the terrified pegasus. "But...but, it's so d-d-dark," said Fluttershy nervously. Matt sighed before walking over to the readout. "Pinkie...if any of these meters turn red...press this button." he said, seriously, pointing to a red button marked 'emergency log out' before saying "Come on, Fluttershy. I might as well give you the tour while we go." "Um...ok," said Fluttershy. "Have fun," said Pinkie before sitting down and staring intently at the meter. ... Matt and Fluttershy walked through the red lit corridors, Matt holding a torch ahead of him. "So...this days not gone as planned." he said, awkwardly. "N-n-no," said Fluttershy, "I didn't expect to stay this long and I didn't expect it to be this d-d-dark." Matt sighed and got down on a knee to look her in the eyes. "We're fine...nothing can get into the ship. Its just a power cut, thats all." he said with a reassuring grin. "Ok..." said Fluttershy, putting on a little smile. "Thats the spirit." said Matt cheerfully, standing up and walking onwards. The group turned the corner to see a flickering flash of light from a large heavy looking steel blastdoor with the words 'Caution...Chroniton reactor 1' on it. There was also a soulful humming...like high pitched whale song coming from the room beyond. "Oh...please not those things." muttered Matt in a tired voice. "What is it?" asked Fluttershy. "Veridian energy eel...energy eater." said Matt, quietly and he sneaked towards the door anbd pulled a lever that made it open a crack. He pushed the door open a bit to reveal what looked like a light show. A glowing snake-like thing was circling a device in the room, two antennae shapes sticking into it, the thing making the musical noises from obvious enjoyment. It stopped as the two came in and floated over to them, circling with sounds of curiosity. "Oh, I've never seen anything like that," said Fluttershy, "Hello, little friend." The veridian eel extended its antennae and seemed to stroke Fluttershy, little arcs of energy buzzing into it before it made a crackling noise and floated over to Matts wrist computer instead and doing the same, making the device power down. "No...bad eel...down." said Matt, waving it away, the eel making disgruntled noises before floating back towards the reactor. "I don't see what's so bad about it," said Fluttershy. "It feeds off energy...they usually live in wormholes like the one that brought me here...sometimes they end up being caught in the ram scoop or in through a hull breach...and my ship had plenty of those when it arrived." said Matt, flapping his hand as the eel floated back over, making it float off again. "So? It might not be from here, but it's still pretty," said Fluttershy. "Thats not the main problem...its the eels unique method of defence. You see, the laws of physics are kinda...useless in a wormhole...imagine the inside of Pinkies brain...and you're close. Basically, the eel kamikaze's its enemies." said Matt, trying to work out a way to explain the eels method of charging enemies, exploding and then regenerating. "What does kamikaze mean?" asked Fluttershy. Matt sighed before deciding to be blunt. "It charges its enemies, explodes with the force of a demolition charge and then regenerates." he said flatly, before adding "And they are VERY easily startled." "Oh, I know how to deal with shy animals," said Fluttershy. "How many can blow a hole in a mountain?" said Matt, bluntly. "Something that pretty couldn't be that dangerous, can it?" asked Fluttershy. "It could cripple the ship permenently...luckily, if its just feeding, it'll leave in a few minutes. Energy from the lightning musta woken it...strange that its going for the reactor...it can;t be eating all that energy itself." said Matt, curiously before shrugging and walking towards the eel, making yelling noises and waving at it. "Matt, didn't you just say they're easily startled?" said Fluttershy. Matt stopped at that, looking at something underneath the grating. "Oh boy...I think I know why its so hungry." he said, backing up from the half dozen glowing orbs. "Are those eggs?" asked Fluttershy. "I'd say so..." said Matt before both he and Fluttershy had to cover their ears in pain as the adult eel made a shrieking noise and started to turn red. "RUN!" yelled Matt, running for the door. Fluttershy made a frightened squeak and quickly followed after Matt. Matt forced the door shut as soon as Fluttershy was through and turned "Keep running." he yelled before turning to run after her. At that moment though, the door exploded outwards, throwing matt forward and covering him in metal. Fluttershy was also thrown forward with an 'oof' noise. She turned around terrified to see electricity arcing over anything electronic as well as the yellow energy of the eels body re-gathering over the rubble covering Matt. The eel seemed satisfied before floating back into the reactor room and starting its strange song again. "I see why it's dangerous now," said Fluttershy. "Alert: Power surge detected...alert alert...a...lert." said the voice of the machine, its voice getting slower and deeper before petering out. A groan from under the rubble was heard and a bent grating was pushed aside to show Matt pulling his way out. "And that...is why I hate eels." he said weakly. "So, how do we get it to move?" asked Fluttershy. "We don;t...” said Matt, pushing himself up to lean against the wall "I'll have to hope Aria finished working on the reactor 2 repairs..." "Didn't you say she was taking a nap or something?" asked Fluttershy. "Yeah...but hopefully she finished the reactor 2 repairs and just didn;t bother to power it up first." Matt said, before pulling himself up to walk over to an intercom. "Pinkie...Pinkie, you there?" he said just to get nothing. Matt tapped the side of the intercom and said, "What's wrong with this stupid thing?" Just then, the lights came back on. "Not what I had in mind, but better," said Matt. The computers voice said "Main power restored...scanning system for damages." Matt looked up "And the computers back too...nice." he said. Fluttershy wasn't sure though...the computer voice sounded colder, more logical. "Ok, Computer," said Matt, "We've got a bit of infestation problem in Reactor 1." "Voice print not recognised. Please state name and ID number." said the computer, coldly. Matt looked at Fluttershy, confused before shrugging. "Captain Lynch, M J. CPS Code: 26249." he said. The computer made a buzzing noise "Not recognised...please try again." "Stupid computer, I'm captain of this ship," said Matt. "ID not reqognised." said the computer before a klaxon sounded "intruder alert: Engineering section 1..." Matt and Fluttershy winced at that before Matt yelled "YOU STOP THIS RIGHT NOW...ITS MY NAME ON YOUR PINK SLIP!" "Maybe we should go to another place!" called Fluttershy, who was nearly drowned out by the alram. "Let's get out of here!" yelled Matt. The two ran down the corridor and turned the corner to the stars, to see a sheer steel shutter in the way. "Looter status confirmed. Looting an NSC vessel during wartime conditions is a criminal offence...prepare for detainment." said the AI at the same time as a half-orb retracted from the ceiling. "Uh oh." said Matt before pushing Fluttershy round the corner just in time as the 'orb' fired. "Matt, what is going on?" asked Fluttershy. Matt got up and turned to see the scorch mark where the beam had hit. "I think the computers gone nuts." he said weakly. "That doesn't sound good," said Fluttershy. "Thats because its not." said Matt, getting back up. "We have to get to pinkie and warn her...there's more of those turrets in the VR room." "But how can we get there?" asked Fluttershy. Matt looked up at the grating. "The vents?" he said before a red beam parted his hair. "First we run." he yelled. "Right," said Fluttershy as she took to the air. Matt ran after Fluttershy as more of the turret orbs activated, firing on the group. However, Fluttershy was not nearly as skilled with flying around obstacles as Rainbow Dash. She frequently stopped or dropped down when a laser nearly hit her. The duo finally reached a dead end with no turrets in it and a grating at the other. "Well...least they can;t shoot us here." said Matt. Suddenly, they heard a familiar scuttling sound. "Oh no," said Matt. Fluttershy said in a terrified voice “Wh-whats that?" Matt drew his blaster and said "Spiderbots." as several of the spider drones, with red glowing optics scuttled round the corner, cutting lasers at the ready. "But, they're friends, right?" asked Fluttershy. "Not today." said Matt as one of the spider drones leapt at them with a mechanical hiss, only for Matt to blast it out the air. "Ok, we need to double our double time," said Matt, "Get the vent off and climb in." Fluttershy looked at the vent cover with the screws clearly meant for hands before looking at where Matt was desperately shooting at the drones. She gulped turned around and kicked at the vent as hard as she could manage. "I think I chipped my hoof," said Fluttershy, miserably. Matt winced before being knocked over with a yell as three spiderbots jumped on his back and bore him to the ground. "Matt!" cried Fluttershy before she kicked out at the grate again. This time, her shock was enough to smash the vent in. Fluttershy was so shocked by managing to kick the vent in that she almost fell. Matt managed to pull the last drone off and smash it in time to hear Fluttershys whimper as she put her weight on her back hooves. He looked over and saw the smashed vent before seeing where the metal grate had cut her leg. "Ouch...come on...first stop, medi-bay." he said, helping her into the vent. "Are you sure this is safe?" asked Fluttershy. "Come on...you're hurt." said Matt, stubbornly. "Well, ok," said Fluttershy as she climbed in. Matt climbed in after her and said "Take the next left...man, I hope Pinkies ok." ... Pinkie Pie had spent the last half an hour looking at the readout for Rainbow Dash as well as the views of Dash's games when the power suddenly came back. It seemed like dashie was unaware of the problems on the outside. A voice said "Danger...unidentified lifeforms in VR chamber." "Unidentified lifeforms? Where?" asked Pinkie, looking around. "Assessing threat..." said the voice and a orb folded down from the roof. "Ooh, shiny," said Pinkie, looking at the orb. "Threat assessment on primary subject: Zero. Subject confined to VR machine...disable at digression. Secondary subject: Threat level at 45%. Unidentified mental processes...neutralize." said the computers voice and the orb began to glow. "Neutralize, what's that?" asked Pinkie. The orb was glowing red now. "Oh...is this a disco party? I knew matt liked to party." said Pinkie excitedly and bouncing up at the same instant that the orb turret fired, the beam missing before it attempted to shoot her as she hopped around the room, missing every time. If the AI was capable of truly feeling emotions, it would certainly be feeling frustrations as the annoying pink one wouldn't keep still long enough. "Remain still and surrender to storage, criminal." it intoned, disguising the annoyance in its tone as more blasts bounced around. "You know, people tell me to stay still all the time, I wonder why?" said Pinkie. A blast almost hit her, instead blowing the door which glowed blue before vanishing. ... Dash was looking around the hub for another game when a steel door materialized in front of her and fell over. "What the hay?" she said confused before shrugging and carrying on. ... Pinkie Pie watched the door disappear with some amazement. "Ooh, neat trick. I wonder how Matt and Fluttershy are doing?" said Pinkie, "I guess I'll go look for them." She hopped out the door like nothing at all was wrong. ... Meanwhile, the skyraids floating, orb shaped auto doc hovered around the infirmary, worrying. It remembered when D-1 had last been in charge. A vent cover in the corner glowed before exploding outwards and Matt, looking like he'd been beaten to a pulp crawled out before helping one of those strange locals out after it. “Sir, you look terrible. What is going on tonight?" it said annoyed. "We have a Veridian Eel nesting in Reactor 1 and the whole ship's gone crazy," said Matt, equally annoyed. "I noticed that when D-1 was back online." said the auto doctor annoyed before saying "This ship saw service in the combine war...D-1 was the AI in charge...those idiot programmers must have programmed on top of him." before its optic turned towards the yellow pony cowering behind Matt. "Your friend has a injury...metal cut." he said professionally. "Yeah, that's why we came here," said Matt, "She won't be able to move fast until her leg's treated. That and the whole tetanus thing." The auto doctor ran a light over Fluttershy and said "She's already got some...I’m not surprised...probably not even a disease here..." before a needle extended from its orb. "A shot of nanites will handle it with ease...please hold still, ma'am." it said, closing. Fluttershy squeaked and inched away. "Uh, I really don't like needles," she said. "Ma'am...I am programmed with 32,000 medical procedures and the collective medical knowledge of 300 years. This is for your own health. You are probably already feeling effects." said the auto doctor. "What effects?" asked Fluttershy nervously. "Your injured leg probably feels stiff repeatedly as the disease effects your muscles there." said the auto doctor. scanning her injured leg again. "Uh, it has been feeling stiff," said Fluttershy, sounding even more nervous. The auto doctor continued "You probably feel elevated body temperatures and increased heart rate." "It is getting a bit hot," said Fluttershy, sweating a bit. "Ma'am...the medical nanites can eradicate the bacteria causing this, reverse the cellular damage and then will self destruct...I understand that you have cause to distrust this needle...but it will save your life." said the auto doctor in a attempt to be reassuring. "Fluttershy, it won't hurt that much," said Matt, "Just a quick prick and it'll be all over." Fluttershy looked upset before lifting her injured hoof up, the skin around the cut already looking red. The auto doctor said soothingly "Ok...entering...now." before the needle shot out and hit, a grey liquid flowing down the tube connecting it to the doc. Fluttershy bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut with a whimper. Finally the needle shot back into the auto doc and vanished "All done." it said. Fluttershy whimpered before looking at her hoof where the cut could be seen visibly vanishing, the reddened flesh around it turning back to normal and even the fur re-growing. Matt said over her shoulder in a cheerful voice "Cool, isn;t it." "Uh, yeah, it is," said Fluttershy, smiling a bit. Matt grinned before looking at the auto doc. "Nice one." he said. The auto doc emitted a air of smugness. "My pleasure, sirs. Ma'am, do not worry about the nanites...they will have finished their work and self destructed by tomorrow morning." A clunk at the door made Fluttershy jump almost high enough to hit the ceiling and Matt to draw his blaster. However, the tension dropped dramatically when Pinkie Pie hopped in. "Hey guys, watcha doing?" she asked. Matt sighed and lowered the blaster "You are one lucky person...How'd you get past the blaster turrets?" he said, sighing with relief, checking outside before shutting the door. "What blaster turrets?" asked Pinkie. "Red beams of death?" said Matt, hopefully. "The only beams I saw were from that disco ball," said Pinkie. "That was a blaster turret...man, you're lucky." said Matt, a bit surprised. Fluttershy said horrified "We've got to get back to Rainbow Dash, as fast as we can." Matt nodded, opening the door and blasting a spiderdrone. "Why? What's the problem?" asked Pinkie. The other two didn't answer running out. Pinkie ran after them, realising that something was very wrong. She arrived to see Matt, Fluttershy watching behind him, slamming his fist angrily on the controls of the VR machine, the words 'access denied' flashing on the screen. "What's going on?" asked Pinkie. "The AI's locked me out of the system. I can’t log dash out. All we've got is comms with her...I hope...I'm trying now..." said Matt, angrily before pressing a button. ... Rainbow Dash had been wandering around trying to get through other program doors to no avail. She was about to go to another when what looked like a translucent window appeared in front of her, Matts, Pinkies and Fluttershy in view. "Guys? What are you doing here?" asked Rainbow Dash. "We got a problem out here...the ships old combat AI's mutinied and took over the ship...oh and it thinks me and the girl are looters." said Matt, sarcastically cheerful. "The combat what?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Like aria...only alot nastier." said Matt, darkly. "Oh," said Rainbow Dash, "Wait, if I'm in the computer thing, what will it do to me?" "Nothing...it obviously assesses by threat...and if you're plugged in here...you can;t do anything while you're in there...hmm...unless...no, its too dangerous...no safeties and you could end up as PART of the ship." said Matt, serious. "Well, there's gotta be some way I can help in here," said Rainbow Dash. Matt said "No...if you shut down the AI...the remains of the computer might try to make you the new one..." "Yeah, this may be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here," said Rainbow Dash. Matt nodded "Ok..lets just get you out of here..." he began to say before a humming made him turn around before the translucent window flickered out. "Hey! Don't just go like that! Come back!" shouted Rainbow Dash. ... Matt nodded "Ok..lets just get you out of here..." before a humming got his attention. He, fluttershy and Pinkie turned to see that the rooms turret, depleted earlier by trying to shoot the elusive Pinkie, had recharged before a red beam lanced out. "Move it!" shouted Matt, throwing himself out of the way. Fluttershy gave a shriek as a beam nearly hit her before she slipped on the floor and slid to a halt. Matt watched in horror as the turret took aim. "Nonononono." he said, desperately fumbling with the blaster before the turret shot again. This time, the beam hit Fluttershy. She froze before she suddenly seemed to turn into digital chickenwire. Then she broke into many tiny pieces and got sucked into the turret. Matt snapped and managed to get his blaster out yelling several alien swearwords and emptying the blasters entire energy cell into the turret, reducing it to wreckage. the computer said calmly "Intruder neutralized and stored in digital buffer." "Where did she go?" asked Pinkie Pie in a shocked voice. Matt walked up to where Fluttershy had been "I have no idea." he said in a sad voice before saying to himself "Digitized..." ... Rainbow Dash was wandering through the digital corridor, saying to herself, "There's gotta be an emergency exit or something around here." She paused when she heard a crackling/humming sound. She looked up to see the frame of a winged pony with a long mane and tail forming above her. "Hey, is that-" she started before Fluttershy completely virtualized and fell with a ‘yipe’ on Rainbow Dash. The two pegasi managed to untangle themselves after a minute before Rainbow said in a surprised voice "Fluttershy? How'd you end up here?" "I don't know," said Fluttershy, looking terrified "I got zapped by something and now I'm in here." The screen re-appeared and Matt and Pinkies faces appeared. Matt winced as Pinkie said loudly and excitedly "Fluttershy...you're ok!!!" "Uh, I guess I am," said Fluttershy, "But how did I get in here?" Matt opened his mouth to speak before Pinkie said "That disco ball started shooting and you slipped and were like 'yipe' and then the ball went 'zap' and you vanished." in a hyper tone. Fluttershy blinked and said, "So, I'm in the computer now?" Matt thought of some way to explain it before coming up short and saying lamely "Erm...yeah." "So now how are we going to get out?" asked Rainbow Dash. Matt and Pinkie looked at each other before Matt said "Hey...this wasn’t covered in training. I've never even seen this kind of system. I don’t even know how it got fluttershy in there...Aria might be able to fix it but while sergeant psycho's in charge, not much we can do." "Wait, you said Aria was taking a nap, right?" asked Fluttershy. Matt stopped as a lightbulb came on in his brain and he punched himself on the forehead. "I'm an idiot." he said to himself angrily "There's a reset in the core room....then again, being shot at by your own ship is very distrac-" he said starting to ramble till all three ponies yelled "MATT!" Matt paused and said, "Wait, there's one big problem, the core room will be like a shooting range for the AI. There's no way I'll be able to get in without ending up looking like cheese." Rainbow Dash pressed up against the screen from her end, looking pretty annoyed "So you're just gonna give up?" Matt returned the glare and said smugly as a thought occurred "Why not? When Aria finishes her virus scan in a hour, she'll kick that AI out and let you two out...its not like its gonna call for help...who'd be around to hear it?" The computer voice said "Scanning for NSC ships in system...located...callsign: Icarus." Matt stopped and said “There is no way my luck is this bad." ... It's fairly common knowledge that anyone who's not nocturnal hates being woke up too early. And most people would label ‘1 in the morning’ as way too early. Which was precisely was on Darius' mind as he was stomping over to the bridge. "Sergeant...this had better be good. Your future health hinges on it." he yelled, as he stomped onto the bridge. The comm sergeant said with a grin "It is, sir. We're picking up the Skyraids emergency beacon...all this verses magi is scrambling the signal...but we'll have a lock within the hour." Darius blinked and said, "Even Lynch wouldn't be stupid enough to activate his beacon while we're around." "Maybe he sat on a button...all we know is that we're getting a signal...and its definately an emergency beacon..." said the comm sarge, showing the text readout on a computer "I took the liberty of getting echo team out their bunks and prepped...as soon as we have a lock, they can take that ship apart for the 'aria' AI." "Fine," said Darius, "But if this mission goes wrong, you'll be the one to have a rude awakening. Like a 30 foot drop in a lake." ... Meanwhile, Matt was screaming at a readout. "ARE YOU CRAZY? Call anyone but the Icarus...I'll even accept one of Romanov's ships..." he was saying. "So, are they going to be coming really soon?" asked Pinkie Pie. "Unknown intereference has disrupted signal strength...estimate arrival within the hour." said the computers voice. Matt moaned to himself "So much for hiding..." "Can't we shut it off?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Only the AI can do that...emergency beacons are more or less physically indestructible..." said Matt, gloomily. "Well, maybe we can turn it off from this side," said Fluttershy. Matt stopped "No...we'd have to..." before Rainbow Dash finished "...distract this creep first?" Matt was tempted to say 'no', but then he thought of what would happen if the Icarus arrived. "Oh alright," he said, "But don't take any big risks." He sat at the controls and began to type something. The computers voice said "Warning...unidentified override detected...VR firewalls offline...danger, danger." before Matt shot the speaker. "I wish he'd shut up....Ok, I’ve unsealed the VR system...you can get into the main computer...be VERY careful....NSC cyber division are known for their nasty defence viruses." he said. "Will we get sick?" asked Fluttershy, nervously. Matt thought about this. He;d seen some of the virus programs dealing with VR hackers before now. "Erm...probably not...but I’d avoid them all the same." he said finally. "So, how are we supposed to distract it?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I dunno...I never trained in VR hacking...annoy it...insult its parents...kick it in the face...just keep it distracted..." said Matt, a bit manically. "Doesn't sound too hard," said Rainbow Dash. "Oh...and you remember the mind leech? The AI can mess with things alot better." said Matt, adding "Just...don’t take risks." ... Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash slowly trotted up to the black door that had materialized when Matt had unlocked the systems. A simple omega symbol adorned it. "So, just keep the creepy guy in the computer busy while Matt does...whatever he needs to do," said Rainbow Dash, "Shouldn't be too hard." Fluttershy looked at the door and said, nervously "What if there's traps? Matt said this was dangerous." "I don't think this place is built for traps," said Fluttershy, "Besides, we can fly around anything." The door opened to reveal...nothing...the doorway appeared to be suspended in a strange void, several shapes floating around and flashes of light shooting around. "Like I said, it's a good thing we can fly," said Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy looked down nervously, was unable to see the bottom, apparently spotted something and scooted back with a 'eep'. "Oh, don't tell me you're afraid of heights," said Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes. On cue, a vast insectoid face peered through the doorway at them with an almost bored expression, its entire body appearing to be made from various shapes. Both pegasi jumped back with a yipe. "Whoa, that's a big computer bug," said Rainbow Dash. The bug seemed to lose interest before kicking off from its perch and floating off. The two pegasi peered out to see various other computer insectoids or squid-like things floating around, some pulling glowing objects between the hovering shapes or standing sentry. "What are those things?" asked Fluttershy. "I have no idea..." said Rainbow Dash in a small voice. The sight, to her looked like a cliffside seabird colony. "We have to go in there...Matt and Pinkie are counting on us." she said finally in a confident voice. Fluttershy took a few calming breathes before saying “You're right...Oh, I hope they're alright." ... Matt had expected that the trek to the core room would be difficult. But he hadn't thought that there would be this kind of complication. "Pinkie, how many times am I supposed to tell you that we're supposed to be stealthy?" he snapped. Matt looked at the 'disguise' Pinkie had put together using a box from a closet and what appeared to be a pair of false glasses and moustache. "Thats not going to fool the cameras." he said in a tired voice. "They're looking for a pony," said Pinkie, "They won't be looking for a fellow robot." Matt rolled his eyes and said, "Please, if you're a robot, then I'm an octopus." Matt was about to explain why the plan would not work when Pinkie bounced out into the corridor to his horror and into the view of three spiderdrones in combat mode. She spoke to them in a monotonic voice, "Destroy all intruders, beep, boop, bop." Matt whimpered to himself, gnawing on his knuckles in terror as the drones scuttled up to pinkie and gave her scrutinizing glares. Then Pinkie said, "The big computer says intruders detected in Sector 4, boop, beep." The drones looked at each other before shrugging and scuttling past her and around the corner towards sector 4. Matt came out of his hiding place with a disbelieving look. "Thats...How?" he said. "You have to give them the right beeps," said Pinkie with a grin. Matt glared before saying "We never mention this security hole to Aria...agreed?" "Why not?" asked Pinkie. "Cause how else will I sneak out for at night?" said Matt before walking round the corner and stopping before saying nervously "Erm...beep boop?" A somewhat dog-shaped drone was standing there, with a large head that only had a three targeting optics on it and a pair of guns extending from its side. The drone looked at Matt, its guns pointing in his direction. Pinkie peered round "Ooooh...I've never seen that one." she said, impressed...until the bots optics turned red and the two guns made a 'clack' noise. "Pinkie, I don't think we can beep our way out of this one," said Matt in a worried voice. One cue the bot made a mechanical growling and Matt pushed Pinkie back round the corner, following just in time as the bot open fire. "RUN AWAY!" Matt screamed. The two of them ran as fast as they could as the drone bounded around the corner, guns blazing. "I hope the others are having more luck.” yelled Matt over the gunfire as they turned another corner, the drones heavy caliber blasters blowing chunks out the wall. ... Meanwhile, the pegasi were flying through the empty space in the computer, trying to avoid all the robotic creatures hovering around. The creatures themselves seemed to shot little interest unless the two pegasi blocked their progress...in which they’d simply stop before continuing. "This is too easy...these things act like we're rocks." said Dash cockily as more of what the two thought of as 'the workers' went by. However, Dash was focusing a bit too much on boasting and not enough on flying. This made her knock into one of the drones. The drone lost its grip on the object it was holding and immediately, its 'eyes' turned red and it began to wail like something had stabbed it. "Uh, that's probably not a good thing," said Fluttershy, backing up. On cue, several of the squids flew into view before transfixing their optics on the pegasi. "Do you think they'll accept an apology," said Fluttershy. The ends of the squids tentacles opened into crackling pincers. "I don’t think so." answered Dash nervously before the two had to dodge a lightning bolt the two squid fired, the blast hitting one of the workers which exploded in a cloud of pixels. "Uh, this is the part where we start dashing," said Rainbow Dash before the two ponies started flying away. The two 'squid' defence programs hissed and gave chase, firing rapidly at the two pegasi. The two flew as fast as they could, dodging more blasts until they slipped into one of the glowing objects to be met with another strange sight. A strange, almost mechanical octopus like program was in the object, surrounded by more of the 'real world' windows but focussing on one that showed the view of something chasing Matt and Pinkie through the ship corridors. "That doesn't look good," said Rainbow Dash. "You think we can do anything?" asked Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash looked at the machine and flew in front of it. "Hey, you...stop shooting at our friends." she said angrily, before waving a hoof in front of the unresponsive program. "Hello? Anypony home?" she said, tapping the top of it. "Uh, please stop shooting at our friends?" said Fluttershy with her usual meekness. The program stopped for a second to look at Fluttershy and at Rainbow Dash before intoning "Scanning for override clearance...alert...no clearance detected...security program summoned." "Clearance this," said Rainbow Dash in an annoyed voice before kicking the program in what could be assumed to be the head. The program was knocked back before shattering into pixels on the ground. At the same time, the screens all blanked out. "That worked," said Rainbow Dash in a smug voice. Fluttershy looked at the blank screens and said in a worried tone. "I hope the others are ok." before the two flew out the 'room'. ... Back in the real world, Matt prodded the inactive bot with his foot. The droid had managed to corner them and had been about to shoot when it had shuddered, spat sparks and keeled over. "What do you think happened?" asked Pinkie, "Did it get tired?" Matt said in an impressed tone. "Nah...I think two pegasi scouts just earned their hacking badges." "Oh, so you think we can go to the big core room now?" asked Pinkie. "Yeah...lets go smash it..." said Matt, a evil grin on his face. "I've had enough of my own ship trying to kill me." "But doesn't Aria need it?" asked Pinkie. "Good point...we'll only partially smash it." said Matt, still grinning. ... Matt and pinkie peered around the corner towards the door to the server room...or rather 'vault door'. "Thats a big door." said Matt casually, looking up at the large blastdoor blocking access. "You did remember to bring the key, right?" said Pinkie. Matt lifted up his keycard. "Of course...though that all depends that that AI didn’t bother to alter the codes. Oh, well, glass half full time." he said, before walking out and cautiously approaching the door. He slid the keycard through the slot and stepped back, expecting guns to flip out and fire. Instead a series of clunks were heard and the door began to slow slide into the wall. "See? Easy as pie." he said cheerfully. Pinkie trotted up to the door and said "I don’t know...pie can be really hard to make sometimes..." before she stopped, lifting one of her legs off the group with a yelp. "Easy...we’ve been running all over the place tonight.” Said Matt. "No, my knee's all pinchy," said Pinkie, "That means something scary is about to happen." Matt rolled his eyes "Oh please...you just pulled a muscle, pinkie." he said cheerfully before stepping into the room, the only light being a glowing optic on the computer in the center. Pinkie followed in just in time as the door slammed shot. “That means nothing." said Matt a little defensively. "Knee's still pinchy," said Pinkie, cheerfully. "I see nothing frightening." said Matt sulkily before the lights came on to reveal two twin barrelled turrets on the roof, both aiming at Matt. "I wish I still didn’t." whimpered Matt. "Yep, that's scary enough," said Pinkie. Matt turned and in a brief moment of insanity, said "I hate your knee." before the turrets opened fire, forcing Matt to dive for cover. Pinkie however, was somehow dodging every round without trying. Matt reached out from his cover and pulled out Pinkie out of the crossfire. "I was hoping for a good distraction about now," he said. "Don;t worry. Dashie won’t let us down." said Pinkie pie, confidently. Matt couldn;t help thinking 'I hope you're right.' ... Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew to a halt. The defence programs had finally given up, it seemed...or were reluctant to approach the huge tower that the pegasi’s flight had brought them too. "Ok, so we go into this tower and kick around this creep who's been making the computer go crazy," said Rainbow Dash, "No problem." What looked a wingless dragonfly came into view from behind the tower, its red colour marking it as another of the security programs. It turned to glare at them, but didn;t act as the two were obviously not close enough to warrant concern. "Uh, you sure we have to go in?" asked Fluttershy. "How else are we gonna stop that creep?" said Rainbow Dash, however her voice was slightly less certain in the face of the giant security program. "Maybe if we ask nicely it'll let us in," said Fluttershy. A passing worker program stopped at that before flickering from its green colour to a more ominous blue. "So...I seem to have underestimated what lengths some looters will go too." it said. "Uh, is that the guy who's running the computer?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Your 'stating the obvious' system seems fully functional." said the program sarcastically. "You will return to the VR program immediately." it added with a commanding tone. "And I say you should return to the, uh, Not Cause Trouble For Anyone program," said Rainbow Dash, rudely. "This ship is a military vessel under wartime conditions...you are trespassing. This crime carries a 20 year sentence on the Kryos penal asteroid." said the computer harshly, its eyes glowing red. "If you do not comply...your companions will be destroyed...they are already pinned down in the core room." "Then they're ready to shut you down," said Rainbow Dash with a smirk. "I do not think so...as I speak, three pulse blaster turrets have them pinned down...it would only be a short matter to reroute several drones behind their cover to tear them apart...they have already done more then enough damage to receive the death penalty." said the computer smugly, an image appearing to show Matt and Pinkie behind their cover as the turrets rounds ripped into it. Fluttershy glared in anger at this image before she turned and shouted at the AI, "How dare you? What gives you any kind of right to treat them like that? How would you feel if someone decided to chase you around with big scary weapons for no good reason?" "I beg your pardon?" said the computers host program in a confused voice. It wasn;t every day someone tried to threaten an AI. The worker program it was controlling however wanted to get as far away as possible from the little angry pegasus. "You're nothing but a big bully," snapped Fluttershy, "You're just pushing everyone around and being mean. And you don't even have the nerve to actually do anything yourself. You're just making all the robots do all your dirty work for you." "Warning: System error in remote systems...turret system failure detected...anti virus systems report to CPU." said the AI in a monotone voice before the worker program changed back to its normal colour and fled with a wailing noise. A square hole opened in the tower as well. "You wish to take this ship? Then by all means...try." said the AI. "I don't try, I do," said Rainbow Dash before flying into the tower. Fluttershy looked around at that "Rainbow?" she said, watching as the hole closed behind the cyan pegasus. ... Matt peered out to see the turrets apparently going crazy, one spinning in its housing with a 'wheee' noise before exploding. "Thats...unusual." he said before a spider drone bounced off his head as they went haywire too. "You think Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are doing this?" asked Pinkie Pie. "I can’t think of anyone else." said Matt, casually before peering out as a voice said "Alert...emergency defences now active." "That's good, right?" said Pinkie Pie. Matt looked at her "I dunno...I haven’t been in here since I brought this ship...on hindsight...maybe I should have." he said, pinkie seeing the 'crates' in the room unfurling and standing up. "Ooh, neat trick," she said, "I wish my furniture could do that." Matt looked confused and said "Pinkie...what are you tal--" before being cut off as one of the bots picked him up by the back of the throat and rotated him to glare. "Keep at it, Matt!" called Pinkie, "You've got him on the ropes!" The droid turned to look at the pink party pony and said "Prepare for internment." Pinkie grinned "Oh...tag? I love tag. You're it." before bouncing away just before the bot could grab her. The droid paused a bit as it tried to process the odd behavior of the pink organism. But then it switched back to its primary command and started chasing after the bouncy one. ... Meanwhile... Rainbow flew into the tower and turned as she heard Fluttershy call out, just in time to see the 'door' seal. "Fluttershy!" called Rainbow Dash before flying back to where the door was, but she could see no way of opening it A blast blew a crater into the wall from behind her, causing the pegasus to spin. A human figure was standing in the middle of the room, its hand glowing from the blast. His clothes looked similar to Matts 'camoflage' except for the strange translucent glow. "So, you're the big shot who's been trying to get rid of us," said Rainbow Dash, angrily. "This is my program. You have already proven that you can get past my firewall defences with help...but you're alone this time...and I have had enough." said the AI, charging up another shot. "You'll have to catch me first," said Rainbow Dash before zooming around the room at high speed. "That will not be a problem." said the AI, clicking its fingers and causing several shards of the wall to detach and begin chasing the pegasus around. This would have been a problem, but Rainbow Dash has had lots of experience with obstacle courses. She swooped, dived, rolled, and feinted around the shards. The AI however, didn;t seem too worried before saying "You're no hacker...any ameteur hacker would have destroyed me by now..." before using the distraction to make a 'wall' shoot out into Rainbows path. Rainbow Dash had to break this time. Fortunately, she did so before she slammed into the wall. Several more walls shot around, trapping rainbow. The wall of the new 'cube' rippled before the AIa walked through it. "You really have no idea...thinking like you're still in the other world." said the AI smugly. Rainbow Dash jumped towards the AI in an attempt to tackle him, but it sidestepped her easily. "Huh...if you're the best hacker this team has, then they're already dead." said the AI smugly. Rainbow growled and tried to tackle the AI again. The AI simply phased through her. "Your stress levels indicate I've pushed on a sensitive subject. Such a shame...if you'd only complied and remained in the VR machine...still." taunted the AI before readying an energy orb and throwing it into Rainbows back, tazering her. "Either way, your companions are still doomed," said the AI, showing a video of Matt and Pinkie being chased by the drones, "They shall be eliminated and all your efforts shall be for naught." Rainbow Dash glared as the AI continued "I don't know what I'll do with the other one though...the yellow version of you...she is technically a prisoner...but she has escaped because of you..." said the AI, showing another view of Fluttershy trying to find a way into the tower. "Oh well, I'm sure the anti-virus programs will take care of her soon enough." Rainbow Dash glared and said something, causign the AI to look over. "What was that?" it said tauntingly only to hear the cyan pegasus say "Leave my friends alone." The AI smirked cruelly "Make me." it said. Dash charged again, but this time she was moving too fast to move around the AI ended up getting heatbutted in the abdomen. The AI looked more surprised then hurt before losing concentration and causing the cube to disintegrate. "Hmm...I guess you're a fast learner. I actually felt that." it said. "You're gonna feel a lot more if you don't leave my friends alone," said Rainbow Dash as she pawed the floor. "You are nothing but criminals...and you will be dealt with as such." answered the AI, making a blast appear and firing. Rainbow Dash jumped out of the way of the blast, but she saw it turn around go after her again. She quickly flew for it, the orb shooting after her. "Oh horse apples." she said to herself as the orb blasted through an obstacle, disintegrating it. "You won't escape this one," said the AI, "It will follow you wherever you go." Rainbow Dash managed a glare at the smug Ai before she got an idea and the glare turned to a smirk. "Is that so?" she said before swerving to fly at the AI. "What do you think you're doing?" demanded the AI. "Giving you back this." shouted Rainbow as she flew past the AI. The AI turned back in ti8me for his own scorcher virus to hit him. The explosion that followed was rather impressive. The aftershock rippled out of the tower and across the digital space. Rainbow Dash looked around as the lights in the room seemed to flicker and a dull voice said "Alert...AI has been deleted...emergency protocols online...suitable replacement detected in CPU hub..." "Oops, I don't this is a good thing," said Rainbow Dash before frantically searching for the door. The room started toglow brighter before there was a flash... ... Fluttershy backed up from the approaching defence programs before she felt a tingle and everything went black. ... By this point, the drones had managed to box Matt and Pinkie in. They all aimed their blasters at them and started charging up. Matt had a feeling his life would end like this, but the pony was a surprise. It began when the bots seemed to stagger before falling over. "Oh...we won?" said Pinkie cheerfully. Matt poked a bot with his foot. “I think so...I wonder what..." he began before a shape appeared in the air and Fluttershy fell with a yelp on his head. "Hi Fluttershy," said Pinkie. Fluttershy had a dazed look on her face before Matt said in a desperately casual voice "Fluttershy? Please get off my spine." "Oh, sorry," said Fluttershy apologetically before moving aside. Matt got up unsteadily. "Thank god this is over...Aria...purge every little bit of that psycho out of this ship....Aria?" he said. "Matt? Matt? Is that you?" called a female voice over the intercom. Matt went rigid as a small part of his brain rebelled against reality, only giving up as Pinkie said "Dashie? Is that you?" ... The animals of the everfree forest fled as the sound of a blood curdling scream echoed through the forest. ... "Ooh, are we doing screaming contests now?" asked Pinkie, "I wanna go next." Matt said weakly "Rainbow? Why are you talking from the computer?" "That's why I'd like to know," said Rainbow Dash's voice, "I'm locked up in this tower thing the jerk guy was in and I don't know how to get out." "Oh no...are you sure?" said Matt, worry appearing in his voice. "I'm looking all around, but I don't see anything, just a bunch of screens," said Rainbow Dash's voice. Matt ran up to the core, Fluttershy and Pinkie following confused. "Whats wrong?" said Pinkie, sounding worried as even she caught on that something serious was happening. Matt apparently didn’t hear her, saying to himself “I told her not to delete the AI...va tula mo tida." the last phases in splitter. "What? What's going on?" asked Fluttershy. Matt clicked up a readout that showed a load of details that were obviously bad from the way his head fell. "No..." he said before saying "The computer thinks Rainbows the replacement A.I. "What? Me? But I don't know how any of this stuff works!" said Rainbow Dash's voice. "You don’t need too...but the computers like a business...the workers can’t do their jobs without a boss." said Matt, sighing. Rainbow said 2So? Just get it to let me out then." Matt said "I...I can’t do that...the reactor needs the computer to work...without it...boom...as in BIG boom." The other two ponies gasped. "You mean Rainbow Dash is stuck in there?" asked Fluttershy. "Forever?" asked Pinkie Pie. Matt couldn’t bring himself to answer, instead pressing a few buttons. A second later, Rainbow Dash seemed to appear in the middle of the room. "Rainbow Dash, I was so worried," said Fluttershy as she walked towards her fellow Pegasus, "I thought you were trapped forever." She reached over to hug her, but she fell right through Dash. Rainbow Dash looked just as upset as Fluttershy. Matt also felt as guilty as hell. "Bloody disaster.” he said to himself. "I don't wanna stay in here," said Rainbow Dash, "I wanna race and feel the wind against my mane and join the Wonderbolts..." She suddenly gasped in horror and said, "What about my body?" Matt said "Its still plugged into the VR machine..." before sighing...and then punching the screen. Rainbow Dash looked severely shaken. "Uh, guys, I need some time...alone," she said. The hologram flicked off. The two ponies turned to look at Matt, looking stricken, Matt noticing that Pinkies hair seemed to deflate, coming flatter. "I'll...I'll do what I can." he said, turning to another control panel. ... Rainbow sat down sadly in the tower, several screens showing illegible readouts while others seemed to show views from the security cameras and drone son the ship, a few showing static and errors. "Oh man, I don't want to be stuck in here," she moaned, "This isn't the life for me." A voice from one of the screens said "Danger...hostile software intrusion detected...scanning...firewall override recognized...access granted." before part of the wall rippled and a human walked in, an african wearing a white lab coat and jeans. "I leave for 2 hours for a self scan and I come back to a mess." the newcomer said. Rainbow Dash looked at the human curiously before asking, "Do I know you?" "Miss dash...I didn’t expect to see you here..." said the newcomer, walking forward. "I believe you know me...I left for one virus scan...what in the name of cyberspace happened to put you here?" "Well, I was in that racing thing when a jerk took control of the computer," said Dash. "D-1...I thought he was sealed away." said the figure, a nametag visible on her coat that said 'Dr E Aria'. "Wait a second, Aria?" asked Dash. "Doctor Eliza Aria to be exact. Head of Cyber Research at Chimera Aerospace for 12 years." said Aria, sitting down, a seat materializing under her. "Uh, I don't know what that place is, but it sound like you are really important there," said Rainbow dash. "I was...important enough that, when I was killed in a lab accident, my mind was uploaded to the company computers...that was 400 years ago." said Aria, a wistful tone in her voice. "Wow, that's a long time," said Rainbow Dash. "It is...it is. Its not a life for the young." said Aria, a sad tone slipping into her voice. "Yeah, speaking of which, when I got that jerk to blast himself with his own, uh, fireball thing, the computer put me in charge," said Rainbow Dash, "And I don't really want to be in charge." "It has too...without it...the computer would crash...and the reactor would also explode...destroying everything within 20 miles. However...I am perfectly capable of assuming control..." said Aria, igniting a blue orb in her hand. "You can do that?" asked Rainbow Dash. Aria paused and said, "Then again, I could just take your vacant body and leave this computer. True, the hooves will take some time to adjust to, but I could manage." Rainbow Dash looked horrified before Aria rolled her eyes "AI humour." she said flatly before tossing the orb at Dash. Immediately, Dash's vision began to blur, Aria's voice saying "The best of luck, Miss Dash." ... Meanwhile, the others were in the VR room. Rainbow Dash's body showed no signs of consciousness, despite Matt's efforts. The ponies looked up as Matt slapped the machine before letting his face fall on the keyboard. "Matt, do you need any help?" asked Fluttershy. Matt sighed before saying “Maybe if I....I don’t know what to do...dammit...the one time I need Techo's help..." "Matt, you can't give up," said Pinkie Pie, "Rainbow Dash needs you." "I've tried everything...nothings working." said Matt, angrily before looking at the screen when it began to beep, the brainwave scanner that showed if a person was plugged in starting to ripple with activity again. "Hey, something's happening," said Matt, hope in his voice. The message 'emergency log out systems rebooted' appeared and Matt held his breath before pressing a few buttons and finally one marked with warning symbols. "Emergency ejection active...in 3...2...1...activating." said the VR's system. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash's body jumped like something had shocked it. Matt ran over to another control and began flicking switches, muttering "Come on...don’t you dare, you hunk of metal." Fluttershy and Pinkie watched in worry before Rainbow Dash coughed twice and opened her eyes with a groan. "Man, that was the craziest dream ever," said Rainbow Dash. Matt let out a sigh of relief as Fluttershy and Pinkie immediately hugged their friend. He walked over after a bit and carefully pulled out the interface needle. "There we go..." he said. "Yay! Dashie's back, we should throw a party," said Pinkie, her mane poofing up again. Matt nodded in agreement before Aria's voice came over the intercom. "This is the last time I let you play without adult supervision." "What? Hey, it was not my fault," said Matt, "An energy eel made a nest in the reactor and it rebooted the ship and let that military AI take control." "Talking of which...you should come outside. You may want to see this." said Aria. ... The group, Dash a little unsteadily, watched as the group of energy eels seemed to dance around in the sky, their musical calls filling the air. "Aw...they're so cute," said Pinkie. "And lethal." muttered Matt to himself. "Uh, they won't attack us, right?" asked Fluttershy. "Nah...I think." said Matt, the last part a little uncertainly. The eels however, if they were still annoyed from earlier weren’t bothered as they flew into the treeline, their glow visible for a few more seconds before vanishing too. "I wonder if I'll be in trouble for introducing an invasive species to this planet," muttered Matt. ... <Log activated> "Ok...I nearly screwed up bad today. My ship nearly got us all killed...and then to top it off, I nearly turned Dash into a Ipad rip off. Clearly my skills as a technician needs to be improved. Of course, as Aria would put it, and has done so several times since, 'you can't improve what isn't there at all'. However, I managed to sort out the problem...and Aria is making sure nothing like this can ever happen again...I hope it doesn't." “However, there is the small matter of the AI sending out a distress beacon. But then again, there's no way it got anywhere before it was shut down, right?" <Log ends> ... <Intercepted Exo Gene transmission> Echo: This is Echo One to Home Nest.’ Icarus: Home Nest, Go ahead, Echo.’ Echo: We lost the signal about 3 minutes ago...Requesting new orders. Icarus: Continue sweeps...we want the merc alive Echo: Roger that. <Transmission ends>
Largefish8	784	4	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2011-10-30T19:08:27+00:00	2011-10-30T19:08:27+00:00	1,088	MLP Fic pt 4 Darius sat in his quarters and sighed. The last week had been hard on him and his men. The problems that the local magi energy field had caused had been fixed but there was still no sign of the rogue merc. However, the reconnaissance seemed to strongly hint that they were the only humans upon this planet. Darius sighed "Captains log: More then a few men are muttering. The board have given us strict instructions to not return to control without the AI lynch stole...that we're alone here...that we're not getting home. Morales at an all time low. I haven’t been able to say that the board hasn't even communicated..." he said before a incoming comm appeared on his computers screen. Darius paused his recording and shifted his attention to the computer screen. "This had better be good news," he said to himself. The Executive Genetics logo appeared on the screen for a second before a enshadowed room appeared and the gravelly tone of a splitter said "Report, Darius." "Well, as you already know, we've...cornered Lynch on an uncharted planet. He can't leave it, but neither can we," said Darius. "We don’t care for your excuses, Darius. That A.I that the mercenary stole has information that will link us to everything ranging from Kurata's operation to the Sy Yong incident. Its alot more valuable then YOU are." said a female voice. The speakers icy tone suggested that, given the choice, the voices owner would have no qualm about killing everything to make sure the AI was dealt with...Darius included. "We're trying the best we can," said Darius, "But the natives aren't of...the usual humanoid variety." "No excuses. The N.S.C has no presence at your location. If anything gets in your way...shoot it." said a third, human voice with unconcealed contempt. "You're lightyears from the nearest NSC monitored sector." said the splitter voice. "Now get out there and prove that you can do what we pay you for...clean this mess up...or don't bother to return." before the screen went blank. Darius realised he’d been sweating...calls with the board of directors usually did that. "Collins...tell me you have a lead." he said, managing to stop his voice from shaking. Collins voice came back through the comm. "Echo 4 has a lead they're following up on..." "Then let's stop fooling around," said Darius. "The sooner we've rubbed out that overconfident gun for hire and got back the boards property, the sooner we're out of this madhouse." he added, turning off the comm and saying with relief "Finally, some good news." ... Everfree Forest Matt looked up at the ruined castle and said, "Ok, why are we wasting our time with looking around some old ruins?" Twilight looked over and said "This is the place where we got our elements of harmony. I've been wanting to come back and explore for months. Who knows what old books or scrolls are still here?" her voice sounding excited. Matt looked up and said to himself, a bit annoyed at being woken up ay 7am for the trip "Looks like the perfect place to catch asthma from dust inhalation." "I had to bring you along," said Twilight, "There might be a few monsters that would come here that are too much for me to handle on my own." Matt said to himself "Of course." before saying out loud. "You do know I don’t do 'leaving monsters alive' well? I doubt Fluttershy will like it if I vaporise a few locals." "You don't have to vaporize them, just scare them off," said Twilight. Matt sighed and said "We do remember the manticore two days ago? My chest still has phantom pains from that tail." He rubbed his chest on cue. The medical nanites had healed it straight almost at once but there were still a few aches, as if it was still there. "Well, we should be safe now," said Twilight, "The animals seem to avoid this place." "Gee, I wonder why?" said Matt sarcastically, looking up at the ruins again. Something about the place set his teeth on edge. "You know...you can check it out...I'm gonna stay out here." he said. "Fine, just keep an eye out for anything that could be trouble," said Twilight. ... As soon as Twilight had gone inside, Matt turned his comm on and said quietly “Aria...you still tracking that Exo Gene comm traffic? I do NOT want a surprise.” "Still monitoring," said Aria. "Fine...just keep an ear to the ground." said Matt, looking around nervously. Aria said in her usual monotone voice "I do not have ears, sir." ... Twilight had decided to start her search in the very room where she and her friends had defeated Nightmare Moon the previous year. Not much had changed from that night, even down to the hoofprints in the dirt on the floor. Still, she felt that there was more in this castle. Surely the five elements were the only things in here. Her search of the room didn’t reveal much however, except for a few dusty tomes in a connecting room. This however was not much, newer versions at her home in Ponyville, except for one, entitled 'Legends of the Stars and Sky'. "Hmm... I wonder what this one is about," said Twilight before lifting the book up to her face. There was a click from the bookshelf as soon as Twilight had removed the book, followed by another as the bookshelf moved aside to reveal a staircase, probably leading into the cliff the castle was built on. Twilight was so surprised she dropped the book onto the ground. "Wow...didn't expect that." she said to herself before stopping as a faint voice, almost like a breath of wind seeming to come from the staircase. Twilight said to herself nervously "Ok...definitely didn’t expect that." A large part of her said she should stay away from the staircase, but her curiosity urged her forward. The staircase seemed to have been built after the castle had been complete, several of the stones looking less worn then their companions above ground. The staircase finally came out into a surprisingly pristine room, a large opal in the ceiling, over a set of armor with a crescent moon on it. Twilight was quick to realise what this armour was. “Nightmare Moons armour?" she said, partly in awe and partly in fear. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching her. She carefully probed the armour with her magic, sensing something. However, before she could work out what she was sensing, the ground suddenly shook with a dull boom followed by the 'ratatatatat' of the weapons Matt used. "What's going on up there?" asked Twilight as she started up the stairs, levitating the armour after her after noting how the ceiling shook and cracked. ... Matt ducked as another hail of gunfire shattered the stone over his cover. "Hey, Aria...have you found them yet?" he yelled sarcastically into his comm before firing his blaster at one of the Exo Gene mercs, sending the guy sprawling with a smoking wound in his chest. "There are currently 13 mercenaries in the area, including yourself," said Aria, "Three of which are dead." "Yes, I was the one who shot them." snapped Matt, losing his cool a bit before peering out to see the remaining 8 mercs...wait...Aria had said 13...not 12. He turned in time to see the merc who had flanked around swinging his rifle butt towards him. ... Twilight had gotten up the stairs to see several bipedal beings like Matt but clad in white carapace-like armour and with full face-covering helmets surrounding him. However, unlike Matt they did not look friendly at all. Matt had been forced into a kneeling position and had his hands tied. To Twilights horror, one of the other humans punched Matt before saying “Ok...lets do this easy...you tell us where you stashed the A.I and you don’t get handed over to Darius." said the puncher. One of the others chuckled coldly and said in an amused tone "Yeah...the colonel is seriously pissed at you, dragging us to this madhouse." "Glad to know I'm doing my job," said Matt. "You don’t get it. You pissed off the wrong people. You're gonna die one way or the others...depends what speed you wanna die at." said the first merc. Twilight took a step back in horror at those dark words and jumped as a piece of rubble fell down. The mercs all turned to where the noise came from before they turned to Matt. The first merc said "Ok...who else is here, Lynch?" Matt smirked and said "Puff the magic dragon." which earned him another punch across the jaw. "Ok, funny guy, let's see you make jokes with a piece of you missing," said one merc, igniting an energy knife before saying to another, "What do you think, eye or nose?" Twilight actually yelped at this. This time the mercs did look in her direction, one of them raising a rifle. "Ok...come on out or we blow you out." said one, pulling an orb off his belt. Twilight hesitated for a minute before thinking, 'Ok, these people can't be reasoned with. And I don't think just charging in would do any good. I'll have to use my magic.' ... Echo Team were still aiming at where the noises had come from before somehow managing to prevent their mouths dropping as a purple unicorn walked into view. "What the smeg?" said one, in a distant voice. "You guys leave Matt alone or...or else," said the unicorn, sounding terrified. The mercs, hardened veterans to a man all started laughing. "Oh yeah? What're you gonna do? Magic you and Lynch away in a puff of smoke?" said one of the mercs, with a sneer. The unicorn smiled at that and said "Now that you mention it..." before her horn glowed, the unicorn vanishing in a flash of light, a second later, a surprised Matt also vanishing. The mercs stared dumbfounded for a second before their leader pointed at the doorway that the unicorn had emerged from and said angrily "The fuck? Harrison...check that door that thing came from." Harrison walked towards the door, muttering something about 'hallucinogens in the air'. The team waited until Harrison came back, carrying several pieces of armour. "Just this stuff, sir. Should be worth something at a trade station." The squad captain said in a tired voice "Colonel Darius is gonna blow a fuse..." ... Not too far away, Matt was lying in a dazed and singed heap not too far from Twilight. "Please...warn me...next time." said Matt, in a shaking voice, trying to forget the unpleasant feeling that the teleport had caused. "Sorry," said Twilight, "I've been trying to improve that spell." "Its ok. Its not the first roasting I ever got..." said Matt, still dazed before Twilight looked worried. "What?" he said. Twilight said "They're taking that armour I found. If thats what I think it is...I don’t think they should be touching it." Matt peered up to see the merc team looking at the armour Twilight had found, one trying to use a knife to pry the silver crescent moon off it. "I thought you guys were a non-warring race," said Matt. "We are. I think thats Nightmare Moons armour...but it can’t be. We beat her." said Twilight. Matt looked at Twilight before saying cautiously "I get the feeling that I wouldn’t have wanted to meet this person." "She was Celestia's sister, Princess Luna," said Twilight, "When they first ruled together, Celestia was the one who made the sun rise and brought day while Luna was the one who made the moon rise and brought night. But Luna eventually became jealous and bitter that the ponies played during the day and slept during the night." "Wow...and I thought me and Chloe were dysfunc...garrgh." said Matt, grabbing his head as the armor glowed blood red, The Echo 4 mercs also letting out cries of pain and grabbing their own heads as the armour let loose an ear splitting shrieking noise. "Matt? What's wrong?" asked Twilight in concern, the noise having no effect on her. Matt had fallen to the floor, making pained noises. Twilight looked up as a scream came from other mercs. She was in time to see a black mist shoot from the armour, engulfing the mercs. One turned and ran for it while another, screaming at an unseen sight, fired, hitting a third merc. "What's going on?" cried Twilight. The rest of the mercs were now completely terrified, despite nothing being there except for the glowing armour. They were shooting wildly in any direction, evidenced when a few rounds hit the rock Twilight and Matt were behind. Twilight turned to Matt who was whimpering something about ‘the infected’ and said urgently, "Matt, you need to snap out of it. Whatever you're seeing, it isn't real." Matt didn’t seem to be focussing properly before the armour let loose another shriek, causing Matt to scream again and pass out. The other mercs, closer were not so lucky, collapsing dead, judging from the blood coming from their noses and mouths. Twilight looked in shock over the scene, not sure what to grasp. Just then, the armour turned, the empty eyeholes pointing directly at Twilight. This was too much for her and the pony fainted herself. ... She came too to see what she thought at first was a red eyed monster. Twilight screamed and bolted back, her horn started glowing to hit the monster with a spell. The 'monster’ however held up its hands and said in Matts voice. "Wow...hold up there." Twilight lowered her glow to see the 'monster' was only Matt, whose eyes were looking bloodshot. "Oh, sorry," said Twilight, "You scared me for a second." "Then you probably don’t wanna see our friends over there." said Matt, glaring at where two of the drones from his ship were pushing the armour into a container they had brought, a sign claiming the container as ‘hazardous’. "That...thing cooked those guys brains...and it almost did the same to me." said Matt, glaring harshly at the armour before saying to it "You're fooling nobody." "Wait, the armour did it?" asked Twilight. "I dunno what did it...but I’ve seen exo gene lackies stare down things worse then you...no offence, Twilight. Thats the only reason I can think of." said Matt. "But it's only armour," said Twilight, "Ok, it may have been Nightmare Moon's armour, but it shouldn't be able to do anything without someone controlling it." "You willing to take that chance? Something scared these guys to death then microwaved their brains like popcorn for good measure." said Matt, before saying darkly "Either way...I'm locking it up in my ship armoury until we know for sure. Better safe then sorry." "I suppose it's for the best," said Twilight. Matt nodded before heading off back towards his ship, the drones carrying the container. ... Darius looked at the ships medic in partial disbelief before looking thriugh the observaton window at the restrained member of Echo unit...the only one to have returned. "...and you say he was a gibbering wreck when he came back? Wheres the rest of Echo 4?" he said. "From what I've been able to make out from his rabble, they've had their brains fried." said the medic. "What the hell coulda done that? We don’t equip our teams with anything less then the best. Did he say who did it?" said Darius, sounding shocked at the thought of almost an entire team erased so easily. "Uh, I'm pretty sure he was just babbling when he said that," said the medic. "What did he say?" said Darius, harshly. "Uh, a purple unicorn did it," said the medic. "What?" said Darius bluntly. The medic shrugged and said "You wanted to know. We can’t check his equipment cam cause there was a gigantic magi surge at the time." Darius blinked and said, "Well, we need to find a logical explanation. I don't want a repeat of this." "We have been able to get the frequency of the magi surge that we presume is what killed Echo and drove Private Johnson off the deep end." said the medic. Darius glared "Get Echo 1 and 2 suited up for heavy combat. I want them to find out who or what did this to my men." he said angrily. ... Matt didn’t stop worrying about what had happened to the team Darius had sent. He refused to leave the ship for the next few days, having Aria listen in case any other teams turned up to either find out what had happened or to get revenge. He and Twilight had also both agreed to keep the find of the armour to themselves at least until they found out what had killed the mercenaries and nearly killed Matt. However, on the fourth evening, he was forced to head out to Applejacks farm to stock up on food. Applejack had allowed him to take a few apples from the trees near to the edge of Everfree as long as he didn't get greedy. Matt usually did his 'harvest' after the sun had set to avoid unwanted attention so was surprised to bump into Applejack herself as he arrived. "Bit late to be out, isn’t it?" he said cheerfully as he came out of the tree line. "I'm just making sure you won't be rustling any more apples than you need," said Applejack, suspiciously. "I haven’t been out the ship since my trip with Twilight. I've been living off survival rations." said Matt, confused. "Then how comes the trees here have been losing so many apples?" demanded Applejack. She nodded up towards some trees, where several branches were barren of apples. Matt looked up at the evidence. "Smeg." he said to himself before saying "Maybe Darius has a team in the area. Aria can only listen so much. You probably heard about the close call me and Twilight had. Just be careful...these guys do not play games." "Yeah, I heard about it, alright," said Applejack, "How did you two get out of that pickle?" "Uh...dumb luck mostly," said Matt, the response carefully worded. Applejack frowned at that, having gotten the same question dodge when she had asked Twilight. However, she also knew when someone wasn’t gonna talk so she dropped it. Matt, on his own part, mentally sighed with relief when Applejack seemed to drop the subject and said "I'll keep an extra eye out...if they were really looking for trouble, they'd have marched into town." Matt then headed over to a tree that looked like it still had some ripe apples on it, vanishing from sight among the trees. Applejack watched Matt walk out of sight before sighing. The missing apples were probably just one of the Everfree forests inhabitants after a free lunch. She was about to go make sure Matt hadn’t gotten lost in the orchard when she heard footsteps coming from the forest...lots of footsteps. She quickly hid behind one tree, keeping an eye out for whoever or whatever was coming. Just over half a dozen humans came into view, heading for the apple trees. One said in a cocky voice "Apples again, sarge? It’s bad enough we lost our rations to that manticore but having to eat this smeg?" "Would you rather eat roots?" replied a voice. "It'd at least be a change." said the first voice again, its owner kicking an apple out of the trees. A third, female voice said "Don't forget, we need firewood. Thermal flares aren’t any good without wood to burn." "Do I look like a woodchopper?" asked the first voice. "Just shoot a few branches down." said a new voice, one of the humans pulling out a rifle. Applejack snorted with anger. "Poachin' apples is bad enough, but no one's choppin' down our trees," she grumbled before she charged out. ... Echo 1 had spent the last 4 days in misery. First, a manticore of all things had attacked their camp. Their dropship had survived but they’d lost half their supplies. Then, they'd lost 3 men to some kind of lizard/chicken hybrid with a very...unique stare...and now some talking orange pony was in front of them. "What the hell is that?" said Corporal Higgins. One of the men, who had taken a bite from an apple, stared at the fruit in question before throwing it away. "Ok, I think something's wrong with these apples," he said. The orange pony seemed to get annoyed at that. "What? First, y'all poach our apples, now you're insultin' em?" it said angrily. Sergeant Andrews grinned as three of his men had gotten behind the local. "Yeah...so what?" he said, pulling out his pistol, only for one of his corporals to say "Darius said no collateral casualties." "It's a smegging horse," said Andrews, "I doubt he'd even care." "Jenkins gibbered something about talking ponies...maybe this one knows something?" said one of the troopers behind Applejack, adding nastily "Plus I don’t like it when farm animals talk back." One of the troopers behind Applejack pulled out a stick and clicked it on, causing electricity to crackle from the end of it. But Applejack wasn't about to let herself get zapped by some two bit apple poacher and kicked out behind with her hind legs. The trooper took the kick to his chest and was sent into the tree behind him with a crunch, a visible dent in his armours chestplate. One of the other troopers snapped out of his shock first and growled "You little..." only to receive a buck himself, sending him spinning like a top before he fell. The third one aimed a downward attack, only to find AJ had moved. "Oh cra..." he began before being bucked in the visor of his helmet, instantly knocked out. A fourth one moved in, wielding his energy knife to stab Applejack, but Applejack kicked him as well, only lower than the others. Collins and Andrews winced, their eyes watering in male sympathy although their female teammate just laughed. Andrews finally clicked his blaster to stun and fired, catching Applejack on the left hind leg and knocking her to the ground, dazing her. He walked towards her, glaring and saying icily "You're worse then Lynch. Now then...how'd you take out echo 4? You don't look capable of reducing people to gibbering wrecks." before pausing and looking at the squealing trooper, adding "...most of the time." "I ain’t never met anypony named Echo." said Applejack, wincing from the numbness the blast had caused. "The last stable memory Captain Jenkins had was one of you freaks...so DON’T LIE!" said Andrews, yelling the last part and pointing his blaster, having set it back to kill. "I don't know what happened to them cause I never met em," said Applejack, glaring defiantly at Andrews. Andrews glared back and clicked his blaster. "Maybe I should blow a limb off? Pains always a good motivator..." before the merc jerked, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut, smoke rising from where a blast had hit. The other mercs raised their guns as more stunner blasts shot around em. "Its the NSC. Grab the sarge..." yelled Collins, panicking. The troopers quickly picked up their stunned sergeant and ran for it, several of them limping, particularly the one with his hands between his legs. Matt came into view a half minute later, firing his blaster after the mercs before looking over at Applejack and running over. "Damn...you ok? Lucky their sergeant got such a good pair of lungs." he said, concerned. "I'm fine," said Applejack, "I don't think they hurt me. Though I can't feel much of my flank." "Its just a stun round. Its literally sent your leg to sleep. It'll be fine in a few minutes." said Matt, peering around, adding jokingly "Shame I gotta hide, otherwise I could just run for help." "Ah, tain't nothing to fret about," said Applejack, "Them apple rustlers will think twice before poaching here again." "Yeah...I saw one of them. Man, you fight dirty." said Matt, grinning. "I was aiming for his diaphragm, but he moved a bit," said Applejack, returning the grin. Matt looked up before aiming his wrist comp and firing a flare from its launcher. "That ought to get some attention and some help. What were those guys asking about, anyway?" he said. "About what happened to their friends," said Applejack. "Oh..." said Matt, his voice going distant before asking "Did they mention any specifics?" "Only that their friends went crazy," said Applejack, "But you'd know more than me, wouldn't you?" Matt said "I wouldn’t know." with certain truth, given that he’d almost ended up in the same boat. Matt sighed and said "I'd better go...your little sister knows me but nobody else does and I do not wanna see the inside of a jail cell." Applejack stared after Matt as he grabbed some of the fallen apples and ran back into the tree line just as Big Mac came into view. She may not have been a certified genius, but her element of harmony meant that she could tell a falsehood when she heard one from a mile away. ... It was the same nightmare again. Canterlot in flames...blurry machines hovering over the streets, firing energy pulses at movement. Twilight ducked down and covered her head with her hooves as a store front was hit by a pulse blast and blossomed into a fireball. The culprit shot away while humans, wearing the same gear as the ones from Luna’s old castle walked into view and past her hiding place. Blasts of energy were quickly reducing the beautiful houses and buildings into rubble, with the citizens screaming and running for their lives. Twilight could only watch as some citizens ran into the sight of the humans on the ground...and their guns. "Twilight!" called two voices. Twilight turned to see a blue unicorn stallion with two crescent moons for a cutie mark and a unicorn mare with purple mane and hair with three purple stars for her cutie mark. "Mom? Dad?" asked Twilight. Her parents looked in her direction and ran over. "Twilight...thank Celestia you're alright...when we heard what happened to ponyville..." said her mother, anxiously. "What? What about Ponyville?" asked Twilight. "They burnt it to the ground...They said nopony escaped in time." said her father, sadly. "What? But that's impossible," said Twilight. Her father said "We're sorry about your friends...but the city needs your help. You're the only one other then the princesses who can stand up to them..." "I don't know," said Twilight, "Those guys look really tough. Shouldn't we try to find Princess Celestia?" "There's no time." said her mother, urgently, looking over her shoulder. "We can't wait any longer," said her father, "Where is Matt?" Twilight sighed "I'm having the dream again. You’ve never met Matt." she said to herself, before walking over to a wall and headbutting it. ... Twilight opened her eyes to find herself back in the library. "This dream is really getting old," she said to herself. Spike was downstairs, already up and dealing with his chores. "Hi there, Twi. Same nightmare?" he said, in greeting. "I think the fifth time," said Twilight, "Slightly different. This time, it was my parents asking where Matt was." "That human living in the forest? When are you gonna let me meet this guy?" said Spike. Twilight sighed and said "He’s not exactly sociable." "Ah, he can't be that bad," said Spike, cheerfully. Twilight conjured a vision in her head of Matt, a creature that seemed a single, very small step from taking a one way dive off sanity...a person who always carried one of his weird energy weapons with him. "Maybe next time." she said in compromise. After all, the human had already had one close call with a manticore so he would have to come out soon. "You know, the weird thing about these dreams is that they seem so...fake," said Twilight. "Uh, they're dreams, they're not supposed to be real," said Spike. Twilight smiled at that. I know, silly. There's just...something off about them...like they're scripted." she said before the library door burst open and the CMC trio burst in, all talking at once. "Whoa, whoa, slow down girls," said Twilight, "I can't understand you talking like that." The crusaders stopped talking for a minute to take breaths before Applebloom said in a upset and frantic voice "Some of those varmints that Matt said were after him got big sis." "What? Applejack's in trouble?" asked Spike. "They were hustlin the apple trees last night. Applejack surprised em. Matt wuz there and helped to chase em off but they got her." said Applebloom, gloomily. "We have to go after her, immediately," said Twilight. Scootaloo said "They didn’t take her but she was limping when we saw her." "Oh, that's not as bad," said Twilight, "I think I have a book on healing spells in here." ... Twilight, Spike and the CMC headed down to Sweet Apple Acres to where Applejack could be seen, helping pull a apple wagon. The clear difference was a bandage around her left hind leg and the flank above it. "Twilight. Nice of you to drop by." she said in greeting as she spotted them. "Are you hurt?" asked Twilight, "I've learned some healing spells recently that could..." Applejack went wide eyed for a second. "No thank you, sugarcube. Ah still remember whut happened when you performed a healing spell on angel." she said. "Well, Angel was a little small for his age anyways," said Twilight, "And he turned back to normal...eventually." "Yeah...doc said ah'll be fine in a couple of days so there ain’t no need to put yourself out...and Matt said he's gonna make sure the rest of them stay in the forest huntin ghosts." said Applejack, just concealing a sigh of relief. "Did you say ghost?" asked Applebloom nervously. "Don’t worry, applebloom. Just repeatin what Matt said. You know he talks a bit weird." said Applejack, thinking of Matts habit of screaming the word 'smeg' over and over when annoyed. "Well, those varmints better not mess with our orchards again," said Applebloom, enthusiastically. "Ah don’t think they were after the apples...kept askin about their buddies." said Applejack. "What buddies?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Some of them tried to get me and Matt when I was visiting Luna's old castle. We just got away." said Twilight. "So they have friends that are lost in Everfree Forest?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Ah don't think they're friends." said Applejack, to herself. "Hey, maybe we can earn our cutie marks by guarding the apples," said Scootaloo. The two ponies both said "NO!" at the same time, earning an 'Awww.' from the crusaders. Applejack sighed and said "These humans aren't like Matt." "They're very dangerous," said Twilight, "And they don't play nice at all." Applebloom said "Like that cockatrice we met with Fluttershy?" Twilight said "As bad, yes." "Ah, just when I thought Everfree Forest was getting safe enough to explore in," said Scootaloo. Twilight sighed as the Cutie Mark Crusaders left before she said "Are you sure you're ok, Applejack?" "Now, now, it's nothing to worry about," said Applejack, "I'll be fine in a few days and I'll be getting back to work." "Just be careful." said Twilight with concern. Applejack sighed "Those nightmares again?" she said before saying "They're just nightmares, hun. They're not the future." "I know that," said Twilight, sighing "But these don't feel like ordinary dreams." "Just ignore em. You can always wake up from dreams." said Applejack, with a smile. "Now don’t you worry none. Ah'll be fine." "If you're sure," said Twilight, "Just don't try to overexert yourself." ... Meanwhile... Andrews was not in a good mood. "I can't believe that...smeghead shot me in the back." he was ranting, a bandage round his head where he had hit it when he’d fallen down. "Well, you're hardly the one who suffered the most pain," said one of the men. "Yeah, the way Ted's whining, you'd think he'll never have kids," said another. Lance-Corporal Andrea laughed to herself, saying "Men." under her breath before seeing a few dropships flying into view. "Uh oh...guys...the other teams are back." she said. "Maybe they have some good news," said one of the men. The first dropship landed as Andrew said "Yeah...like they found the target on the other side of this rock." The looks on the faces of the mercs coming out though seemed to indicate that Andrews’ theory wasn't likely. "Well, status report," snapped Andrews. "Shut it, Dave. We've had a crappy week...This place is worse then Mythicos for wierd smeg." said one of the team leaders before noticing the wrecked camp. "What the smeg happened here while we were gone?" he said with amusement. "We tried gathering apples from the orchard, but we ran into a security problem," said Andrea. "This place looks like a manticore hit it." said a merc coming from the last dropship before noticing Andrews' glare "Man. Sucks to be you." he said. "I'm in a bad mood right now, the 'I will shoot whoever bothers me too much' kind of mood," said Andrew. "Cool it...we managed to work out where the target is. Its practically next door." said the first merc again, smirking. "Does that mean what I think it means?" asked Andrews in an annoyed tone. "Coming from the center of that tow..." began a merc and everyone jumped back as Andrews screamed 'WHYYYYYYYY?' ... That night Twilight was getting ready for bed. However, she was feeling a bit of anticipation about going to sleep. She looked at herself in the mirror and sighed before saying to herself "Applejacks right...it was just a dream." before getting into bed and shutting her eyes ... Outside the town, two of echo's mercs pushed what looked like a pole with a disc glued to the top into the soft ground. "This is Night light. Last Psy-sleepers in place. Nobodies gonna wake up tonight. Its all clear." said one merc. "Then start them up," said the voice on the other side of the comm. "Roger that. It'll cover the forest too so if Lynch is camped there, we won’t get interruptions from him either." said the merc. "Brilliant...lets get this done. You saw the magi readings from that city nearby...I do not wanna meet its owner." said the voice again, a mix of agreement coming over the comm. "How come we're stuck on Psy-sleeper duty?" said the other merc, as a dropship flew over. The first merc said "The sleepers'll keep anyone who was asleep when they came on, asleep till we're done...including the target. We gotta make sure nothing damages the network." "So what if we nod off?" asked the other merc. "We were awake when it turned on. Unless someone stuns us...we'll stay awake." said the first merc, sighing as he did so. The second merc said "So nobody can wake up." "Yes, yes, we've been over this," said the first merc, "Why do you keep asking that?" "Because I think I saw something moving in the trees," said the second merc. The first merc looked at the nearby orchard. The network type units the duo had set up had to be set up evenly and it was dumb luck that this one had been set up near where the crazy orange pony that had nailed Ted was. "It can’t be...that hat wearer again...could it?" said the second one, holding his blaster rifle in shaking hands. The two of them slowly approached the treeline, looking for anything suspicious. After a few minutes of shining their lights through the trees, the first merc sighed "Man...I'm jumpy. You shoulda seen..." he began in relief, not finishing as Matt, who had been spending the night keeping an eye on the farm from the everfree treeline and, who up until that moment had been sneaking up, punched the first merc across the jaw hard enough to spin him before blasting the second with his plasma magnum. Matt then noticed the psy sleeper. "As much as I need the sleep, I don't need it that much," said Matt before blasting it. He had, of course only overheard part of what the mercs had spoken about, otherwise he might not have shot it. As the psy sleeper powered down, the wrist comp on one of the downed mercs began to beep urgently. ... Meanwhile, the rest of echo looked up as their dropship took position. "Ok...lets move. I want whatever the target is stunned and ready to go in 10 minutes..." said Andrews. As the troopers headed in the direction of the signal, they were not impressed by the scenery. "Sheesh, do they have any kind of paint that's not too bright," said one. "I've seen dollhouses less silly-looking than these," said another. "Remember...no shooting unless you meet a psy immune." said their squad leader, referring to the slang name for the rare cases of individuals immune to psy sleepers. "I half hope there is a few." muttered the merc that had mentioned the doll house comment. They stopped, looking at a tree house...as in a house inside a tree. "Signals coming from there...some kinda magi lock on the door." said the tech with the scanner. Andrews sighed and pointed to the others. "I want a perimeter. I don’t want any chances. Davis...open that damn door. I want out of this toyland as soon as possible." he said. The tech sighed "One mythicos lockpick special coming up...in 10 minutes." he said. "You have 5," said Andrews. "This isn’t like a normal lockpick. You want me to pick the lock or vaporise 3 square blocks?" said Davis, irritated. "Just get to work on it," said Andrews. "Fine...just give me peace and quiet to do it." said Davis, before turning to work on the lock. ... Squad 2 was near to the wierd candy building, one of them poking its side. "How the smeg did they manage this?" the merc commented thoughtfully. The other merc was trying to call the sleeper team. "Night Light...harrison, you there?" he was saying, annoyed at no answer. However, between the candy building and their attempts to contact the sleeper team, the mercs failed to notice when one merc that was standing next to an alley was suddenly pulled out of sight. Another merc finally got an alert. "Guys...we got a problem. Psy Sleeper 2 and 4 just auto deactivated...and sleeper 3 is sending a system crash alarm." he said, urgently. "That can't be, double check," said another. "I'll go check it out. If one of them got damaged, all the others will turn off...then so much for a quiet mission." said the merc, running in the direction of the outskirts. Just then, one of the mercs looked around and said, "Hey, where's George?" The two remaining mercs raised their rifles and shone the attached searchlights around. "George. This ain’t funny." yelled the first merc, neither of them noticing a light coming on in the building behind them. Matt was slipping out of the alley, 'George' knocked out, tied up and propped up behind him and the mercs stun stick in his hand. He was getting just within striking range of one of the mercs when the door of the candy building opened and one of its owners appeared. "What's going on out here?" asked Mr. Cake in a tired voice. The two mercs turned, raising their rifles automatically and it would have ended badly for Mr Cake then and there, had Matt not brought the stun stick down on the left mercs gun arm, before firing the liberated gun at the other. He turned to the shocked pony and said "I’d get inside and stay there if I was you..." as four more echo mercs, having heard the gunfire, ran into view. "Its Lynch...waste that smeghead." yelled one of them and opened fire. Mr. Cake wasted no time shutting and locking the door. The mercs however let loose with everything they had. Matt ran for it down an alley, the hogtied George glaring at him as he ran by. ... Andrews jumped as the sound of gunfire was heard, several lights turning on in the surrounding houses. "What the hell is going on, perimeter? And why the smeg can I see activity from the locals?" he yelled into his comm. "It's Lynch," came the reply, "The bastard's probably messed with the sleepers. We got locals waking up all over the place" "Fine...weapons free. I have had enough of this smegged up dimension." said Andrews angrily, before switching channels. "Eyeball. Put that dropship to use...Nobody leaves till we're finished." he said. The reply said "Not a problem, man." ... Of course, with the gunfire and the psy sleepers down, no pony was asleep anymore. As a matter of fact, practically every single one was running and screaming, mainly towards the edge of Ponyville. None of the fleeing ponies seemed to notice that any mercs taking aim at them tended to get shot rather quick. Two ponies, a sea green unicorn with a lute cutie mark and a white earth pony with three wrapped sweets as hers were at the head, the unicorn calling out "Come on, Bonbon. We're almost at the canterlot road." "We'll be safe there, Lyra," said Bonbon with relief. The two ponies turned the corner onto the final road leading out to Canterlot before what looked like a metallic hawk screamed overhead and hovered facing the road, before firing a hail of energy rounds and creating a wall of flames. ... Eyeballs pilot smirked as the two ponies fled into a building. "This is eyeball...doors are locked. Nobodies leaving this party." he said with a evil grin. He hadn’t had this much fun in years... ... Matt ducked behind a stand that happened to be standing across the street from Carousel Boutique. Echo squad had also set up opposite, ignoring the panicking locals for now, probably in favour of bagging the no doubt astronomically high bounty that their employers had on Matt. Matt peered out and had to duck back as several pulse rounds nearly removed his head. He turned to the side to see Sweetie belle and Rarity peering out and motioned for them to stay there, firing blindly over his cover, a yell indicating he’d hit one of echo. "Rarity, what's going on?" asked Sweetie Belle in a frightened voice. "I'm not quite sure," said Rarity, staying calm for her little sisters sake "But I believe it's best we stay inside." One merc fired a few random rounds at the duo before Matt fired the last of his captured SMG and sent the offending merc sprawling. Matt pulled out his plasma magnum and shot another merc before a lucky shot sent his gun flying out his hand and into the open ground between his cover and the boutique. "Smeg," said Matt, the crossfire discouraging a retrieval. ... Twilight opened her eyes to find herself in what looked like a pure black void. "Twilight." said a voice behind her and she turned to see her parents, just like in the other dreams. This time however, they didn’t look frightened...they looked deadly serious. "Mom, Dad, what's going on?" asked Twilight. "Twilight...your friends are in danger." said her father, his horn glowing and what looked like a hole in the void appeared, showing the main street of Ponyville near the boutique, where Echo were raining a merciless hail of fire on Matts cover. "Oh my gosh, I must do something," said Twilight, in shock. She immediately galloped at the view, only for it to vanish into mist. Her mother said in a grim voice "You don’t have enough magic to stop them all. There are too many of the humans." "But I can't stay here and do nothing," said Twilight in horror. Her father said in the same grim voice "Let us help you. Together we can stop them." "You sure? This may be a bit much for you and if you got hurt..." said Twilight. Her mother said, with a smile. "My daughter...together we can do anything." "You really think so?" asked Twilight in a unsure voice, looking at the re-emerged view. Her father said with a identical smile "Of course we can, My daughter." before holding his hoof out. Twilight probably should have been more wary about her parents' smiles and the strange look in their eye, but the desperate situation going on didn't leave much time for careful thinking. As a result, as she held out her own hoof, she failed to notice the star speckled smoke heading towards her. ... Back in reality, Matt had his head covered as the round impacts sent splinters around him before waving to Rarity. He’d seen her and Twilight levitate stuff...surely they could levitate his gun over...it was only a matter of time before echo worked out he was defenceless. "What is Matt waving about?" asked Sweetie Belle. "I'm not sure," said Rarity, "I think he's trying to make us look at something." Matt made pointing motions to where his gun lay in the grass before a shot nearly blew his hand off and he backed further into cover. "I think he's pointing at that stick thingy," said Sweetie Belle pointing at the plasma magnum. Rarity looked where her little sister was pointing before catching on and nodding at Matt. With a little concentration, she easily used her magic to slide the gun over to Matt, but she also noticed the sparking dent in the side. ... Matt readied the blaster and noticed the dent, followed by the guns computer saying "Danger...recoil dampener is damaged...please do not discharge this weapon until a qualified Archeon and Recaris technician can replace the damaged component." "Sorry, no A&R repair shops here," said Matt. A footstep got his attention and Matt turned to see a echo merc flanking him. He didn’t waste time aiming at the merc and firing. The result was quite impressive. The blast sent the echo merc flying back into a pile of crates with a smoking hole in his armour while unfortunately the recoil also sent Matt flying backwards into Carousel boutique, over the heads of the two unicorns and into the far wall with a painful sounding crunch. "Ok, gonna need to find an A&R repair shop," winced Matt. Rarity and Sweetie Belle and ran over. "My goodness, are you alright?" said Rarity in shock. Matt said weakly "I don’t think so." confirming as when he tried to move, his vision blurred from pain. One of his ribs must have broke, despite his armour. His medical nanites would fix it...but they might knock him out to do so. "Should I get some bandages?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Nah...I'll be fine." said Matt before hearing a voice outside say "Ok, Lynch...you come on out before we turn this building and its inhabitants into a colander." "Ok, this is trouble," said Matt. "You got ten seconds to come on out...and we might leave a few survivors." said the merc outside, earning a few nasty laughs from his fellow teammates. ... Davis grinned as the lock finally clicked. "Yo, boss. We're in...wow...magi levels are going nuts." he said, looking as his scanner began to beep like crazy. "There's no way they can spike that fast," said Andrews. Davis looked at the readings again, the readout flashing red as the levels shot past the danger level. "Shit...target must be awake." he swore, backing up from the door. Andrews glared at his men. "Kick the door...if darius wants this alive, he can clone it." He walked forward, kicked the door and died with the rest of his team as a blast of psy-energy engulfed him. ... Eyeball's pilot watched in shock as what looked like a blast of star speckled smoke shot out the door, engulfing Andrews and his team. "What the hell?" he said in shock, spinning his ship around for a clear shot. Suddenly, the dropship's sensors picked up a magi reading that was almost off the scale. The pilot looked ahead to see the smoke swirling to a single spot, apparently getting ready to leave. The pilot glared and said angrily "Nobody wastes my teammates and gets away." before firing. However, the shots didn't appear to do anything at all. "What? How could that thing still be standing?" said the pilot before a crippling pain shot through his head. The pilot screamed as blood came out of his nose and eyes, before he slumped over the controls, dead as a dodo. ... Matt, Rarity and Sweetie Belle were worryingly waiting for the mercs to storm before the trio heard panicked yells outside. Matt limped over to the door and was in time to see echo's gunship spiralling out of sight, a fireball burst into the air just outside the town. "Uh, that's a good thing, right?" asked Sweetie Belle. Matt turned to see several mercs firing in panic at a shape covered in shadowy smoke. The shape sent out several tendrils of smoke that hit the echo troopers, leaving nothing behind. The others were running for their lives. Sweetie Belle said “Is it over?” in a small voice. "It might be, but I'm going to make sure the job's finished," said Matt before staggering for the door. "Matt, I don't think you should move like that," said Rarity. Matt didn’t seem to be listening as he grabbed a discarded blaster and shot a retreating Echo merc in the back, vaporising him before trying to aim at another, "Attacking me...I can take...attacking...people who...can’t...fight...back...is...." he said, angrily, his voice slurring before he fell on his face, out cold. Just then, the starry smoke started swirling into a maelstrom in the sky. And enough of it lifted from the ground to reveal that they were actually the greatly extended mane and tail of an odd-looking unicorn. Rarity stared in shock as she recognised the cutie mark on the newcomer. "Twilight?" she said in shock. The unicorn turned to look at Rarity, though 'unicorn' may not apply so well. A pair of black wings suddenly extended from her shoulders...except that they weren't merely wings like on a black Pegasus, but completely black, like they were made of shadow. However, the rest of the unicorn had the same familiar colors. Rarity and Sweetie Belle took a nervous step back as the unicorn turned to look at them before a hail of energy rounds from more echo survivors shot past her. The unicorn turned towards the mercs and her eyes and horn glowed dark purple. The troopers took a step back nervously before the ground seemed to open under them, black holes under their feet swallowing the luckless mercs. The mercs didn't have long to scream before they disappeared completely. The ponies looked terrified as 'Twilight' or whoever that was turned her head towards them before saying with a cruel sneer "Isn’t any pony going to thank me?" Just then, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew down. "What was all that scary noise?" asked Fluttershy. "It woke me up in the middle of a racing dream," said Dash a little sourly. Dash's voice trailed off to see some of Matt's targets laying down, as well as Matt himself, the embers of 'Eyeballs' fire block and the smoke from the aforementioned downed dropship outside town. It also fell on the dark alicorn hovering in front of the library tree. "Nightmare Moon? But I thought she changed back to Luna," said Rainbow Dash. The alicorn turned its gaze on the pegasi and said "Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash...do you like the new me?" Fluttershy nearly stopped flapping her wings in shock. "Tw-tw-Twilight?" asked Fluttershy in a shaking voice. Rainbow dash, naturally was more to the point. "Twilight? Are you crazy? How did this happen?" she said, in shock. Behind her, the other ponies in the town were coming out of hiding. Twilight looked at the ponies' frightened faces. They feared her, they feared her power. And for some reason, it felt really good. As a matter of fact, it was quite intoxicating. She turned to look at the horrified and frightened faces of the citizens of ponyville before at the faces of her friends...no...former friends. What need had a goddess for friends? Rarity was saying in a concerned voice. "Twilight...you have to stop this. This...power you've used...its dangerous." "Only to those who lack the knowledge to control it, and I possess plenty of that," said Twilight, proudly. This...power you've used...its dangerous." Fluttershy said in a small voice "Please...Twilight. You have to give this magic up...if you don’t mind....sorry." "Give it up? Why on Equestria would I want to give this up?" said Twilight, "I am all-powerful." Some of the ponies looked towards Canterlot where a dozen or so royal guard could be seen heading towards the town. Rainbow Dash glared "You're gonna give up that power if I have to make you. Its too dangerous." she said, flaring her wings to take off only for several black tendrils to tangle her up painfully. "So thats it..." said twilight darkly. Unnoticed by the ponies, Matt was started to stir. His ribs weren't completely healed and his head felt like a blacksmith's anvil, but he was at least conscious. The other ponies were backing up in horror as Twilight descended down to ground level. "So, you're jealous...you want my power for yourself." she said, squeezing the tendrils with each harsh word. "No...not...at...all..." gasped Rainbow Dash. While the ponies were watching in horror, Matt was working with his wrist comp. "C'mon, anything, a bazooka, a stun grenade," he muttered. The wrist comp's however replied, "No available weapons are capable of damaging target." "Smeg..." said Matt to himself as Twilight said harshly "Well...I don’t need you anymore..." Matt sighed and reached for the blaster next to him. "Ok...time out," he said, firing a few rounds. While it didn’t do anything, it did make the proto-goddess release her grip on Rainbow Dash. Twilight's eyes blazed with fury, as well as dark magical energies. "Who dares attack me?" she demanded. The crowd had scattered again when Matt had fired, revealing Matt, barely managing to sit up, the blaster in his hand shaking. "Told you...that armour was...bad news." he said, weakly. Just then, Applejack and Pinkie Pie arrived to see Matt shooting at a dark winged version of Twilight. "What in tarnation's going on?" asked Applejack. "Is it Nightmare Night already?" asked Pinkie. The two of them didn't get much time to process the situation as Princess Celestia and her guards flew down from the sky. Celestia looked...well, the only word to describe her mood was 'fuming'. A group of creatures had attacked her subjects and only luck had stopped deaths. Her angry look turned to shock as she saw the other alicorn...more so as recognition dawned. Twilight hissed a bit at the brightness of Celestia's coat. She felt an urge to extinguish that brightness, but common sense told her now was not the best time. Celestia looked at Twilight and said in a sad tone "Oh...twilight...what have you done?" Twilight's mane and tail flared as she said, "I am no longer your student. Now I am the master." The two alicorns glared before both looking down when matt said in a slurred voice "Oh, shut up. WHY DOES EVIL DO CORNY LINES?" Unfortunately, Celestia was distracted by Matt enough to take her eyes of Twilight. Twilight took advantage of this as she seemed to disappear into the starry smoke of her mane and tail. "We will meet again, Celestia. And next time, I won't be so merciful." Matt, realising what he'd just inadvertedly caused said weakly "Oh...bugger." before he passed out again. While the townsponies weren't very sure about what had just happened, they did know that there was at least one of the attackers was still alive and he had just passed out. The remaining Mane six, getting a good idea what the furious ponies had in mind for Matt, got in the way. "Y'all crazy? He ain't done a thing wrong." said Applejack. "He's one of the attackers," said one of the ponies. "They tried to destroy our town," said another. Rarity said angrily to the pony "Don’t be so foolish. He is as much their enemy. He stopped them hurting me and my sister." "How can we be sure?" demanded the same pony. Pinkie said with her classic bounciness "Don’t be silly. He may be a bit grumpy-wumpy and look a bit strange but he’s not a bad guy." "Enough," said Celestia, "This is a matter that concerns the safety of all of Equestria. I shall see to this...stranger." The ponies parted as Celestia walked up to the human and looked at him closely. The human looked like a young adult...barely out of his teens but there was a...air. He’d seen too much for someone his years. Applejack said desperately "He ain’t like those others..." only to stop as Celestia said softly "I have to be sure.", her horn glowing. ... Matt opened his eyes and experienced the headache from hell and to be in a cell. He didn’t expect to be standing on a floating island in a void he’d never expected to see ever again. "Oh boy...well, I can safely say the chronicler isn’t responsible this time." he said, in a tired voice, turning to see a castle not unlike the caste he and Twilight had explored...but not ruined. "I'm pretty sure there weren't any buildings the last time I was here," said Matt when he heard some voices from the direction of said castle. Matt automatically reached for his holstered weapon, his hand almost there before he remembered that all the other convexity visits had not given him a gun, so he was surprised to find his blaster in its usual place. "Ok...now this is weird." he said to himself in a shaken voice before heading through the gates. The scene he saw was an equestrian being backed into a corner by two Black 13 mercenaries. "Hey...what the smeg are you doing?" said Matt, angrily. The first of the mercs turned to say in a nasty voice "None of your business. This is our contract. Combine confeds have been after this guy for years." "I only ate a few leaves!" cried the pony, "How was I supposed to know that rose bush belonged to someone important?" Matt stared. He heard that the Combine Confederation had a strict law system to the point on insanity but this was new. "You're kidding, right? You're arresting him for having a snack?" he said to the black 13 duo. "That rose bush happened to belong to a high-ranking member of the Council and he was rather distraught to have his prized roses maimed," said one of the mercs. Matt said coldly "Then I expect you have the papers to do this." The right merc said with a smirk "Fuck papers...this guys worth 150k per merc." The other gave his companion a glare and said more reasonably "You don’t even know this guy." Matt looked at the pony and seemed to hear a gentle female voice saying faintly "Would you act to help a pony you have never met?" Matt looked over his shoulder, looking for the speaker and asked, "What was that?" "Oh, please," said one of the mercs, "That's the oldest trick in the book." Matt looked at the pleading face of the pony before at the mercs, one saying "You coming quietly or do we have to deliver damaged goods?" as they drew their blasters. Matt rolled his eyes and said "I'm gonna regret this." before pulling his own blaster and shooting the two mercs blaster hands, disarming them. "Get lost." he said to the two mercs, who without their weapons suddenly had a loss of courage. The two mercs looked at each other before running away. Matt turned to the pony to see it staring at him with unnerving intensity. "You have heart..." it said with worrying calm, before adding "...but do you have the courage to sacrifice everything?" before Matt's vision was blinded, changing to a burning starship corridor, a AI saying "Warning: Core breach. General Order 13 in effect. All hands, abandon ship." "What is this, a video game?" asked Matt, already getting annoyed. A NSC crewman, bleeding from a cut on his forehead ran from a side corridor, guiding a family along. "Lynch...what the hell? Get your butt in gear. Combines torn us a new one. Help me get these civvies to the lifepods." the crewman yelled. Matt was a bit confused about his surroundings, but was quick to react to this new environment. As he ran along, he spotted a name on the side of the corridor, the 'NSS Triton'. He stopped for a second at that. It had been a colony ship that had been ambushed by Combine raiders...the incident that had sparked the Combine/NSC war. He'd only read about it, he hadn’t even been born when it had taken place. "Dammit, Lynch...move your ass." yelled the crewman before an explosion threw him back, dead. The children in the family screamed in terror at that. Matt said desperately “Ok...lets move." It may be some in a dream, but he’d felt the heat from the blast as real as anything. However, the children were too scared to move an inch. Matt said, soothingly "Come on...I know you're scared. Ancients know I am. However, the sooner you get to the pods, the sooner you're to safety." The children still looked terrified, but they moved forwards a little. Their mother said, a doctor judging from her white uniform, with the nametag 'Dr C' visible, the rest burnt away. "Come on, children. Sgt Lynch is here to help us." "That's right, I'm-" started Matt before pausing. He didn't say what his name was. Was he wearing a nametag? The AI shook him from his thoughts when it said calmly "Core meltdown imminent. Detonation in 3 minutes." "Ok, no time to dawdle," said Matt, "Let's get moving." The corridors led to a row of 'lifepod' class escape shuttle hatches. A pilot was prepping the only open one. "Come on...we're leaving yesterday." the pilot yelled before noticing the number. "Sorry, man. Only room for three." he said solemnly. "Don't tell me you didn't stock this ship with enough lifepods," said Matt. "We did, but the Combine blew up about two-fifths of them," said the pilot. Dr C said sadly "I will stay. Go with the sergeant, children." gently pushing her charges towards the shuttle. Matt said "No way you can stay here...its a death sentence." "There's not enough room for all of us," said Dr. C, "Just look after my children for me." Matt grabbed her by the shoulders and said "This place is gonna go up like the fourth of july." before saying with his usual grin "I'll go to the launch bays...maybe there's a starfury still in dock?" before pushing her into the arms of the pilot. "You're not gonna make it in time," said the pilot. "Whats your point?" said Matt. The pilot rolled his eyes and said "Your funeral...good luck, man." before getting into the shuttle. Dr C's smile was the last thing Matt saw before the hatch shut and the light above turned red as a 'whomph' was heard, indicating the shuttle had launched. Matt sat down on the floor just as he heard the same voice from earlier say "Willing to sacrifice even your life for people you never met." Matt glared up at the ceiling "Who the smeg are you? Get out of my head." The voice didn’t seem to listen, saying "But are you willing to swallow your pride?" before his vision white’d out again. ... Matt shook his head as he looked around his new settings. "Ok, where's the hidden camera?" he said. His hearing stopped ringing to hear a raid siren and screaming. Matt shook the vision clear to almost be knocked down in a tide of panic. Matt's eyes spun a bit as he stood back up. "Where's the fire?" he asked in a dizzy voice. Matt looked up to see a familiar sign. "No...anywhere but here..." he said in a terrified voice. The sign said 'Welcome to Sy Yong Colony.' He looked down at himself to see he was wearing the armour of a colony special security officer, basically a SWAT officer. A scream got his attention to see a colonist pinned down by what looked like a hybrid of human and reptile...an infected. "When will these nightmare morality lessons end?" said Matt before he charged at the infected. The infected raised its head as Matt charged and easily backhanded Matt back, before dragging its prey into a sewer grating. Matt got up again and pulled his rifle off its grip on his armour, firing as another infected group charged into view, all the time screaming "NO NO NO NO!" almost insanely. His arm ached and he looked down to see a very real slash in his arm from the backhand. At that, it occurred that it was possibly likely that he could die...especially in this hell. His armours comm beeped "This is dispatch to all units in the market area. What the fuck is going on down there? We're getting flatlines across the board." Matt paused before activating the comm, "Uh, this is security, we've got a breach." "We read you...Alpha 6. We're getting emergency calls across the colony. We have 4 tac teams ready to move..." said the dispatch tech. "Uh, that's probably not the best option," said Matt. "We're getting dozens of emergency calls from your sector...we're gonna send those..." said dispatch only for Matt to cut him off. "No...its a meat grinder down here. Anyone you send down won't leave intact...and they definately won't leave human." he yelled. "What do you mean 'won't leave human'," said the voice on the other end. There was swearing on the other end and the voice said, "I knew they were getting too far with their research." "Ok, kid. We're getting a hovership to you...sit tight. Helps on the way." said Dispatch, only for Matt to swear himself "NO...I don't need help...nobodies dying to help me." he said. A snarl got his attention and Matt turned to see an infected behind him. "Oh crap." Matt said, tiredly. The infected opened its mouth, but instead of a snarl, the voice from before said, "You have failed." Matt, who was wincing, expecting a mauling, opened one eye. "Pardon?" The infected said "However...it is clear you do not reject help from pride...rather to take danger off of others." Matt paused and said, "Ok, is the part where the Matrix Agent shows up?" The infected grabbed Matt by his collar at that before saying "No...this is when you wake." before his vision whited out again. ... When Matt woke up, he was aware he was being constricted. At first, he thought they were manacles, but he then realized they were bandages. He managed to look over at his wrist computer to see a display indicating the nanites had finished healing the injuries ages ago. Something had kept him out cold longer. "Man...when I oversleep..." Matt said to himself, before pushing himself up to a sitting position to see two white pegasi in golden armour at the doorway, their backs to him. The soldier in him, placed after his subliminal flash training, sneered at the fact they weren't keeping an eye on him as well as listing all the ways Matt could get past them. His more sensible part told him that there were probably more guards outside. He craned his neck to look at himself. Apparently, the ponies, probably through inexperience with his species, had overdid it with the bandages. He carefully tore the bandages away to see that he still had a few bruises, such small injuries usually being ignored by medi-nanites. "Well...could be worse." he muttered to himself just as a pink haired white pony, a red cross on her flank, came in. Matt, to his internal shame, reached for his empty holster from the surprise. "No offence, miss..." said Matt, apologetically leaving the ending hanging The pony said soothingly "I'm nurse Redheart. You're in Ponyville urgent care clinic." Matt couldn’t help noticing the tone of voice was the sort that would be used to someone a inch away from snapping or who was on a high ledge. "Well, Nurse Redheart, thanks for the treatment, but I heal a bit faster than you think," said Matt. Matt said as kindly as he could "Well, I'll be leaving then...those insults to my species can't have gotten far." He didn’t get far, the two pegasi on guard, blocking his way with their wings. "Excuse me." he said in a annoyed voice. "Can't let you go," said one. "Orders from the Princess," said the other. "I could move you myself." said Matt, his temper rising. He'd had the night from hell, including being attacked by 3 squads of exo gene mercs, blasted into a wall by his own gun and to top it off, had a re-enactment of his own personal nightmare. "The Princess will want a word with you eventually," said one. "You're not going anywhere until she does," said the other. Matt sighed and walked back to the bed and muttered in splitter "I hate this planet." ... It was an hour before the guards parted to let Celestia in. Matt had his head in his hands, deep enough in thought not to hear her come in. "You're awake." she said, her voice making Matt jump. Matt looked up at Celestia and said, "Uh, I think I have a lot of explaining to do." Celestia didn't say anything, leaving the sort of silence that begs to be filled. Matt sighed and began to say "I didn't plan to land here..." before muttering something in splitter. "I think you might want to start with who you are and where you came from," said Celestia. Matt sighed and began to explain, starting with the disastrous mission to retrieve Aria, the destruction of Anaconda Colony before finally telling what had happened at the castle. "It was my fault. I shoulda vaporised that armour as soon as I could see straight." he said bitterly. "You couldn't have done anything," said Celestia. "But if I had-" started Matt. "No, you really wouldn't have been able to do anything," said Celestia, "NightMare Moon's armour destroyed those other beings when they damaged it. You wouldn't have done any better." Matt thought back to how the armour had only killed echo after one of them had tried to prize the crescent moon off it. "That...thing in Twilights got a name?" he said, bitterly. "I'm sure you've heard of how my sister was corrupted by her own envy," said Celestia. "Not really...I’ve been hiding in the forest nearby for the last week. I'm guessing I haven’t exactly got a fan club outside." said Matt in the same bitter voice. "Ages ago, Luna and I ruled over Equestria, I watched over the day, she commanded the night. But since the ponies slept during the night, she eventually grew bitter over how much more praise they had for the day than the night..." said Celestia. ... Matt sat back and listened patiently as Celestia told how eventually her sister, Luna's bitterness grew so much that one night she refused to let the sun rise, becoming the creature known as Nightmare Moon. Celestia had been forced to banish her to the moon for a thousand years until recently she had returned and been cured by Twilight and her friends. "Ok, so I'm assuming that Luna was as completely surprised as you were when you heard about the armour," said Matt. "She was...surprised." said Celestia sadly, remembering how upset her sister had been. Matt said "Good thing I locked that junk up good and tight. To get past my security, you'd need to be..." Celestia finished sadly "...an alicorn." "Er, I'm assuming that's what you are, right?" asked Matt. Celestia nodded sadly. Matt turned his wrist comp on and said "Aria...lock the ship down...nothing in or out until I get there...if I get there." "I do not mean to detain you," said Celestia, "But as you can see, a great threat is upon Equestria and I need to make sure I know where you stand." "Those jerks killed an entire colony to get Aria back. They're criminals and an insult to mercenaries everywhere." said Matt, his temper rising. "I cannot pass judgement about those other beings until I am certain," said Celestia, "But I fear Twilight might be a more imminent threat." Matt stopped at that "Yeah..." he said sadly before saying "As long as she doesn’t get the armour..." "If she puts it on, it would be almost certainly impossible to remove it," said Celestia before pausing and adding, "Or bring the real Twilight back." Matt seemed to stare ahead at nothing. Celestia didn't say anything. When she had peered into his mind, she had seen a sad soul, barely holding together under repeated losses...one standing out in particular. Those kind of spectres did not leave a person easily. Matt finally said "There must be some way...I can get that armour anywhere you want...including the sun if needed." "I think I could provide the latter," said Celestia, "But right now, I need you to keep it away from Twilight. And also, we need to find out how Nightmare Moon could get a hold over her in the first place." "What I don’t get is, how could this...thing exist still? She's a part of your sister after all." said Matt, thoughtfully. Matt's comp beeped and Aria's voice said, "I believe I may have an answer to that." "Aria? I told you about listening in..." began Matt, only for Aria to cut him off. "The laws of physics, concerning the conservation of energy, state that energy cannot be truly destroyed, it can only be transformed," said Aria. "Yeah, but it also can't be created, remember?" said Matt. "Are you forgetting the magi addendum?" asked Aria, "Magi can be removed, but it is not deleted, but rather dispersed." "Crud...Nightmare moon probably made a spare...it acted like a lifeboat after Twilight and company kicked her out of Luna." said Matt. One of the pegasus guards cleared his throat and said, "Pardon my interruption, but are you suggestion that we are dealing with the ghost of Nightmare Moon's magic?" "Why not? I've seen weirder...alot weirder." said Matt. "While Luna may have given up her attempts to overthrow daytime, it would appear the will to do so lived on separate from her," said Celestia. Matt looked at his wristcomp and said "Aria...try and come up with a game plan." "Matt, are you certain you know what you are dealing with?" asked Celestia. "This is my fault. Its only right that I try and fix it." said Matt, getting up. "That's not what I-" started Celestia before Matt went outside. Celestia sighed and said, "He would have found out eventually, but I think I should have prepared him." ... When Matt walked out of the clinic, he found Twilight's friends waiting for him. He also found several other ponies he didn't know and did not look happy to see him. Matt looked around, glaring at one pony who was giving him the evil eye before rolling his own eyes and walking over to the five. “Hey, girls.” He said, gloomily. "Hi Matt," said Fluttershy, in a small voice. "Uh, we probably would have introduced you to everypony a little better than this," said Rarity. "Yeah, like throwing a welcome party like we did for Twi-" started Pinkie before she quickly covered her mouth. Matt winced to himself before he turned back and said "Don't worry about it." He turned to see several ponies behind him. "Yes?" he said, snapping. The ponies backed up a little, apparently they weren't wanting to test Matt's temper. Matt glared at them before rubbing his forehead. "Lets go. Your princess wants me to make sure I keep my hands on something." he said. ... The Mane Six, or Mane Five as it was at the moment, followed Matt down the trench towards his ship. "So, you're saying you found NightMare Moon's spare armor in the castle?" said Rainbow Dash, shocked. Matt sighed "Yeah." he said, tired and jumped as Rainbow Dash said angrily "Why didn’t you and Twilight say anything?" Matt turned to glare and said "It was my idea not to say anything. What do you think would have happened if we'd said 'Hey, guess what we found? An armour that melts brains’." "You should have turned it in to Celestia," said Fluttershy. "Uh, you expect Her Highness to believe that Twilight just found the armour by herself?" said Matt, "And I was trying to stay out of the public eye, remember?" Applejack said "Can't say that you're gonna be able to stay out of sight now." Matt sighed "Yup...and I'll have to face the music when this is over. Least nobody'll get into my...MY SHIP!" said Matt as he crested the edge of the hole his ship rested in and shrieking the last part in horror. The place looked like the aftermath of a massacre. Parts of drones, small parts in some cases, were scattered everywhere. The remaining spider drones were scuttling around and trying to pick up the mess. But Matt was more likely concerned about the damage to his ship. The ponies ran up at Matt's outburst to see the damage. "Whoa nelly. Looks like a dust devil hit this place." said Applejack in surprise at the damage. Matt was just saying 'Muh.' over and over with a distant expression of horror. "What's wrong with him?" asked Dash. "Ooh, I think I saw the same look when a family of rabbits saw their home sat on by a bear," said Fluttershy in her timid voice, gently poking Matt. Applejack waved a hoof in front of Matt and said "Y'all alright? Its just a ship. You can fix this easily." Matt suddenly yelled "RIGHT!" making the ponies jump back before he walked down into the crater. "I've had ENOUGH...this is 3 weeks of work...3 WEEKS. I need to kill something...please let the guilty party still be here." he said apparently to himself with a manic glare on his face. "Uh, Matt doesn't really mean 'kill', right?" asked Fluttershy. A yell of 'ARIA...WHERE'S MY SMEGGING ION CANNON?' made the others exchange nervous glances. "I’m not saying...In your state of mind, there’s no telling what you’ll shoot." said Aria's voice, "Please repeat request within proper hearing range." Matt glared "Who did this?" he snarled, not noticing the ponies coming up cautiously. Aria's voice sounded unsure "I cannot say for sure...they appear to be members of Exo-Genes Echo 3 mercenary team. I detained them in the vault area and flooded it with Dyamedes petrification gas...however it has not effected them." Matt seemed to become rational for a little bit, "I'm not sure which is more unnerving, that we have Dyamedes petrification gas or that it didn't work." "They appear to be trying to breach the vault. The door itself is at 12%. " said Aria. "Ok, Aria, fetch me my hunting blaster, I have a lot of steam to blow off," said Matt with a dark glare. ... The inside of the ship was even worse, the only clear way in was via the cargo bay ramp, which had been forced down. "Wow...echo's been taking their vitamins." said Matt, shining a light up the ramp. "Uh, you sure you want to go in there all by your lonesome?" asked Applejack. Matt looked up before saying "I think so" a bit nervously. The bay in view was only lit by a few flickers, probably caused by damage. "Maybe we should come along," said Rainbow Dash. "Ok...but just don’t do anything dumb. I do not wanna see what their gear does to living things" said Matt, seriously before going slowly up the ramp, stopping at a locker just inside and pulling a laser rifle out of it. "I'd offer you girls some weapons, but I don't think you can hold them properly," said Matt. The group slowly walked into the cargo bay, Rainbow Dash stopping for a second to look at a four wheeled machine in the corner. "Uh, I wouldn't touch that," said Matt, "It's a little temperamental." Rainbow Dash looked at the innocent looking machine. "I'm not gonna break it." she said to Matt who said casually "Ok...but it's more heavily armed then I usually am." Dash gulped a bit and walked the other way from the vehicle. Matt finally stopped at the end of a row of crates and peered round the corner. "There they are." he muttered, pointing to a human shaped figure hunched at the door leaving into the main ship, lights flashing from the doorway. "Uh, you're not really going to hurt them, are you?" asked Fluttershy, nervously. "No...I wanna know what they want from my vault." said Matt before jumping out of cover and yelling "FREEZE, SMEGHEAD!" aiming his rifle at them. To his personal surprise the figure didn’t even jump. "Ok, I am in a very bad mood today, so no fooling around," said Matt, "Just turn around before I blast off what makes your backside your backside." The other ponies peered out as Matt advanced on the figure before saying "Did you not hear me? After what you pulled in town, I am in a killing mood...I said FREEZE!" before hitting the guy with his rifles butt. The figure staggered before making a guttural snarling. "Dude, you need to gargle," said Matt, "Have you been shouting yourself hoarse?" The ponies watched as the echo merc at that point turned to face Matt who yelled "BLOODY HELL!" and fired, blasting the merc back through the door. The ponies gave yelps of fright. "I can't believe you just shot him!" cried Pinkie Pie. "Girls, get back, get far away," said Matt, "This guy is nothing but bad news." Rainbow Dash said "I don’t think he’s gonna be a problem." darkly. Matt said "Oh really?" looking back as the 'dead' merc pulled himself up and practically roared. Matt gibbered "Why is it always the bloody undead?" before the merc walked into view. The 'merc' didn't look like the ones seen in town. Mainly because his flesh was replaced with fire, but still not covering enough. "I think I know how they beat my drones...time to run." said Matt, in a shaking voice before the merc, whatever he was now, threw a blast of energy that just missed the group and blew several crates to pieces. "Ok, not so hard to believe you shot him now," said Pinkie. The 'thing' ran past the ponies, heading for Matt who sidestepped down an alley of crates. It was clear that the mercs transformation had not boosted his brainpower...but it had made him persistent...such as dealing with the thing that had blasted him off his feet. "Ugh, that is the most repulsive creature I've ever seen," said Rarity. "Doesn't look like the friendliest thing I've ever seen either," said Rainbow Dash. The thing the merc had been turned into snarled before making a pitching throw motion. A second later, a blast of familiar star speckled smoke blasted through another crate nearby, the ponies seeing Matt dodging another such blast from the creature. Suddenly, it was deadly clear what these things wanted from the vault. The Mane Five ran towards the vault, only to see two more monsters trying to burn their way in. Rainbow Dash said "Hey...ugly." causing the two mercs turned monsters to stop and turn slowly to fix their glowing eyes on the group. "Uh, you have a plan, right?" asked Rarity, nervously. One of the creatures said "Oh...you lot. This time, you'll find stopping me a little more difficult." "Uh, does that voice sound familiar?" asked Fluttershy, backing up. The thing laughed coldly while its companion continued to burn its way in and said smugly. "This time you won’t be able to use your precious elements to stop me." "Yep, that sounds like who Ah'm thinking of," said Applejack. "Uh, so what do we do?" asked Fluttershy. The merc laughed as the vault door finally fell inside and its fellow walked in, grabbing a container marked with a post-it note that said 'Never ever open...ever' before the first said "Nothing...except saying goodbye to your friend and your precious day." The two undead mercs suddenly started sinking into the ground, and yet they didn't leave a hole. "Ooh, this is bad," said Pinkie, for once not looking bouncy. "At least they're gone." said Fluttershy faintly before a scream from the cargo bay reminded them that not all of them had left. "Uh oh." they said in unison. ... Matt screamed as he was thrown into a supply crate. "I hate undead." he said dizzily, before shaking his head to stop his eyes spinning. The merc grabbed Matt before slamming him into a wall again and again and again before throwing him down again. "You've been eating your greens, haven’t you." said Matt in a dazed voice before being grabbed by the foot. "Erm...surrender?" tried Matt, being held at eye level before being thrown across the bay to land in front of the old combine Combat SUV he'd brought a year or two ago. "Ooooh...pretty stars." he said, with the faint smile of the heavily concussed. The merc growled before picking Matt up. "Aw, Mom, do I have to get up now?" said Matt in the same dazed tone. The ponies ran into view to see the thing holding Matt down on the hood of his SUV and readying a fireball. "Hey, ugly." yelled Dash, causing the merc monster to turn and receive a rock bucked into his face. He practically roared and threw Matt at them. The ponies got out of the way, but Matt ended up crashing against the wall again. "Thanks for catching me." he said dizzily, upside down against the wall. The merc monster threw his fireball, brought his fist down angrily on the vehicle when it missed and charged at the group before the SUV beeped. A voice said "Vandalism detected...commencing judicial responce in accordance with Confederation code 21-F." before a beam of energy shot out and hit the merc in the back. The merc suddenly exploded into several bony bits. The pieces rained down with the skull ending up at the ponies' feet. The fire in the sockets quickly dimmed and went out. Matt got up, wincing as various limbs supplied their complaints at him over being a punching bag before saying "And thats why nobody touches it" "You ok there?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I'm fine, are you two fine?" said Matt, looking at Rainbow Dash unsteadily before falling over. "Back to the clinic for him," said Rarity, firmly. "No...I'm fine." said Matt, shaking his head before saying "Tell me they didn’t get it." "Uh, they kinda did," said Pinkie, Matt swearing the party ponies hair looked a bit deflated. Matt sighed before thinking. "There's only one place they'll be taking it." he said after a bit. ... Luna's castle Everfree forest The two ex-mercs emerged from the floor, holding the container they had taken from the Skyraid before slashing the seal open and reverently removing the armor, holding it up to the alicorn on the rooms podium. "Excellent," said Twilight, "Soon, the Final Twilight will fall upon Equestria and darkness shall reign over light." A small part of the true Twilight said, only visible or audible to the alicorn "My friends will stop you. You won’t be able to do this." "You forget, you're the centerpiece of their group," replied the alicorn, "Without you, their Elements of Harmony won't be able to stop me." With that, Twilight Moon laughed as her 'weaker' side looked down in sadness before vanishing. "Now then, all we need do is wait until the moon has entered perigee," said Twilight Moon. ... Since there were few other places that they know where Twilight Moon would have gone, Matt and the Mane Five were heading through Everfree Forest to the ruins of the castle where they had found the armour. Matt had walked ahead, deciding to not bother the five after all that had happened so far. As such, he was the only one to hear Aria on the comm. "Sir...I have finished simulations. I have come to the conclusion that we do not have the facilities for containment." she said. "Gee, ya think?" said Matt with great sarcasm. "I have uploaded a new weapon to your wrist computer nano constructor. The IRV-200's specialized ammo will be enough to terminate the hostile lifeform before she can become a threat. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, that ‘hostile lifeform’ happens to be a friend, just a friend who's not in control at the moment," said Matt. "A 'friend' who has already killed and reanimated 12 members of echo, breached top of the line security measures and attempted to choke Miss dash to death." said Aria with frustrating logic. "I prefer to try exorcism before execution," said Matt. Aria didn’t say anything to that before signing off. A second later, Matt's wrist comp beeped to confirm a weapon pattern had been downloaded. "I think I'll keep that as a final resort," said Matt. The castle came into view at that. It was alot different. "Wow..." said Matt faintly. The castle had been practically restored to good as new quality, no sign of any decay visible. "How does a castle get rebuilt that quickly?" asked Matt, staring in surprise at what had been a ruin under a week ago. As if on cue, a cloud of the star speckled smoke that Twilight moon and Nightmare moon had liked surrounded one of the few broken towers. When it vanished, the tower was good as new. "Thats how." said Rarity. "Ooh, I bet she could set up a great party with that," said Pinkie Pie with a cheerful grin. "Yeah, her coronation/victory party," said Rainbow Dash, darkly Matt said "Well, lets go crash the housewarming." readying his blaster rifle. Applejack had spotted movement at the gates and said "Ah think those guys may not want us in." pointing to where two more of the merc minions were standing, clearly on guard. "Oh, how will we get past them?" asked Fluttershy, "They're really tough." Matt shrugged before saying to himself "It'll save lockpicking time." before opening a secondary attachment on his rifle and loading an orb. "You know what they say...when in doubt, C4...or in this case...G14." he said, firing the orb between the two guards who turned to follow it until it stuck in the doorframe. The guards didn't have much time to look before the orb exploded, with a lot of force. The blast itself removed the door, doorframe, most of the wall surrounding it and of course, the zombie mercs. "Great, now let's go through before she covers it back up," said Matt. The group ran through the 'doorway' just in time as more smoke surrounded and repaired the damage. Matt couldn't shake the feeling he’d just charged into another problem. "Ok...now then, If I was possessed by pure evil...where would I be?" he said before seeing the ponies glares "What? Its a normal question." he said innocently. "If I were, I would probably want to be in the place of greatest importance," said Rarity. "Like the throne room?" suggested Pinkie. "That sounds exact...what makes you think that?" said Matt, confused. Pinkie pointed a hoof at a set of open double doors where a glow was emanating. "Smart arse." muttered Matt to himself. "Now, do we have a plan for getting Twilight back?" asked Applejack. "I'm working on it." said Matt, more to himself. A memory of aria's 'solution' came up before he said "Yeah...definately working on it." The group slowly headed up to the double doors and peered in. The throne room had gotten a small improvement in the form of a large opal in the ceiling, under which hovered the armour pilfered from the skyraids vault. The room itself was deserted. "What's with the big rock?" asked Rainbow Dash. Matt looked at his wrist comp and brought up the scanner, only for the magi scanner to go off the chart. "Thats alot of magic...who wants to bet its not friendly magic?" he said. "I've never seen a gem that size before," said Rarity, "It must be filled to burst with magic." Matt looked up at it. "I don't like it." he said, thoughtfully, adding "Lets grab the armor and I'll 'open' the door again." "What if it's a trap?" asked Applejack. "I don’t wanna find out what happens if Twilight puts that stuff on." said Matt, walking out towards the armor. Suddenly, the door slammed shut. "Oh smeg," said Matt, suddenly worried. The ponies had also jumped when the door shot shut. Matt said in an annoyed voice "I do not want to hear 'I told you so'." before aiming his blaster at the closed doors. "Don’t worry...this won’t hold us for long." he said cheerfully. He fired several rounds at the door, but the door didn't even get a scratch. Rainbow Dash said sarcastically "That worked well." earning a glare from Matt. "Now there's fine craftsmanship," said Applejack, impressed. "We could use a set of doors like this for our barn." "Not now," snapped Matt, spotting the attempts to wind him up. Matt sighed before reaching for the armour, only for a flash of light to occur and for him to be thrown into a pillar. "I think I don’t have touchy feely rights." he said weakly before noticing smoke flowing into the room. "This is not good," said Fluttershy, nervously. The smoke shot up to the throne before imploding into the shape of Twilight Moon. "Twilight...how's your day been?" said Matt, mock cheerfully. "Soon, there shall be no more day, only night," said Twilight Moon smugly. Applejack spoke up next "This is wrong, Twi. This isn’t you." she said, trying to get through whatever was pulling her friends strings. "You never wanted that much power," said Fluttershy, "All you ever wanted was to help your friends." Twilight glared at Fluttershy "That was the old me." she said angrily. "Twilight, you don't really want to give up being friends, do you?" asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight turned her glare, full of contempt on the cyan pegasus. "A goddess doesn’t need friends." before her gaze widened and she sent a blast out, knocking Matt, who had been trying to pull the armour off the plinth, off his feet. Matt was sent straight into a pillar, causing a few cracks in it. There was a brief pause before Matt said, "I'm okay." Twilight glared at Matt before levitating the breastplate of the armour over to her and slipping it on, the armour shifting to fit better. "Much better." she said, her eyes getting a creepy green glow. "You don't really want to wear that drab thing," said Rarity, "I mean, that thing is begging for a good polishing and it has dust coated in all the greaves. I can see the rust stains from here." Twilight sneered and said "That may work on dragons and diamond dogs...but not on me." "You know, you could really spruce up this place," said Pinkie Pie, "If you got enough decorations, you could throw the biggest party in Equestria and be able to invite everybody." Twilight simply said "Why invite peasants?" Matt turned to see several minions phasing in. "Girls...problems..." he said nervously as Twilight said "Now what to do with you?" "Uh, you wouldn't want to make us undead," said Matt, "I look terrible in bare bones." "I wasn’t thinking of killing you. I would prefer it if you all saw sense." said Twilight glaring at the minions who stopped in their approach. Pinkie Pie looked around before she said, "I don't see Sense. What does she look like?" "I require advisors...ponies I can trust..." began Twilight, only to wince as Matt yelled "Not if you threw in a portal home and a ham sandwich." "Silence!" snapped Twilight Moon before knocking Matt into a wall. "Note to self: mouth off at villains only if you can avoid their blasts," groaned Matt. Twilight levitated Matt up and threw him out the doors, which opened briefly. A dozen or so minions could be seen waiting before the doors slammed. "Now that we have no interruptions..." she said before several blasts of her mist shot out, hitting her friends. ... Rainbow Dash woke up with a headache. "Did someone drop a bowling ball on my head?" she groaned. "Hey, Dash. You ok? It's almost time for our performance." said a voice. Rainbow Dash turned to see Spitfire, one of the wonderbolts. "What? Our performance?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Yeah, everyone wants to watch all the Wonderbolts perform, right?" said Spitfire. Rainbow Dash was just staring, trying to process what Spitfire was saying, her mind stuck in her usual 'fan girl’ mode of just being spoken too by one of her lifelong heroes. "C'mon, everyone's waiting for us," said Spitfire. Rainbow Dash shook herself from her mental state of 'ohmygoshohmygosh' to see her reflection. She was wearing a wonderbolt uniform. "What? How did I...what happened to twilight?" she said in shock. "She's out there with all your other friends," said Spitfire, "We don't want to keep them waiting, do we?" Dash just shook her head. "The last thing I remember was at Luna's old castle..." she began. "Oh, that whole Twilight Moon was months ago," said Spitfire, "I can't believe you're still thinking on that." Rainbow shook her head. What Spitfire was saying did make sense but she also remembered how Nightmare moon had used hallucinations against them so she decided to try something. "So...we going to use the Buccaneer blaze move in todays display?" she said. "Oh sure," said Spitfire, cheerfully "That'll definitely impress them all." Rainbow Dash's eyes narrowed. "You're not Spitfire. The wonderbolts never used that move. I made that myself." she said, angrily "None of this is real." At those words, the room seemed to blur and warp. ... Meanwhile, Applejack was rubbing her head as she was getting. "What in blue blazes hit me?" she asked. The farmer pony looked around the room she was in, confused. It definitely wasn’t the castle, posh furnishings, modern clothing...it reminded her of Carousel Boutique. Only there was a particularly noticeable apple motif about the place, with everything either being apple-shaped or have pictures of apples on them. Applejack looked around the room,. coming to the window to see the orchard...but the farm looked wrong, resembling a mansion instead. "Ok, something's not right here," said Applejack. Applejack looked around one last time before deciding to find out what the hay was going on. She opened the door and immediately Apple Bloom tackled her. "Big sis. You're awake. We all thought that mind leech had got ya good." she said to Applejack, happily. "What? One of those varmints was on me?" asked Applejack. "Yeah...It got ya as you were checkin’ one of the fields." said Apple Bloom, clearly happy that her sister was ok. "Well, that makes sense, Ah guess," said Applejack. "By the way, Granny Smith wanted ta see ya," said Apple Bloom. Applejack perked up at that "Really? Ah'd best go see her." she said, her and Apple Bloom trotting out. Applejack paused when she saw a large golden fountain with various apple-shaped spouts. "Ah don't recall a fountain being there," she said. Apple Bloom looked puzzled at that and said "We've had that fountain for years." "You'd think Ah'd remember something as gaudy and impractical as that," said Applejack. "That thar mind leech again. We had it after you got a loada new clients durin the gala." said Apple Bloom. Applejack paused before asking, "Uh, how long was I out?" Apple Bloom said "A few months. We were all really worried." "Ok, uh, where's Granny Smith now?" asked Applejack. "In the dinin’ room." said Applebloom, leading the way down some stairs to a set of double doors, also emblazoned with the apple symbol. "You think we got a few too many apples around here?" asked Applejack. Apple Bloom laughed at that before the doors opened and Applejack saw her grandmother, Granny Smith but with one noticeable difference. "Applejack...you're finally awake." said Granny Smith, happily and trotting over...with no zimmer frame. "Granny, you look...great," said Applejack with surprise. Granny Smith smiled warmly "So are you. If it weren’t for you, Ah'd still be usin that old walkin frame." "Your hip's all better?" asked Applejack. "Ever since y'all raised that money to get it all fixed up." said Granny Smith. "Well, it's great to see you movin' about," said Applejack. Just then, Applejack heard laughter. She turned to see Big Macintosh walking in, a mare at either side. "Oh, Big Mac, you are positively the finest stallion in Equestria," said one. "Not to mention the handsomest," said the other. Applejack just stared in shock at this. This was definitely not normal. "Scuse me, ladies," said Big Macintosh, "But I'd like a little time with my kin, if ya'll don't mind." After the two mare had left, Applejack finally said "Big Mac, what the hay has gotten into you? Ah'd have thought you'd have been bushed doin the applebuckin by yourself." The others laughed loudly at that before Granny Smith said, "We don't do the applebuckin' anymore. We've got several workers doin' it for us." "And these neat apple-picking machines," said Apple Bloom. "Eyup," agreed Macintosh. Applejack's eyes narrowed at that. "The apple clan ah know wouldn't let the farm be handled by anypony but themselves..." she said, as the air seemed to ripple, whatever illusion at work starting to come undone as the orange pony questioned it. "And they certainly waste their time lazing about with all these eccentric doodads and whatnots," she added. With those final words the room seemed to melt before a flash of light blinded Applejack... ... When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she was surprised to find herself back in her house. "Oh, was it all a dream?" she asked, looking around. She looked around nervously at the room before seeing that everything seemed to be normal. "Well, I better check on my patients," she said, flapping her wings and flying out of bed. She flew up to the rooms birdhouse and said happily to its occupant "Oh...you're looking much better today." The robin turned to her and said, "Yes I am, thanks to you." Fluttershy stared in shock for a moment before shooting back with a "EEEEEE!" A squirrel came out of its nest and asked, "Fluttershy, what's wrong?" Fluttershy shot behind the sofa and peered out shaking "Y-y-you're talking." she said ina terrified voice "You can hear us talk?" asked the squirrel. "Why not?" said the robin, "She is the best veterinarian in Equestria." Fluttershy stared and said shaking "I...I am?" "Well of course," said the squirrel, "No one knows how to take care of animals better than you." Fluttershy looked at the animals in her home. "Erm...you've never spoken before." she said quietly "Maybe you just weren't listening," said a mouse right next to her. Fluttershy jumped back at surprise. sure that the mouse hadn’t been there a second ago. "But is it really any surprise?" said the mouse, "After all, Fluttershy is the best nurse." "Oh yes," said a hedgehog nearby. "No one greater," said a turtle sitting on a chair. "The greatest nurse ever," said a magpie perched on a shelf. Fluttershy looked around to see more talking animals praising her. Fluttershy, despite everything and her own shock at the last few minutes, felt a bit flattered at the praise she was getting from the unlikeliest of sources. "Say, Fluttershy shouldn't just be our nurse," said a snow owl, "She should be our queen!" Almost immediately, all the animals started chanting, "All hail Queen Fluttershy!" Fluttershy looked worried at that "Erm...I'm not sure thats a..." she began in her small voice before the chanting drowned it out. Eventualy, Fluttershy couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "QUIET!" This immediately stopped the animals' chanting. "Oh, sorry," she said, "But I have something to say." The animals stared as her as she said “I don’t want to be queen or anything like that. I'm happy just looking after you all." "But you have to be our queen," said the robin. "No one else would be better," said the mouse. "But I don’t want to be..." said Fluttershy, backing up a bit. The group or animals were starting to seem less friendly. "But we want you to be," said the squirrel. "Shouldn't you want what we want?" asked the owl. Fluttershy gulped and said "Thats not what I want?" One of the animals said "What about at the gala?" and Fluttershy looked even more worried...realising you’re in a figment of your imagination will do that." "I admit that I don't like be avoided," said Fluttershy, "But too much attention is as bad as not enough attention." The room seemed to be rippling at that. "But you do want to be loved." said the animals, all at once this time. "Yes I do," said Fluttershy, "But I think the love of my real friends is more important." At that, white shining cracks appeared in the room before Fluttershy was forced to cover her eyes as the light turned blinding… … The girls may have been struggling with their morals, but Matt was definitely not. His opinion of 'if it's trying to kill me, I have to kill it back' was proving to be completely right. These minions were almost human in their appearance compared to the one from the ship, moving quickly to cover and still using their old firearms. This didn’t mean fighting them was easier, quite the opposite in fact. "JUST DIE ALREADY!" screamed Matt from his cover as one of the minions soaked up several rounds without any effect. The minions just fired back at Matt, perforating the area around him. "If there's anything worse than evil minions, its evil minions who don't provide me any material for witty comebacks," said Matt to himself. He peered around his cover to try and find anything he could use. "Why can’t life be more like video games and provide explosive barrels?" he muttered before looking up and grinning. An old chandelier, covered in rust from age was handing just above the minions. Matts eyes followed the chain securing it to the pillar next to him. "That works too." he said before shooting the chain. The chain broke and the chandelier started falling. The minions looked up just before it came crashing down at them. Matt looked over his cover to see the carnage, but one minion had completely avoided by standing in the middle where the open area of the chandelier was. "Strange, that normally works," said Matt. ... Pinkie looked around as the world blurred into another vision for the 5th time in as many minutes. "This is great...who are you gonna be this time?" she said happily to the blur. Eventually, it stopped blurring and formed into her old home at the rock farm. Pinkie looked around before saying "You did this already." The world shredded apart and a boiling cloud of darkness appeared in front of her. "Oh for darkness' sake!" snapped a voice within the cloud, "What does it take to tempt you?" "Well...I do like to party..." began Pinkie before the same voice interrupted her "THATS IT.,.YOU CAN GO...JUST GO AWAY!!!" Pinkie Pie frowned and asked, "What? No party?" "NO...Just go away...what is wrong with your brain?" snapped the cloud before the world flashed... ... Rarity looked around at her new surroundings, which appeared to be a formal dance like the Grand Galloping Gala. She looked around, a little confused, given her last memory had been of her and the others at Luna's old castle in everfree. However, such thoughts left via the window when she heard one of the guards call "Announcing, Lady Rarity of Ponyville." "Ooh, I've always wanted to be announced," said Rarity as she trotted forward. She was about to walk forward when a familier, but unwelcome voice from memory said "Shall we?" Rarity turned around to see a very handsome white unicorn stallion standing there. "You!" she snapped. It was indeed Prince Blueblood, the unicorn who had more or less ruined the gala for Rarity with his selfish attitude. At this point however, he seemed more surprised. "M'lady? What is wrong?" he said, sounding genuinely surprised at her outburst. "You think that I would want to be within 6 feet of you after what happened?" snapped Rarity. Prince Blueblood now looked genuinely surprised "Are you alright, my dear?" he said sounding concerned. "My dear? I doubt you've ever said that to anyone, except your own reflection," said Rarity. "My dear? Did you have that silly dream again?" said Blueblood, starting to sound relieved. "And what sily dream would that be?" asked Rarity. "The one where the gala was some ind of disaster." said Blueblood. "But it was, Applejack's cake got all over my dress...when you pushed me into the way to save your sorry hide from being soiled," said Rarity, her tone becoming less unpleasant. Blueblood laughed pleasantly "Thats the exact same dream you’ve been having." "That wasn't a dream, I know it was real," said Rarity. "The doctors say its caused by stress. Now then, dear, come and mingle." said Blueblood pleasently. "I wouldn't go in there with you if you were the last stallion in Equestria," said Rarity. "Rarity, please...what is wrong with you?" said Blueblood in a hurt tone of voice. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with this whole picture?" snapped Rarity, "Anyone who knows Prince Blueblood for even one minute would know that this isn't even close to what he's really like." Blueblood took a step back from the sheer fury, managing to say 'How dare..." before Rarity continued. "And another thing, I've been meaning to give you a piece of my mind ever since that awful Gala. Using me as a shield to avoid getting dirty is one thing, but you have been an intolerable jerk that entire night! Have you ever even heard of the term 'chivalry'?" she yelled, finally venting all the fury that was built up on that night. Blueblood just stared before the room seemed to ripple like water in front of Rarity as she continued "A true gentleman would have opened a door for a lady instead of making her, or place his coat over a puddle instead of making her drape a part of her dress over. Not to mention he wouldn't have eaten both plates. I don't think you even bothered to learn my name!" As soon as her hoof made contact, the world seemed to flare... ... Twilight Moon glared as each of her spells seemed to flicker as the minds being targeted spotted the illusions. "Why isn’t this working?" she said before hearing a hissing and looking up to see the double doors explode open, destroying the minions that had been on guard. When the dust and smoked cleared, Matt stood there. "Ok, the only reason that's keeping me from blasting you to Kingdom Come is because you're in my friend's body," said Matt, "So do me a favor and evict yourself so I can blast you to Kingdom Come." Matt looked around to see the others floating in energy orbs, though Pinkies was flickering alot. "What the smeg?" he said before the orbs glowed and shattered. Twilight Moon glared at Matt and said, "I have not yet begun to fight." "Yeah...about your minions...they're suddenly very flat." said Matt, taunting. "I still have more to use," said Twilight Moon before her horn started to glow. Matt looked before saying “I think your batteries need chan...” before he was bucked in the side by Applejack. Matt was knocked into a wall before he said reproachfully, "Ow, what was that for?" "Ah...Ah can’t control mahself...Look out." said Applejack, effort clear in her voice before she yelled out her warning. Matt looked up to see Rainbow Dash coming in to knock him down. "What the?" Matt said, rolling to avoid it as Twilight Moon laughed, walking towards the now glowing remaining armour sections. Matt glared at her and said, "Mind control? Really? That is low even for you." "Oh, it's not their minds, I'm controlling, just their bodies," said Twilight Moon. Matt managed to dodge another swoop from Rainbow and was hit in the side by Fluttershy who immediately squeaked "Oh...I'm so sorry...I didn’t mean to...Oh...sorry." apologising again as she scored a second hit. "Thats...fine." wheezed Matt. Rarity was struggling to keep her hooves still, but she still found herself charging towards Matt. "This is going to hurt," she said as she slammed into Matt. Matt was sent sprawling and rolling across the ground to hit the far wall. He opened his eyes slowly, expecting to have a brand new hole in his chest, only to see he was fine. "Oh thank god for stab-proof armour." he said, relieved before hearing a noise and being forced to dodge a levitated rock. "I'm sorry, I really don't want to be doing this," said Rarity. "I...can see that." said Matt, weakly looking at the boulder embedded in the wall. Twilight Moon however was getting ready to seal her new host by putting the last part of the armor, the helmet on. She stopped briefly to watch Matt dodging the various attacks. "Rather spry for a two-legger," she said, "But it'll not matter very soon." Matt obviously heard cause he yelled out "Bite me, you parasite." "Oh well, time to assume my godhood," said Twilight Moon. She was about to levitate the armor on when Pinkies face popped into view. "Godhood? That sounds like fun...but aren't you a girl...so it should be goddess-hood, right?" she said hyperactively. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be attacking the human.” Said Twilight Moon, angrily. "Why would I wanna attack him, silly?" said Pinkie, cheerfully. "Because I'm ordering you to," said Twilight Moon, her horn glowing. Pinkie looked expectant before saying "What happens now?" "What, but how? My magic can't be resisted by mere mortals, let alone a pony with no magical abilities at all," said Twilight Moon. "Silly pony. Why would I wanna beat up Matt?" said Pinkie with a grin, only to be levitated up and shot into Matt. "Ow...oh...hi, Pinkie." said Matt weakly. "Hi Matt, are we playing a new game?" asked Pinkie Pie. Matt looked up "Yeah...I believe its called death tag...and we're it." he said sarcastically. "Four against two doesn't sound very fair," said Pinkie Pie, who Matt realised didnlt know and probably had never even heard of the word ‘sarcasm’. Matt sighed and said, "Pinkie, here's a little lesson for you: evil doesn't play fair. That's why it's considered bad." Pinkie said in a worryingly devious voice “Nopony can beat me at tag." Matt inched away “Thats...good?" he said uncertain and slightly worried by Pinkies expression. "Just watch and learn," said Pinkie. Twilight's horn flared and the remaining four ponies shot at Pinkie and Matt who went opposite directions. Matt looked over his shoulder to see Pinkie effortlessly dodge Fluttershy and Applejacks lunges. Matt saw Rarity and Rainbow Dash coming at him as well. "Sorry about this, girls," he said before grabbing the sides of their heads and smacking them together. Matt winced as the two flopped down out cold. "I'm gonna deserve the next rock." he said to himself before Aria's voice came over the comm. "Captain?" Matt was backing up from Rarity and Rainbow, as it turned out whatever was controlling them did not need consciousness judging from the way that their unconscious bodies had gotten up. "NOT NOW!" he yelled. "If I may, I think I've observed a simple means to eliminate this dilemma," said Aria. "Really? And what is that?" he said, sarcastically while seeing Twilight levitating the helmet up. "The source of magi energy is not the armour, it's merely a receiver," said Aria, "The power is actually coming from a particularly large crystal that's nearby." Matt looked up to see the giant crystal in the roof above the armor. "That? Its huge." he said before having to move to avoid Rarity. "Yes it is," said Aria, "One has to wonder what geological activity took place to produce a crystal that size. I mean, can you imagine the sheer mass of the deposits" "Can I just blast the thing back into the bloody fifth dimension?" snapped Matt, barely avoiding Dash's attack. "Well, that should work," said Aria, "Of course, it may be simpler to use a sonic vibration to weaken..." "Yeah, sure, whatever," said Matt before pointing his blaster up and firing at the crystal. The blasts seemed to dent the crystal but it was clear Matt needed more firepower. Before he could think of anything, what felt like a freight transport hit him in the side and across the room. Twilight extinguished her horn from the telekinesis blast and levitated the last part on before heading to where Matt was slumped in the open doorway. "Clever of you to deduce the source of my powers," said Twilight Moon, "But it makes no difference. You cannot stop me, nothing can. The sun shall never rise again and Equestria will be dark forever. And I shall reign supreme over all. That only leaves the question of what to do with you?" "Well...first...make sure..." began Matt, dazed. Twilight Moon leaned in and said sarcastically "Yes?" only for Matt to roll over to reveal he had one of the minions energy blasters from earlier "Make sure I don't land near a gun." he finished before firing a shot that skimmed past the wide eyed Twilight Moons head. The blast shot up and hit the crystal, causing a series of cracks to radiate all over it and energy to leak through them. Twilight Moon looked at it in horror before turning back to glare at Matt. "Have a nice day." taunted Matt before passing out as his medi-nanites went back to work. The crystal itself let out a shrieking noise before exploding, a ring of energy shooting out. Suddenly, Twilight Moon felt like she being torn apart from the inside out. The pain slowly diminished when a thick cloud of darkness exited through her mouth. The ponies watched as the cloud seemed to spread out, escaping through the cracks, Rainbow Dash and Rarity waking up from matt's earlier attempt to stop them trying to kill him. Their watching was drawn from the thud of Twilight, now back to normal, collapsing out cold...oh and the rumbling as the dark magic holding the renovations up vanished as well. "Uh, I think we need ta be moseying on along," said Applejack. The ponies ran over to Matt and Twilight and started trying to drag them, but with the roof literally cracking. "Guys, we gotta move it, faster," said Rainbow Dash. "Matt's too heavy," said Rarity. "Maybe he should try Weight Watchers," said Pinkie Pie, cheerfully. "It's a little too late for that," said Applejack. "I hear it's never too late if you really stick with the program," said Pinkie Pie. The group looked up at a sickening crack as a support pillar leaned towards them...and everything froze. ... Mr Black walked, seemingly out of nowhere and looked at the vision in front of him before sighing and walking over to Matts frozen form. "You do make my job difficult...any other universe and I’d let that pillar crush you." he said. Then Mr. Black looked around and said, "Now, let's see, is there any way to save the lot of you and make it look like it was just pure luck?" He looked around the room, walked around the collapsing pillar and at other places before shaking his head. "Ah well....I tried," he said before clicking his fingers, the group teleporting away. ... The girls' screams continued where they had left off literally a second ago, however, it was no longer accompanied by the sound of collapsing castle in the same way. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak. "Ok...what the hay just happened?" Rarity looked backwards towards the re-ruined castle and asked, "Weren't we just in there a second ago?" Fluttershy looked at Twilight and Matt. "We need to get them back to Ponyville quickly." she said urgently. "Uh, Matt ain't really welcome there, remember?" said Applejack. "He's hurt badly. Nopony would be so heartless especially after how he helped to rescue twilight." said Fluttershy, sounding shocked at the thought that Matt might be left to fend for himself. "Maybe we should take him to the farm, it's less public there," said Applejack. "He needs a doctor." said Fluttershy, firmly. "I think Fluttershy's right," said Pinkie, "He does look pretty bad." ... Matt opened his eyes to see a familiar roof. "Oh...not again." he said before raising his head to see the same winged unicorn from last time. "I'd get up...but I think my ribs are on fire." he said weakly, laying back. "You may rest," said Princess Celestia, "You have had a most trying experience." "I've had worse..." said Matt, more or less to himself before adding "How's Twilight?" "Still resting," said Celestia, "My sister's former essence fed on much of her energy." "Good riddance to that...thing." said Matt, a little darkly before saying "So....what happens to me now?" "That is a good question," said Celestia, "This world is not your home, is it?" "No...my homes a long way away...too far away." said Matt, seemingly fascinated by the roof in the way he continued to look at it. "I couldn;t leave if I wanted...My ships too heavily damaged for now...and the people who attacked town...their ships up there somewhere...and its alot bigger." He added. Celesita blinked and said, "I see, but it sounds like you could use a place to stay for a while." Matt made a pained chuckle "Hah...I doubt the locals will like me as a neighbour." he said. "I can arrange for a secluded home, somewhere you can have the privacy you need," said Celestia. "I won’t take anything for free...thats not me...but I can make sure that Darius and his men leave you alone..." said Matt, adding "I'm not going to let other people get hurt because of me...not anymore." "I understand," said Celestia, "It is very noble of you to be so concerned for others, but you might want to consider about how hurt you are yourself." Matt said "I'll...take it under advisement. Thank you." "Don't worry, we shall have you back on your hooves in no time," said Celestia. "Feet...back on my feet." said Matt, chuckling again. "Oh, right," said Celestia, suddenly looking embarrassed and worried. Her tone caused Matt to shoot upright and pull the covers off his feet to see they were still in their boots. He could have sworn he heard the princess chuckling to herself as she left. Matt immediately felt his vertebrate crying out in protest and lied back down. "Ok, just take it easy, rest and recover," he said to himself. ... <Log activated> Well...so much for hiding...thanks to Darius and his goon squad, I'm currently the bane of the town and to top it off, I had to prevent a doomsday today. And not from Darius, but from Twilight of all people. But you can't blame someone for being the unwilling host of darkness personified. However, you can blame the stupid merc who's had enough tangles with this sorta magic to spot bad mojo a mile off. I shoulda spotted it when it took out that squad and had it vaporised in the ships incinerator. That won’t happen again. At least the local boss is friendly... ... Everfree Forest Darius looked out at the teams sweeping the ruins. The losses that Echo had suffered meant that it had taken nearly 36 hours for Darius to prepare a second team only for them to arrive too late. "Have you slackers found anything yet?" snapped Darius, "I don't want to have to try one of those locals for a meal." "The only thing we found was some kinda helmet...only thing with thst energy residue left. We found some other bits...but they're torn apart." said one of the troopers, nodding over to where two others in combat hazmats were putting an armoured helmet into a container. Darius glanced at the helmet, which looked like it was made for one of those unicorns. "Well, keep it storage, that thing gives me the creeps," he said. "Ok...wheels up in 5. I want us out of here before sunrise." he yelled, he and his men heading to the dropship. A few of the troopers had noticed the crescent moon on the front of the helmet. Unfortunately none of them knew who Nightmare Moon was...
Largefish8	784	5	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2011-12-09T12:54:21+00:00	2011-12-09T12:54:21+00:00	873	Authors note: Just in case of any confusion...during this chapter, when characters are tsalking to Sparks, they are really talking to matt... MLP Fic pt 5 Matt stood outside the house...well...barn really given that most of the local houses were too small as the drones moved a crate sized device into position. "Easy...easy." he said before a voice said "Whatcha doin?" Matt turned to see Apple Bloom and Rarity's little sisters and their friend. "Just some moving-in stuff," said Matt, "You probably don't want to stand in the way." The filly trio looked out at the dozens of boxes spread out. Given that Twilight Moons minions had more or less turned the Skyraids defences into scrap, he and Aria had decided to have Matt move into the offered accomidation, at least till repairs were done...which meant that most of the boxes had either: a: fragile things, b: explosive things or... c: items from both a and b. "Erm...maybe you should go..." began Matt. "Hey, maybe we can help you move your stuff," said Scootaloo. "Cutie Mark Crusaider Movers, YAY!" shouted the trio heading over to some of the boxes. "Erm...please...please stop." said Matt, panicking a little. He could already imagine what the town would do to him if he accidentally exploded one of their kids. Scootaloo pulled her head out of a box and spat out a small orange sized orb. “Hey...is this supposed to beep?" she asked as a red light came on. Matt yelped and kicked it into the tree line...where the grenade proceeded to explode. "This is...very delicate and sensitive stuff," said Matt, "You really shouldn't-" "Hey...look at this thing." interrupted Sweetie belle, levitating a riot pistol. Matt went wide eyed "Put that down before you...AAARGH!" he said, yelling as the gun went off, the beam bouncing around before shooting up and stunning a low flying bird. "Cool..." said Scootaloo, "Do it again!" Matt snatched the gun away and snapped, "It is not a toy! This is no place for young-" Apple Blooms voice behind him said "Hey...whut in tarnation dies this tube thingy do?" Matt whimpered before slowly turning to see that the crusaders final member had managed to get the plasma cannon aiming at him. "Whyyy?" he whimpered before the cannon fired. The fillies and the drone winced as Matt was blasted through a wall, leaving a smoking hole shaped like his silhouette "Please...please...leave." came his pained voice. Aria, via one of the spiderdrones said "Its just as well the reality generators online now." The drone scuttled around to stare at the three fillies, again cutie mark-less and said "The captain is unconscious...can I take a message?" Matt's next visitor was Pinkie, who came hopping towards the old barn Matt was staying at. "Hello? Anypony home?" she called through the open door before saying "Well...thats a bit weird cause a pony doesn’t live here but..." before one of the spiderdrones said in aria’s voice "Miss Pie...can I help you?" On cue there was a metallic clang from the open double doors leading to the cellar at the back of the barn. "Is Matt here?" asked Pinkie. "He's in the basement, working on a...project that he never had the chance to finish...why he carts that overgrown junk heap around is beyond my processing capacities." said Aria, tone going darker as she went into rant. Pinkie didn't notice or didn’t care as she said "Okie dokey lokie." before bouncing towards the stars down to the basement. ... Matt had just finished welding a circuit board when he heard someone come in. "Ah, good, hand me that screwdriver, would you?" he said, not looking up. "I dunno where it is." said Pinkie voice, making Matt jump up and bang his head. "Gah...I mean...Pinkie..." he said, deactivating the face shield on the helmet he was using for a welding mask. "Whatcha doing?" asked Pinkie. "Uh, something delicate, and the last time someone asked me that, I got sent through a wall. So, please go away before something happens," said Matt. Pnkie peered in and said "I wanted to invite you to look around Ponyville seeing as you were busy fighting those meanypants the last time." before saying "You crossed those wires." Matt turning to stare in shock at the spotted problem . "Uh...thanks," said Matt before putting the wires in their proper places, "I wouldn't mind a tour, but I've been kinda busy lately." Aria's voice said "That is correct...my last psy-scan of you showed dangerous stress levels...which is why I have just auto locked your weapons into safety mode. I am ORDERING you to go out and relax." Matt pouted and said, "You can't make me." There was several clicks as the concealed drones activated their laser stunners "You can go out the door or the window, sir." said Aria pleasantly. Matt turned to Pinkie Pie and asked, "So, where shall we start that tour?" ... Matts main worry about the tour was a vague memory of the nasty glares he had gotten the first time he’d left their local clinic, after echo teams; attack. "Hey...pinkie...what are the...general thoughts about me?" he asked as they walked towards the town. "Uh, most people are wondering what you are," said Pinkie, "Some of them say you're a monkey of some kind." Matt sighed and cut straight to the point “How many think I should be locked up?" "Uh, quite a lot," admitted Pinkie Pie, "But you won't be because Celestia said that you shouldn't be." "That just means mobs." muttered Matt to himself in a dark tone before saying cheerfully "Well, maybe seeing me not attacking anything will make them believe I'm not hellbent on world dominaton." ... In town, Matt found himself on the receiving end of more than one angry glare. Pinkie didn’t seem too or didn’t care about the glares being aimed though Matt could hear a few of the muttering and was finding it harder to not react. "So, you wanna visit the library first or the Carousel Boutique?" asked Pinkie. … Matt looked around. "Man...nice place. Again...sorry the spiderbots trashed it first night we arrived here." he said, before seeing a persian cat. "Cool...you got kitties here." he said, kneeling. "What its name?" he said. "Opalescense," said Rarity, "Opal for short. I'd be careful around her. She's a bit picky of who can touch her." Matt said "I dunno...Cats usually like..." before Opal hissed and jumped on his face, prompting a scream of 'GAH...FURRY FACEHUGGER...GET IT OFF!" "Oh dear," said Rarity, "Pinkie Pie, go and fetch Fluttershy. She'll be able to get Opal off." Opal however ended it, jumping off just before Matt hit a wall, sitting down and starting to wash herself in a air of 'that'll teach him'. "Evil...cat." muttered Matt, sliding down to the floor. "Oh, never mind, Pinkie," said Rarity, "But please bring the first-aid kit." … Matt glanced around at the books on the shelves on the wall. "Huh, I didn't think you ponies had so many books," said Matt. Spike said "Yeah...Twilight does like books." Matt noticed the slightly cold tone and sighed "How's Twilight been?" "Well, her magic's been on the fritz lately," said Spike, "She needs to stop using it too much." Matt sighed and said "As long as she’s getting better." Before seeing Twilight coming down the stairs and his gloom vanishing behind a mask. "Twilight...nice to see you up and about." he said, trying not to wince at some kind of medical covering on her horn. "Yeah, I'm fine," said Twilight, "I've forgotten how much work it is to not use magic." Matt said "I can only imagine." before looking at a few of the books. He'd need something to do without the ships VR machine to amuse him, though admittedly after the problem with the rogue AI, he'd been a bit more reluctant to play with it. Matt picked up a random book and opened it. However, the writing in it was completely illegible to him. "Hey, Aria, why can't I read this book?" asked Matt. "I'm afraid the plasma blast wiped the database...I'm working on visual translations...maybe if you borrowed an alphabet book..." said Aria before Matt said “Don’t be a smartarse." and aria finished “...then I can upload a translation update by tomorrow." Matt rolled his eyes "I'll have died of boredom by then...maybe Twilight and co can help?" Sir...I really think thats..." began Aria only for matt to hang up. "So, you wouldn't happen to have any language-teaching books in here, would you?" asked Matt. Twilight nodded with a smile "There is one spell I've been practising. Its sometimes used in Canterlot when ambassators visit." she said. Spike said "Twi? Is it a good idea to try a spell like that while you're recovering?" concern in his voice. Matt laughed for a second "Oh please...whats the worst that could happen?" he said before stopping and saying "Did anyone hear thunder then?" "I'd keep your mind blank for a while," said Twilight as her horn glowed, "This could get complicated." Matt shrugged before getting a distant expression. Spike muttered "That didn’t take long." "Ok, hold it," said Twilight as her horn shot a beam at Matt's forehead. The beam suddenly seemed to hit an invisible wall, matts wrist computer starting to beep urgently. Matt glanced at his wrist comp and said, "Huh, now what's up with that?" The spell's beam had finally compressed into an orb that finally shot through and hit Matt between the eyes. At the same time, Matts wrist computer began to crackle and spark, a small voice saying "Danger...reality field core failure imminent." "Uh, Twilight, maybe you should stop," said Spike. Twilight had stopped the beam already, Matt getting up unsteadily and looking at his wrist computer. "Danger...solinium 12 core breach in 10 seconds. All non-indigenous lifeforms evacuate at once." Matt gulped at that and pulled a piece of it off and ran to the first window he could find before trying to throw it out. Unfortunately, just as he was throwing his arm out to hurl it, a bright explosion suddenly flashed through the library, temporarily blinding everyone. Twilight, Pinkie and Spike were forced to turn away but they heard a thud as Matt hit the floor, hard by the sound of it. As Twilight and Spike slowly opened their eyes, Twilight said, "Ok, no more big spells until my horn is better." Her head feeling like it was splitting. There was a weak groan from ground level and the two turned to look. "Oh boy." said Spike after a minute. Pinkie said "Look on the bright side....nopony'll be angry at him as much." … Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were all heading towards the library as fast as they could after they got the message from Twilight. "Whats the trouble, Twi?" said Rainbow dash, landing at the door. Spike appeared behind Twilight and said "Twilight...I think he’s waking..." before there was a scream from inside the library and Spike finished "...up." "Oh dear, is there a burglar in the house?" asked Rarity? "Burglar? Where?" asked Fluttershy before hiding behind Rainbow Dash. Twilight said nervously "Not exactly." before stepping aside to let them in and see a grey coated pegasus colt with a black mane and a firework explosion cutie mark in what appeared to be full on freak out mode. "Who's that guy?" asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight gulped at that before saying "Its...Matt." 'Matt' seemed to snap out of it at that, a worryingly unhinged tone in his voice "Yes...this is just a weird dream...or another smegging mind leech." The ponies blinked before Rainbow Dash laughed and said, "Oh, good one. This is your best joke yet, Pinkie." Pinkie smiled "It wasn’t me, Dash...but it would have been a great prank." 'Matt' turned to fix Dash with a stare "A prank?" he said, his left eye visibly twitching "Ok, all jokin' aside, where's Matt?" asked Applejack. "I'm right here..." said the colt, the unstable quality vanishing from his tone before he said "I'm not dreaming, am I? I’d say the lack of pants proved it...but you guys probably haven’t heard of them." "Ok, prove you're Matt," said Applejack, "When did you first meet my little sister?" "She and her buddies found a downed fighter that one of them got into, forcing me to chase it down...they recently almost killed me with my own gear." said Matt, promptly. The ponies' jaws dropped with an almost audible thunk. "Yeah, pretty big surprise, isn't it?" said Spike. Matt said in a matter-of-fact voice "It's not been my week really, has it?" "Twilight, how did this happened?" asked Rarity. "He asked me to help him read the books because he can't read equestrian. I tried that translation spell I've been practising...then part of his wrist bracelet exploded." said Twilight. Matt sighed "Stupid cutprice reality shield generator overloaded." he said. "So, you turned him into a pony?" asked Fluttershy. "No...the exploding generator did it. I'll be like this till it wears off...if it wears off." said Matt, a little bitterly. "I can just imagine how the town'll act if they think I’m a smegging shapeshifter..." "Well, nopony has to know," said Twilight, "It can be our little secret." Matt stopped and a watcher would have almost have been able to hear his mental gears working the problem. The flash of the exploding reactor had not been that big so nobody outside would have seen it, the populace had been so busy ignoring him that nobody had seen him come in...what could go wrong? "I like that plan." he said. Just then, Matt's wristcomp on the floor beeped as Aria's voice said, "Matt? What's going on? I could feel the reality pulse from here. You didn't do something stupid, did you?" Matt looked at it as if it had just spat acid. "She's going to laugh, I just know it." he said before going over and saying “I'm right here...If I said nothing had happened, would you believe me?" he said. "You got tangled up in some magi energy, didn't you?" said Aria. Matt gulped and said "What makes you say that?" "It's hanging like a thick fog around you, so obviously you allowed Miss Sparkle to perform a spell. And that presumably caused your reality generator to overload, which would explain the reality pulse," said Aria, "A moment please while I use the vidcam to ascertain the damage." Matt looked at the wrist computer in horror as it gave a whirring noise as the camera engaged. Aria didn’t answer for a minute "Erm...Aria?" asked Matt only for Aria to break out in laughter. Matt's ears drooped as he said, "There goes my last shred of dignity." Aria said "Oh, stop being dramatic. As if you had any to begin with." "This footage better get deleted," snapped Matt. "Make me, pony boy." said Aria, mirth in her voice. Matt glared and switched to splitter "When this is over, Your CPU has an appointment with a fire axe." "Ooh, how will you hold it? In your teeth?" asked Aria in the same language. Matts glare intensified before Aria continued "I suggest you get used to it while I calculate how long it will take for the excess energy to bleed off." Rainbow Dash walked over to Matt and said, "Looks like I can take you for a real tour now. How does seeing Ponyville from the air sound?" "Um, I want to, uh, be his tour guide," said Fluttershy, a blush noticeable on her face. Matt gulped a little before saying "I'm not even sure how to fly with these...I'm used to starships." "Trust me, flying with your own wings is much more fun," said Rainbow Dash, "You don't want to be cooped up all day in here, do ya?" Matt thought to how Rainbow had outflown the grav cars in the VR simulation...if anyone could teach him how to fly in his current predicament, it was her, plus his current form seemed to have a gentle form of claustrophobia, nothing major…but enough to make him feel constrained indoors. "Not a chance. Lets go." he said "Uh, you don't mind if I came along, do you?" asked Fluttershy. Matt, who probably at this moment, couldn’t spot a hint if it hit him from a great height, said "More the merrier." As the pegasi went out the door, Twilight said, "Maybe I should start looking for a counterspell." The rest, including the voice of Aria from the wrist computer said "NO!" Aria adding "This may do him good...if he gets any more stressed, his heart might explode." "Besides, you really need to lay off the magic," said Spike. "Agreed." said Aria, "Plus, this was not caused by a spell, just Matt not keeping his wrist computer up to spec." "Ah, I was wanting to see if Twilight could turn me into a woozle next," said Pinkie. "What's a woozle?" asked Rarity. "It's very confuzleing," said Pinkie. ... Matt, Rainbow and Fluttershy walked through Ponyville, Matt feeling a bit unnerved from how...normal everyone was treating him. He hadn’t realized held gotten used to the 'alien' treatment over the past 2 years. As a matter of fact, no one was paying him any mind at all...except for some of the mares, particularly the pegasus mares. But the look he was giving was...something he can't identify. The looks were starting to make Matt feel nervous when he walked round a corner and almost walked into two pegasi mares. "Wow...sorry about that." he said. "Oh, it's ok," said one. "More than ok," said the other. "Erm...ok." said Matt, backing up a bit. "So, what's your name?" asked one of the mares. Matt visibly gulped. Almost everybody in town knew his name...and not in a good way. "Spark." he said, desperately. "Hi Spark.." sighed the two mares. Matt tried to pull himself together and said "Erm...whats your names?" looking pleadingly at Rainbow and Fluttershy "I'm Slipstream," said one. "I'm Cumula," said the other. "Uh, nice to meet you," said Matt. "Yeah, yeah, nice to meet you, but we've got places to be," said Rainbow Dash. "But we want to know more about Spark," said Slipstream. "We don't get enough winged stallions in Ponyvile," said Cumula. Fluttershy said “Erm...excuse me..." only for Cumula to say over her "So...where are you from, Spark?" Matt said nervously "You wouldn’t believe me if I told you." Fluttershy tried again "Excuse me...can i say...?" before Slipstream said "Oh...will you be staying here long?" Suddenly, Fluttershy jumped in front of Slipstream and Cumulua and snapped, "Back off, sisters!" This alone was uncharacteristic of Fluttershy, but the stern glare she was giving was even more so. The mares glared at Fluttershy for a minute before Slipstream said "Fine...come find us when you're tired of her." Matt was cowering, shocked at Fluttershys brief personality flip. As soon as the two mares had flown off, Fluttershy turned and said as sweetly as if nothing had happened, "So, shall we continue our tour?" Matt and Rainbow Dash, who was also staring from the outburst, nodded slightly. Matt whispered to Rainbow "Remind me never to piss her off." Eventually, the trio stopped for lunch at a small cafe. Matt wasn't very happy about the menu, particularly since it was almost exclusively vegetarian. Not to mention unusual. "Flowers in sandwiches? Now I've seen everything...and that includes that time Xander cooked for the team....the squirming." he said, shuddering at the memory. "Well, you can't have sweets all the time," said Rainbow Dash, "You'll lose your aerodynamic figure." "I suppose...hopefully this won’t be too permanent...I miss my thumbs already." said Matt, adding the last part to himself before overhearing two familiar voices and vanishing under the table with a yelp. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy glanced over to see Slipstream and Cumula at another table, talking with some friends. "I can't believe that the princess is letting that creature live so close to town..." said Cumula. "Yeah, it might come into town and eat someone," said another. "Not to mention what it did to poor Miss Sparkle." said Slipstream to a round of agreement. Matt had slowly reappeared in his seat, a look of intense fury on his face. "Now, now, Ma-, I mean, Spark, you shouldn't listen to what the other girls say," said Fluttershy, carefully. "Is this the smeg they're saying about me? I eat ponies?" said Matt, in a dark tone. "Oh, you know those crazy rumors," said Rainbow Dash, "You should hear what we told about Zecora." "But...blaming me for what happened to Twilight?" said Matt, sounding furious now. "I nearly killed myself saving her butt and this town as well and thats the thanks I get?" he said, his voice raising a bit from blind fury. "Keep it down," said Fluttershy, nervously "You're not supposed to be Matt right now, remember?" Matt closed his eyes and took a few breathes "You’re right...sticks and stones and all that." before Cumula said behind him. "Spark. How nice to see you again." Matt turned to see Cumula and Slipstream. "Oh...you two." he said, the dark tone slipping back in. "So, you finished with whatever you're doing with them?" asked Slipstream, pointing a wing at Dash and Fluttershy. "No...but I wouldn’t go anywhere with two shallow smegheads who pass judgment on people they hardly know...good day to you." said Matt in a sub-zero tone before getting up and leaving with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. The two mares stared after them before Cumula said, "Why do the cute ones always have to be crazy?" "Yeah, he's a lost cause," said Slipstream, "Let's go." Matt, Rainbow and Fluttershy wandered back into town. "So...apart from the cakes...everyone thinks I'm a walking talking apocalypse waiting to happen." said Matt gloomily after a few minutes. "Oh, they'll lighten up eventually," said Rainbow Dash, "You just gotta show how nice a guy you really are." "Its hard to do that when their mind appear to be already made up." said Matt, gloomily before a gust of dusty wind blew through the square. "That's odd, we're not supposed to get a wind from that direction today," said Rainbow Dash. The trio turned to see several ponies running the opposite way. "Oh, what now?" muttered Matt before a market stall flew into view to smash against a wall. What looked like a whirlwind with burning red eyes came into view. "What is that?" asked Matt. "A dust devil," said Rainbow Dash, "These things are nothing but trouble." The dust devil, to prove its point, grabbed a pony and span it around before letting it spin off into a dazed heap. "Really?" said Matt sarcastically as two more dust devils came into view. "We gotta get rid of these things before they wreck the whole town," said Rainbow Dash. "Um, maybe if we asked them really nicely, they'll leave," said Fluttershy. Several other pegasi were already arriving. "Erm...maybe I should stay here with Fluttershy? I can’t actually fly yet, remember?" said Matt, nervously. "What are you talking about? This is a perfect time to learn," said Rainbow Dash, scoldingly. Matt watched as Rainbow Dash flew off to spin around a Dust Devil, the whirlwind collapsing into dust. He gulped "This can only end badly." he said only for Fluttershy to say reassuringly "You'll be fine." Matt closed his eyes and concentrated on flapping his wings. Despite what most of the laws of aerodynamics and gravity would say, Matt started lifting up from the ground. "Hey...this is actually pretty co-" began matt cheerfully before a half barrel, sent flying by a dust devil impacted with him. The dust devil in question closed in on the duo. "Hurhurhur...pigeon ponies." it said in a deep, and not very intelligent voice." Matt poked his head out of the wreckage, the way his eyes were spinning evidence to the barrels effectiveness. However, one thought was riccocheting around his scrambled brain and went 'That pigmy tornado called you a pigeon...are you gonna stand for that?' "No, mr concussion." gibbered Matt out loud before taking off again and managing to swoop at the dust devil. Unfortunately for Matt, the dust devil saw him coming and sucked Matt into its vortex. It spun around a bit before hurling Matt out towards the fountain in the square. Fluttershy winced as the ballistic Matt hit the water with a 'ow'. The splash however went over the dust devil which made a shrieking noise and seemed to melt into a puddle of mud that said in a bubbling voice "No like water." Fluttershy gasped and said, "Matt, that's the answer!" Matt's head popped over the side of the fountain. "What is?" he said, his voice slurred from the double whammy his skull had just endured before his gaze fell on the complaining ex-dust devil. "Part of me's happy its that easy...the other thinks its a bit anti-climatic." before he grinned, an idea blossoming in his mind. He said "I'll go get Dash...if anyone can make what I have in mind..." "I'll go get a bucket," said Fluttershy. "Good idea. Make sure that muddy over there doesn’t try to dry off." said Matt before looking around to where the ponies were doing their best to rein in the dust devils. He finally spotted the pegasus he was looking for and with a little concentration took off towards her. "Rainbow...hold up" he called. "Matt, we don't have time to talk," said Dash. "We do if we wanna deal with these things." said Matt, before explaining what had happened with the first dust devil. "That's all it took? Water?" said Rainbow Dash, "That's too easy." "There is a saying to go with this regarding gifts...but you might take it as an insult. Come on...I got a plan...but I need a waterspout from the fountain to do it. Doesn’t need to last long...just long enough." said Matt. Rainbow Dash looked suspicious "What are you gonna do?" Matt smirked "Use my skills." Matt then flew over to a dust devil and said, "Hey, I hear you once lost a fight to a vacuum cleaner." The dust devils stopped what they were doing at that and turned to glare at the cheeky pegasus. "Yeah, you heard me, you windbags." called Matt. The dust devils all let out howling cries of rage before shooting after Matt, who blew a raspberry before flying off. "I amaze myself sometimes," said Matt as he flew back to the fountain. He yelped as one of the dust devils literally sent a piece of the road at him, nearly turning him into a pancake. "...AT HOW DUMB I AM!" he finished with a scream, turning a corner to see Rainbow Dash hovering over the fountain. "Dash, start the spin cycle," said Matt. Rainbow Dash nodded and began to do a variation of her Rainbow Spin-dry, a tornado of water rising before she stopped, sending it shooting at the dust devils as they came round the corner. "Uh oooh." said one of the dust devils gloomily before the waterspout hit dead center, causing them to join the first dust devil in mud mode. Matt shook off the water that landed on him and said, "Well, that went well." Rainbow landed smugly and said “They don’t call me Rainbow and Dash for nothing." Matt laughed and said "No, they don't. Now we just wait for Fluttershy to get that bucket and we can dump these dufus's in the lake or something." The ponies that had been hiding the buildings came out as soon as the dust devils were gone. "Hey, they've been defeated," said one pony. "Who did it?" asked another. "I think he did," said one pony, pointing at Matt. Matt looked over his shoulder for the person they were pointing at, completely unused to actually being thanked before his brain supplied the theory that maybe they meant him. "Me? No...but It was Rainbow Dash who..." he began. However, the ponies apparently didn't hear him as they started cheering. "He's a hero!" yelled one. "He saved the town!" yelled another. "What's his name?" called a third. "Erm...I'm nobody...just passing through." sad Matt, nervously before wincing as someone in the crowd said “Hey...Isn’t that Spark? The new pony?" Matt, in automatic response practically shrieked "PROVE IT!" Then the crowd started chanting, "Spark, Spark, Spark, Spark..." "Hey, wait a minute," said Rainbow Dash, but she was completely drowned out. Matt, on his part looked completely terrified before being carried off, screaming in splitter, if anypony had been able to understand, the words 'ITS THE MOOOOOB!!!" Just then, Fluttershy trotted up to Rainbow Dash, a bucket in her mouth. She looked around and asked, "What did I miss?" Rainbow Dash glared as Matt was carried round a corner by his new adoring fans. "Just somepony getting some praise he didn;t earn." she said darkly. ... Rainbow Dash had gone back to her cloud house to let off some steam. "I can’t believe he took the credit for stopping those dust devils. He's not even a real pegasus. I;d like to see him clear out an entire sky in 10 seconds flat." she muttered to herself before hearing a frantic knocking at the door. Rainbow Dash and said, "I'm so not in the mood for Fluttershy right now." Nevertheless, she went over to the door and opened it. As soon as the door was open, there was a grey and blue blur that shot into the room and behind the furniture. "SHUTTHEDOOR!" screamed Matt's voice. Rainbow Dash was about to ask why when she heard a cheering throng of pegasi outside. She quickly shut the door and locked it. Though exactly how a lock would work for a door made of clouds was a bit perplexing. "You...people can’t do anything half way...first you despise my very existence...then I can’t even get back home without being mobbed to death by admirers." said Matt in a shaking voice, peering out from behind the chair he’d taken cover behind with a wide eyed expression. "You don't deserve to be mobbed to death," said Dash in a sour tone. "Finally, somebody who shows some-" started Matt before Dash snapped, "I should be the one with the mob!" Matt stopped himself from an annoyed reply as he thought about it. "I agree entirely. You did all the leg-hoofwor-I dunno...the something work...My head hurts." he said, moaning a bit. "I don’t like this kinda attention. People in my line of work with this kinda attention have a special nickname." Rainbow dash said unsympathetically "Showoff?" Matt turned to look at her and said darkly "No...Target practise." "Well, you sure aren't denying of that attention," said Rainbow Dash bitterly. "Did any of what I said get through? People in my career choice do not last long with this amount of attention. We actually get relocated...6 feet below the surface of whatever planet we happen to be on." said Matt, a frantic tone entering his voice as he spoke. "You sure aren't acting like it," said Rainbow Dash. Matt frowned and said, "Is everything I'm saying just passing straight through those pointed ears?" When no response came Matt said darkly "I've spent 2 hours trying to communicate to the town that you stopped them. They called me 'modest'." he said through gritted teeth before stopping and trying a different approach. "Who cares what they think? In a few days, 'Spark' will be long gone and that'll be that. Anyway...I probably haven’t got a patch on you." he said, in a smooth voice. "Flattery will get you nowhere," said Rainbow Dash. Matt glared, muttering "I shoulda left you in the computer." Rainbow Dash turned and said, "Oh, so you wanna get rid of the competition, huh?" Matt jumped back a bit in shock and said "Erm...Yes?" he said, unsure of how this would go. "Well, big hot shot, how about we prove which one's the better flyer?" snapped Rainbow Dash. Matt thought about this. "Sure...why not?" he said. "Fine, the Dragonwing Pass Endurance Race, two weeks from now," said Rainbow Dash, "Be there or be square." Now if Matt, like all mercs had one fault, it was pride...in spadefuls. "Huh...I've done my own versions of endurance. A race'll be a piece of cake. I will see you at the race..." he said before turning to leave and suddenly stopping. "Actually..." he began. "You need to wait until the cheering mass leaves, don't you," said Rainbow Dash. Matt said suspiciously "Maybe..." ... <Internal Memo system activated...> <Recording now...> 'I am starting to wonder if choosing Mr Lynch and his team to liberate me was a good idea. The captain is clearly unhinged. Two weeks have passed and instead of aiding me in finding the dimensional frequency to re-code him back to human form, he has been training for a stupid race. Apparently, he had been goaded into it by the blue pegasus who appeared to be jealous of the attention Mr. Lynch had gained for his assistance with the dust devil incident. This is even more irrelevant when one considers that is so-called 'hero worship' stopped after a day or two. Except for a certain yellow pegasus. It doesn’t take a hard drive my size to know that Miss Fluttershy seems to have formed a...whats the word?...Crush on Mr Lynchs current form. I would have thought he would have caught on to it..." ... Aria was interrupted when Matt came in. "Matt, you do realize that this race is foolhardy and incredibly dangerous," said Aria. "Hey...I didn't start this." said Matt, trotting over to slump down on a seat. "Man, this training hurts." he said. Aria sighed. Matt had insisted that his medical nanites be disabled till the race was done, quoting that he wanted to 'win fairly'. In Aria's opinion, that was just stupid. "Matt, you've only been a pegasus for two weeks. Which in itself is foolish. You should be helping me build the reality generator," said Aria, "And as an extension of that first observation, all the other competitors have been pegasi for all their lives. And have trained much longer and harder than you have." "...And none of them have been shot at or had to flee for their lives. I can do this." said Matt, stubbornly. "Have you ever been in high mountainous terrain before?" asked Aria, "Are you aware of the dangers that exist there?" "Oh...its just a mountain race...They probably have plans to stop accidents." said Matt, not really listening. Aria gave a growl of frustration, or something close enough to it. "There are blistering winds up there, barely sufficient levels of oxygen, and the frostbite will cause you hooves to fall off," she said, trying to be as blunt as possible. "Thanks...That reminds me, Rarity said something about a flight suit." said Matt, before turning to leave. Aria watched Matt go before she said, "Now I remember why I prefer the company of scientists." ... Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was going through her routine training, spinning around at high speeds before swerving through trees. She finally completed her course and landed next to Fluttershy. "How'd I do?" she asked. "Two seconds faster than last time," said Fluttershy, clicking her stopwatch. "Hah...That race is in the bag. No way he can beat me." said Rainbow in her usual cocky form. "Uh, don't you think you're being a little harsh on Matt?" asked Fluttershy. "He's the one who started it, taking the credit for those dust devils." said Rainbow, annoyed. "It was really an accident," said Fluttershy, "I'm sure he didn't mean to take the credit." “Yeah right." said Rainbow Dash under her breath before remembering herself and saying unconvincingly "Yeah, right." "Matt's really not a bad guy," said Fluttershy. "He's smart, kind, funny, clever, cute..." Fluttershy stopped when she saw Rainbow Dash staring at her. "What did you just say?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Oh, nothing, nothing important," said Fluttershy, a blush becoming very prominent on her face. Rainbow smirked and said "You've got a crush on him? He's not even a real pony." Fluttershy's blush became even brighter, "Uh, well, he is good-looking, and, er, he is, uh, sweet," she said. "He's not a real pony...plus...does he even know you have a crush on him? Guys a bit dim sometimes." said Rainbow Dash. "Well, uh, I'm hoping he would have picked up a hint or two," said Fluttershy. "I wouldn’t count on it." said Rainbow Dash to herself. ... As anyone who's ever been at a fitting knows, they tend to taking agonizingly long amounts of time, most of which the person being fitted has to stand in uncomfortable poses. "This is just a race suit...right?" said Matt, a little uncertain. "Matt, you must take pride in what you wear," said Rarity, "It's not just functional, it's fashionable." Matt rolled his eyes. "Usually, I look for energy blast protection over looks." he said to himself. "Well, I don't know about that, but you need plenty of insulation against those dreadfully cold winds as well as streamlined to be more aerodynamic," said Rarity, "Now tell me if this is too tight." She then picked up a thread and pulled it. Matt went bug eyed as he felt like he’d just been put in a pneumatic press. "Too........tight." he gasped. "Oh, sorry," said Rarity before loosening the thread. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle was sitting nearby and flipping through a book about the Dragonwing Mountains. "Matt, are you certain you want to go through with this?" asked Twilight, "The race is really for professionals more than first-timers." Matt took a few breathes as soon as the suit was looser before looking over at Twilight. "I've been in some bad situations before. How bad could this race be?" he said confidently. "Well, in the last year, plenty of ponies ended up in hospitals," said Twilight, "Lots of broken legs and wings." Matt stopped at that. "Erm..." he said nervously before shaking his head as the usual merc pride overrode common sense. "I've been in a few scrapes...I'll be fine. I can handle one endurance race." He also added under his breath "...And I am not letting Dash beat me that easy." "Matt, this isn't just an endurance race," said Twilight, "It requires a lifetime of experience to get through this." "And you're not a real pegasus," said Rarity, "Opalescence, could you bring the silver thread?" Matt began to glare as Opal rolled a spool of thread over to Rarity. "I am not backing down. I can do this." he said, starting to get annoyed. Twilight sighed and said, "Matt, just don't push yourself. You're not built for this kind of endurance." Little did Matt know, but Opal was watching his swishing tail with interest and was getting into a crouching position. Matt sighed "Encodings pretty thorough...I'm exactly the same as a normal pony until..." he said before getting a strange look at the same time that Rarity and Twilight heard a 'shrik' noise from behind him. "Rarity...does Opal often...attack customers?" asked Matt through gritted teeth. "Well, sometimes if she's feeling playful and she knows the customers well," said Rarity. "That's what I thought," said Matt before jumping twenty feet into the air with a yelp. ... Later... Matt looked at the finished suit before glaring at Opal who he was sure was smirking at him. "Nice suit." he said, a little impressed despite everything. "Yes, it is a fine piece of work," said Rarity, "I don't get to work on stallions too often. Apparently, there's something about tailor-work that disinterests them. I wonder what it could be?" Matt kept a neutral expression and said diplomatically "I have no idea...being an alien and all that." "Speaking of which, you do remember that you'll be changing back to a...hoeman, right?" said Twilight. "Yeah...I need to work on retuning the reality generator at some point." said Matt, absently. "Well, good, but it's not just getting attached to your form that you should be worried about," said Twilight. "It's others getting attached to that form," said Rarity. Matt blinked "Pardon?" he said, a little confused from the sudden subject change. "Well, er, you are aware of how much attention you attract as a stallion," said Rarity. "You mean those two idiots that I met when Fluttershy and Dash gave me that tour?" said Matt, not catching on. "Oh...fluttershy sent em packing. She's got a real temper on her when you get her going." "Ah, well, that's pretty close," said Twilight, "But I don't suppose you've wondered why Fluttershy snapped at them like that." Matt seemed to think about it before saying. "Not really..." before noticing their expressions. "Wait...you think...I...heheh...Thats silly." he said, sounding nervous. "Well, I'm not quite sure I agree with Fluttershy's taste, but this is certainly something you should address soon," said Rarity. Matt said with a shaking voice "But...that...I'm not even...ggnnnh." before passing out. "Perhaps we should have been more gentle," said Twilight. "Well, he needed to be told at some point," said Rarity, "I'm quite surprised he didn't figure it out himself." Matt woke up suddenly before saying nervously. "Tell me I dreamt about you telling me...I didn’t, did I." Rarity opened a drape and said, "Have a look for yourself." Matt looked outside and saw Fluttershy, lying on the ground and plucking petals from a flower. Even Matt wasn't oblivious enough to not know what she was saying. "Ah....smeg." said Matt to himself, gloomily. "I know you'd hate to break her heart as much as the rest of us, but we all know it would never work," said Rarity. "I know...I can only imagine how she'll take it...I'll have to think about how to break it gently to her." said Matt, gloomily. Twilight and Rarity exchanged a glance before saying at the same time, "You need some help." Matt looked at them "Help?" he said. "No offense, but you don't seem like the kind guy who knows how to be gentle," said Twilight. Matt opened his mouth to disagree before he realised they had a point. "Yes," said Rarity, "if a lady is to be told that the stallion of her affections is not available to her, it must be done with finesse and great care. Otherwise, she'd think he was nothing but a conceited, arrogant, uncharming clod that should be trampled under a stampede of-" Matt watched politely as Rarity's look began to darken and her tone get angrier as she tiraded on before he slowly edged over to Twilight and said from the corner of his mouth. "I'm presuming she's had bad experience?" he said, in a worried voice. "Uh, let's just say that she had her expectations dashed and not say anything more about it," said Twilight. Matt nodded slowly. "The secret dies with me." he said. Eventually, Rarity calmed herself down and said, "Also, Fluttershy is a gentle creature with delicate feelings. You'll want to be extra careful with her." Matt nodded, thinking back to when the AI on the skyraid had gone nuts. "No worries...but it might have to wait till after the race...its tomorrow and I should think about what to say." he said. ... The race itself began early, given that the organizers didn’t want to risk any competitors not reaching the stop-over camp before nightfall. The morning sun was shining upon the Dragonwing Mountains as the pegasi prepared for the race though there were already some black clouds on the horizon. Matt was still thinking about his problem when Rainbow said behind him. "You ready to lose?" Once Matt confirmed that his heart hadn't exploded, he turned. Rainbow took a step back and looked at the flight suit Matt had, obviously of Rarity's make. It was done in the weird camoflage design Matt liked in his usual clothing with faux fur built into the collar and the hoof holes and Matt/Sparks cutie mark on the flank. "If I'm losing, at least I'll know that you'll be behind me," said Matt. Rainbow Dash glared at that. "Oh yeah?" she said pushing forward till the two were eye to eye. Matt said "You're the one who wanted this race...you sound like you're worried the 'fake' will kick your ass." "No way a rank amateur's gonna beat me," said Rainbow Dash. Matt shrugged "We'll see." he said, calmly despite the fact his nerves were at breaking point inside. "I see you came prepared for the cold," said Rainbow Dash. "I'm allergic to hyperthermia." said Matt, sarcastically. "Hope you know how to keep your wings warm," said Rainbow Dash, "Wouldn't want to lose any feathers." "Could say the same about you...lets just get this over with so we can put this behind us and Spark can 'leave town'." said Matt, a little annoyed. "Fine, I'll see him one last time, at the finish line," said Rainbow Dash. Matt shrugged "Yeah right." he muttered. ... As the racers got ready though, Matt began to think that maybe he should try to extinguish a few of the metaphorical burning bridges. As the pegasus in charge began to count down to the start he turned and said "Hey...Rainbow...this is just a race...a friendly race. We don’t need to..." he said before the referee reached zero and Matt was sent spinning. The referee pointed politely at the direction the other racers were going when Matt stopped his spinning top impression. "Erm...thanks." he said before shooting off after the others. ... Twilight and the others watched as Matt shot off after the other racers. "Well...he’s off now." she said. "Ah sure hope he knows what he's getting into," said Applejack. Twilight nodded "I hope so too." ... Meanwhile, Aria was working on the reality generator in Matt's absence. "Must I take care of everything around here?" she grumbled. She walked around the cube that formed her interpretation of the CPU and checked the software for the generator was writing when a new view appeared, flashing as urgent. "If it's another spyware bug, so help me..." she grumbled before selecting it. Her fury stopped when she spotted the serial number flashing, matching to Matt's nanites. "Oh, this isn't good." she said as a voice from it said "Nano-recoding program complete. ETA to recode: 30.25 minutes." "Are there any ways to communicate with Lynch?" asked Aria. "Negative, no communication device detected on person or in vicinity," said the voice. "Dammit...right. Despatch drone 21A to find Miss Sparkle." said Aria, annoyed. A beep and a line of code on one of the holo screens indicated compliance. All aria could do now was wait... ... While waiting for news of how the race was going, the other ponies decided it was time for a little heart-to-heart with Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, darlin'. About..." began Applejack before noticing all the nearby ponies who might overhear before saying "...about 'Spark'." "Doesn't he look great in that racing suit?" asked Fluttershy. "Yes, I think it brought out his inner nature quite nicely," said Rarity, "And it matches his..." She paused before saying, "Er, now's not the time for personal pride." "Fluttershy, Spark's a nice guy, but he's not going to be staying around forever," said Twilight. "Yeah, besides, there are other cute stallions out there," said Pinkie Pie. "But he said he's not going to be able to fix that ship for months. Maybe I can convince him to stay," said Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, 'member when you were takin' care of that lil' hawk?" asked Applejack. Fluttershy nodded, remembering the hawk chick she had found one summer. "Ya'll cared for him until he was big enough to fly away, but you couldn't let him go that easy, could ya?" said Applejack. Fluttershy nodded, sniffing sadly. "But you had to let it go," said Applejack, "It didn't belong with you, it belonged out in the wild, being free." Fluttershy nodded sadly. "...and it would be wrong to make Matt stay as well." she finished, in a small voice. "Right, besides, I don't think he's your type," said Rarity. Fluttershy smiled weakly at Raritys joke before there was a scream from the crowd, the ponies parting to reveal one of Matt's spiderdrones scuttling forward. "I thought Matt was keeping them at his camp." said Twilight. "Oh, I invited a few over to my place," said Pinkie, "They don't seem to care for milk and cookies though." The optic on the drone flickered to the blue that showed Aria was steering it. "Miss sparkle...ladies...it is urgent I find the captain at once. Where is he?" she said, sounding panicky for once. "He's probably halfway through the course by now," said Rarity. "Oh...oh...crap." said Aria, forgetting to swear in splitter from panic. "This is extremely bad. I received a update from his internal nanites. They are preparing to recode him to human form." "What?!" shouted all five of them. "But what if he's over a chasm?" cried Fluttershy. "Then he will fall probably a good 40 to 45 feet." said Aria, promptly before stopping. "The emergency recode will not last long...but any injuries will carry over. We must inform the officials immediately. Where is the overnight stop?" "It's too far away from here, we'll never make it there in time," said Fluttershy. "And I don't know exactly where it is so I can't teleport there," said Twilight. Aria didn’t speak for a full minute, apparently thinking before she said "We may have a way after all. Tell me...has Mr Lynch mentioned his 'special project'?" ... The quintet of ponies followed the spiderdrone back to the barn Matt was using. The spiderdrone went to the basement door and said, "What you are about to see is top secret. Do not tell the landlord." The old cellar doors lock didn’t provide much resistance to the drones cutting laser and soon it was wide open, revealing the ring device that Pinkie had seen Matt working on the day he;d ended up as ‘Spark’. "Ooh, what is it? Is it some kind of portal to jump through space and time and end up in another galaxy?" asked Pinkie. "Close enough. Its the beginning of a class 6 rip engine portal. At the moment though it is only capable of short distance teleportation...about...400 miles...give or take." said Aria, steering the drones body towards several controls on the wall, its wires leading to the ring. "So, you can use this to go anywhere in Equestria?" asked Twilight. "Yes...as long as there are Map coordinates to enter...I took the liberty of researching the race course...it should be simple enough to deposit you just outside the camp with only a 1.4% chance of catastrophic molecular failure." said Aria. "Catastrophic what now?" asked Applejack. "Nothing you need concern yourselves with." said Aria, smoothly. The drone she was steering flicked a switch and several red crystals on the ring lit up, a humming coming from them. "Uh, has this thing been tested?" asked Twilight, a little nervously. In simulations, yes. You'll be proud to know this is the first physical test." said Aria, in a creepily cheerful voice as another voice from the ring said "Target coordinates locked...traveller DNA logged and saved...teleport in 10 seconds." "Oh, one more thing, don't hold hands, or hooves," said Aria. The ponies as one gulped before the entire cellar was filled with a blinding light. When it faded, the only sign anyone had been there were four sets of hoofprints in the dirt. "Teleport successful." chimed the jumpgates computer. ... Meanwhile, Matt was trying to force his way through a blizzard and had popped out of nowhere half an hour previously. He was so glad he had remembered to bring flight goggles. 'Man, Twilight wasn't joking about this. This is nasty.' he thought as he wiped snow from his goggles for what felt like the 30th time. As he cleared it away he got a surprise to see rainbow up ahead, the snowstorm, despite everything having slowed her down too. Matt, being Matt couldn’t resist a smartarse comment as he overtook. "Hey Rainbow...see ya at midway. BYEEE!" before he flew over. "Yeah, after I get there first!" shouted Rainbow Dash. However, she wasn't able to go any faster than she currently was, what with the blizzard. Matt lost sight of her pretty fast in the blizzard, grinning to himself. He had a good idea that she'd probably win the race overall but he'd consider it a good job to beat her to the midway poi... A unexpected beep from his left front hoof got his attention to reveal his wrist computer slowly appearing. A calm voice said "Emergency recode charge ready. Engaging in T minus 30 seconds. Please stand by." "Wait? What?" asked Matt, the idea of suddenly turning human in the middle of a blizzard about 60 feet above a mountainside filled his mind. "Uh, cancel, override, stop, desist," he said quickly. "Manual cancel disabled under NSC medical law 42-A...emergency recode in 15 seconds." said the computer smugly. "Stuff medical laws, I command you to not change me back this-" started Matt before the computer said, "Initializing emergency recoding." Matt paused in midair and said, "Oh smeg." To any of the other racers, it would have been impossible to see the flash of or hear the electrical crackling of the recode field engaging...or hear Matt's yell. ... The racers who had already made it to the midway point were trying to rest and regain their strength for the rest of the race when it resumed the following morning. This attempted relaxation was interrupted by a sudden blinding light. It came as a shock to see a perfect half sphere of snow in the middle of the camp appeared to have been evaporated...even more to see four half dazed ponies standing in the middle...well...three of them were dazed if we're honest. "THAT WAS SO COOL...Maybe Aria'll let us go again." said Pinkie, bouncing up and down in excitement. "Uh, I think I'll stick to my balloon for long distances," said Twilight. A shocked pegasus with a whistle cutie mark trotted up. "Wh...Miss Sparkle? How did you...?" he began. "No time to explain," said Twilight, "We've got an emergency. Spark, uh..." "Forgot to take his vitamins today," said Fluttershy, "He has a slight potassium deficiency and he could end up losing consciousness from all the stress of the race." "He never mentioned that on his race form." said the pegasus, confused before saying "He could be here soon. I'll brief the rescue teams to be ready to go out just in..." "What was that about rescue?" asked a voice. The ponies turned to see Rainbow Dash coming down for a landing. Twilight said urgently "Dash...did you see M...Spark? He might be in trouble." "He passed me in the pass," said Rainbow Dash as she alighted, "I thought he'd be here." The gang looked worried at that before the pegasus official nodded "He might just be lost but no sense in taking chances. I'll get the emergency teams sent out at once." he said gravely before trotting in the direction of the tents. Rainbow Dash looked at them confused "Whats going on?" she asked. "Uh, well, you might say Matt had an inconvenient recovery," said Rarity. Rainbow Dash almost went pale at that. "You don't mean...its freezing out there." she said, horrified. "And I doubt he was standing on solid ground at the time," said Applejack. Rainbow dash turned and got ready to take off. "I gotta go find him. If I hadn’t gotten him to enter this dumb race..." she said. "Rainbow Dash, you've been flying all day," said Twilight, "You're too tired to go search for him right now." "I can’t leave him out there. Its not like he's got a coat." said Rainbow, turning to look at Twilight. "My racing suit probably has been torn to shreds," said Rarity, "And after all the work I put into it." The others turned to glare at Rarity at that before Rainbow shook her head and shot off into the storm. "I have to go with her," said Fluttershy, "We'll be able to cover the mountainside better." Rarity said concerned "Darling...Rainbow Dash will probably struggle in this weather. You can’t fly in this." "But Matt needs all the help he can get," said Fluttershy, "I have to try." "Fluttershy. Its too dangerous. You won't be able to help him if you need rescuing too." said Twilight. Fluttershy sighed before suddenly flying off into the snowstorm. "Fluttershy, you fool, don't be a hero!" shouted Applejack. If Fluttershy heard them, she was ignoring them, following Rainbows already fading trademark trail. ... Matt pulled out an adrenaline shot from his wrist computer and injected himself. The snow had been deep enough to stop him being pancaked...but he was sure he'd broken his arm and from the tightness and pain in his chest, several ribs were in a similar state. "Ok, most important rule of being stranded in a cold area: don't fall asleep," he told himself, "If you doze off, you'll freeze off." He'd managed to drag himself into an overhang out of the worst of the storm. It was made worse that with a busted arm, he couldn't enter in the reactivation code for his medical nanites. The wrist computer said "Danger: Severe skeletal injuries detected...medical nanite network: disabled. Enter reactivation code immediately." Matt felt a moment of relief. It would seem that staying awake through all those tedious code lessons would pay off. However, with the wrist computer on the arm that wasn't broken, punching it in was another matter entirely. He tried to lift his arm to type it in and nearly blacked out from agony. "Ok...lets not do that. Computer...audio code entry." he said. The computer buzzed before saying "Error...damage to audio recievers detected...please repeat or manually enter command." "Oh for the love..." grumbled Matt, "I knew I should have tried to learn how to type with my nose. But no, 'as if that situation would ever come up' I said." He looked at the wrist computers temperature, now slipping into negative double figures. "Crap...not how I planned to snuff it." "Really? After all you've been through, this is how you shuffle off the mortal coil?" said a familiar voice. Matt shot his head round to see his sister, wearing her merc uniform from the last day he'd seen her and covered in scorches and judging by the way Matt could see through her, an hallucination to boot. "Ok...now I know I'm too cold." he said, tired. "You're not going to just give up like that," said Chloe, "We made a promise, remember?" "Yeah...we'd go home together. You know...I'm still working on that portal device." said Matt, half dazed from the dropping temperature. "Well, you can't work on anything if you're dead," said Chloe, "Believe me, I know." "You're not dead till I see a body." said Matt, stubbornly. "And you won't find me if you're dead," said Chloe. Matt just shuddered as the snow soaked into his clothing and doubled the cold effect of the wind. He looked up weakly as the cold driven hallucination of his sister seemed to dissolve into nothing with a parting shot of 'If you die on me, I'll work out a way to resurrect you so I can too..." "Right, can't give up now, can't fall asleep," muttered Matt. His eyes slowly began to drift down before he thought he heard someone calling his name out in the snow. "Whu...wuzza?" he slurred before his eyes went wider, seeing several silhouettes in the blizzard. He managed to lift up his wrist comp, activating its flare launcher only for it to start to flicker like a bad TV signal. “No...not now.” he muttered as a voice said “Alert...emergency encode charge depleted. Encode in 30 seconds." Matt managed to hit the flare launch switch before the last of the emergency encode gave out along with his consciousness. ... Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flying through the snowstorm. Despite her lack of experience, Fluttershy's determination allowed her to keep up with Rainbow Dash. The two pegasi were buffeted by a particularly strong gust of wind for a second. "This is crazy. He could be anywhere." yelled Rainbow Dash over the wind. Fluttershy managed to turn and was about to say something before what looked like a brightly glowing ball shot between them to explode like a miniature sun for a second, bathing a good section of the canyon in red light. "What was that?" asked Fluttershy. The two looked around to see a faint shape, just visible under a rock overhang slump down in the snow. Several other calls from further down the canyon seemed to indicate that some of the rescue teams from the midpoint had also seen the lightshow. "I think that's Matt, come on," said Rainbow Dash before flying over to the overhang. The two landed unsteadily in the snow to see that it was Matt, trapped again in pegasus form and looking like he’d gone three rounds with a manticore and lost, one of his front legs clearly broken and one of his wings looking just as bad. "Oh man, this is not good," said Rainbow Dash. "He needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," said Fluttershy before bending down towards Matt's head. Matt opened his eyes at that slowly "Am I dead?" he said, weakly. Fluttershy jumped back, her face bright pink. "Um, no, we're going to get you some help," she said. "Thats nice..." said Matt, dizzily as Rainbow Dash flew up to get the attention of the rescue team. "You know...when we get back...I'm gonna fix that reality field. I think being a pegasus...should be left...to the professionals." Matt said. ... Matt opened his eyes to find himself in the clinic in Ponyville. "You know...I should just live here...its easier." he said under his breath. Fluttershy, who was nearby, held her breath in anticipation. "I get injured so often it'd probably save the clinic leg work." finished Matt to himself before he turned his head and saw Fluttershy. "GAH...I...how long were you there?" he said, almost jumping out of bed (and regretting it as his broken front leg objected). "Oh, uh, just...since you were brought in," said Fluttershy meekly. Matt looked at her suspiciously before noticing a calender. "2 Days?" he said, sounding surprised before sighing. "Fluttershy...I'm sorry.....you know I can't stay here, right." he said as kindly as he could. "Well, I'm sure we can move you back to your...hideout pretty soon," said Fluttershy, sounding sad. Matt sighed, laying back a bit. "Man, this is not how I envisioned myself last month." he said before saying "You gonna be ok, Fluttershy?" "Oh, just fine," said Fluttershy, "Though I am a little hungry." Suddenly, a large grumbling came from her stomach. Matt grinned at that. "I'll be perfectly fine. Even I can't get injured in a hospital. Go get a bite to eat." he said. "Ok," said Fluttershy, "If you insist." She started walking out of Matt's patient room, though she seemed to be keeping an eye on him as she left. Matt said with as warm a smile as he could "I do...I'll be fine. Look after yourself. I'll almost certainly still be here." Fluttershy nodded before walking out. ... It was a few days later... Matt was back at his camp, human again and still wearing a few bruises that the med nanites were yet to clear up, something he also had to do in regard to the damage caused when the CMC had 'helped'. "This is gonna take a while." he muttered. "Well, you've had plenty of time to play, now it's back to work," said Aria. "Can't I even go to that 'end of the race' party?" asked Matt. "Your reality field was half adapted when you finally let me re-code you. A few more days and you would have been a permanent resident. It is not worth the risk." said Aria, stubbornly before noticing Matt looking at a box of plasma flares and a launcher thoughtfully. "Matt, those are for emergencies," said Aria. "We're already in an emergency...and I still have plenty in my wrist computer." said Matt, picking up the launcher and getting a few drones to grab some of the flares. ... A small festival was going on to celebrate the end of the Dragonwing Pass race. It might not be a major celebration like the Summer Sun Celebration, but it was still fun. However, one pegasus was not feeling particularly happy. Fluttershy sighed to herself as Rainbow Dash came over. "Hey...whats up?" she said cheerfully before catching on. "Cheer up. Aria told us why 'Spark' had to leave town." she said, being careful not to mention 'Sparks' proper name given how many other pegasi were around, "I know, he has his sister to find," said Fluttershy, "It's just...you ever wonder if you'll find the right stallion one day?" Rainbow Dash smiled and said "Mom always said there's somepony out there for everyone. You'll find him one day." "I hope so," said Fluttershy, "I just felt like Spark could have been the one." Rainbow Dash was about to reply before the crowd were shocked to see some kind of small rocket shoot up into the sky before exploding with a green flash that caused some impressed 'ooooh's' from the watching ponies. "Wow, I didn't know we were gonna have fireworks," said Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy had jumped behind Rainbow Dash in surprise and so was able to look to see a figure in the distance waving to some familiar robotic spiders. She nudged Rainbow Dash with a smile and pointed to where Matt was loading up another salvo of flares. Rainbow Dash looked at where Matt was and smirked. "No wonder he had that firework Cutie Mark," said Rainbow Dash. ... <Log active> Well...talk about walking a mile in someone elses shoes...or hooves in this case. Despite any misgivings I had at first, spending some time as a pony wasn't so bad. I mean, the strict vegetarianism and the lack of arms was kinda tough, but being able to walk around in broad daylight was nice. And, well, spending time with Fluttershy was nice. She's a nice girl and would probably make some lucky stallion happy one day, but it wouldn't have worked. I mean, she like to tend to woodland creatures, I like to blow up alien monsters. Still, the thought of settling down was pretty tempting. Can't settle down. My sis is still out there and I gotta find here...Ok, Aria? I want this log sealed away in the electronic equivilent of a bottomless pit. This is never to be read...ever." <Log saved to secure file....> <Log copied to ARIA personal files>
Largefish8	784	6	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2012-01-23T17:49:56+00:00	2012-01-23T17:49:56+00:00	833	Disclaimer: All MLP: FiM characters belong to Lauren Faust and Hasbro. Capt Lynch is mine. MLP Fic pt 6 It had been a week or so since Matt had been returned to humanity and he'd been trying to use the time to catch up on some repairs at the Skyraid. While the automatic repairs had handled most things, some repairs demanded a gentle touch...but Matt was the only crewmember left so he had to do the calibrations on the warp engine. Of course, reading from a manual and doing the actual work are two pretty separate things. Matt glanced from the wrench he was holding to the manual he was reading from. "Is this supposed to be a metric or a bolt wrench?" he muttered to himself. Aria gave a electronic sigh and said "Its supposed to be a screwdriver...are you sure you are qualified for this?" "Hey, I installed a VCR once," said Matt. "Really? And how many times did you have to go buy a new one to replace the one you were trying to install?" said Aria. Matt glared up at the camera that Aria was probably using to watch him and said after a minute "....Twice....THATS NOT THE POINT!" "No, the point is that you don't have the mechanical training to repair so much as a clock let alone an advanced piece of equipment like a warp engine," said Aria. "Ok then, smartarse...who else is gonna do it?" said Matt, smugly. "Oh, if you allow me a few minutes at the wheel, so to speak," said Aria. "NO...I know that AI's and minds can switch places but I do NOT want a repeat of the VR machine incident...plus I don’t trust you with my body." said Matt, a little hastily. Aria sighed and said, "Fair enough. Of course, by the time you finish repairing that, you'll be too bent over to see over the steering wheel." "Bite me, Aria. You want a body so bad...make one." said Matt, sulkily before managing to connect a wire and causing several readouts to pop up. "See? Perfectly fine." he said before the readout screen exploded in his face. Matt blinked before wiping the soot off his face. "I can fix that," he said. “Of course you can, sir.” Said Aria sarcastically. "Aria? Where's the fire axe?" said Matt in a dangerously calm voice. Aria said smugly "I'm not telling." … Pinkie Pie felt that Matt could use some company so she went over to his ship. It didn’t do anypony or any alien good to be by themselves all the time, after all. For some reason, when she arrived she found that he seemed to be very determined to get into the AI core room with what looked like a red axe. "YOU CAN'T KEEP ME OUT FOREVER!" yelled Matt at the door before Pinkie said "What ya doing?" causing Matt to scream and fall over...then scream again when the axe landed on his foot. "Ms. Pie, a...delight to see you again," said Aria, sounding as if she were gritting her teeth. Matt sat up, wincing and thanking his usually mouldy luck that the axe had landed flat first. "Yeah...whats up, pinkie?" he said. "Just wondering if you wanted to do something today," said Pinkie, "The swimming hole's just cool enough today." "Sorry...I've been taking the chance to do a few repairs on the ship. Engine needs alot of work." said Matt apologetically before saying "Hey...you wanna see it? I didn’t really get a chance to give you a tour last time due to homicidal computers." "Sir, I really must advise against-" started Aria before Pinkie said, "Ok," before hopping down the stairs. Matt walked after her, showing the way to where the warp column stood, the crystal matrix humming away creating a kind of rainbow strobe effect at reality energy pulsed through it. "Ooh... pretty," said Pinkie. Matt walked in behind her and said "That it is...hard to imagine there's enough energy through there to encode anything within 30 miles if it breached." Pinkie continued looking at it before saying, "There's a smudge on it." Matt managed to stop her before she touched it. "I wouldn’t do that...packs a shock..." before he stopped, remembering something about smudges in the safety guide. A crackle came from the engine as a pulse of energy encountered the smudge, actually a shorted crystal. On cue the other crystals began to glow... "Ooh, does it clean itself?" asked Pinkie, "I wish I had something that cleaned itself because parties are so fun to throw but then there's so much work cleaning up afterwards. Sometimes I have clean-up parties where all we do is clean, but they don't seem to be that popular for some reason. Maybe I should stop putting soap in the cupcakes I make for those parties." A voice from the reactors VI said "Maintenance alert. Power surge detected...attempting to reroute...failed. Overcharge imminent...please evacuate." "Uh, Pinkie, I think we should move," said Matt. A energy bolt, almost like lightning arced out and blasted a neat hole out of a section of metal, prompting Matt to yell. "MOVE IT!" The voice said again "Warning: Emergency energy purge in progress...all organic lifeforms evacuate." Even Pinkie wasn't oblivious enough to know this was dangerous. She quickly turned tail and headed back towards the stairs. Matt had reached the door and was waiting for pinkie, hands on the blastdoor control when a energy blast from the core hit the stairway, supercharging it with the electricity-like reality energy the ships core made. Matt jumped back from the stairs. Fortunately, he wasn't close enough to have been zapped by them, but the next person to step on them... "PINKIE...STOP!” he yelled too late before the once heard, never forgotten sound of a reality energy discharge was heard. Pinkie lit up like a neon sign, perfectly showing her skeleton underneath before being thrown back by the surge. Matt yelled at Aria "SHUT THE SMEGGING CORE DOWN...NOW DAMMIT!" Immediately, the core shut down, dimming the lights in the room considerably, except for the glow coming from Pinkie's body. "Get the CSUV ready...and if you have any drones in town...tell the locals that I'm coming in." said Matt, looking concerned at the scrambled readings coming from his wrist computer before lifting Pinkie up. "Sir, Ms. Pie has received a massive shock," said Aria. "Tell me something I don't know," snapped Matt. "Sir...this is not electrical...The reality energy should have had no effect...these readings cannot be correct." said Aria before seeing Matts glare on the camera feeds. "The vehicle will be prepared shortly." ... Pinkie's friends hurried over to the nurse's clinic as soon as they got the news. Pinkie was known to bounce back quickly from injuries, but this one sounded serious. They were surprised to see the vehicle from the cargo bay on matts ship outside and Matt slumped against the wall outside the clinic, head in his hands. "Matt, what happened?" asked Twilight. "Accident in engineering...reality energy burst from the core got her as we tried to get out." said Matt in a depressed voice, not even bothering to string a proper sentence. "A burst of what?" asked Rarity. "The stuff that...brought spark to town." said Matt, lowering his voice a little. "But Pinkie's already a pony," said Fluttershy, "You don't mean it made her...like you?" "No...The energy shouldn’t have done anything...except make her even more hyper...Even Aria is stumped and she’s got an I.Q in the 6 digits..." said Matt, "So what did happen to her?" asked Rainbow Dash. "She's out cold...but she was glowing like a night light...that stopped on the way over though." said Matt, remembering the wierd glow. "How long do you think Nurse Redheart will be with her?" asked Applejack. "I dunno...Aria's going over the data from the surge...maybe she'll work it out. Nobody really knows how reality energy works..." said Matt. "How do you use something if you don't know how it works?" asked Twilight. "Some of the rumors say the NSC got it from ancient tech they recover. To be honest, I think they're right." said Matt, gloomily. Just then, Nurse Redheart came out. "Well, I've done the best I can," she said, "She'll definitely live." Matt began to say "If there's anything me or Aria can do to help..." "Well, I'd like to know what happened," said Nurse Redheart, "She was struck by lightning, right?" The other ponies turned to look at Matt suspiciously as he said "Yeah...my damn ships a lightning rod." "Well, I don't see any scars, and her pulse is strong, but I think there might have been some psychological shock," said Nurse Redheart. "As long as she’s going to be ok..." said Twilight, still glaring at Matt until Redheart left. Matt immediately said "What? I shoulda said that my ships core almost deep fried her? That woulda made me REALLY popular." "She could have used the information," said Rarity. "Oh sure, like there's a chapter in her medbook as to how to treat reality energy shock," said Matt. Matt was about to continue before his wrist computer beeped. "Alert...incoming wormhole." "Oh no, Darius is coming! Take cover!" cried Matt before hiding behind the vehicle. The ponies looked around, noticing the abscence of any human death squads before Matt got up, dusting himself down in a feeble attempt to salvage his self-respect. "I think that fancy watch of yours need tuning," said Applejack. Matt glared at the ponies grins. "This never happened." he said, looking at the warning angrily before pressing the diagnostic button. The wrist computer beeped before saying, "All systems are working perfectly." "Stupid junk" muttered Matt before saying "I suppose all we can do is wait till Pinkie wakes up." Fluttershy paused and turned. She thought she saw something pink in the corner of her eye. And not her hair, but the same bright bubblegum pink that Pinkie's coat was. But when she looked properly, she didn't see anyone. … Matt spent the night going over arias scans, trying to work out what the hell was going on. "C'mon, there's got to be a glitch here somewhere," muttered Matt. "Sir, the scanners were working fine," said Aria. "I think I would have noticed if a wormhole was opening up," said Matt. "It is probably a micro-wormhole caused when the core grounded the overcharge." said Aria, calmly. Matt sighed "That doesn;t explain why Pinkie is in the land of nod. All she should have is even frizzier hair." "Well, Ms. Pie is hardly the most stable of sentient beings," said Aria. "Oh please...she seemed...seems perfectly fine to me." said Matt, correcting himself when he noticed he’d started verbally drafting a obituary. "Well, perhaps being a coma would do her some good," said Aria, "I bet she's rarely been able to stay still so long." "ARIA...HOW COULD..." began Matt angrily before the wrist computer beeped again "Danger: Unidentified wormhole detected...sector 2-5. Distance: 2 Metres" "Right here? This thing has got to be busted," said Matt, glancing around. "Alert: Biological entity detected." said the wrist computer, a waypoint on its map showing it was in the basement where Matt's portal project was. "Oh, hell no." said Matt, getting up. Nothing was gonna damage his and his sisters ticket home "Sir, I advise armaments," said Aria, "There is a large chance that the creature may be of...an unfriendly nature." Matt already had his plasma magnum out. "If its another damn veridian eel..." he began heading down the stairs and opening the door to see...nothing. "The hell? ARIA...NOW I'M CERTAIN MY WRIST-COMP’S BUSTED!" he yelled, walking into the room. Suddenly, a cream-colored blur sprang out and yelled, "SURPRISE!" … The scream was easily auditable from ponyville. Unfortunately by now, the town had gotten used to Matts screams so paid it no attention. … Quite fortunately, his finger didn't pull the trigger of the plasma magnum. It was too busy with the rest of the hand checking to see if Matt's heart was going to pump again. The pegasus hovered in front of Matt, a familiar grin on its face followed by a familiar cheerful voice saying "Are you ok?" Matt blinked and kept blinking because he was sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. The pegasus looked exactly like Pinkie Pie, only with a cream-colored coat, blonde hair, and purple eyes. The wings also made a difference. Matt managed to say "I'm dreaming...this is a dream...GO AWAY DREAM!" starting to snap. But I just got here," said the pegasus. "Buh...not...real...brain...burble." managed Matt before his brain decided a time out was in order and he passed out. The pony shrugged and said, "Oh well, I've got places to be anyways." She bounced out of the room, her wings flapping half the time for longer bounces. … Matt woke up the next morning. "Urgh...Aria? Did a white pegasus pinkie invade last night?" he said weakly. "You have not had any visitors last night," said Aria. "Oh thank god...have the auto doctor set up a psych-test for me later. The stress is getting to me." said Matt, full of relief Aria sounded surprised, which was a bit of a feat for a computer, "You're questioning your sanity instead of finding a rational explanation?" "Yes." snapped Matt before picking up his cap and putting it on. "Now I'm going into town to check on Pinkie..." he added sulkily. "Sir, would you care for some breakfast?" asked Aria, "I believe your metabolic fuel is starting to run low." "No...smeg off, tin can." said Matt, his eye twitching before he left. … As Matt walked into Ponyville, he noticed a couple of odd things. Someone had been hanging streamers, ribbons, and a couple banners. And there were a few balloons floating around. A small thought began kicking his mind, trying to get his attention but Matt ignored it, starting to get a manic grin. "Nope...I won’t believe that." he said to himself, getting a few worried looks. Just then, Matt passed a table that had a large bowl of pink punch on it with some glasses nearby. The same thought trying to pierce the veil of self-denial tried to point out that even for Ponyville this was unusual but Matt stomped down, deciding he was thirsty, before pouring a glass and taking a sip. Matt glanced down the street and paused. What looked like an elephant was crossing the street. However, it wasn't any larger than any of the ponies and it was the same shade of pink as Pinkie Pie. Matt noticed this and something snapped, as a few minutes later, Twilight and Rarity arrived to see Matt giggling to himself. "Hey Matt, where'd you get that punch?" asked Twilight. "Over here," said Rarity, noticing the punch bowl. "Strange, why would anyone leave punch out here?" asked Twilight. "Well, no sense in standing here with a parched throat," said Rarity before using her horn to fill up a glass with punch and lift it to her mouth. Matt slapped the glass aside "DON’T DRINK IT! I think someone spiked it...I'm seeing the pink elephants...or I've snapped...hehehe!" he said, giggling faintly. "Uh, pink elephants?" asked Twilight. Rarity gave Matt a disgusted look and said, "Why would anyone make punch with Spike in it?" Matt stopped as he spotted another. "THERE...PINK ELEPHANT!" he screamed and pointing. "Pink what?" asked Rarity, but the elephant suddenly disappeared. However, it did leave something behind. "Curious, where did those balloons come from?" asked Rarity. "The elephant left it." said Matt, grinning manically. "Matt, are you feeling ok?" asked Twilight. "I...I think I'm losing the plot. Last night I got a late night visitor of a flying pinkie pie...." said Matt, gibbering a bit. "But Pinkie's still at the nurse's clinic," said Twilight, "I checked her this morning. And someone apparently is planning a party there." "Ok...ok...hold it together, Matt. You've been through worse." said Matt to himself before looking to see another elephant behind Twilight and Rarity and screaming. "What?" asked the two unicorns before turning around. They barely got a glimpse before the elephant disappeared and confetti fell all over them. "Tell me you saw that...TELL ME I'VE NOT SNAPPED LIKE A DRY TWIG!" screamed Matt, one eye now twitching violently. "I saw something pink, but I didn't get a good look," said Twilight. "Me either," said Rarity. "It was the elephant." said Matt conspiratorially. "Something weird is going...and the pegasus is behind it." he said. "Uh, Matt, I think you're stressing a bit too much," said Twilight. "Yes, you shouldn't blame yourself for Pinkie's accident so much," said Rarity, "It'll do horrors to your complexion. I suggest you get a nice cup of tea and..." "SURPRISE!" shouted a voice behind them. The two unicorns jumped and landed in Matt's arms. Matt snapped out of it to see the same pegasus. "YOU!” he said in a low voice before saying "HAH...I WAS RIGHT!" before a new message arrived pointing out that he could barely hold one pony, let alone two, and he fell down under them. Twilight and Rarity quickly got off of Matt. "Are you alright?" asked Rarity. "See? White pegasus...I'M NOT CRAZY!" gibbered Matt, pointing at the hovering pegasus pinkie. Twilight turned to look at the pegasus. She looked so much like Pinkie, she must be a relative. "Who are you?" asked Twilight. "Oh...I'm Surprise. Nice to meet you." said the pegasus, in a hyper voice. "Your name is Surprise?" asked Rarity. "Very appropriate," said Matt. "Oh...you must be Twilight...I've always wanted to meet you properly." said Surprise cheerfully "You know me?" asked Twilight. "Oh, I know all of you, Rarity, Matt," said Surprise, "I didn't think you'd be this jumpy though." "Have you been spying on us?" said Matt suspiciously, glaring eye to eye with the pegasus who was completely uneffected, still grinning like a loon. "No, I just got here," said Surprise. "Then how do you know us?" asked Rarity. "Because Pinkie Pie told me all about you," said Surprise. "Pinkie never said she had any pegasi in the family. How come she’s never mentioned you?" said Twilight thoughtfully. Matt said "And how come I've never seen you around?" Surprise suddenly seemed to be nervous. "Well...uh...you see...it's like... Ooh, pink elephants!" she said before suddenly pointing. "Oh, please. Like I’d fall for....oh yeah." said Matt cockily before falling into gloom as he remembered about the rest of the day so far. Matt and the unicorns turned around to see three pink elephants standing on each other’s shoulders and hanging up banners. "Ok...this is too wierd. Surprise, what do you...where'd she go?" said Matt, turning around to see a lack of the pegasus pinkie. "You're right Matt, this is too weird," said Twilight, "Where are all these elephants coming from?" "And why are they decorating the town?" asked Rarity, "I would have heard something if there was a festival being planned." "I have a feeling our little white friend knows." said Matt, darkly. "Ok, she's a pegasus, which probably means she's from Cloudsdayle," said Twilight, "So maybe Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash would know her. Matt, can you check at Sweet Apple Acres if they've been seeing any pink elephants there?" "Gotcha. I'll head straight down there." said Matt, nodding before looking at the elephants "This has to be the weirdest invasion in history." he muttered. "You should have seen the parasprite swarm," said Rarity. ... Matt arrived at Sweet Apple Acres to see that there was already evidence that the 'new arrivals' had paid a visit, the same party gear all over the place. "Ok, when this is over, I'm swearing off alcohol," said Matt before thinking about it and adding, "For the week." He looked around and spotted Applejack looking at the streamers in confusion. "Hey...I see the elephants got you too...that just sounds wierd." he called "Tell me about it," said Applejack, "I'm startin' to think I'm goin' plum crazy." "Join the club...you know why I screamed last night then." said Matt, before saying "I would ask if you’ve sene any pink elephants here but I'm guessing the answer is yes." "They've been poppin' up everywhere and leavin' all this party stuff lyin' around," said Applejack, "How's a pony supposed to work with all these streamers and trappins everywhere?" "Thats not all...Does pinkie have any pegasi in the family?" said Matt. "Pegasi in the Pie family?" asked Applejack, "Well, my family's all earth ponies, but Pinkie might have some. But I don't think it's very likely. Can't imagine anyone with wings pushin' rocks around for a livin'." "Wierd...this new pegasi knew all about twilight, Rarity...even me." said Matt thoughtfully "Not that I don't mind family members droppin' by, but I gotta get rid of these here pink elephants," said Applejack, "They're leavin' a big mess." Matt looked around "Hey...where's your sister?" he commented "Oh, she and her friends went chasing after them elephants," said Applejack, "Somethin' about gettin' 'elephant hunter cutie marks'. Frankly, I don't mind if it keeps them elephants away." "At least they're safe. Look, if you see a whte pegasus, try and get her to stay in one place. This didn;t start till she popped up." said Matt. "When was that?" asked Applejack. "Last night...she surprised me in the cellar." said Matt, leaving out that she’d caused him to faint. "How'd she get down there?" asked Applejack, "I thought we were the only ones who knew that place." "Thats why I wanna talk to her. She nowd alot she shouldn't." said Matt. Just then, the Cutie Mark Crusaders ran up to Matt and Applejack. They were talking excitedly and loudly about different things that it was impossible to tell what they were talking about. "ONE AT A TIME!" yelled Matt, his fragile nerves threatening to crack again. "There's gonna be a parade!" shouted the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the same time. "Y'what?" said Matt, confused. Applejack said "A parade? Who told ya?" "The pink elephants," said Sweetie Belle. "They're gonna show up in the middle of town," said Apple Bloom. "They're gonna have a big marching band and everything!" said Scootaloo. "They can talk now?" said Matt, dully before saying "No, of course they do...I’ve given up expecting sanity on this smegging planet." "When's this parade happenin'?" asked Applejack. "In 30 minutes," said Sweetie Belle. "Can we go, Applejack? Please?" said Apple Bloom, "It's been a long time since I saw a parade." "Maybe our little flying spy'll be there? It’s as good a chance as any." said matt to Applejack, adding "I can keep an eye on the girls...whenever I’m near them, all the injuries happen to me." "Ok, but we better tell the others," said Applejack, "I think they'll need to know about this." "If it’s happening in town...they'll find out." said Matt. ... Matt, Applejack, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders quickly went to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight and Rarity were waiting for them with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Glad you made it," said Matt, "You guys find out anything about Surprise?" "Well, not really," said Twilight. "I've never heard of her before," said Rainbow Dash. "Me either," said Fluttershy, "And I haven't seen any pink elephants either." "Oh yeah? Maybe the madness is contagious?" gibbered Matt before a cloud of pink fog was spotted coming up the street before a deafening fanfare came from it. As Matt and the ponies watched, columns of pink elephants marched out of the pink fog. Several of them were carrying percussion instruments on their backs which they beat with their trunks. Others, with unusually long trunks, had twisted them like horns and playing them as such. Fluttershy yelped and hid behind the others. She peeked out nervously and asked, "What do I do? What do I do?" "Ok…that’s new.” commented Rainbow Dash. "Ok...when did we end up inside Pinkies head?" said Matt after a minute. "Wait a minute," said Twilight, "This is like Pinkie. Matt, when did you first meet Surprise?" "Last night...after I got back home." said matt, remembering the incident very well. "As in after Pinkie got zapped," said Twilight. "You mean...I gave her reality bending powers? Oh, god...what has science done?" said Matt, his eyes getting the look of someone snapping...again. "But Pinkie Pie is still in a coma," said Rarity, "She couldn't be doing all of this. Could she?" "I think I should take another scan." said Matt, in a distant voice. "Well, those elephants do look like her," said Apple Bloom. Indeed, not only were the elephants the same color as Pinkie's coat, but the tuft of hair at the end of their tails was the same color as her mane and they had the same big blue eyes as her. "Yeah, I’m taking another scan." said Matt after a minute. ... Matt looked at the readout. "Same as last time...alot of reality energy...mind scans a little wierd though." he commented to Twilight, looking at the results. The others were talking to Redheart in case the sight of Matt using the scanner caused comment. "Well, I have found Pinkie to be...puzzling," said Twilight, "Say, do you think she's dreaming?" "No...if I'm reading these scans right....its like somethings missing..." said Matt before the wrist comp said "Danger: Incoming wormhole." "Uh oh...here we go again." said Matt, worried. "Well, I don't think it's going to be Darius this time either," said Twilight. "Locating target...Alert...proximity to epicenter." said the wrist computer as a glow began in the corner of the room. "Er, we probably ought to step back," said Matt. The glow was blinding for a second before it formed a shape and seemed to implode, forming a familier pony...except for the grey colours and look of permenent annoyance. "...Pinkie?" said Matt, confused, transferring his look between the Pinkie in the clinic bed and the new one. "Uh, ok, I didn't expect anything like this," said Twilight. "What're YOU two looking at?" said the new pinkie angrily. Matt smiled nervously before saying to Twilight out of the corner of his mouth. "You know this one?" "Uh, she looks like when Discord turned Pinkie into a grouch," said Twilight. "Oookay...I'm guessing I never wanna meet this 'Discord'...Ok...first off...containment. OK...What’s your name?" he said, saying the last part to Grumpy Pie in a cheerful voice. "None of your business!" snapped the new Pinkie. Matt paused and said, "That's a bit of a mouthful, and you don't seem like Noyb." Grumpy Pinkies glare seemed to double at Matts joke attempt and he tried a different approach. "I'm not sure you should go anywhere...not till we know if erm...other....you is ok....man, that sounded better in my head." "Uh, would you mind if I studied you for a minute so I know how you got here?" asked Twilight. Grumpy Pinkie turned to look at Twilight "I hate being studied." she said annoyed before Matt said "Do you hate being stunned? My patience and sanity is at an all time low...DON'T PUSH ME!!!" "Impatient? You wanna see impatient?" snapped Grumpy Pinkie before turning around and standing on her front legs. "Oh...don’t you d-" began matt before being kicked in the chest hard enough to hit the back wall. Twilight winced before saying, "Uh, don't you think that was a bit rough?" "You want some too, princess?" snapped Grumpy Pie. Twilight backed up before Grumpy Pinkies mane stood out with a buzzing noise before she fell sideways, rigid like a statue, revealing a equally annoyed looking Matt holding a crackling stick. "I warned her." he said, annoyed. "Is she ok?" asked Twilight. "Oh sure," said Matt, "That wasn't even near a large enough voltage to do permanent damage." Before he poked the new pinkie and said "Ok...what the smegging hell is going on here?" "I'm not quite sure..." started Twilight before a soft moan caught their ears. They turned around to see Pinkie (the one on the bed) starting to stir. Matt and Twilight crowded around Pinkie. "Pinkie...thank god...any that can hear at this moment." said Matt, cheerfully. Twilight said just as happily "Pinkie...are you ok?" Pinkie's eyes fluttered open and looked around. Then she noticed Matt and said, "Ah, Matthew, I'm so sorry for that dreadful incident within the ship. I should have taken more precautions regarding that energy discharge." Matt stared at Pinkie, the eye twitch from earlier coming back as small but significant parts of his brain rebelled while Twilight said, cautiously "Pinkie? Are you sure you’re feeling ok?" "Well, I feel a little dilapidated, but I'm sure it's nothing some fresh tea won't cure," said Pinkie, "Now, would you mind telling how I came to be relocated within this domicile?" "Erm...I brought you here?" said Matt, his voice shaking with strained nerves before looking at Twilight. "A word if you please." before dragging her away. "Ok...now something is definately up." he hissed. "I know, I know," said Twilight, "Pinkie sounds more like Rarity than her usual self." "Plus I doubt I could get her angry if I set fire to her house..." added Matt. "Angry..." muttered Twilight before glancing at the twitching Grumpy Pinkie on the floor, "Matt, do you think Pinkie's capable of surprising you now?" "I had no doubt in the first place...its like her personality is taking a holiday from the rest of...her...no....way..." said Matt, stopping as what he was saying caught up with him. "First Surprise, then the pink elephants, now Grumpy," said Twilight, "Matt, I think that reality energy is having a greater effect on Pinkie than you thought." "And probably why the scan seems like some parts of her mind are missing...cause they are." said Matt, darkly. "Right, so we need to put them back in before more get out," said Twilight. "Good....how do we do...oh no." said Matt, noticing that angry pinkie seemed suddenly abscent. "Pinkie...where did...monochrome you go?" he said. "I am not certain," said Pinkie, "I do not see any probably means of egress from this room besides the door and she could not have passed through without your notice. However, I'm not sorry to see her missing. She has such a dreadful temper." "Oh great...they can pull the same tricks original recipe can." said Matt, gloomily. "Well, they shouldn't be too hard to find," said Twilight, "I mean, they ought to stand out like a pink…" "Elephant?" suggested Matt. Twilight sighed "We've got to find them. Can;t you use anything to help?" Matt shook his head "Aria didn’t detect surprise when she popped up in my house...I don’t think these things show up on scanners." he said. "Well, maybe locating spells will work better," said Twilight. "Worth a try..." said Matt hopefully. ... The others were just as confused by Pinkies depleted personality as Matt and Twilight had been. "Ya'll mean that all these elephants here are parts of Pinkie's mind?" asked Applejack. "Believe me...I'm having just as much trouble getting my head round this too." said Matt, gloomily before adding "Plus there is a black and white one running around with a temper just as dark." "Oh my, that's not good at all," said Fluttershy. "And worse than that, it seems to be draining the real Pinkie of what makes her...Pinkie," said Twilight. Rarity said horrified "Thats horrible...whatever can we do about it?" Matt said under his breath to himself "I could shoot the angry one." "I think we need to corral all these loose bits and herd 'em on back to where they came from," said Applejack. "But how do we get them back inside Pinkie?" said Rainbow Dash. Matt shrugged and said "Well there is a trick with a teleporter pod and a fly.......but I don’t think that will work too well." "There has to be something," said Rainbow Dash, "We can't just let them parade all over town. Look at the mess they're leaving." "They haven't been at my house," said Fluttershy, "I wonder why that is?" "Pinkie would never prank you." said Rainbow Dash. Matt twitched "So she'd happily give me a heart attack on a regular basis...but...but..." he said. "Maybe," said Twilight, "But there may be another reason. Let's go to Fluttershy's house. It'll at least give us enough peace to think." "Why not? As long as its quiet...I feel like there's a fighter battle in my skull." said Matt, weakly. ... When the gang got to Fluttershy's house, it was rather quiet. Well, there was still the chatter of animals, but it was quiet compared to the constant fanfare in town. "Quiet...wonderful quiet." muttered Matt happily. "If you don't mind, I need to check on a few of my patients," said Fluttershy. The others nodded and Fluttershy wandered off to check the animals. "Ok, girls...and Matt, we need to think of a way to get the pink elephants and Pinkie's...extra selves to cooperate," said Twilight. "What are we gonna do, scare them into submission?" said Matt, annoyed. "That could work," said Rainbow Dash, "I'll get a bunch of thunderclouds and shoot lightning at them." Applejack said "That ain;t gonna work. Pinkie ain't scare'a nothin. Remember when Nightmare moon made all of those scary trees?" "Right, she just laughed at them all," said Rainbow Dash, "I thought I was onto something." "Pinkie's mind wasn;t in a collection of pieces at the time." said Matt. Suddenly, there was a piercing scream. The others jumped up to see Rarity standing on top of a rock and shrieking. "Keep it away from me!" she cried, "Keep it away!" Matt drew his blaster and looked around "What is it?" he yelled, panning the blaster around "A RAT!" screamed Rarity. The others look where she was pointing to see the 'dangerous' rodent in question. "Uh, Rarity, that's just a field mouse," said Applejack. "Oh," said Rarity, "Well, it was a large one, and who knows where it's been." Matt stopped before saying to himself "I'm in a world where the orbital bodies are controlled by flying unicorns...it probably will work." before saying out loud "Hey guys. I got an idea..." ... The pink elephants were keeping their party going. It was apparent that they do not tire, seeing how it's been going on for 12 hours now. The ponies had enjoyed the spectacle, but then it got very tiresome and obnoxious. "When is it going to end?" moaned Bonbon, trying to hide her head under a pillow. Lyra, looking just as tired peered out a window and took a double-take. "Erm...whats the human doing?" she said, confused, spotting Matt peering out from behind a water barrel and running across the street behind the elephants in what was supposed to be stealthy, except that even the elephants stopped to watch. "If it keeps the noise down, I don't care," said Bonbon. The ponies walked out from the alley calmly and followed to where Matt was peering out. "Erm...y'all know everyponies watchin, right?" said Applejack. Matt shrugged and said, "If it'll help my PR, I don't mind." Fluttershy said nervously "Are you sure they'll be ok?" two mice peering out from her mane. "Relax, I saw this in a cartoon once," said Matt. "What's a cartoon?" asked Twilight. Matt carefully picked up the mice and, despite everything said "You know what to do, lads..." before letting them go in sight of the two elephants in the street. The mice went up to the elephants and squeaked. The pink elephants reared up, trumpeted in fear, and then exploded into a cloud of confetti and streamers. Pinkie blinked before saying, "You know, I feel a little...happier all of a sudden." "Thats good...I guess." said Matt, cheerfully. "Now then...how many of those damn elephants are there?" Just then, a parade of elephants went down a parallel street to them. "We're gonna need more mice," said Rainbow Dash. ... The last of the elephants exploded and flowed into Pinkie. "Finally." said Matt with clear relief as Fluttershy gathered up the mice "Well, that should take care of that," said Twilight. "I'm not sure," said Rarity, "Something still seems off about Pinkie." The group turned to look at Pinkie who seemed a little happier, though far from her usual bubbly self. There was also something else different. "Hey...her balloon tattoo is all faded." said Matt, pointing to Pinkies cutie mark. "Oh, that's not good," said Twilight, "A cutie mark is a symbol of a pony's special talent. If Pinkie is losing it, she must be losing that talent." "That does sound bad. Wait...we haven’t finished...there’s still two bits of Pinkies brain running amok." said Matt. "Yeah, but we can't just spook them with mice," said Rainbow Dash. "Yeah...I dread to think little miss grouchy will do if we try that...plus surprise will probably hug them." said Matt, gloomily. "If we can only figure out how they're getting out," said Twilight, "We could push them back through." "Hmm...Surprise appeared in my basement...my jump gate." said Matt before running in the direction of his house. "Aria...is the project active in any way?" he said into his comm. "The warp engine is currently stuck in standby mode," said Aria. "Crud..." muttered Matt, darkly. ... The group looked at the glowing warp engine, more precisely, at a patch of air on the very stairwell that had zapped pinkie that seemed to have a heat haze around it. "Uh, what exactly is that?" asked Twilight. "I don't know," said Matt, "Like I said, reality energy's a big enigma. Still, I wouldn't recommend walking right through it." Matt, to test the theory, picked up a tool from a cabinet and slowly poked it into the rippling air, only for the tool section that entered to become covered in rust...and then fall off before disintigrating into dust. Matt looked at the stump in horror. "Oooookay...definately not healthy." said Matt, somehow keeping his voice steady. "So, you got a backdoor we could use?" asked Applejack. Matt looked at the far wall where the manual shutdown was. "Hmm...the only other corridors still wrecked from the veridian eels...but its better then nothing." he said. "I don't see what the big problem is," said Pinkie before walking towards the stairs. "PINKIE, NO!" shouted everyone. But Pinkie passed through the shimmering air on down the steps. Surprisingly, nothing at all happened to her. Matt just stared, his jaw hanging open before saying "This...I......just press that button already." his voice becoming dull. "Very well," said Pinkie, "Which button would that be?" "The one marked 'emergency shutdown'." said Matt. Pinkie shrugged and pushed the shutoff button with her head, causing the warp engine to power down...and as a result all the lights to go out. Matt’s voice from the darkness said "I shoulda stayed in bed." Just then, the lights came on and Surprise was in the middle of the group. "SURPRISE!" she shouted. Matt was probably the most interesting reaction, screaming, jumping back and as a result falling down the stairway. Surprise landed to watch the unfortunate mercs progress down the stairs. "Ow...you don’t think he’s angry, do you?" she said, cheerfully before a laser blast parted her mane. "Uh, hun, I'd keep your distance," said Applejack. A stream of alien and fortunately untranslatable words streamed down as Matt stomped back up, holding the smoking blaster. "Patience...gone...must...kill...something." he said, looking furious. He grabbed Surprise by the neck and shoved the blaster up to her nose. However, she kept grinning as he had shoved a bouquet into her face. After a few seconds, he pushed away and said, "I can't kill someone grinning like that. It takes all the fun out of vengeance. I need someone who knows how to react right." "Oh...what about her?" said Surprise, cheerfully, pointing to where Grumpy was. Matt spun. "YOU...!" he said annoyed. Twilight said nervously "Matt, er...I think you should calm down a bit." Matt turned to her and said, "I think I'm due some anger relief, don't you?" "Er, speaking of anger relief," said Fluttershy. "What?" asked Matt before turning and noticing Grumpy was standing in front of him, rear legs raised to strike. "Not again," he whimpered. The girls whimpered as Grumpy delivered a rather eye watering hit that caused Matt to double over, squeak "God, I hate you." and keel over back down the stairs. Grumpy turned to see the others "What are you looking at?" she said angrily before seeing the original. "Oh...you." Pinkie looked at Grumpy and said, "Was I really that antisocial under Discord's influence? I'm not surprised that you found me hard to put up with." Surprise looked at Grumpy in shock for the first time. "That wasn’t very nice." she said, a weak voice from the bottom of the stairs saying "I agree." "Who cares about nice?" snapped Grumpy "Ponies only try to butter you up so they can laugh at you later." Twilight took a step forward, saying "You can’t keep running around like this...you're a part of Pinkie Pie." "What? You want me to be locked back up inside Ms. Bubbly Sunshine?" said Grumpy, "No way, just thinking about it makes me sick." "But you're hurting Pinkie...look at her cutie mark." said Fluttershy, sounding horrified at Grumpy's attitude. "Ah, she still has one balloon left," said Grumpy, "Besides, she can find a new cutie mark." Surprise said "Twilights right though...getting out and about is fun but we've got to go back." "You can't make me," snapped Grumpy. "I...can." said Matt, limping up the stairs. "You have a choice...back in Pinkie...or I shoot you...alot." he said, his voice shaking with anger and rightly so, given the events of the last few minutes. "Matt, let's not do anything rash," said Twilight, "We can talk our way through this." "Oh no, no more fiddling around the bush," said Matt, "You're going back, all three of you fragments." "Erm...dear? Did you hit your head on the way down?" said Rarity, sounding worried. Matt pointed behind them. "Number three." he said. The group turned and saw another Pinkie. This one didn't look very different from the original, except her colors were a shade darker, her main and tail were all straight and droopy, and she had several lines under her glaring eyes. Matt didn’t like the look of those eyes. He usually saw them on assignment with colony security on the faces of particularly twitchy criminals...oh, and recently in the mirror in the mornings. "Huh, that kinda looks like Pinkie before I dragged her to her surprise birthday party," said Rainbow Dash. "She looks nuts." muttered Matt, grabbing Grumpy's tail as she tried to slink away. "Don’t even think about it." he said when he spotted her glare. "Uh, ok, I think we have all the Pinkies in one place," said Twilight, "Let's work on putting them back together." "Ok...any ideas?" said Matt, casually. "Maybe if we push them all down the stairs at the same time, they'll go back together," said Applejack. Matt got a crazy grin. "Great idea...GRUMPY PIE GOES FIRST!" he said, happily "Uh, I think we need to think this out more thoroughly," said Twilight. "Ok...YOU are going in the brig...come on." said Matt, pulling grumpy in the direction of the Skyraids single cell. "I'm not moving," said Grumpy before sitting down. Matt aimed his blaster. "Conscious or unconscious...you're coming with me." he said darkly. "Uh, Grumpy, I'd do what he says," said Fluttershy. Matt nodded "Listen to Fluttershy...she's talking sense." he said. "I'm not listening," said Grumpy, putting her hooves over her ears. "You don;t have to listen...you just need to move." said Matt, cheerfully, before dragging Grumpy Pie away. ... Matt sat, staring at the newest addition to what he was thinking of as the 'pie collection'. "So...I'm guessing you're Pinkies gloominess." he said in a half attempt at conversation and the other half to stop her stare. Twilight and the others had gone to the library with Surprise to see if there as was anything in the books about a cure. The new Pinkie didn't say anything. She just kept glaring forward. "I'll take that as a yes." said Matt, desperately. "So...this must be interesting for you...actually being out and about...please say something, you're creeping me out." The only thing the new Pinkie did was fix her glare on Matt. "Oookay, that increases the creepiness. Do you actually have a name?" said Matt, nervously. This time, he did get a response. "Pinkamena," she muttered. "Erm...nice name." said Matt, the nervousness still evident. Pinkamena didn't say anything, just continued glaring. "Hey...Twilights working on a way to pull you guys back together...soon you won’t be so lonely...nice eh?" said Matt, grinning manically, adding mentally 'Please let it be soon' Suddenly, before Matt could even see it coming, Pinkamena had him pressed against a wall and holding a knife to his throat. "I'm not going back," she hissed. "How the hell are you holding that?" said Matt, sheer insanity making him ask it while his common sense added 'WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ASKING? NUT HER!' "I'm not going to be locked up again," said Pinkamena, "I'm my own pony now and I'll do what I want. And nothing's gonna stop me." "And what is it you want to do? I'm your friend...friends should have their heads attached." said Matt, desperately, while pressing the silent alarm on his wrist comp. "Oh, your head'll stay on. I'm just gonna cut you. I'll cut you bad," hissed Pinkamena. "Really? You do that, I’m certain Aria will be pretty annoyed." said Matt, his eye tracking two spiderdrones slowly but silently edging out an open vent. "I'll just cut her too," said Pinkamena, "or smash her eyes." "She doesn't have eyes and the security cams are smash proof." said Matt, conversationally. "Oh really?" sneered Pinkamena. "They are, believe me, I've tried," said Matt. Pinkamena glared as Matt continued "But if you wanna try, there's two right there." nodding up. Pinkamena looked up in time for the two drones to drop on her. Matt quickly stepped out of the way and out of stabbing range. Pinkamena didn't take too well to being attacked. She reared, bucked, and kicked out to get rid of the spiderdrones, shouting things that Matt was shocked that Pinkie Pie would know. "Just knock her out already." yelled Matt finally, one of the drones complying by electrifying its outer shell Pinkamena twitched before falling over, her legs twitching a little. "Ok, now chain her, don't allow any of her legs free," said Matt, "I don't care if she's the Houdini of ponies, I won't feel safe unless she's bound." "Very well, sir. I will get several heavy duty cables from storage." said Aria over the intercom. Matt looked at Pinkamena. "Man, she's nuts." he commented. "Obviously a manifestation of Ms. Pie's darker side," said Aria, "Though I did not imagine she was capable of such violent and psychotic behavior." "It’s always the ones you least suspect." said Matt as the drones dragged the semi-conscious pinkamena away. ... Twilight and the others were surprised to return to find Matt toting one of the heavy plasma cannons he’d salvaged off the Exo-gene team. "Uh, what's with the heavy artilery?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Pinkamena is not a nice pony...and she has a knife." said Matt, adding "Oh...and I get the feeling she’s not gonna cooperate." "Where'd she get a knife?" asked Applejack. "Hell if I know...I wanna know how she held it." said Matt. "I've had the drones chain her up and lock her in the vault." he added, before saying "With airholes." "Uh, Pinkie Pie's been known to appear in inexplicable places," said Twilight. "Has she been known to 'threaten to cut people up good'?" said Matt, quoting from Pinkamena's threat. "Not that I know of," said Rainbow Dash, "But when she thought we were going to abandon her, she replaced us with some inanimate objects." "Ok..I think it’s safe to say that pinkamena represents the little voice that tells us to burn things....what? I thought everyone had one of those." Matt said, adding the last part as the ponies backed up a bit from him. "Uh...Twilight, darling, have you determined a method of reuniting the four Pinkies?" asked Rarity. Twilight shook her head "There's nothing in any of the library books because...I think this is a first. I can ask the princess to send some of the more advanced books but I don’t think we'll find anything." she said, sounding tired. "Did you actually sleep last night?" said Matt. "Well, I was reading up on everything I could find on comas," said Twilight. "I had Aria doing some of her own work. in the history of the NSC there has been three exposures to reality radiation." said Matt. "And what happened?" asked Fluttershy. "They died...via complete genetic breakdown as their bodies reality fields couldn’t decide what they were and tried to compromise by making them everything." said Matt. He noticed their stares "Probably not the result you wanted." he said. "And you definitely don't want to see the pictures related," said Aria. Matt said jokingly "Shame we can’t just toss em all in the jump gate at the same time." "Actually, sir, that isn't a bad idea," said Aria. "Pardon?" said Matt, his train of thought not just derailing but flying into a canyon. "I believe you recall Brundle's Law of Teleportation," said Aria. "Ah, yes, the Fly Syndrome," said Matt before pausing and saying, "Aria, do you realize what you're suggestiong?" "Yes sir...but I recently detected genetic breakdown in Miss pies DNA...It is restabilizing...if we don;t do something soon, there will be a point of no return." said Aria, calmly. "Guys, what are you talking about?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Brundle's Law of Teleportation states that unless maintained carefully, if two or more forms were teleported at the same time, they will be fused together," said Aria. "And this fusion is often not of a pretty nature," said Matt, "Particularly if the forms are of different species, hence the synonym 'Fly Syndrome'." Matt translated "Horrifying pony eating offspring of science run amok." he said promptly. Aria said "Indeed...however, it should be simple enough to reprogram Mr Lynches basement jumpgate to perform a safe re-fusion...the trio are after all...simply solidified reality energy." said Aria before an alarm rang. "Security breach: Storage vault." said Aria, adding "Oh....crap." "I was afraid she wouldn't be held for long," said Matt. "I am attempting to track....oh dear. Her course will bring her to the camp...and the portal...I'll give her this...she’s very clever." said Aria. "What does that mean?" asked Fluttershy. "I believe she is going to derail our plan by either destroying the portal or using it to leave this dimension. However both results will be a beacon to the Icarus, resulting in certain attack." said Aria. "Then what are we diddlyin' around here for," said Applejack, "We've got a wild mare to round up." "We'd better bring the other two as well." said Matt. ... The group emerged from the forest facing the hill the barn that Matt had converted sat. "Seems easy enough." said Matt before Aria said "Sir...I have lost network control from the house." Matt sighed and said, "I should know better than to say such things. Murphy's Law, MURPHY'S SMEGGING LAW!" Twilight was about to ask what was going on when a whirring noise came from several patches near the barn and two metallic barrels appeared. "Aria? You are never redecorating again." said Matt as the two ion blasters turned to aim. "Uh, is this the part where we run?" asked Fluttershy. One of the barrels said ina metallic drone "Intruders detected: Lethal force authorized!" and the barrels started to hum. "Yes it is." said Matt, promptly. The group quickly scattered before the barrels started blasting red beams at them. "Really starting to hate Pinkamena...no offence, Pinkie." said Matt, he and Pinkie diving behind a small rise to avoid a turret that had decided they were a priority target. "None taken, my other side seems to be rather intolerable, doesn't she?" asked Pinkie. "She's clever though...hacking a mainframe like Aria's is quite a feat....talking of which...ARIA...TURN THOSE DAMN LASERS OFF RIGHT NOW!" said Matt, yelling the last part into his comm. "I am trying, but she seems to have set up a firewall," said Aria. "Then BREAK IT!" yelled Matt, angrily, pulling out his blaster and firing a few shots only for a orange energy field to block them. "Shielded turrets? Really?" Matt said. "It wasn't meant to be used against you," said Aria. "Oh...that’s it...you have a date with a fire axe." said Matt, furiously before a blast knocked him into Pinkie, sprawling her into the sights of another turret. It turned to aim before intoning "DNA clearence reqognized." "DNA?" asked Matt before glancing at Pinkie. "Of course," he said, "I doubt your double would have wanted it to fire at herself." "That means only three of you can get inside." said Aria, adding "And one of you won't want too." Matt glared "We'll see about that...HEY, GRUMPY PIE...PINKAMENA'S LAUGHING AT YOU!!" Grumpy glared and yelled, "I'll show that jerk!" before galloping towards the barn. Rainbow However seemed to have lost patience, taking off. The turrets tried to track but couldn’t look far enough up. "Miss Dash...land at once." said Aria's voice apparently from the house, her adding “I have regained control of the intercom." "Those peashooters can't hit me from up here," said Rainbow Dash boastfully. "Yes...I took aerial fighter attack into concideration and added..." began Aria before a section of roof withdrew and a double barreled weapon folded out "...a AA plasma cannon." 'Alert...hostile aerial intrusion confirmed.' said the same turret voice from earlier. "Oh, that might be a problem," said Rainbow Dash. The pegasi was forced to dive back down as the plasma cannon began firing a stream of plasma blasts at her, landed where Matt was speaking to surprise "...and if Aria is right...the power shut off is next to the front door." he was saying "Matt, I don't think I can get in," said Rainbow Dash. "Then lets send a flyng pie to do it..." said Matt, firing a few futile shots at a turret. Rainbow gave him an odd look and said, "How can you think of pie fights at a time like this?" Matt pointed at Surprise. "I wasn’t." he said. Rainbow gave Surprise a doubtful look and said, "Why would she do any better than me?" "The turrets won’t turn her into dust." said Matt promptly, a cloud of dust billowing up as one of the turrets reacted to the noise. "But I'm a better flyer," said Rainbow Dash, "There's no way she could move around all those blasts." "I am almost certain the turrets won’t even bother to fire at her." said Matt, confidently Rainbow gave Matt an odd look before saying, "Fine, I guess I'll have to pull her out of the line of fire then." Surprise carefully peered up out of the cover, only for the dot of a turret laser sight to appear on her before the owner of the sight said "DNA Clearence verified." and nothing happened. Matt just smirked, saying "See? The mad mercenary knows things." Rainbow Dash pouted and grumbled, "So not fair.” "Now...if I was the one setting these traps, I would have booby trapped the shut down." said Matt, more to himself before a lowering hum was heard and the turrets lowered their aims, the lights going out. "Then again, Pinkie's not me." he added. "Let's not take chances," said Rainbow Dash, "Let's get in there quick before Pinkamena does something else." The rest nodded in agreement and headed for the house to see a extremely pleased looking Surprise hovering near the smashed control panel that contained the shut down. "You...you only had to push the red button." said Matt, horrified. Surprise shrugged and said, "I shut it down anyways." The others turned as a smashing noise came from the basement followed by a noise Matt knew, the once heard, never forgotten liquid noise of a dimensional portal establishing. "I think we'd best hurry." he said, charging down the stairs. Grumpy left quite a trail of wrecked stuff in her wake, to Matt's growing consternation and professional dismay. He turned the corner into the basement to see the swirling vortex of a unstable jump gate in the middle of the room. Pinkamena and Grumpy were glaring at each other, clearly taking a quick pause. "Alright, nobody move!" snapped Matt. Fluttershy, who was floating behind him, stopped flapping her wings and fell down with an 'oof'. Matt sighed and said, "I was talking to the extra Pinkies." Matt continued, saying "You really don’t wanna go in that..." gesturing to the energy vortex. "Yes, you would most like come out puree on the other side," said Aria. A voice from the portal generator said "75% alignment complete...attempting to find suitable class A." "Er, anyways, I don't think there are many places you'll be likely to fit in," said Matt. "Why, is it because I'm considered dangerous?" snapped Pinkamena. "You held a knife to my throat...most colony militias react with bullets to that behaivour." he said, adding mentally 'And you're a talking pink horse...thats wierd even by NSC standards.' "Pinkamena, you belong here," said Twilight, "We wouldn't be complete without you." "More specifically, she wouldn't be complete without you," said Rarity, pointing at Pinkie, who was starting to look more listless. The portal device intoned "Portal stabilization at 90%. Suitable target found: Paradiso V targetted..." Pinkamena smirked and said, "I guess that's my ride. I'll be leaving now." "You're not going anywhere!" said Rainbow Dash before charging forward. Pinkamena turned angrily as Rainbow Dash charged, side stepping and slashing out. Rainbow Dash gave a cry of pain and skidded to a stop. Fortunately, Pinkamena had only got her left front knee, but there was a steady trickle coming from it. Pinkamena turned to finish the job before Matt lost patience and shot the knife into the portal, a glob of molten metal hitting the wall behind. He switched to stun to end the problem when the three remaining pinkies charged forward, tackling their dark doppelganger. "We should do something," said Fluttershy. "It's too dangerous," said Matt, "We might hurt our Pinkie and the rift's gravity could pull you in." "But Rainbow Dash is hurt," said Applejack. "Aria...get some drones down here...NOW!" said Matt into his comm. Aria however replied "I cannot do that...the ones on the ship are all trying to re-engage the core and the ones at your location lost power when the defence grid did." Suddenly, the portal seemed to...jiggle. The vortex shimmered before brightening to a bright pink. The group backed up, Matt saying "Aria...whats wrong with my jump gate?" Aria didn’t answer for a bit until the jumpgate computer answered for her. "Alert...exterior re-alignment detected." "What? But that's impossible," said Matt before suddenly the sound of trumpeting came from the portal. "Er, speaking of impossibilities," said Twilight. Suddenly, a small herd of pink elephants charged out of the portal. They immediately went to where the Pinkies were fighting and separated them. They wrapped their trunks around Pinkamena's legs to keep her from moving. "THATS IT...MY BRAIN CAN;T TAKE ANYMORE!" screamed Matt, grabbing both sides of his head. One of the elephants wandered over to Rainbow Dash. It looked at the cut on her leg before putting the tip of its trunk on it. Rainbow Dash winced and there was a little flash of pink light. When the elephant lifted its trunk, the cut was completely gone. "I can;t handle this anymore...I'm gonna go find a bottle of Kr'ta and try to dissolve my liver...call me when this is over and sanity reigns again." said Matt, gloomily. "Hold it together a little longer," said Twilight, "We still need to put the Pinkies back together." Matt sighed "Well...they're all together finally...lets just try the teleporter idea...before I need to get a straightjacket." he said, walking over to the portal, avoiding the furious Pinkamena and opening a side panel and removing a single crystal. "Warning...DNA filter deactivated." said the system. "Are you sure this will work?" asked Rainbow Dash as she got back up. "Either it'll work or you'll end up with a four-headed Pinkie," said Matt. "Sir... have regained control of systems...according to scans...to quote a saying 'Its now or never'." said Aria. "Right then," said Matt, "Toss those Pinkie’s through the void." Pinkamena practically shrieked "I'M NOT GOING BACK...YOU CAN'T MAKE ME." before Matt paused, turned and gave her a kick that Applejack would have been proud of, sending her flying into the portal. The other three were a lot more cooperative, Grumpy mainly because she 'will walk through the portal because she wants to, not for anyone else'. The real Pinkie was last, actually seeming a bit hesitant. "I can;t hold this for long...the system'll fry." said Matt, from a readout station. "I...I'm not sure I want to rejoin with those...degenerates," said Pinkie Pie. "But they're a part of you," said Twilight. "They were a part of me," said Pinkie, "But now I can be somepony different." Rarity said calmly "Pinkie dear. Flaws are a part of what makes us who we are...just look at Mr. Lynch." earing a 'OI!' from matts direction. She continued on to add "Seperating yourself from them won’t make you a better pony but accepting them will." Pinkie hesitated for a few more moments before saying, "Ok, I'll do it." Matt said "Oh that good...as long as we're all agreed...can we do this before something horrible happens?" Pinkie took a deep breath before charging forward and leaping into the vortex. The group covered their eyes as the portal blinded them, several alerts starting. "Danger...T.F.S situation confirmed...unable to engage emergency shutdown...cutting power." said the computer. "You sure this will work?" called Twilight. "I have no idea!" replied Matt. All of the sudden, the portal cut off, some overrides unable to be bypassed. It had however caused alot of smoke as it shut down. Matt and the ponies coughed as the room filled with smoke. Even the elephants were choking a bit, though not as much as the others. "Oh great, it's probably fried the engine," said Matt between coughs. Matt tried to wave some smoke away, spotting the elephants and sighing. If some of Pinkies pet hallucinations were still on the loose then the plan had failed. "Pinkie?" he called. As the smoke faded, Pinkie hopped out, back to her normal cheery self. "Ooh, that was fun," said Pinkie, "Can we do it again?" The others all crouded round her asking her if she ws alright. However, Matt was staring at the elephants. "Erm...girls?" he said, trying to point them out. "I'm glad you're back to normal, Pinkie," said Twilight, "But how comes your elephants are still here." "Yeah, shouldn't they be going back inside you?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Oh, they're not my elephants," said Pinkie, "They're my friends from the forth-dimensional planet of Partiagogo." Matt just stared before yelling "THAT IS IT...ANYTHING NOT FROM THIS UNIVERSE...GET THE SMEG OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!" The pink elephants looked at Matt for a minute before waving 'goodbye' with their trunks and disappearing in puffs of pink smoke. Matt just continued to stare, twitching every so often. "Er, how long have you known them?" asked Twilight. Pinkie giggled before saying, "It's a secret." Matt just giggled faintly before walking off stiffly." … <Log active> "It's a fact that's been proven over and over again during the centuries that NSC has been in existence: continuous travel to other worlds wears the mind thin. Never before has that been proven then today. In the last few days, I’ve seen psychotic pink ponies, talking elephants and a unstable wormhole...I need a break. Frankly, I wonder how Pinkie can hold herself together like that. Hopefully, I won't find out myself one day. Still, she did manage to get that portal working, or rather her pink elephants did. I think I heard somewhere that insanity is a hindrance on innovation. Frankly, I find that thought terrifying. However...this has also resulted in the portal device working...shame that Pinkamena jammed it on Paradiso. If I had to run, I wouldn’t choose there...." But figuring out how to change the destination coordinates can't be that difficult, right?”
Largefish8	784	7	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2012-03-11T18:27:54+00:00	2012-03-11T18:27:54+00:00	712	MLP Fic Pt 7 'Everything has a beginning, the heroes.....and the monsters. In many cases that beginning comes from the era of the ancients when the atlanteans fought the dark ones. Unfortunately...like all things that have a beginning...they never truely end and if you know where to look...and if you are foolish...you might find something...' Extract from 'Nullspace, a history' ... 20 Minutes since the emergence of Twilight Moon... This was definitely not one of Echo Team's proudest moments. Sure, they'd had to deal with strategic types before, but nothing that involved this much screaming. It had been a simple job, move in...find the killer of Echo 4 and get some payback. What they hadn’t counted on was Target Alpha bumbling in, disabling their Psy-Sleeper network and then running interference. Then some kinda...thing had flicked their air support away like it was a fly and killed half the squad with about as much effort. And if that wasn't bad enough, there were quite a few monsters in this forest that didn't like being woke up in the middle of the night and were having their fill of human flesh. Private Mackinson came to a stop by a tree, panting and trying to ignore the fact that he was almost certainly being watched. "Fuck...fuck...this isn’t happening." he said in a shaking voice to himself. "This is supposed to be a planet of talking horses, not monsters," he said to himself. After waiting a minute to make sure nobody was following, he walked out of his hiding hole and fell head first into a crater. Several pieces of starship armor, probably from when the Skyraid had crashed were scattered around it, surrounding a metallic oval slumped up against the edge. "Well, I can at least make sure this bastard pays," said Mackinson. The orb pulsated as the merc drew his blaster, intent on spreading his annoyance around a bit. If Mackinson had been in a calmer mood, he would have had more caution. As a result, he was unprepared when a hidden nozzle sprayed a translucent liquid at him, causing him to scream in pain as it paralyzed him. 'What...what kind of defenses does this nutball have?' thought Mackinson. The pod hissed before several unknown symbols glowed on its surface. The top of it opened like a flower, a claw tipped hand visible in the smoke. Mackinson's muscles may have been paralyzed, but that didn't stop him from breaking out in a cold sweat as he watched something climb out of the pod. The thing, still shrouded in the smoke from its pod said in a dry rasping voice. "Ah...lunch." before reaching down. It was at that point that enough of the paralysis left for Mackinson to speak...but by then all he was doing was screaming... ... Present day... Matt reached into a bush and pulled out a ion pulse rifle emblazoned with Echo Teams insignia before tossing it over to a hovering pallet drone. "And another one. Man, at least those three kids aren’t here...after the plasma cannon..." he said to himself before shuddering in recollection of when they had managed to blast him through the side of the barn he currently called home. "You sure you don't want a wagon?" asked Aria sarcastically. "Oooh...a V-414 repeater cannon. These are top of the line." said Matt, happily, either not hearing or not caring what Aria said. "Yes, it's a shame you won't be using these anytime soon except to scare off some vermin," said Aria. This managed to get through to Radio Lynch and Matt said thoughtfully "True...usually I would have been attacked 12 times by now." Hmm...maybe they've finally learnt?" "The amount of activity in this area is alarmingly absent," said Aria. "Oh no...lets just go back. I just know if we go further something’s gonna happen to ruin what was basically turning out to be a peaceful week." said Matt, gloomily before yelling to the sky "ONE WEEK...IS THAT TOO MUCH?" Aria was quiet for a bit before saying, "I'm not sure whether I should agree with you or point out that one week may be too much." "Bite me, Aria." said Matt, walking around a corner. Aria, via the drone mentally counted before she heard a yell of surprise followed by a thud. "Let me guess, you have involuntarily spelunked into an unexpected geological depression of significant depth," said Aria. "No, I just fell into a hole," said Matt. Aria steered the drone around the corner to see a crater in the ground, Matt sitting in the muck. She could also see something poking out from a bush behind Matt. "Sir...I wouldn’t turn around." Matt sighed and said, "Now I'll have to," before turning around and seeing a human body that was clearly dead and unnaturally pale. He screamed and scurried away from it. Aria chuckled before she took a closer look at the body. "Hmm...I think this accounts for the last of Echo..." she commented. Matt said weakly "What the hell happened to him?" "It would appear he has been drained of all his blood," said Aria. "I can see that...great...mind leeches...manticores...and now vampires. What next? No...don’t answer that...we're going." said Matt, in a shaking voice. "I'm detecting more tech to be salvaged nearby," said Aria. "We come back for it later," said Matt, "It's not like it's gonna rot." The two turned and left as fast as they could, not noticing the eyes watching from the undergrowth. ... Despite the dangers of everfree forest, there was always a few foals who would do something silly like dare each other to explore. For example, two siblings, High Gear V and Lil’Smarty, were trying to goad each other into going deeper into Everfree Forest. Lil’Smarty, a purple earth pony filly named after her mother looked over at her brother. "Gear...this is stupid...what if we bump into a basilisk or a hydra?" she said nervously, looking around at the trees. High Gear V, smarty’s Pegasus brother who was the fourth in his family to inherit that name, said, "Everyone knows that hydras only live in swamps and bogs. And all you have to do to keep a basilisk from petrifying you is not look it in the eye." "I dunno...I think we've gone deep enough in. I don’t wanna get lost." said Lil'Smarty, nervously looking around. "I can get us out of here, easy," said High Gear V, "I'll just fly over the trees and point us back to Ponyville. Don't tell me you're turning chicken now." Lil'Smarty glared and said in a annoyed voice "I'm NOT chicken...just cause you've finally gotten the hang of flying..." "Still a lot more than you can do," said High Gear V, smugly. Lil'Smarty intensified her glare at that before turning and walking back towards the tree line. "Hey...I didn’t mean it like that." said her brother apologetically before a rustling from the bushes got their attention. "A basilisk!" Lil'Smarty squeaked in fear. "Remember, don't look at it," said High Gear V. "Basilisk?" said a hissing voice from the bushes before a shape jumped into sight. The creature's body looked like those new 'human' things. However, it was wearing all black which was stretched tight against its thin body. The only parts that weren't covered were its hands, which had clawed fingernails and its head which was bald, pale, had pointed ears, red eyes, and sharp-looking teeth. The two foals stared for a few seconds before screaming and running in the direction of Ponyville, High Gear V forgetting in terror that he could fly. However that had barely got a few feet before their pursuer shimmered into view in front of them. "Why do they always run?" it hissed. The two foals screeched to a halt before turning around and running the other way. Unfortunately the monster simply pulled the same trick, appearing in front of them. "On any other day, I'd welcome some adrenaline in my meals...but not today." it hissed, pulling out a small rod. "Now be good little snacks and hold still," said the creature. High Gear V looked at his sister before saying in a shaking voice "You...you get away...l-l-leave us alone." "Hmm...courage, not much, but more than the other," said the creature, "You'll probably have a richer taste." High Gear V said nervously "Wh...what?" he stammered before the creature lunged at him, its mouth opening un-naturally wide to reveal fangs. ... Matt was out again, looking for any other gear that Echo had dropped when he heard a scream. Matt jumped and spun around, holding one of the guns he had collected out. "What the hell?" said Matt in shock, panning the gun around. Aria said via the cargo drone. "The scream came due east near the treeline...oh...and the blaster might work better if you took the safety off." “I knew that.” Said Matt, innocently, clicking the safety. "Whatever lets you sleep, sir." said Aria smoothly before watching via the drone as Matt ran towards the scream. ... Matt ran round a tree to see a humanoid looking like it was kissing a foal on the neck...except for the blood. "HEY...UGLY!" he yelled. The creature glared up at Matt and hissed, fresh blood dripping from its fangs. Matt actually took a step back at the sight before the creature dropped the moaning pegasi foal and hissed "NSC." Matt took aim and said Try this instead.” before pulling the trigger and jumping as the plasma ion rifle sent an orb out that blasted the creature into the tree behind it with a cracking noise. "Nice gun," said Matt, impressed "This one's a keeper." Matt ran over to the foal, before spotting a purple earth pony foal cowering in terror. "Its ok...I got it..." he said, checking the Pegasus’s wound. Luckily the bite looked worse then it was. "Easy there..." he said before the earth pony screamed again. Matt looked up to see the creature getting back up. "Ah, tough guy, eh?" Matt said tauntingly, clicking the blasters setting up. The creature hissed and said, "It will take more than that to finish me." "Good to know," said Matt before firing a bigger blast. This one was more impressive, carrying the creature back into the same tree...which exploded. "I win." said Matt happily before looking down at the pegasi. "Hey, kid...can you hear me? Kid?" ... Of course, two explosions are bound to get some attention. And since it came from the direction of Everfree Forest, it drew quite a bit of concern. Especially for Twilight and her friends. The blast had also woken up the rest of the town, a few of the more panicky ones thinking it was the other humans attacking again. The view became a little darker when the local human was seen coming down the road carrying a unconscious foal and leading a terrified looking second one. "Accusations and questions later, medical support now," said Matt, "This little guy's lost some blood." Some of the more sensible ponies ran forward, helping Matt get the pegasi to the clinic. The other foal ran towards a brown pegasus and purple earth pony, screaming 'Mom...dad.' in tears. The mother, whose Cutie Mark was that of a book with glasses and a wrench on the cover, nuzzled her daughter and said, "Shh...it's alright, you're safe now." "It...it was..." said Lil'Smarty, sheer terror stopping her from stringing words together as her father, his cutie mark of a clockwork gear with two lightning bolts across it, headed for Matt who was handing his son to two medical ponies from the clinic. "What happened in there?" he said to Matt, getting straight to the point. "Uh, this might be a little harder to swallow," said Matt, "You ever hear of anything called 'vampires'?" The pegasus raised an eyebrow in the classic 'you're kidding, right?' fashion. Matt conceded "Ok...might not have been a vampire...doesn’t matter really. At the moment, its deep fried." he said. "What did it do to my son?" asked the brown Pegasus, concern clear in his voice. "To be honest...I dunno. It was biting him, I think. I wasn’t taking in details. I just tried to get it off him. At least its dea-" began Matt before a shriek was heard from the forest. "-d..." finished Matt in a terrified squeak. "Are you going to go get it?" asked one pony. "Er, it'll be a lot weaker when the sun's up," said Matt, "That would be the best time to take it out." Unfortunately for Matt, the sun began to appear at that point. "Good luck." said the same pony, cheekily. Matt, to his credit didn’t break out in his usual tirade, instead just letting his head drop and muttering "I hate this planet." ... However, Matt wasn't alone when he went back into the forest. Some of the girls had tagged along to help. Pinkie Pie was looking over the ground with a magnifying class. "Now, where did that buggy get to?" she asked. "What buggy?" said Matt, confused, looking around the ex-battlezone. The blasted tree had acted as a good signpost. However there was also a silhouette in the ash on the ground, showing where something had, against all logic, walked away after being blown apart. "That mosquito's around here somewhere," said Pinkie, "I haven't found his trail yet, but I've got a couple of questions for this spider." Matt stopped for a second before his sanity retuned for what the psych-bot in the ships med-bay had called 'exposure to pinkie'. "Ok...looks like our little blood sucker got up and went this way..." said Matt, looking at the footprints in the mud. "Pinkie, I'm pretty sure this thing we're after isn't a mosquito," said Twilight. "But what else sucks blood? Couldn't have been another leech." "Its was a human...or humanoid. To be honest, it reminded me of a old movie I saw...dracula, it was called." said Matt, conversationally as the group followed the footprints. "What was it about?" asked Twilight. "Bloodsucking monster called a vampire." said Matt, remembering the movie. "Guy could only be killed by a stake through the heart or sunlight." "Did you say bloodsucking?" asked Fluttershy, stepping back nervously. "Yeah, they're the living dead," said Matt, "They rise from their graves at night to feast on the blood of the living. And if they suck all the blood out of you, you become a mindless minion or even a vampire yourself." Pinkie turned at that and looked around "Hey...where did fluttershy go?" she said cheerfully before a rustling made everyone look up to see Fluttershy clinging to a branch with a look of sheer terror on her face. "Hmm...Ok...I'm not letting fluttershy watch any of my movie collection." said Matt to himself. "What? Movies? Have you been holding out on us?" demanded Pinkie. "Wait...do you guys even have tellys?" said Matt. "Of course," said Pinkie, "That's how everyone watches us." Matt suddenly got a nervous feeling. He glanced around, as if some invisible crowd were watching him. After a minute Matt said "Man you're random...right?" adding the last part nervously before he spotted where the creature had apparently fallen down. "Looks like he keeled over here." he commented, happy to change the subject. Twilight looked over the spot and said, "You sure it didn't go anywhere else?" Matt looked around "Maybe something ate it? That'd be nice karmic justice..." he said. "But I'm not seeing that many tracks," said Twilight, "Fluttershy, you know animals well, can you help pick out which tracks came from what kind of animal?" The group looked around for any sign of what had dealt with their prey but after a few minutes, all Matt could find were a trail of hoofprints heading away. "Wierd...maybe it was a flyer?" said Matt, to himself. "They would have come back to Ponyville, wouldn't they?" said Twilight. "If it shows its face beyond the treeline, I'm blowing its head off." said Matt, simply. ... Fluttershy had 'stepped out' for the moment when Matt had started talking about the creature being a ‘flyer’. The thought of bloodsucking monsters was too much for her and she needed to find something to calm her down. Fortunately, a nest of chipmunks was enough to draw her attention. She was singing pleasantly to them when a cultured voice behind her said "Such a pleasant voice. You have a true talent." "Oh, thank you," said Fluttershy before looking around and asking, "Who said that?" The voice said "Up here, my lady." and Fluttershy looked up to see a black pegasus with a white made sitting in the tree above. "Oh, hello," said Fluttershy, "I don't think I've seen you around Ponyville. Are you new here?" "Oh...I just arrived. I’ve been...travelling for a long time." said the pegasus before bowing and saying "Vanka Nocturis at your service." "My name's Fluttershy," said Fluttershy in a quiet voice. "Such a lovely name." said Vanka with a pleasant smile. "Maybe we will meet at a later date. "Oh, but there's no real rush," started Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, where are you?" called Matt's voice. Fluttershy looked down and called, "I'm up here!" But when she turned to look back at Vanka, he was gone. The others came into view at that. "There you are. Lets go. The trails cold." said Matt, peering at the treeline. “I'll have Aria send a few drones around but I doubt we'll find the creep...who were you talking to?. "Oh, a Pegasus who's just arrived to Ponyville," said Fluttershy. Pinkie said cheerfully "Oh...a new pony? I gotta get a party ready for him." "Just how many ponies come and go through Ponyville anyways?" asked Matt. "Quite a few in the summer, coming and going from canterlot. Its on the main road to there." said Twilight. Matt said to himself "Great...an all-you-can-eat buffet if you think about it." ... Meanwhile, Vanka was sitting at the top of a large tree that gave him a clear view over most of Ponyville. "Hmm, a sizeable town with quite a bit of traffic going through it," he said, licking his lips before adding, "A virtual smorgasboard just for me." He looked down at his form and sighed. He hadn’t expected the foals blood to have an effect so quickly...nor for a NSC soldier to blunder upon him. "When I have control, that monkey reject will be the first to go." he muttered darkly. "But still, I have more time than he does," said Vanka, "And quite a lot of fresh blood to feed on." He spread his wings at that, stretching "Now...time to go meet my future subjects." ... The next evening, Matt had decided to 'stroll' through the town in case the creature from the previous night decided for another snack. "I'm telling you, Aria...it looked like damn dracula. You sure Executive Genetics never documented something like that?" "There have been some accounts of vampiric species," said Aria, "However, not all of them fit strictly into the 'vampire' description. Did you perceive any wings on this creature?" "No...my suspicions were aroused when blowing it up didn’t work." said Matt, sarcastically, a few ponies giving him funny looks at his outburst. "Hmm...while most 'vampire' aliens are known to be very hardy, very few could shrug off an ion blast," said Aria, "That is not a good sign." "I know that tone...thats the 'I know something about this but I don’t wanna tell' voice." said Matt. "Well, there has been one account of a vampiric race that would fit your description. It was considered a plague in Nullspace and was thought to have been wiped out," said Aria, "They were called revenites." "Never heard of them." said Matt promptly. Aria replied "I;m not surprised...the NSC doesn;t like them mentioned. They were a hostile race thought to date back to the ancients and are thought to be the progenitors of most of the 'supernatural' vampire sub-races found in fiction. The Combine Confederation and the NSC were responcible for their eradication..." Matt said "Then how do you..." before Aria finished "And Executive Genetics supplied the weapons." "Well, supposing you're right, how would one of them end up here? This isn't exactly Transylvania," said Matt. "The last fleeing revenite vessels were tracked to the uncharted territories before being destroyed. Most likely, an escape pod from one of their ships crashed here recently." said Aria before predicting what Matt was thinking. "I hate to say this sir...but we should consider surrendering to the Icarus. Even though I can nano-forge the weapons that will effect this revenite, you do not have the skill or experience to defeat one." "It's a vampire, I just need to find its coffin during the daytime and drive a stake through its heart, right?" said Matt. "Sir...thats just a story...a revenite can survive, albeit weakened in direct sunlight, will only get high off of garlic and will certainly survive being staked long enough to tear your head from your shoulders." said Aria, darkly. "Er, don't suppose that holy relic stuff works, does it?" asked Matt. "It didn't work for the NSC...it won't work for you...can we please stick to facts?" said Aria. "Ok, ok," said Matt, "At least it won't be too hard to spot. A Nosferatu like him will stick out like a sore thumb among the thumbless." "They are also shapeshifters...they adapt from the DNA in their meals." said Aria, causing Matt to look around nervously, Aria adding "It could be anyone." "Er, I'm open to suggestions now," said Matt. "Like I said, our best chance will be hailing the Icarus," said Aria. "What would the Icarus do?" said Matt, trying to keep calm. Aria said "Standard localised sanitization via Solarite bomb. Everything within 200 square miles would be incinerated." Matt said coldly "Ok...Icarus is out. I;m presuming this 'solarite' stuff is their kryptonyte." "In a way," said Aria, "Like I said, sunlight weakens them, but if they're exposed to enough ultraviolet rays with enough concentration, they'll burn like their namesakes. Solarite is an artificial crystal that was developed to enhance UV-based lasers to proper revenite-slaying levels." "Oh...lemme guess...the Icarus has the only lot around." said Matt darkly, only to be pleasantly surprised when Aria said "No...its quite easy to make...I could produce several with the Skyraids nano-forge." "That's good," said Matt, "How long will that take?" "It may take a few days...the purity of the crystals needs to be exact and the process for production is not easy to calibrate. I suggest you find out who the revenite is before we act." said Aria before signing off. "Ok, he'll be a new guy in town, so Pinkie will be able to point them out," said Matt. ... However, the next few days proved that this was not going to be easy after all. The first hiccup in Matts master plan was that it was tourist season for the area and many ponies had come to visit ponyville from Cloudsdayle and Canterlot which brought the situation straight to problem 2...there were more new ponies then townsfolk. "This is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," said Matt to Applejack as she was checking on the apple blossoms. "Y'know...Maybe that critter didn;t come back. Plenty of nasty varmints livin in Everfree." said Applejack. The 6 of them had been a little worried for how much effort Matt had pushed into finding the creature during the last few days, even refusing sleep to patrol the towns outskirts at night. "From what I hear, this is the type of monster that would eat other monsters," said Matt. "Y'all need to rest, Matt before you make a mistake. Ah've done the same in the past and you won’t believe what ah caused." said Applejack, remembering back to when she had tried to bring in the apple harvest solo. Applejack sighed and said "Y'all ain’t gonna be much good against it if you can’t stand up." "I am not that flimsy," said Matt. A snapping noise from the nearby bushes caused Matt to jump and pull out one of the new solarite weapons Aria had finished, firing a needle thin yellow beam that sliced the bush down, revealing a shellshocked fox. Matt didn’t turn back to Applejack before saying "It might be a vampire fox." "I'm pretty sure any blood he may be after is chicken blood," said Applejack, "And I think you need to lie down before some other innocent critter could get hurt." The fox had already headed off for the forest at an impressive speed. Matt sighed "Yeah...yeah. I don’t wanna be like private badris...poor guy. We told him to take a few hours..." "Private who?" asked Applejack. "You don't wanna know," said Matt. ... Matt leaned against a tree in the park, sipping on some hot coffee and despite Applejacks recommendations, still keeping one eye open. Finally, he got up and turned to leave, he nearly tripped over a white-maned black pegasus. The pegasi yelled in shock and fell over. Matt was already up. "Crap...sorry, man. You alright? Wow...you're lucky...no scaldi-" he said only for the pegasi to glare and say "You idiot." "Hey, I said I was sorry," said Matt. "Idiotic human...do you make a habit of walking around blind?" said the pegasi coldly. "Well excuse me," said Matt, "Maybe you should be the one watching where you're walking." The pegasi seemed to remember something then before saying in a warmer voice "I suppose accidents happen...would you happen to know the way to Madam Fluttershy's house? We met in the forest a few days ago." "Did you?" asked Matt before thinking back, "She said your name was...Vanya, right?" "Vanka...I am visiting from the north." said the pegasi, seemingly amused by something. "Yeah, we're getting visitors from everywhere these days," said Matt. "Well...it was a pleasure to meet you, Mr Lynch. Maybe we will meet again." said Vanka. Matt nodded "Yeah. Fluttershy’s is that way...near the forest. Look for the tree house with the chickens outside." "Thank you," said Vanka before walking away. Matt walked on, muttering "Wierd guy...wait...I never told him my name and my tags in splitt...oh no." said Matt to himself. ... Meanwhile, Fluttershy was watering her little garden. It wasn't that much, just some flowers. But the bees and butterflies sure seemed to like it. She had just finished when she heard a hoofstep behind her and turned to see the pegasus she had met in the forest a few nights ago, Vanka. "Miss Fluttershy...a pleasure to see you again." he said with a smile. "Oh, Vanka," said Fluttershy, "Er, I didn't know you would be coming." "I said I would visit you if I was in your little village and so here I am. Your human friend told me the way. I literally bumped into him." said Vanka. "Oh, Matt. He can be a bit...clumsy at times, but he's really sweet," said Fluttershy. "Hmm...I suppose such a lovely pegasi such as you could be wrong." said Vanka, smoothly. "Wait? What?" asked Fluttershy, her emotions twisting two ways in response to Vanka's remark. Vanka said, "Well...you're his friend...and I have only been here a few days. I hardly know anyone here." his eyes glowing very faintly. "Yes, you do need to take time to really get to know someone," said Fluttershy. "Well...may I be frank, Miss Fluttershy? I have travelled...to many places in my life but it’s rare that I meet such a kind jewel." Vanka said, seeming sheepish in his speech. "Oh, I'm sure you've met kinder jewels, uh, I mean, ponies," said Fluttershy, her cheeks turning almost as pink as her mane. "Oh no...in my...career choice, kindness was a rarity." said Vanka. "Oh, that's too bad," said Fluttershy, "But I'm sure you'll find a lot more kindness here in Ponyville." "I'm sure I will. Tell me...surely it gets lonely here." said Vanka. "Not at all," said Fluttershy, "I have so many animals to take care of here. And Angel is particularly helpful." "Angel? Where?" said Vanka, sounding terrified. "Oh, he's probably taking a nap right now," said Fluttershy, "He usually sleeps after lunchtime." "Erm...I beg your pardon?" said Vanka, confused. Fluttershy said happily "Angels my pet bunny. He helps me look after the other animals." Vanka coughed embarrassed "Yes...er....I have...a....bunny......phobia." "You're afraid of bunnies?" asked Fluttershy. "I had a rather nasty experience with a rabbit when I was a colt," said Vanka. Fluttershy seemed confused "That’s strange...they're usually so docile" she said, turning to help a chipmunk so missing Vanka mouthing 'She fell for that?' Just then, a familiar voice called out, "DIE, YOU UNDEAD BOTTOMFEEDING BLOODSUCKER!" This was followed by a small barrage of energy blasts. Fluttershy leapt back with shriek as Vanka was forced to do an impromptu tapdance to avoid the energy blasts before being sent flying by a kick from a ballistic mercenary. "HAH...THOUGHT YOU COULD PULL THE WOOL OVER MY EYES, EH?" Matt yelled, advancing on the seemingly dazed Vanka. Fluttershy said "Matt?" in a small terrified voice. "Ah, good, I caught him before he could get his nasty little fangs into you," said Matt, "Now stand back, this could get messy." Vanka said in faked but convincng terror "What the hell? What are you doing, you mad thing?" trying to back away. "Oh, drop the act, vampire boy." said Matt. "Matt, wait a minute," said Fluttershy, "Aren't you being too rash? Maybe you're confused about this." "Not a chance...I'm not letting fang boy out my sight." said Matt, getting a yellow crystal out and loading it into his blaster. "One solarite enema coming up." he said. "Matt, I really must insist that you stop acting so violent," said Fluttershy. "Ok...after I atomize vampy over here." said Matt, aiming. Vanka said in a terrified whimper "Please, Miss Fluttershy...I don't know what he’s talking about." Then Fluttershy became much more serious. "Matt, stand down," she said. Matt scoffed and said, "And what should-" before making eye contact with her. Many years later, when asked exactly what it felt like to be given what the equestrians had nicknamed 'the stare' Matt never really gave a clear answer but at that moment there was something about the ferocity of Fluttershy's glare that went straight down to the little metaphorical button on Matt’s spine marked 'primal terror' and jumped up and down on it, causing his blaster to fall to the grass. "Matt, I don't know what crazy notion makes you think that Vanka could be the vampire," said Fluttershy, "But you're going to stop attacking him right now and apologize." Matt’s brain, to its surprise found itself obeying, turning reluctantly and making Matt mutter "Sorry I tried to vaporize you." Vanka appeared to be similarly shocked about this as he only said, "Er...fine, just don't do it again." Matt glared, picking up his blaster and walking out. Fluttershy headed into her house, allowing Vanka to flash a 'unique' smile at Matt. Matt's eye widened and he would have gone into 'blast-blast killy' mode, but somehow, he felt like he shouldn't be here right now. So he just glared back at Vanka before walking away. It hadn’t been Vanka's cheeky grin...it had been the two fangs that had gotten his attention. Surely once he told the others of this, he’d have some help... ... It was 2 days later... Matts plan hadn’t gone...well...as planned. "Come on, guys," said Matt, "Vanka's the vampire, I know it. Is it really that hard to believe?" "When did you last get some sleep, Matt?" said Twilight, looking concerned at the dark fatigue rings around Matt’s eyes. "Not since that kid got bit...why? I'm fine...my med nanites can keep me going for at least another week." he said. "Matt, it isn't healthy to stay awake so long," said Twilight, "Your body needs to rest." "Not to mention what's left of your mind," said Rainbow Dash. "What about the sudden neck scarf thing in town? Ten credits says each of those ponies has a little mark under their neckwear that consists of 2 little puncture marks." said Matt, his eye twitching a bit. "Scarves are the latest fashion trend," said Rarity, "A bit odd for this time of year, but who am I to question the customers?" Matt glared "Fine..." he said before looking out into the street and pouncing on the nearest pony before pulling her scarf off and saying triumphantly "SEE?" "Uh, there ain't nothing there," said Applejack. Matt glanced at the pony to see her neck was unblemished and her expression was very irked. "Oops, my bad," said Matt before wrapping the scarf back around her neck. The pony glared before walking off. Matt however said stubbornly "Coincidence." "Are you going to yank off every pony's scarf until you find something?" asked Rainbow Dash. Matts left eye twitched and he said "Great idea..." "Really, Matt, you're starting to act most uncivilized," said Rarity, "And the local opinion about you is low enough as it is." "So...we wait till someone has less blood then a banana.” said Matt stubbornly. "You said that this thing can't drain a pony's blood in one go," said Twilight, "It would take it a few days for it to drain a pony dry, right?" "Yes...but I'd prefer not to give it time to do that." said Matt darkly "But still, there would be some ponies who would be showing signs of blood loss. And once the victims become clear, you'd able to trace them back to the source," said Twilight, "Just running around and yanking scarves isn't going to help. You need to approach this logically." Matt sighed "Fine...I’m gonna be keeping a very close eye on the clinic." he said reluctantly. "You can have your robot things take care of that," said Rainbow Dash, "You need to lie down before you crash." "I'm perfectly fine...both of you stop complaining." said Matt, looking a little cross-eyed at Rainbow. "Maybe what you need is a lullaby," said Pinkie, "Just a little song to help you get to sleep." "I'm perfectly capable of falling as-" began Matt before falling face down and starting to snore. … Meanwhile, Vanka has become somewhat of a regular visitor for Fluttershy. He was often popping up around lunchtime and sharing a meal with her. Although, for some reason, he doesn't seem to eat as much. "Miss fluttershy. I have to say you are a...unique individual." he said this night. "Really? How so?" asked Fluttershy. "Well...It is rare that I find a person so capable of enforcing her will so easily." said Vanka. "Oh, it's not really a conscious thing," said Fluttershy, "I can't really control it. It just happens when I need it to happen." "Exactly. I know the sort of tricks that go in touch with such an ability." said Vanka. "What do you mean?" asked Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked up confused and looked right into the red eyes of Vanka. "Thats right...just close those beautiful eyes of yours...it won’t hurt as much then.” Fluttershy suddenly started feeling very woozy. She briefly had the idea that Vanka was opening his mouth wide to reveal a pair of sharp fangs before everything went black. ... Fluttershy shot upright in her bed with a yelp. "Oh...it was just a nightmare." she said to herself. Then she blinked and looked around. "Funny, I don't remember going to bed," she said. She got up dizzily and staggered over to her bedroom mirror before yelping again when she saw two small marks on her neck "Oh dear, where did those come from?" she asked, trying to think back to anything that could have caused them. However, nothing sprang to mind...in fact the whole previous night was a strange blur. However, she didn't feel any pain from the marks. All she felt was rather thirsty… ... Matt however had finally and reluctantly had his rest and was headed to fluttershys to apologize for nearly vaporising someone. As he approached her house, he noticed something a little off. Normally, there would be some animals hereabout, most often some visiting birds. However, there was no living being in sight. "Hello? Fluttershy?" called Matt, looking around the tree house. He heard some movement coming from the henhouse. "Fluttershy, are you there?" he called as he walked over to it. Matt peered in to see the hens trying with moderate success to pile on each other in an attempt to stay as far away as possible. Matt shrugged "Its not even like I eat chicken nuggets." he muttered. Matt then walked over to the tool shed and opened the door. "Anybody here?" he asked. There certainly was something in there: virtually every small animal under Fluttershy's care, looking like they're desperately hiding from something. "What the smegs going on?" said Matt to himself. As he looked back at Fluttershy's house, he noticed something white at one of the windows. It looked like Angel, who was waving his front paws out the window desperately. Matt could spot a cry for help. albeit one from an unusual source and ran round to the front door. "Fluttershy, open up before I get drastic," called Matt. Matt waited for a reply before muttering "I am so gonna get into trouble for this." before aiming a kick. However, the door was a lot sturdier than it looked. And clearly Matt didn't have much experience with this, judging by the way he was then hopping around and clutching his injured foot. Matt glared at the door and took a few steps back. For all he knew, something nasty could be waiting inside. "Ok...one....two......THREE!" he said before charging at it. However, his charge didn't go exactly as planned. It wasn't that the door was too hard for him to bust, quite the opposite. It's just that someone inside had opened it just before Matt could come into contact with it. "Oh sh-" Matt managed before his momentum brought his head into a meeting with a ceiling beam and caused him to backflip onto his back He heard Fluttershy's voice say, "Matt, are you ok?" but the spinning stars were getting in the way of his vision. "Oh...what do you think? Something spooked your animals...I thought you were in trouble..." groaned Matt. "I'm fine, but I am worried about them," said Fluttershy, "I've never seen them act this way before." "Urgh..." groaned Matt as a reply before shaking his head to clear his vision. The first thing he noticed was that the inside looked...darker than before. "Erm...fluttershy? Whats with the curtains closed? Its not like its raining." he said, heading for one of the closed curtains. "The curtains are closed?" asked Fluttershy, "That's strange, it seems bright enough to me." "You must have insanely good eyes." said Matt, before banging his knee. "Ow...thats it...you may have good eyes...I don;t." he said before opening the curtains. The sudden increase in light didn't seem much to Matt, but it made Fluttershy wince and turn her head away. "Wow...sorry. Maybe you strained your eyes?" said Matt before walking over. "Lemme take a peek." he said "I'm fine," said Fluttershy, "I'm just not used to the morning light yet." "Ok..." said Matt, looking around before saying "Thought saw your bunny friend. He seemed worried." "Oh, Angel gets worried about a lot of things," said Fluttershy, "He was just probably trying to tell me that I need to take care of the animals. I just don't understand why most of the animals are acting so scared. I thought they were comfortable here." Matt looked around before spotting a wolf in the corner. "He's fine." he said, a little nervously cause the look the wolf was giving him was the sort of look Matt gave dinner. “Yes, he seems quite at home," said Fluttershy, happily "Which is odd because I don't even recall having any wolves before, let alone him." "Can you tell him to stop eyeing me up as breakfast?" said Matt, backing up a little from the wolf. "Uh, I know you're new here, but we don't eat friends here," said Fluttershy to the wolf, "And Matt is a friend." The wolf made a huff that seemed a little disappointed to Matt before getting up and trotting out of the room. "Ok...this takes the wierd award previously held by the pink elephants." said Matt, calming a little. "Well, the wolf's not the only one in here," said Fluttershy, "We have a few bats and owls that are staying around. And the rats and insects and spiders have been behaving well too. I'm not sure what to make of it." Matt had been looking around for any possible connections when he glanced at Fluttershy's eyes and noticed they partially red. "Uh...beats me, I don't know animals like you do," said Matt. Inside Matts brain, a little tick box was checked. 'Ok...its not what I'm thinking it is...maybe she has conjunctivitis? At least she doesn’t have-' Matt thought. "Anyways, care for some apples?" asked Fluttershy, holding up one, "Applejack brought me some yesterday." She opened her mouth wide, revealing some slightly sharper teeth then you tended to find in a herbivore, before biting down on the apple. She chewed for a bit and said, "Odd, it seems...dryer than I would have thought." Matt however had gone pale. "Erm...I'm ok, thanks." he said in a surprisingly calm voice, given then all his mental warning bells had gone off at once. "I can't stay. I forgot to lock up and I do not want the crusaders getting in again." he said, grinning desperately. "Well, stop on by whenever you want," said Fluttershy. "I...I will, thanks...erm...Bye." said Matt before turning to run and bashing into the same rafter that had floored him. Matt rubbed his face and muttered, "Why couldn't they be as tall as actual horses?" He looked at his hand to see a little red. "Oh...damn nose...bleed." he said, stopping as one final alarm klaxon drowned out all the rest. "Matt, are you alright?" asked Fluttershy. "Fine, fine, nothing to worry about," said Matt quickly. Fluttershy said "Wait...you're bleeding..." before getting a distant expression. "Erm...no I'm not...erm...its katchup." said Matt, pathetically before getting up "Oh...look at the time...erm...SEEYOULATER!" he said, rushing the last part and running out. Fluttershy blinked and shook her head. "What was that about?" she asked, not sure whether the question should be directed towards Matt's behavior or her own. ... Twilight and Spike had been spending the day tidying the library, as well as reading the only vampire story they could find, by some pony called Buck stoker. Twilight had just finished when Matt burst in, out of breath. "Vuh...vuh." he said breathless. "What is it, Matt?" asked Spike, "Vole? Violin? Voltage?" "Vuh...vuh...vaaa...vaahahahaha." said Matt, starting to giggle a little as certain parts of his brain entered panic mode. "Vulture? Vulpine? Vanity?" asked Spike. "Vampire." Managed Matt before slumping face down. "Huh, I wasn't anywhere close," said Spike. Matt suddenly shot up and picked spike up "Fluttershys a vampire." he rasped, a manic look on his face. Twilight snorted before laughing a bit. "Fluttershy? She's the least vampire-like person I know," said Twilight. Matt spotted the vampire book before saying "Ok...check list...one...aversion to sunlight." "Fluttershy loves sunshine," said Twilight. "All her curtains were closed and she didn;t like it when I opened them. Number two: Red eyes. They were very red...and following on to number 3: Control of certain animals and fear responce in all others." said Matt, calmly "Fear response?" asked Twilight, "Animals love Fluttershy. Unless you count the animals at the Canterlot Royal Gardens." "Either her chickens practice acrobatics or they were trying to get as far away as possible...even her little bunny friend looked worried." said Matt before saying "And finally...the last two...tell me...do you guys usually have sharp teeth...and get mesmerized by nosebleeds?" Twilight stared at Matt and said, "Matt, I know you mean well and you're trying to help out with the community, but I'm afraid that's a bit too much. It's nothing personal, but I think I need to see the evidence myself before I can accept anything like that." "Very well...this way please." said Matt, confidently before turning and hitting the door frame. Luckily he chose to swear in splitter... ... The two of them were soon at Fluttershy's, which had the same eerie stillness about it. "Exhibit A: a definite lack of happy animal friends scampering about," said Matt. Twilight looked around "It does seem a bit quiet." she said unsure. Matt walked up to the door and knocked "Fluttershy...you in there?" he called. "Matt? You're back already?" asked Fluttershy's voice. "Yeah...I brought twilight along....that ok?" said Matt. "Of course, do come in," said Fluttershy. Matt opened the door and said "After you, twilight." before following her in. Not much changed since Matt's brief departure, except the curtains were closed again and the wolf was back. Also, several bats were hanging from a rafter. Matt looked around "Fluttershy? You in here?" he said, a little smugly that he was finally gonna get proved right. "Just a minute," called Fluttershy. A few seconds later, she walked out of the kitchen, clutching a lit candlestick with her teeth and balancing a tray of sliced apples on her back. Matt looked at Twilight "Told you so." he said. "Told her what?" asked Fluttershy after she put the candlestick down on the table. "Tell me, fluttershy. Have you inspected your fan…teeth today?" said Matt. "Well, I did notice something odd," said Fluttershy, "I think I may have chipped a few teeth. I had better see Zecora about that." Matt and Twilight both nodded slowly as the aforementioned new pointy additions to Fluttershys dentistry came into view. Matt muttered "Final test" before saying "Hey...come on outside...its a great day." "Uh, no thanks," said Fluttershy, "I have a bit of a migraine and the bright light will only make it worse." "I got some medicine at my place that'll help. Come on." said Matt cheerfully, walking forward only for the wolf to growl. "Now, now," said Fluttershy to the wolf, "Matt means well, don't be upset." Then she turned back to Matt and said, "I appreciate the offer, but I just don't feel like being in the sun today. Besides, I have a few little things I've been meaning to work on." Matt looked at Twilight before saying "Ok..." "Fluttershy, have you been feeling exhausted lately?" asked Twilight, "You know, feeling...drained of energy?" Fluttershy nodded "A little...I don’t understand it...and everything tastes dry." "Hey Fluttershy, you've got a little smudge on you," said Matt. "What? Where?" asked Fluttershy, looking at her shoulders. "Right...HERE!" said Matt before pulling Fluttershy's mane back and exposing two small puncture wounds on her neck. Three things happened then. The first was fluttershy screaming in surprise. The second and third were that the wolf and bats all lunging at Matt. "Uh oh," said Matt before he was tackled backwards. "Ah! Nice doggy, nice doggy! Get off me you stupid flying rats!" yelled Matt as he tried to push the wolf off him.. Twilight quickly used some levitation to pull the bats away from matt but the wolf was already about to make a snack of the poor merc. Fluttershy stared before whimpering in fright for the wolf to stop. The wolf growled before reluctantly skulking away. Fortunately, the animals were called off before Matt could be serious hurt, asides from a few bite and scratch marks. "Ok...what the hell?" said Matt in a shaking voice. "Ok, Matt, you've more than proven your point," said Twilight. "What point? What's going on?" asked Fluttershy. "Fluttershy? I'm afraid mr vampy bit you." said matt, not one for sugarcoating things. "What?" asked Fluttershy in shock. Matt nodded "You have fangs." before showing a reflection. "But, but, but, ponies don't have fangs," said Fluttershy. "Then who bit her? Fluttershy wouldn't let that monster into her house." said Twilight, concern in her voice. Matt shrugged "Ten creds that its that Vanka guy. I tell you, I don;t trust him." "But...Vanka's just a gentleman," said Fluttershy, "He wouldn't do such a thing." "Most monsters are gentleman...right up till they aren't." said Matt. "But...but...but..." started Fluttershy before this all proved to be too much for her and she fell over in a dead faint. "Nothing worse then waking up as the wrong species." said Matt, adding "Take it from me...I know." "Matt, we have to do something," said Twilight, "We can't just leave her like this." "Right, she ought to be ok on her bed," said Matt, "Just glad she hasn't traded up to a coffin yet." Matt carefully carried the peagasus up to her bed and put her down, pulling the cover over her. "Ok...from what I read on this vampire thing...we're fine until she gets a taste of someones blood. If we vaporise the guy who bit her before then, she'll be fine." said Matt, confidently. "Are you sure it will work?" asked Twilight. "Sure, it works in all the vampire books," said Matt. "Er, are those books actual guides for dealing with vampires or just stories someone wrote?" asked Twilight. "Well...the NSC claims they fought vampire aliens...but they sealed all the records. Exo Gene supplied the guns to fight em so aria was able to make some for me." said Matt, before saying "We gotta tell the others." ... The other ponies were called to Matt's where they were given the low-down about the current situation. "So thats more or less it. Somehow Fluttershys been bitten by this...what was it again?" said Matt, turning to a hologram of Aria that he had insisted set up. Aria said calmly "I believe the species original designation was Revenite." "And you're saying this 'Revenite' is turning Fluttershy into one too?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Yes...the species itself augmented their ruling caste with biomechanical glands that allowed them to inject one of two biological viruses. The first required constant concentration on their part, allowing them to control the actions of those bitten. Unfortunately Miss fluttershy seems to have been infected by the other one...usually used to create the hybrids that most modern vampires are descended from." said Aria before noticing the blank stares from everyone. "Oh for trons sake. Yes...she is turning into a revenite hybrid." she said. "Oh, who would have thought poor Fluttershy would be turned into a vampire?" said Rarity. "Yeah, I'd have pegged you as the most likely vampire candidate," said Pinkie, "Fluttershy seems more like the werewolf type to me." The group stared for a minute before chalking it down as pinkie being pinkie and allowing Aria to continue. "Unfortunately revenites also have the unfortunate ability to....well...who has heard of the saying 'you are what you eat.'?" "Oh, I hear that phrase all the time," said Pinkie, "Especially when I've been eating a lot of sweets, but I don't think I'm getting sugary." "It applies to revenites. Their DNA is constantly unstable, meaning that they assume the species of those they feed on. It probably accounts for how it has been able to operate for so long without detection." said Aria. "So what do they look like when they're themselves?" asked Applejack. There was a bit of sneakiness in Aria's tone as she said, "Allow me to show you." Matt leaned over too, curious to see what he was up against and so jumped with everyone else when some kind of anthromorphic bat thing appeared and lunged at the group, freezing mid pounce. "This is a revenite caught on helmet cam during the battle of Travindas III." said Aria. "Wow, now THAT is scary," said Rainbow Dash, distantly. "That was only a civilian...the revenites are not tolerant of any outsiders...and they have been documented to survive fully automatic plasma fire. While solarite crystals and concentrated UV blasts are effective...I doubt you would want to use a sunlight spell of that magnitude...as it would need to be powerful enough to incinerate 5 square miles." said Aria, calmly. Matt gulped at that "Lets put that on the backburner. You made some solerite weapons for me. I could take this guy," he said. "Still, I would not waste any ammo," said Aria, "Not only is there considerable collateral damage that could result from a misfire, there's a limited amount of solerite to use." "Well...what else can we do? Wait till fluttershy wants a midnight snack?" said Matt, drawing his blaster. "Finding this Vanka's lair would be the most sensible approach," said Aria, "I highly doubt you'd be stealthy enough to catch him in his sleep, but cornering him may be the key to victory." "I am perfectly capable of catching one fang pony." said Matt confidently. "It is far more than a 'fang pony'," said Aria, "Consider how active it has been, it is probably close to regaining its full power. Not to mention that it may be a matter of time before it has Miss Fluttershy under its thrall." "Crap." said Matt, gloomily. Rainbow dash said concerned "And what do we do if Fluttershy does fall under its power?" Aria said coldly "I don;t think you wish that information." "Then there's no time to lose," said Applejack, "We need to find where that creep nests." “We can't leave fluttershy alone. What if creepazoid goes back to finish her initiation?" said Rainbow Dash, annoyed at the situation. "Right, someone has to stand watch over her," said Twilight. Everyone turned to look at Matt who despite everything turned to look behind him before turning back. "Oh no...I'm the only one with the anti-vamp guns." he said, adding mentally 'and a trigger finger.' "Well, someone has to watch over Fluttershy," said Twilight, "Who can fend off those wolves and bats or possibly Fluttershy if she tries to escape." Rainbow Dash said confidently "I can deal with a few bats." "I'm sure you could, but wolves are tougher," said Twilight. "I'll be fine, Twi. I can handle a wolf. They can't fly." said Rainbow Dash, her confidence clearly back. "You have to keep her indoors, remember?" said Twilight, "As in keep next to her." Rainbow Dash nodded as Matt added "And whatever you do...DON;T let that creep near her." "Of course, we need to find this uncouth being," said Rarity, "Now, let's see, if I were a blood-draining creature of the night, and thank goodness I'm not, where would I stay if I were not out hunting?" "Well...I'd be somewhere comfy...close to where I eat. Is there any inns or hotels in town?" said Matt thoughtfully "A couple," said Pinkie Pie, "I go to them a couple of times to deliver some cakes for parties." "We start with them then...check for any night owls that checked in recently..." said Matt, checking the solarite crystal in his blaster. "Are we sure we want to confront him there?" asked Twilight, "There could be too many innocent ponies there and they could end up in danger." "So we wait till its night and he's at full strength and hungry too?" said Matt. "Well, maybe we can force him out of the hotel," said Applejack, "You know like makin' a gopher leave its hole." "Hmm...I suppose if we made it a little unsuitable...brighten the place up." said Matt thoughtfully. "Ooh, like open a tanning salon?" asked Rarity. "Tan? We're covered in hair," said Applejack, "That don't make a lick of sense." "We could order up some sunshine...you control the smegging weather. You can’t schedule some extra sun?" said Matt, a little annoyed. "I do clouds and winds," said Rainbow Dash, "Sunshine's something else entirely. I just clear the skies, Princess Celestia's the only one with power over sunlight." "So? Just lose the clouds for a day." said Matt before sighing and saying "Lets just go vaporise this creep." "Let's try to think this out all the way," said Twilight, "First of all, we need to find out which hotel he's at." "How do we do that? Walk up and ask if they have any vampires staying?" said Matt, sarcastically. "Would he have any reason to use another name if only a small amount of people even know about vampires?" asked Twilight. "Why not start with ponies who turned up after the kid was attacked?" suggested Matt. "Ok, but nobody jumps in until we're all sure where Vanka is," said Twilight. "Ah...so we agree its that guy." said Matt, happy for once. "It seems most likely," said Twilight, "After all, he's a new pony in town, he has been visiting Fluttershy often, and he's rarely seen during the daytime. I just wish there was a definite proof, like if he doesn't have a reflection." "Fluttershy had one...I don’t think all the vampire stuff applies to these guys." said Matt before saying "We know his name...lets just ask." "Alright, let's go and round up that varmint," said Applejack. ... Meanwhile, Vanka wasn't at his hotel, instead choosing to finish Fluttershys 'conversion'. He floated up near a cloud, checking the house given that the door had been locked. "Come on...how to...who's that?" he said spotting a cyan pony at the balcony he'd been eyeing. He thought for a minute and recalled that this was one of the friends Fluttershy 'hanged out with'. "Hmm...she may be trouble," he said to himself, "Best to get rid of the obstacle." With that he flew down silently before aligning behind the cyan pegasus as she turned to go back inside. After a second he cleared his throat. The cyan pony jumped and turned around. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "I could ask the same thing," said Vanka smoothly. "You're that vanka creep. I know exactly what you are." said the pony cockily. Vanka raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh...do you?" he said. "Yeah, and if you think you're getting your fangs in Fluttershy again, you've got another thing coming," said the pony. "I don’t need to bite her again. Good grief...don’t they teach anything?" said Vanka, trotting into the room "Aha, so you’re the creep who bit fluttershy.” said Rainbow Dash, accusingly. "Guilty as charged, Madamoselle." said Vanka, giving a sarcastic bow. "You are so gonna get it when Matt shows up," said Rainbow Dash, "You're gonna regret ever coming here." "That idiot? I have killed thousands of his kind. They breed like blak'ni. I have nothing to fear from him just as you're hardly a threat either." said Vanka, a little angrily. "Oh, you bet I'm a treat," said Rainbow Dash, "How's about I buck you into next week?" "Oh, why do you things always try the macho approach. Please...take your best shot." said Vanka, smirking. "With pleasure," said Rainbow Dash as she started winding up for a fierce kick. Vanka didn’t even move until just as Rainbow's kick was about to meet, he seemed to blur, vanish and reappear to the side. "Is that all you have?" he said with a smirk. "Hey!" snapped Rainbow before trying to kick him again. Again, Vanka blurred and reappeared out of range. "Are you even trying?" taunted Vanka. Rainbow growled with frustration before charging at the vampire pony. This time, Vanka responded with a kick of his own, sending Rainbow Dash sprawling into the corner of the room. "Check and mate, madam." said Vanka to the unconscious pegasus before getting an idea. "Well, as long as the cat's coming out of the bag, might as well sever any ties," said Vanka. ... A few minutes later, Fluttershy was up again. She still felt a bit shaken about being told she's becoming a vampire thrall, hoping there may have been some mistake. She opened her eyes properly to see Vanka's face looking at her, a fearful look on his face. "Vanka? What are you doing here?" asked Fluttershy. "Getting you away from your so-called friends." said Vanka, pointing to an unconscious Rainbow dash, a crude wooden spike next to her. "If I hadn’t arrived when I did...Oh, I am sorry this happened to you." "What...what is Rainbow Dash doing with that wooden stake?" asked Fluttershy. "She was about to use it on you, my dear." said Vanka "Use it on me?" asked Fluttershy. "Is that so hard to believe? People always fear what they do not understand." said Vanka, helping his view along with a simple lacing of psychic energy. "But...Rainbow Dash wouldn't want to hurt me," said Fluttershy, "She...would want to help me, right?" "That has plenty of meanings...like ending suffering." said Vanka, a little coldly. Fluttershy gasped and said, "She wouldn't?" "Oh, but she would," said Vanka, "That stake virtually has your name on it." Vanka smirked inwardly as he watched Fluttershy stare in horror at the stake. "You will be safer with me. I have been working on a way to leave." he said. Unfortunately this was a complete lie, Vanka having already come up with a plan that would land him his own personal kingdom...but once this pony tasted a fresh kill, all that troublesome morality would go with it. "Leave? As in, run away and never return?" asked Fluttershy. "Would you prefer to die?" said Vanka. "No.." said Fluttershy, "It's just...I've lived here so long, made so many friends..." "The same ones trying to kill you." said Vanka in a 'matter-of-fact voice. Fluttershy looked hesitant and said, "Maybe I could try to reason with them..." "I have lived a long time...they won’t listen. Come, I have one more thing to gather. Wait for me near the forest. I won’t be long, my dear." said Vanka. "Well...ok, I'll wait, I need to think some things out," said Fluttershy. "Very well. Remember...stay hidden till I find you." said Vanka before spreading his wings and flying out the window. Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash and the stake before flying out too with tear filled eyes. ... Matt and the rest of the ponies were headed towards the second of the two inns in Ponyville, the Green leafed Inn. For some reason, the town seem quieter today. There wasn't anyone in the streets nor at the windows. "Hey...does anyone get the feeling that we're in the right place?" said Matt, looking around. "Odd, we're the only ones who know Vanka's a vampire, right?" asked Twilight. "Yeah...this is not good. Lets get in there, shoot Vanka and celebrate." said Matt, sure that he spotted someone duck out of sight in an alley. "Let's not be too hasty," said Rarity, "I mean, if we have the wrong place, this could be disastrous." "Oh, you're in the right place." said a voice. Matt span and fired at a shape that blurred across the top of the street. "Hold it, partner," said Applejack, "You don't wanna hurt somepony." Matt panned the blaster around. "Hey...pointy. Whats wrong? Afraid of a fair fight?" he yelled out. Vanka's voice replied "Of course not...but I wouldn’t want that nasty little solarite pistol to burn a hole through me." "Well...that's the idea, so come out and take your blasting like a man, or stallion, or whatever," said Matt. "Oh very well." said Vanka, landing behind the group before he said "However...if I was you...I would be wondering why your gunfire hasn;t caused a commotion." gesturing around them. "Let me guess, you mass-hypnotized the town to be your personal 'all-you-can-drain' banquet for you and Fluttershy," said Matt. "Not exactly...but they should be sufficient to trample you into jam." said Vanka. Matt noticed now quite alot of eyes staring from the darkness surrounding the group. "Oh, you gotta be kidding. Zombies now?" said Matt, annoyed before sending a blast at Vanka which surprisingly winged him. "Ha, not as fast as you think, eh?" said Matt confidently. Vanka just smirked before saying "Kill them all please." to the thralls. "Guys, stick close together," said Twilight before concentrating hard. Matt spotted what was about to happen and remembered the last time it had. "Hey...he, wait a minute. Last time you almost cooked-" he began before the group vanished in a flash of purple light. ... The group reappeared outside sweet apple acres, Matt blackened with soot and gently smoking. "durble popcorn." gibbered Matt before spinning and falling down. "Now this is a real pickle," said Applejack, "How're we supposed to stop Vanka if everyone in town's been brain-scrambled?" Matt shook his head "I think Aria said that virus needs concentration. So the 'kill the vamp' plan probably still works. Ow, I hate teleporting." he said, moaning the last part. "Aria...I don’t care if the Icarus might spot us...use the skyraids scanners. I wanna find that Vanka jerk." ... Meanwhile, Vanka was hurrying to the place where he was to meet up with Fluttershy. His side still hurt from where Matt had shot him, but if it worked out as he planned, it'll be worth it. Fluttershy was hiding near the treeline when Vanka landed, purposely messing up the landing for extra theatrics. As he planned, Fluttershy ran out with a shocked look. "Its not as bad as it looks." he said, sounding as pained as possible. "Mr Lynch and your friends took a shot at me the minute I came into their sights." said Vanka, bitterly. "No, they wouldn't have," said Fluttershy, not wanting to believe it. Vanka sighed "They fired at me...with a solarite weapon no less. If they had hit me in the right place, I would be dust. They will do the same to you." he said. "Me? They wouldn't shoot me, would they?" asked Fluttershy. "Well, they were going to give you a stake to the heart, weren't they?" said Vanka. Fluttershys head fell and Vanka spotted a few tears hitting the ground. He sighed inwardly and said "Come, my dear. Let us leave this place." "Where can we go?" asked Fluttershy half-heartedly. "I know a few places...and I even found a ship to take us there..." said Vanka, before his eyes glowed and his voie echoed as he said "Now forget about those others." Now…it was worth noting that while a Revenite's sense of hearing was very refined, there are somethings that could escape its notice, namely things that do not produce a heartbeat. Which is why the spiderdrone was able to observe the two without being detected. ... Matt and the others had been forced to play the waiting game as they waited for a hit. Matt could see the others were all worried...espetally when a bruised Rainbow Dash had limped in a few minutes previously and told of her own encounter. "Like I said, the Revenite is not to be taken lightly," said Aria, "The situation is starting to spiral out of control." "We can NOT call in the Icarus and thats final...I can take a guess at standard procedure for a revenite." said Matt, harshly. Aria paused before saying, "A sanitization strike to eliminate the Revenite and any possible infected. No, I don't think you would prefer that." Matt looked over at the others who were not listening, instead talking to Rainbow. "Ok...tell me you have something." he said quietly. On cue his wrist comp beeped with an incoming video feed. Matt looked down at the info before grinning "Gotcha, creep." he said, looking at the feed showing the retreating backs of Vanka and Fluttershy. "Oh great," muttered Matt, "Girls, we have a problem." ... The group headed through the forest, relying on the signal from the spiderdrone on Vanka;s trail. "He's heading along the trail I;ve been clearing of Echo teams lost gear." said Matt, curious "Where could that be leading them?" asked Rarity. "All I can think is the old basecamp. I never found it...too many hungry nasties." said Matt, shining a light that caught the tail of a basilisk headed away through the undergrowth. "What would he want there?" asked Pinkie. "Well...we only saw one gunship transport when Echo came to town. Standard ops is to have two...one for backup." said Matt, thoughtfully before something occurred. "Oh boy." "You mean they're leaving the planet?" asked Twilight. "No...those ships are short range...but it will have plenty of firepower. I don’t think Vanka wants to leave. I think he wants to set up home...and to do that...he has to evict the current owners." said Matt, his voice getting colder as he realised himself. "But, wouldn't he want someone to feed off of when he's finished?" asked Pinkie. "He'll have an entire planet to pick from." said Matt, checking ahead. "We're almost there...there's the drone." he said, pointing. The spiderdrone was hopping up and down to get the group's attention. Matt and the group ran over, Matt saying "Whats his problem?" he said before a spotlight blinded the group, along with a jet like roaring. A slightly rusted echo gunship transport hovered into view, the cargo bay jammed open. "Uh, I think we found him," said Applejack. The gunship slowly hovered over the group before starting to move in the direction of Canterlots distant lights. Matt looked at his wrist comp before activating an old device from it. "Please still work." he muttered before firing the grapple at the open cargo hatch Fortunately, the grappling hook managed to wrap itself around one of the pistons that opened and closed the door. Matt grinned "Yes." before common sense reappeared, reminding him that he wasn’t even close to heavy enough to slow it down. "Oh smeg it." Matt muttered gloomily as the grapple wire got tighter. "Oh dear, Matt, hold on," cried Rarity before biting his belt as the others ran forward to help. However, even her weight was nowhere near to be enough to keep it down. As the ship lifted off, so did Matt and Rarity, too fast for the others to do anything but watch. So it was that the gunship headed off on its voyage with a dual scream trailing behind it. After a minute Matt managed to trigger the grapples reel to pull them in before he just grabbed the floor inside the ship. “We never ever mention this...again." Matt said distantly "Agreed," said Rarity, "Incidentally, you may want to consider getting a new belt. The one you're wearing has a rather bad stench to it." "It was the only one I had with me when I crashed." said Matt, getting up before looking around and spotting several worrying things. "Plasma warheads. This thing musta been carrying the teams munitions." he said, looking at the blue flame symbol that was the warning for weaponized plasma. "Which I assume would be sufficient to pulverize Canterlot," said Rarity. "No...but it could demolish say...a palace. If this guys continuing the personality he's seen...he'll want plenty of survivors to rule over." said Matt, adding icily "Shock and awe wins lots of battles." before he attached a stick device to one of the warheads. "Shame it'll blow up before we get there." "What are you doing?" asked Rarity. "Setting a few surprises. Don;t worry...we'll be long gone when they explode." said Matt before saying "Now lets go shoot vanka in the face." ... The ship was strangely deserted as they headed through the corridors towards the cockpit. "Strange...you think mr pointy would be all over us." muttered Matt, peering round a corner. "He wouldn't have more servants with him, would he?" asked Rarity. "I doubt it. We'd have met them by now." said Matt, before hitting the control on the door into the control room. The room beyond was deserted apart from a familier yellow pegasus laying in the middle of the floor. "Fluttershy." called Rarity, galloping over to her while Matt ran over to the controls. "Huh, he set the autopilot to do the whole attack," said Matt, "What else could he be doing in here if he's not directing the ship?" Matt looked at the course, a circle around canterlots central area obviously showing the radius of the warheads. Matt looked at the controls before messing with them so that the course altered to go over the river in the nearby ravine instead. "Can’t have him changing back so..." muttered Matt before stepping back and firing into the panel. "Ok, all that's left is blasting that creep's head off and getting Sleeping Beauty there out of here," said Matt. Rarity was trying to wake Fluttershy up as Matt ran up to her. "Anything? I'd like to be gone before Mr pointy finds us." he said. Just then, Fluttershy started to stir. "Ah, Fluttershy," said Rarity, "I'm so relieved to see you're alright. Now, we must hurry and find a way off this-" Suddenly, Fluttershy kicked out and knocked Rarity away. Fluttershy, red eyes almost glowing said nastily "Oh...Rarity, come to end my suffering like rainbow did?" showing off the now obvious fang canines. "What? Fluttershy, I'm here to help you," said Rarity. Fluttershy sneered "Just like how Rainbow tried to help me? With a stake? Vanka told me how you attacked him." Matt yelled "Of course we did...he brainwashed half the town and tried to have them kill us." "And can't you see what he's turning you into?" asked Rarity, "I mean, those fangs and red eyes are completely unflattering." Fluttershy glared "Is that all? You'd kill me because of an accident?" Matt said in an annoyed tone "He did this to you on purpose...how thirsty are you feeling?" "Quite thirsty, actually," said Fluttershy, her tone turning nasty, "I think it's time to quench it." She bared her fangs before lunging at Matt. Matt jumped back at the same time that Rarity Managed to grab Fluttershy;s tail with a telekinesis spell. Matt was already reaching for his blaster. "Fluttershy...get a grip. You aren’t a killer." he said desperately before Vanka's voice said “True...but I am." before a blur shot past Matt, spinning him to the floor with a 'crack' noise. "I'm not surprised that you found your way in here," said Vanka's voice, "You are probably the most persistent being I've ever encountered." Matt got up unsteadily as Fluttershy tried to reach Rarity instead and said cockily "We at CPS deliver quality." Vanka's voice sneered "And you even brought my dear some food. So considerate." "I don't know what kind of rubbish you've been filling her head with," said Matt, "But you're sorely mistaken if you think you can make Fluttershy turn on one of her closest friends." Vanka laughed "Then you really need to use your eyes. She seems to be trying quite hard to snack on her unicorn friend." he said nastily. Matt glared, finally getting an idea of where Vanka was "Oh shut up." he said, shooting one of the light switches and causing the control room to be flooded with light. The light exposed Vanka was hovering near a far corner of the room. He was hissing and covering his eyes from the light. Fluttershy also hissed, but she didn't recoil as much as Vanka. Matt aimed a hail of blasts at Vanka, who was forced to shield himself with his wings before flying out of the control room. "I;m gonna go after Vanka...make fluttershy comfortable." he said before running out in pursuit. Fluttershy shook her head and opened her eyes, which were less red than before. "Oh...I feel strange," she said. Rarity kept her distance, a little frightened after Fluttershy's 'episode'. "Fluttershy, darling? Are you alright?" she said cautiously. "I think so," said Fluttershy, "I just remember Vanka saying you had hurt him, I felt sad about feeling betrayed. After that, just a big red blur of anger." "Fluttershy. He attacked us. He's controlling all our friends in Ponyville." said Rarity, walking a little closer when it was clear Fluttershy wasn’t going to go mad again. "But why would he do that?" asked Fluttershy. "He's the same monster that attacked High Gears son...Aria called him a revenite." said Rarity before the sound of gunfire echoed from the cargo bay. "He did this to me on purpose? He said it was an accident." Said Fluttershy in a saddened voice. Rarity nodded, hoping the gunfire indicated that the beast, Vanka was gone before a device on the wall squealed. ... Matt yelled in shock as Vanka threw him into a pile of equipment. "You fool. You really thought you could beat me by turning the lights on?" roared Vanka, not noticing Matt had hit a device on the wall behind him. "My race has conquered hundreds of worlds far more threatening and hostile than this simple one. You're the only real challenge this place has to offer. Even enthralling that skittish pony was too effortless. And once you're out of the way, this planet will fall to my power and the Revenite Empire shall rise again." Matt groaned "What is it with megalomaniacs and gloating?" he said weakly. Vanka snorted and said evilly "I have a feeling these 'princesses' I;ve heard so much about might be a problem...which is why I snacked on that town. From what I hear, they're too soft to even defend themselves from their subjects. Once they're gone...the rest will be easy." "I don't know," said Matt, "I think these ponies have stronger wills than you think." "Hah...the only person I saw was Fluttershy. Her stares worthy of a revenite. The others wouldn’t have spotted me if I had paraded in front of them in my primary form." laughed Vanka, harshly. "I'm telling you, mate, you're rattling a hornet's nest," said Matt, "And, boy, are you going to get stung." "You mean like this?" said Vanka before suddenly lashing forward. Before Matt could respond, he had landed on the other side of the room, out colder than a frozen flounder. Vanka looked down at him before grabbing his trouser leg and started dragging him easily back towards the control center. 'At least you'll be a good meal for Miss fluttershy.' he thought. ... Vanka tossed Matt into the control center before trotting in. "I brought you a meal, my dear...that is if you are still hungry after that unicorn." he said, pleased with himself. "Actually, she didn't want to spoil her appetite," said Rarity. Vanka turned to glare at Rarity before looking around. "Hmm...where did she go?" he muttered to himself, confident that one unicorn was no problem for him. "Oh, trust me, she won't be long," said Rarity, "I wouldn't miss this for the grandest fashion show in Equestria." "What are you blabbering about?" said Vanka, now more then a little confused. In his mind this situation was a little off script now. The computer chimed at that "Approaching Target zone...stand by." "Ah, the fireworks should be starting any moment now," said Vanka. In a way, he was right, but they weren't exactly the fireworks he had wanted. A yellow blur shot past him, its hooves connecting with the back of his head and knocking him on his front. "Gah...what in the four moons?" he yelled, looking around for his attacker, before a second hit made him spin like a whirlwind. He span to a stop on the far side of the room, his vision filled with stars and sparks. "Ok....ow." he said. Rarity had calmly trotted over to Matt and said to herself, "Let's see, I'm sure there was a simple wake-up spell Twilight showed me. I would hate for Matt to miss out on this. How did it go?" Her horn glowed as she tried out the spell she had in mind and Matt's eyes shot open and he gibbered a bit. The spell itself was made to emulate the effect of coffee, Twilight using it to keep awake on all-nighter studying. The effect on the already highly strung human was for him to shoot upright fast enough that his feet left the ground for a full second. "Nnuuurrgh...what...the...hell?" said Matt, trying to keep his voice slow enough to be understandable. "Oh, Vanka is about to get his comeuppance," said Rarity, "Thought you would like to watch." Matt grinned "Of course, my dear. Its a shame we haven’t got popcorn." he said happily, watching as another blur knocked Vanka on his ass for a third time before slowing to become a red eyed and clearly furious Fluttershy. "You know your motivation." said Matt. Vanka's eyes were finally starting to stop spinning when Fluttershy yelled, "HOW DARE YOU?!" Vanka managed to focus his eyes to meet a full on, revenite augmented stare. He shot back into the wall fast enough to dent it. "Wh-whats the problem, my dear?" he said, nervously. "Everything you told me was a lie!" shouted Fluttershy, "You've tricked me, manipulated me, tried to turn me against my friends, tried to turn me into the same disgusting creature you are, you're no better than a mind leech. No, you're worse than that!" "Whats a mind leech?" said Vanka, a little confused before the stare made him shut up. "You're gonna turn me back and you're going to leave and never come back." said Fluttershy harshly. Matt called out "Hey...I wanna shoot him." "Er, I'm afraid that only my...expiration would undo the changes done to you," said Vanka, the power of the stare forcing the truth out of him. "I can arrange that," said Matt cheerfully. Vanka gulped as Matt got up, readying his blaster. "Stand aside please, fluttershy. I’d like a clear shot." "Really, Matt, this crude execution?" asked Rarity, "This is quite uncouth." "We don't have to be that harsh," said Fluttershy. "He;s a psychotic rabid bloodsucking alien scumbag." said Matt in defence before clicking his blaster. The computer broke up the arguement when it said "Implementing course correction." and the floor tipped to the left by 45 degrees. Vanka leapt forward as soon as Fluttershy's eye contact was lost, straight at Rarity. "At least I get lunch." he snarled before screaming as a crackling blade came through his shoulder from behind. Matt stood behind, his ion blade in hand before using the blade as leverage to send Vanka flying into the wall with a clunk. "Time to go." he said urgently, looking at his watch. "Er, shouldn't we land?" asked Rarity. "No time for that," said Matt, "Definitely no time." Fluttershy was about to ask what was upsetting Matt so much when another lurch threw them all down, coinciding with a deafening explosion. "Danger: Explosion in munitions storage. Engines at 12%. Eject at once." said the computer calmly. Matt was first up, emptying a clip into the exterior door till it opened and looked out to see the ravines river getting closer. "I'd say 'ladies first', but I think in this case it would be redundant," said Matt before picking up Rarity and heaving her out the door before following himself. Fluttershy flew out with a whimper a minute later, the dropship falling away. She flew down to where two sets of ripples were in the river and was in time for Rarity and Matt to surface, "I cannot believe you did that." shrieked Rarity before another explosion made the three look up. ... Vanka got up unsteadily and looked around the damaged bridge. "No...nononono." he said to himself, trying to limp over to the open hatch before looking out to see the wall of the ravine looming large. ... Matt winced as the dropship scraped along the side of the ravine before its fuel tank exploded, blasting the ship to scrap. "Lets go." he said to himself before swimming for the shore. ... When the group got back to Ponyville, everypony were back to normal, although heavily confused and quite dizzy. However, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie were all waiting for them. "You're all ok. Everypony fell over for a second when we heard that ship explode." said Twilight as they ran up. "Vanka's toast...at least everyone back to normal." said Matt, sounding tired "Erm...excuse me." said Fluttershy, quietly. "Yes, what is it, dear?" asked Rarity. "Er, I don't feel quite myself yet," said Fluttershy. It was true that her eyes were still reddish and her fangs were still there. "No, no way..." said Matt in an incredulous tone, "Not even he could survive-" Suddenly, the air was rendered by the most piercing shriek Matt had ever heard...and it was coming from the ravine. "Oh, you've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" yelled Matt at the night sky. "That is IT! I am gonna go get the nastiest, most destructive gun I have and shove it right up his-" said Matt, interrupted when Twilight said urgently "I’m going to go and write to the princess. I think we need her help." "Right, an' I think we need ta get everypony else out of the way," said Applejack. Twilight looked to where Matt was stamping off towards his house, obviously intent on fulfilling his threat. "I think you're right." she said. ... Matt slammed the door open and walked over to the ammo crate he kept his guns in before kicking the lid off. "That little creeps DEAD!" he muttered, tossing a pulse grenade launcher aside. "Sir, might I offer some advice before you inadvertedly demolish the town as you take down this Revenite?" asked Aria. "What would that be, Aria? I literally blew up the ship he was inside and he;s STILL coming." said Matt, hysterically, before pulling out a nasty looking rifle that looked like it had a claw on the end. "That's because it wasn't a solarite explosion," said Aria, "Of course, if it was, you wouldn't be here to talk about it. Anyways, the solarite ammunition is your best chance of taking this thing down." "What am I supposed to do? Shove it down his gob?" said Matt, his eye twitching. Aria was about to reply when all the lights cut off. "Oh, now what?" moaned Matt. Then he heard something hissing in the dark. "Uh oh," said Matt. "Youuu over evolved chimp. How DaRe yOu inTerFEre?" said a distorted voice from the shadows. "Ok, where are my night-vision goggles? Or a flashlight?" asked Matt to himself hastily. “You wON't neeD thEM when I TEAR YOUR EYES OUT!" said the voice before a blur shot out and hit Matt hard enough to send him through the wooden wall into the next room. "Ouch," muttered Matt, "Ok, Matt, just keep your wits about you. You're being stalked by a vampiric alien monster in the dark who means to eviscerate you. This is no time to panic." "I can SmELL yOU." hissed the voice, saying "YoU DARE to think you could STop mE? ME...VANKA NOCTURNIS...MASTER OF 5O WORLDS!” "50 defunct or nonexistent worlds by this point, right?" said Matt, his mounting fear forcing him to use his smart mouth as a defense mechanism. "Such a SMaRT Mouth...lets see how SMaRt YOU are without a VOiCE box." said Vanka before the batlike creature from Aria's file, albeit covered in nasty burns leapt at him and backhanded him across the room. "I can take a hit, or two, or five," said Matt as he got back onto his feet. "Cute...you think you can win." taunted Vanka, having vanished again. Matt pressed a button on his wrist comp at that and the devices flare launcher fired a shot that flooded the room. Matt covered his eyes before uncovering them to see Vanka on the ceiling. "GOTCHA!" he yelled, drawing the solarite blaster he had and firing. However, Vanka wasn't as stunned as Matt had thought and was able to lash out and smack the blaster out of Matt's hands. Matt watched in gloom as the gun smashed from the force, the glowing solarite crystal rolling across the floor. The rest of his thoughts left at high speed as Vanka grabbed him and threw him in the same direction. Matt managed to grab the crystal before what felt like a vice squeezed his windpipe shut and he was lifted into the air. "YOu pAthTIc moRtAl fOOl," hissed Vanka in his distorted voice "YoU maY haVe DEstrOyed mY guNShiP, buT thAT WiLl onLy dELay ThE inEVItaBLe. THIs wORld wIlL fALL tO Me, BuT yoU woN'T liVE tO sEe IT!" Matt made a rasping noise at that. Vanka loosened his grip on Matts neck a little to say "WhAT wAs THat, MoNKey?" before Matt shoved a gem into his mouth that made Vanka drop Matt, trying desperately to pull the now burning solarite gem out. "I said If you're gonna kill me, just do it!" rasped Matt before noticing that Vanka appeared to be smoking. "You know, in retrospect, I should have stabbed it into his heart," said Matt, before deciding he should watch behind something sturdy. He walked towards the sofa a little before noticing that Vanka was glowing "Ok, further away!" he said urgently, limping for the door. He made it halfway down the path before a whomph lifted him off his feet and sent him a extra 10 feet to land with a crack on his arm. Matt lifted his head to see that the front of the barn was now missing. "Ok.....so instead of turning to dust they EXPLODE?" moaned Matt. "Congratulations, sir, you've managed to kill a Revenite single-handedly," said Aria. Matt looked down to see a drone staring at him. "You arrive...now? I hate you." he moaned before adding "Do we have any medical nanites left?" Just then, the six ponies who Matt has gotten to know so well ran up to Matt. "Matt, we heard the explosion," said Twilight, "What happened?" "He defeated Vanka," said Fluttershy, "Look, I'm back to normal." The others saw that Fluttershy had indeed gotten her own eye color back and was fangless. Matt said from ground level "Thats nice. Turns out vampires explode." he said before adding "You think they'd mention that." before passing out. ... Matt picked up a piece of singed wood and tossed it aside to reveal the stairs down to the basement where the jumpgate was still stabilizing after Pinkamena's hijacking of it the week before. "So...at least thats still intact." he muttered gloomily. The pegasi had been fast enough to put the fire out but not before the barn had been gutted. He himself had come out of his final fight with Vanka with more withstandable injuries. Ok, so he had a couple of bruises and his arm was in a sling, but he's had much worse. "Oh well...at least the ships livable now...or I can sleep in the combat SUV." said Matt to himself gloomily before hearing several dozen hoofsteps. He ran back out to see several dozen equestrians, wearing builders gear heading towards the ruin. "Oi...what the hell?" Matt began as they started moving some of the wreckage before he spotted the brown pegasus from the night Vanka had turned up. "Hey, aren't you...that one colt's dad?" asked Matt. "High Gear the fourth. I don't think we properly met that night. I run Mequestria Industries over in Fillydelphia." said the pegasi with a warm smile. “I owe you one for saving my kids life and last night I hear from a Miss Sparkle how your home had a little..." he stopped to look at the barn "...lets just call it an accident and I saw a chance to repay the debt." Matt glanced at the construction ponies working on the barn and said, "Well...while rebuilding's on the subject, think we can go over a bit of remodeling?" High Gear smirked "Let me guess...bigger rooms?" he said amused. "For a start," said Matt, "And also, there's the issue about proper furniture..." ... <Log active> Ok...this was an interesting couple of weeks. First I meet Pinkies darker side and she locks the jumpgate online and then smegging vampires? At least its deep fried now. It also looks like the towns starting to warm a little to me. Not to mention I have cosier accommodations. Aria says I shouldn't get too comfortable since I am planning on leaving. But given the probable weeks it'll take to get off this world, I see no problem in padding my pad a bit. Shame that we're outta medical nanites till Aria can cook up a new batch however a badly sprained arm is a nice excuse to do what I’ve always wanted to do till I started as a merc...absolutely nothing... <Log ends>
Largefish8	784	8	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2012-03-28T18:51:35+00:00	2020-02-25T11:51:56+00:00	723	MLP Fic pt 8 You would think that getting a new house...one that now had doors that you could fit through would be a bonus. Sadly for Matt, he was now learning that maybe he should have checked the defence systems wiring before he'd plugged it back on...given that the security turret in the kitchen now kept firing at him whenever he went in. ... "Dang it, I just wanted some toast, not be toasted." said Matt, gloomily. "Thats terrible. Isn't there anything you've been able to do?" said Rarity, concern in her voice. Matt had given up for the time being and decided to leave Aria running a debug on the turrets...for the third time. "Its not that bad...I got some food." said Matt, sipping some water. It had been a week since the Revenite had been dealt with and so far his security system had tried to kill him three times...the worst being when the guns in the hallway leading to the toilet had declared him hostile. "Still, one should be able to feel secure in the comfort of one's home," said Rarity. "The only place I can get to is the basement. Lucky, really. I wouldn't want the turrets thinking the jumpgate was hostile." said Matt. "That thing is still working?"said Rarity, surprised. Matt nodded "I can’t turn it off till it finishes whatever portal Pinkamena was making." "How long will that take?" Rarity asked. "Should be finished tomorrow. To be honest, I might be willing to risk using it. Paradiso V's pretty far away from Exo Gene stations that I could get some supplies that I need." said Matt. "Do you know what that world's like?" asked Rarity. "They're testing some kinda beacon there to draw in people who fall through natural null rifts...but apart from that, I hear its one of the few resort colonies near this sector." said Matt, conversationally. "A resort, ooh, that sounds fabulous," said Rarity. Matts mind realised that he might have mis-stepped. "Erm...you wanna come? I don’t think that'll be a good idea..." he began. "But it would be such a fun vacation. Of course, I'll have to pack what to wear at the beach. You think opals go well with water?" said Rarity, happily. Matt said desperately "But...but..." before he reminded himself that Paradiso had improved alot in the recent years before saying "Fine...I'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning. Meet me at my place...ask the others if they wanna come too." he said, cheerfully. "Oh, delightful," said Rarity, "Oh, I better make sure Opalessence is taken care of while I'm gone. Opalessence?" Matt was about to reply before there was a 'shing' noise and his eyes went wide. "He's...on my.....leg...." he rasped. ... Matt, wearing his NSC gear was looking at the now stable portal, the view through it showing what was clearly an alley of some sort. "Oh...where are they?" he muttered, looking at his wrist comps time." Just then, he heard the doorbell ring. He walked back to the cellar door and opening it. "It's about time," he said, "What did you pack? Everything but the kitchen-" All six ponies were present, plus one baby dragon by the name of 'Spike'. "...sink?" finished Matt before rubbing his eyes. "Erm...Ok." he managed. "So sorry, but I had such trouble deciding what to take," said Rarity before levitating three large suitcases forward. Matt just stared before turning to the others and saying "Ok...Rarity I can understand coming...may I hear why you guys wanna tag along?" he asked as politely as someone who had been up since dawn could be. "Well, I would like to be able to study this new culture," said Twilight, "There could be much to learn from a society of non-Equestrians." Matt nodded "Fair enough. Next." he said. Fluttershy said quietly "I'd rather like to see what kind of animals your world has." Matt was about to point out that as a class C and an avianos world, Paradiso V was unlikely to have accessible animals before his mental voice said 'She's a Pegasus...your arguement is invalid.' "Ah've been hoping on seein' greener pastures," said Applejack, "Maybe find new apples I can bring back to the farm. Course, don't think anything can top Zap Apples." "Zap appl...you know...I don’t think I wanna know." said Matt, tired, turning to Pinkie who said happily "I wanna be the first pony to throw a party on another planet...that'd be so much fun." bouncing in place. Matt just rolled his eyes before turning to spike. "You?" he asked. "Well, Twilight will probably need me and maybe there's...jewels..." said Spike before starting to drool. Matt looked puzzled "Oooook." he said before turning to Rainbow Dash. "Your virtual car thingies were ok, but I wanna see how much faster I am than them in real life," said Rainbow Dash. Matt shrugged "Ok...but...well, ok then." he said, before grabbing a duffel bag, something in it glinting. "Ok...one ground rule. Paradiso V may be a resort...but its in Consortium territory. Don’t go off alone." he said before adding more reassured "But I wouldn’t worry...the colonial securitys pretty efficient at its job plus...also...don’t worry too much about looks. If they're walking around...they aren’t gonna eat you." he said, tossing the duffel bag through the gate, the air in it rippling for a second before the bag was seen hitting the far wall. "So, we can get back through here, right?" asked Twilight. Matt nodded "Safe as crossing a bridge. Aria says it'll stay open for about a week so think of this as an extended weekend." he said before climbing through the portal. His voice from the other end sounded like it was coming through glass. "Come on." he said grinning. "CANNONBALL!" shouted Pinkie before jumping through the portal. The others all winced as Matt failed to get out the way in time and vanished from view when Pinkie collided with him. "Uh, I don't think ya need to put that much force into it," said Applejack before yelling, "Geronimo!" and jumping through. Matt, whose head was appearing over the bottom of the portal went wide-eyed before being knocked out of view again. There was a moment of silence before Matt's voice said weakly, "No...more...jumping...just...walk..." Matt, happily for his ribs managed to avoid being used as a landing pad by the others and after some time for him to get his breath back, the group walked out into the street the alley was attached too, after Matt had pushed a few crates in front of the portal. "We wouldn't want too many things crossing back there," he said. "Like what?" asked Fluttershy. "Uh...vermin, the really bad crop-spoiling kind," said Matt. The street beyond opened out onto a seaview area, a beach stretching out. The group, minus Matt who had seen it before were amazed to see the dozens of different species walking around, chatting amiably, though Fluttershy shrunk back when a young pair of the dragonic splitter species walked by. "Relax, most of these people are on vacation," said Matt. Rarity nodded "Its ok, fluttershy dear. Its like Matt said. These people are not going to eat you no matter what they look like." she said assuredly. "Uh...ok," said Fluttershy timidly. "So, where's the best place to party around here?" asked Pinkie. "Not really that kinda district...and you definitely won’t like the others..." said Matt before what sounded like a thunderclap was heard in the distance. Everyone jumped before turning to see a tower in the distance, the tip glowing from the energy discharge. "Space elevator...don't worry about it." said Matt after a minute before leading the way up the street. "If I remember right...there should be a CPS safehouse around here..." he began. "A safehouse? What for?" asked Twilight. "We're not gonna sleep on the streets. Don't worry...its not far. One of the bonuses of being part of one of the top merc groups." said Matt, turning a corner to a fenced area containing resort buildings. "Isn't there a hotel we can check into?" asked Rarity, "I mean, this safehouse seems like awfully low class." "Huh? CPS has the security contract on the resorts here. Bonus being: The safehouse is one of the buildings." said Matt, nodding to a human and a splitter in armor like his that were leaning on either side of a gate. "Lynch...we heard you were dead. Running bodyguard?" called out the human cheerfully, looking briefly at the group as if talking ponies were perfectly normal. "Uh, sorta, it's complicated," said Matt before glancing back at the girls and said, "Uh, not to be one to point out the painfully obvious, but you don't seem that surprised about a small herd of small magical horses." "Nah. Not that unusual. We've been stationed here a year." said the splitter in a rasping voice. "Just be careful, man. Romanov's still fuming over that contract you and your sis ran on him." "What? Romanov's here?" asked Matt. "Yeah...Colonial securities planning something big. He came in here 4 months ago...took out the local gangs and made camp." said the human, before saying "Don't worry...he's not gonna know you're here. Safehouse is in shack 3." ... Matt had never volunteered for the resort or corporation contracts before and wondered, looking at the luxury holdings of the paradiso safehouse why he hadn’t before now, given the quality of the inside. For one thing, there were several chairs and couches that looked plush and comfortable to several races. Then there was the humongous TV screen that took up half a wall as well as the game consoles attached to it. And that was only the living room. Matt opened a door that had a access lock on it to reveal a small security station. Matt noted it for future reference and closed it again before seeing that Pinkie had already gone up the stairs. "Bed bouncing." he muttered to himself. Applejack had looked out a window and said, "Alright, they got a swimmin' pool here." She paused at the door and said, "Now how's a pony supposed to open one of these confounded things?" Matt walked over to the touch pad next to the door and pressed it, the door sliding open. "Me and my sisters first experience was a splitter manned search and rescue ship...you needed a ladder to get into bed." he said cheerfully. "Uh-huh, that's nice, hold onta this fer me," said Applejack before handing Matt her hat. Matt took the hat, a little puzzled before seeing Applejack backing up for a run up. "You wouldn't." he muttered before as Applejack jumped into the air over the pool with a 'GERONIMO!' he muttered "She would..." shortly before the splashes collateral drenched him. Matt spat the chlorinated water out of his mouth and said, "Well, I suppose now would be a good time to check out the bathrooms." Matt walked back into the main room to see that Dash had already found the game console but had discovered one flaw...hooves had never been taken into account when the controllers had been designed. "C'mon, you stupid things," muttered Rainbow Dash as she fruitlessly tried to work the controllers. Matt grinned a bit at that. "Yeah...not much call for hoof-customized controllers." He teased. Rainbow Dash gave a growl of frustration before throwing the controller. "Then how am I supposed to play those games?" she snapped. "With great difficulty?" said Matt before he could stop himself before saying "Ok...sorry. There's plenty of other things to do. The aquillans can fly and they 'officially' run the colony. They probably have some races set up around town." "Cool," said Rainbow Dash before pausing and asking, "What's an aquillian?" Matt said simply "Bird people and very competitive. I met one of them a couple of years ago." "Bird people, got it," said Rainbow Dash before heading towards the door. Matt called out "Wait...they're also a warrior...race." he finished, the last word a little quietly. Of course, Rainbow was already out the door by then. "Oh great, now I'm gonna have to catch up with her to explain their customs," muttered Matt. Matt walked up to the bathroom to get a towel only to find rarity there, presuming that Rainbow Dash would be safe for a little while. The unicorn was apparently trying out the showers and judging from her singing, she was obviously enjoying them. Matt cleared his throat and said, "Uh, excuse me..." Rarity gave a yelp of fright before yelling, "How dare you? Walking into a bathroom while a lady is bathing? Get out, get out right now!" Matt winced before closing the door again uttering an apology before a fact occurred to him. "Wait a second...you don’t wear clothing anyway." he said, annoyed. "Well...still, I'm not presentable right now," said Rarity. Matt glared at the closed door before rolling his eyes and walking back down. "I'll go catch up with rainbow dash before..." he said before pausing, seeing Pinkie playing one of the game consoles with no difficulty. "...erm...yeah...I'll just go get dash." he said a little confused. "Hey Matt, there's this really neat thing I've found, wanna see it?" asked Pinkie. Matt said "Found what?" his brain still a little knocked off kilter by Pinkies usual display of logic defiance. "This really cool chair," said Pinkie before pushing Matt into one of the armchairs, "Isn't that the comfiest chair you've ever sat it?" Matt said dully "Yes...its a chair...I have them on the skyraid." "But wait, there's more," said Pinkie, "It also jiggles and buzzes in a funny fun way." She then pressed one of the previously unnoticed buttons on the side of the chair. Matt went cross-eyed as the chair started to vibrate. "Mmmm....relaxing." he said before his brain reminded him of the original objective: Find Dash before she ended up pissing off a wing of aquillans. But another voice in his head told him there was no need to rush. How much trouble could she get into in five minutes? On cue the TV's system linked to a resort announcement. "Please be advised: Aquillan race gangs are operating in sectors 2 to 5. Please avoid travel through or to these areas as aquillans are easily offended." it said pleasantly, causing Matt to shoot upright. "Right, no time for vibrating massages, gotta help Rainbow Dash," said Matt, getting out of the chair. ... Rainbow Dash flew over the resort, looking for these 'aquillans' that Matt had mentioned. Surely talking birds would stand out. Just then, she heard something faint, but it sounded to her like a call for help. Rainbow Dash looked around before she heard the call again coming from behind a large barn-like building. She flew down low to see what looked like humanoid versions of falcons around something. "You thought you could screw up and then hide from us, Jump Star?" said one of them in a strangely accented voice. "It was an honest mistake," said someone who Rainbow couldn't see behind the falcons, "Anyone could have mixed it up." "You were supposed to bring me a VS-12 grav booster for my ride...not a damn regulator." said the aquillan, stepping side briefly to reveal a grey coloured pegasus cowering in the center, a cutie mark of the jumpgate device Matt had used to bring them to Paradiso visible. "The packages all look alike," said the pegasus, terrified "How was I supposed to know it had the wrong part in it?" One of the other aquillans said with nasty amusement "Maybe a few days with a wing cast on'll make you think straight?" Rainbow gulped a little at that. It was every pegasus's worst nightmare to lose their wings, even for a little while and while she was surprised to see a equestrian living here, she sure as hell wasn’t gonna leave him to these bullies tender mercies. She flew back a bit before flying in a circle to build a bit of speed, then she flew straight towards the group, yelling to add a little shock and awe. The aquillans jumped back a bit at that, avoiding being knocked down. "What the hell?" said their leader, looking up before Rainbow Landed in front of Jump Star. "Who the hell are you?" said another accusingly. "The fastest flier in Equestria," said Rainbow Dash, "And if you don't want a hoof going into your face at Mach 2, I'd leave this guy alone." "Equestria? Never heard of it...now move it before we ground you permanently." said the gangs leader coldly. "Ok, you asked for it," said Rainbow Dash before charging the leader. The aquillan was set flying back into a dumpster with a clang. The rest of the gang however just stared as Rainbow smirked "Anyone else?" she said cockily...a feeling that drained as the three remaining gang members drew blasters. The aquillians aimed their blasters at the pegasi when suddenly, a blast of lightning hit them in the back, causing them to spasm before falling over. As they fell to the ground, they revealed Matt standing behind them, a tesla rifle in his hands. "There you are, Dash." said Matt, cheerfully, stopping briefly to clock the recovering leader on the beak. "Are you sure you're not a reincarnated merc?" he said cheerfully. "How'd you do that?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Riot rifle...perfect for sending idiots to sleepyland." said Matt, cheerfully. "I'll put a police beacon on them and colonial security'll pick them up...who’s your friend?" noticing Jump Star before double taking. "Oh...I knew I shoulda locked the basement before we left." "I don't think this guy's from Ponyville," said Rainbow Dash, "And I'm pretty sure I haven't seen him in Cloudsdayle before." Jump Star looked confused "Cloudsdayle? Grandma used to talk about that place. I always thought it was a story." he said. "Uh, let's try it again at the start, who are you?" asked Matt. "I'm Jump Star. I work for the spaceport post office as a high speed courier." said Jump Star proudly. Matt nodded "Your family are rifters." he said knowingly. "Rifters?" asked Rainbow Dash. "People who ended up in Nullspace by falling through a rift...like me." said Matt. Jump Star nodded "Yeah...some people call me that. Granddad used to say he worked researching teleporter spells." "Let me guess, one of those spells went horribly wrong and warped him and your grandma to this place," said Matt. Jump Star nodded "Thats what he said." he said. "So there are ponies here?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Apart from my family, you're the only other pegasus I've met, miss Dash." said Jump Star. "Well, are there unicorns or earth ponies here too?" asked Rainbow Dash. "The only unicorns I know are my mom and her dad. My dad, other granddad, and both my grandmas are pegasi," said Jump Star before Matt pulled Rainbow Dash aside "Hey...I think his families the only equestrian one around...I mean...you woulda heard if people vanished." he muttered to her. Rainbow Dash looked over at Jump Star. "His entire families here?" she said. Matt shrugged "His granddad must tried home research. Wierder things have appeared." "So...why exactly were those guys ganging up on you?" asked Rainbow Dash to Jump Gate. "Jetser there's a racer up at the grav circuit on the other side of the resort. He's gone and got some mean sponsors and I was supposed to pick up a new part for his racer. I was late and I grabbed the wrong one by mistake." said Jump Star. "And they were gonna break your wing over that?" asked Rainbow. "He's a real jerk but his sponsors been the only one giving out jobs recently." said Jump Star before sighing "I'm gonna get grief for this." Matt, who was looking at Jetser and also at him computer grinned "I don’t think so...Jetser here's got an outstanding warrant on his homeworld. Its my job to collect...and if that means he can’t come after you, thats a happy bonus." he said with glee. "But what about his sponsors?" asked Jump Star. "Eh, what's the worse they could do?" said Matt, "Sue me?" ... One of the perks of being in the top tier of the Splitter consortium was that the local security forces rarely bothered you or made trouble. Auric Romanov was one such high tier and so was annoyed to find his top racer, Jetser was communicating with him from the local security station, apparently waiting for a transport back to his homeworld where he had a few outstanding assault charges awaiting him. "You know, I invested plenty of creds in you," said Auric, clearly irked. "Yeah? Tell that to the damn merc who tazered me and my buds and tossed a bounty beacon on me." said Jetser, angrily before he realised who he’d just yelled at and looked sheepish. "And who was this merc?" asked Auric, letting the outburst slip...for now. "I dunno...some human or other. They all look alike." said Jetser dismissively. "Perhaps a picture might narrow it down," said Auric as he pulled out files on several human mercenaries who have been causing problems with the Romanov clan. Jetser peered at the pictures before saying "The third one." Auric frowned as he looked at the file. "Lynch, yes, he has been quite a troublemaker," he said. "What about me?" said Jetser desperately. Romanov waved a hand dismissively “Plenty more when you came from...Mr Lynch is one merc...and the CPS is very protective of its employees and very vengeful. I can make up what you brought in easily...good day." he said before cutting it off. Aquillians don't have sweat glands, but if they did, Jester would have broken out in a cold sweat. He doubted the justice he'll get back home would be as merciful as the security here. ... Meanwhile, Jump Star was meeting the rest of the gang. "Y'all lived here all your life?" asked Applejack, trying to understand why a pony would live in such a built up place like Paradiso. "Born and raised," said Jump Star. Jump Star noticed the looks before saying quickly "Its not that bad. I got a good job and the security force has been doing well in cleaning up the gangs." "But everything's so...hoof-inaccessible," said Rarity. "Yeah, and the languages are really complex," said Twilight. Matt shrugged "Its not that bad." before he said "Oh...no translator." "Translator?" asked Twilight. "What? You think everyone here had to take language classes?" asked Matt, "Hang on, I'm sure they've got a spare one here somewhere." "You sure they will fit?" asked Twilight. "Don't worry, they're universally adjustable," said Matt, checking a box on the wall and pulling out a box containing several pea-sized metallic earpieces, adding "So long as you have actual ears." Jump Star nodded "Its ok...I got one too." He said, showing one of the earpieces in his ear. The ponies looked a little sceptical before putting the earpieces in...except for Pinkie who had grabbed one already. "There, that should clear up any language barriers," said Matt, "Unless someone's speaking in gibberish." Rarity tapped the earpiece carefully "Are you sure that its working?" she asked. Matt grinned "Well, given I said the last two sentences in splitter, I'd say yes." "Well, now we know what we're hearin' and readin', let's go see the town," said Applejack. Jump Star looked at Rainbow Dash and said in a voice almost reminiscent of Fluttershy "Erm...maybe I could show Dash around?" Matt may normally be oblivious to more tender feelings, but his more recent experiences had made him a little keener on this sort of thing, but not by much. He wandered over to Rainbow Dash who was just getting her translator comfortable "Don’t look now but I think you have a fan." he muttered. "Well, I am pretty awesome," said Rainbow Dash, "I'm not surprised if I get some new fans here." Matt simply said "Wrong type of fan...let him take you out. If anyone knows how to get the best view of this place...its probably him." "Ok, hope he can keep up with me," said Rainbow Dash. With that Rainbow waved to Jump Star "Come on...see if you can keep up." before she shot out the open door in a rainbow blur. A second later, Jump star shot out after her. "I hope Jump Star knows what he's getting into." said Matt. "Um, can we go meet some of the animals here now?" asked Fluttershy. Matt nodded "Sure...transport rail goes to the reserve." he said. "Yay, alien safari!" cheered Pinkie Pie, suddenly in a safari hat. ... 'The reserve guide had probably never had a day like this.' mused Matt as he watched Fluttershy practically go pinkie pie with excitement as the group was led around the paradiso reserve. He was just watching the group being shown an alaxian skeeter, type of dog/reptile cross creature from a backwater dimension, when his wristcomp beeped. "General announcement to all mercenary personnel. You are ordered to report for colonial security duty under black knight protocol. Failure to respond is punishable by suspension of licence." it chimed. "You think that means me?" asked Matt. His wristcomp beeped again, "Yes, it does mean you, smart guy." "Dammit...I hope this isn’t like last time." muttered Matt before confirming his licence. "Hey...girls? Job came up that I can’t avoid. I might be a few hours...hey, mate...make sure they get back safe." he called, first to the girls then to the warden leading them around. "Sure thing, mate," said the warden, cheerfully. "Have fun," said Pinkie. "We'll see you back at the safehouse," said Twilight. Matt nodded and waved "I'll see you later. Don’t wait up for me." he said, fake cheerfully before walking off. ... Meanwhile, Jump Star and Rainbow Dash were both sitting on a cloud high above Paradiso. Fortunately, Jump Star's family hadn't lost their ability to cloudwalk after being here for so many years. "Impressive sight....eh?" said Jump Star, happily, looking out at the city below, lit up like a constellation. "I come up here when I want some peace and quiet." "Yeah, all that hussle and bussle can get to be too much," said Dash. Jump Star looked out for a second before asking "Whats your home like? Is it as busy as here?" "Well, I don't live in Ponyville proper," said Rainbow Dash, "I mean, I'm still a resident, but my house isn't like the others. It's a cloud house. Ponyville can be busy at times, mostly during the festivals, but it's pretty quiet." Dash looked over at Jump Star "What about you...where do you live?" Jump Star pointed to a much less lit area. "Down there." he said. Rainbow looked down and said, "It's pretty dark down there." "Yeah...Most rifters find it hard to get high paying jobs." said Jump Star, a little gloomily. "But you guys have been here for years," said Rainbow Dash, sounding horrified. "Its not that bad." said Jump Star a little too quickly. "Not bad?" asked Rainbow Dash suspiciously, "Then how bad is it?" Jump Star looked worried before sighing "Mostly splitter gangs...but they're usually not too much trouble...you saved me from the main problem." he said in a defeated tone. "But you're still being bullied, aren't you?" demanded Dash. "Well, Jetser's gone, it'll get better now," said Jump Star in an unconvincing voice. Dash glared before saying harshly "You can't keep letting people push you around. You gotta be more assertive." Jump Star said a little more confidently "I wouldn’t worry too much. I heard the colonial security were planning a big raid on the guy who's running all the gangs here. They're even calling in mercenary support for it." "Wait, wait, mercenary?" asked Rainbow Dash, "Did you say mercenary?" "Yeah...they're calling in tons of them." said Jump Star, cheerfully. "From everywhere?" asked Rainbow Dash, starting to sound worried, "Even ones that just got here?" "Whats wrong?" said Jump Star, confused. "Matt's a mercenary," said Rainbow Dash, "If they're calling him in, this could be a lot of trouble." "Why? Its not like he’s upset one of the corporations...and even if he had...Paradiso's days away from any of their ships. They're too busy looking for one of their missing cruisers in the uncharted sectors." said Jump Star, trying to be reassuring. "Well, I suppose Matt could be just one mercenary among dozens," said Dash, sounding less worried now "He couldn't be in that much trouble." Jump Star nodded "Yeah...its not like he’s; gonna rob the crime boss...right?" he joked. ... Matt and several other troopers were crouched at a back door. Unlike the other mercs though, he was sweating in his armor. Of all the jobs...it had to be the sort that'll be plastered all over the infonet. And if that weren't bad enough, the leader of their 'squad' was a face that Matt had met before...and didn't like. Dante, the squad leader had plenty of reasons to hate his CPS rival and was enjoying the fact that for once, Matt had to take orders from him. "Lynch...wake up. I think they're giving the go order...you get to go first...in case of booby traps." he said without even bothering to conceal the glee in his voice. "Of course..." muttered Matt, "When expecting booby traps, send the boob in first." Matt stopped muttering darkly when he realised that the rest of the team were sniggering and he forgot his helmet mic was voice sensitive. "Exactly...Now go." said Dante, annoyed. Matt growled and stopped forward towards the door. Almost immediately a teammate pulled him back as several lightning bolts blasted through the door. At the same time gunfire was heard as the security teams burst in at the front. Matt blinked and said, "Ok, why are we needed here? They seem to be able to take care of it." "All auxiliary units...Romanov may be trying to get out a side entrance...stop him." said the security chief over the comm. "Thats why." said a disperse inc merc cockily. "Auxiliary? I get dragged over here in case of a 'might be'?" asked Matt, clearly very annoyed. However, he put his growing irritation aside when he noticed movement at the side of the building. The group all ducked back down as a splitter, with some clear difficulty squeezed out a window and started to make for where a grav car was parked. "No way are we this lucky." said the disperse merc in shock. "First merc to grab him gets the big bonus!" said Matt before running towards the grav car. The splitter turned in shock at those words and managed three desperate steps before the promise of credits got to all of the team and he vanished under a dog pile with a surprisingly girly scream. There was a bit of tussle to get a pair of handcuffs on the splitter, and more than a few mercs end up handcuffing someone else. Matt finally held up the cuffed wrists of the splitter "MINE!" he yelled out before failing to notice that in his enthusiasm, he’d forgotten to engage the grounding field, meaning the splitter got a petty final shot in. Matt twitched from the electrical shock before saying, "I still got 'im. I'll take my bonus and a first aid kit." One of the mercs said in a worried tone "Does anyone smell baco...oh, hell...really...get that medkit." ... Despite Matt telling them not to wait up, the gang had stayed up, at first waiting for Dash to get back then, when they found out what they thought Matts 'job' had been, waiting for him too. "I hope he's ok," said Fluttershy, sounding worried. "Aw, ain't nothin' to worry about," said Applejack, "Good ol' Matt's as tough as nails." The TV had been left on as Spike channel hopped out of curiosity before he came across something. "...and repeating our breaking story: N.S.C Colonial security raided the home of consortium member and suspected arms smugger, Auric Romanov earlier tonight. Combined with Mercenary forces, Security teams stormed the mansion and despite heavy resistance, arrested the splitter without losses. Captain McNeil, acting on a tip from a courier, ordered, planned and conduced the raid earlier, quoting the operation as a complete success." said a news reader, showing an image of a large mansion surrounded by a high tech fence...its gate hanging on one hinge and several police hover cruisers parked in front of it. "See, nothin' to worry about," said Applejack. Suddenly, the reporter said, "This just in, we have just received a message from Auric Romanov. And it would seem to be directed towards the mercenary who had captured him, Matthew Lynch." The seven ponies looked at each other before Jump Star said "At least he's gonna be locked up...right?" in a small voice. "Yeah, and Matt should be home any minute now," said Twilight. "Talking of home...I should fly back too." said Jump Star with a yawn. "I'll pop in tomorrow...if thats ok, Dash. Maybe race you again." "Sure, I'll meet ya at the race track," said Rainbow Dash. Jump Star smiled and flew out the door. "He's cute," said Fluttershy. "Yeah, have you been doing anything nice together?" asked Pinkie. Dash blushed before saying "No...he just showed me the view from the clouds." "Oh, I'm sure he was a gentleman," said Rarity, "It was only your first date, he shouldn't have done more than that." "No, tomorrow will be their first date," said Twilight. "Come on...cut it out." said Dash, trying to hide her head under her wings from sheer embarrassment. "Ah, our little Rainbow Dash is finally gettin' ready to leave the nest," said Applejack. "Gaaah." yelled Rainbow in an exasperated voice before heading for the bedroom she had claimed. Just the front door opened and Matt stumbled in. He didn't look quite right. He seemed dizzy, but not in the normal way. "Oh, hey girls," he said in a slurred voice, "Fun town, ain't it?" He gave a loud hiccup and said, "'Scuse me." Twilight was the first to speak "Erm...Matt...are you alright?" she asked, concerned as Matt tried to sit down and missed the seat, apparently not bothered as he giggled away. "Oh, I'm fine," said Matt, "Just been partying with the guys." The group just stared as Matt tried to get back into the seat with little success. "I thought I'd celebrate hitting the paydirt...which is weird cause creds are made of gold...not dirt..." he said in a distant voice before hiccuping again. "Wait a minute," said Applejack, "I think I know what's wrong with him." She bent forward to sniff Matt's breath. Matt grinned aimlessly before going cross-eyed and burping. Applejack coughed at the cloud of alcohol (kr'ta in this case) as it left. "Yep, he's drunk," gagged Applejack. "Drunk?" asked Rarity. "Yeah, we brew some hard cider back on the farm that'll knock your wits out if y’all drink enough. Guess he's had something like that, but stronger." "Kr'Ta...good for the soul...as long as you don’t serve it in metal." said Matt in a happily slurred voice. "Yeah, I think he's just about had it for the night," said Applejack, "Let's get him to bed." "But I’m not tired yet, mummy.” said Matt slurred managing to get onto the seat for a second before slipping sideways onto the floor and snoring loudly. "He'll be more sensible in the morning," said Applejack, "If a might bit grouchy." "Why will he be grouchy?" asked Pinkie. "Thing about gettin' drunk, the more buzzy you get, the worse you'll feel when it wears off," said Applejack. ... Lockjaw however was not having a good day. He was a cyborg and also Romanovs top freelancer mercenary...he was also a bit stupid. "Lockjaw not know how policy people get tip off that you were on colony.” he said to the face of his furious employer who was in the orange jumpsuit of a kryos prisoner. "You probably let it slip to the wrong person, you tin-plated idiot!" snapped Romanov. "No...Lockjaw never do that..." said the cyborg desperately. Romanov sighed before remembering that Lockjaw was probably too stupid to be disloyal. "Fine...who was a recent hire to our Paradiso operations?" he said with an annoyed sigh. Lockjaw actually nodded at that "Ooooh...dat easy...birdy pony." Romanov just deadpanned "I beg your pardon?" he said. "Little pony with birdy wings," said Lockjaw, "Came for box." "Lockjaw? When was the last time you changed your oil?" said Romanov in a tired tone of voice. "Uh..." started the cyborg before slowing counting on his fingers, "One...two...three...four days." Romanov just face planted and not bothering to lift his face again muttered "I could have hired a professional but nooooo...lockjaws family." he said to himself before he remembered something "Wait...wait..." he said remembering Jetsers complaint. "This...birdy pony, did it have a mark on his flank?" asked Romanov. "Yaaa...little portal...vas so cute." said Lockjaw happily, causing Romanov to facepalm again. "Lockjaw...please try to concentrate...that...little pain is the only person who could have ratted us out...I want you to find him. My lawyer says I will be out within the hour. I want you to bring me any winged pony you can find...alive. Think you can do that?" he said darkly. "Find a winged pony, ok," said Lockjaw before asking, "Which winged pony?" Romanovs eyes actually blazed at that "I DON;T CARE...ALL OF THEM...DO YOU HEAR ME?" he roared before vanishing under a pile of security guards, the comm thankfully going dead at that point. "Ok, Lockjaw get all the ponies," said the cyborg as happily as if Romanov had given him a cake. ... Meanwhile, some of the ponies were talking among themselves or in the case of Pinkie and Spike, playing on a game. "Ah can see why Matt's so highly strung. This here place is nonstop." said Applejack, looking over at where Matt had been slumped in the vibrator chair to sleep off whatever he'd drunk. "Well, they got good ways to relieve stress," said Pinkie, "Ha, got you now, Spike." Spike yelped as his onscreen character flopped down to Pinkies worryingly good shooting skills before the entire screen suddenly blacked out. "Hey, I didn't get to set my high score yet," said Pinkie, in an annoyed tone. "Alert...power failure...switching to backup systems." chimed a voice from the TV before a knock was heard at the door followed by frantic whispering that sounded like "Why the hell are you knocking?" "Who can that be?" asked Spike before walking towards the door. The TV flickered back into life but instead of showing the game, it showed lots of smaller screens including a view of the living room. "Is this a new game?" asked Pinkie, immediately amusing herself by making her doppelganger on one of the screens copy her before another screen enlargened to full, showing the outside of the front door...and the guys with guns. "Uh, Pinkie Pie, I don't think this is a game," said Applejack. "Alert: Illegal weapons detected. Please alert your nearest CPS employee and evacuate." said the TV voice calmly before the guys on the outside screen aimed at the door. "Uh, I think it's time we mosey on to the back," said Applejack. Spike was about to open the door, saying "I’m coming...hold on." before the thugs outside fired at where they thought his head would be...presuming it was a human coming to the door. As a result they missed by several feet though that wasn’t really that comforting. "Uh, maybe I should open it later," said Spike. One of the thugs started trying to reach through the hole for the touch pad to open the door. "Almost...hey...there's one of those winged horses Lockjaw wants." said the guy reaching through before spotting Fluttershy. "Eep," squeaked Fluttershy before hiding behind the couch. "Xorn...kick the door." said a unseen voice before the door was literally ripped off its hinges to reveal a splitter...this one clearly grown up and meaning business. The girls screamed and scattered around the room. The noise half-woke up Matt, who stared around in confusion shouting, "Huh, who, what, where's the fire?” Unfortunately, Xorn tossed the door at him, knocking him back out of sight. "We'll deal with him later...get that winged pony or Lockjaw'll have our heads." he said in a gravelly voice before adding "In fact...get them all..." ... The aquillian followed Pinkie into the kitchen. "Now where'd you-" he started before a pie splatted him in the face. "What the he-?" he began before several cakes hit him and wincing as a frying pan impacted on his beak. "Caw...come here, pinky." he snarled, rubbing his beak. "That's Pinkie Pie to you, crow face!" shouted Pinkie before throwing a saucepan. The aquillan yelped before diving for cover and Pinkie opened fire with more culinary artillery. ... The human of the team had followed Applejack and Fluttershy into the corridor leading to the pool. "Where are you, you little winged freak?" he muttered, panning his rifle around. A slight rattle got his attention, causing him to spin towards the source of the sound. He turned to see a cleaner bot heading out before shrugging. "I hate night ops...creepy crap." he said before hearing another clatter. "Gotcha." he said, walking towards the door, never bothering to think that resorts didn’t use cleaner bots as it turned to follow him. "Now, where did you get to?" he muttered, switching his visor to thermal vision. He looked down to see two rows of hoofprints and grinned walking towards a door before kicking it open. "Aha!" he shouted before pausing. All he could see was the indoor swimming pool. He looked around to see the trail heading to the edge of the pool. "Clever girls." he muttered before calling out. "Ok...shows over...out or I toss grenades in the pool." picking up a few tennisballs from some sports equipment left near. A couple of bubbles appeared on the surface. "Fine...FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he called out, before throwing the tennis balls in and starting to count. More bubbles appeared on the surface before Fluttershy surfaced, gasping for breath and looking terrified. The merc grinned, aiming his blaster at her nose. "Hi there, lady." he said evilly, not noticing the cleaner bot finally navigating the step and ambling towards him. Fluttershy yelped and cried, "Look out behind you!" "Huh...you think I'm gonna fall for that?" he said, adding "Its just a damn cleaner bot." before the bot said “Threat confirmed.” and the eye glowed. "The merc turned confused at that "What the he-ACK!" he began before a plasma burst from the bot sent him flying into the pool. Fluttershy screamed a bit and scrambled to get out of the pool. Applejack surfaced with a gasp and asked, "What in tarnation was that?" The bot turned to face them "No weapons detected. Threat level: 0. Standing down." before hovering towards a tiny hatch in a wall like the worlds most dangerous mouse. The radio on the now deceased mercs chest said "Everyone...heads up. This damn safehouse is a death-trap. Where the hells Team 2?" ... Meanwhile, another merc had followed the two unicorns and the lizard creature up the stairs. "You can't get away from me," he said. He ran up the stairs to see several doors. "I hate this damn place...I know there wasn’t that many doors in the floor plan." he said before the safehouse computer announced "Threat level now beyond local ability...contacting nearest CPS barracks for support." Xorns voice on the radio then said "Thats it...we are out of time, gentleman...grab those freaks and lets split...Team 2...get here now." "Working on it," muttered the merc before opening one of the doors. He jumped back as a flamethrower in the back wall attempted to roast him, slamming it shut again. "GAH...damn CPS and their booby traps. I'm gonna skin those freaks when I catch them." he snarled, before heading to the next door. He started opening it, but this time he was much more cautious. He slowly creaked it open, careful to stay out of the door frame. After nothing happened he peered in and nearly got a terminal crew cut from a plasma javalin gun. "Fine...door number 3." he said, aiming angrily and blasting the hinges. This time, he struck gold, finding the unicorns and the lizard there. "Ha! No getting away this time!" he said, levelling his gun at them. "Ok...you little pains are coming with me...dead or alive." he said angrily, aiming between them. Twilight and Rarity screamed before suddenly pointing their horns at the merc and shooting out bursts of light. Spike also let out a gout of dragon fire at him. The merc was hit three ways and hidden by the intense glow. The three of them could only hear the sounds of stretching before something went 'pop'. They stopped, only to see a confused-looking badger there. Spike looked at the confused and cross-eyed badger before looking at Rarity and Twilight. "Nice one." he said impressed. "Uh, I didn't for my spell to do that," said Twilight, "I just wanted send him out of the house." "I wanted to freeze in place," said Rarity. The three of them looked at the badger again before Spike said, "So, mixing different unicorn spells and dragon fire is a bad thing?" "Looks like it," said Twilight. "Oh...its worse then you think, ladies." said Xorn, walking into view, several mercs who were clearly this 'Team 2' mentioned. "Our intel had 6 of you here...where's your friend?" he said in a polite voice that seemed out of place on him, especially as he added "I will not ask twice." "Uh, think we could try that unicorn spell and dragon fire thing one more time?" asked Spike. "Don't bother, my species are naturally immune to magi, your spells won't work on me," said Xorn, confidently. The ponies gulped at that while Xorn said "On the count of 3...shoot them." to his men before he said to the girls "Until 3: 1...2..." Just then, what looked like a rainbow slammed into him at high speed, throwing him down the hall. Xorn however was hardier then a aquillan and was already up. "Ah...the missing member." he said, with amusement, raising a hand for his men to lower their guns. "You leave my friends alone are you're really in trouble," said Rainbow Dash. "You really are either dumb or suicidal...you're lucky Mr Romanov wants you alive." said Xorn, unimpressed as electricity began to crackle around his fist. "As if you could take me," said Rainbow Dash, "I can fly circles around you backwards. "You are fast...but are you really as fast as lightning?" said Xorn before sending twin bolts at Dash. Whether or not Dash was or not (most likely not), she was taken by surprise and zapped into unconsciousness. The others all looked horrified, more as a comm said "Xorn...we found richards in the pool...and the last two runners...its the one we looking for?" Xorn looked at the unconscious form of Rainbow Dash. "Negative...we've got the courier...meet with team 2 and take the others out back for disposal...wait...where's Lynch?" he said before two of the team 2 mercs jerked in time with a laser flash. Xorn turned to see Matt with a foul expression on his face, "You break into my temporary dwelling, you attack my friends, electrocute one into unconsciousness, and, above all, you hit me over the head with a thrown door while I still have a hangover. Now, I'm mad." Xorn glared and waved the last two team members forward "Kill him." he snarled, before grabbing Dash and spreading his own wings, blowing the window out with another bolt before taking off. "Smeg it!" snapped Matt before zapping the two mercs with his riot rifle. The mercs juddered before falling down in smoking heaps. Matt ran to the window and aimed down his sights at the already distant Xorn. "Dammit." he swore angrily when he realised Xorn was already too high. "Matt? What do we do?" asked Twilight. Matt sighed "For now...there's not much. Applejack and Fluttershy are fine...their new mates made the mistake of waking me up first." he said, adding the last part darkly. Just then, the intercom stated, "Alert, additional intruders detected in the foyer." Matt said in a tired voice "And thats our cue to leave. Lets go." Matt ran down the stairs, opened the kitchen door to make sure there wasn’t any hiding places and was immediately brained by a low flying frying pan. Matt staggered a bit before snapping, "Who threw that?!" Pinkie, wearing a tablecloth like a bandanna peered out with a growling look before immediately smiling when she spotted Matt. "Oopsie. Sorry, Matt. I thought you were another of those meany heads." she said cheerfully. Matt looked down to see an aquillan with corkscrewing eyes gibbering on the floor. "Uh, right, good shot," said Matt, "Let's get out of here." Matt and Pinkie returned to the others just in time as Xorns backup teams turned up via the back door. "Lets go." yelled Matt, firing a shot at the first thug and forcing the others to duck out of sight. The group scrambled for the front door, keeping low to avoid getting shot. Matt was last out, firing to keep the thugs down before running out after them. Unfortunately, it turned out Xorn was a clever strategist, having had a team waiting at the front as well. "Ok...hands up...NOW!" yelled one of the thugs as the pursuers ran out of the safehouse. "Oh, you've got to be kidding," said Matt. "Drop that rifle." yelled another thug. Matt reluctantly complied. "Mr Romanov put a big money bonus on your ass, rifter." said another thug with a grin. "I had a feeling that last job would come back to bite me," said Matt, "Didn't expect it to be this soon." "Les just cap them and get outta here." said the third thug before the group all raised their blasters to aim. Just as Matt had resigned himself to the great big spaceship in the sky, a blaze of gunfire slammed into the group of thugs as a dozen black armored troopers appeared on the roof of one of the nearby chalets, firing down. "Now who's shooting at us?" asked Applejack. Matt, however was grinning, yelling up "You took your smegging time!" cheerfully. "You know these people?" asked Twilight. Matt nodded "Yeah...these guys are on our side." he said cheerfully as the surviving thugs ran for it. "Well, that's certainly a relief," said Rarity, "But what about the one who absconded with Rainbow Dash?" Matt nodded as one of the troopers jumped down "Sorry we're late, Lynch. Board wouldn’t let us respond at first. Hey...thought there were 6 of those guys." he said through a helmet filtered voice. "Yeah, one of them got nabbed," said Matt a little darkly. "Xorn Aladaster...bloody freelancer. We've been after him for years. Stands to reason he'd park his talons under Romanov's table." said the squad leader. "Still, why would he want to kidnap Rainbow Dash?" asked Twilight, "It doesn't make sense." "Hell if we know. Security channels have been flooded with Romanov's thugs for hire hitting a hamlet in the rifter sector. Grabbed someone called...lets see here..." said the squad leader, looking at his wrist computer before saying "What kinda name is Jump Star?" "Jump Star?!" said all of the ponies at once. The squad leader took a step back from shock. "Wait...you know him?" he said surprised. "He's one of the pegasi who lives here," said Fluttershy, "He said he worked as a courier." "Shit...he musta been C.S's informer. Stupid kid." said the squad leader gloomily. "Informer?" asked Fluttershy. "It means he was the one who was digging up dirt for these guys," said Matt. "I didn't know he was a digger," said Pinkie, "He looks awfully clean for one." "Stupid white collar lawyer weaselling," growled Matt. "Thats the other thing. He's put a huge bounty on your head. Every freelancer in consortium space is gonna want to cash in on it." said the squad leader gloomily. Matt sighed and said, "So much for my mini-vacation. What next?" "I'd say get you and your little buddies outta here." said the squad leader. "I would, but one of my little buddies needs rescuing," said Matt. "We can handle it. You haven't got anything he wants." said the squad merc. ... Elsewhere, Rainbow Dash was being roughly manhandled, er, ponyhandled by the creep who had nabbed her. And to add insult to injury, he had her wings clamped down. "Stop struggling or I might forget my orders and take a bite out of you." snarled Xorn as he glided through several skyscrapers. "You're going to be so much trouble when I get free," said Rainbow Dash, "And even bigger trouble when my friends catch up." "My team are the best in the sector. Your friends are already dead." said Xorn with a little too much amusement before he glided down towards the mansion that had been on the news. The police vehicles were already gone and the gates had been repaired already. A guard in a suit waved Xorn down. "That the courier? Thought the courier was a guy." said the guard, looking at Rainbow. "That's more than likely inaccurate," said Xorn, "It's not hard to think of this creature as not feminine." Rainbow Dash glared at that and delivered a buck that Made the guard wince in male sympathy. "Ow, man...you ok?" he asked. Xorn, to his credit barely reacted apart from tearing up a bit. "I'm...fine...just give me the smegging bounty so I can drop this multi-coloured pain off." he said in a strained voice. The guard was getting out the credits before pausing and asking, "Er, how am I supposed to get her inside?" Xorn glared and used his free hand to pick the guard up to eye level. ""Ask me if I give a shit." he snarled, the stress finally reaching breaking point for him. "Ok, ok, I think I can manage her," said the guard, though the look Rainbow was giving him promised that she'll be making as much trouble as she can. He pulled out a hand device and aimed it at the wrist comp. "There we go, 2 mill as agreed." he said before looking at the 'I'm gonna make your life hell' look on Dash's face before pulling out his comm. "Erm...control...can I get some help with the courier please?" Xorn took off immediately and a minute later, a group of human freelancers walked in laughing and dragging a tied and gagged grey pegasus. "Line up the bounty, man. We got your courier." said their leader. "Wait a minute, I've got the courier, don't I?" said the guard, looking between the two pegasi. "Er, which one of you is the courier?" he asked. "I am," said both of them quickly. "What? She's just a visitor here, I've lived here for years," said the grey one. "No, I'm the pony you want," said the blue one, "He has nothing to do with this." The guard looked at them. "Please tell me...I've had a really shitty week...which topped when I tried to ask for my rights during the raid. Cut a guy a break." said the guard desperately. The ponies gave each other a smirk before pointing at each other and saying, "Never mind, I'm not the courier, that pony is." The guards eye twitched for a second... ... Romanov and his guards walked out to find the doorman in floods of hysterical tears and two pegasi tied up. "What the hell happened?" he asked in a confused voice. The guard wailed "THEY WON'T TEEEELLLLL!!!" Romanov just looked at the ponies who both said "I'm the courier you want." Unfortunately for them, Romanov shrugged "Fine...bring them both." "What?" asked the guard. "If I get rid of them both, I can make sure I get the actual courier," said Romanov. "Wait...Mr romanov. She’s got nothing to do with this...she's just an...erm...cousin from off-planet. Please let her go." said Jump Star desperately. Romanov shrugged "Do I look like I care? Lock them both in the basement...and keep the wing clamps on them till I have a good idea what to do with them." The guards shrugged and picked up the pegasi. Romanov strolled back inside and practically expected the call on his comm. "Let me guess...Mr Lynch survived?" he said sarcastically. "Yes sir...rapid response hit us. We barely got away. Xorn got one of his buddies though. Blue pegasi." said the thug on the other end. "Ah, well, that answers the question of which one of them is the courier," said Romanov. "Orders, sir?" said the thug. Romanov thought for a second before saying "I'd like you to send him a little message..." ... Since the safehouse was no longer safe, the group decided to check in at an actual hotel. However, for Matt...this was a problem. Not the price as any merc who lived longer then 3 months in the CPS quickly became well off cash-wise, but more the sign exclaiming that the hotel was a 'proud member of Executive Genetics publcity department.' Which would explain why Matt was wearing a pair of sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and a jacket which had a collar that went all the way to his nose. "Not a word. You get your hat back when I’ve finished disconnecting the camera in our suite." said Matt to Applejack, whose hat had ended up as part of his desperate disguise which clearly hadn’t worked as the receptionist had happily greeted him by name. "Ain't this overy-excessive?" asked Applejack. "Executive Genetics want my head on a silver platter...minus the rest of me. I’m not taking chances that I will wake up with half a dozen Exo-Gene mercs pointing guns up my nose." said Matt, shortly before screaming as a aquillan courier said behind him. "Sergeant Lynch?” "YOU CAN'T PROVE THAT!" snapped Matt. "I have a message here for you, sir. By the way..you're still wearing your ID tags." said the aquillan, pointing helpfully to where Matts dog tag was visible. "That doesn;t prove anything." said Matt pathetically. The courier sighed "Message reads: I have something of yours and you have 15 million things of mine. Come to my mansion with your friends otherwise I will be forced to use your item to recoup my losses.' The guy said you'd know where it was as you were there yesterday." said the courier. "Can this get any worse?" muttered Matt. The aquilian cleared his throat and said, "That'll be 30 credits, plus tip." Matt turned to fix the courier with a glare that had 'roast chicken time' written all over it. "Erm....never mind." said the courier nervously before running for it. ... "This is the most obvious trap in the world." Matt muttered, the group looking at the gates of Romanovs home. "There isn't any other choice," said Twilight. Matt nodded "Lets get this over with." Rarity looked at the dirty looks the gate guards gave Matt as they walked in. "What did you do to upset this...Romanov so badly?" she asked. Matt sighed and said "Me and My sister once got hired by NSC security to recover something from him...we cleaned out his vault as well." "You robbed him?" asked Fluttershy, sounding astonished. "He's a criminal who supplies weapons to marauders, raiders and various monsters. Less money he has, the better. We gave most of it to a frontier colony so they could develop." said Matt a little harshly. "Oh, well, I suppose that's good that you gave the money to people who needed it," said Flutttershy. "We kept a little...We stole about 900 million...me and chloe kept 15 mill each." said Matt, more to himself before the door opened to reveal Romanov and what looked like a guy who had lost a fight with a tin opener. "Mr Lynch...I haven't seen you for so long...oh, don’t mind Lockjaw." he said politely, gesturing to the cyborg who said "Hallo leetle pony peoples." "Uh, hello," said Fluttershy nervously. "Hallo." said Lockjaw, grinning and causing the ponies and Spike to step back a little. Matt sighed "Whats this about Romanov? I didn’t think you'd lower yourself to kidnapping. Isn’t that against the consortiums code of honour?" he said. "Well, I take it very personally when someone snitches on me," said Romanov. "Rainbow didn’t do that and you know it. If you want the 15 million back I still have, I'll give it to you..." said Matt, angrily only for Romanov to say "No...you also have ruined a very important event for me when you got one of my employees arrested." "Er, that would be...Jester, right?" asked Matt. "Jetser. He was supposed to race for me in the upcoming Gravity Racer event. I believe it is only fair that you replace him as the pilot." said Romanov, simply. Matt glared and said "Not a chance. I’m taking Dash and Jump Star now or...URK!" before Lockjaw, at a nod, grabbed Matt round the throat and lifted him up with no apparent effort. "Again...no...this time I hold the aces. You will race or none of your friends will walk out of here alive..." sad Romanov coldly, at the same time that half a dozen guards walked into view. Matt glared at Romanov and managed to gasp, "What kind of sick twisted creep threatens innocent ponies and dragons?" "A businessman. You don’t have to help. If you are really intent on being stupid, I can have Lockjaw here squeeze until your head pops off like a cork...or you can race and your debt is wiped clean." said Romanov, casually. Maybe it was Applejack's position of being the bearer of the Element of Honesty or maybe it was basic earth pony instinct, but she had a feeling that Romanov wasn't telling something important, but she wasn't exactly sure. Romanov noticed that Matt wasn't speaking much and gestured to LockJaw. "Loosen your grip a little. He has to be able to answer." he said, coldly. Lockjaw complied and Matt managed to gasp before saying "How do I know you'll keep your end of the bargain?" "Oh, I'm hurt," said Romanov mockingly, "Don't you trust me?" "About as far as I could toss Lockjaw over here." said Matt, sarcastically. Romanov made a mock expression of hurt. "What kind of splitter would I be if I went back on a deal? So you will race in Jetsers place?" Matt yelped as Lockjaw dropped him before saying "Do I really have a choice?" "That's the spirit," said Romanov, "You better clean up if you want to get ready for the race." Matt sighed and said, "Let me guess, I'll be doing some illegal street-racing." "Of course not. You'll be representing me in the Arc Canyon grav racer event." said Romanov, relishing the way the colour drained from Matts face. "Oh, don't tell me you haven't competed in racing before," said Romanov, "I'm sure you've had loads of experience of running, with your non-existent tail between your legs." Matt glared before muttering "You know perfectly well that there is a good reason that humans don’t take part in grav racing." "Something about your delicate composition, I believe," said Romanov. Matt glowered as Romanov said "There are quarters prepared on the premises...and Lockjaw here will be your bodyguard...in case you get....lost." with a evil smirk. “Ladies, hatchling." he said before walking off, leaving Lockjaw. "Ok...dis vay please, leetie pony peoples." he said. Matt pouted and said, "I'd like to see you make me move." Lockjaw simply said, "Ok, weird mercenary person" before grabbing Matt by the foot and dragging him along. ... The group were led to a pretty fancy set of rooms that could almost pass for the safehouse...had it not been for the two guards in each room...and Lockjaw of course. Jump Star and Rainbow Dash were already there when Matt was unceremoniously tossed into the room by Lockjaw. "You stay like good racing person or I vill have to hit you on ze head and zen Romanov vill yell at me." he said. Matt glanced at Lockjaw's mechanical fist and said, "Right, I don't think I'll be leaving." The rest of the gang however were happy to see Rainbow and Jump Star alive and well, apart from the metal rings around their midsections that stopped them using their wings. "Oh, we were so worried something terrible might have happened," said Fluttershy. "We're ok. These jerks put these things on us so we can’t fly. Turns out Jump Star here stood up to this guy and told the cops about what Romanov was doing." said Rainbow Dash, sounding a little proud of what Jump Star had tried to do. "I just wanted him to be gone. Nobody in the rifter sector could even sneeze without Romanovs permission and the cops had nothing to allow them to get rid of him." he said, gloomily, adding "I just made it far worse. His thugs threatened to hurt my mom and dad if I didn't come here." "So why did they take Rainbow?" asked Pinkie. "Apparently, they couldn't keep track which pony is which here," said Rainbow, "I mean, they thought I could have been mistaken for a guy. How insulting is that?" "Tell me about it." said Jump Star before saying “I'm sorry I got you all into this mess." Matt shrugged and said, "I probably would have been dragged into this eventually." Twilight said curiously "Whats this 'grav racing'? You looked horrified when he mentioned it." Matt sighed “Apparently it was started after the NSC/Combine war. All these surplus combat speeders. The NSC of the time couldn’t afford to have them sitting in storage...so they sold them to the consortium who removed their speed inhibitors and used them for racing. No human has the reflexes to fly one." he said. "You seemed ok with those virtual ships," said Fluttershy, confused. "The simulations slowed down by safety programs. The real sport has about 2 fatalities per race." said Matt, darkly. One of the guards smirked and said "Yeah...it'll be fun to see you smeared on the track after what you did to the guys who went with Xorn." "But your boss wants his prize money, right?" asked Applejack. "Romanov is NOT my boss. Most mercenary companies won’t give the consortium the time of day, let alone employees." said Matt, angrily. "Still, he wouldn't want to waste all the money he invested into this race, right?" asked Applejack. "No...but he’d be just as happy to see me dead." said Matt, darkly. "Well, there's a least one thing that hasn't gone bad," said Matt. "What's that?" asked Pinkie. "Exo Gene isn't here," said Matt. ... <intercepted transmission...> <Decoding....decoding complete...Message as follows> <Is this Colonel Zara's office?> <Who is this? This is a secure Executive Genetics Internal Security number. I;m going to have to ask you to...> <I have information that you will be interested in. I believe you've been looking for a Matthew Lynch?> <...Stand by. I'll connect you...> <...This is Zara> <This is Talos Dramidis...manager of the Shimmering Comet Hotel on Paradiso V. You will not believe who's staying here...> <Warning: Connection lost due to anti-intrusion programs> ... Matt was being escorted to Romanov's private garage. "Every racer should know their own vehicle," said Romanov, "Even if they only to make sure they don't crash it on the first lap." Matt looked at the old Viper speeder in disgust. "You're kidding. That things junk." he said, horrified. "Junk? This is a classic," said Romanov. "Yeah, a classic antique," said Matt. "Its not all about looks." said a old aquillan in the corner, the pit mechanic. "Jetser added his own mods to this baby." To hammer the point home, the aquillan opened the pilot canopy to reveal brand new control systems and readouts. "Looks aren’t everything." said the mechanic with a smirk. "Well, okay..." said Matt, "But can it hold together? Some of these panels look ready to fall off." "I treat this thing like its my own chick. It'll last." said the aquillan confidently as Romanov walked off, leaving a guard to watch. "Ok then," said Matt, "Better do a systems diagnosis just to be on the safe side." The aquillan glared "You don’t trust my work? Jetsers flown this in 12 races. The day my work fails is the day I join the astral flock." he said angrily. "Ok, ok, can't blame a guy for being cautious," said Matt, "Er, how about a practice lap?" ... It was a annoyed attempt at torture that Romanov had expected Matt to take a few practises and had piped the feed to his friends. Rainbow Dash winced inwardly as Matt span the practice speeder off the track again, a guard who was a racing fan helpfully explaining that the practice models only ran at 1/4 speed. "Uh, I'm sure Matt can get better in time for the race, right?" asked Pinkie. "How is he supposed to steer that thing?" asked Applejack, "It's goin' way too fast." One of the guards, they having forgotten their duties temporarily to enjoy this entertainment laughed as Matt span out again. "He isn’t. He'll be part of the first corners wall on the first lap." laughed one before starting to yelp as Twilight cast a spell that caused his mouth to zip shut temporarily. "We have to help Matt," said Rainbow Dash, "He doesn't stand a chance on his own." "But how, we're trapped inside this room," said Rarity, "Which isn't really a bad room to be locked inside of, though the furniture could use a bit of rearrangement." One of the other guards glared and readied his rifle. "You're not going..." he began before there was a 'FROOM' and he was knocked into the far wall. Lockjaw lowered his now smoking arm cannon and said "Romanov say no hurty pony peoples." in a angry low voice. "Uh, thanks for that," said Twilight. "Pleasure is being mine, little purple pony thing. Lockjaw do what Romanov says and Romanov say 'Lockjaw, silly tin person. Make sure dunderhead guards no hurty pony peoples'...vat so funny?" he said, adding the last part in confusion as Pinkie laughed at his romanov impression. "Oh, don't mind her," said Rarity, "She'll laugh at anything. Just watch." She walked over to Pinkie and was quiet for a moment before saying, "Pudding." Lockjaw watched in polite confusion as Pinkie started laughing harder. "Hmm...Lockjaw see point. Me go get you foody now." he said, wandering off, one of the remaining guards dragging his 'retired' companion out. The other muttered in a low worried voice "Damn, I hate cyborgs." Twilight turned to Jump Star and asked, "Is Lockjaw always this...thick?" Jump Star said "Not really...Usually he's at the orbital station to intimidate Romanov's staff. I think its the magnetic field here...plays hell with his cerebral implants." he said. "Hmm...maybe we can use this to our advantage somehow," said Applejack quietly. Jump Star blanched "Are you nuts? Lockjaw'll rip us to shreds if it goes wrong. You saw that riot cannon. It nearly blew that guy in half and he was wearing armor." he said horrified. "It was just a suggestion," said Applejack, "No need to get riled up about it." Jump Star stopped before looking thoughtful. "It might work though if we can get it on his forehead. The problem'll be the other guards. We need to choose a time they'll all be occupied...the race. I bet Romanov'll take us along to watch Matt fail. The race arena wll only let him bring a few guards." he said. "How'd get to be so knowledgeable about being covert?" asked Rarity. "Well, let's just say that customs isn't the only thing a courier has to learn to sneak around," said Jump Star. ... <Intercepting comm traffic from colonial monitoring...stand by...> <This is Iris orbital monitoring vessel to unidentified cruiser. State name and intention, over> <This is CBC Daedalus of Executive Genetics Internal Security...Colonel Anastasia Zara commanding. We have information that a saboteur is groundside on your colony and we have authorization from the NSC Council to apprehend.> <The situation can be dealt with by local forces. Your assistance will not be necessary. You may depart now.> <You're mistaken. This call is simply a courtesy. My men WILL apprehend our suspect with or without flight clearence> <Alert: Orbital defences activating...> <This is your last warning. Warp out or you will be considered hostile. Landing clearance is de-> <Additional ships detected: Tags for CBC Zodiac, CBC Taurus, CBC Leo, CBC Vornbane and CBC Chimera detected> <Orbital defences deactivating...> <Landing clearance approved. Please proceed to the designated spaceport.> <Thank you for your cooperation. Inform Colonial security to stay away from my personnel. Daedalus out> ... Two days later... There was quite a big turnout at the race track. Many citizens and plenty of tourists had come to watch the grav-race. If one was familiar with Earth culture, it would remind them of NASCAR. Matt looked at the flight suit he was wearing "I look like the candy man. This is stupid." he groaned, looking at the green and blue suit. "I agree," said Rarity, "That suit is a crime against fashion." "Yeah...a laser blast would go right through this stuff." said Matt, absently. The group had been allowed to come down to the pit to see him off. Matt had managed to improve his skill from, as the mechanic had said 'Suicidally bad' to 'passably bad'. "I don't think lasers are your top concern," said Applejack. "I just hope you know how to deal with the ramming," said Rainbow Dash. The mechanic walked in at that, squalking angrily. "That reptillain jerk. That smeghead." he was saying to himself before he saw the others "Lynch...Romanov pulled some strings wth the arena...this is gonna be a weapon free race. Dammit...its like he wants you to get atomized." "Oh, that's not so bad," said Pinkie, "No one will be allowed to shoot at you if it's weapon-free." The mechanic sighed "No...its based off of old military jargon. Means they'll be releasing weapon activators." he said. "Which means..." started Fluttershy. "Pretty much the opposite of what Pinkie said," finished Matt. "Which means your friend here'll be lucky to survive the first lap." said the mechanic before a muffled announcement was heard followed by a PA saying “All racers, report to your vehicles." "Uh, I'd say break a leg, but I don't think you want that kind of luck," said Applejack. "He'll need all the luck he can get...uh oh. Looks like your chaperones are here." said the mechanic, concern in his voice as Lockjaw and two guards walked on. "Viewing booths this way." said a guard. "Of course," said Rarity before the ponies and Spike followed after them. ... Matt gulped as a mag-crane lifted his racer onto the track...not only cause he was worried about the others...but also cause the look some of the other racers were sending his way was not friendly. Matt was the only human racer there. The others were either splitter or aquillians. And each one of them was looking at him with contempt. It also didn’t help that the commentator was referring to him as 'roadkill' already. "This does not fill me with confidence." he muttered sarcastically to himself. Of course, he knew he was going to hear worse taunts from the other racers once the race had begun...that is until he was knocked out...or worse. “Hey...roadkill...you sure you got the right race. The kiddie rides are on the other side of the resort.” Said one of the splitter pilots with a cruel laugh. "Not in the mood for jokes today," said Matt, "I just want to finish this stupid thing in one piece." "I'm gonna fry your ass, mammal." said the same pilot, with cruel amusement. "So you're going to stick behind me then," retorted Matt. "Why you little..." began the splitter as his fellow pilots laughed. "All racers, this is Track control. Please stand by. Grav locks will release in T-Minus 30 seconds." said a voice over the comms. The pilots stopped bantering with each other and started focusing on getting ready to go. ... The commentator's voice greeted the group as they walked into the viewing box Romanov had reserved. "Ladies, gentlemen of all races. Welcome to the final of the Ashur sector grav races here on sunny Paradiso 5. We've had a surprise pilot change from the Consortium team. Loos like they've given up on winning this years, having chosen a human to replace their usual pilot, Jetser." There were plenty jeers and boos coming from the crowd. Clearly, Matt was going to be the dark horse here. "This isn’t fair one bit. Look at some of these racers." said Spike, pointing to where the others racers stats, including their wins...and their kills were appearing on a screen. "I know, but we don't need Matt to win," said Twilight, "We just want him to finish this." Spike nodded, unable to shake the feeling that everypony was no doubt feeling...that Matt would be lucky to finish at all. ... The grav racers rocketed across the starting line. It was easy to tell which one was Matt's, namely because his was lagging at the back. Matt watched as the others shot off as he struggled to get the racer to respond...before yelping as the racer immediately sped up. "Hey, roadkill...try not to crash too soon." said one of his opponents jeeringly before the laugh turned into a cut off scream, a billow of flame in the distance marking the first casualty. "Ooooh...looks like scarclaw got the first kill of the race in." said one of the commentators as Matt passed a pile of flaming wreckage. "Well, I'm guessing some people lost a large bet that I'd be first to crash," said Matt. Matt was almost ended then and there as another racer in front of him nearly rammed him off the track. "HEY...JERKOFF...WATCH IT!" yelled Matt into his comm as he flew by. "It's survival of the fastest here, roadkill," came the reply before the racer rammed him again. Matt yelped as the crash jolted him. "Warning...damage to rear armor." chimed the speeders computer. "Ya think!?" yelled Matt before the speeder flew over a lit pad resembling a shield. "Defensive software pickup detected...defence mines active." chimed the computer as a few buttons lit up. "Use the damn mines, rookie." yelled the mechanics voice in his earpiece. The splitter pilot behind him had just enough time to swear as Matts speeder dropped three red globes onto the track before the third one slammed into his speeder and exploded, sending the grav racer flipping end over end. "Two down, seven to go," muttered Matt, "Of course, who cares as long as I live?" ... Back in the booth, the group watched in horror as a racer attempted to ram Matt out of the race before being despatched. The commentator also seemed impressed "Looks like this roadkills still got a little bite in him." he said, tauntingly. "Well, he's still in the race," said Rainbow Dash, "And since he's last, no one will be able to get the drop on him." "Lets just hope he's not lapped. Ok...we all ready to deal with the walking tin can?" sad Jump Star quietly, looking over at where Lockjaw was. "Ready and willin'," said Applejack. The ponies (and dragon) all nodded to each other before looking around. Twilight and Rarity immediately walked towards the two guards who were enjoying the race while Jump Star and Applejack walked towards Lockjaw who turned to look at them "Vat ist problem, little orange cowboy pony?" he asked. "Er, uh, I've been wonderin'...how you got all them fancy metal doo-dads," said Applejack. "Got zem after big fight with combine where I got boomed." said Lockjaw, seeing no reason not to answer as Jump Star slowly hovered up behind him, holding what looked like a metal rectangle in his mouth. "You don't say," said Applejack, "I bet it was hard to drag yerself out of that mess." "Yah...very hard due to legs havink fallen off." said Lockjaw before one of the guards turned "Hey...HEY...WHAT THE HE-?" he began before being hit with the lip zipping spell. At the same time, Jump Star tossed the magnet he was holding onto Lockjaws forehead. "Vat-" started Lockjaw before there was a buzzing sound and his face went even more vacant than usual. A quick sleeping spell on the two struggling guards quickly put them out of the equation. "Ok...now lets get outta here before Romanov thinks to check on them." said Jump Star hurriedly. "How are we going to get Matt out?" asked Fluttershy. "I don't know..." said Jump Star, looking at the view screen where another racer had just been taken out. ... Matt shot his speeder through what was left of Racer 3 before continuing on. The one called Scarclaw, apparently the champ according to chatter had been slowly picking off the others...but soon it would be matts turn and there was still 2 laps left. He was fortunate that he's been able to manage the turns, but of course, that was the least difficult part of surviving this race. He was reminded of this when machinegun fire peppered the rear armor of his racer, one of the competitors deciding that he was an easy target. "Where are those defence bonuses when you need them?" muttered Matt. "Offensive bonus detected...missiles online." chimed the computer. Matt looked thoughtful before looking through his front viewport and grinning. "You know what they say, the best defence is a good offense," he said before aiming and firing the missiles. The missiles slammed into a abandoned tower built near the track, causing it to topple inwards, narrowly missing Matt and crashing down on the racer behind. "Ha, another one bites the dust," said Matt. "You are now in pole position." said the race computer calmly. "Ha, I'm actually winning," said Matt before realizing that means the others were now behind him, including Scarclaws. On cue a red streaked speeder wept out the dust just behind him, its main cannons blazing away "You're mine, roadkill." sneered Scarclaw over the comms. "If you can catch me," called Matt before putting on the speed. 'Or if I don't splat first,' he mentally added. Matt immediately stepped on the gas, Scarclaw still on him, blasting away. "Where do you think you're going, roadkill?" he taunted, blasting away at Matt's speeder. "Hopefully not into a wall," said Matt to himself as he was getting close to a turn. Scarclaw however was already proving why he was a good racer, keeping behind Matt all the time while chipping away. Matt was starting to get a little frantic, trying to figure a way to evade Scarclaw while avoiding becoming one with the pavement. "Just give up and I'll make it quick." sneered Scarclaw. "Obviously you don't know who I am," said Matt, "I never quit." 'Not like I could if do so anyways,' he thought. Matt managed to dodge another shot before a warning light came on. "Danger...fuel line ruptured." said the computer urgently. "Oh no," muttered Matt. As if the situation wasn't bad enough, his fuel cells could explode at any minute. "Emergency. Ejecting primary fuel cells." said thre computer calmly. Matts head slammed into the console as the speeder decelerated, deprived of its main cells before it was only doing a fraction of Scarclaws speeder. "Oh smeg," said Matt as he saw the red speeder rapidly catching up with him. The speeder was already firing as it bore down...only to suddenly explode as a plasma blast slammed into it. Matt blinked and asked, "Did I do that?" Several troopers in the white armor of Exo-Genes private merc force clambered onto the track, one sporting a colonel insignia and the biggest plasma cannon Matt had ever seen. "Well, this is a big twist," said Matt, "And just when I thought this race couldn't get any worse." "Sergeant. Don’t make this harder then it has to be. Come out with your hands where we can see them." said one of the troopers. "Can't stop right now, racing," said Matt as tried speeding up. One of the troopers pulled out an EMP rifle at that and shocked the car. "Warning...sys...tem...off.......line." said the computer slowly. "Ok...maybe now?" said Matt, getting slowly out. ... Meanwhile, Spike and the ponies were making their way towards the pit area. The commentator could be heard apologising for what he said was 'Unforseen government intervention.' "Maybe local security got sick of these races?" said Jump Star, uncertain. "I hope so," said Twilight, "As long as they don't arrest Matt." "Ah don’t think these guys are on our side." said Applejack slowly, pointing to where a gunship almost exactly like the one that Echo had used in their attack circling the track. "Oh, we have to get Matt out of there," said Fluttershy. Three more gunships in jet mode flew overhead in formation, covering a stockier ship that was allowing troopers to rappel down. "I don’t think they're gonna let us." said Jump Star, pointing to where a white version of Matt's combat SUV driving into view before a handcuffed Matt was pushed out of it. At the same time a chorus of clicks were heard behind the group and a familiar, if more intelligent version of a voice said "You know...I really hate....magnets." "Uh, we're in big trouble, aren't we?" said Spike. The group turned to see several of Romanov's thugs wearing race track staff gear and Lockjaw, who had a more intelligent and definitely angrier look. "I have half a mind to blast you all." he said icily. "Uh, aren't you supposed to be...less effective on this planet?" asked Twilight. "The magnet depolarized me...so I am definately smart enough now...Romanov gave me very specific orders...if you try to escape..." he began, his mechanical hand rotating to turn into a cannon before he aimed "...I was to make an example of one of you..." Just then, one of Romanov's men went over to Lockjaw and said, "Er, we've got a problem on the racetrack. Exo-Gene just swooped in and bagged Lynch." "What? Romanov'll have our hides if we lose him. Bring these lot and come with me. We'll head them off at the pit area." said Lockjaw angrily. The ponies didn't have a chance of escape. Even with this distraction, they'd sure to be gunned down if they made a break for it. Lockjaw turned to glare at them "...and don’t even think about another magnet." he said icily. ... Matt's day just seemed to keep rolling down hill. Sure, he survived the grav race, but being hauled away by Exo-Gene's forces was not the way he wanted to end it. "Move it." said one trooper, shoving him along only for the colonel in charge to say "Watch it, private. A little respect is in order." That did lighten Matt's up a little. Even if he was in enemy hands, at least he was getting a little respect. "So what?" said the private coldly only for the colonel to turn, taking her helmet off to reveal. "Sarge?" said Matt dumbly, spotting the face of the person who had taught him and Chloe. "Matt, you're a long way from home, aren't you?" said Zara calmly. "What are you doing with these losers?" said Matt, forgetting his situation for a minute before losing his grin as Zara said "I'm LEADING these losers. Look...I dunno what you stole but Exo Gene’s board is up in arms." "Oh..." said Matt, "I'm guessing the CPS payroll wasn't good enough." "I was retired, Lynch. Maybe if Layton was in charge...but no, command wanted new blood." said Zara, her tone getting darker as she slipped into what was apparently a regular rant judging from the other squad members eye rolls." "New blood? You were one of the best," said Matt. "Yeah, yeah...and here I am...hunting down one of two of my best students...by the way...drop the stun disc." said Zara, adding the last part in a matter-of-fact voice. Matt sighed, dropping the stun grenade he had behind his back and said, "You always could guess what I'm planning next." "I taught you that trick...plus the force keeps records of all their tricks you pulled on Kurata." said Zara as the group walked towards the pit. "Ah, you heard about that," said Matt, "That was some of my finest work." Zara nodded "Yeah...Darius was in charge of security there." she commented. "Ah, I wondered why he seemed to take my capture so personal," said Matt, "Kinda hard to keep track of faces when you're trying to avoid being shot." "True...you know I gotta hand you in. You stole a damn super computer, Lynch." said Zara, sounding stern as they entered the pit...and saw a line of freelancer mercs aiming at them. "Oh, I nearly forgot," said Matt, "Did I mention I was in that race to pay off a debt?" Lockjaw walked into view and said "Dat is far enough. Hand Lynch over and you leave alive." Zara glared and said, "I'm sorry, but Mr. Lynch is in the custody of Exo-Gene. We've been looking for him for quite a while." "Wrong answer." said Lockjaw, coldly before being caught in the spotlight from one of the gunship fighters. "You don’t scare us as easy as security, corporate." he said. "If you don't want to lose what little's left of your organs, I suggest you step aside," said Zara. "You are in no position to ask anything. You hand over lynch or his little friends end up as glue." said Lockjaw coldly. Matt slowly slipped back and behind a speeder...just in time as the sound of gunfire from further back caused all hell to break loose, Zara’s and Lockjaws men panicking and opening fire. "Ok, I think it's time to get out of Dodge," said Matt, "Just need to pick up the girls and Spike." Matt peered up from his cover to only almost lose it. There were so many mercs around that nobody would get out without a...Matt stopped to notice the speeders hatch was unlocked. "...a distraction." he said out loud. ... Zara was calmly blasting away at the thugs with practised ease, Lockjaw having melted away when he recognised a losing battle, before noticing that Matt had vanished "Sergeant...where the hells-?" she began before the speeder in the corner thrummed into life. "Oh shit...STOP THAT SPEEDER...ALL UNITS!” she yelled on her comm, spotting Matt in the cockpit, him giving a cheeky wave as the ship flew out. ... "Now, let's see," said Matt, "There ought to be some weak structure in the wall that I can make even weaker..." A orange beam from one of the gunships slammed into the ground by the speeder, attempting to track it before accidentally blasting the wall. "Or I can wait for these morons to do it." he said happily. ... Matt wasn't the only one who's interference allowed for their liberation. Seeing how their guards were so preoccupied right now, Spike and the ponies decided now would be a good time to make a covert escape. The guard was laughably easy to deal with, one sleeping spell knocking him out, though he;d shot the ceiling by accident. From the sounds of things, the shots had been a spark for something bigger. "I think it's time we headed back to Equestria," said Twilight. "What about your friend?" said Jump Star before the track barrier behind him exploded and a speeder flew out. "I think Matt's found a way out," said Rainbow Dash. "Yeah, he's even harder to keep tied down than Pinkie Pie," said Applejack. Matt opened the hatch for a second and yelled out "I'll run a little interference...you leg it for the portal." before shutting it again and speeding off, two of the gunships flying overhead in pursuit. "You heard the man," said Rainbow Dash, "Let's head for that portal." Jump Star was hesitant for a minute before following. ... The two security officers sat in their car, lunches in front of them when they got the call. "All units: Code 12. A grav speeder has been stolen and is being driven through the resort. E.G.I.S units requesting support in apprehension of suspect." "A grav speeder?" said one of the officers, "What kind of addle-brained nutcase would try to drive one through civilian streets?" "Its probably a prank call. Remember when they said we were gonna get a merc coming that had a slug for a head?" said the second officer with a laugh, reaching for his drink before the 'imagined' grav speeder shot by, causing him to crush his drink and shower himself with it. "Well, that's breaking at least 10 traffic laws," said the other officer, in a faint voice. The first officer looked in his rear mirror before going wide eyed and diving out the cruiser, dragging his partner. A second later, a E.G.I.S combat SUV ran the cruiser over before following the speeder. "Thats it...I'm taking the week off." said the first officer shakily as three more CSUV's drove by. "I hope that cruiser's not coming out of our paychecks," said the other. ... Matt checked one of the cameras to see one of exo-genes SUV's open fire, laser fire peppering the speeder. "Wow...they're really pissed." he chuckled to himself. He glanced at the dashboard and said, "Let's see, are there any tricks left to pull now that I'm off the track?" He grinned as he spotted almost all the lights were lit up before he had to swerve to avoid a passenger cab, tourists scattering into buildings and shops to avoid the mayhem. "Damn...I can’t let loose here." he muttered. He glanced over the options while muttering, "What I wouldn't give for an oil slick or some carpet tacks right now." A blast hit the side of the speeder at that "Danger...coolant rupture." chimed the computer. Matt winced before hearing tires screeching and looked to see the lead SUV spin out on the coolant to smash into a infonet terminal. "Eh, close enough," said Matt, "Now to get to that portal." He turned the corner and was lucky he took it wide as two NSC security APC's were blocking the road...clearly the cops were trying to stop this now. "Well, now I can add 'driving on the sidewalk' to the dozen or so traffic laws I'm breaking," said Matt. He turned to see the last two CSUV's slam into the cop vehicles. "Ow...that'll hurt...well, this went well and I;m almost at the portal." he said to himself cheerfully before the following gunship fired a shot that sliced the engine block clean off. "Oh, you've got to be kidding," said Matt as he tried to bring the speeder to a halt. The speeder skidded to a halt just past the alley they had used to arrive. "Now...thats just luck." Matt commented, getting out unsteadily. Just then, a spout of flame shot out of the hole where the engine block was. Matt yelped and ran into the alley just as the engine exploded, almost falling over Jump Star. Matt got up to see the rest there. "Ah, the gang's all here," said Matt, "Afraid we don't have time to go get our luggage though." Pinkie surprisingly was the most annoyed "Aw...I brought my best party cannon as well." she said, disappointed. Jump Star however said "You look after yourselves." "You're not coming with us?" asked Rarity. "I can't," said Jump Star, "I have my own family here." Jump Star turned to Rainbow Dash and said with a grin. "Hey...maybe I will come visit one day. I still have to give that race." "Yeah, and I'm not gonna take it easy on you," said Rainbow Dash. Jump Star said cheerfully "Its a date then." before the sound of approaching vehicle sirens was heard. "Time to go." said Matt, urgently, taking a pot shot at a head peering in, forcing it to duck back. The group didn't need any more encouragement. They quickly filed through the portal. Matt, the last to go through, turned to Jump Star before saying "You stay safe...and try not to piss off criminal cartels anymore." "Right, I've already irked enough people already," said Jump Star. Matt nodded "Try out for a merc crew...with your talent for trouble, you'd be a natural." he said jokingly before jumping through the portal. Zara and her team ran into view just as it vanished. "Dammit." she swore. "Ma'am, there's still one of them left," said one of the troopers, pointed to where two troopers were aiming at Jump Star. "What should we do with him?" Zara sighed and said, "Leave him. It's not worth grilling one of the locals." "The board said they want witnesses for questioning..." said another trooper before Zara spun and pointed her gun at him. "Is the board commanding this unit? No, I am," she snapped, "I'm the one who calls the shots here and we are professionals...not marauders." The trooper took a step back before eventually nodding "Yes, ma'am." Another trooper looked at Jump Star before saying "Get lost, kid." "Uh, sure thing," said Jump Star before taking off. Zara looked to watch Jump Star flying off "Winged horses that talk...just when I thought Nullspace was outta surprises..." she said to herself before muttering "What have you gotten yourself into, Lynch?" ... The group were once again back in the barn basement. As soon as Matt was through, he ran over and shut down the portal. "Well...thats another colony I can NEVER visit ever again...wasnlt that bad this time." he said to himself. "Well, it wasn't all bad," said Fluttershy, "I mean, yes, the being held hostage part was scary. But we had some fun there. And I got to bring home a new friend." Just then, a badger popped out of her mane and looked around. "Isn't he the cutest?" asked Fluttershy. Spike looked at the badger, saying curiously "Isn’t that the guy we turned into a ba-?" he began only to be silenced by both Rarity's and Twilights magic. Matt looked over "What was that?" he asked. "Oh, nothing," said Twilight, innocently "It is a darling little badger," said Rarity, equally innocently. "I'm sure Fluttershy can find it a nice home." "Yes, nicer than that place was," said Twilight. Matt stared "Do I want to know?" he asked flatly. "Not really," said both unicorns at the same time. ... <Intercepting Transmission...> <Origin: NSC NewsNet transmission...> <Playback initiated...> <And continuing the top story tonight, Riots that broke out on the popular resort of Paradiso V appear to be coming under control as elements of Executive Genetics Internal Security and NSC military continue to force consortium underworld elements into retreat> <We managed to speak with Col. Zara about their business here, but she could not reveal much as the information is highly classified. When they departed, the Exo-Gene forces appeared to be heading towards the unchartered sectors. The only information that we have been given on this is that they're going to be assisting a ship that has been assumed lost there for the past month, the Icarus...> <Transmission lost due to wormhole interference...Logging to Skyraid internal memory for review by central AI...>
Largefish8	784	9	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2012-07-23T12:21:23+00:00	2012-07-23T12:21:23+00:00	593	MLP Fic pt 9 The Ponyville dam was known for how it had needed repairs several times in the past, at one point being reconstructed by a spell after collapsing and, after yet another incident where emergency repair unicorns had been needed, finally Canterlot had sent a survey team to check the area as to why a dam was constantly being cracked. Most outsiders would presume that ponies wouldn't be very good at digging. Of course, they would also assume that ponies weren't capable of building construction vehicles…boy would they be in for a shock… "Ok...all the survey spells say there's something here...something big enough to cause cracks in a three foot thick dam." said the unicorn in charge confidently while looking at an old map and back up at the other ponies either checking survey gear or running the construction diggers. His companion muttered "I don’t get it...there's been nothing here since we started making maps." "There's no fault lines around here, so there has to be something down there," said the unicorn. "It’s probably diamond dogs. Remember that trouble in hoofington last year?" said one of the construction ponies in a bored voice. On cue, one of the diggers suddenly smashed through the top of something concealed just below the surface, causing several cracks to radiate out from the hole. "Back up, we've hit something!" called the forepony, waving to the others. The cracks suddenly began to get worse on cue with a rumbling. "Sinkhole...everypony back." yelled the forepony, the digger’s driver diving out as the ground below the vehicle gave way. After a minute, everypony peered out to see a sizable hole in the ground, in an almost perfect square. "That can't be natural," said one of the construction ponies. The unicorn peered down before sending a light spell in, showing walls made of what looked like dirty crystal and metal before highlighting something...a skeleton...a human one. "Looks like this job just got a whole like bigger," said the forepony. ... Matt was trying to relax and avoid tempting fate. So far the week had included a happy lack of psycho mercenaries, alien monsters and killer bunnies (don’t ask) and he was in no mood for it to change. The only road hump on easy street was that Aria had commandeered the skyraid’s Nanoforge to make something that involved her handing control back to the ships old AI. "ETA to decontamination: 12 minutes. With respect, sir. I have been offline for 2 months and now have to run a ship AND an exterior facility. Please be patient." said the male voice of the skyraid’s computer in an annoyed voice. "I think some facilities need to be more freely open to use, PARTICULARLY THE TOILET!" snapped Matt. "Then you shouldn't have had all those tacos," muttered the AI. “WHAT WAS THAT?” Yelled Matt as the door was knocked on, swinging open. The unicorn that had just peered in through the open door jumped back in shock. The stories of the alien living just outside ponyville had more or less gotten all over equestria by now but seeing it in person and in a clear state of agitation was a whole different experience "Erm...you are Captain Lynch?" he asked, worried. "Unless someone else has moved in with the same name and title, that's me," said Matt. "Erm...I represent the Equestria Safety Department and my team is currently checking the area near the dam. We appear to have found some kind of underground building..." said the unicorn, getting his confidence back before Matt said "Not interested. Day off..." before stopping as the unicorn said "...with what appears to be a human skeleton present." Matt paused and said, "Describe this building." "All we have uncovered is a shaft leading at least 8 feet below the surface. The ponies who went down say there is a large vault-like door blocking entry. As one of...your kinds remains was present, we thought we would ask for your expertise in the matter." said the unicorn, calmly. Though he had a pretty good feeling all he'd get was a 'busy signal', Matt tried to bring up Aria on his wristcomp. "Aria, are you getting this?" he asked. To his surprise, he heard her reply, "Yes, I did, I'll be there in 20 minutes." "What? You're a program...you know what...I don’t care...just get to my location." said Matt, tired before turning it off. "Ok...let’s see your big hole. If it’s what I think it is...you came to the right alien." he said. ... When Matt got to the big hole in question, there was a noticeably large crowd of ponies gathered around it. He was pretty sure the girls were here, though it was a little hard to pick them out. Except for Rainbow Dash, who was hovering above the crowd as usual. Matt gave a wave to them as they headed over before heading over to the hole and shining a light down it and onto the familiar spread winged symbol every NSC merc and trooper was trained to spot a mile off. "Congratulations...you've dug up an Atlantean facility." he said a little sarcastically. "Atlanteans? I read a brief reference about Atlantis in a book, but I thought it was just a myth," said Twilight. “Yeah…The NSC’s never worked out what wiped them out.” Said Matt, in a casual tone. All of the ponies took several steps back at that. "Er, nothing bad is going to come out of that hole, right?" asked Fluttershy. "I doubt it...if anything nasty was gonna happen, it would already have happened." said Matt, casually "Then what are we supposed to do with this thing?" demanded the forepony. "Not much you can do...something must still be running inside it. I could go in and turn it off...but I'm not going in alone. The research corp have a saying along those lines. ‘A explorer who explores ancient facilities alone is tired of life’." said Matt, still talking casually and shining the light around the hole "Now who'd be plum crazy and foolhardy enough to jump in that there hole?" asked Applejack. "I'll go," said Rainbow Dash, "That place can't be too scary.” "I'm sure Princess Celestia will want to hear as much as she can about this," said Twilight, "I better come too." "Ok...two...anyone else?" said Matt, peering down and wondering why Rainbow wanted to come. "I get the feeling yer gonna need plenty of rope," said Applejack, "Not to mention someone with a sensible head. I'm comin' too." “I will come too, sir.” Said a new and familier voice behind Matt…Aria’s voice. Matt spun around, looking for where Aria's voice came from. He had a feeling it was coming from the African woman with her hair in a business bun, glasses perched on her nose, and wearing an archeologist's outfit. Matt immediately pulled his blaster "Hands up right now!" he yelled. Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash seemed to recognize her. "Aria? What are you doing here?" asked Dash. "Aria, how would you know?" asked Matt. "We met in the central mainframe when she was digitized," said the woman with Aria's voice. Matt glared before holstering his blaster as 'Aria' continued, "You did say I should make my own body if I wanted to get out and about." "This is what you've been doing with the nano-forge?" asked Matt. "I wanted it to make sure my body was as close to my old one as possible," said Aria, "I thought the outfit would be appropriate for this venture." "Neat," said Matt, "So how real is it?" He reached a hand forward to poke her face before Aria smacked it aside. "Hands to yourself, please," she said. Matt sighed as Aria simply stepped off the edge of the hole, landing at the bottom of the hole, feet first. "Interesting...I don’t think I’ve seen this insignia before," she said curiously, ignoring the stares from everyone. "Insignia? There were different factions?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Different divisions...guilds...warrior, research...space...similar. This is a new one." said Aria, calmly before looking at a panel beside the door. "This should be simple to bypass." she said to herself as the others climbed down. "So, what would the Atlanteans be doing here anyways?" asked Twilight, before teleporting down. "They probably came here millennia ago before you guys had even finished evolving." said Matt casually before looking at the door. "This thing isn’t gonna move. Probably stuck..." he began before the door let out a hiss and began to slowly retract. "Huh, guess this place wasn't considered very important," said Matt. Aria sighed "No...the magnetic locks are damaged...the power is off." she said, peering into the darkened messy corridor beyond. "Good, that's means all the other defenses won't have power either, right?" asked Matt. "Indeed." said Aria. ... The inside of the facility was almost pitch black, the group passing several collapsed corridors. "I know no power is good in this situation, but I think a little light would be appreciated," said Matt. Matt, applejack and Dash gulped a little at the sight of Aria's eyes lighting up like searchlights. "Better?" she asked. Matt just nodded numbly. "That’s creepy." he said. "Where else would you expect light to come out?" retorted Aria. "Anywhere that doesn’t mean you look like an extra from the exorcist?" said Matt weakly. "Can we focus on the more important things?" asked Twilight, "Like what's buried down here." Suddenly, the cave was flooded with light. Matt winced a bit as his eyes adjusted to the brightness. "Well, that's better," said Matt. "Ba thuna vatalis." chimed a female voice as what looked like crystal ornaments suddenly lit up, holographic displays appearing. At the same time a huge hologram of a planet appeared in the middle of the room, dozens of dots covering it, all but four of the dots flashing red. "What is all this?" asked Twilight, looking at the rotating image with curiosity. "Looks like a world map." said Matt, looking in awe at it. "Nala tin go-lation complete. Indigenous dialect confirmed." said the female voice again. "Well, at least it's not saying gibberish anymore," said Rainbow Dash. "Unidentified personnel detected. Please check in at security at the next opportunity." exclaimed the voice cheerfully. Matt and Twilight however were looking at the map. "This looks a awful lot like the globe at your treehouse, Twilight." said Matt, thoughtfully. "Yes, it seems to be a complete map of Equestria," said Twilight, "Though there seems to be some differences." "This thing was made over 10,000 years ago or something," said Matt, "Things easily could have changed since then." Matt looked at the dots and the runes by them "I guess these dots must be other Atlantean bases." he said. "Indeed," said Aria, "I better record this." Matt shrugged "Fine...hey, where did dash go?" he commented. Dash, meanwhile, was looking around the place. She had no idea what most of these things are, but they were neat to look at. "Please note, sectors 25, 29 and 34 are off limits indefinitely due to a internal security breach." said the computers voice as she wandered around. After a minute dash wandered into a well lit room with a glowing crystalline pillar. "Welcome Test subject, to VD Lab 2-14. Test will commence in 10 units." said the voice cheerfully "How long's a unit?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Query not reqognized...please try again." said the computer as the others came into view. "There you are...are you nuts, wandering off like that?" said Matt, annoyed as he and aria walked in. "Guys, you know how long a unit is?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Why do you ask?" asked Aria. "Because the voice said the tech will commence in 10 units, whatever that means." On cue the voice spoke again. "Test now active...sealing chamber." it exclaimed before a blastshield shot down in the doorway. "I'm guessing a unit's not very long," said Matt before he started banging on the blastshield. "Commencing charging sequence...scanning for source material." said the voice before a translucent cone came from the pillar, passing around the trio. "Er, any idea what's going on?" asked Matt. "In my experience, countdowns are typically bad, so..." Matt redoubled his efforts to force the blastshield open. "5...4...3…2...1...firing." said the computer before the pillar flashed...and the room was empty again. "Jump complete...beginning VD program..." said the computer... ... The next thing Matt, Aria, and Rainbow Dash knew, there were standing in a big white expanse of nothingness. Rainbow looked around and said, "I'm getting this weird feeling I've been in a situation like this before." "Deja vu," said Aria. "Geseundheit," replied Dash. After a minute there was a flash of light and the trio were in the middle of a crouded street. "Ok, where are we?" asked Matt. Rainbow Dash looked around "I dunno..." before she stopped, apparently spotting something in the crowd. "What? What is it?" asked Matt, looking around. The more he looked, the more this place reminded him of an Arabian town. There were stone buildings, stalls with clothes hanging over them to keep out the shade, and the ponies he could see were wearing stuff that was close to what you'd expect from a suburb in Cairo. "She went that way." said Dash urgently, flying off down a side street. "Wait...dash...oh, come on. Lets go, aria." said Matt, annoyed before following. "This is not how I wanted to spend my first day with my new robot body," said Aria to herself before following after the two. The duo finally caught up with Dash after a minute "For smegs sake...why all the running?" panted Matt. "IT'SDARINGDOO!" squealed Rainbow Dash. "Uh, pardon?" asked Matt. When no responce came, Matt tried again. "Who the hells Daring Doo and why should I care?" he said darkly. "Daring Doo, the most awesome and amazing archeologist who's ever been a book series!" squealed Rainbow Dash. "Book series." said Matt dully. "Book series? The logic of this does not compute." said Aria. "But she's right there!" said Rainbow Dash, pointing towards a pony who looked a lot like her, only with a different color scheme, a compass cutie mark, and an archeologist's outfit. Matt looked at her "We're in a book...we're in a frigging book." he said in a disbelieving voice. "Wait a minute," said Rainbow Dash, "I read this book. This is 'Daring Doo and the Sphinx's Treasure'! We're in the city of Mareaco!" "Is there any city here that isn’t ripping off ours?" muttered Matt. Aria looked thoughtful and said, "I think I know what is happening here." "Please, enlighten us, o'talkie toaster." said Matt sarcastically. Aria ignored Matt and said to Dash “I am guessing from your reactions that you have read these ‘Daring Doo’ novels.” "Read them? I know them by heart," said Rainbow Dash. "I thought so...the device probably scans memories for ‘source materials’. The NSC always had theories that the atlanteans tried to make dimensions as well as contact them. The device that got us must have been a recreational device based off the research." said Aria. "So...this whole thing's like a holoshed?" asked Matt. "More then that...this is probably an actual universe...created by the device and now independent." said Aria, before thinking "The exit will probably appear at the 'books' conclusion." "So what are we supposed to do, follow the story and keep up with the protagonist throughout her adventure here?" asked Matt. "Precisely," said Aria. Matt stopped at that "Didn’t the machine say it was 'modifying content'?" "It did," said Aria, "This might not be an exact replication of the book's plot. Some changes may have been added to accommodate our presence." "Ok, dash...what happens after Miss Doo leaves the market? You read the book, you're our map." said Matt, confidently. When Dash didn't respond, Matt looked around to see she was gone. "Where'd she go?" he asked. Aria pointed to a doorway. "She followed Miss Doo into there." she commented. Matt rolled his eyes "Fine...lets get this over with before my head explodes from logic deficiency." he sighed. Aria and Matt walked into the building, which was evidentially a tavern of some sort. The room they were in appeared to be the lounge and had several cushions scattered about for customers to sit on. Matt immediately spotted Dash in the corner, walking over to her. "Can we try to stay together?" he said sarcastically before waving a hand in front of Dash’s face. "DASH...WAKE UP!" he yelled after a minute. "There she is!" squealed Rainbow Dash, pointing across the room to where Daring Doo was sitting at another table. Matt sat down and said as calmly as he could "Dash...we don’t know when or even what the exit portal will be...we have to stay together." Aria said after a minute "She's not listening." "Oh, look, she's getting the map to the sphinx's lair now," said Rainbow Dash. A wizened diamond dog had been talking with Daring Doo and was now unrolling a sheet of parchment on the table. Matt however was looking at the heavies that the dog had brought along. "Thats alot of security for an antique." he muttered to Dash, pointing them out. "An antique?" said Rainbow Dash, "That map leads to a fortune. You have an idea of how much treasure that sphinx has stored in its lair?" "Oh please...don’t you think its a bit wierd?" said Matt, looking at the other tables. "...that almost all the tables are taken up with these doggies?" "Well, the jackals have been looking for this treasure too," said Rainbow Dash, "So they had their agents here and ready to attack Daring Doo as soon as she has the map." "Good...cause I think they just slipped something in her drink." said Matt, concern in his voice. ... Daring Doo studied the map. She had been searching for weeks for the sphinx's lair and now it was at her hooftips. Still, something wasn't quite right. "You're asking for a pretty small price considering how much this map is worth," said Daring. "First, toast to...good profits," said the dog before taking his drink and passing one over to Daring. Daring shrugged and took a drink as well. But there was something odd. Her drink had a bitter aftertaste to it. The diamond dog and his bodyguards grinned at that "Is pony feeling strange?" asked the lead dog. "Strange, what are you-" started Daring before starting to feel woozy. "Is sad...dago weed make drinks nice for diamond dogs but nasty for ponies...we give cure for map. Aniba pay better for map." said the dog gleefully. "You...dirty...dogs..." growled Daring as she struggled to remain conscious. "Now give map, little pony." said the dog, all glee vanishing before a voice said "Barney...I haven;t seen you for a dogs age." and some kind of hairless monkey, apparently drunk put his arm around the dogs neck, much to the dogs surprise. The dog gave the newcomer an annoyed look and said, "Get off me, ape. I don't know you." "No...no...you're definitely the guy...right, aria?" said the ape with a happy grin. A female version had silently appeared behind one of the bodyguards "Thats right, captain...I believe I remember him." "I never saw you before! Now go away! I have busi-" snapped the dog before a clicking sound stopped him. Daring was sure it was the dago weed but she thought she heard the ape mutter "What I have pointed at you is the XR-220 plasma magnum...if I pull the trigger…well, it can go through a tank so I doubt that where I am aiming will present any problem at all." There was a yelp as one of the bodyguards tried to grab him and was held in the grip of the apes partner, who was apparently holding the arm of a fully grown diamond dog as if it was nothing. "You don't have grapes to-" started the dog. "Any more than you do to poison Ms. Doo here?" retorted the ape. "Give miss doo the cure and we'll say no more about it and you'll leave with a normal sounding voice and your bodyguard won’t have his wristbones reduced to powder by my associate here." said the ape with deadly calm before calling out "Dash...why don’t you grab the vial off our new best friend here?" A brightly-colored pegasus trotted over and grabbed a bottle that was in the dog's belt. She poured the contents into one of the drinks on the table before giving it to Daring. "Here you go," said Rainbow. The ape grinned triumphantly as Daring gulped it down before looking at the diamond dog. However, the dog had noticed the ape's shift in attention and managed to kick him away into another table that was occupied by more dogs. A dozen or so dogs got up and glared. "Aniba pay lots of gems for map. GET PONY!" said the dog angrily before a stun blast made him judder in place before falling over. "Matt, I think we have overstayed our welcome," said the female ape as the arm that had changed into some kind of projectile weapon charged up again. The dogs looked at each other before charging at once. Aria sighed and aimed her blaster arm at the wall. "Seeing as we cannot use the door..." she muttered. … The ponies outside jumped back as the tavern wall suddenly exploded outward. Matt picked her up and said, "You're probably still weak from that poison. Just tell us where to go." Daring glared and said "Not a chance. I’ve been searching for this treasure for months. I'm not gonna give up now." "I didn't say that," said Matt, "I'm saying that until you can walk or fly in a straight line without crashing into something, I'll be carrying you. Which way to the edge of town?" Daring sighed "Ok...lets just get somewhere where I can look at this map." she said. "Any suggestions?" asked Matt to Rainbow. "We can head back to Darings hotel." said Dash. Daring gave Rainbow a suspicious look. "How do you know where my hotel is?" she asked. "Long story, miss doo...and you wouldn’t believe me anyway...I just hope the others are ok." said Matt casually. … Meanwhile, Twilight and Applejack were trying to figure where their friends had disappeared to. "Ya think they woulda told us if they were goin' somewhere," said Applejack. "Test program now in effect...Alert: software damage detected. Safety protocols: offline. Emergency logout: offline." said the facility voice. "That doesn't sound good to me," said Applejack, "Any idea what it means?" "I'm not sure," said Twilight, "But I bet it has something to do with where the others have disappeared to." "Program is in effect...unable to log units out. Please try again later." said the voice. "Uh...from what little I can make out of that, wherever they are, they're stuck," said Applejack. "Warning...weapon fire detected at surface level...please stand by." said the computer... ... Darius stepped through the camp with his men. The Icarus had picked up a energy burst from this area and Darius had decided to come personally. The cowardly locals had fled as soon as his men had fired a few rounds into the air. "Spread out. I don’t want any interruptions." he called out. It was pretty easy to tell where the energy was coming from. The crystal-lined hole was a dead giveaway. "Payday...NSC pays top dollar for stuff from these places." said one of the troopers cheerfully. Darius however was looking at the grapple at the rim. "Lynch...Team one...with me. Team 2...you're on overwatch up here." he called out before grabbing the grapple line and shooting down the rope. "Uh, sir, what about the defenses?" asked a trooper. Atlantean ruins were infamous for the deadly booby traps that made an Egyptian crypt seem like a funhouse. "If Lynch is down there, the defences are probably already down...NOW I GAVE YOU AN ORDER, CORPORAL...GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!" said Darius before yelling the last part angrily. The troopers quickly got their own grappling lines set and started sliding down into the hole. ... "Warning...Intruders detected in access corridor theta. Going to alert status 2…Hacking intruder comms……Leader identified: One Colonel Anton Darius in command." chimed the computer, a holographic view appearing on a wall, showing Darius and his merc team walking in. "So that’s the Darius guy chasing Matt." said Twilight, spotting the nametag on the groups leader. "Figures a no-good varment like him will come snoopin' around," said Applejack. "Uh, computer, is there anything you can do to make those guys go away?" asked Twilight. "Stand by. Attempting to uplink to nearest warrior guild facility...failed. Attempting to uplink to secondary site....failed. Attempting to uplink to tritary Shield System site...failed. Warning: Ragnarok class alert now in progress. Entering emergency lockdown and deploying countermeasures..." said the computer in sequence, finishing ominously with "Thank you for your cooperation." "Uh, 'lockdown' means we ain't gettin' out, right?" asked Applejack. On the screen, the door that had so happily opened to allow them access into the building could be seen slamming shut with a certain finality, a secondary door slamming down over it for good measure, causing the two troopers guarding it to turn in silent surprise. "I'm pretty sure it does," said Twilight. ... Meanwhile, Matt, Dash and Aria had helped Daring back to the hotel she had been staying at in town. "So what so awesome about this treasure?" asked Matt curiously adding "...that has people wanting to kill you." "Are you kidding?" asked Daring, "Sphinxes are as big at hoarding as dragons and this sphinx has been around before Equestria was founded. Can you imagine how much stuff is in its lair?" Matt stopped as his brain did the mental maths and melted when its internal calculator ran out of big enough numbers. "Once you've cleared the vision of dollar signs out of your head, I suggest we acquire some rapid transportation," said Aria, "Doubtlessly those dogs will be after us." Matt shrugged "Those guys? I doubt they have enough brain power to light a bulb. I think we're s....no....nononono...NOT gonna say it." he said, stopping and covering his ears before going 'Lalala...can't hear myself'. Daring just stared puzzled “Is he ok?" she asked concerned. "He's...been out in the sun too long. His brain is cooked," said Rainbow Dash. Aria said "You have no idea...I've read his last psyche report. Now, shall we review this map?" "Oh, right," said Daring Doo. She took the map out from under her hat. She was about to unroll it when she paused. "Wait...how do I know you guys aren't trying to trick me into taking you to the treasure so you can have it all to yourselves?" Aria said "Mr Lynch may be a mercenary but the CPS prides itself on the honor of its employees and the policy of ruthlessly hunting down those who betray that trust." "I don't know, I've been backstabbed by traitors before," said Daring Doo. Rainbow Dash nodded "Like in Daring doo and the griffons goble-mmmph." she said before Aria slammed her hand around Rainbows muzzle. "Miss Dash has also been in the sun too long too." she said with a worried smile. Daring gave the group an even more suspicious look. "What are you two anyways?" she asked, looking at Matt and Aria. "Mr Lynch is a human...he is from.....overseas. I am also human and definately not a combat grade android." said Aria a little desperately. "A human?" asked Daring, "I've never heard of those before." "I can safely exclaim that if I told you all the facts you would either think I was insane...or you were." said Aria with complete truth before looking at the map. "Well, you got me out of there, so I guess I owe you," said Daring, "But I've got my eye on you." Aria said "Take it from me...we're professionals..." before looking at where Matt had a manic look, expecting his precious tempting of fate to come back on him any second “...despite appearences." she added after some thought. She turned her attention back to the map. "Hmm...it seems we will need to cross a considerable expanse of desert." Aria peered before noticing several circles marked "Sandworms? Really?" she said skeptically. What is this? Arrakis?" she added. "They're pretty nasty," said Daring, "They're either big enough to swallow you in a gulp or smaller but can shoot burning acid." "Oh...goody...I presume thats why the map maker plotted the dotted line through the middle of that area." said Aria a little sarcastically. "Big deal, we can fly over them," said Rainbow Dash. "You and Dash can...I cannot...and Mr Lynch cannot either." said Aria pointedly. "Besides, the supplies will be too heavy to let us fly that fast," said Daring. Dash growled in fustration to herself as Aria looked at another section of the map. "We will need extra water...you most likely stocked for yourself alone, miss doo." she said. "Yeah, and we're gonna need more food and I'll probably have to get a bigger tent," said Daring. "I will not require a space...Mr Lynch however...maybe you should buy the extra large version?" said Aria. "I'm not that big," said Matt before he whacked his head against a rafter, "Stupid miniature horse dimensions." Matt sat down a little uncomfortably. "So who's Aniba?" he asked. "The leader of the biggest jackal tribe around here," said Daring, "She's just as nasty and greedy as Ahuitzotl. She'll stop at nothing to claim the sphinx's treasure all for herself. "Ah...a smeghead." said Matt knowingly. "A what?" asked Daring. "It pretty much means jerk," said Rainbow. "Big jerk." corrected Matt. "Which means her forces will be moving in on us the longer we stay here," said Aria. Matt was looking at a newer map he’d grabbed from the hotel reception desk shortly after they’d arrived. "Bingo. There's a train that goes through the area on its way east. We can ride it till we pass the nests then jump out and go the rest of the way." he said triumphantly. "A train? Anubi's minions are bound to catch us on it," said Daring. "Yes but it is defendable...and will be too public to risk an attack. Attacking a public transport will almost certainly end with the local government taking decisive action." said Aria before turning to Matt. "Are you feeling ok? That was actualy a good idea." "What? Just because I prefer a 'blow them up' approach doesn't mean I always go with it," said Matt. Aria ignored that and added "And if they are stupid enough to attack us...they will find us very tough to subdue." … The train itself was surprisingly comfortable, travelling through the desert at a decent rate. Aria was staring out the window in thought while Dash and Daring had gone further up the train to get some food. “There is something…strange about this situation…surely you have noticed.” Aria said finally. "What?" said Matt a little sarcastically as he tried to work out what she found wierd in this situation. "I have an internal clock logged into NSC temporal speed...it has only logged a single minute change in all the time when it has been nearly a day." commented Aria. "So...this is one of those Narnia things were time moves faster in here than it does in real time," said Matt, "That's convenient." "It is probably similar to the phenomenon you encountered in the Z class you encountered in the dragon eye nebula...probably artificially induced so users do not end up losing days during programs." said Aria. "Hey, how would you know about that?" snapped Matt, "That was top-secret classified." "Exo Gene has more connections than you think," said Aria. Matt glared "When this is over...we're gonna talk about that." he said before Dash and Daring came into view. "I could get into this treasure hunting...getting halfway there by train is quite peaceful." Matt said to them cheerfully. "Don't get used to the luxury," said Aria, "We'll be walking the rest of the way once we've reached the halfway point." Matt nodded before looking out the windows. "Oh look...talk about omens. Vultures." he said darkly. "I don't like vultures that much," said Rainbow, "They really stink." Daring however headed to the window and peered out. "Great...this isn’t good." she muttered. "What's so bad about a bunch of vultures?" asked Matt. "All the vultures here work for Anibu." said Daring in a worried voice, looking at where the vultures were keeping pace with the train as best they could. "So, they're just vultures," said Matt, "It's not like they're eagles." "They're probably following us to see when we get off." said Daring before what looked like a snake slammed against the window...a juvenile sandworm. "At least they won’t land." said Matt weakly as the sandworm slipped back down, leaving a translucent green goo on the window. "But they will swoop in once we're off the train," said Aria. "I think they're already doing that." said Matt nervously, pointing to where a trio had broken off and were heading for the train. "We can take those mangy buzzards," said Rainbow Dash. On cue a small rock came smashing through the window, its thrower peeling off with a caw. "That's going to make things a little more difficult," said Matt. "I think this is close enough for us to get off." commented Aria, readying her arm cannon and firing a few bursts. Matt pulled out his blaster and took a few half hearted shots as another wing of vultures flew at the train. "Are we far enough away from the sandworm nest?" asked Matt. Aria glared "If we stay here, these birdbrains will derail us. All it will take is one hit on the ponies pulling the train." she said, firing another shot that sent a vulture spinning to the ground. "Seriously, they haven't discovered steam power yet?" said Matt. Another rock shot through, hitting aria between the eyes and knocking her down. "Ok, fair point," said Matt, "Rainbow, Daring, get ready to fly." "What about you?" said Daring in concern. Aria, getting up with a dent on her forehead commented "He'll be out shortly. I...know a spell that will help." "Spell, what do you mean 'spell'?" asked Matt, giving her a suspicious look. "Trust me, sir." said Aria as the two pegasi flew out. Matt turned to look out a window. "Ok...this had better..." he began before Aria clonked him on the head and, as he fell over, grabbed his wrist computer "This is for your own good," said Aria as she interacted with the wrist comp. "Reality generator disengaged..." said the computer's voice. "Warning...subject unconscious...encoding imminent." chimed the wrist computer as Matt began to stir. Matt shook his head and asked, "What just-" "Encoding commencing," said the computer. Matt glared as reality energy crackled "I hate you so much." he managed... Aria shielded her eyes for a few seconds before looking at the glaring new pegasus. "Welcome back, ‘Spark’." she said. "I REALLY hate you, you.....tin can." said Matt angrily, once again stuck as the pegasus, Spark. "Hate later, fly now." said Aria primly, grabbing Matt and throwing him out the window. Matt panicked a bit before remembering how to operate his own wings. He started flapping them in time to keep him from crashing. After a minute he managed to get the other two in sight, looking down to see the vultures too focused on Aria's weapon fire from the train to notice the pegasi flying away. "Ok, this should be simple," said Matt, "Just catch up with the others. It's not like it's a race in a dangerous environment." After a minute he had managed to get close enough to call out "Hey...slow the hell down in front." Daring looked at Matt with amazement. "Matt, how did-" "Talk later," said Rainbow, "We need to keep moving." "Lets just go before they realize Aria's alone in the train. She'll catch us up." said Matt, panting from effort, adding to himself "She doesn’t need to sleep for a start." "Ok, we need to make up for lost time," said Daring Do, "Keep an eye out for any more vultures." Matt and Dash nodded before keeping pace. "If we get out of this, I'm gonna dismantle Aria permently." said Matt annoyed. Some time later, the three pegasi stopped for a rest. "You think we should go back for Aria?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I'm sure she'll be fine," said Daring. As if to prove her words, Aria came walking over the rise of a nearby dune. However, she was covered in sandworm goo that they could smell from their distance. "If I EVER see another sandworm again." she was muttering darkly before coming towards them. "I HATE this pla...country." "Consider it karma for that little 'spell'," said Matt smugly. "Bada do tisama, Matt." swore Aria, angrily in splitter. "Let's get back to the treasure hunt," said Daring before looking at the map. Matt, Dash and Aria walked over to look at the map. "So where too from worm town?" commented Matt. "Well, it says the temple should be here," said Daring, pointing to a spot on the map. "Great...and from the looks of things, we've lost these vultures." said Matt, confidently "Still, it'll take a while for us to get there since we have to slow down for Aria," said Daring. Aria said "I'm faster then I look. I don;t tire for a start." Daring glared at Aria "What the hell are you? You know...never mind. We should move at first light. The last thing we want is Anibu catching up." ... Meanwhile, the vultures were flying their way back to where their masters waited for them. They could see the tent pitched between two dunes. They glided down and landed at the entrance. The two jackels on guard glared at the group before letting them in. There were two more jackal guards inside, each standing beside a pile of cushions on which sat Anibu. Although she was slimmer, shorter, and wearing comfortable Arabian-styled clothes instead of armor like her guards, there was a definitive air of power around her. "Well? Where is it?" said Aniba coldly. The vultures looked nervously at each other before pushing one of them forward. "Er...we ambushed the train like you said as it was passing the sandworm dunes...but..." he began nervously. "You have returned in failure?!" snapped Anibu. "The two newcomers had advanced weapons. Three of our flock were lost attempting to attack them before they escaped." said the vulture desperately. "I will brook no failure," snapped Anibu, "That treasure is more valuable than all your carcasses put together. A hundred times more valuable. I will not let that winged mare get it to it before me." One of the vultures dropped Matts blaster, disgarded when Aria had gotten him encoded "Her companions used these." he said. Anibu gave the blaster a long look. "What sort of weapon is this?" she asked to herself. "It shoots fireballs of some kind." said the vulture, pointing to one of their number who had a neat half circle burnt from his tail feathers. "Interesting," said Anibu, "Does this companion have more of these devices?" "Her arm was one...we had her cornered when she blew out the wall behind her and jumped out. She must be a mage where she comes from." said the vulture. Their leader said "We want double...you said this pegasus doesn’t use weapons or use hired warriors." Anibu glared at them and said, "You're lucky I don't have you beheaded right now. Your failure has cost me precious time and my time is worth more than any of you." "Hey...what about our payment?" said the vulture leader angrily, as anibu looked at the blaster before working out how to grip it. "You are allowed to leave with your lives now. Don't be greedy," said Anibu. "How dare you..." began the vulture leader before anibu blasted him out the tent. "I think I like this device...are the rest of you still here?" she said, amused, before snarling the last part at the horrified vultures. The vultures quickly turned tail and ran out of the tent, taking to the air as fast as they could. Anibu put the blaster on the small table next to her seat and turned to one of her jackels. "Send out the scouts. They will not have gotten far." she ordered. … Meanwhile, Darius had found out that the facility wasn't quite as defenseless as they had thought. His men were busy clearing out the various machines that were attacking...even atlantean medi-bots from the facilities sickbay were joining in. His temper wasn’t helped by the fact that he knew he was on a clock...no doubt the ponies that had fled were getting help. Still, he had managed to get far enough. There was still quite a bit of base to cover, but he was able to see a very interesting map of this world. "This place musta been an administrative hub...or flight control or something." said the tech next to him. "These red dots must be destroyed facilities...dunno about this yellow one here...but two of these other dots are marked with the rune for 'vault'." "I should make a copy of this," said Darius, "It'll be simpler than coming back here every time I need a refresher." "Already done, sir..." said the tech. Darius nodded before his radio crackled "Sir...we spotted the last two runners...its that purple smeg that wasted echo." ... Meanwhile, Applejack and Twilight had found out that the lockdown wasn't as secure as they though, seeing how they were running away from Darius' men right now. The computer calmly stated "Alert...unauthorized energy weapon fire detected." as blue stun bolts bounced off the walls behind the duo, a hatch opening to allow a four armed machine to roll out on caterpillar treads to distract them. The two ponies ducked into a side room. "You know, I'm startin' to not like this place," said Applejack, "I don't mind the runnin', it's all the doors that are rubbin' me up the wrong way." Several lights came on in the darkened room, showing rows of raised platforms along the walls...and rather creepily, one of them still 'occupied'. The two ponies stared at the clearly human skeleton slumped down before Twilight said, "Um, maybe we should find another place to hide." A voice outside said "Hey...I thought I heard something in here." Another saying "Check the rooms...stay together...that purple one wiped out echo in under 2 minutes." The computer spoke up "Powering up neuro-training systems...preparing previous program...Magi series stasis training." "Trainin'? What kinda trainin'?" asked Applejack. "I think it's talking about magic training," said Twilight. "Uh, I don't think ya'll want to learn any magic from these guys," said Applejack, "It probably ain't the good kind." Banging was heard on the door, a voice saying angrily "They're in here...damn computers grav locked it. Get a sonic cutter." before a white dot appeared on the door and began to move down it. "I don't think we have a choice," said Twilight before saying, "Computer, begin magi training, maximum learning speed." She looked at Applejack and asked, "Does that sound right?" "One compatible subject detected...please step onto the platform." said the computer, another platform lighting up and what looked like binoculars attached to a robotic arm lowered down. "You sure you wanna do this?" asked Applejack. "If I don't, those guys will get us and I don't want to imagine what they'll do with us," said Twilight before stepping onto the platform. "Indigenous lifeform detected. Rescinding clearance in light of ragnarok class attack. Please stand by." said the computer, several mechanical arms reaching out and carefully but firmly holding twilight in place before the goggles moved forward. "Please note...discomfort will occur." said the computer calmly as a whine began "Beginning in 3...2...1...engaging..." The next Twilight knew, it was like she was being hit by a lightning bolt, about 20 times, at the same time. Her body twitched and shuddered as all her hair stood on end. Applejack could only watch as Twilight juddered in place, lights flickering on the goggles covering her eyes before she finally slumped down as it finished. "Program complete." said the computer calmly. Applejack ran over immediately. "Twilight, are you okay? Twilight?" she called. "Urrrgh...I feel like I;ve been holding the moon up." groaned Twilight before a cracking noise got their attention. The door was giving way to whatever Darius's men were using. "Well, I hope your legs are workin', cause we're gonna be usin' them real soon," said Applejack. The door gave way at that and two troopers ran in, rifles raised. "Freeze." yelled one of them. Applejack would have applied her two back hooves to their abdomens, but she knew those rifles would hit long before she could lift them up. Twilight however glared before her horn blazed and there was a flash of light. Applejack was braced for the imminent response when she noticed the troopers weren’t moving. She walked up to one and poked him with her hoof. Nothing happened, even when she bucked him hard in the chest. It was like kicking a granite statue. "Twilight, what did ya'll hit them with? They're they've just loss a starin' contest with a cockatrice," said Applejack. "I...I don’t know. I think I..." began Twilight before the computer butted in. "Temporal stasis magi weapon test complete successfully." "Temporal? You mean I froze them in time?" asked Twilight. "ConfIrmed. Designed for mass riot suppression." said the computer calmly. "Wow, that'd be useful if there were another stampede in town," said Applejack, "It does wear off, right?" "Neuro training implants knowledge directly into the neural cortex." said the computer calmly before saying "Alert...intruders approaching neuro-training lab." "Well, Twilight, looks like you'll be tryin' out that new spell of yours a lot more," said Applejack. "VD program 58% complete. Danger...external object corruption detected..." said the computer before saying "Alert: Unauthorized download in administration block." "What does all that mean?" asked Applejack. "I don't know, but it sounds serious," said Twilight. "Alert: Contact with Atlantis secondary ‘Ark’ command confirmed. Initiation of countermeasures authorized. Countermeasures will engage in 10 units." said the computer calmly, all the light crystals turning red. "Ok, now I'm really lost," said Applejack. "Arming implosion charges 1-9. Countermeasures will engage in 9.9 units." said the computer, gravely. ... After a brief rest and a long journey through the night, the small team of archeologists/treasure hunters found themselves facing the sphinx's temple as dawn was cresting over the horizon. Matt whistled at the sight, impressed. "Miss sphinx sure knew how to live it up." he said, looking at the large temple, the remains of a ghost town surrounding it. "The hard stuff's not over yet," said Daring Do, "According to my research, this sphinx was a bit on the paranoid side." "Oh, goody. Traps, monsters, undead. As if I don’t get enough of this in my dayjob." muttered Matt to himself, darkly. "And I don't think we should subtract the jackals confronting us from the equation," said Aria. "Oh...thanks for that reminder, Aria. Nothing but a ray of sunshine." said Matt, sarcastically as the group walked down towards the town. Rainbow was looking at the buildings. "People lived near a sphinx?" she said out loud. "Just because the sphinx was overly-suspicious doesn't mean she didn't look out for other people," said Daring, "A lot of people felt safe near her temple so they built up a town around it." Matt looked at one of the buildings, that looked like a wrecking ball had smashed through it...and then burnt it. "And I'm guessing some other people would have just wanted to loot this town in spite of the sphinx," he said. Daring doo nodded "Yeah...young dragons would love to try and raid sphinx hoards if they had the chance too." she said. "But no one's been here for centuries," said Rainbow, "The town's been picked clean long ago and only we know the secret entrance to the sphinx's lair." Daring looked at the ruined hut. "Some young dragons tend to have tantrums...especially if they don’t find what they wanted." she said, worried. "I suggest we reserve our concern for the jackals," said Aria, "They're more likely to be an imminent threat." Daring nodded "Yeah...the dragon that did this probably left months ago." she said a little more confidently. Suddenly, Rainbow paused and said, "I think I'm getting that 'been-here-before' feeling again." "Deja vu," said Aria. "Geseundheit," said Rainbow. "Like what...a dragon round the corner?" said Matt jokingly before noticing the terrified stares on rainbows and darings faces and Aria's amused look. "Its behind me, isn’t it." he said dully before a deep voice said "Oh good...breakfast in bed." Matt glanced over his shoulder at the large yellow dragon that had been lying in the ruined remains of the hut and was now right over him. "Pardon me for shouting any obvious cliche, but...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" yelled Matt. The group ran for it as the dragon roared and took off, circling and waiting for a good chance to swoop in for his 'lunch'. "Why couldn't it have been another sandworm?" griped Matt. "Believe me, this is a welcome change," said Aria. A blast of flame shot down, blowing a empty hut apart on the side of the street. "Really? This is better?" glared Matt, galloping for his life. Daring skidded round a corner and saw salvation in the form of the temple doors...the heavy temple doors with the pony sized open hatchway. "Guys, through here," she called. "Please tell me you have the secret key or something," said Matt. Daring reached under her hat and pulled out what looked like a ankh amulet. "Of course." she said, smugly, before pushing the amulet into a indentation in the gates frame. There was a slight rumble before the hatchway opened a crack. The dragon was heard roaring overhead as it spotted their intent. "Everyone in the creepy temple." gibbered Matt, flying through the hatchway. The others quickly followed. "Wait, if we leave the amulet in-" started Daring. "It's not like the dragon can use this door, CLOSE IT!" snapped Matt. Daring took one look at the amulet before following the others inside...just in time as the angry dragon landed and tried to reach through. Matt grinned “Nyer nyer. Can’t get us." he taunted cheerfully before a blast of flame singed his mane. "The cropped look suits you, sir," said Aria mockingly. Matt gulped as the dragon peered in before rolling its eye and taking off again. "I prefer avalarians." he said weakly. Since going back out through the door wasn't an option, the group moved inward, deeper into the temple. Daring and Dash looked around for possible windows they could use for exits, but they didn't spot any. "Hey...we’ll get out of here." said Matt, spotting their worry. Hell, he was already feeling confined...stupid pegasus instincts. "The sphinx would have had more than one point of entry or egress," said Aria, "It shouldn't be difficult to locate a useable one when the time comes." "Good...I wonder how close Aniberk is?" commented Matt. ... The jackals had not wasted their time. They had gone through the night and had arrived at the ruins just as the sun had cleared the horizon. The dragon could be seen circling the temple before giving up apparently and flying towards the nearby mountains. "Is it safe to go?" asked one of the jackals. "That flying lizard could return," said another. Anibu looked as the dragon flew out of sight. "We'll be fine. The dragon should not worry you...I should if you fail." she said darkly. The jackals then headed over to the temple. "You have to admit, they did an excellent job in building this place," said one of the jackals, "The sands and winds have barely damaged it after all these years." "Earth ponies probably...or a zebra tribe. I don’t care. If daring beat us here, we'll have enough trouble getting..." began Anibu before seeing the open hatchway and finishing in shock "...in?" "Daring must be here already," said one of the jackal guards. Anibu smirked "And she kindly left the door open for us." "And maybe she'll spring all the traps for us too," said another jackal. ... Meanwhile, Aria and the pegasi were progressing further into the temple, keeping an eye out for any trap. "Ok...so...what kinda traps can we expect?" said Matt, trotting ahead, a pendulum axe swinging past him as he went. "Oh, the usual kind," said Daring, "Spikes, pits, darts." Matt turned, a spike shooting up just in front of him as he turned "I haven’t seen anything." he said, turning back just after the spike had retracted. "Is he always this lucky?" muttered Daring to Aria as Matt trotted on, oblivious to the fact he was walking through a death trap. Aria shrugged "Usually...you should read his files if you think this is impressive." "I'm rapidly losing a bet with myself over him," said Rainbow Dash. "A bet over what?" asked Matt, turning his head just in time to avoid some darts hitting it. Aria burst out laughing at that "Ten credits says he makes it to the end without noticing." she said amused. Matt vanished a second later as the walls of the section he was passing sandwiched together...before retracting to show they had missed him. "What the hell was that crash?" he called. "Probably the sound of my expectations being smashed," said Rainbow a little numbly. "Oh please...why are you guys being so cautious? All the traps musta rusted up." he said, turning and almost getting a terminal haircut when a spinning blade shot over his head and sliced through a pillar. "Nnnngfh...maybe....not." he said in a weak voice. "Finally! I thought he was going to ignore all the traps," said Rainbow Dash. "Spinny...steely...death." said Matt in a distant voice, Aria finally resorting to picking him up and carrying him, his pose not altering statue style. "We can't be far from the treasure chamber now," said Daring. "Good...I think Mr Lynch needs time in the prescience of calming materials...like large amounts of currency." said Aria in a matter-of-fact voice before looking at the others "He’s a mercenary...what do you expect?" Not long after that, the group came to a huge bronze door, though time has made it green. The door had carvings depicting a sphinx sitting on a pillar. Dragons decorated the bottom of the door, with heads jutting forward and mouths wide open. "Hmm...It seems that showing off is a aspect not limited to mercenaries." said Aria, leaning the petrified with terror Matt against a wall. "I've heard about this door," said Daring Do, "It's the sphinx's last line of defense. The only way to open it is by answer its riddle correctly." Aria looked at the door skeptically. "A talking door? This I have to see." she said amused, leaning against the wall next to Matt who was finally moving again. The eyes of the carved sphinx suddenly glowed red as a deep feminine voice boomed out; “No matter where you go, No matter what you do, You will always need me, And I will be there for you." Matt looked over at Dash and Daring, Dash shrugging. Clearly the riddle had been changed as well. "Erm...sister?" he tried cautiously. The dragon heads at the bottom of the door let out a snarling sound as their mouths started glowing a familiar red. "Uh oh," said Matt, before the dragon heads each shot out a fireball at him. Dash and Daring were impressed at how Matt managed to do what looked like a tapdance to avoid the rapid fire fireballs before the voice said a little sarcastically "Wrong." Matt glared "Really? I'd never have guessed." he said, shakily. "Hmm...you will always need me..." muttered Daring, looking thoughtful. Daring opened her mouth to speak when Matt butted in "A partner? " he said before shrieking as another burst of fireballs shot at him. After narrowly avoiding the fireballs, Matt spoke up again, "A big gun?" Another wave of fireballs was shot towards him. "If you cannot think of a sensible answer, don't speak," said the voice, angrily. "Bite me, you sorry excuse for a catflap." returned Matt, angrily before sniffing "Does anyone smell smoke?" Rainbow nodded, pointing to Matts tail where a little pilot light was visible. "Ah...that....ARRRRRGH!" said Matt, pleasantly before shrieking and running off. Rainbow turned to Aria and asked, "Do you have any idea what the answer is?" "Oh, I think I could guess, but it's more fun to watch Matt do the fire dance," said Aria. There was a distant splash, followed by a hissing noise before Matt trotted back into view with as much dignity as he had left (which wasn't much). "Ok, you girls answer the stupid riddle now," snapped Matt. Seeing Matt wasn't going to interrupt now, Daring finally spoke up, "Air!" There was a long pause before the door slowly started to creak open. "You have got to be kidding." said Matt, dully, following them in. "Don’t even say a word, Rainbow Dash." he said as he passed the smirking cyan Pegasus. The hallway within was very dark, but they could see a light at the end of it. "We're almost there," said Daring Do. "We better be," said Matt. Matt followed the others before stopping. Despite appearances of being a gung ho psycho who's response to a problem could be measured in megatons, he liked a good book and it occurred to him that they were getting to a good point for the villain to suddenly pop up and spoil things. He continued on, keeping an eye out for any sign of the jackals appearing. After a minute though, he rolled his eyes and trotted to keep up. "It wouldn’t be that cliche.” he muttered to himself. Then the group walked into a huge chamber, one that had a skylight shining above illuminating the room. The entire chamber was filled up with treasure, mainly gold coins covering the floor. There were plenty of jewels and pieces of jewelry. Not to mention a few chests and some ancient-looking artifacts. And at the back was a huge ovoid marble statue that bespeckled with rubies and topazes. Matt just stared, the mercenaries internal calculator attempting to work out the value of a 1/4 share of the treasure and failing due to not finding a large enough number. "Its...beautiful." he said in awe. Aria would have pointed out that Matt couldn't take any of it with them when they left this 'story', but she doubted he would even hear her. Rainbow looked around and said, "He better not get comfortable. The bad guys are gonna be here soon." Daring, not noting the certainty in dash's voice nodded "Yeah...Anibu is probably right on our tails." before a plasma burst shot into the room and impacted Aria in the back, knocking her into a pile of jewels. Daring and Rainbow spun around to see the jackals coming through the doorway, Anibu holding the smoking plasma gun. "Many thanks for finding the treasure for us," said Anibu, "We'll take it from here." Matt glared "HEY...THATS MY BLASTER!" he yelled angrily. "Finders keepers is the law of the desert," said Anibu. "If I had fingers right now, I’d be giving you the middle one." said Matt darkly before slowly trotting over to join Daring and dash. "Good, now, don't do anything rash. We'll need as many workhorses as we can get to haul all this treasure out," said Anibu. "I find that insulting." said Matt, sulkily. "Do I seem like the kind that cares?" asked Anibu. Another jackel ran in at that "Anibu...the dragon...its coming back. We spotted it on the horizon." he said out of breath. "Well, that certainly is problematic," said Anibu, "I guess we'll have to use these ponies to divert the dragon's attention now." The ponies looked at each other at that "Erm...who'd haul the treasure then?" said Matt, nervously. "Well, I suppose we could get some more diamond dogs to take it all out, though it'll take longer," said Anibu. "I hate you, you...dog." sad Matt, darkly. "Dog? Dog?!" snapped Anibu, "How dare you compare me with those dirt-shoveling mongrels! I am a jackal, a far-higher breed of canine with a distinguished lineage. To even think of me being anywhere close to be related to those curs is...is..." Apparently Anibu couldn't think of any proper words to express her outrage and settled for shooting at Matt. Matt yelped and dodged the plasma burst by sheer luck. "Tie their wings and take them outside." she said annoyed. "What about the other one?" asked a jackal, indicating Aria's still form. "Leave her...I doubt she's any trouble now." said Anibu dismissively, gesturing to the fatal looking scorch mark. The three pegasi would have put up a fight, there were way too many jackals to deal with. In less time than they would have like, they found themselves with their wings bound and being carried off. "Does this happen often?" asked Matt to daring. "You'd be surprised," said Daring. Matt stared before saying with absolute truth "I know exactly how you feel." before the jackel carrying him snarled "Stop talking." Matt glared at the jackal before saying, "I'm sure we'll get out of this. Me and Dash have some friends waiting for us. I hope they aren't kept waiting too much longer." … Another two mercs froze in a flash of light s Twilight used her new spell again before knocking a third trooper over with a blast of red energy "There's too many of them," said Twilight, "I can't freeze them all if they come at me at once." "Let's hide in here," said Applejack, pointing at a door, "That seems a safe enough place." The room inside looked to be some kind of storage room, rows and rows of identical crystals stacked carefully. However, while the other rooms had all shown some form of decay or damage, this one had no damage at all, looking almost brand new. "What kind of fancy gems are these supposed to be?" asked Applejack as she looked at the shelves. All the crystals had a marking on them, applejack noticed as she peered before double-taking on one, sure she’d seen movement inside it. "I bet these crystals are enchanted somehow," said Twilight, "If I could only figure out how to use them." "Unless they show us how to get out of here, get rid of those guys, or bring Matt, Aria, and Rainbow Dash back, I don't think we have time for that," said Applejack. Twilight however had trotted round a corner to where a crystal was mounted on a plinth of some kind, a holoscreen coming from it. The view was already resetting, a line of runes obviously the title of the recording being shown before flickering to a large room where three tables had been set up around a central one. Four humans that were clearly guards standing to attention as a container was brought in. "Oh my, what's this?" asked Twilight. The container was opened and two people pulled three recognizable objects to the two. "Wait a minute, I've seen those things before," said Twilight, "It was in 'Lost Legends of Lost Treasures'." Applejack looked as the artifacts were placed on the three plinths before the people placing them ran to get out the way. "Whut are they?" she asked, getting a bad feeling about how they were starting to glow red. "According to legend, each of those three artifacts had the ultimate power of each of three races of ponies," said Twilight. “They belonged to the three tribes before Equestria was founded.” "Hey...that helmet looks a bit like the prop rainbow wore at the hearts warmin pagent." said Applejack, now noticing the helmet properly before the three artifacts fired beams into the center and the screen whited out before resetting. "So these Atlanteans must have known where the artifacts were," said Twilight, "You think they're still here?" "All class 12 artifacts were evacuated to backup facilities to await evacuation. Evacuation is overdue by 42,426 solar orbits." said the computer, calmly "Then this place has something that knows where those artifacts are," said Applejack, "We better find that before them thugs do." "Scans indicate backup facility 12 and 24 are still active...all other facilities were destroyed internally or via orbital bombardment. Alert...countermeasures will engage in 4 units." said thee computer calmly, a mini version of the map planet appearing, two of the white dots highlighted. "Twilight, you think you can remember those spots?" asked Applejack. "File was downloaded to ranking personnel mobile storage device." said the computer calmly, footage of the group when they first came in appearing, a circle around matts wrist computer. "Ah, that's great," said Twilight, "Now we just need to find out where Matt and the others had gone." "Program is still in effect...warning...emergency shutdown inoperative." said the computer. The footage showing the accident flickered again, this time showing something different. The viewer had been knocked down, smoke visible before a familiar yellow and red eye peered at the camera before resetting again. "Now why does that ring a bell?" asked Applejack. "I'm not sure, but it seems familiar," said Twilight. "Ah just hope we don;t meet him. That eye didn't look a mite friendly." said Applejack, in a worried tone. A voice sounded "Ok...this thing working? Good...ok, guys...something bigs coming from that city nearby...we are bugging out. I repeat...get the fuck outta here." "Alert, unauthorized use of intercom system," came the female voice. "Dammit...ok, everyone out. Now, dammit, now." said the other voice, clearly a merc. "Whew, looks they're all leavin'," said Applejack. "Hostile units have evacuated. Commencing shutdown of countermeasures...stand by." said the computer calmly, causing the two ponies to breathe a sigh of relief. "Great, now all we have to do is wait for Matt, Aria, and Rainbow Dash to come back," said Twilight. "Danger...shutdown failure. Countermeasures will activate in 3.4 units. All personnel evacuate immediately." said the computer urgently. "Uh, what was that?" asked Applejack. "I think it's what Matt would call a 'computer bug'," said Twilight, "But I've never seen any insects like that." "Main charges now primed...detonation in 3 units." said the computer gravely. ... There are times when a person thinks 'Where did my life go arse end up?' For Matt, it was now, after he, Daring and Dash had been pushed out into the open for a ravenous dragon. There was a small mercy that the jackals weren't the 'gloating as you die' type, since they'd rather not end up as the dragon's second course. "So...anyone got a plan?" asked Matt, innocently. "I'm working on it," said Daring. Matt looked up as a shadow passed over them "Daring? Think faster." he said, agitated. "Wait, my magnifying glass," said Daring, "If I can get out of my pocket, I can use it with the sun's rays to burn through the ropes and get us free." Matt looked up "Someone has to run distraction..." he said before seeing the others looking at me. "Fine." he said dully before trotting out into the main street. "Free lunch...come and get it.” he called. The dragon spotted Matt and flew down to enjoy his first helping of pegasus. At that instant, every survival instinct in Matt, both human and equine, seemed to be going off at once. After a few microseconds, Matts body came to the consensus that his brain was currently dead weight and turned him to make with all speed for the nearest intact building. Matt ran up to the door and banged on it, yelling, "Let me in, let me in!" He pauses and said, "Oh, wait, this house is abandoned." He then opened the door and quickly went inside. Matt slammed it and breathed a sigh of relief. "Ah....that was easy." he said relieved before there was a granite ripping noise and the entire roof was torn off. Matt looked up to see the dragon looking down at him. "Er, I think I need to find another house," said Matt before quickly going back out the door. It was just in time as the dragon breathed straight down into the house. "Why me? Its not like dragons usually hate me...one of my best friends a dragon.” he yelled as the dragon gave chase. Apparently this dragon wasn't much of a conversationalist as he just shot another fireball at Matt. "Asshole." retorted Matt angrily before realizing he had slowed down too much. The dragon took advantage of this to aim a slash that caused Matt to stumble when he tried to dodge. Matt rolled across the sand for a while before hitting a wall. He got up again, a bit shaky, and quickly headed to an alley between two buildings just before the dragon landed there. This time he didn’t hang around to gloat, given how the dragon had made short work of the hut earlier. It was good too as the dragon began ripping the alley up to try and catch him. "Get back here..." the dragon snarled angrily. ... While the jackals had the sense not to gloat, there were still a few who wanted to watch the dragons tear the ponies apart. "Ten bits says he lasts another few minutes." said one of the jackals in an amused tone as Matt was seen running screaming across streets, the dragon demolishing the area behind him. "Twenty bits says that dragon will end up smashing all of those old huts down before its done," said another. Another of the jackels came up. "What are you idiots doing? The fourth ones vanished. Anibu says to be careful...she could be anywhere." she said angrily. "I think a hairless ape would stand out pretty clearly," said the first jackal. "Really. She could be right behind you and you wouldn’t know it." said the new jackal, only for the others to turn their backs on her. "I wonder where those other two ponies are," said one jackal. "Maybe the dragon already- Wait a minute, didn't Anibu chase out the last female three months ago?" said another. They turned to the jackal and one of them was blasted out into the street by the jackals new plasma cannon arm before the other was grabbed and lifted up. The remaining jackal whimpered as the fake jackal shimmered and changed to be the ape from earlier, the hole in her chest sparking. "Normally, I would have just knocked you out with a loose brick, but this was a brand new robot body," said Aria. The jackal whimpered before Aria said coldly "Goodbye." before she threw him out across the street and into a hut. A roar got her attention and she turned to see the dragon. "Work, work work." she muttered to herself before striding in the direction of the dragon. Matt was rapidly running out of hiding places to use, seeing how the dragon kept smashing everything in its path to get to him. It didn’t help that he was having to avoid an entire block of possible covers to make sure the dragon didn’t find the others. "Sucksucksuck." he gibbered to himself before groaning out loud as the dragon tossed some masonry to block the next alley before landing behind him. "Right...you...really made me...work for my...meal." he panted, growling. "Well, I think it's important to getting plenty of exercise before eating," said Matt. "Then I think I've earnt this." said the dragon, reaching out to grab Matt before a white orb of plasma slammed into his side. Matt turned to look at Aria. "I knew you couldn't be kept down for long," he said cheerfully. "Oh, shut up and get moving." yelled Aria as the dragon got back up, barely singed from the blast only to be knocked on his tail again by another blast. "I'd be going a lot faster, but I still have this stupid rope around my wings," said Matt. Aria glared and fired another blast at Matt, it skimming over the ropes. Ignoring his horrified gaze, she said "Well? Get moving." Matt flapped his wings a bit, mainly to make sure they were still there. After that, he quickly took to the air. He looked over his shoulder to see the dragon now fully focused on Aria before he turned to fly down to where he left the others. Matt landed near the building and called, "Rainbow? Daring? Have you got those smegging ropes off yet?" He looked in to see Daring pulling the ropes off Dash. "Ah...good...Aria's keeping the dragon busy...and I'm in a really bad mood now...so lets go trample Anibu into a greasy smear.” he said, furiously. "But she still has that weapon," said Rainbow. "How did she get it anyways?" asked Daring. "She dared nick a CPS mercenaries weapon...I'M GONNA INSERT IT DOWN HER THROAT AND TAPDANCE ON HER SPLEEN!" sad Matt, starting to shout as a little internal dam of frustration gave way. The duo watched as Matt snapped and ran in the direction of the temple, screaming wordless angry defiance. "Uh, is he always this on edge?" asked Daring. "You should see him when he's like this in his normal form," said Rainbow. "Huh, and people say I run into danger without second thoughts," said Rainbow and Daring at the same time. They looked at each other before Daring said, "I better make sure he doesn't damage any artifacts." The two ran forward, noting a dazed jackal in a hut, luckily too dazed to be bothered about or even notice a pegasus...except for the fact that he was in matt's path. One buck later and he was out cold again as the others went by. ... Anibu wasn't quite as happy with her treasure as she thought she would be. Mainly because it seemed less secure now. "How can a clearly dead ape get up, walk away, and take out my two guards?" she snapped. "I don’t know, matriarch. We didn’t know she was up till she was hitting hako." said the guard, rubbing a bruise on his face. "Don't call me that!" snapped Anibu, "It makes me sound old." The ground shook, a rumbling heard from outside "And what the hell was that?" yelled Anibu furiously before a sound was heard getting closer. It sounded like someone screaming "SMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG!" "What the-" started the guard before a grey and black blur suddenly shot through the doorway and knocked him flying. Anibu stepped back to watch with amusement as the blur, one of the pegasi went to town on her best guards, clearly so marinated in fury that he wasn’t even noticing the hits he was taking. "Wait, if he's here, then where's the dragon?" asked Anibu. "He's got a bigger problem, anibu." said the voice of Daring as she and Dash came in, both parties giving the ballistic Matt room to vent on the luckless jackel guards. "You're very difficult to dispose of," said Anibu, clearly irked. "Its take a little more then a dragon to deal with us." said Dash a little cockily, both sides wincing as one of the guards landed with the thump and was dragged struggling back into the melee by Matt who exclaimed "Don’t start what you can’t FINISH!" "I see that once again I have to take care of business myself," said Anibu before pointing the blaster at them. She aimed before being shocked at the ballistic scream of "MINE!" and Matt tackled her, trying to pull the gun out her grasp with his teeth "Get off me you walking piece of glue!" snapped Anibu as she hit Matt. "Not till you give me back my blaster, you sorry excuse for a b-movie villain." yelled Matt, before she kicked him across the room. "I'll give it to you alright," said Anibu before firing at Matt. Matt was sent flying into one of the treasure piles with a crash. "Ok...being shot sucks." he muttered. "Not so tough now, are you?" sneered Anibu before suddenly some of her remaining guards came in. "Ma'am, I think we have a problem," said one. "That dragon's acting peculiar," said another. "What?" said Anibu angrily. ... Aria staggered as the dragon tried to fry her again before returning fire to no effect. "Right...enough of this...STOP IT!" she said to herself before yelling the last part at the dragon. "Why should I?" growled the dragon. Aria muttered to herself "Daring'll be pissed...but its better then being dead." before saying out loud "Because we're both being played for fools...while you've been chasing me and my associates, a jackal warband has been looting the temple dry." "What?!" roared the dragon, "I've been waiting to get inside there for 300 years! I will not let anyone, let alone a pack of filthy jackals, get that treasure except me!" Aria held up a hand "Allow me." she commented before aiming at the doors. ... Inside the temple, everyone was knocked to the floor as a boom shook the room. "What was that?" demanded Anibu. "I think the dragon may be trying to get in," said a jackal. "Sounds like its already in." said Matt. "That's impossible. If it had been able to get in, none of this treasure would be here," said Anibu. Anibu snarled before resuming blasting at Matt. Matt yelped and dived for cover before Anibu noticed that Daring and Dash were rushing her, too late to avoid being knocked over and the blaster being sent sliding away. "I've been looking too long for this treasure!" snapped Anibu, "I won't be denied!" One of the other jackals grabbed the blaster only for a metal hand to grab him by the scruff of the head and lift him into the top of the doorframe at speed. Aria, part of her robotic bodies covering gone from scorch's came in shortly after, stopping briefly to retrieve the blaster. "Miss Anibu..." she said coldly. Anibu stared at Aria with shock. "What kind of monstrosity is that?" she asked. "I'm the person you shot. I've only had this a few days." said Aria, casually, ignoring Darings and Dashes horrified stares as she walked forward. "St-stay back, you freak!" shouted Anibu. Aria just smirked before she was nose to nose with the terrified jackel. "Make me...I'll even give you a free shot." Anibu quickly tried to punch Aria in the face. Of course, the clang of metal being hit and the pained look in Anibu's face made it clear that it didn't work at all. Aria smirked and grabbed Anibu's wrist as she tried another punch. "Now then...what to do with you...if this was the NSC, we'd be perfectly at leisure to kill you." said Aria, conversationally before looking over at Daring and Dash. "Ladies...any suggestions?" Just then, there was a loud roaring. "Uh, I think she might have to wait," said Rainbow. Aria looked over with a bored expression as the vault door was smashed down by the dragon from outside. "Ah, I was wondering where he went." she said. Unlike Matt, the dragon wasn't able to walk around all the traps, thus resulting in his hide being covered with scratches, scorches, and darts. It also reflected in his killing gaze "Where is that jackel who played me for a fool?" he snarled. Aria turned to look at Anibu with a cold smile. "Whoa, whoa," said Rainbow, "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?" "That would be going way too far," said Daring. "Yeah, she might be a smeghead, but she doesn't deserve that," said Matt, "Well, maybe she does, but that doesn't make it ok." Aria looked at them "Miss Anibu here was willing to do the exact same to us less then 10 minutes ago." she said conversationally, before looking at Anibu who was trying to pull her wrist free. "I'd stop that if I was you..." The dragon though was glaring "Thats the jackal?" he growled. Just then, Rainbow jumped up and said, "Forget her, you're about to get a big hoof of Rainbow." She then flew at the dragon at high speed. However, just before she could hit, the dragon swatted her away, making her shoot back and hit against the large elliptical statue in the back. She slowly slid off the statue's front and fell onto the floor. "Hmm...good reaction time, I;ll give him that." said Matt to himself before trotting over "You ok, there?" "I'll be fine, as soon as the rooms get back together," said Rainbow Dash, her eyes spinning in her sockets. Just then, a cracking sound was heard. They looked up to see the statue rapidly cracking all over and shaking. Matt looked as it cracked "Hmm...you know...I'm sure I saw this in a movie a little like this." he said conversationally before noticing how the cracks didn’t stop at the statue and kept spreading out. Suddenly, the statue shattered into several dozen pieces. However, it soon became very clear that wasn't a statue. Mainly because right in the center of where it stood was what looked like a lion cub with fledgling bird wings. "Hmm...crap." said Matt, as evenly as he could. The dragon looked at the sphinx cub and snorted. "Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" he said. The sphinx cub stared up at the dragon before suddenly a pair of beams shot from its eyes and into the dragon's. The group watched as the dragon seemed to shrink, while the sphinx got bigger until a surprised looking dragon hatchling fell to the floor. Matt gulped, not really wanting to look behind him to where he just knew a angry, fully grown sphinx was almost certainly sitting. "Wow, I didn't see that coming," said Daring. "I did." said Matt weakly "Something like this always happens." The sphinx glared, looking around "Right...who are you...who dares to barge into my home..." he said, looking briefly at the demolished vault door "...and breaking half of it?" The ponies quickly pointed at Anibu and said, "She did it." The sphinx turned to see Anibu now desperately trying to run while Aria held her in place, resulting in her simply running on the spot. Aria grinned "I like this idea more." she commented, pushing Anibu in front of the sphinx. The sphinx glared down at Anibu and said, "For this sacrilege, I should tear you limb from limb. However, since I have just been reborn, I am feeling merciful. Therefore, you and your tribe shall work until this temple and the town around it are restored." Anibu, despite everything snarled "I will not do such menial..." she began before yelping when the sphinx pinned her in place with a single paw. "I'm sorry?" he said in a pleasant voice. "Er, we shall begin reconstruction immediately," said Anibu. Aria nodded "Good dog." she commented, finally letting go. "So, I guess this treasure won't be going to a museum then," said Daring. The sphinx turned to look at Daring "This is my treasure. There are things here too dangerous to leave," "Well, now that you're back, there's no need for them to be removed," said Daring, "They're perfectly safe here." The sphinx nodded "I presume I can trust you not to reveal this place." he said, sweeping his gaze over the group. "No problem about that," said Rainbow. "As good as forgotten," said Aria. "Like anyone would ever believe me if I did tell," said Matt. The sphinx nodded, apparently satisfied "Don’t worry about the jackel...when she has completed her task, she won’t remember a thing." "I don't know, I bet she'd make a good guard dog," said Matt. Anibu glared "How dare you?" she snarled, running at Matt only for Aria to grab her and toss her into a wall. "What? She shot me...I should at least get to be even." she said, at the groups annoyed glares. "Well, it looks like this adventure's just about wrapped up," said Daring, "Now I just need to head on back to Mareoco." Matt sighed "We still got more?" he muttered before a crackling noise was heard from the side of the room. "Nope, I think our train's just pulled in," said Rainbow. Matt and Aria turned to see a glowing arch appearing before shimmering to show the room from the facility, though Matt noted with worry that it seemed to be lit by emergency lighting. "Well, I guess we'll be going now," said Matt, "Goodbye folks, I'll remember you all in therapy." Daring looked confused before saying “Who are you people?” "Let's just say I'm your biggest fan," said Dash before going through. Daring just watched as the archway shrunk back down before vanishing. "Ok...noponies gonna believe this." she said, before the sphinx said sagely "You'd be surprised." ... Dash landed neatly, the portal closing again and was immediately greeted by the computer saying gravely "Alert...countermeasures will engage in 1 unit." Just then, Twilight and Applejack ran in. "Guys, you won't believe what we've-" started Twilight before noticing Rainbow had sand in her fur, Aria's skin was half burned off, and Matt was Spark again. "What happened to you?" she asked. "Don’t ask...what happened here?" said Matt, annoyed, adding "And please tell me the computer didn’t say 'countermeasures'...cause if it did...we should start running...about now." "I think it said something about needing you to turn it off," said Twilight, "But I'm not sure." Matt was already in the corridor looking both ways, saying "A unit is one minute...RUN AWAY!" "Oh..." said Twilight and Applejack at the same time before the group started running. "45 microns to countermeasure." said the computer calmly, a faint humming now auditable. "RUN AWAY FASTER!" yelled Matt. The group ran as fast as they could, running out into the pit to see that Darius’s men had, ina fit of pettiness, cut the grapple line. "Uh, Aria, does that robot body have super strength in all the limbs?" asked Matt. Aria nodded, grabbing Twilight and Applejack. "I'm very sorry for this." she commented before throwing them up the shaft. "How's she's gonna get out?" asked Dash. "No problem, she can jump like a flea, right?" asked Matt. A second later there was a whomph from the pit and the ground around it seemed to lift up a few inches before sinking down several feet. A few seconds later, Aria climbed out of the pit, looking even more disheveled and severely disgruntled. "'She can jump like a flea, we don't have to carry her'," she grumbled mockingly, "Stupid winged horses." "...and that, kiddies is why atlantean facilities are dangerous." said Matt, a little sarcastically before the sight of a dozen or so armoured pegasi came into view, being led by Celestia. "Oh boy...here comes the boss." muttered Matt. Celestia looked around before spotting Twilight. "Ah, my favorite pupil," said Celestia, "Do you know what has been happening here?" Matt slowly slipped backwards, looking for anywhere he could run to, envisioning a free trip to the dungeon of his choice if the days events came out. "Well...it's all very complicated," said Twilight, "I'm not sure if I can explain it all." Celestia nodded before spotting Matt. "Ah...Spark." she said in a friendly voice, causing Matt to yelp. "Uh, Princess Celestia," said Matt, "It's a honor to actually meet you in person for the first time." Celestia smiled before saying in a quieter voice, "I know who you actually are, Matt. Fluttershy told me about you in her friendship report." Matt gave an annoyed look and thought, 'Never trust a woman, even if she's a horse.' "Thats nice." said Matt, his grin a little forced before calming down enough to add. "Its nothing to worry about...some kinda VR machine the ancients left behind." he said, quietly. "Then why would those other humans be after it?" asked Celestia. "What?" said Matt, puzzled. "Yeah, those guys who came here before were all over the place," said Applejack, "Don't know what they were lookin' for." "Dammit...must have been when the place powered up." said Matt, scolding himself. One of the guards looked at Celestia. "Princess? Whats he talking about?" "It's nothing for you to worry about," said Celestia, "Please go make sure the area's secure and I think the construction ponies can start working again." The guards nodded before taking off to get some pegasus-eye views. Matt sighed "Ok...places like what that...was. Its priceless to the NSC...to any of the Nullspace factions. Hell, almost all the stuff I use is reverse engineered from tech that was dug up. They probably didn’t know or care if I was there. They just wanted to strip the place to the bones." he said, looking at the hole. "You think he was after the room with all those crystal recordings?" asked Twilight. Matt turned at that "What? You saw some Memory Crystals?” he said before sighing and continuing “I doubt it. All the tech woulda been in the computers...what, did you see something?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure it was a recording about the three Prima Artifacts," said Twilight. Matt stopped "Wait...what?" he said, confused. Celestia also looked puzzled "What did you see, Twilight?" "Well, it looked like the Atlanteans were using the headpieces that the ancient tribe leaders wore," said Twilight. Matt said "If the atlanteans were playing with them...thats probably not a good thing." "Then it's probably for the best that this place was destroyed," said Celestia. Matt nodded "Yeah...you're probably right. Darius can keep whatever he got...fat lot of good it'll do him." he said, before saying in a tired voice "Now...I'm gonna head back...and reset my wrist computer....again." ... Meanwhile, Darius was in the Icarus' lab, looking over what they had managed to take from the Atlantean facility. "Whatever this is...its extremely conductive. We've ran enough charge through it to melt a hole in the hull and its sucked it all up." said a tech, looking at the readout in front of him. Darius looked at the item in question, which looked like nothing more than a chunk of metal. "How malleable is it?" he asked. "Its the same stuff as that armor we recovered several weeks ago." said the tech, adding "If its the same stuff, we can’t do shit to it." "Then what good is it?" asked Darius before poking it. However, the metal responded by sending a shock that caused Darius to fly across the lab. "I'm fine, a little tingly, but fine," said Darius. The tech nodded and headed back to the intercom to cancel the alert...as a result he failed to see Darius's eyes glow for a second. Editors note: Sorry it took so long to update but I have had real life issues...I'll try to update more regularly from now on.
Largefish8	784	10	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2013-01-03T13:47:59+00:00	2013-01-03T13:47:58+00:00	466	MLP pt 10 'The atlanteans have much in common with us, the NSC...we both are expanding faster then we can protect. Unlike the atlanteans, we have to deal with their failures. Every Nullspace race has built their civilizations on the ashes of this once proud empire. However, we still find things that come back to bite us later, Nocturnis, the sy yong accident...the 'ghost fleet' in the uncharted sectors. These are all things that prove that sometimes, you shouldn’t go looking...’ Extract from ‘Lecture on the dangers of technological archaeology’ Held on 2116AD Nullspace time at Centuris VII ... It is well known that males of most species are indifferent to fashion most of the time. So even if someone's going to a fashion show for a friend, there's a very good chance that they'd be bored stiff. Unfortunately for Matt, he had been forced to come as he STILL owed Rarity for the spiderdrones 'raid' on the boutique the first night he had been on this planet. As a result, he’d been forced to use a shuttlepod from the Skyraid as a taxi when Rarity had gotten a golden opportunity to show some of her new designs at a manehatten show. Luckily he had picked up the talent of all mercs to snooze while standing and was practising this just outside. Matt stirred as the sound of mischievous giggling disturbed his rest. He looked down to see a couple of colts. "What are you looking at?" he snapped, annoyed at being woken up. "Nothin, mister. Nice Moustache." said one of the colts, a unicorn mischeviously. Matt looked confused before clicking his helmet and taking it off to reveal someone had magicked the aformentioned moustache onto it. "I hate kids." he muttered to himself before looking at the colts. "Go away before I vaporise you and make it look like an accident." "Vaporize? What's that?" asked one of the colts. For a point, Matt pointed a blaster at a manhole cover and shot a blast that quickly disintegrated it. "Coooool..." said the colts. Matt's brain stalled at that. In his mental script, the colts were already running away but somehow this wasn't happening in reality. "You're not gonna go away, are you." he said dully. The colts all said "Nope." 'Ok, threats probably aren't going to work, anything you can bribe them with?' thought Matt. The only things he could think of was carrots or sugar cubes, which probably wouldn't be that effective. Luckily backup arrived as Rainbow Dash, who had been as dis-interested as Matt, came into view. "Help." he called out desperately. "Ok, boy, break, nothing to see here," said Rainbow. The colts were apparently losing interest and trotted off. "I'm so glad that fashion show's almost over," said Rainbow, "I'm not sure how much longer I could have waited." "Least you got to walk around. I have to stay here in case Rarity needs help hauling something. Why does she bring so much stuff?" moaned Matt. "Frankly, I have no idea," said Rainbow Dash, "I only care about fashion if it's aerodynamic." "The sooner I’m back in my nice warm barn thing, the better." said Matt, happily "I don't think the manehatten ponies like my ships parking job." referring to how he'd accidentally squashed a empty guard stable when landing. "I told you it should have been parked on that cloud," said Rainbow Dash. "How many times do I have to tell you? Just because my ship can fly doesn't mean it can land on clouds. It doesn't work that way," said Matt. "Why not ask Twilight to cast a cloud walking spell on it?" suggested Rainbow. Matt shook his head "No...magic and tech mix like fire and oil...only a bigger explosion." he said warningly before the show began to empty. "Well...lets get this over with." said Matt, turning to go in only to be blocked by two large earth stallions inside the reception. "Sorry, authorized personal only," said one of the stallions. "I'm with one of the designers...designated driver." said Matt, dully before trying to push past again. "Do you have a pass?" asked the other. "No...I have a laser pistol...does that count?" said Matt, not really paying too much attention to the question. "Sorry, no backstage pass, no pass," said the first stallion. "I'm with rarity...and I'm started to get annoyed." said Matt, starting to glare. Dash joined in "He really is with Rarity. Anyway, the fashion shows over." she said. "A clod like you, get serious," said the first stallion. Matt's eye twitched as he said in a worrying tone, "You want me to get serious." Fortunately, Rarity just happened to come out at that moment. "Oh, Matt, Rainbow Dash, I'm so sorry it took so long. But you know how it is with the world of fashion." "Thats fine...I was about to help this place do some job cuts." Matt said in a over-friendly tone glaring at the stallion bouncers. Rarity nodded "Its ok, gentlecolts. Mr Lynch helped me and my friends get here in time." she said to the stallions who trotted off towards the stage, glaring at Matt. Matt leaned against a wall and muttered, "Whoops" when one of the ropes tethered to the sandbag just happened to break loose. Rarity and Dash winced as a sandbag scored a direct hit on the head of the stallion bouncer who had insulted Matt before looking suspiciously at him. Matt shrugged and said "Karma?" hiding his combat knife. Then Matt turned to Rarity and said, "Anyways, where's all the stuff you want me to haul?" Rarity said "Just in here." leading the way backstage to several dozen boxes...at least a dozen more then had been brought. "Whu? what?" said Matt weakly looking at the stack before rolling his eyes "Fine..." Rarity said proudly "I got so much orders from this show. I do hope they invite me again next year." "Yeah, next time you should rent a dump truck to move this," said Matt. Rarity and Dash looked confused at that as Matt grabbed the first box. "Whats a dump truck?" asked Dash. ... Twilight trotted up to where Matt had parked the metallic winged egg Matt called a 'shuttlepod', spotting that Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie were already there, loaded down with the things they had gotten in the city. "Hi girls. Have you seen Matt? I would have thought he, Rarity and Dash would be back by now." she said happily. "He oughta be here soon," said Applejack, "That show ended 10 minutes ago." Several griffons could be seen walking into view when the spotted the group and the ship "What the? What kinda tin cans that? Somer stupid earth pony toy?" said one of them rudely looking at the pod. "For your information, this happens to be a high-tech flyin' transport-type machine," said Applejack. "You ponies obviously didn;t make it then." said another of the griffons before the trio laughed. At that point they stopped as the sight of what looks like a stack of crates with legs came round the corner and this sort of thing usually gets attention, if only for the novelty value. Rarity walked besides it and was giving directions, "Now a bit more to the left, no, you're drifting, go right now, now straight, you might want to slow down a bit." A stream of angry alien gibberish sounded from behind the crates, causing Rainbow, who was hovering overhead to laugh a bit followed by a thud and a yelp which caused her to laugh more. Eventually, the crates were set down and Matt said, "There, finally, now to pack all this-OH COME ON!" The last part was when he noticed the other girls' packages. "What in the great egg?" said one of the griffons in shock, spotting Matt. "That your pet?" "Pet?" said Matt, darkly, his nerves starting to crack. "It looks like some sort of balding monkey," said one griffon. "Sure is ugly," said another. "Monkey?" growled Matt, his voice rising a bit. "Now, boys, there's no need for this blow out of proportion," said Twilight, nervously as she remembered the temper Gilda had shown off the previous year. "I've faced things that have more tentacles then teeth and the disposition of a rabid jaguar...and thats just the drill sergeant. I will not take beak from a trio of overgrown seagulls." snapped Matt, his eye twitching. "Seagulls?! This ape has the nerve to call us seagulls!" shouted one of the griffins. "I think we should take this guy for a ride," said another darkly. Matt smirked coldly "Feel free to try. Everyone tells me I have feathers in my cap...maybe I should add some?" he commented. "I think we should move them away from each other," said Fluttershy. "Yeah, they're as fit to scrap as two bulls with their tails tied together," said Applejack. The griffons slowly moved to surround Matt. "I'm gonna show you how griffons fi-OOF!" began one, lunging at Matt, only to recieve a boot to the beak from Matt. "And there's plenty more where that came from, Polly!" snapped Matt. The other two griffons growled and lunged at Matt, who ducked down, grabbing one of them by the wing and sending her flight into the side of the shuttlepod with a clang, getting stuck. The third one span in the air to grab Matt from behind in a bearhug...only to be headbutted in the face followed by an elbow to the chest. "Oh my," said Fluttershy, nervously as Matt clocked the second griffon across the head as she pulled her head free, knocking her out. "We should do something." Rainbow was whooping and cheering Matt on "Nice one, Matt!" She called out as Matt span to catch the first griffon on the beak again before she noticed the others glaring at him "I mean, maybe we should stop him." she said sheepishly. "Well, time to see if that time freeze spell still works," said Twilight before her horn started glowing. It seemed too as a bolt of magic caused the griffons to freeze in place, surprising Matt a little but certainly surprising the griffons themselves. "There, now we can separate them," said Twilight. "Er, can we?" asked Applejack. Matt, taking a few calming breaths said "I'm fine...perfectly fine." mostly to himself before looking at the annoyed expressions of five of the ponies. "What? They were practically asking for it," said Matt. "I can't believe you did that, Matt." scolded Twilight, gesturing to the bruised, battered but probably still defiant Griffons. Applejack nodded "Twi's right...Weren’t no need beat down on them like that." she said. "They called me a monkey and an ape," said Matt. Pinkie said promptly "Sticks and stones and sometimes aliens may break my bones but words will never hurt anypony." "Well...they still could have used an ego deflation," said Matt, "Let's just load up and get out of here before that spell wears off." Fluttershy said with a sigh "I'm disappointed in you, Matt." as Matt opened the ship. Dash said a little unconvincingly "Yeah...disappointed...though the way you backflipped that griffon..." before seeing Fluttershy's glare "...erm...yeah, disappointed." Matt glanced the ponies' packages and commented, "Not sure there's enough room for all this." He sighed before realising that maybe this was a bad time to upset his only friends on this planet at the moment before going in to check what he could fit in his wrist computers storage buffer. ... The flight back to Ponyville was rather uncomfortable. Not just because of the ungainly amount of packages in the back, but the cold air the ponies seem to be giving Matt. "Its not like they don;t know to expect my approach." said matt, talking to Aria over the comm. Aria sighed...how to explain to someone like Matt. "Sir...this is not the NSC or independant colonies. Kicking seven shades of crap out of people is usually frowned upon." she said as calmly as she could. "They weren't hurt that badly," said Matt, dismissively "The worst they'll probably have after the spell unfreezes is a limp for a few days." "Sir...you are lucky you left before the authorities arrived. I am certain you have committed a large enough infraction to be incarcerated." said Aria, harshly. "That sounds a little over the top," said Matt, "It was just a small tussle." "Sir...you are a trained private military contractor. They are civilians. You could have quite easily terminated them." said Aria, now sounding angry. Matt thought back and realized she had a point. "Ok, ok, maybe I got a bit carried away," said Matt. "The least you can do is apologise to the girls...I will attempt to find out WHO you ended up tenderizing so an apology can be issued to them too." said Aria adding "Be careful...your flightpath is taking you close to the blizzard in sector A-6. The shuttlepod is not rated for arctic planets. Skyraid Out." before signing off. Matt sighed, switching to autopilot before getting up. He was about to head into the passenger's area when he heard Fluttershy's voice, "He was pretty brutal with those griffons, wasn't he?" "Ah, I've got into worse scraps," said Rainbow Dash's voice, "I'm sure he could have lasted a little longer." "Rainbow Dash, those guys could have seriously hurt each other," said Twilight, "If I hadn't stepped in, the guards would have had to come." Matt stopped, leaning down to listen closer. He'd always been curious if their thoughts about him were genuine. "I'm sure Matt means well most of the time, but that temper of his is almost savage," said Rarity, "Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we ever made him too mad." Matt stopped at that before the little voice that lived in his head reminded him that his idea of a collectors item was a anti tank rifle. "Hmm...I suppose I let that slide...surely I'm not that scary..." he muttered to himself. "It's not his temper that's so bad," said Pinkie, "It's his reaction that you need to worry about. I mean, I'm sure everyone likes a surprise now and then, but he's more likely to hit something when something startles him." Matt stopped at that "I do not...most of the time." he said to himself. "Not to mention he seems to prefer using violence to solve most of his problems," said Twilight, "I don't know about where he may come from, but that just isn't healthy for someone who lives with others." Matt did stop at that "Wait a second..." he began "I mean, suppose he should go too far with someone," said Twilight, "He's bound to get himself into serious trouble. I'm not sure if Princess Celestia would allow him to live on his own." Matt stopped at that, thoughts of an apology gently roasting away in a conclusion jumped fury. before opening the door "Hi." he said coldly, making the ponies jump. "Just came to say...we're a few hours away...its either that or a thunderstorm over Everfree." "Oh, I see," said Twilight. "Why must the weather always be so inconvenient over Everfree?" said Rarity, "Letting the clouds run wild there seems so wrong." "Yes...you'd think something would be done about all that violence." said Matt in a sub-zero tone before stomping back into the control room and slamming the door. "Autopilot, I'm taking a nap, wake me up when we get there," said Matt. "Protocol dictates that at least one capable pilot should be alert at all times," said the autopilot. "Pilot commands you bite me." said Matt angrily, putting his hat over his eyes. The autopilot beeped before claiming "Unable to comply...this unit is not fitted with dental equipment." ... Sometime later, Matt was woken up by the sound of someone tapping on the door. "Hey Matt, Matt, what's going on? Why are we flying through all this snow?" called Rainbow Dash. Matt yawned "No snow...ship can;t fly in snow..." he said half asleep before opening his eyes in time for a giant clump of snowflakes to hit the windscreen. "GAH...SNOW!" he yelled, grabbing the controls. "Warning...fuel temperature dangerously low...ice crystals detected in main feed." said the computer calmly as the ship started to shake. "What the hell? What are we doing here?" yelled Matt before trying to pull the ship up. "Priority location was extracted to nav computer from wrist computer. Location 2 was detected in vicinity. Course re-routed to intercept. Alert...high energy magi lifeforms detected." claimed the autopilot unit. "Energy what?" asked Matt before suddenly he heard an unearthly howling. He looked up to see something shooting towards the cockpit. "Oh fu-" he began. ... Quite suddenly, the ponies felt the ship lurch before it started dropping. The worrying part was that it was fast enough for the non-winged ponies to be floating. An automated message began. stating calmly "Alert...a engine error has occurred...we at Starline industries apologise and promise a full refund if you survive...thank you for using Starline industries." After a second or two gravity returned and Twilight managed to make it over to the cockpit door, opening it to show that all the controls were frozen or destroyed, Matt leaning back in his seat out cold and covered in frost. "Uh, girls, I think we have a problem," said Twilight. The others peered in to see the unconscious Matt, as well as the shape of several buildings in the blizzard straight ahead, as if on a steep slope "Uh, Matt, now's not a good time to not be awake," said Twilight before using her wake-up spell. Matt's eyes shot open with a scream of "UUUUCK...please tell me thats just a cliff we’re heading for." he said, saying the past part more calmly "Uh, I think there's some buildings on that cliff as well," said Fluttershy, as reasonably as a pony in her situation could...which wasn’t much to be honest. Matt screamed and pulled back on any control that was still working, the ship starting to level out after a few seconds of this... "Ah...nothing to it...just keep your head and..." began Matt, before all other thoughts were shaken out as the pod clipped the roof of a hut and smashed into the snow. Fortunately, the snow was thick enough to cushion most of the force of the crash. But still, there were some definite sounds of metal cracking and breaking. The ship finally skidded to a halt in what had once been a town square, though the snow covering indicated that nothing had lived there for years. Matt groaned, pushing himself up from where the crash had forced him over the controls. "uuuugh...everyone ok?" he called. "I think I lost my stomach in the crash," said Pinkie, a little green in the face. "Thank god for gravity dampners. Any landing you can walk away from and all that..." moaned Matt, rubbing his forehead and bringing his hand back to show blood, a cut from when the windscreen had shattered. "What the hell was that thing?" he said, remembering the sight of the horse made of snow smashing through enforced glass like it was nothing. "I believe the common term for it is a mountain," said Rainbow Dash flatly. "No...mountains don’t scream at you." said Matt, distantly before adding more normally "Except on Mythicos...weird place that." "What screaming?" asked Rarity. "Urgh...I dunno." said Matt, getting up and searching the gear on the floor to pull a yellow and black backpack and what looked like a cylinder out. "We gotta find shelter..." he said before spotting what looked like a castle overlooking the town. Apparently the castle had been well-built as it seemed durable despite being abandoned for who knows how many years. "We'll stay in there," he said, pointing. The group climbed out of the pod and were immediately buffeted by the blizzards wind. Matt took a moment to look at the pod...or what was left of it. The port wing had been sheered off at some point in the crash and one of the boosters was gone. It wouldn;t fly again. "But what about the packages?" yelled Rarity over the wind. "Leave them, they'll only slow us down!" yelled Matt, "Beside, the cold will keep them fresh or something!" Rarity was about to reject that idea when a particularly strong gust of wind caused what had looked like solid snow under the pod to vanish, the ship tipping down into what had once been a river of some kind, now full of snow. There was a crunch from inside. "Still want to get them?" said Matt dully. "We need to keep moving," called Twilight, "If we stay still too long, we'll start to freeze." Matt nodded "Lets move." he called out over the howling wind. ... Unfortunately it appeared the previous owners had locked the door with a spell. Twilight probed the lock carefully as Matt seemed to be looking up at something. "How long will it take to get that open?" asked Rainbow Dash, "I'm getting icicles on my wings." "I don't know...this is a really powerful spell." said Twilight. "Does it make the door invincible?" asked Matt. "Well...not particulary," said Twilight, "It just keeps the door closed." "Good...step aside please. I found a key." said Matt, drawing his plasma pistol and setting it to narrow beam. "Wait, wait, if you blow the door down, how will we keep the storm out?" said Twilight. Matt aimed and blasted the lock, either not hearing or not caring. After a second for the lock to cool he tried the handle. "There...doors open..." he commented. Still, the door was heavy so it took the combined strength of Applejack and Rainbow Dash to open it. Matt aimed his blaster into the room beyond before lowering it and whistling...espetially at the large unicorn statue in the hall. "Wow...your ancestors had bigger ego’s then Capt Dante." he said. "I've read about this place," said Twilight, "We must be in the royal castle of the Unicorn Kingdom. This place has been abandoned for over a thousand years." "If it's warm enough, I don't care if it was built last month," said Rainbow Dash. Matt looked at the icicles on the statue and the roof. "Well...its warmer then outside." he said finally before putting the backpack down and starting to go through it. "C'mon...I know there's one in here." he muttered before pulling out an orange tube. "Bingo." he said triumphantly. "What's that?" asked Pinkie. "Thermal flare. Instant heat without the problem of burning your shelter down." said Matt happily, bending the tube with a crack and shaking it till it started to glow before dropping it. Instantly the room around the flare began to feel the benefits, warming up as the tube glowed brighter. "Well, we won't freeze here," said Applejack, "But won't do us much good if we don't have soemthin' ta eat." Matt pulled out a silver covered tray. “I;d like to say there was food in here but..." "Ooh, let me try," said Pinkie before swiping the tray and shoving it into her mouth. She chewed a little before getting a disgusted look and spitting it out. "NSC 'Meals ready to eat'. Full of vitamins and minerals but sadly lots of taste. Luckily they taste the same when they go off." said Matt, sympathetically. "Is that all we have?" asked Rainbow Dash. "It's not like we packed a picnic," said Applejack. "Right, that's the only food here," said Matt, "I don't like its taste any more than you guys will, but it's all we have to...Pinkie, why are you sprinkling salt on my leg?" ... The mood hadn;t improved after the first few hours, Matt trying to get his wrist comps comm to work. "Come on, you piece of junk." he muttered. "Why did you have to fly us out here anyways?" snapped Rainbow Dash. "Oh...its my fault? Stupid autopilot decided to give me a guided tour...oops." yelled Matt. "Autopilot? As in you weren't the one flying?" said Dash darkly. Matt returned the glare before noticing the others had joined in. "What? Even violent aliens need their naptime." he said annoyed. "You can't let a flyer sleep when they're flying," said Twilight. "Even I know that," said Fluttershy. "I'm not a flyer...my ship...was...and it has an autopilot to do it for me..." said Matt, angrily. "Then why did it take us to this dreadfully cold and desolate place?" demanded Rarity. "Something went wrong with the nav computer...said something was here." said Matt, calming down a bit before a blast of wind shot through the hall from the east door. The ponies shuddered from the cold and Fluttershy said, "I thought this place would be warm." "It's been abandoned for a thousand years," said Applejack, "Parts of it are bound to break down." "I'll go check." muttered Matt darkly, picking up his blaster and walking for the door. "Matt, you don't have to go," said Twilight. "No, it's probably safer," said Matt, "You probably wouldn't want such a dangerously violent guy right next to you all the time." The ponies stopped at that as Matt walked off. "Did he just say..." started Applejack. "Oh, you think he heard what we said about him earlier?" asked Fluttershy. "I'm pretty sure that's proof he did," said Pinkie. "You don;t think he thinks...he thinks we're gonna lock him up?" said Rainbow. ... Matt's hotheaded mood was just about hot enough to keep the wind from freezing him, but not much hotter than that. "Stupid ungrateful hay-munchers," grumbled Matt, "I pull them out of the heat all those times and this is what they think of me?” He turned a corner before noticing the silence. Even the wind sounded muted...apart from a faint skittering noise that went on for a split second after he stopped moving. "I hear you." he muttered, slowly readying his plasma pistol before continuing, the skittering starting again. "Ok, you little rats," said Matt, "Come out with your paws up." A humming noise began at that, a faint glow appearing near the roof. "Ooooh shit." began matt before dodging back as what looked like a fireball shot out, blasting a hole in the masonry where he had been standing a second before. Matt span back, firing a hail before seeing a enshadowed shape crawl away rapidly. Matt ran after it, gun out...turned the corner and ran into Pinkie. "Uh, Matt, me and the girls just wanted to apologize for..." she noticed Matt's somewhat manic look, "Is this a bad time?" "Did you see anything? It was big...and fast...and its armed." said Matt, manically, looking up. Pinkie blinked and said, "Oh, I get it. You took a big bite of ice, didn't you? I did that once and my brain was scrambled with cold." "It spat a fireball at me." glared Matt, leading Pinkie round the corner to point out exhibit A: the large and still glowing hole. "Oooh...did you do that?" said Pinkie, looking at the melted rock. Matt glared "No...the thing did it." he said, kicking the wall angrily, only for the ancient masonry to give way and the rest of the wall to fall...revealing something neither of them expected. What looked like a ancient sea creature was smashed into the side, having demolished most of the east wing. Matt had only seen it in pictures. "Thats an atlantean ship." he said in a small voice, looking at the crystalline vessel. "You sure it's not one of those fossil thingies?" asked Pinkie. "Pretty sure," said Matt, "Especially since I don't think you have any fossils here." Matt looked at the ship and the black scorch scores in the side. The crash had clearly not been intentional. "Well...looks like we found the draft." Matt joked before running down the open sided corridor to where a open hatch in the ship was revealed. The corridor inside was surprisingly still lit, though it was cracked from damage. "Hey...wanna explore, Pinkie?" said matt with a grin. Pinkie looked down at the countless cracks in the floor. "I don't know," she said, "It doesn't look safe." "Safe? Of course it's safe," said Matt as he started pushing her forward, "This stone was built to LAAAAAAAAAAAAST!" The last part came from when the floor gave out from under Matt and Pinkie and sent them falling down. Pinkie jumped up immediately and looked around at the various crystalline boxes around the room. "Oh...It was lucky that I landed on something soft." she said happily before hearing a groan. "Oopsie...Sorry Matt." she said apologetically, jumping off Matt who had been the unlucky crashmat. "Stupid lousy-quality stone," groaned Matt. Pinkie hopped over to one of the boxes and poked a hopeful looking rune which glowed, the top of the box segmenting and folding away to reveal rows of fruit, veg and other foodstuffs, as well as bottles of clear water, though the latter was frozen. "Yay! Food!" she called. Matt leaned up "Thats...nice." he said weakly before noticing a smaller case at the side. "oh...what we got here?" he commented, elbowing the case top and fracturing it to reveal "A tiara? What the hell?" he muttered. Still, Matt could tell this tiara was valuable, mainly because it was made of platinum and had amthysts set into it. Matt settled for dropping it in the open food chest and, with pinkies help, started dragging it out. "Least you don;t have to eat my leg now." said Matt, cheerfully. "Ah, I wouldn't really do that," said Pinkie, "Just looking at it is enough to make me lose my appetite. I mean, it's got such an uneven coat of fur and all those toes are just icky." Matt just stared before shaking his head with a sigh. "You are too random." he muttered. ... The arrival of the food crate was met warmly when the duo returned. "Dig in...there's months worth of that stuff...more then enough to wait this storm out." Matt said cheerfully. "This is a lot better than that other stuff," said Rainbow, "Thanks a lot." She quickly started eating some of the apples. Rarity reached in with her magic to pull out a fruit and ended up pulling out the tiara instead. "Oh...Matt. Where did you find this?" she asked. Matt looked over from telling Twi about the crashed ship "Oh...it musta been cargo like everything else." "Hey, I saw that doodad before," said Applejack, pointing at the tiara. Rarity scoffed and said, "Where could you have possibly seen a fabulous crown like this?" "In one of them crystal recordin's down in the Ancient pit," said Applejack. "She's right," said Twilight, "I think that's the Unicorn Tiara of Eliteness, one of the Primium Artifacts. It belonged to the leader of the unicorns." "The what now?" said Matt, confused. "The Primium Artifacts are the most ancient relics known in Equestrian history," said Twilight, "Each of them contained the purest embodiment of each of the three races of pony and can bring out the highest potential of whoever wears them. But they've been lost for ages." "Hmm...so if you put that on, your magic would be supercharged." said Matt, looking at the innocent looking tiara. "That's what the legends say," said Twilight, "But why would those Ancients keep it here?" "Atlantean techs the only sort that’s magi immune." said Matt before seeing their look "Magi energys our name for magic. I didn;t come up with the name." he said. "How do we know it's the real thing?" asked Rainbow Dash, "It could be just a tiara." "What you gonna do? Put it on? I don;t think thats such a good idea." began Matt. "Oh, I don't see what the problem would be," said Rarity as she lifted up the crown with her horn's power and moved it towards her head. "Oh no you don't," snapped Matt before swiping the tiara, "No one's using this thing. And to make sure, I'm keeping it right here." With that, Matt shoved the tiara into the backpack from the ship. "Its perfectly safe there. Who knows what it'll do if you put it on?" "Besides, I think we oughta get workin' on findin' a way back home," said Applejack, "I don't think we'll be able ta climb down this mountain." "We'll just wait for the blizzard to stop. It can’t last forever...right?" said matt, before noticing Twilights look "I know that look...thats the 'uh oh' look. I’ve seen it too many times to not spot it." he said. "I have a feeling that the Ancients chose this place for a reason," said Twilight. "Uh, besides the near-inaccessablity?" asked Matt. "Anyway...you didn’t see the ship. No way that landing was intentional. Something shot it down." said Matt, thinking back to whatever had ambushed him before he’d met Pinkie. "Who could have done that?" asked Fluttershy. "I'm not sure, but I think it may have been those ghostly horses," said Matt. He turned to look at them "What am I saying? Even for this planet there isn’t ghostly hor...there are ghostly horses, aren’t there?" he said cheerfully before his voice went dull as he saw their looks. "Matt, did those creatures make a scary howling sound?" asked Twilight. "Yeah, and did it go like this?" asked Pinkie before making a very strange-sounding howl. "Worryingly like that." said Matt a little unnerved. "That must have been a windigo then," said Twilight, "They're winter spirits of hatred, who drove the three pony races from their first homes. And this must have been the original Unicorn Kingdom." "Uh, are they going to eat us?" asked Matt worriedly. "Uh, no, but they'll feed on our animosity," said Twilight, "Where did you get that idea?" "Over the years, I’ve been on the menu of many lifeforms." said Matt, conversationally. "Well, it won't be hard to get rid of them, right?" asked Fluttershy, "Twilight can make that Fire of Friendship to keep them away, right?" Twilight shook her head "I think we'd need the elements for that." she said gravely. Matt shrugged "Lets just not get angry then." he said conversationally. "Right, we will just calm and civilized," said Rarity, "Not a discourageable word among us." "Yes...and nobody think about how we're probably in their nest." said Matt sarcastically to himself. "So, how long do we have to wait in here?" asked Rainbow Dash, "I mean, they'll give up at some point, right?" ... Two Days later... "'They'll give up at some point.'" said Matt, sarcastically while chewing on an apple from the supply crate. It had been two days since the crash and if anything the storm had increased...as if the things causing it knew they were there...which seeing as Matt had flown the shuttle through one of them was almost a certainty. Of course, the most likely reason they hadn't left was because of the growing tension of being stuck in one place for so long. The six girls may be good friends, but even the best of friends can become really irritable if they're together for too long. For Matt, this wasn’t too bad as he had turned an empty room in the still intact west wing into a inprompt shooting range or as Matt was calling it 'the stress relief room'. It was a worrying indication to any outside force watching of his sanity that the targets had pictures of darius, the merc known as dante and various other pains in Matts butt on them. "I'll shoot that smirk off your face yet," said Matt as he aimed at a picture, "Won't be so happy for long, will ya?" After a second he looked at the emergency beacon that had been in the survival pack. This whole incident was a catch 22. If he didn’t engage the beacon they could be stuck here forever...but if he did, it was a guarantee that the Icarus would pick it up. "It might not have to come to that," said Matt, "I mean, somepony's eventually gonna notice the girls missing and send out a rescue party." The little niggling doubt in his head said 'True that...except the stupid autopilot took you off course by a few hundred miles in the wrong direction.' Applejack wandered into the room in time to see Matt yell at empty air "Shut up, brain." "Matt's finally startin’ to crack," said Applejack to herself with a sigh "Why am ah not surprised?" Matt shrieked in surprise at that "DON’T...do that." he said, twitching. "Well, now that you're listenin' to a voice besides the ones in yer head, ya got any bright ideas for gettin' out of here?" asked Applejack, "Them food storages won't last forever." "There's nothing we can do. The emergency beacons....broken. Musta been the crash." said Matt, lying smoothly. If they thought it was broken, less chance of them accidentally activating it. "Well, them windigos aren't going away anytime soon," said Applejack, "Surely you got somethin' that can make them go. Maybe a really big torch or somethin'." "No...there's some arctic survival gear in the pack...but only human sized. Ok...there must be a way out of here...hell, your ancestors managed it." said Matt, a little tired before noticing Applejack looking at the impromptu targets, more precisely at how dante's picture had earnt the most shots. "You think you oughta be wastin' your shots on these?" asked Applejack. "Its better then going nuts. Pinkie tried to make a rock cake from real rocks an hour ago...though that might be the wierd purple fruit she ate from the crate." said Matt, reasonably. "Exactly, we can't stay here much longer," said Applejack, "It's just a matter of time before Pinkie snaps and, well...I'd rather not think on that." Matt shuddered “Either surprise or pinkamena." he finished in a worried voice. "I'll raid the wreck tomorrow. There must be something we can use...a shuttle, survival gear...even an escape pod could get us far enough away." "Better hurry with that," said Applejack, "The others won't be able to stand bein' cooped up much longer either." ... Rainbow fluttered around the atrium where the gang had camped down for the last two days. While it had been big enough for her to fly a little, now... "I gotta get out of here...I feel like the walls are closing in." she said, looking around worried. "For the twelfth time, the walls are not closing in," said Rarity, "They're exactly where they're supposed to be." "For now, but sooner or later they're going to come tumbling down on us," said Rainbow Dash, "I have to get out of here before- WHAT WAS THAT?" "What was what?" asked Fluttershy looking around. The group turned to where Rainbow Dash was pointing "I don't see anything, darling." said Rarity, carefully using magic to shine a light into the alcove to reveal nothing. "I'm sure I saw...something. It looked like it had rubies for eyes." said Rainbow. "Rainbow Dash, I'm getting worried for you," said Fluttershy, "You've been inside for too long." Matt and Applejack walked in at that "Ah, the hallucination stage...did you eat that purple fruit?" said Matt, teasingly. "I'm sure I saw something," said Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, I think you need to lie down and get some shut-eye," said Applejack. "Yeah...and I'm gonna run a toxin test on the rest of the alien fruit." said Matt, strolling towards the depleted food crate before seeing his bag was open and "Hey...who took the tiara?" he said. "Not me," said Fluttershy. "Why would I want it?" said Rainbow. "I already have my own hat," said Applejack. Matt looked at Pinkie who was sleeping off the kogana fruit, a fruit only really meant to be eaten by combine, that she'd eaten before dismissing her and looking around "Twilight in that library in the north wing again?" he asked, spotting the unicorns absence. "She spends all her time there," said Rarity, "I don't know how she stay in such a dusty room for so long." "The same reason I use that old ballroom as a shooting range." said Matt before walking off to find Twilight. As Matt was walking away, Rarity saw that the tiara had slipped out of his bag. "Oh Matt, I-" she called, but he had already left. She looked at the tiara and said, "Well, I suppose there's no trouble in just trying it on for a little while," before levitating the tiara to her head. The tiara seemed to flash for a second before altering to a more comfortable fit on Raritys head. Fluttershy looked at Rarity, saying "You look just like you did in the hearts warming eve pageant." kindly. "Yes, it was a faithful representation of the original," said Rarity, "But I still need a royal cape to match. I wonder if there's one preserved around here somewhere." The trio looked around for such a thing, nopony thinking to look up to where rainbow dash's 'hallucination' watched them with cold logic. ... Matt walked into the old castle library to see Twilight at one of the reading tables that were still intact. "Hey, twilight...you seen the tia...what you got there? he asked, noticing Twilights grave expression as she read. "I think one of your Ancients used this book for a log," said Twilight, "Apparently, they were trapped here like we were." Matt looked at the book before picking it up and beginning to read, his translator nanites allowing him to understand it "Entry 212: The ashen caught us off guard. Between the abomination from the administration lab and their fleet, it was over in minutes. Our ship was evacuating essential devices and artifacts when they hit us. There are 12 of us plus the cerberus project left. We have enough food for months...hopefully Taleth will send reinforcements." Matt read out loud. Matt looked down to the next legible entry “Entry 220: The local lifeforms are more diverse than we thought, though this is not a good thing here. We've been stranded here for several days because some sort of weather creature has been creating a blizzard. If that weren't bad enough, Cerberus has been acting- Just a minute, I'm needed elsewhere.” "Sounds bad." said Matt, worried before looking at the next page and paling "Last entry: Cerberus must have been damaged in the crash. It is concidering us all intruders...I think I am the only one left. I can hear him outside...he knows I have nowhere to run. If you find this message...GET OUT!" read Matt out loud. Twilight also looked scared. "Did they say what Cerberus is?" asked Twilight. "No...the rests all burnt away." said Matt weakly before looking sat Twilight. If it killed its own crew...what'll it do to people who looted the ship?" he asked weakly before the two started running back to the atrium They ran into the atrium, Matt yelling, "Girls, we have a-" He stopped when he saw what looked like a mechanical dog with red optics "Oh boy...girls...lets all back away from the potentially homicidal robot." Matt said calmly. The bot turned to look at Matt "Multiple weapons detected...class 2 technology...threat level 4 percent." it chimed calmly "4 percent? Hey, I'm a bigger threat than that! I've a big list of enemies who want to whack me," snapped Matt. The bot looked at Matt for a minute before saying, "Exaggeration to compensate for shortcomings, re-evaluating threat level to 3 percent." "Why you little..." began Matt angrily before the bot looked around "Untriggered beacon detected." it said calmly, focussing on the emergency beacon in Matts pack. "Erm...its broken." said Matt lamely only for the bot, in a few bounds to reach the pack and lift the beacon out "Internal scan indicates 100% functionality." "Wait, ya mean we coulda called for help all along?" asked Applejack accusingly. "Yes...the sort of help that nearly blew the town up...have we forgotten who else has a starship?" said Matt, annoyed "The icarus'll pick up the beacon too." "And so the only other option was to stay trapped here?" snapped Rainbow Dash. "When the other choice is to be shot, I think I'd prefer to wait for a local rescue team." snapped Matt before looking at the bot "...And as for you...what rock did you come out from under?" The bot returned the look, saying calmly "On-board administrative unit 2-9-7." The bot continued calmly "The chance of an orbital ship detecting the beacon without orbital assistance is 4.5 percent." "In that case, let's get this thing working," said Pinkie before walking over to the beacon. It took her a few tries to activate it, partially because she didn't know how it work, but mainly because she didn't have fingers. Matt tried to grab the beacon but was too late, the top of it opening and a rhythmic beeping beginning. "Great...we're dead." he said, matter-of-fact'ly. "He just said that there was a small chance that the Icarus would find us," said Fluttershy. "Yeah, but who else would respond to this beacon?" retorted Matt, "It sends out an electronic signal, nopony here would be able to pick it up." "What about your ship?" suggested Twilight. Matt sighed "Thats only if Aria isn’t joy riding in that body she made." he said glumly. "The icarus has better gear...plus, their ship hasn’t crashed." "This is a matter of survival, Matt," said Applejack, "Ya gotta consider every option, even if ya don't wanna." "We're gonna die." muttered Matt to himself. ... A little later... Matt had decided that, if he was gonna be shot later, he’d explore the shipwreck first. "Stupid junk." he muttered, picking his way through a debris strewn corridor. Matt knew that a crashed ship wouldn't be very neat, especially if it's been crashed for thousands of years, but this ship seemed to be especially messy. He finally came to what he thought was the armoury and storage room. "Finally...lets see how darius's men like plasma staff fire." he muttered, trying the door control, only for it to open a inch. "Stupid ancient..." he muttered, pulling at it and finally getting it open...for a skeleton to fall on him. Naturally, Matt screamed and jumped back, pulling the skeleton off of him and throwing it to the floor. "Bloody hell...guess its not as deserted as I....thought." he said, his voice trailing off as he looked into the storeroom. The skeleton had not been alone, the room containing at least 11 other human skeletons as well as a mix and match of locals. "Dear...lord." Matt muttered, walking into the room slowly. The console at the far end appeared to still be active, a video feed on pause. Matt carefully walked over and pressed a button, causing the vid to restart. "This is zandi...Cerberus has gone nuts. He just shot the chief engineer. Someone get down here before he gets in..." said the panicked face of an atlantean on the feed before a blast hit him in the back, causing him to slump down before a familier face loomed on the screen. "Intruder neutralized...continuing sweep." said the face of the 'administrative unit'. "Oh smeg, oh smeg, oh smeg," said Matt, "I just left the girls with a psycho robot." Matt turned to look around before running for the door. A droning noise overhead got his attention and he spotted a exo gene dropship landing near where the shuttle had crashed "Oh, come on." he moaned ... Back with the others... Twilight was looking at the tiara. "Rarity...shouldn’t you take that off?" she asked, noticing the way the bot was also apparently staring. "It's not doing any harm," said Rarity, "I've barely used any magic with it. Besides, it looks so perfect on me." "You are wearing property of the tech guild." chimed the bot, still looking at the tiara. "Well, I would return it to them if they came to collect it," said Rarity, "But that doesn't seem likely now, does it?" "Classified cargo must be protected from intruders." said the bot coldly, its optics glowing. "Quite right, we wouldn't want any ruffians to damage this beautiful diadem," said Rarity. "Remove classified cargo at once." said the bot, rearing up...and a trio of bolts shot into its back from a doorway, sending it sliding across the room. Matt strode in, firing another volley at the crippled machine. "Matt, why did you do that?" asked Twilight. "Because your buddy's real name is Cerberus," said Matt. "Thats nonsense. We've met cerberus..." began Rarity before a whirring got their attention. The bot slowly got up, the blaster damage visibly vanishing. "Stealth approach: Failed. Initiating combative measures." it said in a much deeper voice. "Get outta here..." yelled Matt, firing again at Cerberus. The girls didn't need much more convincing. Cerberus was looking more unfriendly by the second. They quickly headed down a corridor. Matt turned his head for a second to make sure they'd escaped before turning back...to see the bot had vanished. "C'mon...show yourself, you glorified toaster." he muttered. Just then, a blast of energy knocked the blaster out of Matt's hand and when it hit the floor, it was a puddle of molten metal. "Ok, maybe you're more like a glorified microwave," said Matt. He looked around before spotting a shape crouched halfway up a pillar. It lunged at him in a blur and only luck allowed Matt to avoid it. Matt stood up unsteadily and heard a grinding, turning to see the statue in the room slowly sliding in half. He gulped nervously before the bot landed in front of him, delivering several rapid fire punches to Matts chest before backflipping, kicking him under the chin. Matt was thrown into a wall with a crack. Fortunately, he was still wearing his battle armor so it was just the walk that cracked. Matt groaned weakly. Though the armour had saved him from broken ribs, the kick had scrambled his marbles. He looked up to see what seemed like three blurry shapes. "That musta been a good kick." he moaned "Neutralizing subject." said the bot before a plasma blast hit Matt in the chest. ... Unfortunately, Matt hadn’t been seeing triple. The name 'Cerberus' had been given to a model of bot that operated in threes. Matt had been outnumbered the whole time. "We should completely eliminate him," said one Cerberus bot. "Acknowledged, he is a threat to the cargo and the artifact," said a second Cerberus. "Objection, his armor is capable of withstanding our weaponry," said the third, "He could provide important data." "Agreed...with coercion, he may be able to draw out additional intruders. They have activated a magi field over the west wing entrance. Entry impossible." said the second bot coldly, looking at Matt before claiming "Target lifesigns fluxuating." before he stopped "Additional intruders detected on ranged scan." before the trio leapt into the shadows. A minute or two later, the gate exploded inwards and a dozen or so troopers in exo gene armor ran in. "Clear." called one of them before spotting Matt. "Shit...Man down." "Wait a minute, that's Lynch," said one of them, "We should just leave him. It'll save a lot of trouble." The captain of the team, a captain alandros glared "Cause I like to think we're mercs...not marauders. Medic...get him some med nanites...and I want this area locked down. Thats a plasma burn...someone or something shot him." "This place has been abandoned for who knows how long," said a trooper, "There's no way those ponies could have developed plasma technology, they don't even have computers." "That means we're not alone." said Alandros before calling to where his men were trying to open the west door. "Whats the hold up?" he yelled "Somethings locked the door. I think someones behind here." one of the troopers yelled back. "Then break down the door," called Alandros. "We tried...the demo charge turned into a rock." yelled the trooper before kicking at the door. "Open the fuck up. We know you're in there." "GO AWAY!" shouted Rainbow Dash's voice. "Like hell...get out here before we show you what we do to CPS killers." retorted the trooper. Alandros rolled his eyes before looking down as Matt coughed, the nanites having already closed his wounds and now working on replacing the lost blood. "Lynch...what did this?" he asked gravely only to look confused as Matt went bug eyed and pointed weakly at the ceiling. Alandros looked up to see what looked like a robot dog clinging to the ceiling. "What the-" he started. A plasma blast arced down, narrowly missing Alandros and slamming into the medics back. "HOSTILES!" he yelled as two more skittered into view before leaping down into the midst of the squad. It was at that point that all hell broke loose for the squad. ... "GO AWAY!" shouted Rainbow Dash's voice. The ponies winced as a human voice yelled "Like hell...get out here before we show you what we do to CPS killers." The group had run into a corridor, twilight quickly casting a locking spell on the door. It had just been in time as they had heard the fight before hearing an explosion...and other humans. "I hope Matt's ok out there," said Fluttershy. "Well, it's not like those guys would just shoot him on sight, right?" asked Pinkie. A plasma blast was suddenly heard and the ponies paled before one of the voices yelled "HOSTILES!" and the sound of weapon fire was heard, coupled with shrieks of pain. The voice that had told them to open the door was heard again, panicking "Open the door, man...open the damn door...c'mon ma-urk." it sad, cutting off with a gurgle. "Uh, I really don't think you should open that door now," said Rarity. "But Matt's still out there," said Twilight, worried. Matt was pulled to his feet by alandros. "Get the hell up, Lynch and start shooting." he yelled, handing a pulse blaster to Matt. Matt was about to reply when they were forced to roll to avoid one of the bots who had tried to drop on them before it sprang at a trooper banging at the door, neatly taking the guys head off. "Shit...what the fuck is that?" swore alandros. "All I know is they're Atlantean, they're homicidal, and they are extremely territorial," said Matt. "All are excellent reason to keep moving," said Alandros before they ran for the door. Matt banged on the door desperately “Open the door...open the door or we’re dead." he yelled panicking a little hysterically. "Quick, Twilight, let them in," said Applejack's voice. "Wait, how do we now it's Matt?" said Pinkie's voice. Matt yelled "PINKIE!" angrily only for Pinkies voice to say cheerfully "Thats definitely him." The door glowed for a second before Matt tried the door again ant it swung inwards. Alandros yelled "Squad...over here...now!" Two troopers ran into view, one tossing his rifle aside to try and run faster, only for the trio of bots to tackle him. The other one managed to dive inside. "CLOSE THAT DOOR!" yelled Alandros Matt kicked the door shut just as Twilight cast the locking spell again. It was just in time as one of the bots was leaping at the doorway. "What the hell was that, man?" gibbered the trooper who had made it, the same one who had asked why they should bother healing Matt. "The watchdogs of this place," said Matt, "I don't know what they're malfunction is, but they aren't about to let anyone leave her alive." Pinkie said glumly "Aw...it seemed so nice earlier." Matt said darkly "Believe me...I found the previous visitors...these guys like to collect." "Ooh, what do they collect?" asked Pinkie, "Do they like to collect seashells? I don't collect seashells, but I know a pony who does. She lives on a beach where she spend a lot of time collecting sea shells. But she doesn't keep every sea shell so she sells sea shells by the sea shore." "They collect bones." said Matt coldly before getting up only for the trooper to aim at him “Hey...you stay right there...you're still under arrest." Alandros rolled his eyes "Oh, shut up private. I don;t think Lynch and the marshmallow ponies are in any position to escape...neither are we. That halls the only way back to the damn dropship." he said annoyed. "Hey! Who are you calling a marshmallow?" snapped Rainbow Dash. Alandros sighed "I'm not in the mood...and the commander said we wouldn’t be held responcible for collateral...I just seen friends of mine slaughtered...don;t push me." "Listen, we all have a problem here," said Twilight, "Those robots are not going to stop until they get us. So we need to stop fighting with each other and start thinking of how to escape." Alandros puts his hands in the air "Finally...the first voice of reason all day. I shoulda aborted when I saw the wrecked ship. Look...this doesn;t change much. Lynch is still under arrest...but that can wait. This place must have a back entrance...we're not using the front door...not unless we take those bots out." he said methodically. "I did read that the unicorns had a secret back tunnel in case of emergencies," said Twilight, "It was in one of the books at the library. Alandros muttered "And knowing how this days going its in the east wing..." Twilight said "It mentioned it was in the library somewhere but I never got a chance to look." Alandros and the trooper looked at Matt "Are you always this lucky?" asked the trooper. ... The trip to the library was short and uneventful, but that didn't mean the group was on edge. Once inside, the mercs started pulling the books off the shelves. "What are you doing?" demanded Twilight. "Everyone knows that if there's a secret door in a library, it's triggered by moving one of the books," said the trooper. Matt rolled his eyes "Guys...GUYS!" he said, before yelling the last part, "This is a magi verse...its probably some wierd spell or a sneeze or something." He said more normally once he had their attention. "Then let's see some magic already," snapped the trooper. The ponies glared before Twilight lit up her horn, looking around before trotting over to the wall. "Somethings here...but it'll need alot of magic..." she said before the gang turned to look at Rarity. "You did say that tiara supercharges magic, didn’t you Twilight? Lets see if it can do it for you." said matt, reaching for it...and being thrown across the room with a flash and a crack of thunder. "Ow...I guess I don’t have touchy feelie rights." he moaned. "Sorry, maybe Twilight should use it," said Rarity. Rarity reached for the tiara with her magic and carefully lifted it off before passing it to Twilight. Matt, Alandros and the trooper exchanged a look and slowly got into cover. "Ok, this could be tricky," said Twilight before her horn started glowing, followed by the tiara's amethysts glowing. Matt covered his ears as Twilights magic burst demolished the wall covering the passage door. Alandros just stared "Damn." he muttered, impressed. "Wow, I didn't know the magic was that powerful," said Twilight. "It belonged to the boss of the unicorns..." said Matt, weakly, shining a light into the passage beyond. "If it gets us out of here, I don't care if belongs to the queen of the fairies," said the trooper. "Lets just go." said Matt before the distant sound of splintering wood was heard. "Yeah, lets go now." he added urgently. The group quickly hurried into the passageway, though it was a bit cramped as it wasn't made for a large group of escapers or for beings much taller than ponies. "Screw that plan. I'm not going in there." said the rookie trooper, staring at the tunnel. Alandros just sighed "Get in there, you idiot...that things coming." "If he doesn't want to go, let him stay," said Matt, "Those things will be slowed down when they stop to deal with him." The trooper gulped and said "Well...maybe I should-" before being knocked forward as a plasma burst hit him in the back. The group turned to see the smoldering hole in the door and the glaring face of the mech peering through it. That immediately eliminated any disapproval for the tunnel and they scurried to get in. Alandros pushed Matt in and pulled a stick out his armoured vest. "Bombs away." he said, tossing the tube into the room before pushing the tunnel door shut. A flash was seen round the door and the ground shook with a 'WHOMPH'. “Lets see that jerk survive that.” alandros muttered. "You...you destroyed the library..." said Twilight in horror. "What would you prefer...dead library or just being dead?" said Alandros in a matter of fact voice. "But most of those books and scrolls were irreplacable and one-of-a-kind," said Twilight, angrily. "As far as I'm concerned, you are neither and I suggest you get your priorities straight and keep moving," said Alandros. "C'mon, Twi...listen to the nice mercenary with the demo charges." said Matt, mock cheerfully. Twilight gave them a disapproving look but turned and headed down the tunnel. "Alandros...word of advice...I'd not burn any more books...she's got a real temper." muttered Matt. "I've got bigger worries than hurting a bookworm's feelings," said Alandros. "Bookworm knows many spells...some probably hurt." said Matt casually going past Alandros down the tunnel. ... Since the humans had to crouch to go through the tunnel, they took a little slower than they all probably would have preferred. The tunnel eventually began to level out after a half hour of sloping down before coming to another door. "Ok, Twi...door blasting time." said Matt before he and Alandros fought to be the first round the corner. "Ok, just a minute," said Twilight before her horn and the tiara's gems started glowing. Matt covered his ears before the door simply opened slowly, Twilight having gotten used to the tiara's boost. "Ok...that was anti-climatic." said Alandros, dissapointed. "Who cares as long as we're getting out of here," said Matt. The group scrambled out to find themselves what had been a bedroom, though now it was almost buried in snow thanks to one of the walls missing. Alandros slowly looked up to see the 'roof' consisted of the hull of the crashed atlantean ship. "Crap...bad place to be." he muttered. "Uh, you did park your ship nearby, right?" asked Matt. "No...we parked in the town below the castle...didn’t wanna risk you just gunning us down before we could even land." said Alandros, a little bitterly. Matt looked up at the ship. "Ah, crap...we're in the east wing again..." he moaned. "So we're back where we started?" said Rainbow Dash. "Nope...this is much worse." commented Matt. "Now where are we supposed to go?" asked Applejack. "Uh, back into the main hall?" suggested Matt. Fluttershy cringed at that "But...that...things there." she said. Alandros shook his head "Not likely...its probably following the same tunnel...we should be able to sneak out the doors and get out of here." "Then we better hurry before it catches up," said Applejack. ... Apart from the weapon damage, the hall looked like no battle had taken place at all, the bodies removed by the cerberus bots. "Ok...thats just creepy...it does house cleaning too?" muttered Matt. "What if it...eats them?" asked Fluttershy in a scared voice. "Robots don't need to eat," said Alandros. Matt heard a scuttling and looked up to see one of the bots on the roof. "Oh hell. However, they can climb." he said, firing up at the bot. The bot dropped down from the ceiling, neatly turning so it landed on its feet. "Girls, get going, we'll hold it off," said Matt. "We can;t just..." began Rainbow before a blast bounced off the wall next to her, Alandros yelling "Get moving, pony girl." he yelled, turning his gun to another bot. The girls decided they didn't have time to argue, especially since the third bot will probably be arriving soon. Matt and Alandro backed up ,back to back. “I'm presuming you have a plan other then 'die'." said Matt, out the corner of his mouth. Alandros shrugged as the two bots slowly circled like wolves "Thought I'd take a leaf out of your book and wing it, Lynch." "I don't always wing it," said Matt, "Just when I don't know what I'm up against." "Like now?" said Alandros, adding in a low voice "And there's the last of the three stooges." nodding to where the third bot was coming in through the smashed west wing door. "This is your final warning," said the third bot, "Surrender and your destruction will be mercifully swift." "Oh yeah...do your worst.” yelled Matt, Alandros facepalming and saying "Tell me, Lynch...does your brain ever visit the planet earth?" "Activation gestalt program," said the bots. Two of them seemed to collapse halfway on the left and right sides respectively, their front and back pairs of legs being drawn into one. The third retracted its limbs and seemed to bulk up even more. Then the first two attached themselves to the sides of the third, resulting in a large three-headed version of the dog bots. Alandros and Matt looked at each other before Alandros said "The board doesn;t pay me enough." and the two ran for it. The Cerberus bot followed after them, two of its heads blasting at them. "Bloody atlanteans and their bloody stupid robo-pooches." yelled Matt as the two ran out into the snow, dodging plasma bursts. "You just had to provoke it, didn't you?" snapped Alandros. "How was I supposed to know they could combine into a three-headed death machine?" snapped Matt. "Its called 'CERBERUS'...what did you think it would do?" yelled Alandros, as they dodged into the ruined village. "So...maybe we can play some music and it'll go to sleep?" suggested Matt. "How the hell have you dodged us for so long?" said Alandros in a tired voice, peering out into the street for their pursuer. "I try to be as unpredictable as possible," said Matt. "For gods sake...Lets just get the hell out of here...hopefully your friends had the sense to run for the dropship." said Alandros. "Uh...you mean your dropship?" asked Matt. "Yes...the heavily armed assault ship with cannons that can turn that tin can into so much scrap." said Alandros angrily. "Good, I just hope it's fast enough to keep up with Fluffy's movements," said Matt. There was a cracking noise at that "What the hell was-" began Alandros before the wall beside the group seemed to explode, Cerberus easily smashing the wall apart to reach them. "You have got to be kidding me," said Matt before shooting wildly at the dog bot. The machine roared angrily as the two mercs fired at it, swatting them both out into the street, the only thing stopping them from being smeared being the deep snow from the eternal snowstorm. "Ok, the Atlanteans were really, really advanced, but they weren't perfect," groaned Matt as he slowly got back up, "This thing has to have a weak point." "Like what?" said Alandros, sorely as the cerberus tore its way out of the building. "Well, I don't think it spent too much time outside since it's been here," said Matt, "Maybe if we keep it out in the snow, its systems will freeze and it shuts down." "It'll probably have to be out here for hours...we can’t be lucky for that long." said Alandros, wincing. Matt looked over "Whats wrong...aw hell." he asked, before spotting where the bot had slashed Alandros through his armor when it had knocked them into the street. "It hurts, but it's not stopping me from moving," said Alandros, "We can't afford to stand in one place for too long." Are you nuts? You’re almost sliced in half." said Matt disbelivingly, pulling Alandros up and putting an arm round him to help him along, the two heading up the street. "I'm just going to slow you down," said Alandros, "Those locals won't stand a chance if that thing gets both of us." "Like hell I’m leaving you to that things tender mercies." said Matt angrily. Alandros returned the glare before holding up a demo charge "That thing slaughtered my men...call this payback..now sod off." he said, pushing Matt back. "You don't have the strength to hurl that thing right," said Matt. "Who said anything about hurling it?" said Alandros coldly, twisting the top of the charge and starting its timer. Matt really didn't want to leave Alandros's side, but he only had a limited amount of seconds to get clear of him. "See ya on the other side, Lynch." said Alandros mock cheerfully as the cerberus pulled itself round the corner. ... Alandros watched as Matt reluctantly ran for it before looking up at the atlantean machine. "Can I help you?" he mocked before wincing as it picked him up by the neck. "Got...something...for you." he rasped. The six optics barely had time to register the fact that Alandros had a live grenade before it blew up. ... The ponies had managed to find their way to where the exo gene ship had been parked, the large ship both familier from its sister vessels attack on ponyville and the fact that its black/grey pattern stood out in the snow. "Ok, we just hide in there until Matt comes back," said Twilight, "We should be safe." "Uh, how do we get in?" asked Rainbow Dash. A loud explosion was heard from the town, a fireball visible over the roofs. "Ah hope that wasn;t Lynch." said Applejack in a worried tone before Matt was spotted heading round the corner. "Matt, what happened to-" started Twilight before Matt said, "He gave us a chance to escape and we have to do it now." The dropship itself was already half iced up, a testimony to the storms ferocity. Matt opened up a hatch and gulped, the meter on the display inside showing a blue sliver and several warnings. "Engines are iced...they'll need to warm up." he said, pressing a button on the display and shutting it. "Maybe we should have brought Spike along after all," said Rarity, "Oh, why did he have to start shedding this week?" Matt turned as a column of snow was seen fountaining up in the distance. "You have got to be kidding me. Get in the dropship and try not to attract attention." said Matt, gravely, heading up the ramp to open a gear cabinet and pulling a pulse cannon out. "If this doesn;t kill it..." he muttered, not finishing the thought. "Matt, you can't fight that thing, it's too powerful," said Rainbow Dash. "And the windigos are still out there," said Fluttershy urgently, as roar from the clouds reminding Matt of the storms architects. "If I don't slow that tin can down, it'll get here before the ships finished warming up. You'll be able to call Aria to come pick you up...anyway, I didn’t put 'dying' into my diary this week..." said Matt, adding the last part a little cockily, thinking '...cause I don;t own one.' As Matt walked out with the pulse cannon, he said to himself, "Ok, that thing took a grenade to the face, er, faces. Surely that's got to have done some damage." The ponies watched as Matt headed back towards the town, the pulse cannon slung over his shoulder unsteadily. "We're following him, right?" said Rainbow dash out the corner of her mouth. "About 20 paces behind," replied Rarity. ... Matt peered around the corner into the main square. "Hello? Where are yoooou?" he called. Matt peered around and said to himself, "It's a huge robotic three-headed dog, it should stick out like a sour thumb." On cue, the building at the far end, the ruins of some kind of town hall exploded to allow the atlantean bot free, its six optics focussing on him. "There he is.” whimpered Matt before pulling the pulse cannon down. "Ok...button here." Matt muttered as the droid began to slowly lope towards him through the thick snow. "Just gotta hit it right in the middle," muttered Matt as he reached for the trigger. "Warning: safety is enabled." chimed a male voice from the weapon "You gotta be kidding." whimpered Matt, before hearing a thud, looking up and being knocked flying across the square. "Ow...uh, can you give me a minute to get my gun ready?" called Matt. The bots reply was to throw a piece of masonry at Matt, who only just rolled in time to avoid. "Oh, come on! It's common courtesy!" yelled Matt. Matt shook the pulse cannon desperately as the bot strode towards him. "Come on...please work." he whimpered before being grabbed and hung in front of the bot upside down. "Oh...erm...hi," he said nervously before a green light came lit up on the cannon. "Safety disabled." it chimed. Matt aimed in the bots face. "Erm...its for you." he said, firing at point blank. Fortunately, the safety disable included the kickback inhibitor, which allowed Matt to be thrown clear of the explosion. "Ow..." moaned Matt, getting up unsteadily before seeing the bot face down in the snow, smoking. "Heh...HAHAHA...Take that, you sorry excuse for a Ipet." he said, laughing a little hysterically. "Yay! You beat the monster!" yelled Pinkie Pie. Matt turned to see the girls there. "I thought I told you to stay on the ship," said Matt. "We thought we might be able to help beat that big metal meanie pants." said Pinkie cheerfully, bouncing in the snow. "Yes...I guess I did." said Matt a little tired, adding "Well...revenge is meant to be served cold...we are in the right place." "You sure that thing won't get back up?" asked Applejack. "Oh please...I shot it with an anti-ship weapon. Its not gonna get..." began Matt before a plasma burst shot skyward as the bot got back up, the dents and slashes in its armor visibly vanishing. "This unit is inconvenienced...full termination authorized." it said coldly before a angry pain filled shriek was heard from the clouds. "Oh, now what?" snapped Matt. "Er, you think that thing can feel hate?" asked Applejack. "I’d say so." said Matt, gulping before looking up to see three ghostly white horses descending, one sporting a black scorch on its side from the wild plasma blast. Their gazes seemed to say 'Who did that?' as they peered angrily at the group. Matt pointed at the bot and said childishly "He did it." The windigos shrieked before soaring towards the Cerberus bot. The robot looked at the windigos and stated, "Abnormal decrease in temperature detected, source confirmed as ice-based anomaly. Neutralizing threat." Then each of the three heads spat a blast at each of the windigos. Matt pushed the ponies back "Leg it while they decide who wins." he said panicking. The group quickly ran back to the ship, the windigos' shrieking and the sound of gunfire was heard as the battle behind them intensified. Matt was first into the dropship, climbing the ladder in the troop compartment up to the cockpit. "Please work." he repeated under his breath before grinning as the control board lit up green across and the whine of the engines starting was heard. "Time to go..." he said, closing the troop compartment and starting to lift the dropship up. He got a good sight of the windigo's trying to freeze the cerberus bot, only for the bot to smash free and fire several ineffectual shots. He then looked down to see that the dropships dashboard indicated a full loadout. "Waste not, want not." he said, firing every missile the ship had at the combatants. Considering that the payload was enough to completely demolish the whole village, Matt decided it would probably not be a good idea to stay too close. "Time to leave." he commented, pulling back on the controls and making the dropship spin in place before he hit the afterburners. The dropship sped away from the mountain before a huge explosion engulfed one side of it, nearly causing the dropship to tumble out of the air. Matt winced, realising his 'final word' must have hit the crashed atlantean ship to have caused such a spectacular result. "If anyone asks, I did that on purpose." he muttered to himself, before peering down the ladder into the troop transport. "No auto pilot this time..." he said cheerfully before adding a little nervously "I might have blown up the castles library...again. My bad." Twilight didn't respond, she just had a shocked expression frozen on her face. "Uh, Twi, you ok there?" asked Applejack. Matt winced "I had a similar expression when techo blew up my room." he said sympathetically. "Is she going to be ok?" asked Fluttershy. "Don't worry, she'll be just fine," said Pinkie, "It'll take a lot more than that to break her." "If I ever see another robot, it'll be too...ah smeg." said Matt, his cheerfulness stopping when he realised he lived with bots 24/7. "Well, it wasn't a total loss," said Rarity, "True, I had to leave behind a lot of items back there, but at least we have the tiara." Matt peered at the Tiara on twilights head. "Yeaaaah, lets take that off Twilight before she wakes up." he commented. "Uh, I thought only she could take it off," said Pinkie. "Uh oh...I hope we land before she wakes up then." said Matt nervously. "How far is it to Ponyville?" asked Rainbow Dash. "A few hours......I'm doomed." said Matt, adding the last part, gloomily. ... Back at Ponyville, the girls were drinking plenty of hot cocoa to warm back up. Although Matt would probably be needing more than hot cocoa. He was currently half frozen, luckily Ponyvilles warm weather meaning he was thawing quickly. "I....c-c-c-can;t believe th-that you fr-fr-froze me." he chattered at Twilight. "It was an accident," said Twilight, "You know, a reflex." "J-just c-c-c-cause I'm a merc...doesn;t m-mean I'm.....stupid." said Matt, his eye twitching. Twilights first action upon waking had been to blast Matt with a ice spell, much to the mercs horror. "Well, maybe the tiara was reacting to my subconscious desires," said Twilight. "Oh.....goody. Its....sentient. I hate it when they do that." said Matt, annoyed before shivering again. "Keep chipping." The spider-drones who had been working on freeing Matt from his ice block sped up a little. "You know, it would be much quicker to just thaw the ice off," said Aria. Matt shook his head "Hell no...I like my arse where its located...not burnt off." "Girls…and guy, I just thought of something," said Twilight, "If those Atlantean guys had one of the Primium Artifacts, they probably have the other two." "Where would the other two be anyways?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I dunno...underground..." said Matt, bored. "Well, I reckon we oughta find them 'fore someone else does," said Applejack. "Huh..." muttered Matt. ... <Log initiated> 'Ok...not been my best week....though venting on those griffon jerks was great fun...crashing in a winter wonderland was NOT! Not to mention having to deal with not one, not two, but THREE rogue Atlantean robots were fully intent to rend me to pieces. Hate to say it but if Alandros and his team hadn;t turned up to catch me, none of us would have left. Poor guy... Still, I hope I can put this whole week behind me. I don't see any particular reason to go chasing after magical hats. I mean, it's not like there's any wrong hands around here for them to fall into, right?’ ... The night watch on the Icarus was boring, even with the current operation. The tech in charge of the scanning that night was therefore surprised to see Darius coming in. "Sir..." he said urgently, jumping up with a salute. "At ease...got a job for you. Decoded some of the info we got from that atlantean base." Darius said, tossing a removable drive to the tech. "Sir, we haven't heard back from Alandros and Viper Team for some time," said the tech. "Lynch probably did them in. He's been going through a lot of our men lately," said Darius. The tech looked at the new info, a list of coordinates appearing on a map with several atlantean runes at points. "It'll take a while to integrate this into the scanners...what are we looking for?" he said, missing the faint glow in Darius's eyes as he said "An advantage."
Largefish8	784	11	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2013-05-14T09:20:45+00:00	2013-05-14T09:20:44+00:00	473	MLP pt 11 Matt had spent most of the time after the impromptu trip to a blizzard, updating the Exo gene dropship he had claimed from that misadventure mostly so people wouldn't panic like when he had landed it outside ponyville on the groups return. Matt paused as he looked at the work he's been doing on the gyroscopic stabilizers. "Hmm, I think I'll need to replace this diode. Now where did I leave the spares?" he said before heading to the equipment closet. "Probably something in here I could use," he muttered before opening the door. "Hi Matt!" shouted Pinkie as she popped out of the closet. Pinkie hopped out as Matt made a 'hrrrk' noise and fell backwards. "You're not gonna believe how lucky I was. I entered a cooking competition and entered in my speciality and I managed to win and....Matt? Matt, are you ok?" she said happily before looking down to see Matt thumping his own chest. Matt gasped until he felt his heart kickstart and resume its normal pace and gave a sigh of relief before he said, "Now then, Pinkie, why must you keep surprising me and why should I not retaliate with strangulation?" "Well, I got some extra tickets and even if all of us go there is a spare one so I thought you might want to come along. Its supposed to be nice and warm there." said Pinkie, pulling what looked like a ticket out of her mane. Matt took it and looked at the writing which looked about as ticket-like as Matts gun collection did. "You wrote this, didn’t you." he said flatly. "Well, there aren't exactly tickets, but the place we'll be going is a long way away and we only have until the weekend to get there," said Pinkie, a little embarrassed. "I don't think Twilight's balloon or the train can take us there that fast so..." "You wanna rent my ship...again," said Matt, his tone not changing a bit. Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. Matt put his hand on his face and said in the same tone. "You do remember what happened less then a week ago...right?" he said dully, referring to the magic boosting crown currently in Twilights basement. "Oh, don't worry. I know exactly where we're going," said Pinkie, "It's a safe and peaceful resort." Matt rolled his eyes as a treacherous little voice in his head said 'Whats the worst that could happen?' Of course, his common sense was screaming at him, 'Remember the last time you went to a resort?' "I don't know. This could backfire too easily," said Matt. "Don't be silly," said Pinkie, "Here, take a look at the brochure." She pulled a pamphlet out of her mane and handed it to Matt. Matt peered suspiciously at Pinkie, all his mental voices thinking 'How much smeg is in that mane?' before he opened the brochure pamphlet. "Hmm...seems safe enough." he said suspiciously. The place was pretty distant, being on an island in the southern seas. Asides from the obvious beachside perks, it had a spa, fine meals, tennis courts. There was even a hiking trail through the jungle that covered most of the rest of the island. Matt sighed "Fine...when do you need to set off?" he said before noticing the other 5 outside the door peering in with hopeful smiles. "Man, I am too predictable." he muttered gloomily. ... The ship might not have been the fanciest model in Nullspace, but it certainly had more than passable standards for the group. The flight down to the island barely took more than five hours. Matt was sitting with his feet on the controls, rather pleased with the new acquisition...especially its more intelligent autopilot AI. Aria, sitting in the co-pilots seat said sarcastically "Have you forgotten what happened less then a week ago? Eyes on the road." she said, annoyed mostly cause Matt had insisted she disable her weapon systems. "Relax, I checked the weather forecast before we left," said Matt, "There's no storms scheduled for this area within the next week." Aria said with a smirk "Like there cannot possibly be everlasting snowstorms?" Matt jumped up at that, taking over from the autopilot, Aria standing up and going into the back to check on the girls. "Ok...we're almost here and Matt is happily not letting the autopilot steer us in." she said in a pleased voice. "Good," said Rarity, "I certainly don't want to lose all of my luggage again." "That was an accident." yelled Matt from the control room, annoyed. "One that we shouldn't let repeat," said Rarity, "Still, I'm glad the foresight of travelling lighter this time." Aria rolled her eyes, thinking of the several chests and suitcases filling the hold below. "Of course...lighter." she said diplomatically. "I hope the family back home can hold the farm while I'm gone," said Applejack. "AJ, we're on vacation," said Rainbow Dash, "You gotta think of things to do for fun. Like how I'm gonna see how fast I can fly around the island." Pinkie was hopping up and down, her usual hyper self. "I can’t wait to throw a party or explore the jungle. It'll be so much fun." she said happily. "Just try to take it slow," said Matt, "Vacations are about relaxing, remember?" Matt looked down to see a nice clearing not far from the hotel resort where he could land. "Ok...don’t leave anything on board...I don’t trust all the systems." he called out, being the dropship down. "Do we have permission to land here?" asked Twilight. "It's a jungle, nobody sentient lives there," said Matt. ... It turned out that there was something in the jungle. Two creatures, looking like winged stags watched calmly as the dropship came into land. "More intruders...that zebra is pushing the tribes patience." said one of them. "Yes, something must be done soon," said the other. "But not yet..." said the first coldly as the ship finally landed, the back opening and a group of ponies coming out. "But we can so easily overwhelm them," said the second, "We should attack now." "Look at the purple one...The sun goddess's student...would you bring down fire on our people?" said the first one scoldingly, pointing to Twilight "Then when are we supposed to attack?" complained the second one. "The time will come when our leader will arrive...until then...we wait." said the first, before glaring at the second "Until then...know your place." Just then, an odd spectacle exited the ship. It looked like a small tower of packages walking on a pair of odd legs. "Travel lightly, my arse," the thing said before heading after the ponies. The two watched until the tower had gone before seeing another person walking down. It looked like a hairless ape, except that the eyes were red...and staring directly at them despite their cover. "Perhaps we should report this," said the first stag. "I think we should..." said the second, before the two melted into the jungle. ... The resort gates finally came into view, Matt happy at that given that he had again ended up as a pack mule...metaphorically. "Aria, why don't you ever help with the luggage?" snapped Matt. "I'm not a cargo bot." said Aria smugly. Matt grumbled and said, "If I'm the highest ranked here, why am I so low on the pecking order?" "Because of karma." said Aria promptly. The gate to the resort swung open suddenly and a zebra could be seen, several diamond dogs and burlier looking zebra stallions standing inside. "Welcome to the Jungle jewel resort." said the leading zebra pleasantly. Pinkie Pie zipped forward and said, "Ooh, I'm so happy to be here. I won a contest to get here but I never imagined I would have gotten here. Oh, this is going to be so much fun." "Ah...you must be the winner from equestria. I apologise for the security but there are some dangerous animals in the jungle nearby." sad the zebra, taking a uncertain step back in the face of a full on Pinkie encounter. "What kind of dangerous animals?" asked Fluttershy in a nervous tone. "Mostly some locals we missed when we were finding a place for the resort. We have tried reasoning with them to no avail. However, as long as you keep to this side of the island, they will ignore us." said the zebra. "I guess you're the manager of the resort, Mr..." started Applejack. "Raya," said the zebra, "But my close companions call me Ray." Raya was about to continue when Matt finally managed to get through the gates with Aria, coming into Raya's view. "ARGH...MONSTER!" the zebra screamed, jumping back as his 'associates' clearly the security he mentioned started towards Matt. Matt's head stuck around the corner of one suitcase and said, "Bellhops? Thank God, you have no idea how much this is killing my back." Aria watched as the two diamond dogs picked up Matt with a growl and she started walking towards them with the intent of slapping them...into the next area code. "Wait, he's with us," said Twilight, "He's a little odd, but he's not dangerous." One of the dogs said "Me don’t know. He looks dangerous to me." Matt glared "Oi...cheeky." "Nah, it's Pinkie who you gotta keep an eye on," said Rainbow Dash. "Oh, I'll be fine, dashie. Its not like theres a big mean robot around-mmmph." Pinkie said cheerfully until Applejack hurriedly stuffed a hoof in her mouth. Just then, Aria walked through the gates. "They're right," she said, "Matt is no threat unless he has been threatened first." "Shut up, aria. I just flew them in, sir. I'd appreciate it if I could have somewhere to stay." said Matt. ... A little while later, the bellhops had carried the girls' luggage in. Matt and Aria were about to follow them into the hotel but then Raya stepped in front of them and said, "I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid you two can't stay here. You see, the contest prize only extends to ponies, not...whatever you are." "You're kicking us out into a place you have just admitted is dangerous?" said Matt, annoyed. His mood had not been helped by the fact that Raya's security had not left him in peace. "I apologize, but this is a five-star resort," said Raya, "I cannot allow just anyone to be let in. However, we could potentially make some arrangement if you do a little something for me." Aria glared "We are on holiday...and you do not have clearance to hire us." she said icily. "It's a simple little job," said Raya, "Surely that's worth a stay at my fine resort." Matt glared "Whats the job?" "There's a temple in the jungle with something very valuable inside it," said Raya, "All you have to do is go there, get it, and bring it back." Matt glared before looking at aria. "Come on, aria. There's a nice comfy pilots chair in the dropship waiting for us." he said, coldly, spotting bribery a mile off. Aria gave a distainful sniff and said, "I'd prefer to be uploaded back into the mainframe." Raya gave a theatrical sigh. "Oh well...I am afraid my security will be along shortly to relocate your ca-." he began before noticing Matts blaster. "I won’t be blackmailed...warn your rent-a-cops." said Matt, coldly. Raya watched the two of them walk off before muttering, "Why is it so hard to hire the right people?" "But why hire them?" asked one of the diamond dogs, "Why not hire pink one?" "Miss pie will be hard to steer where we need her if the stories are true...especially since she brought the other elements. From what I hear, this human is better equipped. It was worth a try." said Raya. ... Pinkie hopped into the girl's suite and said, "Girls, guess what? Since I was the one who won the contest, I get to take a special tour of the island tomorrow. Isn't that great or what?" "Good for you, Pinkie," said Twilight, "But I can't help but notice that Matt and Aria aren't here." "I wondered that too so I asked Raya and he said that he offered a place for Matt but he wanted to stay at the ship." said Pinkie, hopping up and down. "Sounds like Matt to me," said Rainbow Dash. "But he seemed to be looking forward to staying at the resort," said Fluttershy. Twilight was however looking thoughtful. "I am sure I’ve heard of this Raya person." she said to herself. "He must have been in a magazine," said Rarity, "I mean, the owner of a five-star resort is sure to have a lot of publicity." "I don't know...I would have thought we would have heard of this resort before now." said Twilight. "You're overthinking it, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash, "Your brain needs to take a vacation." ... Matt yawned before wincing as the cricks in his back protested. He had spent the night on the dropship and it had not been a pleasant one, the ships proximity alarms ringing every hour or so as some...thing had looked at the vessel. "Stupid zebra." he muttered, getting up, stopping briefly to bang on Aria who was sitting in a recharge station. The recharge station hummed before Aria's platform activated. "Good morning, Matt, sleep well?" she said. "No. Some people do not have ears they can turn off at night." said Matt, angrily. "15 intruder alarms in the night...15!" "Strange, I wonder who it could have been," said Aria before checking the security cameras. Aria called up nothing but static feeds before glaring at Matt who said "I never got round to repairing them." "Well, that's something for you to do today," said Aria. "No...first we check in on the girls. I don't trust that 'Raya' character. He reminds me a bit of Kurata." said Matt. "You do recall we're not allowed at the hotel," said Aria. "He said we couldn't stay there," said Matt, "He didn't say we couldn't check on friends. Besides, since when have I followed the rules?" "Good point." said Aria, pulling a blaster out of a weapons cabinet before seeing Matts stare and tossing him a rifle. "In case we run into whatever set off the alerts." she said. "Probably just some curious wild animals," said Matt, taking the gun anyways. ... The duo walked into the hotel to be greeted by the two goons from the first time. "Raya say you not allowed in." said the first one in a voice indicating a room temperature IQ. "Not even for a little bit?" asked Matt, trying to skirt around one. The second one glared and said "You deaf? YOU NO ALLOWED!" yelling the last part before being punched through the wall by Aria. "I bet he didn't say we couldn't use that door," said Matt, heading towards the new hole in the wall. The remaining diamond dog nodded nervously, stepping aside. "Good boy, have a treat," said Matt, tossing the dog a bone. The diamond dog glared at Matt and Aria as they went in. He looked around to see if anyone was watching before he started chewing on the bone. ... The ponies were in the lobby, staring at the dazed guard 'dog' before seeing Matt and Aria coming in. "Really, Matt, did you have to be so rough?" asked Rarity. "You could have just asked," said Applejack. "You mean how we were asked to stay out when we first got here?" said Matt. The ponies looked shocked at that, Rarity saying "Mr Raya said you turned down a room." "Correction: Mr. Raya wouldn't let us have a room," said Aria, "Apparently, he felt our presence would affect the five-star rating of his resort." "Then the cheeky git tried to hire us for some retrieval job." said Matt, annoyed. "I think I'm starting to understand why I haven't heard of this resort before," said Twilight in a sour tone. "Treasure collector?" suggested Matt. "I wonder what he really wants with Pinkie?" asked Applejack, "He probably ain't very sincere about that tour around the island." "We'll go find pinkie. You stay here." said Matt. "How comes we can't come along?" demanded Rainbow Dash. "Because this is a big jungle...the last thing we need is the rest of you getting lost too." said Matt. ... Meanwhile, Raya and Pinkie have been walking along the jungle trail for quite some time now. "Boy, it sure is hot here," said Pinkie. "It's not really heat, it's humidity," said Raya. "Where are we going? This isn’t a very fun tour so far." asked Pinkie, looking around. Raya said "I have a...associate who needs some help. He'll be showing off the tour." said Raya, with a smile. "Tour of what?" asked Pinkie, "There isn't anything around but big plants." The group turned a corner to reveal a vast chasm, a shining temple on the other side, only ruined by the vines covering it. "There...wonderful, isn’t it." said Raya, in awe. "I guess," said Pinkie, "Doesn't seem like a very fun place." "It's a lot more fun than it looks," said Raya, "You might say it's a game." "Oh oh oh. I love games...whats the game?" said Pinkie, happily. "It's a treasure hunt," said Raya, "It's pretty simple. In the center of that temple is a fancy hat. You just need to go in there and bring it out." Pinkie grinned "Sounds like fun." she said happily. ... Meanwhile, Twilight was flipping through a book she had brought, one about islands in the southern seas. If she could find an entry for this island, she may have some idea what Raya was up to. "I just know I heard his name before, but where?" she muttered. Matt had left a radio behind, his voice sounding out "Maybe he is just a resort owner?...dammit, something bit me...I hate bugs." said his voice "I don't think so anymore," said Twilight, "A resort owner wouldn't want something in a temple that badly... Wait, now I remember. Celestia told me about him a few years ago. He was known to be a notorious treasure hunter and jewel thief. But he managed to get out of Equestria before Celestia could deal with him." "Explains the thugs for hire...doesn’t explain why he'd want pinkie to come here." said Matts voice. "Pinkie may not be the sharpest tack around, but she does know how to keep one step ahead of dangers," said Applejack. "Like a temple full of booby traps," said Rainbow Dash. "Dammit...I'll see what I can do...the jungles too thin to spot any temple from the air...we'll have to go in on foot...stay at the resort. He may have lied about this resort but I don’t think he was about the locals." said Matt, before the comm began hissing, Matt having signed off Applejack looked at the other girls and said, "I don't know about y'all, but I ain't just gonna sit here while our friend's in trouble. I say we go after them." "Through the scary dangerous jungle?" asked Fluttershy in a terrified tone. Rainbow Dash was grinning however, "I never thought Pinkie would get to live a daring doo adventure." Twilight gave Rainbow a wary look and said, "I know that look in your eye..." "Hey...I could find her in a flash. This islands not that big." said Rainbow cockily. "It's not the size of the island that matters," said Rarity, "It's the matter of the density of the jungle. And thinking about what horrid things could be lurking in there makes me shiver." "Oh please. Raya probably made that up too." said Rainbow. "I wouldn't be too sure," said Twilight, "It says here that a couple of islands are inhabited by unfriendly natives." "I doubt even this guy would have built on one of those islands." said Rainbow. "Maybe, maybe he didn't," said Twilight, "I'm trying to find which one this island is in here." ... Pinkie looked at the rickety rope bridge before looking back at Raya who nodded encouragingly "Well? What are you waiting for?" he said. "This is safe, right?" asked Pinkie, "It looks like termites have been gnawing it." "Of course it is." snapped Raya. Pinkie poked one plank and said, "Well...ok!" She then started hopping across the bridge. Raya's group watched as the party pony began crossing. "What do we do once she has the crown?" asked one of Raya's fellow zebra's. "As if she'd know what it really was," said Raya, "As far as she knows and ever will know, it's just a fancy hat." "What if she does realise what it is? She's earth clan after all." said the same zebra. "The Earth Ponies are the least magical of the pony races," said Raya, "She would have no way of knowing what the crown can do." "Ok...its getting dark...her friends will be asking questions soon. I'll go back to the resort...say how she is on a camping trip with two of the staff....you two. Bring her back to the resort as soon as she emerges." said Raya, turning to leave. The two other zebras looked at the darkening jungle and were becoming well-aware of how creepy it was. "But..." began one of them nervously but Raya was gone. "We'll be fine...the perytons don’t dare come here." said the other zebra. Just then, the sound of something growling came from the bushes. "Oh...buck." said one of the zebra's nervously as they turned to look at the bushes. They could hear the bushes rustling as something was moving through them and the growling sound was heard again. "Lets get out of here." said the first zebra turning and bolting for it. The second quickly turned heel and fled as well. A few seconds later, the bushes parted and Matt and Aria climbed through. "Must you make so much noise?" said Aria. "I can't help it. I've had anything to eat in hours," said Matt as his stomach growled again. "Matt...we could have been ambushed..." began Aria before the two looked across at the temple. "Here we go again." Matt began before taking a testing step onto the bridge. The termite-eaten plank quickly gave way under his foot, which Matt quickly drew back. "It seems that all we can do is wait, sir." said Aria, sitting down on a rock. Matt sat down too, not noticing the message on his wrist comp, showing a feed from the dropships radar...and a trio of dots heading for the center. ... Raya wasn't the only interested in the temple. Currently unknown to Matt and Aria, three of Darius' men were sneaking closer to them through the bush. "This is recon 2...we're at the target...and you are not gonna believe who else is here." whispered one of the troopers, the trio watching Matt and Aria through a combat scope. "It's Lynch, isn't it?" came Darius's voice over the comm. "Yes it is, sir. Looks like he's too heavy for the bridge. We observed a local go inside 2 minutes before he arrived. We're observing for now." said Recon 2. "The local's probably getting the crown for Lynch," said Darius, "He'll be there for a while. Make sure he'll be staying a lot longer." "We'll be ready, sir." said Recon 2. ... Pinkie trotted through the main hall of the temple, looking around. It looked...faked...as if someone had read about what temples looked like then guessed. The fakeness was confirmed by a collapsed wall at the far end, revealing a corridor leading deeper in and down. "Do temples normally have basements?" Pinkie wondered to herself before going down the corridor. The corridor itself was littered with rubble and broken devices that would have looked at home on Matts ship as well as various primitive devices like axes and arrows. Pinkie walked through the area with the air of a sightseer, missing the various traps attempting to get her, ranging from spikes that fired a fraction too late to laser beams that vaporised the rocks just next to her. "Hey, what's that?" asked Pinkie, looking close at the ground and thus narrowly avoided having her head smashed by a huge log. "Oh, it's just a funny-looking bug," she said before continuing on. The path finally ended at a door that had long since given way to the abuse of the elements, revealing another room that seemed to have once held dozens of things but now only held a single item, laying in the middle of the damage. The hat was resting upon a small head-shaped stone on top of a short pillar. At first glance, one would think it was just a farmer's hat. But upon closer inspection, the crown of the hat had been expertly woven to resemble a three-layered cake with ribbons and garnets for frosting and decorations. Pinkie was the first to recognize the hat...after all, she'd worn the near-replica in the hearts warming pageant. "Now there's a fabulously-delicious-looking hat!" said Pinkie, "Rarity will be so impressed." Pinkie immediately grabbed the hat and threw it onto her head before shuddering as the hat glowed faintly for a second. "Ooh, tingly," said Pinkie before she noticed the pillar the hat was on starting to sink. A disembodied voice, grave in its tone said "Security breach. Omega class artifact removed from containment. Security drones deploying." Pinkie glanced around and said, "Security? Raya didn't say anything about security." A caterpillar tracked drone rolled into view, a single red optic focusing on pinkie. "Breach located. Neutralizing." it intoned, raising one of its arms to fire a blast of lightning. Pinkie jumped out the way in time. "Ok, I don't think this is quite so fun anymore," said Pinkie. The drone seemed to concider this before firing at the roof, causing water to flood the floor. "What? Water? Where's all that water coming from?" asked Pinkie before a wave of water splashed her face. She licked her lips and said, "Not salty, so I guess it's not seawater." The drone didn’t seemed bothered, aiming its arc cannon at the water instead before firing. Not even Pinkie could avoid this blast and the water surrounding here would have made it useless to try. The room lit up as the lightning hit home. After the light faded, the drone looked at the floating body of Pinkie and stated, "Breach neutralized." Suddenly, Pinkie's eyes popped open and she said, "Whoa, what was that?" "Error...breach augmented by omega class artifact." chimed the drone, aiming at pinkie again. "Omega class artifact?" asked Pinkie before glancing up at her hat, "Is that what this is all about?" The drone simply began firing again, forcing Pinkie to flee. She quickly swam towards the corridor until she could get back on to dry ground. Then she ran up the corridor as fast as she could. Another lightning blast shot into the wall just behind her, blocking the corridor with rubble. Pinkie didn’t stop, heading through the temple and back into the open to see Matt and Aria at the far end of the bridge. "Matt, Aria, what are you guys doing here?" asked Pinkie. The far figures turned and waved to her. ... Matt and aria turned at the sound of Pinkies voice, though she was too far away to make out what she was saying. "Pinkie? Hey...come on...lets go." he yelled, waving to her to get over to the other side. "I don't think she'll be able to hear us," said Aria, "Our voices don't appear to cover the distance between us and her." "Huh, I though horses were supposed to have better hearing that humans," said Matt. Aria shrugged "She is wearing a hat..." she began before spotting something. "What the..." she started. ... "This is Recon 2. Local has emerged...she has the subject...transmitting feed to basecamp." said the voice of Darius;s scouts. He had been here several days with a full squad looking for the artifact that the coordinates had revealed and now some pony was beating him to the prize. "It's about time someone got that crown out," said Darius' voice, "Retrieve the artifact and dispose of the local." The feed revealed a pink pony crossing the bridge. Suddenly, Darius felt utter fury at the sight of it. Reaching for the comm he growled "Recon...kill that annoyance...NOW!” ... Suddenly, Pinkie paused as her nose itched and her eyes fluttered. "Nose itch and eye flutter? Oh, something going to try and hit me," she said before quickly jumping aside as the sound of gunfire filled the jungle air. Matt and aria began firing at a ridge further down the ravine, clearly where the shooters were hiding, some of the shooting beginning to focus back on them. ... One of Recon 2 fired a burst at their attackers, causing the mercs to duck down. “Shit...if that local gets off the bridge, we’ll never catch it. Andies...plasma launcher on the bridge.” Yelled the team leader. Andies pulled out a launcher tube with a glowing blue canister on the top and aimed it at the far end of the bridge, firing a orb of plasma at it. ... Pinkie wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but she knew she'd be a lot safer if she was with Matt and Aria. So she was running across the bridge as fast as she could. Suddenly a glowing orb shot out with a earsplitting whistle to slam into the far end of the bridge. The glow stopped to reveal a beeping canister, the glow having come from a slit in its top, showing a sliver of a glowing substance. Pinkie had been around Matt long enough to know what that beeping was supposed to be. She skidded to a stop before turning around and trying to run back to the other side. It was too late as the timer on the plasma launchers mortar ran out and it compressed in, shutting down the ammo's magnetic stabilizers and detonating the warhead. The blast was large enough to knock aria and Matt into the bushes as well as cause the rope bridge to buck like a cut cable. Pinkie was flung up into the air by the tension of the snap and her trajectory was nowhere near the bank of either side. She fell with a scream down into the small chasm to the river below. ... Recon 2's leader grinned as the figure of the pony took a nosedive down the canyon. "Gotcha, you little marshmallow. Ok, boys...lets get down there before Lynch does." he said. The other two nodded and pulled out rappel line grapplers. As the troopers started climbing down the ropes towards the river at the bottom of the chasm, a sound started to become more apparent. It sounded almost like huge bird wings flapping. Recon 2's leader was first down, looking around the long grass that littered the floor of the canyon, looking for any sign of pink. "Control...This is recon 2. We've nailed the local...securing artifact for retri..." he began before looking around as his merc 6th sense kicked in. "Hold...we may have contacts." he whispered. The sound of feathered wings flapping was alot closer now. "Maybe they're just big parrots," said one trooper. "More likely her pegasi friends have found us," said the leader, taking his gun out. The two troopers stopped when they realised that they were one man short. "Dawkins? Hey, dawkins." yelled the squad leader, looking around. Just then, one of the troopers pointed and called "Over there!" There was a small tree growing beside the river and there was a branch barely hanging on, as if something large had fallen and snapped it. "Bingo...we'll worry about dawkins later. He's probably caught on an outcrop." said the recon team leader. The two headed for the broken tree...and so missed it when the two halves of Sgt Dawkins landed in the brush. The group looked around on the ground for any sign of the target or the crown. "Where the hell did it land?" muttered one of the two troopers before spotting a hint of pink. "Here...hey, boss. Over here." he called, heading for it. The troopers headed over there but paused once they got close. The pink pony was there, but there was also a pair of odd-looking creatures. At first glance, one would assume they were deer, but then they'd notice that instead of fur, they had blue and green feathers as well as the wings, forelegs, and tails of large birds. One was a doe and the other a stag with particularly sharp-looking antlers. "What the hell are those?" said one of the troopers. Recon 2's leader glared "Who cares? Waste em before they use the artifact for a chew toy." The two 'deer' had heard them and quickly took to the air. They let out vicious-sounding screeches before lunging at the troopers with their talons bared. The two troopers barely had time to raise their rifles before the creatures dragged them down. ... Pinkie's eyes spun as she started to come around. She tried to get to her feet, but she had such a throbbing pain in her head. What had hit her so hard? And what was she doing here? For that matter, what was her name? She looked around dizzily to see several winged deer standing in the nearby long grass. "Erm...hello?" she called out, causing the two deer to whip their heads in her direction. Pinkie felt pretty nervous, especially since their antlers looked sharp enough to cut her. The two walked out towards Pinkie before one of them focused on the hat Pinkie was wearing and taking a worried step back. Pinkie slowly got up to her feet, this time managing to keep her balance. She looked around to get some idea where she was, not like she knew any places she could be. She spotted a small pond and managed to walk over to it. She glanced at her reflection and said, "Wow, I am really pink. I wonder if that has something to do with my name?" The two deer were keeping a respectable distance, peering at her with a worried look and muttering to each other. Then Pinkie took another glance at her reflection. "Wow, thats a great hat," she said, "I wonder where I got it." The two deer slowly walked forward, each one trying to push the other ahead of him. "Er, we need to be moving now," said one of the deer. "Yes, there will be more invaders coming and you mustn't go with them," said the other. Pinkie looked confused "What? What invaders?" she asked before a voice from the canyon wall above yelled "Hey...hey...stay right there." Pinkie and the two deer looked up to see two figures, one of them calling. "My lady, you are too important to let those invaders get to you," said one of the deer. "We must carry you to safety, no disrespect intended," said the other. Another voice from the other side called out angrily "Hey...look what those freaks did to recon 2...waste em." before more weapons fire shot down. "No time to lose," said the doe before grabbing Pinkie with her talons and taking off. The trio left in such haste that they failed to notice that the two groups weren't helping each other, having turned to fire at each other. ... Twilight was working on getting the radio working. "Hello, Matt? Are you hearing me? Hello?" The sound of weapon fire came through the comm followed by a colourful exclamation in matts voice. "Twilight...this is NOT a good ti...DAMMIT...Aria...on your left." "Uh, maybe I should call back later," said Twilight. "No...we're ok...the dufus's can;t reach me...HAH...TAKE THAT YOU FU...ok...never mind. I got some news....good and bad." said Matts voice. "Uh, what's the good news?" asked Twilight. "I found Pinkie. She was going into some kinda ruin on the far side of a ravine." said Matt's voice, cut off briefly by some weapon fire. "Is that the bad news I'm hearing?" asked Twilight. "The idiots blew the bridge when Pinkie was coming out. Gave her the express elevator straight down into the ravine. I dunno how she survived it...some...deer things carried her off after taking three mercs out...oh, I almost forgot...Darius is in town apparently..." said Matt, adding the last part sarcastically. "Wait, wait, Pinkie was carried off by deer?" asked Twilight. "Flying deer, actually," said Matt, "With feathers and talons." Twilight went wide eyed at that. "Twilight darling...are you ok?" asked Rarity, concerned. "Pinkie's been captured by perytons," said Twilight weakly. "Perywhats?" asked Rarity. "Perytons, they're half deer, half bird, and very unfriendly to people who intrude on their land," said Twilight. "I'm guessin' that's who Raya was talkin' about," said Applejack. "Must be...dammit...I’m heading back to the resort...STAY T-" began matt before an explosion cut the channel off. "Why am I not feelin' confident with Matt's rescue attempt?" asked Applejack. The sound of the main foyer doors was heard at that point. The five ponies headed to the balcony to look down and see Raya walking into the hotel reception with a smile. "Why does he seem so glad?" asked Rarity. "Probably not for a good reason," said Applejack. Rainbow however was glaring. "You heard Matt. That jerk used pinkie...probably to get something from that temple." She said through gritted teeth. "Oh, she may have been badly hurt," said Fluttershy, "And those perytons are taking her away to who knows where?" "We gotta find her." said Rainbow, urgently. "But we don't even know where they're going," said Fluttershy. Applejack turned to look at Raya who was talking to the diamond dogs that Matt had knocked around earlier and pointing to the damage it had caused. "Nope...but ah bet he does." she said. "But he won't just tell us where they are," said Fluttershy. "Oh, you better believe he'll tell us," said Rarity. ... Raya had been in a good mood...until he’d seen the state of the staff when he had returned. Apparently the 'hooman' had barged in, despite his orders to keep him off the grounds. "And you didn't do anything to stop him?" snapped Raya, "What kind of security am I paying for?" "We try to stop him. Female tougher then she seem." said one of the dogs. "I don't care," snapped Raya, "I expect better results for my money's worth." "Not worst part." began the other diamond dog. Raya rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, please, what could possibly be worse than that?" Just then, a blast of magic sent all of the diamond dogs flying. Raya turned to see the girls, each looking furious. "Er, ladies," said Raya, "Can I help you with something?" "You...fiend. You;re almost as bad as that mule, Blueblood." said Rarity, angrily. "What? What are you talking about?" said Raya. "Don't play dumb with us," said Applejack, "This whole so-called vacation is a big set-up, ain't it?" "I, er...I don’t know what you're talking about." said Raya, nervously. "Oh yes you do," said Applejack, "You better start being honest with us before we make you. And I know dishonesty when I smell it, so I'd quit lyin' right now." Raya snorted "Huh...fine...Like anyone would believe you." he said before continuing "If you really must know, I have research that indicates that the temple in the jungle stores the long lost crown once worn by Councilor Puddinghead of the Earth Ponies long ago. Of course, that same research also says that the temple is built atop alien ruins so that's hardly something you can be expected to believe." He waited for the laughter to start with a annoyed look before seeing instead, their horrified looks. "What? The temples got hardly any traps in it." he began. "You sent our friend into a near-certain death trap so you could claim one of the most powerful artifacts in Equestria?" snapped Twilight, "Doesn't her well-being matter at all to you?" "Huh...Who do you think you are?" said Raya, with a amused snort. "Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's protégée," said Twilight, her tone deadly serious. Raya’s grin froze in place at those words, the rest of his face looking terrified. "About that....erm...of course I care about your friends well being. I...left two of my staff at the temple." he said in a shaking voice, a free trip to the moon already playing out in his imagination. Just then, two zebras ran out of the jungle yelling, "THERE'S MONSTER IN THE JUNGLE!" Raya and the others looked surprised, though Raya looked annoyed "What are you fools doing here? You're supposed to be waiting for the ar...I mean for miss Pie to emerge." "When there are growling monsters in the bushes waiting to eat us? I don't think so," said one of the zebras. Raya gulped and turned back to the now furious mares. "Er...I'm sure they're kidding." he said unconvincingly. "Sure, I bet the perytons are real hospitable," said Rainbow Dash sarcastically. Raya sweatdropped "You....know about them?" he said shakily, that mental vision of a trip to the moon looking more like reality. "Not a lot, but enough to know that Pinkie's probably their prisoner now," said Fluttershy. "Erm...well....its like.....THIS!" said Raya, yelling the last part before throwing a vial down, the potion inside bursting into a smoke screen. He bolted for the door....and got it in the face as something outside shoved it shut in his face. Raya fell onto his back and said, "Ow, who's the dolt who-" He stopped when he saw Matt in the doorway and he did not look happy at all. Matt calmly strode into the lobby, some unidentifiable green goo on his gear. "I'd like to make a complaint about this resort." he said in a calmness that his twitching eye and plasma blaster proved wasn’t genuine. "Er, of what nature?" asked Raya. "Well...the locals are really violent...and you never said in the reviews that you only set this place up to use a friend of mine as a amateur tomb raider." said Matt, his grin becoming a snarl as he advanced on Raya, who was backing up. "Wait, wait, you don't know the whole story," said Raya. "You mean like how you've also hired a bunch of mercenaries to ambush Pinkie as soon as she left the ruins?" snapped Matt. "What mercenaries? What are you talking about? EEEEK!" said Raya, shrieking as Aria also came in, the girls joining in. Aria had clearly been the priority target, what looked like scorched metal bones visible. She effortlessly picked Raya up by the leg. "Answer the sergeant, Mr Raya." she said in a distorted voice. "I don't know anything about mercenaries," said Raya, "I just had my staff placed there to relieve her of the treasure. I didn't hire anyone else. I couldn't afford it if I wanted to." Matt glared as Aria stared closer. "He's telling the truth..." she said, dropping Raya on his head, dazing him. "I figured as much," said Matt, "No way he'd have the green to hire out Darius' boys. I just wanted to make him squirm." He turned to the others. "What? No scolding?" he said, referring to how he and Aria had teased Raya. "Not this time," said Twilight, "Mostly because we're more worried about Pinkie, but also because we're not very sympathetic with him." Matt nodded "Ok, Raya...where do these...Perytons live? You must know where they are." he said, turning back to Raya. "What? You're not thinking of going to those savages, are you?" said Raya. "Yes...yes I am..." said Matt, confidently. "But they're bloodthirsty brutes," said Raya, "They'll rip you apart as soon as..." He paused before saying, "Very well, I can tell you where their tribe is." "Good...and while we're getting Pinkie...Aria can look after you..." said Matt, before leaning in and hissing "With the express order to snap you in half if you even think of running." Then Matt turned to the ponies and said, "So girls, ready for a rescue mission, safari-style?" "Uh, hang on a minute," said Rainbow before dashing off. The others watched as Rainbow Dash flew back up towards where her room had been, Aria firing a blast into the floor suddenly, causing Raya's hench-zebra's, who had been creeping for the door, to freeze. "The sergeant did not say you could leave." she said. "Right," said Matt, "not sure who's clean or dirty, though I'm certain the diamond dogs are." "Both figuratively and literally," said Rarity. "That goes without saying," said Matt, "Anyways, nobody's going anywhere, except us." Aria nodded "I'll make sure everyone is comfortable here." she said with a sinister smile. A few seconds later, Rainbow Dash flew back, only now wearing a safari outfit that looked extremely familiar. "I've always wanted to wear this on a rescue mission in the jungle," said Rainbow Dash. Matt just stared before shaking his head "At least this can’t get any wierder." he muttered ... A little time later, everyone was dressed for a jungle safari, though Matt had to call Rarity's into question. "A dress doesn't seem like appropriate jungle wear," said Matt. Rarity, who was also wearing a matching hat, said, "Well, someone needs to bring a bit of beauty and culture to this backwater place." "Good grief, I'm starring in a tarzen movie." Matt muttered, holding a ion arc rifle he'd grabbed from the ship. But that wasn't the only competition for most annoying companion in this picture. Rainbow Dash was getting into the adventure a bit too much, including some self-narrating. "Rainbow Dash. If you narrate one more puddle, I'm gonna shoot you." snapped Matt. "Yeah, there's always a lot of boring parts before the real action actually starts," said Rainbow Dash, "But you gotta stick with the story." Matt growled and was about to actually make good on his threat when a snapping noise got his attention. "Hey...anyone hear that?" he said, tapping his goggles to turn on the motion tracker. Fluttershy was already hiding behind him. "Is it dangerous?" she asked nervously. Matt looked around "No idea." he said, his eye looking at the mini radar circle on the top right of his vision. "Can;t see them." "They're probably hiding in the bushes," said Applejack before kicking one bush. A spooked lizard shot out of the bushes and into the foliage at the far end. "Man...lets stay calm and watch where we're goIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNG!" said Matt, screaming the last part as he walked into a bush and fell down a slope it had concealed, various yelps of pain and swearwords getting quieter as he progressed down. After a little while, the yelping and swearing stopped. "Matt, are you ok?" called Twilight. "I'm fine...just fine...I hate this jungle more then everfree." replied Matt. "You just need to take every pitfall in stride," said Rainbow Dash. "Easy for you to say," snapped Matt, "You can fly over them." Matt got up again, annoyed "Stupid useless jun-" he began before hearing a rustling. "-gle?" he began, drawing his blaster. The girls had also heard the rustle and clustered close together. "What was that?" whispered Fluttershy. "Maybe it was just one of them monkeys," said Applejack. Matt looked around, panning his blaster around, "I don’t think its a monkey." he said, gravely before spinning round and firing at a blur shooting at him with a angry shriek. The blast hit, but the blur was moving too fast for it to just drop, so Matt had to duck under as it went overhead. Matt fired a three blast burst as the creature shot back into the undergrowth, missing. "GIRLS...GET OUT OF HERE!" he yelled, firing at a shape speeding through the bushes to his right. The ponies quickly started galloping back down the path, but a blur in front of them forced them to stop. The sound of weapons fire could still be heard in the background as the blur, hidden by the shadows from the trees walked into view to be revealed as a winged stag. "Unicorns..." it said in a slightly disgusted voice, looking at Twilight and Rarity. "Erm, hello," said Twilight nervously, "I am-" "We know who you are, student of the sun goddess," said the stag. Twilight gulped. This creature did not seem like it was worried by the fact that she was Celestia's student. "Your princess knows that this island is our domain." said the creature, icily, two more emerging from the bushes on the left and right of the gang. "Well, I can explain why we're here," said Twilight, "You see, we were invited here by that zebra who runs the resort-" The peryton growled and made a slashing noise at a bush with its hoof, a neat slice of the bush falling off. Twilight immediately fell silent at that with a gulping noise. "Our leader will decide what to do with you." said the peryton nastily "Er, I'm sure there's a civil way to settle this," said Rarity. The closest peryton turned to glare at Rarity before pushing her along. ... Meanwhile, Matt was climbing up out of the trench he fell in, with slow progress. He managed to finally pull himself over the top to see the trail the girls had used before running down it. "Girls? Rarity? Twilight?" he yelled before saying "Anyone?" quieter. He heard a slight rustle and Matt turned, hoping to see one of the girls. Instead, a peryton limped out of the bushes. Judging on the burn on one wing, it was the one Matt had hit. Matt pulled out his blaster, aiming at the creature. "You keep back." he said, backing up a couple of steps. The peryton glared at Matt and tried to take to the air. It only got a few inches off the ground before its wounded wing spasmed and it fell. Matt continued to glare before rolling his eyes and holstering his blaster and reaching for a pouch on his belt. "Look...stop moving or you'll make that blaster wound worse." he said, sternly while pulling out a hypo-injector. The peryton growled before turning and trying to run. Matt glared “Look...you can take your medicine or lose your wing to infection. Your choice." he said, annoyed, pulling the activator strip off the injector to activate the med-nanites inside. The peryton stopped and turned to look at Matt, wincing as Matt injected him in the burn. "Why should I trust you?" he asked suspiciously, wincing before his burnt feathers dropped off, replacing by new healthy ones. He flexed and flapped his wing experimentally, but he didn't feel any pain. "I wouldn’t try to fly yet, buddy. The nanites still need to reconnect the nerves...if you strain it, the wing could become useless." said Matt, conversationally, making the peryton gulp a bit before it sat down and glared at Matt. Matt put the hypo-injector away and said, "Now then, why were you guys attacking us?" "You were invading our territory," said the peryton. "Yeah, I get that, any other reason?" asked Matt. The peryton glared at Matt before saying "You are not from the sun goddesses lands. One of her guards would not have the...air that you have about you." "That and they wouldn't likely have these," said Matt before raising a hand and wiggling his fingers. The peryton nodded "The sun goddess knows that these lands are ours and promised to leave us be." he said. Matt sighed "No wonder stripe boy wanted someone else to do it...scapegoats." The peryton snorted and said, "If it weren't for those hounds of his, we would have ran him off the island months ago." Matt said, apparently to himself "Where were my friends taken?" The peryton glared at Matt and said, "And why should I tell you?" He jumped back as Matt pointed his gun at him. "Because if you don't, I will mount that empty head of yours on the wall of my room and make the rest of you into venison," growled Matt. The peryton didn’t seem impressed and recovered quickly "You're not a killer..." he began only for a energy bolt to shoot past his head and split a tree sapling. Matt adjusted his aim. "Wrong. Try again." he said icily, addng "Where are my friends?" The peryton gulped and said, "They'll have been taken back to the village. The new chief will want to dole out their punishments." "Ok...get up...now." said Matt, gesturing with his blaster before saying "You're gonna lead me there...and pray they're still alive cause if they aren't..you will find out exactly how little like them I am." threateningly. The peryton nodded and started flapping his wings. "Ah, ah, no flying," said Matt, "Unless you can carry me there, we're walking." "But the camp is many leagues away..." the peryton began before jumping as another blast incinerated a patch of grass. "MOVE IT!" yelled Matt. The peryton started walking quickly before Matt said, "Slow down, Bambi. You're walking at my pace and I'm not letting you out of my sight." The peryton grumbled before slowing down, muttering something about 'Bambi'. After the group left, a metallic disc, a camera lens visible on it hovered down, having seen the entire thing. ... Darius watched the drone's visual through his monitor. "So, Matt's going to where the bird-deer live," he said, "This will certainly save on the slash-and-burning." A trooper walked into the tent. "Sir...dropships have delivered the first of the tanks and combat exo-suits. We'll be ready to go where you need us." Darius nodded, finally something going right. "Ok...corporal...set the drone to relay its position when it finds the camp." ... The perytons lead the ponies into the deeper part of the jungle. The only distinction of where they were going was a faint deer trail which would have taken a lot of time to find on their own. The shift to pavement was unexpected, but even less expected was what it would lead them to: a small village of houses, made of stone and significantly dilapidated. The perytons had added a wooden wall, complete with gate to keep out their fellow jungle inhabitants...and there was ALOT of perytons, members of all sizes coming out of the huts to look as the leader led them in, towards a larger building in the center, the remains of a sign saying 'istra' on it. "Wow, them perytons are hard workers to build all this stuff," said Applejack. Rarity gave a distainful sniff and said, "If they were that hard working, these buildings wouldn't be half-ruined." Twilight spotted something "I think this was already here, applejack." she said, nodding towards a rune on one of the huts...the same one that had been in the facility that had been under the ponyville dam. "Keep moving," snapped one of the perytons before prodding Twilight with his antlers. "Yow...don’t get yer tail in a bunch. We're movin." said Applejack, annoyed as one of the other perytons jabbed her as well, leading the group into the ''istra' building. The building had several holes in the roof, but there was still plenty of shadow. On the opposite side, a tall throne could be made out and someone was sitting on top of it. It was too dark to see who it was, only the eyes could be made out. "Chieftain. We found these intruders." said the leader peryton bowing before the throne. "And what were they doing in our jungle?" said a deep voice that sounded slightly female. "We know not...but they were led by one of the creatures that attacked you." said the peryton. "So they are allied with the enemy and you brought to me for their punishment," said the voice. "Yes, o'pink one." said the peryton leader reverently, the girls looking gobsmacked at those words. "Bring them forward, and turn on the lights," said the voice. There was a 'fwoomph' as adjacent torches were lit. The torchlight revealed that the sitter on the throne was wearing a clock made of tropical bird feathers, several bead necklaces, a scary tiki mask, and an oddly familiar farmer's hat. As the ponies were pushed forward, they could hear the leader breathing in deeply, making them nervous. Eventually, the leader reached up and pulled off the mask with a gasp. "I can't breathe with this thing," said Pinkie. The girls stared again for a second before Twilight found her voice and said in shock "Pinkie? You're the perytons leader?" "Pinkie? I am Queen Pinkatika and don't you forget it," said 'Pinkie', "Now how about you tell me why I shouldn't punish you for trespassing?" Rainbow Dash flew up and swooped down to glare in Pinkies face, Pinkies 'guards' not trying to stop her. "Pinkie...its us...and why are you wearing that old hearts warming prop?" she said, prodding Pinkies hat...and being flipped into the wall by Pinkie. "Wow, I'm stronger than I thought," said Pinkie, looking at her hoof. "Uh, listen...Pinkatika, we're your friends," said Twilight, "I think you're just a little confused about who you are right now." Pinkie/Pinkatika glared at Twilight. Something about the unicorn was familiar, though she couldn't put her hoof on it "How can I trust you?" said Pinkie, "For all I know, you could be fibbing." Rarity stepped forward at that "Pinkie, darling. You're one of our best friends. "Oh yeah, prove it," demanded Pinkatika. Rainbow Dash had gotten back up by now "Hey...don’t you remember the cool pranks you and me pull in Ponyville?" she said, a little dizzily from the blow earlier. Pinkatika looked thoughtful before saying, "Not really." Fluttershy walked forward and said "I remember when I was ill with the pony-pox and you helped look after the animals at my cottage..." she said. "That kinda rings a bell..." said Pinkatika. Twilight said carefully "We're your friends...I dunno how you lost your memory...but I know a spell to help get it back...if you'll trust me." The perytons snorted. "A spell?" snapped one, "We will not allow you to curse our chieftain." "Hold it...what if they're right?" said Pinkie, holding up a hoof to stop the perytons. "Anyways, there's no such thing as a curse," said Twilight. "But what about-" started Fluttershy before Applejack put a hoof over her mouth. Twilight slowly walked up to the throne, her horn lighting up as she prepared the memory spell. Sadly, it appeared that whatever curse of timing that followed Matt around had finally declared Twilight and co fair game as well as an explosion was heard just outside. ... A few minutes earlier... After a long trek through the jungle fraught with bug bits and tripping over roots, Matt and his 'guide' finally made it to the peryton village. "Ok...here's the plan...I'm your prisoner...until we get inside...they you leave me to find the girls...I leave with them...everyone lives...ok?" he explained to the peryton with him. just out of sight of the gate. "How do I know you won't go on a murderous rampage?" said the peryton. "That depends how intact my friends are." said Matt, with a grin The peryton backed away from Matt and said, "I don't trust you at all." "Let me put it this way...this is the hard plan...the easy plan involves me blowing things sky high." Matt said, nastily. The peryton gulped and said, "Well, er, I guess I should show you where your friends will be taken." "Ok...remember...I’m a prisoner..." said Matt, before pushing the peryton into view of the guards. "Er, right," said the peryton. The guards looked at Matt's 'guide' and said, "What do we have here?" Matt's 'guide' couldn't speak, looking like he was caught between a pair of headlights. Matt kicked his 'guard' covertly. "Er, I managed to catch one of the...intruders," said Matt's 'guide'. "And I need to take him to the chieftain for his due punishment," said the 'guide'. "Yes...wait, what?" said Matt. "The chieftain is already taking care of the other intruders," said one of the peryton guards, "He'll have to wait." "What?" said Matt, shocked. "It appears this one seems to be slow of thought," said one guard. "We should make it simple then," said the other guard before saying to Matt, "You...stay...chieftain...busy...wait...your...turn." Matt glared before saying "I...not...tied up." before revealing his untied hands and banging the guards heads together. "What are you doing?" demanded the peryton that led Matt here. "Cutting through red tape," said Matt as he took out his blaster. "You said you wouldn;t blow anything up." yelled the peryton, angrily. Matt thought for a second "Well, thats the problem. I only lie to people that I don’t like...and I really don’t like you guys so you're smeg out of luck, buddy...KNOCK KNOCK!" he said, yelling the last part as he blasted a hole in the wall next to the gate. "Are you crazy?!" snapped the peryton. "Why yes, yes I am," said Matt with a creepy smile, "Thanks for noticing." One of the guards on the other side had managed to get his marbles to regroup and was charging Matt, only to be sent head over tail by a stunner blast from matts blaster. "WAIT YOUR TURN! There's plenty of time for vengeance if my friends are not healthy." he said, manically cheerful. Matt's guide would have rushed in to stop Matt, but seeing how berserk he was, it would probably be better to stay out of his way. The mental argument through this followed the lines of: 'I'm just a trainee warrior...and this creature has the mental fuse of a manticore sitting on a thorn plant. I should go guard a food hut as far away from him as possible...not cause I am frightened at all......yes, lets go with that.' The peryton flew off as the rest of the guards started throwing themselves at the psychotic Matt. If the guards had not been so intent on slicing Matt into bits/getting concussions and tazer shocks from his weapons then they might have noticed that he was only hitting anyone who tried to attack him...but as a brain doesn’t work well when hit repeatedly with a branch or electrocuted, this wasn't occurring to them. Matt finally reached the most promising building when a larger peryton came out. "Let me guess...you're gonna stop me." said Matt, tauntingly. The peryton snorted and said, "That's right. You're not getting past me." "Funny, they all said the same thing," said Matt, pointing at the piles of stunned perytons behind him. The peryton glared before tackling Matt to the ground. "You will pay for...NNNGH!" he glowered before going cross-eyed with pain as Matt used the only retaliation available to someone wearing combat boots. "Yeah, I think you're the one who's paying right now," said Matt. "Thats....not....honourable...or fair." squeaked the poor peryton as Matt walked inside. ... Matt walked into the door, firing sideways into the guards waiting either side of the door. "They always hide there." he muttered as the perytons twitched into semi-consciousness from the tazer blasts before seeing the girls. "Hey...you found her." he called cheerfully. 'Pinkie' gave Matt an angry look before yelling, "Guards, seize him!" "What guards?" said Matt conversationally before realising who had gave that order. "Hey...!" he added annoyed. The few guards left flew at Matt, only him to easily stun them. "Say girls, mind explaining what's up with Pinkie?" asked Matt. "Uh, I think she might have some amnesia," said Twilight. "Oh, that...I know how to fix that...now where can I get a mallet?" said Matt, cheerfully, adding the second half to himself. "I don't think Matt's right in the head himself either," said Applejack. Matt shook his head a little to calm down "So how bad is this amnesia?" he said, walking towards Pinkie. "It must be if she forgot me...my trainer once said I was tragically unforgettable...his eye was twitching at the time though." "It looks like I'll have to take care of this intruder myself," said Pinkie, "However, I'll give you one last chance to surrender." Matt's eyes narrowed at that. It was worth noting that while sane Matt would never pick a fight with his friends, the last few weeks had been straining on his sanity...and the perytons had pushed him over the edge...as a result he was also less then cautious...otherwise Pinkie's steely look would have set off his internal alarms. "Yeah, there's no way I'm surrendering," said Matt, "Especially to a pink pony. And definitely not to a pink pony dressed up like that." "Ok, you asked for it," said Pinkie before winding up her foreleg for a punch. "Oh please...what you're gonna do with..." began Matt. ... The peryton captain had finally recovered and had gotten some of his men together. "Ok...when it comes out...we all jump him at once." he said, coughing when his voice was still high pitched. "Didn't we already try that?" asked one peryton. "Not all of us together," said the captain. There was a distant 'thrak' noise from inside and the creature emerged again...at a flat trajectory that took him through the side of one of the guard huts. "Do we still jump him?" asked one of the trainee warriors. "Er, he still might get up, we better secure him," said the captain. ... 'Pinkie' however had rounded on the girls. "I knew I couldn’t trust you...its all secrets and lies with you ponies." she said, angrily as several guard perytons peered through the hole Matts rapid exit had made. "Pinkie, we can explain," said Rarity before glancing at where Matt went, "Well, most of it." Pinkie glared and yelled "I'm not this 'Pinkie'. I am Pinkatika, leader of the Peryons...Guards...lock them up." ... When Matt woke up, the first thing he felt was the pain in his ribcage. "Ouch," he said, "Did someone catch the license plate of that freighter?" The second thing he noticed was the ceiling. It didn’t take long for two and two to equal 4. "I'm locked up, aren’t I." he said, out loud to himself. "Yer darn right we're locked up," said Applejack's voice. "Ah...smeg." muttered Matt, sitting up to see the girls, minus Pinkie in seperate cells. "Fancy running into you lot in here." he said, unable to resist a smartass comment. "Well, we had an audience with Queen Pinkatika, as she's currently calling herself," said Rarity, "Twilight was about to restore her memories when a certain hooligan ruined it." Rainbow Dash glared and said “You said you were good at stuff like this. What kinda job did you have?" she said angrily, before derping as Matt said promptly "Demolitions." "Oh good," said Rarity sarcastically, "We have a delicate diplomatic dilemma to resolve and one of our associates is a glorified wrecking ball." "I would grace that with a appropriately snarky response...but my ribs hurt too much. When did Pinkie get a punch like a railgun?" said Matt, with a groan. "Well, she is wearing the Primoris Corona of the Earth ponies and you know how it amplifies the power of the pony who wears it if it matches her race," said Twilight. "We may not be able to cast spells or change the weather, but we Earth ponies ain't something ta sneeze at," said Applejack, "Sure, them unicorns and pegasi have their horns and wings, but only we Earth ponies can work the land to make enough food for everyone." Matt looked at Applejack "It doesn’t work like....wait. I forgot what sort of planet I was on for a second there. Makes about as much sense as everything else today. Carry on." he said. "Well, since we Earth ponies work the land to make food, it only makes sense that fancy hat of Pinkie's makes her superstrong," said Applejack, "It probably gives her a lot of stamina too." Matt shrugged "Basic physical boosting. Fun for the whole family." he said. "But why does she not remember us?" asked Fluttershy, "And why would she think she's the Queen of the Perytons?" "She took a nasty tumble when darius’s boys blew the bridge. The hat musta made sure she landed intact...but that didn’t stop the bump scrambling her marbles." said Matt. "So all we have to do is get Twilight to zap her memories back," said Rainbow Dash. "Not like she's going to let me near her now," said Twilight. "Yeah...and I'm guessing the guards won’t give me back my gear if I ask them." said Matt, noting his empty holster. Just then, Fluttershy's ears perked up and she looked around. "Does anyone hear that humming?" she asked. Matt looked up, listening before hearing a steady 'thrumming' noise. "What is that?" he muttered, getting up to look out and falling back at the sight of a hovering camera drone. "YAH...I hate those things..." he yelped before a buzzing came from it...followed by a steady series of beeps. "It's not going to shoot us, is it?" asked Fluttershy, hiding behind her cells bed. Matt was looking around before shrugging, reaching out and pulling the drone in and starting to bang it against a wall. "Stop transmitting, you piece o...YOW! he growled, yelping as the drone electrocuted him and a voice began to speak from it. "Lynch, you do turn up in the most unexpected places," said Darius' voice, "At least this place is one more appropriate for you." "The same." said Matt. Darius’s voice could be heard chuckling. "And you're the ones harboring a fugitive." he retorted. Rainbow Dash glared at the drone and said, "If you're the law where you come from, then being a fugitive probably is a good thing." "Huh...Mr Lynch is unstable and dangerous...you should have tossed him out the first chance you had." said Darius's voice with disgust visible in his voice. "He can be scary sometimes, but at least he's a lot kinder than you are," said Fluttershy. "Doesn't Matter. You are just as guilty as he is...and the board of directors has told me to leave no witnesses...unless you could make it worth my time...say telling me where the other artifacts are." said Darius. "So that you can abuse them? I think not," said Twilight. "Ok...I gave you the choice. Its not like you'll be a problem for much longer." said Darius, seemingly bored before the drone shut down. "What does he mean we won't be a problem much longer?" asked Applejack. "I think that the perytons are the least of our worries now," said Matt. He stood up before rattling the bars a bit. "We gotta get out of here. Can’t you just...poof us out of here, Twilight?" he said. Twilight concentrated and her glowed for a few seconds before it went out. "Uh oh," she said, "This cell is magic-proof. I can't do anything." "Its never that easy. Well, we can at least warn them." said Matt gloomily before several peryton guards came in. "That was quick.” muttered Matt. "The time for your punishment has come," said one of the perytons. "Not what I was envisioning." said Matt, as his cell was opened. ... The group was marched to a different room of the building where the roof was a lot more open. The reason could be seen as there was a large bed of fiery coals in the middle of the room. "We're gonna be sacrificed to a lava god, I just know it. Its Acheron V all over again." said Matt gloomily. "Lava god? What do you think we are, savages?" said one of the perytons, "You're going to be sacrificed." "Oh thank goodness," said Matt. "We're going to roast you and serve you for dinner," said the peryton. Matts relieved smile fossilized at that. "You're gonna eat us." he said flatly. "Wait, aren't you vegetarians?" asked Fluttershy. A peryton smiled, showing sharp canine teeth. "Not all the time," said the peryton, "If we catch something big enough, we eat it." "I coulda been a freighter pilot but noooooo, I had to go for adventure." muttered Matt. "But, but you can't just eat us," said Rarity, "It wouldn't be civilized at all." "I don’t think they're listening." said Matt pointedly as Pinkie came into view. "Trespassers, you have invaded our sacred lands and inflicted destruction upon our village. So by my high and royal decree, your punishment is to be roasted over these coals until you're good enough to eat," said Pinkatika. "Pinkie...this is insane, even for you." yelled Matt "Silence!" commanded Pinkatika, "Just for that little outburst, you'll be among the first to be roasted. Now who else should be cooked first?" One of the Perytons poked Matt in the stomach, earning a slap across the back of the head "Bad mutant pony thing..." glared Matt. The peryton didn’t seem bothered, saying "O'great one. This one has plenty of meat on his bones...we'll only need one pony for the feast." "Hey, I'm not that fat!" snapped Matt. "Hmm...well, that makes the choice a lot more tricky now," said Pinkatika, "Which pony should we have now?" "I vote you need to miss a meal...this one." called out Matt Rarity gave a slight distainful sniff and said, "Well, when it's my turn, I intend to show a lot more dignity than that." Then Pinkitika pointed at Rarity and said, "Ok, we roast her too." Matt watched as Rarity immediately fell to her knees. wailing various things including the classic excuse of not being tasty. "I intend to show a little more dignity." muttered Matt to himself in a bad imitation voice. "Get them ready for the spit," said the peryton captain, "We want them properly and thoroughly roasted." "But spittings rude..." gulped Matt before he was grabbed. … Not much time later, Matt and Rarity were both tied up to a long wooden pole and were being suspended over the fiery coals so that their backs were getting hot. "You know, I had a feeling Pinkie would get me into a situation like this at some point," said Matt in an overly calm tone. The rest of the girls were looking horrified. “You can’t do this...its...horrific." said Twilight, staring in shock at the Perytons. "The chief has spoken. You will all pay the price for intruding on our lands," said the peryton captain. Matt said, as he was passing "Look...you kinda have a bigger problem coming to get you...can you stop spinning this? I'm trying to speak to the psycho stag." "I need to be sure you're cooked evenly," said the peryton, "We wouldn't one side to be raw while the other's well-done." "I'd tell you to bite me but you'd take me literally." said Matt, dully. "Ya'll won't get a chance to eat 'em when dem other bad guys get here," said Applejack. "Yeah...E.G internal security don’t like witnesses...they cause paperwork." called out Matt. "They will stop at nothing to steal your chieftain's hat," said Rainbow Dash. The perytons all stopped at that, except for one, causing Matt to growl in the background “You bring that pepper shaker any closer and so help me..." "Uh, I don't think they think the hat's that important," whispered Applejack to Rainbow Dash. Matt thought for the second before calling out "Erm...would you believe me if I told you that you were about to be invaded by aliens?" "More invaders?" said one peryton. "Will the intrusions never end?" said another. "Yes...erm...they have lasers...lots of lasers." said Matt pathetically, having not expected them to even half believe him. "What's a laser?" asked one peryton. "Sounds like a weapon," said another. "It is...it is...erm...for smegs sake, can someone untie me?" said Matt, losing his cool. "Hmm, we should prepare for more invaders. On the other hoof, it could be an attempt to misdirect our guards," said Pinkatika, "Hmm...oh, I know a way to take care of both. We'll just double the guards everywhere so we can be ready for either event." "Pinkie...I swear to god...if this is another of your gags, I’m gonna throw you in the skyraids reactor." yelled Matt, angrily. "Oh shut up already," said a peryton before stuffing an apple into Matt's mouth. ... The Perytons on the gate looked around, hearing some of the yelling from where the feast was being cooked. "I hope the others don’t complain as much...that apes giving me a headache." said one of the guards, gloomily. "I wonder how good he'll taste," said another peryton, "He certainly looks like a big meal." "Yeah...you really think there's more like him out there? When he was ranting on about 'aliens'? What is an alien, come to that?" asked a third guard before stopping, noticing a red dot panning across the wood above their heads. "I don't know. I think he was just, what are you looking at?" asked the second guard. "Look...what is that?" said the third guard, curiously as two more dots appeared. After a second two of the curiosities highlighted themselves on the chests of two of the guards. One of the guards scratched at the red dots. "Stupid bug," said the peryton, "Why can't I touch it?" A second later, two blue beams lanced out of the treeline. striking the two guards exactly where the dots had been. The two perytons glowed brightly for a second before vanishing with a sizzling noise. The surviving guard jumped back in terror before seeing at least 2 dozen of the hairless apes coming out of the jungle, armoured up and accompanied by metallic....golems of some kind. He turned to fly, forgetting fatally that there had been a third dot when another disintigrator blast hit him between the shoulderblades... ... Darius, at the controls of his command exo-suit heard the afirmative as the sniper teams finished off the guard patrols. "Ok...Remember...for once, Lynch is NOT a priority. I want that artifact intact!” "Where are we supposed to find that hat?" asked one of the troopers. "That is what searching is for," snapped Darius, "Now spread out!" "Yes...sir." came the sarcastic reply before the same voice said "Cobra 2...blow the gates." 'Cobra 2', one of the smaller MA-24 exo suits stomped forward before leveling its 30mm guns at the gate, its pilot saying jokingly "Knock knock." and firing. The gates were torn apart like they were made from styrofoam. "Is it me, or does this seem a bit overkill?" asked one trooper. One of the other mercs on the channel said "Remember Echo team?" "Right, no holding back this time," said the trooper. … Back at the feast, the sound of two 30mm explosive shells 'opening' the gates had gotten one good thing for Matt...they'd stopped turning the spit...sadly they;d done this while he was on the bottom. "Oh sure, now the attack starts," said Matt, "I swear, I get the worst timing." As if to confim that, an ember from the coals shot up and bounced off Matt's backside. "That...is...IT!!!! THIS IS THE WORST VACATION I’VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO BE ROPED INTO GOING ON!" yelled Matt, breaking the ropes holding him in sheer rage. However, he made the slight oversight of not changing his position before freeing himself and ended up landing on the fiery coal pit. Most of the perytons had left the hall with Pinkie to do battle when the first explosion had been heard, meaning that nobody was around to stop Matt getting free...sadly that meant there was nobody to stop a exo gene trooper bursting in and seeing Matt hopping around, Twilight and Rarity trying to cast a water spell to put his t-shirt out. "Alright Lynch, you're coming with me," said the trooper but stopped when Matt turned and gave him a look that screamed, 'Get away while you still can, wait, too late'. "I think I'm gonna call you Stress Relief," said Matt in a menacing tone before picking up a large stick. The trooper raised his rifle far too late, Matt knocking it out his grasp before grabbing the luckless trooper and making him headbutt the wall a few times, chanting manically "Stop hitting yourself." "Isn't Matt hurting him too much?" asked Fluttershy. "Matt's been having a bad day," said Twilight, "I think he needs to unwind." Two more troopers ran in, one saying "Wilkins, whats taking..." before Matt grabbed the rifle off the floor and shot them, sending them rolling down into the hall. "WAIT YOUR TURN!” he screamed before seemingly coming back to planet sanity. Matt turned to the girls and said, "Ok, Darius and co are here. I suggest you girls find Pinkatink or whatever she's calling herself and zap her memory back. Feel free to get rough if you have to." "What're you gonna do?" asked Rainbow. Matt shouldered the rifle "Do what I do best and be distracting." he said cheerfully before kicking open the doors to the outside "OH DARI-oh crap." he called, his retort becoming a swear when the two exo suits leveled their weapons at him. Matt closed the doors and turned to Twilight, "Say, you wouldn't happen to know any super-enhancing spells or anything like that, would you?" A section of the wall, about basketball size, blew inwards and Matt added innocently "No reason." "Well, there might be one spell, but..." started Twilight. "I don't care, just do it!" yelled Matt. A red beam lanced through the wall, cutting a large 'N' shape in in the wall, before one of the exo-suits stomped through the hole, its shoulder beam glowing from the cutter shot. "NOW! DO IT NOW!" yelled Matt. "Ok, here goes nothing," said Twilight before her horn started glowing and a beam of light hit Matt. Then Matt suddenly surged up in height until he was about 18 feet tall. He blinked and said, "That's...not quite what I had in mind." The tinny voice of the pilot inside the suit said "What the fu-?" before Matt kicked the suit back out via the wall. "...of course, it still does the job." commented Matt as two more exo-suits stomped in and aimed at him. "Go on...best shot." said Matt, cockily before there was a flash of light as the spell wore off. "Erm...I was joking?" said Matt nervously as the two exo-suits readied guns. "Uh, Twilight, think you can hit me with that spell again?" asked Matt. "I can't," said Twilight, "If I cast it on you too soon, something unpredictable could happen." The two suits were ready to fire when what looked like a bottle was tossed in before exploding in their faces in a cloud of blue smoke. Applejack sniffed the air and said, "Hey, ain't that...poison joke?" This prompted the other ponies to quickly move backwards. Matt noticed that and, given his track record so far when he hadn’t paid attention to their caution, stepped back as well. The suits had turned and were firing out the hole at whoever had tossed the 'poison joke' grenade in. "Lets go before they decide to get back to us." he said. The ponies nodded before heading out another door. … The outside was a warzone, Darius's troops methodically moving through the town and shooting down any resistance. The perytons, to their credit, weren’t making it easy for their attackers either as several slumped troopers and peryton warriors attested too. Matt peered round a corner and ducked back as a exo-gene trooper was thrown back with a yell. "Either one of these deer has a really powerful kick, or that was Pinkie's work," said Matt. He peered out to see Pinkie and a couple of perytons attacking a squad of Exo-Gene troopers before he did a double take as several laser blasts literally bounced off Pinkie. "Wow..." he said weakly before another shot parted his hair and he ducked back. "I found Pinkie." he said desperately. "Great, does she still have the Primoris Corona?" asked Twilight. "You mean the wierd hat that let her kick a trained merc 30 feet and makes particle beams bounce off her?...Sure, she has it." said Matt, a little sarcastically. "Good, we can't let Darius take it," said Twilight. "But how are we supposed to make them go away?" asked Fluttershy. "The hard way, I suppose...I've never seen those sorta exo-suits they're using...must be something Exo-Gene cooked up." said Matt. Speaking of which, Matt spotted an exo-suit in the process of being abandoned. Considering the dents in the front and its trajectory to a hole in the wall, it looked like the one Matt had kicked out. "Oh, Christmas time." he said to himself, peering out before running across the street to the abandoned suit...much to the puzzlement of the girls. "Whats chrismas?" asked Twilight, puzzled before they spotted Matts intention as he opened a hatch in the mech and climbed in. A few seconds later, the exo-suit started up, but a lot of creaking could hear from the dented metal. Matts voice, with the same tinny accent as the last pilot said "Ok...now we can go get Pinkie." ... The Primoris Corona gave Pinkatika great strength and invulnerability, but even she couldn't defend the village all by herself. Fortunately, her loyal subjects were ready and willing to aid her in her defense. The perytons were doing their best, their sharp hooves and speed making them formidable in close quarters. Unfortunately, the Exo-Gene squads were professional in making sure that didn't happen. Another laser blast winged a peryton warrior, knocking him into a wall as another squad of exo-gene troopers came into view, flanked by two more of the exo-suits and a much larger, bulkier version. "Chieftain, it looks like their leader has come," said one of the perytons by Pinkatika. A squad of warriors charged out, galloping at the attackers. The leader mech seemed to order the others to step aside before aiming its arms at the attackers and firing the miniguns mounted there. Darius cut a huge swathe through the squad before turning to his men, "Keep the pressure on them. I'm expecting a big venison dinner tonight." He then marched off in another direction. The smaller exo-suits and troopers began firing as Pinkies guards literally tried to drag her back. "See sense, those weapons are too much even for yo-WHOA!" said one, trying to pull her back, only for her to effortlessly drag him along as well. "Those raiders aren't destroying my village," said Pinkatika, "Not while I'm around." Pinkie/Pinkatika immediately charged into the open and into the gunsights of the three Exo-Suits, two of them opening fire and causing several columns of dirt to shoot up from the explosive rounds. The third one seemed dented in the chest armor...and puzzled in the way it seemed to limp. Pinkatika paused suddenly a series of odd sensations happened, "Back itch, ear flop, knee buckle?" she said before suddenly hopping backwards. On cue, the dented exo-suit seemed to finally work out its weapons, aiming the arms at the back of the first one and firing, blowing it apart. A voice said “Now this is what I’m talking about!" before firing at the second exo-suit and the troopers. Pinkatika looked at the dented exo-suit with an odd expression. That was definitely the voice of the 'hooman' who she was going to have roasted. But why would he be helping her? And why does his excitement at blasting people sound so familiar? The aformentioned mystery pilot seemed to have cracked as the exo-gene troopers ran for it. "HAHAHA...YEAH...LETS SEE YOU TRY AND BLAST ME NOW, EH?" it yelled. The remaining peryton defenders had also come out to watch...something about the clear insanity was strangely fascinating to watch. Quite soon, nearly every trooper had hightailed it out of the village, with mainly the other exo-suits remaining. The exo-suit finally turned to face Pinkatika and the perytons, the other ponies from earlier peering out. Then Pinkie heard the voice of the other person she was going to roast, "You know, all that destructive madness is a really bad way to relieve stress. Matt ought to consider something more peaceful, like a trip to the spa." The back of the exo-suit opened to reveal the hooman from earlier. He called out "Ok, Pinkie...are we going to cooperate with the nice people or do I have to use this to hold you down?...WHO SAID THAT?" Pinkatika stayed silent, having also heard the mutter of 'Good luck with that.' from one of the perytons "Say, Matt, don't cha think it's a might early to be blowin' your victory horn?" called Applejack. "I don’t think so...these things are top of the line...you'd need a tank or a combat mech to-" began Matt before a wall at the far end was demolished as Darius's mech, with the regrouped squads, came into view. "I think that guy's higher up on the line," said Rainbow Dash, pointing at Darius's mech. The mechs shoulder opened up suddenly, Matts eyes widening before he jumped out the mech. It was just in time too as two rockets shot out and blew his new 'toy' sky high. Matt went over to Twilight and said, "Uh, can you use that giant spell on me again yet?" Twilight looked at a little pocketwatch she had in her bag and said, "Not quite yet." Darius's voice came from the mech "I don’t believe my luck...must be chrismas back home. Lynch AND one of the artifacts." "Uh, can we take five so I can arm myself?" asked Matt. A shot parted his hair almost too close to his scalp. "Ah, that's a no," said Matt. To his surprise, Pinkie strode past him with a stern look. "Erm...he has missiles." he tried to point out. "I am the chief of this village. I must protect it from attackers," said Pinkie. "No you aren't, you work in a bakery!" snapped Matt. Matt glared as Pinkie ignored him and made a similar mistake to earlier, grabbing her tail to get her attention. "Now look..." was about as far as he got. Matt hadn't thought that Pinkie's super strength would apply to her tail as well. Obviously, the poofy thing didn't seem dangerous at all to him. Of course, his opinion changed when he was slammed against the ground several times before being flicked into a wall. "I am never going on holiday with you girls again." he moaned from where he had landed. Darius however was laughing inside his mech. "You? Hand over the artifact, powder puff." he said, readying his mechs miniguns. "This hat may only be worn by the worthy and I can easily see that you are definitely not worthy," said Pinkie. "Fine...have it your own way....shoot her." said Darius casually. "Er, sir, haven't you noticed that-" started a trooper before Darius turned his gun towards him. "Either you shoot her or I shoot you," said Darius. The troopers didn’t need much more encouragement, all of them opening fire, even Darius joining in. Of course, the magic of the Primos Corona protected Pinkie from the hail of bullets, allowing her to keep walking forward. Darius sighed, wincing as the pony got close enough to begin laying into his men. Pinkie had started punching and kicked the troopers within her reach. Her blows sent them soaring back, sometimes over the wall of the village. Darius, despite this was impressed until she got close to his mech. "Really?" he said before using the mech to kick her flying. The hat may have made her invulnerable to physical damage, but that didn't mean she was any heavier than before. She was sent flying high into the air. "Wow...good air." muttered Matt, despite everything. Quite soon, another drawback of the hat became apparent as the rushing air from Pinkie's flight blew the hat off her head. Then she reached the peak of her ascent and started to plummet like a stone. "Uh oh." muttered Matt, his eyes following the trajectory. "CATCH THE PONY!" he yelled. Several perytons took to the air, but Rainbow Dash had taken off before many of them could flap their wings. She streaked upwards to where Pinkie would fall through. Matt however was following something else, as the remaining troopers approached cautiously before reaching out and grabbing Pinkies hat. "Hey applejack...you reckon you could punt darius's robot?" he said before snatching her stetson off and replacing it with the artifact. Applejack smirked as the hat glowed briefly and said, "Can a frog jump?" Matt turned to Twilight and said, "Think you can make her new hat look like her old hat for a few minutes?" … Darius turned his mech to see the orange pony heading straight for him. "Might as well calibrate." he muttered before opening fire, only for the pony to easily dodge every shot. Darius glared before trying to narrow his fire, but this pony was able to weave her way around his shots. "STAY STILL!" he yelled only to see the pony comply, right in front of him. Some 6th sense at that point supplied his imminent future. "Ah, crap." he managed. Just as the pony was about to reach Darius, she spun around on her front hooves and used her back hooves to kick his exo-suit. Matt and the group watched as the mech went sailing back, despite the fact several walls got in the way before vanishing into the treeline. "Thats gotta be a record." muttered Matt as Rainbow Dash landed with the struggling Pinkie/Pinkatika. "Ok...back to todays second problem..." he said. … Pinkatika hadn't be very worried when she was thrown into the air. However, when she lost her hat, she got the distinct feeling that falling would be a lot worse. For Rainbow Dash however, it was almost a flashback to the best young fliers competition, when rarity had lost the wings Twilight had made for her. "C'mon, just a little more speed," she muttered as she zoomed towards Pinkie. The sound of more weapon fire from below went unnoticed as Rainbow focussed on the pink pony plummeting for the ground until with a final swoop she managed to grab her. "Another perfect save," said Rainbow Dash proudly, "You can thank me later, Pinkie." "I’M NOT PINKIE!" yelled Pinkie, adding "Now let me...on second thoughts...never mind." As Rainbow Dash was heading back to the ground, she watched a large mech sent flying sky high. "Wow, Applejack knows how to work your hat fast," said Rainbow Dash. As she landed, she could see the last of the exo-gene troops running for it, apparently the sight of a 3 ton machine being bucked into close orbit was bad for their morale, as well as Matt talking about ‘todays second problem’. "Well, it looks like everything's taken care of," said Rainbow Dash before glancing around at all the destruction caused, "Except for the clean-up." Matt nodded before noticing the remaining warriors approaching "Uh oh...here come the cops again." Pinkie got up a little unsteadily. Pinkie was about to speak when Matt suddenly tackled her and wrapped her mane around her mouth. "ZAP HER! ZAP HER NOW!" yelled Matt. Twilight quickly galloped forward before concentrating and touching her then glowing horn gently to Pinkies forehead. Matt waited a second before saying “I’m going to let go now...if you scream the word 'guards', I’ll stun you." Pinkie blinked and said, "Boy, have I been having the craziest day. I mean, seriously, I was going to have you guys roasted. Can you believe that?" Matt said darkly "Yes, I can." before a peryton knocked him over. "You will pay for this attack..." began the peryton before Matt yelled "PINKIE...CALL EM OFF!" "Oh, right," said Pinkie before putting on an authoritive tone, "The Great Pinkatika commands you all to stop being mean to her friends." The perytons stopped at that, the one holding Matt down stopping his hoof an inch from Matts neck. "What? I thought these guys were the feast?" said another, trying to get past a shield bubble Twilight had raised. "Sorry guys, I don't eat meat," said Pinkie, "How about we just throw a party instead?" The Perytons looked at each other, the one holding Matt looked down at him when matt pointed out "Hey...I’m less likely to shoot you at a party." "What do you mean by...party?" asked one pertyon. "Uh, it's pretty much like a festival," said Pinkie. "...And the food rarely fights back." added Matt "Can you move your hoof of death please so I can swallow?" "Yeah, there'll be decorations and games and cake," said Pinkie. "What is 'cake'?" asked a peryton. "Its that food that doesn’t fight back that I mentioned...unless its a splitter 'k'tari' cake." said Matt. The perytons considered this before one of the elder perytons said, "We shall try this 'cake', but only because you insist upon it." "Good...glad we're all in agreement...NOW GET OFF ME!!!!" Said Matt before yelling the last part. "Too bad there ain't stuff to mix up some cake out here," said Applejack. Suddenly, the hat on her head started glowing. In a flash, several baking supplies appeared before her. "Well dip me caramel and call me a candy apple," said Applejack. Matt stared at the hat before sighing "I don’t want to know...lets get this over with." ... Raya was not a happy zebra. At first he had considered it easy to simply drug this 'Aria' so he could get away...only to find out she didn't eat, drink...or even sleep. Of course, none of his staff wished to help him. The diamond dogs were too terrified of Aria to try to oppose her. The other zebras were scared, but they didn't like Raya that much either. Of course, Aria was only one person and Raya knew a few back ways out...such as the one he was using at the moment. "Ok...simple...get to the dock...get a boat...hide in the griffon kingdom for a few years." he said to himself. He was confident he'll be long gone before anyone noticed him...until he opened the door and found himself facing the six ponies, the human, and several perytons. The two groups just stared at each other for a second before Raya slammed the door and ran back down the corridor, said door blowing open a second later. Matt walked through the new hole with a worrying grin. "Oh, mr striiipy. I wanna discuss our bill." he called out. Raya just bolted into the elevator and started rapidly pushing the 'close' button. A faint purple glow grabbed him unfortunately, pulling him back out. "I hate unicorns." muttered the luckless zebra. As Raya floated backwards, Matt said, "You know, as much as I'm tempted to throw this guy to the angry locals, I can't help but look at him in the air like that and think 'piñata'." Twilight dropped Raya in front of Matt before saying "We should hand him over to the royal guard when we get back." Matt grumbled "Huh...I never get any fun." Raya was sweating like crazy. Being brought before Princess Celestia would be a terrible thing for him. After all, not only was he a wanted criminal back in Equestria, but his behavior with the princess's personal student would not look any better On the other hoof, the less time he spent with the unstable hairless ape, the better. Matt must have noticed his worry as he said "Hold on...these perytons need a new place to stay...and Raya doesn't need this place now. Maybe we can convince him to let them use this place?" Raya blurted out "I’m not letting those sava...." before stopping as the accompanying perytons turned to glare in unison. "Yeah, this place is a lot better than those old ruins," said Pinkie, "It has air conditioning, heat, soft beds, electricity, and a swimming pool." Raya managed to get a hold of himself. "Not a chance. This is still my property and I will not hand it over to you." he said calmly before Matt said "Does it still belong to you posthumously?", the girls all yelling "MATT!" "I think we could arrange to have him still live here," said Rarity, "Provided he works for the perytons instead of against them." Raya seemed uncertain, only for Matt to say "Its either their solution...or mine." "Sir, please try to be sensible," said Raya. "Sensible? I've been rudely kept out of your hotel, had to fight my way into it, then fight some mercenaries, fell down a trench, got insulted by perytons, nearly roasted by said pertyon when their then-wacko leader nearly punched me into next week, and then I had to defend said perytons from said mercenaries which involved being blasted several times. I am not in the least bit sensible right now," said Matt, manically with a nasty twitch appearing in his eye. Raya gulped "I'd....be happy to have the perytons stay at the resort." he said weakly, gulping a bit. "Ah, ah, they're not just staying at the resort, they're running the resort," said Pinkie, "As in they're the new managers." Raya opened his mouth to protest before noticing Matts twitching eye again. "...that sounds perfectly fair." he said, worried. The perytons didn't look so sure. "But we don't know anything about resorts," said one of them. "Oh, it's not that difficult," said Rarity, "I've read enough about hotels that I can give you a few pointers. And Twilight could lend you a few books that should help you get on your way." "...And I doubt any of the creatures in the jungle will be stu-be able to get past your warriors to attack the resort so you can lose the corny wall." said Matt cheerfully. "And get rid of them mangy mutts," said Applejack, indicating the tied-up diamond dogs. Matt looked at the dogs. "Oh...I knew I forgot to untie something." he commented. "What about those other guys?" asked Rainbow Dash, pointing at the other zebras. Raya's associates backed up at that, one of them saying "We're....happy with the new management...but can we go?" said one of them. Matt shrugged and said, "Sure, it's fine with me." The zebra's nodded at high speed and shot off in the direction of the docks at a speed that almost put Rainbow Dash to shame, Matt absently stepping on Raya's tail as he made to follow. "NOT you." he said. "That's right, you're the new bellhop," said Twilight. "Good...so get bellhopping," said Matt, with an evil grin and holding up one of the bellhop hats from the other zebra's before adding just for Raya "Be careful...these guys REALLY love their BBQ's. Raya glared at Matt before putting on the hat and stomping off. "Ok, the bad guys are all beaten, let's party!" said Pinkie Pie. … <Log active> Ok...the last couple of days have made me realise why Captain Leyton told me never to take a holiday...espetially the part about 'work finding me'. On the plus side, we got another of those wierd killer hat things and this time...no wait, something did explode...but nothing I owned exploded...yeah, that counts. Still, at least this vacation is finally becoming relaxing. The perytons are definitely enjoying their new home and since the resort isn't so exclusive, I can finally enjoy its benefits. Aria's enjoying keeping the bellhop in line too..." <Log paused> ... Matt looked up "Hey...another drink here please." he called out. Raya glared, muttering something only to yelp as a small tazer blasted him from Aria "The customers always right." she said with amusement. "I don't deserve this level of degradation," grumbled Raya as he carried the tray over to Matt. "The customer is always right...and has a blaster." commented Matt, taking a glass, before seeing Twilights glare "I'm joking....mostly."
Largefish8	784	12	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2014-03-03T13:14:21+00:00	2014-03-26T12:33:14+00:00	413	MLP Chapter 12 Twilight looked out the window of the sky chariot she and her brother were in. The gang had caught a break on the last artifact with it being at an Equestrian archeology dig on the border with the dragonlands but Shining armor, once he’d heard about the other misadventures had come along with a couple of guards as well. "Shining Armor, there really isn't anything to worry about," said Twilight, "I know how to deal with dragons." "And most of your experience comes from Spike and you know he isn't like the others," said Shining Armor, "I can't let my little sister be carried off by a dragon, now can I?" "Well...we found the helmet and even a few curios to research as well. No dragons turned up." said Twilight, pleasantly, putting a hoof on the saddlebag sitting between them "It's fortunate that no dragons did appear," said Shining Armor, "You know how greedy they can be. But that's behind us now. However, I have heard some concerning things about Ponyville." "Is this about Matt? He does his best to fit in and he saved us once or twice." said Twilight before Shining said concerned "Is that smoke?" before they both looked out to see a couple of columns of black smoke just outside the town. "Corporal...land us in the square...fast." he said, looking down and gulping. There was a very large crowd of ponies outside, though the term 'mob' may be more appropriate judging by their mood. The two got out. Twilight grabbing the saddlebag before Shining called "What’s going on? Uh oh." adding the last part as the mob turned to see him and advanced saying a slew of complaints, though one name kept appearing...Matt’s. The complaints came so rapidly and loudly that Shining Armor couldn't distinguish a single one. Finally, he shot a purple flare into the air which made the mob be quiet. "Now, what is all this about? What has happened here?" asked Shining Armor. "That human started what sounded like a dragon attack at his home...I could see the flames from Cloudsdayle." complained a pegasus, pointing a hoof at the smoke. "There are flames falling onto the rooftops!" complained an earth pony. Shining armor and Twilight looked around at that, looking at where uncontrollable fires failed to burn or exist anywhere before looking at the earth pony who said defensively "I never said they hit." "The racket's keeping our children awake!" shouted a mother unicorn who was carrying her crying fillies on her back. On cue, the crack of gunfire echoed out. "We'll go see what’s going on..." began Shining armor, being interrupted by the earth pony who said "I hope you lock him up. That...thing doesn’t deserve to be in civilized towns." before Shining said more forcefully "...and we'll find out his side of the story." Twilight led Shining and the other guards towards where Matt's house was. Though it wasn't too hard to find, what with the sound of war being a very strong indicator. They turned the corner to Matts hut to see several troopers in exo-gene armor slumped near the burning wreckage of one of their exo-suits. A second exo-suit sat in pieces in front of a slowly rotating turret, one of Matt’s 'additions'. By the looks of it, the battle was just about wrapping up in Matt's favor. However, the carnage and wreckage were not a pretty sight at all. Shining stared before a couple of exo-gene troopers ran into view, one throwing his gun aside to get better speed. His fellow was blasted on his front as an energy blast shot out and literally went through him from behind, hitting the other one in the back of the leg. What few troopers were left were running, or more often, limping or being dragged away from the house. "He's fucking nuts...the board don’t pay us enough." yelled one injured trooper, not even bothering to acknowledge the ponies as he fled. The runner who had been nailed in the leg was trying to pull himself along, saying "Ohshitohshit." over and over as an armored figure walked round the corner. "I told you guys that today was a bad day to bother me, you should have listened," said the armored figure in Matt's voice before shooting the limper. The two ponies jumped back as the trooper was nailed in the other leg, screaming. "Now what have we learnt today, children?" said Matt in a manic voice "Matt, stop!" cried Twilight. “I'll be with you in just one second." said Matt with bloodthirsty glee, aiming the blaster rifle an inch from the now crying troopers face. "C'mon man...I surrender..." he sobbed "That's enough!" shouted Shining Armor before his horn flashed, a shield appearing around Matt. The trooper managed to drag himself back as Matt glared. "Oh shit...oh shit...we were just there to grab him...he went batshit." the trooper gibbered, his hand fumbling for a hidden sidearm holster in his armor. "I don't know what this is about, but I am getting straight to the bottom of this," said Shining Armor sternly. "I'm not sticking around..." gibbered the trooper before looking at Twilight. "You teleport...I saw the reports...get me outta here." he said as Matt seemed to calm down. "Fine..." said Twilight before her horn flashed and the trooper disappeared. "Where did you send him?" asked Shining Armor. "The Everfree Forest, he can find his way out," said Twilight. Matt laughed at that silently in his prison, getting a good idea of the life expectancy of a crippled trooper, muttering something about the forest inhabitants liking tinned food. Shining Armor turned to Matt and said, "And as for you, what I saw was the worst example of unnecessary aggression I've ever seen. You had no right or reason to be so merciless to those people, whatever they could have done." Matt just stared and Shining shivered. He had heard that eyes were windows to the soul...or mirrors...and what he saw was broken...someone who was at least temporarily mad...mad as Discord. "Matt, you don't have to be this angry. Just try to calm down," said Twilight, "We're not your enemies." Matt just stared before the usual softer glint came back and he seemed to come to his senses, sitting down inside the field. “Shining, you have to believe me, Matt’s not normally like this,” said Twilight. “Twilight, I know he’s your friend, but what I just saw…” Shining shook his head and said, “I don’t think it’s safe for him to be near ponies.” Matt seemed to have calmed down, slumping over out cold as Aria, using her mech body, ran into view with a swarm of spiderdrones. "Oh thank goodness...I see my attempt to get his med computer to sedate him finally worked. I'll take it from here." she said Shining Armor looked down at the spiderdrones and asked, "What are those?" "General use drones from Mr. Lynch’s vessel. I guess it was right." she said, adding the last part to herself. "And who is this?" asked Shining Armor. "This is Aria, well, at least she's speaking through that thing," said Twilight. "Doctor...Aria, if you please." said Aria, as several drones scrabbled over the shield around Matt, a few testing their cutters on it "Shining, you can let that shield down, Matt's ok now," said Twilight. Shining glared at Matt before reluctantly releasing the spell. The drones immediately moved in, grabbing Matt and carrying him in the direction of the hut he was calling home. Aria said gravely "As a doctor however, I believe there is information he should have told you." ... The holoscreen flashed with an image of Matt rotating on it. Details such as name, rank, specialization as a mercenary among other information was displayed...but the main 'attraction' was the flashing red words exclaiming 'Medical Discharge recommended'. The update note indicated that it had been added a week before he had arrived. "As you may have noticed, Matt isn't very emotionally stable," said Aria, "The reason is not because of a personal flaw in his character, but because of a traumatizing event that happened recently to him." Shining sighed before asking "Does it say what it was?" Aria turned and typed a few commands in, only for an omega symbol to fill the screen and a male voice to say "File Sealed with omega grade clearance." There was a long pause before Aria said, "I'm sorry, I cannot tell you what that event was." "Can't or won't?" inquired Shining. "Both," said Aria, "If you want to hear about it, it needs to be from Matt himself. And I don't believe he'd be willing to tell anyone." "What makes you..." began Shining only for Aria to call up a vision of one of the rooms. Matt was sat in front of a screen, speaking silently...there was no sound. This was confirmed when the door soundlessly exploded inwards and a half dozen troopers ran in. "It was from a drone that was performing maintenance." explained Aria, typing as she tried to restore sound. "I'm warning you...this will end badly for you all." said Matt in a dark voice, not even turning as the sound kicked back in on the recording. "Then resist...then you can join 'er faster." taunted a trooper, the group laughing before one of them grabbed Matts shoulder...and was pulled face first into the table Matt was at before being used as a shield, Matt using the guys blaster to gun down three trooper before using his ion blade* to…worrying effect. Aria paused the footage and said, "As you can guess, it escalated from there." "How many..." began Shining only for Aria to say "Mr. Lynch expected a visit after the nightmare incident...he had several high end weapons installed...you probably saw some of them. His mistake was setting their activation to manual...but once he turned them on...Mr. Lynch should be fine by tomorrow. His file indicates 2 other incidents on this date." "Sounds like whatever happened must have been really bad," said Shining. "We shouldn't pry too much if it hurts him this much," said Twilight. "Sis, if Matt does this again, innocent ponies could be hurt. I know Matt needs time to heal, but as Captain of the Guard, my responsibility is to ensure the safety of Equestria's citizens." "Sir...If you want to throw Mr. Lynch in the cells at this moment in time will only invite a very hostile response, given his flash training in escape procedures. He will be fine and almost certainly somber about any grief he has caused by tomorrow." said Aria "Well...this time, I can let him off with a warning. But next time, I'll have to use force," said Shining Armor. "I will let him go. Miss Sparkle...if you would remain here...I would like to place the helmet in storage." said Aria, several spiderdrones proceeding forward… ... When Matt woke up from his anesthetic-induced sleep, he had a vague recollection of what happened beforehand. "Oh no..." he moaned to himself before hearing the sound of hooves and a vague memory of seeing Twilight came to the surface. "Twilight...did you...oh, sorry." he said, seeing a white unicorn stallion in the doorway. "Matt, this is my brother, Shining Armor," said Twilight. "I'm guessing he's not a librarian." said Matt, carefully as he eyed up the armor "I am the Captain of the Royal Guards, and as such, it's my job to keep Equestria and its citizens safe," said Shining sternly. "Oh...is this about the same reason that Aria had my wrist-comp sedate me? Last clear memory is of a team of EGIS taunting the memory of my...well." said Matt "It caused quite an outburst," said Shining Armor. "No one in town was hurt, but they're not too happy either," said Twilight. "Great...just great." muttered Matt darkly before saying "So...how was your trip? No killer robots or deer people this time?" "No, we got the helmet and a few other things," said Twilight. "Huh...maybe some quiet time helping find out what that helmet does will help me cool off?" said Matt. "I'm not sure letting a powerful artifact like that in your..." started Shining Armor. "I won't be able to do a thing with it. It's not like I'm a pegasus," said Matt before shooting a warning look at Twilight and the camera that Aria was presumably watching from. "He'll be fine, bro. Nopony ever caused trouble by just doing research." said Twilight before aiming her own warning look at Shining armor who was trying not to grin at that. "Fine, maybe he can help you identify that mystery artifact," said Shining Armor before turning to Matt and saying, "Consider this your community service." Matt muttered "...again." as he left before slapping his hands together. "How hard can this be then?" ... 24 hours later... "SO BOOOORED!" yelled Matt, after reading yet another book with no result. "Matt, you can't expect the answer to be on the first few pages you read," said Twilight, "These artifacts have been missing for hundreds of years. They're more likely to be in the most obscure book." Matt faceplanted on the folding table he had brought to the library. "Oh goody...this is certainly punishment enough." he said in a muffled voice before looking at the page he was on. “Ooh...this is interesting...The 'Disorder’s eye diamond...apparently gives you what you actually need." he said out loud "What? Let me see," said Twilight, making the book move towards her a little too fast. "Ow!" yelped Matt before nursing the paper cut on his cheek. "Sorry...but I remember Starswirl the Bearded writing about these diamonds in his journals...he said they were really dangerous." said Twilight, reading the article "There could be exceptions," said Matt, "This might be one of them." Twilight however didn’t seem convinced. "I hope there isn't one here. The diamonds maker wasn’t exactly the most trustworthy." she said "And who would that be?" asked Matt. "You don't want to know." said Twilight with absolute honesty. "Hmm...well, I better put it in the vault with the other stuff. Wouldn't want it falling into the wrong hands," said Matt. Twilight seemed suspicious before saying "Just be careful...chaos can be....tricky." “What’s chaos got to do with anything?" said Matt, shoving the helmet on his head for ease of transport. "So...where's the evil diamond of doom?" Twilight snorted a bit with laughter and said, "It's in the saddlebag." Matt, with a mock British accent, said “Very well, I, Lord Toilet brush, shall take this diamond where it can do no harm." causing Twilight to break down in a laugh. After Matt left, Twilight said, "Ok, I better read more about... Hey, where'd it go?" She looked around for the book that mentioned the Disorder’s Eye. She realized how homesick Matt was for his world...as well as the new fact that he was a little unstable. "Oh no...SPIKE!" ... "Oookay...maybe the third time's the charm," said Matt, a little shook up by his briefly and accidentally summoning of an eldritch horror. Fortunately, this one was in a friendly mood and had given Matt a little advice before departing the plane of existence. "Ok...remember what the tentacled horror said...don’t forget to carry the three unless I want a mind flayer in my left ear." Matt said to himself. "Ok, Aria, let her rip." "Matt, I really don't think this is wise..." started Aria. "Wisdom's overrated, hit it," said Matt. "Sir...the chances that we will get the hypercoil part instead of another 20 tons of vanilla cheesecake is almost astronomical." complained Aria before stopping "Miss Sparkle is back...and so is her brother...and a dozen guard. Should I activate defenses?" "No...if this works..." began Matt before noticing a blue glow. “Oh cra-" he began. ... "You let him go with the Diamond and the book that shows him how to use it?" asked Shining Armor. "Well, I didn't know he took the book," said Twilight, "But on the bright side, I don't think he knows how to use magic." A glow was coming from Matts hut before a brief discharge shot out, hit one of Matt’s defense turrets and turned it into a very surprised-looking skunk which immediately fled. Needless to say, it was the sort of thing that commanded attention. "Ok, the Diamond could be used by non-magical ponies, but that doesn't mean that Matt..." Twilight didn't manage to finish before all the windows in Matts home exploded outwards, the force also flipping his nearby jeep and knocking everyone over. Strangely enough, most of the fragments were immediately sucked back towards the blast. "MATT!" called Twilight in horror before seeing two figures staggering out of the smoke. "Ok, that is the last time I use science to make magic," coughed Matt. The second figure said in a voice Twilight knew "Coming from the guy who got involved with that stuff on his first day?" Both Matt, who came to his senses and Twilight to look at the second figure more properly. "I...no...no...That’s not possible." said Matt in a small voice before the figure spoiled the moment by coughing on the smoke and complaining “Bloody hell...the one time I want my helmet...what’s wrong, bro? You see a ghost?" Matt rubbed his eyes and said, "This has to be a dream, that blast musta knocked me unconscious." The figure sighed before turning "You can see me as well...right? Just so Mr. Denial here snaps to it?" "Uh, yeah, I can see you," said Twilight. Matt stopped at that, getting up unsteadily and saying "Chloe? You look well for..." he began before his eyes rolled into his head and he fell backwards. ... "Well, it's nice that Matt's sister came, even if it involved Matt be a little sneaky," said Fluttershy. "Yeah and he's not so grumpy and mean now," said Pinkie. "I can't believe he used that diamond...they're dangerous." said Twilight glumly. "Asides from a big polecat and his house exploding...again, it didn't seem that dangerous," said Applejack, "It's the thieving that's got my dander up." "Not to mention that ponies are being worried by those soldiers that are chasing him. There is talk at the spa that a petition is going to be sent to the Princesses." said Rarity "We can take those soldiers, we've got all three Primo...uh...Primal...uh...all three magic hats," said Rainbow Dash. "I'm not sure we should use them at all...remember what happened when me and Pinkie used them?" said Twilight. "What? So you nearly froze us and I almost knocked Matt into next season," said Pinkie, "We were just getting to know how they worked." "I don’t get it...Aria said he was just trying to get the energy coil he needs for his ship. His sister though..." said Rarity. Applejack said with a smirk "Bet she was darn surprised to be zapped here." "The book did say the diamond gets one what they need most," said Twilight, "Maybe Matt needed his sister more than he thought he did." Dash said "She does seem to be the sane one." before they turned at the sound of laughter, Matt and Chloe walking into view. "You stole their own exo-suit? That’s too much." said Chloe. "You should have seen the looks on their faces," said Matt. Chloe laughed again "And your buddy Pinkie was roasting you? I wanna meet this girl." "Well, there she is over there," said Matt pointing. Chloe turned and found herself nose to nose with Pinkie "WHAT THE SMEG?!" yelled Chloe, jumping backwards in shock as Pinkie said cheerfully "Hi there." "Yeah, she's surprising like that, actually, more than that," said Matt. Chloe looked at Pinkie. "The pink elephants story was real?" she said carefully "It sure was," said Pinkie before tilting her head as if she was listening to someone. She turned back to Chloe and said, "They say hi." Chloe stared for a second before saying "Ooookayyyyyy." and slowly stepping back a few steps and looking at the others "So you girls kept my bro here on the sane and narrow, eh?" "Eh...it's been harder lately," said Applejack. "Yeah...was it the spark thing that did it?" she said, before looking at the shocked passersby. "What?" Matt grinned nervously and said to the passing ponies, "She's new in town, just showing her around." He turned back to Chloe and said, "Sis, there are some things that shouldn't be broadcasted, you know that." "Oh...sorry...dunno why I made that goof," said Chloe, shaking her head. "Just try to keep a lid on that," said Matt. "So...you've been looking for these helmets?" said Chloe conversationally "The first two were quite a hassle to get," said Twilight, "Fortunately, the last one was easier." "Weird...I remember Darius...real whack job...but why'd he want a few magic helmets?" said Chloe, sitting down...and falling backwards off the too small seat. "Yeah, that happened to me too." said Matt sympathetically "Maybe he's just after trophies," said Applejack. "Yeah, I don't think he'd go through just much trouble for some souvenirs," said Rainbow Dash. "Yeah...you don’t send an army to get a helmet...not even these helmets." said Matt before saying "Isn't there anywhere where we could find out more about these helmets? Maybe they can tell us." Twilight thought before saying, "Canterlot Library ought to have a more extensive collection. Or maybe Princess Celestia would know more." "So let’s go..." said Matt before noticing their looks "What?" "Er, Matt, I don't think Canterlot is, er, your type of place," said Rarity. "Oh please...I can be good plus it’s the best chance we have to beat Darius at his own game...and I can drop the artifacts off there too." said Matt, Chloe chipping in "And if he messes up, I'll beat him senseless." "Er, what she means is that Canterlot ain't a good place for roughhousin'," said Applejack. "That’s what I meant by my dear brother 'messing up'." said Chloe with a grin. Twilight sighed and said, "Look, the thing is..." Rainbow Dash cut in and said, "It won't be a good idea for you two to go because you're going to make yourselves look bad and get thrown in the dungeon." The other ponies gave Dash a shocked look at her bluntness. "Hey, it was the only way they'd get it." Chloe nodded "I get it...this is like why mercs have to go in dress uniform...what? We do have uniforms other than battle armor." she said. "Will you girls relax, I'll be on my best behavior," said Matt. ... Matt was feeling rather uncomfortable walking down one of the streets in Canterlot, mainly because of the looks ponies have been giving him. "This is ridiculous." he said out the corner of his mouth to Chloe, the two of them in grey and black Camo style uniforms. "It could be worse...no pitchforks or burning torches." whispered Chloe back "Not like they could hold them anyways, except for the unicorns," said Matt. "They're all unicorns here I think." said Chloe smiling innocently as a couple of them walked by. Matt gulped and said to Twilight "How much further? I don’t want to be lynched...despite my surname." “Not too far, I know this city like the back of my hoof…well, most of it,” said Twilight. "Good..." said Matt, waving innocently to a unicorn guard "Morning." he said a little manically, causing Chloe to bite her tongue to avoid laughing at the guards 'wtf?' expression. As the group entered the palace proper, they could hear someone saying, "No, I am not exaggerating, those ruffians in that rundown hamlet need to learn to properly respect the crown." Matt looked to see Rarity starting to look a little angry as she heard the voice. "Someone you know?" he asked as he heard another voice saying "This is thy fifth request for retribution. Ponyville has done nothing to earn such wrath," "Hmm, maybe we should give that voice a 'hey-howdy-do'?" said Chloe, cracking her knuckles at the same time. The ponies winced and Matt said "Hey...that guy deserves to flushed out an airlock...wait, was it the knuckles?" Fluttershy nodding before Rarity said "I cannot believe that awful mule is still around." Matt peered around the corner to see a blond maned white stallion standing in front of an alicorn he’d yet to meet...a dark blue, almost black alicorn before looking at Chloe who shrugged "Go for it...crazy frightens morons." she said causing Matt to grin and walk round the corner. "Done nothing wrong? What about harboring that lunatic that has nearly destroyed the town more than once?" said Blueblood. Princess Luna glanced to one side and said, "Is that the lunatic thou arst referring to?" Blueblood spun to see the creature that he had heard his auntie Cellie talking about and gulped. He was as large as his spies had said. "Hi...are we late?" the creature said, arms outstretched in what was either a greeting or a threat. "No, thy arrival be prompt. We welcome thee to Canterlot, I am Princess Luna, Keeper of the Night," said Luna. "And I am Prince Blueblood," said Blueblood, trying to sound more calm than he was. "Wait...you guys are immortal...how?" began Matt before Luna said "It is thine long story." Matt turned to Blueblood "Fair enough...so, Blueberk...why are you asking for permission to bulldoze my friends’ hometown?" he asked, his tone partially concealing the knife-edge in it "I was not planning to 'bulldoze', as you so crassly put it, the commoners merely need a reminder of the power of the crown," said Blueblood. "Then let’s ask them. I've met your boss...you are not it...and I have met people like you...they usually end up being at the wrong end of a blaster." said Matt, whispering the last part for the unicorns benefit. Blueblood glared at Matt and said, "Is that a threat? That's high treason." "Haven’t you heard? Me and my sis aren't from this country...or even this dimension." said Matt mock cheerfully as Chloe and the others came in. Blueblood gulped a bit and said, "Well, then it would be an act of war..." "You don't want to start a war with us, not that you really can," said Matt. Chloe leaned down next to Blueblood "We like Ponyville and the girls...if we find so much as a brick out of place..." she said, allowing Matt to add "...they won't even find your tacky little jacket." Luna stepped in and said, "I assure thee, there shalt be no attempts to molest Ponyville. We weren't even considering the thought when thou stepped in." "That’s cool...we just wanted to put our two cents down, so to speak." said Matt, cheerfully before looking at Blueblood before leaning in. “Smile...we're all friends here...but know if you come after my friends, I'll gut you like the slimeball that you are." he muttered. Blueblood blustered before saying, "I have more important things to attend to anyways," before quickly leaving. Matt watched Blueblood all but run out before saying “What a slimy little toad. You and Celestia are related to that smeghead?" "It is complicated," said Luna. "I don't doubt it." said Chloe. "Anyway, Princess Luna, we need some help," said Twilight, "I'm sure Celestia has gotten my letters about the Corona Prima, but we can't find any more information about them in Ponyville. May we please use your library?" "It would be thy pleasure to help...but I should warn thee...the librarian in charge is...unusual." said Luna with a smile before casting a mass teleport spell on the group, depositing them in a darkened library. "I haven't been in this section of the library before," said Twilight, lighting up her horn for illumination. "The books kept here are...not for public use." said Luna before calling out in a deafening voice "FANG...THY PRINCESS DEMANDS THY PRESCENCE!" Matt who had been right next to her adding his own scream of "OH GOD, MY EARDRUMS!" "We apologize, I suppose thy ears are not accustomed to the Royal Equestrian Voice," said Luna. "Also, must you keep talking in 'thy' and 'thee', and what's with the 'we' anyways?" asked Chloe. "We...I am sorry. I am still getting used to this time after my...time away." said Luna in a more normal tone before looking down at Matt who was making a gurgling noise. "Is he ok?" she asked "I suppose you were a little loud for being in a library," said Fluttershy. Chloe was looking around, a thought coming to the forefront "What kinda name is 'Fang'?" before hearing what sounded like a Brooklyn accent say "What kinda names Chloe, smartass?" and she turned to see the face of the largest spider she had ever had the misfortune to see who said “Yo.”. If Luna's shout was piercing, Chloe's scream literally rattled the castle and made every pony in Canterlot cover their ears in pain. However, Chloe was a mercenary...and when a mercenary is terrified, they use violence on what caused the terror which is why the surprised spider was clocked on the head "What the fu-ow? what the hell is wrong with...OW...LUNA...call her off...she's nuts!" it yelped, before scuttling away with Chloe in pursuit holding a 3000 page book entitled 'how to kill spiders'. Unfortunately, horses and ponies have sharper hearing than humans so the ponies were incapacitated for a minute while they rubbed their assaulted ears. Matt slowly got up unsteadily before spotting what looked like a diary. "Huh, what's in here?" asked Matt opening the diary to look...only for a boxing glove to somehow spring out of the pages and hit him in the face. Luna winced at that, levitating up the book and sighing “I thought Fang said you were chained up." she muttered, looking at the title 'My Diary, By Discord' on the cover. On cue Fang vaulted a bookshelf as Chloe charged after him. "Luna, babe...little help here." he said, scuttling up a wall and hanging just out of reach of Chloe like the worlds creepiest piñata. "What's with her anyways?" asked Applejack. "Pfft, she's obviously scared of spiders. I mean, how pathetic would have to be, right Fluttershy?" said Rainbow Dash before looking around and asking "Fluttershy?" Fluttershy was hiding behind another bookshelf as Chloe jumped up and down, taking swings at the unfortunate Fang who now, in the smug tone of someone who can hang out of reach all day, said "Ok...while the crazy monkeys calming down...what y'all need?" he asked, smirking as Chloe missed “Aw...so close, girl." he taunted. "We are seeking knowledge of the Corona Prima," said Luna. "Man, that’s a name I ain't heard since before my ma ate my pa." said Fang, scuttling across the roof before grabbing a book at random and tossing it over. "That should be good to start...the who's who of the pre-princess era magical artifacts..." he called "Pre-Princess? I didn't think they would be older than you," said Twilight to Luna. "While I and my sister have ruled over Equestria for a long time, we have not always ruled as you know," said Luna, "There are many ancient things in this world that predate us and the First Crowns are among them." "Does that include killer diaries?" moaned Matt from ground level. Luna gave the offending book a scornful look and said, "That ought to be locked up and out of trouble. Fang, I expect it done next time I come here." "Hell...you try and lock that creeps diary up. I swear that thing thinks for itself." complained Fang, webbing the diary. Twilight, meanwhile, had started leafing through the book for information on the Corona Prima. Chloe, now bored with trying to get rid of the giant spider had wandered over "Can do whatever its master desires." she read out from a line about the effect of all three helmets "I thought the hats only worked with the type of ponies they're meant for," said Applejack. "We alicorns have all the traits of the other three types," said Luna. "Yeah, but you only have one head," said Pinkie, "It's not like you can stack them on top of each other and wear them." "There are other ways to bend the helmets to your will." said Luna darkly Matt said "Good thing we have them all then...locked up good and tight in a secure container. I thought they'd be safer here then my ship so I brought em along." "That's probably for the best," said Twilight, "If I was able to do it, those other mercenaries probably could as well." "Yeah...I got em locked up in the hotel...with a few surprises..." said Matt with a knowing smirk. "Uh, ya sure keepin' them in the hotel's a good idea?" asked Applejack. "Only an idiot would break into a mercs belongings." said Matt with absolute truth. ... Blueblood obviously didn’t trust the 'humans' one little bit. So he had one of his loyal servants go investigate their room. "This is a bad idea." said Lockpick, one of the two unicorns working on the door "Who knows what monsters keep in their luggage." "Hey, what the prince wants, the prince gets," said Tumbler. "Yeah...but still...” said Lockpick before the door opened with a click. "Nice one, Lockpick...you still got it." said Tumbler "Er....that wasn't me." said Lockpick nervously The two of them looked at the door and Tumbler said, "Why don't you go in first?" "No, no, after you," said Lockpick. Whatever was inside decided to make the choice for them, shooting the carpet they were on into the room, dragging the duo in before the door shut and relocked with an ominous click. "Ok, we better find out what those humans and leave," said Tumbler. A scuttling noise was heard in the darkened room, a trashcan falling over as something knocked it over. The two unicorns looked around. "What was that?" asked Lockpick. Several blurs shot under the bed...where a heavy duty looking container sat. "Um, that looks like it," said Tumbler. Several red lights came on under the bed and what sounded like half a dozen dentist drills began to rev. Tumbler gulped and said, "On second thought, let sleeping dogs lie, right?" "Those are not dogs," said Lockpick. "Exactly." A mechanical spider the size of their hoof scuttled out and looked up at them in what was the robotic equivalent of puppy dog eyes. "It's not that scary," said Lockpick. On cue two small drills folded out and the two ponies yelped before the bot jumped on Tumblers face ... Meanwhile, Chloe was looking through the books for more about the diamond that had apparently brought her here. Matt was in the corner, looking through a book about any word on the facility that had been near the dam, Chloe taking a looks before reading on "The diamonds of discord would find out what its user needed and recreate it. However, this yet another cruel trap of the spirit of chaos." read Chloe, looking at the picture before dropping the book in pain. In her mind, she could feel emotions that weren't her own flare up: mischief, deceit, callous disregard for others, and treachery for treachery’s sake. A voice spoke to her...but what was the fun in listening...wait, what? "I said, you ok, Chloe? You look like me after the mind leech." said Matt, shaking her. "Just...a headache. I guess all the screaming took more out of me than I thought," said Chloe. "Sure...we got what we need anyhow." said Matt. Twilight nodded "From what I read...these helmets, if you put them together wouldn’t need to be worn..." she said "You mean put together like a puzzle or just put together in one spot?" asked Pinkie. "I think me and Applejack saw it done...in that place we found under the dam." said Twilight. "The facility? When me, Aria and Dash took a trip to bookland?" said Matt "Yeah, we had to keep busy there with Darius's creeps lurkin' around," said Applejack, "Twilight even learned a time-freezin' spell." "I wondered where Twilight learnt that." said Matt before looking at Chloe’s book. "Watcha reading?" he said only for Chloe to slam it and blurt "Nothing...it was a dead end." "You feelin' okay, sugar?" asked Applejack. "I'm fine...being pulled across the multiverse can do that to someone." lied Chloe in a smooth tone "Maybe you should go lie down," said Applejack. “Yeah...someone should check on the helmets anyway." said Chloe before walking off to ask Luna to teleport her back out. Applejack turned to Twilight and said quietly, "Ya think somethin' might be wrong with her?" "Who knows what my sis has been through? Give her time." said Matt, putting a book back on the shelf "I just get the feelin' that she ain't what she appears to be," said Applejack. "She's my sister..." said Matt angrily "I don't mean to be in your family business, but I just can't ignore that funny feelin'. It's like Pinkie with her twitchin'," said Applejack. "...I'll talk to her...ok?" said Matt before walking off. "Why would Chloe have lied about that book?" said Twilight, looking at the book Chloe had been reading only to her horror to find several pages had been torn out. ... As Chloe staggered back to the hotel, her head was overflowing with treacherous thoughts, thoughts of ratting out Matt or setting him up to take the fall for... Why was she thinking these thoughts, he was her brother, wasn't he? "Oh please...you know better than that." said a voice from a puddle next to the wall she was leaning against. Chloe immediately pulled her blaster out. "Who's there?" she snapped, before her shaking hand caused her to drop the gun "What do you owe him anyways? Did you really want to be dragged to this little world?" said the voice. "Come out...who's there?" said Chloe, despite everything starting to get a little frightened. "Is that any way to speak to family, my dear? Look down." said the voice, Chloe complying after a second Reflected in the puddle was the face of what looked like the oddest antelope Chloe had ever seen. "Ok, I'm pretty sure I didn't have anything to drink today," said Chloe. "Oh, trust me you didn't." said the antelope. "Ok, Mr. hallucination...I know for a fact none of my relatives look like you...not even that time we pushed Matt into the teleport booth with five vials of DNA from the medilab." said Chloe in a 'inch from snapping' voice The antelope laughed and said, "Oh, that does sound like a good prank. I simply must have a look at that." Suddenly, Chloe felt like someone was rummaging through her memories. The antelope started laughing like crazy as he apparently found what he was looking for. "Oh, that is too much. Celestia never lets me out for fun anymore." he said before apparently noticing Chloe’s look. "Discord...or daddy, if you prefer." he said in a mock introduction. “No, that's not true, that's impossible!" snapped Chloe. 'Discord' clicked his talons and in a flash of light was suddenly wearing a Darth Vader helmet, saying in a Vader voice “Search your feelings; you know it to be true." Discord continued "What’s your last memory before appearing in that human’s room?" he asked "The explosion...at our apartment..." said Chloe. "The explosion Matt believed you died in," said Discord, "Matt believes my pearl brought you back to life, but we both know you can't be the real Chloe." "Magi energy’s done stranger things..." began Chloe only for Discord to say in a surprisingly grim voice "Explain no body then." before she said "Face it...you're about as human as I am, my dear." "I look more human than you do," said Chloe. "You know what they say, beauty's only skin deep," said Discord. "What are you talking about?" said Chloe, only for Discord to snap his fingers again, causing Chloe’s hand to spasm....and tear. Chloe watched in horror as the hand distorted as the skin was stretched against inside. Eventually, it split open to reveal a bird's talons. "Try to deny that," said Discord. More of the treacherous, cold thoughts slipped up Chloe squeezing her eyes shut. "He's my brother...he's my brother." she repeated. "Oh stop trying to fight it, accept it," said Discord casually. "I won't...siblings have loyalty..." strained Chloe. Discord laughed and said, "Loyalty? Leave that burden to Rainbow Dash. Betrayal is your true nature...and your true name." Chloe settled for screaming out loud, Matt running into view. "CHLOE...What’s wrong?" he said. Chloe looked up when she heard Matt's voice before glancing at her hand and seeing it had five normal human digits again. "Just...a bad dream," she said. "Yeah...let’s get back...I think the bots caught someone...I heard drills." said Matt, mock cheerfully. ... The two looked up at the makeshift cocoons made out of curtains and the gagged ponies tied in them. "Ok, that’s impressive." admitted Chloe. "Yeah, they didn't just shove a bucket on that guy's head, they superglued it," said Matt, pointing to the unfortunate Tumbler, though the spiderbots had drilled two eyeholes for him…It was just a shame it was in the back of the bucket... Chloe reached up and tore the gag off the second pony who immediately blurted out "WHAT THE HAY IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? NORMAL PONIES JUST PUT ALARM HEXES ON THEIR LUGGAGE!" "Humans can't do magic," said Matt before pausing and saying, "Well, at least I can't." Chloe nodded before paling as she spotted Discord in a mirror giving the spiderbots a thumb's up. "Erm...yeah." she said, cutting the ponies down. "Get lost." she said, to Matt’s shock "But, we're all tied up," said the second pony. Matt clicked his fingers and one of the spiderbots tore their bonds off. "Hop it." Matt said icily The two ponies quickly ran out of the room...well, except that the bucketheaded one kept running into the wall instead of through the door. "C'mon, Tumbler," said the other before grabbing him and vamoosing. "Ten creds says that that fool blueblood sent em to snoop." said Chloe, checking the lock on the container. "Yeah...they tried to break it...that musta been when the bots jumped em." she said "As tempted as I am to go and confront Bluephlegm about this, I promised the girls I'd stay out of trouble. I suppose the least troubling way would be to complain to the manager," said Matt before going out the door. Chloe nodded "I'll keep an eye here." she said. However as soon as Matt was gone she heard Discord again "Maybe you are related to him? Such rigid self-denial." he said Chloe turned and saw Discord's reflection in the mirror. "Don't you have anything else better to do?" she snapped. "Not really. Just counting how many pigeons land on me." said Discord in a bored voice Chloe gave him an odd look and said, "Well, I don't care, just leave me alone." "Oh, don't be like that. Father and daughter should do more things together...let’s start will giving those primus artifacts to somepony who could actually use them." said Discord "I suppose you mean yourself," said Chloe. "No...someone has to get rid of that...urgh....do-gooder...and you, my dear are in the right place." said Discord "If you expect to betray my brother..." started Chloe. "Of course I do," snapped Discord, "Your name isn't Betrayal because it's a nickname for Beatrice!" "MY NAME IS CHLOE...!" snapped Chloe, trying to drown out the cruel thoughts swimming around, one pointing out how much Darius would pay for the full set of artifacts. "You aren't the true Chloe, must you require further proof?" said Discord, "Maybe you should what your face should really look like." With that, Discord clicked his fingers again and Chloe moaned as her face began to ache and warp before she fell down. After a minute she pulled herself up to see a green scaled draconic face with one antler and one dragon horn staring back with yellow and red eyes. "There now, I think it really brings out your inner backstabber," said Discord. Chloe just stared with an almost sad expression, lifting her re-taloned hand up to press against the mirror before her eyes narrowed as her self-denial broke. "Now then, let's see about contacting that Darius I've been hearing about," said Discord. "Sure...but first I think it’s time I took my dear 'brother' out of the loop." said Chloe with a fanged grin. ... Blueblood was less than satisfied when his spies got back to him, especially one was 'out of uniform'. "But they had some kind of...golem things guarding their luggage." said Tumbler in a echoing voice, mostly cause the bucket was STILL on his head, though Lockpick had managed to cast some proper eyeholes and a horn hole into it. "A pair of...spies like you should have been able to find a way around those lumbering brutes," said Blueblood. "We tried...oh, Celestia we tried." said Lockpick in a distant horrified voice. "Obviously, you didn't try hard enough," said Blueblood, "I want to know what those monkeys are hiding. So you're going back and..." "NOT A CHANCE!" yelled Tumbler, his eyes pinpricks that caused Blueblood to jump back. Lockpick added "We quit. Being attacked by homicidal constructs was NOT in our job description." Blueblood glared and said, "You dare refuse a Royal Prince?" Lockpick and Tumbler paused before Tumbler said "Quite easily actually...the dirt you've had us hoof through...imagine if Equestria Daily or the Canterlot times heard." "Wha...Bu...Bu...FINE! Get out of my sight! You two are banished from Canterlot! Begone!" shouted Blueberk. "Don't call us...we'll call you...erm, before I go...do you know any anti-glue spells?" began Tumbler only for Blueblood to yell "GET OUT!" The two unicorn thieves quickly turned and left, Tumbler muttering to Lockpick, "We never should have agreed in the first place." Blueblood glared before using his magic to close the door. "This is what I get for hiring peasants." he muttered, trotting over to his cushions before hearing a clink from the next room. "What was that?" he muttered before walking towards the door. He slowly trotted towards the door to the other room. "Clearcut? Is that you?" he called nervously, saying the name of his butler. A new noise began, sounding like one of those newfangled drills dentists used. "Clearcut, is that a new mop you're using?" called Blueblood. At no reply Blueblood gulped and slowly opened the door to see a shadowy humanoid figure in front of his houses safe. "HEY. HOW DARE...EEEEEEEK!" he began before the figure aimed a device that spat an orange orb at him, blowing a burning hole in the doorframe. Unaccustomed to violence, let alone direct threats against his life, Blueblood did what most aristocrats would do...he toppled over in a dead faint. The figure looked at him before shrugging and using the blaster to burn the safes lock away and pulling out a handful of the gems. "Too easy." it said in a voice distorted by its helmet mask. The figure then strode towards the door, but paused and kicked Blueblood in the side a few times for good measure, I mean...who'd pass up that opportunity? ... The next morning, Matt and Chloe were using the SUV to drive the artifacts up to the main castle when he spotted a half dozen guards outside one of the estates. Matt slowed down and peered out to see Shining "Where's the fire?" he joked. "We've had a break-in, assault and burglary," said Shining Armor, "Against one of the Royal Family no less." "How's the thief? I pity whoever takes on your princesses." said Matt cheerfully before spotting a limping Blueblood yelling at a few guards. "That smeghead?" he said with a lack of sympathy "Well, Blueblood isn't an alicorn, so he isn't as powerful. Sometimes I wonder if he's legitimately...." "THAT'S HIM!" screamed Blueblood suddenly, pointing at Matt. "I'm sorry?" said Matt. "You're the one who robbed me. Captain Armor...do your duty and arrest that miscreant." yelled Blueblood, pointing hysterically. Matt and Chloe looked at each other "You're joking...right?" she said. "I saw it with my own eyes! That's the one who broke into my safe and beat me senseless!" yelled Blueblood. "Oh please...I was in bed last night...ask anyone at the hotel...apparently I snore like a dragon according to the guy in the room next door." said Matt. "Then explain how the intruder was your size and shape and attacked me with a handheld fireball," snapped Blueblood. "Exo-Gene? Darius has a whole army that’s my 'size and shape'." said Matt, only for Blueblood to say evilly "Then you won't mind turning out your pockets." Matt sighed and said, "Fine, if it gets me out of here any fast-" Matt and Chloe climbed out, Matt tripping only for Chloe to steady him. "Easy there..." she said before saying "Hey...what’s this?" pulling out what looked like a ruby out of Matt’s pocket. "Uh...something I found while...rock hunting," said Matt, pretty sure he hadn't seen that ruby before. Blueblood was looking like the cat that had just eaten the canary and gotten the cream to boot. "Captain...as I said...arrest that miscreant." he said in an aloof voice "Now wait a minute, there's no proof this is yours. Rubies aren't exactly rare around here," said Matt. Blueblood immediately levitated the ruby over, turning it over to show an interconnected BB symbol cut into the bottom. "That could mean anything," said Matt, stubbornly. Matt could easily have overpowered the guards and make a break for it. Heck, he had a getaway vehicle ready for him. But he made that promise... "Ok, fine, it's not gonna stick anyways," said Matt. ... Chloe sat with a grim smile in the corner as she watched the element bearers discuss their friends 'betrayal'...sometimes it was too easy. "I don't understand why Matt would do that," said Fluttershy, "I thought he was a nice guy." "Well, Blueblood may be an obnoxious clod...but I don't think that gives Matt the right to rob him," said Rarity. Rainbow Dash however said "No...Matt wouldn’t rob anypony. He may be a little crazy but he’s not a thief." Pinkie Pie nodded "Yup. Matt would have just blown him up." she said "O'course, this wouldn't be the first time Matt's done somethin' rotten behind our backs," said Applejack. "Matt had a good reason when he took the pearl, not a smart one but he meant well," said Twilight, "I just can't believe he'd betray our trust like this." Chloe finally said "Don't judge him too hard...I saw his file when I got to the ship. Poor guys unstable...he probably didn’t even know what he was doing." she said smoothly. Rainbow gave Chloe a stern look and said, "How could say something like that? Matt's your brother you know." "Yeah....right." muttered Chloe to herself before saying "Yeah...so I know he's not the same. He just needs a little time out." "Well, if Matt is innocent, they won't be able to make the charges stick," said Twilight, "He'll probably be out before tomorrow night." Chloe nodded thinking "Not if I can help it." before saying "I'm gonna head over...have a chat with Aria." ... As soon as she'd entered her room, she grabbed Matt’s spare wrist-comp and began looking for the frequency she knew Matt would have on its restricted list...Darius's. ... The mess hall in the Icarus was rather quiet, considering very few show up at any time other than mealtime. However, some of those few were in the mess hall and discussing the latest going-ons. "Have you noticed the captain's been rather...quiet since that island fiasco?" asked one trooper. "Been summoning everyone into his room except Andaka and his boys. Guess it’s our turn." said his fellow trooper, the two glaring at a tableful of laughing Black 13 mercenaries. A third trooper said "Hey...you didn’t hear this from me...but I think the cap's been exposed to reality energy...the magi levels in his room blew out the sensors." The troopers exchanged glances and one of them said, "You don't think he's been practicing the...dark stuff, do ya?" "I don't know, but if I hear any eldritch language from his quarters, I'm bailing out," said another. "With what? We're still stabilizing the wormhole so the only other place is local lockup downstairs." said the first trooper, thumbing out the window at Equis, the name they'd given the planet Matt was hiding on. There was a bit of silence before one of them said, "Out of curiosity, what would you say our chances would be on his side?" "He managed to evade Mark and his entire garrison back at Balwak...took out over 30 of our boys over the duration of this whole clusterfuck operation...I'd say pretty good if we manage to stop him blowing the smeg out of us on sight." said the third trooper "Well, he can't be completely unreasonable," said another. However, one of the more loyal troopers said, "I think I need a better reason before I even consider desertion and possible mutiny." "I hear CPS let ya keep 60% of what ya earn." said the second trooper absently. You could almost hear the internal gears starting to spin as their mental compasses swung round to due money. "There is such a thing as code of duty," said the more loyal trooper, "I can't just abandon my post because the captain might seem a little off." "Uh oh...here comes the zombies." said the one who had mentioned the CPS money nodding to where some of their fellow troopers had come in. The nickname was cause of the strange stare the troopers had. Even the Black 13 troopers stood up and moved away, one muttering about freaks. One of them yelled "OFFICER ON DECK!" The three troopers immediately stood to attention. However, they didn't see the captain walk in. Instead, they saw a woman in uniform with violet sparkling hair. "Er...where's the captain?" asked one of the troopers. "She's right there, you fools." said one of the guards, causing the trio to desperately fight the urge to not smirk. In their minds, Darius had clearly had an accident messing with magi energy. The more loyal trooper said, in as a straight a tone as he could manage, "I trust the...captain is feeling well today?" The woman said "I'm feeling....much better, thank you." waving her hand and causing a faint glow...before seemingly waiting. The troopers glanced at each other, wondering what was supposed to happen. The woman looked annoyed before repeating the gesture, the glow a bit brighter. The trio watched politely as the woman glared at her hand a shook it a bit before one of them said "Erm...boss? Are you ok?" "Whatever you three are doing, stop it right now!" snapped the woman. "Er...does that mean we can sit down?" asked another trooper. "Just...just go away." said the woman in an angry voice, the trio shrugging before wandering off, one of them saying "Woo hoo...day off." One of the officers stepped in and said, "Message for you, ma'am. Seems like someone has an interesting offer to make." The woman took the note and read it before smirking. "Looks like this body has its uses...so somepony picked up Discord's old diamonds. " she said. The nightmare had, after the disaster on the island had finally decided to do the job herself, destroying Darius's mind and taking up residence...after a few improvements. There was still some more work to be done, but a human form does have some benefits, namely hands. "Get some men together. we might as well try our luck with this...given how you imbeciles keep missing." she said. "Yes...Captain Daria..." said the men. 'Daria' looked a little annoyed. She'd much rather be addressed by a more appropriate name, but there seems to be a limit to how much you can bend others' minds without affecting their capabilities. ... Chloe/Betrayal smirked as the confirmation of the exchange popped up before she turned to her reflection. "I don’t get it, dad. Why hand Miss Sparkle over to them too?" she said "Trust me, Celestia's pupil is a lot tougher than she appears and she has the record to prove it," said Discord, "Besides, busting up their little group and handing her over would be so delicious, wouldn't you agree?" "I suppose..." said Chloe/Betrayal a little uncertainly before saying "Well...this Darius guy will be there..." she added before saying to Discords apparently surprise "Matt'll be ok...won’t he?" "Matt's safely in the dungeon," said Discord, "He won't be out until it's too late. It's not like you still care for him." "Yeah...obviously." said Betrayal with a cough before shifting back to human form and picking up a high tech looking collar. "I'll say this for the NSC...they're prepared...an anti-magic collar...used for Mythiconians." she said with a evil grin. ... Fortunately for Matt, the Equestrians didn't believe in torture, so they had to result to the toughest method they had: grilling under a hot lamp. "Where are the rest of my jewels?” snapped Blueblood who, despite Shining armors objections, had insisted on being at the interrogation. "Don't know, don't care." said Matt with a yawn Blueblood turned to Shining Armor and snapped, "Why are we wasting time with this questioning? Let's just pull the answer out of his head!" "You first, well, second," said Shining, gesturing to another guard who had a block of ice strapped to his head. "A-001* mental blocks(1)...I did warn him." said Matt, apologetically. "Hell, even I dunno how it works. I didn’t steal your stupid jewels...I got more than that from bounties anyway." "Then explain why my ruby was in your pocket!" demanded Blueblood. "No idea...I left my jacket in my room all morning. Anyone could have entered. I never lock my door...most people know I shoot trespassers." said Matt in a bored tone. "Matt, this isn't helping your case," said Shining Armor. "Look...I wouldn't dare steal. That’s a firing offence to CPS...and that’s not a metaphor." said Matt whispering to Shining "Come on...this is rubbish. I got no reason to steal from anyone...except for apples and Applejack let me before I was found out by the town." "I wish I could believe that but unless I have any proof, I have to keep this case open," whispered Shining, "If you had an eyewitness to where you were last night, that may clear you." "My sis...man, I've been expecting her to kick the door down all this time. Can I have my wrist-comp back so I can call..." began Matt, reaching for his wrist comp on the table, only for Blueblood to pettily levitate it away. "Prisoners aren't allowed to make calls," said Blueblood. "Oh, c'mon, I do get one phone call, right?" complained Matt. There was a pause before Matt asked, "You guys have invented the telephone, right?" "No...If I get my way, you'll never set foot in Equestria again. Thugs like you are worse than Diamond dogs." said Blue blood loftily before striding out, dropping Matt’s wrist-comp at a guard's hooves. "You know its aristocratic jerks like you that made the French revolt back in my world!" yelled Matt. Shining Armor snorted at that when he spotted Bluebloods glare before he said "Look...we'll find your sister and get her side of the story." said Shining, giving Matt his wrist comp, only to sigh as Matt immediately started readying a call. "Hey...this is weird." Matt muttered as a red message appeared. Matt activated the message and got a notice saying 'You are not cleared to be using an EGIS comm frequency. Please extend your contact permit before making another call or there will be a fine.' Matt rolled his eyes, cursing his smartarseness for coming up with that warning message. "I shoulda kept it at factory settings." he muttered before looking at the contents before saying "Where did you see my sister last?" he said in an ice cold tone. "Last I had saw was when she was in that vehicle with you," said Shining Armor. Matt turned to the guards "Well?" he asked, his voices temperature now at ice age levels "Uh, I think I saw her near the main gates a few minutes ago," said one of the guards. "Blueblood said we weren't to allow you two out of the city so I don't think she'll be able to go any further," said the other. Shining armor put a shield up over the door as Matt walked for the door. "Hey...what’s this about?" he asked Matt, who said “She called Darius...I want to know why." "You're not suggesting your sister may be fraternizing with the enemy, are you?" asked Shining. "Maybe she slipped that ruby into his pocket too," said a guard. Matt and Shining turned to glare at the guard. "It was just a theory," said the guard. Matt stopped before saying "No...she must have a good reason. My sister wouldn't backstab me like this." ... Twilight slowly opened the door to Chloe’s room, levitating a few equestrian law books in behind her. "Chloe? I'm here." she called. The interior of the room was darker than Twilight had expected. "Uh, Chloe, would you mind if I turn on the lights?" she asked. "No problem." said Chloe’s voice, though it sounded a little distorted. At the same time Matt’s spare comm turned on as it detected Twilights voice, chiming it had connected. "Twi? Twilight?" said Matt’s voice Twilight looked at the comm and asked, "Matt? Is that you?" "Twilight...I dunno why but Chloe set me up. She called Darius...get out of there...just get o-" said Matts voice before it cut off with the crack of a taloned fist smashing it. "Uh, I just remembered, there's another book I should grab. I better go get it," said Twilight before turning back to the door. The door glowed before slamming shut, several bars appearing across it with a frighteningly familiar flash. Twilight spun to see a silhouette against the window that she knew. "D-discord?" she said before the figure said "Not exactly...but I guess Dad has met you." "Dad? What do you mean?" asked Twilight. "Well, not a father in the proper sense, but I am born from his magic. Just like someone else who would like to see you again." Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she began to ready the time-freeze spell only for an arc of lightning to shoot from Betrayal’s hand...more precisely the blaster in her paw before she walked towards the semi-conscious Twilight. "You know...if I hadn’t found out how Matt basically brought me from limbo...I'd go with him...technologies fun." she said, attaching the collar before she said "Now then...we have a date to kee-" she began before hearing someone trying to open the door. Betrayal gave an annoyed look before saying, "I don't have time for this," before shifting into Chloe's form. The door finally gave way under a kick and Matt ran in, aiming his blaster at Chloe. “Hands up, sis. I was always the better shot." he said warningly, before seeing Twilight with the anti-magi collar on. "Oh, there had better be a good reason for that...drop the tesla...now." he said coldly "Matt, don't you trust your little sister?" asked Chloe in a too-sweet tone. "After you framed me? Not a chance. Now drop it before I knock you out." said Matt, angrily. "Me? Frame you? How could you think something like that?" asked Chloe. "I didn't till a guard mentioned how you could have reverse-pickpocketed me with that ruby." said Matt as Chloe tossed the tesla blaster aside. Twilight groaned something that got Matts attention. “Not....not." she said weakly. "Twi?" said Matt, making the mistake of looking down to see Twi mouth "Not...your sister." Matt was about to turn back to confront 'Chloe' when what felt like an ostrich's leg kicked him into the wall. Matt staggered a bit before looking up to see what looked like an amalgamation of half a dozen animals, both normal and mythical. "Chloe?" he asked slightly dazed, only to duck as the creature nearly clawed his head off. "No...Betrayal..." said the creature in Chloe’s voice only to apparently stagger back as Matt emptied a clip of tazer rounds into her chest before he ran over to Twilight. "Ok, now to slip this off...I said, now to slip this off..." said Matt with growing frustration as the collar proved more difficult to remove. He soon tried to yank it off and only stopped when he could hear Twilight gagging. "Twilight...what is that thing wearing my sisters face?" he asked, before finding the keypad and trying his code, only to get a buzz as the code was rejected. Twilight couldn't respond but she started pointing with one of her hooves. Matt turned in time for a paw to smack him across the room into the wall above the bed. "That actually hurt." said Betrayal in an annoyed tone before turning to her reflection and asking it "When do I get fireball?....what do you mean 'not till my third millennium?" "As curious as I am about what's going on, I'm just too mad," said Matt before taking out another gun and firing. Betrayal made a quick gesture, the blasts vanishing in the air before she shot forward and grabbed matt. "So...you got off, did you?" she said, clocking her talons and causing Twilight to vanish. "Let’s see you get out of this." she said before yelling near the window "MATT...WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" and then tossing Matt out said window. Fortunately, they were only up one floor so the fall wasn't that far. In fact, Matt barely got injured apart from a few glass cuts and bruises. It's something that comes with experience. However, landing on cobbles hurts even if you are wearing body armor. Matt dizzily got up with a wince to see the ponies in the street staring in shock before Betrayal, wearing her skinsuit leaned out and took a shot at Matt, forcing him to roll to his feet. "That maniac tried to shoot me!" yelled 'Chloe' before trying to shoot Matt again. Considering how bad the situation look plus the difficulty in getting anyone to believe the truth which even Matt was having trouble grasping, Matt decided a healthy retreat was in order. Matt quickly ran for it as a few guards galloped after him. He quickly skidded round a corner into an alley before jumping at and kicking off one of the side walls to vault the fence at the end...sometimes pony scale walls had advantages. However Matt wasn’t dumb tossing two small knives at the metal fence before the two 'tazer-blades' stunned the guards trying to follow. However, one of the guards, being a pegasus, was able to avoid that obstacle and intercept Matt. "Halt, you are under arrest in the name of..." The guard never got a chance to finish as Matt grabbed the hoof reaching for him and pulled, his other hand connecting with the pegasus's snout in a stunning blow before the momentum was used to steer the pony into the alleys side wall, knocking him out. "No touching." said Matt, turning a corner and being grabbed in a levitation spell. Matt tried to run, only for him to float into the air. "Hey, no fair!" snapped Matt. He managed to make himself spin to see the girls coming out. "Hey...this isn't what it looks like. I think Chloe’s gone insane." he said as calmly as he could before noticing their stares at the gibbering guard. "He'll be fine, though he'll have a massive headache later," said Matt. Rainbow Dash glared and flew close to Matts face. "Where's Twilight? Chloe said you just burst in and started shooting...and that..." she said, unable to finish, clearly buying into 'Chloe’s' show "Wish I could tell you, but I don't know. You're gonna have to ask Chloe where she poofed Twilight to," said Matt. "You guys don’t have magic." said Rainbow Dash only for Matt to say "I don’t think that applies to her anymore...she looked like she’d been glued together from half a dozen things." "Glued together?" asked Applejack. "Yeah, she looks like some horse, dragon jabberwocky…thingy," said Matt, finishing lamely before adding "And she doesn't play nice. Ok, Chloe's not known to place nice all the time, but there's a limit to how much she goes." "That sounds like that varmint, Discord...but he's a statue." said Applejack before glaring at Matt. "Did y'all hurt Twi?" she asked, Looking Matt in the eye. Matt said sincerely "No...I'd sooner shoot myself." Applejack gave him a long look before saying, "He's tellin' the truth." Pinkie was next up before saying "You pinkie promise you didn’t do anything?" she said, causing Matt to simply look confused "Erm...yes, sure." he said carefully before hearing "This way." from the distance. "Erm...can I run now? Can't do anything if I'm in a cell." Just then, the sound of galloping hooves was heard getting close. Rainbow flew upward and looked around. "Twilight's brother's coming, and he's got a lot of guards with," she called. Rarity reluctantly released the spell on Matt, causing him to fall with an 'oof'. "I'll get her back." said Matt, jumping up before running for it, turning the corner just as Shining and his team ran into view. "Have you seen Matt?" asked Shining Armor. "Uh...no," said Fluttershy. Shining looked suspicious before turning on the others "I got to find him...he and his sister have vanished and...ponies are saying he killed Twilight." he said icily "There's no proof of that," said Rarity, "I don't know where Twilight is, but I'm certain she's alive." "If he's hurt Twilight...I won’t forgive myself...I let him go." said Shining gloomily "Oh, don't worry about Twilight, she'll be alright," said Pinkie, "I bet she'll be back home tomorrow." ... Twilight groaned as the world came back. Being temporarily sent to limbo was not pleasant. She looked up to see Betrayal in her human guise, sitting on a crate near a metal gantry extending out...an airship dock judging from the muted roar of Canterlot falls. Twilight tried a spell, but the collar was still around her throat. "You're not going anywhere....well....not yet. Look on the bright side...you'll probably be released when Darius goes back to the void...of course it'll be impossible to find your way back." Betrayal said "Why are you doing this?" asked Twilight. "I'm the spirit of betrayal...and why didn't you or my dear step-brother tell me what I was?" said Betrayal coldly "I...I didn't know. The only book had the pages missing and..." She suddenly realized something, "You took those pages. You put that ruby in Matt's pocket." "Well done...it’s the least I could do after Matt backstabbed me and 'forgot' to tell me I'm just a talented copy...My human form and memories are all from his memories...even the ones he doesn’t want." said Betrayal with an evil smile "Matt had no idea what he did," said Twilight, "He didn't even mean to bring you here. He thought that you really were his sister, until now." "Huh...well, he's getting what he deserves. It’s not like a cell here could hold a professional mercenary when he wants to leave." said Betrayal "Matt's done nothing wrong to you, and this is how you're repaying him," said Twilight, anger entering her voice, "I know you're a creation of Discord, but even that's too low." "I'm betrayal...what should I do? Hand myself in and give your dear princess matching statues for her garden?" spat Betrayal "Matt could have given you a better life," said Twilight, "You may not be the real Chloe, but he wouldn't have cared if you hadn't betrayed him." "Except once he realized he's pining after a corpse...oh, wait...he sealed that file. You've been in his head...you really should learn to pay attention." said Betrayal evilly before a dropship flew slowly into view, landing on the airship dock. "Ah...your rides here...and I got your fare." said Betrayal, clicking her fingers and making the crate with the artifacts appear "The Corona Prima?! You can't hand them over! If Darius got his hands on them, there's no telling what he'll do!" cried Twilight. "Sell them probably...why should I care? I'm gonna have a father/daughter reunion later," said Betrayal as the walkway lowered a dozen or so troopers ran down followed by a woman in Darius’s uniform. "Ok...where’s Miss L...Miss Sparkle...always nice to see an old host," the woman said darkly, showing a shard of blue metal on a pendant round her neck Her form may be different than before, but Twilight recognized her. "Nightmare? But how? Why?" she asked. "Well...My host says that Mr. Lynch's employers have a motto: Always clean up your mess...you failed to do that when you destroyed my armor." said Daria/The Nightmare, petting Twilight tauntingly on the head. "But why Darius, and what have you done to him?" asked Twilight. "Moved in...but there's only room for one soul in any one body..." said Daria with unconcealed glee. Twilight looked ready to be sick as she realized that Nightmare would have probably done the same to her once the ritual had been done. Betrayal/Chloe also looked ill. “That’s just wrong...chaos yes, but killing ponies?" she said "Darius isn't a pony," said Daria as she examined her hand, "Of course, I’m considering changing that. Or maybe I should just change halfway, what do you think?" "I'm sorry...my families got the copyright on mix'n'match forms, thank you.” said Betrayal "Well, there's one disadvantage to your being human," said Twilight. "And what, pray tell, is that?" asked Daria. "You can't fly on your own and you can't use magic," said Twilight, "Honestly, humans' only remarkable features are their hands." "True...but that 'human technology' has reduced you to the magical ability of a rock..." said Daria, evilly, tapping the anti-magi collar. "However, I must admit that as useful as humans are proving to me, I do miss the noble and righteous form of an alicorn. Hmm...I have an idea. With all three Corona Prima under my control, I'll be capable of any feat of magic, such as exchanging this body for yours. So I'll be getting your body back and become the Dark Ruler of all Equestria and you get to experience what humans are good for. Sounds like an even trade, doesn't it?" "No...not a chance." said Twilight stubbornly. Daria glared and seemed ready to react before a trooper in ebony uniform, one of the reptilian creatures from Paradiso, said "Hey...contractor...something set off the motion sensor at the 50 meter mark." Daria turned around as her eyes and pendant glowed deep blue. "Excuse me, what did you call me?" she asked. "Oh...so sorry, ma'am." said the splitter in a sarcastic tone before continuing. "It’s not a local...silhouette says it’s human...hiding out in one of the other warehouses. You want him breathing or cold?" "Lynch has lived his purpose. He does not need to live any longer," said Daria. Betrayal who, to Twilights notice was watching the conversation in mounting apparent horror, said suddenly "We'll need his code for the crate. These things tend to be unbreakable." "She has a fair point," said the splitter before tossing a lightning bolt at the crate. There was barely even a scorch. Daria snorted and said "Bring him to me alive." Andaka nodded and made a motion to three of his men who jogged for one of the side doors. ... Matt opened the door out of the warehouse he had been in and ducked back as he spotted two EGIS troopers on the roof. "Sneaky...but I'm better." Matt muttered, despite the contrary to his track record. "Hold it right there," said a voice behind Matt. Matt rolled his eyes and said, "You've got to be joking." He turned to see an EGIS trooper aiming a pistol at him. "You new?" asked Matt, slowly raising his hands. "What's it to ya?" snapped the trooper. "Oh, nothing, nothing, ok, I'll go quietly, just need to tie my shoelace first," said Matt. The trooper looked puzzled as Matt kneeled down, leaning in...and gotpunched in the throat by a chop from Matt and finally punched between the eyes. Matt grabbed the guy’s blaster as he keeled over, out cold. "They let anyone have licenses these days." Matt muttered, opening the door smugly...and sighing as two blasters were aimed, one on each side of his head. "Drop em, Lynch." "I really don't want to spend my day doing this," said Matt. "Fine by us...we're paid by the hour." said a voice behind Matt, who turned and saw a scaly fist heading towards him . ... Daria smirked as Andaka and his mercs returned, dragging a semi-conscious Matt between them. "Is this yours?" said Andaka, rubbing his hand as his troopers dumped Matt on the floor. "Well, Mr. Lynch, it looks like you've finally met your match," said Daria. Matt stared blearily up at Daria and said, "Maybe, who am I addressing?" "Really? I thought you'd remember the pony you dropped her palace on." said Daria, her eyes glowing blue. Matt blinked and turned to Andaka, "Ok, what's her real name?" "Well, he was Captain Darius, but she prefers Captain Daria now," said Andaka. Matt stared before laughing loudly and asking, "Ok, where's the hidden camera?" Twilight and Betrayal winced as Daria delivered an eye-watering kick. "Ok...is that a 'no camera'?" rasped Matt. Daria grabbed Matts hair and yanked his head back, hissing "Open that container...you put a lock on it...so open it." "What? Can't you crack codes yourself?" taunted Matt. "OPEN IT!" screamed Daria. Matt said "I didn't put a lock on it, dumbass...I just added a latch. No fingers makes security easy." Daria stared manically and snapped "Do I look like a fool?" "Considering you're under the belief that you're an evil spirit reborn and have rearranged your sexual structure to emulate that being...my opinion is that you're demented," said Matt. A second later, an arc of blue lightning grabbed Matt by the throat and lifted him up. "Then again...I've been known to jump to conclusions..." Matt gasped desperately "If your mouth will not give me the right answer, let's try a more direct approach," said Daria as an arc of lightning touched Matt's forehead. Matt gurgled as Daria got a thoughtful look, ignoring Twilight as she cried "Stop it...you're hurting him." Andaka said grimly "That’s the point, I think." "Now let's see what you're hiding," said Daria. The nightmare carefully probed through Matt’s maze-like mind, shocked at the insane amount of mental defenses hiding for her should she be unwary. All she could find was a brief glimpse of some kind of oval being placed in a building....the other warehouse. "What is..." she muttered before a deafening smashing noise was heard as something roared out of the other warehouse into the sky and began wailing while bathing half of canterlot in a green light. The effect on the ponies was very evident: dozens ran around screaming about invasions and the end of the world. Shining Armor though had a decent idea what it was, more so when he got a look at the cause through a spyglass. "Lynch...Ok...this way." he said, nodding to his men who began to gallop towards the airship docks. ... Daria, her hands on her ears, shrieked "TURN THAT HAY-BLASTED DEVICE OFF!" One of the troopers aimed a blaster at the flare-droid, ignoring Andaka's cry of "NO...DON'T!" The blast shot out and hit the droids shield, the ripples flowing round before back and sending a needle-thin bolt back, knocking the trooper backwards and over the falls. Andaka gave an annoyed look at the droid and said, "Is a big distraction the best you could do? All that thing's giving me is a headache." He sent the 'all-clear' signal through his comm which shut off the droid. "No...But thanks to my 'dear sister' here...I'm on the local most wanted..." said Matt, with an evil grin. Andaka's eyes widened at that "Ma'am...we gotta go." he said, several red lights showing motion alarms being tripped. "No...not till the artifacts mine." snapped Daria angrily "Then drop it from orbit and pick them out of the shards," said Andaka, "We don't have time to force Lynch to open it." "Contacts." came a yell from the roof. Daria's eyes narrowed and she yelled "Kill them...nothing gets in until I am free of this form." Andaka growled at that "Are you INSANE?" "No, but you're about to be!" snapped Daria before sending a blast of dark magic into Andaka. Matt pulled himself up to see Andaka having a seizure before going limp. Daria said coldly “Now kindly rip that human to ribbons." Matt jumped as Andaka turned, his eyes black and he took a fighting stance. "You gotta be kidding me...if we survive this, sis...you and me are going to have words." he said, backing up. Andaka snarled before delivering a kick that literally sent Matt right out the door. Betrayal backed up a little as Daria said "As for her...kill them both." Andaka roared before charging at Betrayal, only to slam into a brick wall that wasn't there a few seconds ago. Betrayal grabbed Twilight and pulled her into the maze of crates with her. "I suppose it’s too late to say I'm sorry?" Betrayal said "Ignoring her 'dads' reflection shaking his head. "I think someone else needs to be told you're sorry more," said Twilight. A lightning bolt fried a nearby crate. "But this isn't a good time for that." The sound of gunfire was heard from above along with what sounded like lightning spells. "Hey...look on the bright side. I hear matching garden statues are in this year." Betrayal added "I might be able to ask Celestia to give you another chance," said Twilight. "Oh, yeah, sure, like she'd ever give my dad another chance," said Betrayal. "It could happen." said Twilight in an 'I don’t think that'll happen' voice. "Enough posturing, get that draconequus!" snapped Daria's voice. "Huh...and I thought my human form was flawless." said Betrayal, before turning to her 'normal' form, causing Twilight to blanch a bit as the skinsuit was torn off. "That's disgusting," said Twilight. "I haven't figured out shapeshifting all the way yet," said Betrayal, "Now if you excuse me..." She conjured a white flag and peered out "Parley?" she tried before wincing at the sound of multiple blasts and pulled back a colander of a flag. “Ooookay." she said "I have no use for you anymore," said Daria, "If you have any sense, which is doubtful, you will leave now." Betrayal glared before readying a fireball. "I guess that’s that...now where's my step brother?" she said. ... Matt got up unsteadily before seeing Andaka clambering through the hole and out into the dock, now being drenched by a storm that had probably been started by some pegasi who thought the flare drone was a fire alarm. "Hey...let’s talk about this, man." Matt said Andaka snarled and threw a lightning bolt that nearly missed Matt. "Hey, I know you're mad, but you can at least talk to me," said Matt. "The mistress of darkness demands your soul." said Andaka in a droning voice before readying another lightning bolt, only to find the rain was dampening his abilities "Sorry, I think I owe me soul to my last ship creditor," said Matt, "No, wait, just 1000 credits." Andaka lunged with a roar, the two rolling across the dock before Matt managed to kick up and send Andaka tumbling over the falls...until he flew into view. "Bloody space dragons." muttered Matt, backing up again Andaka swooped down at Matt and Matt tried to punch him, but the splitter grabbed his fist and squeezed it hard, forcing Matt to his knees. "Foolish." said Andaka, punching Matt with his other free hand and sending the human sprawling. "I will enjoy destroying you in my mistress's name." he said, before yelling as Matt threw some dirt in his face and scrambled to get away "I think I preferred him when he was arrogant," muttered Matt. Matt staggered to a side gate, leading back out and ran immediately into view of two royal guards led by Shining Armor who yelled. "THERE HE IS!" "Sorry, wrong address." said Matt manically, slamming the door again. A hissing roar behind Matt made him briefly consider if dealing with the guards could be worse than Andaka. A spell blowing a hole in the gate decided for him and he turned and ducked to avoid a claw slash before delivering a kick that felt like it hit a wall...and being thrown back towards the dock for his trouble. "Ok, I think my luck has settled down to the bottom for me to safely say this could not possibly get any worse," said Matt. The wall behind Andaka suddenly blazed before exploding outwards, Betrayal shooting out. "Then again..." muttered Matt. "Did I miss anything?" asked Betrayal. "Not yet, my impending doom is coming, here to get a front row seat?" asked Matt sourly. "I dunno...I think you need a paw or two." Betrayal, said, her tail whipping out and pulling Andaka's feet from under him, Twilight jumping out the hole she had made and galloping for the gate Matt had used. "How do I know you're not just trying to get my hopes up only to flatten them again?" said Matt. "The family business doesn’t include getting people killed." said Betrayal casually, dodging a few blows from Andaka before vanishing his wings with the click of her talons...and staring at her paw in shock. "That’s ne-OOF!" she managed, distracted long enough for Andaka to send her spinning to the floor with a backhanded blow. "Ok, if I avoid the tail, I might have…" stared Matt before an electrified punch sent him flying across the wharf. Betrayal got up dizzily before being lifted up by her throat, wincing as electricity arced over her from Andaka. "You...traitorous..." he snarled before being knocked sideways as Matt swung a plank against his head with an angry yell. However, the slitter's skull was thick enough that the plank snapped on impact. But there was a big enough shard of it for Andaka to grab and ram into Matt's leg. Matt fell with a yell before being picked up and thrown, rolling almost to the edge. "This...isn't good." Matt managed through his haze. ... Twilight bucked the gate open to see a dozen or so Night guard and royal guard mages exchanging a fight with Daria's men who were firing from the roof, a few slumped troopers showing clearly who was losing. However, one of the troopers fired a weapon that went over the guards' heads. But the explosion it caused was enough to scatter them. Twilight ducked down and again tried to pull the collar off before looking up to see Shining armor. "Shiny? SHINY!" she called, surprised that the troopers above ignored her. "Twily? TWILY!! Get out of here! This is no place for-" shouted Shining before a nearby explosion made it impossible to hear. Several troopers ran out a side door and ended up getting a taste of what twilight had written in her letter about the Paradiso trip 'Mixed spelling' from two mages, turning into, in order, a statue, a surprised chicken and a bottle of something called 'Pepsi Cherry flavor'. What it did do was distract the gunners enough for Twilight to gallop across to her brother. "Matt's not to blame for this. His sister Chloe turned to not really be his sister but a draconequus named Betrayal who was made from Discord's Eye Diamond which seemingly gave Matt what he wanted but just made a betrayer who framed Matt by stealing Blueblood's jewels and putting them in Matt's pockets and now Matt's fighting Nightmare who's now in Darius who's now Daria and Betrayal and you have to help!" After the very lengthy explanation, Twilight had to gasp for a minute. The guards and Shining armor just stared for a second, after all...it wasn't every day you heard such a story and at least one guard looked skeptical...but not Shining armor...he knew his sister too well. "What is that?" he said, curiously, looking at the anti-magi collar, before using his own magic to release the clasp. "It's what Betrayal was using to keep me from using magic," said Twilight, "Speaking of which..." She turned and zapped several of the troopers' guns, turning them into cheese and causing them to drop their now edible weapons and run.. "Wait...we followed Matt here...where is he...AND WHAT IS THAT?" said Shining armor, yelling the last part as Daria's dropship roared into view, its nose cannon showering the open ground, not caring when the now weaponless troopers were in the way before turning and leaving skywards. "That's Daria's ship and Matt's in trouble," said Twilight, "We better find him before it makes another run around." ... Matt and Betrayal, wearing her human form to use a dropped EGIS rifle were both thrown back. "Ok...OW...this guy's tough even for a splitter." Matt groaned before noticing a readout on his wristcomp, identifying Andaka as the rare 'elder' variant, widely agreed by mercs everywhere to be walking tanks. "Oh, bollocks." he moaned. "I could turn him into a garter snake," offered Betrayal. "With our luck, he'll become a hydra, and not the sea creature kind," said Matt. A lightning bolt, tinged with black energy blasted between them. “Oh look, his hands are dry again." said Matt sarcastically. "Oh, they'll wet soon, it is downpouring after all," said Betrayal. On cue the rain stopped as the clouds ran out. "Are you sure we're not related?" said Matt scathingly. "If my dad can make chocolate rain, I'm sure I can make normal rain," said Betrayal before snapping her fingers. The clouds rumbled and pretty soon, they let loose a torrent...of frogs. "Does chaos come with an instruction manual?" said Matt sarcastically, before noticing that even Andaka had stopped to watch, the mercenary sense for free entertainment having survived "Quick, while he's distracted," said Matt. "Right," said Betrayal before snapping her fingers. This time, the frogs mutated, becoming four times bigger, growing sharp fangs, horns, extra red eyes, and tongues like snakes...including the fangs. "Undo, UNDO!" screamed Matt, as Andaka actually sat down to watch, which annoyed Matt a little. After watching the frogs chomp Matt for a while, Andaka eventually decided he's seen enough and started towards Matt, kicking aside any mutant frogs in his way. "Hey, wait a minute, the frogs are supposed to attack you, not-" started Betrayal before Andaka knocked her into a stack of crates which collapsed over her. Matt grabbed the last frog, which has a cross-eyed dumb look before looking up to see Andaka charging at him. "EEP!" he yelped, holding up the frog on reflex. The frog stared dumbly at the roaring Andaka before giving a frog version of a shrug, shooting his tongue out and reeling itself in to chomp over Andaka's head, causing him to flail around trying to drag it off while Matt ran to the pile of crates Betrayal was under. Matt frantically pulled off the wood until he uncovered Betrayal. "Are you alright?" he asked. "I'm fine," she said before wincing and adding, "Except for my wings." Matt saw that Betrayal’s skinsuit had torn at the back, showing a crumpled bat wing. "Look...I can hear the guards outside...let’s just go and see if that guy can take on 20 instead of 2...uh oh." said Matt, as a claw grabbed his arm and dragged him back. Betrayal desperately tried to get her leg free as Andaka strode towards the edge of the dock and calmly held Matt over the edge. Matt looked down and saw the sheer drop down the waterfall. The bottom was covered with mist, but Matt had a feeling there would be sharp rocks at the bottom. There typically were. Betrayal however was yanking harder and harder before time seemed to slow and she heard 'dear' dads voice from a puddle. "My dear...why do you care so much?" his reflection said "Because he's my brother and he's in danger," said Betrayal. Discord sighed and said, "We've been over this. You aren't the real Chloe. You have been conceived in her image, but you're not her. You have no familial connections with him." "Step brother then..." said Betrayal stubbornly as she continued to pull Discord sighed and said, "Well, it seems you aren't going to change your mind. If it'll make you feel better, I can show you how to get out." “Dad....please." said Betrayal in a pleading voice. Discord sighed "Anything for family." he finally said before clicking his own talons and causing Betrayal to go bug eyed for a second. "There, now go save your step-brother," said Discord before his reflection disappeared. Time immediately flowed back and Betrayal shook her head before 'remembering' the new knowledge and clicking her fingers, the box vanishing and re-appearing over Andaka. Andaka didn't have time to look before the box crashed onto his head. Matt yelped as Andaka dropped him on reflex, managing to grab the side before, in a similar flash, ending up sprawled at Betrayal’s feet, the draconeuus looking pleased with herself. "Finally got the hang of teleportation," she said smugly. "Good..." said Matt, dizzily before seeing Andaka stagger and fall over the falls, grabbing on. "I suppose we'd better help him." Betrayal said, the two walking forward. "Need a hand?" she asked. "I...cannot...accept...your...help..." growled Andaka before he let go. The two ran forward the last steps in time to see him vanish into the spray. "Man...what made him do that?" he said before they heard the dropship taking off. "Oh no...THE ARTIFACTS!" Matt yelled, throwing himself down as the ship fired at apparently where the guards were and then taking off. "Artifacts...artifacts...oh, of course," said Betrayal before snapping her fingers and making the container appear in front of her. "I hope Daria likes that little joke," she said. Matt looked up at the shrinking exhaust flares of the dropship. "Ooooh, she's gonna be pissed. She didn’t take jokes well before her brain was melted." ... Daria smirked, clicking the clasp and opening it, ready to revel in the artifacts magic....and finding a trio of party hats. ... Matt nudged Betrayal as the guard galloped in, blocking the ways off the docks. "I’d raise the talons." Matt suggested, raising his hands slowly. "Why should I raise my hands up when they don't even have hands?" said Betrayal stubbornly. "Cause you can't control your powers apart from teleport and they outnumber us." said Matt with a glare before he heard the dropship's whining getting louder again, turning slowly and seeing the dropship flying back towards them. "I told you she wouldn’t take the joke...everyone off the dock...NOW!" he yelled as a pod under the dropship's wing opened. "No sweat, I can just poof that thing somewhere else, like right inside it," said Betrayal before snapping her fingers. However, nothing happened. "Run...RUN!" said Matt, yelling the last part and grabbing the artifact crate as a rocket shot out from the dropship as it passed over, it shooting under the docks and blasting the struts stopping it from following Andaka down the falls. Betrayal tried to run off the docks, but her mismatched legs weren't built for running. As it was, Matt barely made it before the dock gave way, keeling down and falling into the abyss. Betrayal barely made it, gripping the wood of the now vertical dock with her talons. Matt turned, tossing the crate aside and running back, reaching down and grabbing her just before she lost it. "I gotcha...I...oh shi-" he began, firing his wrist comps grapple at the roof of the warehouse as the weight dragged him over the edge. “Danger...weight capacity exceeded...cable integrity failing." chimed the wrist comp. "Let me go." said Betrayal over the waterfall. "I don't care if you're not my sister, I'm not letting you drop," said Matt. "If you don't let me go, we both go." Betrayal yelled, a metallic 'twang' heard as part of the cable gave way. "Matt, I'm not your real sister, you don't have connections to me. The guards will lock me up or have me turned to stone. And I'm bound to betray you again, it's in my nature," said Betrayal. "Tough...I'm pulling you up..." said Matt, desperately trying to hold a grip as another twang was heard as the cable continued to give. Betrayal rolled her eyes "Fine." she said simply...before digging her taloned paw into the arm Matt was holding her with "Betrayal, ow, stop, ow, that really hurts, OW!" yelled Matt. "That's the point," said Betrayal as the pain started to loosen Matt's grip. "No...NO...stop." he tried before a final stab caused his hand to go limp as it caught nerves. The nanites would fix it in a minute...but that was 58 seconds too late as Betrayal went tumbling away. "Weight now in acceptable parameters...beginning ascent." said Matt's wrist comp. "NO!" yelled Matt, though powerless to do anything about it. "Alert...incoming hostile ship." chimed his wrist comp as Daria's ship began another run...before a blast of lightning hit it, forcing it to peel away. Matt looked up and saw what he thought was a dark blue pegasus until he noticed the bright purple light coming from her horn...Princess Luna. Daria seemed to be worried by it though, the dropship making a U-turn and heading for orbit as fast as its afterburners could manage. Matt's grapple slowly lifted him back over the edge, the winder motor dumping him unceremoniously on the piece of the dock that was left intact. Twilight immediately ran over to Matt and asked, "Matt, what happened? Where's Betrayal?" Matt just stared ahead, looking down the falls as a couple of guards, not unkindly put a holding spell on his hands...more so as a few of the faster thinking ones had a good idea. A few guards flew down towards the bottom of the falls. Luna landed, having briefly followed the escaping ship before taking a look at Matt, who was still staring numbly over the falls, the two mages trying to drag him away, without much success. "I saw what happened," said Luna, "It was a rare show of self-sacrifice. Few ponies would be willing to their lives for another, let alone a product of Discord's magic." Matt just looked up with a numb expression. For now, at least, nobody was home. "Matt, there was nothing anyone could do. Your line would have snapped under your combined weight and no could have arrived in time," said Luna. Just then, the guards flew back and one said, "We searched below. We didn't find any sign of her." "I should have let go..." said Matt in a small voice. "You couldn't have let her drop. You wouldn't have done anything like no matter what she did to you," said Twilight. "No...not that..." said Matt to himself before letting himself be led away. ... Sometime later, Matt was led into Celestia's court. While he was clearly innocent regarding the robbing of Blueblood and the kidnapping/murder of Twilight, Matt still had a few other things to answer for. "This...human brought his enemies to our fair city...and resurrected one of Discords race, however brief. The airdock will take months to rebuild." said the pony doing the prosecution "It wasn't his fault," said Twilight, who was defending Matt, "He had no idea what the Discord's Eye Diamond would have done. Nopony would have. It could have happened to anypony." "Is this not the same creature you found in Everfree? That resulted in the nightmare inhabiting you?" said the prosecutor, one of Bluebloods 'friends' as if his condescending tone wasn’t evidence enough "Matt didn't have anything to do with the Nightmare infecting me. It would have infected me if I had gone to the old castle alone. But Matt was the one who got rid of it," said Twilight. "He is a violent creature. He almost killed three griffons in Manehatten, you and your friends are witness to this. Such a monster deserves to be sent to Everfree where he belongs." said the prosecutor, a few of the elite ponies present clopping the ground in approval. "Matt never hurts anyone unless provoked. He's saved us at least eight times now," said Twilight, "Not to mention he's been doing a good job in keeping very important artifacts away from those who would definitely misuse them." "Yes, these Corona Prima's. Hardly dangerous looking." said the prosecutor dismissively "You haven't seen what happens when anypony wears them," said Twilight. "This is getting off the point, your majesties. The discussion is the human." said the prosecutor, a little unnerved by how convinced Miss Sparkle had sounded, as well as seeing the dark look the human had fixed him with since he had begun speaking. "Indeed," said Celestia, "And since the matters of theft, kidnapping, murder, arson, and assault have been lifted, what charges yet remain?" "Releasing a threat to ponykind for a start. The draconeuus's corpse was never found...and his violent tendencies are a danger. Tell me human...You have apparently boasted to the elements how you have travelled the multiverse, whatever that is with your sisters...where is she?" he asked smugly...and was knocked on his flank as Matt proved that, to a professional, putting manacles on just made the guys arms into a hammer. "YOU DON'T MENTION HER!" he snapped angrily, his eyes now full of insanity. "Matt, this isn't going to help," said Twilight. The prosecutor pointed vaguely through his daze. “Did you see that? Did you?" he gibbered. "What I saw was deliberate badgering of the witness, concerning information irrelevant to the case," said Celestia. The prosecutor glared as Matt, grinned darkly. "To answer your question...you have no business knowing." he said "Your majesty, this information is valid for this case..." "In what way is it valid?" asked Celestia. "He speaks of his sister often...where is she?" said the prosecutor. "I told you, it's none of your business," said Matt. "Perhaps it is because some action of yours is responsible for her lack of presence," said the prosecutor. Matt snapped at that, attempting to reach the little annoyance. As it was, only the chain on the manacles prevented ...incident "Objection, that was way out of line," said Twilight. "Objection sustained. The prosecution must refrain from unnecessary aggravation of the defense or a replacement will be found," said Celestia. The prosecutor calmed down and said "You are a danger...how many people have you killed, human?" he said. The ponies present were horrified as Matt said grimly "Too many." "The prosecution rests its case," said the prosecutor smugly. ... During a short recess, Twilight said to Matt, "You weren't actually serious about what you said about killing too many people, were you?" "I had my reasons." said Matt, not looking at Twilight "Matt, you need to take your defense seriously. Celestia could send you to the moon if you don't try to stand up for yourself," said Twilight. "I caused this...That prosecutor’s right...I caused all that mayhem. Would you have gone to that castle without me as escort? Would any of those damn hats have been found if I wasn’t here?" shouted Matt, angrily "Matt, you had no way of knowing or preventing those things from happening. You can't blame yourself for everything that happens when you're around," said Twilight. "She's dead...dead because we rattled too many cages..." said Matt, before dropping into silence again "Who are you talking about? Matt, you can't just-" started Twilight before noticing Matt had fallen asleep. She sighed and said, "Maybe he'll be more cooperative when he wakes up." ... Blueblood sat with a smirk as the human was led in. "There is not a chance he won't avoid his guilt." said the prosecutor as the princesses came back inside, the two of them looking particularly sad for some reason. "Court is back in session," declared Celestia, "New evidence has been obtained in association with the defense’s new plea of innocent by insanity." Twilight looked confused at that as the prosecutor said “The accused is clearly in control of its faculties." "Uh...I don't know, Matt's been known to flip out every so often, isn't that right, Matt?" asked Twilight. "I am not-MMMPH!" began Matt before Twilight forced his mouth shut, nobody but the princesses hearing a 'ghostly click of talons and Matt getting a dazed look for a second. (2) "Really, Matt's been known to spot hallucinations such as..." continued Twilight "Blue monkeys!" Matt suddenly yelled, pointing in one direction. Despite everything, everyone turned to look before turning back as Matt stared at his finger like it had personally offended him. Only the princesses heard a familiar chuckle from the direction of the garden maze. "They're there, I tell you, spitting rainbow streams everywhere!" yelled Matt before looking at his hands and yelping, "Oh god, I'm a polka-dotted platypus!" The group watched as Matt keeled over sideways, a painful clang as his head impacted his manacles. "Er...he could be faking it," said the prosecutor. "Dear lord, the floor is crawling with Scottish crabs. Get the children out of here!" yelled Matt, Celestia aiming a quick glare in the direction of the garden maze where a ghostly chuckling was auditable only to her. The prosecutor finally said after a minute "Fine...he's clearly nuts." "In which case, I sentence Matt to intensive care until his faculties, or at least a majority of them, are under his control again. After which, his criminal charges are to be cleared," said Celestia. "Wait, what was the last part? Oh god, it’s Area 51 all over again." said Matt from ground level, suddenly and suspiciously coherent. "Please restrain Matt before he hurts somepony or himself," said Luna. A quick zap from the bailiff and Matt found himself in a straitjacket. ... The recovery didn’t take that long, just a day or two, but the girls were now curious as to what that locked file was now and as such were pestering the pony person able to open it...Aria. "For the umpteenth time I will NOT open a sealed file." she said stubbornly, her holographic self crossing her arms "Aria, it's obviously at the heart of all this business, we need to know what's inside it," said Rarity. "The Sergeant sealed it for a reason. The NSC deleted AI's for breaking privacy laws." said Aria "But Matt's never gonna let us find out and I can't take the curiosity any longer," whined Rainbow Dash. "I have read his psyche evaluation...this was to be his last job...I suppose finding out why won't matter...hmm, it’s a holofile...head to room 413 on deck 2." she said. "Uh, which room is that?" asked Fluttershy. "Follow the lit path." said Aria with a bored tone, a row of light strip appearing in the corridor outside and leading the way round a corner. The path itself didn’t turn out to be that far after all, a pair of double doors with the number 42 on the front. "The program is waiting...simply enter. Be aware that this is a 'replay'. Nobody can see, hear or touch you and vice versa." said Aria, the door opening onto what looked like a projection theatre. "Oh boy, a movie, should I get popcorn?" asked Pinkie. The screen on the far wall flickered into life before a serious sounding tune played as the initials N.I.N appeared with the words 'Nullsec InfoNet' underneath...clearly a news reel. The image of what looked like a street plucked from Paradiso appeared, a splitter standing in front of the burning remains of a building surrounded by flipped security force speeders. "This is Krais Banika reporting live from CPS’s Central Control Compound on Central station where it appears that the Splitter Consortium has finally retaliated for the repeated operations conducted against then by CPS." The splitter gestured to the burning rubble, continuing “The remains behind me are all that remains of CPS's sector 12 quarters after what appears to be a plasma charge was detonated. Sources inside CPS say only one person was in the facility at the time..." The girls all gasped as the thought of who that one person might be entered their minds. The splitter paused, holding a claw up to where his ear would be before saying "The station appears to have received footage of the explosion...please be aware...some viewers may be disturbed." The image flickered to an aerial view, showing the building surrounded by three security speeders as a figure walked round the corner. The imager zoomed in, the figure immediately recognizable. "Matt?" asked all six girls at once. The Matt on screen walked up to one of the security troopers before apparently finding what the trooper said amusing, turning to the car as the imager zoomed out...and the whole mess of them being blown over as the front of the building exploded. The image flickered back to the journalist who was again listening. “We can now confirm the ID on the CPS officer inside the building at the time. 'Corporal C.E Lynch'. Rescue teams are searching the rubble but hope is already fading. Her brother seen in that footage is confirmed to be in a stable condition after security teams were forced to stun him on site to stop him entering the flames." The image flickered before changing to what appeared to be the NSC's answer to a speech platform, a trooper with CPS on his uniform walking onto the set. "Ladies, gentleman and sentients. We have confirmed that the explosion that killed Corporal Lynch and almost killed her brother was of Splitter consortium design...The consortium have denied all involvement and we are unable to prove that the bomb was not set by outcast splitters. Sgt Lynch is physically stable and will be returning to-" he said before the image froze. "Hey, who stopped the movie?" asked Pinkie. "I did," said a cold voice behind them. The girls turned to see Matt in the hatchway out. “Crew override...delete file 212." Matt said angrily, the theatre rippling before vanishing to become an empty bare room. "Get out." said Matt coldly "Matt, we-" started Twilight. "OUT!" yelled Matt. The ponies immediately jumped back at that. Aria said "Sir...this is my doing...I accessed the file for..." she said before Matt said "System mute." Immediately, Aria's voice cut off, though she attempted to keep talking, to her growing frustration. "You had no right...YOU HAD NO RIGHT!" yelled Matt, advancing on the girls. "Matt, you couldn't keep it a secret. This is why Discord's diamond made, or tried to remake, Chloe. I know it hurts losin' a sister. If anything happened to Apple Bloom, I don't know what I would do. But hangin' on to her like that isn't helpin'," said Applejack. "I killed them..." said Matt in an aimless voice. “I found out who set that bomb...they were freelancers...6 of them...they never told me who hired them...no matter what I did." his voice getting darker as he spoke. "But...but you aren't like that anymore," said Fluttershy, "You only fight when you have to. You don't hurt anypony unless you need to. You're better than that." "They told me she wasn’t dead...that their job had been to fake it...transport her to a sector in the badlands..." said Matt, apparently not hearing. "They got the suffering they deserved and more." he said his voice taking on a cruel tone and a faint red glow coming to his eyes. "Matt, calm down. You can't brood on things like that. Do you know who you're sounding like?" asked Twilight. "They took her away from me...my only family in this nightmare...killed or worse." said Matt, his voice getting darker before he felt something hugging him. Matt blinked and looked at Fluttershy who was crying on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Matt, I'm so, so, so sorry," she sobbed. The faint glow flickered like a broken light before vanishing. "You don't have to be sorry." he said in a small voice, returning the hug as kindly as he could. "I'm sorry too," said Pinkie, hugging Matt. "I said you don't have to be-" "I feel so guilty," said Rarity as she hugged Matt. "You don't need to be-" "Could ya ever forgive us?" asked Applejack as she hugged Matt. "There's nothing to-" "We shouldn't have gone behind your back," said Twilight, joining the embrace." "I-" "Yeah, we should have gone straight to you and-" started Rainbow Dash. "OK, OK, ENOUGH ALREADY!" snapped Matt, "Geeze, I might be opening up, but I'm not that open." "This was my fault. I'd insisted on doing the operations. Maybe it was the consortium...and if it was...I was the one who kicked the hornets’ nest. You did what any friend would do...you wanted to find out what hurt so you could help fix it." continued Matt before saying “Thank you...I haven’t thanked you once for all you've done since I crashed here. You went far out of your way to help me hide...to make me feel welcome when none of your other people did...I wouldn't have lasted 2 days by myself." He finally said "My sister would have loved to have met you." "Ah, tweren't nothin' a friend wouldn't do," said Applejack. Matt stood up before walking out. "Just one more thing to do." he said. ... The rain, a wild Everfree storm was coming down hard as Matt watched the spiderbots drilling a small hole. In his hands was the only thing he had gotten off the freelancers...A pair of holotags and a half burnt combat helmet. He remembered standing in a similar storm back at their NYC headquarters, the only one refusing to wear a black band. Now he was the only one wearing it. Well, unless you count the excessive funeral outfit that Rarity was wearing. Aria, in her robotic body was wearing a full NSC uniform, the only one in her hologuise's files, muttered "That really isn’t necessary, Miss Belle." "Belle? You mean me?" asked Rarity. "Well, yes, your sister's name is Sweetie Belle so logically yours should be-" "Oh, that's silly," said Rarity, "You don't hear anyone calling Twilight 'Miss Armor'." Aria made a 'blah blah blah' motion with her hand as Rarity turned back as Matt walked towards the hole as the spiderbots scuttled back to give him space. "Sis, I know you've been...gone for a while. I wasn't willing to accept that until now. I know you wouldn't want me to keep clinging on to you, so it's time I put you behind me," said Matt. He stopped as suddenly, he was back in the deserted cemetery plot near CPS HQ that the CPS used for...their employees. The same dark day...the same row of grim troopers holding ion rifles at attention. A hallucination clearly...but a realistic one. He walked towards the hole, hearing a 'stand hut' from the captain present and the thud as a dozen mercenaries all stood to attention...mercenaries may not be serious...but something’s they took very serious. He thought about what his sister would want to hear before saying "I'll find who did this...I promise I will." before gently putting the helmet down and lowering the tags on top of them, the forest coming back without a sound. "I wish I could say something, but I didn't really know her, at least the real her," said Twilight. "That's ok. Just being here's enough," said Matt. Matt nodded to the spiderbots who immediately began filling the hole in with professionalism. "Cya sis." he said quietly.
Largefish8	784	13	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2014-03-26T12:43:57+00:00	2014-03-26T12:43:57+00:00	551	MLP Chapter 13 Following the attack at Canterlot, Matt decided that the artifacts were better off back in his vault. Of course, that means he'll need to prepare if Daria comes after them again. As such he had finally rebooted and reactivated the VR chair and had gotten Aria to modify the combine invasion training scenario in case Darius, or Daria as the nightmare insisted on calling her new host dove straight off subtlety dock into insanity bay and launched a full scale assault. As such Twilight was watching the video feed as it showed Matt’s first person view as he blasted another EGIS trooper in a frighteningly accurate recreation of the dream Canterlot the Nightmare had used on her. "Matt, are you sure you need to be so...brutal?" asked Twilight. Aria, who was watching sighed before pulling a mic round to Twilight. "Try now." she said, calmly. "Matt? Are you in there?" Twilight said cautiously, causing the figure to pause, sadly as some mechanical device was aiming at it, the screen then flashing white and Matt jerking awake. Matt gave Twilight an annoyed look and said, "Do you mind? I was in the middle of a combat simulation training exercise." "I know. You haven’t come into town since..." said Twilight, stopping as Matt gave a 'don’t go there' look. The 'Betrayal' incident was still a sore point, both with Matt and most of the town who seemed to have forgotten how Matt had helped them several times. "Daria, or Nightmare, or whatever she's calling herself won't give up on those headgears so easily," said Matt, "She'll be back for them and I need to be prepared for what she could throw at me." "They'll be safer in Canterlot. I got into your vault far too easily," said Twilight carefully, expecting Matt’s usual reaction to somepony dissing his pride and joy only to be pleasantly surprised when Matt didn't seem bothered. "Yeah...but this time she's in a regular old fashioned human. He's got no magic whatsoever and the auto-defences'll make mince out of anything he sends against me that'll leave his prize intact." he said smugly "So...you don't need to train with this?" asked Twilight. "No...knowing this Nightmare, she might just decide to try and take over the old fashioned way. The Icarus has everything she’d need," said Matt, now gloomy. "Matt, you shouldn't be staying in here all day," said Twilight, "For one thing, I don't think it's good for your eyes." Matt said, "I'm perfectly fine. I just have trouble with the Lightning tank," before saying "Ok, what do you want?" "Well, it's about the last Corona Prima we found," said Twilight. "The pegasus helmet? What about it?" asked Matt. "I kind of need to borrow it," said Twilight wincing as Matt yelled "NOT A DAMN CHANCE!" "The data we've acquired about the artifacts show that they will only work for their respective races," said Aria, "You would only be able to use the crown anyways." "Look...we need the..." began Twilight before Matt said "No...these things are poison...no superpowers for you." "What do you mean 'poison'?" asked Twilight. "When you wore the crown...you were able to cause more damage than my ship’s main gun. When Pinkie and Applejack wore that hat, they were bulletproof and super strong. I dread to think what that helmet does," said Matt sternly. "I'm pretty certain it has control over the weather," said Twilight. "Oh great, that’s not good at all. You already have your weather teams for this. You don't need this helmet," said Matt. "I think we actually might," said Twilight, "You haven't been outside lately, have you?" "No, there was a problem last week. The quarantine alarm went off...oh no," said Matt, face palming. "Ok...what’s happened? If it’s another bloody alien vampire..." "No, no monsters, but it is pretty bad," said Twilight, "You should come see yourself." ... As Matt walked out of the ship, he was immediately blasted by two things: the brightness of the sunlight and the heat of the air. "Ok, I've been inside for too long," said Matt covering his eyes. "That’s it, we haven’t been able to get any water up to Cloudsdayle. There hasn’t been any rain apart from what clouds the remaining pegasi got out of Everfree," explained Twilight as they walked towards Ponyville. "I thought you had weather teams for this?" said Matt, keeping a half eye on the forest. "They've all caught the feather flu," said Twilight, "There's barely anyone left who can fly." The duo walked out of the treeline at that. "Wait...flu as in virus? Uh oh," said Matt, as his wrist computer buzzed...and armor plates formed a facemask and gloves, causing him to fall back, screaming something muffled about his nose being trapped. "Matt, what's wrong?" asked Twilight. "mmmph, mmmph aaace." yelled Matt, his voice distorted far beyond understandability before he finally sat up, the smoked glass lenses in the mask somehow emitting the air that he was glaring. "What?" asked Twilight. "Mmmbmm bmmmfph mmmmm!" yelled Matt. "I can't understand you," said Twilight. Mat facepalmed before pointing in the vague direction of town, before shrugging and writing in the dirt 'Let’s just get the smeg on with it'. Twilight shrugged and said, "Ok, let's head over to Fluttershy's. That's where the others are-" There was a clang and a thump as Matt tried to walk forward but ended up going into a tree. "Erm...do you need some..." began Twilight, only for Matt to hold up a finger in a 'I got this' fashion....before walking into another tree. Twilight waited patiently as Matt tried to proceed forward only to keep running into a tree, sometimes the same tree more than once. After a second he seemed to swallow his pride and made a 'after you' gesture. "Ok, just take hold of my tail and- YAAH!" yelped Twilight when Matt yanked her tail. "Not that hard!" she said, annoyed. Matt made a sighing before simply keeping his face mask pointed at her, clearly only able to see what it was directly looking at. "Mon fada yoda,” he muttered. ... A trip that could have been shorter if there had been less stumbling later, the two of them were at Fluttershy's cottage. "Mmph kiginh?" said Matt, clearly annoyed at his translator malfunction...and the new bruises he had. "Yes, we're there," said Twilight, her patience a little thin from Matt's pratfalls. "Boogeh!” said Matt, apparently satisfied and also proving that one species swearword was another lifeform’s happiness. Of course, entering the cottage was another matter since Matt kept bumping into the door frame. Luckily at that moment, his wrist computer beeped and his armors new additions folded away. "Dinato ka-ank god that’s over. Stupid quarantine nanites," snapped Matt "What was that all about anyways?" asked Twilight. "The flu bugs set off the environment alert on my armor," said Matt, annoyed before seeing that Fluttershy looked like death warmed up. "Wow...and I thought human flu was bad," he said. "Matt...nice to see...see...see..." Matt instinctively braced himself before Fluttershy let out a small sneeze. "Slightly anti-climactic....oooh," said Matt, catching on as his brain did the maths. No pegasi = no weather teams = no weather = DOOOOM! "Now I think I get it," he said carefully "We hafta do somethin' soon," said Applejack, "The apple trees can't take much more of this. We've already got a few startin’ ta wilt." "You need the helmet to let someone take the weather wheel," said Matt. "And soon, if the temperature goes up one more degree..." started Rarity before suddenly there was a 'poof' and her mane and tail went all puffy. The group just stared for a second before Matt said desperately, "Ok...so I'm guessing you got a victi...I'm sorry, a volunteer in mind? I'm sorry but I still rate this as a phenomenally bad idea." "I'd try, but I'm not...not...not...choo!" said Fluttershy. "Just take it easy. Ya ain't in no condition to do any flyin'," said Applejack. Just then, Pinkie hopped in and said, "Sorry I'm late. The Cakes had to get their yeast in the basement before it all got big." She paused when she saw Rarity's new hairdo. "Ooh, nice look, it looks so springy and bouncy." "No...No...I remember the last time Pinkie wore one of these. I am NOT being roasted on a spit again," snapped Matt, backing up. "The helmet won't work on her anyways," said Twilight, "We need another pegasus." "That leaves...oh, now I KNOW this is a bad idea." said Matt, as Rainbow Dash came in. Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat off her forehead and said, "Wow, this work's hard enough when it's so hot. I mean, I'm pretty much trying to run the whole sky myself." Matt sighed before pulling Twilight aside “Ok, now I know it’s serious if you're considering giving ultimate power to Dash," he whispered. "Celestia's away on a diplomatic visit and the post service is down since all the mailponies are sick. If we don't do something soon, Equestria's going to completely dry up," said Twilight. "Ok, I'll count that. I'll get the helmet and meet you in town. Hey, always put on a show, that’s what I say," said Matt, noting Twilight’s expression. ... Despite the sweltering heat, many ponies showed up at the meeting in front of the town hall. Mainly to protest the human's 'sticking his nose into their business'. One unicorn stallion who seemed to be leading the crowd yelled "We don't need that humans help. He'll just make things a whole lot worse." "How could anything be worse than this?" asked an earth mare. "He's violent...and he's related to a draconequus." said the stallion a little manically while also voicing one of the more popular rumours the papers had thrown out. "For the last time, that draconequus was only a copy of Matt's sister. He wasn't really related to her," said Twilight. The stallion’s words had already had the desired effect, many ponies muttering between themselves. The stallion, seemingly sensing this said, "He's a dangerous monster, he should stay in Everfree." not noticing the muttering dying down...and that everyone was looking past him. "What? Don't you agree with me?" asked the stallion. "I don't," said a cheerful voice behind him. The stallion froze up at that before slowly turning to see the 'monster' in question, pulling a metallic crate out of the back of his transport machine...the 'SUV' or whatever he called it. "Am I missing something? My ears were burning...IT’S METAPHORICAL!" he said, snapping the last part as he noticed the crowd apparently straining to see the smoke. "Anyways, the reason I asked you to come here is that Matt has something that will help us. But before he gets them out, I should explain a bit of Equestrian history," said Twilight, only to get a chorus of groans. Matt said, "Do we have time for this?" pulling the crate over to Twilight and kneeling down to type onto a keypad on it. Twilight gave Matt an annoyed look before saying to the crowd, "Well, if you want the short version, we have a magic helmet that will allow a pegasus to control the weather all on her own. And since most of Ponyville and Cloudsdale's pegasi are out of commission, our very own Rainbow Dash will be taking up the mantle, so to speak." Carefully ignoring the constant buzzes as Matt got the code wrong over and over before he resorted to banging the lock and eventually blasting it. "Take that, you bargain bin lock," yelled Matt a little too eagerly as the keypad smashed from the bolt, pieces flying around, and pulling the lid open. The three artifacts were sitting in a row inside, Matt lifting a metal helmet out. "Here we are, one questionable weather control device," he said. He placed the helmet on Rainbow Dash's waiting head. She shook her head a bit and said, "Wow, fits great, how do I look?" "Like an escapee from Rome," said Matt, ignored as several runes appeared briefly on the helmet, glowing with energy before fading out of sight again. "Ok...did it work?" said a pony, curiously. "Let's see..." said Rainbow Dash before concentrating. A cloud suddenly shot out of the sky at unbelievable speed and hit Matt in the face. The crowd all winced as Matt was knocked flying. "HEY...WATCH WHERE YOU'RE AIMING...OW!" snapped Matt, before being zapped by a mini-lightning bolt. "STOP IT!" snapped Matt, his eye twitching "Alright, alright," said Rainbow Dash before concentrating and causing the cloud to spout water at the stallion who was opposing Matt before. "Much better, do it again," said Matt, with an evil grin … One of the stallions, a pegasus who had, if you had asked anyone, strangely escaped the flu ran into his hotel room and slammed the door and locking it. Anyone, especially Matt would have also found the jury-rigged Subspace comm unit in his hotel room very interesting. "Come on...work, you smegging hunk of junk," he muttered, using a piece of collateral wiring from the blasted lock to fuse a connection. "Watcha got there?" asked Pinkie who was right behind him. The stallion yelped. "What the he...how'd you get in here? I locked the door!" he said, in an 'inch from freak out' voice. "You didn't lock it very well. I was taking a few cakes to someone down the hall and I heard you muttering and I got curious about what you were muttering about," said Pinkie. The stallion sweatdropped and said "Absolutely nothing." backing up to behind the bed where a rifle similar to Matt’s sat, though recently modified to be used by hooves and a mouth. "It's a puzzle isn't it? Oh, puzzles can be so tricky. I once got one of those puzzle cube things and I still haven't figured out how to get all the colors on one side so I eventually gave up and started using it as a paperweight but then Gummy found and started teething on it so I ended up giving it to him," said Pinkie. "No offence...ma'am but I really need peace and quiet for this," said the stallion, his hoof fumbling with the rifle. "That's what Twilight always says when she's working on puzzles. Well, they seem more like homework to me. I mean, who could sit for hours and hours over a sheet of paper? But I leave Twilight when she's working so I'll leave you alone, bye," said Pinkie before going out the door. The stallion gave a sigh of relief before Pinkie popped back and said, "Oh, I almost forgot, I didn't catch your name." "I didn’t give it," snapped the stallion, finally losing it before slamming the door to find to his shock that she had finished the wiring. “Well...I'll be damned," he muttered, switching it on and immediately covering the speaker as multiple bursts of speech burst forth. This time, the stallion made sure the door was completely locked before looking at his little device. One of the voices suddenly seemed to realize "Hey...hey I got a unknown in channel 12...who is this?" said the voice. "Er...hello? This is Eagle 5...reporting in....very late." said the stallion a little uncertainly "Eagle 5, you've been gone for months. We thought you were dead," came the reply. "I was hoping I was too...or at least asleep. I got encoded, guys. This is fucked up...the pink one’s driving me nuts...GET ME OUT OF HERE!" said the stallion, screaming the last part. "So...you're one of the ponies now," came the reply. "A winged one to boot," said the stallion, "Not like I can get these things to work right. Birds make it look so easy." "Hold on...the boss lady might have a job for you." said the person on the other end causing Eagle 5 to pause. "Boss lady? Erm...am I talking to the right universe?" he said, carefully. Sometime later, a woman's voice said, "Eagle 5, your tardiness may become your salvation, if you can perform the task I have for you successfully." "Erm...who is this?" said Eagle 5, seriously considering hanging up and taking the job at the apple farm outside the town. "I am Daria, your commander," said the woman's voice, "As such, you are to show absolute obedience and not the slightest deviance from your mission." "Ooookaay." said Eagle 5, deciding to play along for now. "Sooo...what do you want me to do, miss?" he said before leaning back as the woman screamed "DO NOT CALL ME MISS!" "Er, would 'ma'am' be more appropriate?" asked Eagle 5. "I don't care...you are going to steal those artifacts...do you understand me?" said Daria "Uh, artifacts? As in those magical hats that Lynch had?" asked Eagle 5. "You saw them? AND YOU LET THEM OUT OF YOUR GRASP? You STUPID HUMAN!" snapped Daria, before seemingly guessing what Eagle 5 was gonna say and adding in a bored tone "Metaphorically speaking." "Well, I've been busy lately trying to jury rig a working radio together," said Eagle 5, "I haven't received any new orders, or any communication at all, for months." "Well now you have orders...your mist...what do you mean he'll freak out?...fine. Your new orders are to secure those artifacts...ASAP...what does that even mean...WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S STILL ON?" said Daria before the comm turned off. ... The first thing Rainbow had to do before she started working with the weather was get enough water to Cloudsdayle to make clouds with. And since condensation doesn't seem to be an active force on this world, there was one way to do it. Matt had decided to sit down to watch, not really believing that this was how they got crappy weather. He’d ended up sitting next to a grey, wall eyed pegasus mare with a bubbles cutie mark and a mail bag. "Ten creds says this goes wrong,” he said, not looking away. "Rainbow Dash is the best flyer, better than me," said the pegasus, turning to look at Matt. At least, that's where her head was pointed. Matt said darkly "Yeah...and given she’s wearing that...we're probably doomed. I've seen this sorta thing before...there'll probably be ape skeletons." "Nah, Rainbow's the best. She can do it no problem," said the pegasus. “I've seen my fair share disasters caused by overzealous ambition and this probably...uh...say, would you mind turning the other way?" Matt said, causing the pegasus to cock her head, which in Matt’s opinion, upped the wall eye creep factor. "Er...you aren’t worried about me? The horrible space monster?" he asked carefully in an attempt to change the subject "You don't look scary," said the pegasus, her eyes rolling a little. "That’s nice to know." said Matt distantly, getting the dreadful feeling that his own eyes were trying to copy hers. "Alright, Rainbow Dash, whenever you're ready!" called Twilight over a megaphone. With deep concentration, Rainbow Dash started flying in circles above the lake, getting progressively faster. Matt watched in interest as the water began to ripple before he also noticed that something that Derpy had done that he hadn't...tied her hooves to a stake in the ground. He quickly found out why as he began to slide along the ground. “Erm...Dash? Stop please." he called, unheard over the roaring Matt quickly tried to dig his hands into the ground to keep himself from being sucked in, but his grip was nowhere near good enough. … Derpy and Twilight watched in morbid interest as Matt was sent flying up and into the new tornado, his scream rapidly falling and rising as he span round before he was sent flying in the direction of the treeline. "Oh, that's gonna hurt," said Twilight wincing. Derpy nodded in sympathy as the tornado finished. "Not exactly 10 seconds flat...but pretty close," Rainbow Dash said, smugly before looking around “Hey...where's Matt?" "Right here," said Matt from against a tree, his voice so rigid with self-control, you could use it as a crowbar. Aria, viewing from a spiderbot, sighed and said, "I'll get the medicast...again." "I'm ok...really...are we finished with the doom device?" said Matt "Unfortunately, there aren't that many workers at the factory," said Twilight, "Rainbow's gonna have to cover for all the sick ponies." "With these powers? I'll cover for everypony, for all Equestria," Rainbow boasted. There was silence for a second before Matt said "We’re doomed." "Rainbow, you sure you could handle that?" asked Twilight. "Yeah, what about the natural order of things?" asked Matt. "What natural order?" retorted Aria. "I'm pointing out that not everywhere has pre-ordered weather...and not everyone will want it." said Matt before noticing he wasn't carrying the audience before saying "You're not listening, are you." "Rainbow, running all the weather on your own sounds like too much a burden," said Twilight, "You burn yourself out." "Please, all I have to do is point my hoof and..." started Dash. Matt had a feeling what will happen next and scrambled to move away from where Dash was pointing, just in time too as the mini-thundercloud from earlier zoomed into place and blasted the unlucky tree stump that had been in Dash’s pointing path. "Hey, somepony's gotta make sure Equestria doesn't become a desert," said Rainbow Dash. "You just vaporized a tree stump." Matt pointed out. “I’m getting the hang of stopping that.” said Dash calmly "No...give me that...I shouldn’t have agreed...why do I agree to this stuff?" snapped Matt, walking towards Dash "Sorry, Matt, I've got a job to do," said Dash before almost literally rocketing off, causing a huge updraft of air in her wake. After the group had picked themselves up Matt said "Like I said...doomed." "Nopony likes a complainer." said Derpy. ... A few days later, Twilight took a little balloon trip up to Cloudsdayle to see how Rainbow Dash was doing. She hasn't been seen in Ponyville in days. She was surprised to see the weather factory, which dominated the city’s skyline seemingly at full tilt, though she knew for a fact that most of its staff was still laid up from the flu. The rate of which the clouds were going out and spreading meant that Twilight had to land a bit further from the factory than she had hoped. A simple cloud walking spell later and she was trotting into the main area of the factory. "Rainbow?" she called, looking around for her friend At first glance, it seemed the machines were running all by themselves, but then Twilight noticed a rainbow-colored blur zipping around. "Rainbow dash?" she called up, causing the blur to turn and zoom at her, suddenly stopping to reveal the elusive pegasus still wearing the helmet. It took a second for Twilight to see that Rainbow Dash's colours looked faded...not like when Discord had gotten to her but still looking ill. "Twilight...what brings you...here?" asked Dash, as she stopped to catch her breath. "Dash...what happened? You look dreadful." Twilight said, gasping in horror at her friends appearance. "Well...running all the weather in Equestria...isn't very easy...but I can handle it..." said Dash before yawning loudly. "All the weather? Isn't anyone left to help you? You look exhausted." said Twilight, gently using her magic to pull Rainbow Dash down to the ground and being shocked at how little effort it took. "Hey...I've got all the weather power of the world on my head..." said Dash, "I might as well use them to help as many ponies as I can..." Twilight narrowed her eyes "When did you last have a bite to eat...or sleep?" she asked "Uh...there isn't any time, I've got precipitation to maintain," said Dash before pulling out a weather chart and saying, "Ok, I've got thunderstorms to send north and blizzards to send south." Twilight looked at the map "Er...Rainbow? I think you might have that backwards." she said, noticing a sign that the map might be the wrong way up "What? Oh, common mistake, could happen to anyone..." said Rainbow Dash before her head started drooping. "Rainbow? RAINBOW DASH!” said Twilight, before yelling Rainbow’s name in the pegasus's ear. Rainbow startled awake with a clap of thunder. "No time to sleep, gotta keep the clouds moving," said Rainbow. "No...you're barely standing, let alone flying." snapped Twilight, trying to pull the helmet off, only for the holder charm that meant only the wearer could remove it drag the pegasus back down. "Twilight, I have to do this. There's nopony else who can handle all this weather," said Rainbow Dash, "Equestria needs me." "You can't help anypony if you end up in Ponyville general hospital." snapped Twilight. "Ok, one quick snack break, but then it's back to the weather," said Rainbow before dashing off. Twilight shook her head before heading back for the balloon. Matt was half-asleep at the converted barn he called home when he heard Twilight and co. "5...4...3" he muttered to himself. "Rainbow's letting this whole 'responsibility' thing go to her head," said Twilight's voice. "Ah hope she don’t end up like when ah tried to bring in the harvest solo." said Applejacks voice "1...hi girls." said Matt, sitting up suddenly The girls gave a yelp of surprise. "Don't do that," said Rarity. "Why not? You do it to me all the time, especially her," said Matt, pointing at Pinkie, the party pony agreeing with a nod. Matt sat back at that "Lemme guess...power gone to head...and she doesn’t want to take the hat off." he said smugly "She's running herself ragged," said Twilight, "She's trying to care of all the weather over Equestria and she's working herself down to the bone." "You've come to the right psychotic Everfree monster." Matt said, a little bitterly. "I got more than a few stunners. Should be simple." "Matt, we don't want to hurt her, we just need her to stop working so hard before she collapses," said Twilight. "I was joking...but still...there’s the problem of that artifact...she's the only one who can remove it." said Matt with a sigh "Yeah, only the one who put it on can take it off," said Pinkie before pausing and saying, "Wait, didn't you first put that helmet on her head?" "Yeah, I suppose....oh no, this doesn't mean what I think it does, does it?" said Matt, suddenly going gloomy "That Rainbow Dash can't remove it herself and thus will feel compelled to manage the sky until she runs herself into the ground?" asked Rarity. "That and there's only one way I could catch her without resorting to high powered stun guns." said Matt gloomily "Enchanted boots that allow you to walk seven leagues in one step?" asked Pinkie. "No...dammit, here comes Spark." said Matt darkly "It may not have ta come ta that," said Applejack, "She can't be more ornery and stubborn than I was, can she?" "Erm..." said Matt before his wrist computer saved the day...sort of. "Alert...aerial targets detected at 80km outer marker. Class 12 magi units. 76% probability of hostile intent. ETA: 2 hours as current speed." it chimed. "What does that mean?" asked Rarity. "It means something's flying over this way and are not very happy," said Matt. "We better tell Rainbow Dash about this," said Twilight. "Ok, but first I wanna watch that falling star," said Pinkie, pointing upwards. Matt looked up, tapping his glasses to turn the zoom on. "That’s not a star." he said slowly. "It's not another spaceship, is it?" asked Applejack. "No...its Dash." said Matt, urgently "WHAT?!" yelled the other girls. "She's either fallen asleep at the wing or she's unconscious," said Matt. Matt followed the trajectory. "Good news...she's gonna land in water...I'll get some med nanites." he said after a pause where he realized this might not improve things. "We have to save her," said Twilight. "But none of us can fly and Fluttershy's still sick at home," said Applejack. Matt noticed everyone looking at him. "You are all going to owe me big time." he said, turning on the 'recoder' that Aria had come up with In a bright flash of light, Matt disappeared and was replaced by Spark. He quickly took off towards the plummeting Rainbow Dash. "Ok, been a while since I last did this, but it shouldn't be too hard," he said to himself. The girls however winced when Matt nearly ended up falling as well, clearly out of any practice whatsoever. The embarrassment continued when Matt...sort of caught her, becoming a crash mat as Dash landed on him in mid-air. "Well, at least he slowed her down," said Applejack. There was a 'oof' in the distance shortly after Matt vanished, the girls galloping over to see Matt squashed under Dash. "Somebody get her off...she's crushing my spine...I like my spine. I use it for standing." he said with a faint rasp. "Guess she wasn't going to land in the water after all," said Pinkie. "Please get her off..." gasped Matt Twilight and Rarity levitated Dash off, who was still unconscious. "Matt, you need to get that helmet off her before she can object," said Twilight. Matt reached forward and pulled at the hat, using the plume to yank it off before slipping, causing the hat to shoot into the air...and plunk down on his own head. "That helmet does not look bad on you," commented Rarity, "It gives you a decidedly masculine appearance." "Get it off, get it off, GET IT OFF!” yelped Matt, pulling at the helmet only for the locking spell runes to flash and the hat to remain firmly located where it was "Odd, Matt put the helmet on himself, didn't he?" asked Twilight. "Well, it was more of an accident," said Applejack. "OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF OFF!” gibbered Matt, still tugging at it frantically "Let me help," said Pinkie before yanking at the helmet. "No, no, Pinkie, that ain't right. Ya gotta get more leverage in," said Applejack before pushing Pinkie aside, putting her back hooves on Matt's shoulders and then yanking the helmet with her front ones. "YOU'RE PULLING MY HEAD OFF....STOOOOP!” yelled Matt Applejack let go of the helmet and said, "Phew, that thing's stuck on tighter than a knothole in a tree." "I hate these things...I...want...it...OFF!" yelled Matt, causing a lightning bolt to strike the helmet...and him dead center "Like it or not, it's stuck on there, along with the weather powers and super flight," said Twilight. Matt stared for a minute before yelling "CRAAAAAAAP!" "This don't look good," said Applejack. "I know, imagine having Matt be in charge of the weather. I can already feel my ends starting to split," said Rarity as she smoothed down her tail. Matt looked down to see his wrist comp still clamped over a hoof as it chimed “Alert...incoming contacts have increased speed. New ETA is predicted at 35 minutes. Classification confirmed: Roc class magi lifeform." Just then, Fluttershy ran over and cried, "Girls, girls, I have bad news, where's Rainbow Dash?" "Oh, good, she's getting some rest. I mean, no, that's bad. She needs to wake up. I just heard my bird friends tell me that the rocs are flying this way," said Fluttershy. "Rocks can't fly, silly," said Pinkie, "Not unless you throw them." "Roc...roc, roc roc...Wait...roc s in giant killer bird dino thing?" said Matt, gulping "Well, I think they might not be as mean as I heard, but they do sound unhappy. Apparently some of our clouds has been getting into their territory," said Fluttershy, "I was going to tell Rainbow Dash to stop making so much weather but she's not even awake." "Sooo...they're probably gonna want to eat the person responsible." Matt said, raising a hoof as Fluttershy opened her mouth to reply "I didn't know but that’s how it always goes." "And with that helmet stuck on ya, that makes ya look more guilty than a dog with a stolen bone in its mouth," said Applejack. "I'm dead." said Matt dully. "Well, uh, maybe not," said Fluttershy, "I heard that they heard that Rainbow Dash was responsible for this. They may not go after you, but that's not really a good thing for her." Matt seemed to be thinking before he said "Do they know what she looks like?" "Unfortunately, yes," said Fluttershy, "Well, at least they know she's a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail." "I have an idea." said Matt. ... "I'm not so sure this will work out," said Twilight. "Trust me, I know how to touch up a pony's hair," said Rarity, "If that particular pony would stop wriggling that is." "Why have I gotta get a mane job too?" complained Rainbow Dash with a yawn. Matt, sitting in the corner, said "Hey...I hate costume make up too...I'm not looking forward to this at all...but unless you wanna be bird food." "I got overproductive with the clouds, I should be the one cleaning up after them," said Rainbow Dash. "Yer in no condition ta be lockin' horns with rocs," said Applejack. "Personally, if it wasn’t for the fact that the guard aren’t gagging for a reason to throw me in the slammer, I'd break out some plasma launchers and send the birdies packing." said Matt, darkly "The only way we can settle this is with diplomacy," said Twilight, "But I still don't like having Matt be the diplomat." "Hey...if it all goes south...I can lead them to the Skyraid’s defense guns...that'll chase them off." said Matt. "Let's try not to resort to that," said Twilight, "The rocs might not be completely unreasonable. I'm sure there's a way everyone can be happy." ... Matt trotted out, scratching at his rainbow tuned mane. "It’s itchy." he muttered, keeping another eye on his wrist comp, where the v formation of dots were almost on top of them. "Ok, just be polite, try to compromise, don't let anything else take your attention," Matt muttered to himself. Matt gulped and tried to empty his mind of anything remotely insulting...which proved harder than he thought it would be. Sounds of commotion were heard as the biggest bird of preys Matt had ever seen landed in the square. The leading one, resembling a gigantic falcon said "Where is the one called Rainbow?" in an icy tone. Matt unconsciously started moving backwards until Twilight gave him a little kick to the side. "Ow, I mean, I'm Rainbow...er, Blitz," said Matt. "You are the one who plagues our land?" said one of the smaller ones in a voice that reminding Matt of the avianos he had met briefly during the Balwak incident. "Uh, that was an accident," said Matt, "I've been doing so much work with the rest of Equestria, I sometimes lose track of some clouds." "Natair...hold your tongue. We are guests in their land and this one is one of the ones who serves their leader." said the leader roc harshly. "Uh, yeah, that's right, you're guests so...I should offer you some refreshments after your long flight," said Matt. "We...have already eaten on the flight." said the lead roc before focusing on Matts/Rainbow Blitz's helmet. "The helm of Commander Hurricane." he said in shock. "Uh, yeah, it's a little rigid for my tastes, but how else is one pony supposed to manage the weather for all of Equestria?" said Matt. "Well...its good you found it. We will take it now." said the roc, holding a talon out expectantly "Excuse me?" asked Matt. "You sent storms that threatened the nesting grounds...our code demands compensation...or blood." said the roc calmly "Oh, of course you'll get compensation. It's just that, uh...the helmet's on loan. It's not fully mine to give away. Maybe we can offer you something else," said Matt. "Your spine will do nicely." snapped Natair, spreading her wings Twilight quickly stepped out and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you don't have to do that. There's obviously more than one reason you came all the way to Equestria." "Yes...we came for compensation. Be it blood or material." said the lead roc. "Oh, but there's so much more than that," said Twilight, "You should, uh..." "Take a tour of our great town," said Pinkie, popping out of nowhere, "You flew all this way, why not take in the sights?" The rocs all jumped back, in standard 'WTF just happened?’ mode which was usual for people who had just met Pinkie without warning. "Er...how'd you do that?" said another Roc "You guys just weren't paying attention," said Pinkie, "Anyways, there's a lot of cool sights in Ponyville. There's Sugarcube Corner, the Carousel Boutique, Sweet Apple Acres..." Matt and the others watched as the Rocs got the glazed look of ones being overexposed to Pinkies personality. "Uh, sure, take in the sights. That's what I always do when travelling," said Matt, inwardly adding 'as well as shooting at or being shot at'. "It was a long flight, I admit..." said the leader roc, to himself. The group breathed a sigh of relief before the roc added "Unless you plan to appeal to the sun goddess." "Uh, she's busy, she won't be available for quite some time," said Twilight. "She knows our laws as well as her own...she will not dispute our claim to the artifact. Commander Hurricane dealt us many blows in her career...the helmet will make a grand compensation for this recent event." said the roc leader "Did she now?" asked Matt a bit nervously. "Yes...what did you expect? She was the leader of an army." said the roc. "Erm...do you have a name...erm, sir?" said Matt, noting the birds sharp beak "I am Okliss," said the roc. "Erm...nice name." said Matt nervously. Okliss continued "I am surprised...my agents said that you were a mare...is she ok?" noting a black pegasus mare glaring at that "Uh, common mistake, really," said Matt, "I mean, there are so many mares compared to stallions that most visitors don't realize the difference at first glance." Oklis's eyes narrowed before he smirked “I suppose so...if you wish to contact your leaders to...negotiate then so be it, but we will not change our minds so easily...now I heard there was some kind of hairless ape running around here..." he said, causing Matt to yelp "Uh, there may be, what importance would it have?" asked Matt, somewhat nervously. "I hear it is a warrior...a proper challenge for once." said Okliss The thought of getting into a fight with this overgrown eagle wasn't nearly as thrilling for Matt. It took all his self-control to keep him from screaming and running. "That sounds.....fun." he said weakly while making a mental note to sleep with a SAM launcher when this was over. "Now there's something I'd like to see," said Natair, "Some good old-" "Friendly competition," interjected Twilight, "That's the best way to settle this matter." "What?" snapped Matt quietly "Hold on...need to talk to my pal here." said Matt with a manic grin before dragging Twilight into the library. "Are you NUTS?" He snapped. “The last time I took a race I ended up with broken bones and hyperthermia." "Well, this next race should be a lot safer," said Twilight, "We'll keep the course within a less hostile climate." "This is crazy. I may be pretty fast but Dash is a natural...literally." snapped Matt, before noticing Spike glaring out the window at the rocs, wearing a tin helmet he’d gotten from somewhere, probably Pinkie before losing his cool “Yes...giant pigeons...cool eh?" he said sarcastically "Yeah, giant dragonling-eating, egg-stealing pigeons," said Spike nervously. Matt, who had in a previous adventure spent time as a dragonling shot to the window “They eat dragons? Fire and ice breathing, time freezing dragons?" he said nervously "Well, not the big ones, but they say the little ones are always the tastiest," said Spike. "I miss Spyro and Cynder." whimpered Matt, before briefly smiling aimlessly as he imagined the arsekicking the duo would have dealt those overgrown pigeons. "Uh, Twilight, those rocs aren't going to be here long, are they?" asked Spike. "I hope not. I'm going to write a letter to Celestia, just in case." said Twilight before looking at Matt. "You'd better get ready. The rules that rocs use for their challenges say they can choose the first challenge." "Right, get ready to face off against giant birds, no problem," said Matt numbly. He continued "Ok...so what kind of challenges do these things like?" he asked. "Well, rocs typically go by three challenges: Strength, Wisdom, and Speed," said Twilight, "I think we can expect them to start with Strength.” "I am so dead." whimpered Matt. ... A clearing near the everfree forest had been chosen for the first challenge, Brawn as Twilight had said "The match of Brawn is one of the highlighting events for our warriors," proclaimed Oklis, "However, considering the challenger is a weaker creature..." "HEY!" yelled Matt. The roc leader ignored this and continued, "The rules have been simplified. All the challenger has to do is remained airborne for 2 minutes. If he is pinned, he loses." "That seems easy...who's my opponent?" asked Matt before jumping back as Nadair landed "Me." she said with uncontained glee. "I'm dead." said Matt in a tiny voice Oklis gave Nadair a stern look and said, "Rainbow Blitz is not allowed to be seriously harmed. He has to compete in the other challenges." As Matt gained altitude, he said to himself, "Ok, just keep out of her reach for 2 minutes. That shouldn't be too hard. I've plenty of practice avoiding-" He was cut off, and nearly cut in half, by Nadair lunging at him with talons bared. "OH DEAR LORD...RUN AWAY!” screamed Matt turning and heading in a random direction, causing Dash on the ground to facehoof. After a minute he shot into a cloud bank. "Ok...just hide here and..." he began before Nadair shot through from above, tackling him while heading for the ground. “Oh, this is gonna smarrrt.” moaned Matt before everyone present winced at the crash of impact. The referee counted, "5...4...3...2...1...the winner of the match of Brawn is Nadair." "Oooooooh....did I win?" groaned Matt from his mini-crater, Nadair not even having to have pinned him Rainbow groaned and Twilight said to her, "Well, we expected him to lose this match. But I think he has a fair chance in the other two." "I just feel pain." gurgled Matt from the crater. "Has anypony got some painkillers the size of the moon?" Little did anyone know, that a certain pony who wasn't who he seemed had been watching all this. He knew this was a golden opportunity to steal the helmet, but it was too darn funny. "Oh...this is too rich....Oh it hurts." Eagle 5 laughed to himself, rolling on the ground It was nice to see that someone else is faring worse than him. Even better that it's the same guy that has caused him so much grief. After a minute he realized he'd bodged a ticket to get off this rock. “Oh, smeg it." he snapped, watching his meal ticket being led away by the others "Ok, he's sure to get smashed in those other two matches. Then I'll grab that helmet," he said to himself. ... Matt groaned as a spiderbot injected another medi-nanite shot. "What’s the next challenge? Bomb disarming?" he said bitterly "Well, the next match will be in Brains," said Twilight, "I think you'll have a better chance at that one." Matt thought for a second before saying "Can I pick the subject?" ... Nadair watched as Rainbow Blitz limp-trotted into view, several of the metal spiders they had seen around the settlement dragging a canister. "It’s something I got fr...borrowed from the hairless apes starship." said Rainbow Blitz, innocently as the spiders dropped the canister between them. "It’s called a jump engine coil...apparently it’s my turn to set the challenge...so you have to guess what this does and make it do it." he said with a evil grin Nadair gave an angry shriek and snapped, "That's not fair!" "Like how you pile-drived me into the bedrock was fair?" said Blitz Nadair turned to Oklis and said, "This can't be allowed, it's not a proper match!" "It is in his right. You chose how brawn would be decided...he will choose how cunning is decided...plus I want to see what it does. Continue." said Oklis Nadair glared at Rainbow Blitz and looked carefully at the 'jump engine coil'. "Hmm...what’s this do?" said Nadair, poking a exposed section with her talon and taking off as a green pulse shot out, hit a sapling and caused it to turn into a full grown tree. Rainbow Blitz was the first to look up. "That’s not what it does...but well done...you made a temporal pulse cannon." Nadair glared at Bltiz and snapped, "This is an unfair challenge! Not even you could know how this thing works." Blitz nodded to a spiderbot who opened up a hatch in the side and exposed a mess of wiring. Blitz reached in and pulled one specific wiring out causing it to light up. “I'd duck if I was you." said Blitz, getting back as the coil began to hum before the air around it rippled and the coil vanished with a sonic boom. ... Eagle peered out of his hiding place at the sound of a sonic boom. 2What the heck was that?" he muttered before hearing another one over his head and looked up in time to see a drive coil descending rapidly towards his face. "Oh no." he said in a resigned voice. The drive coil landed on him with a clang. From underneath it, Eagle's pained voice said, "That's it, I'm calling for backup." ... Matt grinned “Oh, that was too cool. Hat off to Nadair though...I've never seen someone actually weaponize a drive coil like that.” he said Twilight was looking at the fully-grown tree. "I didn't know you had the technology for ageing spells," she said. "Jump drives basically rip holes in time and space to get to Nullspace and from it. It stores all the unused temporal energy...she musta opened the proverbial valve." said Matt, adding “It'll wear of in a day or two." Nadair glared at Matt and said, "You won't get off so easy next time." "Let me guess, we both have to decide on the next one?" asked Matt. "No, the match of Speed is always the same: a race," said Oklis. "Just a race? Too easy." said Matt smugly. Dash stopped saying “Erm...can we talk in private?" As soon as Matt and Dash were far away enough from the rocs, Dash said, "Matt, don't you remember how your last race ended?" Matt stopped as memories came to the front. "Almost frozen to death on a mountainside?" he said faintly "I mean, I don't expect you guys to do the same course, but know how competitive rocs are by now. They won't make it easy, even if you have the helmet," said Dash. "Oh bloody hell. It’s NEVER EASY!" snapped Matt before saying “Ok...what’s the plan?" "Twilight said we have some leeway about how the race goes, mainly with the course. I think I can find something that's more your level," said Dash. "Like what?" said Matt suspiciously "A few laps around Everfree Forest sounds the safest," said Dash. "That sounds like the beginners course,” Matt said suspiciously "No, it's higher than a beginner's course, but probably as low as the rocs will go," said Dash. "Oh goody." said Matt darkly "I suppose we may be able to haggle the rocs into something simpler, like a simple flying across the valley and back," said Dash, "But Nadair will probably won't want to go with the rookie levels." "That’s something." said Matt. ... Nadair and Oklis glared at the group. "You jest...You wish to turn down this simple race?" he said darkly, the rocs choice having been a place Matt had never heard off called Ghastly Gorge. "You have heard about the quarry eels, right?" asked Twilight, "They're supposed to be pretty territorial, not to mention carnivorous." Matt paling behind her. "Indeed...it will be a proper test of skill...not some simple circle." said Oklis, stubbornly "Uh, that reason is supposed to be tectonically unstable," added Twilight causing Matt to pale even further and make a whining noise. "Again...more tests of skill." said Oklis in a tone that said he was not going to be dissuaded. "It looks kinda crowded in there. You won't be able to spread your wings to their full width," said Blitz, a little desperately. “Then it will be an equal challenge for my daughter as well." said Oklis Twilight gave Matt an apologetic look. Clearly, there was no other way. "Can I at least prepare?" asked Matt. Oklis seemed thoughtful before nodding. “One day...then we will see." he said Dash said "I've flown the gorge a few times. I could teach you how to fly it...as long as there isn't a rock slide this time." "Didn't you say that this place was tectonically unstable?" asked Matt. "Well, that doesn't mean there's a quake every day. Besides, we can check for any loose boulders," said Twilight. "Sounds good enough. We'd better get started...I wish I knew where that coil went..." said Matt. ... Sigma team watched as their missing pilot trotted into view. “What’s your problem?" the team leader said before a drive coil appeared in front of them and crushed their sniper’s foot, vanishing again. The other members of Sigma team watched with some amusement as the sniper hopped around, clutching his foot in pain. "What idiot took the stabilizer off that drive coil?" snapped the sniper before being clocked over the head as the coil materialized above his had "Hey...I thought Lynch's pets had the artifacts." said the heavy weapons operator on sigma. "What? It’s Lynch we're after. He's camped on the edge of town." said Eagle "Lynch is secondary, getting those artifacts is topmost priority," said Sigma team's leader. "Are you nuts or just cash happy? The board'll have us for lunch...literally in the case of Director Flagis, if we don’t get Aria back." snapped Eagle "Who?" asked one trooper. "Uh, that AI that Lynch has," said another. "Oh yeah." "The commanders altered the plan. You got a problem with that?" said the team leader, glaring down at Eagle "Uh, as long as it gets me off this acid trip of a planet, I don't really care," said Eagle. "Fine...Sigma 2. We'll follow...see what they're up too." said Sigma leader ... As Matt followed Rainbow Dash towards Ghastly Gorge, he said, "Uh, it's not really as bad as everyone's saying it is, right? I mean, it may have some giant eels and shakes, but that doesn't mean it's impassable, right?" "I held a race there when I got my pet, Tank. You musta seen him by now....the tortoise with the helicopter?" said Dash, noticing Matts expression before it turned to one of painful recollection…one involving a unwanted headbutt by a flying ballistic reptile "Uh, how exactly did that race go?" asked Matt. "Well, I got my wing pinned under a rock. I'm glad Tank entered the race anyways or who knows how long I would have been stuck under it," said Dash. “Ah...so this'll be a race where I will most likely die under a rock slide or be swallowed whole by a reject from Tremors." said Matt overly cheerful "Don't forget, you've got the helmet, so you can fly much faster than normal," said Dash. "That just means I’ve got less time to react." said Matt, adding "You were born to this. No offence." "I'd be doing the racing if I could, but it's too late for that now, isn't it?" said Dash. "Hey...I don't even wanna do this.” snapped Matt. "You can't be serious. Most racing ponies would give most of their pinion feathers for a race like this," said Rainbow Dash, pointedly. "I'm not a racer...I'M NOT EVEN A PONY...Usually. I thought we solved this last time when I nearly froze to death." said Matt, snapping a bit. "Matt, racing against a roc is a great honor and challenge. How could you just say no to that?" asked Dash. "Easily...Like THIS...NO...I WANT MY THUMBS. He can keep the damn helmet...he can probably guard it better." said Matt, stubbornly "Matt, those artifacts belong with the ponies. What if they somehow manage to get the helmet to work for them?" said Rainbow Dash. "I doubt it'll even fit them...let alone work." said Matt "It probably won't work for humans and Daria seems to really want them," said Dash, "We just can't let them fall into anypony's possession, even if they aren't a pony." "Fine...I...oh my lord." said Matt, his voice trailing off at the sight of the gorge. The gorge stretched an impressive length. And the way it curved made it impossible to see the end. "And that's not even the tough stretch yet," said Dash. "It gets worse?" moaned Matt "Well, there's the wind tunnel and the cacti," said Dash, "And that's only before the quarry eels." Matt was staring ahead in horror "And this...is supposed to be an easy run?" he whimpered "Well, keep away from the walls. You don't want to smack into them and start a rock slide," said Dash. "I'm guessing that’s from experience?" teased Matt "Well, I got a little overconfident," said Dash, looking embarrassed, "But at least I learned an important lesson." "Yes...never hit the walls." teased Matt "And also watch your feet," said Dash. "Wait, you were flying, what does that have to do with-" started Matt before Dash did a low sweep with her legs and knocked Matt off his feet. Matt immediately jumped back up, backing up and keeping low as mercenary flash training kicked in. "Ok...what?” he said in a low voice "Just testing your reaction time. Pretty slow reflexes," said Rainbow Dash. "Urgh...fine, let’s do a run." he said, taking off into a hover "That's the spirit. Try to keep up," said Rainbow Dash before speeding off. ... Eagle and Sigma team were also staring at the gorge, and at the two pegasi now racing along it. "I can see how we do this...a few charges in that final section...collapse it on em...dig em out later.” said Sigma thoughtfully "The multicoloured one’s a primary kill target...orders from the leader." said Sigma 1 "Speaking of whom, I've noticed there seems to be a change in command," said Eagle. "There's been no change. She has always been in command." said a member of sigma. Eagle nodded slowly “Of course.” he said carefully "Ok, we bury the demo charges there, there, and there," said the leader, "We want to get plenty of rock rolling." "Erm...I've heard rumours of some kinda sub-t creatures using the gorge for home..." began Eagle "I think we can handle a few mole people or giant bugs or whatever they've got here," said one of the troopers. "I heard they were giant eels." said Eagle, "Or dog miner things...I dunno which." "Giant eels, yeah right," said a trooper, "There's not nearly enough water for them." "Ok...but I'm staying here." said Eagle, mentally adding that the fact that every townpony had agreed on the eel story exactly and as such there was probably something to it "Fine, like your hooves will be any use," said the leader. "Screw you." said Eagle, making sure he had a good view of what he predicted to be a momentous screw up before sitting down. Sigma's leader rolled his eyes "Ok...get the las-drills out and get those charged placed near those wall holes." he called Some of the troopers started working on the rock, finding it a lot easier to crack than they had anticipated. They were so busy that they didn’t see one trooper, leaning into a hole to place a charge, suddenly get jerked inside. Suddenly, the rock gave way beneath then and two troopers went tumbling down. Sigma leader rolled his eyes “Hey...you guys ok....hey, where’s Rogan?" he called There was a loud hissing before what looked like a giant reddish-purple came up out of the hole, Rogan hanging out from its teeth. "Oh....shit.” muttered Sigma as what was left of Rogan was swallowed, the eel, against all logic having a "Don't mess with me' expression before tail whipping the two other troopers out. Sigma Team was pretty shocked by this. Which made it easier for them to ignore Eagle's laughing, but barely. "Ok...new plan...oh shit, here they come...hide everyone." said Sigma leader, looking around desperately before realizing to his horror that the only choice was the holes. "Oh man.” he moaned. ... Matt and Rainbow Dash were flying past the quarry eel nests and there was something amiss. "I thought you said they don't like anyone getting near their nests," said Matt. "Yeah...unless somepony’s dug into their nests again. Sucks to be the diamond dogs." called Dash over the wind rucking past them. As it was, nobody noticed the group of troopers finally giving up and jumping out one of the nests and running for it, one with a dog sized eel gnawing on his arm. However, even without the eels, the course was not easy, particularly with the winds blowing like they were. More than once, Matt nearly ended up as part of the wall or another obstacle. "This is insane..." he yelled. "That's one of the reasons this place is called Ghastly Gorge," said Rainbow Dash. "Maybe some clear, calm skies? How do you work this piece of junk?" Muttered Matt, tapping his helmet The helmet flashed briefly, only to cause the wind to start blowing in the opposite direction. "Oh no...nononononono." moaned Matt, being blown towards one of the nests, an eel peering out and opening its mouth open eagerly. "Undo, UNDO." Matt screamed The wind stopped blowing, causing Matt to give a sigh of relief. However, he forgot to slow down and ended up inside the eel's mouth anyways. The eel looked pleased with itself before getting a bug eyes look and spitting Matt out with a 'bleah' noise. Matt landed with a wet splat at the bottom of the gorge. "Ew, eel saliva, why would anyone want this?" he said in disgust. The eel, turning away at that stopped before slowly turning back with an annoyed look, Matt not noticing. "Stupid eel...it’s probably got a tiny brain." he carried on, oblivious to the eel pausing and slowly turning to glare at him. "I don't know where people got the idea, but I bet eel tastes disgusting too. They probably taste as rotten as their breath," grumbled Matt. Dash said slowly “Erm...Matt? Maybe you should take that back." as the eel slowly closed on Matt. "Why? It's just a dumb overgrown snake with a flat head," said Matt. Dash gulped before Matt, guessing the reason continued gloomily "Aaaand he's right behind me." turning and being roared at. "Uh, I taste bad, remember?" said Matt. The eel simply reared up before landing its full weight on Matt, heading back to its lair after it was satisfied the little pain had gotten the message Dash landed at the small indent in the ground Matt was in. "Yeah, animals here aren't as stupid as you think," she said. "That hurt more then you could possibly imagine." moaned Matt ... By the next day, Matt had recovered in time for the race. "Oh well...I'll either get eaten, lose or win?" he said, slightly sarcastically "Relax, just remember what we've done yesterday and you'll be able to get through no problem," said Rainbow Dash. "I'm going to be some land eels entre." said Matt icily. “They’re just as likely to go for Nadair.” Said Twilight. "They definitely would if you'd have let me get the spiderbots to glue pork chops to her." said Matt gloomily "Pork chops? You humans eat pigs?" asked Dash disgustedly. "They'd be quorn ones...vegetable based...the eels won't tell the difference...especially if they catch her." said Matt with an evil grin "I'm pretty sure the rocs will count that as cheating," said Dash sternly. "Not if they never make it back." muttered Matt darkly. At that moment the rocs landed on the other side of the gorge, Nadair smirking as best a beak could. "I don't like her...she's evil." said Matt "You just don't have a competitor's spirit," said Dash. Nadair called out "That helmet is mine." "Neither does she." said Matt "You're the better flyer, you just have to stop doubting," said Rainbow Dash. "She's gonna eat my dust." said Matt, coldly watching Nadair "That's the spirit," said Dash. Oklis said "I assume we are prepared." "Ready as we'll ever be, right Blitz?" said Dash. "Ready as I'll ever be." Matt said, trotting towards the starting line. "The rules are simple," declared Oklis, "The two of you are to fly through this gorge. You may not fly over the top at any time. Avoid the obstacles and get to the finish line." "Simple enough." said Matt. Nadair nodded, adding "Are there any other rules?" "I think the rest of the rules should be obvious enough to not need stating" said Oklis. "As you wish." said Nadair, smiling predatorily at Matt, who gulped nervously. "Now, on your mark," called Oklis, "Get ready, get set...GO!" Matt and Nadair shot out into the gorge, Matt immediately getting a lead as Nadair seemed to hang back before the two shot out of sight Matt wasn't going to waste any time. He was planning on getting through this gorge as quickly as possible. He turned a corner before he felt something trying to grab his tail. He turned to see Nadair trying to get a grip with her talons. "Hmm, I think she has fowl play in mind," said Matt to himself. "Stay still." squawked Nadair as she missed again....before looking up and seeing the vines straight ahead. Matt winced as he heard a thump coincide with a 'boik' noise. Exactly the sort of noise a hard object covered in spines made. "That's gonna smart," he muttered. He turned the corner...and rolled on instinct as a rocket shot past him. "What the?" said Matt before looking up and saw Daria's troopers on the ridge. "Oh c'mon, I've got enough to deal with already," griped Matt. He heard, over the wind, the words of 'Open fire' before he was forced to do a few moved that would have impressed Dash to avoid the hail of gunfire. ... Sigma leader looked at Eagle. "What are you standing there for? Use those wings and move it." he snapped "Er, I'm not really good with them yet," said Eagle. "MOVE IT!” yelled Sigma leader, kicking Eagle. Eagle yelped and flapped his wings desperately to keep himself from plummeting. After a second he had the hang of it and noticed he also had a good turn of speed as he gave chase. "Come on, my little ticket to sanity." he muttered, focusing on the helmet ... As Matt flew on, he grumbled, "Why do they have to pop up whenever it's the least convenient? Don't they have better things to do than shoot at me?" He looked up to see the eel holes ahead, a familiar one already waiting, somehow with a napkin round his neck. “Oh no.” he groaned Just then, something flew over Matt's head, just missing him. Matt glanced backwards and muttered, "What was that?" He also heard a cut off...was that someone saying 'Oh smeg?' "What the hell?" he said before there was a 'ptwi' and another pegasus shot over his head. Matt glanced over his shoulder and muttered, "I wonder who that was?" He shrugged before flying onwards. Eagle was up again, a little unsteadily which was understandable seeing as he had just impacted a granite cliff "Hey....slow up." he said dizzily, only to be sent spiraling as Nadair shot past him. "AIR HOG!" he yelled before noticing, too late, another wall heading for him. “Oh, this'll hurt." he moaned just before impact. ... Sigma 1 winced as the cam feed from eagle went to static "So much for that. Ok, let’s move. We'll head them off at the last turn." "What about that big bird? It may be trouble," said a trooper. "that’s why we've got bazookas...Now MOVE!" yelled Sigma 1. By then, Matt was nearly to the end of the gorge. There was one last turn, which was basically one large U turn. It kinda made one wonder if the gorge was a natural formation. Another grazing was felt and he turned to see Nadair this time trying to grip him with her beak. "Hey...rules do not include eating the competition...this isn't a grav race." he yelled "Survival of the fittest. That's the only rule that matters," said Nadair before snapping at Matt again. "Are you nuts? I think your boss wants a fair race." yelled Matt "Accidents happen," said Nadair before swiping at Matt again. "You are insane!" yelped Matt before leading down low where the going was made harder by the fallen boulders As if fate was listening, more gunfire shot down just as the two entered the last turn...Matts new 'pals' were back "Can't I get a break?" snapped Matt. He turned to see that Nadair was also under fire. "Least that’s something." he muttered before two rockets shot down, hitting the sides of the gorge ahead. Quite naturally, that started a rock slide, probably with more boulders than the one Rainbow Dash accidentally caused. Matt and Nadair were both forced to slow to a halt. "Surrender the artifact and you get to live." came the call from on high "The artifact is my prize! I'm the only one who's getting it!" called Nadair. "Wrong answer." muttered Matt before the gunfire started again Matt briefly considered telling both sides that the helmet was stuck on his head and he couldn't take it off even if he wanted to. But then again, that would probably prompt both of them to try to remove his head and pry the helmet off later. A second later, half of an EGIS trooper narrowly missed him. "I've seen enough." he yelped, getting ready to set off before another body hit and pinned him. "Hey, you did that on purpose!" snapped Matt. "Of course," said Nadair with a smirk before flying on. … The girls and the Rocs had just arrived at the finish when they heard the sound of battle. "What is that?" said Oklis coldly, already imagining what he would do to anyone who harmed Nadair "Ya don't think another rock slide happened, do ya?" asked Applejack. "That sounds like no rockslide I have ever heard." said Oklis just as another round of gunfire was heard. "You're right, sounds like Darius’s sent more of her men after Ma... I mean, Blitz again," said Twilight. "Who is this 'Darius'?" asked Oklis suspiciously. "He's a big jerk who wants the artifacts too," said Pinkie. "If he attempts to interfere...his agents will die." said Oklis in a 'matter-of-fact' voice before he perked up, a blur coming round the corner, another in pursuit. "Oh, it looks like they got away," said Rarity. The blurs quickly became properly visible, Nadair with a comfortable lead over her opponent. "C'mon Blitz, put some hustle in it!" yelled Applejack. Matt however was clearly too far behind, evident when Nadair slowed down on purpose smugly, something that Oklis didn;t approve of judging from his sigh "C'mon Blitz, you're almost there!" called Pinkie. The two were finally neck and neck until another gunshopt was heard, off to the groups left. Oklis was the first to turn in anger at whatever was interrupting to see one of the rumoured hairless apes, sporting more than a few talon marks. "THAT ARTIFACT BELONGS TO US!" the ape screamed as Nadair and matt shot across the line, Nadair leading by a nose...or in this case beak. Oklis glared at the ape and shouted, "This has got to stop!" He took to the air, followed promptly by the rest of the rocs. The trooper seemed to be half insane, proven when he continued firing at the Rocs right up until two grabbed him and lifted up. The ponies quickly turned their heads away, not wanting to see what would happen to the luckless trooper. Luckily the two rocs that had grabbed the luckless trooper had flown out of sight, though the screaming continued for a bit. Oklis however was looking at Nadair who looked pretty smug and was saying "My prize, pigeon." "Prize?! I've seen splitters that race cleaner than you do!" snapped Matt. "I won and you lost. Hand over the prize or I will take it." said Nadair icily "Hand over one of the most powerful artifacts in this world to a dirty cheater? I'd rather have nails driven into my feet!" snapped Matt. "I did not cheat..." said Nadair loftily. Matt settled for saying “You tried to kill me...twice." "Survival of the fittest," said Nadair loftily. Oklis however had landed "Daughter...is what Blitz is saying true?" he asked "She's his daughter?" asked Twilight with surprise. "No wonder she has an unbearably overinflated opinion of herself," said Rarity. Nadair seemed to stutter a bit as she tried to come up with an excuse. Matt gave Nadair a smug look before Oklis sighed and said, "Nadair, trying to kill lesser competitors is hardly sportsbird-like." "THAT'S IT?! After she tried to eat me, you just tell her it's bad sporting?!" yelled Matt. "Well, there's no actual rule against it," said Oklis. "She even flew over a damn rockslide that I had to bypass." snapped Matt, causing Oklis to pause. "How high did she fly?" asked Oklis. "Over the rim...she cut a bit of the corner off." said Matt, a little bitterly "After leaving me to dodge those psycho's." Oklis gave his daughter a stern look and said, "Nadair, you know it was against the rules to fly above the gorge during the race." "What? But...but..." began Nadair "You have knowingly broken the rule and by doing so, you have forfeited your victory," said Oklis. Nadair just stared before glaring "Fine...dad." Matt muttered to Twilight "Teenager." Oklis turned to Matt and said, "And since you have won two of three competitions, albeit unorthodoxly, you may keep the helm of General Hurricane. However, the other rocs will demand a compensation for the bad weather you have sent us." "Like what?" said Matt cautiously Oklis thought about it and said, "We will want at least three days of good weather, done by you ponies." "That's it? All you want is clear sunny skies?" asked Matt in disbelief. "Is there a problem?" said Oklis in a tone that hinted that it could be alot worse. "Nope...no problem." yelped Matt quickly, falling over himself...and causing the helmet to fall off. The ponies stared at the helmet a bit numbly, hardly believing it had chosen now to come off. Oklis also noticed something else. "Hey...what’s up with your mane?" he asked, causing Matt to notice his reflection in the helmet...and how the mane from under the helmet wasn’t dyed. "Erm...you got me...I colour my mane.” he said quickly Oklis peered at him suspiciously. "Is that all you color?" he demanded. "Yes." said Matt, in the tone he used to the CPS board of directors to hide why his equipment had been melted. "Then you wouldn't mind a little shower on your flank," said Oklis, reaching up with one wing to smack one side of a cloud and cause it start pouring onto Matt's hindquarters. Luckily, or to Matt’s horror, the dye turned out to be waterproofed. After making a mental note to take revenge if the hair dye carried over, he said "See?" his eye twitching. Oklis gave Matt an odd look before saying, "My apologies. For a moment, I thought you might have been an imposter." "that’s fine." said Matt, glaring at Rarity and mouthing 'this isn't over'. "Well, as soon as I have a talk with my daughter about the conduct of good sportsbirdship, we'll be on our way," said Oklis. Matt watched as the Rocs left before turning on the girls. "Its PERMENENT DYE?" he snapped, eyes bulging a little. "Oh, I'd hardly say permanent," said Rarity, "Just long lasting." "Gravity put it on me...it had to take it off." said Matt gloomily. "Well, since the rocs have left, the helmet's off, and Daria's men are...gone, I guess you don't have to keep being a pegasus now," said Twilight. "Fine." muttered Matt, using his nose to prod some buttons on his wrist comp only for it to make a negative buzzing. "What? Oh no...don’t you dare." he muttered, doing it again only for it to say "Foreign substance interfering with generator...please remove substance and retry." Matt slowly turned to fix Rarity with a glare so dark it rivaled most black holes. "Oh, uh, I believe I hear Sweetie Belle calling. I better go see what she wants," said Rarity before dashing off. "NO...GET BACK HERE!" screamed Matt running after Rarity with Dash in tow, who had already realized that she was now in the same boat. ... Sweetie Belle was actually with her friends, having just failed to earn Cutie Marks in one of the 'critter divisions'. The trio were trying gem hunter cutie marks in the rocks near Ghastly Gorge. "Hey, you guys ever hear how this place came to be called Ghastly Gorge?" asked Scootaloo. "Does it have someting ta do with them quarry eels?" asked Apple Bloom. "Worse, they say that the dreaded Slendermane's lair is somewhere in here," said Scootaloo. "Slendermane? Who's Slendermane?" asked Sweetie Belle , shuddering at the name. "He's a tall skinny pony with no face," said Scootaloo, "He waits for careless little fillies to pass his way and then steals them away." "That sounds a mite spooky. This varmint lives here?" said Apple Bloom, looking around nervously. "That's what I've always heard," said Scootaloo. Scootaloo's friends looked around nervously, Scootaloo chuckling at her prank. Suddenlt a moan came from the mist that had gathered in the gorge, echoing creepily around That made all three fillies jump with fear. "Wha-wha-what was that?" asked Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom said nervously "Sl-slendermane?" Scootaloo shook her head "But it’s just a story I read." she began, the other two gulping as they saw a pony silhouette behind the orange pegasus. "Guys, what are you staring at?" asked Scootaloo nervously. Sweetie Belle slowly raised a hoof to point over Scootaloo's shoulder. Scootaloo turned slowly in tile to see a pegasus with a skull for a head come out the mist. "SLENDERMANE!” the trio screamed and took off at high speed for Ponyville. After a minute, 'Slendermane' managed to get the skull off his head revealing Eagle with a huge bruise on his head and wall eyes. "What happened?" he slurred. Eagle's head had been pretty murky for the last few...minutes, was it? He had no idea where he was, why he was here, why he was covered in drool. He wasn't even sure who or what he was. All he could remember was something like a name. Eagle something. Eagle...eye, his name must be Eagle Eye. After a minute his brain and stomach, which was growling, came to a consensus and he decided to head for the nearby town. “Bugger this for a game of smeg." he muttered
Largefish8	784	14	Main 6,Original Character,Human,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	CPS Chronicles: Nightmares and Wormholes	An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy.	complete	10	7	<p>An entry for my Fanfiction.net based CPS chronicles...enjoy. This is my first foray into MLP fanfic territory so please leave a review if you rate it.</p>	everyone	2014-05-17T18:44:25+00:00	2014-05-17T18:44:24+00:00	405	MLP Chapter 14 To an outsider, it would appear that Daria was simply staring at the full moon out her starships porthole. However, if one had a more innate tuning to magic, they would be able to tell that something was going on in the moonlight. "Master please, I served you faithfully when I had the Night Princess in our thrall...and more so when I took the Sun’s protégée into my thrall. Surely that deserves some...leniency?" her mind was saying, desperate for approval. "And yet, you've let both slip through your grasp," replied a dark voice, "Why should I expect you to perform better in the body of...an ape?" "Necessity, my lord. I have a plan in motion but I need my old body back to secure the certainty of success," replied Daria, desperately. "Even if I were so inclined, such a transformation is not made so simply," said the dark voice, "This body you now wear isn't even remotely related to a pony. The best that could be produced would be one of the three lesser races and possibly not even a full transition." "I can secure the life energy needed to secure the change, my lord. I just need help," tried Daria, only to be horrified as the reply said “No, you are a failure. I don't need a failure. I already have a plan. Goodbye." "No! You can't leave me like this! Not in this prison of flesh!" cried Daria, but the moonlight was already losing its magical vigor, returning to its simple property of mere illumination. A technician that was waiting, jumped back as Daria creamed "NOOOOO!" After a minute, the tech said weakly "Ma'am, long range scanners picked up another ping, the third in a week. This one came with a transmission you should hear." "It doesn't matter now," said Daria in a dark tone. The tech however pressed a button and a voice said "This is CBC Daedalus to CBC Icarus. Respond on this channel ASAP...I repeat, CBC Icarus, respond at once. The board is ordering your immediate return to the nearest Corporate stardock," "Leave? I cannot leave this world," said Daria. She didn't even want to think about living amongst more of those bipedal weaklings. The ones she had to command where almost too much. "Ma'am, if we don’t return, the board might tell the Daedalus to force us..." began the tech only for a blue bolt of magical energy to blow his head off. "I said we AREN’T LEAVING!" Daria roared. She incinerated the rest of him to take off a little steam, but that wasn't nearly enough. She would have had this planet under her thumb by now if hadn't been for Matt. It's almost like he's always behind her back, mocking her, tripping her up, always pushing her down. She then remembered some of the military tactics that her first host, Luna had learnt: if you are hunting an enemy, make sure he has nowhere to run to first. "Ready a team. Do we know where the mercenary’s ship is?" she said. "Er, yes, but it's considerably close to the capitol and thus would there would be a rapid response if we were to go there," said an ensign. "I only need 5 minutes," said Daria, coldly. ... After the roc incident, Matt has decided to stay at his base. Mostly, it was to improve on the security and trying to get the jump engines full working. Although, a plausible reason could also be that his hair wasn't completely dye free. Oh, it looked black, but it tended to shimmer different colors in the right light. As such he was happy to have company in the form of Fluttershy and Applejack, the latter with her saddlebags full of food. "Hi girls. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Matt asked, cheerfully, jumping down from where he was fixing a damaged hull plate. "Well, it's lunchtime and we figured you could use some extra grub," said Applejack. "Great...lets go inside." said Matt, cheerfully, activating the ramp. As they walked, or trotted up, Matt asked cheerfully "So...how's public opinion back in town? Can I actually show my face?" "Well, I think they're starting to be friendly," said Fluttershy, "I mean, you did help with the drought." "Shame they couldn't know how you dealt with them overgrown buzzards," said Applejack. "True..." thought Matt, the trio walking towards the mess hall before saying "So...how many complained?" "Well, there's still complainin', mostly from the same ponies as before," said Applejack, "I figure Blueblood's still sore about those threats you and your 'sister' gave him and he's still stirrin' the pot instead of lettin' it boil away." "Ah, let him. I fixed the energy processor yesterday. It just needs a day and I will be out his hair forever...and I'll drop the hats into a sun on the way out. We're yet to make sunblock PH 7 million," said Matt, cheerfully. "Are you sure that is the best way to keep them away?" asked Fluttershy. "Only your princess can get in a sun last I checked. That nightmare’s as flimsy as I am," said Matt cheerfully before a beeping was heard. Matt looked down at his wrist-comp before turning it off. "Just a broken beacon. All this magic shorts them out like crackers. I got suited up last night for a moth," said Matt cheerfully. "What kind of moth? If it was a luna moth, it may have been enough to set off your alarm things. They have great moon magic, at least that's what I'm told," said Fluttershy. "It was big and it did turn my head into a pumpkin for 5 minutes...you may be onto something," said Matt thoughtfully. Suddenly, a door banged open, causing the two girls to scream in fright. Their screams were soon justified when a pair of troopers walked in. "Ok, Lynch, you're coming with us," said one of them. Matt’s answer took the form of an energy burst that threw one of the troopers back out the door, the other one opening fire at Matt who dived for cover. "Girls...could you be so kind as to go to room 305? I turned it into a saferoom in case the ship needed smacktard fumigation,” he said, growling a bit as he exchanged fire. The girls quickly galloped off where Matt pointed. Oddly enough, the troopers didn't even seem to notice them leaving. The remaining trooper finally noticed as Fluttershy was leaving. "An eleme-" he began before a blast took him down. "Aria? I thought we put up sights: no salesmen, Bluebloods or EGIS morons," Matt snapped, picking up the dead trooper’s gun. "The ship's sensors are still down," said Aria, "I would have repaired them sooner, but they were slotted into a lower priority." "Bring internal back on...how many on board?" said Matt, peering round a corner and sighing with relief to see the modified security center, ‘room 305' sealing. "Least they're safe," he muttered. "10 detected, troopers like what you're fighting. However, I'm detecting another who's not like the others," said Aria. "Oh? Any information other than that? Hold on," said Matt, firing a burst at the two troopers who had stopped in front of room 305. "Make that 8," he said, heading down the corridor. "Well, one of them seems to be unarmed as I'm not picking up the energy signals from typical firearms him or her." said Aria. "Ok...where are they?" asked Matt. "One group is about to open one of the bogus crates you set…” began Aria before the ship shook with a blast from the cargo bay. "There is now 4 personnel left on board...SIR, BEHIND YOU!" said Aria. Matt turned around quickly and got a face full of blue energy that sent him tumbling back. "Lynch, maybe I am lucky after all. You’re just the human I was looking for, leave us," said Daria’s voice, the 'leave us' aimed at someone else. Matt sat up and shook his head to get the world back into focus. When everything realigned, he saw Daria standing over him, her hands glowing with blue energy. "Been practicing? Uh oh," said Matt, yelping and jumping aside as Daria threw an energy bolt at him. "You've cost me everything...GIVE ME THE ARTIFACTS!" snapped Daria, before running after Matt. "I wouldn't give you a handkerchief if you had a runny nose. Aria...is there anything that could give me a fighting chance?" tried Matt, dropping a blastdoor down and running only to hear it explode as he ran round a corner. "The engine room, the reality energy bleed will water down her magi energy," said Aria. "It could also turn my insides into custard," remarked Matt, "But considering she wants to incinerate all of me, I think it's worth the chance." "Very well, be aware, my scans of the energy from the core indicate it is increasing the..." began Aria before the comm died. Matt span as Daria came into view. "Shit!" snapped Matt, diving through a door...and rolling down the several flights of stairs heading down to the engine room, Daria following his progress down. A little later, Matt's voice said, "Ow, I can't believe I did that again." "GIVE ME THOSE ARTIFACTS!" yelled Daria before hearing hoofsteps behind her. "Ah, hayseeds," she said dully before Applejack bucked her down the steps after Matt. "That'll teach her," said Applejack triumphantly with a grin. Fluttershy poked her head out of Room 305 and asked nervously, "Is it safe to come out now?" Another bang was heard before an inhuman shriek was heard, Aria's voice saying "I recommend you stay in the saferoom." ... Daria got up unsteadily from her landing before shrieking in a way that nearly bleached Matt’s hair. “Feeling better?" Matt asked before claws made of light appeared on Daria's fingers. “Oh no," whimpered Matt. Matt quickly got out of the way to avoid being sliced by the claws. He didn't really expect Nightmare to be able to do that. Of course, Nightmare's previous hosts didn't have fingers to have claws on. "Can't we talk about this?" he tried, jumping over a pipe that Daria simply sliced apart. "I know you're under a bit of stress, being a species completely foreign to you can do that," said Matt before having to avoid another swipe that left a long slash in the wall. "ARIA...VENT THE BLOODY RADIATION!" yelled Matt as another slash nearly took his head off only to get a busy signal. "Oh bugger," said Matt, weakly before another slash breached a tank attached to the reactor which immediately began venting a blue smoke. "Erm...Daria...I think you just broke something bad," said Matt, backing up as the smoke somehow reminded Matt of Balwak Station. As the amount of blue smoke in the room began to rise, Matt held his breath to keep the fumes out his lungs. That may not have been necessarily stop it, but he wasn't taking chances. Daria however realized what it was, grinning icily before resting her claws on the metal of the wall. "You wouldn't..." said Matt in horror, Daria’s grin widening. "I'll be back to pick the artifacts out of the ashes," said Daria as she started to glow blue. "Oh no you don't," said Matt before jumping forward and grabbing her. Before she could get him off, her teleportation spell zapped them both away, her vanishing claws raising sparks that easily ignited the leak... ... Applejack was slowly headed down the stairs when she heard a 'whomph' and saw a glow down below getting brighter. "That's probably not a good thing," She said nervously shuffling around to go back up the stairs. She looked back to see a blue fireball shooting up the shaft and was forced to dive into another floor before the flames shot past, the stairs falling away. ... Matt's vision came back only to see Daria just as dazed. “Gotcha, lady," he said, holding her by the collar and pointing a blaster in her face. But before Matt could pull the trigger, there was a big 'BOOM!' and a huge blue fireball shot out of the top of the ship. Daria was first up laughing. “Oh dear, did someone forget their fire insurance?" she laughed. Matt glared, getting up "Laugh it up, I still got you." he snapped. “But aren’t you forgetting someone?” laughed Daria. Matt stopped. "Oh crap," he said before running for the ramp. "This is not over, you psycho!" he snapped at Daria before running up the ramp and almost being knocked over as his armor deployed its mask due to the smoke. Daria just laughed before going on her comm. "Stage two, gentlemen," she said before vanishing. ... Applejack came too with a headache to see that the lighting had turned red, a klaxon wailing and flames roaring from several rooms and the stairway she had just been in. “Warning...core breach imminent...fire suppression failure." said a male voice. "Matt, Fluttershy!" called Applejack before coughing from the growing smoke. A figure came into view in the smoke at that, Aria's voice saying "Miss Applejack? Is that you? I'm afraid that I have soot on my optics." "It's me, we need to find Matt and Fluttershy and get out of here," said Applejack. Not a chance...we need to evacuate now...this floors cut off from the rest of the ship. I detected Matt on the same floor as 305 before I downloaded but we need to go NOW." said Aria, sternly before an explosion from a side room engulfed, her, just burning most of her faux skin off. "Aria!" cried Applejack. However, the figure walked out of the flame, mostly unharmed. However, most of Aria's skin had been burned away to reveal the skeletal robot beneath. "Can't I use this body for one day without getting the skin damaged?" complained Aria. Applejack nodded weakly, the sight being extremely creepy not helped that Aria's uncovered optics glowed a pale green. "This way, ma'am," said the machine, aiming a thumb at an airlock. ... Matt staggered through the smoke, trying to remember the way to room 305 without signs to help before falling back as another plasma conduit overheated to explosion. "Alert: Core temperature now 455% above safety levels. All personnel abandon ship." said the main computer calmly. "I'm trying to help with that," said Matt. Fortunately, his suit could filter out the smoke and ash which allowed him to breathe more easily. However, he had a feeling that the girls will soon be running out of oxygen. Room 305 quickly came into view, and as feared, Matt could see the door had been opened. "FLUTTERSHY...FLUTTERSHY, SAY SOMETHING!" he yelled as another distant explosion of another conduit going was heard. Unfortunately, the explosion drowned out all the other sound. But as it faded, Matt could hear a weak coughing inside. Matt tapped his helmet to turn on its IR vision before peering inside and spotting Fluttershy. “Hey, girl. I'm right here," he said, running over. "Matt...it's so hot...it's getting hard to breathe..." wheezed Fluttershy before coughing again. "We have to go...get up...come on." said Matt, trying to pull her too her hooves. "I'm...too weak..." said Fluttershy, her legs trembling too much to stand. Matt pulled harder "We have to move or we're toast...oh, I'm gonna regret this." he said, clicking his helmet off, setting it to auto fit and putting it on Fluttershy, the helmets nanites modifying its shape to fit. "Ok...come...cough...on." he coughed. Fluttershy took several deep breaths before saying, "Ok, I think I can move. Maybe I should fly us out." "No...just get out...I 'cough'...I'll be right behind you." said Matt, coughing from the smoke and looking over at a wall safe. "But Matt..." protested Fluttershy. "Hey, I've gotten out of worse scrapes than this...'cough'. Just fly out now," said Matt. Fluttershy hesitated for a second before flying out of the door. Matt waited for a second before running over and opening the safe, grabbing the contents. ... Aria and Applejack looked up in relief as Fluttershy, wearing Matt's suit helmet's rebreather flew down the ramp. “Miss Fluttershy, where's the sergeant?" asked Aria. "He said he'll be right out behind me," said Fluttershy. A series of explosions could be heard from the ship, just as Matt staggered down the ramp. A final explosion blew out the bridge viewport and the top most shuttlepod hatch as well as out the ramp, causing Matt to roll forward. "My ship." he wailed in horror. "That two-timin' Daria has a lot of nerve to just stomp in and blow up your home," said Applejack. "At least we're all okay," said Fluttershy. "I think it’s time I left...use the jump portal back at the camp to go to Paradiso and get the authorities...Daria's lost it to try this." said Matt, gloomily. ... "They blew up this too?" moaned Matt, looking at the fire brigade pegasi clustered over what was left of the barn. "It was either them or the fire salamander nest we found," said the fire chief, "They may have put them there, but there's no way to determine." "Fire salamanders? How?" Matt began. "Well, they are drawn to enclosed warm spots. Have you been disposing your compost correctly or have any unguarded electrical wires?" asked the fire chief. "My house is wired up like ve...neighgas." said Matt, stopping briefly to retune his head, due-Equestria. "Excuse me?" asked the fire chief. "Never mind." said Matt gloomily before noticing one of the defense guns for the house smashed and looking at Applejack. “How much you want to bet that someone has searched my house top to bottom shortly before it burnt down?" "That ain't a bet, that's a certainty," said Applejack, "Probably the same time your other place was being trashed." "Just as well I hid the hats in here then." said Mat, holding up his wrist comp and adding "Oh, she'll get something from the crate...maybe something that'll last...it just won't be very nice." he said with a grin. ... Daria laughed as the crate was put in front of her. "This was too easy..." she laughed, opening it. However, as soon as it was open, a spring-loaded pie launched out and plastered her face. "Erm...ma'am?" asked a guard, grabbing a note from the crate that said "Care to try again?" "Find...that...man..." snarled Daria under her pie mask, which was started to smoke around her eyes. "Erm...yes, ma'am," said the guard, before running away. ... News of the fires at Matt's two homes quickly spread around Ponyville. Public sympathy was turning towards Matt, but he didn't have time for that. He had three ancient artifacts containing near-godlike magic and a crazy demonically-possessed transvestite who wanted to steal them. Fortunately, the other girls were able to come as soon as he had called for them. "I gotta get rid of these...it'll be days before I can dig down to the basement and the gate...and even longer to bring it back online...these need to go." Matt said sternly, the three artifacts upon the table between the group "Just give them to Celestia so she can lock them up with the Elements," said Rainbow Dash. "Ok...I doubt even the Icarus can get past those two..." said Matt with a nod. "But Daria will still be coming after you," said Twilight, "I mean, I suppose we could ask the Princess if you could move into Canterlot, but I think somepony would object, besides Blueblood I mean." "I won't sing." said Matt in an annoyed voice to the confusion of the girls. "Well, maybe we can ask that nice Mr. Gears if he could build you a new house," said Pinkie. "Tried that...he's headed back to Manehatten last I heard." said Matt, gloomily "Maybe he could stay at my house for a while," said Fluttershy, "I mean, I'm sure I can make some room for you." "No...not gonna do that...Won't take long for the nightmare to add up two and two and realize I've got these on me...and come after me." said Matt "And she'll go through anything and anyone in her way," said Rarity, "I suppose you shouldn't go to Canterlot then." "No...She won’t be dumb enough to go against your princesses as a human. I doubt even a PC class ship could stop them," said Mat, choosing wisely to use the initials for the 'Planet Cracker' class. "Well, unless anyone has any better ideas, I say we mosse on over to Canterlot quickly," said Applejack. Matt nodded "Let’s go." ... Twilight’s prediction proved to be quite right. It only took 10 minutes and the sight of Matt’s SUV to cause Blueblood to gather some friends to 'petition' the princesses, though Matt enjoyed how the accused was allowed to be there to face his accusers...and Matt was wearing his full combat equipment. "This creature is a menace to everyone around him," protested Blueblood, putting on a show of bravado to cover the nervousness he got from Matt's armor, "If his homes were destroyed, that's his own fault. How do we know he won't bring that same bad luck here?" "Because the boss lady here could make them wish they'd never been born?" said Matt with a happy grin. "The Princess is royalty. Royal ponies should not be bodyguards," said Blueblood haughtily. Matt blew a raspberry at that, causing Blueblood to look at him in confusion as Celestia said "Matthew has done nothing but try to help, keeping dangerous magic out of the hooves of those who will use them against us. He is welcome here." "You heard her. That was an official royal proclamation," said Matt. "No it wasn't," protested Blueblood, "An official royal proclamation requires..." "Yes it was." said Celestia with a grin that made Matt want to high five her except he got the weird feeling she might actually return the high five. Since the Princess's word was law, the protesters started to file out. Blueblood just stared in horror and then fury as Matt waved at him. "You'll wear your welcome soon enough and then the Princess will see it was a bad idea to let you come," said Blueblood before walking off. Matt turned to Celestia and asked, "How are you related to that smeghead again?" "It’s a long, long story," said Celestia with a sigh. "I bet," said Matt. "I shall have to make out some official fliers so Blueblood won't be able to complain so much. But in the meantime, I'm sure Twilight can show you around the palace," said Celestia. "Great...wait...you'll want these..." said Matt, reaching to give the helms over. Celestia picked them up with her telekinesis and said, "I'll lock these away immediately. Thanks for doing such a good job with protecting them." "No problem..." said Matt before he noticed a strange green smoke wafting in. “What the he-?" he began before, with a pop it turned into a scroll and clonked him on the head. "Bleh? Air mail." he gibbered. Celestia immediately picked up the scroll, unfurled it, and read its contents. Her brow furrowed and said, "This is grave news. Las Pegasus has just been attacked. 'By some sort of flying metal ship'." Matt paled at that, running up and taking the note, reading down it before his survival instinct kicked in. “Erm...here you are." he said weakly passing it back. "If this is your enemy's ship, I'm afraid I'll have to take personal action against it. I may need Luna's help as well," said Celestia. "Nobody will cry a tear...If Exo-Gene knew what they were up to, they'd blow it up too..." said Matt, darkly. ... "He did WHAT?" snapped Zara, though the report was on her screen in black and white. “He attacked a local settlement...our scans indicated he's either killed or taken 2 thirds of the population of the target city hostage." said her second in command. Zara sighed at that "What is wrong with you, Darius? What does the board say?" "They've given you full digression to deal with Darius as you see fit," said her second, "Though I suspect they would prefer one solution over the others." "Yeah...ok...get us there ASAP. We end this...fuck Lynch and fuck that AI." Said Zara. "Speaking of which, what are we to do about them once Darius has been dealt with?" asked her second. "We'll arrest him...if he's there." said Zara, making it clear that she wanted her men to be as short sighted as possible when it came to Matt. "Aye, ma'am," said her second, a little reluctantly. ... Daria looked out the window at the smoking ruins of the city below. At least a third of them had fled but the rest had been captured...perfect blood fuel for her backup plan and even part of her primary plan. "Are the last of my devices in place?" she said into her comm. "They're in position, but we are having trouble get them to work the way you instructed," came the reply. "They'll work...get back up here and prepare for orbital drop to the next location as soon as the princesses come on the sensors." said Daria, coldly. "As you command," came the reply before signing off. "Soon...very soon." said Daria to herself as the dropships could be seen returning. ... The girls were shocked to hear as to why the princesses had gone west so quickly. "I can't believe Daria would strike out at Las Pegasus like that," said Twilight. "Well, she is possessed by Nightmare and Nightmare is pure evil, right?" asked Rarity. "Yeah...look on the bright side...the princesses are going to squash her." said Matt, a little mock cheerfully. "But if the princesses are over there, who's going to be guarding the castle?" asked Spike. "Me?" tried Matt. There was a long moment of silence before Spike said, "Uh, I hope the princesses will be back soon." "Your heartfelt support touches me," said Matt darkly. "Well, I bet the princesses will finish with Daria in a flash," said Rainbow. "And we'll gonna have a big party to celebrate when they come back," said Pinkie. "Sounds like a...plan," said Matt, noticing a pink tinge outside. "What's that?" asked Matt. Twilight looked and said, "Looks like my brother's put up a shield barrier around the town." "Hmm...wait, what?" said Matt, double taking. ... "I'm sorry, Twi. The prince insisted," said Shining Armor, glaring at Blueblood who as grinning smugly at Matt. "You haven't even heard that there's an attack coming," said Twilight, "You're just wasting energy with this." "We cannot be sure with a troublemaker inside the city." said Blueblood, Matt's temper flaring up at that. "It's just a standard security measure," said Shining, "It doesn't take too much energy to hold it up for a while." "Ok...what can it handle?" said Matt, suddenly all business. "That is classified information that shouldn't be shared with unpermitted inquirers, particularly those who might attempt to abuse the information," said Blueblood. "Oh get off your high horse already," said Matt, causing the others to give him an odd look. "The shield's pretty strong. It’s one of my best spells." said Shining Armor, ignoring Blueblood who glared. Matt nodded “It should be ok...The Icarus is an old class of ship...and...we might get to test the theory." he said, his voice trailing off. "What makes you say that?" asked Twilight. Matt pointed out a window to where it seemed a cloud was on fire and slowly headed for the city limits. "That’s trouble." whimpered Matt, his eyes wide with recognition. "Is that a dragon?" asked Shining. "No...it's re-entry vapor." said Matt weakly as a shape could be seen in the smoke and a faint 'frum frum frum' could be heard through the shield. "It couldn't be Daria, could it?" asked Twilight. "Yes and no." said Matt before the smoke cleared from the front to reveal a grey metal nose slowly flying out, the smoke peeling away to reveal a huge ship slowly working forward, its underside still glowing faintly from re-entry. "Captain, double the shield, triple it if you can," said Blueblood in a panic. "For once I agree." said Matt panicking as a dozen vapor trails shot towards the shield. Shining closed his eyes with concentration and his horn glowed. The shield seemed to become more opaque, but it was obviously a strain on him. "Let me help," said Twilight before adding her own magic to the shield. It was just in time as the incoming missiles exploded against the shield, making a brief wall of flames. "Ah...it seems I was right...WHO SAID 'FOR ONCE'?" snapped Blueblood before more explosions were heard as the Icarus let rip on the shield with everything, causing it to ripple. The two unicorn siblings nearly buckled under the assault and it seemed they were going to be within sight of their limit. "Come on, Twilight...it’s just missiles." Matt said in a desperately supportive voice, watching as dropships and gunships flew out of the Icarus...before the guns stopped firing. Shining panted before saying, "Why did they stop? They couldn't have given up that quickly." "Out of ammo? They've been around a long time." suggested Matt before squinting. “What the hell is that?" Though the shield's thickness made it harder to see through it now, it was vaguely discernible that there seemed to be someone standing on the prow of the Icarus. "Is that...that’s Daria." said Matt, using the zoom on his helmet and snorting with laughter "She's dressed like a reject from lord of the-uh oh." he said before what looked like a dragon made of light flew up above the ship. "What is that?" asked Blueblood. "My guess, a big-arse magic attack that's going to do considerable damage to the shield," said Matt. The dragon immediately shot at the shield, spreading over it and causing cracks to form quickly. "The shield is failing, do something!" shouted Blueblood. "Me? Why not you try helping, unless that horn of yours is only for polishing," said Matt. Blueblood gulped and his horn glowed...and on cue the shield smashed with the sound of the world biggest chandelier going to the great big ballroom in the sky. "That had better have been because of Daria's attack or I'm going to have commit regicide," growled Matt. "Bigger problems,” cried Dash as a missile shot overhead and hit a tower. "Ok, tell me you guys have some back-up defense systems," said Matt. The look he got told him everything he needed, the sounds of the guard mobilizing already heard, coupled with the sound of gunfire from the invaders. "This is not gonna end well," said Matt, "Twilight, you girls can get the Elements out of their vault, right?" Twilight, who looked a bit dizzy, nodded "What are you going to do?" she asked. Matt grinned "What I do best? Get their attention." "But Matt, you don't have as many weapons now," said Dash. "I have enough. Plus, I can improvise," said Matt. ... Daria walked towards the gates where she could practically smell Matt. "Blow it." she said before the gates exploded outward and a SUV shot out. "What the-" she started before it slammed into her and sent her flying into a wall, something bouncing off her head a second later. Her men fired after it as it skidded round the corner and she looked up to see a rock on her chest with a note saying 'Catch me if you can, psycho'. Daria snarled before tossing the rock away and yelling, "Get him!" She smirked as the trooper ran after the SUV, a few radioing for air support before she heard movement and turned to see the element holders sneaking out. “Well, well," she muttered, walking after them. ... "You know, I should do this kind of demolition derby type thing more often," said Matt as he turned a corner, "This is pretty fun." "Warning...pursuit detected...Model: Type 29 FAV...EGIS affiliated." chimed the computer, a rear view appearing to show an EGIS Humvee in pursuit. "Just try and keep up, you junker," taunted Matt. "Danger...incoming fire." chimed the computer before bullets echoed off the rear armor. "Cheeky...what’s this button do?" said Matt, pressing a button and causing a disk to drop into the road. As soon as the other Humvee rolled over it, an explosion tossed it high up into the air and over quite a few buildings. Matt laughed to himself as it landed the wrong way up and exploded. "Try that." he laughed before wincing as two more drove through the smoke. "Spoke too soon...I need a path outta here." The computer beeped. “Plotting escape route under combat conditions." "This had better be better than my old GPS," muttered Matt. "Turn left...now." chimed the computer, Matt turning as commanded and driving into a firing line of EGIS marines firing on their royal guard opposite numbers and scattering them like ten pins. "So far so good," commented Matt, looking back to see the remaining royal guard squad taking advantage of the scattered marines. The next hit however was a plasma burst that briefly lifted the back of the SUV. “Danger: Anti-tank weapon detected...replotting route." chimed the computer, the windscreens HUD highlighting a gunship hovering nearby. "Ok, I hope this thing's equipped with something anti-aerial," said Matt. "Negative...please contact the manufacturers and request model 6." said the computer. "This is no time for advertisement!" yelled Matt before flooring it as the gunship let out another plasma burst. "Rerouted...proceed on heading 2-mark 46." chimed the computer, Matt turning a hard right and the gunship wailing overhead as it overcompensated. "Ok, I can handle the ground forces. The girls should be able to take care of the air forces when they've gotten their Elements. I just need to hold out long enough," said Matt. "Warning...emergency reroute...hostile forces are approaching timeline specifics times 6." said the computer urgently. "Can't I get one break today?" snapped Matt. ... Daria walked calmly up the steps with some of her men in pursuit, hearing the girls trying to get the element store open. "C'mon Twilight, I though Princess Celestia modified her lockin' spell for you," said Applejack's voice. "She did, but I haven't had a chance to practice it before," said Twilight's voice. "On the count of three...and I want them alive...at least one of each of the race...and definitely Twilight sparkle." said Daria, coldly. "Guys, my knee's feeling pinchy," said Pinkie's voice, "Something scary's about to happen." Daria glared and pointed a blaster at the doors, blowing them open. “Please, please don't try anything." she said calmly as she walked in, hearing Pinkie say “Told you.” The six ponies immediately stood in front of the locked door. "You are not taking the Elements of Harmony," said Twilight. "Oh...we don’t want them...we want their owners." said Daria with a cold smile, nodding to her men. "Even if that made any sense, we're not going with you," said Rarity. "Oh, you are...shut them up." said Daria, icily, her men aiming tesla stun-rifles. ... Matt skidded his SUV round the corner, knocking a trooper off his feet as another FAV skidded in pursuit and span out. "Enemy coms cracked...outgoing transmission." said the computer before Daria's voice echoed out "All units...we have what we needed. Full retreat...but blow the exits...I don’t want anything following...am I clear?" "Crystal, ma'am," came a reply. The gunships spun around to aim at the town's gates. Matt turned away from the plasma glare as the main exit out of the city was vaporized before seeing a transport flying overhead from the direction he had been headed. “No...NO!” Matt snapped, turning the SUV round and hearing a crunch as his pursuit became one with a wall and lost the fight with it. He quickly sped back towards the castle, which wasn't so easy since the rubble made it a very bumpy ride. "Analyzing...0% chance of intercept under current conditions." said the computer. Matt swore before spotting a destroyed section of wall. "Please work." he muttered, driving for where the rubble had formed a ramp... ... Twilight and the girls slowly came too in the transport, anti-magi rings on the unicorns and guards on everyone else. "Awake I see." said Daria with a cold smile. Twilight immediately spotted the three Prima Corona on a nearby table. "When did she steal those?" she asked. "It probably happened off-screen," said Pinkie. There was a pause as everyone’s brain processed this and filed it under ‘Pinkies randomness’ after a minute…it was either that or go crazy trying to work it out. "What is the pink one talking about?" asked Daria after a minute. “I just kinda tune out the weird things she says," said Rainbow Dash. Daria shrugged before the pilot said "Ma'am...we got incoming." Daria ran up front to see a combine SUV driving at high speed towards them on the rear camera. "That fool, he's just going to smash himself against the ship," said Daria. "Er, actually, the cargo door's still open," said the pilot. She turned back to see the girls cheering on, clearly recognizing the vehicle. "Shoot it...SHOOT IT!" she gibbered, shaking a trooper. "Open fire on that vehicle!" yelled another trooper into the intercom. The troopers at the back began firing wildly, even when the rounds bounced off before the SUV hit a ramp of rubble and took off, flying straight and true....and falling short by a quarter of a meter. The girls just gaped as the SUV started to plummet. "Well, that was an interesting half a minute," said Daria, a little confused. "I think that’s crushed their wills...take us out of here." said Daria, the pilot nodding before Daria added with cruel mirth "And close that rear hatch...the smell of smoke offends me." Daria's dropship slowly steered up towards the Icarus, which was already making to fly slowly over Canterlot on its way to part unknown. The mood of the ships captives was...low to say the least. "I can't believe that Matt's gone," said Twilight. "I woulda thought he'd make that jump," said Applejack. “You thought wrong, Honesty." said Daria, sounding happy. "You know, it wouldn't hurt you to learn our actual names," said Rainbow Dash, a little annoyed. "Really? You'll be dead by the end of the day so I consider it a waste of my time." said Daria calmly as the dropship came in for a landing. "Dead, ha, we're not that easy to kill," said Pinkie, doing a passable impression of Matts usual suicidal self-confidence. "Pinkie, please don't encourage her," said Rarity. "Oh...I'll be testing the theory later. Once I offer you up to my master, I'll get the body I want...and then, who knows?" said Daria before the ship shook with a landing. "Take them to the chamber..." she ordered, before a guard asked "Not with the others from Las Pegasus?" "No, I have special preparations for them," said Daria. "Yes' ma'am," said the trooper, running down the ramp. Daria turned to smirk at the girls. "For once...I win." she said ... When the dropship landed, no one noticed the smaller thud of Matt dropping down over the louder thud of the ship. "Ow...ok...jumping off an airborne vehicle....bad idea...grabbing onto a dropship that’s in flight with a grapple gun.......worse." he winced, luckily shielded from view. However, he was able to see the troopers marching out with the girls captive. “Ok...Now I'm...uh oh." began Matt, before ducking down as another dropship, this time a troop transport landed and let a squad out. "Sneaky it is." he muttered, spotting a vent next to him and dropping down. ... Back in Canterlot, Shining Armor and Aria were assessing the damage done to the city and considering how they'll be able to rescue the girls. It wasn't easy, mainly because Blueblood wouldn't shut up about how it was everyone but his fault. Aria said "The Icarus won’t go far...I've detected radio chatter from another E.G.I.S ship...and it looks like the Icarus isn’t acting with permission anymore." "I would certainly hope this type of destruction wasn't allowed where you come from," said Shining. "No...there are rules against attacking uncontacted species." said Aria before stopping as Blueblood said 2Clearly not enough...at least that troublemakers gone." causing Aria to spin and lift Blueblood up by the neck. "You have no idea who you are talking about...the SUV wreck had no body in it, you little worm..." she said, her voice getting a rasp as the fire damage shorted her voice unit. "Aria, as much as I'd like him to shut up, the princesses will be very upset when they get back and find that you've broken his neck," said Shining Armor. Blueblood rasped "Where...are the...princesses?" "As much as I dislike admitting it, the prince has a good point," said Aria, putting him down, "Your princesses should have noticed the Icarus was no longer near Las Pegasus and would have returned immediately." Aria seemed thoughtful "Something this...nightmare left behind in the city to slow them down?" "Maybe," said Shining, "I wouldn't be surprised if she irritated an Ursa Major enough to go on a rampage there. But I think we should at least try to communicate with them." "How? If Las Pegasus is an alternate of the city I think it is, it’s on the other side of this continent..." said Aria. Shining smirked and said, "We have a rather rapid method of contacting the princesses. We just need Spike." "The dragon?" said Aria. Shining armors smirk increased "Trust me." he said. ... Matt peered out a side room and adjusted the EGIS helmet on him, the dazed trooper tied in behind him. It had been shockingly easy to ambush a trooper, all of them zoned out on whatever mental whammy that Daria had used to control them. So long as he didn't ask anyone how they were, he should be able to stroll around undetected. He looked around before spotting a dataport and running up to hack it. "Secure line established." chimed the wrist comp after what seemed like an eternity. "Finally...aria? Anyone there?" Matt tried. "This is CBC Daedalus...who is this?" said the reply. Matt hesitated at that. CBC meant 'Corporate Battle Cruiser'. That didn't necessarily mean it was a bad thing, but the only corporation he could think of that would anywhere close to this planet was Exo-Gene. Exo-Gene probably wouldn't be pleased with what Darius, or rather Daria, was doing, but that probably didn't mean they'll let him walk away. But then again, it was desperate times... "Hello? This is...CPS unit 412. I'm on board the CBC Icarus...the-" began Matt before a female voice butted in. "Lynch? I don't believe it." "Zara? What are you doing here?" asked Matt, unable to believe his luck, though where it's good or bad he couldn't tell yet. "The board sent us to see why the Icarus stopped sending reports." said Zara. "Ok, are sitting down right now? You aren't going to believe this one," said Matt. "I don't want to hear it...we picked up what that psycho did. We're firing him...literally." said Zara. "Good, good, though you might want to know that you're using the wrong pronoun," said Matt. "Like I said...I don't want to know...Ok, The Icarus is outside our weight class. I need you to take out the shields so we have a fighting chance to take the ship down." said Zara. "Just to let you know, there are hostages onboard, civilians and at least 6 timeline specifics," said Matt. "You have 20 minutes till we're in range." said Zara before turning off the comm on her end. "Ok, disable the shields, rescue who knows how many ponies Daria has captive, and live to see tomorrow. Sounds like a routine challenge," said Matt. "Uh...routine check-up, need to make sure all the systems are operational. You don't want anyone trying to make a jailbreak," said Matt. "Ok...I...wait, let me see your ID." said the left trooper, walking forward. "Uh, sure thing," said Matt, fishing around the stolen uniform's pockets until he pulled out an ID card. The trooper peered at it closely before snapping "Get down to cargo 3...you're supposed to be on guard duty. Get down there before our lady makes you wish you had." he snapped. "Uh, sure, no problem," said Matt, "Remind me, which way is it to cargo 3? Is it on the port or starboard side?" "Starboard, you idiot." snapped the second guard. "Ok...and which ways engineering...I erm...need to get something from there." "It's down that hallway, two rights, did you fall asleep during orientation or something?" snapped the first guard. "Yeah...thanks...idiot." said Matt, adding the last part under his breath. As Matt walked away, the first guard said, "Is it me, or are they getting dimmer every day?" "Depends, who's 'they'?" asked the other. A second later the troopers heard a moan from the side room but by then Matt had smartly ran round a corner … Matt quickly headed to the engine room and looked around. "Let's see, where does EGIS like to hide their shield generators?" he said to himself. He wandered into a lift and the AI asked "Floor please." "Uh, shield generator," said Matt. "Error...did you mean: Main engineering...Security...armory...main bridge...?" asked the computer. "Main engineering," said Matt. "Confirmed." said the computer before Matt was forced to the side as the lift hit full speed. About a minute later, the AI chimed, "Main engineering." Matt groaned "Thank you." from ground level and pulled himself up, walking into the bustle of the main engineering room. "Shields, shields, shields." he muttered, looking around. "Hey, are you supposed to be down here?" called one of the engineers. Matt turned around and asked, "Who? Me? I'm just here to pick something I forgot here last time." "Security...we got an intruder down here." said one of the engineers as his others pulled sting blasters out, deadly weaponry not used near reactors since Balwak. "Guys, if you're gonna start fights, things are only going to get messy," said Matt as he prepared something behind his back. An energy burst shot past his head at that, causing him to stumble and a blue orb to roll out his pack and down behind a generator. "Crap." swore Matt, reaching for it before several pairs of hands grabbed him, one pair taking his helmet off. "Well, well, Lynch," said one of the guards, "The boss was so sure you were a messy puddle. Guess she'll have to do it herself now." "Crap." said Matt darkly before being dragged away. ... A little later, Matt was thrown into through a door roughly into a somewhat dark room. "Matthew Lynch, your survival tendency's almost inhuman," said Daria's voice. "Really? The only inhuman around here's you...that sounded better in my head." said Matt before properly looking at Daria and jumping back. Asides from the medieval armor, she didn't look too much different. However, her eyes were blue with slits for pupil and glowed with unholy power. "Like what you see?" she taunted. "You're creepy." said Matt childishly. "I admit, this body is hardly suitable for a goddess. But I'm about to get a trade-up very soon," said Daria. "Going after Twilight again? That ship's sailed. She beat you once...she'll do it again...and again...and again," said Matt, nastily. Daria just smirked "Actually...you caused that when you broke the ritual half way through." "Well, your big magic rock's broken, remember? Along with the rest of your castle," said Matt. "Oh...but you were kind enough to leave the artifacts in the open." said Daria with a cruel laugh. "Princess Luna knew how to use them...so now I do." she added. "I don't know, you have a pretty faulty memory. I doubt you'll be able to remember how to do whatever it is you're supposed to," said Matt. Daria glared and said, "But I'll have a perfect memory of your agonizing demise." She held up a blue fireball only for a trooper to run and say, "Ma'am, we have a situation." "What IS IT?" she snapped before seeing the problem out her viewport. The sky on the horizon was glowing with a nullspace rip appearing, before with a sonic boom, another vessel appeared. "What the hay?" she snapped before the intercom was overridden. "CBC Icarus...this is Colonel Anya Zara of the CBC Daedalus...halt your movement and prepare to be boarded or we will fire upon you...Darius…answer me, you idiot." Daria snarled before shouting, "Darius is no longer in command!" "Who is this? Identify yourself. Theft of an EGIS vessel is a capital offense." said Zara sternly. "I am Nightmare, Queen of the Night and soon-to-be ruler of Equestria," called Daria. "Nah...you're dead..." said Zara, signing off. Daria turned to her staff. "Shields up and fire." she ordered, just in time as the Daedalus began firing. "As you can see...your help isn’t going to...what was that for?" she said, pointing at an empty clip on his belt. Matt glanced down at what she was pointing at and said, "Huh, lost one of my spare grenades. Wonder where it rolled off to." "What?" said Daria harshly before Matt said with an evil grin worthy of Nightmare Moon “Oh yeah...it’s in engineering." ... Unnoticed by anyone, the old plasmite grenade finally beeped as its failsafe kicked in before exploding, knocking out the energy to shields... ... Daria and her men were thrown off their feet from the blast, Matt immediately jumping up, punching out one of the guards and grabbing his rifle before running for it. "AFTER HIM...AND KEEP FIRING ON THE DAEDALUS!" she roared. … "Ok, time to free the captives now," said Matt to himself as he ran towards the lift. A boom was heard as the Daedalus began to land hits. "Faster before Zara shoots the wrong bit." Matt muttered, diving into the lift and yelling "Cargo bay 3." ... "We lost main drive, ma'am. Icarus is way outside this old girls weight class." called Zara's tactical officer. "I've come too far to lose everything now!" snapped Daria, "I don't care what it takes, stop that ship!" "The Icarus may have better guns, but we have better management," said Zara, "Besides, if I know Matt, and I very well do, he's given them trouble of their own." However a plasma burst from the Icarus ended that as it blew several people away from their consoles. "Reactor 2 is down, down here ma'am...we lost shields and point defense...I can’t even guarantee we'll achieve orbit. We have to go." snapped the Daedalus's engineer on the intercom. "We're not leaving until the job is done," said Zara, "Keep on his, I mean, her tail." "Ma'am...we can’t arrest that bitch if we're a nuclear cloud." snapped the engineer. One of the technicians looked up at that "Ma'am...we have 2 class 12 magi signals, closing at 100 air knots...whatever the hell that they are, they are pissed." "I wouldn't be surprised if they're locals that Darius, or Nightmare, got on the wrong side of," said Zara, "Put them up on screen." A tech nodded before complying. "The smeg?" commented Zara, looking at what looked like a blue and yellow comet closing on them. "Who are they going after?" asked Zara as another hit shook them. "Looks like the Icarus." said a technician. Zara nodded "Good...they can have him." ... The captives in cargo pod 3 were a mix, zebras, griffons and ponies, all visitors to the city when it had hit. They had no idea why there were in this metal ship or who was holding them. But the sound of explosions was probably not a good sign. "Stupid humans...first we meet one of them in Manehatten and now these guys." muttered a griffon. "Bet that guy has something to do with this," said another griffon. An announcement sounded at that "All units, level 12 starboard. Target alpha is in your area and has raided security armoury 3. Full alert. Report all sightings." "What do you think's going on out there?" asked one donkey. "I dunno...hey, someone’s coming in." said a pegasus, pointing to where the door above was opening. ... The guards on the walkway above all aimed their guns at the now open door. "Who's there?" called one. There wasn't any sound for a moment but there was a metallic tinking as something across the walkway towards them. "Grena-" yelled one of the troopers before there was a blinding flash and the troopers nearest the door were blinded, an armoured figure walking round the corner and firing an auto-rail rifle at them. The troopers were cut down quickly, though the noise had left the captives nervous. The new trooper looked around before looking down at the crowd below and opening his helmet. "Hey, that IS the jerk from Manehatten!" shouted one of the griffons. "Of all the rotten luck..." muttered Matt. With no guards, the griffon flew straight up and said, "You have a lot of nerve showing your ugly mug here. After what your friends-" CLONK! The griffon landed on the walkway, a big lump on the side of his head. "Oh shut up, you chicken...I'm actually here to save all of you..." said Matt, pulling the dazed griffon’s face up and making his wrist comp display a holopic he’d taken of the girls at Raya's resort. "Have you seen these ponies recently?" he asked. The griffon just made a stunned groaning sound. "Oh for the love of-," snapped Matt before slapping the griffon a few times. "No...they said...something...about observatory." groaned the griffon. "Good chicken...now everyone make sure you're nice and sturdy and stay seated till the ride comes to a complete halt." Matt called down, walking to the door and hitting a button next to it. "Warning...cargo pod 3 primed for deployment in 10...9...8..." Matt hopping through the door before it shut. ... To watchers it would look like part of the ship broke off from damage from the Daedalus until the part falling away deployed boosters to land safely. ... "My lady...the sacrificials...they've been ejected." panicked a technician in the observatory, the girls held in place surrounding a perfect clone of the stands that Twilight and Applejack had seen in the dam facility. "Setbacks, setbacks, always setbacks!" snapped Daria, "I suppose I’ll have to use something else for the ritual now." "I'll need to work on....ma'am?" said another technician as what looked like two comets shot past the ship to stop in front of them, ignoring the retreating Daedalus which was already vanishing under its cloak. "Oh no, not them," moaned Daria, "I thought the anti-teleportation devices would keep them longer." The comets immediately shot at the Icarus. ... Matt was stuck in a firefight when the wall between them exploded, a blue light shooting by. "Bloody hell!" snapped Matt. Fortunately, he was able to grab onto the side of a bulkhead before the air pressure sucked the other troopers out the hole. "WRONG SIDE!” he yelled for all the good it would do as another explosion indicated another hit. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who was tearing holes in the ship. "Memo...never get on Celestia's or Luna's bad side." he said to himself before several more troopers ran into view, took aim...and fell to the floor, gripping their heads and screaming. "That's weird, I haven't started singing yet," said Matt. He headed over to see blood pooling and the troopers definitely dead as dodos. Matt gulped and began running for the observatory where a light was leaking under the doors. "That's not a good sign. But I'm not leaving my friends with that maniac, crashing ship or not," said Matt before kicking open the door. He was immediately blinded by the light that highlighted a shape between the artifacts that were shrieking. "GIRLS!" he yelled, before seeing energy limbs trying to grab Twilight, to no affect it seemed as they were repelled by something else. Daria noticed Matt had entered the room and shouted, "Stay back, you fool! You'll ruin the ritual!" "Oh shut up." called Matt, firing a pulse blast at Daria and knocking her flying. The girls were dropped by the magical restraints that were holding them in place and the three artifacts dropped out of the air as well. "That was unpleasant," said Rarity dizzily. "I hoped I wouldn't have to do that again," said Fluttershy. The ship shook again at that. "I think it’s time to land this before we crash this." said Matt, urgently. "I think we can fly everyone out, right Fluttershy?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I think so, if there's not too many to carry," said Fluttershy. "Yeah...I dropped the people they were holding off...they're a couple of miles back...they're fine." said Matt, adding “I however cannot fly that well...we gotta land this...this ship’s a floating bomb." "Where can we land this?" asked Twilight. "Anywhere so I can power down the engines..." said Matt before an announcement said “Emergency landing required...engine overheat in progress...containment failure in: 12 minutes and counting." "Better figure out a landing place fast," said Rainbow Dash. "Warning...100% crew termination confirmed by internal...self-destruct protocol to engage." said the computer. “After we find the override...and you lot get off the ship." said Matt sternly. "But we can't just leave you here," protested Fluttershy. "Yes you can...cause we'll explode alot faster if your bosses keep blowing holes in the Icarus." yelled Matt over another impact. "But how will you escape?" asked Twilight. "Escape pod...a drop ship...grav-chute...ships have plans for this." said Matt, assuredly while thinking 'As long as they're not in bits...ulp.' "What about the magic hats?" asked Pinkie. "Put one on and get ready to jump," said Applejack. "Come on...escape pods are this way...I vote we leave these hats here to be vaporized...they're nothing but grief." said Matt. "But they're..." started Rarity. "NOTHING BUT GRIEF," said Matt sharply. The group left at that, not noticing Daria twitching from where she was slumped. ... "Code red emergency...all remaining personnel abandon ship." chimed the computer, though luckily it appeared the Princesses had ceased their attack for now. Matt raced for the bridge, thinking frantically of a safe place to crash this ship. A distant asteroid would be preferable, but he doubted he could get it any higher than it already is. It also turned out that the ship had lost most of its escape pods, the note indicated that Captain Crazy lady, aka, Daria had ejected most of them. "Finally." snapped Matt, spotting that the captain’s lifeboat, attached to the bridge was still prepped. "Ok, now to find a good place to let this wreck explode," said Matt as he looked out the viewport. It seemed that the ship had been moving away from Canterlot since its capture of the girls and artifacts because he could see the ocean not too far away. He shrugged before turning the Icarus out to sea. Once it was safely over open water, he can bail out and let it sink. “Altitude control reestablished...plotting safe detonation zone for splashdown." said the computer, Matt sighing with relief and the girls cheering. "At least that’s-OH COME ON!" said Matt, yelling as the Princesses began their attacks again. There was so much noise from the Princesses attacking, that one couldn't notice the bangs that accompanied the lumps appearing in the door, unless you were actually looking at it. "Uh, Matt..." started Pinkie. "Not now, Pinkie...I’m trying to get the outer loudspeakers working." said Matt, typing at a control board and getting constant access denied messages. "Oh, come on, it's not like anyone else is going to be using this again," snapped Matt as he bounded on the control board, oddly coinciding with the banging on the door, which looked just about ready to cave in. "Erm...Matt?" said Twilight, who had now also noticed the bumps. "WHAT? Oh poopie." snapped, Matt turning in time for a lightning bolt to demolish the door and smash him into a far console. "Ok, now you have my attention," said Matt's muffled voice as he tried to move the door off him. “That felt so good...it’s nice to stretch ones magic after such a long time." said a familiar voice. "Oh come on," snapped Matt, "Why could you stay dead like the rest of your crew?" The sound of hooves was heard before a black alicorn without a cutie mark trotted into view, surveying the group with reptilian eyes. “You gotta be kidding..." snapped Matt, getting up unsteadily. "But, you weren't in a pony's body. You couldn't have fully returned to your Nightmare form," said Twilight. "I had a backup spell to kick start the ritual in case I was...interfered with...the crew were so helpful." said the nightmare, amused. "Crew? You mean your slaves," said Rainbow Dash fiercely, "If they had any freedom of their own, they wouldn't be anywhere near you or stand for the horrors you've done." "That’s fine...they're not exactly alive anymore...AWAKEN!" the nightmare said, yelling the last word as her horn blazed. Matt immediately jumped back as a slumped technician twitched and began to slowly rise "Not zombies again," complained Matt. One of the other technicians immediately tried to grab Matt. "GIRLS, RUN!" he yelled, fighting with the undead techie. Seeing the dead starting to rise up was plenty enough encouragement for the girls to run and they quickly galloped out the door. Matt followed after them, albeit thrown. "Run faster." he yelled, before he glowed all over and was dragged back inside. "GET OUT!" he yelled before the metal in the wall plugged the open door with the same glow. Matt was rotated around to face Nightmare. "So, why keep me here?" asked Matt with a false calmness, "The bearers of the Elements of Harmony just escaped with the Primoris Corona, so why let them go and keep me?" "Revenge." said Nightmare simply before smashing Matt into another console. Matt winced before saying, "And you prioritized vengeance on me over the Elements and the Princesses, that's quite flattering." "There is no way off this vessel...and the elements will not survive when the core breaches" said Nightmare in a matter of fact voice. "You're underestimating them, yet again," said Matt. "Maybe...but you'll still be dead." said Nightmare before throwing Matt at the makeshift door. "I know at least one of us is going to die today," said Matt as he reached for a blaster one of the crew had dropped. "Really?" said Nightmare, using her telekinesis to drag it out Matts grip, crush it...and be knocked flying as it exploded, her blockage collapsing as her kinesis failed. "And you better put some effort into it if you want that one to be me," said Matt before running out the door. "GET HIM" roared Nightmare ... Matt skidded round the corner, following the girls. "In there...IN THERE!" he called, pointing to a door. "Why there?" asked Rarity. "No time for questions!" yelled Matt. The girls ran inside and turned as the hatch sealed. "Matt, what are you doing?" yelled Twilight. "Making sure you leave." said Matt, his voice dampened by the hatch before he suddenly became a dot as the lifeboat popped off. … Matt turned to see Nightmare not too far behind. "How noble, too bad you lacked the sense to leave with them," she said sarcastically. "I just need to keep you distracted...catch me if you can." said Matt, hopping round a corner. "This game is quickly become tiresome," said Nightmare before spreading her wings and commanding, "Find him, tear his limbs off. I want to drive my horn though that soft head of his." The ex-crew snarled before pursuing Matt... ... "Alert...emergency beacon unable to link to NSC Search and Rescue...stand by for amphibious landing." chimed the lifeboat computer. "What exactly does that mean?" asked Rarity. "Sounds like we're gonna get a little wet," said Applejack. "Brace for impact and please prepare your reality plug ins on your wrist computers...class 3 field detected....impacting in 3...2...1...impact." chimed the computer before the floor briefly became a wall. "That was fun, let's do it again," said Pinkie. "Let's...not..." said Twilight as they slid back onto the floor. "Alert...life support offline...blowing airlock." said the computer before a section of the roof slid away. "It's about time," said Rainbow Dash before flying up. "Where are you going?" asked Fluttershy. "To go save Matt, are you with me?" said Rainbow Dash. "Princess Luna, am I glad to see you," said Twilight. "The feeling is quite reciprocal," said Luna. "You've got to stop hitting that ship..." said Twilight before another explosion was heard from above. "My sister and I are in the midst of dismantling that monstrosity," said Luna, "As soon as it has been smote, we shall return for thee." "But Matt’s still on board!” cried Fluttershy. Luna paused and said, "That complicates matters. But why did he not egress with you and remain upon that burning vessel?" "Daria grabbed all of us and the artifacts so she could do some sort of ritual thingy to get all her powers back but Matt had freed everyone else and interrupted so she had to substitute with the rest of the crew so while she's Nightmare again, she isn't as powerful as before and Matt stayed behind to keep her occupied while we all got away," said Pinkie quickly. Luna blinked for a second before taking a deep breath, the girls plugging their ears as Luna used her 'royal voice' to yell "SISTER!" ... Meanwhile, Matt was learning just how well zombies can shoot as he ran down the corridors. "CRAPCRAPCRAP!" he swore, lowering another blastdoor as he ran. The blastdoor slammed shut, but the undead troopers still kept firing. "Why do they never run out of ammo?" complained Matt. "Because they're what you soon will be." said a voice behind him. “Oh no," moaned Matt as a familiar glow lifted him...and began to squeeze. "Now, let's see if my power is fully back," said Nightmare as she exerted more telekinetic pressure on Matt. Matt made a gagging noise as his body was squeezed before managing to drop a device to the floor, a tazer blast shocking them both. Unfortunately for Matt, instead of letting him go, Nightmare reflexively slammed into and through a wall. Matt came too to see he was slumped in a launch bay, a furious Nightmare floating through the hole e had made. "This game has gone on long enough," snapped Nightmare, "Now you shall die!" Matt looked up before apparently panicking and dragging himself back. "I...I..." began Matt, stuttering in terror and using a console for cover. "Strangely enough, though I'll revel in your death, it is your fear that gives me the most satisfaction," said Nightmare. "You...need to know something." stuttered Matt, standing up behind the console. "And what would that be?" asked Nightmare. "Look up," said Matt, pulling a lever and disengaging the cargo grapple. Confused, Nightmare turned her head upwards. On cue a cargo container landed on her with a crunch that dented the floor. "TAKE THAT...AHAHAHA!" yelled Matt. However, starry mist started to seep out from underneath the container. "Oh COME ON...STAY SQUASHED!" snapped Matt. The container was then lifted off of the floor by the mist and Matt was pretty sure where it was about to go. "ARRGH!" Matt screamed, diving for cover before the container crushed where he had just been before. The mist swirled up before resuming the form of Nightmare. "Did you really think I can be crushed so easily?" she said, "I suppose I should have suspected you were up to something when you acting so scared." "YOU'LL NEVER GET ME!" yelled Matt, running for it again. "It seems I'll have to keep trying," said Nightmare before flying after Matt. Matt ducked down behind a dropship before peering out. “Need to burn her down somehow...hmm." he said, stopping as he got an idea. "Matt, where are you?" called Nightmare, "Haven't you grown tired of this futile game yet?" “Oh no...I hope she doesn’t find me," came a sarcastic yell from the section of the bay that held several ships and vehicles. "Well, Matt, you know you cannot hide from a creature of magic.” said Nightmare before dissolving into starry mist again and floating towards where Matt's voice came from. "Oi...cheating." snapped Matt, floating into view where he was holding onto a support girder. "All games have to end sometime," said Nightmare. "Not letting go." said Matt childishly. "I'll take the whole thing if I have to," said Nightmare as the glow of her magic spread over the girder. The girder, with Matt flew forward...only for Matt to flicker? "What in Equestria?" Nightmare began before the sticky grenade on the girder went off in her face. Nightmare was knocked back into some empty crates. As she tried to get up, she found parts of her fur were stuck to one of the crates. "You little foal...how dare you...glue me?" she snapped, before hearing footsteps running towards the vehicle section of the cargo bay. With a cry of fury, she stood up. However, she did end up ripping a large part of hair out of her side. With a flash, her 'bald spots' vanished though she was now furious. "This insolence shall not be abided," snarled Nightmare before becoming mist again and drifting towards where she last saw Matt. Matt peered out, uttering "Come on, you pain...where are you?" Suddenly, Nightmare's voice echoed, "If you wish to keep playing 'cat and mouse', I think we should make it more appropriate." "Say what?" muttered Matt, peering round a corner. Suddenly, he heard an angry growling sound. Matt slowly turned around to find himself face-to-face with a huge black panther. "KITTY!" screamed Matt, running in the opposite direction. The panther roared before charging after him. "BAD KITTY...BAAAD KITTYYYYY!" screamed Matt, skidding round a corner. The panther leapt over a pile of crates and landed in front of Matt. "This is unfair...you have more legs." moaned Matt, backing up before looking up to see a Starfury hanging overhead, ready for a launch. The panther hissed, extending all of her claws and baring her fangs. Matt gulped, trying to remember what flaw the boosters on the old E series Starfuries had suffered from that had forced them to be relegated to corporation fleets before grabbing a metal bar and throwing it desperately, Nightmare swatting it up and into the booster above her. Nightmare crouched and started to spring forward when the booster suddenly ignited and shot white hot flames down upon her. Matt winced as the nightmare shrieked, Starfury booster backwash capable of vaporizing steel. Matt peered out to see the Nightmare slumped but trying to drag her way forward. "You lose." said Matt, as several explosions were heard at the same time that the core breach alarm rang. With a surge, Nightmare resumed her equine form, but she still couldn't stand up. "I...will not...lose...alone..." she hissed. "True...but at least you go boom." said Matt, happily. "Your death...will be...swifter...and much more painful..." hissed Nightmare as her mane tried to grab at him. Matt jumped back at that before a louder crash was heard and water began to pour in through a breach. "Better be quick...our flight has landed." taunted Matt. Nightmare hissed and tried to crawl closer, her mane making more swipes at Matt. Matt dodged back again. "Erm...help?" he whimpered as he backed into a crate. "Core breach imminent...detonation in 10...9...8…" said the computer. Nightmare smiled and said, "If I must be destroyed, at least I have the satisfaction of taking you with me." Matt gulped before there was a blaze of light that blinded them both and another that left the Nightmare alone. "No...NO...NOOOO!" screamed the equine as the computer calmly said "5...4...3...2...1...thank you..." ... The Icarus was already below the waves when the core gave out, a dome of energy appearing before blasting skywards. The girls who were watching from the shore now gave a gasp of horror. The blast seemed to contract until there was one final flash and thunderclap and a ring of energy shot out in all directions harmlessly. Princess Luna materialized a second later, a blackened Matt gibbering to himself before falling face first into the surf, where he sizzled. "It was...a very narrow escape," remarked Luna, who looked rather winded. "I hurt all over." bubbled Matt from where he was laying down. The girls immediately ran over to him. "Gently, he needs to recover," said Luna. "I agree...I feel like a hot dog...barbequed." rasped Matt "Then we should take him to the hospital," said Celestia, "As soon as possible." ... 2 days later... Matt tossed one of the burnt planks aside. With the Skyraid burnt so went his last chance off Equis. However, there was a plus side in that everyone treated him nicely now. Well, except Blueblood, but he kept away from Matt, which was pretty nice. He looked up to see the girls and Aria headed his way. "Don’t want to hear it...I know you're nice but I'm not staying...maybe I'll go exploring the planet." he said. "Matt, you're not completely out of options," said Aria. "Name one." said Matt, throwing another piece of rubble aside. "The rip engine," said Aria. "There isn't any rip engine." said Matt, annoyed at that. "There is in the dropship," said Aria. Matt stopped at that "And you didn’t tell me...why?" Aria, sensing Matt losing it, said "The Icarus would have shot us down the second they detected the engine charging." "And since the Icarus is destroyed, that means you can go home now," said Twilight cheerfully. Matt sighed at that "I was actually getting used to the peace and quiet." he said to himself before turning around. "Let’s get ready then." "Do you have to leave now? Everyone was starting to really like you," said Fluttershy. Aria said "We have a trial to get too..." Matt nodding "Aria's got to testify to what Executive Genetics has done all the times I’ve met them." "Can't we at least throw you a going away party?" asked Pinkie. Aria shrugged "I don’t see why not...it'll be weeks before another EGIS ships nearby." Pinkie let out a squeal of joy before saying, "Oh, there's so much to do. I better get ready." She zoomed off so fast it was almost like teleporting. ... Matt had to admit, when Pinkie threw a party, she really threw a party. Seems like everyone in Ponyville had shown up to wish him well. He even spotted Twilights brother, out of his armor and talking to a pink alicorn. "One hell of a party." he muttered. "Yes, it is quite a festival," said a voice beside him. Matt turned and saw Princess Luna. "Uh, not that I don't appreciate it, but don't you have nightly duties to attend to?" asked Matt. "I wished to ask you...what happened to the Corona Primas?" asked Luna gravely, adding "You have seen what they can do...you know how dangerous they are." Matt shook his head "The exploding reactor would have had enough force to make Canterlot's mountain into a crater...no little crown could survive it," he said. "I wish I could be that certain, but it said that those crowns are indestructible," said Luna. "Even if they did survive, they're at the bottom of the ocean where nopony can get them," said Matt. "I hope so...now then...thou should play a game we heard of...involving pinning a tail." said Luna... ... The next day, Matt and Aria were packing stuff into the dropship. Well, Aria was doing most of the packing. Matt was recovering from the revelries from the night before. "What...did she...put...in that......punch?" rasped Matt, still not over the sheer sugar overload from it. "Analysis shows that the punch contained various types of fruit juice, a generous amount of sugar, and extravagant portions of soda pop," said Aria. "I'm glad I still keep my old diabetes kit on hand...it overloaded my medical nanites," moaned Matt. "I have a feeling it may do it to anyone, though most would end up a vibrating blur than passing out," said Aria. "True...lets go before the girls turn up...I hate goodbyes...I've said it with finality to too many people..." said Matt before stopping as he heard hoofsteps. "Sorry Matt, I just couldn't say no," said Aria. Matt sighed "Prep us for takeoff." he said before turning as the Girls walked into view with the Princesses apparently there too. "Matt, I would personally like to offer my sincere gratitude for all you have done for us," said Princess Celestia. "No...I won't accept that." said Matt, causing the girls to gasp. “If I hadn’t come here, none of this would have happened. Las Pegasus wouldn’t be one big construction site, Canterlot wouldn’t be repairing and alot of people on the Icarus and here would still be in the land of the living." "None of that was your fault," said Twilight, "It was all Darius or Nightmare's fault." "But if I hadn't come, Darius wouldn't have come either," said Matt. "I have to get out of here and to the core holes before Exo Gene sends more ships...they won’t give up till I get them arrested." he continued. "You do know that you'll always be welcome back here," said Celestia. "Maybe...but not for a while...there's alot of things I have to do first." said Matt. "Ok, don't make us come after you," said Pinkie before hugging Matt. "I won't...just...promise you won’t mess with what’s left of the Skyraid..." said Matt. "Well, it's not like there's anything in there that we could use," said Applejack. "Cool...one more thing though...cause the guys will never believe me otherwise." said Matt, pulling a device off his wrist comp and placing it on a tree stump before running over to the others and turning to it. “Say cheese." he said. ... Matt saved the holosnap to his wrist comp before looking out the viewport at the now welcome multihued sight of a rip rift. "How we doing, Aria?" he said into the com. "Rift beacon detected, Kelvin 229...core sector..." said the autopilot before the ship was flooded with light, a voice saying "This is central station control to unknown vessel...kill your engines..." ... <Intercepted Transmission> ...and we have just received word that the entirety of the Executive Genetics board of directors has been found guilty as charged for repeated violation of the NSC charter. Newly promoted Captain M, J Lynch is considered to be responsible after retrieving the AI that presented the damning evidence to the Council tribunal. In related news, the search for the missing ship, the CBC Daedalus was called off today after rift storms cut off the uncharted sectors indefinitely... ... The self-destruct systems on the facility long buried below Ponyville dam had, at the height of the facility’s use, been inspected and mock-tested every week. As such when the facility had finally engaged the explosions, one section had failed to detonate, a room containing harmless looking devices...pne of which began to beep. ... At the bottom of the sea, there was little left of the Icarus, most of it was destroyed in the explosion. However, there was something that shown brightly. The three Prima Coronas had remained unharmed by the destruction of the ship, though they were nestled on the ocean floor far from prying eyes. Or they would have been if a shadow wasn't moving among the wreckage. The crowns weren't hard to miss and they definitely attracted its attention. After a bit of careful observation, the shadow swam forward, snatched up the hats, and swam away in a flurry of fins.
Dusty	785	1	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-12T02:28:09+00:00	2011-09-12T02:28:09+00:00	1,699	The Everfree forest, a place that darkness calls home, where all sorts of wild creatures run wild, and bad intentions can be felt in the air. In the center of it though, in the ruins of castle long forgotten by ponykind, a great power rested. The trees stayed away from the castle, almost as if afraid of the power that lurked within. Within those walls, the Elements of Harmony once rested, ready to be retrieved when they were needed. They are gone now though, resting in the hearts of six brave ponies until they are needed once more. However, in a room deep beneath the castle, a lone unicorn began to stir. ~ It was a dark and gloomy day in Ponyville. An unscheduled shower had made its way to the town and was now raining down upon the ponies scurrying about with a mighty downpour. In a mighty tree, carved out into a home, three ponies found refuge from the storm; Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. "Thank you ever so much for allowing us to stay, Twilight." Fluttershy said, almost in a whisper. The pony was stressed to her wits end by the storm, jumping at the tiniest roars of thunder. "It's no problem at all girls, you're lucky you were so close to my house when the storm hit." Twilight responded. "Ugh, I could have this storm cleared in no time! It'd just take a few good kicks, hyah!" Rainbow dash yelled, kicking her hind legs into the air. "Please Rainbow, you wouldn't even be able to see where you're flying in this storm. Why didn't the weather team say anything about this anyways?" Twilight asked as she looked out the window. She could only see a few inches out of her window before the view was pitch black. "Dunno. It just came out of nowhere. By the time we noticed it, it was already here." Rainbow said, also looking out the window. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, lighting up the pitch-black Ponyville for a split second. The lightning was soon followed by a loud crash of thunder that shook the house, and sent Fluttershy into a shaking frenzy. "Fluttershy, stop being such a scaredy-horse!" Rainbow commanded. "But it's so... Loud..." She said, closing her eyes tight. "It's late girls, let's just get some sleep. I'm sure by the time we wake up, this storm will have passed." Twilight began making her way up the stairs, stopping once to look out her window again, "I hope..." she added, quietly. ~ In the Everfree forest, a young unicorn had just found his way out of a hidden room, deep within the now abandoned castle. His elegant white coat set him apart against the dark background that was the forest, but his black mane blended nicely. His mane appeared to be professionally styled upwards, undamaged from whatever put him in that room. His tail was short and trimmed, lacking the style his hair had. The most striking feature of the unicorn though, was his brilliant blue eyes, although their brilliance was diminished from the several veins in his eyes, making the appeared bloodshot. He stumbled out of the castle into a doorway, now looking into the Everfree forest, his heart started pounding wildly, and his breath grew faster. Adrenaline pumped through him as he felt the claws of fear sink into him. "Where am I?" He asked the night. ~ The next morning in Ponyville was not what Twilight had hoped for. The storm was over, but the clouds still lingered, darkening the village. As she looked out her window, she saw several ponies fixing whatever was damaged around the town; picking up stray branches, hanging up flags that had blown off, and re-opening several stalls that were closed for the storm. Twilight made her way to her mirror and began taming her wild mane with a brush, levitating it easily with her magic. She caught the reflection as Fluttershy waking up in the guest bed behind her. "Good morning, Fluttershy." Twilight said in a cheery voice. "I hope you slept well." "Oh, yes. I did, thank you again for letting me stay." "It's no problem at all, you ponies are welcome here anytime you like. Hey, where's Rainbow Dash?" "I believe she decided to sleep downstairs." Fluttershy looked to the ground, remembering the awkwardness Dash showed at the idea of the two sharing the same bed. "That lazy pegasus is probably still asleep." Twilight began descending the stairs and found Rainbow Dash still asleep on the couch. Fluttershy followed Twilight downstairs to find Dash in an uncomfortable looking position. "Ooh, I should of gave her the bed. She looks so uncomfortable." Fluttershy said, becoming upset with herself. Rainbow Dash opened an eye at the noise. She rose from her sleeping position and stretched, causing several cracks to be heard in her back. "This is what I get for not sleeping on a cloud..." Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her back with a hoof. "You could of slept on the bed, ya know?" Was Twilight's response. Rainbow Dash's face grew a shade redder, "I... Kick in my sleep. I didn't want to hurt Fluttershy. We all know how fragile she is, aheheh." "Whatever you say, it looks like the storm's over now. I think we might have to get to work around town; there's quite a mess out there." Twilight said, once again looking out her window, hoping to see a different scene than the dreary one laid out before her. "Those pegasus ponies must be getting lazy. It still looks so dark out." Rainbow Dash joinedi n looking out the window. "How ironic..." Twilight said. "I'd better get out there and show them how it's done. Thanks for letting us stay over Twilight." And with that Rainbow was out the door and in the sky. "Uhm, I'd better go too. I'm sure all the animals are worried. Thank you very much Twilight." And with that, Twilight was alone, she sighed at the clouds that still lingered. She had a sick feeling in her stomach. She pushed on though, she knew she had work to do around the town. She put on a pair of boots, and then headed out, closing the door behind her. There was a lot to do today, and she intended to help as much as she could. ~ The unicorn had finally made his way down the steps to the forests ground. His vision blurred in and out, and his ears rang. The unicorn pressed on though determined to find out where he was, and what had happened to him. He couldn't remember anything at all though, everything was a blank to him. The more he thought back, the more his ears rang, and the more a headache threatened to make him pass out again. He pressed the thought from his head, the very idea of sleep frightened him. His hooves moved clumsily through the forest and he felt weak. Trees were his only support through the forest, and he often found himself leaning on them to catch his breath. With no sense of direction, or destination, he set off into the Everfree forest. ~ Ponyville was finally getting back on track. Shops were opening back up, and the town was getting cleared of all the debris. Twilight Sparkle galloped through town with a pair of saddlebags on her back. She was on her way to Fluttershy's house, whom had requested her help with searching for a rare mushroom. "Sorry I'm late Fluttershy. I had to organize a few books." Twilight said, a little out of breath. "Oh no, It's no problem at all. You really should have taken your time." "So, what are we looking for exactly?" Twilight said as she levitated a book all about plant-life out of her saddle bag. "Oh, it's a purple mushroom with white dots on it. I need a few of them to mix up into Angel's food. The poor bunny has came down with a tummy ache, and the mushroom is a powerful medicine." "Ah, here it is. the 'Goaway Mushroom.' Named for making pain 'Go away.' Is this what it looks like?" Twilight asked, turning the book for Fluttershy to see. "Yes, that's the one." She said with a simple nod. The book turned back to Twilight, "OK, it says here it grows in damp, dark places, like most mushrooms. It's most common place is in... The Everfree forest." Twilight said as a chill slid up her spine. "Now you see why I couldn't go by myself." Fluttershy said, kicking at the ground with her hoof. "It's no big deal, we'll just pop in, grab a few mushrooms, and then pop out. No problem at all." Twilight in a cheery and assertive tone, trying to calm the now frightened pegasus. "Right." Was all she said. ~ The white unicorn pressed on, turning back every now and again to check the progress he had made form the castle. He had been at his forceful trek for what felt like an hour, but he had put barely any distance between him and the abandoned castle. He turned away from it, and then kept pushing his hooves forward. Each step made his legs heavier, and his vision blur more. He stopped to lean on a tree, but soon found this was as far as he was to go. His vision went black all at once, and his body went numb. His mind screamed at him to stay awake, but his body just wasn't able to push any harder. The unicorn collapsed into a still pile in the forest, his breathing, and his heart, began to slow. ~ Fluttershy and Twilight had just arrived at the edge of the Everfree forest. A chill could be felt coming from the forest that would make a ponies mane stand on end. "No big deal, just in and out." Twilight repeated, this time attempting to calm herself down. The two ponies pushed themselves forward into the forest, and into the darkness. What they didn't notice though, were the clouds over Ponyville beginning to break, and disappear.
Dusty	785	2	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-09T03:59:11+00:00	2011-09-09T03:59:11+00:00	1,706	Twilight and Fluttershy worked quickly trying to gather to the necessary amount of mushrooms, not wanting to spend another second in the dark forest. The mushrooms didn't grow near the edge of the Everfree forest, so the duo had to delve a little deeper into the maze of trees. With every step into the forest, the air seemed to get colder. Fluttershy could barely move an inch in the dark forest, so Twilight did most of the gathering. "Should this be enough?" Twilight asked, holding up five of the Goaway Mushrooms. "Oh yes, that should be enough for a while." Fluttershy said, almost whispering. The pony was shaking from the cold, and the fear. "Good, let's got ahead and leave then." Twilight said as she started leaving the forest. Fluttershy stood still, her eyes wide, staring off into the forest. "Come on Fluttershy, let's go. The sooner we get out of this forest the better." "Twilight..." Fluttershy whispered as she lowered her head to the ground. Twilight turned and saw a white unicorn leaning against a tree, he wasn't moving, and his eyes were closed. "Oh no." Twilight said, her adrenaline started pumping, her mind raced with ideas expecting the worst. Fluttershy followed behind Twilight, her caring side overpowered the fear that she felt. "Oh Twilight is he OK?" Fluttershy asked, approaching the unicorn. Twilight lowered herself to the ground and examined the unicorn. She closed her eyes and her horn began glowing a mystical purple, as did the white unicorns body. "He's breathing, barely. He needs help though, and now." She said levitating the body into the air. "My cottage is the closest place to here, let's hurry." Fluttershy said before galloping off with Twilight following behind. ~ It was many days until the unicorn awoke. He shot up out of his slumber in a sweat, breathing heavily. The sudden jerk sent signals of pain rushing all over his body as it protested to the sudden movement. He felt stiff, like his body couldn't move. He slowly laid his head back down on the pillow and clenched his teeth to avoid grunting in pain. He slowly began working his body up to moving capability through small movements and stretches, but before he could get up, Fluttershy entered the room. "Oh, you're awake! How wonderful!" The pegasus said, trotting over to the bed. The unicorn looked at her with nervous and frightened look. "It's OK, there's nothing to be afraid of. Me and my friend found you out in the Everfree Forest. We thought you were..." Fluttershy's sentence trailed off as she looked at the ground not wanting to even think of a pony encountering such a fate. The unicorn felt a little at ease after hearing the soft soothing voice assure him of his safety. He visibly relaxed, and his face turned to simply a puzzled look. "This is my cottage, you're in Ponyville now." The unicorn looked at her still with a perplexed look. Fluttershy tried to smile, but it came off as awkward, "So, what is your name?" The unicorn looked down at the sheets, going through his thoughts. "I... Don't know." The unicorn said suddenly feeling fear wash over him. Fluttershy was the one wearing a look of confusion now, "Oh dear, I think this is a job for Twilight. Uhm, stay in bed, please. I'll be right back." And with that Fluttershy galloped out of the room, and out of sight. The unicorn continued looking down, trying to retrace his steps. He remembered waking up in a room. The floor was marble, and the walls were stone. He awoke on a throne that was seemingly made of diamond. Upon it was several engravings of the sun and moon. The same symbols decorated the wall. In front of the throne was a red door with golden trim. Upon it was a picture of a black pony facing a white pony. None of it made sense to the unicorn. He remembered the door having no handle, but he could push it open. There was a winding staircase which led to the abandoned castle he was in. He remembered walking away from it, and then collapsing. 'But what happened before that... Why was I in that room?' the unicorn asked himself. He tried to trace his memories back further, to no avail. It was all blank, like it never happened. He couldn't remember who he was, what happened to him, or anything. The only clue he had was a mark on his flank. It was a picture of the sun. He looked over and on a desk beside the bed was a few apples and a glass of water. The unicorn's stomach then began to growl wildly, reminding him that he hadn't ate in who knows how long. He leaned over and got an apple with his mouth and started eating it slowly. The fruit tasted great to him, and his stomach thanked him for it. He began eating quicker until all the apples were gone. He tried to get a drink of water by biting the glass with his teeth and tilting the glass up, but to no avail. He sat the glass back down and with a sigh, laid his head back down. He still felt a tad drowsy, and getting some sleep he actually expected seemed like a good idea as well. ~ "And he doesn't remember anything at all?" Twilight asked as she entered Fluttershy's house. "Oh, I'm afraid so Twilight, and I just had no idea what to do, and I felt awful." "It's OK Fluttershy, I'm sure there's a spell we can find that will solve this problem." The two ascended the stairs to a now sleeping unicorn. As the two arrived though, one of his eyes slowly opened. After he realized there were new arrivals he raised his head up. "Oh, sorry to disturb your nap." Twilight said. The unicorn shook his head. "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Fluttershy." "Hello." The pegasus pony said, sheepishly. "And from what I understand, you seem to have a memory problem?" The unicorn dropped his gaze to the ground. "Not to worry though, there should be a spell in this book that should solve that problem." Twilight said as she levitated a book out of her saddlebag. The unicorn looked shocked, he then noticed that this pony had a horn like he did, and she was levitating a book in thin air Twilight caught on to his surprised look, "Don't tell me you forgot how to use your magic too." The unicorn only continued to stare at the ground. "This is much worse then I thought..." Twilight began flipping through the pages of the book rapidly as she approached the unicorn. "For this to work, you're going to have to trust me, and open your mind to me. Can you do that?" She asked. The unicorn looked concerned for a bit, but nodded; anything to get his memories back. As Twilight's horn began to glow, so did the white unicorn. Twilight closed her eyes and began to focus, attempting to bring memories to the surface. The white unicorn also closed his eyes, trying not to hold anything back, or push Twilight out. Twilight's brow furrowed, she was obviously upset about something. "There's something...Blocking me. Something that doesn't want me to bring these memories out." She let out a small grunt and tried her best to force through the block. The glowing intensified for a second but then a loud crack was heard and Twilight was thrown back as the white unicorn let out a grunt of pain. "A-anything?" Twilight asked, rubbing her head. The white unicorn began to slowly open his eyes, "M-my name, is... Lucent."
Dusty	785	3	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-09T15:23:23+00:00	2011-09-09T15:23:23+00:00	1,161	Twilight smiled with joy, at least the spell was a minor success. "Great! The spell worked, a little bit anyways. Is there anything else you remember?" Twilight strolled closer to the unicorn, curious. Lucent closed his eyes, trying to think, trying to remember. The darkness that clouded his thoughts seemed thinner now, as if he could make shapes of figures beyond it. Minor things were coming back to him; his name, his ability to use magic, common sense, speech. But the trail of memories ended there. Something still blocked him from digging deeper, from reaching those memories that felt so important to him. "No." Lucent shook his head with a sigh. "Well, don't worry. I'll just have to find another spell and try harder." Twilight was determined to solve this mystery. Something forcefully blocked her from awakening some of Lucent's memories, some form of magic. She knew this unicorn was tied to something bigger. For some reason or another, someone had cast a spell on him to lock away memories. And not just certain ones, all of them. Someone wanted this unicorn to be a shell of a person. Twilight was able to awaken deep rooted memories, but her spell wasn't enough for the bigger ones. She cracked her book back open, flipping through pages wildly. When she was through one book, another levitated out of her bag and she began going through it. "I-is there anything I can get you?" Fluttershy asked. "No thank you." Lucent said, but at that moment his stomach let out another growl which betrayed his lips. Fluttershy giggled at the display, "Just hold on, I'll go get you some more apples." Fluttershy descended the stairs and was then out of sight. Twilight let out a sigh as she set the second book down, she couldn't find anything on memory seals. "This will be a bit trickier then I thought." Twilight levitated a third book out of her saddlebags. "This all really isn't necessary Miss... Twilight, was it?" Lucent spoke very elegantly. "It's no trouble at all! Besides, the seal on your memory intrigues me. I've never seen anything like it before!" Lucent looked troubled, "There's a seal on my memory?" Twilight's eyes widened as she realized she said a bit too much, she sighed and slowly closed the book she was going though, "Yes. I'm afraid that somepony, or something, put a seal on your memories so you couldn't reach them." Lucent looked down, clearly upset. What had he done to anger anypony? What did her do to deserve this? "It's OK. Me and my friends can help you, we've dealt with worse things in the past, I'm sure." Twilight spoke with a very cheerful expression, obviously proud of the powers her and her friends held. 'Friends.' The phrase warmed Lucent a bit. He smiled for the first time since he had awoken. "There you go." Twilight said with a sincere smile. She retrieved her book and returned to exploring it. ~ Hours seemed to pass as Twilight read, an re-read her books. Fluttershy would ask questions to Lucent and he would answer what he could; his favorite color was orange, he couldn't remember how old her was, he couldn't remember his parents, his favorite food was apples (At this the pegasus giggled), the questioning went on. Fluttershy wanted desperately to help all she could, but this seemed like something her love and caring couldn't fix, and it called for magic. "Oh, Lucent, if it's OK may I ask another question?" Fluttershy always had a nervous look when she asked, as if she was going to get rejected. Lucent, who had warmed up to the pegasus pony, smiled warmly "Of course not." "Uhm, OK then, well, do you remember how you earned your cutie mark?" Lucent looked down at his cutie mark, the image of the sun looked back at him, "It's just, we know another pony who has a similar mark, and she's a princess." Lucent's eyebrow raised, "A princess?" "Yes! Princess Celestia of Equestria. She raises the sun every day over Equestria." 'Princess Celestia' Lucent said to himself in his mind. The name seemed to want to make a connection with one of the figures on the other side of the darkness in his mind, but he just couldn't make the connection. He could feel the seal grow only the slightest bit weaker at the thought though. "That name...Sounds really familiar." Lucent said looking back up. "It does? Oh, how wonderful!" Fluttershy was excited that she may of helped, even the tiniest bit. "Yes, but I can't quite place why it does. To answer your question though Fluttershy, I'm afraid I don't remember how I earned my cutie mark." "Oh..." Fluttershy said, a bit disappointed. "Princess Celestia? That name sounds familiar to you?" Twilight asked, her curiosity peaked. "Indeed. It's like when I think about it, it tries to make a connection with my lost memories, but something stops it. I assume it's the 'seal' that you said has been placed on me. But also, at the thought, the seal weakens ever so slightly." Twilight's eyes lit up at the discovery. "That's it then! We just have to make enough connections to your lost memories that the seal weakens enough for me to break it!" Twilight was excited that she may be able to break the spell after all. "What about princess Luna, do you remember her?" Fluttershy asked, trying to pick a subject that was related to Celestia. Lucent closed his eyes, trying to match the name to a figure. The name sent connections out to several figures. "Yes, the name does seem familiar to me. It sparked many connections within my mind. Thank you Fluttershy." "Oh, it's no problem at all." The pegasus said with a warm smile. "What about Canterlot, the city where the Princess' live?" Lucent closed his eyes once more, thinking hard. Something seemed wrong about that phrase, but it still made connections in his mind. "Yes. That helped as well." "Well, it's obvious that you still remember somethings about Equestrian history. We should go to my library, there are many books there that could get you up to speed on Equestria." Lucent climbed out of bed, he felt stronger now. He could stand without wobbling, and walk without tilting. Lucent gave a nod to Twilight and the trio set out for the library, hoping to find some answers. ~ At Twilight's library, before the trio arrived, a rainbow pegasus was questioning a baby dragon. "What do you mean she's not here? She's always here! Reading books is all she does!" Rainbow Dash said with a laugh. "She's just not here. She rushed in, grabbed a few books, and then rushed out. She woke me up from my nap with all her rummaging." Spike said with an annoyed expression. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Lucent could be seen on the horizon as they approached the library. Rainbow Dash hovered in place a bit before flying over the the trio. "Twilight! I've been looking for you all day!" Rainbow was facing Twilight but flying backwards as the trio walked forwards. "Me? What do you need Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow Dash looked left and right, making sure a certain somepony wasn't around. She then leaned in close and whispered "Do you know a spell that would make a pony all asleep?" At that moment a loud, high pitched "RAINBOW DAAAASH!" Was heard in the distance. A pink pony with mane and tail of what appeared to be cotton candy bounced into view. "Rainbow Dash, I was looking everywhere for you! I need a favor!" Pinkie Pie said. Rainbow Dash sighed and collapsed to the ground. "I give up..." She said, defeated. "Great! It'll only take a Pinkie Pie second!" "Does this involve another prank?" Rainbow Dash asked with a hint of hope in her voice. Pinkie Pie only giggled, "Maybe!" and with that the Pink pony started bouncing off with the pegasus floating behind her asking about what prank they would pull. "As long as they stay away from me with those pranks." Twilight said, as they entered the library. ~ Twilight pulled book after book from the shelves of the library, creating a neat stack on a table. "These should cover most of Equestrian history." Twilight settled one last book onto the pile. "Thank you, Twilight." Lucent said as he magically levitated a book over to him. It was the first time he had used his magic since waking up, and the book wobbled a bit. He could feel himself getting the hang of it though as he flipped the pages with his magic as well. "We should leave you to your studies. We will be upstairs if you need us." Twilight and Fluttershy ascended the stairs. Lucent read through the first book, 'Early Beginnings of Equestira: How Equestria was Made.' The book described the early beginnings of the world. It told of four alicorns; Terra, Aqua, Ignis, and Ventus. These four alicorns were the ones who shaped the world of Equestria into what it was now. Terra crafted the ground, and Aqua cut through the ground with her mighty oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams. Ignis brought fire, and with it power to the land. Finally, Ventus brought the wind and with it, the air and skies. They created two more alicorns who would actually interact with the subjects of the world, they created Luna and Celestia. With Celestia, came the sun. With Luna, came the moon. With that, the world was split into two, light and dark. The original four alicorns took to the heavens, watching over their creation from high above. Luna and Celestia created the first of pony kind; the unicorn. It had the horn and magic of the alicorns, but lacked the ability to roam the skies. They then created the pegasus, a pony with wings, capable of sailing the great ocean that was the sky. Finally, they created the earth pony. It lacked the magic alicorns had, or the wings that pegasi had, but it had a connection with the world, and could feel it. The ponies they created wouldn't move though, they lacked motivation, they lacked a reason to move. Celestia and Luna gave them motives; they created kindness, loyalty, honesty, laughter, and generosity. These were known as The Elements of Harmony. Lucent read on in the book, connections shot out left and right as he read through the chapters of the book. Parts of it seemed wrong, and other parts filled blank spaces in his head. He finished the book and moved on to 'Laws of Ponyville: Stop Right There Criminal Scum!' ~ "Are you sure this will help Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. "...No. But it's the only lead we have." "Who IS he anyways?" Spike asked. "His name is Lucent, we found him collapsed in the Everfree forest, and he can't remember anything." A knock was heard from Twilight's balcony. As they all looked over, they saw Rainbow Dash on the other side of the glass with a scowl on her face. Twilight opened the glass door, allowing Rainbow to walk inside, it was then that they noticed she was dripping wet. "Rainbow? What happened? It's not even raining outside." Twilight asked as she checked outside to be sure. When she did, she noticed a wall of rain heading for the tree. She quickly closed the doors and the rain began pounding on the tree house. "Another storm?" Fluttershy asked, already starting to shake a bit. "Rainbow? I didn't hear anything about a storm today." Twilight said. "It was another storm that came out of nowhere. I was out helping Pinkie when the weather team found me. We tried our best to stop it, but the more we kicked the clouds, the bigger the storm got." Twilight could feel a chill as the storm grew louder and angrier. Fluttershy noticed Twilight tremble a bit, "Twilight, what's wrong?" "I don't think this storm is natural. I think something causing it. I felt it with the last one, but I didn't think anything of it. This one though, I can feel a lot of magic floating around in the air." "Oh no..." Was all Fluttershy could say. ~ Lucent closed the book on Ponyville law. Most of it seemed like common sense anyways, so he only skimmed through it. The next book was a book on the Elements of Harmony. Lucent remembered the first book he read saying something about them. He opened the book and began reading. The book told of the Elements of Harmony and their history. It re-told the story of Luna and Celestia creating the elements. It also told of a method of harnessing the elements through stone orbs. These orbs were created when Luna suddenly turned against Celestia out of jealousy and attempted to overthrow her. Celestia had used the elements against Luna and defeated her sister, banishing her to the moon. Something about the story didn't click to Lucent, he didn't understand how jealousy or anger could take someone to such extremes. It almost saddened him to even consider it. He closed the book, his eyes were stinging from such intense reading. Lucent approached the stairs and tapped the bottom one with his hoof, as if he was knocking. "Miss Twilight, may I come up?" He asked. "Oh, of course Lucent." Lucent ascended the stairs to find himself in the presence of not two, but three ponies. The Rainbow one from earlier, and the other two ponies were sitting in a semicircle in the floor. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Lucent asked. "Oh, of course not. We were just discussing the storm outside." Twilight said. "So, you're the forgetful unicorn?" Rainbow Dash spoke up. Lucent's gaze dropped to the ground and he gave a slight nod. "Speaking of which, did you learn anything?" Twilight asked. Lucent's gaze rose back up to Twilight, "Oh, yes. A lot actually." "Maybe we should try breaking the seal again?" Twilight asked. "I would like to try again, if that is OK with you Miss Twilight." Lucent said, bowing his head. Twilight approached Lucent and closed her eyes as her horn began to glow. Rainbow Dash looked at the two confused, with no idea what was happening. Lucent's horn began to glow as well, along with his entire head. Twilight examined the seal again in her minds eye, it was definitely weaker then last time. She concentrated hard, trying her bast to break the chains on his memory. She felt like she could almost put a scratch on it. Before she could though, it rejected her. Twilight was pushed back again, and she landed with a thud. Lucent let out a small yelp of pain as well, but no new memories surfaced. "Anything?" Twilight asked as she rose to her hooves. Lucent simply shook his head. "I didn't want to resort to this, but we're going to need help to make sense of things. And I think I know the only person who can help. Spike, take a letter..."
Dusty	785	4	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-10T03:16:26+00:00	2011-09-10T03:16:26+00:00	1,257	"Dear Princess Celestia, Today we discovered the body of a collapsed unicorn in the Everfree Forest. Me and my friend Fluttershy have been working diligently to nurse this unicorn back to health. There is something odd though, the unicorn in question has no recollection of his past! I'm afraid a crime has been committed against him, as I did discover a spell that temporarily bars his memory. We need your help in dissolving this seal, and bringing the criminal to justice. Please respond with haste. Always your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle" "Alright, Spike, send it!" The tiny dragon took a deep breath, holding the scroll in front of his face. As he exhaled a green jet of flame shot out, incinerating the scroll. The smoke however drifted out the window, ethereal magic guiding it to its destination. "She should respond urgently, the princess always does when she sees an urgent note from her faithful student." Twilight said with a tone of superiority. This was not the case though. Hours passed and the group heard nothing from the princess. ~ In the royal city of Canterlot, an urgent message appeared in front of Princess Celestia. "Is it a note from, Twilight?" Her sister Luna asked. Luna, whom was recently freed from the grasps of Nightmare Moon, was at a loss when it came to friendship and was using Twilights notes to learn more about making friends, and the power that was friendship. "Yes, it is little sister." Celestia said with a smile. She loved seeing the signs of her pupil growing more knowledgeable, more experienced. Celestia's smile soon faded, and a look of worry replaced it. "Luna, I have to go. Tend to the castle while I'm gone." Celestia rose to her feet and began to leave. "Sister! What's happened? Is Twilight OK?" Luna asked, her voice filled with worry and fear. Celestia took flight once she was outside. Several guards tried to ask where she was going, or attempted to follow her. The princess was too fast and powerful though, easily outracing any of the guards. "Big sister, wait!" Luna called, also stepping outside. Luna took the skies as well and followed her sister the best she could. ~ "Maybe she's asleep?" Spike suggested. "Alicorn's don't need to sleep Spike." Twilight said. Suddenly the door downstairs opened. "That's strange, I didn't hear a knock." Twilight rose to her feet and began to head downstairs. The gang followed, once they were all downstairs, they then realized they were in the company of Princess Celestia. All the ponies bowed except for Lucent. After noticing the other though, he also dipped his head into a low bow. "Princess Celestia, Thank you fo-" Twilight was interrupted by Celestia's overpowering voice. "I should of known that with the awakening of the elements, you too would have awoken." Celestia said, looking straight at Lucent. "E-Excuse me?" Lucent wore a perplexed look, which slowly turned to fear as Celestia approached him. "Do you remember anything?" She asked him. Lucent simply shook his head, "No, nothing other than simple memories." "Good, then all is not lost." Celestia said. Luna entered the room, "Sister!" "Luna, you shouldn't have come." Celestia turned to her sister. Luna looked past Celestia though, straight at Lucent. "It's you..." She whispered. Lucent looked back at her, some memory in his head was trying to claw its way to the surface. It tore and scratched at the seal, causing a massive shock of pain to go through Lucent. He let out a grunt and stuck a hoof to his head. "Celestia, you know Lucent?" Twilight asked. Celestia sighed, "Yes Twilight, I do. I'm afraid though that I can't explain how with him in the room. It will only cause problems." Lucent got the hint and began to walk outside, "I'll be outside then, I apologize." The door then shut. "Celestia, can you explain now?" Twilight was curious. "It was long ago, my student. This was before Nightmare Moon." "Does that mean-!?" "Yes, this was over one-thousand years ago. Lucent," Celestia looked out the window, wanting to see the unicorn, "Was my first student." The group was taken aback, several gasps were heard. "I assume you're well versed in the creation of Equestria, so that shall save some time. After we had created Ponies, me and Luna began our ritual of raising the moon, and the sun over Equestria. Me and Luna decided to create one last pony, not a pegasus, or a unicorn, but another Alicorn. Me and Luna had never thought of trying such a thing before, and the thought of a new sibling made us young Alicorns very excited. We spent days planning what he would look like, what he would be like. He would be wonderful, he would do no wrong, and he would be very helpful, assisting us whenever the need arose. We called him "The Light of Equestria," he would be loyal, kind, honest, generous, and he would bring laughter with him. We based him off the Elements of Harmony. We didn't understand the magic behind Alicorns though. There is never only one Alicorn. When Terra was brought, so was Ventus. When Aqua was brought, so was Ignis. And when I was brought, so was Luna. All the Alicorns are opposites of each other, oh how foalish we were. We created the Alicorn, and named him Lucent. Everything seemed to of gone well, he helped me and my sister whenever it was needed. He would often visit the ponies, and he became good friends with all of them. We were very proud of our new creation, as he could watch over the ponies as me and Luna designed our castle. One night though, everything went wrong. A scream from Ponyville distracted us from our work, and me and Luna sat off to discover the cause. In the middle of the new town, there was the body of a unicorn; dead. Me and Luna didn't understand, why would any of the ponies do this? There was only good in this world. But we soon learned; The closer you are to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. In the distance of the night, we saw an Alicorn. Its coat was pure black, it's mane was white, and its eyes were red like the blood on his hooves. He wore a a smirk on his face, one that I will never be able to get out of my memories." The princess began to tear up, trying to refuse the memory. Luna simply looked away, her stomach turned with thoughts of that night. Even after her one-thousand year imprisonment, she couldn't get that image out of her head. "It was then that we realized; there were only three Alicorns in this world. This 'murderer' had to be Lucent. The Alicorn disappeared into the night. It was then me and Luna decided we had to do something. As the black Alicorn left though, Lucent approached from behind us, curious as to what me and Luna were doing in Ponyville. It was impossible, Lucent stood before us, yet another Alicorn was in this world. We then noticed everything about the alicorn was the inverse of twhat Lucent was. Lucent's blue eyes, his white coat, and black mane; The black alicorns red eyes, his black coat, and his white mane. The three of us regrouped at the now half-built Canterlot, and filled Lucent in on the disaster. Lucent said he knew of the black alicorn, that it visited his dreams, that he and it were connected." Celestia began to get more and more choked up as the story went on, something pained her. "Lucent, he came up with a plan. He set off to work, building his own castle. It wasn't until he set his plan into action that we realized, he was building a prison. He called on me and Luna, asked us to accompany him to his newly built castle. Once there he said to us, 'I know neither of you have it in your hearts to kill me, but I do ask one favor. Put me to sleep, forever.' We were shocked. 'If I'm asleep, he will sleep. He will not threaten any other ponies. Put me to sleep, seal of my memories, and place me under this castle.' He had put a room under the castle, a cell for himself. It was what seemed like a mile into the world. After several threats to kill himself, me and Luna eventually placed him into a deep slumber. We locked his own memories away from him, and left him to his throne. His rightful place as the god of light and dark." "What happened next?" Twilight asked, very intrigued by the story. She had never heard this story before, it completely changed all the history books she had read! How could such an event be overlooked? "We sealed the room. The statue that you saw in that abandoned castle, it was the lock. Each of the orbs had it's own seal that kept Lucent in slumber, and also would keep the door to his room sealed." "Then when Nightmare Moon shattered them..." "That's correct. She broke the seal, and released Lucent, and his counterpart, unto the world again." "Is she connected to this too?" Celestia sighed, hoping the question was never brought up. She turned to look at Luna who had a look of extreme sorrow on her face. "I'm afraid so. Even after Lucent was imprisoned, the body of his counterpart was still out there somewhere. Luna... Unfortunately encountered it. Just as Lucent's spirit was still alive, so was the others. Luna unfortunately ran into the body, she found it in the forest that surrounded Ponyville. It's magic was unhindered by any seal and it reached out to her with all of its might. It didn't have much magic left in it, as it knew it would have to keep its body alive, but it still planted a seed in her. One seed of evil, that would eventually go on to blossom into Nightmare Moon." "Her breaking the orbs then was no mistake at all, she was trying to free Lucent this entire time!" Twilight said, as she pieced the puzzle together. "That is correct, my student." "But then... What do we do about him...?" Twilight looked out the window. "... I do not know, Twilight. I do not know..."
Dusty	785	5	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-11T06:02:20+00:00	2011-09-11T06:02:20+00:00	1,197	Lucent wandered Ponyville, wondering what the group in the library could be discussing. He knew there was a connection between him and the royals, and now he knew that they held the answer to all the questions he had. There was a reason he was asked to leave though, and he was sure of it, and so he obeyed. He decided to speak to Celestia personally later on, hoping to find his answers. Ponyville was dark on this day, and it seemed to grow darker still. It was as if the night had come early for this city, but Luna obviously hadn't raised the moon yet as she was still at the library. Lucent could feel a chill in the air, he could feel it trying to creep under his skin. But the darkness also gave him a strange sense of nostalgia. Something about the darkness reminded him of his long gone memories. He then realized the darkness wasn't causing memories, it was reaching for them, trying to bring his memories to the surface. The seal pushed it out, just as it did Twilight though. He felt the shock go through his body as the seal pushed back against whatever tried to break it. He gritted his teeth, and tried to bare the pain though. The force didn't stop clawing though, didn't stop when it felt the opposition. It continued to claw and scratch, and push. Lucent tried to bare it, but he ended up letting out a scream in pain. ~ Celestia heard a scream that she didn't want to acknowledge was true, as this only confirmed the worst. After exchanging worried glances with Luna, the two exited the library with the other ponies hot on their trail. The group followed the screams to Lucent who had his head reared back, eyes shut tight, and was screaming in pain. "Lucent! What is wrong!?" Celestia asked. "Something...Something is trying to break the seal!" "Celestia, what do we do!?" Twilight asked worriedly. Celestia had no time to think, this force wasn't going to stop until that seal either broke, or completely destroyed Lucent's mind. In a moment of hast and worry, she broke the seal. Lucent's entire body began to shine. Wings of light grew from his body. His eyes opened wide and revealed a lack of pupils; a great light shone from his eyes. He began lifting up into the air as the screaming died down, becoming gasps of confusion. In one blinding flash of light though, the unicorns eyes returned to normal, his wings turned to white feathers, and he fell to the ground. "Lucent, can you hear me?" Celestia approached the body. "Lucent, please let me know you're OK. Let me know I wasn't too late." Celestia laid beside the body, examining the unicorn for any signs of life. The unicorn didn't move. A tear began to form in Celestia's, and Luna's eyes. "Please don't make me say goodbye again..." Celestia pleaded. The unicorn shifted slightly, "Why...?" He asked quietly "Lucent?" "Why am I awake?" He asked. "Lucent I-" "Celestia, you know what this means." "I know Lucent. But we stand stronger this time. The spirits of the elements are strong in these five ponies." Lucent raised to his hooves, a little wobbly. "Lucent, we're stronger now." Luna said, also approaching the unicorn. Lucent looked over at Luna and Celestia for the first time since he had awoken, "Celestia...Luna... The years have been kind to you." He said with a warm smile. "Look at me, still as young as the day I 'fell asleep'." He let out a warm chuckle. Celestia let her tears flow freely, "I'm sorry Lucent, I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough then." Lucent nuzzled against the princess, "Celestia, do not worry. It was by my own want that I ended up where I did. Do not blame yourself dear princess." Luna approached the two as well. She was shocked, this was Lucent from all those years ago. He was whole again. "Ah, princess Luna. You've grown quite a lot since last we met." "I wish I could say the same for you." She said with a weak chuckle, unsure of how to act to her old friend. He only flashed another warm smile, "You say 'we' are stronger now. That the elements are strong in 'them'. Pardon my asking, but may I have a better description of the situation?" ~ The group retreated to the library, and the rest of the Mane 6 were gathered as well. The hours went on, and many stories were told. The rest of the Mane 6 were brought up to speed on the situation with Lucent, as well as Lucent being brought up to speed with the Elements of Harmony that resided within the six ponies. "I thought there were only five elements, princess Celestia?" Lucent was puzzled. In his time there were only five. "As bonds formed between ponies, Lucent, we discovered a new power; friendship. We learned that through friendship, we could overcome any obstacle. The power that friendship bestows upon is, we refer to as magic." "So, friendship is magic then?" Lucent asked. "To put it simply." "Lucent, Celestia told us of a black alicorn, can you tell us more about him?" Lucent let out a breath, "Yes, Twilight, that I can." He stood and moved to a candle, and stuck a hoof up in front of it, "Do you see my shadow?" He asked. The ponies nodded. Lucent moved his hoof closer, and his shadow grew in size, "The closer one is to the light, the greater ones shadow becomes. But what if you ARE the light?" Lucent asked as he dropped his hoof and looked down, "What if you ARE that from which shadows spawn? Does that not make your shadow the greatest of all?" "So, this alicorn is your shadow then?" Twilight asked. "He is more then just my shadow. Just as I was meant to be the embodiment of good, light, and harmony; he is the embodiment of evil, darkness, and discord." "We defeated that evil once, and we can defeat it again." Twilight said, sounding triumphant. "Ah, yes. 'Nightmare Moon,' was what you called her, yes? That was but only one element though; jealousy. There are five more sides to the darkness." "Then we stand against it together. The three alicorns of old, and the elements of harmony." "Twilight, you are indeed an amazing unicorn. I can feel potential pouring from you, it's no wonder Celestia chose you to be her pupil." Twilight blushed at the compliment and smiled. "I can't let that potential be destroyed. I already hurt one of Celestia's friends," Lucent looked into Luna's eyes, "I won't let him hurt another." "Lucent, I think she's right." Celestia spoke up. All eyes fell on Celestia. "Do you mean that?" Lucent asked. Celestia simply nodded her head, "I do, Lucent. I think together we may stand a chance against this evil." Lucent looked hard into Celestia's eyes, "Then, we do this by your orders, princess." "We will strike first then against the beast." "Celestia, have the years hindered your sight? These clouds are not natural. He already knows where we are, and is planning to take this whole town with us." "Then we move." "Where?" "To where this ended last time. History repeats itself, and this evil will end at that castle once more. For good." Lucent stared at Celestia, testing her resolve. A warm smile met his face, "Then we go." "You heard him girls, these three alicorns need the Elements of Harmony. Can we do this?" Twilight turned to her friends. Several cheers, agreements, and applauds were heard. "We're behind you all the way, Celestia." Twilight said with a confident look. "Then we set out for Castle Ultim." ~ The team set out into the darkness that had overshadowed Ponyville. They did not run from the darkness though. Instead they plunged into the heart of the darkness with the brightest of lights leading the way.
Dusty	785	6	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-12T02:16:10+00:00	2011-09-12T02:16:10+00:00	1,060	The group assembled on a wooden bridge, merely feet away from the gaping jaws of the Everfree Forest. Lucent wore a serious look, ready to end the thousand year struggle between him, and the darkness. Celestia was ready to take revenge for what hurt not only her closes friend, but also her sister. The Elements of Harmony stood prepared to continue defending their home, and the lands of Equestria. Lucent was the one who took the first step, and the other followed. ~ It was no easy task to traverse the forest. Branches and roots blocked the path, hindering the teams advancement. "Do any of ya'll have any idea where we're goin'?" Applejack asked. She had taken point for the time being, her powerful legs seemed unhindered by the forests attempts at stopping them. "The castle is at the center of the forest, so we just head straight until we reach it." Lucent said. Applejack moved a branch out of her way, and took a step forward. Her foot hit no ground though, and she felt her entire body fall forward. "Applejack!" Lucent called. He dashed forward and chomped down on her tail as hard as he could, suspending the eart pony in mid-air. "H-Help meh!" Lucent said through clenched teeth. Rainbow Dash flew out and grabbed a hold of Applejack's torso, and together the two pulled her back to safety. "Gee, thanks partners. I owe ya'll one." Applejack said, still attempting to catch her breath. The group then carefully made their way down the cliff. "Say, Twilight?" Applejack said as she reached the bottom of the cliff. "Yes, Applejack?" "Isn't this the same cliff that ya'll almost fell from?" Applejack looked up the cliff as memories of the last trek flooded back to her. "Why yes, it is." Twilight said, also remembering her near death experience. Applejack chuckled, "Guessin' it was my turn to have a tumble. Thank ya again, Lucent." Applejack turned to Lucent. Lucent smiled warmly to Applejack, "It's no problem at all. You can trust me." The team moved on while Applejack stayed behind, looking at the cliff again. "Honesty..." Applejack said quietly to herself. "Applejack!" Twilight called. "Ahm' a comin'!" She called, and galloped to catch up with the rest of the group. ~ The trees began letting up, allowing the team to proceed faster. As they neared a clearing, they heard what sounded like snores. Lucent proceeded quietly ahead of the group to look around. He found a sleeping Manticore behind a bush, curled into a ball. He turned back to the group and made a "Shh" noise. The group then quietly passed by Lucent as he watched over the Manticore, making sure it didn't wake up. Fluttershy moved beside Lucent, also looking at the Manticore. She looked at its paw, and noticed a scar on it. She gasped, but not loud enough to wake the sleeping beast. Lucent looked over at Fluttershy with a curious look. "I know this Manticore. I helped it once, and we became friends." Fluttershy said, remembering when she removed the thorn from its paw. Lucent looked back at the Manticore. His horn began to light up, and so did the Manticore's paw. The scare began to slowly fade to match the rest of the paw, and was eventually gone all together. Fluttershy gasped again, and looked at Lucent. He simply returned a smile before moving away from Fluttershy to catch up with the rest of the team. Fluttershy floated over to the Manticore, giving it a soft pet with her hoof. "Kindness...." She said to herself. Lucent cleared his throat as quietly as he could. Fluttershy looked up to find him waiting for her. Together, the two rendezvoused with the group. ~ The trees of the forest began growing thicker, blocking the light of the moon and stars. What little light there was caused the trees to cast strange and frightening shadows on the ground, and each other. "This is really creepy..." Twilight said. "Don't ah know it..." Applejack replied. Pinkie let out a sharp gasp causing all the ponies to jump a bit. "Pinkie! Don't do that!" Twilight shouted, her legs were wobbling uncontrollably. "Girls! Don't you remember this place!?" Pinkie said, excitedly bouncing around. Lucent looked around, wondering how anypony could remember this place, it looked just like the rest of the forest. "This is where we..." Pinkie took a deep breath in. "Uh-oh." Rainbow placed a hoof over her face. "Giggled at the ghostly! Guffawed at the grossly! Cracked up at the creepy! Whooped it up with the weepy! Chortled at the kooky! And snortled at the spooky!" Pinkie sang. Lucent found himself smiling and nodding his head to the tune. His smile eventually turned into laughter at Pinkie Pie's shenanigans. The rest of the team looked to Lucent, then each other, and also joined in the laughter. As they laughed, the darkness seemed to disappear all together. "Thanks, Pinkie." Lucent said as the group started to settle down. "For what?" The pink pony asked, her head cocking to the side. "I think we all needed a good laugh." Lucent began walking ahead, still giggling to himself a little. Pinkie turned to the trees, remembering all of her friends lying together on the ground, laughing together. "Laughter..." She said with a smile. "Pinkie?" Lucent was looking at her. "Coming!" Pinkie said as she began her signature hop to the team. ~ "Are we there yet...?" Rainbow Dash asked in an annoyed voice. "Almost, Rainbow." Twilight spoke up. The team came upon a large river that cut through their path. Rarity walked to the front of the group and looked into the water. It was very calm and clear. "Something wrong, Rarity?" Lucent asked. "Oh no, not at all my good sir." She said, raising her head. "Just reminiscing is all." "Memories are a great place to find strength." Lucent said with a smile. He began to trot across a shallow part of the river to the other side. Rarity's thoughts went back to the purple sea serpent that her and her friends encountered on their first voyage to the forest. She remembered cutting her tail off and using her magic to repair the serpents beloved mustache. When she came back to the present, she noticed she was in the air, and being brought to the other side by magic. "Forgive me, I simply thought you wouldn't want to get your coat wet." Lucent said as he brought her to the ground. "Oh, thank you very much, Lucent. How generous of you." She said, bowing her head to the alicorn in thanks. "It's no problem." He said and began to walk on. Rarity looked further down the river where she thought she saw a purple body rise out of the water only to submerge itself again. "Very generous indeed..." She said quietly to herself. She then began to catch up with the others. ~ After what seemed like hours of walking, the group had found their goal. The castle that Lucent came from rested across a great gorge ahead of them. "Strange." Lucent said, kneeling down to observe a broken rope bridge. "What is it, Lucent?" Celestia asked. "This bridge wasn't out when I awoke." Rainbow dash dove over the cliff and took one end of the rope bridge in her mouth. She began flying over to the other side to repair it, when she noticed the load became significantly lighter. She glanced over to see Lucent using his magic to help levitate the bridge. The two landed on the other side of the bridge and retied it to the posts. Rainbow looked at the bridge, then turned around to look at the ground where a patch of grass was burnt away and had never recovered. That was where the 'Shadowbolts' landed when they attempted to recruit Rainbow Dash and make her forget about her friends. "Rainbow Dash?" Lucent asked. "Huh?" "We should get back to our friends. We wouldn't want them thinking we left them." He said with a light laugh. "No way would I ever do that. I'm too loyal..." Rainbow Dash said to herself with a smile. She then began to fly back across with Lucent. ~ The group now stood outside the doors of the dark and abandoned castle. Lucent was in front, eyeing the door with a very stern and serious look. What felt like fear was gripping at his heart, hindering him from moving forward. He felt a sudden warmth against him. He looked to see Celestia nuzzling his side. She flashed him a warm smile, and he responded with one as well. "I don't know if we can beat him, I don't even know if he will be here." Lucent said. "That doesn't matter, you have your friends here with you. Remember?" Lucent nodded, "Yeah. How could I forget?" He asked himself as he turned to look over the group they had assembled. Applejack, strong and honest. Flutterhy, calm and kind. Pinkie Pie, energetic and funny. Rarity, beautiful and generous. Rainbow Dash, fast and loyal. Twilight Sparkle, smart and magical. Luna, ruler of night. Celestia, ruler of the day. And himself, ruler of light and good. A brave smile overtook his face as he assured himself that they would all be safe, he swore it. He began climbing the steps to the doors. It was only roughly a day ago that he had awoken with no memory, scared to death of this place. Now he was approaching it willingly without an ounce of fear in him. "Come out, Acerbus. I'm ready to settle this score." Lucent said to himself as his magic opened the large doors.
Dusty	785	7	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-12T19:46:27+00:00	2011-09-12T19:46:27+00:00	1,079	Lucent's magic opened the door to the abandoned caslte he built long ago. It was here that he expected to find his darker half looking for him. When he possessed Luna, he knew to come here to break the seal that held Lucent captive so that he himself may be free again as well. Therefore Lucent realized that his darker half must of known he'd be here. Lucent was the first to enter the dark room. Before he could even fully enter the room, dark tendrils wrapped around him and took hold of the unicorn. "Oh there you are brother. You had me worried to DEATH!" The dark alicorn squeezed Lucent tighter with a wild and evil smile carving itself across its face. Lucent let out a loud yell of pain. "Lucent!" Celestia called as she entered the room. She instantly used her magic to cut the tendrils and free Lucent. "Are you OK?" She asked him. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said between breaths. He struggled to get back to his feet. "Brother, I can't believe this! You went and made some friends without me. Oh I am so very disappointed brother." The alicorn let out a maniacal laughter. Twilight and her friends were the next to enter, along with Luna. "Oh you are just FULL of surprises!" The alicorn said between laughs. Lucent was standing steadily now after shaking off the death grip Acerbus put on him. "Accerbus, this is between you and me." Lucent said, stepping forward. Acerbus only laughed, "Oh, are you the one calling the shots now?" "No, it's between us." Celestia said, stepping forward with Lucent. "I created you, albeit without knowing I did. Therefore you are my responsibility." "I helped as well. So this is also between us." Luna said, also stepping forward. "As long as you threaten Equestria, we will be there to stop you as well. If you have a quarrel with Ponyville, then you have a quarrel with us." Twilight and her friends also stepped forward, creating a grand line that stood against Acerbus. Acerbus began snickering and then burst back out into full laughter, "As if I am to be impressed?" "If that doesn't impress you then try this!" Lucent shouted, rearing his head back. His horn began to glow with a bright light. "Hm?" Acerbus tilted his head to the side. Lucent pointed his horn straight to Acerbus and shot a grand ray of light at him. Acerbus' horn began to emit a dark aura, "Instead of investing time into friends and helping people, perhaps you should of been investing time into controlling your magic!" Acerbus shouted. With minimal effort, Acerbus deflected the beam, sending it into the sky. Lucent was breathing heavily, he had put a lot of himself into that attack. "Lucent, allow us to try." Celestia said. Her and Luna moved forward in front of Lucent. "Celestia, and Luna too? My where have the years gone? You two look so much older now." A smile began to appear on Acerbus' face. "Silence, this is the end for you. I've never took such actions against any pony, but you are to be judged for your several murders all those years ago!" Celestia began to glow with an intense light. "Hm? OH! Those, right. I had almost forgotten about them." Acerbus snickered again. Celestia grew angry as Acerbus dismissed his killings as if they were nothing. A great heat began to surge from her body. Acerbus' eyes widened and a slight "Ooh!" was heard from him. Her mighty wings expanded and then pushed down with great might. The force propelled her off the ground in the direction of Acerbus. Celestia seemed to turn into a glowing fireball heading straight towards him. Acerbus made a tutting noise before beginning to glow himself. The aura around him expanded and met with Celestia's stopping her in her tracks. Sparks and lightning shot through the air. Snaps and crackles filled any gaps of silence that were left in the room. Celestia was grunting, having a hard time against the dark powers that Acerbus was unleashing. "Oh come now. This is all the ruler of Equestria has to offer? You may be the god of the sun, but even the sun sets!" With that, Acerbus let out a powerful blast that knocked Celestia away. Luna quickly galloped to her sisters side and assured she was alright. Twilight sparkle and her friends then took point. "We are the Elements of Harmony," Twilight spoke with great bravery, "Which, as you may know, is the most powerful magic known to Ponykind!" Acerbus looked at the six with a bored expression. A grand tiara appeared on Twilight's head and began to glow with great intensity. Gold and diamond necklaces began to adorn the neck of the other elements, all bearing a very close resemblance to their respective cutie marks. Together, the six ponies light glowed together making a bright beacon in the night. Acerbus still had a bored look, but rose from a sitting position to stand. The light grew so intense that the ponies were no longer seen, it was ll just one big ball of light. Then , a rainbow shot out of it, into the air. The beam then redirected itself and began heading straight for Arcebus. "You do realize that even though you are the Elements of Harmony, I was born from them, right? That makes me their opposite. Foals." Acerbus began glowing again. He then shot a beam out of his horn that connected with the rainbow one. The beams struggled against each other, seemingly matched. Acerbus smiled, with a might roar his beam over took the other beam and pushed it back. Acerbus' black beam was heading straight for Twilight and her friends. Lucent got up and began channeling his magic again, drawing from all he could, trying to use every ounce of magic he had to save the ponies. With a grand flash, Lucent teleported in front of the black beam with a golden forcefield surrounding him. The beam hit the shield and then divided, shooting left and right. After the beam was fully countered, Luncent's shield drop, as well as well as Lucent himself. He collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. "Lucent..." Twilight said, laying down to get closer to the alicorn. Celestia also approached, "He's bested all of us." She said with a sorrowful look. "Finally, I can be rid of you Lucent. I will destroy you and absorb that precious soul of yours!" Acerbus said with a maniacal laughter, dark energy began to swirl all around him. Lucent could only brace himself for what felt like the end. He closed his eyes tight, and readied himself.
Dusty	785	8	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-13T00:10:13+00:00	2011-09-13T00:10:13+00:00	1,083	"So this is how it ends then. What we thought to be our most capable creation, destroyed in an instant." The voice spoke to Lucent, almost as if it was inside of his head. Lucent opened his eyes, he was no longer in the abandoned castle, and Acerbus was no where to be found! Instead he was high above the world, floating far above the clouds. He was looking down on Equestria and could see all of its beauty. "Take a good look at it. It's one of a kind." The voice said again. "Huh, who's there?" Lucent asked as he looked around. "I shouldn't of expected you to remember me. It was before your time after all." The voice chuckled. A small flame appeared in front of Lucent and then grew brighter and larger. Lucent didn't feel any heat though. All at once the flame morphed into the shape of an alicorn. The alicorn had a wild red coat, and it's mane was a blazing fire. "I am Ignis, god of fire." The voice had a very warm tone to it. "Ignis...One of the alicorns who shaped Equestria." "That's right Lucent, and I am not alone my son. Or should I say, Grand-son?" Water began to pour from nowhere, creating a small waterfall. From it, another alicorn stepped forth. She had a blue coat, and her mane flowed like water. "I am Aqua, the god of water." A tree sprouted from the air before growing to great heights. From the thick foliage above, a brown alicorn with leaves for a mane fell. "I am Terra, the god of earth." Finally a tornado approached the group, and then began to slowly stop turning. When it was done, another alicorn had joined them; he she had a coat of green and a grey mane that whipped about like the wind. "And I am Ventus, the god of wind." "You are the four alicorns of old who shaped Equestria...What are you doing here? Wherever here is... I thought you ascended to the heavens to watch over Equestria?" Lucent asked. Ventus chuckled, "Where do you think you are, young one?" Her voice was carried on the wind around them. Lucent's face turned sorrowful, "Then...Then I failed. This is heaven then. I don't deserve to be here." His eyes began to water up. "Now now, don't cry. You haven't failed Lucent, yet anyways. We only borrowed you to remind you who you were. But you will fail if you do not listen to us!" Aqua spoke with a very nice flow to her voice, as if it poured perfectly from her mouth. "What?" Lucent looked up to Aqua with a shocked look. "Your friends are still in the castle, waiting for you. We had stopped the flow of time itself to speak with you though, God of Light." Terra's voice was strong and formidable. "You...Stopped time, to speak with me?" Lucent still hadn't grasped what was going on. "Lucent, even before you imprisoned yourself, you never came into full recognition of your god-hood, of your true power. Acerbus on the other hand did, and he put his entire being into mastering that power." Ventus said. "Then how am I to defeat that? I didn't even want this power to begin with." Lucent began to tear up again. "What did you want then, Lucent?" Ignis asked. "All I wanted...Was to make friends, to help Ponykind." "Exactly, and those friends you made, all those ponies you helped, that is where your power lies!" Ignis said. Lucent's eyes opened wide in astonishment, "What do you mean!?" "Lucent, although Acerbus' magic rivals even ours, you have something much stronger. Friendship. And friendship, my dear Lucent, IS Magic!" Aqua spoke triumphantly. "Friendship is...Magic?" Lucent ran the thought through his head over and over. "You are the God of Light Lucent. Even though we created you, it is to you that we answer, as your light is the greatest power in all of Equestria. That bright light of yours reaches out to every heart in this world! You tie all of Ponykind together!" Terra approached Lucent, he could feel the energy Terra gave off. "He's right, Lucent. When one is afraid, one turns to their friends!" Aqua also approached as Lucent felt more energy. "And with many friends come great power!" Ventus stepped forward as well, adding her energy to the mix. "And with that great power, your light will shine further then any hand of darkness." Ignis added his own power to Lucent. "Go now Lucent, God of Light, embrace your true power and take your rightful throne! Defeat your shadows and shine so brightly that no darkness can escape you!" The four Alicorns spoke all at once. The four disappeared into flashes of light and shot up into the sky above. With a twinkle of light, they were gone. Lucent then had a feeling of falling. He turned to see he was rapidly approaching the ground, and below him was the castle. Lucent attempted to flap his wings, to slow his descent but it didn't work. As he got closer, he noticed that no one was moving, and he even saw himself still laying down there. He was heading directly for his own body. Once he realized this, he abandoned his fear. "Alright then, here I go!" Lucent shouted. He turned into a great streak of light and he cut through the darkness, making a bee-line for his body. The light struck his body as it and his soul became one again. Time began to flow again, and everyone looked down to see Lucent glowing brighter then ever. The group shielded their eyes from Lucent as his light threatened to blind them. "Okay Arcebus, I'm ready for you now." Lucent said in a very calm and superior voice. It was a voice fit for the king that he was. "Lucent..." Celestia was in awe at his raw power. "Celestia, I want you and the other ponies to stand back. This is where this battle begins." Acerbus' laughter became louder, and grew more maniacal, "Oh, is it!? Then I'll be happy to oblige you in your death-wish! You will perish this day, Lucent!" Acerbus' aura grew larger, threatening to swallow the whole area. The others seemed to be weakened by it, as if it were hurting them. "That's ENOUGH!" Lucent shouted, his light glowed brighter and dispelled the black aura around them all. "Well, well, well...This IS where the fun begins." Lucent said with a devilish grin.
Dusty	785	9	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-13T03:54:31+00:00	2011-09-13T03:54:31+00:00	1,102	Lucent's wings opened fully and pushed down hard, sending him high into the air, and Acerbus followed. Acerbus' figure stood out against the backdrop which was the moon, "Let's end this, brother!" "Don't CALL ME THAT!" Lucent yelled as he rocketed towards his brother. Acerbus responded by propelling himself towards Lucent. The two collided and lightning shot in all directions. There was a loud clash followed by what sounded like thunder. The two were pressed against each other at the head, both staring into the others eyes. The two backed up from each other and collided again. They would then back up, and collide again. Their speed began to get faster and faster with each collision. Eventually it sounded like one constant explosion, and the sky was adorned with lightning that shot in all directions. Lucent was the first to break the monotony; instead of going for another head-on collision, Lucent instead fired a beam of light towards Acerbus. "Foal!" Acerbus yelled as he flew to the side to avoid the beam. Lucent crashed into Acerbus' side and began to plummet for the ground, Lucent had used the beam as a decoy. Acerbus eventually rolled out of the death plummet and regained his balance, "It wall take a bit more than that, Lucent!" Acerbus laughed Lucent's attack off. "This is how it's done!" Acerbus' mane turned into dark tendrils and shot towards Lucent. They wrapped around him and began to squeeze the life out of him. "Not today!" Lucent cried, his light began to shine as it sliced through the darkness that held him. Acerbus slammed into Lucent's stomach and threw him high into the air, "I have you now!" Accerbus yelled as his horn emitted a dark aura. He focused it into a beam of darkness and blasted it upwards towards Lucent. Lucent felt frozen after the sneak attack, his body wouldn't respond to his requests. "Move!" He yelled to himself in his head, "MOVE!" The beam got closer and closer. Eventually one of his wings decided to react and gave one hard flap. The flap threw Lucent into a spin out of the way of the beam. "What!?" Called Acerbus. Lucent righted himself and began coming back to his senses. "Answer me, Lucent! What is this new power of yours!?" Acerbus yelled at his brother. "Friendship!" Was all Lucent yelled before slamming into Acerbus at high speed. The two began plummeting to the ground once more, this time faster. Acerbus struggled to free himself, but Lucent had his hooves around Acerbus' torso. The two were mere feet from the ground. It was then that Acerbus began channeling his magic, and with a single flash he had teleported away. Lucent slammed into the ground at full force and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop against a tree. Acerbus let out a hefty laugh from above, "As if THAT would work twice!" Lucent struggled to stand up, he was a little wobbly. 'Nothing is working! What do I do?' Lucent asked himself. Lucent took back to the skies. A small stream of blood was coming from his mouth, and he had a few bruises on him from his fall. Lucent was breathing a bit heavily. "What's wrong Lucent? You're looking a bit rough!" Acerbus called before breaking into another maniacal laughter. Lucent jerked at the remark. It was true, he was a bit beat up from all the collisions. Yet, Acerbus didn't have a scratch on him. What was he doing wrong? 'Lucent, don't just attack with your magic, attack with your heart!' The voice of Ignis burned in his memory, refreshing his mind. "Ignis...?" Lucent didn't have much time to think about the voice in his head as he had to dodge the attack that Accerbus set on him with. Lucent had flown to the side just in time to avoid Acerbus' dive towards him. Acerbus slowed his descent and then turned to see Lucent. "Attack...With my HEART!" Lucent said, allowing his feelings to fuel himself with renewed energy. "What!?" Acerbus was astounded at the new well of energy Lucent had found. "No matter, I will stop that power!" Acerbus yelled as he flew at Lucent. The two clashed their front hooves together. Lightning and sparks exploded from the two as a loud rumble was heard across all of Equestria. "You fight a losing battle!" Acerbus pushed harder against Lucent. "As long as I have my friends, I can't lose!" Lucent yelled back, forcing Acerbus back as well. The two went about their power struggle for some time before Acerbus backed off, he was now breathing heavily for the first time since the fight begun. "If that's how you want it..." Acerbus said, instead of the calm look the alicorn always had he now had a serious and angry look. His horn began to emit the dark aura again, although this time it seemed to be a very powerful spell he was about to cast. Lucent braced himself for the attack as he projected a shield of light in front of him. Acerbus merely smirked. In a flash Acerbus was gone. Lucent looked around frantically, "Where did he go?" He asked himself. "Behind me!" Lucen turned quickly to find Acerbus behind him, he wasn't aiming the attack at Lucent though. Lucent followed Acerbus' vision, he was aiming at his friends. "I won't let you!" Lucent cried. His wings beat as hard as they could, propelling him faster then ever. The air began to bend around him. A bright light shone from him and bent into a cone behind him. Then a huge explosion was heard as Lucent broke the sound barrier. He flew as quick as he could towards Acerbus with a grand trail of light streaking across the sky behind him. Lucent slammed into Acerbus' back, but he was too late. Acerbus had already fired the blast at the castle, attempting to destroy Lucent's friends. The blast hit its target. A giant explosion was seen coming out of the castle, blowing its walls away. All Lucent could see was smoke. Lucent's eyes began to tear up. His eyes shut tight as he remembered all the ponies who had helped him get this far. Celestia and Luna, the ponies who raised him and cared for him, the ones who gave him life and purpose. Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack; The ponies who took him in after he awoke, nursed him to health, did everything they could to help him, and even led him to this place, and they didn't even know who he was. He had led them all to their own grave. "I won't...FORGIVE YOU!" Lucent called, his entire body began to glow brightly. His black mane turned white, as well as his eyes. There were no longer and discernible features about the alicorn, he was simply a ball of light in the shape of an alicorn. Lucent shot across the sky with blinding speed. He smacked into Acerbus and blew him back. The light then shot towards Acerbus faster then it had knocked him back. Lucent circled behind Acerbus and hit him hard in the opposite direction. Lucent flew into the air this time, he then came down on Acerbus, driving the dark alicorn straight into the ground. There was a large explosion of dust as the two slammed into the ground. Lucent was standing on Acerbus' side, with on hoof raised in the air. With that hoof he constantly stomped on the alicorns head, releasing all of his anger. "Take this! And this! And this!" Lucent called with each strike. It wasn't until a warm hoof touched his shoulder that he stopped stomping on the now limp alicorn. "Lucent, does this make you any better then him?" Celstia asked. "Princes...Celestia...?" Lucent's light began to fade as his features returned. His mane went back to its black color, and his eyes faded back into existence. "But I thought..." "You should of trusted me better." Celestia said with a smile. "I saw the attack coming and prepared a shield to defend myself and our friends, none of them are harmed." The rest of the group emerged from the smoke around them and came into view. "Y-You ponies..." Lucent felt weak, his fit of anger had taken a lot out of him. He looked back down to Acerbus. The black alicorns eyes had rolled into the back of its head, and its jaw was hanging open. Blood came from its mouth, eyes, and several cuts on his face and body. Lucent sighed and backed away from the body, "I-I didn't mean...I..." Lucent couldn't speak, his victory didn't feel right. "You did what you had to, Lucent. Was there really any other way?" Celestia asked. "I...I guess not." As the team turned from the body and began to leave, Acerbus shifted a bit. The group gasped and turned around with a shock. Little by little the alicorns face was starting to repair itself and heal. The blood stopped flowing, and the dents and cuts began to close and fix themselves. "What kind of brother would I be... If I were that easy to best...?" Acerbus said between breaths. He then looked directly at Lucent with a maniacal stare, he was hellbent on killing Lucent. Lucent silently began to walk towards Acerbus, slowly. "Lucent, what are you-" Celestia tried to call out to the alicorn. "Stay out of this, please Celestia." Lucent said without turning. "This is my battle, it's always been my battle. Light and dark, good and evil, harmony and discord. These things are always connected to each other, just as I am connected to this alicorn before me." Lucent still walked forward. "Fight me...FIGHT ME!" Acerbus yelled at Lucent. Lucent drew closer to the alicorn, not saying a word. He merely stared into Acerbus' eyes. "FIGHT-" Acerbus stopped and his eyes opened wide. Lucent leaned against Acerbus and nuzzled his brother. "I know that neither of us have the strength in us to fight..." Acerbus said almost in a whisper. "What is he..." Celestia asked. Lucent began to glow a bright light once more as he brought out his reserves of magic, "Let's end this brother." "The way it started." "Lucent, no!" Celestia called. She began to gallop towards the two. "Together." The light and dark alicorns spoke in time. The light surrounded both of them. Lucent turned and looked to Celestia, who stopped in her tracks. "Celestia, thank you for being a great teacher. It made me happy to be your pupil. It made me even happier to be your friend." Lucent looked past Celestia to Twilight Sparkle. "I'll be watching over you. You're her pupil now so don't let me down kid." He said with a wink. "Lucent..." Twilight said as a tear began to form in her eye. Lucent turned back to Celestia, "I'll see you...When you get there..." Lucent closed his eyes. "Lucent, please don't go!" Celestia let her tears flow freely like streams down her face, "Don't leave me again!" "I'm not leaving!" Lucent spoke up. Celestia silenced herself, and her tears stopped for a second. "I'm just going on ahead is all, I'll be waiting." Lucent said as he turned away. Celestia's tears began to flow stronger then ever as she watched Lucent walk into the light. He slowly faded from view and merged with the light completely. The light then shot into the skies, and embedded itself into the sky. The shinning point in the sky then exploded into a grand blast. "LUCENT!" Celestia yelled at the top of her lungs. The explosion sent bits of light in all directions across the sky. Celestia had her head on the ground, crying loudly for her lost pupil. A hoof tapped her shoulder, "Sister, look!" Luna said. Celestia raised her head to see the shinning bits from the explosion forming and dancing, creating shapes in the sky. "It's creating a new consolation!" Twilight said in an astonished voice. All the ponies looked up in awe at the night sky, as streams of light danced across the sky, presenting the most beautiful spectacle any of them had seen. They finally settled into a picture in the sky. It appeared to look like half of Lucent's mark; the sun, and half of Acerbus' mark; the moon. It was as if both marks were cut in half and put together at the middle. 'Anytime you need me, I'll be here. Watching over you. Just look up to the night sky, and know I'll be looking back.' Lucent's thoughts became Celestia's own thoughts as he communicated with her. The mark shined a bit brighter then any star for a split second, and only Celestia noticed it. "One day, I will join you. And I'll tell you all the wonderful stories of Equestria, and I will tell you of all the ponies you so dearly loved Lucent. One day..." Celestia spoke to the heavens above.
Dusty	785	10	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Shadows	A unicorn with amnesia may be linked to a new evil. Can he save Equestira...And himself?	complete	-1	-1	<p>A unicorn has awoken in the Everfree Forest with no recollection of how he got there, but with him a new evil has also arisen. Can the elements of harmony rise again and stand against this new threat? And can the unicorn find his lost memories and put a stop to the evil once and for all?</p>	teen	2011-09-13T16:28:26+00:00	2011-09-13T16:28:26+00:00	1,135	Time passed in Equestria, and as time passes wounds heal. To Ponyville, it was just another passing storm, but to Celestia and the others, it was a reminder that they had thwarted the greatest threat to ponykind. ~ "It was raining on that day...Do you remember, Lucent?" Celestia spoke to the night sky. She was laying on a cushion on her balcony, with her sister Luna curled up against her in a deep slumber. Luna had raised the moon and then gone to bed early, the young alicorn still had not learned to focus her powers correctly and had pushed herself over her own limits. A star in the night sky blinked, as if responding to Celestia. She smiled at the star, knowing it was Lucent calling out to her from the heavens above. She knew Lucent didn't perish that day, as it is impossible for an Alicorn to die. An alicorn always has a choice of when he or she wishes to join the others in the heavens above. "I apologize Lucent, as I still have much work to do her," She said as she looked down to her young sister. The rain began to lighten up. ~ "Another storm..." Twilight said as she looked out her window. It had only been a few months since Lucent left, but it seemed like it had been years without the alicorn. Twilight shook the thoughts of the alicorn away, "I only knew him for two days, yet..." Twilight said as she brought a hoof to her chest. "He was Celestia's first pupil, I could of learned so much from him. He was an alicorn of old who knew the first of ponykind well. He was like a walking history book." Twilight was forcing the thoughts into her head. "And he was so...Handsome." Tears began to form in her eyes. The door to the library opened, and Twilight worked quickly to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Just one moment." Twilight descended her stairs, wondering who her late night visitor could be. When she had fully descended the stair, she saw Princess Celestia standing inside of the library. ~ "I spoke to him again, Twilight." Celestia said as she took a sip of tea. Twilight had used a recipe that Rarity had taught her. "What did he say?" Twilight asked. "Nothing really, it's hard for him to talk. I do most of the talking and he merely answers. It's hard for an alicorn to reach out from the sky. Celestia looked out of her window and out to the stars. "Oh, I see..." Twilight said with a bit of a disappointed look. Celestia smiled, "Would you like to speak to him?" Twilight's face let up, "Can I?" "Come." Celestia called as she walked outside. The rain was lighter then before, but it was still coming. Celestia and Twilight stayed under the grand branches of the tree, to keep from getting soaked. "Close your eyes, focus your thoughts to the heavens." Celestia said, also closing her eyes. Twilight could feel Celestia's magic around her, and leading up to the sky. Twilight tried to follow the trail up, tying herself to Celestia's magic. Twilight looked down and could see her own body, and Celestia's. But when she looked up, she saw herself holding onto Celestia as the two flew higher and higher. They reached high above the world of Equestria, and were among the stars. "Look there." Celestia didn't speak, but the thought entered Twilight's head in her Celestia's voice. Twilight looked over and saw a set of stars swirling. "Celestia, is that you again? I can see you much clearer now, and I see Twilight is with you as well." That voice was Lucent's, Twilight was sure of it. "Yes, Twilight is here. You're already talking a lot more then usual." Celestia said wit ha chuckle. "Your magic is much greater this night, it's a much easier task to reach out to you. You two are like...A light in the dark." Lucent said, he laughed as he realized the irony. "That pupil of yours really is something, Celestia." "Thank you very much Lucent. Twilight? Why don't you speak? Simply think and we shall hear it." Celestia looked to Twilight. "H-Hello, Lucent." Twilight tried the technique Celestia explained. "There you go." He said with a smile. "I can feel a lot of magic coming from you Twilight. You're really something special." Lucent could feel her warm aura surrounding them. "I think it was you who I found so easily." Twilight did the equivalent of blushing in whatever form it was that she was in. Lucent merely laughed at the unicorn's display. "Thank you, very much Lucent." Twilight said. "You're very welcome. Is there any special occasion for which you have visited me twice, Celestia?" Lucent asked. Celestia shook her head, "Not at all. Twilight here simply wanted to talk to you." "I mean, if that is alright with you." Twilight said. Lucent nodded, "That is fine, Twilight." The three talked for what seemed like hours. "I'm sorry Twilight but my energy wears thin, and I'm afraid I must rest to regain my magic." Twilight's look of sorrow returned to her face, "Oh, I see. I apologize for keeping you so long." Lucent laughed, "One hour here is but a minute on Equestria, Twilight." "Oh." Twilight said. Lucent approached Twilight, "You know the spell now, you followed it well. You may contact me anytime you wish, Twilight." With that, Lucent nuzzled against the unicorn in an attempt to cheer her up. With that though, Lucent began to fade away and once again become a set of stars. "Farewell, Celestis. Goodbye, Twilight. I hope to see you two again very soon." And with that, Lucent was gone. Celestia and Twilight began to fall back to their bodies at a very rapid speed. The two regained consciousness in their bodies. They looked up to the sky as the rain began to fade. The clouds parted directly above Celestia and Twilight, and a single star shone a little brighter. The clouds separated farther, and the rain above Ponyville began to vanish slowly. Twilight was ready to study harder then ever. She would learn all she could, and train her magic all she could. She would surpass Lucent as Celestia's student, and she would impress him. Celestia saw the determination in her pupil's eyes. She laughed lightly to herself as her gaze rose back to the heavens. "She is a keeper, Lucent. She'll get there before me, so I hope to hear many stories from you as well, child." Celestia giggled once more as Twilight gave her a confused look.
NTSTS	787	1	Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Dark,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	Lunacy	Luna struggles with the edges of sanity and feelings of depression after her time of lunar isolation	complete	401	9	<p>Luna struggles with the edges of sanity and feelings of depression after her time of lunar isolation.</p>	everyone	2011-09-09T04:46:10+00:00	2011-09-09T04:46:10+00:00	15,651	Her mind was clouded, but sure of purpose as she ascended the spiraling staircase upward. Flickering torches mounted on the walls sent a splintering array of shadows outward from her body as she passed by them. Each time her eyes met light they burned, and she squinted as her hooves clopped on the stone stairs. Nighttime – nighttime was almost over now. Not much time left. It would be best to do this quickly; get it over with, no fuss. She had been waiting so long, so patiently... the anticipation was overwhelming. To think that everything would culminate tonight, this hour, after only just a little longer... Bits and pieces of the world were creeping in and out of focus. She could feel her mind straining at the edges of reality, the tiniest fragments of her vision disappearing and reappearing without provocation. One minute she would affix her gaze to a tapestry on the wall, glimmering brightly with finely woven patterns, and the next moment would be clenching her teeth, trying desperately to rid her vision of the thousands of glowing spiders sliding through the cracks in the fabric. Nothing was certain any longer, and that was why she must do this now, tonight, and not wait a second longer. The cool air of the open night’s sky burst onto her face as she threw the door open, the wooden frame creaking angrily at the force with which it had been displaced. The moon – it was almost at the farthest point of its descent, which meant she didn’t have much time left. It was only a few feet away now- Luna breathed in the crisp refreshing breeze as she gazed over the castle parapets, scanning the far-stretching horizon as far as it would go. There was so much beyond the light left in the sky – so many ponies peacefully asleep waiting for their day to begin; towns, cities, and untamed wilds beyond, an entire world of unseen life that had yet to awaken, blissfully unaware of the beautiful moonset they were about to miss. I suppose they missed their chance. Luna threw herself over the stone wall. Her wings tucked themselves inwards as she fell, the ground coming to meet her at an unbelievable pace, barreling towards her from thousands of feet away -hundreds -down to only inches, and then- “You gave us a quite a scare, your majesty. We were all worried about you.” The nervous voice of a timid pony in a white coat bounced off the well-laid stone of the castle infirmary as he fretted at his patient’s bedside. Accompanying his physician’s attire was a brown bowler hat, a fitting compliment for his bushy moustache. Next to his feet lay a doctor’s bag of medicinal equipment, and he tapped it errantly with his hind hoof as he stood nervously next to a dark pony covered in soft bedding. “I am truly sorry, doctor, I never meant to cause alarm. I simply don’t understand how I could have been so careless.” Luna’s voice was prim and proper, enunciating each word slowly for maximum articulation. Her speaking mannerisms felt antiquated, aged like a family heirloom from her time of absence. “Now now, that’s quite alright your highness.” Even in the presence of royalty the brown-coated practitioner’s bedside manner was affable and friendly, his words carrying a cheerful but perpetually blustered tone. “Even the most talented flyers have accidents now and again. We’re all fortunate your royal frame is so resilient!” The doctor chuckled loudly, overwhelming the timid forced giggle that came from Luna’s mouth. Her expression was polite and cheerful, but strained, as though she were gritting her teeth too hard to be grinning normally. Every so often, one of her eyes would twitch ever so slightly, unnoticed by the others in the room. That was, the doctor, and Luna’s sister, Princess Celestia. The white alicorn’s brow had been furrowed since her arrival, and the apparent stress on her mind showed no sign of leaving. The sun goddess was pacing anxiously in a very short distance as her sister received her final bout of examinations. “Well, you seem to be on the path to a speedy recovery, so I’ll simply leave you for some rest, mhm-hmm?” The doctor dipped his head downward to his saddlebag and tossed it onto his back with a flick of his muzzle. Luna simply nodded, still wearing a concentrated smile. Content with another job well done, the brown earth-pony gave a cordial bow to Celestia before dashing out the door, the clop of his hooves and cheerful humming the only sound for several minutes. The sisters waited quietly, neither of them speaking a word until the air had grown fully thick with uncomfortable silence. “Luna...” Celestia began, hesitating. Her sentence was interrupted by her sister’s pre-emptive response. “Yes, Tia?” That nickname, that Luna had used since the two of them were the youngest of fillies having not been uttered for a thousand years till now; it made Celestia’s heart tremble every time. Part of her felt that Luna knew this... that her sister used it only to tug at her emotions - but to what end? No, it was foolish to be suspicious of such a thing, a sweet pet-name shared amongst siblings. Celestia blinked, collecting her thoughts, and cleared her throat before resuming to her speech. “Luna, my sister, are you certain that you are alright?” the white alicorn’s speaking manner was as formal as her public addresses indicated. Her sister’s reply was just as aged, though not possessed of the cultural refinement developed from a millennium of public diplomatic discourse. “I’m fine, Celestia. I merely had a particularly unfortunate accident. You heard the doctor, however. He said I’d be up and about in only a day’s time. “Luna’s grin grew wider as she continued. “It’s a good thing our magic means only a few bruises and scratches from a fall like that, hm?” Luna’s eye twitched ever so slightly as she stared forward at her sister, mouth locked into a steadfast smile. Celestia wasn’t sure she had seen it, so she cleared her throat again softly and responded. “Indeed. Luna… is there anything you need to speak to me about? Something you would like to tell me?” Eye twitch. Luna shook her head softly, still grinning. “Not at all, my dearest sister. Whatever would give you that idea?” Twitch. Celestia had noticed that one. Her brow furrowed in concern. While a subtle tic meant little in the pursuit of deductive reasoning, her sister’s mannerisms felt slightly… off. “You… you just haven’t seemed like yourself this last month, Luna.” Her tone had softened from its typical highly formal austere into a soothing, motherly plea, that seemed to say: ‘Please, let me help…’ “Oh? I’m sorry, Tia. I’ve just felt a bit under the weather – probably what caused my wings to cramp up like that in the first place. Just give me a couple days and I promise I’ll be right as night!” Celestia’s eyes stared intently forward, fixating on Luna’s gaze, but detected no flashes of movement, nothing to indicate her sister was not being one hundred percent sincere. After an impromptu staring contest that seemed to go on longer than was comfortable, Celestia shifted her face sideways, now focused on the painted stone wall. She sighed before turning her head back, smiling softly. “I understand. Please, Luna, if you need anything, do not hesitate to speak to me.” Her sister only grinned back at her and nodded, face still frozen in an overly enthusiastic contortion. To call it a smile now might be inaccurate. “Of course, Tia.” Celestia walked slowly towards the door, pausing before she exited the infirmary. She glanced backwards at her sister, who was sitting on her haunches underneath the pristine white bedding, the quilt pulled almost to her neck. Luna gave a small wave as her sister looked back, and Celestia sighed quietly before turning and making her down the castle hall. As she exited the room, Luna’s eye gave another twitch. The bed-ridden alicorn waited several moments, making sure the patter of hoof steps on the stone floor had ceased before looking downward at herself. Her black fur, normally soft and well-groomed, was now soaked with sweat. She blinked, and looked closer. A beam of sunlight took that moment to shine its way inside the room through the nearby window, casting a gentle glow over the infirmary bed. Luna struggled to hold back a scream. The instant the light touched her, she could feel it again. Burning. Crawling. A sensation like a thousand poisonous ants squirming through her veins pulsed underneath her skin. Her fur stood immediately on end, her pupils dilating rapidly as the stinging feeling spread, emanating from the point of contact with the sunlight and blossoming out to the rest of her body. The way she felt was horrifying beyond belief, even in its familiarity. She had been able to distract herself while the others were around, closing her eyes and thinking of the moon, or the quiet blanket of darkness that encircled her at night, making her feel safe; but now that they were gone, the only thing left to draw her attention was the feeling that had been welling up inside her since she had awoken, catalyzed with the horrific burning ray of putrid brightness that lit her skin ablaze. It hurts, she thought to herself. It burns. I want it to stop. Simple, rapid impulses flashed into her mind, the mantras she had repeated to herself since this had started. Every morning the daylight stung a little more, and she found herself at times wishing she could claw her own skin off, rending herself to the bone to escape the feeling of scuttling agony that welled up inside her each day. She had been clumsy, the night previous, hoping to make things better in such a way, with so little planning. As she struggled to gain focus of her thoughts, her eyes drifted from the prickling of her own fur to the bed-sheet she had wrapped around her forelegs. A soft, comforting pearlescent white matched the rest of the room’s décor, the odd hanging picture or wall-tapestry presenting an aura of serene beauty. While the rest of the room’s decorations were a flat and clinical tone, the blanket was a soft, egg-shell white. Egg-shell. Twitch. A series of pink lines were stitched into the bedding, spiraling outwards into a multitude of intricate patterns woven all throughout the fabric. The stitches were thin, and they glowed in the light, sparkling against the white background. Egg-shell white. Egg-shell. Eggs. She could see them now. Burrowing at the cracked egg she had wrapped herself in, struggling to break free of their soft-shelled prison. Sun spiders, thousands of them bulging inside. The sun must have heated the egg just enough to bring them to their final stages of gestation, and now it was time to be born. Time to escape through the gleaming red splinters that splayed in every direction, and make their way into the world. Luna’s face shuddered as she saw the first batch emerging from the blanket’s corner, a red cross-stitch spewing forth a wave of tiny, glowing arachnids. The rest came shortly thereafter; thousands of sparkling spiders gushing from every one of the red seams and surging onto the white fabric, illuminated by the daylight from the nearby window. Luna’s mind reeled as she suppressed the thousand decibel scream her lungs wished desperately to unleash. The spiders were the part she hated the most, and now, about to be covered in them, her body had frozen. As soon as the first tiny leg touched her fur, a reaction came without thought. She hurled the bug-covered blanket across the room, kicking it with her hind legs and shoving it as far away as possible. She gritted her teeth fiercely, her mind screaming at her to run as far away as she could, to get away from the clump of scuttling arachnids that would surely find their way out of the egg-blanket and make their way towards her. Looking down and noticing her hoof held a small cluster of the glowing black creatures, she let out a small shriek and kicked herself off the bed, shoving her body backwards into the infirmary wall. She pounded her hoof on the ground, shaking off some of the bristling spiders with each impact, smashing them into a luminescent paste when she was sure they had been removed. Every thump of impact shook the shelving on the walls, and Luna could feel her hoof bruising as she slammed it into the floor over and over again. Her breathing was deep and labored as she finally stayed her hoof, satisfied that the bulk of the scuttling creatures had been removed. She heightened her gaze to look at the bundle of spiders she had thrown across the room. Surely there must be thousands, millions of them hatched by now, crawling towards her. Slavering to eat her alive. How could she deal with that many? How could- Her wide-eyed stare was unwavering as she locked her vision on the soft blanket lying at the foot of the bed. The woven pink patterns were still and peaceful against the soothing shade of white. No movement. No spiders. She looked down at her hoof. The remains of the bugs were gone as well, but they had left something behind – a bright orange glow, marking her foot and well-shorn fetlocks with an iridescent stain. It shone so brightly as she looked that she was forced to turn her eyes away, lest she be blinded. No, that couldn’t be. If she left it… everyone would know. Everyone would see. Had to fix it, had to be dealt with, now. What dampened the sunlight? Oh. Of course. Biting down on her lip, jaw still clenched in distress since she had tumbled from the bed, Luna inhaled deeply before bringing her hoof down hard on the unyielding stone floor. Her movement was sudden, as though she was sure undue time to think would lead to hesitation. The noise of the impact made her twinge almost as much as the pain; she had felt her quarter ache as it smashed against the ground, and opened her eyes timidly to assess the damage. No breakage. Time to try again. Twitch. The second blow to the floor hurt almost as much, mostly due to the sickening crunch her hoof made as it collided with the stone. She had felt it that time, one of her walls cracking. Again, she looked downwards to determine whether a further blow would be necessary. No, there was blood. It was dark, sticky, seeping from her wound, and she immediately raised the hoof closer for investigation. Yes, black. That was the enemy of the sun, the light, the brightness that burned her on its every touch, worming its way from her scalded body inside her mind. The blackness was inside her to make it better, but it had to be drawn out for use. Breathing deeply, Luna lifted the end of her smashed limb to meet with the tip of her other foreleg, and pressed the source of emanating blood down. It stung, but forced some of the pitch-black liquid outward onto her waiting sole, collecting a small amount of it before turning her hoof and applying it to her fur. Almost immediately, the glowing subsided, washed over by the lightless blackened fluid. Luna hummed quietly to herself as she painted the rest of the stain in blood until finally the light had been masked entirely, washed away by the purity of night. She sat there for a moment, clutching her injury, the ambient light of the room illuminating her shaken frame. The red stain on the floor contrasted the white of the infirmary, and the pattern she had painted on her hoof shone as brightly crimson as the pink stitches on the blanket sitting several feet away. Something must be done, she thought to herself. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take. How long would it be before she failed to use her magic to heal the damage necessary to wash away the stain of the daylight? She already felt exhausted from days on end of repairing her injuries, especially after the night’s ‘flying’ incident… she had misjudged her fall, thought it would be enough. Now she realized there was perhaps no distance she could plummet that would be sufficient. She was going to have to think of something else… Her mind wandered in thought as her hoof dripped a slow trickle of blood onto the floor, gathering in a small red pool, each drop making the tiniest sound as it collected. Still pondering, Luna looked downwards, to see her face reflected in the puddle. Pure black, as it should be. Twitch. It had been quiet, for all those years. The empty void of space was not a suitable companion for conversation, as Luna had quickly discovered. So long in silence… she had forgotten what her own voice sounded like, what the noise of hooves on ground was; all of the world had escaped her memory, only to be rebuilt from scratch. The noises of life in Equestria after that thousand years had been like the first sounds to a foal’s ear on the day of its birth. Time had passed before her thoughts had been her own, of course. The jealousy and rage which had fueled Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon had been powerful – powerful enough to last hundreds of years, keeping her furious with anger every second of her banishment, plotting for the day she would make her return and exact the vengeance she had wanted for so long. Even nightmares, however, could not last forever. After over half a millennium subsisting on nothing more than her own anger, Luna’s resolve had wavered; or rather, the part of her that had become the shadowy essence of Nightmare had at last shown signs of regret. She had begun to contemplate the nature of her exile, something Celestia had no doubt planned when she had declared the thousand year banishment. At the beginning, Luna – Nightmare – had been convinced that her fury would continue to boil for the duration of her absence and further. But… as time passed, the rage had become harder and harder to hold on to. ‘Why am I doing this?’ she had thought, a passing glimmer of doubt that was quickly swallowed by jealousy. It had persisted though, reemerging to the surface of her mind more and more frequently as the days and years passed by. Until one day… she had stopped. All the anger and hatred bottled inside her for those hundreds of years had at last been exhausted; she could take no more of day after day seething in frustration at the way her precious night had been reviled. The hate inside her had been strong when her transformation first began, but it was not bottomless. So then she had been left alone, with nothing but her guilt and sorrow to keep her sane. They had done a poor job at that. Being alone in an endless sea of silence and nothingness was one thing when her mind was overtaken by the hostile force of Nightmare Moon, but after shedding the cloak of nightmares and regaining some semblance of her sanity, things were very different; different enough to make that tiny bit of rationale and peace ebb away. She speculated briefly during one of her more coherent periods that perhaps the way her mind was deteriorating had something to do with the moon itself. What were the tenants of the function of the moon? Lunar cycles, twenty eight day rotation. The reflection of the sun. An iridescent surface incapable of projecting its own light. It reminded Luna of herself now; barren, empty, flawed, a hollow replica of her sister’s inner light and divine beauty. The thought had crossed her mind at points during her exile, spurring her into a furious rage that led the essence of Nightmare to reclaim her body for periods, but it had never lasted for long, and the resulting exodus of the dark force left her feeling more drained than ever. It was likely as well that the constant merging and separation had put an increased tax on her mental faculties. Whatever the cause, she was dealing with the results now. Where was she? Oh yes, the moon. The word was there already; Lunacy, the ancient word for insanity that she breathed deep in her very essence. That was what she was undergoing now. Part of her understood that; a very tiny fragment that was still able to analyze and extrapolate the pieces of reality she could still perceive. She had gone mad. From the isolation, the quiet, the hundreds of years spent in hatred and agony and regret and guilt, days spent trapped in nothingness, nights spent enduring the glaring reflection of light that shone down onto Equestria, burning her body with its heat. Luckily her magic had not been sealed during her banishment; it was merely insufficient to break the barrier her sister had imprisoned her with. It could still be used to mend the damage from the sunlight, though the pain persisted. Really, all things considered, it was no wonder Luna’s mind had undergone such a collapse. She chided herself for thinking that way; whatever had broken inside of her was only an instrument to making herself whole again. Each shattered piece of her spirit was a step towards rebuilding; she just wished the journey was more accommodating. After the morning’s incident with the sun-spiders, Luna had taken some time to collect herself. Every encounter with the frayed edges of reality required more work, increasing effort to keep up appearances. The remains of her curative injury needed to be cleaned, the bed remade, all while keeping silent in her perpetual suffering. It was easier, much easier to stay strong during the night. That was her home, the place she felt safest. During the day, however, when the sun shone brightly and every ray sent her body into spasms of pain that blossomed quickly into white hot agony, blistering her mind… it became much harder to stay quiet, to appear calm. Even now, tucked away in the perpetual darkness of her room, it was a struggle. Luna was hunched over her desk, a stack of parchment on the corner piled higher than her head. Various arcane scribbles reached to every inch of the paper, sentences in obscure ancient languages accompanied by sketches in black ink. Pictures of the moon and its rotational arc, copied passages from textbooks detailing the effect of lunar rays during prolonged exposure. Luna was trying her hardest to research and document her spiral into insanity, but it was proving to be quite a daunting task. She had hoped the page she had written the night previous would be her last. Found solution, lunar incantation left in your hooves. Apologies. It was to the point, and formal, just the way their conversations had always been. Luna knew that if her plan succeeded, Celestia would be the first to read her note… But it hadn’t. Her attempt to bring an end to this perpetual suffering had failed, and now she was forced to endure yet another day trapped in the forever reeling agony of her own madness. It only got worse as time went on; surely, if another action was not taken soon, the opportunity for a solution would be gone. Her mind would be too fragmented to take the steps necessary for her relief, and she would remain trapped forever in the hellish reality of the day time. Luna blinked at the page below her, straightening the aged parchment with her hooves and struggling to bring her eyes to focus. It seemed harder today, likely a sign that the final stages of deterioration were setting in. Steeling herself with the urgency of her task, she forced herself to read the words written in front of her; an excerpt from an ancient library reference she had copied hastily several nights ago. Instead of the clinical typeface of the printed book, the words were scribbled in the hurried shorthoof of Luna’s fanciful cursive. Alicorn physiology most resilient; only several recorded cases of significant injury. Regenerative properties inherent, magic only source of permanent damage. Standard physical trauma ineffective. Must be magical. Well, that was simple enough. As her attempt the previous night had shown her, a tumble from a castle parapet was hardly enough to accomplish what she had in mind – even now, her body barely ached from the impact of the ground, as if she had never fallen in the first place. As her mind reeled in contemplation, discarding new ideas as quickly as they arose, she noticed the shimmer in the corner of her study. She did a double take, glancing back up at the small glow after dismissing it the first time. No. Not in her room. Daylight had been blocked off from every available entry point; the windows had been boarded, the door sealed shut. There was no source from which the brightness could have entered – even besides which; its natural place would have been the end of a ray of sunlight, not huddled in the corner like some nervous, scuttling creature. Luna’s eye twitched again. She saw it move. The ball of brightness crawled sluggishly towards her desk as she stared at it, eyes wide in disbelief. Though she had become accustomed to the ways reality had begun to fall apart around her, even this was cause for alarm. If the daylight could move, that meant nowhere was safe. Not the daylight, then. She had thought, tucked away in the safety of her pitch black study, that she would be safe from the spiders, the most disgusting manifestation of the sun she had encountered. Tiny wriggling bodies that scuttled in and out of nooks and crannies like the rays of daybreak between the crevices of stone that made up the castle walls. They could be everywhere, and it was an ever present struggle to avoid them, but she had always thought the darkness of her room would keep them at bay. Apparently, that was not the case. Again, her body froze in fear as the writhing mass of luminescent arachnids began to slowly move towards her. Always, she felt this way, paralyzed with distress the moment she saw them. The only way to avoid the feeling was to shut her eyes and sing quiet moonlight hymns, hoping to run past the disgusting creatures before they had time to reach her. When confronted in an isolated setting like this, however, movement didn’t feel like an option. Unfortunately, Luna realized she had no need to wait for the arrival of the spiders; the glowing clump that landed softly on the back of her neck told her that. Immediately she threw herself onto the floor, spinning wildly in an attempt to dislodge the mass of a thousand scuttling bodies that crawled over her fur. She could feel the tiny legs, the burning hot glow of the disgusting bodies making their way all over her back. Each tiny creature that might have tickled in its movement had it been a conventional spider instead gave the feel of a hundred needles of white hot fire being plunged into her veins. The rolling had failed to dislodge them, so Luna leapt to her feet and began beating her wings furiously, trying to toss the creatures off with the force of the controlled gust. Unfortunately, the spiders were persistent, and in her frenzy to remove the initial cluster, Luna’s rolling brought her right into the middle of the clump which had been crawling towards her moments ago. If the arachnids were grateful for her generosity, they didn’t show it; they merely joined their brothers in burrowing their tiny mouths of fiery sunlight into Luna’s flesh. She couldn’t help but scream now, loudly. They were everywhere, every inch of her body burned. She could feel them inside her, the poisonous sunlight venom making its way into her circulatory system. So much pain, the burning was unending. Searing. Gut-turning sickness. Every part of her on fire. Millions of them, burrowing into her, chewing into her skin, poisoning her. So many. So much pain. All reason was lost as Luna threw herself around the room incoherently. Every thought had fled her mind other than the removal of the bugs. Objects crashed from their shelves, and a book-case tumbled to the ground as she twisted and spun, colliding with anything that might dislodge them. Her screaming had stopped; there were no words, no sounds that could describe this pain. Silence was the only thing that came, her voice trapped inside the burning prison of her own body. As Luna rolled on the cold stone floor again, scraping against the unyielding surface in an attempt to remove more of the arachnids from her coat, she heard a knock at the door. Two quiet, quick impacts in rapid succession: knock knock. She knew that knock. Not now, please, not now, she couldn’t do it, couldn’t hide them, couldn’t- The door creaked quietly as it opened, Celestia’s gleaming visage peeking into the room otherwise enveloped in darkness. Her face was concerned as she scanned the chaos, seeing the toppled shelf and shattered pieces of glass-work that littered the ground, before noticing her sister sitting peacefully in the center of the study amidst the debris. “Luna…” she began, her speech slow and measured. Something felt very wrong. Twitch. Luna’s smile was an attempt at mimicking her earlier forced grin, but this time at her own admission, she had no way to appear convincing. Every muscle in her body was screaming at her in agony, her mind felt on fire, her stomach was rolling with sickness; and yet still, she persisted, struggling to maintain the obvious façade of cheerfulness as she greeted her sister. “Yes, Tia?” the sentence was almost coughed out, as though her throat struggled to form the words without vomiting them forward, along with the contents of her stomach. “Luna… what on earth happened? Are you alright?” Celestia had fully assessed the damage to the room now, and even though she could plainly see her sister was by no means ‘alright’, she felt obliged to ask before pushing forward. “Oh. I’m. Fine.” Luna choked her words through gritted teeth, her too-wide smile staring back at her sister from the darkness. “Just had. A small of an accident. Tripped. No cause for. Concern.” Celestia’s face wrinkled with distress. The past few days she had seen… signs, but nothing of this magnitude. She was beginning to realize her sister needed her help, that something was wrong; though, what that might be she had no idea. The two had tried their best to speak and stay close after Luna’s return, but things had been… difficult. It felt to Celestia as though there were a wall between them; an invisible barrier preventing the two from truly connecting. Over the past month, however, her sister had seemed to drift even farther away, and now felt more distant than ever. It was a painful feeling, wanting to help so badly, but not knowing how. Normally the world moved at Celestia’s beck and call – now, faced with something she could neither understand nor solve, she felt utterly helpless. “Are you sure? It seems like quite a mess in here. If you’re hurt… will you let me help-“ Celestia had begun making her way inside the study proper before Luna’s shout rang out. “NO!” The black alicorn blinked, surprised at her own volume, before attempting to collect her already fragmented composure. Her artificial smile had broken. Now instead, she occupied her mouth with her lower lip, biting hard, and her teeth began to draw blood as she clamped her jaw down while speaking. “I mean. No, that’s alright… everything is fine. Feeling fine. Good. No need to… worry. Just a little… under the weather. From fall. Still a bit sick. Better soon.” Sentences chopped to pieces. Eyes like shattered mirrors. A stare that looked past the curtain cloth of the real and into the nightmare behind. Twitch. Luna blinked, and relaxed her jaw, lapping up the trickle of blood from her lip as she did so. Almost immediately, her tenseness softened, and her entire posture relaxed as she sucked her lip quietly like a nursing foal, oblivious to her sister’s worried expression. The soft sound of her sucking down the fluid of her own wound echoed in the darkness. There was no doubt in Celestia’s mind that something was wrong… but for once in her lifetime of more than a thousand years, she didn’t know what to do. She could only help if her sister let her, and right now every attempt at understanding or concern was met with a false cheerfulness designed specifically to push her away. She felt the gap widening between them every day. It seemed like soon, it would be too wide a chasm to cross… Her sister’s name was the only plea her lips could form. It carried the weight of their bond as siblings, the regret and yearning of a thousand years of loneliness, all imparted in a single word… “Luna…” The black alicorn merely nodded quietly. She gave a small lick to her injured lower lip before speaking, her composure having leveled significantly since a moment previous. “I’m fine, Tia, really, just having a bad day. I’m sorry I worried you.” The words sounded so sincere, genuine. What reason would her sister have to lie? Celestia still furrowed her brow in concern, before conceding her defeat inwardly. She couldn’t keep struggling like this, trying to force her sister to open up. If she wouldn’t let her in… “That’s alright, Luna. Though I know I have already said so… please, if you need anything, do not hesitate to call me. Please?” Please, thought Luna. I need you. I need your help. She nodded. “Of course.” Her mouth formed a passable smile, and an unsettling stare indicated that the conversation had ended – every second Celestia spent standing awkwardly at the study door was a second Luna’s face pleaded with her to leave. Behind her eyes, Celestia thought she saw a glimmer of longing… but no sooner had she noticed it than the feeling vanished. The alabaster princess nodded before turning, exiting the room slowly. She cast one glance backwards after taking several steps down the hall, only to have her eyes meet Luna’s from the shroud of blackness inside the confined room. Please. Help. The noise of hoof steps faded as the marble white alicorn made her way back to her quarters. The only sound left was the quiet sniffle of Luna’s sobbing, echoing off every corner of her private prison. Please. I can’t do this anymore. It hurts. I’m scared. Time. Not much time left. Hurt. It hurt so much, so much worse, had to find a way- Luna hadn’t been prepared for the strength with which the pain had increased throughout the next few days. Every minute her last tattered ribbons of sanity threatened to vanish completely, leaving her trapped inside her own mind, a hellish unconsciousness of burning daylight and blurred reality that would torture her for eternity. She was relatively certain now that others had begun to notice the change in her demeanor; while she had persisted in attempting to put up a façade of normalcy, the strain was quickly becoming too much. Every corner of her vision blinked and brimmed with unseen nightmares, every sound was warped and distorted through a haze of the agonizing screams of her own mind. Every face was twisted hideously into an unthinkable monstrosity, every surface bristling with hordes of ravenous insects that sought only her flesh for sustenance. All in all, it made it difficult to smile. That was why she had to finish this. Tonight. Culmination, planning, coming together. Everything would be better. Studying in every moment of coherence brought to her by the whims of her failing sanity, Luna had researched the matter of alicorn resilience as deeply as possible. It seemed that for all intents and purposes, the few recorded instances of injury to the unicorn/pegasus hybrids were almost non-existent. Being that divinity was a hallmark of all alicorns, the concept of one being hurt to any degree of severity was almost ludicrous. Hurting someone who was, all things considered, more or less a god, was utter foolishness. You might as well take a rock and try to strike the sun from the sky. Yet, she knew there had to be a way. Some poorly documented account of violence that had achieved the unthinkable; even an old-mare’s tale passed by word of mouth would have been sufficient if it had given her a lead to pursue. After days of searching, she had been ready to give up and resolve herself to a lifetime of eternal suffering, when she had stumbled upon it. A journal. Hoof-written, or copied, bound in ancient parchment tucked between a selection of arcane reference guides in the farthest corner of the royal library. Luna suspected it had been misfiled, or perhaps never meant to be catalogued in the first place, but that was where she had found it. For the first time in months, she felt something akin to joy, before the euphoric sparks at the edge of her eyes brought about in her exuberance had revealed themselves to be the iridescent tentacles of another of her mind’s manifold horrors. She had struggled then to comprehend the nature of the new monstrosities being brought to existence by the filth of the sunlight, before running as fast as her hooves could carry her towards her study, where she had studied the text for the next four hours, barely blinking for the duration. It was a log written in old Equestrian, and even Luna, with her knowledge of forgotten dialogues and long since discarded scripts, had struggled to make sense of it. After some study, she had deduced this was partially because of the haphazard nature in which it was written. Whoever was responsible for the retelling of the accounts in the book seemed to be forever changed by what they had seen, and in no way that could be described as positive. Today, the first page began, I witnessed the death of an alicorn. Luna’s eyes had shone as she read those words, brightening with the first real smile to grace her lips in what felt like forever. This was exactly what she had been looking for. Praying for something that could finally lead her in the right direction, Luna had read on, only resting at the diary’s completion several hours later. Her eyelids had been heavy, and even in the face of her usual nightmares, sleep had seemed appealing. She knew, however, that with so little time left, the information she had gained could not be slept on. She had to put what she had learned to work, apply it to theory, and then at last to practice. So, what had she learned? Firstly, as she had suspected, alicorns seemed to be susceptible only to injuries by concentrated magic, or a force very closely associated with some kind of spell essence. The account documented in the increasingly rambling pages of the journal she had found told of the defeat and murder of a great alicorn king – no doubt he could be traced somewhere in Luna’s lineage, but was most likely so ancient that no formal records existed at the time of his death. The king had been murdered with a powerful spell concentrated from the willpower of a hundred unicorns. The details of their reasoning were muddy and hard to understand from what she had found in the journal, but were ultimately unimportant; the most pertinent matter at hoof was not why, but how. She had read in graphic detail the first-hoof account from the unnamed author as he watched the blinding surge of power that had overwhelmed the alicorn patriarch, dissolving fur and flesh before searing his bones a murky black, leaving his crumbling skeleton to collapse into dust before scattering in the wind. Disturbing under any other circumstance. Luna, however, found it inspirational. That meant there was a way. After reading and re-reading the diary, she had begun planning. Orchestrating the combined effort of a legion of unicorns would no doubt prove difficult, if not impossible, especially without letting any of them know the intent of their focused magic. The story would have to serve as a guideline… Luna’s eyes were heavy. She blinked several times before looking down at the scribbled notes she had taken. So tired. Everything was drifting away slowly now, bits and pieces of her vision slipping out of focus… Focus. She had to focus, had to do this, or nothing would change. Every day would be the same for all eternity. Misery. Pain. Unending torture. Sadness. Isolation. She felt more alone now than she had in all those years on the moon. A cold sensation on her hooves drew Luna away from her brief visitation with contemplation; she stared at the end of her forelegs to discern the source of the discomfort. The feeling had come out of nowhere, the scratch of aged parchment being ever-present only a moment ago. Now, as she looked down, the paper had begun to bubble and melt, and the corners dripped off the end of Luna’s feet onto the cold stone floor. She stared as the words oozed and slithered into a gelatinous inky mass in the center of the page before the middle of the pool dipped, punching a hole through the rubbery paper and landing on the floor with a loud splat. The feel of the liquid parchment solidifying on her fur into a crunchy dust prompted Luna’s default reaction; she had learned several days prior in her most horrific encounter with the sun-spiders that the night-essence of her blood was curative internally, as well as externally. She felt the sting of her teeth as the skin of her already scarred lipped tore, and sucked feverishly at the wound, trying to draw the blood forth as fast as possible. Though her mouth was now a lattice-work of scars, she was relieved to have at last found a temporary remedy for the simpler of her waking hallucinations. As soon as she felt the metallic taste on her tongue her mind blanked, awash with momentary relief. Though she had also learned that constant reliance on this technique dulled its effects, the sensation of the world reassembling into its proper form always felt indescribably comforting. Her face risked a tiny smile as the puddle of words and paper gelatin floated upwards, reasserting itself into the parchment she had held moments ago. The trick seemed mostly just to work in small doses. When she had tried it that morning, awakening to frightening visions of a world engulfed by sun-fire, melting the skin from the face of every pony and leaving their screaming husks behind, the relief had not come. If anything, the fleeting glimpse of reprieve had only made the waking nightmare worse. No, she was running out of answers. Out of answers, out of time, and out of what little remained of her magic to fuel the reparations her body was beginning to require daily. Self-injury aside, the warping nature of reality had startled her into a number of accidents. Days before, she had leapt in surprise into a candelabrum and was forced to extinguish the fiery inferno that had burst from her fur. Eyes playing tricks on her the morning prior, she had been persuaded to smash a glass ornament into her face to blot out the sun that would have blinded her mind otherwise. The shards of glass in her ocular nerves had pained her unlike anything she had previously believed was possible, and the subsequent repairs had taken more energy than anything she was used to, additionally difficult due to the waves of pain that had wracked her body as each splinter was removed from her bleeding, macerated eyeballs. Seeing her vision return piece by piece with the dislodging of each razor sharp shard was an experience she hoped never to repeat. Has to be tonight, she thought. Tonight. No more waiting. Everything, to an extent, she could endure. The pain, the feeling of uncertainty at everything she saw and heard, the constant fear of the world collapsing into some horror from her wildest nightmares ; all these things, Luna theorized she could learn to tolerate. It was the feeling of isolation; of loneliness that pervaded every part of her existence, that she could no longer deal with. Every face she saw was like a picture from a storybook, lifeless and without emotion. Every pony she spoke to was like a hollow recording, void of feeling and reason, dull and unresponsive. No one could understand her. No one could feel her pain. No one could help. She was alone. Tonight, she hoped, that loneliness would be gone. Alone. Cold. Hot. Burning. Pain. Scared. Walls falling, closing in. Small. Crushing. Confining. No air, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak Stone, melting. Covering, smothering, enveloping, suffocating. Fire in lungs. Fire in skin. Burning. The Sun. Through the walls, colliding with the earth, everything. Everything burning. Nothing left, nothing spared. Face. Her face. Sister’s face. Pure, perfect, staring at her through the inferno. Staring. Help. No response. Please, sister – help She couldn’t hear her, fading away now, vanishing back into the sun The Sun So bright, hot, burning, scarring, everything into ash, everything melting away, ground beneath her feet was turning to dust, skin was on fire, bones blackening, every part of her evaporating- Luna’s breath struggled through her lungs as she awoke. Her eyes shot immediately open, greeted by the blackness of her room, and her hooves gripped the starry-printed bed sheets underneath her. It had been too much to hope that her last day’s sleep would be peaceful. She had retired for several hours, too exhausted to stay awake before putting her plan in to motion. Even though she knew that with every slumber came the waking visions of a world scorched by the sun, the agony that spiraled from her mind into real pain and anguish, she had prayed that perhaps she could be granted one exception, in lieu of what next lay in store. It seemed the universe did not possess a well developed sense of fairness. Struggling to fill her aching chest with air as she panted heavily on her bed, Luna noticed the feel underneath her hooves; where her soft, welcoming blanket would be normally, she felt a bizarre stiffness, like a rock, or a stick of charcoal. She noticed then that she couldn’t move her hooves – they were locked in place, tethered to the mattress beneath her. Focusing her eyesight through the darkness, she looked down, fearing the worst. Ah. It seemed that in the fevered frenzy of her nightmarish inferno, she had begun to manifest pieces of the vision through her magic. She had charred the bedding and fused it with her hooves, locking the two together in a burnt husk of flesh, bone, and what had previously been comforting quilting. She was so numb to most of the pain by now she hadn’t noticed, more shocked by the rigid sensation of immobility than the feel of tender flesh seared by magical flames. Breathing out wearily and gritting her teeth, Luna’s horn shone with a swirling black aura as she focused a curative spell on the stubs of her legs, unweaving the fusion of embroidery and flesh before repairing the damage to her scorched appendages – the reassembly hurt sometimes just as much as injury, and this time was no exception. She gritted her teeth down, grinding them against each other as her hooves mended. The feeling afterwards was always one of tenderness, and a dull, pervasive ache that went on for hours. Sighing, Luna collapsed backwards from her sitting position, her head landing on her lacy pillowcase with a soft thump. A few more hours, and this would all be over. Then she could rest. In earnest, for the first time in a thousand years, she could rest. It hurt. Hurt to breathe, to think, just to be. Luna had never hurt this much before, not in all the time prior; in all her most horrific visions and bouts of agony onset by haunting ethereal creatures and sun-fire and thousands of self-inflicted injuries, the pain had felt bearable. Now, it was as though the world was collapsing under the weight of her anguish, only moments until the fabric of reality would unweave and leave her struggling in misery for all eternity. It was as though her body knew was to come, like it suspected that through protest her mind could be changed. This was why her resolve remained unwavering; even if the pain were an anomaly, returning to normal – or what she could call normal, in this case – she had to remain steadfast, to overcome this struggle and finally put herself at rest. At peace. No more pain, no more torturous solitude, no more fear. It was time. I’m scared. Even in the face of all the planning, Luna was afraid. The last time had been easier, requiring no preparation, just action. Jump, she had told herself, and before you know it, everything will be better. It was so simple, she hated now more than ever that things had not been so easy. Now, here she was, in the face of her final hour, and she felt nervous. Worried. And, more than anything, afraid. I have to do this, she thought, levitating the final piece of the wall into place. The room she was in was peculiar in its design – though the initial layout was that of circular castle keep, stationed at the top of a guard tower, the walls had been lined with mirrors. Shimmering reflections of herself greeted Luna at every angle. It felt strange, to see her pain reflected in so many facets; every time she caught a glimpse of her own face, which was often, she felt her expression contort even more, startled at how fatigued she looked. She felt hollow, as though her body had been drained completely, leaving only a walking husk. It’s for the best then, really. No one would want me to trouble them with my presence, looking like this. Though before she had needed no additional rationalization to give purpose to her goal, as the final minutes approached her nervousness had grown, and any means to alleviate it were good ones. Even with those platitudes, however, Luna knew she had no need of sadness or self-pity; what she was doing was necessary. Even through her own clouded thoughts, Luna knew there was no other way. Her sister had most likely known that too, when she had confronted her those thousand years ago – why she pretended to show concern or sympathy Luna couldn’t be sure. She knew her sister was perfect; as perfect as any being could strive to be. The duality of the nature they shared was, at best, a cruel joke; Celestia needed nopony’s help to be divinity manifest, a fact that had been painfully obvious from the day Luna was born. She understood, finally, after a millennium, how pathetic her life had been in retrospect. Born only to exist as a flawed imitation of such magnificent perfection, an always imperfect copy of someone so amazing. Soon, no one will pay heed to my flaws any longer. The final piece of mirror plating slid into place with a click, locking in to the fastening mechanism Luna had fitted to hold it. Everything was set just so; a circular chamber of mirrors and reflections, with Luna as its sole occupant. That meant it was time. Luna let out a long, shaking breath. She was nervous. Scared. Apprehensive. All those things, and still somehow; calm, as though she felt the purity of her purpose through a means she couldn’t quite describe. Perhaps it was the knowledge that, in a few moments, all the pain and suffering she had endured, the agony she felt with every waking moment since her banishment had begun, would at last be over. Wearily, she allowed herself a small smile, before beginning her focus. In theory, the plan should work perfectly. She had tested it previously on a smaller level with satisfactory results, and enlarging the model should prove no different. Of course, the scale of a spell at that size was one thing; something of this magnitude required a great deal more concentration. She swallowed dryly, hoping she still held enough magic within to accomplish her task. All the air grew silent as she began, the only sound to her ears being the rush of blood her heart pumped steadily through her veins. A small hum began to emanate from her horn, the first swirl of magic gathering at the base before crawling in a black glow all the way to the tip. Already, she felt herself struggling, but persisted, knowing that at this point, there would be no turning back. The burning sensation began at the bottom of her feet, crawling upwards from her hooves into her legs and onward, quickly overtaking her spine and working its way into the back of her head. Her legs twitched as they felt the throes of her body’s final resistance, and though her posture shook for a moment, her resolve did not falter; the glow of energy continued to collect around her horn, blooming brilliantly. Already, the light refracted by the dozens of mirrors around her was blinding. Luna closed her eyes as she continued, beads of sweat rolling from her forehead as she forced herself past her breaking point. The hum was louder now, well above the volume her own voice could ever reach. In the tiny room it sounded deafening, joining the brilliant glow to overtake the second of her senses, leaving the white hot fire in her body to take care of the rest. Almost time now, she could feel it, struggling to reach the peak of her channeling, when she could let go… Her breathing was loud and laboured, drowned out by the steady drone of her collecting magic. She didn’t think she could hold on much longer. What if she failed? What if this had all been a mistake? What if the force of her spell only left her crippled, drained of the ability to heal herself, forced to live the rest of her life in perpetual misery, unable to escape the injuries she had brought on herself? The thought spurred her forward. She would not fail. Sparks were flickering at the tip of her horn now, as though the collection of energy threatened to burn a hole in the air. Her nose inhaled the sizzling of electricity in the atmosphere, signalling that it was almost ready, almost time to let go. Just a few more moments. Luna counted down the seconds in her head as the point of release approached. Though by her estimation she had most likely long passed the point of sufficient force, certainty was the most benevolent grace in this situation. Her voice echoed in her head through the wail of collected magic as she tallied the last moments. Five… Her entire body was shaking now, consumed by the burning fire of her pain, struggling to hold steady as her horn threatened to burst from the gathering energy. Four… All of her mind was scattered, recalling the thousands of thoughts she had run through up to this point. Nightmares and calculations and memories and regrets… Three… She wondered if maybe she should have said more in her final letter. What could she tell her sister that she wouldn’t already know, that she hadn’t already put into words? That she was sorry? That she wished she could have found some other solution? No. There was no need to waste space or time with banality. She knew her sister would understand. Two. Was this really the only way? She had gone through the other possibilities, but nothing had come forward. Maybe there was another solution, something else she could have done, instead of it coming to this… One. Luna shook her head and steeled her resolve, struggling to move her neck against the heavy weight of magic glowing from her horn. No, she knew this was her only recourse. No time for regret, no time for going back. This was what she must do. Time froze as she released the spell. A cascade of energy poured forth from the tip of her horn, twisting and warping at the point of its emanation before coiling into an elegant beam, bulging with the force of the magic that had been condensed into its creation. Luna’s eyes cracked open slightly against the blinding glow as the beam slowly made its way to the wall of the mirrored room. Yes, finding a way to convince a hundred ponies to help her was an impossibility; that was why her own spell compounded a thousand times would have to be sufficient. At the point of impact, the brilliant ray of energy splintered into a multitude of refractions, spitting outward in all directions to every inch of the circular chamber. Wave after wave of energy rebounded off the mirrored walls, fracturing and dividing and colliding with each other, intensifying with each impact. As she watched the spell reverberate and compound endlessly around her in slow motion, Luna’s strength gave out at last, and she collapsed to the floor, staring back at her own face. For the first time since she could remember, her expression was peaceful. Her perception began to return to its normal speed as the multiplying particles collided, concentrating into an omnipresent brightness that felt stronger than anything Luna had experienced. She could feel the air falling apart around her, dissolving in a blaze of magical fission. The heat and electricity of the glow ached in her bones. Instead of the searing agony of daylight, however, this radiance felt serene, and peaceful, washing through her body like the softest rays of the moon from a starry sky. Each cascade of magic that washed through her eased more of her pain, until she began to feel normal, for the first time in more than a thousand years. As the light overtook her, Luna turned her thoughts to the moon – her residence for a millenium, the only solace she had found since her return; peaceful, soothing, the part of the world she felt strongest inside of herself. Blinking in the face of the consuming brightness, Luna swore that she saw a field of stars waiting for her. She lifted her wings, her body feeling lighter than air, and let herself be carried forward; past the beam of light that swallowed her in its radiance, and into the calming black sky, surrounded by the thousand twinkling celestial bodies suspended millions of miles away. And there, floating amidst the fields of stars, was the silvery glow of the moon, beckoning her closer. Luna smiled for the last time as the moon welcomed her home.
Hoghound	793	1	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-01-20T21:57:16+00:00	2012-01-20T21:57:16+00:00	4,260	September, 17, 1058 P.B. , the reactor at the power block five of the Ponydom Collective Efforts NPP (PNENPP) is destroyed, following a series of thermal explosions. The resulting biomagical radioactive waste clouds spread throught ponyville, the northern reaches of the everfree forest and canterlot. The implications of this disaster are so grave, that the equestrian monarchy was forced to realocate the citizens of the outlying villages and towns (mostly ponyville) A 30 Kilometer radius lockout is imposed over the affected landscape, in order to prevent the residents to return to the zone, as a way to preserve them from the heavy residual radioactiveness that still stilled the place. This place came to be known simply as "the Zone" Despite the disaster, the NPP remained functional. After the pegasai crew finished sealing off the defective reactor onto a heavy wall of concrete, the monarchy thought it was the best of interest to use the available power potential of the remaining four generators, coped with the fact that the area was no longer inhabitable, not having to provide energy to the now abandoned settlements, permitted the rulers to set a network of secret laboratories on the outskirts of the zone. March, 26, 1063 P.B. , One of the most powerful creatures of the realm , the prime ruler of equestria, braves the Zone in an attempt to nullify the remaining fallout of the explosion. She and her coup of dragons had not been heard of ever since. August, 28, 1081 P.B. , the exclusion Zone lights up , as clouds can be seen evaporating from the skies. After a brief moment of complete silence, a terrifying roar shakes the ground. Most of equestrian army guarding the perimeter perish immediately. 1082 P.B., scientists were still unable to explain what happened. Rare expeditions into the zone, primarily led by the influent mares of equestria, had shared the same fate of the first one, with survivors telling stories of mutated animals with incredible abilities roaming the place. However, at the time, nobody really felt compelled to attest the validity of such tales, so horrifying they were. 1083 P.B., the situation becomes even more dire, as the Zone and it's children exponentially grow both in size and aggressiveness, blowouts suddenly become much more frequent, and mutants exhibit new disturbing features. 1084 P.B., The lack of a royal heir, paired with the presumed death of the rightful owners of the equestrian crown, has turned the remnants of a once proud and thriving reign under military dictatorship. 1089 P.B., according to several estimates, the Zone is now home to between 100 to 300 trespassing individuals, they named themselves "stalkers", and make their living by collecting anomalous formations of biomagical remnants, popularly known as artifacts, which they sell for ludicrous amounts of money. 1090 P.B., despise military cordons, the stalker phenomenon keeps growing in numbers, however stalkers travel primarily around the borders of the zone, with the center remaining just as the unreachable star for all, but the most battle-hardened legends of the Zone . The few attempts to penetrate deeper into the zone have all ended in failure, with nobody ever coming back from a raid into it. As a result of this, rumors about the ruins of the NPP had spread among the inhabitants of the zone, while amongst them, two became most recurring. One of them mentioning it as a cemented treasure trove of artifacts, while the other one mentioned it as the lair of the wish granter, a mythical creature of unspoken powers. While unable to reach the deeper parts of the Zone, the various factions of stalkers have been locked up on a territorial war over the dominance of the few relatively safe areas, in order to control the artifacts within them and eventually bolster they own forces with their gains, enabling a much wider scope of influence over the zone. It is an unprecedented situation as ponykin , once peaceful and generous creatures, are forced to fight over abandoned crumbs in order to survive. This is the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony: FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	2	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-04-15T13:33:05+00:00	2012-04-15T13:33:05+00:00	2,498	CP. I – A wonderful new world “Why do these people fight over charred remains of civilization? Why they are so interested on the Zone ? Surely, it must mean more than simple trinkets, to draw them deeper and deeper into it…” Just a fraction of light reached me. Each bone of my body was aching with pain. Something to do with being beneath a pile of rubble. It was far too heavy for me to lift. The mere effort I was doing to keep myself breathing was downright draining me. The light grew stronger and stronger through the crack. Something was coming toward me, of which the mere realization made my mind burst from pain, incapable of holding a conscientious level of thought. When the sound of voices drew nearer, I collapsed in exhaustion. Pain. I guess, after everything I went through, the feeling itself was welcome. It meant I still had a miserable life ahead of me. Slowly, I opened my eyes, letting them grow accustomed to my surroundings. ============================== [><]============================= My body was resting on an old bed. Above my head, another light. This one was static. It took some time to set my vision to focus it, but I did it anyway. Numbness kept a strong grip over my body, which somepony dragged out from under that accursed broken wall. My head still ached from insane pain. I figured a change of scenery was needed, moving my head toward the other side of the room, to get a look at it. It was raining through the window. A black coat of clouds filled the whole of the sky, as the water relentlessly hit the roof. From my somewhat limited perspective, I concluded that I was being kept on the top floor of an old farmhouse. Ancient rural props and dust littered the place, the walls shown some holes, covered with planks of wood or even covered with solid furniture. By this point, the sound of the rain made me fell asleep again. ============================== [><]============================= The two mares talking nearby the bed wake me up. Hopefully, they were so absorbed by their conversation, that they had not noticed it. “… but it is downright insane. You know we can’t have everypony hoofing around, especially after the raiders overtook the docks and the eastern scouting tower. Heck. They nearly drove us out, it is only a matter of time before they corner us up.” “Look at him, see if he is at any state of running off the perimeter. Even if, by some dumb luck, he is able to sneak past the guards, the swamp itself will get him sacked in five minutes flat. If not the mutants, the raiders themselves will perforate him like a bath sponge. Besides, he wasn’t hoofing around. He was found. Iridox’s party bought him.” “I do not need to remind you about that other unicorn she brought to us.” “Do not mention him. I do not need to remind you that all of us regret the day that one walked inside the compound. But this one does not seem like him at all.” “Iris reported she found it while raiding the X-58 vault.” “A government plaything ?” “Seem likely. Although the fact that they came up with a long lasting life support unit and used it to only safeguard experiments is ironical on itself. Also, Iris picked up the trail of mutants, a very peculiar trail." “Why so ? these bastards always infest every little hole of the zone…” “Because, it wasn’t really a trail, and it wasn’t made by normal wildlife mutants, it was made by the bigger ones. It looked like they trashed the place apart, looking for something. “ “Him ?” “Not likely. If he had been at the life support unit, they would had spotted him fairly easily.” “How long does it take to process his DNA tracing results ?” “About a couple of hours. Then we’ll act accordingly.” I opened my eyes just a bit to peek at them. The two mares were pegasai, one of them with a maroon fur, long hair on a ponytail style and dreamy green eyes, while the other one was dusk-colored with dark eyes and short silvery hair. I had succumbed to sleep yet again. ============================== [><]============================= Waking up after what seemed like a thousand years nap, I was feeling good enough to propel myself out of the bed. As I landed my hooves on the cold, wooden floor, I shook off any dizziness which was left. After descending from the stairs and crossing the corridor, a voice beamed at me. “Leaving so soon ? not even a “thank you, kind pegasai lady, for saving my ungrateful unicorn arse ?”” That maroon pegasai lady was bashfully smiling at me from her office, which door gave a direct look toward the corridor I was going through. Without waiting for her to repeat the invitation, I stepped in. Standing this close to her, I came to the realization she was even prettier form up close. Now I even got a glimpse of her cutie mark. An eagle. “Thanks pegasai lady, you have my eternal gratitude, etc. now, can I ask for your permission to leave, or do you plan on keeping a grown stallion grounded ?” Her eyes shifted to an even more naught glare. She was enjoying this. “Why in such a hurry ? you got to be somewhere ? meet someone ? perhaps a date ? do sightseeing ? where do you plan on going ?” She had a point. I did not had the slightest idea of where I was, or where to go. But again, I just said those things to tease her. Now, I was limited to stare her blankly. “As I’ve thought. While I admire your brave eagerness, it wouldn’t do harm to do some reasoning, should we?” she smirked. “First things first, unicorn, do you have a name ?” Had I? all my memories, my past life, I just couldn’t reach them. For all I strained my mind, I could not find the answer to this simple question. It was all a haze now. She crossed her hooves, glaring at me. “by the looks of it… we know more about you than yourself”. She put a device on her desk. It was a PDA. I had reached it, touching the screen to read the current entry “Lead researcher Nilos Hydrospin, report N-23. Project Mergequine. Dear princess, the project specifications had been followed and we have very prominent results upon us. We’ve been able to improve gene strains at the rate of 3 days of work each one, rather slow due to the lack of field usage of the mentioned strains. However, our attempts to reproduce a single strain had fell upon a problem: compability. As the three ponykind that populate equestrian, each individual has it’s own individuality, both of attitude and genetical, which thins down compatible exchangers. We are currently developing two independent genetical strains in order to solve that issue: the first one, would be to modify ponykin reproductory system, to allow it to mutate toward the exchanger’s race equivalent, thus allowing a new individual to be created by sharing the features of both races. The second one is meant to modify pony biological clock, making a particular individual age faster. With it, we wouldn’t have to wait after the subject reaches adult age, wasting valuable resources to grow a filly or a colt, which would eat like parasprites and give nothing back. By my calculations, in a month we shall have useful strains of those particular genes in a month, still experimental, but nevertheless, will aid us in the long run. However, they drain resources which meant to be allocated on the main project I also require a new batch of specimens in order to further advance the project. I know, your Mare-ness, of your displease of use of live subjects, I know that with each child that “disappear” in Equestria gives more and more fuel to the oppositionists of the monarchy, but our results are solid. Soon we’ll come with an useful batch, of courageous, relentless and obedient guards.” “Lead researcher Nilos Hydrospin ,report N-24 . Project Mergequine. Reporting in, your Mare-ness , the new batch of subjects arrived. Fortunately, they all seem healthy enough to be of use for the project. Accounted in 2 (two) pegasai, 2 (two) earth ponies and 1 (one) unicorn Data on the subjects: Subject N. 533 Race: pegasai Gender: F Name: Perina Cleverglass Subject N. 212 Race: earth pony Gender: C Name : Rick Buckrigger Subject N. 569 Race: pegasai Gender: F Name: Sarien Flourfetcher Subject N. 817 Race: unicorn Gender: C Name: Boshan Hollowbane Subject N. 230 Race: earth pony Gender: F Name: Valeria Brightmane …” There was more on the entry, but I simply lifted my eyes from it. I had spotted whenever the pegasai wanted me to see. “Such a strange tale, isn’t it ?” she said. “to see that your whole past life is set on only four lines.” “What is this “mergequine” project ? and what they have done to me ?” “Calm down, boshie.”- great, I had been given a name two minutes ago, and she was already using it to call me in an embarrassing way- “first off, do you remember anything of your past?” Now that I already knew my name, my line of thought slowly recalled long-forgotten memories, tracing down images, senses, people. Now I had an answer, a tangible one. “I only recall the moment when I was just a little colt, playing off on the streets of Canterlot. Back then, it seems like a million years ago.Me and my friends would enjoy all day the sun that Celestia brought at us, disregarding the adults and their discussions about politics or taxes.” I’ve spoke on. “But one particular conversation with my mother, I can restructure. She was talking with my father about leaving Canterlot, and moving into the quick-growing cosmopolitan Ponyville, apply for a job onto the NPP. It was on that very day, I was around Canterlot, heading back home, but someponies found me first... the wrong kind of ponies” “Explains quite a bit. Now, according to the data here, you’ve been onto a secret lab’s underground chamber for thirty one years” “Thirty one ? but how they kept me alive through all this time ? food, water, air ?” “According to our good doctor on the PDA, all of your needs were supplied by a life support unit. You just stood there in inanimate state, while they played with your gene pool.” “But why ?” “The data we digged already on this project “mergequine” suggest that it was an experiment to create super-ponies, to be used as genetically enhanced and overobedient royal guard, to deal with the threats of anypony who was opposing the monarchy. Luckly, the scientists had not survived off to see their offsprings, or either, to produce an adequate result to the project. They died of starvation after the first blowout trapped them underground” “Blowout?” “Come with me, you should see to understand.” She walked toward outside the room, and I followed. Once outside the farmhouse, I could see. The sky was now overcast, towering over the decrepit swamp. Foul gases, humid air, bubbling noises. All of this things could be seen, most prominently outside the gates, where even once and now I could hear the wildlife, every time, it sounded like no animal I knew Inside the gates, ponies worked, or to be more correct, pegasai worked. Some of them had a strange blue and white camo armor, they were working on, what I saw now, was a camp. One of them was cutting wood, other was feeding a campfire, and all sorts of trivial tasks. The building we just left was the biggest of the camp, probably serving as headquarters for the authorities. The other buildings looked like a mishmash of decades old farm buildings with strange green clouds. “Tell me, what do I see ?” “What do you see, my friend, is limpid skies, us.” she paused a moment to draw breath on the humid air. “forsaken, homeless pegasai that made our home on this putrid landscape” “Homeless pegasai ? but don’t you have a magical cloud city , with every luxury of civilization in it ?” “You see, back in your colthood, there was a terrible accident at the NPP. This happened on the turmoil of a very delicate political situation. The princess herself was hard pressed by opposition groups to leave the throne and end an thousand-years monarchy in order to leave space for democracy, a republic, or whenever they had in mind. Of course, they used the NPP’s accident as political fuel to criticize the monarchic regimen. The accident itself modified the surrounding area of the NPP, changing fauna and flora, also, about fifty employees of the NPP were caught when the first explosion hit. So far, Celestia’s reign had no mortality rate, the accident changed the situation. It may look meager, but the implications of the accident had forced all of ponykind to abandon nearby civilization. it also meant the death or mutation of several animal species, as they food sources had been contaminated with biomagical radiation. But, to cut story short, Celestia herself decided to try to somehow fight back the biomagical waste, or at least, its byproducts.” “So, all this flora and fauna outside…” “Yes, it has been tainted. Not only the one on this swamp, but pretty much everything on a 75 km circle from the center. We name it, the Zone. Originally, the Zone only had 30 km. it somehow… grew. Creatures became more violent, anomalies more frequent, radiation more devastating. So, as I was saying, Celestia spearheaded the very first expedition into the NPP, the first of many led by the monarchic council. Thing is, not one of them had ever came back. And a few months after an expedition was sent, the Zone itself seemed to react to the defilement. It grew, changed, adapted… just like a living being… I would say that the Zone isn’t even part of this world, it is an different, detached and unnatural dimension.” “Very interesting, but where does this link to limpid skies?” “A few days after the second expedition into the Zone, all pegasai were sick. It started as atrophy, numbness, itching, but it was far worse. Something, or someone, was draining the wingpower from all of Equestria. Eventually, we couldn’t even maintain Cloudsdale up. The city came down crashing, and with it, us. From that day on, we were land-bound. Those sickly green clouds are all that we could salvage from our beloved Cloudsdale. So, we built the settlement you have your feet on, Swampsdale, and formed limpid skies, a faction which conglomerates most of the Equestria’s pegasai, since then, we are working down here, searching the zone, learning about it, so one day, we can finally get our lost wingpower back and reclaim the skies again” “I once learned that pegasai were responsible for the weather, without Cloudsdale, how does it regulate?” “By itself. On our first months down here, we were really freaked out by it, but somehow, it has some regularity. Although the swamp only seems to offer dark clouds and rain.” She shivered. “Some things you mentioned early, anomalies, mutants and radiation… I would like to know more.” “So be it then. Anomalies are a physical manifestation of the zone energy. They seem to defy the very own laws of physics, being able to injure or even kill you off the bat. Which is why you should be really careful when walking around. Some of my boys had recklessly rushed to an artifact sprouting in the middle of a boiler. The thing pretty much charred them up into a pile of ashes. Sad, really, but teaches us a lesson.” The image on my head about it seemed as vivid as her words, I could hear every single scream those unfortunate souls yelled “Now that I mentioned artifacts, it would be a good advice to keep an eye for them. They are worth a fortune, small trinkets that modify your metabolism, one of the most powerful of them is worth piles of gold, diamonds or even pure plutonium, they give off to the wearer supernatural powers, like, being able to withstand electric shock, radiation pockets, or even swerve bullets fired at you. The more dangerous anomalies you find, you can be sure they contain more powerful and rare artifacts.” “Now let me guess, as I go closer into the center, higher the stakes?” “Yes, more dangerous anomalies, more valuable artifacts, more interested the other stalkers become in controlling the land… and a whole shitload of rising radiation” At the moment, an ominous howl soared from the depths of the swamp “Damn, another pack of those beasts… we’ve been trying to clear the swamp perimeter, but they just keep coming back…” “So, these are the mutated wildlife ?” “Right. Common animals that had been touched by radiation, their very appearance changed, behavior, the whole physiology was corrupted, and they eventually became little more than mindless , rabid beasts. Keep your eyes open while battling them, they always seem to have a dirty trick or two up their sleeves” she nodded.“I guess that pretty much summarizes it. You should take it easy now, have a walk around and fix yourself a drink at the bar. If you need me, I’ll be at my office.” She smiled at me again and turned to enter the building again. “Wait. You have not told me your name yet…” “Ah… i am Ameara“ “Well, thank you, Ameara. For saving my ungrateful unicorn arse” She laughed while disappearing over the doorway inside. I had a lot on my mind to digest then… all my relatives, acquaintances, friends that I had on my past life had now been long lost. Probably killed by the horrors of the zone, or long forgotten me inside it. This new world now laid before my eyes, a corrupted, tainted shadow of our once glorious Equestria, just stood as a melancholic mockery of the past. I needed a drink. “So, one horn-bearer isn’t enough, she brought another…” The bar (really, just a modified tool shed with a balcony and benches) served as refectory for the limpid skies, with several stump tables and wooden benches. A radio nearby was playing a strange, sad tune. “I guess… I actually do have a name, you know?” “Look… just because Ameara is the trusting type, it doesn’t mean that you are welcome here, unicorn. Don’t make yourself too comfortable” The barmaid was a olive colored pegasai mare, with bored blue eyes and a deep green mane. She was doing her hooves. “Look, I just want something to make me forget…” “Aren’t we all ? here, have your poison. You can thank our officer for this one…” I took the glass and stared at it… probably vodka. It had a nice fragrance. I’ve emptied it on two sips. The alcohol burned down my throat, distracting my head. “You said, other horn-bearer… which unicorn came here before I did ?” “Well… let’s just say that he wasn’t exactly what we thought he was, and backstabbed our whole community, for his own gain” “But I am not like him” “You’d best be not. Otherwise, whenever the swamp could manage to throw at you would be like puppies compared to our retribution.” “Sure thing.” As I said those words, gunshots were heard from deep onto the swamp. A fire or two appeared on the horizon. “Those out there are our men… dying, because of him.” The radio nearby halted the music and a voice came to life. “ …coordinates are 87 – 51, we are currently under attack, if any stalker nearby can hear this, aid us. Repeat, our post has been overwhelmed by a pack of mutants, our coordinates are 87 – 51, we are currently un…” “Is this normal ?” “More than you think. There are just some rookies that cannot keep their feet out of our swamp.” Ameara’s head popped from the window of her office, and she shouted at us “Softmane, send the unicorn to me ASAP.” The olive mare just shrugged and resumed polishing her hooves “If the boss want to see you, you’d better not keep her waiting.” I nodded and went to Ameara’s office. ============================== [><]============================= As I removed the blindfold, the decrepit swamp quickly came to focus. half an hour walking blindfolded , into circles, back and forth, led by a pegasus, was no fun at all. Through all the travel I had to hear him snickering every time I fell on the water or tripped over a stump, which I could swear he led me to ,just to make a fool of myself. As I shook out the water of the jacket which was issued to me, I drew closer to the nearby pond. As I crept closer, the Geiger counter started to beep. The water from the swamp was contaminated with minor radiation. Looking at the whole area form there, it surely didn’t look like it was originally a swamp, but instead, like fields from a farm, which time and the severe rainy weather had been able to drown the fields and humidify the crops , ultimately leading to the formation of the bog. I glared at the waters. And I stood there, examining my reflection. A grey-furred unicorn with an unkempt dark mane, with persecuting dark brown eyes, wearing a worn leather jacket and carrying beige saddlebags. On my flanks, my cutie mark was visible, it was my first time actually eyeing it. It was a black gas mask. Also, across my neck was a necklace with a gun attached to the end. Of course, I didn’t needed it, since as a unicorn, I’d would just TK the gun and fire at will, unlike pegasai or earth ponies, which would need to move their necks to grab the weapon attached to the necklace in order to fire, since it would be highly impolite to keep walking around with an firearm attached to their mouth everywhere they went, or, the other way around, the time which would be spent unsheathing a weapon could pretty well mean the meantime a barrage of bullets hit their flank. But at my current state, I’d doubted my capacity to effectively aim a weapon through TK. The other possessions i had been given were amounted to: - A hoofbag full of bolts - Two ammo mags - A combat knife - A compass - Five bandages - Two handfuls of anti-radiation drugs - Two medkits Ameara told me to go south once I’d been released from the blindfold, to reach the stalker camp and aid them, or, if it was too late, clear the area of mutants. Using the compass, I set my course toward south. Walking softly and cautiously, I had been able to spot it. An anomaly. It looked like a big protuberance of air, enclosed by some kind of translucent gust-made power field. I flew a bolt off my pack and threw at it, just as Ameara instructed me. The anomaly’s power field temporarily broke, releasing a shockwave, rustling leaves from the ground and some dust. I took the time to define the anomaly’s extension. After assuring myself of the anomaly’s size, I’ve been able to find an alternative route. As soon as I went toward it, my Geiger counter started beeping insanely. I’d landed near another of these anomalies. backing up a little bit , I threw another of those bolts at it, and like the other, it activated. Only this time, there was a bright stone floating inside it. An artifact At the time, I analyzed my options… waddle carefully from both anomalies right through the middle, or… throw a bolt at one and hop onto its position while it was active. The second option, besides being more risky, seemed more attractive for me. Keeping my TK sharp, I floated the bolt above the anomaly, while stretching myself to rush through it. 3… 2… 1… Now ! As I saw those clouds of dust rising from the earth, I rushed toward the epicenter of the anomaly, my belly mane feeling the gravitational disturbance as I hoped over the shockwave. At the epicenter, I merely spared a second to grasp the artifact. But while escaping the anomaly, one of the waves hit my back right leg. Fortunately, it was just bruised by it. after tending to my leg, I decided to take a closer look to the artifact. Shaped like a plump plastic bag filled with air, the stone had several holes, upon each one I could spy it’s softly glowing core. At the moment I drew it close, my Geiger counter started to build up the rad counter. It built up my radiation level while used. I just stored the stone on my bag and went on, later off, I’d ask one of the limpid sky guys about it, it was risky wearing it without actually knowing if its benign effects would be of use to me. As I traveled further south, I saw a faint smoke rising from some hills nearby. Rushing toward the hills, I relied on only my Geiger counter to avoid the anomalies. I couldn’t just spare a moment to safely probe them, seeing as the stalkers were still holding out against the mutants. The closer I had gotten to their camp, the louder the howl of those beasts blasted my ears. While running toward the makeshift camp, i gestured my neck, propelling the pistol handle toward my mouth. With the trigger safely kept between my tongue, I aimed at one of those abominations Bang… Bang… Bang… As the three shots broke through the mutant’s flesh, it lifelessly stumbled to the ground. The other five beasts were attracted to the noise. As they faced me, I was able to discern them. They were huge meat bags, standing over four slim legs, each one ending on a single sharp protuberance. The “head” was compromised of two swine ears and three large eyes, each one of them featuring small holes which closed and opened, while the pupil was on the middle of the circle formed by several of these holes, while the nose was completely absent, and the mouth was literally a toothless orifice. The back of the body ended on a stump tail. As the pack moved toward me, I was able to strike a few more shots at them. Three or four actually hitting a mutant and the rest of the clip missing them. At that moment, they came up on me. Lifting a leg and using it to rip my body, the first two of them scratched hard my face, dripping blood all over it. but after I bucked them away, I was able to raise my combat knife in order to defend myself against the others. Moving the knife menacingly on a wide arch, I was able to keep them at bay and get close to the container that marked the encampment. Atop it, the body of a stalker was laid, I couldn’t tell if he was simply unconscious or out cold. I simply reached the back of the container, where a wooden stair was hastily put to allow access toward the top. As I climbed it, I still kept my TK strong enough to keep the mutants at a safe distance. Once I was out of their reach, they readily went back to the corpse they were scavenging before I arrived. It was a nasty job, since they used they sharp mono-claws in order to “tenderize” the meat of the dead stalker. Unable to see such desecration, I reloaded my gun and shot a few bullets at them. Unable to reach me, they scurried away, except one that was trying to drag the dead body with him. A few bullets later, the stubborn monster was dead. From atop the container, I observed while the four remaining mutants fled to the nearby woods, leaving behind a terrible mess. In the middle of the encampment, broken pieces of what were a ham radio could be seen. By checking the nearby stalker’s signals, i discerned he was alive, although suffering from massive blood loss, the result of several claw scratches from the mutants. By floating one of the medkits and using it to stack those wounds, i was able to bring him back to conscience. “What, what… happened ?” “It’s okay, do not move much. I’ve mended you up, buddy” “But the striders… they go.. got Bas-Bassiliev” “I’m sorry, but there is nothing I can do for him…” “I can…cannot hear them anymore, you killed al…all of them ?” “Two. The four others ran away” “Bu…but they would never leave f…food behind… they were n…not running from you… there is ju…just… not enough ti…me” “Do not fear, I will lead you to my friends and they will help you. In a few days you’ll be back on your four hooves.” He coughed violently, then strongly pulled me closer to his face, glaring at my eyes fiercely “Y..you simply… do…not…understand… there is… no..t…enou…enough ti..me… it is too…late… f-for… both of…us. here it…co...mes” The weather changed violently. Wind roared insanely, the sky was tinged with red and the earth seemed to shake incessantly as if it shuddered in anger at the world above. Then, a deafening thunder brightened the horizon. With horror, I noticed that the very whole sanguine-colored horizon was coming toward me, crackling with thunder. The mere instant I took to realize this fact was enough for it to reach me. First came the darkness, even while I kept my two eyes wide open, all I saw was black, endless void. Then, my thoughts were interrupted by a stiff, cool breeze passing over the encampment. For a brief moment, everything around me was completely silent. And as the last thought I could grasp, came the pain. It felt like my heart was stabbed by a thousand rusty knifes at the same time, so intense and exhilarating the experience was. After instants that seemed an eternity of torture, my conscience blacked out. … ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- Bestiary #/filenam - Strider #/filedescript – a common sight on the zone, the striders are an example of the most abhorrent changes that the animal residents of the zone underwent due to it’s influence. Years of adaptation on a harsh, radiated environment has deeply modified the genes of what were once mere domestic pigs. The biological changes are the development of keratin compounds, such as claws and a thick exoskeleton, a deep increase on the creature’s nervous system capacity, allowing it to effectively cover distance with ease and an enhancement on the regenerative capabilities. also, the mutant pig has shown a curiously interesting feature, the development of a third eye and the interconnection between their photosensitive sensorial receptor with the olfactory ones, the latter being incorporated on the other. As a result of this, it is theorized that striders can actually smell through their eyes, helping them to keep track of a prey and “sense” potentially dangerous anomalies. On the psychological changes underwent by the mutant pig, the most noticeable are a sharp increase of territorial behavior, along with aggressiveness. Striders usually form packs of four to eight individuals, with omnivore diet, it is not particularly picky about its meal, ranging from small mammals of any kind to ill-prepared stalkers. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	3	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-04-15T02:39:45+00:00	2012-04-15T02:39:45+00:00	2,737	CP. II – Dead pony walking “The strangest thing is that some of the subjects have mentioned side-effects from the experiment. The other day, 311 was screaming about being capable to see her dead parents. Nonsense, if you ask me.” The very same bed upon which I had been laid before was holding me again. Damn. My body found out new and disturbingly intense levels of pain, as if a plant pot struck my head, then an anvil, then a cart full of hay, and then a piano. “Well, it looks our hero has awaken…” the dusk mare beside me sarcastically snapped “Just… what hit me ? I saw the whole world around myself… unlit.” “Helluva lucky unicorn you are… most stalkers out there could not boast having survived a blowout to their friends” “THAT was a blowout ?” “Ayep.” “How I even…” “Our scouts searched the area after the emission broke out and brought you back. Now, about how you actually managed to survive, I’d say that the answer you seek lies within…” She touched my chest “Literally. From what we dug on the Mergequine project, your genetic structure was thoroughly modified. Somehow, it made you better, stronger, more capable. The thing is… a blowout is a sudden release of mysterious energy, one that effectively resonates with all the living beings unlucky enough to be caught by it, generally meaning death. In your case, however… the results are rather… controversial. As we speak, Ameara is re-running your DNA tracing” “But the stalker…” “Has been found dead. The Zone is not a forgiving place. Now rest. You had been through a lot lately. When you feel better, meet us downstairs” She turned around to descend the stair. As she did, I could spot the figure of a bright yellow sun over two white clouds on her flanks. Her cutie mark. ============================== [><]============================= “Are you sure about it ? I mean… couldn’t you have accidentally done several mistakes on the test?” “I am afraid not. Potria is especially careful with these things” Ameara apologetically eyed me We have been in this conversation for half an hour and so. Potria, the dusk colored mare, was now eyeing through the window, while Ameara spoke to me “I am truly sorry about your situation, Boshan . But even if you had a radio at the time, it wouldn’t do you much good, this blowout was not like any other… it materialized, all of a sudden. Usually, the whole climate changes as a forewarning, giving stalkers a few minutes to seek shelter.” “Just explain me about this whole… deep genetic changes business my body had.” “In layman’s terms, your body is somehow very adaptable and diversified, result of an extensive genetic selection. The blowout, in contact with it, reacted as a catalyst, speeding up the lifecycle of your genes. It also increased the efficiency of them.” “So it is a good thing, right ? my body is working better than before” “No, it is not. Your genes are working so fast, that it is just a matter of time until they cross the threshold of acceptability, being cracked over the excess they now operate at normally. If our calculations are right, you have thirty days before they shut down.” “But there isn’t a way to revert this ? I can’t bear the thought of just having a month of life.” “Believe us, we tried everything we could, but the data we had on you, taken from the mergequine project , was incomplete. And our machines can only work from a certain level. We need to acquire the complete research notes at least.” “Just tell me, what do you need me to do ?” She pointed at the map covering the wall beside her, right on the middle, a red circle marked the center of the Zone. The NPP. “So, the only way to save myself from certain death, is going on a head straight suicidal mission ?” “Do not be foolish. One does not simply walk directly into the NPP. There are some serious threats blocking access to it. We’ll just progress toward it by small, but consistent steps. I even have someone in mind to guide us safely.” “You’d care to share his name with me?” “After you do us an small favor, we shall…” Fair enough, I thought. After all, Limpid Skies has saved my life (twice). The least I could do was provide some assistance for them. I nodded. “If you can accompany us…” she gestured toward outside We moved toward the main courtyard Noticeably more crowded than before, it was beaming with activity. Limpid Skies members were packing gear, repairing weapons and sewing the holes of their armors. I followed the two mare officers near a particularly grim group. The two pegasai we approached were carrying what had been a third one, it was now only a bullet-filled corpse. “Ameara, we lost Delphanos while retreating from the scrapyard. Those goddamn riders, they encroached nearly every corner of the swamp… what are we supposed to do?” “I believe it is about time we should put someone experienced in charge of the battle.” She eyed me. “What, me ? I just wake up two days ago… how I can possibly have combat tactics or strategical skills whatsoever?” “Well, surviving a blowout is a precedent no other stalker had. I believe your dormant genetical inheritance could somehow aid us on wiping out those vermin.” “I don’t really have a choice, do i?” She simply shrugged. “Oh, we have left your gear with Peppermint, our mechanic. He’s probably done with it by the moment. You should go check with him, while we pay our respects to Delph.” Leaving them behind, I sought the makeshift shack, with every corner patched, scraped and held together by goddess knew what (maybe super-glue…) the inside was nearly chaotic as the outside, with several shelves filled with broken down junk, spare parts, entangled wires, electronic components, rotting compounds and everything else a pony could think, but the kitchen sink. Beside the workbench, a hooded pegasus stallion tinkered with the very same PDA a maroon-colored pegasus mare showed to me. “Go away, don’t you people read the sign at the door?” I turned from him, just to examine the sign he mentioned, but there was nothing fixated at the door “Dude, there is nothing at the door” He lifted his gaze from the PDA, showing he was wearing magnifying glasses with four lens. Observing the door, he was left speechless. After pondering for a minute, the pegasus just remarked: “Ah, now i remember… used it last week to repair the water pump hull. It is hard to keep track of stuff when nearly everything around seems to be of use to repair broken gear. Anyways, doesn’t matter. It is finished.” He smiled while handing to me the PDA. The pegasus set his silly magnifying glasses down, while i peeked at the device unsure of what to do with it. “I suppose you have no idea how to use one of these, do you?” “Not at all.” “Well then, stay awhile and listen.” It came out that a PDA had several useful features. A list of tasks, upon which I could keep track of my objectives, a map, a faction reputation-sheet (marked neutral upon all of them, but Limpid Skies, since I had no contact with any other.), a diary section, upon which personal notes could be set, a rating section, listing the twenty toughest stalkers with their ranks, and an encyclopedia, which could be filled with information about the Zone and survival tips found on other stalkers PDAs or given to me. “Have I been myself clear or do I need to repeat something ?” “I think I get it… let me try using it a bit…” “Suit yourself.” He crossed over the workbench and handed me the PDA. I could now see his orange, black-speckled fur. A pair or wrenches rest on his flanks. “Ah, and your pack is atop that shelf” he pointed toward the one at the right corner from the door. “I worked your pistol. It is now properly calibrated” As I reached the pack, I peeked inside to check if everything there survived the blast. Everything was intact. Then I remembered… catching it from the depths of the saddlebag, I produced a stone with several holes on the surface. “Any idea of what this is ?” “An artifact, I see… hmm… I saw some of the guys with this one. They called it a funny name. Jellyfish.” “Why so ?” “Probably because of the shape. It indeed look like one.” “Do it have any special proprieties ?” “From what I had been told, it creates a protective field around the user, slightly increasing protection against bullet wounds. However, radiation is a side effect of it” Interesting… if this widespread artifact could even do this, I could only imagine what a rare one could produce. I stuffed it back onto the saddlebag. “Thanks a lot, Peppermint. I’d better speak with Ameara to proceed to the bog.” “Wait. Are you going to help our guys fend off the raiders, stranger?” "If I can be of help to them…” He eyed me up and down “Could you do something for me while out there ?” “What do you have in mind ?” “I am kind of short of spare parts” I eyed the room filled with assorted trash, even reaching the ceiling at some points, and eyed him incredulously. “Yes, I know. But all of this is for everyday repair uses. I need spare trash for personal projects… when you spend some time dismounting and fixing up stuff, you learn how to make quite… unique and ingenious devices from the most exotic materials. I tried all of these, they are not good for the kind of things I have at my mind. they even fail to inspire me…so plain.” The pegasus deflated at his workbench “So, I need to be on the lookout for interesting trash. Where should I look for it?” He immediately stood back up, excited for the prospects of new junk to work with. “The swamp was a huge farm once, the place used to thrive before monarchy broke out. Scavenging some of the ruins should yield nice results. Do it, and I’ll make it worth your while.” I shook his hoof firmly. “By the way, my name is Boshan” “Well, Boshan, good luck. Oh, one last thing. Your PDA has a built in radio unit with a frequency scanner range of 250 meters, you can intercept even encrypted communications from this range. Also, you can hear us through it, since Limpid Skies possess a 50 KM range radio on this facility, meaning we can keep in touch, send you over the latest buzz and hand over advice as you traverse the Zone. I exited his shop, waving goodbyes to the black-speckled pegasus Then, i went to speak with Ameara. She sat at her office. “Did he updated your PDA?” “Yes, it will be very useful out there…do we have a plan or something ?” “Basically, the swamp is just a bunch of land with several interest points at it. Whoever group can keep those interest points and defend them, can easily assume control of the immediate surroundings. So, we have to wipe the buildings clean of raiders to be able to regain dominance over the swamp. First off, we’ll occupy the nearby abandoned buildings, then proceed to confront the raiders and retake the ones at the center of the swamp, acquiring enough reinforcements to stand against them. Lastly, we’ll spearhead an incisive strike at their headquarters, to drive them off our swamp.” “Sounds easy when put this way… but I suspect it will be as hard as nails.” She nodded “At least you won’t be alone. Limpid Skies will have your back, Bosh. By the way, this coat won’t last much out there, take this barding.” She handed me a worn sky-blue camouflaged barding, the same i saw members of Limpid Skies wearing around the base. Mine had recently sewed holes and the hood had a few red stains over the sky-blue fabric, also a hastily cut hole at the forehead area, to accommodate my horn. My suspicions about the origin of the suit vanished right after spotting a label marked with the letter “D” beside the collar, but Ameara was right. A simple leather jacket would not hold out efficiently against a barrage of gunfire, although i wished to fare better than the previous owner of the armor. So, i let go my prejudice and wore the barding, using the telekinesis to close the zippers at the back of it, originally intended to allow a pegasus to stretch their wings. “Fits perfectly, who knew… now we just need to grab you something better than this pig-shooter you have” She rifled through her desk’s drawers, stopping at a particularly promising one and bringing out of it a sawn-off shotgun along with a few boxes of shells I flipped around the shotgun with my TK, testing it’s weight, familiarizing myself with its structure. When I felt my TK grew solid enough to precisely wield it, I stored it at the saddlebag. Ameara mused outside. “Whenever you are ready to go, meet with your group outside. You know, the two stallions we spoke before” “Isn’t by any chance one of them is the one that guided me by the swamp yesterday ?” “Actually, Clockgear is at this moment out there on the crossfire. Why you ask about him?” “The bastard tripped me.” “Nonsense, you probably tripped on a stump. After all, you couldn’t see” “But now I see… a big moron is what I see.” “Look Boshan, I know Clockgear for a long time. He would never do something like that on purpose. It was just an accident” “Sure it was” She glared at me skeptically “I mean… yeah, I am sure it was.” “Remember, save this energy for the raiders. We cannot afford to fall apart while they roam freely through the swamp.” I laid my body against the wall and spent a moment to meditate about her words. Then, i exited her office to reunite with my new group. ============================== [><]============================= Fortunately, traveling blindfolded was more pleasant than the last time. As my pegasai friends removed it, we rushed through the swamp. I accompanied them toward the recently purged docks. A faint smell of smoke still permeated the air. Limpid Skies units had recently eliminated the encroaching raiders permeating the building, and were currently defending the structure against a new batch of them. We caught them under fire. The raiders secured their positions behind long-rusted boats, and were thinning down Limpid Skies numbers, slowly but surely. My group actually landed on the other side of the raiders’ cover. POWW… POWW… Two shotguns shells went toward the air, one of them wounding the burgundy pegasus at my right. We quickly dove for cover behind some feeble trees. My shotgun flew out of the saddlebags, ready for action. I gestured toward my pegasai group to synchronize our fire, they nodded at me. I hoofed the land quickly three times. The pegasai mouthed their handles, triggering their harness mechanisms. It was a metal contraption wrapped around their bodies, allowing the use of bigger weapons, such as rifles and submachine guns, the very same contraption some of the raiders were using, although some of them looked like cheap knock-offs or made of several parts of different models of other harnesses, cramped together. RATTLLLE…RATLLLEEEE….RATLEEETLEE…. POWW… POWW… We wounded a raider and killed another. blood sprouted through the extension of his black jacket. We dove again for cover As Teacup bandaged his wound the best he could, Tourmaline peeked at the group of raiders nearby “Three more to go… we can probably wipe them out fast if we just wait for our guys over there to distract them.” Teacup nodded, and I reloaded my two-slug shotgun while grunting acknowledgment. Our group stood there, waiting… it went several minutes, until gunshots were heard far out. At the moment we heard the raiders countering fire, we rushed toward their position, and fired point blank at them while they were aiming toward the docks RATTLLESQUACH…. RATTLETLEESQUACH…. POWWTHOOF… POWTHOOFF… Five bodies laid before us. One of them was shot dead by some sharpshooter at the docks. Tourmaline instantly begun searching their dead bodies, and threw some supplies to us. “Fair share.” He said. “And if I were you, horn-bearer, I’d trash the shotgun and take one of their rifles. It is simply worthless on mid-distance combat” I took his advice; after all, from what little we had spoken while on the travel, I could get that he was an experienced stalker. the fact that he was still alive attested to it. My combat knife dove at the deceased raider’s harness, releasing his AK-47. I’ve also unloaded the other raiders’ AKs to safeguard ammo. Still, all I had was only a handful of it. I had to conserve. Upon reaching the docks, we were welcomed by the other pegasai. With the apparently clear situation, they could spare a couple of members to help us on trying to wrestle the raiders off from the nearby interest point. The map indicated that the interest point laid north. With our course set, our group proceeded. The swamp eventually came to be much more dense and corrupted trees sprouted everywhere as we approached it, to the point that it became necessary to use our combat daggers to cut through the plants. I was at the front, when my TK-driven knife struck onto ivory and did not release instantly. Coming closer to it, we noticed the fact that it wasn’t ivory, but an ancient sign covered with it. With a few measures of my now freed knife, it was legible. It was written with the following words: “Froggy Bottom Bog” A few meters deeper onto it, we heard the raiders occupying the pond that compromised froggy bottom bog itself. It was not much really, just a pond of irradiated water, circumvented by a few wooden piers. Tourmaline counted eight raiders. It wasn’t going to be easy. To make matters worse, they were separated through the pond’s borders in pairs. If we opened fire against a group, it would certainly alert the other six raiders. “So, any ideas?” “We cannot just fire and run, they would know form where we shot.” “What if… we separate into three groups and open fire against each squad of them, them team up to clear the last one ?” “Sounds logical… but how are we going to sync up ?” “Set your PDAs to time five minutes, to give time to the others cross through the jungle again and find their positions.” “Okay but… who stays alone ?” “I do.” i interrupted their planning “my telekinesis enables me to pull out my sidearm faster. If my ammo depletes, I can finish off the other raider with ease.” “Hmm… well… somepony has a word against it ?” The other three pegasai fell silent After syncing our PDAs, Tourmaline grouped with one of the rookies and Teacup with the other. Both of their groups went west and east, respectively. I kept my position. Those raiders seemed so obliviously blind to their fates… those five minutes came, and in a flash of moment, guns blazed from the depths of the jungle, as we all opened fire simultaneously at the raiders. At the end of the gunshot, nine bodies rotted on the ground. The Zone reclaimed them as its own. “A fancy job we did out here, isn’t it ?” Tourmaline broke the silence Teacup groaned while lying near a tree, he was suffering from a grievous wound, it was starting to hemorrhage. The elder pegasus paid no attention to him and again begun to scavenge the corpses of the dead. Not even sparing the one of his own group. Rushing closer to the burgundy pegasus, i begun to tend to his wounds, using my last medkit. “You are not going to last long on the Zone, horn-bearer. You are too soft.” Unfortunately, the pegasus died even as i tried to mend him up, his wounds were too deep, he died at my hooves, his blood soaked my barding. “See? the Zone does not forgive foolishness… Teacup saw it coming.” Seeing that I couldn’t do anything more to him, I closed his eyes… at least he was now in peace. I turned toward the two other pegasai alive. Tourmaline and Doughspoon Nodding my head sadly, I backed away from the burgundy-colored body. Tourmaline took it as his cue to rummage on his friend’s possessions. “Don’t you have any shame?” I asked him. “Look, do you think he cares ? that he will actually complain being looted ? What I do, horn-bearer, is to survive. I do not like it either, but it got me through. This is the way it is supposed to be. This is the way you must embrace if you want to live on the Zone.” “Even so, he deserves better than this…” “Alright, if you are so concerned about it, let’s make a poll. Who is against looting Teacup?” I rose my hoof “Ok, one vote. Now, who is in favor of looting Teacup?” Tourmaline rose his own hoof AND Teacup’s dead hoof Dougspoon absented himself of voting. “Two votes in favor of looting. Looks like I won.” After scowling at him, i picked up whenever crumbs Tourmaline left on the raider’s bodies. A few more bullets for my AK and some food. “We should move out… our guys will fortify this position soon. With luck, we can take out the next point and secure ourselves a nice foothold on this war.” Doughspoon awkwardly said. The map shown two points of interest nearby, one far to the north, an abandoned scrap yard and another east, a stone bridge crossing what once had been a river. The bridge seemed the evident strategic choice. Limpid Skies could easily conquer the isolated scrap yard north if the bog was still secured, but the stone bridge was much more prone to territorial disputes, since it was positioned right on the middle of the swamp. On the trek toward it, my mind raced, trying to assimilate just what I had been through… downright at my second day out on the Zone, I held a dying pony on my hands… one I had been incapable to save… just like the earth pony caught by the blowout. At one moment he was with me, breathing. While the next… I just wondered… if I’d been around the Zone enough, would I become alike the pegasai next to me? A creature without any scruples, dismissing them at will if they stood between him and survival? I suspected that this would be only the beginning… By the time we reached the bridge, our eyes spotted a group of raiders trying to defend themselves against a pack of dogs. It seemed like the raiders had been unlucky enough to have attracted a huge pack of the creatures, there were around twenty dogs, chewing down raider bones, while cornering the surviving ones around the stony structure. The raiders were thoroughly desperate. Three of them lay dead, with their interiors already defiled by the dogs. The beasts only left out the hardest bones and weapons, their stomachs could even digest ammo, I realized in horror as i saw one of them chewing a raider saddlebag entirely, not leaving any of its contents behind. “Those are blind dogs… let them have their fun, then we’ll eliminate any survivors” How he could be so calm and focused while seeing this spectacle of horror was beyond my comprehension… I was starting to really hate the pegasus next to me… Five minutes later, twelve dogs fed on several pony corpses. They had been especially keen to gut their prey in seconds. “Let’s move. And try not to get on the way, horn-bearer.” We moved by the bridge’s side, getting closer to the mutants. I rose my AK, while my pegasai companions readied their mouth-manifold mechanisms “3…2…1… Blast them good.” RATTLETLETLETLE…. RATLLETTLLLE… RATLLEETLEE RATTLEETLEETLEE… RATTTLETLEE While releasing the deadly barrage, I moved toward the mutants to get a better shot at them. RATTLETLETLEETLEE… click, click, click Screw those raiders with all the mutated livestock of this fucking swamp! The badly kept AK I took from one of them has jammed. I was defenseless! Two of those dogs lunged at me like lunatics, possibly attracted to the blood that coated my barding. That’s what you get for trying to help others on the Zone. They knocked me on the grey pavement, their teeth worked through my barding, ripping it to shreds, as my nose was nauseated by their warm and putrid breath. They started biting off my flesh. Pain was unbearable, I was being eaten alive! A third dog came from the bridge and went for my neck ! Luckily, I was prepared now. My telekinetic grasp pulled off my pistol, touched his skull and pulled the trigger before he could descend upon my throat. BANG! Bits of his brain and blood fell over the other dogs, still snapping off blood and flesh entangled cloth from me. RATTLETLEEEETLEEEE….RATTLETLEEETLEEE The dog fell dead before my feet, with a mouthful of red-stained fabric on his teeth. The other one ran away. Reality blacked out… ============================== [><]============================= “Fucking rookie… looks like you nearly got yourself killed. And Doughspoon, why the hell you aided him? If he is going to start fighting like this, he’s better off dead.” As I slowly regained my senses, the very first thing I noticed, was that my body was covered with bandages, all of my stock had been used to stack the wounds. Pain was still over the top, but more moderate than before. “He is useless now. See?” I rose up to confront my pegasai companions, they stood nearby a huge pile of dogs, they probably have brought them together in order to burn the mutants remains. “Thanks Doughspoon. I owe you.” Tourmaline eyed me depreciatively. “At least I will not have to stand you goddamn tourists anymore. Limpid Skies has retaken the scrap yard by this moment. Now I just need to reach it to cross the swamp toward Agropony and get on with the cash treadmill again” “Wait, we have not gained control over the swamp. What… are you… deserting your own faction?” “My faction?” the elder pegasus snapped “just because i am a pegasus, it does not mean that i am a Limpid Skies member.” “He is right. Tourmaline is not one of us. He is… a merc” Doughspoon voiced “Damn right I am. Now that the bandits from this swamp do not entrap me anymore, I’ll just use the back door to quit this shithole. I didn’t enlist to partake on this stupid turf war” “But Limpid Skies has sheltered you from the raiders! the minimum you could do to repay…” My PDA’s radio has sprang to life all of a sudden. “ All units, requesting backup at the treehouse …. A shooter has pinned down all my squad, I need IMEADIATE assistance.” Tourmaline turned northwest, toward the scrap yard. “Not my problem.” I rushed over by him. “You ARE going to aid us. THEY SAVED YOUR DAMN MANE FROM GETTING SWISS-CHEESE’D, you INGRATE MOTHERFUCKER.” “As i said before, i AM bailing out, and there is nothing you can do about it, horn-bearer. Insult me all you want, I’m out of here.” I locked my infuriated gaze at him. “FINE THEN, GO. But know this. Someday… our differences will put us on the opposite sides of a loaded gun.” The merc removed his gas mask, revealing the short dark blue hair below it. Tourmaline returned my gaze, with cold, unfaltering eyes. “I’ll look forward to it… if you manage to live that long.” With those words, the pegasus left us. I checked out the PDA. The treehouse was south of our position. After leaving the bridge, i checked out the (few) raider bodies that the dogs had not consumed entirely. One of them had a PDA. Tourmaline had somehow missed it. The PDA contained coordinates to a stash on the swamp. It read: “Shit… those featherheads have made a move toward the base. While my comrades rushed to take their positions, I hid the excess gear under a carriage by the tower. Will pick it up later.” Doughspoon advised me to take some of the blind dogs’ tails. He said that there were certain individuals who valued them. Personally, I couldn’t picture someone on their right state of sanity wanting a fibrous appendage of a mutated canine, but i carved out three pristine tails anyway. Me and my companion had to brave the swamp yet again, only this time to reach some firm land, the remnants of an apple orchard, upon the treehouse was encrusted on a clearing. The ponies of the past built it as a landmark on the forest, possibly to keep their pestering colts and fillies away while they did menial work. “Over here” whispered a voice from our right as we crossed the forest. The indigo pegasus was taking cover behind a dead oak. The treehouse was a few meters ahead. “So, you are my reinforcements ?” the pegasus asked, and eyed me “Kid, you took a rain of pocket knives or something ?” he referenced my mud-crusted, blood-bathed, fang-ripped barding, it was somehow sticking to my skin, and the bandages weren’t really helping it either. I just shooed the desire to itch myself and spoke to him. “How many raiders are on the treehouse ?” “One. But he is a helluva shooter.” I noticed that his armor had been pierced profusely, wonder which kind of weapon the shooter had… there was only one way to find out. While gravitating a rock, I drew at it a smiley with some of the mud. Then, floated it into the line of vision of the treehouse. PLITCH…TCHAAK !!!! The rock crumbled to dust. The pony was handling a Vintar BC. One false move toward him, could pretty much mean a straight bullet to the head. The indigo pegasus gestured toward me. “if you can creep up close the tree, unicorn, then you could float these to our friend…” He handed me three grenades. “Push the pin, count to three, and release.” Right now I had to be fast… real fast. I fell back toward the outer trees of the orchard, trying to find a blind point in the structure, then i ran like hell. My body ached in protest, but my will guided me onward. The sniper saw me coming and started to take shots. PLITCH…. !!! Missed PLITCH….!!!!! Missed again. PLITCH…SQUELCH !!! The Fucker crippled my front right hoof! Slouching toward the tree, I did a dive roll to cover the last few meters, then, my back hit against the hard bark of the oak. the world seemed… more gray than usual. Then I took notice I had landed upside down against the tree. It was an awkward pose, but I managed to float the grenades and lob them onto the treehouse, unpinning them. KABLAMMOOO!!!.... Well… no plan was flawless, this one was no exception. I was below the collapsing structure. Harnessing all of my telekinetical might, I held off a large piece of the roof to cover my body, luckily, it was enough. After the blast ceased, the pegasai neared me. I shook off the dust and staggered toward them. “Wow unicorn, now that’s what i’d call some fancy hoofwork.” I nodded. “Unfortunately, wasn’t enough to evade the bullets altogether.” The pegasus ripped off some of his barding fabric and wrapped my shot hoof. This day was getting better and better… see a pony die in my hands, being bitten to almost death, and now getting shot… with my luck, by the end of the day, the Zone would hit me with another blowout. Ameara assured me that the second would be pretty much fatal to me; after all, the lucky ponies only get to explode once, while i had been forced to endure attempting a near exhausting sequence of feats in order to avert a timed death sentence. After ten minutes or so, a Limpid Skies squad reached us, intended to fortify the spot. From their news, i found out we’ve nearly took all the swamp. The raiders were now bunkering onto their last line of defense. The scouting tower, the Barn ruins and ultimately, the apple storage warehouse, by the PDA’s indications. As Limpid Skies now hogged much control over the swamps, now we could spare more troops into the fray. I reunited seven battle-capable pegasai and marched toward the scouting tower that was further east. By nearing, the first thing we noted, as usual, is that was crawling with raiders atop it. “Featherbrains! this is OUR swamp.” And he opened fire against us. RATTLETLETLEEEE…. RATTTLETLETLETLEEE… Response fire was immediate. “Take a hike then, bottom-feeding pansies. We are reclaiming what is ours.” RATTLETLETLEEEE…RATTLLETLEEE…. “We’ll nail your wings to the…” RATTLETLETLEE… “ugh…” And with it, five raiders were dead. I took the time to examine their rifles to find a replacement for mine, since it was on a depreciable state. After fidgeting with a few AK parts here and there, i produced a now worthy AK. The bodies also contained much needed rifle ammo, which i quickly looted. As I noted a few farm props around the tower, my mind quickly went to the stash location data on my PDA. The carriage was spotted easily. I crawled underneath it. The land below had been stirred. Using my hooves to dig out, I pulled out of the hole an olive-colored backpack. I took just a moment to spill it’s contents on the ground. A Scope and two blue medkits. I quickly put one of the medkits to good use. As found out, these blue ones were made specifically for battle wounds, containing painkillers, antibiotics and other advanced medicine. After exhausting the kit on my wounds, I felt like a brand new pony. If it only had repaired my armor too… Then, I turned my attention toward the scope, stashing the second medkit on my saddlebags. The scope itself had 2 x magnifying glasses, and appeared to be intended for mounting on assault rifles. As to test it, i mounted it on my AK, the scope fit perfectly onto it. “Bosh, the broken silo is under attack ! some ponies are trapped inside, holding against the raiders” Ameara’s voice soared from the radio. “I’ve tried to request help from Purity’s squad, but their signal is dead. Your group is the closest to them.” After gathering three pegasai (the three others were left to secure the tower), we cruised southeast. The silo ruins were by the corner of the swamp. And it surely looked like our comrades could use some help. The raiders overtook positions atop the farm’s machinery and whenever protective trash piles they could find, while the silo occupants bunkered themselves and used the top window to fire at their ambushers. From the looks of it, the raiders outnumbered the occupants from 3 to 1. But then, why they have not invaded the silo already? The answer: a few raider bodies were on the doorway to the silo. This was a battle of patience, whoever group could stand their ground and conserve their ammo for longer would be victorious. RATTLETLETLEEETLE… RATTLETLETLEETLEE… The rifle atop the window soared. Its bullets vainly hit the pile of saggy old plows which the raiders took cover behind. One of the raiders raised a megaphone. “This is your last chance to surrender, winged scum! We promise a quick death.” “Talk to my little friend!“ The voice of a mare answered, and the rifle appeared again, and released another clip of bullets flying. This time, hurting two of the raiders and striking the megaphone “You are not getting out of this alive!” the raider shouted “boys, release the rain-boom!” With it, they have begun to lob grenades at the structure. If we didn’t act quickly, the entire thing would crack over the pegasai inside. My group opened fire RATTLETLEETLEETLE… RATTLETLEEETLEE… RATTLETLEETLEE…RATTLETLEE… Two of the raiders died. But then, all the others were now aware of us. “Eat lead, bird-lovers.” One of them threw a grenade at us “DISPERSE!” my mind yelled. KABOOM !!! The explosion only flew away large patches of earth. My crew had been able to shelter in time. Then, we rose again. RATTLETLEETLEE… RATTTTLETLEETLEE… RATTLETLEETLEE… RATTTTTTLEEEEERATLLERATTLE… “GUYS, KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL” RATTLETLEETLETLE…. RATTLERATLLE… RATTLERATTLE…. RATTLETLEEERATTLE…. We were locked on savage combat. One of the raiders threw another grenade. I dropped my AK and intercepted the explosive mid air, levitating it back to a frightened raider. he actually got time to run from it… although not enough to not get caught on the blast radius. KABOOOOM !!! The mare at the silo’s window emptied yet another clip, now having time to scoop up the raiders. I took the time to notice that she was a skilled shooter. About half of her frags were done with a single bullet, to the head. RATTLERATTLE…. RATTLETLEEETLEEE…RATTLERATTLEEE…. After this show of skill, the (few) remaining raiders were retreating as quickly as they hooves could afford them. “It’s clear. They are all dead… can we come in?” I voiced. A violet pegasus carefully poked his head outside, then yelled to the other two inside that it was over. The building itself was cramped, littered with broken machinery for peeling the grains, storing it, and whatsoever. Spiral stairs led to the top. “Whee ! we got those rats running ! who’s the best ? I nailed them off… did you see ? I was all like PEWPEWPEWPEW, and they all went like OHNOES! huh, huh, huh ?” The excited lavender-colored pegasus descended the stairs, a Obokan strapped to her back (she was only wearing the Limpid Skies barding, which mean… she had fired with her hooves!) and her straight brown hair protuberated from her mane and fell over the mare’s face. “By the way, thanks for the hand out there, although I could had dealt with them easi…” She eyed through me, smiling profusely “Ow, about some time you’d repay your debt unicorn… but the last time I saw you, you were not so… ripe. HAHAHAHAHA Get it? ripe? Because you are covered in red, like a ripe apple” My face blushed, damn, now i was EVEN more ripe. “Sorry, but I do not remember meeting you...” “Sure you do not, Duu-uh. You were beneath three layers of concrete. Allow me to introduce myself…” She rapidly rushed back and forth, then made a heroic pose, looking toward a non-existent metaphorical horizon. “I am… the first… the only… Iridox ! scourge of those who prey on the weak, slayer of mutants, ambassador of the pegasai. I have recently returned from my latest adventure, only to find my beloved homeland being overtaken by vile raiders” “But we have nearly wip…” She put a hoof over my mouth, silencing it, then held my shoulder with her other arm, hugging me, her eyes had a wicked vivacity. This pony was taking every word to the heart. “Picture this, friend.” She moved her hoof through the imaginary horizon “Living the dream, living the dream everywhere and everyday. That’s what the Zone is about. That is why I have this burning need to go outside, have new experiences and then triumphantly return to my lovely swamp. Do you get what I mean, huh, huh, huh?” She eyed me expectantly. I could only think of one thing to say… “Iris … it’s like I’m feeling you, but I’m not feeling you, you know? I only had been awake for… say, two or three days. I did not see much beside these marshlands” “Well… perhaps someday, the call of adventure will call you too ! like this : adveeentureee…. adveeeentureee” She crept closer to my ear. “Adveeeentureee” “Stop it… this is silly” I shook her off. Iris bumped on the floor, still laughing. I laid my PDA out of the saddlebag, eyeing the map thoroughly. She came by. “ Awww…. You guys had all the fun while I was away. No fair. Now just the old barn and the warehouse to the north need to be cleared.” “However, both points must have the highest concentration of raiders. Shit looks serious.” I remarked. “We could always try some of these” Iris produced a true arsenal from her saddlebags. Bullets twinkled in the floor, forming piles, of all sizes and tastes. and there were even a few weapons among her possessions. A shotgun, two pistols and another Obokan. I nodded, sounded like a plan for my ears. “Well, then let’s move out. The last pony to get to the barn is a dirty old mule!” the lavender pegasus rushed outside. I eyed over the room. All these machinery, Peppermint would be delighted. I started to pry free some of the parts from them. “Aren’t you coming ?” Iris asked from the doorway. “Yes… go ahead without me, I just need a moment to finish this.” “Okay. Do not leave us hanging there, unicorn! “ “As you wish.” She then disappeared in a flurry of rush toward a building full of raiders, as I resumed salvaging the parts. ============================== [><]============================= “What took you so long?” the lavender mare snapped at me “Sorry, a friend’s request. How many raiders over there ?” “From six to eight, but there is something else.” She pointed at an outdoor oven, close by the barn door. The land around it was dark. “What is that ?” I tried to focus at the oven, now I could clearly see… half of a body… more specifically, charred half of a body. “A burner anomaly. Some dumb raider got far too close to it.” She pointed the charred body. “So… just the two of us, against at least half a dozen raiders… why you didn’t ask for reinforcements ?” “Silly, we ARE the reinforcements. Now, I’ll go around the barn and kill half of them, and you go toward the front door and shoot dead the other half. Whoever finishes first wins!” I rolled my eyes… for somepony so battle-skilled, she was rather enthusiastic about it. Well, the swamp wouldn’t purge by itself alone. It was a dirty work, but somepony had to do it. I floated my AK off the bag, aiming through its scope, until I found a comfortable telekinetic position that would allow me to run with the gun near me and quickly use the aim. “Ready?” I asked her “Just a minute, let me move by the other side. I’ll radio you when I’m in position” Iris moved through the tall grass, sneaking around the barn. She was a natural. A few moments later, her voice came from my radio. “Okay, on my count to three.” “THREE!” Adrenaline pumped from my body as i ran to the barn. Iris had already started shooting down even before entering the barn. Well, so much for a sneak attack… RATTLETLEEETLEEE… RATTLETLEETLEETLEEE…. I bucked the door hard, caughting off-guard the raiders, they were all over a table, playing cards. Iris’ bullets had already fragged two of them. I quickly blasted them with more lead. RATTLETLEEETLETLETLE….. RATTTLETLETLELTLEEE Two more down. The survivors rushed past me, running for their lives. (Apparently, they feared the pegasus mare more than me… figures) I balefully gazed as they stepped directly into… yes, you guessed it. BWAAASHHH… AWWWWW… FWOOOSH Iris emerged from the door, still arriving before the raiders charred completely. Her Obokan was still held on her mouth. “Wefghh Swoulfgh Hrephghds Zho Okhz” To which I just glared at her, quizzically. She spit her Obokan and spoke “We should rally the others to coordinate a full scale attack on the warehouse. Any surviving raider is probably hiding his coward ass in there with his comrades.” “About time we finish this…” I raised my PDA, tuning the radio to contact the Limpid Skies HQ. “This is Boshan, we have control over the barn, is anyone there ?” “Roger. I am relaying our units to rendezvous at given coordinates: 56,3 and 81,4. Good luck, unicorn” Potria’s voice answered. “You heard the mare… let’s do this.” After several meters onto the marshland and knee-deep water, we saw the meeting point, it was beaming with pegasai activity. With a notebook on her hooves, Ameara was checking out the preparations. When she lifted her gaze to me, she smiled, then, when turning her visage toward the lavender-colored pegasus, her expression was of shock. Iris rushed toward her, screaming like a maniac. “SIS, SIS, SIS!!!!” Then lunged over the maroon pegasus, dropping her to the ground and embracing her on a tight hug. After being freed from her sister, Ameara’s expression was the one of resignation. “Aren’t you happy to find your younger sis is well, Mea?” “I am thrilling of excitement, Iris. So, what do you need from us now?” “What makes you think I came to ask for favors?” “Well, for the past three months, you came back only after screwing up something, and every time you came, you brought problems with you.” “That is NOT TRUE, and you know it, Mea. Don’t you remember who took care of that termite infestation?” “Should i remind you, who, in the first place, brought a plank of wood “from a real pirate ship, WHOAA” ? “ “Hehe, details… but there was that time when i defended the base against the striders… those mutants were mean.” “Remember WHO was practicing target shooting that day, using watermelons, and DID NOT cleaned up the mess as i instructed ?” “Gosh, why do you have to be such a neigh-sayer… sometimes i wish you’d take things less seriously, Mea.” “And I wish you could use your brains once in a while instead of behaving like a filly, Iris !” “Says the mare who can’t even top my…” at this moment, I interjected between the two pegasai “Look, do you two have to ? I mean, there is an entire platoon of raiders in that building,” I pointed toward the warehouse. The two mares blushed. Ameara was the first to broke the silence “You’re right Bosh. Now, I think there could be an alternative to dealing with the raiders. They won’t budge from there, since we have numerical supremacy now.” “What do you mean ?” I asked “Well, we thought about giving them a chance to leave the swamp for good” Iris’ pupils dilated at this remark. “Please, please, please, let me do it sis, let me talk to the raiders, please, please, please, hand me the megaphone, please, please, please.” “Not happening.” and then she stashed the megaphone onto her saddlebag. Iris, however, pulled Ameara’s saddlebag apart, picking up the megaphone and running off with it. “Give it back!!!” “Finders-keepers” She dashed onto the front of the warehouse, an enormous building with metal walls, circumvented by an iron fence and a steel gate. It was built ages ago to store apples grown at the orchard. “Hey raiders, open up. I am the pizza pony you guys ordered” A plate moved from the gate, and a raider wearing a welding helmet gazed from it. “No, you’re not, cloud-hugger. Now leave before we get angry.” Ameara finally reached her sister. Having heard the outcome of Iris’ “plan”, she addressed the raiders inside. “Look, we do not want to be forced to do this… just leave our swamp. All your base are belong to us, you raiders have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.” “Hell hath no fury like a scorned raider, lady. Cross these walls, and you are dead meat.” Both pegasai returned to the RV point. “If they are so confident to actually carry on a conversation with us, then they must be packing a lot of gun power into there.” Ameara remarked I nodded. “how do you intent to cross their gate ?” “C4 it” she took a plastic explosive from her bag. “I’ve been saving this for a special occasion.” “Then we’ll just storm in?” “I fear there’s no alternative way. They barricaded all exits, so they know from where we’ll come.” “Oh, and another thing. Bosh, I want you to lead the assault.” I eyed her incredulously “Why me? i mean, your sister included, there’s a lot of more capable and more skilled pegasai than…” “Because your group has so far aided undertaking nearly all interest points, albeit it’s losses. And also because Iris’s strategic plans all amount to the same reckless charge.” “Hey! I i am still here!” Iris glared at her sister. “I suppose you’ll want to join him, huh?” “Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on the world… I can’t wait to get going PEWPEWPEW on an entire line of raiders” After meticulous preparations (much to Iris’ distress), we decided to overtake the warehouse with a group of eight stalkers (plus Iris and me), while everypony else would offer cover fire and deal with any escaping raider. I floated the jellyfish out from the bag and attached it to my barding belt. The emanating radiation instantly nauseated me .however, if that thing could swerve bullets like Peppermint told me, it would be worth it. Ameara’s bomb laid on the rusted steel gate, all eyes laid upon it, expectantly… BOOOOOMMMM…CRASH… “GO, GO, GO…” RATTLETLETLETLEEE…. RATTLERATTLETLETLE….. Those fuckers had been waiting by the wall’s corners. A trap. The two stalkers before me fell dead, and several more were wounded. I quickly turned the AK toward the raider to the right. RATTLERATTLERATTLE…. RATTLERATTLETLEE… Behind me, the music of an Obokan soared in unison. RATTLERATTLERATTTLETLE…. RATTLERATTLE… Soon enough, my back was against the warehouse’s wall. Iris and half of our group were by the other side of the delivery door. She gestured to me “after three beats.” Then, hoofed the wall softly three times quickly. We both stormed, leading all the stalkers inside. The interior of the warehouse was ominously dark. “Surprise!” A light above us was lit. Beneath it, three catwalks full of raiders, all of them pointing their rifles at us. RATTLERATTLE.RATTLERATTTLERATTLERATTLE…. “TAKE COVER! IT’S AN AMBUSH!” RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE…. I quickly dived by the rotten wood crates that filled the base level of the warehouse, as bullets flew over my head, hitting the body of less fortunate stalkers. I looked to the others. Only four survivors. Iris had been shot. They took shelter on another pile of crates, diametrically opposed to me. Her shoulder was now a scarlet mess, to which she pulled her barding to, trying to bandage it. The raiders above still gunned down at us… those crates were not going to hold out for long… Then, amidst the corpses that lay on the ground, I spotted some grenades. It took some patience to levitate it calmly, so that the raiders wouldn’t suspect anything. I flew it across the room, right below one of the raider-filled catwalks. Then I released the pin. KABOOOM, CREAAKKK…. TCHAACKK The catwalk fell crashing, breaking over another one and then both thudded on the floor, atop them, several roasted or smashed raiders. Smoke filled the enclosed structure. My group took advantage of the distraction to open fire. RATTLERATTLERATTLE… RATTLERATTLE… Raiders groaned of pain behind the smoke curtain. Now it was just a sweep up matter… I erupted from the shelter, gravitated the AK and took shots at anything up there that was still moving. RATTLERATTLERATTLE… RATTLERATTLERATTLE…. After rushing toward the corner of the warehouse and climbing over the stairs, I reached the catwalk level of the structure. Most of the raiders here were dead, bullet wounds plentiful amongst them. Only one of them was still alive, backing up on the last catwalk. It looked like he was guarding one of the dead bodies. He looked terrified, but nevertheless, he held his AK pointed at me RATTLERATTLERATTLE… I ducked at his attack, the pony’s aim was terrible, he must had been really afraid of us. Most of his bullets hit the roof of the warehouse, and the very few that reached me were softened by the protective field of the jellyfish. My rifle did short work of him. RATTLERATTLE… As I crept closer to his body, intended on scavenging it, I could now examine the corpse he was guarding. It wasn’t one corpse. The raider mare was still alive, on fetal position, contorting herself of pain. The pony I just had killed had been her friend, or lover, or whenever… someone who cared about her. I got close to the mare. You’d probably think this could be one of those moments of how I was presented the choice to turn the other cheek, forgive the raiders and become a better pony. The Zone never forgives mistakes such as those. I floated my pistol out of the holster and gave her the mercy shot. Bang. My head dazed out from exhaustion… it had been a long day. But it was over now. My Geiger counter started to beep. My radiation levels were at half of a lethal one. I floated the Jellyfish away and into the saddlebag. From down there, it could not further radiate me. I took out one of the anti-rad drugs that Ameara gave me yesterday and gurgled it down my throat. Tasted like piss. Only if vodka could heal radiation instead of these… After minutes of looting and scavenging the few somewhat usable weapons for Peppermint, I reunited with the others outside. All the pegasai were radiant with joy, shouting and celebrating and dancing. When I came out of the structure, they cheered at me, bringing me toward the crowd. From the middle of it, I could spot Ameara tending to her sister’s shoulder. Iris smiled weakly at me. ============================== [><]============================= The moon could be seen on the dark sky outside, from the window of Ameara’s office. It was the only light on the dark, cloud-filled sky. Ameara’s hoof fit through one of the holes of the barding she was examining. Now, it was just little more than a red-colored rag. “I mean, it is unbelievable. Did you threw it on EVERY anomaly on this swamp? Or did a goddamn pseudodog chewed it to hell? This barding has suffered more on a day with you then on a lifetime being worn by Delphanos.” She shrugged and threw the rag at the dustbin. The only sound on the room came from my mouth, chewing a soy-sausage n’ bread sandwich. At the right of me, under the map of the zone affixed to the wall, Iris snored loudly, the pegasus had crashed onto a couch. Her shoulder was covered with a multitude of white bandages that her caring sister took the time to clean a few hours ago. Ameara glared at her and rolled her eyes. Then, turned to me. “I suppose you do earn yourself a new one, though, after all you did for us, Boshan. Fair enough. I’ll see about it first thing in the morning. Now go get yourself some rest.” As I climbed the stairs toward the guestroom, my mind begun to replay the events of today. I quickly tried to dismiss them off, fatigue was unbearable. I just laid my junk-filled saddlebags at one of the room’s corners and went to the bed. In a few instants, I succumbed to sleep. ============================== [><]============================= “Hello ? Aren’t we forgetting something?” I woke up confused… it was still dark, had they let me sleep for… like, one hour only? My eyes slowly got used to the darkness. Couldn’t see anyone else on the room. “Over here” Impossible… I must had been delusional, or dreaming, or into drugs… my mind couldn’t comprehend it. Floating above me was a small, white unicorn with a black wavy mane. She was using librarian glasses. “Who… what are you ?” “I am your conscience, jackass. Apparently, my services are much needed here” she snipped with an annoyingly acute voice “But I am a stallion, why the hell is my conscience a mare ?” “We are not here to talk about me. I came to discuss your actions.” “I am dreaming, aren’t I?” “Why have you hurt so many ponies today ? it is a bullet to the head your only answer to problems , or a grenade ?” “Look, in case you did not noticed, those ponies out there were raiders, the looting n’ pillaging kind of criminal scum” “Oh really ? how could you know ? they were wearing badges of villainy ? or did you personally asked them ?” “If it looks like a raider, fights like a raider, and shoots like a raider, then it must goddamn BE a raider” “if it speaks like a bigot, dresses like a bigot and mow down ponies like a bigot, then it must be you.” “Look… what I did was to…” “Survive? well, you saw how becomes a pony that thinks this way…” “I did it to protect my friends. Limpid Skies” “And how do you know that they are fighting on the right side ? For all you’d know, they could be pretty well the ones harassing the raiders.” “I believe we should give them the benefit of doubt. After all, they saved me. TWICE.” “And what about that raider mare ? Did you expressly HAD to shoot her? By some chance, the image of her crawling on the ground, groaning from severe pain, seemed threatening to you?” I did not had an answer for this…at least, not one she would accept. So, I did the only thing I could, I pushed my pillow over the face, to make her disappear. “You are not getting rid of me this easily, mister. Speak to me eye to eye.” “Go away, you whining hallucination.” “I am not whining. I am asking you to reason your attitudes. But if you really want to hear whining…” “Why do you have to be sooo mean??? What did those ponies did to you on the first place ???? Couldn’t you just allowed them to share the swamp with you friends??? Why do you have to be so selfish ???” It was just unbearable… I lifted from the bed, and head-butted the floor to make her vanish from my sight and for her voice to disappear. “Sad how a crash with reality can make such a young , charming stallion, go nuts all of a sudden.” I raised my hoof, trying to shoo her off. It just went through the conscience, like she was immaterial. “Hahahaha… stop. It tickles…” I tried banging my head to the floor again, now at full speed. Fortunately, I was able to knock myself unconscious and escape that relentless ghost. ============================== [><]============================= “Some pretty good stuff you got there…” Peppermint’s eyes glowed as he rummaged the pile of trash I laid down upon his workbench. “I can work out some mean stuff out of these. Thanks a lot Bosh. I have something for you, as payment…” He disappeared below his counter, only coming back with… half of a rifle, glued to a pressure cooker, some copper pipes and several other things. It was shaped like a weapon. He grinned while hoofing it to me. I eyed at the device curiously, flipping it to see from different sides, finally laying it again on the counter. “Uh-oh… you don’t like it?” “Emmm… yes, I like it. I suppose I will like it even more once I know what it is” The pegasus took the thing, and full of pride, announced “This, my friend, is a finely-tuned throat needler. You won’t find a weapon like this anywhere else. Although you are a unicorn and can pretty much TK everything, this weapon was built to be able to fire even with hooves… see this little lever up here? Just push it to fire. And it is a completely user-friendly weapon, seriously, if you somehow break it, the materials for repairs are almost free. Yeah, this weapon is a marvel of engineering” He laid it down on the counter again, and then pat the weapon amorously. STKUP !!! Finely-tuned my ass! At the wall of his shack, a half-pound railway spike was struck. Why Peppermint intended THESE to needle throats, is a mystery I’ll never solve. “Hehehe… just, do not shake it too much.” I floated the weapon toward my saddlebags, making a mental note to unload the gun and ditch it at the first opportunity. After waving him goodbyes, i went to Ameara’s office, finding her dying a barding gray. Iris still laid on the couch, much to her displeasure, her bullet wounds meant that she’d be stuck on the swamps for a while. “And it is… perfect.” She handed me the barding. “I hope you do not mind the grey scheme, I did it because some of the stalkers on the mainland aren’t really fond of Limpid Skies.” I equipped the barding. it was heavier than the older one. After shaking it a bit, I could feel mail plates sewn inside the fabric. I smiled at Ameara. She just shook her hoof and said: “Oh, you’d ought to thank Peppermint’s freaky knowledge of sewing for this.” “Now, I remember you mentioned a guide to the NPP…” “Well, not exactly a guide… let me explain it for you…I am sure that in the past two days, some of my pegasus friends had been a little… rude with you, right ?” I nodded. “I hope you forgive them, because they have a reason in doing so. You see, more or less a month ago, we had another unicorn as our guest. A veteran stalker. Someday he appeared ,washed up by the swamp.” She turned to her sister “somepony simply was far too much selfless to refuse help, even to a complete stranger” Ameara smiled to the lavender pegasus “but I fear that he have tricked us all… long story short, the unicorn rested onto Swampsdale until he recovered all his vigor, and when he left, he sold out information about the swamp’s safe routes to a group of bandits. from that damned day, they had been flocking at the swamp in ever-increasing numbers, until another unicorn stepped in to aid us.” She smiled at me. I felt myself blushing. “but where does the NPP fits at this ?” “From what little I had been able to dig out on the unicorn, he actually had survived a raid at the NPP. He knows how to circumvent all obstacles and reach the power plant. He said that he was mugged by bandits, and then thrown at the swamp. It looks like he thought about selling us up to gather enough money to fund himself another raid into the NPP.” “So, I need to track this guy and follow him ?” “Yes, you could do this. But it will be better if you can capture him, if you actually have the nerve to face the veteran.” “Does he have a name ?” “He called himself “Searinor”.” “Where do I start ?” She fetched my PDA, and marked some coords. “Now, you just traverse the Muzzle tunnel, near the ruined silo, and you’ll hit the Cordon. it is kind of like a kindergarten for stalkers, where the beginners get their skills without exposing themselves to a lot of danger. The place I marked at your map is a rookie village. Once you hit it, speak to the trader. he used to do business with us before the swamp become the “Shangri-la for bandits”. If someone knows about Searinor’s lead, the trader has probably heard of it.” “Thanks Ameara , I should get going.” “Wait, this could help you out…” She searched her desk, this time coming up with a crumpled piece of paper. “A coupon ?” “Yes, the trader emitted a few of these as currency. Use it to buy basic supplies once you reach him.” “Awww… they grow so fast… it seems that only three days ago, I carried him. And now he is big enough to go to the mainland.” Ameara rolled her eyes, while I laughed. Iris eyed me and said: “Remember Boshie… adveeentureeee” “Will do. Until then, get healthy quickly so we can hang out on the mainland” The lavender pegasus hit her chest and smiled “Bosh, remember that we will keep contact with you by the radio. It isn’t like you’re never going to see us anymore. And keep your ears open for emissions alerts. If you are caught by another blowout, results won’t be so pretty, although you could use your genes as your favor…” “How could I do so ?” “You remember how I told about your metabolism being speeded up, but also adrenaline speeds up metabolism. If you stack both augmentations, you’d have an meaningful improvement in your physical abilities. That means, the closer you find yourself to death, the stronger you become.” My body shivered at the mention of death… I hoped that I’d never find out needing this genetic superpower. After saying goodbyes to everyone at Swampsdale, a guide traveled me to the silo. The Muzzle tunnel appeared after a short trek. I checked out my PDA: 3:30 PM, crossing the swamp had taken the whole morning and half of the afternoon. While traversing the dark tunnel, a megaphone-powered voice soared from the other side of the tunnel NOT ONE MORE STEP, STALKER. FREEZE. Oh shit… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- Bestiary #/filenam – Blind dog #/filedescript – A menace that originally came from equestria’s countryside, Blind dogs are the result of multiple lifespans and inbreeding of the canis familiaris that once were used to herd cattle. With their masters long gone, these creatures roamed the Zone aimlessly, eventually degenerating to a state of wild animals, such as wolves. Their body adapted itself to the lack of a plentiful source of food, as their organisms quickly degraded some worthless energy-spending abilities – such as vision – in order to improve other useful ones, such as smell, which the dogs use to avoid anomalies, radiation and stalk their prey. Mutation has also gifted these mutants with uncanny resistance to electricity and chemical agents. Blind dogs build their dens on cold, humid places, such as ruins or caves, being especially ruthless to any stalker that wanders too close to them. They always hunt in packs, preferring to prey on smaller mutants (such as rats) or lone stalkers. Luckily, Blind dogs are mostly coward mutants, and will disband their pack after a few members die or get wounded. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	4	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-04-15T03:18:13+00:00	2012-04-15T03:18:13+00:00	2,024	CP. III – Second first impressions. “The outside world ? are you really that naïve ? if they really had planned to purify the zone, they would have done it long ago. Over time, everyone outside the Zone just forgotten about us or simply stopped caring. It is easier this way for them.” I was paralyzed… someone saw me coming. In all the darkness of the muzzle tunnel, I couldn’t discern any other pony. Then, the megaphone sounded again. KEEP DOWN, OR YOU WILL SHARE THE SAME FATE OF YOUR FRIENDS, EARTH PONY! Wha…? Earth pony? couldn’t be… I rushed toward the exit of the dark tunnel, it ended atop a hill, overseeing lush, verdant fields, filled with pine trees and bushes. Far down, a road crossed the fields. It was a much welcome change from the fetid and ugly swamp. Being on the very bottom, meant that the cordon was barely infected by the radioactive horrors of the Zone. However, it was not devoid of horrors of its own. “But I swear, I did not took it! Please, believe me” I carefully lurked by the trees, approaching the direction of the voices. “This is your last chance. Spill the beans, loitering scum.” Military, half a dozen of them. Heavily armed soldiers. All of their rifles aiming a single yellow mare. Around them, corpses of other stalkers. The mare’s eyes watered. The sudden fear of death made her cry loudly for her life. The soldiers merely exchanged devious glances at each other. One of them approached the mare and subdued her, using an awful amount of force by it. Then stripped her backpack off and blindfolded the mare. He dragged the earth pony along. All the other military followed, with one stopping to pick the backpack. I followed them as well, from a safe distance. The soldier released the mare after some walking. She was still blindfolded. Then he spoke to her: “Let’s play a game, stalker… if you win, we’ll be out of your mane. The rules are simple, really. You just need to cross this minefield in front of you. But thing is, you’re not allowed to remove the blindfold. If you do so, we’ll just shoot you. Understood?” The mare shook nervously “Now go. Just walk forward and you’ll be safe in no time.” She dared a few steps forward, still scared. The mare moved very cautiously, as to avoid tripping any mines, thinking three or four times before taking another step. Meanwhile, the soldiers were yelling “directions” at her and laughing maniacally. Their rifles still pointed at the mare’s flank. She didn’t know, but there weren’t any mines. From what I could see, they released her on a clean field. But then, why tell her that it was a minefield? They must want to make her go slowly, so then they can shoot the mare easily after they had enough fun with her. This thought came to my mind. I was wrong. When enough steps were taken, she reached it. The mare instinctively knew about it when caught on the outer rim of the anomaly, and tried dashing away. However, it was far too late. If she just crossed it while dashing, then she’d probably be able to cross it unscratched. The whirlgig (that was the name of the anomaly, according to my PDA) entrapped the mare mid-air, sucking her closer and closer to the core, as she angushly flailed her legs in a futile attempt to disengage from the anomaly. Eventually, she tired off and the whirlgig got the best of it. As she was caught on the core, breakneck speed winds slashed her throat before she could even scream. The whirlgig then pulled her body higher and higher above ground, while its diagonal sprouting winds dismembered her body in instants. Ultimately, all that was left from the stalker was a scarlet pool of blood. The soldiers were still watching and bursting in laughter. The one carrying the backpack emptied it of its possessions. After a minute sorting out the stuff, the soldier came with a box of pistol bullets. He ditched the backpack and everything else from it. “Sarge, just 20. I guess it can be split by three or four…” “That is not for you to decide soldier. Gimme that.” After the sergeant took the box of bullets from the private’s hands, he yelled at his platoon: “Dismissed.” All of the six soldiers traveled back to their outpost. The “border” of the Zone, as it was the construction that blocked away one of the few paths leading to the outside world. As for me, I crawled my ass off from the bushes, and trying to make as less noise as possible, I moved to the village, aiming to not alert the military patrols at the road. At distance, the megaphone soared again: “Any attempt to penetrate the security Zone will be punished by any means necessary. The troops will rightfully shoot trespassers at sight.” Boy, talk about taking their job seriously… thanks heavens, nothing else stood on my way as I reached the abandoned village. There isn’t much to talk about it. An abandoned farm village, long since deserted and scavenged, the skeletons of former homes now were used as shelter by the “fresh meat” of the Zone. Rookies. A blue bus was rusting by the village’s entrance. At the side of it, a faded writing said “Happy farm trails.” A lone caramel-colored pegasus stalker stood guard near it. “Name your business here, stalker.” “I came to negotiate with the trader.” “He can be found by crossing the village, at the cellar after the last houses. Mind your manners while you travel to it, though. We may still be inexperienced, but not totally helpless.” I nervously smiled at him, then proceeded forward Curious eyes glared at me from inside the buildings. As I reached the middle of the village, the exact point where a few stalkers gathered around a campfire, smoking, singing and telling stories, they all fell silent when I passed by, one of them even stopped hoofing his guitar. All gazes were upon me. The only one which seemed not to give a fuck was lounging at the wall of a house. From his ochre suit, white gas mask and attitude, he looked like some kind of more experienced stalker, some sort of “caretaker” for the newbies. Since I had no business with the stalkers, I just ignored the commotion and went directly to the cellar. Upon opening the heavy metal doors, I stepped inside. A heavy fragrance of apple cider instantly invaded my nostrils. This basement was used to brew booze. Some of the walls still held some faded and dusty apple paintings. After descending into the cellar, I finally came toward an iron vault door. On the right side of it, a small camera with a blinking red light spied on me. After a few minutes, the door’s lock disengaged, wheezed and opened with a thud. The trader had allowed me in. Inside, the very same heavy rotten apple atmosphere. A retrofitted sewer grating separated the trader from his customers. Behind it, a fat brown stallion unicorn, with dirty blond hair and a cracked horn. The trader didn’t seem to notice my presence, as he was distracted munching some cupcakes lay on a tray in front of him. They looked rather tasty. “Why are you standing there for, stalker? Come closer. I don’t bite. Unless you have the same sugary filling as these cupcakes” Then he turned to me, moving his hoofs to the notebook at his right side. (A peg.-ASUS brand machine.) When he glared at me, I could instantly distinguish his most particular feature: his right eye. The cornea of it was opened whole, comically. Inside the cornea, red lens moved dazzlingly, stopping for a few seconds, then flipping quickly to another section of the cornea. It was somewhat mesmerizing. This eye was a stark contrast to the left one, a bored light brown eye. “Ah, a customer… not many come from the swamps these days. I just wish you ponies would wipe your hooves before entering my humble home.” “Um… hi. You must be the trader. I am kind of looking for somepony and my Limpid Skies buddies told me that you know all the buzz that goes in the Zone…” “Straight to the business, right stalker? I like it, hahaha. You heard right, young one. I have some good informants, able to dig out crap about any wretched soul that ever crossed the Zone. But where are my manners, stalker? I do not even know your name. since we’re about to deal business, why not introduce ourselves ?” “Seems fine to me… ok. My name is Boshan Hollowbane, Just came to the Zone three days ago, not much here. I only left the swamp today.” “Boshan, huh? Interesting name. As for me, I spend so much time down here that everypony call me “The Mole”. Not that I’m complaining, staying underground has it’s benefits, since I just stay here and ripo…uh, trade with travelers instead of risking getting shot by dumb bandits or being bitten by a rabid mutated critter.” “So, back to the subject, do you know anything about an unicorn named “Searinor”?” His wicked red eye gazed at me from several positions, until he finally answered. “I am afraid not… he must have his own personal supplier, or used an intermediate to trade with me. but give me a couple of hours and I’ll get something about him. By the way, how are planning to pay me?” “Pay?” “Why, yes. 2 grants of bits” I just eyed at the trader expressionless… “Bits? What are those?” The trader facehoofed “What the hell? You washed up on the Zone amnesic or something, stalker? Bits are the money you use to buy stuff, these.” He showed me a pile of bight coins with equine figures and a few bills with mare pictures. Then, he put those away and started to stroke his chin lightly. “Since you cannot afford the service, Boshan, then can we discuss an alternative payment? I have something else in mind, a little job that needs to be done.” I came closer, to hear him out better. “The boys in uniform have been a real pain in my ass lately. They friggin’ blocked off my trade route across the railroad bridge, not letting any stalker come in or out the cordon. As a result, not many customers drop by, or merchandise, for that matter. It will end up killing my profits on the long run.” “Are you sure of what you’re asking me? There is no way I could kill an entire army of military ponies” “Don’t rush yourself to conclusions, stalker. No, even if you actually could kill them, I’d ask you not to. You see, the commander of that outpost and I, we have kind of a deal. He loves a bottle of vodka as much as the next pony. In exchange for a few artifacts and quality booze, he brings me a lot of stuff from outside the Zone. It’s a win-win situation. These came from him.” He pointed at the cupcakes. The trader then opened a drawer, took off a cigar, lighted it and started smoking. “You see, since cows cannot live long in a mutant-wildlife-infested area, milk is a hard commodity to come by. So, cupcakes, pies, muffins, all of these are indeed a rare treat, much better than those crap-flavored diet sausages. It is a benefit I’d rather not be devoid of, stalker.” Both of his eyes focused at me “Instead, I want you to strike a deal with the soldiers. From what I’ve been informed, the reason why they are so hot headed is because somepony stole something from them. Speak with Furpaw outside; he can fill you on the loop of the situation. Complete this assignment and I’ll help you out. Deal? He offered his hoof. Not seeing much options, I raised my own, brohoofing the unicorn. “Mole, I have something else…” I floated the crumpled coupon to him. His crazy eye glanced at it for minutes, then he TK-grabbed it and stashed the coupon on one of the drawers. “I can credit you 500 bits for this one…” “What? But you endorsed it for twice this amount!” “Interest rates, depreciative value, monetary correction. If you don’t like it stalker, then you can take it to another trader.” As if any other trader would accept a crumpled paper with the name of their competitor on it…. “Fine, show me your wares.” After a while rummaging at the trader’s overpriced stock, I bought a can of food, five bandages and one hooffull of anti radiation drugs “While you’re out there, I’ll be digging info, stalker. Take these in case you need to speak to me.” he handed me a piece of paper with numbers. “This is my frequency. If you come across a ham radio, use it at the frequency to speak with me and keep me updated about the assignment. Do me a good job stalker, and I might even let you have a bite at these” He mused at the cupcakes, and then extinguished his cigar at one of them, laughing. I turned to leave, inputting his radio frequency at my PDA. ============================== [><]============================= I couldn’t see Furpaw’s expression, that white gas mask was unfathomable. He was the “Caretaker” I mentioned earlier, a veteran charged of motivating, training and teaching the newbies, also in charge of dealing with outsiders from other factions and whatnot. “Stalker, if what you told me is right, I believe you’re the only one that can take this job. Come to my office; let’s discuss privately a few details. I’d rather not let them fall upon the ears of the rookies.” He led me inside one of those ruined houses. His “office” was little more than a room with decayed wallpaper, a bedroll, a few shelves, some tables and a pile of crates. “Have a seat” He indicated the crates. I took one from the pile, placed it before the loner and sat on it. “Boshan, right ?” I nodded. “Here’s the truth. One of the stalkers had the audacity to steal from the army, possibly he had help to lug his loot around, but anyways, bottom line is that one stalker stole the soldier’s monthly shipment of sidearm ammunition. Four hundred pistol rounds were diverted from their supplies.” “And now the soldiers do not have bullets to fill their pistols? Oh my, what a tragedy…. now they can only count on rifle rounds to hurt bandits…” “Great, just what I needed. Another smartass unicorn, as if the Mole wasn’t enough. This may surprise you, stalker, but the army does not grow ammo on trees. Without using sidearms , they are quickly wasting all their rifle rounds on any hostile, especially mutants. If they keep it up, they’ll end up without any pretty soon. Not that I have love for those sons of a bitches, but they locked us up. Nopony leaves the cordon unless they get their shipment back. And what is worse, they have been accosting my stalkers and laying waste to them in order to rob their ammo.” The mare on the whirlgig sprouted to my mind. “But the cordon is huge… where do I even start?” “First off, do not tell any stalker about the situation. If they know about it, they will just blame each other and turn themselves to the military, or even start shooting each other, hoping to find the culprit. Hell, we are lucky that the Mole lives nearby, and is friends with their commander, or the soldiers would even raid the village. Now, as to where you begin, I deducted a few things about the theft…” He took a notepad from his pocked, then flipped the pages, searching for a particular entry. “Ah, here it is. Whosoever stole the shipment knew exactly what they did. It wasn’t a rookie, since most of them do not even know how to reload a pistol properly, let alone steal a huge crate of ammo right beneath the army’s nose. It also wasn’t the bandits work. They are too rough and messy; it is not their style to be stealthy. No. somepony knew what he did there, he probably knew the topography and took time studying the military’s delivery schedules, and also had the mad skillz to snatch the crate silently. I can only think that it was the work of a veteran stalker, or more than one.” He put away the notepad, and opened a map. “Here, across the railroad bridge there is a stalker camp. Once you reach it, talk to their “leader”, Jinglepocket, about any stalkers that crossed the railroad bridge lately. Then I’ll be able to thin down my suspect list.” “Aren’t the military blocking the bridge passage right this moment?” “There is another way, stalker.” He pointed to an area east to the bridge passage “My scouts report that there is a tunnel here leading to the other side, stalker. However, it is a one-way. You’ll understand once you reach it. Also, you might want to avoid the road, since the military is patrolling it nonstop after their crate. Hope you can handle yourself against the mutants and anomalies that sprout on the woodlands.” I gazed at the sky outside. It was deep black now. “Of course, you should wait until tomorrow. The mutants are especially active during nighttime. This fact combined with your lack of night-vision technology means that going out there on the dark is the quickest way toward a coffin.” ============================== [><]============================= Bang Bang Bang…. Yip Yip Yip Stupid dogs… traveling off-road has proven to be unnerving. Stumbling into those coward dogs or even other braver mutant was common. However, it was more survivable fighting them than a group of soldiers. After some walking, I finally reached a building. An abandoned factory. Studying my map, this meant that the railroad bridge was close by. Luckily, I could hide myself from the soldiers on the factory and spy on them from afar, in order to predict their moves and program myself. BEEP BEEP BEEP…. Of course… a factory filled with anomalies. Just my luck. BEEP BEEP BEEP…. Well, on the bright side, whenever there are anomalies… there could be artifacts as well. Could be a good opportunity to fill my wallet. And plus, oversee the military activities. I entered the rusted structure. Like everything else on the Zone, it was long left abandoned and just stood as a rotting scar on the landscape. BEEP BEEP BEEP…. Twoosh I kept tossing the bolts at the springboard anomalies. The very same ones that I found at my first day on the Zone. Looks like it was a fairly common sight. After probing the main floor for a while, I devised a way toward the stairs. Carefully crossing the dirt floor, I was almost reaching it, when a metallic sound interrupted my focus. CREAAKKK Nervously, I lifted the AK, glancing the area. Squeak Squeak Squeak. A small naked rodent ran through the floor, squealing frantically. Goddamn critters… The stair led me to a catwalk section of the factory, built to allow maintenance for the machines. One of the catwalks ended on an “L” corner. On the corner, by the wall, laid a cadaver. Definitely a bandit, by his ragged black jacket. The pegasus was decomposing oddly, probably an effect of radiation, as most of his meat still hanged on the skeleton. Squee ! Squeeee. Two of those jerboas were feasting on the cadaver’s entrails. A few steps from them, the bodies of two other jerboas, with several tiny bite marks. The ones which lost the fight for food. SqueakSqueakSqueak. When I approached the bandit, the diminutive mammals ran off. Examining him closer, a burn on his left hoof was discernible. Some steps further into the catwalk, the reason for it. A burner anomaly. Sprouting on the middle of it, an artifact, encased by the ferruginous mist that I was sure would envelop in flames anything that crossed it. I tried my TK at the artifact. No use. It was thoroughly sucked by the biomagical vortex of the anomaly. The only way to move it, would be to do so physically. Eyeing around the factory, I moved a metal tube, trying to nudge the artifact toward me. As I poked it into the mist, the metal glowed red. I pushed it further, touching the artifact. The tube instantly melted upon touching it. But then, how did the bandit…? I tried poking at it again, this time using one of the dead jerboas. The critter’s skin immediately caught on fire upon entering the mist. But when it touched the artifact, nothing happened. The jerboa kept burning at the same speed as before. Someway, the core of the artifact-ridden anomaly only instantly melted artificial matter. My focus kept firm as I tried to push the artifact by using the jerboa, but to no avail. It simply did not budge from the spot it was, even after I tried placing the jerboa in its place. SQUEAAKKK !!! Ok, one last try. I enveloped the jerboa scurrying through the floor with my TK, and pushed him toward the burner. FWOOSH ! SQUEAAA.SQUEAA The mammal cried in agony as it was burned alive. It could still face its destiny, the core of the anomaly. I tilted him and shoved it directly at the stone. The artifact left the core of the anomaly, dropping on the ground. Only to be replaced by a scorching entity that someday was a jerboa. I picked the stone from the ground, letting my magic let go of the mutant. It was a bright red round stone. When my hoof picked it up, it emitted some heat. Not the damaging kind of heat found on a burner, but instead, soft warmth. My Geiger counter indicated no signs of radiation in it. I just tossed it at the saddlebag. Looking at the way back, the other section of catwalks led to another set of stairs, this time, leading to the roof. I spared one last glance at the burner. The jerboa was now coated with a whitish solution. The anomaly was probably producing another artifact from it… fascinating. After glancing off one of the “marvels” of the Zone and crossing to another stair further above, the wind caught my mane as I ended up on the roof. The view from up there was rather decent. Could see the village, the border outpost, and the railway bridge itself. I raised the AK to use the scope, thought it, I spotted the military at the railway bridge checkpoint exchanging gunfire with a group of bandits. Great, If only these two groups could kill each other, my task would be much easier. But the outcome of the fight was rather predictable, since the boys in sage uniform had bigger toys. Instead of watching the conflict unfold, I scoped at my left, toward west. The direction my map pointed as the location of the tunnel that Furpaw mentioned. Lush pine forests sprawled from whenever my sight went. This section of the cordon was particularly dense. I guess the best I could do, would be to trust the directions given to me. ============================== [><]============================= Finally, the tunnel stood a few meters from me. A clearing with a stump and an abandoned van was the only path to it. On the clearing, a huge boar slept lazily. I considered the option of simply shooting the animal, however, after seeing them charge incredibly fast to catch a prey (almost invariably, a blind dog.) while traveling on the cordon. I believed that a plan wouldn’t do harm. Then I saw it, sparkling on the ground. I didn’t noticed it before because it was under direct sunlight. Another anomaly. One that I never saw before. the ground seemed to crackle with blue lightning around it. The boar was quite close to it. Perhaps, it could work…I thought to myself, as I gravitated a bolt toward it. I let the bolt go, and at the second the metal touched the anomaly, it expanded. SWATCH! GROAAA!! A circular wave of blue lightning hit the boar’s flank. The mutant didn’t move. It was paralyzed. The chance I needed. RATTLERATTLERATTLE… However, I didn’t account for the other two boars that were on the bushes. GROAAA!!! GROAAA!!! The beasts dashed at me, covering ground in an alarming speed. I turned away and ran as fast as I could. Still holding the AK, I shot everything behind my back, trying to scare them off. One of them went away. The other one still chased me. I turned to face the boar, while still running backwards. My back hooves hit a tree. Dammit!” I frenetically tried to aim the AK properly, but the boar was far too close. He jumped, headbutting me. My barding took most of the damage, but the strength of his strike pushed me. I tried to both regain balance and stabilize the AK, when he charged again. Only now, to be held by my gun. I used the AK to parry his strike. All my TK was used on forcing the gun’s metallic body on stopping a 250 pounds mutant. Not good for the weapon’s condition. I quickly loosened the grasp on the AK, only to tighten it again and use the riflebutt to slap the mutant’s face .This dazed him enough to give me time to pick up the pistol and shoot him. BangBangBang… Problem solved. Now to the tunnel… The tunnel was filled with construction debris, empty containers and trash. At the other side of it, I could spot another green field, pretty much the same layout as the cordon. Furpaw wasn’t joking when he told me it was a one-way. An electro anomaly was traveling by the tunnel, appearing and fading at timed intervals. It started spawning on the start of the tunnel and the middle of it, moving forward progressively. I could sync myself to cross it toward the other side, but there wasn’t any way to get back without getting caught on the anomaly. If it could even stun a boar through its resilient fur, I could imagine what it would do to soft-skinned stalkers. Ok Boshan… it is not so hard. You can do it… just breathe. I ran through the tunnel, carefully stopping near the anomaly and waiting for it to vanish, in order to proceed again. BEEP… BEEP… BEEP After repeating the procedure a few times, I was apt to cross the tunnel unscratched, unlike some burdened or slow stalkers whose skeletons filled the tunnel. The other side of the cordon was pretty much similar to the one I just left. Pine forests, upon whose shadows, I was certain that mutants lurked. Checking the map, the stalker camp was not much far north from my position. Another trek by the pine forest and I’d be there in no… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE. GROAAA!! “These pigs are almost as irritating as those pitiful stalkers.” A military patrol, scouring the woodlands ! The only way to not be caught on their vision field would be to run to the road. Huge mistake. The other military soldiers, bunkered at the railway bridge, opened fire at me on the moment I reached open ground. RATTLERATTLERATTLE. I was cornered! Couldn’t go back onto the woodlands, neither use the road. On the right side of it, a ravine protuberated. RATTLERATTLERATTLE. The bullets whistled near, digging holes through the metal plates of my armor. One of them shaved near my neck. A fillet of warm blood washed my chest. My judgment was numbed by the overwhelming harmful options, as I dashed to the only seeming not immediate threatening one. The ravine. I jumped down at it, my body staggering through dirt and sharp rocks, until I finally reached the bottom of the pit. Apart from heavy abrasions, gunshot wounds and dazedness, I was OK. Well, not really. But being alive filled as an important requisite toward reaching that state. I opened the saddlebag and used the bandages up on the wounds. At least, I wasn’t still oozing blood. The pit I fell at was dark and damp. After I moved a few steps, it also revealed another characteristic. BEEPBEEPBEEP Filled with radiation and anomalies. On the bright side, no soldier would follow me down into this deathtrap. Bolting off the field of springboard anomalies, I slowly moved across the area. One thing caught my eye. Under one of the anomalies, the body of a unicorn. I grabbed it using my inherent TK, tripping a few anomalies while bringing him closer. Once in reach, it was easily identifiable that the cause of death wasn’t the anomalies, but a few bullets to his head. He was probably thrown on the pit afterwards. Beneath the location that the body were before I moved it, laid a PDA as well. I also brought it to me. Although the glass screen was broken and the fact that it was tossed onto a shockwave-emitting anomaly, it still worked. After scanning it, I found the diary’s last entry: “This is it. I am getting rich, finally. That Ballpoint dude must be crazy to pay 100 bits for each 20 rounds of 9x18mm; some of the boys are saying that he scavenged a minigun from the garbage and is retrofitting ammo for it. Anyway, somepony like me just couldn’t let this opportunity pass. Confounding those trigger-happy military nutheads was easy. Almost too easy. Now, what is getting on my nerve is having to haul this goddamn crate through the entire cordon. if I am in luck, they will only find about the theft tomorrow, when I’ll be at the garbage, drinking my commission. Thanks heavens for telekinesis, if I were an earth pony or a pegasus, I’d never could cross that blasted tunnel with the loot, at least, not in one piece. The only thing that separates me and the booze are a few kilometers of wilderness, it is just a matter of keeping my head down and being quick.” Well, well, seems like I found the culprit. But no signs of the crate. And the military wouldn’t believe anything a stalker had to say if he didn’t had the stolen ammo. Their orthodox reasoning methods were limited to putting a bullet or ten onto a stalker. But somepony else had taken the crate, after wasting the unicorn. Since the military were still blocking the cordon, neither them, nor the stalkers had taken it. Only one faction on the cordon remained. I just considerably thinned down Furpaw’s suspect list. ============================== [><]============================= “Mole, come in. this is Boshan here. I have news about the assignment” “My favorite stalker…what’s the update?” “The thief is dead. I found his PDA. But he didn’t had the package on him. I suspect that the bandits took it.” “He had what he deserved, stupid moneygrubber, and so will the bandits. If you’re up for it, I’ll cash you up some bits on our deal for your medical treatment tab. Think of it as a compensation for dealing with these dregs of society.” “I fought bandits before, but never a whole group of them by myself.” “Hmm… yes, I suppose you could use some help. Let me talk to Jinglepocket” I stepped away from the loners ham radio. It was one of the luxuries of their camp. They had done a nice job onto it, repairing the small cracks of the stables and furnishing it, even included a dormitory and a mess hall. I smiled to the carnelian earth pony stallion next to the door and mused inside. Jinglepocket was wearing heavy saddlebags, filled with heavens-knows-what. His prowess on trading and diplomacy has earned the respect of his fellow loners, which praised him as their unofficial leader, or so I had been told. He smiled back and picked up the microphone to speak with the trader. As I waited for him, I went to the mess hall and bought two bottles of vodka from the barman. The money came from selling off the jellyfish. I also used some of it to repair the AK. That fucking boar’s tough head nearly trashed it. By luck, AKs have cheap maintenance cost, being brought in quantity to the Zone due to their popularity. Now I had roughly 350 bits. I stashed a bottle on the saddlebag, and floated from it one handful of the anti radiation drugs. After I spent the entire morning running through an anomalous field, some radiation built in on my body’s cells. I opened the bottle of vodka and spilled the meds into it, and then I poured down my throat the mixture. A cocktail of happiness which also cured me of radiation. Why I hadn’t thought of this before? My PDA’s time was at 1:48. Time for late lunch. I floated the can of food from the saddlebag. Not bad. I could get used to eating this stuff. The expiration date still hadn’t passed. Some time after I enjoyed my meal, Jinglepocket appeared. He sat at my table, eyeing the customers around the mess hall. “Boshan, I discussed thoroughly with the Mole. I cannot order my loners to aid you. With the mutants and the military crossing the cordon, I fear leaving the base defenseless. You understand, don’t you? We need to keep a safe haven for stalkers, and that means defending it and maintaining order into it.” I just laid my head down. “How I am going to fight off a whole party of bandits, alone? I could as well just turn me over to them to them with a sign saying “shoot me” “ The stallion snickered a bit, and then cleared his throat. “There is an option. Like I said, this base is a haven for stalkers. Any friendly stalker may seek refuge between these walls. I suppose one of them could help you if I ask around.” Said those words, he lifted and eyed the mess hall. “Ponies, listen to me. I know many of you seek to live peacefully and just survive out of the Zone’s salvage. But this pony here” he hoofed to me. “Decided to take a stand against those who greedily steal an honest stalker’s loot bag. Bandits, I tell ya. This courageous pony wants to kick them out of the cordon and teach that criminal scum a lesson they will never forget.” Then, Jinglepocket lowered his voice dramatically. “But no pony is an island. And bravado alone won’t save us.” He returned to the normal volume. “This is why I ask you, stalkers, to walk the walk, to fight the fight. Raise your voices and fight for your rights, aiding my friend on his righteous mission. Now, is there somepony here brave enough to aid him on this heroic undertaking?” “Me, me, me, me, me, me” A silver-eyed deep blue earth pony mare was hopping excitedly, flailing his hooves on the air exquisitely. The most disturbing thing was the red cloud above her head… her mane. It was too big. Like a dense burner cloud, only ten times messier. “Anypony…?” “Me, me, me, me, me, me” Jinglepocket turned to me apologetically “looks like you’re on your own, kiddo.” The redheaded mare hoofed him. “I want to help him, jingly! All you trust me to shoot is one or another strider. I am up to the job! Why don’t you listen to me?” The stallion shrugged. “Lielle, you’re as helpful as a serving of pseudodog dung. Actually, even less. Since it can be used to draw the mutants away, unlike you.” Then, he seemed to reconsider a bit. “But it’s not my call. Boshan, it’s up to you to decide, but I’d recommend you not to.” The blue mare’s eyes sparkled at me, as she opened a wide grin. “Can I, mister? Please? I’ve been dying out here for some fun shooting down criminals, but the other stalkers always keep turning down my company.” Jinglepocked drew a large cough. “I’ll let you two by yourselves. I have some urgent business” I just confusedly glared at the mare. “Are you sure you want to come along? Fighting bandits is not the same thing as fighting mutants. They are… ponies.” She shook her head, cluttering the hair even further. “Yes, I am aware. Jingly told us to leave them alone when they were just a nuisance. Now, they have even a whole fortress on the forest, and they keep assaulting lone stalkers. It is about time somepony stood up to them. I know that I may not have all the combat expertise of everypony, but… I want to help. Please, just give me a chance.” I don’t know if it were her needy eyes, or the fuzzy crimson hair, but I had felt sympathetic for the mare and hell knows, I would pretty well need all the damn help my hooves could reach. “Fine, I suppose I could use a friendly hoof. Lielle, right?” She bounced, grinning and squealing. After a while, she stopped the display and eyed me, embarrassed. “Sorry, I don’t get out much… and yes, my name is Lielle, Lielle Crackgiggle.” She shook my hoof excitedly “Nice to meet you… um…” “Boshan, Boshan Hollowbane” I shook my head. “Likewise. Now, do you have a shooter?” She opened her saddlebag and drew a silenced PB1s “Yea, I saved enough to buy plenty of ammo for my little velvet flute” she giggled. I didn’t get it. Well, leave it be. She stored the pistol back again. “Have you packed all supplies and everything you should need?” She drew a hood over her head, and what I thought to be impossible, covering all of her hair. “I am ALWAYS ready. You never know when you’ll need something at hoof on the Zone.” She mused happily. Then, both of us moved to Jinglepocket’s shop. He just had finished attending a customer. “So, you choose for her help… heavens protect you, traveler.” He reached a parchment on a shelf behind him and unfolded into the counter. “Following my scout reports, the bandits built a settlement a few hours from here, overlooking the road to the garbage. If we had dealt with them back then… they still are no match for my group of stalkers, but since they must defend this site, we’re at a stalemate, with the bandits slightly turning the scales in their favor by wasting lone stalkers.” He hoofed at a point on the map. “There is their camp. Beware; they spent a long time fortifying it, to the point that they even have a fixed gun.” “Do you have any idea of how many hostiles we’ll be facing, Jinglepocket?” “Probably seven or eight, not counting their leader. That one… you should not underestimate him, unicorn.” I eyed the elder stallion, awaiting his explanation. “He “rules” the band by sheen fear. Nobody knows from where he came from, but I can state that he is the most evil bandit of the entire Zone. While with all the other crooks you can negotiate or even turn a blind eye to them, this one particular bandit, Kieffer, he is a total psycho. He lived on the Zone for so long, that he lost track of reality. Once in a while, he suffers memory lapses, and when he comes back from them, he cannot remember where he is or who he is, getting to the point of shooting his own acquaintances. The bastard is always armed and dangerous, indifferent about other ponies plight and feared by anypony else who had the misfortune to bump into him.” “If he is so horrible and have absolutely no friends at all, why the bandits hang out with him?” “They do not. The bandits have locked him up on a room, and only release him as a “last resort” offensive method. After he Ponyslaghter any attackers, they just drug him off to jail the monster again.” My blue companion commented at his description. “Sounds like a terrible character. Like a super-meany chicken thief.” I rolled my eyes. That was a severe understatement. ============================== [><]============================= “Ohmygosh! You are on a race against time to survive? You know it sounds just like a video-game plot.” I just kept my gaze at the map. For the last three hours, I had to listen my excessively talkative companion tell the tale of her life. My mind trailed off after the first five minutes, but she didn’t seem to notice. And then it was my turn to tell my tale, as you can imagine, I didn’t spend a quarter of the time she did. “And you have always been a loner?” I asked distractedly. “Weren’t you listening? Ever since I came to the Zone. It is strange, I tried to apply to other factions, but they never answered me. I have been forever a loner so far.” “According to this, they set shop on a clearing up ahead… prepare yourself.” I drew my AK as I said it. After a few steps, the bandit lair was visible. It was basically a ruined down mill, of which they reinforced with salvaged metal plates from vehicles and cut down pines. Blocking the main entrance of the compound, a turned down pink truck, with a machine gun mounted atop it. A bandit sentinel lay near it, lazily playing with his knife. On the front of the truck, a cardboard cutout figure of a purple unicorn mare. From the bullet holes onto it, the bandits had been using it for target practice, and even drawn a pair of mustaches onto the figure, along with a stallion genitalia down below. How lovely. As to improve their décor, they also hang pony skeletons onto the stony walls of the mill. Probably their unlucky victims. I could spot at least three bandits roaming outside of the buildings. I lend the rifle to Lielle, so she could use the scope to see the compound too. After seeing she awkwardly trying to hoof the weapon, I used the TK to keep it steady for her. “Look, look… they have hanged skeletons. Once I heard that zebras hanged scary masks as a welcoming sign. What if all these skeletons mean that the bandits are friendly and right now, they are throwing a Halloween party?” I glanced at my PDA. “Halloween at march?” Then rolled my eyes at my own gullibility. “The odds of they actually being a bunch of loveable partygoers are pretty much the same of striders growing wings.” She let go an orgasmic glee. “Flying bacon…. MMMMMmmmmm” Now I understood Jinglepocket’s advice… although a bit too late. “Just… grab your pistol and sneak up on them. I’ll go by the other side and try to do the same with my knife. With luck, we can take out four or five of them before we are caught, then we can pretty much rifle the survivors down.” She wore the necklace with the pistol, then mouthed it and nodded her smiling head several times. I only wished she didn’t point that thing at me while doing so. She went left while I crawled right, toward the mounted machine gun. I crept real close to the wall, the bandit above still oblivious. I floated my knife… “BOSHAN! I GOT ONE, I GOT ONE!!!” Dammit Lielle! Three and a half seconds after her scream, an alarm soared through the compound. In the shock, I dropped the knife. The machine gun sentinel got into position and began gunning down the mare. BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM… Lielle dived for the trees, but she was pushed by the bullet barrage. She actually got hit by several bullets on her flank. I didn’t know if I was seeing right from that distance or anything, but she didn’t bleed… I wasn’t a doctor, but even that sunrise suit wouldn’t stop the massive bleeding taken by being gunned down by a high-capacity machine gun. Dumbfounded as I was, and without the knife, I bucked off the truck on a desperate attempt to help Lielle. CLANKK!!! The bandit was surprised. He let go the machine gun and mouthed his revolver. Enough time for another buck. CLANKKK !!! This time, he lost his balance atop the truck and fell to the dirt. As he tried to stand back up, I drew the AK and shot him off. RATTLERATTLERATTLE. I entered the main field of the compound, only to find more opposition. TCHUKTCHUCKTCHUCK. BANGBANGBANG. Three bandits were taking cover behind a forge on the middle of the courtyard, wielding shotguns and a pistol. Several crates were scattered around the ground. Lielle appeared from an opening onto the fence, vainly shooting her pistol at the bandits. PLCHUTPLCHUT. It almost made no sound at all, like a little soft melody. This was the reason she called it “velvet flute”. However, she was oblivious that pistols are rather ineffective at medium and long range. I used the provided distraction to fire at them. RATTLERATTLERATTLE One down, two to go. Lielle went through the crossfire and sat beside me, panting heavily. I noticed she had several holes at the flank section of her suit, but no bleeding at all. “Lielle, what the f…” “Later! Shut up and hand me a medkit, stack!” I floated my last blue medkit to her. I needed to remember to buy more of those later on. TCHUKTCHUKTCHUK BANGBANGBANG We moved to another cover, closer to the forge, blazing our guns while doing so. RATTLERATTLERATTLE PLUCHTPLUCHT The last bandit ran away to another trio bunkered behind some crates, he tripped at one of the opened crates while doing so, spilling red cylinders on the ground. Dynamite! The bandits were storing it! “Lielle ! Shoot the box, the box!” PLUCHTPLUCHT BOOOOMMMM !!! That should teach them not to cover behind explosive-filled containers, had they survived. The tripping bandit ran away to the mill, screaming like a maniac. “RELEASE KIEFFER NOW! THEY ARE TOO…” RATTLERATTLERATTLE… The sound of a TRs-301 roared inside the dark recesses of the ruined building, as the burst of bullets pierced the bandit’s head off, interrupting his warning. Then, the gun itself appeared from the darkness, followed by a scarred white unicorn, wearing a well-worn dark trenchcoat. “DEATH TO THE INTERLOPERS!!! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE” he screamed. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE That insane unicorn bulleted nearly everything on his reach. When he finally had to reload, me and my companion tried to fall back. That guy made the ravenous blind dogs I saw two days ago seem like puppies. On the second he noticed us moving away, he dropped his rifle and TK’d dynamite from the boxes, lighting their fuses and floating them toward us. I used all of my magic exploding them mid-air before reaching us or tossing them away. But the bastard was starting to toss several lit dynamites at once. I was having a hard time trying to keep it up with him. BOOOM !!! BOOOOM !!! BOOOOMM !!! “We are doomed if he keeps this up” I said after a particularly close explosion. “I don’t know how long I can handle it. Lielle, run for your li…” Nopony except me there. She wasn’t by my side anymore. The earth pony probably ran away on the first opportunity. Well, although she abandoned me to an ill fate, I found solace on the fact that she would live. The albino unicorn was laughing maniacally, cracking crates open and floating more dynamite cylinders from them RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE… I tried firing at the dynamite while he was moving them, but for each one I exploded, he brought two more! BOOOOMM BOOOOMMM BOOOMM One of the explosives fell directly at my feet. I only had two seconds to look idly at it. BOOOOM The impact threw me on the outer wall of the compound. I couldn’t move a muscle. My hooves, my horn, all aching pain. Kieffer quickly stepped in, smelling a fallen prey. He was standing over me, his butterfly knife drawn. “I love an up-close personal kill, breathe my victim’s desper…” BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM… His body was struck by several bullets, while his face froze forever on an expression that mixed sadistic pleasure and confusion. “Yay. That’s right, chicken thief! Your crimes didn’t go unpunished!” Lielle yelled atop the pink truck, the smoking mounted machinegun close to her. With her help, I stood up again. after I was feeling a bit better, we explored the mill a bit. The ammo crate must be somewhere. On the compound, material for creating dynamite. The bandits were mass-producing the stuff for some reason. As I exanimate the forge, I found some metal scraps, forged specifically to crack locks open. Skeleton keys. I grabbed the three of them. I also picked up Kieffer’s TRs. The weapon was very powerful and dangerous, indeed. But close examination told me that its owner frequently did small repairs to the highly unreliable gun, all that time locked up and nothing else to do… I could see that without that special treatment, this particular weapon’s condition would fall pretty quick. Nevertheless, instead of replacing my AK with it, I stashed the TR to sell it later. I also recovered my trusty knife, standing lonely on the cold ground. Then I went to explore inside the mill. Lielle was busy thoroughly looting the bandit’s bodies and opening every crate to spy on its contents. She ended up with a pile of meds, foodstuffs and bullets. I used my TK to light a torch on the forge to illuminate the dark building. On the main floor, a stairway to above and a huge opened metal door. Kieffer’s room. As I predicted, it was filled with materials for weapon repairing. On the ceiling, a hole covered by a black blanket. This was probably the way that the other bandits devised to feed him without having direct contact with Kieffer. The walls were thoroughly clawed and painted with coal. The bandit “leader” liked to exercise the fine art of drawing violent scenes, with an especially gory one of a pegasus munching a pile of brains being his “masterpiece”. My stomach revolved at the sight, and I looked around for someplace to sit… then I found it. The crate of ammo. It was still intact and marked with the military crest. The bandits descended it with a rope, as a “gift” to Kieffer. I floated it out to the main hall and dropped by it while I climbed upside. There, I found a makeshift office. On the table, several notes and files that confirmed that the bandits had been selling dynamite to representatives from the garbage. “So, something interesting here?” The blue pony started to poke around every corner of the room, eventually finding a lockbox. She then drew some bobby pins from her hair and started working on the lock. “Don’t worry; I know exactly what I am doing.” In five minutes, she broke twelve pins. However, Lielle was still adamant on prying it open. I floated one of the skeleton keys and handed over to her. “Here, try with this.” “Yea right, as if it would work simple as…” Click ! She widened her eyes. “OHMYOHMY…!” Then, after opening the lid, her face was one of dire disappointment. “Artifacts ? artifacts ? why the hell would somepony use this nicely ornamented box to store artifacts ? why can’t I find some muffins or banana bread ? bandits have no sense of value at all…” She tossed the two artifacts to me, a red mishap thingy and a crystallized ball with spikes. “Are you sure you don’t want them, Lielle? I mean, they should be worth…” “Yes, I am sure. I have no use for them. Although this is a rather nice lockbox… I will keep it.” I shrugged and levitated both artifacts to my saddlebags ============================== [><]============================= “And when I shot at the crates, they’ve blown up! And then, they blew up again!” Jinglepocket was rather amused at the redheaded pony’s boasting. At first he was incredulous, but after I showed him the crate of ammo, all his doubts waned. My face was deep under a plate filled of smoked sausages; the burner was bought with the nice money that the two artifacts and Kieffer’s rifle yielded. I also bought a few medkits. “I should talk to the Mole about our success.” Jinglepocket countered. “Let me do it, Bosh. It is the least I could do, since the bandits won’t be a problem for a while. Also, leave the crate to me. I’ll strike a deal with the military, but it will take a while to do so. Probably around two or three hours until we can reach terms of agreement and the railroad bridge is opened again.” Lielle made an irksome face. “TWO or THREE hours? That’s an eternity… what are we supposed to do, just wait here? I had enough of standing around.” Jinglepocket gave us a wry smile. “If you must… then I have a little breadcrumb mission for stalkers.” The mare’s smile widened. “It is about rampaging bloodsuckers ? Or recovering an ultra-rare-one-of-a-kind artifact? Or bringing a sample of lunar soil? Oh, oh… I know… you want us to bake a boar liver pie!” The stallion muffled his laughter and said “although I am aware that these are some really nice options, the mission I have to offer is somewhat less extreme. It is simple, really. After the bandits overtook most of the garbage, anypony wanting to go deeper onto the Zone needed to deal with them someway. But my stalkers have found a tunnel to the dark valley, and that increased our cartographic options. It is the railroad east tunnel, and we had been using it for quite a while. Until after the last blowout, that’s when a strange anomaly appeared on the surroundings of the tunnel. What I need you guys to do is map a secure route into the tunnel for us.” “Just this, draw a dumb map? I can’t believe you’re paying us to do this.” My companion scoffed “The challenge of it isn’t much about drawing the map, but surviving the anomaly. Had it been easy, my stalkers would had done it some time ago” I looked at my companion. She simply told: “are you up for it, Boshie?” I smiled at her. “Let’s take it.” “Great. Take this parchment and quill for the quest, meet me when the job is done. So, my friends, I guess I’ll leave you to finish your meal.” Jinglepocket said. As I eyed him trotting back to his stall, I remembered something. “Lielle, do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” The blue pony’s eyes widened with curiosity, and she blushed a bit. “No, not at all…” “I couldn’t help but notice, that you bore being shot by a 300 bullet/min machinegun and also crossed the gunfire breakout between the bandits…” “So what? Half of all the people on this room did the same at some point of their lives…” My patience dwindled quickly… “BUT YOU DIDN’T EVEN FREAKIN’ BLEED, HOW IS THAT EVEN LOGICALLY POSSIBLE?” She just laughed at my rage. “Look a bit closer…” I looked at her bullet wounds. Yes, she had several holes on her sunrise suit, but the strangest thing is that the blood remained in the surface of the wound, as if an invisible barrier held it. “Are you even a pony?” She laughed again. “Silly… my glass boulder does it, not me.” With those words, she opened her belt pack and removed a stone from it, it was transparent. An artifact. “They call it mica, silly name. It stops all kinds of bleeding. It is really nice because I save a lot on bandages.” I sat there speechless… an artifact could be this powerful? “Hey, wanna see something really cool?” She smirked Without waiting for my answer, Lielle drew the artifact away from her and instantly her wounds begun to sprinkle loads of blood onto the air. Then she moved the artifact close to her again and the bleeding stopped. It was mind-blowing! Then, she did the same operation again, several times on a quick succession. Drops of blood quickly tinged everything on a two meter radius, she looked like a broken fountain, sprinkling blood and stopping. On an entire unrelated note, six stalkers sitting near us suddenly lost their appetite. After a while, she stopped it. Lielle was rather dazed, due to having spent around two liters of blood. “Pretty neat, right? My record is 63 times before fainting from blood loss.” I ordered vodka. I guess I deserved one after putting up with being washed by red globules. ============================== [><]============================= “Are we there yet?” “You asked five minutes ago…” “And?” “No, we are not. Do you see any tunnel?” We had been following the railroad trail an hour; the mountains blocked our access to the south of the cordon. After a sharp turn on the railroad, the tunnel was visible. All around it, a rather large patch of green moss. It was sicker than the cordon’s vegetation, several vines and roots were exposed and even four or five weird fruit-filled trees. Bodies were also decomposing onto the vegetation. Not a good sign. I approached the patch and drew a bolt. I tossed it and it landed onto the moss. Nothing happened. I threw four more for good measure. Still nothing. My Geiger counter was also quiet. Whenever… I entered the patch, holding the quill and parchment that Jinglepocket gave us. I was going to draw the map, since if I let Lielle do it, she’d probably draw it upside down, make it a 1:1 scale map or even draw the equestrian globe and point a tiny spot – there - , as the path that we were asked to draw. And also because she was an earth pony, unable to use telekinesis. So, she just followed me. Tchklink… “OW! Why did you do that?” “Do what?” “Don’t feign innocence. You threw a bolt on me.” “I did not. You should look at where you’re going, Bosh” I was completely sure that she did it, but more important matters were at hand… Tchklink… “AUCH! You are the one tossing bolts, you telekinesis-yielding bully!” “I couldn’t do it. I am holding the parchment and quill already. You are just trying to make me feel sorry for you, in the hopes I forget about the bolt YOU threw on me.” “I do not have any bolts at all, smartass.” “Come and say that to my face, you backstabbing bolt-throwing mare” She lifted her front hooves, ready to move, and then fell on the ground. “My backhooves, I am trapped!” Roots entangled the earth pony’s backhooves, holding her tightly. Before I could do any gesture to help her, a bark-encased limb ripped off the map from my telekinetic field. The tree… IT WAS ALIVE! The trunk morphed into an evil face, as the braches quickly removed apples from each other and tossed them at me. Doesn’t look so bad, right? But these apples were filled with several spiky spores, released when the fruit shattered. The evil creature caught me on surprise and shattered one of the fruits on my back. It instantly begun to pinch, then the feeling grew to outright pain. I rolled on the moss in a desperate attempt to put off the spores. A terrible idea, since the roots also came to life and tried to entangle me. I quickly bucked them off and rushed to Lielle, the other three trees came to life as well, and started tossing spore-filled fruits at us too. I drew my knife, using it to free the mare from the roots. Then, I levitated my AK. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE… The monsters simply used their branches to defend themselves, and the few bullets that crossed them looked like mere filly scratches on the tough bark. Lielle also drew her silenced pistol, shooting the tress to no avail. Plucht plucht… One of the braches near the silver-eyed mare tried to claw her head off, but she noticed quick enough to duck. The tree, however, had taken her pistol off. With the firearm on its braches, the monster used another branch to pick up a rock and beat the hell out of the “velvet flute”. After a few minutes of beatings, the weapon was trashed. “YOU MEANIE! IF I EVER FIND YOUR PARENTS, I AM GOING TO TRIM THEM REAL GOOD!” RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE… I emptied two or three clips, but the tree wasn’t even barely damaged! How the heck I am going to fight these things? “BOSHAN, STOP SCREWING AROUND! CUT THEIR LIMBS OFF, GO FOR THE BRANCHES!” Go for… how could I be so stupid not to think of this before? I dropped my AK onto the mud and grabbed my knife, floating it to the tree’s bark-coated appendages. In a few moments, I cut off all of the branches from the tree. After I did it, it just stood there immobile, making silly faces. Then, I did the same to the other trees. Now that they couldn’t hurl anything at all, they seemed pretty harmless. I even carved some arrows pointing to the tunnel on their bark, just for the sadistic pleasure of seeing their pain-impregnated faces as I did so. “So, the mystery is solved. I guess some gasoline and matches could finish with the trunks and prevent them from growing more branches…” My phrase was cut dead when I saw Lielle moaning over the broken weapon. It was smashed beyond repair. I didn’t really know why she had given such an importance to a cheap pistol… “My poor little velvet flute… may you rest in peace” She dug a hole onto the patch and buried the gun. “Aren’t we feeling a bit too dramatic today?” I remarked “It was a gift from a dear friend” Me and my stupid mouth… I turned away and finished drawing the safe route to the tunnel. Now it was quite easy, really. The only thing to avoid were the constraining roots. Our way back to the stalker camp was filled with silence. I had to cut the ice. “Sorry about it, Lielle… I didn’t know” “It is okay, Boshan. It wasn’t your fault. It is just the velvet flute reminded me about the joy of sharing gifts and everything.” I pondered at her phrase. Sharing… it is indeed an almost unheard thing on the Zone. Then, I stopped on my tracks. “Since you need a gun and everything, I guess there is no harm if I give you one as a gift.” The mare quickly refused. “Oh no, Boshan, I could never accept your AK, it is your personal weapon…” I drew another weapon from my saddlebags. The throat needler. It was the only weapon I had (aside from the pistol and knife) that could be yielded by anypony who were not a unicorn without the need for a harness mechanism. “What is this?” “Well… it is a stakethrower, yes. It fires railroad spikes. See this lever up here? You can use it to shoot. No trigger at all.” “Where did you even got a weapon like this?” “A friend of mine did it, long story, but it didn’t really suit me.” She was still suspicious. I put my best impression. “This weapon fires stakes, it ties limbs to the wall, but wait, it does more…” Her eyes widened. “More? What do you mean by more?” I gave my most charismatic smile and said: “Find it out by yourself” She joyfully took the weapon and pushed the lever. Choooo! A stake hit the rocky wall of the mountain “It sounds like a locomotive! OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH. Thankyou!!!” She smiled profusely. “I am calling it ChooChoo !!!” ============================== [><]============================= “Safe and sound, I see, and with a friend…” That apple-scented atmosphere still nauseated me. We were lucky of being able to reach the rookie village within daylight, after stopping at the stalker camp to redeem our reward. Thankfully, my funds were now enough for an extended raid deeper onto the Zone. “Well, you held your end of the deal, stalker, and so should I.” The brown unicorn laid some paper money onto the counter. Exactly 500 bits. I figured that it would be useless to argue with the Mole, and that I was actually fortunate that he was paying me at all… “About your buddy, I heard that the bandits at the garbage dug up a PDA with his name on it. If you want to know about the whereabouts of this Searinor, your best bet is to deal with the crooks.” “Hey, what is this?” My companion was pushing her hoof onto the Mole’s crazy eye, coming closer and closer… “Stop it! It is very very frail, it is a magic eye. Costs more than an upgraded SVD” “You were born with only one eye?” The trader was starting to get irritated with the blue pony. “No, my natural eye was shot off. A stupid customer… let’s just say that he won’t be buying anything… ever again. As a result, I had to save loads of bits to buy this half-assed replacement” “Why you didn’t buy another one to be symmetrical? This way it is just really weird, you look like a zombie” “Get out, OUT! Take that foulmouthed pony with you, unicorn. One more minute and I am going to lose it.” As we climbed the stairs back up to the surface, the trader’s last words echoed on the chamber. “Good ponyhuntin’ stalker” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- bestiary #/filenam – Treant #/filedescript – Thought by many to be a drunken stalker tale, treants are described as trees corrupted by the Zone’s influence, infused with mutative characteristics that enabled them to be “aware” of their surroundings and even mimic some degree of intelligence, but not enough to develop the capacity of speech. Like almost any wildlife creature of the Zone, treants are regarded as a very dangerous threat, counting with several formidable abilities, such as a very tough bark, sharp branches capable of throwing projectiles and the capacity to seem a normal tree to trick stalkers and slash them with their branches. Treants reproduce through spores found on their fruits. The most important thing when facing one of them is that conventional firearms are highly ineffective against their natural armor. It is advised to use flame-throwing firearms or explosives to deal with the creatures. Like normal trees, treants cannot move, so running away is also an effective strategy. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	5	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-01-19T23:32:18+00:00	2012-01-19T23:32:18+00:00	1,765	CP. IV: One pony’s trash… “There are two types of criminal scum out there. The ones who are simple-minded thugs will instantly bullet you down and take your possessions, while the serious ones will only do so after submitting your hooves to a lifetime of forced labor” “I still wonder why you want to keep up with me…” “Well, so far I had a blast. And besides, you know you wouldn’t last long without my help” I skeptically shook my head. The earth pony surely had an outgoing vision of live, even while on a land scarred by all kinds of biomagical-spawned horrors and whatnot dangerous features. One would wonder about her sanity… I stuffed the doubts onto the back of my mind. If she was happy to tag along for the ride, well, then there was no problem at all. I just needed to verify if she was sure of what I was going to attempt “You realize that I’m going to try to breach through the NPP, do you? The most hazardous, dangerous, mutant-filled, anomaly-encrusted, blowout-spawning area of the Zone?” “You forgot about the tarks, mercs, bandits, military and other kind of territoralist hostiles that set up shop along the way to it.” Yeah, do that. Spill my complete ignorance about the Zone, right here, all over my face… “And… gentlepony, I present you… the garbage! OOOHHH” I climbed the hill, reaching over the smirking pony. The garbage’s landscape pretty much summed up to it’s namesake. Compromising huge piles of… garbage, what more? True mountains of metal scraps, broken energy towers, dirt, cement tubes, vehicles, construction materials, broken crates… each pile looked like an amalgamation of every ancient discarded crap of Equestria, but the kitchen sink. I even spotted glimpses of anomalies atop them. Onto the base of the nearest pile, stalkers were digging through, under the watchful eye of three trenchcoated bandits. A bit southwest, more bandits, these ones guarding a vehicle park. Choppers, pegasus war chariots, civilian carriages, snow ploughs… all of these bore the weight of years of rust and abandon. Several stalkers were held chained to them, their worn and dirty hooves revealed their fate under the bandits’ control. Most of the slaves were sub-nurtured, and eyed their jailors apprehensively. One of the bandits was sorting out a pile of scavenged goods. “I heard that after the accident, the monarchy pretty much discarded every equipment used by their evac teams. They weren’t willing to risk lugging around radioactive gear, so they just dumped it away into the piles. I bet there are all kinds of cool stuff under these piles, just slightly tainted. Such a waste.” Without the scope, she couldn’t spot the bandits and their workforce. I just nodded while eyeing over one of the slaves, this one wearing an orange jumpsuit with a curtain helmet. He was climbing up the garbage pile, probably to get the best tidbits of loot for the bandits. The suit wasn’t a sign of the bandits concern for their subject’s welfare; I thought, but instead, their way to safeguard themselves against the stalker dying BEFORE handing over the loot to them. “I guess we can check them later…” I said to my companion To the west, a few more piles stretching onto the landscape and a small swamp. The road coming from the Cordon continued in, also crossing the middle of the garbage and splitting the area in two sides. Further west, a dense forest enclosed its mysteries onto large bushes and thick-leaved trees. Thankfully, we had deviated from the road. It was fortunate because the bandits held an entryway checkpoint, used to harass rookies coming from the Cordon. But in order to proceed further into the garbage, we had to come across it. I knew that we two were able to deal with this group of thugs; after all, I and Lielle already did a pretty good job on the gang that encroached the Cordon. However, the Mole said I had to deal with their leader if I wanted to get Searinor’s PDA. Until then, I’d dare not further compromise my situation by earning their hatred, which meant that using the strategy that worked well so far (gunning down bandits) was out of the question for now. We only faced ignorant trigger-happy grunts. The bandits that held the garbage were different. I spotted congruencies onto their suits and some kind of pattern on their shoulderpads (too far to actually discern it), which indicated some kind of organized hierarchy, instead of the misshapen and patched armor wore by the renegade swamp raiders, these certainly indicating their rather (poor) economical situation and the individuality of each “member” of a loosely held group only unified on the intent of scavenging the marshlands. Bottom line, shit would fuck up pretty quick if we gone guns blazing at the bandits. “Lielle, this place is crawling with bandits. We need to proceed with caution,” I levitated the scope at he and held it, aiming at the bandit checkpoint and then at the concentration camp. “You remember what the Mole said, right? We have to use diplomacy with these bandits. Blend in and acquire the PDA. And this means no shooting at them, at least, not for now.” “The mad-eye pointed directions to the bandits’ boss?” I shook my head. “Looks like we’ll have to ask around…” “We can’t go like this. The bandits hate other stalkers, they will hold us as slaves like those fellas.” “I know. I was thinking about jumping on a few of them to steal their black jackets and baklavas. But if half a dozen bandits suddenly turn up dead, they will be suspicious and on the lookout for spies, also, neither I, nor you, know how to make a good bandit impression.” “And how hard it is to perform a good bandit impression? You just dye your clothes black; make a grim face, act tough, bitchslap two or three stalkers and slug down five vodka bottles on a row. Betcha the last one will be easy as pie for you.” I frowned at her, remembering that I still had a bottle at my saddlebag. “Is there ANY faction that they are not currently at war with?” “hmm… freedomers treat them with contempt, shooting them at times. Dutyers, hate them due to their extortion of stalkers for personal gain, and stalkers, due to them… being bandits. No, they are pretty much hated by everyone. She held her chin, thoughtfully, then erupted into smiles. “Mercs! That’s it! Every faction on the zone stumbles out with unpleasant jobs that need to be done; even the bandits have standards in that matter. That’s where mercs come in!” “I thought mercs were hired grunts from big shots outside the Zone, being held by contract to them.” “Those are full-time mercs. The kind I am speaking about are common, but combat-experienced stalkers who run around the Zone, offering their specialized workforce to anypony who can pay them. They usually do this until they arrange enough cash to buy a specific artifact or suit, hence the part-time, since mercwork isn’t their lifestyle like the first kind” “So, it is decided. Let’s disguise as mercs and ask the bandits for a job. When they direct us to their leader, we’ll buy off the PDA from him. By the way, how part-time mercs look like? Do they have a special armor, symbol or anything?” “Nah… they wear normal stalker armor, like you and me, only with a slight difference…” “Which is?” “Dirt, scratches, mud, dried blood, filth in general… all stalkers end up encrusted with these, but mercs… due to the nature of their jobs, they are especially… grime.” “So, just rolling on the earth will suffice it?” “If you spent a whole week doing it… bring up the scope again, I think I have an idea…” I brought it to her eyes. “Right… Right… there, hold it.” She backed away and I peered through it. The swamp. “I don’t see how strolling through there will help.” “A bath. We’ll be coated with murky water, dirt, leaves and everything else, just like real mercs.” “Along with enough radiation to make you and me look like giant fireflies, in case you forgot about that little detail…” “Why don’t you use your artifact to vent it down, then?” She laid down her saddlebag and brought up the artifact I acquired at the factory, the lava-colored ball. “It is called “fireball”. When you hold it, your body dumps radiation through sweat, generated due to the artifact’s heat field, purging it from the organism. But the process also stresses down your moving apparatus, slowing you down.” “Seems it could work… wait a moment there….why you have my artifact at you? Have you been rummaging at my packs last night?” She smiled nervously. “Er… you dropped it. I was just storing the artifact for you, I mean, somepony could had picked it up and taken for himself had I left it there…” She offered the crimson-colored stone, which I promptly took. ============================== [><]============================= Crossing the road and sneaking up from the bandits guarding the Cordon barrier, had been quite simple. We just waited for a distraction, provided by a bunch of striders wandering a bit too far from the Cordon. The bandits quickly busied themselves at shooting the mutants. “Shooting” used as in quite a broad term. They basically did noise and scared them off than actually hitting something, possibly due to being drunk. Crawling unnoticed behind them has proved to be filly-level difficult. Just a quick walk later and we reached the small swamp. It protuberated from the garbage landscape like an oozing wound, holding dark stagnant puddles of radioactive water. Lielle was holding the Geiger counter on her mouth, while I levitated the bolts to scope the area for anomalies. Only some springboards were triggered so far. At each water-filled puddle, the mare approached the counter to check up the radiation level. We were looking for a relatively clean one that would allow us to bathe in for a few minutes without risking major radiation sickness. Eventually, the blue pony came to a halt. Beep……………………………Beep……………………………..Beep……… “This one, Boshan! It has only slight traces of radiation!” I grabbed the counter, checking out the level. It was indeed acceptable. Crunching some numbers, I figured out we had forty minutes to enjoy the water without being sick, considering that the suits would partially absorb the radiation. After setting the PDA to ring after 30 minutes, for extra safety, I stripped off the saddlebags, leaving the fireball and my rifle atop them. I slowly entered the puddle, as the water quickly deepened to my chest level, soaking my barding in so. The puddle was quite deep on the middle, to the point I couldn’t stand onto it. Apart from the ingrained radiation being bad for my body cells, the water was quite nice and warm. After moments swimming in circles, I dived into the deep water. The bottom of the puddle was covered in mud, aquatic vegetation and sand. Returning to the surface, I yelled at the mare. “Lielle, the water is great. Aren’t you coming?” “In a minute” She left her saddlebag beside mine, backed off a few meters and dashed off to the puddle, screaming. “Cannonball!” TCHWAAA! She was instantly soaked to the bone, also soaking me further in the process. The redheaded mare swam around, diving into the deep water as well, and returning with some mud. She plunged her face onto it and used her hoof to spill all around her visage. “How do I look?” “Heinous, mercmare.” I laughed. “At least it is good for my skin. You should serve yourself with some too, Boshan. Think of it like a free spa treatment served on a hot tub.” So I dove again, grabbing my own mud and hoofed it all around my face. I don’t know if she was kidding or not, but the feel of the wet mud all over my face, along with the lukewarm water was somewhat relaxing. I held the back of my head with the hooves, and laid my body belly upside floating onto the puddle. In instants, my eyes closed. “We should definitely do this again, don’t you t…” SBLOSH! Mud coated through my hair and some even went to my ears. Lielle was laughing herself out. It wasn’t fair. She caught me by surprise! I dived, returning with batches of mud. “Oh, it IS on.” “Bring it” I threw an entire barrage of mudballs at her, but she either dodged or dived, expertly avoiding them. On the last dive, she returned with another mudball, flinging it directly at me. This time, I was fast enough to be able to hold it mid-air with the telekinesis. “Unicorn power!” BLLLBLBLBLBLBLBLLLLBLBLLLLSH!! SBLOSH! Two to zero! And even my tongue was dirty now! I had to turn the tables of this game… I dived at the depths again. “Oh… think you can get away like this?” She hoofed the water surface and dived her face while searching for me, exactly what I expected. I swam around the redheaded mare, bumping my body onto the dirt at the depths on purpose. Then, I ascended and held her with a tight hug. My entire body was covered with mud, leaves and even branches hanged from it. Rolling around the deep bottom caused me to appear like some kind of swamp creature coming from a corny terror movie. With the hug, I dropped pounds of the mud directly over her head, marring her crimson hair and undoing her hairstyle. She had such long highlights… “Puny pony… thought you could outsmart the… mud monster?” I turned over her to face me, the mare’s face broke in laughter. “Oh my… woe is me. now that you immobilized my frail hooves, I can only imagine what kind of terrible torture you will submit me to…” “Indeed. It shall be…” I approached my muddy and branched face to hers. “Tickling until submission!” And I started to work my hooves at her armpits. “No… hahahahahahahahahahahaha….hahahahahahha… I’m very tickl…hahahahahah…plea….hahahhahahaha” And she broke free, but I still pursued and my hooves reached her again, my disguise having dissolved into the water. “Hahahahahahha… stop it, Bos….hahahahhaha…hahhahahaha” Then, I held Lielle’s hooves. She was still snickering from the “torture”. Maybe it was her vivid eyes, or her charming laugh, but at that particular moment, being covered in mud, leaves and radioactive water, she seemed the most beautiful mare in Equestria, or so my own eyes told me. We just stood still at that very moment, my hooves gently holding her back and her penetrating silvery gaze upon me. “You still have a bit of dirt over her…” She hoofed at my nose, then brushed her own muzzle against it, wiping it clean. It was weird… but I liked it. Her face assumed a crimson tinge, while my own felt like the living flame from a burner anomaly. TRINGGGGGGG!!!!! The PDA sounded, announcing that 30 minutes had elapsed. I glared at it, then gestured to Lielle to leave the water. She seemed a bit disgruntled at the interruption, but nevertheless, followed me. Radiation sickness wasn’t a kidding matter. I dissolved off most of the mud on the water, only leaving some to dry on my face. I also used a branch to scratch my own skin and damage my barding, in order to improve the disguise, while Lielle did as well. I picked up my saddlebags and gravitated the fireball artifact close to my chest. It instantly started to work out, generating an aura of pleasant warmth, while also numbing my hooves a bit, forcing me to walk at an slower pace. My friend picked up her luggage and I set the PDA’s alarm to sound at each four minutes. Following the supposition that the bandits were using their slaves to work at the base of each pile at the garbage, we set our course to the nearest one, directly north. I could spot the garbage pile from there, but no bandits were at sight. Probably if we revolved around it, we’d stumble onto them. “So… are you going to stick with this hairstyle now?” Lielle left her long crimson highlights run free, instead of trying to lock them again onto the large “burner-cloud” hairstyle. She softly ran her azure hooves though the muddled highlights. “I guess so. It was a pain to hold it upside straight, and this new one suits…” Tring! I handed the fireball over to her, no longer enjoying it’s warmth, but in turn, unhindering my hooves. “I wonder what the bandits are after…” I voiced. “to hold an entire scavenging operation just for metal scraps…” “Artifacts, what more? Everypony on the Zone is so freaking obsessed with them…” “And you don’t?” “I admit, they are quite handy and everything, but the depths of depravity or insanity descended by some ponies to get their hooves on them, are simply…” BLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANG “Hide!” We rushed to take cover behind a rock. After moments of silence, she peeked from it, trying to figure out where the gunshot came from Tring! She rolled the lava-colored stone to me. “I don’t see anything. They probably aren’t after us…” I rose my head to spy as well… BLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANG The shots came from a valley nearby. Cautiously, the mare and I moved cover from cover to it. Peeking from above, sickly bushes and sprawling twisted trees could be seen. Right on the middle of it, numerous bodies of blind dogs and three stalkers. I had never seen somepony like them before. these ones were wearing a complex suit, composed of a tactical helmet and gasmask, numerous Kevlar fillings and composite plates, an incycle breathing system and strange hydraulics stretching from an external frame of the suit. All of this painted in red and black. They also sported a crosshair symbol at their shoulderpads, and without exception, all of them were lugging around huge machineguns mounted into their suits. All in all, they looked like goddamn living tanks; they were two unicorns and one earth pony. “Duty” Lielle whispered to me. “Probably hunting mutants. They are quite away from their home…” Using machine guns originally intended to be assembled into tanks just to kill dogs seemed like an awful lot of overkill. “Are they hostile?” “Not really, if you don’t get on their hooves… come on, let’s be neighborly” She moved from the cover and started to go down onto the valley… SPLUCHT! The sniper rifle soared, hitting a hoof of one of the unicorn dutyers. I quickly grasped Lielle back to the cover. In instants, another shot sounded. The sniper was at the garbage pile, ducking behind a fort made of several sofas. SPLUCHT! Another hoof of the same unicorn was hit this time. The dutyer was unable to move, having two crippled legs and his suit hindered him. His companions started to preheat their machineguns, but before they could fire, a third shot came from the fort. KAPOWWW! This one hit straight at the unicorn’s visor. Since he was already immobilized, it was an easy victim. The sniper probably had experience in fighting stalkers clad in that armor, having used a more powerful rifle to snipe off the dutyer at his weak spot. “Those who live by the AK, die by the AK. Ya got that, Duty?” “Freedom scum! You will pay for this cowardice!” The dutyers “rushed” (as much as their hefty suits allowed them…) to the pile, laying down a hail of lead at the attackers. The two groups exchanged fire, with neither one being able to cause damage. The dutyers, because they were too far away and because machineguns aren’t known for their accuracy, while the freedomers couldn’t aim at moving targets with accuracy while a rain of bullets threatened them. The remaining unicorn dutyer flinged a grenade at the pile, landing it on a mound of dirt directly above the makeshift Freedom bunker. BOOM! The landslide fell upon the sofa fort, forcing the freedomers to abandon it. there were five of them, and they wore green fleck suits. Unlike the dutyers, their armor allowed them to move with ease. But without the resilience of a true combat armor, two of the freedomers weren’t able to make it to the second cover. “Why they started fighting? There wasn’t anything at stake…” “Freedom and Duty are ach-nemesis. They are engaged on a full scale war for quite some time.” “Isn’t this bad for the other stalkers safety?” Tring! I hoofed the artifact to her. “They pretty much don’t bother with us, saving their bullets for each other.” I lifted the scope to examine the freedomer group. It was composed of one unicorn and two pegasai. Their suit had a distinct symbol at the shoulderpad, a green boar head with the jaw opened, with the word “воля” below it. SPLUCHT! The vintorez round hit the solid rock, missing me by inches. “You said they wouldn’t bother with us!” “What would YOU do if a stranger pointed a gun at you during a gunfire? RUN!” Now, the two factions attempted to shoot each other and us as well. Lielle and I sprinted away from them as quickly as we could. “Too much for being neighborly…” “They are quite harmless when dealt separately… I think both of them mistook us as members of the other faction or as bandits” “What gives you this idea?” I mocked as machinegun rounds whistled close Some meters later, I sat down my back at a rusty bulldozer. Lielle was panting too. She threw the fireball to me and I stored it at the saddlebag. We were quite clean of radiation now to further need it. Nopony chased us. I guess they were too damn bent on annihilating each other to actually care about us. “Phew! Are faction hatreds always so intense?” We resumed our pace around the pile She shrugged. “I had never actually seen a conflict of this magnitude between them; after all, the emissaries they sent to the cordon were rather polite, albeit snide, at each other. I guess the loners acted as a barrier for further hostilities, you know, since neither faction wanted to make a bad impression for potential members.” I nodded. A little love and tolerance would go a long way… “Listen, stalker cuntfuckers, this is our camp. So why don’t you two dumbasses piss off before shit happens?” I floated the PDA’s radio, while eyeing the bandit camp. It was basically a hole onto the base of the pile, bunkered at all sides. Two bandits, a purple earth pony wearing a standard Kevlar jacket, a white gas mask and a spiked collar, and a unicorn with a dirty white trenchcoat with black patterns, were glaring at us. Three more supervised their loner slaves. “Sorry bro, just passing by. We are just looking for a job. Got no clue where to go…” The earth pony operating the radio whispered something to the trenchcoated unicorn. The unicorn levitated a binoculars and examinated us. After he was satisfied, he sat it down and said something to the earth pony. His response on the radio came in a few moments. “Ok mercs, you may approach us. But try anything funny and we’ll be having your asses for dinner. By the way, the gunfire sounds a while ago, those were yours?” “No pal. It was a gunshot between Duty and Freedom. We just got caught on the middle of it.” He let go the radio, I still heard the bandit mumbling “freakin’ pigs and jarheads, naggin’ our turf.” While he went again to his unicorn friend. Up close, the camp was just a provisional base of operations. Almost everything was already packed for quick disassembly in the case they needed to move out. I was willing to bet that they moved it every time they found out that someplace else on the pile yielded more loot. We went to greet the two sentinel bandits. they were lazily spread on their chairs, drinking sips of vodka while eyeing us and keeping their guns pointed at us. The bandit symbol, a white pony skull on a black crest, was visible at their shoulderpads. “So… what’s the news around these parts?” I nervously tried to break the ice. “News? Are you fucking serious, merc? What could possibly change on the Zone? Same shit, different day. Suckers perish at anomalies, we get our swag from pussy scavengers, pigs and jarheads duke it out on each other…” “And loser wannabes come around asking for directions.” The trenchcoated unicorn completed. “Which leads us to the question, merc. Why should we help you?” I poked at my saddlebags and handed him a handful of bills. “That’s more like it…” he said while counting the bits. “Head northwest, following the road and you will end up hitting the train hangar. Greyhoof is always looking for new maggots willing to break a leg or two in exchange for jack shit…” ============================== [><]============================= The hangar was an enormous decayed, but sturdy structure. The metal walls reinforced with scraps, train cars were used for housing, a sentinel tower that ascended at the entrance and an external brick wall pretty much summed up the base. Bandits that were guarding the entrance didn’t seem bothered with our presence. Looks like the disguise was working well.Amongst the guards, a charcoal earth pony mare was posed near an intercom, sleeping with her head curled. A distinct stench of vodka came from her. Also, her cutie mark was (unsurprisingly) a bottle of the heavenly drink. As we entered the hangar directly, I noted that there was more to the base to the right, what looked like a fueling area for the trains. But I was in kind of a hurry to wrap up the job to check it out. Finding the bandit leader wasn’t so difficult, the big signs at a train cart saying “applications taken here” and the misspelled “BAWS” were dead giveaways. This cart was furnished, having a box filled with food at a corner, a map on the wall, a shelf at which a bunch of brown fur rested upon a orange radsuit at the bottom. The bandit leader was at a chair, eyeing some papers atop his desk. A box full of electronic scraps was by his side and so it was an intercom at the wall. Greyhoof himself was wearing one of those combat armors we saw the dutyers using. Only that his one was black-colored, had two red-colored gas masks (which I noticed, came from Duty’s own combat armors) for shoulderpads, and that the suit also covered his wings, having two SGi 5k’s inbuilt at each wing. How he actually fired them, it was beyond me. The suit probably had some kind of internal trigger. Also, the symbol of his faction was painted on the left side of his own black-colored tactical helmet. That composed a very fearsome picture… it was best to just buy the damn PDA and leave the bandits to their own rather than stick around. “I told you suckers not to interrupt…” He cut off when he eyed us… I guess he was expecting someone else. The bandit pushed a button at the intercom “Katherine! Wake up, you worthless bum! You were supposed to keep me posted about visitors!” Mumbled sounds came as an answer. Greyhoof turned to us. “Mercs, I see… are you two looking to score some swag?” “Actually, we are here to buy something from you. A PDA from a stalker named Searinor.” Greyhoof hoofed onto his crate, bringing up a PDA. “You’re in luck. I was about to dismantle this useless thing for spare parts… I guess you can have it…” I extended my hoofs expectantly “For four thousand bits” Holy shit! That was roughly eight times the price of a useful piece of information! “This is ridiculous! We don’t have that much money. Didn’t you just say it was trash?” “Well, if you want it so much, then it must be valuable. Four thousand is my price…. Hey, leave him alone!” Lielle was almost reaching the patch of fur, when it sprang to life. The bloated dog gave two barks at the mare, making her step back. “Down boy…” Greyhoof patted his pet’s head, and it laid down again over the radsuit. “You have a pseudo for pet? Aren’t these dangerous?” she asked “Most of them… although Anon here is vegetarian. We found him while scavenging a farmhouse; the poor thing was trapped on a cellar and lived by eating apples stocked in there. Nevertheless, my boys and I picked him up, nurtured and nursed him back to health and trained him. He was quite useful as a sentinel for the presence of other mutants, barking off when he catches their scent nearby. Although now Anon is quite indisposed… this state is lasting more or less one month, with slow recovery. So, keep your hooves off my dog, lady. He doesn’t need your germs…” A very offended Lielle stood by my side, looking at the dog with contempt. “Anon… that’s a strange name for a pseudodog.” I said “It was the only legible word on his collar, anon with a faded suffix… Whistlebone, my commander, told me it was possible that the tag was inverted, claiming that the dog’s name was a faded off prefix completed by “nona”. Nonsense… that’s a female’s name, and I’m sure that Anon is male.” “How the heck do you know how to differentiate between a mutant dog ma…” I stuffed my hoof at her mouth. While I had the same question on my mind, I’d rather not ask it. The images on my mind were disturbing enough… “Greyhoof, there isn’t really anything we can do to lower your price? We have a few goods…” “How much cash do you have on you, merc?” “Two thousand and five hundred bits…” He gave a quick gaze at the papers on his desk “Well… since I’m feeling especially generous today, I’m willing to cut the price on half the amount… if you do a service for me.” What a douchebag! He was exploiting my need to his own ends… screw it, this was the only way to get the PDA without confronting an armor-clad bandit backed up by a whole bandit clan. “What kind of service are we speaking about?” “Something rather simple really… if you don’t mind accompanying me, Anon needs to stretch his legs and Whistlebone owns me a report.” Greyhoof opened a drawer, tossed the PDA inside and locked it. Then mused to his pseudodog. The beast lazily stood up and followed it’s master outside. I shrugged to my companion and followed the strange duo. Greyhoof crossed the gate outlying the train depot, spending some time at the entrance giving a rant to some charcoal earth pony. We went with him as well. ============================== [><]============================= The heavy-armored pegasus made his way through the road, spending some time here and there to sightsee the numerous bandit camps across it. He’d just radio them and ask for the situation. “You are their leader, right? So why don’t they hand you over the report themselves instead?” He stopped his pace and turned to me “For several reasons. Because I actually want to supervise those morons, and it is the best way to maximize profit, because I am the boss and I freaking do what I want. And, because…after numerous days walking around the garbage… I kinda grown a fond for the scenery. There ain’t nothing better than the fresh air around these parts…” And he resumed the stroll, until interrupted by an azure pony. “Fresh? It is a goddamn radioactive dump! The only place worse is the NPP itself!” “That’s because you folks don’t smell what I smell, also it’s because you don’t have a gasmask on, hehe. But anyway, what I smell around my garbage is the aroma of potential. Here’s something interesting… the garbage used to be some archeological site. After the nuclear accident, the monarchs filled in the pits with the irradiated gear they used while evacuating the survivors, first class stuff, real neat. They risen up the pits all the way from the bottom and then even some more. Some of the stuff buried in them are worth their weight in gold. That’s why my crew has a nice mining operation around. It would be fine, weren’t for the stench of the other stalkers…” “You don’t seem too worried in fighting them back… also, aren’t you worried that they could take you out while you’re walking around in those supervising trips?” “Heh… that’s what the armor is for, boy. It’s my insurance. Also, don’t be naive to think that I don’t have four or five boys laying their telescopic eyes at every movement I take. As for the factions, I don’t give two shits about them, after all, they are too busy with their pointless goals. Bust my ass out eradicating mutants? , Turn the Zone into a fucking touristic attraction? Or the “sharing and kindness” lot ? I can’t decide which one is worse. We here keep it simple, money talks and we let stalkers dig around and stay alive by handing over a slice to us. If the other clans got a problem with it, they’re in for some serious whacking.” His radio came online of a sudden. “Boss, I spotted some shootout near the road to agropony. The jarhead cocksuckers are pulling in some brace fighting the muties…” “Don’t worry... they’re getting desperate. Soon their own zeal will knock them down, after all, wannabe heroes don’t last long in these parts.” Lielle came close to me and whispered “He may say that, but I believe that the bandits have pretty much to worry about…and that he is actually shitting his pants worrying about their safety.” “How bad is their situation?” “In one word, shit. In two words, deep shit. They are boxed in at all sides. The garbage is a key point of the Zone. Every stalker must cross it. Either to reach deeper into the Zone, where the most rare artifacts spawn, or to reach back to the cordon or their own faction bases to get quality R&R… basically, the bandits are facing a two-way brawl with the dutyers coming from Hoofstok and Jingly’s stalkers from the Cordon. Also, although being neutral to the bandits, freedomers shoot them from time to time. All of that plus mutants make it all complete.” “Hey mercs, why the fuck are you two falling behind?” We sprinted a bit to reach him out. “Sorry, we were just wondering when you would start speaking about the job.” He eyed us distrustfully. “Your job is returning a suit, a very special one. Have you seen the stalkers working at the piles? There are some who scavenge the surface, ain’t much risk in there, but no big rewards as well… other stalkers dig deep onto the pile, but that takes a lot of time. We were using dynamite to clear up holes cost-efficiently, but my boys haven’t received a word about our last shipments for a few days, my guess is that the military busted out our suppliers. And the last kind of digger, the one who climbs the pile to reach the anomalies that spawn there, that’s where the artifacts are. Problem is, without a radsuit, stalkers wouldn’t last ten seconds in there, and the suits are hard to come by.” “Why don’t you buy some from the ecologists?” Lielle asked him “A long while ago, a group of the eggheads caught a few stray bullets when they came across a few mutants we were shooting at.” My eyes moved to my companion. Lielle frowned when he mentioned stray bullets. Good thing the bandit didn’t notice it. “Although it was an accident, they knew better than to return to the garbage, ever again. It was a tragedy, indeed, but we took the best of the worst, their suits. We had at that time, one, two, three suits” He hoofed at the dirt to count. “One of them was stolen from us, the second broke when an overconfident moron danced over an electro anomaly, and the third is the only functional suit left. Do you get me, mercs? I need my stolen suit back; otherwise, my cash flow will dwindle.” “You have your own suit, why don’t you bring yourself the artifacts?” I questioned He turned to me, looking annoyed at the question. “I suppose that’s a “valid” question, since you two lowlifes probably will never be able to afford an exoskeleton. Firstly, the exosuit is a combat-oriented personal armor. It is meant to withstand pistol bullets, shotgun bucks, submachine rounds, low caliber rifle bullets, and in some modded versions, like mine, even sniper rounds. While it’s great for confronting other stalkers, it provides meager protection against anomalies. On par with common stalker suits, like yours. Secondly, like I already said, an exoskeleton is goddamn expensive, and I’m trying to run a profitable business. And last, it weights twenty-five fucking pounds, that’s a lot, even with the augmented strength from the servomotors… if you are caught by an anomaly; it’s pretty much sudden death. Not to mention that the wearer wouldn’t be bringing much loot per trip without being overcumbered.” “I’m curious, who would steal from bandits?” Lielle wondered “That’s the most fucked up part… at first, not even I believed, but now I see. It was stolen by a pack of pseudodogs. The nasty feral ones, not like my loyal Anon, ain’t that right, boy?” He patted on the brown dog’s head. The animal licked his owner’s armored chin. “But that makes no sense at all, they are animals. What interest would they have over an orange jumpsuit?” “That’s what I thought when the buddy of the stalker that loaned it came around. He told me that his partner got chased by a bunch of dogs and they didn’t give up chase and that they dragged him to their lair at the forest. Of course, I thought that his partner had run away with my suit and I executed the stalker on the spot. Only later my own scouts informed me that he was speaking the truth.” He rose his hoof. “Here it is. Now if you excuse me, mercs, I have a report to pick up.” His stroll led us to the internment camp set near the cordon border. It was well-defended and circulated by a barbwire wall, being used as a housing and training facility for the captured loners. There were a few tire piles used to mark anomalies inside the camp and a few loners were subdued to their miserable fates, scanning the anomalous fields or either being locked up on cages or chained to the vehicles. The brown dog walked off to play on the bushes nearby, while Greyhoof was talking over with an orange earth pony. This one was wearing the standard black schemed colors, but with grey straps of cloth along it, also, he was carrying a clipboard. “Whistlebone, how is productivity?” The pony offered the clipboard to his boss. “Hmm… acceptable… although could use a bit of improvement…” “Boss, there’s one that tried to smuggle an artifact.” The orange pony picked back his clipboard and walked to an imprisoned olive unicorn. This one was segregated from the others. “Well ,well, well, who have we got here, Whistle?” He looked up on the clipboard. “His name is Keyhole.” “Hmm… Keyhole, do you know what happens to those who try to pull a fast one on me?” He crept close to the unicorn, his armed wings set horizontally and aiming at him. “No, no, no… please…” Greyhoof raised his hoof, ordering him to shut up. “You’ve just earned yourself three extra hours of work on the sun. And no water during that time” He punched the slave’s face, streaking his face with red. Then he left the moaning unicorn to think about his behavior. Lielle stood there, observing the poor pony while tears ran down her neck. I reached Greyhoof to resume our conversation. “I am not pleased with this, pegasus… you ask us to clear a den of pseudodogs plus two grants of cash in exchange for ONE PDA… looks like you are getting the better end of the deal” “Too bad then…I’m not forcing you two to take on the job, I just offer the choice. If you are discontent with it, just bring me four thousand bits in two days and the PDA is yours. If you change your mind, my scouts told me that the victim was dragged onto the forest east of here; you should start your search there. Of course, if you wish to.” I shook my head. “We’ll think about accepting the job or not.” He turned away, eyeing his own workers working at the base of a nearby pile, before focusing his look at the radsuit wearing one scavenging atop it. “I’m not such a bad guy; you know… some folks out here have grown pretty fat off me.” “Some have grown to be pretty nutritious dogmeat” The redhead mare snipped “If you think that we bandits make the garbage a bad place, you should had seen it before we came around. Nopony paid much attention to it, until a lucky bastard scavenged out an abandoned UN cache. All kinds of good stuff: Canida issued rifles, Eagleland forces sidearms, even explosives from Baghdrag …When word got around, all stalkers flocked off to here en masse, each one looking for his own share of “phat lewt”” “What’s bad about it? They just wanted their fair share of the goods… even willed to scavenge them out.” “Scavenge? They weren’t even able get in consensus. This place was a huge mess, with stalkers shooting each other every time they found out something of value. That’s no way to do business. This ended when my crew came around and set up a few rules. If we hadn’t done it, by now, they would have already shooted and bombed their own asses back to pre-discord age. You see, the Zone needs order, regardless of who enforces it… you may frown upon our methods, but this way, the stalkers live longer” “Live longer so you can squeeze them harder for profit…” “Mercmare, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that order costs serious money. My boys need bullets, food, shelter… and also, where do you think I get the funds to pay the likes of you?” His radio sprang to life. “Boss, there’s a pack of dogs heading into the camp!” “Damn it! Defensive positions everypony! Anon, at me boy!” The brown dog dashed and stood behind its master. The bandits sheltered themselves behind walls, vehicles and sentry-boxes. All of them were pointing their weapons east, to the forest past the small swamp Then they came, rushing toward patches of green. Numerous blind dogs, with their crimson, brown, grey and albino coats distinguishing them apart from the landscape. Three ochre-furred pseudodogs were leading the pack with vicious might. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE… RATTLERATTLERATTLE…. The pack broke up, splitting off to attack each one of us. STKUP! Choo! STKUP! Lielle’s spike crossed the chest of the beasts. The body quickly tumbled onto the dirt. “You’re not too shabby yourself, Maremerc!” Whistlebone said RATTLERATTLERATTLE…RATTLERATTLE…. The dogs were quickly being culled by our weaponry, but they didn’t give up. One of the pseudos climbed atop a vehicle, leaped down at the other side and sunk his teeth at the bandit taking cover behind the chariot. His teammates quickly tossed a grenade at the bloody mess while the mutant was busy feeding himself. BOOM! Blind dog after blind dog befell… but the things wouldn’t stop coming. Without killing all the pseudos, they would relentlessly attack us. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE….. RATTLERATTLERATTLE…. All my shots missed. The pseudodogs leaped and rushed around unnaturally, charging to bite and then leaping back. They were damn crafty and quick. Two bandits were wounded by their bites. We were lucky to stand aside Greyhoof, on the middle of the camp. STKUP! Choo! STKUP! Choo! Lielle was defending the wounded olive stalker. His scent of blood made him a preferential target for the canines. “They are coming through the walls!” Some stalker yelled at the back of the camp. When I turned around, I saw several blind dogs overwhelming one chained stalker… he was pretty much dismembered in instants. RATTLERATTLERATTLE….RATTLERATTLERATTLE… Now we were fighting in two fronts, the bandits were overwhelmed. The two pseudos jumped over their confounded attackers and darted to Greyhoof. They were eyeing Anon behind him. The poor dog curled up behind it’s master. Greyhoof prepared his wings, and all four SGi 5k’s pointed to the dogs. “Suck on this, fleabags!” TCHTCHTCHTCHTCHTCHTCHTCHTCHTHLEE… In instants, there was nothing more than lifeless piles of mince around the camp. The remaining blind dogs ran away or had been dealt with quickly after their leader’s demise. The bandits used medkits and bandages onto their wounded members, while Greyhoof turned to leave. “Wait Greyhoof… is there someplace where we can get some supplies? If we consider taking up the job, we might as well be prepared.” “Well, I own a bar at the depot. I’ve set two stalkers to run it for me, while they were in no shape to be slaves, they turned up to be pretty good barkeepers. If you two are in need of grub, just swing by it.” I nodded. It was nearly three o’ clock and my tummy ached. I wasn’t looking forward to cook a meal around the internment camp because the smell would probably attract more dogs. So, I and my companion followed back the bandit leader into his depot. ============================== [><]============================= The bar was the external fueling area I mentioned before. It was just a concreted annex of the main hangar, with a stair leading to a recently built second floor. Possibly the living quarters for the barkeepers. Atop the doorway that led to the bar, a painted sign. It depicted a happy pseudodog in drunken coma, with three bottles of vodka around him. Under the sign, the bar’s name: “The drunken hound” Well, it was a bar, more so, it was a bar that was used regularly by bandits. So you guess that the smell wasn’t so pleasant. A mix of cheap vodka, tobacco, sweat and, at that particular day, strider skewer. Numerous bandits were at the tables (huge rusted iron crates), playing cards, telling filthy jokes, smoking, chilling out , or, the most prevalent, getting hammered. I and Lielle sat near the barrel-crafted counter. Behind it, we saw a cinnamon-colored earth pony mare washing dishes, and, with his face sank into the wood, some pint-sized reptile with deep red skin and grey scales. He was deep into sleep.” “Another mutant?” I asked the azure mare. “Nope. This one is a dragon. Quite a rare sight on the Zone…” The barmaid finished with her work and came to us. “Sorry, we’re out of skewer for today… can I serve you two something else?” “I’ll have some canned oatmeal” Lielle answered “I want some of your best hay… with mustard.” I asked in turn. She took notes of the order. “Ok, I’ll be right away with them… the bar is kinda busy today, so please be patient.” “Why is your copartner slacking off, then?” “Oh… Toothpick is just a baby. He couldn’t sleep for the whole night…” “And neither during the day. Stop yelling, will ya? My head is exploding…” The drowsy dragon yawned lazily. “Damn bandits… they partied the day before yesterday all the night, Greyhoof’s dog birthday. And not content with it, they threw an after birthday party yesterday. Who does that? I swear, if I hear that stupid fanfare song one more time, things won’t be pretty.” “Come on… everypony have their spirits high a once in a while” Lielle smiled to him. “You should had seen last month… they threw a party for a guy dropping alcoholism. They nearly drank the Zone dry… sometimes I think that bandits have four livers.” Aaattt…. Aatttt…. ATCHOOO! The dragon’s sneeze filled the air with a small flick of orange flame. The barmare returned with our orders, leaving them to us, and then turned to the dragon. “I told you a million times, Toothpick… close your window before sleeping!” “Yea… I’ll try to keep that in mind next time, Talia” He turned to rest his head onto the counter again, but the barmare was faster and put her hoof on the location before he could lay his head. “You had your naptime, now be a dear and deliver this order.” The diminutive dragon mumbled something, picked up the tray containing a bottle of vodka and some canned oatmeal. He delivered it to some bandit at the corner, he handed the dragon a few coins and Toothpick stored them onto a pocket at his belt, the only piece of clothing he was wearing. Aaattt…. Aatttt…. ATCHOOO! This time, the flick carbonized the bandit’s meal. “Erm… sorry?” The bandit gave an angry gaze at the dragon, then broke in pursuit at him. The duo turned tables upside down, wrecked a few crates and broke empty bottles in their insane drift. Toothpick was able to keep a good distance due to his stature, but eventually, the bandit caught up with him. He picked up the dragon and started to strangle his neck, Toothpick’s eyes popped from his face, his tongue flailed wildly. “Why, you little…” A sentinel nearby rushed to them and broke off. He held the bandit while Toothpick gathered some breath. “Whoa, what’s the problem here?” “This little prick has scorched my meal!” “Is that true, Toothpick?” “It was an accident, I swear it…” “Like I haven’t heard that one a zillion times before…” I rose from my chair and went to the group. “Guard, I saw everything…” “Keep out of this, merc. This is bandits business.” I picked up a bill of money and hoofed it to the customer. “Here, that shall cover your order…” And I hoofed a second bill to him “And this one, the misbehavior” The customer just shrugged and left. “Next time somepony calls me for small shit, I’m complaining to Greyhoof. Understood, Toothpick?” The dissatisfactory dragon just nodded. The sentinel returned to his post. As soon as he turned, the dragon showed his tongue Then, he eyed me, still massaging his throat. “Thanks for bailing me out, merc. But I could have handled it by myself.” “In your dreams” Talia’s voice came from the counter. “Serves you right for being reckless enough to catch a cold.” She smiled to me. “But anyway, it isn’t everyday that we have such generous visitors… where are you two lovebirds coming from?” My face steamed in seconds. “We come from the cordon… just traveling around the zone, doing odd jobs, picking loot, staying alive. You know, stalker business. My name is Boshan, and she is Lielle” The redhead mare waved her hoof and smiled. “Hi” “Oh, I see… well, if you two ever need supplies or information, ask us.” The dragon put a smug grin on his face. “Ask me, she meant. I know all the gossip about the factions” he lowered his voice “And some more” Lielle just laughed at the adorable reptile. “You probably won’t interest him. Boshan is nearly oblivious about faction relationships” The dragon cocked his head. “It’s rather straightforward. Duty wants to destroy the Zone, Freedom wants to destroy Duty, bandits just try to shovel money whenever they can and lone stalkers struggle to survive all this shit.” “I saw today a detachment of freedomers attacking a group of dutyers for no reason whatsoever…” “Well, that’s typical. They fight to maintain free access to the Zone by everypony.In their vision, the Zone is a gift from Mother Nature, which should be shared equally by all ponies. They hate the ecologists for hogging all the secrets of the Zone for themselves, and they churn Duty for annihilating the Zone bit by bit, saying that their onslaught will only further enrage the Zone and be the damnation of everypony. In synthesis, freedom is a bunch of anarchists, daredevils, outcasts and hippies tied together in their “free-love” community that is against anypony that tries to set dibs on the Zone, namely Duty or the military. Well, they aren’t very much organized or skilled like duty…but Freedom’s strength lies in their numbers. They are the biggest crew set up on the Zone.” “And the boys in red, duty? How they have gotten those sweet exoskeletons?” The dragon looked around, certifying that no bandit was interested in our conversation “Since you helped me out, I’ll give you that info for free, merc. Duty is supplied by the army. That’s why they have all that state-of-art gear, there’s common interests between the two groups.” Lielle gasped at the revelation. I mused to Toothpick to continue. “That doesn’t surprised me much, knowing that they are ex-military themselves. Ah, Duty… what’s to know about it? They are the self-titled heroes of the Zone, having fed up with the contempt of stalkers and started fighting off hordes of mutants in their holy war against the Zone. In their eyes, the Zone is a plaguing disease that threatens to consume our very world if nopony fights back. Unlike freedom, they actually help stalkers fighting off muties and bandits, but also, they walk around thinking they goddamn own the Zone, acting like friggin’cops, roughening on people loitering around and everything. They are good guys individually, but thrown together, they are a bunch of dimwitted fanatics that shoots first and then shoot some more until the enemy is dead, no matter if it’s a mutant or a pony” Perhaps the biggest danger around weren’t the Zone itself, but a pissed off dutyer. Crossing them seemed like a quick way to a coffin. Freedom’s excuse for fighting them was probably to declaw Duty’s supermassive firepower, their tool to force order and control around the Zone. “Yep, they’re quite the proud lot around Hoofstok…” Lielle commented. “Haven’t you heard? Duty has left Hoofstok for good.” “No way… they held that area with their entire faction. Only a buffed Freedom raid would stand a chance against them.” “Even more surprising, it wasn’t them what caused Duty to leave…” “Then who it was? Hoofstok is clean of anomalies and everything; it is the perfect spot for a base.” “Was, until they begun poking around the sewers. I’ve heard some loners cracked open a bloodsucker lair down there. Damn beasts had no effort in overpowering them. And even started to reach the surface, causing havoc among dutyers. While they could have fought them off, they simply decided to leave. Isn’t that weird? I guess they aren’t so tough after all, fearing pussy bloodsuckers and everything… They left off and set shop into the agropony research institute. And Freedom took their spot; the anarchists teamed up with loners and wiped up the town free of bloodsuckers…although from time to time the monsters down there stir up.” “That must have pissed off the dutyers…” “Heh…certainly it did. Those two clans are like black and white, only agreeing over one single thing.” “That ketchup is the best meal condiment?” Toothpick facepalmed. “Not that, Lielle, that’s how your name is spelled, right? What I mean is that both of them believe that the Zone is alive.” “Alive? Doesn’t seem very playful to me.” I commented. “Tell me about it. I personally think that they are full of shit… the jarheads believe that it is a parasite that keeps growing and growing like an ulcer, while the pigs consider it an manifestation of nature itself. Gaia, terra or any other moronic hippie nomination.” “But going on… the bandits are pretty much the group of weakling-cracking bullies around, our gracious hosts. The stalkers are the bread n’ butter folk, just trying to make a living in the Zone. You’ve met the military already, right? They aren’t the friendliest buddies around. ” I nodded. “Then, there are the mercs, serious mercs. Technically, they aren’t a faction, but multiple autonomous detachments. The Zone’s own soldiers of fortune. Mercs will do anything for the bits; even eat pseudog leavings if the pay is good. They are relentless and secretive about their activities, but I’ve got some juicy stuff about them… although this one will cost you.” “I’ll pass.” Lielle glared at me with her big silvery eyes. “No. I’m trying to keep the two thousand for the PDA plus a bit for survival needs.” She frowned. “Well, then I’ll spend my own.” She picked a few rumpled bills from her saddlebag and handed it to the dragon. He examinated them and tossed onto his pocket. “Here it is. According to my sources, some mercs have a hub at the dark valley. They stashed a real loot goldmine at a deactivated lab.” Lielle put up a serious face and nodded. “That’s interesting. When we come around those parts, let’s check it, Boshan.” I silently nodded, making a mental note to NOT do it. Pissing off mercs… like I needed to be hunted around the Zone… “And as a side note, the ecologists. Eggheads who study the Zone and perform scientific research. They employ stalkers from time to time to do errands, since they can’t do shit by themselves without dying. I guess that wraps up factions 101…” “Not yet, there’s one faction left…” She was right. The dragon didn’t mention Limpid Skies. “Oh, if you are really into THAT detailing, there’s the Monolith “faction”. Nothing to worry about them, just a bunch of screwballs that wandered around and preached their crap to other stalkers… like how the Zone is represented by a magical monolith that can grant wishes to anypony who reaches it, and how the entity named them protectors… that’s where all that legend of the wish granter started from… yea right. It’s more plausible that a chaos god made them believe that a stone was alive than all their bullshit. So, in order to prove devotion to their boulder, they went past the brain scorcher, toward the NPP itself and nopony has seen them ever since. They certainly melted off their nutshell brains at the attempt.” Why he hadn’t mentioned Limpid Skies? Were they that secretive, able to elude their presence into the Zone that well? I remembered Ameara’s words about their faction relationships: “I hope you do not mind the grey scheme, I did it because some of the stalkers on the mainland aren’t really fond of Limpid Skies.” Yea… but segregating themselves from the whole Zone… why? Fear? Distrust? My mind boiled with questions. “Come on, everypony knows that the wish granter isn’t a legend, it is real.” “It’s just a stupid story for drunkards and dreamers… there’s no such thing.” “What is the whish granter?” Lielle and Toothpick fell silent, also, the entire bar fell silent as well. Have I said it too loud? Every look fell on me My companion was the first to speak. “You don’t know about the wish granter? And you yet consider yourself a stalker, Boshan…seriously.” Toothpick opened his mouth to speak, but Lielle raised her hoof. “Don’t worry, I got this one covered.” She opened her saddlebag and brought a guitar. Oh no… The mare started to fiddle the strings. OOOOhhhh…. Wish granter… Sweet dreams are made of it… Who are unbelievers to disagree? Stalkers travel the entire Zone and them some more… Everypony is wishin’ for something… Some of them desire hills of money… Some of them want tons of artifacts… Some of them set their sights for eternal fame… Others seek limitless power… And some ponies just wish for a shitload of vodka! Just open your mind, and the wish granter shall concede… Your innermost desire... turned reality! What more could you dream about? Reaching the center is without precede! Just watch out not to end like a monolithian… Deranged brain, another tark to roam the Zone… The awkward silence continued. “It’s a work in progress…” Judging by the quality, she started working into it five seconds ago… “The wish granter is just this? A genie-like stone that grants wishes to whoever reaches it?” “Yup. I know it looks silly, but stalkers take it seriously. A lot of them consider it to be their lifetime goals. By the way, do you know what I would wish if I ever reach it?” “I don’t know… brain surgery?” She punched my forearm. OUCH! I spent all my focus trying not to moan, only to fail miserably. I massaged the bruised area, while she turned to finish her meal. Toothpick smiled. “I can see you two are no mercs… why are you guys working under Greyhoof’s wing?” I turned the question back to him “Why are YOU working under his wing? You hate the bandits, don’t you?” “Yeah, but they keep me safe… and there’s the bits. Running a bar for these guys is pure profit, and it sure beats working into the piles. Although I can’t stand some of the types around… once in a while a decent fellow like you two appear. Yeah, like the guy I knew other day. A pegasus bud named Walrov, real decent fellow. He told me stories from all around the Zone, the guy is a guide, a real one… knows his way out of one of those underground vaults, blindfolded. So, there’s my reason. What is yours?” “Greyhoof has something we want.” “Good luck with that. He usually ends up on the sweeter side of a deal.” “Tell me about it…” I picked up the PDA. Five o’ clock. I couldn’t afford to waste my time looking for options… damn Greyhoof. I lifted up and left some bits on the counter as payment for the food. I started trotting away, but I turned back to Talia. “Say, have you got some soy sausages for sale? I might need a snack later.” I paid for them and waved goodbyes to the two barkeepers, then I checked the PDA’s map for the forest… it was near the small swamp we visited earlier today. “All packed up?” The redhead mare nodded. ============================== [><]============================= RATTLERATTLERATTLE…RATTLERATTLE…. The blind dogs howled in agonizing pain. I turned on my flashlight. Although the daylight still poured, the thick forest enveloped us in darkness. We had been walking around it clueless for some time now. Maddening howls came from behind every tree, multiple bestial eyes glared at us from the darkness. RATTLERATTTTLERATTTTLE….RATTTLERATTLE…. STKUP! STKUP! It seemed useless… for two deceased dogs, many more lurked into the darkness. “Bastard varmints are toying with us!” Lielle said. I nodded. “And there’s nothing we can damn do about it…” RATTLERATTLE…. RATTLERATTLERATTLE…. RATTLERATTLE…. GROUWLLLL!!! The beefy beast dived to me, forcing all it’s incredible strength onto my backside. Its maw closed onto flesh. I shook with all my force while the beast clawed and tried to keep grip. “Bosah! Keep quiet! I can’t get a shot at him!” She aimed the stake thrower at me. “NO, NO!” STKUP! The stake hit the beast head, shutting it’s breath down. Miraculously, the projectile didn’t hit me. “NEVER… DO… THAT… AGAIN. EVER. I COULD HAVE BEEN IMPALED!” She just looked at me, wishing for forgiveness. “Sorry… I should…” Tears appeared on her eyes. WOULF! WOULF WOULF! “BRACE YOURSELF, MORE INCOMING!” RATTLERATTLE….RATTLERATTLE… STKUP, STKUP, STKUP! The dogs were retreating and clawing at us… they dashed around us from all sides, emerging and disappearing into instants. Fighting into the forest was insanely frustrating. We were forced onto retreating with the rabid beasts howling at our hooves. “This is yielding no result at all, Lielle.” I said while using a medkit at the bite wound and some bandages at the scratches. I tossed one medkit at her too. “You know, they are hungry. These beasts will stalk their prey into hell itself to stave the needs of themselves and their pack.” “And the fact they are used to fighting on the forest doesn’t help us one bit… we should had burn it to the ground… kill the beasts with fire.” “That way, the suit would be destroyed too…” I nodded. It was the unpleasant truth, and as long as Greyhoof possessed the PDA, I was his bitch. This made everything harder, so insanely hard… I opened my pack, remembering about that bottle of vodka. But then my eyes spotted something there… “Yes, that’s the solution! Lielle, you are a genius!” I kissed the mare’s cheek. She reddened. “I am? What are you planning now?” “Look and see…” BEEP… BEEP… BEEP… Yes, exactly what I needed. The springboard anomaly we’ve came across earlier. I wasted no time in floating the burner, a plate and the sausages out of the saddlebag, “This is no time for lunch!” “SHHHH, keep close to me.” I turned on the burner and tossed the sausages onto the plate, they fizzled and in instants, the air was filled with their scent. “Why do you think it will work? It’s soy!” “They are dogs, and more so, they are blind. I don’t think they are the pickiest eaters around…” Keeping a keen telekinetic grip at the plate of smoked sausages, I hid myself at a nearby bush. WOOF, WOOF, WOOF!!! The dog jumped at the plate, only be caught onto the anomaly. Now, the canine lied lifeless onto the mud. GRWOUL! WUFF! WUFF!! Gregarious beasts are gregarious… after that successful prey; numerous dogs were caught onto the trap. For cunning hunters, they were surprisingly irrational when I offered a juicy bait. That should help clear up their presence at the forest. The whole fun only ended when a nifty pseudodog tipped off the plate, its contents spilled onto the springboard and wasted away by the anomaly. RATTLERATTLE… CLICKCLIKCK!!... I desperately looked into the saddlebag… no ammo! STKUP! STKUP! STKUP! BANG BANG BANG! The mare reached over the body of the dogs. She stared northwest. “I believe they came from that way…” I pulled my knife and stashed some of the pseudodog tails, then I picked up my plate and the burner too, not too bad for the wear. Most of the pack had been dealt with, both by Greyhoof and his bandits earlier and by my trap. But there was still the matriarch… and I was all out of rifle bullets. After a new walk across the dark, deadly and cold forest, we found it. At an embankment below, several corpses were laid onto the roots of a fallen tree, being dragged under it and sequentially torn asunder when the pack needed. The orange suit was easily spotted among them. The poor bastard had his wings ripped off… Three pseudos were guarding them, while the monstrous albino matriarch comfortably sat near her ugly-ass puppies. “Hand me an explosive…” Lielle hoofed one of her grenades to me… I measured distance and… BOOM! The blast killed off two pseudos, while the third dashed to Lielle… STKUP! STKUP! STKUP! BANG BANG BANG! … or more exactly, dashed to his own death. The matriarch growled at us… soon, the huge beast was moving, surprisingly fast for it’s enormous structure. She pawed me. The wolf-like beast was strangely powerful, as she tossed me several meters back with her strong tackle. STKUP! STKUP! Damn beast was too fast for this… the stakes stuck on trees, never hitting the animal. BANG BANG! The goddamn mutant just shrugged off the shots as it rushed to me, it’s maw wide open… YIP, YIP, YIP! The confused beast turned to face Lielle. She was holding one of the puppies… GRAUWLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!! It broke chase and rushed back to protect it’s puppies. Lielle held high the pup, while the pseudo maneuvered quickly, trying to flank her. The matriarch lunged at Lielle, pawing her back and landing at the other side. The mare lifted her weapon, firing it while the mutant was preparing for a new jump. STKUP. GROULF! GROUWLWOULF! Now, it was held onto the floor. It’s paw crossed over by an iron stake held her firmly to the ground. BANG Good riddance… “What should we do about them?” Lielle pointed to the pups, still oblivious about the fate of their mother. “Leave them be. The forest still has a few pseudos roaming around. With luck, they will grow up to be a pain in Greyhoof’s ass. The bastard deserves it.” I started to loot the corpses. Hopefully, a few rifle rounds were to be found. And then, I reached the body wearing the radsuit. The smell was unbearable… the blind dogs, for some strange reason (and true to their namesake) rumped the suit entirely… its exterior was filled with strange and unsavory substances… apart from this, it was quite structurally intact. The body had the wings ripped off. Near it, a broken PDA. I examinated the broken screen. That machine had been repeatedly stomped over by a dog. Turning over, I could make out an inscription at the back… “Propriety of Olaf Walrov, explorer extraordinaire!” You have to be fucking kidding me… ============================== [><]============================= It was already dark when we reached back the depot. Judging by the lights and sounds, the bandits were more active during that time. Stupid party animals… I dropped the corpse at Greyhoof’s wagon. The bandit looked at it, then spoke. “Merc, let me ask you a question…” “Shoot it.” “When you took your sweet time dragging your ass to here… did you happen to notice a sign outside my wagon that said “dead stalker storage”? “Greyhoof, the only si…” He raised his hoof. “That’s because there’s no such sign, do you happen to know why?” “Why?” “’Cause storing dead stalkers ain’t my fucking business, you dipshit! I told you to bring me just the suit, not the wormfood as well! Good god! Now this scum will be goddamn stinking my wagon, thanks a lot!” He pushed a button at the intercom “And living with a pseudodog did great improvements to the aroma, indeed…” Lielle muttered under her breath. I used all my energy to remain serious. “Well, there’s your suit… and here’s the cash” I offered the two thousand bits. The bandit leader shook his head. “A deal is a deal…” He opened the drawer and handed over the PDA to me, taking his money in turn. “No refunds, merc” “Yes boss?” Toothpick was standing at the door “Dispose of the body and clean up the suit…I want it pristine as soon as possible” Toothpick shooed away Anon. The pseudo started sniffing the body as soon as I dropped it. The dragon worked his claws at the suit, delicately opening it… That’s when he saw it. I noticed when realization struck across his face… Toothpick realized that this was the body of one of his friends. “Why are you taking so damn long, Toothpick?” “J…just some straps…heh… ok, I think I’ve got it.” With all the care of the world, the dragon headed out carrying the body and the suit. ============================== [><]============================= “I’m sorry for your loss, Toothpick.” The azure mare put her hoof on his shoulder. “It’s… okay. Thank you Lielle. It is a part of the cycle of life on the Zone… like searching for loot, fighting against mutants or exploring it’s secrets…one day or another, we have to bury a friend as well, if there’s enough left of him to bury.” He stared at the improvised grave, scantly illuminated by a candle. The dragon was quite a good digger, being able to dig off a cove in half an hour. We brought an iron plate from the debris pile, on which Toothpick promptly scrawled the epitaph: “Here lies Walrov, now set off to explore a better place” Toothpick wiped his tears. “You know… the Zone takes friends from our hearts, but also… brings friends as well. Thank you, Boshan and Lielle. You two have done me a great favor. I will not forget about this.” “Eh… Toothpick, now that you mention, you could do something for us…” “And what do you need?” “Not much, just a place to crash for tonight.” “You two can use the top floor above the bar, if you don’t mind the noise…” “Thank you.” and I shook his hand. “No, thank you.” He said back. ============================== [><]============================= I awoke with a sudden jump! My head was nearly killing me, and the fanfare song downstairs wasn’t helping one bit. I tried to remember the dream while wiping off the cold sweat. Okay, there was a fight, a gunfight. I was onto it, fighting against numerous other ponies… I was alone, trying to hold them off… there was a sense of hurry, to open some door… also blood, I don’t know if my own or theirs, was running around my neck… I was wearing a dark armor, yes… with no helmet… damn. It’s all confusing now. The Zone was really getting into me. Hallucinations, nightmares… I slowly climbed off from the bunk. Lielle was still deep asleep below me, and Toohpick was snoring nearby, his body spread into an exquisite posture and his tongue laying off his mouth. Talia wasn’t around; the mare was taking care of the night shift. The window near the dragon’s bed informed me it was early morning. It was still dark, but the sun started pouring little by little onto the piles of garbage. I carefully moved around the room, taking care not to wake up Lielle or Toothpick, picking up my saddlebags on the way out. This entire stress dealing with the dogs has left me staving… too bad I wasted all the food on the trap. I reached a free table on the bar, taking some time to observe the few regulars that still were around and the drunkards who fell asleep onto their seats. I examinated my possessions. The PDA proved to be a dead end. It was Searinor’s, alright, but the only archive it contained was a sound file with indiscernible whispers, I’ve heard it six or seven times, with the volume set on the maximum, but it was too low, I couldn’t distinguish a word of it. And on top of that, I only had twenty bits left. Greyhoof had milked me good… clever bastard. My belly grumbled in revolt. I hoofed deeper onto my pack, until I reached something… it was edible, of sorts… well, it wouldn’t be as tasty as sausages, but if I poured a little vodka to disguise the taste… ============================== [><]============================= “Hmmmm… I don’t know what to think of it, Boshan. Beats me. Sorry I couldn’t be of any help.” I took the PDA and stashed it back. Toothpick had listened the recording twice. “But I know some guys who might be able to help you with that…” “Really? Who?” “The boys from…” The intercom came to life. “Toothpick, leave the merc alone with your silly antics, I need to see him PRONTO!” The dragon turned to the radio. “Right away, boss” Then, he turned back to me “We’ll talk later, Greyhoof doesn’t like waiting.” I went to the train cart alone. Lielle was still asleep, the events from last night have exhausted her. Greyhoof lifted from his chair and stood at my front. He measured me up and down with his glare. “Merc, if you’re up for some more action, I have another job. If you can do it, I’ll hand over your two thousand bits back.” I eyed him distrustfully. His last job was tougher than nails, and I somehow had the feeling that he would be getting the best side of the deal again. “Don’t worry; it doesn’t involve killing anything this time, at least in principle.” “Then, what it is?” “I’m moving some workers around the Zone, merc. My crew has secured a nice spot on the dark valley, we are thinking of reallocating our base to over there” He reached the map and pointed to a location southeast of our position. It was close to the cordon border, and yet, was far from Duty and Freedom’s bases. This way, they would just focus onto their war and leave the far away bandits alone… “What I need you to do is escort the convoy. I will send some of my fighters as well to help. Do it and the money is yours.” I thought a bit about his proposal. “Deal, but with one condition…” “And what is your condition?” “I need half the amount in advance, you know, to gear up for the trip.” “I suppose that’s reasonable… you can’t trek without food or water, fine enough. But one thousand is too much, seven hundred and fifty should be more than enough, here, have the five hundred you asked and let’s not talk about it anymore.” He handed me over the meager amount… Dammnit Greyhoof! “The convoy leaves at noon, get ready yourself. And merc, one more thing…” “Yes?” “Drink AFTER you complete the job, got that?” I nodded and left the train cart. ============================== [><]============================= “Yes, that is perfect! It is the perfect opportunity!” “Don’t tell me you are thinking about…” Toothpick leaned closer and whispered furiously “Yes, I am. Don’t you see, Boshan? It is the perfect chance to break free from Greyhoof’s claws! The crook is finally getting desperate, he knows that either Duty or Freedom will end up fraging all his ponies on a crossfire, he knows that without guards or slaves, he ain’t got anything!” I had my doubts. Although I really hated Greyhoof, I couldn’t help but to fear him as well… he had an entire cadre of bandits at his disposal, and snipers eyeing everything around the garbage. Toothpick really had guts to even think about crossing him. I knew that Lielle would support the dragon, seeing how the mare loathed Greyhoof as well… ah, to the hell with it. Maybe this could cripple the bandits so bad, that they would break up as a faction. Although if it didn’t, I’d have an entire faction hunting my ass across the Zone… “Have you got a plan?” “Yes, and a nice one at that. Knows who supplies the snipers with their booze?” Of course… smart and simple. Toothpick detailed his plot about drugging off the snipers, taking out the convoy guards and then making a run for the flea market, a stalker-held post some kilometers away from the depot, where the loners would be safe and secured to wander back to the cordon or further deep into the Zone. It sounded flawless, but then, every plan sounded so… “So, are down for it?” “Yes, count me in. although I don’t like the prospects of pissing off the bandits…” “Don’t worry; these bastards will never know what killed them.” So I hope. ============================== [><]============================= The sun was almost unbearable He had been walking for hours, the convoy rolled around the wastes, with the bandits carefully eyeing every living being that showed up, while slaves moved around dragging their chains. So far, no disturbances, apart from a few mutants, which we shooed away with gunfire. “Lielle, are you ready? The moment is upon us” She nodded “Get in position and wait for the signal” She posted herself beside one of the bandits on the right side of the convoy. We were currently guarding the rear. “Guard, oh guard!” “What do you want now, dragon?” “I need to take a leak!” “We cannot afford any more delays” “Please dude, I’m really desperate…” The bandit resignedly opened his shackles. “Be quick about it.” “With pleasure!” Then, Toothpick lunged and clawed the bandit’s frail throat with his sharpened claws. “NOW!” I stabbed the sentinel’s back, while Lielle staked the other one. PLUCHT!!! The sniper was helpless. His shot missed us by several yards. “Traitors! Kill them, boys!” RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE…..RATTLERATTLE!!! The rest of the guards turned to face us, their guns roared in our direction and ours roared back at them as well. Toothpick was wielding the AK he took from his kill. “Do not shoot the slaves! They are Greyhoof’s propriety!” RATTLERATTLE…..RATTLERATTLE…..RATTLERATTLE! The wind then roared as a storm approached. Thunder crackled with immense strength. A lightning appeared in the skies and blurred everypony’s vision… “Run away! RUN! BACK TO THE DEPOT!!!” The bandits rushed past us, dashing back to their base… “Why are you standing around, Boshan? A blowout is brewing! Come!” Lielle grabbed my hoof and dragged me. Toothpick and Talia had already gathered the other slaves; we were heading to the flea market, now I could see it. a ruined and broken structure. The weather was worsening at each instant, the terrible force menaced to befall upon us… “Hurry, hurry, into the basement!” A stalker held the door opened, musing for us to enter. We did so without second thoughts. Everypony entered the shelter as quickly as his hooves allowed. I glimpsed the deathly red sky before the iron door closed. After what seemed to be an eternity, the door opened again, and a stalker crawled from it. After he cautiously eyed around, he mused to us. All clear. “Phew, we were almost goners this time.” I nodded. Although I had experienced a blowout before, an even lived after being hit by it, the experience never ceased to infuse me with fear… “Looks like everyone is alright… and we sent the bandits running back home!” Toothpick approached us, his teeth grinning. “Brilliant! Now we’ll have some peace from those folk. Thanks for the help, mercs. He’s a little something for your troubles.” He handed over a few cans of much-needed food. “So, what are you planning to do now?” “Lay low for awhile, enjoy my liberty and such.” “Say, Toothpick, you were mentioning something about this…” And I lifted the PDA “Ah… you should see the boys from freedom about it. I’ve heard they are quite the experts with these gadgets.” “They are at Hoofstok, right?” “Exactly. Just follow the road that leads north and you two will see Hoofstok soon enough” We waved goodbyes at them and moved on with our journey. “Do you think they will ne alright without us?” “Surely. Toothpick is quite the fighter, and the mare is no pushover herself… and also, they will be among the other stalkers and everything.” I started to check her over… “Why are you looking at me so much?” “Lielle, know what?” “What?” “I like your new hairstyle.” She laughed a bit. “What’s so funny about it?” “Oh, it’s not about you. I’m just imagining the look on Greyhoof’s face when he learns about the escape..." ============================== [><]============================= Whistlebone dashed past the sentinels, entering Greyhoof’s cart. He panted for several minutes before speaking. “Did you felt it, boss?” “Yes. Damn the luck! Any news about the convoy?” “The snipers weren’t able to answer. This was found near them.” He handed over an empty bottle of vodka. “What about it?” “It reeks of… blue joke. Somepony has tainted them.” Greyhoof took just some moments to make the connection. “Toothpick! That little scalehead had drugged off my snipers!” Greyhoof rose from his chair and started trotting around. “He wouldn’t be able to pull it off alone… that little traitor must have had some help…” “Positively. The mercs aided him.” “What? Are you sure about it? I thought I had them at my hooves… a merc would never do anything that would compromise his source of cash. Do you realize what that means?” Whistlebone nodded. “They were in cohorts with the stalkers all along.” “Exactly. And now we have a mighty problem at our hooves…” “What do you mean, boss? you still have enough ponypower to enforce control around the garbage.” “Yes Whistlebone, but no slaves. I cannot send all my forces to gather some more without being vulnerable, and without the slaves, no money. Without money, my boys will abandon me faster than you could say “profit”. We are checkmated…” “Boss, what’s that smell?” “Just the body of a digger that the scum-loving merc dropped around yesterday…” “No, that’s not it. Where is Anon?” The two looked around the cart, until Greyhoof finally looked under his desk. The dog was laying there, proudly sheltering half a dozen of newborn puppies. “By Luna’s eight inches ejaculating horn! Anon is a female!” Whistlebone restrained himself real hard not to say “I told you so”. After all, Greyhoof was the boss. Greyhoof set his eyes onto the pups. Oh, if all these six puppies grown up to be as ferocious as their mother… Something ringed in the pegasus’ head. “Whistlebone, how did the merc got rid of the pseudos again?” “He used soy sausages to lure them to a trap.” “Do we still have any slave cages around?” “Two or three, why?” “We’ll need them. Also, gather some guards and all the meat you can find at the bar. I think I have an idea.” “Boss, you got that look on your face again…” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- bestiary #/filenam – Pseudodog #/filedescript – An even more warped version of a dog than a blind dog, a pseudodog is the result of mutative influences experienced by wolves. Although they usually pack together with blind dogs, the two are entirely different species. Pseudodogs are prevalent around the Zone due to their pregnancy period of 14 to 21 days. Pseudodogs are faster, stronger and more cunning than their canine relatives, plus they have pointier teeth. Likewise the blind dogs, these beasts are fiercely territorial, attacking marauding stalkers with all their rage. Pseudodogs engage in combat by jumping and attempting to outmaneuver their opponents, confounding them with quick attacks and sharp moves, although some of them pack quite a punch when cornered. In sum, pseudodogs are not to be underestimated and prove to be formidable foes. A fast-firing rifle or shotgun is preferential when fighting these mutants. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	6	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-04-15T03:01:33+00:00	2012-04-15T03:01:33+00:00	1,277	Author's note: wow, over two months without an update. sorry guys, I've been busy with exams and real life issues, and plus this whole GSC drama recently... well, anyway, here's the fifth chapter, a bit bigger that the other ones (Wow... 24k+ words? it was only 62 pages on word, just a bit more than the double of the last chapters lengths, perhaps there's something wrong with the word counter...), I intended it to be even bigger, but I decided against it and will add it to the next one. well, enjoy. CP. V – The Harmony of Anarchy “Friends from around the Zone, why not join the Freedom faction? The only faction where you will be finding true friends, who will never gonna give you up. Where else would you be liked for just being yourself? Join us and help Freedom on its quest to free the Zone” The road led us toward a guarded checkpoint. Among the guards, the green scheme was dominant on their clothes; also, the same color was sprayed all over the structures’ wall around the checkpoint. The Freedomers bunkered themselves behind construction props, blocking the road and setting guard around the sturdy iron gate which led to Hoofstok One of said guards, an earth pony who was clad onto one of those fancy exoskeletons (but, unlike Duty’s, his was flecktarn colored with yellow plates), and a scoped SG-5k installed along the external frame of the armor. He was waving his hoof, signalizing for us to approach. I faced Lielle and she shrugged I drew near to the stalker, who promptly shook my hoof as soon as I came into his reach. A euphoric feminine voice sounded from inside that armor, greeting us. “Sup bro, whaddya two doin’? Looking to crash at our turf?” “Something around those lines…” “Well, make yourself at home, Stalker! At Freedom, we have – almost - no kind of prejudice. Just come in and knock yourself out!” “Thanks… we could dig some rest….” I said while moving over She held her hoof, holding our passage. “Just a second. Keep your hooves and horns to yourselves, right? Start blasting your guns around, and, as much as I’d regret it, I am afraid we’ll have to “pacify” you in that case. You understand what I mean by that, right?” I nodded “Good pony. Now, while you’re around, why not join us?” To which I promptly switched my gaze to Lielle, and before she could open her mouth, I answered “We… shall consider it.” “Take your time then… look around and know the gang” She turned in to a much more humbly dressed Freedomer unicorn that stood by the gate, and nodded to him In response to the gesture, he used his telekinesis to turn the handle, and by doing so, ascending the gate, allowing passage. “Keep following the road, Stalker. The base is just a short trot ahead, but keep on your hooves. There are a few anomalies around…” “Thanks for the advice. Hey, by any chance… do you guys have a technician around your ranks?” “Technician? Oh, you mean a tinkerer! I guess that’s fitting for Dom, Dominic Silverwrench. The dude can treat your shooter real good, peak out it’s stats and all, if you’re into that and have the money” Everything that I didn’t possessed… however, if he was willing to accept some of my goods in exchange… “I’ll be seeing him, then.” “Hey, if you do, tell him that I send my…” The unicorn holding the gate grunted his displeasure. The poor fellow was holding it up since then… “Oh, right… nevermind. Just go” We trotted through it, and when we were at the other side, the gate dropped with a loud thud Then, remembering what had been told, I started flinging the bolts around the road. They hit a whirlgig and two springboards right off the bat. By now, using the bolts and circumventing anomalies has been assimilated as a second nature. In the Zone, you had to learn fast, or else you’d end as a mutant’s next meal… “Well… would you look at that!” The azure mare glared at me with her mocking silvery eyes. “What now?” She narrowed her eyes, while muffling a laugh “I saw how you looked at that mare… you were totally checking her out” “I wasn’t !” “Was too!” “Was not!” “Was too!” “Wasn’t!” “The more you keep denying, the more you are affirming it!” “How does that leaves me any chance to contradict you?” “It doesn’t” Seriously… now, I had the impression that she enjoyed embarrassing or pissing me off, if just for my reaction… “She was under three layers of combat-designed power armor! I am pretty sure there wasn’t much eye candy to “check out!” Her grin just grew bigger, and she lowered her voice, whispering at me. “You have a fetish for mares in armor, don’t you?” I steeled my glare and looked at her, overly serious. “For the last time… I am not that kind of stallion. Now, cut it out.” She dismissed my statement with a hoof and shook herself with a few more giggles The road led us to a descent. What once had been luxurious, well kept gardens, filled with all kinds of exotic and exquisite flowers, now laid before us in decadence. Rotting from abandonment, the pavement was cracking, giving space to the savage, sprawling flora, which was taking over and growing like a plague against the few withered and pyrrhic flowers that struggled to survive. The road was the only relatively untouched landmark, albeit marred by dry blood. On the right of the “garden”, a huge pile of dirt, the result of a recent excavation onto it. Why some stalker bothered digging around it, was beyond me. On the far end, after a plank bridge over a stake-filled pit, a compound of discolored, slate-grey, tightly closed structures. Possibly, what was Hoofstok. I was crossing the “bridge”, when something caught the attention of my friend. She was glaring at one of the sharp stakes, one which had a blind dog head over the tip. “Something wrong?” “Give a look at it…” It was a dried disgusting body part, coming from an equally disgusting mutant. By the looks of it, the head was sitting there for quite some time (not that it had a choice…) A red crosshair was tattooed onto the forehead. “That’s the – other – big faction, right? Duty?” “Yep. It was their kill. From what I’ve heard, they always had trouble with dogs raiding Hoofstok. And yet, now that Freedom has moved in…” She looked around “There Isn’t any dog corpse around, or for that matter, not any signs of recent conflict…” I shook my head. “They are probably better at keeping the mutants at bay…” “So it seems…” At the entrance of Hoofstok, more Freedomers. They stood around the makeshift barricades, loafing around and playing guard with their TRs-301. They simply nodded at us, nothing more, and gave passage Among the scavenged barrier, a big metal plate sign particularly stood out. It was an ancient frayed sign, showing a purple-haired and white-furred unicorn mare, wearing a top hat and a warm smile, pointing to a message below: Carrousel textiles & Co Going by the only opened path, it funneled onto a tight passage. The buildings towered high above, and a multitude of awnings obstructed the afternoon sun. Inside those cramped corridors, it was dark as night. Also, they barely allowed two ponies to walk aside. To complete the set, they were littered with all kinds of trash: bolts, metal scraps, discarded food packages, torn rags, you name it. Nevertheless, we went in. We didn’t trotted much, until we hit an “T” intersection. Thankfully, the wall in front of us was visible due to a purposely and conveniently placed hole on the awning above. The wall had greed-painted messages all over, directions. They were painted over other messages, scarlet-colored messages. Evidently, Duty’s, being obscured by Freedom’s own notes. An arrow to the right informed: “Bar”, “Weapons”, “Rest”, “Mirror Lake”, “Wild Territory” While the one to the left pointed: "Tinkerer”, “Chief”, “Medic”, “Wastes” Nearly all of these locations were pretty obvious… except the two last at the first arrow and the last one at the second arrow. I suppose I should ask around about them later... My immediate thought was to head straight to the “Tinkerer” and ask about the damn PDA already, but my rumbling tummy impelled me to the opposite direction, straight to the bar. Although I didn’t have – almost - any money, Toothpick had given me some canned food. It would be nice to know the atmosphere of Freedom while having it. “So, we are heading to the tinkerer first, right?” My smirking companion asked I thoughtfully gazed and answered her “I was thinking about having lunch first. And while onto it, on the words of that mare… “know the gang” before making business” She nodded in approval. “Seems like a good idea. I was always curious about how Freedom worked out anarchy and stood united…. Perhaps I can find somepony who can tell me more about it…” I turned right and she happily followed Hoofstok was a maze, literally. More dark and tight corridors, sometimes cutting through warehouses, catwalks, broken structures, offices… there were more paths, but most of them were blocked off by gates or huge piles of trash. Possibly a way to avoid being swarmed by mutants, or by hostile ponies… So, there was only one way through, leading us deeper. We spotted a few Freedomers setting guard here and there at the more spacious sections, and some loners as well, going on their business. Much to our relief, at every intersection there were more green arrows, pointing directions. They were easy enough to spot due to the pouring sunlight from the holes above that distinguished itself from the usual darkness. It was quite ingenious, really, although it wouldn’t work at night. They possibly had lights at strategic points, or something alike. “Eck… so much trash. Couldn’t these ponies spare some time to clear a bit of it?” I used my magic to help her shove the trash away from her path “I mean, where does all of this stuff come from? Are they planning to turn Hoofstok into a junkyard or what?” My mind popped at that question. I knew the answer… it came to me, as clear as water. It surfaced on my mind, my conscious quickly conjuring images to support an upcoming memory… ============================== [><]============================= “The industrial revolution. A myriad of technological advancements spearheaded by the Earth Pony species, so that they could perform their mundane tasks with ease, without recurring to magic.” “Exactly. Now have a seat, child.” I obeyed without hesitation. Mrs (miss, actually…) Brownleaf towered upon all of us. She had that kind of imposing aura which befitted very well her occupation as a teacher. I always wondered what made us give so much respect to the cream-colored strict unicorn mare. Perhaps it was her pristine combed brown mane, with the first tones of gray appearing. Or it could be her cutie mark, a heavy yellow ruler. The exact duo of the actual ruler she carried at all times, and used to strike onto her desk on the rare occasions that the class got unruly. “Now, who can tell me what advancements, as Mr. Hollowbane said, came from said industrial revolution?” The voices of my fellow unicorn classmates soared with various answers “Engine-powered vehicles” “Improved medicines” “Manufacture” “Firearms” “Factories” And the class continued to come up with more answers until Mrs Bronwload rose up. “Ok, that’s enough” And she started to write some of the answers onto the blackboard while commenting on them. “Each one of these are pretty important. Where to begin? Hmm… engine powered vehicles, they are faster than your average pony, can carry more weight, do not tire, some can even fly. Their practical use on the earth pony routine is evident. Examples are the pedalocopter, the Aerial barge and the BTR” “Improved medicines, or like I’d would put it, pharmacological and hospital care improvements, which obviously allow for an even more extended life expectancy for our already long lives, also, a better resistance and treatment against diseases and harm” “Manufacture… or mass production. the ability to use machinery to perform serial production of a determined product. It is the heart of our economic system.” “Firearms… well… offensive machines sanctioned for royal guard use only, used mainly for protection or hunting.” “And… factories. Where the “magic” happens, well, as much magic as the pegasi and the earth pony rabble can muster… factories are the buildings where said products take form and are produced, using the manufacture system, which technology, like everything else in technology, is loosely based on unicorn magic, but instead of drawing power from the ether, technology employs raw materials as fuel” And she unrolled a chart with a few figures: a barrel, a black stone, a waterfall and a glowing stick. “Which are each one of these. Petrol, the sediment remains of old animals covered by layer and layer of soil by numerous years. Coal, a stone formed by sediment as well, forged in the pressure deep within the earth. Waterfalls, which are dammed to direct their waters to move generators and provide electricity. And last, biomagical energy, generated through a complex process by collecting waste magical energy produced by one’s spell, isolating the components of such waste and recombining them to produce highly energetic compounds. Yep, that’s recycling.” She gave a long glare to the class “Any questions?” Nopony raised his hoof whatsoever “Good, good….” She said while sitting down. “Remember to turn in your 20 pages assignments explaining how rainbow factories work, by next week. Class dismissed.” Great… I was released from that extremely boring class… That damn industrial revolution was such a new fad among the Canterlot School. Lectures and more lectures about it and it’s implications in pony life… like we needed to learn about that… we are unicorns, for Faust’s sake! Our magic outclasses any mechanical trinket they can come up with… I wonder what the teachers used to teach their students before the revolution… probably stuff that was common knowledge nowadays, such as Luna’s betrayal, How wingpower works, Discord’s evil machinations of ages past, the history of cutie marks and their utility… Altough… I could use a class about the last one… if it could a… “Boshan, Boshan…” The image itself begun to tremble, my thoughts being relocated back to reality, a grim reality which stood on stark contrast of the innocence of before… if only I knew back then… ============================== [><]============================= “Are you there? Hello, talk to me!” The earth pony mare, having pulled off most of the trash from her way by herself and reached me, now busied herself shaking me frantically. The first thing I registered were her wide silvery eyes, eyeing me with keen curiosity My head was aching… I moved a hoof to support it… How many mental ailments I had to endure? Hallucinations, nightmares and now… a memory reflux! Something inside me was fucked up. What exactly had they done to my mind? Reconciling a long forgotten past with the present wasn’t going to be and easy (or pleasant, for that matter…) task “Are you alright?” she asked again “You seemed… lost in thoughts, paralyzed…” I shoved away my thoughts and focused back onto her. “Yes… kind of it. It’s like… I am remembering” “Remembering? You just stood there, without moving a muscle… you were starting to creep me out.” She remarked while resuming her trot “The remembrance dates from before… before I was rescued from that… that place. The lab.” I said while keeping up with her pace She nudged her head and told me back “You mean, before you were rescued by stalkers and everything? What importance really does that have? Not much you can do about the past…” I haven’t told her about Limpid Skies, having said that loners aided me and everything. Not that I didn’t trusted her, I was just being cautious about exposing the faction. “But still so… I can’t help being at least curious about it. It is my only connection to my colthood… my past life… this… “ailment” and a few stray memories…” “You should see a psychiatrist…” “Ya think?” I rebuked with disdain By that time, we already reached the entrance to the bar. An unappealing door-wide opening greeted us, with a name painted in green bold letters above. “Brews n’ Blues” The interior was much more spacious, it was some kind of underground storage warehouse or even a factory. From the entrance, a metal stair led downstairs, while a broken catwalk led halfway in direction to the other side of the upper level. Peeking form above, we could see the lounge itself. Regarding cleanliness, it wasn’t much an improvement form the Drunken Hound, although they had proper benches , tables and a bar counter, instead of retooled props to serve as furniture. The place was bustling with activity, understandable, since, according from what I’ve heard, this freedom lot loved to lull around and indulge in the simple pleasures of life (boasting, eating, drinking…) during their free time. We lowered to the base level and walked to the bar counter, in the hopes of finding free seats. The walls there were adorned with the freedom boar, anarchy emblems, the hippie symbol and other more exquisite charms as well, these mystical in nature, whose meaning was beyond my knowledge. The wall near the bar counter had the enormous green-colored message “Freedom faction is best faction!” and around it, numerous sentences or notes form Freedom members, scrawled around the central one, in support of their faction. Then, at last, we found two vacant benches by the counter. After laying down on them, I floated off my saddlebags and dug inside to serve myself of some canned dandelions. I offered one of the cans to Lielle, but she hastily refused. “I have some cash on me… I want to try one of those dishes” She said while trying to get the barkeeper’s attention. I shrugged and started eating my meal In a few moments, her efforts were rewarded when a dusk-colored pegasus stallion neared us. He had an odd cutie mark, some wind of blue flower… probably form where the bar got its name. “Hey, what ya be needin’…” He said only to stop mid-sentence and give us a good look. I could swear there was something wrong with those green eyes… they were twitching, looking at opposite directions, moving at an insanely fast pace… hell, those would have made the mole’s mad eye look natural in comparison. “I never saw you two before… new friends?” Lielle was quick to give her best smile and nod And the pegasus opened in a twin smile “Then bros, my smooth welcome to the spaceship we named Freedom. The place for your every cosmic needs , positive vibes and free love, dudes. Now, I can see you brought your own grub dude… that’s cool. And you, can I hassle your hunger up with some meal, sister?” She seemed indecisive for a second, looking at the meal list attached at the wall, but then, she placed her order. “One of those roasted potatoes filled with chilly beans” “Groovy choice sister… now, what about a little something to get it down easier? A hard drink? Or grass… really good grass, if you get what I mean…” That got me curious. “Grass? You mean spice?” He just chuckled “Food for the soul, brother” and he disappeared behind the counter, only to return with… a blue colored rolled joint. “This stuff. It is cooler than cool, it brings laughter and velvet moonbeams, cotton candy clouds which rain chocolate milk , caramel rainbows and the sweet love of mother earth, flowing right from her warm nipple” “What is that stuff exactly? Is that shit even legal?” The pegasus chuckled some more. “100% natural unadulterated love. Coming from this sweet little flower” and he pointed to his own cutie mark. “Blue hope is the name, I guess… Fo’ shizzle… this stuff is what kept me going swinging by, brotha. You see… before all this shit and the Zone, I really loved to fly, soar through the skies, swim into the big blue yonder… But then, someday… BANG! Some ungrovy negativeness showed by and we couldn’t fly anymore… I wandered around bro… yea, it was tough. No love in the zone dude, yeah… but then, I’ve found the best guys in the world… my guys, Freedom. True bros who know how to live the elbow. They shared everything with me… Fresh air, water, food, booze, love… they even told me about this miracle worker flower. And BOOM. Now I can fly high whenever I want without leaving the mother earth’s holy embrace. Even my body basked in the commune with Gaia, as my cutie mark changed into this miracle flower… yeah dude… that’s about it. Now I live to help others remove their strains from this oppressive reality… fight the equine! Care to try some?” and he offered his joint There was something about his attitude… he seemed aside from this world, looking so distracted and everything… and the derped eyes… could it be the flower’s proprieties that caused it? in any case, I refused it. “Maybe next time… we’ll just stick with the food” “Whenever dude… anything else you need from… hey, what are your names?” “Mine is Boshan Hollowbane” “And mine is Lielle Crackgiggle, pleased to know you, mister…” “Flower wave” Flower ? That wasn’t a very usual name for stallions… “I know what you two think, but I’m proud of it. I’ve downcast my old name when I learned the way of Freedom. Now, my name reflects my special connection with my brothers, a bond older than time, the bond of life. In result, I call everyone from their cosmic names. Which means, I’ll have to set you two with your own ones…” Now this was officially weird… but hey, when in Hoofstok… He put a hoof onto his chin and flipped eyes at us “You, unicorn… I dig you. If you were a mare, or if I was higher, I’d totally do you, hot stuff.” Great… an intoxicated pegasus stallion from Freedom was hitting on me. Now I had been thought everything. I could actually feel my dignity dwindling away… away… gone “Which is why I should call ya… Sunshine Hotdog. Gratz for ya new name!” Lielle was barely containing herself. She exploded into laughter and giggling, her eyes were even teary due to so much laughter “And you… you are a pretty cool mare… too bad only unicorns are my type. Your cosmic name shall be Free Laugh” “What? She has a much less ridiculous name… why is mine so much wor…” “That’s how the cookie crumbles, bro. chill out, I just do mother nature’s bidding. You should take it on the lighter side of life, Hotdog” “That’s exactly what I am always trying to make him do…” Lielle sighed “But no, he always keep this overly serious mysterious stallion act… just open a smile sometimes… it won't hurt.” “Will that make you tone down your antics a bit?” She took a moment to consider the deal… “I promise to, if you try…” My face ached in protest due to my current embarrassment, but I… smiled. I held it for some time, and then I dropped it. “There. You happy now?” “That’s… quite a good start. Keep training and you’ll get the hang of it” “Ya looked pristine spit n’ shine, Sunshine. You should hear the mare more often” Said mare beamed in pride while the pegasus left us to get her order. “Sunshine…” She said while giving her mockingly amused glare “Remember your promise” To which she instantly shifted to a thoughtful expression “That blue grass joint… can I try some later? He seemed really excited about it.” “Not a chance. If it’s consumption causes half of the stuff that the pegasus said to appear, it will cause you a cardiac arrest from overexcitement or something like that…” And as for me… my mind was already fucked up as it was without any external sources aiding it… ============================== [><]============================= “This is the place? It’s awfully huge for a workshop…” “Haven’t you followed the signs? Then, obviously, IT IS the place, you silly colt.” I sighed. Hoofstok was literally an enormous maze. Confound all those corridors, alleys and everything…Makes me wonder how this place was before the disaster… possibly full of pegasus and earth ponies down on their luck, trying to earn they everyday dough on one of those unicorn-held factories, enduring poor safety conditions, starvation and such… at least, they had better living standards than us, the Zone dwellers… Anyways… we finally reached the indicated workshop after endless drifting on the dark. It was a big, 5-story construction site. Gray-slated like much of the other Hoofstok buildings, this one stood above most of the others. The green arrows furthermore pointed inside I just hoped that the mechanic wasn’t like the barkeep… So, we entered it. On the middle of the building, a few broken down BTRs, their hulls split open and power cables erupting from their engines to a generator at the side. Possibly the source of all electrical output produced by Freedom… the arrows pointed upside the stairs. After crossing several floors, I noticed that most of them suited the purpose of storage. Rusted hulls, scrap metal, chains, school desks. It seemed odd why a mechanic would need that much metal… I mean, he wasn’t going to build vehicles or anything. You’d have to be way out of your mind to consider driving around the Zone. One anomaly, and blam! As I predicted, the actual workshop was on the roofing. Cramped, like Hoofstok itself, a multitude of apparel lay scattered. Three workbenches, boxes and boxes atop shelves, filled to the top with scraps, wrenches and the like. Around a corner, some lockers, a few chests and a bookshelf. Some bolts lay scattered around the floor. On the walls, schematics and pictures of technology, including armor. A framed message was particularly insightful: “In order to create a decent IL, one must recreate the universe first” Also, a makeshift targeting range was set at the other side of the room. Some ragdolls dressed on Duty’s colors and a blue circle painted on the floor, at some distance from them, to mark the position where the shooter was supposed to stand. The technician, an orange unicorn stallion with black goggles, was using one of the workbenches; he was using a blowtorch to mold a marekarov into shape. Near his station, a lit lamp with a red and a blue strings I was unsure how to approach him, as the stallion seemed really involved with his work… I crept nearer and got a better look at him. His cutie mark was shaped like a… frying pan, and how odd, a frying pan throwing noodles into the air. I guess he was either into the snack or into cooking…. I patted my hoof at his back, which immediately stiffened. He stopped his craft and faced us. “Are you Dominic Silverwrench?” “Depends of who is asking… what business have you?” He answered with an uninterested tone. “Oh… I so want one of these…” An excited squeak came from behind me. Lielle was pointing at one of the pictures at the wall, the one depicting a stalker with one of those frames designed to support weaponry “Ah… an excellent choice. I wonder why you don’t have one already…” The mechanic said. “I wish I had… But they never let me buy one… said it was “too dangerous” for me… excuses, excuses…” “Nonsense… if you know how to properly use them, they are as good as your mouth, or telekinesis, for that matter…” Now that he mentioned it, it was really numbing how the heck the earth ponies and pegasus stalkers used those things with such ease… I suppose it wouldn’t harm to ask… “Dom… how do these things work?” Lielle gave me a look of pure unbelief “You mean, you don’t know how the frame works too? Gosh… have you been living under a rock locked inside a safe which key was buried, which upon a house was erected and never inhabited due to an astronomical rent cost?” She moved her head with both disdain and contempt. “It is okay…” Dominic gave me a condescending look. “Most of unicorns don’t really bother finding out about the frame’s workings, since we can just use our TK at will. But fair enough, if you’re interested, a little lecturing isn’t going to harm you” He crossed the room, reaching the pictures and stood by the first one. “This is the ancestor of the frame.” They were two slim pieces of flexible metal slabs, holding a bolted SMG at one of the ends and the other edge supported at the pony’s body by a collar. “This model dates from before the… accident. Commissioned by none other than Celestia herself, it was thoroughly imbued with magic. Basically, two metal “arms” that followed each motion swiftly and precisely, paired by an ease of use and a practical design. You see… it was originally used by photographers. Heh… only some time later, it was repurposed to be used in conjunction with guns… nowadays, almost nopony uses them…” “Wait a second… you got me there. If it was easy to use, practical and accurate as well… why you don’t use it anymore?” The technician answered with a smile. He obviously was enjoying the subject, which was his expertise. “It was practical for cameras… Not so much for weapons. For instance, there is this one thing called recoil. This particular frame was too much soaked with magic. When magic is imbued to a designated object, the designated object wears much faster. This is the reason why everypony always enchant heavy-duty materials. Mithril, adamantite , titanium and such… as a mass produced item, the pre-frame was made of regular iron. It doesn’t hold up much long with the recoil kicks and overheating generated from a firearm. Additionally, you cannot possibly use it to wield any weapon bigger or heavier than an AK… a simple matter of center of mass.” “Which is why it was ditched in favor of the actual one.” He pointed to the second picture, the one that Lielle was squeaking at. The usual frame used by stalkers everywhere. “Nopony knows who came up with the actual design, but the guy was a fucking genius. No magic on this beauty, everything here is full old school technology craftspony. The Firearm Relay Aid on Maneuvering for Equines, F.R.A.M.E. for shorters, is a true standout. As you can see, the firearm is now attached to the side of the pony, the much-needed stability. Of course, accuracy suffered in the process, but hey, if this one was sturdy enough to last more than two gunfights and most ponies used wide-spread weaponry, such as assault rifles, SMGS, or shotties, why bother?” “You said that it was crafted without using magic. But if that is true, then, how the heck can the user maneuver their weapons? They’ll be just strapping them.” Dominic opened another smile, it seemed like he was waiting for that question. “Say, you have a weapon that originally was used on a frame?” “Where that does relate to the subject at hoof?” “You have one or not?” “I have an AK which was looted from a raider” “Can I borrow it? I won’t ruin it or anything….” “I guess so…” I said while floating the AK to him. He picked it up mid air with his own TK. “Here, have you seen carefully? Here, on the trigger.” He was right. There was a small red blob on the side of the trigger. Somehow, I have failed to spot it before the moment… although, I really never held the weapon up close to my eye, the telekinesis allowed me the luxury to just operate it from a distance “Now, see carefully, because I am only going to do this once…” And he approached the red blob to the tip of his horn, holding it there for two minutes. After that amount of time, the trigger melted and fell off from the AK… but before hitting the ground, it solidified again. “Thanks.” Dominic said while returning my AK. To my surprise, the trigger was intact. The only difference is that it no longer held the red blob. An exact copy of the trigger, but with the red blob included, was lying on the ground. “This little thing.” Dominic said while floating the trigger. “An interesting piece of old world technology…a motion sensor. Conceptually, it allows limited telekinesis over an particular object. Technology mimicking magic, heh. It is used in conjunction with a motion receiver, which looks rather similarly, except it is a blue blob onto a metallic scrap, those are spread all over the frame.Back on the day, this technology was really popular, used all across Equestria by earth ponies and pegasus for work and leisure. Of all the spells, TK is by far, the most practical, although many of us take it for granted, we’d be desperate if we lost it, even for moments. And such usefulness reflected on the motion sensor, developed by compressing the device to perform limited patterns of action and reaction chains, in the form of a more limited and more sluggish version of TK, but hey, as long as it works.... It really isn’t that hard to find or to be produced either… even if you have only a box of scraps. So, by properly calibration, when a pony does a certain predefined action or gesture, he will be able to move his weapon (evidently, constrained by being attached to him, but such is the price…) or fire it. Easy peasy.” “And what about these others?” there were two more pictures left… “The next one is the IMPREF. Improved Pre-Frame” The pony in the picture was carrying a similar frame to the 1st picture, but with two additional “arms”, and the structure covered in spikes, additional reinforcing plates, leather straps and such. It was attached to a Vintar. “This one is not as frail as the original pre-frame, thanks due to a reduced dosage of magic on it’s crafting. This model keeps the accuracy and handling of the pre-frame, but, thanks due to the reduced magic, it is the most sluggish of all the frames. This one is mainly used by snipers, since they require absolute precision and do their job with only a few shots” “And the last one… the pride and glory of the Zone, the Exoskeleton and SEVA frames.” He pointed to the picture. Two ponies with overly huge weapons clad in those dreadnaught armors “Heavy, heavy as fuck, I tell ya. But they can take one helluva beating, lug around a quarter of a ton, and hold up those badass weapons without a pinch. Missile launchers, flamethrowers, miniguns… you name it. If a pony can scrounge a not so small fortune, he can get on one of those and literally stomp on any opposition. It has a really fancy inbuilt targeting system, on which a visor inside the helmet gives a weapon-vision, giving surgeon-level accuracy!” The unicorn glared at us with pride. To the looks of it, he didn’t get much opportunity to snub his specialized knowledge on others. “So, about my frame…” “Ah, right…” He opened a locker and pulled out a sunrise suit, exactly the same that Lielle wore, only that his had the frame. “I keep some of these ready, as not to submit my customer’s armor to the whole framing process… it can take quite long. So, I trade in these premades for the unframed one plus the price for the frame and a bit more for the integrity/condition difference between them” “How much is going to be, then?” He glanced a but at her sunrise suit, evaluating it and searching for flaws, bullet holes and scratches, there were quite a few. “Hmmm… you two seem like nice fellas… I suppose I can make it for 750 bits…” The mare opened her widest smile. “Deal.” “Now, you can change there” He pointed to a curtain near the lockers The mare grabbed the framed suit into her mouth and darted to the curtain, appearing again in a few moments with her new armor. “All the motion receivers are already installed and in place, here.” He opened a chest and pulled a hunting rifle, then, he picked up the motion sensor from before and floated it into the trigger… it looked like the device “dematerialized” when in contact with the trigger, integrating itself into it. “Go to that blue circle and use this dummy to calibrate and define the gestures, and to get some practice as well…” He said while strapping the rifle to her frame. The mare proceeded to tinker around with it. She moved the gun up and down, sideways, and tried firing it, the rifle produced a thin squirt of water. Soon enough, she was trying to aim at the targets and getting the feel of the contraption. Although she was surely enthusiastic, she was having a hard time due to her lack of familiarity with it. “Geez…” She said after missing another squirt by roughly 30 cm. “You unicorns surely got it easy… all you gotta do is focus a bit and float around your weapons…” “Not really… telekinesis is much like strength, you see… it varies from individual to individual can be extenuated and you need to exercise it everyday in order to get it working correctly…” The technician said with expertise. Damn, he was even making me feel shameful for not knowing these specifics about the most peculiar spell of my own race. “So, I won’t ever see one of you guys floating a rocket launcher or another big gun?” The technician blinked. “No, you actually will. Although, excepted exceptional individuals aside, most unicorns won’t be able to properly handle them, due to the sheer size and weight… that is, if they aren’t aided…” “Aided? You mean, there is a way to directly improve telekinetic potential?” He answered me swiftly. “There is now. By tapping the power of particular artifacts, anything is possible…” Artifacts, artifacts… they seemed to be the answer for everything. Crystallized trinkets originated from anomalies, bulging with unspeakable powers. Just the equally wonderful and deadly potentials of magic… “Although, most of us just use the suits to bring out the heavy guns. Gravitational artifacts are hard to come by.” He glanced back to the mare “Yes, that’s it. Now you’re getting it.” Indeed, she was improving, slowly but steady. “Now Dom, could you work out some electronic gadget of mine?” “Let’s see… can you show it to me?” I grabbed the PDA and handed over to him, the mechanic began to hoof around it instantly. “Looks like there is nothing wrong with this personal desktop…” “Exactly… what is wrong is a recorded message onto it, it sounds just like gibberish. i was wondering if you are able to decode it, if it is.” The unicorn floated ear plugs and hoofed the PDA until he found the recording, then played it. After he listened carefully to it, he placed his verdict “Indeed, it is encrypted. A very peculiar old-world encryption, named FFE” “What does it stand for?” “Fluttershy Frequency Encryption. A special encryption that configures the entire message to be played on sub-hearing levels, with only the possessor of a predetermined code being able to decode it. Named after an important peace-mongering mare or something,if i recall correctly…” “Well, can you decode it? And if so, how much it is going to set me back?” The unicorn gave a contemplative look. “The thing is, albeit the fact that I have software that is capable of decoding it, the whole process is going to take a while.” Delays, setbacks, time-consuming matters. My life was hanging on an hourglass, grain and grain of sand peeling away, and the whole world seemed to conspire in order to delay me… “How long? I don’t have much time left to spare…” “Depends of the size of the message, but if I were to predict, I’d say around eighteen hours. Now, as for the matter of payment…” “Yes, about it… I can’t spare much money, but I’ve got some tidbits and goods…” The technician raised his hoof, cutting my speech. “Money doesn’t matter much for immaterial services that we on Freedom provide, as the cost is negligible. However, I can only help you if I get the approval of the fat cat… you see, this looks pretty important, and the boss’s stamp of approval is needed in these cases” “But I’ve heard that all you guys are anarchists! Anarchist societies don’t possess a hierarchical order, and by consequence, neither a supreme executive officer, meaning that you could do as you please without the need for approval.” The unicorn let go a laugh “Heh heh… seems that your info on us is outdated, Stalker. Yes, we used to be anarchists. You should have seen it; a lot of guys wreaking havoc, chaos and bedlam… didn’t work out right, but was fun as hell. So, cutting short, we took a poll and came up with a new government system to fit our needs, we call it “anarcho-syndicalist commune”, in which a individual is elected as a temporary executive officer for three months, but all the decisions of that officer are ratified at special biweekly meetings by majority, in the case of internal affairs, and by a two-thirds majority in the case of external affa…” I coughed loudly “But well, I digress. Thing is, you need to raise your rep with us, thus getting into the boss’ graces, to get me working into it.” I sighed… sometimes; there is no way out of certain situations. “Any ideas how to aid Freedom’s cause?” “You’ve met Wavey, right? Pegasus, green eyes, barkeep, always pulling a crazy-ass mental blowout with his joints. Isn’t exactly the most subtle pony around” “We were properly… er… acquainted, as to say.” “Yes, yes… I know what you’ve gone through. I had to shake that crackpot off my tail way too many times, has a thing for unicorns, the bastard.” He drew a long breath. “Some things can’t be helped. If you want to prove yourself, he’s been looking for volunteers to undergo a very special task, ordered directly down from the boss. If you think you’re up to the game, seek him out…” “Can you start the process while I’m working into the task?” The unicorn considered it for a minute. “I suppose so… that’s nice loophole on the rules, by the way.” He said while giving me an accomplice’s blink. “Hey hornbags, check this out, I’m good now!” Splash! Splash! Splash! Amazing… she grew from a disaster on the range from a sharp-eyed marksmare in no time… I’d be delighted, if she weren’t using it to soak me to the bone at the time. Dominic gave a sharp look to her while still under “fire”. He focused his magic onto the red string at his lamp and pulled it. In response, the ceiling right above Lielle opened and several water-filled balloons fell over her, soaking the now deadpan mare. “Never start a war you cannot win.” The unicorn said while stifling his laughter. At the moment, I felt a revengeful smile crept around my face. “I think that’s enough messing around with the dummy.” Dominic said while strapping it off from her frame. “Which gun are you going to use into your frame?” The redhead mare went to her saddlebag and pulled out the throat needler. The poor thing has seen better days, being a makeshift weapon, it was barely holding together, giving the impression that it was going to fall apart at any moment. Lielle “solved” the most critical issues by performing repairs to it, which amounted only to adding rather copious amounts of… duct tape, all over the infrastructure. “Er… are you sure? Does that thing even have a trigger?” Good question… I didn’t questioned Peppermint about the most basic of things about the gift… an excusable oversight, I guess. But nevertheless, the mare pointed to the trigger, right under the ammunition storage on the weapon. Dominic floated the dummy rifle to me. “Your turn to remove the sensor receiver, friend. Remember, just do as I did.” I approached the blob on the trigger to the tip of my own horn, and focused magical energy onto it. It felt like a channeling process, that if I stopped it, the action would fail. After the two minutes, the trigger itself dematerialized and fell on the ground, solid again. “Why magic? I mean, why a technological apparatus used only by pegasus and earth ponies requires magic to be repurposed onto another object?” The dusk unicorn just shrugged. “Dunno, I suppose it was a design flaw, a way to avoid including a possibly costly improvement, or if you are with the conspiracy lot, Celestia wanted to keep the pegasai and the earth ponies in check or dependant of unicorns… either way, only unicorns can repurpose motion sensors… would be amazingly effective in combat, if weren’t for the fact it takes two uninterrupted minutes with your horn touching it…” I floated the device and pushed it into the throat needler’s trigger. The device soon absorbed the trigger into it. Then, Dominic took hold of the gun and strapped it onto Lielle’s frame. “Alright, there’s it. Now, the bits, if you please…” The azure mare pulled off the amount from her bag and tossed her old sunrise suit to the stallion as well. As the technician was counting his money, I floated the PDA to him, so he could get started with it. “Then, good luck with the job… er… I never really asked your names, did I ?” I shook my head negatively. “No problems pal. Mine is Boshan and the “mermare” over there is called Lielle” I said while holding my own laughter… the poor mare was still trying to dry herself. “I see… Pleasured to meet both of you. Now if you excuse me, I’d better finish working into this” And he pointed to the marekarov pistol he was tinkering with before we came. We waved goodbyes (Lielle’s was half-hearted, since she still resented at being caught on her own game) and went down back to the Hoofstok alleyways “That Dominic is sure a nice guy, don’t you think? He knows a lot and such and even took the time to explain me the minutiae about the frames…” “If by nice you mean somepony who’d trigger out an intentional trap onto an innocent customer…” “It was all in good fun, Lielle. Besides, you had it coming. Plus, the trap wasn’t specifically meant for you.” Which made me wonder how many times he got soaked by unruly clients before setting it up… In response, she just grumbled something about how laying traps told much about somepony’s shady and paranoid personality, to which I dismissed as overreacting. ============================== [><]============================= “Ah, my newest friends again! To what do I owe this pleasure, guys? Found our smooth city pleasing?” At that time, the bar was nearly empty. Must have been around 3 or 4 o’clock by the time we entered it for the second time that day “Hey Wavey! The pony I wanted to see. I’ve been talking to Dominic and…” His eyes grew a fearful expression and his voice showed a hint of panic: “He is a bloody liar! Doesn’t matter what he said, I totally didn’t do it, it was like that before I touched it, seriously!” He was nearly yelling at the top of his lungs I glanced confusedly at the mad pegasus, and said “No, it is not about that, wherever it is… he mentioned that you have some kind of task, coming down directly from your boss…” To which, after hearing my reply, he looked immensely relieved “Ah, phew. Sorry about the outburst bro. it is just that my little screwhead is rather temperamental about his works… by any chance, you wouldn’t mention anything about my attitude to him, will you? pleaseplease” I take it back. Sunshine Hotdog isn’t such a bad name; after all, Dominic had it far worse and lived on with his. “What happens at the Bar, stays at the Bar, I suppose…” “Thanks a lot bro, I respect ya now. About the mission… we had been having some mutant trouble out of late…” “Well, fear no longer! I have hunted so many of them… striders, pseudos, blind dogs, boars…” The mare started to list down the creatures. “What kind are we going to face?” The pegasus gave us a deep look and answered gravely. “Bloodsuckers” The fire on Lielle’s eyes quickly died out, only to be replaced by sheen fear. Nevertheless, she did her best to look calm. “Bloodsuckers? How much are we talking about?” I inquired “From seven to eleven, I guess… maybe more. They mostly stayed onto their den, we certified of that, but a recent event has stirred them.” “And you want us to slaughter them off? Two lone stalkers against hooffulls of mutants?” The pegasus shook his head a few times. “No, no, no… why such negativity? Nopony said nothing about killing, bro. Peace and love all the way. The bloodsuckers were fine, we were fine, everything was in place into the cosmic line before… until loners came into the equation. You see, much of the negative emotions on this planet make me sad, but the worst is greed. They were so intended on raiding the lair for treasures, that we couldn’t talk them out of it. And so they went there, looking for fame and fortune… most of them were wiped out, their mangled limbs remaining as a warning for other foolhardy fellows. But one of them, with quick hooves and short-lived compassion to their “friends” was able to crawl out of the lair. And not empty-hoofed.” And he pulled something from under the counter. A box “Peek inside brother, and bask into peace.” I moved my head to peek inside the box and I’ve saw it on it’s interior: an oblong golden object, resembling an dragon egg in size and shape. It produced a soft luminescence… oddly, it was somewhat enticing… an artifact, undoubtedly.” “They’ve brought an artifact. So what ?” “So what that the Zone is angry at us. This artifact was given as a tribute to the mother earth. By taking it out of its place, the fools managed to incur onto her wrath. As a result of their defilement, the bloodsuckers are now popping out of their den every now and then.” “So, what do exactly you require us to do about it?” “Return the artifact to it’s righteous resting place, only then will balance be restored. You will be rewarded handsomely if you pull this out, bro. the suckers are giving us a hard time.” “Wait, wait… if I get this right, you expect us to cut a swath around a bloodsucker infested lair, and wander aimlessly in the dark until, by blind luck, we stumble upon whenever place the loner found it?” “We have the exact dropzone location, somewhere around the 2nd underground floor, pinpointed. If you accept it, we’ll provide it along with updated maps for the region. As for cutting a swath, that’s ungroovy bro. You must not kill a single bloodsucker. It will further enrage mother earth and she will spawn another, only more savage, in due time. Yes, I know that they are bloodthirsty savage abominations, but in the end, they do not differ much from animals, they only protect their own, go hunting only when they need. They’ve been only acting weird because of this problem.” “Are you out of your fucking mind? How the hell we’re supposed to deal with them? Befriend the bloodsuckers? Or serve myself on a silver platter for them, invite them for a romantic dinner or even bring them flowers, yes, that’s ought to solve the issue…” “I find your need for sarcasm as a sign of a deep internal sorrow, sunshine. If you want suggestions, just try to avoid them. If you cannot, you can hurt them. Hurt, but do not kill. Hurt them until they flee. As much as I dislike them, we must respect their home.” Fuck this… accepting this job would be suicide. “Isn’t there anything else we can do?” “I feel for you bro, but there isn’t really nothing else. Look on the brighter side…” He opened a moronic smile “Since there are almost no takers for this job, we are granting a juicy pay for it… and besides, doing it will definitively put up a good word for your relation to the boss” Goddamn it… why it always amounted to the same thing? I having no choice other than comply… well, if I was going to die anyway, I’d much as better die trying to find a way out of it instead of waiting a month (less…) to drop dead. “Okay… we’ll do it. But the pay must be worth it, and the reputation as well… and look here, if by any chance I die out there and rise after three days as a blood-sucking monster, I will come for you blood, understood?” The stallion swallowed a gulp. “That’s fair enough, I guess… now, hoof over your PDA so I can update it with the info…” I hoofed over the gadget to the pegasus, he drew his own PDA and a cable, then connected both devices and fiddled around his. “There ya go, bro.” He had marked two locations at the map. “This one here marks the trader. Be sure to visit him before ya go into the lair, he has critical equipment for your mission. Just show him the marker on your PDA and he’ll provide the gear.” “And the other marker?” “Marks the entrance of the den. Once there, when you reach the 2nd underground level, your PDA will flash a third marker, the place where you should put the artifact.” He hoofed back my PDA and the box containing the artifact. I floated both things onto my saddlebag “Don’t go flashing around this artifact bro, it’s one of those pretty rare, one-of-a-kind-like thingies” “Point taken. Just as a matter of curiosity, how the hell you’ll know if we didn’t kill any bloodsucker down there?” “You see… I’ll just know. Mother earth will whisper in my ear if you commit such a sin, I will notice the disturbance onto the cosmic lifeline, and I will peek into your aura to double-check it. Is there anything else you need to know?” “I think that is enough for now…” The barkeeper left us to attend a stray client “Are you sure about this Boshan? I don’t feel like second-guessing your choices, but in this case…” “What is in your mind? Spill the beans.” She gave me her most serious and self-imposing glare. “Have you ever seen a bloodsucker?” The answer was obvious… I haven’t. All I knew was that they were equinoid mutants that had a thing for sucking others blood and were regarded as highly dangerous… but then, danger is always relative… “Never…” “I’m hardly surprised… sigh.” She drew a long breath before continuing. “They are terrible, horrible, damned and cursed creatures. Snarling, slouching decadent beings, exhaling the stench of pure corruption from their pores, coming from the very cursed depths of Equestria. Latching sharp claws and shredding teeth, lashing tentacles. All over your soft flesh, drawing away all of your blood while you still agonize through the whole process… murderous and disturbing white eyes, dancing in the darkness… they know, they watch you… they wait for a mistake… and before you can even do something, they leap at you. And then, you are lost. Forever lost… FOREVER!!!” I listened through with a big dose of skepticism. “And let me guess… you never faced one, right?” “Er… no. but the stories I’ve heard about…” I raised a hoof “Enough. Look here; are these bloodsucker thingies common on the Zone?” “Somewhat… the further you get close to the center, the more often they and other dangerous mutants show up” “So, sooner or later, we will have to face them. We could as well get over with it now.” “You have a point there. But still… I am not fully convinced if this is a good idea…” “Unless… the great mutant huntress is… afraid.” She widened her eyes instantly. “Say what?” “Scared, a chicken… cock-a-doodle-doo…” “Say that again to my face, stalker.” She haughtily raised her tone. “Afraid of a little squid-face rotten pony… I suppose she isn’t such a great huntress after all… such a shame. I guess I’ll have to do it on my own…” I said while holding a look of disappointment. Of course it was a bluff, going alone was suicidal. “Then it is decided. I’ll show you how a true mutant hunter rises to the challenge at hoof. You are taking me in, smartass.” Heh, I knew that appealing to her pride would work… “I suppose that I have no choice then…” I said while feigning innocence I drew my last bottle of vodka from the saddlebag. When I get the reward (if I get it…) I’m going to restock myself of booze On the Zone, everything was always “the last”… the last time I get some sleep, the last time I meet my friend, the last time I but some ammo, the last time I draw breath… every stalker was used to think like that, living their days on the assumption that it was their last, because in the Zone, more than somewhere else, it usually was the last if he made a mistake somewhere. Such is life (or whenever they call it…) on the Zone… Damn this vodka, making me all philosophical and shit… It was at that moment that a voice soared through the freedomers’ megaphone system. It was a weird, fucked up voice. It sounded like a Chihuahua, and was at the same time, irritating and funny. “Hey Dom, guess what I’ve got here.” A familiar voice answered him. “Geez Tinder… I can only think of what you haven’t got there… a pair, for instance. Heheheheh” “Very funny, Mrs Wavey… anyways, the graveyard shift dropped by a few corpses’ loot on me, and guess what? five NVGS not accounted by the scavenging corps !You know what they say, right? Finders keepers! “Wow, five? And they missed them all?” “Quite hard to believe, eh buddy?” “You are really quite the double-digger, Tinder. Hahahaha.” “That’s what she said! Hahaha” “Heh. So what about your stupid NVGs this has to do with me? “I was wondering if you could attach them to some of mine sunrise suits, to increase their value. Since you know how to handle this crap and all…” “Yep, I’ll take a look at them. Drop’ em and the suits at my shop, will ya?” “You know that I cannot leave my shop unattended! You get your arse and toolbox over here!” “Then, why don’t you use one of those damn NVGs right on your shop, to explore your favorite body cavity in the most unnatural way possible?” “Hey, up yours, you shitty tarkfuckering basta…” When a third voice thundered through the megaphone system, a ravishing, sharp and venom-filled, yet delicately feminine tone. “Tinder, Dominic, if you two dimwitted retards are done with your bickering, CLAMP YOUR GODDAMN MOUTHS! DAY ON AND AFTER, THE SAME FUCKING SHIT FOR ALL THE BASE TO HEAR, ANYPONY VISITING THINKS WE RUN A WHOREHOUSE!, SERIOUSLY, IF YOU TWO CAN’T GIVE ME A BREAK, I’LL THROW BOTH OF YOUR SORRY ASSES ON THE FIRST PSEUDODOG DEN I CAN FIND!” To which both stallions stopped their arguing. I raised my eyes to the barkeep. “Is this usual?” “Oh, more than you think, bro… but don’t judge the boss for what you’ve heard. She is a nice, level headed mare. It is only when that kind of situation appears that she loses her temper.” “THAT was your boss?” “Ah yeah. At least for two more months. Commander Carmelia… bro, she is quite the looker. A beautiful strong mare that don’t need no stallion.” “She is a unicorn, isn’t she?” To which panic arose in his eyes “How did you know? Are you reading my mind? Are my thoughts leaking again? Oh no, it’s happening again… I need my tinfoil hat! Whereisitwhereisitwhereisit” and he started to frantically roam thought his stuff, searching for the head ornament.” “Er, pipe down Wavey. It was just a lucky guess…” Well, almost. Knowing that he had a thing for unicorns helped a bit. “Dem bro… you almost scared me to death… you should totally like stop doing that… using logic to discern things… pfft… that’s w-e-i-r-d.” And I’ve drew another sip from the bottle… the last? ============================== [><]============================= That Chihuahua voice greeted us from beneath his counter “Hey hey hey… exigent customers… I tell ya, I can see it by the look on your faces…” Well, he had quite a store. Neatly stacked boxes, rifles in display, medkits carefully assembled onto shelves. Everything was categorically organized and clean… he probably didn’t left his shop very much… Tinder himself was a tad smaller than an average pony (but still bigger than a colt), in that issue, the grey dual-toned earth pony somewhat resembled a Chihuahua… his face consisted of a light brown mane, huge and extremely disarming blue eyes, a small nose and an overly huge smile plastered onto his mouth. “Yeah, about that… perhaps some other time, friend. We’re here to pick up some stuff…” And I showed him Wavey’s note on my PDA His face dropped to slight disappointment. “Aw… I was hoping to keep these babies… but alright buddy, if the boss is tellin’ and if it is your own deathwish, then I’ll just do as I’m told.” And he picked up a box, producing two weird green-tinted goggles from it. “Alright, since that bloodsucker den goes underground, you two are to be issued two individual, 1st generation, night vision goggles.” “Sweet!” Lielle picked up hers and wore it immediately. “Everything looks green and very bright! That is so cool… I only imagine how a rainbow would look if you were wearing one of these while looking at it!” The trader held his head, contemplatively. And then, reassumed his outgoing posture. “Hey, why not stock yourselves up before heading up onto the lair? How’ bout some medkits?” And he rushed to one of the boxes and spilled all of it’s contents over the counter “Naw, we still have a few, but thanks anyway.” Although the four or five meds we had were hardly plenty… well, rationing them would do the trick. “And bullets? Got enough? You can never have enough bullets! That’s what my mama always said, Faust bless her…” And he pulled off another box, turning it over the counter and spilling it’s contents over the already filled counter. Some of the bullets rolled to the floor. “Tinder, we appreciate your offer, but we really got enough stuff. If you could just sto…” “And what about a new shooter, Stalker? Why stick with those dog-pokers? Here, take a gander.” He said. It was mesmerizing how fast he was pulling merchandising from the shelves to the counter, making a terrible mess on both the shelves and boxes and the counter alike. Then, among all that mess, something caught my eye… I floated that rifle closer to me. It was truly a piece of art. A black coated NATO professional rifle, full with an assault sight and carbon coating… it was something to behold, so pristine and light that GP37 was… the trader must have had a lot of trouble keeping it so presentable… “Hmm… this is really nice. If I only had money right now…” Tinder’s right eye twitched a few times. Then, he reached out and violently pulled the rifle from my magical grip, holding it tight against his body. “Tinder, what are you d…” He rose his hoof, pointing to the exit. His eyes now showed pure hostility “Get out of here… Stalker.” “But…” “GET THE HELL OUT OF MY STORE!” Whit that warning, me and my companion scrammed from the precinct. On the way out, I even caught his last yell. “And don’t bother coming back until you HAVE some money to spend!” Tinder looked at his rifle… it wasn’t today that we was going to sell it for a nice price. “Fucking cheapskates, freeloaders or whenever…what the heck do they think this looks like, a goddamn charity giveaway?” And he eyed through his store, the place left on a big mess due to his savvy businesspony sale strategy “And now I have to clean up this mess again… my lovely store, left to pieces… don’t worry sweetie, I’ll fix you right up.” And he started to whistle a happy tune while cleaning up, on his own careful, organizing manner. ============================== [><]============================= Well, enough time preparing. It was time to go hunting. The updated maps on the PDA really helped traveling through Hoofstok, finding the correct path was now much easier. We were about two blocks away from the entrance, when we stumbled upon a busy Freedomer, carrying a small wagon filled with pony bodies. “Hey, watch where you are goi…” The mare raved, only to raise her eyes at us and cut her sentence short. “hey, it’s you two again! How are things going?” It took me a few moments to recall her voice. “You’re that mare that greeted us at the entrance! Didn’t recognized you without the armor… it’s your leisure time?” The honey-colored and blonde earth pony chuckled. “No, actually I’m working right now. On Freedom, we can do whenever job we fell like, it helps balance morale.” Lielle snorted her nose at the wagon. “And what in heavens is this work? Burying up the dead… you really feel like doing that?” “While it Isn’t the most pleasurable job in Equestria, it is equally important as any on Hoofstok. Plus, we do not bury the dead; I am transporting them to the “organic recycling facility”, or as everypony name it, “The butchery” My own eyes widened in both surprise and disgust. “Butchery? You EAT your own dead? That’s got to be the sickest thing I’ve…” She let go a big laugh, even rolled on the floor while holding her tummy. “Of all the ideas, that is by far, the most ridiculous… Cannibals, in Freedom. Hahahaha. No, we just store them, clean the bodies, dismember them and put the meaty tidbits into bottles, which we throw down the sewer into the bloodsucker lair. Keeps them both distracted and at bay.” “You feed them mutants? This is bottomline insanity… the way I see it, you are encouraging them to lurk around Hoofstok!” “That’s the idea. They will keep down there and won’t usually come topside to prey on the living, plus, by being fed, they won’t have to hunt for food, therefore, they grow lethargic and less dangerous… much like domestication, but on a smaller scale. What once was a mighty tiger, after generations of being fed and taken care of, bred onto just a harmless cat.” “But still… not even Freedomers get buried? Their entire destiny is to become mutant meal?” “Cremated” She corrected. “Burying a corpse is one of the worst things you can do in the Zone…” “Why so? Let the dead rest, they earned it.” “Let’em rest, but not when it becomes a burden for us, the living. And the burden are those dem’ dogs… four-pawed vultures, that’s what they are. The little shitheads can pick up the scent of a graveyard from a mile away… this is why you should never dig one near your base. All it takes is one dog. After he is successful in obtaining food, he warns the rest of the pack. And soon enough, they dig a lair near the graveyard. Soon enough, comes a point where the pack grows bigger than the number of the bodies on the graveyard. That’s when they start dogpiling on the living.” That was quite explanative… that mound of dirt at the entrance, it was a dug up graveyard. Almost likely a Duty graveyard, dismantled by Freedom when they arrived. I’d bet that them Dutyers never bothered asking why the dogs were so numerous around their front entrance, instead, they probably just threw more and more lead at them while hoping for the best… a remedial solution. “I still think that’s a rather morbid work…” Lielle said “Well, that’s life on the Zone, Stalkers. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, vodka to piss, and in some cases, back to vodka again… you get used to the system” Another Freedomer appeared at some distance, this one a stallion. He was yelling “Angie, stop loafing around and bring those remains before they rot!” She looked at us apologetically. “Sorry, I must get on with this. See you two later on.” And the mare strapped back her wagon and went her way, opposite to ours. A bit of more trotting and we found the place indicated onto the marker. A broken wall onto a factory was the “entrance” of the den, flanked on the both sides by sacks of sands, metal crates, and any kind of sturdy crap that the Freedomers could put together for cover. All of them were facing the entrance, and a squad of Freedomers pointed their guns inside. Numerous scavenged “danger” and “stop” signs were around the broken wall, adorned by tied up ghost charms, presumably the work of superstitious Freedomers to “ward the place against evil spirits” or some other crap like that… Above the entrance, a lone wooden plank stood supreme, with an especially ominous statement written upon it: “What the eyes fail to spot, the flesh shall soon feel…” “The heck is this? Looks like another foolhardy stalker group…” The Freedom squad leader, an stallion wearing a SEVA suit with the Freedom colors, left his position and approached us. “Don’t you two know how to read? The signs aren’t exactly subtle…” “We were issued a mission…” And I showed my PDA to him. “Well… seems like they hadn’t given up hope yet. Such a futile effort…ok, you two may enter. Just don’t expect any rescue.” And hoof after hoof, I stepped inside that building, my companion following my lead. I felt something weird under my hooves... Dried blood ============================== [><]============================= I couldn’t see shit now… for the past ten or twenty minutes, we had enough sunlight to guide ourselves, but now, after a few rooms and corridors, everything was deep black. I turned on my NVG. Suddenly, the interior become a bright green picture. It was so quiet; I could almost hear my hoofsteps… “So, since you know so much about the bloodsuckers, how long until we find one?” She put her hoof onto her own mouth. “Shhh… quiet. You must not warn them. There will be plenty of time for chatting, once we are out of here.” Too much for trying to cut up the tension a bit. The corridor we were walking upon ended on a square room. Dusty floor, decaying walls, rotten furniture and paintings, pretty much basic. By the looks of it, looked like some kind of check-in room for the workers, mail receiving and general rest area. A broken elevator lay opened and eternally motionless by the west wall, the east wall had a passage that was blocked by debris. The only way was north, opposite from the south wall we came. I walked to it, but then, something detained me. “Do you smell… roast?” She walked to my side and looked to the interior. “Nothing there, but I smell something odd too.” Then, a bright light flared on my field of vision. FWOOOOOSHHH !!! FWOOOSH!!! I took off the NVG and clearly saw it. A burner anomaly. The thing was actually… moving. It was rotating clockwise on the annex room. On the middle of the room that the anomaly was, a pony corpse wearing Duty colors, its bare skull charred by flames, which was licked by the burner every time it passed through it. On the other side of that room, I spotted an exit, leading further deep into the factory. “A rotating anomaly. C’mon, just time it out.” And Lielle waited until the anomaly was at some distance and jumped into the room. She followed closely the anomaly without actually stepping onto it, and jumped out at the exit. Then, she moved her hoof, calling me to go on. If she did it, how hard could it be? I fixated my eyes onto the anomaly; it was coming back to my front. Once it moved a bit, I jumped inside. Hot, hot, hot! The flood beneath my hooves was boiling, and the burner in front of me emitted so much heat! I steeled my will and set my gaze onto it, moving synchronously with it. In itself, it was a test of heat resistance and focus! And to think that the redhead made it look easy! FWOOOOOSHHHHHH !!! FWOOOOOOOOSH!!! Time to move aga…whoaaa! The mare pulled me out of the room! I was so focused onto the anomaly, that I failed to notice that I’ve already reached the exit. “Forgetting something?” she asked amusedly “I got a bit carried… let’s move out.” And on another dark corridor we went. On its end, a passage to further north, blocked by debris, and another corridor into the west. When we’ve reached the intersection, a spine-chilling roar has made us keep halt! GRAWULLFLWULLLWULLL!!! I aimed my AK down the corridor, nothing to be seen there. “The heck was that?” “I don’t know, didn’t sound like any mutant I know… if I were to guess, it is… one of them nearby. Just be very… very… careful.” I nodded, and we both readied our guns. The western corridor ended in a much larger room. A machine with a conveyor belt took up much of the center of the room. Upon it, a number of mounds of old rags, the fabric or clothes that this particular factory was producing before being abandoned. To think that poor earth ponies and pegasai were subjected to sixteen working hours on such places at the origins of the industrial revolution… it was probably suffocating and crowded when the machinery was on. We started to move around the eastern wall, the room was huge. When I’ve noticed a particular room annexed to the big one. From my viewpoint, a large number of lockers were located inside it. I trotted closer to inspect it, when something caught my eye. There, standing in a corner, a stalker. Covered in a brown (I assumed, since I had the NVG on and was seeing everything green…) long coat, he was… weeping over the body of another dead stalker. I couldn’t actually make it out his tears, since he was facing the wall… A survivor! He probably has gone mad, or lost, or even brain-dead. The least I could do was try to help him. “Hey Stalker, you must leave. It is not safe around these parts.” No response. I took a few steps closer to him. “I’m sorry for your loss, but you can’t do anything more for your friend. Go home before you end up like him.” Still no response from him. I turned my face to Lielle, interrogatively She shook her head, telling us to move on. Dammit… just one more try. I stepped even more closely to the stalker; I could hear him breathing over the body of his friend. “I said that you should go. Are you trying to get killed by a bloodsucker?” I put my hoof over his shoulder. All of a sudden, he stopped his ritual, turned his face to me and I could see it. I saw clearly all of those pestilent pores, snout nose, scaly skin, meaty tentacles and blank, hungry eyes devoid of life. Even if it was only for a split second, the close-up image of the face of a bloodsucker was forever imprinted on my mind. And by my own stubbornness, I broke his feeding trance Huarfw, Huarfw, Hisss! And a sharp and swift hoof tore through my armor, pulling me onto one of those lockers, which crashed into the dusty floor. The creature jumped to the side, dropping the rotting piece of fabric that someway ended up atop him. And he started to… regurgitate. Somehow he was exhaling some substance from his pores too, all over his body. PLUCHT, PLUCHT, PLUCHT. Three stakes hit the wall, the monster having vanished from thin air! Huarfw, Huarfw, Huarfw… I rose up and looked around the room, that fucker was close by. I could smell it, I could almost touch it, but he was moving around, too fast, unseen, and with a dangerous punch. It was desperate… “SHIT, SHIT, SHIT…” Huarfw, Huarfw… Hersss… And two white eyes leaped from the corner, while the full weight of the invisible hooves came upon my flank; cracking a metal plate on my barding… they were unbelievably strong for a mutant that was about the same size as an average pony. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG… The mare unloaded a full marekarov clip onto him, two shots hitting the mutant. He reappeared into vision after being shot. It changed his focus from me. The bloodsucker leaped out of the way and ran to her… Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw…. He raised his roof in anticipation, but by the time, I was already up and with my AK ready. RATTLERATTLE… The shot hit the bloodsucker’s right shoulder. He fizzled a bit, a wound oozing into his shoulder. He then disappeared into sight again and those pair of white eyes trotted away into the depths of darkness. After all, just like Wavey said, they were just animals. Not willing to fight to the death, unless in special circumstances. Mean, horrifically mutated, carnivorous and genetically augmented animals… My flank and side had nasty claw wounds… shit. These bloodsuckers sure packed a mean punch. I had to use two medkits to tend my wounds…we were down to three left. “That wasn’t so bad; that one didn’t put much of a long fight after all…” “Are you mad? That fucker nearly torn me apart! From now on, we are laying extra-low profile while in here.” “If you weren’t so impulsive…” I shrugged… there was no point on keep arguing. Time could be better spent at completing the mission. “Guard the doorway. I’m going to search around…” She nodded. I eyed through the room. A small locker room used by the workers, four scores of green-colored (Nightvision-wise) lockers. I opened one of them, hoping to find something usable or insightful about our surroundings. Pretty much everything was unusable. Rotten food, balls of lint, broken bottles, rusted tools, punctured jumpsuits… I drew a sigh after closing the fifth locker. It was worthless. I took a moment to examine the corpse that the bloodsucker was feeding on… the poor sod was only a lifeless and withered husk now, with no clue about his identity, faction or gender, so disheveled it was… Then, my gaze went to the walls. There were some ancient posters over them… Not a single one deviated from the basic political message. I turned off the NVG and used the flashlight to see them better… An enormous redheaded white alicorn looking down on thousand of black ponies charring in flames under her: “Pony hell is a real place, and Faust sends insurgents to there.” A black earth pony stallion in a mid-jump, wearing a red handkerchief around his neck that was covering his mouth, holding a cocktail Molotov in his right hoof: “Insurgency is a crime. Do not let these dregs ruin our fair monarchy. Denounce any insurgency or suspicious behavior you may witness” A shining and rich town atop a mountainside, Canterlot. And under it, a number of smaller towns that composed the equestrian landscape. There was also a point where a line showed where Celestia’s domains ended and some ruler else’s started, these ones were colored a dull gray in contrast to all the glory of the equestrian domains. “Down with insurgency! May the monarchic regimen shine for another two thousand years!” “My filly, an insurgent? I’d rather see her seven feet under!” And the figure of a green-colored stallion with a cardboard crown, holding a small flag with the emblem of a sun and using his other hoof to amorously pat on his filly’s head. “Join the Equestrian monarchic pride today! Ask your assigned supervisor for details” Makes you think how much Celestia held an iron grip over her domain… but it was all over now. She was most definitely dead… and the insurgents possibly as well, If they stood in the Zone. I pulled out my PDA to study the map. That big room had four corridors deeper into the factory… one that we came from, then there were three to choose. The stair down to the first underground level wasn’t so far away… only two corridors and one room, after the conveyor belt room, to get to it. “Ok… I’ve had enough rest. Let’s move out.” She nodded. I turned off the flashlight and turned on the NVG. We trotted to the other side of the rusted machine, reaching the second door on the western wall. An “L” shaped corridor led on, long fallen-off tiles adorned the ground, cracks and holes decorated the walls. GRAWUUUU! Grawuf, grawu... More bloodsuckers! I crouched down, and my friend quickly did the same. I moved ahead in a turtle pace, keeping my two eyes opened. When I ended up on the room after the corridor. It was a catwalk platform lying above the underground level. And the bloodsuckers were directly down below. They probably haven’t spotted us yet. I’ve seen three of them. Two of them, one unicorn and an earth pony, were… cuddling? I had no clue of what they were doing… only that they were too close… they were perhaps a couple or something, which made me think, who was the female or the male? They looked all the same. I wondered how these abominations of nature reproduced, if they did it at all, on the biological sense of the word. The third bloodsucker was still, he stood there, breathing, but immobile. He was… sleeping? Seemed so. To the hell these wayward creatures… “I take it back, they doesn’t look so bad…” The azure mare whispered. No, I take it back… these mutants were way more trouble than it was worth, and now my flank ached in terrible pain because of them. If I were using only a coat, the bloodsucker’s punch would definitely be able to tear me in two. It wasn’t a very comforting thought… After we carefully crawled toward the other side, another corridor. This was a straight one; it led to the set of stairs. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!!!!BEEPBEEPBEEP!! Almost stepped over onto an anomaly! It was directly below the stair, like, meant exactly to hurt the impatient stalker… As I looked upon the ground, my NVG brightened up with the anomaly’s light, to which I turned it off. The anomaly was very, very bright. It was a green bubbling puddle, lighted on like a Christmas tree in the middle of the underground lair. A “forgotten” limb was onto it, slowly dissolving with a soft hiss, meaning that the anomaly was composed of acid of some kind… “Fruit punch, a puddle of corrosive liquid of unknown origin, commonly found on underground locations” informed the ever-handy PDA. “Hey, check these out, Boshie…” And she was laying over the anomaly to look it better. I reached closer to see it… Worms, tiny brown worms were squirming along the anomaly… they were over the limb too, looked like they lived and thrived onto the acid anomaly…such a weird thing. The Zone, in the same level that created life-depriving environments, created life-supporting environments as well… We cautiously moved past it, reaching the antechamber below. I could hear those disgusting bloodsuckers from across the wall… Luckily, according to the PDA maps that Wavey gave me, the factory stretched in several corridors and rooms underground Hoofstok, being even connected to the sewers, below the 2nd underground level. This area was dark on the PDA, meaning that the explorer didn’t go toward them. Thankfully, this layout probably gave a lot of room for the bloodsuckers to stretch their hooves, diminishing our chances to stumble upon one. But even with that information in mind, I couldn’t help seeing a moving shadow at every corner we crossed, a creak of unknown origin at every room and I was almost sure I could hear hoofsteps nearby. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks at me... “EEEEeeekkk!” I snapped alert at the second, trotting close to her. “What’s the matter? Another one of those things?” “No, there is blood all over there…” She was right. On the section nearby, an extensive pool of blood laid bare. It drew a straight line into a room. Almost like… Almost like if a Stalker with deep bleeding wounds slouched or was dragged into the room… Okay, I suppose it wasn’t a very bright idea to follow a trail like that, but I let my curiosity get the best of me. And I instantly regretted that decision when I entered the room… I’ve seen gore before, even killed another pony. But this… This was a fucking bloodbath. There were five corpses, two bloodsuckers and three Stalkers. One of the Stalkers, an earth pony, was at the corner, his body covered in several tourniquets and clothing dried with blood, this was the one which was dragged inside, his wounds suggested massive hemorrhagic trauma and his leather coat was thoroughly pierced. The poor pony had been a bloodsucker punching bag… The other two Stalkers had less severe, but equally deadly wounds. One, another earth pony, had numerous small wounds into his face and a look of pure terror. One of the bloodsuckers, its hide punctured by numerous bullets and a hooffull of buckshot, laid on his lap. One of the tentacles of the beast was still glued to the Stalker’s face. I could only wonder what was the last thing the unfortunate victim saw… While the third Stalker, a unicorn, had two cracked hooves, and his cause of death was being shelled in the head at point-blank by a sawn-off shotgun, more precisely, the same sawn off he was holding with one of his undamaged hooves, while his PDA was glowing softly nearby his body. Tidbits of his head, brain and horn were scattered around the room, mixed with the rest of the gore. Judging by the state of things, they had been dead for two or three days. The second bloodsucker… well, I was stepping on it. He had his neck gutted by SMG fire. “Urgh… this is… I have no words, it is so revolting.” Not looking “not-so-bad” now, don’t they? Damn, I was nearly throwing up my lunch… The room was furnished with bunk-beds, footlockers and a wardrobe. An area for “permanent workers” to rest, I believe… now all of these were spattered in two or three layers of blood… Hopefully, the Stalker’s PDA would shed some light into the situation… I took it from the Loner’s dead hooves; there were only two entries of interest, the unicorn’s two last entries: “I can’t… it is just so much… I’m going to write it down, so I can put some of it out of my mind… It was all that bitch’s fault! Damned be Blueberry! I knew that mare wasn’t the brightest light bulb on the drawer! “I bet these Freedom boys aren’t guarding a ruined factory so heavily for nothing.” She said. “If you ask me, they must be keeping some really nice loot down there, and spread all these stories about bloodsuckers so that they can hoard all the swag for themselves!” Well, look at the result! If I only didn’t let myself be fooled by her promises of first rate loot… but it is too late now… After we snuck inside during a change of guards, everything seemed to go smooth. When we reached the 2nd level below the surface, we found that “golden egg” artifact, floating over a stalagmite with a weird halo across it. But that didn’t stopped us from grabbing it. That’s where everything went to shit. After somepony pocketed it and we started backtracking our way to the surface, these monsters attacked us! Several hooves went down on Morning Dew’s coat like it was tissue paper! Poor Morning Dew… there is nothing we can do for him now, but delay his death. He is now bleeding through holes I didn’t even knew he had… I tried to suffice his wounds with some fabric ripped straight from my own coat, but it is no use. If I still had my backpack! It was stocked with medkits and bandages. I must have dropped it during the gunfight… it is no use now. There is no way I’m going down there again. We already danced with death by pulling Morning Dewl out of there, while Blueberry… she trotted away! She and Tripwire too! Coward bastards! Now Morning Dew is moaning in the corner, while Scattershot and I are guarding the doorway… I can hear those monsters out there, they smell our fear, there is no hope, no way out. I should have never left the cordon. I hope one of those bastards get Blueberry… the bitch deserves to rot in pony hell…” The last entry was even more insightful… “Too much for expecting rescue… we were doomed from the start. There is only me left now. Two of those beasts found our hiding place… Scattershot and I were able to put down one of them before it reached us, but the other one… Oh the horror! The horror. The horror, the horror, the horror…The bloodsucker broke through the gunfire, cracked my hooves, and then… he caught Scattershot! Faust have mercy on his soul! I saw the desperation onto his eyes when that, that… abomination gave him his “kiss of death”, it was eating him… ALIVE. I shot the monster down, but I couldn’t bring myself to act quickly enough. He is out cold now. Morning Dew has finally expired too… If weren’t for my wounded hooves, I’d make a go for the surface, but with them, every step is a world of pain. It is just a matter of time before another one of these beings eventually find me. I can’t take it anymore, I won’t let them make me suffer, I won’t let them take me, I won’t.” A tragic end to their tale, but that was the price of foolishness on the Zone… I pocketed the PDA, it could be useful for the Freedomers to know the details about that incident. Then, my gaze went to the corpses… normally, I wouldn’t consider looting any dead pony (bandits and other kind of homicidal scum weren’t accounted as such) but seeing how much trouble one bloodsucker had given me, and the probability that there were more below, I’d rather be prepared than wind up as dead meat… “What are you doing? Don’t you think they suffered enough already?” I stopped my rummaging and answered her “Do you wish to keep them company? I do not like it either, but we should suit ourselves rather than ending up the same as them.” Shit… that earth pony covered in tourniquets had an iron grip over his belongings… I had to knife out his hooves to get them. A sack containing a wad of bits. The other two Stalkers had more bits, I collected around a thousand bits, the sawn-off shotguns and five shells, two marekarovs and 40 9x18 rounds and a viper-5 SMG with 75 FMJ rounds. No meds. I tossed everything but the SMG onto my saddlebags. “You should exchange your weapon for this one. That pile of junk has already lasted as much as it could… throw it away.” “But… you gave me it…” “Because I lacked anything else. Any weapon is better than none” “Alright, but I want to keep it anyway.” I sighed. “It is just going to hinder you.” But she was too reluctant. I agreed then, just to get over with it. since the SMG was already fitted with a motion sensor, I just unstrapped her “weapon” and put the SMG on its place, then gave her all the FMJ ammunition. “We should move out” She said. “This place is starting to smell really bad” I couldn’t agree more. And then, we went back to the net of emptied corridors and rooms. After a set of them, we came upon a bathroom. The stalls’ walls had been torn apart, and a huge gust of dust was spiraling into the point where it was broken. A Vortex. It did the same thing as a Whirlgig, but it was much bigger and more powerful than one. I tossed a bolt right on the middle of the anomaly. It was caught on the rotary wind and spiraled down to the center at an incredible speed, being bent when it reached it. Thought this whole process, all the outline of the anomaly was visible. Of course, I could just see its dimensions by checking which part of the stalls stopped being damaged, but I liked seeing it light up. And something else too… under one toilet bowl under the anomaly, a weird-shaped and sickly yellow-colored object… it was shaped like a hook at one end and at the other, some kind of blossoming flower… it resembled some kind of cocoon. Another artifact , one I’ve never seen before. Well, I could just go there and pick it up, but by doing that, I’d end up in tiny little pieces thanks to the anomaly. I couldn’t use my magic either, since, when I’ve done with the burner, it fizzled. I needed to push the artifact outside of the field of its parent anomaly if I wanted to properly handle it with telekinesis. I gave it some thought… and I decided on pushing the artifact by gunning it until it left the anomaly. RATTLERATTLE… Seemed to work… the artifact was pushed away from the middle of the field, and showed no signs of damage. RATTLERATTLERATTLE… And with that final “attack”, the artifact bobbed outside of the Vortex’s field. I quickly grabbed it. “See? That’s how it is d…” But then, the mare wasn’t there… she must have wandered off for some reason. What the hell! A place like this and she was trotting away from me. I had to find her, quick. My hooves drove me outside of the bathroom, and I spotted a figure at the end of one of the three corridors that intersected at the point. It could only be her… “Lielle, dammit… do not stray away from…” In my shock, I dropped the artifact. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw… HORSESHITE! One of those Bloodsuckers was feeding on her! The fucking monster crept behind her and now its tentacles were wrapped around the top of her head! The mare’s normally lively eyes were now blank, devoid of any emotion. I forced my AK’s butt onto that beast’s head with all the strength I could muster, I wouldn’t risk shooting at it while it was still attached to my friend. Whammo! The beast was thrown away from the mare, which promptly fell to the ground. While the monster was probably confused from the attack; I still heard its nefarious breath on the darkness… huarfw, huarfw, huarfw, huarfw… I wasn’t going to take any chances, shit just got real. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE… And I’ve heard nothing more of it… I fired blindly upon the darkness, not caring if I hit it or not… in my desperation, I wasted one entire clip. Perhaps it had run away… it didn’t mattered. Only her health mattered now. I took her hoof… she still had vitals, but was unconscious. I examinated her wounds. Numerous wounds on the head, but no bleeding… “Pretty neat, right? My record is 63 times before fainting from blood loss.” Of course… her artifact. Surprisingly, the mare’s own antics had probably saved her… For having screwed around with her Mica, her body grew resilient to blood loss, developing an unconscious state as a way to deplete less energy and conserve it. But that wasn’t going to save her in the case of an infected wound… I threw my AK back into the saddlebag and used my TK to push Lielle to the bathroom, picking up my artifact on the way. it was the nearest room and only had one entrance. Those bloodsuckers wouldn’t be able to surprise us in there… And with great effort, I did so. Once there, I spent one medkit and numerous bandages tending to her wounds. It would do for now… And what to do now? I still had a mission… this was my entire fault. If I didn’t convince her to come, no harm would have come to her… I could give up, try to rush back to the surface and probably live… but this meant… Leaving her down here, to these beasts. I would never forgive myself if I abandoned one of my friends… it meant forfeiting all the things that separated equines from simple animals… I glanced at her face. Her eyelids were now down, she seemed so peaceful… I wasn’t going to quit… I was so close… Even if I had to… drag her over with me. I wouldn’t be able to help her if I was dead… Shit, mind, in whose side are you in? shut the hell up. I’m going down there and that’s final. I brought the marekarov from my saddlebag and gripped it with my tongue, while I used my TK to put the mare on my back. Ugh… it was heavy. I needed to be careful at the most… if one of those Bloodsuckers caught me by surprise while I still had that burden, I’d be a sitting duck. The PDA showed that the stair to the final level was close by… for some reason; the 2nd underground level was much smaller than the other two… wait, no, it wasn’t. The whole level wasn’t explored. It liked in some parts to the sewer system that ran below Hoofstok and such… And so, I carried over. My hooves were killing me, but the stairs were just by that corner… Oh shit, shit… Another bloodsucker was guarding the stairs! The monster didn’t saw me. What to do, what to do… CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! Upon hearing the sound of cracking glass, the beast quickly grew alert, trotting down the stairs at great speed. Something came to mind… … Dismember them and put the meaty tidbits into bottles, which we throw down the sewer into the bloodsucker lair… Having being fed on a daily basis, the bloodsuckers were, interestingly enough, conditioned to associate the noise to the food…but it was still unclear why the hell Freedom wished to keep them in the first place! But anyways, I thanked that stroke of luck and went downstairs too, hoping that the mutant moved to a considerable distance away from us. Now, if I could only get over a few more rooms… The 2nd underground level, the least explored one, apparently was a maintenance area for the factory’ machines, as well as power generators, plumbing, sewage disposal and such. Dripping water and blowing wind were constants down there. At some point, the level wasn’t sealed off from the outside. I moved very slowly, stopping to hear noises and to check out if one of those things weren’t lurking by. How much time has elapsed since we entered? I couldn’t say. It was probably nighttime now. And then, after a corridor, I’ve saw the destination pointed by the marker. A room filled with rotors, scrap metal, gears and tubes around the wall, the control room for one of the machines at the top level. And there it was. The stalagmite mentioned by the PDA was the target. I just needed to put the artifact over there… GRAWULLWULLLWULLLGRAWUUU!!! Of all the worst things… I laid the mare at one corner with her stuff and started to look around for some melee weapon to hold off the mutant… Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw, huarfw… His breath was drawing closer and closer from the corridor… but I’ve finally found a hefty metal stock lying around. Too bad I couldn’t lift it in enough time… PAWTHOOK!!!.... CRASHHHH!!! That beast’s charge broke whenever ribs I still had left! Fuck, fuck, fuck… and there was liquid spilling from my back, greasy, dark liquid. I drew a few of it to my nose and smelled it. Oil. That stupid fuel that the faulty earth pony technologies needed so much, power-hungry and unreliable crap which was the need for the construction of a goddamn nuclear power plant in the first place… Huarfw, huarfw… I couldn’t see the invisible fiend… Celestia’s incendiary wingboner! I was defenseless as fuck. Huarfw, huarfw, HuArFw!! Ouch… that fucking bloodsucker was going to attempt another charge, one that would be the end of me! I was sweating cold, trying to put my magic on the heaviest object nearby to put it between me and him. And through that desperation, I’ve pulled out something to put between the rushing beast and me. CRASHHH !!! Huarfwhuarfw… A new load of oil spilled over me. I pulled out a barrel of it… and though the beast was covered into it too, it was far too worse for me. Now, I couldn’t see it REGARDLESS if it was invisible or not, due to my NVG confounding the dark room and the now equally dark creature. I wasn’t a very clever pony… Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw… If I wasn’t so desperate to get a lead to the pathway to the NPP… dammit, dammit… that warning couldn’t be truer…“What the eyes fail to spot, the flesh shall soon feel…” Wait a minute… this is why I had been failing, I was letting my lack of vision deceive me. Now it was on me. I picked up more barrels of oil while I still could and crashed them onto the floor. Oil spilled by the entirety of it, covering every inch. It was just a matter of reaction now… Splish, splish, splish… There it was! I picked up the metal stock and floated it inwards the monster’s neck, slamming it against the wall. Huarfw, huarfw… Wavey forbade me of killing these things, but he didn’t say anything about beating the crap out of them. It was time for a hooffull of payback. Whack Huarfw, huarfw, huarfw… “Why…” Whack “Don’t...” Whack “You go…” Whack “Goddamn unconscious?” GRAWULLWULLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!! Although highly satisfying, holding a murderous monster and pounding it had its dangers… the pissed-off beast broke off from the stock and put a really sharp hoof through my face. I felt my NVG being cracked to pieces and my own flesh being ripped to shreds. Blood dripped profusely from my face, the bastard cut through it horizontally; it was a miracle I still breathed… Cough, cough… more blood. And the shithead was only bruised. To think that the barkeeper worried about ME killing one of them… now, there wasn’t even the comfort of seeing anything, my NVG was broken and, unless I developed a sonar sense in fifteen seconds, the beast was now DEFINATEDLY invisible. Harmed as I was, I couldn’t draw a gun, or turn on the flashlight quickly enough. Huarfw, huarfw… Ripshhhh!!!! Its hoof tore apart my saddlebag, personal contents and loot flailed to the ground, forming a small pile. On the middle of it, the box that contained the artifact. It was glowing like crazy… Hisss! Hissaw… Huarfwaw… The fuck was that? The beast was backing up from it! Amassing whenever forces that still hadn’t left me, I rose up and floated the artifact outside of the box. It kept glowing, and the beast receded even more at the sight of it… Hiss, Hissawawaw… Hissaw… And I’ve floated near to the bloodsucker, which raised his two front hooves and hold his head with them, twitching and flipping his eyes wildly. Something on that artifact was really, really disturbing the bloodsucker. And by exploiting that curious weakness, I drew him off from the room. Away from us. I floated the golden-egg artifact. What was that thing? Why it distressed the monster so much? And why, in eleven hells, nopony told me about that before? Mentally annotating those questions, I floated the artifact to the middle of the stalagmite, putting it on the middle of the stony halo that floated above it. A gust of warm wind flew by as I did so. Somehow… everything seemed back in place. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to, it was like a feeling of belonging and freshly-attained equilibrium. Some drops of blood flew off from my numerous wounds. I’d better patch up. And speaking of it… I turned on my flashlight and flashed it around the room, searching, searching… until… An old pack, the one which was mentioned on the PDA. And its owner spoke the truth; he was probably tasked of carrying the team’s entire stock of meds. Eight medkits and fifteen bandages! It was reasonably intact (surprise, surprise… mutants didn’t cared about meds.), so I swapped it for my own ripped saddlebag I’ve spent three of them and seven or eight bandages on my own wounds. Even with those, I still needed medical care, that swipe was definitely nasty. Hopefully, the medkits’ painkillers would help me drag myself and my friend out of that hole in one piece. After gathering all of my belongings and the still unconscious mare on my back, I started the long trek back to the topside… Weird… the place seemed so… empty, moreover. I didn’t hear any of those abominations roaming around anymore. And then, we came upon the fruit punch along the stairs… I had to float the bags and Lielle separately, straining me telekinetically… good thing I’ve floated the mare first, because my magic grip broke mid-flight when floating the saddlebags… I needed a good night of rest. Lastly, I trotted aside the fruit punch, picking up the loot and the redhead. This wasn’t good for my spine… I further went on; coming by the same sets of rooms, and didn’t found any of those beasts anymore, no sign of them… And so… the moving burner was at sight. The exit was near. And so my breaking point. I stopped a bit to rest. I would need to make two trips round’ the anomaly… one with the gear, another with the mare. I’d better start with the heavier… the mare, that is. And I dropped the saddlebags, and waited until the burner was at the doorway. When it moved, I did so too. My hooves feeling like molten lava, my eyes watering from the heat… but then, after a bit of trotting, it was over. I laid her down along the wall, and backed again into the steaming pot. I’ve grabbed the saddlebags at the other side and repeated the operation, until I reached the exit doorway. I finally picked up my companion and slouched toward the exit… I could feel the fresh air, at last… “The hell… somepony is coming out of there!” And fatigue overtake me, I dropped to the ground. “Get them to the doctor, quick!” ============================== [><]============================= Rumbling steps… and that old, distinct feeling. Pain. At least the aquamarine earth pony doctor was treating my injuries. “You probably think that I am a butcher, don’t you, Cork ?” And his visitor, the pegasus with the freedom SEVA armor, that squad leader that was guarding the lair’s entrance, answered him. “Not at all Doc... butchers kill before they split open” “Haha, very funny. If weren’t for me, this one would be worm food now. It surprises me how long he was able to pull along with these kind of injuries…he was drowned in either vodka or painkillers to last this long.” “Alright, I’m going back to guard duty, see ya later on, Patcher.” “Try not to get yourself shot; I’d hate to waste a bed on a lazy bastard like you, Cork.” And the pegasus left the room, disregarding the insult. “Ah… you’re awake, and still alive. That’s great.” I tried to move around, only to be hindered by my own numbness… “Hold it, easy there champ…take it easy… just let me run a final check on ya…” And he eyed through my entire body, I was naked…where did they take my armor? “Good, that’s good…” he said as he was eyeing each injury. “Good… good… good…” And I opened my dry, dry mouth to ask him: “What do you mean by “good”, doc? Those… things… nearly torn me in two.” “I mean it is good that I’m not you. Now, you seem okay enough to go, although I’d keep you for one or two days…” “I can’t wait that long” “Nopony ever does… well, suit yourself. Just a small thing... about your face.” “What about it?” “Er… look for yourself, stalker.” And he handed me a mirror. There, incrusted around my nose and right cheek, exactly where the bloodsucker striked, a big and ugly… scar! “Are you shittin’ me doc? I look like some convicted rapist! What the hell you did to my beautiful face?” “Dammit stalker, I am a doctor, not a fancy-schmancy plastic surgeon! Besides, you are lucky to have been wearing an NVG; otherwise you wouldn’t still have a face after all. Second, it isn’t the end of the world… I’ve heard about some female gryphons that really dig battle scars…” Yeah, I’ve heard about them too. Some of the preschool stories I could remember pictured gryphons as nastier than certain monsters… brutal, fierce, unforgiving and battle-minded creatures “To the hell with them…I’d rather be caught dead screwing one of those Bloodsuckers than enduring a creature that can shred me to tears if I crossed it… although the bloodsucker would do that too… oh well, at least it wouldn’t piss over my dead body afterwards.” “Can’t say that’s what I’ve had chosen, but anyways…” And he reached the corned, where my saddlebag was. And he drew something from it… The NVG. It was at a sorry state, definitely scrap metal. “It is damaged beyond repair, Dom told me. He’s working at your armor now; he asked me if you were stomped by pack of boars.” “Would be a bliss compared to what I’ve been through….” I said while lifting up from the bed, the numbness was slowly draining away. “Where is my friend? An azure mare with red hair…” “Oh yes… she regained conscious a few hours back, we’ve recommended her some rest. You know, if you didn’t administered treatment right away, she’d…” “Yes, yes… just another day in the Zone…” The pegasus just silently nodded. “How much do I owe ya, doc?” “The boss has paid your tab, stalker. You’ve must have done some really important job to have caught her eye…she told me to send you to speak to her as soon as you rose from slumber. I told her how much you’d want to catch some Z’s after recovering from such wounds, but she asked anyway…” “Okay, I’ll pay her a visit.” “And try not to get chewed to death on your way out! I just cleaned the doormat.” I picked up my pack and headed outside the clinic. Finally, fresh, sweet air… not the suffocating underground tunnels. So, the commander lady requested my presence… well, she’d have to wait. I needed, more than ever, to wet my whistle. With vodka. As I’ve entered the peculiar bar, the equally peculiar bartender cracked: “Sunshine? You actually made it alive? What the hell I am smoking?” And then, he derisively looked to the blue join in his right hoof. “Ah yeah… heheheh.” And I took a seat in front of him. “Ah, you’re actually there. Dude, that’s some really bad shit you got there in your face…” “Thanks for noticing. Now, about the job…” “The MotherZone just called me, she told me you acted… adequately. Here’s your reward, Carmelia said you deserve every bit” And he handed me a big wad of bits…I’ve never saw that much cash before. “How much is in here?” I asked while counting the money “Ten thousand bits.” The pegasus answered distractedly. Wow… working for Freedom really paid adequately, unlike my two last contractors… Although, only half of that amount was mine, the rest was Lielle’s. after all, she helped out. “So, what’ bout celebrating, dude? Gimme a high-hoof!” And he raised his hoof, expecting me to tap that… What the hell…I was grateful to be back upside, that was enough motive to cheer. So I did his wish, and high-hoofed that. “Now, Wavey, any idea where I can find the commander? Or my friend, for that matter…” “Just follow the directions dude… da commander can be found by following the “boss” arrows, and your friend, if she is sleeping, probably can be found at the communal rest area, the “rest” arrow.” “Ah… I forgot. Anyway, there is another thing I’d like…” “And what would that be, bro?” “I need four… no, five bottles of your best vodka.” ============================== [><]============================= “Heya buddy! Welcome to the best…” And Tinder looked in my direction with his comically expansive manners and big smile, which instantly broke once he gazed upon me. “Ah, it is you… I hope you are planning to actually BUY something this time…” “Surprisingly enough, I am.” And in milliseconds he grew that overly big smile and outgoing mannerisms again… “Just name it, buddy! I’ve got everything, and I mean, everything!” “I’m looking for a scarf. Preferably a big one. And 5.45 rifle ammo too.” “Hmm, ammo is easy enough” he said while spilling some of said ammo onto the counter. “And about your scarf… it is here somewhere…” And he drew a few boxes aside, until he found what he was looking for. “Pick your favorite, pal.” And he showed me. A box full of fabrics of several colors. Green, yellow, white, pink, orange… the only color that it lacked was red. And I’ve picked up a blue scarf, and tried it out, covering the lower part of my face… good enough to hide that horrific scar… “I’ll take this one.” “That will be… two hundred bits. Plus the ammo, seven hundred Two hundred bits for a piece of fabric? That trader was definitely getting back on me for that misunderstanding… “Two hundred bits… for a scarf? Are you serious?” “As a case of Ebola. Feel the texture, the size, the vibrant color! This scarf is one of a kind, buddy! Trust me; I am nearly giving it away.” “I find it hard to trust someone whose opinion is evidently biased on the matter…” “C’mon, if you can’t trust a Freedom trader, you can’t trust anypony at all…” I drew a sigh. He wasn’t going to let it go. And the closest known trader aside from him was at the Cordon. To which I wasn’t going to return any sooner…” “Okay, have your cash.” And I’ve thrown seven hundred bits onto the counter, while pocketing a large amount of 5.45 ammo and tossing the scarf around my neck. “Nice doing business with you… anything else, pal?” “How much can you give me for these?” I showed to him the two marekarovs and the sawn-off shotgun I had taken from the dead stalkers. “Way to offload your crap on me. For these ones, I can give you… one hundred bits, tops. These aren’t exactly quality equipment, I shouldn’t even be considering buying them, I’ll know better next time.” And he separated exactly one hundred bits and gave it in exchange for the weapons. Pocketing the alms, I’ve left the shop. “If you need quality merchandise for a fair price again, I’m your stallion all the way! And coming from me, that’s a damn good complement!” ============================== [><]============================= And there I stood, in front of a locked door and two of those exoskeleton-wearing Freedomers, these ones with shotguns. One of them already called inside and warned Carmelia about me. I wonder what to expect about this… “Let him in.” The mare’s voice, this time very calm, called from inside. And both guards stepped aside, opening the door. And as I’ve entered the room, it slammed shut. That room was radically different from anything else I’ve seen. Everything was to a trim, not like Tinder’s shop, an overly organized but functional shop; this room was definitely ornamental, everything about it denounced the mare’s rich and refined taste. Landscape paintings, decorated plates, elaborate furniture… everything had its defined place and was spotless to a trim. It was like a world apart from the Zone, I assumed she must have had gone through immense efforts (or loads of cash) to salvage these things and renovate them to their former glory. “So, you are the Stalker I’ve heard so much about… you’ve caused quite a stir around these parts.” The sand-colored mare shook her impeccable cyan mane; there was no sign of emotion in her black eyes. The unicorn mare was probably used to speak about business. “Will you please take off that dreadful scarf? I won’t speak to somepony that resembles a filthy bandit.” Seeing my hesitation to take it off, she added: “There is nothing to be ashamed off, Stalker. I was the one who directed you to the clinic, I saw the result of Patcher’s intervention, so I know what to expect.” And I let it off, showing the lower half of my face along with that scar. “Now, now… aren’t you quite the hero? I’ve heard that you were the one who busted out a group of Loners from the bandits rule at the garbage…” “How do you know that? It was only yesterday that I’ve did that. Also, I’m no hero. My friends were the ones who did that, my role in it was minor” “Well, I am the leader of Freedom. It is my job to know about things before other ponies do. Now, to the matter at hoof, I see that you were successful on the job. Good, good. My faction desperately needs stallions like you, who get things done.” “I do not mean to be rude or anything, but how do you know if I even did the job? For all you know, I could just have gone onto that lair and refused to carry on.” “Don’t be silly, Stalker. I know that you’ve carried it off exactly as I’ve told. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t survive. I know that I owe you more than a few answers about that particular job, so, ask ‘em” Indeed, there was much that was left to be cleared. “I’m not sure why you had me to have all the trouble to carry a useless artifact to the bottom of a lair that only contained a hooffull of bloodsuckers. Of course, they were more than a challenge for me and my friend, but one or two squads of Freedomers would have been more than able to wipe them out.” “Oh, have you never considered that my intent was on keeping them alive?” “Why? And don’t go on me with all that “cosmic-line” bullshit” “Figures… that’s Wavey’s blabbermuzzling, isn’t it? That’s the problem with Freedom. Our philosophy tends to attract certain… simpleminded individuals. I’ve tried to explain to him why I wanted the mutants alive more than a dozen times, but he kept going on about that hogwash about “the MotherZone”… I guess that his mind decided that the simplest explanation was the truest. There was a seapony philosopher that wrote a principle about that… ah, I remember the name. Hippoccam’s razor. He isn’t exactly a bad pony; he just has that… special problem. I rue the day that somepony induced that debilitating thing to him, and he took the weed as a habit.” “But about your question… the Zone isn’t much different from what Equestria was before, yes, the entire ecosystem has been replaced, but what most of the ponies do not get about it, is that it works the same as before.” “Now, how I can explain this simple enough for you? Ok… imagine your regular bunch of douchebag, self-assuring army dropouts, that is, Duty. Take it that they had been having trouble with a bloodsucker lair nearby their base. So, they just go in and kill every last mutant. Afterwards, in their blindness, they celebrate, unaware that with the bloodsuckers out of the scene, there are less predators that hunt blind dogs. And so, after a week, ta-da, Duty is facing growing masses of blind dogs, raiding their base on a daily basis. So, guess what they do? Take up arms and slaughter them, leaving nothing but impaled canine limbs and rotting corpses under the sun in their wake. Which end up attracting packs of snorks to the area. Do you get the point? By their actions, they aren’t solving their issues, they are just remediating them. This is why we are against them. In their ignorance, they end up doing nothing but screwing the natural chain over and over. So far, the consequences of their actions have been limited, felt only by them. But I fear that someday they end up hitting jackpot and their meddling ends up affecting all the other factions, for the worst” Insightful… I’ve never thought that way. It made sense. But yet… “So, what do you do to keep the mutants at bay? They were deadly enough to slaughter… look at this.” And I drew the PDA I’ve found in the lair and gave it to her. The mare read through it and a small smile crept around her face. “I suppose this explains some loose ends. I take it that you know about our “butchery”, don’t you?” “I do. Angie mentioned about it.” “Yes. She is one of the few around here that actually can think. Too bad she had such a bad taste choosing a coltfriend… The butchery exists to keep the bloodsuckers relatively happy and fed, so that, two issues are solved. One, they aren’t likely to get up here if they are getting meal for free down there. Second, in the case that an intervention is needed in their lair, the bloodsuckers would be least likely to retaliate, and if they did, they’d be rusty, due to the lack of use of their predating and hunting skills. Which is why this rag-tag group of Loners was able to kill two of them. If they were facing a regular bloodsucker, one of them would have the Loners butchered in instants. This is why you were not allowed to kill them; I intend to preserve that… “Lineage” of less dangerous bloodsuckers. This is what we do; we seek balance, equilibrium, harmony.” “What about the artifact? And that stalagmite-thingy? What were them?” “That artifact was an especially rare one; we only found one of such. It is called “Celestia’s tear” We only know that it creates some kind of “repulsion field” for bloodsuckers.” “An artifact that affects only mutants? I never heard of that one before…” “Quite a find, isn’t it? The problem with that artifact is that the repulsion field is extremely limited; it would only affect one bloodsucker. This is why the artifact’s proprieties wasn’t informed to you, if you were over-relying onto it and were attacked by two or more mutants, we’d have to send a mop squad to recover it. And that stalagmite, it is an altar. An anomalous formation that is known to react with other artifacts by amplifying their power. So, by putting the tear back onto it, you actually extended its power so that it affected the entire third underground floor and around, making every bloodsucker be repelled back into the sewers, where they shouldn’t have left in the first place.” “Putting back the tear onto it…so, this means that you Freedomers have put it there before?” “It does. When we first moved onto Hoofstok, the bloodsuckers were raving around the topside, stopping when we carried on that task. And it would be still good, if weren’t for that Loners. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with the sole survivor, the same that was carrying the artifact, after knowing about their intrusion. That mare quickly gave it back, submitting to our persuasion. Since, you know, five guns pointed at one’s body can be quite persuasive. The rest of the story is clear to you. Now that is cleared out, there is another subject…I know that you’ve asked my technician to decode some message on somepony’s else PDA. What I want to know is what interest do you take on it?” Quick mind, come up with a lie, one that won’t give away my motives… “A friend of mine was ponynapped and his PDA is the only thing I found when I went looking for him. I want to crack the message to check if he had any dangerous involvement with bandits or…” “Charming… do you that I was born yesterday, Stalker? Nopony would go to such heights for a friend; I’ve lived enough on the Zone to be realistic about it. If you want to stay in good terms with Freedom, I suggest you to spill the beans already.” The chances that the Freedom leader would be a mare so versed in social skills… well, there was only one medicine. “I am tracking a unicorn, one that knows a way into the center of the Zone. For what reason I want to go there, I’ll keep it to myself.” “Oh, that’s better. Now I know that we have a common interest. One that would convince you to carry off another assignment.” “Does it involve hoof-brawling bloodsuckers? I had enough of it.” “No, for all that I’m concerned; you are free to use violence in this one.” “Then, what is it about?” “We moved onto Hoofstok to secure a foothold onto the Zone’s center. Truth is that we are currently… stalled. We are massing troops so that we can muscle through the bandits and mercs’ turf, the outlying compounds that do not belong to Hoofstok, the so called, wild territory. We intend to move our faction entirely to get a more advantageous position in the Zone, that position is an equestrian army’ base a few kilometers to the north. According to one of my informants, the grunts there have been requesting withdrawal for some time, no surprises. They are in a harsh land, with little food and surrounded by Stalkers that resent them and wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them dead. They were only able to withstand the Stalker’s attacks due to an automated security system, one that we are interested in reclaiming to our own purposes. I’ve came to known that the security system can be disabled, provided that one has a certain override code. What I want you to do is obtain such code.” “Just this? Are you going to leave me on the dark again? I don’t have a clue where I can find that thing…” “I have. There is an abandoned facility over a ghost village, a short trot east from Hoofstok, one that some of my scouts have definitely divined it as a military development facility. I want you to check if they have an all-purpose or master override code for security systems, like the one that the grunts are making use to since, none of the Freedom squads was able to fully explore the complex and get out alive.” “What is in for me? I already did a “trust” task, so Dom will decode my PDA anyway.” “Indeed he will, but I ask you to think a little about it. If we can get more ground closer to the center, we would indebt it to you. And as such, you’d be allowed safe passage. Think about it, you can’t possibly expect to make it to the center without befriending a faction. Also, your efforts won’t go materially unrewarded. As you’ve seen, I insist on paying a fair price according to the service, and I offer to do it so again, if you take the job.” “I’ll… mull over it. I had a lot through this day. If you excuse me, I’ll take my leave to get some sleep, that is, if you do not have anything else to speak about with me.” “Yes… how inconsiderate of me to hold you for so long, but it was needed, wasn’t it? Oh well, you may leave. I await your answer tomorrow, Stalker.” And using her magic to open the door, the mare regally held her hoof high, pointing to the exit, while her eyes were shut and her nose held high. ============================== [><]============================= Truth be told, I couldn’t be more relieved when I finally found the room where the “innkeeper” (because it was a free resting “establishment”, actually, just a huge building split into several rooms that that Freedom has fitted with any mattresses, pillows, beds and anything soft they could find, which they offered as a resting place for everypony that wasn’t part of the Freedom faction – they had their own private quarters, presumably – well, good ol’ Freedom hospitality.) has assigned Lielle. And just as he said, there was the mare, laying down on an old bed without her suit, with a blanket down onto the ground, her saddlebags by the corner. I picked up the blanket and was going to cover her again, when I noted something… Her cutie mark. I never took note of it before, because the sunrise armor was covering it. Now, it lay bare, and it was beautiful… A Ferris wheel, all lighted up and painted in vibrant colors… that was it. It meant that she liked the circus, or, it had a metaphorical sense? Like a memory to one’s times of happiness and smiles… much like the ones I strived to recall…along with the rest of my past. I dropped the blanket over her body and went to a second bed, directly opposed to hers. As much as I’ve tried, I couldn’t sleep… much thing has happened… and still, not much was clear. I had to wait until tomorrow noon to get the decoded message, and the wait was killing me… I picked my own PDA, the same that Ameara has showed me… at that occasion, I didn’t read all the data about the project mergequine, and I didn’t had the opportunity to fill myself in more about it. I pressed the PDA’s buttons, looking for entries about it and skipping the ones I’ve had read already. I came upon an interesting one: “Result report U-89z: Subject 413: Non-consistent biological changes Subject 256: Non-consistent biological changes Subject 901: Non-consistent biological changes Subject 761: Negligible biological changes Subject 313: Non-consistent biological changes Subject 440: Biological change recorded: growth of a fifth limb. No change in muscular structure or flying appendices generated. Subject 711: Non-consistent biological changes Subject 971: Biological change recorded: Muscular mass increased by 50%, growth of magical keratin antler has not been recorded. Partial success. Relaying all the data to backup facility #4” So, they had a storage facility for all the data… that was my target. Once I reach the NPP, I shall look for it… And on another matter, what does it means by… “Partial success”? I skimmed around more entries, looking for answers… “corrupted…and by doing so, along with wiping their memories and imbuing them with knowledge that is useful for their tasks, we’d have the perfect army. Since alicorns are sterile, we are right now, playing Faust and experimenting until we reach the desired results, a pony combining both flight, magic and muscle, and totally under the monarchy’s command, incapable of regret, fear and mercy, fitted with the most advanced ballistic weaponry we can design, such as the big…corrupted…on a tight schedule, since our facility is way behind the other ones that share this project, Kieram has gotten an interesting lead experimenting with the gryphons and I’ve heard that Seaknot solved out some important issues by dealing with the…corrupted” By Nightmare Moon’s whiskers… if any of this was serious… The project intended to create alicorns… alicorns… create perfection, god-beings, and totally under the control of the monarchy. They must have been facing a tight opposition to even consider such thing… and I was dragged into it. According to the first entry I’ve read when Ameara woke me up, it was Celestia’s own doing… even if really was, I didn’t hated her. No point on hating ones that met their deaths long ago, but this still had some loose ends… Even more, there was more than one facility dedicated to the project, It must have been really important to require such an effort… they had been experimenting with gryphons and probably other creatures as well. But something has pulled the project out of track, probably the accident. Of course, they haven’t succeeded in it, at least in the facility I was found (since, evidently, I was no alicorn.) but still, they have been working on me. The memory purge, although none as strong as they intended to place, was present, also, a small array of knowledge, such as strategy thought, combat tactics and the use or firearms (ironical that they spent millions of bits to implant the knowledge on how to use what was a technological advancement back then, but that nowadays, was a skill that even a filly had, since, on the Zone, they’d teach them how to wield a gun even before they teach ’em how to trot.) Typical military-ish crapload… And on the other hoof, what they took. My colthood, my family… things I could only remember bits and pieces about. My magic, without adequate training and conditioning, that I never had the time to undertake, my magical talents never surfaced… I only had the bread n’ butter magic of the unicorn kin: telekinesis, which we all take for granted, really, and detect magic, an almost useless spell that allows me to divine if a certain item or location or pony is imbued with magic or not. My cutie mark. Without a proper colthood, I could never discover my talent. And now, in its place, laid a gas mask. I had a mark, not a cutie mark. It was just a mark. I didn’t know what it represented or its purpose. And I couldn’t stop believing that the project had its hoof on this too… My mind, screwed by their training… I could just remember shreds, and even that, I didn’t knew what caused me to learn such things, but I had that skill. Like, for example, you all know how to trot, but you certainly do not remember WHEN or HOW you learned it, the knowledge has just been all along on your head, since you’ve learned it as a little filly or a colt. With me, it was the same thing, but with nearly everything. I could remember, but only isolated memories, with little or no context… And I laid down the PDA, taking out the AK out of my saddlebag instead. It could use some repairs… I floated it close, such a strange thing… A small trigger, a long body… almost like it wasn’t made for pony use… At first thought, I remembered another preschool memory, about one of the colts on my classroom. He had a real craze for those fiction books, one about mutant furless monkeys. He’d went on about how they had lived before ponykind, invented guns, used to speak a language that resembled gibberish, wore clown shoes and longed for an almost homoaffective kind of bonding around a campfire after a long day of adventures… Then, I ditched that that idea completely. It was thoroughly stupid… After a new inspection, I moved the gun around with ease to check its mags… then it hit me. The guns were intended to be unusable by ponykind, all of it, but the ones who inherently knew telekinesis. But why? Probably an indirect control measure placed by the princess herself into the design. Well, it was ineffective. Earth pony ingenuity found its way through, with the frames and motion technology.... ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz… That was when Lielle started to snore, and I felt insanely tired… a nap wouldn’t hurt. ============================== [><]============================= Books, so many books… and they were heavy too, about the most varied subjects… fishing, crafts, cooking, metalworking, zoology, physics… and several other subjects… Well, if one of these could help me find my special talent, it would be worth the effort. The Canterlot royal library had tons of those, thousands and thousands of books neatly disposed, free to be browsed at leisure by any citizen. Like that little, mark-less grey colt, me. And as I’ve dropped the entire pile of books onto a table near the window, I’ve heard a commotion outside. Princess Celestia, prancing again with a number of fillies… a new batch of “favorites”… sheesh… it was always like this, unicorn fillies were always favored, by having all the undivided attention of the princess herself. Who always trained them as mares of exceptional magical skill, while colts… were left to their own devices to learn at what they were good… “What do you mean; I cannot have an audience with the princess? do you have any idea who I am?” And I turned around, to see the source of that yelling. Two bulky royal guards had been “escorting” an old coot, a sea blue stallion with a long white beard and purple mage’s attire, decorated with… bells? And the guards tossed him into the ground, where the old one scrambled, having lost his hat on the confusion. And it flew near me. Such a nice hat… so soft and well-made, decorated with celestial bodies… I took it and approached the old stallion, who still tried to make his whereabouts. “…have no respect for their elders… Oh, thank you my boy…” And he took the hat and set it onto his head again, with a concise motion. “It’s ok. You should be more careful than to cross the royal guard, old timer…” And he widened his eyes. “You don’t know me too? Faust’s hooves! What had they been teaching the young at the schools? Never heard of me? The amazing Starswirl, the Bearded? The creator of the amniomorphic spell, the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era? The compiler of the “Baffling and Brilliant Bestiary for all Bickering Beasts”? The cover and main poster of the Neighvember edition of “Playbeard”? Do any of these feats seem familiar?” “I’m sorry, but… none of these ring a bell… heh” “Typical… no respect for history. In the old times, I’d have you turned into a newt.” “That probably wouldn’t make things much worse for me…” And a sympathetic look grew in his eyes. “What is wrong, boy? You are still young and healthy; don’t see how things could be bad for you.” “My flank, that’s what’s wrong!” “Let me give a look at it” So, he gazed a bit into it “Hmm… nothing wrong with it, looks healthy enough and perfect… just a bit chubby, but it isn’t really an issue…” “It is blank! That’s what is wrong with it. I have no talent whatsoever… Sigh… everything would be so much easier if I were a mare…” “Why would you say such thing, boy? We stallions have our own importance too.” “Oh yeah? Name one stallion that had a pivotal role in equestrian history.” And as he opened his muzzle, I instantly added: “Excluding yourself” “Erm… there is…there was…no, he wasn’t… well, that is not the point. The point is that even if they didn’t made it to the books, they were just as hardworking as any mare. It is just that…mares outshined most of the important stallions, but that does not give an excuse for the younger generation to stop trying. If anything, it should make them strive harder.” “Perhaps… although I have no idea in what I am good at.” “Tell you what boy… I am not growing any younger, and I could really use an assistant, The last time I had one was over two thousand years back…if you are interested, I can teach you the ways of unicorn magic, so that you’d have some talent.” “Wow… you really would teach me that? Why?” “Well… you kind of remember myself when I was younger; of course, you don’t have the dazzling looks, or the sharp intellect, or quick wit that I had, but anyways…” “If you are interested, come by my house at the blue district, number 38, this afternoon.” “Thanks, old timer. I’ll be there.” “I know that you will…So, if you excuse me, I’ll take my leave.” And he stretched his hooves, causing a fireball to appear and burn down a shelf of books in instants, leaving only a big burnt match in its place. The librarian stared daggers at the old mage. “Sorry about that…I can’t control it sometimes.” And he dignifiedly trotted outside, smiling excuses along the way. Finally… a chance to know my destiny. I was happier than ever, a powerful mage considered taking me under his wing. I felt like I could float… I packed all of the books I previously selected and checked them out, dropping them onto my school saddlebag and trotting back home. I was so happy… That was the last time I saw that old mage, also, I never made it to home… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- bestiary #/filenam – Bloodsucker #/filedescript – Regarded as merely a legend in times before, now Stalkers everywhere recognize bloosuckers as very real and dangerous threats. The beast’s appearance, although resembling a regular pony (earth pony, pegasus or unicorn, there had been sightings of bloodsuckers of every kind) has tentacles where the muzzle should be and scales where the fur should be. The creature makes use of its hooves to maim the prey and it’s tentacles to paralyze unwary ones and suck them dry of blood. One of the most distinctive abilities of a bloodsucker is the production of a corrosive toxin that, when covering all the skin of the creature, renders the bloodsucker completely invisible. It is known that most of these creatures can be found either in underground lair or traversing marshes, if one is foolish enough to hunt them. Most Stalkers, even experienced ones, go through high efforts to avoid confronting a bloodsucker, because if they do, it usually means their death. If a confrontation is absolutely necessary, a fast-firing weapon (either an assault rifle or a machine gun) or a shotgun should be preferred, since spraying shots is the best chance that one Stalker has to hit them. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	7	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-04-08T14:39:41+00:00	2012-04-08T14:39:41+00:00	1,214	CP. VI – Oldworld Heirlooms “Hey Stalker, why so jumpy? Here, sit by the fire with us… let me share a tale with you… comfortable? Now, you’ve ever heard about the Cartographer? He was one of the first stalkers to ever brave the Zone… and his heart still beats. Rumor has it that he was one of the original residents before the… you know, accident. They say he can draw maps of every place of the Zone, no joke! Complete with landmarks and indications of anomaly clusters and mutant lairs… how he does that? How the heck would I know? Perhaps a tight network of informants, a special artifact, a lot of legwork… some nutcases even say that he gone to the Monolith, asked to be able to lead anypony through any path… I don’t know where reality ends and the legend begins… but thing is, if you can manage to find him and have a ton of dough, he can draw accurate maps straight onto artifact motherlodes, secret passages, and all the shit like that… That’s somepony I would like to have a chat with. I betcha he has gone even past the scorcher…” “You said what to her?” The azure mare deadpanned at my statement. Of course, a natural reaction. After all, yesterday’s adventure had left its scars (not only the metaphorical ones, mind you) and my eagerness to embark on another one after that was not shared by her, since she was the one who had been closer to death. “Well… I just thought it’d help us go forw…” “Think again then. You just took a brief break from the earlier incursion, one I joined against my judgment” Yep, throw that one at me… as if my conscience (I should get rid of it as soon as I can…) wasn’t already berating at me for that “And now, after barely surviving that one, you expect me to embark on another just like this? Now I see that you are missing a few screws.” I sighed. It was no use, and Lielle was right about it, to much of my disappointment. Strange that she was actually making sense, after all. Getting brain-probed by a bloodsucker is an event that dramatically changes how one perceives its life, so it seems… I packed my stuff and drew a wad of cash from my saddlebag, offering it to the mare. “What is this? I’m not convinced by bribery.” “Our reward for doing the job. The Freedomers were nice enough to hold their end of the deal.” She grasped the money and counted it, sorting out half of the amount “Two and a half grant for all that trouble? What do they think we are? Pushover hobos?” “Actually, all of that is your cut. I’ve already shared it.” And her eyes widened in unbelief, and she started to do the math by tapping her hoof. “This means, they have paid us… Ten thousand, exactly. I could get used to that…” And she stored her money. “And for that one other job, the Freedom leader has promised an equally juicy pay. Too bad you are not interested anymore. Well, it was good while it lasted.” And as I was leaving, she jumped out of the bed and reached me out. “Wait, I’m going with you again. Ok, last time wasn’t so appealing, but we can both agree that we’ve both learned something from it, and that what makes adventuring worthwhile. I’ve even added records about the bloodsuckers on my mutant hunter’s notes.” What can I say? Money is a powerful motivator. “Ok. If you’re in, I am a bit relieved. I’d hate to go through the rest of the way alone.” “Too bad you aren’t exactly the charismatic type.” I let that snarky comment slide, and made my way to Dom’s workshop to retrieve my repaired armor, while she came by to do the same. I’d much as well get my own rifle repaired too. “So, dreamt about something interesting? You were out for quite a while, you know” “Nothing much, really” She answered “Again that stupid about baked goods being used as ammunition in intricate weaponry employed by two warring pre-classical era pony factions. Maybe it could evolve into something worthy plot wise. Baker wars or something like that…” That was a new one; she turned out to be a writer… of sorts. Well, the Zone was so desolate and hopeless that some ponies just HAD to have some way to set their minds off from it, couldn’t really blame her for doing so. ============================== [><]============================= The ever-welcoming mess of Dominic’s shop still stood with all of its chaotic glory, the place, if nothing, was even messier. Undoubtedly, the fallout from repairing our suits, which he didn’t exactly mind cleaning up. Dominic himself stood again at his workbench, dismantling a FRAME. He interrupted his work to greet us. “How it goes, Stalkers? Came to get your stuff back and get back to stalkin’? Just a second, I’ve left it somewhere around…” And he moved around some of the stuff that filled the other workbench, retrieving a green-olive sunrise suit and a grey-tinted LS-3a body armor. While my friend put her armor right back on, I handed mine back to Dominic. “Dom, can I ask you something?” “Sure, go right on, pal.” “How much would it cost to reinforce all the armor with leather, fur, or anything that would soften impact from hooves?” Yes, I’ve learned my lesson. You are able to, once in a while, dodge a bullet, but yet, I remain to see somepony who can dodge a bloodsucker’s charge without seeing where the shithead is coming from. (And most of the time, THEY CAN’T) The unicorn’s face broke in a smile of satisfaction “Looking to protect yourself against those crazy mutants, aren’t we? Wise choice. I’d suggest leather, its light enough and will keep you warm as well too; I have some of it in stock. This upgrade plus the repairs would cost 1750 bits. Still want it?” “Yep. Sew it already, please.” And he took my suit, opened a locker and took some leather from it, and retrieved a skinning knife and sewing material from a drawer of one of the workbenches. Quickly enough, he set to work on the armor, with amazing focus and precision. He was talented in his trade, I’ll give him that. “So, how is my PDA going?” “It’s over that workbench, check it out by yourself. Just don’t interrupt it or you’ll have to wait all over again” He said without lifting his eyes from his work, pointing to the farthest workbench. I’ve came closer to it. there was some routine running on the PDA, on one of the sides, a vertical bar going up and down labeled “FFE” , and on the another side, another vertical bar labeled “RCV”, going up and down in a different pace. On the middle, a number: 73%. The completion rate, definitely. After seeing it for a while, the program seemed to sync out both of the lateral bars for each letter of the message. It would be a while before it was ready. “Alright, done here” Dom’s voice brought me back to reality. He tossed the suit to me, which I promptly put on, drawing the hood from it and my scarf as well. “Spotting something out there, lady?” The technician now faced Lielle, thoroughly absorbed in seeing the landscape. His workshop had quite a view, being on the fifth floor. “Another miserable, grey-dulled day.” She was right. The skies were starting to be overtaken by grey clouds, depressingly announcing a storm for sometime later this day. “It’s better than other days when the weather is unbearably hot or insanely cold. It is either one excess of another. Fine, not-too-cold-or-too-hot days happens rarely on the Zone. And thanks to this miserable, frequently inconstant weather, the land inside the zone is unfertile, with most of the food coming from outside, traded by scavenge, artifacts or money” I approached the parapet too, to spot onto outside as well. “I presume the weather is like this because, or rather, the lack of pegasai intervention?” “Well, I can’t really confirm it or deny, but I have my own theory about it. Pegasai do not change the weather, period. They “soften” it, like the taming of a wild beast. Without them to act upon it, weather is more prone to daily excesses, either scorching heat or freezing cold. I don’t know the technicalities of it, you’d be better off asking one of them that used to work on the weather control crew, if you ever find one, but like I said, they seem to work over on little details from the weather: a cloud here or there, air currents, and it all adds up, in changing those small details, they end up changing the whole, making an otherwise unbearable weather pleasant. Without their efforts, pleasant days are rare, and when they appear, they are short-lived, because there is nopony to “maintain” them. Even if they could actually fly, there’s even another obstacle for them, discouraging any intervention…” “And that is?” “Anomalies, what else? Air bound anomalies, some with the size of a whale! There was this one time, when I’ve spotted the grunts with one of their flying machines, helicopters, they call them. The army boys flew directly onto a springboard, and a big one. It cracked their craft apart like it was a ripe watermelon; it went down spiraling and smoking just to hit hard ground. After that, the royal military guard wasn’t so keen to send crafts loaded with personnel ever again, limiting themselves to only fly around the borders of the Zone. Heh… better for us.” “Quite a view you have here…I can see little skyscrapers on the horizon…” “Yep, it is. Probably the reason that I was able to hook up my marefriend for so long, gets really pretty at sunset, when the sun goes down behind Ponyville’s skyscrapers.” “Ponyville, a city?” “An abandoned one, set out on the very hearth of the Zone, neighboring the power plant itself.” “I expect to reach it someday…” I sighed “Everypony does, kid, everypony does. But yet, there is way too much ground that separates Hoofstok from it. You see these compounds stretching north and east from Hoofstok? The Wild Territory, the abandoned distribution center for the goods produced at the textiles compound which is today named as Hoofstok, the Wild Territory is overrun with mutants, mercs and the occasional Tark.” He pointed east “All that goes in that direction is marshes and marshes of… waste. An area filled with so much wildlife and Zone activity, that few ever brave it. The wastes, or Zaton and Yanov, the official names of the subzones of the wastes. Few ponies are tempted to head that way, and none that went that way ever came back, their fate remain a mystery.” The mechanic pointed at the opposite direction, west, more precisely, southwest. “There is home of all the wayward and wicked, the misguided and insane, the very worst of the Zone… Duty. The agropony institute, what once was a research facility for agriculture is nowadays used as flocking grounds for that kind of… equines. Their domains extend even further east, embracing the Hoofer dam and bordering a Tark-infested mine. There’s interesting stuff I’ve found out about the dam, it was in the middle of some kind of administrative scandal before the accident; it had to be rebuilt over six times, since it was made of inadequate and frail materials. Well, you get what you pay for…” The stallion moved his hoof a tad in the north direction “See where the compounds end? Behind that chain of mountains lies Mirror Lake, used to be a pretty place for leisure and everything. That was before. Now it stands as a particularly murky and dark place, with the eggheads trying to do their research while Tarks and Snorks roam the area in big numbers.” He then pointed to southeast “Ah, Dark Valley. Most descriptive name ever. It’s always dark, scary, foggy, filled with dogs, boars, striders and if the rumors are true, even bandits. Not much reason to go there.” Pointing directly south, he commented: “The garbage, well, you’ve came from it. There isn’t much more I can tell you about it, it is just what the name says, a big dump that the bandits insist on hoofing. Well, they don’t smell or stink too much either, so we leave them to their devices and they leave us to ours, we have other priorities than them in mind.” And he pointed north “There goes the army warehouses, not much. Just an ancient REA base, they’re quite fortified on that base, you know. I wouldn’t mind shifting places with them, they have some top-of-the-art automated security system, I wish I could tinker with it. Near their base, if you believe the stories, there is located a… ghost village. Yeah, I know it sounds silly, but the stories someponies spread… further north, do you spot all those red leaves? That’s Whitetail woods national park. Once a rich preserved forest, now it is overrun by mutants, even more, mutants not commonly seen. The whitetail is like a staging ground for all kinds of misshapen creatures. It’s separated from the army warehouses by a big gap, ghastly gorge. Said gorge extends toward the wild territory, the part that crosses it being concreted, and ends up at… Hoofer dam, where Duty has always had a way toward the center of the Zone, but were unable to use it, due to the brain scorcher.” “The Whitetail Park is linked with some big urban center – the name escapes me at the moment – on the west direction, and north with Ponyville itself. Now, that city is something to be aware of. Ages past it was merely a village, but someway, a huge influx of cash allowed it to be developed. And Faust knows it was needed… from what I’ve read, the city was, originally, very poorly planned – one in each three roads in that city led to a big cliff drop, and some buildings were made of exquisite materials: gingerbread, cardboard, some really wacko stuff. With cash in their hands, the citizens were able to renovate the whole city, affording apartments, more services, fledging a wide array of commerce and development, all of which, included in a chain that allowed the whole city to dramatically develop in a short span of time. Perhaps to feed that power-hungry city, somepony had the brilliant idea of building a biomagical power plant. They had no idea of the outspread of such action, so ignorant people were back then… well, the city is not safe either. (No place truly ever is…) Packs of mutants coming from the Whitetail Park, bandits, desperados and veteran Stalker daredevils that found one or other way past the scorcher and survived that far compose the city’s regular fauna, also, more radiation than you’ll ever want in there. All in there for the lucky ones who can get past the brain scorcher AND the Whitetail park. And lastly, after that city, lies the ultimate prize, the NPP itself, which few laid eyes on, and none ever came back to tell the tale. Totally out of reach and yet, so appealing… it is almost poetic.” No return? Surely, if someone had reached the NPP, it would be natural to come back to cash out the stuff he stumbled upon and brag around. The fact that nopony ever returned was an indication that, in itself, there was something fishy about it. “Well, there’s enough of bedtime tales… now, for all the repairs, the cost is 2500 bits.” And so, I handed over the 1750 bits I owed him, and Lielle handed over the rest of the amount for payment. “Have a good day, ok? See you two later on.” ============================== [><]============================= “Well, six medkits, eight grenades and twenty bandages… this will be 1500 bits” I paid the trader and he handed over the supplies “Is there anything else?” he asked with those needy blue eyes “I need a weapon” My companion said. “But you already have that perfectly fine viper-5 I gave ya; you didn’t even fire it yet!” I reminded her while the trader glared daggers at me “And that’s why I need a weapon, this one failed in defending me. I need something good, something battle-worthy… something… LIKE THAT!” And she pointed to a shotgun mounted to the wall, a mighty SPAS-12. Hell, that thing would be able to open some pretty decent holes through an equine… “Ah, you have good taste lady. I was saving this one for somepony special, but I guess I could order another one, though it’s going to cost you a bit more because of that… also, the craftspony imbued in this thing is dazzling… 8 rounds of pure stopping power, 12 gauge, pump-action fire, an aluminum stock capable of more positions than the Kama Sutra, and IT IS BLACK! What more could you ask for?” I saw her eyes gleam like a little kid, and she even drooled a bit… Tinder was digging through it; I suspect that he was hearing coins jingling into his head, kind of fitting considering his cutie mark: a twenty bits note. “WANT!” Lielle said bluntly “2500 bits, without the ammo…” And she slapped the cash onto the counter as the trader finished his sentence, even rounding it up to 3000 to pay for extra slugs. Tinder loaded the SPAS with ammunition and delivered it to the mare, which, in a short interval, tossed her viper-5 onto the bag, and the SPAS onto the frame, and threw the extra slugs onto the saddlebag as well. Tinder counted his money while I mused for us to leave. “Wait, you’re forgetting something!” the stallion said. We returned to his counter, and I looked curiously to the earth pony while he mouth-scribbled onto a paper, and then, he handed it to Lielle. I read it over her shoulder: Congratulations. You just bought your very first shotgun. Before enjoying it, you should know a few things beforehand: 1- Aim away from the face 2- Reload frequently, you’ll never know… 3-Not recommended for use by foals under five, for these, see our Sawn offs and Marekarovs 4- This should not be used as a stealth weapon Thank you for the purchase. And on really small letters under those: To the owner of this document, we provide a warranty for the period of 120 (one hundred and twenty) minutes after the purchase, Tinder’s store. Warranty is void if the merchandise is used improperly The mare folded the note and tucked it into her pack, as we returned to the slim Hoofstokian alleyways. Ka-ching! “Alright. Now I can start blasting out those pests” She stated with an unrelenting smile. I rolled my eyes while half-smiling as well. It was quite hard not to get contaminated by her mood. “Let’s meet out Carmelia, the Freedom commander, so she can lay out the details about the job.” She nodded and went along. ============================== [><]============================= “So, you use a pitchfork formation when you deal with…” Knock, Knock! The Freedom leader raised her eyes from the map, her accompanying squad leaders, Cork, Firepit and Sweetmeal did the same as well, all eyes went down upon us, as we entered the commander’s lavishly decorated office. “We’ll set out the plan’s details afterwards. For now, have a break, brothers.” And the three heavily geared veteran Freedomers left the area, the last one closing the door on his way out. Carmelia casually rolled the map and stored it onto a cabinet by the wall, I noticed that she was quite exhausted, leading a faction wasn’t an easy feat, let alone one as ideologically varied as Freedom… “Much work lately?” I tried to sound relaxed. “It’s the toll of my job, all the part of being the commander. Can’t say that I’m one hundred per cent satisfied, but it’s what I do best. Tee hee.” She sat at her ebon chair and bemusedly glared at us, pleased with having our attention. “So, I assume you two are here for that job I spoke of yesterday, hmm?” And her gaze fully shifted to my friend. “I’m afraid we’ve been not introduced” “Not yet. I’m Lielle, always a pleasure meeting new ponies.” She said while offering her hoof The unicorn shook it in turn, opening a welcoming smile. “Indeed. My name is Carmelia, dear. Glad to meet the mare who is keeping this one” -And she hoofed at me- “In short reins. Goddess knows he needs it, with the wounds he came with last night…” “Nah, most of the time he is cool… Although he has a quite nasty tendency to, once in a while, hit the bot…” I felt my face blaze with red and I shot angry glares at both of the mares. “You two realize that I am still on the same room, right?” Carmelia’s smile quickly assumed an awkward appearance, but she recomposed herself and started talking at once. “I take it that you two accept the job, then?” We both nodded. “Good, good… as I’ve said, I need you to retrieve access codes for an automated defense system. I don’t know if you are aware, but to the east of Hoofstok lays the wastes, Zaton and Yanov, separated by a road and a thick forest. A singular landmark is strategically positioned on the way to the wastes, connected by the road. It is almost like somepony wished to place it on the most out of the way, secluded place that he could find. A village, an idyllic, rustic village, back on the day. Thing is, that village is in fact, a cover for a presumably – heh – secret military research and development site. I’ve already sent in five or five squads to the area, while they were successful pinpointing the entrance and barging in, their comms died out. Nopony went out, period. What I want you two to do is access the database and download all relevant data, and then, bring it to me, so that we can devise a way to neutralize, bypass or circumvent the automated defense system being used by the military forces occupying the warehouses’ area. It’s simple enough, I presume. Questions?” Lielle eagerly raised her hoof “What kind of enemies we’ll be up against?” Carmelia held her chin on her hoof, thoughtful. “That’s about it. We have no data whatsoever on what you will face inside the complex, but on the way to it, expect to meet common mutant wildlife, it has pretty much taken over that sector. And anomalies as well, like that even needs pointing out…” “N-No bloodsuckers, right?” She stuttered “Nope, we’ve seen none so far, not that’s an accurate indicative of their activity, you must know the reason…” The azure mare’s eyes widened with panic. “Hahaha, calm down, I’m just kidding. They – usually – don’t go topside, don’t worry about them.” “And how do we find out the entrance?” I pointed out The mare withdrew a wrapped item from her desk and gave it to me. It was a small, telekinesis-drawn map marking the route toward Hoofstok to the village, with a blue “X” marking the entrance to the site, wrapped around a flash drive: a convenient and – relatively- cheap way of storing information taken from other technological gadgets. “Good luck, and remember, get all the data from the database. I’ll keep the cash ready” We left her office, crossing the door. As soon as we did it, the three squad leaders waiting in the hallway re-entered the room. “Doesn’t seem too hard, does it?” “No, not at all… but then again, I thought the same about bloodsuckers…” I felt sympathetic toward the mare. Yes, she had been through hell and back. Fortunately, not much from now on would make her go off her guard “C’mon, don’t be such a pessimistic. Everything will turn out alright. We’ll just face a few normal mutants, no big deal: probably dogs or boars, nothing beyond your expertise.” She seemed to light up a bit “That seems more pleasant, yeah…” And at that moment, while we were trotting along the alleyways, the megaphone system cranked up with those long acquainted voices. “Hey Tinder, you got the loot over there?” “What loot, Dom?” “The box, you dickhead. I’ve sent a deliverpony to drop it by your store” “Ah, that one? Just a sec, buddy.” Sounds of a cardboard box being torn”Well, there’s plenty of marekarovs here, dude.” “So, how much for them?” “Are you kidding me? You want money for THESE? C’mon Dom, I wouldn’t buy this type of crap off from you even if I were high on joke AND drunk.” “Did somebody irradiated your weed stash or what, Tinder? Everything there was reworked to function top-notch” “If you say so, I suppose I can cut some slack and offer 1500 bits for the whole package” “You mad? There’s like, forty marekarovs in there. I could get more for it by meting them onto scrap metal, you asswipe.” “Do you think that’s a shitty price, pal? Here’s news for ya: IT IS! If you don’t like it, then take your crap outta my face and scram” “Alright then, but you pay the deliverpony this time.” “As if! Just lift your damn butt and pick these up, dopehead!” “You and I both know that ain’t gonna happen’. I’m not leaving my workshop, buddy.” “Why is that such a big deal for you? Just call in your marefriend and she’ll cover for you, dimwit” “She has her own things to do, asswipe” “Don’t pull that excuse on me. Everypony knows that the real reason she spends so much time away from you is because you have nothing down there that would impress even a little filly!” “Like your amorous situation was any better, you fucking midget… you must need a goddamn stool in the rare occasions you get lucky, and don’t even get me started on your length... it probably doesn’t even goes past your belly…” “As a matter of fact, it does. Which is more yours will ever reach.” “Then, if it is that long, why don’t you turn it and shove it up your…” Carmelia’s voice broke the two stallion’s banter at that point “What the hell is wrong with you two? I can’t believe you two brain-dead morons are seriously arguing about whose’s cock is longer! SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET BACK TO WORK ALREADY, YOU RETARDS, I DON'T FUCKING PAY YOU TWO TO LOLLYGAG ALL DAY LONG!!” ============================== [><]============================= “See, here’s one right there!” I trotted a few meters near the anomaly. Yep, it was a springboard alright. Its transparent enormous “bubble” outlay defined it as such. “How you saw it from this distance? It seemed to have nothing at all just a minute ago” I shook my head and turned to her. I could see the Hoofstokian structures by the horizon… we had been trotting for one or two hours already, the trip down the road was uneventful, unless you count scaring stray mutant dogs as something worthwhile mentioning. Broken down construction vehicles, scattered props, half-dug ditches, incomplete structures, dirt… everything there hinted that the road area was originally planned to be an eastern expansion of the compound that now was known as Hoofstok, only that, they were never able to conclude it. “Yes, they are a tad difficult to spot if you don’t pay much attention. Visibility depends on how the sun rays hit the anomaly. Come a bit closer, you’ll see it better…” She trotted near the anomaly, instinctively raising her hooves to the eyes. “It is so… bright.” “Yeah. If you get too close, it gets brighter and brighter because anomalies reflect light. Also, if I hadn’t turned off my anomaly detector, it’d be beeping like crazy. You should look for landscape clues signalizing the anomaly as well… strange vortices of leaves, dancing clouds of dust, air fluctuation, static electricity, weird-colored fog, and of course, blood stains and torn limbs… I thought it was common knowledge for any Zone traveler … How did you traveled around the anomalies without knowing this stuff?” She took a few strides back and I followed. “By observing the animals, silly. They have much more sharp senses than us, they know where the anomalies are, so it is just a matter of careful observation, and then, of tagging the anomalies’ location.” I eyed her curiously. “The way you put it, it worked every single time? I mean, animals cannot know EVERY anomaly pocket, you’d be probably bound to hit one soon or later if you relied only onto them.” “Yes, it happened. I hit a springboard… five or six times, who’s counting? And the external rim of a meat grinder just once… well, just a few bruises, nothing really serious…” She shrugged nonchalantly. “Which kind of makes me wonder… why the sudden interest about recognizing and avoiding anomalies?” She blinked a few times before opening her muzzle. “It is just that… let’s say that… I want to save on meds! Yes, that’s it. I can’t have a nice cash budget when I expend so much on medkits…” “Ooookay…” My tone dripped distrust, that excuse was faker than a seven bits note, I could tell it. “Next on… bolts!” I floated the small bag of bolts from my saddlebag, opening it to reveal numerous iron bolts, some rusted, cracked ones, but they were all good for what we usually needed them. The bag was almost full because I picked a few while staying at Hoofstok. After cautiously hoofing through the bag, I found a bolt that seemed particularly good: it was not too big or small, it didn’t have any rust and the metal still had some shine. Using my telekinesis, I flung it to the springboard. The small item went through an invisible wall, outlying a small portion of the springboard’s body with red, orange and yellow tones, like a stone hitting a water body and producing small waves around the critical point, while the bolt itself steamed into a molten red coloration. The anomaly reacted by leaving shockwaves that lifted dust in a circular pattern around its main structure, the springboard left out more three or four shockwaves before returning to a stabilized stance. “Whenever you tread into uncertain territory, always throw a bolt before trotting on. If you don’t, after four or five steps, you’re history. Try it now. Grab a bolt and toss it into the anomaly. I’m not exactly sure on how you earth ponies do it, without telekinesis, so I’d recommend you try either with your hooves, tail or mouth, whenever you feel better with…Also, serve yourself from some of my bolts, if you want to practice later” I dropped the bag and gave her space. The mare approached and nuzzled the bag, picking a hooffull of bolts. After eyeing them, she took her pick. Upon finding an especially promising one, she gripped it with her teeth. With the item into her mouth, she carefully aimed at the anomaly… PTOOOOOOOOO!!! She spat the bolt right onto the anomaly. From that distance, missing it would have been quite difficult. The anomaly, in turn, quickly started its reaction chain again, buffing its deadly gravitational shockwaves a few times before subsiding. “Say…” The redhead started while eyeing the entire scene “This only happens when bolts are thrown or anything else will do?” “Any object that is thrown in activates it, but you’d better use bolts or other metallic objects for probing areas…” “Why? Compared to… say… stones; bolts or metallic objects can be hard to find at times.” “Because bolts or metallic objects don’t break instantly when thrown into an anomaly, like stones or other frail material, thus, the reaction won’t last so long because the item will break quickly. Also, metallic objects are easier to spot; they shine under sunlight or artificial illumination, so they stand out, all the better for the explorer. Though you should use lightweight objects for obvious reasons: bolts, screws, metal scraps, belt buckles, earrings, bottle caps, or, if you’re all out, coins or even bullets will do the trick.” “Good point. By the way…” She eyed our surroundings “How far we are from the village?” “Dunno… let’s check it.” I took out the map. According to it, we should trot a bit more down the road to find a tunnel north, which was directly connected to the village. “Not far, just a little bit more walking ahead.” After I’ve used the telekinesis to recover both bolts, reactivating the anomaly once last time by it, we resumed our pace. Not much later, we’ve reached the marked spot, a wide tunnel intended for stagecoach, carriage and other vehicles’ passage. Much of the tunnel’s structure was tattered by the passage of time and lack of proper maintenance, having collapsed at some sections. Big piles of rock and dirt partially blocked it, but nothing serious. The mare turned on her flashlight, and I did the same thing with mine. Besides being pitch dark and a bit cold, the tunnel was devoid of life as well. Now, this wasn’t a good omen. That place would be the perfect lair for dogs or boars. The lack of them meant that… something other than those creatures was lurking around, something so big that scared them off… No, I’m just jumping to conclusions here. Perhaps a group of stalkers has previously cleared out the area or some other explanation, no point worrying about these little details. After crossing the tunnel, we were greeted by one or other sunlight ray that somehow insisted to sprout among the overcast weather; the clouds were still announcing the promise of rain later on. The village itself was the cemented road continuing from the bridge, ending down on a flooded structure. At the two sides of the road, cliffs teeming with dilapidated houses and withering plants. Rusty fuel tanks, rotten wooden fences… the village doesn’t looked like everything else in the zone, it looked even more eerie and spooky, like it was abandoned BEFORE the disaster… presumably, with the monarchy helping the evacuation, if there were ever motive for one… Following the map, there were some stairs that allowed access to the top, reaching the houses, and into one of them, a trapdoor that led to the complex. Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep… I flung a bolt forward, and it got picked up mid-air, entering a clockwise rotation pattern as it was caught on the Whirlgig’s area of effect, letting out a loud WHOOOSHHH when the anomaly reacted to the foreign object. “There’s another one, a whir…” I turned around and stopped mid-sentence. The mare didn’t strayed away this time, but she was facing the other side completely… She sniffed the air a few times and narrowed her eyes ominously. “This is… tushkano country.” She said grimly “Wha…? Never heard of these” I was perplexed… calling out that a group of hostiles was around, suddenly, like that… “Just stick close, very close…those pests have it coming.” Ka-ching! Keeping the same controlled anger face, she raised a hoof from the ground, licked it’s sole a few times and lifted it to the air, to feel the air humidity and currents, I can only assume… now how that would help us… “They are near… very near…” She licked the sole two more times and raised it again… “Around ninety, no, a hundred… more… damn, we’ve hit a big nest… and they didn’t have any food for…” Lielle licked her sole once more “Four hours and…” The mare licked the sole again “Thirty-seven minutes.” That said, the mare rested her hoof onto the ground. “Also, the day is partially clouded with eighty per cent chance of rain this afternoon if you ask me, but what do I know? I’m no pegasus” And the azure pony shrugged. I considered asking her how the hay she did it, but I thought it was best not to. It was probably one of those “earth pony only” things, abilities similar to magic or whenever they were called. Then, there was shrieking… a multitude of squeals and screeches erupting from the structures, sounding like a horde of cursed souls. Tumbling around my gear, I retrieved the AK. My grip was shaking terribly… we were outnumbered, surrounded… mother of goddess… And on cue, the beasts came from the darkness… several bright, devious eyes turned out to belong to… … Jerboas… At first, I looked at those pathetic small things with contempt, but then, more of them sprouted from the ruined houses, enough to pose a threat… “Don’t fire till you see the white of their eyes…” The mare said while facing the other side, we were back to back. When I turned to face her, I saw that the jerboas were massing up on her side as well, the mammals had a specially famine expression. The rodents stood on their two back legs, extending their front claws and teeth in anticipation before leaping. PWOOT!!! SQUEAAAACHHH!!! The shotgun shell hit straight into a Tushkano’s head, turning it into a gory mass of unidentified shape, while the other pellets stunned and harmed a hooffull of other Tushkanos positioned too close to the victim. RATTLERATTLE…. RATTLE…RATTLE… SQUEAA.. I tried to conserve ammo by firing in bursts instead of full auto; most of the beasts fell with one or two rounds PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! SQUEEASQUEAAACHH!!! One of the rodents leaped and sunk his tiny incisives at my chest, being hanged to me. I thanked the leather reinforcements that pretty much absorbed the bite. Then another rodent was successful reaching me, and a third, and a fourth… While they were too small to reach my face, the only relatively unprotected point, they were hindering me. I shook a few times trying to take them off my back. PWOOT!! PWOOT!!! “Stop playing with them, just smack the little cunts” The mare snipped. She was fighting the beasts with an almost obsessive zeal, placing each shot where it pained the most… I quickly returned fire to the wave of Tushkanos coming to me RATTLERATTLE…. RATTLE… RATTLERATTLE… Once a good bit of them were cleaned, I rolled onto the ground, forcibly ejecting the parasites from my armor. And then, I stomped over them. One by one they squealed. PWOOT!! PWOOT!!! “Cover me, I’m going to reload!” The redhead mare warned. RATTLERATTLE… I’ve turned to the other direction to mow the critters at her side, while Lielle retrieved more shells from her belt pouch and inserted them one by one on the shotgun. Clickcha, clickcha, clickcha… RATTLERATTLERATTLE… click click click. Damn, now I had to reload too… at least a rifle was easier to be refilled… Clickcha, clickcha, clickcha… So, I merely floated a fresh magazine from my bag and replaced the depleted one, storing it for reuse. Clickcha, clickcha… KA-CHINK! PWOOT!!! Nevertheless our efforts holding ground, there were simply too many Tushkanos. The beasts were coming to us at bunches… “You know, this isn’t going to work forever…” “If you know what is good for you mister, you better keep shootin’…” She said while gritting her teeth PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! SQUEAAA… RATTLE….RATTLE…RATTLERATTLE…. “We need an alternate plan… there are more enemies than bullets.” PWOOT!! PWOOT!!! “I’m all ears” She said while taking advantage of a break in the mutant wave to reload her shotgun. “We should move out to the complex and lock them outside; otherwise we’ll have a lost battle in our hooves pretty soon our ammo ends” KA-CHING! “You got the map, lead away while I mop these mutants off your tail.” Okay... I withdrew the map and held it, trying to read it… PWOOT!!! The entrance was two houses away to the right. I floated the AK into position and rushed into the masses of Tushkanos… RATTLERATTLERATTLEE… RATTLERATTTLERATTLE Many of them fell to the bullet storm, several others were trampled under my hooves… good thing my armor protected my fur from these vermin’s’ fangs. PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! The mare was keeping up with my pace, leaving either dead or mortally wounded rodents in her path. Unfortunately, for each one that were defeated, two more seemed to take his place. RATTLERATTLE… RATTLERATTLE… There… this should be the place. After two well-placed kicks, the old door gave way only to reveal the house’s dusty interior. Among the bare floor, a single trapdoor was closed. PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! Once the azure mare crossed the doorframe, I lifted the heavy steel-framed wooden trapdoor. “Get in; I’ll close it behind me!” PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!! Not needing to hear it twice, the mare hopped into the passage. RATTLERATTLE…. After leaving a last batch of hot lead to the mutant rodents that still insisted to sprout around, I subsequently jumped inside too. Thud! I underestimated that drop… why the ground has to be so hard? After lifting up and spending a few seconds shaking off the dust, I used my magic to pull the handle, closing the trapdoor. Three Tushkanos made it through in the meantime, while the trapdoor fell upon the torso of a fourth, squishing it. PWOOT!!! Click, click… SQUEAAACHHH!!! The earth pony drew her marekarov and finished off the remaining beasts. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! “That’s the last of them for now.” She said relieved, and started to reload her weapons “Care to explain your… eager… to frag these… Tushkanos?” “Don’t ask. I mean it.” She said in a surprisingly serious tone. Whenever… all the more to keep focus on the task ahead. Speaking of which… I turned on the flashlight, flashing a second light on the basement, since Lielle’s was already on. The small room we were at was just an antechamber, with the only exits being the trapdoor via stairs and a big metallic door opposed to it. Such door was busted open; the terminal at its side had a foreign device attached. Definitely a door cracker… Freedom’s work. SQUEANGG!!! ripriprip SQUACHHEE!!! ripriprip SQUEAAA!!! A quick look showed me the source of that sound… The Tushkanos, they were chewing the wood parts of the trapdoor to bust in… such persistent little bastards… “Yeah, I see it too.” The mare lifted her gaze to the sounds. “Let’s enter the site and lock the door, this way the Tushkanos won’t bother us.” That sounded good, and we crossed the metal door. Once on the other side, the mare took the reins of the situation and started fiddling with the terminal at the side of the door… Interestingly, there was still energy. Somepony decided that the things buried here were important enough to require a constant electricity flow; the site probably had its own energy source. After a few moments dealing with the terminal, the mare succeeded in closing the door. That was weird… she never showed any proficiency with machines before, well… I suppose that we could credit the ease to the Freedomers’ gadget that already tampered the door’s electrical lock. I took a quick pause to assess my situation. While the Tushkanos didn’t hurt me at all, my armor suffered some punctures here and there, well, could be worse. Luckily, we wiped the thick of them before they could overrun us. “BEEP! Equine presence detected! Activating Host routine.” We both turned to the source of the voice, a small camera with attached sound boxes above the frame of a metallic door, pretty much equal in size and composition of the same we just crossed. This was definitely an identification chamber of sorts. The “camera” faced a determinate point on the ground, and then, it started producing tiny specks of light. Not like a flashlight, it just generated tons of light dots on a determinate area, then; such dots arranged themselves, building a shape… A shape more familiar than I’d expect. Dear goddess… There, in front of us, stood a hologram of… …Princess Celestia… “Scanning…” She said with a mechanical voice, launching investigative scanners from her eyes. “Individuals not matching personnel list. Please, state your visitor password or leave the area. Proceeding further without doing so will activate the Breach routine” The mare scratcher her head quizzically “Now, what could it be? I don’t have any idea. Do you, Bosh?” “No clue either… something related to Celestia herself?” “Uh, uh! I know one! SUN!” “Password incorrect. Two out of three attempts left.” “Let me try it… Monarchy!” “Password incorrect. One out of three attempts left.” I gazed at my companion, and she just looked at the ground. Well, what we had to lose? “Friendship!” “Password incorrect. Activating Breach routine.” And the hologram changed to an odd motherly tone while changing to a kindhearted expression “Hush now, dearies… everything will be just fine. If you two surrender, no harm will be done.” And the door begun whirring, before stopping on its track and releasing sparks. “Oh my… some mischievous pony rigged the doors. Please, stay off the site.” “So, what now?” The redhead aimed her questioning gaze at me. “We just go ahead…” I stated while seeing her doubts on her eyes. “It is just a machine, not the real deal.” She nodded softly, but still had a doubtful expression. Mares… We crossed through the hologram, while the thing “gazed” at us the entire time, pleading us not to go. Paying no heed to it, I crossed the partially opened door. The next room was an enormous decayed meeting room, complete with a large rectangular table, pots with grey mass that at some point, were plants, crushed chairs, pretty much, that common look of a forsaken building that the Zone seemed to emulate so well, illuminated by ominous emergency lights… It had three sets of double doors, one, budged open, at the north, another, closed, in the western direction and the last, the one from which we came, at south. The mare was quick to point at something by the western wall. A blown up machine gun turret. As on a terrific synchrony, the Celestia hologram formed itself on the middle of the room. The image had a sad semblance. “We only do this because we have your best interest at heart…” Four other turrets descended from the roof, its laser sights picking targets… BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! Ooff!!! Right on the chest! That’s what I get for going first. Caught by surprise, we did the only obviously reasonable thing… rush toward under the table. “Targets lost, entering standby mode.” The mechanical voice sounded above. “This isn’t going to end well” The mare said. “Once that thing keeps us in sight, it’s going to go full auto over our arses.” “I know, right?” I countered while administering a medkit and two or three bandages to the wounds. “Still, we should go together. The more targets that thing has, the harder it is for it to keep focus. Do you still have any grenade?” The mare opened her pack, checking her supplies. “Three explosives left.” “Good. You take the right one, while I blow the turret on the left. Then, we try to trot out as quickly as we can before the other two can open fire.” I pulled a grenade from my own pack, holstering the AK. I used my magic to envelop the explosive, preparing the throw. “On my mark…” The azure mare tucked her grenade onto her crimson tail, facing the right side of the room… “Now!” “Acquiring targets!” I threw that grenade toward the left corner, right below the turret. BOOM! BOOM! “Unit #5 nonoperational, rerouting po...BZZT!Unit #3 nonoperational, rerouting power. ALERT, INSURGENT BREACH IN PROGRESS! ALL SECURITY PERSONEL, PROCEED WITH COUNTERBREACH MEASURES!” BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! Ouch… one, two, three bullets… coping up with the pain, we finally made it through that door. Losing no time, the mare started to hoof around the terminal to lock it… BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! “Close that damn thing already, Lielle!” “This isn’t as simple as it looks” She said while hoofing a sweat off her forehead. BRRZZLLL!!! TCHAF! “There you go… ugh.” She dropped to the ground, with bullet wounds on her forearm and hip. The mare promptly used one of her medkits to treat her injuries, while I served myself of more bandages, since the painkillers from the med I took a while ago were still kicking. “We need a better plan…” “Tell me about it.” My friend said while standing up again. “This place is locked up tighter than a chastity belt…” I shook my head, agreeing. But there was no way back, at least not without deactivating the system. I’d rather not face those machineguns and the Tushkanos again… Living with the ever-imminent fear of being either shot or bitten… such was the life of a Stalker. This room was bigger than the first one. If more than anything, it resembled an assembly line of some kind… of what, only Faust knew. There was a big conveyor belt, and big steel “hangers” with scraps of metal. Burnt materials and mashed electronics were everywhere to be seen, along with depleted blowtorches, screwdrivers, rusted toolboxes, etc. At the end of the line, a weird mishap of rubber cables with some kind of… connectors? The tubes were linked to big tanks held high; my best guess is that was some kind of fueling station. Strangely enough, both the tubes and the console nearby were not dusty, being an indicative of recent (three or four days ago, who knows?) usage… probably by Freedomers snooping around. Thankfully, the room showed no signs of bullet holes or blood either… meaning that the security system wasn’t wired onto it. The room had three exits, the one linking to the meeting room, one at the west and another at the east direction. The last two were normal wooden doors, unlike the big metallic door we just electronically closed. Among the north wall, strange cubicles, some sort of confinement rooms… three or four of them, all covered with glass and a control pad nearby… a closer inspection revealed that they were some sort of test chamber, designed to test the resistance of a particular item by submitting it to either fire, bullets or explosives. Now, what kind of stuff they were creating to require such quality test? The nearest control pad was labeled “vivisection chamber temp commands”, with buttons for opening and closing the door, a big red “activation” button and a dial for adjusting temperature. “Found anything?” The mare asked. “Nope, just old useless machines…” I eyed around the room, placing my eyes upon each of the wooden doors… two ways. “Perhaps we should split up.” “Yeah, that worked well last time, doesn’t it?” She grumbled “No, I mean it. This AI will have a harder time keeping tabs on BOTH of us, this means, it will have more chance of making mistakes or overlook things… we could exploit it. Also, by splitting up, we can cover a larger area and find the database, deactivating the defenses more quickly” “Hmm… well, it’s your call, really. Right or left?” Does it matter? If the site was symmetrical (which probably was, after all, the monarchy’s lapdogs were a perfectionist bunch, so eager to please their own rulers…) both sides would lead to the same room at certain point. My eyes went to that odd mishap of black rubber tubes hanging from the ceiling. I’ll go with the door closer to that thing, that’s the way the Freedomers supposedly went. “I’ll go left. Take care, ok?” The azure mare just bobbed her head, shaking her magnificent mane and answered. “And you, try to get back in one piece.” And by so, she crossed the right door, disappearing into the dark room. I braced myself, and after a few moments catching some breath, I opened my door... It was a mess hall, one that would support twenty, twenty five ponies if it were properly maintained. As it was, it was merely a disheveled and dirty room filled with numerous metallic tables, emptied fridges, cracked tiles and one-hundred years old organic leftovers... spatters of fresh blood at certain sections and a pony skeleton under the northernmost table complemented the post-apocalyptic décor. I trotted through the room, already expecting my gracious hostess… I was midway though it when she materialized again, her face filled with so much regret… it was making me feel bad for it, even though I knew it was only a machine, the similarities with the real princess were remarkable… as like the programmer thoroughly studied the princess herself to create something exactly like her. “Your heart is in the right place, child… you are just a bit misguided. Let me show you the way.” As in response, tiles among the wall shifted to reveal more automatic guns… Shotguns… PWOOT !!! PWOOT!!! Now I can say for sure that my pity for the hologram was short-lived… the stupid thing was more than able to fend off threats for itself, including me. “Target lost, entering standby routine.” I softly massaged my flank, exactly where a few pellets hit. A few bandages later, it was almost like new. Strange… whoever made this defense system didn’t take too much heed to the area. For example, the turrets were useless if the target was hidden, like I was, under a table. And the mess hall was filled with tables; to this regard… it would be way smarter to install some floor-based defense. For what I could extract, the mind (or minds) behind the automated defense system intellectually knew all the technicalities to set up a working one, but lacked wisdom to determine effectiveness by disregarding variables. Not that I was complaining, hehehe… “Target onl…” PWOOT!!! Ching… “Target lost, ent…” “Targ…” PWOOT!!!PWOOT!!!Ching! Ching! “Target lo…” “Targe…” Those tables sure were resistant to stand those shotguns’ punch… Luckily, I was able to make my way to the other door… only one tiny problem… The door stood too far away from the closest table. I would need to rush toward it, exposing myself… Oh, what the hell… “Target online, opening fire” PWOOT!!!PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!!PWOOT!!! Move, stupid legs… move… pay no mind to these wounds… PWOOT!!!PWOOT!!! PWOOT!!!PWOOT!!! “Target lost, entering standby routine.” Arrrghh!!! My poor little hooves… I’ve got two direct shots and three rebounds… but I’ve made it through. I seriously hope that Lielle is doing better than me… ack… now, let’s treat those with one, no, two medkits… and a bunch of bandages. Way to go, having serious injuries and pulling them off with half-assed bandaging, painkillers and other drugs whose effect was beyond me… Goddamnit, I am a stalker. I’ve had worse… After pulling together my wits, I trotted along the room I was at currently… Some sort of big corridor… And, as a chronometrically timed psychological torture, the image of Celestia appeared again, reeking melancholy off her wide saucer eyes… “My sun shines for everypony alike… as every day is a new blessing. Why can’t you enjoy it like everypony else and be grateful for it? Why throw away this precious gift in exchange of a causeless rebellion?” And she closed her eyes, shaking her head disappointedly. Sections of the wall opened, giving space to more guns… FWOOSHHH!!! FWOOSHHH!!! Both the north and south edges of the room were encased in fire, as the flamethrowers laid out all of their propane-fueled flames… too bad I was standing on the middle of the room. Then, the flamethrowers stopped, and instantly more sections of the wall opened, revealing more flamethrowers… FWOOSHHH!!! FWOOSHHH!!! It dawned on me, they were boxing me in! The system was designed so that it would hit the enemy at least once, letting the other turrets conserve gas. And that meant, the next wave was going to be directly on me. Crapcrapcrapcrap… I couldn’t move, not with the wall of flames at my back and front… The turrets stopped a second time, and sections of the wall, the ones directly at my right and left, opened, bringing forth the weapons… There was only one direction left to escape the flames. Down. FWOOSHHH!!! FWOOSHHH!!! Now, that was probably my most heroic moment… laying out on a dirty floor on fetal position… I am sure that the future generations will forever rejoice in that memory… As soon as the flames scarring above my head came to a halt, I pushed my legs forward to the exit of the room. I was lucky that the flamethrowers had such a basic flaw… They overheat. FWOOSHHH!!! FWOOSHHH!!! That last wave caught the tip of my tail; I rolled over on the ground to set out the fire. Apart from my broken pride and disheveled appearance, I had no serious injury. But then, why I felt like crap? Celestia… that was it. Whoever was the crafty bastard that programmed that hologram, he was one sick evil mastermind. The way it was designed, the expressions matching each situation… it was like that thing… was built to break both my bones and my feelings alike… like I was the bad guy. I am not the bad guy, am I? Let’s see… I don’t live in an evil lair, don’t have world domination as a goal, neither have a sadistic pleasure on watching others suffer… all that I desire is… to stay alive. Yes, that’s it. The only creatures that could effectively deem my current actions as evil were pretty much dead or had moved on with their lives, their old allegiance, the monarchy, as an institute, having pretty much being thrown into a coffin, nailed and buried after the accident. And now, where I was? A proper room, not a corridor… but this one was decorated… although most of it crumbled onto dust and decay, naked pillars, paintings turned into mold and furniture into fine powder and trash… all victims of the implacable passing of the years. A double door went further north, while to my right, four single doors. “So much potential, if only you used your gift for the welfare of your entire species instead of this selfish endeavor…” The image of Celestia softly cooed, tears on its “eyes”… Why don’t you leave me alone, you disgraceful shade of the past? Three machineguns tilted off from the ceiling, all of them positioned directly opposed to the set of single doors. “Target online, commencing fire” BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! “Target lost, entering standby routine.” Now, how to solve this? I wouldn’t be able to pass directly over those machineguns… they must go. I dug my saddlebags for a grenade, holding it tight on a black magical hue. I trotted away from the pillar, tossing the explosive on the turret on the middle… “Target online, commencing fire” BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! BOOM!! Crack!! The explosion cracked the ceiling at that point, crashing down and crushing the machinegun under it. “Unit #8 nonoperational, rerouting power… structural damage on the stallions living area, hostile is armed and dangerous.” Ok, two to go… and four grenades left. “Target online, commencing fire” BLAMBLAMBLAM!!! I tossed that grenade to the northern wall, so it would flip toward the northernmost gun… but I got the “math” wrong, and it landed a bit too far from the gun, catching it on its spread. “Unit #9 damaged, equine targeting system offline…switching to heat signature targeting system” BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! Great lord… now I did it. That crazed-ass machinegun was going to end up hurting somepony. If I could only… Heat signature, huh? I checked over my saddlebags while that mechanical menace still roared all of its 1080 RPM live-fire action… The pillar was holding… mostly of it. Then, I found what I was looking for… my portable burner. Oh, how I am going to miss you… I floated it beside the southernmost machinegun and turned it on. A lively flame appeared on the airborne burner… “Additional target detected, switching target” BLAMBLAMBLAM!!! The northern machinegun aimed toward the burner and released its deadly rain, cranking its twin useless on the process… my poor burner…I’ll have to get used to campfire-cooked food… burnt on one side and raw on the other… “Unit #7 nonoperational. Friendly fire detected, Unit #9 defective, deactivating defective unit.” And the assigned machinegun powered down. Finally, relief! At least this sector was clear from those damnable machines. After a quick break from the intense battle, I set out to examine the set of doors… there were four of them. If the AI spoke the truth, I was on the stallions living area, and ergo, I could assume that these rooms were private rooms for stallions. Let’s try my luck with the first door… That room revealed to be almost entirely crushed… the floor collapsed over it, thrashing the chamber … and there was a small pool of water… at least was water when it formed itself… evidently, a leak, which, when detected, instantly made the AI stop sending water through the damaged pipe. Nothing of interest in there, everything valuable was either destroyed or missing, taken by the original residents or looters, only Faust knew. The second door… was budged! I tried really hard to open it, without results. Something on the other side was blocking it. After forcing it worthlessly, I left that damn door alone and moved on to the third door… Now, the room to which it led was reasonably intact… a bunk bed, a desk, a locker… nothing out of the ordinary… There was something over the desk…a large blueprint. It depicted a high-tech armor, labeled as EPA14… According to the document, the armor contained numerous life-support functions and a wide array of weaponry; while the design was specially jarring… the armor was a big hefty bulk of chrome-layered metal, fitted in its interior by servomotors and storage spaces… the drawing resembled an alicorn, because the armor possessed a horn coating, wing coatings (if they were folded…) and was less thick at the hooves, as to fit one’s muscles… like it was designed to fit any of the three races. One size fits all, I guess… The locker also had some stuff… a necklace with a pen drive as pendant, I’ll check the contents of it later… and a small rectangular box. I opened that box; it contained a strange kind of… stick. That’s what it looked like, a small metallic stick with a lot of buttons and indicators… perhaps some tool or controller? Anyways, I’ve dumped both items in my saddlebag and left the room. The last room revealed to be nothing more than a broom closet… a dark, god-forsaken place that served no purpose nowadays, the last janitor long since gone. Only one direction to head to… The following room was filled with rows of filing cabinets, some sort of archive room… interestingly enough, the whole room looked as if it was used for target practice for a mad bomberpony… large explosion debris , breaks on the rows of cabinets and carbonized objects were to be seen all around… A corridor went north, while a pair of bathrooms was to be seen on my left, their doors missing. Another double door went right… “There is space in my heart for every little foal… even the wayward ones… let go your hate and surrender, we promise to treat you like a decent equine.” Yeah, like feelings were hardwired into your damn artificial brain… Two guns erupted from the end of the hall… oh my GODDESS… “Target online, commencing fire” PWLUUUUTCH!!! BOOM!!! PWLUUUUTCH!!! BOOM!!! “Target lost, entering standby routine.” That was really; really close… grenade launchers, what the hell? Screw it… I’m trying the other way around. I raised my head from the cabinet row I was behind, only to discover that the door that I’ve came from had a metal plate wall blocking it… the AI trapped me! “Target online, commencing fire” PWLUUUUTCH!!! The grenade went flying over my head; I used the telekinesis to push it further away… BOOM!!! “Target lost, entering standby routine.” By Luna’s insatiable black holes… what to do now, what to do? Both the corridor north and the door at the right were prospective exits… but lest I wished to be blown into oblivion, I wouldn’t stand on those guns’ path without any cover… The bathrooms… If I could only make a run for it… with luck, they will have a passage to another room… “Target online, commencing fire” PWLUUUUTCH!!! BOOM!!! PWLUUUUTCH!!! BOOM!!! “Target lost, entering standby routine.” Phew… just a bit more to reach it… “Target online, commencing fire” PWLUUUUTCH!!! BOOM!!! PWLUUUUTCH!!! BOOM!!! “Target lost, entering standby routine.” Arckkkk!!! My leg… of all the legs I had, why the one on the right? And the back one at that… That was a really nasty wound… the leg was now little more than a limping limb covered in oozing bandages. Though the fact the hooffull of bandages and the two medkits that were applied immediately saved me from bleeding to death or having to amputate the limb, I wouldn’t be able to run for a while… If only one of my front hooves were damaged in its place… in the Zone, a slow pony usually meant a dead pony… Stupid metallic shrapnel… Moving my poor leg around the tiny bathroom, I could take a good look at it… no other exits, only an air duct, too high for me to reach, even if my leg was fine… This was the end of the line… I had no way out; going against those turrets with my limp leg was stupidity. And from here, while they couldn’t aim at me, I couldn’t aim at them either, so no point trying to nudge grenades at them… At least I could see the set of double doors opposite to the bathroom… and hope that my friend had better luck dealing with the AI. “Breach in progress, ladies’ quarter. Security system neutralized, alert!” Speaking of the devil… Like an answer to my prayers, that set of doors opened, letting inside somepony else… Too bad it wasn’t a friend. It was one of those… good lord… the spitted image of the armor in that blueprint… and it was coming for me! Obviously, the AI had control over that as well… Parasprite cunt, pseudodog arses… that demoniac thing opened a section of its metallic back and materialized a rocket launcher, setting its laser sights directly onto… yes… FWOOOSHHH!!! BOOM! The bathroom stalls at the back were smoldered in seconds… and, unlike me, they were made of iron! Either way, the AI had got me good… As I stood there on the darkness, I could hear every “Thud!” outside, each one signalizing a step of that abhorrent machine, each one counting the time that my death sentence drew closer and closer… There was only one thing left to do… I trotted out of the room dragging my limp leg, facing the machine with the little dignity I had left… “That’s enough… you win! I SURRENDER” The turrets set their laser sights at me, but they didn’t fire… “Even though you may have acted against our interests, an equine is still an equine, and deserves utmost care… now stand still and await further orders, insurgent.” The automated armor took a few steps closer, facing me… It wasn’t intact… a number of scratches and dirt adorned the machine. It was… examining me. Then, the machine nodded its head strangely, like it was purposely trying to avoid my gaze or something… perhaps a malfunction… it didn’t lasted long. A jolt of electricity coming from the hologram made the thing stand static again. “Dispose of the following materials: 1 (one) AK rifle, model 74, origin: Zebraria 1 (one) Marekarov pistol, origin: Fillydelphia 1 (one) Bowie knife, origin: Talos 5 (five) Fragmentation grenades, origin: Baghdrag Drop the determinate items into the nearest disposal hatch.” And as response, a section of the south wall moved, revealing the disposal system, just a big hole that would send my weapons to… I had no idea… I slowly trotted to the designated hatch, bringing my screwed leg along in a pathetic slouch… “Dispose of the items in 60 seconds, failure on doing so will tag you as a noncompliant and hostile individual.” What the fuck? Now this too? My situation was bad enough already… I jogged to the damn hatch, bringing my leg to higher levels of pain in doing so. In a few moments, I dumped all of my weapons into that hatch… “Request fulfilled… proceed to your designated contention chamber “ And at the machine’s beck, the lights at the corridor to the north started blinking… I trotted toward that direction, the autonomous armor following me… The AI indicated me to take a turn to the left, and I obeyed its desire, leading me to a dead end. At my right, a locked room with a rusted “security” sign over the doorframe, and in my front, another big metallic door. Another jolt of electricity hit the empty armor, forcing it to raise his right hoof toward the door. Consecutively, the door itself whirred, opening its lock to reveal a prison… “Tread on, insurgent… await further instructions from a facility security personnel” And, without any choice, I crossed into the prison, the door locking again behind me. At first glance, the room was deep into darkness. But after some time, my pupils grew used to it and I could discern shapes in the darkness… the outline of five other living creatures… “Pst, I think that the princess’ faithful servant is gone…” “Can’t hear the footsteps of her shining knight anymore… yeah. And look, he dropped new blood…” And the creatures began to creep closer… ponies. Three of them were visible now… A turquoise-furred pegasus mare with a colorful violet mane and magenta eyes, wearing a merc armor. One earth pony stallion with yellow fur, tired black eyes and a sky blue mane, dressed in a light Freedom armor, and an earth pony mare with a dark grey fur, indigo mane, and golden eyes… dressing some sort of modded military armor. “Hey there, newcomer… welcome to our very personal piece of hell” Greeted the pegasus mare. “A loner, I assume?” I nervously nodded. “So as I and Midlight” She pointed to the earth pony mare, which showed her flashlight cutie mark with pride. “This one from Freedom is Ironfuel and my name is Stargazer” Well, this ought to explain her cutie mark showcasing three white stars, while Ironfuel’s was a rifle mag. “You all got captured by that thing?” She laughed with pleasure. “It’s kinda obvious, doesn’t it? That damned thing outsmarted and beat all of us… so, what is your story, pal?” “The Freedom leader gave me a job to gather a piece of intel from this place…” “So, they still have interest about whenever is here…” Ironfuel commented “Though we lost numerous lives already… and everypony trapped here surviving in this condition…” Indeed… I was almost asking how the buck they were able to live in that cramped place… “The AI is programmed to regularly feed the prisoners, isn’t it?” “Feeding as in the broadest term of the word…” The stallion pointed to a large upside down water drinker, one that could be used by hamsters, but much, much larger… it was half-filled. And all around of it, colorful packages littered the ground. I approached the water drinker and picked up one of those packages… The cover depicted a old lady with green fur and derisive eyes showing a purple-colored tongue. “Ol’ Granny Smith’s homemade Zap apple pies” and the package went on: “New formula, Tastes like rainbow!” and under it, an “Agropony quality seal” and an F&R inc. symbol… I turned the package to examine the other side… that pie contained an insane amount of preservatives… “This product does not contain zap apples, artificially flavored and aromatized.” Too much for being “homemade”… “May contain sea serpent facial hair, monosodium glutamate, partially processed corn…” “…No more than 7 parts per thousand of mowed manticore dung per 100g …” the ingredient list went on… that thing also had way more food coloring than it would be healthy… and finally, it stated that “This product shouldn’t be used as a sole component of any diet.” I raised my eyes from the package and the three ponies nodded… every one showed their tongues, each one having deep purple coloration… “That’s the only “food” that blasted AI serves us…” Said Midlight. “Breakfast, lunch, dinner… every time is pie time.” “How long have you been imprisoned?” “We were counting the days, but…” And the pegasus pointed to a wall. Several tallies were scratched onto it, but most of them were covered by a thick mass of purple substance. “That’s puke” The mare answered after seeing the doubt in my eyes. “Purple puke?” “Yes… half-stare over there…” and she pointed to a corner where a big unicorn stallion was sitting. “He got a bit sick from the pies and screwed over the counter… those pies; they don’t just turn your tongue purple… but every body fluid, stalker. I guess that’s why they come in these cheap packages, a “borderline pass” quality product” That was disgusting… I could only hope that my friend would make it through and help me out of this situation. “Aside from that, you guys don’t seem to be doing so badly…” “You know nothing, Stalker… nothing…” Ironfuel said. “Every night that AI shows here and tells us a bedtime story, an incredible, involving story filled with adventure and excitement…” “And, for Faust’s sake, how is that bad?” “The AI was programmed to tell seven stories in total, one for each day. But due to a glitch, it stops the seventh one on the middle and loops out.” “What?” “Do you have any idea of how painful it is, Stalker? Even if someday, by a wild stroke of luck, I can leave this place, I will never know what happened to that foolhardy, yet, well-intentioned Alicorn prince!” The stallion roared. “Well well, don’t be rude to our friend, Ironfuel… he is just curious, that’s all…” The pegasus mare calmed him. “Now, come and meet half-gaze.” And she pointed to the pony by the corner, a dark pink unicorn stallion with a white mane and a pair of binoculars as a cutie mark. He was wearing a Freedom scout armor, while an eye patch obscured his right eye. (The accessory definitely being the reason for his nickname). He looked undernourished and tired… “Wait a second, aren’t you fi…” snip And with that sound, in a split second, my saddlebag fell upon the hands of the fifth pony, which was stealthily ripping it off from my body with a makeshift knife. “Way to go, Trailblazer…” Stargazer congratulated the brown pegasus in a bandit jacket. “Don’t try anything funny, newcomer… we just want the food.” Sneaky bastards! They were distracting me to get their hooves on my stuff. The four went through my pack, retrieving all the food, until… “Hey guys, this one is loaded with booze! You don’t mind sharing with us, do you, Stalker?” Yes, I did, deeply… that was MY hard-earned vodka, but reason came to me. They were four, and I was one… there was no chance of winning against all of them… “No, go ahead…” I said while trying to ignore the screaming pain in my heart, which probably was on par with the one of losing a very dear son. And after alleviating my bags from all the canned food and the booze, they threw it back at me. “That’s life, stalker. You get dibs on the load of the next one that gets stuck with us” Stargazer said while flipping over a bottle. After a while, the four were drunk. “Hic! You shee…” Started Midlight “Thish pony knows where to spend his bits. Instead of buying an improved armor, having to choose between being protected against bullets, radiation, scratches or anomalies, he just buys a lot of vodka! This way, it mattersh little if he is… hic! Shot, chewed, irradiated or torn to pieces by an anomaly, because he ish too damn drunk to care! Whee!” I was going to have to spend some time locked up with these… individuals… until Lielle finds a way through, if she could. Well, I couldn’t do much now. I started to rearrange the stuff on my violated saddlebags, until my eyes went to that little flash drive that I came upon earlier… I wasn’t leaving the prison anytime soon, so I connected that flash drive to my PDA, downloaded the data to it and started going through it… it wasn’t intelligence, but a diary, with several entries… 1057, January 8: Finally we got ourselves a real nice place to conduct research and development… the Equestrian Prototype Armor is going well… just thought of a few more functions to add to the unit, we can probably get our hooves into making one prototype in around two month, if everything goes accordingly to the schedule… on other news, my new coworkers are throwing a welcome party at the mess hall, I’ll join and get to know em’ better, since we will be working together for now on. 1057, February 3: Geesh… this new defense system creeps the heck outta me. I know that Reena, our programmer, got authorization from miss Heartstrings to install it as a part of training for her own project, but the way she programmed that thing, is just… for instance, she picked Celestia as the default AI template. Yes, while it was certainly inspiring to pretend that the actual princess of the sun was watching over us, she overdid it… I don’t know how the buck she actually programmed that thing to be so… lifelike. The hologram’s stare seems to pierce through steel and her voice sounds like a chorus of angels.I don’t know if it is all psychological or such, but… normally, I wouldn’t mind about it, but add her presence on the bathrooms too? What the hay was Reena thinking? Good thing that Heartstrings forbid her of installing automated weapons on private quarters, and she allowed the workshop to be spared too… just imagine if one of those things goes cuckoo? It could ruin my team’s work entirely. No, no… I will rely on our own pony security, thank you very much… Ah, on a brighter note: I’ve finished the life support system module for the EPA, if it works properly, the user will be able to have all of his needs (hunger, thirst… and other less mentionable physiological needs) satisfied without even leaving the armor. 1057, February 7: Finally somepony filed a complaint about the AI’s behavior… I almost feel sorry for Reena, if Heartstrings had thumbs, she’d be history now… well, while I can certainly say that I do not partake with her reaction, it was explainable, we almost had a casualty… now that gal is tuning down her system and programming the AI to be off the restrooms… seems like she is going to have some restrictions too… The EPA is going ok; today we build a compatible station for fulfilling the needs: hunger, thirst and medicines. Once the armor is ready, we’ll test it. Also, I’ve figured out our little energetic problem: The armor will work by power transference from the site’s generator if it is on reach. If it isn’t, a biomagical compound power rod class 2 will provide power for around 3 months of constant use; the armor will be so thick that we won’t have to worry about the radiation, either for the user or for everypony around him. 1057, February 10: I am at a loss for words… Reena demonstrated her system’s counterbreach routine, AKA shoot first, then shoot some more - at the loading area. Just seeing those dummies enter that container-filled room and one by one hear the most heartwarming phrases while being filled drown with bullets, I could say that for each pound of kindness, that terrible thing unleashed two of hot lead… these southern ponies have a dark sense of humor… Anyways, Heartstrings seemed reasonably satisfied by it; however she demanded that the AI allows invaders to surrender, and ordered Reena’s crew to build up contention chambers at one of the unused rooms at the back… seems that she believes that in the case of a breach, prisoners would be more valuable than corpses. Also, she promised the mare that if she did everything on schedule, she could choose the monthly dessert… way to go by spoiling her, boss. As about my project, we finally started making what matters: the guns. As expected, every opinion on my team differed when I asked which weapons we should include. The solution? Add all of them. We developed some really complex magitech materializing system for the armor’s weapons… it works like this: we develop “recipes” for the weapons, program them into the armor, and it builds and un-build them with the materialization system. Pros: ability to contain a wide array of weapons for every situation, and the ability to adapt to any ammo that the armor may have in storage. Cons: only one weapon may be materialized at once, materialization takes time to kick in and we couldn’t add lasers because it would hog out too much power from other functions… 1057, February 24: No more zap apple pies! Finally… at first, it didn’t seem that bad, but after three or four days, the taste is sickening. How that mare may actually like this dessert is way beyond me, but we won’t have to worry about it anymore, not after somepony told Heartstring that his piss turned purple… yes, I’m not kidding. Purple, PISS! And the cause was those pies’ food coloring. A month’s supply of dessert is going to waste because of that… Ah, we finally built the hull for the prototype, it looks glorious… able to fit any pony race, made of an alloy of metals more resistant and thick than dragon scales, it fully resisted the vivisection chamber up to 1000 degrees, gunfire and low-yield explosions without hull damage! Tomorrow we are going to install the user interface and life support systems, the weapon system can be put on hold until the prototype proves to be reliable. 1057, February 25: Had a busy day… tested myself the prototype, I’ve felt a bit claustrophobic in it, BUT IT WORKS! We even tested the life support system, works to a trim! The interface, voice systems, radio, maps, targeting systems! And the interface stick too! I was the first pony to be intravenously fed! That is so surrealistic… Ah, the interface stick… I was a bit lacking when describing it… it is a tool that automatically opens the life support and ammo hatches of the armor for a resupply of food, water, meds or ammo, it also includes diagnosis tools that helps performing repairs and grants user permissions for such repairs, it does allow the opening of the armor too, since it doesn’t open from the inside. In summary, it is very useful for field use when the EPA is deployed… 1057, March 8: The weapon system was installed on the EPA today! This is a remarkable day! Everypony came to pay heed to our accomplishment; we materialized a minigun, a shotgun, a rocket launcher, a rifle… everything worked! Faust bless magitech! Heartstring was really happy with the results, I sniff a promotion coming! On a less pleasant note, she met me later to discuss a few modifications… seems like somepony on the top of the command chain is worried with the fact that the insurgents got their hooves on an smuggled exoskeleton prototype, reverse engineered it and started producing their own! To avoid a similar fact, Heartstrings ordered me to modify the interface stick, so that it will only open the armor after a code is imputed. I modified it to require a 14 digit code input. If the imputed code isn’t valid, the armor will explode, bringing those insurgents to hell along with the poor soul trapped into the armor. A second mod that she demanded was a behavior module! Yes, that’s right! Apparently, some army “volunteers” may refuse to do their duty, or may crack under certain circumstances, so she wants me to program the armor to automatically attack any enemy creature and follow the current mission protocols regardless of the user’s will! This makes the armor almost an AI in itself, why will they need a pony to “command” it after this “update”? 1057, March 13: Just did a rundown on the bug list of the EPA, I believe that most of them should be gone now, by next week, it will probably be sent for mass production. As demanded by protocol, I sent a copy of all the data pertaining to the project, including a copy of the unlocking code of our prototype unit, to the assigned central backup facility… Now that’s someplace I would want to go to… I’ve heard that it is the monarchy’s most secretive facility, built near the NPP so it could take the surplus power of it… Heartstrings showed up today, she decided to put me on the IP project! Now that’s a really important project, I am touched by her trust. And surprise, today Reena came visit me too. She wanted me to give her AI permissions over our EPA unit in the case the counterbreach routine is activated… I allowed it, under one circumstance: that she keeps her project up to date. Yes, her lax attitude was kinda prejudicing our work overall, some guys even threatened to complain to Heartstrings… I was also able to prepare the first two “friendship earrings” for use in conjunction with the EPA’s behavior module: anypony using those earrings will be tagged as a “friend”, and therefore, will not be attacked by the EPA’s automated behavioral routine. The two of them were given to Heartstrings, she wanted to borrow ‘em to test something… That was the last entry. While it was an entertaining history, it yielded no answers on how to deactivate the damned AI or how to escape the prison… all my hopes were laying on Lielle’s hooves… please, please Lielle, don’t get sidetracked! ============================== [><]============================= The silver-eyed mare let out a loud snerk as she crossed the door… Boshan was such an impulsive fellow about some things… she couldn’t fault him for being so, that being a trace of his personality, but she could fault his general ignorance about most of the workings of the Zone… anyway, the stallion would learn soon enough, the mare thought, this might even be fun… like a race. The first to find a way to disable the AI wins! After a small corridor, she ended up on an enormous room… a few emergency lights by the eastern wall revealed five or six roll-up doors, large enough to allow vehicle passage. The middle of the room contained a large number of randomly assorted containers with different colors… it appeared to be a loading area of sorts… The mare cautiously trotted through the gloomy room, until... Flash! A huge spotlight illuminated the exact position where she was… and it followed her as she tried to get off from it. The princess’ hologram materialized itself above one of the containers, looking regal as ever. “I am so sorry for this… I’ll be sure to make it up for you if you survive, child, I swear it!” And she let out a prankish wink. * WREE! * WREE! * WREE! * A number of heavy-duty machinegun turrets erupted from the floor, each one with a scanning module atop them. BLAMMO!!! BLAMMO!!! BLAMMO!!! The mare could only feel a surge of lead scratching her fur, while she pulled through all the energy she could to dash ahead, seeking refuge among the containers. Breathing heavily, she pulled out a medkit and quickly administered it, stitching her wounds and drowning the pain in repressive drugs. She trotted her way around, using the heavy metallic containers as cover, reflecting on her luck that the turrets were installed on the floor, not on the ceiling. Obviously, whoever set them up had in mind an optimal situation for the room: clear of any loading containers. However, among with providing cover, they also formed an intricate labyrinth on themselves… BLAMMO!!! BLAMMO!!! BLAMMO!!! The guns’ projectiles worthlessly hit the thick metal, missing the mare for inches… as soon as she heard the machines’ reloading noises; she trotted full speed ahead onto the next section of containers. On that trot, she darted inside an open container, straight ahead her path. She was going so fast that she stumbled onto something… After a few moments dusting off and silently cursing the accident, she directed her flashlight upon the floor… The mare let out a small grunt of surprise. It was the skeleton of an equine… more than that, of a unicorn! The redhead tripped upon the scrambled bones of the creature. Not much was left of it, most of the deceased equine’s clothing have long deteriorated… however, there was something else… the skeleton was chained to a briefcase. Letting curiosity overtake her, the mare examinated it, noticing that whenever was held inside, it was protected by a lock. The azure pony’s first thoughts were about trying to lockpick it, but reflecting about it, she decided it was a worthless effort, she never really had the thievery skills to begin with… Strange… why that was so clear in her mind, she asked herself. Was it always like this? And if it hadn’t, why and what made it ring now? She pushed those thoughts aside and set herself to solve the practical problem that laid upon her: a rusted lock. After a few moments considering her options, the mare withdrew a skinning knife from her pack. The weapon’s blade was slightly marred with dried mutant blood and patches of fur, but nevertheless, it did the job. A few strikes later and the lock was broken. The interior of the briefcase was completely empty, except for two small metallic hoops… closer inspection revealed that such hoops were earrings. Even without knowing if these had a function or some meaning of sort, Lielle thought they were kinda pretty, very feminine… you don’t find these on the Zone every day. With that in mind, she packed the earrings, saving them for a special occasion. Before lifting up, she noticed a shiny gleam at the corner… a gold-colored plastic keycard was lying there. The mare promptly claimed it. Now, returning her attention to the rigged room, the mare cleared the last few meters of the loading bay, seeking the container’s cover to effectively escape being shot. As the equine entered the next corridor, a drastic change of scenery could be observed. A crammed corridor without any adornments, except cracked bones and blotches of blood among the walls. Unusual that most of the blood was on the walls. The floor, except where it intersected with the walls, was almost clean of it. Also, on exactly the middle of the corridor, an abnormally large blotch of blood occupied the aligned wall. The mare wanted to go on, to trot through along that room quickly and get over with it. But something was holding her back… The confused pony probed her own thoughts and feeling until she came upon the answer: an emotion that she hadn’t fully experienced in a long time… Fear. Yes, it must have been it. Before, she would jump head straight and carelessly into situations, believing that her luck and “hunches” would be enough. Most of the times, these proved to be right (otherwise, she wouldn’t be there to tell the story) but on one or another, she hurt herself… At then, she didn’t paid much heed, but now… the mere thought of it brought shivers. Why? The bloodsucker, whispered her mind. Ironically, only after facing imminent death, one tends to experience life to the fullest. Now, being alive was a special gift, a thing way too precious to be gambled with, like she did before. Of course, the full weight of the responsibility of such knowledge dawned on the mare. She wouldn’t have the bliss of ignorance anymore, she realized that her carefree, yet spontaneously happy and helpful attitude would give place to cold logic, introspection and mistrust… closer to being a stalker that she ever was and the main reason the mare couldn’t fit anywhere before. A necessary sacrifice, she bitterly thought. With that reasoning in mind, she knew that the corridor was rigged… the body remains were clue enough of that. And before traversing it, she should devise a way to bypass it. More easily thought than done, since she was trying to outsmart an advanced AI, probably built by one of the finest minds of the pre-monarchic era, she thought, it wasn’t such a piece of cupcake like dodging springboards… Springboards…? The mare quickly ruffled through her belongings, quickly finding the bolts, the very same that her friend gave to her earlier on. Lielle picked one of them, faintly sensing the rough texture of the metal. The redhead eyeballed its gleam, the smell of fresh salvage… perhaps; after all, this security system wasn’t so different from anomalies, being just a stupid trap that sprung whenever somepony disturbs its g-spot. Now, what did Boshan said earlier? Something along the lines of “Find environmental clues, especially blood and equines’ remains, they usually mark the critical point.” Maybe tricking the AI was, indeed, as easy as tricking anomalies… And judging the corridor, the sweet spot would be directly the middle of it, exactly parallel to that giant blotch of blood. Upon spending a few seconds gazing at the bolts, the mare decided that wasn’t the time for subtlety. She stuffed half a dozen bolts onto her mouth, her brain registering the acrid taste of a mix of irradiated metal and rust. The mare tried her best not to pay attention to it, struggling to keep the bolts circling inside her mouth, until she had enough of shaking them. PTOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The long-ranged spit sent bolts flying across the corridor, only two of them landing on the middle of it (one by rebound). Thirty-three per cent of success rate, not bad. The mare thought. As soon as those little pieces of metal landed on some sensitive tile on the floor, the hologram was summoned. Celestia was holding a very persuasive smile. “Time to put our differences behind us, in essence we are all equines. We are meant to aid Equestria together, do not hear those petty rabble-rousers, be my BZZT our friend!” And the image froze into that winning smile, in the same moment that the entire precinct spoke a very different language… it began to tremble. BRZOOMMM!!! The redhead quickly retreated a few steps backing away from the corridor, back into the loading bay, and just in time… The east wall moved! Huge pistons threw it toward the opposite wall, squashing any object larger than a coin, with extreme prejudice. Once it smashed its structure against the other wall, it backed halfway and squashed again, repeating the procedure eight times before returning to the original position. The mare asked herself, who, in their sane minds, would set up a defense system so exploitable? It was either set up in a hurry or it was a beta version, not a fully-fledged operational item. That wasn’t the time to ponder about that, she quickly restrained herself, this AI could be studied better when its defenses were offline. Lielle chewed another six bolts and spat them onto the corridor… this time, three struck on the middle of it. The hologram didn’t materialized, since it was already there, frozen with a smile plastered on its face, but the wall moved again… Wham!!! Timing her jumps through the steam hydraulics and pushing her legs to clear out the corridor as quick as she could, the azure earth pony was able to reach the other side of the corridor before the moving wall backed to its starting position. Just as she crossed the doorway to the next room, a big metallic gate descended, blocking her way back… the AI was designed not only to fight menaces, but to trap them in the case they outsmarted it, crafty… Now, the mare was genuinely surprised with the next room… pink, pink, pink everywhere… the wallpaper, ruined couches, books, flower pots… all the props were delicate and feminine, the mare would have loved them, weren’t for the coloration. She didn’t like pink… something about the color that she couldn’t exactly put a hoof into bothered her… it seemed too cliché and tacky for her personal taste, like a color that was forced upon every mare’s mentality to represent femininity, and now they were all stuck into using pink not because they liked it, but because it was stereotyped as a “girl’s distinctive color”, like the social bias was more valuated than personal preferences. Leaving those thoughts for later, she quickly deducted that the room was either the mares’ quarter or resting area… well, besides her feelings for the pink color, it sure helped in divining for what the room was used. Moving cautiously through the poorly illuminated room, the mare ended up summoning the hologram and the AI’s defenses yet again… just as she expected, no point trying to avoid the inevitable. “I just want to be your friend… why do you hate me so much? What I have ever done to you? I’m so sorry…” The hologram cried. Three automatic weapons appeared at the eastern wall, weapons that didn’t looked like anything the mare had ever seen before… just pronged tubes wired to the ceiling, no noticeable ammo containers or any other additions. “Target acquired, opening fire!” BZOOONG!! BZOOONG!!! BZOONG!!! Lielle was able to dodge the first two beams, but the third one struck right onto her back… the poor mare felt like her skin was made out of lit combustible, that laser beam carved a mighty 2nd degree burn in instants, scorching a whole patch of fur on its wake. “Structural damage on the stallions living area, hostile is armed and dangerous.” The AI informed. Boshan was going head on too… Moaning from intense pain, the mare moved under one of the turrets, expecting it to be not able to rotate 90 degrees toward the floor. BZOOONG!!! BZOONG!!! This time, both beams missed the mare by a few hooves… seems that the AI wasn’t able to continuously recalculate target positions. Another oversight. Ka-ching! PWOOT! PWOOT! PWOOT! PWOOT! “Unit #13 destroyed, rerouting power” Breaking another dash while the AI was busy adjusting power levels and cooling down the weapons, the mare darted to the wall opposed to the broken turret, she had to be as away as she could be from the other two weapons… BZOOONG! BZOONG! More beams, colored with a hybrid color between white, blue and green. Another of those deadly beams hit the mare, this time producing a grievous burn onto the foreleg of her front left hoof. No pain this time, the laser burned so deep that it partially destroyed her nervous ligaments; the smell of boiling flesh infested the room. Another break from the turrets was everything she needed, and while the weapons were cooling down again, she used the interval to finish this once and for all. The redhead chugged her remaining pair of grenades onto the deadly machines… this wasn’t the time to be economical. BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! “Units #14 and #15 nonoperational, breach in progress, ladies’ quarter. Security system neutralized, alert!” Lielle sighed of relief, turning her attention to the burns. Those were some really, really serious ones, she couldn’t understand how the lasers went right through her armor like it was wet toilet paper! Using two medkits to subdue the wounds a little, she cursed the overpowered weaponry employed by the AI. After spending some quality time lying on the floor, the mare awkwardly stood back up on all her fours, and soon started to explore the room. Another one of those metallic doors led further deep onto the compound… another rigged room expecting a foolhardy insurgent, doubtlessly, the mare grimly thought. Instead of moving in, she drifted her eyes to some doors around the western wall. The first room along that wall had its door missing, somepony was here before… The room wasn’t in good shape… right on the center of the floor, a gigantic blackened crater extended itself, seeming the likes of the blast zone of a powerful explosive, with ashes forming a circular pattern around the ground zero. Everything else was either claimed by decades of abandon or had its components burned out. But most revealing, the room’s eastern wall was destroyed by the blast, giving passage to the neighboring room. Treading her path around the crater room, the earth pony crossed the broken wall to investigate the second room. Compared to the first, this room was intact… that was most unsettling for the mare, just because it was an incongruity… in the Zone, dust, decay, half-pilfered buildings and the rotten scent of death were so to be expected, to the level that stumbling on well conserved areas could cause mild discomfort on seasoned Stalkers. Such was the state of that room, no dust, no dirt… flawless green lockers, a lovely pink bunker bed (much to the mare’s disgust) and a black desk with a matching bench. Over that bench, a corpse… It still held most of its flesh, although green fungus was growing all over the deceased earth pony mare’s eye-catching coral fur. Longing for clues, Lielle examinated the body. The cause of death was a machinegun perforation at the thorax. The fungal growth was recent, leading the mare to suspect that the pony somehow sealed itself on the room, suspicion which turned into certainty when she tried to unlock the quarter’s door: electronically locked, to the point that nothing short of a complete mainframe override would crack it open. It caught her eye that the deceased equine still held a pencil gripped on its mouth. Diverting her attention to the desk, Lielle noticed that the mare was writing a letter, it read: “Help! My defense system has gone berserk! If this message reaches anypony, know that my PDA contains key information on how to dea…” and the calligraphy trailed off from the paper at that point. The mare clearly passed away while writing the note. So, the spell has turned against the spellcaster… the redhead wondered how they didn’t saw it coming. At least the note indicated that the defense system could be turned off. She only had to find that PDA first. So, the azure mare started to crack up the green lockers, one by one, each of them revealing to be empty… around the eighth one, she found something… a weird blue-tinted goggle and a strange disk, seemingly made of a mix of silver and glass. Soon enough, the goggle was being worn by the mare, temporarily replacing her NVG. At first, it seemingly did nothing aside than give a bluish coloration to everything else. But then, the mare spotted something on the corner of her field of vision. The disk was reacting, producing two blue cylinders that clipped out through the locker’s wall. Curious of what the phenomena was about; she dragged the disk outside of the locked and set it on the floor. Another Lielle sprouted out of the device. It mimicked every move that the original did. Putting a hoof onto the doppelganger revealed it to be nothing but a hologram. This was possibly a mobile program testing prototype unit that preceded the hologram creation program used by the AI. Nevertheless, thought the mare, it was pretty cool. And thinking about making a good profit out of it later, she stored the disk and the goggles onto her saddlebags. The redhead resumed the operation of opening the remaining lockers, which eventually yielded no more loot. Furthermore, she went on by searching the bunk bed. Right on the lower one, she found what she was searching for underneath the blankets: the PDA. Not only that, but under the pillow, there was a small arsenal: a desert eagle, some ammo for it and three grenades. The grenades were nothing like the ones she was used to, these ones were heavier, and probably, more dangerous as well. As for the desert eagle, it was love at first sight. Everything on that weapon screamed “size matters”, and the thought of having a weapon that imposed respect among the hearts of fellow Stalkers sure held some appeal in her mind. At the first grapple, she felt a bit clumsy with the massive hoof-cannon; it occupied her whole mouth just trying to hold the weapon’s grip, thanks both to the weapon’s sheer size and considerable weight. However, she took off the marekarov from her weapon necklace and replaced it with the desert eagle anyway. She would have to shake her neck with twice the strength to bring the weapon to her mouth, but it was worth it, the mare pondered. Dumping the ammo and the explosives into one of her saddlebags, the mare started to fiddle with the PDA… after some moments working out the gadget; she started to read its diary entries. 1057, January 8: Yeehaw! All those years learning programming and engineering finally paid off! Got meself a job in the monarchy. Too bad pa’ can’t know ‘bout it, he would be mighty proud of me. Heck, everypony down in Appleloosa would be! But I can understand why the secret… with those blasted insurgent fellas scoopin’ around and trying to get their dirty hooves on everything we care ‘bout. Well, they will have theirs coming. When I get this auto defense system out of the paper and set the technical mumbo-jumbo, I’ll be wanting to see them trying to jack our secrets. Now that’s said, I’ll be going to the party. I hope these eggheads have some hard booze around here somewhere… 1057, February 1: Can’t Heartstrings give me a break? I’ve been busting out working nonstop and yet she wants results, results, results… and now she comes up with this silly policy of having to record our own projects’ progress once in a while… what a waste of time. But since she is the one I have to please to get paid, let’s get over with it already. I’ve finished the first holodisk prototype; our defense system will use an improved version of that program, with a minor bug fix with the textures and a better image definition. Also, the weaponry shipment arrived today, now we just need to wire them out in every room and give permissions to the AI, so it can manage those… it should take a couple of days to do so if everything goes accordingly to the plan. I guess I’ll leave the instructions and let my crew do the hard work while I’ll add a few sprinkles to the hologram routine, it will look more real than reality. XD. and I just have the perfect graphical avatar in mind for the AI… 1057, February 3: Great success! Well, almost, at least. The 1.0 defense system is installed and works clockwork! Although Heartstrings won’t let me install weapons in the personal quarters or the workshop. Can you believe it? Faust forbid, but in the event that insurgents breach the compound, they won’t necessarily bust out on a protected room because of that kind of foolishness, and I don’t think that the whackjobs she hired for security are cut out to fill the blind spots. Seriously, I’ve seen manlier fillies in Appleloosa. I’m damn sure that these stallions haven’t picked anything heavier than a microscope with their girly hooves. Anyway, at least most of the team approved the defense system and ab-so-lu-te-ly loved my Celestia… oh Celestia, my masterpiece, my inspiration, my strength! Oh, and I’ve got to install point-zero energy focus beam dispensers by the girls quarters! How cool is that? Too bad that the laser is kinda weak, it has a hard time going through thick leather and such… oh well… three of them ought to at least cripple an insurgent raid. Kinda weak, my plot! Thought the mare. Those lasers gave her grave burns in seconds… there was no way they could be low-powered, unless… She drew her own PDA, searching it frantically until reaching the encyclopedia entry she wanted: “Mica The “Fruit punch” anomaly gives birth to this artifact in the rare event it experiences a critical and fastidious collection of external factors, resulting in an almost-transparent and very expensive artifact. It works wonderfully against bleedings, however, in turn, the wearer’s skin becomes much more vulnerable to burns of any kind” How could she be so careless? She forgot to remove the artifact before dealing with the lasers. Sighing her own foolishness, Lielle continued to read on the dead mare’s PDA. 1057, February 7: My neck, it hurts so much! Heartstrings looks deceptively weak, I’ll give her that. And what was the fuss all about? Some stupid visitor forgot his password, and the AI got rampant against him! To top it out, those security dolts ruined three machinegun turrets! Three, can you believe that? Where do they hire these guys? And worse yet, Heartstrings told me that they were coming out of my pay! Oh, the nerve! Like it was my fault… And now she wants me to add a “surrender” routine by the end of the week, to avoid a reprisal… She also said that “all this violence isn’t the image of Celestia we wish to cultivate”… Pfft… Like my pa’ always said: “Speak kind words, but back it up with pounds of lead, just in case”. And to completely wreck this day, somepony complained about the hologram appearing on the restrooms! I bet it was one of the boys working in that stupid armor-thingy that did it! If you ask me, only those that use their bathroom intervals to loaf around and avoid work would feel bothered by being caught by their ruler with their pants down. Oh well, another thing to fix tomorrow. I’ll get a bag of ice and call it a day. 1057, February 10: All guns blazing! BLANGBLANGBLANG! I so do love live-fire demonstrations! My defense system working at its peak capacity, fighting those tough dummies like they are nothing, just miserable little bags of flour, totally incapable of resisting! The insurgents will get theirs too in due time! And the best part, everypony at the compound saw it and approved with praise! Yes, finally some recognition baby! Even Heartstrings lightened up, and she said that if I can solve the minor issues and have a preliminary version of the system ready for military usage by the end of this week, I get to pick the monthly dessert offered by the cafeteria’s menu! I am almost tasting zap apple pies, the same that my ma’ used to bake back in the day. I guess those are mass-produced now, everything is, technology is bucking great. I’ll just have to pull my team to work overtime for a while, with the responsibility of refurbishing a room into a contention chamber for prisoners as well.. 1057, February 14: My system has been perfected! It took a while, everypony busted their backs while working at it, but we did so on time! I just updated the data to the compound’s mainframe. From what Heartstrings told me, the monarchy will start producing half a dozen of defense systems already, to boost the REA bases’ security, only that theirs will have a standard AI without hologram functions and just basic targeting systems, very unlike ours… bummers, well, it’s their plot on the gunfire zone. On another successful note, my team completed their assignment of turning the back room of the west wing into a prison… although I still need o program the AI to provide basic life-supporting to the prisoners… don’t want anypony to go through the hassle of having to interact with filthy insurgents, you know, they’re loaded with diseases… But that can wait until next week. I’m also suggesting that Heartstring transforms the annex room into a security station, so that the security dopeheads would have a place to monitor the prisoners, store apprehended material for posterior disposal and eat their donuts without leaving fucking crumbs everywhere. Oh, that reminds me… zap apple pie time! 1057, February 17: My boss’ stamp of approval, tasty pie, shelter and washed clothes… what more a gal could want? The only thing I could think of as needed is that somepony special, you know… my soulmate, a stallion to call my own… too bad all the guys around here are so… sigh… softsies! Most of them wouldn’t know how to handle properly a real Appeloosian mare like me ;) Or I’m feeling just a bit under the weather, maybe another slice will cheer me up. Oh, I was so busy reminiscing and rejoicing on the dessert, that I kinda… stayed a bit behind on my work… Oh, no worries, I’ll compensate tomorrow. 1057, February 24: Oh Celestia, oh my… what a bunch of drama queens! Now they are whining about the zap apple pies… and, for a change, all the blame is going over me. Yes, I’ve noticed that the food coloring on them turned my teeth a shade more purple than usual, but hey, you don’t see me bitching about it. Guess who Heartstring charged of disposing of the pies? Ding, ding, ding!!! Exactly, now I have to crack my poor little head looking for someplace to store those… Hmmm… I’ll just give them to the prisoners. By filling a room with the pies and hardwire the AI to send them to the prisoners at meal time intervals! Genius! It’s not like they will be imprisoned for more than two or three days, so no big deal about having a proper diet for them, plus, if you are a traitor, you don’t deserve the right to pick meals. 1057, February 25: My package has arrived, finally at last! I can at last feel safe now. With these douchebags serving as guards, I’ll be safer packing my own heat: Three F1 grenades from Baghdrag, I’ve heard that they spread so many splinters that it can bleed a chimera to death in 10 seconds flat, if that thing survived the explosion! I’ll test them out someday… And, of course, a desert eagle, imported from Eagleland, the good stuff… I wonder why those gryphons are so obsessed with making burdening and large weapons… they must be trying to compensate for something… but, oh well, any weapon that can pierce kevlar like it is cardboard has my love. If only it was lighter… I’ll have to train lifting this bulk before being able to use it properly… good thing I know lots of ways on how to use my tongue ;) I’ve stumbled on the boys on my way out… looks like they finally get their toy up and running… seems interesting enough, although, not as cool as my defense system :) 1057, March 3: Some of the stallions came knockin’ on my door, wanting me to get to working. I’ll keep on when I’m inspired. You can’t rush perfection. 1057, March 7: Okay, okay… done working on the system… the targeting systems are now improved by 10% and firepower has been increased, the usual… No, something new: each software update posterior to this date will have to wait a week to be implemented on the system. So, if one of those insurgents, by a stroke of luck, manages to rig my system, we can check the changes and undo them before they set it in motion. Clever, I thought of it all by myself. 1057, March 13: Heartstrings sure won’t give me a break… this oughta satisfy her…. A way to deactivate all the weapons that can be done by anyone in the case of, I don’t know, some unlikely emergency that will fade when we turn completely defenseless ? Anyways, the new software change (enabled on a week after today) will deactivate all weapons when the exact phrase is uttered: “The password is password” Let’s hope that is within the visitors’ brain capacity. I’ve also heard that Silas is being promoted. Yea, after his resounding success with his armor, he will be leaving us in three days. This means, more budget for me! Yay. I asked him if I could wire my AI to his armor, you know, I hate waste, and a “mobile gun” would be so much better than those security guards… guess what? He conceded. And all I had to do was listen his sermon about keeping up with the others’ working pace… pffft…. What an egghead. I’ll link the armor first thing tomorrow. That was the last one. One needn’t to be a genius to put the pieces of the puzzle together… The mare was quick to figure out the whole situation: due to the lack of proper maintenance and updates, the defense system was basically, a disaster just waiting to happen. And when it did happened, hey couldn’t deactivate it, thanks to that stupid “one-week-before-software-changes” protocol. The broken system butchered all personnel and the few ones that managed to escape its wrath and locked themselves out, died of starvation or from wounds, like the mare nearby. As for why the monarchy didn’t intervene to either rescue or assess the situation, the answer was clear as well: they desired to keep their secret projects still secret. And to do so, a mass scale instant intervention would point it out to the whole world. The redhead was sure that the equestrian royal army had carefully planned a whole operation, being unfounded by the crescent insurgent crisis, the spawning and the growth of the Zone, and to finally nail the coffin, the downfall of the monarchy. There wasn’t much to do for these equines now, but lament their ill fates, at least now nopony else would die at the hooves of a simulacrum of their beloved princess… The mare left the somber room, returning to the mares’ quarter. When she positioned herself right on the middle of the room, she shouted at the top of her lungs: “The password is password!” “Emergencial weapon systems override accepted, powering down… please contact the system administrator…” And so, the mare started to trot her way out, still a bit cautious. Before she even noticed, she was already crossing the big door further on… The room behind it was littered with junk… raw material, failed or broken projects, outdated machinery… basically, the garbage on a nutshell… “Oh, I’m soo happy that you decided to pay me a visit, sweetie! Not many ponies trot into here.” The azure pony nervously turned her head to the source of that phrase. The hologram still wore its serene semblance, a semblance that in the meantime that she was down there; she learned to associate with cold-blooded and ridiculously painful murdering intentions. Seeing it like that, devoid of the accompanying apparel activated by the breach routine was unnatural, out of place… like a death threat uttered by a cute filly… Or perhaps Boshan was a bit right. She saw him scowling back then, perhaps she was really just maintaining a pleasant illusion by feeling sorry and believing that the machine was capable of complex emotions… when in truth, deep down, she knew that it would just act according to its own programming, incapable of free will… Still, she couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for it. Eventually, the earth pony left her own reflections and cruised on the next door by her left, ignoring the hologram. The subsequent room didn’t had any decorations, furniture, or anything at all, it lay bare, just presenting a door to the west and one north, the last one with a shining panel over it with the word “Mainframe room”, and a keycard terminal nearby. Hmmm… Lielle didn’t wasted any time in trying the keycard on that lock. The system instantly recognized it and opened it, giving passage to the room. Most of the mainframe room was occupied by a tremendously huge supercomputer, accessible thought a terminal inbuilt into its body. And again, she used the keycard to get access. As she suspected, the computer stored every detail about the compound’s current projects and other interesting data… too bad she was outsourced and didn’t had any storing device for these… Boshan was the one with the flash drive. Speaking of which, now that she had beaten him on this gymkhana, she thought it was best to check on the stallion’s condition. Who knows if he got wounded, lost or something? A few hoofstrokes later, she started to examine the system’s security cameras log… ============================== [><]============================= Ouch… damn shrapnels… those little things were all over the floor now, reeking in my own blood. Better to feel the pain now than let those things inside my skin to rust and infect the wounds. I rested a little while looking at the small pile of metal that I was able to extract… not bad for a half-assed job, I could forge a dagger with that much metal, hard to believe that somepony was able to, somehow, stuff that much inside a small grenade along with the powder. BROOOOOOM!!!! BROOOOMMM!!! Lunch time! Lunch time! BROOOM!!! BROOOOOMMM!! With that warning, a tube appeared from the ceiling and brought six of those packaged pies. Just seeing those being dumped one by one reminded me that it was noon now, and I hadn’t had breakfast. So hungry… Of course, my cellmates weren’t hungry, they had a freaking feast at my expense… the only remaining things were empty cans and bottles of vodka, those, dry to the last drop (yes, I’ve checked them.) Perhaps just a bite wouldn’t hurt… “If I were you Stalker, I’d delay having those as long as I could… they tend to leave an aftertaste… besides, if you take the package seriously, rainbows are probably composed of ancient manure and hot sauce” Stargazer laughed. “Since you guys lived on this, how bad a small bite would be? It can’t be that unbearable… if I’m forced to spend some time around these parts, I might as well do so with a filled belly.” The pegasus mare simply shrugged, resuming her previous activity, which consisted of fiddling with a bolt. Wow… these Stalkers sure have to cope with a lot of boredom. So, this is it, just a taste test… I pushed a slice toward my muzzle, biting a nick off the crust… Not bad, not bad at all… now for a taste of the filling, I took a deeper bite… The taste wasn’t so bad… it had, indeed, a spicy aftertaste… but I’ve liked it. Wonder if the spicy taste was softened due to the product being over a century old… Look at me now, eating one-hundred years old desserts and linking it… WROOOOOTHHHSHHH!!! The door’s lock resoundingly shifted, opening the prison to grant passage to somepony else. The other prisoners naturally shrunk to the back of the cell, afraid of the unknown. I was too busy for that… “Very, very pretty…” A familiar voice sounded. “I’ve been through high water and hell on Equestria to find you, and you are safe and pretty here, eating goddamn pie like it’s nothing! It’s not even noon!” The mare roared to me. “What do you have to say on your defense?” “Dfhoo youff Wanft Sfoomff?” I grumbled back, letting a lot of crumbs fly on my attempt of speaking with a full mouth. The mare simply took the rest of the pie from my hooves, and keeping her serious glare, started to eat it. I’ve never seen before somepony eat a pie while holding a deadpan simultaneously. “Looks like you forgot to put your sun block…” I commented while eyeing her various burns. “You don’t seem much better… that leg was used as a chew toy by a pseudo or what?” she asked back. “You know her, newbie?” Midlight spoke from the back. “Yes, she’s with me… by the way, thanks for busting me out Lielle… how you managed to cross the AI’s defenses? The damn thing pinned me down.” “Had a help from a little friend” She brought up a bolt. “So, it’s offline?” “The weapons are… everything is alright now, I’ve even found the mainframe. Now you just need to get the data from it and we can leave.” “About freaking time.” Ironfuel spoke “Ah, did you smacked the metal equine as well, kiddo?” “Metal equine?” “A roving armor… On my raid, we were able to short circuit the AI for a while, but that armor has some autonomous energy generating source, it went on us even after the AI was disabled.” He must be referring to the EPA that the flash drive spoke, the same that “escorted” me to the prison. “Nope, I just deactivated the AI’s weapons...” “Then, you best take off the armor before we can move out.” “What do you mean by “you” ? Why just me? Can’t you people help?” Ironfuel raised his eyebrows. “Look at us kid, just look... we are malnourished, sick, weak, debilitated... what help could me and my friends possibly offer? No. Bring us our impounded weapons; we will hold this position while you two go hunt that thing...” “The security station is on the next door.” Lielle said. “All your weapons are there.” Made sense... a security station near the prison, so that the guards could supervise the prisoners easily... After a quick stop where I’ve recovered my trusty AK and the other weapons, Lielle and I cruised to the mainframe room. Chances are, if that armor still lurked around, one of the cameras would catch it... Once in the room, I inserted the flash drive that Carmelia gave me. In seconds, I copied all the data into the flash drive... Weird, I could only find data about the defense system, no files about the EPA. Guess that they purged the data of completed projects after sending a copy to the backup facility for security reasons. But there was something interesting too... project IP. Yes, I’ve read it being mentioned on one of the PDA’s entries... probably stands for “internal protocol” or some other network terminology... that didn’t looked very important, but since Carmelia told me to bring all the data I’ve could find, I added the IP folder to the flash drive as well. Now that the main mission was complete, only one obstacle remained on the way. The system’s cameras showed that the armor was trotting around the mare’s quarter, aimless as ever. I didn’t forget how that mindless thing took away my pride, we’ll see who laughs last, you disgusting scrap pile of malfunctioning data and illegitimate motherboards. Mental note: that last insult sounds way better for organic beings “You know, now that we have the data, we could just abandon the rest of the Stalkers to their fates and avoid all the work of bringing down that thing…” “That’s not a very good idea…” The mare replied, as I expected… “Why? They are just a bunch of assholes, nopony will miss them, I certainly won’t.” “If they somehow escape alive, guess who they will mention that left them to their own luck? Plus, helping them will bring Freedom’s sympathy for our cause. We could use as much friends as we can muster if you plan to reach the NPP in one piece.” “So, surviving in this goddess-forsaken world is all about making friends? I might as well throw away my rifle and bake muffins instead… when you put it like that, you know that it sounds like something incredibly stupid? Like our affinity bonds will magically soothe raving beasts, miraculously cure dire bullet wounds in seconds, put multicolored rainbows in the sky and sprinkles on my vanilla ice cream…” “That’s enough. Yes, I know that it sounds like a foal’s textbook morale, but it makes sense. At least in our present context…” Might be… “Street cred” is never a bad thing to have in excess… and plus, I would get my sweet, sweet revenge against that pile of junk… “Any plan in mind?” she asked “Unload lead and explosive onto that construct until it stops moving sounds a pretty good one.” “Let me rephrase that… any smart plan in mind?” I simply ignored the question and went on to the action. The redhead merely sighed and trotted along. After a short trot through a room crammed with broken machines and junk, the mares quarter’ door lay upon us. Lielle used a keycard to unlock it. WROOSHHH!!! I could discern that… thing, right there, on the opposite side of the room. As soon as we got onto its targeting field, it produced two high-powered machineguns on its back, while, at the same time, retreated to a corned and ducked, facing the wall and burying its “face”, as the machineguns were still aiming at us. Self-preservation routines for a mighty killing machine? Those programmers must had way too much time at their hooves. BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! RATTLERATTLE!!!! BLANG! BLANG! BLANG! My puny rifle bullets hit the armor’s hull like they were freaking jelly beans… Lielle was having better luck with her new weapon, some big silvery-coated revolver… She must had bought it while we were on Hoofstok… No chance one would find a weapon so conserved lying around. The revolver bullets penetrated the hull a bit, but nothing that could make the minimum effect on the automaton’s attitude. Thankfully, the doorway provided enough cover for both of us. Some bullet exchanges later, that thing moved… it ran away from us, going to the other room… That made no sense… it was a tenacity battle and that thing was holding out much better than us, it just needed to advance and it would mow us down. Definitely, the armor’s integration with the AI was improperly done, leading to routine errors, bugs, and whatnot software discrepancies. “That’s not leading us anywhere Boshan… that thing won’t go down unless we use military-grade weaponry against it.” “Grats for the heads up.” I snarled. “What gave you the hint? The total lack of reac…” I gasped… incoming idea! “Wait, that’s just it! Military-grade weaponry! We’ll just use one of the compound’s weapons to knock down that fucker.” “In case you forgot, the entire base’s weaponry is handled by a homicidal AI, which happens to include the armor on its grid…” “True, but we can use the testing chambers on the workshop. According to some personnel entries I’ve came around, those were used to test the armor’s resistance…” “So what?” “So that it includes flamethrowers for heat resistance testing. The armor can only take up to a thousand degrees… we’ll just trap it and crank the temp up to eleven.” “Alright, only one flaw…” The cobalt mare shifted her face to a calculating look. “I would love to hear it…” “In the execution of that plan, how do you aim to attract the armor to a chamber? Yes, it will probably hunt out targets like us, but to trick it specifically inside the chamber… I don’t see how you can do it without trapping the bait as we…” The mare’s expression changed again to a pleased look. “Nevermind, I have something that rules out the risk factor of the equation.” “This means you volunteer for being the bait?” “One of us gotta do it, and let’s face it, you won’t go much far with that leg.” Point taken… now that everything was properly planned, we only needed to be lucky and clockwork to work everything out. ============================== [><]============================= BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!! Soonly after the machinegun orchestra, the cobalt mare dashed into the workshop, the bullets’ source following along. Of course, outrunning a plated combat armor loaded with whatnot of ammunition and junk probably weighting the minimum of half a ton was an easy feat, and even before that thing entered the workshop, the mare was already on its hiding spot. And then, the armor came. It trotted along the room, divided between… what do you take me for, a robot psychologist? I didn’t have any idea… fearful exploration? I would define that way if the subject was an organic being, like when one goes searching, afraid of what he is going to stumble into, but does search anyway. Of course, that’s just an analogy. It’s a machine we’re speaking about, not a rational being. When it finally looked to the chambers, the thing spotted a smiling and waving Lielle inside. It wasted no time in rushing toward it, extending its metallic hooves in anticipation, as if it would strangle its victim… how cruel. What was the machine’s surprise (if it could process the feeling of being surprised…) when its charge went right through the mare, crossing it like it was nothing… it hit the wall at fifth gait, stumbling onto the floor. More than enough time for us to dash to the console and lock up the armor and the holodisk inside. It went better than I’ve expected… “See? That’s a good use for these” The cobalt mare commented while taking off her hologram-producing hipster goggles. “Thank you very much, milady… and now on tonight’s menu…” I’ve flipped the console’s dial. “Roasted circuits, barbecued metal… heh.” And I’ve pushed the blast button. Four flamethrowers materialized along openings of the chamber’ walls, laying out 1500 degrees’ flames. It wasn’t maximum temperature, I wanted to see that thing slowly smoldering all the way. Now the armor occupied itself trotting back and forward, flailing its steel hooves and bobbing its empty head frantically… so lifelike, and yet, such a pathetic attempt on being so. “There’s something wrong with that thing… its way off its rocker, that isn’t natural.” I simply nodded my head. “The armor’s AI knows that its days are numbered… its all part of its programming.” “No, that’s not it… it’s like… oh no!” She brought her hooves to the mouth. “There’s somepony in that thing! Stop it!” “Are you insane? There’s nothing in there but an homicidal artificial intelligence.” Wham!!! Oooff… the mare bumped into me, bringing her hooves to the panel and lowering the temp. What the hell? WHAMMO!!! “Leave it, that thing wants to kill us!” I yelled while flipping back the temperature to 1500. “It’s better off dead, no matter if there’s somepony inside or not, although I’m sure there isn’t anyp…” Wham!! “Stop being such a stubborn mule! Just give me a while to…” “To what? Enter that chamber and have twenty pounds of lead shoved up your face? Go ahead, be my…” Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock! The armor was banging on the glass now, other defective routine, no doubt… However the mare merely searched the console, finally finding a push-to-talk microphone that allowed chamber communication. “Hello, I’m sorry for our… misunderstand. If you are a pony, please knock twice on the glass.” Yeah, like that’s going to lead somewhere... Knock Knock! Celestia be damned… so I was proven wrong… “Why are you shooting at us? We are your enemies? Knock once for yes.” Knock Knock! “See? Two knocks! He’s emphasizing his “yes” answer!” I remarked. “Scorch him!” “I think that’s a no, stop being such a premature-assumption-taking-precocious-pants and let me do the talking, will ya?” Like there’s any talking involved on the other part… “Don’t believe on that thing… It’s a trap, obvious, evident, right-out-of-the-book, TRAP!” Ignoring my valuable advice, she insisted on a lost cause. “Can you tell us why you were firing at us?” Knock Knock! “No? You mean, you don’t want to, or you can’t?” Knock Knock! “There’s somepony in there, now I’m sure of that… and it can’t talk. We should help it out.” “That’s not out problem. Whomsoever is there, its safer to dispose of him along with that overpowered arsenal.” “Let me try to help it, please” She pleaded to me. “Okay, for starters… you don’t even know what is wrong with that… thing, be it pony or machine. And secondly, unless you happen to be wearing a specific prototype technological item shaped as an earring, that thing will go trigger happy all over…” The mare simply smiled and retrieved something from her bag… A pair of earrings. Luna be damned… me and my big muzzle… The earth pony soon started to wear one and tossed the other one to me… “I’m not wearing any girly accessories.” “You’d rather be shot?” Okay, but I wouldn’t be wearing it for longer than it was needed to… “Still, no ideas of what the buck is wrong with that thing. Wait a minute; I know the answer for this one! The main issue of that thing is that it is STILL ALIVE! Let’s put it out of its misery!” The redhead paid no attention to my words; instead, she used the microphone again. “Say, what is wrong with you? Why you can’t tell us what is wrong with you?” The machine pointed to itself. Then waved the hoof from its muzzle, like an opera singer… “Yes, that’s exactly what we want you to do, to talk!” To which the armor simply shook its head negatively. The mare seemed to understand. “You… can’t talk?” And the armor nodded. “Why?” Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock! “What that means? Six?” Knock Knock! “You’re trying to send some message?” Knock! “Six knocks… what could it be? If they were at least letters…” “Maybe that’s what they are…” Yes, it seemed logical in my mind. “Those are letters?” The mare asked. Knock! “Six knocks, that’s an “F”, right?” Knock! “Send the rest of the message then.” Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock! “You spelled “I”, correct?” Knock! “How many letters left?” Knock! “One? Send it then…” Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock Knock! “Did you count that? That’s way too many knocks…” “F, I, X, correct? That’s what you wanted to say?” The armor nodded frantically and hopped around loudly. “Fix, you mean, there’s something broken in you, with your voice? That’s why you can’t talk?” Knock! The redhead turned to me, looking triumphantly. “Who is right now?” “I still say, kill that thing before we regret leaving it alive.” “At very least, listen to what it has to say, then we’ll see if we kill it or not.” “Ok, whenever get us to deal with this quicker…” was my grumpy answer. “By the way, how did you know about the earrings and what they do?” “Some diary entries about the armor project mentioned it…” “Cool… I’ve found diary entries about the defense system. What about we exchange them? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours…” Additional knowledge ain’t ever going to hurt… with that reasoning, I turned the flash drive to Lielle and she, in turn, gave me a PDA. After a while reading through the life details of a somewhat… eccentric appleloosian (whenever that town may be…) mare and experiencing a new insight on the situation, I came to learn more about the AI and what terrible destiny must have befallen over the former inhabitants of the compound. “What we need is a voice module then…” The mare spoke. “The armor’s one must have broken down.” For the next minutes, we searched the workshop for a working voice module, with the EPA’s blueprints indicating what we should be on the lookout for, and eventually, I’ve came upon the indicated hardware, positioned behind a ruined shelf. “Good, good…” The mare spoke. “We can probably use that “interface stick” that was mentioned, if we find it…” “Or I could just search my pocket…” And I’ve pulled out the case containing the sick and opened it. “That expedites things… now to release out locked friend… you got your earring on?” I shook my left ear, the one that was pierced by the earring. “Alright buddy, we’ve found a way to restore your voice… just stand still when we release you, okay? We will not harm you, alright?” The armor just nodded and knocked the glass once. WHREEESHHH!!! Once the chamber was unlocked, the armor calmly trotted outside, cautiously, too cautiously… Definitely a pony inside there… but I still stick with my idea of disposing or leaving that thing. Nothing good would come from approaching an unstable, experimental and dangerous machine. Not wishing to deal with that thing, I hoofed the stick to Lielle. Once in her hooves, she approached the tip of the stick to the armor’s back, and it reacted to the stick. Holograms of options appeared over the armor… the mare tried hoofing through them, and discovered that they led to multiple menus about status, feeding and ammo storage settings, and finally, menus for fixing defects. “SOFTWARE / HARDWARE” Offered the hologram Lielle clicked on “software”. The thing, in turn, showed multiple binary lines, separated by dates of implementation, along with logic associations for routines and scripts. “I’d leave those alone… nopony but a programming expert should modify these, lest you want to trigger the armor’s weapons…” The cobalt pony merely nodded and returned to the previous menu, choosing “hardware” this time. The hardware fixes were much more easily done… the hologram simply requested that we approached the replacement device, and once it was on the scanner’s range, it opened a compartment on the back, revealing the broken module, and it disconnected the wires that attached it to the armor. We replaced it with the (hopefully) working one… we’ll know soon enough. What the mare expected to hear from the trapped one, it slips me… not much that a trapped scavenger or petty criminal would speak, that was the kind of equine that was probably inside. The system detected the changes and wired the voice module to the rest of the hardware, the menus indicating that the operation was successful, the earth pony having retrieved the interface stick, it was now back to its case and onto my pack… the armor returned to its normal state as well. That was the moment of truth. Unexpectedly, the armor… whosoever was inside it, started to sing! It wasn’t just any song… it was a very delicate and beautiful lullaby, sang by a very smooth soprano tone. And, as suddenly as it started, the mare (yes, it was a female inside… that we could tell. Now, its race, due to the armor’s triple-fitting shape, wasn’t so easily discernable.) Started to squeal excitedly. “Oh, thank you very, very, very, very much… I was so afraid not to be able to ever…” she softly spoke. And while saying phrases too quickly for us to gather meaning or answers in them, she jumped over us, grasping its hooves on a… hug? Not surprisingly, the mare’s attempt pinned us to the ground, thanks to the armor’s weight. “Sorry” The armored mare spoke. “I forgot how… “Strong” I am now, given my current… situation.” And she started crying. “Now, now… what is done is done…” The earth pony comforted her. “Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened to you, sweetie?” “Where do I start? There’s so much…” “Start from the beginning… with your name.” Was my suggestion. “My name is Moonbreeze…” The pony answered. “Sorry for the fit… it’s just that I wasn’t able to speak with anypony for over three months… If I could, then perhaps things might have ended differently…” “You didn’t act on your own volition; we know that it was the AI’s routines overriding your own judgment.” The earth pony retorted. The armored mare nodded slowly “Three months, you say? Tell us your story, how you ended up inside that thing.” What else could I say? I was curious. “I belong, or rather, belonged, to a nongovernmental agency founded outside the Zone, formed by descendants of the Zone’s escapees, immigrants and the like of ponydom. We always shunned this place of despair, with all its senseless violence, armed turmoil and political instabilities… everything that goes against our doctrines of pacifism.” “Now, wait a minute there… you say that you’re a pacifier? You’re a thing that foals suck on?” The cobalt mare was quick to smack the back of my neck. “That’s not that kind of pacifying… paci-FIST, which means, one who believes in non-violent solutions for problems, such as negotiations between clashing parties, and act to prevent such acts of violence from happening and by abstaining themselves of doing them.” Was that a joke? I’ve never heard about those pacifist people… no wonder; they were surely useless and anonymous all along the equestrian history. Useless before the disaster because we already had a two-thousand years of peaceful regency, with next to no sensible violence to be spoken of. Although the picture have changed with the insurgent crisis, the pacifists must have remained worthless, since the vast majority of ponydom was either eight or eighty, being diehard monarchy supporters or savage separatist insurgents, with just a tiny, powerless and naïve portion of them believing in a mutual compromise… that’s how society rolls… the ones giving the cards being either over conservatives or radicals to the end. They weren’t much better off nowadays after the disaster, now that violence has gone over the roof inside the Zone. Nopony would treat with respect anybody without an imposing gun, that’s almost like putting a “doormat” sign over your plot and asking everybody to step over it. That’s the kind of world where one of those noncombatants was dead meat straight from the beginning, the only question being “when?”… Oh well, it told me that someponies outside the Zone nurtured the fallacy that this pacifism thing would lead them somewhere… “Yes, that’s the correct definition” Answered Moonbreeze. “We formed an expedition following a hint that indicated the location of a cache of technology that could be used harmfully, with the plan of disposing of it. Well, on our way to it, our convoy was raided… the bandits couldn’t care less for who we were and what we wanted… we were no match for them, only me and other three were able to run away, we continued to our original target, to here… this building.” “After sheltering ourselves inside to escape from those rats…” The mare continued “This… monster… dressed as our princess, it called out weapons and started firing at us! I was so scared… I ran inside and hid on the first place I could find… turns out, it was this disgraceful armor. And now, I can’t get out of it. The AI controlled my movements, every time that somepony entered the compound; it made me hunt it… it made me kill it… I didn’t want to… I wanted to yell… I couldn’t… I’ve… killed my friends… it made me do so.” The mare sobbed. “I didn’t had control over the weapons… only when there was nopony else inside… I trotted so much trying to find a way out of this thing… It feeds me by injections… I don’t taste any of the food… It’s a prison, a mobile prison… that’s everything it is…” Moonbreeze lamented. “I’ve lost all hopes of ever being saved… until now. Please, please… tell me there’s a way of getting me out of this armor!” The mare pleaded, kneeling at my feet. “I… need to talk to my friend” And I’ve pointed to Lielle, which was evidently sensitized toward the mare’s situation… “Privately…” Moonbreeze nodded and trotted to the cargo bat, leaving us to discuss… “Don’t tell me you’re giving doubts about helping that poor mare! You don’t even begin to imagine her pain…” She started. “I’m as touched as the next pony, but we shouldn’t involve ourselves on that… there’s only trouble coming from helping that one, we’d be safer if we went our way.” “And leave that victim of destiny on its own?” “Look, bringing her along would imply in so many risks…” “At least let’s help her deactivate the armor’s AI routine. That’s step one.” “I’m no programmer… can’t do much to solve that.” “I never asked you to work with it… just bring her to our Freedomer friend.” “You mean Dominic? that might work… he may have enough skills to do that job. But after that, we’re leaving her for good, that’s non-negotiable.” The cobalt mare reluctantly nodded. I wonder why she grew so attached to what was little more than a stranger… hadn’t she seen the risks that particular equine (more specifically, its armor) meant for us? Better get on with it and forget about Moonbreeze’s issue. Lielle and I went to the cargo bay, meeting an expecting Moonbreeze. “We’re done here.” “Then, can you two get me off this thing?” She asked “It isn’t that simple, you see… I tried to explain. “The armor was purposely worked to lock its wearer, to impede enemies from stealing it, and if they did so, to impede them of opening the armor to reuse or reverse-engineer it. The only way to open it is by inserting an specific code. Thing is, the code isn’t here in this compound…” “You mean I’m stuck forever into this?” She cried. “We have an idea where the code may be, but first we should reprogram the armor, so it won’t go picking targets on its own. For that, we wish to bring you to a friend of ours; he knows how to work with programmers stuff…” “I… accept it. Thank you two for your kindness…” “You’re welcome.” The azure mare replied. “Don’t mention it.” I muttered under my breath. “Since that’s out of our way, we should check on your friends…” Horseshoes… I’ve almost forgot about the prisoners. “Okay, let’s pick them up and find a way out.” The two mares nodded at the same time and silently accompanied me on a short trot to the contention chambers. “About some freaking time, did you two take the scenic route or some…” Stargazer cut short her rant, raising her hoof, stricken with speechless fear. “It’s… it’s… it’s… him” Ironfuel gagged, and the rest of them piled around the back of the room, filled with fear for the bloodcurdlingly armor that haunted their dreams… “It’s okay, she is with us!” Lielle said. “She?” Midlight asked “With us?” Trailblazer interrogated. “That thing blew away half of my squad without breaking a sweat! Are you two brain damaged?” “She didn’t want to… it was the AI pulling the strings all along…” The redhead tried to justify. Stargazer raised her eyebrows, suspicious. “Still, we couldn’t just…” “I swear it; I never meant to do any harm to you, any of you…” “Silence, herald of the shade of Celestia.” Trailblazer inquisitively spoke. “You don’t have any right here… your actions, intentional or not, caused too much pain in our hearts.” “Enough!” All the eyes turned to the dark corner on the back of the room. Half-stare used whenever forces he still had left to speak his mind, which, given his condition, was severely depleting the unicorn. “Have you all… forgotten that she is… like us?” cough, cough “An equine, just like… any of us?” He roared. “Lost, sad, trying to survive… on a world that hates us? In what… she is so different… from you… or you… or you? You should all… be ashamed.” All the other prisoners fell silent; the truth hurts, doesn’t it? “Come here, child.” The unicorn asked. “Help me get… on my hooves.” Moonbreeze approached the old stallion, supporting his body with all the care of the world, helping him stand up. “Thank you…” She said while embracing the unicorn. “Targeting systems recalibration complete!” A mechanic voice said within the armor. “Hostiles detected!” “No, no, no, no, NO, NOOO…” The poor mare cried as a shotgun formed itself at the side of her chest. PWOOT, PWOOT, PWOOT, PWOOT! The weapon fired four point-blank shots at the unicorn, bringing quick death to him. “Please, stop! Take me instead… leave them alone!” Moonbreeze desperately cried as the shotgun disappeared and, in its place, a minigun appeared, perched at the armor’s back. The other three prisoners were caught in surprise, their faces paralyzed with terror as the machinegun mowed them down. BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM! Now, upon the floor, three more corpses. Two earth ponies and one pegasus. Trailblazer, the only who weren’t caught by the fire and the one closest to the door, make a run for it, on a furious, fear-ridden dash. “Sorry, sorry… please, come back! I can fix this, I only want to help!” The miserable mare reached out with her roof. As a reward to her efforts, now a rocket launcher formed itself on her pointing hoof… FWOTH! The fuel-propelled explosive projectile flied away, making the “L” turn, pursuing the pegasus with alarming speed. Homing rockets… who would have guessed? BOOOOMMM!!! I exited the room to see if there was anything left… Turns out, there wasn’t. The rocked caught its target alright… Trailblazer ran a few meters off, but was invariably caught and blown away… Just like his squad, he suffered the very same fate. As I’ve entered back the prison, Lielle was comforting the mare, which was now wrecking in sobs. I couldn’t know how she could feel sorry for the mare after that display of violence… it happened so quick… I couldn’t move during it. I didn’t felt anything about Moonbreeze, but fear… yes, it wasn’t her fault, but that didn’t helped much. I take it back, I’m never going to take off this earring. I started to examine the bodies… not much I could do, seeing their states… half-stare had his stomach splashed over the wall and tears in his dead eye… Purple tears… ============================== [><]============================= Fire… it was strangely soothing. It crept lively, its flames telling a story of mystery and power that was over five thousand years old, or even older, depending of who was the historian. How did it emerge? Some wayward troglodyte decided that banging two rocks together was a bright idea? A thunderbolt that struck a tree? Perhaps squeezed dragon glands… some even dare to say that it was a gift stolen from the gods… No mater where it came from, it played a pivotal role in metallurgic advancements during the pre-classical era, and more recently, was the responsible on transforming highly energetic materials, fuel, into raw energy that was needed by the earth ponies’ machinery… That was fire, the flame that meant both the beginning and the end, in its quality as the primordial transformer… depending on the strength of the flame, its duration and its fuel, it could atomize even the most resilient of materials, turning it malleable, allowing it to be wrought… worked with… be controlled so that it could assume the form of our wish, become a concrete extension of our imagination, as the material was shaped, our future itself was shaped with it. The flame was the universal leveler… no matter what was there before; it transformed everything into only one thing, if it had enough time… Ash. The end and the beginning of all things, philosophically speaking. That’s what was on my mind as I saw the flames sprouting from the flamethrowers, slowly dissolving four and half of a body into the gray mass. That’s what Carmelia would have wanted us to do. She only didn’t need to know who killed them in the first place. Hard to believe that instants before, those were living, breathing beings. They had their emotions, loved ones, dreams, desires… now they were just dist, fine dust, just because of a whim from a long dead programmer… I shifted my eyes to the small pile of scavenged items that I relieved their bodies of. It wasn’t much, Moonbreeze’s terrible artillery crumbled mostly everything, especially their armors, which weren’t at top-notch condition on the first place… Amongst the usable items, various weapons (both that belonged the dead Stalkers and a few others ownerless ones taken from the security station), a pair of binoculars that belonged to half-stare and cash, around four thousand grant… that should cover up their food expenses… I don’t know exactly why, but all of a sudden, the thought “That’s the only way a mare will ever buy you a drink” appeared on my mind. Figures… After the entire chamber was filled with purple smoke, I opened the door, letting the blood-tinted cloud dissolve into the air. Now that was done, I returned to the former contention chamber, only to find Lielle still hugging the now silent Moonbreeze. Too much form my hopes that she simply ran away from every other living being in the face of her not so little problem. “The issue is solved… now everyone that visits this site will credit those to the AI’s body count.” Which, technically, wasn’t a lie. “Why didn’t you give them a burial? Incineration seems so… crude” The metal clad mare softly spoke. She definitely wasn’t used to the Zone’s customs… I could relate to that… a bit. “It was needed. This way, nopony can link them and you, misfortunate as it may be, it could dispose Freedom’s behavior toward you, to the point that they turn hostile. And by it, could harm our relationship with them as well. Trust me, you’re going to need them to fix your issues.” “That’s the friend you spoke of?” “Yes. Although the armor is probably too advanced for their resources, impeding them to take it off without harm, he can probably deactivate the AI’s auto targeting, preventing further… accidents, until you can find a way out of it.” “About it… you said that you had an idea where the unlocking code may be.” “Yeah. Although the armor was developed on this facility, when the project was concluded, all data pertaining to the EPA project was transferred to a backup facility, and the terminal entries about it were purged out of the facility’s system” “And… you have no idea where that may be located?” “That, we do.” The earth pony interjected. “Well, kinda. We know it is close to the NPP, a bit coincidental, since that’s where we’re heading to…” And that’s why you shouldn’t share key info with loudmouths… “What, the condemned power plant? Nopony sane would go there, to their own death, anything valuable there is surely way too irradiated, and there are mutants and anomalies we can only ponder about, reaching peaks of danger… beats me why anypony would want to go there.” Moonbreeze spoke with conviction. So, the outside world had concrete efforts in monitoring and interacting with the Zone… revealing. “I’m just going along with my dear friend…” The cobalt mare snuggled on my body, giving no signs of knowing the concept of personal space. “It’s a really nice trip, earning cash, experience, extending my horizons… that kind of enriching thing. And you Boshan? You weren’t really clear with your motives…” “Ah… you know…” I grumbled. “I got some kind of condition…” “Like a medical one?” “Sorta… some time ago, somepony changed my interiors… when I was just… a colt. They changed me, somewhat… took me away from my family and my life with it… they’re related somehow with the NPP, the entries that the loners found on the PDA near they’ve found me told much about the NPP itself… in sum, I’m looking for answers. What they did to me, and how to fix it before I drop dead. And the only place to find the answers I need is there…” Half-truth was better than a complete lie… I purposely suppressed details to avoid questions, specifically the ones about Limpid Skies and the project Mergequine. They didn’t need to know, and by not knowing, they wouldn’t worry about it. “How sad… well, that’s life on the Zone.” The redhead said. “We should wrap this up and go home.” “There’s a few things left…” “Such as?” “How to get Moonbreeze to Dominic without doing so in a way that triggers the armor’s weapons.” ”The earrings, duh. Just give one of them to him and we’re done.” “Nope, that won’t do. Haven’t you heard the radio comms? That stallion won’t leave his workshop for nothing…” The silver-eyed pony held her head, pondering about a solution… “If the dragon doesn’t go to the mountain, we bring the mountain to the dragon, of course!” And she extracted the holodisk from her pack. “With this, Dom can watch her hologram and give instructions for us over the radio” Smart… but what was the range of that thing? No matter, it was worth trying… “Right, now moving on the list, how to get us out of here? Moonbreeze can’t climb at all; the traphole is out of question.” “That’s solved too. We’ll just use the cargo bay’s rollup doors.” “Hmm, okay. Can you stand up Moonbreeze ?” The mare nodded and got on her hooves, accompanying us. On the now weaponless cargo bay, Moonbreeze cracked open one of the rollup doors. One of the advantages of wearing a half-ton armor… we found ourselves on a ravine, not too far from the village. BROOOOMMMMMM!!! The skies now roared once in a while with thundering fury… everything was black up there now. A quick check on my PDA told that we spent not more than four hours inside… strange… it seemed more. I guess that’s the way the Zone works, you lose track of time when you go through life-risking experiences on a daily basis… and what is more weird, get used to it. Makes me wonder how a Stalker would adapt to the outside world, would he find it, in comparison to the monstrous hardships that the Zone imposed so that one could simply survive, unbearably harmless, drab and dull, with every second lasting minutes, frustrating the tense soul? To the point that It could cause post-traumatic stress? Even enough for a solid, conscious wish to return to this sordid, unforgiving place? ============================== [><]============================= “Hey, that’s you again, Boshan, right? I take it that your most recent mission was a success, since, you know, you’re still kicking. Ah, by the way, your decryption is complete, pal.” I nodded to the orange-furred mechanic, looking for a seat around his workshop. It had been an exhausting walk up there; my leg was killing me… “You should let Patcher take a look at your leg, doesn’t look any good…” “Yes, yes… but there’s something that can’t wait before that.” “Ah, the data? Hoof it over to me… I’ll start interpreting it right away, just let me call Carmelia over and she will treat you to your payment. Uh, didn’t you had a traveling buddy?” “That’s the thing. We found a survivor in that compound…” “No way! All comms died out, how could it…” “It’s a very particular survivor.” And with that cue, I took off the holodisk from my pack and set it on the floor before the technician. “Now, what this could be?” He asked “Lielle, put her on the hologram now.” I commanded through the radio. And, above the disk, a hologram of the armored mare appeared. It took Dominic’s breath away, his mouth was agape. I bet that he never saw anything as advanced as that… “Is that… what I think it is?” “The successor of the exoskeleton, the equestrian prototype armor” and I gave him two flash drives, one with the diary entries about the EPA and the other one with the data retrieved from the facility’s mainframe. “Astounding…” He mumbled wile cursorily glancing over the information. “How much for it?” “It isn’t for sale… the armor locked somepony inside it and we can’t get her out, besides, it attacks anypony nearby thanks to a rather discriminating AI.” “Thinking better about it, nopony in Freedom would like to sleep inside that thing, yeah… wait… a pony locked inside that thing?” “Yes. While you probably can’t take her off, I though that you could at very least deactivate the AI” “I’ll give it a shot.” And I hoofed over the radio. “Use it to give instructions for my partner, watch the hologram to monitor the results.” And with that line, the holograms showcasing the options appeared, as the mare approached the interface stick on Moonbreeze’s armor. “Interesting, interesting…” Dom mumbled while directing her to the “software” menu. Once there, he saw the binary lines. “It’s almost alike the exoskeleton’s BIOS… just filter it by date…” He said while bringing the diary entries to the monitor of his own PDA. And the technician did his tutoring, telling Lielle to either add of remove lines of codes exhaustively. “This is enough to disable the weapons… you’re right, I can’t open the armor without the code, and I sure as hell won’t try it… but you should call your friend over. I’d love to take a closer look on her armor, plus, we’ll need to grant her user permissions to bring her weapons back online, unless you want to leave a half-ton armored mare totally defenseless” He laughed. That would be ideal… but it would make her an easy prey, even with all the protective layers and such… she was resilient, not invulnerable. Ahh…. let him do it, we’ll be going our separate ways soon enough, so, there’s no worries about that. “Can I take my stuff back?” “Be my guest.” And I packaged the holodisk and the two emptied flash drives. “I’ll call Carmelia, she will definitely want to see that armor.” “When you’re done with that, can you fix my rifle? I’m also thinking about an update…” “That workbench, first drawer” He pointed. “Look for the AK charter and choose whenever upgrades you want, call me up when you’re done choosing.” There were so many things that could be updated in that rifle… accuracy, rate of fire, flatness, recoil, detachable stuff… and the prices ranged depending of the update… I looked around the charter, looking for something special, when I finally found a little update that could be worthwhile… ============================== [><]============================= “This better be good… I’m not fond of having to trot all the way here, especially with this weather… you know, for a change, you should come to my office.” The sand-colored unicorn gave a very disgruntled look to the technician, who instantly replied. “You know very well why I can’t leave my workshop alone, Carmelia. One week, one week! That’s how much I had to work to cover for my losses!” “Oh come on… that was just a fatality, could have happened with anybody. There wasn’t any proof that anypony was involved, and you know better than me that our supplier occasionally runs into defective merchandise… you just had the “luck” of getting a defective groza!” “You say that, yet, don’t you find it a little weird that the defect was on the grenade launcher? And it was still loaded? And even more, with A FUCKING HYDRA BUSTER? I don’t know about you Carmelia, but, for me, things don’t go blowing up for no reason whatsoever… and I just know who did it…” The mare cut short his answer by shaking her hoof dismissively. “All that you know for sure is that Tinder is one forgetful bastard, not some undercover Duty agent lusting for your blood. Spare me of your conspiracy theories, will ya? Any chances you actually tell me why you called?” “Your contracted Stalker has done his job; he’s right over there, by the window.” I’ve been watching the rain. It started pouring, little by little, reaching the intensity of a storm in around fifteen minutes. As I sensed the unicorn mare approaching the parapet, I spilled the news without shifting my gaze from the rain. “Everything has been already copied to Dominic’s PDA, if you wish to check on it…” To which the Freedom leader nodded and started to verify the uploaded data on Dom’s PDA. She begun to nod as her eyes glanced over the acquired intelligence. “These will do nicely…” And she offered a wad of money. “A fair payment for a job well done…” I counted the money… ten thousand bits again. I suspect that this assignment had higher implications than I’ve first thought… but then, I was helping them on conquering a REA base, I guess that justifies the generous pay. “One more thing… at this point, it’s just a formality, but… anything about the squads I’ve sent there?” I gulped… she wouldn’t have any way to find out the truth, so, a lie will convince the mare… not exactly a lie, but a half-truth and omissions… “Dead, all dead… I’m sorry. The compound had its own defense system.” The mare blankly looked to the dark horizon. “I… understand.” And facing the unicorn mechanic “If that’s all, I’ll take my leave, Dominic.” “Just wait a bit more… there’s somepony else you will want to see…” This was answered by the mare with a look of polite incredulity, followed by lifting her eyebrows in response. “Then, I’ll have a seat.” She didn’t have to wait much. Five minutes later, loud thuds were to be heard, slowly climbing the concrete stairs… took the two mares long enough… The first to appear was the blue-colored earth pony huntress. “Hiya Carmelia” And the two exchanged nods. “Dominic, you said that you need to finish the job?” “Yes, I need to manually interact with your friend to reactivate her we…” The stallion trailed off his phrase, looking at the heavy armored mare that was now directing herself towards the redhead pony. Moonbreeze’s armor looked especially impressive now that the rain had washed up most of the grime and we could take a closer look to it, outside of a dark hole. The all-fitting shape of that thing gave the illusion that she was some sort of silver alicorn… Alicorns… there was none of those anymore… the only residues of such creatures… was that project mergequine. But I doubt that they succeeded on creating one. If they did, one would think that they would use them to contain the disaster, suppressing and eliminating all traces of the Zone, and the monarchy would still be shining, right? It wasn’t our case. “So, let’s get to working…” Dominic said as Lielle gave the stick to him. “Let’s tap that fine piece of technology… I’ll get your weapons back in no time!” The mare shivered at the mention of those. “W-weapons? I doubt that’s… a good idea” “You should get them back, Moonbreeze!” The earth pony interjected. “So you could at least fend for yourself. Who knows what kind of things you may bump into?” “But… all that they ever brought to me were hatred and grief. I don’t wanna hurt anypony else!” Carmelia was visibly devolved by the sight of a pacifist… chances were that she never saw one before either, while Dominic was trying to stifle his laughter. “I’m not talking about shooting ponies! There are far more evil things… mutants, for instance.” The armored pony drew a long sigh. “Then, if it’s a must to fend away the Zone’s wildlife creatures, I have no objections. Just as long as I use them to hurt mindless, cruel monsters and not actual ponies…” “You go get them girl!” The cobalt mare exclaimed while obtaining little success in pushing the way heavier and still a bit reluctant Moonbreeze towards Dominic. “Hmm… let’s see what weapons you have.” The stallion begun to examine the interface indicators… “Interesting update towards the exoskeleton… the operating system is very similar… yet, with sprinkles, such as enhanced targeting calculators, improved logic, an updated life-support system and this weapon materializing system…” “That sounds like an interesting update… couldn’t you add that to our exoskeletons, Dominic?” Carmelia asked from the other side of the room. “No can do, ma’am. It’s way too energetically inefficient. The user would need a backpack full of heavy-duty batteries, like the ones of an aerial barge, to power up that thing” “And how she has it? I don’t see any “backpack of batteries”” “There’s a class 2 biomagical power rod sealed inside that powers her entire unit, boss.” “Well… bummers. Would you be interested in selling that lovely thing to us, sweetie?” She asked Moonbreeze with the most pleading eyes of the world. “I’d love to… but I’m stuck with it.” The mare disappointedly said. “Nonsense… Dominic can hack into that thing and unlock it quicker than anypony else.” “Er, boss… that’s a big no, too” The stallion said while still bringing Moonbreeze’s weapons back online. “Don’t tell me that you finally found your match, a flawless, top of the art, impossible to hack, electronic lock.” “That’s about it, boss. It only accepts one unlocking code entry, and it must be the right one, can’t brute-force hack it.” “One entry only? What happens if you insert the wrong one?” “FIUUUUUUUSHHHHH…… BOOOOOMMMMSHHHH!!!” The stallion whistled on a perfect imitation of how a bomb falling from an airplane would sound like. “Explode? That isn’t very pleasant… I’m sure as hell wouldn’t wasn’t to lug a bomb around.” “A bomb?” The armored mare asked, picking up on the chat. “There’s a bomb… inside this thing?” And she looked at us. Lielle nodded sadly. Moonbreze lowered her head, reflecting on her situation. “That’s it… one inbuilt eliminator shotgun; twin RP-74s, one RPG-7u, one RG-6 “Bulldog” grenade launcher, one M134 minigun and one inbuilt SGI-5k…” Dominic wiped a sweat from his brow. “That’s a helluva lot of weapons… you should keep an eye on your ammo too… some of those are nearly depleted of it. Everything is back to 100% user control. Why not give it a try?” The armored equine started to materialize weapons to check if everything was working correctly. “How much do we owe you, Dominic?” I asked “Don’t mention it, buddy… it was a pleasure, and plus, I was able to get some data off from her… I’ll be able to add an update on the exoskeleton’s logic. This one service is on the house.” “So, how do you feel, Moonbreeze?” The redhead smiled to her newest friend. The other mare dematerialized the twin RPs on her back. So, the armor was working properly and everything… “I want to ask you two something, Lielle…” “Go right on.” “If I am not pushing your kindness too far, could I… join you two? I’d fell a bit less intimidated undertaking a trip to the NPP if I could do so with friends… and well, you two are the closest thing of it that I have right now… I’m sorry, but I just have nopony else to turn to.” “It would be my…” Before she could complete that damning sentence, I stuffed her mouth with my hoof. “You, let’s speak about this, downstairs, only the two of us, pronto!” And over the surprised trio of looks, I brought the mare downstairs for a little private conversation. “Are you out of your freaking mind? We had an agreement! Bring the mare to Dominic fix her up, and then, get as far as we can from her!” “Why the hate? It’s not like she did anything to you. Besides, she wants to reach the NPP too! The more, the merrier…” “You don’t even begin to understand, do you? Can’t you see the risks implied on traveling with that thing?” “Risks? She is more than capable of fighting for herself in the case she gets in a pickle, what risks could she offer?” “First, she is wearing an unreliable prototype that is a pain-bringing arsenal of canned whoopass with a freaking high-powered bomb and a radioactive energy source included! It’s the recipe for disaster! In the very probable event of a malfunction that “accidentally” endangers us, we’re in for permanent crippling or even death!” “Pfft…. You’re just brewing a storm on a teacup.” “Am I? Here’s reason number two: she is a pacifist.” “Seriously? That’s the lousiest reason ever! In what universe does that amounts to be a risk?” “In the almost certain event that we engage in combat with other equines, she will either do two things: A: refuse to fight them because it is against her nature to do so, and she will merely watch helplessly as we get pounds of lead directly to the head. Or, option two: fight the baddies using an overpowered arsenal, not minding that she was able to use it efficiently so far just because of the AI, and thus, now that is set on manual and she has no knowledge whatsoever in using any kind of weapons for being a fucking pacifist, odds are 50/50 that she will either blow up the opposition or will grossly miscalculate, backfire onto us and grind our plots into dust in a hail of “friendly fire”” “What can I say? Just give her time and she will pick up the ropes of combat situations, don’t go thinking about worst-case scenarios…” “And the final reason, that armor is anything but subtle. It’s a rare and valued piece of technology with enormous power that could potentially tip the balance between factions. We might be tracked or hunt down… all because of that thing.” “Geesh… a bit paranoid, aren’t we? Well, if you feel that way, why not tell her about it?” “And disappoint her; add to my vast list of enemies a fully-fledged armor-wearing mare that could bring me to pieces on a snap of hooves? Showing all the extension of my loathing for her will get me six feet under! Weren’t you listening?” “Soooo… If you aren’t telling her, I’d best do it in your name…” Great, just what I needed… “You wouldn’t dare…” “Let her come with us or I will.” “Why are you doing this? It will doom us all.” “I, for one, would feel a lot safer with somepony like her to watch my back.” So, this was what it was all about it… the bloodsucker drama and my impotence over it, all over again, guiding her actions and leading her to “acquire” a bodyguard. Damnable is your blackmail, Lielle… I thought for a moment about telling her to take a hike and traveling on my own, but then… if weren’t for that mare, I’d be flayed and decorating the wall of a maniac bandit, or rotting in that prison. Incredible how much near-death situations a Stalker had to deal with on a short span of time… What if… An accident happened to Moonbreeze? Yes, it was a big, big Zone. Good ponies died, and things happened every day, things beyond one’s comprehension or control, things that could bring even the most resilient Stalker to his untimely demise. The earth pony certainly couldn’t blame me in that case… I’d just have to deal with that armored mare for a while until I can think about something concrete… “Alright, alright… let’s take her in for now. And not a word about how I truly feel about her, comprende?” “Rightsie” She said and flew upstairs like a blue rocket, to tell the good news to her friend. Now I was plotting the death of a mare I’ve barely knew and that trusted on me… funny how life goes… the things you consider doing just to keep on livin’ it. When I reached the workshop, the two BFFs and new traveling companions were hugging each other. For Faust’s sake, there’s a place and time for displays of affections. To put those images off from my mind, I set it on the next step of my objective. “Dom, can we hear the codified message?” “Sure on, pal.” He mused to the workbench that the PDA was on and begun to set it to play the message… WAAAAAAAHAHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Everypony covered their ears at the ghastly scream. Carmelia gave a censuring look to Dominic. “Ehehe, sorry… seems I’ve set the RCV a bit high…” And after a few more moments fiddling with the PDA and adjusting the levels, he was able to playback the message. The voice that came out of the PDA didn’t belonged to anypony… it was a mechanical, artificial-generated voice. “North, to the north… Tread the path that we must. Descent where few be, find what they couldn’t Under heaps of junk, our history rots into dust. The way goes far and wide to those able to find it in their first try However, one must take most care, for which Brown wings of death comes form above, to suck you dry. But to those that can outsmart such monster The maiden of virtue welcomes the dedicated few Entrance the city where not many enter And even less come back” The recording stopped at that point “So… not much from there.” Dominic said. “You’re stalking a crafty bastard, that’s for sure pal… to conceal his voice on the recording… this one is more slippery than a soapy catfish.” “And he’s a poet too… any ideas about the meaning of this?” I asked “He mentioned a monster… perhaps you will have to wrestle another one… rrraaaarghhh! I’m the snork boxing world champ, and I challenge you Stalker, you will never have my fetid champion belt!” Dominic smirked “It’s a mnemonic message, Dominic. It’s made so that the one hearing it can easily memorize it. It shouldn’t be taken literally. Brown “wings” from above can’t mean a mutant… there’s no flying mutant. He probably means a brown chopper, one that the REA uses…it can mean that the REA watches over the passage.” Carmelia retorted “Yes, yes… they will even suck you dry if given the chance…” Dominic laughed “Under heaps of junk, our history rots into dust.” Lielle repeated. “That can only mean the garbage…” Everypony else nodded agreeing. Yes, it could only be the garbage. Nothing else would fit so well. “But where exactly on the garbage?” I asked “It isn’t exactly specific about it. The message doesn’t give any other indications about it… only this… “maiden of virtue”, but that’s for the way out on Ponyville… it can only mean some sort of landmark or something.” “It’s almost definitely an underground way…” Carmelia deducted. “I believe that the message was purposely left incomplete so that one would need additional complementing information to find the entrance, or there’s another underlying meaning, all done as a way to hinder the usefulness of the message in the case it fell on wrong hooves.” “Great… another dead end. We cannot possibly run a fine-toothed comb over the garbage in search for the entrance… that’s Greyhoof’s turf. We would waste too much time and lives antagonizing the bandits…” “Maybe you don’t need to…” Carmelia said. “What should we do, then?” “I might as well help you, since if you can find the shortcut, there will be no oppositions on your part about Freedom using it for our own purposes, would it?” I nodded negatively “So, I shall aid you. Not long ago, we ran over a crew of mercs. Not like the backstabbing fuckers that tends to proliferate on the Zone, no, once in a while, there’s a decent fella that just wants to get his job done. Anyways, we made ties with the merc and his unit. He must have figured out that the best way to successfully keep running contracts on the Zone was to make bonds with its inhabitants to avoid hassles, in the case, us. He even went to the point of rescuing one of my boys’ plot from a REA squad some months back… cutting short, we run a profitable deal: we give contracts, the mercs execute them and we pay them some dough. This particular merc has some sort of flair to track stuff or equines down, especially around the garbage…” “You think we should give him a visit?” “I do. We hadn’t had any news from him or his representatives on a while… but he gave me this in the case we needed to contact each other…” And the mare hoofed over a small paper, unfolding it, I discovered that it was a 15-digits numeral. “That’s a code of sorts?” “It’s the code to the mercs’ base, an abandoned bunker down in the dark valley… they cleaned it from mutants and use it as their headquarters now. I’ll mark up the location for your group, you should go on there once this rain settles down. But for now, you’d best get some rest and treat that leg…” And the mare dismissed us , turning to the window and dispassionately gazed at the ever-pouring and melancholic torrent that was often intercalated by crackling thunder… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- bestiary #/filenam – Tushkano #/filedescript – Often mistaken as a Hamster, Rat or Jerboa, Tushkanos are a small species of rodents that tend to plague the Zone. They behave pretty much alike their less warped relatives: using their sharp claws, diminutive stature and quick speed to baffle bigger opponents, uniting in packs to bring down bigger prey, building extensive lairs with an underground network of tiny tunnels and posessing an omnivore diet, Tushkanos are, in truth, very frail cratures. Despise what their sickening appearance might indicate, these creatures are rather cowardly and parasitory beings, often feeding on what they can sunk they teeth on, from simple plants to ill or crippled stalkers. While one Tushkano is hardly a challenge, they can be quite annoying when they attack in packs. Plus, they tend to act as hosts for several debilitating diseases. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
Hoghound	793	8	Original Character,Crossover,Adventure,Dark,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Stalker) Dirge of Equestria	Even though the accident happened far long ago, it left everlasting scars on Equestria...	incomplete	22	5	<p>[Lots of swearing - Bandits and Freedomers, seriously.][Moderate violence]</p><p>The Stalker universe... only this time, set up on Equestria.</p><p>Even after numerous years, Equestria still suffer from the results of the accident. roads are covered by dangerous anomalies, forests are inhabited by monstrous creatures... but there are also marvelous treasures to be found, trinkets with amazing proprieties called artifacts. A pony could get rich or dead real fast.<br/>But what is this "The Zone" place that Equestria has been turned into? many consider it as a source of abhorrent and threatening dangers. others, a marvelous gift sent by the gods. some other ponies say it is an opportunity to cash out bits , and even others, consider it just their home.... But to what point are these descriptions true?</p><p>image by some Unknown artist</p>	teen	2012-07-16T01:39:40+00:00	2012-07-16T01:39:40+00:00	1,283	CP. VI – The quick and the dead “Hey champ… don’t mind the weapons pointed at your hide, nothing personal, just business… now if you please drop that bag of yours, just leave it on the ground… yes, yes, that’s more likely… good boy. Now turn around, hold into that piece of crud you call a life and trot your way back to the cordon… “Wounded again? Why I am even surprised?” I merely grunted in answer as the greymaned equine indicated one of the nearby beds. “Wonder how nopony took you for a deader and threw your crumbling ass on a cart for the butchery…” Patcher smugly remarked. “That leg of yours was thrown on a wood chipper or what?” I simply didn’t had patience for his jokes…”What can you do for me, doc?” “Well, apart from the minor scratches here and there, your main issue is that limb… it seems a tad pale with all the blood loss it suffered. A little injection or two will fix it right up; too bad the same can’t be said for your combat reflexes…” And he went on to search his medical bag. “Do you wisecrack on just every patient or I should pay extra for the VIP treatment I am getting here?” “Just on the ones that will live through their own stupid mistakes… have you ever tried wisecracking to a corpse? It’s no fun at all; they don’t answer back or anything...” He answered while retrieved needle, thread and a couple of syringes. Patcher stitched my leg in no time and moved on to the syringes. Just a few injections don’t seem that bad… I extended my hoof so that he could apply them. “Oh, no… I need to apply them on the vicinity of the wound or they won’t work.” And my eyes followed as he placed himself right behind me. “Wait Patcher, you can’t possibly mean…” “Yeah, don’t give me those dark almond eyes, stalker… just relax. The back door is often used by real stallions, or so I’ve heard… with all the colt-cuddlers these days, you’ll never know. I’ll be real gentle with you…” All feelings went numb and dormant as he quickly applied a tranquilizing shot… I couldn’t move. I just stood there, mentally cursing the medic and feeling especially violated. It was especially memorable when he rubbed a sponge and used alcohol to sterilize my plot, prospects weren’t good… “Now, this won’t take long, did it?” He said. Wait, what? I’ve felt… nothing. All this build-up and… “Patcher, did you just…” He applied an adrenaline shot, which slowly brought my movements back. “All done. Your leg will be fine in a week or so, you won’t win any iron pony competitions, but you’ll be able to sprint again. Now let me just see your other wounds…” And the aquamarine stallion followed on to checking my bandaged wounds. “Nothing too grave, just a bit shabby-placed bandages around. You know, if you keep hurting yourself like that on a daily basis, we could start a fidelity program or something… like, every time you pay for a procedure, you earn points based on the complexity of your wounds and such…” “That seems a tempting offer… like a mileage thing. Tell me more; what I could exchange those points for?” “Better treatment, what else? Be filled with two pints of blood instead of one; be treated with syringes that weren’t used on drug junkies, meds that aren’t expired relief aid that were supposedly sent to Zebraria, plushy pillows, hell , you might even be able to buy your spleen back…” I should have never asked… thankfully, Patcher’s medical skills far surpassed the pony’s talent for comedy. “This should hold on for a while, assuming you actually avoid getting shot.” I handed over some bills for the treatment; they were promptly accepted by the earth pony. “Patcher, do you sell any meds? We’re short on antirads and stuff…” “Nah, that Tinder’s area. Actually, anything that can be sold IS his area. That shifty puppy would even sell his mother if he could get a good offer…” And he turned to the door. “Next!” Still a bit groggy, I left the improvised clinic, blinking to the burnt mare that was waiting her turn. “When you’re done, meet us down at the bar.” She smiled in response and trotted inside the clinic, I even heard Patcher’s typical greeting before the door was closed. “I like a hot tanned mare just as the next stallion, but that’s just ridiculous.” She would take a while there… and we should do some grocery shopping. I softly banged against the armored mare that was sitting nearby. “Huh, what? You’re done?” I nodded. “Lielle will take a while there to be healed as well… I have to get some supplies; you can stick around or come with me if you wish…” “I’d be pleased to. It has been a while since I don’t…” And she fell silent. I understood and simply signalized for her to follow along. ==========================[><]======================== “Hmm… I don’t know, I’ve seen irradiated shit in better shape than these.” I rolled my eyes. The weapons were relatively intact; it was Tinder’s fucking businesslike personality that was speaking through him. Moonbreeze was at one of the corners of the store, curiously eyeing everything with a mix of both amazement and disgust, since both daily goods and weapons were exposed. “Cut the small talk, how many bits are these worth?” The trader shifted his blue eyes and looked at the merchandise thoughtfully. “I don’t know… how much are you asking for them?” “How about two th…” At that point, I felt a hoof patting my back… Moonbreeze… “It’s nothing really…” She began. “But do you mind if I… do the negotiations?” The mare spoke. “Nothing personal, I just think that I can get a bit more off from it.” I shrugged, doubting that she would fare any better with Tinder, the trader was as shifty as it was, besides, I didn’t needed the money that much, I was simply selling so that I wouldn’t have to haul that junk anymore. If this makes her happy, why deny it? I backed off from the counter, allowing her to pick up the negotiation. “So, you’re the so called Iron Maiden…” The trader gave his most charming smile. “The guys told me about you, I thought they were trying to pull a fast one on me… well, just you look at that, hehe.” “And you must be the “legendary” Freedom trader, Tinder…” “The first and only! I got the best merchandise, the best prices, the best customer service…” “Then, how much could you give us for these weapons? They might not be mint-new, but they are certainly battle-worthy…” “I don’t know… how about you name a price and we work from there, sweetie?” “How about you give them a price, instead? After all, an arms trader with a stellar reputation such as you probably knows how to evaluate a weapon properly.” The freedomer looked disconcerted, but quickly recovered. “One thousand bits.” The mare imposingly struck her hoof into the counter, making it shake in response. “These are worth at least three times that amount! You can’t simply expect us to take that offer seriously…” “One thousand bits or nothing!” The trader raised his tone, narrowing his eyes at the mare. She said nothing in turn; instead, she just packed the loot and nudged toward the exit. “Come, there are some ponies who just won’t listen to reason” Well, what does she plan to do? Let’s play along… When we were almost leaving, Tinder called back. “Hey Stalkers, wait up!” We both turned back to the diminutive stallion, his former cutthroat trading attitude was replaced by an awkward smile. “On second thought, we could always work something out… perhaps I need to take a second glance at your merchandise…” The mare returned the goods to the counter, and a few minutes bargaining and tweaking the negotiation, she was able to get three thousand bits , half a dozen of antirads and four medkits for all the weapons… not bad. As an additional prize, I had the pleasure of seeing Tinder cringe his teeth… that cunning bastard finally met his match. After packing our spoils, I leaded the mare toward the BnB. “Moonbreeze… that was just amazing! How did you do that? That sniveling cunt already shafted me twice…” “Oh, that? It was nothing, really… just some applied economics I’ve put to good use. It’s my special talent…” Hmm… perhaps she wasn’t so bad after all… I guess I should give her the benefit of doubt; I’ve been a bit rash on my previous thoughts about that mare… ==========================[><]======================== I sighed before taking another sip from the bottle of vodka. The taste was the same as before, but… it wasn’t the same. It didn’t gave that same blissful numbing that went through my pained senses, it didn’t comforted as much as back then, nor filled me with blessed warmth… I guess that my body got used to it… My lazy eyes drifted from the bottle to the barkeep… Wavey busied himself cleaning a glass with a dirty rag, only dirtying the glass even further with his efforts, but he didn’t noticed such… it seemed that he was focused on the motion, not on the result itself. He didn’t have much to do, we were the only remaining patrons, it was late night and the rain hadn’t weakened a bit… crazy backwards Zone weather… I asked Moonbreeze if she needed anything ten minutes ago, and she politely assured me she was OK, just like the other two times I’ve asked… that armor of hers surely took care of everything. I wasn’t on the mood for small talk with that mare, and just dialogued with her out of pure civility. “Hey guys, why the long faces?” I turned around to face my other companion. She reeked of some sort of ointment, and there were some sections of her fur where it was completely burnished, such sections were completely sheared, giving Lielle a rather unfamiliar appearance. I guess that the fur will grow in due time… at least, she wasn’t sad about it. “Come on, we just completed another job, one more star on our books! We should celebrate to that.” And without delay, she ordered some hay fries. In a couple of minutes, Wavey placed a plate full of steaming hay before the mare. She wasted no time on stuffing herself, paying little regards for table manners. “You guys should definitely eat something… “She spoke with her mouth full. “Mmmm, this smells great” I couldn’t help but notice Moonbreeze downtrodden a bit when the earth pony mentioned the smell… being inside that weaponized tin can, the mare probably didn’t had anything to smell but her own sweat… had I been in her place, I’d probably give an entire hoof to smell some manure. I couldn’t help but feel some pity for her, after all, it wasn’t her fault for ending up inside that thing… It wouldn’t be her fault either if she killed me… That realization made me hate her with an intensity of thousand suns. I knew she wouldn’t attack me voluntarily, it WOULD be an accident, she WOULD genuinely mourn my death, and she WOULD have no responsibility at all, and yet, she WOULD feel sorry, but neither of those WOULD bring me back. You know, it’s easy and nice to hate bandits and other scum: they hate you back, they try to kill and rob you, they are, in essence, equine scum. Moonbreeze was the polar opposite… she was a perfect moralist noncombatant, it didn’t felt “right” to hate her, an innocent mare… and yet, the whole sense of wrongness by which she would always be the victim, despise the fact I died, made me hate her even more so… this was fueling a vicious circle of depth hatred… I shouldn’t be thinking about these things after a bottle. I pulled my thoughts aside and gazed at my other companion, who was finishing with her fries… she seemed so carefree, so happy… I guess we look at things differently… “Wavey, how much do we owe you? Also, we need some rations for the road…” “You’re in luck, pal… I’ve just got these” and he pulled a box from under his counter. “Not many buyers for them, but eh, I can make a discount price if you want’em…” I raised an eyebrow as he opened it… the cardboard box contained many, many rectangular shiny packages which looked like candy bars… The Pegasus offered me one; the package depicted a hulking minotaur posing for the camera. The “food” consisted of compressed cereals (mostly whey) on the form of a bar… it seemed like a stupid idea, how that thing was supposed to go with milk? You can’t have cereals without milk. I took a bite from it… it was stale, tasted like old rubber when gnawed my way through it. That thing must have been expired for several years now… “Eh, I’ll stick with my regular food.” “Thought so” The barkeep answered with a disappointed smile as he put away the cereal bars. ==========================[><]======================== “No point on leaving during this storm, you should get some Z’s…” The mare advised as she tested one of the beds. I simply raised my eyes from the PDA and nodded, I was already bunkered at one of the beds, while Moonbreeze, being too heavy for them, lay silent on a corner. As I put away my PDA, I took a good glance at my rifle… I kept it ready, even though I was on a relatively safe area… you’ll never know. If the PDA was right, the AK had been designed on Stalliongrad, but it was manufactured on Zebraria sweatshops to cut costs. Ironically, it was better than the toy guns developed by the monarchy equines of Canterlot, the NETO weaponry, as they named those… in comparison with, the AKs and other weaponry were sturdy, reliable, cheap, light and easy to operate, although being less powerful. Well, if there’s one lesson that earth pony weapons developers consistently tend to ignore, is that simplicity is often a better choice. After checking if the rifle was loaded, I placed it by my side and fell asleep. ==========================[><]======================== “You know what to do with them, put him on the corner, with the others…” The dark walls trembled heavily, confining and constricting my movements… a cage. I had been captured. On one moment, trotting happily though Canterlot… on another, being bagged and brought to… well, I had no idea. The trip was sickening, the cage-box itself moved on and forth, sending me against its walls… Why? Why me? When the cloth covering the box was removed, the only vision I had from the outside was a small peeping hole… Not far from me, an ochre earth pony was slouching lazily on a chair, absorbed on reading a newspaper. I could actually make out some of the headlines… “300% rise on the price of apples, food prices over the roof due to new taxes instituted for funding anti-insurgent efforts.” “Ponyville mayor implicated on the Hoofer dam fund embezzling scandal, more details on page 7” “Canterlot foalnappers still at loose, Wonderbolts still baffled.” The stallion let out a gruff laugh. “If they only knew what we do this for…right, boss?” At that, I moved my eye to scan the rest of the room, stopping at a second pony… from my position, I could only spot his hooves, coffee-colored hooves… “Are they ready?” He asked stoically “Almost, almost… we are just waiting another shipment.” The ochre one answered. “What I don’t get is why you need to speak with them before… you know” The other one sighed. “Her orders… which I am not to question. Such a regrettable choice to do this, but we need to.” The stallion coughed. “After all, if everything ends up as planned, we may have a second choice, one that could avert the whole insurgency straight from the root… assuming that my project ends up as planned.” “If that’s the price to safeguard the monarchy and everything we love, it is a fair trade” The guard spoke. “Indeed it is, my friend” His boss replied. “We are just beginning here. When I’m done, these foals will be our future.” ==========================[><]======================== What, just what… happened then? I gasped heavily, filling my lungs with the nightly air, my head spinning , trying to make sense out of those memories, while rain still echoed outside... it was around eleven o’ clock now. I thought about going back to sleep, but it was no use… I felt restless. After packing my belongings, I treaded toward the exit… “Thinking about leaving us?” The mare rose from her bed within a few moments, not groggy at all. “You ever sleep?” “You always make such a ruckus when packing your gear?” She asked in the very same tone. “So, you’re going to the valley… all by yourself, on a dark, rainy night.” “Yep…” I answered dispassionately. “Sounds fun… I’ll tag along” She commented as she readied her own stuff. “Just a sec while I wake up Moonbreeze.” Half an hour later, we were trotting through Hoofstok’s main gate, the rain pouring right through the armor and chilling me to the bone, while the echo of the rain mixed itself with numerous sounds which reverberated through the night… dying mutants, screaming stalkers, and all the myriad of creatures suffering horrors beyond imagination… Just another night on the Zone. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to travel during a rainy night. Our flashlights only produced a diminutive beam of light, barely allowing us to discern the way… good thing I had the PDA to indicate the way. It told us to go east, towards the northeastern corner of the garbage. After a short walk, we reached a transition zone, where perching hills only offered a small passage from the garbage to the valley. My eyes rolled as I spotted a few “radioactive area” signs. The whole Zone was a big radioactive dump, there was no point on labeling here or there… Also, some anomalies blocked the path. I held a hoof for the others to wait, drawing my bag of bolts to check the area. As soon as I walked a few steps… BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP… A quick check on my Geiger counter confirmed it. A radiation pocket… every second I spent there allowed the environment radiation to build up into my body. I swiftly backed off, holding the fireball artifact to dampen the radiation. “We have to go through…” I answered the gaze of curiosity that the mares gave me “No time for a detour.” And I followed on by throwing the fireball to Lielle, Moonbreeze would be fine inside her armor. “I’ve packed some antirads for myself, you two keep behind me and walk softly, especially you.” And I pointed to Moonbreeze. “If you end up on a whirligig, you won’t be able to trot out of it, not inside that thing… you’ll be spinning, spinning and spinning until you die, understood?” She gulped. “Yes, I wouldn’t wish that…” “Alright, on me…” I spoke, tossing a bolt on an arch toward the area. It landed on the ground, quickly disappearing under the wet mud. The rain just made everything harder… “Heighten your senses… visibility is terrible.” I yelled as I tossed another bolt. It struck on a springboard. I threw a third bolt, diagonally across the anomaly… safe. Taking a small break to check my Geiger counter, I saw that my level of radiation was already halfway of a lethal dose. I was beginning to feel sick. That only stopped when I swallowed a hooffull of antirads, the radiation counter dropping to zero, but steadily building up again. I had to leave the radioactive area. “Come on, just a bit more…” I pushed on; trotting beside a fallen tree… the Geiger counter fell silent at that point, signalizing my success. I felt a tremendous relief as I opened my pack and chugged another dose of antirads… they may taste like piss, but they keep your radiation levels where they should be: on zero. As I was helping myself of it, the girls caught up with me. They followed the very same path that I came through. No point risking an alternative route when mine was already clear. “Well… the PDA says that it’s a free way to the dark valley now.” The earth pony spoke. “Guess I won’t need this anymore…” and she tossed the fireball back to me. “About those mercs, any idea how they may react?” I asked “Nope… from what I heard, they can be your best friends, until it stops being profitable… but if Carmelia vouches for this particular detachment, I guess we’re fine.” “We should be going… I’m almost catching a cold.” I spoke, sneezing loudly afterwards. “PDA says that we should go north… go over that hill and get us a visual.” Lielle ordered, fidgeting with her PDA to find our whereabouts. And so I obeyed… I trotted up that hill and drew the binoculars to make our surroundings the best I could in that murky, wet night... The valley sure had a gloomy atmosphere… it was almost like the darkness crept into it by magic or something… I could barely spot things out… just vast expanses of plain fields, covered here or there by some silhouettes of bushes and trees, the most crooked and unnatural ones I’ve seen so far. Enormous hills stretched to the east of my position, obscuring the view… with effort, a few abandoned buildings could be spotted here and there, with the spotlight going to the northernmost one… a large compound of industrial buildings which included a warehouse… it could only be the mercs’ base. To the southeast, something of interest… a big orchard glistened through the night due to various electro anomalies under the trees… a second look at it revealed that those were zap apple trees… Somehow, the electro anomalies were reacting with the trees; making those bear fruit of abnormal proportions… zap apples with the size of watermelons! And not only this, the tree aided the anomaly in turn. When its fruit fell, it attracted reckless striders, which bodies could be seen stretching over the electric anomalies… those would certainly crystallize onto artifacts. Moving my binoculars to catch a better look at it, something else caught my attention. Tiny spots of light that marred Luna’s purple cloak of darkness. A while later, I was able to tell them apart… bandits. There was no doubt of it… their own black clothes blended with the night, and there were others with them… slaves. They were pushing them into the electro-ridden orchard, no doubt to harvest it for artifacts. Tell about overtime… “Strange, I thought that Carmelia said that the valley was the mercs’ turf” The redhead pointed out when I told the mares what I saw. “The bandits weren’t supposed to be there, mercs hate competition more than anything else… why they haven’t toasted them yet?” “Beats me… we know that Greyhoof is one of the bandit bigshots that set its sights towards the valley, but to piss off an highly specialized and trained combat unit, armed with top-notch weaponry is something else entirely… personally, I doubt that they had the muscle to root out the mercs, but who knows? Could be other bandit crew, for all we know.” “Anyways, the mercs could have moved, or aligned themselves with the bandits, or fallen victim of another enemy…” “True… what we know for sure is that bandits are roaming through the valley and probably are posted at the mercs base. Only seems logical that they would hitch an already fortified area instead of fixing one from scratch.” “ Bandits… we need to thing this through.” Moonbreeze spoke. “I mean, we can’t go in just shooting them, perhaps we should just talk with them and…” It would be stupid if it weren’t so funny… the prospects of entering a scum-infested base and gently convince the bandits to part out with their intel about the mercs’ fate… my charm is too rusty for these kind of things. That mare was delusional if she believed that approach would work… “Alright, alright… since we aren’t getting any dryer by standing around, plan time.” I spoke. “Yaaay.” The cobalt mare cheered with false enthusiasm, a deadpan over her face. “According to the data provided, the base has two entrances, one to the west and another to the east…” “So, let me guess… we should split up… how original.” The redhead said with the same tone of irony. “Exactly. We split up and attack them in a two-way offensive. Their contingent is already crippled since they had to send out guards to supervise the slaves. With this low-visibility setting, we will be able to surprise them and…” “Why does it always come to violence?” The armored mare voiced angrily. “Couldn’t you just think about something else? I don’t know, something LESS extreme.” Damn easy for her to say that, since she is under layers and layers of almost invulnerable armor… “In the event you’re unsatisfied with my approach, I could always try to have a conversation with them… all the three of us. Me, the bandits, and my gun.” “I won’t kill anypony and neither should you. It simply isn’t justifiable! You shouldn’t even be considering that…” “This isn’t exactly magical kindergarten, lady…” I voiced hoarsely. “The bandits won’t think twice before pounding lead into the heads of anypony else who doesn’t bend over to them. Plus, they’re going to die sooner or later, won’t them? If not by me, by somepony else. Why bother?” “It’s still not right. Every creature has the right to live, the most sacred right that was granted…” She replied angrily. “Okay, okay… I get it. You dislike harming other ponies. You have no qualms about distracting and scaring them, do you?” “Come again?” The mare questioned. “Well, a big, strong and armored mare lugging around an arsenal and firing it wildly is bound to cause an impression… although it won’t get you any admirers, it should be a more… “merciful” option than killing them. You just get as much attention as you can while I go through the other entrance and enter the base while they are all over your position. You should just be careful not to shoot them.” The mare fell silent for a few moments, considering the plan. “That seems more appropriate… I’m just going to give them a scare, right? A harmless, foolish scare…” She muttered. “Sure you will.” “Hey, what about me?” The azure mare demanded. “Where do I go into that plan of yours?” “Glad you asked. You’re tagging with Moonbreeze… you two should blend just like glue and rubber. If there’s one thing you know, is being distractive… besides, she could use some moral support and pointers about shooting and strafing around anomalies. That’s where you go.” “We should sync in our offensives… I’ll radio you in when we are in position.” The earth pony said. “This way, we can make the most out of it.” “Alright… just radio me when you two get into the position, alright?” “Alright…” The mare answered back. “Now get to movin’, pal…” I didn’t need to hear it twice. “I’m out, good luck.” “Just a second…” Moonbreeze spoke. “Please, just try to not hurt anypony… it would mean a lot to me.” “No promises.” I replied coldly and trotted away before she could talk anything else. Rain kept pouring on my back, seeping its way inside my bones… so cold… If weren’t for that armor, that mare wouldn’t last one fucking day inside the Zone… it was a twisted joke, a pacifist which had enough power to obliterate a small army… it was like giving ICBMs to monkeys. I couldn’t possibly think of something more pathetic… But all in all, I guess that my tactical choice was alright: to put together the pacific oaf and the buffon, getting them outta my back for a while… with luck, Moonbreeze will end up accidentally blowing up one of Lielle’s limbs, that would surely bring the mare to her senses about having a heavy-duty war machine in our party. After a while, trotting on a muddy terrain over torrential rain tires the fuck out of you, especially when you got a limp leg. My hood was fucking soaked by that moment… dumb water-retaining fabric… GLREAARARARARA!!!! BARK!!!BARKBARKBARK!!!GRRRRR!! I stopped short my trot, ducking into the grass and shutting the light. Damn mutants… a pack of hounds chasing off some strider. It was best not to interfere. I kept a low profile until the abominations moved away in their chase. I slouched away from the area and kept my course towards the decrepit factory which was now an impromptu base for general equine vermin…when I was around a hundred meters away from the entrance, I turned off the flashlight once more. If only I still had my NVG! I hope that bloodsucker rots in the tartarus. Despise overwhelming darkness and a wet armor weighting a ton, I made the last meters to a tree overseeing the main gate. From the distance, I could spot out two dots of light, two sentinels. I simply sat and waited for the girls’ signal, no point on rocking the house and give away my position on a silver tray. So, I unpacked the radio and adjusted it to my companion’s frequency. “Come out Lielle, over!” Nothing but dead static in response. Dammit! The storm must be interfering with the signal. I sighed… now, how the heck I would know when to strike? Spotting out the guards strolling around the gate, I picked the binoculars to take a closer inspection upon them. The two sentinels were chatting under an awning, their weapons down… also, the two of them were mares. Amateurs… two-bits-for-hour thugs. Well, better early than late… besides, each second I spent under the rain increased the odds of catching pneumonia. After packing the radio and the binoculars back, I took off my AK and a little something extra I’ve bought… A silencer. This ought to synergize well with the modified bolt mechanism I’ve bought off from Dominic as well… from what he told me, it should make the AK twenty per cent more accurate. Let’s make good use of my bits, then… I intended to sneak up onto the guards… with this rain, they won’t see it coming… I thought so as I attached the silencer on the rifle. Yeah, with my screwed leg, sneaking into unsuspecting bandits was definitely a better option. I glanced at the leg, still rather sore, covered in small wounds and wet bandages… oh well, what was even more atrocious was my LS-3 armor. The grey coloring was now marred with all sorts of things: several tones of brown mud , layers and layers of dirt, tree sap, stains of blood and all kind of foul-smelling , unpleasant substances… not to mention that the armor was shredded and ripped at several sections that were already sewed over and over into a rather pathetic attempt to deny the obvious… that I was wearing a bunch of old rags, with cracked and rusted plates protubering from the back and raw leather, which, due to the rain and other unsavory weather conditions, was deteriorating much as well. All in all, it was little more than a hefty burden than actual protection, but hey… better this than going naked. I’ll care about it later. I trotted along, circumventing the bandits so I could end up right behind their field of vision… of course; this meant crawling through muddy grass, with rain at my back. Eventually, I made it… my heavy breathing muffled by the rain allowed myself to drop close to the guards. One was a pegasus with a hooded magenta jacket and slate black shoulderplates, while the other one was a unicorn which sported a tactical vest over a white jumpsuit, while her face was covered by a three-slot baklava. “… but then again, Typhoon wasn’t much the one for strategy… luck, luck and luck all the way.” The pegasus could be heard. “Not luck, Shatterwing, he simply overpowered the REA at that point. The reinforcements didn’t appear coincidentally at the moment, he had it all along. But I agree, he isn’t the brightest bolt on the bag.” The other mare replied. “Not like I’m complaining, but hey… I’d rather have the dude who pays my check still kicking… you know how much of pain it is to get the dough when the command chain is culled.” Rain was mixing with my sweat, I readied the AK, aiming for the kill… “True, those bonafide adventurers never learn… they may kill one or another bandit lord, but that one will only be replaced by a crook twice as much twisted as the first one… natural selection at its finest.” “Shhesh, again applying evolutionist theories to social situations?” The pegasus shook her head . “I told you a million times, free will voids any attempt to cipher interactions between…” PLFFFTTTPLFTTTPLFTTTTTT!!!! Five swift bullets left my own rifle, meeting their destination at the unicorn’s head and neck. It was so quick that the mare was shocked by the suddenness of the strike, looking dumbfounded at her companion… since I had the advantage of the preemptive preparation; I was able to strike once more. PLFFFTTTT!!!!PLFTTTT!!!!PLFTTTTTT!!! More shots, these one striking the pegasus’ ill-protected chest, bringing her down almost instantly… in minutes, her own blood being indistinguishable from the jacket’s coloration. I shook off some of the rain and moved towards the gate without much of a second thought. No time to check their pockets, that would consume time, it could bring me out of sync with the girls’ offensive. As I was crossing the gate, a short cough was captured by my ears. The pegasus mare… Shatterwing. She wasn’t dead. Apart from being gunned on the chest, she was breathing… she was gasping for her life, spitting blood… her face was contorted in utter pain. I approached her. Despise her condition, she had a pretty face: pinkish fur, an emerald mane, amber eyes… every feature complementing another nicely. That didn’t last much. I smacked that face of hers with my rifle, sending her teeth flying and bringing her demise on the quickest way I could make do. No witnesses, no errand bandit scouting out for reinforcements before we could wipe this gang. Before I even crossed the gate, a siren boomed through the base’ intercoms. RUAAAAAAAARUAAAAAAAARUAAAAAAAAAA Dammit! Too soon, too soon, girls! As I made my way inside, I did my best to avoid bumping into opposition. Well, it wasn’t too hard. The bandits were mostly moving towards the opposite entrance, undoubtedly after the girls… plus, they weren’t keen on checking unsuspecting dark corners and dense bushes… such a bunch of reckless dweebs. BOOOOMMM!!!! RATTLERATTLERATTTLERATTTLERATTTLERATTLE!!! BOOM!!BOOOOOMMM!!! Would you look at that… Moonbreeze had absolutely no qualms about causing severe propriety damage. From the set of gunfire and explosions I could hear, the two were locked in savage combat with a whole load of bandits (well, as much as pulling big guns and being louder in order to make them pee on their undies and run to their mommies could be considered actual combat…) It doesn’t matter… that distraction wouldn’t last forever. I’d better make it count. Now that the goons had left their positions to fend off the imminent threat, the main hangar laid unguarded… such a golden opportunity. As I walked inside, the stallion stench struck through my nostrils… the dirtbags used every available corner and opening to place their stuff: campfires, bed rolls, piles of dirty laundry, mounds of trash where several species of bugs and disease-carrying rodents procreated… in sum, the bandits occupied the building as if it were their own home, disorderly so and with no regards for hygiene or personal space either… it was a dumphole even for the Zone standards, which weren’t exactly high on this regards. If they wouldn’t be killed by the bullets of other stalkers, their own ill habits would eventually be their demise, leading them to inculcate a disease or, at least, a diarrhea every now and then… I trotted alongside the wall and climbed the stair set at the back of the room, it ended up on a brick corridor, going afterwards on an “L” corner towards the north, further inside the hangar. RATTTLERATTLERATTTLERATTLLLEEE!!! As an involuntary reaction to the gunshot, I ducked instantly… however, no bullet whistled over me. So, I dived for the corner. That’s when the second spread was heard… RATTLERATTLLLEE!!!!RATTTLERATTLERATTTLEE!!! By now, I figured that the shooter wasn’t aiming at me… however, he was close by. I quietly trotted around the corridor, turning my head at one of the unadorned brick rooms. That’s when I spotted the bugger. A bandit firing his scoped assault rifle through a window, no doubt he was trying to fend off a hostile (most likely the girls) from afar. Being so focused on his efforts, he never noticed me. I drew my knife and dug it through his neck for the kill. One stab and it was all over. As I left the corpse to rot, having Celestia’s own star as the catalyst and witness for such fate, I cruised my way onwards the dark corridor, reaching a new set of stairs which made me go down one level and continue in the northeastern direction… Clack, clack, clack… Hoofsteps! A patrol up ahead. I stepped inside the first room I saw, another one of those raw brick rooms which had never been completed, with naked walls and devoid of almost any adornment. From the shadows there, I could safely observe my target: a patrolling bandit. He was easily discernible due to the huge-ass print on the back of his white jacket: a black equine skull with two protuberant dark wings. Yes, I could take that sucker out… but to do so without alerting his comrades was something completely different. I stood there, observing the patroller going back and forth… I have to find a way to circumvent or trick him out of… SNOOOUURCHHH I almost jumped out of surprise! Mother of Celestia, that room wasn’t empty as I first thought… a sleeping bandit eventually snored on his corner, a dirty blanket covering him. How the fuck someone can sleep when there’s a goddamn gunshot outside, at less than a hundred hooves away? As an answer to my question, several empty bottles of vodka were stacked under the bandit’s foot, near a blue iron chest which was cracked open… his own personal stash of booze. As out of habit, I instantly aimed for the head… a kill as easy as that doesn’t come every day. However, my brain started to work quickly, conjecturing a devious plan instead… At first, I doubted that anypony in their right mind would fall for it, but then, reason told me that bandits were not ordinary, reason-moved soldiers… they were much less than that… they were hoof-picked EXACTLY for not being competent soldiers, so that they could be pushed around , toyed and replaced by their master. They were run-of-the-mill average thugs: stupid, prone to carry orders without questioning and willing to work for minimum wage… all in all, they were just pathetic excuses for stalkers, nothing more than cheap knock offs which could be easily dispatched when dealt individually by an half-assed stalker such as me. PLFFFTTT!!!PLFTTTT!!! Two silenced shots to the chest later, the bandit was dead. He would never wake up ever again, Gratefully, he didn’t squeal, yelled or made any other sound that would alert his friends. I set him upright and covered his wounds with the blanket… from this angle, it seemed that he was still sleeping peacefully, the blissful sleep of the innocent, heh… Afterwards, I rummaged through his trash… luckily; I’ve found a bottle that still had some vodka inside. Resisting the urge to slug it down my throat, I spilled the booze over the floor and on the bandit, making a small trail from him to the chest. Then, I closed the now half-filled bottle and placed it inside the chest, remembering to close the lid. Now, for the bait, I levitated one of the empty bottles and placed it on the corridor, where the patroller would certainly be trotting... sooner or later, he would… Cracksth!! “Fucking moron! What’s the great idea?” The bandit shouted as he approached the room. I was quick to position myself behind a pile of bricks, where I had a good vision of the show. “The hell you are doing sleeping, Rothide? We are being fucking invaded and Typhoon needs all his crew to protect…” At that point, the guard quieted down and picked a particular scent… “Vodka…” The patroller voiced as he ducked to better discern it. “Stupid cocksucking drunkard drunk himself to sleep… it’s no use.” The stallion then directed his flashlight to where he was stepping on: a faint trail of vodka. “Dumbass wasted his booze, well… my gramps always said it was a shame to squander alcohol…” Like an obedient puppy, he followed the trail towards the chest, granting me a clear view of his back… I readied my weapon, focusing on my target. I had to score a one-shot-kill. “Hmm…” The stallion grumped as he lifted the bottle from the chest. “Not much left, but eh…” And on a single motion, the earth pony flipped the bottle, gurgling the heavenly liquid… PLFFFTTT!!!PLFTTT!!!PLFTTT!!! Bullets struck almost point-blank at his back, piercing through his fancy coat, bringing his death… the bottle fell to the floor, crashing and spilling what little vodka was still inside. Now that the way was clear, I gave one last melancholic look to the wasted booze scampered around the floor and moved on… Trotting for a while more on that corridor lead me to another set of stairs, allowing me to either go up or down. Deciding for the first alternative, I trotted upwards and followed on another corridor which brought me to a big room: two vertical stairs led to the lower floor of said room, with only a hoofrail standing between me and the lower floor… as I stealthy approached it, I could view the whole thing better: cubicles, sleeping bags, campfires, thrashed shelves… the bandits occupied the lower floor as much as well as the hangar. There were around half a dozen of them there… I should try the other way, a corridor that was directly after the aforementioned stairs that led to the floor I was on. I should try to sneak up towards said corridor, using the hoofrail as cover… “You! Yeah, you… fuck you!” I raised my head to spy on whose voice was that. The booming voice belonged to a sly earth pony, one clad in a black jumpsuit with a grey tactical vest and a dark gasmask… upon his arm, the bandit insignia could be seen. That was a merc armor… so, the mercs sided with the bandits ? “You…” He spoke, pointing to another one of his underling. “Fuck you, and you, fuck you, and you, fuck you… and you… you’re too stupid to even get that right.” And he pointed back to the first bandit he insulted. “You, go fuck him after you fuck yourself” The merc sighed. “If you guys want to screw me over, at fucking least kiss me first! Don’t you dimwits get it? If somepony gets to the antennae before we can set it right, we’re all screwed, royally screwed! Its already bad enough that we’re unable to call reinforcements due to that goddamn rain.” “Er, so boss…” a unicorn in a much more modest attire risked speaking. “What do we do?” “The fuck you want next, kid? For me to hold your hoof, do your fucking job for you? Newsflash… PROTECT THE DAMN ANTENNAE AND SLAUGHTER ANY OPPOSITION, COCKSUCKERS!” He shouted. “Why the fuck I am always surrounded by idiots? Is that simple enough for your pathetic minds? Do I need to spell it out for you maggots?” “No Typhoon, we get it…” One of the bandits replied. “Then get to it, you bunch of dorks! I want two stallions upside to fix the goddamn antennae, two to patrol this floor and two more to secure the upper floor. We are lucky that the rest of our crew is able to fend off the attackers for this long… “ I had to do something… if a guard spotted me, I’d lose the surprise element. That would be deadly if all the pack of bandits were within earshot. Hmm… I guess I’ve milked stealth as long as I could. If I am going to lose it, I’d best as well get a preemptive strike at all of them. With that in mind, I removed the silencer from my AK and reloaded it. I dashed to one of the stair, hoping to pull out a curtain of lead over the bandits… On the middle of my trot, a pungent pain struck, making me fall almost instantly on the cold floor. Just a look revealed what happened: the effort made the stitches on my leg break off. I forced my wounded leg too much. I was on a world of hurt, and there was only one instant relief for such pain… “SON OF A HINNY!!!” “They are here!” Typhoon boomed. “Battle positions now, take out the lights, NOPONY GETS TO THE ANTENNAE boys… stay sharp, they are going to pull out on us on any second…” I had to hail my own wounded ass back to the corridor, shitting my pants that one of the bandits might be searching around. Stupid, stupid, stupid… why did I had to run? After what seemed like an eternity slouching back to safety, I bumped into no hostiles… the fuckers were playing it safe, holding their positions. I moved to a corner, where I could safely turn on the flashlight and bring a medkit to tend the leg… there was no time to do a proper job, so I simply smacked up bandages over the wound and stitched the worst deal of it, following on by swallowing the painkillers to drown the pain. Grasping my AK and slouching back to the now bleak dark room, I had no choice but to leave my flashlight on. I was a sitting duck, worse… a crippled sitting duck. “Second floor, you two, go check!” The bandit lord’s voice was heard. A pair of underlings dashed upwards, one armed with a pistol and the second with a sawn-off. The first one turned the corner toward me, but he was going too fast… momentum didn’t allow him to aim properly. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG! RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTTLE!! Multiple bullets struck over his chest, making him bleed his life out… I tried to ignore the bleeding resultant from his two bullets that hit my chest. I was moving slowly but steadily... PWOOT, PWOOT!!! A load of buckshot ricocheted on the wall, missing me by just a little… Instead of falling back, I trotted onwards as much as my leg allowed… sawn-offs only have two shots before a reload, that’s their biggest flaw… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLEE! Leaving another corpse on my wake, I made it to the stairs… flashing my light down, Typhoon’s silhouette was revealed to me. The fucker was waiting for me. “So, this is it…” He grimly spoke. “The black maned merc that Greyhoof whined about.” He voiced, pointing his own AK at me. “You caused him a lot of trouble, kid… what you lack in cephalic mass, you sure make it up for in guts… coming her a second time, well, it’s your funeral.” “We’ll se about that…” I found myself speaking back to him “and about Greyhoof… never was much of a big fan of him…” “Too bad…” Typhoon snickered. “He sent his best regards, now open wide, COCKSUCKER!” I lunged to the right as Typhoon propelled a grenade towards me. FWOOOMM……BOOOOOMMMM!!! The decrepit floor crumbled as it fell victim of the explosive, unleashing a vast cloud of dust and bringing part of the structure down… along with me. “Finish off whenever is left of him, boys. Don’t let nopony get to the antennae or I’ll serve your asses as mutant breakfast!” He barked while trotting upside, using the only intact stair to reach the upper floor and, sequentially, the antennae. He was followed by two of his boys… smart fucker… I shook off the dust and hoofed through the pile of debris, look for my AK. RATTLERATTTLERATTTLERATTLERATTLE!! PWOOTCH!!! PWOOTCH!!! Bullets roared past me, closer and closer… I’ll be on deep shit unless I get my shooter… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTTLE!!! A rifle bullet pierced my armor, stinging my belly… I kneeled bringing out the bandages on a desperate wish for survival… Before I begun to treat my wounds, a shiny gleam caught my eye: the AK, buried under some concrete debris! Dropping my bandages, I used my magic to pry my rifle free from there… I was dropping blood and sweat from the effort… it was taxing as fuck, pent up adrenaline didn’t helped much. RATTLERATTTLERATTTLERATTLE!!! I paid no heed to the enemies’ fire. It was more important to get the offensive back on. There… using all my remaining magic, I floated the rifle, aiming back at the hostiles… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! The bandit sought cover as I returned fire, giving me a small window of opportunity to pick the bandages and patch my wounds. RATTLERATTLE… As soon as I heard his AK roaring back on, I fired mine as well. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!! The bandit looked surprised as he gazed upon his own chest, blood dropping like a fountain… A few seconds after his stand, he drew his last breath. Thanks Celestia for that accuracy update… I wouldn’t be able to hit him with a regular weapon, not on the condition I was… The momentary break allowed me to waste a medkit and a few more bandages to stifle the pain. PWOOTCH, PWOOTCH!! Slugs flew over my head; I dived for cover behind the pile of debris… PWOOTCH, PWOOTCH!! The bandit’ hunting rifle fired two more slugs, digging up the concrete pile and leaving me a little more exposed… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! The shots smacked useless against a pillar, the bandit’ cover… he wouldn’t leave there soon, and I couldn’t cut out the gap quick enough due to my leg… only one option left. “Have a grenade, DUMBASS!!” I yelled as I nudged the explosive towards the bandit’s hiding place. “You gotta be fucking kid…” was all that could be heard from him. BOOOOOMMMM With the first floor cleared up, I trotted on to the second, on Typhoon’s hoofsteps. As I treaded into the corridor, a lone bandit awaited at the very end of it, near another set of stairs. I pulled the AK to properly greet him. RATTLERATTTLERATTLERATTLE!!! Due to the distance, my bullets missed the target, ricocheting along the corridor instead. The bandit climbed up the stairs, yelling at the top of his lungs. “HE IS COMING, HE IS COMING!!!” I trotted on upon the stairs, hot on pursuing the crook… “Here’s a gift for you, moron!” And he dumped a fucking grenade over me! I barely had enough time to float it away… BOOOOMM Although the explosion didn’t hit me, some of the shrapnel flew on my direction. Having covered my face with the hooves out of surprise, most of them struck onto my front hooves, making small rivers of blood trickle from them, marring my “grey” armor even further… Nevertheless, I persevered on. I had fucking worse… As I reached the top of the stairs, a hail of rifle bullets welcomed me. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! Ducking instantly, I averted most of it, returning it back on seconds… RATTTTTLEEERATTTLERATTTLE!!!! The enemy took cover behind a wall… he was outside, over the roof, where the rain still raged. I slouched to the doorway, catching a surprised bandit while he was aiming for a second assault. I smacked his rifle upwards with my own rifle, making the dumbfounded grunt shoot wildly towards the sky, as he attempted to punch me with his hooves… A wimpy strike, softened by a layer of leather. Besides, he forgot about my weapon. I only needed a few moments to unload it on him. RATTLETATRATTTLETATLE!!! Stepping aside from the deader, I made my way over the slippery roof, embracing the cold rain again… I didn’t care… only defeating the enemy matters. The surface of the roof was covered by a 3x3 square grid of industrial chimneys, having the antennae at the center of said grid. Hoofrails separated the room from a three-story fall. “Worthless, worthless, worthless!” Typhoon raved to the bandit working on the antennae “Can’t you do anything right?” “I’m trying boss…” The bandit pleaded pathetically. “But it’s cold and wet, I think I’m sick and that isn’t my expertise…” “EXCUSES, EXCUSES!!! SHUT UP AND FIX IT ALREADY, YOU WORHLESS WASTE OF SPACE!” RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!! My bullets pierced the antennae and the grunt working into it. Another sorry excuse for a soldier was out cold. “This is it then…” Typhoon calmly stated. “ You and me, mano a mano…” And he pulled his AK. “Have at you, cocksucker!” RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!! I barely had enough time to seek out cover behind one of those chimneys… from the sound of hooves splashing over puddles of water, I assumed that Typhoon did the same. You know, there was a reason that he was a bandit lord: respectable combat prowess, not that it was hard to reach that level when you’re being compared to bandit dopeheads… “That’s it?” I shouted at him. “That’s the best the bandit faction has to offer?” “We are just getting started here, magical dickhead…” He replied. I trotted in parallel to the chimneys, circumventing the grid from outside. When I reached one corner chimney and peeked around it, more gunfire. RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! “It’s been a while since I had a duel… it’s refreshing, really…” Typhoon voiced as he backed on to reload. I cutted inside the grid, firing wildly while he was on defensive… RATTTTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTTLE!!! “Give up while you can bitch… you know, I’m just toying with you…” He appeared from a chimney at my left, his AK readied for more shots… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! More wounds… he is fast, I’ll give him that… Shifting my position, I trotted to the south easternmost chimney. Behind that cover, I used another medkit to suffice the wounds. “Come out, here’s something nice for you…” FWOOOMMM….. BOOOOOOM!!! The grenade turned the chimney into a pile of smoldering junk! One less place to hide… I had to get back on at him. RATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! This time, I caught him good! My bullets pierced through the bandit lord’ armor. As he received the wounds, he immediately retreated to patch em’ up, while I backed up onto my own cover to reload. “Not bad for a dorky loner…” He goaded from afar. “But you’re playing a game you can’t win, kid! I’m the top cat, you’re just tartar sauce!” He darted to the antennae, crossing to the other side of the grid… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! His projectiles flew closer to me… I had to shift my position again. Damn… I’m getting tired of this, and the rain isn’t helping at all… “You know… we aren’t so different, you and me…” He shouted at me from behind a chimney. “We all enjoy a good gunslinging here and then, we all love to find swag on a croaked stalker’s body… the only difference is that I’m better than you.” He is just trying to distract you, pay no heed to that idiot’s ranting! Focus on pumping lead onto him. “I am rubber, you are glue… “ “That’s your comeback?” Typhoon laughed. “Ha !I’ve fought striders who were brighter than you, kid…” I pumped up my rifle and shot at his position… RATTLEARATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! “I bet you would love to exchange that worthless dangling piece of meat over your head for a pair of balls right now, dumb unicorn!” It was clear what he was doing to me… Typhoon was wearing me out, playing his strength… as an earth pony, he could last longer without being fatigued and wipe me out once I were extenuated… smart bastard… I heard his hooves trotting across the grid again… RATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! My bullets missed the swift bandit… this game of mice and cat was getting me nowhere… “Stand still, dumb bandit!” “Alright…I’ll stick here for a while, HAVE A WHOLE MOUTHFULL OF AUTO!!!” BRATTLEBRATTTLETATLLETATTTLEBRATTLETATTLEBRAITTTLEBRATTLEBRATTLETATTLE!!!! One of his shots pierced through the chimney and struck right on my shoulder… I instantly dug the saddlebag for a bandage… “Dance for me, you little monkey! Circus is in town!” FWOOSHHH…. BOOOOMMM!!! Another chimney wrecked by Typhoon’s grenade launcher… I didn’t even had time to mend my wounds before escaping! If he continues to take them down like this, I’ll have nowhere left to hide… and with that leg of mine, I couldn’t possibly outrun anypony, especially an earth pony… “Perhaps if you were GREAT and POWERFUL, you’d SUCK LESS COCK!!” The bandit’s vivid bantering cracked from through the bricks… not even the rain muffled that bastard. How the hay was he able to guess where I was? The flashlight? My voice answering back his insults? Or, more likely… Of course… a crimson trail of blood and spent medical supplies was the main thing that gave my position to that damned bandit. Now that I am sure of this, perhaps I can… I yanked the flashlight off and moved to another chimney, dropping one of my worn bandages on the way in order to tip him off, and instantly trotting away to the opposed chimney. There, I dumped another bandage and my rifle, withdrawing my marekarov instead. After such, I kneeled under one of the burnished chimneys… Typhoon would never look there, and I had a good vantage point from that place. “Now I got you good, assface!” He yelled, emptying his freshly reloaded clip onto the chimney where the worn bandage lay close, believing I was still there… what a dope… RATTLEBRATTTLEBRATTLEBRATTTLEBRATTLETATTLE!!! Then, the bandit waited a while, expecting my incoming fire or my desperate dash for another chimney… when around five minutes of silence had gone past, he trotted to the chimney, expecting to loot my body. “The heck is this?” He exclaimed, seeing nothing there but the bandage. “Smart, but…” His head turned as his eyes searched the area. “Not enough to… fool me?” Typhoon’s voice vacillated as he came behind the chimney where I left my rifle. “How did he ran…?” The bandit muttered to himself “Nevermind the wussy loner, his rifle is probably worth a round or two of booze…” So, the bandit lord pulled his gasmask upwards and begun to grasp my rifle using his mouth, spending all his attention on such procedure… It was time. BANG!! BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!! Soon as he felt 9x18mm rounds drumming against his armor, Typhoon quickly spat out the AK and backed off to a nearby chimney. “Smart move, but not even enough to bring me down!” He proudly uttered. “Besides, you’re never gonna bring me down with that…” And he went silent. I knew much the reason for his sudden shyness… A loaded AK shrouded by a black magical hue… and the weapon had a clear, unobstructed view of him. RATTLERATTTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLE!!! The bandit staggered around, suffering from massive bleeding… “Bah, suck it up, Typhoon… “The bandit voiced to himself. “You’ve had worse paper cuts than this…” “Why can’t you die already??” I shouted my frustration as he sought cover once again… curse them earth ponies and their overpowered racial resilience. If I allow him to heal again, we’ll have to dance all over again! I couldn’t let that happen, and I just had the perfect medicine for one’s stubbornness to accept their demise… “Hey Typhoon, think fast!” I grinned as I lobbed a pound of happiness over his hiding spot. BOOOOOMMMM!!! I beamed in joy as I saw the resulting blast send his lifeless corpse flying over the hoofrails in a majestic parable… plummeting the resulting mess in hard concrete after a three-story fall. I took my time to certify myself that he wasn’t kicking anymore, trotting my way back downstairs and checking his remains… as I’ve predicted, it was as pretty as a pile of parasprite innards, a pile of innards which was being marinated under torrential rain… however, it did not deviated too much from the usual deader… a vast number of bullet wounds, around a quarter of his body was burnished, and, as a special bonus, his knees bent and cracked due to the fall, not that it mattered anyways, since he was already seven feet under due to hemorrhage by the time… but his face was intact, mostly due to the gasmask, which was still pristine… heck, his whole suit was salvageable, I’d do it myself if I wasn’t in such a tight schedule… Instead, I sat back against a wall and spent more than a few medkits to treat my wounds, proceeding to loot Typhoon’s body for clues which would shed a light in the situation. My eyes went to his weapon, still attached to the bandit’s frame… It was a good weapon, it had been modified for and increased rate of fire, pretty much the same way mine was updated for better accuracy, but the polar opposite… the bolt mechanism of his AK was rigged so that it’d allow the bandit to increase his bullet per minute firing rate… anyway, it probably wasn’t worth carrying, since it was badly damaged due to the battle… instead, I simply took all of his ammo and detached the grenade launcher of the weapon… GP-25 Buckster, the name was engraved on the side of it… and lucky we! Typhoon had a grenade loaded into it, his last! He was probably too reluctant to waste it, as to save it for a “special occasion”. Well, if he hadn’t held his card up his sleeve, things might have ended differently, but alas… I relieved him of his mundane possessions, around 1500 bits in cash and his PDA. Finally, some answers. From: Greyhoof To: Typhoon Subject: RE:RE:RE: Overseer application Congratulation Typhoon, your performance on the presented trials has been satisfactory, your position on the fleecing charts is unparalleled… it’s time to dream big… you’ve spent enough time ripping wimpy loners, its about time we move you to where the real coin grinds, where we can put your interpersonal skills to a better use. I’m prompting you to assume the position of overseer of the operations currently in progress at the sector known as the “Dark Valley”. Your assignments consist of claiming a small factory compound to the north. Preliminary scout reports confirm that the building has long been abandoned by its former inhabitants, being replaced by others far less… educated. You must decimate the mutants and other wandering hostiles on the area and proceed to turn the building into a permanent base of operations, using an assigned contingent of equines for such task… remember, you must build defenses, maintain control over the area, eliminate mutant pockets inside or near the site, manage the slave labor, submit weekly reports to me and send over all the profit generated by the lucrative activities. Lastly, not to put pressure over your shoulders, but… if you are nurturing thoughts of crossing me, let me tell you a little story about your predecessor, my last overseer, Regalia… the bitch was helping herself of a cut of my profits on the side, off my books, took for herself a fair share of my hard-earned money gained off from the sweat of slaves, it took me a while to catch up with the little scheme of hers, bitch had a silver tongue, that one, could convince you that Hurricane was a shy mare, only posing as a testosterone-filled warmongering stallion, or that Celestia was an alien that came from outer space … she was able to pull it for a while, but eventually, she got too big for her britches. After I caught up to her game, I fed that lying tongue to my dog and kindly dumped her into the Whitetail Park, with orders for my guards to stick at the border of it for six hours and shot her dead if she tried to get back… she never did. Bottom point is, stand between me and my swag, and you’re toast. Don’t fail me, kid. From: Wildwail To: Typhoon Subject: Cleanup report Boss, we did as you instructed and cleared the section from mutant scum, we were also able to uncover items during our work, which must have belonged to the stalkers who were camped around these parts before us. The items are: - 3 (three) mercenary suits, complete with gasmasks and kevlar vests, which feature the mercenary crest stitched up. - 7 (seven) AK-74 assault rifles - 2 (two) Obokan assault rifles - 5 (five) marekarov pistols - 8 (eight) TRs 501 assault rifles - 1 (one) keycard of unknown function or purpose…by the way, the guys uncovered a closed vault under the hangar, with an opening console. Guess what: it doesn’t work there, the console there has an alphanumerical system… don’t worry boss, I’ve got the top dogs trying combinations to open it, should be open anytime now… - 4 (four) F1 grenades. On another note, the slaves work yielded a reasonable profit, more than we expected… we’re pulling around two or three artifacts a day, I’m sending what we scavenged so far. I recommend that you send everything, including the weaponry and armor, to Greyhoof. He will manage the resources and redistribute them according to the faction’s needs. PS: Inform Greyhoof that the slaves thanked him for their new horseshoes. From: Greyhoof To: Typhoon Subject: RE: Service hazards! Alright Typhoon, I believe that I have a solution for your little problem, anyways… Its about time I’ve been wanting to shift my main center of operations anyway, we’ve milked the garbage for nearly anything it is worth for. Here’s the thing: I can’t send over all the crew in one move, that would attract a lot of undesired attention, so I’m sending over a convoy consisting mostly of slaves, enough to replace the ones you’ve lost to the mutants and resume the scavenging operation back to full scale. I hired a couple of mercs to secure it, you are to pay them 1500 bits on deliver. Once we receive news that the convoy has arrived safely, we will start moving the rest of the gang. It’s going to be great to be able to breathe without having a fuckload of fuckers up our necks, watching up our every move… PS: Your lack of success in cracking open that vault door frustrates me… I thought you were supposed to be resourceful enough on your own. Keep trying, my gut tells me there’s something worth the effort in there. From: Whistlebone To: All bandit Overseer personnel Subject: Marked for death! By order of Greyhoof, a reward of 4000 bits is being offered for those who present proof of the demise of the following stalkers: - A grey-furred unicorn with dark brown eyes, black mane, gasmask cutie mark… wears a dirty grey hooded armor and wields an ak-74 - A dark blue earth pony, silver eyes, a long crimson mane on an unruffled cut. Wears a nondescript sunshine armor and, for some unclear reason, wields a scrapgun made out of recycled junk. Those two are accused of disrupting the convoy heading to Dark Valley, siding with the slaves and aiding them in their escape. Pass down this message to all able-bodied personnel. That was the last message of the inbox. Would you look at that… hunted by bandits. Just what I needed… Having skimmed through everything in Typhoon’s mail, I started to search his PDA for additional data… well, he wasn’t the type of equine that wrote a diary, but I’ve found something interesting… – Over the tree A little bird told me that a recently offed dutyer hid his backpack on the top branches of a pine tree on his clan’ turf. I’ll empty it next time I’m around the Agropony… That was it… I rested my body against the wall, just hearing the rain… it had been a rough night. I’ve waited ten or fifteen minutes before the girls were into sight. I waved to them. “Glad we could make it… you didn’t look too bad for the wear…” I simply smiled. I knew that was a blatant lie… unlike me, they didn’t had a scratch… Lielle still had her… “weapon”, the scrapgun… it had new welded parts all over, looking more like a cumbersome ballista made out of junk, crafted with a number of mishmashes random pieces assorted together with duct tape, including a scope… no doubt she asked Dom for refuse parts and put up that thing for herself… instead of railway spikes, now it fired sharpened stakes of solid iron…real subtle. Moonbreeze herself was fine, much as well… though silent. She busied herself glancing at the corpses… that does not bode well… “So, everything went smoothly?” “More than that… the suckers dashed their way as soon as we popped out the fireworks, didn’t you hear it? By the way, is everything alright with…” I gave her a dry look for an answer. A simple glance in my direction could tell that I was not OK… I only kept it together due to my roughly patched wound, and that only six or seven hours later after leaving Patcher’s clinic completely healed… life is a bitch when you’re on the Zone. The thought made me want to drink… crap, I knew I’ve forgot something… I’ve forgot to pack damn booze. Moonbreeze approached us. “I see you’re awake.” She spoke in a bittersweet tone. “I believe we have to exchange some words about this…” “What about it?” Was my disinterested reply. “Care to explain why it was ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, UNCIRCUNVENTALLY NECESSARY to bullet your way through every bandit pony? I thought you were supposed to be subtle and avoid resorting to unnecessary fragging!” She voiced in censure… great, that just made my day… “It couldn’t be helped… besides, it isn’t my fault if they jumped right at my bullets, doesn’t it? Now that’s cleared out, we should…” “Excuse me! That’s your answer, a jest? Can’t you comprehend that you just reaped the lives of another beings for NO GOOD REASON? And what is worse, you just shake it off like it isn’t a big deal at all!” “Because, in the Zone, it isn’t.” I voiced grimly. “People die everyday around these parts, and these bandits… they were Greyhoof’s boys.” “Greyhoof? What’s the deal with him?” “You see…among stalkers, there is a certain degree of debauchery, profligacy, corruption and general lack of equine decency which is dumped straight away as most crooks cross into the Cordon... and then, there’s scum who reach even lower standards of morality and ethics… those are what you might call the usual bandits… and even lower than those, there are dweebs that sunk to even less…” “Spare me the lecture. “The mare rudely interrupted me. “You’re gonna say that Greyhoof and his gang are at the bottom of this chain as justification for killing them, won’t you?” “WRONG!!!” I uttered to her in ecstasy. “I mean, half-wrong… the thing is… I can totally tolerate bandits who descended to any depth of corruption and perversion … at first, I was like you too, but then I saw it: stalkers see it coming when their enter the Zone, its one of the risks of their line of work… that’s okay with me as long as it is fair game… which it isn’t by Greyhoof’s methods.” “What do you mean by that?” “I mean that Greyhoof is the one who made a game out of this kind of depravity, backing off his own greed with a drapery of hierarchy: he purposely trains his people to become such monsters, promoting them and collecting all the profit generated by them… it’s like a competition to see whoever squirms the weaker stalkers for most cash, where he is the stepping stone for such madness.” “Even then, descending to his level isn’t going to solve an…” “Look people, can’t you do this later? In the case any of you didn’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a mission here!” The redhead interjected, interrupting our discussion. “She is right… we’ll talk later.” I voiced to the armor-clad mare. “So much blood…” She whispered, looking sideways to Typhoon’s body. “How can you even sleep at night..?” “It’s about the blood, then?” I questioned. “You can’t stand it? Then, what goes when you have a period, you simply faint through it?” “Has anypony ever told you that you are a horrible person?” She voiced her disgust. “That was totally uncalled for and you have the maturity of an eight year old foal. We’re talking about it later.” I simply shrugged. My point remained… one cannot go through the Zone without shooting… then, what next? Seasoning himself for the mutants? I couldn’t sympathize with anypony who didn’t understand the beauty of it… the beautiful melody of bullets drumming and lead pounding through the body of an enemy, the excitement of each battle, the drive of two ponies to best one another, betting their lives on it… Words can’t do justice to such thing. We continued the rest of the way in that awkward silence I knew far too well, descending a couple of levels through the abandoned structure and finally reaching the rectangular, double-layered vault door. From the looks of it, the bandits extenuated every mean of opening it… a number of electronic gadgets laid near the door, darkened explosive blasts could be seen… whoever built that thing knew exactly what he was doing… I trotted to the console and imputed the code given to us by Carmelia. The machine produced a soft beep in answer, and the door begun to whirl slowly, as the locking mechanism unlocked to allow passage to the underground vault… Inside, nothing but unfathomable darkness and that familiar smell of rot, dust and aged decadence which was perfectly seasoned to its apex inside the cozy vault. I turned on my flashlight and begun the descent, the girls following close by, our weapons ready. It ended on a long corridor, where we spent around 10 minutes transposing it… according to the PDA; we weren’t under the compound anymore, but under the valley itself. Finally, said corridor ended on a rusty metal door. A simple buck was enough to send it down. After it, a small room with another corroded door to the north and other vault door on the right. On the wall near the rusted door, an enormous dusty flag stood as the only decoration of the room: it depicted a stylized blue eagle head, the mercenary crest. “It’s busted…” Lielle informed after trying the vault door. “Probably needs a key of sorts…” and she eyed the console nearby, one with a sensor meant for personnel badges or something like that… “Leave it for later. If we’re lucky, we’ll find the key for it…” “Alright, lead on.” She voiced back. I nodded and moved to the deteriorated door, turning around to place another buck to bring it down… I almost delivered the punch, but something made me stop… “What’s the matter?” The redhead asked. “I thought I’ve… heard something.” “Like what? Nothing out of the usual sounds exploring a decaying building.” She spoke. “You heard anything odd, Moonbreeze?” “Not at all. Look, we should really get going with this…I don’t like this place.” “Just give me a couple of minutes…” And over their perplexed glances, I placed my ear against the door. I waited patiently, my ear glued to the cold door… yes, I did hear something… thought it might be just my… It was a very unclear sound, like a reverberated, dying echo of the actual sound, having trailed so long and hitting so many obstacles that the original sound was tampered. It sounded like… scraping. As in, a knife scraping a metal place, but not smoothly… it scraped for a while and then stopped… only to begin again after a while. I had no idea of what made that sound… could be nearly anything, three or four things already popped to mind. I probably shouldn’t worry too much about it… could be worse, like the sound of a bloodsucker’ howl. “Nothing… just my mind, girls… I guess I’m hearing things…” and I laughed nervously. The two exchanged concerned looks, and the huntress circled a few loops around her head using her hoof. Dismissing the fact that she just called me a cuckoo, I bucked that frail door and moved on. It brought us to an annex room: a crashed wooden table, burnished shelves and crushed chairs with missing legs could be seen scattered around… broken items and books torn beyond readability… Something didn’t sit well with that. Then, the sound. It started slow, then it stepped up the pace… like additional knives joined the first on the task of scraping metal, it was clear as crystal now… and came from the other side of the next door… “I hear it now…” Moonbreeze voiced, and Lielle nodded in agreement. “Whenever is doing that, its right across that door…” I spoke, lifting my AK and pointing it at the door. “You’re not thinking about busting it open, aren’t you?” The redhead questioned. “Damn, you ARE thinking seriously about that…you’re a lost cause…” “Unless you have a better idea or the innate ability of seeing through iron, I see no other way to know what the hay is behind mystery door number one…” “For Celestia’s sake… you have absolutely no clue of what is behind that door… could be anything, and yet, you look forward to crack it headlong... this is a bad idea in so many ways…” “As much as I wish that there’s an alternative, we don’t.” “You could always lob a grenade and blow up whenever might be behind it…” The azure mare told me. “It’s safer than busting your hooves and exposing yourself.” “Yes, I could… but you forget we are inside a precarious underground structure… explosives don’t mix well here, since they might damage the foundations and send the whole thing collapsing over us.” “You got a point…well, then… be my guest, go ahead.” And she proceeded to cock her shotgun ready KA-CHINKA! While Moonbreeze, by her turn, materialized an assault rifle on her armor and pointed it to the door. “Ready… just get over with it.” She added. Here goes nothing… WHAMMM!!! CLANG!!! I jumped back and emptied a whole clip into the room. RATTLERATTLETATTLETRATTLERATTLE!! PWOOT! PWOOT! Nothing in response… no squeals of pain or screams… only bullets ricocheting through the walls. Something was not right. I poured light into the opened room, trying to make out what was inside, what was making that maddening sound I’ve heard before… After crossing the doorway, debris and more debris was everything that filled my field of vision… I was on a ruined pantry or something… That’s when I saw them hiding among the rubbish. Rabbits. As I flashed light over their position, it reflected on the creatures’ amber eyes. They were just as clueless as us. Four or five sprouted nearby, brown-furred creatures… except for the belly, which was colored red… vivid red. I’ve never heard of such coloration before on these critters… I aimed my AK right at them… the creatures didn’t even flinch. They probably weren’t used to… “Hey, what’s the big idea? Just leave em’be, you big bully!” After putting away my rifle, I turned around to face an aroused blue-furred mare. “Don’t you see they are just as scared as us?” “Yeah… sorry about that, just force of habit. You ever heard of those?” “Come to think of it…” She stopped to reflect about the question. “No, not at all… but that’s no reason to go out blasting anything that moves… I mean, how much damage could they cause, even IF they were hostile?” “Hmm… alright, let’s move on.” Was my grumbled answer. “Such precious little creatures…” Moonbreeze cooed, much to my disgust… something about that overly sugary tone. “I wish I could snuggle them.” To which I just rolled my eyes. A few minutes ago, she was dying to leave this place… “Let’s not waste any time on get…” I froze my hoof on the middle of the air; one of the critters was standing on my way. I simply moved it to the right and… Well, the dagnabbit thing just hopped back into my path. I trotted to the left, and he intercepted me again. So, I just thought about using my hooves to keep him outta my way. As soon as I approached my hoof to hold him away, the critter began smelling it… As soon as I saw those amber eyes widening at me, I knew I was doomed… In seconds, the “rabbit” opened its maw… instead of the usual arcade of teeth, inside lay a grotesque display: full rows of tiny, sharp-edged, carnivorous teeth… and that terrifying vision closed up… right on my bleedin’ hoof “GET OFFA ME, OFF ME!!! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!! AUGHAAA” I screamed in agony, just like a little filly… now, I tell ya… I’ve suffered a lot of punishments during my stay on the Zone: bullets, anomalies, claws… guaranteed that those were painful in their own way… but that thing… that bite… it was just the worst. The more I tried to yank it away from my hoof, the more the rabbit tightened its mandible’s grip onto it. Those teeth were made especially to thrash through flesh, and that’s what exactly that they did, insidiously festering upon my hoof with tremendous viciousness. While my two friends were dazed by that display of mayhem, I was able to, out of pure desperation, make my way toward a nearby wall and swing the rabbit against it, cracking the critter’s diminutive skull against solid concrete and loose his deathly maw from me… Problem is, popping his whole body against the wall made the entire blood of the creature sprout over me. And that was just the signal to the rest of the pack that I was a prey… I saw with stricken terror as over a dozen of more of those things pulling out of frenzy by that sight, their rabid maws oozing foam insanely… They swarmed through the room and over me like a bunch of raving parasprites… unstoppable, vicious, dangerous… and hungry, very hungry creatures. As I vainly tried to keep my ground against their rising numbers, the girls had their hooves full, fending more of them bunnies at bay. PWOOT! PWOOT!! PWOOT!! RATTLETATTLERATTLERATTLERATTLETATTLE I tried to escape out of their reach as more and more of those monstrous bunnies poured at me, far outnumbering myself and feasting upon my back, ripping away what was left of my poor armor. “Stop fighting them!”PWOOT!!! “It’s hopeless; just get out of there before you…” PWOOT, PWOOT!! Thanks for the heads up, lady… if weren’t for you, I’d never see it coming… nevermind that I have a broken leg and a hooffull of mutants crawling through my back as you speak, while I try to swing my rifle and whack them away from my precious flesh. RATTLERATTLETATTLERATTLERATTTLETATTLE!!! Most of the pack focused solely over me… of course, chow down the bleeding one, the juicy, juicy prey… I’m just a piece of undercooked meat for you, aren’t I? Through immense effort, I shook off the thick of the pack from my back as I trotted away from that spot, bashing over some outrunner’s face with my rifle’ butt. RATTLERATTTLETATTLERATTLERATTTLETATTLETATTLE!!! PWOOT!!! PWOOT! PWOOT! PWOOT!!! I knew it was a worthless effort, that I was on a doomed last stand. The rifle begun to get insupportably heavy, and I had to drop it out of exhaustion… the bunnies, in turn, were just more relentless on preying over me, their teeth digging deeper and deeper… PWOOT!! PWOOT!!! PWOOT PWOOT!! The sound of Lielle’s shotgun punching shells into the mutants’ tiny bodies was the only comfort I had while I was being devoured alive. “Help him out Moonbreeze!” The mare shouted. “I don’t know how much longer he will be able to live through…” PWOOT! “I can’t get a clear shot from here, might hit him as well as the bunnies!” PWOOT!!PWOOT!! “His life is on your hooves!” She yelled to our armored companion… “I… I don’t think I can…” Moonbreeze softly whispered back, her voice trembling; terrified…it was slowly fading… I could barely hear anything through the sound of teeth chewing, as the pile of monstrosities dug their way through fur, leather and flesh… if I hadn’t bought those leather reinforcements, I’d be dead now… not that’s such a great consolation, they will simply make me suffer a longer period to rip me apart. I felt tears trickling through my face… I don’t wanna die… not like this, not today. CLACK!CLACK! CLACK!! CLACK ! SQUATCH!! CLACK!! SQUATCH! SQUATCH SQUATCH!!! CLACK!!! I couldn’t open my eyes, but I felt the ground tremble underneath me… one by one, all the pests were smacked out of my back, like being cleansed of massive, bloodthirsty ticks. After opening my eyes, I caught a glimpse of my savior: Moonbreeze was using her metal-clad hooves to trample through the critters, stomping over them and culling their numbers to nil. When she was done, I was still shaking out of fear… bunnies, even bunnies! To the hell with the Zone! “Just take it easy… it’s over now.” Lielle whispered as she trotted nearby. “We’ll just take a break and…” “No-n-n-NO breaks!” I spoke, my voice trembling... cold, it was so cold… “Let’s… let’s just end this already…” “Are you out of your mind?” The redhead shook me vividly. “You almost expired out there, fella… I bet you are barely holding your marbles together now. We should at very least…” “I said… we-we… end this… job, asap.So I can d-drink this over.” “For Celestia’s sake… you’re mental, you know that?” She opened my pack and begun administering my medkits and bandages. “You’ve lost more than a few liters of blood in that little mess of yours.” “Least… we k-know what we’re up a-gainst now.” I moved my head as she slapped a few bandages over my neck. The bastards… they gnawed their way into me, ripping away my fur, my armor… the teeth ripped, shanked and sank through it… now it was nothing, nothing… just scraps barely held together. I was beginning to suspect I was born under a lucky star… how else I could make it alive through that kind of ordeal? I took a sideway glance on Moonbreeze’s direction… she was quietly eyeing her blood-muddled iron hooves, likely pondering about just having killed a hooffull of little creatures. “Er, this should keep you in one piece… mostly.” The earth pony spoke. “At least until we end this job.” I tried to stand up; only being able to do such after a few tries… I was on a world of hurt; it was a sacrifice just to slouch… “Although there’s not much we can do for your armor… you’d best stay on the rearguard now.” I couldn’t agree more, nodding to her statement, buckling my saddlebags again and taking my position behind Moonbreeze. My AK was lying on the floor nearby, covered on critter blood. I tossed it onto the pack, withdrawing the marekarov instead. Holding the pistol was less of a burden to my telekinesis. PWOOT!! PWOOT\|!!! The readhead’s shells pierced through the rotten wood, bagging the few rabbits that were still hiding around. Moonbreeze… why did she helped me? After I was such a douchebag… she cares about me more than I about her… she was right, I’m such a horrible pony and a lousy friend. I guess that I can live with that kind of guilt… better than being a deader. As my eyes got used to the darkness, I could make out the pantry… Any food that was stocked here before was long since rotted away or devoured by vermin… now, only it’s broken shelves and cupboards remained, being used as home for those bunnies… that room was leaving me nauseated… you couldn’t take three steps without stepping on rabbit dung, plus, assorted bones and flesh were around… the spoils from their hunts. Three vertical small holes could be seen on the eastern wall, along with only one on the western wall of the room… their purpose was clear: a direct path to the valley, so that these mutants could hunt for food and bring it to their lair. A closer inspection on the western wall revealed that there were a second hole there… only that it was clogged… by a pony skeleton. The marks and scratches over it showed that the mutants dug through the flesh, leaving aside the empty carcass of a poor stalker and its torn sunrise armor. One could wonder… was he still alive when he was brought in? Nopony deserved a death like that, nopony… PWOOT!!! PWOOT PWOOT!! “I guess that’s the last of them.” The earth pony voiced, lowering her shotgun. I slowly nodded, pain still numbing my senses… The back of the room offered two ways: east and west. Pointing to the west direction, a sign saying “Dorms” Dormitories… the thought of a cozy, warm bed... that seemed extremely appealing to me. Cozy, warm, comfortable… just like the womb of a… “Girls… do you mind if I… just check something?” The two looked at each other, confusion sprouting on their eyes. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Lielle begun. “It’s just for a second… just wait over here. If I take more than two minutes, storm inside.” “We don’t have much a choice, do we?” The redhead voiced her displeasure. “Alright, go rub on dirt or whenever you wanna do…” So I did… I trotted inside that room, instantly flashing my light to the broken bunker-beds, approaching them and lifting a bunch of rags that someday were blankets… “What do you think he’s doing there?” Moonbreeze asked her friend. “Don’t you think it is just a little bit odd that he…” “Nah… probably nothing important. By the way, how you fought those mutants, girl… that was some amazi…” “Hey Lielle.” I voiced while sprouting my head from behind the door. “Do you mind seeing something here?” “Just a second.” She answered back to me. “I’m just gonna see whenever he found, then we can get over with this.” And Moonbreeze just nodded as she saw the redhead trotting inside the room. “What’s about it? Don’t tell me there are more of those things around…” “Kinda…” I spoke, approaching the bunch of rags. “We’ve left out a few.” And I pulled the clothes aside. The mare gasped at the sight: A number of tiny, brown-furred baby bunnies, nibbling on a piece of flesh. They haven’t even grown their teeth yet, being almost indiscernible from regular bunnies… however, I knew what kind of demons were those things. “The offspring… they’d leave it on the most secluded, most protected section of the lair.” The huntress spoke. “As to guarantee that the next generation will make it.” “Right. And which is why I asked Moonbreeze to wait outside.” “I see… she wouldn’t have the stomach to watch. So, I presume you wanna cull the pups.” “Yes. Look, I know this isn’t pleasant for you either, but we should do this… we can’t let these things run amok through the valley… you’ve seen what kind of damage they can do when fully grown.” I sighed. “Just hold em’ down for me, please…” She just nodded, strangely stern-faced. Once she had made sure that the bunnies couldn’t run away, I withdrew my knife. None of those things could be left alive. I enveloped bunny after bunny on my magic, pulling their necks towards the levitated blade… a few left off a small squeal as their lives slipped by. I dropped their little bodies over the floor, and repeated the procedure over and over until there was none left. The mare remained silent as she corralled the critters, so they wouldn’t escape. “Done here.” I voiced as I sheathed the blood-covered knife. “They won’t bother us again.” And Lielle just nodded in response. She knew I had to do that… “How did it go? Found anything interesting there?” Moonbreeze asked as we trotted back into the pantry again. “No, just a false alarm.” Lielle answered her. “At least we just have one more place to search” And she pointed to the door at the east direction: after it, a set of stairs which descended to a small, narrow corridor… It led us to another enclosed room… our beams of light revealed a rusty footlocker on the left, while a pile of ruined beds and some broken furniture laid by the right wall, while the northern one was filled with broken monitors, all of them powered off… they were part of some odd device that occupied the whole wall, a mishmash of colored cables could be seen sprouting from such big device, most of them chewed… I had an idea of who were the culprits for such… I turned my attention to the footlocker: locked, just my luck… a quick flick from my skeleton key will solve… Crack!! Damn cheap stuff. I tossed away the broken key, searching my bag for the last one… BRLALAGUUUKKK!!! We threw our lights on unison to the source of that unearthly sound. What I thought that was a pile of debris… it stirred! It stood on two feet, pushing the trash away… and it faced us! Mother of fuck! It was one of those bunnies, but bigger, a much bigger one… white fur, demonic magenta eyes and clacking teeth, big as butter knives… and eleven times sharper… The creature was tall, it’s ears folded at the ceiling when it stood up. There was no way that thing could leave the room through where we came from… I could only presume that it was brought here as a pup, being fed by the other bunnies and growing up inside its iron cage, never able to leave… The dire creature let out a bellowing roar, the scent of death reeking from inside its maw. GRAAAASHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAGHWAKLAA!!! I trembled as I tried to aim my pistol at that… at that thing… I knew it wouldn’t be much use, but I wasn’t looking forward to end up as mutant meal. At least the girls were at my side, readying their weapons as well… BANG!!! BANG BANG!!! BLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLANGBLAN BLANGBLANG PWOOT!!! PWOOT! PWOOT! PWOOT!!! It seemed like the monster wasn’t immediately aware of the attack, only when he saw his pristine fur marred by blood, it had woken up from its stupor. It descended on all fours and charged against us. BANG BANG BANG!!! PWOOT PWOOOT!!! The hulking brute assaulted a violent headbutt against Moonbreeze, sending her through the room, only to have her brief flight interrupted by a hardy wall. The mare stood on its crash site, seeming dazed… that this was too damn powerful! How the buck can I expect to bring it down? “Boshan, move off while I try to…” And I saw the panic on her eyes… CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, WHAM!!! It wasn’t so bad once you were thrown… it’s the landing that kills it. Having my already injured body hitting a concrete wall like a pitiful ragdoll wasn’t on my plan… I felt my nervous system burning inside out in agony, the message that I knew so well: pain, pain, pain… I could do nothing but stay there on the wall, leaning against a spat of my own blood… the world seemed increasingly blurred, out of focus… was there a fight or something? An earth pony left against a giant carnivorous bunny… colors begun to lose their shine, sounds begun to be suppressed into nothingness, just muffled echo. Thoughts begun to fade… My eyelids felt so heavy, I felt so unbearably tired. I’m so sorry, my friends… I couldn’t help you. ==========================[><]======================== “Hey, wake up sleeping princess… it’s time you wake up from your little nappy-time.” Every breath was a fight… I was barely holding it together. The world slowly returned into vision… I was still rather dazed, a ringing sound echoing inside my skull… “See? I told you he was going to make it.” The blue earth pony voiced to the armor-wearing mare. “It needs more than an oversized mutant to bring down a seasoned stalker.” “Well, he is a resilient one… I thought he was done, for sure…” Moonbreeze spoke back. “He doesn’t seem too well, though…” I eyed my surroundings: a number of discarded medical supplies were around me. I had a rough one… I needed rest… rest and plenty of booze. “But… but…” I mumbled “How did you…” “Using my brains, of course… what else?” The redhead answered. “You see… I’ve pissed off that thing so bad…” and she pointed to the corridor where we came from. Now it was stained crimson red “That it tried to chase me outta the room, and it got stuck! And after that… like shooting fish on a barrel.” She proudly indicated her shotgun. “Though the difficult part was flaying that thing to get back in.” “Then, I guess we should get to finishing the quest… after all… we’ve came so far.” I feebly voiced, receiving one nod from each mare as answer. I reached onto the footlocker and used my last skeleton key to open it. CLINK! Inside the container, a bag with two thousand bits, a PDA and a weapon case… It contained a sniper rifle or sorts… it was a rather cumbersome and bulky weapon, with wooden furnishing and a synthetic stock, the name “Truesight” was etched on the weapon. Perhaps the most jarring thing about it was the weapon’s scope… it sure had one scope inbuilt into it, but the case also included two similar additional scopes… I thought they were spare ones, until a closer inspection showed me that they were made to be used in tandem with the stock scope… as in, they could be piled up on a triangular fashion, attached to the inbuilt scope… but I wonder, why would anypony want to do that? Unless it was made for a three-eyed mutant, there was no reason for such. “Nice shooter…” The redhead could be heard behind me. “A modded Dragunov, I see…” “You gals don’t mind if I get dibs on it, right?” I asked. “Since you don’t have a frame for this kinda’ shooter and Moonbreeze… well, she isn’t a gun enthusiast…” “Knock yourself out.” Was the huntress’ answer, while Moonbreeze silently nodded her approval. All that I needed to pocket the encased rifle on my saddlebags. Then, I moved on to checking that PDA. Diary entry, 1 of 8 The Zone… what I can tell about it? Well, we’re here now, not as much a golden mine as I’ve expected, but I suppose these things take time. All I gotta do is get a few contracts here and there and ka’ching! I mean, if a precocious neer-do-well merc wannabe such as Fleabag is rolling in dough, any idiot can prosper in this post-nuclear paradise. Sure that my boys aren’t exactly looking forward to work inside the Zone… having heard some of the nutcase stories that locals seem to sprout to scare off tourists… like, ponies with octopus tentacles as faces which can turn invisible, or former stalkers that turned mad and run around preying on flesh and leaping two-stories heights… sounds like a load of bull cookies to me. Anyways, I guess I should give them a few days to ponder it over… eventually, they will get to their senses… they always do when there is money on the line. Diary entry, 2 of 8 And another contract successfully completed. On this pace, I’ll have enough moolah for an early retirement in no time. Of course, on the past few days, there had been a few losses… expendable personnel, mostly… they can find their way into shooting any kind of enemy, but when it comes to watching their step to avoid those anomalies and radioactive pockets…they are as helpless as little foals. I can’t blame them: they trained years to excel their combat capabilities, years to hone up their marksman skills… the very same training that alienated them to spend so much attention on their enemies, on their guns, that they end up stepping where they shouldn’t and wind up dead at those environmental traps. I guess we aren’t habituated enough to know our way out of some of those things… that comes with time, that’s those stalkers’ forte. I need to think of a way to transpose this obstacle; otherwise things might be not profitable enough for the hassle. Diary entry, 3 of 8 I thought about a new lease in life… as our external contracts are starting to run dry, I guess its time to settle down and start doing jobs for those stalker’ fellas… they sure got themselves a hoofful of problems, and most of them can be solved by offing the right kind of people. Also, they got the cash to back up our services, with the entire artifact smuggling business around…. So, as the first step in being successful in the well-compensated freewheeling business provocateur and long term people-dealing business, we set up shop in one of those abandoned structures that are around the Zone, there are plenty to go ‘round, and my boys need a place to rest and drop their stuff from time to time. That’s what this compound is going to serve for us, now that we kindly relocated the former pests from here. But the main attraction isn’t the compound, oh no… it’s just what lies underneath it: a bunker! Complete with a security-coded door, vents and other kind of life-support thingamajigs! Crosswire was able to bring the underground generators back online and recode the door to serve our needs, also, he was able to get a keycard-locked door inside the bunker back into working state… anypony who was here before, sure was paranoid about security... well, more to our gain. I’ll dump the spare weapons and any other sensible things into there and hold into the key myself. Diary entry, 4 of 8 Now we officially got a few jobs on our belts, the boys gotten used to the atmosphere round these parts… its kinda nice after you spend a few days in this big radioactive dump called “the Zone”… and the money is not bad either, not a shortage of people needin’ of our skills either… today I’ve met some representatives of a bigshot clan that roams through the Zone, called themselves Freedom… Apart from the head of some of them being a few whiskers’ short of a full bag of cats, they’re friendly enough after you’ve gone past listening all their crap of communing , love and tolerance… funny thing is, that doesn’t apply to their dealings with another clan of stalkers… Duty, or whenever is called… going on, we were able to get in a consensus for them: we run a few undesirable jobs every now and then for them Freedom chumps and they provide us with Zone intel and field experience bout’ dem anomalies, radioactive pockets and mutants, since their contact network is much more deeply rooted than ours. Ah, on a side note… another interesting piece of technology was found on the lower level of the bunker… Crosswire said me that everything suggests that it’s some sort of ancient monitoring device, possibly set by either insurgents or the monarchy a fuckton of time ago, to spy the surrounding area. I’ve got to see if he can get some of it into working order… having some sort of thing like that would surely give us an edge in our business. Damn… Hyena is screaming his lungs out again, I can’t for the love of Celestia figure out what is wrong with that dude… If he is doing it on purpose… Diary entry, 5 of 8 I’d say we’ve got ourselves over the proverbial dry meat: Crosswire was able to hitch some of the monitoring device back into functioning order, allowing us to get live feeds into some parts of the garbage, the valley and the swamplands to the south. We’ve already been preying over bandit squads every time we see that the are carrying something nice… haha, the bastards are pissed off outta their minds, and yet, clueless. Just yesterday, the guys took this dragunov sniper rifle from them… according to them crooks, they’ve stole it from some old geezer huntin’ at the Whitetail park. It’s gonna be a nice weapon for me once I get used to shootin’ it. Our dealing with Freedom are going along pretty well, aside some minor problems… like that commander of theirs, Halftrot… guy was all trigger happy while we were culling some snorks, got caught up on his own excitement and got himself too close on those leaping abominations… if weren’t for my boys covering his ass and me pulling that moron outta there, he’d be a goner… I seriously hope that he learned something outta that experience. Diary entry, 6 of 8 Things are going as planned… a few days’ worth of monitoring that underground structure have paid off: now I am aware what the hell that is: an subway station which was filled up with the radioactive junk pulled out by the monarchy… more so, a group of stalker old-timers was able to dig their way inside that station and use it as their own base of operations, unaware that I have a direct link to their prattling and ramblings… it’s a wonder that the bandits haven’t found their base by now yet… but then again, I guess that’s expecting too much from them… besides, they aren’t digging up that particular pile too much, since is the one closest to the Freedom base. I’ve yet to see if their quartermaster, Carmelia, is interested in buying the cords to the stalkers’ lil’ irradiated hole. I suppose I’ll hold into it for now. Attached file: Garbage subway station entrance coordinates. The things I’ve been able to get from this group of stalkers so far: And the PDA showed a photograph: it wasn’t colored, but rather, showcased in different tones of blue… my guess is that’s the way the monitoring device captures images. Three figures were discernible on that photograph, all of them climbing a huge pile of junk: The one on the left was a big earth pony, equipped with the burdening mishmash of both heavy-duty kelvar protection and servomotors that composed the hefty, custom-tailored exoskeleton armor which was produced in some clandestine factory. The pony on the center was probably a unicorn, that or he was either wearing a helmet made for one… he was wearing a SEVA suit: a lightweight bulletproof vest that covered his whole body combined with an integrated close-cycle breathing system and anomaly suppression devices, the suit was produced by specialized institutes outside of the Zone, meant to be sold for the professional, cash-swimming stalker who desired to last longer than a few days. So, as I told, the helmet was especially made for a unicorn: the dome helmet had an opening for the horn, where some sort of protective, green-colored fabric, coated it. Like some sort of horn condom… while it probably wasn’t as protective as the rest of the curtain helmet, it allowed the use of magic while providing some degree of protection. The last stalker on the picture was another unicorn, though this one was wearing just a worn trenchcoat, his fur sprouting from the coat’ holes. The PDA captioned the picture: From the left to the right: Mimiric, the muscle, Searinor, the big kahuna and Blurweaver, the group’s spellcaster. From what I was able to dig from their conversations, they’re been around the Zone for a while now, running odd jobs for folks and running incursions to the depths of the Zone, I’ve got to keep my eyes open at them. Diary entry, 7 of 8 Our cams picked out something neat: a pile of oldworld potential shiny-thingies, just lying around on the swamplands: a derelict weather factory which has crashed many, many years ago, and probably brimming with interesting stuff inside, just waiting for us… the stalkers say its cursed and other load of bullshit about it… they just wanna hog the treasures for themselves, I know that. It’s most likely just filled with regular mutant chumps, more than enough to chow down those wimps who just made it from the Cordon, not a threat to REAL stallions who got enough brass in their balls to stick around into the Zone for a while, like us. I’ll lead myself a group of scouts tomorrow, to decide if the site’ exploration is worth it or not. Diary entry, 8 of 8 Wading through my previous entries had shown me… how blind I was, and how everything is so clear now. Filling my life with futile pursuits… nothing of that matter to me anymore, it’s like everything had been a previous life of mine, ever since I’ve found out the truth. Celestia… she lives. I saw her, I saw our holy ruler… I saw her with those old, tired eyes of mine. And I believed… she picked me, me and two others who were deemed worthy enough… the others weren’t in such an enlightened state to withstand her vision, and so, were cast into terrible madness, followed by tremendous pain… of which, the swift veil of death was a relief. But this shouldn’t be a day for mourning, oh no, for Celestia has spoken into my heart and into the heart of those who upheld her call much as well. She asked me to lead a pilgrimage to her… to Canterlot, so I may properly glorify our goddess. Most of my former associates thought I was off my rocker when I returned from the trip… from the trip which has purveyed all illusions I had about life so far. It’s understandable. They weren’t there, they didn’t saw her… if they could only have seen what I saw and been where I was… in due time, they will be converted from such petty ignorance. When I spoke my mind about going past the brain scorcher, only my two friends, the ones which were there and were fervent believers such as me, wished to accompany me. The rest of them… scared… by old legends, fairy tales, slander and lies…all of them, nothing but rats! Cowards! True faith leaves no room for fear! Nor such lowly emotion befits a true believer! I’m leaving this diary and all the traces of my past life behind, for posteriority… so all may know the truth and follow me into the one true path. I’m also leaving my rifle behind, it’s no use to me where I’m going, only my Black Bronco will suffice fending off those pesky creatures who live in her shade. It’s a shame I have to leave my boys, but, as I came to know, there are more important things in life… I put the PDA away and packed it along with the cash and dumped both things into my bags. Sure that those entries pointed the way to me, but in turn… I wonder, what happened at the derelict weather factory with the merc to change his attitude so much? And why only three ponies survived that incursion, what happened to the rest of his scouting party? Why do I even care? It’s not my business if a stalker digs religious crap and goes on a suicidal trip… I turned myself to lift up and leave, but I saw something else inside that footlocker… Crumpled inside a corner, a photograph, a colored one… It depicted six mares, all of them with various lively fur colors and two of each race: unicorn, pegasus and earth pony. I’ve never seen those gals before… As I turned the photography, I could make out something written on the back: elements of harmony, monarchy’s last, best hope of salvation. And a monarchy seal after that sentence. Hmm… “So, you know any of those?” The earth pony asked me. “No idea. You have any clue, Moonbreeze?” “Well… I’ve read a bit about the elements of harmony…” She started. “But I must say… the books weren’t very clear about the hosts of such elements after Celestia’ and Luna wielded them into battle.” “And what do the elements of harmony do?” I questioned. “According to the legends, they are some sort of magical-reality-harmonic-stabilization-device… in essence; they pretty much make the things back the way they were into a peaceful state…” She voiced dreamily. “Of course, that’s just a foal naptime history nowadays, the elements have been long since lost and the hosts’ identity are shrouded in mystery… they are probably dead, having met their demise before they could pass on the elements to a new set of hosts.” “Not much we can do for them, huh…” I spoke while taking a second glance to the photograph. I felt like that photograph was a piece of some puzzle… a puzzle which I wasn’t building, but somepony else was… I guess I shouldn’t leave it just lying around, it could just mean something important. With that in mind, I stored the photograph into my bag. “I figure it’s nothing important, just echoes of the past that hold little to no effect in our current situation.” I voiced to the girls. After all, now that the mess is done, the elements don’t matter anymore. “Yeah, you must be right…” The redhead spoke in turn. “Now that we’ve got that intel of yours, we can go home now… or rather, the closest thing from that…” And she began to pick her stuff. “By the way, you look terrible… you should take it easy for a while…” “I second that… we shouldn’t stick around now that we found what we’ve came looking for.” The armored one voiced afterwards. “Then lead on, ladies… I’ll be there in a minute, just lemme pick my gear…” After I grabbed whenever was left of my stuff, I trotted after the girls. Each move was a fucking torture, sore wounds and ugly scratches marred my complexion, reminding me that being alive on the Zone meant either withstanding massive pain or keeping off the worst kind of scum, animal or pony, beneath the barrel of a gun. It was no way to live… Chances are that I’m not smelling like a bucket of roses either… more like “Eau of weathered hound” or something along that line… “…I told you we could pull it over.” I caught a glimpse of Lielle’s conversation with Moonbreeze “Hardly…” Moonbreeze replied. “Tell about borderline success…” And so, we trotted past the vault, returning the way back into the surface… Now it was strangely silent, with the rain having stopped and everything… surely by now, the bandits would have returned from… “Hey guys, that isn’t good for us…” Moonbreeze spoke, pointing to the nightly sky. I turned to see what she was pointing to… oh dear Celestia… RUTHARUTHARUTHARUTHARUTHARUTHARUTHARUTHA A REA chopper… just what we need now, a bunch of soldier boys with orders to shoot everything down. “Cut the lights off!” I’ve heard the redhead shouting over the engine’s cacophony. We needed to get out of there before they fly close enough to nail the entire compound with machinegun fire. Even without the lights, we could clearly make out the helicopter’s bright silhouette… they were flashing the valley with the machine’s searchlight…, searching for bandits to dispose of. My guess is that the chopper was the reason because the bandits haven’t made it back yet… too damn afraid or dead already “We have to scram before those morons make it to our position…” She spoke again. “Just follow my voice, you two… I’ll use the NVG to guide us through the other exit.” “Alright… just be quick about it.” I replied, my heart beating like crazy… we’ve came so far… to ruin everything now was unthinkable of. So, Moonbreeze and I trotted behind Lielle, making our best to avoid unnecessary noises and shifting our eyes every now and then to check on the chopper’s position. We couldn’t afford to engage in combat, in my current condition, even a little filly could smack me. “Look sharp, this is the place where we found ya, Boshan…” The redhead spoke. “Just a few more meters to the east and...” The place they’ve found me… wait a second. “Girls, just stop a little… I gotta catch something.” “Not again…” The huntress’ displeasure could be noticed. “Aren’t you aware they are this close to pumping us with enough lead to build a foundry?” “Shaddap and help me out here…” I hoarsely spoke. “This is important… now where did he land…? Ah there’s our winner…” Typhoon’s body, what else? I trotted to it and begun to strip him out of his armor. I needed it, since mine couldn’t stop even BB rounds… “We have no time for that… you can always buy a new one…” She insisted on dissuading me from the whole thing… Moonbreeze’s silk voice also resonated through the nightly air “Listen to her, the REA is gonna catch up unless we get out…” “Just a few more minutes…” I mumbled as I roughly stripped Typhoon’s kelvar vest… he was dead already, it doesn’t matter to him. I should have done this before… At this point, the machinegun of the REA’s flying contraption begun to roar… BRATTTATATATATATATATATATTTTBRATATATTATATATTATBRATRTARTARTRATRTABRATATATATATATABRATATATATAT They were indiscriminately firing against the compound… they oughta hit something after a while. Thankfully, I was able to relieve the last strap of the armor, stuffing it along with the gasmask into my bag… I’ll retrofit it when we have enough time to. I just tossed my old rags over Typhoon’s yellow fur and shouted to the girls to trot on. “And where we should go to?” Moonbreeze questioned as we trotted through the eastern gate, exiting the compound. “They likely got the exits covered.” “You can bet on that.” The redhead smugly remarked. “Those REA thugs don’t do half-assed jobs.” “We’d best go south until we hit the Cordon…” was my suggestion. “I mean, they can’t just have every exit covered. Sides’ they are after the bandits.” After that, we spent a long way trotting to the south: Lielle was leading the group, flinging bolts for oncoming anomalies and scaring off the occasional mutants. I was right behind, using the PDA to check if we were on the right route, while Moonbreeze covered the rearguard. Once we were within a distance, I dared a last glance into the bandits’ base. The chopper was now unleashing rockets round’ the area. More countless minutes trotting through muddy terrain into the night (we purposely avoided the road, as not to attract unwanted attention) We saw a small group of lights fading into the horizon: flashlights. They belonged to a number of ponies who inhabited another set of abandoned buildings: a degraded real estate, possibly a farmhouse. “It’s no use hiding.” The blue pony whispered to us. “They probably saw us already, no point on denying we’re here.” And she turned her own flashlight on. Moonbreeze and I quickly followed on the gesture. “Er… do you think it’s a good idea to speak to them?” Moonbreeze’s voice was of doubt. “I mean, how can we be sure they aren’t bandits or something?” “We have no choice.” Was my short answer. “If we trot away, they might take it the wrong way, besides… they can’t be worse that the REA.” As we approached the farmhouse , a dilapidated wall came into vision. Lying over it, a stallion waved to us. A loner… “Howdy ho, fellow stalkers…” He cheerfully greeted as we trotted within earshot. “You three picked up a terrible night to be wandering around… the REA is pounding the fuck out of the bandits and just about anypony they can find around who isn’t wearing army fatigues.” “Yes, we just saw that…”I spoke to him. “Any chance we can spend the rest of the night with you guys?” “Absolutely.” The loner grinned and pointed towards the farmhouse. “Just make yourself at home… we stalkers need to stick together, look for each other, you know… it’s the only way we can stand up to those army chumps and other retards running amok through the Zone… just remember to return the favor to a fellow stalker if the need ever arises…” “Sure will…” I couldn’t control myself of contentment. “Thanks buddy, we owe ya… we owe ya big time.” After thanking the guard a few more times than it was necessary, we strolled inside the large farmhouse. The main floor consisted only of a large communal room… the stalkers tore the farmhouse’ rooms walls apart to create one large cozy room., while the second floor still kept its walls, being used as usual dorms for those too tired or who weren’t in the mood to chill by the campfire. Said campfire had several stalkers gathered around it, occupying themselves on cleaning their guns, reading their PDAs, playing the guitar, sharing dirty jokes, trading, or stuffing themselves. I simply sat around the campfire, letting my saddlebag aside and allowing the fire to warm my bones, allowing me to forget this night events. I dug my saddlebag for a can of oatmeal and begun chewing on it. Lielle sat by my side, while Moonbreeze found herself a corner a bit far from the campfire… I guess she couldn’t feel the warmth of it, or wasn’t exactly pleased by the place’s patrons. “Those are some ugly wounds you got there, sonny…” I raised my eyes to see who spoke to me, my gaze meeting a set of tired black eyes and a kind smile, wrapped on a face under a battered purple hood. My interlocutor was a respectable donkey, one carrying one of those precision frames and an equally old rifle. Both the weapon and his owner looked like they had seen their share of action back then. “Uh-huh…” I mumbled back, retrieving Typhoon’s armor for my pack. “You get quite a load of these fighting those blasted mutants… even more so those rabbits…” I voiced, stopping momentarily to cut away the bandit patch from the armor and toss it into the campfire. “Do you say… rabbits?” The old one held his head thoughtfully. “They shouldn’t be around these parts…” “You know’em?” I asked, attempting to sew over some bullet holes. “I fought those damned things back in the day… terrorbunnies are quite the pesky bunch… and might I just say, it looks like you fought off a whole pack of them.” “You got that right, old timer…” And I pointed to my friends. “Me and my pals cleared up their lair just a while ago, couldn’t say it was exactly pleasing…” The old donkey lazily scratched his back. “That’s a good thing… world is better off without those spawns of tartarus roaming around. Kinda makes me miss the times they were just around Whitetail and region…” “Why that has changed?” I asked. “Why’d they leave their hunting area and move off closer to the borders of the Zone?” “Ah, that’s just it, stalker…” He answered. “The brain scorcher, that’s what happened… in those old good times, you could just walk around it through Whitetail, only backing off when you started to feel lightheaded and all. Yet, for some reason, the field of that thing…it grew. It engulfed the whole area, nopony goes in, nopony goes out. Since then, without stalkers to provide a steady flow of food, the terrorbunnies simply moved to whenever the food is, that is, toward us.” “You seem to know quite a load about them, old one…” “Had a few run-ins with them during my time…” He voiced, then pulled off his hood, revealing his wrinkled complexion. His right ear had a visible wound in the exact shape of a mouth’s arcade, like something had bitten it off. “As you see, I have no love for them… the bastards took my ear, but I was able to avenge my loss.” He proudly spoke. “If weren’t for my trusty ol’ Swagloader here, I’d be a stinkin’ corpse.” And he showed us his special weapon, an amazing specimen of a bolt-action rifle… “You see, my friend… they just don’t make these anymore.” The donkey remarked. “It might not be as modifiable or quick-firing as the fancy rifles you kids got these days, but this weapon… it packs quite the punch, and you can put your life on it, trust it like a brother, and also, it can withstand a whole lot of things too, I had this thing for quite a while now and I wouldn’t exchange it for any sum of money on this world… “ I simply continued to admire the weapon’s interesting craftspony beauty, the rough dark wooden furnishing, the scratched barrel… that rifle had quite an appeal to the eye which you can’t really describe into words… “But I bore you, don’t I?” The veteran’s voice brought me back from my trance. “Oh no, I’m just teasing you…” He smiled warmly, seeing my attempts to apologize. “Here, youngster… have a cold one on me for clearing out that terrorbunny den.” And the donkey stuffed a bottle of vodka into my hooves… that was the kindest gesture I ever witnessed, what a nice guy! “Enjoy, it’s the good stuff…” And he let out a yawn. “Now if you kids don’t mind, I’ve got to rest these old bones of mine… see you around.” My eyes followed the old donkey as he climbed the stairs towards the upper floor. I slowly opened the bottle of booze, enjoying the heavenly aroma and experiencing every second of bliss from the experience. As I spilled the cold, yet throat-burning liquid down my throat, every mundane pain was rapidly dimmed into nothingness. That was probably the only way to endure life on the Zone. I turned around to check on my companions, Moonbreeze was paying attention on the buzz going around and the redhead was stuffing herself. After she finished her can of hay, she was ready to devour a generous loaf of bread… “I wouldn’t eat that if I were you…” A voice soared from the group of stalker The mare found herself looking dumbly at the group of stalkers. “Eat what? Bread?” She questioned. “I intend to, I’m starving around here…” “Don’t tell me…” And a loner set himself apart from the group, a skinny, starkly orange-furred earth pony with mischievous eyes. “You’ve never heard about…” And he paused. “The “bread”?” “Bread, this, you say?” And the mare pointed to her loaf of bread. “I don’t see what is so special about it, being made out of flour, water…” “Of course you don’t know…” The shabby loner continued. “That some bread may have an additional ingredient… an ingredient which the likes of aren’t so, well, edible…” “Just what is this ingredient?” The huntress asked. “I’ve never heard of such thing… inedible bread…” “Oh nevermind… you’re probably safe with it… just forget that I’ve ever said anything…” And he slowly started to walk back to his place… “Wait!” The mare voiced. “Tell me about it, I wanna know more!” For a second, the loner’s face was embezzled with a sly grin… no doubt that his fish just pulled the bait. “You see…” He began. “There is bread… and there are “Bread” He said while making air quotes at the second mention of the word. “A long time ago, this city some kilometers to the north… Ponyville, it was a blossoming metropolis: filled with people and all that crud you read in history books… so, when the accident happened, everypony just abandoned their activities on the fly as their heard the sirens, the bakery included… the bakers left the dough as they escaped the city… it had been left sitting there for Celestia knows how long and…” “Eh crowbar, spreading your stupid fairy tales as usual, I see…“ Somepony at the back yelled. “Why don’t you go do something usef…” At that point, the other loners shushed to the one interrupting Crowbar’s tale, making him shut his muzzle… they were clearly interested on crowbar’s history. “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, the dough was left sitting on the bakery, being left to withstand the elements of nature and the first raw wave of biomagical waste that encased the Zone… what was the first interlopers’ surprise as they found the dough still relatively intact… somehow, the dough caught enough radioactivity to change its essence, being able to grow like a living being for years, without getting bad or stale… stalkers say it was able to take over the whole bakery in a matter of a decade, not only that, it evolved… mutated to adapt to the Zone… they say that it used its scent to attract small animals, and when they were busy chewing onto the dough’s mass, it would engulf them, choking the creatures and using the nutrients on their corpses to grow even bigger, it begun to overwhelm the bakery, grow past it, consuming every bit of flora or fauna that it found in its way… it grew so big that it begun to detach little portions of itself, as to send its excess to grow by itself on other buildings…” “And so, why isn’t Ponyville a big mass of raw dough today?” The huntress asked. “I tell you, we aren’t facing a bread-clysm nowadays thanks to the efforts of a valiant group of stalkers… having found the bakery being taken by a huge, bubbly mass of dough complete with an fine-looking crust, they had no doubts of what to do with it: burn the whole damn thing to the ground. They played safe, you know… they went on eradicating any pockets they could find of the “bread”-thing, not knowing if it was dangerous or not… the damn baked goods could be sending maddening mental waves or poisoning them by osmosis for all they knew…so, anyway, the tale tells that little loaves of the “bread” survived, not being caught by the overzealous stalkers that took down the original entity… without it to guide them, they were left to a life of solitude, hunting whenever prey they could attract.” Crowbar stopped, eyeing his audience… stalkers were digging each word that he spoke. “But this isn’t the end… someday, careless stalkers found loaves of the “bread” and passed them on, or even worse, ate them… this is why one shouldn’t eat bread of unknown precedence, even better, not eat bread at all… “ “And…” The mare looked at his loaf with newfound fear. “What did happen to the ones which ate the “bread”?” “Ah, I’m glad you asked…” Crowbar happily answered. “I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who was friends with another guy, a loner whose brother ate a seemingly harmless loaf of bread… told me that said stalker frequently complained about tummy aches, and around a week later, was having trouble breathing… on another week, he was found dead, wheat sprouting from his mouth…” “So, what you mean is that…” “The “bread” grew within the stalker’s stomach… once he consumed it, the “bread” attached itself to the stomach wall, feeding with whenever the stalker ate and fermenting itself while it digested the food… it sprouted a mutated wheat plant, which was able to live inside the stalker’s stomach, even though the lack of light there… it grew towards his trachea, absorbing some of the oxygen produced by the stalker’ lungs, ergo his difficulty to breath… eventually, the sheer size of the thing ended up choking its host, whose carcass was a fertile ground for the plant to take over… “I’m pretty sure that isn’t even remotely biologically possible…” Moonbreeze spoke from her corner. “Do you happen to have a master in biology, canned peach?” Crowbar grinned to her, taking Moonbreeze’s continued silence as a negative answer. “Believe whenever you want, the last guy who thought that is seven feet under nowadays…” “You know…” The redhead eyed her snack with distrust. “I’m not really THAT hungry anymore…” I saw a smile on the corner of Crowbar’s mouth when the mare carelessly tossed the baked good through a window. He waited good five minutes before exempting himself from our presence, saying he was going for a nightly trot… no doubt that he was going to recover the bread and gobble it by himself. I did nothing to stop him from doing so. Technically, he did nothing wrong, and his tale was entertaining enough. He quite deserved the treat… Aside from that little “incident”, the rest of the evening was pleasant, we laughed together and shared storied by the fire… As I enjoyed the loners’ company, a rather distinct fuzzy feeling begun to grow into across my chest… and it wasn’t from the vodka, at least, not all of it… Could that be… friendship? ==========================[><]======================== Greyhoof casually eyed the gruesome display of gore that lay near his hooves, corpses from both the REA forces and his bandits. The pegasus felt nothing as his gaze pierced through the deceased beings. To him, underlings were nothing but pieces of a chess games, only useful to the extent that the player uses them, and ultimately, expendable. Still, he was a tad disappointed to see to how much extent his thugs sucked. Already being informed of who were the culprit of such carnage, the cold-hearted equine spat on the ground. The loner… he really came out of his way to push Greyhoof’s buttons. “Whistlebone, enough loafing ‘round. Present me the current situation.” He voiced towards his hoof-radio. A few moments later, his right-hoof exited the main hangar and presented himself to Greyhoof. “Most of our boys have been wiped out, as you know already…” And he pondered carefully on what to say next. “Those two-sided loners, with another unidentified equine which aided them… but still, we have a few survivors, enough to fend off the deployed REA squadron.” “I’ve heard there was a chopper going around…” Greyhoof remarked as he directed a sideways glance to the damaged structures… some parts of it still presented a coat of ash, result of being bombarded by rockets. “What was made of it?” “It went through an airbound anomalous pocket, a burner…” Whistlebone answered. “The chopper caught in flames and the crew had to forcibly maneuver it downside... we have no idea if they made it alive.” “I see… and what about Typhoon?” “He is over there.” And Whistlebone pointed out to a pile of corpses. “What is left of him, anyway… we are gonna take a while to clean up this mess and…” But Greyhoof wasn’t listening to him; instead, he approached to check his former overseer. Undoubtedly, it was Typhoon… however, with multiple bullet wounds and broken legs, also, pretty much dead. The bandit lord just shook his head negatively… another failure, massive failure… he wondered why his underlings kept screwing thing s over… “Stupid…” He whispered to the lifeless body. “Er boss…” Whistlebone spoke softly. “I don’t thing he is gonna listen to you…” “Stupid!” Greyhoof shouted, bucking the body with his heavy exoskeleton-clad hooves. “Worthless!” He cussed while breaking Typhoon’s ribs. “COCKSUCKER!” The stallion yelled as he unleashed another heavy blow to the corpse, the cacophony of bones being broken sounding like music to his ears. “So, should we bury them or…?” “Burying? That’s doing too much for these good-for-nothing fuckfags…” Greyhoof’s voice was filled with spite. “Leave em’ to feed the dogs once we set up camp, don’t forget to empty their pockets before…” Greyhoof entered the compound as Whistlebone recalled their forces to occupy the area. He did too much to secure this area, he couldn’t afford to simply just let it go… After a while trotting through the underground vault’ empty corridors, Whistlebone joined the pegasus again. “A beauty, isn’t it?” The bandit lord spoke. “When we set up some decoration, sweep the place a bit and get some air freshener around here, it will almost be like our old home.” “Speaking about that…why’d we leave it? Boss, why leave the garbage when there was still so much to milk there?” “Its about time we leave Freedom and Duty to suck each other’ cocks without we standing between them” Greyhoof answered in turn. “Hmm, these loners really were through in rooting this place out of terrorbunnies…” And he pointed to the mutant corpses scattered around. “Yes, most fortunate to our ends…also, there’s still an enclosed door…” “You mean that one by the flag?” And Whistlebone nodded in response. Without saying anything, Greyhoof trotted back to the flag room. “Isn’t that a terminal?” He asked. “Perhaps, just perhaps…” And Greyhoof searched his bag, hoping that he still hadn’t discarded it… He finally came up with a keycard, the same that one of Typhoon’s scouts had delivered to him along with the items they claimed from the facility. “Just show me what you’re hidin’…” The bandit lord softly whispered as he slit the card toward the terminal. The rectangular steel vault door begun whirring and creaking until it was fully opened… As Greyhoof and Whistlebone looked inside the unlocked room, they were aghast with surprise by what they just found… Weapons, many, many weapons… top-notch weaponry and armor… enough to field a small army. Quite likely the lootroom-slash-armory-slash-arsenal of the mercs… “Jackpot.” The bandit said, unable to conceal his glee. “With these… I might be able to build a sizeable force, get some respect ‘round these parts and pound them damn prattling loners into oblivion! Perhaps even make our way towards the center of the Zone…” “Again with that plan, boss?” Was Whistlebone’s dispassionate reply. “I thought we had…” “BOSS, BOSS!” An underling scampered into the room, stopping right in front of the bandit lord and his right hoof. “Pipe down, kid…”Greyhoof voiced as he directed to the lowly bandit. “What’s the ruckus all about?” “The REA, boss! We picked up an SOS distress signal coming from them, looks like some of the soldiers had survived the helicopter crash, they are relaying an SOS message, saying that they have stumbled upon a snork in the woods…” The underling simply looked expectantly to his bosses as he awaited for an answer. Whistlebone simply grinned malignantly, while Greyhoof had the very same smile under his tactical helmet and gasmask. “Then, I believe we should give them the proper help…” The bandit lord finally spoke. “Release two packs of hounds upon them. Today, my doggies feast onto the living!” He boomed, and then broke in laughter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PDA entry: The zone encyclopedia #/filefolder- bestiary #/filenam – Terrorbunny Thanks to documents recovered during a recent stalker incursion, today we know that these creatures are the result of genetic experiments targeted at creating a species of rabbits that weren’t such picky eaters, though, it’s still rather unclear what was on the mind of the one who thought it was a good idea to splice together genetic material from rabbits and piranhas… The terrobunnies were the most successful batch of that particular set of experiments, though, a bit too successful… after breaking free from the facility which gave birth to them, these mutants quickly adapted to the Zone’s harsh conditions. Appropriating themselves of abandoned underground buildings and tunnels to use them as lairs, terrorbunnies plague the northern reaches of the Zone, mostly Everfree, Ponyville and Whitetail, although there’s a crescent rise on sights of these creatures on areas closer to the borders of the \|Zone out of late. They are easily discerned from ordinary bunnies if you make out their teeth and red-furred bellies. Although these mutants are technically omnivore, they have a very visible preference towards meat, combining the most deadly features of the two creatures, as in, the bunnies breeding habits and agility and the piranhas’ viciousness and speed, terrorbunnies make out for prime hunters. They will almost always strike in groups: either as enormous swarms that ferociously defend their lairs and bring much bigger prey down in a wave of onslaught and death, or in hunting packs of three to six individuals, which tend to be opportunistic predators: stealing other creatures’ prey, preying on the weak or sick, stealing food from careless stalkers and such. A single terrorbunny is able to fully consume a live, subdued prey three times his size in the matter of minutes, though they would prefer to bring it down to their lairs and share with the others of their kin, since underfed packs tend to turn to cannibalism. In live combat, they tend to use their razor-edged arcade of serrated teeth, capable of insidiously gaping through flesh without rest at a terrifying pace, using their numeric advantage to swarm the poor prey like a bunch of rabid locusts, turning even more vicious once they pick the scent of blood. The best way to deal with them, as with every other mutant, is picking them from a distance. In the event such approach is impossible, we recommend the use of pistol against them, since such creatures have rather frail bodies which can withstand one or two bullets and due to the fact that a pistol or other weapon with limited dimensions is more easily maneuvered on the very likely scenario that they will overwhelm you. On a small sidenote, some stalkers speak of a special kin of terrorbunny, describing them as “white and larger than your average mutated carnivorous rabbit”. The validity of such claims is yet to be attested. My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic Intellectual propriety belongs to Hasbro All S.T.A.L.K.E.R. installments Intellectual propriety belongs to GSC game world I do not own, neither lay claim to the intellectual properties that this fan-fiction is based on. This work was made entirely for entertainment and appreciation, and should not be distributed for profit This is a My little pony : FiM fan fiction Made by Hoghound.
SilverStomp	795	1	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	The Legend of the Silver Pony	The Story of Silver Stomp, The Legendary Silver Pony.	incomplete	8	2	<p>After Awaking from his dream that has Plagued him ever since he was a Colt, Silver Stomp is called down for breakfast, after breakfast he goes for flying practice and decides to visit Rainbow Dash at her house in Cloudsdale. After meeting up with Dash, They proceed to have a race. But some unknown Force stops Silver Before he is able to finish the race. Falling from High in the sky, Dash Saves Silver and Lands on the ground to safely put him down on the ground Silver awakens to see that he is in a Hospital Bed with Dash by his Side. After Getting up Silver Says to Dash that he had a Vision of what would happen in the future and would have to go try and stop it. The Silver Pony then leaves Cloudsdale and returns home to see that his parents missed him very much, After talking with His parents his Dad said he had to tell him something Important. He Finds out about his ancestor and knows what his destiny must be. Will Silver Stomp be able to save Equestria like his ancestor before him? Find out In this Thrilling Adventure!</p>	everyone	2011-09-25T17:51:33+00:00	2011-09-25T17:51:33+00:00	954	Chapter 1 Legend of the Silver Pony Once upon a time thousands of years ago before Nightmare Moon Was Imprisoned in the Moon there was a War Between the Two Forces that once shared harmony in all the land. The Ponies Faced up against the Evil Denizens of the Underworld to see who would prevail and Rule Equestria for All Eternity. The Ponies were losing the War however and had to fall back and Evacuate most of Equestria. They Had only one Stronghold left and that was the Castle in Canterlot. All of the Ponies had Been evacuated into the castle. The Castle had been put into lock down as the guards Fought to keep the Demons at bay, However some of the Guards were Injured and had to be Treated right away. Once The Injured Guards were healed they were sent back into the fight. When The Guards couldn't fight anymore They fell back to the Castle. However the Gates were not going to hold for much longer. When all seemed lost there was a light shining over the horizon, But it was nothing like the sun, When in the distance a shadow of a Pony came charging towards the the castle gates, this pony seemed to be an Alicorn, a Mix Between a Pegasus and a unicorn. The Silver Pony Charged his horn With magic Unseen by anypony In Equestria. The Magic Overwhelmed the Demons with the Light of the Alicorn's Magic that The Demons vanished as soon as the He got to the gates of the castle. He Yelled out "Alright Everypony, You can come out now, All the demons are gone!" The Guards Looked outside of the castle grounds and were amazed at what the Alicorn had done. All the Demons were gone, And Even reports of the demons being gone all over Equestria too. When The Princess Heard what happend to the Demons and how an Alicorn had Defeated them, She went down to meet the Brave pony and Thank Him for helping out the Ponies of Equestria Defeat the evil menace and Awarded him with the Highest Honor in Equestria, The Golden star of Harmony. Years Later The Silver pony was Invited to the Castle in canterlot for a Special Dinner Celebrating the Sun Celebration after Celestia Had Raised the Sun. However He Never Arrived at the Dinner, When Celestia had Wondered why this was, she sent her Guards to Check up on him, but when the Guards got to the Silver Pony's house he was not inside. He was No where to be found. The Guards searched everywhere in canterlot and everywhere in Equestria. It was like he Disappeared off the face of Equestria.
SilverStomp	795	2	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	The Legend of the Silver Pony	The Story of Silver Stomp, The Legendary Silver Pony.	incomplete	8	2	<p>After Awaking from his dream that has Plagued him ever since he was a Colt, Silver Stomp is called down for breakfast, after breakfast he goes for flying practice and decides to visit Rainbow Dash at her house in Cloudsdale. After meeting up with Dash, They proceed to have a race. But some unknown Force stops Silver Before he is able to finish the race. Falling from High in the sky, Dash Saves Silver and Lands on the ground to safely put him down on the ground Silver awakens to see that he is in a Hospital Bed with Dash by his Side. After Getting up Silver Says to Dash that he had a Vision of what would happen in the future and would have to go try and stop it. The Silver Pony then leaves Cloudsdale and returns home to see that his parents missed him very much, After talking with His parents his Dad said he had to tell him something Important. He Finds out about his ancestor and knows what his destiny must be. Will Silver Stomp be able to save Equestria like his ancestor before him? Find out In this Thrilling Adventure!</p>	everyone	2011-09-14T20:05:02+00:00	2011-09-14T20:05:02+00:00	832	Chapter 2 The Race Waking up from the Dream he had, Silver Stomp Awoke to the sound of birds chirping and the sound of his mother Calling Him down for breakfast. "Okay Mom, I'll Be Down in a Sec." He Yelled getting out of his bed. He went into the bathroom and Looked into the mirror and Saw that he looked like he had just went through a Cake Mixer. He Laughed it off and Brushed his Mane to what he likes his hair to be. Of Course Not to make his Mane look like a Mare's mane he put down the brush and went downstairs. While walking downstairs he could smell the food his mother had made for him and his family. As He walked in He saw his mother and father at the table. "Morning Mom, Morning Dad." Said Silver As he walked into the Dining Room. "Good Morning Son." Said Silver's Mother and Father together in a Cheery Voice. "How did you Sleep last Night?" "I slept okay, I had the Dream Again." "The Dream?" "Yeah you know, The dream I've always had for the last 3 years?" Said Silver, "Yes I remember you don't have to be smart with me young man." Silver then Rolled his Eyes and sat at the table. After Eating His Breakfast he Said To his mother that he would get some flying practice. "Okay But Be Careful I don't want you running into Rainbow Dash like last time Remember? You both Crashed into each other While in the sky!" "Yeah Yeah Yeah I know. It was only yesterday that I crashed into her!". Silver got ready to take off into the air, Spreading his wings he charged up the road and took off into the air flapping his wings and soaring through the sky. As he was going to try to do some tricks he flew over Rainbow Dash's House and Decided to pay her a Visit. As he landed on the cloud of Rainbow Dash's place he knocked on the door. And to his Amazement Rainbow Dash was actually home for once. "Hey Dash." Said Silver. "Oh Hey Silver Stomp, Whats up?" "Oh Nothing much just getting in some flight practice for the day." "You sure you shouldn't be studying for that Magic exam your taking too?" Asked Dash. "Yeah I should, but I Know I'll ace that test!" Dash let out a small giggle, "Well your still the same as always." Said Dash as she walked out of her house. "But enough talking, You wanna race?" "Sure, Why Not, Maybe you can learn to catch up this time." "Ha ha Very Funny." Dash said Sarcastically. "Well are we gonna race or not?" so they agreed that they would race Now.They Headed towards the raceway. "Alright, On your marks, get set, GO!" Before Rainbow Dash Could even take off Silver Stomp was already Far ahead. Dash raced off and caught up with Silver Almost Instantly, They were neck and neck, each flying at the same speed. Near the end of the Race on the last stretch, Silver and Rainbow were doing a nose dive towards the last checkpoint before the Finish Line. But before Silver could finish the race he felt something overcome him. He had not felt this feeling before, Not in his entire life. This feeling was so powerful that he had Blacked out and was falling fast towards the ground. Rainbow Stopped as she watched her friend fall out of the sky. "HOLD ON SILVER, I'M COMING!" Yelled Rainbow as she raced towards her Falling friend. Rainbow when faster then she had ever went before. Silver was almost near the ground before Rainbow Dash caught him. Setting Him on the ground, she checked to see if he was still Alive. He was breathing, But he seemed to be in an Unconscious state. She knew she had to get help and fast. She Rushed back to Cloudsdale to get some help.
SilverStomp	795	3	Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic	The Legend of the Silver Pony	The Story of Silver Stomp, The Legendary Silver Pony.	incomplete	8	2	<p>After Awaking from his dream that has Plagued him ever since he was a Colt, Silver Stomp is called down for breakfast, after breakfast he goes for flying practice and decides to visit Rainbow Dash at her house in Cloudsdale. After meeting up with Dash, They proceed to have a race. But some unknown Force stops Silver Before he is able to finish the race. Falling from High in the sky, Dash Saves Silver and Lands on the ground to safely put him down on the ground Silver awakens to see that he is in a Hospital Bed with Dash by his Side. After Getting up Silver Says to Dash that he had a Vision of what would happen in the future and would have to go try and stop it. The Silver Pony then leaves Cloudsdale and returns home to see that his parents missed him very much, After talking with His parents his Dad said he had to tell him something Important. He Finds out about his ancestor and knows what his destiny must be. Will Silver Stomp be able to save Equestria like his ancestor before him? Find out In this Thrilling Adventure!</p>	everyone	2011-09-25T17:45:12+00:00	2011-09-25T17:45:12+00:00	810	Chapter 3 The Visions Silver Awoken to a Vast black empty. "Where am I?" Silver asked Himself, everything was pitch black and It seemed that he was floating, His wings weren't even moving. Then he heard a voice. "You must save equestria... like your ancestor before you..." The voice seemed to echo in the darkness. "My Ancestor?" Asked Silver to the Mysterious voice. "Why must I save Equestria? There seems nothing to save, Everything is peaceful." "Not everything is Peaceful in Equestria... I will show you what is to come..." The darkness then Turned into a Blinding light. Then he saw it, He saw the future, And everything that would happen to it. Worried for her friend, Rainbow Dash sat along side Silver as She waited for him to wake up. It had been days since he was awake, With Dash never leaving his side. When the nurses told her she could leave if she wanted, She simply replied with a "No, I rather stay." then the nurses left her alone with him. By then the Days turned into weeks. When she thought he wouldn't wake up, Silver opened His Eyes. Dash was amazed when he woke up, She almost jumped for joy when he woke up. Silver Tried to get up, but as he tried to get up his body felt extremely worn out and hurt him every time he tried to move. Of course not being a big filly he delt with the pain. "What...What happened? Where am I?" asked Silver Looking over at Dash. She Told him what happened during their race. "So I just, blacked out?" Asked Silver "Yeah pretty much." "That's never happened to me, ever." Silver thought about what he saw In his vision. "So, Let me get this straight. A Voice was talking to you about what would happen in the future, and this future is going to be bad, right?" Asked Rainbow Dash. "Not Exactly, my Vision showed me fighting off some unknown pony." Said Silver, He felt a little reluctent at first to say that to her, but he soon fought that off and told her what had happened. " I don't want you telling anypony else okay Rainbow?" "I Promise" Said Rainbow Dash. Knowing her Loyalty, Silver nodded. " You are a good friend Rainbow Dash." " And you are too Silver Stomp" The two then started laughing after they said that to each other. Two days later, Silver Returned Home. His parents were so happy to see him. "Silver!" His Mother yelled in awe of her son's Return. She ran up to him and nuzzled him "We were so worried about you." said his mother with tears in her eyes. "I missed you too Mom." "Well are you going to come in or not?" Silver's Mother asked him. Silver let out a small laugh. "Yeah, Yeah I'm coming in" Then he proceeded to go inside and talk with his Parents. "Wait so you had a sort of 'Vision' while you were in the Hospital?" Asked Silver's Dad, "That Pretty much it up." "Hmmm. Well I think it's time I tell you about something." "About what?" Asked Silver. "Something Very Important. Follow Me." Silver wondered what his Dad wanted him to know about. Was it something that had to do with the vision? Was it about something Different? Silver didn't want to ponder the question too much, so He followed his Dad.

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