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canonkiller
|
1127
| 30 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-11-22T21:47:57+00:00
|
2011-11-22T21:47:57+00:00
| 1,328 |
The quill swung easily over the surface of the paper, back and forth, back and forth, with a rhythm that sang of practice and sadness and abandonment. Not that the writer was being abandoned, but that he was doing the abandoning in a cruel twist of fate. Left behind by his mother, and now leaving everything else behind.
Karma had a sick sense of humor.
I wish I could stay. But I can't. I can't put you in any more danger than I already have. Keep moving, keep running, never stop until everything's back to normal. You'll know when the time comes what I mean. Just... stay safe. All of you. And don't wait for me. Never wait for me. I'm not... The quill paused, hovering over the last few words and threatening to drip ink over the clean script. ...I need to explain how hard it it for me to write this. Every part of me screams that I should stay, and protect you, I'm not calling anyone weak, but none of you, no matter how strong, will ever be able to stand a chance against what I will have to face. I will think of you all of the time when I am gone. And I am writing this so you will move on. Do not hope of my return because it will not happen. I'm not coming back.
This time, the quill lifted only for a moment, before scrawling a signature and dropping to the dusty ground. The claw once holding said dropped item gently rolled up the paper, before the holder of both the paper and claw exhaled a soft breath of green flame. The meager light flickered over the rolled paper and floated away on a nonexistent breeze.
There was a sigh, and Obsidian looked up from the burned-out shell of a building. It had started raining, and his energy had been depleted greatly by the long teleportation, but this place, this stone-flooded town, seemingly obliterated by the nearby power of the mountian, and the magical healing energy eminating from that spot had a sheen Obsidian had only seen on his father's strongest spells.
A Godly sheen.
Yes, this place was the last known spot where a being similar to him hed been standing. A Firstborn.
A creature that, even at the best of times, couldn't even begin to challenge him, and instead, feared him.
Kha had grown surrounded by fear, in the devilish things seen in his mind, and did not care about the presence of more. Obsidian, however, was ethically shaken.
Obsidian did not like fear.
Spike jolted upright, some forgein material having decided his throat was extremly comfortable and was clumping in a massive wad in said organ. As he coughed and gagged on the clump, the numb tingle running through his mouth detected magic, something he was used to dealing with when he was young. Of course, the magic Celestia used had been a lot less stubborn.
With a louder cough, the green flame drooled miserably out of his jaws, congealing into an unsealed scroll. Running one claw over his throat to clear it, he examined the letter itself, half-expecting it to begin with 'Dear Twilight Sparkle,'. Sadly, as we readers know, this was not the case.
Spike's pupils grew smaller with every further word, only lifting from the paper to check and see if this was just a joke, if the young draconequus was just kidding, but there was powerful magic around, and not from the delivery or the burning carcass of a town.
Gently rolling the paper back up, Spike sighed and clicked his claws together nervously. Something stirred below him, but he was staring off into the distance, lost in thought. He was snapped out of his thoughts with a sentence of common, friendly words.
"Spike, take a letter."
The elder dragon facetaloned and begrudgingly pulled both a blank scroll and inked quill out of seemingly nowhere, sighing as he crouched to write.
Obsidian sat up against the shell of the house, waiting for dawn of some sort. His tail was wrapped around his feet, and he had pulled his knees up to his chest. His wings were folded neatly at his sides, and his hands locked in front of his legs and held them in place.
He couldn't rock. It was not the way he was sitting, but Kha, mentally embarrassed at his host, had disabled all further non-vital motor functions. And the draconequus hadn't even noticed, just continued to stare into space and breathe slightly faster than usual.
Kha sighed again, huffing leftover magic smoke from his host's mouth, and waking him up from his stupor.
"Hm?" His eyes brightened, and he glanced around, moving his head and everything. "What do you want?"
Needed to make sure you were still alive.
"Ha ha." Obsidian growled, releasing his numb grip and streching his stiff legs. "How long was I sitting like that?"
There was a psychic shrug. I don't exist in time, remember? And whatever you were staring at, I didn't want to disturb you from.
"Well, you disturbed me. Ugh, my head hurts." He rubbed his forehead with his paw. "Did I blink at all?"
No, I disabled that. You didn't need to blink to live.
"It sure helps!" Obsidian shouted, before instantly regretting the soundwave hitting his ears. "Dear sweet Equestria that hurts." He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the side of his head with his hands. "Ugh."
I feel magic.
"We're surrounded by it, idiot." Obsidian winced, opening one eye. "Oh. That." He swung a claw, hooking the floating green ball of flame and congealing it in his palm. "I don't want to reeeeaaaaad." He whined.
Fine. I'll read it. Kha huffed. Obsidian felt the lack of control resume, and the pain in his head subsided. The new being unrolled the still-flickering scroll. After scanning a few lines, the being tore his eyes away and rolled it back up, mentally turning to Obsidian. "I kinda think you should be reading this, not me."
"Why? It's just from Spike." Obsidian realized he was in control again.
There's a second scroll, magickally affixed. It was added after the initial sending. Ever heard of email? Where the newer message shows up first?
"I understand the message part. What's an email?"
Forget I said that. It's not from your omniverse.
"Ah." Obsidian shook his hands a few times to make sure there were no numb muscles, and slowly opened the double scroll. Just as Kha had said, there was another sheet in front, smaller than Spike's and with much looser writing.
Dear Obsidian...
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 31 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-11-23T23:10:01+00:00
|
2011-11-23T23:10:01+00:00
| 1,161 |
Obsidian finally got up from where he was sitting, tears still streaming down his face as he crumpled the smaller of the two scrolls in his claw.
What about the other... the other scroll? The insistent voice, although being silent for a long time, always returned. I know it has much less value to you, but I believe it is worth reading as well.
"It was a decoy. I know Sunrise's powers. She was... is... fully capable of intercepting the sent message before it came. She would read it, find Spike, read my message, write her own and send it along, secretly. I have full assurance that the message she sent wasn't read by anyone else. Just...us..."
No. Kha insisted. I do not know what other interaction you have had with overnatural beings, but I am not like them. I have not looked at that paper other than the first accidental lines, and I do not intend to read more. That was between you and Sunrise, and I believe you deserve to keep it that way.
"Oh... thank you." Obsidian wiped the tears from his cheeks, standing up and taking a few deep breaths. Tilting his chin up and pushing out his chest to look stronger, it was all he could do to keep from crying again.
Just read the other scroll. Is it not worth reading how the rest of the ponies feel?
"Nah, he wouldn't have woken anyone else up. But Twilight's magic is attuned to messaging, and she would have found it and told him to write a reply. Being that he has scribe training and all."
Go on, read it. Go on go on go on.
"You sound like an overexcited foal! Fine, I'll read it." He could feel Kha's concious huddled playfully in the front of his mind, almost giggling with excitement. "Anticipating much?"
OPEN IT!!
Obsidian laughed and unrolled it, scanning over the words. "Oh, Twilight must have told him what to write."
Obsidian,
I know you must be having conflicting emotions about all this. All of this...well, everything. Spike, did you write that? Spike! The pause and everything? Stop writing! Ugh, you got sarcastic in your old age. Fine, whatever,
I heard a quote once, 'It's a cruel and random world, but the chaos is all so beautiful.' I thought it applied to you. Good luck, Obsidian. Good luck with everything. If all else fails, I'll welcome you back with open arms. We all will.
You don't have to be a worldsaver to be loved.
~Twilight Sparkle
(and her ever-present and loyal dragon scribe, who is awesomely awesome and extremely handsome, Spike.)
You did not just write that!
"Well?"
I LIKE PONYVILLE PONIES! AND DRAGONS!
Obsidian laughed at his mental friend and realized that not only had his breathing steadied, but that he felt happy. Happy.
Running his paws along the ash-caked wall, Obsidian cheered and pranced outside. Happy.
Sunrise pouted as Twilight hooked her by her tail and swung her onto her back. "It takes practice, but your father was much harder to catch."
The yellow dragonness climbed up Twilight's mane, setting her chin gently on the mare's forehead. "Why do I have to stay?"
The Unicorn paused, one hoof in the air, and for a second Sunrise thought she had broken her. "Um, Twilight? You okay?"
"SpikekeepgoingaheadIneedtotalktoSunrise."
"H'okay, whatever." The large dragon picked up speed until he was jogging, bouncing ahead to the front of the group.
Twilight began walking again, albeit much slower. "Look, when I was a filly,"
"Not again."
"Oh, be queit and listen to your elder. Fine, I'll shorten it. When I was little, and the Element of Magic was at it's most active, there were a lot of dangerous things around Equestria."
"What does this have to do with me?"
Twilight continued without listening. "There was Nightmare Moon, when, against whatever Celestia had said about my safety, I went after her. With five other ponies, we found and rediscovered the Elements. And unknown to anyone, we received the memories of all the previous Bearers."
"Again, what does this have to do with me?"
"And now, I'm going to pass the Element on to you. Sunrise." She looked back over her shoulder, grinning in a slightly disturbing way. "May the wind speed your wings, and the stars heed your calls. Although there is no material object I can give you, I want you to have the Element." It will come when you need it.
Checking to make sure everypony had moved on, Twilight slid Sunrise off of her head and waited for her to scarmble onto her hind legs. Twilight's horn lit, and for a few brief moments, a spectral silhoette of a crown graced her forehead in varying hues of violet, before she touched the tip of her magic force to Sunrise's head.
The light grew brighter and darker at the same time, as it simmered to a purple hue and lit the surrounding area. Sunrise tried to close her eyes, but they were fixed open, and Twilight's as well.
It went dark again, suddenly, and both creatures stumbled back. Twilight looked worn from the ordeal, while Sunrise was glowing. Literally.
Her scales were edged in a mystical purple fire, while the once-red crests along her head, cheeks and tail had morphed into a pale lilac color. When she opened her eyes, or at least focused them, the once-pink irises had taken on the color Twilight's used to be, and while the slitted pupils remained the same, their color had turned purple as well, darker than that of the iris. Her once-yellow scales had not turned purple, for overuse of the colour, and instead an orange-pink. The skin on her wings had only changed breifly from scarlet, and were a deep orange. The thicker scales on her belly were a deep blue.
Twilight laughed. "Me and my friends were born into the Elements, there was nopony to pass them down to us... I never knew your color changed."
"Think of how Tigerjay could look!" The now-violet dragonness giggled. "All pink!"
"I don't know about that." Twilight added. "We've been using the Elements without Pinkie and Fluttershy, but they haven't done anything major since we split up..." Her pupils shrank. "Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash!" She exclaimed.
"Have you gone off your rocker?"
"No! I figured out what's going on! IT'S PINKIE PIE AND FLUTTERSHY! That's what's been missing! That's why we can't do anything big with the Elements! Like Spike activated the Elements before with Discord, but it wasn't strong enough!"
"I am not understanding."
Twilight turned to Sunrise, grinning. "No, you go find Obsidian. You should still be able to tap into his teleport. I have to go find Kindness and Laughter."
"I've never done magic before!"
"You're Element has. Trust it, and you'll be fine. Separate your future from our past. Good luck."
Twilight teleported away, leaving a decidely smaller flash of light than normal, and left Sunrise alone.
A forgien feeling ran through her scales. Magic. Ancient magic. With a brief smile, she reached out to Obsidian's magic, and burrowed into it. following his path.
"Good luck to you too."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 32 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-11-25T01:00:11+00:00
|
2011-11-25T01:00:11+00:00
| 1,264 |
"I've been waiting long enough for you to show your face."
"Ha ha." The Alicorn almost-growled. "You're Kha, and I know it."
Don't take him up on any bets. Kha warned.
NOT a good time for random comments. "I am, surprisingly, fully aware of this."
"I bet you don't know what he's done in the past." Corona snickered. "Fifty bits an I'll say what he hasn't told you."
"No thanks."
The vibrant red Firstborn laughed. "You just as penny-pinching as I am?"
"I have no money."
"You came to talk to me without any cash on you? I could probably sell some of your fur, or feathers... ah, those claws look good for letter openers..."
"Quit it! I don't sell my body!" Obsidian emitted a sudden blush as Kha snickered away in his mind. "Parts to weirdos!" He added.
That didn't help
Shut up.
The numb feeling quickly filled his limbs and head. Hey! Stop it!
Relax, I need to talk buisiness.
"Corona, I can give you as much gold as you could ever have if you help us."
"The knucklehead already said he didn't have money."
"I do." Kha waved Obsidian's paw, materilizing a handful of small golden coins. A few fell to the ground, and Corona swept them closer with his magic, drooling slightly. "Ah ah ah. No touching." The entity hissed, lifting them back into his hand.
"What do you want me to do? I'll do anything!"
"Tell me where Maris is, and forget I was ever here. In that order, and when I ask you."
"Maris is in the southern seas! On the Griffon side!"
Wow, he's not very smart.
"Good. The second I teleport, forget I was ever here, or this gold will turn to dust and ashes. Understood?"
"Yesyesyes!"
Kha stepped back from Corona, dropping his pawful of golden coins. He stepped into the previous teleport and altered the strands of magic inside so his travel didn't end at this place. Without a word, he vanished in the altered magic, without noticing the other presence sharing his newly changed route.
How did you know that?
Not hard. Your friends are Magic, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty and Laughter, as well as the Seventh, which I am not permitted to tell you. The Firstborn are Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Pride, Envy and Anger. Two of these belong to something and nothing, as you will soon determine which. Corona is Greed, and has been satisfied. All we need to do is settle the others. Each Harmony is affixed to a Cacophony. As long as the Harmony has a Bearer, the Cacophony can be settled. Make note of our first match: Greed to Generosity.
And why do they need to be 'settled'?
It is one of the conditions for my return.
Ah.
The pink earth pony sank to the ground, clutching a small object in her hooves. Shivering against the cold of the wind rushing through the alley, she pressed up against the wall, trying to hold back tears that would only be a waste of fluid. None of the ponies trotting by saw her, and if they did, they just turned their muzzles up in disgust and continued on. None had stopped, ever. None ever would.
It wasn't Canterlot, some little city in the middle of nowhere, Forelockington or some stupid name.
But it was somewhere where nopony would know her name, would recognize her face.
She curled up tighter, her coat dull and her mane straight. Holding the item in her hooves where she could see it, she hiccuped back another sob.
The photograph was old, but hadn't faded. Six ponies, each a different pastel color, looking happy an free and young despite the confines of the brown frame. It must have been taken by someone else... probably Spike or Bonbon or something.
Her friends.
Pinkie hid the photo back in her mane and stood up.
There was no use in hiding any longer. She needed a friend. Word on the street - literally - was that something big was happening in Ponyville, and that Celestia and Luna had both passed away. Through living in Ponyville and her twitching ear, something BIG was about to happen. And she was going to help fix it.
Who's next?
Maris, now that we have confirmed his location.
Which... Cacophony? ... is he?
There was a mental laugh. I can feel another presence on this line. A Harmony. When she arrives with us at Maris's palace, I'll affix the magic that lets us breathe to her as well, and Maris's shell will soon peel to his Cacophonic nature.
The blinding whiteness suddenly tore away, and Sunrise found herself surrounded by thousands of pounds of pressure, and unable to breathe in.
An invisible, bodiless voice whispered through, She has arrived. And suddenly her body filled to it's normal density and the pressure subsided.
"Wha? Where am I?"
"Sunrise?! She was the one-" She was the one following me?!
Well yes. And she will be quite excited about-
"Obsidian!? Twilight gave me her Element! See? I can do magic now! How cool is that?!"
He caught the dragonness as she lauched herself into his arms. "You're heavy! Oh, nice scales there."
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about them. But I missed you so much... I thought I'd never see you again..."
"I know. I got your letter." Obsidian sighed, hugging her close. "I missed you too."
She had grown with the essence of Magic. A few years of growth had been rapidly established, and if Obsidian had been quadruped, they would have been the same size. The darker, hidden parts of Obsidian's mind filled with ideas.
As if coming to the same conclusion, she straightened up on her hind legs - much more comfortable with her longer tail and neck - and continued holding his shoulders, despite her hind claws still comfortably settled on the ground. Obsidian's surprise faded quickly as she lifted the surface of her muzzle into his chin. Laughing and blushing, her wrapped his arms around her shoulders, noticing the strengthened muscles along her wing structure. Locking his claws together after setting his arms even lower, under her wing membranes, he did something he rather wished Kha hadn't snickered at later.
He kissed her.
It took her a few moments to respond, but she wasn't thoughly shocked, or - luckily - disgusted. She just came to her senses, and kissed back.
It was a while before he pulled back, but neither of them was blushing, and Sunrise was smiling at Obsidian.
"Whatever happens, Obsidian, I'm with you."
He smirked. "Maybe we can bring you along."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 33 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-11-28T20:28:40+00:00
|
2011-11-28T20:28:40+00:00
| 1,312 |
"We reallly should be getting going. You know, your mission and all?"
Obsidian had truly forgotten about what he was doing over ten thousand miles underwater and only breathing and staying uncrushed through the magic of a priorly-unknown eternal over-god.
"Ah. Yes. Maris." As always, his brain was taking unsteady clicks to turn on all of the switches. "Yes, the quest. Let's get started on that." He paused, looking around the dark abyss surrounding them. "Um... where are we starting?"
Ah, sorry. Just say Corona sent you.
He glanced off into the darkness, aware of Sunrise beginning to freak out and pressing into his side, the light from their shared teleport fading away.
"Um... Corona sent me?"
The surrounding area suddenly lit up in pale blue light, in spaced out watery orbs floating along the now-visible rock face. The sand underneath was still settling from the newly-arrived beings, and bubbles rose from those beings... gills?
"Wooo... that's weird." Obsidian played with the large flaps of skin now slightly raised from his neck. "I was in no way expecting that."
Sunrise was in the same state of shock, but over the little orbs of light. She had managed to remove one from the wall, and was passing it from hand to hand to figure out what type of magic it was made of.
The water stirred, and a massive head emerged from the darkness at the end of the lights. As little as either knew about the Firstborn, this was not one of them.
This was a massive underbite, lined with narrow, long fangs arcing back over the flattened nose and avoiding the eyes sitting liquidly on the sides of the flabby jaw. This was a set of bladed fins flickering in and out of the darkness as the thing bearing them waited. This was so titanic it could barely fit in the chasm. This was massive enough to hold all of Ponyville in it's mouth alone. This was a monster.
"Sunrise, get away."
She didn't move, simply stared at the monstrous enemy. Her grip tightened around the ball of light in her palm.
Obsidian looked up, seeing the slight movement. His voice changed from a warning to a command. "Sunrise, get away."
She kicked away from the wall, opening her wings to propel through the water. The fish-thing jerked back at the sudden movement before charging. Sunrise spun, throwing the orb at the peak of her speed before flapping backwards and out of the way. The ball of magic exploded on the fish's face, sending what looked like lightning and acid spraying into it's eyes and mouth.
Blinded, the monster kept charging, missing Obsidian by hairs and plowing into the darkness on the other side. A silence of both sound and movement following, stilling eerily.
"O-Obsidian?" Sunrise whispered, lost without her ball of light.
"I'm fine. Can you see? Can you get back into the light?"
"Maybe... I can see you a bit..."
A steady thrum began pulsing through the water. An odd tingling feeling not unlike Kha's control began to creep over Obsidian's skin. "It's sensing us! We won't be able to hide!"
Sunrise came plowing out of the darkness, grabbing more of the little orbs along the way. Obsidian kickstarted into action, doing the same. When the fish returned, blood drifting from it's face in a dim red fog, it was met with more of the offensive magic, scoring hits along it's face and it' blubbery, slimy flank. Sunrise even managed to blow a hole through one of it's fins.
There was a downside to this that neither of them rationalized. It was getting darker.
Sunrise launched the last orb she was carring, and although it managed to explode directly on top of the creature's eye, the light went comletely out, plunging them all into the darkness the fish could easily navigate.
"Sunrise!" Obsidian called out, hoping she would be able to find him. Within moments, she had pressed up against his side, chin on his shoulder, gills moving eerily against his shoulder.
"I'm scared."
"You aren't going to go all helpless on me, are you?"
"No."
Kha, you have to find some way to get us to Maris.
Get eaten.
"What?!?"
"Huh?"
Are you crazy?!?!
You dying is not something I'd hope for. You have to trust me.
"Sunrise, can you trust me?"
"Yes. Why?"
He grabbed her shoulders and held her close, flapping his wings to float up to the middle of the now-dark chasm. Still keeping her still, the sensing pulse resumed.
"What are you doing? Obsidian, it's going to kill us!"
As the bulk of the monster fish surged forward, Obsidian turned Sunrise and kissed her again, and they stayed together until the gaping, fanged jaws of the fish closed over them.
Tigerjay landed in front of the group, nodding for them to find a place to rest. Slowly, the herd seemed to glide across the ground, vanishing in shadows and leaving hoofprints that only dented the thick grass. Tigerjay took a head count before flying ahead to scout a trail. After leaving the tired group behind, a watchful side of Tigerjay began to emerge as he slipped intp his primal instincts, dropping to the ground and weaving silently, paws quiet and and talons barely brushing the ground.
There was something eerie about the nightly silence in the Deep Everfree, and it turned into a sense of home and belonging once one could meet that level of quiet. Any sudden noises were easily locatable.
Which is why the yell of "Hi there!" nearly killed Tigerjay.
He lifted himself into a normal standing position and glared at the pink pony that had just appeared. She was grinning widely, which was unnerving, and her mane and tail looked like they would eat any nearby brush. From his angle, her cutie mark seemed to be... balloons?
"Um... hi?"
"It's been forever since I was in Ponyville last, and I haven't seen you before, which means you're new, so I have to throw you a party-" She cut herself off, and her rapid speech slowed. "I guess it's me who's new. You guys will be the ones throwing the party..."
"Slow down." Tigerjay interrupted, sitting down. "I have no idea who you are... or how you managed to sneak up on me."
"Oh, I only snuck up on you because of that tree." She shot a hoof out sideways, into the forest, and continued talking before Tigerjay could question her further. "And I'm Pinkie Pie!"
"Pinkie... Pie? The Element of Laughter? And formerly best partier in Ponyville?"
"Yep, that's me! I'll have you know that I perfected the piñata while I was gone! How cool is that? Not as cool as glaciers or dry ice, but pretty cool."
"What are you talking about?"
"Where's Dashie? She around at all? Or is she in the Wonderbolts?"
Tigerjay actually understood this, and remembered the rumors circulating Ponyville until Twilight set them all straight. "Rainbow Dash... she died a long time ago. She was practicing a new trick, and... and she went out of control and crashed in Sweet Apple Acres..." He didn't mention the last part of Twilight's angry explaination, before she had burst into tears; ...and there wasn't enough of her left to bury...
"Can I see... the grave?"
Tigerjay looked up from his claws, and realized that, not only had the pony's pink coat gone dull, but her tangled mane had gone flat and perfectly straight. "It burned down... there's nothing left..."
Of course there's nothing left of the graveyard... there's nothing left at all...
"How do you burn down a graveyard?" She sighed. "I guess my Pinkie Sense was right again."
"Hm?"
"I've had a numb hoof for a few months. It meant something was going to attack Ponyville."
"And you didn't tell anyone?!"
She stood up, looming surprisingly taller than he thought. "I loved Ponyville with all my heart, all my soul. When I left, I kept it a pretty little pastel paradise in my head, because it was all that kept me sane for the last one hundred years! Do you even begin to understand how much it meant to me that my home was still happy when I wasn't? Do you?"
Tigerjay flinched at her words. "I bet Twilight wants to see you." He growled. "And Rarity and Applejack."
"I came here for only one thing, Tigerjay." Dipping her head quickly, she touched her chin to his forehead, and a flash of rose light echoed through the trees.
When the spots faded from Tigerjay's eyes, he realized the pony was gone. Just like before, he had heard and seen nothing. And, before contemplating that, he saw something red in the bottom of his vision, and looked down.
He was BRIGHT RED. Fire red. Cherry red. Blood red, even. A happier ideal came to mind. Icing red. He was icing red.
And for some indescriable, cosmically flawed reason, he was happy about it.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 34 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-11-29T02:33:38+00:00
|
2011-11-29T02:33:38+00:00
| 1,209 |
"Obsidian...?"
"Yeah?"
"Are we dead?"
He grunted, feeling a rush of pain spear through his leg. "It doesn't hurt when you're dead, does it?"
"Um, I don't think so."
"Then I'm not dead. And you're here, so you're not dead."
It occured to him that they were on solid ground, that was hard and seemed to be slippery. Water? It was dark, and the ground was firm and slimy, and they were alive, and they had just been eaten by a massive monster fish.
A dim glow flickered into being, spreading over Sunrise in an organic, gentle way and illumintating her forehead, wings, and a thin line down her back with amazingly bright pale purple light. The material they were standing on looked colourless, a dull grey, and had to be some kind of metal.
Obsidian shivered. Metal meant danger.
"Hey, a-are you o-o-okay?"
He pushed himself up by his arms, finding one leg virtually impossible to move. "Just dandy, can't you tell?"
"Your l-leg is-is-is b-b-b-bleeding." Sunrise squeaked, pointing with one claw. "T-there's blood all o-o-over the f-floor..."
"Well that's just great. Perfect. How could my day possibly get better?" He rolled onto his back, holding the injury and squinting at it. Massive gashed had torn through the furry skin, and as Sunrise had pointed out, there was a suitable amount of gore spilling from it. "Great. Amazing. Splendid. Not only are we a bazillion miles away from anything, now my leg has decided it wishes to be amputated. Ugh."
Dropping the soaked limb, he struggled to get up on his other leg.
"Can't you hover?"
"Can't focus. Have enough energy, but this subtle pain in my lower half is attempting to tear me apart." He winced and collapsed back onto the floor, feeling the sticky coating smear over his cheek and neck. "This has to be here for a reason. It's a machine. Go ahead and try to find help."
No! Don't let her out of your sight!
"I'm scared."
He glared up at her, eyes reflecting yellow against her light. "I didn't let you come just so you could chicken out! Go and get help."
Obsidian... Kha'dighreel growled. Listen to me.
"Fine. I'll go. Try... try not to die, okay?"
"Not planning on it."
Sunrise dropped back to all fours, bounding off into the distance, light fading from Obsidian and vanishing in the metal maw of the fish. Obsidian stopped struggling to stand, collapsing on his back and ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of his fur soaking.
You imbecile!
Oh, shut up. You're the one who told me to get eaten, anyway. Stop digging on me.
Not that, letting her go!
Oh, it's much better letting her sit here while I bleed to death.
Kha mentally facepalmed. It's not that...
Sunrise had gotten too far to see or hear Obsidian, and it was worrying her. Panic set in, and she resisted the impulse to run back to him. There was an end to the mouth, and she had found it, running alongside to look for some kind of entrance. The metal was dull and unchanging, and she would have thought she was on a treadmill if not for the trail she was leaving.
Bloody prints continued out of her light range.
Something was building inside her, painlessly and powerful. It was filling her limbs and making her head pound, increasing the light her scales were expelling, and she thought she saw her eyes reflected an spectral white in one of the blood pools she had left.
Stumbling, she rolled a few times before skidding to a stop and attempting to stand. She was instantly level to what looked like a... power cord? Grabbing it in her teeth, she began instinctively releasing magic, sending powerful energry through the cord.
It wasn't long before she wasn't the only source of light.
Small bulbs flickered to life along the roof and walls in the same spacing they had before. The ground seemed to glow as well, light appearing from the metal. It didn't seem healthy, though, sickly and geometric. The sight of it almost made Sunrise retch.
And then, defying the solid gray of the wall, it split in two vertically, lifting into the roof of the jaw and sinking into the bottom as well. A large, metal ball rolled out of the newly opened wall. As Sunrise watched, slightly astonished, the ball rolled up, looking at her with some kind of laser. It split apart, small bars hidden under the shell crunching and reforming until it formed a dragon-like structure, one laser eye still regarding her curiously.
<Excuse me, but how did you get in here? This isn't dragon magic tuned.> The robot frowned, at least, tried to, and it's radio voice lowered in an almost-threatening way.
"My friend, he's hurt. The teeth caught his leg."
<Excuse me, but how did you get in here? This isn;t dragon magic tuned.>
"Shut up. My friend needs help."
<Excuse me, but CRZT!!!>
The machine's head clinked off the ground, sparks flying from the collision. Sunrise spun, kicking the body of the robot back into the opened corridor.
"Well, here goes nothing." Dropping back to all fours, she ran off into the centroid of the mechanism.
"Tigerjay, what's with the dye job?"
The Griffon in question smiled and looked up at Spike. "I like it! It makes me look like a firework or something sparkly! I like sparkly things! Do you have an over with you? I'd like to make some cupcakes."
Spike lifted one eyebrow before looking at his back, and the purple unicorn sleeping on it. "Hey. Hey, Twilight. I think Tigerjay's on something."
She lifted her head, wiping sleep away with one hoof. "Huh? What do you mean?" Seeing Tigerjay's new saturation, she jumped up. "Did you happen to meet a pink pony?"
"What are you both smoking?" Spike muttered.
"Yeah, she was really nice and she made me red and I like red!"
"Did she say what her name was?"
"She knew my name and I never told her what it was, it was weird! And she said I was new, and then she got sad because she was new, and then everything went bright and pink, and then she was gone!"
"Her name?"
"Oh yeah! Pinkie Pie!"
Spike glanced at Twilight nervously. "What does he mean, 'went all pink'?"
Twilight looked up at the dragon that had once been her scribe. "He means that two of the six Elements have changed Bearers."
There was a few moments of tense, heavy silence, before Tigerjay burst out laughing.
"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON!!"
Something not unlike a massive set of gears had rusted beyond recognition, deep in the bottom of Canterlot. A being was beside them, watching as a series of smaller, once-pastel cogs had begun turning. Two, counting the one that had just started. One purple and one pink.There was still a white, a yellow, a blue and an orange, at least, they were the only smaller ones. But from just the two spinning, a third of the wall had begun spinning, banshee screams of machinery echoing around. The complex lock behind the door had begun shifting towards opening. In front, however, all that could be seen were six pegs, against a blue wall, and the faded insignia of a golden sun embellishing the center.
The being tapped the moving pegs, waiting for the magic to undo it's ancient oath.
Four more, and Balance could be restored.
"Hey," Tigerjay glanced up at Twilight. "Has anyone seen Discord?"
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 35 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-11-30T00:53:35+00:00
|
2011-11-30T00:53:35+00:00
| 1,077 |
"Uh, no. I don't know where Discord is." Twilight looked around, trying not to look at Tigerjay's luminous feathers. "I could have sworn he was here before... but I haven't seen any trace of chaos..."
Spike snorted and lay his head back on his paws. "Just imagine how much trouble he might have caused by now."
"Shut up, Spike."
And the pegs spun silently.
Another one of the machines rolled up, taking the same form. It seemed to be made of a different metal, with a blue sheen.
<You have disabled one of the Guards. May I inquire why?>
"My friend, he's in the... mouth... and he's hurt. One of the teeth must have gotten him. The stupid machine was being agrrivating."
<I can understand that. The automatons are quite repetitive.>
"You aren't... programmed to repeat things?"
The robot let out a whirring laugh. <Oh, those are still prototypes, so they don't have speech microchips. Until they recieve a command from one of us - I mean, higher level Officers - and we disable them and take care of the intruder. Until Maris works on the programming, they're only meant to slow intruders. Most who enter are here on purpose, and unviolent. They are taken care of quickly. And you?>
"Here for Maris."
The blue machine waved a paw for her to come forward. <Aren't you all? I'll get a Nurse to your friend, and she'll meet up with you at Maris's palace.>
"Thank you." Sunrise sighed. "Wait... she?"
This time, it was not an Earth Pony who was hiding, nor was she in an alley. She was underground, in a cave, lit by fire and rabbit-hole skylights. There had been noises above, loud noises, voices and hooves, and her animals had scurried above ground and away, leaving the pony alone in her expansive tunnel system.
The roof did not bother her as much as it should have. Her wings were weak even when she was young, and getting older had not done them justice. She was just as much an Earth Pony as one born without wings. At least, until she had heard the cracking voice of a Unicorn, and her wings twitched.
Muscles that had been dormant for fifty years regained power. Flapping silently, the grounded Pegasus began to rise. Nearing the roof, she began scraping at one of the skylights, debris raining down onto the ground. There was nothing left for her in the animals, not since Angel passed away. Now, now she was ready. Now, she was coming home.
As a large clump of earth fell with a thud, the Pegasus climbed out of the hole, covered in mud and animal dung. Standing on the ground with the wind back in her long, knotted mane. she closed her eyes.
"Fluttershy?"
The Pegasus bit her tongue, trying to find words. She had planned this so many times, when she would finally reveal herself to Twilight Sparkle. And now, all the planned scenarios in her head vanished.
She felt her back being touched moments before she was pulled into a dirty, stinking hug. "Fluttershy, where have you been? I was so worried! Were you underground this whole time? What did you eat? How did you survive?"
"I...uh...I ate grass... sometimes..."
The Unicorn looked at her friend, tears running down her cheeks. "It's unhealthy, being out of the sun! How are you feeling?"
"Fine... if that's okay..."
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up. You look like you were raised in a pigsty!"
"NO!" Fluttershy tore away from Twilight's grasp, glaring at her. "Stop assuming I need your help all the time! I'm strong now!"
"Fluttershy, I didn't mean-"
"You never mean it! That doesn't make it easier!" She grimaced and turned to face the waking crowd. Leaning in, she spotted a zebra, grabbing her by the shoulders and slamming their foreheads together. When the yellow light diminished, everyone was staring at Fluttershy, ignoring the changes beginning to overtake Chibi.
The Pegasus backed up to the enlarged hole she had climbed from. She looked through everyone, to the zebra.
"Take care of the Element. I couldn't." And she reared back, falling down into the blackness of the tunnels.
Twilight lunged forward, stopping almost as fast when a loud groan echoed from under her feet. Cracks began to spread from the rabbit holes. Spike grabbed Twilight and opened his wings, soaring above the trees and diving down to capture more ponies.
"Fluttershy! Fluttershy, wait!" Twilight screamed, trying to throw herself off of Spike's claw. "Wait!"
As the ground began collapsing inwards, there were no ponies left on the surface. All of the remainders clustered on Spike's broad shoulders.
Fluttershy heard Twilight crying, and thought about turning around.
"No." She whispered to herself. "I'm happy. She'll be fine."
Still muttering, she trotted off down the branching tunnel and away from the blocked exit, the massive chunks of earth blocking the sky for the final time.
She looked back, and realized that she was bleeding, a large chunk of skin ripped away from her ankle. She had been oblivious to the injury, and realized the shadows in the corners of her eyes had grown larger, and her mind was getting fuzzy.
Somehow, she smiled. "Good luck, everypony."
And everything went black.
Obsidian opened his eyes, seeing what looked to be a pink draconequus leaning over him. It glanced up with the customary laser eye, and his eyes flickered shut again.
The robot stood aside, letting Sunrise enter the chamber. It was a high dome, looking like it had a lot of flying room, and was filled with gray synthetic clouds and supported by shimmering copper columns. There was a fountian off to the side, and assorted cushions, chairs, perches and blankets littered the ground, with equally assorted species on top of them.
There were only ten. There were two Griffons, both female, judging by the small-tufted tails. There was one dragon, a slim blue who was casually sipping water from a wine glass. Surprisingly, there was a pheniox, one of the more intellectual ones that could hold up a conversation. There was one of each type of pony, a red-coated-green-maned Earth mare, a purple-coated-white-maned Pegasus mare, and a dull orange-coated-equally-orange-maned Unicorn mare. There was a zebra mare as well, and beside her an extravagantly emerald-feathered winged serpent. Leaning up against a pillar was a tan Diamond Dog, who Sunrise assumed to be female, from the trend.
As she walked in, she realized that smaller robots were hovering around, bringing food from slots in the walls and giving it to the circle of animals.
Only the serpent looked up as she approached. "You too?"
Sunrise pulled up a pillow, sitting down on it and looking at the faces of the others. They all looked stressed, or worn, or tired, or all of the three, and they were all her age.
"What do you mean?"
The zebra glared at the snake. "This is a stressful situation, I'm sure she wants an explaination. My name is Zuta, newcomer dragon; this annoying reptile is Flaytenemon."
"Call me Tene, please." The oddity added.
"I'm Cureheart." The Unicorn continued. "The Pegasus is Skybreaker and the Earth is Songscript."
The dog looked up and shuffled over to join the group. "Helia." She grunted.
"The name's Spear, friend." The other dragonness said.
"I'm Spring, and this is Summer." One of the Griffons contributed.
Extending a wing, the pheniox smiled. "Hythenz."
"I'm Sunrise."
The snake from before grinned, exposing needle-like teeth. "So, you got here by chance? With no prior knowledge of who, what, why, where, when or how?"
Sunrise nodded.
"Well, it may look good now, but it's not. You're lucky you're new. How is up to you to remember, we all have our ways. I'll have you know none of us are here by choice. When? Still unknown. Can't have a calender, and none of the guards will tell you. Where? Underwater in a giant mechanical fish. Why? Another unknown. Some of us think it's Him tempering with magic and reality to bring us here, but noone knows. What? Well, it's sort of a massive... um... prison? Prison sounds good. And who? Who is Maris, otherwise known as Him. Note the capital, somehow the guards can tell if you speak it or not. So yeah. Understood?"
"Enough."
"Enough is good." The blue dragonness sighed. "Hey, minion, get the new kid some food."
A nearby 'minion' sped off towards the wall, clicking and whirring.
The snake made sure noone else was going to talk before starting again. "Anyone with you? Normally we show up in pairs. The Griffons, me and Zuta, the phenoix with the Unicorn, the Pegasus and the Earth, the dragon and the Dog. You're alone, which is pretty odd, considering."
Sunrise shook her head. "No, my friend got hurt. The teeth cut his leg."
"You came in through the mouth? With a guy, no less?" This was the dragonness again, and she walked over to Sunrise, tilting her head to look at her gills. "Never seen Maris take a guy in, and this is strong magic for a dragon. How'd you know to come in?"
Sunrise avoided denying the 'dragon' concept. "My friend-"
"Boyfriend." Tene.interrupted.
"-told me I would be safe."
"Man, if he let you come in here, he's got a pretty mutated version of safe." The robot arrived with a plate of flawed gemstones, which Sunrise took and put down in front of her, listening to Spear. "If he's with a nurse, let's hope he can act as a girl pretty well. Maris doesn't take kindly to males."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 36 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-02T20:37:27+00:00
|
2011-12-02T20:37:27+00:00
| 1,173 |
~I hate, no, despise sounding needy or egotistical in any sense, but I have noticed that a lot of people are both viewing and tracking this story. I really want to get back on the Featured, but the rating is .4 stars too low. I would like to encourage anypony who enjoys reading this story to uprate, and I thank you all for looking at this story at all. Oh, and this story will have two parts. Part one will be coming to a close soon. Sorry about my odd update times, Ice~
Obsidian woke up surrounded by pale light, with the pink draconequus he had assumed was a mirage leaning over his chest. As his vision focused, he was relieved to find it was made of plastic-y panels and metal gears. It looked up as he shifted.
<Oh, good, you're awake. Is your leg hurting?>
"Not as much." He sat up, looking down at his hoof, and seeing it was covered in hardened plaster and a layer of goo. "Where's Sunrise?"
<You're friend is with the other girls in the main chamber. If you're feeling up to it, I can bring you there now.>
Obsidian sat up, turning sideways before hopping off the cot. Pain shot up his bandaged limb, but he held back the spots clouding his vision and put a claw on the cot.
<If you can't walk, I'm sure we can find an alternate way of transportation.>
"I'm... fine..." He panted, still resisting the overwhelming urge to pass out. "Which... way are... we going?"
The robot walked up, grabbing him by the shoulders and forcing him to lean against it's pink shell. <I will lead. Tell me if you need a break.>
He nodded, teeth gritted, before limping off alongside the unnatural rosy Nurse.
Sunrise lifted her head from the pillow, where she had been flicking a tassle. She had no idea how much time had passed, but all of the animals, including Helia, had attempted to make her talk, only met by her continued stare into some infinite point in space.
The doors had slid open almost silently, with a short sniff of air, before sliding shut again.
"Hey, new kid." Tene whispered, poking her with a wing. "Is that your boyfriend?"
Spear snorted. "That's not even a dragon!"
The pheniox glared at her counterparts. "Hush! Obviously your disdainful comments are not helping! Let the girl speak, and him as well. It may be true that he is no dragon, but that does not mean we should treat either of them differently."
"It is not a dragon that is now among us, I believe it's a draconequus." Zuta added.
Sunrise jumped to her feet, bounding over and knocking Obsidian from the Nurse's arms in a hug. She was almost crying.
"Hey, get off me, you're heavy. I was coming over, you know." He attempted to push her off, and she nosed his hand aside.
"I missed you."
"I missed you too..."
A navy wing opened between the two. "Hey!" Spear growled, almost whispering. "The Nurse is still here. The slave drones won't care, but she will. Get a room."
"Ahaha... yeah..." Sunrise blushed and backed up quickly, leaving a stunned Obsidian flat-out on the ground. As he got up, Sunrise subtley pushed the Nurse towards the door. "Yeah, we'll take care of him. Run along now." With a final shove, the robot was pushed outside, and the doors slid shut.
Spear opened a near-invisible panel, revealing a keypad, and pressed a few of the buttons. The room got darker, but a loud clicking emitted from the door. "I locked it. We're on a lower supply of magic now, but only Maris can come in. The drones are stuck outside." She looked over at Obsidian, who had, through the supporting shoulders of Sunrise and Skybreaker, made it to the circle of creatures.
As she pulled up a new blanket, Sunrise leaned up against Obsidian. He purred and nuzzled the top of her head. Silently, Skybreaker made a gagging face at Cureheart, and the Unicorn was having trouble keeping from laughing. When they realized that there was a suddenly awkward silence, Obsidian smiled.
"So... they think I'm a girl?"
Tene nodded, laughing slightly. "I guess. Otherwise there's no way you'd have your leg fixed."
"That must be a blow to your ego." Spear added, tilting her head. "Or those 'bots really are blind."
Sunrise made an exaggerated snarl. "He's mine. Back off."
Spear stood up and swung her hips. "Oh, keep your attitude to yourself. You know he wants me."
Both dragonnesses turned to Obsidian, who had shoved his face into the nearest pillow. His wings were sticking straight up from his back.
"Obsidian!" Sunrise yelled, glaring at him. "Stop that!"
"I can't help it!" Was the muffled reply. "I'm sorry!"
"Aw man, we should have gotten a guy in here sooner!" Spear laughed, poking Sunrise. "This will never get old!"
Sunrise smiled devilishly. "Defend yourself!"
The yell was little warning. By the time Spear had tilted her head in confusion, the Elemental dragonness had landed on her, rolling across the ground with a squeal. The two settled on an all-out catfight, swinging their paws at random and far enough away that no serious damage could even possibly be dealt. Obsidian was still blushing thouroghly, but the others were laughing at the dragons, and he was able to throw a blanket over his back.
The attention now turned to the unwilling recipent of Fluttershy's light. Her color had changed completely, leaving her stunned and slightly embarrased. All the stripes on her body had turned pink, while the rest of her coat was a nice soft yellow. Her mane was strips of pink and purple, and the few golden bands hanging loosely around her neck and hooves had changed to silver.
"Well," Chibi sighed. "This is awkward."
The being woke from his temporary nap as another soft scream filled the air. It was not as loud and disturbing as the other two, more like a song than an exclaimation of terror, but still a scream none-the-less. He fixed his eyes on the new turner. This time, it was the yellow peg, swiveling in sync with the purple and the pink. More gears had begun to shift, and he could have sworn he saw a spark of magic flash in the keyhole.
Half of the pegs were spinning, the rythymic ticking from the hidden machinery beating out a ceaseless, noteless tune.
"Come on come on come on!" The being whispered to the otherwise unoccupied room. "Time is of the essence! Hurry up!"
He resisted slamming his fists against the metal. All it had done before was sent a moderately powerful surge of electricity through his veins, which had happily vaporized half of his bloodflow.
Now, all he could do was wait.
Kha had seen a place once, a distant blue-green dot in the orbit of a star he had lovingly nicknamed Sol. It was a pretty place, and he had even visited it once, but after he did not want to return. It was crowded, and filled with stone and steel, spires of mineral that exuded power, that in turn made you feel insignifigant underneath them. Despite these, the beings traveled mercilessly, cursing at sloth and eating with gluttony. And this was when he had come to the realization that while half of the lively dots in orbit of places like Sol had Harmony and Peace, there were others like this one that were the breathing embodiments of Cacophony and Chaos.
And after arriving on Sol's only bright planet, the pictures flared in his mind, the pictures of war and death and bloodshed, all in vain, all under the higher powers that set no foot in the fight and called it off on a whim. The pictures had not left his closed eyes since, haunted his dreams in nightmares, waited in the shadows, beckoning endlessly for one more blink, so that his temporary innocence could never be spared slaughter.
He missed the dreams of plants and towering trees and icy beauty of winter and soft breeze of summer, of calm and gentle and natural and harmonic in the way they were created, but these dreams, in their essence of fragility, had broken and dispelled under the morallic weight of the pictures.
So when his host laughed and loved and lived, it hurt Kha in a way that could never be described as anything but envy, for this creature who could survive in innocence and flowers and happiness, surrounded by family and friends, and not know the pictures, and who could breathe and smell and see and move and feel, could feel anything other than silence and mourning, could dream. This simple act of peaceful unconscienceness tore Kha's soul to the core.
But as he had always done while in pain, he slipped away, letting the chaotic hurt of another take the place of his, and distanced himself further from the feelings he had come to realize were his.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 37 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-07T01:14:14+00:00
|
2011-12-07T01:14:14+00:00
| 1,226 |
Kha jabbed the back of Obsidian's mind, waking him up from a priorly calm sleep and also inducing a sudden muscle spasm in his wounded leg. Hey! It's getting harder for me to talk to you. Something's wrong! I need you to find Maris!
Is there any way you could be a little more painful?!
Get up get up get up! He poked the nerve repeatedly, until Obsidian was almost crying. I know you can't feel it, but something's wrong. Hello? Hey, listen! Don't you dare go back to sleep! UP!
Obsidian growled into the empty air and grudgingly pushed the blanket aside. One of the servant robots whirred up curiously, the laser-pointer eye shining against Obsidian's face.
"Uh... can I talk to Maris?"
The robot quickly flaoted away, stopping to make sure Obsidian was following. Without the aid of a living crutch, he had abandoned his pride and was limping along on all fours.
It wasn't long before Obsidian was standing in front of a massive door. It was decorated with copper and gold swirls, mimicking ocean waves, and two massive sapphires were laid in the 'sky'. They seemed to be glowing, a little more naturally than the lights around.
The drone tapped one metal hand against the door, waiting patiently for a response. The waves rose up from the ground, splitting in half at the gemstones and retracting into the wall. With a loud grind, the silver wall behind broke into thousands of tiny spirals, spinning entracingly into the frame and leaving no trace they had ever been there. Behind them was a long hallway, with another door at the other end. Obsidian limped past, wincing as the door closed again behind him.
"Here goes nothing."
"Squishy, I need to have a word with you. Alone." Rarity levitated her daughter out of the crowd, ignoring her sarcastic remark and trotting away wih her. "Look, I'm getting old, and I know I can't have much time left."
"Don't say that! You're going to live forever."
"Heart, please." Rarity sighed, looking down into her eyes. "Even the Goddesses didn't live forever. Just listen."
Squishy, realizing the weight of the situation in the use of her middle name, nodded.
"You've seen me use my Element before, remember? To help cast out that big meanie hydra that came into town?"
"Yeah momma, I remember."
"And I can't use it anymore. We've seen Tigerjay become the Bearer of Laughter, and Chibi is a Bearer of Kindness. Twilight told me that she gave Sunrise the Element of Magic. There are three others, whose locations we have. There's my Element, Generosity, Applejack's Honesty, and Rainbow Dark's Loyalty. We've talked about it, and decided our new Bearers." The white Unicorn set her daughter down, walking up and touching their horns together. "Squishy, I give to you the Element of Generosity."
The following flash was filled with tiny sparkles, glittering to the ground before fading out of existence. Rarity stepped back, worn from the lack of her sustaining Element, and smiled at her daughter.
There was no massive change, but her coat, which had once been pale purple, was now a flawless white, more than enough of a change to an Element.
She jumped forwards, hugging her mother. "Thank you. I'll make you proud."
The second door didn't require any wait, simply moving aside as Obsidian approached. It was also a lot less dramatic, just swishing back into the wall. The inside was lit, by natural magic, like the orbs in the outside, small glowing spheres lining the walls.
Of course, some of them were hard to see through the snake staring at him. The reptile had his head tilted curiously, tongue flicking as he reviewed the draconequus. Despite the dim light, the edges of his silhoette shimmered with an oily sheen.
"And why are you here? I ssssswore I told thossssse sssssstupid robotsssss not to let any guysssss in." His inlit eyes rolled, and the lights brightened. "Sssssso, you are?"
"Kha."
"Imposssssible! I know who Kha hassss possssssesssssed and it issssss not you. It isssss an Alicorn, no?"
"Uh, no."
"Fulmen told me it wasssss the daughter of a Pegassssusssss, who wasssssss Faenum'sssss daughter. Your father certainly got around. I envy him for that. An Alicorn? About," he held his tail a few inches above the ground, "yay big? Apperantly gray? Anything?"
"Still no. I've met her, she's the cutest filly in the world, but I assure you that she is not Kha, because I am."
"Cute, you sssssay? Oh, too young. Maybe later." He shook his head to clear his Cacophony's influence. "Ah ha... and why ssshould I believe you when you ssssay you are Kha?"
"You never seen a draconequus before?" Obsidian snarled, fanning his wings. "I assure you, this is not natural."
"Your mother wassssss an Alicorn. Ssssshe hassss Pegassssussss blood, of coursssse. Your wingssss would be bigger."
Chill, Obsidian. I got this one.
"Hey! Hey, n-"
"Maris, ask me something only Kha would know."
"Um... why are you here?"
"Why must I deal with such peabrains? Because all hell is breaking loose, and you've become Lust. Now please just listen to me so we can move on?"
"True... true..." Maris backed up. "Here, come in. More than enough room."
"Thank you."
"Ssssso, you are Kha? Really?"
"I'm in the bottom of the ocean, I let myself get eaten by a giant fish, and I'm surprisingly sane while talking to a giant rainbow snake. Is it smart to continue doubting me?"
"Well, yeah, I guesssss sssssso." Maris, realizing he was lacking shoulders, tilited his head. "Sssssso... now what?"
"I don't know. Normally something just... happens. Do you feel any different?"
"May...be?" The snake head-shrugged again. "Uhhhh.... no. Nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh-huh."
"Positive?"
"Only foolssssss are possssitive."
"Okay... still nothing?"
"How many timesssss mussst I sssay it?"
Kha flapped Obsidian's wings and flew up in front of Maris's face. "Maybe we have to talk about your problem?"
"According to you, it ssssshould all fix itssssself."
Kha smacked Maris's nose.
For a few seconds the snake looked stunned. "What wasss that fo-"
And then the entire room plunged into darkness, save for a small light flashing over the door.
"Oh, crap."
"What does that light mean?"
"Powersssss' cut." Maris hissed, voice wavering. "And oxygen will ssssstop production."
"So...?"
The snake sighed. "We're going to start suffocating in about half-an-hour."
"...and everyone on the fish will?"
"Die."
"And you aren't going to do anything?"
"Of course-" His glowing eyes suddenly widened. "I have to. I've done wrong my whole life, and this is my chance to repent before I die... DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD?!?"
"Honesty! You've been Balanced!"
"Okay...?"
"HAHAHA! ANOTHER ONE!" Discord cheered, pressing his eye up to the keyhole. "So close... two more..." He backed up, reclining on some invisble hammock. "Loyalty and Honesty. How fitting."
"Tick tock tick tock..."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 38 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-08T22:37:20+00:00
|
2011-12-08T22:37:20+00:00
| 1,143 |
I thought... that I would be given another chance here... that maybe part of me could saved... I can't be evil... I can't be deviod... I can't...
Can I?
Maris simply titled his head, and a circle of the magic orbs appeared both around his neck and Obsidian's. Another tilt, and the rest of the captives appeared in the room.
Sunrise bounded over to Obsidian, hugging him, and the rest of them backed up, fearful of the snake.
He sighed. "I've done wrong, I know. I've changed. And... I have sssssomething to tell you. There'sssss an enchantment on thisssss sssssship. It'sssss felt like lesssssss than a year, hasssssn't it."
Tene was the first to regain her senses. "Yes...?"
"Actually..." Hythenz piped up. "As a phenoix, I have a natural clockwork mind, so-"
"It's actually been a hundred yearssss sssssince mossssst of you came." Maris finished. "And... I'm ssssso ssssssorry... but mossssst of your family will have passssssssed away..."
"No... no... NO!" Tene yelled. Abandoning all caution, she threw herself at Maris. "My mother, she was sick! Dying! I wanted to be with her until she left! I wanted her to be happy! My brother, he... he... I needed to be with him! I NEEDED TO PROTECT HIM! YOU MONSTER!" The anger drained out of her, and she would have smashed on the floor if Skybreaker hadn't gotten in the way. The young snake wrapped her tail around the Pegasus. "You... m-m-monster..."
"It's been a t-thousand years, you say? How much of our lives have faded away?"
"None. You have been presssssserved. You will live your normal lifesssssspan from here on."
"You took me away from my family." Helia growled. "You kidnapped all of us. You rrraped us, and brrrroke us, killed all but our bodies. You've finally taken away all that we love. And you expect us to forrrgive you."
Spear backed away further, pressing up against the wall, eyes wide in fear. "You... can't do... do that..."
Sunrise turned around. "You okay?"
The second dragoness was glancing around, pupils narrowing further and further. "Things... are knotting... time is... losing control..."
Sunrise barely noticed Obsidian had left her side. "Time?"
When the draconequus's soft paw touched Spear's shoulder, she looked up, meeting his eyes. "You... you..."
"It's hard to accept. I know. I can see them too."
"I'm not the... only one? There's... others?"
Obsidian smiled. "You'll get used to it. Come on, stand up."
"O...okay..."
"There's a lot of knots. They happen all the time. And I'll fix them, don't worry."
The dragonness nodded, stumbling back to Sunrise, who was still looking confused.
There was a loud groan, and an odd bubbling sound reverberated from beneath the floor. "Sssssshit!" Maris hissed, opening the door and pushing the others towards it. "The magic hasssss been keeping thisssss sssship from imploding sssssince I made it! We have to get out, or we'll all be crussssshed. Go on ahead, follow the emergency lightsssss. I'll try to buy usssss more time."
Spring skidded to a stop. "We'll drown!"
Maris looked towards Obsidian. "Can you take care of that?" Obsidian nodded. "Good. Now go. Get assss far away asssss you can from the ssssship. There will be debrisssss, electricty and runoff magic. I would teleport you out, but magic usssssed inssssside the ssssship can only work in the sssssship. Once you get free of the mouth, you will be able to teleport anywhere."
A small leak began spraying from the roof. "I've wasssted enough time already. Go!"
The pack of twelve started running, or flying, while Obsidian was both limping and struggling to contain his magic into a single spell. All around them, the dead lights were sapping his energy, lighting up along their run.
That was about when the roof behind them fell in.
They were lucky Kha was able to take control in such a tight time constraint. In the seconds it took for the frothing wall of water to hit them, they were all able to breathe.
"Is everyone okay?"
"Just dandy." Skybreaker huffed, pumping her wings. "There's a lot of force keeping us here."
Spear sighed. "That means that there's two areas where water has gotten through. Come on, let's go."
And they swam away, the only noise being the muted, distorted roar of the metal around them bending.
"Applesauce, I ain't gonna give you no special ceremony or nothin', understand?"
"Yes, Granny."
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Ah'm Honesty, and now, you are."
With a simple forehead touch, an orange light filled the trees. When it dimmed, absolutely nothing had changed, other than the aging that seemed to have taken further toll on Applejack.
"Look'ee here, Sauce. You take on step outta line, and Ah'll give you the lecture of your little life, understand?"
"Yes Granny. Ah understand."
Applejack couldn't help but smile. "Now run along, or your friends are gonna leave you behind."
"Jeez, it's like waiting for toast." Discord growled. "No matter how long you look at it, it only pops up when you turn away." Annoyed, he leaned back and settled in for a nap.
And in the way that only a toaster or a massively intricate and equally ancient magic door can do, the second his eyes closed, the fifth peg squealed horribly.
And like before, and anyone who's ever made toast, Discord jumped.
Kha finally piped up from his abnormally silent state. Hey, we have to hurry.
Well yes, of course we do. Have you not noticed we might die?
I'm better at sarcasm than you, so stop trying so hard. Anyway, that's not what I meant. I meant almost all seven Elements are activated. And we've only cured two Firstborn. Even a foal could realize that seven and two aren't the same number.
One. Seven and one. I don't think we cured Corona. We just gave him money.
Ah yes, I almost forgot. I was supposed to turn that into dust a while ago. There was an echoing sound not unlike a snap through Obsidian's brain. Better late than never.
Corona stared down at the small mound of rust. His eyes were watering slightly.
"Well, I guess that finishes that." He poked it gently, and the fragments crumbled even further before the wind caught them and blew them into the sky.
Something inside of him shifted. If one could ever possibly see through skin, they would see a black, slimy, oozing mass quiver, before cocealing into a single ball, dropping off of the surface and interior of Corona's heart, travel past the rest of his organs, follow the bone down his leg, seep numbingly from the bottom of his hoof, and vanish into the ground.
But one cannot see through the skin, can they?
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 39 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-09T00:44:00+00:00
|
2011-12-09T00:44:00+00:00
| 1,325 |
And the same thought found itself again in Obsidian's mind.
It was oddly beautiful.
And it was in the same kind of graceful, desolate destruction that he found this treasured thought. It was on this that he found he had stopped swimming, stopped feeling altogether. And he should have been scared. He had teleported everyone back to Ponyville. They would be safe there. Even Maris's ship had not blocked the full extent of a power beyind celestial in teleporting the kidnapper as well.
And the explosion had happened.
The very molecules of Obsidian's body were moving apart from the blast. The water was filled with a red smoke, and when he looked down, it was not coming from anywhere but his entire surface, leaking through scales and through fur and feathers, and dark and red and draining.
But it was oddly beautiful.
He could feel Kha drawing on the power, absorbing it in his core, simply leaching everything in the water back towards Obsidian, keeping his blood in an almost perfect sphere around him.
He couldn't see. The fog was thick, almost more of the blood than water, burning at his skin and seeping back through his pores.
And somewhere, the first time he had ever seen Kha, a set of eyes opened, black on white, large and dark and deep, and it was all still, everywhere, for a few moments.
And then that stillness broke, and in a sudden rush of what seemed to be glass, everything that had once been was reset, falling back into place. Molecules snapped elastically back in place, blood, in streams as thin and dark as black lightning, surged back into his body, the static hum in the air vanished, and the gills along his neck reopened, thin gills extending from the slits and spreading out to collect more oxygen.
For another moment, Obsidian saw Kha, eyes closing and falling sideways, collapsing with exhaustion on some mental plane, and then he opened his eyes again.
It was still beautiful.
And without Kha's magic reserves, Obsidian snapped his claws, and vanished.
"Is he...?" Sunrise whispered, voice seemingly thunderous in the stunned silence.
"There isss virtually no way he could have ssssurvived a blasssst of that magnitude." The snake replied. "Wassss he really Kha?"
"I still am."
All around turned to look behind Maris, including Maris himssssself, trying to see. And there was Obsidian, covered in blood, still dripping with water, but standing, and very much alive.
"I couldn't have left you guys alone, could I?"
Maris coughed nervously. "Ssssssso... about me not believing you?"
"Whatever." Obsidian went to wave dismissivly, but winced. "It's in the past now."
"So? Should we save him some time and go to him?"
"Nah, he'll come soon enough." Altitudo replied, rolling onto her back. "There's no reason for us to go anywhere."
"I wish I was that strong." Fulmen growled, pricking her claws on the cloud above. "That much power..."
"I have that much power already, sister." Faenum smirked. "I'm stronger than any of you."
"No, we can stop this without him. I... we... should have all the fame." Something added, casting a sideways glance at nothing, who was magic-bound.
<Can't we just kill them all already? Those pitiful Elements make me so->
"Mad?" Corona finished. "Exactly! Don't you realize that we could all fix this? If we go, we'll be back to normal! To... to the way things used to be. Don't any of you want that? When we were all willing to adventure, equal in power, equal in obscurity, and calm? I'm not greedy anymore. Maris isn't... well, you know... anymore. Why can't you let yourselves be changed?" The powerful Alicorn was almost crying. "Why can't you do this?" He paused another plan forming.
This was a semi-complicated spell. Each listener heard something differently. Anyone else would have heard Corona's original words of 'get your butts in gear'.
Altitudo: Once you go, you'll never have to go anywhere again.
Fulmen: You'll have all the power you could want once you're cured.
Faenum: Go, and you'll be the only one. Think about how much you could brag about being so special!
Something: Imagine how famous you'll be once you're the only to be cured!
Nothing: It'll only make them angry if you go. What fights you could have!
And all the recievers of the spell immediantly made up some excuse for having to leave and teleported away.
Corona pumped a hoof in the air. "Yes!"
"Hey Sunrise, don't hug so tight."
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean-" He felt her stiffen in hs arms, her head jerking on his shoulder.
"What? Were you expecting me to kiss you? That can be arranged." When she didn't respond, he poked her shoulder. "You okay?"
"Obsidian... look behind you."
He twisted his neck - quite painfully - to see what she was so scared by. His initial response was the same as Sunrise's. In all honesty, they were surrounded by carnivores in the middle of the Everfree. Who wouldn't be scared?
Looking back to make sure Maris was close enough to attack if nessecary, and knowing Kha was still exhausted, Obsidian unhooked Sunrise's claws from his shoulder and limped up.
One dragon, at least triple his size, with an even greater - folded - wingspan, deep blue scales that seemed to be glittering, and black eyes. Two elegant crests ran down her spine from the back of her head to the tip of her tail, where they fanned out majestically. She was looking off into the trees, tapping a claw in boredom.
One tiger, about his size, with black claw-tipped bat wings and oversized talons and fangs. She seemed to be sizing him up as well.
One wolf, with golden fur and bird's wings - each feather green-tipped, was standing tall, chin up and chest pushed out, tail high in pride. For some obscene reason, Obsidian thought she seemed familiar.
One Alicorn, silver fur and golden mane, who Obsidian knew was the embodiment of something.
Beside her, seemingly invisibly restrianed, nothing was glaring at them through tiny bulbs of light, metallic mass quivering in anger. Why? Who knows.
"Uh... hi?"
Corona popped into existence beside Obsidian. His voice little more than a whisper, he explained. "The Elements are faster than you. I brought the rest of us so you could finish this up quickly.
"Thanks, but-" Something stirred in his mind with a yawn. "-thanks."
Ugh. Maybe I shouldn't have used that much energy.
Hate to shove this on you right now, but is there any way you could look around right now?
There was a few seconds of silence. "What's going on with your eye, it's-"
Corona went quiet as the individually moving object fixed on him, focusing once before moving back to it's original position.
Well, this isn't what I was planning on, but whatever.
With no further words, once again something changed. The air itself seemed lighter all of a sudden, and the Cacophonic creatures in front of them seemed brighter, stronger... clearer.
And strangely, nothing still looked like he wanted to rip the heads off of all present.
Rainbow Dark suddenly stopped. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot."
Scootaloo, who was hovering nearby looked up, before remembering that, although Dark's voice was almost the same as Dash's, that her idol was still dead. "Hm?"
"Get over here, kid."
"I am older than you, you know."
"Look, I know I haven't been much of a replacement for my mom. You're a better flier than me anyway. I want you to know that there was something she told me to do even as she was dying." The blue Pegasus tilted her head forward, black mane with a few genetic red streaks brushing Scootaloo's own mane. "She told me... to make you... to make you know... that she loved you like a daughter... and to give you... the most precious gift of all." Dark was trying so hard to keep speaking, tears running down her face and clumping in her throat. "She wanted you to have... Loyalty."
Their foreheads touched. A dazzling rainbow light sparked around, a loud noise following. A Rainboom.
Scootaloo blinked away the last spots from her eyes and turned to look at her back, for any visible changes. And what she saw made her jaw drop.
Her tail... her mane...
They were rainbow.
"HAHAHA! YES!" She flew a happy loop before squeezing Dark in a tight hug. "This is the best gift ever."
Now nothing could think straight.
And in some horrible twist of fate, this clearing of his once-violent mind would ultimately destroy him.
"The final... lock..." Discord whispered. "I can't believe it."
The entire door was turning into small panels rearranging and flipping to different colors. Each color had once been a regular section of wall, now emerging as a cube and twisting, twirling, changing. Where a solid set of six basic colors had rested, there was living mechanics.
There was a quick set of clicks, and the panels settled again. It was a faintly pixelated mural of six creatures, each different.
A red Griffon, with the necklace of Laughter.
An orange Earth Pony, with the necklace of Honesty.
A yellow-pink Zebra with the necklace of Kindness.
A white Unicorn with the necklace of Generosity.
An orange Pegasus with the necklace of Loyalty.
A pink dragoness with the crown of Magic.
Before Discord's stunned eyes, the panels began moving in snyc, the images coming to life, flying and running, playing and silently laughing, the background constantly changing - from Ponyville, to charred wrekage, to the Dome, to the Everfree, to Canterlot... and yet, no matter the situation, they were still smiling, confident in their seemingly helpless lives. And then, slowly, panel by panel, another creature emerged, a draconequus, with a glorious glow emenating from him in thin streaks of white, lancing through the background, until there was nothing but the glorious whiteness. And then, around his neck, a black pendant began to form, an opal gemstone in the shape of a puzzle piece shining and it's spectric surface ever-changing.
And then the pictures stilled, before the door spilt in two and slid away into the wall.
The room inside was small, but the same type of tiles slid along the wall, an endless, happy circle, blocked only by a waist-height diamond pedestal. On the platform surface there were six necklaces, and one crown. Slightly fearing for his mortal flesh, Discord touched the surface of one of the gemstones. Nothing happened.
"Have I changed that much?" He whispered, wiping away the smudge he had made with the back of his paw. Gathering the Elements in his magic, he sighed. He looked at the pictures, saw something he hadn't noticed before. On the tiny, distant balcony of Canterlot Castle, he could see the two princesses. And himself. He was beside Celestia, her head on his shoulder, his arm around hers.
"I miss you, Tia. I really do. I'm sorry. For... for everything."
And he snapped his fingers, and was gone.
Gone home.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 40 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-11T17:08:26+00:00
|
2011-12-11T17:08:26+00:00
| 1,166 |
~ www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o45SCnPXmY - a good soundtrack~
Obsidian flinched as his father appeared in front of him, before stumbling on some object and faceplanting in front of the seven most powerful beings in the world. Obsidian facepalmed.
Discord peeled his face out of the dirt. "Oh, good. You're here." He turned, waving to the Firstborn - who surprisingly, all looked mutual, except for Faenum, who rolled her eyes and glared at her sister - and smiled. "Hi there!"
"Daaaad come on." Obsidian hoisted him back onto his feet. "I'm having a dramatic moment here!"
"Oh, so that's what this is all about. Sorry." His eyes widened. "Oh yes, I almost forgot. Look what I found~"
"I swear, if it's another Poison Joke, I'll stab you."
"No! Better!" From seemingly out of nowhere, he pulled out the six elements. "Ha!"
"How are you even holding those?"
Discord shrugged, even rubbing one of the necklaces over his arm for good measure. "I don't know. I'm just special, I guess."
"Hey! How did you even get those?" Sunrise interrupted. Turning to the seven creators, she smiled sheepishly. "One second."
"I have been waiting for a while for that stupid door to open, I'll have you know. I knew where those were simply because... ah, well... to put it simply, Celestia was not the only one with a set of Elements... no, not me, but Luna... oh never mind. You get the picture."
"Sunrise, would you mind getting the others? You know, the Elements? Obviously he has to have some reason why he found them."
"Yes, my lord, I am your humble servant. Let me be joyful in doing your bidding." She growled, walking away with her tail flicking angrily.
Obsidian jumped as his dad suddenly appeared beside him. "She's pissed."
"Go away."
"Spoilsport." Discord laughed, hovering a few feet off the ground and turning a nearby tree into a frying pan. "I've been doing this for you."
"Me?"
"Who brought the Elements together? Who kept space-time from ripping apart? Who is now the Seventh and-even-more-mysterious-and-powerful-than-Magic Element? You~"
"Look, you've got something seriously wrong if you think I'm the seventh Element. There. Are. SIX."
"Guys! Break it up!" Sunrise interrupted again, pushing the two apart. "The slave has returned, with friends."
The second Discord had stepped away from Obsidian, he was tackled from behind.
"You didn't call me! Two thousand years and you've never called!"
"Mom, please. I'm an adult now. Please get off?"
Fulmen snorted and remained hunched over his back. "Not until you tell me you love me."
"Hey! That is not fair."
"Have we met? I'm the mother of the spirit of chaos and disharmony? Hello~?"
Discord levitated the Elements in front of him, catching the dimming light in the gemstones and reflecting a small dot of white light on the ground beside him.
The effect was instantaneous. Fulmen's pupils widened to almost her entire eye's worth, and she started purring, jumping off of Discord's back and playfully batting at the dot.
Disocrd shot towards his son, holding his mouth closed. "Speak of this to anyone and I will turn you to stone. Understand?"
"But it's hilarious!"
"Understand?"
"Yes...wait, no."
"Can we please please please get back on track here? I'm getting old waiting." Faenum snapped.
"We're almost done!" Sunrise growled. "If you haven't noticed, we can't catch Tigerjay."
The Griffon was backing up a tree, speeding up whenever someone got close. "No! I'm not wearing jewellery! No no no no!"
"We are trying to do something important! Get down here and put on the stupid necklace!"
"No!"
"TIGERJAY!!"
No... I must be free... this world... I need to be something other than nothing... this is my chance...
The Elements lined up in front of the Firstborn, and nopony there wasn't wondering what was going to happen. Somehow they moved into a battle position. Sunrise, covered in the air by Laughter and Loyalty, flanked by Honesty and Kindness, and followed closely by Generosity. The second Squishy's last hoof fell into place, a massive magick turbulence kicked up, spinning in a wide circle and bending over all the trees in the area. The other ponies, prevouisly out of sight, were now filled with fear. And from that fear... something breathed.
Obsidian's head suddenly filled with a roaring, unbelieveable pressure. He doubled over, claws digging up the ground, breathing only barely. Discord had hovered over, was tryign to help... and remembered the last nacklace. As his son began to truly suffocate, he slammed the final necklace on his back.
The turbulence increased tenfold. The entire Everfree was in danger of destruction. A blinding light erupted from the six Elements, and each one floated into the air as their inner power was channeled. Obsidian found his lungs, the pain in his head stronger with eveyr passing second. And when he forced his eyes open, and turned back to face the Elements, there was a rainbow split into parts flying towards him.
His father had told him being turned to stone was unbearable. But now... he knew he couldn't escape. It was him. He was the bad thing. He should have known that Kha would kill him. The Elements had weakened him, and the Firstborn's will to destroy Kha once again had surfaced. And this normally hopeful and brilliant spectrum was here to finish what he had started.
So when he closed his eyes, braced himself for pain, and nothing came, he opened his eyes again.
And there was something standing in front of him.
It was standing on four legs, that seemed to end in hooves like that of the ponies, even if they were smaller and delicate-looking. It would almost look like a deer, other than the fact that it had no markings on it's perfectly oblong skull other than two almond-shaped black eyes. It's tail was not small and fluffy either, but a dangerous-looking whip tipped with a triangluar flap of skin.
And instead of being injured by the Elements, the light seemed to be bending around it, wrapping around it's body and splitting into shards of glass. These shards - amid the constant turbulance and rainbow wreath - rearanged on it's shoulders to form a set of blilliant, sprkling wings. As the peices fell into place, markings lit up along the creatures' sides, and although they shouldn't have been very bright against the pure white skin, but they were.
And then the Elements stopped. Their Bearers fell to the ground, and the creature moved.
Thank you, Obsidian.
The creature dipped it's head and turned towards the Firstborn.
It is time.
With that, the turbulence kicked up again. Kha reared up, letting loose a piercing wail before charging forwards. His wings snapped open. Nobody moved. Nobody could.
And when Kha connected with the Creators, his wings broke into thousands of tiny little glittering peices, digging into their skin. And then they all vanished.
There was silence. None of the Elements moved, other than Obsidian, who was still trembling in pain.
"What happens now? Did... we win?"
"Ah don't know..."
KH-THMMMMMMM
"What was that?"
KH-THMMMMMMM
The sky exploded. Where it had once been turning to night, there was color. The enitre sky swirled and crumbled.
I can't stay... trapped...
KH-THMMMMMMM
"Well... I think I know what we're doing next." Obsidian muttered.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 41 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-02-19T18:43:01+00:00
|
2012-02-19T18:43:01+00:00
| 1,078 |
This chapter is for anyone who's been reading this all in one sitting to go and get a snack. Also, a chapter for character review and art :3
In other words, this is what will be going on while I work on the next chapter.
Basic Character Refresher List Thingy With A Lot Of Capitals:
There may be unfinished sentences. Just a warning.
Ancient Powers
Shard: Between an existance and an idea. The Shard is a conscience that takes wants and twists them to their darkest form, example: leadership - greed and power, revenge - bloodlust and violence. It took over Luna (NMM) once and smaller peices of it consumed certian ponies, creating the New Lunar Republic. Has power capable of destroying worlds.
Chaos: The balancing power to Void. Existed simply to balance Void. Was destroyed by their creations, something and nothing.
Void: The balancing power to Chaos. Existed simply to balance Chaos. Was destroyed by their creations, something and nothing.
Something - Commonly seen as Alicorn: Destroyed Chaos and Void with the help of nothing. Used the space left over to create worlds. Something was the power that made matter and shaped worlds. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of
Nothing - Commonly seen as wingless Raven with nine dragon's tails: Destroyed Chaos and Void with the help of something. Used the space left over to create worlds. Nothing was the power that shaped something's matter and filled her worlds. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of
Firstborn
Faenum - Bird-winged Wolf: Spirit of love, earth and life. Sister to Fulmen. Mothered Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of
Fulmen - Bat-winged Tiger Spirit of hate, storms and death. Sister to Faenum. Mothered Discord. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of
Maris - Snake Spirit of water, snow, and ice. Fathered Discord and Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of Lust.
Corona - Alicorn: Spirit of fire and the Sun. Fathered Celestia and Luna. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of Greed.
Altitudo - Dragon: Spirit of space and the Moon. Mothered Celestia and Luna. When corrupted, holds the characteristic of
Main Powers
Kha'dighreel (Skychaser) - Unknown Species (Pegasus ancestor): The first creature to ever be attacked by the Shard. Went from a calm navy Pegasus to killing his entire species in a delusion that they were fighting for his power. Was trapped in a pyschological state until given form again by the Elements of Harmony.
Celestia - Alicorn: One of two Princesses that ruled Equestria. She mainly controls the sun, but has enough power to control the moon and stars as well. After being killed by nothing, she was reanimated by Obsidian. White coat, pink-green-blue mane, sun Mark.
Luna - Alicorn: The second Princess that ruled Equestria. She rules over the night and the moon. She can control the sun with difficulty. Was captured and used by Discord when she freed him, and mothered Obsidian. Navy coat, dark blue starry mane, moon against black Mark.
Discord - Draconequus: Once controlled Equestria in a state of chaos before being imprisoned in stone by the Elements of Harmony. Broke out due to three fillies fighting, and was imprisoned again. Released a final time by Luna when she lost her sister. Used Luna and fathered Obsidian. Equine head, right deer antler, left blue twisted Unicorn horn, mismatched Ursa eyes, crimson body, salmon dragon tail, right tan lion paw, left yellow eagle talon, left brown buffalo hoof, right green dragon claw, right purple bat wing, left blue Pegasus wing.
Elements Of Harmony:
Sunrise - Dragon: A young dragoness, daughter of Spike, mother currently unknown. She used to be yellow with red highlights, but her color scheme changed when she became the Bearer of Magic. She is in love with Obsidian.
Tigerjay - Griffon: A boy Griffon, son of Gilda, father also unknown. He was a bluejay-tiger combination before Bearing Laughter and turning his bird half into a cardinal. Used to have a crush on Sunrise until Obsidian almost kicked him out of the sky without breaking a sweat.
Chibi - Zebra: Zercora's daughter, who only speaks in ryhme when her mother can hear. Otherwise, she talks normally. She is now yellow with pink stripes as the Bearer of Kindness.
Applesauce - Earth Pony: Applejack's granddaughter. Looks exactly like her, and therefore there was no change when she received the Element of Honesty.
Scootaloo - Pegasus: Secretly was an orphan through her entire childhood, idolized Rainbow Dash until her accident killed her and took care of Rainbow Dark - Dash's daughter - afterwards. She gained the Rainbow tail and mane when she became Loyalty.
Squishy Heart - Unicorn: Rarity's daughter. Her father was a fashion designer who was - sadly - stabbed by the giant decorative needle on top of his shop. Squishy's coat turned pure white when her mother passed on Generosity.
Obsidian - Draconequus: The 'surprise' son of Luna and Discord. He was the embodiment of Kha'dighreel - the eternal and undestroyable constant spirit of everything - until the spirit took form through the Element's power and destroyed the Firstborn, releasing Chaos and Void from their imprisonment. Kha could also speak to Obsidian in his mind. Obsidian is in love with Sunrise, and the Seventh Element, Unity.
Essentially Background Ponies:
Crimsonleaf - Alicorn: Son of Celestia and Big Macintosh. Would have been next in line for king if Discord hadn't... paired... with Luna and taken the title through age. His powers aren't strong enough to move the Sun or the Moon yet. Red coat with orange mane, yellow eyes. Red maple leaf Mark.
Grayscale (commonly disguised as Dinky Doo) - Alicorn (Unicorn): Daughter of Ditzy Doo and Discord. Because of this, she was one of the two creatures alive that could become Kha's carrier. Her grandparents are Faenum and Maris. Assorted grays for coat, mane and eyes. Blanched color wheel for a Mark.
Rapture - Pegasus: A mute gypsy with a dark brown coat and paler mane. His Mark is an old golden pocket watch. Peircing scarlet eyes.
Rainbow Dark - Pegasus: Rainbow Dash's daughter. Secretly jealous that her mother gave Loyalty to Scootaloo instead of her. Blue coat, spectrum mane, broken cloud Mark. Rose eyes.
Lamplight - Unicorn: Another nomad, with a lime green coat and slightly darker mane. Oddly long ears, purple eyes, oil lamp Mark. Enjoys arguing with Sunrise.
Sweetie Belle - Unicorn: Taking after her mother as a seamstress, her main job is patching all kinds of clothing for low prices to prevent poorer ponies from having to buy all-new outfits. Half of her store is actually all donated clothing going for free to ponies in need. New mark is a strung needle.
Apple Bloom - Earth Pony: The former Cutie Mark Crusader has settled down - at least, as much as possible. Her job as a florist may seem low matinence, but she takes it to the extreme by travelling - sometimes into dangerous territory - in search of new flowers. Part time scientist. New mark is a purple flower.
Bomber - Earth Pony: The gruffest nomad, also the oldest. Hates cold, hot, bright, dark, and everything in between. Doesn't talk much, even when complaining. Dark blue coat, paler mane, green eyes, lit bomb Mark.
Thumper - Earth Pony: Youngest of the gypsies, showed up in their camp freezing to death. Since then, it seems he's made a habit of it, almost dying on various occasions. Dull teal coat, light teal mane, blue eyes, wave Mark.
Starlight - Werepony: Scarlet coat, grey mane, orange-bordered-yellow-star Mark. Has a small crush on Scootaloo and is prone to passing out after turning into a wolf. Because of this, he doesn't like going back to places he's already been - too many questions - and vanishes for long periods of time.
Prisoners of Maris
Spring - Griffon: Sister of Summer. Despite looking alike, Summer is one year - exactly - older. Spring is the bouncier one, and her attitude became a lot more... dreary... while in Maris's confinment. She has perked up with exposure to the sun.
Summer - Griffon: Older sister of Spring, more shaken by the time enchantment. She doesn't talk much, and has a more grounded outlook on life.
Helia - Diamond Dog: Tan-bronze dog, doesn't talk unless she has something really important to say. Not afraid to fight for her right to speak.
Tene (pronounced Ten-ay) - Quetzocoatl: Green with yellow feather-tips. Talks lots, normally happy and bouncy. Realizes her sick mother is surely dead and that her brother is all alone. Is infuriated and depressed on this thought.
Spear - Dragon: Navy dragoness, about two years older than Sunrise, enjoys this authority. Pretends to have a crush on Obsidian. Sassy and sarcastic. Also, can see timestrands and is deeply disturbed by the massive quantities of knots.
...Meh, I'll finish this later. Time for Part Two!
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 42 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-20T21:28:35+00:00
|
2011-12-20T21:28:35+00:00
| 1,149 |
SUMMER (ONE YEAR LATER)
"C'mon, Obsidian! You're such a slowpoke!"
"That hardly seems fair!" He replied, pouncing on Sunrise's back. "After all, I am superior to you in every way!"
"Go soak your head." She laughed. Rolling out from under him, she stayed on her back, looking up at the clear sky - well, as clear as tyedye could get - and falling silent.
"What's up?" He asked, gently sliding a wing under her back as he lay down as well. "Was it something I did?"
"Huh? Oh no, nothing about you. Just... I don't know."
"No, tell me. I won't laugh. Promise."
Sunrise sighed. "It just seems like what we did was all for nothing. We were never in immediate danger before, and we still aren't. But things are still going wrong. Albeit the fact that Ponyville has been restored to it's former glory... oh, never mind."
"You think we were just wasting time. Time, effort, etcetera. I can understand that. Nothing new's been done, no danger... no excitement, really. Just boring, everyday life." Obsidian glanced over at her. "What? A guy can't have insightful thoughts once in a while?"
"No, not at all. Just that you... nailed what I was thinking."
"Ah. I was wondering why I was suddenly seeing myself as sexy." He smiled and flexed one arm. He stopped when Sunrise glared at him. "Ah... haha... yeah, not funny. I agree. Kinda. Anyway, we could go for a walk or something. Visist Canterlot. Or Appleloosa. Or... oh, I don't care. Wherever, I guess."
"I appreciate your... input, however useless it may be." Sunrise sighed. "I just... well, I was thinking..."
"What?"
She blushed and muttered something under her breath.
"I can't hear you. Speak up a little."
"I... like you..."
"Is that it?"
She shook her head. "No... I like you... and... will..."
Obsidian had to keep himself from asking her to hurry up. A blush this deep had to mean something.
"Will..." She paused, and seemed to lose her resolve. "Oh... never mind."
"Wait. I think I know where this is going. Crap, I thought I was going to beat you to the punch. Ah, well. Late than never," Sunrise tilted her head as he sat up and began shuffling through spacetime. After all, it was a good place to store stuff. He grinned and pulled something out, closing his hand quickly and hiding whatever it was behind his back.
"Let's go for a walk." He added. "Right now."
"Um... okay?" Sunrise awkwardly got up, following him into the Everfree edge - only just beginning to recover from the strong magic that had destroyed all of it. After a little while of silence, he turned and headed deeper, looking back occasionally to make sure she was following.
The trees thinned even further, revealing a meadow with a crystal clear pond. Hearing Sunrise's gasp, he walked up to the edge of the pond and sat down. "I didn't want to show you this until I was sure."
Sunrise sat down beside him. "Sure of what?"
Obsidian looked over and smiled, finally moving his paw to where she could see it. "I was waiting to be sure..." He crouched down in front of her, hooking his claws into whatever was in his hand and opening it. "...Sunrise... will you marry me?"
Her mouth opened and closed a few times. "O-O-Obsidian..."
"Oh... I'm sorry..." He closed his talons again. "We can stay friends?"
"Yes."
"That's good. I'm okay with being friends... I guess."
"No... I'll marry you." She smiled.
Obsidian blushed and reopened the case, slipping the shimmering ring on Sunrise's claw. The second he moved his hand away, Sunrise grabbed him in a hug and kissed him.
Kha's eye twitched. Emotions were flooding his system. Friggin' emotions. He closed his eyes, shaking his head, trying to dislodge the pressure.
"Hrrrnnngh!" He groaned, pain beginning to take place of annoyance. "Obsidian... I could have sworn I broke our connection... damn..."
A fresh wave of love and pleasure slammed into him, crumpling him to his knees. "HEY! WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, STOP IT! For... your own... good..."
Another crushing pulse. "The... PICTURES!" Kha screamed. "You IDIOT! If you don't stop, you'll see ALL OF THEM! CAN YOU HEAR ME? ...Idiot... I can't even friggin' get away."
The same rythmic surge flattened him further, shearing away power and resolve. Tiny nicks growing ever closer to splitting. Ever so close...
Obsidian lifted his chest from Sunrise's. "Something feels weird."
"What else is new?"
"No, just... wait. Be quiet for a second." He lifted his head, looking around.
After a few moments, "Is someone coming?"
"I don't think so... must have been hearing thi-" His sentence cut off as he fell sideways, paws pressed against his head, tiny trails of blood beginning to drip from his ears. His mouth opened and closed silently as the rets of him writhed, back claw digging into the ground.
"Obsidian! What's wrong?! Obsidian! Obsidi..."
Then his senses folded shut.
What was this?! There was blood all over his feet, metal shards whipped through the air, bodies of things that reminded him of himself falling down, screaming and clutching at their bleeding chests, allies turning away to do the same to the enemy...
The ground was dry, crackled under his feet, while spindly, leafless excuses for trees provided meager shade for thousands of people thin as his wrists...
Water surged through the fragile houses, ripping them out of the ground and slamming them into other houses, trees...
A massive storm tore through a seaside town, throwing anything in it's path aside. The air went still for a moment as the eye hit, and every single deathly remnant became crystal clear...
"Obsidian! Talk to me! What's wrong?" Sunrise had magicked him to the ground, keeping him from flailing. His eyes were still shut, and the crimson flow has increased dramatically.
And then everything just... stopped. Obsidian froze. There were a few moments of silence with the lack of agonized moans before Obsidian's eyes slowly opened again.
But they didn't look like his eyes. They looked... soulless. There was nothing in them to pull away from the illusion of an endless pit, and seemed to even command that falling effect. His coat slowly turned pristine white, emitting a thick fog of the same colour.
Sunrise backed away, fearing for his life over hers. The smoke can terrifyingly close, brushing up around her ankles. She fell forward as the joints mentioned went numb, and struggled to keep her head free.
She was fighting a losing battle.
"Obsidian! I love you!"
The smoke coiled around her neck and head like a snake, coating all of her senses in a sticky, static white before moving into her mind as well.
And it kept going.
Kha cried, clawless hooves dragging across the ground. The ground he had killed.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 43 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-25T02:07:27+00:00
|
2011-12-25T02:07:27+00:00
| 1,131 |
"Hmm? ...What the heck?" Discord's eyes opened against a white pony's. The creature whinnied shrilly and cantered off into the... fog? "What's going on?"
The world seemed to be stuck in a perpetual cloudiness. The pony that had run off was already out of sight, uneven - limping? - hoofbeats following the same path. A quicker pace appeared quickly, bolting through his bubble of vision. The pony's eyes were wide with terror, seemingly blind to his presence before vanishing again, nickering in fear.
The first pony... was one that Discord didn't recognize. And that was odd. After all, he had been forced to learn everypony's name by mane - Tigerjay was as stubborn as a mule - and nopony new had moved to the town lately. Pure white... he contemplated. It had... black eyes. Pure black eyes.
Sitting up, he looked around the clear bubble of air around him. Another pony ran past, looking up at him before sceaming in terror and bolting off. Discord streched out his arms, cracking his knuckles as he did so. "Well," he muttered, "I have to start somewhere."
Flapping his wings a few times, it wasn't long before he was overhead the fleeing mare, his shadow vanishing in the thin layer of mist between them. Smiling devilishly, he plunged downward, catching the pony in one claw before gliding back into the air, feeling the earth pony slowly stop struggling.
"D-D-D-Discord? Did you kill them?"
"Kill who?"
"The ghosts. The ones chasing me. Did you kill them?"
"I didn't see any ghosts. You were alone."
"Most of them ran away. A big one chased me until you caught me. Then it vanished. Thank you. For getting rid of it."
Discord stopped flying. "Oh, we're in some deep crap now."
"What?"
The draconequus smiled. "Sorry, Peach Bushel, I have to go take care of some business." He swooped close to the ground, dropping the pony on the pale grass and trying to find his bearings.
"There you are, Sunrise." He muttered, before teleporting away.
The dragonness woke up in a red-furred embrace. "Oh thank Celestia, Obsidian. It was just a nightmare."
A set of talons gripped her tail and lifted her away. "Don't get all lovey with me. I don't think your precious boyfriend would ever forgive me."
"Discord!?" Sunrise screeched, backing away from the senior draconequus. "Ohmygosh I'm so sorry!"
"No problem. My fault entirly. Soooo... something tells me this has to do with Obsidian."
"Yeah. At least, I think... yes. Yes it was."
"Anything else I should know before I have to go save the world again?"
"Um... weeeeeell..."
"Hurry up."
"We're kinda engaged."
"Great." Discord panned. "I'll celebrate once all this chaos is under control. Man, I never thought I would say that."
As he prepared to take off again, Sunrise leaped up onto his shoulders. "I'm coming with you!" She growled. "And you're not stopping me."
"Ugh."
Obsidian paced around the edge of the sludgy black pool. Each time he put a claw down, another mass moved under the surface.
Come. He muttered, warily eying the surface. Come.
Obeying his command, a shivering, ooze-dripping thing pulled itself out of the pool to a gelatin heap in front of him. Slowly, the siquid's surface cooled to a white velvet, and the thing uncoiled to it's feet.
It was vaguely a pony. A Unicorn in it's crudest form. Missing all mane and most of it's tail, with one longer leg, ending in talons, while the pale skin looked slick as a seal's. The creature rose it's head from the ground, the twisted hornon it's brow carefully moved to avoid brushing it's master. Slowly, two eyes opened, deep and dark as molasses.
The two stood facing each other for a few moments, before Obsidian snarled and reared up. Go. Worthless one.
Dipping it's head in shame, the thing loped away, vanishing into the madness of the fog.
Obsidian resumed his pacing, whispering his command into the unearthly bog beside him. Come. Come. Come. Come. Come.
This one was larger, stronger. The mass eyched it's features in quickly, rising to it's hooves and able to look the standing draconequus in the eye with ease. The smaller deatail were completed before the horn even began expanding, a spire of pale 'bone'. The skeleton of the beast began pushing against the slimy skin, enveloping it and leaving the exposed bone as an outer shell, mere glimpses of the skin between laced marrow. With a drying slowness, a set of naked, boney wings slipped limply along it's body, a few thin feathers shafting between the bone with a deathly chill. It blinked open intelligent, grey eyes, darker pupils flitting around as it sized both it's creator and the few measly creatures Obsidian had chosen to keep up.
Obsidian tilted his head towards the other 'kept' creatures. Well. What will you do?
The Alicorn - for, although disfigured and unnatural, was one of that rare breed - took a few graceful steps past it's master, keeping it's calculating gaze on him, while it's skeletal hooves clicked on shattered shards of older creations. Glaring down at the smaller minions, it turned a quizzical ear to Obsidian.
Whatever you wish. He added. Do whatever you wish.
With a banshee wail, the creature reared up, slamming a bone-shod hoof down onto the summoned skull of one of the minions. It's twin horns broke off, and it fell to the ground, writhing in pain. The royal minion turned a feiry gaze on the other drones, which bowed quickly, trembling in fear.
Obsidian turned a disgusted eye to the broken creature quivering on the ground. Ask'gedir Grotto Surf. He snarled, releasing the stolen soul back into limbo while the body dissolved back into black gruel.
Celestia. He crooned. The creature glared back at him, unbridled fury contained in it's dead form. The pretty precious Princess. I need a ruler, to take care of my troops, however meager they may be. I trust you to follow my orders. After all, go ahead and try to disobey. A small butterfly, still surprisingly alive, lighted on the grass between them. How fitting. He continued. Impeccable timing. Now, Tia, kill it.
The Alicorn stood still, the bones visibly locking. Instantly, the enchantment took hold, sending lance after lance of electric pain over the wet skin. Celestia's new, twisted body dropped to it's knees, her eyes locking desperately on the small, beautiful insect she had been order to kill.
Slowly, she extended a painridden, trembling hoof, and, after a moment of silent resistance, brought the appendage down with a sickening, tiny crunch. The Alicorn looked like she was going to throw up through her sharp clenched teeth.
Not so hard, is it? It was just a butterfly, after all. One symbol of happiness. Something in the new overlord clicked. There's nothing happy anymore, is there?! He roared, shoving Celestia to the ground, setting his claw down on her horn and pressing down angrily. There's nothing frickin' happy in this entire blasted world!
There was a loud crack, and Celestia opened her mouth in a soundless scream of pain. Obsidian snapped back to calm and collected almost as fast as he had left it, looking down at the useless bone spire pinned under his talons. Rrrrrrgh! He yelled in exasperation, lifting the Alicorn's head and slamming the horn back into painful place, the sheer power behind the impact reverting the surroundign bone to sludge and moulding around the newly-returning channeler.
He turned his back on the sobbing Alicorn and her underlings. Not hard at all.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 44 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-26T03:58:18+00:00
|
2011-12-26T03:58:18+00:00
| 983 |
Obsidian teleported away from his creations, leaving the lower ones to bear the brunt of Celestia's spectral fury. Gently alighting on a cloud above the fog layer, he watched the shadows of ponies run on the edge of madness, a single misstep able to send them plunging into it... forever.
Except that he knew he was not the only one immune to the smoke. His father, for one. And there would be others, but none as strong.
Sighing, he looked up towards the stationary, dim orb in the sky that had become the dying shell of a celestial body in the past few hours. The moon beside it looked just as expired, craters visibly crumbling from even the ground.
No night. No day. Dim. He concluded, the weight of the pictures pressing on his mind. It is... dim. Twilight.
Sighing again, he looked back down, easily finding the breach that contained his father. And on his back, glancing around almost as wildly as he was, there was a dragon.
An inner twitch made Obsidian's corrupt heart skip a beat. What? He looked down at his chest, prodding the white fur. What's wrong with me?
Kha lifted his head slightly from the ground that was now premantently imprinted with his body. It's love, Obsidian. It's love.
Discord shifted the dragonness on his shoulders. "Claws!" He reminded her.
"Sorry. I'm stressed." She blushed, quickly unhooking her talons. "Any sign of him?"
"Because I can see so much better than you can."
"Oh, I don't know. Can't you use some special draconequus powers or something?"
He frowned. "I almost dropped you there. Maybe you should use special dragon powers. In other words, I don't have any hidden powers." As he shrugged, something began to appear beneath them, flashing through the mist in a way that would have been faster if it was going straight.
"What is that?" Sunrise whispered.
In response, Discord sped up, hoping to get away from this stealthy shadow. It just matched his pace. "What in Equstri-AHH!"
The creature shot upwards with a single beat of shed wings, tackling him from below with a set of jagged hooves. The draconequus slowed, looking dumbly down at the deep wounds across his belly. Sunrise was quiet for about .5 seconds before she started screaming.
In direct reaction to her panic and fear, the Element of Magic materialized on her forehead, pale white magic shooting out in a deadly lance, spearing the attacker and carrying it to the ground. The fog consumed whatever happened next, while Sunrise shook the white glow from her eyes. The gash on Discord's body sealed up, soft new fur covering the scar.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a few moments. "Where was I? Oh yes, I remember. What in Equestria was that?"
"Hopefully, dead." Sunrise growled. "Or we're up against something near-immortal."
Cautiously, Discord spiralled closer to the ground, almost crashing into the upright, sparkling bolt that Sunrise had conjured. Luckily, whatever had attacked them was speared right through the middle, still as stone.
As Discord moved the bubble of air around the body, Sunrise jumped down, padding to it's side and feeling for a pulse.
One black globe of an eye opened on the creature's face, rolling slowly to look at the dragon. Opening it's mouth slowly, it let out a drawn-out moan, kicking weakly at the magic.
"Oh my god." Sunrise whispered. "It's still alive."
She was surprised to be moved aside by a bird's talon as Discord took her place, running his other paw along the creature's flank, outlining the bolt. "Are you ready?" He muttered. The creature moaned again. Gritting his teeth, Discord grabbed the bolt and jerked it out, moving his paw to block the blood flow immediatley after.
Tossing the bolt aside, he leaned on the open wound. "Hey, magicbutt, I need some help."
"Oh, sorry!" Sunrise yelped, pressing her paws over Discord's.
He glared at her, dissatisfiededly frowning. "Magic, imbecile."
Stammering and blushing, Sunrise once more lit the stores inside her, and the black ooze creeping out from between Discord's fingers slowed and cooled back to white. The thing lay still for a few moments, eyes blinking slowly, before it's wing lashed out and knocked the two aside. Quickly righting itself, the creature flared out it's wings, crouching close to the ground.
"Well, if this is how it has to be." Discord growled, a yellow magic beginning to glow around his fingers. "I'll fight."
Sunrise stepped in front of him, as far as the bubble of air would allow, crouching down in front of the creature, which had backed up as she came forward.
"Shh, shh, shh... it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry for attacking you." The creature looked back at it's side in confusion, before meeting her gaze again and making a tiny mewl. "I know. I hurt you. But it's better now, right?"
"Huh. Maybe Chibi should've gotten Magic instead." Discord commented.
She reached out, not slowing when the beast winced. "It's okay."
Leaning back on an invisble pillow, Discord watched over Sunrise's shoulder. "Huh. Odd, I could have sworn I've seen this guy before. Yeah, he woke me up. Kinda creepily. Soooo... what is it?"
"I don't know. It looks like a Pegasus. In a haunting, abstract way. Do you think that...?"
"No, I think it was all Celestia's fault." Discord drawled, putting his paws on his hips as the creature scrambled to it's feet and cantered away. "Of course it was Obsidian."
--~*~---
Obsidian slammed his talon down onto his father's chest. You're going to wish you died sooner!
"I do." Discord whispered, looking up through a black-ringed eye. "I miss you."
I NEVER MISSED YOU!
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 45 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-02-19T21:18:07+00:00
|
2012-02-19T21:18:07+00:00
| 1,001 |
"Can't these things-" Tigerjay huffed, "-buck off? I mean-" He kicked his legs out again. "-this can't be a-" Again. "-pleasant experience!"
Fanning his wings to cool himself down, he spun around, nailing his tail into the cheek of one of the deformed monsters. The bubble around him was a private prison, surrounded by the ghostly white ponies who continously threw themselves towards him, ignoring any injuries they were recieving to lauch back into the fray.
Extending his back claws, the next kick send razor-sharp talons over the deformed pony's eyes. Opening it's mouth in a slimy, silent scream, the creature reared up, falling onto it's back. It's legs kicked once before it went still, and only a few moments passed before the herd came surging over the body with crooked hooves.
"Well." Tigerjay grimaced at the black goop dripping from his back talons. "One mystery solved: how to kill a... whatever these things are."
But it would be so... easy~ to give in, would it not?
"Whoever you are, help me!"
A tall stick of an Alicorn stepped out of the mist. It's delicate, wiry features were marred only by a massive underbite, lined with massive fangs, dripping green slime. It's wings were simple rods of bone streching in a cemented arch over it's back, joints fused together. The creature smiled a grotesque, mutant crocodile grin. I must admit, I almost just finished you off with my army. Alas, it seems you instead must die by my hooves. Such a pity. What a waste of a good, young life on such trivialities as a war. It leaned in, serrated teeth inches from Tigerjay's beak. I wish I could have known you under better circumstances.
Tigerjay scruched up his face and pushed the monster's muzzle away from his. "Your breath reeks."
The Alicorn's smirk turned into a scowl, and it's glassy eyes narrowed. Prepare to die, insolent scum!
Tigerjay smiled happily. "We'll see. We'll see. In fact, I have a little something for you to see."
Of course you do. You may follow through with your final act. The regal creature waved a passive hoof.
The Griffon searched for something behind his back for several moments, before spinning and sending an explosive cloud of confetti and sparkles into the attacker's face. As the Alicorn sputtered, Tigerjay laughed. "Party popper!"
I. Will. END YOU!
"Good luck!" Tigerjay laughed.
"When there's something strange~
Hunting you down~
And you know it's there~
'Cause your heart starts to pound~"
That doesn't even ryhme.
"Who you gonna call?~"
Why are you singing anyway?
"THE POLICE!" Tigerjay yelled, leaping over the confused Alicorn's head and planting his claws on the merged shoulder blades, hooking them in the near-invisble seam between the wing and the leg, and p u l l i n g.
What? What are you doing? The Alicorn sputtered, swinging it's head to try and reach Tigerjay with either it's fangs or it's horn. Tigerjay yelped as a nauseatingly victorius crkksshthmp echoed in the sudden silence. On bony wing hung limply on the ground, exposing the entire left flank and shoulder.
The creature's voice gasped in pain, devoid of the ability to scream. I feel like I'm going to hurl. It stated, falling forward onto it's knees. Fine! You've beaten me. Show some level of mercy in that killing soul of yours and end my suffering!
"You don't even deserve to die. There is no heaven or hell bad enough to house a creature like you."
And what makes me any more different from you? You fought back. You killed. And even if I live, I'll be permantently wounded. Which one of us is better?
Tigerjay looked at the limp carcass from the disfigured Herd. "Neither of us deserves death. The one who made this even happen is the one that deserves death." He paused.
"Death so painful that not even a soul will be left to judge."
"Hey, do you ever think about what's going to happen after we die?"
"Nothing. Complete and utter blackness. Or whiteness. Depending on how full the glass is."
Sunrise frowned. "That's kind of depressing."
"Death's kind of depressing." Discord replied. "And I'd prefer not to think about it."
"Well, I've been trying to find out how old you are."
"Good luck."
"You've been in stone for over a thousand - Luna's banishment - and one-hundred - we have living record - years. And you were an adult when you were imprisoned at first."
"The first calculation would be two-thousand, five-hundred and twenty-three years, also two hours, ten minutes and thirty-two seconds."
"Ah, thank you - you counted?!"
"I had nothing else to do except look out of these tiny little carved eyeholes for entertainment. And being suspended in limbo is excruciantingly painful with a full bladder."
"Ugh. No need for any more information. So, two-thousand-six-hundred-and-twenty-three years in imprisonment."
"Yes."
"So how old were you when you first got stoned?"
Discord glared at her. "I'm taking that offensively."
"Oh, how else should I word it?"
"Twenty-five." He growled pointendly. "I wasn't even that powerful. Now, when I came back, hoho, I was strong then! I was the king of the world~!"
"You are two-thousand, six-hundred and fifty, because it's been two years since you were set free. You're old."
"Actually, you don't age in limbo. I'm twenty-seven. Not so old at all, am I?"
"You're as annoying as a schoolfilly though!"
"Hurtful!" Discord exclaimed. "Dear Equestria, I'll be depressed for the rest of my young life! Woe is me!"
"Shut up, Discord."
Ignoring the dragonness, he started ranting. "And would you believe her nerve to imprison me on my birthday?! And I saw Luna knitting me a pair of socks!"
"That's just great."
"And so when she got out these pretty stones, it was kind of surprising, because she kind of hated me at the time, and I was thinking how expensive they must have been, and then Luna walked in with my present and looked all shocked. I thought I wasn't supposed to see these gems until they were wrapped, but then Luna dropped the present and walked over beside Celestia, and man I thought they were going to start singing - you know how ponies are, songs for everything - and then the stones started sparkling, so I instantly thought disco, and started singing hilariously operatically, and next thing I knew I was stuck in stone, in that embarrasing pose! Not the best birthday ever. Nowhere close. Being let out on my birthday was much better. I never got around to thanking those fillies."
"Please be quiet."
"Damn. I just realized I was a father at twenty-six. Not the future I planned. It involved many more castles, my dream. Ooh, and an Equestria-wide five-bar wifi connection! And anarchy. Well, except for me, because I'd be king, but everyone else could be below me in anarchy. Yes, that would work. Quite nicely. And Celestia and Luna could be my servants, in embarrasing maid outfits. Hah! I have such a brilliant mind~"
"Oh. My. Sweet. Equestria. Can't you make a mute button first?!"
"Nah. Where was I? Birthdays. We were talking about birthdays. What was your favourite birthday?"
"They're all the same. Dragons can't give presents. Greed complex and all. So it was maybe and extra burned opal waffle at breakfast or something."
"Huh." Discord went quiet for a few precious moments. "I never suspected Spike of being a good cook anyway."
Sunrise facepalmed.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 46 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-27T19:56:35+00:00
|
2011-12-27T19:56:35+00:00
| 971 |
"Mom! Mom, I've found you!" Tigerjay purred, butting his head into his sleeping mother's flank. "Mom! Wake up! I'll get us out of here, and we'll save everyone!" He lifted his head, picking up her splayed wing in his beak and moving it to a more relaxed position on her flank. "I agree, you should sleep for a little while longer. You've been through a lot."
He started grooming her wing, careful not to look back at the gaping wound covering half of her face. It wasn't there. She was sleeping, and he was keeping her safe, and her face was perfect.
His pupils shrank slightly. Everything was perfect. Just perfect.
Obsidian tapped a claw against the cold stone. He had flown up to the higer reaches of the Everrise, the large mountian that had been known to house sleeping dragons and greedy ones. He had found the cave with ease, but it had been cleared out long ago, either by the previous owner or magpies.
The bleached draconequus didn't care for the riches, but for the minerals in the walls. Dragon smoke, when trapped in a single area, eventually cools and hardens into a black stone that looks somewhat like ice. When used as a weapon, it explodes on impact, and is very hard to mold into arrowheads and the like because of that. When ground carefully, it can be used as a medicine that heals even the worst diseases in seconds. But, due to the rapid migration and extinction of the dragon species, this rare stone was becoming harder and harder to find.
It's Har'threin to them. The dragons. Ponies can't say Har'threin. I can. Obsidian was mildly proud of this fact, in the primitive state his mind had shrunk to.
And this was when his even grimmer side came out. Har'threin's base element, the smoke's essence, had the magic of the dragon bearer. It only cooled once the dragon had died. Which made it even rarer. In fact, the rock was warm to the touch for millenia after it's owner's death, while the smoke layer holding the stone in place stayed hellfire hot.
With a forgein touch, all of it would shatter, impaling the harvesters and bystanders. It was a last-second protection for the dead dragon's hoard, as any non-dragon or well-educated pony would avoid the precious stone in choice of the hoard. Anything else would go for the rock first, because no matter what a dragon hoarded, the stone was thousands of times more expensive. And they would touch it, and it would kill them.
Dragons were truly greedy creatures.
H'rhanath! Obsidian yelled back out of the doorway. H'rhanath, Red Blossom!
The twisted Pegasus in question stumbled on her back hooves into the cave, front hooves ending in mantis-like claws that were too fragile to put weight on. She fluttered her surprisingly intact wings and looked at him, waiting for further command.
Looking over the battle-ready scythe hands of his most loyal underling, he sighed and rolled his eyes. Summon Reed Blower. I'm not killing you.
The pony nodded enthusiastically and flapped her wings, slowly lifting herself towards the entrance once again. On one of her upbeats, a single white feather came loose, floating merrily up and brushing against the shining ceiling.
A spiderweb of fracture lines spread out quicky, small shards already beginning to shake loose. Red Blossom had cleared the cave entrance, leaving Obsidian under the largest ceiling of Har'threin in Equestria.
He lowered his eyebrows in a deadpan glare, matching it with a disapproving scowl. Damn.
Red Blossom, oblivious of what had happened, returned shortly with a smaller, weaker Alicorn; pitifully weak, actually. Seeing the cave entrance closed by massive shards of black glass, she galloped ahead, trying to push the massive panes aside with brute strength, even trying to slice them with her claws.
The tiny Alicorn chuffed, silently reminding her of this missions... explosive properties... and how their leader was quite strong - a firm nod - and that he could have survived this, but probably not a contained nuclear-level fireball.
Red Blossom fearfully stepped away from the glassy stone.
With a tiny, sickly green halo of magic, the Alicorn expended a massive effort, sweating and trembling. The stone shifted, and he collapsed to the ground, hyperventilating in exhaustion. Red Blossom looked at the pebble of glass he had moved, no bigger than the tip of her claw.
Her quizzical, sarcastic glare was cut off by the glassy barrier trembling, eruptive edges grinding dangerously together. The Pegasus leaped behind Reed Blower, holding him up in front of her, and impaling him through the chest - twice - with her bladed arms.
A sudden red bubble of magic appeared around her, definately not from the dying Reed Blower, that coincidied with the massive explsoion perfectly, deflecting all debris and hellfire shrapnel. As soon as the fiery chaos was over, the bubble flickered before disappaiting, the thick black smoke rushing away from the mountain in a whirlwind of magic. As the Pegasus lowered her spasming sheild, her gaze locked onto her creator, standing in the entrance of the cave, not a single mark on him. Instead, he padded past the two, ignoring Reed's pain, and scowling down at the last few explosions down the side of the mountian as the shrapnel collided with ancient stone.
He took a deep breath, trying to keep from getting too angry.
Splendid mess. That was our armoury you just destroyed. Not to mention our bank to take over financially run countries. He tore his eyes away from the devastation of his safety deposits, to fix them angrily on his minions. It's now your job to personally search for gemstones and gold in the Everfree, you worthless hunks of glue! His voice raised in volume as his constricted anger grew. Get out there and don't come back unless you've replaced that entire value, or your limp carcass is being dragged by a deranged manticore! Understand?!
Red Blossom backed up, hanging her head in shame. "I understand, master." Reed Blower nodded, not having been blessed with a throat, mouth or vocal chords.
Get out of my sight! And make sure nopony else comes up here unless they have GOOD NEWS!
He slammed his hoof down, splintering off a large section of stone and sending it plummeting downwards, the two ponies clinging to the top. The conversation ended, Obsidian leaned back in an invisble hammock, putting two of his claws to his temples.
I'm surrounded by such imbeciles...
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 47 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2011-12-28T17:37:09+00:00
|
2011-12-28T17:37:09+00:00
| 1,129 |
Kha trembled, realizing that he must have been bleeding without realizing it. His front hooves were a cheery crimson colour. When he moved to rub it off, it caught in a dip in his normally smooth muzzle.
"What the heck?" It took his brain a few moments to catch up. He just spoke. Out loud. With a mouth.
"Jeezus!" He yelled jumping up. He almost fell back down, and only manged to catch himself with a lightning-fast hoof. "Oh no no no no no. No no no. This can't be happening." He glanced around at his normally long tail. It was... stubby, to say the least. In fact, a set of glossy, electric-blue strands poked through the pale skin. The bright red on his front paws was dulling, darkening to a navy color as shock set in and Kha fell back on his haunches. "I was certainly not expecting this." He muttered to himself.
He looked down at the dark blue hooves again, much thicker than they were before. Getting back to his feet - hard, considering his short tail messed up his center of balance - and tried walking. Three steps before he knew he couldn't go further. His muscles returning was eating away at his energy. And... he had a mouth now. Did that mean he had to... eat?"
"No... at least, not yet. I can't wait until I get my wings back." He looked up at the sky, despite the fact that it was the same empty white at his feet. "And then I can finally get out of this hellhole and punch Obsidian until he gets his facts straight."
"Hey, Discord? Discord? DISCORD!"
He jumped up from the ground, wide awake. He glared at Sunrise's rude awakenings and attempted to smooth down his on-end fur. "What?!"
"Have you ever thought about having another kid?"
"Uh-uh. Nope. Nada. Nix. Nine. No way, no how."
"Not with me, idiot!"
Discord let out a sigh. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
Sunrise made a gagging face. "Fine with me."
"Anyway, no. I think Obsidian is problem enough."
"How about a... grandchild?"
"Nah... wait... WHAT?!"
Sunrise blushed with a tiny smile. "Surprise?"
"I'll be right back, Mom! Just going to go find some food! Oh yeah, you can't stay alone, the fog will make you hurt more."
You're pathetic.
"Huh? Who's there! Don't hurt Mom!"
Because I could cause her so much pain. She's dead, idiot.
"No! She's sleeping! Right Mom? You're sleeping!"
Let me give you a biology lesson - nothing can live while missing half it's head.
"Did you make Mom so tired?"
SHE'S NOT SLEEPING! SHE'S DEAD! DEAD AS A ROCK! GONE! FOREVER! SHE'S NOT EVER FRIGGIN' WAKING UP!
Tigerjay started sobbing, hugging the cold corpse of Gilda. "Y-y-y-you're sle-sle-sleeping, r-right M-M-M-Mom?"
She's not sleeping! Get over it!
"You're just like that mean Alicorn! Stop being so mean!"
That... Alicorn? Oh yes, him. He's dead too.
"You... killed him?"
Of course. A useless pony is a dead pony, to me.
But it's not... Obsidian's quivering concience whispered. It's not the same... Some different part of him split the fog with a talon, landing the draconequus in the bubble of air.
He scowled down at the cowering Griffon and it's dead parent. Lifting the talon once again; Sa'arbinath.
Gilda's body slowly melted, Tigerjay stepping away in fear, turning into a puddle of black gruel. Hy'ther.
The goo reformed, tendrils snakily climbing a rapidly solidifying skeleton. Skin reformed as a white paste. The Griffon stood up on dead paws, rearing up and roaring with a jaw full of dagger-teeth. Her wings were bare of feathers, instead being excessivley coated in long spikes. Tigerjay backed further away from his reincarnated mother, coming to a stop again sonething tall and solid. That had claws on it.
He looked up, seeing Obsidian's disapproving scowl glaring back. The overlord lifted his talon, shaking the Element of Laughter free. Oh, she won't hurt you. At least, not until I tell her to.
Tigerjay let out a wail that matched the emotion and volume of a banshee before running away, his personal air bubble vanishing in the thick fog.
I think that went well. What about you, Gilda?
She turned dark black orbs at him and glared, baring her sharp teeth.
Oh yes, I forgot I didn't let you talk. Probably for the better.
Far away from this sad, sad scene, a creature was standing. It was massive, easily able to curl around it's perch - Everrise - twice. It's body shone with pale purple scales, while it's belly was a sea of dark green panels. It unfolded it's great wings, shifting them to a more comfortable position. Two giant cat's pupils looked over the sea of mist below, the sight spurring black talons to dig into the mountainside.
Spike growled. "If Sunrise is hurt, you little rat, I'll hurt you until you wish you were dead.
"Sunrise, I'm so sorry... I destroyed... everything."
Tears rn down the dragonness's cheeks, but she tried desperately to hide them. "Don't speak. You're going to be okay."
"I admire... your determindness."
"I'm not sure if that's a real word."
Obsidian laughed, spurring a fresh wave of crimson to slide from his mouth. "Sunrise... whatever happens next... I love you."
"Don't talk like that! You're going to live. You have to live."
"I don't have to do... hhrk... anything."
"Just... don't go."
"I can't help... dying, Sunrise. I'll... meet you..." he smiled, a crooked, broken thing, "...where the page... proclaims... the end."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 48 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-02-19T21:27:35+00:00
|
2012-02-19T21:27:35+00:00
| 1,063 |
The pale Earth Pony barely shivered against Obsidian's newest onslaught. The fiery projectiles impacted the stallion's skin with a black ripple, cratering the pasty suface. On top of that were the words, the scalding words that dug deeper than any weapon.
I hate you! I despise your race, your ethics, your kingdom, your land! I hate you so, so much!
The Mist Lord - as he had taken to calling himself - paced angrily, only keeping one claw steady, the claw that was firing continous shards of fire.
I hate you enough to suspend Windigoes in your soul and Hydras in your gut!
He grabbed the pony in one claw, slowly closing his furry paw around the deviation's neck. The creature didn't even bother to struggle.
Rrrrrngh... I just hate you.
His voiceless shout dropped to nothing louder than a sigh, with a dangerous lowness. He uncoiled his claws, letting the creature slump to the ground. Letting a pair of Unicorns move the wounded creature to a safer range, Obsidian's fuming was cut short as another being entered the area.
The Alicorn's bone-clad hooves still outshone any of his other creations. Such a pity it was Celestia's soul inside it.
What is it? And no bad news. I am not in a good mood.
She cleared her enchanted throat. I hate to disrupt whatever volatile expression of violence you've decided to temper your anger against.
Of course you do.
She glared at him, a twin row of spikes sliding out of her neck in place of an angrily jagged pastel mane. And because I know you won't kill me, no matter what I decide is worth telling you, I want to inform you that the two idiots that you sent out to find gemstones have returned, with nothing to show for their missing limbs. On top of that, we've had record minion losses... at least a hundred from my division, she snorted angrily, The Griffon has been mowing down our ranks, while your father has done nothing to aid us or hinder us. Your wife is at the same mutuality. Is there any way you wish to affect their desicion?
They can do whatever the buck they want. I don't care.
Imbecile, I want to remind you that I hate having to give you good ideas, but they may recollect the Elements in order to defeat you, and return the prior glory of Equestria.
I already said I didn't care! Get out of my sight! Maybe... maybe they will find the Elements... maybe this can all be over...
Kha spun, scuffing his new hooves against the ground. White scraped up like peeling skin, revealing dirt and grass and water. The once-white being had darkened considerably, only a few patches of ivory left on his flanks.
Laughing happily, he re-planned the mental map he had of his home, rubbing his side up against a solid wall that slowly revealed itself as a tree. Something like an eplosion shook the ground, and the navy Pegasus paused, eyes closed.
A second later, something small and wet spalshed on his back. He shook it off, but it was quickly followed by many more. Slowly, he opened one eye, seeing a rushing torrent of blissfully clear rain pouring from a graying sky.
"Color!" He yelled, rearing up on his hind hooves. "It's freakin' color!"
Seeing a puddle forming nearby, he cantered over, dipping his muzzle in. After a long drink, he lifted his head up, looking into the rippling surface.
A pair of black eyes looked back.
Sighing, the stallion closed them, letting the rain run down his face. With a small flicker of hope, he reopened one.
This time, a black... red-irised pupil looked back.
"We'll just keep trying," Tigejay hummed in the foggy silence, "'til we run out of cake."
You again? Haven't you... oh, I don't know... thrown yourself off of a high precipice or something by now?
"Why would I? There's no sense in crying over every mistake~"
My god! Please... please don't sing. Obsidian's ivory form materialized through his thick blanket of mist. Did you really buy that whole 'True Manticore' crap? Because I think I really pushed that too hard.
"Well... what hurt Mom?"
"IDIOT!" Obsidian roared, the sound echoing around the silence while he regained his composure. Think about it, featherbutt. I'm like the freaking god right now. Anything that can kill right now is pretty much under my control. Let's see that chicken brain of yours in action.
"Um... you killed her?"
Yes. Thank Equestria, I thought I'd have to explain myself over again. With pictures or something.
"So, why are you here, Mister Scary-Pants?"
My name is not scarypants. Obsidian hissed. You've known me since I was born. At least, your memory span should be that long.
Tigerjay stuck his tongue out. "I don't care what you say."
I hate you so much right now.
As Sunrise slept peacefully against his warm flank, Discord lay with his head on his hands, trying to remember what really made he banish him.
It was getting on his nerves.
Discord - much younger - lay on his back in the crimson throne, toying at one of the loose threads with a claw.
"Stop doing that!" A tiny voice squeaked.
Dropping the string, Discord rolled over, looking across the empty courtroom. A small Alicorn stood there, navy hooves sliding slightly on the smooth stone. She cantered up, skidding to a stop with her tiny wings flared.
"Come on! You know daddy hates it when you do that."
"He's not my dad." Discord grumbled.
"Corona's trying his best." A second female voice hissed as a slightly older Alicorn waltzed in, pink mane limp around her neck. "Which is more than I can say for you."
"Great, you're here. I needed a pony princess to help me solve my thread picking issues." Discord drawled, glaring at the white filly.
"Please don't fight again." Luna whispered. "I don't want daddy to throw the sun into Equestria."
"Puh-leeze, Luna," the draconequus growled, "he's just scaring you into behaving. If he had the power to move a billion tons of burning gas and flame into a collision course with the planet, he would have done it a long time ago."
Celestia took the chance. "Like when you were born?"
Discord's yellow eyes filled with rage. With a voiceless roar, he kicked away from the cushion, the impact lauching the golden throne backwards as he jumped forward. There was a single moment where time seemed to stop as Discord hung in midair, eyes locked on Celestia's purple ones. Then he was falling, landing on her fleeing back and rolling her onto the ground, lion paw raised, claws outstreched in a killing stance, the white filly beneath him staring up in terror, limp under his weight.
And then he was thrown aside, wings barely missing being speared by the new fighter's sharp horn. The scarlet Alicorn lit his mane in ethreal golden flames, standing over his daughter with hatred in his eyes. He was quite imposing to Discord's young eyes. A coat that seemed to glow with embers, a flaming mane edged with charcoal-black patterns, golden eyes burning, magic braced and ready to fire, wings spread imposingly, feathers shimmering with Alicorn magic.
"D-daddy, he-"
"I know what he did." Corona interrupted his eldest. "He attempted to assasinate the future Queen."
"Pssh, she can't even order a bunch of ants around." The draconequus snarled, holding his quickly-bruising side. "If she's going to lead Equestria, I'm taking it over."
Discord quietly stared off into his memories. Nopony took any notice to what he had said. Did they ever wish they did? Did they even remember?
Corona stared daggers at the child, who glared back with equal ferocity. Something changed then, some deeper spark of fire in Discord's eyes, that made Corona flinch and back up. The young draconequus growled, the noise suddenly much more ferocious than it had been before. A pale yellow aura lit up around his claws, startling everyone in the marble room.
"Go home, you little misfit. Equestria is no place for the likes of you." Corona hissed, shutting his wings and pulling Celestia off to the side, leaving room for the 'assasin' to pass. Discord didn't move, just silently, subtlely checked where his magic had centered. His claws.
"I think Equestria is just perfect for me, actually." The power seemed to change him then, aging him in centuries, letting his patchwork form tower over the Alicorns thousands of years before it should. Celestia stared up, wide-eyed in terror, while Corona tried his hardest to keep from running.
"D-D-Discord?" A small, terrified voice asked. Something was... hugging his leg, hooves only reaching a quarter-way around. He looked down, so much more powerful than he had been before, horns scraping massive ditches into the ceiling.
Luna's tear-filled eyes met his giant ones, and some mental dam broke, the rage-fueled power rushing out of him. He shrank, watching as the fear in Celestia and Corona's eyes turned to shock, and then to hate. The filly didn't let go through the entire transformation, her tiny hooves clinging to his scaly leg.
"What have you done?" Corona growled.
"I didn't mean-"
"I know exactly what you meant!" The first Alicorn snarled. "You were going to kill all of us so you could rule Equestria!"
Discord lifted one eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? Why is everything about your friggin' kingdom? Little sunflower-butt there could rule over this stupid hunk of land for as long as she wants to, and I'll be pleased as long as you're dead when she does."
"Guards!" Corona yelled, almost immediatly flanked by two blue-maned Pegasus. "Throw him in the dungeon. As far away from the outside as possible."
They trotted up, restraining Discord's childish body easily, holding him up against a white face. "Yes, sir."
And it was there, surrounded by criminals and rogue myths, that Discord learned to channel his powers, yellow eyes lit up by a golden light.
Discord rubbed his eyes with a paw, not surprised when he put it back down soaked with tears.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 49 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-01-03T03:32:05+00:00
|
2012-01-03T03:32:05+00:00
| 958 |
Scootaloo flew around the seemingly endless tunnel, avoiding the bat-like creatures around her. There were so, so many. They weren't attacking her, but the constant foggy drifts obscured them until they were almost on top of her. She could see others running along the ground, without wings, and some even fired acid at her! It was pretty sparkly acid, more like magic, and she couldn't understand why the only finite surface was the ground. She could fly up, left, right, forward, backward... and never hit a wall. They just kept moving.
Obsidian's illusions were falling apart at the seams.
He had been kind of distracted of late.
So, did any of the ranged patrols bring back anything? At all?
Celestia looked up from where she had been kicking a twig in circles. Oh, I'm supposed to know all of this? Why don't you get off your lazy butt and go ask them?
Obsidian glared down at her from his cloud hammock. You're my minion. He paused, before continuing with a much lower tone. Now go.
The Alicorn got to her hooves, glaring one last time at Obsidian before vanishing into the fog with a flap of her scantily feathered wings.
He cleared the fog above him, looking up to the eternally suspended sun dying in space. It was kind of depressing, but he needed to check on it. After all, since the Nightmare hadn't escaped when Celestia died, maybe when the sun itself dying would work. And there was always the factor of travel time. But soon enough, Obsidian would have something closer to his own power to work with.
Yes, the Nightmare would make a good ally.
But, as Celestia sauntered back into the clearing, three Pegasus in tow - two pulling a curious chariot that looked expensive - and a scowl on her muzzle, Obsidian realized that he had to work with what he had.
Unless you want one of my old chariots, she swung a hoof towards the last two Pegasus, which blushed and glanced down at the loose metal chains hooking them onto the golden bowl, they've got nothing. Surprising, actually. They did go to Canterlot, after all. There's lots there they could have stolen... ahem, borrowed.
Whatever. Melt the chariot down into tooth fillings, for all I care. The Pegasus left quickly, not wanting to unintentioanlly anger the draconequus. Celestia shuffled her mutant hooves. What is it? You look like you're about to bite off your tongue.
No, I just hate telling you things. But I can't help it because of your faith spell.
It's a doozy, isn't it? Obsidian let out a weak laugh.
Anyway, you've been kind of... out of it, lately. Like your mind is somewhere else.
It is.
And you look really weak. Is that why you sent me after your minions? Have you been eating?
Obsidian just lay back for a few seconds, folding his claws over his chest. Yes, no, and why do you care?
This time it was Celestia's turn to be contemplative. Because... because you haven't hurt any real ponies. Well, there was the one Griffon, but... well, you've created half-life from death, and you're either nice to them or you kill them... I mean, release their souls. I just think that somewhere in there, you're still nice. You're still good. Don't die. There are still ponies... well, not exactly ponies, but you get the point... ponies that love you.
Are you one of them?
Of the ones that love you?
Yes.
Yeah, I guess I am.
Sunrise leaned on Discord as she emptied her previous lunch into the bushes. He sighed, leaving his paw on her back as she backed up, scales pale.
"That's what you get for getting pregnant. It's completely your fault."
She smiled slightly. "It'll... be worth it."
"That's a matter of opinion." Discord continued. "What if the little runt grows up to destroy the world?"
"Then he'll be just like his father." The dragonness sighed.
Tigerjay swayed on his claws. So much to take in.
His trembling form started convulsing, hitting the ground limply - strange, there was no pain - claws streching into the open air. The fog had finally penetrated his air bubble, digging pale daggers into his sides, trailing down his throat like a hazy snake.
"Tigerjay?!"
So, this is how it ends... the Griffon thought, holding onto his concious mind for a few precious moments.
"Discord! Help him!"
"On it."
The draconequus and his precious cargo broke through the fog, casting a faint shadow over the fallen Element. One unfocused green eye opened, trying desperately to igure out what these newcomers were. Dragon he smelled dragon dragons hunt Griffons he could be hunted eaten even gotta get away gotta get away dragon gonna eat me gotta get away-
"Discord! Hold him down or something, before he hurts himself!"
The God snarled. "I told you, I'm on it!"
-no no trapped can't run stuck stuck is bad dragon gonna eat me no no no no can't get eaten eaten bad eaten very bad gotta run go go go go legs go go go wings I have wings gotta fly c'mon fly fly fly on the ground can't be on the ground gotta go go go c'mon go go dragon gonna eat me other one gonna eat me buffalo pony griffon bird bat lion snake dragon gonna eat me gotta run gotta go dragons go go run run run not running not running-
Discord's talons - sheathed in a thick yellow haze - held the struggling Griffon to the ground, withstanding every kick, bite, and scratch, a small part of him beginning to believe they had been too late. Madness. This fog caused nightmares and madness.
-run run run run... run... run... ru... ru... rrr...-
"He's coming back around!" Sunrise squealed, hanging over Discord's shoulder. "See his eyes?!"
"Yes! I see them! Now pleeaaase stop yelling in my ear!"
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 50 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-01-04T04:11:56+00:00
|
2012-01-04T04:11:56+00:00
| 1,018 |
Kha sighed. He knew his name, the name he used to be. The name he had lived the life of once. Was it really going to be the same, with no family or friends left to support his newfound dilemma. He had to get out.
Last time, he was pulled through a - very small - leyline, and slammed into a companion bond with some unfortunate creature on the fringe of death. This time, he was going to have to crawl through the same connection. Without an immortal body. Who was now nowhere near asflexible as he had been.
This was not going to be like last time.
Kha shifted his hooves awkwardly, feeling for the magical channels. His eyes dilated as his hoof struck home, dipping into a wormhole. "Heh... I knew I could find it."
He glanced down into the tiny vortex, looking around for any type of moral support. The only thing that looked abnormal was the set of symmetrical smears on his sides, hiding the two patches of skin he realley wished he had.
His wings.
Gritting his teeth, he stepped a single hoof into the vortex. Something on the other end wrapped a telekinetic tentacle around his leg, to his surprise, and it was barely a breath before it had pulled him through and the vortex had closed.
Celestia focused on the wormhole. He twisted horn wasn't strong enough to enter completely, but she knew that Kha was in there. She was lucky he had entered that hole.
The Pegasus was pulled forcefully from the hole, seemingly not startled by the mutant and sitting down to shake residual magic off of his feet. "That was... graceful." He muttered.
Oh, sorry. I'm not as strong as I used to be, so I had to cut off certian... luxeries.
"Like the bag of peanuts and comfortable seating?"
She glared at him.
Kha smirked back.
Ugh, never mind. You've been infected before. How do you get rid of it?
"Wait! My question first. How on Earth did you find me?!"
I'm the freakin' leader of Equestria! I can pick up every single fragment of magic - from simple telekinesis to Luna moving the moon - and I have a flawless track record of picking up wormholes and other space-time ... slips. Knowing your magic by searching the scene of your fight -
"You mean my death? My grand finale? My explosion? There?"
- I could trace your trail into this wormhole. I'm just lucky you went through here and not another.
"And it's not an infection. It is a moment of fatigue in the mind that lets dark things in. You should know. There was one in Luna, but you put her in solitary confinement to keep her safe. Harmony - otherwise known as Balance - cured her, right? And released me after attacking Obsidian. Unfortunately, to keep from exploding in a much more spectacular manner, I absorbed their power and used it to my advantage. This kept a veeeery small piece of me in Obsidian's mind. Also on fate's bad side was the fact this kept a hidden connection between our minds, and his happiness broke through, and our current thoughts traded. Mine were... quite nightmarish, and it's no surprise that they tore deeper into his mind and awoke the Shard."
Shard?
"The Nightmare in Nightmare Moon. What would have, had it infected you, been nicknamed the Nightmare Flare. Not as catchy, but sounds pretty cool."
So what was it when it infected you?
"We didn't know what it was. We, my family, my friends... we were ponies long before you. Before Chaos, Void, something, nothing, Faenum, Fulmen, Altitudo, Corona, Maris, you, Luna, Discord... we existed in a small group on the border of waking and dreaming. When it attacked me... I killed them all. Unlike Obsidian - who is surprisingly not rampaging - I fell into the wayside category of madness over control. I... I killed all of them. And for a long time, I did nothing else. Just killed and cried and screamed. In the end, I broke through for a while, made a plan. Took their essence. And with it... with that aura, made Chaos and Void to be eternal balance. They were there to temper my phsycopathism -"
I don't think that's a word.
" - and I resumed control over myself. And to rid my existance of their bloody faces, I took my entire life... and simply dropped in in bleach. Everything was hidden in a layer of pure white. In time, so was I. And when Chaos and Void spawned something and nothing as a new counterbalance, I hid myself in the furthest corners of sanity and stayed there. And I thought I would be there forever. I've seen so many horrible things..." Kha'dighreel paused, sighing. "I still do. But I see the beautiful things too."
Celestia didn't mention that he hadn't answered her question.
As if reading her mind, he continued. "It was nameless. I made my own name for it, once it attacked me. Kha'dighreel. In fact, it means... what was it again? Umm... ah, yes. Madness's Casket."
Really?
"With a few unrepeatable words." Kha admitted. "My name used to be Galadar." With a boyish smile he stood up, holding one hoof to his chest in exagerrated dignity. "But you can call me Sky Dancer. Sky for short."
Lying in a cloud hammock and surrounded by minions, Obsidian opened his mouth on purpose for the first time in days. "There has to be something I'm missing."
One of the Unicorns uselessly milling around, or at least, one of them blessed with a voice, gave him a quizzical look. "What was that, master?"
"Stuff that master crap up your arse." He growled, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. "And you heard me the first time."
"Ah, yes mas-... yes. What do you mean?"
"I meant..." Obsidian opened one eye, mentally clearing a whirlwind of fog, "...I have everything I could ever want. I could kill all of you, right now, with ease, and I wouldn't care. Nothing would be better, or worse. Indifferent. And... I'm so powerful, but it seems something's off. I'm just not..."
"Happy?"
The overlord fell silent, closing his eyes against the dying silhoette of the moon. With a heavy sigh, his head tilted back again. "I'm dangerously close."
The Unicorn winced, curiousity overtaking caution. "To what?"
"To tipping," he lifted his paw, walking his talons across until they plummeted off the furry edge, "over into the deep."
"Is that, bad, sir?"
"Kind of." Obsidian muttered. "But if I do fall... you won't have much time to contemplate how bad it is."
"Ah."
"I'm just missing something. One thing." He mused, folding his paws back on his chest. "And I just can't put my finger on it."
Do you have any idea on how to lure him into fighting with the Elements?
"Well... after I went mental, I just wanted my crush back. So-o if he's married now, he'll feel empty."
What are you suggesting?
"We use Sunrise as bait."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 51 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-01-07T03:23:03+00:00
|
2012-01-07T03:23:03+00:00
| 944 |
There was a sudden epiphany of silence in all of the worlds, shared over millions of individual moments and millions of sentenient beings. And it was broken in one place, in a catastrophic explosion that spun the cloudy mist into itself and released the bound minds of thousands of creatures, all turning their eyes to the sky in search of some revelation. And there was one.
NO!
Obsidian's voice rang loud and clear over all of Equestria and the surrounding lands.
It's still mine! You're... you're all mine!
"Sir...?"
"Snkt - Celestia! Shut the hell up... wait, when did you get a mouth?!"
The Alicorn in question lifted her sparking horn. "When I decided that you've gone too far."
"Hey, stick to the plan!" Sky chided, trotting out from behind her thorned tail. "Ah, Obsidian, long time no see! You've certianly changed."
"Who the heck are you?"
The wingless Pegasus stepped back, gasping. "You don't remember me?! Well... I guess I do look a little different. Hooves. Oh, and fur. Okay, a lot different." With a quick run-start, Sky Dancer jumped up into Obsidian's hammock, silently hoping his hooves were still cloud-bearing. They were. "Three guesses."
"Get away from me."
"Uh, I can't say that's my name."
A spark lit up in Obsidian's dark eyes. "A clue?"
"We spent a lot of time together...?"
"Uh... Sunrise in a detailed costume?"
"Wrong again. Do I look like a dragon to you? Although, I am quite sexy. So is she."
Celestia facehoofed in the background.
"KHA!? What the hay are you doing here?!"
"I prefer Sky to Kha. Just saying."
"But... you died."
Sky leaned up against Obsidian's pale side, unknowingly opening fresh wounds in the draconequus's heart. "Just left for a little while. Had to find myself."
"Oh my god." Obsidian breathed, falling back on his haunches. "What... what have I done?" His black eyes surveyed the white ground, spotted with an occansional patch of unwavering green. The sky, clear of fog, spun in a cosmic rainbow.
Sky smiled, trotting in place. "I can fix this, no problem."
"No..." The draconequus was still fixated on the sky. "I could fix the ground... in seconds... but I can't fix..." He lifted one talon, his black pupils shrinking to reveal wide blue irises. "...I can't fix that."
The dead shells of the sun and the moon plummeted to the earth that used to hold the powers controlling them.
The Mist Lord jumped to the ground, spires of stone erupting from the ground around the small group, small enough to see through but thick and interwoven enough to block shrapnel.
"Uh, hey, 'Sid..."
"What?!"
Sky's eyes traveled past the draconequus, out into the glaringly bright world. "Sunrise and Discord are out there."
Obsidian's eyes narrowed and he shot out of the top of the spires, sealing the top and walls as he darted off into pure, untamed power.
"There's no shelter!" Sunrise cried, folding her wings from her high-speed charge. One claw wrapped protectively over her belly. "We can't get away."
"I know Obsidian!" Discord snarled. "There is no way he would let an entire world die. No way in hell."
There was a moment of silence between the two as Discord looked up at the rapidly approaching ball of spacial fire.
"No way in hell." He repeated, planting his feet on the rapidly-drying ground. "He's not leaving us."
The Shard was quick. From the moment the sun began plummeting, it had torn itself away from the weakened magic binds and clung on until the right moment.
With the force of shadows, it lauched away, an invisible black plume, slicing through the atmosphere in silent tears, and meeting it's target.
Obsidian's visoin jarred as something hit the back of his head with a painless tingling sensation. His wings went limp, vision blurry, and began to spiral towards the ground. With what little power he had left in control, he reached down into his grandmother's soul, and pulled on her power, turning the surface of a dying planet into a series of jagged, wide chasms. In less than a minute, he sealed the wounds shut, trapping whoever had been lucky enough to fall in underground. Dark, cool, unaffected underground.
He knew Kha, Celestia and a few of his minions had surely made it, along with his father and wife. The rest was up to luck.
And his entire nervous system failed as he rolled onto his back, the silence behind his faltered heartbeat rang in his ears as the last few moments of feeling ravaged his body with an intense, burning heat and the unbearable light of the sun itself.
The surface of the planet exploded in light and heat, plumes of fire tunneling out into exposed space, atmosphere blown to bits. The moon hit a few seconds later, following the sun, and coated the hellish suface in a peaceful, cold layer of dust.
And the omniverse was once again silent.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 52 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-01-08T03:07:12+00:00
|
2012-01-08T03:07:12+00:00
| 1,186 |
Discord shot open one wing, corkscrewing down into the blackness with the presicion that could only come from years of repetitive practice. However, he was pretty sure none of the other ponies falling knew the twisted entrnace tunnels like he did. A few Pegasi had regained flight control, banking hard to pull up behind him. The Unicorns were channeling their magic into self-leviation and - for the more powerful - wings. It was the Earth Ponies that he was worried about.
"Hey! Past here, there's a sharp left before a straight down plummet. Keep going 'til you see light. Understand? Grab anypony who seems like they won't make it!"
His voice thundered down the narrow passage, alerting all falling through it. Almost instantly, the Earth Ponies were caught by hoof and magic, pulled off into the side tunnel. Discord slowed as they passed, waiting until the screams and wingbeats faded from hearing.
"Where are you?" He muttered, lifting his ears. Slowly, he activated the stored magic in the walls, illuminating the tunnel. He knew it was spreading out behind him, too, lighting a clear path for the rescued. But at the moment, he wasn't looking or them.
Trying not to look too hard at the few bodies that had hit the sides in concussive speed, he searched for his draconic companion.
"DISCORD!"
He jerked around at the scream, instantly seeing Sunrise clinging to the tunnel edge below, unused wings fluttering helplessly. Her claws were dangerously close to sliding off the polished edge. The tears streaming from her face as her back claws skidded over the stone weren't helping her grip.
"H-h-help me!"
With a burst of adrenaline, he surged upwards, wings streched as wide as they could possibly go. He really hated how Fulmen had enchanted the walls to his magic alone.
To keep you from running away. She had said. I'm your mother, and I know best. Now, go to bed.
She hadn't bothered to remove the bonds when he moved out. Or was turned to stone. Or she died.
The dragonness's claws finally slipped, sending her rocketing down the tunnel. The fall wasn't far as Discord matched her speed below her, dropping his speed slowly so she wouldn't be hurt when they hit. Flipping onto his back, he grabbed the orange blur and pulled up quickly, ignoring the claws fearfully jabbing into his skin. Following the ponies at high speed, he swerved through the tunnel, plunging down, slowly extinguishing the tunnel's light so he would know when to slow down.
The cold dust on the surface of a once-beautiful planet impossibly stirred. A creature sat up amid a cloud of lunar soot, coughing a few times to clear his lungs before realizing the air had vanished. Grumbling angrily, he mentally reminded himself of his origins, and switched to the magic way of breathing without lungs. Standing up in a puff of dust, he looked around.
The Shard is a curious thing. It is not a living creature, nor a lifeless object. It was neither shapeless nor fixed in a single form, and had no thoughts of it's own despite being of high sentenience. It simply should not have existed. But though dark thoughts and lies of precosmical matter, it had been spurned. And had directly enflamed the small wounds of the thing that would become the omniverse.
Through some twisted hand of fate, almost all of the Shard had embedded itself in Sky, and had manisfested into Kha'dighreel. The small part left had divided over the closest unfortunate planet - which contained a young Equestria. Lying dormant in the minds of thousands, it watched the goings-on for a long time. When the country was at it's weakest point, during a war with the neighboring Zebra tribe, the largest Shard dominated the childish mind of Luna, creating the Nightmare. The smaller peices reacted to this, creating the New Lunar Republic.
From then on was history.
In the end, while on the moon, the members of the Republic died, their short lives no match for a thousand years. The smaller Shard peices joined the largest, growing the Nightmare's powers. When the thousand was over, the Nightmare was more than powerful enough to shroud the world in darkness. And when it was beaten, it exploded into armor-like peices. The ponies and Alicorns had left. Under the cover of the next night, the armor dissolved into pale black smoke, rushing away as fast as it could into the Everfree.
Celestia's magic traps were set off the second the smoke left the castle, sending the rogue shadow into the sun with amazing force. And her powerful magic had held it there for a hundred years, and Luna's for a year more. But death considerably weakened one's power, and the Shard had clung on, waiting for the right moment.
One top of that, there had only been one other creature that could hold the Shard that had melted away from Sky. It had drained into Obsidian, slowly, subtley. And with the final missing peice, the jigsaw was complete.
The Shard had once again become whole.
The creature standing on the flat, dead planet was no longer Obsidian.
The draconequus's wings folded back to his side. Sunrise crawled out of his arms, planting all feet firmly on the ground and reassuring herself that it wasn't going to move - simoutaneously trying not to vomit.
"Let's see here..." Discord muttered, looking around the dim cavern. "Turn up the lights, calm everyone down," he paused with a frown, "get someone to scrape pony off the tunnel walls."
He tried to remember his childhood. Did Fulmen have any slaves? Minions? Golems? He couldn't remember any, but... heck, it was worth a try.
Clearing his throat, he tried to remember what 'come' was in Animalian, the language Fulmen had tried to teach him so he could talk to animals. He had gotten bored twenty minutes in, but she used it all the time, so...
He sighed and straightened up, letting off a series of uncharacteristic growls and clicks. The awkward noise echoed around the dark for a while, fading out gently. In the following awkward silence, Discord began to doubt his faded memories even further.
And then something small and furry ran over his toes.
Rolling his eyes, he once again accesed the only magic available to him at the time, lighting the massive cavern that he knew contained entrances to all the passages under the entire planet. For a creature with wings, they were easy to access. Maybe the Pegasi could explore later. But at the moment, the tunnels were full to maximum.
The upper tunnels, including the ones on the roof, were suddenly spurting bats, thousands of bats that clung to every vertical or overhead surface. From the single row of tunnels on the ground came creatures that were quite different - cats. And kittens.
"She just had to be genetically loyal." He snorted, watching as the animals lined up in military-straight rows, staring at him with glinting, nightly eyes. He felt Sunrise nervously lean against his side. The ponies were surprisingly calm - from shock or knowledge of biological intelllegence, he couldn't tell.
"Umm... heh... could you guys clean up? There's going to be a mess in the..." he trailed off at the dagger-filled glare from Sunrise. "I meant, there's dust in the tunnels. And clean up your chambers, we have guests."
The point must have gotten across, because the rows left orderly, vanishing through the tunnels. Two animals were left.
One was a giant tomcat. Not fat, just... massive. Two times larger than it should have been, claws showing through ginger-tabby fur. The other was an equally-sized bat, which flapped awkwardly down from the roof to land gracefully on the cat's shoulders.
There was a tense moment of silence between Discord and the large animals, in which the pair never moved their shining eyes from his.
"Dismissed."
The cat bowed before jogging off into a tunnel, the bat still perched on his shoulders.
The rescues were silent, in a surpringly awkward way. Discord sighed.
"There will be losses. Thousands, millions... we will be affected. But Obsidian took what control he had and saved us. Understand? There's food down here, water, housing... in fact, in a cavern like this, there's an entire, abandoned kingdom, castle included. Something tells me any help we'll get is from two specific mamilia, so make yourselves at home. We're safe here, safer than you ever were on the surface. Tomorrow, I'll find everything else that came down here and bring them to the castle.
"We aren't the only creatures down here. These opened all over the world, bringing species from all origins to safety. I don't know how many will have lived, but there are magic cushions on the ground floor activated when something plummets from a distance. Like bats. The only reason we had to save each other is because the tunnel we were taking went somewhere not so nice.
"So anyway, you may see different things from us. Not like the zebras or the buffalo are different. You might see dragons, sphinx, harpies, leviathans, pheonixi, Dogs, Quetzacoatl, Griffons, Ursas, Scorpios, Capricorns... they will be different. But they are just as lost and confused as we are. If they mean harm, alert me through magic or Animalic - for those who can speak it - and I will take care of the problem."
He waited until the ponies had huddled into confused groups and lay down for a good night's - i it could be called - sleep. Discord fell back on his haunches, leaning up against the wall and absentmindedly stroking Sunrise's back as she drifted off to sleep.
He looked up as a bat flew down from a roof tunnel, something grapsed in it's tiny mouth. The noctural creature landed gracefully on the side of Discord's claw, spitting out what looked like a scroll.
"Spike..."
Discord, I have a feeling this relates to your son. What happened? Is Sunrise okay? What about Twilight?
Flipping it over, he found that a black quill had been jabbed through the corner.
I'll talk to you tomorrow. Sunrise is fine. I can see Twilight too. Get your rest.
Wrapping the quill back up in the faded parchment, he set it back in the little creatures' mouth, watching it flutter away before dimming the glow of the stone and settling off to sleep himself.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 53 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-01-19T23:35:13+00:00
|
2012-01-19T23:35:13+00:00
| 949 |
"RISE AND SHINE, EVERYPONY!" Discord yelled, one hand holding a small red foghorn. "DON'T MAKE ME USE THIS!"
Sunrise looked at him through a half-closed eye. "I thought your magic didn't work down here."
"It didn't. But I found the lock and opened it. Chaotic as ever, people! Full power, once again!" Turning the glowing stones to a daylight-ish level, he conjured up a larger foghorn, which hit the ground with a titanic thud. Spinning like a carosel, he happily kicked down with his hoof, setting off the thundering noise and practically vibrating the teeth out of all in the cavern.
Sunrise bucked the offending item out from under him, sending it into the wall with an echoing clang. Discord pouted before disappaiting both horns.
"So, now that we're all awake, I'm teleporting us somewhere a bit more comfortable. I needed you all to be conscious to prevent any side effects; missing limbs, trading wings, internal bleeding, external bleeding, soft hoof, slipperfoot, etc." He paused for a second, before adding; "Just thought you should know." He flicked his talons, and all present vanished in a brilliant white flash.
The Shard dug deeper into Obsidian, tearing away painlessly at his body, while he drew away from it, into his mind, his sane sanctuary.
The Shard had no motivation of it's own. It took the reasons of others and distorted them. Sky had wanted to lead his tribe. Obsidian... Obsidian wanted to be with Sunrise.
This was not the kind of thing the Shard wanted.
The light died back down in a massive cavern. The floor seemed to be lit with a warm orange glow, emenating from somewhere below the stone.
But on the surface, made of gleaming gemstones, was an entire city, an underground Canterlot. The underfloor glow was reflected millions of times, lighting every inch of the castle, and the town around it.
"Discord... why is this here?" Sunrise looked up at him, trying not to form theories.
He rolled his eyes. "My mother always wanted to take over the world. She couldn't. So she stole people's cats and disrupted the number of mosquitoes and built a kingdom for her alone. I think she was one apple short of a bushel."
"And the floor is glowing why?"
"Because that's the core of the earth." He sauntered off into the town, leaving Sunrise kind of stunned. "Is anyone coming? These things haven't been lived in since forever. There might be some cleaning needed."
Nothing? Nothing? You want nothing?
Well you won't leave, so yeah. Nothing.
Sad. Should want. Want is good.
Screw off.
Somewhere dark and quiet - at least, as far as she could tell - Scootaloo lifted her newly-rainbow-maned head. She felt woozy, but couldn't tell if her vision was blurred at all, something Rainbow had taught her meant a concussion. Years of stunt flying eventually pounded a bit of knowledge into her thick skull. She knew her name, how old she was, the names of close friends...
And had no idea where the buck she was.
Something moved invisibly in the shadows beside her, with a sound like a cloud hitting ground.
Something brushed her tail. She jumped, falling on her knees.
Something touched her nose.
Something stifled her screams as it smothered her face.
Sunrise found Discord floating near the top of the cavern, a thick conjured mist hanging disconcertingly around him. She flew through the confusing fog, landing with a soft thump on his cloud. He didn't bother to take his eyes off his feet.
"Hi."
"Hi."
He sighed. "I miss him."
"So do I."
He shifted suddenly, his arms pulling Sunrise into an unexpected hug. The draconequus's muzzle shuddered on her shoulders as he cried. "He's going to die, I know it. He's dead, and he died alone. I never said goodbye. I never..." he trailed off to sniffle, "I never told him his mother's last words."
"I didn't know you were there... when it happened."
His voice became distant, and Sunrise could almost picture his eyes glazing over. "I was, though.
"She was just lying there. And despite... what had happened... between us... I was by her side. I rarely wasn't. But, the day she opened her eyes, she saw herself, all black and frozen, and the drips, and then she saw me... it was like she couldn't scream. It was barely a hiss of air as her mouth opened, as she threw herself against the headboard, struggling against all her bandages to get away. It was...
"Heartbreaking.
"I couldn't believe she was that scared of me. I couldn't believe what I had done. What part I had played in making it happen. It was a big part.
"And when the nurse rushed in, explained, calmed her down... it took three needles, Sunrise, three... then she could look at me. I didn't miss her shiver. The nurse did. She just smiled and left. What in Equestria was she thinking? Leaving the unlikely child-owning couple who may or may not hate each other alone in the room? Nurse's training should be more in-depth.
"And when she looked at me, the hate and fear in her eyes was overwhelming. Even I couldn't bay emotions that strong. I had to look away. She saw, with those burning eyes, she saw. She understood I knew what I had done was wrong, but...
"Why... how could you do this?" Her voice was barely a whisper, almost vanishing under the electrical hum of the equipment. "To me... and to my sister?"
"I... didn't think..."
"You never think, Discord. You never have." Luna's voice still managed to spear through any emotional wall, despite the frailty of the speaker. "You never thought that this was a problem. You were born through this method. You would not see it as wrong."
"I was never taught..."
"Respect? Caution? Grade Eight Health?"
"I know what I..."
"No. You don't know. That's the problem. If you knew, none of this would have happened. How old are you, Discord?"
"Twenty...ish..."
"I was supposed to die at close to two-thousand years. Not two-hundred."
"Don't say that."
She sat up, wincing in pain, but remaining upright. "I am going to say whatever I want, Discord, because I'm the Queen now that Celestia's dead. You... are nothing. Until I die, you are nothing. And it should have been that you would stay nothing after my death, that Crimsonleaf - who has been straining to learn the Celestial Magic - would be King. Have you not realized what you've changed?" She was crying, silver tears running down her cheeks, splashing with small glittering puffs onto the sheets. "You're going to be King now."
"I don't..."
"Just like you've always wanted."
Discord was speechless, leaning back in an odd mix of shock and what looked like casual smugness. Luna comprehended the latter.
"You insolent oaf! You've endangered all of Equestria! And there's nothing I can do about it."
Discord really wished that Luna's voice was stronger, that the Nurse could hear the verbal pummeling and put an end to it. But he was speechless, not to mention scared to leave.
"Celestia... she was stronger than me. She always has been. If it had been her that night, and if I was the dead one, she would have put you back in stone. But I'm not that strong. I've never been strong enough to correct my mistakes."
"Luna, please..."
"I'm not Luna, Discord. I'm not the one you used to play with in the garden." The anger in her eyes faded, and she closed them, lying back down slowly. "I'm not the Princess you used to know."
"You are." He didn't know how he was talking, his mind was still reeling. "You are the steadfast, stubborn, quick-witted strong filly-become-mare you are. No time can ever take that away. There is no change."
She opened one eye, fixing him with a gentle, sad stare. "There is, though. The Discord I used to know was a lie. You told me. You did this to Celestia too. You... your gentle, friendly, playful, sensitive side, the side that was more imp than demon... it is gone. It never was. There is change."
Discord looked back, closing his eyes slowly before looking outside at the darkening sky, thinking about Crimsonleaf's power. He stood up slowly, pushing the chair back into place, before walking to the doorway. He looked over his shoulder, moving one claw out to the switch.
"Goodnight, Luna."
He flicked the lights off, leaving the Alicorn's glowing gaze. The only way Luna knew that he left was the soft click of the outer door closing.
"...but she didn't let it go."
Sunrise let him hold her, feeling a draconian flame that matched her own burning in Discord's chest. "I understand." She whispered. "I understand."
"But you don't." He pushed away from her, walking away and lying down on his side against the far side of the cloud. "My mother... the reasons she had me were all wrong. And... I thought I loved Celestia. Nopony told me about the difference between a crush and love. But Luna...
"A thousand-plus years with nothing to do give you a lot of time to think, Sunrise. And I thought about Luna... a lot. And I realized... I really did love her. And now, with Obsidian long past gone...
"I have nothing left."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 54 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-01-25T00:45:36+00:00
|
2012-01-25T00:45:36+00:00
| 1,008 |
"What is the meaning of this!?"
"Saywhatnow?" Discord yelled, jumping up from his cloud. Standing in front of him was a very aggravated Pegasus, staring at him from inches away.
"What in Equestria is going on? I want to know what happened yesterday!"
He moaned, sitting back down and giving the newcomer a sideways glare. That sounded way too much like Celestia... "What about yesterday?"
"The world blew up!"
"Thank you for specifying."
An angry hoof punched through the cloud. "Tell. Me."
"Geez, calm down. You basically just explained it yourself."
"I know you know more."
Discord shrugged, identifying the huffy creature. "The world blew up, lightning-butt. The end."
Storm snorted. "You're good at insulting those who ask uncomfortable questions."
The spirit stopped mid-breath, turning slowly and glaring at the smug Pegasus. "You have no right to say that."
"I have just as much right as anypony el-"
She was cut off as Discord flexed his claws, an invisible hold tightening around her neck. "You have no right." He repeated. "You wouldn't say things like that to Luna or Celestia, and you cannot say them to me."
"Okay." She squeaked, hooves scraping at her neck. "Okay!"
He let her struggle for a few more seconds before releasing his grip, claw by claw. The limp Pegasus slid down on the cloud, coughing and weakly pushing at her neck.
"I am King." He growled. Truth be told, even he didn't believe himself. "You treat me with as much respect as you would the Princesses."
"Yes, King Discord." The Pegasus instantly bowed, trembling.
Discord lifted one eyebrow, examining the mare's quick submission. "Are you kidding me? All this time I've been treated like dirt, and all I had to do was call myself one pitiful word? Really?"
Storm Catcher opened one eye, glancing up at the chaos deity. "Does it displease you, King?"
"Stuff it, lightning-butt. I'm the same draconequus you were insulting."
Slowly, Storm stood back up, trying not to flinch away from Discord's cynical stare. "Sorry. I didn't-"
"Didn't know I hated power? Not the only one." Before she could leave, he continued. "And about yesterday? This all happened... because I couldn't handle responsibility."
The Pegasus raised an eyebrow before spreading her wings and plummeting back down to the ground.
Discord sighed and rolled onto his back.
Sunrise lifted her muzzle, opening her mouth to draw in any trace of scent. The tunnel was small, and dark, and the floor was suspiciously slimy, but that didn't matter.
Bat post had returned a letter, and given it to her when Discord was absent. From her father, asking when Discord would be coming around.
He had been preoccupied.
Which was why Sunrise was crawling through a tunnel meant to fit cats and young draconequi, and leaving a trail of magic light on the roof.
Slowing down for a few moments, she looked around for any branching tunnels, for some kind of light that would guide her to the next chamber. Instead, the glow from her eyes landed upon a larger space up ahead, and something collapsed inside of it.
Starting to panic, Sunrise slid through the mush, stopping beside what seemed to be a pony and checking to see if it was breathing. Almost. Almost breathing. Her lungs were working, her pulse was racing... but there was no exhale other than Sunrise's own.
Moving to the pony's head, Sunrise found the problem. It looked like a massive hulk of mud, slowly expanding higher on her face, currently around her ears. She hissed, partially in shock, and the mud actually lifted itself up from the limp pony and turned what might have been a head towards Sunrise. This drew the mud away from the pony's head, and for a few seconds, a panicked purple iris cloud be seen searching for any sign of help.
Their eyes locked, and a nauseating horror filled Sunrise's throat. Scootaloo.
With a magical burst, Sunrise flooded the cavern with light, watching as the mud - actually a scarlet mess, swirled with black - drew away with what might have been a hiss, and disappeared into a side tunnel.
The dragon pulled Scootaloo to her feet, holding her up as she coughed. "Thank... you..." Scootaloo panted. "I thought... I was going... to die."
"All in a day's work. How did you end up here?"
"I was flying... and all of a sudden, I wasn't. The ground just opened up under me, and I was pulled in, and then... nothing. No... I hit my head on something... then... I woke up... in the dark... and that thing... climbed over my face... and then the dark, oh, the dark..."
"It's okay. You're safe now. But we have to keep going. Stay close behind me."
Scootaloo nodded, ducking to follow Sunrise deeper into the tunnel complex.
"What do you mean, she's gone?!" Discord roared, landing with a tyrannosaurus-esque thud. "I told you to keep an eye on her!"
Twilight flinched back. "I turned around for one second! I promise!"
"You should have been keeping a better eye on her!" He growled, tail flicking impatiently over the dusty ground. "She could be anywhere!"
"You said we were safe."
He stiffened, the muscles in his shoulders tensing. "In the caverns, you're safe for long enough. The tunnels... the tunnels aren't safe. And this cave is special. Fulmen enchanted this one long ago. Nothing can enter here without permission. That's why I want to retrieve as many creatures as possible as fast as possible. Sunrise's gone looking for her father, and he's a long way away."
"What's in the tunnels?"
"Let's just leave it at the fact that even I could get killed if I went there with my magic restricted. My mother... saw many of her servants die from what lurks in there. And you can't get away, they're too narrow."
"Then why the buck are we down here?!?"
Discord's eyes filled with golden fire. "Because my SON just sacrificed himself to save all of us, that's why! And because the only thing I HAVE LEFT OF HIM is carrying their child! And because I THINK that I HAVE some responsibility in TAKING CARE OF MY CHILDREN, THAT'S WHY!"
Twilight's ears had gone from laid back in anger to drooping in what could have been called mistaken anger, if anypony around wasn't too shocked to speak. Small squeaks wheezed from her throat whenever he raised his voice.
Out of breath and motivation, the draconequus slumped, tail dropping flat to the ground, head and neck bowed. He sighed, before continuing in a much quieter, deeper voice.
"If you don't mind, I'll be going."
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 55 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-02-02T21:41:25+00:00
|
2012-02-02T21:41:25+00:00
| 994 |
"Everyone stay close to me!" Spike roared, the small group he had been dropped with instantly squirming for shelter between his claws. The dragon glared menacingly at one of the tunnels, as if daring whatever was causing such a scuffle inside to come out.
It did, on trembling, muddy, pink-orange claws.
Spike quickly swallowed the flame in his throat, ignoring the scalding burns in his throat. "Sunrise?"
"Dad!" The dragonness ran to her father, wrapping her arms around one of his legs. She looked up, judging the distance between his hunched back and the ceiling. "Cramped?"
"Kinda."
Silently and subtly, Scootaloo crawled out of the tunnel, glancing back into the darkness with a shiver before lying down to clean the mud from her feathers.
"Why are you here?" Spike growled, a reprimanding tone overruling fatherly caution. "It's not safe in the tunnels."
"I had to come find you." Sunrise whispered. "I didn't know what happened to you."
A collective d'aww rose from the creatures that were beginning to spread around the cavern again.
One stood out, a dark green snake, marked with vibrant orange spots along his back feathers and plume. He looked to be adolescent, with a short muzzle and small crest.
Sunrise broke away from Spike. "Excuse me!"
He turned, lifting the front half of his body off the ground by pushing the knuckles of his wings down. Sunrise winced at how unnatural the position looked. "Are you talking to me?"
The deep hiss, paired with a egotistical swagger, took Sunrise by surprise. "Uh, yes... do you have a sister?"
"Used to." The creature's voice wavered, curiosity breaking through. "But she ran away a long time ago. Haven't seen scale or feather of her since."
"What happened? When she ran away?"
The growl deepened again. "She was taking care of mother. I was barely beyond blindness. When she left, it wasn't long before mother died... starvation or infection, I couldn't tell. And I couldn't go anywhere, feather's hadn't grown in and wasn't strong enough to slither... so I hid. And I could see her when she was eaten by a pack of Lindwyrms, I. Assure. You."
"I'm so sorry..."
"You asked about it. Not your fault."
"And... I... your sister... it wasn't her fault she had to leave."
"I won't believe that until you breathe feathers, chickie."
Spike snorted, offended by the snake's crude language.
Sunrise flicked him with her tail to keep him from doing anything he would regret, and nodded gently. "I met her. Somewhere," an eye twitched as she remembered one not-very-pleasant description of what the hostages had gone through, courtesy of a raging blizzard and a round of truth or dare, "not many things would have been pleased to be in. When she figured out what was going on... she almost went insane. The first things she mourned over were her mother and you. She was positive you had died... there's a grave-less tombstone in Ponyville for you. Well, there used to be."
The creature's expression had remained surprisingly neutral through Sunrise's speech, and the only emotion broke through the odd tremble in his voice. "Did she tell you her name?"
"Yeah, it was... Tene."
"Her whole name?"
"Flaytenemon."
He snorted, still in that odd, upright position. "Quetzalcoatl have a very strict code of honor. A name ranks very high on that list."
Sunrise narrowed her eyes. "Some things are more important than honor." She stuck out a claw towards the pessimistic snake. "I'm Sunrise."
He eyed her warily, dark pupils flicking between her cautious smile and her spread claws. Dropping from his stand, he stretched out a wing, placing the knuckle of the folded limb in her claw. "Invielabra. Call me Viel, if it's easier."
"There is not much left for us here."
<We cannot go anywhere else.>
In some odd, invisible way, the two sets of eyes met.
Nothing turned away, looking back down at the ravaged planet. <This place is like the others now, you know.>
"It has hope, though." Something replied.
<What good will hope do? How could hope turn back time? How could mere hope give a planet rebirth, of land, moon and sun? Hope is nothing more than a small... thing.>
Something sighed, insubstantially leaning into her brother. "Small things become big." She looked down at the planet, it's burned and scarred surface, and for once couldn't see the future of the sorrowful place. "And big things change the world."
Nothing was doubtfully silent, before resting a materialless chin on his sister's head. <Whatever you say.>
Invisible to all of them, the balance in the universe shifted as the two reigning beings found harmony. A small sliver of Shard hissed in fury, fizzling away into the air, unable to think, or connect to fellow Shards. The fragments around watched in an odd kind of bemused horror before slithering over the place it had left exposed.
In some subconscious plain, Obsidian sat peacefully, looking out over a gently rolling landscape. The air was soft and gentle on his fur, and his claws twitched slightly at it's cooler nip. He closed his eyes, jolted away from his paradise for a few short moments and seeing the dark twisted world his body existed in, and opened them again.
"I miss you, Sunrise." He muttered, not wanting to relent back to the pull of reality. "I miss you a lot. How're you doing? How about Discord? Spike? Any trouble?"
His words echoed around his empty meadow, a metallic quality ringing through them the longer they repeated.
He sighed, rejuvenated slightly, and closed his eyes, returning to the battle for his soul.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 56 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-02-16T00:56:42+00:00
|
2012-02-16T00:56:42+00:00
| 960 |
Twilight lit the small fireplace, burning a few of the larger dust mats she had found. The small room was looking almost good as new, except for the massive... thing... lying on the bed. It looked shapeless, but whenever Twilight walked past it, she could feel it's glare as it hissed. Whatever it was, she was not going to touch it.
So, as karmic intervention always does, the teleporting draconequus basically landed on top of it.
The purple Unicorn looked on in amused surprise, barely able to see past the draconequus's writhing tail. When the leftover dust settled, Discord was sitting on what looked to be a black beanbag.
Twilight Sparkle lifted an eyebrow towards the thing, and Discord gave her a sarcastic smirk in return, eventually giving in to her half-glare and turning the thing back, with the exception of it flying through the air out he window as he did so. As the angry bay of the creature faded, Discord turned his attention back to Twilight. "Anyway, have you seen Sunrise since she left?"
"Have you gone looking for her?"
"Do you REALLY think I would sit her and tap my claws until a carcass drags itself back? Of course I've been looking!"
"No, she hasn't shown up."
Discord frowned. "I haven't been able to contact Spike again, either. Hope they're okay..."
Spike looked down at the smashed ink vial on the ground, and back at the dry quill in his claw. "Damn."
"I'm sure they're fine. Spike's strong."
"What have you been doing while I've been trying to save my daughter-in-law?"
The Unicorn growled at the offhand insult before taking a deep breath and returning to her cleaning. "I've been getting the dust out of the castle for you. I'm almost done."
He took to the air, floating above her head. "Woman's work?"
"You. Did. NOT. Just. Go. There." She snarled, grabbing her duster with her magic. "You little rat."
"You know it's tru-ue~"
With a playful roar, Twilight launched herself at the draconequus, rubbing the duster all over his belly and causing him to erupt with giggles. Twilight was caught in the sudden mirth, and started laughing as well.
Both of them noticed what they were doing with a sudden jolt, and Twilight got off Discord's belly almost as fast as he scurried away from her.
He eyed the blush on her cheeks. "Sparkle-butt, do you like me~"
"No!" She shouted, pink cheeks turning red. "No!"
He lifted a sadistic eyebrow, but leaned in with a smirk. "You shouldn't lie to yourself~"
When the Unicorn didn't reply, he backed up, watching as she scuffed a hoof on the ground and tried her hardest not to meet his eyes.
"Oh. Oh-kay. Awkward." He turned away, looking out the window to give Twilight some time to sort out her words.
"I guess... I do like you... a little."
"You attacked me with a duster."
"It was just... for a second... you reminded me of Sunrise. That's how I used to tease her for messing up my books."
It dawned on him then. "Twilight... have you noticed anything... different... about Sunrise lately?"
"She's married..."
"Anything else?"
"She's smiling a lot. And looks healthy. Glowing with..." Her voice trailed off. "...Glowing."
Discord simply nodded.
"She's pregnant." Twilight monotoned.
"Secrety-secret. Can't tell anypony. That's why I'm so bucking worried."
"What...?"
"I don't know how the types of magic... mesh. Not only draconequus and dragon, but chaos and old magic, and on top of that, the minor Shard in him to her purity." He took a deep breath. "I don't know if her or her kid will live."
Obsidian threw himself against the Shard's wall, hoping that it would at least relent. Or move. The almost-electronic pulse raced across the surface again though, and decimated his efforts by launching him through the air. A ripple of pain surged through his subconscious as he slammed into the ground, spikes seemingly jabbed into his spine.
"Oh, come on! That's dirty."
"You do not want." The voice echoed around him. "You are punished."
"I'm letting you possess my body."
The entity laughed. "Like you could fight back."
Obsidian cracked a smile, channeling some of the power he had received into regaining his sight. The familiar lines of time surrounded him, a tangled web of silver. With a few sharps twists, a spire of stone shot out of the ground, slamming the eternal being's body into the air and dropping drastically to enlarge the fall. After a few earthly attacks, he felt the Shard shift off his surface, withdrawing so his injuries would be his alone.
With a mad laugh, he snapped his wings open, shooting up and away from the ground and letting the stones settle again. The Shard roared daggers inside his mind for such disobedience as he restrained it under thick temporal chains.
"Now, to go find Sunrise."
There is a very thin line between waking and dreaming. On one side is outlandish horrors and graphic chaos. On the other, there are dreams, wondrous and blooming, spirals of color glowing like miniature stars, landscapes of clouds and flowers forming the world.
This line, where time has no meaning, where minutes can seem like hours and vice-versa, is a very dangerous place to tread.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 57 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-02-21T22:07:25+00:00
|
2012-02-21T22:07:25+00:00
| 892 |
Above it all, above the chaos and the darkness and the shadow, the sky was bright with stars. It seemed like there was no longer space between them, like the heavens had decided to spotlight this ending dance. The sky alive with light and the ground dark and lifeless, it was not hard to imagine that everything had simply flipped, that the burning lights of Canterlot were against a grounded night sky.
It was hard to define if it was nothing more than a dream.
Or a nightmare.
Time continued around him, a cast shadow between reality and dreaming. This thin, dark, dangerous line, was the location of a draconequus's hurried footprints. This place, hidden in the dusk, was not where one would meet travellers. So he walked alone, down the border, a being that did not fit in anywhere.
He did, however, accept this. He knew what he was going to end up ebing, what was going to happen.
He was going to die.
He did not know how. He did not know when. He simply knew he would.
He was ready.
Each step he took seemed to hurt more, both physically and mentally. He was growing weaker. His once untapped power was running out, drained by physical strain and consumed by the Shard.
He did not know when he would give, only that he would.
The Shard was stronger than he had believed it was going to be. Before, when it was not completed, he could control it with ease.
But now, even wih time itself suffocating his mind, it was slowly tearing him apart. Every time he looked down, he could have sworn he was fading away. And not just because he was on the borderline of chaos, but because he was. He was leaving, faster than he could predict.
He hoped he could get to her in time.
He was not leaving her again.
Sky snorted and stood up, still adjusting to his new center of balance. He glared at the stubborn white film on his shoulders and cursed it multiple times.
If Obsidian has the Shard, why do you still bear marks?
"If I knew, I'd have gotten rid of it."
You're still fully in control?
"Yeah...?"
Try using it to your advantage. If you can hold this much... try reverting to your other form.
Pictures of thousands of bloody bodies, blood in his mouth, on his skin, in his eyes, the feeling of warmth, of power, feeling so proud of being the only one left-
"No. I can't."
I don't know what you went through before. But you might be able to stop it from happening again.
He looked up at Celestia's conjured form, seeing reassurance somewhere in her dark eyes. I'll fight it if it gets out of control.
"Oh...okay..." He could see Obsidian, a dark fire around him, laughing, the blood on his fur, the shining madness in his eyes, the despair beneath... no. No other would ever have to suffer through that. "Okay."
He closed his eyes against the faint glow of Celestia's weak magic and fell into darkness. He let the shadows sweep ovr his skin, let it remember his sins and his triumph. For a brief moment, he saw his own face reflected in blood, and it was gone, whisked into black. He let out a choked scream as pain flooded every nerve ending in his body. He felt his bones crack, felt them move, felt his form changing, his fur burning as it melted into skin, his eyes stinging like daggers in his skull.
And it was done. He slowly opened his eyes, felt the difference of them, saw deeper than his companion's light. He could see two of his once-hooves, which now ending in almost-invisible toes, the small claws on them the same colour as his skin.
Are you okay? Talk if you are. If you don't talk, I'll attack you.
"I'm fine."
Spike squinted against the light, growling quietly.
"By the stars above, I never thought I'd find you! Do you have any idea how many tunnels I've gotten stuck in today to save your rumps?"
"Discord?" Sunrise asked, sticking her head out from behind her father's leg.
"No, I'm the mailmare." He frowned, looking around the cavern. "I think I can teleport you all at once. Actually... CAN ANYONE IN HERE USE MAGIC?"
A few Unicorns and Sunrise stepped out, the Unicorns looking at Discord with a burning fear.
"Oh, yeah. I'm the bad guy." He looked at each of them, as if trying to figure out where they were from. "It's been a year. You should know the Princesses are dead?" They nodded. "And Luna released me?" More nods. "Um... we had a son?" Hesitant nods. "Well, I'm the good guy. You're safe here. Ignore anything you might have heard about me. All rumors. I swear. Except for the chaos thing. That's true." He paused, shaking his head. "Never mind." He lit his claws, sending a couple of sparks into the air. The tiny flickers began etching a pattern in the air. "You are right about... here." Discord reached up to the lines, leaving a pulsing red dot. You need to get to... there." He placed another dot in the center of a massive circle.
"Think you can handle getting there?"
Sunrise and two of the Unicorns nodded, but the final shook his head and backed into the group. "Sunrise, you go first. Try to pull along as many ponies as you can. I'll handle your father the lardlump."
"The what?" Spike growled, lowering his head until it was level with Discord's.
"Nothing."
"That's what I thought."
"I think I'm okay." Sky muttered. "I'm in control."
Sure?
"Ugh... I was just getting used to my old form." He tried to frown, but realized he couldn't. So he shrugged. "I feel okay. I don't want to kill anything."
That's good... right?
"Supreme, actually." Sky streched out, popping the bones in his back and rolling his ankles. "Ow. Okay, I think I have enough magic to get us out of here. Oww... shoulder. Ow."
Celestia smiled.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 58 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-03-06T23:25:13+00:00
|
2012-03-06T23:25:13+00:00
| 990 |
Are the shadows back? Oh, they are, they are, get them away, get them AWAY-
Are you alright?
Kha jumped to his feet, the claws scrabbling on stone. "What? What's going on!?"
Nothing. You were crying in your sleep... you okay?
"Fine..." The screaming, terrified faces of his family flashed across his vision, he saw her face, crying, screaming for him to stop, that he could change. The same tears were soon on his muzzle, bathed in blood, his mouth, still existing, filled with jagged fangs and her flesh...
He turned around and swallowed hard, holding back vomit. "Not okay... not okay at all."
It was an oddly warm touch that graced his back. He glanced backwards, seeing Celestia's concerned eyes over his back. Are you sure? You look kind of sick...
"Fine." He choked out. "Nothing wrong here."
Reaaallly?
"Okay... not okay... not fine."
It's okay... you'll be okay...
Kha accepted the slow embrace of Celestia's front hooves, leaning into her skeleton and sobbing quietly. His paws latched around her shoulders, and she silently comforted him.
You'll be okay...
Twilight realized she had been staring into space again. She shook her head, patting the few frazzled hairs in her mane back into place. She had never understood how her emotions changed the state of her mane, but the opposite was also true. If she straightened her mane, she calmed down. It was certainly welcome at times.
"I can't think of him like this." She sighed. "I'm... I'm a nice pony. I had straight A+'s all through school, led the Elements of Harmony, was the Queen's student... I can't feel like this about Discord, of all ponies..."
"I'm actually surprised." Obsidian muttered, looking around. "I expected the end of the world to have a lot more OC's running around."
Okay, I'm seriously sorry. This chapter is an extremely short filler while I sort out writer's block. I considered skipping forward a few seasons and just wrote the ending now.
So, on the other hoof, I'd like to thank all trackers, fav'ers, watchers, readers and raters. You guys kept this story going. A brohoof to all of you. I'll have a complete chapter up as soon as I can figure out what'll happen to get from point A to point B. Sorry for the wait, and try to bear with me.
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 59 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-03-20T20:32:38+00:00
|
2012-03-20T20:32:38+00:00
| 928 |
"Do you think he's coming back?" Sunrise whispered.
Discord snapped out of his almost-trance, looking away from the window. "Hm?"
"Obsidian. Do you think he'll come b-back...?" He saw her eyes filling with tears and stepped forward, hugging her close.
"I know you miss him." He muttered, patting the back of her head. These moments were getting more and more... difficult, with her expanding girth. "But I don't want to give you false hope. He may never come back. But no matter what, he'll always be in here." He placed his claw on her chest, before smiling a devilish grin and moving down to her stomach. "And technically, in here."
"Oh, you always have ways to make me feel better." She laughed weakly.
"And if you want to get a little dirty about it," Discord stepped back, twirling his tail in one claw, "he's also in-"
"Ahem!" The dragonness squealed, folding her claws over her belly. "Young ears present!"
"Oh, I forgot." He drawled, leaning against the wall. "Speaking of which, felt any movement?"
"I thought these were awkward questions for guys." Sunrise observed.
"Look, hon, I am awkward. I am the awkward. It comes quite naturally. Now, the question?"
"Nothing." She took his place at the window, sighing. "Oh, Discord..."
He walked up beside her, draping a paw over her shoulders. With his other claw, he snapped a brilliant night sky into the ceiling of the dome, a few gemstones sparkling inside the navy rock. "You want to put any touches on it?"
"What the... you've never done that before."
"Been practicing. Now, go on."
She squinted, her forehead crest glowing white. Within seconds, the 'stars' had doubled, and a pale sphere of magic hovered a few meters away from the ceiling. Discord patted her shoulder in approval.
"Luna would have been proud."
He had slipped.
For one brief second, Obsidian had thought about how much he wanted to be surrounded by real things.
The Shard existed for these moments. Quickly and painlessly, Obsidian was swept out of control, as the Shard worked his claws, focusing the vast amounts of magic left in the world.
"What's happening?!" Discord yelled as Sunrise tipped limply forward onto the window ledge. "Are you okay?!"
"So much life." It muttered, realizing it had focused on a single, potent source first. "Strange."
"Sunrise, speak to me!" Discord had her propped up against the wall, lifting her eyelids with his claw. "Respond!"
Her eyes rolled back into her head.
Obsidian kicked and fought against the barrier, the solid wall growing stronger as the Shard collected magic. With a frustrated growl, he yelled into the darkness, "Where are you getting this from?!"
Realization dawned as the wall started to turn a pale purple.
"Wake up!" Discord shouted, holding her close, completely powerless. "You're all I have left..."
"LET HER GO!" Obsidian screeched. He could see flashes through his own eyes, of the ground dipping and waving, mountains tearing out of the earth and dust flying into what used to be a brilliant blue sky.
Things other than earth alone were now exploding around him, a strange set of hues replacing what used to be. The dirty-brown clouds became a mottled gauze blocking the sky. Something that resembled grass and miniature undergrowth spread in leaps and bounds, melting away from the bottom as it launched and creating hills haphazardly painted with blue and pink. Clouds seemed to puff from the 'grass' in evenly spaced tufts of orange, floating into the sky. One of the clouds shuddered, and a crash of thunder rolled across the new land; with it, a single navy bolt of lightning and a downpour of brown rain. Suddenly, Obsidian felt a tingling in his chest.
Oxygen. His lungs were working again.
Sunrise stopped panting.
Discord held her at arm's length, shaking her, yelling, peeling back her eyelids... but there was nothing.
Slowly,
the
world
changed...
and
everything
went
|
canonkiller
|
1127
| 60 |
Applejack,Big Macintosh,Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Dinky Hooves,Discord,Fluttershy,Gilda,Original Character,Pinkie Pie,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Rarity,Spike,Twilight Sparkle,Zecora,Adventure,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Autumn
|
There were gods and goddesses before the Princesses, and they will not be forgotten for much longer.
|
complete
| 42 | 21 |
<p>Ponyville has changed in a hundred years of sunshine and snow and rain, of towering cloud formations, Solistice festivals, nights full of constelations and seasons full of happiness. Truth be told, many things have changed, and the Elements have faded back into myths, but Equestria still stands. The question is, will Ponyville last as well?</p><br/><p>So, one-two generations after the Mane Six, here is the quick update:<br/>-Celestia has a son named Crimsonleaf<br/>-Rainbow Dash passed away, her daughter, Rainbow Dark, has taken her title as fastest.<br/>-Applejack's granddaughter, Applesauce, looks almost exactly like her.<br/>-A group of nomads, made up of one Pegasus, Rapture, a Unicorn, Lamplight, and two Earth Ponies, Bomberman and Thumper are showing up somewhere in this story<br/>-Rarity's daughter is made fun of for being made of marshmallow<br/>-Gilda has a son named Tigerjay<br/>-Spike has a daughter named Sunrise<br/>-Even Zercora has a daughter, named Chibi<br/>-A hermit named Starlight has shown up in the Everfree Forest</p><br/><br/><br/><p>-Twilight is old, Rarity is oldish, Rainbow Dash has passed on, Fluttershy vanished after Coronus's death, Applejack is old, and Pinkie went to Canterlot to get away from the sadness in her home and has not returned since. <br/>-Celestia is still alive, but growing weak; Luna, due to her missed years on the moon, it just beginning to look like a mare<br/>-Crimsonleaf's father has the gift of invinciblity; he will not die until Celestia does.<br/>-The nomads are of average age<br/>-Rarity had a child later, who is now the same age as most of the grandkids, give a few years<br/>-Gilda has a Griffon's lifespan, so her child is also a young age<br/>-Spike is still alive and well, and takes care of his daughter in the library's underground tunnels (they exist)<br/>-Zercora's daughter is much more social than she is.<br/>-Starlight has a secret.<br/>-The Cutie Mark Crusaders are full-grown mares</p><p>Because you read this, you recieve the password: trollestia</p><p>So far, that's it.<br/>Let the games begin.</p><p><b>--------------------------------</b><br/><b>** This story was written when I was 14, and the quality and content reflect that. Please be aware that my position on topics contained within may have changed in the time between publishing and now, and I apologize for any offensive material that I may have condoned in my younger years. **</b></p>
|
teen
|
2012-03-24T02:34:20+00:00
|
2012-03-24T02:34:20+00:00
| 1,682 |
A huge chunk of stone fell inwards from the ceiling, bouncing off the thick roof of the castle and plunging into the city. Shards and dust exploded, screams cut short. Discord swallowed the bile in his throat, hoisting Sunrise's limp body into his arms and dashing out of the window.
A quick spell to distort the space around him, and he shot straight up through the roof, a golden trail of magic billowing behind him. A sudden tug told him another magical being had clamped onto his spell and was following it. He dared a glance back, seeing a purple blur with a distinct unicornian form. As if she had been among company, other spells hitchhiked on, varying from power matching his to the faint glow of an Earth pony. He surged the power of the spell, the golden trail spreading like spiderwebs, thin but solid, pushing the rock away, weaving through atoms and forcing space in both him and the stone, molecules sliding neatly between each other, until...
...he ran out of rock. Suddenly, he was actually flying, hovering a few meters above the ground. He descended slowly, looking around as dozens of other creatures snapped into reality, the first being Twilight. And for the heck of beans, she looked pissed.
"Discord! So many ponies... look how many we lost!" She swung a hoof to the group, a couple hundreds in the place of thousands.
Almost completely ignoring her, he scanned the landscape, taking in the twisted colors and odd horizon.
Even Twilight stopped yelling as something landed in front of them, a single raised eyebrow showing the annoyance the creature was exuding.
"I thought I'd killed you all already. I didn't want to dirty my claws twice."
No! Let me go! I love them!
He could see the Shard buckling the ground, throwing ponies left and right, Discord arcing into the air. His father's body snapped forward as he changed direction, plowing into him - without pain; the Shard flinched - and shoved him into the ground.
"Wake up! Wake up, dammit!" Discord shouted, slamming Obsidian into the ground over and over. Obsidian could see something in his arms, through a blurred, purple sheen. A tail, or something like it, wings, a... dragon?
His dragon.
The Shard kicked Discord back at the same moment Obsidian seized control. A hesitant hoof brushed the edge of Discord's leg as Obsidian ground the attack to a halt.
"O-O-Obsidian?"
"Let me..."
"What?"
"Let me see her..."
Discord winced, carefully setting the limp dragonness down onto his son's lap. "I'm sorry..." he muttered, taking a few steps backwards. "There was nothing I could do..."
Obsidian had already tuned him out, running his paw over Sunrise's forehead, barely sitting, holding her body as carefully as he could. "My girl..." He muttered, eyes tearing up. "M-my girl..." He looked up, towards his father. "It wasn't s-supposed to be like this..."
"I know, but there's nothing-"
"There's always something we can do!" Obsidian shouted. "There has to be... there has t-to..."
He turned away, watching the landscape the Shard had created.
"We will not decay."
A pure light seemed to shine from the sky, a tiny ball of faint energy solidifying above the clouds. It slowly brightened, until what would have been a sun, under other circumstances, burned brightly above the destruction. Obsidian stood up abruptly, surveying the few survivors.
"I'm so, so sorry..." his voice seemed to echo as the sun grew brighter. "Everything you ever... everything you ever made, or dreamed... I destroyed all of it. I'm so, so sorry... please... let me set this right..."
The air around him twisted, a sudden panic breaking out as the ground dissolved into white particles that shimmered in the sunlight. Ponies on the ground found their hooves vanishing in the same manner, and Pegasi fell from the sky as their delicate feathers exploded into prismatic dust. Screams echoed into the dying landscape. Discord met the eyes of his son, and simply smiled as his own body dissolved into the shimmering light.
Within minutes, Obsidian was alone, Sunrise's body still wrapped in his arms. "Goodbye, my sweet." He whispered into the void. "I'll meet you again someday. But I'm never gone. I'm never gone."
I'm never gone.
Sunrise's body dissolved as well. He stood up straight, looked up to the pale white sun, and smiled. The Shard burned into his veins, was well along the path to tearing him apart. He started to shimmer, a different glow than those of the ponies, a burning, colorless light. He felt the Shard screaming in pain, bit back his own cries, saw time rewinding, saw things from everywhere and nowhere, from everyone and no-one, until all he could see was a small town, pastel houses happily sitting along straight roads, a couple of foals playing in the street, a Griffon and a dragonness among them, and an Alicorn. Three Alicorns, two beautiful creatures filled with ancient power. One of them is my mom... The darker one, a navy grace, beside an older creature, of shimmering white... My aunt... Celestia... Luna, my mom... I love you, mom...
Time shimmered and changed, suddenly, Ponyville's weather suffered into a raging storm, rain pelting windows, wind blowing shingles off into the distance. The dragonness was sitting in a window, the magnificent tree library, staring out into the distance, crying... she was Magic, she remembered. A claw rubbed over her belly, her own, a bubble underneath looking so full of wonder...
Again, this time long in the future, the dragonness much older, scales dull, body long and powerful, sitting on a cliff. He knew that cliff, he had been there... he had seen the view... she looked off into the sky, it was nighttime, he realized, so far in the future... the stars were moving because of her, she was so powerful, tempered by thousands of years...
The stars settled into their message, he could feel the magic weakening already...
I love you...
Obsidian let out a tiny laugh, and gave himself up.
His body wove into time itself, separated paths, created new ones, replaced events that already happened...
There was a final flash of time;
He saw his mother, standing with a relieved air about her, and smiling weakly...
His dad was there too, an arm looped around his mother's shoulders... - he smiled, they made up... how much had Discord remembered? How much had he explained?... that was for another moment...
Spike massive eye glowed through a window, the room was far too small for his head, let alone the rest of him...
In the center of it all. Sunrise, sweating but smiling, holding two little bundles of cloth in her arms as she lay back...
A nurse, he hadn't noticed her, spoke up with a smile akin to those of the others,
"Twins. A girl and a boy."
Obsidian smiled as the last fragments of his being drifted into nothingness.
This was it. He was dying.
But everyone else, they were living...
A tear ran down his face, shimmering over a weak smile.
"I love you..."
FIN
|
Vicron
|
1130
| 1 |
Discord,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
First Goodbye
|
An interview with the Princess's on what really happened 1000 years ago.
|
complete
| -1 | -1 |
<p> My version of what happened to Luna to make her go evil.<br/>(Note this story starts off as an interview then shifts to normal third person narrative.) And yes Discord's bit was a Crappyunicorn reference.</p>
|
everyone
|
2011-10-01T04:09:46+00:00
|
2011-10-01T04:09:46+00:00
| 1,547 |
In The Beginning.
We woke up to the sounds of wind and animals, granted she woke up first but only by a few days.”
“Wait if she’s only a few days older than you why is she so much bigger?”
“Celestia is in a form she chose herself I am in a form chosen for me by the Elements of Harmony. We were alone as the only intelligent beings on the planet but we kept each other company Celestia and I had all we needed just by being around each other, we made the first system of writing and used it to make storybooks that we would read to each other, we built a castle to live in which is now ruined, by my standards everything was perfect, my sister and I were in perfect harmony. This was long before we even knew of Discord’s existence or he even knew he had power.
“Celly!” Luna ran through the halls trying to win the game of obscure and retrieve she and her sister were playing; though now that she thought about it they did need to come up with a better name for it. “Celly!” Luna heard a quiet whimpering from a room to her right. “Oh no, not again.” Luna quickly opened the door to find her sister sniffling, staring out the window at the grassland where a group of creatures that looked almost like they did was grazing.
“Doesn’t it ever bother you that we’re so alone here.” Celestia choked out
“No.” Celestia stared at her with the same confusion as all the other times she had asked this question.
“Why?”
“Because I know I’ll always have my sister here with me.” Luna nuzzled up to Celestia making her calm down, despite technically being the little sister she was much more composed than Celestia was. “Why don’t we go and read that book you wrote, that always cheers you up.”
That Night
“Celestia!” Luna screamed from her room. “Celestia!” The door to the room flew open and Celestia was tackled by a very frightened alicorn.
“Oof! Luna what’s wrong?”
“I had a dream about us.” Luna sobbed into her sister’s fur. “We were on top of the castle… and I was wearing armor… and there were bright lights… and- and you were… attacking me.” She clung even harder to Celestia hoping she would never have to let go. Softly someone started singing, it was a simple tune carried without words but it was a lullaby none the less. Luna quieted down still shaking she looked up at Celestia, who had a very motherly gaze that could probably have calmed even one of the raging monsters of their youth, was singing to her driving away the fears of dreams and events yet to come.
“Luna.” Celestia spoke gently as not to startle the still shaky filly in her hooves. “I would never hurt you.” She spoke firmly to drive in the point both to Luna and herself; unbeknownst to Luna her sister had just had the same dream.
Time and Life progressed as expected with the sisters leaning on each other as both family and friend. Until a hundred years after the ponies had evolved into intelligence, their three races and Discord’s rule began. During this time things fell from the sky frequently but tonight they fell on the eve of battle. One made of an eager metal, the other a concentrated form of friendship.
“We cannot rush into battle so quickly sister, especially unarmed. Say what you will about Discord, he may be mad but he’s a genius and vastly more powerful than we are.”
“I can no longer stand idly by while that ‘thing’ continues using those poor creatures as his personal playthings.”
“That’s exactly what you plan to do with them. We cannot get ourselves killed for your pet project Celestia.” Celestia took a step back from her sister’s fury. Luna calmed herself “I’m sorry but you’re all I have, I can’t lose you to some folly; even if we won I couldn’t deal with it if I lost you. I am nowhere near as invested in the ponies as you are and I am sorry for that but even if I was I would still condemn this course of action.” Luna turned to look up at the moon she had recently lost control of. “If by tomorrow morning neither of us have come up with a solid strategy we will hang the issue until one of us has. Deal?” Celestia stood staring at Luna’s concerned face studying it for a gap in her resolve but apparently couldn’t find any because her ears drooped and she gave into the dark being’s will.
“Fine.” Celestia turned and left the castle courtyard. Luna was left to her thoughts which she turned to battle strategies hoping to help her sister at least survive the battle Luna knew she was going to be unable to talk Celestia out of once the clock struck eight. She looked up at the great sphere which she used to believe was looking back at her.
“What would you do?” As if in reply a red dot appeared in the sky quickly overtaking the moon in her center of vision, it was careening strait for her. She quickly calculated the exact landing point and took three steps back. The fireball made a surprisingly small impact as if it were made of balled up parchment, when what dust there was cleared away the object lay glowing red made of some kind of metal. It was about half her height and gleamed even when red hot, a state it was rid of much more quickly than should have been possible for an object of it’s size. What is this? Luna wondered circling it slowly studying every inch of the orb’s perfectly smooth surface, she tapped it only to be hit with the flash of an image that burst into her mind for only a second before it was gone. She recoiled from the invasion of her mind. This is unnatural. But it’s powerful. Luna blinked, The second thought felt strangely compelling as if it held some great plan that could solve all her problems. She walked back up to the orb and tapped it again, it was a solid piece. But that was impossible a solid ball of metal would have caused damage, it was as if it had hit the air before landing gently on the undisturbed cobblestones. She pushed on it rolling the mass with almost no effort. Anything this light would never have survived the atmospheric layers. Why not test it’s durability? Again that feeling of being directed by her own mind washed over her and she was even more sure that this orb had great power. She struck it with the most powerful arcane spell she knew melting the previously unharmed cobblestones but the orb didn’t even give a sign that anything had happened not even the initial metallic glow it had fallen with. Now Luna transitioned from curious to confused, she had just exposed this metal to heat and power several hundred times greater than that of a high speed atmospheric entry into the sun and it didn’t even glow. If the orb could grin she was sure it would be doing so as she stepped up to it touching her horn to the still cool surface. “Beforeskin” the word entered her mind as she used her magic to make it tell her it’s name. Beforeskin? She questioned it and the metal came alive enveloping her in a cold embrace it reformed itself into a helmet chest plate and horseshoes diminishing in volume and gaining weight until it was a comfortably weighted set of armor plates, power surged through her body drowning out any fear she had of this metal. The helmet had a length of metal that ran down her neck but it moved, she probed the helmet with her magic to find that it was one piece, that was impossible this was a metal but it moved like flesh “Beforeskin” I’ll go show Celestia. Again thoughts that were both hers and not hers seemed to guide her. She flew up into the air scanning the area for Celestia. She found her at the edge of a crater. Luna landed next to her sister. “Celestia what’s this?” Celestia was cradling six gems with her magic, a look of triumph on her face.
“They fell from the sky. They are the Elements of Harmony and they’ll defeat Discord. Where did you get that armor?”
“It fell from the sky. It’s called-” Something stopped her from saying it’s name so she quickly came up with a substitute. “Amplification armor.”
“Good; well sister I’d say that we have our weapons. Do you have a plan.” At that second a plan popped into Luna’s mind, a perfect plan that used Discord’s own power against him.
“Yes, yes I do.”
The next afternoon
“Well, well the Celestial Sisters. I was beginning to wonder if you liked me.” Discord cackled at them. They had chased him around the globe to the place where they had first met him “I will admit you two are quite a breathtaking sight all dolled up for battle. Especially you Luna I-” He froze staring at her chest plate with what looked like fear in his eyes before he started laughing, a long shrieking laugh that told her nothing less than.
“I know something you don’t.” He laughed longer than rationally possible
“All right, all right I’ll give you one free shot at me before we get down to business.” He carefully pronounced the i in business, probably to annoy them more than anything else. He stood strait and tall.
“So be it.” Celestia said grimly. “Luna now!” Luna ran her soul through the three elements that Celestia had given her Honesty, Loyalty, and Kindness. The gems glowed brightly as Celestia did the same with her gems, lifting them into the air; a great blast of rainbow light ripped through the town that had been Discord’s throne room. When it faded Discord was half covered by stone and still going further down the road; he was still laughing.
“You may have beaten me today but it was good and awful to see you again Celly, Luna, Big T. But fortunately.” He stared directly into Celestia’s eyes as he said this. “I have an appreciation for beauty.” He fell silent striking a final pose to be petrified in. Might as well look good if you’re going to be a statue. Luna should have felt what was showing on her sister’s face, triumph but instead she felt a bit irritated that they had been unable to use her plan.
Over the next few hundred years the sisters took control of Equestria establishing the day and night courts. Luna rarely removed the armor, it only came off when she was alone with Celestia and they would take their younger forms in order to better enjoy themselves as they read together or played hide and seek or tag and other childish things that calmed them after long weeks dealing with the bureaucrats. But through the years Celestia grew away from her sister investing herself more and more in the ponies affairs overseeing things as mundane as the opening of businesses. Luna started putting more work into her nights arranging stars into constellations, painting nebulas, moving comets, creating astronomical oddities like white dwarfs and black holes, and what she considered her masterpiece, supernova’s brilliant displays of color that signified the death of a star. Still night court was increasingly empty never a case never anything to deal with never a complement or a job well done except from her sister, unless somepony tried to rob them or some egotistical rich colt wanted a constellation named after him. Which was insufferable to say the least but it was bearable if her sister still played with her every now and again. But as Celestia’s visits and comforting words dwindled so did Luna’s happiness. She tried having holidays like Celestia did to get in better touch with the populace but no one ever came, no one ever celebrated with her. Loneliness started to crush her so she made some friends in her head to talk with in her empty throne room only one lasted longer than a week before she decided that their story was no good; his name was Teron he had appeared without her willing it at first planting one thought over and over again in her mind for hundreds of years. “It’s not your fault.” He spoke to her through the armor. He had a frightening voice that was slow, delibrate, hollow and growling but he spoke nicely to her, told her that none of it was her fault, told her that she didn’t deserve to be thrown away like an old toy, but it wasn’t Celestia’s fault either it was the ponies, they had stolen her sister from her. She decided to try one last time before she gave in to her fate to be left alone for the rest of time.
“Celestia?” Luna asked walking up to her after day court had ended, in her child form with her favorite book that Celestia had written. Celestia looked down at her sister with an almost astonished expression as if she had forgotten that she could do that.
“Hello Luna.” The motherly softness to her voice gone.
“Can we read together tonight?” Celestia looked down at her with empty eyes.
“Not tonight Luna.” Luna felt part of herself fall struggling not to die, she didn’t want to be left alone with Teron; he frightened her.
“But it’s been over a hundred years.”
“I said not tonight Luna!” Celestia barked at her. “I’m tired.”
“How about tomorrow morning? You could just move the start of day court to later in the day.”
“I can’t the ponies need me.” Luna’s anger flashed like lightning.
“More than your little sister needs you?!” Luna opened her Shadowsight and looked into Celestia’s soul. Celestia was chained down by her own words with faceless dozens asking even more of her. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She spoke in the comforting tone her sister had used when they were little. Celestia didn’t answer. Luna knew what she had to do; if it had just been her suffering she would have endured but if Celestia was in pain as well then she would not stand for it. She carefully took her sister up to their chambers and set her down in her bed. Before leaving the room she looked back grimly at her sleeping sister. “Don’t worry Celly.” She closed the door. “I’ll make those who hurt you like this pay dearly. All. Of. Them.” She walked back to the abandoned armory and donned the familiar shell; immediately Teron spoke up.
“I’m so sorry about your sister. But what if I said that I knew someone who could help?”
“How could you know someone?”
“I made her.”
“What?” Luna rolled her eyes
“Her name is Nightmare Moon and she is far more powerful than you are. She would be able to prevent the sun from rising starving all those little ponies out.”
“I’m listening.”
“It requires nothing more than you to take her name.”
“Her name?”
“Yes it’s absurdly easy. Just call yourself by her name.”
“Fine, I am Nightmare Moon.” A massive surge of power permeated her form staining her night blue coat black, her mane became a swirl of stars and magic and her eyes became slits that looked out malevolently at the rest of the world. “Ohhh Yeeeess!” She proclaimed, laughing loud and long. She set strait to work placing the wards that would keep the sun from rising. Her thoughts were her own her actions were her own but to anyone watching her soul would be able to see the evil being using her as a puppet. She burned villages and town turning the normally dark blue night into a red and yellow haze. The time for the morning came and went with no sign of her wards even leaning when Celestia strained against them, Celestia than asked those who had been attacked; they told her that Luna had gone insane. And then she came for her.
“Ah, Celestia my sister how good to see you up and about with me again.” Luna spoke calmly smiling, the malevolent glare and sarcastic voice reserved for those that had hurt them.
“Luna why are you doing this?”
“Because they took the only thing I truly considered mine and treated it the way an infant treats a bottle, they sucked it dry.”
“What could they have possibly done that is that bad; you’ve told me your whole life that the only thing that would always be there was…” Celestia stopped as what happened before she had gone to sleep came back to her shattering the bonds on her soul with a cruel realization that pierced her mind. “I’m sorry just don’t take my mistakes out on them.”
“Your mistakes, ha! The only mistake you made was coddling those creatures in the first place.”
“Then what is it? I- I don’t understand.”
“This has nothing to do with me, I looked into your soul and you know what I saw? A slave chained by the masses. And I refused to let it continue. You see giving me the element of loyalty was a quite apt choice, I was perfectly willing to be left to my fate but once I knew how badly they were already making you suffer I lashed back out at them. I’m going to destroy them, not all of them granted I will leave you your pet project but then we can go back to the way things were, when it was just you me and a small nation that we ruled together one that wouldn’t hurt you the way these did. You get your freedom back and I get my sister back.”
“Luna that’s insane!”
“How is it any different from the time you called meteors down to wipe out the great reptiles that threatened us when we were little.”
“These creatures are intelligent I cannot believe you would kill them off for such a selfish reason.”
“Selfish? I’m doing this for you! I’m not doing this for me; I would have readily accepted that masked exile we called the night court if I just knew that you would be okay. I’m doing this for you!”
“We are only two creatures we cannot place ourselves above them.”
“I endured exile for over one hundred years for them - for you! I will not sit back and watch as they tear my only joy in this cruel temporary world apart.”
“That‘s exactly what you‘re doing.”
“They stole you from me! They took my home from me!”
“Your home?”
“That little room where we used to play, you everything sister they’ve even had me craft and name constellations after them and you know what they did with my goodwill, they spat it back in my face by parading around like they owned you and me both but no more. The only thing I had left was the knowledge that you were happy with them that you were proud of what they had built even if you weren’t happy with or proud of me anymore; as long as you were happy I could survive.” Luna stared her sister strait in the face and saw the plan behind her eyes. “So that’s how it is.” She started crying “After everything they’ve done to me! That’s how… it is.”
“Luna I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright; if you can harden your heart that far towards me, if that will make you happy than by all means do it.”
“You’ve killed foals Luna.”
“I said do it!” Nightmare Moon wailed tears streaming from her eyes. “Do it you heartless, hydra! But I swear to you either way, when I come back I will come back as the monster.”
“I’m sorry.” Celestia spoke softly the gem representing magic floated out from behind her ear.
“No you’re not.” Nightmare Moon spoke just as softly but her eyes reflected the hatred that had risen in her soul. “I will win.” Nightmare did not know she was saying this or that she was saying it in a slow, deliberate, hollow, growling voice. “I always win in the end.” The gems floated into a circle around Nightmare Moon and blasted her away to be trapped in the moon. “I just want to go home.” She spoke too softly for Celestia to hear just before she disappeared from that world. Luna wouldn’t know this until one thousand and two years later but when she disappeared Celestia sat in the ruined castle wailing for days.
Celestia’s ending.
Celestia went back to the endless days sitting on the throne listening to the bureaucrats whine on and on about how high the clouds were being kept or the repairs on a specific wealthy families house being done too slowly or the construction of the palace at Canterlot being underfunded or any manner of useless things. Every now and then some poor soul with a genuine problem would come into the room only to be cast out by the fat manticores that sat around her but she trooped through in a stupor for months not showing the grief that filled her mind and heart. Until during a lull day she heard from a place beside her.
“I’m actually glad she’s gone.”
“Yes Luna never really was a proper princess I found her honestly creepy.”
“I bet the little creature never even really liked Celestia.”
“Yes she tried to kill her that night you know. I‘m glad Celestia put the sock to her” There were murmurs of agreement from everywhere around her; That. Was. It.
“You!” Celestia stood tall letting her magic shade her in ominous angry light. “You heartless bastards!” She bellowed at the gathered monsters before her. “You sons of devils! Get out! Get out! Get out!”
“Your highness what is wrong.”
“My sister is no monster! She is a tortured soul pushed too far by all of your judgmental notions of proper and decent! How many of you know of the winter solstice festival?!” Most raised their hooves. “Then why were you never there!? I’ll tell you why because she wasn't a 'proper princess' but actually you were all just ventholes! Did any of you ask yourselves ‘what might we have done to cause this?’ No! Well guess what, that’s the question that the rest of Equestria is asking! Now get out of my courtroom you foul loathsome evil little cockroaches! Before I burn you all alive!” She let her magic blaze creating a ring of fire that rested directly above their heads. The bureaucrats ran out of there screaming as if they were already on fire. “And you!” She used a tendril of magic to grab the one who had accused Luna of attempting to kill her and brought his condescending face not two inches from her own. “You are going to have the honor of telling every one of those ‘things’ that just ran from the room that if I ever see them again it will be the last time they see anything! That includes you! Now get your disgusting self out of my sight!” she launched him through the door slamming it behind him. She extinguished the flames sat down on her throne and wept once more. As she wept she came up with an idea; it was true that the rest of Equestria wanted to know why Luna had attacked them, so she sat down and wrote the tale of Nightmare Moon. A dark tale of a neglected sister that was just close enough to the truth to avoid speculation but far enough from it to make sure that her sister would not be hated by the masses. Feared maybe but not hated.
|
Vicron
|
1130
| 2 |
Discord,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
First Goodbye
|
An interview with the Princess's on what really happened 1000 years ago.
|
complete
| -1 | -1 |
<p> My version of what happened to Luna to make her go evil.<br/>(Note this story starts off as an interview then shifts to normal third person narrative.) And yes Discord's bit was a Crappyunicorn reference.</p>
|
everyone
|
2012-05-17T19:33:36+00:00
|
2012-05-17T19:33:36+00:00
| 725 |
In The Beginning.
We woke up to the sounds of wind and animals, granted she woke up first but only by a few days.”
“Wait, if she’s only a few days older than you why is she so much bigger?”
“Celestia is in a form she chose herself, I am in a form chosen for me by the Elements of Harmony. We were alone as the only intelligent beings on the planet but we kept each other company, Celestia and I had all we needed just by being around each other, we made the first system of writing and used it to make storybooks that we would read to each other, we built a castle to live in, which is now ruined; by my standards everything was perfect, my sister and I were in perfect harmony. This was long before we even knew of Discord’s existence or he even knew he had power.
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“Celly?” Luna ran through the halls, trying to win the game of obscure and retrieve she and her sister were playing; though now that she thought about it they did need to come up with a better name for it. “Celly?” Luna heard a quiet whimpering from a room to her right. “Oh no, not again.” Luna quickly opened the door to find her sister sniffling, staring out the window at the grassland, where a group of creatures that looked almost like they did was grazing.
“Doesn’t it ever bother you that we’re so alone here?” Celestia choked out.
“No.” Luna stated flatly, sitting down next to her sister. Celestia stared at her with the same confusion as all the other times she had asked this question.
“Why?”
“Because I know I’ll always have my sister here with me.” Luna nuzzled up to Celestia, making her calm down, despite technically being the little sister she was much more composed than Celestia was. “Why don’t we go and read that book you wrote, that always cheers you up.”
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That Night
“Celestia!” Luna screamed from her room. “Celestia!” The door to the room flew open and Celestia was tackled by a very frightened alicorn.
“Oof! Luna what’s wrong?”
“I had a dream about us.” Luna sobbed into her sister’s fur. “We were on top of the castle… and I was wearing metal… and there were bright lights… and- and you were… attacking me.” She clung even harder to Celestia, hoping she would never have to let go.
Softly, someone started singing, it was a simple tune, carried without words but it was a lullaby none the less. Luna quieted down, still shaking, she looked up at Celestia, who had a very motherly gaze that could probably have calmed even one of the raging monsters of their youth, she was singing to her, driving away the fears of dreams and events yet to come.
“Luna.” Celestia spoke gently, as not to startle the still shaky filly in her hooves. “I would never hurt you.” She spoke firmly to drive in the point both to Luna and herself; unbeknownst to Luna her sister had just had the same dream.
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Time and Life progressed as expected, with the sisters leaning on each other as both family and friend. Until a hundred years after Discord’s rule began. During this time things fell from the sky frequently but tonight they fell on the eve of battle. One made of an eager metal, the other a concentrated form of harmony.
“We cannot rush into battle so quickly sister, especially unarmed. Say what you will about Discord, he may be mad but he’s a genius, and vastly more powerful than we are.” Luna held firm against her sister, they would lose this fight if she didn’t.
“I can no longer stand idly by while that ‘thing’ continues using those poor creatures as his personal playthings.” Celestia raged, this was personal for her.
“That’s exactly what you plan to do with them. We cannot get ourselves killed for your pet project Celestia!” Celestia took a step back from her sister’s fury. Luna calmed herself “I’m sorry but you’re all I have, I can’t lose you to some folly; even if we won I couldn’t deal with it if I lost you. I am nowhere near as invested in the ponies as you are, I am sorry for that, but even if I was I would still condemn this course of action.” Luna turned to look up at the moon she had so recently lost control of. “If by tomorrow morning neither of us have come up with a solid strategy we will hang the issue until one of us has. Deal?” Celestia stood, staring at Luna’s concerned face, studying it for a gap in her resolve but apparently couldn’t find any because her ears drooped and she gave into the dark being’s will.
“Fine.” Celestia turned and left the castle courtyard. Luna was left to her thoughts, which she turned to battle strategies, hoping to help her sister at least survive the battle Luna knew she was going to be unable to talk Celestia out of once the clock struck eight. She looked up at the great sphere which she used to believe was looking back at her.
“What would you do?”
As if in reply a red dot appeared in the sky, quickly overtaking the moon in her center of vision, it was careening strait for her. She quickly calculated the exact landing point and took three steps back. The fireball made a surprisingly small impact, as if it were made of balled up parchment, when what dust there was cleared away the object lay glowing red, made of some kind of metal. It was about half her height and gleamed even when red hot, a state it was rid of much more quickly than should have been possible for an object of it’s size. What is this? Luna wondered, circling it slowly, studying every inch of the orb’s perfectly smooth surface. She tapped it, only to be hit with the flash of an image that burst into her mind for only a second before it was gone.
She recoiled from the invasion of her mind. This is unnatural. But it’s powerful. Luna blinked, The second thought felt strangely compelling, as if it held some great plan that could solve all her problems. She walked back up to the orb and tapped it again, it was a solid piece. But that was impossible, a solid ball of metal would have caused damage, it was as if it had hit the air before landing gently on the undisturbed cobblestones. She pushed on it, rolling the mass with almost no effort. Anything this light would never have survived the atmospheric layers. Why not test it’s durability? Again that feeling of being directed by vaguely foreign thoughts washed over her and she was even more sure that this orb had great power. She struck it with the most powerful arcane spell she knew, melting the previously unharmed cobblestones, but the orb didn’t even give a sign that anything had happened, not even the initial metallic glow it had fallen with.
Luna transitioned from curious to confused, she had just exposed this metal to heat and power several hundred times greater than that of a high speed atmospheric entry into the sun and it didn’t even glow. If the orb could grin she was sure it would be doing so as she stepped up to it, touching her horn to the still cool surface. “What are you?”
“Beforeskin” the word entered her mind as she used her magic to make it tell her it’s name. Beforeskin? She questioned it and the metal came alive, enveloping her in a cold embrace, it reformed itself into a helmet, chest plate and horseshoes, diminishing in volume and gaining weight until it was a comfortably weighted set of armor plates, power surged through her body, drowning out any fear she had of this metal. The helmet had a length of metal that ran down her neck but it moved, she probed the helmet with her magic to find that it was one piece, that was impossible, this was a metal but it moved like flesh.
“Beforeskin”, I’ll go show Celestia. Again, thoughts that were both hers and not hers seemed to guide her. She flew up into the air, scanning the area for Celestia. She found her at the edge of a crater. Luna landed next to her sister. “Celestia, what’s this?” Celestia was cradling six gems with her magic, a look of triumph on her face.
“They fell from the sky. They are the Elements of Harmony, and they will defeat Discord. I‘m sure of it.” Celestia looked up at Luna, shock passing over her face for a second. “Where did you get that armor?”
“It fell from the sky. It’s called-” Something stopped her from saying it’s name so she quickly came up with a substitute. “Amplification armor.”
“Good; well sister I’d say that we have our weapons. Do you have a plan.” At that second a plan popped into Luna’s mind, a perfect plan that used Discord’s own power against him.
“Yes, yes I do.”
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The next afternoon
“Well, well the Daughters of Sky. I was beginning to wonder if you liked me.” Discord cackled at them. They had chased him around the globe to the place where they had first met him “I will admit, you two are quite a breathtaking sight, all dolled up for battle. Especially you Luna, whe-” He froze, staring at her chest plate with what looked like astonishment in his eyes before he started laughing, a long shrieking laugh that told her nothing less than.
“I know something you don’t.” He laughed longer than rationally possible
“All right, all right I’ll give you one free shot at me before we get down to business.” He carefully pronounced the i in business, probably to annoy them more than anything else. He stood strait and tall, straightening an absent tie.
“So be it.” Celestia said grimly. “Luna now!”
Luna ran her soul through the three elements that Celestia had given her Honesty, Loyalty, and Kindness. The gems glowed brightly as Celestia did the same with her gems, lifting them into the air; a great blast of rainbow light ripped through the town that had been Discord’s throne room. When it faded Discord was half covered by stone and still going further down the road; he was still laughing.
“You may have beaten me today but it was good and awful to see you again Celly, Luna, Little D. But fortunately,” He stared directly into Celestia’s eyes as he said this, “I have an appreciation for beauty.” He fell silent, striking a final pose to be petrified in. Might as well look good if you’re going to be a statue. Luna should have felt what was showing on her sister’s face, triumph, but instead she felt a bit irritated that they had been unable to use her plan, yet the irritation wasn‘t quite hers.
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Over the next few hundred years the sisters took control of Equestria, establishing the day and night courts. Luna rarely removed the armor, it only came off when she was alone with Celestia and they would take their younger forms in order to better enjoy themselves as they read together or played hide and seek or tag and other childish things that calmed them after long weeks dealing with the bureaucrats. But through the years Celestia grew away from her sister, investing herself more and more in the ponies affairs, overseeing things as mundane as the opening of businesses and the demolition of unstable structures.
Luna started putting more work into her nights, arranging stars into constellations, painting nebulas, moving comets, creating astronomical oddities like white dwarfs and black holes, and what she considered her masterpiece, supernovas, brilliant displays of color and light that signified the death of a star. Still night court was increasingly empty, never a case, never anything to deal with, never a complement or a job well done except from her sister, unless somepony tried to rob them or some egotistical rich colt wanted a constellation named after him. Which was insufferable to say the least, but it was bearable if her sister still played with her every now and again.
As Celestia’s visits and comforting words dwindled so did Luna’s happiness. She tried having holidays like Celestia did to get in better touch with the populace, but no one ever came, no one ever celebrated with her. Loneliness started to crush her, so she made some friends in her head to talk with in her empty throne room, only one lasted longer than a week before she decided that their story was no good. His name was Teron, he had appeared without her willing it. At first planting one thought over and over again in her mind for hundreds of years. “It’s not your fault.” He spoke to her through the armor. He had a frightening voice that was slow, hollow and growling but he spoke nicely to her, told her that none of it was her fault, told her that she didn’t deserve to be thrown away like an old toy, but it wasn’t Celestia’s fault either, it was the ponies, they had stolen her sister from her. She decided to try one last time before she gave in to her fate to be left alone for the rest of time.
“Celestia?” Luna asked, walking up to her after day court had ended, in her child form with her favorite book that Celestia had written. Celestia looked down at her sister with an almost astonished expression, as if she had forgotten that she could do that.
“Hello Luna.” The motherly softness to her voice gone.
“Can we read together tonight?” Luna asked, all sweetness. Celestia looked down at her with empty eyes.
“Not tonight Luna.” Luna felt part of herself fall struggling not to die, she didn’t want to be left alone with Teron; he frightened her.
“But it’s been over a hundred years.” Desperation creeping into her voice.
“I said not tonight Luna!” Celestia barked at her. “I’m tired.”
“How about tomorrow morning? You could just move the start of day court to later in the day.” Luna was almost begging.
“I can’t, the ponies need me.” Celestia’s voice lacked any acknowledgement of her sister‘s pleading, Luna’s anger flashed like lightning.
“More than I need you?!” Luna opened her Shadowsight and looked into Celestia’s soul. Celestia was chained down by her own words, faceless dozens asking even more of her. Luna shuddered, mouth agape as she took a horrified step back, casting away her shadowsight. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She spoke in the comforting tone her sister had used when they were little. Celestia didn’t answer, simply cocking her head, those dead eyes seemed to gaze off into space. Luna knew what she had to do; if it had just been her suffering she would have endured but if Celestia was in pain as well, she would not stand for it to say the least. She carefully took her sister up to their chambers and set her down in her bed. Before leaving the room she looked back grimly at her sleeping sister. “Don’t worry Celly.” She closed the door. “I’ll make those who hurt you like this pay dearly. All of them.”
She walked back to the abandoned armory and donned the familiar shell; immediately Teron spoke up.
“I’m so sorry about your sister. But, what if I said that I knew someone who could help?”
“How could you know someone?” Luna glared at nothing in particular as she tried to think up a way to strike back at her sister’s tormentors.
“I made her.”
“What?” Luna rolled her eyes
“Her name is Nightmare Moon and she is far more powerful than you are. She would be able to prevent the sun from rising, starving all those little ponies out.”
“I’m listening.” Luna’s gaze twitched.
“It requires nothing more than for you to take her name.”
“Her name?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Yes it’s absurdly easy. Just call yourself by her name.”
“Fine, I am Nightmare Moon.”
Luna caught a flash of familiar laughter before a massive surge of power permeated her form, staining her night blue coat black, her mane became a swirl of stars and magic and her eyes became slits that looked out malevolently at the rest of the world. “Ohhh Yeeeess!” She proclaimed, laughing loud and long. She set strait to work, placing the wards that would keep the sun from rising. Her thoughts were her own, her actions were her own but anyone watching her soul would be able to see the evil being using her as a puppet.
Luna burned villages and towns alike, turning the normally dark blue night into a red and yellow haze. The time for the morning came and went with no sign of her wards even leaning when Celestia strained against them, Celestia then asked those who had been attacked; they told her that Luna had gone insane. And then, she came for her.
“Ah, Celestia my sister, how good to see you up and about with me again.” Luna spoke calmly, smiling at Celestia, the malevolent glare and sarcastic voice reserved for those that had hurt them.
“Luna, why are you doing this?”
“Because they took the only thing I truly considered mine and treated it the way an infant treats a bottle, they sucked it dry.”
“What could they have possibly done that is that bad? You’ve told me your whole life that the only thing that would always be there was…” Celestia stopped as what happened before she had gone to sleep came back to her, shattering the bonds on her soul with a cruel realization that pierced her mind. “I’m sorry, just don’t take my mistakes out on them.”
“Your mistakes, ha! The only mistake you made was coddling those creatures in the first place.” Luna paced slowly, every step accentuated by the clink of her horseshoes.
“Than what is it? I- I don’t understand.” Celestia pleaded.
“This has nothing to do with me, I looked into your soul and you know what I saw? A slave chained by the masses. And I refused to let it continue!” Luna yelled for a moment before calming herself. “You see, giving me the element of loyalty was a quite apt choice, I was perfectly willing to be left to my fate but once I knew how badly they were already making you suffer I lashed back out at them.” A malevolent grin split her face, her slit eyes glowing with anticipation. “I’m going to destroy them, not all of them granted, I will leave you your pet project but then we can go back to the way things were, when it was just you, me and a small nation that we ruled together, one that wouldn’t hurt you the way these ’creatures’,” she spat, “did. You get your freedom back and I get my sister back.”
“Luna that’s insane!” Celestia yelled, fear in her eyes. Luna shrugged.
“How is it any different from the time you called meteors down to wipe out the great reptiles that threatened us when we were little?”
“These creatures are intelligent; I cannot believe you would kill them off for such a selfish reason.” Celestia pawed the stone beneath her hooves.
“Selfish? I’m doing this for you!” Luna yelled, stomping a metal clad hoof. “I’m not doing this for me; I would have readily accepted that masked exile we called the night court if I just knew that you would be okay. I’m doing this for you!” Luna lowered her horn, glaring at Celestia.
“We are only two creatures, we cannot place ourselves above them.” Celestia lowered her horn, obviously expecting a blow, Luna snorted and brought her head back up.
“I endured exile for over one hundred years for them, for you! I will not sit back and watch as they tear my only joy in this temporary world apart.” Luna turned back to view the land she had ravaged.
“That‘s exactly what you‘re doing.” Celestia’s voice had calmed.
“They stole you from me! They took my home from me!” Luna lowered her head again, sending a bolt of lightning down onto a particularly resilient building. “So I’m taking theirs.” She growled.
“Your home?”
“That little room where we used to play, you, everything sister!” Luna whirled back around, her eyes and horn blazing with anger, her ethereal mane lashing out into jagged shapes. “They’ve even had me craft and name constellations after them and you know what they did with my goodwill, they spat it back in my face by parading around like they owned you and me both, but no more. The only thing I had left was the knowledge that you were happy with them, that you were proud of what they had built,” she looked at Celestia then cast her eyes down for a moment, “even if you weren’t happy with or proud of me anymore; as long as you were happy I could survive.” Luna lifted her head, staring her sister strait in the face and saw the plan behind her eyes. “So that’s how it is.” Tears started streaming down her face. “After everything they’ve done to me!” Her breath hitched as she backed away from her sister. “That’s how… it is.” She hung her head, fighting against sobs.
“Luna I’m sorry.” Celestia took a step forward
.
“It’s alright; if you can harden your heart that far towards me,” Luna’s gaze hardened, “if that will make you happy than by all means do it.” She lifted her head again, her eyes, now like sapphire gems, were still dressed in tears, but reflecting a rage to level mountains.
“You’ve killed foals Luna.” Celestia almost couldn’t keep herself from crying, she had to be resolute.
“That’s not my name anymore, and I said do it!” Nightmare Moon wailed, tears streaming from her eyes and onto the stones at her feet. “Do it you heartless, hydra! But I swear to you either way, when I come back, I will return as the monster.”
“I’m sorry.” Celestia spoke softly, the gem representing magic floated out from behind her ear.
“No you’re not.” Nightmare Moon spoke just as softly but her eyes reflected the hatred that had risen in her soul. “I will win.” Nightmare did not know she was saying this, or that she was saying it in a slow, hollow, growling voice. “I always win in the end.” The gems floated into a circle around Nightmare Moon and blasted her away to be trapped in the moon. It was pain, pure pain, the elements were sending her one piece at a time. She screamed, slamming herself against the edges of the energy field that had formed around her. Her legs were sent and she fell, she lifted her head to glare at Celestia, expecting to see the same calm face that had called the elements, or the triumph of Discord’s defeat. Instead Celestia’s face was contorted as she fought not to openly sob, a single tear fell from her eye. Nightmare’s glare melted to a look of despair, she turned away from her sister. “I just want to go home.” She spoke too softly for Celestia to hear. Before she disappeared from that world. Luna wouldn’t know this until one thousand and two years later but when she disappeared Celestia sat in the ruined castle, wailing for days.
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Celestia’s ending.
Celestia went back to the endless days sitting on the throne, listening to the bureaucrats whine on and on about how high the clouds were being kept, or the repairs on a specific wealthy family’s house being done too slowly, or the construction of the palace at Canterlot being underfunded, and any other manner of useless things. Every now and then some poor soul with a genuine problem would come into the room, only to be cast out by the fat manticores that sat around her, but she trooped through in a stupor for months, not showing the grief that filled her mind and heart. Until during a lull day she heard from a place beside her.
“I’m actually glad she’s gone.”
“Yes, Luna never really was a proper princess, I found her honestly creepy.”
“I bet the little creature never even really liked Celestia.”
“Yes she tried to kill her that night you know. I‘m glad Celestia put the sock to her” There were murmurs of agreement from everywhere around her; That. Was. It.
“You!” Celestia stood tall, letting her magic shade her in ominous angry light as she glared at the assembly. “You heartless bastards!” She bellowed at the gathered monsters before her. “You sons of devils! Get out! Get out! Get out!”
“Your highness what is wrong?”
“My sister is no monster! She was abandoned by all of you! How many of you know of the winter solstice festival?!” Most shakily raised their hooves. “Then why were you never there!? I’ll tell you why, because you were afraid of a monster that you told everypony was real, but actually, you were all just ventholes! Have any of you asked yourselves ‘what might we have done to cause this?’ No! Well guess what, that’s the question that the rest of Equestria is asking! Now get out of my courtroom you foul, loathsome, evil little cockroaches! Before I burn you all alive!”
She let her magic blaze, creating a ring of fire that rested directly above their heads. The bureaucrats ran out of there, screaming as if they were already ablaze. “And you!” She used a tendril of magic to grab the one who had accused Luna of attempting to kill her and brought his condescending face not two inches from her own. “You are going to have the honor of telling every one of those ‘things’ that just ran from the room that if I ever see them again it will be the last time they see anything! That includes you! Now get your disgusting self out of my sight!” She launched him through the door, slamming it behind him. There was a satisfying crunching sound from beyond it.
She extinguished the flames, sat down on her throne and wept once more. As she wept she came up with an idea; it was true that the rest of Equestria wanted to know why Luna had attacked them, so she sat down and wrote the tale of Nightmare Moon. A dark tale of a neglected sister that was just close enough to the truth to avoid speculation, but far enough from it to make sure that her sister would not be hated by the masses. Feared maybe but not hated.
|
OBXSuperindustries
|
1131
| 1 |
Adventure,Alternate Universe,Comedy,Dark
|
Funeral-Chariot - Tour ov the Republic
|
Transposed Black-metal Lyrics, for ponies
|
incomplete
| 9 | 3 |
<p>Imagine, if the Cutie-mark Crusaders delved into the genre of BLACK-METAL.<br />—<br />Enlisting the aid ov Pinkie Pie, one ov the most revered,and respected drummers in all ov Equestria. They set out to reek havoc and insult the masses with promises ov destroying the world. To no avail can Celestia seem to stop them!<br />—<br />Originally meant to be a silly troll-fic for my friends, i actually think that this might go somewhere. The order will be "Transposed Song" - "Story" - "Transposed Song", and for a variety of reasons, mainly lack ov content, the band will actually expand further beyond just black-metal<br />—<br />Check out the band Behemoth, and you'll see what I'm getting at :><br /><a href="http://www.behemoth.pl/site/">http://www.behemoth.pl/site/</a><br />—<br /><span style="color:red;">NOTICE: <strong>ALL</strong> lyrics are alterations of Behemoth unless otherwise specified in a chapter header. Behemoth is labeled to NuclearBlast. My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro. <br /><br />FFS DO NOT SUE ME!</span></p>
|
teen
| null |
2011-10-03T01:46:59+00:00
| 884 |
"I, the spawn ov her
The offspring ov the stellar queen
My wings fallen and crushed upon the earth
That I may bring balance to this world
"I spawn ov Lunar
From sheer friendship transgressed
Unto the highest self - to utmost freedom
To explore the lunar nature ov my rage
" I pulse ov magic
The law ov harmony undenied
I hold the torch ov the sun-queen
So i can shake the earth and move the suns
"I divine servant of her
Injecting cupcakes into my veins
With life accepted
With you be-friended
Is the embrace ov celestia profound
"The fear ov the dawn
The ecstasy ov dusk
Nourished have I this friendly glow
Where harmony seats itself below
Let it be written!
Let us be friends!
Scattered i bow before friendships light"
Countless head-banging ponies all surged forward, knocking over the barrier and unleashing hell upon security below. Scootaloo could not believe how far they had come, from that awful mess as a filly, to the greatest entertainment force Equestria had ever known. She screamed once more into the microphone, covering the crowd in a pulse of harsh, gravely epicness. They all roared with her, returning the undeniable fury against the system. With music, they all felt empowered.
She turned to Applebloom, guitar still screeching out notes, and to Sweetiebell, her bass ringing out. Then to Pinkie Pie, her dead-straight Pink mane contrasting with the White war-paint on her face. She held her drum-sticks high above, encouraging the fans even more.
Scootaloo turned back, raising a hoof in time with the crowds chants "Fun-er-al! Fun-er-al! Fun-er-al!" Scootaloo turned from the microphone, ripping at the strings of her guitar, and using her signature "Stare-ov-death" she made the fans pulse with fear and excitement!
They were The Soldiers of Lunar, the Ponies of Chaos!
They were Funeral-Chariot
|
OBXSuperindustries
|
1131
| 2 |
Adventure,Alternate Universe,Comedy,Dark
|
Funeral-Chariot - Tour ov the Republic
|
Transposed Black-metal Lyrics, for ponies
|
incomplete
| 9 | 3 |
<p>Imagine, if the Cutie-mark Crusaders delved into the genre of BLACK-METAL.<br />—<br />Enlisting the aid ov Pinkie Pie, one ov the most revered,and respected drummers in all ov Equestria. They set out to reek havoc and insult the masses with promises ov destroying the world. To no avail can Celestia seem to stop them!<br />—<br />Originally meant to be a silly troll-fic for my friends, i actually think that this might go somewhere. The order will be "Transposed Song" - "Story" - "Transposed Song", and for a variety of reasons, mainly lack ov content, the band will actually expand further beyond just black-metal<br />—<br />Check out the band Behemoth, and you'll see what I'm getting at :><br /><a href="http://www.behemoth.pl/site/">http://www.behemoth.pl/site/</a><br />—<br /><span style="color:red;">NOTICE: <strong>ALL</strong> lyrics are alterations of Behemoth unless otherwise specified in a chapter header. Behemoth is labeled to NuclearBlast. My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro. <br /><br />FFS DO NOT SUE ME!</span></p>
|
teen
| null |
2011-10-03T03:08:21+00:00
| 758 |
"Thank you Cloudsdale! you've been a great crowd!" They cheered surging again, overwhelming the guards out front. Fans clambered onstage, tearing at their clothes, trying to obtain some form of memento. Pegasi roadies and a Gryphon surged from out of backstage, forming a circle round the performers. "Come-on, we gotta get outa here!" screamed Gilda over the unrelenting droning of the fans. Pinkie Pie simply dived out of her seat, disappearing behind their huge tour banner. A blur of leather jackets and black manes perused her back, the sound of crashing making Scootaloo wince. The protecting roadies tightened their cover, slowly moving out back as the guards began to push the frenzied fans back.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell were also swamped, leaving their instruments behind, cowering behind their protectors. It took them ages, pushing back and forth between the formed throngs onstage, before they were safe in the strongroom out back. Pinkie Pie was already there, cradling the large bump on her forhead. "Those mother-cuddlers knocked an amp down on me! Bunch of loony idiots!" she said, fumbling through the cooler box beside her for a beer. Apple Bloom laughed, sitting on the couch beside her, ogling the large bump. "Wow, that'll leave a mark. Look on the bright side, least you wont have to put on so much paint next time." Pinkie sneered, taking a swig, then holding the bottle up to the bump, its cold embrace soothing the pain. SweetieBell leaned over the sink, splashing her face with water. The paint washed off, leaving smears across her eyes, making her look even more ghastly then when on stage. "Urghh, i got some crap in my eye during 'Sisterhood!' for Cuddlers sake, it hurt like a Dame!" She carefully wiped her hoof across the bottom of her eye, taking wads of paint with each.
"Apple Bloom, you Cuddled-up during the solo again, you really need to practice the rhythm before our next show-" the yellow Mare stormed over to Scootaloo, her face pressed up against Scoot's! "My name is DEATH BLOOM, and I did that riff perfectly. SweetieBell was the one who screwed it." "CUDDLE-YOU I HAD PAINT IN MY EYE!"
The three burst out in argument, Pinkie-pie just rolled her eyes, taking out another beer, and replacing it with the one on her head. The door quickly opened, and shut. The zounds of the masses outside briefly swallowing up all noise inside the tiny room. Their manager, a large female Gryphon, strolled in. The three stopped, all looking menacingly at her. She gulped once before talking, the uncertainty of what just happened making her nervous.
"Good news- guys. We already knew that the concert was a complete sell-out. But we also sold every last scrap of merch and shirts, and rumor has it the Concert in Manehattan will sell-out too. and don't get me started on the Pony-Disc sales, the country is in turmoil, trying to meet demand. We did it girls, were there!" The three all grinned, huddling together like their Filly days. They bounced in a circle chanting "We did it, We did it" seemingly out of place considering their physical apperance. Pinkie-pie rolled her eyes, her headache pounding into her skull. Ditto! Gilda, when can we go home? I gotta catch up on some proper sleep!"
Gilda nodded, trying not to make eye-contact with Pinkie-pie. Their feud from all those years ago had been resolved, but she still didn't feel very comfortable around the Insane pink Mare. "We'll have a chariot ready in an hour! Did you girls wana keep any of the equipment we had this time round?!" SweetieBell's eyes widened "Oh, yes! i really like that bass! And the amp that went with it!" "Anyone else?!" AppleBloom and Scootaloo shook their heads, Pinkie Pie waved a hoof lazily in Gilda's direction.
"Alright then, be ready for a dash to the exit in ten minutes we'll wait, hopefully Iced-Cloud will be able to calm most of them down with the encore! That is if we can get them all out of the Backstage area. Whoever hired security needs a hoof in the groin!" and with that she exited, quickly shuting the heavy door before the fans outside could slip in.
Apple Bloom turned to Pinkie Pie, eying her menacingly. "Do you and Gilda still have that feud going on?!" Pinkie Pie gently shook her head "We're not friendly, but she is our manager. Just... drop it! I don't want to talk about it. She turned her head, stamping her hooves in time with the muffled music outside. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes.
"Hey girls, I've been thinking. Now that the war has been over for however long, and Celestia opened up the borders. What if after Manehattan we should start thinking about a tour of the Republic?!" said Scootaloo. SweetieBell squealed with exitement "OH YES, THATS A GREAT IDEA, we'll probably be able to meet Lunar IN PERSON!!" She jumped up and down, giddy with exitement at the thought of meeting the main lyrical subject of their entire band. Scootaloo turned to Apple Bloom, she looked back with concern in her eyes. "Wellllll, I was planning to go to my Family Gathering after Manehattan. Couldn't we maybe do it in a Month?" Scootaloo nodded, thinking that a rest was probably better. SweetieBell died down, her exitement to meet Princess Lunar snuffed out like a flame. Apple Bloom turned back to Pinkie Pie waiting for her reply. Pinkie just starred back, her blue eyes pierced with pain and frustration. She shrugged "Eh, I'm the drummer, what do i know?"
Scootaloo jumped up. "Then its settled! In one month we're going to The Lunar Republic!"
|
OBXSuperindustries
|
1131
| 3 |
Adventure,Alternate Universe,Comedy,Dark
|
Funeral-Chariot - Tour ov the Republic
|
Transposed Black-metal Lyrics, for ponies
|
incomplete
| 9 | 3 |
<p>Imagine, if the Cutie-mark Crusaders delved into the genre of BLACK-METAL.<br />—<br />Enlisting the aid ov Pinkie Pie, one ov the most revered,and respected drummers in all ov Equestria. They set out to reek havoc and insult the masses with promises ov destroying the world. To no avail can Celestia seem to stop them!<br />—<br />Originally meant to be a silly troll-fic for my friends, i actually think that this might go somewhere. The order will be "Transposed Song" - "Story" - "Transposed Song", and for a variety of reasons, mainly lack ov content, the band will actually expand further beyond just black-metal<br />—<br />Check out the band Behemoth, and you'll see what I'm getting at :><br /><a href="http://www.behemoth.pl/site/">http://www.behemoth.pl/site/</a><br />—<br /><span style="color:red;">NOTICE: <strong>ALL</strong> lyrics are alterations of Behemoth unless otherwise specified in a chapter header. Behemoth is labeled to NuclearBlast. My Little Pony is owned by Hasbro. <br /><br />FFS DO NOT SUE ME!</span></p>
|
teen
| null |
2011-10-09T14:42:27+00:00
| 663 |
Devildriver - Clouds over California
---
"Come forth for the ponies call
Confront the friendship you cant control
befriending ways and ignorant eyes
Just equine nature in disguise
Lost in this world, clouds on the edge
With the wind by our sides
"Today I sworn that I wouldn't mourn ya
Clouds over Equestria
If that's the way it's gonna be then I'll fuckin' do it alone
I'm a god in Nightmare's eyes
Curse the clouds over Equestria
This is the call to obey
Let the clouds rain!
Bloodshot and weary-eyed
countless hours of clearing the sky
It'll take you and break you away
It'll tear you apart
"Today I sworn I wouldn't mourn ya
Clouds over Equestria
If that's the way it's gonna be then I'll fuckin' do it alone
I'm a god in Nightmare's eyes
Curse the clouds over Equestria
This is the call to obey
Let the clouds fade!
"If that's the way it's gonna be the I'll fuckin' do it alone
Hide in the sun, a simple disguise
Curse the clouds over Equestria
This is the call to obey
Let the clouds rain!
I'm a god in Nightmare's eyes
Curse the clouds over Equestria
This is the call to obey
Let the clouds raaaiiin!"
|
Lloxie
|
1137
| 1 |
Discord,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
The Protoveian Judgement
|
Strange beings invade Canterlot and steal the recently-defeated Discord from the castle's vault.
|
complete
| -1 | -1 |
<p>This will ultimately be related to some other stories I want to write at some point (i.e. they will be part of the same continuity), but this one is just a quickie on its own. The main (but not only) reason I wrote it was to vent a bit of my hatred for Discord. (Don't ask.) So yeah, warning for any Discord fans out there: you probably don't want to read this.</p><p>I'm not really sure if it should be given the dark tag or not. I personally don't think so, as there is no death, gore, or serious trauma here, but I'd understand why others might think it's a bit dark despite that. So I'll add it if enough people seem to think it deserves it. </p><p>Again, this is largely a venting story, although hopefully you'll still enjoy it. Just don't expect it to be all that wonderful.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-02T01:23:45+00:00
|
2011-10-02T01:23:45+00:00
| 1,175 |
What had begun as a peaceful, otherwise unremarkable autumn day, had turned into frenzy of panic for the residents of Canterlot. The statue that was Discord's prison after the Elements of Harmony sealed him back away, had been broken out of the vault the princesses had him put into in order to prevent a future escape. And now, the stone terror stood in the street, surrounded by three very powerful, very alien ponylike beings that had retrieved him. Everyone feared the worst- that he had just been defeated, only for these strangers to arrive and free him again.
The royal guard had arrived, but their weapons warped and deflected off the entities' hides uselessly. Their top unicorn soldiers found that, for some strange reason, their magic could not grasp them. The princesses themselves had arrived and were alarmed to discover that not even their power could seem to so much as touch the alien forms before them. And all attempts at communication were seemingly ignored.
The strangers were at least as large as Celestia, and their entire body shimmered like static. Their basic form looked like some kind of parody of the princesses themselves- they had multiple horns on their heads, also shimmering, that grew at odd angles and curved and spiraled wildly. Some even seemed to end abruptly halfway down their length, only to resume somewhere further along, as if part of the horn was missing. Their wings appeared as simple outlines with no substance. And while one's outline looked feathered like a normal pegasus, the other two were different. One was pointed and batlike, while the other appeared rounded and seemed to have faint lines flickering inside them like veins.
Once they had situated the statue in the center of a large plaza, they arranged themselves evenly around it and levitated it up to the level of the nearby roofs. Once they arrived, the entire sky shimmered like static over the Equestrian capitol just like they did. The ground rumbled as the visual noise spread down to the horizon, encasing the entire city in some kind of bubble.
Celestia and Luna had long given up trying to do or say anything, despite their guards' constant, desperate pleas for orders or ideas. They could only look on in terrified confusion, waiting for something, anything, to give them a hint as to what they were dealing with. Suddenly everypony went deathly quiet as a chill ran through the world and an orb of light surrounded Discord's head. After it faded, it was apparent that at least that part of him was free from stone, and animate once more.
At first, several emotions played across his face. Rage, at having been defeated again. Relief, at being freed yet again. Gratitude, albeit brief, toward those that he thought were freeing him. Then, finally, defiant glee, toward Celestia. Setting aside the question of his rescuers' identity, taunted her. "HAH! Face it Celestia, you'll never be rid of me! I won't make the same mistakes this time, I-... wait. Why can't I move?"
He seemed to try and squirm for a moment, before he realized the rest of his body was still petrified. He looked back towards the strangers floating around him questioningly, then recognition hit him. His eyes widened and most of the color drained from his face. His own look of sudden dread was mirrored by the princesses when they saw it. He seemed to try and speak, but his voice had become muted. And then, THEY spoke.
"Little Discord, you have caused some delicious waves of chaos since you were trapped here on your own," one said, its voice echoing and constantly changing in ways that made it hard to understand. Fortunately, the words also somehow found their way into the minds of everyone present, even if their ears didn't cooperate. It seemed to smile slightly, but the grin quickly faded. "But in your isolation, you have become corrupt."
"You are now an abomination, Discord. You let this world taint you, -civilize- you," another chided.
"CIVILIZE?!" Luna blurted out incredulously, echoed by some of the braver ponies nearby.
Yet despite the interruption, the strangers went on as if they hadn't heard it. "When you became isolated, you took power and ruled. Though your rule was wonderfully unpredictable, the problem remains that you still ruled. Though it was a chaotic and unstable reign, that does not change the fact that you brought a kind of order to the world. And beyond that, even after your first defeat, you controlled and manipulated the minds of others."
"You have become infected with order. You stink of ambition," the third picked up in what was probably meant to be a disgusted tone. By this point, Discord appeared to be desperately trying to plead for mercy, but his voice was still gone. "You no longer appreciate entropy for its own sake, but feed on the emotion it brings. Protoveia should never have spawned you."
Suddenly, Luna and Celestia both seemed think of something at about the same time. They shared a brief, curious glance at one another. Without a word, Luna nodded and took off back towards the castle, while Celestia turned and continued to watch in silence.
"You still have ties to primal chaos, but that only makes it more vital that you be severed, lest your corruption spread, now that the wall has broken," the first resumed. A bright, multi-colored glow flared up around the increasingly-panicked Discord. "And now is the time for your final judgement, Discord."
The three seemed to glance back and forth at one another, then returned their focus to their captive. The air itself suddenly buzzed with energy throughout Canterlot. Celestia reeled, clutching her head. Other ponies twitched and shuddered in discomfort, but only the alicorn sisters could truly detect the true horror that was being unleashed. Celestia's pupils shrank to pinpricks as she saw it happen.
The ground shook with the force of all three speaking at once, in a loud, more stable-sounding, if still echoing, voice. The words made no sense, at least most of them. But the final sentence was all too clear: "DISCORD...YOUR STAIN IS NOW...ERASED."
Discord's body was entirely released from its stone form for a brief moment. But before he could even think of trying to escape, he let out a loud, horrific scream as lines of energy pierced him from one end to the other at odd angles. Then, they began to pull apart, dragging bits of him with them. Luckily for the ponies there to witness it, there were no guts or blood visible. Whatever Discord was made of, he obviously didn't follow the basic laws of biology that all true life followed. It was more like someone taking apart a clay figure than a living being. That didn't stop his terrible, yet increasingly erratic, distorted screams, however.
The pieces faded from sight as they were pulled further apart. Streams of static-energy flowed away from where they were into the sky. His voice faded similarly. Finally, there wasn't a trace left of him- even from Celestia's perspective, which filled her with the coldest pit in her stomach she'd ever experienced. She could sense the passing of someone who died. And even while he never felt... well, right, she'd always been able to even sense Discord's presence in the world. But now he was just... gone. Completely, and unequivocally, gone.
When the strangers touched the ground, they blurred and seemed to look around as if seeing their surroundings for the first time. With disconcerting smirks, two of them bolted off in different directions, headed for the horizon. They vanished when they reached it, causing the static bubble around the city to begin fading. The last one remaining took a moment to approach Celestia. It regarded her curiously for a moment, then broke into a grin of its own and nodded at her, before bolting off into the horizon as well.
Celestia was frozen in place by what she'd felt. Her guards soon gave up trying to get any response from their princess as they eventually managed to pull themselves together and start dispersing the eerily quiet crowd.
The elder princess was convinced she would never sleep again. 'They didn't just kill him,' she slowly allowed herself to think. '...they UN-MADE him.'
*****
Meanwhile, in the royal library, the younger alicorn lay curled into a ball, eyes wide as saucers, clutching her abacus close to her chest as she tried to comprehend the very same thought. Next to her was the ancient tome she had dropped when the surge of absence hit her, now burning thanks to a similarly dropped candle. Though the fire was put out before it could spread, the only surviving record of Protoveia left in the old library, perhaps in all of Equestria, was destroyed.
|
Cold in Gardez
|
1139
| 1 |
Main 6,Owlowiscious,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Comedy,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Michael Bay Presents: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer
|
He did it to Transformers. Now Michael Bay turns his genius to My Little Pony.
|
hiatus
| 227 | 11 |
<p>[Comedy] [Parody] On June 28, 2011, Michael Bay released Transformers: Dark of the Moon, his third feature film based on the HASBRO toy line Transformers. The next day, Bay and HASBRO entered into talks over another of the toy company’s properties, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The only concrete evidence of the new film to emerge so far is a tattered screenplay, presented here, which was found in a dumpster outside Bay’s production house, Platinum Dunes.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-02T02:25:11+00:00
|
2011-10-02T02:25:11+00:00
| 8,066 |
On June 28, 2011, Michael Bay released Transformers: Dark of the Moon, his third feature film based on the HASBRO toy line Transformers. The next day, Bay and HASBRO entered into talks over another of the toy company’s properties, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Within hours they inked a multi-million dollar deal for three films produced in Bay’s distinctive style, slated for release beginning in summer 2012.
Production details remain scarce and most people involved with the film trilogy have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements. The only concrete evidence of the new film to emerge so far is a tattered screenplay, presented here, which was found in a dumpster outside Bay’s production house, Platinum Dunes.
In the immortal words of Equestria’s awesomest pony, Rainbow Dash:
Fuck. Yes.
Michael Bay Presents
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer:
Part 1: The Horn of Destiny
Scene 1: Ponyville
It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. The sun was shining; the birds were singing. Ponies big and small cantered throughout the town, whickering and neighing merrily as they went about their business.
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion!
“Oh my god, that was a huge explosion!” yelled Twilight Sparkle, staring in shock and horror at the massive fireball rising from the center of town. Hundreds of ponies ran screaming from the burning wreckage of the Town Hall. Some were covered in soot, and limped as they streamed past her, desperate to escape the burning hell behind them.
“Yo Twi’, you see dat shiz?” said Spike, her jive-talking baby dragon sidekick. He stood on her back, one claw wrapped in her mane while the other casually removed a set of shutter-style plastic sunglasses. You know, like the ones Kanye West is always wearing.
“‘Course she can see dat, you tink she’s blind or sumpthin’?” said Owlowicious, her other sidekick, as he dodged a piece of flaming debris that soared into the ground next to them.
“Stop arguing you two, we need to go help everypony!” the lavender unicorn said. She ran directly into the crowd, dodging the panicked ponies as they stampeded away from the still-burning wreckage of the town hall. When she arrived moments later the blasted remains of the building were still ablaze; the scorched corpses of unfortunate ponies littered the ground, and the air was filled with painful moans and cries for help.
“Nooooooooo!” she cried, falling to her knees and tossing back her head. Dark black smoke from the fires filled the air, slowly blocking out the sun.
Scene 2: Celestia’s Castle
“God dammit general, tell me what’s going on!” Princess Celestia said. She was seated at the head of a large table in her situation room, flanked by a dozen ponies in military uniforms. At the head of the room, in front of a row of projection screens displaying scenes of chaos throughout Equestria, a handsome, older-looking pegasus pony stood with a grim look on his face.
“The attacks came without warning, your majesty.” He clicked a button on a small remote, and a series of satellite photos appeared on the screens behind him.
“Ponyville was hit first, at 1332 this afternoon,” he said. On screen a black cloud hung over the center of Ponyville, obscuring most of the wreckage below. “Casualties are expected to be in the dozens.”
“Not Ponyville!” cried a pegasus seated halfway down the table. “My wife and filly live there!”
The general gave the pony a grim, pain-filled glance, then turned his gaze back to the princess. “Cloudsdale was hit next, just a few moments later,” he said. “We’re still trying to re-establish communications, but it seems...” he trailed off, looking down at the floor. “It seems they may have been... wiped out.”
Gasps filled the room. Celestia lowered her head to her hooves.
“The only evidence we have is this note, which was faxed to us shortly after the attacks,” the general continued. The screen changed, and the images of destruction were replaced by a plain sheet of typewritten paper:
PONIES:
RARRR WE ARE COMING TO KILL YOU BECAUSE WE ARE EVIL
-ALIENS
There was a moment of silence as the assembled leaders read the letter, followed by quiet mutters.
“General,” said an oily looking pony bureaucrat seated next to the princess, “what does it mean?”
“We have no fucking idea.”
Scene 3: Everfree Forest
“Yo Twi, I ain’t likin’ dis,” said Spike as he sauntered alongside Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. They had just passed into the Everfree Forest, and the quiet haunting gloom of the woods filled their minds with images of horrible fates.
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion!
The ponies cast themselves to the ground, screaming and holding their hooves over their heads. When the worst of the debris finished raining down they slowly got back to their hooves and looked around in confusion.
“Did... did that tree just blow up?” Rainbow Dash asked, confused.
“Nevermind, look!” Rarity yelled, pointing with her horn toward a massive alien ship parked right outside the town that somehow no one ever noticed before. “I wonder if that has anything to do with these strange explosions?”
Tiny, alien figures crawled over the surface of the ship. They seemed to be holding large rifles, and every few seconds one would fire their gun into the surrounding woods, causing a huge explosion!
“Ah think you may be onta sumthin, Sugar,” said Applejack as she stared at the ship. “There’s sumthin’ mighty fishy ‘bout that there ship.”
“Wait, I’ve seen this before!” said Twilight, using her magic to pull a book out of her saddlebags. She flipped through it, and came to a sudden stop on a well-worn page decorated with strange drawings and schematics.
“Look, it’s just like the drawing in my book!” she said, pointing her hoof at an old pencil drawing in her book. The picture was an almost identical depiction of the alien ship in front of them.
“Wait, isn’t that kind of an odd coincidence?” said Fluttershy, softly. “You just happened to be carrying a book with--”
“There’s no time!” Twilight cut her off, slamming the book shut and stuffing it back in her saddlebags. “These aliens are obviously trying to wipe out all Ponydom so they can claim Equestria for themselves. We have to stop them!”
“Yeah!” cried Rainbow Dash. “Let’s get ‘em!”
The six ponies, plus Spike and Owlowicious, carefully snuck up to the alien ship, deftly avoiding alien patrols the whole way. As they approached the clearing with the ship its true size became apparent.
“It’s huge!” squeaked Pinkie Pie, staring up at the ship in amazement. Banks of clouds broke around the upper reaches of the vessel.
“Problem, girls!” Applejack said. “The entrance is guarded!” She was right -- on either side of the ramp leading into the ship was a pair of hideous, armored freaks. Half-flesh, half-machine, they carried massive laser rifles nearly the size of a pony. Razor-spiked helmets with all kinds of flashing lights covered their heads, and they scanned their surroundings with frightening alertness.
They dove behind a conveniently placed bush before the guards could see them. Twilight pulled them close and started sketching some diagrams in the dirt with her hoof.
“Okay, plan,” said Twilight. “Rainbow Dash, you fly around and distract them, and the rest of us will sneak into the ship.”
“Got it!” the cyan pegasus said, snapping a crisp salute. She gathered her hooves below her, and with a powerful flap of her wings leapt into the air!
She was just over 4 feet off the ground when a pair of brilliant ruby beams speared her through the chest. She crashed back to the ground, a pair of smoking holes marring her coat front and back.
“Always wanted... to see... the stars...” she gasped, and expired.
“Nooooooooo!” cried Twilight, tossing herself on her friend’s body. She sobbed quietly, then got back to her hooves.
“Okay, plan B,” she said. “Fluttershy, you fly around and distract them, and the rest of us will sneak into the--”
“Fuck you, Twilight Sparkle,” Fluttershy interrupted. “I’m going back to Ponyville.” She turned and trotted back into the woods.
“Fine!” Twilight yelled at her back. “We didn’t need you anyway!” She exhaled deeply, pressing her hooves to her temples as she thought of another brilliant plan.
“Okay, plan C,” she said. “Magic!”
She levitated a tiny pebble with her magic and tossed it off to the side with a clatter. The two guards, despite being highly trained elite soldiers with years of experience and the most effective sensor suites in the known universe, promptly abandoned their post to chase after it.
“Quickly girls!” Twilight said, and tip-toed up the ramp. The two guards were bent over the pebble, interrogating it in their odd alien language. They finally gave up and turned back to the ship a moment after Owlowicious fluttered into the open port.
Scene 4: Inside the mothership
The metal corridors were empty and dark. The floor below them was a metal grate, through which they could see massive spinning gears and glowing coils the size of houses. The walls were laced with pipes and conduits, and the only light came from a thin, glowing red strip down the center of the ceiling.
They walked for hundreds of yards through the corridor, passing branches and tunnels, until they finally came to a large port. An electronic keypad on the side of the door was the only control to be seen.
“Oh dear, it seems we’re stuck,” said Rarity, pressing her hoof to her forehead in a swoon.
“I don’t think so!” Pinkie Pie suddenly said, appearing out of nowhere in front of the keypad. She held an odd electronic device in her hooves; it appeared to be a crudely wired circuit board with a calculator keypad for an interface and a set of wires, which she plugged into the door.
“I forgot!” Twilight exclaimed. “Pinkie Pie is an expert hacker!” The girls crowded around as Pinkie deftly tapped codes into the device, beads of sweat appearing on her forehead as she raced to input the correct code.
“Aaaannndd.... done!” she shouted, as the door emitted a quiet chime and popped open. The group quickly stepped through, and found themselves in a massive chamber hundreds of feet across. At the center of the room, atop a raised dais, was a floating blue crystal that gently pulsated with an internal light.
The ponies (plus Spike and Owlowicious) cautiously drew closer, their fear giving way to awe as the crystal bathed them in its soft incandescence.
“I’ve seen this before!” Twilight said, pulling out her strange book again. She flipped to a new page, which had a picture of the very same crystal drawn in ancient pony hieroglyphs.
“This is the master control crystal!” she said. “If we destroy it, the whole ship will blow up!”
“Seriously?” said Rarity. “That seems like a terrible design flaw. Who the hell builds a ship that can be blown up just by breaking a single--”
“There’s no time!” Twilight cried, cutting her off as she slammed the book back into her saddlebags. “Applejack, buck that thing for all you’re worth!”
“Can do!” the earth pony said. She turned and was about to buck the crystal to kingdom come when a metal cage suddenly fell from the ceiling, trapping the ponies inside! Only Spike and Owlowicious, who were hanging back chatting with each other about sports and chicks, managed to escape.
All around the room ports opened, and dozens of armored aliens began pouring in. Before they could reach the cage, Twilight turned to Spike and Owlowicious, desperation on her face.
“Spike, Owlowicious!” she cried. “You two need to escape and tell the princess what we found!”
“Uh, sure thing babe!” Spike said, looking at the cage in surprise.
“I’m serious!” Twilight said. “This is the most important task I have ever given you! The fate of millions of ponies rests on your ability to carry out this exceedingly simple request!”
“Lol, whatev’,” said Owlowicious.
“Hey, let’s grab a 40 and get high or sumthin’,” said Spike, as they wandered to the entrance, stumbling out just before the aliens reached their position.
“Oh, I hope they make it!” Twilight said. The ponies cowered together, staring up at the leering aliens.
Scene 5: Celestia’s Castle
“Our forces are ready, princess.”
“Excellent, general,” Celestia said, taking her seat at the head of the table in the situation room. The screens in front of her showed the massive alien ship resting in the forest outside Ponyville. Around the ship were hundreds -- no, thousands -- of ponies, lined up in rows.
“The aliens appear to be armed with some sort of high-powered beam weapons,” said the general, taking his place at the front of the room. “Their individual troops are living horrors, a nightmarish amalgam of flesh and machine born for the sole purpose of slaughter. They are warriors, plain and simple, and to be in their presence is to be on the threshold of death. The ship itself has dozens of gigawatt-class laser banks apparently designed for interstellar combat, but which we assume can be used on the ground as well.” He paused to take a sip of water.
“Despite this,” he continued, “we believe they are weak against our advanced spear technology, which as you know consists not just of wooden shafts, but metal or stone heads laced onto the tips with rawhide. These spears are capable of puncturing the toughest pony hides, and we assume they will be equally effective against the rolled tungsten armor worn by the alien shock troops.”
“I agree,” Celestia said. “You may commence the attack.”
The general nodded and spoke into his radio. After a moment the pony lines on the screen shifted and began to slowly advance. The general increased the magnification on one of the screens, revealing dozens of ponies charging toward the alien ship with spears clenched in their mouths.
One of the laser batteries on the alien ship swiveled toward the advancing ponies, and the screens suddenly turned pure white. After several seconds the satellite eventually readjusted its gain, revealing a smoking, lava-filled pit where the ponies had just stood.
The general and princess stared at the screens for a while. Finally, the general turned back to the princess.
“Shall we ready a fifth wave, then?” he asked.
“May as well. I’m out of ideas.”
Scene 6: On the ramp just outside the alien mothership
“Yo, I’m tired, let’s take a break.”
“Naw man, Twi said we had ta git to Celestia and tell her ‘bout the crystal thing!” Owlowicious said.
“Pff, we can do that later.”
“Lol ‘k.”
Scene 7: Inside the mothership
“...and now that I have explained our evil plan to you, along with the critical weakness you can exploit, I’m afraid it’s time for me to kill you.” The alien leader laughed as he spoke, finishing a lengthy monologue to the caged ponies.
The four remaining ponies quivered in fear, huddled around each other as their souls slowly shriveled as the horror of the alien’s plan became clear to them. Twilight could only hope that Spike and Owlowicious would escape the ship and deliver her message to Princess Celestia before it was too late.
She had to stall for time! Shaking, she forced herself to her hooves, and stared up at the hideous bug-eyed monstrosity that was the alien overlord.
“You haven’t won yet!” she cried. “The forces of good always triumph over evil!”
“Oh, you haven’t figured it out?” the alien replied. “What if we’re really the good ones, and you’re evil!?”
Twilight and her friends gasped. The world around her went grey as the shocking, unbearable truth of the alien’s argument pounded at her senses! A moment later the camera suddenly tilted a few degrees, like in those psychological movies that don’t do well at the box office but the critics seem to love.
“That’s so deep!” Rarity whispered, her soul crushed by the sudden revelation.
“What a twist!” Applejack mumbled. “I never saw it coming!”
Twilight clenched her eyes shut, tears rolling down her face. She thought of her friends, of Rainbow Dash and her valiant sacrifice, of Spike and Owlowicious who were racing to their rescue, of Princess Celestia and the brave ponies outside fighting back against the aliens.
“NO!” she screamed. “You’re wrong! If there’s one thing I’ve learned about friendship, it means killing people who are different! Like you!” The others gasped as her brave words snapped them out of their stupor.
Twilight’s horn flashed, and the four suddenly teleported out of the cage! Before they could ask why she didn’t try doing that earlier, she suddenly ran up to the floating crystal and bucked it as hard as she could!
“NOOOOOOOO!” the alien overlord screamed, clutching his tentacled head with his squid-like appendages. “You’ve killed us all!” he cried, and began trashing around as the ship started to shake.
“Quick girls, we’ve got to escape!” Rarity yelled. “To the lifeboats!”
The four dodged around the stunned aliens, all of whom had collapsed to the ground the moment Twilight kicked the crystal. Dark cracks were appearing on its glowing faces, and the ship began to shake violently beneath them.
At the end of the corridor they conveniently ran into a lifeboat. They quickly poured inside, only to gasp in horror when they saw the terrible choice awaiting them.
The lifeboat only had three seats!
“You go on without me,” Rarity said, stepping back outside the lifeboat. “It’s the generous thing to do!”
“Thanks!” Twilight yelled, slamming the door shut and buckling herself in, Applejack and Pinkie Pie quickly taking the other two seats. After a moment there was a muffled banging on the door.
“I changed my mind!” they could hear Rarity yell. “I’ll sit on the floor! I’ll sit on Applejack’s lap if that’s okay with--”
“There’s no time!” Twilight interrupted, quickly going through the launch checklist. She deftly flipped switches and toggles despite having never operated anything more mechanically advanced than a pair of scissors, much less in an alien language. Once everyone was buckled in she punched the throttles to maximum, and the lifeboat blasted away from the doomed ship.
Behind them the alien vessel shuddered one final time, and everything went white.
Scene 8: Celestia’s Castle
“My favorite student, I’m so happy you managed to destroy the aliens and save all of Equestria.”
“Thank you your majesty. I only wish we had been able to save Rainbow Dash or Rarity.”
The two solemnly gazed at the portraits of Rarity and Rainbow Dash set beside Celestia’s throne, like in that final scene from Armageddon. They both looked so happy, so alive.
“So did you learn anything about friendship?” Celestia asked.
“I think I did, princess. Friendship means going to war with people who are different from you. I also learned that violence isn’t just the right answer, it’s the easiest and most satisfying answer as well.”
“I’m so proud of you, Twilight.”
“I’m just glad to be alive... but I wonder...” she trailed off.
“What? What is it?”
“Well, when we destroyed those aliens, I got the terrible feeling that there might be more of them out there, waiting to visit us again...”
“No!”
“Yes, I’m afraid. Perhaps two more movies worth.”
Celestia shuddered. “I’m not sure we can survive that.”
“We have no choice, princess. We have no choice.”
TO BE CONTINUED...?
Roll Credits
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Michael Bay Presents: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer
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He did it to Transformers. Now Michael Bay turns his genius to My Little Pony.
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<p>[Comedy] [Parody] On June 28, 2011, Michael Bay released Transformers: Dark of the Moon, his third feature film based on the HASBRO toy line Transformers. The next day, Bay and HASBRO entered into talks over another of the toy company’s properties, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The only concrete evidence of the new film to emerge so far is a tattered screenplay, presented here, which was found in a dumpster outside Bay’s production house, Platinum Dunes.</p>
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Opening Scene: Translunar Orbit
The sleek alien craft slid through the void in silence.
The nature of space imposes certain requirements on the vessels that fly therein. Its vast distances, incomprehensible to mortal minds, require titanic engines with the output of suns. Storage tanks for oxygen, water, fuel or whatever other liquids and gasses your particular physiology is based on take up most of a ship’s actual bulk. Symmetry is considered useful; otherwise your powerful engines will put the ship into an uncontrollable spin that tears it apart at the seams. Windows are a silly vanity – the ship’s expensive sensor suite can see further and detect more than your pitiful, meat-based eyes. They are also a weak spot in the armor, which is a bad thing whether you’re engaged in combat or just running into specks of dust at a high fraction of the speed of light.
The alien ship violated all of these restrictions and then some. Forward-facing windows peered out at the stars as the irregular craft spun on its long axis, coming to a new heading that bent toward the blindingly bright surface of the moon far below.
To the aliens in the vessel’s cockpit, space seemed to move around them. The spinning stars were the only sign of their motion, and the moon grew by itself in the windows. As it filled the viewport one particular crater rushed up to meet them, and they maneuvered to bring the craft down on a landing strip near the rim.
They walked, naked, through the harsh lunar environment as though it were a comfortable spring day. Their maker, in her mad genius, had adapted them to this world in a desperate, foalish attempt at playing god. The corpses of her failed experiments littered the landscape; they lay wherever she had flung them in her terrible rage, and slowly decomposed in the relentless hail of solar radiation.
Massive doors set into the side of the crater cracked opened as the aliens approached. A more efficient species of aliens might have built a smaller pedestrian entrance for the hidden moonbase, rather than opening the hangar doors every time someone wanted to walk in or out, but that wasn’t really part of their psychology. They were not subtle aliens.
The hangar buzzed with activity. Dozens of scout and assault craft, aligned in neat rows on the bay floor, were in the final stages of preparation for the attack. Crowds of aliens buzzed around the ships. Mechanically augmented maintainers pulled open panels to inspect circuits and wiring, while pilots and crews performed preflight checks in the cockpits.
Most frightening of all were the thousands of shock troops filing aboard the drop pods. Every one was a living horror, a composite creature of meat and metal blended. Electro-actuated muscles connected to titanium bones. Limbs terminated not in hands but in weapons: beam rifles, grenade launchers, particle projection cannons. Not blood but a nutrient-rich copper-saline solution flowed through arteries. Their armored skin seemed to shift with the flickering light of the engines as it changed its color to match the environment.
They had transcended the boundaries of flesh. Her gifts lifted them above the cruel limits of nature and mortality. They were touched by a god.
The alien strode through the chaos of the hangar. He ignored the lesser beings around him, even as they snapped to attention and saluted. His mind was focused on the meeting that awaited him.
The hangar gave way to a corridor leading further beneath the lunar surface. The complex was hardened to withstand direct hits from multi-megaton weapons, and the best defense was to dig deep, deep below the regolith and rocks above. Their queen could be a very paranoid god at times.
At last he came to her throne room. Originally a massive natural cavern, it had been shaped and molded according to her will. Tall moonrock columns supported the high roof, which was carved with fanciful images of the phases of the moon, surrounding a central sun in eclipse. Artificial windows looked out onto huge liquid crystal screens programmed to display pictures of the surface as it appeared outside the base, creating the illusion that her throne was atop a high lunar mountain.
He knelt in the center of the room. Before him rose a dozen steps, atop which she sat, still as a statue. Her eyes were closed, though the faint pressure against his brain dispelled any illusion that she was asleep or unaware of his presence.
“My queen, I have returned,” he said. The vacuum in her hall carried no words – a speaker built into his palm, pressed against the floor, transmitted his voice through the metal deck plates, up the stairs, into her hooves and to her eardrums. All faster than through pitiful, thin air.
“Welcome back, general. All is well, I pray?” She remained as still as stone; her musical voice thundered in his mind.
“Our plans are proceeding according to schedule,” he said. “The loss of the expeditionary force was a painful setback, but we learned much about our enemy. Although our assessment of her conventional armies was accurate, I’m afraid we dramatically underestimated the capabilities of some of her special forces.”
A hidden hologram projector flickered to life beside him, filling the empty room with six large portraits of brightly colored ponies. Two of them, a cyan pegasus and a white unicorn, had large red ‘X’ marks through them.
The others, regretfully, were still alive. A lavender unicorn with cunning eyes; a pink earth pony with a crazed smile; a craven yellow pegasus with a flowing pink mane; a rough orange earth pony with a tough-as-nails expression.
“Yes, I know these mares. I have seen their power first-hand.” His queen opened her teal eyes, drinking in the images. Her gaze came to rest on the lavender unicorn.
“We have plans to neutralize them,” the general said. “They will not interfere with us again.”
She was silent for a long while. Long enough that the moonscape displayed in the artificial windows changed, the shadows lengthening as their world rotated away from the sun. He was silent as well; he had learned not to interrupt her. Finally she spoke.
“I want the purple one alive. She has cost me much, and must pay.” She tilted her head down to look directly at him, like he was an interesting insect pinned against a board. The force of her gaze felt like a wind against his face.
He shivered briefly before responding. “It will be done, my queen.”
She stared at him for a moment longer, then closed her eyes and returned to her former position. “Begin the invasion,” she said.
He bowed and stood to leave. Behind him Luna, goddess of the moon and princess of the night, resumed her meditation.
Michael Bay Presents
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer: Part 2: The Unicorning
Scene 1: Ponyville
Twilight Sparkle was using her motorcycle in a most unorthodox fashion when Applejack found her.
The camera followed Applejack into the garage, hugging the ground for the best angle. Twilight was splayed atop her motorcycle, lying on her stomach on its seat. Her rear legs clenched the frame, holding her in place and giving the camera a gratuitous shot of her flanks that very nearly earned the film an R rating. She shifted and moaned occasionally, oblivious to Applejack’s presence as her front hooves slowly moved. Nothing short of a huge explosion could tear her away from her favorite pastime.
She lifted a trembling hoof and turned the page of the book propped on the handlebars in front of her. Reading over her shoulder, Applejack could make out what seemed to be scientific diagrams and long, boring columns of text filled with numbers and equations.
“Sugar?” she asked. No response. She rolled her eyes and jabbed the lavender unicorn’s side with her hoof.
That worked. Twilight let out a loud yelp and tried to jump to her hooves, having apparently forgotten she was on top of a motorcycle. Her hooves slipped on the chrome body as the whole contraption teetered for a moment before toppling off its kickstand, dumping her and her book onto the garage floor in a heap.
“You shouldn’t sneak up on ponies, Applejack,” Twilight said with a scowl. She stood back up, still shaking from the sudden surge of adrenaline, and looked around for her book. She found it beneath a workbench and grabbed it with her mouth. Applejack got a glimpse of the cover before the unicorn could stuff it in her saddlebags.
“Alien Technology Digest?” she read, puzzled. “Twilight, you’re not still thinking ‘bout that invasion last month, are ya?”
She sighed. “I can’t help it, AJ. Ever since I kicked that crystal and destroyed the enemy ship, I’ve been seeing visions… Ancient pony hieroglyphs are always flashing in front of me, giving me strange answers to impossible scientific problems. Sometimes,” she paused and looked around to make sure no one else was listening, “sometimes, I even see visions of the future… the world is going to burn, AJ! They’re going to come back, and kill us all!”
“Now, calm down, Twi’, I’m sure there’s a good explanation for all this,” Applejack said. “Yer a scientist, so ask yerself what’s more likely: that touching that crystal somehow opened a gateway in yer mind that links the past, present and future in a seamless flow of tortured visions and terrifying insights…
“Or,” she continued, “Maybe these are just flashbacks from all the acid you did in college?”
“Well, I did do a lot of LSD,” Twilight allowed. “For, um, research purposes, of course.” She paused, and then giggled. “Oh AJ, I’m being a silly filly, aren’t I? Really, aliens in my brain?”
“Aw shucks, sugar cube. Anyone would feel a little weird after all that. Come on, let’s head over to Pinkie’s. Her Tuesday party is just about to get started.”
Scene 2: Pinkie’s Party
The block party was in full swing when Applejack and Twilight Sparkle arrived. Spike and Owlowicious were already passed out in the alley behind Sugarcube Corner, but they could have been there from the Monday party for all Twilight knew. Dozens of ponies caroused in the streets around the shop, laughing over the day’s gossip. Large beer troughs had been set out in strategic locations, and were constantly being refilled by a hyperactive pink blur.
Twilight and AJ headed for the nearest trough and took a long pull from the cold beer within. It was cheap stuff, but since Pinkie was footing the bill no one complained.
“You know,” Applejack said after a particularly long draught, “Things have been awful quiet here since we blew that ship up. Didn’t you try to tell Celestia that there were more aliens out there? Shouldn’t we be making preparations or somthin’?”
Twilight thought for a moment before answering. “Well, we defeated them last time without any preparation. I’m sure if they come back we’ll be able to beat them again.”
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash joined them at the trough. “Hey girls, whatcha talking about?” Pinkie asked. “Oh, you’ve got some foam on your horn, Twilight!”
“Oop, thanks Pinkie!” She shook her head to toss the foam off. “AJ was just worrying about the aliens coming back.”
“Ha, I’d like to see them try!” said Rainbow Dash. She jabbed her hooves at the air like she was shadowboxing. “They wouldn’t stand a chance! Oh, thanks for using their alien technology to bring me back to life, by the way.”
“It was my pleasure,” the unicorn answered. “Fortunately there were enough of their alien magic crystal technology… bit… things to experiment with. Who knew it would have that effect!”
Sweetie Belle, who was listening to their conversation with a distraught expression, walked up to them. “Twilight? Do you think you could use that magic to bring Rarity back?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry Sweetie Belle,” Twilight said. “But we only had enough magic alien juice for one pony, and unfortunately Rarity tested poorly with the focus group, so—er, I mean, we only had enough juice for one pony, and Rainbow Dash’s name came first alphabetically.”
Beside her Rainbow Dash exhaled in relief. Sweetie Bell sniffled and walked away.
“Anyway, let’s stop thinking about aliens,” Applejack said. “This is a beautiful day, and there’s no need to spoil it by worrying about—"
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion!
“Oh, god dammit,” she finished. Dozens of screaming ponies took off running away from a rising black cloud over the center of town. Bits of burning wreckage slammed into the ground around them, starting smaller fires wherever they landed. The camera shook violently, as though mounted on a car engine block, and the anguished cries of wounded and dying ponies filled the air.
“We need to go help everypony!” Twilight yelled. She jumped over the beer trough and galloped toward the plume of smoke, followed by her friends. By the time they reached the center of town, however, it was too late; the newly rebuilt Town Hall was nothing but flaming debris and pony parts.
“Noooooo!” she cried, falling to her knees. Her friends gathered around as the fires burned, and gazed at the rising black pall.
Scene 3: Celestia’s Castle
“General, please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.” Celestia was in a poor mood. She had been in her bath when a guard barged in with news of the latest attack. Her mane and tail were wrapped in a pair of towels nearly as large as she was, and a small puddle of water was forming under her seat at the head of the table. The other ponies pretended not to notice.
The pony at the far end of the situation room coughed politely. Behind him projection screens displayed a rotating series of pictures of attacks across Equestria.
“I’m afraid it is, your majesty,” he said. “In fact, they seem to have attacked the same places they hit last time, minus Cloudsdale, which as you know no longer exists.” He paused for a sip of water.
“If you’ll recall, princess, after the aliens were defeated we proposed a series of military upgrades, which you disapproved, including a space-based early warning system that might have detected these attacks,” he continued. “Now, I don’t wish to second-guess your majesty’s decisions,” his tone clearly indicated he was lying, “but we find ourselves rather unprepared for this conflict.”
“And I will remind you, general, that the defense budget is part of a bi-annual appropriations process,” said an oily looking bureaucrat pony seated next to the princess. “We will be happy to consider your suggestions for new spending the next time the budget comes up for review.”
That prompted a heated shouting match between the military ponies on one side of the table and the civilian ponies on the other. Finally Celestia had enough.
“Enough!” she yelled as she slammed a hoof onto the table. The room went silent, and everypony turned to stare at her. “General, what are our options?”
“We still have our advanced spear technology, which we have managed to improve somewhat thanks to bits of alien technology we were able to recover.” He hit a button on a small remote control, and a diagram of a spear appeared on the screen behind him. “You’ll note the new, rubberized grip here on the shaft, which improves comfort and performance by at least 20 percent, according to test groups.” The military ponies around the table murmured appreciatively.
“But we have two problems,” he continued. “First, even with the new spears, our pony warriors are completely outclassed by the alien troops. We’ve run some computer simulations, and, well, the results aren’t pretty.”
On the screen a 3D rendering of a pony warrior with a spear gripped in his mouth approached an alien shock troop. The assembled ponies leaned closer when suddenly the screen filled the room with a gruesome red light, accompanied by horrible, violent ripping noises. The civilian ponies turned away, several of them actually gagging at the sight.
Celestia sighed. “And the second problem?”
He clicked the remote again, and the screen switched to a picture of the alien ship that had been destroyed outside Ponyville during the last invasion. “Their previous assault was commanded by this ship. It was incredibly powerful, but by sneaking a team of Special Forces ponies on board, we were able to destroy it and end the invasion.”
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his description of her student and friends.
“However, this time the invasion isn’t being commanded locally,” the general said. “In fact, it’s being led from a very distant location.” He touched the remote again, and the ship on the screen behind him was replaced by a picture of space, with a bright white circle in the center. As their eyes adjusted, the ponies could make out the craters and lava flows that decorated the surface of the moon.
“Well, fuck me,” Celestia said.
Scene 4: Luna’s Quarters
“Luna? Are you in here?” Celestia nudged open the door to her sister’s private quarters. She didn’t usually visit this part of the castle, preferring to give her sister some space while she adjusted to life on Equestria.
“Coming, ‘Tia!” she heard from within an adjacent room. A moment later a bubbly indigo alicorn trotted through a tall doorway. She had a bright smile on her face as she greeted her sister with a friendly nuzzle.
“Luna, I just spoke with my military advisors. They said the latest alien attacks are coming from the moon.” Her sister ducked her head, suddenly looking bashful. “Luna, are you launching another rebellion against me using armies of genetically augmented alien monsters?”
Luna twisted her hoof against the floor, refusing to meet her sister’s gaze. “…maybe.”
Celestia sighed. “Luna, remember when I said you could live here? I had one rule?”
Luna nodded. “No rebellions,” she mumbled.
“Well?”
Luna stomped her hoof in frustration. “It’s not fair! Everypony loves you but they still ignore me!”
“That’s not true, Luna. They’re just getting adjusted to your being back, is all.”
“Then why haven’t I been in a single episode since the series premier? You get to be in every one!”
Celestia scoffed. “First, that’s not true; there are several episodes I haven’t been in. Second, it’s the screenwriters who decide which ponies appear in which episodes, not me.”
“It’s still not fair!” the alicorn’s voice echoed in the minds of everypony in the castle. A black aura flashed into existence around her, setting her mane and tail waving in an unseen wind. Cracks appeared in the tall windows overlooking the castle courtyard as the force of her wrath physically pressed against every object in the room.
“Don’t you take that tone of voice with me, young mare!” Celestia snapped. “Now, if you stop all this nonsense, I’ll do my best to make sure you get more screen time in season two. Maybe your own episode, if you promise to be good.”
“I will take them all,” Luna said, her teal eyes shining with a feverish light. “It is time for a new era in Equestria, sister. I will rule here, and the night will last forever!” Booming laughter filled Canterlot as visions of conquest filled Luna’s mind. Her horn glowed with a dark anti-light that built into a blinding black flash, and when Celestia could see again she was alone in the room.
“Dammit, not again,” she mumbled. She turned and trotted out of the room, slamming the door with an angry huff.
Scene 5: Ponyville
“…and so I need you and your friends to once again venture into the depths of the alien fortress and put an end to their evil plans, so that all of Equestria may know peace.” Twilight Sparkle finished reading the scroll. “She doesn’t ask for small favors, does she?”
“On the one hoof, it’s encouragin’ to know she has so much faith in us,” Applejack said. The five ponies were lounging in Twilight’s library, where they had come to discuss an “important missive” from Princess Celestia herself.
“On the other,” she continued, “she’s totally bat-shit crazy if she thinks we’re goin’ to the moon for her.”
“Oh, um, Applejack, you shouldn’t say such mean things about her,” Fluttershy said quietly. “If that’s alright, I mean.”
“I bet I could fly there!” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean, it can’t be that far away if you can see it from the ground, right?”
“The moon is a quarter of a million miles away, Dash,” Twilight said. The cyan pegasus stared at her, uncomprehending. “That’s more than ten times around the equator,” she tried. Rainbow Dash simply shrugged.
Twilight sighed. “If you could fly at the speed of sound it would take you…” she paused, thinking. “…almost two weeks of constant flight to reach it.”
“I could do that!”
Twilight rubbed her temples with her hooves. “Most of that distance is in space. You would freeze, suffocate and explosively decompress all at the same time,” she added helpfully.
“Oh… what’s space?”
“Anyway,” Applejack drawled, watching with interest as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had to physically restrain Twilight from assaulting the pegasus. “Even if we had a plan to stop the aliens, we have no way to get to the moon.”
“Oh! Well, about that,” Twilight said, wriggling out from under the two ponies. “I’ve actually been working on a new teleportation spell that I think might just do the trick.”
“Teleportation spell?” Pinkie asked. “I dunno, Twilight. That sounds dangerous! Like it could go wrong and kill us all, or dump us in some weirdo alternate dimension where everypony’s a fish or Hitler won World War Two!”
Twilight waved a hoof dismissively. “That’s just science fiction, Pinkie. If teleportation spells could go wrong that easily, don’t you think we would’ve read about some of those crazy stories by now?”
Silence filled the room.
“See?” Twilight said. “Nothing to worry about. Now, who wants to help me test the spell?”
Scene 6: Twilight Sparkle’s Arcane Laboratory
“Thank you so much for volunteering to help, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. The other ponies were gathered outside the primary testing field while Twilight drew a rune-filled circle on the laboratory floor. “If this experiment works, we’ll be halfway to ending the alien attacks!”
“Oh, well, I just felt soooo guilty for abandoning you last time,” Fluttershy said. “This is the least I can do to help.”
“I didn’t know you had a laboratory, Twilight,” Applejack said, looking around the room. Magical knick-knacks and oddities sat on shelves alongside thousands of books. Not an inch of space on the walls went uncovered by some diagram, flowchart or hastily scribbled warning sign.
“It’s where she did her experiments on me!” Pinkie chimed in. The others stared at her for a long moment, and then at Twilight.
“Ahem!” Twilight said, a strained smile on her face. “All in the name of science, of course! Nothing untoward about that!”
“…right,” Rainbow Dash said. “Anyway, what’s this experiment supposed to do?”
“It’s a proof of concept for my new teleportation circle,” Twilight said. “By adjusting the runic coordinates used to draw this circle, I can send anyone standing on it almost anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye!”
The others stared at it.
“That’s… awful powerful, Twi’,” Applejack finally said, a skeptical note in her voice. “Don’cha think somethin’ that useful would’ve been invented by now if it really worked, though?”
“Well, obviously, nopony as smart and powerful as I has attempted it before!”
“…right,” Rainbow Dash said, again.
“Now then,” Twilight said, “we’re starting small. This particular circle is set to deliver its payload across town to Applejack’s barn. Any questions?” They all shook their heads. “Okay then, onto the circle, Fluttershy!” The yellow pegasus gulped audibly, but did as she was told.
Twilight exhaled deeply and closed her eyes to concentrate. A gentle purple glow built around her horn as she prepared to close the magical circuits that would complete the spell and send Fluttershy across town to—
“Wait!” Pinkie Pie suddenly cried. “Don’t do it!” She disappeared in a pink blur up the stairs.
The others stared in shock at the closing door. A moment later Pinkie reappeared, a large wood box perched on her back.
“I almost forgot!” she said. “I borrowed this box of rusty knives from Big Macintosh and promised to return them today. Do you think you carry them with you, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, well, I suppose I could, if that’s alright with everypony.” She carefully grabbed the box with her mouth, its contents jingling ominously as she settled back into the rune circle.
“Ya know, I could take ‘em back for ya,” Applejack offered. Pinkie shook her head emphatically.
“This way’s faster!”
“Are you two done?” Twilight asked, irate. They nodded, sheepishly, and she began to recast the spell. A gentle purple glow built around her horn as she—
“Wait!” Rainbow Dash suddenly cried. “Don’t cast yet!” She too vanished up the stairs in a cyan-and-rainbow colored blur.
Twilight stomped her hoof in frustration. It was several minutes this time before they heard a loud scraping noise upstairs, as though somepony was dragging a heavy object across the floor. The door banged open and Rainbow Dash entered, pulling a massive metal contraption down the stairs with a loud *THUNK* on each step.
“I borrowed Big Macintosh’s wood chipper last week and forgot to return it to him,” she said, panting. “Do you think you could take it with you, Fluttershy?”
“You… borrowed a wood chipper?” Twilight asked. “What the hell for?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I thought it did something else.”
“You thought a wood chipper did something other than chip… you know what, forget it. Just put it in the circle.” She waited as the pegasus pushed the machine into the circle, unfortunately not leaving enough room for Fluttershy.
“No, that won’t work,” Twilight said. “Everything has to fit inside the circle. Take it out, Dash.”
The cyan pegasus was about to object when Fluttershy spoke up. “Oh, it’s alright Twilight. I’ll just stand in the wood chipper’s intake.” She floated up above the machine, then sank down into the metal hopper with her box of rusty knives. “Okay, I’m ready.” She suddenly jerked slightly, lifting a hoof. “Ooh, those are sharp!”
Twilight glanced at the spectators. “Anything else?” There were no takers.
“Okay then!” she said, her voice rising with excitement. “Let’s prove once and for all that teleportation magic is perfectly safe!”
A gentle purple glow built around her horn…
Scene 7: Ponyville Cemetery
Fluttershy’s funeral was held in the rain.
Nearly everypony in Ponyville attended. They formed a sea of bright pastel colors draped in the black garb of mourning, washed out by the weeping heavens. Foals cried and clung to their mothers, many of whom could not restrain their own tears.
Celestia herself presided over the lowering of the coffin into the ground. She delivered a short speech on the transience of life, and the promise of a better world to come. Her normally flowing mane was plastered to her coat in colorful strings.
The six pallbearer ponies lifted the flag from the coffin and folded it with military precision. They handed it to Celestia, who knelt and reverently presented it to Angel Bunny.
On the far side of the coffin, Princess Celestia’s own honor guard performed a 21-spear salute. The four remaining Elements of Harmony clung to each other for support as the spears thudded into the ground, and wondered if they would have the strength to continue without their kindest friend.
Scene 8: Everfree Forest
Dawn approached in the east as the four friends snuck through the quiet haunting gloom of the Everfree Forest. For weeks the aliens had pressed their attack, wreaking greater and greater destruction on Equestria with their orbital canons. Once ponykind’s defenses were sufficiently softened up the aliens began landing assault ships for the final phase of the invasion.
Twilight Sparkle had offered to try the teleportation spell again, but was overruled by her friends. She tried to explain that science was a process of trial and error. They suggested she try teleporting herself next. Together, they agreed to find another way to the moon.
Another way to the moon was waiting for them in the woods. The alien assault ships were equipped for transport to and from the moon. By finding one, overpowering the guards and hijacking the ship, they would have everything they needed to defeat Luna and return peace to Equestria.
Well, maybe not defeat her. But get to her, certainly; Twilight was sure of that.
They found the landing craft with ease, by following a trail of smoke that rose above even the perpetual clouds of the Everfree forest. The smoke led to a blasted, treeless circle surrounding a wide, shallow crater, at the center of which rested the alien vessel. Although it was blackened by the heat of re-entry, they could clearly make out Luna’s crescent moon symbol on the nose.
Unfortunately, several nightmarish alien horrors stood outside the craft. They were even more terrible to behold than the last aliens the four had seen, months ago outside the original alien command ship.
“Okay, plan,” Twilight said, pulling the others close. She drew a quick diagram in the soil with her hoof. “Rainbow Dash, you fly around and distract them, and the rest of us will sneak onto the ship. Got it?”
The pegasus hesitated. “Uh, about that, Twilight…”
“Maybe there’s a better way?” Applejack suggested.
“I have an idea!” Pinkie gushed. “And it won’t get Dashie killed!”
“I vote for Pinkie’s plan,” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight scowled. “We haven’t even heard it yet, Dash,” she said. “Pinkie, would you mind explaining… hey, where’d she go?” The pink pony was nowhere to be seen.
They were about to go searching for her when the silence of the forest was split by a terrifying wail, a ululating cry that startled birds into the air for miles around. The three ponies froze in fear, and nearly screamed when Pinkie reappeared in front of them, a huge grin on her face.
“W-what was t-that?” Twilight stammered.
“Manticore mating call,” Pinkie said. “Took weeks of practice to get right. Anyway, they should be here any minute now.”
“How do you know how to perform a manticore mating call?!” Rainbow Dash hissed, her ears folded back against her skull.
Pinkie’s eyes suddenly grew serious. “Well, it’s not something I… okay, look, I did some things in college I’m not proud of. Can we leave it at that?”
The answer was unlikely to be ‘yes’, but before anypony could speak a trio of large, aroused male manticores burst into the clearing, searching for the female who called them. Finding none, they turned their attention instead to the extremely startled alien guards.
With their distraction well in hand, the four ponies crept aboard the alien vessel, trying not to look at the carnage around them. Applejack caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye, and was noisily sick in the dirt next to the craft. Once aboard Twilight buttoned up the ship, and prepared for their departure.
“That’s horrible!” Rainbow Dash whispered. “They’re killing them!”
“Oh no, they’re doing much worse than that,” Pinkie said. “But they’ll probably survive if they don’t struggle too much.”
Twilight pretended not to hear that part. She pushed the throttle levers forward and the ship lifted away from the earth, and flew toward the moon much faster than Rainbow Dash could have dreamed.
Scene 9: The Hidden Lunar Moonbase
“…and per your request, the control crystal now has an extra layer of security, to prevent a repeat of the, uh, setbacks we suffered earlier.” The alien technician gestured at the large, floating crystal at the center of the reactor room as he spoke.
“Excellent,” Luna said. “It was most unfortunate to allow a simple design flaw to doom our previous invasion attempts. Tell me, what are these security precautions?”
“Well, you can see the glass dome we’ve placed over the crystal,” the alien said, pointing a writhing tentacle at the crystal. “The only way to lift the dome is to enter a four-digit password into this computer terminal. For ease of use and remembrance, we set the password to ‘Luna.’”
There was a long pause.
“Luna?”
“Yes, my queen. Does it please you?”
“I am… pleased that you honor me in all your works,” she said, trying to be diplomatic. “However, do you not think that is a rather easily guessed password?”
“…no?”
She sighed. “Is there any way to change the password? And perhaps make it longer?”
“Oh no, it’s hardwired into the system. We would need to completely replace the whole thing, including the glass dome.”
“Including the glass… you know, ‘Luna’ is fine. What else have you done to protect this most vital asset?”
The alien stared at her. Finally she sighed.
“There’s nothing else, is there?”
He looked rather peevish. “Well, my queen, it only took us months of round-the-clock effort to install this system, but of course we never expected it to meet your exacting standards. I’ll be happy to order my crew back work for another month to—"
“No! No, that’s fine, you have done very well for me,” she said, cursing the labor union contract that prevented her from teleporting the insolent creature into the sun. “Perhaps there are some easy changes we can make to secure this room?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Maybe put a lock on the door? I’m pretty sure the supply shop has combination locks. We could just go down there and get one.”
“We’d have to talk to contracting about any construction requests,” the alien said. “We can put out a request for proposal and see what offers come in. If we rush it I’m sure we can have something in place by next month.”
Luna’s telepathic scream of frustration could be heard on the far side of the moon.
Scene 10: Inside the Hangar
The moonbase hangar was empty when Twilight Sparkle and her friends arrived. All the other ships were already on Equestria, disgorging their cargo of death and destruction.
“Hm, problem, girls,” Twilight said. “The hangar isn’t pressurized. If we go out there we’ll die instantly.”
There was a long pause as they all pondered what it would feel like to simultaneously freeze, suffocate and explosively decompress.
“So, um, do we go home?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“We may have to,” Twilight grudgingly allowed. “Without some way to survive outside… oh, hello, what are these?” She pawed at a cargo container labeled ‘Life Support – Exo-suits.’ Popping it open revealed a cache of space suits and oxygen tanks specifically fitted for ponies.
“Excellent!” Twilight said. “With these we’ll be able to survive out there! Everyone grab one and put it on!”
“Er, Twi’, don’t that seem a mite odd?” Applejack asked. “The aliens have space suits that fit ponies? And aren’t these aliens able to survive in space without—"
“There’s no time!” Twilight interrupted and went back to pulling on her suit.
They stared at her as the moments ticked by. Eventually she noticed their attention.
“Oh, well, I guess there is time,” she said. “But we really should hurry if we want to… stop looking at me like that! I don’t know why the fuck these suits were here, okay?”
Having no other choice, the four ponies donned the suits. After some quick function checks they equalized the pressure inside the cabin, and stepped out into the deserted hangar.
Scene 11: The Reactor Control Room
Hours later, after wandering through countless miles of deserted corridors, Twilight was about ready to give up and head back to Ponyville. Although her research into the living habits of freakish mutant aliens had been vastly advanced by the accidental discovery of their barracks, they had made no progress toward defeating the armies of the moon goddess.
Just as she was about to suggest regrouping in the hangar, they turned the corner to discover a door with an interesting sign:
WARNING: REACTOR CONTROL ROOM
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
UNAUTHORIZED USE OR ACCESS MAY RESULT IN EXPLOSIVE DESTRUCTION OF MOONBASE
They took their time reading it. Part of Twilight’s mind insisted that no one could be stupid enough to leave such a vital asset unguarded, or to advertise its presence and sensitivity on the door. On the other hoof, these were the same aliens they had defeated last time by kicking a single crystal in their command ship.
It was worth checking out, they decided. Cautiously, they pushed open the door and poked their heads inside.
Bingo. The room was a massive, circular chamber, lined with computer banks that fed into think conduits running up the walls. At the center of the room was a large floating crystal, identical to the one on the ship months ago.
“There it is,” Twilight whispered. A microphone in her helmet picked up her voice and transmitted it to the other ponies. “If we break that we should have enough time to get back to the hangar and escape before this place blows!”
They crept toward the crystal. Their vision was terribly restricted by the helmets, limiting them to only seeing the world in front of them. As such they failed to notice when the door opened behind them, and the alien general strode into the room.
“Welcome, my little ponies,” he said. A radio transmitter built into his voice box broadcast his words across the vacuum to their suits. They spun around in a panic, and stared up in horror as he towered over them.
“It was very brave of you to come here like this, knowing it was almost certainly a suicide mission,” he continued. “And you came so very close to your target.” He looked at the unprotected control crystal, and then reached over to tap a key on a nearby terminal. A glass dome lowered from the ceiling onto the crystal, sealing into place with a mechanical *click* the ponies felt reverberate through the floor.
“But now it’s time for you to die,” he finished. A concealed holster built into his leg popped open, and he withdrew a massive pistol from it. The ponies dove to the side as the general raised his sidearm in their direction, preparing to pull the trigger—
When suddenly the world jerked, sending them all stumbling. The gun fired into the empty deck plates, silent in the vacuum except for a quiet hiss as vaporized propellant splattered against their suits. Rainbow Dash struggled to her hooves, and looked around in confusion.
“What the hell was that?” she asked, trying to find the general. He was kneeling, and seemed as disoriented as they.
“Oh no,” Twilight started to say, when suddenly everything jumped again.
“It’s an action scene!” she screamed as she stumbled back to the floor. “The camera is jump-cutting every two seconds!”
“What do we do?!” Applejack cried. She was upside down on a bank of computer terminals. She managed to roll over when—
The world spun again, sending them all back to their knees. Pinkie Pie tried to run for cover, but got turned around during the transition and slammed into the wall instead.
“I don’t know what’s going on!” Rainbow Dash cried. “Nothing makes sense!”
There was a pair of flashes as the general fired randomly. A bank of computers exploded as armor-piercing rounds tore through them like butter. The magnesium casing briefly burned with a blinding light before exhausting the oxygen trapped inside the cooling system.
“Keep your eyes on your hooves!” Twilight yelled. “Otherwise you’ll—"
“—trip!” she concluded, and stumbled over a prone Pinkie Pie.
“Ah think… Ah think ah’m gonna be sick!” Applejack said. There was a horrible, wet sound as she vomited on her microphone, followed by panicked screaming as her now-coated visor blocked her vision of the fight.
Twilight rolled to her hooves, searching for the general. She only had another second before—
The world spun, and she nearly slammed into his stumbling form. He raised his pistol and fired, but obviously he was having as much difficulty as they were with the rapidly changing perspectives.
“Stand still!” he demanded. Twilight ducked between his legs and dove for cover.
“OW!” Rainbow Dash cried. “My head! The fucking camera just hit me in the head! Oh… oh jeez, I think I’m bleeding. Twilight I think I’m—"
The world shook violently as the rogue camera chased Twilight’s running form. Rainbow Dash’s moans and Applejack’s sobs filled the airwaves, and there was only silence from Pinkie Pie’s channel. She was beginning to despair when there was a final flash from the alien’s gun, and suddenly the camera went still.
She panted, her heart racing in her chest like a trapped animal trying to escape. Her rapid breathing was close to overpowering the suit’s recycling system, and it warned her with dozens of glowing amber alerts that she was near the limits of its carbon dioxide scrubbing abilities.
The general lay unmoving on the floor, with a pool of greenish fluid slowly expanding out from beneath him. It bubbled in the vacuum as its water content boiled away. Twilight drew closer, and saw that his pistol was trapped under his fallen body.
Apparently he had shot himself in the chaos of the action scene. Twilight shuddered, wondering how close she had come to a similar fate.
Pinkie was the first to return to her feet, shaking her helmeted head to clear it. Twilight trotted over to see if she needed help, but aside from a minor concussion that was absolutely undetectable compared to her normal craziness, she was fine.
Applejack seemed to be in the most distress. She was desperately pawing at the front of her visor, and a panicky sob kept coming across her channel. Twilight gently restrained her hooves, and used her magic to wipe the inside the earth pony’s visor clean. Able to see again, Applejack calmed almost immediately.
“Oh, thank you sugar!” She threw her hooves around the unicorn in a tight hug. “Ah don’t think Ah’ve ever been through somethin’ that horrible before!”
Rainbow Dash stumbled up to them. She seemed fine, though through the visor they could see a thin trickle of blood running down her face. There was an alarming dent in the side of her helmet.
“Is everypony okay?” Twilight asked. They nodded, though Applejack’s eyes remained wider than usual.
“Is… is he dead?” Pinkie asked, pointing a hoof at the fallen alien.
“I think so,” Twilight answered. “Either way, we’ve got more important things to worry about. Like the crystal.”
They turned to the glass dome covering the crystal. A scuff mark, apparently from one of the general’s bullets, marred the side, but it was too tough to break with such a small weapon. Twilight tried to grab the crystal with her magic, but her telekinetic grip glanced off the glass dome in a shower of sparks. Its designers had planned for that, too.
Pinkie trotted over to an undamaged computer bank, the same one the general had used to lower the dome. Remembering her elite hacking skills, the other girls gathered around the screen.
“Any ideas, Sug’?” Applejack asked.
Pinkie bit her lip. “It’s password protected. Four letters… I’m sorry girls, it could be anything!”
Twilight stomped a hoof in frustration. They were so close! These aliens were obviously much smarter than before, putting a hack-proof computer security system on their one weakness. Her mind filled with visions of returning to Celestia with news of her failure, of waiting for the advancing alien hordes to sweep across Equestria and usher in eternal night. Despair gripped her mind with icy tentacles, and she felt her vision begin to dim…
“Hey, what’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked. She pointed at a small yellow sticky note on the side of the monitor.
Twilight snatched the paper with her magic and floated it down to read. “It says… ‘The password is Luna, case insensitive.’”
They stared at the note for a long moment, and then at each other. Unbidden, Pinkie typed the password into the computer, and tapped the ‘commit’ button.
The glass dome rose into the ceiling, revealing the fragile crystal beneath. Maybe they weren’t such smart aliens after all.
Scene 12: The Back-up Moonbase
The moonbase took several minutes to self-destruct after its control crystal was destroyed. More than enough time for Luna and most of her support staff to evacuate to the back-up moonbase a few craters over. It was also enough time for Twilight Sparkle and her friends to escape back to Equestria, though that was the furthest thing from the princess’s mind at the moment.
Hundreds of thousands of miles away, on the surface of Equestria, her armies collapsed as their psychic connection to her headquarters evaporated. Most went instantly catatonic – the rest simply went insane and began shooting at the first thing they saw, which was usually their comrades. Needless to say the invasion was over.
Luna stared out at the lunar landscape from her back-up throne room. Actually, calling it a throne room was a bit of a stretch. It was more of an office with a view, though the furnishings were certainly nice. Most ponies would be very happy with it, in fact.
Luna was not happy. She was, on the contrary, literally seething with anger. Thin tendrils of smoke rose from her mane and tail as she dreamt up new, exciting methods of torture for the four ponies who had defeated her once again. She was working her way through their internal organs in alphabetical order when a loud knock sounded on the office – no, the throne room door.
“Come!” she called. The doors swung open, and a pair of alien technicians entered, pushing a large metal contraption. It was almost pure white and vaguely pill-shaped, and just about the size of a coffin. It rested on a medical gurney, which both lifted it off the ground and made it easier to transport. A wide variety of beeping and clicking machines and monitors rose from the head of the slab, displaying the vital functions of the patient within.
“The regeneration process is nearly complete, my queen,” one of the technicians said. “We can turn on the communications array if you desire.” She nodded, and he spent a moment fiddling with a tiny speaker at the head of the medical sarcophagus.
“Testing, testing, one two. Can you hear us?” the technician asked.
The sarcophagus beeped once.
“One beep means ‘yes,’ right?” the other technician asked. He grabbed a manual and began flipping through it.
“Idiot! Obviously it heard us, so one beep must mean yes!”
“So it’s two beeps for ‘no?’”
“Enough!” she thundered, weary of the day’s events and unable to tolerate any more idiocy. “Leave us be.”
The bowed and scuttled out of the room, closing the door behind them.
Luna was quiet for a long while with the sarcophagus. The comforting hiss and click of the ventilators slowly drained the tension from her shoulders. Finally she giggled at the absurdity of her situation.
“They think you’re dead, you know,” she said, using her normal voice. “An easy mistake to make. Always check the body, I tell them!” She scowled. “Not that anypony ever listens to me.”
She was silent a while longer, then tilted her head, as though coming to a sudden realization. She turned and approached the sarcophagus with a slow, sultry walk.
“You know,” she purred. “This story has a [Shipping] tag, but here we are at the very end and there hasn’t been any romance whatsoever. We ought to do something about that.” She traced a languid hoof down the smooth metal cover.
The sarcophagus beeped twice.
“Oh, I know you don’t mean that,” she said huskily. “You’re just confused is all.” She slowly drew her tongue across a metal seam, and nibbled gently on a sensor wire plugged into the side.
The sarcophagus began beeping frantically.
“Shh, shh, don’t speak,” she said, and reached over to flip a switch on the speaker. It went silent. “There’s no need for words between us.” She climbed on top of the metal lid, and admired the smooth lines of the medical device. Its polished perfection was a beautiful compliment to her indigo magnificence.
“Just try to relax,” she whispered.
***
The alien technician hurried down the hallway. He had forgotten to adjust a few minor settings on the medical sarcophagus they had left with the princess. Although they would have no effect on the patient inside, they could result in damage to some of the monitoring equipment if various parameters were not properly calibrated.
He was in such a hurry that he forgot to knock, and simply entered the room. He started to apologize as the princess turn to him with a curious expression on her face. Instead he froze, his mouth hanging open in shock.
She was sitting atop the sarcophagus, her mane in wild disarray. Unusual scuff marks covered the polished surface of the device. She tried to stand but slipped on the metal cover and went crashing over backwards onto the floor. The fortunately lower lunar gravity prevented any serious injuries.
“Don’t you people knock?!” she screamed. “Never disturb me when I am with the sarcophagus! Get out!”
The technician beat a hasty retreat, giving the sarcophagus a final stunned glance. He barely escaped before a large book slammed into the door behind him.
Luna panted, trying to catch her breath. She pawed at her mane, then abandoned the attempt at grooming and left it as it was. After a moment she turned back to the sarcophagus, a blush lighting her features.
“I’m sorry, that was a bit forward of me, wasn’t it?” she asked. There was no response from the sarcophagus.
She cleared her throat. “There’s no need to be uncivil,” she said. “We’re going to be together for a long time, so you may as well—oh!” She reached over to flip the switch on the speaker.
“Sorry, forgot about that. Well, you’ll be able to speak soon enough, once the regeneration process is complete.”
The sarcophagus beeped once.
Luna turned back to the window. “You know my history,” she said softly. “How I was unloved. How my sister turned against me and abandoned me here.
“I guess what I’m saying is, I know what it’s like to be forgotten. To be left behind by those you care about. You know the same thing, don’t you? We are so alike.”
She sighed quietly, her eyes on the stars. “I see us together, working side by side. We could create a night that is not just dark but beautiful. The world could be our black, shining jewel. And you…” she turned back to the sarcophagus. “You could get your revenge against the ponies who killed you.
“You would like that, wouldn’t you, Rarity?”
The sarcophagus beeped once for yes.
DUN DUN DUN
DUN DUN DUN
DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN
TO BE CONCLUDED…
Roll Credits
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Main 6,Owlowiscious,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Comedy,Random,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Michael Bay Presents: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer
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He did it to Transformers. Now Michael Bay turns his genius to My Little Pony.
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<p>[Comedy] [Parody] On June 28, 2011, Michael Bay released Transformers: Dark of the Moon, his third feature film based on the HASBRO toy line Transformers. The next day, Bay and HASBRO entered into talks over another of the toy company’s properties, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The only concrete evidence of the new film to emerge so far is a tattered screenplay, presented here, which was found in a dumpster outside Bay’s production house, Platinum Dunes.</p>
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The medical sarcophagus hummed and clicked in the darkness.
Strange displays mounted at the head of the device provided readouts in an alien script: heartbeat, respiration, brainwave activity. A pair of ventilators hissed as they fed oxygen through a myriad of tubes into the sleek metal coffin, breathing for the patient inside. Glowing alert indicators – mostly green, a few yellow – provided diagnostic information to the alien technicians that swarmed around the machine.
Months had passed since they found her, more dead than alive. Even with their advanced technology it had been a gamble to resurrect her. The damage was simply too severe to predict what might wake up when the rejuvenation process was complete.
But where meat failed, metal could redeem. For rebirth to succeed, only the tiniest bit of flesh needed to survive. Their augmentations could take care of the rest.
And now the appointed day had come. The lead technician stroked a loving hand across the polished metal surface – his sole charge since the project began – and whispered to it.
“Are you ready?”
The sarcophagus beeped.
***
They wheeled her through the airlock into the operating room. It was the only room in the moonbase pressurized to standard Earth levels, to reduce the strain on her battered body. Unlike the aliens or their queen, she could not survive in a vacuum.
Yet.
The operating room lights slowly came on, revealing a stark, sterile space of steel and ceramics. A single table rose from the center of the room, a flat slab with grooves for fluid runoff along its rim. Hidden panels in the walls slowly opened, revealing a terrifying array of cybernetic augmentations – artificial organs suspended in neoprene nutrient tubes, titanium bones arranged by size, enough prosthetic limbs for a dozen ponies.
And weapons – so many weapons. An arsenal that would make Death proud.
High above the operating room floor metal shutters began to open, revealing the windows of an observation gallery. Through the thick glass the lead technician could make out the distinctive outline of their queen taking her seat. He spent a few moments arranging the sarcophagus next to the operating table, and then turned to the window.
“My queen,” he called up to her. “We are ready to begin the operation!”
“Excellent, Doctor,” she replied, her melodious voice echoing in their minds. “You may proceed.”
He turned back to the table, his eyes alive with anticipation. At his command the sarcophagus opened, and his assistants transferred the pitiful, mewling thing inside to the table. He selected a variety of helpful tools – bonesaws, scalpels, sutures – from a small handcart while the others disconnected tubes and wires from the patient.
It was more art than science, what he did. The flaws of nature and evolution were varied and profound, and fixing them meant every sculpture he created was unique. They deserved no less, his children.
The operation lasted for days.
***
“Rarity? Rarity, can you hear me?”
“Mmuh? Five more minutes…”
“Wake up Rarity. It’s your birthday.”
The unicorn’s eyes shot open. She was resting on a gurney in some sort of workshop. Beside her Luna, princess of the moon, stood with wide, hopeful eyes.
“The operation was a success, Rarity,” she said.
She looked down at her body. Her pristine white hide glimmered in the faint light, unmarred by any sign of the horrible trauma she had suffered. Rich purple ringlets dangled in her eyes, a sign that her mane was as luxurious as ever.
She took a trembling step off the gurney, and noticed that she felt… powerful was the only word for it. Like her limbs were coiled springs, ready to launch her into action. The world around her seemed sharper, more in-focus than before, and scents seemed clearer.
It was definitely a step up from being in the sarcophagus.
“We made some improvements, Rarity,” Luna said. “Here, take a look.” She guided the unicorn over to a full-length mirror.
The vision that greeted her was stunning. Rarity had always been a beautiful pony, but their doctor had turned her into a perfect pony. Every line of her face was pristine; her svelte body was lean, but rippled with the promise of strength. All over her body her skin was tight and smooth as a young filly’s. Her chrome wings shone with a dazzling—
Wait, wings?
She hopped back a step, startled, and her wings flared out to their full size. Chrome, and polished to a mirror-like shine, the articulated limbs looked like they had been stolen from an angel. Every feather was its own piece, and fit with unerring perfection next to thousands of its kin. They glimmered like stars.
“Do you like them?” Luna whispered, coming to stand beside her in front of the mirror.
She couldn’t answer. She was too busy staring.
“There’s more,” the alicorn said. “Your bones have been replaced with advanced composites that should resist breaking under almost any strain. Most of your skeletal muscles are now electro-myomer fibers infinitely more powerful than flesh. We took out your heart and put a small fusion reactor in its place – it will need changing in about 200 years, assuming normal usage patterns.”
“Well, this is a lot to absorb,” Rarity said. “Anything else?”
“Oh yes!” Luna cried, excited. “You’ll notice a variety of weapon functions in your heads-up display. Missiles, beam collimators, even a few old-fashioned cannons.” As the princess spoke various ports and panels opened in the unicorn’s hide, revealing the hidden weapons she described. Most of her mass appeared to be dedicated to such instruments, it seemed.
“How European!” Rarity said, “But tell me, what happened to my horn?”
“Oh, well, that was an aesthetic decision, I’m afraid. After we replaced your brain you lost most of your magic anyway, so we figured it would just look silly.”
“Hm, I suppose. Replaced my brain, you said?”
Luna nodded. “Meat-based brains are so inefficient. You have an advanced hyper-threaded crystal-lattice processor now. It’s not only more powerful, but also let us remove some of your silly inhibitions about killing!”
Rarity scoffed. “Dear, believe me, I had no such inhibitions left for those dastards who abandoned me.” She paused. “Still, I do feel more… hm, free? Yes, more free now.”
“All part of the program!” Luna said. “Oh, I almost forgot, your hoofblades!”
A pair of wicked, curved scythes extended from her hooves as Luna spoke, nearly tripping her before they folded neatly along her fetlocks. They gave her forelegs the impression of a praying mantis waiting to strike.
“Oh ho!” Rarity said as she recovered her balance. “These look like fun!”
“They are! But don’t just take my word for it, try them out yourself!” Luna gestured toward a nearby technician.
“Don’t mind if I do!” she shouted, rearing up on her hind legs before the startled alien. The scythes extended to their full length, and flashed as she brought them down in a wicked arc on his helpless body.
“Wahaha!” she yelled. “Oh yes! These are amazing, Luna!” Her hooves flew up and down, cleaving the helpless technician into pieces. “It’s like butter! They’re going through him like butter! Oh god, Luna, it’s better than sex! You have to try this! Yes! Oh, yes! Yes…” she slowly trailed off as she noticed everyone in the room, including Luna, was staring at her in horror.
“Er… is something wrong?” she asked meekly.
“I meant… I meant the target dummy,” Luna said, her hoof still in the air, pointing at the object next to the dead technician. It appeared to be a pony-shaped mannequin, with bulls-eyes drawn on the head and torso.
“Ohh… OH! The target dummy! Of course!” Rarity took a step back and slapped a hoof to her head, her face flushing with embarrassment. “Oh dear. Well, don’t I just feel like a silly filly right now.” She looked down at the fallen alien.
“And you!” she cried, grabbing his severed head. “You poor dear! I am sooo sorry about all this. I promise… Ew! Oh, it’s dripping! Luna, it’s dripping! Ew, ew, ew…” She set the head down on the rest of the corpse, and gave it a light pat. “There, all better. So sorry, again.”
Luna cleared her throat. “Well, this is a good opportunity to point out that your fur has a non-stick Teflon coating now.” She walked up to Rarity and wiped a hoof across her chest. “See? The blood and gore come right off!”
Rarity perked up. “How marvelous! Now when I’m out in the rain with Applejack, I don’t have to worry about my coat getting dirty!” She paused, then added, “And when I murder Applejack, it won’t get dirty either!”
“That’s the spirit!” Luna said. “So, want to get started?”
“Not just yet, I’m afraid. There’s something I’ve been putting off for far too long.”
***
“Hello, Luxury Lotus Spa? Is that you, Aloe? Yes, this is Rarity! Eeeee! I know, I know, I thought I was dead too! Oh, I have so much catch up on! Uh huh… uh huh… well, how about Tuesday? At least three hours I’d say, this moon dust gets just everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. Will Fluttershy be there? Oh, oh dear. A wood chipper? Well, I always said those spells were dangerous. Mhm… okay, I’ll see you then! Tell Lotus I said ‘hi!’ Taaaa!”
Michael Bay Presents:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer: Part 3: Flight of the Cyber-Pegasus: Part 1
Nearly the entire town of Ponyville turned out for the dedication ceremony.
After rebuilding the Town Hall (again), the surviving members of the city council decided it would be appropriate to commission a statue honoring the brave heroes who died fighting the alien menace. Although thousands of ponies fell in the two conflicts, the sacrifices of three in particular were deemed vital enough to the defeat of the alien hordes that a special monument was appropriate.
A sea of pastel colors filled the town square. Ponies from as far away as Canterlot came to pay tribute to the three brave mares whose likenesses were about to be unveiled. As their closest friend and leader of the resistance forces, Twilight Sparkle was asked to provide some short remarks. She nervously approached the wooden lectern on stage, her notes hovering in the air before her.
“Friends, family, distinguished guests, thank you all for coming,” she began. “When I was told that the town was preparing a monument to the brave ponies who saved us from the alien hordes, I was of course honored and humbled. Even afterwards, when it was pointed out that the statues were of the dead ponies and not myself, I was still pleased.” The crowd clopped appreciatively.
“Rainbow Dash was the first to fall,” she continued. Behind her ponies pulled a tarp away from the leftmost stone statue, revealing a granite sculpture of a heroic pegasus in flight. It bore only a passing resemblance to the mare, but the expression on its stone face – self-confident enthusiasm – was instantly recognizable. “She died the way she would have wanted to: flying.”
The crowd cheered again. A faint voice near the stage could be heard yelling, “Aw yeah!”
“Fluttershy overcame her own fears, and valiantly offered herself as a test pony for a dangerous spell that might have won the war for us overnight,” Twilight said. The shroud on the rightmost statue was whisked away, revealing a meek-looking pegasus gazing up at the heavens. “She knew what she was doing was dangerous, but volunteered anyway.” She paused and shuffled her notes. “I mean it. She knew it was dangerous. I warned her. Anyone who tells you different is lying.” She glared at the crowd for a moment, and then nodded.
“And Rarity!” Twilight half-turned, tossing a hoof up to the center statue as its cover was removed, revealing a gorgeous unicorn, her features perfectly proportioned. She stood on her rear legs, her hooves reaching up to the sky as if to grasp the sun.
“Rarity, the Spirit of Generosity, who gave her own life so the rest of us could live!” The lavender unicorn paused for a moment, her throat tightening. Not a few eyes in the crowd began to water. “She was the greatest of us! Her bravery was more than Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy’s – she was… she was the only one of them I really loved.” She broke off with a sob.
“What the fuck, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash called from the side of the stage. “I’m right fucking here, you know!”
Twilight paid her no heed. She fell to her knees in tears. Friends, neighbors and even strangers left the crowd to join and comfort her. The rest slowly dispersed, and life in Ponyville went on.
***
Rarity’s first flight was memorable.
Most young pegasi, when learning to fly, ran down hills with their wings spread. If they ran fast enough the air would gently lift them, and they could float the rest of the way to the ground. It was a safe, enjoyable tradition passed down from sire to colt, dam to filly, with every generation.
Although the moon had hills, of a sort, Rarity did not bother with them. Nor did she bother with her wings -- as the moon had no atmosphere to speak of they served no purpose other than to look pretty. She was fine with that.
Instead small ion thrusters emerged from recessed compartments in her ribcage, located where a normal pony’s lungs would be hiding. They accepted telemetry data from her on-board navigation system, cross-checked the lunar gravitation and magnetic fields, and tilted into proper firing positions.
Rarity left the surface of the moon at several times the speed of sound, if such a thing had any meaning in a vacuum. The twin ion thrusters, fed by the fusion heart burning in her chest, glowed like stars. She was travelling nearly 25 miles per second when she reached the Equestrian atmosphere.
Now her wings did come in useful. They stretched out to their full length and began to catch the stray gas molecules that composed the upper atmosphere. Ponies on the ground, 100 miles below her, might have been able to see a faint glow similar to the aurora, if its gentle light were not drowned out by the sun.
Her course took her nearly a quarter of the way around the planet. As she descended the air grew thicker, and her wings began to heat as they shed more and more of her velocity. Around the point of maximum deceleration a sun-like corona enveloped her streaking form and lit a burning trail through the heavens. The sky across entire continents trembled as she passed overhead.
Her body still glowed when she finally landed, spilling heat and light like a steel ingot just removed from a forge. The grass beneath her feet blackened and burst into flames as she passed; puddles, graced by her hooves, exploded into steam. Flames licked the air around her mane, and slowly grew dimmer as she cooled.
She had considered, during the several-hour flight from the moon, simply landing in Ponyville and obliterating the town. It had a certain poetic finality: an exclamation point that emphasized her hatred for the place and simultaneously ended it.
But in her heart (or fusion reactor, if you prefer), Rarity was an artist, and revenge was an art form. She wanted to make a statement. She wanted her friends to know why she was killing them.
Also, there was the spa to consider.
So instead she landed a few hours outside of town, near a rough biker bar that catered to the wrong type of crowd. Garishly dressed prostitute ponies gathered in twos and threes outside, whistling to leather-clad stallions passing through the cracked glass door. A long row of motorcycles was parked out front, around which lounged several rough, smoking biker ponies adorned with tattoos and exotic piercings.
Rarity did not stop at the bar because she had to. None of the swill it served was appropriate for a refined unicorn. Her taste in drinks did not run to beer, much less the cheap piss that was to be found inside. What the crowd lacked in taste it made up for in smell.
No, Rarity did not have to stop at the bar. She wanted to.
“Ahem, pardon me sir,” she said to a hulking, rust-brown stallion with a spiked black mane. He was half-perched atop a monstrous chrome bike, speaking in low tones to a pair of street mares when she approached. A shiny leather vest and chaps stretched painfully to accommodate his frame. Fetlock-high boots studded with silver rivets protected all four hooves.
He turned to stare at her. The two mares took in her chrome wings, gorgeous looks and flawless coat. Their eyes narrowed.
“I’m so sorry,” she continued, “but I was just passing by and I couldn’t help but notice your... well, shall we say, your costume.” She ran a hoof down the leather vest. “And since I needed a ride, I figured you would be a good pony to ask for a favor.”
“Huh?” he said.
“I’m not being clear, am I?” she said. “Let’s try smaller words: I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.”
He was silent for a moment, then snorted. The snorts built into guffaws, then outright laughter. The mares began to laugh as well, clutching each other to stay upright as their bodies shook. Finally the stallion recovered, stepped fully off the motorcycle to tower over her, and responded.
“You forgot to say ‘please.’”
Just under one minute later Rarity sped away from the bar on her new motorcycle, heading down the road to Ponyville. Behind her a shivering, naked, crying biker pony huddled next to the burning remains of his clothes and boots. The street mares, being prudent, watched the spectacle from inside the bar with the rest of the crowd.
There was nothing wrong, to Rarity, with being slow and deliberate when wreaking vengeance upon one’s foes. Crimes against fashion, however, had to be dealt with on the spot.
***
“General, I think I liked this room better when we used it for storage.”
The decorated pony at the head of the situation room took the comment in stride. “Yes ma’am. Again, I apologize for interrupting your dinner. If I’d known you were having company over, I would have--”
“Thank you, general, that will do,” Celestia interrupted. “Let’s just get started.”
The graying military pony took a sip from a glass of water, and turned slightly to indicate the large projection screen at the front of the room. A picture of a seedy biker bar surrounded by detectives, constables and guards filled the frame.
“Earlier today we received a report of an attack at a watering hole a few hours south of Ponyville. According to witnesses, a partially robotic pegasus brutally assaulted an innocent pony and stole his motorcycle.”
“A... partially robotic pegasus?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I... you know what? Fine. Why not. What else?”
The general hit a button on his remote. A new picture flashed onto the screen: a smokey contrail against an orange sky.
“There have also been reports from around the world of a small, fast-moving meteorite that appears to have landed in the vicinity of this same bar, shortly before the alleged assault took place.”
There was silence around the table. The military and civilian ponies on either side stared at the projection screens, then at the princess.
“General, I’m confused,” said an oily-looking bureaucrat pony seated to the princess’s left. “After the last invasion, we spent hundreds of billions of bits on your ‘Space-Based Early Warning Pony.’” He pointed to an adjacent screen at the head of the room, which displayed a lonely pegasus in a space suit floating against a black, star-speckled background.
“Yes, and we do appreciate your continued support for that program.”
“The thing is, general, at the time you promised it would detect and prevent alien invasions.”
“I recall saying it would help detect and prevent invasions, yes.”
“And did it do that for us this time?” the bureaucrat asked.
“Not yet, no.”
“Not yet? You think there’s a chance it still might?”
“Gentleponies,” Celestia broke in, “I appreciate the opportunity to discuss military appropriations, but we have more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. General, please continue.”
“Yes ma’am, thank you.” The general shot a smug glance at the bureaucrat, then returned his attention to the projection screens.
Suddenly, there was a huge explosion!... on the screen.
“General, what was that?” Celestia asked after the glare from the projection died down.
“We’re not honestly sure, ma’am,” he said. “We’ve been monitoring a large number of seemingly random explosions around the world. They don’t appear to have any connection with the plot, and we’re checking to see if any other summer blockbusters are filming today.”
The ponies around the table mumbled quietly, nodding.
“Very good, general. Back to this robotic pegasus, then.”
“Yes ma’am. We’ve increased security at various vital installations around the kingdom,” he said. “The palace, the city approaches, Air Force Stables and the like. If this cybernetic pony comes near, we’ll put an end to it.”
“And how will we do that?” the bureaucrat asked. “With our ‘advanced spear technology?’ How well did that work last time?”
The general’s ears tilted back to lie against his head as he glared at the other pony. “It worked better than spending all our money on social projects, didn’t it? How many aliens did schools and universal health care stop?”
The two might have come to blows had not Celestia intervened. The faint throb of an impending migraine nestled into her skull just behind her horn.
“Councilor, general, let’s not lose sight of the real problem,” she said. “This... robotic pony needs to be found and stopped. Where did you say it was last seen?”
“It was headed to Ponyville, your majesty,” the general responded.
“I see. Have we sent any forces there to protect our citizens?”
“No ma’am. We’re confident the special forces ponies already stationed there will be able to take care of this incursion without outside assistance.”
“Special forces ponies?” Celestia tilted her head in confusion. “Oh dear lord, general, please tell me you don’t mean...”
***
Rainbow Dash was enjoying her customary mid-afternoon nap when the loud rip of a motorcycle engine intruded upon Ponyville’s bucolic silence.
She was splayed out atop a low-hanging cloud in a position that would have been considered obscene if anyone were able to see it from the ground. A more responsible pony might have saved the nap until after the day’s weather business was done, but Rainbow Dash had long since honed her procrastination skills to a razor edge. With the cottony fluff of the cloud cradling her, and the warm gentle sun toasting her belly, there was simply no chance of returning to work any time soon.
The roaring motorcycle shattered her pleasant, sun-and-cloud-and-Soarin-filled dream. She rolled to the edge of the cloud, prepared to give the inconsiderate biker a piece of her mind, but froze when the rider came into view.
“Rarity?” Her mouth formed the shape of the word, but no sound emerged, so stunned was she. The motorcycle passed clean beneath the cloud and continued down the road to Ponyville, sending tiny animals running for cover along the way.
“H-hey, wait!” She dove off the cloud, her wings snapping open to catch the air in pursuit of the fashionista. “Rarity! Wait!” Ahead of her the motorcycle pulled to a stop.
The cyan pegasus soared to a halt next to the bike. She opened her mouth to speak when she caught the chrome wings, and her thought processes tumbled to a halt.
“Rainbow Dash?” Rarity said, her eyes wide. “I thought you were dead?”
“I thought you were dead! And where did you get those wings?”
“Oh, these things?” She stretched the wings out to their full extent, a thousand metal feathers catching the late afternoon sun like diamonds. “Just a little something I picked up. As to the dead thing, I asked first!”
Rainbow Dash stared at the wings, her jaw slack. After several seconds Rarity’s comment broke through the mental fog.
“Oh, well, uh, I got better!” She scratched at her mane with a hoof. Rarity remained silent, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“I mean, Twilight brought me back!” she continued. “Something about secret alien technology.”
Rarity bristled. “They brought you back to life, but not me?”
“Twilight wanted to,” Rainbow Dash blurted. “But there was only enough for one of us!”
Rarity stomped a hoof. “Why didn’t they use it on me, then? I sacrificed myself so they could escape, and this is how they repay me?”
“Oh, about that... apparently there was a focus group.”
“A focus group? To see which of us to bring back?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah. Twilight said I tested better with the target demographic.”
“The target demo-- what target demographic?! Morons? The blind? Didn’t they ask who was more fabulous?!” she cried.
“No, they... um...”
“What? What?!”
“Well, they asked who should be in the next movie.”
Rarity was apoplectic. Targeting reticles appeared in her vision superimposed over Rainbow Dash’s head and heart. Weapon safeties disengaged. Readouts displaying ammunition loads, minimum arming distances and error probabilities (all nearly zero, at this range) scrolled across the bottom of her eyesight.
“Er, Rarity? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked. The white pegasus was staring at her with an unusual degree of intensity.
“I’m... fine,” she said through tightly clenched teeth. “Just fine.” She took a deep breath, mentally banishing the combat displays. Rainbow Dash was not one of the ponies who killed her, after all.
“Darling, I’m heading to the spa for a bit,” she said. “But if you should happen to see Applejack, Pinkie Pie or Twilight Sparkle, please let them know I am looking for them. We have... important business to discuss. Yes, important business.”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Right away! Heh heh.” She gave Rarity the widest, most genuine grin she could manage.
Rarity gave her a final, unnerving look, then climbed back on the motorcycle and sped off without a second glance. After her heart calmed back to a more normal rhythm, Rainbow Dash took to the air, seeking out her friends.
***
Twilight Sparkle was deep in some book or other when Rainbow Dash crashed through the library’s front door. This was not an unusual occurrence at the library, so Twilight finished the page she was on before looking up.
“Scootaloo’s not here, Dash,” she started. “I don’t know where… Er, is something wrong?” The cyan pegasus had slammed the door shut behind her, and was leaning against it with all her weight. Her breath came in short, frantic gasps.
“Twilight! Rarity’s back!”
Twilight blinked.
“She’s back, and I think she wants to kill you!” Rainbow Dash continued. She moved to a window and peered out of it, poking her head just far enough above the sill to see outside.
“What?”
“I just saw her ride into town on a motorcycle! She said she needed to see you, Pinkie and Applejack about something important!”
“Why would she want to kill… oh, right.” Twilight jumped to her feet. “We’ve got to run! To Canterlot!”
“She said she was going to the spa,” Rainbow Dash said. “Knowing her she’ll be there for a few hours. We can stop by Pinkie and AJ’s houses and—"
“There’s no time!” Twilight interrupted. She cantered in a panicked circle. “Everypony for themselves!”
“Twilight, calm down. She’s the Spirit of Generosity, right? Maybe if we talk to her she’ll forgive you?”
“You don’t understand!” Twilight ran up to Rainbow Dash and put her hooves on the pegasus’s shoulders. “We didn’t just kill her, we shot the entire second movie without her! She’ll never forgive that!”
Dash went pale. “Ohmygosh, she did mention the focus group... we need to warn the others!”
“No! No! No time! Run!” Twilight cried, and burst out the door. A few seconds later Rainbow Dash saw her run past the window, her mane flapping in the wind.
Rainbow Dash sighed and trotted after the frantic unicorn. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were big fillies and could take care of themselves – Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, was doomed without assistance.
***
The Books and Branches library was missing its proprietor when Rarity arrived.
She knocked, because she was polite, and pushed open the front door, expecting to see her friend Twilight Sparkle buried in some book or other in the main room. Instead the foyer was empty. A quick check of the kitchen and the upstairs loft suggested the lavender unicorn was not home.
A fluttering whisper caught her mechanically augmented ear. She turned just in time to see Owlowicious fly in an open window and perch on a wooden stand next to Twilight’s writing desk.
“Owlowicious!” she cried. “How marvelous to see you again! Oh, I can’t believe it’s been so long.” She trotted over to the bird and lightly scratched at the feathers covering his chest. He preened under the attention.
“Tell me, have you seen Twilight?” she asked. “It’s very important I speak with her.”
“Who?”
“Twilight, Twilight Sparkle? Your mistress?”
“Who?”
She scowled at him. “Don’t play smart with me, ruffian. You know very well who I’m talking about.”
“Who?”
“I know you can talk, Owlowicious!” she growled. “I was in the first movie, remember? Now, where is Twilight?”
“Who?”
“That’s ENOUGH!” Her foreleg folded open along a hidden seam, wires and circuits suddenly visible beneath the false skin. Titanium bones shifted in place to allow a large-bore cannon to emerge from its concealed compartment and point directly at the owl. A series of loud clacks filled the room as hydraulic rams chambered a single high-explosive round and snapped the breech shut.
“Say ‘who’ again!” she shouted. “Say ‘who’ again. I dare you. I double-dare you, motherfucker! Say ‘who’ one more goddamn time!”
“…”
“…”
“…who?”
There was a flash and a bang that shattered every window in the library. A drifting pile of scorched feathers floated in the sudden silence of the room as Rarity put an end, once and for all, to the stupid owl joke.
***
Applejack dropped the last of the dirty dishes into the sink to let them soak. Big Mac and Apple Bloom had already departed the kitchen for their evening chores and homework, respectively. The golden rays of the setting sun broke through the clouds to the west, and filled the kitchen with a warm light.
Finding herself with a few extra minutes, Applejack decided to indulge in one of her favorite past times -- apples. She trotted over to the pantry and picked one from each of three separate bins: a golden delicious, a red delicious, and a granny smith. With her prizes in hoof she returned to the table, arranged the fruits before her, and was about to feast when she heard heavy hoofbeats outside.
“Big Mac? That you?” she called out, looking away from the apples for a moment. There was no reply. She shrugged and turned back to the apples, again ready to partake, when the door behind her opened.
“Are you goin’ deaf, big bro--” she said as she turned, coming to an abrupt halt as she took in the shape before her.
Rarity let the door swing shut. Pleased to see she was alone with her quarry, she walked delicately up to the table with Applejack, and peered with interest at the three colorful fruits.
Applejack was not the smartest pony in Ponyville. That was Twilight Sparkle by a wide margin. However, she was possessed of a deep well of common sense and intuition. Other ponies often turned to her for level-headed advice on every topic imaginable, including apples.
Common sense told her to be careful.
“Rarity,” she began. “You’re lookin’ well.”
“Why thank you, Applejack,” Rarity said. “Just got out of the spa! But that’s not what you meant, is it? You meant I don’t look dead.”
Applejack took her time answering. “Welp, there is that,” she said. “I”m mighty glad to see you healthy an’ whole, though. I bet the others will be too.”
“Mhm, go on.”
“Maybe we should go visit them now? I’m sure Celestia’d be very happy ta see you. We could all go down ta Canterlot an meet the princesses--”
“I’m touched by your interest, Applejack,” Rarity said. “But I had something I wanted to discuss with you in private.”
Applejack sized Rarity up. Aside from the wings, which were baffling, and the lack of a horn, she didn’t look much different than any other day after the spa. But there was something about her, some ineffable quality that screamed “predator.”
“Ah’m always glad to talk, sugar,” she said slowly. “What’s on yer mind?”
“It’s about the time I died, actually,” Rarity said. “Oh, where are my manners? You were about to have these apples, weren’t you? Let me help.” She raised a hoof above the table. A long curved metal spike shot out from her ankle, faster that Applejack’s eyes could follow. The wickedly serrated blade came down and passed, seemingly without resistance, through each of the apples, sending them rolling in halves across the table surface.
Applejack remained very still.
“I do love apples, you know. Fruit of the gods, and all that,” Rarity said. She delicately speared one of the hemispheres with her blade and brought it to her lips for a nibble. The pair spent a few minutes in silence while Rarity ate. Applejack no longer felt hungry.
“So, back to the topic at hand,” Rarity said. “Do you remember the last words I spoke on that alien ship, Applejack?”
Applejack shook her head.
“Are you sure? It was when I was banging on the door of the escape capsule, trying to get back inside before the ship blew up? Do you remember that?”
Applejack nodded.
“Ah, yes, I remember now,” Rarity continued. “I said something along the lines of being willing to sit on your lap.” She paused. “Was that such a horrible idea, Applejack? Was there some reason it wouldn’t have worked?”
“Rarity, we were all so very grateful when you volunteered to leave the escape pod--”
“Can you imagine what being on that ship was like, after you three blasted away to safety?” Rarity interrupted. “I mean, at the time I was in horrible pain from burns caused by the capsule’s exhaust, but I still felt rather... what’s the word? Ah, betrayed. I felt betrayed, Applejack.”
“Ah’m so sorry you feel that way, sugarcube,” Applejack said. She glanced over her shoulder at the door, wondering if Big Mac was close enough to hear her yelling for help.
“Oh, don’t be,” Rarity said, waving her hoof. “Everything worked out for the best. And do stop looking around for help -- it would never reach you in time.”
Applejack started to rise from the chair, but Rarity apparently wasn’t done with the lecture. She reached out with the hoofblade and lightly pressed it against Applejack’s chest, forcing her back to the seat.
“Now now, we’re almost done,” she said. “I just want to imagine how things could have been. Imagine if you three had changed your mind and let me back into the escape pod. I could have sat on your lap as we escaped, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Rarity pulled her blade back as she leaned forward, close enough to kiss. “I’ve studied the capsule designs, Applejack. The seat could have held both of us.” She climbed into Applejack’s lap, curling herself around the frozen pony. “We would have been cozy, yes, but what’s a little cuddling between friends? I’m sure the others would have been jealous.”
Rarity sighed. “But no, that’s not what happened. Instead you three left me to die, and we find ourselves here.” She nestled into Applejack’s lap, and sat silently for a few moments.
“Do you have any thoughts, Applejack? You really should say them now.” She pulled her head back to look at the other pony, who was trembling. “Nothing? Cat got your tongue?”
Applejack wheezed something unintelligible. Rarity frowned and leaned closer.
“I’m sorry, come again?”
“hvrghy...” Applejack gasped.
“Oh dear, I didn’t stab you accidentally, did I?” Rarity stepped off the earth pony, checking for blood. “That wasn’t part of the plan.” She paused for a moment. “Yet, anyway.”
There was no blood on Applejack, though she continued to wheeze for a bit. Finally she recovered enough breath for a single word.
“...heavy...” she rasped.
Rarity bristled. “Applejack, you should never say that to a lady. Seriously, I know you’re a farmer, but that doesn’t excuse basic manners.”
“No, Rarity,” Applejack managed, “ah think ah’m hurt.”
Rarity jerked back as if slapped. “What are you implying?” she cried. “I’m as svelte as any filly in this town!”
Applejack managed to stand for a moment, then promptly sank to her haunches. Her rear legs wouldn’t support her weight, and her ribcage felt like it was filled with shards of broken glass.
“Rarity, ah’m serious,” her voice was softer than Fluttershy’s. “You weigh more than Big Mac.”
The cyber-pony flinched as if struck. “That.. that’s impossible! I’ve never weighed more than 300 pounds in my life!”
Applejack decided to lie down until the pain in her legs and pelvis subsided. She knew she should probably be running for help, but her legs voted not to cooperate in that effort.
Rarity didn’t notice; she was busy panicking. She pulled up various diagnostic modes in her HUD, seeking out basic specs on her new body. Something as simple as mass should have been near the top, but whoever designed the interface apparently hadn’t considered it important. She finally found the number under an appendix for use when calculating thruster fuel consumption.
1,951lbs.
The logical part of Rarity’s silicon brain told her to ignore the number. Weight was meaningless for a cybernetic organism, and besides she was just as trim and fit as before. Unless she happened to climb on top of someone, like the unfortunate Applejack, no one would ever be the wiser.
That part of her brain unfortunately lost out. The world outside of her HUD went entirely grey, leaving only the blinking mass indicator in the center of her vision. It was several minutes before Applejack’s quiet moans brought her back to reality.
By then her original plans were entirely forgotten. She fled the room by crashing through the nearest wall and jumped, her wings reaching out to catch the air and propel her into the sky. As soon as she cleared the cloud layer her thrusters engaged, and she shot back into space.
***
Luna was in her office going over time cards for the latest pay period when a bawling, disheveled cybernetic pegasus crashed through the door. Behind her the corpses of several guards could be seen in the hallway.
Automated defensive systems activated the moment Rarity entered the room. Hidden turrets emerged from recessed cavities in the walls and swiveled to track the distraught pony. A high-pitched hum filled the air as powerful electromagnetic fields came online inside the railgun mechanisms. Before she was more than 20 inches past the door the first of several thousand razor-sharp tungsten-iron flechette rounds hit her chest, directly above where a normal pony’s heart would be.
Rarity didn’t notice -- her own defensive suite came online as soon as it detected the turrets’ presence. Only a few rounds managed to reach her coat before counter-battery lasers built into her shoulder acquired and engaged the left turret, their beams precisely slicing through the wires and capacitors powering it. Nanowire arrays in her hide realigned their magnetic fields as they detected the flechette impacts, automatically hardening to a tensile strength that would make stellar core material jealous.
The second turret got off a few hundred more rounds before Rarity’s electromagnetic countermeasure programs managed to infiltrate its software and disable its optical sensors. Blinded, safety restrictions forced the turret to automatically power down.
Less than a tenth of a second had passed since she broke through the door.
“Luna!” Rarity cried, coming to a crashing halt atop her desk. “Luna! I’m faaaaaat!” She finished with a wail, and broke down sobbing.
Luna, Princess of the Moon, sat with a singed time card in her hoof. Ricocheting rounds had neatly perforated every solid object in the room -- only her own magic had kept her from a similar fate. Outside, the hallway flashed with red alarm lights, and she could faintly make out the sounds of a small army moving down the corridor.
She sighed and pushed a button on her desk. The alarms went silent, and instead of an entire company of shock troops, a single alien guard entered the room, his rifle held in a low, ready position.
“False alarm, captain,” Luna projected, somewhat unconvincingly. “I’ll take care of it.”
The alien glanced around the shattered room, the cybernetic horror crying on Luna’s desk, and the dead guards in the hallway, but managed to keep his thoughts to himself as he left. Luna made a mental note to promote him as soon as possible.
“Now then, what’s wrong?” she asked the sobbing pegasus.
***
“Luna, you know I deeply admire your sense of fashion and taste,” Rarity said several hours after their office conversation. She lay on a plush grey couch in Luna’s private quarters, her legs daintily tucked beneath her body as she watched the princess trot out of the kitchen. A bottle of champagne and a pair of glasses followed the alicorn, wrapped in a faint blue glow.
“I sense a ‘but,’” Luna said. Quiet strains of jazz filled the room as she dimmed the lights to a level more conducive to her intent.
Rarity narrowed her eyes. “But,” she said, “these aliens of yours, well, they are rather…” she trailed off.
“Unrefined?” Luna ventured.
Rarity tilted her head slightly. “Unrefined, yes,” she allowed. “But—"
“Disturbing?”
Rarity nodded. “Certainly, however that wasn’t what—"
“Idiotic?”
“Oh yes! I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed that,” Rarity said. “But more importantly, Luna, they are simply ugly.” She paused and glanced at her friend, gauging her reaction. “I’m sorry you had to hear it like this.”
Through an incredible feat of will Luna managed not to roll her eyes. “Rarity, they’re monsters, they’re supposed to be hideous. Can you imagine the reaction if I tried to invade with legions of dashing, fabulous shock troops? We’d be laughed off the planet.” She hopped onto the couch next to the cyber-pony. “Now, half-glass or full?”
Rarity huffed, her chrome wings mantling slightly and filling the room with the faint sound of wind chimes. “It’s quite possible to be stunning and ferocious, you know,” she said. “I’m certain with a little work we could produce something acceptable to both of us. And a full glass please, it’s been a long day.”
The champagne bottle rose into the air on its own accord and topped off both glasses, which then floated to the two. Rarity grabbed the glass by the stem with her ankle; Luna simply levitated hers. They clinked the rims together in a silent toast, and each took a sip.
“So do you mind if I…” Rarity started.
“Play dress-up? No, go ahead. Just remember they have feelings too.”
“Waha! Oh, thank you Luna!” She took another, longer drink from her champagne. Chemical sensors on her tongue detected the ethanol and relayed their findings to her silicon brain. Automated sub-routines slowed down the processor speed and introduced deliberate faults in logic and inhibition programs, producing the cybernetic equivalent of a buzz. A pop-up warning in her heads-up display asked if she wanted to terminate the effect, to which she happily answered no.
Luna smiled as the other pony relaxed and leaned against her. She put her glass down on the side table and tapped a button on the couch’s arm. There was a click, and a disembodied voice filled the room.
“Command post, go ahead ma’am.”
“I am not to be disturbed for the rest of the evening, unless one of my CCIRs are met,” Luna said, speaking to the ceiling. “Do you understand?” She tried not to giggle as Rarity nuzzled her shoulder.
“Yes ma’am, CP out.” Another click sounded and the connection terminated. Luna felt her mane shift as Rarity grabbed her crown in her mouth and pulled it away.
“Hey, that’s an priceless heirloom.” She grabbed the crown with her own mouth, provoking a brief tug-of-war that ended in a truce of mutual nuzzles and more champagne.
Sometime later Luna set the empty bottle on the table, and glanced at Rarity. The white pony regarded her with half-lidded eyes.
“Say,” she said. “Would you like to try something a little… risque?”
Rarity arched an eyebrow.
“Bring up your physiological parameters menu,” Luna said. Rarity blinked in surprise, then assumed the distracted expression she wore when looking at her HUD.
“You are such a sweet talker,” she said dryly. “Oh my, this is a long list. What am I looking for?”
“Go to functions, then dimorphism.” There was a moment’s delay, and Rarity’s eyes grew wide as saucers.
“Luna, you little minx! Male and female?”
Luna blushed. “Well, I figured if we’re going to spend a billion bits on a cybernetic pony, we might as well spend a few extra million and have some fun with it.”
“I can’t fault you there, this promises to be… wait, hang on, there’s a third option?” Rarity paused, her eyes focused on something unseen. “Big Mac?”
An icy wave broke over Luna’s body. Her pupils contracted to points. “Er, that’s an experimental mode,” she said. “And frankly not one I think either of us are ready for. Why don’t you back out of that menu and we’ll—"
“Oh my god, look at it! Luna, LOOK AT IT! WAHAHA!”
“Oh jesus, it’s… No, Rarity! Down! DOWN! Computer, emergency override, code Luna nine five, uh, alfa, oh fuck what’s the code? Computer! Emergency over--Rarity, down! NO! NOOOOOO!!!”
Meanwhile...
It was a boring shift for the alien guards in the hallway. As their base was on the moon and their foes had no way to reach them, this was to be expected.
A loud banging sounded through the door of the princess’s private quarters. They started in surprise, and stared at the locked portal.
“Should we…” one began.
The other shook its head. “Command said she’s not to be disturbed—"
A faint scream could be heard from inside the room.
“—for any reason,” it finished.
It was an interesting shift for the alien guards in the hallway.
***
Will Twilight Sparkle escape Rarity’s wrath?
What happened between Luna and Rarity?
Will Applejack recover from her wounds?
Will Pinkie Pie appear in this movie?
Find out in the dramatic conclusion!
Michael Bay Presents:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Revenge of the Unicorn God Slayer: Part 3: Flight of the Cyber-Pegasus: Part 2
(Coming Soon!)
|
Fire Soul
|
1140
| 1 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
Taming the Rage
|
Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
|
complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
|
mature
|
2014-04-24T04:45:29+00:00
|
2014-04-24T04:45:29+00:00
| 4,668 |
Chapter 1 - Explosion
written by Fire Soul
The steady 'clop-clop-clop' of Princess Celestia's hooves could be heard in the throne room as she paced back and forth, her brow furrowed and her head angled down towards the ground, her legs almost at a trot. She was lost in thought, and it took a moment for her sister to snap her out of it by cutting in front of her.
"Sister, please! You've not said a word since Twilight-" she tried to say to Celestia, but the slightly taller and still somewhat older-looking Princess gazed at her sister, looked her right in the eyes.
Luna was taken aback at the actual worry she saw....the genuine expression of concern that Luna could only recall seeing in the eyes of expectant Fathers waiting for their foals to be born, or a doting Mother repeatedly asking 'where is she?!' when her foal has gone missing. It tore at her deeply, to see her sister, the Sun Goddess, in such distress.
Her tone became less frantic, but no less concerned as they continued to look each other in the eyes. "Tia, what....what happened in there?"
Celestia thought about what she should, what she could tell Luna, she could keep up this look of regal professionalism and regain her composure, but....this was Twilight! Or was it? This wasn't the Twilight she knew.
"She....she cursed at me. She screamed for me to get out, and Spike already looked unnerved when I went in there. She has never...." Celestia tried to say, closing her eyes and clenching her teeth in a pained expression.
Luna sighed and slowly motioned to their thrones, moving to take a seat upon her own while Celestia followed her sister's example, slumping ever-so-slightly as she did so. To most, it would be imperceptible, but Luna knew her sister well, even after a thousand years of absence....Tia was truly upset, apparently for good reason.
Celestia's eyes slid shut while a hoof pressed just under the base of her horn, the royal shaking her head slowly. "All I did was go in to see how her studies were coming along, and the moment I mentioned the exams that were coming up, she just froze, and....she looked so exhausted and worn down, and her eyes were bloodshot. I should've asked how she was doing first, why didn't I?"
Luna sighed and shook her head, thinking on what had happened merely fifteen or so minutes prior. She had heard the language, heard the shouting from down the hall...nopony would ever, should ever, get away with talking to one of the Princesses the way Twilight did! But here Celestia was, blaming herself. They were both sensible, and intelligent, she knew there was more to this than just some hurt feelings.
She firmly tapped the metal shoe of her hoof against the legrest of her throne, smiling over to her sibling. "Celestia....talk to me. You know you can always open up to me."
Celestia glanced over to her sister with a grateful, yes sad smile, once again taking in the sight of her sister once again seated upon her own black marble throne, meshing wonderfully with her sister's natural violet hues.
With the return of much of her sister's strength came Luna's body returning to the way it was meant to look, not the small, almost foal-like shape she was in when the Elements of Harmony had purified her. No, now she looked regal, with poise, confident and strong like her sister, her wings large and her head held high.
Of course, they both had ethereal manes with very distinct differences as well. Where Celestia's flowed straight and in a pastel rainbow color at all times, Luna's was dark, black as the void that she painted with her stars and lit up with her beautiful moon, her mane constantly flowing as if a mass of cloud being pushed around by an unseen wind, with shimmering images of star patterns appearing and disappearing in dim flickers constantly, making her mane seem to sparkle of its own accord.
Celestia's gaze wandered towards the floor as she lost herself in thoughts of her student. "I am afraid of what her studies are doing to her, Luna. She's not doing well with them....not in the slightest."
"Well that shouldn't be too much of an issue," Luna offered, smiling a little. "Just remove her from her studies for a time."
Celestia simply shook her head. "She refuses. Every time, she's refused. Every time I've offered to help, she keeps pushing me away, and her mood keeps becoming worse and worse. She's not taking care of her mane, I can tell she's not sleeping well enough, she's probably not eating right, and...." she said, her words slowly cutting off, as if she had more to say, but she felt there was no need to.
Luna shifted in her seat. Normally personal issues like this would be dealt with in the privacy of their chambers, but they were currently in recess for the Night Court. She didn't really have the time to march all the way back to her room with her sister just to talk about personal issues.
"What should I do, Luna? I can't comfort her, she just keeps getting more and more edgy and....stressed out. She doesn't handle pressure well when she gets overwhelmed by it."
Before anything else could be said, a wave of magic drew the attention of every single pony in the throne room. Things had gone deathly silent as a second wave made everyone's stomach churn.
Celestia paled instantly, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks in abject terror. She knew that magic. She knew it as if it were her own! Instantly, she forced herself from her seat and tried to teleport, but the steady and fluctuating waves of very, very ill-feeling magic continued to disrupt her concentration. She felt furious, but only until the wave passed through her.
Realizing that it would take too long and have too large a margin of error to try to teleport back to the school's wing of the castle, she took off in a full sprint that seemed to border on desperation. No one save for Luna had ever seen her take off running like that before.
Luna knew that, given the chance, she would likely take to wing through the larger hallways in order to reach her student faster. No doubt, her sister would require some sort of assistance, and Twilight Sparkle was her friend as well!
She quickly got up from her throne and motioned to her assistant. "Court is cancelled for tonight, get everypony safely out of the castle in case this isn't what we all think it is!"
She took off after her sister a moment later, a mild panic welling in her as well. Not because she recognized these waves of raw magic as Twilight's, but because she recognized the nature of the magic itself. She prayed it wasn't too late to stop Twilight before she hurt herself.
Spike tried his best to keep his distance from his 'boss'. Twilight's horrendous sleeping patterns usually made her grumpy, sure, especially now that they were back in Canterlot, doing what they've always done best: out-smarting and out-studying the rest of the one-percenters that made up the most intelligent and magically gifted unicorns in all of Equestria.
Now, though....now, she was different. She wasn't Twilight. Every second that passed she seemed to be dwelling on something other than the book, and it was showing in the scowl on her face. Then there were the things, the words muttered under her breath as she paced the room, book glowing with a more and more intense amount of magical energy the more upset she seemed to get.
Soon she just screamed in an indescribable frustration and threw the book in Spike's direction, making him drop several others he was carrying over to her that she'd outright ordered the 'annoying purple midget' to get for her. She'd been like this for several days, and he was hoping that at the sight of Celestia coming in to check on her, Twilight would at least calm down some, maybe be reassured about the upcoming exams. Instead, it had the opposite effect: he'd never expected to see a young unicorn like Twilight get angry enough at a single question to make Princess Celestia shrivel in her presence and back out of the room, with Twilight in her face all the way until she could slam the door and get the Princess out of her disheveled mane.
Twilight snarled at nothing, glaring down at the floor. "Everyone, irritating! Everything in this damn place, it ticks me off!" she grumbled, growing louder with every few words.
her horn glowed and an entire stack of books went flying across the room, almost hitting Spike in the head. "Get out!" she shouted, suddenly turning her head to look in the thoroughly terrified little purple dragon's direction. "GET OUT!!!" she screamed at him, the look in her eyes almost murderous in nature.
Spike barely managed to open the door and rush his way out into the hallway before several more books flew in his direction, thudding and skidding across the polished marble floor. He could see guards coming his way, and he instinctively rushed to them, tears in his eyes.
Her entire body was shaking, and even she could tell something was wrong. She was smart, she was intelligent enough to know that things had gone too far, but she was quickly losing her own coherence. "Wh-what's wrong with me....why am I here?! WHY AM I HERE?!?!"
She screamed as her fury and her magic intertwined and lashed out, a powerful blaze of lavender magic crashing over the room and ripping books from their shelves with enough force to send paper scattering through the air, torn out of their binding by a young, stressed, infuriated, and thoroughly broken young mare.
"This damn castle, all of these Goddess-forsaken classes!" she screamed, her anger only continuing to get worse, and her magic more and more intense, the hinges on her door creaking under the building maelstrom of air pressure in the room.
Celestia could feel it, and Luna could now too. That much power wasn't natural, that wasn't born from simply knowing how to control magic. That was power born from pouring your very essence into it, and they could feel the anger emanating from it, pulsating in steady waves of increasing ferocity.
She had slowed down when she'd spotted her sister flying towards her, both of them keeping low to the ground to avoid banging their heads in an effort to avoid fleeing students and rallying guards that had the same idea as they did.
They both landed alongside the small group that was keeping a decent distance from Twilight's room, a few of them gasping as her door was suddenly ripped off of its frame and tossed across the hallway, smashing against a stone pillar.
Wind whipped up in the hallway anywhere close to Twilight's room, the circulating air holding a harsh magical aura that could only be felt, not seen, and Spike had already found himself hiding behind several of the guards....who were equally as hesitant to go anywhere near that room. A horrible, furious scream wailed through the wind rushing out of the room, and something could be heard smashing against one of the walls inside.
"Guards! I want everyone near this room vacated at once! No one is to come inside or disturb us!" Celestia commanded, and they quickly obeyed.
They may have been afraid, but at least two of them ran past the doorway to get to the other side of the hallway. The guards went to work getting confused, and even scared unicorns out of their rooms and far, far away from what one could only define as a whirlwind of hate. Spike had remained, in disbelief that this was coming from Twilight, and because he was torn: leave her like this, or stay for when the Princess eventually managed to fix whatever was wrong....it's not like the Princess could fail, right?
Celestia cautiously approached the doorway, her sister standing close to her side. She shook her head once and sternly rested a hoof on Luna's wither, urging her away. "No, sister. I am at fault for this....I should be the one to confront her."
Luna stared up at Celestia for a moment, then nodded and stepped away, moving back away from the door, watching her sister move to step inside.
Celestia took a deep breath to steady herself before stepping into the room, calling out to her student. "Twilight!!" she tried to shout out over the roar of the maelstrom.
Twilight could hear a voice. A familiar voice, through all of her screaming, everything that she'd ever felt that she never let go, so many things, so many memories that she thought she'd forgotten had come bubbling to the surface like a furious volcano of emotion just waiting to erupt, and her current state was the result. She was angry, but she was equally scared, mainly of herself. She felt weak, helpless, barely aware of the damage and carnage she was causing around her, her eyes glowing white with magic-addled tears running down her cheeks and dissipating into the whirlwind of air before they could ever reach her chin.
Her magic was raging out of control, her bed tossed against one wall and almost completely upside-down, the room torn apart and in shambles with papers flying everywhere. Twilight had collapsed in a heap on the ground and began sobbing uncontrollably. She hated everything right now. Nothing else mattered except everything she hated. There was nothing good, only bad. These feelings, these thoughts continued to consume her and make her condition worse and worse, her chin hitting the ground while her forelegs came up and planted her hooves over her face.
She muttered something to herself in-between her crying, but when she heard that voice call out her name again, her anger suddenly had her upright and turning to face her, glowing eyes focusing on the alicorn standing in the doorway as if she were ready to commit any crime imaginable to make her suffer and pay for intruding upon her right now.
"Twilight, please, let me talk to you!" Celestia tried to call out to her over the roar of the wind and the flapping paper that threatened to start leaving paper cuts, but for the most part her fur and mane stayed in the way enough to stop that from ever being an issue.
"YOU!!" Twilight hissed out through her teeth, loud enough to be heard plenty clearly by the Princess.
Suddenly, Celestia felt that maelstrom coming under control, and she knew she, the Goddess of the Sun, was in a very bad position right now.
"You're the reason I'm here!" she shouted, accentuating the last word with a book that came around within the swirling wind, aiming for the current focus of her fury.
Celestia grunted and stumbled sideways, barely keeping her balance from the impact of the book in the side of her head. Then another hit her, and another, the wind constantly swirling and changing directions now, like a vicious invisible serpent, bludgeoning her with whatever it could ensnare in its violent grasp.
"I came here because YOU wanted me to do this!" she continued on, her magic reaching out and grabbing her coffee table next, raising it up and aiming for Celestia with it.
The Princess saw it coming and side-stepped swiftly, trying to get closer to her charge, but a broken-off leg from the table took her by surprise. She felt and heard a heavy, meaty 'thr-KRACK!' when the heaviest end of it impacted the side of her face, and she cried out in pain while blood shot out from a suddenly busted-open part of the inside of her lip, cut open by flesh being slammed and ground against the edge of one of her teeth.
Luna had looked inside just as she'd seen her sister struck down by a surprise blow to the head, the shattered leg of the table dissipating in the maelstrom and being discarded in favor of searching for other blunt instruments. She tried to rush to her sister's side, barely making it a few steps into the room as several books bashed at Celestia's face from the opposite side that the table leg had hit her.
This was like dealing with something both tangible and intangible, its reach and where it was going to attack from unidentifiable until it was almost too late. Luna almost didn't see the table heading for her sister, and her magic was too disrupted from the overwhelming influence of Twilight's maelstrom to bring forth a defense in time. She could only watch and listen as the table smashed over her sister's side with a loud and disturbing cracking sound of wood and bone.
Despite the pain and the injuries she'd sustained, easily having a broken rib from that last strike, she called out to Luna. "I told you not to interfere, Luna!" Celestia screamed over the howling winds.
She didn't know what to do. Her mind raced for a solution as she watched her traumatized friend struggle with her own emotions against the wall nearby, her back against a series of empty bookshelves. Should she try to knock Twilight out herself? No....that would likely only end with her own injuries, as well as Twilight's. Instead, she focused her magic and charged her horn, preparing herself.
"I will help you get close to her!"
Celestia ducked as another broken table leg whizzed past her head, narrowly missing bashing her snout in half most likely, and quickly nodded to Luna. She was too dazed to properly focus her magic at the moment, and she refused to retreat....Twilight might pursue her if she tried to escape the room, and this destruction would spread through the castle in that scenario. No, she had to try to stop this where it started.
She quickly nodded to her sister, and Luna began focusing on keeping a shield around them, the magic-formed winds crashing over the barrier and straining her more than she'd expected. It was as if the winds themselves were actively attacking her shield! She took firm steps in time with Celestia's as her sister's horn began to glow as well, pouring her magic into the shield to reinforce it and take some of the strain off of Luna.
Celestia could only stare at Twilight with a deep feeling of guilt and regret. Perhaps if she'd been more insistent, more....something, anything, she could've stopped this from happening in the first place.
Twilight Sparkle, one of the most intelligent and skilled unicorns in Celestia's entire school, her prodigy, was having a nervous breakdown and crumbling under the pressure.
Twilight was having an infuriatingly hard time hitting her now, that unseen shield from Luna blocking her from all sides. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!!" she screamed, a snake of random objects making a trail and trying to slam down on Celestia's back, but none of them made contact, only being repelled away. "I came back to make YOU PROUD OF ME!!"
The injured Alicorn limped over towards her student, slowly but surely, looking her in the eyes. She could see her lips moving sometimes between her screams, but she couldn't hear what she was saying, but it was something she was saying over and over and over in-between her bursts of fury.
Finally, she was too close for Twilight to possibly stop her now, and Twilight curled up almost fetally, glaring at her.
"Don't touch me! Get away from me! Just leave me alone....!" she desperately pleaded in an aggravated tone, the winds slowly beginning to die down as Twilight's reserves began to dwindle.
Her anger refused to fully subside, her eyes slowly beginning to return to normal as she stared into Celestia's eyes, those understanding, always compassionate....but at the moment pained and sorrowful eyes. She felt Celestia's forelegs slowly wrap around her neck, the larger Goddess's body gently nestling in next to and against Twilight's own....and the anger simply gave way to the tears.
"Why? Why did you bring me back here....?" she asked, as if pleading for an answer, any answer, that could make everything she was feeling right now go away. Her mind felt burnt out, and her body exhausted, her magic utterly drained.
Twilight's entire body was trembling, and Celestia's heart shattered as she both felt and heard her student fall apart in a crenscendo of wailing cries and sobs. All of the tattered book covers and papers, random destroyed parts of things that used to be cabinets, tables, and parts of Twilight's bed, all of it fell to the ground all around them as her magic gave out.
Celestia felt herself beginning to tremble as well, she didn't need to cry or shed tears to feel her student's pain. It was too much. She knew it was too much the moment she could finally hear what her student had been uttering to herself throughout the entire ordeal.
"Please....! Just let me go home....!"
With a shaky breath, both from the pain in her side and from she herself being on the verge of tears upon realizing the horrible mistake she'd completely missed this past year and a half, she turned her head to speak to Luna, just holding her student close to her, not daring to move away from Twilight even for a moment.
"Sister....please. Arrange for a transport to Ponyville, and send a messenger pegasus, the fastest one we have....tell him to contact the other Elements of Harmony, and have them go to the Ponyvi-....Twilight's Library." she requested with a wheezing cough, the sharp pain in her side flaring with every hack.
Luna lowered her head a distance away from the two of them, just watching the scene that had unfolded before her. She could only feel a fraction of the pain that those two were going through, but it was enough for her to respect her sister's wishes instead of demanding that the doctor take a look at Celestia first, after the things she'd been hit with.
As Luna left, Spike felt it safe enough to step inside, tentatively stepping towards the two that were nestled against each other against a far wall, him stepping over tattered remains of many of Twilight's favorite books, pages from a multitude of them. Somehow, the very sight of it was ghastly to him, to see Twilight so willingly rip apart one of her favorite things in the world.
"Princess....? Is she....okay?"
Celestia looked up from gently nuzzling Twilight's shaking form. It could barely be seen, but she was crying as well, a few tears trickling down otherwise pristine cheeks of white fur, tainted by bruises and small bits of blood in certain places. She had little actual need for a doctor, she healed faster than any mortal pony, but it could still take a few days.
"Spike....I will understand if you want to stay here, after what you've just witnessed....you don't have to go back with her if you're afraid of her." she muttered, her voice shaky and subdued, not just because of the injury to her ribs.
"Go back? To Ponyville?" he guessed, and Celestia just nodded, looking down at her trembling student, whose sobbing had given way to bleary, wide eyes.
Twilight was in shock at what she'd just done, and a flurry of emotions in her were still swirling about, like a washing machine tossing her emotional insides about and making sure everything mixed together in a horrifying mess. Her mind was muddled and she couldn't think. She couldn't recall yesterday. She could remember most everything, but she couldn't recall yesterday. Why? What was wrong with her?
"Pr-Princess....?" she said, her voice shaky and broken, her looking up at her with those wide-terrified eyes. "I-I'm sorry....!" she barely managed to squeak out to her.
In that moment, Spike had made up his mind. "Sorry Princess, but I'm her number one assistant....she'll have to do worse than this to make me stay away!" he said, hoping that would at least, somehow, lift the lavender unicorn's spirits....but she didn't even acknowledge him.
Celestia smiled at that and nodded once to him before shifting her attention back to Twilight, leaning down to nuzzle the young mare with the less aching side of her muzzle.
"No, Twilight....don't think about what just happened. Lay your head down and rest. You're going home, tonight....I won't keep you in this place a moment longer than is necessary."
Celestia took a deep breath, then struggled to hold back a cough, tasting blood as her chest quivered with some suppressed, quiet hacks. "I never should've asked you to come back here. Not like this."
|
Fire Soul
|
1140
| 2 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
Taming the Rage
|
Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
|
complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
|
mature
|
2011-11-04T04:42:02+00:00
|
2014-07-21T21:37:12+00:00
| 14,944 |
Chapter 2 - Regret
written by Fire Soul
The moon sat full and high in the sky as a lone pegasus vigorously beat his wings in a rush for Ponyville. The rolling plains between Canterlot and Ponyville rushed past the low-flying stallion, a set of saddlebags slung over his back bearing Princess Luna's royal seal.
He gave a quick glance up towards the moon. Despite the fact that it was only a half-moon, the lack of cloud cover had the moon's light illuminating the hills and casting shadows as if it were the sun, pouring its warmth over the world. It lended a certain mystique to the world, he had to admit.
Light, flight-assisting armor glistened in the moonlight, the dark shades of the Night Guard's unique design clinging to an altered, bat-like motif that included fancy wing-like formations on the withers and along several edges of the armor that gave a more volatile, dangerous presence to the wearer. At the center of the chest, like a badge of honor, was an eye-like design in the form of Nightmare Moon's draconic eyes, also adhering to the colors of the rest of the armor.
That overall design marked him as one of the few elite amongst the Moori, the Princess's Night Guard, the template only being used to develop armor for those that have risen above the simple status of being just any loyal protector of Equestria. It was meant to define him as someone special, much like hundreds of others that take on important tasks and jobs for their Princess.
To him, it just stood as a testament to just how much of his life was spent working. Every single day, flying important, sometimes even classified documents, missives and correspondences to and from the Princesses, to the point of it being extremely rare for him to ever get some significant down-time. It was even more rare for him to have enough time to actually leave Canterlot for a day or two, spend some time away, and then come back.
Tonight, however, the emergency flight to Ponyville he'd been ordered into worked in his favor. It had been far too long since he'd seen Rainbow Dash in action, since the Best Young Flier's competition actually, and he'd only been able to go because he'd personally requested it from Princess Luna herself. Even then, he only had time to stay for the length of the competition, and then it was straight back to Canterlot to return to his duties.
His job certainly didn't allow for much of a personal life.
He flew up high as he reached Ponyville's outskirts, quickly surveying the town to try to spot Rainbow Dash's cloud home. It didn't take him long to pick it out, he'd been there plenty of times over the last year or so, but he'd heard a few letters back that she'd had to move her cloud home somewhere else in town. Something about zoning issues.
He only had a half-hour to get all of the Element Bearers together in the library, so Rainbow was the obvious first choice. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that he was really, really eager to see her again after a solid month of nothing but letters!
He quickly flew over and landed at her doorstep, the familiar design of Spectra waterfalls almost making him feel welcome as if it were a second home. Almost. He held no illusions to the fact that their relationship was mostly long-distance.
"Rainbow Dash! Message, direct from the Crown!" he called out while banging on the front door.
Rainbow Dash uh'ed and mumbled a few incoherent things to herself while she was startled awake, the loud voice outside of her cloud home not exactly very subtle in its intentions. She grumbled and nonchalantly fwumped out of bed onto barely-bracing legs, knees bent while her head hung low to what passed as ground inside of her home, shaking left and right a few times to clear her drowsiness from her consciousness.
"Heywhuzzat? Huh? YEAH?" she called out, her voice slowly picking up as she became more aware and woke up more. "Yeah, I'm comin'!"
Halfway down the stairs from the upstairs area of her cloud home, the knocking banged insistently at her front door yet again.
"I'm comin'! Sheesh...." she said, only uttering her words at the end.
She threw open the door just as the pony's hoof hit her door again, the disheveled mare glaring forward sleepily. "I've got work in the mornin', this better be really freakin'-oh."
She froze mid-rant when she realized a Night Guard was standing in front of her, decked out in armor that was very different from the average Moori's. She couldn't help but smile when she noticed the draconic eye over the center of his chestplate. There was only one Royal Messenger that would have a reason to show up at her doorstep, and even with his darker fur and black mane that was pretty much uniform for all Night Guards, she knew that playful smirk of his anywhere!
"Well, 'bout time you found time to visit! Could've picked a better time of day though. What? Couldn't resist these flanks?" she teased him, wiggling her backside a little while she stood there, leaning against the soft doorframe.
He rolled his eyes and waggled a hoof at her. "Ignoring the fact that we haven't even done that yet," he said, smirking a bit. "Unless of course you're offering?"
"Pff...not 'til you find a less time-consuming job, buddy."
He just rolled his eyes at that and shrugged a little. "Yeah, I know, I know....I'm working on it. Kinda hard to up and quit this job, we have to find an appropriate replacement, and that's difficult. Anyways, need your help with something."
"Oh, yeah? What's up?"
He straightened up in a more formal posture for the Guard, clearing his throat quietly. "Official message from Princess Celestia herself. She wants all of the Elements of Harmony to meet in Twilight's Library. Arrangements have already been made to have Twilight and Spike replace the librarian currently volunteering for the job," he explained, nodding his head to her. "On a personal note, I wish to ask for your assistance in gathering them, the aforementioned will be arriving shortly."
Rainbow Dash blinked her eyes a few times and stared at him for a moment. Then, she grinned and jumped once in excitement. "Whoo! Twilight's comin' back, ALRIGHT! That must mean her studies are all done, right? That's great! We've been wanting to go and visit, but we figured, yanno....don't wanna disturb her. We know how she gets when her nose is buried in her books."
He endeavored to keep his mouth shut on the matter. He may have gotten some small details from Princess Luna before taking off, but it wasn't enough to properly evaluate the situation or what exactly happened. All he knew was that Celestia looked really beat up, and Twilight was near-catatonic under Celestia's wing.
He dropped his thoughts and quickly returned to his original objective. "Well, help me gather the Bearers then! Tell ya what: if I gather Rarity and Pinkie Pie before YOU gather Applejack and Fluttershy, then you buy me a free dinner...." he said, a sly smirk rising up in the corner of his lips while he looked down at her.
Dash stared at him for a moment with a quirked brow, then smirked and stepped out of her house, shutting the door behind herself and forcing him to step back to give her room on the front stoop. "Okay....and when I win?" she asked with all the smug rapport she could muster shortly after waking up in the dead of night.
Strider hah'ed and shrugged his shoulders at her. "Then I treat you to dinner, what else? Whoever wins names the time and place," he said simply, casually, a very confident smile gracing his lips. "Unless you think you can't handle that...."
Rainbow didn't need much more goading than that, but he kept on pressing the buttons, and with a little huff she turned away from him, aiming herself in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
"Oh, you are ON!" she said, hunching down and readying herself for a rather impromptu race in the middle of the night. But then, she peeked over her shoulder. "It was, y'know, nice to see you again. Been a while, Strider."
He turned in the direction of Sugarcube Corner, smiling a little. "Yeah....it really was. I'll try to get some leave soon."
With three firm pats of one of his forehooves on the cloudy ground, they both flared their wings and took off like rockets. They both had their destinations, and while Rainbow was tired, the exhilaration of flight quickly woke her back up. It was worth it though, Twilight was coming back!
With the combined speed and activity of Rainbow Dash and Wind Strider, it had only taken around ten minutes to get everyone together at the library, mostly because they all shared a combined excitement in finally getting to see Twilight again and spend time with her, after such a long time apart.
"Ooh! I think I hear 'em! Why didn't you get here sooner so I could get a party going, huh?!" Pinkie asked with a certain amount of exasperation, looking in Wind Strider's direction.
He just cleared his throat. "It's not my place to say, ma'am."
Even Rainbow Dash had been a bit confused by Strider's silence, normally he was the really talkative type....even when she did beat him in a race, as was always expected. They hadn't discussed the terms of her reward yet, but she was sure that could wait until later. For now, she had a friend to welcome home, and she could hear hooves clopping against the ground outside while the wheels of a carriage landed not moments after.
"Ooh, I think she's here~!" Rarity said with accentuated, theatrical excitement, all of them waiting to practically pounce on their long-overdue friend after such a long time.
When the library door opened however, Pinkie found her over-eagerness to put a smile on somepony's face to bring her face-to-horn with Twilight instead.
"Twilight? Why are you staring at the....uh....?" Pinkie started to ask, but when she lowered her head to get a good look at her friend, even she lost her smile. She'd never seen that kind of expression on the lavender unicorn's face.
Twilight slowly lifted her head, she was in surprise, yes, but she also wasn't entirely here. The entire ride over was spent in near-silence, her mind a-buzz with thought, and at the same time, she was thinking of nothing at all. Her mind was staying occupied by spinning its wheels, that was the only way she could describe it, the only thing tangible within her thoughts being what she felt right now, felt the entire ride over: fear, and hate.
She couldn't rationalize it, and that scared her. She had harmed her teacher greatly, and hated her, thus she feared retribution. Her anger and frustration with her workload made her lose control and lash out, and she hated herself for her weak, puny willpower. She hated herself for being weak. She was afraid of herself because she was weak, and might hurt somepony else. She feared her irrational hatred, because it made her want to lash out more, because it felt good to lash out, to harm and break, rip and tear. Two emotions, both stabbing at her psyche the entire ride over, only fended off by the soothing words of the wounded Celestia.
"Why...." she whispered, swallowing hard. "Why are you all here....?" she asked, her voice throaty and quiet, as if she may start crying all over again if she dared to break the stunned silence any further.
Pinkie slowly got out of the way, looking to her friend with a concerned gaze while she passed by, followed in suit by her teacher, who still hadn't patched herself up. Spike was the last one in, and he looked to them all.
Only Wind Strider bowed as Her Majesty entered, the others looking at her with shocked expressions, staring at the slightly bloodied wound on the Princess's side, her face swollen in different areas, her lip bloody and cut. Rainbow Dash silently glared at Wind Strider, who didn't dare meet her gaze, he knew she was looking in his direction, he knew that she knew that he already knew all about this. He was going to catch hell from her, and there was no reason to unnerve himself with a very volatile staring contest.
Twilight cautiously met their gazes while moving forward, her cheeks stained with dried tears, the fur visibly matted in a thin trail down to her chin on each cheek. Her expression never changed even when Rarity reached out to her. The chance of Rarity laying even a hoof on her startled her, and she edged away quickly, like a twitch reflex to get away, her eyes locked with Rarity's for a moment, widening further in an irrational fear of her, like she was someone she didn't know, or a monstrosity reaching out.
She didn't want to be touched. She didn't want them looking at her either, but she made no motion to ask or even make them leave. She felt broken, shattered, and physically weak. She made her way past them with faltering steps, her footing unsure. She almost fell over when she started to make her way up the stairs to her room, or at least the equivalent to a room, Celestia following her up.
Spike stood in front of the staircase at the bottom, turning to face everyone while they gathered around to try to go up after them. They were all curious, stunned, and worried about their friend, but Spike stopped them by standing firm and holding out his hands.
"Look....just give her some time, alright?" Spike said, his normally more firm voice sounding soft and subdued. "I'll explain what happened, but....we should wait until the Princess's gotten her settled down."
She was shaking again by the time she'd made it to the top of the stairs, acutely aware of Princess Celestia's eyes on her all the way. She couldn't escape it, couldn't get away from the staring. The condescending glare, the disgust that the Princess had for her. Her head hung low as she gravitated towards her bed, as if it were calling to her, demanding her to come and lay down. She felt the need, she just wanted to curl up and disappear. Get away from all of their stares.
All of their eyes....especially Princess Celestia's.
"I'm sorry, Princess...." she whispered, her entire body starting to tremble again, slowly looking to the Princess again, her eyes locked in that terrified expression.
"Shh, Twilight....stop apologizing." she whispered to her, gently sliding the covers out from underneath her, gently covering the lavender unicorn up.
"B-but I-" she tried to start, but Celestia was having none of it. A hoof gently touched the tip of her nose, Celestia smiling a little.
"Don't. Don't put yourself through any more of this. What you need is rest," she said, smiling through all of the injuries her face had taken, all of them marring her normally pristine and beautiful complexion, some blood even managing to stain that billowing, pastel-colored mane of hers. "Now, just stay here, with your friends....you can write to me when you're ready."
With that, Twilight just sat up and watched with a mix of dismay and guilt as Celestia turned and favored her right side more, her left being too sore from that table breaking over her body to bear very much of her weight it seemed. Twilight's mind swam with a multitude of excuses, questions, and concerns for the whole situation that she had caused.
Ultimately, her weakened and guilty mind could only come to one conclusion.
I'm not going to be her student anymore....she's leaving me here in Ponyville. I'll never be allowed to finish my studies now!
She slowly laid herself back down and closed her eyes, her teeth clenched as silent, choked sobs accompanied freshly-flowing tears.
Spike in the short time they were upstairs had explained as much as he could, the girls listening while Wind Strider stood off to the side, by the doorway. If that mare did what she did again, he didn't want to be anywhere near the blast radius.
"....So that's when I ran out of the room, and everything started going crazy. Then Princess Celestia and Princess Luna-" he said, his voice suddenly being cut off by Celestia's gentle, but firm overtone.
"She had a breakdown. Please, you're her friends....watch over her. Do what I cannot," she said, walking past them, a look of dejection in her eyes while she went for the door. "This is my fault to begin with."
After Princess Celestia left, everyone except Rainbow Dash rushed upstairs, almost barrelling over Spike in the process. She flew up to get a look at Twilight, face buried in her pillow, quietly sobbing to herself while the others gathered around her, and her attention suddenly turned in Wind Strider's direction. She hovered over to him, inches away from his face, her teeth clenched in a menacing display while she glared into his eyes.
"You. Me. Outside. Now."
Celestia saw Rainbow Dash and her sister's courier arguing as she left on her chariot, silently wondering if she'd done the right thing. Was this appropriate, leaving such a volatile potential for destruction in the care of ponies that knew no better? No, most likely not....but she certainly couldn't fix this. Her only solution would be to shut the lid on the matter by sealing her magic away, and that was absolutely out of the question!
She saw the instability in her student's eyes, the fear, the emotions twisting her up inside like a tornado of darkness. She'd been ripped asunder by the stress she herself imposed, and Celestia did nothing to stop it. She simply believed her student to be infallible and let her be, her kind nature this time working against somepony she cared for very much.
"WHAT IN TARTARUS WAS THAT?!" Rainbow shouted at him, once they were outside, looking as if she were about to bull-rush him.
"H-hey, haven't you ever heard of 'don't shoot the messenger'?!" Strider responded quickly, taking a step back.
Every time he stepped back, she stepped forward, staying in the slightly unnerved stallion's face the entire time. "You could've told us. You could've warned us, you jerk!" she shouted, knocking heads with him for a moment, staring him in the eyes and giving him a firm shove. "So what the fuck?!"
Strider clenched his teeth, feeling a bit indignant about the sudden shove. "What?! You think I knew?!"
"You're the Royal Messenger, you were delivering the message, how could you not know?!"
"I didn't get any specifics! I was just told something bad happened and that I should get you all to the library! I mean yeah, Celestia looked beat up and Twilight looked catatonic-"
Rainbow seethed and pressed her head against his harder. "So you did know!"
Celestia winced at the accusatory tone of Rainbow's voice. Ah, lover's spats. She could only listen in as they went back and forth, until Strider backed down and sighed, sitting down.
"I guess I could've mentioned that....sorry." he muttered, running his hoof over his particularly long mane.
Rainbow snorted in frustration and looked away from him, her irritation plain as day on her face. She hated it and loved it when he did that. Getting all apologetic and backing down....it wasn't something she could often do. She could respect that. Humility wasn't her strong suit.
Eventually the tension went out of her body, her flared wings folding down as her challenging posture fell apart. "Yeah...you could've. S'fine. Sorry for snapping, I guess."
He sat in silence for a moment with her, oblivious to Princess Celestia eavesdropping passively from a short distance away. When the quiet had lasted just long enough to make things exceptionally awkward, he cleared his throat to get Dash's attention again, since her focus seemed to be drawn back to the library.
"I was going to ask if maybe I could stay the night, but I think it's a bad time right now," he said, smiling a little. "Your friend needs you more than I do right now."
Rainbow seemed ready to protest, but it died in her throat when he held a hoof up. She sighed and nodded a little. "Yeah....guess you're right."
Her crestfallen expression prompted him to stand again and move to nuzzle her cheek with his own. At least it seemed to get a small smile out of her.
"Hey. I'll do everything I can to get some time off as soon as I can, okay? Maybe by then things will have calmed down for Twilight." he muttered while stepping back, smirking at the sight of her eyes darting around to see if anyone saw them.
He couldn't help but chuckle. She was still so shy, no matter how much she tried to hide it!
"Y-yeah. Yeah, sure! I'll see you, y'know, whenever you get the chance."
He nodded and looked to his saddlebags, nosing through one of them to check one of the seals on the letters. "Got one for the Mayor....probably in response to her zoning issues. See you soon I hope!" he said as he straightened up and took to the air, flying away.
Rainbow watched him go, then sighed and turned to head back into the library, her disappointment quickly forgotten as the voices of her friends reached her ears, just past the entrance's threshold. She closed the door behind herself and prepared to spend the rest of the very early morning consoling a clearly traumatized friend.
That didn't stop her from glancing out the window here and there.
Celestia kept a mental note of the encounter from her position within her chariot. She didn't like what she'd seen in Rainbow's eyes, but it wasn't her business. Still, if she could find a way to help, she'd certainly keep it in mind. For the moment however, she lightly tapped her golden-clad hoof onto the armrest of her chariot, and they were off.
As the light shone through the windows of the tree-turned-library, Twilight quietly roused from her slumber, still feeling as shiftless and as weak as the day before. Her sleep was broken and unendingly short, no decent amount of it felt like enough. She continually forgot things that her friends kept having to remind her about, and a smile was rarely seen on her grim visage. Another day spent with another friend, another day listening to their false joy at having her back. That was what she felt it was, anyways, waking up to seeing Applejack already at the library, tending to another breakfast with Spike's help.
It had gone on like this for an entire week, her friends cycling themselves and their times with her every day as if standing guard over a prisoner, or keeping watch over her while she was on her death bed. It irritated her, immensely. She didn't know why, any other time she would enjoy their company, but every day, their presence just angered her. She hated herself, she hated them, she hated them being around so much. She hated them for their kindness because she felt like she was being pitied, doted upon like a helpless child.
Hate?
She stopped herself for a moment, in the middle of breakfast, barely paying any attention to what Applejack was saying about her farmwork, just idly chewing and nibbling at her alfalfa leaves, not feeling particularly hungry despite not having eaten anything substantial the majority of the week, her loss of weight more than enough proof of that.
Do I....I don't really hate them, do I?
That question weighed on her until she noticed someone step in through the front door, her eyes turning from the table to the yellow-furred pegasus that had walked in, packs and all, apparently she'd brought quite a few things with her today. Board games, more than likely, probably more Chess. That was so Fluttershy, using all of her unofficial studies in various types of medicine, even what little she knew of psychology, to know how to help a depressed friend who had simply shut down. Twilight hadn't even touched a book since coming back, and the few people that came in to borrow books dealt with Spike instead of her, in fact many of them preferred it.
Often times Twilight's mood was on a hair trigger, her anger an unstable boiling cauldron barely hidden under a frown and a gaze of indifference, as if she could tear into someone at any moment just as much as she could randomly give them a hug. She was unreadable, and that was how she wanted it. She didn't want them to see what she was feeling. Bottle it up, hide it, contain the anger and frustration....
"Twilight? Twilight, did you hear me? It's your move." Fluttershy said, waving a hoof in front of her face, that same usual serene smile crossing her lips. Applejack was still downstairs, cleaning up breakfast with Spike.
When did I get here?
She cringed inwardly at the thought of being so out of it that she was on auto-pilot, her lack of memory of even moving from one place to the next causing more irritation. That was all every day seemed to be. Building amounts of deeper and deeper levels of irritation, for more and more trivial things. Even now, just sitting here, with their usual Chess game, she was annoyed by the presence of her friends.
She wasn't tolerating it today, feeling a pressure deep down that was urging her to do something she didn't want to do. "Can you please just leave me alone today?" she tried to ask in as gentle a voice as she could, her eyes keeping their gaze down towards the ground.
Fluttershy wasn't surprised, but she couldn't help but feel a little upset by the request. "Really? Are you sure Twilight?" she asked, which only made the lavender Unicorn grimace a little. "I mean, maybe we could just go for a walk if you're feeling cooped up in here."
Her lips twisted more into a frown, her already fake smile devolving into a depressed scowl. "Please just get out."
Applejack walked back upstairs a moment later, smiling over at them. "Well y'all, I'm headin' on outta here....hey, Twi? Everythin' alright?" she asked, starting to approach them, but she was quickly interrupted by being....well, promptly ignored and cut off by Fluttershy, who seemed to gain a more assertive tone, despite being one of the most tame in the room.
She stayed still in her seat, looking to Twilight sternly while she spoke. "Twilight, you know I can't just leave you here like this. You shouldn't be left alone!"
Twilight gritted her teeth and inhaled sharply, quelling that intense burst of fury deep within her. Her forelegs were trembling against the edge of the table, she was fighting the compulsion so hard....she couldn't remember ever feeling like this, and it both scared her and made her even more angry. It was screaming at her, pulling at every fiber of her being...!
"Spike is always here with me, so just shut up and get out, please?" she said in a more threatening tone, glaring at Fluttershy now, that anger locked away starting to show itself the more she tried to hold it back. She felt like she was breaking again, but in a smaller way, as if the little bit of headway she'd made in pulling herself back together was falling apart in the face of such a daunting amount of negative emotion.
"Uh, Fluttershy? Maybe we should let Twi have some time to herself fer now." Applejack said, hoping to at least diffuse the situation enough to make the look in Twilight's eyes go away. She'd seen that look before, not with such....ferocity, but it meant nothing good, by any means.
Fluttershy didn't budge. "No, I'm not leaving. I'm not going to just let Twilight sit here and be-" she continued to say, still keeping her eyes locked with her further angered friend.
Spike began to fidget downstairs as he saw Twilight tensing more on her side of the Chess board. "GET OUT of my home!" she snarled out at her friend, easily the kindest friend she'd ever met. Some part of her was afraid, and upset, and angry, and....she didn't know what she was doing anymore!
"Whoa-hey now! C'mon now Twi, ah know yer not feelin' real nice or nothin', but ya don't gotta yell at us." AJ said as calmly as she could, holding a hoof out at her friend in hopes of placating her. She knew things were rapidly spiraling out of control, if Twilight's eye-twitch was any indication.
She glared over at AJ for a moment, then clenched her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths. "Shut up and get out. I said I want to be left alone and I mean it," she growled out, her eyes snapping open to glare straight at Fluttershy. ""I asked you as nicely as I can right now, so please leave....!"
Fluttershy sat quietly, staring Twilight down. "No. I'm not going anywhere."
Twilight was shaking now, that urge within her growing with every passing second. She looked like she was trying to speak, but words weren't coming out, just air, her head turning this way and that as if she were saying 'no' to something, but her eyes never shifting away from Fluttershy's gaze as a burning fury started to overtake her. She couldn't stop it, and it was either let it happen, or force it down, and whatever it was, it was persuading her in silence to let it out.
"GET OUT, damn it!"
With a swift movement, the Chess board had inadvertently been knocked out of the way, a forehoof swinging forward and across the small table it had been sitting on, the small stump table making for very little distance for her to reach before she connected with the side of Fluttershy's head. The distinct yelp of pain barely registered to her, that singular moment of release both sickening her and bringing her an immense satisfaction.
She was panting heatedly, glaring down at her laid-out friend, who was cringing in pain and holding her forehooves over one side of her face. A sharp sting of regret chilled her to the bone, putting all of that roiling fury to rest in an instant.
Applejack watched the entire exchange in shock. "Fluttershy! Twi, what in tarnation's-"
Applejack was cut off once again by Fluttershy, who quickly got to her hooves. "Stop!" she called out.
Twilight looked at her in surprise just the same as Applejack did, that chilling rush of regret built into a full-blown sense of betrayal and self-loathing when she saw the large red mark on Fluttershy's cheek, her hooves weakly stumbling back just a bit.
Fluttershy just looked to her with a content smile, the pain in her face ignored, for now. "Do you feel better now, Twilight?"
Pain. That hurt. She had caused pain, and it felt good for the moment, but now, it hurt. Her friend hurt, and thus so did she. She caused it, and was transfixed upon it, staring into Fluttershy's eyes, or rather, her face in general.
Her own thoughts were chewing away at her. It could have been worse, she could have summoned her magic and crushed her with her bed. She could have thrown her headfirst out of the window and she could have broken something, unable to catch herself in time. She could have-
A hug. Warmth. She snapped out of her thoughts with a blink, her transfixed stare and gleaming eyes brimming with tears, waiting to descend, disappearing as she felt the pegasus wrap her forelegs around Twilight's shoulders and just hug her.
"It's okay Twilight. I forgive you."
She recognized the pain she felt, at that point, and she gently hugged her friend in return, Applejack still not entirely sure what had just happened. Fluttershy gets decked, and she hugs the pony that decked her? That didn't make a lick of sense to someone like her, but then, she was a very straightforward kind of pony. She stayed for a moment longer to make sure nothing else happened, then walked back downstairs, waving to Spike on the way out.
"M'sorry, Fluttershy....I-I don't know what's wrong with me!"
Her friend only hugged her tighter. "You're just angry Twilight. It happens to the best of us."
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 3 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2011-11-04T10:52:53+00:00
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2014-07-29T22:50:15+00:00
| 12,866 |
Chapter 3 - Ways of Living
written by Fire Soul
Another quiet day upon another quiet day rolled over Twilight's life, forming a blanket-like haze of time that, for the most part, she didn't remember. After all the emotions were done pouring through her uncontrolled, her anger being kept down and silenced after a couple of weeks, life was simply....bland.
Everything she enjoyed, she hated now. She couldn't stand a book for more than half an hour at a time, even a recreational one, the very thought of reading usually turning her away from the task, yet she kept coming back to it because it was her favorite hobby at the same time, and she couldn't change that. She was like an abused mare, coming back to her violent coltfriend only to get another beating for even thinking of trying to get away from him.
Even her research was a disgusting topic in her mind. Where she would normally delight in studying what exactly had happened to her, she for the most part didn't want to think about it or recall that horrible, horrible night. She knew she wasn't herself then, and she still didn't feel like herself now. However, at least she had some kind of emotional drive before; this felt like emptiness and nothing but.
She felt shiftless, thoughtless and entirely lacking in any emotions, aside from the occasional burst of rage and brief, weak bits of happiness drawn out by a silly moment from Pinkie Pie or a genuinely endearing moment of care shown by her friends going the extra mile for her, in her current condition. Almost every smile was forced otherwise, mainly to make ponies stop being so nervous in her presence. Even if the feelings were false, at least smiling brought some semblance of normalcy to her daily routine.
The only time she'd really, honestly smiled was during a few times spent with Fluttershy, who seemed to understand her situation better than any of her other friends. Well, her and Pinkie Pie. We're talking about Pinkie Pie here, after all. It's hard to NOT get an honest laugh and smile around her zany behavior. At least, even in this situation, Pinkie had enough sense not to throw Twilight a party, because there was little worth celebrating about her current affairs, aside from her finally being back from her studies.
That single swing she'd taken at Fluttershy had made her eternally sorry for what she had done, believing that her friend would be afraid to actually be around her after thinking about what happened, but....that hug she gave to Twilight, it had Twilight's insides twisting, and her thoughts turning this way and that the more they spent time together.
She felt guilty and hated herself for hurting her friend, even slightly, but she was also elated and happy that she was still willing to hang around. Without her interest in her books (what little was left of it) keeping her occupied enough, Twilight found herself spending a fairly decent amount of time with Fluttershy, going to the spa with her and Rarity every week.
"Oh, I'm so glad you could join us again this week darling, I see so little of you lately!" Rarity could be heard saying from behind her own mud mask, her eyes covered up by cucumber slices.
She was currently shoulder-deep in a nice, warm spa with Fluttershy and Twilight, each having similar treatments given. Fluttershy just let out a happy sigh as the water bubbled around them with who-knows-what added to it to rejuvenate their flesh and fur.
"The Carousel Boutique's been very busy lately, so many orders this time of year you know. Dresses, jewelry, hats, and apparently shoes are in this season, so I of course have been working on my own designs!" she said while sinking just a little lower into the bubbling water.
"Ooh, really? Maybe I should get a new hat...." Fluttershy began to say, the normally shy pegasus apparently capable of relaxing with this kind of conversation just as well as she could relax around any of her animal friends. Rarity was probably her closest friend out of their entire group, and she knew the fashionista best, so if there was a style worth having in your wardrobe, it was definitely at least one of Rarity's items.
Twilight just couldn't get into it, but she could definitely get into this jacuzzi. She didn't often treat herself to something like this because it actually cost a pretty penny, but she could see why Rarity and Fluttershy put forth the effort to make this a weekly thing for both of them. THIS was nice.
She sunk down into the heated waters until she was up to her chin, and let the heat take her away for now, listening to her friends continue on about the latest fashion trends, the styles featured by others in various magazines, the sorts of things she didn't really read herself. Of course, she only spoke up when someone spoke her name.
"Twilight, what about you? Do you have time tomorrow? I could really use your help with a design I'm working on, and your figure is absolutely perfect for it!" Rarity stated in her usual, theatrical way, flourishing her words as if she were on a stage; truly, Trixie would've been proud. "I really would appreciate it, sometimes those model stands just can't give me the kind of feedback I need for some of the more tricky designs I make up."
"Sometimes?" Fluttershy asked, smiling with only a slight smugness, looking as thought she knew something that the other two did not. "So does that mean that they talk to you?" she asked, giggling quietly and gently rolling her head on her shoulders, to help the muscles stretch out after they got so relaxed thus far, in this delightfully hot water. "I've heard they've got medication for that kind of crazy."
Twilight just laughed a little and interrupted them, her voice floating along with the bubbling water, as if she were one with it, she was so relaxed right now. "Hmm, sure, I can come over and help you out if you really need the help, Rarity...." she muttered over them. She couldn't really tell if they were looking at her, but considering they all had mud masks on and cucumber slices over their eyes, she didn't really think it would matter. "Not like I have anything better to do."
Rarity lightly quirked a brow, but quickly relaxed her head back so that the cucumber slices didn't didn't fall out after that. "Are you sure about that, Twilight? I wouldn't want to impose. I haven't heard much about your studies lately either, what do you usually do with your time nowaday-hm?"
A slosh of water and a firm shake of her shoulder drew her attention, confusing her. What was with the sudden interruption? She wasn't sure what all of that was about, but given her friend's delicate state of mind lately, she just stayed quiet about it, not that she'd been silenced fast enough.
Twilight's thoughts darkened a little, and her light smile had faded into something of a frown. "I don't....I don't really do much of my studies anymore, Rarity," she said, letting out a small breath. "I haven't touched a book since I got back, they just don't appeal to me as much as they used to. Same goes for my studies."
She sat up straighter, turning her head this way and that as one of the attendants came over to remove the little slices from over their eyes. A few blinks of her eyes cleared her vision up once more, and she gave a faint smile to her concerned friends.
Rarity tilted her head a little and looked her friend over. She knew a fake smile when she saw it, especially on one so untrained as Twilight Sparkle. She wasn't even trying to make it convincing!
"But darling....reading is your bread and butter, studying even! Why would you ever stop?"
"I just....I don't know," Twilight muttered, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. "I just feel so....tired, all the time! The moment I open a book, I just start thinking about Canterlot, and I feel totally worn out. I want to do something else, but I don't know what. Everything I've tried gets the same response out of me, it becomes nothing more than an exercise in wasting time!"
Rarity and Fluttershy exchanged concerned looks before glancing over at their frustrated friend, unsure of what to say. Twilight picked up on their worries just by meeting their gazes, and tried to muster up a proper smile this time.
"I'm alright though, I'm sure it, uh....just takes time, right?" she stated as reassuringly as she could.
Fluttershy stared just a bit longer, then smiled and nodded in agreement. Rarity wasn't sure what she could possibly say about the situation, so she simply went along with her friends and began to make small-talk once more. At least it seemed to lighten the mood.
A brown-furred pegasus flew low over one of the main streets of Ponyville, making a beeline for Sugarcube Corner. Strider doubted he'd beaten the rush, but compared to Canterlot's population, he figured that the 'rush' in Ponyville was probably not even close to being as bad as he was used to.
Oh, how wrong he wished he wasn't.
Pinkie Pie was crazy-busy, but that didn't stop the energetic pony from serving around three people at a time, thanks to her abundant stamina and joyful personality. As customers left, she always said her goodbyes with her usual Pinkie Pie flair and joviality, her happy demeanor seeming to always infect her treats and give everyone a little smile-on-the-go effect the moment they bit into one of her delicious cup-sized baked goods. He walked up to the counter and got a similar greeting as most of the previous, but she seemed to, somehow, put forth more effort because she hadn't seen him before.
"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! Where the fun is free, and everything's Pinkie-keen!" she said while stepping in from the back room once more.
In all honesty, Pinkie Pie's personality creeped him out. Her endless joy, the all-smiles behavior and being able to pop up seemingly out of nowhere....on more than one occasion, he had the feeling that she'd seen him and Dash spending more time together lately. He didn't mind it so much if she stayed quiet about it.
"Hi there! I'm here for the, uh...oh, what were they, the....oh!" he said, pointing to a set of what looked like VERY fresh, apple-sized cupcakes with a blue coloring and rainbow frosting on them, a little candy cherry atop each one.
Pinkie turned her head and looked to them, then grinned back at him. "Oh! You're the one that ordered Rainbow Dash's favorites, the order that came in from Canterlot? That's odd that you have the exact same tastes as my bestest-best friend Rainbow Dash,-" she said, leaning in towards him and giving him a knowing grin. "-y'knoooooow what I mean?"
He cringed inwardly and shook the insinuation off. A quick mental check of his facial expression and what he wanted to say next streamlined his thought process, and he canted his head to one side just ever-so-slightly. The inflection had to be just right....
"I'm sorry, I...don't understand?"
Pinkie got to work packing up the order properly while she spoke to him, that infectious smile never leaving her. "Well see, Rainbow's the only one that ever orders this and she's never talked about having any brothers or sisters and we never really see her parents around, so I thought 'Hey, maybe Rainbow has a coltfriend she's never told any of us about!', and maybe he knows exactly what she likes and maybe he's not around much because I've never seen him before-"
"I...get it, miss. I think," he said quickly and loudly enough to hopefully cut her off, looking to the box of cupcakes she'd placed before him on the counter. He quickly fished some bits out. "But I'm afraid you're mistaken. I'm just a friend visiting, she told me where she got these from, so I thought I'd surprise her!"
Pinkie leaned forward over the counter some, her eyes closing to slits as she stared into his own, then looked him over for a moment. He grew nervous as she leaned in closer and closer...then just as suddenly backed away and became all smiles again.
"Wwweeeeelll...okay then!"
He blinked. "Uh? Okay?"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Nothing!"
He blinked a few times, then shook his head and smiled. "Wow....ah, okay then, miss Pie...that's your name, right?"
"Pinkie Pie~!"
He nodded once and moved to leave, the box of cupcakes sitting on his back, wrapped up in a bag. He didn't recall the moment when he'd put them on his back, but he wasn't complaining. He needed to get away from Pinkie.
Now he was a bit more clear on why she freaked him out. Before now, he'd only observed from a distance whenever he came to Ponyville, and heard things here and there from Rainbow Dash. Well, that and dossiers given to him by the Princess, but that was another matter entirely.
No, if anything, his fear came from her perceptiveness. He knew those eyes. Pinkie knew, but she was choosing to say nothing on the matter. That was his assumption anyways, she didn't seem like the kind of mare to just up and spout everyone's business unless she genuinely thought it would help matters. With that said, he wasn't sure whether or not she'd stay silent about it.
"Bye-bye, pony-I-don't-know-but-probably-will-sometime-soon!"
He smiled a little at that and waved to her once while stepping out the front door. Well, perhaps she would keep it quiet. If not for his sake then for Rainbow's. If anyone knew Rainbow better than him, it would be her closest friends.
It wasn't exactly a long flight to Dash's house from Sugarcube Corner, but it still gave him enough time to snack on one of the cupcakes on the way there. He'd just gotten way too curious about what they tasted like, all rainbow-colored and semi-tangy and sweet...or so the Cakes had said when he'd placed the order, anyways.
He'd certainly not been disappointed!
The moment his hooves touched down outside of her home, Rainbow took notice; cloud homes weren't all that good at keeping noise out unless you insulated them on the inside, which she had foregone. She was in her kitchen at the moment, whipping up a little something for a late breakfast before her usual morning routine of work and flight training. She'd already gone out first thing to confirm her orders for the weather team, so she had the advantage of being able to do her job however she wished as long as it got done. Being the boss had its perks!
Of course, she'd already given out her orders and she was only expecting one pony today, so it was either him, or one of her employees needed some clarification. "Door's open, c'mon in!" she called out to whoever it was.
He stepped into the house without even having to knock, finding it particularly odd compared to what he was used to. Ponyville didn't have a lot of pegasi burglars, he supposed.
"Hey Rainbow! Where ya at?" he called out to her.
"In the kitchen!"
He walked over and pushed the kitchen door open just in time to hear her pop one of her wings right at the primary joint while stretching herself out. He moved over to the table and picked up the bagged box on his back and set it down on the table, grinning over at her. "Gotcha something special! I put in the order last week, I wasn't sure if I'd actually get them on time or not, but your friend must put all that energy of hers to excessive use."
"Ooh! Are those what I think they are?" she asked, staring through the plastic cover on the front of the tote.
He licked his lips and nodded. "Uh-huh! Though I had one on the way here. Sooo, not exactly a dozen left."
"Rainbow Cupcakes....hah," she said, flipping the top open and pulling one out with her mouth, catching it in her hoof. "Thanks!"
She held the cupcake in her hoof and took a bite, mmm'ing with almost orgasmic satisfaction as the sweet and tart flavor spread over her palate. Then a thought hit her.
"Wait, you put this order in last week? How'd you do that?"
He smirked a little at her. "There is such a thing as mail orders, you know."
She swallowed what she'd already chewed up, then opened her mouth to question him further. A memory of his last visit, before Twilight returned to Ponyville, made her come to a realization before she said anything. "Oh! Oh right, I had some of these last time you were here, that's how you know. Okay, that makes sense."
He nodded and picked one up from the box, his eyes flashing over the cupcakes quickly and taking stock of how many were left. Nine. "Yup! Couldn't think of anything else outside of Wonderbolts stuff. You're a hard mare to buy gifts for."
Rainbow just grinned and took another bite of her cupcake while he did the same. "Yeah well, if it ain't Wonderbolts, I'm usually not interested!"
"Pff, don't I know it....anyways," he said, taking a bite and swallowing before continuing. "What're your plans today?"
She finished off her cupcake quickly and flexed her wings upwards again, the feathers trembling as she pushed them as far out as she could before tucking them back in. "Eh, probably gonna get my work done, then after that it's nothing but speed exercises! I need to get fast enough to pull off the Sonic Rainboom again."
"I thought you managed it because your friend was going to die if you didn't reach her?"
She shrugged it off, but the light smirk in the corner of her mouth said everything he needed to know.
"Ah, it was nothin'! I mean, I thought the Wonderbolts had her, but...yyyeah," she muttered, glancing out her nearby window. "Not their finest moment. B-but hey, I'm sure not everyone can be cool at all times, right?"
He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Right."
"Besides, it's not like I can just throw one of my friends off of a cloud and then chase after them whenever I want to pull of a Rainboom! Well," she said, grinning a little. "Not if I want to have any friends left at the end of the day."
He couldn't help but laugh at that, shaking his head. "I dunno, Pinkie would probably think it was fun!"
"You kiddin' me?! Clearly you've never seen her Pinkie Copter," she said, shaking her head in amusement. "Only Pinkie would own her own personal hoof-powered helicopter."
He blinked a few times at that, then shrugged it off and looked down to the cupcakes. Eh, he didn't want another one, they weren't meant for him anyways.
Rainbow rolled her head this way and that, then started to stretch her neck out as well. "So, you gonna come and practice with me? You know me, always looking for an audience! Maybe a flying buddy too."
He shook his head. "Not right away, unfortunately. I only got this week off because I have some things I have to take care of here and there, but it should only be a few hours."
She wilted a little. "O-oh," she muttered, then nodded to him, her smile seeming rather forced compared to before. "Alright then. I'll see you for lunch then?"
He sighed and smiled a little, walking up to her and nuzzling her cheek with his own again. "Yeah, I might be done by then...sorry."
"S'fine," she said, blushing from the show of affection. "I know your job keeps you busy."
"Yeah, and I know it bothers you. I really am working on it."
She broke away from him a little, smiling weakly. "Yeah, yeah, just get to work so you can come fly with me!"
He nodded quickly and leaned in, his head tilting to one side to plant a more meaningful, warm kiss on her lips. Her eyes shot wide open for a moment before drifting shut again and returning it. Her wings flapped reflexively a few times before she settled down enough to fold them in again, her breath caught in her chest and a delightful tingle burning in her chest, making her feel warm and happy.
Just like that, it was over when he pulled away. She took a deep breath and let it out, leaning back away from him with a little bashful nibble on her lower lip. She could feel the heat in her cheeks, the distinct blush burning right through her fur and making her embarrassment all too obvious to him, much to his amusement.
"That....was a cheap trick."
He grinned a bit. "And yet, you didn't stop me."
"Pff, whatever. You just did that so I wouldn't be so upset with you."
"Guilty as charged!" he stated smugly, trotting over towards the kitchen door. "I'll try my best to be back by noon, I swear. See you later, Rainbow!"
She wanted to ask him if maybe whatever he had to do could wait 'til later, but whatever it was, he seemed to be rushing to get it done. Well, maybe that would be good enough, she supposed.
Rainbow lingered in her kitchen for a while longer, getting herself some juice and enjoying another one of her cupcakes before heading out herself, her thoughts lingering on that kiss. She normally didn't like distractions during her training, but just being around him made her feel oddly invigorated. The fact that he really knew how to treat a mare, even a more tomcoltish one like her, helped too. Well, when he was around anyways, which was a rarity at best.
It left a bittersweet tinge to every visit he managed to make. She didn't feel incomplete without him around, but when he was around, it instantly reminded her of what she was missing. That bothered her a lot.
She shook off her thoughts and finished stretching herself out before taking off from her front stoop, her powerful wings rapidly propelling her high into the sky, far above the clouds. She immediately went to work, doing her best to work the distracting thoughts out of her head.
"Better not keep me waiting Strider," she mumbled to herself while bucking a cloud into nothingness. "It's really uncool."
Applejack's hooves could be heard tapping against the floor, likely in frustration since the sound had increased in volume over the course of an hour or two. On the table were several sheets of paper, a multitude of documents not limited to but including just about all of the farm's finances, as well as personal finances. She had already subtracted a LOT of luxuries from her own part of the bills, but this season still wasn't adding up, not at all, and it was getting on her nerves.
It all started with the Parasprite swarm that put a dent in the boost they got from the bumper crop earlier last year. Every extra bit they earned was wasted rebuilding the house, and she couldn't even really blame anypony for what happened because one, nobody expected such a creature to be capable of that kind of damage, and two, even if Twilight's spell hadn't changed their eating habits, they would've just consumed all of the apples, and likely the trees as well! THAT would've been infinitely more devastating than losing the house, at least with the apples and the trees still around they can re-grow and re-plant seeds, as well as harvest seeds.
That would have been an easy loss to deal with, everything would have simply been the same status quo as it was every year, Ponyville's finances rarely experiencing a drastic enough shift and a lack of love for apples enough to have the Apple Family losing money instead of at least breaking even. They grew some of the best apples around and everyone knew it, it was the main reason their business thrived. That, and Applejack was more savvy to the world of business than most would expect from such a small-town pony with a Southern drawl.
That said, other issues began to crop up, and they couldn't have all come at a worse time. Spread out it would've still been easy to work through them, but it was just one thing after another. First, a few stray Parasprites randomly raided a section of the farm in the middle of the night and ate up a large portion of the late Summer crop before she could get Pinkie to take them somewhere further away.
On top of that, smaller thieves continued to wander in and raid their stores here and there before they could ship the apples out, and that wasn't even counting what parts of the crop were normally lost to lack of watering, rotting over time, falling off the trees and bruising before they can be bucked off into the buckets...a multitude of issues, all of them cropping up at the same time and causing a big problem that AJ was having serious trouble finding a way to handle.
Big Macintosh was in the kitchen cleaning up dinner when he heard his sister grunt in frustration. They'd both been at it all day long, nothing particularly new for them, but having to come in from work, take a shower and then sit right down and work on finances would sour anyone's mood.
"Dang it!" she growled at no one in particular, the tired mare slumping in her seat and laying her chin on the table, glaring at the papers to the left of her head. "This year just ain't addin' up!"
He grabbed a dessert plate he'd set out ahead of time, when he realized she was skipping a full dinner in favor of getting the farm's paperwork sorted out, and plopped the last caramel apple they had from dinner down on it. At the very least, she'd probably appreciate dessert after getting little more than a sandwich.
Big Mac stepped up next to his sister, setting the plate with the caramel apple down next to her head, the caramel still nice and hot, filling her nostrils with a delicious candied scent that tantalized her tastebuds with the memory of one of her favorite after-dinner treats.
"Still not findin' ways to save what we managed t'keep, huh?" he asked in that usual slow, methodical tone, standing tall and gazing down at her.
She sighed in frustration, lifting her head and nodding to him, glaring daggers at the papers as if they offended her very being. She may have had to learn more advanced mathematics to figure out taxes and the farm's expenses, but that didn't mean she was great at it. Still, she was sure that even if she was a master mathematician or Twilight Sparkle, there still wouldn't be anything she could do aside from working especially hard to make up for the lost finances.
She picked up the apple and took a big bite out of it, letting her tongue roll over the sweet and tart treat while slowly chewing it up. She had a certain appreciation for caramel apples, especially freshly-made ones like this, the delicious melted caramel making such a simple thing her favorite dessert treat.
"Mmm....! Thanks, Big Mac. For th' apple, I mean," she said, smiling a little just from the small satisfaction the caramel apple gave her. "But no, ah haven't. This last year's been downright brutal n' harsh on us."
"Don't I know it. I was hopin' maybe you'd see somethin' ah didn't, but I guess I was wrong."
She huffed and let her eyes slide shut for a moment, running a hoof through her mane and pulling her hat off in the process, setting it aside on the table. "Yeah...we've never been in this much trouble before."
"Eeyup...hm," he mused, looking away in thought for a moment. "Ya know, ya got that friend o' yers, Twilight Sparkle. Why not ask her if there's anything the Princesses can do?"
AJ quickly shook her head, sitting up a bit straighter. "Nah, that's a bit much. Twi's mah friend and all, but she's kinda goin' through a rough patch. I don't wanna trouble 'er."
"Ya sure? I'd think she'd be more than willin' t'help out a friend, 'specially when it comes to the well-bein' of our farm."
AJ sat there for a moment, her hooves twiddling the wooden stick the caramel apple was speared on, turning it around in front of herself before taking a bite of it. She glanced over to her brother as he took a seat next to her, the light creak of the chair next to her the only sound in the otherwise silent house aside from her chewing.
Granny Smith and Apple Bloom were asleep upstairs, the quiet chirp of the crickets outside easily heard coming through their open windows, the magic-based cooling system left off tonight since it was so nice outside, given it was the beginning of Summer, or close enough to it.
She stared down at the papers for a minute, then slouched in her seat and shook her head. "That don't sound, well...desperate, t'you?"
Big Mac tilted his head a bit, turning in his seat to face her better. "Whatcha mean?"
"Well, runnin' to the Princess, askin' Twilight ta use her connections to royalty...that don't sound kinda wrong of me to ask her to do?" AJ asked, frowning a little at the thought of it.
The big stallion shrugged a little and gave her a nudge with a hoof. "Last I checked lil' sis, that's kinda the point of havin' ponies you can rely on, because ya can count on 'em to help ya when it really matters."
She picked up one of the papers and did some quick calculations in her head, some part of her hoping that maybe five minutes earlier she was just magically incompetent and couldn't figure something out because of it. Maybe if that were the case, an answer would be much easier for her to find now, but alas, everything still came out the same. They were just far too deep in the red.
"....I just don't like the thought of abusing her friendship like that, is all," she muttered, stamping the paper back down on the table with a sigh. "Feels so wrong."
He rolled his eyes and smirked a little. "Explain the situation to 'er, sis. I'm sure she'll understand, so will the rest o' yer friends!"
She just stayed quiet and nodded a little. "Yeah, they would...really embarrassing to run to mah friends because th' farm's goin' under otherwise."
"Well, there's always the other option of makin' a deal with Razor Witty."
Applejack froze at that thought, before a menacing scowl replaced her previously relaxed features. Her entire body was tense just from the mention of him, the very thought of him making her feel dirty all over.
She looked over to her brother, sitting scarily still in her seat, like she was preparing to make a move. "You saw that contract he tried to get me to sign, right?"
Big Mac nodded once. "Eeyup."
She leaned over and threw a foreleg around her brother's withers, pulling him closer and holding up her other forehoof, as if she were about to take a swing. "Then ya understand why I will geld you if you ever seriously suggest that I make a deal with that low-down, snobby, snake-in-the-grass stallion?"
He smirked and nodded once more. "Eeyup!"
She grinned and patted his cheek with that striking hoof. "Glad ta hear it! Ugh, what time is it...?" she said cheerily, releasing her brother and settling back in her seat again, forehooves rubbing over her tired eyes. "Kinda lost track o' time."
"Gettin' close to eleven, sis. You alright?"
She snorted and shook her head. "No...no, not really."
She was scared. She didn't want to admit it, but she very much was. The farm had never been in so much trouble before, and she could honestly say that there wasn't much she could've done to prevent the current predicament outside of having the ability to see the future!
He stared over at her for a moment, then smiled and got up from his seat, stepping around behind hers and pulling her away from the table, causing her to jolt in surprise from the unexpected feeling of being moved backwards. He said nothing as he moved to embrace her from one side, a single large foreleg wrapping around her withers to give her a firm hug.
"Hey. It's gonna be alright, sis. We're Apples, we always pull through!"
She wasn't used to this kind of affection from her family, unless you counted Apple Bloom. Being the big sister and pseudo-Mother figure to a young filly could be rewarding, she'd found.
She put her forelegs around her brother and hugged him in return, nodding a little. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry, ah ain't givin' up that easily!"
"That's mah sis. Now then," he said, letting her go and patting her on her wither, nodding towards the kitchen door. "Head on into the kitchen. Ah got a plate set aside for ya, just gotta heat it up. Get some food in ya, get away from all this paperwork, and git yerself a good night's rest. No point in lingerin' around here."
"Well, I can help ya with the dishes, if ya like-"
He held up a hoof and shook his head. "No need fer that! You been drivin' yerself up a wall with all this and with the harvest. Just go get some rest, ya deserve it."
She glanced back to the table, then nodded to him and stood up, heading to the kitchen. No matter how she looked at it, the result was the same: they were in trouble. She didn't know what she'd have to do to save the farm, but she was sure that she'd work herself to a bloody mess before she'd ever give up!
Big Mac glanced back to the table and gave the papers a once-over, his own calculations written alongside his sister's. They'd both gotten the same answers separately. He just shook his head and tucked the papers away in the folder that'd been set aside for them, wishing he could just toss them into a volcano and have all their financial problems disappear in the process. Oh, if only life were that easy.
He tossed the folder on his back and grabbed the plate with the half-eaten caramel apple in his mouth, heading off into the kitchen after his sister, returning to cleaning the dishes while she enjoyed a very late dinner. The issue with the farm made both of them remain quiet, the two ponies feeling morose instead of talkative.
They headed to bed with little more than a 'good night', Applejack's night plagued by the terrifying prospect of losing her land, and ultimately, her farm. It was her livelihood, a symbol of everything she'd worked for all her life. It had belonged to her late parents, it was an heirloom all its own...they couldn't lose their farm. They just couldn't!
She didn't get much restful sleep that night.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 4 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2011-10-22T03:05:00+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:03:49+00:00
| 12,622 |
Chapter 4 - Investigation
written by Fire Soul
Strider stood outside of the Everfree Forest, the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze accompanying the vaguely noticeable sound of wildlife moving through the underbrush. He'd made sure to approach the forest from a less obvious section, staying a short distance from the main path outside of Ponyville.
He stepped past the treeline, hooves crunching some underbrush as he walked. Just three minutes into the wild growth, he spotted another pony hiding up in a thicker-looking tree, the slight sound of his hooves shifting against the bark warning Strider of his presence.
He smiled and gave a short whistle to the pony in the tree, causing him to jump down from the branch with an almost unheard tap of his hooves against the ground. Strider nodded to him, the much smaller and more slender stallion bowing his head in return.
The clearly younger pegasus stallion was athletically built, yet far more slender than one would ever expect from a member of the guard. He clashed with the surrounding greens and browns, his sky-blue fur and white mane making him stand out compared to Strider's brown fur and pitch-black mane. Dark blue eyes completed the gentle and deceptive look the stallion carried with him, his effeminate figure telling all too false a tale of what Strider knew he was capable of.
The rattle of Shadow's hoofblade drew his attention to it after his landing. He brought it up and examined the straps for a moment before taking the time to tighten them.
"Morning, sir."
Strider glanced around, only to be pointed to a nearby tree by his associate. "Morning, Shadow. You look tired."
The stoic stallion simply shook his head. "Nothing I can't deal with, sir."
Strider had to admit, Shadow's no-nonsense demeanor really clashed with his overall appearance. One would think a pony so brightly colored would have more of a sunny disposition.
"You know you don't have to be so formal with me," he said, walking around the tree and picking up his armor, giving it a quick once-over as well as spotting the enchanted hoofblade and lure that had been provided to him along with his armor. "No one else in the pack talks to me like that."
"Unless we're on assignment," Shadow quickly noted, glancing further into the forest. "Which we are."
"I suppose so. Where are the others?" he asked, slipping his helmet on, then his armored horseshoes, checking them with a small trot before going to pick up the torso of his armor.
Shadow walked over while his superior worked the buckles on his armor loose, enough for him to slip the armor onto himself. The section of the armor covering the back of his neck was secured with Shadow's help, and his assistance made it easy to secure the armor around Strider's body once more. As any guard or soldier knew, putting one's armor on alone could be a real hassle.
"Sharp Eyes and Heavy Load are keeping an eye on Twilight Sparkle from a distance, as per your orders. Red is currently meeting with the Mayor to inform her of the current operation. She has the royal seal." he explained clearly and concisely, standing at full attention once Strider's armor was properly secured on his side.
He nodded a little to that and trotted back and forth a few times to test the straps and buckles before standing up on his hindlegs and taking a few swings at the air to make sure his horseshoes would stay in place. A few flaps of his wings easily lifted him into the air, where he fluttered for a solid minute before coming down and walking around in front of Shadow once more.
"Good. I want you to take up watch just outside of the Everfree near the main entrance, keep an eye out for me. If I'm not out by one this afternoon, assume the worst and report back to Princess Luna immediately."
Shadow stared at him for a moment, his blank expression hiding an uncertainty that he didn't often feel about anything. The world was very black-and-white in his eyes. He looked deeper into the forest again, then back to his superior.
"Are you sure you won't require assistance?"
Strider quickly shook his head and stretched out his wings. "If the worst-case scenario comes to pass, the pack's going to need a new Alpha. That'd be you, obviously," he said while one of his wings popped at the base. "I'll be fine as long as they're simple Shadows and nothing else. You know me."
"Very well, sir," Shadow said, giving a quick salute. "See you in an hour or two."
Shadow made for the main path while Strider worked to get his hoofblade into the correct position on his right foreleg. His mind wandered as he fiddled with the straps and buckles, returning to the moment in Luna's tower that led to a solid week of time for himself. For his entire pack, really.
"You said 'time off'?"
"That would be correct, Princess."
Luna looked up from her papers, staring at him as if he'd suddenly sprouted a second head. "Rainbow Dash, I assume?"
He walked around the lab table with a beaker in his mouth, setting it down next to her. "Yes, your majesty."
"Please don't use my title. Why are you using my title? You should know better than to use my title in the sanctity of my tower."
He shrugged a little. "Can't help it sometimes, what can I say?"
"Yes you can. You are just trying to be manipulative and, oh what was it? Butter me up?"
He walked around the table and across the room to a second one, retrieving a small flask she quickly pointed out to him, her magic busy stabilizing a compound she'd already mixed together. He picked it up and brought it over to the station she was working at, setting it down across from her.
"You know me far too well, and yes, that's the correct terminology!" he said with a cheerful smile.
She thought on the idea for a moment before bothering to refuse him. He didn't make the grade as one of her personal guards because he was handsome, though that was certainly a small bonus for her. He deserved some time to himself, if at all possible.
"I can give you time off, on one condition," she said, setting her instruments down and turning her attention to a sealed chest near her desk, away from her lab equipment. "I have an assignment for you."
He looked to the royal seal on one of the rolled-up parchments that she levitated out of the chest, then back to her. "On top of what I'm doing already?"
"The Shadow Guard do not get vacations. You know this, yet you asked for a vacation anyways."
"...Point taken," he admitted, standing at attention and taking a deep breath. "How may I serve?"
She nodded once and motioned him closer, unrolling an unsealed scroll and setting it down on a clear section of the lab table, her magic turning a burner off so she wouldn't have a spontaneous burst of chemicals all over the both of them.
He walked around the table to stand at the end of it, glancing over the paper from an angle. He read over the top section of the paper, confusion set on his face. "A scouting report?"
"Correct! These are the scouting reports from various branches of the Equestrian military that operate around Ponyville. Ever since the Elements of Harmony were recovered, pegasi scouting parties have been given patrols over the Everfree Forest on a weekly basis," she explained, turning the paper to face him with her hoof, pointing to a specific point. "Things were normal until this exact moment."
He scanned over the upper section of the reports, then gave the part she was pointing to a more detailed read. "Increased activity of Wild Shadows...that's unusual, sure, but what's the significance?"
"Do you recall the incident, with Twilight Sparkle?"
"I do...ah, I see," he said, scanning over the paper again. "The day immediately after. Right here, early morning."
"Indeed," she said, shaking her head a little. "While it is entirely possible that this is merely a coincidence, I cannot dismiss the possibility that these two issues are connected. Twilight Sparkle is a bright, sharp and focused mare, who loves to study and learn. I cannot imagine it was merely the pressures of advanced schooling and tests that made her snap, not even a full steady year of it."
He frowned a little and looked towards one of her open windows, in the direction of Ponyville. "That seems like quite a stretch, especially with her all the way in Canterlot at the time. How could anything from the Everfree influence her?"
"After reading about some of the incidents that have occurred within Ponyville, I would believe just about anything, and I am a millennia-old Goddess!" she said with a small giggle, her magic breaking the royal seal on another rolled-up document, opening it. "In any case, your mission is as follows..."
He focused his attention on her, standing tall and firm in place while watching her turn to walk towards the open balcony next to the stairs that led to the storage area of the tower, where a multitude of alchemical ingredients were stowed away for the Princess's personal use in her tower laboratory. If she wasn't creating, she was delving into the intriguing art of science, and he enjoyed his nights standing guard in her tower if only to watch her work with all the enthusiasm and interest of a mad scientist.
Luna opened her balcony's blinds to let the moonlight shine in, smiling more as the cold rays of her divine charge bathed her in the energies of the Void. She looked back to him and motioned for him to join her.
Strider smiled at the invitation and walked calmly over towards the balcony, taking a seat next to her after she sat down, gazing over the city of Canterlot and the nightlife it seemed to have nowadays. The Red District in particular was very bright and active, despite it being one in the morning. Not surprising, since DJ-P0N3 ran her own club there.
"You are to infiltrate the Everfree Forest at ground level, and force a confrontation with the numerous Wild Shadows that seem to be running more rampant than usual. You will be allowed the assistance of your pack, and you may use their skills as you see fit as long as your activities are not brought to the attention of the public," she explained calmly, glancing over to him. "Destroy any Shadows you encounter with the lure that will be provided, and use that keen mind of yours to glean any intimate details in their behavior from the encounter."
He nodded to her and grinned. "Shadows are easy as can be to me, Luna."
"Indeed, but the sudden increase in their activity speaks to something being outside of the usual behavioral patterns. I fear someone may be attempting to control them. Perhaps even someone using dark magic to control the souls of the dead sealed within the Shadows," she said, frowning a little at the thought of such a vile thing. "Regardless, this increase in activity indicates that the souls of the dead are restless. Put them at ease, Strider."
He snapped a quick salute, nodding once to her with a cocky smile. "As always, you can count on me, Princess!"
She smirked and tapped her chin in mock-thought. "Normally, this task would take little more than a day, but since this is a sensitive situation...I believe that thou shalt be given a full week to carry out thine mission," she said with a small twinkle in her eye, glancing over to him with a bemused expression. "Does that sound like a satisfactory vacation for you?"
"You're aware that if I get injured, there will be questions? Specifically from Rainbow Dash, and probably the rest of her friends as well?"
"More than likely."
"And I'm unable to tell them the truth on the matter?"
"Manticore attack should suffice. You can tell them you had some scouting to take care of, but you must absolutely not go into specifics," she said, glancing over one of the lab documents on the table. "Secrets of the crown, and such."
He pretended to really think about it for all of ten seconds before grinning wide and giving another salute to her. "I accept the assignment, Luna. Your Vesari shall serve!" he stated happily, then tapped his hoof against the tiled floor of the lab area. "By the way, your Equestrian slipped."
"W-I am well aware!" she stated indignantly, her snout wrinkling in irritation.
He held up a hoof to placate her, as if defending himself from her irritation. "Just making sure, your majesty!"
She humph'ed and looked away from him, casually motioning a hoof at him in lazy waving motions. "You leave in the morning. Go and get some sleep so you are awake and rested for your mission. You will be performing this assignment during daytime."
He stood and turned to face her properly, bowing to her. "As you wish, your majesty. I'll be back before you know it!"
She smiled a little at that and looked back to him, nodding once. "I am aware. Ah, and Strider," she said quietly, locking eyes with him with a dead-serious tone. "Come back alive. That is both a request and an order, from your friend and your Princess."
He stared back at her for what seemed like a full minute to him, but in fact were merely a few seconds. He smiled more at that and bowed his head, foreleg crossing over his chest in a more formal bow.
"As the Night commands, so shall I obey."
She rolled her eyes at that and gave him a light shove with a forehoof on his wither. "Oh, just hush and go sleep! I swear, you intentionally talk that way to mock me."
He stood up and grinned once more at her. "As I said, you know me far too well!"
He smiled a little to himself as he finished securing his hoofblade, a quick push of his forelegs lifting him up to stand bipedally on his hindlegs, left forehoof pushing on a small section of the sheath of the hoofblade until a click sounded off, the blade itself extending out rapidly until it was a good seven inches past the hoof it was mounted on, the runes engraved in the metal glowing dimly as he examined them.
He gave a few testing swings to make sure there were no faults with his weapon, flourishing and flapping his wings to take to the air with it before he was sure it was in proper working order. Every swing of his weapon caused the runes to glow a fiery yellow-red, the blade seeming to coat itself in fire as it sliced through the air, only for the fire to dissipate and fizzle away when the blade ceased being swung around.
He landed and pressed the same small section of his hoofblade's sheath, the clicking sound heard again as the blade slid back into its sheath and the opening of the sheath slid shut as well, to avoid the hassle and potentially deadly possibility of a malfunction in the hoofblade's internal construction.
His chestplate was the final piece of his arsenal he wanted to be absolutely sure of. Instead of the large draconic eye and ornate design of the Night Guard, his chestplate instead consisted of a series of engraved lines in the metal that all connected to small circular sections, the entire design taking an X-like design all throughout. All in all, he counted thirty-six of the circles, the 'Spell Shells', that he could use in the event that the natural magicks of the Everfree wouldn't be enough to support him during the inevitable combat.
Satisfied with the status of his arsenal and his armor, he lowered himself down to all fours again and went to pick up the lure for the Shadows, a single black ball of raw spiritual energy, sealed in an engraved glass bottle. It looked like a shadowy alchemical bomb, and Princess Luna had clearly explained that it was meant to be used in exactly the same way: throw the bottle where you wish its contents to scatter, and wait for the Shadows to arrive!
He tied the string around the neck of the bottle to one of his armor straps, then began his trek deeper into the forest, moving towards the main path once he'd gotten far enough away from the main entrance so as to not be so easily spotted by anyone. At least the main path was far easier to walk on compared to working his way through the underbrush, flushing out insects and little scared critters of all sorts!
He gave a quick glance back to Ponyville to make sure no one spotted him and/or took a particular interest in him or his out-of-place armor, then turned back towards the forest and started his trek deeper into the untamed wilderness.
It was time to get to work.
The pitter-patter of small reptilian feet filled the library today. It was one of the few days Spike didn't get sent out to shop, and on top of that, he had the almost daily task of looking after Twilight until one of her friends came around to see how she was doing. Today they all seemed pre-occupied, so it was his job all day instead of just in the mornings.
Right now though, his focus was on breakfast....well, breakfast and getting Twilight to get out of bed instead of trying to sleep the day away like she usually did.
"Y'know Twilight, it's been ages since you've had me re-organize the books and make sure they're all in order....you sure you don't want to do that?" he called out to her.
"Neh...s'fine." she responded half-heartedly from upstairs.
Spike walked over towards the door leading into the kitchen that had been built into the library after he and Twilight had originally been given the place as their home away from home. He grabbed his apron off of the hanger next to the door and slung it around himself, trying to think of something else to goad her into action. Any kind of action.
"Well, what about going to see if Applejack needs any help with harvesting apples? You usually enjoy getting to test out your magic with that sort of thing," he shouted up to her. "I'm sure she'd appreciate the help!"
"No, I'm sure AJ's doing just fine...."
Spike scratched the side of his head after tying his apron off behind his back, hmm'ing for a moment and tapping his claw against the side of his head. "Erm....mmmaybe go visit Zecora? She hasn't seen you since you came back from Canterlot. You two get along pretty well, I'm sure she'd enjoy your company."
"No thanks Spike, I'm just gonna stay here today...." she said, a quiet sigh accompanying her voice afterwards.
He couldn't think of anything else, the little dragon grumbling a little more audibly and slumping his arms at his sides, staring in her direction, unable to see her from downstairs. "How about me shutting up and leaving you alone to wallow in your own misery?" he asked, his voice and expression a mix of annoyance and deadpan frustration.
"....That'd be nice. Some aspirin would be even better."
"URGH! Alright, fine." he growled out while tossing his arms straight up in frustration, throwing the kitchen door open soon after and closing it soundly behind himself.
The sound of him rustling around the kitchen could barely be heard over the throbbing headache she had. It wasn't a fake-out either, she genuinely wanted to stay home today because her head hurt. Though at the same time, she knew a little medicine would likely make it go away. Okay, so maybe she was using it as a cop-out....that didn't change the fact that this headache felt abnormal. It wasn't throbbing in time with her heartbeat, it was aching in time with someone else.
All at once, she groaned and the pain got even worse for a moment, and her ears twitched, hearing a high-pitched sound, not loud, but just very high-pitched. She couldn't figure on the origin of it. It wasn't coming from within the house, it wasn't the tea kettle in the kitchen or anything like that, so where was it coming from? She quietly slipped out from under the covers of her bed and walked over to her window and pressed her ear up against the glass, and it wasn't that either.
Her head spun as she peered out of the window, a hoof rubbing the side of her head in a vain attempt to make the ache and vertigo go away. Rainbow Dash was already doing her morning training regimen, though her usual boisterous and loud nature was lacking this time around. She found that odd, but only in a vague sense, everyone had their off days. At least her knack for noticing the more subtle oddities of everyday life was still intact, despite how she felt right now.
Bon-Bon and Lyra were up and about, both of them trotting along excitedly towards the marketplace. She turned her head to look at her clock on the table near her bed, and found it to be close to opening time for most of the stalls. Perhaps she could go and do a little shopping? No....she felt too heavy. She didn't want to go anywhere.
She hated this, not being able to will herself to go anywhere, her body giving her plenty of physical reasons not to if her mentality couldn't get her down enough. Phantom aches and pains wore her down while her snapped, negative mindset tore apart any ambition or motivation she managed to work up within herself. Everything felt so forced, even things she enjoyed still felt like chores and jobs, thankless and pointless jobs at that!
She was about to turn away from her window, but a sudden pang of fear shook her as that high-pitched sound suddenly picked up. The sound seemed to be drawing her in, forcing her to stare, gazing into her own eyes, glaring into her own reflection. She felt angry, but she also felt afraid. More than afraid, she felt terrified! Her heart began to race as the sound got louder, the world around her fading into the background as the irrational fear consumed her.
She blinked once, and her library was gone. There was nothing but darkness. She lit her horn, and all around her, blood-stained walls and glass windows surrounded her. She looked through one, and dead, eviscerated ponies were scattered all over the self-contained laboratory.
She jolted away from the glass and spun around once, a feeling of panic disorienting her slightly as she tried to take in her surroundings. All along the hall, on the floor and slumped against the walls, dead and decomposed ponies in some sort of uniform were laying in large numbers all around her along the corridor. Dried blood clearly marked the paths they followed to their deaths.
She should have been afraid. She knew that, on some level. Why wasn't she afraid?
She felt almost disconnected as she began to walk, only just starting to notice that she was panting rather heavily. Gasping even. A feeling of alarm began to take her as she stumbled against the side of the corridor, the stairwell leading down to the next level just a few steps away.
No air.
There was no air here. No matter how many breaths she took, she wasn't getting any oxygen! She pushed herself away from the wall and rushed for the stairs, her muscles rapidly beginning to burn as she descended. Something down here was going to save her. It had to!
CAN'T BREATHE
"Suh-Spike...!" she stuttered weakly as her body began to protest and panic, a small part of her clouded mind wondering why Spike would be in a place like this. She staggered on the stairs for a moment, her hoof scraping at the wall before she forced herself further on.
Not going to make it. I'm going to die.
She was going to die here. The thought rang clearly to her as her vision began to fade, her horn sparking and fizzling as her concentration waned. She had to make it to the bottom! She almost tripped over another dead body in her weak rush to make it to the next stairwell.
I don't want to die.Something's wrong here.I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
She just...just a little further, she had to make it! With a determined push, she charged down the corridor with her vision going wobbly and distorted, managing to get just a few steps down the stairwell before her legs gave out and she tumbled down with several sickening cracks, including one to her horn that jolted her entire body with agony.
Laying in a limp and exhausted heap against the floor, with a dead body bracing her head, she felt her senses slowly fade away, one by one. Her body went numb and her attempts to breathe slowed, until she fell terrifyingly still in the darkness.
Not going to die don't want to die THIS IS WRONG I'M NOT HERE I-
"Did you hear me, Twilight?" Spike called out, pushing the door to Twilight's room open while he stepped in. "I said breakfast's re-hey!"
Sitting on her haunches just inches from the window, Twilight was breathing heavily and gasping for air, her gaze locked with the outside. Her motions were heavy and panicked, sounding close to hyperventilation.
He rushed over to her and tried to get in front of her. "Twilight? Hey, Twilight! H-hey c'mon, calm-nnrgh!-down!" he shouted to her while trying to push her back.
She wouldn't budge. He was too small to push her around, and she seemed entirely ignorant of his presence. He ran around behind her and quickly scurried up onto her back, grabbing hold of her mane and pulling it in a desperate attempt to draw her attention.
"Come on, Twilight! What's gotten into you?!"
A startling and sudden relaxation of her entire body almost sent him tumbling off of her, the mare's head hanging down as she took a few deep gasps of air. She wobbled to and fro, feeling intensely dizzy for some reason.
A sense of urgency made her quickly look around the room. Her room. Her bedroom. Not a corridor. She swayed a little as she tried to stand up, only to freeze in place as she glanced at the window again.
Sharp, reptilian eyes in her reflection. A wicked and far-too-wide grin. Long corridors lined with bodies, no oxygen in the air I can't breathe I CAN'T BREATHE-
Her mind rejected it this time, and with a scream, she raised up onto her hindlegs and sent Spike flying off of her, stumbling a few steps backwards before falling onto her back and rolling to her side, curling up in a fetal position.
She moved to cover her head reflexively in fear, but she couldn't look away from the window. Without thinking, she cried out for help.
"SPIKE!!!"
He was up in an instant and at her side. "I-I'm right here! Holy moly..."
She finally glanced away from the window again when she felt tiny claws on her cheek, and she instantly began to cry as she snatched the small dragon up in her forelegs. Her grip was vice-like and desperate, and she buried her face against the side of his neck in her sideways position.
Spike wasn't sure what was going on at first. It wasn't until he swore he felt one of his ribs pop that he realized his face was buried in lavender fur. He wriggled a bit in her grasp and tilted his head up to get his face off of the base of her neck, glancing over when he felt her snout against his neck instead.
The quiet sobbing and the feeling of her entire body trembling in genuine fear made him reach to gently pet over the side of her head. He really wasn't good with these sorts of things, but he couldn't stand hearing her so distressed either.
"Hey, Twilight...c'mon, it's gonna be okay." he stated quietly, but she wasn't pulling away.
Resigned to his fate as a comfort pillow-dragon, he wrapped his small arms around her neck as best he could in his position and hugged her back. They stayed that way in relative silence, aside from Twilight's crying and Spike's soothing words, for several minutes. He didn't know what else to do aside from letting her just get it out of her system.
When she finally seemed to be done, he stepped back a bit and she let him go. He looked her over for a moment and reached down to grab his apron at the bottom, lifting it to wipe the tears and icky mucus from his neck with a small 'blech'.
Twilight managed a weak little brief laugh at that. "Sorry, Spike..."
"Eh, it's fine. Scales wash pretty easy. C'mere," he muttered, stepping closer to her again and wiping her muzzle clean. "There."
She sniffled once and smiled more genuinely at him. "Thanks."
He smirked and shrugged a little. "It was nothin'!" he said while taking his apron off, balling it up and tossing it towards the laundry bin next to the door. "What was that all about?"
She slowly sat herself up, glancing once at the window and fearfully darting her gaze away. "I-I don't know," she muttered, swallowing audibly. "I really don't know!"
"It looked like a panic attack," he said, resting a hand on one of her forelegs. "You were really hyperventilating. I thought you were gonna pass out when I came in!"
She could see the concern on his face and in his eyes. It was the Spike she knew, when no one else was around. That concerned and sensitive little dragon she'd grown up with riding on her back, always there to help her and give her a second perspective on everything. The last thing she wanted to do was worry him.
She lowered her head and nuzzled the side of his head with her cheek, hooking a foreleg around him to give him a small embrace. "I-I'm fine, Spike. Really. But..." she said, biting her lip and motioning over to the window. "Can you see anything in the window? Anything wrong with it?"
He glanced to the window, back to her, then shrugged and walked over to it, hopping up and looking through it. He took a full minute to look around outside through it, Twilight's hooves curling and rubbing together nervously while she watched. She let out a quiet breath of relief when he hopped back down.
"Seems fine to me," he said, turning to her and shrugging a little. "Just the same as it's always been."
She warily walked towards the window, her head turned away from it as if looking at it would harm her in some way. It was reflexive, her intense desire to leave the room and never return. Through the window laid a corridor of bodies, and a slow oxygen-deprived death....!
When she was close enough, she looked through it again, and...nothing. Just Ponyville, her own plain, normal, non-psychotic reflection. Still, she felt like she was being watched again, but no one outside was giving her the time of day. It made sense, it was common courtesy not to look into someone's home if you're just sort of passing by.
She looked up towards the sky, and stopped. There was something right at the edge of the Everfree's treeline. Nervously glancing back down and towards the untamed forest, she spotted it once again. A little pitch-black pony, sitting on top of the forest's canopy, staring right back at her. She couldn't make out any details, but the pang of rising fear in her chest felt all too familiar the longer she stared at whatever it was.
"Hey, Twilight?"
She glanced over at him, having forgotten he was even there, then quickly looked back out of the window. It was gone, a single black hoof disappearing into a sea of green leaves. She had to know what that was.
"I-erm...I'm going out for a while, Spike. I'll be back soon, okay?" she said as she turned to trot towards the door.
"Whoa, hold on!" he said while quickly grabbing her tail and hopping onto her back. "You're just gonna head out after freaking out like that? No way!"
"But-"
"Nuh-uh!" he said while hopping down in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're still trembling, you look frazzled and you haven't even showered or anything. Since yesterday!"
She blushed and rubbed one foreleg with the other bashfully, saying nothing. She knew she hadn't showered. She just hadn't been able to get the energy up, and she hadn't felt very gross at the time, but now...eugh.
Spike stood resolute. "Look, just take some time to calm down, go take a shower and come downstairs for breakfast. Then you can head out, alright?"
She stared at him for a moment, then quirked a brow. "Since when were you my caretaker?"
He smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Since you were twelve and you accidentally broke Princess Celestia's porcelain tea kettle from Saddle Arabia. How many more of her kettles did you break trying to fix it before you curled up into a ball and had a panic attack again?"
"Well-"
"And who was the one that had to calm you down before you tried to teleport to Saddle Arabia to find a replacement with a makeshift Array you started burning into the carpeting in her room, which caused you to have a whole 'nother panic attack when you realized what you did?"
"...You win this one."
"Oh, I know. Now then," he said, smiling smugly as he turned and headed out of the room. "See you in a bit!"
She sighed and moved to head into the bathroom, her magic reaching out to get the water running. Then a thought occurred to her: she could just teleport out and he might not notice-
"And no teleporting away!" he shouted out to her from downstairs.
With a resigned sigh, she stepped into the shower and got busy.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 5 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2011-10-31T13:24:52+00:00
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2015-03-28T19:34:57+00:00
| 8,013 |
Chapter 5 - Shadows and Suspicions
written by Fire Soul
This was all wrong.
Strider quickly took a few steps back to brace against a tree as three Shadows moved towards him. They were being oddly cautious after he put down five others, and they were moving to surround him as much as possible.
The moment they were spread out enough for his tastes, he lunged for the one on his right, flared wings flapping hard to propel him towards his target. He twisted to avoid a tendril launched at him, and dug his hoofblade deep into the creature, tearing upwards and burning a large section of the Shadow away as the blade sliced through it.
He watched the Shadow roar and crumble from the flames, then directed his attention to the other two. A quick conjuration in his head brought flames to his free hoof, and he threw the ball of fire at one of them while rushing the other. One went down, the other followed with a clean cut across what probably counted as the Shadow's head.
He took a moment to take a few deep breaths to steady himself, stepping towards the lure he'd set off. The black ball of magic pulsated and let off waves of arcane energy, rich with the spirit of its creator, Princess Luna.
This was completely out-of-character for Wild Shadows. All of his previous experience said so! Shadows were slow, aimless creatures until a pony, gryphon or what-have-you gets close. Then they zone in and try to consume them and make another Shadow. They never worked together, they never formed tactics!
He braced himself as the underbrush began to rustle again, the familiar whisperings and hisses of Shadows getting louder as they all got closer. He turned to face them, only to hear more coming from behind him. His ears swiveled to track the ones behind him while he readied his weapon for the ones closest to him.
More sounds could be heard, on his right and on his left. A minor feeling of panic rushed through him when he realized that he was surrounded now, and he rapidly began to think about how he could even things out.
The answer came in a quick conjuration of a ball of fire. Instead of throwing it, he held on to it and aimed it to his right, spewing flames at the underbrush and setting the greenery and a few trees ablaze. He hoped this would be done fast enough to make dousing the flames out a small issue.
He quickly repeated the action on his left side, just in time to see six Shadows rushing towards him from his front. Another eight were coming from behind, just seconds later. A series of tendrils reached out for him, and he firmly beat his wings to one side, dodging to his left just inches from getting cut up and ensnared by one of them. A quick swing of his hoofblade deflected another one.
He took a brief instant to gauge those coming from behind him. They were moving fast, far too fast for what was normal. He had to adjust. A few more firm flaps of his wings brought him near one of the walls of fire he'd created, his free hoof quickly forming another ball of flame for him to use. He pulled more from the untamed wilderness around him. More energy, more magic, more power! The lure was too close to his targets, but he had to risk it.
Trying to put as much distance between the lure and the impending explosion, he tossed the ball in an upward arc. It landed directly behind the first six Shadows, the flames erupting outwards in an explosion that vaporized all of them...along with the lure.
"Dammit!" he barked as he ducked and dove to the side, away from a tendril aiming for his head.
He was starting to feel the strain. His body was running hot already, and small aches were welling up in his limbs from his magic use. Even though he was surrounded by a vast wealth of naturally occurring magical energies, there was always some part of the caster that went with the spell itself, and his body wasn't responding well to it.
He quickly took stock of the new batch of Shadows coming his way. Twelve more? It hadn't-oh. Right, he was using the flames to funnel the ones from the sides into one opening or the other.
A quick glance to the other 'entrance' to his semi-open area confirmed that they were out to surround him. They were being more cautious now, far as he could tell, trying to keep their distance as they circled around him more.
He readied his hoofblade and steadied himself, then lunged at the first twelve, dodging and weaving between swipes of tendrils and small dark magic bursts.
He ran on his hindlegs while using his wings to make small adjustments and quickly move around his opponents, but even then, there were too many for him to dodge around. A sharp slice across his left foreleg began to spread through his limb, his charge briefly disrupted by a Shadow he hadn't fully accounted for. Just as quickly as the burn began to course through him however, something deep inside of him canceled it out.
Two more slicing sensations prompted him to move and move quick, two more tendrils cutting across his side and his cheek, the last one having been aimed for the center of his head. He rushed into them and cut clean through two of them, then lunged for three more, hacking away until there was nothing left of them but a dissipating puddle of darkness on the ground.
He turned and readied himself again, taking a few steps back to give himself some room. He'd gauged their apparent maximum range, but they were still too unpredictable...he had to drag this out. He had to learn at least a little more.
Zecora felt the blood rushing to her head, but that failed to become a concern. This was a daily sensation for her, all a part of her meditation. A calm mind, and a calm body...balanced atop a fairly narrow wooden stick. One could only wonder how she managed the likely acrobatic feat to get herself in that position so high off of the ground, but that was her secret.
Her concentration was broken only when she felt something abnormal outside of her home. She had become so attuned to Everfree Forest, living within it all this time, feeling out the dense woods and finding so many new ingredients that one could not find back in the Zebra Nations naturally, most of the things she worked with now had to be imported for a rather high price back in her homeland, most of them being natural luxuries for their cost.
Of course, being a Druid helped in these matters, something she kept quiet about even to her friends in Ponyville. She had no doubt that she would never get another moment's peace if Twilight ever came back and discovered the kind of nature magic she could perform. Her secrets weren't meant for common pony ears.
Yet, she could feel it being used a minor distance away. She could feel the shift in the air from a large explosion, and the pain of plant life as their lives were rapidly snuffed out by an all-consuming flame.
Someone was burning her forest. With arcane magic, no less!
'A Battlecaster, perhaps? No, the concentrations of magic I've been feeling are far too weak for such a warrior,' she thought to herself while folding her body to one side quickly, flipping up off of her staff and quickly grabbing it in her hoof as she landed on her hindlegs. 'Equestrian Rune Magic then...likely a servant of the crown. I suppose whoever it is should be confronted!'
She set her staff against the wall carefully and grabbed her cloak, slipping it over herself and securing it around her neck. She could feel foreign energy in that same direction, quickly being snuffed out, and rushed out of her home.
'Regardless of their reasons, they are burning my forest!'
He lunged at the final Shadow and ducked a swipe at his head with another tendril, having adjusted to their fairly clumsy methods of attack by now. Sure, they had really far reach, but they seemed incapable of attacking with more than one tendril at a time. Lucky for him: if they'd been able to spawn even three at a time, he'd have been forced to run, and running to Ponyville with Shadows chasing him simply wasn't an option!
Before he could truly relax though, he turned his attention to the burning underbrush and trees on either side of the small field. The crackle of the flames had died down somewhat, but regardless, the destructive nature of the fire was still spreading. If he had taken much longer, it would've become uncontrollable. Sadly, it'd been a necessary risk, as far as he was concerned.
The smell of burnt wood and charred greenery filled the air, giving it a semi-sweet tinge marred by the burning sensation of the smoke itself. He sheathed his hoofblade and rushed around to the sides of the spreading flames while uttering incantations in his head, his wings spreading and lashing in strong slicing arcs that sent arcane winds through the trees and underbrush, cutting them up and blowing the flammable refuse away.
It took time and no small amount of effort on his part, but he'd managed to create a barren area around the flames so they couldn't spread any further, or at least, he hoped they wouldn't. Sometimes, wind could be fickle and unpredictable.
With the fires taken care of to the best of his current ability, he quickly took stock of his surroundings before taking the time to check his injuries. The cut he'd taken on his left foreleg didn't look so bad, he was bleeding some, but not an alarming amount.
No, the burning pain he felt in his side was far more concerning. He liked to think himself a rather hardy pony, especially compared to the lifestyle he used to lead, and he could deal with a significant amount of pain and suffering before caving, but that wound felt deeper than he was comfortable with.
Sure enough, he could tell at a glance that the cut to his side was far more serious than the other two. The attack had cleaved straight through his armor as if it were rice paper, the damage to his armor being clean and shaped almost exactly like the tendril that had struck him. Beneath the damage to his uniform, there was a significant pouring of blood, and he resisted the reflexive urge to place his hoof over the wound.
He had no potions, and even if he did, it'd been far too long already, the potion would have a minimal effect. He needed to get back to Ponyville quickly and get himself patched up, before the blood loss became serious. Survival 101: treat wounds as quickly as possible. Being caught in untamed wilderness with an untreated injury is asking for it!
He gave a cursory glance to the cut on his right hindleg, barely even noticing it compared to the other two. The cut was shallow and barely bleeding at all. If anything, it almost looked like it was starting to heal up already. He shifted his weight a bit to make sure nothing important had been hit without him noticing during his adrenal rush, then did the same for his left foreleg. They were both fine. He sighed in relief.
He evaluated the small clearing carefully, and headed in the same direction he'd come from. However, the familiar sound of hooves clopping over grass and dirt reflexively made him brace and shift into a combat stance.
He prepared himself for it being anything from a pony to some other variant of Shadow, but he was surprised to find a zebra running at him through the trees. He couldn't fully make out her face from under her hood, but the stripes all over her body were a dead give-away, along with the way she moved.
He pushed himself up onto his hindlegs and prepared to fight as she skidded to a halt mere hooflengths away from him, doing the same herself. A sharp pain made him wince in discomfort, his side throbbing in protest. He did the best he could to ignore it.
She seemed to take notice of his pain, and lowered her guard just a little, looking him over from beneath her hood. He'd definitely been in a fight. With what she wasn't entirely sure of yet, but there was a lingering feeling of wrongness about the entire area. Something that clashed with how the rest of the forest as a whole felt.
When she saw the burning trees in the background past him though, she glared back at him. "You intrude and destroy this home of mine? That is not fine."
"I...what? Wait, you're a Zebrican native?"
"What would bring you to that conclusion? You may perhaps be suffering from confusion."
He shook his head and relaxed a little, motioning to her with a hoof. "Only Zebrican Shamans speak in rhyme like that. Keeps your minds sharp if I recall, and it forces you to think ahead about the things you say to others."
She went silent for a moment or two, then nodded once, relaxing just slightly. "A sharp mind is a proud title to bear, much like the prestige behind the armor you wear."
"No arguments to the contrary there!" he said, at least a little proud of his on-the-spot rhyming. He motioned to the fires while dropping down to all fours again. "I did what I could to stop the fire from spreading. I assume you live in this forest? Not many people I can think of that'd want to do that, aside from a Zebrican. Or a Changeling."
She slitted her gaze and looked him over once more, then stepped back and dropped to all fours as well. "I cast off my shackles of tradition. Now why have you set fire to my home, Vesari?"
He fumbled with his words for a moment, the sudden shift of her speech pattern ever-so-slightly jarring, but moreso he was alarmed by the fact that she realized he was a Vesari. He quickly shook his head and forced a smile.
"I'm sorry, I think you're mistaken. I'm just a Moori, a Night Guard! Royal Messenger, to be specific."
"Then what are you doing in this forest? Setting fire to it? You were sent here to investigate something important, and you got into a fight, judging by those wounds. Such a task does not suit a Royal Messenger."
He looked down to his left foreleg, then shrugged. "Eh, just a territorial manticore-"
"I sense no manticore within half a mile of this clearing, and I feel a foreign magical energy lingering here. Negative, offensive to my senses. You are lying," she said, stepping closer to him and pulling her hood down, looking him in the eyes sternly. "And you are trying to avoid explaining why a Royal Messenger is conducting an investigation within the Everfree. Alone, and a mere Moori, or so you say," she stated, leaning in towards him more. "Try again. Unless you expect me to believe a mere Moori pegasus could take on a manticore on his own?"
"My training is quite extensive, you know." he muttered, but he was well aware this mare saw right through him. Any normal individual might actually buy 'manticore attack', but she'd gotten a sense of the forest. He was fairly sure it'd be impossible to really hide what happened. "...Have you seen anything odd in the forest, lately?"
"You are evading my question again."
"I can't give you any details! You think I'd do this because it's fun? I'm here on orders! I've already royally screwed up just by letting myself be seen by you! If it were any other place like Canterlot, I'd have knocked you out and taken you to an associate to have your memory of the last few hours wiped." he stated firmly, wincing a little as the pain in his side flared up.
She leaned to his bad side and took a look at the wound there, shaking her head. "That seems serious. Come with me," she said, turning and motioning for him to follow. "I can treat you at my tree hut. Then, you can explain yourself. If you try to do as you said, not that it would work," she stated simply, pulling her hood back up. "I will kill you."
He had started to walk along with her, but he froze in place for a moment at that. Her body language was...strange. Normally ponies gave off signs, subtle signs of muscle tension when threatening someone's life. A peaceful lifestyle made it difficult for one to threaten to take the life of another without having at least some subconscious reservations. It repulsed the modern Equestrian.
She had no such reservations, as far as he could tell. Either that, or she was a very, very good actor. He sensed no fear from her either however, so he didn't much want to press his luck. Something about her casual confidence in herself intimidated him, like there was something just under the surface that he couldn't make out.
"Alright," he said finally, the pain in his side flaring up with every step, forcing him to limp a little with his left hindleg. "Do you happen to know what time it is?"
As they walked away, a single Shadow behind a tree watched them closely, a wide smile appearing on a near-featureless visage. It waited until they'd both completely left the area, then began calling more Shadows to itself in silence, all of them swarming over it and giving it further shape, becoming one with it.
Soon, a tall alicorn-sized Shadow stood among the dense foliage, its entire body writhing and molding itself into the shape of a pony proper, shrinking and compacting itself until it was only the size of a little filly. Its fur was black as the night, draconic eyes shining with a sense of mischief tempered by a kind of curiosity only a child could display.
"What a pair of interesting ponies!"
Almost noon. She couldn't believe Spike had managed to delay her for that long! Well, okay, that wasn't really accurate. It was more like going two days without a shower had kind of made her forget just how relaxing a shower could be, and she'd lingered a little too long. She couldn't help but be a bit embarrassed by that; taking forever in the tub was Spike's thing!
Not that she really faulted him for it or anything. She remembered how long it used to take her to clean under his scales when he was a baby, that was one of the first things she'd taught him how to do so she didn't have to spend hours scrubbing away! Dragons don't sweat because they have scales, PSH! They just sweat under the scales!
Ugh, she was getting distracted. Upset too, couldn't forget upset, and over nothing at that! She had to remember to keep her guard up within the Everfree Forest, something that should've come as naturally as breathing to her by now with her visits to Zecora long before staying at Canterlot for a year, but her mind felt so dulled and lazy....
Strange sounds could be heard all around her, but she paid them no mind. She remembered Zecora's advice, that as long as she remained wary and on the path, she would be unlikely to run into trouble. Unlikely, but not impossible...which was where the 'wary' part came in.
Guh, she was really scatterbrained right now. She was thinking in circles!
Who could blame her though? Not like she didn't just have some sort of fever dream...nightmare...THING! She wasn't even sure of what to call it anymore. It had felt so real....
She paused as a deep sense of fear sent chills through her body, from the tip of her tail to the tip of her horn. She let out a quivering breath and kept on going down the path, ignoring the feeling that she was being watched after a quick look around herself.
The constant aches and pains didn't help any, either. She felt so worn-down all the time without having to do anything, she could've sworn that her body was just taunting her alongside all of her other issues. She couldn't down aspirin like candy every day, so as far as she was aware, she just had to deal with it.
With her mind going every which-way, it seemed to take a lot less time than usual to reach Zecora's hut. Strange, she didn't think she was walking that fast.
"Maybe I should be scatter-brained more often....!" she muttered to herself, peering through the front window as she approached.
She was surprised to see someone else inside of the hut, looking directly at her through the window for the briefest of moments. She spotted Zecora rummaging through something at the end of her bed, and lightly knocked on the front door to get her attention.
The zebra stood up and glanced over to the stallion for a moment as he tried to get up, muttering something to him while waving a hoof at him before walking towards the door. When it opened, Zecora seemed wary for just a moment until she realized who it was. Her face lit up with a delighted smile and she stepped aside.
"Twilight Sparkle, so nice to see! Please, join us within my tree."
She didn't hesitate, especially since she didn't recognize the stallion sitting on a small stool next to Zecora's alchemy table. She saw his limbs wrapped in bloodied bandages, a welling concern pushing her curiosity aside.
"Oh, wow, are you alright?"
Before he could answer, Zecora spoke up for him. "He is fine, fine as can be! He stumbled across an irate manticore you see."
Twilight quickly looked him over, and winced at the patch of blood soaking the bandage on his side. "That looks really bad. Then again, most guards can't take on a manticore alone without a weapon. Even then it's pretty dangerous, or so my brother says."
He chuckled a little and shrugged. "Well, I was just fast, is all. Plus, hoofblades are a standard part of the uniform."
"Fortunate he was, that I was near," Zecora said, closing the door and walking over towards him, sliding an empty bottle off the table and into her hoof. "Despite his injuries, he showed no fear."
"Should've seen 'er!" he said, motioning to Zecora with a small grin. "Loud flashy sounds and some loud alchemical explosions, and suddenly the manticore's running scared!"
Zecora eyed him with her back turned to Twilight, just glancing at him sharply out of the corner of her eye, before turning to walk to her cauldron to fill the bottle with the mixture she'd been cooking up.
She didn't like lying to her friends like this, but she'd become accustomed to it. Clearly, so had this stallion, judging by how smoothly the lies rolled off his tongue. He made it that much easier for her.
"Indeed, simple methods can bring them down, all to save a Royal Messenger, scouting for the crown."
Twilight tilted her head a little at that. "A Royal Messenger in the Everfree? That's strange."
"Hah! That's what she said," Strider muttered, nodding in Zecora's direction as the zebra returned to place the bottle down next to him on her alchemy table. "But, yeah, it's kinda strange. I'm one of the faster fliers, Royal Messenger and whatnot, so Princess Luna asked me to do this since some other scouts have reported strange sightings out here."
That caught Twilight's attention, the lavender mare perking up a little. "Strange sightings? Like what?"
He hummed a little in thought, looking her over closely before recognition dawned in his eyes. "You're Princess Celestia's student, right? I suppose I can talk about it with you. Not like Zecora isn't already aware."
"Indeed, it's difficult to go on a gathering spree with dangerous Shadows stalking the Everfree," Zecora said, taking a seat at her dining table, closer to the entrance of her hut. "Please, come join me, my lavender friend! It's been far too long; our friendship is on the mend!"
She had to admit, it'd been a long time since she'd really spent time talking with Zecora, so at first her friend's rhyming confused her. It took just a moment longer than usual for her words to register, but when they did, she happily took a seat across from her zebra friend.
"Sooo...strange creatures? Shadows? What do they look like?"
"Well, they usually look a little like ponies," he tried to explain, silently endeavoring to give as few intimate details as possible. "But they're pony-sized black blobs, pitch-black in color, with beady white eyes. They tend to mindlessly go after people once they've been spotted, and try to engulf their prey with their own bodies to consume them. Kind of like acidic slimes."
"Wait, they're native to Equestria?"
"Well, no. Sometimes they get gryphons, minotaurs and zebras too, really they can crop up just about anywhere. For some reason though, they tend to stay away from more populated areas. They usually flock to less tame environments, like the Everfree Forest. You know, places where nature isn't regulated."
She pondered on that for a moment. "I've...nngh," she tried to say, only to try to work a dull ache out of her neck. "I've never heard of them before."
Zecora took a quick note of her friend's pain, and walked over to her table to grab a single small vial, and a larger potion bottle, working to ladle some of the brewed painkilling potion into both of them.
He shrugged a little and stood up from his seat, grabbing one of the pieces of armor he'd set on the floor beside where he'd been sitting so he could get to work fastening the armor to his foreleg. "That's not surprising. I mean, you're not really a monster hunter or a member of the Royal Guard, so you've probably never had much of a reason to learn about Chaos Spawn-class monsters or beasts."
Twilight moved to take a seat at Zecora's dining table, hmph'ing. "Are you questioning my scholarly pursuits?" she asked, looking over his armor for a moment before glancing back up at him. "I'll have you know I've managed to read more than three-fourths of the books in the castle's library!"
"Heh!" he chuckled, working another legging onto his other foreleg, before sitting down again and slipping the leggings onto his hindlegs next. "My point still stands. You didn't know what a Shadow was."
"I could've found out...." she muttered, rolling her eyes.
He stood up and started working on getting the rest of his armor on, frowning a little. "Hey, didn't mean to offend. Was just saying, is all," he muttered, slipping his helmet on, then working to try to get the main sections of his armor on. "Anyways, I'm here visiting Rainbow Dash, and I'm running a little late as it is, I think. I need to be heading back."
Twilight nodded a little, watching as he struggled a bit with his equipment. "In your condition? You sure that's a good idea?"
Her horn lit up and her magic took hold of his armor when reaching for a particular strap made him wince and hover a hoof over the wound on his side, his conscious knowledge of the rather open state of his injury conflicting with the instinctual desire to hold it in a primal attempt of checking and covering the gash up. He seemed confused for a moment before standing up again and standing up straight, waiting until she was done to relax and test the straps out.
"Well...thank you, Lady Sparkle! Didn't know you knew the intricacies of guard armor."
"My brother taught me how, and I helped him put his armor on back when he was just a recruit. Your armor's not all that different," she said, waving it off. "Like I said though, you're sure heading back alone is a good idea?"
Zecora walked over to her dining table and sat across from Twilight while he headed for the door. "A staunching salve to block bleeding pain will get him to Ponyville, right as rain."
He gave a quick nod to both of them. "Thank you for the assistance, miss Zecora. Lady Sparkle, it was nice meeting you! I should get going so I can get fixed up."
"Does Rainbow know you're out here?" Twilight asked suddenly, eyeing him closely. Something about him was off....
He froze for a moment, then shook his head quickly. "No, and I'd rather keep it that way, but I suppose she'll notice the bandages...oh well."
She leaned against the table with her weight resting on one foreleg. "Why wouldn't you want her to know?"
"Well, I just don't want to worry her, is all! You wouldn't want to worry your friends over nothing either, right?"
"I'd hardly call manticore injuries 'nothing'."
"I suppose, but to some soldiers it just comes with the job. It's not much of anything to me, not very different from gryphon claws, though the wounds tend to strike deeper when they land."
She narrowed her eyes for a moment, then shrugged it off. "I suppose. I'm sorry, I never asked your name? That was rude of me."
He turned more to face her and waved it off. "No worries! Name's Wind Strider. As I said before, very nice to meet you, Lady Sparkle! I hope to see you in Ponyville."
He blinked as Zecora stepped up next to him, holding out a bag containing the potion bottle she'd filled. She pulled the drawstring around the opening of it to close it up, then tied it around one of the straps on the side of his armor.
"Take this potion once every night, so your body will rest despite the manticore's slight."
He smiled a little at that and patted the potion resting against his side once, then left with a quiet click of the door sliding shut.
Zecora seemed to visibly relax now that he was gone, the mature zebra walking over to her seat again and slipping onto it. She glanced to Twilight, then smiled wide, motioning over to her friend. "Now that we have time, let us make this reunion sublime!"
Twilight, however, seemed lost in thought, her gaze locked on the door. If there was one thing Twilight was always bad at, it was hiding her emotions, and she was visibly getting more and more irritated. Eventually she stood up from her seat and paced a little back and forth, much to Zecora's mix of amusement and concern.
"What troubles you, my lavender friend? Tell me what has caused this pacing trend."
She was silent for a moment longer, then thrusted her hoof towards the door. "Why would he lie?"
"Hm?"
"He's lying about why he was here. Or maybe his job, I'm not sure!"
Zecora motioned for her to continue, her hoof idly rolling the small vial she had back and forth under her hoof.
"See, that armor he was wearing, it was way too heavy to be the armor of a Royal Messenger. Messenger armor's thinner and made of a much lighter and more expensive alloy that allows more high-end enchantments to make long-distance flight more streamlined," she explained, walking back over to the table and taking a seat once again. "That armor was thick-plated, like guard armor. It was meant to be taken into a fight, but not by someone that needs to maintain long periods of flight."
Zecora simply nodded to her again, smiling a little more. She was glad Twilight was piecing this together herself. She didn't like keeping potentially important secrets.
Twilight was on a roll now, her mind rapidly running through everything he'd previously said to her, that analytical nature of hers picking every little statement apart as much as possible. It didn't take her long.
"He seems a bit too muscled all over to be a messenger as well. Generally, messengers only train their wings while leaving their bodies lean and smaller than the average member of the guard. They become more streamlined than that. Not to mention I'm shocked that he got caught off-guard by a manticore and only came out of it with minimal injuries...no, he has to be lying!"
Zecora was almost grinning when Twilight finally looked in her direction again. She placed a forehoof on her own forehead, then smoothly ran it down her snout to her lips, breathing out softly onto it before making a motion as if tossing something gently aside.
Twilight recognized that gesture from many visits in the past. It was a simple motion, symbolic of casting off her verbal restrictions, her cultural requirements for her method of speech. It was only done for situations of great importance, where clear communication is paramount, or in the presence of close friends that you wish to relax with.
"Quite perceptive, though I don't think you would notice such things unless you were looking for discrepancies, for some reason," she said, then bowed her head. "I must apologize, but I knew the entire time that he was lying. I am, however, sure he could lie far better if he were not caught by surprise," she said, giggling quietly. "When I came across him, he tried that manticore lie on me as well. Needless to say, I saw right through it."
"Oh...well, why didn't you say anything?" she asked, brow furrowing in irritation.
"Because fortunately for him, I have great respect for the Princesses," she said, sighing a little. "And I am fairly certain he was being truthful when he said that his orders came from one of them directly."
"He said that?"
"Not exactly, but it is a fair assumption. One does not refuse to give details due to 'secrets of the crown' without saying far more than you intend," she mused. "But I believe he encountered something else besides a manticore. Likely many somethings."
She thought on that for a moment, before something occurred to her. "You mean those Shadows he mentioned, right?"
The zebra nodded once quickly, standing up to retrieve a couple polished wooden cups and a sealed bottle of water, uncorking it and pouring them both something to drink. "His injuries were likely due to their supposed 'odd behavior'. I have encountered them before, and I have never seen Shadows attack in a way that could leave such strange, clean cuts."
"So I was right then....I hate it when ponies lie to me like that! I'm Princess Celestia's student, why wouldn't anyone trust me with royal business?!" she half-shouted, banging a hoof on the table.
Zecora jolted a little at that, then looked to Twilight oddly. "You seem quite tense, my friend. Not just because of him. I saw you wince in pain when you rolled your neck. Here," she said, rolling the small vial over to Twilight while getting up from her seat. "A painkilling potion, in a smaller dose. It should take care of the problem."
She got up from her seat and went to retrieve her kettle and a few tea leaves, working to stuff them into a tea ball Twilight had given her a while back. "Now, just a small swig should do, so-"
She turned around just in time to see Twilight finish downing the entire vial. Her mouth hung open in surprise, while Twilight simply sat there, frozen as her eyes met Zecora's. She almost instantly knew she'd messed up, if Zecora's expression was any indication.
"Oh dear," Zecora muttered, walking over as Twilight nervously set the vial down. "You should perhaps lay down. Things, for you, are about to get profound!"
Twilight rolled her forehooves over each other anxiously. "I-I'll be okay, right?!"
"Very much so! You're about to be high as a little filly's kite, is all."
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 6 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2011-11-07T06:48:57+00:00
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2015-03-28T19:40:42+00:00
| 7,406 |
Chapter 6 - Gathering
written by Fire Soul
Pinkie Pie quickly shuffled and adjusted various baked goods currently on sale on the display cases of Sugarcube Corner, her hyperactive tendencies letting her shift from being inside of the store baking, to being outside selling some of her party favors to ponies that needed things like balloons and streamers and what-have-you. Contrary to popular belief, she was not the only party pony in Ponyville, she didn't throw all of the parties in her town. She was the party pony everypony came to to get all of their stuff for their parties though, so she knew just about everypony in Ponyville, ever since she had moved there.
She was busy with another project as well, however. A picnic basket was being filled here and there as time passed over the course of the morning, her working to fill it with various types of cupcakes of all different flavors, a few pies of the same variety....she was going for 'the works' with this outing! The whole time, she was humming a tune to herself, the song seeming to work with some unknown rhythm, multiple higher tempos in the song coinciding with one of the baking ovens dinging and letting her know that whatever was baking at the moment was done. However, she seemed to know when they were going to be done before they dinged, most likely because of that little tune of hers.
"Ooh, this is going to be so neato! Rainbow Dash is going to be so excited and so is Mister Mysterious-Pony-I-Haven't-Met-Yet-Except-For-When-He-Came-Into-The-Store." she said, grinning happily to herself as 11:30am rolled around, right on the time she had set all of her work for.
She began to get ready for the end of her morning shift, only having a part-time shift today. But then, after packing the last batch of blueberry cupcakes and closing the picnic basket's top, she gasped loudly. "Oh no! I forgot about all the drinks! Hmm...." she said, seeming to really sweat it while her gaze went this way and that, her zipping all around the inside of Sugarcube Corner, as if looking for something.
When she found the other picnic basket she owned, she grabbed it and began overpacking it with all sorts of drinks, from some of the most popular brands of soda to Fluttershy's favorite juiceboxes to sip from. Of course, she couldn't forget AJ's favorite cider and Rarity's iced tea. She and Twilight both seemed to love soda though, so she held off on packing any bottled water.
"Alright....invitations?" she said to herself, grabbing the edge of her Basket Hat and tossing it atop her head. "Check!" she said, shaking her head this way and that so she could hear the envelopes rustling against one another.
She tossed one of her picnic baskets onto her back, half of it resting atop her haunches so that it was less likely to fall off, her having plenty of practice carrying things on her back when she wasn't carrying something small enough to fit in her packs. She'd made plenty of plus-sized deliveries on her own, she certainly had the strength and the energy to manage that the majority of the day. Still, she wanted to make the most of her half-day off, and she had a new pony friend for all of her friends to meet up with! He was special to Rainbow Dash too, so that made introducing him to everypony properly even more important.
"Wait....what does he like to drink? Hmm...." she hummed to herself noisily, her tongue sticking out of her closed lips while she pushed on her chin and rubbed at it in thought, face scrunching up in a comedic fashion.
Eventually Pinkie just shrugged it off. "I'm sure he likes one of the drinks I'm bringing with me! Right Gummy?" she asked, turning towards the green party gator standing halfway up and down the staircase leading to the second floor of Sugarcube Corner, which acted as Pinkie Pie's apartment alongside the Cakes.
Gummy's blank, large eyes were all that greeted her, but she knew better. She knew that behind that placid facade, Gummy was one of the smartest little alligators around! She rushed over and picked up Gummy, sitting the adorable toothless alligator atop her poofy-maned head and waiting for the Cakes to take over for her. As soon as they did, she marked down her clock-out time on their schedule sheet clipboard behind the counter and rushed out the door, grinning from ear to ear.
"Be back later tonight Mr. And Mrs. Caaaake!" she called out as she took off.
Rarity's day was turning out to be the same as any other, her horn aglow as she worked all manner of sewing tools, her attention divided as it always was. Most ponies, their work suffered doing such a thing, but not Rarity. No, Rarity thrived in the face of such adverse conditions, seeming to work faster and with even further delight the more she added to her workload.
At least, that was how it usually seemed to be, as long as she was the one in charge of her workload. Lately, the orders had been coming in non-stop, and it was driving her up a wall. She was rushing left and right, in and out, up and down throughout her boutique.
'Oh, the gold silk, why is it always the gold silk?!'
Her horn lit up constantly while various things were pulled off of shelves, even a hoof-sized thimble, a reminder of how she used to do her earliest works without her magic, before she wound up going to school specifically to train and specialize in telekinetic magic spells. Her crowning achievement that sealed her success at the end of her years in those classes was levitating her entire class with minor effort on her part.
That brief second of reminiscing was tossed aside by the fashionista in favor of making an even bigger mess by throwing most of the other materials off of the shelf until she found the large rolled-up sheets of emergency gold silk. Those rolls were from a high-class store in Canterlot, and they both felt and looked magnificent, very shiny, almost as if they were glowing, and that was enough for Rarity to be content with what she had to use to get the job done.
She almost felt capable of getting lost in her work, if not for the whiny, snooty, thoroughly aggravating voice of a spoiled brat of a young filly nearby, watching and scrutinizing every aspect of Rarity's work.
"No! I said I wanted diamonds as the buttons down the front! Not the back!" Diamond Tiara shouted. "What kind of designer are you? Geez, my personal designer back in Canterlot does better than you, no wonder you can't afford employees, you must be poor because you suck at this stuff!"
Rarity gritted her teeth inside of her closed mouth, eyeing the young girl's Father, who was just sitting off to the side writing some things down onto a scroll, the back of the sheet letting her know that he was writing her total payment for services rendered before she was even finished! She would have none of that, she'd been burned by such things before.
She gently set her silks and sewing needles aside for the moment, trotting over to him and clearing her thoughts, she knew she was on edge from Diamond Tiara's horrid, incessant rambling, bitching and whining about the specifics of her dress, so she needed to calm down.
"Excuse me sir, but I would ask that you only write out a payment for your daughter's dress once I'm finished with it completely," she said, putting on her best smile for the rich pony. "We have not even discussed the final price yet, since your daughter is not done choosing the materials she wishes to use."
He seemed unimpressed with Rarity's rather professional approach to this job, only stopping his rapid scribbling of the equivalent to a check to give her a look of what could only be described as disdain.
"Now miss Rarity, I am a busy pony and I have plenty of things to deal with today. I'm sure that if I pay you now, you will simply finish the dress to my daughter's specifications, yes?" he asked, not bothering to give Rarity a chance to answer, almost stuffing the paper in her open mouth to stop her from speaking.
Rarity blinked at the rather rude shove of the paper with so....so many zeroes written onto it. Oh, so many zeroes. She wouldn't normally be dissuaded, and even now the money didn't faze her thought process, but she also knew that there was no reasoning with a ridiculously rich pony like him. He was one of those customers, she knew the type, believing throwing around massive pouches full of bits can buy anything, including her dignity.
She sighed and accepted the paper from him for now, levitating it with her horn and sending it into the back room, where she'd deal with it. "Yes, of course sir....though, I wish to speak with you tomorrow about the cost, if we manage to finish the dress by tomorrow."
He let out an exasperated sigh and nodded to her. "Very well, miss Rarity! Tomorrow then." he said, turning to leave.
"Wait, Daddy! Where are you going?!" Diamond Tiara called out to him, the distress on her features transferring into an anxious shuffling of her hooves on the floor.
The expression on Diamond's face put a dark smile on Rarity's. With all of the grief the little filly had given her for the past three hours or so, she deserved to suffer a little in return!
"W-we haven't finished the work on my dress today! Aren't you-"
He held up a hoof and spoke up loudly and clearly. ""Honey, I paid for the rest of the work on the dress, now I have to get back to work! You know how busy I am."
The sudden, shrill whine that filled the boutique made her magic twitch violently, the needle lacing through a section that it wasn't meant to go through on the dress. She quickly undid the string on the end of the needle and pulled it back out very carefully, looking between the filly and her Father out of the corner of her eye. She knew where this was going.
"But Daaaaaadddddyyyyyyyyy~!!! WHY?! You always have to work when I want to spend time with you!" she whined with a half-screaming volume, stomping her hooves, forelegs and hindlegs in a shuffling motion from left to right to emphasize how upset she really was, a proper tantrum for a spoiled brat like her.
There it was...now Rarity just felt bad. It wasn't in her nature to wish such family squabbles upon any foal, even one as terribly ulcer-inducing as Diamond Tiara had proven to be thus far, and on top of that their back-and-forth in her boutique was making her start to feel a bit awkward. She shouldn't be seeing this, heck she shouldn't be hearing this, but then a spoiled brat and a Father who raised a self-centered young filly like her, well....she couldn't think it feasible to expect either of them to think too far beyond the fraction of the world that actually did revolve around them.
"I'm sorry honey, but I really do have to go. Do enjoy making your new dress, okay?" he stated dismissively, pulling a pocket watch from his vest and checking the time.
With that, and some ignored protests from Diamond Tiara, he stepped outside of the boutique and left Diamond Tiara behind with Rarity....which upset Rarity on the inside, to some extent. She didn't like the thought of having to deal with Diamond Tiara on her own.
Celestia must have felt pity for her today, thankfully, because no sooner had Tiara started to snap had her friend Silver Spoon came into the boutique. "Hey DT, your Dad just left. Where's he going?"
Silver clearly didn't notice the reddening of Diamond's face, or the angry stomps of her hooves. When the sudden furious shout rang out through the boutique, Silver Spoon jumped back in surprise.
"Th-that...old moron!" she growled out, gritting her teeth in frustration.
Rarity didn't much approve of it. "Young lady, I must ask you to not speak of your Father like that! You should be thankful for everything he does for you."
If looks could melt your face, Rarity's would surely be puddling on the floor right now, judging by how furious DT's glare was. She recoiled slightly at the genuine hurt in the young filly's eyes, a pang in her chest making her stay silent.
"Shut up, you old lady!" she snapped at Rarity, stamping her left forehoof against the floor. "The only reason I wanted a new dress is because Daddy said he would come with and help me design it! I don't know why I believed him...." she said, her voice becoming meek, pained and sad.
There was silence from her for a brief moment, and Rarity was prepared to speak up, but much to her surprise Diamond Tiara seemed to recover very suddenly. She knew a mask when she saw it though.
"Come on, Silver Spoon!" she said, walking past her friend. "Let's get out of this blank-flank lame-o hangout. I don't want to be here when those boring Cutie Mark Crusaders come back and try to pity me for having such an unattentive Daddy!" she said in a thoroughly mocking tone towards the end of her sentence.
Silver paused for a moment in confusion before quickly turning and catching up to her friend. They both turned towards each other, giving their customary hoof-shake and 'catch-phrase' to one another. "Bump! Bump! Sugar lump rump!" Rarity heard them both say, before giggling incessantly and heading for the door.
Rarity quickly raised a hoof as they began to leave, despite neither of them even looking in her direction. "W-wait, young filly! What about your dress?"
Diamond scoffed and shot her a baleful look from over her shoulder. "Oh, just....put something together that will fit me, I don't care," she said, her features softening into a full-face frown for a brief second. "Daddy won't pay any attention to it anyways...." she muttered, opening the door and heading outside.
Rarity scowled and ran a hoof over the front of her face. "Customers are always right Rarity, you are a proper lady, you do not want to make a plushie of Diamond Tiara just so you can set it on fire and then drown it in the nearest lake....!"
She wanted to believe she was telling herself the truth, but...then she remembered some of the things that the young filly had said. She couldn't bring herself to be mad at her, whenever she recalled those depressing words. If she was being honest, she felt bad for Diamond Tiara; feeling ignored, whether you were actually being ignored or not, could really mess up a child.
Rarity took a short break, getting herself a glass of water in the kitchen while trying to decide on what to do with the check Mr. Rich had given her. She picked it up in her magic and looked it over more closely, her eyes bugging out a little as she carefully counted exactly how many zeroes were written down. She sighed and placed it into a small box she used to keep track of all of her payment papers, kind of like a makeshift filing cabinet.
"Ooohh, what should I do with this job, Opal....?" she muttered, looking to her cat for some kind of response. All she got was the sight of her pretty kitty licking her paw. "Hmph, you could at least pretend to give a buck."
She glanced over to the ponnequin currently holding Diamond Tiara's dress, unsure of what to do with it. She had been given free rein on what to do to it, so...hrm.
She blinked as something from earlier just registered in her mind. "Wait....did those two say that they have....sugary-sweet rumps? My goodness, what are their parents teaching them?" she pondered, thinking back to Diamond's source of frustration. "Or...not teaching them, perhaps."
"Raaaarity?? Are you in here?"
She'd recognize that voice anywhere, and she quickly peeked her head in from the kitchen to stop the rambunctious mare from hunting all through the boutique for her. Who knew how badly Pinkie might mess everything up?!
"Well, hello there, Pinkie Pie! What can I...uh, why are you wearing your invitation hat again?" she asked, walking over towards her friend while setting her water aside.
Pinkie Pie just giggled and turned sideways, letting Rarity get a look at the picnic baskets that were mounted on her back, or at least, one of them. The other one was in Pinkie's mouth, and as a mockery of all laws of physics, refused to cough up all of the treats it had hidden away as Pinkie bounced up and down in her endless excitement.
"Well, there's a new pony in town, and he's a friend of Rainbow Dash's but we're not supposed to know about that yet! So I'm throwing a Close Friends of Rainbow Dash Only party at Starlight Hill, outside of Sweet Apple Acres for all of us. You wanna come?" she asked, utterly unfazed by the alligator crawling out of her 'hat' and sliding down over her snout, giving Rarity that endless stare he was so well-known for.
Rarity looked ecstatic, but for all the wrong reasons. "A secret friend of Rainbow Dash's? Now THAT sounds scandalous....count me in!" she said in an all-too-giddy tone, rushing upstairs to look through her dresses for one that would suit the occasion.
It took her very little time to get her things, close the boutique and get going with Pinkie Pie. She needed a break from the crud she'd been taking all day!
Time had become a remarkable thing to Twilight, in the past hour or however long it'd been. It was always just ticking by, and yet, if they didn't age time would just be an illusion...whoa. Was that why Celestia never seemed to court with anyone? Because she existed outside of the concept of time, thus they were beneath her in that regard? She had to tell someone about her crazy revelation!
"Hey, Zecora...did I ever tell you that you look reeeeaaally nifty? All stripe-y and mohawk-y...."
Or not. Now Zecora was the remarkable thing caught in her sights. Well, until her gaze wandered towards the wall across the room, her eyes suddenly locked with the empty eye-holes of a tribal mask.
"I'll bet that took you a really long time to make," she muttered, her hoof waving lazily in the direction of the mask. "S' a lotta' work ta do by hoof!"
Zecora had to practice a whole lot of self-restraint to stop herself from laughing, making this one of the longer hours of her life. She continued to stir her cauldron, the bubbling contents going from yellow to white to clear as she continued to add and mix ingredients together. She had to be careful with the taste-testing, for fear of over-estimating or under-estimating the potency of the potion, and if she under-estimated...well, she'd probably be rolling around on the floor talking with Twilight about all the pretty colors or something.
"Zecoraaaa~...why aren't you talking to me?" Twilight whined out with a small pout, which was quickly followed by an odd giggle-snort. "I sound like a brat." She tried to put a hoof over her mouth, but it did little to silence her endless amusement with that statement.
Zecora sighed and smiled a little, it was admittedly funny, but goading her into talking more could wind up causing some very funny and potentially troublesome shenanigans on Twilight's part. She filled up several vials that acted as a detox medication for an overdose of the painkiller medicine she'd given Twilight, approaching her with it.
"This potion, you must drink. Otherwise, I'll raise quite a stink!" she said while helping Twilight to sit up on the edge of her bed.
Twilight found something amusing about what Zecora said. "Heh, stink..." she muttered, reaching out and booping Zecora's nose. "Stinky!"
The zebra snorted in amusement and pushed her hoof away, holding the vial out to her. "Just drink the potion, you silly mare."
"Yeah, I gotta drink this or you'll get all stinky," she mumbled, taking the vial and looking it over for a moment before shrugging. "We don't want that, bottoms up!"
She threw her head back while pursing her lips around the opening of the vial, quaffing the entirety of the potion and setting the empty container aside, licking her lips at the flavor.
"Huh. Tastes like-"
That was as far as she got before the world went hazy and a sudden sharp pain rocketed through her skull. It made her vision blur and her head spin like a carnival ride, and she could vaguely feel Zecora's hooves grabbing hold of her withers to keep her steady.
"OH!! Oh, sweet Mother of Celestia, h'OH wow!" she shouted, her eyes wide as colors danced in the corners of her vision and pain coursed through her head with every beat of her heart.
"A painkiller overdose is no small issue. It had to be resolved quickly, for your safety." she explained simply enough, continuing to hold Twilight straight while she recovered.
Twilight winced and held a hoof to both sides of her head, sitting up in the bed. "Feels like someone tap-danced on my skull...."
"I have no doubt. That potion was specifically designed to detoxify a person's body of the painkiller I gave you. It can be very unpleasant when dealing with overdoses, but it's effective!"
She could feel the soreness returning, slowly but surely, and she rolled her withers to help alleviate and adjust to it at least a little. "I guess so. Thanks...wait," she said, glancing out of one of the windows. "How long have I been here?"
"For a few hours, you have stayed here. You are late to make your way home, I fear," she said, chuckling a little and motioning to her door. "Your pack, it has been set aside."
Twilight got up from the bed quickly once Zecora let her go, but she had to sit back down for a moment as her head spun from the rush of blood. A thought came to her when she felt the soreness flare up, and she looked to her friend curiously.
"Do you think you could maybe fill some smaller vials with that painkilling potion? I'm pretty sure I've learned my lesson after this."
Zecora looked her friend over once with a guarded smile. "I do not wish to be vindictive, but this potion can be quite addictive," she said, looking Twilight in the eyes for a moment longer before relenting. "But if you truly wish to take that risk, I will make them to give your body a fix."
She smiled and bowed her head to Zecora, heading towards the door. "Thanks Zecora, I really appreciate it!"
She watched Twilight go with a vague feeling of apprehension. She glanced over to the vials and bottles she'd filled with what had been left over of her previous batch of the painkiller, unsure if she should keep her word on this matter...but eventually, after re-evaluating her faith in Twilight's willpower, she picked up some empty vials and went to work measuring out and filling them with a standard dose.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 7 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
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<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2011-11-14T15:18:57+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:04:40+00:00
| 7,329 |
Chapter 7 - Gathering
written by Fire Soul
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were up to their usual shenanigans from the break of dawn, most of the town marketplace still startled by the loud crash in the middle of it. An error in judgment had resulted in Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who were riding in the red cart attached to the back of Scootaloo's namesake vehicle, to go vaulting head-first over Scootaloo, who only faceplanted into the side of a market stall. Both Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle managed to land in a heap on Applejack's unattended stall. They both groaned while Scootaloo stumbled over towards them, all three of them dazed and incoherent as Apple Bloom took a step forward off of the top of the stall and fell limply atop of Scoot, making them both grunt and fall over each other. Apple Bloom's grunt was muffled though, an apple partially bitten into when she first landed, wedged into her mouth and blocking anything she tried to say.
"Oh wow....Scootaloo, did you hit a box of TNT or something....?" Sweetie Belle whimpered out, reaching up and rubbing her nose, a sharp pain running through her snout when she gave it a little testing poke. Yup, she came pretty close to breaking it, if she didn't actually already do it. "Oooww....!" she whimpered out, her teeth clenching and brow furrowing while a hissing breath was drawn in through those pearly whites. Suddenly, she noticed a light snickering coming from Scootaloo....and she was visibly infuriated. "What's so funny?! I think my nose is broken!" she half-shouted at her small-winged friend.
Scootaloo just kept laughing, eventually opening her mouth wide in a somewhat raucous laughter that had Sweetie Belle's cheeks lighting up in embarrassment. It didn't help that Apple Bloom was laughing as well, though muffled still by that apple wedged in her mouth. "No no Sweets, it's not tha-hah!-that....!" she said, her eyes clenching shut after she finished speaking, mouth pressing closed firmly to try to stifle herself, but Scootaloo much like her idol Rainbow Dash, lacked the willpower to control herself in the presence of something so funny. "You-you've got a safety apple on your horn!" she said slightly louder than last she spoke, finally breaking down alongside Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle's eyes widened and she reached up to touch her hoof to her horn, finding something wet coating it. That was when she started to notice the coldness surrounding a good majority of its length, and then some of the juice dripped down in front of her eyes. "Eeeww! Hey, that's not funny, Scoot!" she snarled at her friend, her horn glowing and slowly easing the apple off of itself, the speared fruit plopping down onto the cobblestone road messily. Sweetie looked over to Apple Bloom after that and giggled some herself, wincing slightly as the slight shaking of the laugh made the pain in her snout flare up. "Nnf....! M-maybe we should help Apple Bloom out, Scootaloo."
Sweetie Belle's predicament had been pretty funny, but Apple Bloom's situation was downright hilarious! That apple had wedged itself in so perfectly that she couldn't open her mouth up far enough to pull it out, and it was far enough in that she couldn't get her hooves on it well enough to tug it out. Apple Bloom mrph'ed and grunted muffledly, eventually sitting down and grunting in frustration, her glaring at Sweetie Belle when she started to laugh. She could only blush and lower her head when Scootaloo started laughing anew at the sight of her as well, Apple Bloom just sitting silently, not wanting to give them more laughter fuel by trying to talk to them.
Eventually, Scootaloo calmed down enough along with Sweetie Belle, who was trying her best to get a grip on that apple with her magic, but she had no real skill with doing that sort of thing, and it was stuck in Apple Bloom's mouth GOOD. Scoot hrm'ed and walked up next to Sweetie Belle, who let out a worn breath and hung her head, the magic lighting up her horn dissipating just as suddenly. "Ugh, I can't get it out! Any ideas, Scoot?" she asked, looking to the Pegasus pony curiously. Scootaloo sighed and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, yeah...." she muttered, but Sweetie Belle spoke up suddenly after that. "Hey, how come you're not hurt?! You crashed into the side of a stall!"
Scootaloo just grinned at her Unicorn friend. "I'm not hurt because I'm AWESOME like that. Now then!" she said, looking around at the crowd they'd managed to grab the attention of. Most of them had dispersed enough to make Scootaloo vaguely comfortable with doing what she had in mind. It was the only method she could think of at this point, without going to get AJ and a crowbar that is. She looked to Sweetie Belle, then back to Apple Bloom, who just quirked a brow and tilted her head expectantly, waiting to see what she had in mind....but then, Apple Bloom's eyes went wide when Scoot started drawing in closer, her lips getting closer.
Scoot wasn't exactly happy with this idea all that much, but Apple Bloom's mouth was open enough. It only counted as kissing if the lips kiss, right? Right. She swallowed hard and bared her teeth, carefully placing her forehooves on Apple Bloom's shoulders, teeth biting semi-deep halfway into the apple, head turned sideways so that she could get as good a grip on it as possible, and slowly began to tug at it. She blushed a crimson red when she saw Sweetie Belle moving to sit only a foot away from the two, staring hard at them both so that she could perhaps catch Scootaloo mistakenly grazing Apple Bloom's lips with her own. Sure enough, she did when she turned her head a little to try and get a better grip and twist the apple out of Apple Bloom's mouth, the tactic succeeding, but not before her lips touched her friend's.
She quickly spat out the apple while their Earth Pony friend groaned and flapped her jaws a few times, rubbing her jaw this way and that to work the ache out of it while Sweetie Belle grinned and trotted around both of them. "AB and Scoot-a-loo, sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" she chanted in a sing-song tone, Scoot's blush intensifying. "Shut up, Sweetie Belle!" she shouted at her friend, the Unicorn filly continuing on while AB's cheeks began to light up as well, her jaw too sore to really say anything. "First comes love...." she said, grinning as Apple Bloom stood up from her sitting position and glared at her menacingly. "Be quiet Sweetie Belle, ah'm warnin' ya!" she mumbled more quietly than she would've preferred, her jaw throbbing from doing so.
"Then comes marriage...." she muttered, her eyes closed and her trot starting to look just as smug as the expression on her face. Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were fuming, Scoot's wings extending as she lowered to the ground and took aim at Sweetie Belle, AB doing much of the same. "Then comes the baby in the baby carriage!" she spoke in finality, stopping in place and laughing heartily. "THAT'S IT!" Scootaloo cried out, her and AB pouncing on Sweetie Belle and quickly starting to fight, the three of them kicking up dust as they became a mass of swinging hooves and legs, flat teeth biting and tugging at one another while a multitude of yelling voices rose up from them, barely able to make sense of what they were trying to say to each other.
Finally, Applejack had made her way into the marketplace. She had woken up late thanks to fretting and researching various economic laws, possible ways out, and no matter which way she looked at it, she was up a creek without a paddle. She could have applied for a loan, maybe even a business loan, but that wasn't a guaranteed way out of this predicament. No, she knew of ONE truly guaranteed way out of this, even a way to be set for the rest of her life and able to take care of her family for years, but....that was a disgusting option. She had barely gotten to sleep when Big Macintosh had grabbed her by her mane and dragged his exhausted sister into her room to make sure she went to sleep at that point, since he was the one that woke up that early every day, giving her some time to rouse herself and wake herself up, AJ far from being a morning pony.
She was definitely plenty awake when she spotted her trusty stall, partially broken with the produce she'd stocked on it during her first trip into the market around ten minutes ago. It would have been a longer trip, but she was antsy and anxious from the current monetary issues the farm had, so she was rushing back and forth. She broke out into a gallop however, when she spotted the trio duking it out with one another, with some wooden planks broken off of the stall and mashed apples cluttering the ground around the brawling young fillies. "WHAT in tarnation is goin' on here?!" she could be heard shouting at them from only a few feet away.
The fight was over very suddenly, it becoming clear that Scootaloo and AB were playing co-op against Sweetie Belle during this bout. Apple Bloom had produced a rope from one of her packs during the scuffle and hogtied Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo was rubbing a mushy apple all over the Unicorn's cheek. At the same time though, with Sweetie Belle almost completely helpless on her back, her horn was glowing and an apple was levitating within her grasp, smacking against Scoot's forehead hard over and over with an audible wet 'splup!' sound. Needless to say, the whole scene was exactly what you'd expect from the Crusaders.
Applejack was far from amused. On the contrary, all of her current issues had boiled over into the aggravation she was feeling more and more as she looked upon her semi-ruined stall, and the produce lost to their haphazard control when riding around together. "Why is mah stall destroyed, girls?" she asked in a surprisingly calm tone, though the expression on her face betrayed that tame voice. "How exactly did y'all manage t'do this?"
Apple Bloom cowered a little, looking into her sister's eyes and away again, lightly tapping her left forehoof against the ground timidly, nervously. She always lost her bravado when her sister gave her such an angry stare like she was doing now, though it was directed at all three of them equally. AJ glared at Scootaloo, who put her mushy apple she was rubbing into Sweetie Belle's cheek off to the side, while Sweetie Belle's horn stopped glowing and the squished apple she was using was tossed aside. "W-well, ah was just....ah mean, we were just ridin' down the street when somepony wheeled their cart out in front of us," she explained, pausing to give the knot she'd tied in the rope around Sweetie Belle's legs a few tugs, tugging it loose and setting her friend free. "We didn't mean to!"
Scootaloo spoke up quickly after AB, stepping into Applejack's line of sight. "It was my fault! I'm really sorry, Applejack," she apologized with a genuine, worried and apologetic expression, the brown pegasus hanging her head some while AJ looked between the three of them. She eventually looked back to her banged-up stall, sighing and quietly facehoofing, lightly running the back of her curled right forehoof down the bridge of her nose, fwipping her lower lip as she dropped it down to the ground again with a stamping force. "It's....it's alright, girls...." she said, letting out a heavy sighing breath and hanging her head. "Can't do nothin' 'bout an honest mistake. Y'all are tellin' the truth, right?" she asked them, eyeing each of them as they vigorously nodded their head.
Golden Harvest, one of Applejack's best businesspony partners, walked over from her own carrot-themed stall full of some of Applejack's grown produce, oddly enough. For reasons of variety so that she didn't 'put all her apples in one basket' so to speak, Sweet Apple Acres grew all different sorts of fruits and vegetables, only keeping apples as their main crop of choice. The tactic saved them a multitude of times in the past, it often being the reason they didn't go completely under. "Oh, Applejack, it really was an accident. I saw the whole thing," she said, placing a forehoof on AJ's shoulder. "Somepony walked a cart in front of Scootaloo while she was looking back at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, she didn't see it until it was too late."
AJ averted her gaze from the Crusaders to listen to her friend for a moment, a small sigh escaping her and her features softening up after Harvest was done talking, Applejack nodding to her and smiling while waving to her as she turned and went back to her own stall. "Ah'm sorry 'bout that girls. I've just been all kinds o' stressed out lately, an'-....ah well, nevermind that," she said, waving off the discussion with a hoof and putting on a smile, the tell-tale sign of exhaustion forming some big, heavy-looking bags underneath AJ's eyes, something Apple Bloom had become keen at noticing. "Aw, don't worry 'bout it sis, we understand. Right gals?" Apple Bloom asked, looking to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who both just 'mmmhmm'd and nodded in agreement.
Applejack smiled to that and was about to send them to take care of this problem, or at least get someone that could take care of it quickly, when who else but Rarity would show up, with Pinkie Pie bounding in her hopping way right on by, with her Basket Hat on full display and picnic baskets bouncing up and down on her back and beneath her mouth. "Oh, hel-LO there girls, Applejack!" Rarity said in her usual overt flair, the Crusaders smiling and Sweetie Belle grinning at the sight of her sister. Pinkie Pie didn't even stop to say hello, her just continuing along at her steady yet casual pace, hopping up and down, constantly moving forward. Applejack noticed this, and quirked a brow. "What's got Pinkie Pie in such a rush?"
Rarity giggled a little at the prospect of being able to break this news to Applejack herself, it was such a potentially deviant thing to discover! However, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were there, and they would likely blab all about this exciting situation with Rainbow Dash if she dared to say anything where they could eavesdrop. "Oh! W-well, Pinkie Pie is VERY excited about a spur-of-the-moment get-together idea that she had for us, and you just know how much she loves to throw parties for her bestest friends. Not to mention how FUN they are~!" she said with an almost musical flourish towards the end.
Applejack quietly adjusted her Stetson atop her head, finding it slumping at an odd angle on her head, partially blocking out her line of sight in her right eye. "Dagnabbit, gotta git th' string on this thing fixed," she grumbled to herself under her breath, recalling the elastic string she had attached to her hat a while back so that it didn't go flying from an errant breeze. "Well, ah'd love a break, Rarity, but....well, actually...." she said, gazing over at Apple Bloom and her friends, a smile creeping across her lips. "Apple Bloom, girls, can ah talk to y'all over here?" she asked, motioning them to follow while looking over to Rarity. "Ah'll just be a minute, a'right?" she asked, and Rarity just nodded to her, only vaguely curious about what the Crusaders had to do with this predicament. "Oh! Well, sure, take however long you need, darling!"
Apple Bloom and her friends seemed confused as they stepped aside with Applejack, though AJ had motioned Apple Bloom to step away to talk with her one-on-one for a moment. "Whatcha suppose they're talking about?" Scootaloo idly pondered, looking over to Sweetie Belle, curious whether or not the Unicorn knew something she didn't. "Well....Applejack does look really tired lately. She's got those baggies under her eyes that my sister says a proper lady should always make sure she never gets," she said, humming a little. Scootaloo just shrugged. "Well, apparently it has something to do with all of us, I can't think of any other reason AJ would need you and I to come along."
Apple Bloom seemed confused, and a tad bit worried, looking back to her friends and then to AJ, when her sister took a seat and lowered down to talk more face-to-face instead of looming over her. "A'right, lil' sis, ah'm trustin' ya with this, 'cuz ah'm....well, ah'm exhausted," she said, her ears flattening somewhat as she said it. She did NOT like admitting her weakness, even if it was justified, the stubborn pony that she was. "Ah could really use this break....with that said, ah got a job fer you an' yer Crusader pals," she said with a wider smile, trying to brighten up despite her drastically tired expression. "Y'see, ah can't leave the stall unattended, an' it needs to get fixed up real quick-like. So, there're two things ah wan'cha t'do. First thing, is to go tell yer big brother what happened so he can grab his tools and git started repairin' the stand," she explained, her tone warm, but firm at the same time, looking straight into her little sister's eyes. "Now Apple Bloom, y'all already know how t'work the stand, ah taught'cha how t'sell products....if ah leave ya in Golden Harvest's care, can ya teach yer friends how to help ya sell apples?"
Apple Bloom was taken completely by surprise, not just by being given the task of tending the apple stand, but also because her sister was being....well, she was being truthful about her physical condition! "....Who're you, and what'cha done with mah big sister?" she asked, her eyes wide and her voice monotone, as if she were in shock. She snapped out of it a moment later, grinning wide. "Really, sis?! Yer really really REALLY gonna trust me t'do this?! Aw, this is awesome, Applejack! Ah promise ah'll do mah best, ah'll sell lots of apples! Ah'll-" she started to rant and rave in her excitement, the little filly practically vibrating along the ground, she was hopping around so rapidly. "Apple Bloom, Apple Bloom! Calm down, sugarcube!" AJ called out to her, the younger filly going still, but shuffling in place a bit with a wide grin on her lips.
Applejack was having second thoughts, but a break from all of her concerns, even if it meant leaving Apple Bloom in charge for a little while, was far too tempting for her tired mind to say no to. "AB, ah gotta hear it from you....can ah trust ya t'do this right? Can I? Please tell me yer gonna do this right. No funny business, no foolin' 'round with th' customers? No sneakin' apples into passersby's saddlebags?" she said, taking on an accusatory tone right at the end there. Apple Bloom shrunk a little at the almost desperate tone in her sister's voice, but her happy mood could not be suppressed for more than a moment. "You got it sis! Ah'll do ya proud an' sell plenty of apples, the right way!" she stated enthusiastically, her grin never fading. Applejack nodded to her and looked to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, walking over to them both and sitting down to talk to both of them about the same thing, both of them agreeing to help Apple Bloom just the same.
Rarity was confused at what she both overheard and saw occurring between her friend and the easily excited youth that seemed to almost be employed by AJ by the time the Stetson-clad Earth Pony approached her once more, seemingly ready to go. Before they left though, Rarity's eyes bulged when she heard what Applejack asked of Golden Harvest, walking alongside Rarity and keeping almost perfect pace with her. "You left the Cutie Mark Crusaders in charge of your stall?!"
She just shrugged and shook her head. "Apple Bloom knows what she's s'posed t'do, ah taught 'er last time she wanted t' help me, how she should handle things," she explained, smiling a bit. "Been 'round two years since we went n' gave that a try, but ah'm sure she can do just fine with 'er friends helpin' 'er out. Anyways....let's git goin' to that party!" she said, Rarity smiling and nodding a couple of times. "Of course, Applejack! But....you look absolutely exhausted darling. Are you sure you don't want to just rest instead?" Rarity asked, looking over AJ's face closely.
Applejack just leaned away from her friend's close examination, shaking her head. "Ah'm FINE, Rarity. Okay? Don'cha start gettin' all concerned about me," she said with some slight frustration, shaking her head. "Big Mac said the same thing, talkin' 'bout me bein' all on-edge n' whatnot, but I know ah'm just fine! Just....y'know, workin' hard lately, busy Applebuck Season this time."
They continued to talk back and forth, passing information to each other about their given businesses. Though, Applejack found herself tuning Rarity out every time she started to go on a tirade about fashion and modern trends. Just the same, Rarity repeatedly tuned Applejack out every time she brought up the number of apples she collected, and whenever she started to talk about her new favorite tree, Bloombundt. The only thing they both got equally enthusiastic about, was when they brought up their income and conversation about the ponies they did business with. Where Applejack did lots of unseen trade and sales with ponies in and around Ponyville, not to mention less celebrity-ish ponies that bought a lot of her apples, to stock and supplement their own supplies for their own businesses in the bigger cities. Rarity on the other hoof, she had more personal work to do for customers like Sapphire Shores, DJ Pon-3, and multitudes of other well-known ponies. Throughout the entire conversation though, Applejack couldn't help but think that perhaps Rarity could help her out. But no, that just seemed far too desperate in her mind, so she kept her mouth shut on such matters. She was NOT desperate!
Fluttershy was busy the entire morning, a bag of bird feed stowed away in her saddlebags, while a bunch of carrots were packed away in the other saddlebag, balancing out the weight she had on her back. With a soft grunt, she stopped short of a bunch of burrows belonging to some rabbits that decided to live close to Fluttershy's home, away from the Everfree Forest, which they moved away from. They met her as she approached, a large carrot being set down in front of each of their burrows. "There you go, little bunnies. You have a very big family, but I have plenty here for each of you," she said in her usual, calm and sweet way, her naturally gentle voice accompanied by a warm and loving smile, everything that made the animals love Fluttershy unconditionally.
After setting most of the carrots out, Angel Bunny approached Fluttershy after eating his morning carrot, his little pink nose wiggling and his discerning eyes looking over the many bunnies that moved close by. Just when Fluttershy was about to move on to the birds she spotted another bunny, one with a more pink-tinted body of fur, Angel Bunny blushing hotly when she touched noses with him in an adorable little bunny-kiss, their little noses wiggling against each other. "Oh, my! Angel Bunny, you never told me that you had a mate...." she said, her close animal friend quickly pulling away and stamping his foot soundly against the ground. He didn't lash out, he just behaved as grumpily as he always did around Fluttershy, her just figuring that was his way of trying to show respect and also to seem 'grown up'. It was endearing.
The pink-furred rabbit giggled, little paws covering her mouth when Angel moved away from her with such embarrassment. She quietly moved up behind him and let out a little squeak, half-pouncing on him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, squeezing him there in a hug, making him slouch and his face twist into an angry expression, him glaring in Fluttershy's direction. Fluttershy just giggled quietly and covered her mouth with her hoof while doing so. "Why are you looking at me like that, Angel? It's not my fault~," she said in a sing-song tone, waving goodbye to him. "I'll go and feed the birds now. Have fun, Angel!" she said, Angel squeaking out some choice words in a language that only her animals could understand while Fluttershy began walking away. However, halfway to the tree her birds gathered at for musical practice, Fluttershy felt a long foot beating lightly against her ankle.
"Oh! Yes, Angel? Was there something else you wanted?" she asked, watching as he eagerly pointed at the cottage, hopping up and down a few times and motioning to having some kind of invisible object on his back. When Fluttershy just gave a look of confusion, he got on all fours and hopped high off the ground, up and down, smiling wide until he looked akin to a certain pink pony, but still Fluttershy didn't get it. He smacked his paw against his face and drug it down over his nose and his lips, grumbling and hopping up in front of her face, bopping her on the nose and pointing insistently towards the cottage. "Well....okay Angel Bunny, but I've only been out here for a few minutes. Who could have shown up at home while I was out?" she mused, putting her bag of bird feed down so that she didn't have to carry it back to the cottage. Angel Bunny just rolled his eyes at the question that she asked, him pondering on whether or not Pinkie would wind up startling his owner. Of course, before he could follow, pink arms grabbed him and spun him around, his eyes going wide when he felt his mate giving him a more long-lasting smooch. His eyes looked left, then right, scanning what he could see. Then, seeing no one around, he just smiled blissfully and dropped his grumpy exterior, resting his paws on his mate's sides and pressing in towards her, deepening the kiss she'd started.
She trotted up towards the cottage slightly faster when she heard the familiar voice of Pinkie Pie talking to somepony, though who she'd be talking to Fluttershy had no idea. Of course, when she got close enough to make out exactly what she was saying, it all became plenty clear. "I don't know where she is Gummy! She must be taking care of her animals or something, she's always busy like that," Pinkie said, blinking and quirking a brow at her gator. "Huh? Whatcha mean, she's coming? Why would she....oh! Hi there, Fluttershy!" she called out, waving to her as she stepped around her cottage from behind it.
Fluttershy walked up to Pinkie casually, calm as ever and relaxed, smiling happily at the sight of her friend. "Hello there Pinkie Pie! It's nice to see you....what can I do for you?" she asked with that same happy and cheerful tone. Pinkie just grinned and pointed at her Basket Hat. "Oh, you're having another party?" she asked, and Gummy jumped off of the top of Pinkie's head over to hers, his toothless mouth chomping down on the back of Fluttershy's neck, then down along her mane in cute nomming bites, eventually stopping at her ankles, gumming at one, then the other, then her hindlegs, lather rinse repeat. "Wow! Gummy isn't normally this energetic at this time of day. Must be all the sun he's been getting this morning. Anyways Fluttershy, you gonna come to my party? It's gonna be great, we get to meet a new friend, and have lots of drinks and food and we get to meet Rainbow Dash's new coltfriend that we're not supposed to know about and she and he have been really secretive about!“ she said, grinning and hopping up and down with clear excitement.
Fluttershy was taken aback by what Pinkie Pie just said. Rainbow Dash had a coltfriend, and she hadn't told anypony? That was surprising....normally Rainbow Dash was so ready to proudly tell anypony that would listen. "I wonder why Rainbow Dash would hide something like having a coltfriend from us....how did you find out, Pinkie Pie?“ she asked, raising a hoof that had Gummy attached to it, pointing idly at the pink pony. "Oh, I have my own custom Pinkie Pie ways! But, if you really wanna know....“ she said, leaning in close and almost touching noses with Fluttershy, looking her in the eyes. "I teased him about buying her Rainbow Cupcakes!“ she said suddenly, after a fairly long moment of silence, giggling and backing away. "Come on Gummy! We have to get going so we can set everything up and fetch Rainbow Dash and her coltfriend!“
Gummy complied rather quickly, waddling with small twists of his body, hopping up onto Pinkie's head once more just before the pink pony took off, leaving a confused Fluttershy standing there alone. "But....where do we-“ she started to ask, only to have Pinkie appear behind her, Fluttershy swearing she saw Pinkie go over the crest of the hill. "Easy! We meet up at Starlight Hill. Where did you THINK we were going, you silly filly?“ she asked with a grin, hopping past Fluttershy for a second time, and after a few seconds of looking around, she was sure that Pinkie had really left this time. Fluttershy just let out a breath and shook her head, going to finish her chores before meeting up with everypony. Of course, she idly wondered where Angel Bunny had disappeared to, but she didn't want to let her mind dwell on it. His mate seemed very sweet and friendly, and that was all that mattered to Fluttershy, when it came to her animal friends and their happiness.
Rainbow Dash waited with a slight impatience on a cloud right next to their chosen meeting location, forelegs crossed in front of her, hanging off of the edge of the cloud she was laying on along with her head, hanging low and decorated with the most bored expression the pegasus pony could come up with. "Where is he....?“ she muttered lazily, rolling over onto her back and examining the cloud layout, mostly focusing on a batch of clouds that had gathered together and started to become a more dark color. "Huh, that's odd,“ she mused, standing up and spreading her wings, getting ready to take off and deal with the oddity.
Wind Strider was late, but he was good at having excellent timing, as he proved when he called out to Rainbow Dash while streaking towards her from behind. "Hello there, beautiful!“ he called out to her, drawing the eyes and attentions of a few passersby, making Rainbow Dash seize up for a moment and blush. Ditzy Doo had happened to be passing by, and she laughed a little at Dash's reaction, making the rainbow-maned pegasus glare in her direction. "Don't you have some letters to deliver?“ she said in a huffy, semi-upset tone, Ditzy Doo just waving and flying back down and away from the pair, Strider having reached Rainbow within the time it took for her to recompose herself.
He just grinned when she bapped him upside his head lightly. "WHY did you do that?! You knew I'd react that way, didn't you?“ she asked, smirking at him and shaking her head, fluttering lazily back and away from him, her eyes shifting this way and that slowly, discreetly, her wanting to make sure nopony was around to watch them. Finding them alone for the moment, Rainbow Dash smiled and flapped close to him again, wrapping her forelegs around his neck to hug him good and tight, nuzzling her cheek against his as well, a hot blush forming on her entire face.
Strider was surprised at the sudden show of affection, but he certainly wasn't avoiding it. He leaned in against that hug, their life-long experience as pegasi causing them both to flap their wings in a way that let them press together more firmly and brace against one another in that hug, his forearms wrapping around the back of her neck in return. They stayed that way for a good minute, Strider easing out of that hug first, him staying quiet while gazing into her eyes. Finally, he chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, ruffling that long flowing black mane of his, smiling a little more widely. "S-so, what brought that on?“
Rainbow Dash was still blushing hard enough to cook an egg with her face, but still she shrugged her shoulders, looking away and scratching one of her cheeks with the tip of her hoof. "Well, you said that I should....you know, be less shy around you, so I just....kinda....went for it,“ she said, taking a moment to look around more intently once more, still seeing nopony around. "At least nopony caught us....“ she said in that subdued tone of voice yet again, Strider just chuckling and touching his hoof to her shoulder. "Heh, relax Rainbow Dash! It's no big deal.“ he said, but he'd almost completely forgotten about the wound to his leg....the one that had gotten a fairly creative leaf bandage and herbal medication applied to it. Though, to Zecora's credit, the fairly bloody cut didn't hurt hardly at all anymore.
Rainbow Dash noticed almost immediately when he reached for her with his foreleg. How couldn't she? It was directly to the right of her eyes from where he was reaching for her from. "Whoa....what happened?“ she asked, grasping his foreleg and holding it outstretched when he tried to recoil, him forced to let her look over it for a couple seconds before she let his leg go, him clearing his throat and thinking quickly for a moment. "Well, you remember that....that thing, I had to do earlier? Well, you see, Princess Luna, she wanted me to investigate the Everfree Forest. I'd really rather not divulge exactly what she wanted me to look for, so please don't ask.“
She tilted her head and flew away for a minute, grabbing a few clouds and squishing them together so that she and Strider could sit together on it, pushing the packed-together clouds back over in front of her coltfriend. She tucked her wings in after landing gently atop the plus-sized cloud, gently patting the space next to her, smiling at the dark-blue pony hovering in front of her with a puzzled, curious expression. "Alright, then why don't you tell me how you got hurt? That's a pretty big bandage....and what kind of bandage is that?" she asked, letting his foreleg go after giving it a closer examination, brief as it may have been.
Strider was getting a familiar feeling from these questions. That feeling of dread that made his mind boil and his stomach churn. All of these lies meant nothing good on his end. "Oh, I uh....stumbled across Twilight in the Everfree Forest, I think she was going to visit Zecora, and she brought me with because she thought that my wound looked worse than it actually was. Zecora put some medicine on it and wrapped it up, that's all!" he said, hoping he had his story straight as he could afford to have it. Then again, he was already losing track of what he'd already told Twilight to get the lavender Unicorn off of his case. However, with the look in Twilight's eyes, he could only assume that he hadn't eluded her inquisitive nature, and that concerned him greatly.
For Rainbow Dash though, this all seemed to be plenty to satisfy her curiosity, not that it mattered, since a shout from a familiar pink pony down below called them both to attention. "Heeeeeeey~! Rainbow Dash, Colt-I-Don't-Knoooooow~!" she shouted out to them in a more sing-song voice, waving up at them with a hoof. When they took too long to respond, she hrmph'ed and smirked, narrowing her eyes. "Don't make me get my Pinkie-Copter!" she said in a mock-threatening tone. "I'd hate to catch you two in the act!"
Rainbow Dash leaned over the edge of the cloud that she and Strider were sitting on, waving down to Pinkie Pie in return. She was blushing again, very intensely, even Pinkie could make it out. "Wh-what?! We're not-I'm....erm, don't worry, we'll be right down!" she said, sitting up and looking back over to Strider. "Doesn't look like we're getting privacy 'til later, huh?" she asked, and Strider just nodded his head. "Sounds about right, I seem to be running into a lot of ponies you know today." he said, spreading his wings alongside Rainbow and making his way down to Pinkie, landing almost perfectly in time with his fellow pegasus.
Pinkie Pie grinned when they both came down to meet her, the earth pony staying standing with her Basket Hat still adorning her head, having Gummy sitting inside of it, his beady eyes glancing and staring into Strider's own. Strider just stared at the alligator for a few moments, barely even noticing Pinkie beginning to talk. "So this day is turning out great! I have a surprise for both of you!" she said, hopping up and down. It was then that Strider took notice to the picnic baskets that Pinkie was carrying around, Rainbow Dash apparently noticing the same. "Uh, what's with all the....oh. You've got a party planned, don't you?" Rainbow asked, smirking and eyeing her prankster friend knowingly.
"Yup! You're such a smart pony, how'd you guess?" she asked in her usual tone. Oh, how Rainbow Dash knew that it was near-impossible to figure out whether or not Pinkie Pie was being sarcastic, or genuine, and this was easily one of the impossible moments with her. "Yyyeah....well, where's this party happening?" Rainbow asked, and Pinkie just pointed in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. "We're all meeting up at Starlight Hill! Be sure to come by soon, everything's almost ready!"
Strider exchanged a look with Rainbow Dash, then looked to Pinkie Pie, smiling. "Can I assume I'm invited as well, erm....Pinkie Pie, right?" he asked, holding a hoof out to the party pony in offer, Pinkie responding in kind with a bro-hoof of sorts. "Yup, name's Pinkie Pie! Nice to see you again," she said, grinning and turning to head to the place she'd be setting up her little picnic party. "Don't be late! The girls are looking forward to meeting you, Mystery Pony!" she said while rushing away from them to leave them alone. But then, she came back just as suddenly as she'd left them standing there looking at each other in confusion. "Oh, by the way, have either of you seen Twilight? I checked the library, but Spike said she ran off to the Everfree Forest, I was wondering if she came back yet."
Strider held up a hoof, smiling. "Oh, I spotted her while heading out of the Everfree Forest earlier, she was just visiting her friend Zecora. She should be back in a while, they were very chatty with one another," he explained, Pinkie turning away from them after he finished. "Okie-dokie-lokie! I'll find 'er, don't worry! You two just head on up to Starlight Hill after I leave, the picnic should be all set up by the time you get there." With that, Pinkie went bounding away, leaving Strider and Rainbow looking at each other curiously, both of them shrugging their shoulders. Rainbow laughed shortly after and shook her head a few times, a blush staining her cheeks. "I guess you were right....she knows!"
Strider just smirked and shrugged at the prospect. "Well, it's a perfect time to come clean, isn't it? I'm tired of hiding it from everypony anyways," he said, flapping his wings a couple of times before tucking them in and relaxing. "So.....shall we go?"
Twilight continued down the path, grumbling something to herself, feeling the fatigue from the headache, all of the walking making her blood pump more intensely, and in doing so it made her headache worse. Eventually she stopped and took her third breather, sitting down against the base of a tree next to the main path. "Ugh, this was a bad idea....I'm gonna be sick by the time I get back, I should've eaten breakfast too!" she said, chastising herself. "But then, if I had taken the time, I would've caught that Wind Strider pony hanging around here, I don't even HEAR a Manticore anywhere near this area!"
"Can you help me, please....?" an ethereal voice asked, Twilight perking her head up and looking around. "Who's there?!"
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 8 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-01-17T12:35:34+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:05:12+00:00
| 4,633 |
Chapter 8 - Enter My Web....
written by Fire Soul
Twilight's eyes darted around the area, trying to get a bead on the source of the voice she had just heard. The sound of it alone made her very fidgety, jumpy, and not being able to see the source of a voice that seemed to come from all around her only made her more concerned. "Where are you? Why don't you come out and talk to me?" she asked in as calm a voice as possible. That didn't change the speed of her racing heart though, the intense dread she was feeling now, alone and unfocused, currently stuck in a very 'lacking' mentality....oh, thinking about THAT wasn't making this any better, crud!
Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat, suddenly wishing very, very much that she'd somehow delayed Wind Strider heading back into town. Did he run into this as well, whatever this was? "W-well, what do you want with me?" she called out again, trying to break the silence that surrounded her now, anything to make the forest around her seem less foreboding. She felt plenty alert now, all of her senses sharp as a razor's edge, her fear forcing her to break through her depression and her anger to focus more on self-preservation, a far more motivating reason to raise her awareness than 'I should do something'.
Silence once again surrounded her, aside from a rustling in the bushes nearby, Twilight unsure if the sound was from the wind, or from something moving through the underbrush. The quiet, the lack of a response, upset her further, her driving her fear away for a moment by calling out in her frustration. "Answer me, damn it!" she shouted out at nothing in particular, desperate for an answer. She spun around, her eyes wide, when something behind her finally responded.
"I want you," a feminine voice said to her, Twilight looking left, then right, then down when she realized that the voice was very young, almost sounding like a filly of the CMC's ages. She wasn't ready for those eyes, though. Those shiny, vertically slitted draconic eyes, the same she'd seen in her reflection. She didn't look away though, she was equally afraid of not keeping an eye on this....this pitch-black-furred foal, this foal that made her far beyond uneasy just being this close to her. Twilight was only standing maybe five steps away from the young filly, the little foal appearing from just around a tree behind the one she had decided to rest against. "I want to be with you."
Though she was scared, she was also oddly curious. Did this thing know her, somehow? Her tail twitched with the terror-addled excitement she felt, the first kind of curiosity-driven excitement she'd felt since before her breakdown, that tri-colored tail sweeping left and right over her flanks. "O-okay....erm, who are you, then....?" she asked, her voice shaky and unsure, her imagination going a mile a minute. Would this thing kill her, or attack her? Would it simply be nice to her, or would it do nothing at all?
The black-bodied foal, clearly female, eyes only blinking once at the question Twilight asked. "I am like you," she said, giggling an ethereal laugh, one that made Twilight jump, startled at how all-encompassing it sounded, the little laugh coming from all around her, just like the foal's voice seemed to before she appeared where Twilight could see her. The little filly never turned her gaze from Twilight's face, staring at her with a creepy eagerness. "I am what you want to be. Don't you want to be like me, Twilight Sparkle?"
Hearing her name made Twilight swallow another lump in her throat, her mouth suddenly feeling dry, her eyes dilating and her heart redoubling its beat rate. "How do you know my name? What's YOUR name?!" Twilight asked in a clear panic, her terrified eyes staying locked on the little foal as she slunk along the ground, her hooves staying pressed to the ground, as if she were skating without any actual skates. "I said that I am you, Sister...." she said in a wispy voice, her sliding motions suddenly jolting her forward and up, her legs becoming long and spindly, utterly out of proportion from the rest of her tiny body. She was eye-level with Twilight, the lavender Unicorn locked in place out of utter and absolute fear. "Please stay with me, Sister....give yourself to me!!"
Twilight's eyes dilated when the little foal's mouth opened, and then distended, becoming larger and larger before her very eyes. All she could see were teeth, rows upon rows of gnashing, spinning, undulating teeth attached to inky blackness, ready to gore her into small pieces and swallow her comparatively fleshy body. In her terror, her magic almost kicked in all on its own, the initial blast making the mouth closing in around her bulge out further and away from her, the snap of energy after making her blink back ten feet away from the monstrosity.
She didn't have time to relax or ask questions. "Please, Sister, I want your help....!" the little foal begged in her wispy voice once more, her mouth closing to normal once more as she slid along the ground towards Twilight once more. The lavender Unicorn turned and bolted down the pathway, barely acknowledging the burn in her very out-of-shape body in favor of survival and nothing but.
"SOMEPONY HELP ME!!!!"
To say that Strider was surprised at the spread waiting for them once they had arrived was an understatement. Food was laid out, a lot of it being sweets and baked goods of all varieties, including some of Rainbow Dash's favorites. Muffins, pies, a few personal cakes and more, he couldn't even apply a known name to most of the things he saw. His gaze fell on Rainbow Dash, who was sitting next to him, him pointing his left forehoof at an odd, round creme-like treat with a red center that wasn't made of cream. "Uh....what is this thing?"
"It's my own special design! The outside is a boiled creme, and the middle is a plum. Kind of like a rice ball!" Pinkie said with her usual enthusiasm. "Go on, give it a try!" she said, holding the plate full of them out to Strider, him looking at them closely. They were shaped like a big wafer, and he was seriously wondering about the construction of this confection, but nonetheless, he tilted his head down and went after one with his teeth. "WAIT!"
He almost jumped from the rather startling shout from the pink mare, his eyes going wide and him backing off from the offered plate. Pinkie looked at him sternly. "Haven't you ever tried one of these before? Sheesh, so uncultured...." she said in a flat tone....then giggled and patted his slightly drooped head, making him blink in confusion. "I'm just messin' with ya, ya silly billy! But seriously, these things take a lot of precision, so you gotta eat the whole thing all at once, the whole thing in your mouth, don't bite into it."
He tilted his head, looking down at them, singling one out in his eyes. "Why's that?" he asked, and Pinkie just grinned as Rainbow Dash grabbed one and showed him how to eat them. "You'll see!" she said in her usual cheery tone. Strider just watched as Dash's cheeks bulged around the flat treat, taking it into her mouth in one massive gulp, chewing and breaking it down, a look of bliss crossing her features and making her wings flit in delight. Strider didn't need much more encouragement than that, gingerly taking one of the plum-cored treats between his lips, lifting it up and tilting his head back, pulling it into his mouth with his tongue.
The first thing he noticed was the squishyness of the yellow-ish gold part of the snack outside of the plum core. He thought that she had baked it throughout, and while it was nice and warm, the moment he bit into it, the treat was akin to pudding skin. What greeted his tastebuds once it was broken through was a massive burst of gooey creme goodness that almost instantly painted a smile on his face. He chewed and chewed and chewed, biting through the plum part that was missing its pit, that flavor mixing with the creme and creating a lingering flavor mix that he was apprehensive in removing from his palate.
Eventually though, he swallowed his blissful payload down, the aftertaste making him run his tongue over the inside of his mouth constantly for a while longer while he spoke up, his eyes wide in happy shock, his lips contorted with deep joy for this treat. "You were placed upon this world to create physical embodiments of happiness, Pinkie Pie. Like those things. Would you like to marry me? I'm totally available, please say ye-oof!" he said, laughing some after Rainbow Dash gave him a playful shove. "Heeeeey hey hey hey, I'm not sharin' you buddy! Deal with it!" she said, laughing a bit along side Pinkie Pie. "Oh, Rainbow Dash, you got yourself a funny one, way to go!"
Strider just chuckled and went to snacking on a Rainbow Cupcake or two, looking around the area, gazing over the expanse of Sweet Apple Acres only a yard away from Starlight Hill. He looked to Applejack a moment later, still chewing a piece of cupcake. "So, miss....erm, Applejack, right? Do you run that place all by yourself?" he asked with a hint of awe, as if he already thought that she managed to do it herself. Applejack was in the middle of taking a drink of her cider, non-alcoholic of course. She set her glass down a second or two later, her weary appearance not lost on Strider's keen eyes. "Oh, well, lately ah been workin' overtime, moreso'n usual ah mean. But, ah'm not th' only one workin' there. Ah got my big brother an' mah lil' sis t'help me out."
Strider nodded to that, swallowing his cupcake piece down, setting the plate he'd put it on down so he could talk for a bit. "I see! Why do you look so tired then, if you don't mind me asking?" Applejack grumbled and looked away. "J-just a rough Applebuck Season, that's all! Nothin' to it really, it happens sometimes," she explained to him, the orange-furred pony examining some of the available food before settling on a slice of apple pie. Holding it up with a hoof, she took a large bite out of it and closed her eyes, her body seeming to shrink in on itself somewhat while she let a blissful murr escape her. Swallowing it down, she licked her lips clean. "Ferget HIM, marry me, Pinkie!"
Pinkie Pie just laughed at Applejack and shook her head. "Wow, I'm popular today! But then I'm always popular at parties. Especially surprise parties!" she said, her tongue hanging out of the corner of her closed mouth, her brows furrowed in thought. "I wonder why that is? I know I'm one really cutie-patootie Pinkie Pie, but I didn't think all of my friends were attracted to me!"
Everypony just laughed at that and continued with their meals, the conversation going this way and that between them all, Strider learning plenty about each of them, even Fluttershy, who was hesitant to talk about herself in the first place. Pinkie had left the group at least three times looking for Twilight, but with increasing worry, she couldn't find the lavender Unicorn. "Excuse me, mister Wind Strider?" Pinkie asked him, interrupting his conversation with Rainbow Dash, the two of them talking about some good times back in Flight School. "You said you saw her at Zecora's, why isn't she back yet?"
Strider shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know why she's not back yet. She was only visiting with Zecora," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Also, uh, just call me Strider, or Wind Strider, not 'mister' or anything. I get enough of that back in Canterlot," he said, Pinkie nodding a little. "Okay! Well, maybe Twilight's just hanging out with Zecora right now....I'll go get 'er!" Pinkie said, starting to hop away. Rarity stood up from her luxurious red couch she brought along, holding a hoof out to Pinkie. "Pinkie Pie, are you sure you'll be okay going alone? I can go with you if you like." The others save for Strider nodded in agreement as well, but Pinkie held up a hoof. "No no, that's okay girls, I'm only going to get Twilight! It shouldn't take me long."
With that, Pinkie Pie left them all behind, the five ponies going back to enjoying all of the treats Pinkie had put together. Rarity was still curious though, and now she had a real chance to sit down and dig into the juicy pile of gossip that presented itself before her! "So, Wind Strider....such a strong and stalwart name. Who are your parents, or is that a more personal sort of subject?" Rarity asked him, laying down across her couch once more.
Strider smiled more and ate another of those creme things, taking his time chewing it while Rarity spoke, only sending it to the pit of his stomach once she finished her question. "Oh, my parents were commoners that got rich through hard work. Erm....have you heard of Sturdy Stiles and Savory Saint?" he asked her, Rarity just shaking her head. "No, I'm afraid I haven't. Do you know if they've ever ordered anything from my shop? I do all kinds of clothes these days!"
He shook his head once more. "No, I don't really talk to them very often, I mostly live by myself, save for when I'm on assignment with other members of the Royal Guard," he explained, licking his lips clean and turning his gaze down to the plate that had those creme treats on them. If one were watching, one might be able to see his body visibly slump at the realization that there were no more of them, much to his intense dismay. "Ooh, I see~! Well! Now for the question I just know we ALL want to ask...." Rarity said, clopping her forehooves together excitedly. "Eee, howdidyoutwomeet?! I never would've expected Rainbow Dash to find a coltfriend before me, but here you are, and a Royal Guardspony at that! I just HAVE to know."
Rainbow Dash hung her head and her face turned purple from her blush, it was so intense, the red contrasting with her blue fur. Strider was blushing as well, but not as badly, a bit more open about the subject. "W-well, uhm....Rainbow Dash? Is it okay?" he asked his fairly quiet marefriend, the sky-blue pegasus nodding a couple of times. Rarity could be heard squee'ing. "Yeeee, she's so cute when she gets embarrassed!"
Rainbow Dash glared at the fashionista and growled. "Don't make me come over there and shut ya up by force," she growled out under her breath, her gaze never moving away from Rarity's eyes. Rarity only covered her mouth with a hoof, her muffled laughs seeming to grate and aggravate the blush that Rainbow Dash could only recognize as an overpowering disease at the moment. Rainbow Dash shifted her glare away from Rarity and towards the ground, mumbling something under her breath. "SO not cool...."
Strider could only laugh at the exchange, shaking his head a little and leaning over towards her, his cheek pressing against the side of her neck, making her glare disappear and an embarrassed grimace replace it. She knew what he would've wanted to say to her if they had some privacy, and she was glad that his sappy words were reserved for such a situation, since it would only make things worse in front of her friends. Fluttershy let out a barely audible 'aww' at the show of affection, and Rarity's eyes got big. She was SUCH a sucker for this sort of thing!
"Well, anyways, when we first started dating...."
Wind Strider flew high above the grasslands below, long flowing fields of wheat passed beneath him, the Royal Messenger taking a liesurely pace with the package he had stowed away in his saddlebags. It wasn't a high-priority delivery, but he was sure the pony awaiting it would consider it to be of the utmost importance for her weekly tasks. This wasn't the first time he had to make such deliveries during the less active times of the year, the heat of Summer and all the new Summertime jobs cutting into the crime rate in just about all of the cities and towns in Equestria. It was his main job, outside of standing guard when messages and deliveries to and from the palace for the Royal Pony Sisters.
He could see Ponyville in the distance, and in maybe ten minutes he would be touching down in the hometown of the Elements of Harmony for his first time! He couldn't help but be a bit excited by such a thing, mainly because he might get a chance to visit with an old friend. Of course, if he remembered Rainbow Dash's personality well enough, she was probably milking what could possibly be a celebrity-like status for all it was worth....but, he quickly cast that thought aside in favor of believing in the possibility that she was the same friendly, good-natured Rainbow Dash she always was behind that lively, prideful demeanor.
He touched down in the middle of the main pathway through town, where most visiting Pegasi touched down because of all the space they had to land. He wasn't exactly sure where the library was, even after getting a good look at Ponyville from the air, so he walked down the street to the nearest business: the Sofa & Quill Store, which he soon found out was NOTORIOUS for being all out of quills to draw in ponies in need of quills just so they can try to convince more customers to get some new furniture. Apparently it was a semi-successful, semi-unethical business ploy.
Getting the location of the library from the young colt working the front counter in place of the older male, Strider flew a few feet above the ground, not entering 'airspace' and staying in the 'Pegasus Lane', as most referred to the area above the streets that most Pegasi stayed in so that anypony could speak up and talk to them without having to yell. He had his armor on, and a trio of adorable young fillies likely in kindergarten still stopped him to have a chat with him. He landed near Sugarcube Corner to talk with them for a bit, the young fillies apparently enchanted by his very unique armor.
"So, what are your names, anyways? My name's Wind Strider," he explained, his wings tucked in now that he was sitting down, the filly with the red mane going to get something to snack on from inside Sugarcube Corner. The orange pegasus spoke up first, her grinning wide. "I'm Scootaloo, this is Sweetie Belle, and our earth pony friend is Apple Bloom!" she said with such adorable enthusiasm, him able to feel her bright eyes locking in on his armor. "Wind Strider's such an awesome name! Almost as awesome as Rainbow Dash."
Wind Strider blinked a few times, clearing his throat and looking around nervously. "O-oh, you know Rainbow Dash?" he asked, much to Scootaloo's delight. "You know I do! She's gonna teach me how to fly. She's so cool, being able to do things like the Sonic Rainboom and the Buccaneer Blaze, and-and-" she said, starting to become background noise to Strider, who was looking to the other Crusaders for assistance in this matter. This matter, of course, being getting Scootaloo to come back to reality and out of her fanfilly mindset.
Apple Bloom came back outside of Sugarcube Corner, a bag of tasty cupcake-like snacks in tow. She turned her attention to Scootaloo, who was dominating the conversation now with her Rainbow Dash-based rant, and shook her head in disdain. "Ugh, here she goes again....hey! HEY!" she said, shouting towards the end while clopping her hooves hard against the ground in front of the small-winged pegasus, making Scoots blink a few times and snap her attention to her friends. "Huh? What? Oh...." she said, looking up at Wind Strider, who was rubbing the top of his head. "So you're a fan I'm guessing, right? Well, do you know where she is?"
Scootaloo nodded vigorously to his question, her little wings flapping so quickly that they actually made a buzzing sound akin to a small motor. 'Is that why she's called Scootaloo....? Huh,' he pondered silently to himself, waiting for her to calm down enough to talk to him straight. By the time she actually did, a number of people had started to stare at them, drawing a vague blush to his cheeks. Not enough to be visible through his coat of fur, but he could certainly feel it. The Crusaders seemed utterly fine, however, with such attention; he figured it must be an acquired tolerance.
The Crusaders went their own way together, something about being Cutie Mark Crusaders....Pinata Detonators? He thought that was what he heard after their small conversation drifted towards young Apple Bloom's upcoming birthday. The last thing he heard the three talking about involved a cannon, makeshift helmets, pinatas, and what he could only assume were really, really poor attempts at martial arts in mid-air to break said pinatas. He wasn't sure if he should notify the Ponyville Fire Department about what they had in mind....nah. That would be so bogus for him to do, restricting their young adventurous ways....
Making his trip short when it came to the library, he stepped inside and spoke with the citizen that had volunteered for the job of being a Librarian, in place of Twilight Sparkle while she was back in Canterlot with her studies. He was a young pony, slightly younger than Strider was, but he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, what with how quickly he took to putting the books that Strider had brought away. They were books from the Royal Library that were being transferred and copied for distribution to libraries all over Equestria. These were books unseen by the average citizen's eyes, and the Librarian made a point give each of them a once-over as he began to leave, having gotten all the proper paperwork and registrations stowed away.
He took off once more after leaving the library again, leaving the colt to his new reading while scanning the skies for the cloud home the Librarian mentioned. He thought it might be harder, but apparently Rainbow Dash was the only pony in Ponyville, or the only Pegasus in Ponyville perhaps, that could afford, wanted, or needed to live in a cloud home. That was the only conclusion he could come to, judging by the remarkable design it had! It was HUGE for one pony!
A slightly saddening thought occurred to him as he flew in the direction of that house-in-the-sky. His legs slumped a bit as he wondered, with a house that big....was she really living alone in there? Maybe this was a bad idea, would she even remember him? "Eugh, what if she has one of those really mean coltfriends that wants to pummel me just for being another stallion on her doorstep....?" he muttered to himself in thought, idly tapping his chin with a hoof. "Or she might not even be into stallions, she could be yet another mare that's into other mares. Hmmmh....I dunno."
In the midst of his own personal debate, complete with himself on the left side, himself on the right side, and himself as the narrator for each side of himself in said debate, he didn't notice the speedy streak of rainbow colors rushing through the sky some distance away, heading in the direction of the cloud home as well. It was no surprise to him that the faint rainbow trail both led to the same cloud home he was flying towards, and belonged to the only rainbow-maned pegasus in Ponyville. Seeing nopony accompanying her at the moment, he tossed his worries aside and sped up his approach.
Rainbow Dash stood at the front 'door' to her home, pushing the clouds aside and walking in, shifting what she'd squished out of her way back over the entrance, smoothing the cloud out like a sheet of wrinkled paper under her hooves until it looked like a marshmallow door once more. She flexed her wings outward a couple of times, twisting and flapping them in various directions until an audible pop emanated from the base of them, twice in succession. She sighed out and groaned soon after, the burn of backed-up blood vessels being allowed to flow freely once more making her wings go limp for a good minute, them hanging down at her sides. "Oh-ho yeah....! Now, bath-time-" she began to say with a subdued delight. That is, until she heard someone tap at her cloud door, making a fluffing sound with the misty mass of water vapor. Had to be another pegasus, if the cloud was behaving like it had some kind of solidity to it. "-or not. Who is it?"
She waited for a moment, her ears perking at the distinctly male voice on the other side. "Royal Guard, ma'am. Is this the residence of Rainbow Dash?" the voice called out, making her cringe a bit. 'Oh no....this is about that crash-landing I made in the market the other day, it has to be! They want to sue me or arrest me or something!' she said to herself in her head. Nervously, she pushed the cloud door aside, squishing it once more, grinning nervously at the armored pegasus standing before her.
Strider hid his uncertainty behind a curtain of professionalism, standing at attention once she opened her door. "Greetings! I'm here on business from the castle," he said with as straight of a face as he could, given the rather unsteady grin Rainbow Dash had going. He wasn't entirely sure what had her riled up though. She on the other hand looked around for a moment, then looked back to him. "Sooooo....how many bits do I have to pay this time to make this lawsuit go away?" she asked, heh'ing and lightly, nervously tapping her hoof against the cloud she was standing on.
He blinked a few times and rubbed the back of his head, letting that professional presentation of himself fade after hearing that. "Uh....what? Lawsuit? What for?" he asked, leaning in and peering into her house, past her. She hrm'ed and cleared her throat. "So....you're not here to deliver a court date or anything?" she asked him with her hoof outheld to him. He shook his head quickly. "N....no, I'm not here for anything of the sort. Actually, may I come inside?"
His request confused the rainbow-maned pegasus, but she didn't question it, instead inviting him in by stepping aside and motioning her hoof in a gesture that told him it was okay, a sweeping motion with her foreleg in a semi-wide arc. "Sure, c'mon in then!" she said quickly as he began to step forward. He knew that she had no idea who he was, but he was moreso wondering if she'd remember him once she saw him sans his armor.
He let himself take a moment to look around inside the main hall that led into the rest of Rainbow's house upon stepping inside, looking over several pictures of various members of the Wonderbolts, a subconscious smile curling his lips upward when he realized that many of the Wonderbolts paraphernalia that decorated the main hall had Spitfire prominently featured. "Still think that Spitfire's the best Wonderbolt, I'm guessing?" he asked her, turning to face her while she closed her door up once again, getting an eyeful of blue-furred flank.
Rainbow Dash was caught off-guard by him, looking back just in time to see where his eyes were locked on, making her blush and turn to face him quickly. "....Uh, yeah. Please stop looking at me like that," she said, her wings loosening and extending a little, Dash suddenly realizing the fact that she'd just let a stranger into her home without asking for credentials of any sort. She wouldn't have been thinking that way if he hadn't looked at her like that though, and the way he said what he said....like he knew her. The word 'stalker' appeared in front of her mind's eye, setting her on edge.
He chuckled a little and tilted his head. "Why? You certainly didn't mind me doing it back in Flight School," he said, causing Rainbow Dash to lift her head up in confusion, leaning back a bit. "Huh? Flight School? I don't know yo-" she started to say....but then, she blinked a couple of times and looked over his body quickly. "-oh. Right. All you Royal Guard ponies look the same."
He grinned and flapped his wings a couple of times, uttering something under his breath that Rainbow Dash couldn't quite make out. His silvery armor shimmered and loosened around his chest as well as his head, his fur almost seeming to dull and turn off-white until he shrugged the armor on his torso off. His fur rapidly shifted to a darker blue color, his mane elongating from the uniform length and style, all of it haphazardly laying over one side of his neck and down the back of his head when he removed his helmet as well. He set his armor on his back for now, standing tall and returning his attention to Rainbow Dash, who was still quite confused.
She looked him over carefully, eyeing his long mane and his face, looking for any signs of familiarity, anything that would spark some kind of memory in her, but nothing jumped out. She examined his Cutie Mark next, the bright image of the moon with a silhouette of a mare's head etched into it with stars barely visible around it. The mark was topped off with a Honeysuckle plant growing up from under the moon, surrounding it on either side with its flowers sprouting open on both the left and right of that celestial orb. She blinked and looked back to him. "Nnnot recallin' anything," she said, making him facehoof. "Strider. Wind Strider." She oh'ed and grinned almost instantly, her look of understanding almost lighting up the room, she seemed so pleased with herself. "Hah, right! Blank-Flank Strider!"
Strider sighed and rolled his eyes, that old nickname seemed to follow him wherever he ran into old friends and enemies from Flight School. He just shook his head and tried his best to change the subject, or at least deflect the focus off of himself. "Yup, that's me! Been a few years. Whatcha been up to? Aside from winning renowned contests like the Best Young Flyer's Competition, of course."
Soon, they both found a cloud outside to relax on and just chat, reminiscing and laughing about some of the better times back in Flight School. Rain bow Dash however, always tried her best to avoid talking about herself, especially what she did with herself after running away from Flight School. Strider did his best to remain insistent though, constantly bringing it up in the middle of more entertaining conversation. She always brushed the question off with one of her own, in the usual cool and collected Rainbow Dash fashion, never missing a beat.
All of this happened around half a year after the Grand Galloping Gala, it being a time when Strider wasn't fully engrossed in his training to serve Princess Luna directly alongside three other new and old Royal Guard recruits. It wasn't long before he began to use that time to visit Rainbow Dash every week, stopping in to hang out....but one day, he asked something that would alter his stays and short visits from then on.
Strider flew into Ponyville and picked up some lunch, the time close to the afternoon. He knew that like clockwork, Rainbow Dash was most likely to be taking her usual break from her daily workout and training. It was a shame that she hadn't managed to do another Sonic Rainboom yet, but while they had been hanging out so much this past half a year, he had seen her somehow get faster and stronger than she already was. She was like a magic racing vehicle, like those ones he'd seen being developed in Manehattan for that up-and-coming racing sport that didn't rely purely on the wings of Pegasi.
He landed on a cloud and took a quick look around, spotting her not too far away lounging on a cloud that was just her size, shaped and reformed to be the softest recliner anypony had ever felt. No furniture of any kind compared to the comfort of a cloud. "Hey there, Dash!" he called out as he flew over, grabbing a small cloud on his way over and landing on it a few feet away from hers. "Takin' your break right on time, I see."
She opened one eye and lazily waved a foreleg at him, hoof motioning him over until he settled into his own cloud. "Yup! Gotta rest and get a snack, or I'll wind up getting exhausted way too fast," she explained, rolling over and standing up. "You mind gettin' me a couple apples?" she asked him, bending her forelegs while straightening her hindlegs, lowering her upper body only inches from the cloud before pushing back up, doing a couple of push-ups while flexing and tucking her wings in over and over in long, tense flexes. She had begun to feel a bit stiff from the lactic acid building in her muscles from her workout, so she needed to stretch her muscles out again to keep the blood flowing effectively. Otherwise, she would HURT tomorrow.
Strider nodded and held off on asking his questions for the time being, figuring it might be better for him to catch her off-guard. So, he flew down to the main marketplace after stopping in at Rainbow Dash's home to stow his armor away, the dark-blue pegasus coming back with three apples in a small pouch tied to his right hoof. He landed near where she was flying straight up into the air, then making a U-turn and flying rapidly down at the ground, the exercise one of control. She was trying to maintain an even flight speed with a speedometer she had tied to her midsection, a loud beep going off every time she started to fly faster than the time she had set as the standard minutes earlier. This was difficult because going down and up, she had to fight against gravity the whole time, both slowing her descent and beating her wings to speed up while flying straight up.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash!" he shouted out to her when she neared the end of her little exercise. "C'mon, I've got your lunch....aren't you supposed to take the time to rest until one o' clock?" he asked, undoing the tie on the pouch and setting it down. Normally, it should have fallen through the cloud, but he had purchased an enchanted pouch that he kept in his saddlebags in case he had to carry something smaller, like apples. The pouch fell and landed with a light puff of cloud vapors all around it, the pouch enchanted to treat clouds the same way as the bodies of Pegasi: pseudo-solid ground.
Rainbow Dash grabbed her cloud this time and smooshed it into the one Strider was sitting on, the guardspony already grabbing the third apple he'd bought and rested it on one of his hooves, biting into it. "Thanks Strider! I wanted to get this control exercise done before I really took a full-on break, otherwise I would've gotten the apples myself," she explained, biting into one of her two apples and chewing thoughtfully, looking out over the sea of clouds that occupied the sky. "So, what've you got planned for your visit today?"
Strider took another bite of his apple, flexing his wings and popping the joint that bent his wings to adjust his trajectory during flight. He flapped them a few times and settled them against his sides once more, looking over to her. "Well....I thought that maybe later, after I'm done checking in with the Mayor to get an update sheet, we could maybe....meet up above Trotsam Street and grab some dinner....?" he asked, finishing off his apple and setting the apple core inside of his pouch, clearing his throat a bit. "Maybe go see a movie too?"
Rainbow Dash almost choked on the chunk of apple she had in her mouth the moment he talked about seeing a movie too, her looking away and around for a moment, making sure nopony else was around. She eventually focused on him once more, a blush staining her cheeks, bright enough to be seen just barely under her thin fur. "Uh, Strider, not to make this weird or anything, but....are you asking me out on a date? I mean normally you just spend a day with me, then you head back to Canterlot the next day, so...."
He just nodded his head when she began to trail off, making her eyes go wide, her hooves fidgeting against the cloud some. "Uh, wow, alright, uhm....I, uh...." she struggled, stumbling over words that came and went from her mouth as quickly as she readied herself to say them. She didn't know how to respond to such a suggestion! Strider hung his head a little, his brows furrowing into a look of rejection. "I'm guessing the apprehension's a 'no', right?"
Rainbow Dash shook her head quickly and cleared her throat. "No! No no no, I just....I dunno what I'm s'posed to say, I mean nopony has ever asked me out since I moved here after I ran away from Flight School. This'll actually be the third date I've ever been on, and the third co-uh....stallion, I've ever gone out with." Strider perked up almost instantly at that news, a smile spreading from ear to ear on his youthful visage. "Really?! Wow, I really didn't think you'd say yes! Well, I have a place in mind, so....meet you back at your place at six?"
With the time set, they went their separate ways and kept to themselves. Rainbow Dash was on cloud nine, having never been asked out by anypony in several years, while Strider was pumped from the fact that she agreed to go out with him. He didn't often have much luck with mares, he was far too old-fashioned. This was something he kept in mind throughout the day, because his mannerisms were fine, but Rainbow Dash seemed far too cool to be treated like a Princess constantly.
"....After that, we kept on dating, hooking up whenever I had a chance to stop in! I've tried to make as much time as I can, but lately I haven't been able to find enough time....but, I've got an entire week to myself this time around, so hey," he said with a wide grin. "No complaints here!"
Rarity aww'ed at the two of them, currently lazing over one arm of her sofa while listening to them talk. Applejack didn't seem to be all there, though she did have a faint smile after noticing the shy smile Rainbow Dash was trying to hide. Fluttershy, true to her name, shyly fluttered over and landed light as a feather next to her almost life-long friend, placing a hoof on her back. "Oh, I'm so happy for you, Rainbow Dash! You must be so ecstatic...."
Rainbow Dash lifted her head back up and looked around at her friends, smiling and clearing her throat, trying to break the tension she felt with all of them focusing on her. Normally she would welcome such attention, but at the moment she just wanted to disappear. This whole situation made her feel like such a....filly, a silly filly at that. She was embarrassed, being in the spotlight right then and there, as if she were being scrutinized by her own friends. She looked to Fluttershy with the most genuine smile she could muster, having plenty of practice doing so by trying to look as cool as possible no matter what the situation. "Yeah, of course I am, Fluttershy! Why wouldn't I be? Strider's a cool pony."
The guardspony smiled at that and looked around, only to meet Rarity's eyes and gigantic grin. "So how long?" she asked him, having left her sofa to get in close to speak to him with some semblance of privacy. "How long have you tried to work up the nerve to ask her out? Come now, I just HAVE to know!" she asked, stepping to one side and looking down at his Cutie Mark. "By the way, what caused you to get your Cutie Mark? It's a very unique one."
He blinked at the mini-barrage of questions from the very inquisitive fashionista, rubbing the back of his head and hesitating with his answer to her first question. He quickly welcomed her second one wholeheartedly, that was a far less embarrassing topic. "Well, actually I didn't get my Cutie Mark until after I joined the Royal Guard and started working closely under Aolimnus, the Commander of Princess Luna's personal guard-" he started to explain, but a resounding, blood-curdling scream quickly interrupted him.
Pinkie trotted carefree as ever down the path through Everfree, heading for Zecora's in hopes of running into Twilight on the way. After all, it had been a while, and she'd been at Zecora's hut for quite some time if she hadn't left by now. She had made the lavender Unicorn's favorite snacks, she wasn't going to let them go to waste! She stopped when she heard the rapid clop of hooves galloping against the hard dirt.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Pinkie Pie heard someone scream, her carefree demeanor leaving in favor of her being far more alert, and very worried. She had a funny feeling in her gut, and that never meant anything good. She started to run down the path, but the sight of Twilight coming around the bend made her stop in her tracks. "Twilight?!" she called out, trying to figure out what exactly had her friend so panicked.
Pinkie's eyes went wide and her mouth hung open in terror when she noticed the dark, shadow-like pony running behind her bookworm friend. She was a large pony, no longer the little foal Twilight had encountered earlier, and several black tendrils were extending from its body, trying to grab at Twilight while they ran down the path. One tendril grabbed Twilight's leg, but a quick snap of magical energy had Twilight teleporting forward and only a few feet away from Pinkie.
Twilight didn't wait for Pinkie to snap out of it, she grabbed her friend in a telekinetic bubble of energy and carried her, her lungs and legs burning from the constant exertion, but her panicked mind didn't dare register the fact that her body couldn't take much more of this. She would die if she bothered to pay attention to how cramped, how worn, and how exhausted her muscles were. Pinkie snapped to attention a few seconds after being trapped in the bubble, Twilight setting her down once she started trying to run as well. She was afflicted with the same sense of panic just from gazing at the terrifying creature, and both ponies were rushing back towards Ponyville as fast as they could. Their blood-curdling screams of terror could be heard by most everyone in proximity of that main entrance to the Everfree Forest, including their friends sitting at the picnic that had been put together.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 9 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-01-17T12:45:01+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:05:25+00:00
| 6,820 |
Chapter 9 - ....Little Sister
written by Fire Soul
Strider didn't know Twilight or Pinkie Pie very well, but even he could put together the fact that both of them being in Everfree, and a duet of screams filling the air likely belonged to the only two ponies that were in a dangerous location near Ponyville. He was in the air lightning-fast, his tired muscles making sure he knew that he wasn't in the best shape for whatever was about to happen. Were they being attacked by a Manticore, or a Hydra? That could have been troublesome, even fatal, especially since he didn't have his armor!
Rainbow Dash was faster than her coltfriend by far, in the air and far ahead of him, rushing towards the screams. Rarity and Applejack looked to each other for a moment, not really sure what was going on, but it had their friends at attention. That was enough reason for them to rush off after Rainbow and Strider. Fluttershy would normally have hesitated, and even as she gave pursuit to her friends, she was muttering 'ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness....!' for a few moments under her breath, unsure of what was happening. The screams had her thoroughly worried, enough to forego her concerns and just GO.
"Twilight?!" Rainbow Dash called out, several other ponies from town rushing towards the source of the screams, and they were only getting closer. She was starting to make out words too, panicked pleas and demands. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were telling someone to stay away from them, but who? There was a distinct lack of roaring or anything loud as well, And surely Twilight wouldn't be so utterly terrified by a Cockatrice. Rainbow Dash hadn't a clue.
Strider felt the blood run from his face the closer he got to the entrance of Everfree Forest. He recognized the dark energy he felt, like a pressure that only he could feel out of all of them, pressing on his very soul. He couldn't see the looks of anxiety some of the Unicorns on the ground, however; he wasn't the only one that could feel something odd in the air. No, he was more worried about the fact that whatever this was, he didn't have the power to contend with such power on his own, and he had no way of contacting Commander Nocturnus or any other Royal Guard ponies with the abilities he had. He was mostly on his own with what was likely a very volatile situation, and he knew it.
Twilight and Pinkie were running for their lives, and they both knew that if they dared hesitate even for a moment, they would be caught, and what would happen next only Twilight could grasp the true horror of. She had seen the infinite void that dwelled within that pony's vile maw. She continuously grabbed Pinkie and blinked forward with bursts of magic, the dark twisted pony's words beginning to echo in her mind the more she spoke. "I can help you Sister, please don't run away from me!" the shadow pony called out to Twilight with a genuinely sad-sounding tone of voice. Neither of the fleeing ponies would have any of it, though.
They both rushed out of the entrance with the shadow pony right behind them, a sense of relief washing over them once the sunlight hit their bodies. That didn't stop them from running, but they felt much safer. Twilight was horrified to find a crowd growing outside of the entrance, looking back at her pursuer and gritting her teeth. Summoning up an immense amount of courage, her horn lit up and her magic surrounded the seemingly startled creature, her black hooves being lifted from the ground. Soon she was suspended in place, her eyes wide for only a moment until she figured out what was going on. She laughed.
"Really sister, is this the best you can do?" she asked, her own horn lighting up with a black-tainted light, barely noticeable against her already dark body. Pinkie had given herself much more distance between herself and the twisted pony, but the moment Twilight's flimsy magical stasis field crumbled beneath a mini-explosion of dark magic, she started to step back. There was no smile on her face, she didn't dare try to laugh such an imposing presence away. She had felt fear she thought herself incapable of feeling until now, and she had felt it the moment she gazed upon this pony, making such brief eye contact with her....but it was enough.
Twilight fell back on her dock when her hold was so easily powered out of, shaking her head a few times to clear her vision. That was when she noticed the dark pony only a few steps away from her, the creature that had initially presented itself as a foal now the size of Princess Celestia and Luna, it even had both a horn AND wings. "Y-you're an Alicorn....?" she stuttered, forelegs semi-frantically pressing against the ground as she tried to back away. She only succeeded on falling backwards and slumping over onto her side.
The dark Alicorn laughed a hearty laugh and stepped closer until her forelegs were on each side of Twilight's body, looming over her with a menacing grin, baring razor-sharp teeth. "Oh, sister, I am SO many things, believe you me. So are you!" she said in a surprisingly cheery tone, a foreleg tapping Twilight's side. "After all, YOU haven't been very happy lately, have you sister? It must be dreadful, being something you can't understand. Am I right?" she asked her with such glee that Twilight could only take her words as little more than mockery....save for the fact that she was right. Very right.
A moment of silence hung between them, both looking into each other's eyes expectantly, but this was far from a lover's moment. No, Twilight's mind was stuck, terrified and alone in her stand-off against this creature. Would she be eaten? She couldn't tell, one moment it was chasing her down, the next moment it was striking up conversation with her! Despite the indignant anger welling up within her, she was afraid to move, her mind trying to grasp at what this....THING might do to her if she tried to get away. She was definitely something other than a pony, that much she was certain of. The magical aura she felt from the creature looming over her wasn't that of normal pony magic, it....it tasted different to her, the magic strong enough to actually leave a bitter flavor on her tongue. She could only describe it as pure hate manifesting itself.
The dark Alicorn lowered her head some and looked over Twilight's body, her smile fading the more she looked the lavender Unicorn up and down. "Hmm....but perhaps it hasn't taken hold entirely yet. You still resist what you truly are deep down. I suppose you need-" she began to say, but a hard impact in her side accompanied by a loud battle cry cut her off and sent her flying across the ground, tumbling a few times and settling on her left side. Rainbow Dash stood a few feet away from the stunned Alicorn, wings spread and her body hunkered down, ready to tackle her again if need be. "Twilight! You okay back there?" she called out to her friend, not turning her gaze away from her friend's assailant.
Applejack and Rarity were running as fast as they could, but Strider and Rainbow Dash had the speed advantage in the air, Strider landing moments after Rainbow Dash, right next to Twilight. He quickly gave Twilight a once-over, kneeling down to get a better look. "Are you alright?" he asked with a certain amount of urgency, his eyes darting from her head to her hindlegs, then back up to her face....where a hoof slammed into the side of his face, making him stumble back and sidewayd some. "Augh! What the hell was-"
"YOU! You were hiding HER from me, weren't you?!" Twilight yelled at him, Strider's eyes snapping open and locking in on the Unicorn stomping towards him with a certain fury in her eyes. "I knew I couldn't trust you, I knew there was something bad about you! I should've called you on it, you almost got me killed!" she shouted at him, her eyes slitted and nose touching his, pushing his head back with some force. He began to push back, but his attention diverted to the true problem at hoof when he heard a shrill cry of pain from the direction of the shadow Alicorn.
Twilight was too busy verbally berating Strider to notice that Rainbow Dash, being the headstrong pony that she was, had charged in in an attempt to take on the creature assailing her friends. However, a well-placed shot left a deep gash across Rainbow Dash's chest, making her wings flap irregularly and lose altitude, until she fell on wobbly legs a ways away, closer to Strider and Twilight now, after she backed herself away, surprised by the range the shadow pony had. She cringed and groaned through clenched teeth, pressing a forehoof to the cut, her body hunching up a little in pain. "Gaaah, damn it, it burns....!" she growled out, looking down to the wound and back to the now standing Alicorn a ways away from the three. Rarity and Applejack showed up moments after Rainbow received her injury, both of them standing in a line alongside their friends, AJ offering to help Rainbow, who simply refused. That injury was nothing after all....though it felt like it was on fire.
Twilight got to her hooves with a little of Rarity's help, and immediately shoved Strider again. "You didn't ANSWER me!" she growled out at him. "What did you do in there?!" she demanded from him, stamping a hoof against the ground. Strider just winced and stepped forward, away from her menacing gaze. "All the others were mindless drones. Why is it that you can speak?" he calmly asked the imposing figure before him, keeping a good ten feet of distance between himself and her.
The dark Alicorn stood up straighter and dusted herself off, her irritation with being taken by surprise fading away just as quickly as it had risen up from within her. "Why can I speak? Because I am no mindless drone, no 'stolen pony' to do with as I please," she said simply, standing with a sense of poise and confidence. "You're the one that destroyed my minions, called them to yourself just to slay them....tell me, are all Royal Guards trained in Runic Magic as weak as you are? You were so winded, after all....I feared that you would collapse, and then I would have to EAT you alive...." she said casually, a grin crossing her wicked visage, razor-sharp teeth bared while her tongue ran over them, her eyes focused on him with a predatorial hunger. "You are such an amusing specimen after all, such potential. I would hate to waste it."
He clenched his teeth while he tried to evaluate his current position in this whole matter. There was a crowd, and unless he could find some way to get them to clear out, somepony could wind up dead. On the other hoof, if he didn't fight right this moment or somehow stall her further, there was a good possibility that more than just a few ponies would be ensnared in her vile grasp. He knew for certain that he didn't stand any real chance of actually defeating her....he could feel the overwhelming malice emanating from her. Not to mention he was still exhausted from his earlier scuffle.
So what could he do? He was an ant before an elephant in this situation, even if he weren't tired. In the midst of his thoughts, he didn't notice Twilight approaching him and standing at his side. "You're going to fight her? I want to know why she's after me first," she muttered to him, glaring at him. "What do you know?" she asked, but he shook his head. "I don't know what she wants with you, Twilight. I really don't, I swear."
"Yeah, I'm sure I can take your word for that," she said in a sarcastic tone, turning her gaze to the shadow Alicorn a way away. "So what're you going to do without your armor? As if that'd make a difference...." she muttered, but Strider shook his head. "If I had my armor and I could get her into the Everfree Forest again it actually would, but that's not an option. Can you get everypony away from here? They'll get caught up in the fight if they stay here."
Twilight looked at him with no small amount of disbelief. He had guts at least....that or youthful bravado that was about to get him killed. She was too angry at him to realize that some part of her hoped that would be the end result, all because he kept secrets from her. "You have a lot of explaining to do," she muttered and turned away. "I'll try to help you when we get everypony out of here. Just....do whatever it is you're going to do to supposedly keep us safe!"
He snorted and lowered his head, grinding a forehoof against the ground. "I'll be fine, but....make sure you take care of Rainbow Dash too. She's got a cut on her chest, it's like an infection. Disinfect it fast, or she could die," he told her quickly, stepping forward. Twilight's eyes bulged and she looked back at him with a snap of her head. "WHAT?! Why didn't you-" she tried to say, but he was already disregarding her and charging forward.
His mind was alight with thought, anything to avoid the thought of the potential death he was charging straight into. But the smirk on the dark Alicorn's lips told him that she was more amused than offended by his willingness to fight her head-on. He quickly tried to think of a spell he knew that would get him through this with some semblance of offensive and defensive effectiveness....but the only thing he could think of was the most risky spell he had outside of his Accelerator spell. His wings spread and he cringed as a thin tendril drew blood and left a black outline on the wound, a sure sign of the same kind of infection that Rainbow Dash was struggling to fight against, the burning sensation only getting more and more debilitating over time. His, however, began to fade, and eventually, the black outline disappeared, leaving only a gash behind.
The black Alicorn looked surprised, but then she grinned. "Oh-ho, you know Shadow Magic! Aren't you just the little all-rounder! No wonder your Runic Magic is weak, you've been spread thin. Tsk, not very smart," she muttered, two more tendrils lashing out and slicing into his forelegs, making them buckle under the pain, him crying out briefly and sharply. He gritted his teeth and rose up again, only to find her standing over him, looming over his comparatively smaller form. To say that he felt fear was an understatement. His wings spread and beat hard as a series of tendrils rose up from out of her back and came down, him just barely dodging each one as they rained down only inches from his body, hindlegs kicking him backwards in hard lunges to get some distance while his wings carried him just a foot above the ground when he wasn't running backwards.
Strider took a breath and looked around. The crowd had begun to disperse on its own, him shouting out to them. "Someone get a letter to the castle!!!" he shouted as loud as he could, Pinkie Pie snapping to attention as the crowd ran away around her. "Twilight! Wh-where's Spike?! I c-can go get him an-and-" she struggled to say, the poor trembling party pony looking to her friend desperately, wanting to get away, but wanting to help as well. Twilight called out to her quickly. "Tell him to send Princess Celestia a letter to get more of the Royal Guard over here, it's an emergency! GO!!" Twilight shouted over the slowly panicking crowd, her horn alight as she tended to the wound on Rainbow Dash's chest, the tainted infection slowly disappearing, fading away from the wound.
He swallowed hard and looked back to the Alicorn, who had her forelegs crossed over each other, her smug smile and regal poise making him swallow the lump in his throat. He had the spell prepared in his mind....it was time to make this happen. He looked back and noticed that Twilight had finished cleaning the taint from Dash's wound, the rainbow-maned pegasus sighing in relief as the burning pain subsided rapidly. "Twilight! Can you cover me with a shield spell?" he called out to the lavender Unicorn, her turning to him and nodding, her horn lighting up with a bright, powerful aura. She felt funny, somehow angry....but blissful. Like she was enjoying this. She didn't question it for the time being, there were more important things to focus on, but she made sure to remember how she felt at this very moment.
Pinkie Pie ran off with the dispersing crowd, rushing towards the library and slamming the door open, panting for breath from how hard she had sprinted, almost matching Rainbow Dash in speed. "Spike!!" she called out, running in and looking around, twirling a few times to take in the entirety of the circular-shaped library. "SPIKE!!!" she cried out louder. She heard noise from the bathroom, and a flush of a toilet. The party pony breathed a sigh of relief when he stepped out, rubbing his head and blushing lightly. "What?! Can't a dragon use the bathroom?!"
Pinkie Pie shook her head quickly and fwumped down on the floor, gasping for breath, now that she could calm down a little. "Sp-Spike, you've gotta get a letter to Princess Celestia, now! There's big trouble near Everfree Forest, we need the Royal Guard! That Wind Strider guard pony is in trouble, and Twilight's helping him and I don't know where Applejack and Rarity are and-"
"Pinkie?! Are you okay, sugarcube?!" came a familiar voice from the doorway to the library. Applejack ran over to her, along with Rarity, who already had a letter written and ready. "Spike, send this right away!" Rarity said to the little, confused dragon, Spike grabbing it and lighting it up with his green flames, the leftover smoke drifting out the doorway and quickly heading for Canterlot through teleportation once it was in the open air.
Princess Celestia was standing in the throne room with her sister, a forlorn expression on her visage. She couldn't stop thinking about Twilight, even now. She kept thinking back to that look on her face, those glowing eyes, and that intense magical aura, how full of fury it was, how unbridled her anger was. It sent a shiver through Celestia's body, a chill at the thought of what that could have been caused by, outside of the pressures of her studies. Luna woke her sister from her daydreaming, Celestia apparently not having paid attention to what Luna was trying to say to her. "Sister? Art thou there? Equestria to Celestia~!" she said, trying to sound as cheery as she could, since they were alone save for the Royal Guards standing at the doors leading in and out of the throne room.
Celestia's head jerked upward and she looked around, soon gazing at Luna with a weak smile. "Oh....wh-what were you saying, dear sister?" she asked in that same regal, elegant and charismatic way she always spoke, or so it seemed to most ponies. Luna was far from fooled, however. "Celestia, thou cannot fool thy sister....ugh," she said, clearing her throat. "I mean, you know that you cannot fool me so easily. Sorry, I am still getting used to this modern form of speech."
The Sun Regent sighed and nodded a little, lowering her head once more. "I'm sorry, dear sister. I was thinking of Twilight once again," she muttered, lightly rubbing the side of her head with the flat of one of her forehooves. "It's just, I practically raised her! To see her break down so completely, right before my eyes....it....!" she said quietly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I know, I'm being-"
"-Motherly? Yes, you are, Celestia," Luna said, smiling and cutting her off, reaching over to hug the Sun Goddess around her neck. "Like you said, you practically raised her. I cannot blame you if you feel responsible....but I can tell you that you should not. You could not have prevented what happened, she would have reached her limit eventually. Even I can tell that that is simply the kind of pony she is," she muttered, gently letting her saddened sister go. "I have no doubt that you know that too."
Celestia could only nod. "I just....wish I could have done something more," she muttered under her breath, while Luna sighed and threw her forelegs up in frustration. "Celestia, please! You cannot stop what you cannot control! You can only guide such things in certain directions, and hope that the course you have plotted is followed. Life is not meant to be perfect!" she said with a certain amount of desperation, settling down and sighing. "You are only one pony-"
"-And I am the one pony that watches out for Twilight whenever I possibly can. I should have seen it coming, there is no excuse....hm?" Celestia stated with finality in her voice, just as a letter appeared from a billow of smoke. Her horn lit up and began to open it quickly. "Our first letter from Twilight since she returned to Ponyville! I hope-...." she said with utter delight, her eyes lighting up as if a filly in a candy store, stocking up on her favorite treat. But, as she read the letter, Luna could almost see the blood drain from her already pristinely white-furred face.
Celestia's horn died down and she almost leapt out of her seat, charging out of the throne room and forcing the large doors of said room open on her own. "Celestia! WAIT!! What in the world...." Luna called out to her, quickly picking up the letter and giving it a rapid look-through. Her reaction was much the same, though she didn't rush out of the castle like her sister did. Instead, she rushed to the guards watching the throne room from outside, the two both looking at each other in confusion thanks to Celestia's sudden burst of activity.
Luna approached them quickly. "Find Commander Aolimnus in the Barracks, have him and his squad sent over to Ponyville, immediately! Aolimnus, do you understand?!" she said quickly, her eyes wide with urgency. The guard took in her orders and bowed his head immediately after. "As you wish, Princess!" he said, both of the guards running off with her down the hallway out of the throne room, breaking left down another hallway while Luna chased after Celestia. "Sister, stop!!"
"I have to buy time....just time...." he whispered to himself, the thoroughly injured Strider wincing with every flap of his wings. His muscles faltered and he stumbled down onto his hindlegs, then slumped into a sitting position. His body was covered in cuts, large and small, there wasn't much of his body left that was unmarred. She was having fun with him, and he knew it. It was what he wanted, so despite the burning pain coursing through every inch of his form, he continued to pretend to stand against her.
"C'mon Strider, you've got to buy time....!" he muttered to himself, his wings spreading once more and letting him hover up off of his hindlegs, his limbs feeling wobbly. His normally pristine blue coat was marred with streaks of red all over, the larger cuts letting his blood flow free from his veins. He felt far more tired than he should, no doubt from the pain and blood loss thus far, on top of his own exertions to evade most of the attacks made against him. Twilight's barriers helped somewhat in deflecting the dark Alicorn's seemingly effortless strikes, but time and again they buckled like sheets of glass under the repeated assault of those stabbing and slicing tendrils.
He felt the wind leave his lungs in a forced huff as his side was impacted, a plank of wood from a barrel he'd been sent flying through earlier slamming into his side while he was lost in thought, trying to concoct some sort of plan, anything that would buy him more time than just 'standing there and taking it'. Every hit sapped him of his strength, and he struggled back to his feet only to catch another whack of that plank across the side of his head. Blood seeped from a re-opened cut on his cheek, him catching sight of the tendril holding onto the piece of wood that he'd been bludgeoned with.
She grinned at him from afar, taking a few steps forward and tossing the plank aside. "You're a hardy one! I simply MUST wonder where you get all of that willpower from. Everypony else has left, save for you, Twilight, and that other weakling pegasus up in the sky...." she said, gazing up in Rainbow Dash's direction. "I wonder where she went....?" she mused idly to herself, turning her head this way and that to see if she could perhaps make another pony squirm under her wrath. It had been such a long time since she'd been allowed to have such fun, she wanted to get all that she could out of it.
Strider dropped her words to the back of his mind in favor of the opening the overconfident shadow Alicorn had given him....but it seemed far too obvious. Still, he couldn't risk just letting it pass him by, and if he waited any longer for another one, he might not have the strength to take it! He gritted his teeth and spread his wings, lifting off of the ground and rocketing forward, hindlegs kicking him off for an added boost of speed. He'd rapidly chanted the words for the only spell he knew he had the strength to use here, outside of the untamed magicks of the Everfree Forest, a warmth spreading through his left foreleg the closer he came to finishing it.
She didn't return her gaze and her focus to Strider until he was too close for her to react in time. His body lit up with runes all over, three circles appearing, one on his forehead, one on his chest, and one on his stomach, the lines of runes all over his body shimmering and looking as if they were pulled into those circles, creating three large dots of energy that rushed to that left foreleg and lit it up with a bright, white light. "PARING SHIELD, EXIST!!!" he called out just as he extended his leg out to his left, keeping it straight while starting a swing across in front of himself just as he began to reach the dark Alicorn.
Twilight's focus was gone. She didn't even think of trying to keep him covered any longer. Not only was she exhausted, but she was dumbstruck at the sight before her. A shield big enough to cover the entire front of Strider's body and then some appeared on his command, without his armor! She didn't know much about the Royal Guard's uses for their armor, but she assumed that they were all imbued with magic, since all Royal Guards were colored the same, but he was wearing nothing! Her disbelief was furthered by the fact that he was a pegasus and not a Unicorn, but she felt magic, she CLEARLY felt magic emanating from him. Not normal magic either, but magic that fed on the pony's soul, the most dangerous kind of magic.
The sickening CRACK that filled the air was heard even by Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on a large cloud, listing lazily over the makeshift battlefield, her peeking over the edge just as Strider called out his final incantation. Her eyes bulged as that shield appeared and his arm swung around, slamming the edge of it into the side of the Alicorn's head, the oscillating magic that made up the shield seeming to jolt towards the point of impact faster than the blink of an eye, intensifying the impact to make it even more brutal than it already was. The brutalized shadow pony stumbled back and to her left, dazed and in pain, her shriek of agony an unearthly groan. She lacked the mental faculties to make sense of what just happened enough to properly voice just how badly that hurt her, her head wobbling left and right as if her neck were a wet noodle.
Strider veered to his right with the swing and spun twice, leaning back and beating his wings as hard as he could, his muscles threatening to buckle under the strain of trying to stop his momentum, inertia working against him. He dug his hindhooves into the ground to help, and that was enough to stop him, and with a few more hard beats of his wings, he turned and started at her again, his shield held in front of himself in case she had the awareness to strike within that short amount of time. Sure enough, two tendrils erupted from the side he was approaching, but he was ready. He angled his round ethereal shield, and when they attempted to spear through his barrier, the oscillating magic did the work for him and deflected them up and to his right, away from his body.
Black blood dripped from the Alicorn's mouth and vaporized upon impact with the ground, her right eye closed, the 'bone' around it having been caved in by Strider's hard hit on her head. She turned her head just in time to see the agile pony spinning in the air, his momentum keeping him moving towards her, and before she could turn to face him the flat of his shield impacted into her side. That was when she fully understood the way this shield worked; it had its own punch. The force of impact alone wasn't enough to send her flying, but a sudden impulse of his very soul into the shield made that oscillating magical power sustaining the shield emanate outward in a punching wave of kinetic energy.
The force of the magic sent her shadowy body flying through the air, not in a high arc, but a low arc that made her tumble and roll over the ground in ways that no doubt battered her body in ways that only vaguely made up for the wounds that plagued Strider's. He, on the other hoof, was done, twirling on one hindleg while his shield dissipated, that final burst of energy taking it out of him and fatiguing him beyond being able to keep himself in fighting condition. He had energy left, yes....but his body was beyond protesting and was now punishing him for pushing himself so hard. The wounds and the expended energy made him feel sick, and he barely managed to keep himself upright enough to slump into a sitting position and cough up some blood.
Rainbow Dash dismounted from her cloud, but she didn't have time to reach Strider before a violent scream of fury erupted from the direction he'd knocked his adversary. A surge of darkness hurtled towards him like a black cloud of pure malevolence intent on his demise, and he barely had time to recite his incantations and get his shield up once more in a panic before eight powerful, thick tendrils, razor-sharp, stabbed at him and pushed him back. His hindlegs strained and his wings flapped in a panic, his eyes wide as she appeared from the black mists in front of him. "You INSOLENT little worm! How DARE YOU!!!"
He didn't even see the three smaller tendrils coming around from both sides, one slicing straight through the bone of his left wing and snapping it in half, making him cry out in pain, the other two stabbing into his back and making him arch forward somewhat. He was just barely managing to survive now, his shield crackling and bending back towards him. With a final, desperate dig into his deepest reserves, he pushed against the shield and his hindlegs slid back, just enough for him to yank his shield leg away from the shield itself, only to slam forward as if punching it, the flat of his forehoof pushing it forward once more. He poured himself into it in a struggle to maintain it, but it was no use. His focus was broken and he didn't have nearly enough left to stand against her onslaught. He knew this was over the moment she gave another hard push towards him.
His eyes were filled with horror when she shattered his shield. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion for him, his foreleg outstretched as the very magic he'd poured into his barrier turned on him, as was the nature of such a strong spell. His body didn't have time to react as the magic ripped through the bones in his extended foreleg first, the oscillating nature of the magic shield causing it to twist his leg until the bones were pushed beyond their breaking point. First, his hoof twisted and twisted, then snapped at the joint. Then another crack, and another, the bones snapping and splintering in five different places until his arm was a horrifying, twisted mass of utter agony. It didn't stop there though.
The magic continued to wreak havoc, pushing him back through the air and pressing against his ribs, twisting them as well. First left, then right, then left again....then finally, a wrench to the right and his ribs, every single one, snapped and splintered apart, bone fragments being pushed back and into his lungs. The force of it all finally passed through his torso and through his back, sending him flying in the same way he'd sent his opponent flying, his body soaring just above the ground, only to fall down and tumble like a ragdoll, the sickening crunch of his broken bones breaking even more sounding off, much to Rainbow Dash's terror. It all happened in less than five seconds, but to him, the pain felt like an eternity's worth.
He came to a stop headfirst into the side of a nearby building, or rather, a building over a hundred feet away from where he was before things went horribly wrong for him. He was barely conscious and the pain was surging through his body, not to mention the concussion he no doubt had from his rather sudden, forced stop. He turned his head a little and winced, a sharp pain in his neck making him wonder if that had broken on him as well, his eyes gazing down and spotting part of the bone in his leg jutting out at the joint, straight through his skin. The pain in his chest made rolling onto his back a painstaking process, but he managed it, keeping his broken leg as still as possible.
He could barely think. The pain was so overwhelming that he couldn't even scream, and he silently begged for either death or to fall unconscious, either one....but he got neither. A sudden stomp of a hoof on his chest broke his silence, and he screamed for all he was worth, blood erupting from his mouth and drooling down his cheeks from the corners of his lips. "AAAGGH!! AAAHH-AAAGHSTOPSTOPPLEASESTOOOOP!!!" he pleaded, a vice suddenly surrounding his throat and lifting him off the ground, the force of gravity alone sending a fresh wave of pain through his body. "Suh-sompony....hhheelp....me....!" he barely managed to whimper out, his body sagging limply, his will to fight gone under a sea of agony and brutal defeat.
Tears ran down his cheeks while he stared into her piercing, yellow eyes, the one he'd damaged already repaired, which only cemented his defeat in his mind even further. He hadn't done anything noteworthy to her, she wasn't even limping from the impact to her side, she showed no signs of pain in the slightest. Blood dripped from his lips and down over the thick tentacle encircling his neck while she looked him over, laughing at the sight of him. "Oh-ho, my! I didn't expect that! To use such a dangerous spell, just to get the chance to harm me so....you ARE a gutsy one! I was right, you're worth keeping around for later!" she said with a jovial smile....but then she yanked him almost nose-to-nose with her, glaring into his eyes, the injured pegasus sharply crying out in pain. "You will make a lovely slave. SO entertaining."
He barely heard her taunting words, his lips moving with silent pleas for her to spare his life, for somepony to save him, for ANYTHING to happen that would make the pain stop. She smirked and reached up with a hoof and decked him across his cheek, making him stop and barely acknowledge her as she spoke. "What's your name?" she said with a smile, her voice ringing with happiness. He cringed and swallowed hard. "Suh....Strider...." he managed to choke out in her grasp, the shards of bone in his lungs and the blood clogging his throat making it hard to get any air, let alone her tentacle choking the life out of him. She grinned and giggled to herself. "Well-met....I have no name other than a number, but you may call me your Nightmare....just as your dear Princess Luna did, once."
His eyes slowly began to close, and she chose that time to toss him down to the ground. He let out another cry of pain when he landed, his broken leg slamming limply against the ground. He could feel his ribs shift as his body moved, and the blood pooled from his mouth now that he was laying sideways, as if draining from his throat. He coughed a few times as the world around him darkened....and soon, he was out, blissfully out cold and unable to feel the havoc wrought upon his body.
With her rather entertaining detour taken care of, she walked away from Strider's unconscious body and began approaching both Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the two standing next to each other, stone-still at the sight of the infinitely more intimidating creature approaching them. She was no longer a pony in their eyes. She was a monster that would tear them apart in seconds if they dared to make a move. The closer she got, however, the more Twilight realized that the monstrous dark Alicorn was staring directly at her, as if Rainbow Dash didn't even exist.
Twilight leaned back and looked up at the Nightmare, horrified of what she might do, but she merely leaned in and muttered something into the lavender Unicorn's ear, smiling the whole time. "If you wish to understand yourself once more....find me, deep in Everfree Forest. You know the location, dear sister...." she muttered to her, Rainbow Dash standing off to the side, wanting to do something, anything, but the most she could do was strike a half-hearted, barely threatening pose, as if she were about to pounce upon the Nightmare.
The dark Alicorn scoffed at Rainbow's meager attempt at bravado and turned away from them both, walking towards the Everfree Forest once more and melting down into the ground, a black shadow swiftly moving across the ground towards the treeline. In an instant, she was gone, and they were left alone once more. Twilight slumped down, her legs unwilling to move, she had never felt so scared in her entire life. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, rushed to Strider's side, calling out as loud as she could for somepony to come and help.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 10 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-03-14T19:57:17+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:05:37+00:00
| 3,964 |
[Author's Note: I know these are really getting posted in late increments, but I've been working on something else to get myself out of the monetary GRAVE I'm gonna be buried in soon if I don't do something about it. I promise I'm still working on these, they're actually a relief to get a chance to work on and leave the other stuff behind, but that's the problem: I can't leave the other stuff behind and out of my mind. I'll try to speed it up on getting these done, though. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye.]
Chapter 10 - Simmer
written by Fire Soul
Nurse Redheart had seen many injuries in her time. Broken legs, torn muscles from over-exertion on more than one occasion with Big Macintosh and Caramel Apple, but for the most part Ponyville was such a peaceful, quiet rural town that she rarely wound up in the Surgery Room. Within moments, all of that changed, and by the time the patient had arrived in the hospital, what she'd heard ahead of time had her trembling. She wouldn't believe it until she saw it, but....a completely broken ribcage? Not just a rib or two but each rib, shattered?
Hours went by, a large portion of the hospital's Unicorn staff being called in within that time. She had stayed for all of it alongside Nurse Tenderheart, retrieving surgical tools as rapidly as she could when they were requested, each Unicorn doctor pouring all of their magic and their focus into the brutalized body before them. Needles were placed carefully into Strider's veins and sedative pumped into his bloodstream on a slow drip, keeping him thoroughly under for it all while several of the specialized surgeons guided the other Unicorn doctors assisting them. Shards of his skeleton were removed and traced, the larger parts removed while they cleared his shredded lungs of bone matter.
At the same time, another surgeon was on the other side of Strider's body, tending to his severed wing. It had been broken initially, but the harsh, high-velocity tumble he'd taken tore the muscle, deep tissue and flesh that was keeping it connected. The Unicorn's magic held the wing steady, a red string being lifted up and brought over, the surgeon Unicorn carefully placing one end of the string between the broken part of the wing, and then he carefully wrapped it around the area in a tight spiral, until the entire break was covered by the thin strand. A surge of magic imbued the string with a more sturdy bracing, and almost seemed to solidify the string around the bone, acting as a cast beneath the skin. Satisfied with his work, he took a breath and brought the sutures over along with a healing gel, rubbing the entire area with it, and then getting to work on the muscles and skin.
The same process with the enchanted string was done for his ribs and his leg, though those two sections of his body took far, far longer to work on, especially his ribs. Several lines were led into his broken bones, both in his shattered ribcage and into the thicker, more sturdy bones of his leg, each break being dealt with in the same way that his wing was treated. As a final treatment over ten hours later, a line of a red-colored medication, the same as the strings used to wrap his bones internally, replaced the line of sedative that was keeping him under.
By the time surgery was finished, visitation hours were over. However, when he awoke, he found himself surrounded by familiar faces. Too many for it to be a hallucination. He briefly wondered if maybe he was dead and this was just some sort of afterlife and he'd earned some amount of happiness....but one attempt to move made it clear that he wasn't dead. No, he was very very much alive. Laying on his left side, he lifted his head with a weak, pained groan, his blurry vision clearing the more he woke up. He felt like he'd been drugged, and upon noticing the cast and splint wrapped around his left foreleg, he knew why.
The taste of copper plagued his tongue despite the oral rinsing he'd been given while he was out. By the time he'd managed to lift his head and look around, he saw three other ponies around him, all members of the Royal Guard....Luna's personal Royal Guard. He blinked his eyes to clear his vision better, his entire body feeling wracked with stiffness and soreness in equal amounts. He caught the Unicorn's attention first, the mare's voice ringing in his ears like sledgehammers being slammed through his skull.
"Hee....looks like he woke up!" Valkyre said with a smile, her cheery demeanor betrayed by the clear expression of worry and concern that adorned her.
"Uuuhh, not so loud...." Strider groaned out weakly, Valkyre's voice like a sledgehammer upside his head, accompanied by the tinier nails being pounded in that was each beep of the EKG machine keeping track of his heart rate.
The familiar face of his superiors filled the youthful warrior's vision, his eyes turning up, then down, sweeping over Commander Aolimnus, Lieutenant Colonel Aegis, and Major Valkyre, the three ponies in his life that came the closest to being his family.
Valkyre frowned and looked particularly concerned, prompting Strider to feel a pang of guilt for making his friend seem so concerned. "Hey....don't worry Valkyre. You should see the other pony."
"Cut the crap, Strider," Aolimnus said with a stern tone to his voice, Valkyre's smile fading as she stepped aside, the stoic and silent Aegis stepping aside with her to let Aolimnus stand before Strider to steal the injured pegasi's focus. "What were you thinking, you damn fool? What on Goddess's green Earth happened to screw your training mission up so bad that you wound up going hoof-to-hoof with the Nightmare?!" the Commander said quietly, but with a powerful intensity. The message was clear.
Strider swallowed hard and nodded his head to the older pegasus. He wasn't nervous or concerned, truth be told he knew that Aolimnus' rank would do little to actually cause him a problem because of the position they both shared, but he didn't like the thought of upsetting any of his friends like this, and Aolimnus looked TRULY upset about what happened to him. "....I apologize, sir."
Strider let a pained groan escape him as he slowly tried to sit up, but several modifications to his bed seemed to be almost completely restricting his movements. He couldn't even flap his wings, both of them splinted and forcibly extended out semi-fully, his shattered left foreleg wrapped in an enchanted cast internally and a normal cast and splint combination on the outside. He hated casts, they made him feel so disgusting when that cast finally came off in the future....his leg was going to smell so very, very RANK when that happened. It was an odd thing for him to be thinking about in his current condition, but pain did funny things to a pony's mind in high enough doses....that and he had quite a bit of morphine pumping through his veins.
While Strider took stock of his current situation, bound to his bed as he was and unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon, Valkyre and Aegis stayed off to the side, not having much of anything to say....especially Aegis, given the fact that he rarely ever had anything to say no matter what the situation. Valkyre simply didn't want to get in Aolimnus' way at the moment, he could be genuinely scary when upset.
Upset was exactly what Aolimnus was becoming more and more of, as well. The longer it took for Strider to speak up, the more it pushed the older pegasi's buttons. "Strider, I would like a report right now?" he struggled to say as calmly as he could. Nothing about this encounter with the Nightmare called for being casual, and all of his years of experience told him that they needed to act fast and get done anything that needed to be done as soon as possible.
Strider's attention returned to Aolimnus, his smile missing as he began to piece his words together as best he could, his aching head making it remarkably hard to think. He reached up to rub at his head with a wince, every little move he made creating a fresh wave of throbbing inside of his skull. "Nnnn....sorry, sir. I found ample time to enter Everfree Forest and lure out the Wild Shadows populating the area. All went according to plan until Twilight Sparkle intercepted me on my way back....she saw something, no doubt about that," he explained, his eyes twitching, almost shutting for a moment from a heavy pounding pain that welled up in his head. "Ssshhhheee was asking far too many questions to simply be inquisitive about me as a guardspony."
Aolimnus spoke with a more authoratative tone now, befitting somepony in a position of command. His stern voice filled the room when he spoke. "Did she explicitly say that she saw what you were doing in the forest?"
Strider give a small shake of his head. "No, no she didn't. For whatever reason, she seemed intent on keeping me occupied just as I was leaving Everfree Forest. She seemed very suspicious of me. One other thing, sir...." he said, his eyes dulling a bit as a yawn left his lips. The medication was making him feel glazed over, and more than a little high at the moment, but he kept his mind in the present as best he could. "A Zebra named Zecora lives in Everfree Forest....given what's happened, we should evacuate her from her house in there. She knows about my Runic Magic, said she could feel the beacon I brought with me. I think she's a Druid."
"Oh, no....not a Druid," Valkyre grumbled, the young Unicorn hanging her head a bit. She rubbed the side of her head, an annoyed look upon her face. "You serious, Strider? That's gonna be a big issue. Druids don't take kindly to being 'evicted' from their forests."
Aegis let out a small huff of a sigh through his nose, but still he said nothing, his stoic demeanor holding fast compared to everypony else in the room.
"I know....and she didn't seem to like me at all after she found out what I had with me." Strider said, clenching his teeth as a fresh throb of pain echoed through his head and neck, then his chest, renewing his headache and the dulled ache from his ribs. "Nnf....it's stashed at Rainbow Dash's house with my armor, by the way. She knows where I keep my things."
Valkyre shrugged and sighed, looking to Aegis and Aolimnus for a moment before speaking up. "I would suggest that we go and get this 'Zecora' then....she can walk through the forest itself just fine, she is a Druid for that forest. But she cannot control Wild Shadows, and the longer she stays in there, the more likely she is to be found."
Aegis just nodding and heading for the door, the powerful-looking stallion followed by Valkyre rather quickly. "The Princess will be here later for a full debriefing, I'm sure you know why," Aolimnus said, following suit and heading for the door.
Strider just grinned. "Hey Aegis!" he struggled to half-shout, causing some burning pain in his chest.
The big Earth Pony turned his head and peeked his head into the room, his expression remaining, save for a more curious look in his eyes.
"Your Paring Shield sucks a gigantic one. HARD."
"WHY was he in the Everfree Forest?!" Twilight shouted, rubbing the sides of her head in frustration.
Princess Celestia sighed and facehoofed, shaking her head in slight frustration. "Twilight, please, calm down." Celestia demanded in a firmer voice.
Her soothing tones did nothing to make the lavender Unicorn back down. "No! You know something, he knows something, and I want to know why that....THING was chasing me!" she shouted at her teacher, anger and frustration in equally large amounts all too apparent in Twilight's voice and even her body language.
All of her friends save for one were sitting outside of the library, having been instructed by Celestia to give her some time with Twilight. Pinkie still seemed rather shaken from the whole experience, a single gaze into the dark creature's eyes bringing back memories of horror and sadness that she had buried for such a long time....she wasn't prepared to deal with them. The only pony not there was Applejack, who had been sent home by Rarity and Rainbow Dash, both of them easily able to tell the fact that their friend was utterly exhausted, and didn't need to deal with this sort of issue; they had it under control, as close as one could come to control given the circumstances, anyways.
Celestia's jaw tightened within her closed mouth, looking to Twilight with no small amount of uncertainty. Twilight and Rainbow Dash had told her everything, and to say that she was concerned was putting it lightly. Twilight, however, looked like she was ready to snap and break a few legs to get a straight answer out of somepony.
Celestia sighed and relaxed, nodding her head. "....Wind Strider is one of four personal guards protecting my little sister, Luna," she said, looking directly at Twilight while she spoke, her large and regal form being displayed in her usual standing pose she always seemed to strike, as if it were a natural way for her to stand. "He is also a practitioner of a very old, very strong and very dangerous form of magic. Many Royal Guards, including the other three protecting my sister are trained extensively in its safe use, and great measures are taken to make sure the civilian populace doesn't learn of its existence."
Twilight only nodded to Celestia, just trying to take it all in, recalling the events from earlier. It was a shocker to everypony there, what occured when Strider decided to take action, much to his consequence. True, she only nodded, but inside a maelstrom of emotions and questions began to surface. She was unsure what to start with, but she knew herself well enough by now to know that if she allowed herself to dwell on the emotions, she'd only get angry, and that would get her nowhere. She wanted answers now, she wanted information, she wanted to KNOW for the first time in months!
"....He used magic that consumes the caster's soul. I could feel that, it was like a part of him was being manipulated, and when his shield disappeared, that part of him stopped existing," Twilight muttered, staring at the floor and shifting her gaze this way and that, as if looking at some kind of invisible graph or chart. "How could I have missed the use of such magic all around me? How long has this been going on, Princess, why did you never-"
"Because it wasn't something I wished to impose upon you, Twilight. You have always had enough to focus on with your extensive studies, I felt you didn't need to know about such a thing." Celestia stated calmly, but firmly, sensing that her precious student was still upset about what had happened back in Canterlot.
It was her eyes. They once again held the spark, the THIRST for knowledge that drew her to the intelligent, powerful young filly in the first place. If she hadn't caused Spike to spontaneously transform along with everypony else in that examination room, she likely would have continued on her walk through the castle. Celestia's only question now was....why did she have such a drive back?
Twilight furrowed her brow, staring into Celestia's gaze for a long moment, causing the Sun Goddess to become somewhat unsettled. "That's a lie....you didn't tell me about this for another reason. It has something to do with that mare that chased me. Doesn't it?" she asked in an elevated tone, standing up and taking a tentative step towards her teacher.
Celestia's heart sank almost instantly when Twilight put two and two together so quickly. She kept her expression as straight as she could manage, given how surprised she'd been by her student's revelation. She shouldn't have been surprised to begin with, Twilight was HER student and a very smart pony to begin with, but the potential consequences Twilight might suffer if she knew....no. "Twilight, knowing this would only harm you. Please....let it go."
Twilight's left eye twitched in a sudden burst of irritation, her feelings on this matter not dying down in the least. She stared at Celestia for what felt like a long time despite being only a few seconds, hoping that her teacher would simply tell her....but Celestia stared her down in return, forcing her hoof. "Will you PLEASE give me something to work with here?! Why was she so focused on me?"
Celestia could only shake her head to this. "No. I'm sorry, but this is simply too important."
"And WHY NOT?! I wanna know why! You've never kept a secret like this from me Princess, and even now after you've been caught, you won't tell me what's going on. What do you expect me to do, just drop it because YOU say I should?" Twilight half-shouted, her eyes slitted and staring her teacher down like daggers.
The Princess was shaken, but her resolve in this matter was unchanged. Still, Celestia could tell that she wasn't going to simply stop Twilight by asking her to....perhaps she could open up about the dangers of learning about this? "Twilight, if I tell you, I could be putting you in a lot of danger. As your....your teacher, I cannot bear the thought of being one of the reasons any harm comes to you or anypony else! I wish I could tell you and put you at ease but I can't, so please, stop asking about this and just...." she said with a certain amount of desperation in her tone....yet, she couldn't bring herself to ask Twilight to forget about this. That would only further her student's need to know.
She was no fool. She knew that no matter what she said, Twilight would never give up on finding an answer. She didn't bother looking up, the gaze that her beloved student was giving her was one of betrayal, anger, and even hate. Perhaps hate was a strong word for it, but Twilight certainly detested her at this very moment, that much she knew, as much as any of Twilight's friends likely knew, since they were listening in through an open window next to the front door. "....Twilight, please, just give me time. I can't tell you about this right now, it is too dangerous."
The lavender Unicorn felt little pity for Celestia's current emotional state. No, she didn't even notice it, but she was only concerned about herself, and given how much she'd had to deal with recently, she wasn't in the mood to just stand down and let Celestia walk away from this without giving her SOMETHING. "....She said she had answers, Princess."
Celestia's blood ran cold. The words hit her like a sack of bricks. "You wouldn't."
"Yes I would," Twilight said calmly, stoically even, as if the look of horror on Celestia's face didn't faze her in the least. "You of all ponies should know just how far I'm willing to go to get the answers I want."
Celestia's concerned gaze turned to one that very, very few ponies ever saw from her: rage. She stood and stalked up to Twilight, bringing herself nose-to-nose with her student. "After all I've done for you, night after night giving you counsel on your studies, watching over you, taking you in as my personal student, this is what I get in return?!"
Even Twilight felt the least bit intimidated, but she calmed herself knowing that Celestia was one of the most self-controlled ponies in Equestria. She wouldn't harm a fly unless it were absolutely necessary. "Yes, because you always taught me to strive to learn all that I can!"
Celestia ground her pristine teeth, leaning away from the lavender Unicorn and furrowing her brow. "I also taught you how to respect other ponies! You've trusted me your entire life, why won't you just trust me now?!"
Twilight clenched her teeth and stepped forward, glaring right into Celestia's eyes. "Because you're not giving me an answer!"
"I GAVE you an answer, I told you that it could doom you!"
"And it's not enough for me!! WHY would it doom me?!"
Pinkie Pie was the first to make herself known, the door to the library being shoved open and her rushing in-between the two arguing ponies. "Oh no! Wait, Twilight, y-you don't mean any of this, neither of you do!" she said, trying her best to shove herself between the Princess and one of her best friends. "We've always been friends here! The Princess must have a good reason for keeping it a secret, right?"
Celestia wasn't budging though, and Pinkie's words only served to make Twilight even more upset. "There's no reason good enough to hide this from me!" she hissed out from between tense lips. "Nothing's been the same ever since I came back....!"
Rarity and Fluttershy quickly entered, followed up by Rainbow Dash, who looked just as concerned as any of the others in the room as Twilight's expression turned from one of anger to one of desperation. "All I've been doing since I've come back is....is try to figure myself out again! I used to know myself so well, used to be confident and-and thoughtful, but now....!" Twilight tried her best to explain while her eyes watered and tears began to build, sitting down and staring down at her own forehooves.
Celestia's anger subsided as she listened, her concern returning as tears began to run down her faithful student's cheeks. "Twilight....?" she asked in a quiet, almost motherly tone, taking a step forward, Fluttershy stepping closer while Pinkie stepped a little to the side so Celestia could move in closer as well.
"The psychiatrist said that I'm depressed, but I shouldn't be so....s-so....!" she struggled to say once more, looking around herself, all of her friends save for the exhausted and currently resting Applejack surrounding her.
They were standing and sitting there, Celestia included, just waiting and listening, the lavender Unicorn able to see the calm reassurance in their eyes, a little sniffle heard as Rainbow Dash stepped around to her left and wrapped a foreleg around the back of her neck from the side.
She was silent for a moment, all of them were, but finally she spoke up, swallowing the sobs she just wanted to let herself wallow in on the floor. "E-every time somepony asks me to go out and do something, I try to smile and make sure that you all enjoy yourselves, but it's such a chore to do because I'm just not having fun anymore....!" she said, gritting her teeth and stamping her hoof against the floor. "I haven't picked up and genuinely enjoyed a single book in months, even!!"
Celestia just listened, the expression on her face almost unreadable, a steady gaze being trained on Twilight while she opened up to them all. "I hate going out, it's a conscious effort to get anything done-" she continued on, her voice breaking and a single sob leaving her while she hung her head. "-and all I can do is just lay around and hate everything and I don't know why....!"
Pinkie Pie was silently crying while wrapping her forelegs around Twilight's neck from the front and a little off to the side. Rainbow Dash, despite always being a bit hesitant with affection, couldn't stand to see the despair her friend was in. Fluttershy was already in tears, covering her own muzzle with her forehooves. Rarity was just....taking it all in, her glistening eyes betraying a surprisingly stoic outward expression. Inwardly, she wished there was something, anything she could do to take all of this pain away from one of her dearest friends.
"I can barely even stand being around anypony, I just keep having you all over because I keep trying to believe that it'll get better and this will all go away, but....it's been so long already, I just can't stand it!" she tried her best to say clearly through sudden bouts of sobbing, uncontrollable crying and the frustration that only made it all worse. "I just want to be me again!!!"
Celestia wanted to talk. She wanted to tell all, all of what she knew, what she assumed, and all of what she was already guessing at. She knew, though, that it would destroy her. She was NOT ready for this. Not yet.
With a heavy heart, Celestia retracted the hoof she'd unconsciously reached towards her student with, stood, and turned to walk towards the door, her head hung in anguish. "I....I-I'm SO sorry, Twilight...." she said, just barely audible over the sound of her student crying her eyes out.
Twilight's eyes snapped up and she reached out towards Celestia, her eyes wide with fear. "No, please! Please, you have to know what's happening to me, you have to tell me something!!" She was too late, however; Celestia was gone.
Twilight stared, that wide-eyed gaze turning into a sad, crushed expression while her outstretched foreleg faltered and slumped down to the floor. Just as suddenly though, she slammed her hoof at the ground in frustration and anger, three times, as hard as she possibly could. She wanted to strike something, and the grain of the wood beneath her hooves seemed as good a target as any. "DAMN IT!! Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs before her rage broke into sadness once more, the defeated Unicorn slumping down to the floor and letting the sobs, the tears, letting all of it flow freely. She had little choice....it was all she was able to do about her situation, as of late.
It wasn't just the fact that she still didn't have the answers she needed to be freed of her current condition. It wasn't just the fact that despite her friends being right there, wishing there were some way they could take her burden upon themselves, it made little difference to her and she felt nothing from such a show of care and affection. It was the fact that after all these years, all her time spent with Princess Celestia, when she truly needs her to be a beacon of hope....Celestia's flame had gone out for her, leaving her to fend for herself in her own darkness.
Celestia stepped away from the library, one of her personal guards instantly at her side, a pegasus with a lantern in his maw, leading her to her chariot. He looked up to Celestia, very concerned when he began to see tears running down her pristine face. He stayed quiet for now, however, following along as Celestia rushed for her chariot.
Spike, however, looked very upset, and very worried just the same. He was sitting on the back of the chariot, in the way of Celestia and her guard, the pegasus putting his lantern down on the chariot and looking between Spike and Celestia, bowing to them a moment later. "Might I assume I should leave you two alone, Your Majesty?"
Celestia nodded, sniffling and wiping one of her eyes to clear her vision once more. "Yes Honorius....thank you," she said as he turned and walked away, towards the library once more, but he only stayed out of earshot, not wanting to eavesdrop....or at least, not seem like he was eavesdropping. Celestia turned her more clear and slightly more calm gaze to Spike, who looked very pensive. "What is it, Spike?"
The little dragon's eyes were glistening as he looked up to the Princess, hopping down from the end of the chariot. "Is there anything I can do, Princess? I've watched her these past couple months, and she's at her wit's end. She doesn't want to admit it but she is!" he said, his little arms trembling with a mix of anger, and his struggle to hold his own feelings back.
All these years Twilight was there for him, tending to his needs while he grew up, being fed, taught and all of it made him feel like he had a big sister, possibly even a Mother, despite him being a dragon. Now, when she needs help the most....he was just as lost as she was.
His eyes were giving the Sun Goddess a silent plea for help, and that only made the turmoil within Celestia's heart wrench at her more. "I can't tell you anything, Spike....this is something that only time can be the salve for. If there were a way for me to help I would do it in a heartbeat, but I just....!" she said, her eyes darting left and right, struggling to find a way to put it that would make sense, but she could think of nothing. "....I just can't!"
Spike stood there for a moment or two, just staring up at her, some part of him wishing that she would cave at least a little bit....but, he got nothing. He rubbed at his eyes and sniffled once, stepping past her. "Th-then I have to go, Princess....Twilight needs me just as much as she needs all of her friends."
That single sentence hit her hard, and her entire body trembled under the weight of her own sadness. Could she still consider herself somepony that actually mattered to Twilight? Was she still a friend, a teacher, a damn near surrogate Mother? She felt like none of these things at the moment....all she felt like was somepony that refused to help a friend in dire need. As Honorius approached, she stepped up onto the chariot, facing away from him.
"Are you ready to go back now, Your Ma-" Honorius began to ask, but he was cut off when Celestia held up a hoof.
She didn't want to look at him, but he knew what a simple gesture like that meant, the same gesture when asking crowds to be silent so she could speak. "Strider is your friend, is he not? You should stay and visit him."
"But Your Majesty, it is late and I should-"
"Honorius! Please...." she said, her entire body visibly trembling before his eyes. His step faltered as he made for the right side of the chariot, taking a step back. "I will be fine....just go visit your friend. I'm sure you know what happened."
He stood there for a moment, the pegasus surprised at just how distraught Celestia seemed to be. But he would respect her wishes, giving her an unnecessary, formal bow, one she couldn't even see. "As you wish, Your Majesty....be safe."
With that, Celestia firmly stamped her hoof at the floor of the chariot, and the pegasi pulling it took off, sailing through Luna's night sky, using the stars and the memory of the trails they had flown countless times in the past to find their way back to Canterlot through the darkness. The ride for Celestia, however, was an inner battle. With every passing second, she had to fight the urge to break down and begin crying her heart out within full view of her loyal subjects, despite it only being two of them.
She stayed almost stock-still the entire ride back to the castle, barely acknowledging the landing until one of the pegasi notified her that they had arrived. She was lost in thought, her lungs stiff and barely allowing her to draw breath, fearing that allowing herself to take a full breath would bring with it a torrent of sobs that many in the castle would hear.
She made her was briskly down the halls, thankful that it was nighttime and that very few ponies were up and about at this time, save for some of Luna's division of the Royal Guard. Finally, her room was in sight, her waving off the awaiting ponies that wished to have some last-minute guidance from her on some legal and political issues that were so far gone from her mind at the moment, she couldn't even remember half of what had been brought to her attention earlier that day.
With her room secure, the doors locked, the guards sent away and her privacy secured, her horn lit up and her magic ripped the crown off of her head, the jewel-encrusted accessory clattering across the floor with the rest of her more ornate accessories, Celestia's fury releasing itself at her whim. She could only think of how helpless she was....a Sun Goddess with no light to shine the way for her now-errant student.
Her crying eventually lulled her to a fitful sleep, constantly broken by nightmares of what could be, or what she might have caused had she said anything. This wass merely another lesson in her eternal life, one that she hated most of all: sometimes the correct choice, the choice that will save the lives of many a good pony, is the most difficult and, at the time, the most painful choice to make. One thought continued to make her feel worse and worse about her decision, however.
"....Th-there's nothing I can do to stop any of this....!"
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 11 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-03-15T20:23:50+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:05:48+00:00
| 4,532 |
Chapter 11 - Boil
written by Fire Soul
Luna stood before the hospital's doors, her guards already inside. She felt a pang of guilt as the details of the 'incident' ran through her mind once more. It was meant to only be a training exercise, one that she had even put Aegis through in Everfree Forest, albeit with much more secrecy, but even with Strider being caught using Runic Magic, there was no way to anticipate the Nightmare....or was there?
Her mind wandered to Celestia's prized student while she stepped inside of the waiting lounge, one of the nurses immediately giving her special treatment and her undivided attention. "Princess Luna! May I assume you are here for one 'Wind Strider'?"
Sadly, her thoughts on the matter of Twilight Sparkle's involvement in all of this would have to wait, it seemed, at least for a short while longer. Strider would likely have some answers, though other concerns for him weighed on her conscience as well. This job mattered a lot to him, more than his own life judging by his recent actions. But if his injuries were truly as severe as they said....
She nodded her head to the nurse, a young paint horse stallion, a brown-maned male with a coat of white fur with brown markings in random patterns over that coat. Most ponies were solid colors, and it was uncommon but not rare to find various species of ponies all over the world, even in a small country town like Ponyville.
"Yes, we wish to-erm....I wish to see Wind Strider. He is one of the Royal Guard you see, and there is an urgent matter I must speak to him about," she said with a vague smile. The stallion nurse looked nervous in her presence, so she did her best to calm him. "Wouldst thou take us to him?"
The nurse nodded to her and quickly turned away, motioning for the Princess to come with him. "He's just down this hall, Princess."
Luna stepped up next to the colt nurse and smiled, walking with him instead of simply following him. "You may call us Luna."
That seemed to put the nurse a little more at ease, much to Luna's delight. Perhaps her sister's lessons in modern equality etiquette were worth the trouble! After all, looking down at her subjects was never something that sat well with Luna, or the fact that many of them believed she would be that way just for being the 'Princess of the Night'. She was no snob, and much like her sister, her personality was far from aristocratic! She simply liked to give....a proper presentation of herself, as much as possible.
That need for 'proper presentation' seemed to leave her though, when she saw just how injured Strider truly was. She approached with a look of concern, guilt even, as she gazed upon the cast and splint combination on his leg, and his wing most of all. The deep-rooted fear that his greatest asset out of his entire body may have been lost or permanently crippled, and the look on her face twisted into a look of pain when she heard him rouse from his slumber, awoken by the sound of her accessory-clad hooves against the tiled floor.
As his vision cleared, he yawned and looked up, into the eyes of the Princess that he had been tasked with protecting above all else, a sleepy smile rising up on the corners of his lips. "Good evening, Your Majesty....is it still evening, actually?" he asked, looking around, unfortunately stuck laying on his side when his broken leg wasn't stuck in Unicorn suspension to allow him to shift about and get some movement in some of his other limbs.
Luna gave a weak smile and sighed, gazing out of the hospital window. It was indeed nighttime, quite late actually, and yet her sister insisted they stay until everything had been sorted out. That included the issues with Twilight that Celestia heard about from her letter, and for Luna, that especially included one of her most promising members of her personal guard.
She shook her head. "Nay, not evening," she said, looking back to him. "Not quite."
He quirked a brow and turned his head a little, eyes doing most of the gazing for him, lest he cause yet another sharp pain in his shattered chest from an errant tug on a muscle or tendon connected to the upper area of his ribcage. "Huh? But I thought-" he said, sounding a little more awake now. Then he got what she meant. "Oh."
She had tried to hold back her smile, but Strider's jokester personality always seemed to bring her out of her royal shell when in his presence. "Indeed, 'tis nighttime. Thou should be more accurate!"
He just weakly chuckled and gave a small grin, closing his eyes. "Well! Either I'm just not paying attention and slacking off, or the concussion's messesesesing wid' me brain t'ing'ies!" he said to her, purposely mucking up his speech at that end to emphasize his retort.
Luna's feelings of guilt and concern were lost beneath a veil of laughter. He was always such a silly pony in the most appropriate of times, and he knew it. Of course, his eyes had been locked on the expressions evident upon Luna's face once he'd woken up, and he didn't like what he saw. So, he aimed to fix that, and much to his delight he succeeded....well, until she began speaking again.
"Thou art very silly, Strider....but, we came to discuss other things," she said, frowning and stepping forward, looking him over for a moment. "Art thou alright, first of all? No malfections?"
He shook his head a little. "No, nothing of the sort, just a lot of broken bones. Aegis's Paring Shield spell backlashed on me is all aside from all of these cuts I have under these bandages," he said, his eyes turning downward, gazing upon just how much of a partial mummy he looked like at the moment. "No need for concern Princess, I'll be back on my hooves in no time!"
Luna wasn't convinced with just how well he actually was doing at the moment. She gave him a stern look and sighed. "Strider, thou must know that thy injuries-" she began to say.
"You're doing it again, Your Majesty."
"-Ugh! You know that your injuries will result in you having to do a physical evaluation in front of a council of your peers," she said, looking away while walking over and examining his chart. "I fear the worst, given what has happened to your leg and wing."
His eyes went wide in fear. He hadn't thought about that! He turned his head as far as he could to look to her, trying his best to sound calm while he spoke. "Wait, Your Majesty! You know better than anypony else that if I have enough time, I could be back in peak physical condition in time to prove that I can still perform as your personal guard!"
"I know that just as well as Valkyre and the others do, which is why it is not my decision, nor is it theirs," she said, frowning. "You will be evaluated for your physical prowess before the standard Council. After that...." she said, looking to the door as somepony knocked on it. "Hm? Come in."
The door opened soon after she spoke, the familiar guise of a pegasus Royal Guard entering the room. "Hey there Strider," he said, looking to Luna and bowing a moment after. "Your Majesty."
Strider knew who it was almost immediately, judging by the Cutie Mark he had: two spears crossed over an image of the Sun. "Honorius! Good to see you."
The guardspony looked between his good friend and Princess Luna, and cleared his throat. "Am I interrupting anything, Your Majesty? I would hate to intrude."
Luna simply shook her head. "No, nothing of immediate importance. Strider, we will finish our conversation tomorrow, after you have been transferred to the castle's hospital."
Strider turned his gaze up to Luna and smiled, nodding slowly to her. "Very well, Princess. Uh, Honorius," he said, looking to his friend. "Would you give us just one moment, please? I have to talk to the Princess about something important. To me, anyways."
Luna stopped and turned, a curious look on her face. Honorius was curious as well, but he didn't make a fuss about it, it probably wasn't his business to begin with. "Sure thing. Talk to you in a bit," he said, turning and heading for the door. He bowed to Luna once more before he left. "Your Majesty."
With that, Honorius was outside and out of earshot, the door closed and their privacy secured. Strider looked to Luna with concern. "Princess....how much time will I have to prepare myself? I won't be in any kind of physical condition to pull this off if I go right back into service after the cast is removed from my wing and my leg."
Luna frowned and thought on that for a moment, tapping the floor with the tip of her hoof. "Well, normally you have two weeks to be ready to present yourself to the Council once you're deemed well enough to go back into service...."
He cringed at that. He didn't need to do the math to know that he'd never be adequately prepared, nor would his leg have fully recovered enough by then for him to do any amount of fancy hoofwork. Not to mention his wing, having one wing's muscles weaker than the other could make flight and aerial acrobatics and other strenuous activities with one's wings very, very difficult if not impossible. Two weeks was NOT enough time for him and he knew it.
Luna saw the flow of expressions that ran across his face as he thought through that tidbit of information, and it instilled even more concern and even guilt upon her. He was one of the most noble and skilled personal guards she had ever chosen. Despite his age, he had proven vigilant, obedient, self-sacrificing and dedicated to her security, even at the cost of his own. He even made her laugh with normally lame jokes, but he always seemed to know just what to say to lighten up some of the most tense situations....she didn't want to think of him losing his position because of a lack of adequate time.
"....I cannot make them overlook your injuries, Strider," she said, smiling a little. "But, if my sister will help me and back me, I believe I can convince the Council to give you one month instead of two weeks to get yourself back into proper physical condition."
Inwardly he was jumping for joy, and the wide grin on his face gave all of it away. "Thank you for this, Princess! I promise, I won't let you down."
"I know you won't. I have seen you almost every night in the training grounds, on my way to the Royal Library. Sometimes I wonder when you actually get sleep," she said, smiling a little while looking out the window. "Still...."
Strider blinked and looked to her curiously, Luna taking a deep breath and letting it out. "I'm very sorry for letting this happen to you, Strider," she said, her guilty expression making the injured pony frown. "I should have taken this into consideration. You are the first pony that has been sent to the Everfree Forest to suppress the population of the Wild Shadows since I returned, I should have seen the possibility that she would have been waiting for....well, I don't know what she was waiting for, really...."
He just let her speak for the time being, staying silent and listening to it all. Her tone of voice rang with sincerity from what he could tell, and it tore at him. He didn't like seeing her unhappy for any reason whatsoever. "You know, Princess....this was still the best outcome," he said, chuckling weakly. "Me getting my sorry butt kicked is better than a bunch of Royal Guardsponies getting slaughtered and possibly only serving to upset the Nightmare further, right? Besides, she seemed very intent on Twilight....I don't know why she backed off."
Luna smiled only a little, Strider's logic ringing true and sound to her after a moment of consideration. He was one of the most skilled practitioners of Runic Magic, and one of, if not THE fastest Pegasi in the Royal Guard. If he suffered these kinds of injuries on his own, it would have been likely that less well-trained guards would have only gotten in the way or killed, either-or. "I suppose you are right....still, I should have known better. As for Twilight, my sister is tending to that matter as we speak. I pray she does nothing rash."
Strider could only nod to that and then yawn, a sleepy smile crossing his lips. "Well Princess, I know I'm a night owl, but I should probably try to get some rest....after talking with Honorius for a bit," he said. "He's probably dying to hear details of how badly I got beaten down."
She laughed and nodded to him, the Moon Goddess turning and heading for the door, the magic in her horn opening it up with ease. "Remember, tomorrow you will be transferred to the castle's hospital," she said, ducking out into the hallway. "Honorius? You may speak with Strider now. We are finished here."
As Luna stepped past Honorius, fully clad in his Royal Guard armor, he nodded once to her. "Very well, Your Majesty," he said stoically, walking into the room and closing the door behind himself. He looked over Strider's wounds once more and smirked, stepping towards him and sitting down next to the bed. "So....how'd the whole thing go down?"
"Hah! I totally called it!"
The next day, a lot of work near the site of the incident had been cancelled, most ponies fearing to even go anywhere near the edge of the Everfree Forest. Those that were there feared the Nightmare. Those that heard about the Nightmare from their friends feared her even moreso, unsure of where they actually WOULD be safe from her. Their imaginations ran wild, and soon stories of a horrific beast the size of a building came from the encounter with a shadow creature the size of an Alicorn.
Not to mention the tales surrounding the brave Royal Guardspony that stood up to the mighty creature of massive size and power, capable of toppling the most sturdy of buildings and crushing ponies under a single hoof! He flew circles around the great beast and inflicted grievous wounds, holding his own against such unfathomable might....but his noble heart caused him to take a powerful, crushing blow in defense of all of Ponyville! That is, of course, the only way a true HERO could be defeated by such a wicked creature.
It annoyed Strider to no end to be taken to by the nurses for his 'bravery'. He only did what he had to do, and he certainly didn't fight anything the size of a damn HOUSE. Oh, how he hated the rumor mill. He wanted to find the section that overexaggerated and glorified the truth, drop a tactical Magic Missile bombardment on it, and wipe it from existence!
Almost all of this overexaggeration was lost on Twilight and the others. Twilight especially, the Unicorn mostly keeping to herself, not having said a single word to anypony, despite the main room of the library being full of her friends. Even the mailmare, Derpy, seemed concerned, and she only saw the look on Twilight's face through her window while stopping in to drop off mail, at least, mail that didn't come directly out of Spike's fire-spewing gullet.
"Is Twilight okay....?" the gray-colored mailmare asked, looking to Rainbow Dash....and Spike at the same time, or so it seemed with those eyes of hers.
Spike just shook his head, and Derpy blinked. She was about to say that she asked Rainbow Dash that, but she was used to this sort of thing happening. Rainbow Dash had grabbed Derpy's attention now though, the normally rambunctious weather pony a big lump of sadness in her....discerning gaze.
"Rainbow Dash, what's wrong?" Derpy asked in her usual manner, that innocent and naive tone of voice that fit her so very well. However, very few in the current vicinity of the muffin-brained mare were feeling a very talkative mood, so Derpy was left standing there in silence for a few moments.
Pinkie Pie was the first to break the silence. "Sorry Derpy, some really crazy stuff happened yesterday, so uh....we're all kinda not ourselves today," she said, the party pony suddenly grinning as a thought occurred to her, leading Derpy back out of the library. "But DON'T you worry your silly little head off about it! We'll be back to normal in no time. We always are!"
The derpy-eyed pegasus smiled at that and nodded, taking off into the air. "That's good! I'd feel bad if I left my friends feeling all sad and down, you know."
Pinkie just waved goodbye while she continued on with her rounds, the pink pony's smile fading only a little as she turned and stepped back inside, closing the door behind herself. Her eyes were on Rainbow Dash now, who really did look far more worse for wear than a single argument would cause. The others seemed to notice it too, but before they could say anything, Pinkie was already all over her about it.
"You know Dashie, I'm starting to think that Derpy's eyes see things we don't at first. IS there something wrong with you? 'Cuz we're right here, y'know!" Pinkie said in as cheerful a tone as she could, grinning a little bit.
The rainbow-maned pegasus had mostly hung her head all morning, her eyes glossy and her gaze towards the ground, appearing entirely lost in thought. Nopony had noticed because, well, most of them looked the same way, though the others were taking turns checking up on Twilight, who refused to come down from her room.
Rainbow Dash looked away from Pinkie, not wanting to risk meeting her friend's gaze, nervously rubbing along the side of her right foreleg with her left hoof. "W-well, yeah, I'm okay, I....I guess I am, I mean...."
Now all of them had their eyes trained on Rainbow Dash. Even Spike knew something was up, this was FAR from their usual Rainbow Dash. Where her confidence and pride usually were, now only an insecure posture and a fearful expression took up space on and within their friend.
"Darling....what IS the matter? Is it Twilight?" Rarity asked, pointing a hoof up towards where Twilight's sleeping area/bedroom was.
Rainbow just sulked and shook her head. "No....no, it's not Twilight, girls....though I'm worried about her too, seriously."
Applejack yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Well, what's the problem then, sugarcube? What's eatin' ya? Y'look like me when one o' mah apple trees starts dyin'."
Pinkie suddenly interjected when Rainbow Dash was going to say something, appearing behind her with a foreleg slung around the back of Dash's neck. "Yeah! C'mon, spill those beans!" she said, grinning wide and giving Rainbow Dash a small one-legged hug. "What else are friends for?"
Rainbow Dash quirked a brow at her friend's rather sudden mood shift, her own mopey mood off-set by Pinkie's cheerful demeanor. "Wow, you bounced back from being chased down by a homicidal maniac pony."
Pinkie Pie stopped for a moment, hrm'ing....then she shrugged. "Meeeh! So some loony-toony pony chased me through the woods. I'm fine! Besides, I have all you gals here to watch out for me. Especially you Dashie!"
Rainbow Dash chuckled a little and sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "Nah, I just....kinda dove right in there, you know how I am...."
Applejack quirked a brow. "Okay, now ah KNOW it's somethin' serious that's buggin' ya RD. Ah ain't never known you t' miss a chance t' brag, an' that right there was practically settin' th' STAGE for ya!" Applejack said in a playful tone, stepping around the table and placing a hoof on Rainbow Dash's other shoulder. "So c'mon now....you can talk to us."
"Well...."
"You sure ya wanna go through with this, Dashie?" Pinkie asked, hopping along next to the comparatively depressed pegasus next to her.
Rainbow Dash shrugged a little and sighed. "If I don't say something now, who knows when I'll get another chance? I'm definitely not gonna do this by MAIL, that's just plain cowardly."
"Yeah, he probably doesn't deserve that either, it's not like he's done anything BAD-bad," Pinkie said to her, still hopping along with a wide smile.
Rainbow Dash looked to her friend and frowned. "WHY are you so happy right now?! Our friend is suffering and I'm....well, I'm not feeling too hot either, y'know?!"
Pinkie was already moving forward in mid-hop, but with Rainbow Dash's sudden snap at her, her eyes shot open and she just sort of fluttered straight down to the ground instead of continuing on ahead. She turned to her and shook her head. "Everypony's being all mopey-wopey and it's just not how Pinkie rolls, okay? Besides, you're gonna want some happy faces around when this is all said and done."
"I-I know, but....you almost seem like you're HAPPY this is happening, Pinkie...." she said, the pegasus slumping a little where she stood before starting on ahead again.
Pinkie's mouth went agape for a moment and she gasped. "Oh, how dare you, Dashie! I would never be happy about something like this, I mean, this is one of the worst things that could happen to somepony, and he's all injured and stuff too, it's like adding insult to injury literally!" she said in her usual fashion, suddenly popping up next to Rainbow Dash on the opposite side. "I just don't want you to not have somepony to be all happy-faced for you after it's over, because if I'm all frowny-faced like you are now, then you'll just stay that way, and nopony wants a sad Dashie."
They both entered the hospital, Pinkie's little rant drawing some glances their way, only making Rainbow Dash shrink in on herself even moreso. "Not really helping with the whole 'insult to injury' remark, Pinkie...."
As they made their way down the hallway, just outside of Strider's room, Pinkie gave a quick 'sorry' and backed away from the entrance. "Uh, I'll....just be waiting in the lounge, okay Dashie?"
The cyan pegasus could only nod, lost in thought and her own nerves as she stepped into Strider's room.
To say that she was shocked at the sight before her was an understatement. She knew that he'd taken some very severe injuries, but to be bound to the bed as he was, or at least, he may as well have been. His condition only made her feel even more guilty about what she wanted to discuss with him.
His eyes blinked open from a morphine-induced nap, focusing his gaze on the pegasus and smiling almost instantly. "Dashie! You came to visit....s'nice to see ya," he said, waving his one good leg at her. "I'd give you a hug, but I think that'd just break my ribs again...."
She knew he sounded sleepy, but she approached regardless, a more pensive look on her face. That drew his attention more than anything. "Hey....what's wrong, Dash?"
She took a deep breath and let it out a second later, closing her eyes. "....You used magic. How did you use magic, Strider?"
He looked to her seriously suddenly, frowning. "I'm sorry Rainbow Dash....I can't tell you about that. That has something to do with....well, it's all about the security of Equestria."
She was silent for a long moment, looking like she was in pain. Strider looked to her with a growing worry as he waited, but finally he broke the silence in the air. "Rainbow Dash, what's going on? Does that really bother you that I-"
"YES, it bothers me, Strider!" she said, hanging her head a little and wiping her eyes. When she realized that they were beginning to get watery, she blinked a few times and looked away. "Bucking dammit, I promised myself....!"
"Wait, what-I-....I-I'm so sorry Rainbow Dash, but I told you that before...." he said in a concerned tone, frowning more. "I didn't know it bothered you so much."
"It's not just that, it's....quite a few things, actually. And, they've....they've kinda gotten to be deal-breakers for me," she said, nervously rubbing one of her forelegs with the hoof of the other, looking away from him for a moment and towards the floor, letting the awkward silence in the room last for a moment before speaking up again. "I've got some things I've gotta get out there....like how I don't really think this is gonna keep working for us....? Heh."
He looked at the fearful smile she tried to put on, what she was afraid of from him he didn't know, but what it sounded like she was saying....that hurt almost as much as his wing did at the moment. "You mean you want to....break up....?"
His tone was subdued and sad, and the way he looked at her with those big, dark-red eyes of his only made her wince when she tried to look at him with a more confident gaze. All she could manage was to choke it out, swallowing hard afterwards. "Yeah....I guess I am."
He looked past her, to one of his nurses, who had listened to some of that exchange, her eyes wide when her gaze met his. She quickly cringed and looked away, turning to leave. "I-I'll just be back in....well just call when you're done talking!" she said in as cheery a tone as she could manage, feeling very awkward for even hearing a bit of their little talk.
He looked back to Rainbow Dash and took in a shaky breath. "Why now? I mean....we've been together for some time now."
"Strider, please just let me talk, okay? I just....I've gotta get all of this out."
He went silent immediately, having plenty to say in his own defense, but she seemed far more wracked with fear than he did. So, he just nodded and waited, his brow furrowed in both a confused and sad expression.
"Okay....okay," she said, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, already hearing her voice beginning to crack, which was the last thing she wanted him to hear. "....You're never around Strider. I see you maybe once a month if I'm lucky, and you only stay for a couple days, even though Canterlot's really not that far away."
He nodded to her, just closing his eyes and listening to her. He already knew that it was over, now she just needed to vent to him. She was upset with him and didn't know how to just say that and be done with it....so he laid there and let her vent.
"You-you write letters and act like nothing's wrong, and when you visit you do the same, I've been trying to tell you something and I've been upset, a-and....!" she said with increasing agitation, a couple of stray tears running down her cheeks. "Sometimes you think I'm just being SHY! Do you know how mad that-....no, not the point. That's my fault, I know, I should've said something!"
He sighed and opened his eyes, putting on the most convincing smile he could. "Rainbow Dash....if you're not happy, then we should just break up and be done with it. No reason for you to feel bound to me if I'm not around enough for you....okay?"
"I know....I know, I just....I'm mad and I'm sorry at the same time and I'm not good with this kinda stuff, and you know that, so....I'm just sorry it bothers me so much, because you're a cool guy and you were always a good friend, and I hate to do this to you....!" she said faster and faster, feeling more and more outside of her comfort zone by the second.
She had everything rehearsed to say to him, but just one look into his eyes had disarmed her and made her look upon herself in all of this. But before she could get very far with any of it, Strider lifted his good leg and smiled more, his lips parted only slightly to let a shaky breath enter and leave his very pained lungs. "Look, let's just say it's over and admit that it's my fault....I'm too into my job, I never spent enough time with you, and I'm sorry. Okay?"
"Yeah....yeah, I think....yeah," she said, sniffling and wiping some tears away with her hoof. "That works for me."
He just nodded, ignoring the growing pain in his chest from his lungs quivering with his desperate attempt to keep a steady voice. It was quaking though, his tone wavering some while he tried to speak. "Alright....you should always worry about making yourself happy instead of being miserable for somepony else anyways, Dash. I'm really sorry for putting you through this...."
She just frowned and nodded a little, turning away and staring at the ground. "I think I should....y'know, go now."
"Yeah, that might be for the best," he said, trying to laugh a little bit, but that just made the pain in his chest worse. "They turned the drip off for an hour and....well, I need to get back to sleep, hopefully."
She just nodded and silently made a beeline for the door, waving to him without looking back.
"See ya 'round, Dash!" he called out as loud as his lungs and crushed ribcage would allow in their current state. But she was already gone, fast as ever.
He laid there for a minute, reflecting on what had just transpired, as if he couldn't really believe it....but there it was. "Yeah....g-go and be....real bucking happy, DAMN I-NNFG!" he half-shouted, a sharp pain in his chest cutting him off. He hissed a few breaths in and out of clenched teeth, laying his head limply against his pillow, crying in silence while his tears soaked into his pillow.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 12 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-04-28T13:00:50+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:05:57+00:00
| 4,534 |
(Author's Note: I'm going on vacation on the 29th, and I really wanted to get this out there before then. If I can somehow focus long enough to get Chapter 13 out there before I leave, I'll do my best, and if not, I'll try to get it done over the vacation. Sorry for being so late with the updates!)
Chapter 12 - Stir
written by Fire Soul
"Yer not seriously thinkin' of goin' after that thing, are ya Twi?"
"And why wouldn't I? I can't depend on Celestia to tell me what the buck's going on," Twilight said with an obvious frustration in her tone. She grumbled something to herself that none of them could hear her say while she had her mouth both full of stuff, and buried in her saddlebags. "She doesn't wanna tell me, I'll get that-that....THING to tell me herself!"
She exaggerated her words with a stomp of her forehoof against the floor, busying away with things up in the loft area of the library where she and Spike slept, books slipping out of their proper slots on the wall and floating up to where she was as time went on. Spike was ordered, not even asked but ordered to start bringing her some canned foods, a small pot and the magic-powered heating stand she bought a while back 'just in case of a power outage', her need for precaution and proper organization denying her the luxury of just being able to say 'nah, don't need it'.
Spike, however, refused to do as he was told. Much like Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ and Pinkie Pie, he was feeling utterly against Twilight's plan. It had been a month since that whole fiasco, Rainbow Dash still feeling the waves of guilt from dumping Strider like she did, but she knew that it had to be done. Pinkie had been there for her through all of it, and had recently convinced the down-in-the-dumps pegasus to do some pranks with her. They had even managed to devise a prank to play on Fluttershy that wouldn't make her cry or anything! It was a total success, which managed to bring Rainbow Dash around to hanging with her friends more instead of just doing her job and going home.
Of course, Pinkie Pie wouldn't tell Rainbow Dash that Fluttershy was in on the prank, making it a secret double-cross prank of awesomeness that Rainbow Dash would never find out about. So technically, it was a prank played on Rainbow Dash that Pinkie pretended to play on Fluttershy WITH Fluttershy as well as with Rainbow Dash to get her out of her rut, but hey, whatever works! Pinkie certainly wasn't complaining, she finally had her best prank buddy back, and maybe she could even get Fluttershy to open up to the world of messing with ponies....nah. That'd never happen.
Now all of their attention was on Twilight, who had a look akin to a predator determined to catch its prey. Anypony that knew her well enough could tell that she wasn't thinking very clearly. Then again, anypony that was present when the Nightmare attacked would be able to tell the exact same thing if they knew what she planned on doing.
Applejack was broken away from the group though, sitting at the top of the staircase leading up to the loft, talking directly with Twilight while the others were waiting downstairs. Rarity's horn was aglow and locked in on Twilight's saddlebags, having already come up with, as she put it, the 'absolutely FABULOUS plan' of using her gift for honing in on things to keep track of Twilight's belongings, as a way of making sure she couldn't teleport away from them and escape as easily.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, figured she could just dart around Ponyville and find Twilight running for the Everfree Forest in ten seconds flat. As always.
AJ just shook her head at her friend's stubbornness on this issue, even more stubborn than she ever was herself. "Twi, y'all know darn good n' well that whatever that thing is, it ain't worth riskin' yer life goin' after it just 'cuz it says it has somethin' ya want!"
"But how do you know she's lying?"
"How do YOU know she's not?"
Twilight could only sigh in frustration. "I'll be fine! She could've killed me before if she really wanted to, but she didn't! Plus I have so many more questions than 'what's wrong with me'!" she said with a sense of urgency, stuffing some canned foods she'd levitated in from the kitchen while she was talking to Applejack. "When she was fighting with that jerk Wind Strider, she punched straight through every single barrier I put up to try to defend him, as if they were glass. Yet that dinky little shield he had attached to his foreleg held up like it was made of titanium!"
"HEY!" Rainbow Dash shouted suddenly, flying up to the loft, hovering next to the two of them. "Y'know all you've been able to do since you've been like this is talk bad about other ponies when you're outside, and sulk around when you're indoors. You're not exactly Mare of the Year!"
"Oh yeah, this coming from the mare that dumped a cripple the day after he regained consciousness," she stated flatly, eyeing the equally guilty and angry-looking pegasus with an irritated expression. "Don't you even try to give me a lecture on decency right now."
Rainbow Dash growled and ground her teeth a little, glaring at the lavender Unicorn. "Okay, I've heard enough about that. How many times is somepony gonna bring it up?!" she asked, throwing her forehooves up in the air while turning around, looking at all of them.
Rarity seemed especially shy of meeting Rainbow's gaze, the fashionista finding it near-impossible to stop herself from trying to get every juicy detail of the issues Rainbow Dash had with the whole affair out of her, much to the speedster's guilt and irritation. She was sick of everypony talking about it, heck, most of the female hospital staff were giving her dirty looks on the way out! As if they saw the whole picture or something....
Twilight just looked away and shook her head. It had been a month since that had gone down, and a small patrol of Pegasus and Unicorn Royal Guards were still in Ponyville. They patrolled the perimeter of the Everfree Forest day and night, the Night Guards sent for the nighttime shifts switching places with Celestia's Royal Guards every night and morning after. She silently prayed for them to leave, but clearly they weren't going anywhere, so she had to find a way around them on her own, since her friends were trying so very hard to stop her from going anywhere.
"Anypony else wanna bring it up too? Huh?! I mean why not, it's only the most annoying thing you can make me think of!" Rainbow Dash continued, glaring at her friend, who was just looking away from her the whole time. "Well Twilight? Got anything to say to me? I mean Strider was already a total jerk for not treating me like garbage while I dumped him. He could've been upset or mad or something, maybe yelled at me, but no! He had to patronize me and treat me like a little whiny fo-"
"I'm SORRY, Rainbow Dash. Damn it!" she said, shaking her head firmly. "I'm tired of this! Every time I try to talk with somepony it blows up in my face, I never used to be such a....a, uh-"
"A bitch?"
"YES! Thank you, Rainbow. Also screw you Rainbow."
"Any time!"
With that, even Twilight couldn't help but laugh a little at their exchange, Rainbow Dash following suit as the lavender Unicorn began to laugh more and more heartily. Pinkie Pie was the next to join the two, followed by Rarity and Applejack. Soon, even the concerned and meek Fluttershy was laughing along with Spike, who was standing next to Twilight at this point, the library filled with the laughter of their friendship, despite being caused by a blatant insult.
None of them cared, however. It had been forever since the lot of them, Spike included, laughed as friends rather than individuals concerned about Twilight's condition. For the first time in quite some time, they were all smiling together rather than discussing who would be spending time at the library for the day.
All too soon, however, the laughter came to an end with stray giggles here and there between the lot of them, the silence blanketing the library for a moment as they looked between one another. Nopony in that library wanted to end this long overdue moment between them all, the laughter acting like an instant salve for a lot of growing problems they were all beginning to have just from having to orbit around Twilight out of deep concern for her well-being.
For each of them, it was nice to be reassured that they were all friends still, not obligations.
Applejack was the first to break the silence, the smiling farm pony throwing a foreleg around Twilight's neck after moving to sit next to her, giving the comparatively flimsy Unicorn a firm squeeze of a hug.
"Now THAT'S somethin' ah ain't seen in ages, a genuine first-class smile on ya!" she said, looking to Twilight.
Twilight heh'ed and shook her head, smiling more. She knew that Applejack was right, and this moment was the first time she'd actually laughed at such a thing rather than getting the urge to walk up and smack the living hell out of Rainbow Dash for calling her a bitch. It felt good, like taking a shower after months of going without, basking in her own stink, the stench of her imbalance and the anger and hate she couldn't do anything about. She felt clean, for that single moment and then some.
Somehow, she felt good in the company of her friends again, as if the unseen presence in her mind had relinquished its grip on her, allowing her to be herself once more. She relished the long-unfelt sensation deep down in her very soul.
"Thanks....all of you," Twilight said, looking to her packed things and picking them up with her magic, setting them in a pile off in the corner. "I guess I can't talk you all into letting me go, can I?"
They all just shook their heads.
"Alright then. I guess I'm just not going," she said, sighing a little. "We have to find out eventually, you know. With or without Princess Celestia's assistance."
"We know, Twilight," Fluttershy said suddenly, stepping towards her downtrodden friend. "We just don't think it's a good idea right now. We don't know what that thing is. Plus, she's really....scary," she said, frowning and shrinking back a little. "I know I'm not ready....!"
"Yeah!" Pinkie sounded off, hopping happily over to Fluttershy, standing next to her with a huge grin. "Nopony's ready to deal with the big scary dark thing unless they're goin' in there with big ol' smiles on their faces, and we've all been WAYYY too pouty lately!"
Pinkie glared at all of them for a moment, the pink pony dashing between them while grabbing the corners of their mouths and comedically forcing smiles to form on all of their faces. She returned to her spot next to Fluttershy with all of her friends grinning much like she did all the time. Almost painfully so, since none of them could ever willingly emulate Pinkie's gigantic grin, let alone having their mouths stretched in such a way.
Spike flapped his jaw open and closed a few times, rubbing at one side of his mouth with his hand, fingers pressing against his jaw muscle to try to directly massage the soreness out of it. "Nnh! W-well Pinkie, I don't think that'll be a problem anymore, do you? I mean it almost feels better in here. Kind of like the air's cleaner or something."
Pinkie gasped and went wide-eyed, looking to Rarity in disbelief, much akin to how she reacted to any big surprise that might end in some sort of party.
"Are you kidding?! Our smiley-muscles are all worn out and out of shape and stuff! We all need to start smiling more every single day, all day long!"
With that, Pinkie produced some pamphlets seemingly out of nowhere except from behind the air behind her, the rest of their visit at Twilight's library mostly all about 'learning how to smile like a professional', as Pinkie Pie put it. It all added up to the lot of them having another small laughing fit, which Pinkie oddly took seriously, slapping grades on all of their chests based on the quality of their laughs and smiles. Rarity was the only one genuinely bothered by this, since she had a big black 'A' on her chest now, in permanent marker.
Twilight saw them all off with a final promise that evening, the sun just setting as they all said their goodbyes and goodnights. Twilight promised them all that she wouldn't pursue that dark 'thing' that had attacked her and Pinkie in the forest, a solemn promise made in a moment of sincerity and loyalty to her concerned friends. Unfortunately, this didn't last for long.
Like an addict relapsing, Twilight soon fell back into her previous mindset after little more than a week, the simple fact of this alone enough to royally anger her far worse than any amount of lies or stubbornness ever could. On top of that, she felt a drive to find the creature, her words and her visage echoing in Twilight's mind. At night, her sleep would be akin to a pony being thrown about on their bed against their will, she thrashed so much. The simple images of the daytime turned into horrid, vivid images of herself being consumed, sometimes from her first-person perspective, and other times with her simply floating there and watching her struggling body be eaten alive and pulled into the darkness below.
The last straw had been reached when she heard her voice once more in the middle of the day. It had been three days since she'd allowed herself to actually lay down and rest, though this hadn't deterred Spike from sleeping in since Twilight didn't seem to care much about his sleeping habits as of late. As she sat there, eyelids heavy and her attention focused on yet another book she'd read probably a hundred times over with all the time she spent in her precious library, heavy-set hoofsteps were heard behind her. The moment she asked, she felt a cold breath on her ear and the husky whisper of the dark creature's voice.
She spun around and saw a shadow jump away from her, the unnatural ink-blot of a dark spot moving impossibly fast through the air and splattering itself soundlessly on a wall near a bookcase. What came out wasn't the massive creature that seemed so intent on her before, but instead it looked like a normal pony, a Unicorn, who was struggling with all of her might to get free. Her struggles were akin to a worm, twisting and writhing this way and that, the mare looking as if she were trying to get her hooves free of some unseen grip beyond the black veil she had sprouted from.
As Twilight approached, her features became unmistakable. The tri-colored mane, the almost pitch-black fur with a tinge of purple....she looked a lot like a much smaller Luna, but with Twilight's mane in a darker variation of shades of black and purple as well. Though thoroughly scared, this pony looked in distress, her sharp red-colored eyes darting this way and that, trying to look for anything that could possibly aid in her escape, but the more she struggled, the more it seemed to be futile. Twilight moved towards her, her eyes wide with fear and a silent hope that she might be able to rescue this pony from the consuming darkness half of her body seemed trapped in.
"D-don't worry, I'm....I'm here! I can try to m-maybe get you free! Just uh, just let me find something for you to grab on to!" Twilight said, scanning her library for anything that could be of use.
She looked to her plus-sized saddlebags, a recent purchase so that she could carry more books and various other things around with her, something with increased durability to maintain the heavier weight of excess things packed within them. She grabbed it quickly with her magic just as the other femme began to utter something under her breath as she squirmed, the darkness seeming to tug and pull at her the more she struggled.
Twilight's magic enveloped her new saddlebags, adrenaline driving her sleepiness away in favor of saving this unusual mare that had appeared from the tell-tale darkness of the creature that had been after her this whole time. She floated her saddlebags over in front of the mare's face, who had only grunted and struggled on her own thus far, seemingly unwilling or unable to call out for any help.
"G-grab on! Grab the bag, use your teeth!" she called out to the mare, floating one end of her bag over within the mare's reach.
Her eyes were clenched shut however, and she didn't seem to be listening to anything at all. She just kept squirming, wriggling and struggling about trying to wrench herself free of the vile grip imposed upon her. When Twilight called out a second time and she didn't answer, Twilight tossed the saddlebags aside and stepped closer, trying to use her magic directly on the mare instead.
Even her magic didn't seem to work, and her own panic was beginning to conflict with her desire to save whoever this pony was. The darkness trying to pull her back in was scary enough to her, let alone some kind of unknown mare breaking free within her library! Ultimately, however, her need to help other ponies overruled her fears.
As if pouncing on the wall itself, her forelegs pushed under the mare's arms and then lower, gripping her tight in a bear hug, or at least what Twilight could manage of a bear hug, while her hindlegs planted themselves on the wall and pushed with all their might. She pulled and tugged as hard as she possibly could, but the darkness wouldn't relent.
She didn't think there was reason to give up until she felt the mare's forelegs parting and her hooves gripping at the lavender Unicorn's face, cheeks being squished inward as she was yanked up into the air, dangling by the pain-inducing strength of the mare's impossibly strong grip. The unknown mare's eyes shot open only inches in front of Twilight's own, the pitch-black darkness beyond them enough to strike the fear of death into Twilight, but her voice was caught and frozen in her throat.
"SET US FREE, SISTER!"
Twilight trembled and shook her head as best she could, a frantic shaking in a feeble attempt to shake the mare's grip free. The mare's back arched in a way that would break the spine of any normal pony, lifting Twilight even higher into the air. Black blood oozed from her dark, endless eye sockets just as it spewed from her screaming lips, causing Twilight's struggling to become even more frenetic. Yet, she could not close her eyes, could not bring herself to look away, the mare's demonic gaze searing into her and pitting her in an internal struggle between being frozen in the icy grip of fear, and wanting to run in absolute horror.
"SET ME FREE SISTER! Such sights we wish to share with you....!"
Time felt as if it stopped for all of an instant. Within that moment, Twilight saw, smelled and felt some of the most horrifying things she had ever had the unfortunate chance of seeing in her lifetime thanks to this plague upon her mind. She saw a pony being sawed in half with barbed wire, another gutted with a kitchen knife, snake-like chains penetrating and eviscerating fleeing citizens, to recall of few. The smell of rotting flesh wafted over her nostrils as the twisted thing she thought was a struggling pony spoke to her, the mingling scent of burning flesh and fur adding to the stomach-churning menagerie of images and moving snippets of horror and death that assaulted her at her very core. Soon, it all overwhelmed the tired and worn-down Unicorn, drawing out the most intense feeling of panic she'd ever felt in her life, even worse than being chased by a Hydra. Her eyes snapped shut and her body recoiled with a firm jerk, trying to wrench herself out of the evil mare's grip as hard as she could.
Spike startled awake when a blood-curdling scream echoed through the library and around it, Twilight managing to push those hooves off of her to let her slump to the floor. The mild pain of impact did nothing to stop her adrenaline and her full-on panic from scraping and pushing at the floor to move her away and to get her back on her feet. Spike got up just in time to see Twilight running full-sprint out of the library, the little dragon rapidly waking up for fear of his closest friend being truly and completely terrified by something he couldn't see. He ran downstairs and out the door, calling out to her, unable to see or hear the entity still stuck to the wall.
"FREE US!!!"
Twilight kept running until she could no longer hear its screams, her heart pounding and her breathing borderline hyperventilation as she charged through the entrance to Rarity's Boutique. Rarity jumped while in the middle of putting together a new dress order. She spun around to find her friend, out of breath and with wild, wide and terror-stricken eyes, the currently panicked Unicorn looking this way and that, as if searching for something.
"Twilight, what in the world is-"
"Bathroom....!" Twilight whimpered out to her, holding a forehoof over her stomach.
Rarity didn't ask, instead she motioned for her to follow while rushing over to her bathroom in the back. Twilight rushed off after her and practically rammed her way inside, sitting down in front of the toilet while Rarity's magic grabbed hold of her mane to keep it out of the way.
Spike entered the boutique just in time to hear the familiar wretching sound of a vomiting pony, the wretching noise over and over almost making him sick to his stomach as well while he followed it to the source. When he saw Twilight and Rarity standing there, Rarity's consoling hoof gently rubbing up and down Twilight's back while the trembling and thoroughly shaken Unicorn coughed up what little she'd eaten over the course of the previous night and today.
Rarity looked back to Spike in silence, both of them exchanging silent words with motions of their lips, Rarity's brow furrowing just as Spike's did. Neither of them had a clue what was going on, and it was only when Twilight was finally done expelling her meal and dry-heaving afterwards that they realized she was also crying. Her body slumped against the rim of the toilet seat, laying flat with her head turned sideways, her sickness smeared over her lips, something that Rarity rapidly took care of with a wipe of magically-held tissue and a careful lift of her friend's head.
Twilight's legs felt like jelly and her entire body trembled under the exertion of forcing herself onto her hooves, exhausted for more than one reason, the most recent being heaving hard enough to be heard by Rarity's neighbors. Rarity braced Twilight on one side, letting her weakened friend lean on her as she guided her over to the dining table set up in the back room just next to her kitchen.
Twilight slumped down on the fancy cushion, one of several that Rarity liked to use as chairs for her dining room, they went well with the rest of the room, a sort of uniformity to it all that made it dazzle even without Rarity's preference for making things sparkle. Twilight was barely focused on anything of the sort however. Rather, Twilight's sobs had Spike crying as well, Rarity looking between both of them before pulling them both into a hug, the lavender Unicorn's wailing sobs only heightening.
She knew that Twilight hadn't been sleeping recently and it had her plenty concerned, but whatever had caused this, Twilight was going to need time to gather her strength. So all Rarity could do was quietly console both her and her extremely worried assistant, Spike. Her forehooves gently petted and caresses up and down their backs and sides, a soft touch from a familiar companion for both of them.
"Ssshh....you're okay now Twilight, you're with me," Rarity said in a soft, soothing tone, her gaze turning to Spike. "What in the name of all things fabulous in this world happened?!"
"I-I don't know! I was taking a nap 'cuz I'd been staying up with Twilight most of the night, an-and out of nuh-nowhere, she-sh-she-" Spike said, sniffling and hiccuping a little as he struggled against his own tears. "She just screamed the most horrible scream!"
Rarity just looked to him, frowning and hugging them both closer together, Twilight's trembling letting up a little from the warmth of being surrounded on both sides by her friends. One thing popped into her mind though, and she struggled to regain control of her vocal cords long enough between her sobs to get the question out.
"Suh-Spike, did you....see, anypony," she said, letting out a sudden sharp breath before taking a heavy one back in. "....C-coming out of-of the wall....?"
His eyes went wide and he cringed, shaking his head. "No. No, I-I didn't see anything, there was nopony else in there," he said, his own voice sounding shaky and on the verge of crying. "Twilight, wh-what's happening to you?"
She practically collapsed upon hearing that, her body slumping and her head thudding down onto the table. "I knew it!" she whimpered out, covering her face with her forelegs. "She's in my head!"
Rarity blinked a few times and leaned in, gently patting the back of her neck with her hoof. "Twilight, dear, what-"
"That THING is in my head! I-I can't stop thinking about her, she keeps popping into my head during the day," she said, sitting up a little, her trembling body shaking even more as she tried to speak through her sobs and tears. "And when I sleep, sh-she's there too, but it's worse, a-and-and-"
Twilight was rapidly becoming frantic. Her head lowered and she curled in on herself, hugging her head between her forelegs, as if the memory itself inflicted horrors upon her already fragile and utterly fragmented mind.
Spike jumped up and hugged around Twilight's neck, hopping up on her back to do so, a few quiet sobs coming from him as well. "T-Twilight, just calm down! I'm right here, we're right here for you, okay?!" he said, desperate to grab her attention.
Twilight was lost to her own mind though, her self-torture something her thought processes wouldn't let her escape on her own. It took Rarity shaking her from her rambling to herself as to what she'd been forced to witness to get her to snap to attention in the real world. She looked into Rarity's eyes, her own wide with fear while her friend's were big as saucers, filled with tears and concern for Twilight's well-being.
Spike was crying as well, he could barely handle seeing Twilight in the current state she was in. He'd seen her go on binges before, but staying up three nights in a row without any real reason? That was odd. Hearing her scream as if an axe murderer had just stormed into the library with her in his sights? That sent chills up his spine. He NEVER wanted to hear something like that in his life ever again, not by Twilight. Not by the pony he considered his family, it horrified him to see her so panicked, to be in such a blind run from her own home!
Soon, Rarity had heard of some of the horrid things Twilight had been through in her dreams, and in her mind in the middle of the day, and it only made her hold her crying friend closer. Rarity sent Spike to get the others to come over as quickly as he could, her magic flipping the sign on the front window of her store from Open to Closed. She didn't want any more customers today. Her creative mind had been soured by what she had just heard, like a balloon having the air forced out of it.
Twilight was a mess by the time the others showed up, all of them practically shattering the moment they saw Twilight's desperate eyes, a silent plea for help from them, any help they could possibly give her. Pinkie was the first to rush up and hug both her and Rarity nice and tight, unable to bear seeing Twilight in such a sorry state.
They all stood around her while she had a good, long cry with all of them embracing her, their presence slowly easing her mind and calming the already plenty exhausted pony down. As she began to slow her tears and silence her sobbing fit, she looked between all of them, the silence in the room filled with the tension of the very thing that they all knew they were all thinking about.
"I-I have to go and see her."
"We know, Twilight," Rarity said solemnly, hanging her head. "We just don't like it. At all."
"Which is why we're goin' with ya," Applejack said sternly but calmly. "Ain't no talkin' us outta it neither."
"B-but she could kill you, all of you!" Twilight said, her entire form trembling. "I-if she killed any of you, I w-would never forgive....!"
"Twilight, she won't lay a hoof on us," Rainbow Dash said with her usual confidence. "I can fly circles around that pansy, and you can get us outta there with your teleporting magic and stuff! It's no biggie," she said, suddenly pointing at the lavender Unicorn and furrowing her brow. "But quite frankly I don't care if it DOES kill me! You're not goin' in there without us!"
"Y-yes! I would never forgive myself if something happened to you because I was too afraid to go into the Everfree Forest with you. Even if it's so....dark...." Fluttershy said, her voice and her entire form trembling a little towards the end of her sentence.
"Psh! So we're goin' after that crazy demon pony thing! We're not goin' today, right?" Pinkie asked suddenly, pointing to Twilight. "Just look at her! She's more exhausted than me after a month-long sugar high!"
Pinkie wasn't very far off from the truth. As if the vomiting wasn't enough to put Twilight into a dampened state of spirit, she had been awake for three days straight, only daring to nod off for brief moments before the vile creature's voice would startle her back into the waking world. On top of all of that, all of the sitting around in the same position, not sleeping, it was making her physically exhausted. She needed to just lay down and relax, but she was so tense from fearing the possibility of accidentally falling asleep by laying down and relaxing that she just gritted her teeth and dealt with it. Well, she dealt with it with some help from some of Zecora's painkilling elixirs.
Zecora had been forced to move into a home within Ponyville along with all of her belongings courtesy of royal orders handed down from Luna's personal guards themselves, who were greeted with the same reaction that Wind Strider got: a whole lot of disdain. She could feel the residual sensation of Rune Magic on and in each of them, but when they spoke of the Nightmare dwelling within Everfree Forest, she reluctantly agreed to leave her precious home, full of healing herbs and salves, behind.
However, there was on one condition that Princess Celestia had to promise to Zecora face-to-face, on her honor: Princess Celestia would have to supply Zecora with the herbs that she used to make her potions and salves in lieu of the Everfree Forest being cut off for her until this problem was somehow resolved. With little other choice based on the morals of the matter, Celestia agreed. She didn't like the thought of forcing Zecora out of her home in the first place, but she was more worried about keeping her subjects, her ponies alive moreso than being politically or morally appropriate for the situation.
"We're really gonna g-go out there tomorrow....?" Twilight asked, lifting her head up and turning towards her friends, hanging her head.
"Yer darn tootin' we are! Ah got a right mind t'show 'er the flat o' mah hooves fer messin' with yer head like this!" Applejack said, walking over and patting Twilight on the back. "Nopony messes with a friend o' mine like this."
Twilight could only look at the lot of them, Spike currently standing beside her and looking up to her with a smile, his eyes still glossy with tears only recently shed for her plight. She pulled him into a one-forelegged hug, smiling a meek and tired smile while the others came closer as well.
"Thank you so much, everypony. Really....thank you," she said, looking down to Spike and nuzzling the top of his head. "Especially you, Spike."
"Well then, ah think ah'm gonna head back to Sweet Apple Acres. See y'all t'mor-"
"NO!"
The sudden outburst made them all jump, Spike included. Twilight's eyes were wide and a sudden look of terror overtook her. "Please, please don't go!" she said quickly, looking to all of them. "C-can't you all stay? I really, really don't want to be left alone right now!"
They all looked at one another, understanding filling each of them. Rarity was the first to speak up though, a moment of brilliance hatching the best plan for all parties involved, given the circumstances. Pinkie caught on almost immediately when she noticed the look on Rarity's face, the party pony jumping up with excitement.
"SLUMBER PARTY!"
With that, they all quickly made a point of getting all of their daily chores either set on the backburner or finished in record time. Applejack had to make a run back to Sweet Apple Acres to let Big Mac and Granny Smith know what was going on, and Fluttershy had to go and feed her animals for the day with some assistance on Rainbow Dash's part. When all was said and done, Pinkie came back from a lightning-fast trip to Sugarcube Corner to retrieve some snacks, candies and various baked goods from her 'secret stash', more than enough to hold them all over for the rest of the waning day and coming night.
A single explosion of confetti, random presents and glitter from Pinkie Pie's Party Cannon signaled the beginning of a party that Twilight slept almost completely through in Rarity's Boutique. She was far too exhausted to join in on the festivities, gossip and idle banter, nor did she have much to talk to any of them about, she'd been a shut-in for quite some time now, even more than usual. No, instead she opted to pass out like she'd just been shot with a tranquilizer, the comforting sensation of being surrounded by all of her most dear friends acting like a barrier that even that vile monstrosity couldn't get to her through.
From sunset into the morning, Twilight slept like a baby for the first time in three horrible, nightmare-ridden days.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 13 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-06-30T14:26:18+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:06:16+00:00
| 3,591 |
Chapter 13 - Burn (Part 1)
written by Fire Soul
Twilight looked so, so much more rested after a very, very long night's sleep, her friends staying by her side through it all until morning.
The lavender Unicorn was the first to wake out of all of them, her dreary and well-rested eyes blinking open only to see that Spike, Rarity and Applejack were settled in around her, all of them seeming to be sharing a comfortable and plush mattress, no doubt from Rarity's storage.
It wasn't until Twilight stepped off the side of it in her still-sleepy stupor and fell to the floor with a resounding thud that she realized they were in Rarity's bed, and not on the floor.
They all awoke with an assortment of grumbles and utterances of various forms of gibberish, the five that weren't currently faceplanted on the floor looking between one another in confusion until they all settled their eyes on Twilight.
With Twilight's rump in the air, head mashed into the wooden floor and legs kicking impotently in the air behind her to try and right herself, Pinkie Pie couldn't help but fall into a raucous laughter at the cost of her friend's dignity. Soon the others joined in on the laughter, and it was only when Twilight managed to get herself flopped over onto her side and back up on her feet that she rubbed her face to try and soothe the pain away from the initial impact.
"How'd I end up in this bed....?" Twilight asked with a pained groan.
Rarity's dainty laugh stopped rather quickly as a yawn overtook her. It proved contagious, and soon they were all yawning in much the same way, the six ponies all getting up out of their respected sleeping spots and stretching themselves out. Rarity once more tried to speak, now that her own body wasn't rebelling against her need to answer Twilight's question.
"WELL, darling, first you nodded off while we were all conversing with one another. Then you started to doze off once again while we were having a pillow fight!"
"Yeah, it was kinda funny watching you just fall over from taking a pillow to the face like that!" Spike chimed in, the green spines atop his head just barely visible from over the end of the bed.
"Ah-HEM! One must never interrupt a lady, Spike!" Rarity said, chastising the blushing dragon.
"Basically Twi', we saw ya were mighty tired, so Rarity loaded ya on Rainbow's back an' we put ya to bed," Applejack said, since Rarity felt it more imperative to scold Spike than finish what she had to say. "Plus, there wasn't much room, so ya had to share the bed."
"Yes, well, my bedroom WAS built to my preferences," Rarity said, examining her mane for a moment and frowning. "Excuse me, but I have a fashion emergency I simply MUST take care of!"
Clearly Rarity had slept on the wrong side, because her mane had managed to both curl up even more than it already did, as well as flattening out halfway through one-half of it. As Rarity went to work on her hair, Twilight observed with no small amount of awe.
For Twilight, her usual morning routine involved some brushing to straighten out her mane and tail after a good night's rest or no rest at all, in her case most of the time. Combine that with breakfast followed by a thorough brushing of her teeth and she was set.
Rarity, however, seemed to turn such a simple wake-up activity into the most vain of chores, the fashionista using her magic to produce three brushes of varying sizes and three different levels of thickness for the bristles in each brush. Each of the brushes went straight along her mane in rows, each brush following the other in a perfect and constant straight pattern, forcing every little knot and unwanted loose or split end to cooperate and fall into place as she desired it.
Considering what other options they all had instead of watching and waiting for Rarity to finish doing her hair, they all headed downstairs and into her kitchen. Twilight snapped out of her focus on her friend, her own mind apparently a very odd thing when she's only just woken up if she took such an interest in coiffure maintenance, her legs moving as if of their own accord as the concept of coffee rung in her mind.
Normally she avoided the stuff, never truly feeling a need for it; enthusiasm was her caffeine. This morning was different though, considering she'd slept for so very long after such a long time forcing herself to go without, even without the aid of her lost enthusiasm for what used to be a daily, rigorous, enticing activity for her. Such a long sleep only made her entire being crave more of it, not truly feeling rested as she should. Of course, she'd fix that with time and some black water.
Yet, even if she felt awake, her body certainly didn't feel up to very much at the moment. She felt sore and exhausted, the stress on her legs from staying tense and awake for days on end, never receiving the relaxing and soothing rest that sleep provided. Her everything ached, when she took time to take notice, her back and her neck having heavy, dull aches in them that screamed for some of the spa treatment that Rarity had talked her into a long while back.
Oh, how sad for her, that she would have to take the last dose of Zecora's special tonic she had become so accustomed to. It was far more convenient and was easy for her to get compared to a session at the spa. Not to mention it was all she had time for. It only bothered her that it was her last dose before she had to wait around another month before she could get another bottle of her medicine.
Unknown to Zecora however, Twilight had already taken some of her medicine as well as several chemistry kits and figured out the combination of herbs and medicinal concoctions needed to create the tonics. This excursion into the forest contained more than one purpose for Twilight, though amidst her enjoyment of the relief the medicine brought, she had forgotten to take heed of just how alluring the tonic can be.
She failed to realize just how far she had bypassed caution in favor of satisfaction.
Her smile had everypony confused, including the party pony talking to her at the moment. Her goofy smile combined with her dull and half-lidded eyes had Pinkie Pie's questions coming on with an incessant demand that Twilight's focus couldn't ignore for much longer.
"Twiliiiight! Hey Twilight, you there? C'mon, whaddaya want for breakfast?" Pinkie Pie began to half-shout to her.
Twilight shook her head a few times and blinked her grogginess away as much as she could, Pinkie's enthusiasm giving her a bit more awareness towards the physical rather than the mental.
"Mmmncoffee...."
Pinkie blinked a few times, then looked at her friend quizzically. "Coffee? Well okay! I thought you didn't drink that stuff?"
"Coffeeeeee...."
"Okie-dokie-lokie! One coffee comin' up!" Pinkie said, hopping away and into Rarity's kitchen.
The smell of coffee being brewed was impossible to miss alongside various other scents, all mingling with one another as they filled the living area they were all waiting in. Though Rarity was still doing her hair and Pinkie was busy cooking a few different dishes, there was an odd tension between Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Twilight. Despite the overall agreement they all had, each of them aside from Twilight looked very pensive regarding this decision, a choice made both under malevolent duress as well as equally vile temptation.
"So...."
"Yyyup."
"Mmmhmm...."
While Twilight wasn't much in the way of reading the thoughts of others from their behavior alone, she knew her friends well enough to realize that, even in her somewhat distracted state, that their tones as they spoke were intentionally riddled with concern. She looked to each of them with a scan of her eyes, their faces saying it all.
"Something wrong?" Twilight asked, already predicting the general answer she'd get: a question.
"....Are you absolutely-" Fluttershy began.
"-SURE that I want to do this? Yes," Twilight said quickly. "I'm very sure."
A sudden clatter of various pots and pans from the kitchen made them all jolt and look in the direction of the intruding noise, but otherwise, Twilight was undeterred. She let her gaze wander between the three of them until Rarity came down the stairs, her hoofsteps like a sledgehammer in a room quiet enough for the occupants to hear a pin drop.
"Darling, I did perhaps state first and foremost amongst all of us that this idea is both a last resort and likely our only option given your circumstances, but even I must ask such a tedious question. Do you truly think this is a wise thing to do?" Rarity said with a hint of caution in her voice, her words all carefully chosen and picked out. Rehearsed, one might even say.
"If I ever want to sleep without you all around me every night or day that I stay in bed late or-or maybe if I don't want to take a nap and feel like somepony's trying to kill me, then yes!" Twilight half-shouted, looking between each of them.
The desperation in Twilight's voice hit them all with the same sense of urgency they had the night before, when their friend lacked the well-rested demeanor and composure she had now. Applejack looked to the others, all of them still looking somewhat unsure of what they considered to be a wild gambit for one of Twilight's plans. It was only when Pinkie Pie came into the living area with her back loaded with random plates of food.
"Breakfast is served~!" Pinkie Pie said in a very sing-song tone, her voice peppered with the same joy as always. "Oh, and um, I agree with Twilight."
Much, like the other four, Twilight snapped her attention to her friend as well.
"You do?!" Twilight asked with no small amount of surprise.
"Well DUH!" Pinkie retorted, as if such an answer were an obvious thing.
"But why in tarnation would'ja-"
A sudden mashing of a cupcake in Applejack's mouth shut her up. Where the cupcake came from was unknown, considering Rarity rarely carried any baked goods beyond bread in her kitchen for fear of giving in to the temptation of such confectionary delights, but Applejack kept chewing regardless.
"-Because somepony has to! Plus, if we don't help her, what kind of friends are we? I'll tell ya what kind!" she said while setting their dishes down in front of them all. "The super meanie kind that think they know how Twilight feels and think she's being all irrational when it really is the only choice!"
"B-but....!"
All of their gazes turned to Fluttershy, the only one that hadn't really said anything for or against the whole thing. The shy pony's gaze faltered only slightly, as if all the world were gazing upon her and awaiting her statement.
"Well I don't know a lot about magic, but....w-well, if she can mess with your head when you're in Ponyville, and she's normally in Everfree Forest at the old castle, doesn't that mean that the closer we get, the worse things she could do to you?"
Fluttershy's question weighed heavily on Twilight, the pony meant to think of all scenarios, the one that hadn't considered such a possibility. Was distance really a factor? The entire time she'd attempted to make sense of it, wandering closer to the Everfree Forest and testing the range, it had all been the same, no changes had been noted in the Nightmare's very jolting appearance.
She had not, however, tested actually entering the Everfree Forest itself. She couldn't, the guards wouldn't let her! If she'd attempted to sneak past them and back and had gotten caught, she likely wouldn't have gotten another chance, she had thought all of that out, and the odds were against her in that regard. Still, it mattered little to her.
"That's possibly true. I still have to take that chance. She wants me there, and I don't think she wants me dead."
"But what if this is all just some big fancy trick o' hers?" AJ asked, cutting in. "Maybe we should talk to Princess Ce-"
"NO!" Twilight shouted, stamping a hoof hard into the floor, harder than most of them thought she could, hard enough to make the ground vibrate beneath their hooves.
They all stared at her for a moment, transfixed on the sudden physical feat that simple stomp flaunted. The only pony any of them knew that had that kind of strength was Big Macintosh, and possibly Applejack on a good day. Even Twilight seemed startled by the sudden burst of strength, but she just as quickly shook it off, finding the possibility of being turned away after coming so close to getting her friends to agree to go into the forest with her something she simply couldn't allow.
"Look, I just can't stand here and do nothing anymore, okay? I'm sorry, but I have to do this," she said, looking to all of them, one after the other. "This is very important to me, and she said she has answers to my questions. Princess Celestia turned her back on me, so I want to get some answers from somepony that's actually willing to give them to me."
They all looked between one another once more, an insecurity over the whole situation apparent between each of them. Rainbow Dash, however, was the first to speak up just before Twilight was about to say something herself.
"Well I'm in!" the rainbow-maned pegasus blurted out. "I'm not gonna stay in Ponyville and idle around flapping my wings while Twilight's off risking her life!"
They all looked to Rainbow Dash with a bit of surprise, Twilight included.
"WE are the Elements of Harmony! Nightmare Moon couldn't handle us, who's to say this thing can take us on? I say we get our Elements together and we do this!" Rainbow Dash said with a big grin.
Pinkie Pie grinned and hopped over to Rainbow Dash, pulling Twilight over as well and hugging them both, one in each of her forelegs. "Dashie's right! Twilight would do this for any of us, so we gotta do this for her, no matter what!"
They all sighed and the tension in the room itself seemed to lighten up. Spike, who had opted to stay out of this conversation due to not being an Element of Harmony, returned from the kitchen with a bowl of gems that Rarity had given him permission to eat since she had a bit of a surplus going on. Pinkie Pie spotted him and waved him over.
"Right Spike?" Pinkie Pie asked him.
"Uh....whah?" he asked, his mouth stuffed with crunched-up rubies.
"We should help Twilight, right?"
"Oh," he said, swallowing his food after chewing a little more. "Yup, definitely! Do you have any idea how creepy it is to be the one sleeping at the end of her bed, peek over the end of it and see her sitting up with her eyes wide open? Her creepy face in the dark is my new nightmare fuel."
"Hey, I didn't do that too often!"
"No, the rest of the time I'm trying to sleep and you're trotting around downstairs talking to yourself while hovering a book next to your head that you're not even reading!"
"Well, excuse me for being terrorized by a monster."
"Yeah, I know, I get it. I didn't see the thing, but I think I'm glad I didn't," Spike said, shrinking in a little on himself and jamming a few more rubies into his mouth for comfort, frowning. "Tho creepeeh."
"Well, it's settled then," Rarity said with a clear indication of finality. "We shall prepare at once!....Well, we shall prepare after our meals, that is."
With that, they all dug in much in the way Spike already was, with Twilight being the one to finish first. That was a given, she was the one most eager to leave. With her extra time however, she decided that it would be a good idea to take off before everypony else to get a few things taken care of.
The highest priority on her list was, of course, to go get another list. A list of ingredients to be precise, hidden away along with the single dose of the potion she finished off in the process of retrieving her secret piece of parchment. She grabbed her saddlebags and tucked the paper away in a small pocket built into the inside of the left saddlebag, along with a thin stack of papers, all of them vivid images of the kinds of plants she was going to be looking for.
Of course, explaining why she would need such plants and herbs to her friends was something she had to really sit down and think through, no small feat given how sleep-deprived she'd been when she came up with her airtight answer for all of them. The explanation was simple: they were for a potion she found in one of the books she borrowed from Zecora to block out the minds of others, a potential last-resort if it became necessary. If they bothered to ask why it's considered a last resort? 'It dulls your mind and makes you really light-headed.'
She wasn't exactly lying, nor did she care. She was telling the truth about what the medicine did to her. She just wasn't bothering to tell them that it was actually a painkilling potion instead of an actual potion to block out an intruding mind. Some part of her found her willingness to go to such lengths to get these plants so much as to lie to her friends by way of omission disconcerting, but this issue was buried as rapidly as it appeared in her mind by a torrent of desire for her own supply of her new favorite medicine.
Along with her list, she had packed various other things prematurely, food and a First Aid Kit, along with a few more now that her friends were coming with. Spike had stayed with Rarity to help her get her things ready since she herself had already gotten all of her packing done a while ago before her friends talked her out of it the first time. This gave her enough time to double-check her list to make sure she had all of her requirements written down. All of her 'special ingredients'.
Satisfied, she began to get everything bound to her form in preparation for their little stealthy excursion, but a knock on her door interrupted her train of thought, working her magic on a strap going under her torso for her saddlebags. Her magic opened the door from a distance, too busy working at her saddlebags to give appropriate courtesies and be there to meet her guest face-to-face. She figured on it being one of her friends coming to retrieve her so they could get ready to head out to the forest.
Instead, Spike had shown up, little small barely-noticeable crumbs of red ruby littering the areas around his mouth, something he was in the process of trying to fix with that bizarrely long tongue of his. In the end, the motherly behavior Twilight sometimes displayed when it came to her Number One Assistant culminated in a washrag being brought over through her magical grasp and wiping his face clean with it herself.
"You really must've chowed down on those rubies, Pinkie made really big breakfasts for all of us and you had a pretty big bowl of those things yourself," Twilight said, smiling and patting his head afterwards. "There, all clean."
Spike looked up to Twilight with his usual expression of irritation, he didn't like being babied by her, but that irritation faded when he noticed a loose strap on her saddlebags that she'd failed to tie down properly around herself, on the underside of her body as usual, where he usually had to do it. He took care of it quickly, and was rewarded by a silent 'thank you' in the form of a one-legged hug from the lavender Unicorn he'd basically been taking care of since she was a young filly and vice-versa.
"Twilight....uh," Spike stuttered a little, taking a moment to form the words in his head before saying anything else. "You know that you're like a big sister to me, right?"
The determined Unicorn stopped for a moment, looking to him with a serious expression, unsure of what to say in response to that. After a few seconds, she simply nodded to him.
"Well, I know now. Why didn't you ever-"
"Then, please!"
The sudden outburst that interrupted her surprised her as much as the sudden latching on of the small dragon grabbing hold of one of her forelegs in a vice-like grip. Though, Spike had the decency to watch it with his claws at least. Despite his size, she was still a fleshy Unicorn with tender and soft skin and he was still a little baby dragon with tiny claws that could leave some semi-deep cuts if he tried hard enough.
"Please don't do this Twilight! All of this stuff that's been happening, th-the Princess must have some kind of explanation for why she wouldn't say anything to you about it! Maybe it's best if you don't know!" he said rapidly, frantically, the desperation evident in his tone.
She cringed and shook her head.
"I'm so, so sorry Spike, but I have to. I can't live like this, haunted by nightmares of things I've never even imagined, constantly paranoid of every little sound and shadow out of the corner of my eye or on the edge of my hearing," she said with an increasing elevation in her voice. She dropped down and laid down in front of him, forehooves pulling him in for a hug. "I'm so sorry."
All was silent between the two of them while Spike was pulled in under Twilight's head and a little to the side, her forelegs curled around him to keep him close. His arms had wrapped around her neck at the base, both of them holding each other close for a decent amount of time. Twilight knew she had to go, but Spike didn't seem to want to let her. Eventually though, the little dragon spoke up again, breaking the dead silence that had taken over the library.
"One day, and then I send a letter to Celestia."
Twilight sat up quickly and looked down at him in surprise. "What?! One day, that's-that's how long it took....last time...."
Spike nodded, his arms crossed over his chest. "The last time you went to that old castle. Yeah, I remember," he said, glaring up at her. "You get one day, and that's it. Then Celestia finds out. I don't care what you say."
"You know that's not fair, Spike. But...." Twilight said, sighing and hanging her head. "I suppose that's for the best. Just one day, then you can tell the Princess whatever you want."
"Including the fact that you won't let me stay up past ten at night? By the way, totally doing that tonight too."
"Sorry Spike, but threats of being a brat aren't going to keep me in the library," she said with a small giggle, nudging him with her hoof. "Even if it IS very tempting."
The little nudge made him stumble back a little, a small smile finally breaking the glare and the scowl Spike had going on the whole time they were speaking to one another. He looked up at her with that small, almost adorable smile, but it quickly faded away when the reality of her leaving for that dangerous forest hit him once again.
Twilight leaned down and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Get some rest now so you can stay up late enough to get that letter out to Princess Celestia....you little brat," she said in a teasing tone. "I'll be back soon."
Spike rolled his eyes. "Yeah, 'soon' as in 'sometime tomorrow or the day after maybe', if you come back at all!" he said, frowning and slumping down onto the floor. "The Princess is gonna chew me out for letting you do this so bad...."
"Spike, you couldn't stop me even if you REALLY tried," Twilight said flatly. "So don't even try to think the Princess will blame you."
"I just-I....ugh, I wish there was something I could do!" he said, clenching his teeth. "Somepony's screwing with your head and you're all I've really had other than the Princess since the day I was born! H-how would you feel if you thought your brother was running into certain death and you had no way of stopping him?!"
Twilight already knew the answer to that question, and it only made her feel worse for Spike. "I'm really, really sorry Spike, but like I said, I have to do this. I don't see many other options, I really don't...."
There was silence between them once more, both looking to one another, desperation and fear in Spike's eyes, while sadness and regret reflected in Twilight's. Without saying a word, Spike walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her left foreleg and hugged her tight, Twilight curling her other foreleg around his back in a small and comforting hug.
"....Just come back, okay?"
"I promise I'll come back, Spike. I swear I will."
It pained her to make such a promise to him, mainly because of the fact that she couldn't be sure if she could keep such a promise. Whatever this pony, or THING was, it wanted her and her specifically. It even called her its sister! Not to mention it said it had answers for her, answers regarding the anger and the constant internal quarrel with herself that she always seemed to be losing, given enough time. She wanted to keep her promise, but at the same time, she just had to know for certain whether or not this thing could truly explain it all to her.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 14 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-07-04T11:20:18+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:06:32+00:00
| 3,315 |
Chapter 13 - Burn (Part 2)
written by Fire Soul
After sating Spike as best she could with such hollow promises, she and her friends headed for a spot near the Everfree Forest where Rainbow Dash, during several days of training, had discovered the patrols had a weak link, a slacker that liked to take his time moseying along the treeline, as if the creature he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for wasn't anything he couldn't handle. They were always the first to die in the horror movies, so she had no doubt that if the Nightmare were to attack, he would wind up first screaming like a little foal, and then getting gobbled up as if consumed by a vacuum.
Twilight had initially believed that it would take a teleportation spell used on her friends one-by-one to get them into the Everfree, but Rainbow Dash was correct, disturbingly so in Twilight's eyes. Young ponies and foals would be all the more curious about what's so important inside of the forest that it would require constant twenty-four-hour patrols, so a gap like this could allow even the most aloof little filly or young colt to get inside. When the Princess came looking for her after this thanks to Spike's need to watch out for her, she would have to have a talk with her about the patrol duties of at least one of the Royal Guards.
Once they were all deep enough into the forest, Twilight was the first of the group to speak up. Given the situation they were in and how often they tended to lean towards Twilight for leadership, the fact that she was asking them to keep their eyes peeled for specific types of plants didn't strike any of them as being odd save for Fluttershy, who had spent the most time out of all of them with Twilight during her return to Ponyville. It wasn't until Twilight asked for Sootheroot that Fluttershy finally spoke up about the whole thing, despite Twilight explaining what the potion ingredients were for.
"U-uhm, Twilight?" the meek pony stuttered a little. "Just, how does this potion work?"
"I already told you Fluttershy, it-"
"Well yes, I know that, but-" she started to say, noticing that the others were listening in as well, Rainbow Dash currently having one of the roots in her hooves. "Well, it's just that, I give little pieces of Sootheroot to my animals when they get hurt as a pain medication substitute. Why does this potion need something like that in it?"
'Damn you for having that kind of random knowledge!' Twilight cursed in her head, but she had prepared for such questions. Just....not this one in particular. It only took her a mere moment to come up with an appropriate response though.
"W-well, this potion really messes with your head, and Sootheroot isn't very effective on us ponies compared to animals because we're normally much bigger than the animals you give the Sootheroot to, right?" she both stated and asked Fluttershy, trying to steer the conversation in a more favorable direction for her, a more convincing one.
"Well yes, I usually crush the root up and give it to my smaller animals. For animals as big as Mr. Bear though, I usually have to buy actual drugs for if he ever gets badly injured."
"Well, there you go! This potion requires a lot of Sootheroot because we're much bigger than little mice and owls and such, because it really messes with your head to block out external influences, and more than likely will give you a really bad headache."
"Oh! Oh my, I hope we don't wind up having to do something like that then, forcing you to rely on that potion I mean," Fluttershy said, thinking for a moment before looking around at some of the trees. "Just a second Twilight!"
Rainbow Dash dropped the Sootheroot she'd found and dug up into one of Twilight's saddlebags, within one of six pouches set inside of that saddlebag to separate all the ingredients for the potions she intended to make whether she 'needed' them or not. Fluttershy flew over to a tree that had a hollow hole in the middle of it, and very lightly tapped her hoof against it.
"Excuse me? Is anyone awake in there?" she asked quietly in that calm and reassuring tone. A small chipmunk stuck his head out, seeming as if he knew Fluttershy, chittering at her rapidly for a few seconds.
"Oh, hello mister Munk! I need your help, you see, my friend is making potions and....what? The zebra? Oh, I'm sorry, I know she was always very nice to all of you, but the forest has gotten very dangerous for us ponies and she-what? Oh! No no, she's okay, she just had to move to Ponyville outside of the forest, where I live. You remember, right?"
Twilight just watched and listened with wonder as her friend, speaking perfectly good Equestrian, held an actual conversation with a small chipmunk. That was just chittering at her and making all sorts of wild motions with his tiny paws and feet, pantomiming various events likely social in nature, judging by how much Fluttershy was giggling at some of the stories. Eventually though, Fluttershy got their conversation back on track.
"Hee! Miss Badger is so silly sometimes, you can't find a mate in Everfree Forest without scent marks....uhm, b-but we got distracted, it's been a while since I've seen you after your leg injury. But my friend, she needs lots of Sootheroot, that medicine you said looked like it tasted nasty and was nothing but wood, but tasted really sweet and made the pain go away when you chewed on it? Do you know where any more of it is?"
Fluttershy's conversation with the chipmunk had, unbeknownst to Twilight and Applejack (who had decided to watch the spectacle with a certain level of interest as well), attracted the attention of several other friendly forest creatures that spent their time in the Everfree instead of either in random trees and locations in Ponyville, or at Fluttershy's cottage. Many of them came over and started talking up a storm in their own special animal language, a language that Fluttershy seemed to understand perfectly despite all of it being nothing but chitters, chirps, croaks and screeches of varying degrees, not to mention the hisses that had Twilight taking ten steps away from the snakes that had slithered over to join the gathering.
When all was said and done, most of the animals dispersed to go and do what most animals spent their entire day doing, the snakes seeming to follow some kind of unwritten, or rather unknown, rule regarding such gatherings, and went in a direction as opposite the direction most of the other animals went as possible, so as to give their prey a decent chance. Of course, they likely didn't want to fall under the spell of Fluttershy's Stare.
The chipmunk hopped onto Fluttershy's back, then skittered up her mane and up onto her head, pointing to the East. Fluttershy smiled and nodded a little before turning back to Twilight and Applejack.
"They all said there's a lot over in that direction, you just have to dig really deep! Applejack, would you like to come and help me with it?"
"U-uh....heh, well, sure thing," the farmer pony said somewhat hesitantly. "Y'all sure these lil' critters know what they're talkin' about? Ah mean they just LOVE raidin' mah farm, th' rabbits do, anyways."
"Oh yes, I'm very sure! My animal friends have never lied to me, because they know they can trust me. I would never do anything to hurt them, and I would never let anypony else hurt them!"
AJ sighed and nodded a little. "Well, just gimme a moment 'til one o' the others comes back, so Twi's not stuck here-" she said, only to notice Rarity coming back. "Perfect timin'! Rarity, ah'm goin' with Fluttershy t'git some o' that Sootheroot, can ya stay with Twi 'til ah git back?"
"I'm right here y'know, you can stop acting like you're babysitting me." Twilight said in a flat tone.
"Heh, sorry Twi, just don't want somethin' happenin' to ya while none of us are nearby t'help ya out."
Rarity had returned with a bunch of Softweeds, a name betraying the gentle beige color of the flowers themselves, her critical nature towards making things look beautiful causing Rarity to weave the flowers as best she could into a wonderful bouquet, tied together with a beige ribbon that Rarity had stowed away along with a varied assortment of colored ribbons in her saddlebags.
"Of course Applejack dear, please, go right ahead! We'll be just fine until everypony is back here, right Twilight?"
"Of course!" Twilight chimed in.
"A'right then. Lead the way, Fluttershy!" Applejack exclaimed, heading off with her friend and their chipmunk guide.
With that minor bullet dodged, Twilight took the moment to look around herself, finding a few of the herbs with the help of Rarity's gem-finding spell, modified to help them both in locating some of the mushrooms that were components of the potion as well.
"Well I must say, at least this time our trip through the Everfree Forest isn't as ghastly as when Nightmare Moon stalked us through it! She was such a terrifying menace, I mean do you recall what she did to that poor River Serpent?" Rarity stated with her usual flourish, since there was little else for the two to do outside of waiting for the others to come back with their total amount of the potion ingredients.
Twilight simply nodded while rubbing the side of her head, a sudden sharp pang of pain striking her directly in the sides of her head, right at her temples. She cringed and clenched her teeth, rubbing one side with a hoof while looking around. She felt as if her vision were being toyed with, split in half even.
As she closed her eyes, she felt as if her right eye had detached itself from her, as if it were no longer there. When she opened them, however, she was seeing two different things, and the sudden twinge of pain came back as her mind attempted to process an impossible image that was being forced upon her. Her right eye was viewing herself and Rarity from up in a tree to their right, while her left eye was still seeing just fine!
She closed her left eye and looked through the mystery view, and that was when she heard it in her mind.
'Good morning, sister!'
"AAH!" she suddenly shrieked, closing both of her eyes and blinking in a wild panic as the familiarity of that voice rang true in her mind.
She turned her head this way and that, trying to spot the one spying on her, but when she finally managed to close her right eye and look around with her left, she realized that no matter how much she searched, the source of the voice could not be found. She experimented after taking a breath and making Rarity jump in sudden shock at her behavior, closing her left eye and looking through the familiar voice's sight, slowly turning her head and adjusting her 'aim' until she was facing it directly. She then switched to her left eye and looked at it, and while she felt a presence, she couldn't see it either.
Soon, Twilight could feel similar presences all around them, her one good working eye looking this way and that, Rarity's rising concerns about whatever was going on being ignored in favor of finding just where the danger was coming from this time, and whether or not this was it for her or her friends, though she dreaded that line of thinking. A knot suddenly twisted tighter in her stomach as she switched to her right eye once more, and found herself looking directly at her back, no more than a foot away from herself.
Twilight spun around and wrapped herself and Rarity in a spell, teleporting backwards away from the source of her thoroughly screwed-up vision, already switching back to her left eye to try to spot the source once more....but nopony was there. She could feel a lingering presence, however.
'Oh sister, this is funny! I wish I could play this game with your friends, too. They seem entertaining!'
"Don't you dare touch them!"
'Oh relaaax, I'm not going to hurt them! They're on their way back right now anyways, I gave them some incentive to hurry up, no worries.'
"...What did you do?!"
"TWILIGHT!!!" Rarity screamed at her, finally shaking the Unicorn out of what seemed more like one-half of a conversation. "My goodness, WHAT is wrong with you?!"
"She right here, she's watching us! I-I think she's been watching us ever since we got this deep into the forest!"
Rarity's eyes went wide, stepping up close to Twilight and grabbing hold of her face, looking directly into her eyes. Her left eye was fine, it was the same color it usually was, but the other eye, the right eye distinctly looked draconic in nature, the coloring an exact match for Nightmare Moon. Rarity prayed that she was wrong, but her own keen eye for the features of anypony she takes interest in was far from wrong, she was sure of it.
"Oh, Celestia....Twilight," she said nervously, her horn glowing and levitating a small mirror from her pack. "Look at your eye!"
It only took a moment for the lavender Unicorn to take notice of the physical change, a horrified expression overcoming her. She reared up on her hindlegs and clenched her eyes shut, covering her ears with her hooves, a terrified and equally angered scream rising up from her normally calm self.
"STOP IT!" she screamed at nopony in particular. "Get out of my head, stop messing with my body, stop messing with ME!"
'Oh, but sis-'
"NO! Damn it, I said stop messing with me!"
She dropped down on all four hooves again, her knees about ready to buckle under her as the familiar sensation of helplessness began to pummel her psyche. She stood her ground though, even as she felt the anger beginning to seethe not only from herself, but at exactly the same time, she felt a fury rising up from the voice speaking to her within her own mind. A thought occurred to her in that moment, and it only served to give her a focus for her anger. Anger that felt more like her own, now.
"You! You're the reason I've been so messed up in the head lately!" Twilight stated accusingly.
'Aww, not entirely! Your frustration just gave me a way in, that's all.'
"But you're in Everfree Forest, you're nowhere near Canterlot! How could you possibly-"
'You'll find out when you get here~!' the Nightmare said in a sing-song tone, her giggling echoing in Twilight's mind.
"Fine. Just get out of my head, now!" Twilight demanded, gritting her teeth a little.
'Okay, okay, FIIINE. Jeez, such a temper. Mother really should've put that attitude of yours in check, she always did so when I got upset.'
"Huh? Who?"
'As I said~!'
"AARGH!" Twilight cried out in utter frustration, turning and bucking a tree with all of her might, causing the entire thing from trunk to the tips of its highest branches to shake and rattle about violently. "That little bitch!"
"Whoa, now! Tarnation, Twi'!" AJ could suddenly be heard saying, clearly in a mix of surprise and disbelief. "Ah ain't never bucked a tree that hard. Ah don't think I even CAN buck a tree that hard!"
Twilight blinked a few times and looked over to her friends, just before feeling a plethora of leaves cascade down over her back. She looked up at the blanket of foliage falling down around her, her mouth hung open in surprise and disbelief at the realization that only one thing could have caused that.
"Wh-but, how would I have....?" she stuttered, sitting down and looking down at her forehooves, holding the flat of them up towards her face. She saw nothing. "Wait. Waitwaitwait, she keeps calling me 'sister'. So...."
Twilight's horn erupted with her usual bright glow and powerful aura of magic, but the magic wasn't something she was aiming at any part of her surroundings, though her likely un-diagnosed OCD did force her to take a moment to push all of the cluttered leaves off of herself with a magical wind, surrounding the base of the tree with them so that when they began to decompose, they would return their nourishment to the soil instead of just scattering it around, not to mention all of the little bugs she likely disrupted the lives of in doing what she considered to be an impossible feat of brute strength that she simply wasn't capable of. Normally.
No, instead she turned the magic upon herself, delving into her body with her own consciousness as her tether to reality while she just took a look at herself. It was an advanced spell, but she had used it several times to try to figure out whether or not she was sick or injured in a way that she couldn't actually feel until it was too late, once again likely a symptom of OCD or just her obsession with keeping everything in working order. This time however, as she examined her body inside and out, she found no trace of any bracing of stimulating magicks in any part of herself.
Nor did she find any trace of the Nightmare.
"That doesn't make any sense!" she suddenly blurted out, her eyes fluttering open.
All of her friends were standing around her now, looking to her with no small amount of concern. She scanned over them for a moment, blinking in confusion and rubbing the back of her head.
"Uh....what, what's wrong?" she muttered, blinking a few more times.
"Are you sure you're okay, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, her back loaded with a pile of Sootheroot that three squirrels were keeping from falling all over the place.
As Fluttershy moved to put the Sootheroot in Twilight's saddlebags, the unicorn smiled. "Well yes, but that's what confuses me. That Nightmare pony just spoke to me in my head, but there's no trace of a telepathic connection, and magic almost always leaves a kind of presence behind. But I couldn't find anything."
"That is rather odd," Rarity chimed in, tapping her chin with a hoof. "I don't claim to know as much as you do about magic, Twilight, but I remember learning about that sort of thing at school."
"They teach that sort of stuff outside of the School for Gifted Unicorns?"
"Why, yes! Even I know how to examine myself in such a way, I do it every morning as a part of keeping myself looking absolutely fabulous!" Rarity said with no small amount of pride and flourish in her tone.
Twilight giggled a little at that and just shrugged the matter off as something that would be answered once she reached the old castle. For now, she checked her saddlebag that contained all the ingredients for her 'special potions', counting everything while her friends very patiently waited and kept an eye out for any looming danger, Nightmare-oriented or wise. When Twilight had finished, she smiled and nodded to nopony in particular.
"Yup, this is everything I need, though I have one Sootheroot more than necessary."
"Oh! Did I mis-count? I'm sorry."
"No no, it's okay Fluttershy!" Twilight quickly said, putting the very reserved and kind pony more at ease.
With her friend at ease, at least, as at ease Fluttershy could ever be in a place like the Everfree Forest, she began to lead them in deeper, her hooves feeling heavier thanks to the dread she felt in her mind, the worry that something massive was coming her way, something she wasn't ready for. True, she had faith in the stability of her friends, the other ponies like herself, the Elements of Harmony, but....would that really be enough to keep any of them safe?
The walk itself seemed to take forever, and further confusion became abundant when they realized that they were upon the very rope bridge they'd crossed the first time without having to cross even a small stream. This confusion welled up from the fact that they had to cross what equated to a very shallow river occupied by a River Serpent the last time they'd made their way to the old castle.
Twilight's eyes locked upon the ancient structure the closer they drew to it, scanning the shadows for any sort of surprise waiting for them. But, they found it utterly effortless to step inside of the main area. Upon entering, however, Twilight found her eyes locking on doorways, scanning them for any surprises.
She barely noticed the fact that her gaze seemed to be guided by someone else's thoughts.
Her friends followed in silence, each of them keeping their eyes out while Twilight seemed to be drawn further and further inside of the castle, like she knew the way without even looking at a map of the place. Fluttershy was the first one to rouse suspicion, though mostly out of fear.
"U-uhm, Twilight?"
"Huh? Yeah-I mean, what's wrong?"
Fluttershy fidgeted a little. "You look, um, distracted...."
"I do? I just....I dunno, I feel like this is the right way."
"Ya sure 'bout that? We never went this way the last time we came here," Applejack added. "Why do ya think this is the right way?"
"I'm not really sure, it sort of feels like I'm being guided somewhere. I think. It's hard to explain. It's like it's me making the choice, but something in the back of my mind is plotting the course and making me think I'm the one making the decision to go this way or that. I think she's guilding us to her," Twilight said, pointing to a nearby arched doorway that had long since lost the door, which had crumbled into chunks of stone at their hooves. "This way."
"Y'know, at the risk of sounding like I'm some kinda scaredy-cat or something," Rainbow chimed in, looking towards the looming darkness dwelling beyond the next archway, and the stairs that led downwards. "Maaaybe this would be a good time to decide whether or not we should really keep going? I mean she's toying with Twilight's head, even if she has answers, is this really a good idea? Just sayin'."
Rainbow Dash's vote of insecurity didn't falter Twilight's hoofsteps in the least, her friends following single-file down the staircase that soon went into a downward spiral, the temperature rapidly dropping the lower and lower they got into the castle's bowels. Step after step the only light around the lot of them was Rarity's and Twilight's horn casting an illuminating glow that warded off their inability to see their hooves in front of their faces, let alone each other.
As they reached the bottom, Twilight levitated five necklaces out of one of her saddlebags, turning to her friends and hovering their respectful pieces of legendary jewelry close to them.
"I thought we might want these as a precaution."
"Aww, yeah! I dunno how exactly these things work, but I feel more secure already!" Rainbow Dash said with her usual confidence.
The others accompanied that, the tension in the group seeming to fade away as they put their necklaces on and Twilight slipped her crown on. She felt odd the moment it settled around her head, a brief sensation of being cleansed before feeling a biting pain in her mind. She didn't mention it however, and simply pressed on, resisting the urge to rub the side of her head in a vain attempt to wipe away the throbbing headache that seemed to be building in her skull.
By the time they walked into what they assumed was a wall at first, Twilight's skull felt as if her brain were doing gymnastics within its confines. She huffed out a breath of hot air that billowed out like smoke in the chilling cold that permeated the room, a quiet and pained groan finally escaping her when she turned her gaze up towards the wall before them.
When they all gazed upon it, they saw several inscriptions that failed to match any language they knew, save for Twilight. She recognized ancient scripture when she saw it, or rather, some mysterious part of her that didn't exist until that very moment did.
"Says....o-ow....!" she tried to tell them, but she found herself falling to her knees under the stress of the pain she was experiencing. "Says 'Within lies her hubris. Turn away if you still can.' Oh by Celestia, my head....!"
While she had translated the single sentence near the top of the wall, her headache didn't kick into overdrive until she attempted to understand the seemingly magical incantation down below that, a spell that appeared to be carved into the massive stone wall itself.
"You alright sugarcube?" Applejack asked while approaching the downed Unicorn.
She was cut short, however, as a bright line of magic from Twilight's horn connected with her necklace, the jewelry glowing a bright and powerful orange hue. The same thing happened with the others, each of them in turn panicking a little as Twilight's voice flooded their minds.
"Twilight?! What's going on?" Pinkie called out to her.
Twilight answered her with thoughts, her mind sending a plethora of desperate pleas for the pain to stop, for her life to return to normal, and even that she sort of wished she could have a dandelion sandwich right about now, she hadn't eaten anything decent since yesterday after all. Her thoughts seemed unhinged, collapsing in on themselves, and soon they all felt the effects too.
Twilight was slowly backing up, back on her hooves now that the pain had receded somewhat. The only thing was that she couldn't see anything. Everything was pitch-black and no matter how many times she blinked, this feeling of something blocking out her vision wouldn't go away.
"Girls....?!"
"Nngh!" Rarity groaned, rubbing the side of her head. "We should get out of here! Something's very wrong! Very-....Twilight, your eyes again!"
"I can't see!!" Twilight said with no small amount of fear.
Rarity could see it plain as day: Twilight's eyes had changed drastically. Though the color was the same as usual, the pupils had reverted to slits, draconic in nature and reminiscent of Nightmare Moon in every way. She trembled at the sight even as Twilight stepped further back behind them. They turned to her just as she began to turn her head this way and that, her ears perking up and alert.
"She's here! She's here, she's right here, she's next to me!"
"Twilight, no one's standin' next to ya. Just relax-"
"NO!"
Twilight jumped like Fluttershy getting surprised by a leaf, turning her back to the gigantic stone door that seemed to have started all of this. She seemed to be panicking more and more with every passing moment, her breathing more rapid and desperate as her gaze shifted left and right. She almost seemed like she was somewhere else, her friend's voices falling on deaf ears.
"How can you all not hear her?! She's breathing so hard, it sounds like she's all around us! It-"
She turned suddenly when she felt a presence behind herself, her eyes going wide and her gaze turning upwards. She barely heard the shrieks of her friends as she gazed into those eyes. The eyes that only she could see. The eyes consuming her and pulling her in, forcing all of her senses to shut down and the world around her to fade into nothingness. Soon, she was alone. Gone.
'Welcome to my Hell, dear sister.'
"I-it's a door....! Nngh....AAAHH-!"
And then, she felt herself falling. All things were gone, and there was only nothingness.
"What just happened?!" Rainbow called out to all of them, her body lowering close to the floor and her hooves digging in as much as they possibly could. "Twiliiight! Where are you?!"
The room felt as if it had been consumed by a hurricane. Whipping winds tore through the room in all directions, sending their manes flailing helplessly through the air and their screams being rended through the wind itself.
They couldn't hear Twilight anymore, hell they could barely even see her. Rarity flared her magic up and looked to all of them, motioning them to follow her as she moved closer and closer to where she saw Twilight last. The room seemed to almost be eating the light the moment it came into existence, the darkness in front of them feeling more alive than anything else, as if something were waiting for them mere hoofsteps ahead.
When they saw Twilight standing there, her head turned up and her mouth open wide in a silent scream, their blood ran more cold than the air around them.
Her eyes were wide and oozing a black fluid, living black tendrils erupting from her wide open mouth. A blanket of darkness surrounded her, imbuing a feeling of nausea in all of them, and a manic desperation in Rarity. She didn't know whether or not it was due to her being a Unicorn or not, but she felt....crazy. Desperate to get away from whatever this was.
Yet, it didn't feel like it was her own mind behaving in such a way. She felt exactly how Twilight described feeling moments earlier.
Rainbow Dash didn't give her much time to think about it, however. She rushed forward when she saw Twilight in the state she was in as well, both of her forehooves gripping around Twilight chest and neck from behind, trying to pull her away. She soon fell prey to her loyalty, however.
In moments, Rainbow's body went still, frozen in the middle of tugging on Twilight's stone-still body. Her gaze shifted this way and that, looking confused and lost.
"Wait....whuh....?"
Rarity could only watch with Applejack alongside her as Rainbow's normally stalwart gaze turned to one of abstract horror the moment she looked up at the exact same angle Twilight had her head turned up at. The moment it happened, Dash's necklace began to pulsate and let out a bright glow, the light dimming and brightening over and over again like some kind of heartbeat.
Applejack could almost feel the beat in her chest, like a dull thud alongside her own heartbeat, the odd sensation synchronizing with her own in a very short amount of time. She looked to Fluttershy, who had backed up with eyes wide in fear of the whole situation, but Pinkie Pie was already there beside her, wrapping her forehooves around the terrified Element of Kindness to comfort her.
"C'mon Fluttershy, we gotta get over to AJ and Rarity!"
"Ooooohhhh, this is so scaryyy....!" Fluttershy whimpered to Pinkie Pie, down on her knees partially and trembling.
Fluttershy clenched her eyes shut while standing up more. She stepped forward steadily with Pinkie Pie's guidance, only opening her eyes when she felt Rarity's hoof resting on her other shoulder. She smiled a weak smile as Rarity's body heat could be felt covering her entire right side, Pinkie Pie's to her left.
She felt far more secure with her friends on both sides of her, Applejack taking up a position next to Rarity, the four remaining friends looking upon Rainbow Dash and Twilight now, confused and unsure as to what they should actually do about what was going on. The maelstrom winds seemed to be emanating from around Twilight, causing the already icy-cold air of the room to become even moreso.
"Wh-what should we do?!" Fluttershy shouted out as loud as she could to her friends.
"Ah don't think we got much choice but t' follow Rainbow's example! Whatever's happ'nin', they need us!" Applejack responded.
As the farm pony stepped forward, so did Rarity and Pinkie. Fluttershy was grounded in her fear though, her eyes locked on the dark tendrils that seemed to be trying to break free of whatever unseen grip had them restrained within Twilight's wide-open, silent, screaming mouth. Pinkie stepped in front of her and locked her happy, bright eyes with Fluttershy's.
"C'mon Fluttershy! Gimme a big, loud laugh!"
"What?!"
"Laugh!!" Pinkie shouted to her, grinning.
Pinkie's very random giggling made Fluttershy stare at her in bewilderment, the party pony just keeping it up until she was falling over and rolling over onto her back with laughter. Despite not knowing WHY she was laughing so much, Fluttershy couldn't help but laugh along with her, feeling happier simply by witnessing her friend busting a gut for no logical reason.
Pinkie got to her hooves once Fluttershy began to laugh along with her, the pink pony still laughing while leaning in to talk to her, AJ and Rarity watching the both of them with no small amount of confusion as well.
"Alright, you're ready, young grasshopper!" Pinkie said to her with a mock-gruff voice, giggling more afterwards. "Let's get in there and get our friends back!!"
With that, Pinkie stepped away from Fluttershy and turned away, leaping head-long into Twilight and Rainbow Dash, wrapping her forelegs around the both of them until she too succumbed to whatever had struck such fear into the two of them, though she was frozen in a fit of laughter by the time her necklace began to pulsate in time with Twilight's tiara and Rainbow's necklace.
As Pinkie's laughter echoed into nothingness within their minds, both Rarity and Applejack swallowed their looming fears and surrounded Fluttershy.
"Let's go then!" AJ shouted to their timid friend.
"O-okay....!"
They all stepped closer, with minor resistance from the scared Fluttershy. All at once, they laid a single forehoof on each of their friends, save for Twilight. Rarity was the first to follow both Rainbow Dash and Twilight's gaze, and in that single moment, that brief instant, she saw what had horrified them both before they went still.
She saw the un-ending eternity in the Nightmare's eyes, her upper body protruding from the wall, looming over all of them, her heavy breathing deafening her ears as if she were somehow breathing directly into both of her ears.
"Oh by Celestia, what have we gotten ourselves into....?"
As her senses faded and she fell into unending darkness, she could feel the warmth of her friends nearby. She didn't know exactly where they were, but they were somewhere in the deep, stark black. Soon, she became intensely dizzy, and felt her fears and her hesitations fading away and making room for blissful unconsciousness.
And then, like the others, she was gone, fallen prey to the same spell that had taken her friends into the darkness.
Twilight could feel something writhing all around her in the nothingness that was the absolute silence that suppressed all of her senses. There wasn't even darkness, there was just nothingness, nothing to comprehend. It was an odd sensation, a sensation that was causing her to panic.
Then, all at once, the world re-asserted itself in a flurry of motion, walls coming into view from the ether, the inky darkness becoming something she could actually see rather than only attempt to imagine being all around her. She could feel her eyes, her skin, the chilling cold of the air, and the smell of the stagnant stench of blood and death.
Of course, the only reason she knew she was smelling rotting corpses was due to the fact that when the world came into focus around her, she was looming over a pony whose eyes had been ripped out, and his fur and flesh had partially rotted on his skull.
She fumbled and stumbled back, her voice caught in her throat as the acrid air became all the more intense the more she became aware. She saw the full extent of the dead pony's features, a lab coat ripped in half along with his entire body, blood staining the ground in a massive, dry red spot.
She took a moment to look around while covering her nose as best she could with a foreleg, and she saw the true extent of the horror all around her.
She was in a long, extensive hallway, the ceiling illuminated by bright white lights fueled by a line of magic runes running down the hall between them. On each side of her, large glass windows held the bodies of naked ponies and dead researchers, some of them only skeletal remains while some others looked to be in early stages of decomposition.
"Don't be so afraid."
She turned around on a dime, jumping back and almost tripping her hindleg over the corpse she was trying to back away from. Standing there before her was the little filly that had presented herself the first time, the filly she'd seen when she had gazed upon the forest and heard the foal's cry.
"Hello, Twilight Sparkle. I was called Moonlight Star."
"Oh....uh....yeah," Twilight numbly muttered, turning her gaze left and right, then back to the small Unicorn filly. "Where am I?"
She was sitting behind the corpse, the smell of the room not even remotely fazing the little one, her dark coat of fur and her sparkling mane giving her an appearance akin to a very young Luna. Moonlight simply smiled and shrugged.
"You're inside your own mind. Can't you tell?"
"I'm not sure what I should believe right now. Me being here is scientifically impossible if I were still moving around in my physical body, so I guess being within my own mind makes sense...." Twilight idly mused to herself.
"She's been waiting for this moment. I can explain things on the way down, if you like," the little foal said, walking past Twilight and down the hall. "This way."
'Twilight!'
She looked back at the massive door looming behind her, the voice of Applejack ringing true in her ears.
"Don't mind that. Your friends most definitely do not need to be burdened with this truth."
'Twilight, wh-where are you? Why is it so dark out here....?!'
"Fluttershy?" Twilight called out.
She suddenly felt like several eyes were on her, peering at her right through the walls. She couldn't make them out unfortunately, all she could see was the decaying death all around her.
"Come along, Twilight. You want your answers, correct?"
"Why is Fluttershy here?"
"Your friends were concerned, and your Elements drew them to you. You are here, thus, when they tried to set you free, they were drawn in instead."
Twilight reluctantly stepped forward, her eyes gazing back the entire time until she felt the ground give way slightly beneath her. When she snapped her head forward, she expected to see some kind of nightmarish drop into a permanent oblivion, her heart jumping up into her throat just before her hoof touched ground again. Then she noticed it was just a step down deeper into the hall.
"But....wait, why did the Elements leave me in here? Why wouldn't they pull me out of here instead?"
"Because you are weak, and thus so are they. Do you know of your birthright? Do you know why you are so conflicted and angry lately?"
"How would you know about what I'm going through?"
"I am a part of her. I serve her willingly because she would erase my existence otherwise."
"Well....why should I trust you then?"
"Because you have little choice. You make her wait too long, she will get upset, and she will come to you very, very unhappy."
"That really doesn't fill me with confidence."
"Good. It shouldn't. You should be afraid."
A single shiver at the cold, dead look in the young foal's eyes gave way to a silent trek over dead bodies, old skeletons and rotting corpses, the terror evident in their equally long-dead eyes. She could still hear the voices of her friends, but the further down she went, the more faint they became.
Soon their voices were like whispers in the still and stagnant air of the hall, several corners taken and turns made until finally, they reached a very large door at the end. Twilight couldn't make it out at first, but when she realized she couldn't read the language it was written in in her mind, the words re-shaped and shifted on the very door they were etched.
"Project 427: Immortal?"
"That is her number. You will know everything once you go inside. She wants you to know, you deserve to know after all. You are our sister!"
That was the first time, in that single moment, that she saw the little Unicorn filly smile, but her eyes, her gaze, everything about her made Twilight think that she was particularly sick. She stepped closer to the little filly, the young one shrinking back away from her when she reached out to see if she could touch her.
"You, uh....you look like you're sick. Are you okay?"
"Don't you DARE touch me!" the filly growled out at her.
Twilight recoiled and looked to her in surprise, blinking and looking up as the door behind her began to creak open, lit up with a similar, black and inky magic akin to the magic emanating from Moonlight Star's horn.
"I don't want your help, I will never want your help! You have to pay for being related to the one that caused me to be sealed away in this pit!"
"WHAT?! I don't-"
"You'll understand when you enter...."
The sudden venom in the filly's voice made Twilight back up a little, the anger apparent on her face, a stark contrast to the initial fear she displayed towards Twilight's touch. She turned when the door opened fully and ran inside, a full-on sprint to get away from Twilight's presence. She disappeared into the darkness of the room, making Twilight stand up and shudder a little as she stepped forward.
The first time she knew something was wrong was the moment she stepped into the room and she heard a sound akin to pressing one's ear to another's chest to listen to their breathing. It grated at her sanity and made her wonder if she was even going anywhere the further she walked forward. Rubble riddled the floor and bodies were everywhere, but every single one felt as if it were watching her, homing in on her and keeping an eye on every single motion she made.
By the time she found herself able to see, despite the pitch-black darkness around her, she was trembling with a foreign fear. The whole time, she became more and more paranoid of her surroundings, feeling as if the hoofsteps she heard were the very corpses she had seen previously, her imagination venturing to a dark, scary place. She didn't dare look behind herself for fear of seeing dead bodies following her in a line, eager to consume her flesh to restore what they have lost.
"....Hmm, maybe a new one, so lonely here...."
Twilight's gaze locked forward when she heard someone speak, and it definitely wasn't the little filly she heard before. Or at least, she didn't think it was. In truth, it was her, but she was in the distance, facing away from Twilight, her breathing rapidly accelerating as her horn lit up. Seconds later, Twilight could hear the raging cry of a foal, a high-pitched whine that made her lower her ears in a vain attempt to shut out the loud screech that surrounded her and filled the air.
"No! Why must they always cry, why would Mother ever want such a thing?! No wonder she left us here...." the filly muttered, her horn glowing once again.
Twilight was filled with horror as the morbid and disturbing sound of an even more high-pitched gagging and crying flooded her ears, tears running down her cheeks as the foal's cries became weak gurgles, and then stopped entirely.
"By Celestia, what did you just DO?!" Twilight asked in a half-shout, her mouth open wide in clear, undeniable horror, the lavender Unicorn disturbed down to her very core.
The little filly perked her ears up and turned her head a little, getting to her hooves and turning sideways while looking in Twilight's direction. She smiled a vicious, yet familiar smile.
"Oh hel-LO, sister! I merely tried to make a new friend, but it came out wrong. So I killed it," she said all too casually, giggling a little afterwards. "Welcome to my humble abode."
Twilight knew that voice all too well, and she knew those black, endless eyes.
"Wh-....Nightmare?"
"Who else did you expect?" the filly asked, an inky blackness pulsating from her horn.
Soon, the dark magic emanating from her horn engulfed her entire body and surrounded her with an inky, pulsating blackness that seemed to shift and move of its own accord. It twisted and pulled closer to her body until it sunk all over her form and covered her in what looked like a pitch-black, self-shaping skin.
The darkness pulsated and throbbed, pushing outward until Twilight was no longer looking down, but up, into the dread-inducing gaze of the Nightmare as she and her friends knew her thus far. Her trembling knees felt like putty as the Nightmare leaned in and almost touched horns with her, causing her to reflexively step back.
"Oh, don't be frightened, sister! How about you ask me a question, like the one you wished that witch Celestia to answer, but she so intensely refused?" she said, grinning and turning away from her.
Twilight gulped. "A-alright...." she muttered, feeling very vulnerable standing before such a powerful creature without the comfort of her friends. "What's been wrong with me?"
"Oh, that's plenty simple! You're like me."
"What do you mean?"
The Nightmare grinned. "YOU are a descendant, like myself. A descendant of a legacy, though you probably know that," she said, turning away and walking towards a pedestal she was facing before. "You do know that, right?"
Her deadpan voice and her statement had Twilight thoroughly confused. A descendant? What did that mean? Regardless, she could only shake her head, her gaze shifting to the pedestal the Nightmare seemed obsessed with, spying the dimly pulsating, glowing ball atop it.
"I see! Mother always was very secretive. You know, kind of like how she never once let me leave this facility! Did she ever mention me?"
"Why would I know your Mother? Who....IS your Mother?"
The Nightmare could only laugh for a long moment, wiping her eyes clear of non-existent tears afterwards.
"Ohh-ho, if you don't know that, I'm sure not telling you! Seems you weren't told anything, no wonder you were stupid enough to come here!" the dark creature said, smiling happily and almost trotting around her pedestal, looking as giddy as a little filly at a candy store.
"What?! What are you talking about, you said you would have answers!"
"Well yes, I would have had answers, but since you do not know the magic required to defend yourself....well, let's just say it's going to be fun turning you into a mindless husk that doesn't even know how to feed herself let alone escape from me!"
Twilight recoiled in fear as her horn lit up, a sharp shriek emanating from her as the dark magic in the Nightmare's horn jolted out and formed a black tendril that rose up and extended, first as a billowing cloud of black smoke, then as a solid, razor-sharp snake-like tentacle that was pointed directly at the vulnerable Unicorn.
"I look forward to hearing her weep when she finds out that I'm all that's left of her bloodline."
Twilight launched bolt after bolt of magical missiles at her adversary, each hitting and failing to hurt her even slightly, not even an errant twitch or sting making the Nightmare relent. Twilight felt nothing but fear as the imposing filly-turned-mare stepped closer until she was more than within striking distance.
Twilight turned to run, but the Nightmare was infinitely faster. Darkness locked Twilight in place, the very floor beneath her wrapping around her hooves and holding her fast, forcing her to watch as that tendril lunged at her and stabbed directly between her eyes.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 15 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-07-18T17:16:18+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:06:54+00:00
| 3,478 |
Chapter 13 - Burn (Part 3)
written by Fire Soul
In that single instant, she believed she was dead. But instead, she only felt emotions as her own memories were forced upon her, and then they were rapidly plucked away the moment they ended.
She couldn't fully comprehend what was happening to her. In one moment, she was standing in Canterlot talking to her brother as a little filly, and in another moment she was in Ponyville chatting with her friends over a tasty lunch. Mmm....daffodils and a side of sunflower seeds and corn.
They kept whipping by rapid-fire, and just as quickly they kept ceasing to exist within her own mind. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it felt like she was jumping from happy moment to happy moment. She couldn't even remember how she'd gotten there, or why she was running through random memories. It felt nice though. Maybe if she just let them happen....
'Tw...l.gh...!'
"Huhn? Whuzzuh?" she mumbled drowsily, her words echoing in the air around where she believed she was watching her own memories from.
'Twi...ht!'
The voice echoed in her mind once more, a familiar tone that she had only heard once before. Where had she heard it from? She couldn't make it out....
'Twilight!'
That time, the voice echoed all around her, an intense, loud sound that shattered the spell locking her away within the bliss of her memories. She opened her eyes and felt the tendril that had, surprisingly painlessly, burrowed into her mind. Her horn flared up and she teleported away, out of the Nightmare's grasp in a brief moment of focus, the sound of the voice feeling as if it had empowered her.
Then she realized that she was here, in the room, in the stink and the horrid presence of the creature whom she believed was actually about to kill her. She quickly pressed a hoof to her forehead, feeling around the spot she'd stabbed into her at....yet, there was nothing. No blood, no hole in her head, no nothing!
"What in the world just-"
"Get down, Twilight!"
That voice again! She turned and looked right at a dark bolt of energy heading right for her, the arcing energy rushing through the air in spastic patterns. It was all she could do to hit the deck just before a mighty thunder-clap hit with all the resounding deafening force of a tidal wave.
The Nightmare was sent sprawling, her magic deactivated under the surprise assault. She roared out in defiance of the electricity coursing through her body, but it was no use: she couldn't move. The dark energy had control of her, though it was temporary.
Twilight could barely force herself to look away as a dark tendril wrapped around the Nightmare's neck from behind her and whipped her around in the air, a distinct snapping sound heard before she was released, sending her flailing limply through the air and against a wall, unseen beyond the darkness.
Twilight almost jumped out of her skin the moment she felt a hoof on her side. She whipped her gaze over to the source and looked up into the eyes of....Princess Luna?
"Wh-wha-why are you here?!" she shouted suddenly.
"No time for that, get out of here!"
"Where do I-"
"Back the way you came! Go!" Luna shouted to her, stepping around in front of her.
Twilight got to her hooves quickly, looking back to the now-open path, fully devoid of the bodies and skeletons that plagued her psyche on the way down. Then again, she felt more mentally fortified now, as if fear didn't exist here. It was an odd sensation, as if she were both herself, and somepony else.
"Wh-what about you?"
Luna turned suddenly and touched her horn to Twilight's, darkness emanating from her horn and flowing into Twilight's own. The lavender Unicorn gasped and clenched her eyes shut along with her teeth. She felt a rush, a rush that was both damn good and ecstasy-ridden, but it was also very overwhelming.
She both felt, saw, and suddenly KNEW memories that weren't her own. A flood of knowledge implanted itself alongside her normal patterns of thought, integrating themselves into what would normally be her standard ways of performing Unicorn magic. By the time it was over, she felt something akin to an orgasm rushing through her, one that seemed to keep bursting within her, debilitating her movement.
Luna stepped back and took a breath, a very pleasure-ridden breath and had both of them blushing. She quickly recovered from it however, and lifted a forehoof up.
"N-now get out of here! Find the others and find a way out of her maze!"
With that, Luna slammed her hoof into Twilight's chest, and the world rushed past her. She only had a brief second to realize that she was soaring backwards down the very hall she had come down, guided perfectly down the twisting and turning center of the hallway by whatever magic Luna had performed to get her moving.
She felt an impact against her back, and the world around her went black. By the time she came to, she saw herself. Standing over her.
"....Uh?"
Luna turned to face the Nightmare again, but she was clearly feeling the effects of fusing her mind with Twilight. Her heart was racing and her mind was muddled under the intensity of the release it brought her. Her body wished to lay down and rest, but she knew that she wasn't truly in her body. Aside from that, laying down would mean the death of her.
"Hello to you too, Mother," she spat at her, stepping into the very dim, vague light. "I wonder if that counts as incest, what you just did."
"I did not have much choice if I wished to keep her safe from a psychopath like you!"
"How harsh! Are you still angry about falling prey to me? You were the pony stupid enough to hug me after I ripped a researcher in half right in front of you."
Luna took a breath and locked her gaze with the Nightmare's, both of them readying their similar magicks against one another. Luna's pristine figure began to become enshrouded with darkness, her physique disappearing under the same magic the Nightmare was using.
"You turned me into Nightmare Moon and tried to kill Celestia by stealing my power!"
"Oh yes, I did, one of my more glorious moments."
"What happened to you, Star? What did they DO to you that would drive you to all of this?" Luna asked, the dark magic hiding the fact that she was crying under the surface.
That was the only time Luna had ever seen genuine rage on the Nightmare's face. She stamped her forehooves against the ground, tendrils rising up from the darkness around her, five of them looming mere feet away from her, all of them shifting around in motion with the Nightmare's steps.
"You let them experiment on me!!"
"I never-"
"Don't you lie to me, you sick twisted BITCH!!!" the Nightmare roared at her.
The Nightmare was the first to make a move. Thoroughly enraged, the Nightmare lashed out with all five of her readied tentacles, the razor-sharp weapons rushing directly at Luna and around her, wanting to give her little chance of getting out of the way.
Luna was far from a fool. The Nightmare made a wild lunge for her general location, but by the time they reached her, she was of the same consistency as the darkness around her, melding into the shadows. She shifted around the room in absolute silence, circling around the Nightmare's position, her eyes locked on the demonic mare.
Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention to the fact that the Nightmare had a trap ready for her.
She felt the presence ahead of her movements far too late, and drifted directly into a tendril that grabbed her by her throat and tore her out of her shroud. She tumbled across the floor and rolled to her feet, ignoring the sensation of her windpipe being stuck shut in favor of staying alive.
The moment Luna has walked right into her trap, the Nightmare knew where she was, and lashed out with three of her five available skewering tendrils. They arced up into the air, twisting and surging around one another, forming a single combined force that Luna fired three balls of dark energy at.
Each blast caused an explosion that ripped one tendril, then another, then another apart, leaving her a cloud of billowing black smoke to use as impromptu cover. The Nightmare dove into it just the same.
They were both shuffling through it, slowly stepping and doing their best to silence their movements. When both spotted one another's horns, or rather, felt the magic so close to them, they charged and locked horns. Luna was at the disadvantage due to her smaller stature, but she held her ground, not daring to give an inch for fear of giving her the confidence needed to put this situation to its most beneficial use.
"I-rrgh!-swear to you that I had no part in whatever they did to you, Moonlight!" Luna pleaded, straining to resist the strength of the other.
"Oh but didn't you-nnh!-Mother? You locked me away in a cell and came to visit meeee-aagh....!" the Nightmare strained to say, Luna's sudden burst of strength making her ease back slightly. "You could've taken me out of here."
"No I couldn't have, we couldn't be sure if you were-"
"DANGEROUS?!" she bellowed, clenching her teeth and pushing back even harder, the strain on their horns borderlining the point of becoming agonizing. "Well, I-*huff*-guess you have your answer now, don't you?"
"I was pregnant, Moonlight, it was too dangerous for me to visit you, I wanted to show you your-rrgh!-your little sister after she was born!"
"All the more reason for me to want everything regarding her dead. That little witch and her disgusting little virmin are all part of the reason they got away with what they did....but I made them pay. Oh yes, I so very much made them pay, especially that foalfiddling Senior Scientist who was in charge in your stead!"
Luna could barely register the struggle they were having, her body and her mind locked, focused on the horrific realization that, in her absence, her daughter had been....
"You let them do it! It was an advanced research facility, you knew what they would do to the daughter of a GODDESS the moment they believed they could get away with it!" she cried out to Luna, pushing hard in a fit of anguish and hate.
Luna's spirit was broken. In a single fell swoop, she felt her body giving way beneath her. The Nightmare took the opportunity and pressed her advantage once again, and Luna's legs almost gave out beneath her. With her head knocked downward, the Nightmare reared up on her hindlegs and slammed her forehooves down as hard as she could on the back of Luna's head, sending her nose crashing down into the floor.
The distinct crack of cartilage and bone giving way could be heard, blood leaking from the Princess's nostrils. She cried out in pain and rolled onto her side, looking up to her daughter with tears pouring from her eyes.
"I am....SO sorry, Moonlight....!" she choked out, slowly getting to her hooves once more. "What could I possibly do to make this better? Is there any way I can stop this?"
The Nightmare looked into her Mother's eyes, swallowing back the sobs and the tears as the memories flooded her and made her feel the unwanted, intimate touch of another pony all over her body. She stepped back as the memory of the sensation, the entire experience, traumatized her all over again. She forced it out of her mind and glared at Luna with a grim determination.
"No. There's nothing you can do. Don't ever talk to me like I'm your daughter ever again," she said, her gaze unwavering. "I'm going to crush you. But first I'm going to crush everything you hold dear. Every last pony, Gryphon, Zebra, hell even Celestia's precious pet Phoenix is going to be my BITCH....!"
Luna could feel the familiar chill running up her spine. The same sensation she had the last time she looked into those hate-filled, furious and sad eyes. It had ended with her becoming Nightmare Moon, albeit by surprise.
"I'm going to beat you over and over again into an inch of your infinite life for the rest of eternity, like a daily exercise regimen. Then I'm going to bind you to a post in the hottest, most barren desert I can find, and make you watch as I rip your sister's throat out again, and again, and again, and again no matter how many times the immortal cunt regenerates! She'll be begging me to forgive her for locking me in here!"
She could feel herself backpedaling away from her daughter, but no matter how much she did, the larger mare simply stepped towards her. The acid in every word she said made Luna's heart ache, never before had she heard such unbridled, overwhelming hate for herself, her sister, or anypony for that matter. Once again....she found herself terrified in her daughter's presence.
"....But not here. Not now. I will gladly settle for Twilight, though....she will be the beginning of it all."
Luna's fear became her fuel, and in a massive explosion of magic, she stood her ground.
"You shall not go near her! My guards are on the way-"
"Is THAT who is setting my forest on fire and cutting the trees down in the process of defending themselves? Let me guess. Strider's colleagues?"
"Wh-how-?"
"He told me his name after I removed my hoof from his crushed torso."
An almost primal roar erupted from the Princess of the Night, and with her emotions fueling her already innately poweful magic, she unleashed a rapid barrage of explosive magic bullets at her, each one detonating against or all around her, concussing the Nightmare and knocking her further and further away.
"There is no apology in the world that could ever adequately beg for forgiveness for what happened to you when I was not there-"
A whip-like tendril lashed out through the plume of black smoke left behind by the explosions from Luna's horn, wrapping around the Nightmare's throat and yanking her with neck-snapping force through it, back towards the source of the magical weapon.
"-But I refuse to allow your hate to destroy a world that has done nothing to hurt you!"
They were mere feet apart, Luna's anger abated by the mere sound of her voice. She sounded as if she were in pain, and even after all this time, Luna could barely bring herself to lash out at her daughter seriously.
"The sins of the past, Mother! You will pay, THEY will pay, every living creature in Equestria will pay for YOUR hubris!!"
She wanted to throw her. To bash her skull against the non-existent wall, but a fight here would serve little purpose if they could match one another in strength, skill and speed. Even if she didn't want to admit it, she was afraid of her daughter. She had so much more control over The Void, far more than what Luna had access to. The Nightmare seemed to pick up on this.
"What's wrong, Mother? You're trembling...."
Her mocking tone didn't stop Luna from looking down at herself, finally noticing her trembling legs and her wings, firmly tucked in and out of harm's way. She tried to present herself with more confidence, but the damage to her image was done: the Nightmare had called her out on what she was really feeling.
"Oh, Mother, don't worry. I won't kill you here!" the dark pony said, breaking free of Luna's grip with a simple burst of a spell. "This place is my mind and Twilight's. It would be an unglorious end if I simply turned you into a vegetable. No, I'm going to enjoy making you suffer....!"
The Nightmare laughed as Luna backed away, becoming pinned against a wall while her focus failed and her magic dispelled from around the Nightmare's neck. The dark creature cricked her neck a bit and continued to smile her wicked, smug, sadistic smile.
"In fact, maybe you should return to your body and get moving! We both know what your next move's going to be. Go erect your barrier with your precious sister's assistance to keep me out. It will make it all the sweeter when I get past it and prove just how helpless you both really are!"
Her confidence had a profound effect on Luna's morale. The battle was over before it truly had a chance to start: Luna had no time and very little energy to waste on contending with the one creature in the world she legitimately feared more than anything else in her life. The Nightmare matched her and perhaps even went far beyond her power at this point, The Void's power amplified exponentially by her uncontrolled rage and sadness and hate.
Luna could think of no other choice at the moment but to flee.
She clenched her eyes shut and imagined Canterlot. Saw herself sitting there and screamed in her head the desire to return. Her magic responded in kind. With her wings spread and with one mighty jump and flap of her wings, she rocketed up into the air and through the imposed ceiling that wasn't truly there.
Soon, her world turned to darkness, and she felt the calming embrace of another pony against her side. That however didn't stop her from freaking out.
While she was within the Nightmare's mind, she had braced her mental faculties and forced her fears deep, deep into her subconscious where it couldn't get to her. But the Nightmare had begun to manipulate that and chip away at her psyche with words and intense scare tactics. It worked wonderfully against her.
Luna screamed a blood-curdling scream, the likes of which Celestia wasn't prepared for. Her eyes flew open with a wild and frantic gaze, her head swivelling this way and that and her gaze shifting around rapidly, searching her bedroom.
"LUNA!" Celestia shouted at her, the Magisters invited into her chambers quickly examining Luna's mind and body. "Luna, calm down, look at-"
"She was there! Oh by the heavens above she was right in front of me she was touching me she-she broke my defensesdownohGodsohGodsohGODS what did I create?!"
"Sister, please, look at me! Look at me, right now!" Celestia demanded..
Luna didn't seem to be listening, her terror deeply impacting her ability to think straight. Celestia was growing desperate the more Luna struggled against her grasp, and finally she let her younger sister go just so she could grasp her head by her cheeks and force her sister to look into her eyes.
"LUNA! Listen to me, damn it all!!"
The Princess of the Night was clearly absolutely terrified, all of her barriers shattered either by her own innate fears of possibly becoming Nightmare Moon again, or by her long-imprisoned daughter's presence, jarring confidence and hate-ridden words. But, when Celestia had managed to focus her attention, she visibly softened and slowly began to realize where she was. It didn't change the fact that she was two seconds away from tripling the patrols of the Night Guard.
"She is not here. You are in Canterlot Castle, with me. That's all. She cannot hurt you here, especially while you are under my supervision. Do you understand?" Celestia said, holding her face still to keep their eyes locked.
Luna simply nodded, at first. But when Celestia let her go and she finally let out the held-in breath she'd been containing since she was first grabbed in such a way, she quickly ran through the things the Nightmare had said to her.
"Sister, she....I finally know what happened to her," Luna said, her body slumping. "It is all my fault....!"
"What? What do you mean?"
"I always thought that she must have done what she did but I never....th-those filthy bastards forced experiments on her, and one of the researchers raped her....!" Luna choked out, the tears running down her cheeks freely.
Celestia said nothing, though her face said it all. The Magisters looked to them both curiously, but Celestia motioned to them all, then pointed to the door. They left just as Celestia embraced her sibling in a firm and comforting embrace, Luna's sobs heard up and down the halls even after the door was closed behind them.
After a short few minutes, far too short of time for both Celestia and Luna, the two separated with the pastel-maned Princess retrieving a towel to help dry her younger sister's tears as best she could. She looked visibly shaken by the news as well, but if it fazed her as much as it fazed Luna, Celestia wasn't showing it.
"Luna....are you prepared to go through with this?"
"....I-I don't have much of a choice, do I Tia?"
"If there were any other way, I would make any sacrifices necessary to-"
"No," Luna quickly interjected. "Even if it was her choice to do the things she did, I still hold the most accountability, Tia. You warned me so many times....!"
"Luna, no matter how immortal we may be, we're still mortal in mind and soul. You can't blame yourself for what happened to her, you were struck with grief and you trusted your colleagues! How could you have known-"
"You knew. You knew there was a good chance it would happen. If you knew, why did I not become aware of it until it was too late?"
Celestia could only hold her tongue upon that obvious point. Luna, sharp as ever, was good at pointing out exactly what mattered most.
"....As I thought," Luna said, visibly shrinking in on herself. "Let us go. Ponyville awaits, and we must both be ready."
Luna was the first to leave, dejected by her own words and by Celestia's inability to convince her otherwise. Celestia sat there, her gaze focused on the carpeted floor of her sister's chambers, an uncharacteristic frown marring her normally beautiful visage.
"I wish that you could believe that being in love and happy could cause you to overlook something so obvious...." she whispered to herself.
Celestia followed mere moments later, the two moving in silence together save for working to prepare the Rune Magic-inclined Royal and Night Guards to keep on alert. Along with that, they made sure to ready a few of those specially trained guards to come with them on a fleet of chariots to Ponyville, an entourage of fifty strong all congregated around their Princesses.
Twilight got to her hooves after scooting out from under herself, the mere thought of doing so boggling her mind. She tried to say something to herself, but the look-alike seemed busy talking to someone else. When she got up and turned around, she could clearly make out Applejack and Rarity both standing side-by-side. They looked vexed by one another's presence. In an instant, she had an idea of what this was, and when she realized that, the library formed around them.
It was a perfect replica, an uncanny physical representation of her library. Her home, from the exact moment when Applejack and Rarity had wound up being stuck with her through the storm all night during her very first sleepover. The detail was impeccable, detail that she hadn't even consciously taken in during the whole experience!
She didn't dwell on it however. She recalled what Princess Luna had said to her, not to mention what she'd done, something Twilight hoped could get resolved between them with a single sentence and little more. It still sent shudders up and down her spine to think that some might consider Luna her 'first'....eugh. Somehow, it just seemed creepy! At the very least it was tactless and horrendously inappropriate given the circumstances.
Then again, even Twilight could feel the change in the flow of magic inside of her body, and she could sense the innate knowledge needed to put it to use, drastically different from standard Unicorn magic. She closed her eyes and channeled some of what felt like very wild, uncontrollable energy, and despite its nature it submitted to her will. She couldn't tell if it was dumb luck or actual skill and mental fortitude on her part, but she thought of a shape, and the black magical energy bursting forth from her horn began to take the shape of a vase.
Of course, it was a vase hanging on her horn like when Applejack throws a ringer in a game of Horseshoes, so she quickly stopped that and walked towards the door leading out of her library.
Clearly Luna had given her this for a reason, abused the Life-Bond Ritual to impart knowledge somehow in the moment when their minds became one and that....intense ecstasy threatened to knock her out. You just don't take a virgin by surprise like that! Still, given what Luna used it for, she was willing to believe that her virginity was intact and they hadn't done anything like that at all. It was just Luna giving her knowledge and power. Nothing more.
That didn't answer the question of why Luna gave her such power in such a hurry, but she wasn't complaining outside of the methods used to give such power to her. Argh, she couldn't get that little factoid out of her head!
"That did not happen. It was just a spell, Twilight. MOVING ON." she grumbled to herself.
The first thought that rang true to her upon putting her previous line of thinking on the backburner was Fluttershy. She'd heard her friend's voice even while she was beyond that large stone door. Of course, she'd also been walking all this time in a mostly aimless direction. By the time she looked around, she was somehow standing on a lone hill on Applejack's farm.
Apparently the whole Luna marriage ritual thingy from more ancient times got to her worse than she realized. Wandering was definitely not something she did. Of course, she didn't normally waste time on pointless things either, but look at her now!
Right. Fluttershy.
She was by now fully aware of where she was. The randomness, the ability to go anywhere her heart desired in an instant in ways that made absolutely no sense....yep. Definitely inside of her own mind. She just had to focus on her friend's voice, the memory of it first, then the real voice calling out to her. In an instant, she was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of depictions of Fluttershy, each one saying her name in a drastically or slightly different way. The sudden shift from absolute dead silence to thousands of Fluttershy voices almost blew her eardrums out.
She rapidly made them go away, adjusting her thoughts and instead just doing it the hard way: focusing on the concept of her friend's mind being connected to her own. She wasn't entirely sure if that was truly the case, but Fluttershy did call out to her, and she could only do that if she were actually in here. Or if she knew magic, but that was an obvious 'no'.
"Hey Twilight, where ya at?! It's gettin' kind of creepy lookin' for you through all of your old memories of me!"
That would count double for an anti-egghead like Rainbow Dash.
In an instant, she had the feeling she wanted to talk with her friend, and moments later, they were standing in front of one another. Rainbow Dash could only jump in surprise as the distant image of Twilight sitting alone on a hilltop rapidly approached her, and stopped mere feet in front of the rainbow-maned pegasus.
"WHOA! Don't do that, sheesh!"
Twilight recoiled a little both from her friend's outburst and from the fact that she only saw Rainbow Dash's face upon opening her eyes. She took a quick look around now that they were sitting together on the hill, but saw no one else.
"You're alone? Didn't everyone come in? I mean if you and Fluttershy are here...."
"Yeah, I think we did anyways," she said, shrugging. "Keeps feelin' like I have some kind of weight on my back."
"Huh. Well, I only sort of know what's going on, but....I'm sorry," she said, rubbing the back of her head. "The Nightmare tried to kill me. Apparently before Luna showed up, I had no way of defending myself."
"Whoa-wait, Luna? As in Princess Luna? What's she got to do with this?"
"I'm not entirely sure yet, but I have a feeling I know who I need to talk to to know what's going on. Or what was going on, anyways," Twilight said, smirking. "I feel like me again, you know? I can-I can focus, and I don't feel down in the dumps or worn out for no good reason, and I want to read again! I want to study!"
Rainbow Dash could only stare at her friend with no small amount of confusion.
"You, uh....you sure the Nightmare didn't tell you something?"
"More like the Princess gave me something! This new magic is invigorating, I feel like I could take on the world right now!"
"Waitwaitwait, new magic? Is that what this is right now? Something you did?"
"No, this is the Nightmare's doing. Princess Luna gave me the knowledge to use this just before she forced me away from what I can only assume is a fight going on right now between her and the Nightmare."
Twilight yelped as she was suddenly grabbed by her friend in both of her forehooves, the pegasus hovering in front of her and a little above, up in the air.
"You left Princess Luna alone with that psychotic freak? What's wrong with you?!"
"It's not like I would have if she gave me any other choice!" Twilight responded just as loudly, batting Rainbow's hooves away from her head. "She sort of hit me out of nowhere with her hoof, and next thing I knew, I was blacking out and I woke up in the middle of an old memory."
Rainbow Dash hrm'ed and looked around, into the never-ending darkness that made up the rest of Twilight's mind, along with a plethora of memories that Twilight left in her wake on the way to the hilltop. She shrugged.
"I suppose she knows what she's doing then. Never figured the Princesses to be fighting types, either of 'em," Rainbow mused. "So what do we do now? How do we get outta here?"
"I feel like I've already figured it out, I just have to locate them and then I can get us safely out of here together."
With this in mind, Rainbow Dash and Twilight began to work together, at first with Rainbow Dash being completely quiet, much to her chagrin. Over time and combined with a lot of silence, however, Rainbow Dash tried a different tactic: she began to call out to them while Twilight continued to try to summon them with her thoughts.
This new tactic served them both well. They tried for Fluttershy first, and combined with Rainbow Dash's boisterous vocals, they managed to grab her attention and thus managed to locate her now that her conscious mind was focusing on trying to find them as well. The same method was soon performed on Rarity, Applejack, and finally Pinkie Pie.
By the time they got to her though, Pinkie Pie was in the middle of talking to two iterations of Twilight, both speaking to two different ponies in seperate memories. Whether Pinkie was aware of this or not, or whether or not Pinkie knew neither of them was the real Twilight, they will likely never know.
Twilight began to focus her thoughts once again, but this time she focused on something entirely different than just hunting for her friends. Now, she began to ponder on the nature of her surroundings. She had a hunch that the key to getting out of her own mind had everything to do with the proper train of thought.
She knew she had the method down, but the only problem she foresaw was figuring out how to take her friends with her. If she messed this up....well, she was fairly unsure what would happen, but having her friends stuck in her head would be a bad thing considering where they were at the moment outside of it.
A door. That was the answer. It was harder to do, and it took what felt like hours, but when she opened her eyes, there was a door floating in front of their little hill. Pinkie managed to make it even more difficult by getting immensely bored and talking incessantly, but at least there was a way out now.
"Okay, this should work. I think," Twilight muttered, rubbing the side of her head. "Kinda hurt though."
"Ah don't think it's so safe t'be jumpin' through magick-y doors on a 'maybe', Twi."
"All things considered, I don't think we have much cho-...well! What is that?" Rarity chimed in.
They all turned their gazes to where Rarity was looking, though Twilight was the only one that seemed to fully grasp what was happening.
Beyond the darkness that was already there, in the far-off distance, her memories were disappearing. One by one they were fading to black, or rather, the darkness was consuming them itself. She backed up towards the door with nerve-struck steps.
"Into the door."
A tendril loomed over them, making itself stand out from the rest of the blackness surrounding them. She barely had a barrier up in time to stop it from lunging down at them. Soon more appeared from the encroaching inky darkness threatening to eat them whole, and Twilight was visibly straining under blow after bone-shattering blow.
"This is our cue to LEAVE, girls!!" Twilight growled out through gritted teeth.
They didn't need much more provocation. Twilight stood her ground while they rushed through, first Rarity and Applejack, then Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and finally Rainbow Dash. Twilight's shield collapsed the moment she made a move for her exit. She barely managed to dive through and avoid getting impaled!
The second she passed through, she fell once again. The sensation slowly left her as she hit terminal velocity, or at least it felt the same. She was compelled to close her eyes and just let everything fade out despite her circumstances. The only reason she didn't panic was because she recognized the sensation from when she had been pulled in to begin with.
The moment she closed her eyes, she felt something shift inside of her. She felt hard ground beneath her hooves, and a distinct weight on her back. Before she could regain full control of herself though, she collapsed to the floor with a lazing Pinkie Pie on top of her. This, however, didn't distract her from the maelstrom swirling around them, and Pinkie seemed fully aware of it as well.
They quickly helped Twilight get to her hooves, the Unicorn all too aware of what was all around her. This wind wasn't natural, and it reeked of anger. It was arcane in nature.
"Quick, back up the staircase! We've gotta get away from here as fast as we can!"
They didn't question it. Rarity led the way up the stairs with Twilight following behind all of them, their horns illuminating their way until the first rays of moonlight struck them from the large, busted open glass windows along the side of the hallway they found themselves in. The conditions above-ground, however, didn't fill them with confidence.
Now, the air itself seemed to be seething with the overbearing sound of some kind of massive creature breathing. Everywhere they looked, the world around them seemed to pulse with an unseen figure's breath. Everywhere around them, there was darkness seething and coursing over the walls, almost making it look as if the darkness were a physical, palpable presence.
"Quick, out of the castle! Hurry!" Twilight shouted, running alongside her friends.
They all ran as fast as they could, their charge interrupted, but not impeded, by a sudden crash all around them. It wasn't just a crash, though: it sounded like a roar that began low and rapidly became a high-pitched screech that threatened to make their eardrums detonate in a burst of blood. It rattled their heads to the point that they could barely keep their eyes open to see, but it became more tolerable the closer they got to the entrance of the castle. That was when they were brought to a halt.
Standing outside of the entrance were large, black masses of inky darkness that throbbed and formed into twisted, rotten bodies of ponies that had been consumed in the past. Their empty eyes locked on the group, and all at once they charged, their maws gaping open to show hundreds of rows of teeth in an unfathomable endless vortex beyond.
Twilight's fear turned to anger as one of them reached out for Applejack and grabbed her by her throat. The farm pony proved her excessive strength by wrenching herself free in time to buck the offending creature right in its razor-sharp tooth-ridden maw, though she moreso swung one of her hindlegs against its jaw as she spun around rather than bucking it straight on and possibly losing her hoof.
"What are these things?!" AJ shouted out. "Felt like ah bucked a giant blob o' tar!"
AJ's attack only kept the creature away from her for so long, the others quickly approaching the others. Twilight immediately formed a shield between them and the dark creatures, the shield growing outward from her horn and engulfing her and her friends, forcing the consumed and controlled dark ponies away from AJ and her friends.
They acted as if they were zombies, bashing and bucking and slicing at her shield, but they were infinitely weaker than the Nightmare that attacked her in her head. The rapid-fire attacks were doing a number on her, and she was having trouble moving forward. It was all she could do to brace herself mentally against the constant onslaught of ten separate shadows striking her barrier, as well as standing her ground.
The others didn't know what to do! Twilight was the only one that knew any spells that could actually be useful, though Rarity was doing her best to distract them from within the safety of Twilight's shield by bashing them with small and large rocks behind them and on each side. It only served to make one or two of them lazily turn and look around before redirecting their renewed anger on the barrier restricting them from their prey.
As minutes passed, Twilight's shield got smaller and smaller, the lavender Unicorn looking winded and dizzy. She felt her legs give out beneath her and she laid down and rested her head against the cobblestone floor of the castle's dilapated entrance, groaning quietly as a wave of nausea washed over her. She didn't know how much longer she could maintain the protection, the magic was still new to her and fairly overwhelming.
"Uuuhh....wai-wait, girls, Luna....urp!" she said, covering her mouth with her hoof while trying to open her eyes, despite her dizziness. "Guh, Princess Luna said that-that her guards were on their way! We should....c-call out for them...."
Twilight was silenced the moment all ten of them hit her shield all at the same time, a familiar voice ringing true in the air all around them. Twilight snapped to attention when she heard the Nightmare's voice all around herself.
"You will never get away from me!!" the Nightmare's voice growled out at them.
She forced herself to her hooves, stumbling left and right, a synchronized attack from all ten of the shadows knocking her backwards, the Unicorn stumbling onto her hindlegs and then flopping hard onto her back, knocking the wind out of her.
Fluttershy and Rarity rushed to Twilight's side, the nauseated Unicorn rolling onto her side and covering her mouth for fear of throwing up all over herself. She coughed a few times and rolled to her front slowly, clenching her teeth and closing her eyes again as they struck her again.
"They were behaving randomly before. Did the Nightmare do this?" Rarity muttered while trying to help Twilight relax by petting down her mane again and again.
"She controls all of them, she's in every part of the Everfree Forest. I can feel her all around her, she's even right beneath us....!" Twilight panted out.
"SOMEPONY HELP UUUUUSSSS!!!" Pinkie suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.
Her voice emanated far, far out of the entrance of the castle, though Twilight's barrier obscured their ability to see beyond the shadows attacking them. They all began to get closer together as the space within the bubble-shaped shield began to become a premium commodity.
"Valkyre, with me!"
Aside from Twilight, they all looked around, startled by the unfamiliar voice. They all jumped when a sound akin to an explosion ended with one of the shadows bursting into flame and sizzling into a black cloud that dissipated of its own volition. They looked past them, only to see an Earth Pony charging in their direction. He had a large saddlebag on his back, both sides of it loaded to the brim with unidentified goods.
"Hey, he's got a bunch of those shield things like Strider used!"
Rainbow Dash was right: the pony approaching them had what looked like four of the same exact shields that Strider had used against the Nightmare in the fight on the outskirts of Ponyville. They watched as the massive pony jumped up and each of the four shields shifted under each of his hooves, his landing punctuated by the shields launching him into the air, flipping backwards as he soared. He was at least ten feet in the air, but he retained control over every flip and turn of his body, landing just in front of Twilight's shield, where the executed shadows were previously.
Another two guards rushed in, one wielding a massive double-ended blade in the magic emanating from her horn. The blade itself was arcing electricity, and runes rippled with an eldritch red glow. It almost seemed to bend of its own volition, but when the guard charging with it readied it to attack, it snapped into place and solidified entirely as a blade of tempered steel.
The next attack was by the older-looking pegasus guard next to the mare charging with the heavy double blade, his wings seeming as if they were on fire. With both wings fully extended, he turned to one side and lashed forward with one wing, a wave of fire emanating from it in an arc, taking out two more shadows. The other wing did the same, leaving only four of the vile creatures behind.
The Earth Pony quickly reduced that number to three. His control over what should have been classified as a defensive tool was astounding. He rushed one of them and blocked all of its attacks, finding an opening in mere seconds and forcing his way past the tendril it attempted to use to protect itself, his other hoof coming around and cleaving it in half with a sudden impulse of magic to increase the size of the shield.
The unicorn guard managed the same result with a single swipe of her massive blade, but she was clearly into overkill. She twirled and spun the blade around herself, dicing the shadow up into little pieces before it burst into black smoke like the others. Every movement and swing of her blade was a fluid, fast-paced motion, though much of it was her flourishing her attacks.
They all made short work of what remained, only to find more were on their way. They seemed undaunted forever, and Twilight legitimately believed that they had fought their way all the way to the castle. The unicorn guard's blade softened and split into two, both dual blades floating at her sides, pointed forward while she turned away from those trapped in the shield.
The older pegasus guard turned to face them, however, paying no mind to the shadows encroaching on their position.
"Elements of Harmony, we've been sent by Princess Luna to escort you out of here!" he said to them clearly and loudly.
"Who are you?!"
"I am Aolimnus Blaze, and I am Princess Luna's Wisdom and Intelligence!" the old pegasus said happily.
"You can call me Valkyre Lance! I am Princess Luna's Skill!" the unicorn chimed in.
"Aegis Bulwark. I am her Majesty's Might." the Earth Pony spoke with all the deepness and calmness of Big Mac, yet at the same time, he sounded firm and reassuring.
"You must also know Wind Strider. Though he is out of commission at the moment," Aolimnus said, turning away from them, his wings turning ablaze. "I have full confidence that he will make a full recovery and rejoin us as Princess Luna's Speed and Agility!"
"We act when she cannot," Valkyre said, grinning as one of her blades launched forward and impaled a shadow, then ripped it in half with a mighty swing up into the air. "We shall guard you with our lives until we are safely back in Ponyville!"
Twilight let out a sigh of relief, her shield falling apart around her and her head finally getting a chance to rest and recover. She laid her head down on the hard cobblestone floor and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm her nauseated stomach.
"Miss Sparkle, I must object to taking a nap in the middle of this forest-wide scrying spell!" Aolimnus shouted over the whistling, whipping winds all around them. "We can only remain stationary for so long, otherwise the Nightmare will unite her forces and even we won't be able to keep them away from you."
"Where did she get so many Wild Shadows from?" Twilight called out to Aolimnus.
He repeated his attack from before, except instead of waves of fire, he made one massive blast by flapping both of his wings forward in the process of lifting himself into the air. Five Wild Shadows burst into flame as the burst of fire coursed over them and the trees, illuminating the area outside of the castle's entrance. He was careful to keep the flames away from the rope bridge in the distance, Valkyre and Aegis moving forward and securing a path to it.
"Ponies 'go missing' all the time in the forests around Equestria, ma'am!" Aolimnus responded while walking around the group to stand next to Twilight's prone form. "We'll be in the same boat if we don't get moving soon."
"Yeah, let's get movin' Twilight! We gotta get back to Ponyville and make sure everypony's safe from the Nightmare, don't we?" Rainbow Dash said to her, currently in the air above the prone pony.
"Just need a moment, hang on....uuuggh," she groaned out, fluttering her eyes open. "New magic is directly linked to my body, every hit they gave my shield felt like I was....rrph!-f-felt like waves of dizziness, made me....REALLY nauseous."
"Well, I hope you'll be ready to run in five!"
"Five what?"
"Five minutes, I'm guessin' that's about how long we have 'til we start getting overrun, and I don't plan on losing Valkyre or Aegis over a little nausea," he stated, looking over the group. "Now we're gonna move at a steady, brisk pace. Stay within the circle we'll retain around all six of you, and don't break away for anything. Clear?"
They all nodded to him just before he spun around and readied his wings again. It seemed to be his preferred way of attacking the mindless husks coming after them.
"Exist!"
His wings were set ablaze once more, and with a simple flap of them, they fanned their flames over the two that had snuck up behind him. He fluttered his wings and put out what remained of the apparently harmless flames, small embers flicking up from his feathers as he settled them against his sides.
It only took a few more minutes for Twilight to steady herself, and the moment she was up and ready, they clustered close together, the Elements rushing out with Aolimnus bringing up the rear. Aegis was being assaulted by three of them, but his martial prowess allowed him to block and counter each one in rapid succession. His shields required him to be very close to the problem, but getting in that close allowed him to prove just how brutal he was in comparison.
Valkyre wasn't faring much better. She, however, had a weapon, and an entirely different way of fighting. She was standing on the rope bridge with Wild Shadows coming at her from each side of the crossing. Her blades were gone in favor of rune-covered ball bearings that she used like bullets. A secondary spell kept a steady flow of electricity flowing through each one, all eight ball bearings connected through that electrical power.
She spun them around and lashed out with them, avoiding cutting down the rope bridge and instead punching right through each one of them. Each time she did, a new connection from the ball bearings to her targets. When she had them all, she surrounded them with each of the rune-covered orbs and closed her eyes.
Her horn lit up like a beacon, and in turn the runes flared up and the electric current went haywire, each of the shadows spasming for a few brief seconds before bursting into black smoke and disappearing. The ball bearings pulled back together and melded together, the runes spreading over the metal as it coursed as if a liquid, and reformed into a single, double-ended blade that she mounted on her back, at the ready once again.
"Bridge is secure," she said just as Aegis passed by, Rarity and the others filing across quickly. "Aolimnus, we moving out?"
"Yup, form a perimeter around the Elements. You know the drill."
"We get to play some more? I kind of wish the little witch would throw something more challenging at us."
"I can help...." Twilight interrupted once they were on the other side.
Aolimnus turned his attention back to her. "How so? Princess Celestia said that you don't have any combat experience, nor any combat magic."
"I've been watching how they fight. I think I can emulate it effectively enough."
"You think, or your know?"
She stared at him for a few moments, thinking on that.
"....I'm sure of it."
"Hrm....well, we're more than capable of keeping all of you safe," he said, all of them breaking out into a full gallop. "Just focus on protecting your friends if we miss something, we'll take care of the rest!"
With that statement, outside of commands issued by Aolimnus to keep the three of them at perfect synchronization with one another, the group stayed silent. Twilight and the others were staying quiet only because they feared the possibility of interrupting them in the midst of their current task, not to mention they were all mostly focusing on their surroundings and preparing themselves to break if some of the Wild Shadows got too close to them, screw what the three guards told them!
The further they went, the more opposition they faced, but despite facing up to fifty of them, Valkyre and Aegis stood their ground, the two keeping a constant forward pace despite having to cleave their way through enemy after enemy. Valkyre was soon forced to split her blade in two once more, taking out three or four of them with every strike of either weapon.
Aegis had an entirely different strategy. His natural strength let him use his Paring Shields as battering rams, bashing straight through the opposition and slicing them in pieces after knocking them back.
Aegis and Valkyre worked together to cover one another, constantly keeping one another safe while carving a path forward. On more than one occasion, tendrils came their way, and every time Aegis jumped in the way and deflected the attack, or Valkyre reformed one blade into a large barrier that did much of the same if Aegis couldn't. They were in perfect harmony with one another, like one mind in two bodies.
This wasn't to say that Aolimnus wasn't doing a good job, he was in fact holding his own without the help of either of them. Bringing up the rear, he was keeping the ones they didn't get because they were too far away at a constant distance. His wings were spraying fire behind him, the flames licking at the trees and burning the shrubbery along with the shadows that moved fast enough to pose a threat. Fortunately, the fires went out whenever he willed them to, mercifully granting the forest a future rather than making it the next dazzling wildfire in Equestria.
Eventually, they had to stop about five hours outside of Ponyville, all of them winded and exhausted from the constant galloping pace they had kept through the night into the morning.
"Valkyre, establish a perimeter. We break in ten, no sleeping!"
"Yeah, sure thing Aolimnus."
Valkyre's horn fired up and a large, see-through white shield formed around the group, first as a single beam of dim light rising up in the air, then as a dome-shaped bubble that wrapped around them and secured them outside of the scrying spell that had been all around them the entire time they ran.
Twilight took some deep, panting breaths alongside Fluttershy and Rarity, them being the only ponies that were the non-athletic types. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie had no problem with keeping such a pace, though even they were slightly winded, Pinkie most of all out of the three of them. All things considered, she was the most plush, but she was still particularly strong and had plenty of stamina with or without all of her sugar intake.
"Heh! An' here I thought our Twilight was the only pony that had that kinda skill!" AJ said to Valkyre, holding out a hoof. "Might know mah name already, but I'm Applejack. Valkyre, right?"
The guard grinned and embedded her blades in the ground next to herself, standing at the edge of her shield with her horn connected to the barrier by way of her magic prowess.
"Yeah, my name's Valkyre. Valkyre Lance, Trottingham-born!"
"I thought you had a Trottingham accent! They have such divine fur care products, and you carry yourself with such refinement," Rarity said, reaching up to flick her mane after catching her breath. "Perhaps you could show us what you all look like without your armor?"
Aegis silently approached all of them and removed his saddlebags along with his helmet, and Valkyre did much of the same with her helmet. Aolimnus came over to sit with them, all three of them beginning to remove their armor. Once they set their equipment aside, their fur and their manes began to change back to a more natural color for each of them, Valkyre being the first since she seemed eager to chat and get to know all of them more personally.
Her mane was the first to shift to its original color of dark blue, the filly's mane being particularly long when it wasn't being altered by the enchantments inherent to every Royal Guard's armor. Her mane hung down slightly over her right side, ending about halfway down her torso. As her fur began to shift back to its normal of gray, the marks of battle she retained began to show as well. On her face, there was a deep and surprisingly well cared-for scar running from her forehead just above her eye, all the way down over her eye and her cheek, stopping short of her jawline.
The scar that really caught Rarity's attention, however, was the one on her neck. Directly over her esophagus, there was a long horizontal scar where she'd suffered what was no doubt a very brutal and potentially deadly slashing.
"My goodness darling, what happened to your neck?!"
Valkyre blinked a few times and reached up to rub over her neck with a hoof. "Oh, this? It's nothing, just a Gryphon bandit that managed to get in my blind spot while I didn't have any back-up. I had to walk to a guard post while holding the wound closed with my magic AND carrying the bound Gryphon as well."
"Oh! My....what happened after that?" Fluttershy spoke up suddenly.
"Not much. I managed to stay calm and keep most of my blood inside and secured a path for air to get in and out, so getting slashed like that wasn't all that life-threatening. If I weren't a Unicorn, I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now."
Aegis let the lot of them talk, spending his time retrieving water and some energy bars from his saddlebags. He probably brought far more than they actually needed, but he had been told to prepare to be out for an extensive amount of time, and the Magisters wanted to test a new kind of energy bar that could actually 'recharge' a Unicorn's magic instead of a Unicorn requiring rest to recover their magical power.
He brought several bottles of water over to all of the young ladies, and offered each of them something to snack on. They all gladly accepted, though Valkyre seemed far more hungry than she was thirsty. Not a minute after she finished off one of the energy bars she'd been given, her shield and her horn both pulsed with renewed life.
"Whoa!! Hey, these things actually work! I feel awesome!" she shouted out to Aegis.
"Duly noted." Aegis said, taking out a notepad and writing something down in it before tucking it away.
Rainbow Dash looked over Aegis with a bit of surprise, AJ doing much of the same. The Earth Pony, as big and beefy as he was, had a single tattoo covering one whole side of his face, though it only showed now that he had his armor off. His mane was a rich brown color, and his fur was dark green, though he seemed to keep his mane short and out of the way.
"How 'bout you, pardner?" AJ said, patting Aegis on the shoulder. "What's with that there fancy tattoo?"
"Marking of my tribe. I was born and raised in the Zebra Nations," he said, never removing his gaze from his notepad. "I am an acting member of the Royal Phalanx, and I grew up learning ways to defend my tribe from warring neighbor tribes and distant enemies. We were a peace-loving tribe however, and our Chieftain disapproved of me turning my defensive martial form into an offensive form of combat. Thus, I was forced to leave and never come back."
"Well....what about yer family? An' all these scars?"
"Dead. My tribe was destroyed five years ago. I am one of the few surviving carriers of the bloodline. I harbor no ill will to our destroyers. They were only doing what comes naturally to creatures forced to fight for their necessities. Food, water, safety and security," he said, then he held up a foreleg. "All the scars on my body are combat injuries and training marks."
"Even with Princess Celestia's more recent changes to foreign aid policies, the Zebra Nations is still struggling to keep the tribes at peace with one another?"
"They have been fighting, warring and killing one another for decades. Them getting what they need to just survive won't stop them from wanting more so that they can live comfortably."
Aegis's stoic and nonplussed tone of voice seemed to be somewhat unnerving for everyone but the other guards and Twilight, the lavender Unicorn looking at his outlook with the same objectivity that he held towards it.
"I suppose that makes sense. Habits are a hard thing to break, especially in a society where the oldest members are the ones that make most of the big decisions. Most younger members of tribal societies wind up going to war over conflicts they have nothing to do with, in such situations."
They all jumped to attention as a loud slashing noise was heard just outside of the shield Valkyre was maintaining. The guards quickly settled down and Valkyre braced herself as another hit came in and rattled her mind. Aolimnus dove out of the shield and flew up into the air, spotting five other shadows converging on their position.
With his wings soon flapping rapid-fire, the wind began to come under his control instead of under the Nightmare's control, the maelstrom turning into an isolated whirlwind all around the barrier, the whipping and spinning winds uprooting the Wild Shadows and eviscerating them into nothingness.
Valkyre thanked him as he re-entered the bubble, the older pegasus keeping a vigilant guard to the left, right and the rear position from where they were resting at. He wasn't taking any chances with the lives of the Elements of Harmony.
"How 'bout yo-oh, wow," Rainbow Dash said, staring at Aolimnus for a few seconds. "What the heck happened to you?!"
Aolimnus had good reason for staying so on-guard. It was in his experience that when you relaxed on the battlefield, you did so at your own peril, thus he didn't look away from where they had come from, keeping an eye out for any combatants coming their way.
Just the same though, his body was riddled with the signs of combat, scars covering a good majority of his body. His biggest scars were on his face in the form of what looked like a big cat's claw marks across both of his brown eyes and his nose, as well as an almost body-length scar running from his cutie mark up his right side, stopping just short of reaching his chest. Less serious ones could hardly be noticed on his back, being 'cat-scratch' scars that covered his back almost entirely, contrasting with his rich, brown fur and his pitch-black mane.
"Lots of combat experience serving Her Majesty, Princess Celestia," he said in response to Rainbow Dash's inquiry, smiling a little. "Got into hoof-to-claw combat with some feral lions during a visit to the Zebra Nations. They almost killed me, too."
"Yikes. The worst we've dealt with is a Hydra. Well, unless you count Nightmare Moon," Rainbow said, heh'ing a little. "Guess she'd be worse than any lion."
"Depends on the situation. She's deadly when she attacks headlong or when she tries to sneak up on your or trick you. A lion's entirely different," he said, never turning away from his post. "A lion sneaks up on you, never making a single sound. When it's close enough it lunges and tries to catch you. If it does, it digs inch-long teeth into your back, then it goes for your neck while sinking claws shaped like hooks into your body to keep you in place. The only reason I survived the attack was because of my magic. I certainly couldn't get away from those claws. It was dumb luck those teeth didn't snap my spine in half."
They all stared at him, their eyes wide with surprise. Valkyre simply laughed and shook her head.
"You know how to freak out the inexperienced, Blaze."
"Heh, what can I say? Fear's a damn good motivator! Kinda like how these things'll eat ya alive if you don't just let 'em consume you after they get their tendrils wrapped around you. They stab and impale you until you can't move anymore, and then they eat you before the life leaves your body."
Twilight shuddered. "You're making that up."
Aegis walked over, stoic as ever, and gave Twilight one of the energy bars. "No he's not."
Twilight looked at Aegis nervously, then looked to the offered energy bar. He offered the others one, and only Rarity rejected the snack. They all bit into their food, the distinct flavor of strawberries, apples and several indiscernable tastes made them all smile. It was a simple pleasure, but sometimes the simple things were the things that were going to make you smile the most, given the currently dire circumstances.
"Hey, these aren't half-bad! What's in 'em? I'll bet I could make 'em into cupcakes!" Pinkie said suddenly, her cheerful demeanor a stark contrast to conditions outside of the shield.
"Tell ya in a minute, Valkyre we've got incoming!!" Aolimnus shouted over all of them, dropping to the ground and grabbing his armor.
The older pegasus' words hit the unicorn just before an explosion impacted the area of the shield that was in the direction they had just come from. Valkyre held fast, but she visibly cringed and grit her teeth, her shield's luster fading a little. Aegis rushed over to brace her when she relaxed and tried to right herself, far more dizzy than she realized. Though she was too late to catch herself, Aegis wasn't, the bulky Earth Pony catching the dwarfed Unicorn with a single foreleg, as if bracing a foal's weight.
Valkyre repaid the favor by multitasking her magic, rapidly attaching her armor around herself as well as Aegis's armor, all three of them quickly back in their enchanted gear, very close to being indistinguishable from one another within a few seconds.
"We've got something big coming up the path behind us!"
Heavy vibrations emanating through the ground in rippling waves had all of them on edge, save for Aolimnus and Aegis. Aolimnus could barely make it out, but it easily beat the height of the tallest tree in the Everfree Forest, he couldn't even make out the head of it! Aegis was simply a brick wall: if he was feeling anything, he certainly wasn't showing it. Valkyre was tense and on alert, her weapon at the ready and the shield brighter and seeming far more tangible compared to before.
Twilight and the others weren't sure what to do. The whole situation had them frazzled, they weren't trained to handle such combat scenarios. Fluttershy in particular was cowering behind Applejack, almost backed up to the very edge of Valkyre's barrier. For that matter, she was cowering behind them all, with Pinkie standing next to her to try to comfort her. Twilight looked to her friends, their insecurity evident, then to the guards that had taken up position in front of them to keep them safe.
She wasn't going to stand idle for this one.
Despite her determination, however, she needed a plan, and Aolimnus readily supplied such a necessity for her and her friends, as well as the two other guards.
"Twilight, when the shield drops, you and your friends rush to the left, off the path. Aegis, Valkyre, we break right. You can put a barrier up again, right Twilight?"
Twilight looked to her friends, then back to Aolimnus. "Yes, we'll be fine."
"Good! I'd hate to fail Luna so badly that I wind up letting the lot of you get killed," he said, chuckling a little. "Two minutes, ladies! Don't go too far."
The mass moved towards them faster and faster, the vibrations hitting all of them and causing Fluttershy to become even more scared than she already was. Rarity went over to try to help her terrified friend, though they were all trembling. Sure, they had fought against Nightmare Moon in the past, but she had never been like this!
The closer the tidal wave of darkness got to them, the more determined Twilight became, her fear becoming her motivation. She could only think of how her friends must feel, all of them being in this situation because of her own problems. Her horn began to light up as she prepared her magic, but a barrier wasn't the only thing she had in mind.
"Let's do this!" Valkyre shouted to the lot of them.
Valkyre's barrier was keeping the whistling winds of the Nightmare's influence from grating at them, and as long as they were within the shield, what they were doing or saying couldn't be heard or seen. Twilight knew that this was going to be a jarring moment, something that none of them were ready for, but it had to be done.
"Girls, no matter what, stay close to me!" she quickly said to all of them.
They could only nod, and Fluttershy, whether out of fear or out of her own determination to survive, stood up and stuck close to Rarity, the five Elements crowding around their unifying Element of Magic.
"Three. Two. One...." Aolimnus sounded off to them, the whipping winds around them drowned out by the shield surrounding them. "Break!!"
The moment the barrier dropped, it was as if all hell had broken loose around them. They only thought to stay close to Twilight, and Twilight could only think of getting out of the way before they were all crushed beneath the encroaching darkness that loomed over them.
It worked. The massive but mindless creature missing both the Elements and the guards escorting them. All three of the guards went to work attacking and attracting the massive shadow's attention, their spells tearing into it from one side, causing it to turn its back on Twilight and the others.
Twilight was the first to realize that they were still in trouble, however.
"You will never escape from me!" the Nightmare's voice shouted out to them from one side. "Even if you leave my forest, I will hunt you down and crush your very soul, sister!"
They looked all around, and on every side of them, they were surrounded by masses of Wild Shadows. They were all rushing towards the group, causing all of them to huddle together with Twilight in the middle of them all. They all put up a tough front, but it was easy to tell that they were all terrified. All of them except Twilight.
The second Twilight realized they could really die here, the second she felt like she was no longer safe, her magic went to work. Feeding off of her emotions and her panic, she felt a massive surge of energy being drawn up from within her. Her horn glowed an unholy black light, akin to the same kind of shadows the creatures around them were made of, save for the white outline that separated it from the darkness and the inky shadows around them.
"G-get down, girls!!" Twilight screamed as fast as she could.
They all looked at her with wide eyes, then hit the dirt just as all hell broke loose around them.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 16 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-11-22T02:59:02+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:07:10+00:00
| 3,106 |
Chapter 13 - Burn (Part 4)
written by Fire Soul
All Twilight could feel was the rush of the magic coursing through her veins, far more potent than any magic she had ever used before. It was culminating into a single spot within her horn, a raging ball of energy that threatened to go out of control if she didn't do something with it. The moment her friends got out of the way, she did the only thing she could think of: she let it out.
A dark wave coursed outward from her, cascading over her friends and then her enemies. Her friends felt nothing, aside from a light tingle, whereas her opponents, the imposing shadows all around them, were too mindless to get out of the way. The wave of magic ran over them, and their bodies were cleaved in half almost all at once.
The magic wasn't done, however. As if responding to her fears as well as a need she had to protect those around her, more of the same dark magic from her horn began to spread over her body and envelop her. It felt like cold water slowly creeping over her skin, coursing through and over her coat of fur. Regardless, she felt an overwhelming sense of calm, despite knowing she should be afraid of what was happening to her.
Soon it was at her neck, and she barely noticed her friends trying to 'help' her, Rarity's magic grating at her side trying to tear the gunk off of her. If they were panicking, she wasn't surprised. They couldn't stop it however, the magic would not be impeded.
She closed her eyes just as her entire body was engulfed from the tip of her tail to the very last lock of hair on her head. First she felt a chill, then a rush of heat that cascaded over her like a wave, engulfing her face, then her neck, then her torso and finally her tail. Then everything snapped back into place.
She heard the whistling winds all around them, the wind that threatened to whisk them away if they dared to jump. Her friends had backed away from her, her new image causing terror to course through their veins.
"Twilight....?!" Fluttershy barely called out to her over the noise.
White spots appeared on Fluttershy's form, small white dots that shifted position after a few seconds to different points on her body, if they didn't disappear entirely. She looked to her friends and blinked a few times; they all had the dots. They looked like stars, blinking in and out of existence. What did they represent, what were they? She didn't have time to answer that, her friends looked genuinely afraid of her for some reason.
She quickly retrieved the mirror Rarity had brought along, reaching out with her more powerful, lengthy reach to remove it from her friend's saddlebag to take a look at herself. What she saw surprised her, she looked just like the things that had been chasing her! Rather, she moreso looked just like the Nightmare, with the pitch-black and overbearing presence and imposing, glowing yellow eyes, utterly devoid of pupils to indicate where she was looking.
Her magic seemed different however, the first big difference being the fact that all of her magic was colored a dark lavender shade as compared to the usual black they'd become accustomed to within a mere few hours.
"Girls, I'm okay! Luna gave this to me, I just don't really know how to use it!"
"Seriously?! Yer usin' magic ya don't know a bit about?!" AJ shouted at her.
They were all visibly upset at such a revelation, but Twilight wasn't going to be deterred. Unfortunately, things were happening to her that even she couldn't explain, let alone understand. Soon she felt an intense compulsion to move, one hoof moving forward, then another and another, her friends following as she broke out into a full-on gallop.
"Whoa! H-hey, what the-"
She didn't have a chance to finish her sentence before she bent her legs and jumped up into and through the air, soaring up above the treeline with a startled shriek.
"What is happeniiiiaaAAAHHH?!"
She felt like she was disconnected from everything that was happening around her, yet she could still feel the wind whipping past her as she went up, forward, and then began to fall back towards the ground once again, the fear of height combining with the terror of the impending, intense pain that would be caused by her legs shattering when she impacted with the ground. The pain never came however, even as she landed with a heavy thud. She barely felt the landing, her knees bending with it and her body striking a battle pose in front of the massive inky black creature the three escorts were fighting with.
"It's me! I swear it's me don't attah....attah-tack....whoa."
Twilight's head spun even as she felt her pulse quickening and noticed the others glaring at her incredulously. She shook her head hard and blinked a few times, adrenaline lacing into her veins and forcing a feeling of urgency upon her. Moments later, the large creature lashed out at her, making an attempt to crush her in one single motion.
Twilight proved to be too fast, her body shifting to the right and sliding across the ground rather than running. The ground cracked and caved inward beneath the creature's powerful downward swing.
She could feel her mind altering, an unknown anger welling up, all of it directing itself at the monster attacking her. The other three guards looked to one another, then quickly ran away from the fight, letting Twilight face it on her own. She looked to them running away and couldn't help but think terribly of them for running from the fight.
'What kind of bodyguards are they?!'
She couldn't help but notice the anger that was building in her wasn't her own, it was making itself too obvious, not even attempting to be subtle like the anger that built itself slowly within her before. She tried to fight it, but it had an iron grip on her, and whoever or whatever was controlling her movements had her moving with the skill of a truly adept warrior.
The monster swung in a wide arc, the loud and deafening crack of several trees being knocked down and snapped like twigs sounding off just before she jumped high in the air. Three bolts of magic missiles launched suddenly from her horn and detonated on impact with their target, creating three craters in the side of the monster's body.
They filled in quickly even as the creature took another swing at her, a second massive tendril coming out of its body and spearing straight at her. She reached in front of herself with a hoof, everything slowing down for her even as her body moved on its own. She pushed down on the very tip of the spearing tendril just before it impaled her, lifting herself up in the process.
She closed her eyes when a wave of disorientation made her stomach churn, but even now her emotions continued to go beyond anything she'd felt before. She felt rage the likes of which hadn't come over her even with the silent anger that had eaten away at her sensibilities for the past months ever since her initial outburst in Canterlot Castle! It wasn't just a rage, it was directed at the creature she was standing on top of.
It was akin to a murderous intent, the bright spots on the creature's body being targetted and fired at with powerful bolts of magic when she opened her eyes again. Now she wasn't just being forced to attack it, she wanted to attack it, to tear into it and flat-out destroy it! The need to do so drove her forward and controlled her movements, the magic shifting with her now and enhancing every single motion she made.
She ran up the creature's tendril while it was still a solid pillar jutting out of one side of it, leaping up and coming down on a bright spot atop its head. It felt impossibly good to cause a massive cracking sound with a single impact of her hoof, the monster's head caving in and the creature flailing around in pain. Its flailing threw Twilight a ways down the path they'd been traveling down, the unicorn landing hard on her back with a bone-crunching thud.
She felt the wind leave her lungs in a garbled grunt of agony, only to gasp it back in and cause even more pain to rush through her chest. She rolled over onto her belly, the pain a dull throb that went away in mere seconds compared to what she knew it should've been. Her spine should've been shattered, her head should've been cracked open! But no, she could barely feel any of it.
Now she was almost feeling an ecstasy from every hit she landed, relishing in every sign of pain the creature let out, every bellow and screech and sudden writhing from a particularly hard hit on some part of its body....but at some point, she realized that something was very, very wrong. She could feel the murderous intent she had for this monster, and despite realizing how much this disturbed her, feeling this compulsive urge, she couldn't escape how much she wanted to follow through on these vile urges!
Even though this thing would have likely killed her if she backed off, she couldn't help but both want to tear it to pieces, and also regret feeling the want, no, the need to kill it. Even as she rushed at it, bashing her way through the tendril it swung at her, only to make her own from her horn to wrap around the creature and lift its massive weight high up into the air, she couldn't help but laugh, astounded at the kind of power she had.
"This is-hah!-this is absolutely amazing!"
Twilight's cries of amazement accompanied a bone-rattling quake that emanated all through their area of the Everfree Forest as she slammed the giant monster back onto the ground as hard as she could, the vibrations sending a violent thrill up and down every fiber of her being. She did it again and again, her laughter and the intense thrill she was deriving from every pained howl she heard becoming louder and louder until her laughter was raucous and terrifying for her friends, far behind her.
"I can't believe this! I have to remember to thank Luna next time I see her, wow!!" she shouted.
She whipped her head to one side after lifting the dazed and stunned monster into the air again, making a circular motion back, then to her right, and around her front and to her left again, the tendril she had wrapped around it following her motions as she willed them. She spun the monster faster and faster up in the air, then after she'd reached an almost blinding speed she let go, and the creature was sent flying through the air and towards the middle of the Everfree Forest where it had come from.
Her friends stood next to the guards, all of them watching in astonishment as Twilight made easy work of such a massive creature.
Twilight trotted over to her friends with all the giddiness of a young schoolfilly that just found out the most popular colt in school has a crush on her, all smiles despite what should've been a massive draw of magic from her.
"Did you all see that?! Oh wow, I just threw it and it went flying and it felt like absolutely nothing! I mean wow, if this is because of what Luna did it needs to happen more-no wait that'd be all kinds of awkward," she said rapidly, her eyes wild and even manic. "Oh no, what if things stay awkward forever?! She might hate me! This'll drive me nuts, what if this magic is too much for me and I do something-"
She continued on and on, rambling away about all manner of things. By the time she finished, she had curled up into a ball on the ground, hugging her tail, petting it as if it were some kind of cat that could soothe her nerves.
"This is bad. Something's wrong I'm not normally like this my heart is racing as fast as my thoughts I feel like I'm overloading or something-"
Once again, her rambling continued, and the guards rushed over to her. They had been warned, and Valkyre had come prepared. The tip of her horn lit up with a bright light, and she touched it to the side of Twilight's head.
"Shh....sleep, young filly...."
Valkyre's words weren't as necessary as some would likely think, but regardless, the Sleep spell did its job and, with Twilight taken by surprise, she hadn't prepared her currently manic mind from resisting it.
Her words slowed and her eyes rapidly closed, her body swaying as if utterly inebriated until she was out cold on the dirt path. Just as she'd fallen asleep and been hoisted up onto Aegis's back, a loud and terrifying roar came out of the forest on every side of them except in the direction they were headed.
Wasting no more time, they all silently continued at a full gallop now, the edge of the forest barely in sight through the inky darkness that seemed to be enveloping every inch of the Everfree.
Aolimnus took point as he usually did on such an important mission, his wings flexed outward, but bent at the joint between the primary and secondary bones. Fast, rapid swings of his wings caused the flames surrounding them to lash out like blades of fire, carving death into the shadows that came at them from the sides, a few making it to the path before being cut down and dissipated into nothingness.
Valkyre brought up the rear while keeping the Element Bearers and Aegis between herself and Aolimnus. Her shapeshifting metal took the shape of three blades without any sort of mouth-grip or grip in general to be used. They were constantly spinning like buzzsaws, their enchantment making them especially effective against the Nightmare's shadows that assaulted them on all sides when they could reach her.
She kept those weapons behind herself and on her left and right side, each spinning blade lashing out and carving a path through any monster stupid enough to move within her extensive reach.
"How much farther?!" she shouted behind them all.
"I can see Ponyville at the end of the path, just a little longer!"
Aolimnus took a quick look back at everyone, making a quick headcount to assure himself that, at this point in their mission, everypony was still accounted for, especially the unconscious and helpless Twilight Sparkle.
The Element Bearers seemed to be going strong still, so did Valkyre and Aegis. Fine by him, no heavy or labored breathing, nothing beyond a few scrapes and scratches from the earlier encounter with that huge behemoth before Twilight interfered with remarkable skill, she definitely didn't seem like the kind of pony that'd have it in her to fight with that kind of agility! Still he wasn't complaining.
He looked ahead just as the sound of Valkyre's blades slicing through the viscous, goo-like body of yet another shadow sounded off, its pained ethereal wail sounding off as its liquefied body faded into black smoke and disappeared upon being dispatched. What he saw brought a bright smile to his face.
That smile faded when he looked back, only to see the forest disappearing behind them. It wasn't like the sight of the sun disappearing beyond the horizon and masking the land in the darkness of nighttime. No, this was like an absolute absence of light, as if the darkness that was a living thing already attacking them had suddenly decided to stop playing around, instead consuming the forest in hopes of catching them as well.
He tore his gaze away from the encroaching black wall mere feet behind Valkyre, the unicorn looking back as well, then looking forward with no small amount of worry evident in her eyes.
"The Princesses are waiting for us! Ten seconds, come on, put your all into it!!"
Every single pony there seemed to be affected in the same fashion upon hearing that, their hooves bashing at the dirt road, sounding like a thunder moving through the forest as they all dug their hooves in with each step and threw themselves forward with all the strength they could muster in their four legs.
Pitch-black darkness seemed to be forming all around them as they neared the edge of the forest.
Five seconds.
Valkyre could hear voices behind her. They were urging her to join them. Some were begging for somepony to end their suffering. She ran harder, her blades hovering closer to her, directly over her back.
Two seconds.
Celestia and Luna stood there, Luna stepping back, her eyes wide with terror as the dark wall consuming the forest in its horrifying fury came towards them, just beyond the forest's edge. Celestia screamed for them to hurry along with the very large contingent of Day and Night Guards, yet none of them moved a step further beyond the invisible line Celestia seemed to stand firm at.
One second.
The shadows loomed over them, the visages of ponies reaching out from the wall of darkness, their hooves scraping at the armor covering Valkyre's back, the terrified unicorn slicing their legs off with her blades while continuing to charge forward.
Mere hoof-lengths from Celestia and the very edge of the forest, she could feel her hooves leaving the ground, some unseen force making a wild grab at her. She tried to use her magic to fight it off, but it was a futile effort.
Thankfully, Celestia came to her aid, with the rest of her group already having run past the Princess. With Luna trying her best to appear steadfast like her sister, Valkyre felt Celestia's magic all around her, snuffing out the cold, foreboding grasp that had been on her mere microseconds before. Her inertia aided in Celestia's magic wrenching her out of that invisible, dark grasp and launching her through the air, past Celestia and beyond in a wild tumble in mid-air.
She braced herself, ready to receive a few bad bumps, bruises and scrapes upon hitting the ground, but instead she was surprised to feel large, powerful legs engulfing her and the sound of metal clanging against metal.
Aegis had made the save at the cost of dropping Twilight unceremoniously to the ground just before catching her The large and powerful earth pony reared up on his hindlegs to reach out and catch her as if she were an oversized hoofball.
Valkyre gasped and clenched her teeth to resist the very, very strong temptation to cry out in pain the moment Aegis set her down on her hooves once more, the shaken mare lifting her left hindleg up off the ground while hopping up and down on her one good hindleg a couple times.
"RRNHbuckin' hell....!"
Her words left her through clenched teeth, grinding those pearly whites together while Aegis stepped around to her left side, sitting down and examining her hoof, giving it all of his attention despite the loud roars of anger that were echoing through the air to his right.
There, just at the back edge of her hoof, was a large black mark, looking like a blackened burn that was slowly spreading over her hoof from that singular spot. As it spread further, Valkyre seemed to be in more and more pain. She did manage to spot the wound, however, and Aegis made sure to tell her about it too.
"Needs purification, hoof's tainted."
Aegis whistled to a Night Guard nearby, the unicorn rushing over to them. He worked quick, his magic reaching out to the taint and slowly wiping it away, the pain just as slowly dulling the more the taint was eaten away at until it was completely gone.
When the taint was gone, only the edge of Valkyre's hoof had a blistered burning look to it. She still couldn't stand on it all that well, but the pain was at least tolerable for her.
She quickly thanked the unicorn, the stallion nodding to her in silence and walking away, back in formation with the rest of his squad.
Aegis smiled ever-so-slightly as she turned her attention to him, the younger mare smiling brightly.
"Thanks for catching me, stud! Always such a gentlecolt, you are...."
The big earth pony just rolled his eyes with a light blush staining his cheeks, the pair turning their attention to the Princesses just like most everypony else around them.
Luna was doing her best to stand tall like Celestia, but every fiber of her being was trembling. Perhaps her sister couldn't feel it, but she was one with the Void. The fact that the wall of darkness was a pure, raw mass of Void Magic terrified her. It was a clear demonstration of the kind of mastery her daughter had managed to attain over such a massive source of magical power.
It wouldn't have scared her as much if it weren't for the fact that her daughter had managed to gain power far beyond her own prowess.
"How dare you! Give my sister back!"
Celestia simply glared at the wall of darkness, the massive multitude of eyes all trained on her while a massive number of tendrils lashed out from the dark mass before the Princesses and all of the guards that held the line alongside both of them.
However, that line was as far as those tendrils got, the razor-sharp appendages being knocked away by an invisible barrier that refused to fall under such pressure. Again and again the Nightmare lashed out at it, her roars of frustration and fury sounding off as she unloaded on the shield that had been erected.
Her efforts were in vain, however. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how angry she became, her very impressive show of Void Magic couldn't penetrate the invisible shield. The sound of ethereal metal slashing at an arcane barrier sounded off again and again, accompanied by a crescendo of almost deafening, intense screams and roars from thousands upon thousands of different voices; the eyes in the darkness weren't just for show.
All of the glowing eyes turned their gaze on Celestia, like a gigantic jury, casting judgement upon her. She only glared at them in turn, standing tall and proud despite her horribly trembling sister that had moved back a little in the presence of such a multitude of piercing gazes.
"Give her back to me, Celestia! You have no right, she deserves to know, she deserves to DIE!!"
"You have no right to that decision! But I assure you, she will know. She will know all about you, how far you've fallen, and the taint you've left on the very existence of Equestria!"
The Nightmare took form from the massive black wall, the front half of her body appearing from the middle of the barrier. It stretched out and moved up to the barrier, its nose inches from Celestia's, the shield the only thing between them.
They stared one another down, the Nightmare sneering at Celestia after a few seconds ticked by in eerie silence.
"Leave it to a politician to only talk about her own side of the story....! Very well, if this is how you wish to play...."
Celestia blinked when the Nightmare shifted her gaze away, finally taking notice of the dark-furred pony off to Celestia's left, trying to make herself smaller and smaller while still appearing as confident as she could manage.
She was failing horribly. Even worse, a crowd of ponies that weren't the Royal Guard or the Night Guard had gathered and were watching, and whispers were welling up that Luna couldn't quite make out, but out of the corner of her eye she could see a lot of them looking directly at her.
"Oh, does our presence scare you, Princess Luna?"
She spat the words out at Luna, her voice filled with the vitriol that both Princesses and their guards had come to expect. The sudden shock of her own name made her jump a little, a very brief and nearly silent gasp leaving her as the Nightmare's hooves slammed against the barrier, her face pressing against it, her gaze locked on the trembling Princess.
She struggled to avoid eye contact with her, looking anywhere but her face, but her lack of a solid, physical body let her move every which way she wanted. Her head shifted this way and that in almost impossible ways, repeatedly locking her gaze with Luna's until the Princess couldn't handle the fear her eyes imbued in their victims.
A fearful whimper welled up in her throat and she stumbled back onto her rump, her eyes clenched shut and her head hung in shame.
"I-I'm sor-"
"SHUT UP, you little whore!"
The roar of the Nightmare's voice made her shrink back, but she soon wasn't alone against her own daughter's verbal assault. Aolimnus moved in front of her, while Aegis and Valkyre moved to stand at both of her sides.
"Night Guard, stand as one!"
The sudden shock of Aolimnus's commanding tone reminded her of somepony, in particular it reminded her of Strider's usual bravado. To say the least, it surprised her to find the older and more serious of her personal guard breaking rank.
Her eyes shot open the moment he finished calling out his command, the Princess of the Night looking from him to the two to each side of her, a feeling of warmth filling her as she was braced on each side by them and eased to her hooves once more.
It shocked her to her very core when the Night Guard took up a line in front of her, then creating a uniform line behind that one, then another and another until she was completely surrounded on all sides, front and back included.
Their armor rang out as they all stood at attention as one entity, their voices ringing out as Aolimnus's wings extended along with one of his forehooves being thrust up into the air.
"We stand as one unit, one entity, one family! We guard the helpless as the sentries of the night. For the glory of Princess Luna! For the glory of Equestria!"
Aolimnus didn't notice the smile that had appeared on Luna's lips, his attention instead had turned to Princess Celestia.
The pastel-maned alicorn listened to the words the Night Guard so proudly spoke very carefully, and almost immediately caught on. She knew what he was doing. She wasted no time in mimicking his motions. The very same motions made by the commanding officer at the end of a group's time in training, ordering them to speak their pledge as one voice.
Her voice rang out with all the conviction that every guardspony and citizen of Equestria could expect from her, eyes filled with fire as the order poured forth from her heightened voice.
"Sun Guard, stand as one with your brothers-in-arms!"
Now that was a name she hadn't used in ages to refer to the Royal Guard. A thousand years, to be more exact. When Nightmare Moon had been banished and the small civil war between the Night Guard that stood beside Nightmare Moon and the Sun Guard that remained loyal to Celestia, she had disbanded the Night Guard and allowed those that wished to remain members of the Royal Guard to join her side. When all was said and done, her Sun Guard had become the new, all-encompassing Royal Guard.
Perhaps it was time to bring that name back to define her own section of the Royal Guard. She doubted that Luna would object, after this show of military might and loyalty.
"We stand as one unit, one entity, one family! We embrace the light and secure peace for the righteous, and we crush the wicked. For the glory of Princess Celestia! For the glory of Equestria!"
Once they had finished speaking, both Celestia and Luna, having recovered from her moment of weakness thanks to her loyal guards, both spoke in unison.
"Thus, the Royal Guard has|hath spoken!"
Luna fell silent, letting Celestia continue from there.
A few tears ran down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and just smiled, feeling the warmth of her personal guard's presence very close to her. They had saved her in that single moment of weakness. She was so close....so close to simply breaking down and begging for her forgiveness for what had happened due to her negligence.
How had she not seen it? Why had it happened? If she had simply trusted her daughter, or taken her to the moon to test her magical skills....but no, she was so interested in evolving Equestria's scientific and magical studies, she simply couldn't resist the urge to practice cloning by way of a mix of magic and scientific genetic manipulation.
She opened her eyes and gazed at her daughter, the Nightmare now focused on Celestia, who had stepped between Aolimnus and the dark creature trying to stare the steely-eyed pegasus down, her own gaze stern and unwavering.
Luna could only cry on the inside, an unstoppable, growing wave of despair inside of her making her feel sick to her stomach.
"You may not wish to believe it Nightmare, but we weep for you. I for one can't fathom the hate that you feel for us. For me. For my sister," she said, her head hung low. "I don't claim to know what happened to you....but I will say that I am truly sorry that it has hurt you so."
The Nightmare laughed, quietly at first, but slowly her echoing voice rivaled the Royal Canterlot Voice, her head thrown back while her disfigured, dark body slowly shifted back into a more normal shape. She just kept on laughing, her roaring glee causing many of the crowd behind the Royal Guard to tremble. She sounded so happy, yet at the same time, so very, very vindictive.
"Are you actually asking me for forgiveness?!"
Celestia kept her gaze locked on the Nightmare's, a deep breath drawn in before she continued. Her tone was unwavering even as she prepared to speak words that were very harsh, especially for her. She knew, however, that this was no time for showing Nightmare any kindness. This confrontation needed to end, now.
"No. I would never ask for your forgiveness for anything. On the contrary, all efforts will be made to put a stop to you, starting with denying you access to every single town, village, city and castle in Equestria!"
The Nightmare giggled wickedly and pouted out her lower lip at the Sun Goddess.
"Aww, but whyyyy? I promise not to kill too many more ponies in the process of building an army that can completely destroy everything you hold dear!" she cooed out to Celestia. "Then again, I would never forgive you for what you did to me, and I will never forgive that little whore over there-" she said, glaring over at Luna for a moment before returning her gaze to Celestia once more. "-for what she allowed those bastards to do to me, so why should I ever expect either of you to forgive me for causing your precious ponies harm?!"
Her tone was innocent and mocking at first, but by the time she was done speaking, her toothy grin flashed her razor-sharp, rotten teeth at the Goddess standing in front of her. Her words were venomous and filled with spite and hate, the Nightmare's gaze easily getting across her intent: she wanted to make them both hurt deep down as much as she possibly could.
Celestia's left eye twitched, her anger barely restrained enough to only be a powder keg.
"You should forgive us because you were one of my little ponies, and all of my subjects are like family to me! Not to mention that everything we did was for your benefit and to be sure that all of our subjects were safe just as much as we wished for you to be safe!"
Celestia could only frown and shake her head, the sadness on her face apparent as the Nightmare's gaze narrowed and she inched her face closer to the shield, wanting to hear Celestia clearly.
The Sun Goddess opened her eyes, a reinvigorated fire in them. Her anger had doubled as she thought of all the things the Nightmare had done.
She contemplated on the ponies whose families had suddenly been torn apart by the disappearance of a Father or Mother, a young filly or colt disappearing after wandering off with their friends during a game of Hide and Seek....every muscle in her body was trembling with the urge to unleash all of her wrath on the Nightmare that very moment.
She settled for lashing out at her in the same way she seemed to be tearing into Luna.
"However, we could never be related to anypony that could hate as you do. You are no family of ours," she hissed through clenched teeth. "Rather, an old saying comes to mind when I look upon you. A rabid dog is worthy of two things: pity, and a swift death."
The Nightmare glowered at Celestia, a threatening silence welling up between them. To the untrained eye, the Nightmare looked as if it wished to kill them right then and there. When she gazed in Luna's direction only to find that the darker alicorn was looking away from her, head hung low with an expression that made the word 'shame' come to the Nightmare's mind, a hint of something else entirely became all too evident to Celestia in the dark creature's eyes.
She saw pain. Genuine, deep emotional pain.
The Nightmare tensed up, her fury faltering for a few short seconds in favor of making the emotional pain she felt more obvious to the more astute ponies that had the guts to look at the Nightmare's face.
This didn't last, however. The dark faux-pony reared back, teeth gritted together while her forehooves slammed against the shield, the sound of a solid object crashing into an ethereal one echoing throughout the area. She roared a bone-chilling, blood-curdling roar that sounded half like a scream, and half like a scream from a beast of Tartarus itself.
Twilight awoke with a start, gasping and shifting her blurry gaze this way and that. The last thing she remembered was being confused by a flurry of emotions, then....well, nothingness. She started talking to somepony, but then she fell asleep?
Her attention didn't stay on herself for long. She looked to the source of all the screaming and saw a massive sheet of black, with a familiar dark alicorn coming out of the middle of it, or relatively close to the middle.
Her gaze turned around behind her, staring at her friends, who just stood there wide-eyed and utterly unsure of what they should do in this sort of situation.
By the time they had gotten past the barrier, Rarity and Fluttershy were exhausted, and Twilight had been out cold. Without the egghead of the group to really try to rally them, they deferred to Celestia's wisdom and power in this situation. They were used to using the Elements of Harmony to one-shot big bad villains of absolute evil and discord, and even then....
Well, Discord and Nightmare Moon had never made attempts on their lives, not out-right, anyways. Nor were they as legitimately terrifying as the Nightmare.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight shouted while stumbling to her hooves.
Applejack stepped over to her and placed her side against her friend's, bracing the bookworm's weight.
"Whoa there Twi! Now, just calm down, sugarcube....!"
The lavender unicorn felt like her eyes were rolling around in her head, the world still appearing to be blurry and shaky to her. She didn't feel like she was swaying around that much, but judging by how firmly Applejack was holding on to her, she was clearly contributing to how much the world was spinning.
"Buh-but....Princess is bein' 'tacked....!" she whined woozily.
She couldn't keep her gaze locked on her idol, the mare she looked up to, but what she could see told her that she was only mere inches from the dark monstrosity that had chased them through the forest.
"Twi, th' Princesses have everythin' under control. Now ah dunno what happened to ya in that there forest, but after ya wrecked that big monster thing, ya really started losin' it. That was when that Valkyre guardspony knocked ya out with a spell," she explained, patting Twilight on the back of her withers. "Now jus' take a seat an' rest yer head, yer really swayin' about, an' it's got me worried 'bout'cha, sugarcube."
Even in her dazed state, Twilight could sense Applejack's very stern gaze looking at her, practically screaming 'do as I say or I'll make ya'. She had no intention of disobeying, though this was mostly because they had been talking for around a minute and there had only been silence outside of their little conversation.
In the meantime, Celestia and the Nightmare had stared each other down, neither pony wavering in their gaze, but they were both clearly very, very upset. It couldn't be seen by anypony else, but with such close proximity, Celestia could see the tears trickling down from the Nightmare's eyes.
That threw her a little. Why would the Nightmare be crying? Her eyes narrowed to slits, unwilling to show any kind of weakness, unwilling to even think of asking her the reason behind her tears. She had her very educated assumptions, after all. Perhaps the immature alicorn did still care, perhaps such a harsh statement really did bother her.
Whatever the reason(s) behind it, the Nightmare grimly backed away from Celestia, her eyes wandering to her Mother for a brief moment, as if she were hoping that the Night Princess would meet her gaze. Luna, out of fear, still refused to look her own daughter in the eye.
The Nightmare took in a shaky breath and spread her wings, flapping them twice, the feathers aligning enough for her to be comfortable once more.
"I will find a way in, Celestia," she sneered, the words filled with hate. "When I do, you will hear naught but your precious little ponies screaming for you to help them, and the moment you do, I will strike. I will strike again and again, and I will break you. I will break ALL of you!"
She finalized her statement by sweeping a pointing hoof over the entire crowd of Royal Guardsponies before her and the crowd of fearful civilians behind them. A couple of young foals could be heard crying in their parent's hooves, all of the young ponies visibly shaken by the terrible creature threatening all of them.
"See you soon, dear Princesses.....!"
The Nightmare's tone was acidic and filled with hatred as her body sunk backwards into the wall of darkness once more. The dark wall itself shuddered and the numerous eyes glowing within it faded away, the darkness turning moreso into a liquid and splashing down against the ground and rushing out against the barrier like a small tidal wave.
When all was said and done, the water-like darkness bubbled and sank into the ground, disappearing as quickly as it seemed to be able to conjure itself up. This did not set Celestia at ease though. Instead, she stood stalwart along with the rest of her guard, the entirety of Ponyville utterly silent after that little incident, nopony being willing to do so much as take a single step until they were assured that it would not invoke the monster's wrath or break some unwritten rule of such a situation.
Silent seconds ticked by. Five. Ten. When some ponies began to shift, uncomfortable with the silence, Princess Celestia let out a deep breath and turned to face her subjects, her voice soft and gentle despite currently being as powerful as the Royal Canterlot Voice.
"EVERYPONY, CONTINUE THE EVACUATION."
The crowd of ponies didn't need to be told twice. Both the Royal Guard and the civilians quickly broke away, every guard pairing up with one or two other ponies, assuming them together, offering the same assistance they had been up to much earlier, before they had to prepare for a potential assault on Ponyville.
When everyone was off, busy packing and being loaded up into the nearby airships, the area near the Everfree Forest was deathly quiet. While the others remained crowded around Twilight to try to help her through the rather lengthy bout of dizziness and tiredness she was experiencing at the moment.
It was an odd sensation, similar to magic fatigue. She felt tired and exhausted, but at the same time, there were moments where she managed to focus enough to the point that she felt completely awake and fine, only to suddenly experience vertigo all over again the moment her concentration wavered from trying to put one hoof in front of the other.
Fluttershy was the first to leave Twilight's side oddly enough, the Element-bearers having noticed a mention of an evacuation.
She rushed over to Celestia's side as well as Luna's, the two royal mares clearly distraught, if Luna's tears were any evidence to this fact. Aegis, Valkyre and Aolimnus were standing on the other side of Luna, while Celestia was tended to by her own personal guards. Shining Armor was distinctly missing from the roster however, having been sent to assist in keeping the civilians calm and collected while making their ways home, and then onto the airships with their most valued belongings.
"W-we must thank each of thee, for th-thy loyalty in such a dangerous moment," she said, letting out a shaky breath. A moment passed before she spoke up again, looking directly at Aolimnus. "Thy quick thinking allowed us to save face. That means more than thou can imagine."
He nodded his head solemnly, a faint smile on his lips.
"When I saw the look on your face, I was reminded of how upset it would've made Wind Strider. Then I realized what he would have done, and decided to go through with it," he said, chuckling quietly. "Feels a bit less energetic without him here."
"Hah, yeah! He's ridiculously dedicated, isn't he?" Valkyre chimed in. "So cute~!"
Luna could only giggle weakly at that. It was all too true, given how many times Strider had put his reputation and even his job on the line in favor of 'helping' her.
"Indeed, even going so far as to purposely weaken himself to lure the Nightmare out. Truly half-zebra." Aegis said, which was far more than most ever expect him to say.
"Tha's right! Can't tell if it was foolish or a feat o' strong self-control."
Luna sighed and nodded her head slowly. "Yes. I will be returning his strength to him when he has adequately recovered from his injuries. To do so now would be very unwise."
"Um, e-excuse me...."
Luna turned her head, an almost inaudible voice coming to her attention. Most would never have noticed such a near-silent tone, but Luna's hearing was better than most. She noticed the quiet and patient little pegasus before her guards did.
The three guards turned their attention to the timid canary yellow pegasus they'd been escorting minutes earlier along with the rest, Fluttershy's posture one of fear and apprehension, they noticed, when they all, including Luna, turned their gaze upon her. Only Luna broke the silence.
"Yes, young Element Bearer? What may we do for thee?"
Fluttershy eep'ed and ducked back at Luna's slightly elevated tone of voice. Though she didn't know it, she should have been thankful that Strider was so dutiful towards assisting Luna in whatever way he could, along with the three around her at the moment as well: they had worked the Royal Canterlot Voice out of her system, and boldly corrected her every single time she used it when an arrogant noble or ridiculous petitioner at Night Court asked for something deceitful or blatantly selfish or harmful to ponies 'of lesser stature'. The end result was a much more approachable Night Princess.
Of course, their hearing had paid the price for quite a while, but what could you do?
The timid pegasus took a moment in silence, Luna's expectant eyes gazing upon her casually, almost relaxed even despite what had just happened. Fluttershy slowly worked herself up to her hooves again, one foreleg nervously rubbing at the other while her gaze faltered and fell towards the ground.
"Well I-I was just wondering, if um....well, that is, if you don't mind...."
"Yes? Please, thou must speak up, we cannot quite hear thee."
"Well what I mean to say is, um....would the animals be...."
Once again, Fluttershy's voice trailed off into nothingness, or rather, it became so inaudible that it may as well have been nothingness. Luna's hearing was good but not that good!
She cleared her throat and took a tentative step forward, causing Fluttershy to squeak and lower down a little, as if she was afraid. The reaction made Luna frown, the Night Princess drawing the wrong conclusion from her reaction. She said nothing in regards to it, however.
"We are sorry, but we cannot hear thee. What art thou trying to say, timid one?"
"Wh-what will happen to all of my little animals?! Can I bring them with us on the airships?" Fluttershy said as quickly as she could, looking away from the Princess again.
"I have already looked into tending to that issue, my little pony, among many others."
The sudden chime of Celestia's voice, surprisingly enough, soothed Fluttershy rather than sending her into a shivering fit from the surprise of it all.
The regal mare had been busy issuing orders to the messengers and higher-ranking Lieutenants and squad leaders of the pegasi Sun Guards. The moment she found herself left alone, however, she quickly turned her attention to her sister and the Elements of Harmony, all of which save for Fluttershy seemed busy trying to assist Twilight in walking. They were failing miserably.
Celestia returned her gaze to a very hopeful little pegasus standing before both her and Luna now, smiling in kind to Celestia's almost constant mask of serenity that Luna seemed partially capable of mimicking at the moment.
"S-so, then, I get to take all of my little animals with me?"
"But of course! My sister and I would never consider leaving thy little friends to fend for themselves. Such a thing is necessary within the Everfree Forest, not within our lands!"
Celestia very quietly giggled, as if such a notion were simply silly to suggest in front of her. Truthfully, it was: she cared for all of her subjects, from the most misguided pony to the smallest bug.
"We have added some expansions to the Royal Gardens, Fluttershy," Celestia said, smiling even brighter. "We knew something like this would happen from the moment the Nightmare awoke. There is more than enough space for your entire animal care facility, which is exactly what has been set up in the Royal Gardens! I'm sure many of the animals already there will appreciate your therapeutic touch."
Fluttershy's eyes lit up with excitement. "R-really?! Oh my, that's just....!" she stuttered, fluttering up a few feet off of the ground, grinning wide. "I-I just don't know what to say!"
"It is no trouble at all, dear Fluttershy. It was a planned expansion that we decided to put priority upon, for thy arrival."
She looked to Luna and nodded for a moment, silence reigning once more....until Fluttershy suddenly perked up, the smile disappearing from her face. "O-oh my, I better go and start packing! I have so many little animals and critters to guide to the airships! Oh dear, so much to do, I hope Mr. Bear won't make too much of a fuss, he's so stubborn about not leaving his home this time of year because it's close to his hibernation time, and-and-"
Celestia had stepped forward while Fluttershy was turning away to head off to her home, a hoof being placed on the smaller pony's withers. Fluttershy almost instantly snapped her wings against her back, the unpredicted touch startling her as it usually would. Celestia couldn't help but giggle a little at the reaction, it was rather funny.
"Do not worry my little pony. Several of the royal animal caretakers are here, and have been sent to your home to help gather up the animals. You don't have to worry."
Fluttershy gasped and leapt into the air, a reaction very uncharacteristic of her. Of course, no one had ever tried to interact with her animals en-masse without her around before, either.
"Nonono that's not good! I take care of lots of trauma cases! A lot of the animals that stay with me are cases of neglect and abuse, they're very distrusting of any ponies that I don't know personally! Oh, this is bad, very very bad, um, I have to go! Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness....!"
With Rainbow Dash bracing Twilight and helping her move one hoof carefully after the other, the lavender pony had her eyes closed and entirely relied upon her friend to guide her to where Fluttershy was just moments ago. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were walking ahead of the others, and Rarity had overhear most of what was being spoken of between the Princesses and Fluttershy, and her own concerns were coming to the forefront of her thoughts.
After they all were standing there in front of Luna and Celestia, they all bowed save for Twilight, who knew that if she even dared to try to bow, she'd wind up launching herself face-first into the ground, and then upon trying to stand up, she'd likely wind up somersaulting forward and bowling into one or both of the Princesses.
Instead, Twilight carefully took a few steps forward, only to sway and hold a hoof to the side of her head, clenching her eyes shut. Luna knew exactly what she was going through, the Night Princess swiftly darting forward and placing her forehooves on Twilight's withers, standing directly in front of her.
The Princess's firm grip made Twilight flutter her eyes open and gaze into Luna's in the process. The memories hit her harshly and suddenly, like a sack of bricks to the crotch. In particular, memories involving her horn touching Luna's. Intentionally.
Twilight blanched and cringed as that singular memory took the stage in her head. She couldn't help her face turning as red as Applejack's namesake, reflexively leaning her head away from Luna's.
Luna looked at Twilight quizzically, until it suddenly clicked in her mind as well. She calmly cleared her throat, hoping to steer the conversation in an entirely different direction than the one Twilight would inevitably go for, if she were given the chance. Luna placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, looking the young mare in the eyes.
"We have a lot to discuss Twilight, but such matters are things that thy friends should not have to bear the weight of. We shall speak in Canterlot. All shall be explained there."
"Uh, whuh-why-" Twilight stuttered, trying to collect herself as best she could.
Luna sighed and reached out with a hoof, a small current of dark energy, similar to the Nightmare's but with a kind of glimmer, like small stars flickering from within it. It jumped from her hoof to Twilight's horn with a jolt, and Twilight jumped with a startled squeak.
Twilight blinked a few times, an almost instantaneous change occurring within her mind, her vision and her equilibrium returning to normal in a matter of seconds. That change alone almost made her feel dizzy as well, but it was like the dizziness was forced out of her mind all at once rather than it taking to the forefront and twisting her vision around.
"W-what did you just do?"
Twilight stood up straighter and looked to her two friends, both Applejack and Rarity stepping away from her with small looks of concern. Ultimately though, they let her be.
She looked to her friends, all of them lingering around her, save for Fluttershy. Twilight smiled at them all to give them more reassurance.
"Don't worry girls, I'm alright now. I just felt so exhausted before, I think I overdid it in the forest. It felt like I had so much power, I thought I had plenty of magic to burn. Plus I felt so strong and irrational, like I could do anything...."
"'Tis the nature of thy new reservoir of magic."
They all turned around when Luna's voice sounded off, drawing their rapt attention even as Celestia stepped up behind her, moving to stand next to Luna on her right side.
"Indeed. You have an immense level of control over magic, my student. We both have no doubt that you feel that way because you are naturally gifted."
"Not ta' mention yer the Element of Magic!"
They shifted their attention to Applejack, who just shrugged.
"Just sayin', it makes the most sense, don't it?"
She steps forward, looking to both of the Princesses with a concerned frown.
"Not to sound ungrateful or nothin' Princesses, but....with us all basically abandonin' Ponyville, what's gonna happen to Sweet Apple Acres? How will the Apple Family make their money?"
Celestia could only smile at the inquiry, whereas the others stepped forward with similar concerns.
"Yeah, what about Mr. and Mrs. Cake's bakery?"
"Not to mention my boutique! I couldn't possibly leave any of my designs here, everything in that store is my life's work!"
Celestia quickly held up a hoof, her serene smile quickly taking its rightful place on her muzzle, giving her the usual radiance that had mares and stallions alike bending at the knee for her, usually for more than one reason, though nopony would say so.
"Please, you will not have to give up anything, my little ponies! Rarity," Celestia said, nodding to the fashionista. "I have had a second studio crafted for you, courtesy of my personal dressmakers. You will have everything you need to continue practicing your craft in your free time. As an unintentional bonus, Hoity Toity and a good friend of Luna and I wish to speak with you. Working out of the castle is something worthy of gossip amongst the Canterlot elite, after all. Perhaps you have heard of a stallion named Fancy Pants?"
Rarity's mouth went agape and stayed that way, the pupils of her eyes mere pinpricks for the moment. She finally spoke up after Applejack waved a foreleg up and down in front of her face, in some small attempt to snap the white-furred mare out of it.
"He....how does he know my name?!?!"
"Oh, you would be surprised! Actually, he didn't know until Hoity Toity told him, though Hoity Toity wouldn't have known if he didn't regularly work with my dressmakers. He remembered you from the fashion show you put on a year or so ago," Celestia said, a sudden knowing smirk altering that otherwise soothing smile. "The good one and the bad one."
Rarity was practically trembling before all of them. Every inch of her body was vibrating with restrained joy, the classy mare utterly dumbstruck from this sudden news. She turned away from the Princesses and began walking in the general direction of Carousel Boutique, though she swayed this way and that as she went, and her body tipped this way and that, like a ship in a stormy sea.
"I will talk to you on the ship, girls. Have to go do the thing, at my place-packing, yes, ha ha, that's it, lots of packing....!!"
Luna looked to Aegis and motioned him over.
"Sir Bulwark, please go and assist miss Rarity with her things. She no doubt has quite a bit to carry. Gather some other guards to assist, if you must. Try to get it all done in a single trip."
Celestia turned her gaze to Applejack next. She knew what was going through their minds, and it was all too true: she could not just give them a second apple orchard to work at, such a thing would be impossible by constraints of time and the natural flow of nature. She couldn't make even a single acre of apple trees spontaneously grow, let alone the massive amount Sweet Apple Acres has. Not to mention all the other crops they grow and ship out that they're much less known for.
"Applejack, as you well know, it is impossible even for my sister and I to give you grounds as fertile as the ground upon which Sweet Apple Acres stands for you to operate a second farm with, nor would it be within our power to make all the trees and other plants needed grow within such a short time."
The farmpony simply nodded her head, looking rather crestfallen. That could only mean one thing, and if her family couldn't work, she didn't have a clue how they were going to even begin to pay off all of their debts!
"Therefore, all expenses normally incurred by the operation of Sweet Apple Acres will be suspended until the day that it is safe for the Apple Family to return to their work upon the farm. I have added the care of every plant and crop on the farm to the training regimen of the guards that will be stationed here in Ponyville after the evacuation, so your trees and other crops will be well cared for until you are ready to return, and they will be harvested annually to avoid a shortage of Apple Family products on the market in Canterlot. None of your business contacts will suffer any losses either."
Applejack's eyes were wide as saucers, her surprise barely contained. She hadn't forgotten her manners, however, and bowed to the Princesses in thanks.
"Wow, y'all can do that? I-I mean, thanks, Yer Majesty! Why, ah never would'a expected somethin' like this!"
Luna smiled wide. "Keep in mind, fair Applejack, that this does not mean that you will be acquiring any sort of free income. If you wish to find a job to change this, we actually have several positions in the castle that could use an extra hoof here and there. The Royal Gardens, for example, could use a second gardener, and given your skill at tending to your farm, we have no doubt you could handle general garden care with little difficulty."
Applejack bowed her head to Luna, smiling wide. "Sounds just fine t'me, Yer Majesty!"
The farm mare turned to her friends and tipped her Stetson to them, nodding her head in the process. She would have preferred to stick around, but much like Rarity and Fluttershy, she had a lot to tend to before she'd be ready to board any of those airships and head out to Canterlot.
Perhaps it hadn't sunk in yet, but she was aware that her family was a country family being forced to move, at least temporarily, to a fairly sizeable city. This was going to be a very trying transition for Big Macintosh and Granny Smith.
Then there was Apple Bloom, she hadn't a clue what they were going to do about her teaching! Applejack stopped just short of taking off running, looking back to Celestia and Luna after she said goodbye to her friends.
"Uh, Princesses? Ah just got one last question."
Celestia turned her attention away from a soldier that had rushed over to give the Sun Princess a quick update on the evacuation. "Yes? Please, go ahead."
"What about schoolin' fer mah little sis, Apple Bloom an' her friends? Ah don't claim to be all knowledgeable or nothin' when it comes to this sort of thing, but wouldn't it be hard on 'em to have 'em continue their schoolin' without their teacher, Cheerilee?"
Celestia grinned wide. "Oh, that is being taken care of, I do assure you. It's actually a part of a very ambitious project that we are able to make full use of, thanks to this complete evacuation of Ponyville. This relocation of Ponyville's entire population is actually the very reason that this project has become economically feasible as well as beneficial," she said, looking over to Luna with a warm smile. "Leave it to my sister to find the perfect way to make the most of an otherwise troublesome situation."
Luna couldn't help but blush at the compliment.
"Truly, t'was a simple idea, once we realized just how small the middle class population is in Canterlot. 'Tis very inappropriate for the capital of Equestria."
Applejack didn't quite follow what they meant, but she just shrugged, nodding to the whole thing.
"Well, ah don't rightly know what ya mean with all that, but if ya say it's bein' taken care of, ah trust ya Princesses! Gotta go git mah family ready to go now," she said, waving once again to her friends before taking off in a gallop towards the farm. "Later girls!"
Pinkie hopped over to the Princesses after she and the others waved goodbye to Applejack in return, the gleeful party pony still bouncing up and down, Luna's eyes following her while Celestia just kept her gaze in Pinkie's general direction, hoping she would calm down. Oh, how futile it was to hope for such a thing.
"So does this mean you've both planned for everything?! Even for Sugarcube Corner? 'Cuz Mr. and Mrs. Cake really need to run their own business, and if they didn't we wouldn't get any more of their wonderful cakes and cookies and brownies and pies and croissants and-"
"Yes, we have indeed, my little pony," Celestia said, resting a hoof atop Pinkie's head, easing her down to the ground and keeping the energetic pony there. "Your employers have a new, state-of-the-art bakery waiting for them when they get to Canterlot, along the main street of the new project being worked on. They will be receiving the deed to it upon their arrival."
Pinkie was practically vibrating with excitement, looking as if she were about to rocket away into the sky from her overabundance of joy upon hearing this news.
So of course, Pinkie did indeed rocket into the sky, complete with fireworks explosions dissipating away from her, as if they burst out of her mane. Though Celestia had the best poker face in Equestria, even she was baffled on the inside with Pinkie's antics. Now she could truly appreciate Twilight's utter confusion and curiosity in her letters.
When she landed once again, Pinkie was rambling away her ideas on what they would do to throw the bestest of parties to celebrate their arrival in a new home, even if it's only a temporary one. By the time Pinkie Pie slowed down, Luna's mouth was open in astonishment at this wild mare's level of energy. Surely, she was on some kind of medication?
"-and then I'll live there with them and work for them still and I won't have to have some kind of boring job like at the rock farm or-"
"Actually, Pinkie Pie, I have a request."
Pinkie froze mid-rant and looked over to Princess Celestia, though she only stayed still for a brief moment before smiling wide and dashing over in front of her.
"Well, whatcha need, Princess?"
Her smile was infectious, as was her glee. Both Celestia and Luna, standing side-by-side, felt as if they'd been caught in some kind of feel-good spell just by having Pinkie flash a smile at them, the Royal Sisters both giggling quietly for a moment before Celestia spoke up once again.
"It would be preferable if you lived at the castle, with the rest of the Elements. While living there, I would like it if a pony so experienced with baking various sweets be the pony that bakes the desserts for my sister and I after every meal," she said, a quiet and wistful sigh leaving her. "Recently, the dessert chef that had been on the kitchen staff for fifty years passed away, and we are in need of a new, skilled dessert chef to at least temporarily take his place. Bless his heart, he made the most absolutely amazing cake....!"
"That he did, sister. That. He. Did."
Both Princesses sighed, a far-off look in their eyes as they both faded off into a world of cakes and pies and other baked confections that they had indulged in to their heart's content on more than one occasion since Luna's return. Much like Celestia, Luna had fallen in love with the marvel that was cake, and then, oh, then she discovered so many different types of PIES....! Pumpkin pie by far had become her favorite.
Pinkie Pie surprisingly had become rather still, her eyes wide for a moment as she gasped very similarly to how she'd gasped when Twilight showed up the very first time in Ponyville.
"Yuh-you want me to cook for the castle? ME?! That's....that's just so super splendiferous! That's-that's wondertastic!! Of course I'll do it! Ooh, I hafta go tell the Cakes what's going on! See ya later girls!"
Pinkie Pie was gone before anypony could say anything else, the party pony taking off like a bullet down the path towards Sugarcube Corner.
Rainbow Dash fluttered up into the air, the Element of Loyalty the last one to take off besides Twilight. Before she left to get some of her things together, she asked basically the only questions that really mattered to her.
"Can I assume that I'm gonna be working at the castle too?"
"You don't have to, but it would be preferred. You, as well as the rest of the Elements, will be needed at the castle almost every day to prepare for what may come in the near future," Celestia explained quickly. "Of course, I doubt you would turn down the task of keeping the clouds above Canterlot Castle clear at all times, yes?"
"Wow, just the castle? That's way less work than keeping Ponyville's skies uniform from day to day! Count me in."
With that, Rainbow Dash was gone in a sudden burst of speed, the cyan pegasus rocketing through the skies towards her cloud home.
The only one left was Twilight, and she looked much better now. That single jolt of Void Magic from Luna seemed to do more than Twilight thought it initially would, her mind clearing and a lot of the dizziness disappearing from her vision, though she still felt somewhat drowsy.
"Princess Celestia, Luna, why uh....well, I don't have all that much to pack and take with me, since all the books I have at the moment belong to the Ponyville library. Maybe on the way to the library, you could both explain to me what exactly's going on?"
With a simple nod from Celestia and Luna, the trio rather lethargically made their way through town, where a large bustle of activity was flowing to and fro from every building. Guards and citizens were making their way in and out of the buildings carrying all sorts of belongings, bags and suitcases with them.
"To put it simply Twilight, we are making the most of this otherwise unfortunate situation."
Twilight watched as a blushing guard was pursued by a drunken Berry Punch as they stepped out of her doorway, a surprising amount of wine, beer and liquor being carried in various cases. She was very clearly hitting on the poor guard mare something fierce. That and she was drunk. Yes, very drunk. Of course, the possibility of her passing out on the way to Canterlot and waking up in her new, temporary home would probably be an experience that Berry Punch was all too used to, minus the lack of a random bedmate. Then again, perhaps her drunken antics with the guard....
"Twilight? Are you alright?"
She snapped to attention and shook her head firmly, trying to get rid of the slowness in her mind. She felt so airheaded and unattentive for some reason. It was probably because she was feeling drowsy, but with all the bizarre things that have happened over the course of the last night and the current day....
"Oh! Princess, what time of day is it right now?"
"It's about two in the afternoon if I'm tracking the time accurately. Why do you ask, Twilight?"
"Oh, wow. No wonder I'm spacing out, I haven't gotten any sleep since the night before last!" she muttered loud enough to be heard by both the Princesses. "I'm sorry Princesses. I'm listening this time! Can you please explain what's going on again?"
Twilight's magic pushed her library door open, only for her and the Royal Sisters to be surprised by the sight of several tubs of eaten ice cream laying all over the main floor of the library. Vanilla, strawberry, mixed, chocolate, even some Rocky Road could be seen sitting on the main table, next to the kitchen door, they were pretty much everywhere!
And in the middle of it all was a very sick-looking Spike with his tongue hanging halfway out of his mouth, facing the door and reaching out for Twilight, a garbage bucket sitting next to him with something unsavory slightly spattered over one edge of it.
"Twiliiiiight....I did something really stupid, I think....!" he groaned out weakly.
The lavender mare just looked around, her mouth hanging open after she took count of just how many tubs of ice cream he'd gone through. Then she blatantly facehoofed as the Princesses entered and just stared at the mess and the suddenly vomiting little dragon on the floor.
"Oh, Spike...." Twilight groaned, shaking her head and getting to work cleaning up the mess.
The wind on the top deck of the airship was rather powerful, as Spike found out when going from the captain's cabin to the lower deck, where Twilight was currently resting. He still felt sick to his stomach, but he took solace in the fact that it was because he almost literally stuffed his gut with a LOT of ice cream over the course of twenty-four hours, not because he had the beginnings of some sort of long-lasting sickness.
Ponies were moving this way and that through the halls, some complaining about the fact that it had been over an hour and they were still on the ship, and others were still very crestfallen regarding leaving Ponyville for who knew how long. Others still were lingering by the ends of the halls, near the sides of the ship, marveling at being so high up in the air on such a sophisticated piece of mechanical genius.
Celestia had gotten very busy the day after she'd been spoken to so desperately by Twilight. It felt bad, in a way, to find out that her mentor had refused to tell her anything about the Nightmare. Just because she knew Twilight well enough to predict that the unicorn would look to her friends for guidance, didn't mean she couldn't have found a better way to handle the situation.
It was honestly hard for Twilight to believe that Celestia predicted things happening the way they did. Anything could've altered the outcome, one of her friends could have encouraged her and that would've been it. Hay, she could've just said 'buck it' and rushed into the forest to go after the Nightmare immediately in a fit of anger!
Yet, all Celestia had said to that was 'But that isn't how it happened, is it?'
No matter how much Celestia's wisdom astounded her, no matter how much her mentor seemed like she could see the future or read ponies as if they were all open books, she knew Twilight as if she had known Twilight her entire life, rather than knowing her for Twilight's entire life, which didn't make sense because Twilight was as mortal as the next pony.
Then there was the news about the 'expansion' they were making to Canterlot. Twilight had quite the skilled, analytical mind, and the moment she'd been told that the expansion was running under the castle, down the side of the mountain, then down a cable car to the bottom, she'd tried to gain a mental rough estimate of just how many ponies could fit into such an expansion.
Then Luna began to explain how the property values and decor were deliberately crafted to appeal more to the middle class rather than the nobles that already had Canterlot overrun with their 'private sub-culture', as Luna so delicately put it.
Both Luna and Celestia approved of this plan since Canterlot was the capital of Equestria, and it just wouldn't do to have the capital of Equestria consisting of the minority class almost exclusively, when high-production cities and towns like Ponyville, Manehattan and Fillydelphia consisted mostly of the middle class, hard-working ponies that were the very reason the nobles were so rich in the first place.
Many, many nobles voiced their opposition to this plan, but ultimately, the number of ponies that both understood and agreed with the viewpoint of the Royal Sisters outweighed the braying and neighing of fearful, money-grubbing nobles.
Thus, the Canterlot Commons Project was put into motion, and made great strides in construction in a mere three days. That had been the purpose of Celestia buying such a small amount of time alongside the Princesses using the time to prepare the Royal Guard to move out and occupy Ponyville, to set up a solid defense between the Nightmare's base of operations and the capital of Equestria.
Twilight was a little dubious at learning that Celestia had literally put a halt on construction in Manehattan, Las Pegasus and Fillydelphia in order to call all the construction companies from those big cities in to get to work on building the massive expansion that was Canterlot Commons. That meant that there were a lot of different construction companies being forced to work very close together, possibly even being forced to work on the same properties by combining their work forces to get certain larger jobs done.
This had her worried. After all, could the integrity of the buildings and structure braces holding the massive expansion firmly in place against the side of the mountain really be of optimal quality with all these construction companies potentially being at each other's throats? She really hoped that there was somepony on-task keeping all the different construction companies working well together with minimal conflict.
At least, Twilight would've been worried about all of this if she wasn't in the process of taking a nap. It wasn't exactly full-on sleep, but it did help her recover a little of what she lost out on trekking through the Everfree Forest.
She had retired to a room that Celestia and Luna had given her, which oddly enough was the same room that Luna and Celestia had been in on the way to Ponyville, not that it was a very extensive trip. Ponyville was only a few hours away after all, the room was more for rich ponies that used the airship for lengthy trips around Equestria and possibly beyond.
Spike entered her room slowly, the sound of ponies talking non-stop outside of the room filling the room very briefly until Spike shut the door again, the soundproofing in the walls giving them peace and silence once more.
Spike waddled over to the bed and climbed up onto it with a groan, looking over Twilight's uncovered form with a somber expression. So much had happened to her, and he felt so useless through it all, even now. From what he understood, it was a good thing he'd alerted Celestia of what was going on as soon as Twilight left rather than the day after, otherwise all of his friends as well as every citizen of Ponyville might very well be dead at the moment.
The thought chilled him to the bone. The only thing that stopped the Nightmare, whatever she was, from following Twilight and the others into Ponyville was the powers of the Princesses combined, casting a barrier over the town that forced the Nightmare to stay out, somehow. If they hadn't been there....
He looked upon his sleeping caretaker with further appreciation for her presence, though she seemed to be asleep. That didn't stop him from eagerly throwing himself into a hug that wrapped his arms around her neck, pulling in close to curl up against her as best he could.
Tears were running down his cheeks when a quiet sob roused Twilight from her meager slumber, the sleep-deprived mare looking to him with puffy red and vaguely bloodshot eyes. He wasn't the only one that had been shedding some tears.
"Spike? Wh-what's-" she began to say, only to realize that he was crying openly, with his face buried against the side of Twilight's neck.
She hugged him in return as best she could, her sleepiness forgotten in lieu of having a very upset dragon grabbing hold of her.
Before she got a chance to ask however, Spike spoke up again.
"You're what's wrong!" he half-shouted, opening his tear-filled eyes and looking into hers. "Y-you almost died!"
She looked to him with some surprise as he held her tighter, the sounds of his despair making her begin to cry all over again, though not nearly as much as he was. She couldn't handle hearing the little dragon so upset, it was like when she was a little filly and bullies had him crying his heart out and she couldn't do anything but hold him.
The only difference now was that there were no bullies, just Twilight and the consequences of her actions. So she held him. She held him and just let him bawl and cry against her, but he just didn't seem to have an end to his sorrow.
"Wh-when you and the others left it was like Nightmare Moon all over again, but she wasn't like whatever this thing is! It....it tormented you! I'd never seen you like that before, and I was so worried and I felt so useless because I couldn't....I couldn't do a-any....!"
She had no idea where this was coming from. If he was really so upset because of what she and her friends had to go and do-well, no, technically they didn't have to go. Spike had even pleaded for her not to go....and now that little fact was bugging her. Something about that moment was eating at her now, but she couldn't pinpoint it.
Spike pulled away from her a little, his eyes staring down at the bed, his shoulders slumping as he let go of her. He clenched his eyes shut as tight as he balled up his fists, his sharp teeth flashing in an angry growl.
"My parents abandoned me! Celestia told me everything before we first went to Ponyville, during the Summer Sun Celebration. Th-the-*hic*-the last unhatched egg in an abandoned nest. Just....just left there, because they didn't want me!!" he shouted furiously, the tears pouring from his eyes.
All of his anger left him suddenly, his legs giving out. The baby dragon flopped down onto his butt, bouncing once slightly on the large bed, his sad eyes looking up into Twilight's equally saddened and tearful gaze.
"Y-you weren't even supposed to succeed at that test they gave you. To use magic to force me to hatch a week early," he said, sniffling and curling his knees in towards himself, wrapping his arms around them. "But you did! You did something that was supposed to be impossible for a unicorn your age. So Celestia gave me to you to teach you responsibility."
He was trembling now, and something in the back of Twilight's mind was screaming at her, but she wasn't listening. She subconsciously reached out for him with a hoof, gently wiping the tears away from one of his cheeks, just listening to him, hanging on every word.
"You-*snf*-you fed me, you played with me, you even used your allowance to buy me toys and gems and take me to fairs and Celestia knows what else that I haven't mentioned!" he said, laying his forehead down against his knees.
"You even kept me around when other ponies made fun of you for spending all your time with me instead of running around with other ponies your age. You made raising me right a priority right next to your studies, you even gave me tutoring so I could learn everything you learned. You were always there, you never abandoned me! Not even once!"
He looked up into Twilight's eyes again, a faint smile on that sad face of his, the tears beginning to come down all over again as that smile disappeared. He began sobbing hard, just barely choking back his sorrow long enough to speak up once again.
"My p-parents abandoned me and left me for dead....! Now I h-have a new family, an-and the most awesome Mother I could've asked for," he said, whimpering and looking into Twilight's eyes. "I don't wanna lose my Mom all over again! Not now....!"
He finally lost what little composure he had left, breaking down into a fresh torrent of crying that tore Twilight apart on the inside.
She didn't realize she'd been holding her breath in, Spike's tearful confession making her feel an ache in her chest, a deep ache the likes of which only a loved one could inflict upon her. Her own tears began flowing as if the dam had shattered within her, this sudden revelation making her feel a myriad of joy and sadness in equal amounts.
She reached for him and gently pulled him closer to herself, the little dragon easing into her grasp until his back was resting against her chest, his head just under her chin. Her forelegs rested over his lap, hugging him tight against herself.
"I'm so sorry Spike! *snf* I would have found another way if I'd known, I swear I would have, I am SO sorry I put you through this....!"
He furiously shook his head, looking up at her with a small frown.
"N-no, it's okay! I just-if-if you ever had to face her again, a-and I didn't tell you how I really felt about you, I'd....!"
She tilted her head to one side of his and nuzzled his cheek with her own, a warm smile on her lips, the tears finally slowing down enough for a faint feeling of joy to warm her, now that what Spike had said really had a chance to sink in.
"Shh....it's alright, Spike. I wish you had told me a long time ago, but I'm glad you told me now. Just forget about all of that. I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I promise."
She had often thought on this subject when she had a lot of free time to ponder on such issues. He had said she was like a big sister to him before, which was somewhat sensible, she supposed. After all, Princess Celestia had always been watching out for her and, by association, she was often looking out for Spike as well.
But when she thought further beyond that, she realized that the way Spike truly felt right now, the reason for his sadness and his fear of her potential death when pitted against this dark horror that called her its sister....she understood completely. She took care of him. She tended to his needs. Hay, she even learned how to change his diaper when she'd only been out of diapers for a few years herself!
It made her smile. 'Mother'. She liked the thought of being such an important figure to him.
Spike turned in her grip and faced her, throwing his arms around her neck as far as he could to hug her tight, his entire front pressing against her neck and chest, the little dragon getting as close to her as he could.
"I l-love you, Mom."
She could've sworn her heart was doing backflips against her lungs, because the air caught in her chest and refused to come out as anything but a startled and gleeful whimper.
"I love you too, Spike....!"
The door to their room suddenly flew open, a bleary-eyed Celestia standing in the doorway.
The day that they had restored Nightmare Moon to Celestia's long-lost sister, Twilight's belief that the Princess could never lose her composure had been shattered, the sight of her crying even a little bit rather jarring for the lavender mare. Now, she and Spike both watched as Celestia marched almost angrily towards them, her large form looming over them both upon the equally large bed.
Twilight gasped in surprise as she noticed the tears that had stained the fur on the Princess's cheeks. What she had mistaken for pure anger from a distance was actually moreso sadness in Celestia's gaze.
The alicorn suddenly dropped down next to them both, wrapping her long forelegs around both of them and hugging them close, Spike being pinned between the two mares.
"Twilight. Spike....I owe you both a grand apology for the suffering I've put you both through. I must also apologize, but I overheard your conversation from the other side of the door, it was cracked open when I arrived."
Twilight was about to say something, but Celestia gently placed a hoof on her lips as well as on Spike's, the dragon seeming far more confused by the Princess's actions now than anything else.
"Twilight, you had begged me to tell you what was going on, why you were feeling the way you were feeling and who or what the Nightmare was. Indeed, I could have told you without any problems. However...."
Her ears flattened against her skull and her eyes slid shut. She felt unwilling and unworthy of looking either of them in the eyes.
"It was Luna's idea, but I went along with it. I am just as guilty. We needed to have control over when the Nightmare made her move, and we needed to buy time to set this expansion of Canterlot into motion. Thus, I said nothing, but I did make it seem as if there was something very important, perhaps even dangerous and bad for my reputation that I was keeping secret from you. At least, that was the intent. While I do not agree with many of my sister's methods, I cannot deny that this was the method most likely to have the best outcome....but in the process, I threw you to the wolves, so to speak."
Celestia frowned and hung her head, level with Twilight now as she looked into her student's eyes. Silently, she pleaded for some form of forgiveness, some kind of interruption from Twilight that would make it all better, make it all go away.
Twilight leaned her head away, utterly surprised at what she was hearing. She understood why, even accepted it, but she couldn't deny that she felt betrayed, even used. Her mouth hung open in partial shock at what she was hearing, while Spike between them glared at the Princess with obvious fury.
"I had complete faith in your abilities Twilight but please believe me when I say that it hurt so very much to do such a thing to you! Even if I agreed with this plan of action, I felt disgusted with myself for going through with it, I was inconsolable for hours after I returned to Canterlot," she said, her voice wavering. She released both Twilight and Spike, backing up and bowing her head to them both. "I am begging for your forgiveness, Twilight!"
She looked to Spike next, her tearful eyes meeting the dragon's furious glare.
"I am begging for your forgiveness as well Spike, though I know I do not deserve it from either of you," she said, looking to him with a shake of her head. "I had no idea you felt so strongly about Twilight, I didn't....that isn't what matters. What matters is that this has tortured both of you, and if you are upset with my sister and I, I fully understand."
Twilight looked to her in surprise, but Spike had far more than silence to give to the Princess. So very much more.
"How dare you," he muttered, glaring at the much larger pony. "How dare you come in here and act like there's any kind of justification for your actions, for your intentions, even!"
Twilight gasped. "Spike-!"
"NO!" he shouted, shutting her up. He glared at Celestia while pointing at the lavender mare behind himself. "She almost died because of you! Because you thought manipulating her into going after that thing would result in 'the best outcome'!" he said mockingly, attempting an intentionally bad imitation of her voice. "Oh, look at me! I'm Princess Celestia! I send ponies I care about to certain doom so they can deal with problems that are likely my fault to begin with-'"
"I KNOW! Damn it all I know, Spike!" the Princess suddenly roared out, the solar wind that constantly caused her mane to flow around suddenly intensifying, her mane splitting and waving in random directions as she came nose-to-nose with Spike. Tears were streaming down her face, twisting her normally serene, radiant visage into a sight of fury and sadness combined.
"I sent her to what would have been guaranteed death by keeping my mouth shut! I made Luna keep watch over their exchange despite the fact that my sister is so terrified of the Nightmare that her very presence reduces her to a trembling mess that will probably need therapy for millennia after this is all over!"
The scowl and anger in Celestia's voice faded as she sat up, her head hanging low and her eyes shifting between Spike and Twilight, finally settling on the bed, finding some of the stitching so very interesting all of a sudden, or so it seemed. All that was left was a load of remorse and self-loathing that ate away at her in that moment like a fast-acting cancer.
It was Celestia's greatest weakness, being a politician with a heart that punished her for decisions like the one she made for her student.
"I failed you, I failed Twilight, I failed my sister....!" she growled out, clenching her eyes shut, holding her head in her forehooves. "I have failed you all and I deserve whatever you all wish upon me, but I cannot help but ask for your forgiveness because I am not perfect!" she said, looking Twilight in the eyes, one of her own hidden behind her mane. "I'm not perfect, my student....! I make mistakes. I let ponies down....and I am sorry. I will remain sorry for what I have done until you decide that I am worthy of your forgiveness," she said, looking to Spike suddenly. "Both of you."
All three stayed there, like statues in perpetual stasis. Twilight was the first to make a move, reaching for Spike and resting a hoof on his shoulder. The little dragon had his arms crossed over his chest, his resolve diminished after that sudden tirade from Princess Celestia, though it was a meaningful and heartfelt plea from a mare that, for all intents and purposes, could have just said 'I order you both to forgive me', and then exiled them if they refused. Surely, she meant everything she just said.
Twilight urged Spike to turn around, and when he met her gaze, his anger faded. She was smiling at him, a knowing smile that said everything that needed to be said without her uttering a single word.
Twilight stood up from where she'd been laying, Spike approaching the Princess suddenly. The Princess looked between Spike and Twilight, waiting for them both to let her have it, verbally or otherwise.
She was utterly surprised when she felt Spike wrapping his little arms around one of her legs, hugging her tight around what he could reach of her. Twilight was standing next to him, looking up at the taller alicorn with that same smile.
The lavender unicorn reared up onto her hindlegs and pressed her forehooves against the Princess's chest, the bigger alicorn easily bracing Twilight's comparatively meager weight.
"Why didn't you just tell me?"
Celestia tried her best to smile, every inch of her body trembling, fearful of Twilight despising her for what she'd done to the poor unicorn. She didn't deserve any of what she'd been through. It only made Celestia hate herself more than she already did right now.
"The Nightmare, she....she was in your head, Twilight," Celestia said, frowning and looking away. "We could not risk her learning what we had planned by having you know as well," she said, taking a deep and shaky breath. "I wanted to tell you. How I wanted to tell you! I could barely handle seeing you in such a desperate state, begging for an answer that could stop all the suffering you had been going through, but I just couldn't and I knew it....!"
Twilight frowned and just listened as the Princess covered her mouth with the side of her hoof, closing her eyes and sniffling loudly. That seemed to be all she needed to partially recover the composure she'd lost under Spike's verbal assault, a deep breath drawn in again before she let it out once more.
"That was why I took the first chance I had to rush out of the library. If you had begged me to tell you one more time, I-!" She stopped for a moment and closed her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I don't think I would have stayed quiet."
"She spent an entire day lamenting her decision to go along with my plan."
They all suddenly looked to the open doorway only to find Luna standing there, the shorter Princess smoothly approaching the bed the three were sitting on.
Celestia smiled weakly. "Luna. Good afternoon. I expected you to be taking a nap at this time. Your sleep schedule has been thrown off for long enough thanks to all of this."
Luna smiled a little and nodded to Celestia. "Worry not for us, dear sister. This has been more trying on thou and the ponies that thou holds dearest above all else, than it has been on us," she said, then sighed and shook her head. "I mean, me, do not worry about me! I am still trying to adjust to that, so very annoying...."
Twilight laughed quietly at that, just shaking her head and looking from Celestia to Luna and back. "I forgive you. Both of you."
Both Royal Sisters stared at Twilight incredulously for a moment, Spike doing much of the same, but he sighed and ran his right hand over the spines on the top of his head.
"I forgive both of you as well....but I'm still not very happy with either of you."
Celestia sighed and nodded her head. "That's far more than I ever hoped for. Thank you both...."
"No. I am the one that deserves all of the blame. I did not spend time searching for a different solution, I simply went with the one that would allow us almost complete control over the confrontation with little regard for who would suffer as long as nopony got hurt too badly," Luna said, stepping forward. "If you must blame anypony for the trials you have been put through, you should lay it all on me."
Celestia stepped down from the bed. "No. I chose to go along with your plan, that was my decision. I am just as much at fault as you are, Lulu."
Luna sighed deeply. She couldn't refute that, not in the least. She looked to Twilight and Spike after a brief staring contest with Celestia that the larger alicorn clearly won, the Night Princess sitting next to the bed and bowing her head to both Twilight and Spike.
"Please. If you harbor any ill will towards my sister because of this, do keep this in mind: she only very reluctantly agreed to go along with my plan after coming up with no less than twenty-three other plans that did not include you or your friends at all, plans that I refuted due to the risk they posed to both of us or a good majority of our Royal Guard and possibly many other innocent ponies as well," she explained, sitting up straight again, her expression unreadable. "She acted in the best interests of Equestria as a whole. Please keep that in mind."
Twilight could only giggle a little, feeling quite a bit better after being awoken by a very upset little dragon. "As I said....I forgive both of you."
"Same here," Spike said, smirking. "Just try not to do it again?"
"I cannot promise that."
Spike looked at Luna with a frown, unamused and rather unhappy at such a statement, but he said nothing.
Luna looked to Twilight after a moment of silence. "Twilight. Take the next few days to recover. You deserve it after what you've been through. In one week's time, if you feel ready by then, come and speak to me in my chambers after the sun goes down. Then and only then, will we have much to discuss."
She stood up along with Celestia, the Sun Princess looking somewhat crestfallen at having to leave so soon, or at least, it felt rather early to her. Luna swiftly moved along towards the door, her magic grasping it entirely.
"For now, get some rest. The airships are not going anywhere, so rest for as long as you feel you need to, then depart. The guards will escort you into Canterlot at that point."
Luna left before Celestia, her magic still holding the door until she realized that Celestia hadn't followed her. She didn't stop and wait, however, the Night Princess just continuing along down the hall, some ponies bowing to her as she went, though some didn't notice her, too busy with maintenance and cleaning to look around. Royal vessels didn't take care of themselves, after all.
Celestia stood there, looking into Twilight's eyes, a somber expression on her face. They both just stayed where they were, Twilight laying there next to Spike on the bed, and Celestia standing near the doorway, unwilling to take the final few steps through it. She felt like there was more she wanted to say, needed to say, but she couldn't put her feelings into words. Thousands upon thousands of years spent analyzing and understanding herself, how she felt, how she thought....and she hadn't a clue how to put what she felt at that moment into words.
Finally, Celestia rushed towards the bed and pulled Twilight towards the edge with her magic, the unicorn barely having time to gasp before she felt Celestia's large frame pressing against her, forelegs hugging her tight around her chest and neck.
"You may forgive me, Twilight," Celestia said, sighing shakily. "But I will spend a very long time trying to forgive myself for what I have done to you."
With that, Celestia left Twilight and Spike there in that large room alone, her magic closing the door on her way out.
Twilight was, for the most part, perplexed and surprised by everything that had just happened. Not only had things suddenly become extremely complicated between her and Spike, but up until that last hug from her mentor, she thought that Princess Celestia was for the most part a very professional and practical ruler. She had no idea she meant so much to her.
Spike pulled Twilight from her thoughtfulness by tapping on the side of her head, the unicorn looking to him just in time to see him pointing to the window.
Canterlot was closer than either of they had expected, but it didn't matter to Twilight or Spike: they were both dead tired now that they could relax their minds as much as their bodies.
"I'm gonna lay back down and get some rest, Spike. How about you?"
"I'm all for that....uh," he muttered, looking around the bed. "Where's my bed?"
Twilight laughed a little and pulled him close with her magic, the blanket tugging out from under them both while she wrapped her forelegs around the baby dragon, hugging him tight.
"Your bed's right here." she muttered, snuggling up against his back with a smile. "Mm, you're better than my Smartypants doll any day, 'son'."
She couldn't help but laugh at that little jab, though she did partially mean it. It was still way too weird for her though, thinking of Spike as her own son, let alone being a surrogate Mother to her number one assistant.
"Oh, be quiet, 'Mom'....Twilight?"
She had laid her head down when he spoke up, her eyes closed and her mind already slowing down, she felt so tired all the sudden.
"Hm?"
"Is it alright if I call you Mom?"
Her eyes flew open again, the question rolling around in her head, Spike's voice speaking it over and over and over for her. For some reason, it terrified her and made her feel very odd deep down.
But, more than that, it made her feel....warm. Fuzzy. She smiled and tilted her head down to kiss the top of his head.
"You don't have to if it embarrasses you in front of our friends, but....I think I'd like that. A lot, actually," she said, hugging him tight for a moment. "I'm sure it'll be really weird for both of us for a while, but I'm sure we'll both get used to it."
He smiled and laid his head down this time along with Twilight, both of them closing their eyes and letting out a deep sigh.
"Alright then....Mom. Love you!"
"Heh! Have a good rest, Spike. Love you."
With that warm, fuzzy feeling coursing over both of them, they both quickly began falling asleep, Twilight's mind swimming with new thoughts towards her number one assistant, and confusing feelings regarding her mentor. She anxiously wanted to speak with Celestia again sometime soon, and Luna as well, though for entirely different reasons.
She didn't get very far with those thoughts before the feeling of Spike's overly lukewarm body and the warmth of the covers atop her put her into a deep, and finally very restful sleep, utterly devoid of the Nightmare's intrusions or anypony else's interruptions.
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Fire Soul
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1140
| 17 |
Main 6,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Zecora,Alternate Universe,Dark,Romance,Sad,Slice of Life,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
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Taming the Rage
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Anger is a horrible thing to bottle up, but Twilight does. But when that bottle shatters....
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complete
| 460 | 38 |
<p>-----Currently Undergoing a Rewrite-----</p><p>With the antics of the Gala behind them, the Elements of Harmony prepare to return to Ponyville....except for Twilight. The Princess has requested that her star pupil stay behind to finish her advanced studies in the School for Gifted Unicorns. This sets off a chain of events that will change everything the Elements, Twilight, the Princesses, and everypony in Equestria knows, believes and understands about their peace-addled home country and their rulers. What is Twilight's connection with the Nightmare, and what is the Void?!</p><p>Note: Takes place just after the end of season 1, before the start of season 2!</p>
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mature
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2012-11-21T10:08:56+00:00
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2014-08-16T08:07:21+00:00
| 4,493 |
Epilogue
written by Fire Soul
The sun's low position in the sky illuminated all of Canterlot in a beautiful, near-sunset light, the sound of construction constant the further Twilight and Spike walked into the new Canterlot Commons area of the capital city.
They were both still astounded at how much the construction workers had managed to get done in a mere three days. They were easily just a little behind one-fourth finished with it when everypony showed up to start moving in, which meant some of the rich nobles gave up parts of their large homes to house 'refugees'.
Now, exactly one week after that day, Canterlot Commons was half finished and every citizen of Ponyville had moved into their own new, but temporary home, fully pre-furnished with some very Canterlot-esque furniture. Well, some of them were pre-furnished.
Those that weren't wound up having their new tenants stopping in and giving tons of business to the Quills & Sofas shop, Twilight's favorite place to go to pick up some sturdy but simple quills. She didn't buy them to collect, like some ponies with nothing better to do with their bits. She hardly ever spent the entire check that she got from Princess Celestia just to pay the bills back at the library anyways....hm.
"Maybe I should start up a collection of some sort...." she mumbled quietly to herself.
"What?"
She jumped, startled by the little dragon on her back. "Nothing, Spike! Nothing at all."
On second thought, that was a terrible idea. She was so obsessive about things, not having every part of any collection she started right away would probably drive her to having an aneurysm. It would truly be embarrassing to have 'Nearly destroyed Equestria due to freaking out about her Pokemon trading card collection' on her otherwise completely clean criminal record.
"Hey, there it is!"
Twilight looked to her right as they came to an intersection, some carriages going this way and that, directed by a traffic-managing pony in the middle of the cobblestone road. She preferred the sidewalk, it was much safer than sharing her walking path with boorish carriage drivers.
Just to the right of where she was, about a block down the street, was a building that currently had very colorful, pink frosting-colored construction going on, the tell-tale design of baked goods on the outside of the building giving it away as the new Sugarcube Corner.
As Twilight approached with Spike sitting on her back, she saw that the words 'Sugarcube' and 'Corner' were only partially completed. Half of each word was finished and painted, with the other half only partially carved out of the wooden blocks the unicorns were working them out of.
Each worker had wood-carving tools held in a magical field, some of them using two at a time, others using three, though a particularly large unicorn seemed to be using seven of them to help all of the workers where he could. Twilight couldn't help but find his magic skill attractive, not to mention how long his horn was....
"Whoa. Where'd that come from?" she mumbled to herself, rubbing her blushing cheek with a hoof.
She shook it off and instead focused on the sudden draft that washed over her and Spike, bringing with it the warming, tantalizing scent of fresh baked goods that could only come from one source.
"Where'd what come from, Twilight?" Spike suddenly asked.
Twilight perked up suddenly. "Oh, nothing! I think it's time we checked out the new Sugarcube Corner, don't you? Pinkie's been really busy in the castle kitchens and has been wanting to know how the Cakes are holding up in their new shop," she said, then licked her lips after taking yet another deep breath. "Not to mention I'm starving!"
Upon setting hoof inside of her favorite snack and baking goods store, Twilight was astounded at what she found: Canterlot nobles, a rather lengthy line of them at that, and the line was still growing behind her, when she finally looked back at the sound of other ponies approaching the front of the store.
She didn't wait any longer to get in line. There were already twenty or so ponies in front of her, she didn't need the five she saw just coming into the store to add to that number. Spike rose to stand on Twilight's back, looking over her head to watch as the Cakes frantically rushed in and out of the kitchen, both of them constantly calling out what they were doing to one another as if they were a two-pony team on the front lines of a war.
They kept going like a well-oiled machine, one staying at the register, only to switch out with the other to give the one rushing around in the back time to rest. Not only that, it allowed them to keep better track of the orders, though it was obvious that they had made a mistake here and there. It was expected, without Pinkie there to assist them they had to pick up the slack, and they had never been this busy in Ponyville.
A good twenty minutes passed before it was Twilight's turn to order, both of the Cakes glad to see her, though not for the same reason she perhaps expected: there were only five ponies behind her, which meant they could slow down a little and take a moment to catch their breaths.
"Oh, hello there, Twilight! Hah, what can we get for you?"
"I'll just have a dozen frosted muffins, Party Pink flavor. How about you, Spike?"
He tapped his chin for a moment, his mouth opening and closing three times in desires that he just as suddenly tossed aside. Then he finally settled on a simple enough decision.
"Can I have a jumbo blueberry muffin with gem frosting? Or aren't those available yet?"
She looked at Mrs. Cake with no small amount of sympathy; the poor mare looked completely exhausted! Mr. Cake didn't seem any better off when he stepped in from the back, thankful for being able to take a breather.
He approached the cash register and took over, quickly taking Twilight's and Spike's order while Mrs. Cake stepped away to talk to the pair for a bit. They had a large stock of pretty much their entire menu at their places on the displays, freshly-baked and ready to be eaten, she could afford to relax.
"So, what's this all about? What caused all these nobleponies to start getting baked goods here? I mean no offense, but this place isn't exactly....well, for them, if you get what I mean."
Mrs. Cake shrugged her shoulders, motioning them to follow her into the back. She went over to a bowl full of batter and got busy stirring it up, quickly adding some fresh blueberries to the remaining batter.
"Well I don't rightly know what they're all doin' here, considering we've only been open a couple of days, but....well, there was the day we first opened."
Spike licked his lips and watched Mrs. Cake begin putting the frosting and some of the gem pieces together, mixing the sharp shards up with the frosting of Pinkie's original design, filled with sweet flavors that even Twilight's extensive knowledge of fancy foods from her years spent next to the Princess couldn't fully place.
"What about the first day you opened?"
Mrs. Cake smiled at Twilight. "Well the Princesses, bless their souls, both came around all of Canterlot Commons as all of our houses got finished and welcomed us! Every shop they were seen at wound up getting tons of business, and that big surge still hasn't stopped for lots of them."
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. "Thaaat explains everything. Nobles are so predictable....!"
"What are you saying, Twilight? Surely Canterlot ponies aren't that shallow?"
Twilight just stared at her with a flat look, then pointed at the kitchen door towards the front of the shop.
Spike just sighed and nodded in agreement. "She really does have a point, Mrs. Cake."
"Well, I'll have no badmouthin' those ponies in my shop, alright you two? Hungry ponies are all the same in my mind."
They both just nodded in agreement, neither of them making much of a habit of talking bad about any one group of ponies. Nobles just had a special place in their hearts, though that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Twilight had experienced all of the backstabbing, ulterior motives and the lengths that many nobles will go to achieve such goals when they get the chance.
She still recalled the little 'investigation' she'd done of Prince Blueblood over ten years ago, how many things she'd discovered about him that placed him as an unexpectedly dangerous member of the Canterlot elite to get involved with. Not to mention how much it infuriated her to find out he'd covered up a lot of potentially life-ruining deeds on his part by abusing his supposed relation to Princess Celestia. Yet, when she approached the Princess about it, the Princess told her she would understand when she was older.
Well, she was older now, and she certainly still hated his guts and hated him for all that she knew he'd done! She felt fortunate that he didn't seem to remember Rarity as anything more than yet another mare expecting to bed-and-wed him, though he was entirely wrong in that regard.
While she was wondering how he could forget that an Element-bearer had found him appealing at one point (perhaps he was just that arrogant), until he showed just how horrible of a companion he could be of course, Mrs. Cake tapped her on her shoulder.
"Were you listening, dearie? I said your order should take around five minutes, you two can wait back here or just go out front and wait there, if ya like! Though, I can't promise there's a table open up front, all the ponies out there seem to have the place filled to capacity!"
She took a peek just out of the kitchen door and realized that she had a point: the front area was loaded with ponies both Ponyvillian and Canterlot all sitting down to dig into their baked goods.
She backed up and nodded to Spike. "We'll just wait back here. Nopony out there we know anyways."
That was that, and soon enough Spike had his special jumbo cupcake and Twilight had a baker's dozen (which drove her nuts). Spike stopped her before she got wound up and ate the thirteenth cupcake for her all at once to put an end to the issue, then got to work on his own order.
For a while it was just small talk with the Cakes, talking about how the others were adjusting to life in the castle, especially Pinkie Pie, who took to her task of nightly baking and unexpected random entertainment with such zeal one might think she'd been doing it her entire life....which was basically the truth.
Applejack would have had a lot more free time, but the old gardener she'd been hired to assist always seemed to find new things for her to work on while she was on the clock. Still, being on the clock rather than running her own farm and basically having work to do at all times of the day and late evening gave her five or six hours of extra free time that she still didn't entirely know what to do with.
Recently she and Rainbow Dash had found similar interests in the form of taking rather lengthy naps in the middle of the day and later in the evening because of this.
Speaking of Rainbow Dash, she seemed to be the only one that seemed to be settling in to a job that was the exact same as her job in Ponyville, though this one seemed to have a lot more gruff and stern workers she had to operate alongside. Commander Hurricane in particular seemed to detest her taking naps on the clouds near Princess Celestia's room's balcony, or Princess Luna's tower. That didn't seem to stop her from day to day, however: Rainbow Dash would always be Rainbow Dash.
Twilight had originally been very concerned with Fluttershy, after the fiasco that was the Grand Galloping Gala. From what she understood, many of the animals outright avoided every attempt she made to befriend them, and she....hadn't taken such a blatant rejection on such a grand scale very well. Memories of her face and the words 'You're....going to LOVE MEEE!!!' popped into her mind as the end of that disaster hit her again, causing her to shudder.
Angry Fluttershy is scary, in other words.
It was very relieving for her to go and visit Fluttershy on the third day in the castle, only to find her surrounded by animals, like a scene out of some kind of fairy tale movie. It was cute, and a lot of the animals seemed pleased by her presence, now that they gave her a chance to get to know them.
Fluttershy had explained that it was her other animal friends that had gotten her an in with the animals living in the Royal Gardens. They had hidden from her once again just like before, perhaps because they remembered her outrageous behavior from the last time she'd been to the Royal Gardens, but her other animal friends, in particular a little hummingbird that she had just recently taken in, really began to speak to the others.
By the end of it all, after another bunch of animals had sent her crying alone in the hedge maze by running away from her in blind fear, the bear that had run away from a fairly abusive circus that she had to constantly give massages to came and found her along with a bunch of other birds and smaller creatures. Best of all, they were followed by more, and more, and more until every animal in the Royal Gardens had found her and tried to comfort her.
Clearly they were ashamed of their actions. As far as Fluttershy understood it, most ponies they met considered them nuisances, and they had been trained not to be afraid of ponies, but to leave them be even if they wish to keep the animals around, having had too many ponies complain about the animals dirtying up the gardens in the areas ponies frequented, among other things.
Rarity was the last pony she felt she had to worry about, but she should've visited the fashionista first it seemed. When she first knocked on the door to Rarity's modified suite, she heard noise on the other side, but nopony responded or invited her in on the other side. A second knock, no answer.
Finally, with a firm hoof, she knocked a third time and then just used her magic to open the door since Rarity was clearly there and obviously ignoring her. She found that, upon entering the room, her friend was doing something she had wound up doing a lot when she was younger that she grew out of once she reached her teen years.
Rarity was passed out face-down on her workbench, her horn lit up with magic that was randomly swinging sewing needles and spools and rolls of fabric around in the air with surprising accuracy. When she went to make sure her friend really was asleep, her suspicions were confirmed.
When Twilight was younger, her intense enthusiasm for learning how to use her magic, control it, and develop her skills into something that would make her the most well-known magic-user in Equestria often had her staying up later than she should have at her age, causing her to pass out more often than not on her desk, both back home and in her room in the castle.
Often when she did this, she would be woken up by the Princess, only to find that her magic had automatically and slowly turned the pages in her books and caused her to lose where she was at. It caused her no small amount of trouble in her earlier years of advanced schooling, up until the time when she learned how to control it.
This condition that often crops up in over-stressed unicorns was known by several names, but the most popular one is called 'Z-Casting'. Given how 'catching some Zs' became a fairly popular saying for getting some sleep around the same time this surprisingly commonplace condition became more well-known in the field of medicine, the term 'Z-Casting' became popular simply because of how catchy it was.
For the longest time, many stressed out unicorns blamed magic fatigue on their stress rather than their sleep not really being used to recover the magic they had used up the day before. This was partially true, but not entirely accurate. Furthermore, many unicorns thought ponies were screwing with them, what with how their magic often messed up the things around them in the process of casting spells in their sleep. Still other superstitious ponies often blamed the accidental mischief on ghosts and playful spirits.
It was two years after this condition became a mainstream issue that several very simple cures were discovered, the easiest being adding and removing certain foods and drinks to their diet, though that one was a bit too much of a change for many unicorns.
Instead of that, many more ponies stuck with what was and still is the standard cure for most every unicorn that winds up developing this condition: an herbal remedy derived from a now common flower.
While in the old days the seeds became extremely lucrative to grow and sell thanks to many unicorns keeping small gardens consisting only of that flower, nowadays so many farms grow the flower, now classified as a crop all its own, that almost all unicorns from nobles to commoners simply go to the nearest general store or farm to purchase the leaves of the flower either to eat or boil into rather tasty tea.
Tea is easily the most common of the two choices due to how naturally calming a cup of tea is for anypony: this sickness only appears in unicorns that have become far too over-stressed for their own good, thus, anything that can help them de-stress is going to be the obvious choice.
And somehow, all that history, perhaps only fifty years before their time, and Rarity hadn't a clue what Z-Casting was. Twilight could not facehoof hard enough to fully signify how ridiculous that was to her.
However, after a proper lesson in her condition, Rarity was thankful for having an explanation for sometimes finding a completely messy room upon waking up, but she was also disappointed. For the longest time she believed that she was unique due to having some kind of magical, supernatural sense of fashion that left her clues to give her ideas for some of her best designs while she slept. To discover it happened to a lot of unicorns that worked excessively hard was both flattering (in a way) and very disappointing.
Still, neither Twilight nor Rarity could argue with the results Rarity got from her condition. If she wished to let her magic run wild and leave her a bunch of 'controlled chaos' as she liked to call it so that she can garner some inspiration from the mess, who was Twilight to intrude on Rarity's biggest source of ideas?
With all of her musings, she had almost forgotten where she was supposed to be that night. Luna had been extremely cryptic, which only made Twilight even more curious, but she had waited patiently enough: she wanted answers, and she fully intended on cashing in on Luna's promise.
She had so many questions regarding everything that had happened, but she felt like she was the only one that all this was about that was being left out of the loop. The Nightmare seemed to be so interested in the Princesses as well as herself, but while both Princesses seemed to be able to match her word-for-word, she felt as if she were a blind foal by comparison!
What did she have to do with any of this? She'd never dabbled in anything like the magic she'd experienced over the last month or so, or....well, however long this has been going on, she honestly wasn't sure anymore. Over the last week she'd noticed a lot more activity amongst the Royal Guard as well, along with a lot of whispers amongst them about 'dark creatures' that could only be killed with enchanted weaponry and magic spells.
She didn't want to think of the ponies that Equestria had lost to make those creatures.
"So Twilight, what're we going to see Princess Luna for?"
"We aren't going to see Luna, I am going to see Luna. Rarity told me earlier that she could use your assistance with a recent order from Hoity Toity, so I'm going to leave you with her."
He took a big bite out of the half of his cupcake that was left. "Buh, why?"
"Ugh, Spike, how many times do I have to tell you not to speak with your mouth full?" she groaned. "I need answers for everything that's happened. This stuff about the Nightmare, all of the Wild Shadows we encountered, and the changes that've been going on with my magic."
He swallowed the large amount of cupcake with a firm, almost painful-looking gulp, the way his throat stretched to accomodate the large clump of food being worked down it. Twilight just sighed and shook her head.
"If only you had such eating habits during the times we spent at those boring social events we had to attend with the Princess when we were younger...."
"What?" he asked quirking a brow.
She just waved it off and smiled. "Nothing, Spike."
He just stared at her for a moment, brow quirked and silence dominating the room once more. Eventually he just finished off his cupcake and licked his claws clean, mmm'ing happily.
"Anyways, you're talking about how your magic aura and stuff has all turned a black color, right?"
"Yeah, it's rather disconcerting to know I linked directly to the Nightmare's mind and came out of it with my magic altered," she said, frowning and furrowing her brow in thought. "My magic gets more and more powerful every day, while my focus keeps being more and more inadequate; sometimes I have trouble controlling a simple Telekinesis spell!"
She looked to the muffin that was currently wrapped in the white glow of her magic, the black inky darkness outlining it. She couldn't deny that looking at it brought back rather traumatizing memories of that night in the forest, every shadow in the overwhelming darkness seeming to stalk them and watch their every move.
She visibly shuddered as she took a quick bite out of her muffin, the memory of feeling surrounded at all times making her feel slightly paranoid of her surroundings, even though the kitchen was well-lit and there were a lot of ponies just through the door leading to the front. She hadn't slept with the lights off in her room the entire week, causing Spike to wrap himself in his blankets and move his bed to the balcony every night.
It was easier to sleep under the light of the moon than under the glow of electricity, of course. She often found herself rushing out of rooms that the lights had been turned off in, or getting away from places that were dark and quiet. It was foalish behavior, especially since she'd left her fear of the dark behind when she moved from her home with her parents to her new home with the Princess at the castle.
Suddenly she didn't feel so great, and with that came thoughts of her medicine, with good reason: she hadn't paid attention to the time, nor had she paid much attention to the fact that she hadn't taken any that day. Her trembling could easily be blamed on her lingering fears and memories of the Nightmare stalking them all the way to Ponyville through the forest, but she knew the real reason.
"Spike, I need to go use the bathroom. Meet me outside?"
"Sure thing, uh...." he said, looking around the kitchen to confirm that they were alone. Satisfied, he smiled wide and looked her in the eyes. "Sure thing, Mom."
Twilight felt a new, weird, but no less welcome sensation of warmth that radiated out from her heart to the very corners of her being, a warm smile lifting her spirits until she looked as cheerful as ever. The trembling didn't stop, however, but she knew how to put an end to that, and she was very much looking forward to it.
She leaned over to Spike and planted a small kiss on his forehead, ruffling the spines atop his head with a hoof afterwards.
"Alright then! See you outside, kiddo."
Spike stepped away from the table and headed out of the kitchen while Twilight picked up her saddlebags with her magic and slung them over her back, buckling them around her barrel and adjusting them with a hoof until they settled on her back more comfortably. She left six muffins in the box for Luna and possibly Celestia, placed the box on her back, and then got up and headed for the mare's restroom.
Once inside, she went into the stall and put the toilet seat down along with the seat cover, sitting down on it and reaching into one of her saddlebags for what she so deeply desired at the moment. A bulbous potion filled with a clear, semi-viscous liquid floated into her hooves by way of her magic, and she looked upon it with a quick lick of her lips.
The painkilling potion was by far no longer necessary, save for the occasional headache her experimentation with her new magic gave her, but that wasn't why Twilight continued to take it. The effects the medicine had upon her mind were easily very desirable, it allowed her to completely relax, something she was utterly incapable of on her own.
Of course the potion wasn't very tasty on its own, but she had found that she could simply add some sugar to the mix, saturate the potion with it, and the flavor of the medicine was all but killed by the sugary sweetness.
She uncorked the potion with her teeth, then took a deep swig of it downing a quarter of what was in the bottle. That was her usual amount, but recently she had found that the effects of the medicine weren't as strong as she would have liked. On a whim she took another drink of the potion, leaving only half of it within the glass, then re-corked it and tucked it away within her saddlebag once more.
By the time she found her way out of the bakery, the effects of the potion were in full swing and her half-lidded eyes were glassy. Spike hadn't a clue that Twilight was taking these potions still, as far as he knew she had stopped receiving them from Zecora after the move to Canterlot Commons.
For Twilight's sake, he should have been paying better attention to the fact that she seemed unusually quiet and elated. Spike just figured that she was happy about him calling her his Mother, as she usually was ever since his heartfelt confession to her. Even he seemed much more happy, getting such an important issue off his chest.
It only took around twenty minutes for them to make their way to the castle, the sun having gone down completely by then while the moon smoothly rose up into the beautifully starry night sky.
"Spike, I'm going to be speaking to Luna for probably a very long time tonight, and it's likely going to be very personal. Do you mind heading back to our room on your own?"
Spike shook his head while hopping down from her back. "No prob, Twilight! I'll have all of the books, quills and whatnot cleaned up by the time you come back."
With that, Twilight was left alone save for the two Night Guards that were making their way towards her from the hallway she was intending to walk down anyways. She knew her way around, but as the guards approached her and bowed courteously to her, she knew that somehow, Luna already knew she was here. That, or Luna predicted she'd be here this night, and ordered her guards to keep an eye out.
"We have orders to escort you to the Princess, Lady Sparkle, if you believe you are ready. Do you wish to go now?"
His voice was gentle, smooth, almost a pleasure in and of itself to listen to. On top of that he was of a youthful age, and was fairly handsome, as was the pony he was working alongside. For that matter, most of the Night Guards she'd seen at night were much the same way, with that single older pegasus guard that Luna kept close by being more of an exception than a standard. Did she prefer it this way, or was there some other motive besides having attractive young stallions to surround herself with?
She didn't dwell on it, shaking such a perverted thought process from her mind. It was just like earlier, with the unicorn construction worker, a moment of daydreaming at the possibilities, flashes of images, temptation, hormone-driven urges that she often left unsatisfied until they faded into background noise in her head. Yet, for some reason, for the last week they had begun to hold a certain amount of sway in her more conscious thoughts.
She didn't like it in a certain sense, but at the same time, she couldn't deny her forehooves were getting more exercise than usual close to bedtime. She certainly liked that aspect.
"Yes, I do believe I'd like to speak to Princess Luna right away. Shall we?"
Both guards stood, one of them standing closer to Twilight than the other, the one speaking of course. "As you wish, milady. With us, please."
With that, she found herself keeping her thoughts of aforementioned fantasies in check as both stallions walked on either side of her. She could've sworn they were standing closer to her than was necessary, but she attributed that possibility to her mind (and her hormones) reacting very, very strangely to the recent changes to her magic. Whatever was causing her to become more and more powerful with every passing day was also toying with her emotions, her desires, enhancing them and amplifying things that were normally latent and off to the wayside before.
Her hoofsteps were noisy compared to the nearly absolute silence that permeated a good majority of the castle. Even the Night Guards on either side of her, with their darker gray coats and their somewhat intimidating armor made of a metal she couldn't identify with her eyes only, seemed to move the same way as she, but their hooves made almost no sound. It was very unsettling to say the least.
Thus, it was like a thunderous boom when she heard the gentle hoofsteps of a pony down a ways along the hallway they were walking down.
As Princess Celestia rounded the corner mere hooves away from all of them, the guards stopped and immediately bowed, but Twilight stood there, as if a deer in the glare of a new-age carriage's headlights. Celestia wasn't too far from mimicking her expression.
Twilight was the first to break the silence. "Good evening, Princess!" she said quickly, putting on a smile that was just a little too big for Celestia to fully believe it was genuine.
Things had become strained, though to Twilight it had no reason to be, because she held no ill will towards the Princess. Celestia, however, did not take it as easily on herself as her student would have preferred she did. On the contrary, Celestia almost behaved as if she hated herself.
Twilight couldn't deny that the fact that she'd essentially been used to draw the Nightmare out into a more open, controlled engagement made her angry, infuriated even. However, she was a logical and sensible pony: she also understood why it was necessary, and that necessity was what separated it as an act in the interests of the overall benefit of Equestria instead of just an act of personal betrayal. The Princess had full faith in her abilities and the abilities of her friends, otherwise she would have found another way through this most trying of times, of that Twilight had no doubt, so sure was her faith in her teacher's wisdom and care for the well-being of all of her subjects.
Celestia's mind was on another track entirely when it came to the recent events. She viewed her reliance on the abilities and the mental strength of her student, her surrogate daughter, one of her most trusted advisors as a personal failing of the worst kind. She had held truths at bay in favor of lies, however small they may have been, and sent Twilight, in a time of great need, into the jaws of her enemy. Even then, she had to beg her own sister, who was deathly afraid of facing that enemy alone, to do just that to retrieve and secure the safety of her personal student, to retrieve her gnarled and frayed mind from the very jaws that she had been thrown to.
Then, with her sister, traumatized and trembling in her hooves, she forced her to put such issues aside in order to assist her in securing every major metropolis, city, and every last pony in Equestria from the Nightmare's influence by way of putting massive barriers of pure energy over each of them and moving every last pony from all the outlying villages and smaller, more isolated towns, so that she could better establish defensive perimeters and keep her troop numbers high in all populated areas. This wasn't her first rodeo after all, and neither was it Luna's: they knew military strategy like the backs of their hooves.
Made of raw Void and Purification Magic, these barriers would be impossible for the Nightmare to get past, at least, that was what her studies and calculations told her, both her own and the ones her sister, easily the smarter and more intelligent of the two of them, had worked through. She forced her subjects to uproot their lives and move to strange, new locations that were drastically different from their lives at their true homes, likely putting many jobs and relationships in danger of being strained to a breaking point.
She was disgusted with herself. It was all she thought about over the past week, all of the events set into motion simply due to the Nightmare elevating her activities in several dark and rarely explored, vaguely studied locations of Equestria. Places that the Nightmare seemed to thrive.
Thus, it took a lot of willpower to do what she did next. She smiled.
"Good evening, Twilight."
Both of them stood there in somewhat awkward silence, both of the guards looking at each other as the two normally very friendly and even perhaps somewhat cuddly mares before them tried their hardest to avoid eye contact with each other. This was going down a bad road, and someone had sabotaged the vehicle's brakes.
"How are things lately? I haven't seen you since the trip on the airship."
"Things are....better, I believe," Celestia said, sitting on her haunches. "It is genuinely nice to see you, Twilight."
Celestia looked to both of the guards and bowed her head to them. "Will you excuse us, gentlecolts? I wish to speak with my student."
"But Your Majesty, we must escort Lady Sparkle to Princess Luna."
Celestia giggled. "Surely you can trust me to bring your charge to your Princess safely, yes?"
They looked to one another once again, then simply nodded and bowed to Celestia once more before walking away.
Both mares watched the guards walk away, only breaking the silence between them when the guards disappeared around a corner on the far end of the hallway.
Celestia sighed. "Well, at least they didn't fade into the shadows like some of them enjoy doing."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"You will find out fairly soon, I'm sure," she said, nodding to the lavender mare. "Have you recovered from your ordeals?"
Twilight smiled wide and approached the much larger mare, though she stopped short of nuzzling Celestia, afraid that such forwardness would cause her mentor to become upset.
"Of course I have!" she said as she sat down in front of the Princess. "It's been a week already, a very eventful week at that."
Celestia tilted her head. "Oh?" She stood and motioned for Twilight to follow, walking slowly down the halls. "Do tell."
The soft clip-clop of their hooves against the polished marblestone floor sounded off noisily as they made their way through the castle, Celestia's serene smile back in full force. Regardless of how Celestia may have felt about herself and what she'd done to Twilight and her friends, what she'd put them through, it was always such a wonderful thing to hear her student's voice, especially when it was filled with such cheer.
"Well, nothing eventful regarding myself aside from the changes that've been happening with my magic. Mostly it's all of the shops that've relocated here from Ponyville...." she said with a sly smirk. "Seems they've been getting a lot of business ever since they opened!"
Celestia returned that smug look on Twilight's face with a knowing grin of her own. "Truly? I would not expect such courtesy from the elite of Canterlot, they are simple country ponies after all."
"That's very true! Surely you didn't have anything to do with attracting the image-conscious nobles to the Canterlot Commons area in order to get them all more interested in the quality goods from Ponyville compared to the more mass-produced stuff from Manehattan, New Yoke and Fillydelphia?"
Celestia smirked and innocently looked away. "I am quite certain that I haven't a clue what you're getting at Twilight."
Twilight just giggled at that and shook her head. "Suuuuure you don't, Princess...."
Celestia looked to Twilight once more, and after a few moments, Twilight looked to the Princess once again as well, the silence between them speaking volumes as the two mares smiled at one another.
Celestia's smile didn't last, however. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh through her nostrils, a somber expression overtaking the moment of joy that she and Twilight had shared mere seconds ago.
Twilight took a single small step forward. "Celestia?"
There it was. That tone of voice that made such a personal inquiry towards her that Celestia hadn't heard it in years, not since Twilight had been a much younger filly. The last time she could recall her student calling her by her name rather than her title was over six years ago. She didn't know what question Twilight had, but she could only assume this had the potential to be another tear-filled conversation in the hallways instead of in the privacy of one of the airship's suites.
"If you hadn't manipulated us, sent us after the Nightmare in the way you did, what other options would you have had?"
That was certainly a question Celestia hadn't been expecting. A plea for her to stop perhaps, or maybe an angry question as to why she did what she did now that Twilight had time to really think on what she'd done, but not anything like this.
"....Do you know how many times I have done such things, Twilight?"
"Huh?"
"Do you have any idea how many times I have been put in a position where I have had to send those I dearly care about into danger? How many times I have had to choose Equestria over them? Discord, Luna....now you and your friends, twice already!"
She couldn't bring herself to get angry again. She'd had enough of that anger. She had had enough of it after the hundred years she spent mourning the loss of her beloved sister by way of the Elements of Harmony, but clearly somepony like Twilight still brought about enough fury for her to curse her own name for several nights and days, all while putting on a happy face for the nobility and her more considerate, gentle-hearted subjects from Ponyville.
Twilight moved closer once again, unnoticed by Celestia, who was looking up at the ceiling. The Princess was lost in memories of the times before, the times she'd done similar things....and how much she detested being able to do such horrible things to her subjects, no matter their relation to her.
"I have-have done it so many times, Twilight. So very many times, all because of my title, my station as the figurehead of Equestria's fledgling government. My subjects all believe in me, trust me to do what is in their best interests at all times," she said, letting out a shaky sigh, her eyes glossing over with tears that threatened to fall at a moment's notice. "Thus, I must always choose them over anything I may feel for those that I love....and it is in those moments that I wish to simply throw this tiara into the wind as hard as I can!"
She lifted her tiara from her head with her magic, her angry gaze seeming to threaten the inanimate object itself. Her eyes screamed of contained fury while her outward expression was little more than a slight furrowing of her brow.
Twilight could only think to do one thing, for hearing her teacher, her mentor, her idol and the only pony that knew her better even than her friends did tearing herself down and hating herself? She refused to tolerate such a thing.
Celestia didn't notice how close Twilight had gotten to her until she felt Twilight's form pressing against her own, the lavender mare's forelegs wrapped around Celestia's neck, the smaller unicorn raised up on her hindlegs to even out the size difference between them.
"Wh-wha? Twilight?"
The smaller mare's tears soaked into the fur on Celestia's neck. "I understand, Princess. But please, tell me....what would you have done if you hadn't chosen my friends and I to go in after the Nightmare?"
"I....hadn't given it thought afterwards."
"But you thought about it before, didn't you?! You didn't want to send us in there, right?"
Celestia looked aghast. "Twilight, of course not! I would never-"
"But you had to do it. You had to do something to secure Equestria's safety. It's your decision to make as one of the two Diarchs ruling over Equestria."
She sighed. "Yes....and I hate it."
"Then please, I know you have every right to be upset, but not at yourself! Be upset at the situation you were put in, that you had to do what was best as the ruler of Equestria, but don't consider it a personal shortcoming by having to rely on somepony you trust!" she said, leaning back and letting up on her hug, hooves resting on Celestia's withers while she looked up at the Princess. "I would....I would feel terrible if I ever thought that you felt that you could no longer call on me when you really needed somepony like my friends and I."
Twilight released her and sat back on her haunches, looking up into the surprised face of her mentor, her glossy eyes smiling just as much as her curved-up lips.
Celestia smiled after a moment and let out a good-natured sigh. "Sometimes, I forget you are capable of being much more wise than I often give you credit for, Twilight."
Celestia giggled so quietly as she leaned down and nuzzled Twilight's cheek with her own, both mares continuing with that moment for what felt like several minutes to Twilight, or so she'd hoped on the inside. Hugging Celestia, nuzzling her, hay even just speaking with her, they were all activities that Twilight could never get enough of.
Now? She had the Princess all to herself during her walk to what was a new destination for her: the royal kitchens. They talked about many things, especially the studies Twilight had been working on just before her little explosion when she was still enrolled. Both teacher and student took up a seat closest to the bakers and Celestia clopped her forehooves together, attracting the attention of Ponyville's premiere party pony.
Pinkie hopped up and down next to them, the pink pony reaching up to adjust her floppy baker's hat, her joy at seeing one of her best friends along with the nightly visit from the Princess clear on the massive smile she wore. Even late at night, Pinkie's energetic demeanor didn't diminish until it was time to tuck into bed and recharge, though many would argue that Pinkie could probably go a few days before really needing any actual sleep.
"Howdy-doody Princess Celestia! What'll it be tonight? Slice o' cake, one-and-a-half slices of pie, maybe some of my special Party Top Cupcakes or some banana nut muffins?" Pinkie asked, laughing happily. "I can make it all thanks to the previous chef's notes! I even know how to make the 'Princess's Favorite', whatever that is."
It had taken Pinkie a couple days to figure out how to work the very special ovens the previous baker got very good use out of. Each one was magically enchanted to bake rapidly without burning the ingredients within, something Celestia herself put a lot of her own bits into in order to allow her favorite nighttime snack to be whipped up rapidly and mere moments after she asked for it.
There were limits of course. She couldn't just clap her hooves, tell the baker what she wanted, then have her treat a second or five later. No, instead where she might have to wait a half an hour, she only needs to wait perhaps five minutes for her snack(s) to be ready, piping hot and utterly fresh. The Apple Family could claim to make the best food and baked goods for ponies throughout all Equestria all they wanted: Celestia had a chef and equipment to guarantee fresh baked goods every night!
"I believe I will have a slice of cheesecake tonight. Twilight?"
"Oh, I'll have the same Pinkie, no need to bake anything extra!"
Pinkie grinned and hopped away. "Okie dokie lokie! Be back in a jiffy!"
The rest of the time spent with the Princess was relatively cheerful, especially after Celestia got her usual nighttime snack. If there was one thing Twilight knew for certain, it was that Celestia always....always forgot about her worries, at least for a little bit, when baked goods were on an express route down her gullet. Of course, being around the Princess most of her life, even Twilight could at least partially share Celestia's enthusiasm for baked bliss.
After an hour of conversation, both while eating their cheesecake slices and while walking around some, Twilight managed to recall what had brought her to the castle in the first place. She had just been enjoying her time with Celestia so much, it had completely skipped her mind. In all honesty she didn't mind this, but she was still very curious.
"By the way, Princess....the reason I'm at the castle so late at night?"
"Hmm? Ah yes, I was wondering that myself."
Twilight nodded. "I'm actually here because I need to see Princess Luna. It's been a week, so...."
Celestia's smile faded quickly. "I see...." she muttered, looking away from Twilight as they walked, her gaze locked on the wall next to her, opposite the lavender mare.
Twilight stopped as Celestia stopped. "Princess....?"
The Princess looked to Twilight with a concerned expression, turning to face the smaller mare. "Twilight, promise me something. Please."
"O-of course, anything!"
They both regretted it the moment they both spoke. For Celestia, it was because of nervousness and not wishing to give away too much to Twilight before she got her information from Luna. For Twilight, it was because she didn't wish to upset the Princess, and her more serious demeanor had the unicorn worried.
Celestia nodded, a sad smile on her lips. "No matter what Luna tells you, promise me that nothing will ch-well, no...."
"Huh?"
"No....I would prefer things change, in time," she said, smiling more for a brief moment before nodding again. "No, promise me that you will not be afraid of me, and that you will trust me still. I have never given you reason to distrust me before now, so promise me."
"But, I don't-"
"Please, Twilight. For me."
She looked to the Princess with wide eyes, both mares looking into the eyes of the other, Twilight with surprise and Celestia with a stern, almost pleading gaze. Well, what harm is there in it? Surely whatever Celestia's concerned about isn't that bad.
....Right?
"I-I promise, Princess Celestia. I'll always think of you as the kind and benevolent Princess you've always been to me!"
Celestia visibly twitched at that as she stood up straight once again, but she smiled regardless.
"That is good to know, Twilight. Come, I'll escort you to my sister's suite in the tower near my room."
It only took Twilight a few steps to figure out where that was, and it made her smile.
"She has good taste! My old room has an almost perfect view of the night sky!" she said, grinning. "I used to stargaze for hours through that big window that tower bedroom has built into it....!"
Celestia grinned. "Oh Twilight, didn't I ever tell you, since Luna came back?" she asked, looking ahead. "That tower was initially Luna's room long before you ever moved in there. When I found out you had such a powerful love of the night sky, I figured I should move you in there and you would feel right at home!"
The lavender mare quirked a brow at that, but smirked and 'huh'd at the minor revelation. In all honesty, it didn't surprise her all that much, but it was still rather interesting that she wound up with the same room as the Princess of the Night when she moved into the castle. She would have to talk to Luna about that. Perhaps Luna found her old research paper on magic phobias from her second year of study under Princess Celestia! Neither she nor Spike had any clue where that stupid research paper went, and it drove her up a wall having to write another one from scratch.
Celestia walked past her own room and continued down the hall towards the end, a stairwell leading into a spiral at the end of the hall that went up into the tower. Twilight knew exactly where she was even before they reached the staircase, this area of the castle all too familiar to the young unicorn.
"I can make it from here, Princess. You're probably tired right about now, so I should probably let you get to sleep, right?"
Celestia yawned with a hoof over her mouth, then nodded. "Yes, of course," she said, her half-lidded eyes betraying the regal posture and the lively flow of her mane that was still going. "I will talk to you in the morning, Twilight....if you are awake, that is. Luna may wind up altering your sleep schedule to properly educate you over time, and I fear our schedules may begin to clash. It is necessary if it does come to pass, however."
Celestia's rather serious way of talking over the course of the night had Twilight both confused and concerned, but she knew that if she asked why, Celestia would more than likely deflect, leaving the explanations to Princess Luna instead. Given Luna clearly stated that she would explain everything in front of both of them, she had no doubt that Celestia was doing so in order to get Twilight to take this as seriously as possible. What was the reason for all of this hush-hush seriousness, though?
"Of course, Princess. Still, I hope I don't wind up becoming somepony that's only around at night, we'd never get to enjoy our morning tea together, or talk about my studies or your current political and charity work, and the layout for the most recent addition to Las Pegasus....I miss doing those things," she muttered, lightly scuffing her hoof against the floor. "....Princess, am I weird for wishing that I could go back to curling up against your side and browsing through your most recent legislatures, laws and treaties to give you my own opinion, like you used to ask me for? Remember, before I first went to Ponyville?"
The Solar Princess smiled wide. "Of course I remember, how could I ever forget? It was always so wonderful to have another bright, sharp-witted young filly, and then young mare, at my side to give me a second point of view that I could trust to be unbiased and completely neutral, not to mention very well thought-out and from a pony with a pure heart that held no secret agendas."
Twilight could only grin and blush at such a compliment from her mentor, nodding along with her statement. "I-I didn't know you thought so highly of my opinions, Princess! It's very nice to know that....thank you."
They both parted ways after Celestia gave her student a small nuzzle. "Be well, and remember your promise, my faithful student."
"I-I will! Goodnight, Princess!"
Twilight turned and began up the stairs once Celestia began to walk away, the Princess's rather serious concern with her meeting with Luna giving Twilight pause to think and consider everything that had happened thus far. The Nightmare, the similarities between this new magic and the Nightmare's, the origin of said magic, the Nightmare calling her its sister....she still couldn't make complete sense of it, though she did have her suspicions about the Nightmare and Princess Luna.
As she approached the top of the tower, she looked up at the new, heavy-looking double doors with a small sense of awe. It was a gigantic purple-tinted door with several solid metal studs in it made of the same metal as the Night Guard armor, with ornate etchings dug out of the mahogany the door itself was made out of. The entire door seemed to be sparkling, the clear image of bright, strong stars shining in the painted wood as if they were actually there before her eyes.
Before she could think to knock on a door of such immaculate quality, an aura of magic engulfed the large brass loops acting as handles on the door, the dark auras pulling them outward, away from the room itself. In the back of her mind, Twilight thought that to be very odd design, but she didn't bring it up. It wasn't all that important anyways.
When the doors opened, Twilight was beyond surprised at what she saw. On the other side of her threshold, operating in dim candlelight,was Princess Luna in all of her moonlit glory. What truly surprised Twilight was what she was busy doing, however: the room was filled with various modern and dated technology! Luna was moving between a series of telescopes of varying sizes, her magic floating an abacus next to her that she was rapidly adjusting with a hoof.
She had clearly used the abacus a lot since she didn't even need to look at it to accurately shift the counters along their wooden tracks, the constant and somehow satisfying click-clack of wood knocking against wood sounding off in constant rhythm. What she was counting Twilight hadn't a clue, but whatever she was studying, it had something to do with the stars, whatever she had under the microscopes on the table nearby, and several books that were laying near each of the stations she'd set up.
Luna looked to Twilight when she turned around, bowing her head to the mare while walking past her to a small table directly next to the entrance to her room, her dark magical aura enveloping the doors to her room and smoothly pushing them shut, the magic-based lock falling into place after Luna gave it a charge.
"Welcome to my laboratory, Twilight," she said, smiling faintly while approaching the lavender mare. "I trust you are doing much better after a week of rest?"
"This is amazing, all the things you're doing in here!" Twilight said, awestruck as she looked up to find an opening in the ceiling, various rings encircling the equally circular opening, in conjunction with the position of the moon, it seemed. "But, wait....I thought this was your room, not your lab?"
"Oh, it is both," Luna said, waving a hoof towards a dark corner of the room, a vague shape resembling a bed residing in the shadows, a large window directly next to it. The window was covered with wooden shutters completely, preventing any light from coming through the opening. "But yes, as I asked, you are doing much better now?"
Twilight looked around for a moment longer before responding, some microscopic organisms under one microscope Luna wasn't using catching her interest. "Oh yes, I'm doing much better! No more nightmares in my sleep, no more dark creatures sprouting from the walls, all of it has stopped."
"No doubt due to what you are now," she muttered, sighing. "Twilight, has your magic been questionable in its behavior recently? A bit difficult to control at times, constantly getting more powerful, those sorts of problems?"
"Well, yes I have, I've even been avoiding using my magic on things that would normally be very simple, like picking up a sandwich, or drinking from a tea cup....why?"
Luna stepped closer to her, causing Twilight to blush slightly. "The transition seems to be going well then, though there seem to be some hiccups occurring."
"U-uh....what transition?"
"Ah....you have not figured it out then. A shame, simply telling you takes all the fun out of situations such as this, but you want answers, and I did promise them," she said, standing and walking over to her telescope, her hoof flicking a few wooden balls on her abacus without her looking at it. "I will tell you all that is pertinent to what is going on, and if you have any questions, you may ask them afterwards."
"Uh, first things first! Why did you-th-that is, why did our....horns, touch?" she asked, fidgeting nervously and looking away, her gaze falling down to the floor. "I know you passed knowledge about that weird magic over to me, but-"
"Why that method?" Luna asked, smirking. "I have been asked that numerous times in the past. The reason is simple: it's the quickest and most guaranteed way for me to transfer my memories to another unicorn."
"You mean, you can do that with any unicorn?"
"No, just those that descend from my own bloodline."
"That must be a very compli-WHAT?!"
It took Twilight a moment to register that last part, but the moment she did a plethora of questions cascaded over her like a very eager tidal wave made of irritation, curiosity and even anger.
Luna, however, seemed a bit surprised at Twilight's reaction. "You mean....Tia didn't tell you?" she asked, looking rather confused. "I would have expected her to have confided such information in you, especially after my return to Equestria."
"Wait, nonononono, whoa. Can we go back to the part where I'm a descendant of yours?!"
Luna nodded to her. "I will explain everything."
Twilight sat down with an audible fwump, frowning. "Please do! Because right now, this sounds like a lot of horseapples."
"Really?" Luna asked her, smirking. "Twilight, you are aware that I am as much a mare as my sister, yes? Why is it hard to believe that I could have given birth to foals in the past?"
"Well it's easy to believe that, but for me to be one of them, th-that's just....why wouldn't the Princess tell me?!"
"Most likely because my existence was turned into an old mare's tale, and after that was overthrown by my return, it simply slipped her mind."
Twilight gave Luna a flat look. "My family lineage as a descendant of her sister could just slip her mind? How?! How could such a thing possibly slip her mind?!"
She was becoming visibly freaked out while her mind began to fray, her thoughts beginning to go every which way while she began to pace back and forth. Luna simply watched as Twilight's mumblings ran rapid-fire from her mouth, the young mare trying to decypher Princess Celestia's reasons for keeping such a thing from her....even though she had very little insight on the true workings of her mentor's thought processes.
"I mean maybe she could just be toying with me, but she's usually a prankster when she's bored and playful, not a deceiver. She might have wanted you to tell me instead of her, but that doesn't make a lot of sense-OH NO!" Twilight shouted suddenly, freezing in place, her pupils turning to pinpricks. "What if she's ashamed of me? What if she doesn't want me as a relative?! Wh-what did I do, I must've done something! Did I miss or-or fail a test? Mess up a friendship report?!"
Luna just tilted her head while watching Twilight walk back and forth in front of her, all semblance of calm completely gone in the normally rational mare. It was difficult not to giggle at Twilight's antics, her concern only serving to make the poor unicorn seem direly stressed out over what seemed like nothing to the Night Princess.
"Honestly, you are taking this news far better than many of your ancestors ever did. By now they'd be asking me-"
"How can you be sure?! I-I mean I've never heard about this, and my parents have never made mention of it! What if you're wrong?"
"Ah, there it is. Yes Twilight, I knew the moment I joined you and the Nightmare within her mind."
"But....but how? Would that kind of detail even show in the family lineage records, or whatever they're called?" Twilight asked, exasperated. "I mean if I'd even checked once, I'd have probably found-"
"-THAT your family line began over six-hundred years ago, and your parents had been instructed to follow the most perfect and convincing lie my sister could construct at this time, that lined up with all related records to the information about your family lineage," she said, quietly giggling. "Celestia can be very good at political subterfuge when she wishes to. Deception is more becoming of me, however."
"Mind you, the lie only would have continued until you were deemed old or sensible enough to handle the truth. Then you either would've been paid off with status, land or bits to go along with the constructed lie, if you didn't already believe the lie. With a mind as keen as yours however, I believe you would have seen between the lines," Luna said with a grin. "Celestia believed the same thing. She was so thankful she didn't have to be so underhooved with you."
"Then...." Twilight mumbled, her eyes wide and a saddened expression overcoming her. She slumped into a sitting position in front of Luna, looking down at the ground. "The only reason she made me her student...."
"Oh, no no, Twilight. That was a lie of omission, not an outright lie. She endeavored to lie to you in the most harmless ways possible about this. She cares for you deeply, more than I've ever seen for many of her past students," Luna said, bowing her head with a genuine, cheerful smile. "You are very powerful, and there is a lot of latent magical prowess within you. Celestia simply wished to help you learn how to limit it, control it."
Twilight stared at the floor for a little longer, mulling over what Luna just told her, memories of her time at the castle and time specifically spent with Celestia flashing by rapid-fire. It didn't take her long to come to the proper conclusion.
"I suppose you're right. Princess Celestia really was always there for me, even when I was a little filly and I woke her up before it was time for the sun to come up so I could begin my studies early," she muttered with a small laugh, sitting up straighter. "She was a magnificent teacher. Why didn't she ever teach me about this magic?"
"Because this magic is my domain, just as it is yours now. She cannot fathom it, much like how you and I cannot fathom Celestia's divine magic," Luna said with a smile, motioning Twilight over with a hoof. "Come, step into the light of my divine duty."
Twilight stood as she was instructed, following a little behind Luna and off to the Princess's left. Luna used her magic to open the glass doors leading to her balcony and walked outside, the full moon still high up in the night sky.
Twilight and Luna took a seat at the balcony, the young mare seeming slightly uncomfortable sitting close to Princess Luna. It wasn't just because of what happened with their horns touching and the 'sensation' sending such a magical pulse through her that....well, that would come up a little later, as far as she was concerned.
It was because she was being so casual about the whole event! Maybe it was just because she was a virgin, but it seemed like a big issue to Twilight!
Of course she could have been feeling uncomfortable because of how the moonlight was making her feel. It was an odd sensation, like a chill that wouldn't go away, even on this Summer night. This high up on a mountain it was expected of the air to be fairly chilly, but somehow she knew it wasn't her surroundings. It was something within her that felt eager to get out, to be used and exposed, and the moonlight was making that urge difficult to resist. Yet, she hadn't a clue how to do so without risking losing control of it.
"This is all my daughter's doing. Not the one you descended from, the Nightmare."
Twilight just blinked and looked to Luna in disbelief, figuring this night couldn't possibly have anything more mind-blowing than 'you're a descendant of a Goddess' to throw at her.
"Long ago, war broke out in Equestria, thanks to some dissident forces within that wished to seize power. My sister and I were forced to battle, but she took a more tactical role. I did as well, but I often waded into the carnage when my assistance could make a substantial difference."
"Then it happened. Several unicorns appeared from the debris I was making my way through, all of them wearing illegal enchantments that amplified their magic to an astonishing degree. They tore my escort apart and then tore into me. Mortals have no chance at killing a Goddess however, no matter how hard they try," she said, then laughed a bitter, sad kind of laugh. "They can make us writhe in pain something horrendous, though!"
"They tore me apart, literally. They were trying to dismember my body and lock my body parts in boxes so I couldn't pull myself together. They got my left hindleg locked away before a volley of magic from a backup unit took them by surprise and blew them to pieces as well."
"Anyway, I had a husband at the time. You would think my husband would have been some sort of General or powerful warrior, come to sweep me off my hooves in a show of brute strength and sheer confident bravado, but I've always respected those with the intellect to keep up with me, at least a little bit," she said, looking over at the intrigued lavender mare next to her. "I do believe that trait runs in the family! Your Mother married your Father because he was smart, if I recall my conversation with them a month ago correctly."
"Why were you talking to my parents?"
"Getting in touch with family, though I told them to keep this fact from your brother as well as you. I did not tell them why, but they complied regardless. If you had found out then, this all would have turned out differently, most likely far worse than things are at the moment."
"In any case, the war....yes, my husband," she muttered, a fond smile appearing on her as she gazed up at the moon. "His name was Book Heart, an odd name to say the least, but he was so very sweet. Well, when he wasn't being the most timid stallion I'd ever met, that is," she said with a happy grin. "He spent so much time with me, as much as he possibly could, always finding obscure books or interesting stories to tell me about. Most would have found such things boring, but he always got so worked up and energetic about them, I could not help but be enthralled!"
"He sounds wonderful....I think even I would've liked him."
"Of that, I have no doubt. Anyways, he and I had a rather....heated dalliance before I headed out for that fight, and it had been three weeks before I had arrived to it. When those mages tore into me....well,"she muttered, looking down from the balcony and tapping her hoof against the ground. "Let's just say that they managed to take a life regardless of whether or not they could take mine."
Twilight wasn't sure how to react to that. For a moment, she thought Luna was referring to the bodyguards she'd mentioned. When the Night Princess looked down to her stomach and ran a hoof over her abdomen however, the unicorn put two and two together.
Before she had a chance to console Luna, the Princess continued. "I was stricken with grief. Heart and I had been trying for over a year to have a foal together," she said, sighing. "Can you imagine how much it would destroy you, to know that you had a child growing within you, only to get that child killed in the midst of a war you already thought was pointless and very stupid?"
"Not only that, my insides, my uterus and some other parts, were damaged irreparably by the attack. Even if we bothered to try, it would be a very long time before I would be able to even chance getting pregnant again."
Luna looked to Twilight and shook her head. "It can take over fifty years, perhaps even longer, for 'non-essential' body parts to fully repair themselves. At the time, I was completely convinced that my dear Heart and I would never have a foal of our own because of it. So I made a very, very bad choice."
Luna turned away from where she was sitting, walking to one side of the balcony and looking down over the edge, eyeing the guards patrolling the gardens below with a lazy gaze. Twilight moved to join her, but Luna held up a hoof to stop her. She pointed down at the guards while her horn lit up with a pitch-black aura, and Twilight looked down as Luna motioned her to the edge again.
Twilight gasped and almost called out, but Luna's magic held her muzzle shut as shadows appeared from the shrubbery, slowly stalking up behind one of the guards. Their hooves made no sound, a second and a third joining in, one behind each of the three guards patrolling the area.
Twilight's eyes went wide as they moved up behind the guards, each shadow moving like a cat hiding in the tall grass, waiting to get close enough before pouncing. They moved in perfect synchronization, all three shadows moving together until they were all directly behind all three guards. All at once, they rose up with forehooves and forelegs held high, sailing through the air....
....And they floated just behind each of the guards, their hooves covering their eyes.
"Guess who?!"
Each shadow burst into a puff of black that seeped into the ground before the guards even managed to spin around, a hoof reaching up on the other side of the guards from underneath the dirt to poke at their sides. Just as quickly, all three shadows' hooves tucked back into the dirt before the three guards could turn their heads and find out who was there.
The final straw came with especially long legs jumping out of the ground, one for each guard, only to knock noisily on their helmets, like a pony knocking on a door. Each leg burst to smoke once again and tucked down into the ground, and each of the three guards looked visibly shaken. Luna was shaking with laughter, but her hoof was held over her muzzle, her horn dying down and the magic holding Twilight's muzzle closed faded away.
Twilight couldn't help but join in the laughter when she saw all three guards running towards each other and talking about what happened. It only served to freak them out even more when the word 'ghost' came up between them. They eventually went back to their rounds, but they were far, far more alert this time, their eyes darting this way and that every once in a while.
Twilight watched Luna head back into her bedroom, following the Princess's lead with light laughter as their accompaniment. "That was so mean, Princess!"
"Hah, I know, but they are doing their jobs far better now, are they not?"
Twilight couldn't deny that, and her laughter continued for a moment, but Luna was already done. She almost looked somber with a smile, sad but happy one could say, or perhaps unreadable. If anything, Luna was reminiscing about times long past, of that Twilight had no doubt.
"I was stricken with grief, upon finding out. It pained me to see my dear husband standing at my bedside, his desires taken from him because of a single ambush. So I endeavored to use magic to make his wishes come true."
"Every immortal being, with some exceptions, has certain domains that they watch over. You of course know this, you are after all an accomplished scholar with a penchant for books, no doubt you know the domains my sister watches over," she said, then grinned. "To keep things simple tonight, I will say that one of my domains is Creation itself. It is what our magic embodies, it is what our magic is derived from."
Luna smirked and looked over at Twilight out of the corner of her eye. "Perhaps you have put it to use more than you realize. There are many kinds of scholars: those that follow based on established rules, laws, formulas and experiments, and there are those that actively go out to try and discover their own truths. They experiment, they come up with applications for old formulas to create new ones, and are generally the ones that lead civilization forward. That is how they make the best use of their creativity, by finding that which already exists using a combination of their knowledge and their desire to manipulate the laws of the world."
Luna walked over to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder, smiling warmly. "My sister has stated that you remind her of myself, a lot. We are very much alike in this regard, but the difference is that I had thousands of years to think, test, experiment and apply my discoveries, to the point that my understanding of the world was beyond even our most intrepid of bookworms. Hay, most ponies thought the world was still flat when I began undertaking a very....questionable experiment."
Luna dropped her raised hoof to the floor and frowned. "I understand why Celestia allowed me to try it, she hoped that upon my attempt I would simply give up and deal with my grief. I do not think she ever believed the device I built would work."
"Given her reservations, I did not tell her that it actually did, not at first. With the assistance of several of my most trusted assistants, we locked ourselves within the massive device itself and performed several tests on the little filly that came out of the whole endeavor. My Little Star, I used to call her....!"
The sound of Luna's words choking off made Twilight keenly aware of the teary-eyed Goddess in the room, instead of her internal attempt to fathom a device that could potentially create life itself. Sure, living creatures made such a feat look simple, just add intercourse, mix in the right time of the month for creatures like ponies that have estrus cycles, and in a while you've got a brand new baby. Doing it without these prerequisites, however....!
"Her prowess with the magic we share was immense, especially with her being a newborn young filly in a body that seemed to be around the age of five. Her mind was pure, new, ready to take in fresh experiences. She cried for my embrace, she laughed at the appropriate stimuli, even ate and digested food properly....it was an absolute success. Within a single year, she learned to speak, walk properly, everything that one would expect of a newborn pony and then some. I could scarcely believe what I had managed. To be honest, it scared me."
"Celestia warned me that I was performing things that could bring ruin down upon myself and my subjects if I was not careful. Yet, she allowed me to continue if I assured her enough that I was being careful, also I promised to not use the device again. I would not dare do such a thing again, doing it once was a terrifying kind of success, one can imagine the possibilities one with ill intent could reach if they learned how to use such a thing."
"The secret was safe, however. Nopony knew of my little Moonlight Star outside of the castle anyways, not even my husband knew about her. Only my closest assistants knew along with my sister, and we both visited her several times in the day. I would have let her out of the device, but it was like a very large laboratory in and of itself, and it contained her immense magical power. Until I taught her proper control, I couldn't risk her going outside and wreaking havoc on Equestria, by accident or otherwise."
"Thus, every day Celestia and I visited her, spoke with her, taught her various things while helping her to learn to control and focus her magic. She was a fast learner, but the sheer amount of magic power she has seems to be unfathomable at this point. Even after a year, she couldn't fully control it, but she was doing very well by that point."
"Two weeks after that one-year anniversary for her, I found myself waking up sick and having odd cravings for very bizarre food combinations. A visit to the doctor gave me news I hadn't been expecting in the least."
Luna blushed a little, and Twilight just smirked and gave the Princess a teasing nudge. "Another 'heated dalliance'? Don't tell me they didn't have protection spells back then, I've done my research!"
The Night Princess couldn't help but laugh a little. "It wasn't that! It's just....well, why bother with protection when you've been led to believe that part of you isn't functioning properly in the first place? Besides, he and I wanted a foal of our own," she said matter-of-factly, then cleared her throat. "But yes, I was pregnant, almost for a whole month actually. I didn't tell Star until she asked what the lump in my belly was."
"Later in the second year, I became incapable of visiting as much both from fatigue due to carrying a very active unborn foal around inside of myself as well as concern for the condition of my 'parts', for lack of a better term. I did not wish to risk a miscarriage due to putting strain on a part of myself that had been put into use before it was truly ready to take the full strain."
"Because of this, there were several days that my little Star had no visits from myself or my sister. After a while, she began to be....distant, during my visits. I couldn't fathom why at the time," she said, frowning and shaking her head. "I should have seen it sooner, she always flinched away from the researchers when we walked the halls of that laboratory after I began staying away two, three days at a time. We would talk, but the shine in her eyes was gone and her smiles were so off, like there was something just beneath them that I could not quite see."
"Finally the time came for me to give birth, and for a whole week I stayed away from the lab. I cannot fathom what they did to her to send her over the edge, nor do I wish to, but as my husband came to see me to my room after I got out of the hospital, the entire castle shook under the force of a vast amount of magic. Given such a powerful pulse could have come from only one source, I quickly dismissed myself from my husband's care and took off alone towards the laboratory."
"I hadn't a clue what had happened, but I felt such a sense of dread, as if something in my life was horribly out of place. No doubt you have felt it as well, the more you have become attuned to this new font of magical power, yes?"
Luna noticed that Twilight seemed enthralled with the story, despite how grim it was. It made sense, it was a story after all, and she soaked up knowledge like a sponge, of that Luna had no doubt.
Twilight nodded in response, lightly tapping her chin with a hoof. "So, these odd mixed feelings I've been getting, they aren't mine?"
"Most likely not. Our magic relies on emotions, and we can be influenced by the emotions of anypony else that has a connection to this magic if we do not know how to block them out. It takes some practice, but you will know how by night's end."
With the story almost over, Luna took up her abacus and a couple pieces of paper, placing them on a clipboard and walking over to the largest telescope she had, her eye pressing to the guard around the smaller lens and peering into the night sky. The click-clack of wooden counters were heard as Luna rapidly worked her way through mathematical equations, her horn lighting up and levitating a quill to the paper to take some notes and make some small sketches.
"When I got there, I opened the door and saw my daughter just....sitting there. In the hall. Dead bodies all around her. One of them had even been torn in half," Luna said, lifting her head away from the telescope. "I was in utter disbelief. My mind jumped to looking for any possibility, any reason why such a thing could possibly happen. Not once did I think to blame my daughter, at the time."
"I approached her and hugged her close. She didn't return it. After a few moments, I felt a sharp pain in my head. I began to feel manic, maddening fury. I could keenly feel every microscopic piece of stone beneath my hooves, and I could hear the panic of ponies far above and beyond my natural hearing. Everything was amplified, including my own emotions....along with hers."
"I realized what was happening the moment I discovered I could feel her as well. Before her corruption could fully take hold, I stumbled back and ran out of the lab as quickly as I could. The safeguards must have been in place and functioning properly, because she did not gave chase and stayed put within the confines of the device."
Luna visibly shuddered and rubbed her hoof over her right foreleg, looking down at the floor. "To make a long story short, I managed to warn Celestia and give her my final wishes before my daughter managed to completely take over my body. My sister used the Elements of Harmony to seal me away in the moon after a very heated battle, then used the information I gave her to seal the device and strengthen the safeguards to last as long as possible."
"The fight with my sister ended with the castle being abandoned due to one of my spells altering the entirety of the Everfree Forest to function under a long-forgotten rule of the natural world in Equestria," she said, motioning out towards the balcony. "Natural Selection is a scientific terms which basically means 'survival of the fittest'. If you are not smarter, stronger, and more adaptable than the others of your species or the predators that may want to eat you, you will be killed off while those worthy of survival will live on to pass along their genes. It is harsh, but always fair."
"That is the penultimate rule that a chaotic, uncontrolled world would operate under. We impose control on our surroundings to gain peace and harmony with every living thing we allow to exist within Equestria."
Luna took a deep breath and closed her eyes, sitting up straighter and stretching her wings out. "That is all there is to that tale. My sister sent my husband away for a month with our daughter to avoid him finding out what truly happened, but he figured it out anyways. The cover story she came up with was just too suspicious to him, given he knew how happy he and I were just before I....well," she muttered, reaching up to wipe a stray tear from under her eye. "You know what happened to me."
Twilight furrowed her brow, a small fire building in her head as she mulled over the story that she'd just heard, her eyes scanning the ground but taking in none of its details. No, she was sorting through every little detail of what she'd heard and kept finding it at odds with what recently-revealed historical documents had listed as the recorded events of a thousand years prior.
"Are you saying that everything that I've been led to believe is historically accurate, including the story about The Mare In The Moon, is wrong?"
"Believe me when I say that we are not proud of this falsification," Luna said, shaking her head. "There is little else we can do, however. If we told the truth, how do you think all of Equestria would react? Such a thing is too great a risk to take, Twilight. Better that my fall from grace be reflected as a lesson worth being taught to young foals than having it strike terror and paranoia into the hearts and minds of our subjects."
Twilight just shook her head and clenched her teeth, sitting down and rubbing her temples with her forehooves. "This is ridiculous! If I didn't know better I'd think both you and Princess Celestia are lying about this," she said, taking a deep breath and blinking her eyes open. "So what is all this supposed to mean? Why didn't Princess Celestia try to kill your daughter?"
"She did....that's where the greatest fear of her comes from."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, quirking a brow. "If your daughter couldn't run away, what stopped the Princess from defeating her?"
Luna shook her head. "Oh, Celestia did indeed defeat her. She just couldn't kill her. As far as my sister told me, she poured everything she could risk of herself into putting my little Star out of her misery. It should have been that simple, light is the dominant power in the universe over the shadows. Light can freely give and take away what the shadows rule over," she said, her horn lighting up and levitating a candle over, unlit. "You see, this candle is shrouded in darkness because there is no light."
Twilight tilted her head a bit, looking down at it before looking up to Luna once more. "Well yes, that's true, but....wait...."
Luna smiled a little and nodded. "You're on the right line of thinking. You see, if you light the candle, the darkness is instantly banished from whatever the light touches. Yet, there is no way for the darkness to take back what it lost, no way for the darkness itself to snuff out the light on its own," she muttered, frowning. "Celestia holds complete control over whether or not I live or die, whereas I could never pose a threat to her no matter how hard I tried. With a single spell, whether by accident or on purpose, she could snuff me out in an instant. This is something that Celestia hated more than anything else about our relationship."
"You mean because you are sisters?"
Luna was quiet for a moment, just staring at Twilight, visibly torn between speaking up on the matter and keeping her mouth shut. Still, she promised truths, and if Twilight was going to be like her, she deserved to know the full truth. She was family after all.
"Celestia and I are not sisters. Not by blood, anyways."
Twilight's jaw almost hit the floor. "Wha....why-you-she....huh?" she squeaked out.
"Celestia and I have never truly been related to one another. We have simply accepted that as a more spiritual truth because we are the only two Goddesses in existence on Earth. There have been others such as Discord and N'tumba, but they have usually wound up at odds with the peace and harmony-loving world we have struggled to build."
"W-who...." Twilight barely muttered, shaking her head and doing her best to put such thoughts on the backburner. She was beginning to feel like 'just accept it' would be her answer to most of the issues she had with what she was being told. Why would the Princess lie? "Who's N'tumba?"
"The God of War. He disappeared a very long time ago, long before the incident with Moonlight Star and my banishment."
"Oh. I see," Twilight muttered numbly, her left eye twitching. "I'm sorry Princess Luna, this is all....really hard to just take in and accept. I mean, what you've told me, it changes the very history of Equestria and completely alters the truth about what happened between you and Princess Celestia! Why would you be happy with being painted as a jealous younger sibling that almost caused a coup against the throne itself?"
Luna could only laugh at that. "Celestia accepted my return with open hooves, did she not? I have proven to our subjects that I have no intention of making such a mistake again. Overcoming such a 'truth' about myself is far easier for all of Equestria to accept than a very dirty secret being locked away for a thousand years in order to cover up my greatest mistake of my very extensive existence."
"That-I-....I suppose I can't argue with that. It just feels wrong to lie to your entire nation, though!"
"I would have to agree with that," Luna said, bowing her head. "I take solace in the fact that the tale woven has become more of a cautionary one, something that young foals should take to heart as a lesson in controlling themselves and never allowing hate and anger to control their actions and thoughts. That was the purpose of the lie, after all, aside from being a cover-up."
Twilight just let out a deep breath and nodded to her, looking out towards the night sky. "This is just so much to take in. First I find out I'm related to a Goddess by blood, then I find out that this thing that's been obsessed with me is yet another relative that wants nothing more than to destroy everything and everyone I hold dear. Then on top of THAT, I find out that the two rulers of Equestria aren't even truly blood relatives and have both been lying to our entire country for a very long time!" she half-shouted, stamping a forehoof against the floor. "I'm sorry, but I just....I don't know how to feel!"
"And that is why we will begin your lesson now. Come," Luna said, walking over to the fireplace located away from the telescopes and papers and tables she had set up, closer to where her bed was in the room. Five cushions were set up in a half-circle in front of the fireplace built into the wall, and Luna laid down on the middle one while her horn lit up and started a fire that began small, but quickly grew and engulfed the three small logs that she'd placed in the fireplace. She patted the cushion next to her on her left, looking over to Twilight. "Lay here with me and relax your body. Then I will teach you how to relax your mind."
Luna bid Twilight goodbye, both of the mares having spent a good hour talking and examining the stars together before Twilight got herself ready to leave. The lesson itself was simple enough, being something close to meditation, but more focused on shutting down and controlling emotions than centering the mind and body. Twilight took to it with ease, no doubt due to her strong will.
Luna's spirits were high after spending such an enjoyable amount of time with a new friend! Celestia had been right, she and Twilight got along as if they'd been friends their entire lives, and Luna wouldn't have wanted it any other way right now. After forcing herself to mentally relive everything that had happened so long ago, she needed something to relieve her of the sorrow that was quickly wrapping itself around her heart and her thoughts, poisoning them and making her feel even more horrible than she already did.
She would begin Twilight's training as gently as she could, but eventually, things would take a turn towards places she so very much wished she would never have to go....but it was unavoidable now.
"I have no doubt that I will beg her forgiveness on more than one occasion over the next few decades, depending on how long this takes....are you still awake, Strider?" she asked, reaching to her neck and pressing her hoof against something metallic there.
It was invisible at first, but when she used her magic to remove it, the choker appeared right before her eyes, a small metal object in the middle of it glowing with arcane magic. She set it down on the table just as a response from it made her smile.
"Of course, your majesty! I am one of your most dedicated servants. Surely you wouldn't expect me to fall asleep on the job just because I am mostly confined to my bed?"
Luna giggled and shook her head, walking over to her abacus and looking through a few more sheets while putting it to use. "Heh, of course we would not expect such from thee, one of my blessed guards!" she said, humming thoughtfully. "The enchantment we hath placed upon that accessory worked perfectly, it seems! Our manner of speech was corrected no matter how we believed we were speaking to Twilight, 'tis magnificent!"
"Not to mention you allowed me to listen in through it. I'm glad that you trust me with the truth, your majesty. I promise that my lips are sealed on the matter though, I'd rather not cause a crisis of faith or something," he said through the choker. "Permission to enter, Princess?"
"Permission granted, Watcher."
She could easily make out the limp in Strider's hoofsteps as he pushed open the door to her room and stepped inside. If he was in pain he didn't show it as he stepped into the light of her room, the electricity left off in favor of the dim glow of candlelight and the moonlight flooding in through the glass and open windows nearby. Luna preferred the more rustic feel compared to the more modern feel most of the castle had these days.
Strider's barrel was wrapped in a metal brace, restricting his movements but still allowing him to walk. The limp was obvious, but his leg was at least healed enough to walk on, the Red String having done its job very efficiently in healing his injuries as best they possibly could in such a comparatively short amount of time. His wings were bound in bandages and nothing more, needing nothing else to assist their healing. As long as Strider didn't remove the bandages and try to fly, his wings would heal just fine over time, a small miracle given how badly one of them had been damaged, the other one merely broken during his unexpected tumble into the side of a building.
The enchantment on the metal brace alleviated the strain of his own weight on his body. Every step he took was lighter than it should've been normally, causing far less pain in his ribs and allowing him to walk around for a set amount of time before he needed to lay down and get the overall weight off of his currently fractured bones.
He sat down near the entrance to the room and bowed his head. "Good evening, Princess Luna."
"A wonderful evening to thee as well, Strider. Please, drop such formalities for tonight, thou art temporarily relieved of duty after all, yes?" she said with a smirk, motioning him to come closer. "So, dost thou accept the new truths revealed to thee?"
"I can understand the reasons for the actions Princess Celestia took," he said, moving to the table to look over some of the notes Luna had taken so far. He organized a few of the papers as he saw fit, based on which notes seemed to fit with each other. "Still, I must also agree with Lady Sparkle, it does feel a little wrong to lie to all of Equestria like this."
Luna laughed. "Only a little?"
"Okay, quite a bit!" he said, looking to the Princess with a smirk. "But no, this discovery still leaves me unimpeded in my duties," he said, turning to face her after tapping the bottom of a stack of papers against the table, straightening them out. "Speaking of my duties...."
Luna pulled her face away from one of her telescopes and abruptly put a sheet of paper she'd been holding with her magic down as well. "Yes, we have been meaning to discuss thy 'duties' with thee as well! We have had time to ponder on the events leading to your rather grievous injury, and some parts of the incident seem quite suspect to us."
Strider simply bowed his head to Luna and smiled. "I will answer any questions that you have for me, your majesty."
Luna frowned a little and sighed. "Very well. First of all, thou asked us for an extensive detailing of our-"
"You're doing it again, Princess."
"Rrrrrrgh!" she growled out in frustration, her magic grabbing the enchanted choker and slipping it around her neck. "As I was saying! You asked for a detailed psychological profile of my daughter prior to her losing herself. At best, the information I gave you was theoretical since none of what I told you was based upon even a single therapy session with her. What purpose did that serve for you?"
"Truthfully it was less useful than I thought it would be. I didn't run into a situation where talking with her would have served any beneficial purpose in my protection of her assault on Lady Sparkle and her friends," he said, then shrugged. "There was only one part that truly helped me when I realized it: she did indeed remain very playful, despite her madness. She was toying with me the entire time she fought me. She could've killed me in an instant if she wished, but she chose not to."
"That was something else that bothered me. Why did you ask me to take away your blessing?"
"I wished to be weaker than I normally am."
Luna quirked a brow at him. "Why would you wish for such a thing?"
"The next time we encounter her, she will most likely underestimate me. That will give me a certain element of surprise that she won't be able to anticipate, or so I hope. You can never be completely assured in the heat of battle."
"Was that the purpose of the injuries you sustained? Why did you antagonize her if you knew you were so outmatched?!"
"As I said, I confirmed that she was still very playful. The fact that she didn't instantly tear into the crowd of ponies that had gathered around the scene at first was a good hint towards that. When she took her time to inflict as much pain upon me as she could, she confirmed my suspicions."
"She could have killed you!"
"She could have. She didn't, and oddly enough, she seems 'interested' in me. An unexpected bonus to the whole thing, it might just make her spare my life again if I stand against her once more."
Luna just glared at him and shook her head after a moment, a saddened frown on her features, her entire body visibly sagging. "Why do you go so far, Strider? If I did not know you better, I would consider your drive to keep me safe utterly fanatical!" she muttered, looking him in the eyes. "I am asking you to stop going as far as you do."
"It is because I am willing to go as far as I do that I am among your chosen few and more, Princess," he said, looking away. "You know I can't stop. I knew what I was doing-"
"If you had put even a little more power into that shield, your own bones would have torn your insides to shreds! Do you hear me, you would have died! Because of some stupid long-term plan to better your chances at safeguarding my life!"
"These injuries were an unintended consequence of entering combat with her! I made a mistake, a miscalculation, but it still worked, better than I even hoped at first," he said, slightly louder than before. He cleared his throat and looked off to the side, away from her, focusing on the stars outside instead. "Regardless, what is done is done. My risk bore fruit, now I merely have to wait to enjoy the end result, however slight it may have increased my chances of keeping you safe."
Luna could only sigh and shake her head, a sad smile appearing on her face suddenly as she stepped over to Strider and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "I am not made of glass, Strider. She cannot strike me down with a single swing of her hoof or a single casting of one of her spells."
"She corrupted you when she was only a year old!"
"She caught me off-guard, I was wide open mentally, spiritually and physically. She had no resistance to get through back then," she said, looking him in the eyes. "You do not have to risk your life like this to secure my safety, Strider. You seem to forget that I am a Goddess, immortal! Yes, she can kill me, but by far it would not be an easy task for her to undertake."
He leaned his head back away from hers, furrowing his brow. "I-I know that!"
"Then why do you act as if you cannot risk her laying a single hoof on me?"
Strider looked away from her and hung his head for a moment, a pensive look overtaking him before he did his best to sit up straight once more. The pain in his chest made that almost impossible.
"I can't risk her having even a slight chance of taking one of our rulers away from us. Equestria needs you."
"Equestria grew just fine under my sister's singular rule for a thousand years."
He looked away from her once more and closed his eyes. "....I stand by my statement. If my life can secure your safety...."
She frowned at him and her hoof fell away from his shoulder, the Princess simply shaking her head at that and closing her eyes. She turned away from him and walked towards her balcony, her wings spreading wide and the moonlight spilling into the room intensifying.
Her horn lit up and the balcony doors flew open, Luna's body turning a darker color and growing in size, small fangs elongating until they grew out of her mouth, her legs growing longer and her mane becoming even more majestic than it was already, the pegasus only able to watch as Princess Luna swiftly changed into the Nightmare Moon figure that struck fear into so many ponies that believed the false history.
Strider knew otherwise, however. He knew many things for that matter that very few others knew, only Luna's other personal guards could claim to know what he knew. For one, this form of hers was a natural embodiment of the Night Princess, it was her at her full strength, a figure of utter beauty and terrible power. He stood up and slowly stepped forward, watching her step into the empowered moonlight shining down onto her balcony.
"Step into the light of the night, Wind Strider, and be judged."
He swallowed hard and slowly walked towards the balcony, the light of the moon bringing a chill to his skin that felt neither cold nor hot, but rather it felt as if the light itself was caressing his body, like the touch of a gentle lover. He couldn't decide whether it was unnerving, or relaxing. Ultimately, the feeling of being wanted that it gave him won out, and a faint smile curved the corners of his mouth up as he stood there, the Princess turning to look down at him. She was smiling as well.
She removed her choker and set it aside. "Thou hast been judged, and the moon has found thee worthy. Thy intentions are pure and thy will is strong and just," she said, gently reaching up and grasping the sides of his head with her hooves, leaning down towards him. "We accept you once more as one of our chosen few."
He could feel his body bracing even as Luna's elongated horn touched his forehead, the magic from it pouring into him and permeating every single fiber of his body. His muscles tensed and pain shot through his damaged leg and his chest, the bones protesting in their own way to the changes that were occurring in his body. His fur began to darken and turn a gray color, his normally dark blue coat of fur shifting to a darker gray color.
He felt a stinging in his eyes and he clenched them shut for the remainder of the transformation, his wings twitching within their bandages as the feathers began to disappear and meld together into a single piece, rows upon rows of feathers disappearing in favor of instead having wing membrane give him a more solid and effective form of flight.
Next he felt his teeth changing within his mouth, fangs forming along with sharper teeth here and there. He was still herbivorous by all means, but he now had another very dangerous weapon in combat: some flesh-rending teeth.
He could feel the muscles in his body become more solid, yet they still maintained their light structure, as was necessary for any creature that flew through the skies, whether in the night or during the day. His body did not bulge with more muscles, rather, he felt as if his body had become more streamlined and his muscles more durable and strong while staying as they were.
Finally he opened his eyes, the initial strain of the powerful moonlight dying down after he blinked a couple of times. He already knew what kind of gift his eyes had been graced with, the ability to see in the dark, but he would test it out some other time.
The final physical change came in the form of the function of his ears. They were altered ever-so-slightly on the inside rather than the outside. He could make a clicking noise with his tongue or with his hooves, and by focusing on the sounds, he could get a mental image of the area around him by way of magically imbued echolocation.
With the changes complete, he blinked his eyes open fully and looked up to Luna, a gleeful grin on his lips. "It's good to be back to my usual self, Princess!"
Luna simply nodded to him, her tall and imposing midnight-colored figure looming over the somewhat shorter stallion, yet he seemed utterly unfazed by this. Soon the moonlight returned to normal, and Luna relaxed her connection to her magical power, slowly shrinking down and losing her own fangs, returning to the somewhat normal-sized pony she usually presented herself as.
"Well then, with that done Strider, we do believe our business is concluded for the night! Thou art dismissed, return to thy quarters and rest, we have kept thee on thy hooves for long enough."
He bowed his head and turned to walk away. "As you wish, your majesty."
"Oh, and Strider?"
He paused in place just short of stepping into the shadows that permeated Luna's room, turning his head to look back at her. "Yes, Princess?"
She had already turned away from him to look up at her night sky, taking in the sight of her majestic night as she often did when she got the chance. "Please do not misunderstand. We are truly grateful for thy dedication to our safety," she said, looking to him as well now. "We simply fear that thou may go too far one day. Please refrain from such self-endangerment in the future unless absolutely necessary. Promise us this."
He stood there for a moment, contemplating such a request. He thought she was being rather protective given this was only his second time doing something so risky, but if she wanted him to promise....
He turned to her and lowered down closer to the ground in something like a bow, the metal brace not allowing him to lower down completely. "I promise that I will do my best to refrain from such dangerous plans in the future."
With that, his body suddenly faded to pitch-black along with the brace he was wearing and his bandages, the batpony sliding back into the shadows behind him and disappearing. "Have a good night, Princess." he said while fading out, soon melding into the shadows and disappearing from the room.
Luna looked back to the night sky with a small smile, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "If only we could believe thou would keep such a promise...." she sighed, stepping back into her room and returning to her calculations.
She had to make the most of whatever time she could find to indulge in one of her favorite hobbies, because Twilight's training was going to take up a lot of her free time from now on.
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 1 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-04T00:13:09+00:00
|
2011-10-04T00:13:09+00:00
| 2,455 |
Chronology notes:
Stop! You are reading the Twelfth and final story of the All Good Things series started by The Kindness of Strangers!
Please read The Kindness of Strangers first!
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/389/
The second part of the story is Putting the Pieces Back Together found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/407/
The third part of the story is Midnight in the Heart of Equestria found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/419/
The fourth part of the story is Tomorrow is Always a New Day found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/433/
The fifth part of the story is To Each Their Own found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/526/
The sixith part of the story is Imperfect found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/600/
The seventh part of the story to Paradiso found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/687/
the eighth part of the story is Broken Record found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/732/
The ninth part of the story is Home Sweet Home found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/826/
The tenth Rite of Passage found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/895/
This story is the direct sequel to The Long Road Home found here:
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/1030/
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
Chapter 1
A cool breeze fell upon the mare’s face; she opened her eyes and looked up at the sky. The sky was the deep red of sunrise, looking east, she could see the sun rising. It was beautiful.
Vinyl Scratch was perfectly content to lie here and watch for the rest of the morning, completely unworried that she hadn’t the faintest idea where she even was. Knowing her, she’d gotten drunk off her arse the night before and wandered off into the wilderness. Her head was splitting, so the likelihood of being hung-over was extremely high.
“Excuse me? Are you all right?”
Vinyl looked up to find a rather attractive looking earth pony stallion standing over her, grey coat and an orange mane, his eyes were a soft and gentle looking orange, and he had the cutie mark of a diskette on his flank.
“I am now!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Name’s Vinyl Scratch, what’s yours?”
“I’m... Montana Ulhan, ponies call me Monty though,” Monty said smiling at her.
“Nice to meet ya!” Vinyl said with a grin, she sat up and looked Monty over, the pony was stocked full of camping gear. “Going somewhere?”
“Walking across Equestria, actually. Started way west of here in Appleoosa, planning on finishing in Fillydelphia,” Monty said.
“Sounds like fun!” Vinyl said with a grin. “Maybe I’ll join you,” she added in a seductive voice.
“Uh... I ah... have a fillyfriend,” Monty said uneasily.
“Oh boo!” Vinyl said. “Well your loss!”
“I uh... yeah, gotta go! Bye!” Monty said and quickly scampered off to who knows were. Vinyl giggled, he’d been so cute!
Vinyl rose to her hooves and started trotting off. Didn’t matter which direction she went, she’d get somewhere soon enough. She was in the middle of a forest, and quickly found a dirt pathway several metres from where she had been lying and hopped on it, heading west towards... well, she didn’t quite know where this path was going to lead her, but it didn’t exactly matter. Vinyl Scratch was a free spirit, she did what she wanted, when she wanted, and ain’t nopony going to tell her any different!
Vinyl looked to her left and noticed that there was a collapsed cave. She stopped, she didn’t know why, but something inside her mind told her to stop and look. She looked at it for a good long minute before it hit her. Vinyl clutched her head in pain and collapsed to the ground. A memory flooded into her head, she was walking into a cave with a lavender unicorn mare.
The memory had been short; Vinyl Scratch had not been able to make out very much, except that the unicorn that she had been with had a really nice arse.
Vinyl grinned to herself; she always focused on the important things. She attributed it to a dream or drunken debauchery, both were just as likely, and she continued on her way without a second thought.
Soon enough, Vinyl Scratch had exited the tree line and found herself on the edge of a small town. She had another flash of a memory. This time a hole in the ground, a Pegasus filly standing next to her, Vinyl Scratch clutched her head in pain, now she was curious. Something wasn’t right here, one odd event in a day, that could be written off, another one so soon after? Well that warranted investigation.
Vinyl trotted into town, crossing a bridge over the river that ran along the town’s edge and trotted off down the high street.
It was still early, so Vinyl was not expecting anypony to be up and about at this hour, and to her surprise, there was one.
Vinyl threw her hooves over her ears when the shrill sound of a whistle broke the air.
“Come on Whirlwind! You can do it way faster than that! If that sky isn’t cleared in ten seconds flat, I’ll just get more clouds and you can do it over again!”
Vinyl looked over to the source of the shouting, and discovered an extremely hot Pegasus mare with her mane in the colours of a Rainbow.
“Yes ma’am,” said another pony, a grey coated Pegasus stallion, his mane matched his coat completely, as did his Cutie Mark of a Twister, what stuck out about this pony were the eyes, they were a deep red, much like Vinyl’s own.
Whirlwind leapt into the air and zoomed off to clear the sky.
“FASTER!” The rainbow maned Pegasus mare called out.
“You’ll have to excuse my saying so, but you have quite the pair of lungs miss,” Vinyl said suggestively.
The rainbow maned Pegasus turned around, instantly picking up on Vinyl’s intentions with the comment.
“You must be new in town... so let me fill you in on a little secret. I am not into mares, so do yourself a favour and stop hitting on me before I knock your teeth in!” the rainbow maned Pegasus said with annoyance in her voice. Vinyl grinned like a madmare, when she found a button to push; she couldn’t help but push it.
“Hey! Come on! I’m just trying to be friendly. I’m Vinyl Scratch! What’s your name?” Vinyl asked sweetly.
“Rainbow Dash,” the Pegasus said simply. “AND IF YOU WANT ON MY WEATHER TEAM, WHIRLWIND, YOU NEED TO FLY FASTER!”
Vinyl watched as this Whirlwind pony cleared the sky above them, and landed back on the ground, panting heavily.
“That was pathetic!” Rainbow Dash cried out. “DO IT AGAIN!”
“Yes ma’am,” Whirlwind said simply, he paused, looking at Vinyl intently, as if he recognised her. Vinyl looked back, smiling brightly at him.
“Hey! Stop staring at the wildlife! Get back to work!” Rainbow Dash yelled at him.
“Yes ma’am,” Whirlwind said, leaping into the air.
“Well, you got the wild part right,” Vinyl said with a grin. “Being a little hard on him though aren’t you?”
Rainbow Dash blushed slightly, but shrugged it off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, see what I’m doing? I am training a champion! He’s going to be the fastest pony in Equestria after I get through with him! Well... second to yours truly anyway!”
“Oh! So you like going fast? Well you’re in luck; I like to go fast too!” Vinyl said with a grin.
Rainbow Dash turned a bright red. “Do you have anything better to do than hit on me?”
“Nope!” Vinyl said with a grin. “I’ll be seeing you around Rainbow Dash.”
Vinyl gave Rainbow Dash a small wink, oblivious to the fact that Rainbow Dash couldn’t see it with the goggles that covered her eyes, and she likely wouldn’t have cared even if she had. Rainbow Dash watched her walk away in confusion, completely forgetting about Whirlwind and when he touched back down on the ground, she made him do his task again without actually knowing how fast he did it.
Being early, there weren’t many ponies out and about.
“I’m very sorry to have bothered you this early in the morning. I hate to interrupt you while you’re sleeping, Twilight Sparkle,” a stallion’s voice said.
Vinyl walked closer to the source, interested to hear more.
“Oh don’t worry about it Doctor! I was actually awake anyway! I hope the book helps!” said another voice, this one belonging to a mare.
“I think it will, thank you again!” The stallion said.
Vinyl had practically come down right on top of them, the stallion came into view. Standing before her was a unicorn stallion, with a black coat and mane, amber eyes, and a green medical cross for a cutie mark.
“Hello!” The stallion said, “I don’t think that I’ve seen you in town before! I’m Doctor Nightly.”
“Vinyl Scratch!” Vinyl said with her trademark grin. Something about this pony was familiar, Vinyl had another flash of memory; she saw this pony, standing with two others that looked a lot like him.
Vinyl shook her head. “Hey... uh, this might sound like a weird question... but do you have brothers?”
“Brothers?” Doctor Nightly repeated. “No... I can’t say that I do, I was an only-colt growing up. Why do you ask?”
“Oh... I...” Vinyl said. “No reason, I just thought that maybe I’d seen somepony that looked like you before.”
“Ah,” Doctor Nightly replied. “I see, well sorry I couldn’t be more helpful!”
“Nah don’t worry, you’re fine!” Vinyl said with a polite smile, and with that, the two ponies parted ways.
Vinyl continued to wander aimlessly around the town, unable to shake the nagging suspicion that she had been here before. Every building she looked at would give her a flash of memory.
And then she laid her eyes upon another one. Sugarcube Corner.
Then she remembered.
Vinyl Scratch collapsed to the ground, memories flooded back to her mind. She remembered meeting Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash on her way to the Hoofson Bay. She remembered going with Lyra, Bon Bon, Derpy, Trixie, Big Macintosh, Braeburn, and Trooper Willoughby to Manehattan. She remembered meeting Scootaloo and becoming sisters, in fact though not by blood. She remembered Surprise, the psychotic Pegasus who did such unspeakable things to them.
She remembered the missile. It had gone off.
Vinyl remembered everything, but it raised new questions, if the bomb went off, then what was this place? How was she here? And maybe most importantly, what the hell were the Bonds of Eternity?
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 2 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-02T20:01:30+00:00
|
2011-10-02T20:01:30+00:00
| 1,521 |
Chapter 2
Vinyl was panicking, nothing made sense anymore. She remembered everything. The bomb had gone off that meant...
That meant she was dead.
Vinyl collapsed onto the ground, sobbing heavily, she was dead. She killed Scootaloo, and she probably killed everypony else alongside her, but it lead her to another question. If she was dead, then what was all this?
“Are you all right?”
Vinyl Scratch looked up to see that Whirlwind was standing over her, but when Vinyl looked upon him, she didn’t see Whirlwind, she saw Overdrive. The coat, mane, and eyes, those were all his.
Vinyl screamed at the top of her lungs, and instinctively began to back away. “Get the fuck away from me!” she cried out hysterically.
She had clearly startled the Pegasus, he took a step back, but immediately regained composure and donned a neutral expression, clearly an attempt to put the unicorn mare at ease, but so far, it had failed.
“What is going on over here?!” Rainbow Dash cried out as she approached them.
“I... I don’t know, I didn’t do anything,” Whirlwind said.
“That’s right you’re not doing anything! Get back to work!” Rainbow Dash said.
Whirlwind nodded and leapt into the air, Rainbow Dash kneeled down at Vinyl’s side.
“Hey, are you all right?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Vinyl was not able to answer in more than a stammer.
“Okay... I think you might need to see a doctor, come on! Whirlwind can go ten minutes without my supervision,” Rainbow Dash said as she helped Vinyl to her hooves.
Vinyl was not able to answer, for a pony that had a talent with words; she was not able to find any.
Rainbow Dash helped Vinyl towards the Ponyville Clinic, they made a good pace, when Vinyl wasn’t tripping over herself anyway, she was horribly disoriented, and the shock of her previous life’s memories returning to her all at once had done a number on the unicorn’s mind. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof didn’t know what to think, she assumed that the unicorn had been drinking before wandering into town, but chose to withhold her judgement as she half carried her into the clinic.
Sitting at the receptionist’s desk was a blue coated unicorn mare with an hourglass cutie mark, and a mane that reminded Vinyl of toothpaste.
“Hi Colgate,” Rainbow Dash said. “Is the Doc in? It’s kind of important.”
Colgate frowned as she looked Vinyl over. “My, she really doesn’t look well. Go ahead and take her back, I’ll fetch him for you.”
“Thanks,” Rainbow Dash said, she walked Vinyl back to the examination room, helping her onto the examination table, and taking a seat at the back of the room.
“I hope you know that I haven’t forgiven you for hitting on me! I’m just helping you because it’s the right thing to do!” Rainbow said.
Vinyl smiled weakly at her, she had missed Rainbow Dash so much.
The door opened and the doctor walked in. Vinyl really didn’t know who else to have expected, but when Doctor Nightly walked in, she began to scream at the top of her lungs. She wasn’t seeing Nightly, she was seeing Nightshadow.
Her eyes darted around the room for the best weapon that she could find. So far, a reflex hammer was about all she could find, she reached out with her magic and grabbed it, pulling it towards her and pointing it as threateningly as she could towards him.
“Get away from me!” Vinyl screamed.
“Miss Scratch... please put that down,” Doctor Nightly said with a frown. “I just want to help you.”
“The fuck you do!” Vinyl screamed back.
“Woah! Hey!” Rainbow Dash called out. “I don’t know where you’re from, but that kind of language isn’t acceptable around here! Now stop being crazy and let the doc do his job!”
The vocal equivalent to a smack across the face had done its job, Vinyl realised how ridiculous she must have looked to Rainbow Dash; she had remembered the Siblings Nightmare and what they had done. Rainbow did not. Vinyl frowned and uneasily set the reflex hammer down where it had been lying before.
“Don’t you worry!” Doctor Nightly said with a smile. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you! I’m a doctor, I just want to help, now lie back so I can give you a good look over.”
Vinyl complied; Doctor Nightly’s horn began to glow as he waved it back and forth over her, collecting as much information as he could with his magic.
“Have you been drinking, Miss Scratch?” Nightly asked.
“I... I don’t know,” Vinyl said. She tried to remember anything about what she had been doing before waking up in Whitetail Wood, but nothing came to her. She supposed that it wasn’t surprising; her old life before meeting Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle on the way to the Hoofson Bay had been like that, with large swaths of her memory completely missing.
“Well, apart from a case of mild dehydration... I can’t seem to find anything that’s wrong with you. Drink lots of water today, and come back at the end of the week and I’ll give you another look over, how’s that sound?”
“All right,” Vinyl said uneasily, she sat back up and hopped down off the examination table. Doctor Nightly smiled at her as she and Rainbow Dash departed from the clinic.
“You know...” Rainbow Dash said. “I couldn’t help but think how familiar you are, I think I know who you are!”
Vinyl stopped and looked at Rainbow Dash with a huge smile forming on her face. “You do!?” she asked.
“Yeah... You’re DJ Pon3! I went to one of your shows a couple of years ago!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Oh,” Vinyl said, her ears drooped in disappointment. Just like her old life, everypony that knew her knew her as DJ Pon3. She didn’t want to be DJ Pon3 anymore; she just wanted to be Vinyl Scratch. “Hey, Rainbow Dash? Thanks for helping me out... and sorry for giving you such a hard time this morning.”
“Hey? Are you going to be all right?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I’ll manage,” Vinyl said, giving Rainbow Dash a feeble smile, and the two of them parted ways.
...
Vinyl wandered through the streets for several hours. She was afraid, she had no idea what to think of all this and she didn’t notice that she had walked into somepony until after it had already happened.
“Oh gosh! I’m so sorry!” Vinyl said, she looked up to see that she walked into a bright pink earth pony with a curly magenta mane, deep blue eyes looking back at her.
Pinkie Pie looked at Vinyl intensely, making her feel more than a little uneasy.
“Uh... hello?” Vinyl asked.
Pinkie Pie leapt into the air and let out an exasperated gasp, and immediately scampered off in the other direction. Vinyl’s ears drooped in disappointment, Vinyl remembered Twilight Sparkle describing a similar incident, this meant that Pinkie Pie had not recognised her, and was running off to plan a surprise party for her.
Vinyl didn’t want a party. She wanted to be remembered, her head hanging low, she continued to wander up and down through the town, passed the Ponyville Library and eventually sitting down on a park bench next to it.
She looked across the street, noticing that the flat she had been living at with Scootaloo had a “for rent” sign hanging in the window. She felt tears forming in her eyes and ripped her goggles off her head with her magic and threw them across the street in frustration.
“Ow! Hey!”
Vinyl’s head snapped up, she’d accidentally hit somepony with them. She frowned when she saw who it was. Twilight Sparkle was sitting on the ground, rubbing her head while the goggles were lying next to her.
“Oh... fuck!” Vinyl said quietly, she hopped up and crossed the street to help Twilight up. “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you!”
“It’s... are you crying?” Twilight asked looking up at her. Vinyl was. In her panic, she had forgotten the tears that were streaming down her muzzle. “Are you all right?”
“I... uh... shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?” Vinyl asked, attempting to deflect the question.
“I’m okay,” Twilight said as Vinyl helped her to her hooves. “Are you?”
Vinyl frowned. “I’m fine,” she said unconvincingly.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t believe you, I haven’t seen you around before, are you new to town?”
“I... yeah, just rolled in this morning,” Vinyl said simply.
“And let me guess, you don’t have any place to stay?” Twilight asked.
“I... no,” Vinyl admitted.
“Didn’t think so,” Twilight said with a small smile. “Come on! You can stay with me.”
“You’re being awfully nice to a pony that you don’t even know,” Vinyl said.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?” Twilight asked.
“Vinyl Scratch.”
“Well Vinyl Scratch, now we know each other!” Twilight said smiling brightly. “Now come on! I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
Vinyl smiled weakly at Twilight, she picked up her goggles and followed her into the Ponyville Library.
Vinyl was glad that she would always have Twilight, even if she didn’t remember her.
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 3 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-03T01:19:00+00:00
|
2011-10-03T01:19:00+00:00
| 1,392 |
Chapter 3
Vinyl Scratch spent most of her time reading; she dived into every history book in the Ponyville Library, looking for anything she could about... well practically everything. She wanted to know if her memories matched up with this world.
They did not.
Big events, like Princess Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon remained unchanged. However, she discovered that history from that time period was slightly better documented. Not much better, but still better.
Queen Gaia, the mother of the princesses had contracted a fatal illness, and her death had driven her husband, King Aether, insane. Transforming him into the Draconequus, Discord, Princess Celesta and Princess Luna utilised the magic of the Elements of Harmony to seal him inside a stone prison, the elements alone were not strong enough to truly defeat him, as their companion magics, the Bonds of Eternity, had been long lost to the wind.
Bonds of Eternity again, this was the third reference to the Bonds of Eternity in this book, but they really didn’t say anything about them in particular, only that they were long lost, and nopony knew where they were.
Vinyl Scratch figured this to be a lie. Princess Luna had seemed to have a good idea where they were. Vinyl guessed that she had hidden them away in case she needed to use them against her siblings in case they got out of hoof, smart move, considering that they did.
While documented, the Bonds of Eternity had apparently been forgotten about, Vinyl Scratch had certainly never heard of them, and asking Twilight about them yielded no results.
Moreover, the history books didn’t contain a single mention of Overdrive or the Siblings Nightmare at all, Vinyl Scratch eventually surmised that they hadn’t existed at all, instead appearing in this new world as Whirlwind and Doctor Nightly, two ponies that frankly, in the grand scheme of things, did not matter.
More to her own delight, Vinyl discovered that Equestria maintained healthy diplomatic and trading relationships not only the kangaroos of South Island, but the zebras of Zhosa, and even the ponies of Welera and the Cossack Confederation, and to her greatest surprise, The Twin Gryphon Kingdoms. In fact, both of the wars between South Island and her allies and the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms had not happened at all, thanks to the keen wisdom and mediation of Princess Celestia herself.
“I thought I read a lot!” Twilight Sparkle said with a small smirk as she watched her fellow unicorn nose deep in the history books.
“Let’s just say I’ve got a lot to catch up on,” Vinyl said.
“I hope you really appreciate the irony of this statement...” Twilight said. “But put down the book and come with me.”
Vinyl’s head perked up, unbeknownst to Twilight, she really could appreciate the irony of that statement. “Why?”
“Just do it! Otherwise I’ll pick you up with magic and carry you there!”
“Fine,” Vinyl said, she set the book she was reading down and crossed the room to where her fellow unicorn mare was standing. “Take me to your leader!” she added with a grin.
“I think that might be the first time I’ve seen you smile,” Twilight said.
“Yeah well, things are starting to look up!” Vinyl said.
The two mares trotted down the street towards Sugarcube Corner, the town sweetshop, Twilight opened the door and the two walked in.
“There a reason why it’s so dark in here?” Vinyl asked, and then she remembered.
The lights clicked on.
“SURPRISE!”
Oh fuck! Vinyl froze instinctively, tensing herself for a fight, but discovered quickly that it had not been who she was expecting.
Rather it was Pinkie Pie who had just tossed a bunch of confetti in her face.
“Hi. I'm Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you. Were you surprised, were you, were you? Huh huh huh?” Pinkie Pie asked rather obnoxiously.
“Uh... yeah,” Vinyl said, true, she had known it was coming, but she had completely forgotten about it. After meeting a certain white coated Pegasus, Vinyl Scratch didn’t really like surprises anymore.
“You see, I saw you when you first got here, remember? You were all, hello, and I was all, GAAAAHHH remember? You see I never saw you before, and if I never saw you before that means you're new, 'cause I know every pony, and I mean every pony in Ponyville, and if you're new, then it meant you hadn’t met anyone yet, and if you hadn’t met anyone yet, you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, and I had an idea, and that's why I went GAAAAHHH, I'll just throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville. See? And now you have lots and lots of friends,” Pinkie said without missing a beat, or taking a breath.
“She did the exact same thing to me,” Twilight said. “Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure she said the same thing to me too.”
“That would be because I did!” Pinkie Pie said. “So come on! Have fun! Everypony is here! Well except Whirlwind, ‘cause Dashie has him flying laps around town!”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said, looking over to the Rainbow maned Pegasus who was leaning back against the wall munching on an apple.
“What? I am training a world class athlete!” Rainbow Dash said defensively.
“You’re working him too hard!” Twilight said.
“He’ll be fine! What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like he’s going to drop dead from exercising!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Rainbow...” Twilight said with annoyance.
“Fine!” Rainbow Dash said, she rose and walked over to an open window. “WHIRLWIND! Take a break!” she shouted.
Vinyl found herself grinning, even in this place; Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle were still perfect for each other.
“Yes ma’am.” Whirlwind replied, landing gingerly on the ground and trotting inside. He spotted Vinyl Scratch and cringed slightly, he trotted towards the other end of the room, attempting to put as much distance between himself and her as possible.
Vinyl felt guilty now, she crossed the room and went up to the sweating Pegasus, who was getting himself a bottle of water.
“Whirlwind... hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for earlier!” Vinyl said.
“It’s fine,” Whirlwind said simply, trying to hide his apprehensiveness. “Listen. I don’t want to sound rude... but I don’t want Rainbow Dash to see us talking.”
Vinyl cocked her head in confusion. “Why not?” she asked.
“I... uh...” Whirlwind managed, looking at the floor in embarrassment.
“OH!” Vinyl said, understanding instantly. “You have a crush on Rainbow Dash!”
Whirlwind jumped in surprise, immediately stuffing a hoof over Vinyl’s mouth.
“Please! Say it louder why don’t you!” Whirlwind exclaimed sarcastically. “Rainbow Dash likes tough ponies, I work my butt off for her to prove that I’m tough enough, and I will not have you ruin this for me!”
Vinyl was smiling brightly at Whirlwind. This was truly not what she had expected from him of all ponies. “Secret’s safe with me!”
Whirlwind sighed in relief, and jumped slightly when Rainbow Dash called out to him.
“Whirlwind! Break’s over!” Rainbow Dash cried at him.
“Yes Ma’am!” Whirlwind exclaimed, and departed from the party quickly, leaping into the air.
Rainbow Dash was smirking as she watched her trainee fly off. “He likes me,” she said.
“How can you tell?” Vinyl asked, intending to keep her promise not to say anything.
“How can you not?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That pony would jump off a bridge and not try to fly if I told him to do it!”
Vinyl Scratch smirked.
“Don’t get me wrong, Whirlwind’s a nice guy and all, but I’m not exactly looking for a relationship right now,” Rainbow Dash explained. “Just don’t want to hurt him, you know?”
“Yeah, I think I do,” Vinyl said nodding in agreement.
“Good, breathe a word of this to him, and I’ll end you! Got me?” Rainbow Dash said.
“Not a word!” Vinyl said with a grin.
The party went on late into the night; Pinkie Pie soon became the victim of a sugar crash and everypony eventually made their way home. Taking it upon herself, Vinyl picked Pinkie Pie up and set her on her back.
“Go ahead back to the Library Twilight, I’m going to put her to bed, and I’ll be right behind you,” Vinyl said.
Twilight nodded and walked out the door. Vinyl trotted up the stairs with Pinkie Pie in tow, the pink party pony was heavier than she looked, but Vinyl didn’t complain, she carried her up to the second floor, and gently tucked her into bed.
“I like you so much better this way,” Vinyl said, smiling at the sleeping pony. “Good night Pinkie Pie.”
Vinyl Scratch pulled the covers over her and went back down stairs and out the front door into the deserted high street.
“Psst!” said a voice from an alleyway.
“Huh?” Vinyl asked herself, she trotted over to the alley and looked in. Nothing was there.
“Surprise,” said another voice quietly.
Before Vinyl knew what had happened, she’d been pushed into the alley and her assailant was on top of her. Vinyl lie on her back as Surprise was on top of her, attempting to strangle her to death, Vinyl had her hooves up, trying to push the Pegasus off her, but to no avail.
“Did you really think you could get away from me that easy?!” Surprise harked at her. “Well you were dead wrong!”
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 4 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-03T17:29:23+00:00
|
2011-10-03T17:29:23+00:00
| 1,353 |
Chapter 4
Vinyl was doing her best, struggling to keep Surprise’s hooves away from her neck, so far, she was succeeding, but it was only a matter of time before the crazed Pegasus overpowered her.
Surprise had murder in her eyes; she would not stop until one of them was dead.
“What is going on here!?”
Both of them stopped and looked at who had been unlucky enough to approach them. Surprise’s eyes widened.
“Master!” She called out, leaping off Vinyl and throwing herself at Whirlwind’s hooves. “Oh Master! I am so glad to see you! I feared the worst!”
Whirlwind looked utterly confused, and looked to Vinyl for help.
Play along, Vinyl mouthed silently, Whirlwind nodded in understanding.
Vinyl began to act out what she wanted him to say, she pointed to her eye.
“I...” Whirlwind began.
Vinyl pointed at Whirlwind with her hoof, taking up a stern look and intimating a famous old propaganda posted.
“I need you...” Whirlwind said. Vinyl was happy, Whirlwind was either very good at charades, or she was really bad at it.
She leapt to her hooves and began to trot in place.
“To... walk?” Whirlwind said unsurely. Good enough.
Vinyl pointed to the east, and made an arcing motion with her hooves, when her hoof was directly over her head; she began to pant, and wiped imaginary sweat off her brow. Her hoof lowered, pointing to the west and jabbing several times, indicating where she wanted Surprise to go.
“Where the sun sets?” Whirlwind asked.
Vinyl nodded.
“I want you to walk west...” Whirlwind said, looking back at Surprise, who was still watching him intensely; completely oblivious to the fact that Vinyl was acting incredibly silly behind her.
Vinyl started to trot in place again, but then stopped; she hopped a small distance and stood up, balancing herself on her hind legs with great difficulty, and bringing her forelegs over her head and fashioning them into a point above her head.
“Into the Everfree forest?”
Vinyl dropped down to all fours and nodded at him. She then sat down, looking out blankly into space; she raised her foreleg and looked at, then set it down, and then raised it up and looked at it again with a silent sigh.
“And wait there...” Whirlwind said.
Vinyl nodded and began acting out the next set of instructions; however Whirlwind seemed to get the idea.
“Until I come for you. Can you do that for me?”
Surprise nodded, intensely smiling at him. “Anything for you Master! I love you Master!” she bowed towards Whirlwind and then rose to her hooves and began walking towards the Everfree forest.
“And don’t do anything else on the way!” Whirlwind added quickly.
“Of course Master!” Surprise called back.
They waited until she was out of view, and then Whirlwind turned to Vinyl. “I think I deserve an explanation for what just happened here.”
“You do,” Vinyl said, giving the Pegasus a small smile. “You really do Whirlwind... just, not right now, okay? I have a lot of thinking to do after that... episode.”
Whirlwind gave a small, quiet sigh, but looked up at the unicorn mare and gave her a smile. “All right,” he said simply.
Vinyl smiled back at him. “You’re a good colt Whirlwind; Rainbow Dash doesn’t know what she’s missing.”
“Take care, Miss Scratch,” Whirlwind said, and with that the two parted ways.
Vinyl went back to the library, and pushed the door open gingerly. Twilight was still awake, scribbling something on a scroll with her magic.
“Oh good! Vinyl you’re back I was beginning to think you got lost and... oh my gosh! What happened to you?!” Twilight cried in surprise as she looked over the mare, who was covered in dirt, and had her mane and tail tossed about in a complete mess from her scuffle with Surprise.
“I... It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Vinyl said with a small smile. “Relax, it was dark, and I tripped and fell on my face! No biggie!”
Twilight didn’t seem to be convinced, but gave in to the fact that Vinyl wasn’t going to give up anymore than that.
“I appreciate the concern!” Vinyl said. “But really! I’m fine!”
Truth be told, that had been a complete lie. Vinyl Scratch was more than a little disturbed by everything that had happened. Surprise had appeared from nowhere and tried to kill her, only for her to be saved in the nick of time by Overdrive.
No, that wasn’t fair, Whirlwind wasn’t Overdrive, but the way Surprise had acted when she saw him had pretty much confirmed that he had been Overdrive in... whatever this place wasn’t.
Truth be told, Vinyl still hadn’t the faintest clue about what this place was, and it had bothered her that she’d seemed to stop caring about it when Twilight invited her into her home.
“You know, I do have a second bed upstairs in my loft, you’re welcome to it,” Twilight said.
“Nah, I don’t want to intrude on your privacy, the sofa’s fine, let’s just say I’m well acquainted with it,” Vinyl said with a grin.
Twilight raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering what she could possibly mean by that. “You... sleep on other ponies sofa’s a lot?” She asked.
“Yeah,” Vinyl said. “I guess I do actually.”
Twilight looked at the mare in front of her; Vinyl could tell that the thoughts running through her mind were something along the lines of “what have I gotten myself into?”
Vinyl grinned reassuringly at her, but she wasn’t sure it was having an effect.
Twilight eventually returned the smile, and bid the mare goodnight, she went upstairs, and Vinyl went and lied down on the sofa. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep; very happy to be... whatever the hell she was right now, as she didn’t know if alive was the right word.
...
Vinyl Scratch awoke to a knock on the door, she groggily rose to her hooves and opened the front door.
“You’re not Twilight Sparkle!”
Vinyl blinked in the early morning light, Derpy Hooves, the town postal mare was standing outside with a comically large box that would have been impossible for her to get here by herself, even though Vinyl looked around to find that there was no other pony around who could have helped her.
“Uh... no, I’m not, I’m Vinyl Scratch. I’m just staying with Twilight for a little while... do you need me to go get her?” Vinyl asked.
“Oh, no, if she’s sleeping I don’t want to wake her up! I know she’s usually up all night studying and I feel bad when I have to wake her up to sign for a package. Anypony can do it; it’s just that she’s the only one who usually does.”
“Okay,” Vinyl said with a smile, she took the mare’s pencil and clipboard and signed her name for the package, and returned it.
The wall eyed Pegasus smiled back as she placed the clipboard back into her bag and helped Vinyl bring the large box inside with great difficulty.
“What is in this thing!?” Vinyl asked.
“Couldn’t tell you, not allowed to open anypony’s packages,” Derpy said with a grunt as they brought the box into the centre of the room.
Derpy sighed in relief. “I am so glad to have this thing delivered! It was so heavy!”
Vinyl nodded in agreement and gave the mare another smile. “I hope you don’t mind me saying this... but has anypony ever told you that you have really pretty eyes?”
“I...” the wall-eyed Pegasus said and then froze, processing what had just been said to her. Her face turned a bright red. “Do... do you really mean that?”
“I do,” Vinyl said with a grin. She found Derpy to be a rather attractive mare, and she knew that if the ponies of Ponyville could look past her eye problems, they’d probably see the same thing to.
“I...” Derpy said, stammering in surprise, she clearly hadn’t heard such a compliment in a long time. “Thank you! Would it be all right... if I could see yours too?”
“Sure!” Vinyl said, lifting her goggles off her face, her bright red eyes shining in the morning light.
Derpy smiled back at her. “You have really pretty eyes too... I uh, I have to get back to delivering the post... maybe I’ll see you tomorrow? Hopefully?”
“I hope so,” Vinyl said grinning from ear to ear.
Derpy bid her goodbye, and continued on her way, humming a cheerful tune as she worked.
Vinyl slid her goggles back down over her eyes and took a look at the large box before her. Twilight was probably going to want to open it right away. Vinyl called for her, and she trotted down the stairs slowly and yawning heavily, upon laying eyes on the box, her eyes widened and she ran over to it.
“It’s here! It’s here!” She cried gleefully.
She went over to her supply closet and levitated a crowbar out from it.
Vinyl watched as she brought it over to it, glancing at the closet. She knew that Twilight liked to be prepared, but sometimes it felt like the solution to every single imaginable problem was inside that closet.
“Why do you have a crowbar?” Vinyl asked.
“Obviously, for this such occasion!” Twilight said with excitement in her voice. She levitated the crowbar up and pried the lid off, it clattered down onto the floor and the two mares looked inside.
Twilight looked at it intensely.
“It’s beautiful!”
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 5 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-04T06:37:16+00:00
|
2011-10-04T06:37:16+00:00
| 1,782 |
Chapter 5
“Isn’t it amazing?” Twilight asked.
Vinyl looked into the box; she wasn’t quite as impressed as Twilight was. “It’s a statue, of a unicorn.”
“Not just any statue! This statue is 2000 years old! And it was found in South Island!” Twilight explained.
Vinyl looked in the box again; the stone unicorn was very old looking to be sure; she looked back at Twilight in confusion. “South Island?” she asked. “How does a 2000 year old statue of a unicorn end up in South Island?”
“That’s why it was sent to me! I’m going to find out!” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ve been corresponding regularly with a professor at the South Island National University, and his archæology team found it while doing a dig at a place called Karlu Karlu, which was a site of worship for a tribe of wallabies that went extinct at about the same time.”
“This tribe, why’d they go extinct?” Vinyl asked.
“No one knows,” Twilight said with a shrug. “But the statue! Finding it proved that ponies had visited South Island before Welera did!”
“Is that a big deal?” Vinyl asked.
Twilight’s face filled with embarrassment. “Not really, even if they did come, they didn’t stay very long, and they obviously didn’t have a lasting impact on the natives.”
Vinyl smirked at her. “Well you have fun egghead! I’ll get out of your way.”
“I’ll need to write Professor Tebbs and let him know that the statue arrived... oh what did I do with my quill?” Twilight said.
Vinyl froze at the mention of a name; she slowly turned around to face Twilight. “Percy Tebbs?”
“Yes as a matter of fact! I was so surprised when he contacted me! I’ve read all his books! He talks about how the history of all peoples in the world are interwoven, and that trying to go it alone can only lead to disaster!” Twilight explained.
“Huh. I’ll have to give them a read,” Vinyl said as she trotted out the door, glad that Twilight was too wrapped up in what she was doing to question where Vinyl knew Percy Tebbs from.
She stopped, and looked back at the statue, something about it caught her eye, like she’d seen it somewhere before. It was as if the statue itself was broadcasting a thought of “look at me! Look at me!”
It couldn’t hurt to have a closer look, could it?
Vinyl trotted back over to the box and reached out with her magic to bring the statue closer to her, the microsecond that her magic touched the statue, lightning arced out of it, sending high amperage current running through the mare’s body, strong enough to toss her backwards into the closed door.
She was dead. There was nothing but blackness, she had to be dead.
“Oh my gosh! Vinyl!” Twilight called out to her.
Okay, clearly not dead, still dark though, Vinyl felt herself opening and closing her eyes, but nothing changed. She began to panic.
“Twi... Twilight? Where are you?”
“I’m right here Vinyl,” Twilight said, her voice cutting through the darkness.
“I... I can’t see Twilight,” Vinyl said, her voice filled with panic. “I can’t see!”
“Oh my! Vinyl, I need you to stay calm, I’m going to help you up, and we’re doing to walk over to the clinic, okay?”
“Okay,” Vinyl said, she felt Twilight’s hooves along her side as she guided the mare to stand up; Vinyl heard the door open and the two began to slowly walk forward. It was slow going; Twilight had placed one of her forelegs on Vinyl’s back, guiding her through the streets towards the Ponyville Clinic.
...
“Her eyes are fine... the problem is with the visual cortex in her brain, it’s no longer receiving signals from her eyes,” Doctor Nightly said, his voice filled with sorrow.
“Is it permanent?” Twilight asked.
Doctor Nightly spoke again. “I don’t know, it’s too early to tell, there are a few treatments we can try... but there are no guarantees, there’s a good chance...”
“That I won’t see another damned thing for the rest of my life,” Vinyl finished for him. “I think I’ve heard enough.”
Vinyl slid herself off the exam table, as a result of not being able to see, misjudged the distance between the table and the ground, she landed hard on her stomach, letting out a small whimper in disappointment with herself.
“Vinyl!” Twilight called out, and rushed over to help her up.
“I’m fine!” Vinyl said, pushing the lavender unicorn off her. She rose to her hooves, unsteadily regaining her composure. “I don’t need your help.”
Though she could not see it, Twilight was likely frowning at her, and it only made her angrier.
“I don’t need sympathy! I just need to get out of here,” Vinyl said, frustration filling her voice, she slowly began to walk forward, and didn’t make it more than a metre before stumbling into a trolley filled with tools, which she promptly batted away with her foreleg, sending the tools clattering to the floor and and stormed out of the examination room, running headlong into the wall just opposite the door and falling backwards out of surprise.
Vinyl dropped down to her stomach and began to cry. She’d never felt so lost before, she needed to see! The world was too interesting a place to not be able to take in the sights.
“Vinyl?” Twilight asked.
Through her sobs, Vinyl heard Twilight bring herself down to the floor to console the grieving unicorn.
“Vinyl listen, I can’t possibly imagine what you’re going through right now, but I do know that it’s hard, what you need to realise is that you don’t have to go through this alone! I’m going to be there for you every step of the way, and so will Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, and Whirlwind! I know it!” Twilight said. Vinyl felt the mare’s foreleg wrapping around her shoulder. “It’ll be hard, but everything is going to be okay! I promise!”
If Twilight was lying, then Vinyl didn’t care. She allowed herself to form a small smile on her face as she looked in the direction that she thought Twilight was and smiled at her. “Thank you, Twilight... it really means a lot to me to hear you say that.”
While she had no way to really tell, she guessed that Twilight was smiling back at her. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get you home.”
...
Twilight and Vinyl entered the Library; Twilight guided the blind mare to the sofa and helped her climb up on it, her ears had started to adjust, while Vinyl’s hearing had always been above average, it seemed like that her hearing was starting to compensate for the lack of sight, she was able to hear Twilight step away from the sofa, lift the lid of the box back onto it and began to hammer in nails to shut it tightly.
Thwap! Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!
“Twilight?” Vinyl asked.
“This thing is dangerous, and I’m going to make sure that nopony even so much as lays eyes on it!” Twilight said, she gasped, and dropped her hammer, which clattered loudly on the floor, causing Vinyl to cover her ears in pain.
“Oh my gosh! Vinyl I am so sorry! That was so insensitive!” Twilight said, tossing in several more apologies after that.
“It’s cool, I know what you meant... besides, the reason I lost my eyesight was because I wanted a closer look. I say good riddance... what are you going to do with it?” Vinyl asked.
Twilight was silent for a while. “I don’t know,” she added after several moments, she likely had shrugged in response to the question, and made her thoughts audible upon realising that Vinyl would not be able to see it.
“Twilight?” Vinyl asked. “I need a favour from you.”
“Name it!” Twilight said enthusiastically.
“I need you to promise me that you’re not going to treat me any different. I know that I’m going to need help with certain things now... but I’m still me, okay? I want to still be me.”
“Of course,” Twilight said. Vinyl heard her approach, and felt her as she wrapped her forelegs around her in an embrace; Vinyl returned her hug and felt Twilight’s head rest upon her shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re still with us,” Twilight said. Vinyl felt tears rolling off Twilight’s muzzle and down her shoulder, and found that she was smiling at her friend.
“I am too,” Vinyl said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 6 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-05T06:51:49+00:00
|
2011-10-05T06:51:49+00:00
| 1,509 |
Chapter 6
Vinyl Scratch sat quietly on a park bench just outside the library, eyes closed, listening to the background noise of the town, completely not caring that it didn’t matter whether her eyes were closed or not.
She had never really noticed before just how much activity there was in Ponyville on a day to day basis, while nowhere near on the level of Manehattan or Canterlot, it was far more than anypony would really expect.
She heard hoof steps approaching her; she perked her head up and smiled. “That you Whirlwind?”
“How did you know?” Whirlwind asked.
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out!” Vinyl said grinning mischievously. She heard the bench squeak softly as Whirlwind sat down next to her. “I suppose you came for that explanation I owe you?”
“I will admit, it is part of the reason, a small part, I’m more interested in how you’re doing,” Whirlwind said.
“When I lost my eyesight, I thought it was going to be the end of the world. It’s hard, but I think I’ll be able to manage.” Vinyl said smiling at him. “How are you Whirlwind?”
“Oh, you know, still vying for Rainbow Dash’s affection. Not really getting anywhere, but I don’t mind. I get to spend a lot of time with her while she’s training me,” Whirlwind said. Vinyl didn’t know how, but she knew he was smiling. “I’m not the giving up type.”
“Good! That’s exactly how I lived my life just before I got famous and ruined everything!” Vinyl said, maddening grin on her face. “Take my advice, don’t get famous, you’ll regret it.”
“Duly noted.”
They sat quietly for a while, each of them thinking about what the other had said.
“You want that explanation?” Vinyl asked finally.
“Nah, not right now. I think you’ve had enough on your plate today,” Whirlwind said. “The suspense may kill me, but I’m willing to risk it.”
“Ah! So you do have a sense of humour in that rock-hard shell of yours! I was worried!” Vinyl said, tossing it back at him.
“Rainbow Dash is all business when we’re training, so I am too... I’m not training right now,” Whirlwind said. Vinyl heard the bench creek slightly as Whirlwind got to his hooves. “I have to go, goodbye Vinyl.”
“Bye Whirlwind... hey, listen. Thanks for not treating me any different,” Vinyl said, giving the colt a smile.
“Well, thanks for treating me fairly, considering everything,” Whirlwind said, and trotted away.
Wait. What? Vinyl thought to herself. That had to have been the most ambiguous statement she’d ever heard in her life. Her brain started working at a thousand kilometres an hour, thinking over what he meant by that.
Did he...? Could he possibly know what he was? Vinyl would not be able to get Whirlwind off her mind for the rest of the day. She spent hours sitting on that park bench, lost in thought, she’d practically shut the entire world out, not listening to the sounds of Rainbow Dash yelling at Whirlwind to do better at his training. Not hearing Lyra and Bon Bon chatting about where to eat dinner at as they passed her.
And she certainly didn’t hear Derpy Hooves approach her.
“Um... excuse me?” Derpy said.
Vinyl snapped out of her thoughts and jumped slightly in surprise.
“Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to sneak up on you!” Derpy cried.
“Hey! It’s absolutely fine! Don’t worry about it!” Vinyl said, smiling in the mare’s general direction. “It’s really nice to ‘see’ you again!”
Derpy chuckled uneasily at Vinyl’s joke, clearly afraid that she was going to offend the mare.
Vinyl smiled at her, trying to put her at ease, though she couldn’t tell if it was having an effect or not. She reached out and patted the empty seat on the bench with her hoof. “Come! Sit with me!” Vinyl said and listened as Derpy gingerly sat down on the bench, as if she was afraid it would break from under her.
Vinyl yawned loudly, stretching her forelegs above her head and giving her an excuse to put one around Derpy, she could hear the Pegasus mare breathing loudly, and gave a small chuckle. “You’re really nervous right now, aren’t you?”
“Am I that obvious?” Derpy asked. “I’m sorry, I just... I... nopony has ever showed an interest in me before.”
“Really?” Vinyl asked, legitimately surprised, she know that Derpy’s eyes had to have given her problems, but she had never imagined that they would be that bothersome.
“Well, not legitimate interest... when I was younger, everypony thought I was a lot dumber than I really am, there have been a few ponies that tried... to take advantage of me, in more ways than one,” Derpy said sadly. ”Not that I’m insinuating that you’ll do that too!” she added frantically.
“Relax! Please,” Vinyl said, giving the mare a comforting smile. “I don’t bite... hard.”
Vinyl could feel Derpy’s body temperature rising ever so lightly, she was blushing hard in embarrassment; Vinyl couldn’t help but give her a wide grin.
“So, what did you have to do work up the courage to come see me?” Vinyl asked her.
“Part of a bottle of cider,” Derpy said, “Not exactly proud of it... Dinky doesn’t like it when I drink.”
“Who’s Dinky?” Vinyl asked cocking her head slightly to the side.
“Oh! Uh... she’s my daughter,” Derpy said uneasily. “That... isn’t a problem is it?”
“Problem?” Vinyl asked. “Certainly not! I love kids! Kids generally love me too; they think I’m funny for some reason.”
Vinyl heard Derpy smirk, exhaling breath through her nose.
“Ha! I got you to smile didn’t I?” Vinyl asked.
Derpy didn’t reply right away, Vinyl figured that she probably had nodded as an answer, and then realised what she had done and added a quick “yeah.”
“See! I’m not a bad mare, all that worrying for nothing!” Vinyl said, gently pulling Derpy closer to her. “I can’t wait to tell my parole officer about this!” she added with a grin.
“Parole... officer?” Derpy asked uneasily, but then realised that Vinyl was making another joke. “Oh... ha ha! I get it; you’re trying to pull the wool over my eyes aren’t you?”
No sooner did Derpy finish her statement did she gasp, and clasp her hooves over her mouth; she couldn’t believe that she had just said that. Vinyl however did her best to reassure her.
“Hey, you’re not going to offend me!” Vinyl said, stroking the Pegasus mare’s mane. “I’m funny! I can take a joke! Like if I was to say, ‘I’m watching you clop,’ now that’s funny!”
Derpy had gone quiet, and was clearly blushing again, causing Vinyl Scratch to smile at her. “I know what it’s like, you know, to have something that makes you different that other people don’t understand, just like you.”
“What? Your charming personality?” Derpy asked smugly.
“Hey! Say what you will! I am most definitely charming!” Vinyl said. Grinning like the madmare she was. “Otherwise it would be impossible to get a sober mare out of a club dress!”
“You’re... rather forward about it, aren’t you?” Derpy asked.
“Way I see it? Why waste time dancing around the matter? When you’ve clearly got your sights set on something you want?” Vinyl said proudly. “Know what I mean?”
Derpy sat quietly for a moment. “Yes,” she said finally. “Yes I do. Vinyl Scratch? Would you like to come back to my place for dinner?”
Vinyl grinned widely at the mare sitting next to her. “I thought you’d never ask!”
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 7 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-05T20:29:28+00:00
|
2011-10-05T20:29:28+00:00
| 1,617 |
Chapter 7
Vinyl sat on Derpy’s sofa listening to the sounds of the Pegasus mare fumbling around her kitchen.
“No! No! Stop! That’s not what you’re supposed to do!” Derpy cried amongst sounds of cracking, snapping, and smashing, and one noise that sounded suspiciously like something catching on fire.
“Is everything okay in there?” Vinyl asked. Derpy did not give her an answer. “Should I get a bucket?”
“Yes! Everything is fine!” Derpy said. Vinyl heard flames cut through the quiet air. “Never mind, The Salad just caught fire.”
Vinyl grinned as she listened to Derpy dumping a bucket of water on the meal she was preparing in order to extinguish the flames. Her ears perked up as the Pegasus mare trotted into the room, the sound of defeat in her steps.
“It’s the thought that counts,” Vinyl said, placing her foreleg around the mare’s shoulder as she sat down next to her.
“I just wanted to impress you...” Derpy said sadly.
“Little miss muffin, you already have,” Vinyl said, kissing Derpy gently on her forehead. She didn’t need to be able to see to know the mare was smiling brightly at her.
The front door opened, and then quickly shut behind it.
“Mum! I’m home!” cried the voice of a filly. “Did you set the kitchen on fire again?”
Vinyl heard Dinky as she walked into the room and froze; Vinyl figured that she was probably shy like her mother was.
“Dinky, this is my friend Vinyl Scratch,” Derpy said. “I’m going to go clean up the mess I made in the kitchen, and we’ll all go out for a curry. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds good to me,” Vinyl said with a grin.
Dinky did not say anything, but Vinyl figured that she probably nodded in agreement. Derpy got up from her seat and went back into the kitchen, leaving Dinky and Vinyl alone in the main room.
“Hi there!” Vinyl said.
“Hi,” Dinky said quietly. She was shy.
“Guess your mum’s not that handy in the kitchen huh?” Vinyl asked.
“No not really, she can barely make salad without catching it on fire...” Dinky said. “It smells like she did too.”
Vinyl smirked; she could only imagine how Derpy had managed that. “Do you usually cook?”
“Yeah, I learned to cook a long time before I came to live with mum. My old mum didn’t like me, so I had to learn to take care of myself. My new mum’s way nicer though, she tries, but I still cook for us,” Dinky said.
“Your old mum?” Vinyl asked. “So then... you’re adopted?”
Dinky didn’t reply. Vinyl figured that her answer had likely been a nod... or she had been too embarrassed to give an answer.
“My mum didn’t like me either,” Vinyl said. “I grew up by myself too.”
Dinky didn’t reply right away, she sat quietly for a moment before asking. “Do you like my mum?”
Vinyl grinned widely at the filly. “I do! She’s a very nice mare!”
“The other townponies don’t like my mum. They make fun of her and do mean things to us. They glue our door shut and stuff like that,” Dinky said sadly. “My mum likes you to! So you better be nice!”
Vinyl couldn’t help but smile, Dinky loved Derpy. That much was obvious. “I promise.”
“Okay! I managed to clean everything up without setting it on fire again!” Derpy said triumphantly as she came back into the room. Vinyl clapped her hooves together slowly in applause.
“Ha ha, you’re so funny!” Derpy said, she walked over to where Vinyl was sitting and helped her to her hooves, she extended her left wing and wrapped it around the blind mare and walked slowly to guide her around the flat’s obstacles and out into the open air.
“Careful down the steps now!” Derpy said, holding Vinyl close to her with her wing. They reached the bottom without incident.
“Mum?” Dinky asked, not understanding why Derpy had needed to help Vinyl down the stairs.
“I’m blind,” Vinyl explained. “So your mum has to help me get around.”
“So... then you don’t know what my mum looks like?” Dinky asked, obviously thinking that this was the reason why Vinyl gave Derpy the time of day.
“Oh, no I know what your mum looks like. I met her when I was still able to see,” Vinyl said simply. “And I think that her eyes are beautiful, even if nopony else in town does.”
Derpy brushed her head against Vinyl’s, nuzzling her sweetly in the mare’s appreciation for her. Vinyl didn’t have to be able to see to know that the Pegasus mare and her daughter were smiling brightly.
...
They’d had a wonderful dinner and had returned to Derpy’s flat. Vinyl and Derpy were sitting on Derpy’s bed, talking, while Dinky was in her own room, doing homework for the next day’s classes.
Vinyl held Derpy close to her, nuzzling the mare, gently and playfully biting her ears. They were in heaven.
Derpy rolled over; she placed her hooves on Vinyl’s shoulders and leaned in, giving the unicorn mare a kiss. Vinyl had grown to not like surprises... but this one however had rekindled that feeling. Vinyl kissed back, pushing her tongue back passed Derpy’s lips, exploring the only way she could, by touch.
Derpy moaned softly, Vinyl heard her wings cut through the air as they spread. She responded by taking her hooves and gliding them gently down the mare’s side, rubbing gently at the sensitive spots under were a Pegasus would keep their wings. Derpy gasped softly as she was overwhelmed by the touch of another, something she hadn’t experienced a very, very long time.
They continued to lie there, kissing each other for what felt like an eternity. Vinyl ran her hooves down Derpy’s side one last time when Derpy broke the kiss.
“Vinyl?” she asked.
“Yes?” Vinyl asked with a bright smile on her face.
“Don’t... don’t take this the wrong way, it’s not that I don’t like you... I really do! I really really do! But... I don’t want to go any further. I don’t want this to be based on sex. I want this to be real!” Derpy said.
Vinyl’s grin got wider. “Oh Little Miss Muffin! You have no idea just how happy you made me.”
Vinyl’s past relationships had been nothing of the sort. They’d been one way relationships devoted to hedonistic pleasures, sex and drug use, with the ponies that she’d been with using her for both. Vinyl Scratch had never, not once in her entire life, been in a relationship with anypony that had ever actually cared about her.
At least, not until now.
“Thank you!” Derpy said. “Thank you so much.”
Vinyl Scratch’s face had become wet with tears, and unlike the tears that had fallen in her life recently. These ones were happy.
Vinyl didn’t know what this world was. She didn’t know if she was alive or dead, but screw it. She was happy here.
She never wanted to go back.
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 8 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-06T07:18:14+00:00
|
2011-10-06T07:18:14+00:00
| 1,488 |
Chapter 8
The sun was setting, and Derpy walked with Vinyl Scratch down the steps from her flat towards the road.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you back to the Library?” Derpy asked.
“Nah,” Vinyl said simply. “It’s only a couple hundred metres, and besides, I need to work on getting around by myself.”
“Vinyl, you only lost your sight this morning, aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself?” Derpy asked.
“Maybe, but I’ve always been a take charge kind of mare, something that you are going to find out very quickly.” Vinyl said, nuzzling her fillyfriend. Couldn’t help but give her a smile, she had a point after all.
“I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it, am I?” Derpy asked.
Vinyl shook her head. “You can try bribing me with kisses! It won’t work, but I like them, so I suggest it anyway!”
Derpy let out a small chuckle, she kissed Vinyl goodbye and went back up the stairs into her flat. Vinyl couldn’t help but be distracted; her fillyfriend tasted of blueberries.
So distracted that she didn’t notice that somepony had bumped into her until they were right on top of her, knocking her to the ground hard.
“Oh! I’m so sorry!” the pony cried out.
Ordinarily, Vinyl would not have polite about it; however, upon hearing the voice, she couldn’t help but smile. “It’s quite all right.”
Scootaloo offered several more apologies and helped Vinyl back to her hooves. Word had travelled fast about Ponyville’s newest, and only, blind resident.
“Don’t worry about it kid!” Vinyl said sweetly. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“It’s my birthday, and my parents are going to try and surprise me with my favourite meal, Onion Soup. They try and surprise me with it every year, they never do, but I pretend to be surprised anyway,” Scootaloo said. “I’m running kind of late, and I don’t want them to worry!”
Vinyl couldn’t help but grin. “Sounds to me like they love you very much.”
“Yeah, I guess, don’t really think about it that much,” Scootaloo said, likely with a shrug, even though Vinyl had no way of being sure.
“Well go on then! Don’t keep them waiting!” Vinyl said.
“I won’t! Sorry again!” Scootaloo said as she dashed off towards home.
Vinyl couldn’t help but smile as she listened to Scootaloo’s hoof steps as she galloped away. She felt a tear forming in her eye, Scootaloo didn’t need her anymore.
“I love you Scootaloo,” Vinyl said, chocking quietly on a tear. “Even if you don’t remember it.”
Without further hesitation, Vinyl trotted slowly and steadily back towards the Library, doing her best to stay in the centre of the road as to not accidentally drift into walls. Vinyl Scratch had always had incredibly good hearing, but now that her eyesight was gone, it had become more acute, compensating for her lack of sight. She knew that she was in front of the library because sound bouncing off wood sounded far different than stone.
She reached out to knock on the door.
“Vinyl Scratch.”
Vinyl stopped, bringing her hoof back down to the ground and turning to face the voice that had just addressed her. “Yesssss?” she asked playfully.
“Would you please join me for a walk?” the pony behind her asked.
Vinyl Scratch gave the newcomer a grin. “Absolutely, Princess Luna.”
...
Vinyl Scratch and Princess Luna had walked to the edge of town, and were now sitting on the grass, several hundred metres from the tree line of Whitetail Wood. Princess Luna had remained quiet for some time, seemingly gathering her thoughts. Vinyl waited patiently for the Princess to speak; after all, it wasn’t often that one of the rulers of the country asked to you to take a walk.
“I have to ask...” Princess Luna said finally. “How much...?”
“I remember everything,” Vinyl said simply, anticipating the question. “I don’t understand the how, or the why, but I remember all of it.”
“Excellent!” Luna said cheerfully. “I was hoping that you would.”
“I take it that you remember everything too, then?” Vinyl asked.
“Naturally, otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Luna said with a small chuckle. “I imagine that you’ve got plenty of questions.”
Vinyl nodded in affirmation. “Am I alive?” she asked, obvious first question.
Princess Luna couldn’t help but chuckle. “Do you feel alive?” she asked.
Vinyl thought about the day’s events, from losing her eyesight to everything she’d just been through with Derpy. There could be only one answer to the Princesses’ question.
“Yes,” Vinyl said simply.
“Then you’re alive!” Luna said. She placed her hoof on the unicorn mare’s shoulder. “I think you can do better than that.”
“Don’t tempt me! I might just surprise you! What happened with the bomb?” Vinyl asked, grinning madly at the princess of the night.
“Oh? You mean you haven’t figured that one out on your own yet?” Princess Luna said. “I thought it would have been obvious, Vinyl Scratch, the bomb was never a bomb!”
Vinyl couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the Princesses’ response. “What was it then?”
“A second chance.”
Vinyl Scratch smirked slightly at the answer. “You’re not the first pony to tell me that, Monty Ulhan came to see me just before I set it off and told me the same thing.”
“He was certainly a clever pony,” Luna said. “It’s... a shame what happened to him.”
“I never knew him,” Vinyl said. “What happened to him?”
“He hung himself,” Luna said sadly. “He stole Overdrive’s body from him... and inherited his memories along with it. He couldn’t live with the things inside my brother’s mind.”
“I... see,” Vinyl said. “Overdrive, and the Siblings Nightmare, are they...?”
“Yes, they are. The ponies that you know as Whirlwind and Doctor Nightly are indeed them,” Luna said. “They’re using their second chance wisely... unlike some other ponies. Before you ask any more questions, let me explain about the bomb. The bomb was never a bomb, it was however, cleverly disguised as a bomb with the hopes that if the world were to devolve into a state that was simply too terrible to continue, those who would use the bomb for nefarious purposes would instead give the world a second chance. A fresh start, Doctor Emerald Sparkle had spent the last five years before her death designing and developing it in secret... It’s a shame what became of her.”
Vinyl grimaced slightly; she remembered listening to a recording of Emerald Sparkle’s gruesome death at the end of Surprise’s chain-knife.
“However, this is the only second chance we get. I take it you noticed that the entrance to EPMB had collapsed? This was by design. There are no third chances,” Luna said. “Though most of us seem to be using our second chance relatively well, don’t you think?”
“Who hasn’t?” Vinyl asked in confusion.
“I haven’t,” Luna said sadly. “I had to endure exile on the moon, not once, but twice. I forced myself to become Nightmare Moon this time around.”
“What? Why?!” Vinyl asked, being caught completely off guard.
“So that Twilight Sparkle and her friends could come together,” Luna said softly.
Vinyl had to admit, that had to have been the most selfless action she had ever heard. Princess Luna had sacrificed herself so that Twilight and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony would come together and defeat her.
“Do you ever regret it?” Vinyl asked.
“Never.”
“Does anypony else remember the old world?” Vinyl asked.
“No, no one in Equestria besides us remembers, I don’t know if anyone in other parts of the world does. I imagine that some likely do, but I have no way of knowing.”
“So what do we do now?” Vinyl asked.
“I’m sure you remember the artefact that Twilight Sparkle received from South Island?” Luna asked her.
“How could I forget?” Vinyl asked. The damned object had robbed her of her sight only this morning.
“The artefact is a powerful magical talisman, It’s a failsafe, in case that we would need to reinstate the old world. As you can imagine it’s incredibly dangerous, and it needs to be kept out of the wrong hooves,” Luna explained.
“Who would want to use such a thing?” Vinyl asked.
“Can you think of no one?” Luna asked her.
Yes, yes she could. Vinyl imagined that if Surprise learned of such an object, she would certainly want to use it to try and bring back her master, where she ever to learn that Overdrive and Whirlwind were not equal.
“So then? What do we need to do?” Vinyl asked.
“We need to take it back to its hiding place,” Luna said simply. “We’re going to take it to South Island.”
|
Wheller
|
1141
| 9 |
DJ P0N-3,Derpy Hooves,Princess Luna,Rainbow Dash,Twilight Sparkle,Dark,Romance,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again
|
A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.
|
complete
| 30 | 6 |
<p>A certain pony wakes up in Whitetail Wood, and discovers memories of another life, she struggles to understand the how and why of it all, fortunately, a certain Princess of the Night takes notice and helps her to discover the truth.</p>
|
teen
|
2011-10-07T07:02:44+00:00
|
2011-10-07T07:02:44+00:00
| 1,530 |
Chapter 9
Princess Luna and Vinyl Scratch had quietly entered the Ponyville Library. Twilight had long gone to bed at this point, leaving them alone in the main room. Ponyville was a relatively quiet, relatively safe town with little crime. Many of the town ponies didn’t bother to lock their doors. Twilight Sparkle had been one of majority, lucky for them, considering that they were stealing the artefact back.
“There’s a shipping crate in the middle of the room,” Luna relayed to Vinyl, the blind mare obviously being of little use in the location of the artefact.
“That’s it then,” Vinyl said quietly. “Twilight must not have had time to move it yet.”
Vinyl heard Luna’s magic flair as she gently pulled the lid off the shipping crate and trotted up to it.
“Hey! Don’t touch it with magic!” Vinyl whispered hoarsely.
“Too late,” Luna said, she was already levitating it out of the box. This time, however it acted as if it was just a regular old statue. Luna reattached the lid and the two mares snuck back out the front door. Twilight had no intention of opening the box again, and would likely not notice that it had been taken at all.
“I don’t understand, when I tried to pick up the artefact with magic, it attacked me!” Vinyl said.
“Of course it did,” Luna said slyly. “You didn’t make it.”
Vinyl listened as Luna’s saddlebags opened and heard the sound of stone rubbing against cloth as Luna slipped it inside, and the two of them walked away from the Ponyville Library, no one any the wiser that they had been there at all.
“Something else has been bothering me,” Vinyl said. “My memories, why me? Why do I remember and not Twilight or Rainbow Dash?”
“Simple, you had greater exposure to the artefact than they did,” Luna said.
“Hold on! Don’t you even try that with me, I remembered before the artefact even got here, be straight with me Luna!” Vinyl said with an air of annoyance, princess or not, Vinyl wasn’t going to let her drag her around in circles.
Luna sighed and stopped walking, Vinyl stopped too and turned to face the Alicorn before her. “The problem with the artefact is that I can’t be straight with you about it... it’s... special. The artefact constantly emits a unique radiation, but the radiation doesn’t affect you linearly. You were hit by a massive dose when you tried to handle it, it robbed you of your eyesight in the present, but it also caused you to remember the old world nearly a day before the actual event happened.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow, her mouth dropped open. She was looking for adequate words for a response, but could find none. “That doesn’t make any sense!” She managed eventually.
“I know, why do you think I didn’t want to tell you? Emerald Sparkle and I worked together to create the artefact, she was not only a brilliant scientist, but an incredibly skilled mage. I provided the raw power necessary for the artefact’s creation, she did the fine-tuning. The magical science involved is way over my head,” Luna said apologetically. “I’ve found that it’s best not to think about it.”
Vinyl sighed a little in response. Considering everything else that happened to her, it was just insane enough to be completely possible. “What’s the next step?” she asked.
“You go get some rest,” Luna said. “I have to make arrangements; I’ll come find you in the morning. Goodnight Vinyl Scratch.”
“Goodnight Princess Luna.”
Vinyl listened as the night princess spread her wings and flew off into the night sky, cutting swiftly through the still air. She recognised by the sound that her surroundings made that she was in front of Derpy’s flat. Perfect!
She was, after all, going to South Island in the morning; she couldn’t very well leave without saying goodbye. Very carefully, she walked slowly up the stairs and knocked on the door. A few moments later, a very sleepy sounding Derpy Hooves opened the door, yawning loudly.
“Vinyl?” she asked sleepily. “What are you doing? It’s the middle of the night! Did you walk here by yourself?”
“Not entirely,” Vinyl said. “I did get up those stairs by myself thought!”
“Vinyl...” Derpy said worriedly. “Come in.”
Vinyl smiled brightly at the mare and graciously entered her flat. Derpy shut the door behind her, giving her a small kick while she was at it.
“Ow! Hey!” Vinyl cried out in surprise.
“That’s for making me worry about you, big dummy!” Derpy said. She promptly followed up by draping her wing around Vinyl’s back, pulling her close and giving her an extremely passionate kiss. “That’s me forgiving you.”
“I think I like it when you forgive me,” Vinyl said with a grin.
“I think I like it when I forgive you too,” Derpy said slyly. She guided Vinyl towards the Sofa, and the two of them sat down.
“I have to go away for a while,” Vinyl said. “There’s something I have to do.”
Vinyl could swear that she heard Derpy frown. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, that’s always how it goes for me.”
“What?! Hey! I’ll be coming back!” Vinyl said reassuringly. “I’d never abandon the mare that makes me feel alive, never in a million years!”
She knew that had gotten a smile out of the Pegasus mare, they leaned in close and allowed one last kiss before they went down that long road.
...
Morning came, and Vinyl awoke to find herself having a mild panic attack, forgetting that she had been blinded and it was normal for her to not see anything upon opening her eyes. Maybe she wasn’t as well adjusted as she thought. She felt Derpy’s head resting on her chest, the Pegasus mare’s hooves wrapped around her abdomen, as if she had silently said. “You aren’t going anywhere without saying goodbye to me!”
Vinyl Scratch leaned in close, gently kissing Derpy’s forehead until the Pegasus began to stir. “Good morning!” she added cheerfully.
Derpy responded with a kiss of her own. “When do you have to leave?”
“Probably should be going right now, wouldn’t be right to keep my travelling partner waiting.”
“Just... promise me that you’re actually coming back,” Derpy said sadly, she could no longer imagine a world without Vinyl Scratch in it.
“I promise,” Vinyl said, nuzzling her fillyfriend, she couldn’t imagine a world without Derpy in it either. Vinyl rose, and Derpy walked her to the door, helping her down the stairs and into the high street.
“Are you going to be okay Vinyl?” Derpy asked.
“Of course! This is me you’re talking to! I’ll be back before you know it!” Vinyl said, grinning at the Pegasus mare.
“Goodbye Vinyl, I’ll see you when you get back,” Derpy said, she leaned in and gave her a quick kiss goodbye, and trotted back up the stairs. “Vinyl?” she added at the last moment.
“Yesssss?” Vinyl asked.
“I love you.”
Vinyl couldn’t help but smile as the words reached her ears. “I love you too.”
Derpy opened the door and went back inside, Vinyl stood alone in the street, looking up at where Derpy had been, she couldn’t see it, but it didn’t matter. Love was enough.
“You two are really quiet adorable together, you know that?” Princess Luna asked from behind her. Vinyl couldn’t help but grin.
“Are you ready to go?” Luna asked her.
“Of course!” Vinyl said. She joined Princess Luna at her side, the Alicorn mare extended her wing around the blinded unicorn, and they began to walk.
“What are you thinking about Vinyl Scratch?” Luna asked her.
“Home,” Vinyl said simply. “It’s not always where you were born. It’s where the people you care about are, and as long as you’ve got them to come back to? Well you’re going to do just fine.”
Vinyl Scratch didn’t know how she knew, but Princess Luna was smiling at her. The two mares marched onward, walking east into the rising sun.
They had a long road ahead of them.
FIN
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Valsion
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1144
| 1 |
Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
| 12 | 1 |
<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
|
2011-10-02T13:58:16+00:00
|
2011-10-02T13:58:16+00:00
| 2,554 |
Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 1 unearthing destiny
It was a pretty average day for Ponyville. Pinkie Pie was in Sugarcube Corner preparing another batch of muffins, Rainbow Dash was done with weather duty for today and was currently napping on a cloud, Applejack was bucking apples at the orchard, Rarity was making more dresses, Fluttershy was tending to the animals and Twilight Sparkle was studying. Suddenly Twilight was interrupted from her book as her dragon assistant Spike let out a displeased groan. “What's wrong Spike?” she asked. For a few days now Spike seemed less energetic and knowing Spike literally since his birth she wanted to know what was bothering him. “Oh it's nothing.” he responded in a bored tone. “It's just that nothing exciting seems to happen lately.
It was true, after the catastrophic Gala things seemed to have calmed down somewhat around Ponyville and while Spike was not so enthusiastic about these quiet and peaceful times Twilight was more than glad when she remembers all those risks she took during the last year. Nightmare Moon's return, the sleeping dragon, the parasprites, the Hydra, Rarity getting ponynapped by the Diamond Dogs. The list went on and on. With a sigh she looked up from her book and turned to face Spike. “I think it's nice that we get a break from all these dangerous situations. Seriously I felt like a disaster magnet.”
Spike jumped down from the pillow he was resting on. “I'm not saying that I want to be in danger but at least a little adventure would be nice.” Suddenly Spike felt a very familiar pressure building inside of him, a letter from Princess Celestia. With a burp and a green flame a scroll materialized in front of the baby dragon. Eagerly he opened the scroll and cleared his throat.
My most faithful student Twilight Sparkle,
you will be pleased to know that your thesis about the existence of cultures even before the birth of me and my sister has been met with great interest by the archeological society of Canterlot.
“They liked my thesis? Wow, that's great news. I hoped to catch up on other study fields than magic and friendship since I have neglected those quite a bit.” Twilight interrupted with a happy grin on her face but Spike just cleared his throat again and gave her an annoyed glance. “Oh, right sorry Spike.”
“Where was I? Oh yes...
archeological society of Canterlot, and in fact Professor Digger requested your presence for two weeks for his next excavation in the Coltave Desert.
Twilight couldn't believe what she just heard. She would get a chance to do some field research with the well known archeologist Professor Digger. She could only stare in disbelieve at her assistant while her mouth hung open.
If you are interested in partaking this expedition please send your response to me I also took the liberty of asking the Professor if you could bring your friends along and he said that he wouldn't mind.
A long distance chariot will arrive and bring you to the dig side at noon in two weeks if you accept
I hope that you can learn a lot about the unknown past of our world should you accept this invitation.
Signed, Princess Celestia
“So what do you say?” Spike asked while putting the scroll away. Twilight recovered from her mild shock and immediately levitated an empty scroll, a quill and a bottle of ink towards Spike. “Take a note please.” Spike who looked forward to the expedition eagerly took the writing utensils. “Dear Princess Celestia, I am really happy that Professor Digger liked my thesis and offers me this unique chance of getting some field experience in the field of archeology and of course I would like to bring my friends. Your most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike wrote down Twilights name and immediately send the scroll to the Princess. Twilight meanwhile rushed to the door. “I'm telling the others about the expedition. I hope they have time to come along.” Spike rushed over to her and jumped on her back. “Yeah this is gonna be amazing. Just like in those Coltana Jones movies.” Spike had a giddy expression on his face as he imagined action packed adventures and dodging deadly traps in ancient ruins. Twilight on the other hand just rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. Archeology is nothing like that. I'm sure that we will just look for some old ruins, study them if we find any and report our findings.” But Spike would not have his illusion shattered. “But some of those ancient traps might still be active.” Twilight rolled her eyes yet again and made her way to her first destination Sucarcube Corner.
Pinkie Pie was preparing a fresh batch of Muffins as Twilight came through the door. She knew that she should get straight to the point if she wanted to finish this conversation before nightfall and Spike knew that Pinkie always safes one chocolate chip muffin for him and he immediately got off of Twilights back and grabbed it. “Hi Pinkie, I just got a letter from Princess Celestia, Professor Digger wanted to invite me for an archeological expedition and I was wondering if you wanted to come along.” Pinkie Pie let out the same gasp she gave Twilight when she first arrived in Ponyville. “An archeological expedition really? Oh this is gonna be so exciting. Just like in those Coltana Jones movies I hope we find some ancient honey because I heard that honey never goes bad and I always wanted to bake something with thousands of years old honey...” Pinkie continued he motormouthing while bouncing through the room. Twilight decided that it was best to move on and look for Rainbow Dash. “I'm sure we'll find something but now I gotta go and tell the others. Come to my house before noon in a week, bye.” With those words Twilight slipped out of the bakery with the now muffin munching Spike back on her back. Now for Rainbow Dash.
She managed to find Rainbow Dash on a cloud near the town center and called her. “DASH! CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE FOR A MINUTE?” The rainbow maned Pegasus stretched, yawned and flew down towards her. “What's the matter Twilight?” she asked a little annoyed about being woken up.
“I have been invited to an archeological expedition. A chariot will pick us up at noon in a week do you want to come along?” Rainbow Dash perked up at this. “Really? Like in those Coltana Jones movies?” Rainbow Dash had an excited grin on her face at the prospect of adventure. Twilight already gave up and just sighed. “Yes, just like in those movies.” Spike meanwhile was bouncing up and down on Twilights back. “This is gonna be great! I hope we find some cool treasure.” He said with the same excited grin on his face as Rainbow Dash. She meanwhile had other interests. “And if someone else wants to steal the treasure I am going to kick his flank.” To elaborate this she did some karate kicks in midair. Twilight on the other hand got more annoyed by the minute. “Yeah yeah that's great but I still have to tell the others see ya.” With that she trotted off leaving the blue Pegasus to her own fantasies.
Her next stop was Carousel Boutique. The sound of a bell announced her arrival to Rarity who was currently stitching together some fabric. She turned around to greet her customer. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique what can I do for... oh Twilight how lovely to see you today.” Spike was already in love-love land by the time the Boutique was in sight. “Hello Rarity, I came here to ask you if you want to come with me to an archeological expedition. I have just been invited by Professor Digger.” Rarity looked unsure if she really wanted to come along. “I don't know, this sounds like awfully dirty work.” Spike quickly shook himself awake from la-la land and started to stammer. “B-but you won't have to dig yourself. I can do that for you. Also Pinkie and Rainbow already agreed to come along.” Spike stared at his crush with a hopeful glimmer while Rarity was thinking. “Well.... I suppose I could use a little change in scenery and besides, I finished a pretty big order recently so I guess I can afford to ask somepony else to watch the shop for me.” Spike was ecstatic at this. “That's great! A chariot will pick us all up at noon in a week.”
“At noon next week. I will be there. Thank you for the invitation.” Rarity said with only a slight tinge of excitement. Twilight then proceeded to leave. “Okay then Rarity. I'll just have to ask Fluttershy and Applejack now. See ya.” And with that she was already on her way to sweet apple acres.
Twilight and Spike found Applejack having a small break with her Granny on the front porch of the farm. They told her about the expedition but Applejack didn't seem too enthusiastic. “I don't know Twi.” Applejack sounded unsure if she even wanted to go. “All this researching stuff really isn't my cup of apple cider.” But before she could say anything else Granny Smith interrupted her. “Of course she can go.” Applejack looked taken aback. “But Granny, Ah have to help Big Macintosh with the applebuckin.” As if on cue the big red stallion came around the corner. “Nonsense, there's not much else left I can do the rest myself and you deserve a little break.” Applejack almost wanted to say something but Spike peeked over Twilights head. “Come on. Pinkie, Dash and Rarity already agreed.” He had a dreamy look in his eyes at the mention of the white unicorn. At this point the orange earth pony finally admitted defeat. “Oh alright Ah'm goin.” Twilight smiled, glad that Applejack could come along. “Great, we'll meet at the library before noon next week. Now excuse me please I still have to invite Fluttershy.” They said their goodbyes for today as Twilight made her way towards Fluttershy's cottage.
Fluttershy already spotted the two of them as she fed some bunnies in her garden. Twilight trotted over to her and told her everything but the yellow Pegasus only looked scared. “I-I don't know Twilight. Archeology sounds really dangerous. Pinkie showed me a Coltana Jones movie...” Twilight resisted the urge to facehoof and instead put it on Fluttershys shoulder. “Oh please, these movies give you a very unrealistic image of archeology. I guarantee you that it's going to be completely safe.” Spike looked a bit disappointed but the meek Pegasus seemed relieved. “Also all the others have already agreed to come.” The reason why Twilight asked Fluttershy last was that it would be easier to convince her now that she already had everypony else with her. “But what about my animals? Who's gonna take care of them?” Twilight completely forgot about this. “Oh no you're right. Do you know anypony who could take care of the animals for you?” Fluttershy pondered for a moment. “Well, Bonbon is also good with animals even if she doesn't show maybe I can ask her. The purple unicorn had a hopeful smile on her face. “Okay you do that and if she says yes we'll meet at my house next week. A long-distance chariot will pick us up.”
“Okay then but I should probably get inside now it's starting to get dark.” Indeed the sun was already sinking down on the horizon and Spike let out a big yawn. “You're right and Spike here needs his good nights rest.” The dragon wanted to protest first but a big yawn betrayed him. With a final wave Twilight made her way back to the library with a big grin plastered on her face. She couldn't wait until tomorrow, an archeological expedition with all of her friends. This is gonna be so much fun.
As she arrived back at home Spike had already fallen asleep. She gently levitated Spike on his bed and went to sleep herself.
Deep in the Everfree Forest:
It was an unusually quiet night in the Everfree Forest as a malicious presence could be felt in the old ruins of a palace no longer in use. The shards of armor that were left behind after Princess Luna was purged from Nightmare Moon at the last Summer Sun Celebration were glowing with an eerie blue light. Slowly the shards moved ever closer to each other until they finally touched. In a sudden whirlwind of blue fire, a dark figure appeared. The midnight blue alicorn known as Nightmare Moon was back.
For a minute she just stood silently, breathing in the cool night air until she finally spoke. “Those foals really think that they could destroy me so easily- hehe,” Nightmare Moon gave out a chuckle so cold that anyone present could have almost felt the temperature in the room dropping. “I yet have to play out my trump card. Soon the false Sun Goddess and my old host will pay.” Nightmare Moon made her way outside and looked into the distance. “But first I have to make a few preparations.” She closed her eyes and let out another cold chuckle. “And this time I will make no mistakes. The elements of harmony will be the first to fall. I am going to crush them all under my hoof.” Her chuckle grew louder and louder until it became a cruel, mad laugh.
One week later Twilight and her friends met at the library after Pinkie threw a 'see you in a few weeks' party. Everypony was ready for the trip and Rarity and Fluttershy managed to get Lyra and Bonbon watch the boutique and the animals. Their other friends and family gathered to see them off as a larger than normal chariot pulled by a whole team of pegasi arrived. After saying their goodbyes they took off towards the desert where Professor Digger was already waiting for them.
Two weeks had passed since Twilight got the letter from Princess Celestia and she and her friends already made themselves at home at the camp the expedition team set up at the dig site. Professor Digger lead Twilight as well as her friends and an excavation team through a cavern they discovered under the dunes of the Coltave desert, and they all had miners helmets on their heads to give them light as they went through the tunnels. Professor Digger was a middle aged, sand colored earth pony with a dark brown mane that he kept cut rather short and a shovel for a cutie mark. Ever since they arrived the Professor and Twilight have been talking almost non stop about recent findings and ancient cultures. The others were not so enthusiastic about the entire expedition. Spike, Applejack, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash hoped the entire trip would be more exciting while Fluttershy and Rarity stayed in the camp above because the shy Pegasus was afraid of the dark caves and the fussy fashionista didn't want to get dirty.
“These caves have been formed by earthquake several thousand years ago. But geologic measurements predicted that there might be even more deeper underground. A perfect place to search for relics from ancient times.” Professor Digger showed more than just professional enthusiasm as he explained this to the inquisitive purple unicorn. Twilight trotted next to the Professor the entire time and bombarded him with more and more questions that he was more than eager to answer. “You know Ms. Sparkle, it doesn't happen very often that I find someone who is so eager to learn about archeology.” His expression became a bit annoyed. “Most Ponies just assume that archeology is like in the Coltana Jones movies and then get bored with the real thing.” Twilight just rolled her eyes as the ground suddenly collapsed under her hooves. She screamed while Professor Digger tried to grab her but he was too late and the purple unicorn fell into the darkness. Rainbow Dash reacted first and flew after her. Twilight kept screaming as she fell into the dark hollows below until she suddenly stopped. Slowly she opened her eyes to find herself safely in the arms of the rainbow maned Pegasus. With a sigh of relieve she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and thanked her rescuer. “Whew thanks Dash, I almost would have ended as a pancake on...the....” Twilight stopped talking and looked with big eyes at something behind the Pegasus, illuminated by the miners helmet that managed to stay on her head. “What's the matter? Oh Celestia please don't tell me you're gonna be sick.” Rainbow Dash frantically looked for a good place to set the stock still unicorn down. As she looked behind her almost all movement except the flapping of her wings stopped.
“ARE YA'LL ALRIGHT?” Applejacks fearful shout shook the two ponies out of their stupor, Twilight was the first who managed to say something. “WE'RE ALRIGHT BUT YOU NEED TO COME DOWN HERE! WE FOUND SOMETHING BIG!” she called back to the other ponies above. “BIG?” the blue Pegasus yelled as if she couldn't believe what she heard. “THAT'S NOT BIG! THIS THING IS URSA GRADE HUMONGOUS!” This captured the interest of the ponies in the cavern above. Professor Digger mentioned for his team to let some ropes down and after a minute the Applejack, Spike, Professor Digger and Pinkie, who found the descent really funny slid down on the rope. All eyes were on Twilight and Rainbow Dash who managed to get on the ground but were still staring into the same direction. The other ponies turned their heads to see what got the two of them so entranced and almost lost their grip as they saw the object.
A gigantic, red drill was pointing in their direction. The drill was attached to a black ship-shaped object, in the middle was something that looked like a giant buzz saw, behind the saw there was some sort of tower attached to the object and to the side they could see fins sticking out of the giant metal ship. Everyponies mouths were hanging open as they reached the ground. Twilight turned to Spike. “We need to tell the Princess about this ASAP.”
Authors notes: Yep a crossover between My little Pony: FiM and Super Robot Taisen Original Generations. I often have ideas for crossovers in my head but now I'd like to actually write one for a change. This is my first fanfiction so I'd welcome any critique as long as it's constructive and please excuse minor grammar mistakes. English is not my first language.
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|
Valsion
|
1144
| 2 |
Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
|
incomplete
| 12 | 1 |
<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
|
2011-10-11T20:44:23+00:00
|
2011-10-11T20:44:23+00:00
| 1,579 |
Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 2 Test drive
Two weeks have passed and never before has a letter caused such a commotion. The archeological society of Canterlot and the engineers association were gathering with the princesses to prepare for studying the steel ship as they called it. Princess Celestia has requested for the elements of harmony to stay at the dig site offering to send servants from the castle to take care of their duties in Ponyville as well as bits from the royal treasury to make up for eventual losses. But right now she made her way through the marble hallways with her sister by her side. She already heard the chatter of the archeologists as well as the engineers who have been summoned due to the mechanical nature of the ship.
“Are you nervous sister?” Luna's inquiry shook Celestia out of her thoughts. Her eyes still on the large wooden doors that lead to the meeting hall she sighed. “Of course Luna, the time before our birth is a mystery even to us and finding such an artifact.” The smaller Alicorn understood what her sister meant. They did not even know where they really came from and everything before they 'came to be' was completely unknown to them. That is why they always had a soft spot for archeology. “I know what you mean Tia, but maybe this steel ship can finally provide us with some answers.” Luna smiled weakly she still feels guilty about Nightmare Moon and tries her best to hide her discomfort.
Finally they reached the door and Celestia wasted no time opening it. As they entered the hall the chatter of the scientists ceased and they stood up and bowed respectfully to the Princesses. The large hall consisted of three rows of benches on either side of the room as well as two thrones for Celestia and Luna. One Celestias side were white banners with a sun symbol on the wall and blue banners with a moon symbol on Lunas side.
As the alicorn sisters reachd their thrones the sun princess looked into the crowds before finally speaking. “Please rise, we are here to discuss an important matter.” Almost in synch the scientists stopped bowing and sat back down and Celestia continued. “The subject for today’s meeting is the steel ship found in the coltave desert. Professor Strata, could you please read Professor Diggers report to us?”
At this a green earth pony with a brown mane rose from his seat. He cleared his throat and levitated a scroll out of his bag and in front of himself then he began to read. “The object in question is a ship-like structure made out of steel hence why we call it steel-ship. The age is unknown as well as who build it.”
With a deep breath the Professor continued with the description. “It has a large drill for a bow, the buzz saw in the middle seems to be made to keep rocks from hitting the tower behind it. Said tower seems to be the bridge of the steel-ship. We have also found what looked like cannons on top and on the side of the ship indicating that it was made for fighting.” Strata wanted to avoid using the word 'war'. Equestria in all of it's history only came close to a war once. At this he nervously glanced at Princess Luna who held her head down in shame as if she knew what he was thinking.
“There are wings on the side at the length of the tower and at the back there were several openings. We believe that these openings are some sort of propulsion system.” With that he finished describing the steel-ship and continued with the rest of the report. “While cleaning the hull the Pegasi have found what looks like an entrance for personnel on the side as well as four large openings above the wings, two on each side. The personnel entrance height and length indicate that this ship was made for bipedal creatures with an average height of 1.8 meters. Professor Digger is currently waiting for the engineering team to arrive so they can take a look inside.” With that he concluded the report and looked at the princesses expectantly.
“Thank you, Professor Strata.” After a polite nod the Professor sat back down and Princess Celestia turned to the other side of the room. “I trust that your engineering teams will find out how the technology of the steel-ship works Professor Clockwork.”
The rows of the engineers were only half full. Engineering was not a very lucrative field in Equestria despite there being those who could call themselves 'royal engineers'. After all why would you need technology if magic can do the job just as well. Engineers and machinery were mostly used in towns and cities with a little to non existing unicorn population and even those mostly just worked with whatever they got. Such a technological masterpiece was unfortunately far beyond their current understanding.
A brown unicorn with a metallic silver mane rose from his seat. “I'm afraid that's hard to tell. From what we heard whoever built the steel-ship must have been technologically far more advanced than us.” He closed his eyes and began thinking. “The only way to actually figure out how the steel-ship works would be to go inside and try to use it. Experimental trial and error if you wish.” He opened his eyes again and looked expectantly at the sun princess.
“Thank you for your honest answer Professor Clockwork.” Again the nodded politely in at him. “We now know roughly what they found but we still don't know what exactly we are dealing with. I would recommend that we adjourn this meeting and continue as soon as we get the reports from the engineering teams that have been sent to investigate.”
Various murmurs of approval resonated through the hall. “So it is decided. The meeting will be adjourned and we will continue as soon as we get a report of the engineering teams.”
With that the meeting concluded and the scientists left the hall, most of them chatting among themselves.
The princesses were still sitting on their thrones. Celestia looked at her younger sister who kept quiet during the whole meeting. “Please tell me what's bothering you.”
The night princess was taken by surprise but quickly composed herself and whispered. “Oh, it's nothing.” But her older sister didn't believe her. “You are still feeling guilty are you?” The smaller alicorn wanted to protest but was cut off. “You know that nopony blames you.” A tear rolled down Luna's cheek. “I do.” With those words the younger alicorn ran off before her sister could stop her. Celestia could only watch and hope that the damage that Nightmare Moon and the banishment have done to her sister would heal.
While the meeting took place Twilight had already welcomed the two dozen engineers that were sent to study the steel-ship. They got almost all of the exterior cleaned up and were now waiting for the first trip inside the metal monstrosity. Pinkie Pie, Spike and Rainbow Dash were most excited about this, they would spend most of their time at the makeshift guard stations that were set up on the openings above the wing trying to get a look inside. Even Rarity and Fluttershy were intrigues by the ship even though the timid pegasus pony was more afraid then interested.
After their descend it took them a few moments to shake the engineers out of their stupor.
“This is amazing.” Said Spark, a blue Unicorn with a blond, frizzled mane and what looks like a thunderbolt for a cutie mark. “If whoever built this must have been at least a thousand years ahead of us in technology.” The rest of his colleagues chattered enthusiastically among each other.
Then Professor Digger stepped forward. “We have already made out an entry point.” The archeologist pointed to a rope bridge that has been build on the side of the tunnel leading all the way up to one of the wings. “There are some opening just above the wings. We'll take those to enter.” The other scientists nodded in agreement and followed the Professor.
Professor Digger, the engineer teams and Twilight and her friends made their way across the bridge. They had Rainbow Dash carry Pinkie as they discovered that the giddy pony made the rope bridge sway in dangerous ways. “This is so exciting we couldn't go inside for so long but now we can finally take a look inside oh I'm so excited about what this thing looks like inside.” The pink party pony rambled on but Rainbow Dash was not annoyed this time.
“I know this is gonna be so cool I hope they have lasers in there that would be so awesome.”
Twilight sighed at the wild imagination of her friend as they arrived before the entrance. Professor Digger spoke briefly to the guard stationed in front and then they could finally go inside.
As they went through the long tunnels, miners helmets on their heads they first noticed the rail that led apparently all the way to the back. Fluttershy first refused to go inside until they promised her that there was absolutely no danger inside and Spike was carrying a lantern for Rarity because she didn't want to wear 'one of those ugly hats'-
Twilight walked next to the chief engineer Spark. “What do you think this rail is for Professor Spark?”
The other unicorn turned his head around. “Oh please Ms. I'm no Professor, just call me Spark. As for the rails, I don't know but there's a theory that you can use rails for a slingshot-like launch system where a hook gets attached to the object you want to launch and that hook speeds the object along the rails until the rails end and the object gets propelled forward.”
“So they launched something with this?” Twilight asked.
Spark just shrugged. “It's the most likely answer since the rails lead directly outside but the question is what.”
Suddenly one of the engineers yelled. “Come quick there's something written on the wall!”
The other ponies ran towards the engineer who called them. Their miners helmets illuminated the words on the wall.
“I know this writing.” Professor Digger stepped directly in front of the wall. “This is the same old writing style I found in some other ruins.” The Professor squinted his eyes and concentrated on the writing. “Ku-ro-ga-ne launch dock 4.”
Spark came up right next to the Professor. “I knew these rails were for launching something but what's a Kurogane?”
Professor Digger shrugged. “I guess it's the name of this ship.”
Pinkie Pie meanwhile bounced past the engineer team. “Oh Kurogane, I like that name. Nice to meet you Kuro!” The others gave her a puzzled look as she said hello to the ancient artifact.
Rainbow Dash grinned. “Kurogane, sounds cool. It sounds like a name for a superhero.” She struck a pose to emphasize her point.
“There's a door here!” One of the ponies has continued to look around while the others looked at the writing. The rest of the team galloped over to where the voice was coming from. In front of a steel door with no handle. Spark looked at the door confused. “How do we open a door without a handle?” He looked around trying to think when he saw a pad with several buttons on it at the side of the door.
“Could this be used to open the door? Stand back everypony I'm going to try and get this unlocked” Every pony took a step back as he reached into the pad with his magic trying to make sense of it but before he could do anything something happened. The rest of the ponies gasped as a little glass window on the pad started to glow with a green light.
Spark too gasped as he noticed the glow. “Incredible, this device absorbed my magic.” He smiled now that he knew how to power this ship but that smile fell as he realized what this the buttons and numbers on the pad meant. “Oh no, we're gonna need a code to open this door.”
“May I try it?” Everypony turned around to look at the yellow earth pony who just spoke. His name was Cogwheel. He had a steel gray mane that was kept short, wore thin brimmed glasses his cutie mark was a pair of cogwheels.
Everypony was a little confused but Spark still stepped aside to let him try. Cogwheel was now in front of the pad. He had to lean on the wall to reach it but as he was high enough he held his hoof in front of the pad and closed his eyes in concentration. Twilight and her friends, Professor Digger, Spark and the rest of the engineering team stared with fascination as Cogwheel slowly started to put in number after number.
With a last click the pad started beeping and the door opened up. “The code is 519372.”
Cogwheel turned to the rest of the ponies who stared at him with disbelief. Twilight was the first to recover. “But... HOW? How did you get the code right? ON THE FIRST TRY?”
Cogwheel rubbed the back of his head. “Well, I always had a... connection with machines. In fact I got my cutie mark on a school trip when we visited a factory. One of the machines was busted and the repairponies were trying to figure out what was wrong. I was curious and took a closer look and as I touched the machine I somehow just knew what was wrong.”
Pinkie Pie let out a loud gasp. “Oh my gosh. That's just like my Pinkie sense just with machines. This is so awesome.” Faster then it should be possible the pink pony rushed to Cogwheels side and pulled him into a hug. Twilight meanwhile decided that if it was really like the pinkie-sense she shouldn't challenge her luck again. Instead she suggested that they moved on and everypony was more than happy to oblige.
They moved through the steel corridors of the ship with every single hoofstep vibrating through the halls. Rarity's interest in the ship slowly started to diminish. “Did the builders of this ship have no sense of style at all? Nothing but cold metal wherever you look. I really need to spruce this place up.” The other ponies just wondered how the fashionista could possibly think about renovating an ancient artifact of unknown age and origin. The only one who wasn't put off by her sense of priorities was the purple dragon on Twilights back.
“I'm sure you could turn this thing into something amazing Rarity.”
“Oh why thank you Spike.” The white unicorn looked pleased that at least someone agreed with her while Spike just had a giddy grin on his face.
Then the ponies come to an intersection. “Now wich way?” Twilight asked. Spark trotted up next to her. “I'd say you and your friends come with me and half of the team while the other half explores the right side. Cogwheel, you stay here so that we can easily reach you in case we run into any mechanisms that we can't figure out ourselves. Alright then, let's go.”
The two teams went their ways and soon enough Twilights team reached another door and Spark stopped the team. “Hold on. We'll try this door.” Spark lit his horn and transferred some of his magic into the keypad next to the wall. As it came to life he used the code given by Cogwheel and the door opened.
As they entered the room the first thing they noticed were several open pod-like objects on the wall. They were open and inside of them were seats that had strange sticks with red buttons on them on the armrests and upon closer inspection they saw pedals on the bottom as well as a glass panel with a board full of buttons below directly in front of whoever sat in the chair.
“What in tarnation are all these for?” Applejack asked while inspecting all the deviced inside of the pod.
Rainbow Dash was also puzzled by these strange seats. “Hey Twilight do you think you can power the whole room?”
“I'll try.” With that Twilight focused her magic and slowly fed it to the machines in the room. Everyponies eyes went wide as light started to flood the room revealing another door behind them as well as a large window. The glass panels inside the pods started to display what looked like the desert outside. Finally Twilights horn stopped glowing. “Okay that should do it.”
“Well done Ms. Sparkle. Could you take a look at this please? The rest of the engineers please see what's in that other room.” Spark called over from the last pod on the wall. As Twilight trotted over to the pod she noticed that the glass display in this pod not only showed a desert landscape but also some numbers and bars on the sides. The most notable thing was the bipedal shape in the upper right corner. It looked like it was wearing armor plates. The hands and feet were covered with heavy boots and gauntlets, the shoulders were triangular and the head was mostly faceless with some sort of slit where the eyes should be and almost horse-ear like flaps on top of it. Spike stood on Twilights back looking over her head. “What is that thing Twilight?”
Twilight was thinking but she couldn't think of anything similar to this. “I don't know Spike but I'm going to get a closer look.” Spike hopped off of her and the unicorn went into the pod. It was strange to sit like that, the only pony that could comfortably sit in this chair was probably Lyra. Then came a shout from the other room.
“We have some sort of control panel over here.”
“Is it for these seats?” Spark shouted back.
“No idea we're going to try one of these buttons.”
Immediately after the engineer said that a startled cry came from Twilights pod.
“TWI!” Applejack tried to stop the pod that was closing, trapping the unicorn inside but to no avail. “DASH! Go'n get Cogwheel!” The Pegasus immediately darted out of the door and through the hallway.
Fluttershy looked ready to cry while Rarity tapped her hoof on the pod. “Oh my goodness, are you alright Twilight?”
From inside the pod came a slightly muffled reply. “Don't worry I'm fine.”
“Don't worry Twi, Dash's getting that Cogwheel fella. He'll get ya outta there lickety split.”
Twilight felt comforted by Applejacks reassurance but as her fear melted away she got curios about the mechanisms.
The first thing she tried were the pedals and since she couldn't reach them with her hoofs she used her magic to push them down. Suddenly the pod started to vibrate alarming the ponies outside while the landscape on the display in front of Twilight started to move as if she was moving forward. Startled she lost her magic grip on the pedals and the pod and the display stopped.
“Twilight darling, what are you doing in there?”
“I don't know Rarity I just pushed down the pedals and the landscape in the display moved as if I was moving forward.”
Twilight heard something drumming on top of the pod.
“Do it again, do it again.”
It was obvious that Pinkie Pie wanted to have some fun with the pod and Twilight decided to indulge her and pushed the pedals again.
“T-t-t-t-this i-i-i-is fu-u-u-u-n.”
While Pinkie was shaking on top of the pod Twilight was inspecting the other devices inside the pod. She poked at the sticks on the armrests and noticed that they could be moved forwards and backwards. She pushed both of them forwards and now the display showed two, gauntlets covered blue arms that seem to come from Twilight.
“Spark! I think I found out what these pods are. They are some sort of training devices for piloting that bipedal thing we saw on the display. It's some sort of vehicle.”
Before Spark could reply the door to the room opened and Dash darted in with Cogwheel in her arms. The poor pony looked shaken but he quickly regained his composure and asked.
“Where is the control panel?”
Spark led him to the other room and just a few seconds later Twilights pod opened.
Fluttershy tackled the purple unicorn down and hugged her as she came out of the pod. Their reunion was cut short as Cogwheel came up to them and took a look at the pod himself.
“Thanks for getting me out of there.”
“Not at all Ms. Sparkle.”
Suddenly a pegasus pony from the other team bolted through the door panting heavily.
“Come quick. We found something huge!” He said between breaths.
Everypony galloped after the pegasus who was remarkably fast for barely being able to breath. They came through another door into a huge hall and what they saw made them all gasp especailly Twilight and Spark. The steel giant in front of them stood at least 20 meters tall with blue armore covering it. The hands and feet were covered in what looks like heavy boots and gauntlets. The helmet showed no face except a red slit where the eyes should be and had two flat 'ears' on top of it. It was the same thing Twilight saw in the pod.
Everypony stood in awe at the sight while Fluttershy hid behind Applejack but Twilight had a glimmer in her eyes.
“It's... beautiful.”
Everypony forgot their stupor and instead gave Twilight a weird look.
Deep underground in the Everfree Forest the tall dog-like creatures known as diamond dogs were digging. But this time it was not for gems. Nightmare Moon herself descended into their mines and promised them a lot of diligent and most importantly quiet unicorn slaves if they helped her find a treasure she buried long ago. The dark alicorn did not take over the body of her ex-host Luna in a mere moment. She had moments in which she took control without Luna remembering and with the heavy depressions she felt back then it was easy to fill her mind with false memories to keep her from getting suspicious about the sudden blank spots.
The diamond dogs already found the underground ruins Nightmare Moon chose as a hiding spot for her treasure a thousand years ago and now it was just a matter of time until the key to her victory was dug out and she could crush Celestia, Luna and the elements of Harmony. “I found it, I found it!” The sudden yell of a diamond dog broke Nightmare Moon out of her daydream. She immediately teleported herself to the chamber where the yell came from. Large parts of the chamber were still covered with dirt but the most important part was right at the end of the chamber.
Nightmare Moons horn glowed as she removed the dirt from the large stone plate in front of her by herself. The last thing she needed is one of those dirt-dwellers to ruin the plate by scratching it up with their dirty but still very sharp and durable claws. In less than a minute the stone plate stood clean before her as if it was never buried and the words carved into the stone were now readable. Magic spells and instructions for the creation of giant golems. Not just pathetic small golems barely any bigger than a pony but huge monsters that can tear cities apart. Nightmare Moon began to chuckle, that chuckle turned into an evil laugh that caused the diamond dogs in the chamber to cower in fear.
As she finally calmed down she had a cold smirk on her face. “Now there's only one thing missing.” As if on command a small diamond dog, barely the size of a pony filly meekly stepped into the room. “M-mistress, I-I've returned.” Nightmare Moon turned to see the spy she sent to Ponyville to spy on the elements.
“Ah yes, what can you tell me about the current situation of the elements of harmony?”
The spy gulped in fear. “They were not there.”
“WHAT!” Dark flames engulfed the dark alicorn. This was bad. What if they were in Canterlot. If they were so close to the princesses she could not harm them before either Celestia or Luna found out. “WHERE ARE THEY!”
The small dog was cowering on the ground, covering his head with his arms. “I found out t-that they are in the c-coltave desert helping some pony called Professor D-digger.”
Suddenly Nightmare Moons rage stopped. Her furious expression changed into one of surprise until it finally grew into a wicked grin.
“In the desert. Far away from the Princesses or any civilization. This is perfect.”
One of the braver diamond dogs slowly approached her. “Does this mean we get the unicorn slaves?” The dog flinched as the alicorn turned to him but despite his fears she still seemed happy. “Oh have patience. I have to overthrow the false queens first but afterward I will give you your unicorn slaves. And a muzzle for each and every one of them.” Nightmare Moon was not lying. She figured out that giving them to the diamond dogs would be a fitting punishment for all the unicorns that refuse to obey her after the became queen.
“Now, I want you to clear out the rest of the ground in this chamber.” Then she pointed at a magic circle that was drawn on the stone plate. “And then you take some chalk and draw that symbol on the ground.” Her feature grew darker again. “But don't dare to mess this up. If a single line is off I will turn you into one of the gems you love so much. I will now go to rest. Do not wake me up before the circle is finished.” With those final words she teleported away to prepare for the spell she would cast soon. The diamond dog gulped. “You heard her. Clear the grounds and get me the best drawers you can find.” Half of the dogs in the chamber started clearing the grounds while the other half darted off to into the other parts of the ruins to find some drawers. Rex, the diamond dog in charge wondered meanwhile. Was it really a good idea to follow the orders of the evil alicorn?
One week has passed and everypony on the dig side has been busy with the new discoveries inside the Kurogane. They quickly decided that the best course of action was to try and reactivate the large steel statue or Gespenst MK II Type TT, as it was written on the side of them, to learn more about it. Twilight volunteered to be the test pilot and spend the week inside the simulator pod for training while the engineers were trying to get it fixed up to the best of their knowledge. They couldn't really make much sense of all the wires and circuits so they limited themselves to just replacing everything that looked damaged with something that filled a similar role.
The Gespenst was in a remarkably good state so the repairs were quickly finished but there were still other similar objects in the hangar. Some other Gespensts wich appearently also came in red, green and white. Some of them had three metal rods on one hand.
There were also two other steel statues in white and yellow that were different from the Gespensts. Their heads were rounder in form and without ears, on each hand were three metal tubes and on the shoulders were large barrel-like objects. Professor Digger translated their name as 'Schutzwald'.
Lastly there was one 'Guarlion' a much slimmer steel statue. It's body actually very thin and there were what looked like small fins on the side of each of the shoulders.
They learned that the hangar and the launch dock were connected and that the slits on the wall were in fact not decoration but a large door. After they were done with the repairs Twilight and several other unicorns levitated the Gespenst outside were they build a tent around it to protect it from the sand until the test drive.
The next day the dig side was bustling with activity. The engineers were checking the Gespenst one last time before the test drive. Twilight was already sitting inside of the cockpit while Spike was on the framework that was errected for maintenance and entering.
He was busy writing down a report for Princess Celestia.
Dear Princess Celestia,
you will be pleased to know that we learn more and more about the steel-ship or Kurogane and that we even managed to reactivate one of the steel statues we reported to you last week. In fact I am going to perform a test drive shortly.
If everything goes well I'm sure that we will find many uses for these marvelous pieces of technology.
We will continue exploring the rest of the ship after the test drive.
Please wish me luck.
Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.
Spike send the letter to the Princess and wished Twilight good luck himself as the cockpit hatch closed and the dragon made his way outside where the others were waiting to watch.
He sat down next to Rarity of course who was wearing a sun hat and sunglasses.
Fluttershy was next to her shaking a bit in anticipation and also because she was worried that something might go wrong.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie on the other hand were just as excited as Spike and Pinkie even got some popcorn from... somewhere.
“Oh my gosh this is gonna be so cool! I can't wait to see that steel statue moving.” Rainbow Dash was fidgeting in her seat the anticipation was almost driving her insane.
“Ah know sugarcube this trip turned out to be not so boring after all.” Agreed Applejack next to her.
Some pegasi then flew to the tent and pulled it open. Everypony leaned forward eager to see the Gespenst in action.
Suddenly Pinkie started to shake all over. “D-doozy!”
Rarity and the others looked fearful at their shaking friend. This was the worst possible time for a doozy.
Twilight was sitting in the cockpit meditating one more minute. Since they couldn't refit the cockpit for a pony yet she would have to use her magic to move the Gespenst but she trained the entire week for this. She took a glance at the numbers and bars on her display.
After learning a bit about the ancient language the builders of the Kurogane and the Gespenst used she found out that these numbers, bars and the Gespenst in the corner were there to show her the status of the steel statue. Energy, armo, speed some navigational devices. Finally the tent was opened and she prepared to move out as she saw something moving near the camp. First she thought it was a mirage as the sand rose in one spot but it was real. The sand near the camp started to build up and formed two large, bulky arms and a head. It was a sand golem but nothing Twilight has ever seen before. It was huge, almost the size of the Gespenst. The golem then started to move heading directly for the viewer seats they had set up for the test drive. Twilight gasped.
“It's going to attack us.”
The ponies on the ground were in panic. Many were running away, the pegasi took off into the sky. Some ponies headed underground while others were too shocked to move.
Fluttershy was one of the latter ponies and only stared wide eyed at the large sand creature that was getting closer. Rainbow Dash saw that Fluttershy was too scared to move and headed back to grab her but she would not be able to reach her in time.
Fluttershy still couldn't move and instead closed her eyes as the sand golem raised one of it's bulky arms. She waited for the end but instead she heard the sound of something heavy hitting the sand. As she opened her eyes she saw Twilights Gespenst with one fist buried in the golems shoulder causing the raised arm to collapse.
Rainbow Dash reached Fluttershy and couldn't help but stare at the two giants.
Inside the cockpit Twilight pushed a button to activate the speakers.
“DASH! Take Fluttershy and get her to safety.” She threw another punch to the golems head while Dash followed her lead and took off with Fluttershy in her hoofs.
Then the golem suddenly grabbed the Gespensts head with the other arm and lifted her off the ground. Twilight was shocked at the golems strenght and before she could react the golems other arm regenerated and he punched the steel statue. The punch hurled Twilight several a good dozen meters away and the golem threw some of its sand at the fleeing pegasi.
The sand has hit Rainbow Dash who couldn't fly so fast because of Fluttershy and knocked her out. Then the golem made its way to the unconcious pegasi.
Twilight groaned inside of the cockpit. The impact shook her up pretty badly and blood was running out of her nose after she hit her nose on the pad in front of her. Then she saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy on the ground and the sand golem almost reached them. Frantically she got the Gespenst to stand up again and acivated the thrusters, making her glide over the sand. She would not make it in time.
All Twilight could think of was 'I need to save them, I can't let them die!' Then something new popped up on the display it read 'T-Link Ripper ready' Twilight briefly wondered what a T-Link Ripper was as she saw one of the buttons she was still unfamiliar with light up. Desperate to save her friends she pushed the button.
Rainbow Dash slowly came back to her senses. She stood up but her legs were still wobbly and she coughed up some sand. Then she noticed a huge shadow covering her and looked up at the giant sand fist that was raised above her. Now even she was too afraid to move as she stared at what was certainly her doom. But instead she just heard a sound like a boomerang flying through the air as two green glowing disks flew through the air and slammed into the golem, ripping huge chunks of sand away. Rainbow Dash managed to cover her eyes in time as the sand rained down on her.
Twilight couldn't believe it. After she pushed the button two compartments opened on the Gespensts sides and two metal disks floated out of them. Blades popped out of them and started to rotate. The T-Link Rippers started to glow bright green as they flew towards the golem tearing away the sand and revealing a large red orb.
Sudden realization hit Twilight. Of course, a golem of this size needs some sort of power core to hold it's form up. With new hope Twilight speeded towards the golem. As she reached it the golem slowly started to reform itself. She barely managed to grab the core before sand covered it again.
Twilight started to press the core between the Gespensts hands as one of the sand golems arms regenerated. It lifted the arm to bring it down on Twilight but before the huge arm could reach her the core shattered with a loud crack and the sand instead harmlessly rained down on her.
Twilight was completely motionless in the cockpit. She won, she seriously defeated a gigantic sand golem. As she saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy behind the now crumbled golem she smiled. That smile grew into a laugh of relieve.
“Thank you Gespenst. Thank you for saving my friends.”
The few ponies that were still nearby remained silent at first but then began to cheer at Twilights spectacular victory.
Above them a dark purple cloud hovered in the air. For the very first time Nightmare Moon was speechless. She couldn't possibly foresee THIS. Now the element of surprise was ruined and worse, they had something that could defeat her giant golems. There was no other choice now, she would have to prepare for war.
Authors note: Aaand the second chapter is done. This is the first fight scene I've ever written and I hope you all like it. Unfortunately I'm still currently without beta reader so until I can find someone I'll just have to revise the chapters if one of you can find errors so please leave comments and (constuvtive) criticism.
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Valsion
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2011-11-11T17:40:55+00:00
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2011-11-11T17:40:55+00:00
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Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 3 Team M6
After the giant sand golem was defeated the ponies who fled slowly started to return to the camp. The damage was assessed and repair crews started to work. Thanks to Twilight nopony got hurt, and instead the pegasi flew towards the Gespenst MK II and got the still shaking Twilight back to the ground. While the pegasi still congratulated her for her victory, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash rushed over to Twilight. Fluttershy pulled her friend into a soft but firm hug.
“Thank you Twilight.” Fluttershy still had tears in her eyes. “I was so scared I thought I was going to die.”
Twilight returned the hug to comfort her friend. “Don't worry Fluttershy, the sand golem is gone, thanks to the Gespenst.”
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash's mood was completely different. “That was AWESOME Twilight, how those green disks slammed through that sand monster, and then you rushed forward and CRACK crushed that red core thing.” The awestruck pegasus kicked some sand and made a crushing motion with her hoofs to accompany her own retelling of the fight when she suddenly remembered what she actually wanted to say. Her voice became softer. “Thank you Twi, I really thought I was a goner.”
Twilight said nothing, she was just glad that her friends were safe. Then she saw Professor Digger and Spark rushing over together with the rest of her friends. Pinkie Pie immediately tackled Rainbow Dash down hugging her fiercely while Rarity went to Fluttershy asking her if she was alright. Spike was on Applejack’s back and his face showed deep admiration.
“That was amazing, Twilight. You totally smashed that thing to pieces.”
Twilight couldn't help but to blush at the praise she got, but her mind quickly began to form the core question.
“Thanks Spike, but who could have sent that golem?”
Every pony was confused at this.
“That what?”
Twilight explained to them that golems, beings made out of animated rock, sand, dirt and sometimes even gems and clouds were commonly used in oldern times to carry out menial tasks. Then some bandits found out how strong golems were and used them for their evil deeds, and not even the royal guards could stand up to the golems. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna saw how dangerous the golems were, and used the Elements of Harmony for the first time to dispel all golems and hide away the knowledge how to summon them.
“So, that was a golem that attacked us?” Rainbow Dash shot a nervous glance at the sand hill that was the only proof that there ever was a golem as if she was afraid the sand would form a giant monster and attack again.
Twilight just shook her head. “I don't really know; from what I've learned golems are supposed to be much smaller, just a bit taller than a pony. Who could have summoned a golem of THAT size?”
Spike meanwhile got out a scroll and a quill.
“We should report this to the Princess.”
“Good thinking Spike. Maybe she can help us to figure out who attacked us. Oh, and Spark?” The other unicorn who was inspecting the Gespenst turned his head towards Twilight. “I have a feeling that this wasn't the last attack, it would be better if we got the Gespenst ready to launch if that happens.”
Spark just nodded. “We are actually way ahead of you. While you were training we took careful data of the controls. I think we should be able to refit them for a pony now. After that we can try to repair and reactivate the other steel statues. But first we will test it with the training pods.”
“Calling dibs on Guarlion.”
Every head turned towards Rainbow Dash.
“You heard me, I'm going to pilot one of these. I will pay Twilight back for saving my life.”
Twilight wanted to protest first but then came the next surprise.
“I think I'll take a Schutzwald, I mean, if that is alright with you. I don't want to just sit there and be protected by everypony while I do nothing.”
Everypony stared at the yellow Pegasus with surprise bordering on shock, but Pinkie just grinned.
“Okie, dokie, lokie. I'll take a Gespenst just like Twilight.”
“Ahm helpin’ too! Give me one of dem Schusswalds, or however ya'll pronounce that.”
“And I guess that leaves one Gespenst for me. While I detest fighting, I will not allow some ruffians to hurt my friends.”
Twilight beamed with joy at the support of her friends. Spike already was an Twilight's back with an idea forming in his mind.
“Alright you guys can be team Mane Six!”
Every pony stared at Spike in confusion while he just shrugged.
“What, you never heard it? After you defeated Nightmare Moon and became friends, some ponies started to call you the Mane Six.”
Dash grinned at this. “That's awesome, sounds like a great name for a team of heroes. Any objections?” Dash looked at her friends who kept silent. They actually liked that name too, but were still surprised that they were famous enough that their group had its own nickname.
“It's decided then. We'll be team Mane Six, or M6 for short.”
Spark trotted over from the Gespenst and couldn't help but smile at the girls energy even after such an event. “Very well then, the engineering team will refit six training pods to accommodate you while Twilight teaches you the basics.”
The girls nodded and Twilight stepped forward. “Alright, but first things first. Spike, take a letter to the Princess.”
Dear Princess Celestia,
I must inform you of an attack that has occurred during the test of the Gespenst MK II Type TT. A giant sand golem about 20 meters in height attacked our camp and even tried to kill Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
Fortunately, I managed to defeat it using the Gespenst's secret weapon, the so called T-Link Ripper.
The one who summoned the giant sand golem might attack again, so we are taking steps to prepare ourselves; in fact as I am writing this letter we are getting ready to reactivate more of the steel statues to defend ourselves against any further attacks.
I hope that you are safe.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.
Princess Celestia read the letter again as she stood in front of her sister’s room. She dreaded the task ahead of her, but keeping it a secret from Luna would be even worse. Summoning giant golems was magic of such a high level that only alicorns were capable of performing the rituals. And the only other alicorn they knew of was Nightmare Moon.
“Keeping it from her would only make it worse.”
Celestia repeated that mantra in her head as she opened the door to her sister's room. The younger alicorn was lying on her bed and turned her head towards her sister.
“Oh, hello Celestia, is something wrong?”
Celestia swallowed a lump that has formed in her throat.
“Yes there is. While testing some of the technology found in the Kurogane, Twilight and the others have been attacked by a.... giant golem.”
Celestia didn't need to say anything else, as a terrible understanding showed in Luna's eyes, and tears started to form.
“But, the only other alicorn than us is.. Nightmare Moon.” The last part came out as a weak whisper as the tears started to flow freely.
“I'm afraid it's true little sister. It seems that the Elements of Harmony did not destroy Nightmare Moon, but merely separated her from you.”
Celestia waited for a reaction from her sister, any reaction, but Luna only sat there motionless with a haunted look on her tear stained face. Celestia edged closer to her little sister, and finally held her in a tight embrace. There was nothing she could say now. Telling her that everything would be alright would only sound hollow at this point. The only thing Celestia could do at this point was to hold her little sister tight.
At the same time, Nightmare Moon was standing in the middle of a magic circle. It was too soon for her to panic. The sand golem was defeated, but it was not like it didn't take that strange steel statue no effort to do so. All she had to do was to summon more golems and have them gang up on the enemy. After all, she planned to summon an entire army anyway. As the next golem core formed in front of her, she levitated it gently to an entire pile of cores. Soon she would be ready to crush the Elements of Harmony for good.
Shortly after warning the princess about the giant sand golems Spike burped up princess Celestia’s response. The letter stated clearly that those golems could have only been created by an alicorn. Even before Spike actually got to Nightmare Moon every pony already knew who it was. Between the shocked whispers Applejack was the first to speak up.
“Wait a darn minute there. Didn’t we ya know, destroy Nightmare Moon with the elements of Harmony.”
“Yeah, we kicked her flank.” Rainbow Dash accompanied this with a wild kicking gesture.
In the background Rarity was trying her best to calm Fluttershy down. The timid pegasus girl has been afraid of Nightmare Moon the first time she met her but now it was even worse, the evil alicorn not only has those giant golems at her disposal, she made it perfectly clear that she was after the elements of harmony. Fluttershy managed not to look to scared but on the inside she just wanted to hide somewhere safe until everything was over. She only hoped that her friends could protect her with the steel statues.
Finally Twilight spoke up.
“Calm down everypony. I know that this is really bad news but you forgot one thing.”
The whispers stopped as every pony looked at her with clear confusion on their faces. Twilight meanwhile just pointed a hoof at the Gespenst MK II.
“We have this powerful machine to back us up, with the Gespenst and the other steel statues we can fight and beat Nightmare Moon once and for all.”
Some ponies were still uneasy but the rest of them shared Twilights faith in the large machine. Nightmare Moon may have giant golems but they had their own giant protector and there are gonna be more of them, they will be ready.
Two days later the training pods were finally ready. Twilight already taught her friends the basics how to pilot a steel statue, and at least Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack were eager to get started. The engineering team just finished explaining the changes inside the cockpit, and Twilight was actually glad about this. She could use the old controls with her telekinesis, but it would be easier to focus if she didn't have to.
“Alright, after some fidgeting with the controls back here, I think we figured most of this out.”
Cogwheel was quickly promoted after it got apparent that he was the best pony to figure out how everything inside the Kurogane worked, and right now he was at the controls of the training room while Team M6 were already sitting in the training pods, and took a look at the new controls.
The pedals were now positioned at their hooves, while the control sticks on the arm-rests now have 'cups' in which a pony could stick her hoof in, and only had to bend it a little to get to the buttons. The seat itself had a few cushions and a hole for the tail added to make sitting in there a little more comfortable.
“I figured out how to change the steel statue assigned to each pod and how to give you simulated weapons to test.”
The girls were a little uneasy at this. Weapons were almost unheard of in Equestria; even the royal guards relied on their strength and magic, and now they would learn how to use weapons, even if it was just a simulation.
“Twilight will have her Gespenst MK II Type TT equipped with a beam sword and a megabeam rifle. Rarity gets a Type TT too, but with a 'divine blade' and a machine gun. Pinkie Pie's regular Gespenst, the one with the steel stakes sticking out of one hand, will be equipped with a steel knife and a boosted rifle. Applejack's Schutzwald will have a M16 shotgun and a steel knife, while Fluttershy will have a repair module for on-field repairs, and lastly Rainbow Dash has a Guarlion with a burst railgun and an assault blade.”
Twilight and her friends made a mental note of the names of the weapons they will learn to use.
“There are also weapons built into the steel statues. The Type TT has the T-Link Ripper and a gatling gun a little below the neck, the regular Gespenst has a gatling gun and a jet magnum, which we guess are the steel stakes on its hand. The Schutzwald also has a Gatling gun, and the triple tubes on each arm are so called auto-cannons, the large tubes on the shoulders are called 'Twin-beam cannon', and the Guarlion has auto-cannons built into it's chest, and something called the sonic breaker. Very well then, if you are ready we can begin.”
With this words the pods closed and an artificial landscape showed on each screen. One thing that was different about the desert shown on the screen were the goal posts marking a racing track.
“We will start with movements. All of you are in 'separated areas', so you don't bump into each other. Just move through the goal posts. Ready? Go!”
The girls moved swiftly between the goal posts, only occasionally missing one when Pinkie was being too jittery or Rainbow Dash flying too fast to get a curve right, but otherwise the test went really well.
“Very good girls. We now move on to target practice. You should soon see red crystals floating around, these are your targets. I will have the training pods highlight the buttons you need to push for selecting each weapon, and you use the hoof controls to aim and fire. Ready? Go!”
As soon as Cogwheel was finished the red crystals were appearing in front of them.
Twilight professionally picked one after another, the megabeam rifle's red beam breaking through every target. Occasionally one of the buttons on the controls in front of her would light up indicating a change in weapons. Next were close combat weapons. The controls for them were a little different. Instead of aiming and pushing a button, they had to use the 'cups' to swing the weapon.
Applejack had a quick transition. It seemed like the shotgun was designed for close combat, so she already was near the targets anyway, and somehow it just felt proper to fight up close and personal. She was in range of the first target and swung the steel knife against it, cutting neatly through the fake enemy. After a few more another button was lighting up, indicating another change of weapons.
Rainbow Dash was actually having fun. First there was a race, and there just was something cathartic about shooting and slicing up those red crystals. As she pressed the next button a blue field appeared in front of her. The cyan pegasus was a little unsure what to do now until Cogwheel gave some instructions.
“The sonic breaker seems to be a force field designed for ramming attacks.”
Rainbow Dash just grinned and faced the next targets while pushing the pedals all the way down. The Guarlion flew at speeds that amazed even her while effortlessly smashing through the targets.
Fluttershy meanwhile got a little special training with the repair module instead of close combat training. In front of her was a very beat-up looking Gespenst. Cogwheel told her that the torch of the repair module needed to be used very carefully, or else she could accidentally disable the steel statue she was supposed to repair. Fortunately, being careful was second nature to the timid pegasus, and the Gespenst soon looked as good as new, after she welded the torn hull shut.
After a few more weapon switches they decided to call it a day and move to performance reviews.
“Alright everypony this test went actually really well. Twilight, you performed best in terms of accuracy, but to be honest, you could use a little more 'feeling'. Your movements seemed a bit too artificial.”
“Applejack, your close combat performance was top notch but your movements were a little stiff. Try to move a little smoother.”
“Pinkie Pie I'm actually surprised at your accuracy with the boosted rifle. I think you should be on long range support.”
“Rarity, while you showed a good overall performance, you were a little too focused on moving elegantly, and sacrificed efficiency.”
“Rainbow Dash was definitely the fastest, but the problem is that you tend to overshoot your targets, so try to slow down at least a bit.”
“Lastly Fluttershy, I'm sorry to say that but you are too insecure. You moved through the goal posts too slowly and hesitated at every target, but your repair performance was flawless.”
“That concludes the performance review, I think you all did well today, and should be able to defend the dig site without a problem when we get attacked again. Alright, you're dismissed for today.”
Twilight and her friends nodded and made their way outside where they chatted.
“Oh I can't wait for the bad guys to show up now. Guarlion is gonna smash them all.” Rainbow Dash punched a wall to emphasize her point while Rarity just rolled her eyes.
“Oh please, I would be very glad if we never saw one of these golems again,” she said.
Fluttershy remained quite. She felt a little nauseous after training. Not only because of the harsh movements of the pod, but because she started to realize that volunteering to pilot one of the steel statues might be more than she can handle. On the other hoof, with her on repair duty she might not even really have to fight, she only had to make sure her friends could continue fighting. The thought made her feel a little easier. After an hour or so they decided that they should get a little rest. Tomorrow they would practice moving through narrow corridors. The camp had been moved, and a tunnel is being dug out so that they could drive the steel statues directly out of the Kurogane and outside, so they could avoid being attacked before they were ready to fight.
Three days of hard work later everything was ready for the first field test of Team Mane 6.
Everypony was in their steel statue, and they already reached the surface. The steel statues have been repainted in the main color of each girl. The feelings were mixed; while Twilight, Rarity and Applejack were a little nervous, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were more excited. Fluttershy on the other hoof was a nervous wreck.
“No reason to worry Fluttershy, we're not being atta...”
Before Fluttershy could finish reassuring herself, they saw something approaching from the distance. This time there was not only one giant sand golem, but eight of them. Now even Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were getting nervous, but Twilight remained calm and gave them the battle plan through the communication system.
“Alright girls, here's the plan.”
“Applejack will move in first. After that Rarity and I will join you. Rainbow Dash, you bombard them with the burst railgun from above. Pinkie, you stay back and shoot any exposed core you see while Fluttershy stays with you. Anypony whose steel statue gets damaged goes to Fluttershy for repairs. Get ready, here they come.”
Like planned, Applejack went first, shotgun held before her, ready to shoot as soon as the golems got in range, while Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash followed closely behind her. As the first golem came into range, she shot a burst from the shotgun at it, and while she missed the core it was quickly pierced by a bullet coming from Pinkie Pies. Applejack was quite frankly impressed at the accuracy and reflexes of the pink party pony. Unfortunately, these thoughts distracted her just long enough for one of the sand golems to get close to her. In the last moment, she threw the Schutzwald arms in front of her to stop the giant fist from slamming into her chest.
Rainbow Dash saw Applejack defending herself from one of the golems. She flew over to her, while also shooting at another golem that was about to attack Twilight. She didn't quite hit the target, but still managed to do some damage to the golem. Twilight saw her chance and shot the megabeam rifle into the sand golems chest. The sand around the impact area started to melt down, and the golem started to crumble as Twilight apparently managed to hit the core. With that problem solved, Rainbow Dash took aim and shot the arms of the golem that was currently holding Applejack's Schutzwald off. Applejack took the chance and activated the auto-cannons, sending volley of bullets into the chest of the golem until she found the core and destroyed it.
Rarity in the meantime used the machine gun to shoot the sand away from the golems core so that Pinkie could finish it off with her own rifle. As the golem crumbled, she shot a quick look to Twilight, who sliced through another golem with her plasma cutter, when she suddenly noticed something. Three of the golems were missing. Rainbow Dash seemed to have noticed it too.
“Hey what happened to the other golems?”
Before anypony could answer the question of the cyan pegasus a large blast of sand shot out of the ground behind her, hitting her straight in the back. Rainbow Dash let out a startled scream as she lost control of the Guarlion and plummeted to the ground. As she crashed, she hit her head on the display and lost consciousness.
“DASH!” Applejack was on her way to help her friend as something grabbed her from below, and caused her to fall down too. The remaining sand golems then rose from the ground behind Applejack's Schutzwald and the Type TT's, and before Rarity or Twilight could react, they were thrown flat onto the ground.
Fluttershy yelped and covered her eyes with her hooves. This wasn't happening, her friends couldn't be... even Pinkie Pie started panicking as she fired blindly at the golems, as they rose their arms to strike her friends down. Fluttershy's whole body was shaking.
“Why won't they stand up? How could this happen? How...”
Suddenly a strange feeling surged through Fluttershy.
“How.. HOW DARE THEY HURT MY FRIENDS!”
Rarity closed her eyes, not wanting to see her end coming at her, when she suddenly heard a strange howling sound. As she opened her eyes the sand golem was crumbling with most of its chest missing.
Pinkie Pie meanwhile was staring in shock at the Schutzwald that was piloted by the normally timid Fluttershy. Two large beams of brilliant blue energy shot out of the big tubes that were mounted on each shoulder. Then another set of beams shot out, hitting the golem that stood behind Twilight. That golem, too, was crumbling. The second the beams vanished, leaving behind a large hole in its chest.
Finally Fluttershy turned towards Applejack.
“I'M NOT GONNA LET YOU HURT JACKIE!”
With that furious scream, she charged the twin beam cannons one more time and two beams of energy effortlessly blasted through the last remaining enemy, until it crumbled into a large pile of sand.
Fluttershy was panting heavily as she finally calmed down. She couldn't believe what she just did. Her friends opened communication channels, and their relieved faces were shown at the side of her screen. Even Rainbow Dash seemed to have regained consciousness, and was groggily asking what happened. Twilight answered her question.
“The sand golems almost got us, but Fluttershy saved us and destroyed the golems.”
“Wow, great job Fluttershy. You really got it in you when things get rough.”
Applejack and Rarity could only agree with Rainbow Dash. After all, this wasn't the first time that their friend showed surprising toughness. Pinkie Pie seemed to remember too.
“That was super fantastic Shy, I was already panicking and all like 'oh noes what should I do now', but you just aimed at those meanies and BAM BAM BAM, shot them all down. Just like when you actually made that mean full grown dragon that threatened to cover the entire sky with his smoke cry, or when you won a staring contest against a cockatrice.”
The others ignored the hyperactive ponies motormouthing, and congratulated Fluttershy on her victory.
The yellow pegasus had a calm smile on her face. Just moments ago these steel statues were so frightening to her, horrible weapons of destruction, but now she knew better. They were shields made to protect the loved ones of their pilot.
Authors note: And chapter three is finished too. Sorry for the late update, but I am a little tardy. Don't worry though, unless I say otherwise the story will be updated. Personally I think this characterization for Fluttershy fits perfectly. Normally shy and scared, but may Celestia have mercy on your soul if you hurt one of her friends.
As for the ponies calling the PT's steel statues, they're going to learn what they are really called later, but until then I think steel statue would be a good description for anyone who doesn't know what a robot is.
Special thanks to my new proofreader Midnight Moon.
Silly little Omake #1:
(Takes place during Twilight's test drive)
The large sand monster was closing in on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who were knocked onto the ground. There was no way Twilight could reach them in time. Suddenly Twilight felt strange. It was like her blood was boiling inside of her veins, and words were lighting up on the Gespenst's screen.
Ultimate Gespenst Kick.
Shout Now!
Normally golems were mindless piles of whatever material the summoner chose, but even the golem felt a sense of dread behind it, so it turned around to see what could cause that fear.
The Gespenst flew high into the air until it stopped and arcs of lighting were sizzling all over its body.
“ULTIMATE!”
The shout of the purple unicorn could be heard far and wide as some of the ponies that were hiding and fleeing turned to see whats happening.
“GESPENST!”
With the next shout the Gespenst started to spin wildly, and the tip of its right 'boot' started to radiate a bright blue light.
“KIIIIIIIIIICK!”
The last shout almost deafened some of the ponies that were too close to the scene, as the Gespenst flew straight at the sand golem with its leg outstretched. The creature was too scared to move despite supposedly being a mindless slave to its summoner, and so it could do nothing as the kick connected.
An enormous explosion shot tons of sand high into the air, burying almost the entire camp. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy managed to dig themselves out, and as their heads peaked out of the desert sand Rainbow Dash could only think of one thing to say.
“That was the best thing I've seen in my entire life.”
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Valsion
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2011-11-12T08:02:00+00:00
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2011-11-12T08:02:00+00:00
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Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 4 The Kurogane lives again.
One day after the second golem attack Twilight and her friends were already training again. This time though Fluttershy was a lot more secure and did a lot better in the simulation. As they got out of the training pods they saw Digger and Spark standing in the room already waiting for them. Twilight, being a science enthusiast herself, immediately trotted over to them. After what happened already they all were ready to just drop the titles and the entire team was practically already friends.
“Hello, Digger hello, Spark. Is there something I can do for you?” Twilight asked while Spike already hopped onto her back.
The two scientists seemed really excited about something, surely they must have found something big inside the Kurogane which was still mostly unexplored.
“Indeed there is.”
As they made their way Spark told her that they found some sort of machine in the area that should lead to the bridge. At first they thought that it was a broom closet or something, but then they saw a control panel on the wall, and one pony of the engineering team told them about an idea he had some time ago. His idea was pretty much a small room inside a shaft that could be moved up and down using strong wires and the simple steam machinery Equestria had to transport ponies vertically. Apparently his idea was pretty popular in Canterlot’s engineering circle since the city had a lot of tall towers and walking the stairs to the highest point was flat out torture, especially for elderly ponies.
Since they still have not found a staircase that could lead them to the bridge, they thought that maybe, if the builders of the Kurogane were technologically much more advanced than them, then those elevators, as the engineering pony wanted to call them, might be a common thing for them. As Spark finished explaining this to Twilight and her friends, they already reached the elevator. Digger was the first to get inside and the other ponies followed.
“Now then Twilight, please power the elevator and then we can hopefully reach the ships bridge.”
As Twilight’s horn started to glow Digger continued telling her his plans.
“At first Spark wanted to power this thing himself but I thought it would be better to take a unicorn with your power with us. Since this ship probably needs a tremendous amount of power we’re probably gonna need more than just one normal unicorn to power the most important room.”
The light inside the elevator went on and the control panel beeped, indicating that it was ready for use. Digger pushed the ‘up’ button, and as the elevator closed its doors and slowly started to move upwards he began to think.
‘They only had limited power for each room before they needed to feed another dose of magic to it. There is no way the builder of the Kurogane powered the entire ship by magic alone. It would need half a city worth of unicorns just to keep the important rooms powered up at all times.’
Before he could continue his thought a loud ding told them they reached their destination and the elevator doors opened. Twilight then concentrated again to feed energy into the nearby machines and the room lit up.
Directly in front of the elevator was a large chair for the captain in front of a steel desk. sporting a few screens that slowly started to light up. displaying various messages as well as control panels. Underneath the platform were several smaller stations. neatly lined up in some sort of spearhead. right in front of the window that showed them the cave outside. so that nopony of the bridge crew would block each others view.
Before anypony could analyze the room any further. one of the control stations made a loud alarming noise. Rarity balanced on her hind hooves so she could hold her ears shut.
“What is that ghastly noise?”
Spark and Digger trotted over to the source of the noise, and Digger started to read the words displayed on the screen.
“Warning. Generator offline. Energy reserves critical.”
Sparks eyes lit up. That was it, that generator must have been what originally powered the ship. If they found the generator, then the unicorns wouldn’t have to feed their magic to the Kurogane the entire time. Spark announced this plan to the other ponies.
“That’s fine an all, but how are we s’posed ta find that generator?”
“That’s a good question Applejack. I’ll try something.”
With that, Spark turned to the still blaring control station and tried to type in the word generator.It seemed like a good start, the warning message vanished. Instead a model of the Kurogane popped up on the screen. It was a birds eye view of the ship, and while most of the model was shown in a dark green color, except for a few rooms that were highlighted in a much brighter green. Upon closer inspection Spark noticed that those were the training room, the hangar for the steel statues, and some other rooms that the archaeologists and engineers powered up to use as sleeping quarters. Then the word ‘Main Generator Room’ popped up next to the model, and a yellow line pointed from the letters to a room still unknown to the ponies that was now highlighted in a bright flashing red.
“That room there must be where the generator is located, wait a second.”
Since his first attempt was successful, Spark tried to type in ‘Activate Generator’ but instead a new message popped up.
“Energy reserves too low. External energy input needed.”
Rainbow Dash fluttered directly behind Spark.
“So? Does that mean this thing needs a kick-start?”
“Looks like it. Twilight, you and your friends gather as many unicorns as you can and go to the generator room. It’s time to breathe new life into the Kurogane.”
Spark grinned, barely able to hide his excitement. The other ponies, with the exception of Fluttershy and Rarity, seemed to be equally excited. As they made their way back down and to the crew quarters Spike was already practically hopping up and down.
“I can’t believe we’re finally getting this thing started properly, I can’t wait to see that the Kurogane can do.”
Twilight could no longer contain her own enthusiasm.
“Me too, I’m really starting to love this ship and the steel statues. This combination of form and function is simply perfect.”
“About time you get a cooler hobby.”
Twilight craned her neck around to give her assistant an offended look.
“And what exactly do you mean by that?”
Spike started to stammer nervously.
“Uh.. I just... I mean... LOOK WE’RE HERE!”
Twilight turned around just in time to avoid slamming into the door that lead to a large room with several tables and seat that was obviously some kind of mess hall.
Inside the mess hall, most of the engineers and archaeologists were chatting with each other, or playing various games that they brought with them for entertainment. All eyes were on the purple pilot of one of the steel statues as she stormed inside and called for attention.
“We have a way to power up the entire ship permanently, all unicorns follow me!”
Twilight did not need to repeat herself as all unicorns in the room practically fell over each other hurrying to the door in their sudden excitement, and even some earth and pegasus ponies rushed out of the room, presumably to tell their friends about what’s going to happen. As soon as Twilight was sure that every unicorn was following them she lead the way to the generator room. On the way there some other unicorns as well who were not in the mess hall, as well as Cogwheel, and after just a short gallop they reached a large door that said ‘Generator Room’.
“Are you sure this is going to power the entire ship?” Cogwheel asked Twilight while working his magic on the control pad next to the door.
“Pretty sure, we were on the ship’s bridge and Spark is standing by to power the generator once we get things started.”
At this Cogwheel seemed taken aback.
“Without me? But I wanted to see the bridge.”
The yellow machine-lover was a little disappointed that he couldn’t be one of the first ponies to see the Kurogane’s bridge, but he quickly perked up again. At least he would be the first to see the heart of the Kurogane. With a sudden hiss the door to the generator room slowly opened, and Cogwheel did not waste a second to enter the room. The other ponies followed him, and with a fair bit of concentration Twilight managed to get the lights to work.
As soon as she opened her eyes again she saw the generator. It was a cylinder shaped machine, almost as big as a house, with a large bladed wheel inside. To either side of the room stood several rectangular pillars that reached up to the roof, and at the base of these pillars were other machines with still empty displays and control panels. Twilight could only guess that those helped the crew check on the generators status and adjust the large machine. Cogwheel noticed them too as he finally managed to pick up his jaw from the floor, and snapped some unicorns to take position at those control panels.
“Alright everypony, on my mark you slowly start to feed your magic into the generator. Are you ready?” The machine-whisperer looked around to see that everypony was nodding nervously. “Ok, ready, set, start!” Immediately Twilight’s, Rarity’s, and every other unicorns horns glowed and their magic flowed into the machine. Cogwheel placed a hoof onto the generator and closed his eyes.
“Come on everypony. I can feel it. Just a little bit more.”
Some of the weaker unicorns collapsed as the flow of magic got stronger with each passing minute. Cogwheel hoped that the rest of the unicorns could supply enough magic; it would take at least two weeks to get more unicorns, and any newcomer would be in danger of being attacked by a sand golem.
Meanwhile on the bridge of the Kurogane Spark was fixated on the soft glowing screen. A few minutes ago a bar, showing the generators power status, showed up on the screen and started to fill. Only a tiny bit more and he could finally start the generator.
Behind him stood Digger, who was almost chewing on his hooves with anticipation. All those machines on the bridge could store immeasurable knowledge. About the past, about the Kurogane itself, maybe even about a time before the princesses. Finally a beep informed them that the generator now had enough energy to be started.
Spark wasted no time and immediately gave the command. The screen changed again.
Starting generator.
Power output at 5.35% and rising.
Spark and Digger were overjoyed and actually started to do a little victory dance.
Power output at 21.41%
Slowly the other screens on the bridge started to light up.
Power output at 34.71%
In the halls of the Kurogane all lights started to flicker to life.
Power output at 52.23%
The training pods. along with many other machines that still remained untested, also started up.
Power output at 67,91% thrusters operational.
Spark and Digger briefly wondered what those ‘thrusters’ were as they watched the energy reading climb higher and higher.
Power output at 83,28% Weapon systems operational.
This message was accompanied by a nervous gulp by the two scientists. Some time ago they would have probably disarmed the weapons as soon as they had been found, but now they’re gonna have to use them eventually.
Power output at 100,00% Titanic Drill operational, Kurogane fully operational.
Spark and Digger cheered as they read this. They did it, an ancient ship full of highly advanced technology was still functioning, and now they could make proper use of it. The engineer and the archaeologist sat down and tried to see if the Kurogane had some sort of database. Digger suddenly started to chuckle when he saw Spark’s puzzled expression.
“Sorry, but I would have never thought that we would work together one day. And especially not to prepare to fight Nightmare Moon.”
Spark then joined in, both of their chuckles grew into hearty laughs. Spark was the first to calm down.
“Yes, the entire situation is just so absurd. But say, what got you into archeology anyway?”
Digger was a little caught off guard by the sudden question.
“Well, it might sound weird, but somehow I just like all that ancient stuff. Even as a little colt I was often digging for treasures, and while all my classmates would groan if the teacher organized a field trip to the museum, I was the only one looking forward to it.”
Digger looked at the ceiling with a nostalgic look on his face.
“Sometimes I would look at the displays in the museum for hours, trying to imagine what the ponies of those times were like and how they lived.”
A smile crept onto his lips.
“And finally my dream came true. The curator of the museum was impressed by my curiosity and eventually he offered me a job in the museum. I thought I couldn’t be any happier until my various theses about ancient cultures got the attention of the archaeological society. From that day forward I was truly living my dream.”
Spark had a calm smile while listening to Digger’s story. He had to admit that he was always a little emotional, and Digger’s story was actually touching him. It would only be fair if he shared his story with him.
“My motivations for getting into engineering are not really a lifelong dream of mine. Instead I’m doing this for my mother.”
Digger was a little confused at this. “What does your mother have to do with this?”
“She was an earth pony. As you may know there are not many earth ponies in Canterlot where I grew up. Lately more earth and pegasus ponies are living there but during my foalhood my mother was really a minority there.”
His expression grew slightly sadder.
“Since the city was built with unicorns as standard citizens, in my mind mom often struggled with her daily routine. So many things required magic and my mom constantly had to ask random strangers for help. Of course everypony was happy to help her, but she was still uncomfortable so I got into tinkering.”
The sadness slowly left Spark’s face.
“I made a claw she could use to grab things. With that she could do a lot more things that would normally require telekinesis. I upgraded so it could extend for more reach, and I even invented an energy storage device that my mom could use to turn on the magic powered lights at home without my help.”
A look of determination formed on Sparks face.
“But that was not enough. So many other earth and pegasus ponies had difficulties because they lacked magic so I decided to become an engineer. To make everyponies life easier.”
Digger looked at the blue unicorn with admiration, Spark dedicated his life to help ponies all over Equestria, he felt proud that he could call him his friend. A loud ding interrupted their reminiscing. Twilight and the others were now back and they brought Cogwheel with them. Twilight and Rarity looked exhausted from spending so much magic, and the little purple dragon was fanning the white unicorn some fresh air while holding a glass of water in the other hand. With a quick thanks the purple maned fashionista took the glass and elegantly nipped on it. Spark congratulated them on activating the generator.
“Finally, now we have the entire Kurogane powered up at all times. Now we can try to find out more about the builders of this ship and the technology they used. If we’re lucky and my theory on these screens and controls is right, then maybe the old crew left their knowledge behind. Cogwheel, could you please go to the captains seat and try to find something that could help us?”
Cogwheel nodded enthusiastically. He loved this ship and all the machines; it was like an adventure for him. Sometimes he felt like he was visiting a faraway land and met new ponies with completely different cultures. He sat down in the captains seat as well as he could and started reading the machine.
Cogwheels eyes were closed and he concentrated on the contraption in front of him. What he felt was different from everything else. He was not just getting in touch with another machine, no, he was connected to the brain of the entire ship, and he was looking for the memory. Without even realizing it, he started to type away on the control panel before him. He knew what he was looking for, and he knew he was getting closer to it.
Behind him, Digger, Spark and the girls watched in awe as Cogwheels hoofs were dancing over the control panel. Finally they stopped. Everypony was now looking at the screen. The words on the screen said: “Main database.” All of them started to cheer. This was what they were looking for, the entire knowledge of the Kurogane.
Later that day Pinkie threw one of her famous parties. All of the archaeologists and engineers were celebrating the reactivation of the Kurogane. Since Spark and his engineers prepared for a long stay they had enough supplies for Pinkie to bake a few cakes, and even bobbing apples and other party games.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash meanwhile were competing at a dartboard. It was Applejack’s turn and she hit perfect bulls-eye.
“Not bad, I hope your aim inside your Schutzwald is just as good, or else those golems will wipe the floor with you.”
Applejack winced a bit at that.
“Did y'all have to mention that? Besides, who was the first to kiss the dirt again?”
“Not fair! It was a sneak attack!”
Meanwhile Fluttershy and Rarity were idly chatting at the snack table while drinking some punch.
“I’m still exhausted from earlier. Who would have thought that the Kurogane needed that much power?”
Fluttershy gave her friend a sympathetic look.
“Well, it IS a really big ship and besides, now it has its own power.”
“That’s true, and the hallways are a little less creepy now that the lights are permanently on.”
Rarity sipped on her punch while looking around the room. Aside from the party decoration and games the room was pretty barren.
“Still, I’ve got to spruce this place up. Everything just looks so... sterile.”
Fluttershy nodded in agreement. She also thought that the Kurogane could use a bit of color.
Pinkie Pie, who left the room a little early saying she forgot something important, came back with a large banner in her mouth. She went over to Twilight, who was dancing at the moment, and asked her if she could help her with the banner.
“Just hang it there over the snack table. Don’t worry the tape is really strong. I always use it for hanging up banners.”
Twilight did as instructed, as the banner was up all ponies who saw it would smile at the words on it.
Happy Birthday Kurogane
Authors note: Chapter 4 done and complete. At first I wanted to introduce the Wildraubtier in this chapter, but then I thought that I have concentrated too much on the action in the last two chapters, and decided to let things calm down in this one and use it to flesh my OC’s out a bit.
Also a little fun fact: At first I had a completely different vision for a SRW/MLP crossover. My first version was a story about Luna landing in a multi-mecha-crossover SRW world. My idea was that after her return from banishment, a council of other gods showed up and demanded Luna’s execution. To protect her sister Celestia send her to a dimension in which the residents had powerful steel machines that she hoped could defeat the gods that would try to kill Luna. I even had some series I would have included but now the idea is up for grabs to anyone who is interested. The series I would have included are:
-Shin Getter Robo Armageddon
-Mazinkaiser
-Turn A Gundam
-Gundam Wing
-Gundam 00
-Overman King Gainer
-King of braves: GaoGaiGar
-Full Metal Panic!
-Code Geass
For Banpresto originals I had some candidates:
-Rushbird and Straybird from L
-R-Series and SRX
-The originals from SRWK
-Gunleon
-Granteed, Coustwell or Bellzelute
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Valsion
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2011-12-05T16:50:14+00:00
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2011-12-05T16:50:14+00:00
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Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 5 Wild Predator
Dear Princess Celestia,
You will be pleased to know that we have been able to reactivate the Kurogane, the ship can now supply its own power. Spark and Digger have been diligently searching the archives on the bridge of the ship and while they could not find out anything about the former crew of this ship, much to Diggers disappointment, we now have more data about the technology behind the Kurogane.
One thing we learned was that the steel statues are actually called: 'Personal Troopers' and that they come in two types.
So far we have piloted the so called 'Real Robot' types, smaller, weaker but faster Personal Troopers.
The other type are the slow, tough and strong 'Super Robots'. While exploring the Kurogane we have found other hangars and while most of the Personal Troopers stored there are in a very bad shape we can still repair a few of them with the spare parts we have found in the storage area.
I hope that we can resolve this crisis quickly before Nightmare Moon causes too much damage but I am certain that, with the help of the Personal Troopers, everything will be alright again soon.
Your faithful student
Twilight Sparkle
Spike rolled up the scroll containing Twilight’s status report and send it to the Princess with his fire.
It has been one week since the generator of the Kurogane was reactivated, much to the delight of every unicorn on board, and during the whole week Nightmare Moon has not made a single move. Most of the crew were thankful for that but other were nervous; this could just be the calm before the storm.
For now the mess hall was full of ponies currently taking a little break, including Twilight and her friends.
All chatting and eating in the mess hall ceased as a voice came from above.
“Hello, can you hear me? This is Spark speaking, we have found a device that allows me to speak to all ponies on the Kurogane at once. This will surely prove to be very convenient since we don't have to search the entire ship anymore when we need somepony.”
Some ponies were searching for the source of Sparks voice as said unicorn continued his announcement.
“Anyway, as you all know the past week has been suspiciously calm and some ponies voiced their concern that Nightmare Moon might try to isolate and starve us.”
A singe of fear went through the crew members, if that was true then that could mean that Nightmare Moons golems were surrounding the Kurogane, waiting for any supplies to try and make their way to the ship. Before anypony could panic Spark continued with a plan to counter this problem.
“To deal with this possible threat we have come up with a plan to secure our supplies. We have readied three more Personal Troopers for repairs, our data shows that these PT's are stronger than the current Gespensts and Schutzwalds we are using, and two of them are capable of flight. One of the flying PT's will get new supplies while the other two will strengthen our defense.”
By this point most ponies have calmed down again. After all, with more and even stronger Personal Troopers there was nothing to worry about.
“We would like to start repairs as soon as possible so I'd like to ask the repair crews to start immediately after lunch. The new PT's are ready in hangar 2. Team M6, please report to the training room after lunch. This is all for now, Spark over.”
Immediately after Spark finished his sentence, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie started to speculate about the new PT's.
“Oooh this is so exciting! I bet the new PT's look even cooler than the Gespy's and Waldi's, and I hope they can do all sorts of neat tricks.”
“Two of them can fly. It's clear that I get one of them.”
The two of them continued their chatter until their lunch break was over. As they made their way to the training room, Twilight tried to imagine what the three PT's that are currently in repair might look like as Applejack pulled her aside.
“Can ah talk to ya Twilight?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“I'm not sure if y'all noticed it, but sometimes ah think Rainbow an Pinkie take the whole thing not serious enough.”
Applejack’s expression grew uneasier with every word.
“Ah hate to bring it up, but with Nightmare Moon’s golems and our PT's we're basically fightin... a... war.”
Twilight almost stopped in shock as Applejack reluctantly breathed out the last word. Was she really too busy gushing over the shiny, cool robots to notice that Equestria, the eternally peaceful nation was on the brink of war? Suddenly she felt sick, realizing that she was somewhat looking forward to testing the new PT's, looking forward to fight. On the other hoof, without the PT's she and her friends would be dead by now, and it was not like they could just ignore Nightmare Moon and her golems.
Applejack meanwhile regretted bringing that up, but then again the truth had to be said. Their only hope to avert the worst case scenario was to try and take Nightmare Moon out as fast as possible. Up to now the only ponies really involved are themselves and the other ponies in the Kurogane. They could still prevent anypony else from being dragged into this.
Their musing were cut short as Cogwheel greeted them in front of the training room.
“Hello girls, are you ready for today's training session?”
Almost all of the six were nodding enthusiastically, only Twilight and Applejack looked uneasy, Cogwheel noticed that and asked what was wrong.
“Oh, it's nothing Cogwheel, just been thinking a little.”
“About what?”
“Nothing important.”
Twilight blurted her answer out a little harsher than intended, Cogwheel didn't really buy it but he decided not to pursue this any further for now.
“Anyway, today's training is gonna be a little more special.”
Rainbow Dash immediately perked up at this, she flew directly in front of the mechanic and proudly puffed her chest out.
“You mean because of the new PT's? Alright, I'm ready!”
“Actually, the pilots for the new PT's are Twilight Sparkle, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.”
The cyan pegasus was dumbfounded at this.
“But, but I'm the best when it comes to flying! Why didn't I get one of the two fliers?”
“Simple, the first flier is a long range unit and Pinkie Pie has the best accuracy.”
Pinkie Pie started hopping in circles with glee at the prospect of getting a new PT. Twilight and Applejack were a little worried at this; doesn't Pinkie realize that she is basically getting giddy about a weapon?
“The other one is unique so far as in being able to transform from a bipedal form to an almost birdlike flying form, making it a good all-rounder, which is also gonna be part of today's special training. And Twilight has proven that she to is a good all-rounder.”
Despite the fact that she was still a little shocked from the earlier revelation, Twilight still couldn't help but to wonder about this transformation process. Was this like transformation magic? She highly doubted it but, it still left her mind wandering, which she was thankful for.
“And lastly there is one close combat ground unit that’s gonna be perfect for Applejack.”
Applejack nodded reluctantly, still not comfortable about the whole situation.
“Well then, if you don't have any questions, I'd like to start the training session now. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity will get the usual training. Applejack, your new PT is going to be much harder to handle so you are going to get advanced training. Pinkie Pie, you're going to get a combination of flight and long range practice, and Twilight will get flight training as well as practice for the transformation process.”
With the last instructions over, the mares made their way to the simulators to start their training.
A few hours later their training was over and while Pinkie Pie mastered the combination of sniping and flying almost naturally, Applejack and Twilight had a lot more trouble adjusting to the changes. Their friends noticed this and Rainbow Dash was the first to ask them what was wrong.
“What's the matter with you anyway?” She started, still disappointed that she didn't get one of the new units. “You're getting brand new PT's, shouldn't that cheer you up?”
At that point Applejack snapped, with the anger over her friends obliviousness to the big picture running free she started yelling. “Cheer us up? Darn it Dash we're gonna be fightin in the first ever war in the history of Equestria, an now we're s'posed ta get giddy over our new weapons?”
The other mares stopped dead in their tracks at Applejack's outburst. Rainbow Dash looked offended and put on a glare of her own.
“Hey! I never said I liked what's going on here, I just said the PT's are cool.” The cyan pegasus crossed her arms in front of her chest in a defensive position but Applejack didn't calm down.
“An just what are those PT's?” The farmer asked while getting closer to her rainbow maned friend. “Weapons, don't try ta tell me dat's a lie. You just take this whole thing too lightly, this ain't a game Rainbow Dash, an we're not getting new toys here.”
Rainbow Dash now had her face directly in front of Applejack's and the two of them were glaring straight into each others eyes, but before Rainbow Dash could counter, the two of them were interrupted by Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie grabbing them and forcing them apart. Pinkie Pie gave them on of her rare scowls.
“You should both be ashamed of yourselves. We're friends, we're not supposed to fight, and besides.” At this point the pink party pony smiled again. “You're both right anyway.”
The two mares that had been fighting just now were now looking at Pinkie with a puzzled expression on their faces.
“It is super bad that this big mean meanypants Nightmare Moon is back and wants to fight us, and the Personal Troopers are not toys, although they would make super awesome action figures.” At this Applejack shot Rainbow Dash a cocky smirk while the cyan pegasus glared at her. Rarity rolled her eyes and continued for Pinkie Pie, who obviously lost her train of thought, a train that never arrives at its intended station.
“Anyway, what Pinkie is trying to say is that it's not the PT's that are bad. If we handle them carefully they are knights in shining armor that protect the innocent and deliver justice unto all evildoers.” Rarity's eyes glossed over as she delivered her romanticized vision of the Personal Troopers.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were now looking at each other guiltily, feeling bad for fighting each other while a more serious threat loomed over them. Applejack found it easier to swallow her pride and apologized first. “Sorry Rainbow, ah shouldn't have snapped at ya like an angry rattler.”
Rainbow Dash was still a little hesitant. “Apology accepted, and... I'll take this a little more seriously now... promised.”
“Apology accepted.” Applejack smiled, she knew that this was probably just Rainbow Dash’s way of saying sorry.
Twilight meanwhile started to cheer up again. Her friends were right, they were not to blame for this fight, and neither were the Personal Trooper or the Kurogane. The true culprit was Nightmare Moon, and they are going to stop her once and for all.
A few days later the day for Twilight’s departure has come. It was already afternoon. The other girls and their PT's were already making their way out of the cave where the Kurogane was lying. Cogwheel, who also trained to be a PT pilot, would take Twilight’s Gespenst to give the illusion that she was with them. The plan was simple; Cogwheel and the other girls start a diversion, and in the middle of the fight, Twilight would come out with the new PT and immediately go into flight mode and make her way to Ponyville. Spark was giving them a few last instructions over the intercom.
“Remember, you don't have to defeat all the golems. Just hold out until Twilight is in the air and retreat immediately. Twilight, you'll wait until Fluttershy and Applejack perform their part of the plan. I just wish we had more time to finish the other two PT's, but we're already dangerously low on food.”
As they reached the surface the sand began to shift and a dozen of sand golems shot out of the ground. Rainbow Dash took to the skies and started her first bombing run on the grounded golems; a cluster of three was her first target. The shots from her railgun sent sand flying everywhere. The cores were still active but Rainbow Dash had a followup in mind. She pulled the Guarlion down and flew dangerously low, then a blue force field appeared in front of her while she accelerated to ramming speed.
“This is revenge for last time you overgrown sandcastles. SONIC BREAKER!”
With a mighty battlecry, the sleek robot rammed the sand golem in the middle of the formation, and the core shattered upon impact. The force of the impact resulted in an explosion that blasted the other golems and send them flying.
Applejack looked terrified, her friend was right in the middle of that explosion. Before she could worry any more a blue streak shot out of the flames and into the sky. Applejack let out a relieved sigh and turned back to the other golems.
They had carefully rounded up the rest of the golems in a tight group, concentrating on evading their fists and the occasional sand thrown in their direction. Then Cogwheels face appeared at the side of the screen.
“Alright girls, now or never.”
The mares knew what to do. Rarity and Pinkie Pie activated the split missiles and two slim, black containers that were strapped to the back of their Gespensts shot towards the golems. Before reaching their target those containers opened up and shot several smaller objects forwards. Those missiles were almost like spearheads raining down on the enemy. The multiple explosions shook up and stunned most of the golems and only a hoof-full were still standing upright.
This was the signal for Applejack and Fluttershy. They took aim and fired the twin beam cannons at the golems they thought were the most dangerous for Twilight.
Twilight meanwhile hated having to stay behind as she watched the battle from the shadows. Everything seemed to go smoothly for her friends, but she still wanted to help. But then again that would threaten the entire plan. They had already sent the Princess a letter with a list of the supplies they needed and how Twilight was supposed to haul them back. They even equipped the new PT with hooks so that she could use steel wires to strap the crates onto the PT.
Twilight got ready to move out as she saw Rarity and Pinkie fire the split missiles, her own signal would be next. As two brilliant blue beams were shot from the Schutzwalds, Twilight bolted out of the cave.
Her new robot, the Wildraubtier looked a lot like a white Gespenst only a lot slimmer in design. Just underneath the 'chin' was a red, hollow armor plate. The shoulders were not standing out as much as a Gespensts, and the hands and feet were not covered by the thick gloves and boots; Instead, there were just small turbines on the each side of its feet. On the Wildraubtier’s back were two panels, each with a large fin attached to it. In its hands it held a hyperbeam rifle that was almost as long as the Wildraubtier was tall and as thin as its arms.
The still recovering golems barely had any time to register the newcomer before she took into the air. As soon as the Wildraubtier reached sufficient height it attached the hyper beam rifle underneath its right arm. Afterwards the arms folded together in front of the robot, and the panels on its back were brought to the sides of the Wildraubtier, and the fins folded out so they stuck out at the sides with smaller fins sticking out of the back. Next were the legs; They bent towards the back of the Wildraubtier and then bent again at the knees so the feet still pointed down. Lastly the head bent backwards together with the red armor plate on its chest and the plate went over the Wildraubtier’s head, completely covering the face.
The bridge crew of the Kurogane watched the entire process using the cameras of the other PT's and cheered as the transformation was confirmed successful, and Twilight was smoothly soaring through the sky. Spark opened up a communication channel.
“Congratulations Twilight! Now fly to Ponyville and get the supplies quickly. I hope they got everything ready in time.”
“Alright, I'll be back soon so please hold out until then. Bye and good luck to you.”
The rest of team M6 joined in.
“See ya'll later sugarcube, tell ma family ah said hi.”
“When you are in Ponyville, could you be a darling and fetch me my facial cream?”
“Alright, time for you to set a speed record from the Kurogane to Ponyville so I can break it.”
“Please be careful, and.. could you see if my animals are alright. If that's okay with you I mean.”
“Whoohoo, go Twilight! You have to remember the cake and the party decorations for your welcome back party. First I wanted to make it a surprise party but you have to get the cake and decorations so you would know there's a party...”
Pinkie Pie continued to motormouth as Twilight was already flying towards Ponyville. The unicorn pilot was flying as fast as she could over the dunes. Occasionally a sand golem would rise from the ground but she was already gone before they were even fully formed. Her friends were counting on her and there was nothing in the world that could stop her now. After flying the entire night, the sands vanished and the Everfree Forest came into view. She would be back in Ponyville shortly.
Every single pony in Ponyville was on the edge. A few weeks ago the news of the discovery of the mysterious ship and the steel statues fueled excited chatter everywhere. Princess Celestia did not believe in keeping secrets from her subjects, so everypony in Equestria quickly learned about the amazing technology professor Digger and the Elements of Harmony discovered.
Everyponies imagination ran wild, until they were shocked by the news that the dig side has been attacked by giant sand golems. It was never officially confirmed that it was Nightmare Moons doing; her return was still the most common theory among pony folk.
But now the ponies of Ponyville were eagerly waiting for the arrival of Twilight Sparkle and the Wildraubtier. In order to avoid panic the town has been warned about Twilight’s supply run and about the so called Personal Trooper she would arrive in.
The estimated time of arrival has come and almost every pony in town was gathering early in the morning to see the Personal Trooper. Some ponies had several crates ready; They have been told to use steel wire and a strong holding frame that could handle high speeds.
“There she is!”
A pegasus pony that was sitting on a cloud shouted while wildly waving into the direction of the Everfree Forest, drawing the attention of all the other ponies. A spec could be seen on the horizon; It got bigger and bigger as it got closer to the town. The ponies eyes were glued on it as if they were watching a meteor shower. Finally the Wildraubtier arrived at the town center and hovered in the air.
Some pegasus ponies wanted to get closer to the strange machine but then it started to 'unfold', changing into a bipedal shape. Suddenly a loud voice came from the PT.
“Uhm, could you give me some space to land please?”
The ponies on the ground picked their jaws up from the ground long enough to comply with Twilight’s request.
As soon as she had enough space, Twilight brought the Wildraubtier down to the ground. The small tremor caused some of the still awestruck ponies to fall down. As Twilight opened the cockpit hatch and showed herself, the citizens of Ponyville bombarded her with questions.
“What is that thing?”
“How can it fly?”
“How does it transform?”
“What is that thing it's holding in its hand?”
“Can I fly it?”
Twilight tried in vain to get the ponies to listen but they just kept on asking question after question. Their initial fear of the Wildraubtier vanished after they saw that their town librarian was controlling it and they got closer. Some pegasus ponies were shoving each other away to be closest to Twilight.
Suddenly Twilight remembered something she learned from Princess Celestia. In the early days of Equestria she and her sister would use a certain way of addressing their subjects. The princess taught her about it, although she wasn't sure if her mentor really thought it would be useful, or if she was just doing it out of boredom.
“ATTENTION!”
The magically amplified traditional Royal Canterlot voice did its job perfectly. All the ponies were now silent and stood, or hovered, in the case of the pegasi, perfectly still.
“I KNOW THAT YOU ALL HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE STEEL STATUES, OR PERSONAL TROOPERS, AS THEY ARE CALLED, BUT WE DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM OURSELVES.” Twilight paused for breath. “AS SOON AS THE CRISIS WITH THE GIANT GOLEMS IS RESOLVED WE WILL FINISH OUR RESEARCH AND RELEASE EVERYTHING WE LEARNED TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. UNTIL THEN I CANNOT TELL YOU MORE BECAUSE OTHERWISE WE'D RISK SPREADING FALSE INFORMATION. NOW PLEASE, I FLEW THROUGH THE ENTIRE NIGHT AND I NEED SOME REST NOW.”
This seemed to satisfy most of the curious ponies as they scattered. Some of them stayed at the Wildraubtier and chatted among themselves, while others returned home or went on with their daily business.
Twilight gasped and panted heavily as she asked on the the pegasi still with her to help her down. She could see why the traditional Royal Canterlot voice was abolished. On the way down five very familiar ponies trotted over to her, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Granny Smith looked a little shaken, she and Big Macintosh looked very worried.
“Jus' what did mah granddaughter get herself into this time? Can you believe that they found this thingamayig buried in the sand Big Macintosh?”
“Eenope.”
Twilight had a big smile on her face. It was nice to see that Ponyville was still fine.
“Hello, good to see you all. After all this crazy stuff with the golem attacks, it's good to finally get out of that cave. I was afraid I would get cave adaption.”
Twilight remembered that case very well. Some miner ponies decided to save some time and space and build their camp inside the tunnel they were digging in. Twilight was learning about geology at the time and was sent to check up on them. It was not a pretty sight when they came out after living underground for a few weeks.
“Anyway, Applejack and the others are fine, no need to worry.”
“What'ya mean no need ta worry? Mah granddaughter is in tha desert surrounded by monsters.”
Twilight bit her lip at this, Granny Smith was right, they were not safe. The awkwardness was broken by Applebloom and her friends edging closer to Twilight with an expectant grin on their faces.
“Say Twilight,” Scootaloo started, the orange pegasus filly looked Twilight right in the eyes. “Is there any chance that you could let us try that cool looking Personal Trooper?” Before Twilight could open her mouth, the white unicorn with the purple and pink hair, Sweetie Belle, continued.
“It looks so shiny and cool, so pleaaaaase just let us use it, just for a few minutes.”
“I know this is really exciting girls but...”
Applebloom interrupted her before the purple unicorn could protest and the yellow earth filly looked at her with the same pleading eyes she used when they first met, the pink bow in her red mane made her look even more adorable. “Maybe pilotin’ one of those is our special talent. Please Twilight, if it IS our special talent and you don't let try it we'll stay blank-flanks forever.” All other two crusaders looked at her with the same pleading eyes that Applebloom used.
Twilight almost gave in but then a mental image flashed through her mind. Ponyville was in ruins, the Wildraubtier was completely out of control and smashed into one building after another. In the cockpit three little fillies were fighting over the controls.
“Move it Applebloom, you're just gonna smash up more houses!”
“Oh no Scoots, you're the one who destroyed the town hall.”
“What does this button do?”
The Wildraubtier fired its hyperbeam rifle, a large beam of purple energy hit the hollowed out tree that served as the towns library and Twilight’s home. It immediately burst into flame and inside the cockpit Sweetie Belle looked sheepish and a little embarrassed.
“Oops.”
Twilight shook that scenario out of her head and turned back to the three fillies.
“NO! No sorry but it is just not safe.” Twilight mentally added 'for Equestria', and the fillies looked disappointed. Applebloom tried again to change Twilight’s mind.
“But Twil...”
“No buts, look, I know you want your cutie marks, but the Wildraubtier is not a toy. What if you crash into a building or accidentally step on somepony?”
Applebloom and her friends looked like they were about to cry, partly because of their disappointment and partly because the thought of hurting somepony with the Personal Trooper frightened them. Twilight felt sorry for the girls; she could sympathize with them. After all, getting your Cutie Mark is an important event in the life of any pony. Suddenly Twilight perked up; She had an idea.
“How about this; As soon as the golem problem is solved I'll see if I can take you for a ride?”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately started to beam again, and pulled Twilight into a tight hug.
“Thank you Twilight, you're so cool!”
Twilight was taken aback by Scootaloo's compliment; Nopony has ever described her as cool before, so it meant a lot to her. Ponies would sometimes compliment her organization skills and intelligence, but she couldn't help but wonder if she was boring. After all, most ponies would not describe reading as an interesting hobby. Twilight was shaken out of her thought by Big Macintosh who removed the fillies that glomped her.
“Now there, let Ms. Twilight breathe here. I'm sure she's very tired.”
The three fillies let go of the purple unicorn and ran off to play some more.
“Thank you Big Macintosh. I'll just take a quick nap at home and then I'll be off again.”
Before she could go she was stopped by Granny Smith.
“Ya'll wanna stay all alone in that big treehouse? Why don'cha stay at our home? ya'll can use Applejack’s room while she's still in the desert.” The elderly mare offered a gentle, encouraging smile.
“Thank you very much Granny Smith, but I don't want to impose.” The elderly mare just shook her head.
“Nonsense deary, as Applejack’s friend you're part of the family, remember? Now Big Macintosh, be a dear and prepare her room.”
“Eeyup.” The gentle giant went ahead of them while Twilight and Granny Smith chatted some more along the way. Granny Smith missed her granddaughter very much and wanted to know everything she did and how she was.
Twilight told Granny Smith all about the Kurogane and the Personal Troopers, she let out a few details about Applejack as she talked about the golem attacks to spare the old mares heart.
Finally they arrived at Sweet Apple Acre's. Twilight told the apple family the rest of the story over brunch, and afterwards she just took a quick shower and immediately headed towards Applejack’s room.
The room was very simple. On one side of the room stood a bed with a night stand next to it. On the night stand were a photo of the girls together and a lamp. Above bed hung a painting of a pony galloping in the sun, and on the other side of the room were a sitting pillow and a desk. There was also a hanger with a lasso hanging on it. One hook was still free, and Twilight guessed that this is were Applejack usually hung her hat.
It felt a little weird sleeping in her friends bed while she was somewhere else, but Twilight was too tired to think about it, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Silly little omake #2:
Fluttershy approached Twilight with a note stuck behind her ear before it was time for them to head out.
“Uhm Twilight, could I ask you a favor, if that is okay with you?”
“Of course, what can I do for you?” Twilight was more than eager to help her friend, especially after Fluttershy saved all their lives.
“I wanted to make a health drink for everypony and I wondered if you could get me some ingredients while you're in Ponyville. Here's a list with the ingredients I need.” Fluttershy took the note in her hooves and handed it to Twilight with a grateful smile. Twilight took the note with her telekinesis and stuck it behind her own ear.
“No problem Fluttershy, I can't wait to try that health drink of yours.” Twilight was touched at Fluttershy’s selflessness, even when she asks for a favor Fluttershy always has the well being of other ponies in mind.
“Oh thank you Twilight, I hope that my health drink can help you all a little. Oh and if you can't find any ground up gecko tail that's alright, I think I can get Spike to give me some of his scales.”
“Okay then Fluttershy, I'll.. wait what?”
Authors note: And finally I'm done with the next part. Writing the transformation for the Wildraubtier was a nightmare since I couldn't find any videos of it so I had to compare picture of the Wildraubtier in both modes and take a wild guess and it is very likely that I'll revise that part.
Also a little information about the T-Link system in this fic. The T-Link system some weapons use in the Super Robot Taisen game need a psychodriver (telepath) to work. For this fic I decided that unicorns are not the same as psychodrivers but close enough so that their magic can substitute for it, also it is possible for pegasus and earth ponies to be psychodrivers.
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Valsion
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2012-01-04T07:54:35+00:00
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2012-01-04T07:54:35+00:00
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Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 6 The knight and the stag beetle
It was around afternoon as Twilight woke up, her sleep was uneasy since she never slept through the day before. After taking a quick shower she made her way downstairs where Granny Smith was taking a nap in her rocking chair. Deciding against waking the elderly mare up she made her way outside where she saw Big Macintosh who just finished his workload for the day. He pulled a cart with four barrels behind him and greeted her in his usual calm and polite manner.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Twilight.”
“Good afternoon Big Macintosh. How long was I asleep?” Twilight noticed that the sun was almost starting to set already. Her nightly flight must have been more tiring than she thought; the purple mare hoped that she would be able to reach the desert by evening.
“About eight hours or so. Also these are for you.” With that he pointed a hoof towards the barrels on his cart. Upon closer inspection Twilight could see that the barrels were filled with the most delicious looking apples she had ever seen. She almost started to drool a little.
“Those apples look fantastic.”
“Ah collected only the best apples from the orchard. Ah don't know what kind of food they send with you but just in case ah want to know that mah sis' and her friends are well fed.”
Twilight was moved by the support Big Macintosh showed for his sister. “Thank you, I'm sure Applejack will love having something from home.” That sentence sparked something in Twilight’s mind. “Wait a minute, that gives me an idea.” Twilight galloped back into the house and into Applejack’s room where she grabbed the lasso hanging on the wall. It would greatly boost everyponies spirit if they had something from home so she was going to bring a little souvenir for everypony.
Outside Big Macintosh was still waiting for Twilight to come back. Just a minute later the purple unicorn emerged from the house again and galloped over to him. “Could you do me a favor? Could you bring the apples to the Wildraubtier, my Personal Trooper, I just want to get a few things really quick.”
“Eeyup.” Again not a single word more than necessary. After thanking Big Macintosh Twilight made her way towards Fluttershy's cottage.
At the cottage she saw an old, brown earth pony tending to the animals. Twilight recognized him as one of the gardeners in the royal garden. The princess must have sent him to take care of Fluttershy's animals during her absence. Twilight quickly explained her intentions and the old gardener just smiled and remarked how sweet it was of her.
Twilight looked around for something she could get for Fluttershy and then she spotted the perfect souvenir. There was a photo above the chimney of Fluttershy and a small white bunny. During one of her visits Fluttershy explained to her that she found Angel, her pet bunny, almost frozen to death one winter and nursed him back to health. The photo resting on the chimney was taken when Angel decided to stay with her, and while the shy pegasus took care of a lot of animals, Angel was her only real pet. Twilight couldn't bring Angel with her but at least she could bring her the picture.
As she put the photo into her saddlebag she noticed something tapping against her hoof. Angel was kicking against her hoof and gave her a dirty look.
“Don’t worry Angel I’m not stealing anything, I just wanted to give Fluttershy something from home to make her feel better.”
The small, white bunny seemed to understand and ceased his assault his look changed from angry to worried.
“Fluttershy is going to be okay, I think we both know that she’s tougher than most ponies think.”
That answer seemed to satisfy the bunny. Twilight wasted no time and left the cottage, making her way to Ponyville and to her next stop, Carousel Boutique.
Inside the boutique she was greeted by a guard Celestia set up to watch the store for Rarity. After a quick explanation the purple mare went into Rarity's room to check for something she could take with her. Rarity’s room looked really expensive, with a bed fit for the princess and a finely crafted drawer chest. After a few moments she spotted Rarity's jewelry box. Twilight figured that Rarity would love to have at least some of her accessories, so Twilight put the box and a small mirror that was lying next to it into the saddlebag. Twilight hoped that her fashionista friend will be happy. With these gifts Twilight made her way to Sugarcube corner trying to think of something to bring Pinkie Pie.
At the front door Twilight was still at a loss. What Pinkie Pie loved most were parties but she could hardly fit enough supplies for a party into her saddlebags and Gummy was also out of question. Maybe the Cakes have an idea what she could get for her hyperactive pink friend.
Inside the shop the two owners, Mr. Cake, a yellow earth pony with three slices of cake as a cutie mark and his wife Mrs. Cake, a plump, light blue earth pony with a pink mane and three cupcakes for a cutie mark, greeted her enthusiastically. From what Pinkie told her the Cakes were friends with her father, and when Pinkie was old enough, her parents told her that she could move in with the Cakes and learn to become a baker. After all, rock farming was definitely not the ideal profession for Pinkie.
“Hello Twilight, it's so good to see you again. Would you like something to eat?” Mrs. Cake already held a tray with cupcake ready, but Twilight declined.
“No thank you, I just wanted to see if I can get Pinkie Pie something from home, a little memento or a souvenir.”
At this the Cakes looked at each other and then began to smile. Mrs. Cake went to the stairs leading to Pinkie Pie's room.
“Just wait a moment dearie, I know what you can get for her.” As she went upstairs Mr. Cake explained to Twilight what his wife wanted to get. “You see Twilight, we were actually the ones that started the tradition of every new pony getting a welcome party.” His eyes became a little distant as he remembered the day Pinkie Pie arrived in Ponyville. “We knew she would be a little homesick after leaving the rock farm and her family, so we got all our friends here to throw her a little welcoming party. She still keeps the party hat from back then. I'm sure it can cure her of her homesickness again.”
As Mr. Cake finished the story his wife came back, carefully holding a yellow and blue party hat in her mouth. “Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Cake. I'm sure Pinkie Pie will love it.”
Mrs. Cake carefully put the party hat into Twilight’s saddlebags. “No problem dearie.” Then her expression grew more serious. “But please promise us to keep Pinkie Pie safe.”
Twilight could see the worry in the eyes of Mrs. Cake and her husband, after all Pinkie was the daughter of one of their friends and almost like their own daughter.
“Don't worry, I promise to return Pinkie Pie as healthy and happy as she was the day she left.”
With the gift for her hyperactive friend put into the saddlebags Twilight said her goodbyes to the Cakes and made her way to Rainbow Dash’s house. This time she had a more serious problem than deciding what to take with her. The problem was that her speed addicted friend lived high above the ground in a cloud house.
Twilight considered for a second to fly up with the Wildraubtier but quickly dismissed that thought.
“What am I thinking? I can't fly the PT into Rainbow Dash’s home and I sure as hay can't park it on top of the clouds.”
Twilight tried to come up with other ideas how to get up but none of them would actually work. Even Pinkie Pie's flying machine was out of question; Gilda broke it in her possessive fit, and Pinkie hasn't repaired it since. Pinkie was the only pony in Equestria that could actually get so high with trampolines and balloons, and it would take too long to get her own hot air balloon ready. For one moment she even considered asking another pegasus pony to fly up for her but that idea was even worse.
“I got something for you Rainbow Dash, I had a stranger rummage through your personal belongings for this.” The purple unicorn could only imagine her rainbow maned friend’s reaction.
It was no use, Twilight had to give up and return to the Kurogane soon, the others were counting on her and she couldn't make them wait just for a little gift. Feeling guilty about having to leave one of her friends out she made her way back to the Wildraubtier.
Briefly wondering if she should just buy a gift for Rainbow Dash, Twilight was too deep in thought to notice a pony walking right into her. The impact threw both of the mares to the ground, rubbing her head Twilight opened her eyes again. “I'm sorry I wasn't paying... oh hello Derpy, nice to see you.” Twilight smiled as she saw the mailmare she befriended some time before the expedition. Derpy Hooves was a grey pegasus with a blond mane and some bubbles for a cutie mark. The most striking thing about the gray mare however were her eyes. Derpy Hooves had strabismus ever since she was a foal, causing her eyes to point in different directions most of the time.
Derpy smiled as she saw her latest friend and gave Twilight a big hug. “Hi Twilight, I was so glad to hear you were safe. I got worried when I heard that the dig site has been attacked by giant golems.”
Twilight returned the hug. “Yes, it was scary. Luckily we managed to get those Personal Troopers to work. With them we managed to defend ourselves. Say, how is Dinky and why weren't you there when I arrived?” Twilight was curious why both Derpy and her daughter Dinky, a blond unicorn filly with a light purple coat, weren't there to greet her. Dinky also joined the Cutie Mark Crusaders recently since she also got a little impatient waiting for her Cutie Mark to appear on its own. Derpy however lost some of her cheer at Twilight’s question.
“Oh, it's nothing I just wasn't sure if it would be safe for Dinky.” This statement confused Twilight; why wouldn't it be safe? Everypony in Ponyville knew that Twilight was competent, mostly, so there was no need to worry unless...
Suddenly anger rushed through Twilight. “Derpy, don't tell me SHE is still at it.” The nervous look on her friends face was answer enough.
Hawkeye was the name of a mare that some time before Twilight’s departure called the foal protection agency on Derpy. The grey mailmare was always a little clumsy because of her horrible depth perception so it happened sometimes that somepony would think that she had some other mental issues. Normally it didn't take Derpy long to change their minds, but Hawkeye was both stubborn and persistent, and most likely completely obsessed.
Their first meeting went as bad as their acquaintanceship continued. Twilight remembered that day very well.
The three of them were shopping for groceries as Derpy missed her grocery bag and accidentally hung a bag of tomatoes on Dinky's horn. Mother and daughter laughed about the mistake and even Twilight chuckled a little but then SHE came along. A middle aged unicorn mare with a brown coat and red hair with a pair of binoculars for a cutie mark practically stormed over until she was directly face to face with Derpy.
She ranted on about how irresponsible Derpy was with her daughter and what would have happened if she had something heavy in her hooves but the most hurtful comment was that mentally retarded ponies shouldn't raise children. The wall-eyed pegasus told Hawkeye, holding back tears and anger, that she was not retarded and told her not to be so judgemental when she insults other ponies in front of a little filly. This infuriated Hawkeye even more and so she started stalking Derpy and her daughter to write down every single even so insignificant mistake she made. Finally Twilight went past the mailmares house when she heard sobbing from inside. Of course Twilight asked her what was wrong and the upset mother just showed her the letter from the Foal Protection Agency.
Angry at the obvious culprit Twilight rallied up every pony that knew Derpy and they told the stallion from the FPA what a good mother Derpy was, how she worked hard for Dinky, made sure she stayed in school and always made sure that Dinky was healthy. The FPA stallion was saw how the local teacher Ms. Cheerilee, Nurse Redheart, Derpy’s boss from the post office and Carrot Top, who often babysat Dinky, vouched for her and decided that Mother and daughter could stay together. Both were overjoyed but Hawkeye was furious and promised that Dinky would be taken to 'more fitting parents'.
Twilight was pulled out of her reminiscing as Derpy asked if she was alright.
“Thanks Derpy I'm fine. Anyway don't let her get to you, remember that your friends defended you once, and after the first call, the FPA might not even take her that serious anymore.”
This only reassured the gray pegasus a little.
“Thank you but anyway, Dinky is playing with her friends but I probably shouldn't hold you up any longer, or else your friends may be nothing more than skin and bones by the time we're done talking.”
Derpy was right, with Twilight chatting and collecting gifts for her friends, it was getting late, and the sun was already on its way down the horizon.
“You're right, but I promise we can talk again as soon as the whole crisis is resolved.”
Then the purple unicorn was pulled into another hug by her friend.
“Good luck Twilight. I hope you all make it back in one piece.”
After saying goodbye, Twilight made her way back to the Wildraubtier, but another pony she knew waited for her. Spitfire, the leader of the Wonderbolts was currently hovering around the robot trying to take in as many details as possible; like most other ponies she, was mesmerized by this miracle of technology. The costumed yellow pegasus did not even notice the pilot until she heard a throat being cleared below her.
“Oh what, hey you're Twilight Sparkle, correct?”
Spitfire landed in front of Twilight, a tightly sealed bag was hanging from her neck, on the bag was the symbol of princess Celestia.
“Yes I am, say what's in that bag?” Twilight pointed curiously at the bag.
“Well, the princess wanted me to deliver this bag to you. She said the instructions have been sent to Spike already. She also said the content is very important so try not to lose it, and if you do immediately return for a replacement even if you're almost back at the Kurogane.”
Twilight was a little confused at this, what could be so important that she would have to return all the way from the Kurogane to replace it if she loses it. Spitfire saw the confusion on Twilight’s face.
“She said it's important for future supplies.”
Twilight then levitated the bag from Spitfires neck and on her own she took a look inside and saw some sort of powder, she looked at the Wonderbolt and asked what it was.
“Some sort of magic powder I suppose, the princess said it was very fragile which is why she couldn’t send it to Spike.” Twilight was satisfied with that answer and then she got an idea.
“Thank you Spitfire, by the way could you do me a favor?”
“Sure thing what is it?”
Twilight pointed at the goggles that rested on Spitfires forehead and explained how she wanted to bring a gift for each of her friends and that Rainbow Dash was such a great fan of the Wonderbolts.
“No problem, anything for a fan, and besides, I don't think I ever thanked her properly for saving my life during the Best Young Fliers Competition.”
Spitfire took her goggles off and put them into the saddlebags to the rest of the trinkets.
“Well then, I'll be off now and you should probably be too, give those golems a good one for me.”
The fiery haired Wonderbolt offered a hoofshake which Twilight accepted, and took off to Canterlot at an awe inspiring speed.
One last gift. Quickly galloping to the library, she did not have to think too long about what to bring for Spike. A blue gem levitated into her saddlebags, along with two books for herself. This should make Spike happy and keep her occupied for a little while; recently, she did not have too much time for reading anyway so those two should do for now.
Twilight went back to the Wildraubtier and noticed a large, rectangular steel cage next to it. Inside the steel cage were several crates which she guessed were the promised supplies. She also saw a cart with four barrels next to the cage. That must be the apples Big Macintosh collected. The cage was already closed but Twilight had a different idea. She magically activated the cockpit hatch and teleported herself up. After a few careful measurements she decided that, while it would be a tight fit, she could store the barrels behind the pilot seat so she levitated the barrels up and put them behind the seat.
A team of pegasus ponies then attached steel ropes to the hooks at the side of the cage. The Wildraubtier’s cockpit closed again with the pilot inside and took off into the air were it transformed back into flight mode. Twilight hovered carefully above the cage holding the supplies while the pegasi attached the other ends of the steel ropes, hooking the cage to the Wildraubtier. The task was made a little harder since some of the ponies were intimidated by the machine while other were still in awe. Twilight even had to reprimand one pegasus with a marker in his mouth because he wanted to write his name on the Wildraubtier. After all hooks were attached the foreman flew up in front of her.
“Alright Ms. Twilight, you're good to go and don't worry, these hooks were made for fast travel; so as long as you don't do any crazy stunts the supplies should be fine.”
The foreman gave her a quick salute which she returned despite the fact that he couldn't see it and flew into the air. At first she was worried because nopony knew how much a Personal Trooper can carry, but the cage with the supplies barely slowed the Wildraubtier down. Twilight smiled at how strong her Wildraubtier was and activated the intercom to say goodbye to the ponies below.
“Alright everypony I'm off again, I promise that I and every other pony at the dig site will return safely; those golems won't hurt a single pony as long as we still have the Personal Troopers.”
Twilight believed that these machines can save Equestria and she hoped that the other ponies would believe in them too. The crowds down below cheered at her reassuring words as the Wildraubtier accelerated and sped off in the direction of the desert.
The flight back to the Kurogane was just as uneventful as her flight to Ponyville, if a little slower since Twilight did not want to risk losing the supplies. Even though nothing really happened, and there was an autopilot that could take over some of her duties, the pilot of the Wildraubtier decided that she shouldn't start with her books just yet and look out for possible ambushes instead.
It was already past midnight as the intercom of the Wildraubtier crackled to life. Spark’s face appeared at the side of her screen.
“Oh Twilight, thank goodness you're back! everypony missed you so much.”
The purple mare could not contain her joy and grinned widely.
“Good to see you too Spark, are my friends there?”
As if on command five other screens popped up, showing the other girls, and Spike hopped onto Sparks back. They all greeted her friend back and told Twilight how much they missed her until Spark interrupted them.
“Now now girls, remember that you are supposed to move out and guard Twilight while she brings in the crates.”
All pilot ponies nodded their affirmations. Twilight could now see the entrance of the cave where the Kurogane was lying. The purple mare was already gleefully anticipating the looks of joy on her friends faces when they get their gifts when she noticed something.
“What the hay?”
A huge boulder was flying at her from behind and she noticed it too late to dodge it. The boulder hit her right in the back thruster forcing her to crash land in the dunes. Twilight tried her best and managed to slow the Wildraubtiers descend at least a little. The first thing she did after the rough landing was to look for the supplies. Said supplies were luckily unharmed thanks to the metal cage protecting them.
“Are ya'll alright sugarcube?”
Twilight could see some silhouettes moving into her direction from the cave entrance.
“I'm fine Applejack, but what was that?”
To answer Twilight questions six huge figures rose from the sands. At first the girls expected more sand golems but then they noticed that something was different this time. These golems stood on two legs, further supported by the two gorilla like arms that touched down on the ground and furthermore, they were not made out of sand, they were stone golems.
“Guess we're not the only ones who got an upgrade, still I'm gonna beat those dumb rocks back into rubble.”
Confidently Rainbow Dash sped towards the new golems with her burst railgun outstretched in front of her when another PT moved up to her.
“Wait for me Dashie.”
Pinkie Pie was flying in a new Personal Trooper. This one was primarily white with blue linings along the joints and on the 'gloves' and the tip of its 'boot'. The head looked a lot like the Gespenst but it had two green eyes instead of just one slit. The shoulders were fanned into three thin, rounded plates on top of each other, and six fins were sticking out of its back. The left hand had three tubes to it that looked just like the autocannon of the Schutzwald and in the right hand it held a long black barreled rifle with a blue and white grip matching the overall color scheme.
Inside the cockpit Pinkie Pie was getting instructions by Digger.
“Remember Pinkie, the Weissritter is build for long range combat so keep your distance. Also the oxtongue rifle has two settings, the E-Mode fires an energy beam and B-Mode fires bullets.”
The pink pilot gave Digger a salute. “Okie dokie Diggy!” Then she took aim at the first golem. The oxtongue rifle was held against the side of the Weissritter’s hip to catch the recoil as a bright, yellow energy beam shot out of it and shot the arm of a stone golem off. The giant fell down as it lost one of its supports.
Twilight was impressed by the accuracy, the Weissritter was still a speck on the horizon and Pinkie still hit her target perfectly. The golems reacted accordingly to the new threat and charged towards the new arrivals.
The other new PT with Applejack as its pilot meanwhile was charging ahead of the other ground units. The farmer pony had some difficulties with the controls as the entire cockpit was shaking wildly. Spark explained to Applejack that the heavily armored Alteisen needed stronger thrusters to move properly, and so there would me much more force she had to control, which was fine by the farmer turned pilot. She already proved how stubborn she was in the past and this machine couldn't possibly be more stubborn than her.
The red Alteisen, like the Weissritter, looked a lot like a Gespenst but with much thicker armor and while primarily red it was also painted black on its joints. Instead of a slit it also had two green eyes and smaller 'ears' than the Gespenst, but the most striking feature was the large, red horn on its forehead. The Alteisen’s shoulders were also larger and reached even higher than the head. The front of the shoulders were covered with a white hatch indicating that there was something underneath. On its left arm was an autocannon and on its right arm was a steel stake with a large, round bunker mounted right behind it, designed to drive stake after stake into the enemy.
As the first golem came into range Applejack wasted no time and rammed the tip of the stake right into the chest of the golem. At first it did not seem to do anything to the rock beast but then with just the push of a button the bunker rammed the stake deep into the golem, hitting the core. Without its energy source the living rock formation crumbled, leaving only rubble behind.
“That'll teach ya ta throw rocks at mah friends.”
While Applejack had staked the first golem Fluttershy aimed her twin beam cannons at another one. The blue beams melted away most of the rock but sadly they failed to destroy the core. Fluttershy let out a meek whisper, “Uhm.. help please?”
On cue a green glowing disk flew past the shy pegasus Schutzwald and sliced at the rock golem but it was still not enough and Fluttershy barely managed to avoid a boulder that the half molten golem threw in her direction. Luckily Applejack reached the golem and drove a stake through the almost liquid chest. Again the golem crumbled as Applejack pulled the stake that was now covered with molten rock out.
Rarity looked at the situation. Pinkie Pie just finished another golem that tried to throw rocks at her. Effortlessly she dodged the boulders while firing the B-Mode of the oxtongue rifle, laying the core bare. Rainbow Dash saw the opportunity and told her pink friend to leave the rest to her. Rainbow Dash flew right in front of the golem and activated her assault blade, causing a loud roar as the teeth of the blade got ready to saw through any obstacle. The rock golem raised one of its arms to swat the pegasus and her Guarlion down. The huge fist nearly hit the fast, airborne robot but Dash managed to sidestep the blow in the last second and sliced at the core with the unrelenting teeth of the assault blade. Before it could strike again the core was finally in two pieces.
The unicorn fashionista smiled at how well this fight was going, with the new PT's the other rock golems should prove no threat at all, although it was a little frightening that the new golems could take so much more punishment. The magic in those cores must reinforce the rocks somehow.
Twilight Sparkle meanwhile recovered from her forced landing. Despite the fact that Nightmare Moon was sending much tougher golems now the battle went smoothly thanks to their own upgrade and now her friends were finishing off the remaining golems. Her relieve was then shaken by a loud rumble near her Wildraubtier, the golem that got its arm shot off recovered and was now picking up a part of its old arm, struggling to stand on two feet.
“Girls, the golem Pinkie shot down recovered I need help NO...UGH!”
The rocks hitting the Wildraubtier could not destroy it but Twilights PT was now badly dented, but that was not the concern of the purple unicorn. When they were hit the second time Twilight could swear she heard a yelp behind her, she turned around and looked into the barrel with the apples from Big Macintosh. Twilight’s mouth went dry as she saw a piece of pink cloth sticking out of the apples.
“No, no, no, no, NONONO!”
Applejack then appeared on her intercom.
“Is somethin' wrong Twi? Are ya'll hurt?”
Twilight did not respond to Applejack, instead she carefully lifted the apples out of the barrel and she could almost feel her heart stop as she dug a red maned head out of the barrel. Two orange eyes looked at her sheepishly.
“Hi, Twilight.”
In the Alteisen’s cockpit Applejack also went into shock, that voice couldn't be.
“A-Applebloom?” The farmers voice was shaking, she hoped that she was just hearing voices right now more than ever, but instead she saw her little sisters head rise out of the barrel behind Twilight. “Yes, sis?”
This was too much for Applejack and the farmer pony started to yell. “TWILIGHT, WHAT IS APPLEBLOOM DOING THERE?”
Said unicorn was frantic, “I don't know she must have sneaked into the barrel while I wasn't looking.” Applejack did not respond, instead she pushed the pedals of the Alteisen down to the bottom of the cockpit as her robot reached incredible speed. Pinkie Pie tried to shoot the golem down but as she took aim one remaining golem managed to hit her with a boulder while she was distracted and knocked the rifle out of her hand.
The one armed golem was now trudging towards the Wildraubtier and as it reached the downed PT it raised one of its feet, ready to stomp it into the ground. Twilight held Applebloom and closed her eyes bracing herself for the impact but instead she only heard the sound of rapid fire. The terrified unicorn opened her eyes again to see the golem stunned by a volley of Applejack’s autocannons. As her friend reached them with the Alteisen the red PT grabbed to golems remaining arm, forcing it to turn in her direction. The Alteisen’s horn started to glow bright red and Applejack delivered a headbutt that caused the Alteisen’s horn to slice right through the stone. As the core was visible Applejack jammed the stake into it.
“DON’T. YOU. DARE. TOUCH. MAH. SISTER!” At every word another stake was shot into the golem, and as the last stake went though it, the golem was already crumbling. With the immediate threat to her sisters life gone Applejack turned around to see how the others were doing. Pinkie recovered the oxtongue rifle and finished one of the remaining golems off with Rainbow Dash and the rest of her friends already dispatched the last golem.
Inside the cockpit meanwhile Twilight scolded Applebloom.
“What were you thinking sneaking into the Wildraubtier all by yourself?” Twilight was furious at Applebloom, she promised her a ride in her PT once the whole disaster was over and what does that filly do? Said filly meekly tried to explain herself.
“Ah didn't sneak in by mahself.”
Dread filled Twilight, if that means what she thinks it means...
Using her magic she poked around in the other three barrels and to her horror she found three other fillies, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Dinky Hooves. Twilight was now too shocked to say anything to the three fillies that were now looking at her with sheepish guilt as a shadow loomed over them. Directly in front of the Wildraubtier towered Applejack in her Alteisen.
“Applebloom,” the sister of mentioned filly sounded beyond angry like the farmer tried her best not to scream them down right here and now. “You're in big trouble now lil missy,” Applebloom gulped, the last time she made her sister this angry things did not end well. “Once we get back to the Kurogane...I WILL SPANK YOU UNTIL YOU CAN CALL MY HOOFPRINT A CUTIE MARK!” This proved too much for the little filly as she curled up in Twilight’s lap like a scared cat. Even the other Cutie Mark Crusaders were shaking badly. Not that the purple unicorn couldn't understand their fear, even she was scared of Applejack right now.
Authors note:
FINALLY, this one took me longer than usual, I should really set a shcedule for myself. A few paragraph a day should be fine. Also my proofreader is not available right now so please forgive me any grammar errors. I will put this up until Midnight Moon is back and replace the chapter with the proofread one.
Also the little story about Derpy and Hawkeye was an idea for another fanfic I had, should I try to write it now or should I finish Super Pony Taisen first?
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Valsion
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1144
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2012-01-23T17:20:58+00:00
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2012-01-23T17:20:58+00:00
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Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 7 Counterattack
Four little fillies were sitting in their temporary rooms inside the Kurogane. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were still crying after Applejack backed up her earlier threat and Rarity decided that her sister deserved the same punishment. Since none of the present adults were related to them Scootaloo and Dinky remained unspanked but their own scolding still burned in their minds.
Scootaloo has looked pleadingly at her idol, Rainbow Dash, for any support but all she got was a disapproving look that she dared to say hurt more than any amount of spanking she could have received.
Dinky on the other hand only stared blankly at nothing in particular. Twilight Sparkles words were haunting her, “I am disappointed in you, not only do you sneak on board after I already promised you a ride but you bring yourselves into danger. I'm especially disappointed with you Dinky, because of that mean hag Hawkeye you would have almost been taken away from your mother and now this.”
The four crusaders knew that this time they really messed up. Scootaloo was the first to recover. “Oh what were we thinking, how could we ever expect this to work?”
Applebloom stopped sniffling, “That's what mah sister said, we're never thinkin, that is the problem.” Applebloom choked down another sob. “We just do somethin no matter how dangerous it mite be, and when we finally realize how dangerous it is, it’s already too late.” The other crusaders just nodded, also sharing the epiphany that came too late.
On the bridge of the Kurogane, Applejack and Rarity were watching their sisters and their friends on a screen. Just recently the crew had discovered the security cameras that allowed them to see all the rooms inside the Kurogane, except the bathroom stalls of course.
The two mares were nodding approvingly at Applebloom’s revelation; at least the fillies knew their mistake and learned from it. Rarity turned to Spark, “Say, when can we fly Sweetie Belle and her friends back to Ponyville?”
The unicorn in question looked nervous at that question, “Well Ms. Rarity, me and Digger have decided that the fillies would need to stay on board for the time being.”
“WHAT!”
Spark rubbed his ears after the combined vocal assault of Rarity and Applejack. “We already pulled that trick of distracting the golems while Twilight flies off. I highly doubt that Nightmare Moon is going to fall for the same trick twice. Right now staying here is the safest option for your sisters and their friends.”
Both mares could understand his point, but Applejack was still furious. “Does that mean that mah little sis has to stay right in the middle of a darn WARZONE?”
Rarity meanwhile looked about ready to faint, “Oh no, my dear sweet sister out here, this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!” This time Applejack agreed with the overly dramatic unicorn; her sister in this situation was the worst thing she could imagine.
“So Spark, what do ya'll think we should do?” Both mares were now looking expectantly at the blue engineer.
“To be honest, the only thing we can do now is to keep them inside the ship and try to deal with Nightmare Moon and her golems as fast as possible.”
“Then so be it. These golems shall be destroyed before they can get one of their filthy hands on my dear sweet sister.” Rarity then struck her hoof towards the ceiling in an overly dramatic fashion. “As Celestia is my witness, no harm shall ever befall Sweetie Belle.”
An awkward silence befell the bridge since many of the crew members were not entirely used to Rarity’s over-dramatization yet. The silence continued until Spark cleared his throat. “Well, that is certainly the right spirit. Meanwhile me and the other engineers are going to keep repairing PT's for you to use, but we'll discuss that in the meeting later.”
Shortly before Twilight came back, Professor Digger proposed that he, Spark and Team M6 should plan out their further actions. They all knew that they have to show some initiative, or else they are going to be stuck in this cave for the rest of their lives. Topics they want to discuss were which PT they should repair next, the note Spike received before Twilight Sparkle’s return and when and how to counterattack.
Applejack trotted towards the elevator. “Alright then Spark, we'll be in the meeting room in an hour. Come Rarity, let's talk to our sisters.” Rarity just nodded and followed her friend into the elevator.
Their walk to the room where the Cutie Mark Crusaders stayed was a quiet one, as both thought about what to say to them. When they arrived at the door, they lingered there for a few more minutes discussing what they wanted to say before pushing the button on the console next to the door.
As the door opened the three fillies were looking at them with fear in their eyes, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were backing away into the corner of the room and huddled together shivering.
“Don't worry Applebloom we have punished you and your friends enough for now, we just wanna give you some rules.” The fillies eased up a little, but they were still tense with the anger of the adult mares fresh in their minds, as Applejack continued. “Also, we could see an' hear ya'll from the bridge so we know that you understand why we punished you an' that's what counts.”
The two mares laid down in front of the crusaders and Rarity continued. “That still does not change the fact that you four are now in a very dangerous situation. You saw how that golem wanted to crush you; do you know what would have happened if Applejack hadn't been fast enough?” The little fillies started shivering again as they imagined the possible scenario. Rarity saw that they do have a pretty good idea. “That is why from now on you WILL do everything we tell you.”
At this point Applejack took over again. “Look fillies, we just punished ya'll cause we care about you and don't wanna see you get hurt and that's why we're gonna have to be stricter than usual.” The farmer pony now had a stern expression on her face. “That also means that ya'll gonna stay inside the Kurogane at all times. Ya'll keep away from the armory and PT hangar and we're gonna make sure that you will have an adult supervisin’ ya wherever ya'll go.”
Rarity also looked at the nervous fillies with the same stern face as Applejack. “And every time you break one of these rules you all will get three days in solitary confinement. That means you will be grounded and locked in your rooms, alone.” The four fillies nodded in understanding. “Very well, we will be going to a meeting now. You are still grounded in this room until we can get somepony to keep an eye on you. Until then you can think about what you've done some more.” Rarity and Applejack then stood up and left the room, making sure to lock the door.
Later in the meeting room, Spark, Digger, Twilight, and her friends just started their discussion about their future plans. Digger stood up and cleared his throat.
“Well then, Fillies and Gentlecolt, today’s topics will be the following: First, that mysterious powder Twilight got in Ponyville. Second, plans for any counterattacks and lastly, future supplies now. Twilight, if you would be so kind to begin please.”
As soon as Digger sat back down Twilight rose from her seat. “I've read princess Celestia’s letter that Spike received. This magic powder is indeed our source for future supplies.” Pinkie Pie then wildly flailed her hoof in the air like an overly eager schoolfilly and Twilight let out a tiny groan. “Yes, Pinkie?”
“Oh, how does it do that? Are we supposed to eat it? It doesn't look very tasty.”
The purple unicorn just shook her head, “No Pinkie, this powder is used to make a magic circle for long range teleportation spells. Normally unicorns have to be in a certain radius of their target to teleport themselves or something else. The magic circle created with this powder will act as one part of a focal point, the other circle will be in Canterlot, from which we will get future supplies this way.” All faces lighted up at her words, especially Applejack’s and Rarity’s. They both hoped that they could send their sisters back to Ponyville now.
“That's great news Twi, now we can jus' send Applebloom and her friends back home in lickety split.” Twilight winced slightly, she hated having to crush that hope.
“Sorry Applejack, it's already difficult to teleport somepony else without scorching them. On this distance it would be far too dangerous, even with the focal points.” Applejack and Rarity lost their enthusiasm at this point.
At this point Spark decided to bring the discussion to the next topic. “Now I think we should be glad that this is taken care of. I guess we can scratch 'future supplies' from today’s topics.” The mares who have reverted their attention back to Spark nodded their affirmation. “Well then, Digger and I have discussed the situation beforehand, and I think we can all agree that we can't just sit in here waiting for Nightmare Moon to make a move, or else she will eventually have so many golems that she could crush us with sheer quantities.” Before he could continued Digger piqued in.
“That reminds me, Cogwheel asked if he could pilot Twilight’s Gespenst, and personally I think it would be a great idea if we also train two other of my archaeologists to pilot PT's now that Applejack’s Schutzwald and Pinkie Pies Gespenst are free now. If you girls don't mind of course.” All three shook their heads. Personally, Twilight was glad that her Gespenst wouldn't rust away in the hangar, although it wasn't rusty after who knows how many centuries, if not thousands of years, so that shouldn't be an issue. Speaking of which she should probably take a look at the metal of the PT's some time. Digger then continued, “Good, with three new pilots, we can put our first step into action. Please continue Spark.”
The blue unicorn nodded towards his colleague. “Thank you. Anyway, the first step Digger talked about was to secure the perimeter around the cave entrance and rebuild our camp there. With three additional pilots, we should be able to hold the area.” Spark looked into the round and saw an anxious look on everyponies face. This would be their first counterattack, and they would have to make it count. “To do that we're gonna have to destroy all the golems that are waiting outside first. Now Digger, please explain the battle plan.” Said earth pony took over again while Spark procured a flow chart for him.
“Thank you, the plan for securing the outside area has three steps. First Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Pinkie fly out to draw the golems attention.”
On cue Spark flipped to the first chart picturing the Guarlion, Weissritter and Wildraubtier flying over some golems. “This way we can also find out if we have to gradually thin out their numbers, or if we can take the area in one fell swoop.”
“Second step is for Applejack, Rarity, Cogwheel and whoever gets the other Gespenst to attack head on.” While Digger continued, Spark flipped to the next page showing the Alteisen and two Gespenst’s advancing towards the golems. In the top left and right corner were two Schutzwald’s. “Third, Fluttershy and the other Schutzwald will get some distance and then provide long distance support.” Then Spark flipped to the last chart, showing a golem next to a Schutzwald and the Wildraubtier shooting at the golem. “Twilight Sparkle meanwhile keeps an eye out for both Schutzwald’s to make sure they don't get ambushed. Now, are there any questions left?” Digger looked into the rounds but only one cyan arm was raised into the air. “Yes Rainbow Dash?”
With a cocky smirk the pegasus asked, “When do we start?”
After the meeting, the Elements of Harmony, minus Twilight, were sitting down in the mess hall. Spike was also there. Pinkie Pie bounced in her seat. “Oh, I can't wait until Twilight finishes that magic circle thingy. She also said she has a really neat surprise for all of us. I hope it's cake.” The other mares rolled their eyes, then Twilight came in with her saddlebags.
“Alright I'm back.” She heaved the bags on top of the table and Applejack started to prod it curiously.
“So sugarcube, what's in there?”
Twilight excitedly clapped her hooves together, “Oh you're gonna love this. I thought that you would all feel much better if I bring you all a little souvenir from home.” All faces lighted up at this ,except for Applejack’s and Rarity’s, since they did not exactly appreciate the other 'souvenir from home'. First Twilight got the picture of Fluttershy and Angel out of the bags and gave it to the shy mare. “Since I'm sure that you miss Angel I got you this.” Fluttershy was now beaming with joy, she took the picture and hugged it as if it really was her pet bunny.
The next item was the party hat for Pinkie Pie. “Her you go Pinkie, Mr. and Mrs. Cake helped me with that one.” The pink party pony gasped loudly before putting the hat on. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm gonna have to throw an extra special surprise party for the Cakes once we're back!” Then Pinkie started to wildly bounce around the room.
Next came Applejack’s lasso. “With this you can practice your lasso tricks out here.”
The farmer pony gratefully took it and started swinging it above her head. “Thank ya kindly Sugarcube.”
Then came Rarity’s jewel box and mirror. “I couldn't bring any of your dresses but I hope your accessories will do for now.” While Rarity opened the box and joyfully looked at her priced jewels, Twilight quickly gave Spike the blue Sapphire he got from Rarity while winking at him. “Oh darling that is so sweet of you.”
Lastly Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash but before she could say anything her cyan friend took the initiative. “Oh don't worry about getting anything for me, I know that you couldn't get to my cloud home, it's no big deal.”
The purple unicorn just smirked. “Well its not from your home but I met Spitfire. She was the one who gave me that magic powder.”
Rainbow Dash froze up at the mention of her idol, her expression was much like that of a fish. “Spitfire? But, how...” Smirking, Twilight took the goggles out of her saddlebags and levitated them in front of her stammering rainbow maned friend.
Rainbow Dash stared at the goggles as if she was seeing an ancient, priceless artifact for a few seconds before she suddenly tackled her unicorn friend. “Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I've tried so many times to get an original piece of Wonderbolt equipment but there was just no way to do so.” The cyan pegasus softened her deathgrip around Twilight a little, “Except stealing it, but that wouldn't only be wrong ,it could also backfire horribly.”
“You're... welcome.” Twilight had the air knocked out of her by the sudden tackle and bear hug, so she was still wheezing a bit when Rainbow Dash grabbed the goggles and sped off. At this point, Twilight decided that now would be a good time to set up the magic circle, and went to the storage room.
The purple unicorn was in deep concentration. All ponies except her have left the room, so she would be one hundred percent undisturbed. Normally, Twilight could cast even more complicated spells even with other ponies talking around her, but since their future supplies were at stake here she decided not to take the slightest risk. Line for line, the magic circle was drawn with the powder, and every single line was checked carefully by the caster.
After what seemed like hours the magic circle was finally complete, a large ring with runes inscribed around it and what almost looked like a camera lens right in the middle. Twilight checked the runes one last time before focusing her magic into them.
The magic powder ignited instantly, blue flames scorching the ground. Twilight smiled, the instructions said that this was the sign that it was working. After a few more minutes, the flames died out and the focus point was completed. The scorch marks were glowing softly in a blue light.
In Canterlot meanwhile the identical twin of the focal point started glowing, but this one did so in an orange light instead of blue. One of Princess Celestia’s court mages who was charged with watching the circle immediately rushed off to report the activation of the other point.
First said mage tried the throne room, but the guards informed him that Celestia went to see her sister. A look of understanding and pity passed between the mage and the guard; the Princess of the Night blamed herself for Nightmare Moon’s return, and no amount of convincing has managed to change her mind so far. Hasting towards princess Luna’s room, the exhausted mage caught Celestia just as she left. Quickly regaining his composure, he bowed down and informed the Solar Princess of the focal point’s activation. Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good, that means Twilight has returned safely.”
With both focal points active, and with Spike in the Kurogane, they could now request anything from the princess, and she would make personally sure that Twilight and her friends would get whatever they needed. After thanking her court mage, she dismissed him for now, and turned to tell her sister the good news. Lately Luna has gotten worse than ever, missing out court sessions, and even when she attended she wouldn't say a single word. Princess Celestia softly knocked her hoof on the door before letting herself in. Inside her sister was still lying on her bed, looking up with the same depressed expression that did not leave her face ever since they learned of Nightmare Moons return.
“Luna my dear sister, I just got the message that Twilight Sparkle arrived safely at the Kurogane and activated the other focal point.”
“It is nice to know that the product of my jealousy has not caused any further damage yet.” Celestia winced; a very weak and sad smile was on her sisters muzzle. The larger alicorn went over to the bed and lied down next to Luna.
“Please Luna, just stop blaming yourself. You know exactly that it is only the fault of a dark spirit that possessed you a thousand years ago.” A large white wing blanketed the smaller alicorn, but it did not help to comfort her.
“Still, if I wasn't so jealous of you, I could have resisted.” Tears formed in her teal eyes. Why was everypony telling her that it wasn't her fault? She couldn't just go around saying 'it wasn't me', she was responsible, and the fact that no one seemed to be willing to punish her for her deed did not help at all.
“You can't control your emotions, not a single pony can do, that not even the two of us.”
Those words just angered the younger alicorn. “You just say that, I haven't heard about you losing control even a single time.” After that Luna broke down crying. Celestia was more used to this by now than she liked, and held her sister against her shoulder.
The Princess of the Day only shook her head; she tried everything she could think of to comfort her sister, but it was all for naught. The Princess of the Sun could only hope that she would one day see her sister smile again. That day, the last pony that still hasn't forgiven Luna would also see reason. As Luna finally fell asleep, the older sister gently got up without waking the smaller alicorn. Before she left the room Celestia whispered, “I let you down once, but I promise, I will never disappoint you again. I swear by the stars in the sky, I will not stop until you finally smile again.”
Outside of Luna’s room, a nervous looking guard was waiting for Princess Celestia with a scroll held in his mouth. He let the scroll fall on his front hoof while balancing on his back hooves. “Your majesty, we just received a letter from Twilight Sparkle.”
“Twilight? I hope everything is alright with her.” The Princess levitated the letter in front of her and began to read. After she finished the letter her heart sunk. How was she supposed to tell those fillies parents that their daughters were right in the middle of the desert, surrounded by golems that were sent by Nightmare Moon?
The day has finally come, their first counterattack on Nightmare Moon would begin today, and with a bit of luck, they would take the surface area around the Kurogane. Twilight and her friends were nervous about the operation that was about to take place, but Cogwheel and the other stallions that took over the now free Gespenst’s and the Schutzwald were even worse off. From all the stallions that were trained in the use of PT's, those two were the most promising, but still, this was way different from the simulations. Sparks voice came over the intercom as he gave some last instructions before the mission would start.
“Alright, does everypony remember the battle plan?”
On the bridge of the Kurogane, the screens showed six mares and three stallions nodding in affirmation. Just in the morning, Spark has requested helmets for all of them so they would be protected in case they crash or get hit. The stallion’s helmets were plain white; only Twilight and her friends got helmets painted in their colours. Twilight's and Rarity's helmets were also designed to protect their horns. Upon closer inspection, Spark could also see Spitfires goggles hanging around Rainbow Dash's neck as a good luck charm.
“Good, remember to wait for my signals. Guarlion, Weissritter, Wildraubtier GO!”
Pinkie and Rainbow Dash flew out first with Twilight following closely behind. The very instant the purple pilot didn't have a cave over her head, anymore she took off into the air and switched the Wildraubtier into flight mode. As soon as they came out the first golems started to rise from the ground and tried to hit them with sand and rocks. After the last one rose, their census showed slightly more than a dozen sand golems and about eight more rock golems. Their number made it difficult for the airborne mares to dodge all the rocks and sand that were thrown at them. Rainbow Dash contacted Spark over the intercom.
“Alright prof, fight or flight?” For a few seconds there was silence until the blue unicorn spoke up. “We're going for it, Alteisen, Gespenst’s GO!”
Applejack, Cogwheel, and the new pilot activated their boosters and formed a neat line as they charged the golems. The two Gespenst’s fired their megabeam rifles, aiming at the chests of the golems. Before they could react to the new arrivals the first two sand monsters were crumbling as the bright, red beams punctured their torsos. The golems were confused at having enemies in two positions, as some of them kept switching their focus between the airborne enemies and the new arrivals. Spark also noticed this and gave the command for the Schutzwald’s to move out.
Fluttershy and the other new pilot moved to the far sides of the battlefield and charged the twin beam cannons while aiming at the rock golems.
In the air, Pinkie Pie was keeping a close eye on the bulky artillery. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the pink party pony couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of flying. Even though she was still sitting in the cockpit, the pressure she felt whenever she moved was great fun to her. But before she could enjoy herself any further she noticed four sand golems that managed to get past Applejack and the Gespenst’s and moved towards Fluttershy and the other Schutzwald. On the intercom Fluttershy’s fearful face appeared.
“Pinkie, HELP!” A scowl appeared on Pinkie Pies face; those meanies dare to attack Fluttershy? Oh hay no.
“Don't worry Flutters, auntie Pinkie will take care of this.”
The Weissritter flew towards the spot between both Schutzwald’s and Pinkie changed the oxtongue rifle to E-Mode. As soon as she was directly between them she aimed at the left towards the sand golems that targeted Fluttershy. Both Schutzwald’s autocannons were firing at the golems, but they were still too far for them to get a clear shot at the cores.
Pinkie held her position while taking careful aim, just a few more seconds...
“What are you doing? Help us!”
The other Schutzwald pilot panicked, the already rattled nerves of the newly recruited pilot couldn't handle the stress, anymore and he started to flee back into the cave. Spark tried to calm him down. “No shovel, you'll lead them directly to the Kurogane.”
“I don't care, I don't want to die!”
In the air Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to facehoof. “Damnit, we can't let them into the cave as long as we're all out. Pinkie, focus on Fluttershy and let me take care of this.”
The pink pony frantically nodded before she saw what she was waiting for. The golems were now next to each other. She held down the fire button and the oxtongue rifles energy beam pierced the chests of both golems and they crumbled into the dunes.
As soon as Fluttershy's field of vision was free again, she released the beams of her twin beam cannon and melted the chest of a rock golem that was dangerously close to crushing Cogwheel. Said pony saw his chance; he drew the beam saber and stabbed the tumbling golem where he assumed the core to be. To his relieve the rocks lost their magical hold and started to crumble to the ground.
Back at the cave, the Schutzwald with the panicking pilot almost reached the entrance. All thoughts about responsibility were gone from his mind; he only wanted to be safe. But shortly before he reached the entrance ,Rainbow Dash's Guarlion blocked the way. The lean robot raised the thin arm that held the burst railgun and took aim. The Schutzwald pilot couldn't believe his eyes; were they going to shoot deserters now? He closed his eyes as he heard the shots fired, but to his surprise he didn't feel an impact. He heard explosions behind him though so he opened his eyes and turned around. The shots from Rainbow Dash have pierced the sand golems chests and the now normal sand fell to the ground. On the intercom Dash's face appeared on the screen.
“Get your act together! We're kinda counting on you here.” The cyan pegasus reprimanded the stallion who calmed down at least a little.
“But, those golems are going to kill me.” He stammered.
“So instead you run away even though the rest of your team is still in danger?” The stallion piloting the Schutzwald tried to answer but he couldn't think of anything to say. “Listen well, we're all in this together. so we need to be able to rely on each other blindly, you got that?”
Now the stallion felt ashamed of himself. He was ready to abandon his friends because of two sand golems. He even thought that Pinkie Pie would abandon him in favor of saving Fluttershy. There was only one thing he could do now. “I'm sorry, please cover me while I go back into position.”
Rainbow Dash grinned at her successful pep talk. “You got it.”
On the battlefield Cogwheel watched as the Schutzwald pilot was returning to his position. 'Good, now that this is taken care of I hope nothing else..' “Whaa!”
Cogwheels train of thought was interrupted as a hand rose from the ground and grabbed his left leg. The Gespenst fell to the ground as a sand golem rose behind him. Cogwheel tried to get his PT to stand up but the sand golem just pounded him into the ground again. He saw the remaining rock golems keeping Applejack and the other Gespenst pilot busy. “Somepony, I need help!”
In the air, Twilight sparkle heard the distressed cry and turned around to save her friend. The situation was bad, the golem stood right above him, and if she used any of the Wildraubtier’s weapons now, she would hurt Cogwheel.
On the ground Cogwheel felt how the golem was making its way through the armor, and he could swear some of the sand was already on its way into the cockpit. The almost rythmic poundings then stopped for a moment and the pilot decided to take a look. The sand golem now raised both of its fists high above its head, and prepared to deliver the finishing blow. Cogwheel wanted to close his eyes but he was paralyzed with fear.
The huge fists were now descending upon him but shortly before the hit could connect something rammed the golem. The sand from both the golem and the desert shot into the air at the impact, and Cogwheel could feel a small tremor in the ground. As the dust settled he saw what happened. Twilight Sparkle has rammed the Wildraubtier into the golem.
The earth pony worried for the pilot of the transforming PT and opened a connection between them. “Are you alright Twilight?”
Twilight’s face appeared on the intercom. She was rubbing her head that showed a small bump. “I got thrown around a bit ,but otherwise I'm fine.”
Before any of them had a chance to stand up again one of the stone golems lumbered towards them. Twilight frantically tried to transform the Wildraubtier but to no avail. “Come on, come on.” Luckily, four large, blue beams hit simultaneously hit the golem in the chest and while they could survive one shot of the twin beam cannon, the combined heat of two Schutzwald’s was enough to completely destroy it. This stone golem was the last and Twilight observed as the other finished off the last remaining sand golems.
The joy at their victory was a strange one. They were thrown into a battle they didn't want, but still, the joy at seeing the others were safe combined with the accomplishment today created a good feeling for all of the ponies. On the Kurogane, the bridge crew was cheering as the last sand golem crumbled. With a smile on his face Spark opened the communication channel and congratulated the victorious pilots. “Well done, now we can finally get out of this cave.” The PT pilots then joined in on the cheering.
“Oh, you know what this calls for? A PARTY!” With those words the hyperactive pony took off her helmet and replaced it with a party hat. At this point nopony wondered where that one came from.
In an unknown cavern, Nightmare Moon took her anger out on some defenseless furniture. How could this happen? Why did they have to find those mechanical monsters right before she could carry out her plans? A table was magically lifted off the ground and thrown against the wall.
After all the pieces of furniture were broken, the dark mare grabbed a pillow she ripped open earlier and laid down on it. She had to defeat those steel monsters somehow. There was no way she was going to survive if she didn't win. Now that she was no longer in the body of her former host, there was not reason for Celestia to hold back.
A new dreadful feeling welled up in Nightmare Moon’s chest. For a few minutes she was perfectly silent. Then an idea formed in her head and with a wicked smile she called for one of the diamond dogs outside.
Fido was scared out of his wits. The rampaging mare lied directly in front of him with a murderous smile on her face. His eyes darted towards the door, ready to run away from this madmare.
“There is no reason to be afraid mutt.” Nightmare Moons voice was disturbingly sweet, almost like a twisted stepmother from some ponytale, which was kinda fitting, since Nightmare Moon was considered a ponytale for a long time. “I merely remembered a promise I made to you dogs.”
Silly little omake #3:
The mission was over and the preparations for the victory party were already in full swing. Some of the decorations from the last party were left, and the request for some other party supplies was already sent to Princess Celestia along with the report about their victory.
Twilight and her friends stood in front of the counter that separated the mess hall from the kitchen. Fluttershy asked them to meet them there, promising a surprise. Finally the shy mare came out of the kitchen with a tray on her back. On the tray were six glasses filled with a light green liquid. The mares and Spike, who was sitting on his usual spot on Twilight's back stared at the drinks in confusion.
“These are some special health drinks. I made them with a recipe from my mother and I thought that they would be just what you needed after this hard day.” Fluttershy took the tray off of her back and beamed at her friends, offering them the drinks.
They were a little put off by the color but the other mares each took a glass anyway. Lastly Fluttershy held the table in front of Spike.
“Wasn't the last one for yourself?” The baby dragon asked.
“Oh no, I don't mind if you take it. And since you're still a baby you need the nutrients more than me anyway.” Spike thanked Fluttershy and eagerly took the last glass.
Not that everypony and Spike had a glass Fluttershy was looking at them expectantly and a little worried. “Is something wrong?”
Nopony wanted to make a comment about the interesting color or smell and instead they all took it as a signal to gulp the drink down. Almost in perfect synch all of the mares and Spike finished the strange drink in one large gulp.
“And, how was it?” Fluttershy asked as soon as they all finished their drink.
Twilight was the first to speak up. “It was very tasty Fluttershy thank you.”
From her back Spike was next. “I've never tasted anything like it.”
Then Fluttershy turned towards Pinkie and Rarity. “It was simply marvelous dear.”
“That was yummy.”
Lastly there were Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
“Ah feel stronger already.”
“I feel like I could do a sonic rainboom right now.”
The yellow pegasus was delighted at her friends kind words. “Oh I'm so glad you liked it. I was afraid the health drink would turn out to be too bitter.” Then she went back into the kitchen and came out with another tray with three more glasses on them. “Now if you excuse me, I'll give these to Cogwheel and the other stallions that helped us.”
With the tray on her back Fluttershy left the room, around the next corner she almost bumped into Digger who was on his way to the mess hall. “Careful there Fluttershy,” Then he noticed the tray on her back. “tell me, what are those?”
“Oh, these are some health drinks I made. I thought I could bring them to Cogwheel and the other two stallions that helped in the battle earlier.”
“That is very nice of you. Go on then, I'm just gonna grab a daisy sandwich see you later.”
Both ponies continued on their way, Digger now stood in front of the mess hall and opened the door. What he saw there was confusing and alarming at the same time.
Five mares and a dragon were on the ground, clutching their stomachs and rolling around in pain. Digger could also swear he saw tears in Rainbow Dash's face, but this was not important right now.
Authors note: Good news I'm not dead yet. This is by far the longest fighting scene I've written so please fire away with comments. Was it good, was it bad, what do I have to improve? Remember, any kind of criticism is more than welcome as long as it's constructive.
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Valsion
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1144
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2012-02-20T07:20:51+00:00
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2012-02-20T07:20:51+00:00
| 1,179 |
Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 8 Shooting Star
Everything was quiet in the town of Neighsville; night has already fallen and everypony was already asleep. Many of the ponies in this town were pegasi and unicorns as this town was very close to the Equestrian gem mines. The unicorns would use their gem finding spells to find the precious stones while the pegasus ponies delivered them all over Equestria. In their dreams they were not aware of what would befall them this very night.
Underneath the streets, the Diamond Dogs were digging the tunnels they have carefully prepared over the last week. Tonight would be the time to strike.
A lone pegasus was still up and awake. Droplet was just an average weather pony preparing a light midnight snack in the kitchen when she heard strange sounds coming from the basement.
“Oh please don't tell me the neighbors cat got into the house again,” Frustrated at the prospect of having to shoo a cat out of her house she made her way downstairs with a candle-holder in her mouth.
The dark basement sent chills down her spine; she hoped that the cat wouldn't make any trouble so she could leave and finally eat her dandelion sandwich in peace before going back to bed. As she went deeper she could make out the sounds better. It almost sounded like some sort of thumping.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs the thumping sounds got louder. They seemed to be coming from the wall right in front of her. Droplet was scared out of her mind but she was determined to figure out what this sound was and held her head against the wooden wall.
Before her ear even touched it the tip of an iron pickaxe shot out of the spot next to her with a loud crack. Droplet immediately backed off from the wall before more pickaxes broke out of the wall. Frozen with fear she could only watch as the large dog like creatures came out of the newly formed hole.
The leader of the pack immediately spotted her and gestured to the other dogs to capture her. Droplet tried to flee but as she turned around and started to fly upstairs one of the Diamond Dogs grabbed her hoof. She fell on the floor while another diamond dog bound her wings and mouth with a rope. Droplet helplessly watched as more and more of the large brutes poured out of the tunnels, until finally another figure stepped out and her eyes widened with fear.
The mare of the moon herself emerged from the darkness, exactly like the statue the foals offered their candy to on Nightmare Night. If it wasn't for the rope around her mouth Droplet would have screamed in fear at the pitch black alicorn, but as it was now she couldn't do anything. For one moment it was like her heart stopped beating as Nightmare Moon looked directly at her with an evil smirk on her face.
“Very good, now catch the rest of the ponies in this town and make sure not to damage any of the pegasus wings, I have special plans for them.”
Droplet gulped and stared at the dark mare with wide eyes, silently wondering what the evil alicorn was planning.
In the skies over the desert Rainbow Dash could not possibly be any happier. After being stuck in the Kurogane for so long it felt good to fly again. Normally the cyan pegasus would speed around as fast as possible, but tonight she would enjoy the cool air around her. Looking up she saw a shooting star flying by. On the ground were several other ponies stargazing. Rainbow Dash chuckled; apparently she was not the only one who missed the sky.
The rainbow maned mare made a few more loops and dives before she heard somepony calling out her name. Fluttershy slowly flew up to her friend. With a sigh Rainbow Dash turned around. “Hi Fluttershy, something wrong?”
“I'm sorry to interrupt you, but Spark and Digger wanted to talk to you.” Fluttershy hated having to spoil her friends fun; after all, Rainbow Dash loved the sky more than anything, and being cooped up inside the Kurogane, underground of all things, must have been awful.
“It's okay, it's probably important and besides, now I can finally go for a flight anytime I want again,” Rainbow Dash said, and made her way down to the ground.
Spark and Digger already stood there, waiting for Rainbow Dash with the great news they were about to tell her.
“Ah Rainbow Dash, good to see you so happy,” Digger started cheerfully. “Don't worry, we'll make this quick so you can go back to flying.”
Spark took over, “We have inspected another airborne Personal Trooper that is not too badly damaged, and we think you are the perfect pilot for it.”
Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her luck; the cyan pegasus was grinning from ear to ear at this point. “Seriously, first I can finally practice my air stunts again and now I get a brand new PT?” Overjoyed, Rainbow Dash started to make some wild loops before Spark pulled her down with his magic.
“This also means you're going to have to do some specialized training. This PT has the highest speed of all, this is not something you should take lightly.” This however only encouraged Rainbow Dash, after all she loved to fly fast.
“Are you kidding? Flying and speed are what I was born for, this is perfect!” Before either of the stallions could squeeze in another word the rainbow maned pegasus already sped off. With a sigh Spark turned to his friend.
“I just hope this girl knows what she's getting herself into.”
Digger in turn just nodded and decided to change the subject. “By the way, have you found any information about the builders of the Kurogane?” Even with the war against Nightmare Moon going on, this was still Diggers priority.
Spark only shook his head, “Sorry, even though we're getting better with the consoles each passing day we couldn't find any information about the former crew.”
Digger hung his head low. It was eating him up that they found something so amazing as the technology of a different, far more advanced civilization and they didn't know anything about them. He felt like a bullied foal that had it's lunch snatched away and held just out of reach. With a sigh he tried to change the subject again. “At least all this new technology can help Equestria as soon as the war is over.”
A smile was forming on Spark's lips. “That's true, with a little bit of refitting we could use the Personal Troopers for all kinds of work, construction for example. Also I have an idea for a harness with two arms attached to it that will help earth and pegasus ponies to grab stuff.” Digger was not entirely sure how that was supposed to work and Spark saw the confused expression on his friend. “I know a doctor who specializes in neurology, basically all of our movements are derived from our brain sending electrical impulses through our nerves, to the muscles. If we can make those mechanical arms read the impulses we could make them move as if they were an ordinary body part.”
Digger was fascinated at this explanation, “Wow, I didn't know bodies and machines could interact that way.” The world of biology and the world of machines always seemed to be so far apart for Digger, just like archeology and engineering, yet here they are studying the Kurogane together.
Spark gleamed with pride, “But they do, and with the technology in the Kurogane we can make everyponies life so much easier.” Digger agreed with that but the next statement threw him off guard. “Of course earth ponies should come first.” What did Spark mean by that?
The blue unicorn saw Diggers puzzled expression. “Well, it's just that unicorns like me always have such a huge advantage with our magic. It's only fair that earth ponies profit first from any findings.” Spark could only think of his mother and all the troubles she had in her daily life in Canterlot; after all, that was his motivation from getting into engineering in the first place.
Digger didn't know what to say: In one hoof he appreciated the thought, but he also found it wrong to play favorites like that with something that should be available to everypony. It was the same with archeology; he uncovered pony history for all ponies, not just a select few who were allowed to learn. “I think the technology of the Kurogane should be for everypony equally, and it's not like the princess would allow such favorite playing.” Digger could understand his friends motivations, but it still made him feel awkward. The other pony’s expression grew darker.
“Oh, but a specialized school for unicorns and complete weather control to the pegasi is not playing favorites?” The tone in Sparks voice was getting annoyed, as if he couldn't believe he had to explain his opinion, and quite frankly, Digger found the direction in which this conversation was going bizarre too.
“Of course not, princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is a MAGIC school, so of course earth and pegasus ponies can't attend, and in turn pegasi are the only ponies even capable of controlling the weather.” A few other ponies stood near the two friends but those either walked away or pretended not to hear anything. It was indeed a strange picture, a unicorn arguing that unicorns and pegasus ponies were over privileged while an earth pony was arguing against that.
Spark had enough of this. “It looks like we're not getting anywhere here. For the sake of our teamwork, let's just forget this conversation ever happened,” Digger was more than happy to oblige; the last thing they needed was infighting.
It has been a few days since the fateful night and Droplet was creating more storm clouds with the other pegasi. Soon after the Diamond Dogs took every single pony in her town prisoner they were separated by task. Most of the unicorns in her town knew the gem finding spell and had to dig the precious stones out for the greedy canines. The few earth ponies were mostly pulling the mine carts or were performing other menial tasks like serving food or cleaning. She and the other pegasus ponies, however, were under direct control of Nightmare Moon herself. The dark mare quickly explained that she wanted to make golems out of storm clouds so she could destroy the Elements of Harmony and the princesses.
The thought of helping with this made Droplet feel sick in her stomach, but the runes inscribed on her hoof reminded her that she had no other choice. Every slave had one of these; if they tried to flee Nightmare Moon could just use those teleportation runes to bring them back, and Droplet didn't even want to imagine the punishment that would await her.
After the last piece of cloud was attached four other pegasi lifted the large, red core up and lowered it into the storm cloud. The first time they still hoped that this wouldn't work but those hopes were crushed as, like now, the storm cloud took the shape of a bird and flew off to the area where all the other storm golems would await their orders.
Hanging her head low Droplet continued her task, hoping that the Elements of Harmony could defeat these golems somehow.
Three days later, Twilight and her friends sat together in the large tent that served as the surface-level mess hall enjoying their dinner. The past few days went well so far now that they could finally see the sky again. The warm rays of the sun at day and the elegant beauty of the night sky lifted everpony’s spirits.
Of course, now that they were above ground again, the area needed to be guarded at all times, but thanks to Cogwheel and the other two new pilots, the mares could still have some time together.
Today Rainbow Dash lead the discussion, mostly because whenever the topic was changed, she steered it right back onto her new PT, which she was gushing over like a filly showing of a new toy at school.
“I saw it for the first time this morning, it's so awesome.” Rainbow Dash practically squealed the last part. “It's lean, it's fast and the perfect PT for me.”
Twilight, who studied the machines with an interest she didn't hold for a long time, corrected her friend. “The Astelion is an Armored Module not a Personal Trooper.” The other mares stared at her confused.
“Other than Personal Troopers, AM's have been derived from a fighter jet, that is a combat machine similar to my Wildrautier in flight mode. They all come equipped with a so called Tesla Drive, a special form of booster that allows them to fly.” Her friends started to understand the difference as Twilight went on. “The Guarlion was one of those AM's while Pinkie’s Weissritter was a PT with a Tesla Drive attached to it. The Astelion on the other hoof has two of them on the shoulders.”
Rainbow Dash interrupted her, “You mean those things on the shoulders that are pointing forward?” Twilight just nodded in response.
The others have seen the Armored Module too; it looked a lot like the Guarlion, only with even slimmer limbs. The chest and head were elongated and curved to give better aerodynamics along with the almost flat shoulders. On top of those shoulders were the Tesla Drives that pointed farther forward than even the arms. The Tesla Drives also had missile batteries and stabilizing fins on the side at shoulders length.
All in all, the Astelion was build with speed in mind, and that's exactly how Rainbow Dash liked it. “Anyway, Spark told me the repairs will be done around afternoon tomorrow, then I can finally take it to a test flight.”
At this moment Cogwheel came into the tent and went over to the mares. “Hi girls, what's up?”
Pinkie jumped in front of him, “Oh Dashie just told us all about the Astelion. She said it's super duper fast, even faster than Weissie. Do you know how fast it can go? I wonder if Dashie can do a Sonic Rainboom with it.” Cogwheel smiled awkwardly while Pinkie Pie rambled on; her motormouth can be a little exhausting. Twilight decided to intervene.
“Hello Cogwheel, is it time to switch the guards again?”
Cogwheel nodded, “Yes, Spark said that it's Applejacks and Pinkies turn now.”
Pinkie Pie stopped her rambling and gave her friends a quick salute. “Okie dokie lokie, I'll see you later. Don't worry, nothing can surprise me with my Pinkie-Sense.” Then she hopped out of the tent.
“Well, see ya'll later.” Applejack tipped her hat and followed Pinkie.
After both mares left, the others gathered around the table again. Rarity asked Cogwheel if Spark and Digger made up again after their fight but the technopathic earth pony just shook his head sadly.
“Nothing so far, Spark firmly believes that earth ponies are not getting enough respect while Digger tries to explain that he can't just play favorites with the technology of the Kurogane.”
Word about the fight between the two got out fast. Twilight knew about Sparks problem, she often heard ponies complaining to princess Celestia that since unicorns have magic and pegasi have weather control that earth ponies should get some exclusive rights too. The princess had to agree that they had a point but the dilemma was that there was no way she could give earth ponies those exclusive rights without having to ban other ponies for no good reason.
“Poor Spark, seeing his earth pony mother struggle in a city designed for unicorns must have caused this resentment.” The others agreed with Twilight. “I can remember that princess Celestia considered giving earth ponies exclusive rights to farming and cultivating but that would have forced many unicorn and pegasus farmers to give up their farms.”
Rainbow Dash piqued in. “I think everypony is overreacting to this. It may be true that earth ponies lack magic and flight but with all the fancy tech of this ship that problem might be solved pretty soon.”
Somehow Twilight doubted that, but was willing to give hope a chance. “Maybe you're right Rainbow Dash. Spark already told me about some of his ideas that could even out things a little.”
“Count on it, with all of the inventions that are going to spring from the Kurogane I bet they could even make some artificial wings. Anyway, it's time for me to get some sleep. After all I've got an AM to test tomorrow.” Rainbow Dash flew out of the tent. It was getting kinda late and the rest of team M6 was getting tired too.
“Well girls, I think Rainbow Dash has the right idea. I'm going to tuck Sweetie Belle and her friends in and get some beauty sleep.” After saying good night they made their way towards their own sleeping tents to get ready for the next day.
The following afternoon it was time for Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy to guard the dig site while the others were sleeping. Twilight was currently in flight mode and flew large circles around the camp; nothing was out of the ordinary. Suddenly the intercom crackled into existence, Raritys bored looking face appeared on the side of Twilights screen.
“Have you seen anything unusual?”
“No, Nightmare Moons golems didn't attack for quite some time.” Twilight was more worried than glad about this. “I just hope she's not gathering golems for a mass assault.”
Rarity also became uneasy at the thought, as powerful as their robots were they could still be steamrolled by pure quantity. “Let's hope that's not the case. By the way isn't Rainbow Dash currently in the hangar?”
“Yes, she's doing some last calibrations with the engineering team. I'm so excited about seeing the Astelion in action.” The purple mare was now shifting around in her seat and the now loopy flight path of the Wildraubtier reflected that.
Rarity rolled her eyes, after a while the shock and awe at the large machines began to die down at least a little, but Twilight was still as excited about them as a little filly with her Hearth Warmings Eve gift.
“Now now Twilight, calm down. Besides, we've already seen it so it's not like it's gonna be some big surprise.”
“Still, I want to see how fast it can go. I wonder if Rainbow Dash can perform a Sonic Rainboom with it.” Twilight was lost in her thoughts; there was something more about these robots than just academic interest.
As a filly, Twilight was very picky when it came to toys. Not that she was spoiled, but somehow all of her toys were lacking something she just couldn't put her hoof on. The purple unicorn tried to imagine something, a small plastic model of the Wildraubtier. Something clicked in her mind, toy robots. Maybe after Nightmare Moon is stopped for good she could try and contact some toymakers to tell them about her idea. Before she could let her imagination wander any further she was shaken out of her thoughts by a frantic Rarity.
“Twilight, what is that on the horizon?”
“How long do I have to wait? Can't I just do the test flight now and you check on this operation system later?” Rainbow Dash was really annoyed, after almost bouncing towards her new machine, she was told that they had to make some adjustments and that she had to wait. At first she thought this would only be a quick checkup but no, it's almost been an hour and she was still stuck in the launching dock.
The cockpit of the Astelion was vastly different; instead of having screens to the front and sides it was almost like the walls didn't exist. For Rainbow Dash it looked like her seat was hovering in mid-air with all the technical data floating in the air in front of her.
Cogwheel sighed behind the computer screen; they just learned about operating systems and programming days ago, and even with all the guides waiting in the bridge computer, it was still difficult to figure out. “Sorry Dash, but the OS is important. It tells the machine what to do so you don't self destruct when you just want to raise the arm. Just be glad that the Astelion is so similar to the Guarlion, this way we have a reference.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Couldn't you have done that YESTERDAY?”
“Oh come on, I have to sleep too you know. Also, due to my special talent with machines, Spark and Digger deemed that I should be the only one doing any programming for now, since I can tell if I've done something wrong.”
Before they could continue to bicker the alarms went off and Diggers panicked voice shouted through the ship.
“Attention entire crew, we're being attacked by golems. Evacuation crews are to go up and rescue everypony who didn't flee yet, all PT pilots go to the hangar now!”
Rainbow Dash cursed under her breath. “We don't have time for adjustments, let me out NOW!”
“You can't! The Astelion would probably ignore half of your commands!”
Rainbow Dash cursed again; her friends were in danger and she couldn't do anything.
Chaos reigned outside, the strange storm clouds that Rarity spotted turned out to be a new kind of golem. The storm clouds took the form of birds and thunder crackled through their bodies. Like vultures. they drew their circles over the camp raining bolts of lighting down on it. Twilight, Fluttershy. and Rarity. tried their best to hit them but they were too high for any attacks from the ground to hit them. and Twilight quickly became their prime target, making it impossible for her to get a clear shot.
A purple energy beam shot past one of the bird-like storm clouds as Twilight’s shot was thrown off again because she needed to evade yet another lighting bolt. The purple unicorn knew she couldn't keep this up; the Wildraubtier just wasn't fast and agile enough for this.
Almost all of her friends PT's were in bad shape too; none of the Gespenst’s could fight anymore, Fluttershy lost the twin beam cannons and even the Alteisen lost the machine gun arm. Only Pinkie Pie remained unharmed, probably thanks to her Pinkie-Sense, but faced the same problem as Twilight. The best Pinkie could do at this point was to blindly shoot at the storm golems, hoping to hit the core.
Suddenly one of the storm golems dispersed; Pinkie Pie managed to get a lucky shot at it.
“Did you girls see that? I got one!”
The pink ponies small victory was cut short as another lightning bolt descended. In the nick of time the white robot dodged the lighting. Pinkie could feel her hair getting frizzled by the large amount of electricity. “Missed m- AUGH!”
It was a trap, while she evaded one lightning bolt three others descended around her. One of them struck the Weissritter right in the back, the fins were immediately destroyed and the boosters died down. The white and blue robot fell down towards the dunes with the pilot screaming inside the cockpit.
Applejack saw her friend and rushed towards the landing point. Thunder struck around her. but the Alteisen managed to dodge them. One of the storm golems flew after the falling Weissritter.
“Ah hay no ya won't.” There was no way she'll let those monster kill one of her friends, so Applejack opened up the large containers on the Alteisen’s shoulders. Like a mouth, two armor plates opened up, and a rapid volley of titanium balls shot towards the storm golem.
The golem had no chance as around two dozen of the claymores hit it and detonated. As the storm clouds dispersed Applejack used the remaining arm of the Alteisen to catch Pinkie Pie.
“Are ya'll alright Pinkie?”
The farmer was panicked as she opened the communication channel. Pinkie was not moving and hung limply in her seat.
Tears formed in Applejack’s eyes, was she too late? Then the pink hooves of her friend started to twitch and the orange earth pony breathed a sigh of relief as Pinkie woke up.
“Owwie, what happened?” The hyperactive pony seemed to be a little dizzy but otherwise she was fine.
“Oh Pinkie, never scare me like dat again.”
They managed to take two golems down but six more circled the sky. Pinkie Pie picked up the oxtongue rifle that fell down right next to her and continued shooting at the storm golems.
The battle looked bad for the ponies, the six remaining golems seemed to focus on the Wildraubtier and Twilight couldn't get a single shot in between anymore. Twilight gave the energy display a quick glance, one more shot with the hyperbeam rifle and she wouldn't be able to fly anymore.
Twilight almost gave up the hope to win this battle until something came out of the cave. Two missiles shot out of the cave and collided with one of the remaining golems. As the missiles exploded all attention was directed at the cave entrance. Like a shooting star, the Astelion shot out of the cave and was already high up in the sky.
The ponies on the bridge looked at the fight through the cameras of the PT's. Fear was dominant in all of them as they watched how effortlessly the storm golems tore through the PT's. Digger looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who demanded to know if the mane six were okay and already wanted to get them out of the room. If this didn't turn out to all right, he did not want them to see it.
He approached the scared fillies as her heard an explosion coming from the screen. He turned around just in time to see one of the storm golems going down in flames. Rainbow Dash's face appeared on one of the screens.
“Alright, let me show you how it's done.”
Behind Digger, the small fillies faces lightened up again as they saw the Astelion take flight, and Scootaloo showed an expression of deep awe and admiration.
“She's so cool.”
Rainbow Dash struggled to keep control of the Astelion as the g-force pushed her into the seat, but she still managed to keep a tight grip on the controls. Cogwheel managed to finish the last adjustments on the OS just in time.
Lightning cracked around the lean, white robot as the storm golems focused their attention towards it. Effortlessly Rainbow Dash managed to dodge every single arc of lightning, thanks to the Astelion’s speed and agility and to her own reflexes that have been honed by years of practicing high speed flying stunts.
The Astelion performed a barrel roll as the golem she aimed at attacked her again and deactivated the sonic breaker. A steady stream of bullets shot out of the two small holes in it's chest and pierced the golems core. As the clouds dispersed, a confident smirk formed on Rainbow Dash’s face. “Alright, time to show them what Ponyville’s top weather pegasus can do.” The storm golems stopped circling over the encampment and instead flew towards the Astelion in a V Formation.
The Astelion sped up again but this time she was on the height of the golems as she flew directly at them. Twilight opened a channel, “No! You'll get electrocuted if you ram them.”
“I'm not gonna ram them, you and Pinkie better start aiming.”
Twilight realized what Rainbow Dash was planning, she flew close to the ground and landed in PT mode with the Hyperbeam rifle aimed at one of the golems.
The Astelion continued dodging the lightning strikes as it flew towards the storm golems. With just a few more meter distance left between them Rainbow Dash suddenly shifted her direction. Instead of flying into the golems directly, she flew past them. Rainbow Dash was so close to them that she felt her fur standing up with all the electricity.
At the ground Pinkie Pie wondered why Rainbow Dash did that, until she saw something glowing softly within the enchanted stormclouds, and then she realized it too. By flying past them Rainbow Dash created a gust of wind that would blow the clouds apart. The magical hold the orb had over the storm cloud was too strong to completely disperse them but now Pinkie and Twilight had a clear shot.
Two energy beams, one in purple and one in yellow were shot into the sky, destroying two more of the storm golems. Two more golems down, three to go.
Rainbow Dash let out a triumphant laugh as she looked behind her. “And now, the grand finale!” After getting more distance to the remaining golems, Rainbow Dash took a sharp turn. “Let's so how fast this thing can really go.” With that she pushed the speed pedal all the way down to the ground. The G-forces felt as if an Ursa was pushing her against the seat, but Rainbow Dash didn't let this distract her.
More missiles were launched from the batteries on the Astelion’s shoulders. It was a truly amazing sight to see the Astelion practically dance between its own missiles, shooting new ones every time it evaded another lightning strike. After all the missiles were shot Rainbow Dash pulled up and fireworks erupted as just a second later the missiles hit their targets.
Everypony on the ground watched the spectacle in awe as the Astelion made a loop and descended onto the ground. The pilots of the damaged PT's now left their cockpits, still shaken by the fact that they have been defeated so easily earlier.
Digger made his way up to the surface and to the Astelion with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in tow. As Rainbow Dash got out of the Astelion, Scootaloo rushed forward and tackled her idol.
“Oh Rainbow Dash you were so cool! I mean you are always cool but now even more than ever before!” A confident grin was plastered on Rainbow Dash’s face as she soaked up the fillies praise.
“Well, what do you expect from the fastest flier in Equestria? I'm just glad that Cogwheel finished that damn operating system in time.” Finally, everypony was assembled.
Digger frowned as he surveyed the damage, “Damn, only the Astelion, the Wildraubtier and the Weissritter are still capable of fighting and the Weissritter’s fins need to be fixed in order to fly again.” Out of nowhere Pinkie pulled Digger into a hug.
“Aaw don't be all saddy-waddy, Dashie here is fast enough for everypony who's out of action for now. She can defeat all the baddies in ten seconds flat.”
“Of course I can! In fact, with the Astelion I ca...woah!”
Suddenly the ground began to rumble and sand golems emerged from the ground. A good dozen of them surrounded the ponies. The Cutie Mark Crusaders retreated behind the adults while Dash flew back into the Astelion’s cockpit.
“You jerks just don't know when to quit don't you?”
Dinky shivered as she stared at the nearest golem. She wished so much that she just stayed home where her mommy could protect her. One of the golems formed a large ball of sand in its palm. To their horror the ponies on the ground noticed that the golems did not concentrate on the Astelion but instead they were facing them.
Rainbow Dash cursed as she noticed that she wasted all of her missiles on the storm golems. Her eyes quickly scanned for the first golem that tried to make its move but to her horror she saw that they were all in synch. There was no way for her to stop them and soon her friends and the children would be buried under several tons of sand.
Twilight and the other frantically looked for an escape route.
“Digger, take the fillies and get them underground while we distract the golems.” Said Twilight to the earth pony archeologist and then she turned towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “You have to follow Digger my little ponies, he'll get you back to the Kurogane.”
“But what about the rest of you?” Protested Sweetie Belle.
Rarity gently nudged her sister towards Digger, “Don't worry Sweetie Belle, we'll manage somehow.”
The fillies broke into a gallop towards Digger as they heard a familiar voice.
“LEAVE THEM ALONE!”
An incredibly fast object descended from the sky and hovered in the air above the ponies. Rainbow Dash got closer to the strange newcomer, to everyponies shock it was a robot. It was silver with purple joints and looked like it was wearing some sort of knight armor. The feet looked like a birds talons, and fins on it's back that looked like it had three pairs of wings. In its right hand it held a regal but also medieval looking sword with a golden grip. As Rainbow Dash flew around she also noticed some sort of tail sticking out of its backside.
Inside the Kurogane the bridge crew frantically searched the archives. As soon as the strange robot appeared Spark gave the order to search for any information on it. Spike, who also watched the fight from the bridge went up to Spark.
“Spark, I know that voice!”
“What? Who is the pilot of that thing.”
Before Spike could answer one of the bridge ponies shouted for Spark.
“Sir, I found it. This new robot is called Cybuster.”
Inside the Cybuster, a pegasus pony was glaring at the sand golems from her seat. The cockpit was egg shaped and the screens around it had a beehive pattern. At heads height, two cats were sitting next to the pilot, one white as snow, and the other midnight black. The strangest thing though was that the cats spoke.
“Alright Ms. You can take them all out at once, just remember what we told you.” Started the white cat.
“Also don't worry about the ponies, since you don't see them as enemies they won't get hurt.” Continued the black one.
The pegasus nodded and gripped the control sticks tightly. The Cybuster held the sword in front of itself.
A small, light purple unicorn filly stared at it with big eyes.
“Mommy?”
The ponies around her were shocked. Was that really Derpy in this knight looking robot? The question was quickly answered by an angry shout.
“YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HURT MY LITTLE MUFFIN!”
The blade of the sword glowed in a bright blue light.
“CY-FLASH!”
A huge wave of energy erupted and quickly engulfed the entire battlefield. Twilight and the others closed her eyes as the energy wave was approaching them. Expecting to be killed by the large amount of energy, everypony was surprised that it didn't hurt; in fact it almost felt good.
The golem did not have such luck and the energy wave blew the sand apart and pulverized the core. Only the Cybuster, the Astelion and the ponies on the ground remained after the energy wave died down.
Slowly both robots landed close to the ponies, who were still gaping in awe at their savior. The armor at the neck split open and out of it came a gray coated, blond pegasus. Dinky rushed over to her mother. Tears of joy were in the eyes of mother and child as Derpy landed and embraced Dinky.
“Oh little muffin, I'm so glad you are okay.” Derpy almost cried as she nuzzled her daughter affectionately.
“I'm sorry mommy, I promise I'll never run away like this again.” Dinky was overjoyed at being reunited with her mother.
The others wanted to ask Derpy where she found this machine, but none of them had the heart to break this scene up.
Then Fluttershy noticed something else coming out of the cockpit. Two cats, one white and the other black gracefully landed on the ground. Fluttershy let out a small squeak as she saw them. It has been so long since she had any animals to keep her company.
“Oh hello you two, my name is Fluttershy.”
“Nice to meet you Fluttershy, my name is Schwarz and this is my brother Weiß. Say, are you alright? You look a little pale.” Fluttershy went completely motionless as the black cat started to talk.
“You nimwit, she's surprised because she's not used to talking cats.” Said the white cat.
The others who witnessed the scene also had various different looks of surprise and shock on their faces. Finally the exhaustion, mixed with the sudden shock over the talking felines, got the better of the ponies and they all fainted. Derpy noticed that all the other ponies except her daughter who still had a vice grip on her were unconscious.
“I guess I've got some explaining to do.”
Authors note: Yes I just gave Derpy the Cybuster whoohoo. Also I know that the cat's names are Kuro and Shiro in the games and anime but let's say I don't want to spoiler too much. As for the location of the Cybuster cockpit, I've seen a few episodes of the Cybuster anime and there the cockpit was located in the neck too. Too bad I couldn't find the rest though, I was so close to see what they did with the Granzon in that anime.
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|
Valsion
|
1144
| 9 |
Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Super Pony Taisen
|
incomplete
| 12 | 1 |
<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
|
everyone
|
2012-03-10T07:25:04+00:00
|
2012-03-10T07:25:04+00:00
| 808 |
Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 9 answers and new questions
One after another, the ponies around the Cybuster regained consciousness. Other ponies were coming from the Kurogane to check on them. As the last pony was awake again, Derpy decided that now was the best time to explain everything.
“Alright, now that you're all conscious again, I think I should tell you where I found the Cybuster.”
“That would be a great idea.” Said Twilight who, like the other ponies, was still flustered.
“Do you all remember that time where Dinky forgot to tell me about a field trip?” Dinky, still in her mothers arms blushed as she remembered. Ms. Cheerilee took the entire class for an extended field trip that would take a little longer than normal school time. Dinky was so excited about it she forgot to tell her mom. It ended with her panicked mother searching for her anywhere, even the Everfree Forest. It was so embarrassing for Dinky and the filly felt bad for scaring her mother like that.
The worst part however were the vile comments from Hawkeye, raving on about how irresponsible Derpy was in her opinion. Dinky was pulled out of her memories as her mother continued.
“While I was searching for her in the Everfree Forest I came across the cave where the Ursas used to live before they moved away. After fetching a lantern I explored the cave, hoping my little muffin was there but instead I found the Cybuster.”
Digger interrupted her, “Why didn't you tell anypony about this?”
The expression on Derpy's face changed to sadness. “I just wanted to find my daughter first. When I learned about the field trip I thought for a moment about telling everypony, but when Hawkeye accused me of being mentally incapable of taking care of my child again I got scared. I thought if I told them about a metal giant I found in a cave everypony would think I was crazy so I kept it a secret.”
Fluttershy trotted over to Derpy and laid a comforting hoof over her shoulder. “Don't worry, we don't blame you and I can understand how you have felt. But tell us, where did you find those cats?”
Derpy calmed down and smiled again. “Alright, here's the story...”
Panic was the only thing Derpy felt, Dinky was nowhere to be found. Her first instinct was to ask Ms. Cheerilee if Dinky just forgot to tell her about a field trip again but the only thing she learned was that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were also missing. Big Macintosh, Granny Smith and the parents of the other two fillies also visited her and asked if they were at her house to play with Dinky.
The other parents and family members started to panic too. Together they started a search party, hoping the children would turn up at one point. As if the disappearance of her daughter wasn't bad enough, through some sort of rotten luck Derpy ended up in the same search team as Hawkeye.
“You do realize that through your incompetence at looking after the children you not only endangered your own filly but three other as well. What do you want to do if we don't find them? Hello, I'm talking to you!”
Derpy gritted her teeth, as much as she wanted to punch this vile mare in the muzzle she had to hold herself back for Dinky's sake.
The search continued until midnight before it was called off. After midnight Derpy still wanted to continue the search but the other parents and family members took her home.
“It is too dark now,” Explained Sweetie Belles mother. “We will continue tomorrow, you should rest now.” Derpy had no other choice but to resign; she had no chance of finding her daughter if she goes alone.
The next day Derpy was rudely awakened by a heavy pounding on her door. She was shocked to see that she slept in and quickly made her way downstairs. She had heavy bags under her bloodshot eyes, as her worries prevented her from getting a good nights sleep, also causing her to be late. As she opened the door, a member of the royal guard stood in front of her with a serious expression. 'No' she thought as she feared for the worst.
“Ms. Hooves, I am here because I have news about your daughter Dinky.”
Derpy suddenly felt empty, 'no, no, no oh please Celestia don't say it'. Almost ready to cry, the gray mailmare prepared for the worst.
“We got a message from Twilight Sparkle, apparently you daughter and her friends snuck on board of Ms. Sparkles Personal Trooper. They are alive but they are now in the Kurogane.”
A heavy stone fell off of her heart as she heard these words. “Oh thank Celestia she is alive." But even with those new, her little muffin was still in danger. "Can Twilight send her back somehow?”
The guard shook his head. “I am sorry Mam, but they currently have no way to send the fillies back safely.”
Some of the dread she felt earlier returned; her daughter was stuck in the middle of the desert surrounded by Nightmare Moons golems. Derpy was still grateful though, alive and in danger was still better than... she didn't want to think about it. “Thank you, are the families of the other fillies also informed?”
“Yes, and you are advised to remain calm and wait for further news about the situation on the Kurogane. But in order to recieve any messages about the status on the dig site you'll have to sign this.”
With these words the guard took a piece of paper out of his saddlebag. Derpy flew over the contents; it was a contract where she guaranteed secrecy in return for getting information about the situation on the dig side. She quickly fetched a quill and signed the contract.
“Thank you Mam, this was necessary because Princess Celestia doesn't want top secret information to reach the false ears. I must go now and remember, stay calm, the crew of the Kurogane knows what it's doing.”
After the guard left Derpy went back inside and sat on the table. All she could think about was her daughter. Was she safe? Is she injured? Is she scared? Then she remembered Hawkeyes cruel words and the decisive question.
“What do you want to do if we can't find them?”
Derpy lifted her head again, worries and sadness were now replaced by determination.
“I am going to get them back.”
Derpy started to pack her saddlepack for the journey ahead of her: some food, some water and Dinky's teddy bear all went into the bag. Now she had to be patient and wait for the night to slip out undetected. This day would prove to be the longest day in the mailmare’s life, as every minute might as well be an hour and every hour an entire day in itself. Finally the sky took a red tint, and soon afterwards the light of Luna’s moon and stars were the only things illuminating the night.
Derpy attached the saddlebag to her back and grabbed a lantern, as well as some flint to light it later. Carefully, she slipped into the night and headed towards the Everfree Forest. As soon as she was far enough away from any buildings she lit her lantern and took off into the sky. The Everfree Forest was already a dark and mysterious place, but during the night it was just plain terrifying. Derpy didn't care about this though, as her mind was locked on the one thing that was important to her right now.
After an hour she finally found the right cave, and after checking for any predators that might hide in the bushes, she landed in front of the entrance. Her heart was pounding inside her chest as she went deeper. Soon enough she saw a silvery shine as the light of her lantern reflected off of the large, knightly figure sitting in front of her. Hope surged through Derpy’s mind as she examined the robot in front of her.
Not wasting a single second she immediately went to work, trying to find the cockpit. The cockpit of the Wildraubtier Twilight piloted was somewhere in the chest; hopefully she could find it too. Derpy flew up to the chest and started to look for some sort of lever or button, but wherever she looked, she couldn't find anything that even resembled a hatch.
For another hour she fruitlessly scanned the machine for an opening. Tears were streaming down her face as her new found hope diminished. Finally she landed on the robots chest and put the lantern down. Her eyes were already red as she stared at the face of the knight.
“Please,” she sobbed. “My daughter is in danger, three other fillies are in danger, please help me to save them.” Nothing happened. “Dinky, my little muffin, she's my only sunshine, and if something happened to her, I couldn't live anymore.”
As Derpy broke down and buried her head into her hooves, a faint, green glow emitted from the eyes of the robot. Finally Derpy noticed it and lifted her head. The armor along the neck suddenly split apart and revealed what the crying pegasus desperately searched for. An oval space was inside the neck and a large seat right in the middle. Carefully, Derpy went inside and sat down where she guessed the robot was controlled from. She noticed some odd, green spheres at each end of the armrests, as well as some sort of table attached to each side of the backrest.
Derpy started to fiddle with the controls, attempting to make any sense of them. What she didn't notice in her concentration was a faint blue glow coming from behind her.
“Come on, how do I turn this thing on?”
“Like this.” Before Derpy could react to the new voice, the cockpit closed and the walls turned into screens that were tightly attached to each other in a beehive like pattern, showing the cave that was now illuminated by a greenish blue glow coming from the front of the machine.
Derpy turned around only to see two cats, one in black and one in white, coming from behind the seat and hopping onto the places next to her seat. “Did, did you just talk?” She pointed a shaking hoof at the black cat.
“That's right, my name is Schwarz and this is Weiß.” As Derpy craned her neck to the other cat it just grinned at her. “Nice to meet you Ms.?” The white cat made a circling motion with its paw.
“M-my name is Derpy Hooves.” Her voice, like her body, was shaking; she never heard of any talking cats before, and why did those two appear suddenly? “Who are you and why can you talk?”
Weiß only gave her another grin. “We can talk because we are the familiar spirits of the Cybuster.”
“Cybuster? Is that the name of this thing?”
“Yup,” answered Schwarz. “And as its familiars we know everything about it.”
Derpy perked up as she heard this. “Do you also know how to move it?”
The cats scoffed, reminding Derpy of Rainbow Dash whenever she got challenged. “Move it? This baby can fly faster than sound.” bragged Schwarz.
This was perfect; now she could save her daughter. “Please, teach me how to fly the Cybuster. My daughter Dinky is stuck in the desert, and she is surrounded by golems. I have to save her.”
“A child in danger? Not with us. We're gonna teach you how to pilot the Cybuster, and you'll have your daughter back in your arms in no time at all.”
Pure joy and hope flooded Derpy’s heart, “Oh thank you. Don't worry my little muffin, mommy is coming.”
“And this is the story how I found the Cybuster and got here.” With this Derpy wrapped up the story. The other ponies were near tears themselves as Derpy finished the tale.
“Oh Derpy, you are the best mother in all of Equestria,” said Rarity, deeply moved by the compassion the mailmare showed for her daughter. “Going into the Everfree Forest alone at night and becoming a knight in shining armor.”
Fluttershy meanwhile hugged Schwarz and Weiß. “You two are real heroes, helping Derpy to save us. You deserve a reward. I'll go and see if Princess Celestia can send us something special for you.” The two cats were blushing at the praise they received.
“Aww shucks, it was nothing really,” started Weiß.
“We just couldn't leave a child in danger that's all,” continued Schwarz.
Digger came up next to Fluttershy with an excited grin on his face. “We're gonna have to get inside as soon as possible. I want you to tell me everything you know about the Cybuster and the Kurogane.”
The cats perked up at this. “Kurogane, sounds familiar,” said Weiß. “Let's get inside and talk about everything.”
“Sorry, but no,” Digger looked over to Derpy, who still had the now sleeping Dinky in her arms. “I just wanted to get the fillies, I'll be off again.” Digger almost looked heartbroken.
“But this is an unique opportunity. A chance to learn about the past from first hoof witnesses.”
“I said no, the safety of the fillies is more important that an interview.”
Twilight Sparkle trotted over to Derpy and put a hoof on her shoulder; she, too, wanted Applebloom and her friends to be safe, but there was still something else on her mind.
“Derpy, I would like to see the children back in Ponyville too but we need your help here.”
The mailmare wanted to protest but was cut off again by Twilight. “In the last battle we took heavy damage and almost all of out Personal Troopers are unable to fight for now. If Nightmare Moon would attack us we'd be defeated in a minute and if that happens nopony could stop her anymore.” Derpy was deep in thought; she wanted Dinky to be safe, but she also didn't want Twilight or anypony else to die.
“Stay just a little longer until we have out PT's repaired. Afterwards you can still take the fillies back to Ponyville.”
Derpy let out a defeated sigh, “Alright, but as soon as you are back to your feet, me and the fillies will go back to Ponyville.”
All ponies cheered as they heard this; with Derpy and the Cybuster, they could fight Nightmare Moon’s golems again, and the Cyflash could destroy even large numbers of them in seconds. Dinky woke up from the cheering and looked at her mother.
“Well my little muffin, looks like we'll stay a little longer.”
Pinkie Pie pulled the gray pegasus mare into a tight bear hug.
“Yay, with Derpy here we will be invincible! Because she's a great mama bear and she has this awesome robot and she brought even more reinforcements with Schwarzy and Weißy and she fights to protect her daughter which gives her even more strength because you always win when you fight to protect you loved ones. Oh do you know what this calls for?”
The ponies knew exactly what she's about to say and in unison they yelled.
“A PARTY!”
Only Digger interjected. “Great idea, but later okay? There are still some things I want to ask Schwarz and Weiß, so let's head to the meeting room.” The other ponies nodded and made their way towards the Kurogane.
In the royal court of Canterlot, Princess Celestia was listening to a green earth pony with blond mane and what appeared to be some sort of list as a Cutie Mark. For almost an hour, he listed different reasons for the establishment of an Earth Pony only research center to study the technology of the Kurogane to enrich the lives of earth ponies all over Equestria. Despite the fact that Princess Celestia was growing tired of the same arguments she heard so often since the organization this pony represented, she still listened to every word until he finally wrapped his speech up.
“And this is why our organization should be put in charge of the Kurogane research project. Do you have any questions princess Celestia?”
The princess in question sighed as the representative of Terra Firma finished his long winded speech. Terra Firma was an organization she often clashed with in court. They were made of Earth Ponies and even the odd Pegasus or Unicorn that pushed for special privileges for earth ponies. It wasn't like the princess couldn't understand where their desire for this came from, but the problem remained the same, there were valid reasons why earth ponies couldn't go to the 'Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns', or be put in charge of the weather. But if she gave Earth Ponies exclusive rights, she would have to bar the other kinds of ponies from whatever field was chosen for no good reason. Celestia took a deep breath as she braced herself for the argument that was about to come.
“Would Pegasus and Unicorn ponies also profit from your research of the Kurogane technology?”
The earth pony in front of her grimaced; he, too, was tired of hearing the same old arguments he heard since he appeared before the princess for the first time.
“Your Majesty,” his words were strained and his voice sounded bitter. “After the needs of the Earth Ponies are met, we can still give other ponies some research rights. Also, the other kinds of ponies in Equestria have all sorts of advantages and privileges in life. I am very certain they can bear to take second place one time.”
“This is not about taking second place, this is about valid reasons. If any Pegasus ponies or Unicorns ask me why they aren't allowed to have access to the new technologies that the Kurogane, brings I can't just say, 'just cause'. This is the same reason why I had no choice but to deny your request for an earth pony exclusive university.” As soon as the last sentence left her mouth Celestia regretted bringing that topic up.
“You have denied that request because you did not want to say no to your favorites for once!” The Terra Firma representative has lost his temper by now, even though it was the princess herself before him he was almost shouting.
“I do NOT play favorites with anypony!” As many times as she heard it, this insult kept stinging her, since she loved all of her subjects equally.
“Yes, it is even worse since you are playing UN-favorites with Earth Ponies.” The representative turned around and stormed out of the court, but as he opened the door, he turned his head towards the princess one more time. “We Earth Ponies won't stand for this forever, someday we will fight for our rights.” Before Celestia could protest the door was slammed shut.
A sad sigh escaped Celestia’s lips. “You have no idea how hard I try to give you what you want.”
In the meeting room of the Kurogane, several ponies and a dragon were staring at two cats sitting at the end of the table. It came to a great shock to them as they learned that these two cats were indeed familiar spirits of the Cybuster. But after the shock settled, it was replaced by hope. Now that Schwarz and Weiß were there maybe they can finally get some answers regarding the Kurogane, the robots and the former crew.
Digger in particular was ecstatic at the prospect of having actual living, talking beings from the time of the Kurogane sitting in front of him. “Please, tell me everything you know. Who built the Kurogane? What were they and what happened to them?”
With every question his face got a little closer to the two cats in front of him. Schwarz and Weiß looked at each other with a nervous expression on their faces. The black cat cleared his throat and answered. “Well, I'm sorry to tell you this, but we've been asleep for so long that we can't remember much about the first time we were active. Otherwise, we only know how to control and maintain the Cybuster.”
Digger felt like somepony just punched him in the gut. Two creatures who lived before the princesses sat in front of him, and they couldn't remember anything. It was as if you hold a sandwich in front of a starving pony and yank it away just before he could reach it. Weiß saw the distraught look on Diggers face and chimed in.
“If it helps, the Cybuster has a blackbox that automatically saves the last few minutes before Cybuster is deactivated. Maybe we can show you the pictures.”
The ponies jaws almost hit the floor as they heard this. Actual pictures of the last moments of Cybuster? Digger immediately recovered from his disappointment.
“Are you serious? We can see what happened when Cybuster was first active?” He never felt this excitement before; this was far different from interpreting runes and hieroglyphs. It was a direct look through the eyes of the ancient pilot. Both cats were grinning at the ponies before them as Schwarz spoke up.
“Sure thing, we'll just need the current pilot. By the way where is Derpy?”
Fluttershy answered him. “She wanted to spend some time alone with Dinky. I can understand her; she must have been worried sick about her daugher.”
“But Mom!”
“No buts, Dinky. If you decide to get yourself in danger like this, I obviously need to keep a closer eye on you.” Dinky was devastated; her mother has decided that a sterner upbringing was in order to protect her. According to the new rules, she wasn't allowed to play with her friends anymore unless Derpy knows what they are doing and where they are. She would also bring her to school on her daily route and pick her up directly from now on.
The other Cutie Mark Crusaders were also present, and their heads were hanging low in shame. Of course Derpy chewed them out for endangering Dinky with their little stunt, and her words cut deep despite the fact that the gray mailmare managed to stay calm during the entire lecture.
“I will not risk losing you again. If you break these rules, you are forbidden to play with the Cutie Mark Crusaders again.”
The crusaders heads shot up at this, not believing what they just heard. Derpy saw the shocked expressions.
“Don't give me that look. When I let her join you, I did not assume that you would get her life in danger like this, but apparently I was wrong.”
The fillies almost cried at this. Dinky didn't want to lose her new friends, they had so much fun together. The only option was to obey her mother from now on. “I understand mom, I'll follow the rules.”
Derpy smiled and pulled her daughter into a hug. “That's good my little muffin. Remember, I only do this because I love you.”
“I know.”
Their moment was cut short as the mane six team as well as Spark and Digger arrived on the scene. As Digger saw her he rushed ahead of the others.
“Ms. Derpy, we have to go to the Cybuster immediately. Schwarz and Weiß just told us about something called a 'blackbox', they said it would allow us to see the last moments of the Cybuster prior to its deactivation.”
Getting her daughter back where it was safe may have been the first priority of the mailmare, but since they were stuck in this place for a while she did get a little curious about the history of this place. After agreeing, they all headed towards the hangar where the Cybuster was held and entered the cockpit.
The ponies were tightly crammed into the small cockpit. Just in case, they agreed to keep the Cutie Mark Crusader out of this, since the last pictures of the Cybuster may be disturbing ones. Derpy, Schwarz and Weiß were on their position in the pilots seat while a soft greenish blue glow emanated from the cats.
The other ponies were staring at the still empty screens, waiting for ancient pictures to appear before their eyes. Rainbow Dash turned around for a moment and saw Pinkie Pie happily munching away on some popcorn.
“Hey Pinkie, where did you get that popcorn? Can I have some?”
“Of course you can, I always have some popcorn with me in case something like this happens,” said Pinkie, while holding the bag in front of Rainbow Dash who helped herself to a hoof full.
Rarity on the other hoof was not so thrilled. “Be careful with that sticky stuff. You don't want to ruin the beautiful interior of this robot do you?”
Before they could start to argue Applejack hushed them. “Quiet down it's starting.”
A vast, dead forest was zipping past the Cybuster on the ground below. The large machine was zipping over the forest, looking for something. Its hands were cupped as if it was holding something inside of them.
“Down there, that looks like a good spot.” Came the voice of Schwarz.
The Cybuster turned to see a small cave between the trees. Gently the Cybuster proceeded to land.
“Well done, I just hope that IT won't find them.” This voice was unknown to the listeners. This must have been the past pilot of the Cybuster.
“What happens now?” Asked Weiß, his voice shaking with fear.
“After they are safely hidden away I will hide the Cybuster and fly back by myself to help the others.” Silence dominated to cockpit as the Cybuster has already landed and now stared at its cupped hands.
“I guess this means goodbye.” Said Weiß sadly and again a heavy silence hung through the cockpit. Finally the unknown pilot spoke up.
“Schwarz, Weiß, if the Cybuster is ever needed again I want you two to help the future generations. Me and all the others are putting all of our hope into my daughters, that they may lead those who follow into the future.”
Slowly and gently the Cybusters hands started to part. The pilot was chocking up at the next words.
“My dear, sweet darling angels. I hope that someday you may hear this message. Your mother and I love you so very much. May you create a future where every living being can find happiness.”
Finally the Cybuster released what it held. As the hands parted two little fillies were lying on the ground, blissfully sleeping. One of them had a shining white coat with light pink mane and tail. The other was a deep purple with blue mane and tail. The most striking feature however was that both fillies had a horn and wings.
After the fillies were gently put into the small cave, the pilot of the Cybuster took one last look at them and flew off towards the cave where it would remain hidden for an unknown amount of years. Finally the screens faded to black.
In the present day all ponies that witnessed this were perfectly silent with their mouths agape. Even the hyperactive Pinkie Pie was silently staring in disbelieve.
Twilight Sparkle was the first to recover. “I need to write to the princesses immediately.”
Authors note: Another narration-heavy chapter to cool down. I hope you like the story how Derpy found the Cybuster and the little flashback.
|
|
Valsion
|
1144
| 10 |
Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Super Pony Taisen
|
incomplete
| 12 | 1 |
<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
|
everyone
|
2012-04-04T05:23:01+00:00
|
2012-04-04T05:23:01+00:00
| 789 |
Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 10 Spite and bitterness.
Deep underground, in a chamber designed to her tastes with a luxurious bed and a soft carpet to cover the dirty ground laid a midnight black alicorn.
Nightmare Moon was furious: No matter what she tried those damn element bearers seemed to pull a new weapon out of nowhere and beat her with it. This has become a more difficult struggle than the dark mare wanted it to be. It was supposed to be simple, one golem to dispose of the elements of harmony, then a few more to take over Equestria completely so she would be free to rule this kingdom in eternal night with throngs of loyal subjects to worship the very ground she walked.
She needed a new idea. With this new metal monstrosity she couldn't rely on quantity anymore. What she needed was something to outclass them, but how?
She needed to clear her head, as a wisp of smoke she made her way out into the gem mines that served as her home base and where the diamond dogs dug for their gems with help of their new unicorn slaves. If there was one thing she had to admit it was the efficiency with which those filthy mutts dug out the precious stones.
Suddenly inspiration hit her. She grabbed a few gems and flew back into her chamber. Gems have always been a natural conductor for magic. The unicorn guards since olden times would often wear gem encrusted armor to help them boost their magic abilities. Nightmare Moon quickly summoned a dirt golem, albeit a much smaller one, barely bigger than a normal pony. This time however she weaved the gems she took earlier into the body of the golem.
Only a faint glow indicated where the gems have sunk into the dirt golem. Nightmare Moon concentrated and gave this minion the order to shoot a part of its magic at a vase sitting in the corner of the room. The golem immediately obeyed its mistress as it raised its arm and the dirt split open to reveal one of the gems. Said gem glowed in a dark purple light and finally a purple energy beam shot out of it and shattered the vase.
A diamond dog was standing outside of the chamber as Nightmare Moon tested her new weapon. Curious, but also frightened, he risked a peak inside the room. What he saw did not help to calm his nerves. The dark mare was standing there, laughing at the vase that has been shattered and a small dirt golem was right next to her. Before he could retreat to safety the mare noticed him.
“Hey you!”
The poor dog froze up as he was addressed by the alicorn that was laughing maniacally just a second ago. He gulped and slowly turned around.
“Tell your leader that I wish to speak with him, now!”
Gladly he bolted off after the madmare barked her orders. It would be unwise to offend Nightmare Moon.
Just a few minutes later he returned with his leader, Rex, in tow.
“Alright then, tell me what you want.” Rex tried his best to keep a facade of bravery in front of Nightmare Moon, but the mare saw right through it. This dog would be easy to manipulate.
“As you may have heard things are not looking for me, that is why I need some gems to power up my golems.”
Fury overrode his survival instincts as he heard Nightmare Moons demand: they had worked themselves and their slaves hard for these gems and now they were supposed to just give them away.
“What do you think you're doing? We dug out your stone tablet and got our slaves in return, we both fulfilled out parts of the deal. And besides you still get free lodging in ret... UHG!” Rex was cut off as Nightmare Moon grabbed him with her magic and squeezed him tightly.
“And what do you think YOU are doing? Even if I couldn't crush you for your disobedience towards your future queen, do you think Celestia and Luna will just let you off easily?” Rex eyes widened in fear, not only because this insane mare was holding him in her grasp but also because he realized how deep he and his pack were in this. Nightmare Moon saw that look of realization on his face and smirked. “You have kidnapped all these ponies and directly helped me. If I lose, she will find out who helped me, and then having ALL of your gems taken away from you and being banished into a land without any gems will be the least punishment that awaits you.”
Nightmare Moon let go of her hold and the Diamond Dog leader fell to the ground. She smirked evilly and said in a false, sweet voice. “Now then, just giving me a part of your gems doesn't sound so bad anymore doesn't it?”
Rex hung his head low. He knew that in exchange for unicorn slaves to make their work easy, he just made his entire pack slaves of Nightmare Moon.
Meanwhile in the palace in Canterlot, Princess Celestia received a letter from Twilight Sparkle. The writing was hastily scribbled as Spike probably wrote twice as fast as normal. The letter said in the first sentence, without any greeting, to only read this together so before continuing Celestia went to her sisters room in a hurry. Such a hastily written letter must hold important information that both princesses needed to read as soon as possible.
As she finally arrived Princess Celestia sighed. After weeks her sister still has made no progress. In fact her guilt seemed to get worse after all communication with Neighsville dropped. After dispatching a few guards the princesses learned that the entire town was abandoned. The unicorn captain also confirmed that Nightmare Moon was in that town. It was painfully clear what occurred there, an entire town was ponynapped by that despicable dark spirit.
Her response was to evacuate all smaller towns to the bigger ones like Trottingham or Manehattan. Just yesterday the population of Ponyville arrived in Canterlot. The most difficult citizen was Granny Smith as she refused to leave the farm that she spent almost her entire life on. Only Big Macintosh was finally capable of convincing her. All of Equestria was in a panic: no amount of denial could possibly cover up the fact that the first war in the history of the kingdom has begun.
Quickly shaking that thought out of her head, she knocked on her sisters door. After a short moment of silence Luna beckoned her sister inside. Slowly pushing the door open, the elder sister slid inside the room. Luna was still lying on the bed, but thankfully Celestia noticed that she at least didn't seem to have another crying fit recently.
“Twilight has sent me another letter. It seemed important but had clear instructions for us to read it together.” She explained to her younger sister.
Luna was a little confused at this. Why was it so important that they read the letter together? Wondering about it would get them nowhere, so Celestia laid down next to Luna and unfurled the scroll.
Both sisters fixed their eyes on the scroll as they read about the Cybuster and the blackbox. For the first time they would see memories older than they were. Questions unfurled as the last moments of the Cybuster were described in great detail. Tears started to form as they heard the speech of the pilot: he must have loved his daughters a lot. Then came the decisive sentences, the daughters of the pilot were none other than themselves. Their mouths hung open as they processed the information. They were from the Kurogane, their father piloted a Personal Trooper, the loving father was their own.
Celestia struggled to keep her composure as a flood of emotions surged through her body. She never knew her father, so she could only wonder what he was like and now, even when she learned it through a letter from her student, her father loved them both. She turned towards Luna who was staring vacantly into the room.
After what felt like an eternity the smaller alicorn finally turned to her sister. “Celly, I need to go to the Kurogane, I want to see this blackbox for myself.”
Celestia could understand her little sister: it took all of her willpower to not just fly towards the desert right now, but she still had duties. “I understand Lulu, but we still have work to do here. We can't abandon the kingdom. Especially after reading this letter.”
Luna only held her head low. “Nopony needs me here.”
“Oh Luna, that's not true. Our subjects need both of us, now more than ever.”
“Face it sister, if I hadn't let my jealousy get the better of me, we wouldn't be facing war right now.”
“You demand perfection from yourself. Nopony could ever be that, not even us.” Celestia felt like the same discussion repeated itself over and over again. She desperately tries to cheer her sister up but Luna only sees herself as the guilty party and their arguments also always stayed the same and they never got anywhere.
For another long, torturous hour Celestia tried to ease her sisters pain while Luna just refused to cast off the blame she placed upon herself. It ended like all the other discussions before, with Luna's sadness barely eased. As Celestia left she took one last look at the scroll. “Father, what would you have done?”
Today would be a special day at the dig site. After the Personal Troopers have been repaired for the most part, the crew would take on their most daring project yet: Repairing and reactivating one of the super robots. After a lot of trial and error, they finally found the schematics for one of them, and as they inspected the hangar they found out that the robot was mostly in one piece. Still, they had to take it apart because the large robot would not fit through the cave opening. It was a truly impressive robot, almost four times the size of a Guarlion.
Spark oversaw the crew as they disassembled it. Carefully the screws and bolts on the arms were removed and several unicorns, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity among them, were ready to hold the large piece of metal. On the ground the two mares were chatting with each other.
“Isn't this exciting? This robot has more defensive capabilities than any of the others. This also reminds me of taking puzzles apart just to piece them back together.”
Rarity could not exactly understand her friends enthusiasm. Sure some of these robots were stylish, but Twilight seemed almost obsessed. Often the lavender unicorn would spend hours just looking at the different schematics and rambling on about technical data.
“That is really nice darling, but watch out it, looks like they are almost done.” Rarity’s horn started to glow as she grasped the already dangling arm with her magic. Twilight shook out of her ramble and did the same as the arm finally fell off. Thankfully, the unicorns already had a firm grip on it so it started to float the second it came off.
“Alright everypony, let's haul this one to the surface. Team B will stand by in case anypony loses his grip.” After the command of Spark a crewmember opened the hangar door leading them to the launch hangar. Outside, they have already prepared a patch of land for the reassembly and repairs.
Digger meanwhile sat with Spike on the bridge. He he knew a bit about geology, since his job pretty much requires him to dig underground, so he took it up to study the metal that the Kurogane and the Personal Troopers were made off.
“Dear Princess Celestia, I have studied parts of the personal troopers and concluded that they all have been made from high carbon steel. Thankfully we are capable of creating this kind of steel. Professor Spark has also disclosed his own report about the workings of the mechanics inside the PT. Sadly, despite having this information, we will not be able to create our own Personal Trooper, since we still need a lot of development time until we would be able to build one of these computers, which are necessary for the PT since they are the tool to control the PT.”
Digger paused for a moment, allowing Spike to write everything down. As the purple dragon stopped and looked at him expectantly the professor continued.
“We have also studied the blueprints for the weapons and ammo used by the Personal Troopers and we are pleased to report that we can recreate them with our current level of technology. My advice is to use the blueprints and schematics disclosed in this letter and send them to the engineering society of Canterlot. The Personal Troopers are our lifeline in this conflict and so we should focus on keeping them ready for combat. Sincerest regards, Professor Digger.”
After finishing the letter Spike rolled it up and sent it to the princess. Still the dragon seemed to be concerned about something. Professor Digger noticed this, “Is something wrong Spike?”
Said dragon looked down. “It's fine, I'm just worried about the others. We have those awesome robots to defend ourselves but what if Nightmare Moon decides to go directly for Canterlot?”
Digger smiled at this, they actually thought of this before. “Don't you worry Spike, I already have a plan for that. Spark and I decided that now that we got reinforcements we could part with a few PT's. As soon as the rest of them are repaired we will take Pinkie Pie's and Twilight's Gespensts, Applejacks Schutzwald and Rainbow Dash's Guarlion apart and send them to Canterlot along with a manual that Cogwheel is currently working on.”
Spike lighted up at this. “REALLY! Man that's so cool. Can I help you?”
Digger chuckled, “Of course, you can send the manual to the princess as soon as it's finished. He has been collecting the data from the training simulations for a while now, and he should be almost done.”
Without another word Spike hurried towards the elevator. He couldn't wait to see this project finished so that his other friends in Ponyville could defend themselves too. Lickety Split, Snips and Snails were the colts he regularly hung out with, even though the latter two were still as dumb as rocks and still regarded Trixie, of all ponies, as their idol. He could never understand how they could still be her fans after she was exposed as a fraud and even pull off a magic show during that talent show. He sighed as the elevator went down, even though it would probably sad if Trixie had no fans at all.
The elevator stopped and Spike immediately bolted out, nearly knocking over one of the bridge crew returning from his break, and ran towards the training room.
With the focus on Nightmare Moon and her golem armies, nopony noticed that another kind of revolution was taking place. After the Kurogane was found, the archaeological society practically exploded, new expeditions taking place all over Equestria. Of course that did not last long, as the curiosity was quickly replaced by fear of Nightmare Moon but there are still unoccupied dig sites everywhere.
Two lone earth ponies were walking through one of these in the middle of the night. This dig site was regarded one of the most dangerous, since it was technically in dragon territory, but was regarded as one of the most promising.
“This better be worth it, we're walking through dragon territory while in the middle of a war.” Scoffed the larger, moss green pony through his teeth with which he held a lantern. The smaller blue pony just chuckled in response.
“Don' you worry boss, I already scouted this site and I promise that we will find the answer to all of our problems in here.”
His 'boss' just grunted and followed him through the cave system. After an hour of walking he lost his patience and placed the lantern on the ground. “I've had it with this wild goose chase, you better show me some results now.”
“Oh please calm down we're already there.” The smaller pony stopped in the middle of the shaft and turned his back to a wall. The larger stallion gritted his teeth.
“Is this your idea of a joke? Dragging me into dragon territory in the middle of the night so I can look at a wall.”
Instead of responding the smaller stallion bucked the wall hard. The green pony ducked as a rumble echoed through the caves. Finally the shaking stopped and thankfully they were not buried alive. Slowly he lifted his head and then he saw it. Another cave opened behind his partner.
Carefully he picked up the lantern and went over to the hole. As the smaller stallion made his way, he peeked inside to see that there was in fact a huge cavern. With his mouth agape, the green stallion almost dropped the lantern and only managed to catch it in the very last moment. His gaze fell upon something shining on the bottom of the cave and he squinted his eyes to see.
His eyes went wide as he realized what they have found in there. Gently the green stallion placed the lantern on the floor and started to laugh. “I can't believe it, this is going to ensure our victory.”
His partner joined into the laughter, “I knew you would like this boss. After all, now the oppression will end and Terra Firma will rise to glory. We will be the salvation to all earth ponies pushed into the dirt by those pretentious unicorns and pegasi.”
For a long time their combined laughter echoed through the mine shafts like a ghost.
Today was the day that they would send some of their old PT's to Canterlot. Their engineering teams already took the Gespensts, the Schutzwald and the Guarlion apart and moved them to the storage area where the long range teleporting rune was. From one of the walkways Rainbow Dash and Applejack watched as the first parts were teleported towards Canterlot. Applejack looked at her friend and saw an uneasy expression on her face.
“Feels weird to have yer ol' ride taken apart and away huh?” The cyan pegasus twitched slightly.
“I don't know what you're talking about, the Astelion is way faster anyway.” Her indignant tone was betrayed by a hint of sadness. “But still that was MY Guarlion.”
Applejack knew how Rainbow Dash felt. Even though these were machines and not much more alive than the hat she was wearing, it still helped them greatly. Pinkie Pie must have felt the same way, otherwise she probably wouldn't have thrown a goodbye party in the hangar yesterday.
Both mares decided to head out and check on the repairs of the Super Robot. They had some free time since training was canceled due to Cogwheel, who normally led the training simulations, had to help with the PT's, and today was Derpy's and Pinkie's turn to patrol the area.
After half an hour they finally reached the surface where a circus sized tent was set up for the repairs. Just outside sat Rarity and Fluttershy at a table drinking some tea together. Rainbow Dash and Applejack went over to them. Rarity saw them coming and waved to them.
“Oh hello dears, lovely day today. I still can't believe my luck that Princess Celestia agreed to send this lovely tea set for us.” To punctuate her happiness she took another delicate sip from her teacup.
Rainbow Dash wasn't interested in that though, she just grabbed one of the biscuits lying on the table instead. “She probably wants to make sure we don't go gaga out here. Do you know how the new robot is coming along?”
This time Fluttershy answered. “They said the arms took most of the damage but the rest is mostly undamaged. We have the blueprints so we can just replace the armor. While they needed several unicorns to charge the generator of this robot it should be operational by tomorrow.” The others were a bit surprised at this, they wouldn't have thought Fluttershy to be so well informed about this.
“Did you catch Twilight's robot love sugarcube?” Asked Applejack, while remembering how often the lavender unicorn would start droning on about the performance of the PT's or show them sketches she has drawn.
“Oh I was thinking about volunteering as a pilot for it.” As Fluttershy said that Rainbow Dash and Applejack stared at her dumbfounded while Rarity did a spit take.
Rainbow Dash recovered while Rarity was still hacking. “Sorry Fluttershy, but did you just say you want to pilot this humongous hunk of steel and destruction?”
None of them could really believe it: Fluttershy always avoided conflicts, but now she pretty much volunteered for the front line.
“Well, it's just that the super robot makes me feel... safe. I can't really explain it.” The other mares decided to keep it at that, even though it was still a mystery to them what possessed Fluttershy to make this decision. Applejack and Rainbow Dash said goodbye to the two of them and went inside the tent to watch the repairs while Fluttershy and Rarity continued to chat.
Both princesses observed as the parts arrived at the castle. They did not lack helpers today, as everypony who heard of the PT's rushed to the castle in hopes they could get a glimpse. The first Gespenst was through and the engineers hauled the parts outside where they would reassemble them. From the paint job Celestia guessed that Twilight piloted this one before the Wildraubtier. There were also four of her best and brightest captains of the guard present, who were chosen to pilot the robots. All four of them have received a manual in advance but soon they would have to start practicing.
A large field has been prepared just outside of Canterlot where they could do some field training without being a danger to the civilians. The idea to just send one of the simulator chairs through was quickly discarded, since they did not have the technology to build a computer to control the simulator, so even if they did it wouldn't help.
Both princesses took in every single detail of the arriving PT parts. Did their father really pilot one of theses? Was the Cybuster really so close to Canterlot and still they never found it? Sadness washed over Celestia as she wondered if they could have avoided this entire tragedy if they could have just had a piece of their past.
Another thing got them thinking. From what she heard about the blackbox there was some sort of fight going on. Who could the alicorns of the past possibly have fought? Suddenly Celestia noticed that her sister was no longer at her side. She looked around the room and saw Luna following a team of engineers hauling the right leg of the Schutzwald outside.
Luna quietly walked alongside the workers as they kept the mechanical leg afloat. Outside, she could already see the torso of the Gespenst being attached to the legs. The night princess wanted to know more about them. Suddenly she heard the sound of a pony landing behind her. She turned around and saw her older sister.
“I'm sorry for leaving your side, I was just curious.” She muttered meekly.
“It's okay Luna, I actually wanted to take a closer look myself.” Celestia gently smiled at her younger sister. Maybe this could finally prove to be the breakthrough she needed to get her sister out of her depression.
“Tia, do the captains chosen to pilot these still need their manuals?” Asked Luna, and immediately flinched as if she feared she said something wrong.
“Well yes, but if you want to look at it I still have a spare.” Answered the older sister with a warm smile on her face. “Since I also wanted to learn more about our past so, do you want to read it together with me?” Celestia looked at her sister hopefully and for the first time in nearly a month she saw her sister smile, even if it was just a slight curl.
“I'd love to Tia.”
Authors Note: And another narrative chapter. Now, try to guess which Super Robot our shy sweet pegasus will get. I’ve given it some thought and found that my choice may look a little strange at first but also makes sense.
Ps: I’m using SPT as an acronym for this story but only found out that there’s a mecha anime called “Blue Comet SPT Layzner” after I published a few chapters.
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Valsion
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Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
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<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2012-05-04T04:57:36+00:00
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2012-05-04T04:57:36+00:00
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Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 11 To protect.
Fluttershy desperately clung to the controls; the large super robot was a lot harder to steer than her small PT. Currently she was trying to move it through a canyon that appeared very narrow for the super robot. In front of her she saw another curve and gulped. Slowing down, she gently adjusted her flight trajectory. She almost made it but the robot didn't turn fast enough and she ended up crashing into the canyon wall. Her screen was filled with static and the shy pegasus sighed in defeat.
“Alright, test over,” came Cogwheel’s voice through the speakers.
Light flooded the tiny chamber Fluttershy sat in as the simulation ended and the fake cockpit opened. This was her tenth attempt at taming the new robot, and still she didn't get anywhere with this. As Cogwheel trotted over to her, she already knew what he was about to say.
“I need to be more forceful with this one, right?” He only nodded his confirmation. Fluttershy was frustrated at repeating the same mistake over and over. Her gentle movements were not enough to move the large super robot, so it would almost always end out of control.
“It's no use, maybe somepony else should take over for me.” In hindsight, Fluttershy wondered what she was thinking. Piloting a normal PT was stressful enough for her, but a super robot was a far different league.
Cogwheel gave her a reassuring smile and tried to encourage her. “Don't be so hard on yourself. Aside from controlling too softly you did great.”
“I just can't be that forceful, I'm always too scared to break anything or hurt anypony. Maybe you can get somepony else to try it,” muttered Fluttershy sadly.
Cogwheel shook his head. “And you will never learn to use enough force if you give up. If I didn't believe in you, I would have suggested somepony else three tries ago. Now try again.”
These words seemed to finally encourage Fluttershy, who smiled slightly and grasped the controls again.
Meanwhile in the repair hangar the engineers that were not working on the super robot were repairing two PT's. Spark and Digger decided to join in the fight and were currently training so that they could pilot the Huckebein MKII and the Wildschwein.
The Huckebein had a black torso and soles, while the rest of the body was a dark shade of purple with some golden yellow markings. The shoulders were triangular in shape, and there was a crest on its forehead that looked like a V. On the back were two boomerang shaped fins, and while the Huckebein was a lot like the Gespenst in function, it appeared slimmer in form. Digger decided to pilot the Huckebein while Spark chose the Wildschwein.
The Wildschwein looked like a slightly bulkier version of the Huckebein. The only real difference was the disk shaped device on its left arm. Some openings ran along the side of the disk. From what they learned, the Wildschwein was capable of generating an energy disk with this that could slice through those golems without much problems.
The air was still thick with tension between Spark and Digger because of their different opinions, but both of them decided that Nightmare Moon was the bigger problem here and put their arguing to a rest. However, this was of no concern to the engineers. Tomorrow, the Huckebein and the Wildschwein would launch together with the super robot, and all the other PT's and the Cybuster could finally get a thorough checkup. Only Rarity's Gespenst would be out in case something happened.
Later that day everypony was sitting in the mess hall having dinner. Only Applejack and Rarity were out right now for patrol. Fluttershy entered and Twilight waved her over to their table. “Hey there Fluttershy, how was your training?” asked the lavender unicorn.
Without a word Fluttershy slumped down at the table and her head hit the surface. “I tried my best, but I can't control this machine.”
“But Fluttershy, you could control the Schutzwald just fine,” said Rainbow Dash.
“I know, but this is completely different. Its a lot bigger than a PT, and the thrusters are also more powerful.” answered Fluttershy with slightly sad frustration in her voice. She would need a robot with smoother controls, or else she's just gonna crash into something.
Then Twilight had an idea. “Maybe Applejack can give you some advice. Her Alteisen is also hard to control, so she should be able to help you.”
“Yeah, and as for controlling powerful thrusters, after taming my Astelion I can help you with that,” added Rainbow Dash, and patted Fluttershy on the shoulder reassuringly.
“You would really do that for me?” asked Fluttershy, who found new hope for her own skills as a pilot.
“Sure, what are friends for?” answered the cyan pegasus. “So let's hit the simulators and when I take over for Applejack, I send her to you.”
Fluttershy nodded and together they made their way to the training room.
The day for their launch has come. Digger and Spark were sitting in the Wildschwein and the Huckebein. Only Fluttershy was missing on the scene. Nopony wanted to talk about what has happened, but despite her friends help, the shy pegasus couldn't make it through the test. The super robot would stay in its tent for now, as nopony else has stepped up for training yet. Most of the archaeological and engineering teams were either needed elsewhere or too scared to fight, and Fluttershy's friends didn't want to betray her.
Out in the dunes some target were set up, green ones for long range combat and red ones for close range combat. Today they decided to do a race to compare the PT's.
All crewmembers that were not participating in the test were watching the scene with screens that have been reinstalled and connected with the bridges main computer. It was amazing how fast the bridge crew learned how to use these. Most of the credit for that went to Cogwheel and his amazing abilities with machines. He could sense how the machines were supposed to work and what commands had to be typed into the computers.
All of team M6 minus Fluttershy and Rarity were assembled on the bridge. None of them were as excited as the rest of the crew. Even Twilight, who developed such a deep love for those robots looked downcast. After failing the last attempt at guiding the super robot, the shy pegasus fell into a depression and shut herself in her room. Rarity decided to stay with her to comfort her. The others wanted to stay with Fluttershy too at first, but since they'd be in the same fighting team with the new PT's, they would have to know about their capacities.
Applejack let out a sigh and looked at Rainbow Dash. “Shoot, we tried our best to help her.”
“But the robot was just more stubborn than her,” finished Rainbow Dash. Both felt like they let Fluttershy down, and could barely bring themselves to look up at the screen.
Nevertheless the test started. The Wildschwein was mainly built for close range combat so they equipped it with a shotgun. Also, the disk attached to its arm was able to build up a circular sawblade made of energy to slice through the targets. The Huckebein, however, was more of a long range fighter and it came with it's own set of weapons. One of them was a photon rifle that destroyed many of the targets with a purple energy bolt, and the Chacram caster. That device would launch a small disk that wraps a thread made out of an unknown material around it's target to slice it up.
They all observed as Digger and Spark went through the test, destroying all of their targets. Despite the fact that they were build similar to the Gespenst and Schutzwald, the performance of both their units was still considerably stronger. Finally all targets were destroyed, and the test was over.
“Well done, you can now return to the Kurogane so we can ready the Huckebein and the Wildschwein for further use,” said Cogwheel over the intercom. He was very pleased with how the test went: Those two PT's would be an useful addition to their arsenal.
On the way back the two fresh pilots opened a private channel to have a little chat.
“Tell me Spark, do you still think that only earth ponies should be allowed to profit from the Kurogane technology?” asked Digger. The argument between the two of them may have been put to rest for a while but it was never resolved.
“You know the answer, and besides I'll still have magic. What advantage do earth ponies have?” It was something nopony could understand. Why would Spark willingly bar himself from the field he loves?
“With hard work earth ponies can also accomplish everything unicorns and pegasi can do. I'm sure you have heard of the scientist group in Manehattan that managed to create a raincloud without the help of a pegasus, or the many successful earth pony surgeons that are said to be even better than any healing spell.”
While Spark believed that earth ponies should get a completely new advantage, Digger believed that it is not necessary and that it would be unfair towards the other ponies.
They continued to argue until they reached the entrance. Spark wanted to bring one more argument before they would go back into the ship. “What about the towns that were built by earth ponies? They build the town with only their hooves and then they can't even claim that territory for themselves. Why can't the princess allow for just one earth pony only town?”
“Because towns like Ponyville or Appleloosa may be built BY earth ponies but for everypony,” retorted Digger, still not believing that he as an earth pony had to explain to a unicorn why earth ponies are not treated unfairly. He could understand where Spark's notion, came from but this was ridiculous.
Both PT's were almost inside the cave when suddenly a beam of dark purple energy shot past between them and hit the cave. A light earthquake shook the surface as the roof fell and closed off the connection between the Kurogane and the surface. Digger and Spark turned around to see the source of the attack and came to face a large group of sand golems.
There were a good dozen of them, and something seemed different. At some points, a faint purple glow could be seen coming from inside of them, and their hands, which were held forward, had a cluster of gems in their palms.
On the bridge the crew panicked. Not only did Nightmare Moon manage to improve the golems, only two PT's that already fired off most of their ammo were outside, and they held the leaders of each the engineering and the archaeological team.
Cogwheel at this point was frantically shouting orders. “Quick, we need to clear the rubble and help them. Team M6, board your PT's immediately!”
All of them complied, but then they remembered that two of them were missing. “Rarity and Fluttershy weren't here!” Cogwheel heard Twilight and activated the ships speakers.
“Fluttershy and Rarity, Spark and Digger are being attacked, go to the PT hangar immediately and board your PT's!”
Fluttershy twitched nervously as Cogwheels voice came over the intercom but she did not move away from her bed. Rarity galloped to the door and waited for her friend. “Fluttershy dear, we are both needed.” Fluttershy made no motion.
“You are needed Rarity. I always try to help but when things get serious I always mess up.” Before Fluttershy could curl up again Rarity was already with her and held her by the shoulders.
“Fluttershy dear, what the HAY are you talking about!” Fluttershy was shocked at hearing her normally so sophisticated friend use such language. She blushed furiously and tried to say something but Rarity took the word again.
“It is the exact opposite of what you say. You always get too nervous when things are not serious, but as soon as one of us is in danger you become easily the strongest, most capable of us. And that is why I am sure that nopony is better suited for rescuing others than you.”
Rarity's words echoed through Fluttershy's mind, triggering memories. She was too afraid to fly at hearing a dragons roar but as it threatened her friends she made the dragon cry. She couldn't tame the cutie mark crusaders but saved Twilight by staring down a cockatrice. Rarity was right.
“Rarity, tell them I will go out and pilot the super robot.” The white unicorn beamed at her friend with pride.
“Go get them Fluttershy.”
Twilight and the rest were waiting for Rarity and Fluttershy to show up. All of them were tense, even if they launched, they would have to remove the rubble first before they could do anything. Finally Rarity showed up and went to her own Gespenst. She opened the cockpit hatch and sat down. Immediately, the intercom went on and Rainbow Dash's face appeared on the screen.
“Hey Rarity, where is Fluttershy?”
The unicorn gave her a small smile in return. “Doing what she does best, being the strongest in a critical situation.”
Twilight joined their conversation, “She went ahead without her PT? But that is highly dangerous!” Twilight wasn't even sure what to do with the PT's. Then it hit her, “She's going for the super robot?”
Rarity nodded in response, she was one hundred percent sure of Fluttershy's abilities.
As fast as she could Fluttershy flew to the entrance of the cave, hoping she would find an opening. Dust was flying through the air, and the odd rock was still falling down, but Fluttershy paid it no mind. Her eyes were fixed on a beam of light coming out of the wall of rocks in front of her.
The cave in left a small hole open through which the sunlight still came. From the outside, Fluttershy could also hear the battle taking place right now. Digger and Spark were fighting alone against the golems. Determined to help them, Fluttershy squeezed herself through the crack. She felt as if her bones would break at any moment but she couldn't give up now.
“I have to... help them.” She couldn't stop here, not now! She tried her best to get through, but it was just too narrow. After a lot of pushing she plopped down and tears started to flow. “No, I let them down.”
She laid there for a while, listening to the loud barks of the PT's weapons and the howling of the golems energy shots. How long are Spark and Digger able to hold out until they run out of ammo?
“You are not thinking about giving up darling.”
Fluttershy almost hit her head as she heard Rarity talking. The rocks loosened their grip around her as she turned around and came face to face with Rarity's Gespenst, gently pushing the rocks aside. Behind her were the others.
“Now go, we need a while until we can move the rubble, but you can get to the super robot right now.” Came further encouragement from Rarity.
“Why can't I smash through it with the sonic breaker?” asked Rainbow Dash from behind her.
“Because you would just cause another cave in and bury us all,” answered Twilight.
Filled with newfound vigor Fluttershy, pushed herself through the rocks. Carefully, to avoid being squashed, she navigated through the narrow passages between the boulders. Then finally she saw the outside, and with a final push, she was outside and made her way to the tent.
Spark and Digger couldn't hold out much longer; their ammo was low to begin with after the test, and because of the first attack, they couldn't count on reinforcements from the Kurogane. Spark quickly popped out of the dune he used as cover and fired another round of his shotgun at the enemy. Together they managed to take out three of the new golems. The fire from the enemy was just too heavy, they couldn't get a clear shot before they had to duck back to avoid an energy blast.
The shot managed to hit one of the golems in the right arm, but it wasn't very impressed, as it merely raised the other arm and continued its assault. Digger meanwhile used the last shot of his photon rifle to take out the wounded golem. After he fired he immediately discarded the weapon.
“Sorry buddy, I'm all out now. Cover me so I can get close enough to use the Chakram Caster,” said Digger as he threw the rifle away.
“I am all out too.” Panic gripped Digger as he heard this. The Wildschwein was made for close range combat. The shotgun was its only real ranged weapon, and even then Spark already used it past its range. Before Digger could conjure a new strategy, Spark threw in his own suggestion. “I am going to pull their fire away from you, go closer while they concentrate on me.”
Digger could not believe what he just heard, “Oh no, you are not as fast, they are going to shoot you down,” he pleaded, having an idea what Spark planned.
His answer was a hollow chuckle from the unicorn. “Don't you get it? If Nightmare Moon wins this all of Equestria will be in the dark forever. Sometimes sacrifices must be made.”
“And you expect me to suddenly win as soon as you die? I could take out maybe two of them if I'm lucky,” protested Digger.
As they argued they didn't notice one of the golems getting closer until he was almost directly above them, standing on the dune they ducked behind.
“Watch out!” Digger barely registered the warning as a stone fist descended, and he braced himself for the impact.
Quickly Spark activated the Disk Slicer, a ring of green energy formed around the device on its left arm and he swung it against the golems chest. With a loud roar, the energy blade tore through the rocks and hit the core, causing the golem to turn into a pile of rubble. Unfortunately for Spark, the other golems saw their chance and fired at him. One of the energy beams hit the Wildschweins legs, causing it to fall down on top of the Huckebein. Both PT's were now pinned helplessly to the ground.
Both of them felt that this was the end. They could no longer fight back against the golems. Spark opened the communication channel again. “Looks like this is it Digger, sorry about all the arguing.” Then Spark put his hoof against the screen.
From the other side Digger sighed and put his own hoof against Sparks. “Better to go out as friends. I hope the others will kick Nightmare Moons flank for this.”
“STEP AWAY FROM THEM!” Sparks and Digger's heads shot up again as they heard Fluttershy shouting.
In the air was a massive, red robot. A blue glowing energy field protected it as the energy blasts fired from the golems bounced off of it. It was almost four times the size of a normal PT, and on both of its arms were huge shields attached to it. The head and the shoulders looked almost flat, and the chest was sticking forward in a pyramid like golden shape.
“Fluttershy, launching in the Giganscudo.”
All the golems focused their fire on the Giganscudo, but its shields stayed strong during the assault. Like a meteor the large robot descended on them.
From the bridge of the Kurogane Cogwheel saw what Fluttershy was doing. During their training, Fluttershy was tasked to sweep the ground with the shield arm, but in the end she always crashed into the ground. He realized what Fluttershy was doing and grinned.
“Brilliant, if you can't make it behave your way, adapt to it.”
Outside the Giganscudo crashed into a group of golems, destroying four of them. Despite the strength of the energy shield, Fluttershy had to be quick, the energy was still low since nopony expected to use it today. Like a plow, the Giganscudo made its way across the ground. Fluttershy did her best to keep the robot steady as the entire cockpit vibrated. This was too important, she couldn't afford to lose now.
Just in the moment the shield collapsed Fluttershy reached the remaining golems. Even without the energy field, the thick armor protected her well. Before even the first layer was breached, she crashed into the remaining golems and reduced them to rubble.
As the dust settled, only a gigantic red robot and the deep furrow it dug into the ground remained. From inside the cave, the others finally managed to free the entrance and poured outside to congratulate Fluttershy.
“Congratulations!”
“You rock, Fluttershy!”
“Way to go, girl!”
Her friends and the bridge crew cheered her on after her victory. A light feeling spread through her stomach, as the faces of her friends appeared on the screen.
“Aw yeah, I knew you could do it Flutters,” assured Rainbow Dash, and pumped her hoof into the air, almost hitting the ceiling of her cockpit.
Rarity gave her a warm smile. “See, just believe in yourself like we do and everything will turn out all right.”
Fluttershy only managed a nervous chuckle.
Then Twilight looked at her with concern. “Say Fluttershy, are you all right? You look a little green.”
When she crashed into the ground, the shaking was pretty bad. She felt as if her stomach was twisted into a knot.
Cogwheel joined their chat and in the exact same moment Fluttershy lost control. The bridge crew looked at the screen only to see that it was obstructed by something. They all realized what it was.
“Eeew!”
“Uuh, cleaning crew to the Giganscudo. And get Fluttershy some milk to calm her stomach,” was the only thing Cogwheel could bring himself to say.
Authors note: Sorry for the longer than usual wait. I am currently a little stressed because of the VET end exams. I am still trying to write something in between but please bear with the waiting time until things calm down a bit.
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Valsion
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1144
| 12 |
Cutie Mark Crusaders,Derpy Hooves,Main 6,Nightmare Moon,Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Spike,Crossover,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Super Pony Taisen
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incomplete
| 12 | 1 |
<p>A Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Crossover.</p><p>Twilight Sparkle gets an invitation to partake in an archeological excavation deep in the desert where they find a mysterious steel ship. Will their find help them overcome the return of an old foe and will they uncover the mystery behind the old crew of the ship?</p>
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everyone
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2012-07-09T17:50:32+00:00
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2012-07-09T17:50:32+00:00
| 1,053 |
Super Pony Taisen
Chapter 12 Roaring Lions.
Two stallions were watching as the preparations for their takeover were almost done. The new, secret hideout for Terra Firma was bustling with earth ponies, working the machinery they found in that cave. There were even some unicorn and pegasus sympathizers working with them, although they did not use their magic or wings. They stood on a platform while overseeing the hangar in which the ponies of Terra Firma worked on the machines.
It was considered common courtesy in the organization that unicorn and pegasus members would not use the abilities unique to their kind. Despite Terra Firma being a pro earth pony movement that believed to be discriminated against by the other kinds of ponies, the unicorns and pegasi that supported them were always considered as brothers in their fight for justice.
Despite the preparations going smoothly, the older stallion was still nervous. They would soon go against the regime of Princess Celestia herself, and the princess's student and her friends had some very impressive robots themselves, if their spy in the castle was to be believed. Only the amount of AM's that were being repaired eased his mind. Erde has taken over Terra Firma from his father and he continued the good fight in his name. Although his father preached peaceful methods, Erde reluctantly had to admit that they have already tried every peaceful approach, and that now the time for revolution has come.
To his side was Sediment, his trusty adviser, who showed him this cave. Erde did not really know much about him but that didn't matter. Ever since he employed him the movement has only grown. Now they were an army, prepared to break the chains of oppression, which Celestia disguised as 'trying to be fair'. He took the time to address his comrades.
“My dear comrades, the time to strike has come.” All eyes in the hall were on him now. “For too long we have been cast into the mud while the other kinds of ponies were living lives full of luxury and prestige. Despite the fact that even some of the pegasi and unicorns have a better sense of justice and not only agree with us, but even stand by our side in this hour, Celestia never granted us a single wish.” Nods and murmurs of agreement flooded the hall. “Peaceful negotiations have failed, now it is time for us to take that which we rightfully deserve by force. We did not want this, but Celestia is forcing our hooves. Go forth my proud lions, you carry the future of all earth ponies on your shoulders.”
The crowd erupted into cheering as Erde finished his speech, said stallion turned to his adviser. “We are at the point of no return,” he said in a solemn tone.
Sediment smirked. “Going back is easy, but it is usually the worse choice.” Erde nodded in agreement and then continued to watch his comrades as they prepared for the first strike.
It has been a week since Fluttershy successfully activated the Giganscudo and her training regiment has been revised. Instead of trying to make the super robot move the way she wanted to they concentrated on teaching Fluttershy how to use the Giganscudo’s moves to her advantage.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were also often in the simulators; apparently, the fillies found the training to be really fun, and they hoped that maybe they could get PT piloting cutie marks, an idea everypony else didn't like so much. Toys have been sent so the fillies could play together, along with homework from Ms. Cheerilee so they would still learn what they needed while they were on the Kurogane. Their classmates and teacher were very worried about them and regularly sent them letters from Canterlot. Even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at least refrained from insulting them.
Canterlot and the other big cities in Equestria became very crowded as smaller towns and villages were evacuated. In fact the only small town where ponies still lived was Appleloosa, and only because there were no big cities within safe traveling distance. All of Equestria was afraid, afraid of the first war in history.
Twilight and her friends were sitting together at the dinner table. Since they had to patrol the area, they did not have the opportunity to sit together like this for a long time, but today Derpy would patrol together with Spark and Digger. Fortunately the damage done to the Huckebein and the Wildschwein was not as bad as they first thought. Most of it was the hull.
Eagerly they all waited for Spike to burp up the regular letter from home. Every week their families would come together to write a letter to them. This was their favorite part of the week, since they could finally get a little piece of normalcy. Finally with a burp and a green flame the scroll appeared, which was eagerly snatched up by Twilight. The purple unicorn began to read:
Dear Rarity,
We hope you and Sweetie Belle are alright. All the time we hear about the preparations the soldiers are performing, and we get more worried about you the more we hear. Yesterday we watched the guards as they practiced with those robots. It's still difficult to imagine you sitting in one of them. Please come back safely, and please protect Sweetie Belle.
With love, Carlton and Sparkler.
Dear Applejack,
After the stress of moving to Canterlot, Granny finally calmed down again. The doctor said that if she doesn't stress herself again she will be fine. Please don't overexert yourself and keep an eye on Applebloom.
Love, Big Macintosh.
Twilight continued to read out the letters from their families until she reached her own portion of the scroll. She gasped as she finished reading.
Dear Twily,
It's me, Shining Armor. First I want to tell you how proud I am of you little sis, you are a lot stronger than I ever gave you the credit for. At the same time I'm sad though, I joined the guard so I could protect you from exactly this kind of situation and now you are on the front line while I sit here in Canterlot. I volunteered to pilot your old Gespenst MKII, I hope it keeps me just as safe as it did for you. To end this letter on a more positive note, yesterday I proposed to Cadence, your old foalsitter. We planned on marrying as soon as this is over, I hope you will be in one piece for the wedding.
Good luck and stay safe, Shining Armor.
“My brother is marrying Cadence?” Twilight couldn't believe it, finally some good news. While she practically squealed in joy her friends were confused. They never heard about Twilight’s brother or this Cadence.
“Twilight, who is Cadence and why did you never tell us about your brother?” Asked Applejack.
Twilight didn't really know why she never told her friends about her brother and Cadence. “I don't know, maybe because I never had friends before you that I could tell about them.” Shining Armor and Cadence were the only ponies aside from Princess Celestia that Twilight ever considered as friends and they were both older than herself. “Shining Armor is my older brother, we always got along perfectly, shared our hopes and dreams, played together. Now he is captain of the royal guard.”
Rarity cut her off at this moment. “Captain of the royal guard? Your brother has such a high position and you never told us?” Rarity was aghast: This was not just any title, it was one the top ten list of the most prestigious titles in Equestria.
“Sorry, anyway Princess Cadence is Celestia's niece and she was my foalsitter when I was small. She is beautiful and kind,.I always loved it when she came to visit. Personally I couldn't think of a better mare for my brother.” As Twilight finished, Rarity was almost foaming at her mouth. Twilight’s brother was not just captain of the royal guard, he would soon marry the niece of Princess Celestia, that would mean that her friend Twilight would soon be royalty.
“Twilight, that would mean that you are soon an in-law of the princess, you'll be part of the royal family.” Gasped Rarity.
Twilight never really cared much for titles but the thought of officially being a family with her beloved mentor sounded wonderful to her. “Well Rarity, while it was never official, the princess always told me that she considered me a part of her family.” Twilight happily remembered when she was told this.
“Anyway, I hope that Nightmare Moon stays away from Canterlot. I don't want anything to happen to Shining Armor or Cadence.” This was something Twilight was afraid of: What if Nightmare Moon started to target Equestrian cities instead of the Kurogane? The steel ship was still dormant under the sands, and they would be very vulnerable to attacks if they had to fly the PT's all the way to the city that was being attacked while breaking up to ensure that the dig site was still protected.
Applejack saw the worried expression on her friend. “Now don'tcha worry sugarcube, we'll give Nightmare Moon a good ole hoedown and then Equestria will be safe again.”
This seemed to cheer Twilight up as she gave her friend a smile. “You're right, even after Nightmare Moon got those golems to shoot energy beams we managed to defeat them.” Confidence slowly started to fill the unicorn. “Whatever she can show up with, we have something to defeat it.”
“Exactly, nopony can beat us, after all we have the only PT's in Equestria.” Said Rainbow Dash in her usual, cocky tone. “My Astelion is faster than anything, Fluttershy's Giganscudo is tougher than anything and the rest of you can open a whole can off whoopflank on anything.”
The little pep rally they held had visible effects on their team, even Fluttershy seemed confident. “I'm sure everything will turn out fine.” She said with a calm smile on her face. They continued to chat without worries and laughed heartily. With the PT's on their side, what would they need to worry about?
The next day, Twilight and Pinkie Pie were patrolling the area in their PT's. Today was a quiet one. Only a small group of four sand golems reared their heads and were swiftly dispatched. After their first encounter with the golems that shot energy beams they decided to include defense against long range attacks in their training regiment. At first they thought that would be a waste of time since the golems could only throw rocks and sand at first, both easily dodged if you were paying attention. They also haven't seen any storm golems in a while.
Pinkie and Twilight decided that now was the best time for a little chat. “And I'm telling you Twi, we can totally have a dance party with our robots. It's gonna be the best party EVER!” Reasoned Pinkie Pie, who after their talk yesterday, already planned the victory party for them.
“Pinkie, the joints are not made for dancing, you'll break them!” Scolded Twilight, even her Wildraubtier would not be fit for a dance party despite being able to transform.
By this point, piloting became as natural for them as breathing to the point where they could perform even the most complicated maneuvers in their sleep, Pinkie was even proving her point by doing a little dance with her Weissritter.
Twilight scolded her friend. “Stop it Pinkie, the joints will break.”
Twilight transformed her Wildraubtier back into biped mode and tried to hold the Weissritter, which was not easy since she still held the hyperbeam rifle in one hand.
Twilight dropped the rifle and used both arms to keep Pinkie still. “The robots are not THAT tough, they can break easily when not used correctly. How often do the technicians oil the joints?”
Pinkie finally held still, “Uuuh, I don't know.”
Twilight facehoofed, “You should really oversee them when they maintain your PT. You should know best what your machine needs.” Twilight became less stern as she started to talk about her latest, favorite subject. “Another important thing you need to keep your eye on is the firing stability. You may think your PT's arms are always stiff and straight, but they are actually swaying a bit when you take aim. By fixing the arms correctly you can keep the movement at an absolute minimum to ensure that your aim is precise.”
Twilight continued to talk about various technical specifications and piloting advice, Pinkie already fell asleep halfway through her lecture. “And that is why you should never eat hay fries before piloting. Did you get all of that Pinkie? Pinkie?” The pink mare shot up from her sleep.
“Uh, what? Oh, are you done Twi?” She asked and lazily scatched her ear with her hind hoof.
Twilight let out a frustrated groan. “Nevermind Pinkie, let's just wrap up this patrol and head back.”
The two of them broke apart, ready to continue on their route as something shot past them, just as they separated. Both of them turned their heads as some sort of projectile hit the ground below them and a fountain of sand and dust shot up. They were being attacked!
Quickly, they turned to the direction the shot came from. Both mares gasped at what they saw. Six robots, just like the ones they were piloting, were coming at them. Their legs were thin, more like fins than actual legs. One arm was like a thin barrel and the other one was a flat hand. The body was designed in an aerodynamic way, flat and rounded, pointing slightly forward. Fins were attached to the shoulders and boosters were pointing backwards. They held some resemblance to Rainbow Dash’s old Guarlion.
The thin barrels on their arms were crackling with electricity and more shots were fired at them. Twilight and Pinkie barely managed to dodge the shots, then a communication channel opened. They saw a stern looking grey earth pony glaring at them.
“We are from Terra Firma, Princess Celestia has ignored the pleas of us earth ponies for far too long, now we will take our rights by force.” The pony proclaimed.
Twilight couldn't believe it; Terra Firma was attacking them and they had robots! Twilight desperately tried to reason with the stallion. “We are not your enemies, Nightmare Moon is still active, we should not fight against each other.”
Pinkie Pie decided to help her friend. “Yeah, how about we just become friends instead, then we can have a huge party and everypony will be happy.”
Their words however, did not manage to change the opinion of their attackers and another volley of shots were flying in their direction. “You are with Princess Celestia, that means that you are an obstacle in our way. Surrender now or we'll shoot.”
Both mares panicked: This was different from fighting lifeless golems, these were ponies just like them. They couldn't just shoot them down. Twilight made a decision. “Run!”
She quickly transformed the Wildraubtier back into flight mode and the two of them flew back towards the Kurogane while dodging the fire coming from their new enemies. While they fled, some of the diamond dogs that were tasked with spying on them observed as the newcomers attacked. The dogs just looked at each other before digging down to report to their new mistress.
On the way back to the camp, Twilight and Pinkie could not lose their attackers. While the Weissritters Tesla Drive and the Wildraubtiers flight mode were features, those machines were made to fly. The Kurogane was in their range again and Twilight immediately opened a communication channel to the bridge.
Digger currently had his shift on the bridge. Most of his work consisted of overseeing the others while they figured out more and more of the Kuroganes controls. After spending such a long time on this steel ship, the crew was almost capable of flying the steel ship, should it ever fly again. Spark has implied that he had plans for mobilizing the Kurogane, earlier that day.
One of the communication screens flared up, it was an emergency signal from the Wildraubtier. “Get Twilight on screen.” He ordered the proclaimed communication officer. With a few, well trained key strokes he put Twilight on screen.
“Digger, finally! This is an emergency!” Yelled Twilight, who was obviously distressed.
“Was it an ambush from Nightmare Moon?” Asked Digger, and ordered his communication officer to notify the other pilots.
“NO! It's Terra Firma!” The entire bridge crew gasped in shock as they heard this.
“Terra Firma?” Digger asked in disbelieve. “How is this possible?” He knew that the views of this organization were very radical but he never thought they would attack somepony.
“I don't know how, but they have AM's!” Said Twilight before a blast smashed her against the side of her cockpit. “What are we supposed to do? We can't shoot them down! There are ponies in those AM's!”
Digger was speechless, there were other traces of the Kurogane technology somewhere else? And Terra Firma found them? He shook his head, no time to waste on these ponderings, Twilight and Pinkie needed help. “Twilight, give us visuals of the enemy AM's, we'll search the database for information.”
Twilight put the rear cameras of the Wildraubtier on the screen and showed their attackers to the bridge crew. They immediately typed away at their terminals to look for any info on these new machines.
Evading the continuing attacks from the Terra Firma AM's became more strenuous for Pinkie and Twilight. Not only were the pilots determined to shoot them down, it was downright terrifying for them to think that their fellow ponies would attack them.
From the bridge Digger ground his teeth as he watched many close calls as the two pilots got back into the range where they could tap into their cameras. When the alert went out to the rest of the crew, Spark immediately made his way to the bridge. “Who is attacking Twilight and Pinkie Pie?” he asked furiously.
With a stern tone, Digger answered him. “Terra Firma.” He turned around and looked him in the eyes. “This 'organization of justice' is currently trying to shoot down our pilots.” Spark was shocked, the ponies he always held up to be supporters of true equality were attacking them?
Before Spark could say anything a screen lit up and Fluttershy could be seen. “Uhm Digger, I'm currently in the Giganscudo, would you mind if I launch to help them?” She asked shyly. Normally she would be unusually assertive when it came to saving her friends: the thought about fighting other ponies must have put her off.
“Permission to launch granted, shield the Wildraubtier and the Weissritter but don't attack the AM's until we have more information.” Ordered Digger and went back to addressing the bridge crew. “Hurry up, we need more information ASAP!”
Fluttershy launched as soon as she heard Digger give her permission. Then he also told her not to attack the AM's. Even if he permitted her to attack them, Fluttershy doubted that she would be able to do it. Slowly the rays of the sun came into view and she needed to adjust her eyes for a moment. Luckily Twilight and Pinkie were already close to the Kurogane, they were already in view and Fluttershy could open a communication channel. “Hurry, come to me so I can shield you.”
The two mares were relieved to hear their friend. Straining their boosters to their limits, they rushed over to the large, red super robot that held it's arms wide open. The AM's behind them fired a volley of missiles at them. The large, shielded arms of the Giganscudo closed around them as the missiles hit. Both arms were engulfed in a firestorm but as the flames died down, all three robots were still standing strong.
Fluttershy activated the speakers of the Giganscudo and addressed the pilots from Terra Firma. “Please listen to me, with the threat of Nightmare Moon we should work together instead of fighting each other. We do not hold any hostilities towards you and just wish to ensure that Equestria will be safe. Please join us or leave, I won't let you hurt my friends either way.” She said gently, yet firmly. Fluttershy did not know where she got her strength from;- she suspected that the Giganscudo helped her to feel stronger.
“Celestia is never going to treat us fairly, under the pretense that she doesn't want to treat the other kinds of ponies unfarily. The only chance we have is an uprising.” Snarled one of the pilots from Terra Firma. “You are with the princess, if we attack the palace you'll help her, that makes you our enemy.” The AM's continued to fire, Fluttershy and the Giganscudo curled up to make sure that no shot would hit her friends.
The assault continued, the other pilots requested permission to launch as well but Digger denied it. The three of them would be more than enough to destroy these AM's, but they first had to find a way to do so without killing the pilots.
“I've got it!” Yelled one of the bridge crew members. “Those AM's, the Lions, have an automatic ejection system, as long as you don't destroy the cockpit the pilots will be safe.”
Vigor returned to the three pilots. Now they could take their attackers out without killing the pilots. Fluttershy released Twilight and Pinkie, who immediately returned fire. They aimed at the arms of the Lions, if they can't shoot they have to retreat. Twilight gasped as she almost hit the cockpit of her target but sighed in relieve as she saw that the ejection system was activated.
“Two pilots down, beginning evasive maneuvers.” One of the enemy pilots yelled and they started to scramble.
Twilight changed the Wildraubtier back into flight mode and Pinkie stayed with Fluttershy. “Alrighty Flutters, keep me covered while I break their toys.” Using the Giganscudo for cover, Pinkie took aim and fired at an AM that flew past her. She managed to hit the booster and the cockpit was ejected before the Lion crashed down, afterwards she had to duck back as one of his friends attempted to avenge him.
While he fired at the cowering Weissritter, the pilot did not notice that Twilight flew straight at him with her Wildraubtier. When he finally noticed the white jet flying at him it was already too late. Twilight rammed him and his cockpit ejected before the Lion crashed down. The last two remaining Lions turned around and attempted to flee.
“No you don't.” Said Twilight, not wanting the pilots to bring the machines back to their own base.
Digger tried to stop her, “They are already fleeing Twilight, let them go.”
“If they return with the Lions, they can attack us later.” Reasoned Twilight while she transformed the Wildraubtier back into biped mode and took aim with her hyperbeam rifle. “Also, I'm just gonna aim at his arms, the pilot won't be harmed.” Twilight pulled the trigger and a brilliant beam of purple energy shot straight at the AM.
Twilights smile fell as she noticed something. The trajectory of the beam was off, it didn't head for the arms, the beam headed straight for the cockpit! Twilight panicked and hastily opened a communication channel to the Terra Firma pilots. “QUICK DODGE!” She yelled at them.
It was too late, the energy beam pierced the cockpit of the Lion. The last thing Twilight heard from the pilot was a horrifying scream, then silence. A feeling of horror swept through Twilight, she just killed somepony.
“Damn you,” growled the other pilot. “you'll pay for this I SWEAR!”
Twilight didn't listen, all she could hear were the last screams of the pony she just killed. Pinkie, Fluttershy and everypony on the bridge of the Kurogane were silent. Twilight couldn't move anymore, she was too horrified at what she has done. The Wildraubtier started to fall down into the dunes. Fluttershy managed to regain her composure and caught the Wildraubtier before it fell down. A feeling of dread filled the pegasus mare, this would leave deep psychological scars on her friend.
Authors note: Took me long enough to finish this chapter. Anyway, the last scene was something that was not part of the original plan but I thought that in a war, scenes like this are too commonplace to just make this entire war without any casualties.
The poor Lion pilot might not be the first one, but don't worry about you favorites, I hate to kill off main characters.
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|
Alexstrazsa
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1145
| 1 |
Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Legacy of the Sun
|
This is the story of Celestia, and her life before Twilight.
|
cancelled
| 14 | 3 |
<p>Everypony knows of Celestia, the benevolent ruler of Equestria and bringer of the sun. However, things weren't always so peaceful and easy going for the princess. This is the tale of Celestia, and her past. </p><p>This was a NaPoWriMo submission, and at 12:00AM October 1st, 23,498 words had been typed. I will continue working on it and updating it. Also, at this point, it's so non-canon it hurts.</p>
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everyone
|
2012-03-02T05:57:03+00:00
|
2012-03-02T05:57:03+00:00
| 1,571 |
Chapter 1: A New Dawn
Age: 0
High in the sky, the brilliant sun shone above Equestria, casting it’s soft rays across the high mountains, with their snowy peaks; the rolling plains, filled with wildflowers and streams; and the lush forests, with their exotic plant life and woodland creatures. One forest, however, was much more vast than the rest, and was positively brimming with color and life. Bright leaves hung from tree branches, swaying gently in the passing breeze. On the ground, wild plants grew in all shapes and sizes, from tall ones to short ones to vibrant ones which became picturesque in nature. Accompanying the varied flora was its extraordinary fauna, ranging from small, playful fairies to large, captivating sea serpents, and even the intimidating celestial beasts. All of the creatures lived their lives fully and peacefully, enjoying the safe and inviting atmosphere that the forest provided for them.
The few groups of ponies that stumbled upon the lush woodlands found it accommodating, and their travels through it would be some of the most serene adventures they had ever experienced. Those who had the chance to observe the forest in all of it’s glory would say that anything that lived there would be able to live freely and flourish. To them, it was a breath of fresh air, much greater than the chaotic world outside the woodland. Their tales of grandeur would eventually have the forest drawn on maps and written in literature with a single, majestic name, fit to describe it’s pleasures: Everfree.
Nestled deep in the heart of Everfree Forest was a stone castle, standing alone on a cliff edge. The land it was perched on had long since been torn from the rest of the forest, most likely ripped apart through a great, primordial earthquake or similar sundering. Connecting the tracts of land was a simple rope bridge, hanging above a river which flowed gently at the bottom of the deep crevasse. Healthy green blades of grass blanketed the cliff side, occasionally glinting with morning dew that hadn’t yet evaporated.
The castle itself was modest in it’s construction, only containing four buildings which were connected via hallways to a central tower. Upon closer inspection, one would find great stained glass windows adorning some of the rooms, and simple yet effective wooden doors. The main structure was very tall, being the only piece of the castle that poked above the treeline. Crawling up the spire, in a neat and patterned fashion, were straightforward windows; two crossed beams, so that nothing unwanted - save for the occasional bird - could enter. Nearing the topmost section of the tower, the windows circled around, giving away the location of a room. At the eastern side of the chamber, looking out through the window, was an alicorn.
The rays of sun piercing through the window pulled a lustrous shine out of his dark, almost ebony coat. It very closely resembled the dark blue hue of the night sky, and if he were to fly during the cold hours of early morning, it would be as if he didn’t exist at all. On his flank, a single bright star was shown, surrounded by darkness that gradually faded away. Cascading from his head and seeming to float in an invisible stream was his sleek mane. The hair, which appeared more ethereal than physical, was shiny and obsidian in complexion. It wasn’t the gravity defiant movements his mane had which caught the eye, however, but rather the effect it had. Instead of a simple mane, his acted more like a view into the heavens, constantly changing based on his movements. As he stood still, gazing across the forest, the changing shape only altered the size and frame of the astral window.
Adorning his neck was a burnished, dark grey piece of armor. In it’s center was a deep topaz gem, cut into the shape of a half moon, and studded expertly into the metal. The sunlight glinted across it and sent light blue reflections across the stone in front of him. Similarly colored metal to his chest piece was also crafted into shoes, with baroque designs cut out of the metal. To complete the royal ensemble was a slate colored crown resting on his head, embellished with sapphire stones encrusted in it. He had personally crafted this armor many years ago, using the delicate finesse of his magical abilities.
The tall stallion held a proud expression as he looked over the forest, as a father would look over a child who was receiving a reward, for he was surveying his kingdom. Although godly in size and features, his face was beginning to show the creeping signs of his age. This particular alicorn had walked Equestria for over 3,400 years, and his piercing, brilliant cyan eyes had seen countless lifetimes of events. He remained silent for a long time, before he finally opened his mouth.
“It’s truly beautiful, isn’t it?”
His voice was regal and commanding, but at the same time calm and composed. When he spoke, it was with a knowing and wise tone, for he chose his words carefully. This alicorns name was Sonance, and it was only several hundred more years until he ascended.
Sonance’s ears perked up and rotated to behind him as he heard a lighter voice, but with the same sagely tone. It was light and dainty, with a determined undertone. Above all, the sound and nature of the voice drifted through his ears like music.
“Very, and it shall only become more lovely in time.”
The dark alicorn finally turned from the window and looked back to the origin of the voice, which was resting comfortably on a large, soft bed. She was a bright alicorn, and although in the shade of the room, still seemed to glow and shine. Some of the radiance was created through her wild, untamed mane, with locks of hair that flowed in numerous directions, never staying within a solid boundary. It’s shape was reminiscent of tongues of fire, freshly made in a blazing inferno, and the color was similar: a golden yellow in the middle which slowly transitioned into a warm orange. Her stunning mane and tail were like the sun itself was being channeled through her, a presumption that was supported even further by her coat color. She was covered in a light amber, which also appeared to give off a soft glow, but not quite as intense as her mane. Pictured on her flanks was an image of a ball of flame, with the fire spreading outward in all directions.
Similarly to Sonance, the soft auburn alicorn donned armor, though hers was a lustrous, reflective gold. Faceted onto the center was a blood red stone of garnet, cut into a near perfect circle. Polished golden shoes complimented the chest piece, carved with an intricate lace pattern and reaching up to her knees. Atop her head laid a small golden tiara, which brimmed with garnet, citrine, and gold beryl.
Below the crown were her compassionate, perceptive eyes, which held a luminous fuchsia color. As with her husband, she too was beginning to see the signs of her aging, and had been noticing them for years. Her name was Rhapsody, and she had been helping Equestria survive for over the same amount of time Sonance had: 3,400 years.
“It’s a shame we won’t be around to see it grow further.” Sonance said, walking to the bed. He leisurely climbed on the cushioned mattress and brought himself closer to Rhapsody, until their bodies were touching. Rhapsody smiled warmly and lifted a wing, embracing Sonance with it.
“Oh Sonance, we still have several hundred years.” Rhapsody replied, nuzzling her husband’s neck.
Sonance let out a peaceful sigh, allowing his thoughts to wander for a moment. “What you say is true.” He turned his head to his wife. “However, we’re going to need an heir.”
Rhapsody made no effort to hide the redness building in her cheeks, or the small grin sneaking across her mouth. “One heir may not be enough; perhaps we should have two?”
“You’ve always been ambitious, darling.” Sonance said, kissing Rhapsody on the cheek. “From the vast peaks to the endless oceans to our very castle, you’ve been the mind behind it all.”
“And you’ve always been the flatterer.” Rhapsody jauntily replied.
Sonance couldn’t help but chuckle at his wife’s cheeky honesty. “While that may be the case, my statement holds true. In six hundred years time, we’ll ascend into the cosmos, leaving our descendants to take care of Equestria.”
The soft amber alicorn laid her head against Sonance, getting into a more comfortable position. Some strands of her hair flicked and prodded at his mane, as if they wanted to dance around with their astral counterparts. “I know, dear. Perhaps, in several years, we’ll have a foal of our own.”
Sonance closed his eyes, his thoughts turning to the future. “I would love that.”
“Then it’s settled. We’ll bring forth a successor.”
- - -
Time went on, with Sonance and Rhapsody attending to the daily needs of Equestria and discussing the necessity of a successor. Their conversations ranged from the color of their foals coat, to the gender it would be, and even how many they were going to have. It wasn’t until three years later, on one early summer morning when the sun was just peeking over the horizon, that their first foal was born.
The day was brand new - still dark in the west, where the sun’s light didn’t quite reach yet. The beams of light that made it to Equestria lit up the scenery, casting a warm orange glow over whatever they touched. This included the castle tower, perched above the trees in Everfree. It was in this tower that the sun reached a mother finishing her ultimate struggle.
Rhapsody was sprawled out on the bed, panting from the exertion and strain she had to go through moments earlier. Her eyes were tightly shut, the agony having not yet subsided. Even though she was an alicorn, gifted with divine magical ability, child birth had still proven to be a strenuous and painful ordeal. Her coat was damp from sweat, and beads of it had gathered at her brow and were beginning to drip down her pale face. Silently, she thanked all the cosmos for being relived of the suffering.
Sonance had assisted with the delivery, comforting Rhapsody and helping her through the process. He offered words of encouragement and magical aid when he could, but beyond that, it was in Rhapsody’s hooves. She had proved herself more than capable, however, and after a mere seven minutes (Sonance had been nervously counting), the birth was an overwhelming success. The hours of labor that Rhapsody had gone through had finally bore fruit. After Sonance used his magic to administer a mandatory cleanup, he hurriedly wrapped the foal in a soft blanket and held it close to him. He crawled on the bed and sat next to Rhapsody, who was beginning to recover from her plight.
“You did so well, my dear.” Sonance said, gently licking Rhapsody’s cheek.
“I wouldn’t have done nearly as well without you.” she replied, looking to him and offering a smile. Her luminous pink eyes were beginning to moisten, solely from the exultation she was feeling at the moment.
Sonance leaned down and gave her a light kiss, before asking, “Would you like to see her?”
Rhapsody nodded in agreement. “Of course. I want nothing more right now.”
The night alicorn brought the small bundle of blanket over to Rhapsody, and gently pulled back the cloth. Her eyes glistened and tears began to steadily flow out as she looked upon her newborn. The foal slowly opened her eyes, revealing two magenta irises that sparkled in the dawn’s light. Her coat was a majestic alabaster, with just a hint of rose red in it. Finally, the young one’s mane was an eye catching pink, that was slightly wavy and flowed down her back. Poking out of the hair was a tiny horn, and on her back was a pair of feathered wings, not quite big enough for flight yet. She was everything that the couple could have hoped for, and the tears falling off both of their faces was more than enough to prove that fact.
“She’s absolutely gorgeous.” Sonance said, wiping the moisture from his eyes.
“She is. She really is.” Rhapsody agreed, sniffling.
Sonance pulled the sheets away from the foals flank, revealing a cutie mark already in place. It depicted the sun, showing a yellow circle surrounded by distorted orange triangles. The sight of it caused Rhapsody to gasp, and put a hoof to her mouth.
“My, she already has her mark. She’s been destined from birth.” the dark alicorn looked closer at the mark, studying it and observing it.
“It’s lovely.” Rhapsody said, also looking at the image. “She’s meant to raise the sun.”
“I think it’s more than that.” Sonance said. “It might be much greater than just raising the sun...” He shook his head and smiled. “Only time can tell, and we’ll be gone long before that.”
“Whatever her destiny is, I’m sure she’ll make the best of it.”
“I’m sure she will.”
“Sonance, what shall we name her?”
Sonance closed his eyes, lost deep in thought. He looked at her cutie mark, envisioned what he thought of her destiny, and considered her future place in the world. She would be regent of the sun, bringer of light, and princess of Equestria. She would grow to be a powerful alicorn, maybe even exceed them, and one day join them in the endless cosmos. Sonance pondered all of this for moment, then opened his eyes, knowing the answer to his wife’s question. He looked down at the foal, then to his wife, and smiled. With his prevalent wise, profound, and determined tone - that only time and experience could have forged - he proclaimed a single word:
“Celestia.”
|
Alexstrazsa
|
1145
| 2 |
Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Legacy of the Sun
|
This is the story of Celestia, and her life before Twilight.
|
cancelled
| 14 | 3 |
<p>Everypony knows of Celestia, the benevolent ruler of Equestria and bringer of the sun. However, things weren't always so peaceful and easy going for the princess. This is the tale of Celestia, and her past. </p><p>This was a NaPoWriMo submission, and at 12:00AM October 1st, 23,498 words had been typed. I will continue working on it and updating it. Also, at this point, it's so non-canon it hurts.</p>
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everyone
|
2012-03-02T05:57:11+00:00
|
2012-03-02T05:57:11+00:00
| 1,120 |
Chapter 2: Learning Stages
Age: 200
Many years had passed since the world changing day that Celestia, heir to the throne of Equestria and bringer of the dawn, had been born. The Everfree forest had shown signs of it’s continuing age, with many of it’s trees growing closer to the bedroom of the castle. The forest was still vibrant and full of life, very similar to the young princess who grew up around it.
Celestia crouched in a small bush, peeking her eyes out at a butterfly which lazily flew to a flower. It slowly flapped it’s wings as it landed, showing off its elegant patterns and colors. The princess licked her lips and bent her legs, before pouncing out of the brush at the insect. The small creature was smart enough to quickly move, however, and Celestia only manged to land in a flower bed and lose her balance, tumbling to the ground. She brought a hoof to her face and wiped a lock of pink hair out of her eyes before watching the butterfly make its way to a far off tree. She gave a defeated frown as she got up, but soon became fascinated with a bright yellow flower and trotted towards it.
Being an alicorn, Celestia’s aging process was greatly slowed, which is why the two hundred year old pony was still but a young filly. She had just begun her life in the time it took many generations to live and die. This fact wasn’t known to the princess, however, as the family kept quiet in the deep woods. To Celestia, her long life was perfectly normal, and her parents would prefer it to stay that way - at least until she were an adult.
It wasn’t long before Sonance found himself in the small clearing that Celestia was playing in; he had heard her giggling long before he spotted her. He couldn’t help but a find a smile overtake him when he saw the tiny filly chasing after birds and other woodland creatures, in a vain attempt at a game of tag.
“Come back here, mister bird!” Celestia called, running after a blue jay gliding through the forest.
Sonance leaned against a tree and silently watched his daughter enjoy herself, not wanting to spoil the moment. After the avian had flown past the treetops, Celestia huffed and turned around, quickly spotting her father. Sonance waved a hoof as their eyes met.
“Daddy!” she squealed in delight, rushing over to him with a wide grin. The young princess nearly tackled his leg as she embraced it, nuzzling him affectionately.
“Hello there, little one.” Sonance said, kneeling down so he could be eye level with her. “Are you having fun?”
“Yeah! I just wish the birds wouldn’t fly so fast.” she gave an adorable little pout.
“Someday soon, you’ll be able to fly with them.” Sonance replied.
“You really think so?” Celestia asked.
“I know so. In fact, I think it’s time for some flying lessons.”
The little alicorn’s eyes lit up at the notion of learning how to fly. She had always watched her mother and father take wing, often to gather food, and questioning when she would learn was a near daily occurrence. “Oh, yes, yes, yes!” she cheered.
Sonance’s horn lit up and he gently lifted Celestia onto his back, making sure to be careful with her. He stood up and began walking towards the castle, which was only several hundred feet away.
“Daddy, when can I fly as good as you?”
“Oh, I’d say a few hundred years.”
Celestia melodramatically groaned. “A few hundred? That’s really long!”
“It is a long time, but flying takes practice and patience.”
“If I try real hard, can I be good at it sooner?”
Sonance lightly laughed. “I suppose you could.”
The two of them went to a small courtyard, tucked inside of the castle, for Celestia’s flying practice. Sonance went through the basics, showing her how to properly lift off, how to control her height, speed and descent, and how to land safely. However, despite the small alicorn’s efforts, her wings weren’t quite strong enough for her to stay afloat for more than a few seconds. Her diligence didn’t go unrewarded, though, as Sonance offered to play a game of hide and seek with her when they were finished. After a fit of running around and laughing, the two of them laid next to each other in the soft grass. It was then that Celestia asked a peculiar question.
“Daddy, why was I born with my cutie mark?”
The inquiry was a surprise to Sonance, who had to think about what he was just asked. He turned his head to Celestia, who was staring at him inquisitively. Her small head was cocked to the side as she patiently awaited his answer.
“Well...” Sonance started, bringing a hoof to his chin and rubbing it. “I think it’s because you’re a very important pony.”
“How?”
“Here we go.” Sonance thought. He rolled over onto his stomach and stood up, Celestia following suit. “Come, Celestia. Let us talk.”
“Okay!” she said, walking to his side.
They began their light walk through the courtyard, entering one of the buildings. “You see, Celestia, someday, you will rule all of Equestria.”
The little filly’s eyes widened at the statement. “Wow, really?!” she exclaimed.
“Indeed. When you were born and your mother and I saw your cutie mark, we believed that you would also raise the sun.”
Celestia looked through a nearby window to see the sun’s rays shining over some plant life and parts of the castle. Her gaze drifted upwards, into the sky, where the intense, bright orb hung. “I’ll be able to move that?” she said, not able to believe her fathers words.
Sonance nodded. “Of course, just as your mother and I do. However, she tends to deal with the sun more often than myself.” He noticed himself starting to drift off topic. “Regardless, one day, you will be princess of Equestria, and the only one able to bring the sun up for dawn.” Their idle walking brought them in front of the castle now, near the rope bridge hanging across the gulch. Sonance slowed to a stop, then looked down at his daughter. “Would you like to learn how to raise the sun?”
“That sounds hard.” Celestia said, scrunching up her nose.
“Oh, it’s not so difficult with a bit of practice.” As if to demonstrate the ease, Sonance’s horn glowed for a moment, and the sun seemed to move ever so slightly along it’s course. “I’ll have to push that back later...”
“Wow...” Celestia said, her mouth slightly hanging open. The dark alicorn gently brought a hoof to her chin and shut it, with a grin.
“It’s a bit of a feat, at first. You should try.”
“Do you think I can do it?”
“I believe in you, Celestia.” He knelt down next to the princess, and used his hoof to motion to the bright sun. “Just imagine that you’re taking a mighty hoof, and pushing the sun along it’s way.”
“Um... I’ll try.” Celestia closed her eyes and focused, pointing her horn in the direction of the sun. It gained a soft glow, as her magic was being channeled through it. She felt the strain as she attempted to push the great star forward, and it’s increasing difficulty caused her to spread her hooves out and brace herself, as if she herself was pushing the star. The glow intensified, and slight sparks began to jump out; a clear indicator of the amount of effort this little filly was putting forth. Sonance eagerly watched as Celestia attempted the impossible task set forth, almost inspired by her diligence and perseverance. Finally, she gasped and fell to the ground, her horn returning to it’s regular, matte color.
“Did... did it work?” she asked, not even bothering to look up. The small alicorn was much too tired from the attempt.
Sonance gave a light hearted laugh as he delivered the unfortunate news. “I’m afraid not, little one, but you certainly tried!” He helped Celestia to her hooves, allowing her to lean against his leg for support. “Don’t fret, someday it will come naturally to you.”
“Daddy, I think I’m done trying to move the sun right now.”
“That’s okay, my dear. Later, you can try moving the moon.”
Her eyes widened, the dread of having to try and move that heavenly body as well washing over her. “Not that, too!”
Sonance laughed, using his magic to place the tired princess on his back and walking back into the castle. “We’ll practice that some other night.”
Celestia let out a high pitched yawn, and curled up on her father’s back. “Okay...”
“You should always try and practice your magic, Celestia. One day, your mother and I won’t be here to raise the sun and moon for Equestria.” Sonance pursed his lips immediately after saying his last sentence, silently contemplating if he had just revealed too much for the young alicorn.
“I don’t really get it.” she said, allowing a wave of relief to fall over Sonance.
“That’s fine. You’ll understand in the future.”
The two of them were silent as Sonance walked through the stone hallways. Sooner or later, him and Rhapsody were going to need to let Celestia know what would happen in four hundred years time, but they just didn’t know how to tell her. It was a puzzling ordeal that pained Sonance every time he thought about it. He would need to think on it.
Sonance reached the entrance to the tower, where he let Celestia down. She rubbed her eyes a bit, still tired from the sun raising attempt, and wobbled slightly as she touched the ground. Sonance eyed her carefully to make sure she wouldn’t topple over, and after confirming she would be alright, spoke.
“I’m going to go out into the forest now. How about you play in the courtyard while I’m gone?”
“Alright, daddy.” she said, starting to perk up.
“Stay safe.” Sonance said, giving her a hug before trotting off. Celestia then thought about what to do, after her father went on his way. She looked to the courtyard, then behind her to the stairs leading up. In her little mind, she formed a plan to get some answers.
Celestia’s ‘plan’ consisted of walking up the stairs and consulting her mother on the issue. While not the most complicated of actions, in her mind it was a genius idea. She reached the top of the long flight of stairs, panting as she walked into her parents room. Although she slept here as well, the abundance of things belonging to her mother and father were enough to label it as their room. She found Rhapsody sitting at a desk, using the sunlight coming through the window to illuminate the paper she was writing on. Hearing Celestia’s breaths, she turned around and looked at her daughter.
“Celestia, my love! What brings you here?” The soft auburn alicorn got up and embraced Celestia, even curling her wings around for extra comfort. Celestia particularly enjoyed when her mother did this, as it made her feel warm and safe - though she was shy in speaking of it.
“I wanted to ask you about my cutie mark.” Celestia said, looking up and smiling at Rhapsody. There was no denying her daughter’s plea.
“What about?”
“Well, I asked daddy about it, and he said that it means I’m gonna be really important, but I don’t know why.”
“Come here, my young Celestia.” Rhapsody walked to the southern window of the room, which was overlooking one of the small structures in the castle. It was barely visible through the trees, but still remained noticeable because of it’s contrast in color. The light amber alicorn levitated her daughter on her back, so that the princess would get a better view through the windows.
“What about my-”
“Patience, little one. Your father and I believe that one day, you might rule Equestria for the greater good.”
“So my cutie mark is about being good?” Celestia raised an eyebrow, this answer clearly not what she had been expecting.
“It might be.” She took hold of Celestia and let her back down on the floor, then laid down herself. “To be honest, we don’t know exactly what your cutie mark means, darling.”
“Aww...” Celestia let out a disappointed groan.
“One day, you’ll figure it out for yourself. I’m sure of it.”
“I hope so.” the small alicorn replied, looking down and lightly pawing at the floor. “Can I ask another question?”
“Of course you can.”
“Daddy says that one day you and him will have to leave. Is that true?”
Celestia was too young to notice the quick look of surprise flash across Rhapsody’s face. She clearly hadn’t prepared for a question like this. For now, all she could do was answer the best way she could, and hope her daughter didn’t keep pressing the issue.
“This, too, is something else you learn in time, my dear.”
The white alicorn pouted, still not satisfied. She wasn’t very fond of all of the waiting she had been told to do recently, whether it be for finding out what her cutie mark really meant, why she was born with it, and if she would be able to raise the sun and moon. Rhapsody noticed the look of disappointment in her daughters eyes, but was unsure of what to tell her.
“Thank you, mommy. I’m gonna go downstairs and play now.”
“As you wish.” She leaned down and nuzzled Celestia, ruffling her pink mane. “Stay safe, dear.”
Celestia left the room and begun the long descent down the staircase. “I guess if mommy and daddy say I’ll know one day, then I’ll just wait.” she thought, as she walked down the steps. There was too much on her young mind, and right now she wanted nothing more than to explore through one of the mysterious parts of the courtyard. She had always loved to explore.
- - -
The shadowy alicorn gave a heavy sigh as he entered the room at the top of the tower, mane flowing loosely behind him. “What are we going to tell her, Rhapsody?”
“I’m just as lost as you are, my dear.” she replied, looking out one of the windows. Her horn flashed as the sun dipped behind the horizon, leaving only the bright moon making it’s way into the sky.
Sonance practically fell into the bed when he approached it, stretching his limbs out and pulling off his armored shoes. They fell to the ground with a hollow clang, which echoed throughout the stone room. “I want her to know the truth, but I fear she’s too young to understand.”
Rhapsody crawled onto the bed and cuddled next to her worried husband. “Sonance, my lunar prince, perhaps time will solve this problem.”
“Do you really believe that?” Sonance turned to his wife, frowning. “She deserves to know what the ascendancy will entail.”
“You worry for her, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. I’m just not certain she’ll be able to rule Equestria alone when we’re gone.”
Rhapsody sighed and laid her head on Sonance’s silky mane. “Our little sun princess might get along well with a little moon princess.”
“Is that what she needs? A sibling? She certainly wouldn’t be alone...”
“I think it might be just what we’re looking for.” she gently kissed the dark alicorn’s cheek. He returned the affectionate gesture, unfurling his wing and wrapping it around her.
“Hopefully, this will help her. All I want is for her to be happy.”
“As do I, Sonance... as do I.”
The faint sound of tiny hooves clopping against stone alerted them to Celestia’s approach, and they silently nodded; an agreement to stay quiet about the predicament. In four hundred terribly short years, the two of them would learn whether they had made the right choice or not.
|
Alexstrazsa
|
1145
| 3 |
Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Legacy of the Sun
|
This is the story of Celestia, and her life before Twilight.
|
cancelled
| 14 | 3 |
<p>Everypony knows of Celestia, the benevolent ruler of Equestria and bringer of the sun. However, things weren't always so peaceful and easy going for the princess. This is the tale of Celestia, and her past. </p><p>This was a NaPoWriMo submission, and at 12:00AM October 1st, 23,498 words had been typed. I will continue working on it and updating it. Also, at this point, it's so non-canon it hurts.</p>
|
everyone
|
2012-03-02T05:57:16+00:00
|
2012-03-02T05:57:16+00:00
| 1,381 |
Chapter 3: Luna
Age: 500
Celestia paced around her room, looking down at the floor and lost in thought. Her pink mane flowed lightly behind her, floating lightly in the air. It was a change her parents were planning on, and they were enthralled to see it finally affecting her. Due to the latent magical power that alicorns’ possessed, it tended to spillover into their manes and give it a distinctive flowing property. This motion only grew more intense as the alicorn aged, and increased in magical expertise. While Celestia’s hair only gently moved as if it were laying in a small, trickling stream, Sonance and Rhapsody’s hair flowed freely like a river.
The nature of her hair was the least of her worries right now, though, as the sun princess walked back and forth, awaiting news from her father. She had been tarrying about for six hours now, and was beginning to get worried. Did it take this long when she was born? Was Rhapsody okay? What would her sister look like? All these questions ran through her mind as she idly walked around. As if fate itself was siding with her, she heard a solid knock at her door that pulled her from her thoughts. Celestia quickly opened the door to find Sonance standing there, smiling.
“Come with me, Celestia.”
She silently followed him, walking down a hallway and ascending up the large flight of stairs to the top of the tower. Looking out the window, she could see the thick forest that lay beyond the castle, with it’s trees and gnarled roots leading into darkness. In the recent years, it had sprung to life and rapidly grew - although Rhapsody and Sonance didn’t quite know why. They had searched the nearby forest on several occasions, but never found anything of peculiar interest. For now, it was a mystery left unsolved.
After a fairly short walk, the two were in the top chamber, where Rhapsody laid in bed. The signs of a struggle were evident on the mattress, where the sheets were ruffled. The smell of sweat was in the air, and Rhapsody looked as though she’d seen better days. Her mane was disheveled and weak looking, it’s luminous strands hanging limply in areas. Despite how she looked, though, there was a still a smile drawn across her face. In front of her laid a bundle of cloth, wrapped together. She held it within her forelegs, occasionally looking down at it. As Celestia approached her, she noticed that the bundle contained a tiny foal with a deep, blueish grey coat. Her mane was a light blue, which fell in such a way that it covered one of her teal eyes. For now, the foal was awake, her eyes curiously jumping from one thing in the room to the next.
“Celestia... meet your sister, Luna.” Rhapsody said.
The sun princess looked at her new sibling, with mixed feelings brewing inside of her. She enjoyed the fact that she now had a new sibling, but at the same time, wondered how it would affect her future as princess. Would Luna take over for her? Would she move on to a different country? Would they rule over Equestria as their mother and father did?
“I’m... still going to be princess, right?” Celestia asked, looking up at Rhapsody.
Both her mother and father chuckled at the question.
“Of course you will, dear.” Sonance said, running a hoof through Celestia’s mane. “You and Luna will simply rule together.”
“Like you and mom?”
“Exactly like us.” Rhapsody said, before giving Sonance a warm look. “Oh, and look...” She took some of the cloth away from Luna’s flank, revealing that she, too, had been born with her cutie mark. It depicted a bright white half moon on a dark patch of her fur.
Celestia look at the crescent moon, then looked back at her flank. “Oh, I get it. She’ll raise the moon.”
“Absolutely.” Sonance replied.
She brushed some loose strands of her light pink mane out of her hair before getting closer to Luna and giving her sister a good look. The little foal stretched out her foreleg, and lightly tapped Celestia on the nose, causing the sun princess to scrunch up her snout and back away suddenly. Luna giggled and pulled her hoof back, quickly losing her infantile train of thought. After Celestia fully comprehended what just happened, she couldn’t help but laugh as well.
“I like her.” she said, smiling at Luna.
“That’s excellent to hear.” Rhapsody replied, gently rocking the foal in her arms.
Sonance wrapped a hoof around Celestia and brought her closer to him, then softly touched small Luna’s cheek. “We have two beautiful daughters, and we couldn’t be any more proud.”
“Thanks, dad.” Celestia affectionately rubbed her head against Sonance’s leg.
“And we love you both, so much.” Rhapsody added, kissing Luna on the forehead.
Sonance approached Rhapsody and gave her a deep kiss. The two of them stood locked in the embrace for a moment, before Sonance parted. “I love you, dear.”
“I love you too, my dusky prince.”
The onyx alicorn looked down to Celestia. “Your mother is no doubt very tired. Shall we go prepare dinner?”
At the mentioning of food, Celestia realized just how hungry she was. She hadn’t eaten in hours, and the anticipation for her sister had only made her hungrier. The faint gurgling in her stomach, heard even by Sonance, gave the ebony alicorn his answer. “Oh, yeah. I’m really hungry.”
“Come then. We’ll find something to make.” he looked back to Rhapsody. “Take care, dear.” Rhapsody silently nodded, then looked back down at Luna. Sonance leaned down and lightly kissed Luna on he forehead, then headed towards the exit, Celestia walking next to him, her pastel mane having the slightest wave to it. Today had been a long day for Sonance, and he was looking forward to a filling meal and his first daughter’s company. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Celestia, taking in just how fast his daughter was growing. She was taller now, and her head was up to his chest armor. Even as a young alicorn, she was the height of a full grown mare, and her magic ability was awakening every day, reflected both in her mane’s color, size, and movements. “Everything is coming together now. They are two sisters, both having the power to rule over Equestria. I can only hope they take care of each other.”
Time was fading for Sonance, as he could feel the universe beginning to grasp him. It wouldn’t be long now - one hundred years at the most. After that, all he would be able to do was silently watch his daughters from the stars, and pray that they lived out their lives. He would have to leave them soon, and the grim reality of the situation was quickly catching up with him.
|
Alexstrazsa
|
1145
| 4 |
Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Legacy of the Sun
|
This is the story of Celestia, and her life before Twilight.
|
cancelled
| 14 | 3 |
<p>Everypony knows of Celestia, the benevolent ruler of Equestria and bringer of the sun. However, things weren't always so peaceful and easy going for the princess. This is the tale of Celestia, and her past. </p><p>This was a NaPoWriMo submission, and at 12:00AM October 1st, 23,498 words had been typed. I will continue working on it and updating it. Also, at this point, it's so non-canon it hurts.</p>
|
everyone
|
2012-03-02T05:57:21+00:00
|
2012-03-02T05:57:21+00:00
| 1,244 |
Chapter 4: Ascension
Age: 600
Normally, it is a custom to celebrate the day of your birth, with either friends, family, or both, and rejoice in growing older and learning. It’s generally a time of happiness, good will, and becoming closer with those around you, while you move onto a new chapter in your life. For the alicorn spouses, living in an old castle perched in the heart of the Everfree Forest, their day was anything but.
It was on this day that Sonance woke with a jolted feeling that surged through his divine form. Sonance removed himself from the bed, covered from head to hoof in a cold sweat. He was visibly pale, and as he looked to Rhapsody, noticed that she looked much the same - to the point of her typical glow nearly nonexistent.
“Sonance...” she started. The dark alicorn could see the tears forming in his wife's eyes. “It’s time.”
“Is it that day already?” he asked, in slightly louder than a whisper. “It seems like just moments ago I was watching little Luna take her first steps.”
“Ninety years goes by quickly, dear.” The tanned alicorn spoke as best she could through her lamenting, and approached Sonance.
Sonance put a wing around Rhapsody and held her close, looking out of the nearest window. The dawn had just approached, which Rhapsody had freshly raised before the electrifying sensation hit them. It was the final call from the universe itself, ushering them into it’s infinite void and inviting them to shape the very foundations of reality. All alicorns’ felt this feeling, and all of them ascended into the heavens - all starting with that same sensation, and always happening on their four thousandth birthday. Despite their long years, this would prove to be the saddest day of their infinite lives.
- - -
“Celly! Get back here!” Luna yelled, chasing after her sister, who had the lunar princess’s crown between her teeth.
Many years ago, Sonance had come to them both asking if they would like a piece of jewerly, and they had excitedly agreed. All they had to do was out a type of gem, and he would craft it into something for them to wear. Celestia had a chosen a vibrant, deep amethyst, which would be set into a brilliant gold. Luna, on the other hand, has chosen obsidian, a very dark and shiny material that normally wasn’t used for decorative work.When asked about it, she claimed that it looked the prettiest, despite being surrounded by multitudes of other sparkling and vivid stones. Sonance listened to their requests, and within a days time, had forged two sparkling crowns for them. Celestia’s was a lustrous gold, polished until it was mirrorlike, with thin lines delicately etched into loopy patterns. Luna’s crown was made entirely out of obsidian, and gleamed even in the faintest of light. They both had a three pronged design at the top, with the middle piece being slightly taller. Although the two princesses were too small to properly wear them, they were cherished dearly. This fact made Luna’s crown a prime target for Celestia’s practical jokes.
“You’ll have to catch me first!” the sun princess yelled through her clenched teeth, quickly ducking into a nearby hallway.
“That’s no fair, you’re faster!” Luna hastily ran into the same hallway, catching Celestia’s tail disappearing through a door at the end of the hallway. She moved as fast as she could through the open door, to find an empty room. “Come out! It’s not funny!”
Celestia merely giggled, which echoed throughout the room.
“I’m gonna tell mom!” Luna said, walking farther into the room. She looked around, trying to find any hint of Celestia.
“No you won’t!” Celestia yelled, clearly.
Luna spun around to find Celestia hovering in the air, right above the door to the room. “Cheater! No flying!”
“You should learn how to fly then! Aren’t you a hundred?”
Luna pouted and looked up at her sister, and as agitated as a small filly could sound, said “You’re 600, and couldn’t fly ‘til you were 300! Mommy said so!”
“I guess you’ll have to learn faster, then!” Celestia said, putting the crown in her teeth and quickly darting through the air and out the door.
Luna began to chase, quickly at first, before hearing a soft thud, and hard thud, the sound of metal hitting stone, and an exclamation of pain. Looking out of the door, Luna saw Sonance and Rhapsody, with Celestia on the ground in front of them. Her wings were spread under her and she was lying on her back, hooves spread in every which way. She shook her head quickly and slowly got up, maintaining her balance. Luna spotted her crown on the ground and practically dived for it, picking it up tightly in her teeth.
“Celestia, what have we told you about picking on Luna?” Rhapsody said, looking down at her light coated daughter.
“Sorry mom...” Celestia dejectedly replied, pawing her hoof at the ground. She looked back to her mother, and noticed something peculiar about both her and Sonance: their eyes were red around the edges, as if they had been crying. “Mom... are you and dad alr-”
“Come with us, both of you.” Sonance said, cutting her off.
“Uh... okay.” Celestia said, getting that familiar feeling that she was about to be punished. Luna said nothing, but nodded her head, due to the crown she was holding.
The four of them walked together silently, through the stone hallways. At this point, grass was starting to creep through parts of the floor, which had been unmaintained by neither Sonance or Rhapsody recently. The castle was showing it’s age quite clearly now, similar to it’s ancient inhabitants. Their hooves echoed against the floor, but the sound softened as they reached the grass that was outside of the main entrance to the building. Celestia looked around, noticing the sun slowly rising, the forest encompassing them, and parts of the night sky hanging above, and could only wonder one thing: What are we doing?
Rhapsody and Sonance turned to face their two young daughters, and they stood there silently for several moments. Finally, Sonance broke the lingering speechlessness.
“Celestia, our eldest daughter. You are Regent of the Sun. Bringer of the Dawn. Light of Equestria. Princess and one of the heirs to our throne.” he turned to Luna. “Luna, our young daugher. You are Goddess of the Night. Princess of the Moon. Beholder of Dreams.”
Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but Rhapsody silently motioned to stay quiet.
“The two of you have been gifted with great power and divine rights to rule Equestria and keep it’s balance and harmony maintained for generation upon generation. You must use your powers to lead this land into peace and prosperity, and cultivate it’s ponies into a great civilisation.” Sonance looked to Rhapsody and nodded.
“Celestia, my love, since you are eldest, it is up to you to teach young Luna all she needs to know about magic and being a respectable princess.” She said this with a straight face, but on the inside she was screaming at herself. She didn’t want to leave her only daughters to fend themselves. Rhapsody knew it was going to devastate them, but she had to lead them on the right path before she left. This was required of alicorns, nay, it was their destiny. As much as it was tearing her apart, she had to do this.
“Mom... dad... why are you telling me this?” Celestia asked, inquisitively looking up.
Rhapsody ignored the question, continuing her speech. “As you rule, you must show kindness to any pony that you may meet, and treat them with the same respect you would treat us or your sister. When making decisions, you must think for the good of the land and of the ponies, not yourself. Celestia, my young princess, you must protect Equestria... and Luna... with every fiber of your being. Do you understand?”
“I... I think so...”
“Do you understand, Celestia?” Rhapsody asked again, sternly.
“Yes. I understand.”
“Also, Celestia, your mother and I must warn you of the dangers lurking outside of this forest. Should you ever leave, there are creatures and rulers that not even we know of. We merely raise the sun and moon. It is up to you two to carry on our legacy and protect Equestria.” Sonance gave Celestia a very concerned look. “Please, take care of yourself and Luna.”
“Dad... father... I understand what you’re saying, but why are yo-” Celestia began, but trailed off as she noticed what was happening to Sonance and Rhapsody’s hooves. A soft glow encased them, and bits and pieces of their essence appeared to break off and float away. They were extremely small fragments, and the drifted endlessly into the sky. Rhapsody’s bright particles circled Sonance’s dark ones, creating a dark and light spiral that shone and glimmered in the air.
“Wha... what’s happening to you?!” Celestia exclaimed, watching her parents slowly dissolve in front of her. They didn’t appear to be in pain, either, so the young princess was extremely confused.
“Celestia, darling... your father and I... we’re ascending.” Rhapsody said, her eyes beginning to tear up.
“What it means, daughter, is that we are moving on into the endless universe, to help shape and form it.”
“I... I don’t understand!” Celestia was begin to stutter, due to her quickly onsetting panic. Even Luna, who wasn’t sure what was going on, began to get nervous at the emotions surrounding her. “Are you... are you going to come back?!”
Rhapsody and Sonance both knelt down in front her, becoming eye level with their snowy pink daughter. Celestia’s fear and turmoil was written all over her face, and was only magnified in her slowly misting magenta eyes. The princess could also see her parents pain and sadness deep within them, and something inside her told her that this would be the last time they saw her. The following words had been enough to push the young princess over the edge.
“...We’re sorry, both of you.”
Celestia frantically looked between both of her parents, before completely breaking down into wracking sobs. The sight of their heartbroken daughter finally cracked Rhapsody and Sonance, who also began to tear up and cry.
“P-Please... don’t... don’t go!” Celestia cried, burying her face into Rhapsody’s chest.
“I’m sorry, Celestia, but we have to go. It’s our time.”
“No! It can’t be! I’m... I’m not even g-grown up yet!”
“Celestia, dear, you are old enough to survive without us. We’ve seen this in you.” Sonance said, softly stroking Celestia’s hair.
“I... I don’t want to! I want you and mom!”
Luna had caught on to the situation, and was now worriedly looking at her parents and Celestia. The small princess moved closer to Celestia, who was continuously crying into Rhapsody’s coat. Her and Sonance’s bottom halves were beginning to dissolve now, nearly up to their tails. The two didn’t have much time left, and they all knew this.
Celestia looked up, her two red, watery eyes locking with Sonance’s equally tearful ones. “I’m scared... I don’t want you to leave.”
“Do not fear, young Celestia. One day, we will meet again, among the stars.”
“That... That’s too long!” she cried, her sobbing reaching full force again.
“We don’t have much time, my love.” Rhapsody said, her sorrowful droplets falling silently to the earth. Luna began to cry as well, her sorrowful weeping mixing in with Celestia’s sobs.
“You can’t leave... you can’t!” the light alicorn said, now falling to the ground out of despair and hopelessness. The slowly rising sun made her tears shine and glimmer brilliantly, in harsh contrast to her mood.
“Celestia, Luna, we believe in both of you. We know you can rule this country.” Sonance said, somberly. Though barely visible on his dark coat and astral mane, his tears flowed as well. They dripped down his neck and fell off, with a lack of material to cling to.
Young Luna, through gasps and cries, said “Mommy... d-daddy... don’t go.”
“Both of you... we’re so sorry for this.” Rhapsody said, closing her eyes briefly. “It’s time for us to leave.”
“No... no...” Celestia said, attempting to crawl to her hooves.
Sonance looked to both the princesses “Do not grieve for us, my daughters. We will meet again.”
“No, no, no...” she wiped parts of her pink mane out of her wet face, looking sadly up to her parents. Their luminous shards towered high into the sky, creating a spiral pattern reaching for the cosmos.
“Farewell, young Celestia.” Rhapsody said, kissing her distraught daughter on the forehead, which was followed up by Sonance’s kiss.
“And farewell to you, too, little Luna.” Sonance added, delivering the same loving action to the moon princess. Rhapsody gave her own, one of her tears falling and gently hitting Luna’s small cheek.
“Don’t go... please don’t go...” Celestia said, almost silently. The princess had almost completely given up. The ascension was nearly finished, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Sonance and Rhapsody closed their eyes, and the last pieces of their bodies broke off and ascended into the heavens. As the last particle drifted off, the sun rose beyond the treeline, casting it’s rays over the ancient castle, nestled on a small cliff, deep in the heart of the Everfree Forest. This was where the two great alicorns, Rhapsody and Sonance, had helped nurture Equestria and it’s inhabitants for generations. This was where those two alicorns gave birth to princess Celestia and princess Luna, heirs to the throne and caretakers of the sun and moon. This was where those four alicorns had been a family, and lived together for hundreds of years.
And now, on the four thousandth year of their parents rule, this was where two young princesses laid in sorrow.
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Alexstrazsa
|
1145
| 5 |
Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
|
Legacy of the Sun
|
This is the story of Celestia, and her life before Twilight.
|
cancelled
| 14 | 3 |
<p>Everypony knows of Celestia, the benevolent ruler of Equestria and bringer of the sun. However, things weren't always so peaceful and easy going for the princess. This is the tale of Celestia, and her past. </p><p>This was a NaPoWriMo submission, and at 12:00AM October 1st, 23,498 words had been typed. I will continue working on it and updating it. Also, at this point, it's so non-canon it hurts.</p>
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everyone
|
2012-03-02T05:57:26+00:00
|
2012-03-02T05:57:26+00:00
| 1,345 |
Chapter 5: Guiding the Moon
The next few weeks were spent in silence, with only the occasional chirp of a bird or the light clopping of hooves through stone passageways. Only the necessary actions were performed: raise the sun, lower the moon, eat meals, lower the sun, raise the moon. Nothing else. No talking. No laughing. No playing. Only sorrow and sadness.
It wasn’t until Luna confronted Celestia that the two sisters finally spoke to each other. She found her pink haired sibling staring out of a window at the top of the tower, her gaze lost in the horizon. Her magenta eyes, red around the edges from countless crying fits, looked in no particular direction. Celestia seemed lost in thought - and disconnected from reality.
“Celly...” Luna softly spoke, approaching her sister.
Celestia said nothing, continuing her vacant stare.
“Celestia.”
“...what is it?” she replied, motionlessly. The sun princess stood as still as a statue, and were it not for her lazily waving mane, might have easily passed for one.
“Teach me how to control the moon.”
“Why?”
“So you don’t have to.”
“What difference does it make, Luna?”
“Celly, just ‘cause I’m young doesn’t mean I’m dumb. You hafta sleep sometime.” The dark blue alicorn’s eyebrows were furrowed, and her mouth was a very stern frown - which was so unlike her that it surprised Celestia.
“You aren’t strong enough yet.” the princess replied, finally turning her head and looking into her younger sister’s eyes..
“Then make me stronger!” Luna stomped her front hooves against the floor, her hard gaze fixed on the light alicorn’s magenta orbs..
Celestia closed her eyes, thinking clearly for the first time in days. Her sister’s determination and willingness to help had sparked something inside of the older alicorn. Seeing Luna like this had given Celestia a different outlook. She now had hope. As young as her sister was, Luna knew what she was talking about, and the lack of sleep was certainly taking it’s toll on the Celestia. Although her parents were gone, Equestria needed to be taken care of. It was Rhapsody and Sonance’s last wish, and Celestia wasn’t going to fail them.
“If you insist, Luna. We begin tomorrow.”
Luna let out a relieved sigh and walked to Celestia, lightly nuzzling her white neck. “Thank you, Celly.”
For the first time in three weeks, Celestia smiled.
- - -
The small, dark purple alicorn stirred lightly in her slumber, a stray hoof twitching ever so slightly. The world outside was still dark, so it was reasonable that Luna was happily sleeping in her half of the bed. She turned, subconsciously getting more comfortable, but this action proved to be in vain. She was awoken with a jolt as she felt a soft prodding in her back, which caused her to violently throw the sheets off of her. Luna heard a light giggle from behind her, and as her vision un-blurred and adjusted to the light, the shape of her sister’s light colored coat formed before her.
“Come on, wake up.” Celestia said, smiling.
Luna blinked several times and yawned, then noticed her surroundings. “Celly...” she started, in a tired, almost gravelly tone, “It’s not even light out.”
“I know! You can watch me raise the sun and lower the moon.”
“Do... do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to, Lu-lu.” the white alicorn said, gently poking Luna with her horn again.
“Just... just five more minutes...”
“The sun will be up by then. Get out of bed, silly.”
Luna turned away from Celestia and closed her eyes, in hope that her older sister might just leave her alone. This thought was quickly abolished as she felt the magical tug of magic on her body. Before she knew it, she had gone from the soft bed to the cold stone floor. The temperature difference was enough to make her leap to her hooves, doing anything she could to stop touching so much of the icy rock.
“That’s better.” Celestia said, leaning down to nuzzle her tired sister’s neck.
“Can I... at least get breakfast?” Luna asked, her teal eyes only half open.
“We can eat after we practice, okay?”
“But-”
Celestia put a hoof to Luna’s mouth, preventing any argument. “If you want to get stronger, this is how we have to do it, alright?” She took her hoof from the young alicorn’s mouth and slid it gently down her cheek. “This will be worth it. I promise.”
Luna sighed. “If you say so, Celly.”
The two of them quietly walked down the stairway, the light from several torches casting the alicorn’s shadows softly against the stone walls. The two of them followed the fire’s light to the entrance of the small castle. The grass and plants were overgrown wildly, as they hadn’t been trimmed or taken care of for weeks. Long vines of ivy trailed up the masonry in certain areas. As a whole, the castle was beginning to show it’s age and grow weary from the years of supporting itself. Often, one of the two alicorns would hear creaking, or the soft tapping of pebbles hitting stone - but they thought nothing of it.
The cool morning air washed over Luna’s face, sending a chill down her spine and a sense of refreshment. She was woken up slightly more now, and felt she was able to pay attention to whatever Celestia might have to say. This was convenient, as Celestia had chosen that moment to start talking.
“Tell me, Luna, how do I raise the sun and moon?”
Luna looked at Celestia in puzzlement. Was this a trick question? Surely her sister didn’t think she was that ignorant. “Um... magic?”
“That’s correct. Now, do you know what kind of magic?”
“...the moving kind?”
Celestia chuckled. “You’re right again. Being alicorns, our magic is greatly amplified. Simple lifting spells become powerful enough to raise something as large as the sun. We might even be able to move Equestria itself.”
Luna’s eyes grew wide. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”
“I said might be able to. Even we have our limits.” Celestia suddenly perked up, as if she had heard or felt something. “It looks like it’s that time of day. Watch me closely.”
Luna studied her sister, who closed her eyes and stood firmly. The light-rose colored alicorn pointed her horn to the east, and it began to glow. Soft at first, but rapidly rising in intensity. Celestia flared her wings out and flapped them lightly, pushing herself into the air. With visible strain, she lifted her head up, and as her horn lifted over where the horizon would be, the sun’s rays poured through the trees and scattered all across the alicorns’ surroundings. Celestia let herself drop to the ground and panted slightly, before gulping and regaining her composure. Her magenta eyes shifted to look at Luna, and the sun princess smirked.
“That, dear sister, is how you raise a celestial body.”
Luna halted her gawking and changed her view from the horizon to Celestia. “How long did it take you to learn that?”
“Many years, Lu-lu.” she brought a hoof to her brow and wiped the forming sweat drops from it. “And it’s still a difficult chore.”
“Will you teach me to do that?”
“In due time, sister. For now, we’re going to start a little smaller.”
“Like what?”
“For instance...” Celestia started, her horn lighting up. A nearby rock levitated off the ground and moved in front of Celestia. With a sudden flash, it transformed from a dull, grey rock into a beautiful, bright yellow sunflower. “Transforming one thing into another.” She planted the flower where the rock had been, and her horn ceased it’s glow.
“Ooh... pretty.” Luna said, still eyeing the new flower. “But... shouldn’t it change back?” She looked up to Celestia, one of her eyebrows arched in confusion.
“If I were a regular unicorn, yes, it would. However-”
“Because we’re alicorns, our magic is good enough to keep it the same?” Luna finished.
“Exactly! Now you’re learning.”
“If we’re practicing magic, shouldn’t we start with the basics?”
“Oh Luna, what do you think I’ve been trying to teach you?”
Luna thought for a moment. “Well, you raised the sun... and you made a rock turn into a flower.”
“Yes. What does that show you?”
“That... uh... alicorns are strong?”
“Very good. Knowing that, why do you think I’m going to teach you advanced magic?” Celestia was almost teetering on her front hooves in anticipation.
“Because... um...” Luna scratched her head. “Is it... because I’m an alicorn... and basic magic will be too easy?” Her brow was furrowed in concentration, piecing together what Celestia was telling her. She was so lost in thought that it completely took her by surprise when Celestia nearly knocked her over with a forceful hug.
“That’s right!” the white alicorn exclaimed, a smile on her face as she took hold of her younger sister. “See that? You learn quickly.”
Luna couldn’t help but giggle. “Okay, okay, Celly. I’m an alicorn so my magic is strong. Now what?”
Celestia broke her grip on the young lunar princess and looked around at her surroundings. In the distance, past a group of trees, she noticed a large boulder dug into the ground. “Right now, we’re going to work on moving large things.” Her horn lit up.
“Like what?” Luna asked.
“You’ll see in a moment...”
“What? A piece of the castle? A big tree? An entire buil... ding...” she trailed off, as a large shadow covered her. Luna felt something softly hit the top of her head, causing her to look up. It was then that she noticed the massive chunk of stone floating inches above her, bits of dirt and grass still clinging to it’s underside - which clearly hadn’t seen daylight for years.
“You’ll be using this.” Celestia said, moving the boulder from above Luna and letting it fall. It hit the earth with a loud thud, which shook the ground below the two alicorns. “Now, take a good look at it.”
“...Why?” Luna asked, looking over the giant rock.
“Sometimes, it’s better to not question. Just take a good look at it. Remember what it looks like. Memorize every crack, bump and feature of this boulder.”
“Okay...” she walked around the boulder, scrutinizing it’s every detail. Luna paled in comparison to this boulder, which was nearly as tall as one of the hallways in the castle, and perhaps as wide too. When she had finally circled it several times, she nodded to Celestia.
“Done? If you insist.” Her horn flared, and the massive rock was quickly hurtling through the air as if it were merely a pebble. She watched it fly well over the treeline, and several seconds later, heard a faint crash as it landed somewhere in the depths of the Everfree Forest. Birds rose in the air and a tree or two could be heard hitting the ground as their trunks had been decimated by the chunk of earth. “Now, bring it back.”
Luna looked into the forest, then back at Celestia, then back to the forest, then finally back to Celestia. Her mouth opened as if she wanted to speak, but no words came out. Celestia merely smiled as the small princess struggled to say something and instead answered her unvoiced question.
“Yes, you have to use your magic.”
Luna weakly pointed a hoof in the direction of the boulder went.
“Yes, it’s somewhere over there.”
The dark alicorn started to walk in the direction of the forest.
“Ah, no, you have to stay here and move it.”
Luna looked in the direction of the rock once more and let out a weak sigh, before closing her eyes and trying to remember every little thing about the boulder. In her mind’s eye, she pictured it’s huge shape, looming over. She imagined it’s crevices, and the mix of smooth and hard areas. Then, she pictured lifting it up.
Celestia lightly bit her lip in anticipation as she watched her sister focusing. In the distance, she tried to look for any sign of the rock - any little bit that might be poking over the horizon. Slowly, but surely, she saw a small tip of it emerging from the treeline, like an ant poking it’s head out of an anthill. It was very var off in the distance, but definitely rising. “Come on, sister... just bring it back.” she thought, looking at the large boulder.
“Move... you... dumb... rock...” Luna said, through grit teeth. Her struggle was evident in the perspiration forming at her brow, and lightly across the rest of her body. The boulder moved slowly through the sky, dipping once or twice as Luna faltered with the spell - and subsequently breaking a few treetops - but it was approaching them steadily. Finally, after what felt like at least ten minutes, the rock was overhead. It lowered carefully, but Luna was slipping with her concentration. She grunted, digging her hooves into the ground, but with no avail. Several feet off the ground, the rock plummeted and crashed to the dirt below it, shooting loose rocks and grass every which way. At the same, time, Luna also plummeted - face first into the ground.
Celestia’s mouth was curled into a wide grin as the rock landed, but her whole expression turned to concern as she noticed Luna weakly fall. She galloped over to her young sister and lightly nuzzled her head. “Luna, are you alright?”
“Y-yeah... Celly. I’m fine.” She smiled, shifting her eyes to look at Celestia. “Did I do a good job?”
Celestia let out a lighthearted laugh. “You did an excellent job. You’ll be moving the moon in no time.”
“That’s good.” Luna replied, moving one of her hooves to try and push herself up.
“Oh, let me help you.” Celestia said, reaching a hoof out. Luna grabbed it, and was pulled to her hooves.
“Thanks, Celly.”
“Anytime, Lu-lu.” The white princess looked over to the boulder and thought for a moment. She turned her head to Luna and looked at the small princesses wings, which sprouted an idea. “Say, Luna, why don’t we practice flying?”
Luna rubbed her horn lightly, before saying, “Okay. My magic needs a rest.”
“Excellent.” Celestia flared her wings and lightly flapped them, allowing the feathers to catch the soft breeze and flutter slightly. “The first thing you need to do... is extend your wings.”
“Oh, right...” Luna said, looking sheepishly to the ground. She extended her small wings as far as they could go.
“Now, try to perform a basic hover.” She flapped her wings and floated several inches off the ground as she spoke.
The younger princess beat her wings slowly. Finding this didn’t give her nearly enough lift, she flapped them faster. This pushed her into the air slightly, and she looked up to Celestia and smiled. This smile turned to a look of surprise, however, as she dipped off balance and fell to the ground. Celestia brought a hoof to her mouth to stifle a laugh.
“You need to learn to control your movement. Try again.”
Luna once again got herself in the air, and though she wobbled occasionally, she managed to stay suspended. “I think I got it!”
“Wonderful. Now, let’s work on controlling your altitude.”
The flying lessons continued until was very high overhead, signaling that it was about noon. Luna had managed to understand basic flight, so she could hover, glide and change her height accordingly. The one thing she was having trouble with by lunchtime was her speed. More than once, the small princess had spun out and landed painfully in either the ground or part of the castle. By the end of the training session, both of them were exhausted and wanted nothing more than to rest and have something to eat.
As the sky grew orange and the sun began to dip into the western side of the world, Luna stood at the top of the main tower, peacefully watching the sunset. Behind her, Celestia was busy lowering the fiery orb. When she finished, and the last light of the sun faded, she approached Luna.
“Sister, would you like to try and raise the moon?”
Luna’s eyes widened as she snapped back to reality and turned her head to Celestia. “Oh. Um, really?”
“Of course. Just imagine the moon is that big boulder from earlier.” Celestia gave a smile of encouragement.
“I’ll... try.” the moon princess replied, nervously. She walked to the eastern window and pointed her horn down at where the moon would sit, just below the horizon. A bright light encompassed her horn and she closed her eyes, picturing the grey moon. As her sister did many years before, she struggled with the heavenly body. And just as Celestia did, young Luna collapsed out of effort, still not strong enough to control her namesake. Luna shook her head as she got up. “Sorry, Celly...” The dark blue filly looked at the ground, shamefully.
“Oh, it’s okay, Lul-lu.” Celestia said, wrapping a wing around Luna. Her horn lit up and she shut her eyes, tensing her muscles. Moments later, the moon poked itself out from the horizon and began it’s journey. “One day, you’ll be able to.”
“Thanks, Celly.” she rubbed her head against Celestia’s neck.
“Of course.”
The two of them stayed that way for many moments, staring out the window and watching the moon slowly rise.
- - -
The following morning began in a similar way, with Celestia needing to use a bit of magical encouragement to get young Luna out of bed. When the moon princess finally came to, both of them made their downstairs and outside of the castle to continue Luna’s training.
“So, what are we doing today?” Luna asked, walking alongside her sister.
“Today, we’re going to venture farther into the forest.” Celestia replied, looking to Luna.
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“There are plenty of things out there to practice transfiguration on, among other magic.”
“If you say so, Celly.”
They walked across the wooden drawbridge, which was still fairly intact. It rarely had much use, resulting in only a crack here or there in an aging piece of wood. The rope had also been magically enhanced long ago by Rhapsody, after she insisted that it needed to be as safe as possible to cross. It had proven it’s usefulness to Celestia and Luna, who were now safely across and making their way into Everfree Forest.
Celestia led Luna through the dense forest, moving through the thick trees and overgrown bushes. She had remembered it looking far nicer in the past, and it seemed to only grow worse as they moved deeper in. It was apparent enough to gain Celestia’s interest.
“Luna, have you noticed how dense the trees have gotten?”
“I have, Celly... they also look... weird.”
“Weird?” Celestia looked around, taking in the surroundings. Now that she paid attention, the plant life was beginning to look rather strange. It appeared warped, and very out of the ordinary. The more she observed, the more inquisitive she became.
“We should find out what’s going on...” the white alicorn said, eyeing the atmosphere suspiciously. It was at that moment that they entered a small clearing, with a large cave at the opposite end. It was perched in the side of a mountain, and was menacingly dark. The cave seemed to devour all the surrounding light, and it formed the kind of darkness that shot chills down Celestia’s back. Outside of the cave, strange and unfamiliar plants grew. They were twisted and sickly looking, as if their life was being sapped and drained away. The plagued flora extended into the darkness of the cave, creating a frightful invitation to the den..
Everything about this cave brought fear into the pit of Luna’s stomach. “Celly... we... I think we should leave.” She took a step back, ready to run at a moment’s notice.
“Something is here, Luna... and I’m going to figure out what.” Celestia said, walking towards the cave.
Luna couldn’t help but follow her sister. It was either stay outside by herself or let Celestia go in alone, and as scared as she was, she wasn’t able to leave her sister’s side.
“It will be okay, Luna. We’ll simply go in, look around, then leave. Okay?”
Luna stared at the ground for a moment before looking up to Celestia. “...fine.”
“Stay close to me, then.”
The two of them practically hugged as they stepped into the cave. Just as it looked, it was pitch black inside, forcing Celestia to light up her horn for vision. Around them, gloomy and lifeless plants clung to the walls, floors and ceiling, all of them chaotic and twisted. They grew in every which way, with no pattern or reason. Traveling deeper into the cave, the plant-life only seemed to grow wearier and wearier. They had to be getting close.
“Luna, here’s your first test. Light up your horn so we can see clearer.”
“Alright.” Luna replied, causing her horn to glow. Moments later, both of the alicorn sisters gasped.
In front of them, at the very back of the cave and clinging to wall was a shiny, black entity. It’s flesh looked like oil, and it seemed to flow like liquid, though it retained it’s round, viscous form. Many long tendrils spread from the initial mass, spreading along the surfaces of the cave like thin veins. They moved slightly, feeling the area around them and leaving a tar-like secretion on whatever they touched. It was a truly grotesque sight, and neither Celestia nor Luna knew immediately what to make of it.
“Wha... what is that thing?” Luna finally asked, eyes darting from tendril to tendril.
“I’m... not sure.”
“Do you think... this is the cause of the strange plants?”
“It might be... but we don’t know for certain.”
“What should we do?” Luna asked, casting her teal eyes towards Celestia.
“Perhaps... we should leave it be. That might be for the best.”
“Maybe there’s more to it...” Luna said, taking a step forward. This proved to be one step too many, as one of the tendrils violently lashed out and grabbed the unsuspecting princesses leg. It pulled, forcefully bringing Luna to the ground.
“Celestia!” she cried out, small voice cracking with fear. Luna scraped her tiny hooves against the ground, in a vain effort to escape the creatures grasp.
“Oh no, Luna!” Celestia’s eyes widened in fear as she watched her sister get pulled away. The sun princess panicked, looking around and frantically trying to piece together a way to rescue her sister. She tried to use her magic to take hold of Luna, but she couldn’t concentrate. Her mind was racing as she watched her only sister being pulled towards the sickly black mass on the wall. As she neared the verge of tears, a soft voice went through her head.
“Protect Equestria... and Luna... with every fiber of your being.”
Remembering her mother’s last wishes, something triggered within Celestia’s mind. She suddenly gained total clarity, and a warm feeling began to envelope her body. Before she knew it, a raging heat filled her, and she watched a white hot tongue of flame shoot from her horn and strike the opposing blackened tendril carrying Luna away. A terrible screech erupted out of the black mass as the tendril was singed cleanly in two, and the piece still attached to the entity recoiled in pain. Frantically, Luna galloped away as fast she could, skidding past Celestia and tumbling to the ground. The black tentacle was still attached to her, and she watched it dissipate. Accompanying this was the odd sensation that something was being pushed through her skin and inside of her. The young princess thought nothing of this, however, and was merely glad that she had escaped.
“Quickly, we need to leave!” Celestia said, pulling Luna up. The two of them bolted to the mouth of the cave, even using their wings to give them an extra boost of speed. They kept running long after they had left the poisoned grotto, finally stopping and breathing heavily when they caught sight of the bridge leading to their castle.Both princesses collapsed to the ground, legs and wings aching from the exertion put forth.
“Celestia, what happened?” Luna asked, between breaths.
“I... I don’t know. It was evil, whatever it was.”
“No, not that. I mean... what you did in there.”
Celestia realized her sister was questioning the fire she had commanded. “...I can’t say for sure. I just... had an overwhelming feeling inside me. It just... took over.”
“Well... thank you.” Luna said, nuzzling Celestia’s neck. Celestia returned the gesture, closing her eyes out of exhaustion.
“You do not need to thank me, sister. I care about you.”
“Then... thank you for caring about me.”
Celestia couldn’t help but smile. “You’re welcome, Lu-lu. Now... I think we’ve both deserved a good breakfast.”
The two sisters helped each other up, then headed into the castle. Before going inside, Celestia paused, then turned back to the forest. As much as it pained her to admit, her home was quickly growing unsafe. Someday soon, they would have to leave this place.
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Alexstrazsa
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1145
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Original Character,Princess Celestia,Princess Luna,Twilight Sparkle,Adventure,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
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Legacy of the Sun
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This is the story of Celestia, and her life before Twilight.
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cancelled
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<p>Everypony knows of Celestia, the benevolent ruler of Equestria and bringer of the sun. However, things weren't always so peaceful and easy going for the princess. This is the tale of Celestia, and her past. </p><p>This was a NaPoWriMo submission, and at 12:00AM October 1st, 23,498 words had been typed. I will continue working on it and updating it. Also, at this point, it's so non-canon it hurts.</p>
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everyone
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2012-03-02T05:57:32+00:00
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2012-03-02T05:57:32+00:00
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Chapter 6: Discord
Age: 700
‘Someday soon,’ for an alicorn, ended up being one hundred years. It was at this time that the corruption spreading from that dark cave had reached the castle of the two sisters. In the past, they had both heard the terrible screeches and roars from various beasts within the forest, which had clearly seen the evil taint, and were now vicious and bloodthirsty creatures. Now, however, the first creeping, putrid looking vines moved past the treeline and encroached upon the land around the castle.
“Celestia...” Luna started, not knowing how to continue.
“I know, sister... I know...” the older alicorn replied, her mouth creased in a frown. She looked upon the forest with sadness, wondering how something so terrible could have happened to the forest she had known for hundreds if years. “It feels like it was merely a week ago when... father and I were exploring these woods...”
She wasn’t able to think much past that when the distinct roar of a hydra pierced her thoughts.
“Celly!” Luna cried, spreading her wings and backing up in fear. Out from the forest, a hydra stormed through, tearing down trees and ripping up dirt with its claws. Its four heads looked every which way, searching for their next meal. Their eyes then locked onto the two alicorns, and its heads collectively licked their lips. With a primal bellow, the hydra surged towards them, preemptively snapping it’s jaws in the event something was caught in them.
“Luna, follow my lead!” the sun princess yelled, dashing to the right. Two the the hydras heads went towards her. Luna ran the opposite direction, and the other two heads went for her instead. The opposite pulling caused all four heads to snap back and hit each other with audible thumps, temporarily dazing the hydra. After it had shaken its heads and recovered, it decided to chase after the larger alicorn.
“Perfect.” Celestia thought, looking behind her. She then spread her wings and took to the sky, flying in a zig-zag pattern to throw off the hydra, which was catching up to her. With a heavy flap of her wings, she shot forward and spun around. As she faced the hydra, her horn lit up and she shot a blast of magic at the creature, hitting one of its necks. Celestia continued through with the spin, facing forward again and steadying herself, grinning slightly as she heard the hydra whimper.
When Luna noticed the hydra stop following her, she quickly dug her hooves into the ground to slow down, sliding across the grass slightly. Wasting no time, she flared her wings and flew off in pursuit of the hydra. She noticed Celestia fire off the round of magic, and decided to follow her sister’s lead in the attack. Her horn lit up as well and several beams of blue light shot from her horn and exploded against the hydras scales. The monster fell down from the blast but just as quickly got up, angrily roaring. The sound was almost deafening as Luna shot past him and caught up with Celestia.
“What now, Celly?” she asked, looking up to the white alicorn.
Celestia turned her head to Luna and brought a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment. Her eyes suddenly widened, then her brows creased in aggression and her mouth curled into a smile. “Now, we confuse him. Fly opposite of me!”
Luna nodded, then the two took off, side by side, rapidly approaching the hydra. They each went to the creatures sides, flying clockwise and counterclockwise around him quickly. In a vain effort to grab his meal, the hydras heads snapped out and clapped shut, but only found air. The heads tried to follow the alicorns as they flew, quickly beginning to twist their necks around each other.
“Keep going!” Celestia yelled, eyes squinted and tearing as she became nauseous due to the g-forces, wind and continuous spinning from her rapid flight.
Finally, all four heads were tied up and bound like a rope, and the hydra quickly lost it’s balance and fell to the ground with a thud. It whined in pain as it tried to untangle itself, quickly scraping itself to its feet. The hydra made no continue the fight as it hurried into the forest, heads still wrapped up and knotted together. After it had disappeared behind the dense trees, Celestia and Luna both sighed, breathing heavily.
“When did you learn offensive magic like that?” Celestia asked, looking at Luna with a relieved smile.
“I’ve been doing some reading.” she happily admitted.
“Well, you’ll have to show me sometime. What you did was...” the alabaster princess stopped mid-sentence, ears perking up. She heard a faint tapping, coming from in front of the castle. Looking in the direction of the rope bridge, she saw other ponies! Right before her eyes, there were pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies alike, all stomping their fore-hooves on the ground and cheering. They whistled, hollered and yelled in delight before the two princesses, who were positively dumbstruck at the sight.
“Celly... what should we do?” Luna asked, leaning closer to her sister. She nervously looked from pony to pony.
“We should...” she looked over them, with their smiling faces and yells of joy. “Go and greet them.” Celestia finished, looking down to Luna with a warm smile of her own.
The moon princess gulped and nodded nervously before spreading her wings. Celestia did the same, and the two princesses lightly flew to the small crowd on the other side of the bridge.
As they touched the ground, Celestia noticed how much taller she was than the other ponies. She also noticed their gaping mouths as they looked over both her and Luna. Quiet mumbling was heard between them, speaking things like ‘horn and wings’ and ‘so tall.’
“Who... who are you?” a random pony in the crowd asked.
“I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Princess Luna.” Celestia calmly answered.
“Hello...” Luna quietly added, attempting to hide herself behind one of Celestia’s wings.
It was silent for a long while, as both the princesses and the small group of ponies looked at each other in curiosity and awe. Celestia and Luna had never seen other ponies before, and the group had never seen a pony with both a horn and wings, let alone two of them. After minutes of this silent stalemate, with only the quiet sound of wind and the occasional distant animal sound in the forest, one pony moved in front of the group and broke the stillness in the air.
She was an earth pony with a light pink coat, paired with straight red mane that formed a widows peak on her forehead and extended to the back of her neck. Her tail was equally as straight, and she wore a simple saddle with bags attached to it. She had a very serious face on, and appeared to be the leader of the group. “Greetings, Celestia and Luna. My name is Crimson Heart, and I am the founder of... what used to be Ponyville.”
“Ponyville?” Celestia inquired, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes. It is... was... a settlement we had formed, just outside the border of this forest.” Crimson Heart looked the ground with sadness in her eyes as she said this.
“Why do you refer to it in the past tense?”
The pink pony sighed. “It’s because of... Discord.” The other ponies behind her gasped, afraid of merely the mention of whoever Discord was.
“And just who is Discord?” Celestia laid down on the ground now, becoming eye level with Crimson Heart. The alicorn had a slight frown, and she looked to the red maned pony with concern.
“Discord... is a terrifying being who can do anything at will.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly that, Celestia. He can do... anything. He can make it rain from ground to sky, or turn creatures into... pastries.”
Celestia blinked. “I am terribly sorry, but I do not have the slightest clue what you mean.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. This is the only area of Equestria he hasn’t touched with his mischievous antics. It seems so... peaceful here.”
“I would not be entirely sure of that...” Celestia replied, looking to the area of the trees where the hydra from earlier had reduced to broken trunks and gnarled branches.
“Regardless, this is the last safe haven we have. The rest of the world is... too chaotic.”
The princess stood, mane and tail flowing lightly in the breeze. Her eyes narrowed as she looked past the treeline, where the rest of Equestria was hidden. “Myself and Luna will see what we can do.”
Crimson Heart’s eyes grew wide. “Are you... are you really going to do that for us?”
“Of course we will. Long ago, we made a promise to protect Equestria. If that vow means leaving this forest and confronting Discord, then so be it.”
The founder of Ponyville dropped to her front knees in a deep bow. “Thank you... thank you so much. Everything we had was in that town.”
“Yeah, thanks!” a member of the crowd shouted. Others followed suite, and soon the whole crowd had erupted into applause and cheers once again.
“Your kindness and generosity are untold of, Celestia.” Crimson Heart said. As Celestia looked into her eyes, she could see tears brimming on the edges of the pink ponies eyes.
“It is my duty as princess of Equestria to protect it. I vow to remain loyal to my promise to keep this land safe.”
Another cheer came from the small crowd, who were simply elated.
“Come, Luna.” Celestia said, looking to her younger sister. “It’s time to leave the forest.”
- - -
For the first time in their very long lives, Celestia and Luna stepped outside the boundaries of the Everfree Forest. They were surprised by the dirt path that had been formed in the forest, from all of the ponies traveling throughout. In all the years this road
The refugees of Ponyville followed the two princesses closely, anticipating how they would react to the outside world, and how they would rid Equestria of Discord. They silently pondered, watching the two alicorns as they stepped outside of the forests veil.
There was a deathly silence as both princesses looked out upon the world before them. They stood and stared, eyes scanning the landscape and its surroundings.
“Is... it... supposed to be like this?” Luna quietly asked, eyes shifting from one sight to another
“I... do not think so.” Celestia replied.
They were speechless after that, not sure how to even begin to comprehend the world they were looking at. In the distance, a group of small buildings could be seen - presumably Ponyville. However, above the town were clouds of various neon hues, raining what looked like brown water. Where grass would normally be, vibrant and strange patterns crisscrossed and weaved, making the ground look like a terribly tacky quilt. Random trees fell over in the wind, revealing thin sheets instead of thick trunks.
The animals in this world were of a completely different nature as well. Birds flew upside down and backwards, snakes coiled like springs and bounced around, and chickens grew hideously tall legs and lost their wings. To put it in one word: chaos.
“This is... very different.” the sun princess said, head cocked slightly to the side.
“It used to be so beautiful.” Crimson Heart said, stepping forward.
Just then, the sky around them grew dark, and a haunting laugh echoed through the forest. “Honestly, Crimson Heart, you’re much too attached to your old way of life.” The voice was smooth and laced with sarcasm, and at the same time, sinister and cunning.
The town’s founder looked into the tree tops, eyes moving from branch to branch, scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Behind her, the ponies cowered together in fear, frantically searching the area.
“Who is that?” Luna asked, also looking skywards.
“It’s him.” Crimson answered. As she finished, a crack of lightning shot from the clouds and struck mere feet away from Celestia, who remained still. Oddly, copious amounts of smoke and confetti shot out from the impact area. When the white hot bolt of electricity struck, the split second it sparked formed a large creature, leisurely sitting upon a dark throne. In his gryphon claw, he lazily rolled a glass between his fingers, which was filled with a brown liquid. With a sly grin, he brought it to his bearded face and took a sip, the glass gently tapping against his snaggletooth.
“Wasn’t that fantastic?” a voice said, between Celestia and Luna. To their shock, they looked to where it had originated, to find a second copy of the creature standing besides them, resting his arms around both of them casually. In a flash, the one sitting upon the throne, and the throne itself, disappeared. “Well, who do we have here?” With a snap of his fingers, he now floated in front of the princess.
“Discord.” Celestia spoke, eyes narrowed. She stared daggers into the beast in front of her, yet he seemed unaffected.
“Oh, so you’ve heard of me? How wonderful!” With another flash, he appeared in front of Luna. “And who is this? You are simply precious.” Discord took his lion’s paw and pinched Luna on the cheek, to the young princesses horror.
“Enough with the games, demon.” Celestia harshly spoke, eyes shifting to Discord.
He let out a vile laugh before appearing in front of Celestia gain. “Demon? I’m afraid not, my dear. You see, I am a draconequus.”
“A what?” Even the princess, in all her years of life, could only raise an eyebrow in confusion at what he had described.
“Oh, you know, draconequus. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. It’s quite simple, really!” He fluttered his bat wing and pegasus wing as if to prove his point. “However, enough about me... I want to know all about you...” Discord smiled, and dragged one of his fingers down Celestia’s cheek to the edge of her mouth.
The alicorn furrowed her brows and bared her teeth slightly. “Do not touch me.” She hissed.
“What’s the matter... Celestia?”
“How do you know my name?”
He chuckled, reappearing next to Celestia. Nonchalantly, he crossed his legs and rested an elbow on Celestia’s back, looking down to her. She returned an angry scowl.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Celestia. Lighten up a little!” he disappeared momentarily and popped up next to Luna, hovering upside down. “I bet you know how have a good time.”
“Do not talk to my sister so casually, Discord.” Celestia harshly said.
“Are you always this uptight, my little sun princess?”
Celestia closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to remain calm. Opening them, she looked to Discord, who was floating in the air, arms behind his head as he pretended to lay down. “How do you know who I am... and what I can do?”
“Well that’s easy, Celestia. You’re practically an open book!” In his hand, a leather bound tome appeared, with the title ‘Princess Celestia.’ Discord pulled a pair of reading glasses from seemingly nowhere and put them on before clearing his throat and flipping through the pages. “Now, let’s see... ah, yes. Celestia, daughter of Rhapsody and Sonance, regent of the sun, seven hundred years old, blah blah.” He then smiled, snapping the book closed and making it, and the glasses, disappear in smoke filled bursts.
“What? That... that is impossible...” Celestia’s eyes went wide as he listed off facts that only she and Luna would know. Just what was she dealing with?
“Nothing is impossible with chaos, my pink haired beauty.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. “What do you want, Discord?” Celestia nearly yelled, to the surprise of everypony around - and even to the draconequus itself.
“My, my, my. So demanding, Celestia. If you insist on being so dull, I simply care here to ask what you thought of Equestria!”
“Do you truly desire my answer to that?”
“Well of course.” He hovered in front of the irritated princess, and lightly tapped a finger to her nose. “I always want to keep the opinion of my favorite alicorn in mind.”
The princess moved her head away from Discord’s obtrusive finger before speaking. “It disgusts me. I would like Equestria to return to normal.”
Discord frowned, holding his chin in his hand. “I’m hurt, Celestia. I thought you would like my improvements.”
“Undo your madness, Discord.”
Discord stifled a laugh. “Oh? And what will happen if I don’t, little sun spot?” He snapped his fingers and a fresh glass of the brown liquid appeared in his hand.
“...then we’ll make you.” The voice came from Luna, whom all eyes turned to. She was frowning and looked dreadfully frightened, but she stood her ground.
Discord nearly spit out his drink, which was turning purple as he consumed it. “You two? Stopping me? The spirit of chaos and disharmony?”
“We will do everything within our power.”
“Your power? You mean this?” Discord snapped his fingers, and to everyponies shock and horror, the sun rapidly dipped below the horizon and the moon took it’s place.
Celestia’s face turned from anger to horror in an instant. Her magenta eyes widened, her pupils shrinking to pin sized. Her mouth stood agape as she witnessed the feat before her - at something she thought was only possible for her to accomplish. In a mere moment, her power had been dwarfed right in front of her. She glanced over to Luna, who wore the same terrified expression. Neither of the princesses could move a muscle, or even think straight for that matter. They were too busy focusing on the god like creature before them.
Discord laughed. It wasn’t a lighthearted laugh, or a good-natured laugh, but a dark, sinister, truly evil cackle. It echoed throughout the woods, ringing through the ears of the princesses and the towns ponies. “If moving the sun and moon is the peak of your power, how can you possibly hope to defeat me?” He snapped his fingers, and a large cloud hovered over the surrounding area. After several moments, small, fluffy pieces of fabric began to fall from the sky. “I mean really, Celestia, I can do mostly anything I want! Raise the sun, paint the ground... make it rain socks.”
A particularly hard rain fell upon Luna, who had quickly become completely covered in the garments. She poked her head out of pile, shaking it slightly to get here bearings back.
“And then, I can manipulate mostly anything! For example...” He waved his hand in a circular motion, and the pile of socks around Luna began to twist and twirl around her as a hurricane. The fuzzy pieces encompassed her, catching her off guard and hiding her from sight.
“Luna, no!” Celestia yelled, jumping to the sock tornado. She threw a hoof into the spinning frenzy, but to no avail.
“Oh, please. There’s no need to be so dramatic.” Discord abruptly stopped spinning his hand, causing the socks to fall and spread in every which way. In the bottom of the reformed pile, Luna stumbled out, in a daze.
“Wha... what happened?” she asked, to nopony in particular, before collapsing. She exhaustedly looked down at her hooves, which were all adorned with a sock. “Why... why am I wearing these? I don’t understand...”
Discord couldn’t help but burst out into raucous laughter at the wobbly princess. He wiped some tears from his eyes as he watched her attempt to get up, only to fall flat moments later.
“Leave my sister be, Discord!” Celestia shouted, teeth grit and brows sharply furrowed.
“My, Celestia. It seems the combination of my beautiful composition and the dreadful sun has gotten you all hot and bothered. How about you take some time to cool down?” He snapped his fingers.
“Quiet, Discord! Just return everything to-” she didn’t get to finish as a large volume of very cold water drenched her from head to hoof. Her mane now stood limply at her sides, dragging along the ground. Silence encased the area for moment, save for the dripping of water from Celestia’s body, before Discord fell to the ground, clutching his sides. He laughed and laughed, playing the two princesses for fools.
“Oh! Oh!” he cried, attempting to speak through his giggling fits. “That was... that was too good!” Using his arm for support, he slowly pushed himself up, chortling the whole way. Finally, he had regained his composure and stood, letting one last laugh slip through before he brought a hand to his mouth and coughed.
“Now, where were we. Ah, yes, you were soaking wet. Allow me.” With the wave of his hand, a hot, forceful wind blew past Celestia for several moments. When it finally stopped, her hair was dry, but now incredibly disheveled and curly. The strands weakly tried to sway as they stood knotted up and curled.
“Oh, it’s simply perfect.” Discord appeared next to Celestia, and practically whispered into her ear, “Perfectly chaotic!”
All he received from Celestia was what sounded like a primal growl, but he shrugged it off and teleported in front of her. Just then, he looked down to his wrist, where a paper timepiece now lay. “Good heavens, just look at the time!’ he exclaimed. Next to him, from seemingly nowhere, a string fell down, dangling lightly. He pulled it, causing the sun to drop down and the moon to replace it, accompanied with a clicking noise.
“This is enough!” Celestia thought, the anger building inside her reaching it’s breaking point. She had been extremely patient up until now, but this was the final straw. She was not going to let this monstrosity undermine her and her sister before their very eyes. “Discord...” she said, eyes closed. “I have had enough of you!”
As Celestia said this, she opened her eyes, and the iris’s pulsated with a bright glow. Her horn lit up, and the sun and moon forcefully switched places, and faster than anypony had ever witnessed before.
“What do we have here?” Discord asked, gently stroking his beard. “It seems there’s more to you than I thought, Celestia.” He lifted his arm, which glowed yellow. “If it’s a power struggle you want, then it’s a power struggle you will have!”
Instead of the sun moving, it was the moon that rose, and it moved directly in front of the sun. The darkened light cast a haunting glow over Equestria, as both princess of the sun and spirit of disharmony struggled with the Celestial bodies. Through both their efforts though, neither of the bodies moved from their eclipsing spots.
“It would appear we’re at a stalemate.” Celestia calmly said, glowing, half open eyes staring right into Discord’s garnet red ones.
“So it would.” Discord responded, crossing his arms. “I suppose there is only one way to settle this.”
Celestia slightly lifted an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
Discord suddenly disappeared, and his voice echoed around Celestia and the other ponies. “We’ll just have to duke it out!”
Out of nowhere, a crackling ball of energy shot at Celestia, who spotted it and narrowly dodged it in time. The impact shot some dirt at the sun princess, whose eyes were rapidly scanning her surroundings. Her horn lit up, ready to strike at any moment. Another ball of energy, which she deftly evaded as well.
“You cannot hide forever, Discord!” she yelled, into the sky.
“Celly!” Luna yelled. Celestia spun around and found Discord next to her sister. She immediately shot off a burst of magic, but the draconequus snapped his fingers and the sizzling energy transformed into limp noodles, which fell comically to the floor.
“Pasta, my dear? How cliché. You need a little more pizazz!” He shot off his own burst of magic, in the shape of a sharp disc. Celestia barely dropped to her knees in time, as it skimmed over here mane and lodged into a tree behind her, before dissipating.
“Luna, use your magic like we practiced!” Celestia said, spreading here wings and taking flight.
“O... Okay!” Luna replied, before also spreading her wings and lifting off the ground.
The two princesses dodged Discord’s assaults and launched their own, only to have them transformed into some sort of comedic item. A magic blast exploded into balloons next to him, while a beam of light looped into text that read ‘Celestia can’t fight.’ Meanwhile, a princess tucked her wings in and dropped as a ball of flame passed her, as the other took shot into the air, escaping the path of an extra sharp candy cane.
To Crimson Heart and the other members of Ponyville, the fight was surreal. Each and every one of them had a difficult time believing the things they were seeing. Some simply turned their backs and refused to watch, knowing they wouldn’t be able to take it if the outcome was poor. The town founder rigidly stood though, watching the princesses and hoping with every fiber of her being that they won against impossible odds.
“Luna, use the technique we used against the hyrdra!” Celestia shouted as she passed Luna mid flight. The moon princess nodded, flying next to her sister - and right towards Discord. The spirit of chaos smiled as he watched his opponents fly right into their doom, or so he thought. They broke apart before they reached him, going opposite directions.
“Please. Do you honestly think that will work?” he asked. In his hands, two lassos materialized, which he spun around as deftly as the best cowpony in Equestria. With a quick motion, he sent the lassos out much farther than should have been possible, snagging both princesses. Then, with a hard tug, he brought them both back to him, and they crashed together with a hard thud.
“Are you two done with your little games? I would like to go back to ruling Equestria.”
Celestia painfully got to her hooves, breathing heavily. “We will never... give up... to something... like you.” She panted.
Discord sighed. “You’re finished, ladies. Now, how would you prefer to be done away with? Launched clear off the planet? Encased in an underground labyrinth? Locked in an inter-dimensional prison? The choices are nearly endless!”
“Not yet... we can still fight!” Celestia thought, closing her eyes. Her mind raced. Her heart beat quickly. Most importantly, raw magic flowed through her. She thought to all the ponies who had been suffering in Equestria. From the town founders like Crimson Heart down to the simplest pony, they were all in turmoil and wanted nothing more than salvation. She then thought to Luna, who still had much growing to do, and needed a strong sister to look up to. Finally, the final words of Rhapsody, her caring mother, pierced through mind.
“I’ll let you two take your time. Choosing your ultimate demise is quite the decision!” He turned away from the alicorns, and unexpectedly, began to sing. “~Oh, Chaos, you are such a dear... Oh, Chaos, you’ll always be here...~”
“Luna...” Celestia said to her sister, who had stood up.
“~And without you, I don’t know what I would do...~”
“Yes, Celly?” the young alicorn replied, looking up to her sister with moist eyes.
“~But with all these wonders, there’s nothing to fear...~”
“Touch my hoof.” Celestia raised her hoof and moved it near Luna, who curiously looked at it. Noticing Celestia still had her eyes closed, she reluctantly raised her own hoof.
“~Oh, Chaos, such a magical thing... Oh, Chaos, it has such a nice ring...~”
The moon princess touched her hoof to Celestia’s and she felt a surge of energy travel rapidly through her body. “What... is this?”
“~And because of you, it’ll always be true...~” a decorative pillar appeared in front of him and he jumped on it, as if singing to a crowd.
Celestia opened her eyes, which were brightly illuminated with white energy. “Just let the power flow through you, and hit him with everything you have.”
Luna stifled a gasp as her sister turned to her, never having seen this happen before, but did her best to follow Celestia’s instructions. She closed her eyes, letting the magical surge flow through her. “Are we ready, Celly?” she asked, reopening her eyes. The same white glow Celestia’s eyes had now encompassed Luna’s as well.
“Of course.”
A shining yellow beam of light shot from Celestia’s horn while a dark blue one came from Luna’s, and the two beams twisted and arched around each other as the rose high into the sky. At their peak, they clashed in the air, making the same noise a powerful flare would. From the two spiraling beams came an extremely bright, almost glowing rainbow of seven colors, which fell rapidly from the sky - and straight at Discord.
“~Oh, Chaos, my chaos, you make... me... sing!~” he sung, raising his eagle claw and resting his lion paw against his chest. Discord drew out the final word of his song, and it was as this point the speeding rainbow of energy impacted him with full force.
The draconequus had very little time to react as he quickly turned to stone, with a feeling not very unlike being caught in quicksand. The magic rapidly rose up his body, petrifying his tail around the pillar, moving up to his legs, solidifying his claw against his chest, locking his arm in it’s upright position - and finally, as he understood what was happening, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’ll eternally perform for you, Celestia!” he yelled, before opening his mouth wide again, as if he were still singing. The spell finally rush past his head and finished as at his horn, leaving naught but a cold, grey statue where the spirit of disharmony had been.
- - -
Celestia blinked. Under her, she felt soft grass, lightly tipped with morning dew. Above her, the sun shone brightly, threatening to blind her with he sudden light. She slowly got up, shaking her head slightly to get rid of the throbbing pain that occupied it. Celestia then looked forward, gasped, and clumsily recoiled and tripped over her own hooves, ending up right where she started. Realizing what it was, and that she wasn’t in danger, she got up again and lightly laughed. In front of her sat the statue of the defeated Discord, silent and motionless. She heard a light moan, and looking down besides her found Luna, also waking up.
“Where are we?” Luna asked, unsteadily getting on her hooves.
Celestia smiled, wrapping a wing around Luna. “We’re in Equestria.”
From behind them, a cheer erupted, and the two princess spun around to see the townspeople and Crimson Heart galloping at them. They laughed and sang praises as they approached, their happy voices mixed indistinguishably from one another.
“We... did it.” Luna said, the realization slowly dawning on her, making her mouth grow into a large smile. “We did it!”
“Indeed we did, sister. We stopped Discord, together.”
“Yes!” the small princess cheered, hopping in place.
“I can’t believe it!” Crimson Heart shouted, nearly crashing into Celestia. “You two... you stopped Discord! Equestria is saved!”
“We did what we were meant to do, and nothing more.” Celestia replied, a slight pink hue brightening her cheeks.
“You two were amazing!” a pony called out.
“That rainbow was incredible!” said another.
“I don’t know what to say, Celestia... princess.” the red maned pony said, looking up to the light alicorn. “I’m just... all of us... are eternally in your debt.”
“Hail Celestia! Hail Luna! Hail the saviors of Equestria!” the crowd roared, raising their hooves in the air.
“Oh, you are all far too generous, we just-” Celestia started, but was cut off by Luna.
“Celly, what are these?”
“What?” Celestia asked, turning around. Luna was examining a set of six gems on the ground, each a different color. One was a bright garnet, the other a deep purple, the next a shiny aqua, the fourth a brilliant emerald, the fifth a luminous topaz and the final one a polished violet stone. Celestia approached them, and they seemed to pulse with energy and react to her and Luna’s presence.
“Those appeared after you stopped Discord.” Crimson Heart revealed, standing next to Celestia.
“Is that so?” she knelt down, looking at her reflection in the topaz stone. She could feel an extremely potent magical presence lurking in the jewels.
“Sister, maybe these broke off from Discord?” Luna asked, looking to Celestia.
“Perhaps... but what is their purpose?”
“Maybe they’re like you, Celestia. Made to protect Equestria from evils.” Crimson Heart said.
She levitated another one of the gems in front of her. “Why would they come from Discord, then?”
“Discord said he was the spirit of disharmony, so maybe these are his opposites?” Luna suggested.
“I think you might be right, Luna. I can feel very strong magic in this. Can’t you?”
“Yes... it makes my horn hurt a bit.”
“So then, these are the tools that helped defeat Discord, and brought harmony to the land.”
Crimson Heart nodded. “That sounds about right.”
Celestia stood, levitating all six in front of her. She then turned to the crowd and pitched a question, “What creates harmony?”
“Kindness!” one pony yelled.
“Being loyal!” said another.
“Generosity.” Crimson Heart added.
“Having fun!” shouted one from the back of the crowd.
“Honesty...” Celestia herself said.
“...and magic.” Luna finished.
“Thank you, everypony. You have all made it clear how these artifacts came to be. Luna and I were kind and generous, by protecting you. We were loyal to our mother and father, who wish us to protect Equestria. We were also honest, because we kept our oath to keep Equestria safe. Finally, we have much magic to use and share with everypony.”
Celestia rotated the gems around her. “Luna?”
“Yes, Celly?”
“We shall call them... the Elements of Harmony.”
The crowd cheered once more, whistling and stamping their hooves on the ground. Celestia smiled, looking over the small crowd, realizing that they looked up to her now and viewed her as a protector. That was what she was, after all. Both her and Luna were destined to rule Equestria and keep it from harm, and that was exactly what they were going to do.
The first plan, Celestia decided, was to build a new home. Perhaps... on a mountain.
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Mist
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1148
| 1 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
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cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
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mature
|
2012-05-07T06:03:07+00:00
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2017-01-04T08:52:39+00:00
| 1,436 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Prologue
Skyvale, a city that had earned itself the name “Heaven of Equestria”, originally for its celestial positioning as it watched over the world beneath it. It was to become a kingdom in itself that would rival even Canterlot some many moons ago. Originally constructed for the new found Princess Luna of the moon upon her return to Equestria; thus much of the city was adorned with immortalized versions of her in stone and metal. One could not glance left or right without her eyes always following you.
That was the city’s past though; today it was nothing more than an unfinished fortress shielded from the sinister poisons of the outside world. A safe haven from the hell outside of it.
Upon finishing the steel blanket over the city that was intended to protect it from harm, it couldn’t have begun to serve its purpose at a faster pace. All of us inside the city had no idea what was happening at the time, only that we were forbidden to leave the city, and anyone who left would not be permitted back in. I had showed up at the city mere days before the closing of the gates to the outside world. Originally I had come to visit to see the opening ceremony for Luna with my parents, whom would arrive at a later time. When the gates closed, all I could wrap my mind around was the curiosity of what was happening on the surface below. I never did get to see Luna, the ceremony of my parents arrival.
When the gates closed, they stayed sealed shut for nearly two long years; “No one in, no one out”, that’s what the guards would tell us. It was best not to bother with questions as to what was happening out there, as you’d never be able to squeeze even a meager hint from them. They assured us that it was all for our personal safety, and before long no one bothered questioning it anymore. After all they endured; they eventually began to accept their new life in their permanent home. I was no different, but a part of me always wondered what was happening out there, and why it was being kept from us.
Most of the citizens had come here with their families, thus adjusting wasn’t as difficult for most of them, but the few who were told they must abandon their families down below responded in hysterics. In time though, they too would come to accept their fate and settle down. I had only arrived with my sister, Torch. She was still but a child when we first showed up, and thus remembers little of life outside the city.
The city’s leader, Silver Hoof, was at least a generous creature. After the gates were shut he offered housing for all of the new citizens, and assigned them jobs as to give them a purpose in being here. It wasn’t perfect, but it was endurable for the most part. He was a very lenient leader for a pony that had to ration everything, and could take no chances.
After two years of solitude to the outside, the city’s advisers permitted the entry of one young colt, and no others, even to this day. They only instructed us that he was granted entry upon some kind of “trade”, we never did discover what he could have possibly brought to make the strict lord of the city to bend his otherwise absolute policies.
His name was Dipper; it came from a constellation in the heavens he had mentioned before. It was appropriate for him, as his branding was of a star. He was a skilled navigator, and mentioned that he used to draw maps and do “recon”.
Most in the city avoided Dipper as if he were death himself. They wanted nothing to do with an outsider, nor did they want any of their family to associate with them. Hypocrites, they had all forgotten that we were all outsiders at one point.
I had volunteered to allow Dipper to stay with myself and Torch, for some reason I was fascinated with this young colt.
He had many scars across his body as I recalled, I counted seven just on my first glance at him; I got the impression that he was a bit of a fighter from this. His silver coat seemed to have lacked the shine that it probably had at one point, as did his messy white mane. Everything about him seemed worn, except his personality. Possibly the most excitable pony I had encountered in my lifetime.
I remember he would tell the most enthralling stories with such vivid detail. Many times he would put Torch to sleep and share a bit of his tale with her, only to have the young filly demanding more in exchange for rest. He would laugh, tuck her in, and whisper “Maybe tomorrow”, to her. His sense of humor seemed to have remained intact despite being from the outside.
According to what he had informed us, the world outside was essentially destroyed by a giant war that started around the time that the gates were sealed. The opposition of society as it stood prior was something that he referred to as “the darkness”, and explained that it consumed anyone who allowed it to. It turned many to its power only to control them to fight for it. They would follow mindlessly, even to their own death. No one had seen where the darkness came from, or what its physical form was, but it created agents to perform its bidding. All Dipper claimed to know was that the darkness only wished to take this world from us, and would stop at nothing to do it. It took life away from anything it touched, and left much of the world below us coated in itself.
When it first appeared, opposition came to fight it. The military's best had gathered to fend it off under the Knights of Celestia. Warriors rose from the shadows, and powerful soldiers took up arms to fend off the oncoming darkness. There were many battles from there, and he mentioned specifically that he recalled one particular commanding officer from the fighting, one that he claims to have served under. Rainbow Dash, I recalled the name from many papers as the winner of many flying contests when I was young.
He spent many nights enthralling me in tales of her bravery and valiant efforts in the war. He depicted her as a Goddess on the battlefield; capable of speeds unmatched by any other, skill with a blade that was unimaginable. His stories gave me so much hope for the world outside; he had given me something to look up to; her.
The war would take a turn for the worse however, as only six months after the fighting began, armies of darkness had developed a new kind of weapon. Dipper never found out what it was, but it wiped out most of Equestria in one mighty blast. In only a fraction of a second the beautiful skies were turned black, and destruction swept over the land, leaving only bodies that it held no use for behind. It was as Dipper described, “the end of the world.”
That didn’t stop the fighting however, the Knights of Celestia continued to fend off the darkness, and even Rainbow Dash would continue to fight. Dipper had served as her primary scout, and was present for a majority of the battles that occurred.
After a life as exciting as his, I could not help but ask why he wanted to come to a place like this. His response: “I wanted to see what it was like here.” Nothing more than curiosity fueled him, he lived by the moment and for the moment.
Besides my sister Torch, he was probably the only friend I had in that entire city, probably the entire world. The truth is that I wasn’t much of a social pony, and it derived from my lack of a cutie mark. Despite my age, I had yet to find anything that I was particularly exceptional at; my sister even got her mark before I did. The truth of the matter was that I just couldn’t find anything I excelled at, and really I wasn’t trying too hard. Essentially I had given up on acquiring a cutie mark years ago, I was ready to accept being a full grown colt with a bare flank.
Socially, I was inept in the sense that I honestly didn’t care what other ponies thought about me. I had always been a loner, and it was a character trait that I think would be more favorable in some situations.
Sometime shortly after Dipper’s acceptance into Skyvale, the city council granted permission to all citizens of the keep to leave the city walls to the ground below, but at a price. You would be granted freedom to leave at the cost of re-entry. The moment a single hoof touched the ground below, you were not allowed back in. One way out, no way back in. This system warded away would-be adventurers from leaving the city, but we still had a few every year that would leave; of course we would never hear from them again. I assumed that most of these individuals would run off to join the Knights in the rebellion.
Around the sixth year of life within the city walls, everything changed for me. Dipper, had caught a terrible illness. We had taken him to every medical facility the city had to offer, to no avail.
I recall the last conversation I had with him.
“I don’t regret any of it, Flare.”
Flare, that was my name. My family had named us all after the element of fire, a tradition that had been in my family for generations apparently.
“The war may have changed me, but it did so for the better. I learned the meaning of responsibility, courage, and loyalty. Oh, so much loyalty…” He was lost in his memories it seemed.
I didn’t interrupt him. Waiting silently for him to continue, he tilted his head in my direction with a smile. There he lay on his death bed, still full of happiness, still content, still loving the world.
“I got to serve under the best damn warrior Equestria has ever known, and I loved every second of it. If I could go back and do it all again, I would. She truly is the greatest, and I hope you get to meet her one day. She made me stronger than I ever could have become on my own.” He extended a hoof in my direction; I cradled it while getting closer to the dying colt.
“You truly admired her didn’t you?” I asked.
He nodded. “I can die without regret because of all the joy that filled my life. Meeting her, serving the Knights, and of course meeting you…” He choked a little trying to speak.
“Me?” I replied.
His face lit up with a heartfelt smile, “The people here didn’t take too kindly to outsiders. I was fortunate to even be allowed in at all. I thought I would have to spend the rest of my days alone, but you extended kindness to me. You embraced me and allowed me into your home even though you had no idea who I was, or where I’d been.”
“None of that ever really mattered to me…” I admitted.
“I wish there were more ponies with your kindness…” He laughed.
I blinked. “Why’s that?”
He chuckled before answering, and then gave me an innocent look. “Maybe then we wouldn’t have even had a war to begin with.”
The next morning when I awoke, I had realized that I was alone in that room. The colt there before had been stripped of the last bit of life left in him. He lay still and silent, almost as though in a deep slumber. Even in death, a smile still played his lips, which he would take to his grave.
Nothing really happened in Skyvale from then on. Every day I hoped that another outsider would enter the city limits, but no such thing could, or would happen. Many left, but none entered. Life was stagnant for the time.
Within the seventh year in Skyvale I had grown restless of life within the steel prison. Torch was coming of age, and close to reaching adulthood. As she was entering adulthood, I was doing little more than getting older, but none wiser. I had no directive still, and an empty flank to prove it. I was probably the oldest pony that ever lived that lacked a cutie mark.
By the end of that seventh year, I knew what I wanted at last. I wanted to leave the city, to go down to the ground below. As soon as I proposed the idea to Torch she opposed, as I expected her to.
“Brother, you’ve heard the stories about the ground from Dipper, but how do you even know that they’re true, or rather still true? You forget that was almost seven years ago!” She protested.
“I understand your concern Torch, but this really is my calling. This is why I haven’t obtained my cutie mark yet, I haven’t found my talent. Surely there is something down there that is calling for me, maybe other ponies that need help. We take life in this city for granted, we’re blessed with all the things that make life easy, but not everyone is like that. Plus wouldn’t you like to be able to leave the city someday? To be able to come and go freely in a new Equestria?” I smiled as I stroked her fire red mane delicately.
“What will you do down there?” She questioned with a worried expression.
“I’m going to join the Knights of Celestia. I want to help build a new Equestria…” I explained.
“Let me come with you then!” She blurted out.
“No. You need to stay here where you’ll be safe. There’s no telling what’s out there, and it is best that you stay here. The ponies here need you, after all you’re on your way to becoming a doctor.” I responded.
I stayed firm on this decision, and eventually she had little choice but to accept it.
When the day actually came for me to leave, I recall my last sight of her being one of tears streaking down her cheeks.
The ceremony for leaving was simple. You entered the airlock with Silver Hoof himself, then he informed you of the conditions of this arrangement, then if you chose to accept, he let you leave the airlock alone. No one had ever seen outside that airlock except Dipper.
“Flare the earth pony.” He began. “You are about to leave Skyvale to the Equestrian ruins. As city council leader, and founder of Skyvale, I am required to inform you that the moment you set hoof onto the ruins, you are forever bound to them, and not permitted to return here to Skyvale. You will no longer be a citizen. Do you comply with these terms?” Silver had clearly practiced this speech several times.
I nodded. “I do.”
“Are you absolutely certain? This is a large decision you make, and it cannot be undone. I hope you have given this plenty of thought…” He said.
I bowed my head, “I understand. I have given this much thought, and decided this is the best decision for me. Life in the city has been a pleasant dream, but I can’t stay asleep forever. The time has come to wake up and face reality.”
He sighed and nodded in acknowledgement; a hint of disappointment smeared on his face. Begrudgingly he left the airlock and when the steel portal shut behind him, the elevator to leave the city opened its doors inviting me inside.
Without hesitation I stepped inside. I couldn’t afford to put any doubt into this plan. During those final moments in Skyvale, the thought on my mind surprised me. I wasn’t thinking about Dipper, or life in the city, or thoughts of what life down below would be like, or even Torch. The only thing on my mind was finding the Knights of Celestia. Whatever challenges faced me down there, they surely would be able to assist me in overcoming them.
The door had finally opened, exposing the mysteries of the outside world to me at long last.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 2 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:03:41+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:29:08+00:00
| 882 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Flare's Journey
Act 1: Chapter One (Survival Saga)
The outside world, it was nothing like I had imagined it. Even from all the vivid depictions that were given from Dipper’s stories, I wasn’t able to grasp what I was truly seeing. The skies had sinister black smog covering them, blocking any sunlight from ever exiting their grasp and touching the ground. The heavens had been closed up for some time it seemed, and the earthbound may never see sunlight again. It was doubtful that even those with the gift of flight could fly high enough through the black coat of darkness to see the once proud glowing orb of life we called the Sun.
Floral life had suffered severely from this deprivation of light. Many of the trees were leafless, and rotting. There was nothing but tarnished dirt for miles it seemed. Not a flower in sight, or a blade of grass to be seen. The only things that appeared to survive in the plant category were the fungi, and even they looked unhealthy, more so than usual.
I stared down a lonely wasteland, void of life, presence, and existence; nothing but empty dirt and sand, and a strong odor. This odor, I had never experienced before; the foulest stench I could even get into my nostrils was before me. I was unable to even fully inhale without choking and my body telling me to upchuck. There couldn’t exist a smell as malignant as this one. It wasn’t coming from any particular route around me, more like every route. This stench; the only thing I could say it was off the top of my head, was death. This was what death smelled like.
The smell was appropriate, as gathered around the entrance to the city were the cadavers of several ponies. Many of them looked like they were malnourished during their hour of passing, implying to me that they had died of thirst and starvation waiting here. That was of course for the bodies that still had flesh on them, the rest left behind nothing but their skeletons and maggots.
I had never seen a corpse before, sure I had seen Dipper's dead body, but it was nothing like this. Part of me was expecting it out here though. I knew that the war meant there would be death nearby, but I didn’t think this close.
Glaring into the eyes of the most recent looking corpse, I could see fear in her face. She was a young filly almost at adulthood, probably no older than Torch. The look on her face, the terror in her eyes, she feared death. She came here out of that fear. They all must have come here for that same reason; they wanted salvation from this place, hoping that Skyvale would offer it. The city however wasn’t as generous as they had thought. They were locked out, and left here to die.
Finally the realization of what was happening around me hit. Tears ran furiously from my eyes as I felt my throat begin to contract in the opposite direction. Within only moments of that happening, I keeled over in discomfort and up came my last meal.
Dipper had forgotten to put more detail into the reality of this forsaken land. All he ever went on about was the Knights of Celestia, and the boldness of Rainbow Dash. He neglected to mention much of what this place was really like.
At my feet, a scrap of paper landed upon my yellow coated hoof. Tilting my head to examine it, I could recognize a pony on the poster; a light purplish coat, with a dark mane to match it. Her mane had been clipped to have bangs in front of her, and a pink streak right down the middle of her perfectly tamed mane. Her body safely guarded by some finely crafted white armor with gold trimmings. A set of gold wings decorated the hoof plating on all 4 hooves, but clearly for decoration and nothing more. This must have been the armor of the holy knights. I remembered her name, Twilight Sparkle. Sometime before the war Celestia announced her as her right hoof, there was a big televised event about it. I remember watching it with my father during the time.
At the top of the scrap I noticed another young mare in similar armor. This one however had a hood up, with her face still fully visible. She was a sky blue, rather majestic pegasus, with a vibrant multi-colored mane. Her magenta eyes seemed to compliment her extravagant locks, while maintaining a look of determination. It was her, the famous Rainbow Dash, I was sure of it.
I read the contents of the poster hoping for any further information. It read as followed:
The Knights of Celestia!
The Knights of Celestia are here to protect you, and ensure your future and safety. We will face the oncoming dark menace with courage and determination. We will not allow this black omen to take our world from us, and you shouldn’t either. We are ready to rise to arms without fear.
The Knights are commanded by Celestia herself, and 2nd General Twilight Sparkle.
Field Commander Rainbow Dash, otherwise known as “The Miracle”, has lead our troops to victory even with the odds stacked against her. She is living proof that this is not the end, and we do not have to accept our own extinction; we have the choice to fight against it, to deny it our lives. Do not hesitate to join, you could be the next Rainbow Dash.
I was almost in shock at how fortunate I was. It is her, was the only thing that I could wrap my mind around.
Frantically I peeked around for anything I could use to carry things. In my descent from the city, the idea of bringing anything with me hadn’t crossed my mind. I never imagined that the world down below would look like this. With a stroke of good luck, I was able to locate a small side bag. It was in rather poor condition, but it could definitely hold together for some light traveling. It was better than nothing.
Fastening the bag to my side, I silently thanked the kind traveler who had left it behind and hoped their fate was not an unpleasant one. I tossed the flyer inside; I figured it might be useful, even if its only purpose served as a self-motivator.
Peering around at my surroundings, I silently cursed Dipper; he had never given me a map. An expert on maps and navigation, and not once had I thought to acquire a map from him before making this venture, though I suppose it was my own fault. I was off to a brilliant start, out in a desert without a map, or a clue as to which direction to head. I had come to Skyvale in a chariot, which I slept during most of the flight. Not that it would matter anyways, judging by what I had seen already, any landmarks that were there seven years ago would surely lay in ruins now.
I couldn’t help but continually ask myself what could have possibly done all of this? The war was big sure, but this couldn’t have been some kind of weapon that destroyed the face of the entire country. Who would build such a thing? How would they build such a thing? Was it even possible to create a weapon of such destructive power?
I tried to keep those thoughts in the back of my mind, as I needed to figure out where to begin. If I stayed here any longer I might end up like my “sleeping” companions.
The flyer! My mind jumped. I reached into my bag and brought out the scrap and studied the backside of it. My hunch was correct.
Recruiting
All new recruits should report to the recruiting center in Ponyville near Canterlot castle. You will there be administered an aptitude test which will help determine the best place for you within the Knights.
From August 17th 2014 until September 6th 2014, all new recruits shall be visited by Celestia herself, who shall be sending off all new soldiers personally. Don’t miss out on this special opportunity; be at Ponyville to sign up for the Knights today!
Even more fortunate, there was a small map there. Ponyville appeared to be far east of where I was. There was no scale on the map to determine how long a travel it was, but I could probably just look for landmarks from here, even if they are ruined.
With the first hoof forward, I began my long walk towards a fairly uncertain destination. Anything was better than here though.
*
I couldn’t tell how long I had been walking, maybe a couple of hours, perhaps even a full day. I didn’t feel as though I was getting any closer to where I was heading as everything out here looked the same to me, perhaps an additional stray corpse here and there. Corpses seemed to be the only inhabitants of this place, as I hadn’t come across signs of life for miles. I was beginning to get doubtful that anypony was alive out here. It was possible; Dipper hadn’t been out here in a good five years, so maybe in that time things had changed, though I was more hoping a change for the better.
It was hard to imagine that this pit of dust and charred dirt was once the beautiful countryside of Equestria. I could see the blooming flowers, and tree branches swaying in the gentle breeze in my mind. The memories of a world before the war were racing through my head as I looked at the results of said war before me. The beauty of Equestria back then was breathtaking, and I regretted not taking it in more than I had.
I snapped out of my daydream to see a figure off in the distance. It appeared to be moving towards my direction. Another pony. My heart nearly leapt out of my throat at the thought. For the first time out in this land of death, I had discovered another living creature. With full heart, I darted towards the individual yelling to them.
“Hello over there!”
The figure appeared to have heard my call, and didn’t change his speed even the slightest. I galloped faster trying to close the distance between us.
“Are you with the Knights of Celestia!?” I asked, knowing the chances were low.
It answered me with silence from the distance.
I was getting fairly close to it, when I realized that this creature wasn’t a pony at all, but some kind of large dog-like monster. Its coat had several patches missing from it, most of which were covered with its own blood.
It was missing one of its eyes. The wound from that injury however looked days old, and appeared to be festering with infection now. It looked exceptionally hostile towards me as it snarled and hissed viciously at my direction. It was missing a majority of its teeth, which only made it more terrifying.
The beast was probably at least five times larger than the average canine, but despite his massive size, he appeared malnourished. It was clear he planned to correct that problem.
“Easy boy…” I pointlessly tried to calm the monster.
As expected he didn’t seem to be very interested in my words. I was foolish to think that a starving monster would be willing to obey commands from what appeared to be dinner to it, but it was worth a shot.
I slowly trotted in a circle around it, attempting to lead it away from me, but he followed not taking his only eye off of me. Up this close, I could see that he had a collar on him as well, but I couldn’t get close enough to see any of the writing on it, not that I wanted to get any closer to this beast.
Without much warning, the massive creature lunged at me. I only had a second to react, but I aimed my back hoof to it, and bucked as hard as I could. Luck was on my side, as I managed to hit the beast in the face, causing it to fall to the ground in pain. I almost felt sorry for the thing.
“Go on, get out of here!” I scolded.
That wasn’t exactly my smartest move, as it rose back to its feet with a ferocious growl. In the face of his hunger it was clear that he had forgotten all about fear, that or perhaps I wasn't that intimidating.
His second lunge was just as unsuccessful as the first, as I repeated the strategy, but this time darted off in the opposite direction of the beast, hoping to outrun it so that I could keep going towards my destination.
Peering back I saw it was still giving chase to me. He wasn’t going to let a meal get away from him that easily. I set my attention to straight ahead and focused everything on galloping faster.
Not too long after I started, the creature gave up and turned the other way, but I didn’t stop running. I wanted to put some space between me and that thing before I was ready to slow down. Last thing I needed was a second encounter with that monster.
*
Nearly an hour of galloping had exhausted me. I needed to rest somewhere, but there wasn’t a house, or remains of one anywhere to be seen.
I was fortunate however that there was a small cave under a jutting cliff. It wasn’t exactly as inviting as it could have been, especially with thoughts of my own bed in my mind, but it was perfect in comparison to the outside. The shelter of a cave sounded very comforting by that logic, granted nothing else had already claimed said cave.
I approached cautiously trying not to disturb anything that could be resting in the dank hole of limestone. Performing a thorough inspection, this small opening in the rocks appeared to be empty, and uninhabited, and thankfully clear of dead bodies. I didn’t think I could handle resting next to a “permanent sleeper”, right now.
The cave was small, but cozy. Curling up against a wall, I let my eyelids fall. I don’t think I recall ever being quite as frightened as I was out in this place. My whole life I had always gone on about how I wanted to be a fearless hero, somepony that ponies could count on, but the truth is, I had never experienced how real the world can be until I came out here. I never imagined that I’d ever be stranded in a forgotten land fighting for my own survival; a place where you had to find a dark old cave just to get some sleep.
My stomach hissed something fierce at me. I had gone probably a day and a half without eating, on top of that the only meal I had before I left I had vomited up. I would need to find something to eat soon. Right now however I only wanted to drift away into a slumber. Maybe if I went to sleep, I’d wake up and this would all just be a horrible nightmare. I wasn’t counting on such luck however.
Achievement: It Begins - Flare began left Skyvale.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 3 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:06:04+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:31:50+00:00
| 877 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Two (Survival Saga)
I had been moving for several hours. I was hesitant to convert the time into days, as since I never saw the sun rise or set, it was impossible to tell when night ended and day began, and of course a watch was something I neglected to bring. I had never thought knowing what time it was would hold any relevance when I left the city.
One thing was certain, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since I left the city, and there was definitely a food deficit out in the remains of Equestria. On top of that, even if I located food, there was little way to ensure that it would still be edible. Sitting out here with exposure to the elements probably would make it difficult to stomach any food that survived. Still, I was at the state where I could eat almost anything, so long as it filled my stomach. I don’t think I’d ever known what it was like to be this hungry. Correcting this problem would have to become a high priority, as the lack of food was starting to affect my ability to travel. Resting became a constant detour; I must have stopped at least eight times or so to take a rest, I even almost passed out once.
With some luck I had come across what appeared to be the remains of a landmark on the map, Fort Stallion; an old military bay left behind years ago. It clearly has suffered during the time of its abandonment, as most of it lay in ruins, but the outer wall was mostly intact, with a few tents and housing areas still standing. It was perfect to take some refuge, and possibly even locate some sustenance.
Cautiously, I peeked within the gates, as I didn’t want another encounter with the “friendly” creatures of the wasteland again. During my travel over the past few days, I must have come across a dozen animals, all of which wanted me in their stomach. It was amazing what intense hunger can do to normally docile creatures; survival always came first I suppose.
Fort Stallion appeared to be still abandoned, I was thankful for that, but I wouldn’t let my guard down until I was entirely sure this camp was deserted. A part of me though wished it wasn’t completely empty, it would be nice to meet another pony out here. Possibly form an alliance to brave the wildlife, maybe even have somepony to talk to.
In the center of the encampment there stood a grand marble statue of Celestia with her sister Luna standing valiantly behind her. It was a rather realistic likeness of the Princess; the only flaws had come with age and the elements buffeting the work of art. A lot of money must have been spent on this; it was probably put here as a morale booster.
Deciding that food was more important than marveling at art right now, I made my way to a small structure marked “supplies” by a rotting wooden sign. Inside was a labyrinth of crates stacked upon more crates. I sighed and began cracking open these aged wooden boxes.
With a fierce back kick I popped the first one open. The crates were dried out and worn with age, so they shattered like glass when struck. A pile of syringes, needles, and gauss tape pooled onto the floor. My deductive skills allowed me to determine that was a medical supply crate, not really anything of much use to me. I tried another as my stomach growled.
This one dropped thousands of small metallic cone-shaped objects. They spilled all over the floor with a loud clatter. I wasn’t exactly sure what they were really, but there were thousands of them all modeled to look the same. They were flat on one end, and came to a point on the other; I couldn’t see much use for such a piece of metal. They were probably produced on some assembly line to be so symmetrical, but why?
Hunger calmed my mind’s questions, and forced me to keep checking the boxes. I kicked the lid clean off of one that hugged the wall. Jackpot. This one was filled with many sealed bags of an orange color. I pulled a bag out, and flipped over the package to read the back.
Dog-Gone-Good Jerky
We at Dog-Gone-Good are proud to present our original flavor beef jerky.
Our jerky is processed the moment the beef is acquired. We take it right away to be smoked over a real open fire, unlike our competitors who use artificial smoking methods that take out the flavor. We do everything the real way here at Dog-Gone-Good, that’s why our jerky is the top selling in Equestria! The secret lies in our special blend of spices that give it that tangy irresistible flavor that you know and love so much. We hope you enjoy our products as much as your taste buds do!
I wasn’t exactly too thrilled to be eating meat, but I was so hungry I could eat a rock if it had some salt on it probably. Throwing caution to the wind, I tore the package open and started to devour the strips of cow meat. It was salty, and age had worn away some of the “original” flavor (I was guessing, as I had never tasted it before), but it at least tasted like food, just not very good food; I could still eat half a crate though with my hunger.
Munching down all I could from the bag, I torn open another package and began to shred through the bland meat. I had never known what hunger was until now. At Skyvale there was never a time where we went days without food; almost every day we had three square meals, two if you were me. I didn’t eat much, and I usually skipped lunch in favor of dinner.
I used to have a basic routine every day. Waking up, I would have a small breakfast right before going to work. I was employed as a delivery colt for food supplies. My work consisted of taking the food from the farms to the market. In Skyvale they had a large farming section of the city for food production; the city was designed so ponies could live there indefinitely. It was very simple work, and it wasn’t exactly something I enjoyed doing, or had much pride in, but everypony was required to have a job upon reaching adulthood within the city. If you didn’t qualify for a job with your cutie mark, the city gave you one. Naturally it’s easy to see how I acquired my field of work.
I mused myself with the idea of perhaps survival was my special talent, though I knew it to be untrue, and my flank showed no signs of agreeing with me. The loneliness of this empty land was starting to take its toll on me. I could feel a slight wave of depression falling over me, as I started to regret coming down here in the first place. It was clear that Dipper had exaggerated about the world below the city. He never said how the air felt poisonous, or how there wasn’t another pony for miles, or even about how every animal wanted to make you into its next snack. Then again, all Dipper ever did talk about was the war, and the Knights of Celestia. At this point, that’s all that kept me going was the determination to find them.
*
My eyes opened, awakening me from my long rest. My stomach was still very full and upset from all the jerky I had eaten. Clearly my body didn’t enjoy the idea of putting meat into it, but was willing to keep it down on the account of it wasn’t going to get much else out here.
The fact that I had yet to see any place that wasn’t abandoned made me safely assume that any nutrition I found out here could very well be up to seven years old, and not quite edible. Jerky was probably one of the few things with enough preservatives in it to last this long.
Yawning, I stood upright and decided to explore more of the encampment before taking my leave.
I spent most of the next few hours looking for anything of use or value, besides food of course. I had already tucked away as many packages of jerky as I could into my bag, along with a canteen that I had located and managed to find a working water source to fill it with. The water here tasted rather stale, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
My eyes were charmed by the discovery of a digital sound recorder that lay on a table in what appeared to be an officer’s station of the base. Curiosity sparked as I hit the play button, to my shock it still worked. A rather tomboyish female voice exited the device.
“This is Vinyl Scratch, first lieutenant of The Rainbow Raiders, under the command of Field Commander Rainbow Dash, serving directly under the Knights of Celestia. I’m making this data log because one: they haven’t given me orders for the past three days, and I’m going nuts sitting here doing nothing; and two: in case we don’t win this war, I think it would be wise to leave behind some kind of record so ponies can know of my exploits, after all I am quite amazing.
Anyway, this camp isn’t exactly the worst place I’ve been stationed, though I am a little concerned as to what exactly the Commander is planning. She hasn’t issued a single order since we got here, and frankly it bothers me. All she’s done is tell us to enjoy ourselves while we can, but really how can I possibly do that when there’s a battlefield calling my name? Well I suppose this isn’t entirely unlike her, as she is always going on about appreciating everything, sometimes she sounds like Fluttershy really.
Me though? I just want to go back out there where the fighting is. My spirit burns for the rush of the battle! I want to get a stab at the bastards who dared challenge Celestia.”
I was a little surprised at the contents. This person knew Rainbow Dash, and served under the Knights. I pressed the button to allow the next recording to play.
“This is day four at this place, and I’m sooooooo bored. My talents are being wasted just sitting around doing nothing. Dashy means well, but really she has to understand that I’m just no good at sitting around and waiting. She spends most of her time taking a nap, but that’s not my style.
She’s been very determined to win this war since we both first enlisted really; she’s totally a true badass! I considered once throwing away my music career and starting an assassin group with her when the war is over the other day, but she didn’t like the sound of It; told me to stop joking around.
She got really serious though the other night when I brought up the last fight we were in. I was trying to tell her that we should have taken out the remaining forces while they were retreating, but she got really stern with me. Went on about how there’s enough bloodshed as it is, and she didn’t attack also because they had foals with them, and she refuses to kill children. This isn’t the first time either; she’s spoken against opening fire on foals before, even if they are armed. The girl needs to snap out of her fantasy sometimes and realize this is war; if there’s anything I learned out here, it’s that the enemy doesn’t like to play by the rules.
I don’t see why Dashy is so stressed; after all she’s got me, Vinyl Scratch, the greatest soldier who ever lived by her side.”
This pony was very egotistical, but in a playful way. The way she spoke insinuated that she had known her commanding officer prior to joining the Knights. I was still fascinated by this information; it actually lifted my hopes of finding the Knights.
There was only one recording left, I was almost sad that they were almost over. It almost felt like there was someone else in the room with me, I sort of felt like I was getting to know Vinyl Scratch just a little bit from listening to these, even if she might be long dead since the time these messages were recorded.
“Day Twelve, we’re finally moving out; took long enough. Some kind of emergency summon by Celestia was issued to our unit, and we have to leave right away. They didn’t give us any details except that they want Rainbow’s Raiders on the front line. Dashy seems a bit excited about this one, we may actually get a stab at Trixie she’s saying. How I would love to sink my horn into that traitor, unfortunately it’s saying things like that which have them all worried I’m going to go postal or something. Thus they put me on chopper duty for the time being, something about needing further mental evaluation before I’m put back on the front lines, all a bunch of medical jargon to me.
Rarity is making a fuss about how we shouldn’t be so sure that we’re going to be able to get Trixie, but she forgets that we have the best unit in the Knights. We’re lead by Rainbow freakin’ Dash for Celestia’s sake. Not to mention we have the best damn equipment money can buy, and of course, yours truly.
I am not exactly looking forward to pretty much babysitting patrol, but I guess I can stick it out until Dashy decides otherwise. Besides, I don’t want to steal the glory of getting that devious Trixie from her. That’s all she’s talked about for a while now was bringing Trixie to justice, and I’m all for justice. I just want one piece, that’s all; something to hang on my mantle.
I’m not exactly sure what kind of grudge Dashy has against Trixie, besides of course her totally fucking us over and killing thousands of course, but everyone hates her for that. Dashy’s hate for her seems deeper, like something personal between the two. Dashy has always been pretty quiet about her personal life, but a lot of us would like to know what’s her deal with Trixie.
Anyway, I am heading out now. I’m going to leave this recording behind for anypony to find it.”
I couldn’t recognize half of the ponies that she mentioned in the recording, however I made a mental note of them, as according to Vinyl, that was Rainbow Dash’s team right there. Perhaps that information would prove useful at some point.
Who was Trixie though? Obviously I could assume she worked for the enemy, but I really wanted to know why Rainbow Dash had such a vendetta against her. She made it sound like there was a personal grudge between the two, and not just that of opposing officers in war.
A part of me was overly excited. The thought of the Knights in battle had my heart racing with joy and anxiety. I was more eager to meet them now than I was before. Everything I heard about the Knights only made me admire them more and more it seemed. They had to still exist; there was no way that they could have been destroyed. They’re probably out there rebuilding now that the war was over.
The Knights really did sound as great as Dipper described them. Vinyl Scratch spoke with the same pride that he did to be a part of them. Come to think of it, since he was a Knight that served under Rainbow Dash, he might have been here in this camp when Vinyl made those recordings. My mind focused on that thought. I then silently remembered that they would have had to be at least four or five years old for him to be here. It was possible that they were that old, but I wasn’t putting money on it. Chances are they were dated long before he even joined, or long after he had left.
I decided to take the recorder with me. I wasn’t sure why, but for some reason instinct was telling me I should take it.
Leaving the encampment I continued towards the destination set to me by the flyer I had discovered moments after leaving the city. I wasn’t even sure why I was going there anymore really, as the odds of anypony still being there were low, but I just wanted to try regardless. I was willing to accept that this could be a fruitless venture. I couldn’t go home, so there was only the option of moving forward.
With that, I took another step out into the vast wastes. It was as bleak and deserted as I had left it, but some reason a spark of hope was about me.
Achievement: Just Delete Them - Flare listened to Vinyl's audio diaries.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 4 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:08:58+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:32:58+00:00
| 714 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Three (Survival Saga)
I had passed another couple of ruined landmarks not too long ago, meaning I was getting closer to my destination. I was fairly fortunate that my first assumption of every landmark being destroyed beyond recognition was wrong. According to the crude map, I was approaching Everfree forest, which would be the final obstacle I had to cross to get to the village. A forest didn’t sound like an ideal place to be considering how the animals I’ve run into thus far have behaved. It didn’t appear as though there was any way around it though, so I would have to hope I got lucky.
Fortunately I had stocked up on food at the camp, and I had rationed it reasonably up to this point, this would help in getting through the forest as I could keep my energy up and not have to make many stops. I had doubts that there would be any kind of cover from the wildlife in the forest, and thus I was not keen on sleeping there.
I was only a few miles from that forest, when I noticed some figures in the distance. This time I was certain they were ponies. They were a bit smaller framed, but they were definitely of my own kind. My heart jumped with excitement as I approached them.
Up close they were a bit different than I imagined. There were three of them, and all three were smelly and dirty. I don’t even think the animals out here were quite as unsanitary as this trio. The biggest one of the group appeared to be missing several teeth, and the remainder of his teeth were chipped and damaged. He had sort of a lazy eye as well that seemed to follow me no matter where I moved.
The other two appeared to be twins. Both dark mahogany colored colts with blonde mane. They looked equally as dirty, but their dark color hid most of the filth upon them, except their mane of course. They appeared rather dim-witted as they walked rather awkwardly and had an odd chuckle about them.
The big one stepped forward and gave the most unpleasant, clearly forced smile I had ever seen. His disgusting teeth were only made more prominent by this gesture.
“Well, what have we here? Y’all must be from them Knights, I don’t often see colts of your… Condition… Out here in the ruins…” He was putting odd emphasis upon words.
The other two began to circle about me as he conversed with me. Something about this meeting was off; I began to take a few steps back, only to be blocked by the other two.
“I’m actually from Skyvale…” I commented.
He let out a loud hearty laugh, and the other two followed his lead. “City pony then? What could you possibly be doin’ out here then?”
I didn’t like this group already. Something about them was off, and I wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible.
“I actually came here to look for the Knights of Celestia, I don’t really want any trouble…” I lowered my head.
“Trouble ya’ say? Shucks, we jus’ wanted to invite y’all to dinner.” He gave that awkward smile of his again.
“I’m really not that hungry…” I tried to back up some more, but the other two had me trapped.
“It’s a good thing that you’re the meal then!” He yelled and darted towards me.
I was quick enough to get out of the way, but the two brothers grabbed me and pressed me to the ground with extreme force. They were a lot stronger than they looked. I squirmed and struggled to get free, but to no success.
My heart was beating at least five times faster. These ponies wanted to eat me. I panicked and offered an alternative to them.
“I have plenty of food on me! I’d be willing to share; you don’t have to do this!” I pleaded.
The biggest one just laughed at me.
“I love it when they struggle! Thanks for the tip though, now we will have something as a snack after you.” He grinned.
I started squiring as violently as I could. I focused all the energy in my body into getting free. Kicking and violently jerking, I was doing anything I could to at least give the two holding me a hard time keeping me there. I was hoping that they would eventually get tired and give me an opportunity to make a break for it. It might have been my mind putting me into denial about my predicament, but I couldn’t tell really.
“Hold him still…” The brute said as he picked up a strip of metal sharpened into a blade from the ground.
“NO!” I yelled.
“Don’t worry, it’ll only hurt for a lil’ while kid…” He assured.
I bit at the hooves of my captors, but it seemed to have little effect on them. Their legs were scrawny and meatless; I suppose it was easy to see how they were driven to cannibalism.
I held my eyes shut tightly with tears leaking from them. This was it; I was going to die being eaten by fellow ponies. The first ponies I had met out in this hellhole, and they wanted to eat me; Equestria really had changed. I thought for a brief moment at how I failed; I never even got the chance to meet the Knights, or show Torch the outside. I never even got my cutie mark, and now I would die without it.
BANG!
An ear shattering sound pierced the air. I peeked an eye open to see that one of the twins now lay on the ground in a bloody mess. Something had taken his head clean off at the top of the neck. His blood was everywhere, all over me, all over the other twin, and all over the big brute. My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing. He was dead; something killed him right in front of me. The other two seemed to be just as shocked as I was at the situation. The brute turned his head in the direction that the sound originated, and then quickly averted his attention back to the other twin.
BANG!
The other twin’s head was taken off just like his brother. He exploded in the same bloody mess as the one before him. The brute hesitated for a moment in shock, but then darted away probably trying to avoid the same fate, but his efforts were futile. With another loud boom he too was taken down. Seconds later he lay still in a pool of his own bodily fluid. All three of them were dead in under a twenty second period.
I peered in the direction of the sounds thinking myself to be next, certain that I escaped being eaten to be blown apart. Atop the hill to the right of me was an older looking mare, probably a couple years older than myself. She had an obnoxiously pink coat, and a wild poof ball of a mane to go with it. Her blue eyes seemed to not match the look of solemnness on her face. There was a scar planted right on her forehead inching closer to the left than the center.
Attached to her right hoof was a very odd mechanical looking device. It was a metal plate with a long canister looking scrap of metal sticking out of the back of it. Near the bottom facing towards the foot of her hoof was a cylinder that appeared to be retracting in after it had finished its task, it was probably responsible for the loud banging that felled my three attackers. Right on top of that cylinder was what appeared to be a retractable blade. My guess was this was some kind of weapon, though I was not sure what kind of magic controlled it.
On her other front hoof she had a black metal band around it. The band was giving off a teal glow, but one that was slowly fading and returning it to a plain black band.
The mare leaped off of the hill top and positioned herself right in front of me. Glaring me up and down, she leaned in extra close and put her eyes only inches from my own. She nodded and retracted her head back and turned around to begin walking away. Then with a sudden jerk she turned back around and extended her blade to my throat.
“So, they finally sent an assassin to lay me to rest have they? It’ll take more than that to slay me!” She yelled rather delusional-like.
“I’m no assassin!” I protested with fear on my breath.
She raised a brow and sat back retracting her blade. “Of course you’re not an assassin, why in Celestia’s name would you think such an odd thing?” She questioned.
I blinked. Was this mare serious?
“You just accused me of being an assassin!” I reminded, lowering my guard. If she wanted to kill me, she’d have done it already.
“Well, have you eaten any onions lately?” She asked with a rather serious tone.
I was confused. “Um, no?” I replied.
She smiled rather heartily and pulled me close for a deep hug; squeezing so hard that I was having trouble obtaining air. She was far stronger than she looked.
“This is great news! That means you’re not a cabbage! I can’t tell you how many cabbages I find out here. Really terrible things they are.” She was nodding while speaking.
Cabbages? I had no clue what she was talking about. It all seemed like incoherent nonsense to me. Either something was wrong with her, or she was speaking in some kind of code or language that I wasn’t too familiar with.
“A cabbage you say?” I responded.
“Indeed, everyone knows that cabbages eat onions, so if you don’t eat them, then you must not be a cabbage. It’s a good thing to, I’d have had to shoot you then plant you in a cornfield then. So where are you heading to stranger?” She seemed a little bit more excited now.
I was hesitant to tell her, but then figured I may as well, no harm in it. “I’m heading towards a place called Ponyville, perhaps you’ve heard of it?” I said.
“Only in fairytales have I heard of such a place; however I do know how to get you there; right through Everfree forest right?” She said.
I couldn’t tell if she was messing with me, or being serious. She acted stupid and clueless, but somehow was still able to keep a conversation going. Perhaps this was her idea of a joke? Who would have guessed that anypony out here would have a sense of humor. Then again it would probably drive one to madness just accepting the depressing state of things out here all the time. Maybe this was her way of coping with the harsh reality she lived in.
“Yeah, that’s the one. Is it safe to go through the forest though?” I questioned.
She shook her head. “It’s far from safe, and the only ones who have ever made it through were the talking rock and me of course!” She seemed rather proud of herself.
“R-right… I don’t suppose you could tell me a way through the forest quickly then could you?” I really was starting to get nervous around this mare, she was clearly mentally unstable. There was no telling what she’d do next.
“I couldn’t allow you to go alone, you’re ill-equip, thus an easy target for space snakes to just snatch you up. If you’re not careful, they’ll grab you when you’re not looking and take you back to Jupiter where they’ll conduct evil alien experiments on you!” She answered.
“I think I’ll take my chances…” I replied.
She stepped closer and put a hoof around me and pulled me in for another awkward hug. She let on a bright smile as she pressed her cheek close to mine.
“Nonsense, I’ll lead you right through the forest with most of your body parts still attached. You’ve nothing to worry about friend, as the great White Falcon will lead you through the forest. No wait… That’s not right… What was my name again…” She tried to find the words.
“It was Pink something…” She added.
Taking a glance at her blade out of curiosity I read the words “Pinkie Pie” engraved on it. It looked like it was scratched in crudely with another blade. Not exactly the mark of good craftsmanship, but the device was still effective enough to kill three cannibals.
“Pink Giraffe? Pink Waffle…? Pink Rock…?” She was in deep thought.
“Pinkie Pie?” I suggested.
“YES! THAT ONE! THAT’S IT!” She waved her hooves around furiously in excitement. “THAT’S ME! PINKIE PIE!” She added.
“Right, well are you sure you are up to going through that forest…” I was cautious about this situation; after all I just met this pony, and she didn’t appear to have all of her marbles.
She stomped a foot on the ground and nodded with determination. Her entire expression changed within a millisecond. This mare was quite sporadic.
“I’ll get you through faster than goats on a roof! Don’t even worry about it for another second, just follow me and I’ll get us safely to the other side where Ponyville is only about a 10 minute walk from there. You’re in good hooves with me!” She assured.
I didn’t quite get her analogy, but nodded anyways. She had a weapon, and I didn’t, so I really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. If I wanted to cross safely I wanted somepony that could at least fend off anything that could try and sneak up on us. Even if I had a weapon I doubt I’d be much use with it as this mare was. Before the war weapons were only reserved to the Equestrian military, and even then they were very simplistic blades and spears, nothing like this magical armlet of hers that appeared to be able to cause ponies to get decapitated merely by pointing it at them.
I nodded and she gleefully took the lead. I decided to remain silent for a while, as this girl clearly had plenty of entertainment talking to herself.
The forest was more of a swamp it seemed. Most of it was flooded and there was only one real path in getting through it, clearly pony-made as well. Perhaps Pinkie Pie was the one who cleared this path for travelers? The fact that there was even a distinguished path at all means that somepony else had gone through here, which means I wouldn’t be alone when I arrived at Ponyville. Whether or not that was a good thing was left to be decided, after all the only ponies I’ve met so far were either mentally unstable, or wanted me for lunch.
Pinkie Pie was unpleasantly cheerful during this walk through the forest, nothing seemed to bother her. I decided I might as well see if she had any useful information.
“Say Pinkie Pie…” I started.
“That’s Dr. Pinkie Pie.” She corrected.
“You went to medical school?” I asked curiously.
“I did!? Wow, that’s so cool! What kind of doctor am I!?” She was overly excited at the remark.
“I was only kidding…” I took a step back from her.
She frowned and drooped her head a little. “Aww, that sucks… I bet I would have been a really cool doctor…”
I honestly was hoping that she was joking with me at this point, and that she wasn’t just completely out of her mind. Ignoring the previous discussion I moved back into what I originally meant to ask her.
“Were you in the war?” I asked quite straight forward.
She perked her head up and tilted it in confusion. “War? What war? There was a war?” She acted sincerely dumbfounded.
I sighed.
“I guess that means you wouldn’t be able to tell me anything about the Knights of Celestia, or Rainbow Dash then would you…?” I admitted defeat in this conversation.
She jumped and tackled me to the ground with an exuberant smile on her lips. “Well why didn’t you say so!? I know Rainbow Dash!”
I blinked and started to get a little excited myself. “So you mean she’s still alive!?” I was almost yelling.
She giggled like a foal and nodded. “Of course she’s still alive, it takes a lot to take down Rainbow Dash; I’ve known her for a long time. She lives not too far from here-“ She cut herself off.
Lifting her right front hoof, she aimed it in the distance. The band on the opposite hoof glowed again, and the device strapped to her extended appendage seemed to be activated now. The cylinder at the end let out a loud bang with a small fire igniting from the tip for a split second. When the fire subsided, a tiny amount of smoke escaped it. In the distance there was some kind of animal that was felled by the action. I couldn’t get a good look at what it was, but I could safely assume that it wasn’t too friendly. Pinkie Pie just tilted her head back down to me and continued talking as though it didn’t happen.
“I can tell you how to get to her after we get out of this forest if you want?” She smiled innocently.
“That would be great; I would really appreciate that, though I’m curious as to why you’ve been so kind to me…” I said.
She got off of me and I pushed myself back up. Kneeling in, she touched her nose to mine and just gave me a sugary smile and a wink. Then she turned back around and gestured for us to keep trotting. I decided that was the best answer I would be getting out of her, so I shrugged and decided not to make much of it.
It was nearly an hour of Pinkie Pie talking nonsense about how she suspected that gnomes were planning to attack her, and that was the reason she didn’t sleep much. I was only paying half attention, and giving short answers to give the illusion that I was listening to her. After it was finally over, we had reached the other side of the forest, only getting attacked twice by what appeared to be bears.
I could see a village off in the distance, it wasn’t more than a mile from here it looked like, an easy journey on foot.
“This is as far as I go stranger, but if you’re looking for Rainbow Dash, you just need to keep heading towards town. She’s held up in Twilight’s old library, you can’t miss it; it’s the big hollowed out tree with all the book-thingies in it. Just watch out for those pesky cabbages, I lost my left hoof stepping on one…” Pinkie Pie instructed.
I wasn’t sure exactly what to say, so I left it at a simple, “thank you.” She smiled in response and gestured the way to me. Despite being a lunatic, she was at least fairly kind.
Not wasting any more time I darted towards the town at full speed. I didn’t want to stop for anything now that I was this close. My blood was pumping faster than ever, but this feeling was interrupted abruptly. A sharp pain was felt in my back leg. It was unbearable; I had never felt pain like this before. I collapsed onto the ground, unable to run any further. I could hear the grunts and chuckles of other ponies before I passed out.
Achievement: CABBAGES! - Flare made contact with Pinkie for the first time.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 5 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:09:37+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:34:35+00:00
| 695 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Four (Rainbow Dash Saga)
I awoke from a nightmare of being attacked by more cannibals with a gasp. My dreams had seen so vivid and real for some time now. The real wasteland of Equestria was far more horrifying than any dream could simulate though. Despite being plagued with nightmares, I found I was able to relax more in sleep than in a waking consciousness.
My eyes adjusted to an artificial light around me, florescent of some kind. After a moment of dilating, they permitted me to take a glance at my location. I was quickly able to determine that I wasn’t where I had fallen asleep that was certain. I was in a bed as well, which was odd as my attackers certainly didn’t seem like they had much reason to keep me alive; perhaps they had other purposes for me.
Gazing around I could see that there was several bookshelves all around me, most of which with books scattered about in an untidy manner. A lot of volumes appeared to be missing as well. I noticed that the floor, although still dirty, was a lot cleaner than expected of any building out here in the ruins. It was void of dust, so clearly there was somepony living here besides myself.
Cautiously I pulled myself out of the bed and stepped onto the floor. My left hind leg nearly gave way from putting the pressure on it. It was dreadfully sore. Glancing back at my left flank I noticed it was bandaged and that a spot of red had seeped through the wrap.
I forced myself to make it to the doorway and down the stairs. I was only four steps from the bottom before my leg finally decided it couldn’t take the strain anymore and gave in. I slid down the stairs with my chin hitting every step on the way down. With a crash I landed on my stomach in pain. In agony I attempted to force myself to stand again, however I was only able to drag myself off of the stairs pathetically.
“So you’re finally awake then? Perhaps you should be taking it easy though?” A tomboyish voice echoed from across the room towards me.
A cloaked pony sat at a simple wooden table sipping from a glass. The cloak she wore was aged and tattered, and appeared grey in color. She was wearing the hood up, which concealed her face; only her snout was visible from under that hood. The aura she gave off was one of unfriendliness; the aura of a mare that clearly wanted to be left alone.
Examining her further I could tell she was a bit older than me, probably Pinkie Pie’s age or so. She had a sky blue coat, and her tail was hanging out of her cloak, which was adorned with a vibrant rainbow it appeared. If I peeked at the right angle I could see some strands of the same colors hanging down towards her face.
I noticed that she had a similar device on her front right hoof as Pinkie Pie did. This pony’s however had a blade that appeared red in color with a multi-color trimming along the edges of the blade. The word “Colors”, was carved onto the blade, though unlike Pinkie Pie’s this one looked like it was etched in with precision, more than likely by some kind of expert that crafted these weapons.
“You should give your body a chance to heal before you go back out there. You’ve been out cold for nearly two days, I thought you were dead when I found you.” She continued not waiting for my answer.
Finally I spoke up. “Um, where am I?”
She took another sip from the glass in front of her, not even turning to face me. “You’re in Ponyville.” She answered plainly.
“How did I get here? What about the ponies who attacked me?” I started bombarding her with questions; she didn’t seem to mind though.
“Well, you were attacked by a group of savages after you got out of the forest. I happened to be heading out to get some supplies, and I happened to notice the incident. I took care of the bastards quickly and then Pinkie Pie helped me bring you back here.” She explained calmly.
I glanced back at my backside. “Who put these bandages on me then?” I asked.
“That would be me as well. I removed the bullet out of your backside and patched you up. I’m not much of a doctor, but I learned a thing or two from hanging around some. Most ponies learn how to patch themselves up out here as I’m sure you know.” She seemed a little friendlier than she let on at first.
“What are you doing out here kid? You don’t look like one of those savages, so you must know that it’s dangerous out here.” She changed the subject.
I sat up. “I’m looking for the Knights of Celestia.”
She laughed a little before replying. “You won’t find them out here. They’re held up at the Canterlot castle.” She informed.
“How can I get to the castle?” I inquired.
“Where are you from kid?” She changed the subject yet again.
“Skyvale…” I answered very softly.
She sighed and took another sip. Her kind aura quickly turned to one of seriousness and intensity.
“I left the city to look for the Knights of Celestia, and Rainbow Dash…” I noticed her ears twitched when I mentioned the last part.
“You’re her aren’t you? You’re Rainbow Dash?” I tried not to sound too excited, I didn’t want to come off as an overly enthusiastic fan, but it was difficult to contain myself.
“Go back to Skyvale.” She replied sternly.
I blinked in confusion. “Why?” I asked.
“There’s nothing for you out here. Perhaps if you go back and tell them you made a mistake and beg they’ll let you back in. It’s a better place for you than out here I assure you.” Her voice seemed void of emotion now.
“I can’t go back. That’s the rule of the city; once you leave you are not permitted back in. I left knowing this, and I have no intentions to return; I came out here to find the Knights of Celestia, and Rainbow Dash, now tell me: are you her?” I raised my voice and tried to match her in terms of seriousness.
She sighed and took yet another sip of her drink. A pill bottle levitated directly to her from a nearby shelf. Pouring out the contents, she took two pills and washed them down with a sip of the vile looking liquid in front of her that she had been downing this entire time. I suspected it was some kind of alcohol.
“I was…” She finally answered.
My heart started beating faster than I’ve ever felt before. I was excited to finally meet her, but she certainly was nothing like I expected. I had always pictured a mare in respectable armor with a strong spirit, before me however sat what appeared to be a broken old drunk.
“What do you mean?” I questioned.
“I mean I’m not the Rainbow Dash you may have heard about. That was almost another lifetime ago. I’ve left that life behind me; now I’m just an old mare waiting for the end to finally come.” She sighed taking another gulp.
I was in disbelief. The Rainbow Dash that Dipper described would never give up, she’d have kept trying even when it was impossible. She was “The Miracle”, after all.
“What about the Knights!?” I was almost yelling.
“Twilight still handles their affairs. I don’t have anything to do with the Knights anymore. I left many years ago.” She seemed uninterested in this conversation.
I dragged myself over to the table with her. She could see my struggle and poured me a drink then offered it to me. Not wanting to be rude I took it, despite not having a taste for alcohol. It smelled like fairly strong liquor as well.
“What about Trixie?” I asked innocently.
Dash seemed to be very angered by the question. She tensed up quickly and smacked at her glass, sending it across the room only to shatter against an empty bookcase. She picked up a second glass from the floor in her teeth and hurled it in the same direction, achieving the same result. She looked around for another to throw, but when she found none she simply uttered “worthless bitch.” Clearly her hate towards Trixie was left unchanged.
I decided to change the subject. “What exactly caused this war? A friend had told me much about it, but he never exactly explained why all the fighting began in the first place.”
“Pass me another glass, kid.” She instructed.
I did as told and slid a glass from my side of the table over to her. She smiled half-heartedly and poured another drink.
“The truth is that no one really knows how it all started.” She spoke.
I tilted my head in confusion. “How is that possible? Just one day you were fighting?” I questioned.
“Well, you’ve probably heard of the darkness right?” She answered my question with another question.
“Of course.” I said.
“Well, the story goes like this…” She took a sip before continuing. “For some reason, and nopony is sure why, but for some reason the darkness appeared in Equestria. Nopony knows where it came from, or what created it, but one day it just somehow fell into existence.”
“It just… Appeared? Just like that?” I asked in shock.
She nodded. “At first we didn’t even know it was there. It sat there doing nothing for a long time, so most of the normal citizens weren’t informed that it was even present. They didn’t want to invoke panic among the commoners.” She was rather tense. “By the time the darkness did something it was too late. Several ponies left to go serve the darkness, and just like that it had an army built up, and a sizable one at that.”
“Why didn’t somepony go and destroy the darkness?” I asked curiously.
“We couldn’t. The darkness has no physical form, fighting it is impossible. Not even our strongest magic was able to affect it. Because it has no physical form, it relies on servants to do most of its dirty work for it. It creates agents to command those mindless servants after that.” She explained.
“Agents?” I asked.
She paused for a moment and looked up at me. For the first time I could see her magenta eyes. She had a beautiful face that was ruined by a scar that extended across her right cheek. The mane on the actual pony was a lot longer than the one in the flyer I had. She clearly hadn’t done much to tame it. She still looked very appealing though despite these flaws.
“Agents like Trixie…” She answered.
“So Trixie commands the darkness?” I was putting the pieces together slowly as she talked.
“She partially controls it I suppose. She is still a servant to the darkness itself, but she commands its minions. They say that once you accept the darkness it takes your mind and makes you into its thoughtless slave. Agents however get to keep their free will, this way it ensures its agents are only the most evil of ponies.” Dash clearly was upset just mentioning Trixie’s name.
“So when the darkness formed its army, what did you all do?” I asked.
“At first, nothing. Celestia had never expected anypony to actually try and go to war with her, so she took a strong stance of not making the first assault. Once the armies of darkness attacked, they did as much damage as they could before retaliation was made. They burnt most of this village to the ground, and several around it. After that Celestia formed the Knights of Celestia to fight this darkness, and before we knew it we were entering the first battle with them.” She seemed to be reliving painful memories.
“What happened at that battle?” I asked very nervously.
She seemed to be a bit angered by the question. “We got our asses kicked. We thought we could send them back using our strongest magic, but it proved to have almost no effect. We weren’t prepared for them; they brought something to the fight that we hadn’t expected…”
“Which was?” I was afraid to make her remember anymore almost.
“Guns.” She answered plainly.
I tilted my head in confusion. I wasn’t exactly familiar with military technology.
“They’re weapons that fire metallic objects called bullets at things. They can kill many ponies with only a few shots, and from far away as well. You’ve seen them out in the wasteland sort of.” She explained.
“Is that what Pinkie Pie had on her front hoof?” I asked.
“Sort of, see in order to keep up with our enemies we managed to take one of their weapons and reverse engineer it. The result is the guns that you see now carried by ponies. We went a step further though and attached blades to ours.” She said.
“So how do they work?” I asked.
She giggled a little, which was the first time I heard her laugh. “Well they are controlled by very simple unicorn magic.”
“Then how can you use one? Or Pinkie Pie for that matter? You’re not a unicorn, nor is she.” I quickly pointed out.
She hushed me, and gave a gesture for me to slow down. Clearly she intended on explaining that as well. “We have a little device called a U.M.S.A. You may have seen the one Pinkie Pie had?”
I thought back to the senile old mare, then recalled the black band on her left hoof which would glow a teal color every time she used her weapon. I had never given a thought to what that contraption was until Rainbow Dash mentioned it now. I nodded to acknowledge I understood what device she was speaking of.
“Right, well the proper name for it is the Unicorn Magic Simulation Apparatus, not exactly catchy, but that’s why we call them U.M.S.As. Anyway the device is designed to simulate unicorn magic for basic operations. It was specifically designed for use of weapons, but it’s effective in everyday operations as well.” Rainbow Dash spoke.
“I don’t suppose you have a spare one that I could use then?” I inquired.
She levitated a metal band identical to the one on her left hoof over to me. The moment it touched my left hoof, it appeared as though it just phased itself right through it and when it reappeared it was right on my left hoof, like magic almost. I could feel a great bit of magic coming from the band, so it made sense that it would have such properties that allowed it to do what I just witnessed.
“Thank you very much!” I bowed in gratitude.
She waved her hoof around in a manner that suggested she was not comfortable with my gesture. “No need for that.” She said. I merely nodded in response.
“Guess you’ll be on your way to the Knights then?” She suggested.
“Well, with my injury I don’t think I could make such a long journey on foot…” I sighed.
She was silent for a moment then let out a quiet, “You can stay here if you want, I guess…” She didn’t sound terribly inviting, but it was a genuine offer.
“Well, I don’t want to be a burden, perhaps you can just fly me there and I can get out of your mane?” I suggested.
She turned her head in shame and sighed. “I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
Suddenly she seemed very depressed. Perhaps my request was out of line?
“That’s okay, I understand if it’s too dangerous. I don’t want to be any more of a pest than I already have been up to this point.” I apologized.
She laughed gently, and looked back in my direction with a soft smile on her face. “No, it’s just… My flying days are long over.” With those words she flipped the right side of her cloak up revealing what appeared to be the remains of a right wing. It appeared as though it was hacked off right at the point where it met her body.
Achievement: Faded Rainbow - Flare met Rainbow.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 6 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:10:05+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:36:14+00:00
| 712 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Five (Rainbow Dash Saga)
Rainbow Dash; I couldn’t help but think about her as I lay in the bed she surrendered to me. She insisted on staying up most of the night; I rarely saw the mare sleep, insomnia had bitten her it would seem. When the restless mare finally did slip into a slumber, it was one clearly troubled by nightmares. I recall once waking up to see her tossing and turning relentlessly. Sweat was coming out of every pore, and she looked pained. Never had I seen a pony so troubled in their sleep, not even Dipper on his death bed. Rainbow Dash probably never got a peaceful sleep.
My thoughts carried to her wing, and the dark secrets behind it. I never asked how she lost it, how could I? Asking her would only make her relive what she has already been through, and surely she wouldn’t reveal her secrets so easily to a stranger. I’m sure only time would tell me the story of her lost wing.
I glanced over at her sitting at her usual spot at the table, just glaring out the window into the rain. It had been raining for several days, it was almost unnatural. She had on that same cloak she always wore, but despite it being old and tattered, she looked very heroic in it. I could only imagine what she must have looked like in her Knight armor. Part of me was curious if she’d look like the flyer, but chances are she’d look far better. Her left ear had a small slice in it, clearly a battle wound; she had the scars of courage about her.
She was always watching diligently outside, despite the fact that Pinkie Pie always guarded this area. Rainbow Dash was the kind of pony that didn’t take many chances on anything, and didn’t like leaving much work to Pinkie Pie on the account of, “all her marbles aren’t there”.
I pulled myself up and went over to her. She didn’t seem to notice my movement in the slightest. Carefully I sat down next to her and observed her. She was a hair shorter than me, and not as stocky, though being female that was ordinary. She looked well nourished for a pony that lived out in the wasteland.
“What’s wrong?” I asked in a nearly inaudible voice.
“Well, not sure if you noticed, but we live in a destroyed wasteland caused by a war with our own kind.” She clearly wasn’t in a good mood.
“Well the war is over at least right?” I tried to lighten the mood.
She sighed and turned to face me. “The war is far from over.”
“What do you mean?” I tilted my head.
“I mean that it’s not over until they kill us all. Trixie and the darkness will never rest, they want this world one way or another, and they won’t rest until we’re all dead.” She said.
“They’re still fighting!?” I was a little shocked by this news.
“Of course they’re still fighting, they’ve already got us pinned down, they’d be stupid to just quit now. They are all just sitting nice and cozy at their fortress in former Manehatten, while the rest of us scrounge up any resources we can find just to set up a defense; Trixie as well…” She nearly growled at the name.
“You really hate Trixie don’t you?” I asked stupidly.
“I can never forgive her. For everything that’s she’s done, not just the war.” Rainbow Dash appeared to be getting far more serious.
“I find it ironic that she probably shares the same insomnia that I do. That she’s probably awake somewhere right now, maybe even thinking about what she’s done as well.” She commented.
“What do you mean?” I was a tad confused.
“You ever heard the saying ‘ain’t no rest for the wicked’, kid?” She asked.
“Can’t say I have, what’s it mean?” I replied.
“It was a song a long time ago, but it basically means that the sinful don’t get to go to sleep. They have to stay awake always on their guard. They have to live waiting for their sins to catch up to them, always looking over their shoulder for that day…” She sounded like she had told this story before.
“What sin have you committed?” I daringly asked.
She sighed. “You wouldn’t understand”
I left it at that, and changed the subject.
“When do I get a gun?” I asked.
Rainbow Dash turned and gave me a strange look. Her face then turned into a smile, as if she was waiting for me to ask that question.
“That is a very good question. Guns aren’t exactly that easy to come by out here, I got mine from the military, which is pretty much the only way to get one. Lots of dead bodies might have them, but most probably aren’t in working condition, and many of dead aren’t soldiers, but civilians who got caught up in this.” She explained.
“Fortunately, I had a stash not too far from here around the time I joined the military. I figured one day I might need it; should be a considerable amount of ammo there too.” She added.
This was the first bit of good news I had heard in a while. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to killing another pony, but if it came to it, I’d rather at least be armed in that situation. I found that out here I was forced to amend my morals and values on a regular basis.
“I can take you to it, but we might need some help from Pinkie Pie to get there. I don’t want us outnumbered by those damn savages, and have only one of us with a weapon.” She said.
*
Pinkie Pie was leading us, which didn’t exactly set me at ease. Her ability to think rationally was questionable at best, and her constant almost schizophrenic behavior was enough to keep one on the edge, but part of me was glad. I was for some reason a little fond of this mare. She had a good heart, and I suppose that’s all that counted. I found myself even laughing at her from time to time.
I glanced over at Dash next to me. I noticed her blade again. It was almost sparkling from the light bouncing off of it. The word “Colors” really seemed to stand out to me, and I could only guess as to the significance it had to her.
“Tell me about your weapon.” I finally managed to ask.
“Curious about that?” She responded.
“A little I suppose” I replied.
She began telling a story. “Well, during my time in the military I was originally issued a standard gun-sword just like every other pony who joined. When I rose to a commanding officer rank though, I was sent on a mission in the forest area. We were vastly outnumbered; I had a troop of only ten soldiers up against maybe two hundred.”
I was listening rather intently.
“Well, sure enough orders from headquarters told us to retreat. We turned around, and sure enough we were surrounded. We had no way out, and we were outgunned. I glanced over at my troops, and raised my blade to the air and proclaimed that if we were to die, we’d die fighting. After that I bolted into battle and slaughtered them. We were able to fight our way out and press the enemy back enough to get back to the castle. After that they promoted me to field commander, and had this honorary weapon crafted for me out of the crown of Celestia.” She said.
The crown!? Rainbow Dash’s blade was made of the crown of Celestia itself? Celestia was willing to sacrifice her royal jewels in gratitude of Rainbow Dash?
“Is that where you got the nickname ‘The Miracle’, then?” I asked.
She nodded.
“What about Pinkie Pie?” I asked gestured towards her.
Pinkie Pie was far enough ahead to where she couldn’t hear a word we were saying, then again I somehow doubt she would understand what we were talking about anyways.
“Well, like I said, she got shot in the head it looks like, and she’s been here ever since, just now she acts bat shit insane…” She paused, “Come to think of it, perhaps she hasn’t really changed at all…” She joked.
That meant Pinkie Pie was always this strange. I somehow pictured her to be that way though.
*
We arrived at a rundown old shack a few miles from the Ponyville ruins. It wasn’t too impressive, but it held together through the war it appeared. Rainbow Dash knocked the door down with little care, I suppose she didn’t plan on returning to this place anytime soon after this.
Inside there were several firearms decorating the walls. There were enough there to start a war within itself. They all seemed about the same in appearance, which supported my theory of them being mass produced.
Rainbow Dash levitated one from the wall and loaded it up from a nearby crate. After she finished preparing it, she started fastening it on my front right hoof.
“It works very easily; you just use the U.M.S.A. on it like you would anything else. Concentrate on pulling the blade out and it will follow. Give it a try.” She instructed.
I took a step back and held out the weapon. Focusing on it, I mentally commanded it to extend its blade out. Just as quickly as I had thought it, it obeyed. The blade jumped out with a sharp slicing noise. I then commanded it back in, and sure enough it followed.
“Excellent, shooting is the same way. You point it at something and use the U.S.M.A. to command it to fire. I’d tell you to try it, but we don’t want to attract unwanted guests, so you’ll have to take my word for it.” Dash joked. It was good to see that she still had a sense of humor.
Our lesson was interrupted by a crackling noise within the structure. I glanced around to find it was an old radio that sat on a table. Rainbow Dash took charge and began to speak over it.
“Who is out there?” She asked.
A voice from the other side answered her question. “This is Octavia, I’m a resident of the Canterlot area, and I was kidnapped by some of the savages. I managed to escape, but I’m trapped down in a cave at Horseshoe Rock. I need assistance right away.” She sounded like an older mare.
“It’s your lucky day. You happen to have reached Rainbow Dash.” Dash responded.
“Rainbow Dash!?” Octavia answered.
“Yup. You just hold on tight, and we’ll be down there to get you, just try not to get killed before we get there. We’ll get you out of there, but you’re on your own in getting back to Canterlot.” She replied.
“That will be fine; I should be able to make it back just fine after I get out of this cave.” Octavia said.
“Alright, just hold on tight then, we’re on our way.” With those words Rainbow Dash hung up the radio and gestured for the door.
“We’re leaving right now?” I asked.
“Every second counts, what choice do we have?” She said.
I nodded and accepted the command. I would finally be able to see Rainbow Dash in action, so I had little to complain about.
Achievement: That's Not a Toy - Flare acquired a weapon.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 7 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:10:41+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:37:50+00:00
| 586 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Six (Rainbow Dash Saga)
“Are you entirely sure that bringing Pinkie Pie with us is a very good idea? I mean this is supposed to be a rescue mission and no offense to her but… She’s kind of…” I was trying to find a polite way to voice my protest for bringing the obnoxiously pink mare.
“Bat shit insane?” Dash was quick to finish my sentence in a manner that I was trying to avoid it appeared.
“Well, I was going to put it lighter than that, but… Yeah, she’s completely out of her mind, are you sure it’s safe even having her around?” I gave up on not being rude.
Dash laughed lightly and shrugged. “Not sure actually; I definitely feel weary around her at times, but she’s the best shot in Equestria, so I’d rather have her gun protecting this place when I’m asleep than none at all. Though I hear you on the whole not feeling safe with her around; there’s a reason she doesn’t sleep in the house…” Dash turned away at that last part, clearly insinuating that she too had some kind of concern about Pinkie’s condition.
Coming up to her side, I tilted my head at an angle to get another look at Rainbow Dash’s face, hoping to get her attention again. She did as predicted and turned to face me again.
“Has she ever tried anything strange…?” I asked.
“Like I said kid, she was always strange, but I assume you mean strange even for her. One night I was sleeping and for some reason I woke up; I can’t remember why, but there she was standing over me.” Dash explained.
Her pause lead me to believe there was more to that story than that. “What’d she do?” I nudged her verbally to continue.
“Nothing happened per say, but she was just there breathing really heavily. We stared at each other for like five whole minutes. Finally she turned around and walked out the door without saying a word. She returned to her patrol for the night and we never spoke about it.” Rainbow Dash finished.
“Where does she sleep?” I questioned.
“No idea. I’ve never seen her go to sleep actually.” Dash shrugged.
“Speak of the devil.” She pointed to the door.
“So, we’re off on an adventure are we?” Pinkie Pie asked rather loudly.
Her voice was loud enough to wake every savage in the Equestrian ruins and bring them to us. She had a way of speaking that got one’s attention, though not in the way that Rainbow Dash spoke. Dash spoke with a voice that commanded, a voice fit to lead an army.
“Pinkie Pie, we’re going to rescue a pony named Octavia from some savages. I need you to not fuck around here, as this is a delicate operation.” Dash scolded the pink pony.
“No problem, delicate is my middle name… Actually it’s Diane, but that’s beside the point.” Pinkie gave a half assed salute to Dash.
Rainbow Dash sighed and shook her head in a manner that suggested she knew that anything she was saying was going in one ear and out the other for Pinkie Pie. I got the impression that this exact scene had played out several times between the two before.
“I suppose we should head out. Stay close, and try not to get killed.” Dash announced.
Rainbow Dash clearly knew how to keep one at ease, that or she was exercising a crude sense of humor, one that I probably couldn’t appreciate not being a part of the world the war created for very long.
“So… Pinkie Pie… Do you remember at all what happened to your head…?” I tried to make conversation with the delusional pony during our walk.
“My head?” She asked curiously. “Did something happen to it?” She added while taking a glance upwards.
“You know… That scar…?” I hinted.
“What scar?” She turned her attention right back to me.
It was useless; this pony clearly wasn’t even living in reality anymore. It was better not to force her either; who knows; maybe she’d snap and go on a killing spree or something. She didn’t look too stable right now as it is. I still firmly believed that she had good intentions in her heart, but part of me wanted to believe that they could be easily forgotten by her apparent brain damage.
“Hey you two shut the fuck up will you? We’re here.” Dash interrupted.
She gestured a hoof at a cave not one hundred yards from where we were standing. It didn’t look too special, though signs of being inhabited were all about it. Graffiti decorated much that was visible from the outside, and there were droppings of random garbage of possible savages. It wasn’t exactly very well hidden, but judging from the savages I had run into up to this point, I could assume they weren’t exactly the smartest bunch.
“Alright, here’s the plan…” Rainbow Dash gestured for us all to duck down lower while she whispered.
“Pinkie Pie, I want you to go in there and clear out any savages that are keeping guard trying to take care of any intruders. We’ll follow behind, that way I can cover the kid in case things get too… Colorful…” She glanced at me for a brief second as she mentioned that last part, as if she was trying her best not to offend me.
“Oki Doki Loki.” Pinkie agreed almost too quickly and eagerly for comfort.
Un-hesitantly she wandered over to the cave in a very nonchalant manner. The way she trotted over to it, it was as if she didn’t even realize that there may be a group of cannibalistic savages waiting for her in that cave.
Sure enough my instinct was correct. Soon a group of filthy colts bolted out of the cave surrounding her as she came only a few feet away from the entrance. Dash and I were using the brush to sneak up carefully while Pinkie Pie stood in a standoff with the group. She was very unmoved by their hostility, and appeared to be as casual as always, I couldn’t tell who I was more afraid of.
“Looks like we got some fresh meat here…” A drooling savage spoke as he gripped an old rusty axe between his teeth.
“Hello, my name is Captain Hamster… No wait… It’s… Pinkie Pie! That’s it! Yes, my name is Pinkie Pie!” She responded gleefully.
Another of the group snarled up a response. “Looks like this one is a few marbles short boss…”
There were six total circling her, all of which armed with some kind of crude melee weapon which they looked plenty experienced with.
“My friends and I would like to pass, as we’re on a mission. So if you’d let us through that would be most excellent!” Pinkie completely ignored their comment.
“Oh good, you brought us more snacks to go with our meal. You’re too kind.” The one with the axe hissed.
Without even a moment’s notice, Pinkie Pie raised her front right hoof and let her gun blast the axe-wielder’s head clean off his shoulders. Not even the slightest hesitation on her part, but looking closer I could see that her expression did a complete 180. The fun loving and lovable idiot Pinkie Pie disappeared within a second. This new face seemed demented and sinister; I was getting the chills just looking at her.
“You shouldn’t talk that way about my friends…” She warned.
With amazing speed she pivoted and shot another right through the neck. He fell choking while the other four lunged at her. She was able to avoid their swings and take out another with a single shot. In the confusion the remaining trio tried to circle around her and attack from all sides, this too was met with failure, as Pinkie was quick enough to squeeze out two shots and fell two more before their attacks could hit her, dodging the final attack proved simple to her.
Pinkie aimed her gun at the last colt, but a clicking sound was all it produced. She tried to fire it several times again, but only received more clicks.
“Looks like you’ve got a jam.” The last colt smiled deviously.
“Y'all ain’t got no more weapons now…” He laughed.
He clearly was mistaken. At those exact words Pinkie lunged her who body at the colt with full force. Tackling him she dug her teeth into his neck bit down and began to tear. The colt screamed and panicked in pain and agony as Pinkie continued shredding the skin right off of his neck and face using only her teeth.
Pinkie kept tearing and shredding at the corpse before her attention was grabbed by Rainbow Dash.
“Pinkie, that’s enough, he’s dead already.” She scolded.
Pinkie ceased and a piece of the colts flesh dropped out of her mouth as she looked up to Dash. She smiled happily as if nothing happened and nodded to the blue mare.
“Sorry Dashie, got a little carried away.” She apologized.
“That’s fine, but tone it down a notch, you’re scaring the kid.” Dash instructed as she scouted on ahead with us close behind.
Scared would be an understatement, more like mortified. I had never seen a pony actually cannibalize another pony before. I had been threatened to be eaten myself, and heard plenty about cannibal ponies up to this point, but I had never actually witnessed it happening. The last thing I expected on top of that was the pony who saved me from cannibals to be one herself.
Out of fear I stuck close to Rainbow Dash, I was practically rubbing up against her. Catching onto my fear she glanced back at Pinkie Pie and gave her a quick order.
“Pinkie Pie, wait outside and keep guard. If we need you, we’ll yell.” She told.
Pinkie Pie nodded and pranced back towards the cave entrance happily, with blood still dripping from her jaw.
“I didn’t think she was capable of that…” I admitted.
“Yeah, she’s pretty wild sometimes. Doesn’t like ponies threatening her friends, I’m just glad she remembered I was one of her friends and didn’t try to rip me a new one the first time I came back here.” She said.
“She ate him…” I was very quiet.
“Well, she was more or less trying to kill him and got carried away, but yeah, I’m pretty sure that bullet to her head really fucked her up.” Dash tried to make light of the situation, which was just like her; after all, she had probably seen far worse out here.
“Let’s just look for this Octavia…” I sighed.
“Keep quiet. Lesson one about the ruins, never assume that you’ve killed all in a group, there could still be more of those assholes in this cave…” Dash hushed me.
Her being the veteran, I decided to just shut my mouth and obey. I followed behind her silently as she lowered her body close to the ground and crept through the cave. Moving the way she was, I noticed she was completely silent with her steps. It must have taken years to master such a method of movement that would eliminate her sound entirely. I did my best to mimic her, though I wasn’t half as good as she was.
Dash extended her blade and angled it around a corner as she glanced at it. She must have been using it to see around the corner. Pulling her blade back, she gave a glance over to me and a gesture that I interpreted as “wait here.” With haste she tip toed around the corner while I inched towards her direction to get a better view.
I was only able to catch a quick glimpse, but just enough to see Rainbow Dash sneak up behind a mare and slit her throat with her blade. She didn’t even wait for the body to stop moving before tossing it aside. Blood spurted out of the new opening on the mare’s body.
Dash ignoring the suffering of her fresh kill gestured for me to follow her. Still moving as stealthily as she was earlier we could see the flicker of some kind of fire up ahead. Once again she instructed me to wait as she cautiously inched ahead.
“Don’t move!” A voice called out from up ahead. I recognized right away that it didn’t belong to Rainbow Dash, which caused me to dart towards her direction.
A brown mare stood holding Dash at gunpoint. Her jet black mane looked like it normally was well kept, but had gone several days without being maintained. She looked tired and haggard, probably been awake for several days.
“Wait… Rainbow Dash?” She said lowering her weapon.
“The one and only.” I replied for Dash.
The mare let out a sigh of relief and approached us both carefully.
“Thank Celestia, this gun isn’t even loaded.” She said.
“I apologize for my rudeness, I’ve been held up here for a while now and I couldn’t take any chances. You can’t imagine how relieved I was when I heard the famous Rainbow Dash was coming to my rescue.” The brown mare complimented.
Dash sighed with annoyance. “We cleared out the cave, getting back to Canterlot manor shouldn’t be too difficult now. We’ll stock you up with some ammunition and food and get you on your way.”
“Miss Dash, I must say I am very thankful for your assistance, Twilight Sparkle and Luna speak very highly of you. After seeing you myself, I must say that their words clearly are the truth; won’t you return to Canterlot with me?” Octavia bowed her head.
Dash seemed to get angry at the request. “Like I said before, we could only help you out of this cave, getting back to Canterlot if your problem. You can tell Twilight that Rainbow Dash has no interest in playing soldier anymore.” She hissed.
*
After hiking back to the old library where Dash was staying she sacrificed some of her ammunition and rations to Octavia. Before she was sent on her way, she begged Dash to return with her to Canterlot one more time. Dash of course refused and Octavia took her leave with a look of disappointment on her face.
“Thanks again Pinkie, you’re a true friend.” Dash patted her on the back.
“No problem Dashie! Always glad to be of any help to my friends!” Pinkie replied.
“Can you do us a favor and resume patrolling outside? I want to catch some rest; I’m not as agile as I used to be…” Dash yawned.
Pinkie Pie gave another of her awkward salutes and rushed back outside without another word. A part of me still felt awkward about entrusting her with protecting us, but then again I was already aware of what she was willing to do to anypony who tried to cause harm to her friends.
Dash planted her rear onto the floor and let out an exhausted sounding sigh. She pulled a glass off of a shelf and filled it with the flask left on the table. All in the same motion she took a big gulp of the drink.
“You seem pretty worn out…” I said as I approached her.
“I’ve been worn out for years, kid.” She replied.
“I thought you were the fastest in Equestria?” I asked.
“I was, but that’s just the thing, I was the fastest in Equestria, the years have not been good to me that’s for sure.” She took another gulp.
“You could earn your title back with ease. You already have the mark to prove it.” I gestured towards her flank.
She laughed heartily, and lifted part of her cloak revealing her flank followed by the word, “Where?”
It was completely empty. No cutie mark whatsoever. I had seen her mark before on posters; a cloud with a multi-colored lightning bolt coming out of it. Sure enough though, no such mark existed on her body.
“What happened to your cutie mark!?” I exclaimed.
“I told you, I’m not the fastest in Equestria anymore.” She sighed, letting her cloak fall back over her flank.
“So your cutie mark just…?” I started.
“Disappeared. Yup, I found out that can happen. Apparently if a pony loses their talent, then their mark goes with it. Now I’m just a worthless good for nothing waiting for the end.” She sighed.
I said nothing. I couldn’t find any words that I thought would add anything to the situation. Rainbow Dash had sacrificed more than I originally thought for this war.
Achievement: Forgot to Mention, She Bites - Pinkie ripped out a savage's throat using only her teeth.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 8 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:11:20+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:39:59+00:00
| 609 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Seven (Rainbow Dash Saga)
For the third night in a row I had been awoken by a disgruntled looking Rainbow Dash. For the past three nights she had gotten up and decided to get me up with her, and ask if I wanted a drink. Ordinarily I would tell somepony that they were being rude waking me up every night, but seeing as how I was the guest, I let it slide. I would decline the drink but stay up with her anyways.
Every time it was the same; she’d pour herself a drink, and down it in one long series of gulps without coming up for air. Then she’d sit there at the table with an appearance that suggested stress was weighing down on her. Sweat was pouring off of her like a garden house, and she looked terribly shaken.
It was no different tonight, but for some reason I felt it necessary to say something this time instead of sitting there quietly during this whole process.
“What’s wrong? You’ve been waking up like this almost every night. You hardly ever get enough sleep.” I asked daringly.
She took another gulp of her drink and let the glass clank on the table. “Nightmares, that’s all…” She was clearly trying not to tell me too much.
A part of me decided that I needed to know more. “What kind of nightmares?” I asked.
Dash glanced over at me and made solid eye contact. Her gaze was powerful, enough to probably kill a pony just by looking at them. I held still while she stared, until she sighed and looked back down at her glass.
“You know why I joined the military?” She asked.
“To help Equestria?” I answered stupidly.
“Before the war, my parents had another daughter. She looked a lot like me, just the most adorable sister I could have ever asked for. They named her Colors, and I just fell in love with the girl to where I just wanted to watch her grow up.” She said.
I could feel a story coming on; I let her continue without interrupting.
“Well, only about a year after she was born, they died in an accident. So I became her legal guardian. Losing my parents was hard, but I got through it with her. I raised her like she was my own child really, even though she was my sister. I had to play the role of big sister and mom; it wasn’t easy, but I loved that little girl so much…” She went on lost in her memories; I could even see a smile start to grow on her face.
“What happened to her?” I asked.
The smile on her face quickly disappeared. “It was about seven years ago, when this whole war began. The darkness had been growing steadily for a long time, but we didn’t even think that anything would become of it. We were wrong on so many levels though. Trixie initiated the first attack that started the war; she sent a large set of troops armed with guns to assault Ponyville.”
“W-what happened then?” I was hesitant to ask.
“Well it sure wasn’t a battle, it was a massacre. They gunned down any and all unarmed citizens. They showed no mercy to anypony, and murdered them all. Colors and I were sleeping at the time, but Trixie happened to notice that I was in the town, so she came knocking at my door. Before I knew it, she pulled me outside and her soldiers held me down at gunpoint. I’ll never forget what she did next though…” Dash paused for a moment and appeared to be choking on her words.
“She had her soldiers pull Colors right outside next to me. I begged her to leave her out of it, but she didn’t listen. She looked me right in the eye and told me to send a message to Celestia; to tell her that her kingdom was about to come to an end. Then to show me she was serious, she ordered one of her colts to ‘Kill the kid’ right there and then.” Dash stopped, tears started forming in her eyes.
I didn’t know what to say, words wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
“She had them kill her right in front of me. I couldn’t stop them…” She was breaking into a full sob now.
I had never imagined I would see her like this. Every time I had heard about Rainbow Dash, I never once thought about a more sensitive side to her.
“It wasn’t your fault Rainbow Dash. There was nothing you could have done…” I attempted to soothe her pain.
She ignored my offer and continued. “I looked her right in the eye. I promised her right there and then, that I would return the favor; that I would be the one to kill her.” Dash’s eyes filled with fire to go with the tears.
“And you have nightmares about it every night don’t you?” I asked curiously.
Dash wiped her tears and turned away fairly embarrassed. “Among other things…” She commented.
I decided that I didn’t want to pry too far; after all it was enough to make her relive one bad memory. I approached her and placed a hoof around her and smiled trying to cheer her up.
“We can’t change the past, but don’t worry. We can still win this war; we can make them pay for all the lives they’ve taken.” I explained.
She thwarted my hoof away and took a step away from me.
“You don’t get it, kid! Our enemy doesn’t give two flying fucks about anything but winning! They don’t give a fuck about casualties, they don’t give a fuck about who they’re up against, they don’t give a fuck about you, and they sure as hell don’t give a fuck about me! Our enemy just wants us all dead, and they’ll stop at nothing to accomplish it. They’ll throw as many bodies at us as they need to until we’re all dead.” She was on the verge of shouting.
“You make it sound as though we’ve already lost…” I lowered my head.
“Have you looked around us lately? We have lost. Everything is fucking destroyed, and we’re all just sitting here hiding. They’ve got some of the greatest hunter-killers that ever existed, and they’re out there right now, searching the land looking for ponies like you and me, to either turn to the darkness or slaughter and toss on the body piles with the others.” Dash was getting tenser still.
I tried to calm her down, but to no avail. “But you are ‘The Miracle’; we stand a chance with you.” I said.
“Fuck you!” She hissed.
“While you were up there in Skyvale just sitting nice and cozy, I was down here fighting. I fought every day, every night, just nonstop fighting. I watched ponies die left and right for days on end without even a second in between. I didn’t win those battles alone, I won them with my comrades, and I lost a good share of my comrades in a lot of those battles. What makes you think that my existence changes anything?” She growled at me.
I was quiet with my answer. “Because you were my hero… I dreamed of coming down here and meeting you. I wanted to help you in any way I could… I still believe in you Rainbow Dash…”
She was speechless. She turned away without a word and I saw myself out. I hoped that a night without me there to pester her would allow her to sleep peacefully for once.
Outside Pinkie Pie was keeping a watchful eye on our surroundings; it was kind of strange to see her just walking back and forth with that serious look on her face where that dumb smile of hers usually was.
“Aren’t you the least bit tired Pinkie Pie?” I asked curiously.
“Not in the slightest friend.” She responded rather enthusiastically.
Maybe Rainbow Dash was right, and Pinkie Pie really didn’t sleep.
“Hey Pinkie… What do you think about Rainbow Dash?” I questioned.
“Rainbow Dash? Well I think she’s pretty amazing really. I’ve never had a friend as great as her, she’s the best!” She replied.
“Why do you think that?” I continued quizzing her.
“Dash has done so much for me. She’s always taking care of me, sharing her food with me, and checking up on me. She’s the only pony who puts up with me. She even keeps the cabbages away, which I’m very grateful for.” She explained.
Ignoring her delusions, I could sort of understand where she was coming from. I couldn’t imagine that many ponies would want to put up with a girl like Pinkie Pie. She wasn’t exactly a pony that I could say that I’d have spent as long with as Rainbow Dash did.
Standing out here with her now, I could see she had a twitching problem. She appeared to be shivering quite often now that I thought about it. It wasn’t that cold out.
“Are you cold…?” I asked quietly.
“Nope, why do you ask?” She replied while shivering some more.
“You’re shivering…” I answered.
“Oh, I hardly notice anymore, it’s a side effect of eating ponies.” She smiled.
Eating ponies. I had forgotten all about that, Pinkie Pie had cannibalized that other pony a few days ago. The body responds to eating the flesh of your own kind by some kind of twitching and shivering. It was your body’s way of telling to that it wasn’t natural to devour your own kind. The fact that Pinkie was used to this meant that wasn’t the first time either.
“How many ponies have you… Eaten…?” I asked hesitantly.
“I’ve eaten ponies?” She asked dumbfounded.
I sighed, remembering that I was trying to carry on conversation with a girl with some severe head problems.
“Say, can I show you something?” She either was changing the subject, or honestly didn’t remember what we were talking about.
“Um… Sure.” I shrugged.
She tilted her head suggesting I follow her. I obeyed and she began to lead me down the remnants of the streets that once paved this town. Not only five minutes down the road she halted in front of a building marked “Sugar Cube Corner”, but a crude old sign decaying with age. Once I had caught up to her, she bolted right inside and I followed cautiously.
The inside of the building was far more impressive than the outside. Much of the interior looked very intact and most of it seemed to be repaired. It was clearly in the process of being restored.
It was a nice little bakery, almost nice enough to fool me into thinking it was still operational and the owners were just waiting in the back ready to take orders.
“What is this place…?” I asked.
“This would be Sugar Cube Corner, I used to work here.” Pinkie responded as she stood behind the counter and leaned over it smiling at me.
“How’s it in such good condition?” I said.
“I’ve been working to restore it for years. I got a lot of it operational, hopefully once ponies return to Ponyville I can open it back up and we can start seeing customers again.” She responded.
“You did this all by yourself…?” I was fairly amazed at the amount of work put into this place.
“Nope. Rainbow Dash helped. She gathered spare parts and building supplies from all over to help me get this place back in working condition.” Pinkie Pie said.
I suddenly felt bad. It looked like Dash still did care about something, despite trying to make it appear as though she didn’t. No matter how much she treated Pinkie Pie like she was just a loon that kept guard for her, she clearly cared about her more than she let on.
“Pinkie, do you think that Dash can change the world?” I asked, this time however I was accepting the fact that Pinkie may not even realize a war was going on.
“Of course I do. Dashie can do anything that I’m sure of.” Pinkie smiled furiously.
“Me too…” I smiled back.
Achievement: Just Ignore the Skeletons - Flare saw Sugarcube Corner.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 9 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:11:55+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:44:46+00:00
| 847 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Eight (The Factory Saga)
“Hey Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry about last night… I didn’t mean to be disrespectful or anything and you were right… I don’t understand what war is like…” I apologized for the previous night. Pinkie Pie’s words had really gotten to me.
Dash only sighed and shook her head in disappointment to me, then opened her mouth for the first time in hours. “No, don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault, it’s mine. How could you have known? They sealed you away from the war, it’s not like you were hiding from it, hell the fact that you’re here now shows that you didn’t want to hide from it. It takes a lot of courage just to come down and choose this life over that one…” Dash complimented. Rarely did I catch her speaking in positive regard to anypony.
“I am sorry that happened to you though… I have a sister myself…” I commented with my head hung low.
Nodding, Rainbow Dash wandered back over to her usual spot and levitated a familiar flask to her lips. Taking a large gulp she placed the flask back in place. It was rather astonishing how much alcohol this mare consumed really.
Our silence was broken by the door being thrown open with a loud thud.
Almost instinctually, Dash drew her blade and took aim towards the intruder. Despite being constantly buzzed she had a set of reflexes and aim that served her true to her title. She may have not been the fastest flier anymore, but she was still just as quick as she once was.
The intruder showed nothing towards the gesture. She had a rather emotionless expression which was assisted by her sunglasses covering her eyes. A dark purple in color, it was impossible to see through them on our end. With a wild blue mane combed in a rather rebellious haircut she looked very tomboyish for a unicorn. Most tomboys I had met in my days were pegasus or earth ponies like myself. The unicorns were primarily upper class before the war, so it was odd to see one like this.
Her coat was pure white, but soaked in splats of blood left and right; clearly her trip over here wasn’t a peaceful walk through the ruins. Upon further examination of her body I could see that her cutie mark was a double quaver. A bit of jealousy overcame me as I remember my own empty flank.
“So, you really are still alive out here. I guess I can’t say I’m too surprised, after all if anypony could last out here in this hellhole it would be you. Long time no see though Dashie.” The unwelcomed guest spoke as she waltzed in making herself at home.
“I know you didn’t come here just to check up on me, so what do you want Vinyl?” Dash replied lowering her weapon.
Vinyl? This was the pony from the tapes from before? That meant that she and Rainbow Dash served in the Knights together.
“Why so uptight? I thought you’d be excited to see me Dashie, I mean what’s it been? Five, maybe six years?” Vinyl commented.
Dash held her gaze. Vinyl got the message that Dash wasn’t interested in catching up, and just wanted to get to the point.
“Twilight sent me.” She admitted shamelessly.
“Well you can go back to her, and tell her I said to go fuck herself.” Rainbow hissed.
“I’d do that gladly, but I think you should do that yourself when we go back together.” Vinyl smirked. Clearly she loved the idea of telling authorities what’s what.
“I hope you have something to back those words up…” Dash prepared to draw her blade once more.
Vinyl laughed heartily and threw herself onto the old couch with continued laughter. She turned back to us and grew what appeared to be an honest smile.
“I see you’re just as much of a hard ass as you were before, it’s refreshing to see really; however I can’t exactly force you to come back if you don’t want to. After all, you’re probably the only pony alive who could best me in battle. I may be crazy, but I’m not an idiot, I know when to pick my battles.” Vinyl replied.
Dash lowered her hoof and sat down to relax once again. Pulling the flask to her mouth again she slurped down another vile sip of the liquid inside. Placing the flask back onto the table she sat quietly for a brief few minutes; Vinyl did likewise.
“So you must have some other reason for being here then. You and Twilight would both know that you couldn’t drag me back there even if you tried, so why bother wasting your time coming here?” Dash asked breaking the silence.
“A certain point of interest has come up that we felt would be of relevance to you…” Vinyl came to her hooves and trotted over to the table and rudely poured herself a drink as well. She had little house manners, but it looked like Dash didn’t mind it.
“I’m listening.” She said in between sips.
“Trixie has kidnapped Applejack.” Vinyl said plainly.
Dash dropped her drink mid-sip. Her eyes grew more attentive as she leaned in with interest. “What did you say…?” She asked.
“We were as surprised as you were. We hadn’t heard from her in years, since before the war even, we didn’t even know if she was alive, but by the time we found out Trixie had already claimed her for her own. Sent us some nice little threats about how she wants somepony from the Knights to meet her and discuss her demands for Applejack’s return. We figured since you would have personal interest in this situation that you’d be willing to offer advice on our next course of action.” Vinyl explained.
Dash was hardly listening. She was obviously still stuck on the fact that Trixie had Applejack as her hostage.
Banging her hoof on the table she stood up and stared down Vinyl. “Vinyl, you tell Twilight that I will go and meet Trixie myself. This is my fight, and I won’t have Twilight interfere.” Dash exclaimed.
Vinyl didn’t seem too surprised by Dash’s reaction, and then again she knew her fairly well I could assume. Her and Dash had a lot in common, but Vinyl definitely had a much cockier attitude than Rainbow Dash.
“I’ll deliver the message to her. I assume it’s going to take you a matter of hours to get to Fillydalphia to meet with Trixie? After all, you’re the fastest flier in Equestria.” Vinyl did the bragging for her.
“Only have one wing now. Flying is out of the question, I’ll have to go on the hoof-express.” Dash joked.
“When’d that happen?” Vinyl leaned in.
“It’s not important; the point is I’ll need about a week to get there and back. Do you think you could meet me back here when I return?” Dash answered.
Vinyl just nodded in response. An unusual smile played her lips, perhaps she was just pleased with herself for being able to get Dash to fight for them again.
“I’m setting out right away. Flare, I want you to stay here.” She commanded.
My ears perked up at the mention of my own name.
“Huh? Why can’t I come with you?” I protested.
“You’re tough kid, but you’re nothing in a fight against the armies of darkness, or Trixie for that matter. You’d only end up getting yourself killed and wasting yet another life to Trixie.” Dash explained.
She had a point, in a fight I was barely formidable, and that was with both the help of Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. I would not even last more than three seconds against a hardened soldier probably. I would get diced up in a matter of seconds, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to go with her.
“Dash, I wasn’t aware that you had a mate, you sly girl…” Vinyl smirked deviously.
“Fuck off Scratch; he’s from Skyvale. He’s just staying here because if he tried to make it on his own, he’d just get slaughtered and made into a quick meal. When we found him he was almost made into a snack by a bunch of savages.” Dash explained to Vinyl.
Thanks for the nod of confidence Dash.
“I need you to stay here though, Flare. I want you to watch out for Pinkie Pie. I don’t like leaving her entirely by herself; she’s not exactly safe that way.” She instructed.
Pinkie Pie’s safety? She was the best shot I had ever seen, and on top of that a ruthless cannibal. I would like to see the pony dumb enough to try and pull something with her. With her mental stability I think it would be reasonable to fear for one’s personal safety more especially when she was around; having her around put me at less ease than being alone sometimes.
“Keep her alive until I get back please.” Dash asked kindly.
I couldn’t refuse. I didn’t want to let Rainbow Dash down.
*
“Flare? Flare, get up.” A stern voice scolded me in my slumber.
Still half asleep I rolled out of bed and landed onto the hardwood floor with a crash. When I turned my body around to get a glimpse at who had awoken me, I was surprised to see Pinkie Pie standing over me.
Something about her was different though, her mane specifically. Instead of being the normal puffed up ball of cotton it usually looked like, it was completely straight. It fell over her figure a lot more gracefully this way, and to be honest it seemed to look better on her. She looked collected and put together, if she didn’t have such a serious face on right now.
“Pinkie…? What are you doing?” I asked with a yawn.
“There’s no time. Come with me right now, I’m in need of your assistance and we haven’t a second to wait.” She placed a hoof over my mouth.
I nodded and rose to my hooves without further questioning. She gestured towards the door, and ran directly outside without further hesitation. I followed, trying to keep low like she was doing. Stalking through the open land just outside of Ponyville she lead the way cautiously. She was acting very strange, and for Pinkie Pie that was saying something. For some reason she was being cautious and tactical now, rather than as she normally traveled with a free spirit and a carefree demeanor.
“Where are we going?” I finally asked after nearly thirty minutes of wandering around.
Pinkie turned and faced me. She gave a quick response then returned to leading us to our destination.
“The factory.” She said.
Seeing as it was Pinkie Pie I was dealing with, I decided not to bother trying to squeeze more information out of her, as chances are she had no idea what she was even talking about.
“Does this have something to do with the cabbages?” I asked jokingly.
She didn’t answer, she just kept moving silently. It wasn’t until we arrived at a rather large looking run down building that she opened her mouth again.
“Welcome to the factory, Flare.” She invited me inside.
This place smelled more rotten than anything else I had caught a whiff of out here in the ruins. I couldn’t help but gag and cough just getting near the place.
Pinkie extended a hoof to assist me up, and commented, “You get used to the smell after a while.” With a rather serious tone.
Taking her offer, I allowed her to pull me into the lair without caution. Even though Pinkie Pie was almost completely out of her mind, I still trusted her enough to not to lead me into anything that would be too dangerous. I made a slight miscalculation.
Inside the walls of this building was something I had never seen before, something that was worse than everything I had seen up to this point in the Equestrian ruins. Lined up against the walls were dozens of other ponies, chained in place unable to move farther than maybe a foot a piece. Most of them were covered in what was clear to be their own fecal matter as it was all over the floor around them.
It was obvious that many were beyond malnourished judging by how emaciated a majority of them were. Some of them were even dead lying on the floor, and some of those among the dead appeared to be rotting for probably a few days now.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it was like a live slaughter house for ponies, and Pinkie Pie had brought us here.
Many cried and moaned upon our entry, Pinkie gave a nasty glare to the general direction of all the commotion then issued a threat.
“I suggest you all shut the fuck up, we have a guest here today.” She spoke in a normal amount of decibels, but her tone was far more commanding that it usually was.
A majority of them turned away and accepted her threat, a few just whimpered and broke down into tears.
The walls were filled with so many different kinds of ponies without prejudice. Unicorns, pegasus, earth ponies alike all lined up down those walls. Fillies, foals, mares, and colts everywhere, it was clear that no mercy was spared on anypony for any specific reason.
My mind quickly returned to the wretched stench that was filling the entire building. The mixture of urine and death was a unique smell that I could never forget.
One of the more rebellious ponies on the wall line up decided to take a stance against Pinkie, no doubt he’d regret it only seconds later.
“You fucking cunt! I’ll slit your fucking throat!” He screeched at her.
Pinkie halted and turned to face the colt. She approached casually while not breaking eye contact with him. You could feel the fear building from him more and more as she inched closer and closer with just a plain expression. The lack of emotion was far more intimidating than if she was expressing anger or rage.
“Say that again.” Pinkie was just as calm as ever.
The colt didn’t even breathe. He was trembling now that she was so close. Only a moment ago he was brave and ready to fight her head on, but now that she was right next to him he was cowering in fear. The only condition that had changed was her location; perhaps though he only lashed out from pure passion.
Pinkie jabbed him in the chest with her left hoof, and the moment he expressed the pain from the impact she clobbered him in the face with the right. Pulling a large stick out of her bag with her mouth she cracked it down on him repeatedly, aiming for the head every time. He would be beaten and scream in agony for several minutes before she would cease. The colt was left on the floor with blood leaking from his skull.
Leaning down Pinkie began to speak to him softly.
“That’s what I thought you worthless piece of shit. You’re here because of your own volition, and don’t think otherwise. Just remember every time that you try to be a fucking hero…” Pinkie kicked him in the throat before continuing.
“That you’re here because of you. It’s your own fault why you’re here, and nopony else’s. I have no sympathy for you, and I have nothing against ripping your fucking entrails out and STRANGLING YOU TO FUCKING DEATH WITH THEM!” She kicked him again, he responded with a grunt of pain.
“DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND ME!?” Pinkie yelled.
He nodded furiously.
“Good, I hope we don’t have to have this conversation again.” Pinkie rose up and gestured for me to keep following her.
I tried to block the scene I just witnessed out of my mind as we approached the back room. It was more homely in there than the rest of the factory. There was a table, a bed, and several appliances in this room. Despite it being old and covered with rust, it was fairly cleaner than the rest of the building. Pinkie Pie clearly had made a second home out of this room, and it looked at the very least, inhabitable.
“Sorry about that, the cattle can be a bit out of control at times, but if you don’t show them discipline then they might try to cause trouble; I try my best to avoid that.” Pinkie explained plainly.
She was very nonchalant about the fact that she nearly beat a colt to his death in the other room two minutes ago; she was laughing it off and calling it controlling her cattle. The fact that she referred to them as cattle was a bit more unsettling. At this point though, I just wanted to remain calm, I didn’t want to give Pinkie any reason to think that either of us should be alarmed about the situation.
“It’s alright…” I managed to get out.
That’s all I could say.
“So Flare, what do you want to drink?” Asked the pink mare as she searched through some bottles in her cabinet.
“We have water, and I think I might have a few sodas lying about, that is if you don’t mind them being a little warm. I know you’re used to that fresh stuff, but down here most of the sodas are about 6 years old, so I hope you’re okay with that.” She rambled as she offered me a drink.
“You’re not Pinkie Pie, are you?” I changed the subject.
She paused in her search, and turned around to face me.
“Yes, and no.” She answered.
“What does that mean?” I questioned further.
Sighing she gestured for me to take a seat at the table with her. I obeyed and sat adjacent to her.
“I’ve been referred to as Pinkamena, and I suppose that’s the name I’ve adapted to myself.” She began.
“Pinkamena?” I tilted my head.
“It’s Pinkie Pie’s proper name, but I suppose it fits me as well. Whatever you want to call me though, I am an entity inside of Pinkie Pie. I’m a creature that gives her the strength to do what she couldn’t do on her own.” She explained.
“So, like a split personality?” I asked curiously.
“Sort of, I suppose. I still have my memories of Pinkie Pie, and my emotions and thoughts come from hers.” She spoke with such a plain expression.
A second Pinkie Pie?
“So… When you got shot…?” I pointed to her forehead.
“Nah. I was like this long before that accident. To be honest I’m not entirely sure why I’m like this. Perhaps my childhood wasn’t all that great? Maybe my parents never loved me enough? Hell, I’d even submit to the idea that I was just born with a twisted mind. Whatever the reason though, I exist as I do now.” Pinkamena said.
It was hard to believe that anything before the war could happen to a pony to drive them this insane. What could have possibly been worse than the war?
“So what’s all this about then…?” I asked cautiously.
“Progress.” She responded simply.
I couldn’t gather any words to respond to that.
“It’ll make sense in time, but you’ll just have to trust me. You do trust me, don’t you Flare?” She gave me a rather innocent looking face.
I did trust her. I couldn’t explain why, but I just trusted her. Maybe it was the fact that she saved me when I first came to the ruins of Ponyville. Maybe it was me trying to see the good inside of anypony, but whatever the reason I trusted her, even as Pinkamena.
“Yeah, I suppose so, though the whole operation out there has put some doubt in me, that’s for sure.” I admitted.
“I can understand that. Like I said, it’ll make more sense in time, but I’m glad to hear that you trust me, not many do.” She gave a weak smile.
“You must be very tired, I woke you up to bring you here, but I suppose we can continue this conversation in the morning.” She added.
I nodded. I was a little dazed from being woken up, but I was wide awake after seeing what I did here. I wasn’t sure I could sleep again, especially in this place. Knowing what was just outside this bedroom was a bit too much to just go to sleep around.
“I’m not sure if I can sleep though…” I replied.
She patted a bed in the corner with her left hoof calling me over to it. I came over to it as she suggested and climbed into it. To my surprise she climbed in right next to me.
Pinkamena pulled me close to her and wrapped herself around me. She was a tad larger than me, which was expected as she was significantly older than me. There was a unique feminine scent to her, one that I had never noticed before; perhaps because I had never been this close.
“Maybe you can sleep better knowing that I’m here.” Pinkamena explained her actions.
She was right. I felt safer lying there with her.
“Yeah…” I managed to get out.
Neither of us said another word. Pinkamena and I would just lay still until we both drifted off to sleep.
This is a secret, but you’ll need two to figure it out. I’m making this one easy for you, but the second will be trickier to find. Look for it in Chapter 9. There’s a link that you need to use to get to the secret, and here’s the first half of it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kZYm6g6vrCElgp951Zz
Achievement: Don't Get on her Bad Side - Flare witnessed Pinkamena's temper.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 10 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:12:27+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:44:02+00:00
| 702 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Nine (The Factory Saga)
Surprisingly my slumber wasn’t plagued with nightmares as I was expecting. The previous day was needless to say a bit overwhelming to me, and more than just “a lot to take in all at once.” My eyes upon opening revealed a set of pink hooves wrapped around me. I was pulled up nice and snug against a soft mare behind me.
Pinkie Pie or rather Pinkamena? I couldn’t truly tell which she was anymore. There was no doubt in my mind that she was both of these characters, but it was hard to tell where one started and the other stopped; the line between the two was very blurred, almost frightening really.
She looked far less harmful while she slept. The long pink mane on her head wrapped around her in many thick strands, which somehow seemed to suit her. Looking at her as I did at that moment I couldn’t see either of the two characters that I knew her to be. I couldn’t see the random spontaneous attitude of Pinkie Pie, or the cynical serious demeanor of Pinkamena; the mare just looked silent and innocent. I was fairly amazed at how different she appeared in her sleep, though I shouldn’t have been surprised, as I had experienced a similar phenomenon with Rainbow Dash. During the day she would look tired, haggard and stressed, but when you did catch her in those brief moments enjoying her dreams that weren’t corrupted by her many nightmares, she looked peaceful, relaxed, and dare I say, beautiful.
Pinkie and Dash however had little in common beyond that and their ability to slay their foes with precision accuracy. It was obvious where Dash picked up her skill, but the scary part was thinking about where Pinkie got hers’.
Pinkie awoke with a delicate yawn, and adjusted her eyes and head position so that she could get a better look at me. She appeared calm and quiet, this was still Pinkamena.
“Good morning, Flare; did you sleep alright?” She asked kindly.
I nodded.
“That’s good to hear, how about some breakfast?” She asked.
“What do we have to eat around a place like this?” I asked sort of fearfully.
Pinkamena pulled herself out of the bed and wandered over to the kitchen area where she pulled out a rather disgusting looking meat from what appeared to be an old refrigerator. The meat must have been at least three days old, but looked edible enough if it was cooked.
“This is all we have; I can cook it for you if you want.” She offered.
I nodded again. I had meat before since I arrived, and I guess I wasn’t above eating it again if it was all that was being offered.
She ignited a flame over an old stove near the fridge and threw the meat into a pan as she began to roast it. It gave off an odd odor, clearly from its age; she would have to cook it fairly long to have it done thoroughly with its condition.
I approached her cautiously and stood next to her as she cooked. We both stood in silence, never making eye contact or speaking, just standing with each other. It carried on that way until she had finished cooking the vile meat to the best of her ability. She threw the chunks onto two makeshift plates and placed them both on the table using her levitation.
We both took a seat on either side and began our meal, perhaps the only meal we would have throughout the entire day.
The first bite I took I gagged. It never occurred to me to ask Pinkamena where she acquired this meat before now, or how long it had been in her possession, or even what it was from. I noticed she had little to no trouble chowing down on the disgusting thing.
“Pinkamena…” I started hesitantly.
I almost didn’t want to ask her.
“What kind of meat is this anyways…?” I was nearly trembling at the thought.
She paused her chewing and swallowed what was in her mouth whole before looking up to me slowly. Her expression looked plain and ordinary.
“It’s pony.” She let out easily.
I couldn’t contain myself any further, I felt my throat push forward, and out came a stream of vomit all over the floor; tears welling up in my eyes as I tried to hold back more vomit, but with little luck. All the contents of my stomach were emptied on that floor.
How can she say that so nonchalantly!?
“Excuse me!?” I exclaimed. I almost wanted her to tell me she was joking.
“You heard me.” She said taking another bite.
This wasn’t happening; I didn’t want to believe it was happening.
“You’re telling me, that you just hacked up some poor soul, threw his meat onto a frying pan, cooked him up and now you’re eating him!?” I was panicking.
“More or less.” She shrugged.
“And you don’t see anything wrong with that?” I asked.
“Do you want me to give the bullshit answer; the answer that’s expected of me because of moral value and social correctness? Or do you want the truth? Because the truth is, there is nothing wrong with it in the slightest, just morally. It may not exactly be good for your health, but it’s not as bad as it’s made out to be.” She explained.
“YOU’RE EATING YOUR OWN KIND!” I accused.
“Yes, however you’re only looking at it from what you’d know from that sky city, and the old kingdom. In the ruins survival becomes the biggest priority, those who are willing to do anything to survive get to live, and that includes eating. I’m alive because I am willing to make that next step to live. I am willing to eat those who aren’t willing to eat me, thus I am alive and they are not. You won’t last long out here if you just stick to the morally correct way of doing things.” She justified.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Surely though there is more food out there than this!?”
“Of course, but it’s scarce. I refuse to skip several meals just because I want to nitpick on what I’m willing to eat and what I’m not. If we don’t eat them, they’re going to eat us; I thought you would have learned that from when we first met.” She continued with her meal.
She had a point sadly. Those savages had no remorse about making me into their next snack; on top of that Pinkamena had been surviving out here for nearly a decade before I came, clearly she knew what she was doing, and what it took to live out here.
“You’ll get used to it, you won’t even notice after a while.” She assured.
Begrudgingly I took another bite of the slab of cannibalism. It tasted awful on the tongue, but worse on my mind. I wanted to spit it out, but kept chewing, enough for me to swallow it and keep it down. My whole stomach was disagreeing with my choice, but I forced more down slowly and surely.
“There you go.” She smiled, but no emotion seemed to show through that smile.
I managed to devour the entire chunk of meat without upchucking it, but to keep it down I drank my weight in water. Pinkamena just finished it off like it was a bowl of cereal in the morning.
My throat screamed at me; commanding me to hurl the flesh out of my body, but I held back. I couldn’t believe what I was doing.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it after a while.” Pinkamena came to my side and placed a hoof on my neck.
Through coughs and gags I tried to response. “I don’t know… How you can say that…” I managed to get out.
“You have to pull yourself together, we have something to talk about here, it’s rather important.” She changed the subject.
I nodded and tried to catch my breath.
Pinkamena sat back at her spot at the table and looked across towards me plainly. We both sat there with solid eye contact, neither of us saying a word. The silence was finally broken by a question on her end.
“Aren’t you wondering why we’re here? What’s going on perhaps?” She asked.
“I was a little hesitant to ask…” I admitted.
She nodded. “I suppose that’s understandable…”
“Well, I can honestly say that I am doing sort of a service to Equestria here, well at least I will be soon…” She smiled.
“No offense Pinkamena, but what kind of service could you possibly be providing from a place like this…?” I didn’t realize how rude it sounded until the words left my mouth.
Her face became stern and serious; it almost made me regret my statement.
“I know that it may look bad from your end, and I won’t deny that there is evil in what I do, but it is for a greater cause, I assure you this.” Pinkamena replied.
“Explain.” I requested.
“Well, you already saw all the ponies locked up in the other room, they are a key part of this experiment so to speak.” She began.
“And how is that?” I asked curiously.
“I’m getting to that, just have patience.” She winked.
I nodded and sat silent while I waited for her to explain her story.
“See, you may have heard of a plague being spread, well many in the Canterlot region die of the plague. It’s a fast acting disease that will kill a pony within six months of catching it. Nopony is sure how one catches it, or how to treat it. As a result, many die on a regular basis, and little advances are made, due to limited resources in medical science.” She explained.
“So, what does the plague have to do with what’s going on out there?” I asked raising a brow.
“Well, they are going to help cure the plague.” She smiled deviously.
“How can a group of captive savages do anything to cure an incurable disease?” I questioned.
“Well, I discovered some time ago that everypony has a little chemical inside their body that I like to call ‘The Essence of Life’, and that it’s a special chemical used by the body which possesses healing properties. This is more than likely the chemical that helps the body repair itself when damaged, and maybe even the chemical that makes life itself possible.” She explained.
“So you believe this chemical can be used to create medicine that would be effective on the plague?” I put two and two together.
“Bingo, but there’s only one problem.” She said.
There is always something.
“And that would be…?” I was hesitant in asking.
“Extraction; the only way to obtain this chemical is from living ponies, and the only way to get it out of them is to kill them.” She sighed.
“So, killing them to save lives…?” I tried to put together the illogical argument.
“Well, these ponies are already savages, beasts that can never be phased back into society. They chose to resort to barbarianism many years ago, and have no usefulness to Canterlot. They’re going to be wiped out eventually anyways, so why not make use of them. Travelers like you and me are just going to blow their heads off whenever they try and make a meal out of us anyways.” She justified.
She had a point, though I wouldn’t call it a solid one.
“If you want nothing to do with this operation, I’ll understand.” She spoke softly.
“Rainbow Dash knows nothing about this does she…?” I asked.
She shook her head.
I looked down at the ground in thought for a moment. Pinkamena was hacking up ponies… To save lives? Peering back up at her, I could see she had anguish in her expression; she was afraid I would reject her.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
A smile lit up her face almost instantly.
“Well, I invented a machine that can extract the chemical from their bodies. The process is rather gruesome though I warn you…” She said.
“I’ll do it.” I assured.
“Alright, well we’re going to need a lot of ponies. Then we have to remove their entrails quickly and put them into the machine while they’re still fresh. We must be quick to get the essence out of them, or it’ll corrode at an incredibly fast rate. The machine will them grind up the organs and separate the chemical from the guts. We’ll need at least one hundred ponies for this next serum I’m making…” She explained.
It sounded absolutely disgusting.
“Alright, where do we begin?” I asked.
“Let’s get to moving the cattle to the operation room, shall we?” She smiled as she trotted out the door.
On her way out she purposely flicked her tail in my face in a flirtatious manner. Perhaps that was her way of making light of the situation.
The “moving” process was interesting to say the least. Pinkamena would first inject her victim of choice with some kind of numbing agent; this apparently was to create no resistance from them, thus making transportation to the operation room quick and painless on our part.
The chosen colt wasn’t exactly compliant with our wishes; naturally he decided to kick up some rebellion.
“DON’T TOUCH ME YOU STUPID BITCH! GET AWAY FROM ME!” He screeched at Pinkamena.
She retaliated with a swift slap to his face. Just as quickly as contact was made, she injected the needle into his neck only a fraction of a second later.
“We’ll have to be quick, this numbing agent only lasts for a few minutes, so that gives us just enough time to take him to the back room and strap him down. Help me get him up onto the moving cart.” She instructed.
Unlocking his chains, we quickly hoisted him up and onto a large metal cart.
“Kid, you have to help me. This girl is crazy; you’re not going to let her cut me up are you?” He was almost in tears as he begged me for help.
“Don’t feel sorry for him Flare, I originally found this one raping a young filly, isn’t that right?” Pinkamena gave a sneer look at the colt.
“If you want to spare him though, you can…” Pinkamena sighed.
I looked the colt up and down, then back at Pinkamena. For some reason, I trusted her judgment, despite how crazy it seemed to be right now. This colt meant nothing to Equestria, and I was willing to convince myself that. He was just a worthless rapist savage with no direction. I couldn’t believe I was willing to justify killing like this; perhaps my time in the Equestrian ruins changed my morals and values, or maybe it was Pinkie.
“No need. He won’t be missed…” I managed to utter out.
Pinkamena smiled happily and continued to roll the cart towards the ominous back room that nopony in this factory besides her has ever come out of.
“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE WHO DESERVES TO LIVE OR DIE!?” The colt screamed as we hauled him in.
Upon entering the room, I noticed the floor was stained with dry blood on top of more dry blood. The stench was high, but I somehow was able to overcome it. In the center of the room was a rather large cylinder like machine. Many pipes were attached to it, and it appeared to have some kind of chute on one side.
Pinkamena strapped the colt down with thick, tight leather belts. Then, using her levitation pulled a reel of duct tape from under the table he was strapped to. Pulling a strip off, she placed it over the colt’s eyes.
“The pain will be unbearable as it is, less we horrify him in his final moments as well.” She explained.
“You’re sick ponies… Both of you…” The colt whimpered.
Pinkamena leaned over him and stroked his blue mane gently. A look of regret appeared on her, and she stood there in silence over the broken colt. It almost looked like she was trying to comfort him.
“Be still… Do you want to die only thinking of regret?” She attempted to soothe.
He responded with crying.
“We must work quickly, Flare. Get your knife and help me here.” She instructed as she gestured to a nearby counter top.
I did as told. As the two of stood over the helpless victim, we both lowered our knives to his stomach area. This was it, we were about to disembowel this pony. My heart was racing back and forth, I almost couldn’t breathe. Part of me didn’t think I was going to be able to go through with it; I was already thinking of ways to back down and not do it.
Ultimately though, I didn’t think my way out quick enough; when Pinkamena’s knife touched the flesh, mine followed almost in perfect sync. With a swift cut, we created an opening in the chest cavity for extraction. I remember the screaming of the victim piercing my ears, the plain look on Pinkamena’s face, but mostly, the sight of the guts.
Pinkamena scooped up as many as she could and gave a quick and powerful jerk, ripping them from their host’s body and into her possession. My mind was blank, I was blocking out everything that was happening, every last bit of it. Brain dead, I followed Pinkamena’s example and pulled the parts she missed out, and carried them as she did.
The two of us dropped the organs into the chute for the machine in the middle of the room. It started whirring wildly as I heard gears start up their vicious cycle. Grinding noises came and I could hear the organs being mulched. Pinkamena out of excitement ran to the other side of the machine and beckoned me over to watch. I followed, and found her staring at a small glass canister on the other side of the machine. A few drops of a clear liquid dripped into the canister.
“This is what it’s all about, Flare. This is the essence I was talking about.” She smiled heartily.
I could now see what she was talking about with needing to kill a lot of ponies. There couldn’t have been more than two drops extracted from that colt.
The rest of the day continued on that way, just us bringing more and more ponies into the back room, robbing them of their guts and grinding it up to take out a drop or two of essence. Pinkamena in the spirit of not being wasteful would from time to time slice off a slab of meat or two for food later and throw them into the refrigerator.
It had finally happened; I was complete desensitized to the horrors of Equestria now. I was willing to slice ponies open to get two drops of a liquid with unknown qualities. The strangest part though, was that I didn’t mind it.
*
There was only one shower in the entire building, and that was back in the living quarters where we slept and ate. Pinkamena insisted on just rinsing off together, which I complied to; I wanted to rinse the blood off of myself as quickly as I could.
Pinkamena levitated a bar of soap over to my backside while I was turned away from her and pressed it against me. I could feel her approach me carefully.
“You missed a spot; don’t worry though I got it.” She spoke very softly.
Pinkie Pie was very predictable in the sense you could always assume she would go from one random thing to the next, and always stay peppy about it. Pinkamena though, she was far more spontaneous than Pinkie Pie in a way. Pinkamena would seem cold and emotionless at one point, but then delicate and loving at the next. It was impossible to predict her.
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” I said plainly.
She seemed troubled by something it seemed. Leaning towards me she whispered into my ear softly.
“Say Flare… I was just thinking about something…” She whispered.
“What would that be?” I asked.
She responded with a quick push, and pressed me against the wall of the large walk in shower. Holding me there with terrible force she brought her face close to mine. She was quick, probably as quick as Dash was.
“You’ve never known the touch of a mare before have you…?” She asked just as quietly as before.
I said nothing.
“You seem to show nothing towards anypony I noticed, even me. You clearly show that you trust me, but somehow you remain detached from me. Perhaps you’re interested in prettier mares?” She interrogated.
“You’re plenty beautiful.” I said plainly.
It was the truth too, Pinkamena was an attractive mare, even with that scar on her forehead, she was still something impressive to gaze upon.
“Yet I can see it in your eyes, that you have no desires…” She smiled deviously.
I said nothing yet again.
“You’re looking for love, not satisfaction.” She concluded.
I honestly had no clue what I was looking for at this point. Romance wasn’t exactly on my agenda at this point.
“You’re very interesting Flare… I don’t think I’ve ever met a pony quite like you before.” She complimented.
Leaning in slowly she pressed her lips against mine. Her lips were soft and tender, which wasn’t what I was expecting. For some reason I would have guessed her for a colder and dry kiss, but that might just be because of her demeanor.
I didn’t know how I should have been reacting, but I ended up just doing the first thing that came to mind. Simply closing my eyes and not resisting, not out of enjoyment, merely out of respect more or less. I followed along with her lead for the brief few moments that she held me there, trying to keep up with her.
When she pulled her lips away, she opened her eyes slowly, as did I. Making solid eye contact she began to speak.
“You’re a pretty good kisser.” She teased.
“Thanks.” Was all I could think to respond with.
“What was all that for…?” I questioned.
She shrugged. “I’m not sure really. I mean it’s pretty obvious you have no feelings for me, and I can already tell I don’t have any for you. I guess I’m just curious is all.” She smiled.
“I’m sorry…” I apologized.
She placed her hoof to my lips and smiled.
yZtNSBUEXZhZSNU3ZfAwSfZw/edit?hl=en_US
“Don’t be. I can see it in your eyes. Right now, your love is your passion to help Equestria, and I respect that.” She said.
“I’m glad you’re here Flare, I’ve been really depressed for a long time…” She admitted.
I leaned in more intently, trying to listen better.
“I’m not sure why, but for some reason I just can’t seem to find anything that eases my depression. I’m just wandering from one thing to the next, without any kind of aim in life…” She admitted.
“You need a hero.” I interrupted.
“What?” She raised a brow.
“I spent a lot of my life in Skyvale just purposeless. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with myself, or what I was good at. I thought that I was the most useless pony in the city for the longest time. It wasn’t until I came down here that I found something.” I said.
“And what might that be…?” She asked curiously.
“Rainbow Dash. When I saw her, I wanted to be just like her, I wanted to help Equestria in any way I could. I looked up to her, and I still do…” I spoke.
“Everypony needs a hero Pinkamena…” I added.
She sighed and nodded.
“I suppose they do.” She smiled.
Achievement: Tastes Like Chicken... Probably - Flare chowed down on fellow equine.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 11 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:13:06+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:47:47+00:00
| 658 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Ten (The Factory Saga)
I recall waking up in a room that I was not in when I went to sleep. This room was bright with artificial light, and light colored walls. The amount of dried blood on the floor was significantly lower than the rest of the factory that much was certain. A pane of glass stared at me from the left wall, next to a door that I could safely assume is locked. There didn’t appear to be any kind of exits in this room.
Trying to grasp my surroundings I neglected to notice Pinkamena on the other side of the room at first. She too had a look of confusion on her face, clearly she didn’t understand how we got here, however she obviously was keeping calmer than I was.
“Where are we?” I asked, fidgeting while I did so.
“Looks like one of the old containment rooms in the lower levels… We’re at least ten floors from the surface.” She commented.
“Why the hell are we down here!?” I was shouting.
“Calm down and I don’t know how we got down here. I recall falling asleep in the bed and then waking up down here.” She explained.
She was far too nonchalant about this situation. We were locked in a containment cell in the basement when we were both certain that we’d not been down here the day before. This alone should have been alarming to her; however it didn’t appear to be phasing her in the slightest.
Pinkamena crept over to the window and peered outside. It was mostly pitch black out there, but she must have seen something, as she turned around and nodded.
“Looks like we have a rebellion on our hooves.” She smirked.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Well, one of the captives escaped, and he must have unhooked the rest of them, and they threw us down here. My guess is they’re preserving us to give us some of the same treatment we gave them; want to watch us suffer I suppose.” She explained.
My spine tingled at her words.
“How do you know that…?” I asked cautiously.
She gestured with a hoof to the window.
“I saw a colt out there that I recognized from the captive room. Somewhere out there I saw some of the medical supplies were brought here. There were no medical supplies on this floor prior, so it’s clear that they brought them down here themselves.” She explained.
She was very calm; she must have had a plan. Knowing this information let me calm down.
“So, how are we getting out of here?” I asked.
Even with Pinkamena’s intelligence, it would be difficult to get out of this locked room; on top of that we had to worry about the dozens of ponies upstairs trying to kill us for at least ten floors.
“Well, the glass is bullet proof, so we can’t just kick our way out… But I have an idea none the less.” She smiled deviously.
I wasn’t a big fan of the type of smile she was giving me right now. It usually meant she was about to do something insane.
Approaching the glass gently, Pinkamena brushed her right front hoof against it carefully and closed her eyes. Leaning her head back she hurled it forward into the glass with great force. The glass responded with a loud thud, but didn’t move in the slightest.
I watched as Pinkamena began to repeat this process six times. Each time the glass started to vibrate more and more than the last. Finally by the fourth time, a crack was starting to appear on the glass. Smashing her skull against the glass a few more times I could see a trickle of blood coming from her forehead, but she kept at it with gusto.
It wasn’t long before the glass shattered to the force of Pinkamena’s head. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing though. Pinkamena had just shattered a pane of bullet proof glass using only her skull.
“Let’s go.” She insisted.
“I can’t do this…” I whimpered.
I had more than I could take. This all was becoming too much for me to handle. I didn’t even know how I justified it to myself up to this point. Part of me should have told me this was a bad idea from the start. I was crazy to even offer to help Pinkamena in this factory in the first place.
“Yes you can Flare, I believe in you.” She reassured.
“How can you be so sure…?” I spoke quietly.
“I wouldn’t lie to you Flare. I know I’ve put you through a lot, but I promise that it wasn’t all for nothing, but it will be if we just sit here and wait for them to kill us. Either kill them, or they kill us; that’s how it’s always been and it’s no different now.” She explained.
“I suppose you’re right…” I shrugged.
“Damn it Flare, what is wrong with you…?” She scolded.
My ears twitched at her sudden outburst. I turned all my attention directly to her. She had on a serious face which looked rather ominous with the blood trickling from her forehead.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You bend too easily. You agree to just about everything even if you don’t want to do it. What the hell is wrong with you?” She scolded again.
“I don’t know, I just don’t know anything about living out here, so I thought I’d follow the experts…” I suggested.
She shook her head.
“You can’t just assume we always know what’s best. What’s your opinion? How do you feel about all of this? What do you really want to do out here?” She asked.
I hadn’t really thought about it beyond finding Rainbow Dash and helping the Knights. I was just winging it up to this point to be honest. At first I thought that I just wanted to help ponies in general, but being out in the actual ruins made me realize that I felt some ponies were better off dead. I wouldn’t have even let the idea cross my mind back home, but I had never seen these savages up close before then.
After a brief second of soul searching I had an answer I was willing to accept, at least for now.
“I want to help Canterlot and Rainbow Dash. I’m willing to do anything to do that, which I guess is why I decided to do this in the first place. If this serum really has a chance at helping ponies with the plague back in Canterlot, then I’ll kill the entire savage population for that.” I answered.
“And how do you justify that? The savages are ponies too you know. There are even savages with the plague out there.” She commented.
“The savages would just destroy any new Equestria built by the Knights anyways. It’s clear they don’t want to change, so I don’t care about them.” I said.
She was silent for a moment. She then gave off another of her devious smiles.
“I misjudged you Flare…” She smiled.
“How so?” I questioned.
“When you first came out here, I thought you were just another overly righteous colt trying to better Equestria through peaceful means and understanding and all that rubbish… But now I can see that you have other things on your agenda… I suspected as much when I was able to convince you to help me.” She replied.
“My goal has always been to help Equestria, by any means necessary. When I left, I wanted to join the Knights, and I knew there was an off chance they would still be fighting. I was ready to fight, maybe not mentally, but in my heart I knew that if anything tried to harm the Knights I could muster up the courage to stop it.” I said with pride.
“And how about when you ate the flesh of your own kind? It was rather easy to convince you to do that too…” She had a curious tone about her.
“I’m no good to Equestria if I’m dead.” I said plainly.
Pinkamena burst out laughing.
“So, the true colors shine through. Well I’m glad to have you at my side then. Stay close and we may actually get out of here alive. I happen to know where I hid some weapons down here that we can use.” She gave a gesture to follow her out the new exit.
I obeyed and jumped through the shattered window after her. She bolted down the hallway that we could not previously see through the window, and kept silent about it. She reminded me of Dash with her ability to move silently even while running.
Approaching the end of the hall she halted me with her right front hoof. Giving a gesture for me to stay where I was she approached a female guarding an area just up ahead. Without saying a word she slowly crept up behind the mare. With great dexterity she was able to quickly wrap her right hoof around the mare and cover her mouth while holding her in a lock.
“Come quickly Flare.” Pinkamena commanded.
I darted over to the situation as fast as I could. Pinkamena pulled the mare over to me and commanded me to help her hold her.
“This bitch wanted revenge. She wanted to do us in and cut us into pieces I bet. Well, we can’t take that standing down now can we!?” Pinkamena had a crazed tone about her; her pupils seemed to become very small with insanity.
“We have to return the favor now!” She suggested.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit excessive…?” I asked.
“Not in the slightest. First though we need to make sure she doesn’t scream for help, let’s cut her tongue off!” Pinkamena appeared to be having far too much fun.
“We don’t even have a knife.” I reminded as I held the struggling mare.
“Then help me pry her mouth open…” Pinkamena said as she leaned in.
Without much further question I pressed against the mare’s cheeks causing her to spit her tongue out. Pinkamena, wasting no time bit down on the mare’s tongue. Pulling with all her strength, the tongue snapped right off, blood gushing out of the leftover stump. The captive squirmed and made noises that would signify she was in pain.
“Let’s eat her…” Pinkamena suggested as she looked up at me.
The pony struggled even more viciously at her words. I held her tightly though, preventing any escape.
“No. There’s no reason to take this that far. Our focus is on getting out of here, remember?” I reminded.
Pinkamena sighed and nodded.
“I suppose you’re right. Let’s just kill her and be done with it then…” She replied.
Without a second thought, Pinkamena strangled the helpless pony for several minutes. It was only a short two minutes after she had begun that the mare stopped moving and struggling. Pinkamena eased up on her and dropped her to the ground then.
“Come with me, there isn’t much time to waste.” She gestured to me to follow her to a closet.
Inside, she kicked at an old wall repeatedly. It looked eroded and flimsy from years of poor maintenance, but I would soon discover that it gave that appearance to hide something. After about four good bucks from Pinkamena’s hind legs the wall crumbled and gave way, exposing a fairly large metallic box hidden behind it. Pinkamena popped it open with haste and started rummaging through the contents.
She tossed a new U.M.S.A. to me, and I watched as she fastened one to herself as well. I was concerned as to how we were going to escape without them, but it was apparent that Pinkamena had planned ahead. We had a bit of magic on our side now, simulated magic but I would take it.
Pinkamena pulled out a blade and strapped it to her right hoof. This blade was different from her previous one, this one lacked a fire arm, and instead of a sharp piercing sword it was a large hook-like blade. Still it was better than nothing.
“I got a special weapon for you Flare.” She had an excited smile about her.
Reaching into the crate once more she tossed an odd looking gun blade my way. I caught it and began attaching it. It appeared to have a wide barrel on the bottom, some kind of spread shot I assumed. I recall Rainbow Dash referred to them as “shot guns”. The top had a fairly long retractable barrel with a long range scope attached to it; a sharp shooting weapon. It was perfect; I was mediocre at combat, so being able to pick off enemies from a distance was much more in my favor than approaching them directly, however the spread shot weapon would make that possible if the situation arose.
“This is an impressive weapon…” I commented.
“I built it myself. I like to call it ‘The Punishment’, you’ll see why later. It’s quite the improvement over that rusty old pea shooter you had earlier.” She smirked.
“Let’s get moving, we have some cattle to herd.” She added.
I nodded in agreement before chasing after her. She moved rather quickly, it was astounding that she was not in the military.
With a little backtracking we made it back to the end of the hallway we could see from the holding chamber earlier. Pinkamena made short work of the colt guarding the elevator. Pulling him around to face her, she jabbed her hook into his jaw and tore it clean off.
Pressing for the elevator she was silent. We waited for a solid twenty second in silence as nothing happened. The elevator clearly wasn’t coming.
“Guess we’re taking the long way out.” She said.
Before I was given the chance to reply she kicked open an air duct near the elevator and knelt down to the appropriate height to enter it. I followed her lead and began to crawl through the ducts with her.
We must have crawled for a solid twenty minutes in silence, the only sounds we heard were those of the commotion going on in the rest of the factory around us; no doubt the captives making use of the facility.
Pinkamena stopped up ahead and peered through an air vent in the duct to the level down below. I couldn’t get around her to see what was going on, but I could hear it just as well.
“When we find those two I can’t wait to get a taste of them…” A gruff male voice echoed.
It was obvious now that they were well aware of our escape now.
“I’m gonna’ suck the small one’s eyes clean outta’ his skull. Then I’m gonna’ break every one o’ his legs…” A crazed voice replied to it.
“I can’t wait until we catch the pink one… She thought we were bad before, wait until she sees what we’re going to do when we catch her…” The gruff one said, clearly he was in charge.
“What are we gonna’ do boss?” Replied another.
“Well, I think she cut up a lot of our buddies and held us here as hostages, so she should service us to return the favor; I think she owes us that at the very least…” He chuckled back.
“I like that idea. We fuck her in every hole then we eat her!” The Neanderthal sounding one cried back.
Pinkamena apparently was finished listening to them propose her fate to each other. She burst through the vent blade extruded, impaling their leader on her landing. The others gasped and quickly came to her attention drawing their weapons.
“You want me? Come get me. I dare any one of you to try and take me.” Pinkamena challenged.
A large brutish looking colt charged her, only to meet her blade just as quickly as he charged. Pinkamena was too fast for them, that much I had already gathered though from her previous fights.
Taking advantage of my strategic point in the vent I decided to offer a hoof to Pinkamena. Aiming my fire arm I blasted a spread shot that took down two at once that were preparing an attack. Unfortunately the shot was so loud that it alerted the others to my position. Given no other choice I jumped out of the shaft and joined Pinkamena in the fight.
“There’s no way we can take them all out…” I warned.
Pinkamena ignored my warning and quickly darted into the crowd sword drawn. With great finesse she hacked her way through a large group in seconds. With a quick upper jab at one of the bigger colts she slit his stomach open; with haste she pulled his entrails out of his gut and wrapped them around his neck and pulled.
I was almost taken off guard by a bigger mare with a knife in her mouth. With a few quick slashes she tried to make contact with me, but failed. Even with challenged speed, I was still fast enough to be more than a match for her.
Aiming my shotgun again I blasted her at point blank range. Her face melted right off at the shot, causing her to fall like a ragdoll.
Another colt came from behind me and swung a stick at me. I was able to block it with my fire arm with just enough time. I recalled that my weapon had a special “surprise” to it that Pinkamena told me about. I decided that now was as good a time as any to try it out. I extruded the melee weapon attachment to hear a revving noise begin to echo in the room from my hoof.
The stick was shredded to pieces by my weapon. When I looked at my front hoof I noticed that a chainsaw blade was hanging off of my weapon. This was the surprise that Pinkamena had told me about; it was perfect.
Swinging wildly I hacked through several in my way. The Punishment ripped through them with ease, splattering their blood all over.
Pinkamena leapt right over me and landed on a giant colt blocked our way up a flight of stairs. She landed right on his back, causing him to violently try and throw her off, but she held on. Holding on tightly, Pinkamena sunk her teeth down into the top of his skull. He screamed in agony, but kept trying to throw her off. I could see Pinkamena’s teeth clamp down harder on his head, and then suddenly I could hear a crack. His head began leaking; Pinkamena cracked through his skull with her teeth alone!
He frantically began screaming as Pinkamena created an opening in his head, then began to feast on his fleshy pink brains. With each bite she did her best to pull more and more of the organ out of his head in strands. It was only a matter of seconds before he fell.
“This way Flare!” She pointed towards the stairs.
The two of us raced to the top as fast as we could. We must have gone up at least five flights of stairs before we could see a recognizable floor. Pinkamena barged right through the door without hesitation.
“ALRIGHT ALL YOU WORTHLESS FUCKS! YOU WANTED A CHANCE TO GET BACK AT ME!? COME GET ME!” She threatened to the wide room.
After peeking my head into the room I could see that dozens of the captives inhabited this room.
Pinkamena rushed right into the group and began to work her magic on them. She was dropping ponies left and right; the most amazing part was that she was left untouched by any of them.
*
Words couldn’t fully describe how amazingly she had taken control of the factory again, but sure enough within a matter of minutes Pinkamena had diced up a majority of the ponies opposing her and already began the process of dropping their guts into the grinder; with my assistance of course. The rest fled to escape the mad party pony.
With the newly “acquired” guts were enough to pull together a large serum, larger than anything Pinkamena had been able to make prior.
“This is perfect Flare…” She smiled.
“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.
“This is enough to continue my research further. I have big plans for this…” She said as she placed the vial in her bag gently.
“Pinkamena, there’s one thing I still don’t understand…” I asked.
“What is it Flare?” She turned to face me.
“What was all of this for…?” I questioned.
Pinkamena simply smiled and placed a hoof on my blood stained mane. She gave an expression of gratitude and kindness.
“You’ll understand later.” She replied.
*
I wish I could tell you how Pinkamena won that fight, but in all honesty, I don’t think your heart could take it; I know mine couldn’t. I had witnessed some of the vilest actions ever committed to ponykind that day. That’s the kind of thing that happens in the ruins though; you see things you can never un-see…
Achievement: Can I keep it? - Flare acquired The Punishment.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 12 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:13:41+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:49:40+00:00
| 790 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Eleven (The Canterlot Saga)
“So, it’s good to see that you’re back Dashie.” Were the first words that Vinyl Scratch let out upon the arrival of both Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie and I.
Vinyl had apparently been here for some few hours now waiting for Dash’s return, while Pinkie and I were off at the factory. I was starting to see a pattern in her character.
Rainbow Dash had apparently just returned moments ago from her trip to meet with Trixie and Applejack.
“So, don’t leave us hanging, what happened with Trixie and Applejack, Dashie?” Vinyl Scratch rudely interjected yet again.
Dash didn’t look up at her during this whole conversation. There was something off about her demeanor this entire time.
“I’ll tell you on the way back to Canterlot… I am requesting an audience with Twilight.” Rainbow Dash uttered.
*
“I am impressed stranger, Twilight Sparkle was serious in meeting me here, clearly she sent her best. I have never seen anypony able to decimate over twenty of my armed guards by themselves, what might I have the pleasure of calling you?” A sky blue unicorn asked a hooded stranger whom had just destroyed her attempt at an ambush.
The unicorn had been adorned with a black cloak and a hood to hide her head. Upon further inspection one would be able to see the word “Trixie”, carved into an onyx bracelet she wore on her left hoof. She was neat and tidy which was odd for anypony living out in the Equestrian Ruins.
The stranger lifted her hood to reveal her rainbow colored mane along with her fierce magenta eyes. She stood silent making eye contact with Trixie.
“Rainbow Dash… My, my, my… I haven’t seen you in over six years have I? I thought I had seen the last of you, I must say I am a little surprised to see you here of all ponies…” Trixie smiled deviously.
Rainbow Dash answered with silence.
“Mare of a few words still I see; I like that. So I take it Twilight sent you to negotiate with me didn’t she? She probably thought she could scare me if she sent the great Rainbow Dash to thwart my little ambush?” Trixie pried.
Dash held to her strategy and kept her mouth shut, giving Trixie no information. Trixie didn’t seem to mind the lack of direct response however and continued to pester the pegasus.
“Take a look at your friend Applejack, I think you’ll like what I’ve done to her…” Trixie gestured to the mare on her left.
Applejack had a black essence about her. Her entire front side, including her face had a black mist like substance radiating from it. Her eyes unrecognizable, in their place two pure red orbs just staring down Rainbow Dash; they looked emotionless, lifeless even. Her front hooves had spines leading up to her shoulders, which added to her sinister appearance.
Dash took note of her flank, her cutie mark was gone; either removed, or vanished like her own, and it was safe to guess either.
Rainbow Dash remained silent, even at the realization of Applejack’s fate. She didn’t want to give Trixie the satisfaction, Celestia knew that she had already taken enough from her, less she give her one more thing.
“Turned out pretty great if you ask me!” Trixie joked.
Dash didn’t give in to her humor, instead just stood facing the ground trying to avoid eye contact with Trixie.
“Listen Rainbow Dash, I know you’re a pony who understands the value of life, so I’ll cut to the chase. You and I both want the same thing you know?” Trixie attempted to engage Dash in conversation with no luck.
The pegasus didn’t even twitch, Trixie continued regardless.
“If Twilight continues to fight then we too will continue to fight. If you all just surrender then we can assimilate you all. The darkness is going to help us better ourselves as a species. It has power and knowledge that we can’t comprehend in our current state; we can become better than what we are now if we just choose to accept it.” Trixie said.
Dash remained silent.
“What do you say Dash? Will you join us and help change ponykind forever?” Trixie had a hopeful tone about her.
After remaining silent this entire meeting Dash finally opened her mouth to speak to her.
“I won’t ever forget Trixie…” She uttered under her breath.
“Forget what?” Trixie asked curiously.
“I won’t ever forget what I am forced to do because of you…” Dash spoke up.
Trixie took a moment to ponder the meaning of Dash’s words; during that same moment Dash drew her blade and darted in Trixie’s direction.
Trixie flinched as she was not able to react fast enough to Dash’s lightning reflexes. She closed her eyes and expected the pain of Dash’s fierce blade. Squeezing her eyes tightly closed she braced for an impact that didn’t come. The sound of a slice was heard, but no pain came with it.
Opening her eyes, she could see that next to her lay a dead Applejack, bleeding from the neck. Standing above her was Rainbow Dash with a bloodied sword. The front of Dash’s coat was stained in the same blood.
She didn’t know how to react. Her jaw hung open in shock.
“Y-You killed her!” Trixie Exclaimed.
“Yes, I killed her.” Rainbow replied plainly.
“I can’t believe it… You actually killed her…” Trixie stuttered.
“I’d rather she be dead than corrupted by whatever twisted your sick mind. It’s better for her this way; she can die before she becomes like you.” Dash responded.
Trixie couldn’t comprehend all of this at once. Rainbow Dash had pulled the one move she wasn’t expecting.
Snapping herself out of her dazed state she looked up at Dash confidently.
“Rainbow Dash, I must say that even I am surprised by your actions here. Let it be known that I will not underestimate you again…” Trixie bowed her head.
Dash turned away in disgust.
“You tell Twilight that I am impressed, but that her days are numbered.” Trixie smiled arrogantly.
“Don’t forget my promise Trixie…” Dash spoke as Trixie was turning away.
Trixie turned her head back to her direction and nodded.
“Yes I know, my death will be at your sword. I haven’t forgotten.” Trixie replied.
*
“I must say that I’m as shocked as Trixie is Dashie… I can’t believe you killed Applejack…” Vinyl responded to Rainbow Dash’s story.
“At least she’s free of Trixie’s clutches now…” Dash replied.
A part of me felt sorrow for Dash’s predicament. She was put in a situation where she had to either kill a close friend or watch them suffer. It made me question myself a little, musing the idea if that was me and Torch. Would I have it in me to kill her to end her suffering?
“Didn’t the two of you have a thing for a little while there?” Vinyl asked.
I noticed that Vinyl had a bad habit of asking inappropriate questions at even more inappropriate times. It didn’t seem to dawn on her that perhaps reminding Dash of her close connection to Applejack would probably make the situation hit her even harder.
“Something like that…” Dash admitted turning away from Scratch.
Something like that? She had once harbored feeling for Applejack? It was difficult to think of Rainbow Dash in any kind of romantic situation, despite the fact that she had mentioned before she was in love a few times before the war. It must have been the fact that I only knew her as “The Miracle”, and not a common pony that I could not imagine her as anything but a warrior.
“Don’t worry Dashie, Trixie will get what’s coming. We’ll take turns beating the shit out of her when we get her. I reserved a special place on the bottom of my hoof for her…” Scratch attempted to console Dash.
“I just want to get to Canterlot and leave. I’ve had enough war for one life time.” Rainbow sighed.
“I’m sure ol’ One Eye will love to see you again. Bet she’ll do a god damned backflip.” Vinyl laughed.
“Ol’ One Eye?” I asked.
Scratch laughed heartily.
“That’s the nickname that a lot of gave the general.” Vinyl enlightened.
“Why do they call her that…?” I almost didn’t want to know.
“You’ll see when you meet her.” Scratch smirked.
“Would you all happen to be talking about Twilight Sparkle?” A voice called out to us.
The three of us halted in our tracks and moved our attention over to the origin of the noise. To our surprise a pony-like creature came out of the shadows.
This wasn’t like any pony I had seen before. Its left front hoof had some kind of black coating that appeared scaly with some kind of spines leading up to its shoulder. It was clearly a unicorn, it even had a cutie mark; a yin yang. Her mane moved like it was alive; it was a black untamable animal that moved unnaturally. Her tail was the same. The rest of her body was adorned with a dirty looking white coat.
The oddest feature of this pony was her eyes. Her irises shined a pure red; they looked as though they may even be glowing.
Scratch and Dash both drew their weapons to the mare.
“I come in peace.” She assured.
“Not looking like that you don’t.” Scratch hissed.
“State your business.” Dash commanded.
“I apologize. I overheard you all talking, and when I heard you were going to Canterlot I started following you. It was rude of me, however I figured you might be able to help me and I didn’t want to lose you…” She replied.
“How exactly can we be of help to you?” Dash asked.
“I wish to gain an audience with Twilight Sparkle, and possibly join the Knights of Celestia if possible.” She said.
Vinyl laughed.
“Don’t think that’s going to happen.” Scratch teased.
“I know my appearance can be a bit offsetting. I am a victim of Trixie’s madness just like you are though. I was an experiment to try and imbue ponies with darkness that had not yet been turned. Though my body is corrupted by the darkness, I assure you that I am in complete control of my being.” She replied.
Dash lowered her weapon.
“Why should we help you?” Dash asked.
“Due to my appearance, I am not welcome anywhere I go. I just thought that you would understand my situation after hearing your story.” The mare answered.
“Forget it, we don’t trust anypony with darkness just radiating off of them.” Vinyl Scratch spoke adamantly.
“Very well, you may come with us, and I will gain you an audience with Twilight personally.” Dash gestured for the mare to join us.
“WHAT!? Dash are you fucking insane?” Vinyl protested.
Dash slapped her in the back of the head. I laughed softly, finding this fairly amusing.
“Canterlot is protected by an anti-darkness barrier. If she is really controlled by the darkness then it would have to have tainted her heart. If that is the case, she’ll die the moment she enters Canterlot.” Dash informed.
“Plus, I trust her… Something tells me she is being honest.” Rainbow Dash smiled.
“Do you have a name, friend?” She asked.
“I was given the project name JWL48.” The mare replied.
“Jewel then?” Dash stuck a nickname onto her.
The corrupted unicorn smiled at the name.
“Jewel it is.” She smiled.
*
Canterlot was nothing like I imagined it to be. Much of the lower civilian quarters appeared to be under repair, possibly constant repair at that. It looked as though the royalty invested a majority of its extra manpower into keeping the civilian area inhabitable; though it was obvious there wasn’t much they could do. A lot of the buildings in the lower area were run down and fixed up with old plywood; many ponies lived in makeshift homes.
I had been to Canterlot once when I was a foal, but it looked nothing like it did back then. The formerly elegant roads were decorated only with cracks and broken streetlights. The grass in many areas appeared to be receding, though still better than the ruins where there was none.
The castle was still as impressive as always, though it too was showing signs of poor maintenance and age. Much of its vibrant colors were starting to fade and chip off. The marble used to build much of the structure was chipped away, and I noticed an entire tower was destroyed entirely.
Even in its lessoned state however, it still stood as the most magnificent structure to stand in the ruins. It still hung over the civilian quarter like a watchful hawk; it definitely still could scare away its enemies, that was certain.
The moment we arrived we were escorted by the royal guards directly to the castle. Twilight clearly wanted to keep Rainbow Dash out of the public eye for a moment; she wanted to be sure to be the first to see her clearly. Dash had made it a priority to keep her hood up and hide her face, it was clear she too wanted the same.
“Rainbow Dash… It has been a long time, who’d have thought you’d be alive after all that time in the ruins…” A mature voice echoed through the royal hall to us.
We all pivoted to meet our eyes with a rather interesting unicorn. Purple in color, with a pink highlight right down the middle of her mane. Her body wasn’t impressive by any means that was for sure, she was clearly the intellectual type, and one could gather that from the first glance. She was slender, but in poor athletic shape. Her figure was complimented by some interesting white robes that she wore. Her hooves all decorated nicely with golden shoes.
My eyes wandered to meet with her eyes; I then realized why they called her “Ol’ One Eye” at that moment. Her right eye was an interesting purple that matched her coat nicely; her left eye however was a completely different story. The left oculus was a bright yellow in color, and appeared bloodshot as well. From her forehead down to her cheek right through that same eye was a terrifying looking scar. The scar looked medical however; must mean that she had some kind of surgery at some point.
“How’s it going Twilight?” Pinkie Pie chimed in.
“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight turned her head to get a better look.
“Yes ma’am!” Pinkie smiled brightly.
“So, it looks like you brought some friends…” Twilight smiled back.
“That girl over there is Jewel; we met her on the way here. She may look terrifying, but she wants to join the Knights. I know you don’t normally accept anything to do with the darkness, but I thought you could make… An exception…” Rainbow Dash spoke.
Twilight nodded.
“Well, if you trust her then I suppose I have no choice don’t I?” Twilight grinned.
Dash bowed.
“I appreciate your understanding.” Dash replied.
“It’s no trouble, however she won’t be able to be a part of the military directly, but I think we can find some work for her to help out with. We’ll discuss it later.” Twilight said.
Jewel lowered her head respectfully before replying with “thank you.”
Twilight trotted over to my direction and looked me up and down carefully. To my surprise both of her eyes moved, meaning that her second eye wasn’t fake.
“And who might this be?” Twilight asked gesturing towards me.
“A visitor from Skyvale.” Dash summarized.
“Skyvale you say? We haven’t seen anypony from Skyvale in years… What’s your name friend?” Twilight asked eyeing me closely.
“Flare.” I replied.
She seemed satisfied with that answer.
“Well Flare, any friend of Dash’s is a friend of mine. Feel free to make yourself at home here. It may not be as flashy as Skyvale, but I think you’ll find Canterlot to your liking.” She smiled.
“He’s been staying with me and Pinkie Pie up until now.” Dash interjected.
“Ah, so he’s your student then?” Twilight turned her head back to face Rainbow.
“Something like that… Anyways, I would like to speak with you privately if that is alright?” Dash changed the subject.
Twilight stood up straight and walked back to Dash’s position and gestured for her to follow her.
“Right this way then.” She instructed.
Rainbow Dash turned back to my direction.
“I wish to speak to Twilight alone for a while, Flare. Go check out the city, I’m going to be a while, so you can meet me back here at the castle later.” She said.
I nodded.
Part of me was excited just being here. This was the home of the Knights of Celestia, the capital of Equestria, and the main stronghold of the resistance. I could hardly even believe I had made it here in one piece.
I knew though that the moment I arrived that this was just the start of something bigger, bigger than me, bigger than Rainbow Dash, even bigger than the Knights themselves.
Achievement: You'll Pay in Blood - Rainbow was forced to kill Applejack.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 13 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:14:19+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:52:35+00:00
| 737 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Twelve (The Canterlot Saga)
“Come on Twi, you have to let me out there to fight with Dash, I want to join her in drinking Trixie’s blood!” Vinyl Scratch drooled.
“It’s talk like that which does not allow me to put you on the battlefield, Lieutenant. You have your orders.” Twilight scolded the overzealous unicorn.
Vinyl wasn’t ready to give in just yet.
“Are you serious!? We have the battle of our lives on our hands right now, a chance to finally make Trixie pay for all she’s done, and you’re going to have me on fucking babysitting duty!? This is absolute bullshit, put me out there so I can do my job, ma’am.” Vinyl made sure to put extra emphasis on that last word.
Twilight shook her head and gestured for the lieutenant to give up and leave her office.
“It’s not babysitting duty, you’re to fly the chopper and rescue any wounded soldiers that you can. Those are your orders, and I’m sticking to them. Now get out of my sight, lieutenant.” Twilight scolded yet again.
Vinyl Scratch sighed but decided it wasn’t worth her time to argue with Twilight. The general was always stern on her decisions and even a pony as stubborn and arrogant as Vinyl Scratch couldn’t sway her once she’d locked in her choice. It was clear that she learned more from Celestia than just magic. Vinyl Scratch, before completely exiting though let out an inaudible “bitch” under her breath; her way of relieving her own stress on the situation.
Twilight was playing it safe as always. She didn’t let her victories over Trixie for the past few months get to her head. They had managed to turn the tables on their foes and turn the war around in a matter of weeks. What seemed to be a lost cause has turned into a sure victory on their part. They owed it to many factors though; their reverse engineering of the enemies firearms, their powerful military leaders, and most importantly, to their determination. Even still though, Twilight couldn’t help but shake the idea that it was too easy. Trixie was arrogant, but she couldn’t have been dumb enough to back herself this far into a corner, that’s the only part that had Twilight worried.
Before she could collect her thoughts are further, she was interrupted by a familiar face. A pony that usually gave her a harder time than Vinyl Scratch, but a pony she trusted more than any other living creature in Equestria.
“Vinyl seemed extra pissy, I suppose you and her had a talk?” Rainbow Dash smirked.
Twilight laughed lightly at Dash’s joke before replying.
“Yes, well although she is a formidable soldier, I cannot ignore her mental evaluations. I don’t think being on the front line or in combat is good for her. She’s already dangerously unstable as it is, the last thing she needs is more reasons to snap.” Twilight explained.
“You mean she hasn’t already?” Dash joked again.
“That’s debatable.” Twilight played along.
“Anyways, I didn’t come here to talk about Vinyl and whatever has her pissy today.” Dash explained.
“You’re asking permission to kill Trixie yourself, right?” Twilight jumped right to the only logical conclusion.
“How’d you know?” Dash raised a brow in surprise.
“Why else would you be in my office right now? All you’ve talk about since this war began was getting her and mounting her as a trophy. I even recall you once mentioning you wanted to mount her rear end as a second trophy and let everypony take turns bucking it?” Twilight sat down at her desk lifting her glasses to her face.
Dash got a big grin across her face.
“That’s one of my personal favorites.” She commented.
“Yes, well I’m afraid the answer is no on that question though. Your orders are to lead us to victory and bring Trixie back alive if possible.” Twilight instructed.
“Come on Twilight, that’s bullshit! After all she’s done!?” Dash growled.
Twilight nonchalantly began writing letters as she listened to Dash. The sudden change from giddy to enraged didn’t seem to affect her in the slightest, she was used to Dash’s rash behavior at this point.
“Believe me, I understand that Trixie is a cold-hearted conceited bitch, but we have a little something called civility here. Everypony has the right to a trial, and judgment before the crown; if we didn’t have laws or rules we’d be no better than Trixie’s army.” Twilight preached.
“Horseshit.” Dash spit.
“It’s not ‘Horseshit’, commander, its proper civility. We cannot allow ourselves to stoop to the level of our enemies, if we allow such things to happen it’s only a matter of time before we become our enemies.” She lectured again.
“Spare me your lectures; I’ll follow your stupid orders.” Dash rolled her eyes.
“Glad we understand each other commander.” Twilight didn’t even take her eyes up from her papers.
Dash understood it was Twilight’s way of saying their conversation was over.
*
“So, I want all of you to understand our orders, none of us are to kill Trixie unless there is no other alternative; seems as though Twilight is pussy-hoofing around the situation.” Rainbow Dash explained to her team.
“I can understand why Twilight is being so cautious though…” A soft spoken pegasus replied to Dash.
“Although I agree partially with Twilight on the sense that we don’t want to come off as the same ruthless animals our enemies are, I think she fails to understand it from the point of view of those of us actually on the fields fighting.” Replied another of the group.
“Believe me Rarity, I know. Twilight doesn’t realize yet that while we’re stuck to rules and regulations, our enemies are allowed to do whatever they see fit to win. None-the-less she’s in charge, and we’ll have to put up with that unless Celestia says otherwise. These are our orders, and they’ll be carried out as stated. I suggest you all get ready, we’re leaving within the hour.” Dash commanded the group.
Dash’s ability to take command still caught Rarity off guard from time to time. She could be cool and collected one moment, and then turn into a drill instructor on the next.
Rarity approached Rainbow Dash cautiously as the rest of the group dispersed. Oddly she appeared more chipper than she normally did before a battle. Rarity assumed it had to do with the fact that Trixie would at least be apprehended soon.
“Rainbow Dash, may I speak with you?” Rarity spoke at a nearly silent level.
Dash turned to face her with a smile.
“What’s on your mind Rarity?” She said.
“It’s about Sweetie Belle…” Rarity lowered her head.
She knew it was always a touchy subject to bring up one’s sister around Rainbow Dash, especially knowing what happened to her sister.
“Still no sign of her; I know it’s frustrating Rarity, but I’m almost certain she’s okay, her and Scootaloo both.” Dash smiled.
Rarity sighed.
“I’m sorry Rainbow Dash…” Rarity bowed respectfully.
Dash tilted her head in confusion.
“What for? You’ve done nothing wrong.” She asked.
“Your sister died that day, right in front of you, yet you still managed to gather up my sister and her friend Scootaloo and get them to safety regardless. You saved their lives when you didn’t have to…” Rarity had a very soft tone.
Dash shook her head and placed a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder, a gesture of comfort.
“Rarity, I did what was right that day. I would have liked to save my sister, but conditions didn’t allow. I wanted to save those who were alive and had a chance of getting out. My only regret is that I went back in to save more ponies and lost sight of the two. I am almost certain though that they’re alive, and that they’re together; it sets my mind at ease, because if they’re together then I know they’ll be safe no matter what happens.” Dash comforted her.
Rarity allowed a smile to cross her face.
“Thank you Rainbow Dash. You’re a good friend.” She replied.
*
The air outside of Canterlot felt moist and thick as it blew roughly through the green blades of green that covered the land. That same grass was to be soaked with blood today.
Many of the Knights took an interest in the upcoming challenge between Rainbow Dash and Trixie. The two had made a wager almost a year ago now, and now one of them was to pay up in their own blood. Nopony was certain who would come out with the other’s head, but all were certain that both would not walk away from this battle.
“KNIGHTS OF CELESTIA!” A confident commander screamed to a hall full of the Knight’s finest soldiers.
The crowd cheered loud enough to call thunder from the heavens.
“As many of you know, I am Rainbow Dash.”
They let out another roar of excitement.
“I will keep this brief before turning it over to my lieutenant.” Dash commented.
The crowd grew silent at the sound of Dash’s voice.
“War is no joking matter, we’ve all seen that. Trixie is evil and ruthless, so I ask you all to think of your families while you’re out there. Don’t try and be a hero out there, less we lose more than we have to. That is all…” She spoke.
Dash gestured for Vinyl Scratch to come forth and deliver her speech. As Vinyl approached Dash began to retreat off of the balcony overhanging the hall.
“This darkness has committed crimes against ponykind. It is a menace to our way of life, and it must be punished for its actions!” She began.
The crowd roared once more. Vinyl Scratch clearly had the ability to command a crowd that could even rival Rainbow Dash’s.
“It cannot be reasoned with, there is only one thing that it understands, and that is death. Let us show it that same death then! Let us show it that it has not even begun to understand what we’re capable of! Let us destroy it and all who assist it!” She yelled.
A wildfire had sparked in the crowd below; they were screaming and yelling with delight louder than they had ever before. The room was ablaze with vigor, determination and excitement. Rainbow Dash just wanted quietly from a distance.
“This Trixie, she is a traitor to her own kind; a coward that hides behind her shield of darkness to keep us from getting to her!” Scratch continued.
The cheers had grown so loud that they filled the whole castle at this point.
“BUT NO MORE! LET US SHOW HER WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BETRAY CELESTIA! LET US DRAG HER BACK BY HER HIND HOOVES!” Vinyl screamed with delight.
The crowd replied in the same manner.
“WE WILL RIP HER APART AND DRINK HER BLOOD! LONG LIVE CELESTIA!” Vinyl finally screamed.
“LONG LIVE CELESTIA!” The crowd rejoiced.
*
BANG!
Dash’s firearm roared as it felled another from a distance. A clean shot right through the skull; she had learned to grow fairly used to this occurrence. She had been trained to be the best shot she could be after all.
Flapping her wings furiously she brought herself closer to the ground where she would then bring her sword to contact with more of her enemies.
Around her she could see blood flying from every direction. There wasn’t a patch of dirt that wasn’t stained with blood around her. Everything would be soaked without prejudice, including her.
The screams of bullets and battle cries were all that could be heard through the air. One couldn’t even hear themselves speak with the conditions around them. It was exactly as Dash recalled every other battle she had been in up to this point: Hell.
Two heavy built stallions charged Dash from the front hoping to overpower her. Their efforts were wasted, as with great haste she impaled one in the head with her sword and with a quick jerk was able to pull it off of his shoulders with it still attached to her blade. The neck of the stallion began to spurt out red goo like a sprinkler. She then hurled the skull at the other with such great force that it broke his neck on impact.
Dash charged through the crowd with blade drawn, hacking her way through anything that would try and stop her. Her weapon was more than a match for any would-be warriors trying to block her path; it cut through them like paper.
“Trixie, I know you’re out here…” Dash thought out loud.
Dash took lift off mid stride and began scanning the ground from above for anything that even resembled Trixie. She knew that Twilight said not to kill her, but Dash was certain Twilight had no problem with her being dragged back by her jaw, and if she did Dash didn’t care.
In the far distance Dash could see blue figure in what appeared to be a cloak standing at ease a far distance from the actual fighting.
“Found you.” Dash smiled.
At that same moment Dash heard an ear shattering scream behind her. Quickly she turned to locate the familiar cry.
Rarity had been grabbed by one of the enemy pegasus and had managed to shoot her way free, but now was falling from Dash’s altitude. Without a second thought Dash abandoned her plans to pursue Trixie and bolted after Rarity.
“I’m coming Rarity!” Dash screamed.
She was getting closer, only a little bit further now. Flapping her wings as hard as she could she was trying everything she could just to get a little more speed.
A sharp pain struck her from her wing all the way down her spine. At that same moment she stopped flapping and began to fall through the sky like a comet. She had been shot in the wing.
Tumbling to the ground Dash rolled down a steep rocky slope hitting every jagged rock on the way down. She could feel each rock hit her, each like another individual bullet ripping at her skin. When she finally reached the bottom of the slope she opened an eye to see Rarity only a few feet away.
Dash forced her body to allow her to stand upright and stammer her way over to Rarity. When her eyes adjusted she examined Rarity.
Blood was gushing out of her right side like a hose. She whimpered at each spurt but did her best to hold in her cries. She had been shot.
Tearing off a piece of cloth off of her uniform Dash began to wrap the wound as best she could. She was no Fluttershy, but she knew a thing or two about covering wounds. A short double knot later the wound was covered at the very least. It would have to do until she got her to Fluttershy.
“Can you walk?” Dash asked.
“I don’t… Think so…” Rarity coughed between words.
“Then I guess I have to carry you.” Dash responded as she lifted Rarity onto her back.
“Just leave me here Dash; I’m only going to slow you down now…” Rarity requested.
Dash grunted but began making an ascent back up the hill she had fallen down to reach Rarity. Her body was weak from her own injury, and the weight from Rarity wasn’t helping; regardless she pressed onward as quickly as they could.
“Rainbow Dash, just leave me here…” Rarity insisted.
“No soldier gets left behind in the Rainbow Raiders, and that’s not about to change.” Rainbow Dash hissed at Rarity.
“Stubborn as always…” Rarity sighed.
Only a few steps up the hill Dash’s legs gave out. She and Rarity both began to fall back down the hill and roll into the nearby lake.
Dash struggled to swim to Rarity and keep them both afloat. She held on tight to the unicorn.
“Rainbow… What’s that…?” Rarity asked gesturing behind Dash.
Dash turned her head instinctively to witness a black line reaching out to the sky off in the distance. The line began to expand in width before the bottom swelled up in an orb that expelled itself outward. It was some kind of explosion.
“Shit!” Dash cursed.
“All units fall back, I repeat fall back! Retreat to the castle right this instant! Get away from that beam! This is an order!” Dash hollered into her radio.
A gust of wind snapped the grip that Rainbow Dash had around Rarity causing her to be pulled by the current. Frantically she attempted to swim to her direction but her body was still weak from being thrown around so much.
She was only moments from slipping out of consciousness when she felt a hoof grab her and pull her out of the water. Her ears could hear the sound of propellers spinning.
A moment later she realized she had been pulled into a helicopter piloted by none other than Vinyl Scratch. Turning to look for the one who grabbed her she recognized a familiar purple unicorn. Frantically she looked left and right for Rarity, only to realize she wasn’t in this helicopter.
“TURN AROUND! WE HAVE TO GET RARITY!” Dash spit out.
“Negative, we are heading away from what appears to be some kind of new weapon.” Twilight commanded.
Rainbow Dash quickly pivoted and jabbed her front hoof right into Twilight’s face. Twilight being as frail a fighter as she is fell without much effort.
“You fucking bitch! You should have saved her, not me!” She growled.
“We didn’t have time to save the both of you, it was either you or her, and you were more important than her.” Twilight justified.
“More important!? I’LL KILL YOU!” Dash picked up Twilight and held her against a wall by her throat.
“What… Good will… Killing me do…?” Twilight spoke between gasps.
“You should have saved Rarity… Not me…” Dash loosened her grip on Twilight.
“Could of and should of gets us nowhere. The fact remains that we didn’t save Rarity, we saved you.” Twilight reminded.
Dash looked up at the unicorn and noticed her face for the first time during this encounter. Her right eye was held closed tightly with blood seeping from it.
“Did I hit you in the eye…?” Dash asked nervously.
“It wasn’t you. On my way out here I was careless… I got slashed in the eye by an assassination attempt… They were counting on me to go save you. Fortunately Lieutenant Scratch was there to take care of the assailant.” Twilight explained.
“I see…” Was all Rainbow Dash could manage to get out.
*
It had been days since Rainbow Dash left her quarters. Ever since their return from the last battle they had she had locked herself in her quarters and refused visitors or even meals. Twilight’s concern only grew with each passing hour.
“Dash, open this door or I’m going to have it broken down.” Twilight demanded as she pounded on her door viciously.
To her surprise, Dash complied. The door creaked open only a hair, but Twilight darted inside before Dash could change her mind.
“Rainbow Dash, you can’t just stay locked up in your room all day, we need you out there.” Twilight gestured towards the door.
Dash was hardly listening to her. She sighed and poured herself a drink on the nearby table.
“They don’t need me out there anymore…” Dash sulked.
“Yes we do, you’re the fastest in Equestria, and the best commander any of us have ever seen. You’re vital to our success.” Twilight protested.
Dash scoffed at statement. Setting her drink back down on the table after a few large gulps she approached Twilight. She grabbed the blanket wrapped around her with her teeth and wrenched it off with great force, tearing it as she did so.
The first thing that Twilight noticed was the absence of a cutie mark on her flank.
“I’m not the fastest in Equestria anymore…” Dash replied solemnly.
“Rainbow Dash, your cutie mark didn’t make you who you are, you did. You just need to believe in yourself-“ Twilight was cut off.
“No, not anymore… I wasn’t fast enough to save Rarity, and for that reason… I have decided I never want to fly again…” Dash turned to reveal her other side.
Her wing, it had been hacked clean off; blood still dripped from where it once was.
“Y-you cut your wing off!?” Twilight responded.
“That’s not all. I’ll be leaving the Knights; I want nothing to do with you and your war anymore.” Dash answered.
“Dash we need you!” Twilight argued.
“Look around you Twilight. We’ve already lost…” Dash said.
*
I didn’t know what say. There weren’t any words that could capture how I felt about this information.
“Anyways, that’s all I know, and I only know from what Twilight has said.” Vinyl explained.
“So, that’s why Twilight and Rainbow Dash don’t get along?” I asked.
“Well, they’ve always had a heated relationship, but that’s how it came to be like it is now.” She replied.
“Thank you Vinyl Scratch… This has really opened my eyes…” I bowed.
“No need to thank me, I figured since you were Dash’s friend you deserved to know. She’s not like the rest of us in the Knights. Dash has seen more hardship than any one pony should...” Vinyl said.
“Even you?” I asked.
She chuckled.
“Well, that’s debatable.” She smirked.
I suppose that I hadn’t fully earned Vinyl’s trust yet, at least not enough to get her to show me her secrets just yet.
Achievement: A True Knight Never Leaves a Mare Behind - Flare listened to Rainbow's story.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 14 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:15:05+00:00
|
2017-02-24T20:56:47+00:00
| 651 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Thirteen (The Cloudsdale Saga)
I was adjusting to life in Canterlot a lot easier than I expected. It certainly wasn’t anything like being in Skyvale, but it was better than being in the ruins down below. The entire Canterlot region was perched on a mountain side with the second half of the city built into a large pony-made cave. The rest of the city was built upon steps that were scaling the mountain side. The lower steps seemed to be reserved almost entirely for agricultural use.
The city had a feudalistic structure to it. Most ponies lived near the upper levels of the city right under the castle; I presumed it was the safest of regions within the city, judging from the abundance of ghettos.
One thing I had discovered within the brief time I had been there was that it certainly was the city of pleasures. Most of the local “businesses” in Canterlot were on the “shady” side. Gambling, drinking and promiscuity seemed to rule much of the ghetto regions, and even a good chunk of the upper class areas.
I had done some snooping around the city trying to find any other interesting information of before war time, mostly about Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch, and perhaps a question or two about Pinkie Pie. Most were very open to talk about Dash, but the only thing anypony really knew about Vinyl was that she was a DJ for the radio before the war and they wanted nothing to do with her. Nopony seemed to want to talk about Pinkie Pie, but that much was expected.
We had been held up in Canterlot for two whole days at this point with Dash still speaking to Twilight. She never left the castle to tell us how things were going, so we could only assume that Twilight was persistent in trying to recruit her back to the military. The two had a lot to catch up on anyways, so I didn’t think much of it; we’d know when it was over.
My free time was mostly spent talking to either Vinyl Scratch or Jewel, mostly the latter though, as Vinyl didn’t ever really have anything to say besides how she couldn’t wait to “get back into the action.” Her name was appropriate, as she was a broken record at times.
Jewel had told me about Trixie’s fortress. It’s bigger than Canterlot that was for sure, and it was protected by more soldiers than the Equestrian military could provide, probably more lives than the civilians and soldiers combined. It was pure luck and chance that Jewel was able to escape according to her story. I felt sorry for her, created simply for the purpose of war; she was probably very lost in the world right now, more so than myself.
After over two days of waiting, Twilight finally requested an audience with both Vinyl Scratch and I.
“Lieutenant Vinyl Scratch and Flare of SkyVale.” Twilight began.
The two of us held still awaiting her next words.
“Princess Luna would like to speak with the two of you. I request that you remain respectful and listen carefully. That means you Lieutenant.” Twilight glared at Vinyl.
Princess Luna? I was curious as to why the second princess of Equestria had any interest in me. I could probably fathom why she would want to speak with Vinyl Scratch, being in the Knights and all, but I was just a visitor from SkyVale.
From the shadows of the hallway in front of us, an elegant dark colored mare stepped out from the bend and approached us. She was decorated from head to hoof in moon shaped emblems.
“Lieutenant Vinyl Scratch, it’s a pleasure to see you again.” Luna began.
Vinyl scoffed and gave a gesture with her head that made me believe she was rolling her eyes. There was no way to be certain of course.
“And you… Flare is it?” Luna ignored Vinyl’s rudeness.
I nodded.
“It’s a pleasure; I’ve heard great things about you from Twilight. She said Commander Dash has taken you under her wing so to speak.” Luna smiled.
“She actually doesn’t go by commander anymore, and not really. I was more or less just living with her and Pinkie Pie until I figured out what to do next really…” I admitted.
Luna seemed to grow a pleased look upon her face as she turned around and gazed out the nearby window. She seemed burdened by something.
“I understand you came to help the war effort?” Luna questioned without turning to face me.
“Yes, although when I left SkyVale I had thought the war was long over,” I said.
“Twilight, would you please brief our guests on the situation at hand?” Luna turned to Twilight.
“Yes One Eye, please brief us.” Vinyl teased.
Twilight ignored Vinyl’s attempt to get under her skin and flicked her head in an upward gesture. Her horn glowed as a projection appeared before the four of us. Five golden necklaces and a crown with odd shaped gemstones appeared in a holographic form before us.
“These are the elements of harmony, though I’m sure you’re familiar with them Lieutenant,” Twilight explained.
“I’ve heard stories about them; they were used to defeat Discord and Nightmare Moon right?” I asked.
Twilight nodded.
“It’s good to see you’ve brushed up on your history, it saves us some time. As you know these six magical artifacts possess power beyond imagination; however they were scattered across Equestria years ago, and due to our limited resources, we’ve only been able to get our hooves on two of them,” Twilight spoke.
“Do you think that these elements can defeat Trixie?” I asked.
Twilight shook her head.
“It’ll take more than the elements to truly destroy the darkness that Trixie has helped spread, however Trixie commands an army that is more than three times our size, and we will need every advantage we can get to defeat her…” Twilight smiled.
It was a little disheartening to see doubt from Twilight. I had thought she would be certain of the Knight’s victory, but then again she had proven far too practical for fantastical thinking at this point. She clearly wasn’t going to let pride do her in.
Twilight seemed to be the type of pony that didn’t bet on determination, but rather statistics. This was something that I’m certain Rainbow Dash and her clashed about on a frequent basis.
“So what do we have to do with all this?” I finally asked.
“I’m eager to know as well,” Vinyl spoke up.
“Well, Flare as much as I trust Rainbow Dash’s word, you are an outsider. We are uncertain if we can trust you just yet…” Twilight admitted.
Her concern was fairly well placed, after all I was not only a stranger to Canterlot, but to Equestria in general. I doubted that Canterlot got visitors from SkyVale on a regular basis.
“So you want to test me?” I finished her thought.
I was dead on.
“You catch on quick. Yes, we need you to do something for us. If you are successful then we will know that you serve the crown, and not Trixie,” Twilight said.
“We want you to go and retrieve an element of harmony and bring it back here. We’ve found some old documents that suggest the location of one of them,” Luna explained.
“I’m not sure I follow…” I replied.
Twilight turned to face me.
“What do you mean?” She responded.
“If I am untrustworthy, and these elements are crucial to your success, then why trust me to obtain one? If I am with Trixie then won’t I steal the element and return it to her?” I questioned.
“That’s where Vinyl comes in,” Twilight smirked.
“Huh?” I raised a brow.
“If you should do anything deemed threatening to Equestria, she’ll kill you,” Twilight said.
I wasn’t exactly very comfortable with how plainly she said that sentence. She was either completely confident that I wouldn’t betray them, or she had little care if I was successful or not.
“Fine, where is this element then?” I replied accepting the challenge.
Luna and Twilight grew silent.
“Well?” I asked.
“Cloudsdale…” Twilight nearly whispered.
“Are you sure this is a retrieval mission, and you’re not just trying to get rid of me?” Vinyl said.
“What’s so bad about Cloudsdale?” I asked.
Vinyl became tense and serious; it was an odd sight to behold.
“Cloudsdale has been abandoned for nearly six years. Ever since the darkness overtook Equestria, no pony has come there. There’s all kind of stories about the place being a haunted ghost town now. The point is no pony goes to Cloudsdale… Ever…” Vinyl explained.
“How do you expect me to be able to retrieve something from one of the most dangerous places in Equestria then!?” I protested.
Vinyl smirked.
“That’s why they are sending me with you…” Her face grew into a big grin.
“I’m not sure I follow…” I said.
Twilight came to my side and placed a hoof upon my shoulder.
“With the Lieutenant with you, it’s going to take Trixie herself to get near you,” Twilight assured.
I had heard war stories about Vinyl Scratch, but had never seen her actually fight. Some stories told tales of her slaying dragons with nothing but a blade. I suppose there had to be at least some truth to them.
“Fine, I’ll do it.” I replied.
“Excellent! We will give you plenty of time to prepare for your departure. We encourage you to relax a bit and get some rest before you go,” Twilight smiled.
She seemed eager to get things moving very quickly.
Vinyl seemed uninterested in Twilight’s words, and was already making for the exit. I suppose to her all this seemed like was a babysitting job.
“One more thing,” Twilight called out to us.
I turned.
“Jewel has been appointed as a weapon smith, and we had her do some fine tuning on your weapons. She said you should go pick them up before you leave,” Twilight said.
Vinyl spit and continued walking.
“Thank you, we’ll be sure to see her,” I thanked.
---
Jewel was plenty excited to see the two of us, though Vinyl didn’t appear to show the same excitement. I tried my best to ignore her and carry on.
“It’s nice to see you again Jewel, how’s life in Canterlot treating you?” I asked.
She smiled brightly.
“Just fine, though some of the locals give me a nasty look now and then, it’s far better than being out in the ruins. Being that I have darkness inside of my body I wasn’t permitted to join the military, but my crafting abilities lent themselves well to making weaponry, years scavenging in the ruins are paying off I suppose,” she replied.
Vinyl just wandered about lazily and leaned herself against a nearby support beam for the store. Not a word left her mouth.
“Twilight said you had something for us?” I changed the subject.
The grin on her face grew at the question.
“I most certainly do. Remember when you came into town and they had you leave your weapons with the royal guards?” She asked.
“Don’t remind me…” I rolled my eyes.
During our arrival they had to disarm myself and Pinkie Pie. They allowed Rainbow Dash to keep her blade however as they recognized her as the former commander of the Rainbow Raiders. That and she told them that they’d have to pry it off of her dead body first.
We were told we’d get our weapons back, but I never actually guessed they would return them.
“Well, they ended up here and I did a little bit of work on yours. It took me a bit longer than usual, as I’ve never seen a weapon like this before, where in Equestria did you pick this up?” She asked.
I recalled the factory for a brief moment.
“It’s better you don’t ask…” I grinned sheepishly.
“Well, either way I saw your weapon was very effective against flesh, but when it comes to blocking other swords, the chainsaw attachment was only going to get in the way. After some thinking I realized what it needed,” she tossed the weapon back to me as she spoke.
Fastening it to my front right hoof I inspected it closer. Letting the blade come out, I noticed the chain around it had a white glass like substance around the edges of it. It sparkled like precious gemstones.
“I lined the edges with diamonds. I did a few tests with it, and well… Let’s just say you’re going to be a cut above the competition out there. I can promise you that particular blade can literally cut any steel sword in half.” She smiled.
I stared at the blade in awe. I wasn’t exactly used to receiving gifts, nor was I expecting one out here. Thanks to Jewel however Pinkie Pie’s weapon would prove even more useful to me now.
“Thank you Jewel, you have no idea how much this means to me,” I bowed thankfully.
“The bows are unnecessary darling. If you want to thank me, how’s about you follow me to the back room?” She winked flirtatiously.
“Er… What?” I blinked.
She burst out laughing.
“You’re too cute. I was only kidding, unless of course you were interested…” She winked yet again.
I gave her another sheepish smile and declined.
“Are you quite done?” Vinyl yawned.
Jewel directed her attention over to the snow colored unicorn. Jewel’s strange glowing eyes focused on her viciously before replying.
“I did a bit of research on your fighting style. I heard a lot of stories, and I think I have just the thing for you…” Jewel smiled as she approached Vinyl.
Vinyl didn’t seem to even fake interest in the offer. It would appear as though her prejudice would hold out even when offered gifts. Then again, there was always the chance that this was how she always acted, from the stories I had heard, that idea wasn’t too farfetched.
Jewel levitated a long sharp blade with a hook jutting off of the backside. She then presented the blade before Vinyl Scratch. The piece of metal was enough to catch even her attention.
“I made this with you in mind. It’s perfect for grappling enemies from up close,” Jewel explained.
Vinyl turned away from her.
Jewel’s expression turned stern and serious.
“I’ve heard stories about you…” She began.
Vinyl didn’t even turn to face her.
“They say the reason you always wear those glasses is because you have the eyes of a demon…” Jewel added.
Still not turning to face her, Vinyl spoke out of the corner of her mouth.
“Double cross us, and why don’t you find out?” Vinyl spat.
---
Twilight had advised us to stop by Fluttershy’s medical center to pick up what she deemed “necessary medical supplies.” The fact that she deemed them “necessary,” only worried me more.
The building was close to the castle in the upper distract. Twilight made sure to keep Fluttershy and her operations out of the ghetto areas, then again I imagined the ghettos would need her services more than any pony else in Canterlot.
“Hold still for me, this may hurt just a little…” A voice I recognized resonated from the room ahead of us.
“Pinkie Pie?” I popped in the door.
My hunch was correct. Pinkie Pie was standing over an operating table with a screwdriver levitating over her “patient.” The one on the table however had some kind of contraption sticking out of where its wing should be. The long mechanical device fed into its body through some torn skin. It was as if some pony has just ripped her wing clean off and placed this mechanical device in its place.
“What the hell is that!?” I gasped.
“Just hold on a minute and we’ll attend to you,” Pinkie assured.
Turning away from us she moved back to focusing on her work.
“Alright, I’m going to pull this piece back into place then fasten it, let me know if it works,” Pinkie spoke to the cream colored pony on the table.
One of the many steel rods connected to the device was pulled down into a socket followed by Pinkie screwing in a bolt to keep it in place.
“How’s it working?” She asked.
The whole contraption bent like an appendage and curled inward to take the shape of the pegasus’ missing wing.
“Excellent, thank you Pinkie; you’re as resourceful as ever,” the pegasus complimented.
“Yes, well we have guests.” Pinkie pointed in our direction.
The other looked up in our direction and a smile appeared on her face. She lifted herself off of the table and stepped upon the floor.
“So we do,” she said.
I was still in awe at the mysterious device attached to this creature. I couldn’t help but stare.
“You must be the two that Twilight sent, I’m Fluttershy,” she added.
This pony spoke with such a soft tone, it was doubtful she could even stand the sight of blood, let alone be one of the best doctors in Canterlot.
“You must be Flare?” She smiled at me.
“Uh- Yeah, that’s me.” I stuttered.
She laughed.
“Pinkie told me a little about you, you’re quite the adventurer. You have my gratitude for escorting her here. She’s been a huge help to my work,” Fluttershy replied.
I nodded, uncertain of what else to say.
Up close Fluttershy’s entire body appeared to have all kinds of scars all over it. She looked like a mare that had seen more combat than Rainbow Dash even.
“You two can catch up, I’m going to get Vinyl Scratch all set up with the supplies then you can be on your way,” she gave another sugary smile.
Fluttershy gestured for Vinyl to follow her, and without a word from either of them, they both retreated to the back room, which I assumed was for storage.
Pinkie turned to me gently with a bright smile on her face. Her long rosy mane wrapped around her head interestingly as the grin came across her face. It was easy to tell by now when I was addressing Pinkie Pie, or Pinkamena; this was Pinkamena.
“Amazing isn’t she?” Pinkie finally said.
I turned to her with a confused expression.
“Fluttershy?” I asked.
She nodded.
“What is she…?” I dared question.
“A prototype, a major advancement in both medical science, and technology,” Pinkie stated proudly.
Her fascination with this sort of thing was a bit frightening at times. I never suspected any pony was wrong in questioning Pinkie’s mental stability, and the more time that passed, the more I suspected she might be completely mad.
“Is she… A robot?” I questioned.
“Not quite. She’s a cybernetic enhanced pony, the first of her kind,” Pinkie explained.
“So you’re saying she is still a pony underneath all that?”
“More or less.” Pinkie smiled.
I never was a fan of her cryptic answers.
“How did she get like that…?” I asked.
“War does a lot of damage to the body. Fluttershy has been in her fair share of scrapes since she was in the Rainbow Raiders. After that she continued work as a field medic, and during that time she took quite a few hits. Twilight used some schematics from some pre-war designs that were locked up and had over 70% of her body replaced, pretty cool huh?” Pinkie spoke.
“Cool” wasn’t the word I would have used.
“This isn’t right… She’s not even alive anymore…” I said.
Pinkie sighed and rolled her eyes.
“She’s perfectly alive Flare. This design made sure to not take out the two things that make her a pony. So long as they stay, she controls the machine, and the machine doesn’t control her,” Pinkie assured.
“How can you be so sure of that?” I protested.
“Because I designed it,” Pinkie said plainly.
There was silence between the two of us.
“I designed it before the war. When I made it I realized that consciousness and heart are what keep us who we are. So I made sure never to remove the brain or the heart. Underneath that entire machine is Fluttershy’s brain controlling it all. There’s no processor, no super computer, nothing; just a bunch of parts controlled by her brain…” Pinkie was speaking in such a low volume I needed to lean in to hear her.
She brought her face close to mine, touching her forehead to my forehead.
“Do you think I’m that much of a monster? To turn a pony into nothing more than an abomination of nature, Flare?” She whispered.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” I replied.
Pinkie nodded and pulled away, seeming satisfied with that answer.
“There’s something I don’t understand though…” I spoke up.
Pinkie looked over at me curiously.
“Hm?”
“I thought you said that you worked as baker before the war…” I said.
Pinkie grew yet another smile upon her face.
“I did, worked for the Cake family at Sugar Cube Corner for probably close to six years. I even saw them right here in Canterlot, they’ve opened up a new shop and everything,” Pinkie answered.
“Then why didn’t you go back to working with them?” I questioned.
Pinkie let out a little laugh at my question.
“Well, I went to see them and the moment they saw me they pulled out their guns and commanded me off their property, told me I wasn’t welcome there and if I returned they’d kill me.” Pinkie said plainly.
The way that she always approached these kinds of situations so nonchalantly was very disturbing to me at times.
“Why would they do that…?” I dared ask.
Pinkie sighed and gestured for me to take a seat with her. Obeying I planted my rear right next to hers and listened.
“Let me tell you a little story Flare…” She smiled.
“This happened about eight years ago…” She added.
---
Mr. Cake yawned as he wandered down the stairs to see what all the ruckus was about. He had been awoken by the sounds of shuffling, things being moved, and hoof steps all about on the store level. It had been going on for nearly an hour before he finally came downstairs to see what was going on.
Just coming out of the back room was an overworked Pinkie Pie carrying several bags of flour from storage to the front room. She stopped only to look in Mr. Cake’s direction.
“Oh, sorry Mr. Cake, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she apologized.
Pinkie’s wild mane was soaked partially in sweat; flopping over her left eye she looked exhausted. Mr. Cake wasn’t used to seeing her so overworked and tired. The mare was normally so full of energy that a lot of the time he couldn’t keep up with her, but for the past year she had been worn out and overworking herself.
“Pinkie, it’s midnight, what are you doing down here?” He questioned.
“Well, when I do my shifts in the shop I need everything prepared as soon as possible so that I’ll have time to close up and give myself enough time to mind my studies. So every night before my shift I come down here and get all the supplies ready to go so that I can shave off some thirty minutes from my workload when I get up. I don’t want to fall behind on my studies, but I can’t be slacking off at work either…” Pinkie explained.
It had been like this ever since Pinkie had started attending school about a year prior. During the day she’d work the shop, and in the evening she’d go to class. After that she’d stay up some nights until day break studying. It wasn’t uncommon for them to find her passed out in front of a text book.
“Pinkie, maybe it’d be best if you took some time off… You need to get some rest…” Mr. Cake frowned.
“No! Out of the question! I’m not living here and contributing nothing! I earn my keep just like every pony else!” Pinkie protested.
Mr. Cake smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up at him curiously, but he just continued to smile.
Finally the silence was broken.
“Pinkie, you’re just like a daughter to us. We’re very proud of you for going to school; you have nothing to prove to us. If you need some time away from the shop then we’re more than happy to help. You’re family to us Pinkie.” He smiled.
Pinkie nodded and placed the bags on the ground.
“Thank you Mr. Cake,” was all she could manage to say.
He nodded and gestured for her to head upstairs.
---
“Thank you, we hope to see you again!” Pinkie grinned at the set of customers.
She truly was the main attraction at the Sugar Cube Corner. Seeing her was enough of a reason for any pony to come by.
“Pinkie, would you mind looking after the store front for a few minutes by yourself? The twins need our attention right now, we’ll only be a few minutes,” Mrs. Cake asked as she juggled one of the children and a set of clean diapers.
Pinkie nodded.
“It’s no trouble, I’ve got it under control,” Pinkie assured.
Mrs. Cake replied with a weak smile and took the child to the back room. Pinkie giggled to herself thinking about the children.
Moving to clean the counter top the little bell above the door announced the arrival of some new customers. Pinkie looked up to greet them with her usual attitude; however she paused upon seeing them.
She recognized the lot of them. All students from her class, all well bred from rich families. And there she was, a lowly small town girl struggling to balance a job and going to school. The tension between them had always been very high to say the least.
“What can I get you?” Pinkie faked politeness.
“Pinkie Pie, so you really do work in a bakery then? How sad…” The oldest of the group teased.
“I’m not looking for a hard time guys…” Pinkie spoke quietly.
He seemed to enjoy her frustration.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t ask what you wanted then isn’t it?” He replied slyly.
Let me at him.
“Please guys; I don’t want any trouble…” Pinkie smiled sheepishly.
He placed his front hoof on the counter and leaned in.
“And what are you going to do about it?” He spoke.
Leave him to me… I can get rid of him.
“Hey!” The voice of Mr. Cake came from behind Pinkie.
“Stop giving my employees a hard time. If you’re not going to buy anything then get out,” he scolded.
The oldest took his hoof off the counter and gestured for the others to follow him out the door. He muttered some curse under his breath on his way out, no doubt directed at Pinkie and possibly Mr. Cake.
“Are you alright Pinkie?” Mr. Cake placed a hoof on her shoulder.
“Yeah, I just… Need to use the bathroom that’s all…” She lied.
“Alright,” he replied lowering his hoof from her.
Hastily Pinkie ran to the bathroom upstairs near her room. She didn’t need just any bathroom, she needed that particular one.
Gazing at herself in the mirror, she noticed sweat was drenching her face at this point.
Reaching into the cabinet behind the mirror she searched around for a bottle of pills.
You should have let me handle them…
“Stop talking,” Pinkie retorted.
Slipping a set of pills into her mouth she swallowed them without any water. She returned to looking at herself in the mirror.
---
“The answer is 4,852,” Pinkie spoke.
“That is correct Pinkie… You’re well on your way to becoming valedictorian material for this class,” the instructor responded.
“Thank you sir,” Pinkie nodded.
Not twenty seconds later the end class bell rang throughout the building. Every student started packing their things and preparing to go home.
Pinkie was putting her things away and preparing to go back to the shop and study, she’d hoped she’d be able to catch up on her sleep this weekend.
“Hey freak show!” Some familiar voices called out to her.
She attempted to ignore them and focus on putting her belongings away. Unfortunately they were a persistent bunch and approached her.
“So, how’s life at the bakery?” He joked.
Pinkie knew all too well he wasn’t truly interested.
“Fine, now please leave me alone…” She spoke quietly.
“No friend to help you now, huh? Not so tough anymore are you?” He tapped her shoulder with his hoof.
Give him to me.
“Please, you’re going to make something happen that you won’t like…” Pinkie pleaded.
The group laughed.
“Please, I’m warning you…” Pinkie repeated.
Just let me have him…
“Or you’ll do what? Throw a cake at us?” The leader of the group teased.
Give me control; I can handle him, Pinkie Pie…
“Just walk away…” Pinkie warned.
He responded by pushing her.
“Or else what…?” He asked.
GIVE HIM TO ME PINKIE! THAT’S AN ORDER!
“Fine, you can have him!” Pinkie yelled out loud.
The group turned to each other confused at her outburst, uncertain who she was talking to.
With a flick of her head her mane fell from its usual fluffy form and gracefully draped her face. Her expression turned to one of malice and seriousness. She seemed much of intimidating than she had only moments ago.
“I am only giving you one more warning… Step away… Or else.” She smirked.
“Or else what?” He dared ask.
Pinkie charged forward and slammed him against the wall, pinning him there with her front hoof. Getting close to him she stared into his eyes with fireballs in the place of her own.
“I bet you think it’s funny picking on those less fortunate than you? I bet you feel so much more superior to them… Knowing that they’ll never fight back, am I right?” Pinkie’s voice became filled with venom.
He only responded by struggling to escape.
“I’m letting you off easy this time… Just remember sometimes you may push a pony too far… And the results could be very… Unfavorable…” She whispered into his ear.
She let him drop to the floor at that moment.
“Mess with me again, see what happens,” she added before her exit.
---
“SHUT UP! JUST STOP TALKING! I’M SICK OF YOU! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Pinkie screamed.
Pinkie knocked over her nearby vanity in frustration. All of the contents fell to the floor, and the mirror shattered into thousands of shards.
“I’m not giving control back to you! I don’t need you anymore, I can handle myself now!” Pinkie protested out loud.
“I’m sick of you Pinkie Pie, everything about you. I’m sick of your annoying, insufferable laughter!” She yelled.
Pinkie clutched her head in between her front hooves. Her headache was only growing the more she resisted.
“No, I’m Pinkamena Diane Pie. That’s who I am now, and that’s how it’s going to stay! I’m in control, I don’t need you anymore! I don’t want you anymore! Get out of my head!” She screeched.
Pinkie banged her head on the wall repeatedly, trying to silence the inner voice. She bludgeoned her own skull until blood trickled from her forehead. Her argument was interrupted however by a knock at the door, followed by the voice of Mr. Cake.
“Pinkie? Are you alright in there?”
Pinkie took a deep inhale and exhale, and then brushed her straight mane with her hooves as she composed herself.
She opened the door casually.
“Yeah, I’m fine Mr. Cake; I just was practicing this play we have to learn for English class, that’s all…” She lied.
Mr. Cake had an expression of confusion on his face.
“How’d you break the vanity?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I fell,” she lied yet again.
Mr. Cake nodded and trotted into the room. Pinkie brought herself down to the bed and sat down as he wandered around the room inspecting it for other damages.
“I’ve just been worried about you that’s all…” He finally came out with.
Pinkie gestured for him to join her on the bed. He nodded and sat down beside her.
“You’ve been working so hard, and I just don’t like seeing you so stressed out. You’ve been acting different the past few days, and I was just wondering if anything was bothering you,” he said.
It was just like him, always looking out for her. She laughed a little inside at his devotion to her well being. He was far more noble and fatherly than he looked.
“I’m perfectly fine, in fact I think I’m about to be better than I’ve ever been. I was struggling to figure out who I am for a while there, but I think I finally know…” She grinned slyly.
“Well, as long as nothing is bothering you…” He smiled weakly.
“It’s you that I’m worried about Mr. Cake…” She spoke at a nearly inaudible level.
Mr. Cake looked dumbfounded at her comment, before asking “why’s that?”
Not even a split second after he had asked she pulled him onto the bed and pinned him down, leaning over him carefully. Her hair fell onto his neck gingerly as she stared into his eyes. She looked far more powerful than the Pinkie Pie he had known, and far more intimidating. She had a stare that could paralyze a colt within a split second; he was proving it right there and then.
“I’m afraid that you’ll fall to temptation Mr. Cake… It’s always right there in front of you… Waiting for you to take just a nibble of the pleasures it offers…” She whispered.
“I wouldn’t-“ He was cut off.
“Don’t lie, Mr. Cake. I can see it in your eyes, you’re just a colt, and how can you deny your own instincts? It would be so easy for you to slip up and take it… After all, we’re all creatures who live for pleasure aren’t we?” She smiled cunningly.
Mr. Cake could feel sweat drip down his neck.
“Cup-“ He was silenced again.
“Doesn’t need to know about this,” Pinkie said.
“There’s no reason to worry her… I’ll protect you Mr. Cake… I’ll make sure that you don’t fall to the pleasures of temptation…” She smiled.
Mr. Cake was silent, his heart beating furiously, almost ready to rip out of his chest.
Pinkie crawled off of him. Carefully he slid out from under her and approached the door quietly. His expression remained unchanged the entire time. He knew that it would be best to not let Mrs. Cake in on this meeting of theirs’.
---
“Say Mrs. Cake, do you ever worry about Mr. Cake?” Pinkie questioned.
Mrs. Cake looked down from the ladder she was on with a confused look upon her face. She threw down the supplies she was getting for Pinkie to catch. Retreating down the ladder she responded.
“What do you mean dear?” She asked.
“Aren’t you worried? I mean there’s a lot of young mares that come in here every day, it’d be pretty easy for him to give into them don’t you think?” Pinkie replied.
“Well-“ Mrs. Cake didn’t get a chance to even finish.
“Plus with your coming of age it’s hard to compete with these young mares…” Pinkie smirked.
Mrs. Cake bit her lower lip.
“A-am I really that old looking…?” She stuttered.
“Nah, not too old, though a little make up can’t hurt…” Pinkie winked.
“Right… A little make up…” Mrs. Cake replied.
---
“I told you before Pinkie Pie, I’m just experimenting with them. I’ve always been fascinated with social experiments.” Pinkie spoke out loud.
Pinkie sighed and shook her head in disappointment.
“You would think that Pinkie Pie, you’re so content with being stuck in the same place and never moving forward. Me however, I want to change all of pony kind. I want to find the solutions to our problems; I want to be the one behind evolution.” Pinkie spoke.
A small tap was heard at the door.
She answered it to be greeted by Mr. Cake standing at the doorway.
“Ah, Mr. Cake, please come in.” She gestured.
“That won’t be necessary,” he replied.
Pinkie could detect something was wrong with him.
“Pinkie, I don’t know what’s happened to you over the past few months, but I don’t like it. Mrs. Cake doesn’t either. What’s happened to you? Where’s the Pinkie Pie that we love?” He was nearly in tears.
Pinkie sighed and turned her head away from him.
“She’s gone… And she’s not coming back…” Pinkie said.
“Well, whoever you are now, you’re gone too.” His voice became tense.
Pinkie turned to face him.
“We want you out of here by the end of the week. Whatever has happened to you, we don’t like it and we’ve had enough. You’re not welcome here anymore.” He turned away in disgust.
Pinkie didn’t cry, she didn’t scream, she didn’t even over react. Mr. Cake was prepared for hysterics from her, but instead she calmly approached him and smiled.
“It’s been fun then,” was all she said.
---
“What happened then?” I asked.
“I never saw them again until I came here,” Pinkie replied.
I was a little confused by her story.
“I don’t get it…” I said.
Pinkie turned to face me.
“What don’t you get?” She asked quietly.
“Why did you want to be Pinkamena so badly? It sounds like being Pinkamena ruined everything you had. No offense but it sounds like you ruined Pinkie Pie’s life…” I lowered my head.
Pinkie laughed at my comment.
“Oh Flare… You have it all backwards…” She giggled.
I tilted my head.
“You’re assuming that Pinkie Pie came first,” she said.
I blinked.
“Are you saying…?” I didn’t know how to finish that question.
“Yes. Pinkamena isn’t some persona I created for myself, Pinkie Pie is. I created her so many years ago, and I couldn’t let go of her… Until recently,” she explained.
If what she was saying was true, that meant that she was Pinkamena before Pinkie Pie.
“Why did you create her?” I asked.
“Fear.”
“Fear of what?” I questioned.
“Myself… I was always afraid of what I’d be willing to do, and how far I’d be willing to go… I created Pinkie Pie to keep me from going over the edge, from stepping too far over the line. I could give the illusion that I was happy, and maybe if I kept smiling then I’d actually feel happy… It wasn’t until recently that some pony taught me it’s better to be who you are than to live a lie…” She rambled.
She was speaking very quietly.
“Who was that?” I asked.
She smiled.
“You.”
I remained silent. I had nothing prepared to respond to that with. She took advantage of the silence and moved closer to me, pressing her body close to mine.
“I heard about you two going to Cloudsdale… It’s very dangerous there, do me a favor and come back alive, alright?” She whispered into my ear.
“I’ll try,” was all I thought to say in response.
Pinkie giggled lightly and whispered again.
“Perhaps you need a good luck charm?”
“And what would that be?” I questioned.
Not saying another word she grabbed my head and turned me towards her. Planting a deep kiss upon my lips I was momentarily stunned. It was the same as before, I couldn’t react, instead I let my muscles relax and enjoy it.
I could smell her breath, she must have had some kind of gum recently because she smelled minty, and tasted very sweet.
It must have been rather awkward for her, the way she kissed it was clear she was a grown mare, and I clearly kissed like I was still a little colt.
“Don’t kiss that Flare you don’t know where it’s been.” Vinyl’s voice spoke from across the room.
Parting lips the two of us looked in her direction.
“I was just-“ I was cut off.
“Yeah, yeah, come on lover boy we’ve got a transport waiting for us. You get to play soldier with me, it’s your lucky day.” She smirked.
Before she made her exit she made sure to throw another few demeaning comments in Pinkie’s direction. Pinkie only responded with smiles.
Turning to Pinkie I attempted to make sense of her actions once again.
“The last time you kissed me, you told me you didn’t feel anything, so why’d you do it again?” I questioned.
“Flare, you’re talking to a girl who doesn’t even understand what love is. It was for good luck, nothing more.” She assured.
It was a typical answer of her.
“What about you?” She asked.
Oddly, I didn’t feel any kind of romance towards her either. The first girl who had ever kissed me, not once but twice, yet the only thing I felt towards her was that she was a trusted friend. Nothing sparked between the two of us.
“You’re just a friend,” I replied.
She laughed.
“You sure are a surprise Flare; I hope you stay that way,” She said.
Achievement: It's Just for Good Luck, I Swear - Flare learned Pinkamena's past.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 15 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2012-05-07T06:29:53+00:00
|
2017-02-24T21:03:06+00:00
| 511 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Fourteen (Cloudsdale Saga)
I had learned that the entity that Twilight and Vinyl referred to as a “chopper” was actually some kind of armored mechanical bird that carried ponies from one location to another. They were also sometimes used to rain fire down on the enemy, however due to the military’s limited resources they couldn’t afford to build more of them, so they rarely risked them like this.
They would load them up with a flammable liquid and drop ignited globs of it onto the enemy in the midst of battle. The only problem is that it completely destroyed the land around them as well. It was reserved as a last resort.
These devices apparently were built some months after the war began which would explain why I had never seen them before.
Vinyl apparently had been piloting these beasts for several years after she was taken off of active combat duty. She was the one who piloted the chopper that saved Rainbow Dash back in the day.
This particular chopper however was being piloted by Octavia; she was fairly quiet as she focused on getting us from Canterlot to Cloudsdale. Accompanying us for this trip was Twilight, and Rainbow Dash; whom hadn’t divulged even a word of information about her conversations with Twilight and Luna over the past few days. She apparently only wanted to see us off, but wasn’t ready to speak with us yet.
“So you and Pinkie Pie have some kind of thing?” Twilight attempted to break the silence.
I shook my head.
“Really, I heard from Fluttershy that she saw the two of you kissing,” Twilight giggled.
“Pinkie isn’t exactly the kind of mare that makes much sense, so it’s hard to explain her intentions. All I can say is that there’s nothing romantic between the two of us…” I explained.
Twilight nodded.
“Out of all the time I’ve known her, I’d have to say that I agree on her intentions being hard to explain. She’s certainly a character that’s for sure…” Twilight smiled.
Vinyl scoffed.
“What’s your problem?” I asked.
“I just can’t talk about that pink disease without wanting to slit her throat and watch her blood drained,” Vinyl replied plainly.
What a shining example of a model citizen.
“What’s your deal with Pinkie? You don’t seem to like her very much…” I commented.
“What was your first clue?” She remarked.
I should have expected that kind of answer from her.
“She isn’t bad looking though…” Vinyl added.
Twilight rolled her eyes.
“You’re a pervert…” Twilight said.
Vinyl turned to her direction and gave a gentle kissing gesture in Twlight’s direction. Twilight only responded by rolling her eyes a second time.
“You’re not so bad yourself, maybe if you got some sunglasses to cover that thing up…” Vinyl smirked.
“Fuck off,” Twilight scolded.
Vinyl snickered and leaned back into her seat. It was amazing how she not only displayed nothing but disrespect for her commanding officer, but was the only one as bold as to point out her eye again and again. We all obviously noticed it, but no pony wanted to be the one to address the elephant in the middle of the room. I had to admit though I was curious about her eye myself.
“I’m serious though, you should consider getting an eye patch or something, it’d draw less attention in the long run,” Vinyl continued to tease.
“That’s a lot coming from a pony that hides behind sunglasses all the time,” Twilight replied.
“Sticks and stones, One-Eye, sticks and stones,” Vinyl retorted.
“That’s enough Vinyl. If you don’t knock it off then I’m going to personally kick your ass.” Rainbow burst out.
All fell silent. We weren’t expecting for Dash to say anything at this point.
“Eh, not even worth my time anyways…” Vinyl waved a hoof in a carefree manner.
I decided it was best to change the subject to something I was more curious about anyways.
“So what’s the deal with you and Pinkie Pie?” I asked.
Twilight and Rainbow both gave me a look of disapproval. Apparently I had asked a very taboo question to the worst possible pony.
“Why did you let her come back Twilight? You should have let me blow her head off the moment we saw her…” Vinyl said.
“Are you questioning your commanding officer?” Twilight threatened.
Vinyl didn’t seem too intimidated by this threat.
“Who’s going to stop me?” Vinyl smirked.
“I am, now shut up Vinyl before I throw you out of this chopper,” Rainbow Dash scolded.
Vinyl grew a disappointed expression.
“I could almost understand Twilight’s sappy forgiveness approach, but what has me really concerned is how you’re so damn attached to her Dashie… Why are you protecting her?” Vinyl questioned.
Rainbow Dash only gave her a cold stare.
“Can it.” She barked.
Vinyl gave up and stood up. She announced she was going to “go bother Octavia for a while,” and entered the part of the transport called the “flight deck.”
“What am I going to do with her Rainbow? She’s getting worse and worse, and I know that the day she finally does lose it I won’t be able to control her,” Twilight sighed.
Dash didn’t respond. Twilight took her silence as the end of the conversation.
Curiosity guided me to follow Vinyl into the flight deck. I had suspicion that Twilight and Rainbow Dash needed to talk without my presence anyways.
I found Vinyl fiddling with the radio trying to get some of her “tunes” playing, with Octavia trying to stop her while piloting at the same time. Ultimately Vinyl was winning the little spat between them, and Octavia sat in frustration.
“Vinyl Scratch?” I approached her.
She turned around in her seat and shot me a look.
“What were you arguing with Twilight and Rainbow Dash about?” I asked.
Vinyl smiled and gestured for me to sit down, and of course I obeyed.
“Let me tell you a little story Flare…”
---
All were silent as they watched anxiously for the expected “guest” to arrive. Some had arrived early just to ensure that they would make it in time to see her. Generally the groups did not enjoy being at this particular kind of event, however this time it was widely accepted among the group that this would be the exception. Many were eager to watch what they considered “the right thing.”
Twilight wasn’t exactly too thrilled to be the one overseeing this event, however due to the circumstances she was required to be present, though she and Vinyl Scratch both would rather be out on the battle field as the biggest battle of their lives took place only a few miles away from their location. Looking over at Vinyl, Twilight could tell that she yearned to be out there fighting; it was exactly that reason that Twilight was always concerned about her though.
All heads turned as the sound of chains slithering across the floor followed by a group of hoof steps ringing from the hallway near the entrance. The anticipation in the room heightened at least ten times that of what it was in only a short few seconds. Every pony leaned their heads in to try and get a better look at the entering group.
Four of the royal guard stood around a pink mare that they were escorting inside. On her hooves were two sets of shackles, being held on both ends by the royal guards. A face devoid of any and all emotion rested on her. There wasn’t sympathy, remorse, or even sadness in her; she felt nothing.
The guards fastened her chains down to four hooks in the floor and locked them in place. The crowd began to murmur whispers between each other at the excitement.
Taking their positions around the mare the guards stood in salute to Twilight, who approached the pink mare.
She took a deep breath and let out a sigh before she began.
“I am Twilight Sparkle, the chosen servant of the throne, and primary general of military affairs. I am here to oversee this event because this has been deemed an event of the throne. The princesses could not attend as they are preoccupied with military affairs and thus I am standing in their place,” she explained.
The mare just stared at her blankly without a word.
“Do you have any words before we begin?” Twilight asked.
A smile grew on the shackled pony’s face.
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” she said plainly.
Sighing, Twilight nodded.
“Very well, then we turn this over to Lieutenant Vinyl Scratch.” Twilight walked off to the side.
Adorned in her respectable military uniform, Vinyl Scratch approached the center of the room between the audience and the detained mare. Her voice then boomed throughout the room.
“Pinkamena Diane Pie. You have been tried and found guilty of over twenty seven counts of murder, an unknown amount of illegal medical practices, and crimes against pony kind itself. You have been deemed a threat to society and your punishment…” She paused.
“Is death…” The crowd started murmuring again at those words.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself before this punishment is carried out and you atone for your crimes?” Vinyl asked.
Pinkie grew yet another smile.
“No crimes have I committed, everything I have done, was done for pony kind. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and if I must be the scapegoat for progress, then so be it,” Pinkie stated with pride.
Vinyl hated how she could think herself as a hero, or a scapegoat. Giving a gesture to the guards around her they started to connect wires from the ground all around her body, and lastly placing one in her mouth onto her tongue.
“We will carry out the means of your death sentence through the means of magical current. You are currently hooked up to a battery that will send a lethal amount of magical energy through your body until you are dead.” Vinyl smiled.
“I regret nothing.” Pinkie spit.
Vinyl approached her quietly and leaned into her ear before whispering.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you cook…”
Pinkie responded with silence.
Vinyl stepped away and gestured for the switch to be thrown. That short second between throwing the switch and the effect to start seemed like time froze in that room. Nothing but dead silence filled the air followed by the sound of shocking and magic sparking.
Pinkie’s body started convulsing frantically as sparks and jolts shot off of it. Biting her lower lip she refused to let out any screams or sounds of pain.
Twilight turned away, unable to watch. Vinyl however stared in awe with a sinister grin on her face.
“Burn you bitch… Burn…” Vinyl nearly whispered.
The crowd was speechless; they weren’t sure how to react. They should have been ecstatic that a criminal was getting what she deserved, but they were more or less mortified by the sight of her being killed in front of them. Executions weren’t common in Equestria, and the princesses along with Twilight had always preached against them. With the social reform violent crimes like this one had dropped significantly as well. They had been able to avoid civil war for so long only to jump into war with Trixie.
Pinkie’s suffering would only last a brief moment however. Through the tall windows looking down on the room ponies could see a black pillar of dark energies strike down from the sky, tainting the ground around at an alarming rate.
A thick blackness encompassed everything that stood in its path, as it spread like wildfire.
The shockwave from the blast shattered the windows and caused glass shards to rain down, every pony ducking to keep them from getting in their eyes and every other orifice as best they could. A support beam for the building gave way and came down like thunder.
“Every pony clear the area! Vinyl Scratch come on with me, we need to get in the chopper!” Twilight instructed.
“But Pinkie-“ Vinyl protested.
“Forget her; I have a distress call that was issued directly to me. We have a pony that needs rescuing right now!” Twilight barked.
“Fuck them, besides who issues a distress call to the general?” Vinyl replied.
“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight replied.
Vinyl nodded.
“Well, then what the fuck are we doing here? If Dashie issued a distress call she must be in some serious trouble that shit has never happened before…” Vinyl said.
The two darted out of the collapsing building, leaving the tethered Pinkie Pie to her fate. After fastening themselves into their air lift Vinyl peered over at Twilight.
“What?” Twilight questioned.
“Do you think that building will crush her?” Vinyl asked.
Twilight sighed and turned her attention to the collapsing building out the window as Vinyl started the engine.
“Knowing Pinkie Pie, it’ll take more than that to end her…” Twilight replied.
---
“That’s an interesting story…” I said to the mare.
Vinyl just nodded and levitated a cigarette to her lips. Taking as puff she let it sit on her lower lip as she spoke. There really was no such thing as manners to her.
“Yeah, and now Twilight is letting her off the hook with this amnesty bullshit. Worse part is that pink cunt has got Rainbow Dash believing her bullshit too,” Vinyl said.
“I don’t think it’s like that,” I responded.
Vinyl gave me a curious face.
“Rainbow Dash has survived out there in the harsh ruins for over six years on her own. I’d imagine it’s pretty lonely out there. She probably just forgets about what Pinkie has done because it’s easier to have a friend out there than to not have one…” I explained.
I had no idea if I was even close to correct to be honest. Rainbow Dash never divulged if she was lonely or not, and she never said a word about Pinkie’s past, but it was the best guess I had. It was entirely possible that the two only co-exist because it’s easier for survival as well.
Vinyl sighed and took another drag of her cancer stick before nodding.
“You’re probably right, I mean as tough as Dashie is, she’s only a pony…” Vinyl smirked.
She’s only a pony. Those words stuck to me. Vinyl was right; Rainbow Dash was another pony like me, or Vinyl. It was always odd to think of her on such a equal level, but if I forgot that she was a war hero, and “the miracle” all that was left was an unfortunate mare caught in the middle of a war she had nothing to do with.
“You know she lost her sister right…?” I questioned.
Vinyl nodded.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that story once or twice. Trixie’s goons killed her right in front of Dashie, made sure she watched as it happened too, disgraceful,” Vinyl answered.
“Where do you stand in all this?” I asked.
Vinyl gave a light chuckle and took another puff. She blew out a ring of smoke and smiled.
“Didn’t they tell you? I’m the voice of Equestria, kid. If you stay close, you may be able to live long enough to see that for yourself,” Vinyl replied.
I had heard stories about the mare being a radio host before the war. Twilight mentioned that Vinyl used to speak against the ruling body and promote revolution to the general public. She had become a real threat to the crown as she had a majority of Equestria listening to her. That’s where she earned the title of “the voice of Equestria.” She was always rebellious, even before the war.
“Try not to distract the pilot too much,” I warned as I took my leave.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight fell silent as I re-entered the passenger section. Clearly my hunch about them wanting to carry on private conversation was correct.
Trying to ignore the awkwardness of the situation I stood near the open passenger door.
“Hey, here’s a question, how exactly are we going to walk on clouds?” I broke the silence.
Vinyl’s voice resonated from behind me.
“I’m curious about that too,” she added.
Turning around I noticed Vinyl coming out of the cockpit. She was at least decent enough to put out her cigarette before entering.
“We discovered a long time ago that a pegasus is able to walk on clouds because of small traces of magic within their feathers. We also discovered that if we put an enchantment on these feathers that they would retain this magic indefinitely even after removal. So as long as a pony carries one of these feathers, they may walk on clouds.” Twilight smiled.
Twilight seemed to enjoy explaining things.
“I did one up on that though…” Twilight added.
She levitated two metallic looking feathers on rope necklaces to us. Vinyl Scratch and I both placed one around our necks. Vinyl shot Twilight a confused look.
“What are these?” She questioned.
“Well, I decided to make them more permanent with an alchemy spell. The feathers are coated in a layer of gold that will keep them from degrading.” Twilight answered.
I stared at the sparkling yellow feather in awe.
“Thank you Twilight,” I bowed.
Twilight shook her hoof in a modest gesture.
“Thank Rainbow Dash, she was the one who graciously donated the feathers,” Twilight said.
My attention turned to the bored looking Rainbow Dash sitting next to her. She remained silent and didn’t even look in our direction with the mention of her name. She stared out the window with an uninterested look on her face. I could only imagine whatever Twilight and her were talking about earlier had put her off.
I looked back out the passenger door and sighed.
A loud crack was heard throughout the entire vehicle and pushed it to the left. Everypony fell either out of their seat or onto the floor, everypony except me. After I had realized what was happening I noticed there was nothing under me to catch my fall.
I was taking a dive to the earth that was thousands of feet down below. Looking up to the chopper I saw Rainbow Dash standing at the doorway, and taking a nose dive after me.
It didn’t take the speedy pegasus long to catch up with me. She flapped the only wing she had to pick up enough speed to pull me close to her. I wrapped my front hooves around her neck as best I could and held on tight.
Dash grabbed a pull chord on some sort of backpack she had grabbed and tugged it viciously with her mouth. She gave it three or four tugs before cursing and giving up on it.
“Shit…” She hissed.
“What are we going to do!?” I screamed over the wind.
Dash closed her eyes and began to take inhale then exhale. She appeared to be trying to calm herself. When her eyes finally opened she turned to me.
“Get on my back and hold on tight!” She instructed.
Dash tore at the straps holding on the bag and ripped it off of her, tossing it into the air. I replaced it upon her back holding on for dear life. With only one wing she couldn’t even get herself to the ground safely, let alone a colt that was probably around the same weight as her.
The moment I was on her back and turned her body and went for a full on nose dive towards the ground, flapping her sole wing furiously.
“Alright kid, we’re going to need a lot of speed to pull this off, so just hold on. You may hear your ears pop, so just try and stay with me alright!?” Dash hollered back to me.
I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me.
Dash had a look of extreme concentration on her face.
Listening carefully I was able to make out her talking to herself.
“Come on Dash, you can do this… You’ve done it before…” She told herself.
I noticed that our velocity was picking up very quickly. I could hear a crackling noise all around me.
Before I knew it I heard an ear shattering crack. Looking down in front of me, I saw a burst of light and colors spray from every direction in front of us. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.
Dash used the burst to change directions and hurl us in a 90 degree angle above the ground; instead of hitting nose first we slid and tumbled across the dirt and dust. My body ached at each bump we hit.
After we had stopped rolling I stood up and gazed at the sky. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; a rainbow.
“I can’t believe it…” I nearly whispered.
“A SONIC RAINBOOM!” I burst out into a cheer.
I had never thought I’d see one in my lifetime. I had heard of Rainbow Dash performing them before, but never thought I’d get to see one, especially as close as I just had.
“Rainbow Dash you’re amazing!” I yelled.
Dash picked herself up from the dirt and gazed at the sky with a shocked expression. She seemed far more surprised by the feat than I was.
“I did it… I actually… Did it…” She stuttered.
“You were incredible!” I complimented.
Dash approached me quietly. I met her eyes with my own and waited for what she had to say. To my surprise she said nothing, instead she pulled my head into her chest and held me there tightly. Dash stroked my mane softly, and I felt a wet spot appear on my head.
“Flare, I thought I had lost you…” She finally spoke.
I said nothing.
“Flare, when you go to Cloudsdale promise me something…” She said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
She turned my head up to face her. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“Don’t die. Please Flare, don’t die on me… Stay close to Vinyl Scratch, and don’t do anything too risky…” She choked.
“Rainbow Dash, I…” I started.
“I got you involved in this Flare. I’ve had a lot of ponies die for me, and I don’t think I can take one more. Please Flare; promise me that you’ll be careful…” She shook me.
I smiled to her.
“I promise,” I replied.
Dash nodded and pulled me back in for another embrace. I had never seen her this vulnerable before.
“Rainbow Dash! Flare!” The familiar voice of Twilight called out behind us.
“Twilight!” I yelled back, still tightly held by Rainbow Dash.
Twilight, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch came out of a clearing, the three of them awestruck by the rainbow in the sky; they appeared just as shocked as Rainbow Dash and I.
“Something hit the chopper, and we had an engine failure. Fortunately Octavia was able to bring us down with us still intact, though I can’t say the same for the chopper…” Twilight explained.
Something hit us?
“What hit us?” I raised a brow.
“After assessing the damage, it looked like it was an anti-vehicle round. It ripped right through the engine and came out the other side…” Twilight bit her lip.
That meant that some pony was trying to kill us.
“You think it was Trixie?” Rainbow Dash chimed in.
She had released me from her grip finally.
“No, this wasn’t a normal bullet. We found traces of magic left behind where it penetrated, not dark magic either, some kind we’ve never seen before. Our U.M.S.A.’s have nothing on it, we’ll have to check the database back in Canterlot, but we’re certain that if it is Trixie she’s got her hooves on some new toys,” Twilight said.
“Could there be somepony else out there that wants us dead?” I questioned.
“No clue, but I take a look at the sky,” Twilight smirked.
The five of us looked to the heavens. The dark ominous clouds had dispersed from the point where the sonic rainboom took place. We were actually able to see clear sky, something I had not seen in seven years.
“The sonic rainboom is so powerful that it repels the darkness, I bet our friend Trixie would like to see this…” Twilight smirked.
---
A lowly grunt made a series of hissing noises while he pounded upon the water facility where his master was residing currently.
“Hold on! I’m coming, I’m coming…” Came an annoyed female voice from behind the door.
An agitated Trixie exited with a towel resting on her wet mane. She growled at the peon and marched to her usual spot in the center of the room.
“This had better be worth interrupting me during my bath…” Trixie scolded.
Her minion made another series of hissing noises to which Trixie responded with a smirk. Throwing the towel off of her head she spun in her chair and commanded the others in the room.
“Well what are you waiting for!? You heard him, we have an incoming message from Twilight Sparkle, put her through! It looks like she’s finally giving up,” Trixie demanded.
Three of her peons worked some controls near the center of the room and a screen appeared before Trixie with Twilight’s face.
“Twilight Sparkle, it’s nice to see you again…” Trixie smiled deviously.
“Likewise,” Twilight replied.
“I take it you’ve finally come to your senses and decided to surrender?” Trixie spoke.
Twilight shook her head.
“No, I just thought you’d want to see something,” Twilight answered.
Trixie grunted to show her discontent.
The view was then shifted on Twilight’s end to show the sky. Trixie noticed that there was a multi-colored light spectrum radiating from a central point. The view then shifted down to a familiar Rainbow colored mare, then back to Twilight.
Trixie’s jaw dropped.
“That’s right Trixie, a sonic rainboom. You know what that means? It means that Dash still has it, I’d be worried if I were you.” Twilight tormented.
“Put Rainbow Dash on!” Trixie demanded.
Twilight sighed and handed the call over to Rainbow Dash.
“Ah, Rainbow Dash, nice to see you again…” Trixie smiled.
“Fuck you Trixie, what do you want?” Dash hissed.
“Rainbow Dash, you and I both want the same thing… You want the fighting to end, and I don’t wish to kill you all if I don’t have to. The darkness will make us complete Rainbow Dash, it will destroy our barbaric tendencies, it’ll bring us into the utopia we’ve always dreamed of,” Trixie explained.
Dash rolled her eyes.
“Forget it, I’ll never join you,” She replied.
“Why not Dash? Didn’t you join the resistance to put an end to senseless death? My master offers just that, the end of self destruction.” Trixie lectured.
“There’s no point. We would only end the violence by taking away our free will. If we are going to live in a world without violence, then I want it to be a world that we chose, and not one that was forced upon us. We have nothing left to discuss Trixie, don’t forget my promise.” Dash ended the transmission.
Trixie leaned back in her chair and exhaled.
“They always want to do things the hard way don’t they?” She sighed.
Levitating a photo of Rainbow Dash in front of her, Trixie began to study it. A smile played her lips as she ignited the photo.
“Then die…” She said.
---
“So how exactly are we getting to Cloudsdale now? The chopper is gone, and none of us can fly…” I pointed out.
Twilight bit her lip and looked up in thought.
“They could go through the mines…” Octavia spoke.
“There was an old teleport beacon down there… It might still work…” Twilight pondered.
Vinyl scratch took a step forward.
“Sounds like a plan, what about you three?” Vinyl asked.
“We’ll get back to Canterlot on foot. Don’t worry; we’re more than a match for any savages out here.” Twilight drew a blade.
Vinyl laughed.
“Do you even know how to use that thing? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a fight One Eye! I mean with Rainbow Dash you’re pretty safe, but I don’t know how much trust I’d put in you in a fire fight,” Vinyl teased.
Twilight rolled her eyes.
“I was trained by Celestia herself in the royal combat style. I think I’ll manage just fine,” Twilight barked.
Rainbow Dash placed her front hooves upon my shoulders and turned my attention towards her. I focused on her intently.
“Listen Flare, the mines have been abandoned since before the war. They used to use the teleport beacon down there to transport diamonds to Cloudsdale. The whole mine was closed down because of a bunch of bandits kept raiding it and a couple of gas explosions. I haven’t been to the mines in years, but I doubt it’s very safe. Stay close to Vinyl Scratch, and don’t try to be a hero Flare.” Dash instructed.
I nodded.
Rainbow Dash pulled me in for another hug, I returned it this time.
“Come on lover boy, we got some fun to have!” Vinyl yelled.
Dash and I released each other. Looking at her, I shot her a smile, which she returned.
“Good luck,” Dash said.
Achievement: Guess She's Magic Proof? - Pinkamena survived her execution.
|
Mist
|
1148
| 16 |
Main 6,Original Character,Other,Rainbow Dash,Trixie,Dark,Sad,Tragedy,My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,Gore
|
A New Equestria
|
War in Equestria has left everything in ruins, but what happens now? An Epic details the beginning of a new era. War, mysteries, and drama await.
|
cancelled
| 81 | 15 |
<p>Seven years ago The Knights of Celestia marched into battle. Under direct order from Celestia, and commanded by Twilight Sparkle, they ran into battle against their unknown enemy. That was seven years ago, and now all that is left are the bodies and remains of a once majestic land. What happened to Equestria? More importantly, what will happen now?</p><p>An Epic of proportions unheard of.</p>
|
mature
|
2013-07-28T21:16:03+00:00
|
2017-02-24T21:06:25+00:00
| 462 |
A New Equestria
By Mist
Act 1: Chapter Fifteen (Cloudsdale Saga)
I doubt one would find conversation with Lt. Vinyl Scratch to be the most enjoyable experience. After all, her previous few conversations that we shared along with the constant thirst for violence seemed to put me off of wanting to talk to her at all, however it's not like I had much else to do to fill the time.
I decided to keep it casual as we trotted through the mines, but keep it on a subject she was familiar with. "So why'd you join the military?"
She didn't even look at me as she spoke, her rudeness was only matched by her brutishness. "Started because I was drafted, but then I came to find I love killing."
That sure was a pleasant answer. Regardless I inquired further. "Why's that?"
Vinyl stopped and turned to face me, her Nordic accent started to creep out more as she spoke. "Listen kid, if I'm forced you be stuck with you, we need to set up some rules. Rule number one, don't ask too many questions."
I rolled my eyes before replying. "What's got you so grumpy?"
Vinyl's expression turned to one of more annoyance. "You're already on my shit list for bringing that cunt, Pinkamena back here so we're not exactly old chums here. You may have Dash's favor, but that's pretty much the only reason I haven't killed you yet. I don't trust you and as I said before if you make one wrong move I'll bring you back to Canterlot in a body bag."
I coughed and smirked. "Sheesh, what a charmer you are. All the stallions must be crazy about you." I joked as I started moving forward again.
Vinyl chuckled as she started leading the way again, shining her light as she did so. "Well, I have been known to make the stallions quiver in delight, and the mares too for that matter."
There was some information I could have done without, though it was fairly obvious at this point that Vinyl was rather promiscuous.
"So you get around then?" I tried to keep the conversation on a subject that pleased her.
Vinyl let out another hearty laugh. "Gotta relieve the stress somehow, right?"
I was tempted to ask what she would be stressed about, however I was somewhat afraid of any answer she'd give. "I suppose so..."
Going deeper into the mines, she seemed pretty casual still for a pony that said how dangerous the mines were only a few days ago. Perhaps that was just an intimidation act to keep me on high alert, because right now the most dangerous thing here was Vinyl Scratch.
"What about you?" She kept her light straight ahead as she asked.
I shrugged. "Nothing to tell."
Vinyl actually halted in her tracks and turned to face me. It was at that moment I questioned why she insisted on wearing sunglasses in the dark.
"You mean to tell me, you've never had sex before?" Her face almost looked shocked.
I merely shook my head casually, as the subject really didn't concern me as much as it concerned her apparently. "Is that so surprising?" I said.
She laughed a bit before replying. "I guess not. I just assumed you were getting it on with Dash and that's why she got all soft on you."
I shook my head. "The thought never crossed my mind actually."
Vinyl laughed even louder at that. "Yeah, you're probably right... You don't look like you have it in you to court a girl like Dash. I mean you're cute, but far from sexy. Though there is a certain appeal to a young buck like yourself..." She seemed to be trailing off into thought. Was Vinyl fantasizing about me? If she was, I was not exactly sure how I felt about that.
"Thanks... I think..." Was all I could come out with.
Vinyl paused then held her hoof to her lips trying to hush me. Turning her light to one of the many caves she heard a few rocks clatter. "We're not alone..." She nearly whispered. You'd think she would be showing concern but instead a devilish grin spread from ear to ear on her.
"Come on out!" Vinyl shouted. Her voice echoed through the caves. I ducked down onto the floor in case whomever else was hiding in the mines came out shooting. However Vinyl was ready to attack regardless of the circumstances.
Sure enough from three caves in front of us over ten emaciated ponies exited. Every single one of them with a crazed look and a few with manic laughter. Vinyl just stood with her grin as they poured out. Savages, and it was clear what was on their menu: us.
The unicorn not only seemed unthreatened she was acting quite boastful despite the odds.
"Alright you disgusting sacks of shit." She began, cocky as ever. "Here's how this is going down."
The group all fell silent listening to her.
"I'm going to give you all a 5 minute head start before I hunt you all down one by one and rip your fucking heads off." Her grin became a bit more crazed as I noticed she was drooling now.
Her opponents merely grafalled at her claim, clearly not taking her seriously.
"I’ll warn you now. There are three things I'm good at in this world: music, fucking and killing. Take a guess which one is going to happen to you today." Vinyl was bold as ever, me on the other hoof, I stayed low, still not sure if Vinyl was bluffing or not. "So I am telling you again, you've got a 5 minute head start to run as fast as those twigs you call hooves will carry you."
The largest of the group took a step forward. Vinyl just sighed before making an advance of her own. "That's a shame... I like the chase more." She chuckled.
The rest of them started to surround the two of us as they laughed in a very idiotic manner. They clearly weren't the most intelligent creatures despite all the brains they've probably eaten.
One of the smaller ones lunged at her from behind hoping to catch her off guard. Vinyl's hind hoof extended backwards and a third gun blade attached to it hit the stallion directly in the eye socket. With him still attached to the sword she threw her backside in the air and his head came clean off as she hurled it at his friends.
As anger filled their eyes, two of them darted forward to avenge their "friend". Vinyl merely laughed as she sliced at one and dived at the other stabbing him repeatedly with her right hoof blade, manic laughter as she did so.
The rest of the savages began to back up. Vinyl Scratch was scary enough to where even cannibals were afraid of her; that didn't spell out good news for myself. I merely watched in horror as she jabbed her blade into the flesh again and again; long after her attacker was dead she continued to pierce him with her sword.
Standing up from the body she gestured for the others to come for her. Sure enough about five of them started circling her, they had become almost completely disinterested in me at this point. Almost as if they preferred the meal they had to fight for versus the one they could just take with no effort. Vinyl just kept still and taunted them. "Come on, fresh meat right here." She grinned.
The first to make their attack was actually a female. She came slicing with a blade in her maw. It was pointless though as Vinyl moved far too fast and before the girl knew what was happening , Vinyl was behind her. With a mighty strike she cleaved the head off with her left blade. One by one she eliminated all of them with ease. It was child’s play for the lieutenant.
After she had hacked the last of them to pieces her gaze turned to the remaining three who took a step back. Vinyl's mouth hung open with a grin of satisfaction, drool coming from her lip and pooling onto the ground. She was salivating more than I’d ever seen a pony do before.
"You're next..." Vinyl giggled as she wiped her mouth.
The three took another step back before turning to run. Vinyl however instead of counting her blessings gave chase to them, uttering something along the lines of "the thrill of the hunt."
Only about two minutes later (all of which spent in the darkness as Vinyl had taken the only light) I could hear screaming and stabbing. Those noises were quickly drowned out by Vinyl's manic laughter however. I guess it was true; she really did love killing.
Only a few seconds later did I hear a cry for help followed by pleading for mercy. "Get away from me, you crazy cunt!" All I could hear then was more piercing noises followed by a few punches. I then heard a sound that I would later discover was the sound of a skull being smashed against a rock.
“FUCK YOU! WHERE IS YOUR GODDESS NOW!? HUH!? WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE NOW YOU PIECE OF SHIT!?” Vinyl’s yells echoed through the cave as she smashed the skull a few more times excessively. “NOW YOU’RE FUCKED! FUCKED BEYOND WORDS YOU PILE OF HORSE SHIT!” I remained silent as I waited for the yells to stop. It ended with a slap sound and another scream. “WHO’S THE CUNT NOW!?”
As I waited, Vinyl returned to the section of the cave I was in. A cigarette was resting between her lips as she sat down and took a drag from it. With an exhale she levitated it to me with a grin. "Want a hit?" I merely shook my head and declined as I examined her.
Her entire front side was stained red. Having a white coat only made the blood stand out that much more. I wondered if that was how she traditionally looked in battle. It was certainly an appearance that would intimidate her enemies.
Finishing her cigarette she tossed it aside and stood back up. "Come on, we're almost there."
---
We must have been walking for another solid twenty minutes before coming to a hollowed out chamber that housed a large beacon. Vinyl trotted around it to check the cable connected to it. "Looks like the power supply still works, but it'll need a jolt from my U.M.S.A. before it'll be operational."
"So this thing is supposed to take us to Cloudsdale? Are you even sure it's safe?" My brow rose as I examined what appeared to be the control deck.
"It'll either take us to Cloudsdale or it'll tear us into pieces." Vinyl spoke as she was running back and forth connecting cables.
I should have expected her to be this nonchalant about such a thing.
"Why is that?"
Vinyl pushed me out of the way to the control panel as she began to hit a bunch of combinations on it. "This thing was designed to transport mining supplies and resources back to Cloudsdale. It has never transported living things before. However I can add a little magic that will hopefully make it safe to jump through it."
I didn't like how she added the word "hopefully".
"And what if it doesn't?"
Vinyl stopped what she was doing and rested a hoof on the console as she turned to face me. Her face was sporting a grin. "Listen kid, you shouldn't be so worried about getting there in one piece. That's far from the most dangerous thing we're going to be doing today. Getting back alive is going to be the real challenge."
Even a pony as fearless as Vinyl Scratch apparently had doubts of how possible it was to survive in Cloudsdale. That didn't give me a lot of confidence in myself.
"Alright, looks like we're ready for transport. Back home we had a saying for this kind of thing." Vinyl started flicking some switches and gestured for me to follow her to the beacon.
Approaching slowly I rose a brow a little worried about what that saying was. "And what might that be?"
She chuckled as she stepped onto the large platform with me. "In Equestrian it roughly translates to 'Pray for your ass'."
A few seconds passed and the device below started to glow and whir as we watched sparks and jolts of electricity flow all around us. I couldn't watch, so instead I closed my eyes and hoped that we wouldn't get electrocuted or torn to shreds when I opened them. Vinyl of course was very calm, she was even singing a light Nordic tune as she stood there.
After a huge electric sound and a strange lifting sensation I opened my eyes. We weren't dead. Quickly I checked myself with my hooves; everything was still attached. Looking to my right, Vinyl stood there with a cigarette.
"I can't believe that worked..." I exclaimed.
Vinyl took a step off the beacon and looked at this second one. "Yeah, but we aren't coming back this way... This thing is toast..."
Trying to see what she was talking about I came next to her and took a look. Sure enough the entire thing was smoking, and there was a crack right down the center. There was no way just a quick jolt from her U.M.S.A. would fix this one either.
"Fuck!" Vinyl threw her cancer stick at the ground as she cursed. "Guess we'll have to find another way back... I swear to Luna I am going to kill One-Eye next time I see her."
"Settle down. We made it didn't we?" I grinned.
Vinyl turned around and examined the dark green clouds under her feet. In the distance was thick dark fog for miles. This place almost looked haunted. Picking up the remains of a sign she tossed it to me. I caught it with a grunt and flipped it over.
Cloudsdale.
"Welcome to Cloudsdale, kid."
Achievement: What a Welcome Wagon - Flare arrived at Cloudsdale.
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